CHAPTER XV--IN THE TEETH OF DEATH
"What's the worst, now, captain?"
It was Miss Jessie who asked this, her lips close to the young skipper'sear, for the gale's roar now drowned out all ordinary tones.
"Do you see that line of spray?" asked Halstead, pointing to where thewater dashed over the reef.
"Yes."
"I'm wondering if it's possible for us not to be dashed on that."
"Wrecked?" demanded Jessie, her face paling, but her lips steady.
"That's one of our dangers."
"And that will mean that we must be drowned?"
"We'll hope not," replied Halstead, forcing a smile. "Joe! Jed!"
Getting his friends where Mrs. Lester could not overhear, Halstead wenton quickly:
"If we go to smash on the reef, remember that I'm to take the motherinto the water. Joe, you take the elder daughter; Jed, you the youngerone. If we have to get into the water with women's lives to save,remember the glory of American seamen!"
"I'll get ashore double, or not at all," Joe promised, and he knew verywell how little likelihood there was of reaching safety on land.
"I'll prove I'm one of you," promised Jed, though his face was ashen.Tom grabbed his hand long enough to give it a mighty squeeze. Then theyoung skipper moved to the starboard rail where he could watch best. Hiscalculations had proved correct. The "Meteor," drifting helplessly, wasbound to strike on the reef. With fascinated gaze Tom watched the angrybreakers.
"We're pretty near the finish, aren't we?" asked Miss Jessie in his ear.The girl's voice was icily calm.
"I think we're going to strike within two or three minutes," Tomresponded, stonily. "If we do, trust to us in the water, and try not tohamper us. I'll try to get your mother ashore, Jed takes you, and Joeyour sis----"
Tom stopped short. Where on earth was Joe? That youth had vanished fromthe deck.
"Why, I thought Joe was here, right ready for his next duty," criedHalstead, amazedly. "Where----"
"He went below," bawled back Jed. "But he's not in the engine room."
"Then he's doing something that's good, any way," spoke Tom, with wholefaith in his tried comrade.
Once more the young captain turned to watch the line of breakers. The"Meteor" was deadly close now, her staunch hull in imminent danger.
"Here--quick!" roared Dawson's heaviest tones.
His head showed in the hatchway. He was handing through a metal can.
"And I've got another one," he shouted. "Thought there must be somereserve aboard, so I explored the spare lockers aft. There--got it?"
For Tom had snatched up a five-gallon can and was lifting it to thecovered deck forward. The "Meteor" was rolling and pitching under thelashing of the gale. Waves broke and dashed over that forward deck, butJoe, with a second five-gallon can, followed. Both boys had to crawl,feeling as though they were holding on by their teeth.
"You pour--I'll shield the inlet from water!" shouted Dawson, over allthe roar of the elements. "It's life or death in a minute, now, oldchum!"
Well enough Tom knew that, but he saw also the one bare chance ofgetting all hands out of their awful plight. Dawson crawled around towindward of the inlet to the gasoline tank, shielding it as much as hecould with his body. He unscrewed the cap, while Tom removed the smallertop of one of the gasoline cans.
"Wait until the dash of the next wave is past," shouted Halstead. "ThenI'll pour."
Though it took many precious moments, they contrived to empty the caninto the tank without getting any salt water mixed with it.
"Now, another can!" breathed Joe tensely.
But Tom, raising his eyes to glance at the spray-ridden reef, answeredquickly:
"Later. There isn't a second to lose now. Hustle back!"
The dragging anchor retarded the bow of the boat somewhat. It was thestern that seemed about to strike the reef. While Joe worked likelightning in the engine room Tom stood with both hands resting on thewheel. He dreaded, every instant, to feel the bump and the jar thatshould tell the news that the "Meteor" had struck.
"What do you want? Speed ahead?" bawled up Joe.
"As quickly as you can possibly give it," Tom answered.
Still Halstead stared astern. It seemed as though the reef were risingto meet the hull of the boat.
Throb! Chug! The motor was working, slowly. With an inward gasp ofthanksgiving Halstead swung the bow around a bit to port. The engine,weaker than the gale, must drag the anchor at least a short distance.Any attempt to raise it too soon might hold the boat to the danger line.
But Tom felt a sudden glow of happiness. The "Meteor" was forging slowlyahead. She would soon be safe, if the engine remained staunch. There wasfearfully little oil in the tank, and he knew that the delivery of gasto the ignition apparatus must be very slight.
