he stood alone on the little pier, a pathetic figure in his loneliness—a boy without a home or a friend in the world. there was only one thought dominating his mind, the purely animal desire for sustenance, for his bodily needs lay heavily upon him. yet it never occurred to him to ask for food—employment for which he should be paid such scanty wages as would supply his bare needs was all he thought of; for, in spite of years of semi-starvation, he had never yet eaten bread that he had not worked for—the thought of doing so had never shaped itself in his mind. but he was now very hungry, and as he watched the vigorous preparation for departure in full swing on board the smart rakish-looking fishing schooner near him, he felt an intense longing to be one of the toilers on her decks, with a right to obey the call presently to a well-earned meal. whether by any strange thought-transference his craving became known to the bronzed skipper of the rufus b. or not, who shall say? sufficient to record that on a sudden that stalwart man lifted his head, and looking steadily at the lonely lad, he said, “wantin’ a berth, sonny?” although, if his thoughts could have been348 formulated, such a question was the one of all others he would have desired to hear, the lad was so taken aback by the realization of his most fervent hopes that for several seconds he could return no answer, but sat endeavouring to moisten his lips and vainly seeking in his bewildered mind for words with which to reply. another sharp query, “air ye deef?” brought his wits to a focus, and he replied humbly—
“yes, sir!”
“well, whar’s yer traps, then?” queried the skipper; “‘kaze we’re boun’ ter git away this tide, so it’s naow er never, ef you’re comin’.”
before answering, the boy suddenly gathered himself up, and sprang in two bounds from his position on the quay to the side of the skipper. as soon as he reached him, he said, in rapid disjointed sentences—
“i’ve got no close. ner no boardin’ house. ner yet a cent in the world. but i ben to sea for nearly three year, an’ ther ain’t much to a ship thet i don’ know. i never ben in a schooner afore, but ef you’ll take me, cap’n, i’ll show you i’m wuth a boy’s wages, anyhow.”
as he spoke the skipper looked down indulgently at him, chewing meditatively the while, but as soon as he had finished, the “old man” jerked out—
“all right. hook on ter onct, then;” and almost in the same breath, but with an astonishing increase of sound, “naow, then, caest off thet guess warp forrard there,’n run the jib up. come, git a move on349 ye—anybody’d think you didn’t calk’late on leavin’ gloster never no more.”
cheery “ay, ay, cap’s,” resounded from the willing crowd as they obeyed, and in ten minutes the rufus b. was gliding away seawards to the musical rattle of the patent blocks and the harmonious cries of the men as they hoisted the sails to the small breeze that was stealing off the land.
the grey mist of early morning was slowly melting off the picturesque outline of the massachusetts shore as they departed, and over the smooth sea before them fantastic wreaths and curls of fog hung about like the reek of some vast invisible fire far away. it was cold, too, with a clammy chill that struck through the threadbare suit of jeans worn by the new lad, and made him exert himself vigorously to keep his blood in circulation. so hearty were his efforts that the mixed company of men by whom he was surrounded noted them approvingly; and although to a novice their occasional remarks would have sounded harsh and brutal, he felt mightily cheered by them, for his experienced ear immediately recognized the welcome fact that his abilities were being appreciated at their full value. and when, in answer to the skipper’s order of “loose thet gaff taupsle,” addressed to no one in particular, he sprang up the main rigging like a monkey and cast off the gaskets, sending down the tack on the right side, and shaking out the sail in a seamanlike fashion, he distinctly heard the skipper remark to the chap at the wheel, “looks ’sif we’d struck a useful nipper at last, jake,” the words were350 heady as a drink of whisky. disdaining the ratlines, he slid down the weather backstays like a flash and dropped lightly on deck, his cheek flushed and his eye sparkling, all his woeful loneliness forgotten in his present joy of finding his services appreciated. but the grinning darky cook just then put his head outside his caboose door and shouted “brekfuss.” with old habit strong upon him, the boy bounded forrard to fetch the food into the fo’c’sle, but to his bewilderment, and the darky’s boisterous delight, he found that in his new craft quite a different order of things prevailed. here all hands messed like christians at one common table in the cabin, waited upon by the cook, and eating the same food; and though they looked rough and piratical enough, all behaved themselves decently—in strong contrast to the foul behaviour our hero had so often witnessed in the grimy fo’c’sles of merchant ships. all this touched him, even though he was so ravenously hungry that his senses seemed merged in the purely physical satisfaction of getting filled with good food. at last, during a lull in the conversation, which, as might be expected, was mostly upon their prospects of striking a good run of cod at an early date, the skipper suddenly looked straight at the boy, and said—
“wut djer say yer name wuz, young feller?”
