as dorothy fell howard caught her in his arms and laid her upon the sofa. then he faced jackson.
“nice thing, this!” he remarked, grimly. “a very nice thing, considering the state of affairs. no!” he interjected, as he saw jackson’s eyes wander to the girl. “don’t worry about her just now. she’s exhausted, anyway, and she’ll sleep it off and be all the better when she rouses. meanwhile, there’s work for us. we all need food, and it’s imperative that we should find some at once. come.”
the angle of the ship’s deck made examination both difficult and dangerous; but when, by the exercise of care, it had been safely carried out, it was evident that the voyagers need not fear either starvation or thirst for a long time to come. the store-rooms of the queen were above,[47] though only just above, the new waterline, and in them there was food for months to come.
it was good food, too, intended for the consumption of passengers who paid well. in addition to canned goods, of which the stock was large and varied, there was a quantity of ice and fresh meat, fresh vegetables, flour, biscuits, sauces, breakfast foods, and so forth, to say nothing of wines, liquors, and tobacco.
with water the ship was equally well supplied. not only was the saloon scuttle-butt full, but, after some search, howard found two large tanks whose contents had not even been touched. in the pantry, just forward of the saloon, was a refrigerator with cooked food enough for two or three days.
all these things were not found in an instant. as it chanced, the pantry came last; and the moment the cooked food was discovered, further investigation was[48] promptly suspended and preparations made to comfort the inner man. a plentiful supply was quickly transferred to the big saloon-table, where it was held in place by the fiddles, which had been put on the night before at dinner and had not been removed.
leaving jackson to brew the coffee, an art in which he asserted that he was proficient, howard went to see after miss fairfax.
as he had expected, he found her sleeping, her swoon having quietly passed into slumber. a little color had come back to her cheeks and to her lips, and her breathing was regular.
for several moments he stood looking down at her, noting the sweep of her long lashes on her cheeks, the delicate penciling of her eyebrows, and the pure curve of her parted lips. she was of his own class in life and—— he checked his thoughts shortly.
from this girl and all connected with[49] her he had been cut off by his trial and his sentence. had it not been for the storm and the wreck, he would never have spoken to one of her kind again.
suddenly he realized that her eyes were open and that she was regarding him curiously. the next instant she blushed furiously and struggled to her feet. howard did not offer to help her; he did not dare to.
“oh!” she begged. “please forgive me.”
howard mumbled something indistinct. he was too much surprised to speak clearly. miss fairfax, however, did not accept his presumably polite disclaimer.
“no, but really,” she reiterated, “i owe you an apology. it was very silly of me to faint. i was exhausted, and the discovery——”
“the discovery that you were alone at sea with a detective and a convicted murderer appalled you—as well it might. do not blame yourself, miss fairfax, and do[50] not think that i am sensitive. no man can go through an experience such as mine and fail to have his cuticle thickened. give yourself no uneasiness about me.”
dorothy began to reply, when suddenly the dinner-gong rang out imperatively.
“what’s that?” she gasped.
howard smiled. “that’s jackson,” he explained, “and he’s hungry. will you come to dinner?”
but dorothy did not come to dinner at once. when she did, ten minutes later, after a visit to her state-room, which luckily was far aft and consequently above water, howard noted with amused surprise that in those few minutes she had managed to bind up her tangled hair and change her dress for another. she glanced at the table as she approached and flushed at jackson’s glum looks.
“oh!” she cried. “why did you wait? i told you not to.” she slipped into her seat. “i’m so hungry!” she sighed.
[51]the hot coffee and the abundant meal lightened the spirits of the trio in spite of the predicament in which they found themselves. with a ship, albeit a crippled one, under their feet and with plenty of food and water at hand, it was not in human nature to despair, especially as the sea had gone down so much that it no longer threatened them.
to both jackson and miss fairfax the worst seemed to be over; in a day or two some one would pick them up, they thought, and all would be well. howard alone, wiser in the ways of the sea, doubted. he listened to the others’ hopeful prognostications, but said little.
“i must study the situation before i can say anything,” was as far as he would commit himself, even in answer to a direct question.
when they had finished their meal, dorothy rose.
“i’ll clear away these dishes,” she announced. “i’m sure you two have more[52] important things to attend to. later, when mr. howard has studied the situation, as he wishes, we will hold a council of war.”
howard bowed and went on deck. his first glance assured him that his worst fears were true. the queen was evidently far within the sargasso sea, and under the impulse of a strong breeze from the west was steadily driving eastward, into ever-thickening fields of weeds.
wreckage was floating here and there, mute evidence of disasters that had occurred, perhaps close at hand, perhaps thousands of miles away. the passages of open water that had trellised the sea an hour before had disappeared, and with them had gone whatever faint hope howard might have had of rescue.
no skipper would venture into that tangle; no boat could move through it; almost it seemed that one could walk on it; yet howard knew that any one trusting to that deceptive firmness would[53] drown, and drown without even a chance to swim. the weeds would coil round him, soft, slimy, but strong, and drag him down.
like all who have sailed these waters, howard had heard many tales of the great sargasso sea, and had whiled away many an hour listening to the sailors’ yarns of the haven of dead ships buried far within those tangled confines—a haven in the middle of the ocean, a haven without a harbor, a haven where the ships, dropping to pieces at last by slow decay, must sink for two miles or more before they reached the floor of the ocean.
and into this haven the queen was drifting, slowly but surely. nothing but sinking could prevent her from moving onward till she reached the innermost haven.
what would it be like? he wondered. would the wrecks really be crowded together so that one could pass from one to[54] the other? that there had been plenty of them borne in to make a very continent of ships he did not doubt, but had they floated long enough to accumulate to any great extent?
the sailors declared that the sea was as large as europe; that the weed was impenetrable over an area larger than france; that there might well be an area of massed wreckage two or three hundred miles in diameter. but these were sailors’ tales. would they prove true?
