Adrift in a Boat | Page 9

were in
danger of being swamped, it appeared to the midshipman and his friend
that there was a great risk of being run down. Already two or three
phantom-like forms had suddenly appeared out of the darkness, and
gliding by were soon lost to sight.
The boy, however, had made no remark about them; suddenly he
shouted, "Grandfather, a sail on the weather-bow."
"About, then," cried the old man. Harry and David looked out, and saw,
almost ahead of them, towering to the skies it seemed, a dark pyramid
of canvas.
"She is a big ship running down channel," said Harry. "She will be over
us! she will be over us!" The boat was at that moment in stays, going
about. Scarcely had he spoken, when there was a loud crack. The mast
went by the board, and as it came down struck the old man on the head.
He would have fallen overboard had not Harry and David seized his
coat and dragged him in.
"Here, pull, masters," cried Tristram, trying to get out both the oars. In
doing so he let one of them go overboard; both would have gone had
not Harry, springing forward, seized the other. But poor Tristram, in
endeavouring to regain the one he had lost, overbalanced himself, and
met the fate his grandfather had just escaped. Harry threw the oar over
to the side on which he had fallen, but the poor lad in vain endeavoured
to clutch it. There was a piercing cry; Harry thought he saw a hand
raised up through the darkness, and then he neither saw nor heard more.
How came it that the boy's cry did not rouse the grandfather? Sad to say,
he lay without moving at the bottom of the boat.
"This is fearful," cried David, feeling the old man's face and hands; "I

am afraid that he is dead, and the poor lad gone too. What are we to
do?"
"Keep the boat's head to the sea as long as we can with one oar, and
then up helm and run before the wind," answered Harry, who knew that
such was the way a big ship would be managed under similar
circumstances. David sat at the helm, and Harry vigorously plied his
oar--now on one side, now on the other, and thus managed to keep the
boat from getting broadside to the sea. It was very hard work, however,
and he felt that, even though relieved by David, it could not be kept up
all night. Several times David felt the old man's face; it was still warm,
but there was no other sign of life. The boat was broad and deep, or she
would very quickly have been turned over. This, however, made her
very heavy to pull, while from the same cause the sea continually
washed into her. At length they agreed that she must be put before the
wind. They waited for a lull, and then getting her quickly round,
hoisted the jib, which had been before taken in, to the end of the spreet,
which they lashed to the stump of the mast. The wind blew as strong as
ever, but the tide having turned there was less sea than before, and thus
away they went down channel, at a far greater rate than they supposed.
"It is going to be only a summer gale," observed Harry. "When the
morning comes we shall be easily able to rig a fore and aft sail, and
stand in for the shore. The poor, good old man, I am very sorry for him,
and so I am for the boy; but for ourselves it does not so much matter,
except that we shall have to breakfast on raw fish, and perhaps after all
not get home to dinner. My dear mother, too, and Jane, may be
frightened, and I don't like the thought of that."
"Yes, to be sure, I forgot that; I am afraid those at my home will be
frightened too, when they hear nothing of us," said David. "One
comfort is, that we did not keep away intentionally, though, to be sure,
it was thoughtless of us to be caught by the tide as we were. But don't
let us think of ourselves; better let us see what we can do for this poor
old man. I believe that he is still alive, though how to bring him round I
don't know. If we had any liquor to give him we might pour it down his
throat, but as we have nothing we must keep his head up and let him

lay quiet till daylight," said Harry.
David was thoroughly accustomed to boat-sailing, so that he was well
able to keep the boat dead before the wind. The sea came curling up
astern,