All Aboard: A Story for Girls

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER V.

  "ON THE BAY OF BISCAY, O!"

  The meal was scarcely over, when there was a perceptible change in themovement of the steamship, for, no longer sheltered by the Isle ofWight, they soon discovered that what they had always heard of thebroad English Channel is true, and found it one of the roughest sheetsof water known. Faith soon began to look "white around the gills," asMr. Malcolm teasingly informed her, and when she said she "thought shewould go and look after Hafiz," Hope rallied and ridiculed her, wellbacked by Dwight, who was a born sailor; but Bess evidently sympathizedwith her, and began herself to look wan.

  Faith had gone indoors--they were on the forward deck upon which thecaptain's cabin, or "library," opened, and Hope had been watching herzig-zag progress across it, laughing merrily, when, with the suddennessof a lightning-stroke, everything grew black and began to spin aroundher. She looked helplessly at Dwight, whose grinning face was likethat of a whirling dervish, made a little lurch forward, and would havefallen, but that watchful Mr. Malcolm caught her just in time. He atonce sent a boy for the stewardess, and they soon had thehalf-unconscious girl safe inside her own stateroom door, where Faithlooked up drowsily from her little bed to remark,

  "Why, what's the matter? Did she get hurt?"

  "Oh, no, only faint," returned the woman smiling broadly, while sheunfastened Hope's gown and assisted her upon the other bed. "There'sthe pair of you."

  "Two fools!" remarked the parrot, with such appropriateness that evenHope had to join feebly in the woman's jolly laughter, while Faithplucked up strength to gibe a little in return for her sister's attackon deck.

  "There, now, all you've got to do is to lie still," said thestewardess, as she turned away. "Why, you little kitten! Where didyou come from?" for Hafiz, curled down snugly by Faith, had justattracted her notice. "Is he yours, Miss Faith?"

  "Yes, Martha. Papa gave him to me, and do let papa know, please, howsick we are, so that he can look in on us when he has time," she added,for, unaccustomed to illness, she felt they were almost in danger oftheir lives, now.

  When, however, a little later, their father peered in with a laughingface to rally them, and declared in cheery tones that they were "justgetting their sea-legs, and would be good sailors in a day or two,"they took heart, and both soon drowsed off into hazy slumber. Butneither wanted any dinner that night, and did not attempt much exertionuntil late the next day. Hope awoke, feeling much brighter, and feltthat the motion was not so distressing as yesterday. She looked acrossat Faith, who lay with closed eyes, pale indeed, but peaceful.

  "Are you awake?" she whispered.

  "Yes," returned her sister, opening her eyes only to close them atonce. "I'm awake, but it's the queerest thing. So long as I keep myeyes closed I'm quite comfortable, but when I open them I feel as if Iwere in a high swing just ready to tumble out; and when Texas gets topitching around in his cage, and hanging fairly upside down, andwhirling around like a crazy thing, it makes me a great deal worse."

  Hope laughed.

  "Poor Texas! I don't think he's very happy himself. I wonder, arebirds ever seasick, really? I've heard they often mope and die onshipboard, but is it seasickness?"

  "I'm sure I don't know--but let's not talk about it! What time do yousuppose it is, Hope?"

  "Oh, somewhere along in the afternoon. Somebody says there's no timeat sea--it's all now. Heigh-ho! I've half a mind to get up anddress--why-y, what's that?"

  Sure enough! Even Faith opened her eyes wide to stare upward, forthere was something sliding through one of the portholes above theirheads, and dropping softly downwards--a small package done up incrinkly pink paper, and tied neatly about with blue lutestring.

  "It's father!" cried Hope, as she scrambled to her knees to peer out,but she could see nobody on the narrow guards without.

  Meanwhile Faith grasped the little packet and began to untie it,forgetting her illness in her eagerness.

  The paper, when opened, disclosed two sea biscuits--the square, thinkind, like a soda cracker--and upon each was painted a tiny marine viewin water-colors, while beneath was a couplet done in fancifullettering. One read,

  "Hope for a season bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked--as Kosciusko fell,"

  while the other bore the legend,

  "Our Faith, a star, shone o'er a rocky height; The billows rose, and she was quenched in night."

  "How absurd! How funny! Who did it?" they cried in concert,forgetting all ill feelings as they laughed till the tears came.

  "It never was father," said Hope, when she could get her voice. "Thedear man couldn't repeat a line of poetry to save his life. That oneabout Kosciusko used to be in one of our school speakers, don't youknow?"

