CHAPTER FORTY.
ANOTHER ENEMY.
For as I looked towards the horizon away to the east, a curious luridglow spread upward half-way to the zenith, and for the moment I thoughtthat in a short time we should see the full-moon come slowly up out ofthe sea. But a few moments' reflection told me that we were long pastthe full-moon time, and that it would be the last quarter late on in thenight. The sea, too, began to wear a singular aspect, and great frothyclouds were gathering rapidly in the south. And even as I looked therewas a peculiar moaning sigh, as if a great wind were passing over us ata great height, though the sea was only just pleasantly rippled, and agentle breeze was sweeping us rapidly along and away from the greatjunk, which now seemed hazy and distant, while those we had watched solong were quite out of sight.
"Feel cold?" said Mr Brooke quietly. "I ought to have told you to takeoff and wring out your clothes."
"Cold, sir!" I said wonderingly. "I hadn't thought about it; I was soexcited."
"Yes; we had a narrow escape, my lad. It is a lesson in being carefulwith these cunning, treacherous wretches. You made sure it was atrader, Ching?"
"Ching neve' quite su'e--only think so," was the reply, accompanied by apeculiar questioning look, and followed by a glance over his rightshoulder at the sky.
"No, I suppose not. I ought to have been more careful. They threwsomething down at the boat as soon as we had mounted: did they not,Jecks?"
"Yes, sir; I see it coming. Great pieces of ballast iron, as it tooktwo on 'em to heave up over the bulwarks. I just had time to give theboat a shove with the hitcher when down it come. Gone through thebottom like paper, if I hadn't. But beg pardon, sir, arn't we going tohave a storm?"
"Yes," said Mr Brooke quietly; "I am running for the river, if I canmake it. If not, for that creek we were in last night. Take thetiller, Mr Herrick," he said, and he went forward.
"Going blow wind velly high. Gleat wave and knock houses down," saidChing uneasily.
"Yes, my lad; we're going to have what the Jay-pans calls a tycoon."
"No, no, Tom Jecks," I said, smiling.
"You may laugh, sir, but that's so. I've sailed in these here watersafore and been in one. Had to race afore it with bare poles and holdingon to the belaying-pins. Tycoons they call 'em, don't they, Mr Ching?"
"Gleat blow storm," said Ching, nodding. "Hullicane."
"There you are, sir," said Jecks. "Hurricanes or tycoons."
"Typhoons," I said.
"Yes, sir, that's it, on'y you pernounces it different to me. Don'tmake no difference in the strength on 'em," he continued testily, forhis wound was evidently painful, "whether you spells it with a kay or aphoo. Why, I seed big vessels arterwards, as had been blowed a quarterof a mile inland, where they could never be got off again."
"Yes, I've heard of that sort of thing," I said. "They ride in on agreat wave and are left behind."
"Lookye here, sir," whispered the coxswain, who seemed to ignore hiswound; "I don't want to show no white feathers, nor to holler afore I'mhurt, but if I was you, I should ask Mr Brooke to run straight for thenearest shore--say one o' them islands there, afore the storm comes; youarn't got no idea what one o' them tycoons is like. As for this boat,why, she'll be like a bit o' straw in a gale, and I don't want to go tothe bottom until I've seed you made a skipper; and besides, we've gotlots more waspses' nests to take, beside polishing off those threejunks--that is, if they're left to polish when the storm's done."
"Stand up, Mr Herrick," cried the lieutenant. "Look yonder, due north.What do you see?"
I held the tiller between my knees as I stood up and gazed in therequired direction, but could see nothing for a few minutes in the dusk.
"Can't you see?"
"Yes, sir, now. Small round black cloud."
"Yes, of smoke."
"Ay, ay, sir, I see it," said one of the sailors. "Hooray! it's the_Teaser_ with the wind blowing hard astern and carrying the smoke of herfunnel right over her and ahead."
