Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast

  XXIV ~ DOWN A GALLOPING SEA

  I saddled me an Arab steed and saddled her another, And off we rode together just like sister and like brother, Singing, "Blow ye winds in the morning! Blow ye winds, hi ho! Brush away the morning dew, Blow ye winds, hi ho!" --Blew Ye Winds.

  With anxiety that was almost despairing Mayo looked up at the shrouds,stays, and halyards, which were set like nets to right and left andoverhead.

  A big roller tumbled inboard and filled the space forward of the breakof the main-deck. The swirling water touched the sides of the long-boatand then receded when the stricken schooner struggled up from thewelter. A scuttle-butt was torn from its lashings and went by the board,and other flotsam followed it.

  Mayo found that spectacle encouraging. But the longboat sat high in itschocks; when it did float it might be too late.

  Another wave roared past, and the long-boat quivered. Then Mayo took achance without reckoning on consequences. He made a double turn of thecable around his forearm and leaped out of the boat and stood on deck,his shoulder against the stem. The next wave washed him to his waist,tore at him, beat him against the long-boat's shoe, but he clung fastand lifted and pushed with all his strength.

  That push did it!

  The boat needed just that impetus to free her from the chocks. Shelifted and rushed stern foremost to lee, and the young man dragged afterher.

  When the boat dipped and halted in a hollow of the sea he clutchedthe bow and clambered in. Tugging mightily, he managed to dump thesea-anchor over.

  The next wave caught her on the quarter and slopped a barrel of waterinto her. But she kept right side up, and in a few moments the cablestraightened and she rode head into the tumult of the ocean; thesea-anchor was dragging and performing its service.

  Mayo was obliged to kick the two men with considerable heartiness beforehe could stir them to bailing with the buckets. The bedraggled cat fledto the shelter of the girl's arms. Mayo struggled aft, in order to takehis weight from the bow of the boat, and when he sat down beside thegirl she was "mothering" the animal.

  "It's coming in faster than I can throw it out!" wailed Bradish.

  "Bail faster, then! Bail or drown!"

  "She's leaking," announced the cook. "She has been on deck so long shehas got all dried out."

  "Bail or drown!" repeated Mayo. To the girl he said: "This seems to bethe only way of getting work out of cowards. They'll have to do it. I'mabout done for."

  The waves were lifting and dropping them in dizzying fashion. There wassuddenly a more violent tossing of the water.

  "That's the old packet! She went under then!" Mayo explained. "Thank theLord we are out of her clutches! I was afraid we were stuck there."

  "Is there any hope for us now?" she inquired.

  "I don't know. If the boat stays afloat and the wind doesn't haul andknock this sea crossways, if somebody sees us in the morning, if wedon't get rolled onto the coast in the breakers and--" He did notfinish.

  "It seems that a lot of things can happen at sea," she suggested.

  "That fact has been proved to me in the past few weeks."

  "You mean in the past few hours, don't you?"

  "Miss Marston, what has happened on that schooner is a part of thebusiness, and a sailor must take it as it comes along. I wish nothingworse had happened to me than what's happening now."

  She made no reply.

  "But no matter about it," he said, curtly.

  The two men, kneeling amidships, clutching a thwart and bailing withtheir free hands, toiled away; even Bradish had wakened to the fact thathe was working for his own salvation.

  In the obscurity the waves which rose ahead seemed like mountains toppedwith snow. Hollows and hills of water swept past on their right andleft. But the crests of the waves were not breaking, and this fact meantrespite from immediate danger.

  "I'm sorry it was all left to you to do," ventured the girl, breakinga long silence. "I thought Ralph had more man in him," she added,bitterly. "I feel that he ought to apologize to you for--for severalthings."

  He, on his part, did not reply to that. He was afraid that she intendedto draw him into argument or explanation. Just what he would be able tosay to her on that topic was not clear to him.

  "It seems as if years had gone by instead of hours. It seems as if Ihad lived half a life since I left home. It seems as if I had changedmy nature and had grown up to see things in a different light. It is allvery strange to me."

  He did not know whether she were talking to herself or to him. He didnot offer comment.

  There was a long period of silence. The sound of rushing waters filled,that silence and made their conversation audible only to themselves whenthey talked.

  "I don't understand how you happened to be on that schooner--as--as youwere," she said, hesitating.

  "I didn't rig myself out this way to play any practical jokes, MissMarston," he returned, bitterly.

  "I would like to know how it all happened--your side of it."

  "I have talked too much already."

  There was no more conversation for a long time. He wondered how she hadmustered courage to talk at all. They were in a predicament to try thecourage of even a seasoned seaman. In the night, tossed by that wildsea, drifting they knew not where, she had apparently disregardeddanger. He asked himself if she had not merely exhibited feminineignorance of what their situation meant. He had often seen cases whereapparent bravado was based on such ignorance.

