Blow The Man Down Part 19

"I can't beat back to Sat.u.r.day Cove against this wind--not now! She would rack her blamed old b.u.t.ts out."

"Then run her for Lumbo Reach. You can quarter a following sea. She ought to ride fairly easy."

"That's a narrow stab in a night as black as this one is."

"I'll make a cross-bearing for you. Where's your chart?" Mayo exhibited a sailor's alert anxiety to be helpful.

"I 'ain't ever needed a chart--not for this coast."

"Then I'll have to guess at it, sir." He closed his eyes in order to concentrate. "You gave a course of sou'west by sou'. Let's see--it was nine-fifteen when I just looked and we must have logged--"

"It ain't no use to stab for such a hole in the wall as Lumbo Reach,"

declared Candage in discouraged tones.

"But you've got your compa.s.s and I can--"

"There ain't no depending on my compa.s.s within two points and a half."

"Confound it, I can make allowance, sir, if you'll tell me your deviation!"

"But it's a card compa.s.s and spins so bad in a seaway there ain't no telling, anyway. In my coasting I haven't had to be particular."

"Not as long as you had an apple-tree in sight," jeered Mayo, beginning to lose his temper.

"I don't dare to run in the direction of anything that is solid--we'll hit it sure, 'n' h.e.l.l-fire will toast corn bread. We've got to stay to sea!"

Captain Mayo set his teeth and clenched his fists and took a few turns up and down the cabin. He looked up into the night through the open hatch of the companion-way. The pale glimmer of the swinging lamp tossed a mild flare against the blackness and lighted two faces which were limned against that pall. Both Oak.u.m Otie and s.m.u.t-nosed Dolph were at the wheel. Their united strength was needed because the schooner was yawing madly every now and then when the mightier surges of the frothing sea hoisted her counter, chasing behind her like wild horses. Those faces, when Mayo looked on them, were very solemn. The two were crouching like men who were anxious to hide from a savage beast. They grunted as they struggled with the wheel, trying to hold her up when the _Polly_ tobogganed with rushes that were almost breath-checking.

Mayo hastened to the girl. "I must have my coat, Miss Candage. I thank you. It will do now."

She held it open for his arms, as a maid might aid her knight with his armor. "Are we in danger?" she asked, tremulously.

"I hope not--only it is uncomfortable--and needless," he said, with some irritation.

"Must I stay down here--alone?"

"I would! It's only a summer blow, Miss Candage. I'm sure we'll be all right."

Captain Candage had gone on deck, rattling away in his stiff oilskins.

Mayo followed, but the master came down a few steps into the companionway and intercepted the volunteer, showing a final smolder of his surliness.

"I want to notify you that I can run my own bo't, sir!"

"Yes, run it with a yeast barometer, a straw bottom, a pinwheel compa.s.s, and your general cussedness of disposition," shouted Mayo into the whirl of the wind, his anxiety whetting his much-tried temper.

"If you're feeling that way, I don't want you up here."

"I'm feeling worse than you'll ever understand, you stubborn old fool!"

"I let one man call me a fool to-day and I didn't make back talk--but I know where to draw the line," warned Candage.

"Look here, I propose to start in with you right now, sir, on a basis you'll understand! I say you're a fool and need a guardian--and from now on I'm going to make my bigness aboard here! Get out of my way!"

Captain Mayo then emphasized his opinion of Captain Candage by elbowing the master to one side and leaping out on deck.

"That may be mutiny," stated Mr. Speed through set teeth, checking the startled exclamation from his helper at the wheel. "But, by the Judas I-scarrot, it's a Mayo that's doing it! Remember that, Dolph!"

VIII - LIKE BUGS UNDER A THIMBLE

Up comes the skipper from down below, And he looks aloft and he looks alow.

And he looks alow and he looks aloft, And it's, "Coil up your ropes, there, fore and aft."

With a big Bow-wow!

Tow-row-row!

Fal de rai de, ri do day!

--Boston Shanty.

Captain Mayo strode straight to the men at the wheel. "Give me those spokes!" he commanded. "I'll take her! Get in your was.h.i.+ng, boys!"

"Ay, ay, sir!" a.s.sented Mr. Speed, giving the resisting Dolph a violent shove.

When Captain Candage began to curse, Captain Mayo showed that he had a voice and vocabulary of his own. He fairly roared down the master of the _Polly_.

"Now shut up!" he ordered the dumfounded skipper, who faced him, mouth agape. "This is no time for any more foolishness. It's a case of work together to save our lives. Down with 'em, boys!"

"That's right," declared the mate. "She don't need much of anything on her except a double-reefed mitten with the thumb brailed up."

The wind had not attained the velocity of a gale, but it did have an ugly growl which suggested further violence. Mayo braced himself, ready to bring the schooner about in order to give the crew an opportunity to shorten sail.

Captain Candage, deposed as autocrat for the moment, seemed to be uncertain as to his duties.

Mayo, understanding mariner nature, felt some contrition and was prompted by saner second thought.

"You'd better take the wheel, Captain Candage. You know her tricks better than I do in a seaway. I'll help the boys take in sail."

The master obeyed with alacrity. He seemed to be cowed. Anger no longer blinded him to their predicament.

"Just say what you want done, and I'll try to do it," he told Mayo, in a voice which had become suddenly mild and rather beseeching. Then he called to his daughter, who had come to the foot of the companion steps, "Better blow out that cabin light, Polly girl! She's li'ble to dance bad, and we don't want to run the chance of fire."

Mayo got a glimpse at her face as he hurried upon the house on his way to the main halyards. Her face was pale, but there was the firm spirit of her Yankee ancestry of the sea in her poise and in her very silence in that crisis. She obeyed without complaint or question and the cabin was dark; even the glimmer of the light had held something of cheer. Now the gloom was somber and depressing.

The schooner came round with a sort of scared hurry when the master threw the wheel hard over and trod on the spokes with all his weight. As soon as the bellying mainsail began to flap, the three men let it go on the run. They kept up the jumbo sail, as the main jib is called; they reefed the foresail down to its smallest compa.s.s.

Mayo, young, nimble, and eager, singly knotted more reef points than both his helpers together, and his crisp commands were obeyed unquestioningly.

"He sartinly is chain lightning in pants," confided Dolph to Otie.