"The _Teaser_ or some other steamer; and she's running fast for harbour.Let's see: those are the Black Gull Islands to port there. Were youwith us when the cutter's crew landed, Jecks?"
"Yes, sir; I rowed stroke-oar, sir."
"To be sure. The second one from the north had the highest ground."
"Yes, sir; but you couldn't land for the surf and the shark-fin rocks,if you remember."
"Exactly; and we rowed along the south channel till we found a shelteredsand-cove, where we beached the cutter, and then explored the island.We must make for that channel, and try to reach it before the stormcomes down. We could not get half-way to the river, and, thank heaven,the _Teaset_ will soon be in safety."
"No, sir, you couldn't make no river to-night."
"It will be dark too soon."
"Not to-night, sir," said Jecks sturdily.
"Yes, man; there will be no moon."
"No, sir; but in less nor an hour's time the sea 'll be white as milk,and all of a greeny glow, same as it is some still nights in port.There won't be no difficulty, sir, about seeing."
"But you think it will be hard to make the channel?"
"I hope not, sir, but I'm afraid so; we can only try."
"Yes, we can only try," said Mr Brooke slowly, as he came and satbeside me. "And we must try, Herrick--our best. For this is no nightto be out in almost an open boat."
"Then you think there is danger, sir?" I said anxiously.
"No, Herrick," he replied, smiling; "sailors have no time to think ofdanger. They have enough to think about without that. We must get inthe lee of that island to-night, and it the storm holds back, and thelittle boat spins along like this, we ought to do it."
"And if it doesn't, sir?"
"If it doesn't? Ah, well, we shall see. Stand by, two of you, ready tolower that sail at a moment's notice."
"Ay, ay, sir," was the ready reply as two of the men changed theirplaces; and just then I looked at Ching, to see that his face was lit upby the reflection of the strange light on our right and behind, whichgrew more striking, while away before us the land disappeared, and wewere gazing at a bank of clouds of an inky black.
The effect was very curious: behind us the dull coppery glow becomingfainter minute by minute, as the darkness increased the blackness beforeus; and one's instinct seemed to warn one to turn from the blackdarkness to sail away towards the light. Tom Jecks took the same idea,and said, in an irritable whisper, exactly what I thought--
"Seems rum, sir, don't it, sir?--makes believe as that's the best way,when all the time the wussest looking is the safest."
Just then, after a glance round, Mr Brooke uttered another warning tothe men to be ready, and settled himself down to the tiller.
"Sit fast, all of you; the hurricane may be down upon us at any momentnow."
I looked at him wonderingly, for it was painfully still, though thedarkness was growing intense, and the great junk seemed to have beenswallowed up by the clouds that hung low like a fog over the sea.
"There will be such a turmoil of the elements directly," continued MrBrooke in a low voice, but only to me, "that I don't suppose a word willbe heard." Then aloud, "Look here, my lads; I shall try and run theboat high upon the sands at the top of some breaker. Then it will beevery man for himself. Never mind the boat--that is sure to bedestroyed--but each man try to save his arms and ammunition; and if thetwo wounded men are in difficulties, of course you will lend a hand.Now then, one more order: The moment I say, `Down with the sail,' dragit from the mast, and two oars are to be out on either side. The windwill catch them and send us along, and I want them to give a few dips toget on the top of a roller to carry us in."
"Ay, ay, sir."
"That's all."
His words in that terrible stillness sounded to me as almost absurd, forthe sea was still calm, and save that sighing in the air of which I havebefore spoken, there was no further sound; and at last I said to him--
"D
o you really think we shall have a hurricane?"
"Look at the sky, my lad," he replied; "and take this as a lesson to onewho will have men's lives depending upon his knowledge and skill someday. If ever there were signs of an awful night in the Chinese seas, itis now. Hark at that!"
"Guns! The _Teaser_!" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Heaven's artillery that, my lad," he said solemnly. Then in a whisper,"Shake hands! I'll help you all I can, Herrick, but heaven knows how weshall be situated soon."
