“Now, what would the blagguard be most likely to do when he had safely launched his raft? He knew that it would go skimming away to leeward, taking us with it; and I therefore think it most probable that he would tack at once, going off in this direction,” laying down a line upon the paper. “Meanwhile, the raft went scudding away to leeward until we met it there,” making another dot. “Then we tacked, and, laying a point higher than he can, stood along this line,” ruling one carefully in as he spoke. “Now, we have been travelling along this line, say an hour and a quarter, which brings us here. But where is the barque? If she had tacked, and continued to stand on until now, she would be there, eleven or twelve miles away, and we should see her. Supposing, however, that she continued to stand on as she was going when we last saw her, she would now be there, twenty-eight miles away! Phew! I was a long way out of my reckoning when I thought that we should still have her in sight, even if we tacked. We’ve lost her, Harry, my bhoy, and that’s a fact. However, we know where she’s bound to, and that’s the island of Cuba, or I’m a Dutchman. Very well. Having given us the slip she will make the best of her way there without further delay; and it is my opinion that if she is still standing to the northward she will not continue to do so for very much longer, because, d’ye see, my bhoy, she’ll be afraid of falling in with some of our cruisers if she stands in too close to the coast. Therefore, as we can hug the wind closer than she can, we’ll just stand on as we are going for a day or two longer, or until the wind changes—in fact, we will shape a course for Cuba—and if we don’t fall in with her again within the next seventy-two hours I shall give her up. Meanwhile the wind is dropping fast, so we will get some more muslin upon the little hooker.”
As Ryan had said, the wind was dropping fast, so rapidly, indeed, that when eight bells was struck at midnight the schooner was under all the canvas that we could set, and even then was only creeping along at a speed of some two and a half knots per hour. Oh, how fervently we wished then that we could see even as much as the mere mastheads of the barque! for we felt certain that in such a light air the schooner would make short work of overtaking her. But nothing hove in sight; and when the next morning dawned we were still alone upon the face of the vast ocean.
With the rising of the sun the small draught of air that still remained to us fell dead; and we had it calm the whole day and well on into the succeeding night. Then the weather became unsettled and thundery, with light baffling airs interspersed with fierce squalls from all quarters of the compass, during which we made scarcely sixty miles in the twenty-four hours.
It was about midnight of the third day after we had lost sight of the barque, and the seventy-two hours that Ryan had allowed himself in which to find her again were fully spent, without affording us another glimpse of her. All hands, from Ryan himself down to the smallest boy in the ship, were dreadfully disgusted and crestfallen at our want of success; and we were only waiting for a breeze to spring up from somewhere to enable us to shape a course back to our cruising ground. The weather, however, was still very overcast and lowering, with signs not wanting that another heavy thunderstorm was brewing, which would probably bring us the desired breeze. There was not much swell running, but sufficient, nevertheless, to tumble the schooner about a good deal; and I had accordingly taken it upon myself to clew up, haul down, and furl every stitch of canvas, in order to save the sails from battering themselves to rags. The thunder had been gradually working up ever since sunset, and in fact even before that, and when eight bells struck at midnight, and my watch below came round, the weather had such a curious and portentous look, and the atmosphere was moreover so close and heavy, that I determined to stretch myself out “all standing” on the stern grating instead of going below, so that I might be all ready in case my presence should be required.
It was shortly after two bells when Pierrepoint came and roused me out with the remark—
“I am sorry to disturb you, Dugdale, but I think it is going to rain very shortly, and if you remain there you stand a very good chance of getting soaked to the skin. And what do you think of the weather? Is it merely a thunder-squall that has been brewing all this time, or what is it? Just look at those clouds overhead, their edges look quite red, as though there was a fire somewhere behind them. Do you think I should call the captain?”
It was as he had said. The sky was banked up from horizon to zenith, all round, with enormous cloud-piles, black as ink in the body of them, but their fringes or edges, which had a curiously tattered appearance, were of a distinct fiery red hue. All this time there was not a breath of wind save what was created by the schooner as she rolled heavily on the gathering swell; not a sound save those which arose within her as the bulkheads and timbers creaked and groaned dismally, the cabin-doors rattled, the rudder kicked as the water swirled and gurgled about it and under her counter with the heave of her, and the jerk of the spars aloft, or the slatting of the braces as she swayed, pendulum-like, from side to side.
“What does the glass say?” inquired I, in response to Pierrepoint’s last question. I walked to the open skylight and peered down through it at the barometer, the tube of which was just sufficiently illuminated by the turned-down cabin lamp to permit of its condition being noted. It had fallen an inch since I last looked at it, during my watch on deck!
“Phew!” ejaculated I, “there must surely be something the matter with the thing; it can never have fallen that much in scarcely two hours!”
I hurried below and, turning up the lamp, subjected the instrument to a careful examination; but, as far as I could make out, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it; the fall had all the appearance of being perfectly genuine. But, whether or not, it was certain that the captain ought at once to be made acquainted with the state of affairs; I therefore went forthwith to his cabin and aroused him.