CHAPTER XIII. STORMY WEATHER
"Too bad we couldn't take Carleton along with us," said Harvey, as theyacht _Viking_, with all sail spread, was beating down the bay. "He oughtto have asked us sooner. We might have managed to make room for him."
"You mean, he ought to have said he was going sooner," said Henry Burns,slyly.
"Oh, I suppose so," replied Harvey, half-impatiently. "I see, you neverwill quite like our new friend. By the way, that reminds me, he wants tobuy the _Viking_. He says he will give us eighteen hundred dollars.That's the second offer we've had this summer."
"Are you sure it isn't the same one?" suggested Henry Burns.
"Why, of course it is," cried Jack Harvey. "Sure enough, that's whatHarry Brackett was up to. He was buying for Mr. Carleton--just trying toshow off, and make us think he had all that money."
"That's queer, too," remarked Henry Burns, "that Mr. Carleton should tryto buy the _Viking_ after just that one short sail down the river."
"Oh, I don't know," returned Harvey; "he saw what the boat could do--atleast, in smooth water. No, that wouldn't quite answer, either. He musthave heard about her from some of the fishermen over at Bellport."
"Well, do you want to sell?" inquired Henry Burns.
"Not much!" replied Harvey, emphatically. "I know you don't, either,although you don't say so."
"Well, that's true; I'd rather not," admitted Henry Burns.
The wind was light, and they had only reached Hawk Island by six o'clock.So, not caring to risk another experience making Loon Island Harbour inthe night, they anchored, and sailed over the next morning. They hadprovided bait for two days' fishing before they left Southport, so theystood on past Loon Island Harbour and ran out direct to thefishing-grounds.
They had a fair afternoon's fishing, and also set two short pieces oftrawl, for hake, a few fathoms off from one of the reefs. Captain Sam hadprovided them with these. They were long lines, each with about a hundredhooks attached at intervals by short pieces of line. At either end of thetrawl-line was a sinker, and also a line extending to the surface of thewater where it was attached to a buoy. This, floating conspicuously onthe water, would mark the spot where the trawl had been set.
Baiting these many hooks all along the trawl with herring, bought for thepurpose at Southport, they set them at a point lying between two reefs,in about twenty-five fathoms of water, where Will Hackett had informedthem there was a strip of soft, muddy bottom, a feeding-ground frequentedby these fish.
Then they ran in to harbour with their catch of cod, and took them up tothe trader's wharf.
"We're going to have some hake for you, too," said Henry Burns. "That is,we expect to. What are you paying for hake these days?"
The trader, Mr. Hollis, eyed the young fisherman with an amusedexpression.
"Going right into the business, aren't you?" he said. "Well, I like tosee you young fellows with some spunk. Don't fetch in so many that Ican't handle 'em," he added, with a twinkle in his eye; "and if youunderrun your trawls twice a day, so the fish will come in here good andfresh, I'll pay you half a cent a pound. You'll find it some work,though, when the sea is running strong. Got to take the fish off thehooks in the morning, and then underrun again at evening and bait up allthe hooks for the night's catch."
"We'll do that all right," responded Henry Burns. "We'll bring them infresh."
They put in hard, busy days now, rising at the first of daylight andgoing outside as soon as the wind would allow. They had only one dorywith which to tend the trawls, so two of the boys usually tended one, andthen the other two took their turn. It proved, indeed, hard work when thesea was high.
If the night's catch had been good, the trawls came up heavy; and therewas ever the danger, with the pitching of the boat, of running one of theinnumerable hooks into the hands. But they soon became expert at it,learning how to sit braced in the boat and hold the trawl with a firmgrasp, so that it might not slip through the hands, and how to unhook thefish.
Then, when they had underrun both trawls, they would stand off in the_Viking_ for a different feeding-ground for the cod, and fish until itwas time to bait up the trawls for the night.
By degrees, they came to learn other feeding-grounds than the few WillHackett had shown them, by following the little fleet; and they went now,occasionally, clear across the bay that lay between Loon Island and SouthHaven Island. This was often rough water, for they were at the veryentrance to the bay, at the open sea, and the waves piled in heavily,even when the wind was light, showing there had been a disturbance farout. This took them to the shoal water in about the reefs at the foot ofSouth Haven Island, a protected spot from the north, under the lee, butopen to the full sweep of the sea from the south.