I felt a strange sensation of awe creep over me, as he gripped my handwarmly, and then snatched his away, and sat up firm and rigid, turninghis head to the east as all now became suddenly black--so dark that Icould hardly see the men before me and the sail. But still we glidedrapidly on over the long smooth rollers, on and on toward the islands,which lay a short distance from the mainland.
"It will be all guess work," whispered Mr Brooke. "I am keeping herhead as near as I can guess for the channel, but the breakers will soonbe our only guide."
Then came the heavy roar again, which I had taken for guns, but it didnot cease as before, when it sounded like a sudden explosion. It wasnow continuous, and rapidly increasing.
"Thunder?" I asked in a low voice.
"Wind. Tremendous. It will be on us in five minutes."
But even then it seemed impossible, for we were still sailing swiftlyand gently along towards the channel between the islands, and the roarlike distant thunder or heavy guns had once more ceased.
"We shall get to the shore first after all," I whispered.
"No."
At that moment there was a sensation as of a hot puff of air behind us.It literally struck my head just as if a great furnace door had beenopened, and the glow had shot out on to our necks.
"Here she comes," growled Tom Jecks; "and good luck to us."
And then, as if to carry out the idea of the opened furnace, it suddenlygrew lighter--a strange, weird, wan kind of light--and on either side,and running away from us on to the land, the sea was in a wild froth asif suddenly turned to an ocean of milk.
"Down with the sail!" shouted Mr Brooke, who had held on to the lastmoment, so as to keep the boat as long as possible under his governance;and quickly as disciplined men could obey the sail was lowered, and asfar as I could see they were in the act of stowing it along the side,when it filled out with a loud report, and was snatched from their handsand gone.
"Any one hurt?"
"No, sir," in chorus.
"Oars."
I heard the rattle of the two pairs being thrust out. Next Mr Brooke'swords, yelled out by my ear--"sit fast!" and then there was a heavyblow, heavy but soft and pressing, followed by the stinging on my neckas of hundreds of tiny whips, and then we were rushing along over thewhite sea, in the midst of a mass--I can call it nothing else--of spray,deafened, stunned, feeling as if each moment I should be torn out of myseat, and as if the boat itself were being swept along like lightningover the sea, riding, not on heavy water, but on the spray.
Then all was one wild, confusing shriek and roar. I was deafened;something seemed to clutch me by the throat and try to strangle me; hugesoft hands grasped me by the body, and tugged and dragged at me, to tearme from my hold; and then, two arms that were not imaginary, but solidand real, went round me, and grasped the thwart on which I sat, holdingme down, while I felt a head resting on my lap.
I could see nothing but a strange, dull, whitish light when I managed tohold my eyelids up for a moment, but nothing else was visible; and aboveall--the deafening roar, the fearful buffeting and tearing at me--therewas one thing which mastered, and that was the sensation of beingstunned and utterly confused. I was, as it were, a helpless nothing,beaten and driven by the wind and spray, onward, onward, like a scrap ofchaff. Somebody was clinging to me, partly to save himself, partly tokeep me from being dragged out of the boat; but whether Mr Brooke wasstill near me, whether the men were before me, or whether there was anymore boat at all than that upon which I was seated, I did not know. AllI knew was that I was there, and that I was safe, in spite of all theattempts made by the typhoon to drag me out and sweep me away like aleaf over the milky sea.
It cannot be described. Every sense was numbed. And if any lad whoreads this were to take the most terrible storm he ever witnessed,square it, and then cube it, I do not believe that he would approach theelemental disturbance through which we were being hurled.
There was a rocky shore in front of us, and another rocky island shoreto our left; and between these two shores lay the channel for which wehad tried to make. But Mr Brooke's rule over the boat was at an endthe moment the storm was upon us, and, as far as I could ever learnafterwards, no one thought of rocks, channel, saving his life, or beingdrowned. The storm struck us, and with its furious rush went all powerof planning or thinking. Every nerve of the body was devoted to thetasks of holding on and getting breath.
