it was late that night before the voyagers dropped into uneasy slumber. the wonder of their situation, suddenly brought home to them, had roused them all to unusual volubility. in the excitement consequent on the discovery of the massed wrecks even jackson forgot his suspicions, and the three talked together freely. howard had promised that they should join the wrecks, and they had done so. now he would have a chance to keep his other promise to get them out; in the first flush of arrival they did not doubt that he would do so.
but jackson, at least, changed his opinion the next morning when he came on deck and viewed the scene before him.
during the night the queen, drawn by the same natural attraction that holds the planets in their sphere and brings floating[77] chips together in a basin, had taken its place with the dead ships. under her counter lay a water-logged schooner; beside her rubbed a dismasted sailing-ship; over her submerged bow hung a tramp steamer, whose blackened masts, bare of cordage, gave evidence of the flames that had ravaged her. beyond, stretched a mass of wreckage, ship pressing upon ship, in an endless iteration of ruin. only to the west the view was open, and there stretched the weed in slimy convolutions.
over all screamed the sea-birds.
each of these countless wrecks had once sailed the sea, new and strong, and each had come here at last to slumber peacefully until the deep should open and receive it. no more would they ride out the hurricane or take with frolic welcome the buffetings of the waves; no more would they visit the great ports of men and groan beneath the heavy cargoes placed upon them. their days of turmoil were over. here, in this quiet haven, in[78] the great calm of the tropics, with only the faintest breezes to whisper into their ears tales of the open sea, and with the birds to nest in their deserted rigging, they dreamed their old age away.
to dorothy the sight was solemn, but not sad; to howard it was amazing; to jackson it was maddening.
less than ever did he believe that he was hopelessly trapped far out on the ocean; more than ever was he convinced that howard was deceiving him for his own ends. he saw the ships rocking gently on the swells, noted white patches of sails showing here and there, heard the cries of the gulls, and told himself afresh that he could easily walk ashore if he only knew how; and when a flock of parrots lighted in the rigging and demanded crackers, and a monkey poised on the end of a near-by mast and gibbered, he was convinced beyond peradventure that howard had lied to them and was only watching his chance to desert them. he[79] did not even listen to that officer when he explained that both birds and beasts must have drifted in on wrecks and had probably thriven.
“the birds will feed on the roaches on the old rattle-trap wrecks,” he explained, “and the monkeys will live on the birds’ eggs. perhaps, too, both catch shell-fish in the weeds.”
breakfast was a silent meal. dorothy was awed and frightened by the sight of the wrecks, and jackson was glum. in vain howard strove to rouse them. finally he gave up and finished his breakfast in silence. then he pushed away his plate.
“listen to me, please,” he said coldly. “we have arrived at our destination and must now take steps to help ourselves. two things are necessary: first, to explore the ships around us; second, not to get lost. make no mistake; the danger of this last is very great. these ships will not look the same as we leave them and[80] as we return to them; where we climb down a ship’s side in going away, we must climb up it in coming back, and vice versa. often this may be difficult; sometimes it may be impossible. yet, if we try to vary our route, we may lose ourselves; and once lost the chances are a thousand to one against our ever finding our way back to the queen again. not that we shall stay by the queen long; probably we shall soon find some ship better suited for a base of operations. but we must remember that this continent of ships is a desert except around its edges. new wrecks arriving will bring food and water, but a few hundred yards inside the borders neither can remain. it may seem to you that it would be easy to get back to the border again, but i assure you that it would not be. without a compass, we would not know which way to go, and might easily be plunging deeper and deeper into the mass.”
[81]he paused, waiting for comment, but none was made. he was leader, however grudgingly so, and it was for him to map out their course of action. no one dreamed of disputing it—jackson, no less than dorothy, realized his helplessness and his ignorance.
“i beg you, therefore, to be very careful,” resumed howard, seeing that the others waited. “i am particularly insistent, because we must explore first of all. to-day the danger is not great, because we are not likely to get far away, but we might as well start right. first, we must run up all the signal-flags we can find; they will be conspicuous for a long ways off. next, we must light a fire in the galley range; its smoke will be visible still farther away. third, we must never go out of sight of our base—the queen, at present—under any circumstances; when we climb to each new ship we must look back and make sure that we can still see the flags or the smoke. fourth, we[82] must each carry a hatchet and mark our way just as a woodman blazes a path through a forest; the hatchet will come in handy, anyhow. later, if we do not find what we want, we can shift our base to some other vessel along the ‘coast,’ and explore farther with that as a new center. do i make myself clear?”
dorothy nodded. “shall we all go together?” she asked.
howard shook his head. “no, i think not,” he answered gently. “i hope you will be willing to stay here for the present and keep the galley fire alight; i’ll show you how to make it smoke. jackson and i will do the exploring for to-day, anyway. he can go to the north along the coast, and i will go to the south, and——”
“not much!” the policeman was shaking his head doggedly. “not much, you don’t. i don’t leave you out of my sight. i’ve got my orders from headquarters and——”
[83]howard stifled an exclamation. “very well,” he said coldly. “as you please! perhaps it is better anyway. two can do things that one could not. come! let’s get ready.”
