CHAPTER XV
THE TORNADO
Evelyn was wakened by a peal of thunder, and as she drowsily lifted herhead a blaze of lightning filled the narrow room. It vanished and therewas another deafening crash. The darkness was now impenetrable, but thestartled girl had seen that the deck was sharply slanted and her clotheshung at a wide angle to the paneling of the bulkhead. It was obviousthat the _Enchantress_ was listed down nearly on her beam ends. Aconfused uproar was going on, and Evelyn thought she could distinguishthe beating of heavy rain upon the deckhouse. This, however, was onlyfor a few moments, because the other noises swelled into an overwhelmingdin.
Dropping from her berth, she began to dress in the dark, but found itdifficult to keep her footing on the slanted deck, which lurched andthrew her against the lockers, while the planking worked and shook withthe throb of engines. Evelyn could not hear them, but the strongvibration showed that they were running fast.
It cost her an effort to refrain from rushing out on deck. Buttonsbaffled her nervous fingers, the pins she tried to use instead doubledup, but she persevered. She would not leave her room until she wasready: if the worst came, she could not make an open-boat voyage in adisheveled state. That this should seem of importance did not strike heras curious then, but she afterward blushed as she remembered herdetermination to look as well as possible.
At last she opened the door and stepped out, ankle-deep in water. Shewas to lee of the deckhouse, and, seizing the hand-rail, tried to lookabout. The rain did not seem so heavy now, and the house sheltered her,although clouds of spray were flying across its top. A few feet away,the low bulwark was faintly distinguishable, but outside this there wasonly a dim glimmer of foam in the dark. The _Enchantress_ had the windand sea on her broadside. This surprised Evelyn, because it was not asafe position if the gale were as bad as it seemed. Then a shower ofsparks leaped from the funnel and by the momentary light they gave shesaw a white streak, cleanly cut off and slanting downward, at the crownof the escape pipe. Evidently, Macallister had raised more steam than hecould use.
Wondering why Grahame had not brought the vessel head to wind, she movedaft cautiously, clinging to the rail, until she saw that the awning hadbroken loose from its lashings. Part of it thrashed about the deck,making a furious noise, but the rest, blown forward, had fouled theforesail boom, and was stretched tight, but distended like a half-filledballoon. Acting as a sail, it prevented the steamer from answering herhelm. One or two very indistinct figures struggled with the canvas, butthey seemed unable to master it, and Evelyn crept on until she couldlook through the skylight into the engine-room. It was here the realbattle must be fought, for the cylinders that strained under toppressure were the vitals of the ship. She could see them shake, as ifabout to burst their fastening bolts and leap from the columns, as thebig cross-heads banged up and down.
The iron room was well lighted, though the lamps hung at an alarmingangle to the beams, and there was a confused glimmer of steel thatflashed through the light and plunged into shadow. A half-naked man layon a narrow grating, leaning down and touching a ponderous mass of metalas it swept past. In the momentary intervals before it came back herubbed the bright slide it traveled on with a greasy swab, and the girlknew how important it was that nothing should get hot. The work wasdangerous, because the least clumsiness might cost him his arm. When hestopped and turned sideways on the grating the light touched his face,and Evelyn started as she recognized Walthew.
He had enjoyed all the comforts and refinements to which she wasaccustomed, and it was from choice and not necessity that he was doingthis rough, hazardous work. There were obviously people who did notattach an undue value to the ease that wealth could buy; this boy, forexample, had left the safe, beaten track, and now, when still weak fromfever, was taking the consequences without dismay. It looked as if theremight be something wrong with her mother's philosophy; but she couldthink of this better when there was less risk of the steamer'sfoundering.
A man came along the deckhouse and put his arm round her waist as theship gave a wild lurch. Evelyn laughed as she recognized her father. Fora moment she had thought it was Grahame. Holding her tight, Cliffemoved on a yard or two, and then stopped at the corner of the house,where they could see something of what was going on.
It was lighter now that the rain had stopped, and presently a ray ofmoonlight traveled across the sea and touched the laboring vessel. Hovedown by the pressure of the wind on deckhouse and awning, she had buriedher lee bulwarks and lifted her weather side. Sheets of water blewacross her, and the sea looked white as snow. It was not running high:the heavy rain had beaten down the swell; but it would soon rise, andunless the vessel could be brought head to wind the combers would sweepher deck.
As the beam of moonlight widened, the figures of the toiling men grewclear. One was clinging to the top of a tall stanchion in a grotesquemonkey-like attitude, trying to cut loose the awning, for a knifesparkled in his hand. Another crouched on the deck with folds of thecanvas in his arms. Miguel was bent over the wheel. The tenseness of hispose and his hard-set face suggested heavy muscular strain.
Grahame stood near by, his hand on a stay, swaying with the movement ofthe steamer. He was bareheaded and the spray lashed his face, but therewas something that reassured the girl in his tranquillity.
It was useless to speak. The voice would have been drowned by the roarof the gale, while wire-shroud and chain-guy shrilled in wild harmonies.Evelyn stood fascinated, watching the quick, tense movements of thecrew.
Presently Grahame turned his head, and, seeing them against thedeckhouse, pointed toward the sea. Following his gesture, Evelyn saw ablurred object leap out of the dark. It grew suddenly into definiteform as it drove across the belt of moonlight: a small wooden barquewith a deck-load of timber, staggering before the hurricane.
