Part 8 (2/2)
”Go up and give the fool my orders. Tell the second officer to take the wheel.”
The bos'n retreated, but he returned within a few moments.
”He won't leave the wheel,” he reported. ”He said you could take your orders to the devil, sir.”
”I'll tie him to the deck and skin him alive,” said McTee calmly. ”Stay here and watch Harrigan while I--”
He was jerked from his feet and hurled across the room, cras.h.i.+ng against the cabin wall. When his senses returned, he was sitting on the floor staring stupidly into the white face of the bos'n, who was in a similar posture. Harrigan, who had been flung from the bunk, staggered to his feet.
”What the deuce is up?” asked the Irishman.
A chorus of piercing yells rose in answer from the deck outside.
”The end of the _Mary Rogers_,” said McTee. ”Stay with me, Harrigan.”
He caught the latter by the arm and dragged him out onto the deck. The hull of the s.h.i.+p at the bow must have been literally ripped away by the impact against the reef; already the deck sloped sharply to the bows.
McTee raised a voice that rang like a trumpet over the clamor as he gave his orders to clear away the boats. If he had been a moment earlier, he might have succeeded in getting at least one of them safely launched, but now the _Mary Rogers_ was settling to her doom with a speed which made the crew senseless with terror. A half-gale which promised to swell soon into a veritable hurricane seemed to be lifting the freighter by the heel and driving her nose into the sea. The quick settling twilight of the tropics made the waters doubly cold and dark.
Not till the bows of the _Mary Rogers_ were deep below the waves and her propeller humming loudly in the air did the captain desist from his efforts to bring order out of the panic of the crew. Half a dozen men, with the Chinaman at their head, had cut one boat from its davits, but plunging into it before it fairly struck the water, they tipped it far to one side. It filled instantly and sank, leaving its occupants struggling on the surface. The Chinaman, who apparently could not swim, gave up the struggle at once. He threw his clutching hands high above his head and went down; his scream was the first death cry of the wreck of the _Mary Rogers_.
McTee, with Harrigan at his heels, rushed for the second lifeboat.
Under the directions of the captain, pointed and emphasized by blows of his fist, the boat was swung safely from the davits and lowered to the sea. The instant that it rode the waves, bouncing up and down on the choppy surface, the crew began leaping in, the drunken mate being the first overside.
The lifeboat was loaded from stem to stern, and only Harrigan, McTee, and half a dozen more remained on the s.h.i.+p when the boat swung a dozen feet away from the _Mary Rogers_ and with the next wave was picked up and smashed against the freighter. Its side went in like a matchbox pressed by a strong thumb, and it zigzagged quickly below the surface.
The yells of the swimmers rose in a long wail. McTee caught Harrigan by the shoulder and shouted in his ear: ”Stay close and do what I do.”
”Miss Malone!” yelled Harrigan in answer, and pointed.
She stood by the after-cabin, clinging to the rail with one hand while she attempted to adjust a life preserver with the other. The _Mary Rogers_ lurched forward, a long slide that buried half of the s.h.i.+p under the sea. A giant wave towered above the side and licked the wheelhouse away.
”Let her go!” roared McTee. ”Save ourselves and let her go.”
It was a matter of seconds now before the last of the _Mary Rogers_ should disappear. They clambered up to the after-cabin.
”For the love av G.o.d, McTee, she's a woman!”
The Irishman struggled up the deck toward the girl, but the captain caught him and held him fast.
”There's one chance,” shouted Black McTee, and he pointed to the litter of the wrecked wheelhouse which tossed on the waves. ”Overboard and make for a big timber.”
But the eyes of Harrigan held on the form of the girl. They could only make out the shadow of her form with her hair blowing wildly on the wind. Then as swift as the sway of a bird's wing, a ma.s.s of black water tossed over the side of the _Mary Rogers_. When it was gone, the shadowy figure of the girl had disappeared with it.
”Now!” thundered McTee.
”Aye,” said Harrigan.
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