"Yes," said Mr. George, "and they will board us aft too; so we had better be there ready."
Accordingly Mr. George and Rollo went aft again, and approached the gangway on the side where they supposed the boats would come.
In going there they pa.s.sed round first on the other side of the entrance to the cabin, where the two ladies were sitting that have already been described. As they went by one of the gentlemen came to them and said,--
"Keep up your courage a few minutes longer. We are very near the pier.
In ten minutes we shall be in smooth water, and all will be over."
The ladies seemed much relieved and rejoiced to hear this, and then the gentleman went with Mr. George and Rollo towards the gangway, in order that they might make further observations. He was joined there a moment afterwards by his companion. Now, these gentlemen, as it happened, knew nothing about the plan of landing in boats. They had made no particular inquiry at Dover in respect to the steamer that they had come in, but took it for granted that she would go into the harbor as usual, and land the pa.s.sengers at the pier. Their attention had just been attracted to the singular movement of the steamer, when Rollo and Mr. George came up.
"_What!_" said one of them, speaking with a tone of surprise, and looking about eagerly over the water. "We are coming to, Mr. Waldo. What can that mean?"
Just then the little fleet of boats, six or seven in number, began to come into view from where the gentlemen stood. They were dimly seen at a distance, and looked like long, black animals, slowly advancing over the dark surface of the water, and struggling fearfully with the waves.
"What boats can those be?" said Mr. Waldo, beginning to look a little alarmed.
He was alarmed not for himself, but for his wife, who was very frail and delicate in health, and ill fitted to bear any unusual exposure.
"I am sure I cannot imagine," replied the other.
"It looks marvellously as if they were coming out for us," said Mr.
Waldo.
"Can it be possible, Mr. Albert, that we are to land in boats such a night as this?" continued he.
"It looks like it," replied the other. "Yes, they are really coming here."
The boats were now seen evidently advancing towards the steamer. They came on in a line, struggling fearfully with the waves.
"They look like spectres of boats," said Mr. George to Rollo.
Mr. Albert now went round to the other side of the companion way, to the place where the two ladies were sitting.
"Ladies," said he, "I am very sorry to say that we shall be obliged to land in boats."
"In boats!" said the ladies, surprised.
"Yes," said Mr. Albert, "the tide is out, and I suppose we cannot go into port. The steamer has come to, and the boats are coming alongside."
The ladies looked out over the dark and stormy water with an emotion of fear, but they did not say a word.
"There is no help for it," continued the gentleman; "and you have nothing to do but to resign yourselves pa.s.sively to whatever comes. If we had known that this steamer would not go into port, we would not have come in her; but now that we are here we must go through."
"Very well," said the ladies. "Let us know when the boat for us is ready."
Mr. Albert then returned to the gangway, where Rollo and Mr. George were standing. The foremost boat had come alongside, and the seamen were throwing the mail bags into it. When the mails were all safely stowed in the boat, some of the pa.s.sengers that stood near by were called upon to follow. Mr. George and Rollo, being near, were among those thus called upon.
"Wait a moment," said Mr. George to Rollo, in a low tone. "Let a few of the others go first, that we may see how they manage it."
It proved to be rather difficult to manage it; for both the steamer and the boat were rocking and tossing violently on the waves, and as their respective motions did not at all correspond, they thumped against each other continually, as the boat rose and fell up and down the side of the steamer in a fearful manner. It was dark too, and the wind was blowing fresh, which added to the frightfulness of the scene.
A crowd of people stood about the gangway. Some of these people were pa.s.sengers waiting to go down, and others, officers of the ship, to help them. The seamen in the boat below were all on the alert too, some employed in keeping the boat off from the side of the ship, in order to prevent her being stove or swamped, while others stood on each side of the place where the pa.s.sengers were to descend, with uplifted arms, ready to seize and hold them when they came down.
There was a little flight of steps hanging down the side of the steamer, with ropes on each side of it in lieu of a bal.u.s.trade. The pa.s.senger who was to embark was directed to turn round and begin to go down these steps backward, and then, when the sea lifted the boat so that the seamen on board could seize hold of him, they all cried out vociferously, "LET GO!" and at the same moment a strong sailor grasped him around the waist, brought him down into the bottom of the boat in a very safe, though extremely unceremonious manner.
After several gentlemen and one lady had thus been put into the boat, amid a great deal of calling and shouting, and many exclamations of surprise and terror, the officer at the gangway turned to Mr. George, saying,--
"Come, sir!"
There was no time to stop to talk; so Mr. George stepped forward, saying to Rollo as he went, "Come right on directly after me;" and in a moment more he was seized by the man, and whirled down into the boat, he scarcely knew how. Immediately after he was in, there came some unusually heavy seas, and the steamer and the boat thumped together so violently that all the efforts of the seamen seemed to be required to keep them apart.
"Push off!" said the officer.
"Here, stop! I want to go first," exclaimed Rollo.
"No more in this boat," said the officer. "Push off!"
"Never mind," said Rollo, calling out to Mr. George, "I"ll come by and by."
"All right," said Mr. George.
By this time the boat had got clear of the steamer, and she now began to move slowly onward, rising and falling on the waves, and struggling violently to make her way.
"I am glad they did not let me go," said Rollo. "I would rather stay and see the rest go first."
Another boat was now seen approaching, and Rollo stepped back a little to make way for the people that were to go in it, when he heard Mrs.
Parkman"s voice, in tones of great anxiety and terror, saying to her husband,--
"I cannot go ash.o.r.e in a boat in that way, William. I cannot possibly, and I will not!"
"Why, Louise," said her husband, "what else can we do?"
"I"ll wait till the steamer goes into port, if I have to wait till midnight," replied Mrs. Parkman positively. "It is a shame! Such disgraceful management! Could not they find out how the tide would be here before they left Dover?"
"Yes," replied Mr. Parkman. "Of course they knew perfectly well how the tide would be."
"Then why did not they leave at such an hour as to make it right for landing here?"
"There _are_ boats every day," said Mr. Parkman, "which leave at the right time for that, and most pa.s.sengers take them. But the mails must come across at regular hours, whether the tide serves or not, and boats must come to bring the mails, and they, of course, allow pa.s.sengers to come in these boats too, if they choose. We surely cannot complain of that."
"Then they ought to have told us how it was," said Mrs. Parkman. "I think it is a shameful deception, to bring us over in this way, and not let us know any thing about it."
"But they did tell us," said Mr. Parkman. "Do not you recollect that the porter at the station told us that this was a mail boat, and that it would not be pleasant for a lady."
"But I did not know," persisted Mrs. Parkman, "that he meant that we should have to land in this way. He did not tell us any thing about that."
"He told us that it was a mail boat, and he meant by that to tell us that we could not land at the pier. It is true, we did not understand him fully, but that is because we come from a great distance, and do not understand the customs of the country. That is our misfortune. It was not the porter"s fault."
"I don"t think so at all," said Mrs. Parkman. "And you always take part against me in such things, and I think it is really unkind."