“I’ll tell you, lad. I’ll tell you, only I have to do it in my own way,” said the sailor, and Jerry made his stout chum a sign not to interrupt if he could help it. That would be so much time gained.
The man told, as briefly as he could, how they had sailed from Germany, and had had, until near the close of the voyage, fine weather. Mr. Sheldon and his daughter, Grace, were among the passengers, and the sailor, who gave his name as Jacob Denton, came to know Bob’s uncle quite well, from having rendered him a slight service.
Then one day there had been a fire drill, and the sailor, through some mistake, had been in danger of severe injury by the slipping of a rope. Mr. Sheldon, who was standing near him, acted promptly, and saved him. This made Jacob Denton very grateful, and it was no wonder that he regretted the rather surly way in which he had greeted Bob and his chums.
“But I thought you had come to take away my right to salvage,” said the sailor. “You know, if a vessel is deserted, and someone picks it up at sea, or if he stays aboard, and brings her to port, he is entitled to salvage—that’s a certain percentage of her value and the value of the cargo. If I get mine I’ll never go to sea again.”
“Then I hope you get it,” said Jerry. “But what happened to Mr. Sheldon and his daughter?”
“I’ll tell you,” resumed the sailor. “As I said, we had good weather, and it looked as though we would make port without a hitch. Then came the storm, and everything went wrong.
“For a while our captain held on, and then, when the wind got worse, we plunged and pitched about until there was almost a panic among the passengers. Of course it was a bad storm, but I’ve seen worse, and I didn’t mind it so much.
“Then came a report that we were sinking, and a cry to man the small boats. Some water did come into the engine room, when the ship started some of her plates, but the bulkhead doors were closed and there wasn’t really much danger. But you know how it is when you’re at sea in a storm. It doesn’t take much water inside a ship to scare the passengers, and sometimes the crew, too.
“Things went from bad to worse. Then it really came on to blow hard, and the captain didn’t know what to do. He saw it would be risky to launch the small boats, but more water came in, and the passengers fairly demanded to be set adrift. So the captain had nothing else to do.
“Some of our small boats were smashed, but we managed to get the others over the side—them and some life rafts, and everyone but I took to them—the captain and crew as well as the passengers.”