CHAPTER XXIII
WAGING A DESPERATE BATTLE
"We're lost!" exclaimed Miss Elting, turning back into the cabin. Butshe was suddenly attracted by a shout from without.
"Cut away!" screamed Harriet. "Jane, are you there? Tommy!"
"He's gone!" It was Jane's voice that answered in a long, wailing cry.
The water was rapidly receding from the cabin. Miss Elting quicklystraightened the girls out. She did not know how seriously they hadbeen hurt, if at all, but after making sure that all within the cabinwere alive, the guardian groped her way to the cockpit. Harriet stoodbraced against the wheel, shouting out her commands, screaming at thetop of her voice to make herself heard and understood above the gale.
The guardian staggered over to her.
"Oh, what has happened?" she cried.
"The mast has gone overboard--part of it at least, and--"
"Captain Billy's gone, too! The boom struck and carried him over!"yelled Jane when she had crept near enough to be heard.
"Cut away, I tell you. Here is a hatchet." Harriet had groped in thelocker, from which she drew a keen-edged hatchet and handed it toCrazy Jane McCarthy. "You'll have to be quick. We're being swamped.See, we are taking water over the side. Oh, _do_ hurry, Jane!"
"The captain gone!" moaned Miss Elting. "Can nothing be done?"
"No." Harriet's voice was firm. "Unless we work fast we shall all goto the bottom. We must save those on the boat, Miss Elting. But youlisten for his voice. Oh, this is terrible!"
The steady whack--whack of the hatchet in the hands of Jane McCarthycame faintly to their ears. Once Jane slipped over the side into thewater; but, grasping the life-line to which she was tied, the girlpulled herself back on the deck and set pluckily to work again. It wasthe wonder of Harriet Burrell that the "Sue" kept afloat at all, forshe was more under water than above it, and the seas were breakingover her.
"Please get back and look after the girls. Where is your life-line?"asked Harriet of Miss Elting.
"I threw it off when I went into the cabin."
"Get back! Stay there until I call you, or--"
Harriet did not finish the sentence, but the guardian understood andturned back into the cabin, where she did her best to comfort thepanic-stricken Camp Girls.
"Whoop!" shrieked Jane.
The "Sue" righted with a violent jolt. Jane had freed the side of theboat of the rigging which, attached to the broken mast and sail, washolding the craft down and threatening every second to swamp her. Janecrept down into the cockpit, and was about to cut away the stays thatheld the wreckage, which was now floating astern of the sloop.
"Stop!" commanded Harriet. "Wait till we see what effect it has on us,but stand by to cut away if we see there is peril. Oh, I hope we shallbe able to ride it out. That poor captain! He must have been stunnedby a blow of the boom. It seems cruel to stand here without lifting ahand to save him. But what can we do? Jane, is there anything you canthink of that we can do?"
Crazy Jane shook her head slowly.
"Nothing but to tell his family, if we ever get back to land," washer solemn reply. "But, darlin', we aren't on land ourselves yet, andI doubt me very much if we ever shall be. See the waves breaking overthis old tub. How long do you think she will stand it?"
Harriet did not answer at once. She was peering forward into thedarkness. Holding up her hand, she noted the direction of the wind.
"Do you see, Jane, the 'Sue' is behaving better! She isn't takingnearly so much water. Do you know what has happened?"
"What is it, darlin'?"
"The wreckage that you cut away is holding the stern and acting as asea anchor, and it has pulled the bow of the boat around until we areheaded right into the gale. I am glad I didn't let you cut loose thewreckage. It may be the very thing that will save us, but I don'tknow. I wish you would get some one to help you bail out the pit. Thewater is getting deep in here again, and the cabin is all afloat."
"But more will come in," objected Jane.
"And more will swamp us, first thing we know. You take the wheel. Iwill bail."
"I'll do it myself, darlin'."
Jane asked Hazel to assist her, and together they slaved until itseemed as if their backs surely would break.
The storm, while not abating any, did not appear to increase in fury.It was severe enough as it was. The seas loomed above the broken craftlike huge, black mountains, yet somehow they seemed to break just afew seconds before engulfing her and to divide, passing on eitherside, but the "Sister Sue" wallowed in a smother of foam, creaking andgroaning, giving in every joint, and threatening to fall to pieceswith each new twist and turn forced upon her by the writhing seas.
