The Launch Boys' Cruise in the Deerfoot

  CHAPTER XXIX

  MAROONED

  To say the least, Mike Murphy was much disquieted when the engine of the_Deerfoot_ stopped dead and the boat began drifting in the darkness, noone could say whither. Not knowing the right thing to do, he seized holdof the fly-wheel, swung it back and forth and part way round, and thensuddenly let go, as he had seen Alvin Landon do many times. Since therewas no fuel in the tank, it need not be said that this effort wasfruitless.

  "Whew!" he exclaimed at last as he straightened up; "if there wassomebody here to tell me the right thing to do I'd do the same mightyquick, but this part of my eddycation was niglicted, as me grandmithersaid when the taicher asked her if she knowed the alphabet.

  "I 'spose now that there be lots of handles which if I turned 'em theright way would start this old thing, but if I swung 'em the wrongway--as I'd be sure to do--I'd bust her b'iler. So I'll not try."

  He sat down in one of the chairs to think, and his musings ran riot, butthe end was always the same: it was utterly beyond his power to helphimself out of the dilemma.

  "I'll have to drift and drift till morning comes; then if I'm not toofur out on the ocean somebody will pick me up. I'm thinking the same isa good idee to lay low, as me cousin remarked whin he was knocked down.Some boat is likely to run into me 'cause I haven't any lights burning,and as she's going by I'll grab her--whisht! phwat's that?" he askedhimself, with a new thrill of alarm.

  The sound that had startled him was a distinct jar of the boat. At thatmoment, it was so dark he could not see beyond the flag at the bow ofthe launch. Nothing amiss was discerned in that direction, but a secondbump caused him to glance to the left, and then he received the answerto his question.

  The boat had drifted against a pile of rocks, which come down to theedge of the sea on one of the two little uninhabited masses of sand andstones, known as the White Islands. This was the northern one, oppositeFisherman Island, from which it is separated by more than a mile of thesea.

  The sudden discovery rattled Mike for the moment and caused him to do afoolish thing, which he never would have done had he taken a half minutefor reflection. His dread was that the boat would be battered to pieceson the rocks. With no thought of his own safety, he sprang from thecockpit, placed one foot on the gunwale and leaped as far as he could,his purpose being to push the craft clear. With all his strength--and hepossessed a good deal of it--he barely succeeded. He fell on his faceand knees, and had he not clutched desperately and seized a craggy pointhe would have slipped back into the water.

  What he ought to have done, as he recalled the next instant, was to usethe pole on the boat to press against the rocks and shove the launchclear. That would have been easy and effective, but it was too late nowto think of it.

  The reactive force of his body as he leaped drove the boat backperceptibly. Inasmuch as the current had swept it forward in the firstplace, the action would have been repeated but for a curious conditionwhich quickly showed itself. Had the boat struck farther south, itsreturn after being forced away would have occurred. Had it first driftedfarther north it would have cleared the islet altogether, and continuedfloating toward the lower end of Southport, but it so came about thatwhen the current regained control of the launch and shoved it westwardagain, it just cleared the northern end of the mass of rocks and wasswallowed up in the enshrouding gloom.

  Mike Murphy stumbled as near as he could to the _Deerfoot_ and staredout in the darkness. A moment after it disappeared a partial clearing ofthe clouds in front of the moon brought it dimly into sight again. Thislasted but a brief interval when it vanished for good.

  "Good-by," called the lad. "I did the best fur ye that I knowed, andnow ye must take care of yersilf, which the same has to be done by MikeMurphy."

  The youth was a philosopher, and with his rugged health and naturallybuoyant spirits he took the rosiest view he could of his situation. Itwas clear that in more than one respect he was better off on this massof rocks and sand than in the launch--that is, during the darkness. Solong as he was afloat with no lights burning, he was in great danger ofbeing run down by some larger boat. In the event of such a calamity hewas liable to be caught in a crush where his life preserver could notsave him.

  But no such fate could overtake the lad while on the islet. The_Mauretania_ or _Lusitania_ or even the _Olympic_ could not run intothat collection of rocks and sand without getting the worst of it.

  Now, as has been shown, Mike was really safer where he had landed, forno harm could come to him on White Island, yet his situation wasanything but pleasant. He was marooned and could not leave his oceanprison without help. There was little hope of anything of the kind solong as night remained with him, but the morrow ought to bring rescue.Until then he must content himself as best he could.

  But he was not the one to sit down with folded hands. Nature had giftedhim with a powerful voice and he fancied he might turn it to use. Atwinkling light gliding or bobbing over the water here and there showedthat not all the world was asleep. His own experience told him he hadneighbors. Accordingly he lifted up his voice and shouted with might andmain:

  "Hilp! hilp! somebody come to me hilp!"

