Jack at Sea Part 20

"No; can't you see how ill I am?" replied Jack faintly.

"Ah, that's because you don't try to master it. Hasn't Doctor Instow told you that you ought to try and get the better of it?"

"Yes; but what is the use of telling me that?" groaned Jack, with his eyes shut; but he opened them directly and gazed discontentedly at the man, as if feeling that it was hard and unfair of fate to let the servant recover while the master was so ill. "Are you quite well again?"

"Me, sir? Oh yes, sir," said Edward carelessly.

"And I--I feel as if I shall never live to go far."

"Ah, that's the way of it, sir, I felt just like that; but you'll come all right again before you know where you are. Like me to get you a bit of anything, sir? The kitchen place is splendid, and the cook would knock you up something nice in no time. What do you say to an omelet, sir?"

Jack ground his teeth at the man, and then closed his eyes and feebly turned his back.

"Poor chap, he has got it bad," muttered the convalescent, as he went out of the cabin on tip-toe. "But I don't think he's quite so bad as I was, after all."

CHAPTER NINE.

"WHEN THE RAGING SEAS DO ROAR."

Jack Meadows started up in his berth with a great fear upon him, and he started down again with the great fear turned for the moment into a great pain, caused by his having struck his forehead sharply, for about the tenth time, against the top of his berth.

"Am I never going to recollect what a miserable, narrow, boxed-up place it is," he said to himself angrily.

Then the fear came back, and he rolled out feeling confused and horrified.

He had turned in over-night without undressing, further than taking off jacket, waistcoat, and boots, so that he was almost dressed, for he had lain down in terror to rest himself so as to be quite ready if an alarm was given that the yacht was sinking; and he knew now that he must have been asleep, for it was early morning by the pale grey light which stole in through the gla.s.s. The weather seemed to be worse, the yacht pitching and tossing, and there was a dull, creaking, horrible sound which kept on, but was smothered out at intervals by a tremendous b.u.mp, which was always followed by a sound as if the vessel had sailed up the rapids of Niagara river and then beneath the falls.

The confusion increased with the noise, and, holding on with one hand, Jack pressed the other to his forehead as he stared straight before him at a big tin box which appeared to his sleep-muddled brain to be walking about the saloon table, when he opened the tiny state-room door.

Yes, there was no mistake about it; that box was alive, just as frightened as he was by the fearful storm, and was trying to escape, for all of a sudden, after edging its way to the end of the table, it made a bound, leaped to the floor, and began to creep and jump toward the door at the foot of the cabin stairs.

"What did it all mean?" thought Jack, and he tried hard to collect himself. Yes, they came on board three or four days before, he was not sure which. He remembered that. He had been frightfully ill, and oh, so sick. He remembered that too. Then he recalled about preparing for the worst last night, when the storm increased, and thinking as he lay down in his berth, weak as a baby, that it was very grand to be able to act as his father and Doctor Instow did, for they were perfectly resigned, and he had seen them sitting down playing a game of chess with a board full of holes into which the chess-men stuck like pegs.

Then in full force his brain seemed to a.s.sert itself. The worst had come, and it was his duty to awaken his father and Doctor Instow, so that they might all save themselves by taking to one of the boats or a raft.

_Boomp! Splash. U-r-r-r-r_!

A wave striking the yacht's bows--the water deluging the deck.

A spasm of fear shot through him, and he made a dash to catch up his yachting cap and pea-jacket with gilt anchor b.u.t.tons which he had had on the previous night; but as soon as he quitted his hold, he was literally at sea, and the floor of his little state-room rising up, he seemed to be pitched head-first into his berth as if diving, but he managed to save himself from injury, and dropped on to the floor, crawled to his jacket, slipped it on, and then out into the saloon, to see that the tin box--one which the doctor had had brought on board full of necessaries for their fis.h.i.+ng and collecting trips--had reached the saloon door, but could get no further.

But what was a box to a man? Jack crept to his father's door, beat upon it, and then dragged it open to find the berth empty.

