"Aye, aye, sir," roared out Masters in his gruff tones. "Stand by, below there!"

With that the coil of half-inch rope which he held looped on his arm made a circling whirl through the air, the end falling right across the gunwales of the boat, close to the after thwart, where sat the second of the castaways, who eagerly stretched out his hand to clutch at it.

But, unfortunately, he failed to grasp it, and the exertion evidently being too much for him, for he tumbled forward on his face at the bottom of the boat, while the rope slipped over the side into the water, coming back home to us alongside the old barquey on the next send of the sea, the heavy roll of our ship when she brought up broadside-on, as well as the weight of the line saturated with water, fetching it in to us all the sooner.

"Poor fellows; they can't help themselves!" cried the skipper, who had watched the boatswain's throw and its unsatisfactory result with the deepest interest. "Bear a hand there, some one forrad, and have another try to reach them. The boat's drifting past, and we'll have to go astern to board her in another minute, if you don't look sharp!"

Having climbed into the fore-rigging, however, so as to have a good look at the boat and its occupants as we neared them, I was quite as quick as the skipper to notice what had happened, having, indeed, foreseen the contingency before it occurred.

So, ere Masters or any of the other men could stir a hand, having made up my mind what to do, I had seized hold of part of the slack of the line that remained inboard and, plunging into the sea, swam towards the boat.

A couple of strokes, combined with the forward impetus of my leap overboard, took me up to the little craft, and in a jiffey I had grasped the gunwale aft and clambered within her, securing the end of the line I had round one of the thwarts at once, amid the ringing cheers of the skipper and my shipmates in the old barquey, who proceeded to haul us up alongside without further delay, tugging away at the tar rope I had hitched on, yo-heave-hoing and hurrahing in one and the same breath right l.u.s.tily!

So smart were they, so instantaneous had been the action of the moment during the episode, that we were close in to the ship's side and under her conning, immediately below the port end of the bridge, where the skipper stood leaning over the rail and surveying operations, before I had time actually to look round so as to have a nearer view of the unfortunate men whom we had so providentially rescued.

When I did though, one glance was enough.

I was horror stricken at the sight that met my eyes.

The man whom I had observed when we were yet some distance off to be lying huddled up in the bows motionless, as if dying or already dead, I now saw had received a horrible wound on the top of his head that had very nearly smashed in the skull, besides almost severing one of his ears which was hanging from the cheek bone, attached by a mere sc.r.a.p of skin, the bottom boards of the boat near him being stained with blood that had flowed from the cut, and his hair likewise matted together with gore. Oh, it was horrible to see! He was not dead, however, as I had thought, but only in a state of stupor, breathing heavily and making a strange stertorous sound as if snoring.

His fellow-sufferer aft, who did not appear to have suffered so much as his comrade, had seemingly swooned from exhaustion or exposure; as, on my putting my arm round him and lifting up his bent head, the man opened his eyes and murmured something faintly in some foreign lingo--Spanish, I think it was; at any rate a language I did not understand.

But I was unable to notice anything beyond these details, which I grasped in that one hurried glance; for as I was in the act of raising up the poor chap in the stern-sheets, the skipper hailed me from the bridge above.

"Below there!" he sang out. "How are the poor fellows? Are they alive, Haldane?"

"They are in a bad way, sir," I replied. "They've got the life left in them and that's all, I'm afraid!"

"Neither dead, then?"

"No, sir."

"Bravo! 'whilst there's life there's hope,'" cried the skipper in a cheery tone. "Are they quite helpless, do you think, Haldane--I mean quite unable to climb up the side?"

"Quite unable, sir," I answered. "One's unconscious, and I don't think the other could move an inch if he tried!"

"Then we must haul 'em up," said Captain Applegarth, turning to Masters, who had popped his head over the bulwarks and was now looking down into the boat, like the rest of the hands on board. "I say, bo'sun, can't you rig up a chair or something that we can lower down for the poor fellows?"

"Aye, aye, sir," responded old Masters, drawing in his head from the bulwarks and disappearing from my view as I looked upwards from the stern-sheets, where I was still holding up the slowly-recovering man.

"I'll rig up a whip from the foreyard and we can let down a hammock for 'em, tricing up one at a time."

"Stay, cap'en," cried Mr Fosset as the boatswain went bustling off, I suppose, though of course from my position I could not see him, to carry out this plan of his. "The davits here amidship are all right, as well as the tackle of our cutter that had got washed away in the gale.

