CHAPTER VI.
A STRANGE COLLISION.
We must now turn back and ascertain what has become of our youngadventurers and their rugged old companion. We left them sitting onthe bow--or rather perched there in positions none too secure in caseof a sudden lurch of the ship.
"I smell land," had been Ben's sudden exclamation after one of theprolonged silences which, as has been said, possessed them that night.
The boys laughed.
"Laugh away," declared Ben, "but I do. Any old sailor can tell it."
"But we are two hundred miles at sea," objected Frank.
"Don't make no difference, I smell land," stubbornly repeated the oldsailor.
"Maybe the wind is off shore and that's the reason," suggested Billy.
"A sensible suggestion, youngster," approved Ben. "I guess that is thereason for there is no island in this part of the world that I everheard tell of. But say," he broke off suddenly, "what's come over theweather. It's getting black and the stars are blotted out. There's astorm brewing and a bad one, or I'm mistaken."
The boys agreed that there did seem to be every indication of anapproaching tropical disturbance of some kind. The air had suddenlygrown heavy and sulphurous. There was an oppressive quality in it.
"I'm going aft to tell the captain that there's a bad blow coming onor I'm a Dutchman," exclaimed Ben, starting to scramble to his feet.
"Better hold onto that stay or you'll topple overboard," warned Frank,as Ben, balancing himself, got into a standing posture.
"What me, an old sailor topple over," shouted Ben, "Not much younker,why I--"
The sentence was never finished. At that instant the shock that hadaroused Captain Hazzard and terrified the whole ship's company hurledhim headlong into the night and the boys, balanced as they were on theprow of the trembling ship, were shot after him into the darkness asif they had been hurled out of catapults.
Frank's feelings as he fell through the darkness he could notafterward describe, still less his amazement when, instead of fallinginto the sea, fully prepared to swim for his life, he found himselfinstead plunged into a sticky ooze. For several seconds, in fact, hewas too amazed to utter a sound or move. It seemed he must bedreaming.
Then he extended his hands and almost gave a cry so great was hisamazement.
He had encountered an unmistakable tree trunk!
He was on land--not dry land--for the boy was mired to the knees insticky mud,--but nevertheless land. Land in midocean.
Hardly had he recovered from his first shock of surprise when he hearda voice exclaim:
"Can anyone tell me am I awake or dreaming in my bunk?"
"What's the matter, Billy?" hailed Frank, overjoyed to know that oneat least of his comrades was safe.
Before Billy could reply Harry's voice hailed through the darkness.
"I'm up to my neck in mud. Where are we, anyhow?"
"We're on dry land in midocean, shiver my timbers if we ain't," came adeep throated hail, which proceeded from Ben Stubbs.
"Thank heaven we are all safe anyhow," cried Frank, "this mud ismighty uncomfortable, though."
"Well, if it hadn't been here we'd have been eaten by sharks by thistime," Billy assured them; an observation all felt to be true.
"Where can the ship be?" exclaimed Harry's voice suddenly.
"Miles off by this time," said Frank. "I don't suppose they have evenmissed us and even if they have it's so black they could never findus."
"Let's see where we are," suggested Ben, "anyhow I'm going to try toget out of this mud. It's like a pig-pen."
His observation struck the boys as a good suggestion and they allwallowed in a direction they deemed was forward and soon were rewardedfor their efforts by finding themselves on real dry land. Bystretching out their hands they could feel tree trunks and dense brushall about them.
"It's no dream," declared Frank, "we are really on land. But where?"
"Maybe the ship was way off her course and we are stranded on thecoast of Brazil," suggested Harry.
"Not likely," corrected Ben, "and besides if we'd hit land the shipwould be ashore."
"Then what can we be on?" demanded Frank.
"Give it up," said Billy.
"Anybody got a match?" asked Frank.
Luckily there were no lack of these and as the boys carried them inthe waterproof boxes they had used on their previous expeditions theywere dry. Some were soon struck and a bonfire built of the brush andwood they found about them.
It was a strange tropical scene the glare illuminated. All about werepalm trees and tropic growth of various kinds; many of the plantsbearing fruits unfamiliar to the boys. Some large birds, scared by thelight, flapped screaming out of the boughs above them as the bonfireblazed up. They could now see that they had been pitched out of theship onto a muddy beach, the ooze of which stuck to their clothes likeclay. The spot in which they stood was a few feet above the sea level.