How long it lasted--that wild rush, riding on the spray, held as it wereby the wind--I don't know. I tell you I could not think. It went onand on as things do in a horrible dream, till all at once somethinghappened. I did not hear it, nor see it, hardly even felt it. I onlyknow that something happened, and I was being strangled--choked, but inanother way. The hands which grasped my throat to keep me frombreathing had, I believe, ceased to hold, and something hot and terriblewas rushing up my nostrils and down my throat, and I think I then madesome effort with my hands. Then I was being dragged along through waterand over something soft, and all at once, though the deafening,confusing noise went on, I was not being swept away, but lying still onsomething hard.
I think that my senses left me entirely then for a few moments--notmore, for I was staring soon after at the dull light of white watersweeping along a little way off, and breathing more freely as Istruggled hard to grasp what it all meant, for I did not know. I sawsomething dim pass me, and then come close and touch me, as if it sankdown by my side; and that happened again and again.
But it was all very dream-like and strange: the awful, overwhelming,crushing sound of the wind seemed to press upon my brain so that I couldnot for a long time think, only lie and try to breathe without catchingeach inspiration in a jerky, spasmodic way.
I suppose hours must have passed, during which I stared through thedarkness at the dull whitish phosphorescent glow which appeared throughthe gloom, and died out, and appeared and died out again and again,passing like clouds faintly illumined in a ghastly way, and all mingledwith the confusion caused by that awful roar. Then at last I began tofeel that the rush of wind and water was passing over me, and that I wasin some kind of shelter; and when I had once hit upon this, I had as itwere grasped a clue. I knew that I was lying on stones, and saw thatrising above me was a mass of rock, which I knew by the touch, and thisstone was sheltering me from the wind and spray.
"We must have reached the shore safely, then," I said to myself, for myhead was getting clearer; "and--yes--no--I was not hurt. We were allsaved, then."
At that point a terrible feeling of dread came over me. I was safe, butmy companions?
The shock of this thought threw me back for a bit, but I was soonstruggling with the confusion again, and I recalled the fact that I hadfelt some one touch me as he sank down by my side.
Arrived at this point, I turned a little to look, but all was perfectlyblack. I stretched out my hand and felt about.
I snatched it back with a cry of horror. Yes, a cry of horror; for,though I could not hear it, I felt it escape from my lips. I hadtouched something all wet and cold lying close beside me, and I feltthat it was one of my companions who had been cast up or draggedashore--dead.
Shivering violently, I shrank away, and stretched out my hand in theother direction--my left hand now, with my arm numbed, and my shoulderaching when I moved it, as if the joint had become stiffened and wouldnot work.
I touched somebody there--something cold and smooth and wet, and drew myhand away again, when, as it glided over the
sand, it touched somethingelse round and soft and long, and--yes--plaited. It was a long tail.
"Ching!" I ejaculated; and, gaining courage, I felt again in thedarkness, to find that it grew thinner. I tried again in the otherdirection, and once more touched the round wet object, which did notseem so cold, and then the next moment a hand caught mine and held it.
I was right; it was Ching. I knew him by his long nails.
Not alone! I had a companion in the darkness, one who was nearly asmuch stunned as I, for he moved no more, but lay holding on by my lefthand, and for a time I was content to listen to the savage roar of thewind. But at last, as my brain worked and I mastered the sensation ofhorror, I began to feel about again with my right hand, till I touchedthe same cold, wet object I had encountered before.
It was an arm, quite bare and cold; while now I could not withdraw myhand, but lay trembling and shuddering, till I felt that perhaps I wasnot right--that any one lying dead would not feel like that; and my handglided down to the wrist.
I knew nothing about feeling pulses only from having seen a doctor doso, but by chance my fingers fell naturally in the right place in thehollow just above the wrist joint, and a thrill of exultation ranthrough me, for I could distinctly feel a tremulous beating, and I knewthat my imagination had played me false--that the man was not dead.