CHAPTER XXVII
THE DERELICT
The wind freshened after they reached shelter and it blew very hard. For a time Frank found sleep impossible, though he was glad to lie snug in the warm cabin with the lamp burning above him and the stove snapping cheerfully. The sloop lurched and rocked, drawing her chain tight now and then with a bang, while a muffled uproar went on outside her. Frank could distinguish the angry splash of water upon her bows and the drumming and rapping of loose ropes against the mast, though these sounds were partly drowned by the furious clamor of the ground sea beyond the point and a great deep-toned roaring made, he supposed, by long ranks of thrashing trees. Once or twice, when Jake, who crawled out to see if the anchor was holding, left the slide open, the sound filled the cabin with tremendous pulsating harmonies.
Besides this, the boy's face smarted after the lashing of icy spray, and he wondered whether Mr. Barclay's plans were working out successfully and what fresh adventures awaited Harry and himself on the morrow, all of which was sufficient to keep him in a state of restless expectation. He envied his companion who presently went to sleep, but it was toward morning when at last his own eyelids closed and he got a few snatches of fitful slumber broken by fantastic dreams. He was awakened by a chill upon his face, and looking around saw that Jake had gone out again into the well. The roar of the wind did not seem so overwhelming as it had been, though there was no doubt that it was still blowing hard. By and by Jake called out.
"You'd better get up," he said. "I've a notion that there's somebody hailing us."
Frank crawled out shivering, with Harry grumbling half asleep behind him, and when he stood in the well found he could see a hazy loom of trees across the little white waves that came splashing toward the boat. They made a sharp, rippling sound, pitched in a different tone from the din that rose all around. The latter swelled and sank, and he was slightly surprised when he was able to hear what seemed to be a faint shout. It rose again more clearly, and there was no longer any doubt that somebody on the beach was hailing them.
"Can we get ashore?" he asked.
"You'll have to try," said Jake. "The man's to windward of us, and it will be a stiff paddle, but if you can't manage it you'll blow across to the beach on the other side of the inlet safe enough and he may be able to get round to you. Anyway, I don't want to leave the sloop. She'd have picked up her anchor once or twice if I hadn't given her more cable."
"What time is it?" Harry inquired.
"About seven o'clock," Jake answered. "We'll have daylight soon after you're back."