CHAPTER VII
OFF ON A SEARCH
For a moment Jerry and Ned stared almost uncomprehendingly at the boywho brought such startling news. Then Jerry exclaimed:
“It can’t be possible, Bob! There must be some mistake!”
“I only wish there was,” went on the stout lad. “Not that I want anyother vessel to be wrecked, either. But the dispatch says plainly thatthe _Hassen_ has gone down. It’s a peculiar name, and there’s hardlyany likelihood of an error. No, I’m afraid it’s all up with UncleNelson and Cousin Grace!”
“Too bad!” sympathized Ned. “Now you won’t know what it was he wasbringing over with him.”
“Oh, I fancy my folks know,” said Bob. “But I don’t care so much aboutthat.”
“I should say not,” agreed Jerry. “Think of being out in the ocean insuch weather as this! Poor girl!”
“They might have escaped--have taken to the small boats or the liferafts,” suggested Ned. “I wouldn’t give up all hope, Bob, old man.”
“Well, of course there’s a small chance,” admitted the stout youth ina despondent tone; “but not much in such a storm as this. A small boatcouldn’t live an hour in such a sea as there must be off this coast.It’s awful!”
“Well, hope for the best,” came from Jerry. “Things are bad enoughhere. Look at the ruin!” and he gazed about him. The others saw thedestruction on every side, caused by the high wind. Scarcely a streetbut what was littered with debris, and many houses were uninhabitableby reason of being unroofed or through the breaking of water and drainpipes.
“We’ve got to get busy and help!” exclaimed Ned. “See! there’s anothervolunteer corps being organized. Let’s join it. We can’t get anywetter; and it will help to take Bob’s mind off his trouble,” Ned addedin lower tones to Jerry.
“You’re right, old man. Work is the best thing for that. Come on, Bob,let’s get busy. You, too, Andy Rush!”
“That’s what I want to do--help!” cried the excitable lad. “Savelives--put out fire--pump a cellar dry--build up a chimney--here wego--come on, everybody--let her go--whoop!”
“If he keeps on that way he won’t get much done,” commented Bob with asmile.
“Let him go,” advised Jerry. “Talk is his safety valve. I’d hate tothink what would happen to him if he couldn’t work off his energy thatway.”
Just then Ned saw his father talking to the mayor of the town, andhurried over to them.
“Ah, Ned!” exclaimed Mr. Slade, “we were just beginning to worry aboutyou. This is awful--terrible. I have thrown open my department storeto the use of the relief corps. We will house and feed as many thereas we can. Other merchants are doing the same. You boys may bring anyunfortunates you meet. The salespeople, and everyone there, has ordersto spare nothing.”
“That’s bully, Dad!” exclaimed Ned. “We were just going to start in andhelp. We had to go off after our boat that got adrift.”
“So I understand. Well, I’ll tell your mother you’re all right.”
“And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you let my mother knowI’m safe?” asked Jerry. “Then I won’t have to go home.”
“Yes, I’ll do that, and for you and Andy, too, Bob. Now boys, show whatsort of stuff you’re made of. This is quite a calamity for Cresville,but other places have suffered worse, and it’s up to us to meet itbravely. Now, Mr. Mayor, don’t fail to call on me for any aid in mypower to give.”
“Thank you, Mr. Slade, I’ll remember. You’re a citizen to be proud of.Mr. Baker has offered me all the funds I need.”
“That’s good,” murmured Bob, glad that his father, too, had taken ahand in helping the unfortunates.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” said Mr. Slade. “Mrs. Hopkins telephoned me alittle while ago, Mr. Mayor, to the effect that she and some ladieswere organizing a nursing corps, so that any injured persons willreceive all the medical attention they need.”
“Good!” cried the town executive. “It’s a comfort to have such citizensin Cresville. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go see how our relief workis coming on.”
“Yes, and I guess it’s up to us to get on the job, too!” added Jerry.“Come on, fellows.”
While Mr. Slade hurried off to send word of the safety of the lads,Jerry and his chums placed themselves at the service of one of theseveral chairmen of the relief corps that had hastily been organized.The boys found much to do, and it was not easy work, as the stormcontinued to rage.
“I think it’s slacking up a bit, though,” remarked Bob when there camea chance for him and his chums to take a breathing spell. They hadworked hard and faithfully, even the excitable Andy Rush proving a realhero.
“Yes, the wind isn’t quite so strong,” agreed Jerry. “I’ll be glad,though, when we can get on something dry.”
