[CHAPTER IX]
TOM GOES OVERBOARD
“Stand by to lower the boats! Order all hands on deck! Women and children first!”
Captain Steerit was yelling these commands through a megaphone to his crew, even while he turned to order the first mate, on the bridge with him, to go below to the engine room, and see what damage had been done.
The Silver Star, after the first staggering blow, had come to a stop, and lay pitching and tossing on the waves. Clearly her engines were motionless, for Tom missed the vibration that had told of their ceaseless revolutions.
“Something bad has happened,” reflected our hero. “I’ve got to be on the lookout.”
He glanced over the rail, and could see nothing but the black, rushing waves. He had half a mind to go back to his cabin, and see if he could not crowd some of his belongings into a valise.
“If we’ve got to take to the boats,” he reflected, “there are not so many of us but what we can each take a little baggage. I’ll need some other clothing if we come out of this safely. I’ll take a chance.”
He was about to go below when he once more felt the throb of the engines, and the ship quivered.
“We’re under way again,” he said, half aloud. “I guess it’s all right. We may have hit a floating spar, or something like that. And yet, from the way the lookout yelled, it seemed to be more dangerous than that. I guess it’s all right, though.”
But the order to stand by to lower the boats had not been recalled, and already the sailors were swarming about them, seeing that the falls were clear, and that food and water were on board the small craft.