It was in this place at about five of the afternoon, on the fourth dayfollowing their arrival, that they experienced a sudden and startlingchange of weather.
They had gone out in the morning, with a light southerly breeze blowing,which had held steadily throughout the day. But now, near sundown, it haddied away, so that they had weighed anchor and were about to beat backslowly across the bay, toward harbour.
They had scarcely got under way, however, when the wind, withextraordinary fickleness, fell off altogether, a strange and unusual calmsucceeding.
"That's queer!" exclaimed Harvey, glancing about with some apprehension."Looks as though we were hung up here for the night. It won't do to tryto anchor near these reefs, and we can't fetch bottom where we are. Iguess we are in for a row of a mile to get under the lee of one of thoselittle islands where we can lie safe."
They were about half a mile out from the nearest line of reefs, floatingidly on the long swells, with the sails flapping and the boom swinginginboard in annoying fashion.
Henry Burns groaned.
"Oh my!" he exclaimed. "What a beastly stroke of luck. I'm tired enoughto turn in now. Don't you suppose we'll get a little evening breeze?"
"We may," replied Harvey, "but there's something queer in the way thewind dropped all of a sudden. I'm afraid we've seen the last of thebreeze for to-day."
But Jack Harvey's prophecy was refuted with startling suddenness.
"Jack," said Bob, almost the next moment, "there's something queer aboutthe water just along the line of the reefs and the shore back of them."
He pointed, as he spoke, to a strange, white light that lay in a long,thin line just off the land, a half-mile ahead. It was almost ghostly,with a brilliant, unnatural whiteness. And, even as they gazed, its arearapidly extended and broadened.
Harvey shot a quick glance ahead. Then he sprang from the wheel andseized the throat-halyard.
"Get the peak--quick!" he cried to Bob. "Head her square as you can forthe light, Henry. Tom, cast off the jib-halyards and grab the downhaul.It's a white squall, I think."
Henry Burns seized the wheel, while the two boys at the halyards let themainsail go on the run. There was no steerageway on the _Viking_, as theyhad been drifting; but Henry Burns managed, by throwing the wheel overquickly and reversing it moderately, to swing the boat's head a little.
They were not a moment too soon. Out of a clear, cloudless sky, therecame suddenly rushing upon them a wind with such fury that, sweepingacross the bow, it laid the yacht over; while there flew aboard, from thesmother about the bow, a cloud of fine spray that nearly blinded them.
The _Viking_, its head thrown off by the squall, that struck the outerjib, which they had not been able to lower, careened alarmingly. ThenHenry Burns brought her fairly before it, just as a sea began to rollaboard. The cockpit was ankle-deep with water; but they were scudding nowsafely out to sea, drenched to the skin, as the squall, whipping off thetops of the long rollers, filled all the air with a flying storm ofspray.
The blast had fallen upon them so unexpectedly, and with such incrediblequickness, that they scarce knew what had happened before they wererunning before it toward the open sea.
They got the
hatches closed now, after Tom had dashed below and broughtup the oilskins. True, they were soaked through and through, but the windhad a sharp, cold sting to it, and the oilskins would protect them fromthat. They got the outer jib down, too. Then, when they saw there was noimmediate danger, as the _Viking_ was acting well, they collected theirwits and discussed, hurriedly, what they should do.
"My! but that was a close call," said Bob. "How did you know what wascoming, Jack?"
"I didn't, exactly," said Harvey. "But I've heard the fishermen tell ofthe white squalls, and I thought that was one."
"Don't they say they are worse when they come between tides?" asked HenryBurns, quietly.
"Seems to me they do," answered Harvey. "I guess we're in for it. Luckywe are running out to sea, instead of in on to a lee shore, though."
"They don't last long, I've heard say," said Henry Burns. "We may be ableto face it by and by, and work back; though it will be a long beat, bythe way we are driving."
They were, indeed, being borne onward with great force. Moreover, a quicktransformation had taken place over the surface of the waters; for thefury of the squall, continuing as it did for some time from the west, hadcalmed the waves, and there was almost a smooth sea before them.
Then, presently, there came another strange alteration of the wind. Theviolence of the squall abated, and the breeze fell away again. But onlyfor a brief length of time. As often happens, with the white squall asits forerunner, the wind now changed from the southerly of the morningand afternoon, to northeasterly; and already, as they proceeded to getsail again on the _Viking_, the water darkened away to the north andeastward, showing that a new breeze was coming from that quarter. Theywere fully two miles out to sea.