"Gone and left me," groaned the lad in his misery and despair. "How horrible! No; he is making a raft, and will come and fetch me soon.-- Oh!"

He clutched at the door to save himself, for the yacht suddenly made a dive, and he felt that they were going down into the vast depths of the sea; but he did not save himself, for the door played him false and helped to shoot him right across the saloon, and he was brought up by the door of the doctor's tiny room.

Recovering himself he desperately clutched at the handle, dragged the door open, and as the yacht prepared for another dive, he shot in against the berth, punching its occupant heavily in the ribs, and s.n.a.t.c.hing at the clothes as he held on.

The doctor uttered a deep grunt, but did not stir. "Doctor! doctor!"

panted Jack. "Wake up! Quick! We're sinking."

"Eh? All right!" came in a deep m.u.f.fled voice. "Oh, wake up, wake up!"

cried Jack. "I can't leave him to drown. Doctor! doctor!"

"All right!" came fiercely, as Jack seized the sleeper by the shoulders.

"Tell 'em--only jus' come abed."

"Doctor! doctor!"

"Tell 'em--give--warm bath--mustard."

"But we're sinking," cried Jack wildly. "Eh? Whose baby is it? What's matter--Jack? Taken ill?"

"No, no. Quick! Come on deck."

"Just won't," growled the doctor; and he turned his back and uttered a deep snore.

Jack stared in horror, and then dropped on all fours to crawl to the foot of the cabin stairs, and fetch help to drag the drowning man on deck, being fully imbued with the idea that Doctor Instow had taken some drug in his despair, so that he might be unconscious when the yacht went down.

In pa.s.sing he saw that the captain's and the mate's berths were both empty, and, how he knew not, he crawled up the cabin stairs, looked on deck, and saw that his father was standing by the weather bulwark, and the captain close by.

There was the man at the wheel, and a couple more forward in s.h.i.+ny yellow tarpaulins; and as he gazed at them wildly, there was a thud and a beautiful curve over of a wave which deluged the deck and splashed the two men, but they did not stir.

He saw no more then, for the yacht careened over from the pressure on the three great sails, and it seemed to the lad that the next moment they would be lying flat upon the water, so he clung to the hatchway fittings for dear life. But the next moment the _Silver Star_ rose from the wave in front, and literally rushed on, quivering from stem to stern like a live creature, the waves parting and hissing to form an ever-widening path of foam astern.

Jack caught the full fresh breeze in his teeth as he struggled on deck, and breathlessly staggered to the side, looking as if he were going to leap overboard; then clinging to the rail, he crept hand-over-hand to where his father now stood with the captain.

"That you, Jack?" cried Sir John. "Good-morning. Well done! Come, this is brave."

"Splendid!" cried Captain Bradleigh. "Why you have soon come round."

Jack woke fully to the fact now that it was a false alarm, and strove hard to get rid of the scared look with which he had come on deck for help to drag Doctor Instow up. But still he was not quite a.s.sured, for he started suddenly as, _plosh_! there came another rush of water over the bows. "What's that?" he cried.

"Sea having a game with the yacht," said the captain merrily.

"Splas.h.i.+ng her nose. Look how she rises and glides over that wave.

Regular racer, isn't she?"

"Yes, going so fast," panted Jack breathlessly. "But--but is there no danger--of her sinking?"

"Just about as much as there would be of a well-corked-up bottle, my lad. The more you pushed her under, the more she'd bob up again. Oh no, she won't sink."

"I'm glad you came up," said Sir John. "This breeze is glorious, and I never saw the sea more beautiful; look how the waves glisten where the moon falls upon them on one side, and how they catch the soft pearly light from the east on the other. It is a lovely effect."

"Yes, father, very beautiful," said the boy sadly. "Are we far from land, Captain Bradleigh?"

"Yes, and getting farther every minute. Don't want any steam with this breeze. If it holds, we shall regularly race across the bay."