CHAPTER XI
BETWEEN SKY AND SEA
"You got them all, did you?" questioned the captain.
"Yes, sir."
"Good work! Did you have any trouble?"
"Nothing very much, sir."
"You look it," the captain laughed. "You will appear at mast thisafternoon, at one o'clock, and give such evidence as you may haveobtained, relating to where you found the men, and who of them offeredresistance."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Mr. Coates, are all our men accounted for?"
"I will ascertain, sir."
The executive officer returned a few minutes later and saluted.
"The master-at-arms reports that the ship's crew is on board."
"Very good; we will get under way at once. Davis, I take pleasure incommending you for your excellent work. You have done much better than Ihad any idea you could possibly do. That will be all. Your uniform needsattention."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Dan seemed fated to lose his clothes. He was without a hat, his garmentswere torn and soiled and his hair looked as if it had not felt the touchof a comb in many days. His condition necessitated another visit to thecanteen for fresh supplies.
"If this keeps on I shall be spending all my wages for uniforms," saidthe boy with a happy laugh, as he drew a cap, a new jacket, a blouse,and a new rating badge.
The forecastle presented a scene of activity when finally Dan emergedupon it from the forward companionway. Orders were being passed rapidly,boatswain's mates were piping up their different watches and jackieswere making all snug about the decks.
"I think we are ready, Mr. Coates," announced the captain.
"Up anchor!" roared the executive through his megaphone.
Chains rattled and clanked as the powerful electric apparatus beganhauling in the heavy anchors.
"Anchors shipped, sir," sang a midshipman from the forecastle.
"Slow speed ahead, both engines," ordered the captain.
The ship swung slowly about, clouds of black smoke belching from herfunnels. Poking her nose out into the English Channel, the battleshipheaded southward for a long cruise.
The band on the quarter-deck about this time struck up "The Red, Whiteand Blue," every jackie on the decks raising his voice in the words ofthe song. It was an inspiring scene.
Dan Davis felt an unusual pride that afternoon. He had accomplishedsomething of which he was proud, and for which he had a right to beproud.
Shortly after mess the mast court was called, at which all thedelinquents that the Battleship Boy and his squad had rounded up werearraigned on deck. This was the part of his work that the boy did notlike. He was placed in a position where, if he should tell the truth, hewould be obliged to give information that would send some of hisshipmates to the ship's brig for many days. It was a foregone conclusionthat Dan would tell the truth, and he did. He related the story of thearrest of each man, leaving out his own part in the affair as much aspossible. However, the facts were skilfully drawn out by the commandingofficer.
Most of the men who had overstayed their leave were remanded for trialby summary court, and two days later, at muster, sentence waspronounced.
The "Long Island" was now starting on a long cruise to southern waters.The Battleship Boys were looking forward to new sights and new scenes,as well as new experiences, of which they were to have a full measure.
The English Channel was left behind two days later, the battleshipbeginning once more her strife with the broad Atlantic. The skies weregray and the water of that dull leaden hue which to the experienced eyesof the sailor means trouble.
Before that afternoon had come to a close huge seas were breaking overthe forecastle, sending the spray over the bridge and high up on themilitary masts.
"The glass is falling, sir," announced the navigating officer.
"Yes; we are in for a rough night," answered the captain. "Is allsecure, Mr. Coates?" he asked, turning to the executive officer.
"All is secure, sir."
The quarter-deck, long since, had begun shipping seas, so that now itwas wholly awash, the deck being buried beneath tons of water, save nowand then when it would rise, dripping, from the sea, only to bury itselfagain a few minutes later, the after flag staff disappearing beneath thegreen seas that swept over it.
Sea after sea would rise over the forecastle, leap the forward turret,striking the weather cloths of the bridge with a swish and a thud, thengo hissing past the officers on the bridge with terrific speed.
Watches had been set as if the hour were late, for it was becoming moreand more difficult to see ahead, in the blinding salt spray that hungover the ship like a fog.
As far as the eye could reach the sea was a mass of angry, swirlingwaters, here and there rising into great white-capped mountains.
All at once the voice of the lookout in the tops sang out a new call.
"Waterspout off the starboard bow!"
Instantly every man within sound of the lookout's voice sprang up toview the sight.
"Pipe all hands up to see waterspout!" roared the executive officer.
It was dangerous business coming on deck in that sea, but the men knewhow to look out for themselves. They came piling from hatchway andcompanionway like as many monkeys.
"Where away?" called one.
"Off the starboard bow," answered a voice from the bridge.