  "Yes, it's Campbell's." Faith always remembered more accurately thanher sister, while the latter learned more readily. "But who would everthink of applying it so oddly? The play on our names is bright enough,but--I'll tell you, I'll tell you! It was that boy--Dwight Vanderhoff.I just believe it! He is clever, I'm sure, and his uncle could helphim."

  "As likely as not--or Mr. Malcolm--but no, I don't believe he would.He is full of fun, but dignified too, and he never forgets we are thecaptain's daughters. It must be that boy! Martha Jordan says hehasn't been ill a minute, and that he knows everybody on shipboard,already, and they all like him."

  The stewardess was fond of the girls, and in her frequent visits hadbrought them every bit of news she could pick up, to lighten theirconfinement. She appeared while they were conjecturing, and said,

  "Aha! Well, aren't you?"

  "Almost," said Faith, as both began telling the story of their package.

  Martha appeared much interested, but there was a look on her honestface that seemed to say she was not so densely ignorant of the matteras she pretended to be, and, while she assisted them into their long,flannel-lined ulsters and close caps, for a visit to the upper deck,where she declared the fresh wind would blow their last qualms away,they tried to learn just what she did know, but without success.Giving it up, finally, Hope proposed that they wear the sea-biscuit asornaments, and see who should look most conscious when they drew near.

  "A good idea! And where is that box of ribbons? Let's find a pink andblue, if we can."

  "Tell me where you put it and I'll look," said Martha, much amused,and, when found, she punched a hole through one corner of the pastysquares, and tied each to a button of the ulsters. Hope's was pink,and Faith's blue.

  Thus equipped, she started them up the companion-way, and seeing theywere reasonably firm on their feet, went about her business, chucklingto herself as if greatly enjoying something. As they appeared above,they received a merry greeting from their father, who sat chatting withMr. Lawrence to leeward of a smokestack, which gave a grateful warmth,as the day was a typical November one, gray and chill.

  Both gentlemen sprang up to offer chairs, and congratulate them upontheir courage in venturing out, and they were barely seated, when upcame Dwight, trying to keep under a most amazing grin that persisted instretching his mouth from ear to ear.

  "Well, this is good!" he cried, shaking hands with a nourish. "I knew,if you'd just make a try at it, you'd be all right. If everybody wouldstick it out and stay on deck, as I do, there'd be no such thing asseasickness."

  "Oh, the conceit of him!" laughed his uncle. "Stick it out, indeed!Why, you don't know what it means, you healthy young rascal. You havethe stomach of a goat!"

  To divert attention, possibly, Dwight suddenly turned to the girls, andinspected them with apparent curiosity.

  "You seem to be decorated, this afternoon," he remarked in anon-committal tone, "and got on your pink and blue ribbons, I declare!"

  His gaze rested on the sea-biscuit, and he lowered his eyelids to hidethe laugh behind them.

  "You didn't know we had decorations on this ship?" asked Hopeteasingly. "Only a few get them. They are for good conduct undertrying conditions. We have been ill, but not di
sagreeably ill.There's a difference."

  The gentlemen were looking at the painted squares, now, and her fathersaid, "What's that nonsense, my dear? What are they, anyhow?"

  "Just something the stormy petrels dropped through our porthole," saidFaith, gravely taking up the tale. "Aren't they pretty?"

  "H'm! Quite so." Mr. Lawrence was also indulging in a long look."Did a merman paint them for you? And what sea-king got up thatpoetry? It seems well selected, if not entirely original." He glancedat his nephew quizzically, and added, "I suppose the other name of thatFreedom who shrieked was Dwight, wasn't it? Pretty well, sir, prettywell! I recognize the work. Your style is original, Mr. ArtistVanderhoff."

  "And didn't you help him one bit, Mr. Lawrence?" asked Faith.

  "Did not even know of it, Miss Hosmer."

  "Then I call it a mighty smart performance!" cried Hope in a tone offinality which brought a hearty laugh from the group.

  "Clever enough!" decided the captain, as he spelled out the twistedlines, and chuckled over them. "You're quite an artist, young man. Iremember, a few years back, I had a whole crew of the long-hairedprofession aboard, and a jolly, turbulent set they were. Theydecorated the ship from stem to gudgeon in all sorts of unexpectedplaces, and almost disorganized my Lascars, snatching them off duty topose as models. I had to threaten to driven 'em below at the rope'send, and batten down the hatches, to bring them to reason. But theymade fun for us the whole voyage, and I was sorry to see the last ofthem at Gibraltar."

