CHAPTER XX
THREE ON A RAFT
Slowly, owing to its size and clumsy, though eminently safe,construction, the life raft containing the sailor approached the bit ofwreckage that supported Bob Baker and Professor Snodgrass.
“Are you all right?” the sailor called to them, and his voice seemedhappy and jolly in spite of his situation.
“As right as can be,” responded Bob. “We’ll be better when we get onboard with you, though. That is, if there’s room.”
“Sure, there’s plenty of room!” the old salt asserted. “And there’sstuff to eat and drink here, though I haven’t time to get at it. Steadynow, and I’ll have you on board in another minute or two.”
He navigated his queer craft until he had brought it alongside the massof wreckage, and in a few minutes more, Bob and the professor weresafely on board. The change was a most welcome one, since the life raftrode high in the water, and they could sit out of reach of the waves,at least while the sea was calm. In a storm it would be another matter,but they did not think of this just then.
“Now we’ll paddle away from that bit of jagged timber,” said thesailor. “It won’t do to get rammed with that, or we may get a holestove in one of our air tanks. That’d be bad!”
He was about to fend off the rude craft that had saved the lives of Boband Professor Snodgrass when the latter uttered a cry.
“Wait a minute!” he begged. “My clothes! I’ve got a pencil in onepocket, and some paper. After I dry it out I can make notes on this newkind of crab I’ve found in this seaweed. I want to get my clothes.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” decided Bob. “I’ll get mine, too. May havea chance to use ’em later on.”
It did not take long to haul aboard the raft the bundles of wetclothing from the cracks in the mass of wreckage, and then Bob, takingan oar, helped the sailor shove off.
“Now we’re properly afloat, we’d better think what we’re going to do,”suggested the old salt. “I’m no navigator. Beno Judd is my name, and Igenerally write ‘A. B.’ after it when I sign papers. Can either of yougentlemen navigate?”
“I can’t,” confessed Bob, as he told his own name and that of hisscientific friend. “Perhaps the professor may be able to help us.”
“Help you do what?” asked Professor Snodgrass, looking up from hisoccupation of investigating the seaweed.
“Navigate,” answered Bob. “Mr. Judd, this sailor, says he doesn’t knowanything about it.”
“Neither do I,” admitted the professor. “But why do we want tonavigate? We’re afloat, aren’t we? And we’re comparatively dry now, orwill be soon. This bunch of seaweed will keep me occupied for severaldays, and----”
He paused to look closely at the sailor.
“What did you do with it?” he asked quickly.
“With what?”
“That bug.”
“Well, maybe the poor thing died of fright, or was drowned, sir,” wasthe answer, given with just the trace of a smile. “I went overboardwhen you did, sir, and that’s all I know.”
“Too bad,” mused the professor. “But perhaps sometime I may findanother on you. At any rate I have this crab, and a most beautifulspecimen it is.”
As he spoke he held up a squirming creature, which, as Bob said later,never would have taken a prize, even at a bulldog show.
“I hope to secure some valuable data from this specimen as to thepossible effect of the discharge of depth bombs on inhabitants of thesea,” the professor went on. “If I only had some dry note paper!” hesighed, as he took a sodden mass from his wet garments.
“You’re lucky to be as high and as dry as you are, sir!” exclaimed thesailor Judd. “I count myself lucky to have met with this raft. All Ihad, at first, was a bit of wood hardly enough to kindle a fire. Thisis much better.”
“Oh, this is fine,” agreed the professor.
“Speaking of fires,” ventured Bob, “did you say there was somethingto eat on board?” and he looked suggestively at the closed box whichformed the highest part of the life raft.
“This is supposed to contain food and water,” remarked Judd, as hetapped the compartment in question. “Shall I open it?”
“I should say so!” exclaimed the stout lad. “Even a cold snack wouldtaste good.”
“And possibly we might find some dry paper in there on which I couldmake a few notes.” The professor spoke wistfully. “I have the pencil,”he added, as he drew one from his wet and sodden garments.
“We’ll soon see,” said the sailor. “There’s no need of rowing justnow,” he added to Bob, who had one of the oars in his hands. “We aren’tin any danger of running into any one or of getting anywhere, either.We can see what we’ve got to eat and then start to navigate--that is,we can row and see where we get.”
“Don’t you think we ought to see if we can find the _Sherman_?” askedBob. “She ought to be somewhere around here,” and he gazed into the fogthat still surrounded them.
“Not much use trying,” declared the sailor. “I shouted until my throatached, and never a word in answer did I get. I don’t know what happenedto the transport after I left it, but I couldn’t get sight of her.”
