“And which way is it coming?”
“Toward the southeast.”
“Then if you bore away to the southwest you would escape, of course?”
“No, sir; I should probably insure my destruction, for I should sail straight into the vortex. A northeasterly course would soon take me out of danger.”
“Yes, you would get out of danger that way, but how soon I don’t know. The paths of some of these hurricanes are a thousand miles broad. You’ll do, however, and you are a very good boy to learn your lesson so well.”
“Shall I go to the head?” asked Frank, with a laugh.
The last time we saw the members of the Sportsman’s Club, they had just found Frank Nelson after a long separation from him. Their vessel was lying in the harbor of Honolulu; Captain Barclay, the wounded commander of the whaler, had been taken to a hospital on shore; his ship, the Tycoon, had passed through the hands of the American consul, who placed a new captain aboard of her with orders to take her to the States, where she belonged; and for the first time in long weeks the Club were free from excitement, and had leisure to sit down and calmly talk over the adventures that had befallen them, and the exploits they had performed since leaving home.
They had many things to converse about, as we know, and some of their number had reason to feel elated over what they had done. Walter had been a hero for once in his life, for had he not been captured by robbers, who believed him to be somebody else, been confined in Potter’s ranche, and held as a hostage for the chief of the band who was a prisoner in the fort? That was the worst predicament that Walter had ever been in, and it was no wonder that there was a warm place in his heart for Dick Lewis and Bob Kelly, the men who had rescued him from his perilous situation.
Archie Winters was also a hero, for he had lassoed and ridden the wild horse which had so long defied all efforts to capture him, and would in all probability have given him, in a few days more, into the possession of his lawful owner, Colonel Gaylord, had not he and his two friends, Fred and Eugene, unfortunately stumbled upon Zack and Silas, the trappers who robbed the emigrant. One thing made Archie hug himself with delight every time he thought of the various exciting incidents that happened while he remained in the trappers’ company, and that was, that Zack and Silas did not get the million dollars after all. He laughed outright when he remembered how astounded and enraged they were to find that the box, which they supposed was filled with nuggets and gold-dust, contained nothing but a small brass machine something like the works of a clock. Archie wondered what had become of the hospitable Pike, and whether or not he had succeeded in putting his machine together again, and running his quartz mill with it.
But while the members of the Club gave to Walter and Archie all the credit which their adventures and achievements demanded, they were unanimous in according the lion’s share of praise to Frank Nelson, who had brought himself safely out of a predicament, the like of which the boys had never heard of before. It seemed almost impossible that one who had been “shanghaied” and thrust into the forecastle of a whale-ship to do duty as a common sailor, should, in so short a time and by sheer force of character, have worked his way to the quarter-deck, and into a position for which only men of years and experience are thought to be qualified. But they had abundant evidence that such was the fact. There was a witness in the person of the trapper, who was kidnapped at the same time, and who had escaped in a manner so remarkable that even Uncle Dick, who had seen a world of marvellous things, said the same feat could not be performed again under like circumstances. Besides, the boys had seen Frank on the Tycoon’s quarter-deck, had heard him give orders that were promptly obeyed, had messed with him in his cabin, and he had brought them safely into the harbor of Honolulu, beating the swift little Stranger out of sight on the way.