"Why, I thought Joe was here, right ready for his next duty," cried Halstead, amazedly. "Where--"
"He went below," bawled back Jed. "But he"s not in the engine room."
"Then he"s doing something that"s good, any way," spoke Tom, with whole faith in his tried comrade.
Once more the young captain turned to watch the line of breakers. The "Meteor" was deadly close now, her staunch hull in imminent danger.
"Here-quick!" roared Dawson"s heaviest tones.
His head showed in the hatchway. He was handing through a metal can.
"And I"ve got another one," he shouted. "Thought there must be some reserve aboard, so I explored the spare lockers aft. There-got it?"
For Tom had s.n.a.t.c.hed up a five-gallon can and was lifting it to the covered deck forward. The "Meteor" was rolling and pitching under the lashing of the gale. Waves broke and dashed over that forward deck, but Joe, with a second five-gallon can, followed. Both boys had to crawl, feeling as though they were holding on by their teeth.
"You pour-I"ll shield the inlet from water!" shouted Dawson, over all the roar of the elements. "It"s life or death in a minute, now, old chum!"
Well enough Tom knew that, but he saw also the one bare chance of getting all hands out of their awful plight. Dawson crawled around to windward of the inlet to the gasoline tank, shielding it as much as he could with his body. He unscrewed the cap, while Tom removed the smaller top of one of the gasoline cans.
"Wait until the dash of the next wave is past," shouted Halstead. "Then I"ll pour."
Though it took many precious moments, they contrived to empty the can into the tank without getting any salt water mixed with it.
"Now, another can!" breathed Joe tensely.
But Tom, raising his eyes to glance at the spray-ridden reef, answered quickly:
"Later. There isn"t a second to lose now. Hustle back!"
The dragging anchor r.e.t.a.r.ded the bow of the boat somewhat. It was the stern that seemed about to strike the reef. While Joe worked like lightning in the engine room Tom stood with both hands resting on the wheel. He dreaded, every instant, to feel the b.u.mp and the jar that should tell the news that the "Meteor" had struck.
"What do you want? Speed ahead?" bawled up Joe.
"As quickly as you can possibly give it," Tom answered.
Still Halstead stared astern. It seemed as though the reef were rising to meet the hull of the boat.
Throb! Chug! The motor was working, slowly. With an inward gasp of thanksgiving Halstead swung the bow around a bit to port. The engine, weaker than the gale, must drag the anchor at least a short distance.
Any attempt to raise it too soon might hold the boat to the danger line.
But Tom felt a sudden glow of happiness. The "Meteor" was forging slowly ahead. She would soon be safe, if the engine remained staunch. There was fearfully little oil in the tank, and he knew that the delivery of gas to the ignition apparatus must be very slight.
Out of the engine room came Joe in a hurry, signaling to Jed to follow him. The two crawled out, over that wet, slippery forward deck of the rolling, pitching boat, and managed to empty a second can into the tank.
The engine was working better by the time that the pair regained the bridge deck.
"That"s enough to get us out of all trouble," shouted Joe briefly. "We needn"t bother about the third one aft until we"re well out of this."
Captain Tom, watching the reef that they were slowly leaving behind, soon decided that it was time to haul in the anchor that had held. Joe and Jed accomplished this. The instant that the drag was clear of the bottom the "Meteor" shot ahead.
"Hurrah!" yelled all three of the young seamen, when that new start came.
"We"re safe, now, aren"t we?" inquired Mrs. Lester, bending forward, her eyes shining.
"Unless there"s some new trouble with the motor," Tom answered her, "we ought to be back at the Dunstan place in twenty minutes."
Now, Jed brought the third can of gasoline from the locker aft. He and Joe succeeded in emptying it. If all went well, there was now enough oil in the tank to carry the boat much further than she had to go. Even at that, however, the boat was running with less gasoline than she had ever carried in her tank before.
"There are Mr. Dunstan and his wife down at the pier, watching us,"
announced Miss Jessie, as they came within eye-range of the Dunstan place. "They must have been dreadfully worried about us."
"Now, I know what danger is, and just what courage and steadfastness men may show," remarked Miss Elsie, as they pa.s.sed south of a little headland that formed one of the shelters of the Dunstan cove.
"And you know how much grit women may show," rejoined Halstead, "for not once did you give us any trouble."
"Perhaps we were too badly frightened to make trouble," laughed Jessie Lester.
"Well, you didn"t any of you faint or have hysterics after you realized the danger was over, did you?" retorted Captain Tom, laughing. "You can"t get away from the charge that you all showed splendid courage as soon as you realized that we were in real danger."
"But you were planning to swim ash.o.r.e with us from the reef," said Mrs.
Lester.
"I"m very, very thankful we didn"t have to try it," replied Halstead, soberly. "It would have been one of those one-in-a-hundred chances that I don"t like to have to take."
Jed was busy, now, putting out the heaviest fenders along the port side of the hull. Even in the cove the waves were running at a troublesome height. Yet Tom and Joe, by good team work at their respective posts, ran the "Meteor" in alongside the pier, almost without a jar.
"I"m thankful you"re all back safe," called Mr. Dunstan, coming toward them. "I would have been worried, Mrs. Lester, if I hadn"t known all about the captain and crew that had the boat out."
But when he heard about the hairbreadth escape from going on the reef off Muskeget Mr. Dunstan"s face went deathly pale. He asked the ladies to return to the house, while he boarded the "Meteor" and faced the boys anxiously.
"What on earth can it mean that the gasoline ran out?" he demanded.
"Dawson, are you absolutely sure that you had plenty of oil when you returned at daylight this morning?"
"Positive of it, sir," came emphatically from Engineer Joe.
"Then that oil must have been pumped quietly out of the tank while you three slept almost the sleep of the dead," exclaimed the owner.
"It was pumped out very early in the day, too," Tom insisted. "Such a big quant.i.ty couldn"t have been pumped anywhere except overboard. It would have taken several barrels to hold what was in the tank. Yet, by the time we were on deck, at a little after noon, there wasn"t a sign of gasoline anywhere on the water about us. The tide had carried it away."
"I suppose anyone could have operated a steam-engine over your heads and you boys wouldn"t have heard it this morning, you were so sound asleep,"
mused Mr. Dunstan. "Yet it was in broad daylight that you berthed the boat. It must have been a daring man who would have come down openly through these grounds on such an errand."
"Unless--" began Halstead thoughtfully.
"Well, unless-what, captain?"
"Mr. Dunstan, it"s possible, isn"t it, that one of your men about the place may be disloyal to you? Such a man may have done this thing either to help your enemies, or to satisfy some spite against you."
"I can"t think of a man in my employ I"d suspect of such a thing,"