  The steamer was now in the broad Bay of Biscay, which washes the boldshores of France and Spain, and the water had that compact hue of darkazure, with occasional greenish lights, that tells of deep soundings.

  As they forged ahead, to the steady drum-beat of the engines, the broadswirl of water, churned into foam by the great propellers at the stern,marked their path as far back as the eye could reach. The weather wasfitful, and the sky cleared somewhat toward sunset, but its light wascold, and threatening clouds hung close upon its edge. The treacherousweather predicted of the bay might be upon them soon, though as yet ithad been "all plain sailing," as the captain observed.

  "It's either here, or on the Indian seas," he said laughingly."Somewhere, we'll have to take it! It is not often we get throughwithout a little shaking up, somewhere. 'Twould scarcely be possiblein so long a voyage."

  "About how long does it take you?" asked Mr. Lawrence, lazily watchingthe line of faint silvery blue, streaking the horizon.

  "Oh, I usually make it inside of thirty days, when our stops aren't toolong," returned the captain. "Of course the P. & O. liners, beingmail-carriers, do it in much less time. But they're built for speed,and make fewer stops. Then, we tramp steamers always give them theright of way in harbor--hello!"

  He rose to his feet, his keen eyes looking off to starboard, while atthe same instant came a cry from the lookout, "Sail to starboard, aft!"

  The others, following the captain's gaze, saw something like a faintsmudge growing on the horizon's line against the faintly tinted hue,and, even as they watched, it deepened to a waving plume.

  "Come!" said he, and they followed him to the bridge, where, givingeach a turn at the glass, they watched the plume until a shape wasattached to it, and it grew into a graceful steamship, its funnelsbelching black, and its sails gleaming like shadowy shapes of vaportill they grew near enough to become defined, and materialized bynearness.

  "It's one of the liners now--a P. & O!" cried the captain with someexcitement. "Isn't she a lady, though? Watch her gait! She's assteady and swift as the stars in their courses. You'll see her colorssoon."

  He sang out an order or two, then turned to answer Faith who, with hereyes fixed on the rapidly nearing steamer, asked dreamily,

  "What does P. & O. stand for, papa?"

  "Why, don't you know? For goodness' sake, child, what an odd questionfor a seaman's daughter to ask!"

  "But I surely don't know. I never heard anything but P. & O. and Inever even thought to ask before."

  "Well, it's Peninsular and Oriental, of course--there, see her colors?Those four triangles in blue, white, yellow, and red, at her masthead.Watch while we salute her!"

  The beautiful courtesy was given and exchanged, the great steamerpassing at so close range that they could see the clustered groups uponher immense decks, note the fluttering handkerchiefs, and hear theircheers, in response to those from the "International," ringing faint,yet clear, across the watery space between.

  "That's the 'London,'" said the captain dropping his glass after along, admiring gaze, "and, by the way, the old 'London,' a fine,staunch vessel, was wrecked in this very bay years ago."

  They watched the leviathan, with its hundreds of passengers, a longtime, but at length its greater speed carried it from view in thedarkening night, and they were presently reminded, by the signal, thatit was time to dress for dinner.

  The "International" would have seemed odd, in many respects, to oneused only to the trans-Atlantic steamers, for, though entirelyofficered by English-speaking whites, its crew consisted largely ofMalays and Lascars, while the waiters were mostly Japanese andBengalese, wearing a costume compounded of their native gowns and thewhite aprons of European waiters. The maids, under Mrs. Jordan, werealso East Indian women, and they were very picturesque in their saris,or head coverings, of gay colors, with brilliant teeth gleaming out oftheir swarthy faces, and eyes like beads for blackness. Even the boyswho answered bell-calls and polished the brasses and the shoes, werefrom Soudan or Bombay, and the stokers down in the engine-room wereSeedees, black as the coals they kept flinging into those yawning redmouths, which made one think of an opening into the great pit of Hades.

  These Seedees are as near a salamander as a human being can be,perhaps, and certainly they will endure heat that would soon kill awhite man. Sometimes, in those southern seas, the temperature of thefurnace-room is something unthinkable, yet they endure it; though, assoon as their relief appears, they will fling their steaming, andalmost naked, bodies into the scuppers, to let the rush of water washthem into coolness, once more. It was understood that the girls werenot to visit any of the lower regions of the ship, without the companyof some officer, but Mr. Malcolm was very accommodating, so, matronizedby Mrs. Vanderhoff, her party and the twins managed to peep into nearlyevery hole and corner before the voyage was over. Even where they didnot care to go Dwight would penetrate, if by crawling or climbing hecould reach the spot.

