"Yes, and Tom said in the note that they would be here to-night," broke in young Joe. "And when he gave that to Captain Chase to bring, it showed he meant to start, anyway."
"But when the storm increased they would put back," urged Mrs. Warren.
"No," answered George, "they must have gotten two-thirds of the way across the bay before the worst of the storm broke. The storm seemed to hold up for an hour or two during the latter part of the afternoon, and then increased all of a sudden with the turn of the tide. The boys would have gotten so far across that it would be too late to turn back, and they would have to keep on."
"And yet you boys want to imitate their recklessness!" cried Mrs. Warren, impatiently. "Come, Arthur," and she turned to the boy who had remained silent thus far during the discussion. "Help me convince your brothers of their mistake. You don"t agree with them, I am sure."
The boy thus addressed, though a year younger than his elder brother, was the one on whose judgment the mother more often relied. He was fully as active as the other two, but his was a calmer temperament than theirs.
This confidence in him really extended to his brothers, though they joked him on his moderate, studious ways, and called him the "professor,"
because he was a little near-sighted and sometimes wore gla.s.ses. He came forward now and stood by his mother"s chair.
"I can"t help thinking, mother, that George and Joe are right," he said, deliberately, while poor Mrs. Warren gasped with dismay. "You wouldn"t have us play the parts of cowards while the boys may be in danger, and when we can perhaps save them. There isn"t half the danger you imagine, either. The wind is blowing now squarely from the east, and once we have beaten out of the cove we can sail alongsh.o.r.e without heading out to sea.
"Then, too," he continued, "the yacht is nearly new, and was fitted with new rigging this year. We"ll promise to sail only a little past the head of the island and return, or run into Bryant"s Cove and walk back. It"s no more than we ought to do for the best friends we"ve got. There"s not another sailboat in the harbour to-night that is as stiff as ours, except Jack Harvey"s, and it"s out of the question to ask him. The other boats went out to the races at Seal Harbour, or we would get Captain Sam to go in his yacht. We can"t ask Jack Harvey to go-that"s certain."
"Wouldn"t he laugh at us, though!" said George. "He would offer to tow our boat along, too, or something of that sort, just to be mean, and then there"d be a nice row."
Besieged on all sides, Mrs. Warren could but yield a partial consent.
"You and George can go," she said, turning to Arthur, "but Joe must stay with me. I can"t spare you all to take such an awful risk."
"I won"t stay!" cried young Joe, hotly. "That is to say, I-I don"t want to," he hastened to add, as Mrs. Warren looked reproachfully at him.
"They need me to help sail the _Spray_,-don"t you, fellows?"
"There ought to be three to manage the boat in this wind," said George, somewhat reluctantly. "I guess you"ll have to let him go, mother-"
But at this moment there was the sound of footsteps upon the piazza. Some one walked around the house, gave a premonitory knock at the door, and let himself in.
It was Henry Burns. He was equipped for the storm, in oilskins, rubber boots, and a tarpaulin hat. The water ran from his clothing in little streams and made a series of pools on the polished wood floor. Declining Mrs. Warren"s offer of a seat, on the ground that he was too wet, Henry Burns stood by the mantel near the fireplace, and, with tarpaulin removed, still looked the pale and delicate student, despite his rough garments.
"Ahoy there, shipmates," he said, with great gravity, waving the tarpaulin at the group. "You weren"t thinking of cruising for your health this evening, were you? Because, if you were, my health isn"t as good as it might be, and I think a little salt air would do it good."
"Bravo!" cried George Warren. "You might know Henry Burns would be on hand if there was any excitement going on. Never knew him to fail,-Joe, you"ll have to stay at home now and keep mother company. We don"t need more than three. Come, Arthur, hurry! We mustn"t lose a minute longer."
And while young Joe turned away, almost in tears at the verdict, the other two boys scrambled about, hastily donning reefers, oilskins, and heavy boots. Then they were gone with a rush and a bang of the door, and Mrs. Warren and Joe composed themselves as best they could to await their return.