“well?”
howard turned around. dorothy and jackson had come up behind him and were staring curiously over the weedy sea. “well?” reiterated the latter.
howard hesitated.
“i fear it is not well,” he answered at last. “our chances of escape for the present seem practically nil.”
miss fairfax paled, but jackson flushed darkly.
“what are you givin’ us?” he demanded,[55] roughly. “the ship ain’t going to sink, is she?”
“no. that is not the danger. look around you.” he waved his hand to the weed-strewn horizon.
jackson looked again. “well! what of it?” he demanded.
“this! you see how thick the weed is—thicker even than it was an hour ago. i’ve sailed these seas long enough to know what that means. it means that we have been blown a long way inside the sargasso sea.”
“no ships come here; sailing ships would lose nearly all their speed, and steamers would lose all of it, for their screws would soon be hopelessly fouled. no vessel will come to rescue us. if we are ever to leave the queen, it must be by our own efforts.”
“what can we do?” asked dorothy, quietly.
“that is it exactly. what can we do? frankly, i don’t see that we can do anything[56] at present. we have no boats, and nothing but a boat, and a sharp-edged one at that, could make any way through this morass. and every minute we are getting deeper in. the current below catches our sunken bow, and the wind above catches our uplifted stern, and both sweep us eastward—toward the center of the weed. if we took to a raft we would move much more slowly—but we would starve much more quickly—and our chances of being picked up would not be improved.”
“but what will become of us?”
“i don’t know. it seems likely that we will be swept into the center of the sea, where there are supposed to be thousands of derelicts, the combings of the north atlantic for four hundred years—i say ‘supposed’ because nobody has ever seen them, but there isn’t much doubt about it.”
jackson laughed scornfully.
“what are you givin’ us?” he demanded incredulously.
[57]dorothy turned to him.
“it’s all true,” she corroborated, with a catch in her voice. “only yesterday mr. sprigg told me about it. he was wishing for a chance to explore the place, poor fellow. and now——” she broke off and turned to howard. “isn’t there any chance at all of our being picked up?” she asked.
howard shook his head.
“none, i fear,” he answered, gently. “i am sorry, miss fairfax, more sorry than i can say; but i fear we shall be on this wreck or on another for weeks and months to come. so far as i can see now we can do nothing till we reach the central wreckage. there we may find a boat or the tools to build one—ours are far under water—or some other way to escape.”
“it will be desperately hard to wait; to drift deeper and deeper into this tangle day after day, hoping that things will change when they come to the worst; but[58] it’s all we can do. meanwhile we can thank god that we have food, drink, and comfortable shelter, and we are on our way to see what no one has ever seen before and returned to tell it. let’s make the best of it.”
“the best of it!” jackson’s face was flushed and his eyes distended. “the best of it!” he vociferated. “by heaven, it’s well for you to yap! you’re all right here. you’re safe from the electric chair here. you can afford to wait and wait. but how about us? how about me? how about my wife and children?”
“it’s hard,” howard assented. “it’s bitter hard, but——”
“bah! you’re lying to us! you’re a sailor and can get us out of this, if you will. you don’t want to get out. you hope that you’ll get a chance to escape, but, by heaven, you shan’t! i’ll kill you first! by god, i will!”
“it’s your duty to do so!” howard[59] spoke quietly, but a spot of red glowed on each cheek. “it is your duty to kill me rather than let me escape. but it is not your duty to insult me. i permit no man to do that, and i warn you not to repeat your offense.
“for the rest, miss fairfax, there is some reason in what this man says. the catastrophe which has brought death to so many, and suffering, both past and future, to you, has saved me. i am safe from the electric chair. anywhere else in the wide world i would have to shrink from every casual glance; would have to lie in answer to every wanton question. but no extradition runs to the heart of the sargasso sea. so it might seem natural that i should wish to stay here. in so far, our excitable friend is right. but i give you my word of honor, not as a jailbird, but as the gentleman i once was, that i am even more anxious to get out of here than yourself. i have still a task to do in the world; my view is not[60] entirely bounded by the electric chair. if any faintest chance offers for us to escape, be sure that i will seize it. but i am helpless until we reach the central wrecks and see what aid they have to offer. then i will do what a man may.”
“i do not promise to go on to new york with jackson, but i do promise to get you and him safely out of this place, if it is within my power to do so—and i believe it will be. say that you believe me.”
it was impossible not to believe this clear-eyed, straight-spoken gentleman, convicted murderer though he were. dorothy held out her hand.
“i believe you,” she said, “and i trust you.”
howard looked at the hand doubtfully.
“that is not nominated in the bond,” he suggested.
“then we’ll put it in,” returned the girl. “as for what you have done in the past—i have forgotten it. we will all forget it—till then.”
[61]“so be it—till then!”
the hands of the two met. but jackson, standing aside, grunted scornfully.
“i’ll not forget it,” he growled. “not for a single minute; not till i get you to new york. i’ve known your smooth-spoken sort before.”
