STORY ONE, CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
THE CATASTROPHE.
The occupants of the cabin had sat long that night, talking of poor JohnStudwick's peaceful end, and then separated, feeling low-spirited andheavy, as if some fresh trouble were in store; but Bessy had saidgood-night to Meldon, with her hands resting lovingly in his, and shedid not shrink away when he pressed his lips to her forehead.
It had been arranged that the remains of the dead should be committed tothe deep next day, and at last all had retired, after the captain andDutch had heard the doctor's report of Laure's state, which caused themsome uneasiness, for if he recovered they felt that much trouble was instore.
But there was not the faintest suspicion of danger: trusty men were atthe look-out and helm, and it had been arranged that Dutch was to taketurns with the doctor and captain to visit the deck during the night,the doctor having his patient to watch. Then there was Rasp, too, whowould be on the move several times during the night, and all promisedwell.
And so the time wore on till Dutch, who had lain down in his clothes,rose and kissed his sleeping wife as she lay there peacefully dreaming.All was very still, and on reaching the deck he found the darknessintense, but, guided by the faint glow from the binnacle lantern, hewent aft to where Lennie was softly crooning to himself some old dittyabout "Coming back to Sairey in the good ship Jane."
"Yes, sir, all right," said the sailor; "the breeze keeps nice andsteady, only it's like sailing in a tar barrel, it's so awful black."
Dutch went forward and found Sam Oakum leaning with his elbows on thebulwark, matched by his companion on the other side of the bowspritgazing straight out ahead.
"Right as nails, sir," said the old sailor, "only I was a thinking,being a man as never used it, if this here sea looked as black in thesunshine as it do now, what a fortune a man might make in bottles o'ink. You might go on filling 'em up, sir, for ever and ever, amen, andthere'd be plenty left to sail the ships in all the same."
"It is black, Sam," said Dutch, "and I often wonder that you sailors arenot afraid of being run down, or of running into some other vessels."
"There's plenty o' room," said Sam, "and as to being afraid, what's theuse? We're too busy. 'Course there is a collision sometimes, but notoften, thank goodness."
"Keep a sharp look-out," said Dutch, turning to go.
"Ay, ay, I'll keep a sharp look-out," said the old fellow. "Lord, it'sticklish work, sailing with all this silver aboard, and I shall be gladwhen we're safe in. How's the prisoner, sir?"
"I'm going down to see," replied Dutch; and going to the hatch, hedescended, to find Rasp sleeping soundly, and the lamp burned down to adim light, that did not show the state of the Cuban's berth.
Dutch shook the old diver roughly, and he started up muttering, while,as the former turned up the lamp, he started with surprise.
"Where is--"
The words had not left his lips when there was a tremendous concussion,a deafening roar, and the two men were thrown down, to struggle upagain, with the air of the little cabin filled with a strange chokingvapour, which nearly suffocated them before they had staggered up thesteps to sink helplessly on the deck, now covered with burning fragmentswhich kept showering down.
As Dutch fell, stunned and confused, on the fore part of the deck itseemed to him that he heard wild shrieks and cries for help from thedirection of the stern cabins, but he was too helpless to comprehendwhat had taken place till he heard Oakum speaking to him and shaking hisarm.
"Are you killed, Mr Dutch?" said the old fellow. "Oh, do say youain't."
"I don't think I'm hurt, Sam," faltered Dutch, as he struggled to hisfeet. "I feel stunned, though," and he clung to the old sailor to keepfrom falling backwards.
"Here's poor old Rasp killed," exclaimed Oakum, "and the ship sinking.Quick, to the boat."
"You're an obstinate old liar," exclaimed Rasp, staggering to his feet."I ain't killed. Who's been a-doing of this?"
"Here, quick, Oakum," exclaimed Dutch, who, now that he could think, hadhis first thoughts for his wife and friends, "the ship must be goingdown. Help me to reach those astern."
"There's no getting to them, if they're alive," exclaimed Oakum; "thewhole of the schooner's blown out amidships."
"Ahoy!" there came a voice from beyond the great black gulf in thecentre of the schooner, which now began to blaze.
"Who's that? Ahoy!" shouted Dutch. "Captain Studwick?"
"Right! Who's with you there?"
"Oakum, Rasp, and one of the men," cried Dutch. "Who's with you?"
"I think all," replied the captain, shouting across the gulf.
"Is my wife--Miss Studwick--safe?" faltered Dutch; and on receiving areply in the affirmative, he muttered a prayer of thankfulness.
The question then arose--was the schooner sinking?
