To this expected obstacle was added another that was unexpected. In more than one instance they found that their morning route, as shown by their blazed marks, was absolutely impracticable. The ships had moved, slightly perhaps, but yet enough to bar their passage, ten feet of water being often as impassable as ten hundred. Howard struck his brow with his hand when he realized this.
“I was a fool not to foresee this!” he exclaimed. “Of course, these ships are not absolutely stationary. Even far inside they must be somewhat subject to currents and to winds, and must move slightly, while here, on the outskirts, they must move considerably. As a matter of fact, the whole mass must be swinging around and around in a vast circle, moved by the same current that brought them here in the first place. Well, we must simply abandon our blazes, and go home by the flags and the smoke.”
Jackson peered into the distance. “I can’t see no flags,” he objected.
“Can’t you? I can, but they are undoubtedly hard to make out in this mass of frayed cordage and flapping streamers. However, we can see the smoke clearly enough, and must set our course by it.”
Ten minutes later the first accident of the day occurred. In stepping from one ship to another, Jackson missed his footing, caught wildly at a ratline, which broke in his grasp, and shot downward with a yell into the water.
By the time he had risen to the surface, Howard, who had been a little in advance, was back, peering down at him.
“Can you climb out?” he demanded. “No! I guess you can’t without help. Hook your fingers into that port-hole—there, just behind you. That’s right! Can you hang on for a while? It may take some time to find a rope sound enough to bear your weight.”
Jackson clawed the weed from off his face. “Yes! I can hang on all right,” he returned, savagely. Evidently his involuntary bath had ruffled his temper. “I can swim, too,” he added.
Howard disappeared, and the policeman settled himself to wait. He had learned to swim in the North River, and had no difficulty in keeping afloat, even without the adventitious aid of the bull’s-eye in the steamer’s side just above him. If he had fallen in almost anywhere else he could have gotten out himself, but, as it chanced, this particular bit of water was shut in by the sides of three ships, none of which offered a foothold by which to climb. The bull’s-eye by which he hung was the only orifice that broke the smoothness of the overhanging sides.
Time passed, however, and Howard did not return, and a vague uneasiness began to work in the policeman’s mind. There were ropes everywhere. Surely, it did not take so long to find one. He called, but received no answer. Could Howard have lost the place? Or could some accident have befallen him? Or, could—good God! Did the man mean to leave him to drown?