A Jolly Fellowship

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  I WAKE UP MR. CHIPPERTON.

  About nine o'clock, on Monday morning, the "Tigris" came in. When weboarded her, which we did almost as soon as the stairs had been put downher side, we found that she would make a shorter stay than usual, andwould go out that evening, at high tide. So there was no time to lose.After the letters had been delivered at the hotel, and we had read ours,we sent our trunks on board, and went around to finish up Nassau. Werowed over to Hog Island, opposite the town, to see, once more, the surfroll up against the high, jagged rocks; we ran down among the negrocottages and the negro cabins to get some fruit for the trip; and werushed about to bid good-bye to some of our old friends--Poqua-dillaamong them. Corny went with us, this time. Every darkey knew we weregoing away, and it was amazing to see how many of them came to bid usgood-bye, and ask for some coppers.

  After supper, we went on board the steamer, and about ten o'clock shecast loose, and as she slowly moved away, we heard the old familiarwords:

  "Give us a small dive, boss!"

  They came from a crowd of darkey boys on the wharf. But, although themoon was shining brightly, we didn't think they could see coppers on thebottom that night. They might have found a shilling or a half-dollar,but we didn't try them.

  There were a couple of English officers on board, from the barracks, andwe thought that they were going to take a trip to the United States; butthe purser told us that they had no idea of doing that themselves, butwere trying to prevent one of the "red-coats," as the common soldierswere generally called, from leaving the island. He had been missed atthe barracks, and it was supposed that he was stowed away somewhere onthe vessel. The steamer had delayed starting for half an hour, so thatsearch might be made for the deserter, but she couldn't wait any longerif she wanted to get over the bar that night, and so the lieutenants, orsergeants, or whatever they were, had to go along, and come back in thepilot-boat.

  When we got outside we lay to, with the pilot-boat alongside of us, andthe hold of the vessel was ransacked for the deserter. Corny openlydeclared that she hoped they wouldn't find him, and I'm sure I had apretty strong feeling that way myself. But they did find him. He waspulled out from behind some barrels, in a dark place in the hold, andhurried up on deck. We saw him, as he was forced over the side of thevessel and almost dropped into the pilot-boat, which was rising andfalling on the waves by the side of the ship. Then the officersscrambled down the side and jumped into the boat. The line was cast off,the negro oarsmen began to pull away, and the poor red-coat took hisdoleful journey back to Nassau. He must have felt pretty badly about it.I have no doubt that when he hid himself down there in that dark hold,just before the vessel started, he thought he had made a pretty surething of it, and that it would not be long before he would be a freeman, and could go where he pleased and do what he pleased in the wideUnited States. But the case was very different now. I suppose it waswrong, of course, for him to desert, and probably he was a mean sort ofa fellow to do it; but we were all very sorry to see him taken away.Corny thought that he was very likely a good man, who had been imposedupon, and that, therefore, it was right to run away. It was quitenatural for a girl to think that.

  The moment the pilot-boat left us, the "Tigris" started off in goodearnest, and went steaming along on her course. And it was not longbefore we started off, also in good earnest, for our berths. We were atired set.

  The trip back was not so pleasant as our other little voyage, when wewere coming to the Bahamas. The next day was cloudy, and the sea wasrough and choppy. The air was mild enough for us to be on deck, butthere was a high wind which made it uncomfortable. Rectus thought hecould keep on his wide straw hat, but he soon found out his mistake, andhad to get out his Scotch cap, which made him look like a very differentfellow.

  There were not very many passengers on board, as it was scarcely timefor the majority of people to leave Nassau. They generally stay untilApril, I think. Besides our party of five, there were several gentlemenand ladies from the hotel; and as we knew them all tolerably well, wehad a much more sociable time than when we came over. Still, for mypart, I should have preferred fair weather, bright skies, and plenty ofnautiluses and flying-fish.

  The "yellow-legged" party remained at Nassau. I was a little sorry forthis, too, as I liked the men pretty well, now that I knew them better.They certainly were good walkers.

  Toward noon the wind began to blow harder, and the waves ran very high.The "Tigris" rolled from side to side as if she would go over, and someof the ladies were a good deal frightened; but she always came up again,all right, no matter how far over she dipped, and so in time they gotused to it. I proved to Mrs. Chipperton that it would be impossible forthe vessel to upset, as the great weight of ballast, freight, machinery,etc., in the lower part of her would always bring her deck up again,even if she rolled entirely over on her side, which, sometimes, sheseemed as if she was going to do, but she always changed her mind justas we thought the thing was going to happen. The first mate told me thatthe reason we rolled so was because we had been obliged to take in allsail, and that the mainsail had steadied the vessel very much before thewind got so high. This was all very well, but I didn't care much to knowwhy the thing was. There are some people who think a thing's all right,if they can only tell you the reason for it.

