Part 13 (1/2)

”Completely,” he replied.

Later, while Mrs. Spofford was peering through the gla.s.ses, she drew him aside.

”Tell me about the water in the hold,” she said in a low tone. ”Is it serious?”

He looked grave. ”Very. If you will take a peep over the side of the s.h.i.+p, you'll see how low down she is in the water.”

”My aunt doesn't know the s.h.i.+p is leaking,” she went on, hurriedly. ”I want to keep it from her as long as possible.” He nodded his head.

”Mr. Mott figures we'll stay afloat for ten or twelve hours,--maybe longer. I will see to it that you and Mrs. Spofford get into one of the boats in case we--well, just in case, you know. We will be given ample warning, Miss Clinton. Things don't look as hopeless as they did last night.” He pointed toward the land. ”It looks like heaven, doesn't it?”

Her face clouded. ”But only a very few of us may--” she stopped, shuddering.

”You poor little girl!” he cried brokenly. He steadied himself and went on: ”It wouldn't surprise me in the least if every blessed one of us got safely ash.o.r.e.”

”You do not believe that, Mr. Percival. I can tell by the look in your eyes. I want you to promise me one thing. If we have to take to the boats, you will come with us--”

He drew himself up. ”My dear Miss Clinton, there is quite a difference between being a stowaway on an ocean liner and being one in a lifeboat.

I have no standing on this s.h.i.+p. I have no right in one of her boats. I am the very last person on board to be considered.”

She looked searchingly into his eyes, her own wide with comprehension.

”You mean you will make no effort to leave the s.h.i.+p until every one else is--”

He checked her with a gesture of his hand. ”I may be one of the first to leave. But I'll not rob any one else of his place in a boat or his s.p.a.ce on one of those rafts. I'll swim for it.”

Slowly the land crept down upon the Doraine. The illusion was startling.

The s.h.i.+p seemed to be lying absolutely motionless; it was the land that approached instead of the other way round. A thin white beach suddenly emerged from the green background to the left, to the right an ugly ma.s.s of rocks took shape, stretching as far as the eye could reach. Farther inland rose high, tree covered hills, green as emeralds in the blazing sunlight. On a sea of turquoise lolled the listless Doraine.

Soundings were taken from time to time. Even the bottom of the ocean was coming up to meet the Doraine. Its depth appreciably lessened with each successive measurement. From fifty fathoms it had decreased to ten since the first line was dropped.

At four o'clock, Captain Trigger ordered a boat lowered and manned by a picked crew in charge of the Second Engineer. The Doraine was about five miles off sh.o.r.e at the time, and was drifting with a noticeably increased speed directly toward the rock-bound coast. He had hoped she would go aground in the shallow waters off the sandy beach, but there was now no chance that such a piece of good fortune was in store for her. She was going straight for the huge black rocks.

The boat's crew rowed in for observations. Even before they returned to report, the anxious officers on board the vessel had made out a narrow fissure in the rocky coast line. They a.s.sumed that it was the mouth of a small river. The Second Engineer brought back the astonis.h.i.+ng information that this opening in the coast was the gateway to a channel that in his judgment split the island into two distinct sections. That it was not the mouth of a river was made clear by the presence of a current so strong that his men had to exert themselves to the utmost to prevent the boat being literally sucked into the channel by the powerful tide, which apparently was at its full. This opening,--the water rushed into it so swiftly that he was satisfied it developed into a gorge farther back from the coast,--was approximately two hundred yards wide, flanked on either side by low lying, formidable bastions of rock. The water was not more than fifty feet deep off the entrance to the channel.

Gradually the prow of the Doraine swung around and pointed straight for the cleft in the sh.o.r.e. The s.h.i.+p, two miles out, had responded to the insidious pressure of the current and was being drawn toward the rocks,--at first so slowly that there was scarcely a ripple off her bows; then, as she lumbered onward, she began to turn over the water as a ploughshare turns over the land.

At precisely six o'clock she slid between the rocky portals and entered a ca.n.a.l so straight and true that it might have been drilled and blasted out of the earth under the direction of the most skilful engineers in the world.

Soundings were hastily taken. Discovering that the water was not deep enough even at high tide to submerge the vessel when the inevitable came to pa.s.s and she sank to the bottom, Captain Trigger renewed his efforts to release the anchor chains, which had been caught and jammed in the wreckage. He realized the vital necessity for checking the Doraine in her flight before she accomplished the miracle of pa.s.sing unhindered through the channel and out into the open sea beyond. The swiftness of the current indicated plainly enough that this natural ca.n.a.l was of no great length.

The s.h.i.+p slid on between the tree lined banks. The trees were of the temperate zone, with spreading limbs, thick foliage and hardy trunks.

There were no palms visible, but in the rarely occurring open s.p.a.ces a large shrub abounded. This was instantly recognized by Percival, who proclaimed it to be the algaroba, a plant commonly found on the Gran Chaco in Argentina. While the woodland was thick there was nothing about it to suggest the tropical jungle with its impenetrable fastnesses.

The keel of the half-sunken Doraine was sc.r.a.ping ominously on the bed of the channel. She s.h.i.+vered and swerved from frequent contact with submerged rocks, but held her course with uncanny steadiness, while every soul on board gazed with stark, despairing eyes at the land which mocked them as they pa.s.sed. Far on ahead loomed the lofty hills, and beyond them lay--What? The ocean?

Gradually the pa.s.sage widened. Its depth also increased. The s.h.i.+p no longer sc.r.a.ped the bottom, she no longer caromed off the sunken rocks.