"Bargate, who pulls the stroke oar in the second cutter, has the rheumatism in his right arm, and is not fit to go in the boat," interposed Mr.

Gaskette, the second officer.

"Let me take his place, Captain Ringgold!" eagerly exclaimed Louis Belgrave.

"Do you think you can pull an oar in a heavy seaway, Mr. Belgrave?" asked the commander, who always treated the owner with entire respect in the presence of others, though he called him by his given name when they were alone.

"I know I can!" replied Louis very confidently.

"I do not object, if Mr. Scott is willing."

"I am very willing, for Mr. Belgrave's muscle is as hard as a flint."

"Very well. Hurry up!" added the captain.

Four other men were sent aft to a.s.sist in the preparations for putting the second cutter into the water; and in as short a time as Mr. Gaskette, who usually went in that boat on important occasions, would have required to do it, the cutter was ready to be dropped into the water when the order was given.

The captain and the second officer continued to watch the party on the wreck, expecting every moment to see some of them swept into the savage waves that beat against their frail support. The ship went at full speed on her course; for the commander would not waste an instant while the lives of so many human beings depended upon his action.

"Can you make out what they are clinging to, Mr. Gaskette?" asked the commander of the only person besides the two quartermasters who remained with him in the pilot-house.

"Yes, sir; I am just getting an idea in regard to it, though the thing is awash so that I can hardly make it out," replied the second officer. "I think it is the bottom of a rather small vessel, upside down; for I see something like a keel. The party have two ropes stretched the whole length of the bottom, to which they are clinging."

"You are right; that is plainly the bottom of a vessel, and I wonder that the craft has not gone down by this time. How she happens to be in that situation, and why she has not sunk, are matters yet to be explained. Go aft, if you please, and see that both cutters are ready to be lowered into the water, Mr. Gaskette. It is not prudent to go much nearer to the wreck, for the gale may drift us upon it."

The second officer left the pilot-house, and found the crews all seated in their boats, with everything in readiness to obey the order to lower away; and he reported the fact to his superior.

"Starboard the helm, Bangs, and steer small!" said Captain Ringgold as soon as the officer returned with the information he had obtained.

To "steer small" is to move the rudder very gradually; for if the course were suddenly changed a quarter of the circ.u.mference of the compa.s.s in such a sea as was then raging, it would be liable to make the steamer engage in some disagreeable, if not dangerous, antics.

"Steady!" added the captain when the steamer was headed a point south of west.

This position brought the starboard side of the ship on the lee; that is, this part of the ship was sheltered from the fury of the wind and the waves, and it was the proper situation in which to lower a boat into the water; for on the windward side these two powerful forces would be likely to stave the cutter against the side of the steamer.

After the commander had struck the gong to stop her, he gave the order to the second officer to lower the first cutter; and he left the pilot-house for this purpose. Mr. Boulong was an exceptionally skilful officer in the handling of a boat in a heavy sea. Watching for the favorable moment, he gave the order to the c.o.c.kswain and bowman to lower away, with the aid of the oarsmen near them.

"Cast off the after fall, Stoody!" said he sharply to the c.o.c.kswain; and the order was promptly obeyed. "Cast off your fall, Knott!" he added almost instantly. "Let fall! Give way!"

A receding wave carried the boat away from the side of the ship, precisely as Mr. Boulong had calculated. The six oars dropped into the water as one, and the men began to pull, getting a firm hold on the receding wave, which sent the cutter to a safe distance from the ship. As soon as she was clear, the commander, who had remained in the pilot-house, rang the gong to go ahead. When the steamer had gathered sufficient headway, she was brought about as cautiously as before.

The second cutter was on the port quarter of the vessel, and this movement placed the boat under the lee. Mr. Gaskette had remained aft, and when the ship had stopped her screw and nearly lost her headway, the captain shouted to him through his speaking-trumpet, which the roar of the waves and the escaping steam rendered necessary, to "Lower away!"

"Lower away when you are ready, Mr. Scott!" repeated the second officer.

Though Scott was only eighteen years old, he was an intuitive sailor, and had a good deal of experience for his years. He had never before occupied his present position; but his nautical genius, fortified by sundry combats with wind and waves, made him feel quite at home. As the first officer had done, he seized the auspicious moment when the retiring wave promised its efficient aid, and gave the orders to cast off the falls.

