Picked up at Sea Part 31

"What?" exclaimed Jonathan.

"Why, the name of the vessel to which this boat belonged. There it is, painted there on the gunwale as large as life, the _Eric Strauss_. I suppose she was a German s.h.i.+p, but I never heard of her."

The two boys got out the lines presently, attaching small pieces of fluttering cloth to the hooks, and heaved them overboard, dragging them in the wake of the boat some distance astern; but they caught nothing that day, nor did they even see the sign of a fin. A whale travelling by himself, and not accompanied by a "school" as usual, was the only solitary denizen of the deep that they perceived.

It was the same the next day, the boat sailing in a north-east direction as well as David could judge, for the wind remained in the same quarter, from the southward and westward. But he had some difficulty in keeping her on her course at night, owing to the absence of the north star, which is never seen south of the equator, although he could manage to steer her all right by the sun during the day.

When the third morning broke, the boys were starving with hunger, and could have eaten anything. They even tried to gnaw at bits of leather cut out of their boots, but they were so tough and sodden from their long immersion in the sea that they could make nothing of them.

If it had not been for the breaker of water which they found providentially in the boat, they felt that they must have died.

STORY THREE, CHAPTER FIVE.

STARVATION AND PLENTY.

"Look, David," said Jonathan, when the sun had risen well above the horizon on that third morning.

He was sitting down in the bow of the boat, looking out almost hopelessly for the sight of some sail, while David was in the stern-sheets steering.

"There's a big flock of birds right in front of us. Oh, if we only could catch one! I could eat it raw."

"Well, I don't think we'd wait for the cooking," said his companion philosophically, although he put the helm down a bit so that he might likewise see the birds that Jonathan had spied.

"What can they be so far out at sea?" inquired the latter.

"Molly hawks, to be sure," said David promptly. "We must be getting into the lat.i.tude of the Cape."

"Why, they're as big as geese," said Jonathan, when the boat got nearer them. "But some are quite small; are they the young ones?"

"No," replied David; "those are the cape pigeons, which generally sail in company with the others, and not far off at any rate. When you see them close, as I've seen them scores of times, and as you'll be able to if we catch one, as I hope we shall, you'll find they are very like a large pigeon, only that they have webbed feet; and they always seem plump and fat. See, their feathers are white and downy, while their heads are brown and their wings striped with the same colour, giving them the appearance, if you look down on them from a s.h.i.+p, of being large white and brown b.u.t.terflies, with their large wings outspread.

Draw in your line a bit, Jonathan, and let the white stuff on the hook flutter about in the air; perhaps one of them will grab at it thinking it's something good. It's our only chance."

No angler, not even the celebrated Izaac Walton, ever angled more industriously than the two boys did for the next hour, trying to attract one of the birds, which, both molly hawks and cape pigeons, hovered about the boat all the time, making swoops every now and then down into the sea.

They were too knowing, however, to accept David's fict.i.tious bait, as a fish would probably have done.

One look at it was quite sufficient for them; first one and then another wheeling round and coming nearer the surface of the water to inspect the inducement offered them, and flying off again in disgust.

At last, just as a group of three of the cape pigeons, which were the most inquisitive of the lot, stooped down over the strip of red flannel attached to David's hook, he gave it a jerk and it caught somehow or other in the bird's foot or leg, and he pulled it in, squeaking and fluttering all the time, its companions circling round it in alarm, and cawing in concert over its misfortune.

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Jonathan, as David hauled in his prize, flapping vigorously, over the gunwale in triumph; and he stretched out his hand to take hold of it.

"Look out, and stand clear a moment," shouted out his friend. "Those cape pigeons have a nasty habit of throwing up everything they have in their stomachs on to you as soon as you catch them. There, you see. I suppose it's a means of protection given them by nature, the same as the savoury perfume of the American skunk."

"He's lucky to have anything to bring up," said Jonathan drily. "It is more than we could do, I'm sure. There's plenty of him to eat, however, old fellow," he added, when the bird had disgorged its last feed, "and I vote we pluck off his feathers at once and begin business."

"All right," said David, giving the bird a rap on the head with the steering oar, which effectually stayed any further proceedings on its part. "Pipe all hands to dinner."

Both the boys said afterwards, when detailing their experiences during that voyage in an open boat across the ocean when they were lost at sea, that they never before or since ever enjoyed such a meal in their lives as that cape pigeon, which they plucked, and divided into two equal portions, eating the raw flesh, share and share alike, with the greatest gusto, even licking up afterwards the blood that dropped from it on to the thwarts.

