Up to Dave rushed Captain Senby of the "Gloucester."
"Captain," he called, addressing Dave Darrin by that courtesy t.i.tle, "these Red Cross women ought to be saved while there"s time, but they refuse to go over the side until their patients are safe."
"Did you expect they would desert their patients?" Darrin asked quietly, his gaze still on the work that he was directing.
"But, Captain, we must save the women folks, anyway! Won"t you use your persuasion to help me?"
"No," came Dave"s quick response. "These women are a.s.serting their right to prove the stuff that is in them. In this war, in their own fields, the women fight as bravely as the men."
"In a time like this the women ought to be saved!" the British master insisted.
"Not at the expense of their best sense of duty," Darrin answered.
For an instant Senby regarded the young naval officer with amazement before he blurted:
"Captain, I don"t believe you have any women folks of your own!"
"My wife is one of the Red Cross women on board," Darrin answered, quietly. Then, raising his voice, he added:
"That patch is ready! Over with it!"
Thus was the second patch fitted over the forward hole, and men were busy completing another for the second hole.
And now with the small boats filled, Darrin anxiously surveyed the sea.
No ships were yet in sight.
"Get more patches ready!" he shouted.
He then descended to the first compartment, stepping down into the water to take its depth. He judged it to be of about the same depth as before.
Four patches were over each hole by the time that the first trail of smoke was observed far down on the horizon. A steamship was coming to their aid, but would it arrive in time?
Another inspection showed that the pumps had made a slight gain on the water. It was going out of the compartments faster than it could get in past the canvas. But Dave knew that ship pumps, working to furious capacity, were likely to give out at any moment.
He stationed a seaman with lead and line on the stairs leading down to each compartment, with instructions to take frequent soundings and to report sharply to the deck.
The "Gloucester"s" rafts, too, were now overboard. On these huddled those of the wounded or convalescing soldiers who were better able to take care of themselves.
But not a single Red Cross woman had yet gone over the side. Much as some of the wounded might need attendance on the rescue craft or in the small boats, those left helpless behind needed the women of mercy still more!
A slow gain was still being made on the water in the two compartments. If the pumps held out, and if the patches did not give way, there might yet be a fair chance to save life. But Dave knew the dangers that confronted all hands left behind, even when he could make out the hull of the oncoming steamship, and saw that she was moving at fullest speed.
"We should win out, don"t you think?" demanded Captain Senby, anxiously.
"I"ve never lost a ship."
"At least we stand a fair chance to win out," Dave answered, frankly.
"Any one of three or four things might happen to us yet and send us to the bottom."
Darrin spent most of his time inspecting the canvas patches. Between times he anxiously watched the relief ship. He could see, by gla.s.s, when she was four miles away, that her davits were swung out and her boat-crews in place.
"All depends on how we hold together for the next half or three-quarters of an hour," he told Captain Senby.
There were still some two hundred patients who would have to be moved on stretchers. These were brought to the upper deck until the stretchers all but blocked pa.s.sage.
What a cheer went up from those at the rail as the steamship, an Italian craft, lay to and began to lower her boats! The small boats from the hospital ship, the "Grigsby" and the mine-sweepers had already gone forward to meet her. As fast as they could move in to either side gangway these boats discharged their temporary pa.s.sengers, then quickly returned to the "Gloucester."
For an hour all the small boats plied back and forth, the rescuers using all their nerve and muscle power in their efforts at speed.
Shivering, for he was drenched up to the waist, Dave stood by, receiving the reports of the leadsmen in the two compartments. The best work of the canvas patches had been done. They were slowly yielding to the fearful pressure of the water without and it was impossible to rig additional, fresh patches over them. The water was rising, inch by inch, in both compartments.
"How long do you think we can keep afloat?" asked Captain Senby, miserably.
"Your judgment will be as good as mine, sir," Dave answered. "It is impossible to name the number of moments we can hope to keep above water, but we both know it cannot be for long."
At last the decks were cleared of litters. There were no more to be brought out. The last boats had taken away many besides the stretcher patients.
"Give us ten minutes more," said Darrin, as he watched the boats discharging at the Italian steamer, and returning, "and we shall all be safe."
"They will be the longest, most anxious ten minutes that I ever lived!"
sighed Captain Senby.
"Man, you"re white and you look ill," Dave cried. "Buck up! You"ve done splendidly, and the discipline on board has been perfect. You have nothing with which to reproach yourself."
"Do you really think so?" Senby asked, with a wan smile. "I thank you, but it seems to me I should have done better."
"You could do better than you"re doing now, for you"ve lost your nerve,"
Darrin warned him, in a low voice. "Yet while you needed your nerve you kept it."
"You won"t mind saying that in your report, will you?" asked the master, eagerly. "I"d hate to have my family hear anything that would make them feel I had broken down."
"The discipline on this ship shows what you have done," Dave rejoined.
"You"re suffering, now, on account of the people who may be lost, and you"re thinking of the Red Cross women who are stubborn enough to do their duty like men. But you"ve trained your crew well, you have the respect of your officers and men, and you"ve given all help possible in the shortest amount of time. A ship"s master can be judged, instantly, by the discipline that prevails on his craft. Your family will hear nothing about your conduct that won"t please "em."
At this the British master "bucked up" wonderfully, but he still watched the Red Cross women with wistful eyes.
"Here are the first boats coming back to take the last of us off," Darrin said encouragingly. "Now, clear all hands off lively."
"The women first?" almost pleaded Captain Senby.
"Of course!" Dave nodded. "They"ve done their full duty, and done it splendidly. Now, insist."
Galvanized into action by these cheering words, Captain Senby cleared his throat, then roared in a fog-horn voice:
"All hands stand by to abandon ship! Be lively, please, ladies. No man stir over the side until the last woman has gone over!"
Some of the Red Cross women smilingly obeyed the order; others hung back.
"There are still some wounded men on board," pleaded one of them. "Let the last wounded man go over the side, then we"ll go."