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Title: A Cadet of the Black Star Line
Author: Ralph Delahaye Paine
Release Date: December 31, 2019 [eBook #61064]
Language: English
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A CADET OF THE BLACK STAR LINE
* * * * *
THE SCRIBNER SERIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
EACH WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR
BOOKS FOR BOYS
THE MODERN VIKINGS By H. H. Boyesen
WILL SHAKESPEARE'S LITTLE LAD By Imogen Clark
THE BOY SCOUT and Other Stories for Boys
STORIES FOR BOYS By Richard Harding Davis
HANS BRINKER, or The Silver Skates By Mary Mapes Dodge
THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY By Edward Eggleston
THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR By William Henry Frost
WITH LEE IN VIRGINIA
WITH WOLFE IN CANADA
REDSKIN AND COWBOY
UNDER DRAKE'S FLAG, a Tale of the Spanish Main
By G. A. Henty
AT WAR WITH PONTIAC By Kirk Munroe
TOMMY TROT'S VISIT TO SANTA CLAUS and
A CAPTURED SANTA CLAUS By Thomas Nelson Page
THE FULLBACK By Lawrence Perry
BOYS OF ST. TIMOTHY'S By Arthur Stanwood Pier
KIDNAPPED
TREASURE ISLAND
BLACK ARROW By Robert Louis Stevenson
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
A JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON
TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA By Jules Verne
ON THE OLD KEARSARGE
IN THE WASP'S NEST By Cyrus Townsend Brady
THE BOY SETTLERS
THE BOYS OF FAIRPORT By Noah Brooks
THE CONSCRIPT OF ISIS By Erckmann-Chatrian
A CADET OF THE BLACK STAR LINE
THE STEAM-SHOVEL MAN By Ralph D. Paine
THE MOUNTAIN DIVIDE By Frank H. Spearman
THE STRANGE GRAY CANOE By Paul G. Tomlinson
THE ADVENTURES OF A FRESHMAN By J. L. Williams
JACK HALL, or, The School Days of an American Boy
By Robert Grant
BOOKS FOR GIRLS
THE RAIN-COAT GIRL By Jennette Lee
SMITH COLLEGE STORIES By Josephine Daskam
ROSEMARY GREENAWAY
ELSIE MARLEY By Joslyn Gray
THE HALLOWELL PARTNERSHIP By Katharine Holland Brown
MY WONDERFUL VISIT By Elizabeth Hill
SARA CREWE, or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's
A FAIR BARBARIAN By Frances Hodgson Burnett
NEXT-BESTERS By Lulah Ragsdale
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
* * * * *
[Illustration: "She can't last much longer. Lay into it, my buckos!"
[Page 22]]
A CADET OF THE BLACK STAR LINE
by
RALPH D. PAINE
Author of "College Years," "The Head Coach,"
"The Fugitive Freshman," etc.
Illustrated by George Varian
New York
Charles Scribner's Sons
1922
Copyright, 1910, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
Printed in the United States of America
[Illustration: Logo THE SCRIBNER PRESS]
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Oil Upon the Waters 3
II. The Sea Waifs 23
III. The Fire-Room Gang 43
IV. Mr. Cochran's Temper 63
V. Mid Fog and Ice 83
VI. The Missing Boat 102
VII. The Bonds of Sympathy 121
VIII. Yankee Topsails 140
IX. Captain Bracewell's Ship 161
X. The Call of Duty 179
ILLUSTRATIONS
"She can't last much longer. Lay into it, my buckos!" _Frontispiece_
Facing page
Some one was kneeling on his chest, with a choking grip on
his neck 50
It was easy work to get alongside and pass them a line 110
David gazed down at the white deck of the _Sea Witch_ 194
A CADET OF THE BLACK STAR LINE
CHAPTER I
OIL UPON THE WATERS
The strength of fifteen thousand horses was driving the great Black
Star liner _Roanoke_ across the Atlantic toward New York. Her promenade
decks, as long as a city block, swarmed with cabin passengers, while
below them a thousand immigrants enjoyed the salty wind that swept
around the bow. Far above these noisy throngs towered the liner's
bridge as a little world set apart by itself. Full seventy feet from
the sea this airy platform spanned the ship, so remote that the
talk and laughter of the decks came to it only as a low murmur. The
passengers were forbidden to climb to the bridge, and they seldom
thought of the quiet men in blue who, two at a time, were always
pacing that canvas-screened pathway to guide the _Roanoke_ to port.
Midway of the bridge was the wheel-house, in which a rugged
quartermaster seemed to be playing with the spokes set round a small
brass rim while he kept his eyes on the swaying compass card before
him. The huge liner responded like a well-bitted horse to the touch of
the bridle rein, for the power of steam had been set at work to move
the ponderous rudder, an eighth of a mile away.
A lad of seventeen years was cleaning the brasswork in the wheel-house.
Trimly clad in blue, his taut jersey was lettered across the chest
with the word CADET. When in a cheerful mood he was as wholesome and
sailorly a youngster to look at as you could have found afloat, but
now he was plainly discontented with his task as with sullen frown and
peevish haste he finished rubbing the speaking-tubes with cotton waste.
Then as he caught up his kit he burst out:
"If my seafaring father could have lived to watch me at this fool kind
of work, he'd have been disgusted. I might better be a bell-boy in a
hotel ashore at double the wages."
The quartermaster uneasily shifted his grip on the wheel and growled:
"The old man's on the bridge. No talkin' in here. Go below and tell
your troubles to your little playmates, sonny."
Young David Downes went slowly down the stairway that led to the boat
deck, but his loafing gait was quickened by a strong voice in his ear:
"Step lively, there. Another soft-baked landsman that has made up his
mind to quit us, eh?"
The youth flushed as he flattened himself against the deck house to
make room for the captain of the liner who had shrewdly read the
cadet's thoughts. As he swung into the doorway of his room the brown
and bearded commander flung back with a contemptuous snort: "Like all
the rest of them--_no good_!"
It was the first time that Captain Thrasher had thought it worth while
to speak to the humble cadet who was beneath notice among the four
hundred men that made up the crew of the _Roanoke_. From afar, David
had viewed this deep-water despot with awe and dislike, thinking him
as brutal as he was overbearing. Even now, as he scurried past the
captain's room, he heard him say to one of the officers:
"Take the irons off the worthless hounds, and if they refuse duty again
I will come down to the fire room and make them fit for the hospital."
The cadet shook his fist at the captain's door and moved on to join
his companions in the fore part of the ship. He was in open rebellion
against the life he had chosen only a month before. Bereft of his
parents, he had lived with an uncle in New York while he plodded
through his grammar-school years, after which he was turned out to
shift for himself. He had found a place as a "strong and willing boy"
in a wholesale dry-goods store, but his early boyhood memories recalled
a father at sea in command of a stately square-rigger, and the love
of the calling was in his blood. There were almost no more blue-water
Yankee sailing ships and sailors, however, and small chance for an
ambitious American boy afloat.
Restlessly haunting the wharves in his leisure hours, David had
happened to discover that the famous Black Star Line steamers were
compelled by act of Congress to carry a certain number of apprentices
or "cadets," to be trained until they were fit for berths as junior
officers. The news had fired him with eagerness for one of these
appointments. But for weeks he faced the cruel placard on the door of
the marine superintendent's office:
NO CADETS WANTED TO-DAY
At last, and he could hardly believe his eyes, when he hurried down
from the Broadway store during the noon hour, the sign had been changed
to read:
TWO CADETS WANTED
Partly because he was the son of a ship-master and partly because of
his frank and manly bearing, David Downes was asked for his references,
and a few days later he received orders to join the _Roanoke_ over the
heads of thirty-odd applicants. Now he was completing his first round
voyage and, alas! he had almost decided to forsake the sea. He was
ready to talk about his grievances with the four other cadets of his
watch whom he found in their tiny mess room up under the bow.
"I just heard the old man threaten to half kill a couple of firemen,"
angrily cried David. "He is a great big bully. Why, my father commanded
a vessel for thirty years without ever striking a seaman. Mighty little
I'll ever learn about real seafaring aboard this marine hotel. All you
have to do is head her for her port and the engines do the rest. Yet
the captain thinks he's a little tin god in brass buttons and gold
braid."
An older cadet, who was in his second year aboard the liner, eyed the
heated youngster with a grim smile, but only observed:
"You must stay in steam if you want to make a living at sea, Davy. And
as for Captain Stephen Thrasher--well, you'll know more after a few
voyages."
A chubby, rosy lad dangled his short legs from a bunk and grinned
approval of David's mutiny as he broke in:
"There won't be any more voyages for _this_ bold sailor boy. Acting as
chambermaid for paint and brasswork doesn't fill me with any wild love
for the romance of the sea. We were led aboard under false pretences,
hey, David?"
"Me, too," put in another cadet. "I'm going to make three hops down the
gangway as soon as we tie up in New York."
"So I am the only cadet in this watch with sand enough to stick it
out," said their elder. "You _are_ a mushy lot, you are. I'm going on
deck to find a _man_ to talk to."
As the door slammed behind him, David Downes moodily observed:
"He has no ambition, that's what's the matter with _him_." But after
a while David grew tired of the chatter and horse-play of the mess
room and went on deck to think over the problem he must work out for
himself. Was it lack of "sand" that made him ready to quit the calling
he had longed for all his life? Would he not regret the chance after he
had thrown it away? But the life around him was nothing at all like the
pictures of his dreams, and he was too much of a boy to look beyond the
present. His ideas of the sea were colored through and through by the
memories of his father's career. He had come to hate this ugly steel
monster crammed with coal and engines, which ate up her three thousand
miles like an express train.
As he leaned against the rail, staring sadly out to sea, the sunlight
flashed into snowy whiteness the distant royals and top-gallant sails
of a square-rigger beating to the westward under a foreign flag. The
boy's eyes filled with tears of genuine homesickness. Yonder was a
ship worthy of the name, such as he longed to be in, but there was no
place in her kind for him or his countrymen. A brown paw smote David's
shoulder, and he turned to see the German bos'n. The cadet brushed a
hand across his eyes, ashamed of his emotion, but the kind-hearted old
seaman chuckled:
"Vat is it, Mister Downes? You vas sore on the skipper and the ship,
so?"
David answered with a little break in his voice:
"It is all so different from what I expected, Peter."
"You stay mit us maybe a dozen or six voyages," returned the other,
"and you guess again, boy. I did not t'ink you vas a quitter."
"But this isn't like going to sea at all," protested David.
"You mean it ist not a big man's work?" shouted the bos'n. "Mein Gott,
boy, it vas full up mit splendid kinds of seamanship, what that old
bundle of sticks and canvas out yonder never heard about. I know. I vas
in sailin' vessels twenty years."
The bos'n waved a scornful hand at the passing ship. But David could
not be convinced by empty words, and long after the bos'n had left him,
he wistfully watched the square-rigger slide under the horizon, like a
speck of drifting cloud.
There had been bright skies and smooth seas during the outward passage
to Dover and Antwerp, and although the season was early spring the
_Roanoke_ had reached mid-ocean on her return voyage before the smiling
weather shifted. When David was roused out to stand his four-hour
watch at midnight, the liner was plunging into head seas which broke
over the forward deck and were swept aft by a gale that hurled the
spray against her bridge like rain. The cadet had to fight his way to
the boat deck to report to the chief officer. Climbing to the bridge
he found Captain Thrasher clinging to the railing, a huge and uncouth
figure in dripping oil-skins. It was impossible to see overside in the
inky darkness, while the clamor of wind and sea and the pelting fury of
spray made speech impossible.
The cadet crouched in the lee of the wheel-house while the night
dragged on, now and then scrambling below on errands of duty until four
o'clock sounded on the ship's bell. Then he went below, drenched and
shivering, to lie awake for some time and feel the great ship rear and
tremble to the shock of the charging seas.
When he went on deck in daylight, he was amazed to find the _Roanoke_
making no more than half speed against the storm. The white-crested
combers were towering higher than her sides, and as he started to
cross the well deck a wall of green water crashed over the bow, picked
him up, and tossed him against a hatch, where he clung bruised and
strangling until the torrent passed. It was the sturdy bos'n who
crawled forward and fetched the boy away from the ring-bolt to which he
was hanging like a barnacle. As soon as he had gained shelter, David
gasped:
"Did you ever see a storm as bad as this, Peter?"
"It is a smart gale of wind," spluttered the bos'n, "and two of our
boats vas washed away like they vas chips already. But maybe she get
worse by night."
On his reeling bridge Captain Thrasher still held his post, after an
all-night vigil. The cadet was cheered at the sight of this grim and
silent figure, no longer a "fair-weather sailor," but the master of the
liner, doing his duty as it came to him, braced to meet any crisis. The
men were going about their work as usual, and David began cleaning the
salt-stained brass in the wheel-house.
When he looked out again, the chief officer was waving his arm toward
the dim, gray skyline, and at sight of David he beckoned the lad to
fetch him his marine glasses. Captain Thrasher also clawed his way to
the windward side of the bridge and stared hard at the sea. The two men
shouted in each other's ears, then resumed their careful scrutiny of
the tempest-torn ocean in which David could see nothing but the racing
billows. Presently the chief officer shook his head and folded his arms
as if there was nothing more to be said or done.
After a while David made out a brown patch of something which was
tossed into view for an instant and then vanished as if it would never
come up again. If it were a wreck it seemed impossible that any one
could be left alive in such weather as this. As the _Roanoke_ forged
slowly ahead, the drifting object grew more distinct. With a pair of
glasses from the rack in the wheel-house, David fancied he could make
out some kind of a signal streaming from the splintered stump of a
mast. Captain Thrasher was pulling at his brown beard with nervous
hands, but he did not stir from his place on the bridge. Presently he
asked David to call the third officer. There was a consultation, and
fragments of speech were blown to the cadet's eager ears: "No use in
trying to get a boat out.... God help the poor souls ... she'll founder
before night...."
Could it be that the liner would make no effort to rescue the crew of
this sinking vessel, thought David. Was this the kind of seamanship
a man learned in steamers? He hated Captain Thrasher with sudden,
white-hot anger. He was only a youngster, but he was ready to risk his
life, just as his father would have done before him. And still the
liner struggled on her course without sign of veering toward the wreck
whose deck seemed level with the sea.
The forlorn hulk was dropping astern when Captain Thrasher buffeted
his way to the wheel-house and stood by a speaking-tube. As if he were
working out some difficult problem with himself, he hesitated, and said
aloud:
"It is the only chance. But I'm afraid the vessel yonder can't live
long enough to let me try it."
The orders he sent below had to do with tanks, valves, pipes, and
strainers. David could not make head or tail of it. What had the
engineer's department to do with saving life in time of shipwreck?
Stout-hearted sailors and a life-boat were needed to show what
Anglo-Saxon courage meant. The cadet ran to the side and looked back
at the wreck. He was sure that he could make out two or three people
on top of her after deck house, and others clustered far forward. They
might be dead for all he knew, but the pitiful distress signal beckoned
to the liner as if it were a spoken message. When David went off watch
he found a group of cadets as angry and impatient as himself.
"He ought to have sent a boat away two hours ago," cried one.
"I'd volunteer in a minute," exclaimed another. "The old man's lost his
nerve."
The bos'n was passing and halted to roar:
"Hold your tongues, you know-noddings, you. A boat would be smashed
against our side like egg-shells and lose all our people. If the wedder
don't moderate pretty quick, it vas good-by and Davy Jones's locker for
them poor fellers."
But the cadets soon saw that Captain Thrasher was not running away from
the wreck, even though he was not trying to send aid. The _Roanoke_
was hovering to leeward as if waiting for something to happen. It
was heart-breaking to watch the last hours of the doomed vessel. At
last Captain Thrasher was ready to try his own way of sending help.
The oldest cadet who was in charge of the signal locker came on deck
with an armful of bunting. One by one he bent the bright flags to a
halliard; they crept aloft, broke out of stops, and snapped in the
wind. David, who had studied the international code in spare hours, was
able to read the message:
_Will stand by to give you assistance._
Only the iron discipline that ruled the liner from bridge to fire room
kept the cadets from cheering. David expected to see a boat dropped
from the lofty davits, but there were no signs of activity along the
liner's streaming decks. It looked as if Captain Thrasher would let
those helpless people drown before his eyes.
After a little the _Roanoke_ began to swing very slowly off her course.
Then as the seas began to smash against her weather side, she rolled
until it seemed as if her funnels must be jerked out by the roots.
Inch by inch, however, she crept onward along the arc of a mile-wide
circle of which the wreck was the centre. Even now David did not at
all understand what the captain was trying to do. The great circle had
been half-way covered before the cadet happened to notice that a band
of smoother water was stretching to leeward of the steamer, and that as
if by a miracle the huge combers were ceasing to break. An eddying gust
brought him a strong smell of oil, and he went to the rail and stared
down at the sea. The _Roanoke_ heaved up her black side until he saw
smears of a yellow liquid trickle from several pipes, and spread out
over the frothing billows in shimmering sheets.
Slowly the _Roanoke_ plunged and rolled on her circular course until
she had ringed the wreck with a streak of oily calm. But still no
efforts were made to attempt a rescue. The night was not far off.
The gray sky was dusky and the horizon was shutting down nearer and
nearer in mist and murk. Once more the liner swung her head around as
if to steer a smaller circle about the helpless craft. In an agony
of impatience David was praying that she might stay afloat a little
longer. Clear around this second and smaller circuit the liner wallowed
until two rings of oil-streaked calm were wrapped around the wreck. Now
surely, Captain Thrasher would risk sending a boat. But the bearded
commander gave no orders and only shook his head now and then, as if
arguing with himself.
Then for the third and last time the _Roanoke_ began to weave a
path around the water-logged hulk, which was so close at hand that
the castaways could be counted. One, two, three aft, and three more
sprawled up in the bow. One or two of them were waving their arms in
feeble signals for help. A great sea washed over them, and one vanished
forever. It was cruel beyond words for those who were left alone to
have to watch the liner circle them time after time.
The stormy twilight was deepening into night when this third or inner
circle was completed. The onset of the seas was somewhat broken when
it met the outside ring of oil. Then rushing onward, the diminished
breakers came to the second protecting streak and their menace was
still further lessened. Once more the sea moved on to attack the wreck,
and coming to the third floating barrier the combers toppled over in
harmless surf, such as that which washes the beach on a summer day when
the wind is off shore.
It was possible now for the first time to launch a boat from the lee
side of the liner, if the help so carefully and shrewdly planned had
not come too late. Landlubber though he was, and convinced beforehand
that there was no room for seamanship aboard a steamer, David Downes
began to perceive the fact that Captain Thrasher knew how to meet
problems which would have baffled a seaman of the old school. But even
while the third officer was calling the men to one of the leeward
boats, the sodden wreck dove from view and rose so sluggishly that it
was plain to see her life was nearly done. The hearts of those who
looked at her almost ceased to beat. It could not be that she was going
to drown with help so near. As the shadows deepened across the leaden
sea, David forgot that he was only a cadet, forgot the discipline that
had taught him to think only of his own duties, and rushing toward the
boat he called to the third officer:
"Oh, Mr. Briggs, can't I have an oar? I can pull a man's weight in the
boat. Please let me go with you."
The ruddy mate spun on his heel and glared at the boy as if about to
knock him down. Just then a Norwegian seaman hung back, muttering to
himself as if not at all anxious to join this forlorn hope. The mate
glanced from him to the flushed face and quivering lip of the stalwart
lad. Mr. Briggs was an American, and in this moment blood was thicker
than water.
"Pile in amidships," said he. "You are my kind, youngster."
Mr. Briggs shoved the Norwegian headlong, and David leaped into the
boat just as the creaking falls began to lower her from the davits. The
boat swung between sea and sky as the liner rolled far down to leeward
and back again. Then in a smother of broken water the stout life-boat
met the rising sea, the automatic tackle set her free, and she was
shoved away in the nick of time to escape being shattered against the
steamer.
As the seven seamen and the cadet tugged madly at the sweeps and the
boat climbed the slope of a green swell, Mr. Briggs shouted:
"She can't last much longer. Lay into it, my buckos. Give it to her.
There's a woman on board, God bless her. I can see her skirt. No, it's
a little girl. She's lashed aft with the skipper. Now break your backs.
H-e-a-v-e a-l-l!"
CHAPTER II
THE SEA WAIFS
As the liner's life-boat drew nearer the foundering hulk, the men
at the oars could see how fearful was the plight of the handful of
survivors. The arms of a gray-haired man were clasped around a slip of
a girl, whose long, fair hair whipped in the wind like seaweed. They
were bound fast to a jagged bit of the mizzen-mast and appeared to be
lifeless. Far forward amid a tangle of rigging and broken spars, three
seamen sprawled upon the forecastle head. If any of them were alive,
they were too far gone to help save themselves.
Just beyond the innermost ring of oil-streaked sea there was a patch of
quiet water, and as the boat hovered on the greasy swells, the third
officer called to his men:
"One of us must swim aboard with a line."
The excited cadet, straining at his sweep, yelled back that he was
ready to try it, but the officer gruffly replied:
"This is a man's job. Bos'n, you sung out next. Over you go."
The bos'n was already knotting the end of a heaving line around his
waist, and without a word he tossed the end to the officer in the
stern. David Downes bent to his oar again with bitter disappointment in
his dripping face. He was a strong swimmer and not afraid of the task,
for this was the kind of sea life he had fondly pictured for himself.
