CHAPTER X.
THE DERELICT.
"Carl!"
It was Dick's voice and Carl was vaguely aware that his comrade wassplashing toward him through the water in the boat.
"Goot-py, Tick," wailed Carl. "Dis iss der last, und ve vas a goupleoof goners! Led me take holt oof your hant as ve go down. Gompany vasgoot ad a dime like dose."
"We're not going to Jones, matey, at least not right away. We've struckagainst a wreck of some kind and by luck I've grabbed a rope that wastrailing overboard. Are you able to climb?"
"I ain'd aple, und I don'd vant to climb. I haf gifen oop, so I mighdtschust as vell go down as anyt'ing else."
Dick muttered impatiently, grabbed Carl and began tying the rope abouthis waist.
"Stay here," said he, "and I'll try and get you up. You'll have to helpyourself a little, though."
Carl was vaguely conscious that Dick had disappeared somewhere. A fewminutes later the whaleboat rolled over, was carried away, and Carlwas left floundering in the water. Again he was sure he had reachedthe end, but again he found himself mistaken. There came a tug at therope and Carl was hurled with stunning force against something big andheavy. Clutching the rope with his hands, he braced his feet againstthe object against which he had struck, and, after a fashion, startedaloft. The pull on the rope helped him, and he finally floundered overa barrier, dropped on a flat surface and his wits slipped away from him.
He was utterly spent, and his unconsciousness was caused by sleeprather than by the blow he had received. When he opened his eyes, hefound that it was morning, that the sun was shining, and that Dick wason his knees beside him, briskly shaking him.
"Vere ve vas, anyvay?" queried Carl, sitting up and peering around.
He was under the lee of a little house. Slippery planks, that heavedand rolled, were beneath him, and he could see the jagged stumps of twomasts in the distance. A raffle of tangled rope lay near him.
"We're on a derelict," reported Dick.
"Vat iss a terelick?"
"It's a wreck that failed to go to the bottom. Having a cargo thatfloats, it stays on the surface, a menace to every craft that happensto be in its vicinity."
"T'anks. Iss preakfast retty, Tick?"
"We'll have to find something for breakfast before we can get it ready.It was a stroke of luck that laid us aboard the derelict. We smashedinto her, in the dark, and it couldn't have happened once in a thousandtimes. Fortune has taken a turn with us."
Carl got up unsteadily, leaned against the side of the house behind himand looked over the cheerless prospect.
"Meppy fortune has dook some durns," he muttered, "aber she ditn'tshtrain herseluf any. Vat sort oof a terelick iss dis?"
"She's a brig."
"Vat's a prig?"
"A two-masted, square-rigged vessel. Both masts are gone."
"Yah, I see dot."
"This is the galley. Under the poop, over there, is the after cabin;forward of us is the fo'c'sle."
"Vere iss der pantry? Led's try und findt a cupboardt or somet'ing veredere iss a biece to eat. I'm so hungry, Tick, dot I don'd know vere Ivas ad."
The door of the galley was closed and battened with a tarpaulin.
"The crew of the brig," said Dick, as he removed the tarpaulin, "didwhat they could to keep the water out. When the sticks went out of her,though, they had to quit."
The galley door was unlocked, and Dick threw it open. An odor came outto them that was far from pleasant, but they pushed into the littleroom and looked around.
There was a stove, serviceable although a bit rusty, and a number ofpots and pans in racks. In a bin, in one corner, was a small supplyof firewood. There was also a swinging cupboard, and in this the boysfound a tin of ground coffee, a small can of brown sugar and a piece ofsalt pork that did not look any too fresh.
"Oof ve hat vater," remarked Carl, "ve could make some coffee."
"I'll hunt for the tanks and try to get some water," said Dick. "Youget busy with a fire, Carl. There's a box of matches in the cupboard."
Dick took one of the kettles and left the galley. He was gone somefifteen or twenty minutes, and during that time Carl had got a firegoing. At first the draft was not good, and Carl investigated and foundthat the stove-pipe had been stuffed with oakum to keep out the water.When the oakum was removed the fire burned finely.
Dick, highly delighted, came back with the water.
"There's a full tank," said he, "and I believe we're going to be a lotbetter off than we supposed."
"I know I vill," chirruped Carl, "afder I ged on der outside oofsomeding to eat."
