Adventures of a Boy Reporter
Page 14
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VOYAGE ON THE TRANSPORT--A STORM AT SEA--ARRIVAL IN MANILA.
THE transport did not remain long at Honolulu, and before leaving Archiehad several things which he wanted to do. In the first place, he feltthat he ought to write the story of his experiences so far, and sendit to Mr. Van Bunting; so he did sit down and describe in detail hisexperiences at cleaning vegetables on board the Pacific liner. He wasn'tsure whether this was anything that Mr. Van Bunting would care to print,but he decided to send it on, anyhow. He would have been surprisedhad he observed the enthusiasm with which this letter was read in theEnterprise office a month later. He would have been no longer in anydoubt as to whether it was anything worth printing had he read theEnterprise of the following day, when the letter appeared on the secondpage as one of the chief features of the paper.
Before leaving, too, Archie sent a long, cheerful letter home, sayingnothing of his being seasick on board the liner, or of his having had towork so hard. He devoted his letter to telling of the many interestingthings he had seen, and of his bright prospects for becoming asuccessful newspaper man. He wrote a shorter letter to Jack Sullivan,which was intended to be read to all the members of the Hut Club,for Archie felt that it was no more than right that they should knowsomething of his success. He found it very hard to realise, away offhere in Honolulu, that he had ever been a member of the club, and thathe had ever lived in tents behind the barn. He felt very manly now, andhis boyhood seemed far away behind him, so far away that he now feltlike a man of twenty-five rather than like a boy of eighteen. He wasbeginning to realise that age is not always governed by years alone, butthat experience does much to make one old.
As soon as the transport had anchored in the bay, Archie went aboard topresent his credentials to the commanding officer. He found the generalvery pleasant to meet, and a very appreciative listener as he told ofhis scheme for overtaking the transport. The officer was surprised,of course, that such a young fellow should be going to the islands ascorrespondent, but the things he said were very encouraging to Archie,"I tell you what," the general remarked, at one time during theconversation, "I believe that a young fellow like Dunn, here, can findout a great many more interesting things than an older man could everdiscover. You see the youngster has ambition and energy on his side,and ambition and energy are two mighty powerful things when they'recombined. I'd hate to buck up against 'em myself." The other officersagreed with the general in this remark, and Archie began to feel that,after all, he might not have such a hard time finding interesting thingsto write about as he had expected.
The transport remained in port but one day, and in thirty hours afterher arrival Archie found himself sailing again over the blue Pacific.The weather, for a few days, was almost perfect. A cloudless skyoverhead, a warm breeze from the west, and a smooth sea made things verypleasant aboard ship, and Archie began to realise that there are timeswhen it is delightful to be at sea. The vessel was very much overcrowdedwith troops, and the sleeping quarters were but little more pleasantthan aboard the liner. Archie shared a stateroom with three sergeants,and they managed to have a lively time during the voyage. They playedgames, told stories, and slept in the afternoons, but all this, ofcourse, grew rather tiresome after a time, and the voyage was becomingmonotonous, when there came a severe storm which kept things moving forthree days.
None of the navigating officers had expected a gale, so that when itcame every one was taken wholly by surprise, and it came so suddenlythat there was no time at all for preparation. The sky became quicklydark one afternoon about three o'clock, and soon the whole horizon was amass of great black clouds, which every moment seemed to come lower andlower until they directly overhung the ship. There was great excitementaboard the ship. Officers hurried here and there shouting orders totheir men, and the cavalrymen rushed about in a frenzy of haste, tryingto devise means to save their horses, most of which were stabled uponthe deck. Archie looked on in breathless interest, and was surprisedto find that he wasn't at all frightened. He even found himself makingmental notes of the scene, so that he could send the story of it all toMr. Van Bunting when he reached Manila.
There was but little time for rushing about, and it was soon evidentthat the horses would many of them be lost, because there seemed to beabsolutely no way of saving them if the waves were high enough to breakover the bulwarks. The storm soon broke in great fury, beginning with afierce wind which swept the waves before it. There was but little rain,and the waves rose higher and higher with every minute, until the heavyship began to roll and pitch in a frightful way, so that the soldiersbegan to think, some of them, that she would certainly sink. Finally thewaves were so high they dashed themselves over the decks, and no one wasallowed above the gangways. The cries of the poor horses, as they feltthemselves being washed overboard, were frightful to hear, and manya trooper cried himself as he thought of his horse foundering in theraging sea without. Before many minutes all was as dark as night, thoughthe watch pointed to but four o'clock, and all lights were burning belowdeck. It was impossible to keep a light above, for no lantern could burnin such a storm.
The waves began gradually to subside at ten o'clock at night, and a slowsteady rain came, which soon calmed the sea to a great extent. As soonas it was safe to go above deck, it was found that more than a hundredhorses had been lost overboard, and that one mast had been carried away.Down below nearly every man was in his bunk, for there was scarcely aperson who was not seasick, and most of them wouldn't have cared ifthe ship had gone down with all aboard, such was their feeling ofdespondency. Archie was as sick as any of the others, but was able tomake notes of occurrences just the same. And when he grew better thenext day, he wrote an excellent account of the storm to send to theEnterprise on his arrival in Manila.
After this rough weather experience, every man aboard was anxiousto reach port, and when, after many more days, the Bay of Cavite wasreached, a great cheer went up from a thousand throats, for everyone wasoverjoyed at the sight of land.
The transport came to anchor off the forts which had once been Spain's,and it was announced that no one would be allowed to land for two days,until advices could be had from Manila and the interior of the island.This was very trying for Archie, being obliged to sit on deck for twowhole days, looking at a shore which seemed very inviting, in spite ofthe general dilapidated appearance of the various buildings and docks.Everything looked different from anything he had seen before, and theboy felt that he could hardly wait to be allowed to explore some ofthose streets which were so narrow, and those houses which were built insuch a peculiar fashion.
Finally, the permission came for the troops to land, and Archie receivedthe permission of the general to remain with them as long as he wantedto do so. And as he had no other plans, the young correspondent decidedthat it would be a good plan for him to stay right with one of theseregiments, for the time being at any rate. He knew that they would belikely to be sent to the front immediately, and the front seemed theplace for him to be.
And then he was already acquainted with many of the men, and with thecolonel, and he realised that this would be an advantage to him in hiswork. So he made his plans to keep with them.
First they went to Manila, where they remained for a week. The quaintold city was a veritable fairy-land of wonders to Archie, who had neverbefore been in a city so ancient, and here there were so many unusualthings to be seen. There seemed to be absolutely no end to the windingstreets, delightful old houses, and interesting churches, and the boyspent many days in exploring every corner of the island capital. Thecolonel warned him several times that he must look out for robbers andother suspicious characters, but Archie laughed at his fears. But thecolonel was right, as he found later on.