But he had to watch the bos'n battle hand-over-hand toward the wreck,
the line trailing in his wake. Then a sea picked up the swimmer and
flung him on the broken deck that was awash with the sea. Those in
the boat feared that he had been killed or crippled by the shock, and
waited tensely until his hoarse shout came back to them. They could see
him creeping on hands and knees across the poop, now and then halting
to grasp a block or rope's end until he could shake himself clear of
the seas that buried him.
At length he gained the cabin roof, and his shadowy figure toiled
desperately while he wrenched the little girl from the arms of her
protector and tied the line about her. The life-boat was warily steered
under the stern as the bos'n staggered to the bulwark with his burden.
With a warning cry he swung her clear. A white-backed wave caught her
up and bore her swiftly toward the boat as if she were cradled. Two
seamen grasped her as she was swept past them and lifted her over the
gunwale.
Again the bos'n shouted, and the master of the vessel was heaved
overboard and rescued with the same deft quickness. Mr. Briggs rejoiced
to find that both had life in them, and forced stimulants between their
locked and pallid lips, while his men rowed toward the bow of the
wreck. The three survivors still left on board could no longer be seen
in the gray darkness.
David Downes, fairly beside himself with pity and with anger at the sea
which must surely swallow the wreck before daylight could come again,
had tied the end of a second line around his middle while the boat was
waiting under the stern. Now, as the mate hesitated whether to attempt
another rescue, the cadet called out:
"It's my turn next, sir. I know I can make it. Oh, won't you let me
try?"
"Shut your mouth and sit still," hotly returned Mr. Briggs.
He had no more than spoken when David jumped overboard and began to
swim with confident stroke toward the vague outlines of the vessel's
bow. The whistle of the liner was bellowing a recall, and her signal
lamps twinkled their urgent message from aloft. It was plain to read
that Captain Thrasher was troubled about the safety of his boat's crew,
but they doggedly hung to their station.
As for David, his strength was almost spent before he was able to fetch
alongside his goal. He had never fought for his life in water like this
which clubbed and choked him. By great good luck he was tossed close to
a broken gap in the vessel's waist, and gained a foothold after barking
his hands and knees. Half stunned, he groped his way forward until a
feeble cry for help from the gloom nerved him to a supreme effort. He
found the man whose voice had guided him, and was trying to pull him
toward the side when the wreck seemed to drop from under their feet.
Then David felt the bow rise, rearing higher and higher, until it hung
for a moment and descended in a long, sickening swoop as if it were
heading straight for the bottom. There was barely time to make fast a
bight of the line under the sailor's shoulders before, clinging to each
other, the two were washed out to sea.
The men in the boat discerned the wild plunge of the sinking craft, and
guessing that she was in the last throes, they hauled on the line with
might and main. Their double burden was dragged clear, just as the bark
rose once more as if doing her best to make a brave finish of it, and
a few moments later there was nothing but seething water where she had
been.
When David came to himself he was slumped on the bottom boards beside
the groaning seaman he had saved. They were close to the _Roanoke_
and her passengers were cheering from the promenade deck. It was a
dangerous task to hoist the boat up the liner's side, but cool-headed
seamanship accomplished it without mishap. Several stewards and the
ship's doctor were waiting to care for the rescued, and as David limped
forward he caught a glimpse of the slender girl being borne toward the
staterooms of the second cabin.
Men and women passengers hurried after the cadet, for the bos'n had
lost no time in telling the story, winding up with the verdict:
"A cadet vas good for somethings if you give him a chance."
Wobbly and water-logged, David dodged the ovation and steered for his
bunk as fast as he was able. The other cadets of his watch shook his
hand and slapped him on the back until he feebly cried for mercy, and
brought him enough hot coffee and food to stock a schooner's galley.
"There will be speeches in the first cabin saloon, and the hat passed
for the heroes, and maybe a medal for your manly little chest," said
one of the boys. "You are a lucky pup. How did you get a chance to kick
up such a fuss?"
David was proud that he had been able to play a part in a deed of
real seafaring, such as he had thought was no longer to be found
in steamers. He had changed his mind. He was going to stick by the
_Roanoke_ and Captain Thrasher, by Jove, and with swelling heart he
answered:
"I just did it, that's all, without waiting for orders. I tell you,
fellows, that's the kind of thing that makes going to sea worth while,
even in a tea-kettle."
"You did it without orders?" echoed the oldest cadet with a whistle of
surprise. "Um-m-m! wait till the old man gets after you. You may wish
you hadn't."
"What! When I saved a man's life in the dark from a vessel that went
down under us? I did my duty, that is all there is to it."
"It wasn't discipline. It was plain foolishness," was the unwelcome
reply. "I am mighty well pleased with you myself, but--well, there's no
use spoiling your fun."
Next day the _Roanoke_ was steaming full speed ahead toward the
Newfoundland banks, the storm left far behind her. David Downes, every
muscle stiff and sore, went on duty, still hoping that his deed would
be applauded by the ship's officers. While he scoured, cleaned,
and trotted this way and that at the beck and call of the bos'n, a
bebuttoned small boy in a bob-tailed jacket hailed him with this brief
message:
"_He_ wants to see you in his room, right away."
The cadet followed the captain's cabin boy in some fear and trembling.
He found the sea lord of the _Roanoke_ stretched in an arm-chair, while
a steward was cutting his shoes from his feet with a sailor's knife.
The captain tried to hide the pitiable condition of his swollen feet
as if ashamed of being caught in such a plight, and grumbled to the
steward:
"Thirty-six hours on the bridge ought not to do that. But those shoes
never did fit me."
To David he exclaimed more severely:
"So you are the cadet that jumped overboard without orders. Don't do it
again. If you are going to sail with us next voyage, the watch officer
will see that you have no shore leave in New York. You will be on duty
at the gangway while the ship is in port. What kind of a vessel would
this be if all hands did as they pleased?"
Standing very stiffly in the middle of the cabin, David chewed his lip
to hold back his grief and anger. Overnight he had come to love the sea
and to feel that he was ready to work and wait for the slow process
of promotion. But this punishment fairly crushed him. He could only
stammer:
"I did the best I could to be of service, sir."
The captain's stern face softened a trifle and there was a kindly gleam
in his gray eye as he said:
"I put Mr. Briggs in charge of the boat, not you. That is all now. Hold
on a minute. I hope you are going to sail with us next voyage."
The cadet tried to speak but the words would not come, and he hurried
on deck. After the first shock he found himself repeating the captain's
final words:
"I hope you are going to sail with us next voyage."
Said David to himself a little more cheerfully:
"That means he wants me to stay with him. It is a whole lot for him to
say, and more than he ever told the other fellows. Maybe I did wrong,
but I'm glad of it."
He would have been in a happier frame of mind could he have overheard
Captain Thrasher say to Mr. Briggs after the boy had gone forward:
"I don't want the silly passengers to spoil the boy with a lot of
heroics. He has the right stuff in him. He is worth hammering into
shape. I guess I knocked some of the hero nonsense out of his noddle,
and now I want you to work him hard and watch how he takes his
medicine."
As soon as he was again off watch, David was very anxious to go in
search of the castaways, but he was forbidden to be on the passenger
deck except when sent there. The captain's steward had told him that
the captain of the lost bark, the _Pilgrim_, was able to lie in a
steamer chair on deck, but that the little girl could not leave her
berth. The bos'n was quick to read the lad's anxiety to know more about
these two survivors, and craftily suggested in passing:
"Mebbe I could use one more hand mit the awnings on the promenade deck,
eh?"
David was more than willing, and as he busied himself with stays and
lashings he cast his eye aft until he could see the gray-haired skipper
of the _Pilgrim_ huddled limply in a chair, a forlorn picture of misery
and weakness. David managed to work his way nearer until he was able to
greet the haggard, brooding ship-master who was dwelling more with his
great loss than with his wonderful escape, as he tremulously muttered
in response:
"Ten good men and a fine vessel gone. My mate and four hands went when
the masts fell. The others were caught forrud. And all I owned went
with her, all but my little Margaret. If it wasn't for her I'd wish I
was with the _Pilgrim_."
"Is she coming around all right?" asked David, eagerly. "We were afraid
we were too late."
"She's too weak to talk much, but she smiled at me," and the
ship-master's seamed face suddenly became radiant. "So you were in the
boat. It was a fine bit of work, and your skipper ought to be proud of
you, and proud of himself. That three-ringed oil circus he invented was
new to me. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart."
The cadet grinned at thought of Captain Thrasher's "pride" in him,
but said nothing about his own part in the rescue and inquired in an
anxious tone:
"Does the doctor think she will be able to walk ashore? Had you been
dismasted and awash very long?"
"Two days," was the slow reply. "But I don't want to think of it now.
My mind kind of breaks away from its moorings when I try to talk about
it, and my head feels awful queer. John Bracewell is my name. I live
in Brooklyn when ashore. You must come over and see us when I feel
livelier."
"But about the little girl," persisted David. "Is she your
granddaughter?"
"Yes, my only one, and all I have to tie to. My boy was lost at sea and
his wife with him. And she is all there is left. She's sailed with me
since she was ten years old. She's most thirteen now, and I never lost
a man or a spar before."
The broken ship-master fell to brooding again, and there was so much
grief in his tired eyes and uncertain voice that David forbore to
ask him any more questions. When he went forward again, David sought
the forecastle to learn what he could about the lone seaman of the
_Pilgrim's_ crew. A group of _Roanoke_ hands were listening to the
story of the loss of the bark as told by the battered man with bandaged
head and one arm in a sling who sat propped in a spare bunk. The cadets
were forbidden to loaf in the forecastle, and after a word or two David
lingered in the doorway, where he could hear the sailor's voice rise
and fall in such fragments of his tale as these:
"Broke his heart in two to lose her ... American-built bark of the good
old times, the _Pilgrim_ was ... me the only Yankee seaman aboard, too
... I'll ship out of New York in one of these tin pots, I guess.... No,
the old man ain't likely to find another ship.... He's down and out....
I'm sorry for him and the little girl. She's all right, she is."
The _Roanoke_ was nearing port at a twenty-knot gait, and the cadets
were hard at work helping to make the great ship spick and span for
her stately entry at New York. Now and then David Downes found an
errand to the second cabin deck, hoping to find Captain Bracewell's
granddaughter strong enough to leave her room. But he had to content
himself with talking to the master of the _Pilgrim_, who was like a
man benumbed in mind and body. He was all adrift and the future was
black with doubts and fears. He had lived and toiled and dared in his
lost bark for twenty years. David could understand something of his
emotions. His father had been one of this race of old-fashioned seamen,
and the boy could recall his sorrow at seeing the American sailing
ships vanish one by one from the seas they had ruled. Captain Bracewell
was fit for many active years afloat, but he was too old to begin at
the foot of the ladder in steam vessels, and there was the slenderest
hope of his finding a command in the kind of a ship he had lost.
These thoughts haunted David and troubled his sleep. But he did not
realize how much he was taking the tragedy to heart until the afternoon
of the last day out. He was overjoyed to see the "little girl" snuggled
in a chair beside her grandfather. She was so slight and delicate by
contrast with the ship-master's rugged bulk that she looked like a
drooping white flower nestled against a rock. But her eyes were brave
and her smile was bright, as her grandfather called out:
"David Downes, ahoy! Here's my Margaret that wants to know the fine big
boy I've been telling her so much about."
Boy and girl gazed at each other with frank interest and curiosity.
Even before David had a chance to know her, he felt as if he were her
big brother standing ready to help her in any time of need. Margaret
was the first to speak:
"I wish I could have seen you swimming off to the poor old _Pilgrim_.
Oh, but that was splendid."
David blushed and made haste to say:
"I haven't had a chance to do anything for you aboard ship. I wish I
could hear how you are after you get ashore."
"You are coming over to see us before you sail, aren't you?" spoke up
Captain Bracewell, with a trace of his old hearty manner.
"I'd be awful glad to," David began, and then he remembered that if he
intended sticking to the _Roanoke_ he must stay aboard as punishment
for trying to do his duty. So he finished very lamely. "I--I can't see
you in port this time."
Margaret looked so disappointed that he stumbled through an excuse
which did not mean much of anything. He had made up his mind to stay
in the ship as a cadet, even though he was forbidden to be a hero. He
realized, for one thing, how ashamed he would be to let these two know
that he had almost decided to quit the sea. He had played a man's part
and the call of the deep water had a new meaning. But it would never do
to let Margaret know that his part in the _Pilgrim_ rescue had got him
into trouble with his captain.
David was called away from his friends, and did not see them again
until evening. A concert was held in the first-class dining saloon, and
the president of a great corporation, a famous author, and a clergyman
of renown made speeches in praise of the heroism of the _Roanoke's_
boat crew. Then the prima donna of a grand-opera company volunteered
to collect a fund which should be divided among the heroes and the
castaways. She returned from her quest through the crowded saloon with
a heaping basket of bank-notes and coin. There was more applause when
Captain Bracewell was led forward, much against his will. But instead
of the expected thanks for the generous gift, he squared his slouching
shoulders and standing as if he were on his own quarter-deck, his deep
voice rang out with its old-time resonance:
"You mean well, ladies and gentlemen, but my little girl and I don't
want your charity. I expect to get back my health and strength, and I'm
not ready for Sailor's Snug Harbor yet. We thank you just the same,
though, but there's those that need it worse."
David Downes was outside, peering through an open port, for he knew
that the concert was no place for a _Roanoke_ "hero." He could not hear
all that the captain of the _Pilgrim_ had to say, but the ship-master's
manner told the story. The cadet had a glimpse of Margaret sitting
in a far corner of the great room. She clapped her hands when
her grandfather was done speaking, and there was the same proud
independence in the poise of her head. David sighed, and as he turned
away bumped into the lone seaman of the _Pilgrim_ who had been gazing
over his shoulder.
"He's a good skipper," said the sailor. "But he's an old fool. He's
goin' to need that cash, and need it bad. All he ever saved at sea his
friends took away from him ashore. My daddy and him was raised in the
same town, and I know all about him."
"Do you mean they'll have to depend on his getting to sea again?" asked
David.
"That's about the size of it. He's worked for wages all his life, and
knowin' no more about shore-goin' folks and ways than a baby, he never
risked a dollar that he didn't lose. Here's hopin' he lands a better
berth than he lost."
"Aye, aye," said David.
Next morning the _Roanoke_ steamed through the Narrows with her band
playing, colors flying from every mast, and her passengers gay in their
best shore-going clothes. David had no chance to look for Captain
Bracewell and Margaret. It was sad to think of them amid this jubilant
company which had scattered its wealth over Europe with lavish hand.
The contrast touched David even more as he watched Captain Thrasher
give orders for swinging the huge steamer into her landing. With voice
no louder than if he were talking across a dinner table, the master of
the liner waved away the tugs that swarmed out to help him, and with
flawless judgment turned the six hundred feet of vibrant steel hull
almost in its own length and laid her alongside her pier as delicately
as a fisherman handles a dory. The strength of fifteen thousand horses
and the minds of four hundred men, alert and instantly obedient, did
the will of this calm man on the bridge. David thrilled at the sight,
and thought of Captain Bracewell, as fine a seaman in his way, but
belonging to another era of the ocean.
The cadet was on duty at the gangway when the happy passengers streamed
ashore to meet the flocks of waiting friends. The decks were almost
deserted when the skipper of the _Pilgrim_ and Margaret came along very
slowly. David ran to help them. They were grateful and glad to see
him, but the "little girl," could not hide her disappointment that her
boy hero was not coming to see them before he sailed. She could not
understand his refusal, and when she tried to thank him for what he
had done for them, there were tears in her eyes. Her grandfather had
fallen back into the hopeless depression of his first day aboard. Weak
and unnerved as he was, it seemed to frighten him to face the great and
roaring city, in which he was only a stranded ship-master without a
ship.
David tried to be cheery at parting, but his voice was unsteady as he
said:
"I'll see you both again, as soon as ever I can get ashore. And you
must write to me, won't you?"
Margaret's last words were:
"You will always find us together, David Downes. And we'll think of you
every day and pray for you at sea."
They went slowly down the gangway and were lost in the crowd on the
pier. The cadet stood looking after them and said to himself:
"I can never be really happy till he has another ship. But what in the
world can I do about it?"
CHAPTER III
THE FIRE-ROOM GANG
Cadet David Downes was on watch with the fourth officer of the
_Roanoke_ at the forward gangway. It was their duty, while the liner
lay at her pier in New York, to see that nobody came on board except on
the ship's business, and to prevent attempts at smuggling by the crew.
David had heard nothing from Captain Bracewell and Margaret since they
went ashore three days before. They had taken such a strong hold on his
affection and sympathy that he was wondering how it fared with these
friends of his, when a quartermaster, returning from an evening visit
to the offices ashore, handed the cadet two letters from the bundle of
ship's mail.
One envelope was bordered with black and he opened it first. The letter
told him of the sudden death of his uncle, who had gone to live in a
Western city. This guardian had shown little fondness for and interest
in the motherless boy, and David felt more surprise than grief. But
the loss made him think himself left so wholly alone that it seemed as
if all his shore moorings were cut. More than ever he longed for some
place to call home, and for people who would be glad to see him come
back from the sea. It was with a new interest, therefore, that he read
his other letter, which was signed in a very precise hand, "Margaret
Hale Bracewell." In it the "little girl" told him:
DEAR DAVID DOWNES:
Grandfather wants me to write you that we are as well as could
be expected and hoping very much to see you. We are boarding in
the house with an old shipmate, Mr. Abel Becket, who used to sail
with us. When are you coming to see us? I am most as well as ever.
We have not found a ship, but Grandfather is looking round and
maybe we will have good news for you next voyage. He tries to be
cheerful, but is very restless and worried. I wish we were in
steam instead of sail, don't you? Good luck, and I am
YOUR SINCERE AND RESPECTFUL FRIEND.
David smiled at the "we" of this stanch partnership of the _Pilgrim_,
and as soon as he was off watch he wrote a long reply, in which he
told Margaret that his uncle's death made him feel as if he kind of
belonged to their little family, for he had nobody else to care for
and be of service to. Once or twice he thought of asking permission to
leave the ship long enough to run over to Brooklyn, but new notions
of discipline had been pounded into him by the events of the homeward
voyage, and he decided to take his detention on board as part of the
routine which made good sailors "in steam."
Two nights before sailing he happened to be left alone at the gangway,
for the watch officer had been called to another part of the ship. A
drizzling fog filled the harbor, and the arc lights on the pier were
no more than vague blobs of sickly yellow. The cadet's attention was
roused by a confused noise of shouting, singing, and swearing out
toward the end of the pier shed. After making sure that the racket
did not come from the ship he concluded that a riotous lot of Belgian
firemen and roustabouts were making merry. When the watch officer
returned, the cadet reported the unseemly noise.
A few minutes later a louder clamor arose, as if the revellers had
fallen to fighting among themselves. Then a quartermaster came running
forward from the after gangway.
"Dose firemen vill kill each odder," he reported. "They tries to come
aboard ship and I can't stop 'em."
The officer told David to stay at his post, and hurried aft in the wake
of the quartermaster. The cadet could hear seamen running from the
other side of the ship to re-enforce the peace party, and presently one
of them dashed up the pier as if to call the police patrol boat, which
lay at the next dock. The cadet had seen enough of the fire-room force,
a hundred and fifty strong, to know that the coal-passers and firemen
were as brutal and disorderly men ashore as could be found in the slums
of a great seaport. But such an uproar as this right alongside the ship
was out of the ordinary.
While the cadet listened uneasily to the distant riot, his alert ears
caught the sound of a splash, as if some heavy object had been dropped
from a lower deck. On the chance that one of the crew might have fallen
over, he ran to the other side and looked down at the fog-wreathed
space of water between the liner and the next pier. He could see
nothing and heard no cries for help. A little later there came faintly
to his ears a second splash. It somehow disquieted him. The galley
force was asleep. Nothing was thrown overboard from the kitchens at
this time of night and the ash-hoists were never dumped in port.
Firemen sometimes deserted ship, but no deserter would be foolish
enough to swim for it in the icy water of early spring. David dared not
leave his gangway more than a minute or two at a time. He wanted very
much to know what was going on overside in this mysterious fashion, but
there was no one in hailing distance, and the watch officer, judging by
the noise in the pier, had his hands full.
David had quick hearing, and in the still, fog-bound night small sounds
travelled far. Presently he fancied he heard words of hushed talk, and
a new noise as if an oar had been let fall against a thwart. It was his
business to see that the ship was kept clear of strangers, and without
knowing quite why, he felt sure that something wrong was going on.
Finally, when he could stand the suspense no longer, he tiptoed across
the deck, moved aft until he was amidships between the saloon deck
houses, and crouched on a bench against the rail.
Cautiously poking his head over, he could dimly discern the outline
of a small boat riding close to the ship as if she were waiting for
something. She was hovering under one of the lower ports, which had
been left open to resume coaling at daylight. Two or three men were
moving like dark blots in the little craft. Presently a bulky object
loomed above their heads and slowly descended. As if suddenly alarmed,
the boat did not wait for it, but shot out in the stream, and there
was the quick "lap, lap" of muffled oars. It was not long before the
boat stole back, however, and seemed to be trying to pick up something
adrift.
David did not know what to do. He guessed that this might be some kind
of a bold smuggling enterprise, but it seemed hardly possible that
anybody would risk capture in this rash and wholesale way. He was
afraid of being laughed at for his pains if he should raise an alarm.
He really knew so little of this vast and complex structure called a
steamship that almost any surprising performance might happen among her
eight decks. It was duty to report this singular visit, however, and
the officers could do the rest.
[Illustration: Some one was kneeling on his chest, with a choking grip
on his neck.]
