Tom Fairfield at Sea; or, The Wreck of the Silver Star

by Norman Duncan

  CHAPTER XXI

  "SAIL HO!"

  Cautiously Tom peered about him. He listened as only one can listen whois suffering from thirst, and who hears the welcome sound of water.True, there was still water in the keg, but that belonged to all, andTom had had his share. Was there more on board?

  "It seems to come from up forward," murmured Tom, "up forward whereMr. Skeel is." At once his old suspicions came back to him. He peeredtoward the bow, but the sail was in his way and he could not see well.

  "I'm going to take a look," he decided. There was scarcely any windthen, and the sea was calm. It would do no harm to leave the helm.

  Carefully Tom made his way forward, walking softly past the slumberingsailors. And then the sight he saw filled him with rage.

  For there, eating and drinking from a private store of food and waterhe had stolen, and hidden away, was the renegade professor. It was thetrickle of water, as he poured it out from a can into a cup, that Tomhad heard.

  Hardly knowing what to do our hero paused. Should he spring on thetraitor and take the stolen supply of food and drink away, or call thesailors? Yet it might be advisable to see where Mr. Skeel had hiddenhis unfairly gotten store. So Tom waited.

  It was agony to see the man eating and drinking before his eyes--eatingand drinking when Tom himself was parched and half starved. And yet socunning was the former professor that he did not gorge himself. He wasevidently saving some for another time.

  At last, as Tom watched, the professor made an end of his midnight mealand began to hide away his supply. And it was in the forward watertightcompartment that he placed his store of food and water. It was there,where no one had thought of looking, that he kept them. The compartmentwas one that could be opened and used as a locker and this use Mr.Skeel had made of it. He had evidently taken the food when no one wasobserving him, and had emptied one of the water kegs into an unusedtin can, and thus supplied himself against the time of need, while theothers were on short rations. And yet with all this, he had daily drawnas much as had the others.

  "The trickster!" murmured Tom. "I'm going to expose him!"

  Our hero stepped forward. As he emerged in front of the sail theprofessor saw him and started. He tried to hide the fact that he hadbeen eating, but he did not have time to stow away all the food in thecompartment.

  "I'll ask you to hand those things over to me," said Tom coldly.

  "What things?"

  "The food and water you stole from us."

  "Food and water?"

  "Yes! Don't trifle with me!" and Tom's voice was menacing. "If I callAbe and Joe it will go hard with you. They won't stand for anythinglike this."

  "Oh, don't tell them! Don't tell!" begged the man, now a tremblingcoward. "I--I just couldn't stand it to be hungry and thirsty."

  "How do you suppose _we_ stood it?" asked Tom calmly.

  "I--I don't know. But I--I couldn't. I had to have more to eat. I havea big appetite."

  "You'll have to take a reef in it," went on the lad. "Now hand me overthat food and water. We need it--we may need it worse before we'rerescued."

  "And you won't tell on me."

  "Not this time. But if it occurs again----"

  "What's that? What's the matter, Tom?" came the voice of the sailor Abe.

  The professor started. Through the darkness he looked appealingly atthe lad who confronted him.

  "Quick!" whispered Tom. "The food and water!"

  The professor passed them over.

  "What's up?" asked Joe.

  "I've just found the missing provisions," said Tom grimly. "They hadgotten into the forward compartment."

  "The forward compartment?" queried Abe.

  "Yes--by--er--mistake I fancy," and Tom spoke dryly.

  He took them from the trembling hands of the professor and walked aftwith them.

  "I think we can all indulge in a little lunch, and a drink," he wenton. "There is enough here for several more days now, and we won't haveto be on quite such short rations."

  "Thank heaven!" murmured Joe. "And yet I can't see how the things gotin the forward compartment."

  "Nor I," murmured Abe, but though he thought a great deal he saidnothing more on the subject.

  Tom passed around some food and water, though the professor did not getany. Nor did he ask for it. Jackie did not awaken, sleeping with thehealthy fatigue of childhood.