And could any of them have imagined then, looking forth through the darkness and the storm, an overturned canoe pounding helplessly upon the beach of that island sh.o.r.e, it surely would not have comforted the watchers nor have given courage to those who went forth to rescue.
Descending the bank to the sh.o.r.e of the cove, the boys quickly launched a rowboat, the tender to the yacht, and, with Henry Burns seated in the stern, tiller-ropes in hand, the brothers, about equal in strength, pulled vigorously across the cove, where the sloop lay at anchor under the lee of the bluff. It was no easy task to cross the cove in that sea; and often Henry Burns turned the boat from its course and headed out toward the entrance, to meet some enormous wave that, had it broken over the side of the boat, would have filled and swamped it.
The yacht _Spray_, sheltered as it was from the brunt of the storm, was tossing about uneasily as the boys climbed aboard and made the tender fast astern. It was a small craft, about twenty-five feet over all, with the hull painted black. It was trim and was able for its size, but, safe to say, not a fisherman in the village would have cared to put out in it this night. Still, the boat had been built on an outer island of the bay for fishing in heavy weather, and was seaworthy.
There were three sets of reefing-points in the mainsail, and, after some discussion, it was decided to reef the sail down to its smallest size.
While Henry Burns hoisted the sail slightly, the brothers hastily tied in the reefs, and the halyards were then drawn taut at throat and peak and made fast. The tender was tied to the buoy. There was no use trying to tow it in that sea. Then, with George Warren at the tiller, Arthur and Henry Burns cast off, and the voyage was begun.
When Mr. Warren purchased the boat for his boys, he had it rigged with especial care for an emergency. The main-sheet was rigged to run through a double set of pulleys, so that the mainsail could be hauled with comparative ease in a heavy gale. The sail he had cut down smaller than the boat had been carrying, so there was less danger of her capsizing.
That very precaution was, however, to prove a source of trouble on this particular night.
Arthur Warren and Henry Burns now came aft, the iron centreboard was dropped, and the yacht was almost instantly under headway, standing out by the bluff and heading almost directly across the cove. Arthur Warren held the main-sheet, while Henry Burns seated himself, with feet braced against the centreboard-box, ready for any emergency.
For a moment they were in comparatively smooth water, and then, as they emerged from the lee of the headland, it seemed as though they had been suddenly transported into another sea. The wind that struck them careened the boat over violently, as they were as yet under but little headway.
Easing the yacht for a moment with the sheet, they righted somewhat, but the prospect was not pleasing. The _Spray_ did not head into the wind well, and they soon found they could not make even a straight course across the harbour, with the slant of wind they had.
"We may make something on the next tack," said George, "but it doesn"t look very encouraging."
"Supposing you see how she comes about before we run in near sh.o.r.e,"
suggested Arthur, after some minutes.
In answer, George put the tiller hard down, after giving the little boat a good headway. The yacht went sluggishly in stays, hung almost in the eye of the wind for a moment, and then, failing to make headway against the heavy seas, fell off once more and would not come about.
"There"s only one thing we can do, boys," said George. "We must run in under the shelter of the wharf and shake out that last reef. The sail is too small to reef down so close. I"m sure she will beat under a double reef. It"s the only thing left to do."
It was the work of but a few minutes to carry out this plan. The third reef was shaken out and the sail hoisted. Once more the yacht emerged from shelter. The change for the better in its working was at once apparent. It pointed higher into the wind, though careening over so that the water came unpleasantly near the top of the high wash-boards. But the yacht would stand this. The question now to be tested was, would she act and come about under the still small sail she was carrying against the force of such a sea.
"Now, then," said George, as they neared the bluff again, "we will try her once more. If she fails now we are beaten. We cannot carry more sail.
That"s sure."
He put the tiller down as he spoke, and the _Spray_, responding bravely, headed into the seas. They strove angrily to overwhelm the little craft, and dashed furiously against her bows, while the wind worried the flapping sails as though it would tear them from boom and mast; but the _Spray_ held on and came about n.o.bly, and they were away again on the other tack, standing across the harbour.