He rose from his seat and turned to recross the deck, when he was
tripped and thrown on his back so suddenly that there was no time to
cry out before some one was kneeling on his chest, with a choking
grip on his neck. His eyes fairly popping from his head, David could
only gurgle, while he tried to free himself from this attack. The man
above him wore the uniform of a _Roanoke_ seaman, this much the cadet
could make out, but the shadowy face so close to his own was that of
a stranger. He was saying something, but the lad was too dazed to
understand it. At length the repetition of two or three phrases beat a
slow way into David's brain:
"Forget it. Forget it. It'll be worth your while. You get your piece of
it. Forget it, or overboard you go, with your head stove in."
Forget what? It was like a bad dream without head or tail, that
such a thing could happen on the deck of a liner in port. Twisting
desperately, for he was both quick and strong, David managed to sink
his teeth in the arm nearest him. The grip on his throat weakened and
he yelled with a volume of sound of which the whistle of a harbor
tug might have been proud. The assailant pulled himself free, kicked
savagely at the boy's head, missed it, and closed with him again as if
trying to heave him overboard. But he had caught a Tartar, and David
shouted lustily while he fought.
It was Captain Thrasher who came most unexpectedly to the rescue. He
was on his way back from an after-theatre supper party ashore, and he
launched his two hundred and thirty pounds of seasoned brawn and muscle
at the intruder before the pair had heard him coming. Then his great
voice boomed from one end of the ship to the other:
"On deck! Bring a pair of irons! Are all hands asleep? What's all this
devil's business?"
The watch officer came running up with a quartermaster and two seamen.
Without waiting for explanations they fell upon the captive whom
Captain Thrasher had tucked under one arm, and handcuffed him in a
twinkling. Swift to get at the heart of a matter, the captain snapped
at David:
"How did it happen? Anybody with him? I know the face of that dirty
murdering scoundrel."
"I was just going to report a boat alongside," gasped David.
Captain Thrasher sprang to the rail. The fog had begun to lift, and a
black blotch was moving out toward the middle of the river.
"After 'em, Mr. Enos," roared the captain to the fourth officer. "Jump
for the police patrol. It's the Antwerp tobacco smuggling gang. I
thought we were rid of 'em."
The officer took to his heels, and in a surprisingly short time the
captain saw a launch dart out from the pier beyond the _Roanoke_, her
engines "chug chugging" at top speed. Making a trumpet of his hands,
Captain Thrasher shouted:
"I just now lost sight of them, but the boat was headed for the
Hoboken shore. They can't get away if you look sharp."
Then the captain ordered his men to lock the captive in the ship's
prison until the police came back. The chief officer was roused out
and told to search the ship and to put double watches on the decks and
gangways. Having taken steps to get at the bottom of the mischief,
Captain Thrasher fairly picked up David and lugged him to his cabin.
Dumping the lad on a divan, the master of the liner pawed him over from
head to foot to make sure no bones were broken, and then remarked with
great severity:
"You are more trouble than all my people put together. Disobeying
orders again?"
"I guess I was, sir," faltered the cadet. "Mr. Enos told me not to
budge from the gangway, and I went over to see what was going on."
"What was it? Speak up. I won't bite you," growled the captain. David
told him in detail all that happened, but he did not have the wit
to put two and two together. This was left for the big man with the
wrathful gray eye, who fairly exploded:
"Mr. Enos is a good seaman, but his brain needs oiling. It is all as
plain as the nose on your face. That row on the dock was all a blind,
put up by two or three of those fire-room blackguards from Antwerp, who
stand in with the gang of tobacco smugglers. They figured it out that
all hands on deck would be pulled over to the port side and kept there
by their infernal row, while their pals dumped the tobacco out of the
starboard side. It was hidden in the coal bunkers, wrapped in rubber
bags. And because the police patrol boat berths close by us, they even
decoyed the whole squad away for a little while. Oh, Mr. Enos, but you
_were_ soft and easy."
The captain was not addressing David so much as the world in general,
but the cadet could not help asking:
"How about the man that jumped on top of me?"
"He was one of them, the head pirate of the lot," said the captain. "He
sneaked up from below as soon as the coast was clear, to signal his
mates if anybody caught them at work with the boat."
It was worth being choked and thumped a little to be here in the
captain's cabin, thought David, and to be taken into the confidence of
the great man. The guest risked another question:
"Did they ever try it before, sir?"
"Every ship in the line has had trouble for years with these
tobacco-running firemen. But this is the biggest thing they ever
tried. Do you expect me to sit here yarning all night with a tuppenny
cadet? Go to your bunk and report to me in the morning. You are a
young nuisance, but you can go ashore to-morrow night, if you want to.
Punishment orders are suspended. Get along with you."
David turned in with his mind sadly puzzled. One thing at least was
certain. There was more in the life of a cadet than cleaning paint and
brass, but was he always going to be in hot water for doing the right
thing at the wrong time? Before he went to sleep he heard the police
launch return, and stepped on deck long enough to see four prisoners
hauled on to the landing stage.
When David went on duty next morning he noticed a little group of
ill-favored and unkempt-looking men talking together on the end of
the pier. One of them made a slight gesture, and the others turned and
stared toward the cadet. Then they moved toward the street without
trying to get aboard ship. Mr. Enos called David aft and told him:
"The police are watching that bunch of thugs. Two of them used to be in
our fire room. All four ought to be in jail. They had something to do
with the ruction last night, but they can't be identified. The bos'n
tells me he thinks they got wind that you were the lad who spoiled the
game for their pals. If you go ashore after dark, keep a sharp eye out.
They'd love to catch you up a dark street."
David looked solemn at this, but it was too much like playing
theatricals to let himself believe that he was in any kind of danger
along the water front of New York. It was early evening before he was
free to get into his one suit of shore-going clothes and head for
Brooklyn to look for his friends, Captain Bracewell and Margaret. The
bridge cars were blockaded by an accident, and after fidgeting for
half an hour David decided to walk across. There was more delay on
the other side in trying to find the right street, and it was getting
toward nine o'clock before he rang the bell of a small brick house
in a solid block of them so much alike that they suggested a row of
red pigeon-holes. A sturdy man with hair and mustache redder than his
house front opened the door, and to David's rather breathless inquiry
answered in a tone of dismay:
"Why, Captain John and the little girl left here this very afternoon.
Bless my soul, are you the lad from the _Roanoke_ they think so much
of? Come aboard and sit down. No, they ain't coming back that I know
of. My name is Abel Becket and I'm glad to meet you."
David followed Mr. Becket into the parlor, feeling as if the world had
been turned upside down. The sympathetic sailor man hastened to add:
"They didn't expect to see you this voyage and they was all broke up
about it. The old man is kind of flighty and I couldn't ha' held him
here with a hawser. They could have berthed here a month of Sundays,
for he has been like a daddy to me."
"But where did they go?" implored David.
"All I know is," said Mr. Becket, rubbing his chin, "that the old
man came home this noon mighty glum and fretty after visitin' some
ship-brokers' offices. He told me that he heard how an old ship of his,
the _Gleaner_, had been cut down to a coal-barge. He was mighty fond of
her, and it upset him bad. And I think he was sort of hopin' to get her
again. Then he said he was going to move over to New York to be close
to the shipping offices in case anything turned up, and with that him
and Margaret packed up and away they flew."
"But why didn't they stay here with you, Mr. Becket? I can't understand
it."
Mr. Becket laid a large hand on David's knee and exclaimed:
"Captain John is a sudden and a funny man. For one thing, I suspicion
he was afraid of being stranded, and that I'd offer to lend him money
or something like that. He is that touchy about taking favors from
anybody that it's plumb unnatural. I'm worried that he will go all to
pieces if he don't get afloat again. I wish I could drag him back here
so as to look after him."
"And how about Margaret?" David asked.
"Oh, she's feelin' fairly chirpy, and she went off with granddaddy as
proud and cocksure as if they were expectin' to be offered command of a
liner to-morrow."
Despite Mr. Becket's explanations, the flight of Captain Bracewell
remained a good deal of a mystery to David. He could not bear to think
of them adrift in New York, and he declared with decision:
"If you will give me their address, I'll look them up to-night."
"Bless my stars and buttons, I'll go along with you and make my own
mind easy," announced Mr. Becket. "I won't sleep sound unless I know
how they're fixed. I'm so used to thinkin' of Cap'n John as fit and
ready to ride out any weather, that I don't realize he's so broke up
and helpless. And I've got to go to sea before long."
The twisted streets of old Greenwich village in down-town New York
proved to be a puzzle to this pair of nautical explorers, partly
because Mr. Becket had so much confidence in his ability to steer a
straight course to Captain Bracewell's new quarters that he positively
refused to ask his bearings of policemen or wayfarers. After they had
lost themselves several times, the red-headed pilot of the expedition
announced with an air of certainty:
"It's here or hereabouts. I saw the name of the street on a corner sign
three or four years ago, and my memory is a wonder."
This was more cheering than definite, and David meekly suggested that
he inquire at the next corner store.
"Do you think I'm scuppered yet?" snorted Mr. Becket. "Not a bit of it.
Bear off to starboard at the next turn."
But once again they fetched up all standing, and Mr. Becket was obliged
to confess as he meditated with hands in his pockets:
"They've gone and moved the street. That's what they've done. It's a
trick they have in New York."
"You wait here and I'll go back to the cigar store around the last
corner," volunteered David.
Mr. Becket was left to shout his protests while David ran up the dark
and narrow street. But the cigar store was not where he expected to
find it, and certain that it must be in the next block beyond, he
hurried on. Two crooked streets joined in the shape of the letter Y at
the second corner, and the cadet failed to notice which of these two
courses he had traversed with Mr. Becket. Without knowing it, David
began to head into a district filled with sailors' drinking places
and cheap eating-houses. As soon as he was sure that the street was
unfamiliar he slowed his pace, looked around him, and not wishing to
enter a saloon, went over to a gaudily placarded "oyster house."
There were screens in front of the tables, and finding no one behind
the cigar-counter David started for the rear of the room. Three
rough-looking men jumped up from a table littered with bottles, and one
of them cried out with an oath:
"It's the very kid himself. Leave him to me."
David dodged a chair that was flung at him like lightning, and fled
for the street amid a shower of dishes and bottles. He had recognized
the unlovely face of the man who yelled at him as that of one of the
_Roanoke_ firemen who had stared at him from the pier in the morning.
He knew he could expect no mercy at the hands of these ruffians.
The three men were at his heels as he blindly doubled the nearest
corner, hoping that Mr. Becket might hear his shouts for help. But
the silent, shadowy street gave back only the echoes of his own voice
and the sound of furious running. The fugitive had lost all sense of
direction. He was still stiff from the bruising ordeal of the _Pilgrim_
wreck, and his legs felt benumbed, while the panting firemen seemed to
be overhauling him inch by inch. One of them whipped out a revolver and
fired. The whine of the bullet past his head made David leap aside,
stumble, and lose ground. Were there no policemen in New York? It was
beyond belief, thought David, that a man could be hunted for his life
through the streets of a great city.
Far away David heard the rapping of nightsticks against the pavement.
Help was coming, but it might be too late, and where, oh where, was
Mr. Becket? To be stamped on, kicked, and crippled by the boots of
these ruffians--this was how they fought, David knew, and this was what
he feared.
Two of his pursuers were lagging, but the pounding footfalls of the
third were coming nearer and nearer. The street into which he had now
come was lined with warehouses, their iron doors bolted, their windows
dark. There was no refuge here. He must gain the water front, whose
lights beckoned him like beacons. Then, as he tried to clear the curb,
he tripped and fell headlong. He heard a shout of savage joy almost in
his ear, just before his head crashed against an iron awning post. A
blinding shower of stars filled his eyes, and David sprawled senseless
where he fell.
CHAPTER IV
MR. COCHRAN'S TEMPER
David Downes stared at the ceiling, blinked at the long windows, and
squirmed until he saw a sweet-faced woman smiling at him from the
doorway. She wore a blue dress and white apron, but she was not a
_Roanoke_ stewardess nor was this place anything like the bunk-room on
shipboard. The cadet put his hands to his head and discovered that it
was wrapped in bandages. Then memory began to come back, at first in
scattered bits. He had been running through dark and empty streets. Men
were after him. How many of his bones had they broken? He raised his
knees very carefully and wiggled his toes. He was sound, then, except
for his head. Oh, yes, he had banged against something frightfully hard
when he fell. But why was he not aboard the _Roanoke_? She sailed at
eight o'clock in the morning. He tried in vain to sit up, and called
to the nurse:
"What time is it, ma'am? Tell me, quick!"
"Just past noon, and you have been sleeping beautifully," said she.
"The doctor says you can sit up to-morrow and be out in three or four
days more."
"Oh! oh! my ship has sailed without me," groaned David, hiding his face
in his hands. "And Captain Thrasher will think I have quit him. He knew
I had a notion of staying ashore."
"You must be quiet and not fret," chided the nurse. "You got a nasty
bump, that would have broken any ordinary head."
"But didn't you send word to the ship?" he implored. "You don't know
what it means to me."
"You had not come to, when you were brought in, foolish boy, and there
were no addresses in your pockets."
"But the captain probably signed on another cadet to take my place,
first thing this morning," quavered the patient, "and--and I--I'm
adrift and dis--disgraced."
The nurse was called into the hall and presently returned with the
message:
"A red-headed sailor man insists upon seeing you. If you are very good
you may talk to him five minutes, but no more visitors until to-morrow,
understand?"
The anxious face of Mr. Becket was framed in the doorway, and at a
nod from the nurse he crossed the room with gingerly tread and patted
David's cheek, as he exclaimed:
"Imagine my feelin's when I read about it in a newspaper, first
thing this morning. They didn't know your name, but I figured it out
quicker'n scat. You must think I'm the dickens of a shipmate in foul
weather, hey, boy?"
"You couldn't help it, Mr. Becket, and I'm tickled to death to see you.
Please tell me what happened to me. I feel as if I was somebody else."
"Well, it was quick work, by what I read," began Mr. Becket. "And as
close a shave as there ever was. Accordin' to reports, you, being a
well-dressed and unknown young stranger, was rescued from a gang of
drunken roustabouts by two policemen, a big red automobile, and a
prominent citizen whose name was withheld at his request, as the bright
reporter puts it. The machine was coming under full power from a late
ferry, and making a short cut to Broadway. It must have bowled around
the corner, close hauled, just as you landed on your beam ends, and it
scattered the enemy like a bum-shell. They never had a chance to see
it coming. The skipper of the gasolene liner, he being the aforesaid
prominent citizen, hopped out to pick you up, and had you aboard just
as the police came up. So you came to the hospital in the big red
wagon, the gentleman taking a fancy to your face, as far as I can make
out. And so you've been turned into a regular mystery that ought to be
in a book."
"But did you find Captain Bracewell?" was David's next spoken thought.
"Of course I did, after I got tired waitin' for you," and Mr. Becket's
tone was aggrieved. "It was mistrustin' my judgment that landed you
in a hospital. Captain John and Margaret will be over to pay their
respects as soon as the doctors will let 'em pass the hospital
gangway. I just came from telling them about you."
But David's mind had harked back to his own ship, and his face was so
troubled and despairing that Mr. Becket tugged at his red mustache and
waited in a gloomy silence.
"I've lost my ship," said David at length. "Captain Bracewell and I are
on the beach together."
"Why didn't I think to telephone the dock as soon as I guessed it in
the newspaper?" mourned Mr. Becket, beating his head with his fists.
"But Captain Thrasher or some of 'em aboard will read it."
"They won't know it's me," wailed David. "All I can do now is to report
to the dock as soon as I can, but I am afraid it will do no good."
The boy's distress was so moving that Mr. Becket had to look out of the
window to hide his own woe. Then he spun around and announced with a
shout that brought nurses and orderlies hurrying from the near-by wards:
"I have it, my boy. Abel Becket's intellect is on the mend. Send old
Thrasher a wireless, do you hear? Get the hospital folks to sign it."
With that Mr. Becket jerked a roll of bills from his waistcoat and
demanded a telegraph blank with so commanding an air that an orderly
rushed for the office. The sailor-man and David put their heads
together and composed this message to the _Roanoke_, which was speeding
hull down and under, far beyond Sandy Hook:
_Cadet Downes hurt on shore leave. Unable report because
senseless. Anxious to rejoin ship._
"No, that doesn't sound right," objected David. "He thinks I have no
sense anyhow. I can just hear him saying that he isn't in the least
surprised. Try it again, Mr. Becket."
"Time is up," put in the nurse. "And I ought to have cut it shorter,
with your friend bellowing at you as if he were in a storm at sea."
Mr. Becket looked repentant, as he whispered to David:
"Sit tight and keep your nerve. I'll get the wireless off all
shipshape. Good-by, and God bless you."
The patient soon fell asleep. It was late in the afternoon when he
awoke, hungry and refreshed. The nurse informed him:
"A dear old man and a sweet mite of a girl called to ask after you, and
I told them to come back in the morning and they might see you. Mr.
Cochran had you put in this private room and left orders that you were
to be made as comfortable as possible. So we will have to stretch the
rules a bit, I suppose, and let your friends call out of visiting hours
to-morrow."
David asked who the mysterious Mr. Cochran might be, but he could
learn nothing from the nurse, except that he was the wealthy gentleman
who had brought him to the hospital in his automobile. David tried to
be patient overnight, and was mightily cheered by the arrival of a
wireless message, which read:
_S.S. Roanoke. At sea._
_Have cadet repaired in first-class shape to join ship next
voyage. He is a nuisance._
_Thrasher, Master._
The news that he still belonged in the liner braced David like a strong
tonic. What did a cracked head-piece amount to now? Being called a
nuisance only made him smile. It was Captain Thrasher's way of trying
to cover every kindly deed he did. Next forenoon he was rereading this
message for something like the tenth time when Captain Bracewell was
shown into the room. Margaret followed rather timidly, as if she feared
to find her hero in fragments. The skipper looked even older than when
he had left the _Roanoke_, but the "little girl" looked more like a
June rose than a white violet, so swiftly had her sparkling color
returned. She had both her hands around one of David's as she cried:
"Are you always going to get banged up, you poor sailor boy? And we
were to blame for it again, weren't we?"
"You had no business to run away from me," returned the beaming
patient. "The worst of it was that I almost lost my own ship."
These were thoughtless words said in fun, but they stung Captain
Bracewell with remembrance of his own misfortune, and he stood staring
beyond David with troubled eye. Margaret was quick to read his
unhappiness, and brought him to himself with a fluttering caress. The
derelict shipmaster smiled, and said to David:
"Glad to find you doing so well, boy. You just take it that you are one
of our family while you are ashore. There is an extra room in our--in
our--" He hesitated, and a bit of color came into his leathery cheek as
he finished: "We can find a room for you close by us."
"He means that just now we can't afford to hire more than three rooms
to live in," explained Margaret without embarrassment. "But it will be
different when we get our ship."
They chatted for a few minutes longer and David promised to find a
room as near them as he could, while he waited for the return of the
_Roanoke_. It was easy to see that they wanted to take care of him,
but, for his own part, he felt a kind of guardian care for the welfare
of the two "Pilgrims," and he was very glad of the chance to be with
them at a time when Captain Bracewell was so pitifully unlike his
reliant self. After they had gone, David fell to wondering anew about
this unknown Mr. Cochran who had so lavishly befriended him. It was
enough to make even a sound head ache, and when the nurse brought his
dinner, David begged her:
"If you don't tell me something more about Mr. Cochran, I'll blow up."
"He telephoned about you this morning," she answered, "and wanted to
call, but you had visitors enough. The doctors have told him who you
are, of course, and he seemed very much interested. He said he would
bring his son to see you this afternoon. No, not another word. What
must you be when you are well and sound? I'd sooner take care of a
young cyclone."
Some time later the motherly nurse came in to say, with an air of
excitement that she could not hide:
"Mr. Cochran and his boy to see you. _It is the great Stanley P.
Cochran._ I knew him from his pictures in the newspapers and magazines."
The portly gentleman with the bald brow, gold-rimmed glasses, and
close-cropped gray mustache who entered the room with quick step
looked oddly familiar to David. Why, of course, he had seen his
portrait and his name as the head of a great Trust, and a director in
railroads, banks, and corporations by the dozen. He spoke with curt,
clean-clipped emphasis, as if his minutes were dollars:
"Pretty fit for a lad that looked as dead as a mackerel when I picked
him up. Sailors have no business ashore, but they are hard to kill.
Lucky I was so late in getting back from my country place the other
night. Wish I'd run over the scoundrels, but the police got two of
them. This is my boy, Arthur."
The delicate-looking lad, who had been hanging back, shook hands with
David and smiled with such an air of shy friendliness and admiration
that David liked him on the spot. He looked to be a year or two younger
than the strapping cadet, and lacked the hale and rugged aspect of
which his illness had not robbed him. Mr. Cochran resumed, as if
expecting no reply:
"I liked your looks and there was no sense in waiting for the
confounded ambulance. I told them to treat you right. If they haven't,
I'll get after the hospital, doctors, nurses, and all. When I found out
that you were a cadet from the _Roanoke_, my boy had to come along. He
is crazy about ships and sailors. Reads all the sea stories he can lay
his hands on. Well, I must be off. Arthur, you may stay, but not long,
mind you."
Mr. Stanley P. Cochran clapped on his silk hat and vanished as if he
had dropped through a trap-door. His son said to David, with his shy
smile:
"He is the best father that ever was, but he never has time to stay
anywhere. I wish you would tell me all about your scrape. It sounds
terribly interesting. Will it make your head hurt?"
