CHAPTER XIV
ALONE ON THE OCEAN
The upsetting of the motor boat came so swiftly and unexpectedly that nobody aboard had an opportunity to save himself. All were flung out into the dark and turbulent water and several were hit by the object with which the Fancy had collided.
As Jack went overboard something struck him in the side, all but winding him. He floundered around helplessly for several seconds, and had it not been for the life-preserver he had donned it is possible that he might have gone under never to rise.
The force of the waves speedily separated the boys and the lanky sailor, and when Jack was able to comprehend what had happened he found himself practically alone on the bosom of the heaving ocean.
“Hi, fellows! Where are you?” he managed to call out.
But only the wind and the slishing of the waves answered him. Then he strained his eyes to the utmost, but not a soul seemed to be in sight. Close at hand was a short and thick spar, and to this the young major clung mechanically.
His heart was filled with horror. Was it possible that the others had either been killed by the collision or drowned? The thought was agony, and fervently he prayed that the others might be spared.
As the spar mounted to the top of a wave, Jack looked around again, and this time saw the dim outline of some dark object in the hollow just below him. Thinking it might be the wreck of the motor boat, he struck out feebly, and presently gained the object, to find it a mass of wreckage, evidently a part of the forecastle or cabin of some small sailing ship.
“Who is that?” came unexpectedly from the wreckage, and Jack was delighted to recognize the voice of his cousin Fred.
“It’s I—Jack!” gasped the young major, as he held fast to the wreckage. “Are you all right, Fred?”
“Got a bump on my left shoulder, but it didn’t amount to a great deal,” answered the youngest of the Rover boys. “Are you alone? Where are the others?”
“Yes, I’m alone; and I don’t know where the others are. Have you seen any of them?”
“I saw Gif and Spouter just as we went overboard. But then something struck me in the shoulder, and we became separated in the dark.”
“The others can’t be far off—unless they went down,” went on the young major. And then, not without considerable difficulty, he managed to pull himself up beside his cousin on the wreckage, which formed something of a raft fifteen or twenty feet long and about half as wide.
“If we only had a light,” said Fred, “maybe we could spot some of the others. Oh, Jack, what will we do if they’ve been drowned?” and the tone of his voice showed his misery.
“It’s terrible, Fred. I hate to think about it,” and Jack shuddered. He felt that if his light-hearted cousins and his chums were drowned, life would never be the same.
A quarter of an hour dragged by dismally. The boys could think of nothing they might do to aid the others, and so sat close together, holding fast to the wreckage so that, as it pitched and tossed from the top of one wave to the next, they would not be swept overboard. There were occasional sheets of rain, and the wind blew as strongly as ever, sending the flying spray in all directions.
“I saw something!” cried Fred, presently, while they were straining their eyes to pierce the gloom around them.
“Where?” questioned his cousin, eagerly.
“There! To the left! It’s gone now!”
“What did it look like, Fred?”
“I may be mistaken, but it looked like somebody floundering around in the water.”
“Let’s yell to him.” And then both boys cried out as loudly as their exhausted condition permitted.
“Who’s calling? Where are you?” came from out of the darkness, and the next instant the two boys saw the form of somebody on the top of a wave close at hand.
“Here we are—on some wreckage!” shouted Jack. “Be careful, or you’ll get struck!”
“Help me! I’m almost done for!” gasped the swimmer, and for the moment disappeared in the trough of the sea.
Throwing himself flat on the wreckage, Jack crawled to the edge. A second later he saw an arm in the water and grasped it tightly. Then out of the briny deep came Ira Small, spluttering and kicking convulsively.
“Save me! Save me!” he groaned. “I’m all in! I guess my right leg is broke.”
In that pitching and tossing sea, it was no easy matter to haul the injured sailor on to the wreckage. Twice he almost slipped from Jack’s grasp, but finally he came up, and with Jack’s aid crawled to the middle of the improvised raft.
“You done me a big service, lad. I’ll never forgit it,” mumbled Ira Small, and then he all but fainted away.
“Gee, it’s too bad if his leg is broken,” remarked Fred. “And we can’t do anything for him, either.”
“I guess he was about all in when he reached the raft,” returned Jack. “Another minute, and he would have gone down.”
Now that they had found one of their companions, the two boys looked around more eagerly than ever for the others. Time and again they called out, and once they thought they heard a cry in return; but from whence it came they could not determine, and soon the whistling wind drowned out every other sound.
After the rescue of Ira Small several hours went by—hours that the boys never forgot. The rude raft pitched and tossed as before, and while the rain stopped, the wind blew as fiercely as ever, showering them continually with the ocean spray. Occasionally some small bits of wreckage hit that upon which they rested, and once a small spar rolled up on the raft, hitting Jack in the foot.