  Before dark, we had to go below, for the captain said he didn't want anyof us to roll overboard, and, besides, the spray from the high wavesmade the deck very wet and unpleasant. None of us liked it below. Therewas no place to sit but in the long saloon, where the dining-tableswere, and after supper we all sat there and read. Mr. Chipperton had alot of novels, and we each took one. But it wasn't much fun. I couldn'tget interested in my story,--at least, not in the beginning of it. Ithink that people who want to use up time when they are travelling oughtto take what Rectus called a "begun" novel along with them. He had goton pretty well in his book while he was in Nassau, and so just took itup now and went right along.

  The lamps swung so far backward and forward above the table that wethought they would certainly spill the oil over us in one of their wildpitches; the settees by the table slid under us as the ship rolled, sothat there was no comfort, and any one who tried to walk from one placeto another had to hang on to whatever he could get hold of, or betumbled up against the tables or the wall. Some folks got sea-sick andwent to bed, but we tried to stick it out as long as we could.

  The storm grew worse and worse. Sometimes a big wave would strike theside of the steamer, just behind us, with a tremendous shock. The ladieswere always sure she had "struck something" when this happened; but whenthey found it was only water that she had struck, they were bettersatisfied. At last, things grew to be so bad that we thought we shouldhave to go to bed and spend the night holding on to the handles at theback of our berths, when, all of a sudden, there was a great change. Therolling stopped, and the vessel seemed to be steaming along almost on aneven keel. She pitched somewhat forward and aft,--that is, her bow andher stern went up and down by turns,--but we didn't mind that, as it wasso very much better than the wild rolling that had been kept up so long.

  "I wonder what this means?" said Mr. Chipperton, actually standing upwithout holding on to anything. "Can they have got into a current ofsmooth water?"

  I didn't think this was possible, but I didn't stop to make anyconjectures about it. Rectus and I ran up on the forward deck, to seehow this agreeable change had come about. The moment we got outside, wefound the wind blowing fearfully and the waves dashing as high as ever,but they were not plunging against our sides. We carefully worked ourway along to the pilot-house, and looked in. The captain was inside, andwhen he saw us he opened the door and came out. He was going to his ownroom, just back of the pilot-house, and he told us to come with him.

  He looked tired and wet, and he told us that the storm had grown so badthat he didn't think it would be right to keep on our course any longer.We were going to the north-west, and the storm was coming from thenorth-east
, and the waves and the wind dashed fair against the side ofthe vessel, making her roll and careen so that it began to be unsafe. Sohe had put her around with her head to the wind, and now she took thestorm on her bow, where she could stand it a great deal better. He putall this in a good deal of sea-language, but I tell it as I got thesense of it.

  "Did you think she would go over, Captain?" asked Rectus.

  "Oh no!" said he, "but something might have been carried away."

  He was a very pleasant man, and talked a good deal to us.

  "It's all very well to lie to, this way," he went on, "for the comfortand safety of the passengers and the ship, but I don't like it, forwe're not keeping on to our port, which is what I want to be doing."

  "Are we stopping here?" I asked.

  "Pretty much," said the captain. "All that the engines are working foris just to keep her head to the wind."

  I felt the greatest respect for the captain. Instead of telling us whythe ship rolled, he just stopped her rolling. I liked that way of doingthings. And I was sure that every one on board that I had talked towould be glad to have the vessel lie to, and make herself comfortableuntil the storm was over.

  We did not stay very long with the captain, for he wanted to take a nap,and when we went out, we stood a little while by the railing, to see thestorm. The wind nearly took our heads off, and the waves dashed right upover the bow of the ship, so that if any one had been out there, Isuppose they would have been soaked in a few minutes, if not knockeddown. But we saw two men at the wheel, in the pilot-house, steadilyholding her head to the wind, and we felt that it was all right. So weran below and reported, and then we all went to bed.

  Although there was not much of the rolling that had been so unpleasantbefore, the vessel pitched and tossed enough to make our berths,especially mine, which was the upper one, rather shaky places to restin; and I did not sleep very soundly. Sometime in the night, I wasawakened by a sound of heavy and rapid footfalls on the deck above myhead. I lay and listened for a moment, and felt glad that the deck wassteady enough for them to walk on. There soon seemed to be a good dealmore running, and as they began to drag things about, I thought that itwould be a good idea to get up and find out what was going on. If it wasanything extraordinary, I wanted to see it. Of course, I woke up Rectus,and we put on our clothes. There was now a good deal of noise on deck.

