CHAPTER XI.
YACHTING ONLY.
Some hearts might have yearned to have been on board during the fishingin Hay Bay, and to have enjoyed those evenings when the yacht anchoredin the twilight calm, beside rocky shores, or near waving banks of sedgeand rushes, where the whip-poor-will and bull frog supplied all thenecessary music. I abandon all that occurred at pretty Picton andBelleville, but I must not forget the little episode that happened oneevening near Indian Point as the yacht was on her way to Kingston. Afresh breeze had been blowing during the afternoon, and the two reefs,taken in for comfort's sake, still remained in the mainsail, as no oneafter dinner felt equal to the exertion of shaking them out. The windhad almost died away as they approached Indian Point, and not far off,on the other side of this long, narrow arm of the sea called the Bay ofQuinte, lay MacDonald's Cove, a snug little place for anchorage in anykind of weather. A heavy bank of clouds was rapidly rising over thehills in the west, and hastening up the sky to extinguish the brightmoon that had been making a fairy landscape of the bay and itssurroundings, and the barometer was falling rapidly.
This condition of affairs Jack reported to Charley, who was below withseveral others having a little game in which the word "ante" seemed tobe used sometimes in a tone of reproach. Charles answered gayly, withoutlooking away from the game, that Jack had better get the yacht into theCove while there was wind to take her there, and Jack, who observed thathe was "seeing" and "raising" an antagonist for the fifth time on a pairof fours, thought a man should not be disturbed at such a time, and wenton deck to shake out the reefs so as to drift into the Cove, ifpossible, before the storm came on. But when in the middle of the baythe wind gave out entirely. For half an hour the Ideal lay becalmed andmotionless. Oilskin suits and sou'westers were donned. Now fringes ofwhitish scud, torn from the driving clouds, could be seen flying pastthe bleared moon, and it seemed in the increasing darkness, while theywere waiting for the tumult, as if the shores around contracted, so asto give the yacht no space for movement. Jack took the compass bearingsof the lighthouse, expecting soon to be in total darkness, and he hadboth anchors prepared for instant use. The sails had been close-reefed,but after being reefed they were lowered again so as to present nothingbut bare poles to the squall. The darkness came on and grew intense.Between the rapidly increasing peals of thunder the squall could beheard approaching, moaning over the hills in the west and down the bayas if ravening for prey, while the lightning seemed to take a savagedelight in spearing the distant cliffs which, in the flashes, werebeautifully outlined in silhouette against an electric atmosphere. Stillthe yacht lay motionless in the dead air difficult to breathe andoppressive; and still Charley continued to "raise" and get "raised" inthe cheerfully lighted cabin, whence the laughter and the talk of thegame mingled strangely, in the ears of those on deck, with the sounds ofthe coming tempest. Margaret, with her head out of the companion-way,watched the scene with a nervousness that impending electrical stormsoppressed her with. Her quick eyes soon caught sight of something on thewater, not far off. A mystic line of white could be seen coming alongthe surface. She asked what it was at a moment when the deadness andblackness of the air seemed appalling, and the ear was filled withstrange swishing sounds. She never heard any answer. Another instant andthe yacht heeled over almost to the rail in that line of white water,which the whips of the tornado had lashed into spume. Blinding sheets ofspray, picked up by the wind from the surface of water, flew over thoseon deck, and instantly the lee scuppers were gushing with the rain andspray which deluged the decks. Word was carried forward by a messengerfrom the wheel to hoist a bit of headsail, and when this wasimmediately done the yacht paid off before the squall, running easterly,with all the furies after her. The darkness was so great that it wasimpossible to see one's hand close to one's eyes. The thunderclaps nearat hand were rendered more terrific by the echoes from the hills, andonly while the lightning clothed the vessel in a spectral glare couldthey see one another. Still the yacht sped on, while Jack jealouslywatched the binnacle where the only guide was to be found. The IndianPoint light, though not far off, was completely blotted out by the rain,which seemed to fall in solid masses, and even the lightning failed toindicate the shores or otherwise reveal their position.