The cadet had forgotten all about that hard and damaged head of his,
and he plunged into the heart of his adventure without bringing in
Captain Bracewell and Margaret. Their fortunes were too personal and
intimate to be lugged out for the diversion of strangers. Arthur
Cochran followed the flight from the sailors' eating-house with the
most breathless attention, and when David wound up with his head
against the iron post and a ship's fireman about to kick his brains
out, his audience sighed:
"Is that all? Things _never_ happen to me. I am not very strong, you
know, and they sort of coddle me, and trot me around to health resorts
like a set of china done up in cotton. It makes me tired. Tell me all
about being a cadet."
David fairly ached to spin the yarn of the _Pilgrim_ wreck, but the
cruel nurse cut the visit short, and Arthur Cochran had to depart with
the assurance that he would come back next day "to hear the rest of it."
He was true to his word and found David so much stronger that the
unruly patient was sitting up in bed and loudly demanding his clothes.
It was the patient's turn to ask questions this time, and he was eager
to know all about the occupations of a millionaire's son. The heir of
the Cochran fortune had to do most of the talking. David demanded to
know all about his automobiles, his horses, and his yacht, his trips
to Florida and California, his private tutors, and his several homes
among which he flitted to and fro like an uneasy bird. Before they
realized how time had fled Mr. Cochran came to take Arthur home. The
Trust magnate was in his usual hurry, and he volleyed these commands as
if argument were out of the question:
"I have looked you up, Downes. The Black Star office speaks very well
of you. Also the store in which you used to work. I sent a man out this
morning. My boy has taken a great fancy to you. He seldom finds a boy
he likes. I think it might do him good to have you around. I have told
the people here that you are to be moved to my house to-night. You will
stay there until you feel all right. If you wear well, and you are as
capable as you look, I shall find something better for you to do than
this dog's life at sea. Come along, Arthur. You shall see David this
evening."
David's head was in a whirl. A gentleman who belonged in the "Arabian
Nights" was bent upon kidnapping him. It seemed as rash to question the
orders of this lordly parent as to disobey Captain Thrasher, but there
was a look of stubborn resolution in the suntanned jaw of the young
sailor and he was not to be so easily driven. He wavered in silence
for a minute or two while Mr. Stanley P. Cochran eyed him with rising
impatience. Visions of an enchanted land of wealth and pleasure danced
before David's eyes, but even more clearly he saw the appealing figures
of Captain Bracewell and Margaret. They needed him and he had promised
to go to them. He looked up and shook his head as he said with much
feeling:
"I don't know what makes you so good to me, sir. I never heard anything
like it. But I can't accept your invitation. I can never thank you
enough, but I belong somewhere else."
"You have no kinfolk here. I found out all that," exclaimed Mr. Cochran
with a very red face. "Why can't you do as I tell you? Of course you
can. Not another word! Come along, Arthur."
"I mean it," cried David. "I promised to stay with friends I met on
shipboard."
He wanted to tell him about these friends, but the manner of Mr.
Cochran stifled explanation. The magnate was not used to such
astonishing rebellion, and it galled him the more because he felt that
he was stooping to do an uncommonly good deed.
"I seldom urge any one to enter my home," said he. "Nor will I waste
words with a boy I picked off the streets; no, not even to humor my own
son's fancies. Yes, or no!"
"_No_, it is," answered David, "but you mustn't be angry about it. You
don't understand it at all. Give me a chance to tell you why."
Arthur tried to put in an anxious plea, but his father brushed him
aside with the gesture of a Napoleon. "I never spoil an act of charity,
Arthur," said the captain of industry. "The lad shall stay in the
hospital until he is able to shift for himself, and I will pay his
bills. But nothing more! He is ungrateful and contrary. Come along,
Arthur."
David's wrath had risen to match the mood of the hot-tempered Mr.
Stanley P. Cochran.
"I will get out of here to-night," cried the cadet. "And I'll pay you
back every cent it has cost you as soon as I can save it out of my
wages. Good-by, Arthur. I am just as grateful as I can be, don't forget
that."
Arthur had little time to express his surprise and sorrow, for his
domineering parent was towing him down the hall under full steam.
David was left to puzzle his wits over his first acquaintance with a
millionaire. Of one thing he was sure. He must leave the hospital and
have done with Mr. Stanley P. Cochran's singular charity as soon as
ever the doctor would let him. But when he tried to rise, his head
was very dizzy and his legs were oddly weak. To make his way alone to
Captain Bracewell's lodgings was a task beyond his strength to attempt.
He must wait another day, and fretting at the thought of Mr. Cochran's
hasty misjudgments, the cadet's night was restless and slightly fevered.
Although Arthur Cochran sent him a cheery message by telephone next
morning, it hurt David to know that the boy had been forbidden to visit
him again. He longed for the sight of a friendly face, and his joy was
beyond words when the flaming thatch of Mr. Becket burst upon his sight
and dispelled the gloom like the sun breaking through a cloud. David
at once began to tell the wonderful tale of Mr. Stanley P. Cochran
before the seafarer could edge in a word. The listener chewed the ends
of his mustache for a while, and then his chin dropped and his mouth
stayed open in sheerest amazement. Before David had reached the climax,
Mr. Becket broke in:
"_Mr. Stanley P. Cochran_ asked you to bunk in his house, to be
mess-mates with him and his only boy? Pro-dig-io-ou-s! I'd let any gang
of roustabouts knock my head off, close behind the ears, for a gorgeous
chance like that. You are the makin's of a first-class sailor, Davy,
because you are so many kinds of a stark, starin' fool ashore."
"But I had to look after the 'Pilgrims,'" protested David.
"You aren't in shape to look after yourself, you poor idiot," cried Mr.
Becket. "You ought to see yourself in the glass, with your head all
tied in a sling. You look after anybody? Shucks! You turned down Mr.
Stanley P. Cochran? Why, he would ha' made you for life. Oh, my! Oh,
my!"
"But I couldn't feel right if I didn't stand by Captain John and
Margaret, Mr. Becket. I'll never be happy till he gets another ship."
Mr. Becket buried his face in a pillow and appeared to be wrapped in
hopeless dejection. When his florid countenance emerged from its total
eclipse he groaned twice, heaved a sigh that fairly shook him, and
glared at David with speechless reproach.
"What in the world has happened to you now?" peevishly quoth the
patient. "You don't come into this. And I haven't done anything to be
sorry for."
"I hadn't ought to tell you, Davy, and you sick in bed," confessed
the dismal Mr. Becket. "It's rubbin' it in too hard. Mr. Stanley P.
Cochran has just bought out the Columbia sugar refineries, hook, line,
and sinker. I read it in the _Shipping Gazette_ last week. And that
included the whole fleet of square-rigged ships that fetches their
cargoes from the Far East. He controls 'em all now, does Stanley P.
Cochran."
"You mean that I might have helped to get a ship for Captain John?"
David piteously appealed.
"Easy as robbin' a sailor," solemnly answered Mr. Becket. "That boy of
his can have anything on earth, up to a herd of white elephants, for
the simple askin'. And you could ha' had anything you wanted through
the young hopeful. It was a direct act of Providence that you had to go
and monkey with."
David was in the torments of regret. Yes, Arthur Cochran was just the
kind of a boy to feel an affectionate interest in the fortunes of
Captain John and Margaret, once he had a chance to know them. But the
opportunity was past and dead. Mr. Becket looked a little less hopeless
as he exclaimed:
"Is it too late to patch it up? Can't we charter a hack and overhaul
Stanley P. and tell him the prodigal is ashamed of the error of his
ways?"
"He is not that kind," said David. "He will never speak to me again. I
jolted his pride and he is done with me for good. Oh, but I did try to
do what was right. And I've done wrong to my best and dearest friends."
"I begin to think you were born to trouble as the sparks fly upward,"
was Mr. Becket's dreary comment.
CHAPTER V
MID FOG AND ICE
A year had passed since David Downes lay grieving in the hospital
over the great chance he had let slip to help mend the fortunes of
Captain Bracewell and Margaret. The cadet no longer dreamed of giving
up his life's work on the sea. He had sailed twelve voyages in the
_Roanoke_, which every month ploughed her stately way across the
Atlantic and return, through six thousand miles of hazards. Cadets had
come and gone. Few of them who sought to make their careers in this
way had the grit and patience to endure the machine-like routine in
which advancement lay years and years ahead. But David had begun to
understand the meaning of this slow process by which his mind was being
taught to act with sure judgment, and he saw how very much there was to
learn and suffer before a man could win the mastery of the sea.
Because he was strong, quick, and obedient, the navigating officers
took a genuine interest in his welfare. They had begun to teach him
the uses of their instruments and books. He knew the language of the
fluttering signal flags by day and the sputtering Coston lights and
winking lamps by night. The taffrail log and the Thompson sounding
machine were no longer blind mysteries, and much of his leisure was
spent in the chart room. The bos'n taught him what few tricks of
old-fashioned seamanship were left to learn in a vessel whose spars
were no more than cargo derricks. The cadet had begun to know the
liner, the vast and intricate organization, whose ever-throbbing life
extended through eight stories that were like so many hotels, machine
shops, and factories. And he realized what it must mean to be that calm
and ever-ready man in the captain's cabin, whose mind was in touch with
every one of these myriad activities by night and day.
Meanwhile David had become more and more fond of and intimate with his
sea waifs of the _Pilgrim_. Every time the _Roanoke_ wove her way back
to New York, like a giant shuttle plying over a vast blue carpet,
the cadet was with Margaret and her grandfather as often as he was
allowed ashore. Captain Bracewell had not found the ship for which he
yearned, but his former owners had given him a berth as stevedore on
their wharf, and in faithful drudgery he earned a living and a home for
Margaret.
He had never become his old self again. He was like one of the splendid
square-rigged ships which had been degraded to spend its last days as
a coal barge. But he had learned to keep his sorrows and regrets to
himself, and, gray-haired hero that he was, lived and toiled for the
"little girl," who was the one anchor to hold him from drifting on the
lee shore of a broken and useless old age.
David Downes had grown very close to the ship-master's heart. His
young strength and his hope and pride in his calling were like a fresh
sea-breeze. Nor did anything have quite as much power to kindle Captain
Bracewell's emotions as David's confidence that somehow and some day
the message would come that a master was needed on the quarter-deck of
some fine deep-water sailing ship. Even the bos'n of the _Roanoke_, to
whom David had told his dreams, took a lively interest in the matter
and went so far as to declare:
"The very first Christmas what I makes my fortunes I vill put a
four-masted Yankee ship in your stockings, boy, mit stores and crew
ready for sea, and this granddaddy of yours walkin' up and down the
poop, so?"
When the _Roanoke_ was ordered into dry-dock at Southampton, at the end
of David's first year in her, she missed a voyage and the cadet had
to be content with letters from his friends in New York. In the first
packet of mail was a surprising lot of news from Margaret, which read
as follows:
DEAR BROTHER DAVY:
It is awful lonesome without you for seven whole weeks.
Grandfather misses you more than he thinks he lets me see, and
he is almost as fidgety as when we landed from the dear old
_Pilgrim_. Mr. Becket is in port and is the cheerfulest of us
all though he ought to be the saddest. After being chief officer
in that coastwise steamer for three years, he was silly enough
to play a joke on his skipper in Charleston last week. And, of
course, the old man found it out. Mr. Becket is a perfect dear,
but he hasn't much sense when he gets one of his fits of the
do-funnies. The captain was in a barber shop ashore, getting his
whiskers cut off for the summer season. And Mr. Becket paid two
hackmen to walk in as if they just happened there, and begin to
talk to each other about the fire on the wharves. Of course, the
captain pricked up his ears, and then one of the men said:
"They tell me it blazed up just like an explosion and is right
smack alongside the _Chesapeake_."
That was Mr. Becket's steamer, you know. One side of the captain's
whiskers was off and the other wasn't, and he made a jump from the
chair, took one of the hackmen by the neck, shoved him through
the door, and threw him up on the box of his carriage. Then the
captain hopped inside and told the man to drive to the wharf like
fury. Of course, the hackman had not expected to be caught this
way, but he had to go or else the captain would have broken his
neck for him, at least that is what he said he would do.
And when they got to the wharf the captain flew out of the cab and
down to his ship. The deck was full of passengers and they laughed
till they cried, for the captain must have been a _sight_ with
only half his whiskers on. Mr. Becket says they were a fathom
long, but he is a terrible exaggerator, as you know. Then the
captain ran back after the hackman and caught him and scared him
so that he told on Mr. Becket. Wasn't it a shame? Anyhow, he was
a horrid captain to his officers and Mr. Becket says he is going
to wait for the ship you expect to build for grandfather and me.
Write soon and come home as quick as you can to
Your Most Affectionate Little Sister,
MARGARET.
David tore open an envelope that bore the marks of Mr. Becket's
ponderous fist, hoping for more light on this family tragedy. The
luckless mate had no more to say, however, than this:
DEAR DAVY:
Do you need a strong and willing seaman in your gilt-edged packet?
The coasting trade don't agree with my delicate health. I have
left the _Chesapeake_ owing to one of them cruel misunderstandings
that makes a sailor's life as uncertain as the lilies of the
field which are skylarkin' to-day and are cut down and perisheth
to-morrow. It is too painful to bother your tender young feelings
with. Hold on, I don't think I want to ship with you. Your
skipper wears a fine crop of tan whiskers. They would be sure to
fill me with sad and tormentin' memories. All's well, and they
can't keep a good man down. Your shipmate,
ABEL Y. BECKET.
David read the letter to the bos'n, expecting sympathy, but that
hard-hearted mariner laughed boisterously, and said:
"He got vat was comin' to him, the red-headed old sundowner. I know
that Becket man. I wish he shipped as a seaman mit me. I make him yump
mit a rope's end. He, ho, ho!--the old man mit his whiskers carried
away on the port side. I give a month's wages to see him."
David grew a little hot at such callous treatment of a friend in
distress, but could not help smiling as the bos'n trudged off about his
work, wagging his head and muttering:
"Mit his whiskers under jury-rig. The red-headed old sundowner! He _is_
a rascal, is that Becket man!"
"I am going to find out whether this line needs any more junior
officers," sighed David to himself. "It seems as if all my family is
hoodooed about keeping their berths afloat. I wish I was big enough to
spank Mr. Abel Y. Becket."
A few days after this the _Roanoke_ was ready for sea and all hands
resumed their routine duties. The liner slid out into Southampton
Water, and swung up Channel toward the North Sea and Antwerp to pick up
her passengers and cargo for the homeward voyage. Clean and tuned up
after her overhauling, the crack ship of the Black Star Line was fit
for a record run across the Atlantic.
Nor had Captain Thrasher ever felt more pride and confidence in the
power, speed, and seaworthiness of the _Roanoke_ than when he dropped
the Dutch pilot off Flushing a few days later and signalled "full speed
ahead," with Sandy Hook a week away and waiting wives and sweethearts
"hauling on the towline." Nor were any of the passengers who flocked
along the rail in cheerful groups more eager to get home to their own
than the stalwart cadet who tramped the boat deck and watched the
Channel shipping sweep past like a panorama. An older cadet, with whom
David had formed a fast sea friendship, listened with kindly interest
to his hopes and anxiety that all was well with Captain John and
Margaret. In David's thoughts the "little girl" was still the helpless
child of the _Pilgrim_, who needed the constant and protecting care of
a big brother. Margaret was fourteen now, on the threshold of her fair
girlhood, but in her devotion to David there was no sentiment, save
that of a sister's trusting and adoring affection.
Captain Thrasher had come to know these friends of David's through
their occasional visits on board, when the ship was in port, and his
manner toward them was always most cordial. Now and then he unbent a
trifle at sea and asked David if Captain Bracewell had found another
ship. David was not frightened, therefore, when the master of the liner
beckoned him, while passing down from the bridge to supper. The cadet
followed the bulky, resolute figure in blue into the sacred precincts
of the captain's quarters, and stood silent, cap in hand. In his
eyes, Captain Stephen Thrasher was the most enviable man alive, far
outshining presidents and kings.
Perhaps because he had been longer away from his home than usual and
was thinking of his own lads in school, the masterful captain of the
liner addressed David almost as if he were a friend:
"Are you getting on all right, my boy? Do you peg away at your books
off watch?"
"Yes, sir. The chief officer thinks I have a turn for navigation. That
is, sir, he said that whatever once got inside my thick head was pretty
sure to stick there."
Captain Thrasher chuckled, and looked the boy over from head to foot
before he resumed:
"How is that stranded friend of yours, Captain Bracewell and his pretty
granddaughter?"
"They are well, sir, but Mr. Becket has lost his--his--" David bit
his tongue. He had almost said too much. The captain did not know Mr.
Becket from a marline-spike, and his affairs must not be dragged in
unless asked for. But Captain Thrasher showed no interest in whatever
it was that Mr. Becket had lost, and abruptly ended the interview with:
"You will be put on the ship's papers as an able seaman next voyage.
But you will berth with the cadets, understand? Don't thank me. You
have earned promotion. That's all. You are a nuisance. Get out."
David saluted, and his radiant face expressed his thanks which
the captain had forbidden him to put in words. Once on deck, the
new-fledged able seaman danced a shuffle and cracked his heels
together. His wages would be doubled, and he had left one round of
the long ladder behind him. For the next three days he went about
his duties in a kind of blissful trance, but he was none the less
determined to earn another step in promotion hour by hour, one task at
a time, done as well and faithfully as he knew how.
The voyage which had begun so brightly was fated to test the mettle,
not only of David Downes, but of every man of the ship's company.
The fog, which shut down on the third day like a gray curtain, made
navigation a perilous game of hide and seek. Captain Thrasher took
his post on the bridge, to stay there until the fog should clear. Far
down in the clanging engine rooms the chief engineer and his army of
toilers were alert to respond to signals on the instant. The safety of
thousands of lives and millions of property was in their keeping also.
They were like bold and resourceful pygmies among the mighty monsters
of clanging steel which they were ready to tame and check at the call
from above.
Through a long night the _Roanoke_ groped her way over a shrouded sea
on which the fog hung so thick that the ghostly figures on the bridge
could not see the bow of their own ship. It was no better when daylight
wiped the blackness from the fog. The steamer was wrapped in a blind
world in which there was no sound except the bellowing of the automatic
whistle.
David had seen Captain Thrasher pick his sure way through days and
nights of such weather as this, but now the master appeared to be more
cautious and absorbed in his great responsibility than ever before.
Some unusual strain and uneasiness were picking at his nerves, and his
officers were aware of it, but they kept their thoughts to themselves.
Nor would David have guessed the truth so soon had not Captain
Thrasher tossed away a wireless message slip instead of tearing it
up. David caught it as it fluttered past the wheel-house and began to
read without thinking it to be more than a greeting from some passing
vessel. Beneath the figures of latitude and longitude was written:
S.S. _Hanoverian_.
Dense fog clearing. Many large icebergs in sight just to the
northward of us. Most unusual southerly ice drift directly in
west-bound track. If you are in fog advise great caution. Please
repeat warning to any other vessels behind you.
GREENFELT, _Master_.
David let the bit of paper blow overside and slipped into the chart
room to calculate the position of the _Hanoverian_. The chart showed
him that she was a hundred and fifty miles west and considerably to
the southward of the _Roanoke_ when the message was sent. When David
returned to the deck an officer was already making reports of the
temperature of the water, and Captain Thrasher was standing with head
cocked and a hand at his ear, listening, on the chance that the clamor
of the fog-whistle might fling back a telltale echo from some hidden
mountain of ice that lay in ambush.
Before long David was ordered to stand by the wireless operator's room
and fetch to the bridge any messages that might leap from his rattling,
sparking instruments. But the _Roanoke_ was left to work out her fate
alone. Even the _Hanoverian_, having picked up her speed with clearing
weather, had hurried beyond calling distance of the slow-creeping Black
Star liner.
The second night of the fog stole softly around the ship. As the chill
and dripping air changed from pearly gray to starless gloom, the hoarse
and frequent whistle seemed to be appealing for guidance on this
sightless sea. Bridge, deck, and engine room were unceasingly vigilant.
Their first warning of deadly peril came when a blast from the whistle
was hurled back in a volley of echoes from somewhere dead ahead.
Captain Thrasher leaped to the engine-room indicator and signalled full
speed astern, with both screws.
The _Roanoke_ shook herself as if her rivets were pulling out, as the
engines strove to hold her back, but the momentum of the vast bulk
could not be checked on the instant. Then there came a far more violent
shock, a grinding roar, and the sound of rending steel and timber.
Every man on deck was pitched off his feet. The stricken steamer listed
heavily to port and then slowly righted, as the masses of ice dislodged
from the berg by the collision slid off her fore deck.
What Captain Thrasher most dreaded had come to pass. In spite of his
utmost care his ship had crashed into the ice that lay hidden in the
fog and night. But every man of his crew knew that if his ship should
go down, he was ready to go down with her. He stood on his bridge
without sign of alarm or excitement, shouting swift, clean-cut orders.
Before the steamer had ceased to grind against the pale and ghastly
ice that towered above her, the water-tight doors in the scores of
bulkheads were being closed by men who knew their stations in such a
time as this.
Stewards were hastening among the cabin passengers to quiet their
panic. Down in the steerage quarters hundreds of hysterical immigrants
were running to and fro with prayers and screams, but a squad of
hard-fisted seamen soon herded them like sheep and threatened death to
any who should try to force a way to the boat deck. The chief officer
and the carpenters were forward with lanterns, and other men were in
the holds seeking to find how much damage had been done.