Out of the engine room came Joe in a hurry, signaling to Jed to followhim. The two crawled out, over that wet, slippery forward deck of therolling, pitching boat, and managed to empty a second can into the tank.The engine was working better by the time that the pair regained thebridge deck.
"That's enough to get us out of all trouble," shouted Joe briefly. "Weneedn't bother about the third one aft until we're well out of this."
Captain Tom, watching the reef that they were slowly leaving behind,soon decided that it was time to haul in the anchor that had held. Joeand Jed accomplished this. The instant that the drag was clear of thebottom the "Meteor" shot ahead.
"Hurrah!" yelled all three of the young seamen, when that new startcame.
"We're safe, now, aren't we?" inquired Mrs. Lester, bending forward, hereyes shining.
"Unless there's some new trouble with the motor," Tom answered her, "weought to be back at the Dunstan place in twenty minutes."
Now, Jed brought the third can of gasoline from the locker aft. He andJoe succeeded in emptying it. If all went well, there was now enough oilin the tank to carry the boat much further than she had to go. Even atthat, however, the boat was running with less gasoline than she had evercarried in her tank before.
"There are Mr. Dunstan and his wife down at the pier, watching us,"announced Miss Jessie, as they came within eye-range of the Dunstanplace. "They must have been dreadfully worried about us."
"Now, I know what danger is, and just what courage and steadfastness menmay show," remarked Miss Elsie, as they passed south of a littleheadland that formed one of the shelters of the Dunstan cove.
"And you know how much grit women may show," rejoined Halstead, "for notonce did you give us any trouble."
"Perhaps we were too badly frightened to make trouble," laughed JessieLester.
"Well, you didn't any of you faint or have hysterics after you realizedthe danger was over, did you?" retorted Captain Tom, laughing. "Youcan't get away from the charge that you all showed splendid courage assoon as you realized that we were in real danger."
"But you were planning to swim ashore with us from the reef," said Mrs.Lester.
"I'm very, very thankful we didn't have to try it," replied Halstead,soberly. "It would have been one of those one-in-a-hundred chances thatI don't like to have to take."
Jed was busy, now, putting out the heaviest fenders along the port sideof the hull. Even in the cove the waves were running at a troublesomeheight. Yet Tom and Joe, by good team work at their respective posts,ran the "Meteor" in alongside the pier, almost without a jar.
"I'm thankful you're all back safe," called Mr. Dunstan, coming towardthem. "I would have been worried, Mrs. Lester, if I hadn't known allabout the captain and crew that had the boat out."
But when he heard about the hairbreadth escape from going on the reefoff Muskeget Mr. Dunstan's face went deathly pale. He asked the ladiesto return to the house, while he boarded the "Meteor" and faced the boysanxiously.
"What on earth can it mean that the gasoline ran out?" he demanded."Dawson, are you absolutely sure that you had plenty of oil when youreturned at daylight this morning?"
"Positive
of it, sir," came emphatically from Engineer Joe.
"Then that oil must have been pumped quietly out of the tank while youthree slept almost the sleep of the dead," exclaimed the owner.
"It was pumped out very early in the day, too," Tom insisted. "Such abig quantity couldn't have been pumped anywhere except overboard. Itwould have taken several barrels to hold what was in the tank. Yet, bythe time we were on deck, at a little after noon, there wasn't a sign ofgasoline anywhere on the water about us. The tide had carried it away."
"I suppose anyone could have operated a steam-engine over your heads andyou boys wouldn't have heard it this morning, you were so sound asleep,"mused Mr. Dunstan. "Yet it was in broad daylight that you berthed theboat. It must have been a daring man who would have come down openlythrough these grounds on such an errand."
"Unless----" began Halstead thoughtfully.
"Well, unless--what, captain?"
"Mr. Dunstan, it's possible, isn't it, that one of your men about theplace may be disloyal to you? Such a man may have done this thing eitherto help your enemies, or to satisfy some spite against you."
"I can't think of a man in my employ I'd suspect of such a thing,"murmured the troubled man.
Plainly the owner was not the man to discuss this suspicion with. Towarddark, however, Tom and Joe went to one man on the place whom theybelieved to be above all suspicion. That was big Michael, the coachman.With Michael, they discussed the matter long and earnestly.
Though the honest coachman could tell them nothing definite, TomHalstead went away from that talk on a new scent of danger ahead.
Dawson, too, was thinking hard, and, as a consequence, was even morequiet than usual.
"I'm afraid it wouldn't be much use to go to Mr. Dunstan with this,"sighed the young captain. "We'll just keep our eyes open."