Blow The Man Down Part 24

"I believe you have spoken for all of us, Captain Can-dage," said Mayo, earnestly. "I thank you!"

They all perceived that the _Polly_ had made offing at a lively pace during her wild gallop under the impetus of the easterly.

Mayo balanced himself on the keel and took a long survey of the horizon.

In one place a thread of blue, almost as delicate as the tracery of a vein on a girl's arm, suggested sh.o.r.e line. But without a gla.s.s he was not sure. He saw no sign of any other craft; the storm had driven all coasters to harbor--and there was not wind enough as yet to help them out to sea again. But he did not worry; he was sure that something, some yacht or sea-wagon, would come rolling up over the rim of the ocean before long. The faint breeze which fanned their faces was from the southwest, and that fact promised wind enough to invite s.h.i.+pping to spread canvas.

Only the oval of the schooner's broad bilge showed above water, and the old Polly was so flat and tubby that their floating islet afforded only scant freeboard.

Mayo shoved his arm down into the hole through which they had escaped.

After the air had been forced out the lumber was within reach from the schooner's bottom. He fumbled about and found the ax. Some of the short bits of lumber which they had used as battering-rams were in the jaws of the hole. He busied himself with hewing these ends of planks into big wedges and he drove them into cracks between the planks near the keel.

"It may come to be a bit sloppy when this sou'wester gets its gait on,"

he suggested to the skipper. "We'll have something to hang on to."

Captain Candage's first thankfulness had shown a radiant gloss. But he was a sailorman, he was cautious, he was naturally apprehensive regarding all matters of the sea, and that gloss was now dulled a bit by his second thought.

"We may have to hang on to something longer 'n we reckon on. We're too far off for the coasters and too far in for the big fellers. And unless something comes pretty clost to us we can't be seen no more 'n as if we was mussels on a tide reef. We'd ought to have something to stick up."

"If we could only work out one of those long joists it would make a little show." Captain Mayo shoved his arm down the hole again. "But they are wedged across too solidly."

"I think there's a piece of lumber floating over there," cried the girl.

She was clinging to one of the wedges, and the composure which she felt, or had a.s.sumed, stirred Mayo's admiration. The plump hand which she held against her forehead to s.h.i.+eld her eyes did not tremble. From the little Dutch cap, under the edge of which stray locks peeped, down over her attire to her toes, she seemed to be still trim and trig, in spite of her experiences below in the darkness and the wet. With a sort of mild interest in her, he reflected that her up-country beau would be very properly proud of her if he could see her there on that schooner's keel.

"What a picture you would make, Miss Candage, just as you are!" he blurted. She took down her hand, and the look she gave him did not encourage compliments. "Just as you are, and call it 'The Wreck,'"

he added.

"Do I look as badly as all that, Captain Mayo?"

"You look--" he expostulated, and hesitated, for her gaze was distinctly not rea.s.suring.

"Don't tell me, please, how I look. I'm thankful that I have no mirror.

Isn't that a piece of lumber?" she inquired, crisply, putting a stop on further personalities. "Wait! It's down in a hollow just now."

The sea lifted it again immediately. Mayo saw that it was a long strip of scantling, undoubtedly from the deckload that the _Polly_ had jettisoned when she was tripped. It lay to windward, and that fact promised its recovery; but how was the tide? Mayo squinted at the sun, did a moment's quick reckoning from the tide time of the day before, and smiled.

"We'll get that, Miss Candage. She's coming this way."

Watching it, seeing it lift and sink, waiting for it, helped to pa.s.s the time. Then at last it came alongside, and he crawled cautiously down the curve of the bilge and secured it. After he had braced it in the hole in the schooner's bottom with the help of Mr. Speed, the girl gave him a crumpled wad of cloth when he turned from his task.

"It's the rest of my petticoat. You may as well have it," she explained, a pretty touch of pink confusion in her cheeks.