The order came from the bridge for the boat crews to stand by, ready to
abandon ship if need be. David took his station as he had been taught
to do in the boat drill of voyage after voyage. It was very hard to
wait in the darkness, but, far more than the cadet knew, his year of
training under the relentless rule of the captain's discipline had been
fitting him for the test.
The decks had begun to slope downward toward the bow. The forward
compartments were filling, and the fate of the _Roanoke_ hung on the
strength of the collision bulkhead just aft of the wound the ice had
made. David heard the chief officer sing out to the bridge:
"She's flooded to the first bulkhead, sir, but I think she will stay
afloat. Will you come and see for yourself? The whole bow of her is
stove in below the water line."
The _Roanoke_ was slowly moving astern to try to go clear of the
iceberg against which the long swells could be heard breaking as on
a rock-bound beach. It seemed an eternity to David before Captain
Thrasher returned to the bridge and shouted to an officer:
"Tell the people below we are in no danger before daylight. Better put
it stronger than that. Tell them we will make port."
Up in the darkness they listened to the frantic cheers that rose from
cabins and steerage, but the passengers had not heard the captain's
grim comment to himself:
"If it comes on to blow, there may be another story to tell."
When daylight came the liner made an astonishing sea picture. The fog
had lifted a little and the sombre sea was visible for a few lengths
away. The steamer's bow was gone. In its place was a jagged cavern of
twisted, crumpled steel, into which the waves washed and broke with
the sound of distant thunder. The captain dared risk no more pressure
against his straining bulkhead which kept the vessel afloat, and the
_Roanoke_ lay motionless, while all hands that could be mustered for
the work were bracing the inside of the bulkhead with timbers and piles
of heavy cargo. There could be no driving the ship ahead against the
tremendous weight of the sea until this task was done.
The barometer had risen overnight and the liner's chances were slightly
more hopeful. Her wireless instrument was chattering to the world
beyond the sky line that she was in sore straits, but if any steamers
passed within unseen hailing distance they were not equipped to talk
through the air. The _Roanoke_ was left to make the best of her plight.
David Downes had little thought for the fears of the passengers. His
confidence in Captain Thrasher was supreme, and he knew that if it
should come to the worst, the boats would be got away with orderly
promptness. As for the crew, David hoped there might be room for him,
and there was a lump in his throat and his breath seemed choked when he
thought of being left to struggle and drown, but he felt himself to be
a full-fledged American seaman, and he was proud of it. Whatever fate
might befall Captain Thrasher was good enough for him.
David was musing in this fashion as he hastened with urgent orders
between the fore-hold and the bridge. On one of these trips he found
the captain and the senior second officer poring over one of the yellow
sheets on which the wireless messages were written.
"Some vessel is within helping distance," thought David, with a thrill
of joy, and lingered, hoping to hear the good news.
Presently the captain went to his room, and the officer, taking pity on
the youngster's open curiosity, confided:
"Here _is_ a pretty kettle of fish. Those people are asking us to come
to _their_ assistance. That's the way it goes. Disasters always run
in twos and threes. We can't make head or tail of the message except
'_Help_' and '_No hope of gaining control._' It sounds like fire, to
me."
CHAPTER VI
THE MISSING BOAT
There was nothing to be done except to wait for another wireless call
for help from the unseen vessel in distress. The first message included
some figures which seemed like a frantic attempt to give the latitude
and longitude of the stranger, but they were as puzzling as the rest of
it.
"That wireless operator must be rattled, whoever he is," said one of
the liner's officers. "Maybe his coat-tails are on fire."
Beckoning David to follow him to the chart room he added, with a
gesture of dismay:
"Here _we_ are, and I'm blessed if _his_ figures don't put him
somewhere in the middle of Canada, high and dry on a mountain range. As
if we didn't have troubles enough!"
Captain Thrasher was irritable for the first time in this ill-fated
voyage of the _Roanoke_, as he exclaimed from the bridge:
"I can't go in search of the confounded lunatic even if he is afire.
What right has he to ask help of me when my bows are caved in like an
old hat, with no chance at all of getting under way before night, and
my ship half full of water? I'm trying to find help myself."
It was perhaps a half hour later when another message came winging
its way through space. Captain Thrasher read it aloud, with frowning
earnestness:
_Fire spreading aft. Must abandon ship before long. Lives in
danger. Help! Help!_
The figures of latitude and longitude were repeated at the end of the
message, and the previous mistakes corrected. The chart showed that the
burning vessel lay about forty miles to the south-east of the helpless
_Roanoke_.
"Why doesn't he say who and what he is?" growled Captain Thrasher. "If
he is a big passenger steamer he _is_ in a bad fix and no mistake. Tell
the operator to ask him more about it, quick. And tell him we are in
no shape to go after him. My own people have to come first."
Captain Thrasher was more anxious than surprised. He had long since
learned that nothing was too improbable to happen at sea, and he took
it almost as a matter of course that collision and fire should occur
fifty miles apart in the same twenty-four hours. It went sorely against
his training to leave these other victims of disaster to shift for
themselves, and he walked the bridge with restless tread until a third
message was brought to him. It read:
_Yacht "Restless." New York for Cherbourg. Owner on board. This
may be last message. No hope of saving vessel. For God's sake pick
us up._
"I have seen that steamer somewhere in port," said Captain Thrasher.
"She must carry a crew of forty or fifty men. Well, I can't pick 'em up
if the gilt-edged owner sends me a million dollars by wireless. Give
them our position again and tell them we will keep a sharp lookout for
their boats till nightfall and maybe longer."
As if in answer to the captain's words a final call came from the
_Restless_:
_Owner give you million dollars to come at once. Good-by. I'm off._
"He's a cheerful sport, that wireless gentleman," observed Captain
Thrasher. "But I wonder if he got our position. I'm afraid not. I pray
the good Lord their boats got away in time."
While the liner was by no means out of danger, the situation of the
_Restless_ people fairly tore at the captain's heartstrings. He was not
a man to confess himself beaten in any crisis without trying to find a
way out. He pored over the charts, studied the weather signs, tugged at
his beard, and muttered savagely to himself. But he did not decide to
act until the fog had vanished before a pleasant breeze in the early
afternoon. The sun came out and the sea danced blue to the far horizon.
Then the captain delivered his orders with stern directness. Calling
the third officer, he said:
"Mr. Briggs, you will take the number three boat and stand about
fifteen miles to the sou'-east. If the _Restless_ boats are heading
for us, you should be able to pick them up before nightfall and show
them the way. Otherwise they may miss us. I shall expect you aboard by
nine o'clock, at the latest. Watch for our rockets."
Mr. Briggs saluted, and mustered his crew. David Downes belonged in the
number three boat, and Mr. Briggs grinned as the lad hurried up. He
had not forgotten the trip to the wreck of the _Pilgrim_. As the boat
was lowered, Captain Thrasher gazed grimly overside, realizing that he
might need all his men and boats before night. But he had staked his
judgment on being able to keep the liner afloat, and he was ready to
face results without flinching.
The breeze dimpled the lazy swells and sail was hoisted in the boat.
The men lounged on the thwarts while the stout craft bore away to the
southward, and David fell to thinking of that other rescue during his
first voyage. This was like a summer pleasure cruise with no danger
in sight. Mr. Briggs at the tiller took a different view, which was
colored by his arduous years at sea.
"There's nothing as bad as fire," said he, as if talking to himself. "A
crew thinks it can master it until it is too late to get away in any
kind of shape. I was in a bark that burned and my boat was adrift a
week, without food or water to speak of. We never thought of quitting
ship till the decks blew up and we had to go overboard, head first."
"This wireless is like talkin' to the bloomin' ghosts of dead men,"
muttered an English seaman. "You cawn't make me believe there's any
burnin' vessel out 'ere till I sees it. We might as well go chasin' a
bad dream, that's wot it is."
The crew became silent, while the boat hissed through the long seas,
and the black hull of the _Roanoke_ dropped lower and lower behind
them. Wireless telegraphy was too recent an aid to sea-faring to seem
real to these simple sailors; this was the first time its workings had
touched their lives, and they were not ready to take the burning yacht
on faith unseen.
After three hours had slid past Mr. Briggs began to sweep the sea with
his glasses, standing in the stern-sheets, with the tiller between
his knees. He had run down his fifteen miles of southing, but the blue
horizon line was without a speck to mar it.
He decided to risk stretching his orders a bit by keeping on his course
for another hour or so. The breeze still held and he could stand back
for the _Roanoke_ with free sheets and oars out. He knew that if the
boats of the _Restless_ should drift beyond the steamer lanes or
trans-Atlantic routes, days and even weeks might pass without their
being sighted or picked up.
The perplexed officer was on the point of giving up the search when his
keen eye caught sight of a faint smudge between sea and sky. It looked
like a tiny fragment of cloud, but it might be smoke. He ordered his
men to their oars, and the boat increased her speed.
"If it is a steamer's smoke she may have rescued them," said he; "if
not, it may be the yacht, still afloat."
The ashen-colored smudge of smoke grew in size as they steered toward
it until it became a trailing banner.
"No funnels could make all that mess," shouted Mr. Briggs, as he
flourished his glasses. "That is the bonfire, and it must be pretty
near the end of it. I'm surprised that she's stayed afloat this long."
He was a good prophet, for while he stared, the smoke suddenly spread
skyward like a huge fan, hung for a moment, and then vanished, except
for tattered fringes of vapor that drifted slowly to leeward.
"That's the end of her," cried Mr. Briggs. "She blew up and sank with
one big puff. Her boats ought to be sighted before long."
There was no more thought of returning to the _Roanoke_ empty-handed.
The men rowed like mad, as if they were matched in a race for life, not
realizing that the smoke had been sighted a good ten miles away. It
was near sunset when Mr. Briggs had a glimpse of a white dot far ahead
which he took to be a boat. As they pulled nearer, he saw that it was
a life-raft covered with men who were paddling with oars and bits of
plank. It was easy work to get alongside and pass them a line in such
calm weather as this.
[Illustration: It was easy work to get alongside and pass them a line.]
The grimy, blistered men who cheered as the boat prepared to take them
aboard had no belongings to hamper the transfer. Some of them were half
naked and it was plain to read that they had left their vessel in the
most desperate haste, after fighting fire to the last moment. First
over the gunwale was a very stout derelict in dripping blue trousers,
who puffed like a porpoise as he sputtered:
"Can't swim a stroke, but floated like a cork. How's that? Me the
owner? Not on your life. I'm the wireless juggler that sent you the
holler for help. No more life on the ocean wave for Willie. I've been
eating smoke and spitting cinders since yesterday."
While this undismayed survivor babbled on as if his tongue were hung in
the middle, David was trying to drag from the raft a ragged man who lay
limp and face downward. The task was too heavy for his strength, and
with great difficulty two pairs of arms heaved and lifted until they
rolled their burden inboard. Without pausing to look him over, David
lent a hand elsewhere until the _Restless_ party, twenty strong, was
stowed aboard and the life-raft cast adrift.
Most of them were able to sit up and talk. The man who seemed to be
worst off was the first one who had been helped aboard by David. The
late chief officer of the yacht made his way toward this huddled and
senseless figure and called to Mr. Briggs:
"Here's the owner, all in a heap. Looks like his heart has gone back on
him, for he wasn't in the water more than five minutes."
As he lay propped against a thwart the owner's back was toward David
at his oar. The cadet had no idea that he had ever clapped eyes on him
before, and he listened with eager interest to the answers which the
other men gave to Mr. Briggs's questions.
"The rest of us are in two boats, somewhere to the eastward, sir," they
explained. "No, there was nobody left on board. The way it was, the
captain and them others was fightin' the fire aft, and they got cut
off from us who was driven clear up into the bows of her before we got
through. She was just a solid blaze amidships, understand, and there
was no getting back to each other. The other crowd stood it as long
as they could, and then when it was take to the water or be frizzled
where they stood, they pitched the boats over and got away. The fog
hadn't begun to lift then. They were going to lay by and wait for us,
but the blazin' heat below set her engines goin' in a kind of dying
flurry and she ran a while before she stopped for good. We couldn't
get below to stop her, and we couldn't go overboard for fear of bein'
chewed up by the screw, and so there we stuck up forward till we could
get the raft over. The two boats lost us in the fog, and you know the
rest of it."
"The owner's boy was with the captain's crowd aft. Mr. Cochran put him
in the skipper's charge when things looked desperate," explained the
mate of the _Restless_. "When Mr. Cochran got separated from the lad
and couldn't get aft to him, and saw him drift out of sight in the fog,
he just threw up his hands and went clean off his head."
"Mr. Cochran! The owner's boy!" gasped David Downes. He leaned over and
raised the pallid face of the owner of the _Restless_. Yes, although
sadly changed, it was the once pompous and lordly man of millions
who had rescued, befriended, and then forsaken him in New York. And
Arthur, the slim, delicate lad with the shy, confiding smile who had
been so fond of the cadet--poor lad, he was adrift in an open boat
beyond help from the _Roanoke's_ boat. David forgot all the resentment
he had cherished against the father, as he tried to heave him into a
more comfortable position and anxiously searched his face for signs of
life.
"He was a fine boy. Heart as big as a cork fender," said a _Restless_
seaman. "God bring him safe to port, say I. Will we be after goin' in
search of the boats, do you know?"
Mr. Briggs shook his head reluctantly. He must return to the _Roanoke_
with all haste.
"We have done all we can," he answered slowly. "Our own ship needs
us, and we are lucky to have done this much. It is awful tough on Mr.
Cochran, I know, to leave his boy adrift, but we wouldn't have one
chance in a million of finding them to-night."
These words seemed to awaken the dulled understanding of the father. He
roused from his stupor and hoarsely quavered:
"Where is Arthur? Leave the boy adrift? What did I hear? What do you
mean? There's some mistake. Look for him till you find him, I tell you.
Oh, my boy, my boy, I never meant to forsake you."
David patted him on the shoulder and wiped the clammy face with the
sleeve of his jersey. The great man was no more than a sodden lump
of sorrowing humanity, crushed and useless, and David wished that he
might somehow comfort him. Mr. Cochran had fallen back speechless and
exhausted, and he did not come to himself again until the boat was well
on her way toward the _Roanoke_. His wits were clearing, and with a
trace of his old domineering manner he addressed Mr. Briggs:
"Keep up the search until you find him, my man. Ten thousand dollars
for you and your men if you give me back my boy."
"We have been headed the other way for an hour," replied the third
officer, with pity in his voice. "I am obeying my orders. That is all I
can do."
"What? You have abandoned the yacht's boats?" Mr. Cochran almost
screamed. "Turn about with you, instantly. Don't you understand? I'll
make every man of you rich for life."
He tried to struggle to his feet, but muscular hands gripped his
heaving shoulders and he fell back lamenting:
"The hardship will kill him. What shall I say to his mother? Oh, what
shall I tell her?"
It was the first time that David had heard Arthur's mother mentioned.
He felt a deeper pang at the thought of her. But, alas, Mr. Stanley P.
Cochran had to learn in this cruel hour that his millions could not buy
a way through all difficulties. He fell to abusing the chief engineer
of the _Restless_, who crouched in front of him.
"You let the yacht run away from them," he stormed. "Why didn't you
stop your engines, you worthless, cowardly scoundrel?"
The engineer raised a pair of hands which were raw with burns, and felt
of his blistered face. With unexpected patience he responded:
"I was the last man to come on deck. I cooked the hide off me to leave
things right below. Heaven only knows what started her up again. There
was no getting down there again, you know that."
The owner once more fell to mourning.
"How can I show my face anywhere? I am saved and Arthur is lost. Why
couldn't it have been the other way?"
"He was takin' the lad abroad for a vacation trip," explained a harsh
voice in David's ear. "The sea voyage was for the lad's health, and
the old man was coaxed into pryin' himself loose from his business for
once. _We're_ sorry it _wasn't_ the swelled-up money-grubbin' swine
that went adrift instead of his boy."
Other men of the _Restless_ grunted approval of their comrade's
verdict. But David had glimpsed a new side of Mr. Cochran's nature. He
would indeed have sacrificed himself to save his son. The truth of it
was in his trembling voice, in the very pose of his drooping shoulders.
It was hard to believe that this was the father who had fairly dragged
his son away from David in the room of the hospital in New York. As Mr.
Cochran began to pull himself out of his collapse, he managed to twist
around so that he was looking up into David's face, which was in the
light thrown by a boat-lantern. For several minutes the father stared
at the tanned young seaman, as if bewildered and groping in his memory.
Then he burst out with a kind of surprised snarl:
"It's the boy that had no manners or decency, the young cub that made
me sick of him. What are you doing here, alive and well, with my son
lost and dying out yonder, lost at sea? How can such things be?"
"I helped pick you up at any rate," faltered David, taken all aback.
"And I'd gladly stay out here a week to help you find Arthur."
"_You_ safe and well!" repeated Mr. Cochran, "and my Arthur abandoned.
It's all a nightmare. It must be that."
His anger veered against Mr. Briggs, and he bombarded him with threats,
bribes, and pleadings, until the rockets from the _Roanoke_ soared into
the clear night and the yacht's people shouted at the welcome sight.
Then Mr. Cochran clutched at a new hope. He declared that he would buy
the ship if only he might persuade the captain to search for the lost
boat until he found it.
The liner was almost ready to limp on her way when the boat rejoined
her. Repairs had been made with better success than Captain Thrasher
hoped for. His anxious scrutiny convinced him that, with fair weather,
his shattered bow could withstand the sea, and he had determined
to proceed very slowly on his course toward New York. He had been
in wireless communication with two steamers, one of which stood by
until dusk, when the liner sent word that she would not transfer her
people. The captain had also told them to look out for the boats from
the burning yacht. This news was carried to Mr. Cochran, who feebly
tottered forward in breathless haste to find the commander. David saw
the bedraggled magnate swaying against the door of the captain's room
as he begged:
"But I'll reimburse the company. I don't care what it costs. What if
it does cost you your position? I'll pay you double the salary to do
nothing for the rest of your life. It's my only boy, Captain. Your ship
won't run any risk."
The voice of Captain Thrasher rose in response:
"I have said my last word. Do you think I'll stake the lives of two
thousand people against one or twenty? Go below and get some rest. I
can't talk to you to-night."
When David went aft in the late evening with the fourth officer to set
the log over the stern, the liner was vibrating to the steady thrust of
her engines, and her broad wake foamed white in the starlit darkness.
Against the rail beside them leaned a portly man, his face hidden in
the shadows. He was gazing toward the southward over the ocean which
rolled away in mystery, vast and obscure.
David answered, "Ay, ay, sir," in reply to an order, and the man at the
rail turned at sound of the lad's voice. As the mate raised his lantern
to read the log-dial, Mr. Cochran exclaimed:
"It's you again, is it? I am sorry I spoke to you as I did to-day. I
am grateful for your part in saving me and my men, and I was out of my
head, I guess."
This strangely softened mood was new to David, but his sympathetic
heart was quick to meet it, and to let bygones be bygones.
"I wish I could help you, sir," he returned. "But I am just chockfull
of hope that we will hear from Arthur. He may be picked up before we
are landed. We'll have him back again. You can bet your life on that."
The father gazed again across the darkened sea. He was leaving his only
son behind him, and all the pride of wealth and self and power had been
stripped from him. All he could think of to say as he shook hands with
David was:
"Arthur was very fond of you, and I am sorry that I came between you
two."
CHAPTER VII
THE BONDS OF SYMPATHY
The Black Star Line wharf in North River was crowded with cheering
men, women, and children. Their fluttering handkerchiefs looked like a
sudden flurry of snow. The roar of steam whistles from a hundred harbor
craft rose above the din on the wharf. Past the Battery was creeping a
sea-stained liner, her great steel prow so crushed and battered that
the thousands who watched her wondered how she could have been kept
afloat. The news of her coming had been sent by wireless, and a fleet
of the company's tugs had hurried to sea to meet her.
The kinfolk and friends of those on board had been kept in a state
of panicky alarm, day after day, by the flaring newspaper head-lines
which sent the _Roanoke_ to the bottom and raised her again, in hourly
"extras."
The band on the promenade deck was lustily playing "home again, home
again, from a foreign shore," as the tugs poked their noses against the
black side of the ocean cripple and began to nudge her into her berth.
David Downes was looking for friends on the wharf, but he scanned the
masses of upturned faces in vain, until the bos'n prodded him in the
ribs, and said:
"Cast your eye on the end of the pier, boy. I see a red spot. It vas
Becket or else there is a fire just broke out. Nobody has as red-headed
a head as that crazy feller."
Sure enough, there was Mr. Becket, waving his arms like a wild man;
beside him was the tall figure of Captain Bracewell; and between them
a slip of a girl was dancing up and down in her efforts to get a clear
view of the ship. David's eyes filled as he swung his cap above his
head. There were his "dearest folks," as he called them, and he was
as rich in welcomes as any of the passengers who were making so much
joyful noise along the decks below. Bless them, what news had they?
Was Mr. Becket still stranded, and was there any hope of a ship for
Captain John? The long voyage of disaster and adventure seemed like a
dream. David Downes, able seaman, was come back to his own.
The gangways were lowered, and the passengers streamed ashore, telling
their stories at the top of their voices, as they flew into the arms
of their friends. David went below to find Mr. Cochran, who had found
no joy in this homecoming and deliverance from the sea. He was hanging
back to let the crowd pass ashore, and he looked very forlorn and
lonely. Gentlemen high in the world of finance, and managers of his
great interests had flocked aboard to greet him and to offer their aid
and sympathy. But he had begged to be left alone, and, oddly enough,
his heavy face lighted for the first time when David found him. They
had seen little of each other since the _Roanoke_ resumed her voyage.