Miss Elting, after having in a measure quieted the girls in the cabin,came out clinging to a rope. She and Harriet held a shoutedconversation, after which the guardian returned to the cabin, wherethere was less danger of being beaten down by huge seas, although onecould get fully as wet inside the cabin as on deck.
The hours of the night wore slowly away. The intense impenetrableblackness, the roar and thunder of the sea, the terrible jerking,jolting and hurling beneath them, shook the nerves of the girls,keeping them constantly in a half-dazed condition that perhapslessened the keenness of their suffering. Harriet and Jane, however,never for a single second relaxed their vigilance, or left a singlething undone that would tend to ease the boat or to contribute to itssafety. The binnacle light long since had been extinguished by thewater, making it impossible to see the compass to tell which way theywere headed. Little good it would have done them to know, either, theybeing powerless to change their course, or to make any headway at all,save as they drifted with the seas. Harriet hoped they might bedrifting toward shore. Instead, they were being slowly carried downthe coast and parallel with it.
At last the gray of the early dawn appeared in the east, but it was a"high dawn," with the light first appearing high in the sky, meaningto sailors wind or storm. Harriet did not know the meaning of it,however, though she thought it a most peculiar looking sky. And now,as the light came slowly, they were able to get an idea what the seain which they had been wallowing all night looked like. It was afearsome sight. As they gazed their hearts sank within them. Mountainsof leaden water rose into the air, then sank out of sight again, andwhen the "Sue" went into one of those troughs of the sea it was likesinking into a great black pit from which there was no escape. Yet thebuoyant hull of the sloop rose every time, shaking the water from herglistening white sides and bending to the oncoming seas preparatory totaking another dizzy dive.
The lower half of the mast was still standing, a ragged stump, thedeck itself swept clean of every vestige of wreckage and movableequipment. What troubled Harriet most was the loss of the water cask.The small water tank in the cabin had been hurled to the floor by thepitching of the sloop and its contents spilled. The Meadow-Brook Girlsaw that they were going to be without water to drink, a most seriousthing, provided they were not drowned before needing something todrink. As she studied the boat, an idea was gradually formed in hermind, a plan outlined that she determined to try to adopt were thewind to go down sufficiently to make the attempt prudent. Harrietcalled the others to her, and the girls talked it over in all itsdetails for the better part of an hour.
There was nothing to eat on board now, nor did many of the party feellike eating. Tommy, however, found her appetite shortly after daybreakand raised quite a disturbance because there was nothing to be had.She suggested breaking open the doors that led to the chain locker,but of this Harriet would not hear. She did not wish water to get inthere, for that appeared to be the one part of the boat that was nowfree from it, and that really had saved them from going to the bottom.In the meantime the wind did not appear to be abating in theslightest. All that wretched forenoon the majority of the girls,half-dead from fright and exposure, clung desperately to the cushionsof the locker seats, wild-eyed and despairing. All that forenoonHarriet Burrell, Jane McCarthy, Tommy, Hazel and Miss Elting
stuck totheir posts and worked without once pausing to rest. About noon thewind suddenly died out, then began veering in puffs from variousquarters of the compass.
"Now, Jane, is our chance," cried Harriet. "The storm is broken, butthe seas will be high all the rest of the day. If we can fix up somesort of a sail, we may be able to reach land before long."
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
When the "Sister Sue" failed to return the previous afternoon, and thestorm came on, Mrs. Livingston, greatly alarmed, sent a party of girlswith a guardian to the nearest telephone to send word to Portsmouththat the sloop and its passengers were missing. A revenue cutter wassent out to look for them, first, however, having been incommunication with the ocean liner the girls had passed by wireless,learning from the captain of the ship of their having sighted the"Sister Sue" and giving the latter's position at the time. Thisserved as a guide for the revenue boat, which steamed through thegreat seas until daylight.
There were no signs of the missing sloop; but, reasoning that, if theboat was still afloat, it must have been blown down the coast, therevenue boat headed in that direction. It was not until three o'clockin the afternoon, however, that the lookout reported seeing somethingfloating in the far distance, off the starboard bow. A study of thisobject through the glasses led the captain to turn his cutter in thatdirection. An hour later he was close enough to see that it was adismantled boat, and that there were people aboard it.