  "Perhaps we have run into some vessel and sunk her," said Rectus,opening the door, with his coat over his arm. He was in an awful hurryto see.

  "Hold up here!" I said. "Don't you go on deck in this storm without anovercoat. If there has been a collision, you can't do any good, and youneedn't hurry so. Button up warm."

  We both did that, and then we went up on deck. There was no one aft,just then, but we could see in the moonlight, which was pretty strong,although the sky was cloudy, that there was quite a crowd of menforward. We made our way in that direction as fast as we could, in theface of the wind, and when we reached the deck, just in front of thepilot-house, we looked down to the big hatchway, where the freight andbaggage were lowered down into the hold, and there we saw what was thematter.

  The ship was on fire!

  The hatchway was not open, but smoke was coming up thick and fast allaround it. A half-dozen men were around a donkey-engine that stood alittle forward of the hatch, and others were pulling at hose. Thecaptain was rushing here and there, giving orders. I did not hearanything he said. No one said anything to us. Rectus asked one of themen something, as he ran past him, but the man did not stop to answer.

  But there is no need to ask any questions. There was the smoke comingup, thicker and blacker, from the edges of the hatch.

  "Come!" said I, clutching Rectus by the arm. "Let's wake them up."

  "Don't you think they can put it out?" he asked, as we ran back.

  "Can't tell," I answered. "But we must get ready,--that's what we've gotto do."

  I am sure I did not know how we were to get ready, or what we were todo, but my main idea was that no time was to be lost in doing something.The first thing was to awaken our friends.

  We found the steward in the saloon. There was only one lamp burningthere, and the place looked dismal, but there was light enough to seethat he was very pale.

  "Don't you intend to wake up the people?" I said to him.

  "What's the good?" he said. "They'll put it out."

  "They may, and they mayn't," I answered, "and it wont hurt thepassengers to be awake."

  With this I hurried to the Chippertons' state-room--they had a doubleroom in the centre of the vessel--and knocked loudly on the door. I sawthe steward going to other doors, knocking at some and opening othersand speaking to the people inside.

  Mr. Chipperton jumped right up and opened the door. When he saw Rectusand me standing there, he must have seen in our faces that something wasthe matter, for he instantly asked:

  "What is it? A wreck?"

  I told him of the fire, and said that it might not be much, but that wethought we'd better waken him.

  "That's right," he said; "we'll be with you directly. Keep perfectlycool. Remain just where you are. You'll see us all in five minutes," andhe shut the door.

  "'KEEP PERFECTLY COOL,' SAID MR. CHIPPERTON."]

  But I did not intend to stand there. A good many men were alreadyrushing from their rooms and hurrying up the steep stairs that led fromthe rear of the saloon to the deck, and I could hear ladies calling outfrom their rooms as if they were hurrying to get ready to come out. Thestewardess, a tall colored woman, was just going to one of these ladies,who had her head out of the door. I told Rectus to run up on deck, seehow things were going on, and then to come back to the Chippertons'door. Then I ran to our room, jerked the cork life-preservers from underthe pillows, and came out into the saloon with them. This seemed tofrighten several persons, who saw me as I came from our room, and theyrushed back for their life-preservers, generally getting into the wrongroom, I think. I did not want to help to make a fuss and confusion, butI thought it would be a good deal better for us to get thelife-preservers now, than to wait. If we didn't need them, no harm wouldbe done. Some one had turned up several lamps in the saloon, so that wecould see better. But no one stopped to look much. Everybody, ladies andall,--there were not many of these,--hurried on deck. The Chippertonswere the last to make their appearance. Just as their door opened,Rectus ran up to me.

  "It's worse than ever!" he said.

  "Here!" said I, "take this life-preserver. Have you life-preservers inyour room?" I asked, quickly, of Mr. Chipperton.

  "All right," said he, "we have them on. Keep all together and come ondeck,--and remember to be perfectly cool."

  He went ahead with Mrs. Chipperton, and Rectus and I followed, one oneach side of Corny. Neither she nor her mother had yet spoken to us; butwhile we were going up the stairs, Corny turned to me, as I came upbehind her, and said:

  "Is it a real fire?"

  "Oh, yes," I answered; "but they may put it out."