“‘If the wind holds, I can keep her on her course until the engines start. That should be enough for you.’
“‘Certainly,’ said the miner. ‘If you’d found the contract too big, we’d have found you boys to help with the shaft or get sail on her. Anyway, if you want them later, you can let me know.’ Then he went out and the skipper drained his glass. It was a thing he did too often.”
“But could the miner have done what he promised?” Ruth interrupted.
“It’s very likely. In fact, I think if we had wanted a doctor, an architect, or even a clergyman, we could have found one among the crowd on board. The fellow certainly found two or three mechanics, and once I crawled into the shaft tunnel to watch them at work. As it was impossible to get the damaged length out, they worked at it in place, crouching awkwardly in an iron tube about four feet wide while they cut slots in the iron. There was hardly room to use the hammer and hold the chisel; black oil washed about the tunnel mixed with salt-water that had come in through a strained gland. Open lamps smoked and flickered close above their heads as she rolled and the air was foul; but they kept it up in turns with the ship’s engineers for several days while the weather got worse and the boat lurched along before an angry sea with her canvas set. The decks were wet because the big rollers that came up astern splashed in across her rail. It was bitterly cold and a gray haze shut in the horizon. As the captain could get no sights, he had to make his course by dead reckoning, which is seldom accurate.”
“You must have felt anxious with all your gold on board,” Ruth said.
“No,” replied Osborne, with a moment’s hesitation, which she missed. “Clay had insured the vessel and his shipments by her on a kind of floating policy. I believe he had some trouble to effect it, but he managed to get the thing arranged through a broker with whom he had a little influence.”
“Clay seems to have a good deal of influence,” Ruth thoughtfully remarked. “How does he get it?”
“It’s a gift of his,” Osborne answered, with a curious smile. “However, to go back to my tale, I knew the gold was insured, because, as joint owner, I had to sign a declaration about its value, which would go by another vessel with the bill of lading. To tell the truth, I was getting more anxious about my personal safety, for the cold and mist and wild weather were wearing on the nerves. At last, the gale blew itself out; but the haze got thicker as the sea began to fall; and one night I was awakened by a shock that threw me out of my berth. As I got a few clothes on I felt her strike again, and when I ran out on the deck, half dressed, it was clear that she had made her last voyage. She lay, canted over, across the sea, with her after-part sinking and the long swell which still ran breaking over her. You could see the smooth slopes of water roll out of the dark and melt into foam that covered half the deck, while the planking crushed in with a horrible sound as the reef ground through her bilge. There was, however, no panic. The miners quietly helped to swing the boats out; and, seeing that she was holding together, I went with Clay and two seamen to open the strong-room. It was reached through a trap in the cabin floor, but some beams in breaking had jambed this fast, and we attacked the deck with bars and axes.
“It was sharply slanted, the poop heaved and worked as the swell roared about it, and a big lamp that still burned hung at an extraordinary angle with the bulkhead. I remember that a maple sideboard which had wrenched itself away and slipped down to leeward, lay, smashed to pieces, in a pool of water; but there was no time to lose in looking about. We all worked well, but Clay did more than any of us. He was half dressed, his face was savage and dripping with sweat, and he swung his ax in a fury, regardless of the rest. In fact, his mood puzzled me afterward.”
“But his gold was below!” said Ruth.