“but——” dorothy looked very dubious.
howard turned to her. “i know what you would say, miss fairfax. you would like to go, of course. but, believe me, it is best not. moving about these wrecks will be difficult and even dangerous for any one hampered by skirts. you would be exhausted very soon. besides, we may meet unpleasant sights. later, when we know our ground better, we will take you for a sight-seeing tour. you will be perfectly safe on the queen. you are not afraid to be left alone, are you?”
“oh! no! it will be lonely, of course, but isn’t there some way that i can signal to you if anything should happen?”
howard considered a while; then plunged down into the vitals of the queen,[84] returning shortly with a double armful of straw dug from a hogshead once filled with crockery.
“there,” he said, dropping it at the entrance of the galley. “if anything happens, wet some of that and put it on the fire; it will make a thick black smoke. by alternately closing and opening the draft, you can let it go up and cut it off altogether. we’ll watch for it.”
howard and jackson climbed down the jacob’s-ladder that still swung at the queen’s counter, and dropped lightly to the deck of the water-logged schooner that lay there. of this, nothing but a few inches of the deck and the stumps of the masts were above water; whatever deck-houses there might have been had been carried away, together with the entire rail. consequently there was nothing to investigate, nothing that could help the castaways in their efforts to escape, and the two men crossed over her with merely a glance, using her as a bridge to[85] reach a ship floating high in the water just beyond.
the second vessel had a gangway lowered down her side, evidently to help her passengers to reach the boats. her masts were gone, but otherwise she seemed intact.
“crew and passengers taken off by another ship,” explained howard, “probably in fair weather after a storm. most likely another storm was brewing and the crew expected their own vessel to sink.”
a rapid search showed that the ship had nothing of value to offer. her boats were gone; her compasses, charts, chronometers, and sextants all were gone. some tools remained, but were so rusted as to be of little value. howard soon led the way to her taffrail, whence he could clutch the shrouds of a full-rigged ship which had evidently been in a collision.
as he stepped on the deck of this craft, there was a scurry of feet, and a dozen huge rats bolted across the deck and disappeared under the poop.
[86]“confound the brutes,” he muttered. “i hate them! wonder what they have been eating.”
the answer was not far to seek. close beside the davits of the quarter-boat lay two skeletons; one with a smooth, round hole drilled through the fleshless skull, the other with a broken backbone. howard looked at them and nodded.
“probably the crew made a rush for the boats,” he suggested. “somebody—one of the officers, i suppose—tried to stop them. he shot one, but the others ran over him and broke his back. then came the rats. well, it was a man’s death. if you can find a couple of bags, jackson, we will commit the bones to the sea.”
from the ship the two men descended to a steamer, much down by the stern, with a gaping hole in her port counter, where something must have driven deep into her vitals. from this they climbed upon a small yacht, floating just awash.[87] (“held up by water-tight compartments,” explained howard.) thence they passed to another vessel, and to another, and another, each bearing mute record to the manner of its ruin.
but on none did the explorers find what they sought. the boats were invariably gone; the tools were always rusty; the compasses had all been snatched from the binnacle and from the cabin; the charts had mostly been torn from the racks and tables, often so roughly that the thumb-tacks that had held their corners were left in the board, each holding a triangular scrap of torn paper. in the few instances where any did remain, they were rotten with mildew, and charted regions far distant from the sargasso sea.
it was noon when howard gave the word to return to the queen. “don’t be downcast, jackson,” he consoled. “what we have found to-day is only what we had to expect. the boats would, of course, be taken, even if everything else[88] was left. the compasses, and charts, and sextants, and so on, would naturally be taken next, for those who went in the boats would need them to shape their course. the tools and engines would have almost invariably been left exposed to the weather and would be badly rusted. it would have been by mere chance had we found what we wanted on the very first day. at least we have learned that there is plenty of food and water and clothing and coal to be had for the taking. to-morrow we will search in another direction. now, let’s go home.”
but return was not so easy as the two men expected. as howard had foretold, there was an important difference between climbing up and climbing down, and this difference was accentuated by the fact that in leaving the queen they had chosen the easiest route. when they could have gone from one ship to any one of two or three others, they had naturally moved to the one that appeared the least difficult of access.
[89]taking the route in reverse, this small detail of choice often meant that they must return to the one that was the most difficult to board.
to this expected obstacle was added another that was unexpected. in more than one instance they found that their morning route, as shown by their blazed marks, was absolutely impracticable. the ships had moved, slightly perhaps, but yet enough to bar their passage, ten feet of water being often as impassable as ten hundred. howard struck his brow with his hand when he realized this.
