Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— —- w= ——. — -<—5e ee ee - ~ ooo The Flying Dutchman of 1880. 5 of it and sent both, sprawling and choking, into the lee scuppers, where I yelled out to them: “ agbting and come and fight the seas, you foo | My voice seemed to sober them instantly, for they both scrambled up and came toward me, when Neison said respectfully: ‘‘We are glad you are alive, captain. I thought we were the only ones left alive in the a Give us the axes. We are fresh.” _ Tbe man seemed sober enough, though his face was all bloody where Andersen had bucked him; but for that matter both had the same bloody noses, and neither seemed to mind it. We weren’t sorry to give them the axes, and they went at their work with such zeal, that in five minutes more, the ship was riding with her head to the mass of wreck, as if to an anchor, while the seas no longer broke over us, “Thank Heaven!” I said fervently; ‘‘ she floats et, and we may be able to make Batavia under ury-masts.” Lars Nelson heard me and shook his head, enya! ‘No, no, captain. We may get to land, some of us, but the ship’s going down with Ole, as I said she would.” A Spee tere angrily, saying: ere ou get your rum, you scoundrel? You're drunk,” 4 , He only laughed and answered: ' “What's the use of dying like a sick calf, when one can meet death and the devil with a Jaugh for the sake of a pint of rum? I was drunk, I know it. I heard the crash, found everybody dead or gone overboard but Erik and me, and I thought we a as well go to the next world as happy as we hope to be when we get there. You know, captain, we Norse- men have a heaven where we all get drunk every day.” ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” [ said, hoping to make him so; “to be getting prt on the very day your poor little brother my frowned at me and shook the ax be still heki, sa ying: ‘Don’t be too masterful, captain. The ship’s oing down, and we two Danes won’t be inter- with, now. We'll help you, if you speak us fair; but we don’t want any more tying up jin the riggiag.” © ae you mean that you will dare to mutiny?” said I, Both Dawes laughed. “Dare!” eried Erik Andersen. taine, vou ne say dat too often to a Dane. (Come, Lars.” And both men threw down their axes, and event te tie fore-hatch, which they opened and Saw pee down, when T sawa oan SP out of the hatchway, and Mr, Denyse, our thi mate, staggered on deck, pale as a corpse, and fell over on the hatch cover, gasping for breath. The sight of him seemed to alter the inten- tions of the two rufflans; fur they stopped and began to jabber Danish to each other, looking down at the mate. if went up and shook Denyse, calling out to m: “Mr. Denyse, what’s the matter? Where ihave you been, sir?” He looked up at me and tried to rise, but seemed too weak to do it, till he bad gasped several times, when he said faintly: “] beg pardon, sir—better in a minute,—I was below—hunting for—a light—when they battened down hatches—I couldn’t make them hear me and | was near dead for foul air and— the corpse is there, sir.” _ Hes ued to be as nearly done up as a man could be till the air revived him, and certainly the stench that came out of that forecastle was enough fo knock a man down as soon as he put his head vver it. | Even the two Danes wilted under it and turned rie ‘“What do you mean by getting a light?’ I asked Denyse as soon as he was able to sit up. ** What did you wunt in the forecastle? Your place was on deck with the rest.” “I know it, sir.” be said quietly. ‘IT only went down with the corpse, to lay it out decent- ly, and I went to get some candles to burn athis head. You know I’m a Catholic, sir. Lthought I'd have time, but the storm was too quick for me,” ‘* Were you alone, sir?’ I asked. ‘‘ Yes, sir, alone with the corpse and it was , awful, after a little,” Here Mungo Johnston touched my sboulder and pointed to the cabin, saving: “Tf it was bad down there, it will be worse there. There are six ple locked up in the cabin. Let us release them before it is too late, tain.” : ie young fellow had more sense than I had: for | had forgotten all about the poor passen- and I own | felt scared as we went back to open the cabin doors. : CHAPTER V. * tae § arift bi r “fu h détian and her eabin indrift bad a flush deck, | | pn the typhoon came on. I'd been on emi- ww 3 SLL ; ar ee —— before, when ship fever had started rough ba g down, but then we had had a t crowd of e, and I knew that the cabin of the Spindrift was a 4 one, so I had not so much fear when first I ordered it shut up, Well, we