"I think not," shouted the captain, for a disposition was shown to getout the boats. "If she was sinking, she would not begin to blaze likethat down in the hold. It seems to me that the explosion struckupwards, and that she is sound below--for the present."
And so it proved; for the dynamite had ripped up the deck and snappedoff the mainmast as if it had been the stem of a flower, and it now layalongside, with such of its ropes as were out of water blazing.
Not a moment was to be lost, and buckets being brought into requisition,the flames were attacked, for portions of the wreck below began now toblaze fiercely. One of the pumps, too, was set to work, and for longhours nothing was heard but the hissing of the flames as they wereattacked by the water; but all that could be done was to keep them fromincreasing, and when at last the morning broke, it was to show twogroups, one forward, the other astern, sullenly drawing buckets of waterand dashing them into a hissing gulf of fire in the centre of theschooner, from which rose a column of black smoke to spread overhead andform a cloud like a funeral pall for the unlucky ship.
As the wind wafted the smoke on one side, Dutch waved his hand in tokenof encouragement to his wife, who stood with Bessy by the wheel, theirtask being to keep the ship's head in one direction, so that the flamesand heated vapour should not be driven astern. But all was done now ina hopeless duty-driven fashion, for those on board now realised the factthat it was only a matter of hours before the fire would eat its waythrough the side, and the work they tried so hard to do would beaccomplished by the ship sinking beneath the waves.
"It's of no use," said Captain Studwick at last. "Dutch Pugh, Oakum,lower down that boat and come aft."
This was done in a steady, deliberate manner, although at any moment afresh explosion might have taken place, and the schooner gone down. Andinto the boat Oakum, Rasp, the sailor, and Dutch lowered themselves,paddled along the side, and joined their companions in misfortune aft.
As Oakum made fast the painter, and they all stood on the deck, CaptainStudwick exclaimed:
"Where is Laure? We must not leave him to perish."
"Is he not with you?" said Dutch.
"No," said the captain, bitterly.
"Has the poor wretch, then, been blown up in the explosion?"
"Heaven knows," cried Mr Parkley, "but if he is missing, that explainsall. It is his work."
"It was those blowing-up cartridges o' yourn," growled Oakum.
"Of course it was, stupid," snarled Rasp, turning on the old sailorfiercely, "but the cartridges wouldn't go off by themselves, wouldthey?"
"You said he was better, doctor," said the captain.
"Yes, so much so that the change was puzzling."
"This was his work, then," cried the captain. "He was well enough totake some terrible revenge upon us."
"And to perish himself in accomplishing it," said Dutch.
"Don't know that," said the captain. "One of the boats has gone."
"But it may have been destroyed in the explosion."
The captain shook his head and walked to the side where the ropes andblocks hanging from the davits showed plainly enough that a boat
hadbeen lowered down.
As he pointed to this the diabolical plot was made perfectly manifest,and its objects saw plainly enough how the villain had compassed theirdestruction.
"And I was so deceived," exclaimed the doctor, stamping upon the deck inhis rage. "The scoundrel was ill at first, but the latter part of thetime it was subterfuge. Dutch Pugh, this is my fault. I must go backto hospital to learn my profession."
"Suppose, gentlemen, we begin to load the boat with necessaries andconstruct a raft," said the captain, bluntly. "It strikes me that wehave but little time to spare. Mr Parkley, your silver is going backto its home at the bottom of the sea."
"Yes," said that gentleman, "and where it will lie, for there seems tobe a curse with it all along."
The boat already launched was as rapidly as possible supplied withwater, cold provisions, compass, and sail; and, as soon as these werein, Dutch suggested, and his proposal was agreed to, that his wife andthe captain's daughter should be lowered down in--case of any suddendisposition shown by the ship to sink; but they objected to leave yetuntil one sad duty that had to be attended to was done.
A funeral at sea is a sad event, and it was more painful here at such atime, when it was a question whether before long everyone present wouldnot have to seek a resting-place in the sea. Below lay the body of poorJohn Studwick, just as the doctor and Sam Oakum had arranged it, wrappedin a piece of sail-cloth, with a few heavy pieces of iron at the feet,waiting to take its last plunge.
The second boat, only a small one, had also been laden with provisionsand water, so that in case of emergency there was nothing to do but toleap into one or the other and push off; and though Captain Studwickproposed making a raft, that was deferred until after the funeral.
It was a solemn scene as the body was reverently brought up from belowand laid by the open gangway. The fire still burned slowly andsteadily, and the smoke rose and floated away like a great black plumefar over the golden water, on whose long swell the schooner rose andfell as easily as if there was no ruin in her midst. All was perfectlystill and peaceful as, the arrangements having been made, CaptainStudwick stood at the head of the silent, muffled figure, book in hand,and with trembling voice read the prayers for the dead, while those whoclustered round forgot their sufferings and all dangers as they listenedto the solemn words.