“I wouldn’t mind the wet so much if we could get a hot cup of coffee,”spoke Bob, and his chums were so much of his opinion that they made noreference to his allusion to food.
“Speak of coffee and----” began Ned, not finishing the sentence, forwith a wave of his hand he indicated a group of women, attired in men’srubber coats, who were going about with a small cart, in which stood asteaming wash boiler full of it.
“Say, there’s my mother!” cried Jerry, and, sure enough, the wealthywidow, with some of her friends, was going about giving hot coffeeto the drenched and weary workers. “That’s the stuff, Mother!” criedJerry, heartily. “Got any left?”
“Indeed we have, boys!” answered Mrs. Rutledge, a neighbor of theHopkinses.
A number of the volunteers surrounded the little cart, and soon thecoffee was being enjoyed. Jerry hastily told his mother of saving theboat, and then, as there was still much to be done, the boys resumedtheir rescue labors.
Fortunately no fires had broken out to add to the horror, or thehistory of Cresville might have been different. As it was, damage wasdone that took years to repair.
But the storm was really too fierce to last a great while, and the windgradually died down, though the rain continued to fall for some time.
But now most of the homeless had been given temporary shelter, and theinjured sent to hospitals, or were taken care of in private houses.There was no more for the boys to do, and, at Jerry’s suggestion, theyadjourned to his house, which was the nearest. There they put on someof his spare clothes, though Bob looked so funny in them that Ned andJerry laughed.
“I don’t care,” said Bob. “I’m too worried to mind what you fellowssay--or do.”
“You mean about your cousin and uncle?” asked Ned, sympathetically.
“Sure. The news will break mother and dad all up, I’m afraid. My unclewas mother’s brother, you know.”
“Well, maybe there’ll be better news in the morning,” said Jerry. “Evenif the _Hassen_ sank, some other steamship may have picked up thepassengers.”
“Well, we’ll have to wait and see,” said Bob. “What’s that?” heexclaimed, as the sound of a fall came from the next room.
Jerry rushed out, to return a moment later smiling, and remarked:
“You might have known. It was Professor Snodgrass. He was after somesort of a bug on the library wall, and stumbled over a chair. Mothersays he started out with her on the rescue work, but every once in awhile he’d see something he wanted as a specimen, and he’d stop to getit. Finally she went on without him.”
“Well, I’m glad this day is over,” said Ned. “It’s been a hard one!”
“That’s right,” agreed Bob. “Say,” he went on, “have you fellowsthought any more about that submarine trip the professor wants to take?”
“I haven’t,” confessed Jerry. “There hasn’t been time.”
“I don’t see how we’re going to do it,” spoke Ned. “A submarine boat isquite a big proposition. It isn’t like building an aeroplane.”
“Well, we can think about it later,” suggested Jerry. “Just now I wantto lie down and rest,” and he stretched out on a couch near the hearth,wh
ere a fire had been built.
Gradually something like order came out of the chaos in Cresville. Manywilling hands worked hard to repair the damage, and the next day mostof the streets were cleared. Then came the slower process of repairingthe damaged buildings and the recovery of the injured. But with thatthis story has nothing to do.
Eagerly the boys looked for further reports of the steamship _Hassen_.The bad news was only too soon confirmed. The next day’s paperscontained an account of the wreck of several vessels.
Among the dispatches was a story of the foundering of the ship on whichMr. Sheldon and his daughter Grace had sailed from Germany.
“Well, that ends it,” said Bob, mournfully, when, with his two chums,he had read the account. “Poor Uncle Nelson! That’s the last of him.And he was such a jolly man, too. Poor Grace!”
Jerry seemed to be in a brown study. He seemed to neither hear nor seehis friends.
“No!” he suddenly exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” asked Ned curiously.
“It isn’t the end, fellows!” vigorously went on Jerry, springing to hisfeet, and beginning to pace the room. “There may be a chance yet!”
“For whom?” demanded Bob.
“Your uncle!” was the answer. “Even if the vessel did sink he and hisdaughter may have taken to a boat. And some of those lifeboats can livethrough a bad storm. Boys, I’ve got a plan. Let’s take the _Comet_ andsail around the place where the _Hassen_ is supposed to have gone down.It’s a bare chance, but it’s worth taking. Are you with me?”
“Of course!” cried Ned. “We’ll start at once. Maybe we can pick themup--and some other castaways, too. Of course we’re with you, Jerry,old man!”
Bob said nothing, but there was more than words in the manner in whichhe clasped Jerry’s hand.