The Moving Picture Girls at Sea Part 22

"Oh, what a pretty sight!" exclaimed the voice of Miss Dixon, as she emerged from a companionway with her chum, Miss Pennington. "Isn't it romantic--stopping to speak to a steamer at sea?"

"Delightful," agreed Miss Pennington. "I wonder if the captain of the steamer will ask us to tea? It's a British vessel, and Englishmen are so fond of tea."

"Yes, and they are so romantic and good-looking," agreed Miss Dixon.

"But perhaps this is only for moving pictures."

"Oh, pshaw! Perhaps it is!" sighed her companion, and the two of them, who had been taking surrept.i.tious glances in mirrors, enclosed in the flaps of their bags, ceased "primping," until they could be sure whether or not there was any object in it.

"What's it all about?" asked Miss Dixon again.

"Oh, they're going to take one of our men, I believe," said Pop Snooks, the property "angel," as the ladies often called him.

"Oh dear! What are they? Pirates?" gasped Miss Pennington.

"No, it's Jack Jepson they're after. Some old charge, I believe."

"Ha! I knew something would happen on this voyage!" exclaimed Mr. Pepper Sneed. "I felt it in my bones all along."

"Good thing you're not disappointed," murmured Alice.

"Oh dear!" sighed her sister. "It's too bad. And I liked Jack so."

"So did I," returned Alice. "But they're a long while sending that boat."

It did seem so, for there were no signs yet, of one being lowered over the side, though Captain Brisco, after the command to lay to, had ordered his accommodation ladder lowered to receive the visitors.

Then came another hail from the steamer.

"_Mary Ellen_ ahoy!"

"Aye, aye!"

"We won't send a boat right away. A hurricane is sweeping up fast, and this is a bad locality in which to be caught," called one of the steamer's officers through a megaphone. "We'll have to get out of here, and so had you better. There's no sea-room here. We'll pick you up later, and don't forget you are in English waters, and subject to our orders. We're going to have that man!"

"Well, if you put it that way, of course I'll have to give in," said Captain Brisco. "I'll wait for you after the blow."

"Well, that's a respite, anyhow, but not a very pleasant one," said Alice.

"No," agreed Jack Jepson, who breathed easier now. "We're in for a bad storm, I reckon. We'll have to make everything snug."

"Attention!" once more came the hail from the steamer, and when Captain Brisco answered, he was ordered to follow a certain course by compa.s.s, as being safest.

"Then I can pick you up!" the steamer captain cried as the propellers began to churn the water. The British vessel swept away, leaving Jack Jepson still on the schooner, but under threat of arrest.

Then the forerunner of the storm came, filling the sails of the _Mary Ellen_, and heeling her over until the lee scuppers were awash.

"Make everything snug!" cried Captain Brisco. "It's coming on to blow great guns!"

CHAPTER XVIII

GRINDING AWAY

Events aboard the _Mary Ellen_ did not transpire at all slowly. In a comparatively short s.p.a.ce of time she had been converted from an old hulk into a good sailing vessel, she had put to sea with a party of moving picture workers, including a sailor accused of mutiny, who had broken jail. She had been stopped by the English s.h.i.+p, and now the old schooner was starting to scud before the blast of a hurricane. For the time being the accusation against Jack Jepson was forgotten.

"Lively now, everyone!" cried Captain Brisco. "When a storm breaks down here, it isn't any child's play. Double reefs in all sails, and two men at the wheel. Lash everything fast, pa.s.s life-lines, and pa.s.sengers keep below."

"Oh, but I want to see the storm!" exclaimed Alice.

"Oh, how can you!" remonstrated Ruth. "It is going to be--awful!"

And indeed, if the evidence of sky and sea, and the moaning of the wind, were any indication, a great storm was in prospect.

The billows that had been rolling with oily smoothness now began to show little feathery crests of foam, and they were following one another with greater quickness, as if impatient to be at their shattering work.

The wind seemed most ominous of all. It was as though it came from afar off, down behind the horizon line that showed black, with a fringe of angry yellow in the west. A low, mumbling, roaring, moaning wind it was, that whistled mournfully through the rigging of the schooner, and howled down the companionways.

"Oh dear!" sighed Ruth, as she slipped her arm into that of her sister, and started for their cabin. "Come on, Alice. I'm afraid!"

"Nonsense! What of? Nothing has happened--yet."

"No, but there is going to be a terrible storm!"

"And I just love a blow. I've never seen one at sea, and, as this may be the only chance I'll get, I'm not going to miss it. Stay up with me, Ruth. Don't be like those sillies, and go below," and she motioned to Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon who were scurrying for cover, as the wind and the sea increased.

"Well, I'll stay up a little while," agreed Ruth. "But I--I'm afraid all the same."

"Nonsense!" cried Alice gaily. "We have a good s.h.i.+p under us. It went through a mutiny, and I guess it can weather a storm."

"That's just the point--can it?" asked Ruth in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked in a curiously strained voice.

"I mean that this is an old vessel, 'made over,' as we would say of a dress, Alice, it can't be as good and strong as a new one would be, and in a storm----"

"Oh, don't be nervous!" broke in Alice. "Here, I'll ask Mr. Blake," and she stopped the first mate who was hurrying to and fro directing the men at their work of making everything snug below and aloft.

"Isn't she safe, Mr. Blake?" Alice appealed.

"Who?" the first mate wanted to know.

"This s.h.i.+p."

"I--I think so," he said. "Yes, surely," he added quickly. "We will ride out the storm, never fear. It hasn't gotten here yet, and we may only get the outer edge of it. But you must excuse me now," and he hastened along the deck.

"There!" cried Alice. "What did I tell you?" she asked triumphantly.