CHAPTER IX. WHAT SCOUT HOPKINS DID.
When young Hopkins came to himself, he was dimly conscious that thedriving motion of the sloop had ceased. Instead, lying there in thepitchy darkness of the hold, he could feel the vessel being struck withwhat appeared to be mighty blows from a Titanic hammer. Tubby guessedinstantly, from the sensations, that they were aground, and that what hefelt was the terrific bombardment of enormous breakers.
A swift "overhauling" of himself soon showed the lad that he was nothurt, although the blow on his head, when he had been hurled from theladder, had stunned him. Of how long he had been unconscious, he had, ofcourse, no knowledge. Worse still, he could not form any idea of how toget out of his dark prison, and he realized that he had no time to loseif he wanted to save Hiram and himself.
Risking the chance that their enemies were prowling about, waiting forthe lad to declare himself, Tubby set up a shout.
"Hiram! Oh, Hiram!"
In the intervals of the crashing blows that shook the frail sloop fromstem to stern, Tubby listened intently. But for some time no answeringcry came to greet him. Then all at once he thought he caught a feebleshout. He responded, and the cry came more distinctly. Guided by it, hemade his way aft with considerable difficulty. Presently a dim, graylight, filtering through the blackness, apprised him that he was nearingthe door in the bulkhead through which he had blundered into the hold. Amoment more and he had passed through the engine-room and was in thecabin. Hiram, looking pale and wild, was clinging to a stanchion. Waterhad come into the cabin through a broken port, and was washing about thefloor.
"Oh, Tubby, I'm so glad you've come. Where have you been?" breathed theunfortunate Hiram, weak and shaky from his bout with seasickness. "Whatis happening?"
"I guess we're aground somewhere," rejoined Tubby. "I'm going to see."
He made for the companionway and rattled the door at the top. As he haddreaded, it was locked. They were prisoners on board a doomed vessel. Foran instant even young Hopkins' resourcefulness came to a standstill. Hisheart seemed to stop beating. His head swam madly. Was this to be the endof them, to be drowned miserably, like two captive rats?
But the next instant the thought of their plight acted as a stimulus. "Atrue Scout should never say die," thought the boy, and then, retracinghis steps, he joined Hiram.
"What's become of Hunt and his outfit?" he asked.
"Why, Stonington Hunt and Freeman passed through the cabin a few minutesago," replied Hiram, "right after that terrible bump----"
"When the sloop struck," thought Tubby. Aloud he said:
"Well?"
"I heard them say that you were done for, and that I could be left todrown."
"Yes, yes, Hiram; but did they say anything about escaping themselves?"
"Yes. I heard them shouting on deck to cut loose the boat. Then I heard alot of noise. I guess they launched her. That's all, till I heard youshouting back in there."
"Humph!" ejaculated Tubby; "so they left us to perish on this old sloop,eh? Well, Hiram, we'll fool 'em. We'll get away yet in spite of them." Intalking thus, young Hopkins assumed a confidence he was far from feeling,but he deemed it best to stimulate Hiram with hope.
"Got any matches?" was his next question.
Hiram nodded, and presently handed out a box.
"Good. Now follow me. By the way, how's the seasickness?"
"Oh, better, but I feel shaky yet. I can manage, though."
"That's the stuff--wough!"
A heavier blow than usual had been dealt the sloop. The two lads couldfeel her quiver and quake under the concussion like a live thing.
"Come on, we've got to move quick," said Tubby. Striking a match, he setoff into the hold. Hiram followed. Before long they stood at the foot ofthe ladder from which Tubby had been so violently flung a short timebefore.
The stout youth darted up it with an agility one would not have expectedin a boy of his girth. With the strongest shove of which he was capable,he pushed up the scuttle above.
To his great joy, it gave, swinging back on hinges. But, as he opened itfully, Tubby came nearly being hurled from the ladder for the secondtime. A great mass of green water swept across the deck at that instant,and the full force of the torrent descended into the hole through theopen hatch. Luckily, Tubby had seen it coming in time to warn Hiram, andthe downeast lad clung on tightly enough to avoid being carried from hisfoothold.
In a jiffy young Hopkins clambered through, shouting to Hiram to followhim. It was a wild scene that met both boys' eyes when they emerged onthe deck of the stranded sloop. She lay in a small inlet which, thoughpartially sheltered, in hard storms was swept by the seas from outside.The sloop was heeled over to one side at so steep an angle that standingon her wet decks was impossible without clinging to something.