  "I must say that you told me at least one truth a while ago--you are nota coward," he said at last.

  She was comforting the wretched cat. "But I am miserably frightened,"she admitted. "I don't dare to think about the thing. I don't dareto look at the waves. I talked to you so as to take my mind off mytroubles. I didn't mean to be prying."

  "I'll tell you what has been done to me," he blurted. "Hearingsomebody's troubles may take your mind off your own."

  While the two men amidships bailed doggedly and weariedly, he told hisstory as briefly as he could. The gray dawn showed her face to him aftera time, and he was peculiarly comforted by the sympathy he saw there. Hedid not communicate to her any suspicions he may have entertained. Withsailor directness he related how he had hoped, and how all had beensnatched away from him. But on one topic the mouths of both seemed to besealed!

  After a time Bradish and the cook were enabled to rest from the work ofbailing. The planks of the boat swelled and the leak was stopped.

  "You'd better crawl aft here and sit beside Miss Marston," advised Mayo."Be careful how you move."

  He passed Bradish and took the latter's place with the cook, and felta sense of relief; he had feared that the one, the dreaded topic wouldforce itself upon him.

  "I don't see no sense in prolonging all this agony," averred hisdespondent companion. "We ain't ever going to get out of this alive.We're drifting in on the coast, and you know what that means."

  "You may jump overboard any time you see fit," said the skipper of thecraft. "I don't need you any longer for bailing!"

  "If that's the way you feel about it, you won't get rid of me so easy,"declared the cook, malevolence in his single eye.

  Mayo noticed, with some surprise, that after the two had exchanged a fewwords there was silence between Bradish and the girl. The New-Yorker waspale and trembling, and his jaw still sagged, and he threw glances toright and left as the surges galloped under them. He was plainly andwholly occupied with his fears.

  When day came at last without rain, but with heavy skies, in whichmasses of vapor dragged, Mayo began eager search of the sea. He hadno way of determining their whereabouts; he hoped they were far enoughoff-shore to be in the track of traffic. However, he could see no sail,no encouraging trail of smoke. But after a time he did behold somethingwhich was not encouraging. He stood up and balanced himself and gazedwestward, in the direction in which they were drifting; every now andthen a lifting wave enabled him to command a wi
de expanse of the sea.

  He saw a white ribbon of foam that stretched its way north and southinto the obscurity of the mists. He did not report this finding at once.He looked at his companions and pondered.

  "I think you have something to say to me," suggested the girl.

  "I suppose I ought to say it. I've been wondering just how it ought tobe said. It's not pleasant news."

  "I am prepared to hear anything, Captain Mayo. Nothing matters a greatdeal just now."

  "We are being driven on to the coast. I don't know whether it's theDelaware or the New Jersey coast. It doesn't make much difference. Thebreakers are just as bad in one place as in the other."

  "Why don't you anchor this boat? Are you going to let it go ashore andbe wrecked?" asked Bradish, with anger that was childish.

  "The anchor seems to have been overlooked when we started on this littleexcursion. As I remember it, there was some hurry and bustle," returnedMayo, dryly.

  "Why didn't you remember it? You got us into this scrape. You slammedand bossed everybody around. You didn't give anybody else a chance tothink. You call yourself a sailor! You're a devil of a sailor to comeoff without an anchor."

  "I suppose so," admitted Mayo.

  "And there wasn't any sense, in coming off in this little boat. We oughtto have stayed on the schooner."

  "Ralph!" protested the girl. "Have you completely lost your mind? Don'tyou know that the schooner sank almost the minute we left it?"

  "Mr. Bradish's mind was very much occupied at the time," said CaptainMayo.

  "I don't believe the schooner sank. What does a girl know about suchthings? That fellow got scared, that's the trouble. There isn't anysense in leaving a big boat in a storm. We would have been taken offbefore this. We would have been all right. This is what comes of lettinga fool boss you around when he is scared," he raved.

  "You are the fool!" she cried, with passion. "Captain Mayo saved us."

  "Saved us from what? Here we are going into the breakers--and he saysso--and there's no anchor on here. He took everything out of my hands.Now why doesn't he do something?"

  "Don't pay any attention to him," she pleaded.

  "We are going to be drowned! You can't deny it, can you? We're going todie!" He pulled a trembling hand from between his knees, where he hadheld both hands pinched in order to steady them. He shook his fist atMayo. "Own up, now. We're going to die, aren't we?"

