Dick Leslie's Luck: A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure

by Harry Collingwood

He calculated that the canoe had secured a fifteen miles’ start of him, and, estimating as nearly as he could her speed from the glimpse that he had caught of her as she skimmed past the reef earlier on in the day, he doubted very much whether the speed of the catamaran exceeded that of the canoe by more than a couple of miles in the hour, to which might be added or subtracted a trifle according to the relative merits of the respective helmsmen. Knowing that in a stern-chase every trifle tells, Leslie steered as carefully as he knew how, and as one of the catamaran’s merits happened to be that she would steer almost as well off the wind as she would on a taut bowline, he hoped that through this he might be able to gain a little extra advantage. Furthermore, he had a compass—which it was reasonable to suppose that the savages lacked—and that ought to prove a further help to him.

Being now, as he believed, fairly upon the track of the fleeing canoe, and having eaten nothing since breakfast, Leslie deemed the moment a fitting one wherein to snatch a meal; and this he did, steering with one hand and feeding himself with the other as he alternately eyed the compass and looked ahead on the watch for the first glimpse of the canoe’s triangular sail, although he knew full well that several hours must elapse ere he might hope for that. And, meanwhile, what agonies of terror and despair would not that highly strung and gently nurtured girl be suffering! At the mere thought Dick set his teeth and carefully scrutinised the set of his canvas—already trimmed to a hair—to see if there was anything he could do to get a little extra speed out of his flying craft.

Meanwhile the sun slowly declined in the western sky, and finally sank, in a blaze of purple and crimson and gold, beneath the horizon; the glowing tints quickly faded to a dull purplish grey, a star suddenly glittered in the eastern sky, and was quickly followed by another and another, and two or three more, until the entire dome of heaven was spangled with them, and night was upon the solitary voyager. Dick lit the lantern that he had brought with him, and so arranged it that its light should fall upon the compass card, lit his pipe, and set himself to the task of endeavouring to work out a scheme for the recovery of his sweetheart without injury to her or—what was of almost as much importance, so far as her ultimate safety was concerned—himself.

It was a fortunate conjunction of circumstances that the savages had chosen—doubtless for their own convenience—the time of full moon for their raid, and night had scarcely fallen ere a brightening of the sky in the eastern quarter proclaimed the advent of the “sweet regent of the night.” Leslie’s island lay full in the wake of the rising orb; and for nearly half an hour the catamaran scudded along within the shadow of the peak, which stretched dark and clear-cut far over the ocean ahead of her. Little by little the shadow shortened, however, and by-and-by the catamaran slid over the edge of it as the gleaming disc emerged from behind the northern edge of the peak, and flooded the whole of the sea to the eastward with dancing streaks of glittering liquid silver.

It was about a quarter of an hour later that, as the catamaran rose upon the back of a somewhat higher swell than usual, Leslie’s quick eye caught a momentary glimpse of a tiny white gleaming point straight ahead; and his heart leaped with joy, for he knew that what he had seen was the upper tip of the canoe’s triangular sail. Greedily he watched for its next appearance, rejoicing meanwhile in the knowledge that the shadowed sides of his own sails were turned toward the flying canoe, and that behind them again loomed up the dark background of the peak; it would consequently need very sharp eyes—even though they should be those of a savage—to descry them.

For twenty minutes or so following upon the first sighting of the chase Leslie was able to catch only brief intermittent glimpses of the sail, as one or the other of the flying craft was swept up on the crest of a swell, but by the end of that time he had so far gained upon the canoe that even when they both sank into the trough together he was still able to see the upper part of the sail, while when both lifted simultaneously he could see the whole of it, right down to the foot, and even occasionally a glimpse of the heads of the savages; he estimated, therefore, that he had closed the chase to within a distance of about a mile.

Another quarter of an hour passed, at the expiration of which the canoe was in full view, and Leslie now took the two repeating rifles with which he had provided himself, and carefully loaded them both. But he had no intention of opening fire at long range, the motion of both craft was so lively that in the uncertain light of the moon accurate shooting would only be possible at a range of about a hundred yards, or less, and he was so fearful of the possibility of injury to Flora that he was quite determined not to shoot until he could make absolutely sure of his mark.

And now he suddenly became aware that he was no longer gaining nearly as rapidly as before upon the chase; indeed there were moments when he doubted whether he was gaining at all. For a few minutes he was puzzled how to account for this—for the breeze was still as fresh as ever, indeed he was rather inclined to believe that, if anything, it was slightly freshening—but presently, as he watched the canoe, he detected a kind of rhythmical glinting appearance on each side of her; and then the explanation occurred to him. His presence, and the fact that he was in pursuit, had at last been discovered by the savages, and they were now endeavouring to increase their speed by paddling. “Well,” thought Dick, grimly, “let them paddle, if they will; at the speed at which that canoe is travelling they will be obliged to expend a great deal of strength to perceptibly increase it, and they must tire sooner or later. They may succeed in prolonging the chase somewhat, but I shall catch them, all the same.”

But now a new cause for anxiety on Dick’s part arose, for presently—whether in consequence of some subtle clearing of the atmosphere, or because of the gradual change of the moon’s position in the heavens—the island that Dick knew lay somewhere ahead, and for which the canoe was obviously steering, suddenly loomed up ahead with such startling distinctness that Leslie feared that they must be very much nearer to it than was actually the case; and as the time sped on without bringing him very appreciably nearer to the chase, he became haunted by a dread lest the fleeing savages should after all reach the shore and gain the assistance of their friends before he could overtake them.

At length, however, he found that he was once more creeping up to the canoe, despite the fact that her occupants were still paddling apparently as vigorously as ever; it was obvious that, notwithstanding appearances, their long spell of exceptional exertion was telling upon them, and, consciously or unconsciously, they were gradually relaxing their efforts. Slowly, and foot by foot, the catamaran crept up; and at length Dick was convinced that not more than a bare quarter of a mile separated the two craft. Then an idea suddenly occurred to him: although he was still too distant to be at all willing to hazard a shot at the occupants of the canoe, there was no particular reason why he should not fire at the sail; he had with him an ample supply of ammunition, and a few lucky shots through it might cause the sail to split; nay, there was even the possibility that he might succeed in bringing it down altogether. Accordingly, planting himself firmly on the deck to leeward of the tiller, with the latter just pressing sufficiently against his left hip to keep the catamaran going straight and prevent her from broaching-to, he took one of the rifles in his hand, and, determining to devote himself entirely to the effort to bring down the sail, sighted the weapon to four hundred yards, raised it to his shoulder, and aiming carefully at the mast of the canoe, waited until he had got both sights dead on it, when he instantly pressed the trigger. He was still too far distant to be able to see the result of the shot, but he was inclined to believe that he had scored a hit somewhere, for he distinctly heard a loud shout that seemed to carry in it a note of alarm. Again, patiently waiting his chance, he fired; and this time he really fancied he saw some chips fly from the mast, close to the sling of the yard, at which point he was persistently aiming. Encouraged by this possible success, and still more by the fact that he was now distinctly overhauling the canoe, Leslie maintained a slow, careful, and deliberate fire upon her, always aiming for the same spot; and at length, at about the ninth shot, down dropped the yard into the canoe, to his mingled surprise and gratification, the fall of the sail eliciting a tremendous hullabaloo from the excited and astonished savages.