“Some vessel must have gone to pieces either in this storm or the storm we had before,” remarked Jack.
“I hope some of the others got hold of the wreckage.”
“So do I. But, Fred, this really doesn’t help us much. We must be miles and miles away from land; and without anything to eat or drink——”
Jack did not finish what he had in mind to say. But both his cousin and Ira Small understood.
“It’s a terrible situation,” murmured the lanky sailor mournfully. “But I wouldn’t mind it so much if only my leg wasn’t hurt. What good is a sailor with a broken leg? No good at all!” and he shook his head dismally.
He was now sitting up on the wreckage with Fred on one side of him and Jack on the other. All had on their life-preservers, and in addition they clung fast to a rope which in some manner had become tangled on the floating débris.
Never had the two Rover boys felt more dismal. The mind of each reverted continually to Andy and Randy and to their school chums. Were the others alive? Or had they seen the last of those they loved so well?
“Oh, Jack! what will the folks at home say if Andy and Randy are drowned?” whispered Fred.
“I don’t know,” was the doleful reply. “I’d hate to break the news to Uncle Tom and Aunt Nellie.”
“Yes, and think of Gif’s and Spouter’s folks and of the Masons!”
“It’s too terrible to realize, Fred. Let’s hope for the best. It’s the only thing we can do.”
“Maybe we’ll go down too,” came lugubriously from the lanky sailor. “An’ then I won’t never find them thirteen rocks an’ the pirates’ gold.”
“Never mind pirates’ gold now,” returned Jack, quickly. “I’d give every dollar of it if we were all safe and sound on land again.”
“I don’t doubt it, lad. I don’t doubt it. Gold ain’t of no consequence to a man after he goes to Davy Jones’ Locker.”
A little later came a moment of excitement. Another portion of wreckage loomed up before them, and then came a crash that all but sent them into the ocean again.
“Hold fast!” yelled Jack. “But look out that you’re not struck!”
“Oh, my leg! My poor leg!” moaned Ira Small, for he had been hit again, this time by what appeared to be a piece of ship’s railing.
For several minutes the two pieces of wreckage continued to bob up and down on the water. They bumped, and bumped again, and finally seemed to wedge themselves together into one uncertain whole.
“There are a lot of ropes!” cried Ira Small. “Might as well lash all the stuff together, lads. The bigger the raft, the safer it will be for all of us. I’d help, but I can’t do nothing with this busted leg.”
Both of the boys saw the ropes he mentioned, and set to work as best they could to lash the two bits of wreckage together. This task took them almost half an hour, and by that time they were gratified to see that dawn was almost at hand and that soon the sun would be showing itself over the eastern rim of the ocean.
“I wish it was daylight,” sighed Fred.
“So do I,” answered the young major.
“Even if a ship was near by we’d be unable to see it in this darkness.”
“How do you feel, Fred, worn out?”
“Yes. But that isn’t the worst of it, Jack. I can’t get the others out of my mind.”
“Neither can I. If only—— Oh!”
The talk came to a sudden end as some more wreckage hit them. All were on their guard, not wishing to be flung overboard. But presently the other wreckage slid away in the darkness, much to their relief.
With the coming of daylight the wind seemed to go down a little. But the waves were as high as ever, and every few minutes those on the wreckage found themselves covered with the flying spray.
On the second bit of wreckage the boys had found two blankets, and these they placed under the lanky sailor, so that he might rest more comfortably. Then Jack made an examination of the hurt leg.
“It doesn’t seem to be broken to me,” he said. “But it’s certainly horribly bruised. You’ll have to be very careful of it.”
“Well, I’ll be thankful if it ain’t broke,” was the reply. “But it certainly hurts an awful lot. Wish I had a drink of water.”
“I’d like a drink myself,” said Fred. “But we haven’t got any water, so what’s the use of thinking about it?”
“It’s a pity we didn’t think to save a little of the water while it was rainin’, lad. Even a mouthful or two might mean a whole lot to us later on.”
As the sun came up over the eastern ocean, the boys gazed eagerly in all directions. Here and there they could see bits of wreckage—boxes, barrels, floating spars, and what looked to be the bow of a fair-sized schooner.
“Some vessel has certainly gone to pieces, and not very long ago, either,” remarked Jack. “But I don’t see anything that looks like a human being; do you, Fred?”
“I see something!” cried his cousin, excitedly. “Look over there, Jack! What is that?”
The young major looked in the direction indicated, and then drew a sharp breath.
“Why, it’s somebody on some wreckage!” he exclaimed. “And they are signaling to us!”