  Before bedtime the steamer had changed its course to westward, and asit encountered a stiff head wind its progress was labored and slow.Most of the passengers early "sought the seclusion that the cabingrants," as Dwight mockingly observed, but, sheltered in the snugpilot-house, our girls, with himself and Bess, rode out the "storm," asFaith called it (though the gray old steersman laughed at the idea),until a late hour. All day there had been a flock of sea-gullsfollowing them, and, attracted by the light, they sometimes dashedagainst the windows, startling the girls and delighting Dwight. Theywill follow a steamer much as a fly does a horse, always keeping atjust about such a distance, though one would think, in theirsky-circling and ocean-dipping, they must lose time occasionally. Asthese birds of the sea glide down a billow, then skim lightly up again,it would seem they must sometimes be caught in the swirl of foam andborne under, but no! Every time, no matter with what fusilade of spraythe wave breaks, Mr. Seagull rises, lightly triumphant, with not somuch as a silver feather wetted by salt water!

  The night grew very dark, and the sea was turbulent. The latesupper--a fourth meal always served on board the "International"--wassomething of a scramble, but our young people enjoyed it, as few of theolder passengers were present, and though an occasional fit ofsqueamishness disturbed both twins, while Bess had to disappearsuddenly, Dwight ate calmly on of everything offered, with anequanimity that tickled Joey, and excited the envy of all. The saloonslooked deserted, and only a few mustered for a short look at the lighton Finisterre. After seein
g it, our girls decided bed was a goodplace, but Faith thought she had scarcely dropped asleep, though hourshad fled, when something seemed to shake her into consciousness, andHope's agitated voice whispered, "Oh, what is that?"

  It was a hoarse, awful, prolonged bellow, as of some giant ox in soredistress, and when it would stop, occasionally, faint and far wouldcome another bellow, mellowed by distance, but sounding unspeakablyeerie and frightsome. A bell, too, seemed to be tolling a knell forsomething, and there was a constant rush of feet on deck, mingled withtrumpeted orders and the rattle of cordage. Yet the steamer did notseem to be pitching about at all, as it was when they retired. Couldthey be going down, and were those awful noises calls for help? Andwhere could they be to have answers coming over the waves like that?

  "Oh dear!" sighed Hope. "What can it all mean? Do see if papa is inhis cabin; you're on that side."

  "Of course he isn't!" answered her sister, more calmly. "When there'sdanger he's always at his post. And do you suppose, if there was realdanger for us, that he wouldn't come and let us know? I can trust myfather!"

  "Well, so can I," snapped Hope, so disgusted at this superior tone shehalf forgot her fright. "But it might be that he couldn't get to us,Faith Hosmer! He might be washed overboard."

  Something in the idea of her big, cool father being washed off thedecks of this staunch ship somehow amused Faith, who really was notmuch alarmed, and she could not help laughing, which gave fresh offenseto her sister, who, breaking into tears, exclaimed, "You're a heartlessgirl, and ought to be ashamed!"

  "Why, Hope!" A soft arm stole around her neck and a little figure"cuddled" close. "You're all wrought up, but really I don't think it'sso bad. See how quiet the ship is. I presume we're caught in a fog,or something. Just as likely as not we're off the light, yet, and thatis a bell-buoy, or something."

  "Dear! I'd like to call a bell-boy, and ask," giggled Hope, a bithysterical. "Hark! there's papa now."

  In an instant the two girls were on their feet peering into the"library."

  "Oh, papa, what is it?" cried Hope.

  "What's what, my dear?" coming nearer, and showing himself wrapped intarpaulins from head to heels. "D'ye mean that old tooter?" laughinglightly. "Nothing at all, except that we're in a fog and the horn'sgot a chill. Now turn in, quick, before you get one, too, and go tosleep, dearies; your father's watching."

  "Hope," said her sister, after they had lain still a while. "I thinkthat's a beautiful thought! 'Your father's watching.' It means twofathers for us, dear, and One of them cannot make a mistake, even in afog. Good night and pleasant dreams. I'm going to sleep."

  They kissed and curled down contentedly, sleeping like babies allnight. Father was watching!