Wilbur turned away from her, biting his nether lip in perplexity.
"Now, what am I going to do?" he muttered. "What a situation! If I tell the Captain, it"s all up with the girl. If he didn"t kill her, he"d do worse--might do both. If I don"t tell him, there goes her birthright, $60,000, and she alone in the world. It"s begun to go already," he added, listening to the sounds that came from the bark. Kitch.e.l.l was raging to and fro in the cabin in a frenzy of drink, axe in hand, smashing gla.s.sware, hacking into the wood-work, singing the while at the top of his voice:
"As through the drop I go, drop I go, As through the drop I go, drop I go, As through the drop I go, Down to h.e.l.l that yawns below, Twenty stiffs all in a row d.a.m.n your eyes"
"That"s the kind of man I have to deal with," muttered Wilbur. "It"s encouraging, and there"s no one to talk to. Not much help in a Chinaman and a crazy girl in a man"s oilskins. It"s about the biggest situation you ever faced, Ross Wilbur, and you"re all alone. What the devil are you going to do?"
He acknowledged with considerable humiliation that he could not get the better of Kitch.e.l.l, either physically or mentally. Kitch.e.l.l was a more powerful man than he, and cleverer. The Captain was in his element now, and he was the commander. On sh.o.r.e it would have been vastly different.
The city-bred fellow, with a policeman always in call, would have known how to act.
"I simply can"t stand by and see that hog plundering everything she"s got. What"s to be done?"
And suddenly, while the words were yet in his mouth, the sun was wiped from the sky like writing from a slate, the horizon blackened, vanished, a long white line of froth whipped across the sea and came on hissing. A hollow note boomed out, boomed, swelled, and grew rapidly to a roar.
An icy chill stabbed the air. Then the squall swooped and struck, and the sky shut down over the troubled ocean like a pot-lid over a boiling pot. The schooner"s fore and main sheets, that had not been made fast, unrove at the first gust and began to slat wildly in the wind. The Chinamen cowered to the decks, grasping at cleats, stays, and masts.
They were helpless--paralyzed with fear. Charlie clung to a stay, one arm over his head, as though dodging a blow. Wilbur gripped the rail with his hands where he stood, his teeth set, his eyes wide, waiting for the foundering of the schooner, his only thought being that the end could not be far. He had heard of the suddenness of tropical squalls, but this had come with the abruptness of a scene-shift at a play. The schooner veered broad-on to the waves. It was the beginning of the end--another roll to the leeward like the last and the Pacific would come aboard.
"And you call yourselves sailor men! Are you going to drown like rats on a plank?" A voice that Wilbur did not know went ringing through that horrid shouting of wind and sea like the call of a bugle. He turned to see Moran, the girl of the "Lady Letty," standing erect upon the quarterdeck, holding down the schooner"s wheel. The confusion of that dreadful moment, that had paralyzed the crew"s senses, had brought back hers. She was herself again, savage, splendid, dominant, superb, in her wrath at their weakness, their cowardice.
Her heavy brows were knotted over her flaming eyes, her hat was gone, and her thick bands of yellow hair whipped across her face and streamed out in the wind like streamers of the northern lights. As she shouted, gesturing furiously to the men, the loose sleeve of the oilskin coat fell back, and showed her forearm, strong, round, and white as scud, the hand and wrist so tanned as to look almost like a glove. And all the while she shouted aloud, furious with indignation, raging against the supineness of the "Bertha"s" crew.
"Stand by, men! stand by! Look alive, now! Make fast the stays"l halyards to the dory"s warp! Now, then, unreeve y"r halyards! all clear there! pa.s.s the end for"d outside the rigging! outside! you fools! Make fast to the bits for"ard--let go y"r line--that"ll do. Soh--soh. There, she"s coming up."
The dory had been towing astern, and the seas combing over her had swamped her. Moran had been inspired to use the swamped boat as a sea-anchor, fastening her to the schooner"s bow instead of to the stern.
The "Bertha"s" bow, answering to the drag, veered around. The "Bertha"
stood head to the seas, riding out the squall. It was a masterpiece of seamanship, conceived and executed in the very thick of peril, and it saved the schooner.
But there was little time to think of themselves. On board the bark the sails were still set. The squall struck the "Lady Letty" squarely aback.
She heeled over upon the instant; then as the top hamper carried away with a crash, eased back a moment upon an even keel. But her cargo had shifted. The bark was doomed. Through the flying spray and scud and rain Wilbur had a momentary glimpse of Kitch.e.l.l, hacking at the lanyards with his axe. Then the "Lady Letty" capsized, going over till her masts were flat with the water, and in another second rolled bottom up. For a moment her keel and red iron bottom were visible through the mist of driving spoon-drift. Suddenly they sank from sight. She was gone.
