"There's nothing I can do. It isn't safe out here."
"You must do what this man tells you to do. He knows."
But Bradish clung to the gunwale of the long-boat and stared out at the
yeasty waves, blinking his eyes.
"If I only had a couple of men instead of these two infernal tapeworms,"
raged Mayo, "I could reeve tackle and get this boat over. Wake up! Wake
up!" he clamored, beating his fist on Bradish's back.
"Ralph! Be a man!" There were anger, protest, shocked wonder in her
tones.
Suddenly Mayo saw an ominous sight and heard a boding sound. The
fore-hatch burst open with a mighty report, forced up by the air
compressed by the inflowing water. He wasted no more breath in argument
and appeals. He realized that even an able crew would not have time to
launch the boat. The schooner was near her doom.
In all haste he pulled his clasp-knife and cut the lashings which held
the boat in its chocks. That the craft would be driven free from the
entangling wreckage and go afloat when the schooner went under he could
hardly hope. But there was only this desperate chance to rely upon in
the emergency.
In his agony of despair and his fury of resentment he was tempted to
climb into the boat and leave the two cowards to their fate. But he
stooped, caught Bradish by the legs and boosted him over the gunwale
into the yawl. A sailor's impulse is to save life even at the risk of
his own. Mayo ran to the galley and kicked the cook off the stool and
then drove him headlong to the longboat. The man went along, hugging his
cat.
"What will happen to us?" asked the girl when Mayo climbed in.
"I don't know," he panted. "I reckon the devil is pitching coppers for
us just now--and the penny is just hopping off his thumb nail!"
His tone was reckless. The excitement of the past few hours was having
its effect on him at last. He was no longer normal. Something that was
almost delirium affected him.
"Aren't you frightened?" she asked.
"Yes," he admitted. "But I'm going to keep hustling just the same."
Bradish and the cook were squatting amidships in the yawl.
"You lie down under those thwarts, the two of you, and hang on," cried
Mayo. Then he quickly passed a rope about the girl's waist and made the
ends of the line fast to the cleats. "I don't know what will happen when
the old tub dives," he told her. "Those five thousand tons of coal will
take her with a rush when she starts. All I can say is, hold tight and
pray hard!"