CHAPTER IX
TOM GOES OVERBOARD
"Stand by to lower the boats! Order all hands on deck! Women andchildren first!"
Captain Steerit was yelling these commands through a megaphone to hiscrew, even while he turned to order the first mate, on the bridge withhim, to go below to the engine room, and see what damage had been done.
The _Silver Star_, after the first staggering blow, had come to astop, and lay pitching and tossing on the waves. Clearly her engineswere motionless, for Tom missed the vibration that had told of theirceaseless revolutions.
"Something bad has happened," reflected our hero. "I've got to be onthe lookout."
He glanced over the rail, and could see nothing but the black, rushingwaves. He had half a mind to go back to his cabin, and see if he couldnot crowd some of his belongings into a valise.
"If we've got to take to the boats," he reflected, "there are not somany of us but what we can each take a little baggage. I'll need someother clothing if we come out of this safely. I'll take a chance."
He was about to go below when he once more felt the throb of theengines, and the ship quivered.
"We're under way again," he said, half aloud. "I guess it's all right.We may have hit a floating spar, or something like that. And yet, fromthe way the lookout yelled, it seemed to be more dangerous than that. Iguess it's all right, though."
But the order to stand by to lower the boats had not been recalled, andalready the sailors were swarming about them, seeing that the fallswere clear, and that food and water were on board the small craft.
Small craft, indeed, they seemed, to be trusted on the mighty ocean ina storm, and yet they were staunchly made, and Tom knew that if theycould be successfully launched they could weather many a blow.
"Well, if I've got to take a chance, I've got to," he reflected. "I'llget some of my things, and wait for my place in the boat."
The sound of crying and tearful exclamations could now be heard abovethe roar of the gale, and Tom recognized the voice of Jackie Case, thelittle boy whom he had saved.
"Poor little chap!" he mused. "It's tough on the women and children."
After that first staggering blow, and the confusion that followed,order seemed to come out of chaos. Captain Steerit had matters well inhand, and he issued his orders calmly. The women were comforted as bestthey could, and urged to get in the small boats. Some objected, fearingto trust themselves to the craft in such a storm. But the captaininsisted.
"Is there really any danger?" asked Mr. Blake, as he stood by one ofthe starboard boats, his wife clinging to him. Tom was near enough tohear the captain's answer.
"We have sprung several bad leaks," was what the commander said,"and the pumps can't keep the water down. We must have struck ahalf-submerged wreck, and that further opened the seams which werestarted by the strain of the storm. I regret to say it, but I fear wemust abandon the ship--before it is--too late!"
His solemn words set the women to weeping again, but their relativestried to calm them. Tom had started for his stateroom, intending to getsome of his belongings, when little Jackie spied him.
"Tom! Tom!" he called. "Come with me."
"In a little while, Jackie, my boy!" Tom answered. "I'll get in afteryou do."
"Come with me and my papa," invited the little lad, and he started torun across the heaving deck, but his parent caught him up in his armsand hugged him close.
The engines that had started up, after a temporary stoppage caused bythe collision, again suddenly ceased to work, and once more the _SilverStar_ lay at the mercy of the wind and waves. It was raining now, andthe storm was at its height, the wind whipping the stinging drops intothe faces of everyone.
"Hurry, men!" urged the captain. "Get them into the boat and followyourselves. Where are you going, Tom?" he asked, for the commander hadcome down from the bridge.
"To my cabin to get some of my things," answered the lad.
"Better not. We'll have to be quick! She's beginning to settle. Shewon't last much longer! There must be a big hole ripped in her. What'sthe matter with those signal lights?" he cried.
"Aye, aye, sir!" came the answer, and a moment later there flared upthe glare of the rockets that might serve to call help to the strickenvessel. The wireless, too, was crackling out an appeal, but this didnot last long, as the dynamo was soon put out of commission, and thestorage battery did not seem to work.
"Well, I guess we've got to go," mused Tom. "This is certainly a badstart toward the rescue of dad and mother!" and he felt a mist of tearscome into his eyes, that mingled with the rain and the salty spray ofthe sea.
"Are all the women and children in?" asked the captain, for one boatwould more than serve to hold them.
"Aye, aye, sir!" came the answer.
"Then let their husbands or other relatives join them."
The men involved in this order moved forward over the sloping andheaving deck, in the glare of the signal fires, and took their places.
"Tom! Tom Fairfield!" cried little Jackie. "I want you with me!"
"Yes, Tom, you might as well go," said the captain, holding out hishand to our hero. "Good-by."
"But, aren't you coming? There's lots of room."
"I'll come--last," was the grim answer. "Go! And good-luck to you. I'veput a trusty man in charge of that boat."
Our hero sprang toward the lifeboat which was all ready to be loweredat a favorable moment. But Tom Fairfield was not destined to enter her.
At that moment, and with a suddenness that took them all unprepared,there came another frightful blow against the side of the ill-fated_Silver Star_. She heeled over, and in such a manner that the lifeboatwith its load of shrieking women and pale-faced men overhung the sea.
"Lower away!" shouted some one.
"Wait!" cried Captain Steerit.
Tom felt himself knocked down and hurled across the sloping deck. Invain he tried to grasp something to stay his progress. A wave splashedup, making the deck even more slippery.
Over and over rolled Tom, and he hoped, when he came to the rail, tosave himself. But the rail was not there. In the glare of the burningsignal lights Tom could see where a great portion of it and the nettinghad been torn away. There was nothing to save him from rolling into thesea.
In vain he tried to clutch the slippery deck, to hold on to something.He did not cry for help. He knew it would be useless. Over and over herolled.
The vessel was sinking fast now. Tom, imperiled as he was, could tellthat. She rose more sluggishly to the heaving waves. There were criesof pain, terror and confused shouts.
A moment later our hero found himself shooting off into space.
Down and down he plunged. He could see the glare of the rocketsreflected from the surface of the boiling waves. He saw somethingwhite floating, and he tried to hurl himself toward that.
In another instant he had hit the water feet first, and felt himselfgoing down into the depths. He had been tossed overboard into the midstof the ocean and in the heart of the storm. The waters closed over him,and filled his ears with their booming sound.