"Well, there's no use trying to do anything till daylight," saidFrank, "we had better sleep as well as we can and start out to try andfind a house of some sort in the morning."
All agreed this was a good plan and soon they were wrapped in slumber.Frank's sleep was restless and broken, however, and once or twice hehad an uneasy feeling that something or somebody was prowling aboutthe "camp." Once he could have sworn he saw a pair of eyes, like twoflaming points of fire, glare at him out of the blackness; but as itwas not repeated, he assured himself that it was only his nervousimagination and composed himself to sleep once more.
A sharp thunder storm raged above them shortly before daybreak andthey were compelled to seek what shelter they could under a fallentree trunk. The storm was the one that had blackened the sky somehours before. Luckily it was as short as it was sharp, and when thesun rose it showed them a scene of glistening tropic beauty.
But the boys had little eye for scenery.
"What are we going to do for breakfast?" was Billy's manner of voicingthe general question that beset them all after they had washed offsome of the mud of the night before.
"Tighten our belts," grinned Harry.
"Not much; not while them oysters is there waiting to be picked,"exclaimed Ben pointing to some branches which dipped in the sea and towhich bunches of the bivalves were clinging.
"I've got some biscuits in my pocket," said Frank, "I brought them ondeck with me last night in case I got hungry on watch."
"Well, we'll do fine," cheerfully said Ben, as having heated somestones he set the oysters to broil on them.
Despite his cheerful tone, however, not one of the little party wasthere that did not think with longing regrets of the snowy linen andbountiful meals aboard the Southern Cross.
Breakfast over, Ben announced that the first thing to do was to try tofind out where they could be. It was agreed for this purpose toadvance along the beach for five miles or so in opposite directions,the group being formed into two parties for the purpose. Harry andFrank paired off in one party and Ben Stubbs and Billy formed theother. They were to meet at noon or as soon thereafter as possible andcompare notes.
Frank and Harry tramped resolutely along the beach under a baking hotsun till they felt as if they were going to drop, but they heldpluckily on, fortunately having found several springs along their lineof march.
From time to time they eagerly scanned the expanse of sparkling seathat stretched before them; but it was as empty of life as a desert.
"Do you suppose the ship will make a search for us?" asked Frank.
"How can we tell," rejoined his brother, "they will have found out weare gone by this time and will naturally conclude that we felloverboard and were drowned or eaten by sharks."
Both agreed that such was probably likely to be the fact and that ifthe coast on which they were cast away proved to be uninhabited theirsituation might be very serious.
"On the other hand, the ship may have gone down after the collision,"suggested Harry, "how she ever came to graze this land and then
escapeI can't make out."
"I've been puzzling over that, too," replied Frank, "there's a lotthat's very mysterious about this whole thing. The Southern Cross is,as you know, equipped with a submarine bell which should give warningwhen she approaches shallow water. Why didn't it sound last night?"
"Because there must be deep water right up to this coast," was theonly explanation Harry could offer.
"That's just it," argued his brother. "But what is a coast doing hereat all. We are two hundred miles out in the South Atlantic, or rather,we were last night."
"The charts don't show any land out there, do they?"
"Not so much as a pin point. Some of the deepest parts of the oceanare encountered there."
"Then the ship must have been off her course."
"It seems impossible. She is in charge of experienced navigators. Hercompasses and other instruments are the most perfect of their kind."
"Maybe it is a dream after all, and we'll wake up and find ourselvesin our bunks," was all Harry could say.
Before Frank could find anything to reply to this extraordinarysuggestion he gave a sudden tense cry of:
"Hark!"
Both boys stopped and above their quick breathing they could hear thebeating of their hearts.
Human voices were coming toward them.
Luckily Frank had his revolver, having been using it the day before inshooting at huge turtles that floated lazily by. He had by a luckyoversight neglected to take it off when he had finished his targetpractice, merely thrusting it back into its holster. He drew theweapon now, and grasping Harry by the arm pulled him down beside himinto a clump of brush.
"We'll hide here till we see who it is coming," he said.
Boy Aviators' Polar Dash; or, Facing Death in the Antarctic Page 6