unfastened the cabin-door and looked in. Everything was quiet. Not a soul was in the saloon, and the state-room doors were closed. It was dreadful hot down there; for we’d shut the hatch before the typhoon came on, when the thermometer had s at 98, and the heat had all been kept in during the storm. I went down first, as soon as I thought the air had had time to get in, and the first thing I heard sent my heart into my mouth, as the 8 ing is. Underneath the cabin floor I heard wash of the water, going to and fro as the ship rolled, and I knew that she must be leaking badly. I turned to Denyse and said: ‘*Go and sound the well, sir. passengers.” He touched his cap and went off, while I be- gan to thunder on the state-room doors. The only door that wasn’t bolted was Sam Peters’s, and I sup he’d left it unfastened for his room-mate, Jobnston. We found the young doctor on his back, snoring hard, all dressed in his clothes, as if he’d lain down for a moment, and it was almost im ble to get him awake, though we shook and pulled him bard. At last Mungo Johnston said: “There’s something wrong here. It’s the foul air, I think. Drag him out on deck; I be- | gin to feel dizzy myself.” So did I, for that matter, and we had hard | work tg drag Sam out and get him on deck, | where he Ver¥ $00n revived and began to shiver | in the cold wind, and look at us, stupid-like, asif | he didn't know how he came there. Well, to | cut the matter short, we bad to callin the Danes | and make several trips to the cabin, break in | the state-room doors and drag out the people, | finding them all asleep, or, more like, insensible, | ' I'll rouse up the till we had them all on deck, ping like fishes as the cold air struck them and they revived. And as soon as they were in a fair way of re- covery Denyse came up and whispered: ‘*We've no time to lose, sir. The water’s | rising every minute, and the ship’s beginning to | settie. I tell you, when I look back now, sitting in my arm-chair, to that day, [ sometinies seem to —-—— ‘Ha! capi- | think it was only a miracle that saved us from going down long before; for when I went to | the cabin hatch and Jocked down I saw the wa- | ter already upon the floor of tho cabin, and I | knew we badn’t Lalf an hour to float, ’ And there was the poor Spindrift in the mid- | dle of the Indian Meee 8 idn’t know where— with only seven able-bodied men aboard her (young Hyatt could hardly be counted a full | man), and four women to take care of, with three old men—Bruce, old Hyatt and Peters— who promised to be as helpless as the women in what was coming on us now. I took just one look around. Every boat had been smashed in the typhoon except one—an iron life-boat, meant to hold four oars. That had been lashed down to ring-bolts on deck, bottom up, and | thought it would float, though it had been dented and battered consid- erably by the spars knocking about. Overboard, by the bows, was the mass of masts and yards, still held re pared by the rig- ging, and I knew that would float. anyway. Old Bruce looked like a corpse, Peters wasn’t | much better, and it was only the young poosie who seemed to have strength enough left to | throw off the effects of the foul air below. Mamie Bruce and Mrs. Peters were both sit- ting up, looking forlorn and frightened, while , Inez Diaz, like the good, patient girl she was, | had forgotten her own trouble in looking after her mistress. Old Hyatt was the toughest of the old men, and he and his wife seemed to be near over their first weakness; while their boy, Cyril Adolphus, — was as pale as a ghost, _ nape bis heart out in the lee scuppers, with his mother crying over him and wringing her hands thinking he was going to die. | saw there was no time to be lost if I hoped to save any lives, and I wanted to know whether I could depend on the Danes. I felt afraid to trust them till I knew where they had got their rum; and I knew what sailors were when their ship goes down, and they think | they’re not bound to obey any one. So { turned to the whole lot, all together, and ‘* Sbipmates all, we’ve got to get out of this ship and get this life-boat out. I want to know if there’s any man here who’s afraid to follow | me and help fight for our lives?’ I put it that way on purpose to catch the Danes, and Erik Andersen took it up at once, answering: ‘Capitaine, I fight for you till death, you | ak me fair.” | ‘‘And you, Nelson?” I asked.. ‘‘ Will you Fig a and take care of these poor women ere ——————————————————————— « set the boat, broadside to the sea, ste aN so that poor old Peters and young Hyatt : He straightened up in a minute. ‘‘A Dane never deserts a wo captain,” he said, with a sort of doubtful . “Yes, I’ll obey orders; but it’s no use. I tell you, we'll never reach port,’ ** Will you obey orders, and leave the rest to me?” said I. ** Yes, captain, on the faith of a Dane, I will,” he answered, with a shrug. “I told you I'd fight death and the devil, and I will.” “Very well,” said I, ‘‘see you don’t break your word, and get at the rum again.” He laughed. ‘‘No chance, captain. We got that in the wreck of the cook’s galley, and there’s no more.”’ “Very »”’ said I; and then I turned to Denyse and Hackett. **T don’t ask you to follow me, because you’re both good men. Now, you passengers, which of you will help save us all?” “T will,” Sam Peters as he got up, lively wre aes bople 10% wih te ede Gil Shunt; bap- P ope it’s not as as tain. Is the ship going down **Of course she is,” I said, for I knew it was no use to hide it, and I wanted to rouse them allup. ‘‘She won’t float half an hour longer and we've got to get out fifteen le, a b for all, in a boat only m for eight. e’ve got to make a raft, and do it lively; or we'll be sucked down in the eddy. All hands must get to work, women and all. No time for high strikes and nonsense. You girls get up and work. Mr. Bruce, if you don’t want to get drowned stand up. Dr. Peters, we'll have to leave you if you can’t make an effort. You, oung Hyatt, if bps want to be left to drown eep on being sick. Now quick. First let's get this boat overboard, and some of those spars into a raft. The old folks get the grub out of the cabin. Cut loose the water casks, the last thing. They'll float up.” And to work we all went with a will, the two Danes going at it like giants, now they were fairly roused. , We got the boat turned over and ready to launch by the bows, while Hackett and the Danes, with Denyse to lead them, scrambled on- to the wreck of the pare, and began to make a sort of raft, as only old sailors can. They were four strong men, but all their strength wouldn’t have been much use if they hadn’t known how to handle the timbers and themselves in such a sea as was still running. They made the waves help them in gettin e spars side by side, and using up the tangle of running rigging to keep them in place, for me, I had my hands full in getting things into the boat, for I'd made up my mind that she wouldn’t hold us all, but that she could carry - our grub and water, with a few ments to | find out where we were as soon as the sun shone again, | SBut, work as we might, and as fast as we could, the water kept rising in the cabin, and before | could get more than a couple of boxes of biscuit and a case of canned meats out of the steward’s pantry into the boat, the ship began to settle so low that the seas came aboard a Mamie Bruce was menrhy one sea, and it was on ly ungo Jobnston caught her in time and held on to ber with one arm, while he grabbed the binnacle with the other band. od] I shouted to them to “launch the boat and get to the raft quick,” and the consequence was a rush, in which young Hyatt fougbt at 4 to the front, throwing Inez Diaz down hie desperation, and between them they nearly up- Pe t overb y Mungo Johnston kept his head the best aye called to Sam Peters, who helped him, 8 two got the boat steadied, kicked Cyril Adol- phus out of the way, and the women aboard, just as the waves came washing in again. s bead oc [ saw the time had come, as the life boat was 'ewepf off, and the two men got the oars out with Cyril Adolphus and Old Peters Jeft behind on the ship with me, and the raft floating off to leeward, for Andersen had cut the ropes. that bound her to the ship as soon ashe saw the Spindrift beginning to settle. | ir W For a moment I thought it was all day with me, but the ship had only settled to an even keel, and there was air enough in her yet to float some minutes, for we bad.of course bat- tened down all but the cabin hatch as soon as we found her sinking. pa 9) The difference between forecastle and cabin now began to tell. and the Spindrift settled by the stern, with ber bows cocked up in the-air, sliding down the deck to me at hatch. ’ r I looked out. We were alone, The sea was running as high as ever, and I couldn't see ar) «3 Hoek any more. is at Mia, yri olphus was crying: a baby, | old Dr. Peters looked out at the raging sea as if he was stupid, | | I turned to them both and cried: ‘* Never say die, doctor. The life-buoys are here yet. Cut them loose and jump for it.” They understood me and ran to the lifo- | “i JOOKS GONE (E(e)