  "I think it's right to tell the truth at this stage," said Mayo, insteady tones. "We're not children. Yonder is a beach with sand-reefs andbreakers, and when we strike the sand this boat will go over and overand we shall be tossed out. The waves will throw us up and haul us backlike a cat playing with mice. And we stand about the same chance asmice."

  "And that's the best you can do for us--and you call yourself a sailor!"whined Bradish.

  "I'm only a poor chap who has done his best as it came to his hand todo," said the young man, seeking the girl's eyes with his.

  She gazed at him for a moment and then put both hands to her face andbegan to sob.

  "It's a hard thing to face, but we'd better understand the truth and beas brave as we can," said Mayo, gently.

  "For myself I ain't a mite surprised," averred the cook. "I had myhunch! I was resigned. But my plans was interfered with. I wanted to godown in good, deep, green, clean water like a sailor ought to. And nowI'm going to get mauled into the sand and have a painful death."

  "Shut up!" barked Mayo.

  The girl was trembling, and he feared collapse.

  Bradish began to blubber. "I'm not prepared to die," he protested.

  Mayo studied his passenger for some time, wrinkling his brows. "Bradish,listen to me a moment!"

  The New-Yorker gave him as much attention as terror and grief permitted.

  "There isn't much we can do just now to fix up our general earthlyaffairs. But we may as well clean the slate between us two. That willhelp our consciences a little. I haven't any quarrel with you any more.We won't be mushy about it. But let's cross it off."

  "It's all over," mourned Bradish. "So what's the use of bearinggrudges?"

  "I suppose it's true that the court has indicted me for manslaughter.Bradish, tell me, man to man, whether I've got to go into those breakerswith that on my conscience!"

  "I don't know what you mean."

  "Yes, you do! You know whether those men of the schooner _Warren_ weredrowned by any criminal mistake of mine or not!"

  Bradish did not speak.

  "You wouldn't have said as much to Captain Downs if you hadn't knownsomething," insisted the victim of the plot.

  "It was only what Burkett let drop when he came after some money. Isuppose he thought it was safe to talk to me. But what's the good of mygiving you guesswork? I don't know anything definite. I don't understandsailor matters."

  "Bradish, what Burkett said--was it something about the compass--aboutputting a job over on me by monkeying with the compass?"

  "It was something like that." His tone exhibited indifference; itwas evident that he was more occupied with his terror than with hisconfession.

  "Didn't Burkett say something about a magnet?"

  "He got off some kind of a joke about Fogg in the pilot-house andfog outside--but that the Fogg inside did the business. And he saidsomething about Fogg's iron wishbone."

  "So that was the way it was done--and done by the general manager of theline!" cried Mayo. "The general manager himself! It's no wonder I havesmashed that suspicion between the eyes every time it bobbed up! Isuspected--but I didn't dare to suspect! Is that some of your highfinance, Bradish?"

  "No, it isn't," declared the New-Yorker, with heat. "It's anunderstrapper like Fogg going ahead and producing results, so he callsit. The big men never bother with the details."

  "The details! Taking away from me all I have worked for--my reputationas a master, my papers, my standing--my liberty. By the gods, I'm goingto live! I'm going through those breakers! I'll face that gang like aman who has fought his way back from hell," raged the victim.

  "This--this was none of my father's business! It could not have been,"expostulated Miss Marston.

  "Your father never knows anything about the details of Fogg'soperations," declared Bradish.

  "He ought to know," insisted the maddened scapegoat. "He gives off hisorders, doesn't he? He sits in the middle of the web. What if he didknow how Fogg was operating?"

  "Probably wouldn't stand for it! But he doesn't know. And the AngelGabriel himself wouldn't get a chance to tell him!" declared the clerk.

  "A put-up job, then, is it--and all called high finance!" jeered Mayo.

  "High finance isn't to blame for tricks the field-workers put outso that they can earn their money quick and easy. What's the good ofpestering me with questions at this awful time? I'm going to die! I'mgoing to die!" he wailed.

  Miss Marston slid from the seat to her knees, in order that she mightbe able to reach her hand to Mayo. "Will you let this handclasp tellyou all I feel about it--all your trouble, all your brave work in thisterrible time? I am so frightened, Captain Mayo! But I'm going to keepmy eyes on you--and I'll be ashamed to show you how frightened I am."

  He returned the fervent clasp of her fingers with gentle pressure andreassuring smile. "Honestly, I feel too ugly to die just now. Let's keepon hoping."

  But when he stood up and beheld the white mountains of water betweentheir little boat and the shore, and realized what would happen whenthey were in that savage tumult, with the undertow dragging and thesurges lashing, he felt no hope within himself.

  From the appearance of the coast he could not determine their probablelocation. The land was barren and sandy. There seemed to be no inlet.As far as he could see the line of frothing white was unbroken. Thesea foamed across broad shallows, where no boat could possibly remainupright and no human being could hope to live.