"Looks downright nasty, don't it, Jack?" said Henry Burns. "Better reef,hadn't we?"
"Yes, and in a hurry, too," replied Harvey. "It's coming heavy beforelong."
"Here, you take the wheel," said Henry Burns. "I'm quick at tying inreef-points. Come on, Tom. Bob will set the forestaysail. How many reefsdo you want, Jack?"
"Two, I think," replied Harvey. "We'll watch her close, though. I'mafraid we shall need a third. But we'll work her back as far as we canbefore we tie another. It's growing dark, and we must make time."
It was true, and ominously so. With the alteration of the wind the skyhad darkened, and was becoming overcast. Night would soon be upon them,and a stormy one.
Nor had they beaten back more than a half-mile, in the teeth of the wind,before Harvey luffed and hauled the main-sheet in flat.
"We've got to put in a third reef," he said, soberly. "We don't need itquite yet, but we shall very soon, and we don't want to have to reef outhere in the night."
They lowered the sail a little and tied in the reef, and the _Viking_stood on again. But already the sea was beginning to roll up heavily fromthe northeast, having a long sweep of water to become agitated in--thestretch of bay that lay between Loon and South Haven Islands. The windhad become a storm, a black, heavy nor'easter. In another half-hour, rainbegan to drive upon them.
But the good yacht _Viking_ stood it well, and they had worked up towithin about half a mile of the foot of Loon Island, though still a mileaway from it out in the bay, when the wind and sea perceptibly increased.
"We can't make the harbour," muttered Harvey. "We'll try for the littleharbour at the head of the island."
The inhabitants of Loon Island called that end the head which frontedseaward, and there was a good harbour there; that is, not what thefishermen called a "whole" harbour, protected on all quarters, but goodas the wind now blew. They headed more to the eastward and stood up forthat.
But when, at length, Harvey peered ahead, straining his eyes in thegathering darkness for a favourable moment to come about, he could see noapparent difference in the seas. They were all huge, and they beat overthe bows of the _Viking_ in one steady, dashing spray.
"She won't do it," said Harvey.
But he eased her and headed off, while the _Viking_ rolled dangerously.Then he put the helm hard down.
"Ready, about," he cried.
But his fears were realized. The seas were too heavy, with the sail thatthey could carry.
"Well, we'll wear her about," said Harvey. "Drop the peak, Henry; andclimb to windward, boys, when the boom comes over."
There was peril in this manoeuvre, jibing a boat in such a sea and wind;but it was clearly the only thing to be done. There was scant sail on,with the peak lowered; and Harvey did the trick pluckily andsailor-fashion. The sheet was well in and the boat almost dead before thewind, before he threw the wheel over and let the wind catch the sail onthe other side. The yacht came around against a flying wall of foam andspray, with the boys clinging for one moment to the weather rail, andthrowing all their weight on that side. Then Tom and Henry Burns, withunited strength, raised the peak of the sail, though it filled in thegale and was almost too much for them.
They stood up again toward harbour.
"What do you think, Jack?" asked Henry Burns, finally.
"I don't think--I know!" exclaimed Harvey, doggedly. "We can't make theharbour. We've got to ride it out somehow. I don't know but what the bestthing, after all, is to leave just a scrap of sail on, to steady her, andran to sea again. We've got to decide pretty soon, though."
"Wait a minute," said Henry Burns, quietly. "I've got a scheme. If itdoesn't work, we'll scud for our lives again."
Making a quick dash into the cabin, he emerged with a spare line, a heavyanchor-rope. Then he made a second trip and brought forth some smallerand shorter pieces.
"Get the sweeps and the boat-hook," he cried to Tom and Bob, "and fetchup that water-cask and the big wooden fish-box."
The boys waited not a moment to inquire the reason, though Henry Burns'sdesign was an enigma to them. They scrambled forward and then below,handed the sweeps aft, and tumbled the box and cask out on deck.
"Pass some lashings around the cask and the box," commanded Henry Burns.
The boys lost no time in obeying orders, while Henry Burns, himself,quickly took a hitch around either end of one of the sweeps, with one ofthe short pieces of rope. He then tied the spare anchor-line at thecentre of this rope, so that, if the sweep were cast overboard, it wouldbe dragged through the water horizontally, offering its full resistance.
To this sweep he then rapidly hitched the other one, and then theboat-hook; and, finally, he hitched to this the big box and the cask, bytheir lashings.
