CHAPTER XXV.
THE STORM.
AS they gazed around them, our little party could not help but realizethe peril of their situation. To the west, about a mile from thedrifting launch, was the reef over which the mountainous waves werebreaking in heaps of swirling foam. To the east of them some threemiles distant was the shore. All they could see of it was its swayingpalms for its beach was hidden by the foaming breakers. All around themrose mighty seas upon which the drifting launch reared and plunged.
So far, they were drifting straight down the lane between the reef andshore, but a slight shift of wind, either way, would send them ashoreto be beaten to death in the pounding surf or out on the reef to besmothered in the mighty seas.
Even without a shift of wind, they were in a perilous position. Thelaunch was doing nobly, but she had never been built for such work.A craft so small could not reasonably be expected to live in such aseaway. She rose gallantly to the sweeping combers, but even a novicecould see her sea-riding limit had almost been reached. Should thewaves continue to increase much in size, the little craft was doomed.
"Oh, well," said Charley, with an attempt at cheerfulness, "we are notas bad off as we might be. While there's life there's hope. The windmay begin to go down any minute, and if it does we will soon be pickedup. There are boats traveling this passage all the time. There's asail, now."
He pointed to where a tiny fleck of white showed in the distance asthey rose on the summit of a wave.
All gazed eagerly at the distant fleck of white. They knew that no boatcould rescue them in such a sea, but it gave them a spark of comfort toknow that they were not alone on the watery deep.
The white speck grew with amazing rapidity. In a few minutes, they wereable to see that it was a small schooner scudding before the gale undera close reefed foresail.
It swept by them not two hundred yards away, so close that they couldsee the pipe in the mouth of the man at the wheel.
They gazed longingly after it until lost to view. When it haddisappeared in the distance they felt an intensified loneliness andhelplessness steal over them.
The only consolation in their wretched plight was the sun. It shonebrightly down with a warmth grateful to their wet, chilled bodies.
"How fast do you think we are drifting, Captain?" inquired Charley,breaking the silence that had fallen upon them.
"Impossible to tell, exactly," returned the old sailor. "As a guess, Iwould say about five miles an hour."
"And we have been drifting about six hours, that would make thirtymiles," the lad calculated. "If I remember the charts right that bringsus about off of Tampa. Do you recall how the coast lies below there,Captain?"
"Not exactly," admitted the old sailor, "but I think it holds about thesame direction. Of course, there are a good many capes running out intothe gulf, but I don't think there is any of them long enough for us topile up on, short of Cape Sable, and that's a couple of hundred milesaway."
"So far so good, then," Charley commented. "We are in no immediatedanger of piling up on shore at any rate. Whew, but the salt sprayhas made me thirsty as a fish. Here goes to get a drink of water." Hecrawled cautiously forward to the locker where the jugs were stowed.
"Both broken," he announced, after a glance inside. "I might have knownit would happen with all the rolling and pitching about. Well, I guesswe can manage to do without until the wind goes down."
But before noon, they realized that the loss of their water was aserious blow. The salt spray and hot sun gave them a painful thirst.Their throats grew parched and dry, and they could barely swallow theremnants of food left from their supper. All attempt at conversationwas given up and they sat huddled and silent in the little cockpit.
And so the long, dreary day dragged away. Time and again boats drovepast them, scudding before the gale, and once a large steamer passedthem almost within hailing distance. But no attempt at rescue could bemade in such a sea.
Night found them still drifting almost too weak and weary to care whathappened next.
"I believe the wind is going down a little," Charley said, shortlyafter the sun had set.
"It is," the old sailor agreed, "but I'm afraid it isn't going downfast enough to help us much. I noticed before dark that our sea anchoris going to pieces. If it once goes and we swing into the trough of theseas, we are goners."
But the old sailor had done his work well and the sea anchor did notgive way as he feared, instead, it held stoutly together while theydrifted on into the night.
As the hours crept slowly away it became evident, beyond a doubt, thatthe wind was steadily going down, and with it the sea, although thewaves still ran dangerously high.