A wild career, such as they were now pursuing, must end somewhere, andin the narrow rock-bound locality they were flying through, the chanceof keeping to the proper channel entirely by compass and chart did notby any means amount to a certainty. Nor was anchoring in the middle ofthe highway to be thought of, especially as some trading vessels wereknown to be in the vicinity. The chance of being cut down by them wastoo great. Jack felt that an error now might cause the loss of theyacht. After calculating a variation of the compass in these parts, hedecided to run before the gale for a while and keep in the channel ifpossible--hoping for a lull in the downfall of rain, so that hiswhereabouts could be discovered.
A high chopping sea was driving the yacht on, while she scudded underbare poles before the gale, and Jack had been for some little timeendeavoring to estimate their rate of speed when the deluge seemed toabate partly and the glimmer of a light could be seen to the southward.A sailor called out "There's Indian Point light." If it had been thelight he mentioned they would have had all they wanted. Jack fearedthey had run past it, but, to make sure, he asked the sailors theiropinion. They all said they were certain it was Indian Point light. Oneof them declared he had seen the lighthouse itself in one of theflashes. So Jack had the peak of the mainsail partly hoisted and theydrew around to the southward, so as to anchor under the lee of thelighthouse point. As the yacht came round sideways to the wind she laydown to it and moved slowly and heavily through the short angry seasthat, hitting the side, threw spray all over her. Jack was feeling hisway carefully and slowly through the inky blackness of the night withthe lead-line going to show the depth of the water, when the lookout onthe bowsprit-end, after they had proceeded a considerable distance tothe south, suddenly cried "Breakers ahead!" and he tumbled inboard offthe bowsprit, as if he thought the boat about to strike at once. "Lether go round, sir, for God's sake! We're right on the rocks."
Jack, back at the wheel, had not been able to get a glimpse of thefoaming rocks in the lightning which the man on the bowsprit had seen.He despaired of the boat's going about, but he tried it. The highchopping sea stopped the yacht at once. He knew it was asking too muchof her to come about with so little way on, and the canvas all in a bag,so, as there was evidently no room to wear the ship, he had the biganchor dropped. His intention was to come about by means of his anchorand get out on the other tack into the channel and anywhere away fromthe rocks and the breakers that could be heard above the tempest roaringclose to them on the port side. While the chain was being paid out, theclose-reefed mainsail was hoisted up to do its work properly. The stormstaysail was also hoisted and sheeted home on the port side to back herhead off from the land. As this was being done, the sailors paid out theanchor-chain rapidly. To do so more quickly they carelessly threw itoff the winch and let it smoke through the hawse-pipe at its own pace.But suddenly there came a check to it, which, in the darkness, could notbe accounted for. A bight or a knot in the chain had come up and gotjammed somewhere, and now it refused to run out. The Ideal immediatelystraightened out the cable, and, at the moment, all the king's horsesand all the king's men would have been powerless to clear it. Jack cameforward, and with a lantern discovered how things were. "Never mind," hethought. "If she will lie here for a while no harm will be done." In themean time, while the men were getting a tackle rigged to haul up a bitof the chain, so as to obtain control of it again, the rain ceased tofall, while the lightning, by which alone the men could see to work,served only to make the succeeding darkness more profound.
The place they had sailed into was on the north shore of Amherst Island.As Jack feared, the sailors had been wrong in thinking that the lightthey saw was the one on Indian Point. It was a lantern on a schoonerwhich had gone ashore on the rocks close
to where the Ideal now lay.
The worst of their anxiety was, however, yet to come. During a vividflash, after the rain had partly cleared away, a reef of rocks wasdiscovered a short distance off, trending out from the shore directlybehind the yacht. Jack had been lying with his hand on the cable to feelwhether the anchor was holding or not. He soon found that the yacht was"dragging." The sails were lowered at once, and the second anchor wasleft go, in the hope that it might catch hold when the first one haddragged back far enough to allow the second to work.