It seemed an hour before they had beaten out where they dared to stand past the bluff and head alongsh.o.r.e. They had left all shelter hopelessly behind; on one side of them a wilderness of foaming waves rushed upon them from the darkness; on the other side lay the lee sh.o.r.e, high and rock-bound for the most part, but now and then broken by small stretches of beach. Against the former, the seas broke with heavy crashings; upon the other, with an ominous booming.
But they headed off the wind a trifle, eased the sheet, made by the point, and stood along the sh.o.r.e as near as they dared to run. It was well for them that the little yacht was a good sea boat. Again and again, as some wave, lifting its white crest above the others, threatened to overwhelm them, the yacht was headed out to sea, and then the wave, lifting the boat high on its crest and rolling rapidly from beneath it till half the length of the yacht seemed poised in air, left it to fall heavily upon the next oncoming wave, or, worse still, to plunge into a watery gulf, there to be half-buried by the next big sea.
But the yacht lived through it all and kept bravely on its course. Henry Burns"s arms ached with bailing out the c.o.c.kpit, where the seas broke in over the quarter, or came aboard in clouds of spray as they headed into the wind.
They dared not sail near the sh.o.r.e, and could see it but indistinctly, save when some larger wave broke upon the beach and carved out a white line of foam, which vanished as quickly as it appeared. So against the cliffs that they pa.s.sed they could see a sudden blur of white as a big wave hurled itself to destruction. Beyond this all was blear and indistinct.
They were now within half a mile of the head of the island, and, looking ahead into the darkness, which, with the rain, had greatly increased within the last hour, like the beginning of a fog, they realized how useless was the search they had begun. They could see but the merest distance in any direction. The storm was steadily increasing, and already a new condition confronted them. The wind was shifting to the southeast, from east, so that their return was rendered impossible. It was worse than folly to think of beating back in such a head sea. The wind on their quarter was driving them along furiously. It was madness to dream of keeping on past the head of the island.
"We can"t make Bryant"s Cove any too soon to suit me," said George. "The _Spray_ has got more wind now than she knows what to do with."
The little boat was, indeed, burying her bows under at every plunge, and trembled in all her timbers at the fearful strain. It was plain that she had reached the limit of her seaworthiness. Bryant"s Cove was a short distance around the head of the island. Once there, they would be sheltered from the storm.
The boys had ceased to speak of a possible rescue of their friends. It was a question of their own salvation now, and the instinct of self-preservation a.s.serted itself. Henry Burns peered eagerly ahead, but looked only for the point of land behind which lay their safety. Suddenly he turned and uttered a shrill cry of fright, such as no one had ever heard from him before.
"Luff her, George! Luff quick-quick, for your life!" he cried, and, springing for the tiller, threw his weight against it ere the startled helmsman could find strength to act.
The yacht, with sails slatting, came into the wind amid a cloud of spray.
The boom, striking a wave, had nearly snapped in two. But it was not an instant too soon.
A black object that looked enormous rose suddenly out of the sea in front of the _Spray_. The next wave lifted it high in the air, and hurled it down upon them. It was a ship"s yawl-boat, of immense size, fully as large as the yacht itself. Down the watery declivity it shot, swift and straight, like some sea-monster in pursuit of its quarry.
But the little yacht had answered her helm well. There was a crash and a splintering of wood, and the yawl drifted rapidly past and was lost in the darkness. The yacht _Spray_, her bowsprit and fore-rigging torn away, once more fell off the wind and was driven on by the storm. It was an escape so narrow that a moment more and they had been dashed to pieces.
Henry Burns was the first to regain his courage.
"It"s better the bowsprit than the rudder," he said, coolly. And his courage gave them strength. A few minutes later they had pa.s.sed the head of the island and gained the lee of the land, and in fifteen minutes more they had cast anchor in Bryant"s Cove.
"I am willing to do whatever you boys think is best," said George Warren, as they lowered and furled the sail and made the yacht snug for the night. "But I think it"s of no use for us to make any search for the boys along this sh.o.r.e. If they capsized in the bay to-night, neither they nor their canoe would come ash.o.r.e here. The canoe would be blown across the bay; and they- Well, we"re bound to believe that they didn"t start, or, if they did, that they put back."