At last the captain stopped and made a sigh, when Sam Oakum gentlyraised the end of the hatch upon which the body lay, and with a slightrustling noise it glided off with a heavy plunge into the sea, Bessyuttering now a low wail and throwing herself on the deck.
She lay motionless there as, struggling hard to maintain his firmness,the captain finished the solemn words laid down for such an occasion,and then, closing the book, he was the stern man of business again. Hegave his orders sharply, and Dutch took his wife in his arms, made fasta rope round her, and lowered her into the larger boat, Bessy submittingherself, as Mr Meldon helped, to be lowered to her side.
Mr Wilson and the doctor followed, Oakum and one of the sailors beingthe next, so as to take the management of the boat, with orders to pushoff and lie at about a hundred yards' distance.
Hester half rose, with outstretched hands, but a word from Dutchreassured her as he set to with the captain and the rest on board tolower down such necessaries as the cabin contained to freight the secondboat.
This work had been going on for about half-an-hour; the boat had beenloaded as far as was safe, and coops, spars, rope, casks, and hatcheswere being thrown over, with axes and a saw lashed to them, so as toconstruct a kind of raft from the boats, whose object was to bear theheavier portion of their freight, and also to act as a kind ofbreakwater in case the sea should roughen, when the boats could lie toleeward and wait until some vessel hove in sight to rescue them fromtheir perilous position.
The fire still blazed furiously, melting down the silver, old Rasp said,and this latter worthy had given a great deal of trouble, from the factthat he considered that the only thing worth saving was the divingapparatus. He had strewed the deck with various articles which he hadbrought up, only to be peremptorily rejected. And now all left on boardfound that their minutes there were numbered; but still they toiled on,till a warning cry from Oakum in the further boat drew their attentionto a strange hissing noise where the fire burned most fiercely.
"She's sinking," cried Dutch, as the schooner gave a heavy roll.
"Yes, quick! over with you all," cried the captain. Then, with a groan,"Poor old schooner! she deserved a better fate."
One by one they slid down the rope left ready into the boat, till allwere in save the captain and Dutch, neither of whom would go first.
"Quick, quick!" cried Mr Parkley, "or we shall be sucked down."
"Push off!" roared the captain, who saw their peril; and as theyhesitated he seized the rope and swung himself down, Dutch leapingheadlong into the water at the same moment.
It was a close shave, for as Dutch rose and caught at the boat's gunwalethe oars were dipped and plied manfully, while the schooner blazed nowwith suddenly increased fury, as if the flames meant to secure all theycould before the waters seized their prey. The vessel had begun to rollheavily, and the flames, which had now caught the mizen and fore masts,were running rapidly up the rigging, starting in tongues of fire fromthe tarry ropes, and curling up the masts till they were perfectpyramids of fire.
Three more heavy rolls succeeded, with the hissing of the fireincreasing to a shriek, when a cloud of steam began to rise, and theschooner careened over, so that those in the last boat, as they toiledto get sufficiently far away, could see right down into the burninghold. This lasted but for a few moments though, and then the burningmasts, with their fluttering sheets of flame, rose up perpendicular, andwith a dive forward the vessel plunged down, there was a rushing sound,a tremendous explosion as the steam and confined air blew up the sterndeck, and then the hull disappeared, followed slowly by the burningmasts, while the small boat, with all the spars and raft material, wasdrawn towards the vortex.
"Pull," shouted Captain Studwick, and the oars bent as every possibleeffort was made, but slowly and surely the boat was drawn back towardswhere coops and hatches, casks and planks, eddied round for a fewminutes, and then disappeared.
Dutch had been dragged on board, and, like the captain, he helped at anoar, wondering the while at the power with which they were suckedtowards the whirlpool, round which they at last began to sail.
No earthly power could have saved them had they not been able to delaytheir backward progress for a few minutes; as it was, when they nearedthe vortex, and over which a barrel was drawn, the bows of the boat wereabout to plunge down, but by a tremendous effort. Dutch dragged thelittle vessel round, and a succession of fierce tugs sent her once moreaway from the centre, and another minute's struggle saved them, for thewaters were less troubled now, and the danger past.
As they lay off, though, they saw very few of the objects selectedreturn to the surface, and at last, heartsick, but thankful for theirescape, they gave up the idea of the raft as hopeless, and now steadilyrowed to join their consort.