  Then a little wind sprang up, and some one must look to the helm. Tom'strick was nearly up, and Joe relieved him.

  "Tell me, matie, did the professor have the grub?" the sailor whisperedhoarsely.

  "He did," answered Tom, "but I think it's best to say nothing about it.He's had his lesson."

  "Yes, but he may do it again."

  "We'll take precautions, now that we know what a traitor he is,"answered the lad.

  Morning came--morning with the hot sun beaming down and the oily searunning after the boat containing the shipwrecked ones.

  Mr. Skeel seemed to feel his position keenly, though he was such anunprincipled man at heart that it is doubtful if any lesson had alasting effect on him.

  "Well, I don't see anything of a sail," remarked Abe gloomily, as hiseye roved over the waste of water. "And it's been many a weary daywe've looked for one."

  "And the islands," murmured Joe. "I can't understand why we haven'tsighted some, unless we are farther north than I had any idea of."

  "Well, we can last it out for another week--with care," said Tomslowly.

  "And we'll be careful in two ways," spoke Abe. "We'll eat and drinkas little as we can, and we'll watch to see that none of our suppliesdisappear in the night."

  He looked meaningly at Mr. Skeel as he spoke, and the professor turnedhis head away.

  But even the discovery of the hidden food supply could not bettertheir condition for long. The water, warm and brackish as it was, wentdrop by drop, for it was so hot they had to wet their lips and tonguesoften. The food, too, while it stopped their hunger, made them the morethirsty. Jackie, too, seemed to develop a fever, and to need more waterthan usual.

  On and on they sailed. They were in the middle of the second week,and saw no hope of rescue. They hoped for rain, that their watersupply might be renewed, but the sky was brazen and hot by day andstar-studded by night.

  "I--I can't stand it much longer," murmured Abe, at the close of a hotafternoon. "I--I've got to do something. Look at all that water outthere," and he motioned toward the heaving ocean.

  "Water! Yes, it's water fair enough, matie," spoke Joe soothingly,"but them as drinks it loses their minds. Bear up a little longer, andsurely we'll be picked up, or sight land."

  "I don't believe so!" exclaimed Abe gloomily.

  "Tom, I want my daddy!" whined Jackie. "Why don't you get him for me?"

  "I will--soon," said Tom brokenly, as he tried to comfort the littlechap.

  They were down to their last bit of food, and the last keg of water.The latter they had used with the utmost economy, for they knew theycould live longer without food than without water. And yet there wasscarcely a pint left, and it was hardly fit to drink.

  They were all very thin, and the skin on their faces seemed drawn andtight. Their tongues were thick, and dark, so they could hardly speak.Jackie had been better fed, and had had more water than the others, andyet even he was failing.

  Abe and Joe, being more hardy, had, perhaps, suffered less, but theirprivations were telling on them. Mr. Skeel had lost much of hisplumpness, and his clothes hung on him like the rags on a scarecrow ina cornfield.

  As for Tom, he bore up bravely. Day by day he had tightened his beltthat he might "make his hunger smaller," as the Indians say. He hadeven given Jackie part of his food and water.

  Night came, the long lonesome night, and yet it was welcome, for ittook away the blazing sun. What would the morning bring?

  They were all partly delirious that night. Tom found himself murmuringin his sleep, and he heard the others doing the same. Abe collapsedat the wheel, and
Joe had to do a double trick. He would not let Tomrelieve him.

  Toward morning the last water was doled out. No one felt like eating.

  "I--I guess this is the end," murmured Joe. "We've made a goodfight--but--this is--the--end."

  Tom said nothing. He sat in the bow, gloomily looking off across thewaste of waters. He thought of many things.

  It grew lighter. Another day of heat was coming--a day when there wouldbe no water to relieve them. How many days more?

  Higher crept the sun out of the waves. Tom rubbed his smarting eyes.He looked, and then he looked again. Then, scarcely believing what hesaw, and fearing that it was but a vision of his disordered brain heshouted, over and over again:

  "Sail ho! Sail ho!"