David had been doing a double trick of duty, and the millionaire was so
racked in body and mind that he was seldom on deck. But in their few
meetings Mr. Cochran had been almost pathetically friendly of manner,
as if he were trying to make amends because of his boy's fondness
for the sailor lad. Now when the parting hour came Mr. Cochran seemed
genuinely affected. His wonted abruptness of speech had been assumed
again, and he carried himself with an air of frowning dignity, but he
took one of David's hard hands between both his own as he said:
"He talked a great deal about you, and you must come and see me and
talk to me about him. You won't refuse this time, will you? His--his
mother will be delighted to see you."
David made haste to reply:
"Of course I will and thank you, sir. And you will send me any news of
Arthur as quick as you can, please promise me that."
Mr. Cochran nodded, and David hesitated, as if he had something else
on his mind. He was thinking that it might do Mr. Cochran good to know
his "dearest folks" in such a time as this, but he dared stay away no
longer from the crowded gangway, so he said good-by to the man whose
path had so strangely crossed his own again.
Soon there appeared on the landing stage the brilliant beacon of hair
which topped the robust Mr. Becket as he skilfully piloted Margaret
through the confusion. It was hard work for David to keep from rushing
to meet them half-way, but he remembered the discipline expected of an
able seaman. Mr. Becket was first to reach him, and he proceeded to
thump David's chest and pound his back with the exhortation:
"All sound and fit for duty? The collision didn't stave you in
anywheres?"
Margaret was able to greet her "big brother" only by shoving Mr. Becket
out of the way with all her might.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, abusing David as if you weren't a
bit glad to see him," she cried. "Oh, but we are glad to see you, and
are you all right, and are you coming home to supper with us? I don't
believe I've slept a wink this week, have I, grandfather?"
Captain John was meekly waiting for a chance to make his presence
known. He clapped his hands on David's shoulders and his honest eyes
glowed with pride and affection as he exclaimed:
"We feel quite set up that you belong to us, Davy. Here you go picking
up more mariners in distress. We've heard all about it."
"We can talk it all over to-night," said David, shaking hands all round
again. "I am on watch now and I mustn't neglect my duty even for you."
His boyish manner was so very serious that Mr. Becket went off into
a series of explosive chuckles, from which he was diverted by the
appearance of the bos'n who declared in the most threatening voice:
"The red-headed loafer again? I vill protect my whiskers mit my life.
Get ashore mit you, you terrible Becket man, or I vill vash you down
mit the fire-hose."
Mr. Becket was not in the least alarmed, and after a harmless exchange
of blood-thirsty threats, he followed Captain John and Margaret down
the gangway.
Later in the day the chief officer told David that as soon as her cargo
was discharged, the _Roanoke_ would go to Philadelphia for temporary
repairs, which might take a month or more. The captain had left word
that David could have a week's shore leave and then rejoin the ship
at Philadelphia. The news sounded too good to be true, and as soon
as he was relieved from duty, David fairly ran ashore with a canvas
bag of clothes under his arm. He made all speed to the tiny flat in
which Margaret was keeping house for Captain John. Mr. Becket had been
invited for supper, and he was boiling with eagerness to ask David a
question which had been disturbing him all day long.
"Did you say anything to Mr. Stanley P. Cochran about vessels? You know
what I mean. I didn't say a word to Captain John, for I don't want to
get him stirred up with false alarms."
They had met in the outer hall, and Mr. Becket softly closed the door
behind him, for his stage-whispers carried far.
"Of course I didn't," responded David, "with his boy adrift and his
heart broken clean in two. It was a silly notion of yours to begin
with."
"Well, you needn't bite my head off," growled Mr. Becket, as they
shouldered their way into the tiny living room. Margaret called
blithely from the birdcage of a kitchen.
"Do keep Mr. Becket away from here, Davy. Every time he turns around or
takes a long breath, he breaks a dish or upsets something. He ought to
live out-doors."
Captain John was beaming a welcome as he hauled David by the collar to
a seat on the sofa beside him, and declared:
"You'd be a mate next year if you had chosen sail instead of steam, you
strapping big lump of a lad. You are the kind of Yankee sailor they
used to breed in my early days at sea. How many years more do you serve
in your old machine shop before you get your papers?"
"Three or four," cheerfully replied David. "And even then I won't be
fit to be left in charge of the ship for a minute. A fourth officer is
mighty small potatoes in my trade."
"I was master of a deep-water ship when I was twenty-one," said Captain
John. "Ah, those days are gone. Tell us all about this boy that was
lost with the yacht."
"He isn't lost," stoutly returned David. "With good weather they will
be picked up. I'm sure of it."
"The sea is very cruel, Davy," murmured the skipper, and his face
clouded with sad memories of his boy lost with Margaret's mother. The
"little girl" peered anxiously from the kitchen door and tried to shift
the topic to happier themes:
"Just think what Davy's been through all in one year, and he lives to
tell it, so let's enjoy him while we can. We mustn't even mention the
whiskers of Mr. Becket's skipper and his awful tale of woe."
"There's a master wanted in a Jamaica fruiter," observed Mr. Becket.
"But my old skipper is trying to do me with the owners. However, they
can't keep a good man down, and you will stand by your friends, blow
high, blow low, won't you, Davy?"
Supper was on the table and Margaret waited on her hungry crew with
pretty anxiety to play well her part in this festal reunion. She
consented to sit down with them when it came to serving the apple
pie which she herself had made. Mr. Becket demanded Captain John's
old-fashioned quadrant with which to measure off the exact number of
degrees of pie each was entitled to, and nearly upset the table before
this mathematical problem was adjusted. In the midst of the excitement
the door-bell buzzed. Mr. Becket sprang to the speaking-tube as if he
were in a wheel-house and shouted:
"Below there. What's wanted?"
While he cocked his head to listen, his face began to express the most
intense amazement, and his reply was absurdly meek, as he cried:
"Yes, sir. Very good, sir. The dickens it is. Two flights up, and don't
break your precious neck on the dark landings, sir."
Turning to the puzzled listeners, Mr. Becket explained in a flurried
tone:
"It is Mr. Stanley P. Cochran, no less, and none other. Now what _do_
you think of that?"
Margaret whisked off her apron and began to clear away the dishes, pie
and all, but Captain John stopped her with:
"Stay as you are, girlie. Nobody's ashamed of sitting down to a square
meal. Mr. Cochran is just a poor, grieving daddy, that's all."
"Oh, maybe he has good news for Davy," cried Margaret. "You run out and
meet him, David."
Mr. Cochran entered the door a moment later, with the air of an
intruder. He hesitated in the doorway of the crowded little room and
fumbled with his hat.
"Plenty of room at the table," said Captain John, rising and holding
out his hand. "Becket, you hang yourself out on the fire-escape and
make room for Mr. Cochran. Margaret, a plate and another cup of coffee."
"These are my best friends, Mr. Cochran," put in David, presenting them
by name. "We have sort of adopted each other all round."
Mr. Cochran sank into a chair, while Margaret timidly asked him:
"Will you have a piece of my apple pie, sir? These sailor men seem to
like it."
"It is simply grand," rumbled Mr. Becket from the window.
The visitor looked about him. Something in the homely cheer and
affection of this atmosphere seemed to touch his emotions. His eyes
were moist and his voice was not quite steady as he thanked Margaret
and then said to David:
"You are lucky to have such friends, and they have made no mistake in
you. I went down to the ship to find you and the bos'n sent me here.
I--I was asked to come, and----"
He hesitated, bit his lip, and waited, as if trying to keep his voice
under better control.
"Is there any news?" asked David.
"Not yet. But his mother wants you to come up and see her this evening.
She asked me to find you. Of course I came. It seems that our boy took
it more to heart than I had any idea of--when I disappointed him about
your coming to visit him last year. He told his mother--but he didn't
say very much to me. And he has had so few boy friends."
It was pitiful to hear this pleading, remorseful speech from such a man
as Stanley P. Cochran had always been. Captain John's kindly face was
twitching, while he murmured, as if talking to himself:
"I once had an only son."
"Of course I'll go with you," said David, as he rose from the table.
"You will excuse me, won't you, folks?"
There was so much hearty sympathy in their response that Mr. Cochran
smiled a little wistfully, as if he wished to stay longer in this
simple, genuine circle of friends. They were not awed by his name, they
did not cringe before his wealth, and they seemed to have found the
secret of contentment, in what, to him, seemed like dire poverty. He
could pour out his heart about his boy to people like these, and they
would understand.
"I hate to take you away," he said at length. "But his mother will be
waiting for us."
"Don't you stay here a minute longer, Davy," urged Margaret. "And be
just as cheerful as you can. We are all praying for your son, Mr.
Cochran, and we know that he will come back to you."
The millionaire wavered and picked up the cup of coffee with a sheepish
air.
"I haven't eaten a bite to-day," said he. "But the smell of things here
makes me hungry, I really believe."
"A bit of that chicken salad, and a chop, and a section of our peerless
apple pie will make a new man of you," spoke up the half-hidden Mr.
Becket, who was feeling more at ease. The guest seemed grateful for
this sound advice, and appeared to relish his hasty meal. Before he
finished he said, not at all as if he were doing a favor, but as one
friend to another:
"Captain Bracewell, I wish you and your charming granddaughter and Mr.
Becket and David Downes would do me the pleasure of dining at my house
some night this week. Arthur's mother and I find it very lonesome, and
it will help to keep her from brooding."
Captain John was too used to being a master among men to be at all
agitated by this unexpected invitation, but Margaret fluttered between
dining-room and kitchen in much excitement. Mr. Becket was stricken
dumb and could only make signals of distress.
"I will answer for us all," returned Captain John. "If it will cheer up
you and your wife to see us plain seafaring folks, we will accept, with
hearty thanks."
Mr. Cochran expressed his gratitude, as if they were doing him a
kindness, and departed, with David in his wake. As these two rolled up
town in the millionaire's automobile, Mr. Cochran observed, after a
long silence:
"I like those friends of yours. I wish I could have known them before.
Arthur would enjoy them."
It was on the tip of David's tongue to tell him that these were the
people whom he had preferred to see on that day a year ago when Mr.
Cochran had flown into a rage and cast him off. But this was no time
to recall old misunderstandings. All David could do was to wait in
patience, and hope that Mr. Cochran might discover what a splendid man
Captain John was, and take an interest in him on his own account.
The automobile halted in front of a huge stone mansion in upper
Fifth Avenue. It looked more like a castle than a home. The immense
tapestry-hung parlors, past which David was led, were silent and
cheerless. Captain John's flat was far more cheery and livable than
these gloomy apartments, thought David, as he followed his host up the
echoing marble staircase to the second story.
Presently they came to a smaller room which looked as if people really
lived in it. A slender woman in black rose from a divan to greet them.
In her smile there was the timid, tremulous sweetness which had made
her boy so attractive to David on first acquaintance. There could have
been little in common between her and the hard, domineering father
until a great grief bridged the gulf that had grown between them. Even
now, she looked at Mr. Cochran with an appealing glance, as if waiting
for him to speak. David wanted to pick her up in his strong young arms
and comfort her.
"So this is the boy that Arthur said he wished he could be like," were
her first words, as she looked up at David's brown face and well-set
shoulders. "Why, you are not a boy. You are a man."
"I've grown a lot in the last year, and sea life agrees with me,"
laughed David, with a blush at her frank admiration.
"That is what the doctors told Mr. Cochran when he planned the trip
abroad for Arthur, in the yacht," sighed the mother. "He did not ask me
to go, because I am such a wretched sailor, I suppose. I expected to
join them later in the south of France."
"It is a good deal better for a man's health when he has to work his
way," explained David. "Sitting under a yacht's awning all day isn't
a bit like having your regular watches to stand in all weathers. When
Arthur comes home you will find him fit as a fiddle. Being adrift for a
few days will do him good."
"How awful!" exclaimed Mrs. Cochran, nervously clasping her hands. "Why
I have done almost nothing except carry out the doctors' orders for his
health since he was a baby."
"That may be partly the trouble, mother," remarked Mr. Cochran. "I'd
give half I own to see him looking like this big lad here. I met some
of his friends to-night. They are coming up to see you soon. You can't
help liking them. They are the kind we used to know down East, ages and
ages ago, 'when we were so happy and so poor.'"
"If they are anything like David Downes, I know I shall be fond of
them," smiled the mother.
Then she fell to telling David all about Arthur's boyhood, and her
fond interest in every detail of her son's affairs found such a ready
and warm-hearted listener that Mr. Cochran stole away, and left them
sitting side by side on the divan. Little by little David's confidence
in Arthur's safety began to reassure the tormented mother. The sailor
talked to her of the sea with a knowledge born of his experience and
of the bright hopefulness of youth. Quite naturally he drifted into
telling her about the wreck of the _Pilgrim_, to show how there was
chance of escape in the most desperate disaster. Her mother's heart
was drawn to the picture of Margaret, as David painted it, in words of
loving loyalty and admiration.
"You are like a fresh breeze blowing from a big, fine, wholesome world
that we seem to have been shut off from," she cried, as she looked at
him with affectionate eyes. "I do believe that Arthur will be brought
home to us."
They heard a telephone bell ring in another room. The mother's face
became white and tense, and she grasped David's hand and held it fast.
There might be some tidings. After minutes that seemed like hours Mr.
Cochran entered the room with dragging step and bowed shoulders. He
spoke very slowly, as if reluctant to repeat the message which had come
to him.
"It was a telegram, mother," said he. "One of the _Restless_ boats was
picked up at sea--empty. A Cunarder reported it by wireless."
Mrs. Cochran swayed against David, who pulled himself together, and his
voice rang out with vibrant conviction:
"It doesn't mean what you think it does. Ten to one some vessel picked
them up and cast the boat adrift. And the chances are still even that
Arthur was in the other boat. Now is the time to sit tight and hold
your nerve."
CHAPTER VIII
YANKEE TOPSAILS
A weary week passed, without tidings of the castaways of the
_Restless_. Arthur Cochran's mother lost heart, and refused to be
comforted. She seemed to be letting go her hold on life, and her
husband, as if seeking to atone for the years in which he had allowed
his worldly interests to absorb his time and thought, was seldom away
from her. His devotion was tender and whole-hearted. The visit of the
Bracewell household had been postponed. Mrs. Cochran was too ill to
leave her room, and even David had to be denied the pleasure of seeing
her again, much as she longed to talk to him about her beloved son.
The week of shore leave ended and David said good-by to his "dearest
folks" in the tiny flat and posted off to Philadelphia to report on
board the _Roanoke_. He was glad, too, beyond measure, to learn that
Captain Thrasher had been cleared of all blame for the collision, and
would stay in his command.
"It was vat you call a tight squeak," explained David's faithful
shipmate, the bos'n. "They tells me the Board asks the old man why
don't he get out and push the iceberg to one side, or some such
foolishness. But he proves he was usin' all proper care, and they can't
give him the sack, eh? Mr. Cochran, the moneybags vat we picked up, he
vas very mad mit our old man at first, but he cool down by and by and
see vat a idiot he vas. And he gets some gratitude under his belt, and
puts in a word for the old man, I t'ink. Stanley P. Cochran is very
strong mit the company. He owns much stock."
So Mr. Cochran had gone out of his way to befriend the captain of the
_Roanoke_, reflected David. It showed that the great man had a sense
of fair play and square dealing if his eyes were once opened. If there
was only some way to enlist this powerful interest in Captain John's
behalf, without making it seem like asking charity. If Arthur should
be saved from the sea, the way might be found. The master of the
_Pilgrim_ was growing old before his time, while he ate out his heart
in vain hopes. He was proud and independent to a fault, and David knew
he would starve sooner than crowd another man out of his berth. While
in New York David had taken pains to learn that none of the sailing
ships in Mr. Cochran's sugar-carrying trade were without masters, and
for the present he could see no help in that quarter.
One week followed another, and David found no chance to go to New York
again. One of his letters from Margaret told him:
"Mrs. Cochran sent for me to go and see her yesterday. Grandfather
took me up and was going to sit on the front steps and wait, but the
servants took him in tow and he was invited up-stairs with me. Mr.
Cochran must have said some nice things about poor little me. She was
very sweet and lovely, but so sad looking. And she wanted to know if
I would show her how to make an apple pie. There are at least twenty
servants in their crew, Davy, and imagine me making apple pies in that
house. What makes such very rich people seem so dreadfully lonesome?
She explained that Arthur's boy friends were all out of town, and that
he didn't have many anyhow.
"They have sense enough to know that you are a wonderful Big Brother,
which is why I like them. Grandfather told her all sorts of cheerful
yarns about people who were not heard of at sea for weeks and weeks,
and then came into port all safe and smiling. She seemed to have faith
in that simple, quiet way of his, when he leans forward and looks you
straight in the eyes as he talks. She asked him had he given up going
to sea, and he told her yes. And I spoke right up as bold as anything:
"'It isn't because he wants to, but because sailing ships are so
scarce. He never would have anything to do with steam.'
"She did not quite understand, but he shut me up before I could tell
her that he was one of the finest ship-masters that ever cracked on
sail in a gale of wind. Won't we see you again before we sail, Davy?
I am sending a box of apple pies by express. I made them with my
own fair hands, and one of them is specially for the bos'n, with his
initials on the crust. Mr. Becket says I ought to have put on, 'FOR A
DUTCH HUMBUG.'"
Davy duly delivered the pie and Mr. Becket's message, and was thanked
for the one and cuffed over the head for the other.
The _Roanoke_ was almost ready for sea a few days later, when a
telegram came aboard for David. He opened the envelope with stumbling
fingers, fearing something might have happened to his "dearest folks."
The message was from Mr. Cochran, however, and said no more than:
"_There may be good news for us. Cannot tell yet. Try to come at
once._"
David showed the message to the chief officer, who advised him to take
it to Captain Thrasher. That august personage said at once:
"Jump right along with you. Give Mr. Cochran my best regards, and tell
him to send you back as soon as he can."
On the train bound for New York David tried to fathom the meaning of
the uncertain tidings. Either Arthur had been saved or he had not, but
apparently the father was waiting for more information. When David
jumped from the car in the Jersey City station, he was surprised to see
Mr. Cochran waiting for him, with every sign of impatient haste.
"Come along, youngster," he called at the top of his voice. "I have a
tug with steam up right here by the ferry dock."
He grasped David's arm and they charged pell-mell through the crowd.
Mr. Cochran had no breath to spare until they had scrambled from the
string-piece of the pier to the deck of a sea-going tug, whose escape
valve was roaring in a cloud of steam. Orders were shouted, a bell
clanged, another jingled, and the tug was racing down the North River
toward the Bay.
"Mrs. Cochran was not strong enough to come," panted her husband as he
mopped his face. "And we may be disappointed after all. I can't stand
much more of a strain myself. But we shall know in three or four hours,
I hope."
"What--why--how do you know?" stammered David, whose head felt dazed.
"Only that a tramp steamer arriving this morning reported being
signalled by a sailing ship, the _Sea Witch_, that she had on board
part of the crew of a yacht. It was blowing hard when the vessels
sighted each other, and the captain of the tramp could not read the
flags distinctly."
"But where was the _Sea Witch_ when sighted, and whither bound?"
"Liverpool to New York--a hundred and fifty miles out, twenty-four
hours ago. The wind has shifted to fair for her since midnight, and she
will be in sight of Sandy Hook before dark."
"Of course Arthur is aboard," cried David, with buoyant faith.
The father said nothing. Perhaps he was thinking of the sufferings
which had killed so many strong men adrift in open boats. And this
boy of his was a weakling, used to the constant care and luxury
which wealth had lavished on him. David tried to rouse him from his
reflections by saying:
"The _Sea Witch_ is the finest and smartest ship of her class afloat,
sir. She is the largest four-masted sailing ship that flies the
American flag. I'd give a lot to see her."
"I believe I control some kind of a fleet of barks and ships in
my sugar business," replied Mr. Cochran, "but I haven't paid much
attention to them. Don't believe I ever laid eyes on one of them. But I
don't recall hearing of the _Sea Witch_."
"Almost four thousand tons, and sailing mostly to the Orient with case
oil," added David. "I know a man that was in her."
The tug churned her way through the Narrows and lifted her bow to the
swell of the Bay. Mr. Cochran had become lost in his own thoughts as he
stared from a wheel-house window, while David swapped briny yarns with
the mate.
"The _Sea Witch_ was spoken three hundred miles out, a week ago," said
the mate. "Then she was blown to sea, and now she's piling in again
with the wind where she wants it."
The green sea opened ahead, and the tug plunged her guard rail under
as her skipper crowded a good thirteen knots out of her. The Navesink
Highlands became vague and misty over her stern, and still her course
was held toward the east-south-east.
"The _Sea Witch_ ought to be showing us her royals before long," said
the skipper.
He had no more than spoken when the mate shouted: "There she is, right
to the minute. A point off the port bow."
Swiftly the white patch crept above the horizon; sail by sail the
gleaming canvas of the _Sea Witch_ lifted fair and graceful, until her
black hull was visible as a mere dot beneath the immense sweep of her
snowy wings. Every stitch of cloth she could spread was pulling her
homeward. David had been at sea for more than a year without glimpsing
such a noble picture as this. When they had run close enough to make
out the stars and stripes whipping from the mizzen of the _Sea Witch_
like a tongue of flame, he drew a long breath and felt little chills
run up and down his back. Now he began to understand what the sea and
its ships meant to Captain John Bracewell, ship-master of the old
school.