The six oars grappled with the water on the smooth side of a great wave, and carried it to the apex of the next billow; and she went off as handsomely as the first cutter had done. Mr. Gaskette saw these manoeuvres successfully accomplished, and then started for the pilot-house, to report to the captain. On his way he could not help giving an inquiring look at the manner in which the subst.i.tute for Bargate performed his duty.

At eighteen Louis was a healthy, vigorous, athletic fellow, developed by an active life on the ocean, and weighing one hundred and fifty pounds. In any trial of strength he was more than the equal of any other member of the "Big Four," as the four young men berthing in the cabin called themselves, borrowing the name from a combination of railroads in the West. He was well trained as an oarsman, and the second officer was satisfied that he was doing his full share of the work.

As Mr. Gaskette reached the pilot-house there was a commotion there, and it was evident to him that something unlooked for had occurred. He glanced at the two cutters; but they were all right, and were steadily making their way to the locality of the wreck.

"The wreck is going down, sir!" exclaimed Bangs with startling energy just before the second officer reached the door.

"It is all up with that craft!" added Twist, the other quartermaster.

Captain Ringgold said nothing, but calmly surveyed the men who were now struggling in the water. They seemed to be all able to swim; but it was a closer call than they had had before. The two cutters appeared to be their only possible salvation, and they were still at a considerable distance from the scene of peril.

It was a terribly exciting and harrowing spectacle; but the commander looked as impa.s.sable as ever. He rang the gong for the ship to go ahead; and Mr. Gaskette wondered what he intended to do, though he was not left more than a moment in suspense.

CHAPTER V

THE t.i.tLED GENTLEMEN OF THE TRAVANCORE

The first and second cutters of the Guardian-Mother were struggling bravely with the huge billows, but not making very rapid progress, though the gale was in their favor. The eleven men floundering in the water where the wreck had disappeared under them were provided with life-preservers, it was now discovered, and their chances were somewhat less desperate than they were at first taken to be. But the waves rudely knocked them about, and sometimes upset them so as to require a struggle to regain their upright position.

"The Blanche is close aboard of us, Captain Ringgold," said Mr. Gaskette.

"She is running at full speed for a position on our port hand."

"Very good," replied the commander. "That is the right thing for her to do, if she don't come too near us."

"She is at a safe distance, sir, and her starboard quarter-boat is manned and ready to drop into the water."

"Captain Sharp will do the right thing at the right time," replied the commander, whose gaze was riveted upon the struggling party in the water.

"I trust we shall be able to save the whole of them."

"The chances are good for it," answered the second officer.

"How is the second cutter doing?" inquired Captain Ringgold.

"She is doing very well, sir, though she is some distance behind the first cutter, for she got away from the ship later. Mr. Belgrave is pulling a stroke as vigorous as the rest of the crew. The Blanche is coming about, and she will have her starboard boat in the water in a few minutes more."

As her head swung round to port she stopped her screw, and then backed for a few moments, till she had killed the most of her headway; for Captain Sharp knew better than to drop the boat into the water while the vessel was making sternway. In a very short s.p.a.ce of time the six-oar craft was pulling with all the muscle of her British tars for the scene of peril, and not more than two cables' length astern of the second cutter of the Guardian-Mother.

Captain Ringgold observed the boats with the most intense interest as they approached the unfortunate men in the water. The Blanche came about again, and her other quarter-boat was soon pulling after the first. Possibly there was some feeling of rivalry among the crews of the boats in the good work in which they were engaged, for they were all putting their utmost vigor into their oars.

But no boat appeared to gain on the others, and the one which had started first continued to maintain her advantage till the work of rescuing the sufferers actually began. By this time the action of the waves had separated the party, so that they were scattered over a considerable surface of the breaking billows. Mr. Boulong could see that some of the men in the water were nearly exhausted; for many of them had wasted their strength in useless struggles.

The first cutter was approaching a man who was at the extremity of the western wing of the party. He was a European of thirty years or less; and though his head, hair, and beard were dripping with salt water, there was something in his expression, as he bestowed a single glance upon the boat now close to him, which commanded the respect, and even admiration, of the first officer. He was cool and self-possessed in spite of the peril of his situation, and was observing with painful solicitude the struggles of a person about ten fathoms from him.

"Stand by to lay on your oars!" said Mr. Boulong with energy, when the first cutter was within a boat's length of the individual. "Hold water!

Stand by to haul him in, Knott!" he added to the bow man. "Stern all!"