“We have already lost five hours,” he remarked. “Start her off, she is well built, a little wind won’t hurt her. I am in a hurry with that war freight.”
Lake Pepin is only a widened Mississippi. On account of long bars of silt and sand which the Chippewa River has thrown across the Mississippi, the river has backed up till it fills the whole valley, two miles wide, and twenty miles long. On this long, deep body of water, the wind and waves attain a terrific sweep, and many a boat, safe enough on the river, has met disaster on Lake Pepin.
While the Red Hawk was lying at Lake City, a strong wind had been blowing from the south toward great masses of clouds that were rising in the north. When she headed down the lake the wind died down, but half an hour later it broke with a gale from the north, carrying before it whirling clouds and sheets of swishing rain that hid from view the high bluffs on either side.
Almost at once, as if by the magic of a demon, the lake was in an uproar with a smashing sea of foaming, toppling white-capped waves, which together with the raging wind, threatened to throw the Red Hawk out of her course into the trough of the waves.
The pilot strained every nerve and muscle to keep her headed toward the foot of the lake. He signalled to the engineer for full steam ahead, because a boat at high speed is more easily steered than one at low speed.
For a while, all went well. Then a sharp snap was heard at the engine. The wheel stopped turning at once, and the boat swung helpless into the trough of the sea, while big splashing waves began to break over the low sides of the vessel and into the hold.
“The Wakon, the bad spirit, will swallow the ship,” Tatanka murmured. “We must all try to swim ashore.”
One of the piston-rods had broken and one engine alone could not turn the big stem-wheel, but Captain Allen did not mean to give up his boat without a fight. In five minutes the carpenters were at work spiking together two long wide planks. A heavy rope, twice as long as the planks, was tied to each end of the planks. To the middle of this rope the ship’s hawser was fastened, and the sea anchor was ready.
“Heave her over,” commanded the captain, and within a few minutes the boat swung around with her bow to the wind.
It was high time. For the waves had put out the fires, and the pumps had stopped working.