Fluttering rags showed where her maintopsail had blown from the ropes;curved ribands, held fast at head and foot, marked what was left of herfore-course, and puny figures dotted the yards, struggling futilely withclewed-up canvas that bulged out as if inflated hard. She had a torn jiband topsails set--strips of sail that looked absurdly small bycomparison with the foam-lapped hull, but they were bearing her on attremendous speed. Caught, no doubt lightly manned, by the sudden gale,they had had no time to shorten sail and bring her head to sea. She mustrun with what canvas was left her until the tornado broke, unless shebroached to and her heavy deckload rolled her over.
So far, Evelyn had not felt much fear. There was something in the madfury of the elements that, for a time, banished thought of personaldanger. She was overwhelmed and yet conscious of a strange excitement;but the sight of the helpless ship had a daunting effect. Belted withleaping foam, bows up, poop down, the dripping hull drove by, plowing asnowy furrow through the tormented sea. When she plunged into the darkEvelyn was glad that she had gone. She wondered what could be done inthis wild weather if the _Enchantress_ would not come round. But she hadconfidence in Grahame. As she looked at him he commandingly raised hishand.
Two men scrambled forward and a dark patch rose at the bows. It swelledand emptied, but the canvas held, and Grahame struggled forward to helpthe others. The sail might stand if they could hoist it before it split.It ran higher up the stay; the _Enchantress_ slowly fell off before thewind, and then leaped ahead with her bows lifted out of the foam.
Evelyn drew a deep breath of relief, for the immediate danger was over,and the vessel might run out of the worst of the storm. Cliffe noddedwhen she looked at him, and with some trouble they made their way intothe house, where, with the door shut, they could hear themselves speak.Evelyn was wet with spray, but there was a high color in her face andher eyes shone. As she sat down, the house shook beneath a blow, andthere was a savage flapping on the roof. Then something seemed drivenacross it, and they could hear only the wind and the sea again.
"The awning!" Cliffe said. "They've managed to cut it loose now thatshe's before the wind. I guess Grahame would rather have brought her
head-on, but he won't have much trouble if they can keep her frombroaching to. Were you scared?"
"No," Evelyn answered thoughtfully. "I suppose it was so appalling thatI couldn't realize the danger. I really feel that I'd be sorry if I'dmissed it."
Cliffe made a sign of comprehension.
"Well, this is the first time you've seen men hard up against a bigthing. It's an illuminating experience; though a large number of peoplenever get it. Some of them seem to imagine things go right ofthemselves, and there's no call now for strength and nerve. Anyhow, Iwas glad to feel that Grahame knew his business."
Evelyn was silent for a few moments. Her clothes were wet and ought tobe changed, but the tension on her nerves had not slackened much, andshe felt restless and unwilling to be alone. Besides, there was a mildsatisfaction in doing something imprudent, and she thought the storm hadroused her father into a talkative mood. While indulgent to her, he wasoften marked by a certain reserve, which she had noticed her mothernever tried to penetrate.
"I wonder why you decided to cross in this little boat, when we couldhave gone by one of the big passenger liners?" she said.
"Saved waiting, for one thing," Cliffe answered in a deprecatory tone."Then I'll confess that I felt I'd like to do something that wasn'tquite usual."
Evelyn laughed.
"It isn't a wish one would suspect you of."
"Well," Cliffe said with a twinkle, "I guess it was boyish, but we allhave our weaknesses, though I don't often indulge mine. I find itdoesn't pay. I'm a sober business man, but there's a streak offoolishness in me. Sometimes it works out and I feel that I want afrolic, for a change."
"Then you must have exercised some self-control."
"When I was a young man, I found my job square in front of me. I had tosit tight in the office, straighten out a business that had got rathercomplicated, and expand it if possible. It wasn't quite all I wanted todo, but I'd a notion that I could make my pile and then let myself go.It took me some years to get things straight, the pile was harder tomake than I reckoned, and your mother had a use for all the money Icould raise. Her ambition was to put the family high up in the socialscale--and she's done it."
"So you stifled your longings and went on making money that we mighthave every advantage!" Evelyn said with a guilty feeling. "I feelashamed when I realize it."
"I've been repaid," Cliffe replied. "Then, after a time, my job becamecongenial and got hold of me. The work became a habit; I didn't reallywant to break away." He paused and resumed with a humorous air: "It'sonly at odd moments I play with the notion that I'd like somethingdifferent. I know it would jar me if I got it; and I'm getting old."
Evelyn mused. Her father's story had its pathetic side. Though they hadnot much in common, he had been her mother's willing slave: toiling inthe city to further plans which Evelyn suspected he would not have made.In a sense, his life had been bare and monotonous; there was somethinghe had missed. Evelyn thought that he recognized this, though not withregret.
She started as Grahame came in. Salt water dripped from him and gatheredin a pool on the floor, but he turned to them with a smile.
"The wind is dropping fast, and the sea hadn't time to get up. We hadsome trouble at first when the awning blew out of its lashings andstopped her coming round, but she steered all right as soon as we gother before the sea."
"We were on deck most of the time," Evelyn said.
Grahame laughed as he recalled their conversation in the early evening.
"After what you must have seen," he asked, "don't you agree that thereare advantages in keeping in smooth water?"
"Oh, one can't deny it. For all that, my experience to-night strengthensmy belief that there's something very exhilarating in taking a risk."
She went out on deck and stood for a minute or two, holding on by ashroud. There was now no fury in the wind, and the moon was bright. Theswell had gathered itself up into tumbling combers that shook theircrests about the rail as the _Enchantress_ lurched over them. A few tornclouds drove across the southern sky, but the rest of the wide sweep wasclear and the scene was steeped in harmonies of silver and dusky blue.By daybreak the vessel would be steaming on an even keel, but Evelynknew that she would not again be content with glassy calm and languoroustranquillity. The turmoil of the storm had made a subtle change in her;it was as if she had heard a call in the elemental clamor and her hearthad answered.