Full speed ahead was ordered and the revenue boat rapidly drew up. Astrange spectacle was revealed to the officers and men of the revenuecutter as she approached close enough to make out details. Thedismantled sloop was lying very low in the water, showing that she wasin a bad way. To the top of the stump of the mast a staple had beendriven and through this a rope run. This rope held a jib, the greaterpart of which was on the deck because there was not height enough tospread it all. But what there was of the jib was pulling well in thefresh breeze and the sloop was wallowing through the seas, makingfair headway toward land, which now was not more than fifteen milesaway.
Harriet Burrell, still at the wheel, was giving her full attention tohandling the boat, leaving to her companions the task of attractingthe attention of the cutter, which, however, had seen the sloop longbefore the passengers on her had discovered the revenue boat.
The captain of the cutter lay to as close to the sloop as he dared go,then held a megaphone conversation with the survivors. Harriet repliedthat she thought she would be able to get the boat to shore, butsuggested that they take off the other girls. The captain would notlisten to Harriet's first proposition. After a perilous passage hefinally succeeded in getting a boat's crew aboard the sloop, theskipper himself accompanying the rescue party.
"And you brought this tub through the gale?" he questioned, turning toHarriet after hearing a brief account of the loss of Captain Billy andthe consequent experiences of the "Sister Sue's" passengers.
"It was purely good luck, sir," answered Harriet modestly.
"It was something a great deal stronger than luck," answered thecaptain. "The sea is going down. As soon as it is down enough to besafe I will put you all aboard the cutter."
"Are you going to leave the sloop?" asked Miss Elting.
"No. We want that boat for reasons of our own. We wish to look it overat our leisure. Your sea anchor saved you, that and good seamanship.Miss Burrell, it is a pity you are not a man. You would be commandinga ship in a few years. I think we had better transfer you now. I'mafraid of the sloop."
The transfer was a thrilling experience for the Camp Girls. Severaltimes they narrowly missed being upset and thrown into the sea, butafter more than two hours' work everyone had been safely landed onthe deck of the revenue boat. Three men were put aboard the sloop, alifeboat being left with them in case the "Sue" foundered. The revenuecutter then started towing her toward home. It was late in the eveningwhen finally they came to anchor off Camp Wau-Wau. The surf wasrunning so high that it was decided not to put the girls ashore untilthe following morning, though the "Sue" was cast off from her tow andallowed to drift into the bay. From here her crew rowed ashore andinformed the anxious Camp Girls that everyone of their companions wassafe.
But the morning brought with it a further surprise. The cabin in whichthe Meadow-Brook Girls had made their home had wholly disappeared.With it had gone the bar, swept out by the storm, the cabin lying ahopeless, tangled wreck on the shore of the bay. With it, too, hadgone ashore a variety of stuff which the officers of the revenue boatexamined early that morning. They pronounced the ruined stuffammunition.
Harriet told of the mysterious box that she had seen carried into thewoods. Later in the day this was located and dug up. It was found tobe a zinc-lined case, packed with military rifles of old pattern.
On board the "Sister Sue," in the chain locker, was found a completewireless equipment, together with quite a cargo of rifles andammunition.
"These guns were meant for _business_!" remarked the captain of therevenue cutter, as he and another officer stood by superintending thework of four sailors.
"Why, I thought the days of piracy had gone by," remarked Harriet.
"_Pi_--" gasped Tommy, and turned pale.
"Pirates!" echoed Margery Brown in consternation. "Why, we might havebeen killed and no one would have known what became of us!"
"Who said anything about pirates!" retorted the revenue captain,smiling.
"Why, you thaid--" began Tommy wonderingly.
"I spoke of 'business,'" came the answer of the man in uniform, "andthat was what I meant to say. In these days, in Latin-Americancountries, revolution appears to be one of the leading forms ofbusiness."
"_Revolution?_" echoed Margery, quickly reviving, while Tommy listenedin amazement. "Why, revolutions are romantic; there's nothing awfulabout 'em."