They were beginning to gain fresh hope and courage even in theirsuffering condition when the unexpected happened.
It was Walter that saw it first,--a dark wall rising high up in thedarkness directly in their path. They could do nothing to avert thedanger, only sit and stare dully at the looming mass. As they drovedown upon it they saw that it was a forest of great trees rising,apparently, right out of the water.
Swiftly the doomed launch drifted down on the submerged forest.
When a hundred feet away the captain roused to action. "Here's a rope,"he cried. "Each of you grab hold of it and cling on for life."
The words were barely out of his mouth, when the launch, rising on abig wave, came down with a crash and the next wave sweeping over hercarried them off into the sea.
Like drowning men catching at a straw, the four clung to the ropeas the rushing comber swept them on with it. Bruised, battered, andbreathless, it hurled them upon something hard.
"Quick!" Charley cried, as he realized that they had been safely castup into shoal water. "Quick! Up for the beach before the next comber!"
His companions had not waited for the command, but were alreadyscrambling ahead. A few strides carried them out of danger--but therewas no beach. Everywhere great trees rose up out of water nearly totheir knees. Even in the darkness, they could see that the toweringgiants were almost bare of limb, and from high up above the water greatcrooked roots grasped down for a hold on the bottom.
Charley grasped one of the elbow-like roots and pulled himself up outof water. "Come on," he cried, "it's high and dry up here. These rootsgrow so close together one can almost lie down upon them."
His companions climbed weakly up beside him, where they rested, pantingto gain their breath.
"Come on, we can make ourselves more comfortable than this," Charleysaid, when he had regained some of the wind that had been battered outof him.
They followed him as he crept cautiously from root to root. When theygot about fifty feet from shore, he stopped.
"We had not better try to go any further," he said. "We're shut offfrom the wind all right. Now, for a good, long drink."
He slipped off into the water and, stooping, lapped greedily.
"Come on," he said, as he straightened up for breath, "drink all youwant, it's sweet and fresh."
Much to their delight, his companions found it true and they drank longand greedily of the sweet, cool fluid.
"Now, for beds," Charley announced, cheerfully, when their thirst wasat last satisfied. "Just reach up and break off branches and lay themacross the roots, that will have to do for to-night."
By standing on their tip-toes, they were able to reach some of thesmall boughs and by pulling down--broke them off without difficulty. Ina short time they had gathered and placed enough to make a platform bigenough to accommodate them all. Upon this they were glad to lie downand stretch their tired, aching limbs and bodies.
"This beats the launch, anyway," Charley observed, cheerfully. "Thetrees shield us from the wind, our thirst is satisfied, and there is nospray to wet us. The air is so warm we ought to be able to get a littlesleep without catching cold. I guess, we could all eat a pretty heartymeal right now but we will have to wait until morning to get that."
"What is this strange floating forest," his chum inqui
red. "I never sawtrees like these before."
"They are quite common," Charley answered. "They are cypresses, andgrow only on low, over-flooded ground."
"Have you any idea where we are, lad?" asked the captain.
"I fancy we are on the north-western edge of the great Evergladeswamp," Charley replied. "It meets the gulf somewhere below Marco,about one hundred and twenty miles from Clearwater. But we can talkover these things in the morning. Now we had better get a little sleepif we can. We will need all the rest we can get, for to-morrow isgoing to be a hard day."
Hard and uncomfortable as was the uneven platform, his companions wereso exhausted that they were instantly asleep and their snores soonmingled with the hooting of multitudes of owls and the croaking ofthousands of frogs.
Charley lay awake a few minutes longer, his mind too full of worry anddiscouragement for instant sleep.
Their plight was enough to daunt the stoutest heart. Their launch wasgone, pounded to pieces on the hard sand, and all the money they hadworked so hard to earn and save would have to go to make good the loss.They would, after all their labor, be left just as they had landed inClearwater with nothing but the clothing on their backs. That is, ifthey lived to reach Clearwater again.
His mind filled with these gloomy reflections, the lad at last droppedoff to sleep.