  Nevertheless, he remained standing and peered under his hand, resolvedto be alert till the last, determined to grasp any opport
unity.

  All at once he beheld certain black lines in perpendicular silhouetteagainst the foam. At first he was not certain just what they could be,and he observed them narrowly as the boat tossed on its way.

  At last their identity was revealed. They were weir-stakes. The weiritself was evidently dismantled. Such stakes as remained were set somedistance from one another, like fence-posts located irregularly.

  He made hasty observation of bearings as the boat drifted, and wascertain that the sea would carry them down past the stakes. How nearthey would pass depended on the vagary of the waves and the tide. Herealized that three men, even if they were able seamen, could do littlein the way of rowing or guiding the longboat in the welter of that sea,now surging madly over the shoals. He knew that there was not much waterunder the keel, for the ocean was turbid with swirling sand, and thewaves were more mountainous, heaped high by the friction of the water onthe bottom. Every now and then the crest of a roller flaunted a bannerof bursting spray, showing breakers near at hand.

  Mayo hurried to the bow of the boat and pulled free a long stretch ofcable. He made a bowline slip-knot, opened a noose as large as he couldhandle, coiled the rest of the cable carefully, and poised himself on athwart.

  "What now?" asked the cook.

  "No matter," returned Mayo. His project was such a gamble that he didnot care to canvass it in advance.

  The nearer they drove to the stakes the more unattainable those objectsseemed. They projected high above the water.

  The cook perceived them and got up on his knees and squinted. "Huh!" hesniffed. "You'll never make it. It can't be done!"

  In his fierce anxiety Mayo heaved his noose too soon, and it fell short.He dragged in the cable with all his quickness and strength and threwthe noose again. The rope hit the stake three-quarters of the way up andfell into the sea.

  "It needs a cowboy for that work," muttered the cook.

  Mayo recovered his noose and poised himself again.

  In the shallows where they were the boat which bore him became averitable bucking bronco. It was flung high, it swooped down into thehollows. He made a desperate try for the next stake in line. The noosecaught, and he snubbed quickly. The top of the stake came away with adull crack of rotten wood when the next wave lifted the boat.

  Mayo pulled in his rope hand over hand with frantic haste. Hewas obliged to free the broken stake from the noose and pull hisextemporized lasso into position again. He made a wider noose. Hisfailure had taught a point or two. He waited till the boat was on thetop of a wave. He curbed his desperate impatience, set his teeth, andwhirled the noose about his head in a widening circle. Then he cast justas the boat began to drop. The rope encircled the stake, dropped to thewater, and he paid out all his free cable so that a good length of theheavy rope might lie in the water and form a makeshift bridle. When hesnubbed carefully the noose drew close around the stake, and the latterheld. The waves which rode under them were terrific, and Mayo's heartcame into his mouth every time a tug and shock indicated that the ropehad come taut.

  However, after five minutes of anxious waiting, kneeling in the bow, hiseyes on the cable, he found his courage rising and his hopes glowing.

  "Does it mean--" gasped the girl, when he turned and looked at her.

  "I don't know just what it will mean in the end, Miss Marston," hesaid, with emotion. "But it's a reprieve while that rope holds."

  Bradish sat clutching the gunwale with both hands, staring over hisshoulder at the waters frothing and roaring on the shore. The girlglanced at him occasionally with a certain wonderment in her expression.It seemed to Mayo that she was trying to assure herself that Bradish wassome person whom she knew. But she did not appear to have much successin making him seem real. She spoke to him once or twice in an undertone,but he did not answer. Then she turned her back on him.

  Suddenly Mayo leaped up and shouted.

  A man was running along the sandy crest of a low hill near the beach. Hedisappeared in a little structure that was no larger than a sentry-box.

  "There's a coast-guard patrol from the life-saving station. There mustbe one somewhere along here!"

  The man rushed out and flourished his arms.

  "He has telephoned," explained Mayo. "Those are the boys! There's hopefor us!"

  There was more than hope--there was rescue after some hours of drearyand anxious waiting.

  The life-boat came frothing down the sea from the distant inlet, andthey were lifted on board by strong arms.

  And then Alma Marston gave Mayo the strangest look he had ever receivedfrom a woman's eyes. But her lips grew white and her eyes closed, andshe lapsed into unconsciousness while he folded a blanket about her.

  "You must have had quite a job of it, managing a woman through thisscrape," suggested the captain of the crew.

  "It's just the other way," declared Mayo. "I'm giving her credit forsaving the whole of us."

  "How's that?"

  "I might find it a little hard to make you understand, captain. Let itstand as I have said it."