And then, like the rolling up of a scroll, the squall pa.s.sed, the sun returned, the sky burned back to blue, the ruggedness was smoothed from the ocean, and the warmth of the tropics closed around the "Bertha Millner," once more rolling easily on the swell of the ocean.
Of the "Lady Letty" and the drunken beach-combing Captain not a trace remained. Kitch.e.l.l had gone down with his prize. The "Bertha Millner"s"
Chinese crew huddled forward, talking wildly, pointing and looking in a bewildered fashion over the sides.
Wilbur and Moran were left alone on the open Pacific.
V. A Girl Captain
When Wilbur came on deck the morning after the sinking of the bark he was surprised to find the schooner under way again. Wilbur and Charlie had berthed forward during that night--Charlie with the hands, Wilbur in the Captain"s hammock. The reason for this change of quarters had been found in a peremptory order from Moran during the dog-watch the preceding evening.
She had looked squarely at Wilbur from under her scowl, and had said briefly and in a fine contralto voice, that he had for the first time noted: "I berth aft, in the cabin; you and the Chinaman forward.
Understand?"
Moran had only forestalled Wilbur"s intention; while after her almost miraculous piece of seamanship in the rescue of the schooner, Charlie and the Chinese crew accorded her a respect that was almost superst.i.tious.
Wilbur met her again at breakfast. She was still wearing men"s clothing--part of Kitch.e.l.l"s outfit--and was booted to the knee; but now she wore no hat, and her enormous mane of rye-colored hair was braided into long strands near to the thickness of a man"s arm. The redness of her face gave a startling effect to her pale blue eyes and sandy, heavy eyebrows, that easily lowered to a frown. She ate with her knife, and after pushing away her plate Wilbur observed that she drank half a tumbler of whiskey and water.
The conversation between the two was tame enough. There was no common ground upon which they could meet. To her father"s death--no doubt an old matter even before her rescue--she made no allusion. Her att.i.tude toward Wilbur was one of defiance and suspicion. Only once did she relax:
"How did you come to be aboard here with these rat-eaters--you"re no sailor?" she said abruptly.
"Huh!" laughed Wilbur, mirthlessly; "huh! I was shanghaied."
Moran smote the table with a red fist, and shouted with sonorous, bell-toned laughter.
"Shanghaied?--you? Now, that is really good. And what are you going to do now?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Signal the first home-bound vessel and be taken into Frisco. I"ve my insurance to collect (Wilbur had given her the "Letty"s" papers) and the disaster to report."
"Well, I"m not keen on shark-hunting myself," said Wilbur. But Moran showed no interest in his plans.
However, they soon found that they were not to be permitted to signal.
At noon the same day the schooner sighted a steamship"s smoke on the horizon, and began to raise her rapidly. Moran immediately bound on the ensign, union down, and broke it out at the peak.
Charlie, who was at the wheel, spoke a sentence in Chinese, and one of the hands drew his knife across the halyards and brought the distress signal to the deck. Moran turned upon Charlie with an oath, her brows knitted.
"No! No!" sang Charlie, closing his eyes and wagging his head. "No!
Too muchee los" time; no can stop. You come downside cabin; you an"
one-piece boss number two (this was Wilbur) have um chin-chin."
The odd conclave a.s.sembled about Kitch.e.l.l"s table--the club-man, the half-masculine girl in men"s clothes, and the Chinaman. The conference was an angry one, Wilbur and Moran insisting that they be put aboard the steamship, Charlie refusing with calm obstinacy.
"I have um chin-chin with China boys las" nigh". China boy heap flaid, no can stop um steamship. Heap flaid too much talkee-talkee. No stop; go fish now; go fish chop-chop. Los" heap time; go fish. I no savvy sail um boat, China boy no savvy sail um boat. I tink um you savvy (and he pointed to Moran). I tink um you savvy plenty heap much disa bay. Boss number two, him no savvy sail um boat, but him savvy plenty many all same."
"And we"re to stop on board your dough-dish and navigate her for you?"
shouted Moran, her face blazing.
Charlie nodded blandly: "I tink um ya.s.s."
"And when we get back to port," exclaimed Wilbur, "you think, perhaps I--we won"t make it interesting for you?"
Charlie smiled.
"I tink um Six Company heap rich."
"Well, get along," ordered Moran, as though the schooner was her property, "and we"ll talk it over."
"China boy like you heap pretty big," said Charlie to Moran, as he went out. "You savvy sail um boat all light; wanta you fo" captain. But," he added, suddenly dropping his bland pa.s.sivity as though he wore a mask, and for an instant allowing the wicked malevolent Cantonese to come to the surface, "China boy no likee funnee business, savvy?" Then with a smile of a Talleyrand he disappeared.
Moran and Wilbur were helpless for the present. They were but two against seven Chinamen. They must stay on board, if the coolies wished it; and if they were to stay it was a matter of their own personal safety that the "Bertha Millner" should be properly navigated.