With the rocks behind waiting for them, it was now a question of anchorsholding, or nothing--yacht or no yacht. Every moment as she pitched andducked and tossed against the driving seas and wind she dropped backtoward a black mass over which the waves broke savagely. The yacht wasliterally locked up to the big anchor. They could neither haul up norpay out its cable, so that, until this was remedied by means of a tackle(which takes some time in a jumping sea and darkness) sailing again wasimpossible. Carefully they paid out chain enough for the second anchorto do its work. Not till they were close to the rocks did they allow anystrain to come upon it. Then they took a turn on its chain and waited tosee how it would hold.
Feeling the cable, when there is nothing to hope for but that the hookwill do its work, is a quiet though anxious occupation. Jack waited forthe sensations in the hand which will often tell whether the anchor isholding or not, and then rose, and in the moonlight which now began tobreak through the clouds his face looked anxious. "Flat rock," hemuttered, "with a layer of mud on it."
By this time the men had got control of the big anchor's chain again andhad knocked the kink out of it. But there was no room now to slip cablesand sail off.
The rocks were too close. The idea struck him of winding in the firstanchor a bit--in the hope that it might catch in a crack in the rock, oron a bowlder, before it got even with the second one.
This proved of no use, and the yacht was now approaching, stern-first,the point or outward rock of the reef which stood up boldly in thewater. Only a few feet now separated this outside rock from the counterof the yacht. In two minutes more the stem would be dashing itself intomatches.
Jack's brain, you may be sure, was on the keen lookout for expedients.He had the mainsail hoisted and the staysail flattened down to the portside--so as to back her head off. He hoped by this possibly to grindoff the rocks by his sails after striking, and by then slipping hiscables to get out into deep water before the stern was completely stovein. But while this was being done the thought came into his mind whetherthe stern might not clear the outer rock without hitting it. Thechangeable gusts of wind had been swinging the yacht sidewise--first alittle one way and then a little the other. At the time he looked backat the yacht, they were just about near enough to strike when the windshifted her a little toward the north, and for a moment the sternpointed clear of the outer rock. His first idea was that the wind wasshifting permanently. But suddenly it came to him that this might be hisonly chance. He did not wait to command others, but flew to the anchorchains and threw off the coils. The yacht shot astern like the recoil ofa cannon. He threw the chains clear of the windlass so that the vesselcould dart backward without any check. It seemed a mad thing to do--tolet both anchors go overboard--but it was a madness which whensuccessful is called genius. It was genius to conceive and carry out theidea in an instant, and single handed, too, as if he were the only oneon the boat, genius to know quickly enough exactly how the vessel wouldact. Half a dozen seconds sufficed to throw off the chains, and then hegot back to the wheel, steering her as she went backward grazing herpaint only against the rock, while the chains rushed out like awhirlwind over the bows. The staysail sheets had already been flatteneddown on the port side and the yacht's head paid off fast on the porttack, while Jack rapidly slacked the main sheet well off, and as shegathered way and plunged out into the open channel, an understanding ofthe quick idea that had saved the vessel trickled through the brains ofthe hired men. Instead of climbing to the rocks from a sinking yacht, asthey expected to be doing at this moment, here they were heading outinto deep water again--with the old packet good as new.
Cresswell called to the mate to keep her "jogging around" till he spoketo the owner about getting back the anchors, and then went below withthe other men of the party who had remained on deck throughout theuncomfortable affair.
The workers on deck, who looked like submarine divers, slipped out oftheir oil-skins and descended from the deck to the gay cabin below.Charley still continued to "raise" and get "raised" with a pertinacitywhich defied the elements. His game had had the effect of making hismother and the others think, in spite of their tremors, that the dangerlay chiefly in their own minds, and, under the circumstances, Charleyhad no easy time of it. He had listened to every sound, and knew a gooddeal more about the proximity of the rocks, and the trouble generally,than any one would have supposed.
He decided not to attempt to pick up the anchors that night, so theybeat back to MacDonald's Cove, where they entered, in the moonlight, andmade fast for the night to some trees beside a steep rocky shore.