Mr. Speed boosted Mayo and the young man attached the cloth to the scantling and flung their banner to the breeze. Then there was not much to do except to wait, everlastingly squinting across the bright sea to the horizon's edge.

X - HOSPITALITY, PER JULIUS MARSTON

Hoo--oo--rah; and up she rises!

Hoo--oo--rah! and up she rises!

Early in the morning.

What shall we do with a saucy sailor?

Put him in the long boat and make him bail 'erv Early in the morn--ing!

--Old "Stamp-and-go."

Mayo saw the sail first. It was coming in from the sea, and was very far and minute. He pointed it out with an exclamation.

"What do you make it, sir?" asked Captain Candage. "Your eyes are younger 'n mine are."

"I reckon it's a fisherman bound in from Cashes Banks. He seems to be lying well over, and that shows there's a good breeze outside. He ought to reach near enough to see us, judging from the way he's heading."

That little sail, nicked against the sky, was something else to watch and speculate on and wait for, and they forgot, almost, that they were hungry and thirsty and sun-parched.

However, Captain Mayo kept his own gaze most steadfastly on the landward horizon. He did not reveal any of his thoughts, for he did not want to raise false hopes. Nevertheless, it was firmly in his mind that no matter what might be the sentiments of Julius Marston in regard to his recent skipper, the mate and engineer on board the _Olenia_ were loyal friends who would use all their influence with the owner to urge him to come seeking the man who had been lost.

The fact that a motor-boat had come popping out of Sat.u.r.day Cove in pursuit of the schooner suggested that Mate McGaw had suspected what had happened, and was not dragging the cove-bottom for a drowned man.

Mayo had plenty of time for pondering on the matter, and he allowed hope to spice his guesses. He knew Mate McGaw's characteristics and decided that the yacht would get under way early, would nose into a few near-by harbors where a gale-ridden schooner might have dodged for safety, and then would chase down the sea, following the probable course of a craft which had been caught in that nor'easter. Mate McGaw was a sailorly man and understood how to fit one fact with another. He had a due portion of mariner's imagination, and was not the sort to desert a chum, even if he were obliged to use stiff speech to convert an owner. Therefore, Mayo peered toward the blue sh.o.r.e-line, coddling hope. He wondered whether Mate McGaw would have courage to slip a word of encouragement to Alma Marston if she asked questions.

Mayo was elated rather than astonished when he spied a smear of drab smoke and was able to determine that the craft which was puffing that smoke was heading out to sea, not crawling alongsh.o.r.e.

"That's a fisherman all right, and he's bound to come clost enough to make us out," stated Captain Candage, his steady gaze to southward.

"But here comes another fellow who is going to beat him to us,"

announced Captain Mayo, gaily.

"And what do you make it?" asked the skipper, blinking at the distant smoke.

"A yacht, probably."

"Huh? A yacht! If that's what it is they'll most likely smash right past. They'll think we're out here on a fis.h.i.+ng picnic, most like.

That's about all these yacht fellers know."

The girl gave her father a frown of protest, but Mayo smiled at her.

"I think this one is different, sir. If I am not very much mistaken, that is the yacht _Olenia_ and she is hunting me up. Mate McGaw is one of our best little guessers."

A quarter of an hour later he was able to a.s.sure them that the on-coming craft was the _Olenia_.

"Good old Mate McGaw!" he cried, rapturously. In his joy he wished he could make them his confidants, tell them who was waiting for him on board that yacht, make them understand what wonderful good fortune was his.

After a time--the long time that even a fast yacht seems to consume in covering distance to effect the rescue of those who are anxious--the Olenita's whistle hooted hoa.r.s.ely to a.s.sure them that they had been seen.

"The same to you, Mate McGaw!" choked Captain Mayo, swinging his cap in wide circles.

"Seeing that things have come round as they have, I'm mighty glad for you, Captain Mayo," declared Candage. "I ain't no kind of a hand to plaster a man all over with thanks--"

"I don't want thanks, sir. We worked together to save our lives."