CHAPTER V.--ADVENTURES ON THE HULK.
A sudden sharp puff of wind, followed by a heavier dip than usual on thepart of the dismantled hulk, apprised the boy that both breeze and seawere increasing. Putting aside, for the moment, by a brave effort, hisheart sickness, Harry ran to the rail and peered over the side. Themotor boat was careering gallantly along by the side of her big consort,and the boy was glad to note that the painter still held, despite thestrain.
But Harry knew, from his examination the previous night, that it wouldbe useless to try to escape by the motor craft. She was disabled beyondhope of repair, unless he could get another spark plug. Having made surethe motor craft was all right, Harry returned to the bow and sat down tothink the situation over.
It would have been a trying one for a man to face, let alone a lad; butHarry's numerous adventures had given him a power of calm thought beyondhis years, and he managed to marshal his ideas into some sort of shapeas he crouched under the bow bulwarks.
"Evidently the _Betsy Jane_ was caught by the tide, when it turned, andcarried out to sea," he thought, "and then, when the wind got up, shedrifted still faster. I wonder if her mooring rope broke or if it wascut--guess I'll take a look."
The boy dragged inboard the end of the mooring line that still hung overthe bow. One look at it was enough. The clean cut strands showedconclusively that it had been severed, just above the water line, by asharp knife. The fact that the Daniels could not know that any one wouldcome on board after they slashed the line did not make their act anyless heinous in Harry's eyes. It had been their deliberate intention toset the schooner adrift, and they had succeeded only too well in theiract of spite.
"Whatever will they be thinking on the island when they discover allthis?" thought Harry with a low groan. "They'll imagine that I'm dead,or at least that some fatal accident has befallen me, and, worst of all,they have no boat to use to reach the mainland. They are just as muchprisoners as I am."
Sharp pangs of hunger now began to assail the lad, and he recollected,with a thankful heart, that on board the motor boat there were theremains of a lunch they had taken ashore with them on their expeditionthe previous day. There was also a keg of water. Harry lost no time indescending the gangway and making his way to the locker where the foodhad been stored. First, however, he made a foray on the water keg.Taking out the stopper he found that it was only half full, but heslaked his thirst gratefully, taking care to use as small a quantity ofthe fluid as possible. He knew that before long the water might beprecious indeed.
In the locker he found the remnants of the lunch. As he consumed thescraps of bread and cheese, and a small hunk of corned beef, he recalledwith what light hearts they had fallen to the meal of which he was nowdevouring the remains. The recollection almost overcame him. With astrong effort the boy choked back a sob and formed a grim determinationnot to dwell upon his miserable situation more than was possible. Hefelt that the main thing was to keep a clear head.
There was some spare rope on board the hulk, and with this Harry madethe fastenings of the launch more secure, leading one end of the rope onboard the schooner itself, and making it fast to a cleat. He felt thatthe craft would be more safe if attached thus than would have been thecase had he depended on the gangway alone.
This done, he took a look about him. He had had a vague hope that hemight sight a ship of some sort, but the ocean was empty as a desert.Not a sail or a smudge of smoke marred the horizon. All this time thewind had been steadily freshening, and Harry judged that the schoonermust be drifting before it quite fast. The inclined superstructurenaturally added to her "windage" and made her go before the gale morerapidly. The sea, too, was piling up in great, glistening, green waterrows, which looked formidable indeed. But so far the _Betsy Jane_ hadwallowed along right gallantly, only shipping a shower of sprayoccasionally when a big sea struck her obliquely on the bow.
"If only I had plenty of food and water," thought Harry, "this would benothing more than a good bit of adventure, but----"
In accordance with his resolution not to dwell on the more seriousaspects of his predicament he dismissed this side of the case from hismind. But as the day wore on, and he grew intolerably thirsty, thethought of what might be his fate, if he did not fall in with somevessel, beset his mind more and more, to the exclusion of all else. Inthe afternoon, as closely as he could judge the time, he took anotherdrink from the fast-diminishing supply in the keg. He noticed, with anunpleasant shock, that the fluid was growing alarmingly lower. Before hetook the draught he had cleaned up the remaining crumbs left in thelocker, and was now absolutely without food.
The rest of that afternoon he passed watching the empty sea for somesign of a ship, but not a trace of one could he discover. Utterlydisheartened he watched the sun set in a blaze of crimson and gold. Thesunset lay behind him, and Harry knew by this that he was drifting eastat a rapid rate. Just how rapid he had, of course, no means ofcalculating. Of one thing he was thankful--the sea had not increased, andthe wind appeared to have fallen considerably with the departure ofdaylight.
"Surely," thought the boy, "I must have drifted on the track of oceanvessels by this time. I know there's a line to Halifax, and another toPortland, besides the coasters."
With this thought came another. What if he should be run down during thenight? The idea sent a shudder through his scantily clothed form. Heknew that derelicts are often the cause of marine disasters, and duringthe dark hours the hulk might invite such a fate if he did not takesteps to guard against it.
Accordingly he lit his lantern and hung it in the underpinning of theinclined superstructure.
"At least they can see that," he thought, as he completed the hanging ofhis warning light.
Then, having done all he well could under the circumstances, Harry casthimself down in the lee of the weather bulwarks and tried to sleep. Butin his scanty attire he was far too cold to do aught but lie and shivertill his teeth chattered. He determined to pass the rest of the nightbelow, and once more sought a couch in the empty bunk. But sleep was along time coming. Tired, excited and hungry as the boy was, he could notcompose himself to slumber. Ten or a dozen times he started up and ranto the deck, thinking that he had heard the distant beat of somevessel's engines. But each time it proved a false alarm.
At length tired nature asserted herself, and he sank to sleep in goodearnest. When he awakened it was daylight, and there was an odd feelingabout the motion of the _Betsy Jane_. She seemed to have ceased herrolling and pitching, and was almost steady in the water. Suddenly therecame a jarring crash that almost threw Harry out of the bunk.
Much startled, he ran on deck, and found, to his astonishment, that thevessel lay right off an island. Seemingly she had grounded on a reef ofrocks stretching out from the island itself. At any rate, as the wavesrocked her she gave a jarring, crunching bump with each pitch of herhull. The island appeared to be a small one, and in general appearancewas not unlike Brig Island. In fact, at first Harry had thought that insome magical way the _Betsy Jane_ had drifted back to that small speckof land. But a second glance showed him that the island off which thedismantled hull had grounded differed in many essentials from the one hehad left. Far to the westward, about twenty miles as well as the boycould judge, lay a dim streak of dark blue that Harry guessed was themainland. But for all the good it did him it might have been a hundredmiles removed.
Harry was still gazing at the island and wondering how he could reach itbefore the _Betsy Jane_ pounded herself to pieces on the rocks, when hestarted violently. The island was not, as he had supposed,uninhabited--at least, he had caught sight of a swirl of blue smokerising from among the trees on its highest part. This meant help,companionship and food. An involuntary cry of joy rose to the boy'slips, which the next instant turned to a groan as he looked over theside of the schooner and saw that the reef on which she had struck wasmuch too far out from the shore for him to try to swim the distance,even if a roaring, racing tide would not have made it suicidal toattem
pt the feat.
"Unless I can attract the attention of whoever lives there by shouting,I'm as badly off as I was before," exclaimed Harry, in a voice madequavery by panic.