Wouldn't it be easier to let down the falls, sir, and run up the boat all standing with the poor fellows in her as they are?"

"By George, the very thing, Fosset!" exclaimed the skipper, accepting the suggestion with alacrity. "It will save the poor fellows a lot of jolting, and be all the easier for us, as you say. Besides, the little craft will come in handy for us, as we're rather short of boats just now!"

"Short of boats, sir!" repeated the first mate ironically as he set to work at once, with the help of a couple of the hands who jumped to his side to a.s.sist him the moment he spoke, casting off the lashings of the davits so as to rig them outwards, letting go at the same time the hooks of the fall blocks and overhauling the running gear. "Why, sir, we haven't even the dinghy left intact after that clean sweep we had from the wave that p.o.o.ped us!"

"Oh, aye, I know that well enough," said the skipper drily. "But, look alive now, Fosset, with that tackle, and don't be a month of Sundays over the job! Send down two of the cutter's crew to overrun the falls and drop down into the boat. They can help Haldane in holding up that poor chap astern and also bear a hand in hoisting up."

"All right, sir; we're just ready," shouted back the first mate as he gave the word to let go. "Lower away there with the slack of those falls. Easy, my man, gently does it!"

In another instant down came the fall blocks, with one of the hands hanging on to each, the men alighting "gingerly" on the thwarts of the boat in the bow and stern of the little craft, which became immersed almost up to the gunwales with the additional weight.

This was only for a moment, for the next minute Mr Fosset gave the signal to "hoist away," the falls having been hooked on beneath the thwarts in a jiffey, and up we all went in mid air, "between the devil and the deep sea," as we say afloat sometimes!

"Bravo!" cried the skipper when we reached the level of the gangway and were all able to step out on to the deck. "That's very handsomely done, my lads! Now let us see about lifting the poor fellows out. That chap there in the bows seems in a very bad way! You'd better carry him into the cuddy at once and let Mr O'Neil look after him."

"Indade, I will, sor," said our doctor-mate, who was standing near by with a spirit flask in one hand and a medicine gla.s.s in the other, ready to give immediate succour to the rescued men. "Carry the poor beggar along an' I'll be afther ye in a minnit; for this other misfortunate gossoon here looks as if he wouldn't be the worst for a dhrop of good brandy, an' faith, I'll say to him fourst, avic!"

So saying the Irishman poured some of the contents of the spirit flask into the gla.s.s, which he held to the lips of the man. Mr Fosset and I were supporting him in our arms against the side of the boat, whence we had just removed him.

The poor fellow's strength returned to him almost as soon as he had sipped a drop or two of the brandy, and, starting away from the first mate and myself, as if no longer needing our aid, he stood erect on the deck.

"_Mil gracias, amigos_," he said, with a polite inclination of his head, in apology like for shaking himself free from us. "_Estoy major_!"

Captain Applegarth stepped up to him.

"I am sorry I can't speak Spanish, sir, though I understand you to say you're better. We're Englishmen all on board this ship, sir, and I'm glad we've been able to pick you up."

The eyes of the man glistened and a pleased expression stole over his face.

"What! You are English! he exclaimed excitedly. But--but I'm an American! Only I've been so long in Venezuela amongst Spaniards that I sometimes forget my own language."

Our skipper was equally delighted.

"By George!" he said. "I was sure you were no blessed foreigner, in spite of your lingo, sir! Welcome on board _the Star of the North_."

The stranger looked round and his manner changed at once, and he pointed towards our funnels anxiously and their escaping steam.

"A steam vessel, eh!"

"Yes, sir," said the skipper. "I command her, sir. Cap'en Applegarth, at your service!"

"The deuce! I was forgetting. We pa.s.sed you last night, I remember now! and you're the captain?"

"Aye!" replied the skipper, not quite making out what the other was driving at. "I'm captain of this ship!"

"Merciful Heavens!" cried the rescued man, falling on his knees on the deck and bursting into a pa.s.sion of sobs. "Thanks be to G.o.d! Yes, thanks be to G.o.d! You will save her, captain. You will save her?"

The skipper thought the evident suffering he had gone through had turned his brain.

"Save who?" he asked, adding in a kinder tone: "Of course, we'll do anything and everything we can for you, but I must know my bearings first, my friend."

The man was on his feet at once.

"I am not mad, captain, as you appear to think. I can see from your manner you think so," he said. "I want you to save my Elsie, my only child, my little daughter, whom those villains, those black devils, are carrying off!"