"When that's done, matey, we'll go on an exploring expedition, and seewhat we can find."
They took their coffee out of tin cups and ate their salt pork off oftin plates. Enough knives and forks were found to serve their purpose,and hot food put them both in better spirits.
"I vonder vat Matt is doing on der _Grambus_?" remarked Carl.
"More than likely, mate," answered Dick, "he thinks we're on thesteamer."
"Vich means dot der supmarine vill follow der shdeamer to ged us off.Vell, I ped you dot Matt iss a goot vays off, py now, und ven vill vesee him nexdt?"
"Ask me something easy! But we'll see him again, one of these days. Assoon as he finds out that we broke adrift from the fruiter, he'll comelooking for us."
"Und der Gulf of Mexico iss so pig a blace dot he vill look a long dimepefore he findts der terelick! Vere iss der valepoat? Meppy ve coulduse her und go py Florida, hey?"
"We can't do that. The whaleboat was damaged, and she either went downor drifted off from the wreck during the night."
"Iss dere some odder poats mit der wreck?"
"No. Captain and crew must have used them when they left."
"Den ve got to shday mit der terelick?"
"That's the sizing I give the outlook, Carl. However, we may drop inwith some ship and be taken off. That's more than possible, I shouldsay."
Having finished their meal, the boys got up and left the galley. Theyfirst looked into the fo'c'sle hatch. Like the galley door, it had beenbattened down, and a strong, disagreeable odor was wafted up to them.The bunks were in disorder, and Dick opened the deadlights in order tolet the air blow through and sweeten up the place.
Off the fo'c'sle was a small room which had evidently been set asidefor the carpenter. At any rate, it contained a small chest of tools.
"Bully!" cried Dick, taking an axe from the chest. "We can clear awaythe raffle and take more comfort on the wreck. If we could rig a jurymast and spread a sail, perhaps we could take this boat into NewOrleans. There'd be a lot of salvage, perhaps."
"Vat's salfage?"
"That's what people get for picking up deserted ships and taking theminto port. If the cargo is valuable, the salvage will run pretty heavy."
As they left the fo'c'sle and walked aft, they passed the side of theship against which they had bumped the night before. Several ropes,from the tangle of cordage on the deck, lay over the side, some of themloose and trailing in the water, and others attached to broken yards.
"We were lucky to have slammed into the ship at just that point,"observed Dick. "There were plenty of ropes for us to get hold of, andif I hadn't grabbed that rope, last night, we'd have gone under, sureas fate." He dropped his axe. "We'll leave that here, for now," he wenton, "while we go aft and continue looking around."
They climbed the steps leading to the poop deck. The cabin roof roseout of the deck, and there was a row of little windows around the topof the cabin wall.
In the stern of the brig, directly back of the cabin, was thecharthouse. This room was quite commodious and was furnished withheavy glass windows that had resisted the fury of the storm that had,in other ways, damaged the brig so heavily. There were two bunks inthe charthouse, a deep locker, and a table. The air inside was dampand heavy, but by leaving the door open and opening the windows theatmosphere soon cleared.
"Here iss a goot blace to shleep, anyvays," r
emarked Carl, with a gooddeal of satisfaction. "Oof ve can findt a lod oof grup, den I bed youve ged along finer as silk. Oof id vasn't for Matt, I couldn't care oofve floated to China."
"We're not going to leave the gulf, matey," averred Dick, decidedly."We're going to get out of this fix as soon as we can."
"Yah, meppy dot vas pedder," agreed Carl. "Vat's der name oof dis poat?All poats haf names, don'd dey?"
"We'll try and find out," said Dick.
Leaving the charthouse, he lowered himself by the rope of one of thedavits--from which a dory had presumably been suspended--and read thelettering on the brig's stern.
He gave a yell of surprise and swung himself back on deck in a gooddeal of excitement.
"Vat's der madder?" asked Carl.
"Do you remember, Carl," answered Dick, "that Captain Sixty said,that time we talked with him in the steamer's cabin, that he had beenskipper of a brig called the _Dolphin_?"
"Yah, I rememper dot."
"Well, this is the _Dolphin_!"
Carl stared blankly into the gleaming eyes of Dick Ferral, wonderingwhy the fact should put Dick in such a taking as it seemed to have done.