"Nothing awful," laughed Captain Rupert. "In the countries to thesouth of us most of the revolutions are very tame affairs, so far asactual fighting goes. The crowd that makes the most noise, whethergovernment or insurgent, usually wins the day. For that matter, Inever could understand why blank cartridges wouldn't do as well as thereal ammunition in these Latin-American revolutions."
"Yet if these rifles and cartridges were intended for use in arevolution," Harriet broke in, "doesn't it seem odd to land them onthis short strip of New Hampshire coast?"
"Not at all odd when you understand the reason," Captain Rupert wenton. "These rifles are intended to be used in another projecteduprising of the blacks in Cuba. The blacks there are always ready tofight, provided some selfseeking white man offers them the weapons,and a prosperous time, without work, in the event of victory. Suchanother uprising of the blacks in Cuba has been planned. The secretservice men of the Cuban government got wind of the affair and trailedsome of the plotters to this country.
"Now, the United States is the place where nearly all of the suppliesfor these revolutions are bought. So our government, watching,discovered that the arms were being slyly shipped to Portsmouth,instead of being directly shipped from New York to Cuba. It was, ofcourse, quite plain that Portsmouth was the port from which the armsand ammunition were to be shipped. So the cutter that I command wasordered to Portsmouth. As soon as the plotters there found the'Terrapin' cruising off that port they knew they must find some otherway of getting the goods out of the country, for it is against the lawto ship arms from this country for use against any other establishedgovernment.
"So the plotters hit upon a new plan. They engaged the skipper of aregular fishing smack to carry small lots of arms out to sea, there totransfer them to a sloop. Captain Billy was the man selected toreceive the arms and ammunition at sea. He brought them in here,hiding them, with the intention of putting out some dark night, makingseveral short trips, and transferring all the rifles andcartridges--eight thousand rifles and three million cartridges, to asmall steamer that would be waiting in the offing. The steam vesselwould then carry the cargo to Cuba, landing the goods at some secret,appointed pla
ce. Captain Billy, as our government learned, was toreceive one thousand dollars for his share in the work. It was a bitrisky, as he faced prison if caught--as he surely would have beenimprisoned had he lived."
"Poor man!" sighed Harriet sympathetically.
"I agree with you," nodded Captain Rupert gravely. "Captain Billy wasa good fellow, as men go; but he had passed his fiftieth year withfortune as far away as ever, and he caught at the bait of a thousanddollars, though he knew he was breaking the laws of his country. Buthe's dead," added the revenue officer, uncovering his head for amoment; "therefore we won't discuss his fault further."
When the "hidden treasure" in the woods was unearthed it proved to bea large consignment of rifles and cartridges. These had been hidden ina cleverly concealed artificial, sod-covered cave in the woods. Itsexistence had been so well hidden that Camp Wau-Wau girls had scoresof times passed over the cave without suspecting its existence.
Before the revenue cutter sailed away the six officers aboard cameashore one evening, taking dinner with the girls, in company with anumber of young men, invited from the neighborhood. Afterward untilhalf-past ten o'clock there was a pleasant dance.
All too soon Harriet Burrell and her friends found this vacation tripat an end. Proud of the honors they had won, delighted beyond wordswith the good times they had had, they left for home the day beforethe hulk of the "Sister Sue" was taken away, at Mr. McCarthy's order,and sold.
"We are leaving behind us the best time we have ever had," sighedHazel on the morning of their departure.
"I am sure there are plenty of good times ahead of all of us yet,"declared Harriet brightly.
"What I'm going to say, girls," broke in Miss Elting, "is notoriginal, but practical. The driver we've engaged to take ourbelongings to the station will be due here in ten minutes. If we'renot ready for him, he'll charge us extra for waiting."
So the packing was finished, the driver departed with the luggage, andthe Meadow-Brook Girls, somewhat wet-eyed, took leave of all at CampWau-Wau. Then, Torch Bearer Harriet Burrell leading the way, the fourgirls and their guardian took the trail.
Yet there was another good time coming, as all our readers willspeedily discover when they open the next volume, which is publishedunder the title: "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS; Or,Winning Out in the Big Tournament."
THE END.
The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea; Or, The Loss of The Lonesome Bar Page 23