“tom burt, sir,” he answered promptly, although he was tempted to say that he hadn’t yet been asked his name at all.
“wall, then, tom burt,” replied the skipper, “yew shape ’s well ’s yew’ve begun, and i’m doggoned351 ef yew won’t have no eend of a blame good time. th’ only kind er critter we kain’t find no sort er use fer in a banker ’s a loafer. we do all our bummin’ w’en we git ashore, ’n in bad weather; other times everybody’s got ter git up an’ hustle fer all they’re wuth.”
tom looked up with a pleasant smile, feeling quite at his ease among men who could talk to him as if he, too, were a human being and not a homeless cur. he didn’t make any resolves to do his level best—he would do that anyhow—but his heart beat high with satisfaction at his treatment, and he would have kept his end up with any man on board to the utmost ounce of his strength. but meanwhile they had drawn clear of the land, and behind them dropped a curtain of fog hiding it completely from view. to a fresh easterly breeze which had sprung up, the graceful vessel was heading north-east for the grand banks, gliding through the long, sullen swell like some great, lithe greyhound, and yet looking up almost in the wind’s eye. in spite of the breeze, the towering banks of fog gradually drew closer and closer around them until they were entirely enveloped therein, as if wrapped in an impenetrable veil which shut out all the world beside. the ancient tin horn emitted its harsh discords, which seemed to rebound from the white wall round about them, and in very deed could only have been heard a ship’s length or so away. and presently, out of the encircling mantle of vapour, there came a roar as of some unimaginable monster wrathfully seeking its prey, the352 strident sounds tearing their way through the dense whiteness with a truly terrific clamour. all hands stood peering anxiously out over the waste for the first sight of the oncoming terror, until, with a rush that made the schooner leap and stagger, a huge, indefinite blackness sped past, its grim mass towering high above the tiny craft. the danger over, muttered comments passed from mouth to mouth as to the careless, reckless fashion in which these leviathans were driven through the thick gloom of those crowded waters in utter disregard of the helpless toilers of the sea. then, to the intense relief of all hands, the fog began to melt away, and by nightfall all trace of it was gone. in its stead the great blue dome of the heavens, besprinkled with a myriad glittering stars, shut them in; while the keen, eager breeze sent the dancing schooner northward at a great rate to her destined fishing-ground, the huge plateau in the atlantic, off newfoundland, that the codfish loves.
but it was written that they should never reach the virgin. the bright, clear weather gave way to a greasy, filmy sky, accompanied by a mournful, sighing wail in the wind that sent a feeling of despondency through the least experienced of the fishermen, and told the more seasoned hands that a day of wrath was fast approaching, better than the most delicately adjusted barometer would have done. when about sixty miles from the banks the gale burst upon the staunch little craft in all its fury, testing her powers to the utmost as, under a tiny square of canvas in the main rigging, she met and coquetted with the gathering353 immensities of the atlantic waves. no doubt she would have easily weathered that gale, as she had done so many others, but that at midnight, during its fiercest fury, there came blundering along a huge four-masted sailing-ship running under topsails and foresail that, like some blind and drunken giant staggered out of the gloom and fell upon the gallant little schooner, crushing her into matchwood beneath that ruthless iron stem, and passing on unheeding the awful destruction she had dealt out to the brave little company of men. it was all so sudden that the agony of suspense was mercifully spared them, but out of the weltering vortex which swallowed up the rufus b. only two persons emerged alive—tom burt and jem the cook. by a miracle they both clung to the same piece of flotsam—one of the “dorys” or flat little boats used by the bankers to lay out their long lines when on the banks. of course she was bottom up, and, but for the lifeline which the forethought of the poor skipper had caused to be secured to the gunwale of every one of his dorys, they could not have kept hold of her for an hour. as it was, before they were able to get her righted in that tumultuous sea, they were almost at their last gasp. but they did succeed in getting her right way up at last, and, crouching low in her flat bottom, they dumbly awaited whatever fate had in store for them.