“i was a fool not to foresee this!” he exclaimed. “of course, these ships are not absolutely stationary. even far inside they must be somewhat subject to currents and to winds, and must move slightly, while here, on the outskirts, they must move considerably. as a matter of fact, the whole mass must be swinging around and around in a vast circle, moved by the same current that brought them[90] here in the first place. well, we must simply abandon our blazes, and go home by the flags and the smoke.”
jackson peered into the distance. “i can’t see no flags,” he objected.
“can’t you? i can, but they are undoubtedly hard to make out in this mass of frayed cordage and flapping streamers. however, we can see the smoke clearly enough, and must set our course by it.”
ten minutes later the first accident of the day occurred. in stepping from one ship to another, jackson missed his footing, caught wildly at a ratline, which broke in his grasp, and shot downward with a yell into the water.
by the time he had risen to the surface, howard, who had been a little in advance, was back, peering down at him.
“can you climb out?” he demanded. “no! i guess you can’t without help. hook your fingers into that port-hole—there, just behind you. that’s right! can you hang on for a while? it may[91] take some time to find a rope sound enough to bear your weight.”
jackson clawed the weed from off his face. “yes! i can hang on all right,” he returned, savagely. evidently his involuntary bath had ruffled his temper. “i can swim, too,” he added.
howard disappeared, and the policeman settled himself to wait. he had learned to swim in the north river, and had no difficulty in keeping afloat, even without the adventitious aid of the bull’s-eye in the steamer’s side just above him. if he had fallen in almost anywhere else he could have gotten out himself, but, as it chanced, this particular bit of water was shut in by the sides of three ships, none of which offered a foothold by which to climb. the bull’s-eye by which he hung was the only orifice that broke the smoothness of the overhanging sides.
time passed, however, and howard did not return, and a vague uneasiness began to work in the policeman’s mind.[92] there were ropes everywhere. surely, it did not take so long to find one. he called, but received no answer. could howard have lost the place? or could some accident have befallen him? or, could—good god! did the man mean to leave him to drown?
the suggestion, once offered, would not down. it was, he told himself, the very thing to be expected. with him out of the way, howard would be freed from the shadow of the gallows. he alone—except miss fairfax, and what was a girl’s life—he alone knew that howard had survived the wreck of the queen. with him dead, howard—supposing that he could regain dry land—could live out his life in safety. and what was a policeman’s life to one whose hands were already stained with the blood of his own wife?
jackson drew a long breath as conviction forced itself upon him. it was characteristic of the man that he did not[93] whimper. he had been dealing with criminals for twenty years, and conceded them the right to fight for their own hand. he had always declared that he would take his dose when it came without doing the baby act; and, by george, he would keep his word.
hope had vanished when howard reappeared. in his hand was a boat’s tackle, which he proceeded to hitch to a davit that projected over jackson’s head. but, instead of dropping down the other end, he quietly seated himself on the bulwarks and stared thoughtfully at the man below.
“well, jackson,” he remarked, deliberately, “our positions seem to be reversed.”
the policeman scowled. “damn you, yes,” he responded, truculently.
an expression of admiration floated over howard’s face. “by jove, jackson!” he cried. “you’re all right. i didn’t think you had the nerve to speak[94] up like that under the circumstances. ‘what dam of lances brought you forth to jest at the dawn with death?’ that’s from kipling, jackson, if you do not recognize it.”
“g’wan. if you’re goin’ to murder me, do it. you’ve had experience, all right.”
“fie! fie! jackson! call things by their proper names. this wouldn’t be any murder. but, there”—howard’s voice grew stern—“enough of this. i see you realize the situation. all i have to do is to leave you where you are, and to-morrow i will be a free man. but i am not going to do it; i am going to pull you up in a minute. but i want you to realize that i have deliberately put aside the best chance possible to free myself from your surveillance, and i want you to cease dogging my footsteps and watching me everywhere i go. i don’t ask you to let me escape or anything like that, but i do ask you to act on my suggestions[95] without any talk of not letting me out of your sight. our escape from this wreckage may any day depend on your prompt obedience, and i want you to obey. in return, i reiterate my assertion—which you did not believe—that i am even more anxious than you are to get back to dry land; and in addition i promise you, on the word of an officer and a gentleman, that if i do get back, you and miss fairfax shall go, too. i will not desert you, even though i know you will arrest me the moment you have force enough at hand to do it. now, put your foot in the hook on this block, and i’ll haul you up.”
jackson caught the block that howard dropped, and put his foot in it mechanically. he was a slow thinker, and howard’s words bewildered him for the moment; later he would realize their import. anyhow, now was the time to act; the time to think would come later. so he grasped the rope and waited while his former prisoner hoisted him up to the deck.
[96]once there he turned to howard and opened his mouth. but that individual checked him with a smile.
“after a while! after a while!” he counselled. “let’s get back to the queen now. where’s that smoke?”
he turned and gazed around the horizon; then he started.
“something’s wrong on the queen,” he cried. “miss fairfax is signalling for us!”
