CHAPTER XXI
RAFTS
When the day did break at last it brought no great degree of comfortwith it. We were surrounded by a yellow, yeasty sea, and the air was sothick that the islands on which our lives depended seemed but shapelessshadows in the distance. Still the wind had abated somewhat, but theswell was very strong, and we were without any means of attempting toleave the vessel.
When it was quite morning, and the sky cleared a little, we saw theskiff, with the Captain on board, beating about on the water and tryingto make for us. But in this he was not able to succeed, for the waveswere running so high that it would have been quite impossible either tobring the skiff alongside or to get on board our vessel if he had doneso. We could see the Captain standing up in the bows of the boat andsignalling to us, and it made our hearts sick to be able to see him andto be unable to know what he wanted or what we ought to do.
At this moment one of the men--he was the ship's carpenter, and adecent, honest sort of fellow--said that he was a very good swimmer,and that he thought he could reach the skiff in that way. He was so veryconfident of his own powers that though we were somewhat unwilling tolet him risk his life, he did in the end prevail upon Lancelot to lethim make the attempt.
The man stripped and was into the sea in a moment, fighting bravely withthe billows that buffeted him. It was a good sight to see him slowlyforging his way through that yellow, clapping water; it is always a goodsight to see a strong man or a brave man doing a daring thing for thesake of other people. We watched his body as he swam; he was but acommon man, but his skin seemed as white as a woman's in that foulspume, and his black hair, which he wore long, streamed in a rail uponthe water as a woman's might. But I do not think the woman ever livedwho could swim as that man swam.
We watched him grow smaller and smaller, and most of us prayed for himsilently as he fought his way through the waters. At last we saw that hehad reached the skiff, and we could see that he was being pulled overthe side. Then there came a long interval--oh, how long it seemed to us,as we watched the leaping waves and the distant skiff that leaped uponthem, and wondered if the man's strength would carry him back again tous! By-and-by--it was not really such a very long time, but it seemedlike centuries--Lancelot, who was looking through his spy-glass, saidthat the man was going over the skiff's side again. Then we all held ourbreaths and waited.
So it was; the fellow was swimming steadily back to us. It was plainenough to see that he was sorely fatigued, and that he was husbandinghis strength, but every stroke that he gave was a steady stroke and atrue stroke, and every stroke brought him a bit nearer to where we lay.And at last his black head was looking up at us beneath our hull, and inanother second he had caught a rope and was on the deck again, drippinglike a dog, and hard pushed for lack of breath.
Lancelot gave him a measure of rum with his own hands, and by-and-by hiswind came back to him, and he found his voice to speak as he struggledinto his clothes.
What he had to tell was not very cheering. He had given Captain Amber afaithful picture of our perils and our privations, and Captain Amber hadmade answer that he was sorry for us with all his heart, and only wishedthat he was in the danger with us. Which we knew very well to be true,though, indeed, the good gentleman was in scarcely less danger himself.
His orders to us were that we should with all speed construct rafts bytying together the planks of which we had abundance, and that we shouldembark upon these rafts and so try to make the shallop and the skiff,which would bear us in safety to the islands.
It was not tempting to make rafts and trust them and ourselves upon themto the sea that was churning and creaming beneath us, but it seemed tobe well-nigh the only thing to do, and it was the Captain's orders, andwe prepared to set to work and execute his commands. But we had scarcebegun to tie a couple of planks together before it was plain that ourlabour would be in vain. For even while the man had been telling histale the weather had grown much rougher, and we could see that the skiffwas unable to remain longer near to us, but had to turn back for her ownsafety to the islands. I felt very sure that Captain Amber must be inanguish, having thus to leave us, his dear Lancelot and some seventy ofhis sailors and followers, on board a vessel that might cease to be avessel at any moment.
Now we were in very desperate straits indeed, and some of us seemedtempted to give ourselves over to despair. If it had not been for thesteadiness of those that were under Lancelot, I feel sure that the mostpart of the sailors would have paid no further heed to Jensen'scounsels, but would have incontinently drunk themselves into stupor ormadness, and so perished miserably.
But our men, if they were resigned to their fate, were resolved to meetit like Christians and stout fellows, and as we were the well-armedparty the others had, sullenly enough, to fall in with our wishes. AndLancelot's wishes were that all hands should employ themselves still inthe making of those rafts, so that if the weather did mend we should beable to take advantage of the improvement ere it shifted again. Thoughthe water was beating up in great waves all about us, we were so tightlyfixed upon our bank that we were well-nigh immovable, and it waspossible for us to work pretty patiently and persistently through allthe dirty weather. But though we worked hard and well, it took up thefag-end of that day and the whole of the next to get our two rafts readyfor the sea, which was by that time more ready for them, as the stormhad again abated.
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