Mr. Cochran had no eyes for the rare beauty of the _Sea Witch_ under
full sail. He was leaning far out of his window, imploring the captain
of the tug to make more speed. When the two vessels were a half mile
apart, a string of signal bunting soared to the tug's mast-head,
announcing: "Wish to speak to you, most important."
After a little interval, the _Sea Witch_ signalled back:
"Can't stop. What is your business?"
"Oh, quit that foolishness," groaned Mr. Cochran, wringing his hands.
"Run alongside and speak her as soon as you can."
The tug swept round in a foaming arc, and came up on the lee side of
the four-master, which was surging home like a race-horse. A long line
of heads bobbed above the bulwark in the waist of the _Sea Witch_, and
presently a slim young figure danced up the poop ladder and climbed on
top of the cabin.
"That looks like him," cried Mr. Cochran, "but he was never as frisky
as that in all his life."
The excited David thumped the magnate between the shoulders, and
yelled:
"Of course it's Arthur. I can make him out as plain as daylight."
The tug sheered closer and closer at top speed, but she was rapidly
dropping astern of the flying ship. The agile figure on the cabin roof
caught up a speaking-trumpet and piped shrilly:
"Daddy, ahoy! It's me! How's mother?"
The father scrambled on deck and bawled with arms outstretched:
"All well, you little rascal! Are all hands with you?"
"There they are in the waist. All the men in our boat. Count 'em for
yourself. All present and accounted for, down to the cook's pet monkey.
Anybody lost of your company? And has the other boat been picked up?"
"We were all saved, thank God. No, the second boat has not been heard
from yet. Here's a youngster who can tell you all about our end of it."
Arthur failed to recognize at long range the _Roanoke_ cadet whom he
had last seen in bed with a bandaged head. David shouted a welcome,
but it was lost in the stentorian roar of the captain of the _Sea
Witch_:
"I'll lay my main-yard aback and put your lad aboard, Mr. Cochran. I
wouldn't do it for anybody else but his daddy."
The tug dropped farther astern, and the towering square rigger began to
slacken her rushing speed as her mighty yards were swung round. Then as
she lay at rest, a rope ladder was dropped overside, and young Arthur
Cochran swarmed down it as if he had been the pet monkey saved from the
yacht. A boat from the tug was waiting, and Mr. Cochran, rising in the
stern-sheets, fairly grabbed the boy in his arms and hugged him like a
bear. Arthur struggled to get his breath and sputtered:
"Tell the _Restless_ men you're glad to see them, father. They were
mighty good to me."
"I _am_ an unfeeling brute, but I couldn't think of anything else than
getting my hands on you. _Sea Witch_, ahoy! A glad welcome home to the
_Restless_ captain and his men. Report at my office on landing, and you
won't be sorry that you sailed with me! I feel sure that the rest of
the crew have been saved and will be reported soon."
As soon as they were aboard the tug, Mr. Cochran began to take stock of
his son and heir. Instead of the wasted invalid he had dreaded to find,
this survivor was tanned, clear-eyed, and vigorous.
"What kind of a miracle has happened to you?" he asked. "Your mother
won't know you."
"Plain grub and hard work, I guess," grinned Arthur. "We were adrift
four days, and I got a razor edge on my appetite. Three weeks aboard
the _Sea Witch_ did the rest. The captain said I'd been coddled to
death as soon as he found out who I was, and you bet he kept me busy.
Why, I helped reef the fore-topgallant sail last night."
Mr. Cochran glanced up at the dizzy yards of the _Sea Witch_ and
shuddered. Then Arthur found time to stare hard at David, who was
tactfully keeping in the background.
"Well, I'll be jiggered! It's you, is it?" shouted Arthur. "This is
better luck than I counted on. So you two have made it up? Fine!
Father was horrid mean to you. I suppose you picked him up at sea.
Rescuing folks seems to be one of your steady habits."
"You have guessed right," laughed David. "There was more than one sunny
side to the loss of the _Restless_. It's an ill wind that blows nobody
good."
While the tug sped toward Sandy Hook, Mr. Cochran and his boy sat in
the skipper's little room abaft the wheel-house and talked to their
heart's content. David was wise enough to leave them alone, and with
peace in his heart he gazed at the _Sea Witch_, which, scorning a
tow-boat, was driving astern of them. The signal station at Sandy Hook
was told to telegraph the good news ahead, and long before they landed
newsboys were crying "Evening Extras," with the return of Stanley P.
Cochran's son emblazoned in head-lines of blue and red.
David said good-by at the wharf, but Arthur stoutly refused to let him
go.
"I haven't had a chance to see you more than a minute," exclaimed the
jubilant castaway. "Hang your old ship! Let her wait. Father will
wire the captain for you. Now is the glad time to work Mr. Stanley P.
Cochran for most any old thing."
"You don't know Captain Stephen Thrasher," said his father. "I tried
to buy him and his ship once. He has asked me to send David back to
the _Roanoke_ as soon as possible, and he meant exactly what he said.
I have learned to let seafaring people have their own way. They are a
terribly obstinate lot," and he winked comically at David.
No longer afraid of Mr. Cochran's wrath, David told him:
"I must catch the next train to Philadelphia. Give my love to Mrs.
Cochran, please, and the Bracewells, if you happen to see them."
"Why, bless me," declared Mr. Cochran, "have you come to New York
without a chance to see your folks? That's absurd. It was very selfish
of me to kidnap you, I'm sure, but there was no one else I wanted to
take out to meet the _Sea Witch_."
"Never mind. I can write them before I sail," and with this David
set off for the ferry at a smart trot. When he reported aboard the
_Roanoke_ in the evening, Captain Thrasher was just going ashore.
"What news?" he halted to ask. "Young Cochran safe in port? Well, well,
I am very thankful to hear it. What ship found them? The _Sea Witch_?
Why I know her master well. Dried-up little man with a white goatee?"
This described the man who had shouted orders from the quarter-deck of
the _Sea Witch_, and David meekly answered, "Yes, sir."
"Seventy, if he is a day, and tough as a pine knot," concluded Captain
Thrasher. "He was master of a ship when I went to sea as a boy."
Before David turned in he wrote to Margaret, and wound up with:
"You never saw such a beautiful ship in your life as the _Sea Witch_.
Be sure to take Captain John down to see her when she docks. If there
were only really and truly fairies, or if I had a magic wand, I would
wave it around Mr. Cochran's head and ask him to buy the _Sea Witch_
and put Captain John in her, instead of the frosted old pippin that is
master of her. She almost makes me wish I had not gone into steam. Oh,
if you could have seen her under full sail--but what is the use of my
raving about the _Sea Witch_? Good-night, and God bless you all."
The _Roanoke_ was almost ready to proceed straight to Southampton for
a thorough overhauling after the patch-work repairs made to enable her
to cross the Atlantic in safety. There was no excitement about this
kind of a departure, and on the morning of sailing her empty decks made
David feel a little homesick. He was sent ashore with a bundle of the
captain's farewell letters, and on his way back dodged a cab which was
rattling down to the wharf in runaway fashion. A volley of "Whoas" and
"Hullos" came from inside, and wheeling about, David saw the head of
Arthur Cochran poked out of the window.
"Ahoy, there," he shouted, pushing open the door, and alighting fairly
on top of David before the driver could pull up his sweating steed.
"Father came over on business, and I coaxed him into letting me come
along, on the chance of seeing you."
"Come aboard," said David, joyfully. "We're ready to cast off, but
there will be a few minutes to spare, I guess. You don't look a
shipwrecked sailor, not a little bit."
"I have met those pals of yours," confided Arthur as they hurried up
the gangway. "And they are just bully, aren't they? They are the real
thing. Mother dotes on the dear little sister, and she _is_ a dear, and
Captain Bracewell is a copper-fastened A1 old-time Yankee sailor, that
you read about in books. Say, but he is a brick, a whole ton of 'em.
And, oh, you will be tickled to death to hear that the other _Restless_
boat was found by a steamer which carried the men to Liverpool."
"Good enough," cried David. "That is the bulliest kind of news."
Elated as he was to learn that all the yacht's crew had been accounted
for, the praise of Margaret made David wince a trifle in spite of
himself. Jealousy had never invaded his feelings toward the "little
sister." He wanted Arthur to like his "dearest folks," but it was not
easy to think of sharing their affection. Beating down this ungenerous
emotion with a very manly spirit, David cordially agreed:
"They are the salt of the earth, Arthur, and I am mighty glad you like
them. They worried themselves almost sick about you. What about Mr.
Becket? Have you met him?"
"He looked me up yesterday, and was so full of mystery that I couldn't
make head or tail of him. He got almost to the point of telling me
something, and then he sheered off on another tack, rubbed his red
head, sighed, looked out of the window, and muttered something about
guessing he'd have to see you first."
"Was it anything about Captain Bracewell?"
"He never got that far. He seemed to be in the last stages of
buck-fever or acute rattles. But he doesn't look like a timid man."
David was called forward, and while Arthur kicked his heels on a bench
by the gangway, Captain Thrasher happened along, on his way to the
bridge.
"My father, Mr. Cochran, sends you his warmest regards," said Arthur,
"and wishes you a luckier voyage than the last."
"So you are the young nine-days' wonder, are you? You look as if sea
life agreed with you."
"That's what everybody says, Captain, and I am trying to persuade
mother to let me go for a long voyage. My, but I should like to go out
in the _Sea Witch_ to Japan."
"No finer sailing vessel afloat," said Captain Thrasher. "How is that
old barnacle that commands her? Bad-tempered as ever?"
"He is pretty violent," smiled Arthur. "But he is done with the sea.
This was his last voyage. He told me he was going home to Maine as
quick as the Lord would let him, and raise potatoes and cabbages, 'gosh
whang it.' He has been at sea fifty-seven years."
"Who will take her out?"
"The mate expects to get her, sir. But he is a pie-faced, wooden-headed
Norwegian, with a thirst for rum. I didn't take to him at all."
"Too bad to see a Norwegian in command of the finest Yankee ship
afloat," was Captain Thrasher's comment as he went on his way.
Fifteen minutes passed and David had not returned. It was like hunting
a needle in a hay-stack to look for him, and Arthur fidgeted where he
was until the deck officer warned him that it was time to go ashore.
Then David came running aft, just as the _Roanoke_ blew a long blast
to let all hands know she was ready to cast off.
"I had to tally a lot of stores that just came aboard for the paint
room," panted David. "It is a shame that I can't hear all about what
happened to you at sea. But I'll be back in a few weeks."
Arthur shouted his farewells, as he ran to the wharf, while David said
to himself, with sorrowful countenance:
"And I never got in a word for Captain John."
He would have been more regretful could he have overheard the news
about the command of the _Sea Witch_ as Arthur had told it to Captain
Thrasher.
CHAPTER IX
CAPTAIN BRACEWELL'S SHIP
David had been gone a week, when Arthur Cochran announced to his father:
"There is no sense in waiting till David, the bold sailor boy, comes
home from sea. I want to ask the Bracewells and Mr. Becket up to
dinner. You postponed it once, before I turned up, and anyhow you owe
them a dinner to square yourself for the apple pie you got away with."
Since their disaster at sea the domineering manner of Mr. Cochran
toward his son had changed to a relation of good comradeship, in which
Arthur no longer feared and trembled. His timid smile had become frank
and boyish, and he carried himself in a way that made his father proud
of him.
"By all means," heartily replied Mr. Cochran. "It won't hurt you to
know folks who don't care a rap for your money, and who are not
looking for a chance to pull your leg. They preach a healthy gospel by
just living along in their own way."
Arthur's mother mildly suggested that the dinner await David's return,
but she was routed by the argument:
"That will be an excuse for another dinner. The more, the merrier."
Thereupon she offered her services as a partner in his plans, and
between them they devised all manner of novel decorations and
surprises. The thing which pleased them most was a lake of real water
that extended the length of the dining table, and upon which floated
two toy vessels. One of them was the model of a full-rigged sailing
ship, the other of an ocean steamer, with a black star between her
funnels. They were christened the _Sea Witch_ and the _Roanoke_. For
the bridge of the liner Arthur found a most dashing miniature captain
in blue, who was tagged, in honor of the absent friend, "Captain David
Downes."
The guests arrived fairly calm, but somewhat awed by their
surroundings. Captain John, in his Sunday black, loomed like a
benevolent Viking. His massive, clean-shaven face had lost its sea
tan, but he was as fine a specimen of the American ship-master as could
have been found in his almost vanished generation. Margaret, dressed in
white, with a rose in her fair hair, was winsomely girlish, enjoying
every moment of this red-letter night. Mr. Becket's rolling gait put
the costly bric-a-brac in some danger, and he would insist on making
side remarks to the servants, but Margaret was a skilful pilot, and
steered him in safety to the haven of the dining-room.
"I don't quite figure out how it all happened," said Captain Bracewell,
from his chair at Mrs. Cochran's right hand, "but we are all glad to be
here, ma'am. Most of us have been saved by the Lord's grace from the
perils of the deep. But the boy who fetched us all together is absent
from us, and I move we drink his health standing."
While the company toasted the young able seaman of the _Roanoke_,
Arthur cried:
"And here's to all ships and sailors, their sisters, sweethearts, and
wives."
He glanced at Margaret with so mischievous a twinkle in his dancing
eyes that she felt her cheek grow hot, for no reason at all, of
course. Mr. Becket made a diversion, however, by pensively observing:
"There was a black-eyed senorita in Valparaiso. But she hasn't written
me in eleven years, and I couldn't read it if she did. But I hereby
drink to her most hearty."
Captain Bracewell's bold and resolute manner, which became him so well,
was returning in the enjoyment of this festal occasion. The weary year
of disappointment and failure was forgotten for the time. He seemed to
grow younger as the dinner wore on. Mr. Cochran, who knew men and how
to draw them out, was shrewdly studying this fine figure of a mariner.
There was more behind that square-hewn face than simple honesty and
loyalty. The man of wealth and power had lost some of his former
contempt for those who could not "make money." Perhaps more than he
realized, he had learned new values of men from David Downes. But why
should Captain Bracewell have quit his calling, reflected Mr. Cochran,
while he was still fit for years of command? "He is not a day over
sixty," the host was saying to himself, "and he looks as sturdy as an
oak tree." Mr. Cochran did not know that there had been a kind of blind
conspiracy to hide the truth from him. David had let slip his chance
to confide in Arthur; Captain John would not have dreamed of presuming
on Mr. Cochran's friendship; while Mr. Becket had lost his daring at a
critical moment.
Their well-meaning secrecy, their fond hopes and wishes, were revealed
without warning, and without any prompting of their own. They were
talking about the two little ships which swam so proudly on the lake
between them. Mock congratulations were showered upon the absurd figure
of a doll, which stood so stiffly on the tiny liner's bridge. Margaret
called out playfully:
"Why don't you toot your whistle and salute us, Captain Downes? Too
haughty and stuck-up, I suppose, like all you steamer captains."
"S-s-s-sh. He is on duty," chided Arthur. "No talking on the bridge."
"He can have his old steamer," flung back Margaret. "I'll take the _Sea
Witch_ yonder, every time. Oh, isn't she just beautiful, even as a
toy?"
The blood of a long line of sailor ancestors thrilled in Margaret's
veins, as she clasped her hands and leaned forward to waft her breath
against the white sails of the clipper ship. The _Sea Witch_ dipped to
this fair gale, gathered headway, and furrowed the pond with a wake of
tiny ripples. Her bowsprit pointed straight at Captain Bracewell, and
fanned by the breath of the guests as she passed them, the _Sea Witch_
glided without swerving from her course to the mossy bank in front of
the captain's plate.
"But she hasn't any skipper," cried Arthur. "That doll on her
quarter-deck must be the mutton-headed Norwegian mate. Chuck him
overboard, mother. He's no good."
With a gay laugh, Mrs. Cochran tossed the luckless manikin into the
water, where he sank to the bottom without a struggle, and reposed
against a rock with arms calmly folded across his chest. The heartless
onlookers applauded this tragedy, all save Captain John, who was
looking down at the ship. Perhaps he had a trace of the superstition
which can be found in the hardest-headed seafarer. The _Sea Witch_,
without a captain, had laid her course for him, and was waiting on the
shore. This make-believe voyage might be a good omen.
Arthur had an inspiration, while the attention of the others was
drawn to Captain John and the fairy ship. Springing to his feet, he
flourished his napkin in the air, and shouted:
"What's the matter with Captain John Bracewell as master of the _Sea
Witch_? Wouldn't as fine a ship as this persuade you to go to sea
again?"
Margaret was thrown into confusion, and Mr. Becket was taken all aback,
but Captain John smiled and threw back his shoulders, as he gently
answered:
"I should like nothing better, but her owners don't see it that way."
"Who owns the _Sea Witch_?" spoke up Mr. Cochran.
"Burgess, Jones & Company. She is the last of their four-masted ships
that were built for the Far Eastern trade," said Captain John.
"Why, it is plain as the nose on your face," declared the headlong
Arthur, who was taking full command of the situation. "Don't let her be
turned into a coal barge, father. That is what they talk of doing with
her after one more voyage. She can be made to pay her way with your
brains back of her. Buy her to-morrow. I'll get you all the facts and
figures. And one long voyage in her is what I need to make me as husky
as David Downes."
Matters were moving too fast for the guests. Mr. Becket's face was
fairly purple with suppressed emotions, and he could only pound the
table in a dazed kind of way and mutter:
"Exactly what I tried to tell him. Exactly it. But I got hung on a dead
centre."
Captain Bracewell raised his hand to command silence. He was anxious to
pull Mr. Cochran out of an awkward situation, and did his best to make
light of the discussion by saying:
"It is just a boy's fancy, sir. Don't mind him. He means well. We will
just call it a bit of fun, and forget it. Besides, I'm asking no favors
from anybody."
Captain John had risen to his feet, and was bending toward his host.
Mr. Cochran looked up with frank admiration at the imposing figure
which faced him, and returned:
"Arthur goes off at half-cock a good deal. But there is a grain or two
of sense in him. Suppose we talk this matter over to-morrow, Captain.
I am a business man, and you are pretty solidly ballasted yourself. I
don't want to fling a lot of money into the sea, nor do you wish any
position that comes to you as a whim."
But Arthur was not ready to dismiss his great idea, until he noticed
that his mother's face was full of suffering and her dear eyes were
moist with tears. He went around to her and kissed her cheek, as he
asked what the trouble might be.
"I hope you can make Captain Bracewell happy," she whispered. "But I
can't let you go to sea again so soon. You must not leave me now, when
I feel as if you had been given back to me from the grave. You won't
go, will you, if you can feel strong and well at home with us?"
The boy responded with impulsive tenderness:
"Not if you feel that way about it, mother. And I am going to stay
strong and fit, anyway. But you will help me to get the _Sea Witch_ for
the captain, won't you?"
The father was thinking as he watched them that it was worth a great
deal to have his only son learn lessons of unselfishness; to see him
more absorbed in the welfare of others than in his own interests. Mr.
Becket said to Margaret, in what was meant for a whisper:
"The lad couldn't know our David very long without getting some of that
help-the-other-fellow spirit. Our boy has always been studying what he
could do for you and Captain John. He even has me on his mind these
days."
Mr. Becket's whisper was heard the length of the table, and Arthur's
father commented with a smile:
"I guess you are right, Mr. Becket, but why on earth didn't David let
me know that the captain wanted a ship?"
"Because you blackguarded and scolded him out of his boots when he
stuck to these friends of his, last year," bravely returned the aroused
Mr. Becket. "And our boy don't crawl on his knees to no millionaires,
potentates, or boojums. That's one reason."
With tactful desire to restore peace, Mrs. Cochran signalled to a
servant, and a phonograph hidden in the palms began to play "Nancy
Lee." The _Sea Witch_ was not mentioned again until the guests were
ready to take their leave, when Margaret slipped up to Mrs. Cochran and
confided with fluttering voice:
"Please don't think we ever hinted the least thing to Mr. Arthur about
our looking for a vessel. It is lovely to know that you think so much
of grandfather. And Mr. Becket and I will try to make him understand
that it was all a joke to-night. I can't bear to think of his taking
it the least bit in earnest. We just can't have him down in the dumps
again."
"Don't worry, Margaret," Arthur's mother responded, caressing the
girl's shining hair. "Things will work out for the best somehow, for
such a dear, brave child and such a splendid grandfather."
Captain Bracewell passed a sleepless night, his mind restless with
new-born hopes. It could not be true, it was not even sane to expect
that he might walk the quarter-deck of the _Sea Witch_, a bigger,
finer ship than he had ever been master of in his prime. And to talk
of buying her as if she were the toy which had floated on the dinner
table! It was all stark nonsense, yet his kindled imagination could not
help painting bright pictures. Margaret heard him muttering to himself
in the night watches, and stole to his bedside. The captain put his
arms around the slim figure in white, and drew her to him.
"I haven't slept a wink, either," she whispered. "You will take me with
you in the _Sea Witch_, won't you? But we will be so far away from
David."
Captain John chuckled:
"Why, you are the girlie who was telling me all the way home that I
must take it as a bit of fun. What has come over you?"
"I just can't help believing it is going to come true," she answered.
"I guess we are two silly children. But will you try to coax David to
ship with you?"
"So that is what is keeping you awake," he responded, very tenderly.
"Nothing would be too good for the lad if he were in my vessel, you
know that. But our chickens aren't hatched, and you'd better turn in,
and thank God for all the blessings we have."