a mere fragment in the wide waste, they clung desperately to life through the slowly creeping hours while the storm passed away, the sky cleared, and the sea went down. the friendly sun came out in his354 strength and warmed their thin blood. but his beams did more: they revealed at no great distance the shape of a ship that to the benumbed fancies of the two waifs seemed to behave in most erratic fashion. for now she would head toward them, again she would slowly turn as if upon an axis until she presented her stern in their direction, but never for five minutes did she keep the same course. dimly they wondered what manner of ship she might be, with a sort of impartial curiosity, since they were past the period of struggle. well for them that it was so, for otherwise their agonies must have been trebled by the sight of rescue apparently so near and yet impossible of attainment. so they just sat listlessly in their empty shell gazing with incurious eyes upon the strange evolutions of the ship. yet, by that peculiar affinity which freely floating bodies have at sea, the ship and boat were surely drawing nearer each other, until tom suddenly awoke as if from a trance to find that they were so close to the ship that a strong swimmer might easily gain her side. the discovery gave him the needed shock to arouse his small store of vital energy, and, turning to his companion, he said—his voice sounding strange and far away—“doc, rouse up! here’s the ship! right on top of us, man!” but for some minutes the negro seemed past all effort, beyond hearing, only known to be living by his position. desperate now, tom scrambled towards him, and in a sudden fever of excitement shook, beat, and pinched him. no response. then, as if maddened by the failure of his efforts, the boy seized one of the big355 black hands that lay so nervelessly, and, snatching it to his mouth, bit a finger to the bone. a long dry groan came from the cook as he feebly pulled his hand away, and mechanically thrust the injured finger into his mouth. the trickling blood revived him, his dull eyes brightened, and looking up he saw the ship close alongside. without a word he stooped and plunged his hands into the water on either side the dory, paddling fiercely in the direction of the ship, while tom immediately followed his example. soon they bumped her side, and as she rolled slowly towards them, tom seized the chain-plates and clung limpet-like for an instant, then, with one supreme effort, hauled himself on board and fell, fainting but safe, on her deck.
when he returned to life again, his first thought was of his chum, and great was his peace to find that the cook had also gained safety. he lay near, stretched out listlessly upon the timber, with which the vessel’s deck was completely filled, rail-high, fore and aft. feebly, like some decrepit old man, tom rose to his knees and shuffled towards the cook, finding that he was indeed still alive, but sleeping so soundly that it seemed doubtful whether waking would be possible. reassured by finding the cook living, the boy dragged himself aft, wondering feebly how it was that he saw no member of this large vessel’s crew. he gained the cabin and crawled below, finding everything in disorder, as if she had been boarded by pirates and ravaged for anything of value that might be concealed. she seemed a staunch, stout,356 frigate-built ship, of some eleven or twelve hundred tons register, english built, but norwegian owned; and to a seaman’s eye there was absolutely no reason why she should thus be tumbling unguided about the atlantic—there was no visible cause to account for her abandonment. aloft she was in a parlous condition. the braces having been left unbelayed, her great yards had long been swinging to and fro with every thrust of the wind and roll of the ship, until it was a marvel how they still hung in their places at all. most of the sails were in rags, the unceasing grind and wrench of the swinging masses of timber to which they were secured having been too much for their endurance, and their destruction once commenced, the wind had speedily completed it.
all this, requiring so long to tell, was taken in by the lad in a few seconds, but his first thought was for food and drink wherewith to revive his comrade. he was much disappointed, however, to find that not only was the supply of eatables very scanty, but the quality was vile beyond comment—worse than even that of some poverty-stricken old british tub provisioned at an auction sale of condemned naval stores. the best he could do for jem was to soak some of the almost black biscuit in water until soft, and then, hastening to his side, he roused the almost moribund man, and gently coaxed him to eat, a morsel at a time, until, to his joy, he found the poor darky beginning to take a returning interest in life. fortunately for them, the weather held fine all that day and night, relieving them from anxiety about handling the big357 vessel, and by morning they were both sufficiently themselves again to set about the task of getting her under control. a little at a time they reduced the chaotic web of gear aloft to something like its original systematic arrangement, and under such sail as was still capable of being set they began to steer to the south-westward. in this, as in everything else now, the boy took the lead, for jem had never set foot upon a square-rigged ship before, and even his schooner experience had been confined to the galley. but tom had spent his three years at sea entirely in large square-rigged ships, and, being a bright observant lad, already knew more about them and their manipulation than many sailormen learn all their lives. he it was who set the course, having carefully watched the direction steered from gloster by the hapless rufus b., and now he judged that a reversal of it would certainly bring them within hail of the american seaboard again, if they could hold on it long enough. so all day long the two toiled like beavers to make things aloft more shipshape, letting the vessel steer herself as much as possible, content if she would only keep within four points of her course. with all their labours they could not prevent her looking like some huge floating scarecrow that had somehow got adrift from its native garden and wandered out to sea. her appearance simply clamoured for interference by any passing ship in trumpet tones had one entered the same horizon, but much to the youngster’s wonder, and presently to his secret delight, not a sail hove in sight day after day.