The repast gave them new life and spirits, and from that hour the tide of their affairs seemed to flow more favourably, as shortly afterwards they caught a molly hawk, which they carefully put away in the boat's locker along with the water, which David was very particular in allowancing out, giving Jonathan and himself only a small quant.i.ty twice a day out of a measure he had made by cutting off the toe part of one of his boots.

Towards the afternoon of the same day the heavens grew dark right ahead, a big black cloud spreading across the horizon like a great curtain, and mounting gradually till it hid the sun from view.

"We're going to have a squall, Jonathan," said David. "You must look out sharp to s.h.i.+ft the sheet when I tell you, and unstep the mast, if necessary, the very moment I say, mind!"

"Right you are," answered the other, who had now lost all that nervousness for which David used to chaff him when on board the _Sea Rover_. "You only give the word, old man, and you'll find me all there."

The squall, however, pa.s.sed away without touching them, having vented its force in some other quarter; but the wind veered round to the eastwards, much to David's disgust, as he had to let the boat's head fall off from the course he wished to steer, and, strange to say, the great black cloud they had first seen seemed still to face them and keep right ahead, although their direction had been altered--it looked, really, just as if standing like a sentry to bar their progress.

"I don't know what it can mean," said David anxiously. "The wind has s.h.i.+fted, so why can't it s.h.i.+ft too?"

"It doesn't appear so big as it was," observed Jonathan. "It is gradually narrowing at the bottom as it spreads out on top. And look, David, the end of it, close to the sea, comes down into a point just like a thread."

Presently, as the boat ran nearer towards the cloud, which seemed to rest stationary over the water, they could see that the sea was churned up around it in a state of violent commotion, and they could hear a peculiar sucking noise rumbling in the air at the same time.

"I tell you what it is," said David; "although I've never seen one before, it must be a waterspout, and we'll have to give it a wide berth.

Look out, Jonathan, for the sheet; I'm going to put the helm up and bring the boat about on the other tack."

Almost as soon as the cutter turned off at an angle from the direction of the waterspout, although not absolutely going away from it, as the boys were interested in the sight, David uttered another exclamation.

"Gracious goodness, Jonathan!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Look, if there isn't a whale there! And he is going slap at it, as if he is going to bowl it over."

It was true enough; but, whether the leviathan of the deep had been caught in the maelstrom of the waterspout, or had gone towards it from choice, they could not tell. There he was, however, at all events, circling round in the eddy of the sea at the foot of the cloud, and sending up columns of spray every now and then with the flukes of his tail, as they came down with a bash on the water, like the sound of a Nasmyth steam-hammer.

Almost as soon as the boy spoke, the whale appeared to raise itself up on end, as they could see nearly the whole length of its body; there was a tremendous concussion; and then, with a report like thunder, the waterspout burst, falling around the boat in the form of heavy rain.

"I say," said Jonathan, when the unexpected shower had ceased, "it's an ill wind that blows n.o.body good. Look, if there are not a number of dead fish which the waterspout must have sucked up. How thankful we ought to be! there is enough to last us ever so long and keep us from starvation."

"You are light," said David. "Let us kneel down and thank G.o.d for His mercy and care in watching over us!"

And, after they had prayed fervently to Him who had guarded them through all the perils of the deep, and now showered on them a supply of food almost from heaven, they set to work and collected all the fish they could see floating about on the surface of the sea, David saying that they were bonetas and skipjacks, and capital eating, as he stored them in the locker.

"We'll cut them open and dry them in the sun by and by," he added.

"It's too much overcast to do it now; and it's so rough with the spray das.h.i.+ng over us that they would only get wet instead of dry."

Soon after the waterspout had burst, the boat's head had been brought round again as near to the northward as the easterly wind would permit; but, towards evening, as the breeze grew stronger and stronger, and the sea rose in mountainous billows, just the same almost as on the day on which they bade good-bye to the _Sea Rover_, they were obliged to let her off a point or two and scud before the gale.

It was a day of surprises; for, just as night was closing in, Jonathan-- who took the station of lookout man in the fore-sheets, while David steered, being more at home with the rudder oar than his friend-- observed something white, standing out in relief against the dark background of the horizon, which was piled up with a wrack of blue-black storm-clouds.

"I say, David!" he shouted out, "what is this white thing in front--is it another waterspout, or a squall, or what?"

"I'll soon tell you," said David, standing up in the stern-sheets to get a better view. But he had no sooner looked than he dropped down again in his seat as if he had been shot, and turned as pale as a ghost, as he exclaimed hysterically, half laughing, half crying, "A sail! a sail!"

STORY THREE, CHAPTER SIX.