Foul Play

by Charles Reade

  CHAPTER X.

  THE fiddle ended in mid-tune, and the men crowded aft with anxious faces.

  The captain sounded the well and found three feet and a half water in it.He ordered all hands to the pumps.

  They turned to with a good heart, and pumped, watch and watch, tilldaybreak.

  Their exertions counteracted the leak, but did no more; the water in thewell was neither more nor less, perceptibly.

  This was a relief to their minds, so far; but the situation was a veryserious one. Suppose foul weather should come, and the vessel ship waterfrom above as well!

  Now all those who were not on the pumps set to work to find out the leakand stop it if possible. With candles in their hands they crept about theribs of the ship, narrowly inspecting every corner, and applying theirears to every suspected place, if haply they might hear the water comingin. The place where Hazel had found Wylie at work was examined along withthe rest; but neither there nor anywhere else could the leak bediscovered. Yet the water was still coming in and required unremittinglabor to keep it under. It was then suggested by Wylie, and the opiniongradually gained ground, that some of the seams had opened in the lategale and were letting in the water by small but numerous, apertures.

  Faces began to look cloudy; and Hazel, throwing off his lethargy, tookhis spell at the main pump with the rest.

  When his gang was relieved he went away, bathed in perspiration, and,leaning over the well, sounded it.

  While thus employed, the mate came behind him, with his cat-like step,and said, "See what has come on us with your forebodings! It is theunluckiest thing in the world to talk about losing a ship when she is atsea."

  "You are a more dangerous man on board a ship than I am," was Hazel'sprompt reply.

  The well gave an increase of three inches. Mr. Hazel now showed excellentqualities. He worked like a horse; and, finding the mate skulking, hereproached him before the men, and, stripping himself naked to the waist,invited him to do a man's duty. The mate, thus challenged, complied witha scowl.

  They labored for their lives, and the quantity of water they dischargedfrom the ship was astonishing; not less than hundred and ten tons everyhour.

  They gained upon the leak--only two inches; but, in the struggle forlife, this was an immense victory. It was the turn of the tide.

  A slight breeze sprung up from the southwest, and the captain ordered themen from the buckets to make all sail on the ship, the pumps still going.

  When this was done, he altered the ship's course and put her right beforethe wind, steering for the island of Juan Fernandez, distant elevenhundred miles or thereabouts.

  Probably it was the best thing he could do, in that awful waste of water.But its effect on the seamen was bad. It was like giving in. They got alittle disheartened and flurried; and the cold, passionless water seizedthe advantage. It is possible, too, that the motion of the ship throughthe sea aided the leak.

  The _Proserpine_ glided through the water all night, like someterror-stricken creature, and the incessant pumps seemed to be her poorheart, beating loud with breathless fear.

  At daybreak she had gone a hundred and twenty miles. But this wasbalanced by a new and alarming feature. The water from the pumps nolonger came up pure, but mixed with what appeared to be blood.

  This got redder and redder, and struck terror into the more superstitiousof the crew.

  Even Cooper, whose heart was stout, leaned over the bulwarks and eyed thered stream, gushing into the sea from the lee scuppers, and said aloud,"Ay, bleed to death, ye bitch! We shan't be long behind ye."

  Hazel inquired, and found the ship had a quantity of dye-wood among hercargo. He told the men this, and tried to keep up their hearts by hiswords and his example.

  He succeeded with some; but others shook their heads. And by and by, evenwhile he was working double tides for them as well as for himself,ominous murmurs met his ear. "Parson aboard!" "Man aboard, with t'otherworld in his face!" And there were sinister glances to match.

  He told this, with some alarm, to Welch and Cooper. They promised tostand by him; and Welch told him it was all the mate's doings; he hadgone among the men and poisoned them.

  The wounded vessel, with her ever-beating heart, had run three hundredmiles on the new tack. She had almost ceased to bleed; but what was asbad, or worse, small fragments of her cargo and stores came up with thewater, and their miscellaneous character showed how deeply the sea hadnow penetrated.

  This, and their great fatigue, began to demoralize the sailors. The pumpsand buckets were still plied, but it was no longer with the uniformmanner of brave and hopeful men. Some stuck doggedly to their work, butothers got flurried and ran from one thing to another. Now and then a manwould stop and burst out crying; then to work again in a desperate way.One or two lost heart altogether, and had to be driven. Finally, one ortwo succumbed under the unremitting labor. Despair crept over others.Their features began to change, so much so that several countenances werehardly recognizable, and each, looking in the other's troubled face, sawhis own fate pictured there.

  Six feet water in the hold!

  The captain, who had been sober beyond his time, now got dead drunk.

  The mate took the command. On hearing this, Welch and Cooper left thepumps. Wylie ordered them back. They refused, and coolly lighted theirpipes. A violent altercation took place, which was brought to a close byWelch.

  "It is no use pumping the ship," said he. "She is doomed. D'ye think weare blind, my mate and me? You got the long-boat ready for yourselfbefore ever the leak was sprung. Now get the cutter ready for my mate andme."

  At these simple words Wylie lost color, and walked aft without a word.

  Next day there were seven feet water in the hold, and quantities of breadcoming up through the pumps.

  Wylie ordered the men from the pumps to the boats. The long-boat wasprovisioned and lowered. While she was towing astern, the cutter wasprepared, and the ship left to fill.

  All this time Miss Rolleston had been kept in the dark, not as to thedanger, but as to its extent. Great was her surprise when Mr. Hazelentered her cabin and cast an ineffable look of pity on her.

  She looked up surprised, and then angry. "How dare you?" she began.

  He waved his hand in a sorrowful but commanding way. "Oh, this is no timefor prejudice or temper. The ship is sinking. We are going into theboats. Pray make preparations. Here is a list I have written of thethings you ought to take. We may be weeks at sea in an open boat." Then,seeing her dumfounded, he caught up her carpet-bag and threw her workboxinto it for a beginning. He then laid hands upon some of her preservedmeats and marmalade and carried them off to his own cabin.

  His mind then flew back to his reading, and passed in rapid review allthe wants that men had endured in open boats.

  He got hold of Welch and told him to be sure and see there was plenty ofspare canvas on board, and sailing needles, scissors, etc. Also threebags of biscuit, and, above all, a cask of water.

  He himself ran all about the ship, including the mate's cabin, in searchof certain tools he thought would be wanted.

  Then to his own cabin, to fill his carpet-bag.

  There was little time to spare; the ship was low in the water, and themen abandoning her. He flung the things into his bag, fastened and lockedit, strapped up his blankets for her use, flung on his pea-jacket, andturned the handle of his door to run out.

  The door did not open!

  He pushed it. It did not yield!

  He rushed at it. It was fast!

  He uttered a cry of rage and flung himself at it.

  Horror! It was immovable!