When the battleship rose on a great heaving billow a splendid sight wasobtained of the twister. The swirling pillar of water appeared to reachhigh up into the skies. The column was traveling at tremendous speed.
"What would happen if the thing should hit us?" questioned Sam Hickeyapprehensively.
"It would rake your red hair and turn it green," jeered a companion.
"I'd hate to be on board a ship that it did hit," added a boatswain'smate.
"I was on a barkentine, trading between New York and Brazil once, whenwe got hit by a twister," said a machinist's mate.
"Do any harm?"
"Not much. Stripped her clean, washed seven sailors overboard and a fewother trifles."
"Do you mean it washed a few other trifles overboard?" questionedHickey.
"No; I don't mean anything of the sort. I mean that it cut up a fewother capers. We were picked up by a coasting steamer three days later,half drowned."
"Any danger of her coming our way?" asked Sam a little apprehensively.
"I guess not. The officers will look out for that."
The officers on the bridge were looking after the waterspout, and verycarefully at that. An extra watch was posted in each of the militarytops, with instructions to keep a keen lookout. Hickey was one of these.His station was on top of the forward cage mast, a hundred feet fromthe deck.
The red-haired boy's head swam as he clung desperately to the ropeladder in his perilous ascent. Now and then the battleship would heelover until it seemed as if she never would come back.
When half way up he paused a few seconds, to turn his head aft and get afree breath, for water was smiting him at every step. He saw a signalwig-wagged to him from the after mast. It was from Dan Davis, who wasgoing up on the same duty.
"I'll race you to the top," signaled Davis.
"Go you!" answered Sam, starting up the ladder at a lively clip. Dan wasnot caught napping. He was off with Sam. Every little distance up thesemasts is a landing made of woven leather strands, and a person mountingto the top has to cross each one of these, taking a ladder on the otherside.
The Battleship Boys barely struck the high places in crossing thelandings. It seemed as if they surely must fall.
"Look careful, aloft there!" roared a voice from the bridge.
"Aye, aye, sir," floated back the reply from Hickey.
They had reached next to the last landing, far up there in thespray-laden air, when a shout attracted all eyes aft.
A man was seen hanging from the platform by his feet. With each roll ofthe ship his body would swing far out from the mast, as he hun
gsuspended between sea and sky.
"Man the main mast!" thundered an officer, his voice being heard abovethe roar of the storm.
Half a dozen jackies sprang for the mast.
"Who is the man aloft there?" demanded the captain.
"It's Gunner's Mate Davis, sir," answered the executive officer.
The captain groaned.
"He'll be lost. Look alive there, men! Quick! Quick!"
Sam had seen and understood, but he did not halt. He was under orders togo to the top, and to the top he went as fast as his feet and handswould carry him. Not until he had reached the swaying platform at thetop of the cage mast did he venture to look astern.
The lad's heart fairly leaped into his throat as he saw his companion'sterrible peril.
In running across the landing, Dan had been caught by a sudden violentlurch of the ship and thrown forward. He felt his head and shouldersgoing through between the braces of the mast. With quick instinct hespread both legs, turning his toes outward.
Nothing else saved him from plunging a hundred feet into the sea. Andthere he clung by his feet, every muscle in his body strained to itsutmost tension. With each roll of the ship he felt that he would beunable to hold on through another.
"Hold fast!" shouted a voice far below him.
"Hold Fast!" Shouted a Voice Below.]
"Hold fast--they're coming!" howled Sam Hickey from his perch high inthe air. His voice was lost on the roar of the gale, but he did not knowit.
"Where's that confounded waterspout?" he muttered. "Oh, I see it. Thething is going to come pretty close to the ship, I'm afraid. But I don'tcare. I'm too high up to get hit by it."
His mind turning from the waterspout to Dan Davis, Sam wheeled,steadying himself by holding tightly to the railing that extended aroundthe top. Every lurch of the ship was like "cracking-the-whip" at school.It seemed to make every bone in one's body snap.
Sam groaned as he saw Dan swaying back and forth.
"Oh, why doesn't he grab the mast? Why doesn't he?"
Sam did not know that Dan was making desperate efforts to do this verything, but thus far had been unable to.
All at once the lad's feet slipped out of position.
"He's going! He's going overboard!" yelled Hickey in a voice that washeard on the bridge and to the stern of the superstructure.
Sam shut his eyes and stood there trembling. He had forgottenwaterspout, raging sea and all--all save the fact that his companion wasfalling.
A yell aroused him. The yell was different from the rest. It was a yellof joy. Sam opened his eyes, blinked, rubbing the salt water out ofthem, then gazed aft through the mist.