About three hundred yards away lay the shore, a wild, uninhabited expanseof wind-swept sand dunes, overgrown with dull, green and pricklybeach-grass. No sign of a human habitation could be discerned. Outside onthe beach the big seas thundered, flinging masses of white foam skyward.It seemed almost impossible that she could have been navigated throughthe narrow inlet leading into the small bay where she had stranded. As amatter of fact, it had been more by luck than by design that she hadaccomplished the passage.
All at once, as the two castaways stood looking about them, a figurebobbed up from behind one of the sand hills. It was instantly recognizedby Tubby as Stonington Hunt. The lad now saw that a boat lay on thebeach; evidently then, that was how they had reached the shore, as Hiramhad surmised. Hunt had apparently been seeking shelter from the stormbehind the dune, with the rest of his band. As his eyes fell on thefigures of the two Boy Scouts standing on the deck of the stranded sloop,he beckoned toward the dune. Instantly there appeared the rest of thelads' enemies.
They stood staring for a few minutes, as if amazed to see the Boy Scouts.But before they had time to take any action, an astonishing thinghappened.
The sloop began to move.
The incoming tide, which had been steadily rising, had floated her, andshe gradually reeled off the sand bank, on which she had struck, intoopen water. As she did so, Tubby suddenly ducked low, and somethingwhistled by his head. Above the wind came the crack of a firearm'sreport. Gazing toward Stonington Hunt, Tubby saw that the man held arevolver in his hand. It was from this weapon, evidently, that theprojectile had been discharged.
"Get out of the way, Hiram, quick!" exclaimed the stout lad, for he nowsaw that the others were preparing to discharge pistols at them. It wasapparent that they did not mean the boys to escape if they could avoidit.
But Tubby had suddenly thought of a plan. It had been born in his mindwhen the sloop rolled off the shoal into deep water. He knew something ofgasoline engines from his experiences on board the _Flying Fish_. Whywould it not be possible to get out of the little and dangerous bay undermotor power? The shots hastened his decision. Clearly if they remainedwhere they were, destruction swift and certain threatened. StoningtonHunt did not mean to let them land, so much was only too apparent.
Before the men left the sloop they had hauled down the canvas, probablyin an effort to keep her from grounding. It was the work of an instantfor Tubby to dash below and give a turn to the rear starting device onthe engine. It worked perfectly. Then he turned on the gasolene, easilyfinding the connection, and threw on the switch. A blue spark showed thatthe current was on. Then, with a beating heart he turned the startingdevice once more.
Bang!
The engine moved. To the lad's delight it worked steadily. This done, hedarted back on deck and took the wheel. He was not a moment too soon,for, with no one at the helm, the craft was heading once more for thesand bank. Crouching beneath the stern bulwarks, and ordering Hiram to dothe same, young Hopkins navigated the sloop skilfully ahead, steeringstraight for the open sea. Tempestuous as it was, the sloop seemed stillstaunch, and he felt they were safer there than in such close proximityto Hu
nt. Especially since they were followed by an unceasing fire fromthe pistols of the gang. But although some of the shots splintered thebulwarks, sending showers of slivers about the two crouching lads,neither were hit.
At last, after a dozen hair-raising escapes on the choppy bar, the sloopgained the outside, and throwing showers of spray high over her bluffbows, began to breast the sweep of the seas.
"Go below and take a look at the glass oil cups," ordered Tubby as soonas they were safe from the firing, "if any of them are empty fill them.There is an oil can on a shelf beside the motor."
Glad to do anything to help out, Hiram hastened on this errand. He wasbelow about ten minutes. When he returned on deck his face was white, andhe was breathing quickly. Tubby's quick eye noted, too, that the lad waswet to the waist.
"What's up below?" he demanded.
"The cabin's half full of water, and it seems to be rising every minute;"was the disquieting reply.
At the same instant the sloop's motion stopped and she began rolling in asickening fashion in the troughs of the mighty seas.
"Jehoshaphat!" exclaimed Scout Hopkins, "we're in for it now. The water'sreached the engine and it's stopped!"
As he spoke a gigantic mountain of green water suddenly towered rightabove the helpless sloop. Its crest seemed to overtop the mast tip.Automatically Tubby crouched low and reached out a hand for Hiram.
The next instant the wave swept down on them enveloping the lads in aturmoil of salt water. The two boys were swept away in the liquidavalanche like feathers before a gale.
When the wave had passed, the wreck of the sloop could be seen staggeringand wallowing like a stricken thing. But of her two recent occupantsthere was no trace upon the wilderness of heaving waters.
The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp Page 9