He turned to open the case that was placed amidships of the life raft.It was tightly closed by a catch that could be easily opened when oneknew how, and Judd seemed to know.
“Is this life raft from the _Sherman_?” asked Bob. “Did they throw itover when the crash came?”
“It isn’t one from the transport,” the sailor answered. “It’s likesome we carried, though. This one is from the steamer _Altaire_, and Ishouldn’t wonder but what that was the derelict that crashed into us.”
“The _Altaire_!” murmured Bob. “I wonder if we’ll ever see her again.I’ve always wanted to see a derelict.”
“Well, I’d rather see one at a distance, if they’re going to act asthis one did,” remarked Professor Snodgrass. “Though I suppose Ishouldn’t find fault, as I might never have discovered this crab ifI had not gone overboard. The only thing that worries me, though, isthat I didn’t get that sea-leech. That’s what was on you,” he added tothe sailor. “A sea-leech is one of the rarest specimens of the genus_Hirudo_, and this was the _Hirudo aqua marinis_, quite different fromthe _Hirudo medicinalis_. What I was particularly interested in was toobserve whether the sea-leech had the same three small white teeth withserrated edges which cause the peculiar triradiated wound as has the_Hirudo medicinalis_.”
Judd stared in amazement.
“Well, if it’s all the same to you,” said Bob, with a smile, “I’d liketo try my teeth on some of the food in that box.”
“All right, my boy! I’m with you!” agreed the professor. “I feel a bithungry myself.”
Judd opened the locker, and to the delight of the three on the raft itwas well filled. There was preserved food enough to last them perhapsa week, and a large cask of fresh water--that is, it was comparativelyfresh, for no one could say how long the raft had been adrift.
“But it can’t have been long,” asserted the old salt. “My opinionis that the life raft was jarred off the derelict when she hit us.Otherwise it wouldn’t have been floating in the place where we struckthe water. Besides, there isn’t any growth or mass of seaweed andbarnacles on it as there would be if it had been long in the water.”
“Well, we ought to be thankful for what we have,” said Bob, with asigh, as he munched some sea biscuit and a bit of corned beef, a can ofwhich the sailor opened. “This is a good deal better off than I thoughtwe’d be a while back. How about it, Professor Snodgrass?”
“You are right,” was the answer from the little scientist. “And, Bob,don’t destroy any wrapping paper. I can use the blank side for makingnotes.”
This he proceeded to do, taking the crab as his first specimen, thoughhe declared that the bunch of seaweed, which he had laid aside,contained much else that would hold his attention later.
“Well, now let’s consider what’s best to do,
” said Bob, when they hadmade a fairly substantial meal, washing it down with the water which,though not exactly as good as that from a faucet or a well, was veryacceptable.
“Which way shall we row?” asked the sailor. “If you gentlemen will tellme how to navigate I’ll be only too willing.”
“I’ll do my share of rowing,” agreed Bob. “But that’s thequestion--which way shall we row?”
“Or sail,” added Judd.
“Sail!” exclaimed the stout lad. “Can we sail?”
“Oh, yes, there’s a small mast and sail here,” and the seaman pointedout where it was fastened to the raft. “We can hoist the sail, butthere’s no wind to fill it.”
This was true enough. The fog still enveloped them, and it needed awind to carry away this concealing vapor. It hid them from view evenas it hid from them the possible location of the _Sherman_ and thederelict.
“Well, let’s hoist the sail, anyhow,” suggested Bob. “Then it willbe ready when the wind does come, and if there are any small boatscruising around looking for us, or if any other ships get in thisneighborhood, they can see us more easily if we have the sail up.”
“You’re right,” agreed the sailor. “Up she goes.”
As has been remarked, the raft, on which the three now were, consistedof two large hollow steel cylinders. Between them was a raisedframework, and this, in addition to holding the box of food, containeda compartment for the oars and for a small sail. The mast for thelatter was soon stepped in the hole provided for it. It was braced byropes, and the sail hoisted.
“Now we’re all ready for a voyage!” cried Bob, more gaily than he couldhave talked an hour before.
For some little time they drifted on, the sail hanging idly at themast, and the fog lazily swirling around them. Then, suddenly, therecame a puff of wind. They all felt it at once.
“A breeze!” cried the sailor.
“Yes, and look!” cried Bob. “There’s the _Sherman_!”
He pointed to what seemed an opening torn in the veil of fog, and allthree had a glimpse of the camouflaged side of some vessel. Then, asthe wind bellied out the sail, the fog shut in again, and it was as ifa blank, white wall confronted them.