  He directed the tones toward different points of the compass, but a halfhour passed, during which perforce he often rested, without any sign ofsuccess. And then he was thrilled by what resembled a lantern, twinklingfrom the direction of the Hypocrites to the westward. He renewed hiscall, and to add force to it, waved his arms and danced up and down onthe rock to whose top he had climbed, though of course such antics wereof no help.

  Fifteen minutes removed all doubt. The light, sinking and falling withthe moderate waves, was drawing nearer. Although his voice had grownhusky, he spared it not.

  "Right this way! Don't be afeard! I won't hurt ye! Hurry up, yespalpeens!"

  A hundred yards or so off--too far for him to see the boat or itsoccupants--the rowers paused. From out the gloom came the call:

  "Hello there! what's the matter?"

  "I'm shipwrecked! Come and take me off!"

  The words must have sounded suspicious to those for whom they wereintended.

  "How came you to be cast away?"

  "I landed here awhile ago and when I warn't looking me owld boat slippedfrom me, bad cess to her!"

  This was less satisfactory to the two men, who were probably robbinglobster pots. They talked together for a few minutes, though the anxiouslistener could not hear what they said.

  "What boat was it?" asked the one who acted as spokesman.

  "The _Deerfut_--a motor boat that b'longs to me friend Alvin Landon,whose dad owns half the city of New York. He'll give ye a milliondollars fur taking care of Mike Murphy, which is mesilf."

  This announcement had an altogether different effect from what the youthexpected.

  "If you're worth that much we'll let some one else earn the money. Goodnight!"

  It was an act of wanton cruelty, but it is a fact none the less that thecouple closed their ears to the appeal and rowed away in the darkness.When certain that they were deserting him Mike changed the tenor of hisprayer and urged them to come back long enough to receive thechastisement he was aching to give them.

  It was a bitter disappointment, but the lad felt he had more cause to begrateful to heaven that he had to repine.

  "I may as well make up me mind to stay here a bit, as Jim O'Toole saidwhin he begun his ten years sintence in jail. The weather is mild, andthough it looks like rain I don't think it will come yet awhile. I'llsaak me couch and go to sleep."

  The danger of bruises from a fall prevented his groping long forshelter. Exposed to the open sea the islet was swept by a gentle breezewhich brought the ocean's coolness with it. After much care andpatience, he found a place where he was quite well screened. Passing hishands over the rough surface, he said with a touch of his waggishnesswhich seemed never to leave him:

  "This is softer than anywhere ilse, as me mother said whin she took herhands out of the dough and laid 'em o
n me head."

  Mike never forgot his prayers, and when he lay down he was in a thankfulframe of mind despite the trying experiences through which he hadpassed. Quite soon he was sleeping as profoundly as if in his bed athome. Such is the reward of good habits and right living.

  The night must have been well along when he sank into unconsciousness.That his tired body needed the rest was proved by the fact that he didnot open his eyes until half the next day was past. He felt stiff andcramped from lying so long on his hard couch, and it was several minutesbefore he recalled all the events of the preceding day and night.

  Climbing to the top of the highest rock he gazed out over the waters. Hefelt no concern for the _Deerfoot_, which had played him the shabbytrick, for if he saw it he could expect nothing from it. His mostpoignant consciousness was that he never was so hungry in his life. Hecould not recall that he had ever gone without food so long, and hiscraving gave him more anxiety than did the future.

  In whichever direction he turned his gaze he saw small boats, schooners,brigs, steamers and various kinds of vessels, most of them too far offfor him to hope to attract their attention. The nearest was a schooner,more than a mile away and gliding northward. It so happened that muchthe larger number of craft were heading outward. Mike shrewdlyreflected:

  "If they pick me up they'll niver turn round to take me home, but willspeed away to the ither side of the world. I must catch one of 'emthat's coming in, so he won't lose time in giving me a lift."

  He picked his way to the southern end of the islet, where a broad sweepof water separated him from the other bit of land, and gazed out overthe vast Atlantic which swept from horizon to horizon.

  "I would display a flag of distriss on the top of a pole, if it warn'tfur two raisons. The first is I haven't any pole to erict on theserocks, and the ither is that I'd have to use me own clothes for theflag, which the same would be apt to drive away all hilp."

  Mike Murphy cut a strange figure, dancing, shouting, swinging his armsand waving his cap, but sad to say not a solitary person seemed to seehim, or else he not did think it worth while to give further attentionto the marooned youth.

  "It looks loike it will be a failure, as Tim Ryan said whin he tried tothrow the prize bull over a stone wall."

  Accordingly, Mike returned to the upper end of the islet to learnwhether any hope lay in that direction. His growing fear was that he wasin danger of starving to death.

  "Anither night will doot," he said, despairing for the moment--"PHWAT!"

  The first look northward showed him the _Deerfoot_, speeding past barelya fourth of a mile distant. Had he not spent so much time at the otherend of his refuge he would have observed her long before.

  He stood for a spell unable to believe the evidence of his senses. Then,when the glorious truth burst upon him, he uttered the words that havealready been recorded.