"What in the world are you going to do with that stuff, Henry?" inquiredBob.
But Harvey had perceived the other's purpose.
"Good for you, Henry!" he exclaimed. "Where did you ever hear about asea-anchor?"
"Read about it in a book, once," responded Henry Burns, coolly. "What doyou say--shall we try it? We lose all the stuff if it don't work. We'llhave to cut it loose."
"You bet we'll try it," said Harvey, hurriedly. "We can't be in muchworse shape than we're in. Get it up aft now, fellows; and Tom, you andBob be ready to jump for the halyards and lower the sail, when it goesoverboard. Then we'll tie in that fourth reef in a jiffy."
The other end of the spare anchor-rope, to which the stuff was tied, wasyet to be made fast forward. This was a dangerous task, with the yachtpitching heavily, as it was, and the seas flying aboard. So Henry Burnspassed a line about his waist, which was held by Tom and Bob, while hescrambled forward in the darkness and accomplished the feat.
Then they got the mass of stuff which they had tied together up to thestern rail, and, at the word, heaved it overboard. Harvey kept the yachtaway from it for a few moments, so that the attraction that floatingobjects have for one another should not bring it in alongside; and then,when the line had nearly run out, brought the _Viking_ as close into thewind as the seas would allow, and held her there.
The yacht lost headway, and drifted back. Lowering the mainsail, theyhurriedly tied in the fourth and last reef. The forestaysail had beentaken in, long before.
The
line brought up; the clean-built, shapely hull of the yacht driftingback faster than the bulky mass of stuff at the other end of it; and, asthe tension came on the line, the bow of the _Viking_ swung around, andshe was heading fairly up into the seas, which broke evenly on eitherside.
"It's great!" cried Harvey, exultantly. "You've got a wise head on you,Henry Burns. Now let's get the scrap of a mainsail up, and she will liesteadier."
They hoisted the shred of sail, hauled the boom inboard so that it was asnearly on a line with the keel as they could bring it, and lashed itsecurely. The sail, thus getting the wind alike on either side, served tosteady the yacht, and she rolled less. They had given the improvisedsea-anchor the full length of the line, which was a long one, so that thestrain would be lessened; and the yacht was riding fairly well.
"She'll stay like a duck, if the gear only holds," said Henry Burns.
They waited, watching anxiously, till a half-hour had gone by. The yachtwas standing it well. The great seas lifted her bows high and dropped herheavily into the deep, black furrows, and the rain and spray drove aboardin clouds. But the yacht held on.
"She'll stay, I think," said Henry Burns; and added, yawning wearily, "ifshe don't, I hope she will let us know right away, for I'll fall asleephere in the cockpit pretty soon. Oh! but this is hard work. I don't knowbut what I'll quit and dig clams for a living."
"Turn in and take a wink of sleep," said Harvey. "She's riding all right.We'll call you if anything goes wrong."
"Go ahead," urged Tom and Bob.
"I believe I will," said Henry Burns. "But it won't be a wink, when I getstarted. You'll have hard work to wake me. Let me know, though, when it'smy turn to take the wheel, and give one of you fellows a chance."
With which, Henry Burns, satisfied in his mind that his scheme wasworking well, went below and fell asleep, unmindful of the bufferings ofthe seas, the straining of the _Viking's_ cabin fixtures, and the heavypitching and tossing that shook the yacht from stem to stern.
"Go ahead, one of you," said Harvey, addressing Tom and Bob. "Two of uscan watch, and if we need you we'll call you."
But they shook their heads.
"I'm dead tired," admitted Bob; "but I couldn't sleep a wink down in thatcabin in this storm. We'll stick it out till morning, won't we, Tom?"
"I'd rather," replied Tom.
"So would I," said Harvey. "But that's just like Henry Burns. When hetakes a notion a thing is so, he believes it out-and-out. I honestlybelieve he thinks he is as safe as he would be on an ocean liner."
Evidently, Henry Burns was satisfied with the situation; and clearly hewas a good sleeper. For daybreak found him still wrapped in slumber. Nordid he waken when, the storm abated and the _Viking_ safe at anchor inthe harbour at the head of Loon Island, Jack Harvey and the otherstumbled below and laid their weary bones beside him.
But, to make return for their kindness in not arousing him to help workthe boat, he was up before them, and had dinner piping hot when theyopened their eyes at noontime.