Next morning Captain Bracewell trudged off to his gang of longshoremen
on a North River pier. As he turned along the crowded water front,
a four-masted sailing ship was being towed into a berth among the
low-roofed warehouses. He stared with surprise at the rare sight, and
thrilled to note the immense height of her masts and the majestic
spread of her yards. Beside the uncouth ocean steamers, she appeared
queenly beyond words. Without going nearer, Captain Bracewell knew
that this must be the _Sea Witch_. He fought with his longing to go
aboard and inspect this vessel of his dreams. But deciding that he
ought to make himself no more unhappy than possible, he moved on his
way, now and then turning for another sight of the "grandest Yankee
skysail-yarder afloat."
A few hours later Arthur Cochran rode down town with his father,
explaining, by the way:
"The weeks at sea did me lots of good, I'll admit that. But another
reason why I feel so much better is that I have quit worrying about
myself. If you will give me enough to think about, I won't have time
to bother with my weak chest and spindle legs. But it is a heap more
important that I get Captain John ready for sea before David comes
home. Wouldn't it be a glorious surprise for him?"
"Give me time to think it over, Arthur. Maybe Burgess, Jones & Company
will be glad to do me a favor without making it necessary to buy a
ship. Why, I own a fleet of them, come to think of it."
"But they are not in the same class with the _Sea Witch_, father, and
I want to own her myself. It is a good way to break me in to business
before I am ready to go to college. Outbound freights have jumped in
the last week and now is the time to buy or charter."
"I begin to think you are a chip of the old block, my son," said Mr.
Cochran, not at all displeased. "Maybe I can see you through on this
shipping deal. Come to my office at noon, after I have had time to send
a man out to investigate."
Arthur was not letting the grass grow under his feet. He posted down to
the wharf to find Captain Bracewell, and implored that busy stevedore:
"I want all the figures to show the cost of running a four-masted ship,
wages, stores, repairs, and so on. Dig it up in a hurry, please, for
I may be a ship-owner by afternoon. Let your roustabouts have a ten
minutes' rest."
There was no such thing as heading Arthur off. He volleyed questions
like a rapid-fire gun. No sooner had his flying pencil scrawled the
last row of figures than he fled from the wharf. Noon found him waiting
in the ante-room of his father's private offices, chewing his pencil
stub and scanning many rumpled pages of calculations. Presently a clerk
beckoned him, and the door of the inner office was closed behind the
budding shipping merchant. An hour later he bobbed out with an excited
air and announced to the confidential secretary:
"Mr. Cochran says to have room number eighteen fitted up as an office,
if you please. I shall use it hereafter. I want the door lettered,
'ARTHUR L. COCHRAN, SHIP-OWNER.'"
A messenger found Captain Bracewell eating his dinner at home. Margaret
was trembling as she noticed that the note was written on the office
stationery of Stanley P. Cochran. Her grandfather was outwardly calm,
as he read aloud:
CAPTAIN JOHN BRACEWELL:
_Dear Sir_: This is to offer you the command of the ship _Sea
Witch_, which is now lying at Pier 38, North River, in this port.
If you will accept the position, please call at my office at your
earliest convenience to arrange terms, etc.
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR L. COCHRAN, _Agent and Owner_.
"Listen to that, his daddy all over again," roared the ship-master. "I
shall have to toe the mark now. Well, it's come true. It's come true,
girlie. And our lad David did it all."
He knelt by the table, as if this were the first thing to be done, and
Margaret was kneeling beside him as he gave thanks to the God in whom
he had put his trust, afloat and ashore.
"We must send a cablegram to David," quavered Margaret, sobbing for
sheer joy. "And tell him he _must_ sail with us."
Three thousand miles away a lad in sailor blue was mending awnings on a
liner's deck. He did not look happy as he plied the sail-needle with
vicious jabs, while he thought, half aloud:
"What is the use of having friends if you can't be of any use to them?
What good have I been to Captain John and Margaret? Always wanting to
help, never doing a thing! I might have got him a ship if I hadn't hung
fire so long. Now it's too late. I wish I had never set eyes on those
Cochrans. I just amused them, because I was a kind of curiosity, I
suppose."
It was a very different David Downes who whooped like a red Indian
soon after he went off watch. After dancing along the deck with a
cabled message in his fist, he sat down on the edge of his bunk to
think things over. Slowly the fact of Captain John's great good fortune
slipped into the background, and bigger and bigger loomed the certainty
which he could not bear to face.
"A whole year without seeing Margaret," he said to himself, "for she is
sure to go in the _Sea Witch_. I never realized what it would mean to
have them go to sea again. They must take me, too; I can't bear to be
left behind. A whole year without Margaret!"
Then it came over him that he belonged where he had begun, in steam,
in the Atlantic service. He was of a different age and breed of seaman
from Captain John. Their ways must part. But was not any sacrifice
worth while that would give him a chance to sail with Margaret? David
was suddenly brought face to face with a new problem which had come
into his life without his being aware of it. He must fight it out for
himself.
CHAPTER X
THE CALL OF DUTY
Captain John Bracewell's deep voice was shouting orders to the tug
which was making fast to haul the deep-laden _Sea Witch_ out from her
wharf. She was ready to begin her long voyage around Cape Horn, and
the trade winds of the Pacific were calling her. In their first hours
aboard, her crew had found that they were in a "smart ship," with a
master who knew his trade. No longer a stranded derelict, but a leader
of men, gravely rejoicing in the strength and beauty of the _Sea
Witch_, Captain Bracewell looked every inch a proper seaman to command
this queen of the old-time Yankee merchant marine.
In the spacious after-cabin, bright with the summer sun which flooded
through the open skylights, Margaret was saying almost the last of
her good-bys. Clusters and bouquets of flowers, sent by Mr. Cochran,
senior, made every shelf and corner gay. Mrs. Cochran and he had made
their farewell call and were gone ashore, but Arthur still lingered in
the cabin. Beside him stood able seaman David Downes. The young owner
of the departing ship was saying to the fair-haired girl:
"I can't stay more than a minute longer. My boat is alongside, and I
must get back to my office. I'd like awfully well to go down the Bay
with you, but--"
He hesitated, glanced at David and went on with an affectionate smile,
which embraced both his friends:
"You may not see your big brother for a year, Miss Margaret. He
deserves to have you all to himself to-day."
"Better change your mind and come back in the tug," said David. "This
is your ship, you know. And Margaret will love to have you."
She smiled, with lips which slightly trembled, and there was unspoken
sadness in her brave eyes, as she told them:
"Indeed I want you both until we have to say good-by. And David has not
quite decided to desert us. I am hoping to persuade him yet that he
belongs in the _Sea Witch_. We just can't give him up without trying,
to the very last minute. But it is going to make no difference, even if
the seas do roll between us three. We can't forget you for a moment,
either of you. You two have brought us this great gift and blessing--my
two big brothers."
Arthur's gaze was wistful, but he answered brightly:
"And your owner is prouder of his master and of you than he is of his
fine ship."
"Not to overlook the mate," exclaimed a hearty voice behind them, and
Mr. Becket's head blazed grandly in a patch of sunshine, at the foot
of the companion-way. "Beg your pardon, Mr. Cochran, but we are in the
stream and your boatman wants to cast off. Any orders, sir?"
"I am coming, Mr. Becket. Well, it is good-by, and God bless you, Miss
Margaret, and fair winds to you, and clear skies," said Arthur, as he
clasped her hand for a moment. Then he followed Mr. Becket on deck.
David ran after them, and as he helped his friend overside, Arthur
asked:
"Is it go or stay, with you? The longer you hang in the wind without
making up your mind, the worse it will be."
"It's the hardest thing I ever had to decide," replied David. "I sort
of went ahead blind, and didn't know how much this was going to mean to
me."
"Father and mother and I have begun to find out that you haven't been
thinking of yourself at all, from start to finish," cried Arthur.
"Maybe that is why all your friends like you."
This unexpected compliment took David aback, and all he could think of
to say in parting was:
"You'll hear from me by to-morrow. It's all a game of figuring out what
is right to do."
David watched the boat move shoreward, until it dodged behind a string
of barges, and then he returned to Margaret in the cabin. She made a
gallant effort to face the issue which they had argued over and over
again.
"It all happened just right that Mr. Becket was willing to come as
mate," she began, "but oh, the whole beautiful plan seems so empty
without you, Davy. Why can't you sail with us? Grandfather says he will
make you third mate at the end of this voyage. And you will be just
drudging along in the _Roanoke_ for years and years, before you can get
that far."
"It is different with Mr. Becket," replied David, with a sigh. "He is
almost fifty years old, and he needs a position. Besides, he stands a
fine chance to be master of the _Sea Witch_ when Captain John retires.
But I am just beginning, and I belong in steam."
Margaret was unconvinced, as she looked up at him with affectionate
pride.
"I suppose you know what is best, Davy, and I want you to succeed more
than anything else in the world. Duty is a queer thing anyhow. The
Cochrans think I ought to stay ashore and go to school. But I know
better. There never was a wiser teacher than grandfather, and he needs
me, and school must wait. And you and I could study together, Davy.
Think of the months and months at sea."
"But it all comes down to this, Margaret. Answer me yes or no. Which
course do you want me to take? The one I _ought_ to steer, or the one
I _want_ to follow? There's the whole thing in a nutshell."
She thought it cruel of him to pin her down to this kind of an answer,
but she met his questions as squarely as Captain John would have done.
"The course you ought to steer, if you have to take one or the other,"
was her verdict.
"Then I go back to the _Roanoke_," declared David. "I've been veering
this way and that in my mind, but the things I've learned about duty in
the last year kind of help me to make a good finish of it. I must stick
it out as I started. We sail in the morning, Margaret, and we may pass
you going out. I can read any signals you set, and I'll know they are
meant for me."
"'Don't forget your dearest folks,' will be what I'm saying to you,
David," she answered, very softly.
David moved toward the companion-way. He saw how hard it was for
Margaret to keep back her tears, now that the parting was so near.
"Don't forget me, little sister," he said, and his voice faltered.
"I'll be waiting for you, forever and ever, amen."
He meant more than was in his words, for the "little sister" was dearer
to him in this moment than she had ever been before. But he could not
tell her what was in his heart. They went on deck as Captain Bracewell
called out cheerily:
"I smell a shift of wind. We shall be under sail to-morrow. Why, the
breeze has painted roses in your cheeks already, Margaret. There's
nothing like getting to sea again. How about it, Davy Downes? Shall I
put your name on the ship's papers?"
"No, sir. I am an able seaman aboard the _Roanoke_. And I'm sorry that
I put you to the trouble of holding a berth open for me."
Captain Bracewell looked at the lad with approval, as he rejoined:
"It isn't always easy to get your true bearings, my boy, and maybe
I did wrong in trying to persuade you to sail with an old fogy like
me. We want you bad, but we're not going to stand in your way, hey,
Margaret?"
The "little sister" had nothing more to say. Her bright world was
clouded, and she could not look beyond this hour. It was Mr. Becket who
cheered them with his never-failing good humor. Coming aft for orders,
he stood surveying the silent group as if wondering what misfortune had
happened in his absence.
"Cheer up, my children," was his exhortation. "You've got what you
wanted, and what more do you want? Why, I didn't look as dismal as
all this when my last skipper chased me ashore, with his one whisker
whistlin' in the wind."
"David is going to leave us," said Margaret, solemnly.
"And what would we do with the useless little paint scrubber aboard a
real ship?" exclaimed Mr. Becket. "He's never been aloft in his life."
"Get forward with you, Mr. Becket," thundered the captain, and the
mate ducked down the ladder, as if he had been shot at. The time was
all too short before the _Sea Witch_ reached an anchorage in the lower
bay. David was ready to leap aboard as the tug came alongside. He was
through with saying good-bys, and he lingered only long enough to shake
hands all round.
Margaret and he had tried to console themselves with the thought that
this was not really their last sight of each other. The liner would be
going out in the morning, and then it would be farewell in earnest.
But David was a lonesome and melancholy sailor as he went aboard the
_Roanoke_ that night. The bos'n found him on duty at the gangway, and
took pity on his low spirits.
"It vas hard to lose friends, but it vas worse to have no friends to
lose, and all hands on deck, from the old man to his sawed-off leetle
cabin-boy knows that you haf been true to your friends and stuck by
your colors, boy. It vill do you no harm. I vas getting old, and there
is gray in my hair, and I vill never be a ship's officer. But if you
does _your_ duty and sticks by your friends you will wear the blue coat
mit the brass stripes on the sleeve, and you will be glad you stayed by
steam."
"But I always wanted to be the kind of a seaman my father was,"
confided David, grateful for the cheer of this grizzled shipmate. "And
I've just left that kind of a ship-master and a vessel that made me
sort of choke all up to look at her."
Next morning came fair and sparkling, with a fresh wind out of the
north-west that set the harbor to dancing. The liner's decks were
crowded with passengers in holiday mood. From her huge funnels poured
clouds of black smoke, to tell the water front that she was eager to be
free and hurrying over seas. Promptly on the stroke of ten, as if she
were moved by clockwork, the decks trembled to the thresh of her giant
screws, hawsers came writhing in to the rattle of donkey-engines fore
and aft, and the black hull of the liner slid slowly past her pier.
Up in the bow, able seaman David Downes waved his cap to Arthur Cochran
who had come down to see him off. Their friendship had been knit closer
by the sailing of the _Sea Witch_, and David glowed at the thought of
the message which Mr. Cochran, senior, had sent to the steamer by his
boy:
"Tell the able seaman that I wasn't as crazy as I seemed when I bought
the _Sea Witch_ overnight. If he had wanted her for himself it would
have been another matter. But I did it to please him as much as to
please the old skipper and my boy. Tell him he has helped me to know
what friendship means, in a world where I thought that kind of thing
had gone out of style."
As the _Roanoke_ neared Sandy Hook, David saw far ahead a row of tall
spars astern of a tug. He forgot his work and rushed to the rail. It
was the _Sea Witch_, and the liner would pass close to her. Soon little
patches of white began to break out among the yards of the ship ahead.
The bos'n stood beside David and growled in his ear:
"You must not loaf on deck, boy, but maybe a minute won't hurt
nothings. It vas a good sight, that. I know it all. Now I hear the
captain say to the mate, 'Set your jibs.' And next it is, 'Set your
staysails.' And then it is, 'Loose your lower topsails.' Then the mate
vill sing out to the men, 'Haul away the lee sail,' or 'Overhaul the
main-top-gallant bunt-lines.' But I am an old fool and you are a young
loafer. Get along mit you."
As if by magic, the white canvas was spreading higher and higher above
the low hull of the _Sea Witch_, until her royals seemed like bits of
the clouds that drifted in the blue sky. As David answered a summons
from the bridge, he overheard Captain Thrasher say:
"Very smartly done. The old man must have shipped a good crew. Wonder
where he got 'em? That's the way Yankee ships used to make sail when I
was a boy."
David felt a thrill of pride as if he had a personal share in this
welcome praise. The liner was overhauling the _Sea Witch_ hand over
hand. David was straining his eyes to make out the flutter of a skirt
on the quarter-deck. The ship was still too far away, however, and his
attention was caught for a moment by the surprised voice of the bos'n:
"Holy schmokes, your granddaddy is gettin' up his sky-sails. He vill
give us a race, eh?"
Sure enough, the sailors of the _Sea Witch_ could be seen working in
mid-air, and presently the tiny squares of canvas gleamed above her
royals. "It is to show this old tea-kettle what a Yankee ship can do,"
quoth the bos'n.
No more stately and beautiful sea picture could be imagined than
the _Sea Witch_, when Captain Bracewell had put her under this
staggering press of sail. The wind was humming through the stays of the
_Roanoke's_ apologies for masts, and it smote the _Sea Witch_ with a
driving power, which heeled her until the copper of her hull gleamed
like a belt of gold against the white-capped Atlantic.
David could see Margaret leaning against the weather rail of the poop,
her hair blowing in the jolly wind, as she shaded her eyes and gazed
at the liner's decks. Nor could this daughter of the deep sea have
asked for a more fitting accompaniment for her farewell to David than
the roaring chorus which floated from amidships of the _Sea Witch_.
Captain Bracewell had bullied and bribed the shipping masters of New
York to find him Yankee seamen. It was a hard task that he set them,
but by hook and crook he had gathered a dozen deep-water "shell-backs"
of the old breed among his thirty foremast hands, and they knew the
old-time sailors' chanties. Now, as they swayed and hauled on sheets
and braces, their lusty chorus came faint and clear to the liner:
"Come all ye young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeo, ho, blow the man down,
And pray pay attention and listen to me,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down."
Soon the chorus changed as the topsail yards were swayed:
"We're outward bound this very day,
Good-by, fare you well,
Good-by, fare you well.
We're outward bound this very day,
Hurrah, my boys, we're outward bound."
The passengers of the liner were cheering. Here were sights and sounds
which they had read about in romances of the sea. But David was no
longer thinking of the ship yonder. He was blowing kisses to the
"little girl" who had crossed the deck and was standing with one arm
about the captain of the _Sea Witch_. Over their heads was set a row of
signal flags to speak their parting message:
"All's well. Love and greetings."
Captain Thrasher turned his whistle valve, and the _Roanoke_ bellowed a
courteous "Good-day to you." Stronger and more musical than before came
the sailors' chorus:
"Hurrah, my boys, we're outward bound."
Captain Thrasher chanced to catch a glimpse of the lad with the radiant
face, who was leaning over the rail of the deck below him. With a
kindly impulse, he sent a boy to call David to the bridge.
"You can see them a little better here," said the captain. "I take it
that you're pretty sorry to leave those shipmates of yours. Did you
want to go with them?"
The young able seaman stood very straight, and his square jaw was
firm-set, as he replied:
"Yes, sir. But I decided to stay with you."
The captain of the liner understood the boy's struggle. He made no
comment, but said to one of his officers:
"Tell the quartermaster to sheer a little closer to that ship. I may
want to speak her."
David looked his gratitude, and was on edge with excitement, as he
gazed down at the white deck of the _Sea Witch_, and wondered if his
voice could carry that far. Perhaps he might hear Margaret call to him.
She had seen him go to the bridge. Her face was upturned, and she had
picked up a speaking-trumpet.
[Illustration: David gazed down at the white deck of the _Sea Witch_.]
Just then the fourth officer of the _Roanoke_ brushed past David. He
was bare-headed, his coat was torn, and there was blood on his face. He
addressed the captain, as if short of breath:
"If you please, sir, two of those insane steerage passengers we are
deporting have broken out, and are running amuck below. The rest of the
people are scared clean off their heads, and I want more help to handle
'em."
The discipline which had become an instinct with Captain Thrasher
caused him to grasp at whatever assistance was nearest to save every
second of time he could. He saw David at his elbow, and snapped at him:
"Down you go! Jump! I'll send more help in a minute or two."
David cast one glance at the deck of the _Sea Witch_. Margaret had
never looked so dear to him as now, when she was almost within
speaking distance. The pleading disappointment in David's face was not
unobserved by Captain Thrasher, but his grim features were unmoved as
he repeated, more sharply:
"Don't stand like a dummy! Below with you!"
A sweet, shrill hail came from the quarter-deck of the _Sea Witch_,
"Oh, David, ahoy!"
David heard it, but he did not turn to look over the side. The doctrine
of duty had never been so hard to swallow, but with his jaw set hard
and his fists shut tight he ran after the fourth officer. A bedlam of
noises came from the steerage quarters, groans and shrieks and prayers.
Re-enforced by two more seamen, the officer and David charged into
the uproar. Three stewards and a quartermaster had pinned the insane
foreigners in a corner, and were trying to put strait-jackets on them.
It was a difficult task, even with more help, and the panic of the
other Hungarians, Russians, and Poles had grown to the size of a riot.
David pitched in with the momentum of a centre-rush, and after several
sharp tussles looked around him to find that his doughty comrades had
done their duty well. His impulse was to rush on deck for a sight of
the _Sea Witch_, but his duty was to await orders.
"Stand guard over these poor lunatics till you are relieved," grunted
the fourth officer.
David's face turned very red, he winked hard and tried to hold back the
words that rushed to his lips:
"But I must go on deck, sir. I--I--" he broke off and steadied himself
with a great effort. Before the amazed officer could reply to this
mutinous outburst David had come to himself. Discipline and duty took
command again, and he added in a tone of appeal:
"Please forget what I just said, sir. I didn't mean to talk back. Of
course I'll stay."
The officer cast a sour look at the lad, as if in half a mind to punish
him. Then with a gruff "Keep your tongue in your head next time," he
went away.
David looked around at the speck of blue ocean which glinted through an
open porthole. Margaret's ship was out there, but he could not see her.
Every moment the liner and the _Sea Witch_ were drawing farther and
farther apart. And Margaret--was she looking for him, trying to send
across the water her message: "Don't forget your dearest folks"?
The disconsolate David, sulking in the steerage, was not wise enough to
know that in this trying hour he was doing that which would have made
his "dearest folks" happy in this big boy of theirs.
When at length he climbed on deck, the stately _Sea Witch_ was
hull-down against the blue of the south-western sky. Lower and lower
dropped the pyramid of sail, until a fleck of white hung for an instant
on the horizon line. David rubbed his eyes, and looked again. The _Sea
Witch_ had vanished.
He turned away and looked up at the bridge of the _Roanoke_. Captain
Thrasher was pacing his airy pathway, quiet, ready, masterful, while
the strength of fifteen thousand horses drove the Black Star liner
toward her goal. David Dowries was sure in his heart that he had chosen
the right way, although it was the hardest way. As the sun went down,
he gazed across the heaving sea where he had last glimpsed the _Sea
Witch_, and said to himself:
"What I ought to do, not what I want to do: that is the course Captain
John and Margaret told me to steer. And here is where I belong."
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