During the period that Newell had been in such imminent peril, the persons on the wreck had been wholly forgotten. Major Gordon was the first to remember the sufferers. Looking up, he saw that the companion of the ladies had left their side, and was slowly working his way out on the bowsprit, which impended far over the boiling surge. At the same moment, Mullen also raised his eyes.
“Does he mean to leave the wimmen?” he said, indignantly.
“I think not,” answered Major Gordon. “He could scarcely be such a craven.”
“And yet,” musingly returned Mullen, “it’s only throwing away another life if he stays. He can’t save the wimmen; yet,” he added, dubiously, “perhaps he might save himself.”
Major Gordon, however, could not thus excuse the desertion. He made no reply, therefore, to Mullen.
“The ship seems to be breaking up,” remarked Mullen, “which, I take it, is the reason of that fellow’s hurry. The wind, since the vessel came ashore, has hauled towards sou’east, and the waves, as you see, instead of striking her plump aft, rush quartering over her sides. They begin to reach the place where the wimmen have sheltered themselves, and will wash it, every other surge, before long. No timber can stand such tremendous racking, and you’ll see the craft split in two directly. But what can’t be cured,” he added, with homely philosophy, “must be endured. I feared this, when you wanted to come, for I don’t like to see such sights; but we can’t do ‘em any good; and they’re not the first, you know, that have died in this way. If your plan could have been carried out, we might have got ‘em off safely; and it’s a pity, for it was a good notion, that of yourn.”
To much of this, however, Major Gordon had not even listened. He had been intently watching the proceedings of Captain Powell.
“Ha!” cried the Major, now, “I thought the man could not be such a villain. He’ll try to swim ashore with a rope. He has taken the hint from us.”
As Major Gordon said, Captain Powell, divining the plan of those on shore, had resolved to attempt reaching shore with a line, when he saw Newell’s failure. Accordingly he had crept forward to the bow of the ship, where hastily fastening a light rope to a cable, and arranging both so that they would run out freely, he dropped himself into the sea, from the end of the bowsprit, just as the Major spoke his last words. “Well, he’s a ten-spot anyhow,” said Mullen, taking a figure from his favorite game of cards. “See, he comes to the surface. He strikes out bravely. As you say, Major, he’ll maybe do it, for he has the current to help him. But if he fails, there’ll not be a bit of hope left for those behind. Look how they watch him. The young one has actually clambered up the starboard bulwark, and is looking over to see him, and the old one’s praying.”
Kate, as the speaker said, was leaning over the side of the ship, at no little peril to herself, in order to watch the progress of Captain Powell. She it was who had first unriddled what seemed to the captain the unaccountable movements of those on shore, her fertile intellect having suggested the possibility of the proposed mode of rescue, and mentioned it to her companions. It may be supposed that she watched with intense interest the gallant effort of the young swimmer to reach them. When that attempt failed, she had resigned herself to death, until Captain Powell declared his intention of making an endeavor to carry a line ashore himself.