thus a fortnight passed away satisfactorily enough but for the wretched food and the baffling winds, that would not permit them to make more than a meagre handful of miles per day towards the land, and worried tom not a little with the idea that perhaps the gulf stream might be sweeping them steadily eastward at a much greater rate than they were able to sail west. but he did not whisper a syllable of his fears to his shipmate in case of disheartening that docile darky, whom even now he often caught wistfully looking towards him, as if for some further comfort. he himself was full of high hopes, building a fantastic mental edifice upon the prospect of being able to make the land unaided, and therefore becoming entitled not only to the glory of a great exploit in ship-handling but also to the possession of a fortune, as he knew full well his share of the salvage of this ship would be. for although she contained but a cheap cargo of lumber, yet from her size and sea-worthiness she was worth a very large sum could she be brought into port without further injury, her hull being, as sailors say, “as tight as a bottle”—that is, she leaked not at all. but both the shipmates were puzzled almost to distraction to account for a vessel in her condition being abandoned. nearly every spare moment in which they could be together was devoted to the discussion of this mystery, and dark jem showed a most fertile inventiveness in bringing out new theories, none of which, however, could throw the slightest glimmer of explanation upon the subject. except that from the disorder of the cabin359 and fo’c’sle, and the absence of the boats, with their lashings left just as they had been hacked adrift, there was no other clue to the going of her crew; and, if, as was probable, the deserters had afterwards been lost by the swamping of their frail craft, this mystery was but another item in the long list of unravelled sea-puzzles.
but one evening the sun set in a lowering red haze, which, though dull like a dying fire, stained the oily-looking sea as if with stale blood. the feeble uncertain wind sank into fitful breaths, and at last died completely away. gigantic masses of gloomy cloud came into being, apparently without motion of any kind, marshalling their vast formlessness around the shrinking horizon. as the last lurid streaks faded out of the sky, and utter darkness enfolded them, the two lonely wanderers clung together, as if by the touch of each other’s living bodies to counteract the benumbing effect of the terrible quiet. deeper, denser grew the darkness, heavier grew the burden of silence, until at the thin cry of a petrel out of the black depths their hearts felt most grateful. it was like a tiny message telling them that the world was not yet dead. a sudden, hissing spiral of blue flame rent the clouds asunder, and immediately, as if it leaped upon them through the jagged cleft in that grim barrier, the gale burst. wind, lightning, thunder, rain; all joined in that elemental orchestra, with ever-increasing fury of sound as they smote upon the amazed sea, as if in angry scorn of its smoothness. in the midst of that tremendous tumult the two360 chums were powerless—they dared not move from the helm, even though, with yards untrimmed, their presence there was useless. but, in some curious freak of the neglected vessel, she flung her head off the wind farther and farther until the boy suddenly snatched at hope again, and spun the wheel round to assist her. off she went before the wind like a hunted thing, and knowing it was their only chance for life, the two friends laboured to keep her so. it was so dark that they could not see anything aloft, so that they did not know how far the small amount of sail on her when the gale burst still remained; but that mattered little, since they were powerless in any case. but they stuck to their steering, caring nothing for the course made as long as she could be kept before the gale. and in the bitter grey of the morning they saw a graceful shape, dim and indefinite, yet near, that reminded them painfully of their late vessel and her hapless crew. the shadowy stranger drew nearer, until, with thumping hearts, they recognized one of the schooners belonging to that daring, hardy service, the new york pilots. rushing to the side, tom waved his arms, for they were now so close together that he could see the figures grouped aft. with consummate seamanship, the schooner was manœuvred towards the ship until so close that three men sprang from her rail into the ship’s mizzen rigging. few words passed, but leaving one of their number at the wheel, the other two worked like giants to get a little sail set, while the schooner, shaking out a reef, bounded ahead to bespeak steam aid.
with such assistance, the troubles of the two wanderers were now at an end, and in less than thirty hours they were snugly anchored in new york harbour, with a blazing fire in the galley and a christian meal before them. at the salvage court, held soon after, their share came to $7,000, equally divided between the two of them, the pilot crew receiving $3,000 for their two days’ work. feeling like millionaires, they hurried back to gloster, fully agreed to do what they could for the benefit of their late shipmates’ bereaved ones, and handing over to the authorities for that purpose on their arrival half of their gains. then jem, declaring that he had seen all he wanted of fishing, opened a small oyster saloon in gloster, while tom, aided by the advice of a gentleman who was greatly interested in the whole story, entered himself at columbia college. he will be heard of again.
