Guy sprang forward with a score of other men to seize the raft and drag it farther up on the “beach;” but, as he did so, a thrill of astonishment electrified his numb physique.
That voice! Surely it was the “squeaky-roar” of the London “fog pirate.” But it was not so much the voice as the identity of its possessor that astonished the boy. The man who shouted the warning stood only a few feet away from Guy and the latter recognized him.
It was Gunseyt.
CHAPTER XV
Captain Walter
Few moments in any boy’s career have been more dreadfully thrilling than those immediately following Walter’s catching of the first distress message from the Herculanea. That there had been a terrible accident could not be doubted. The first three letters of the message were well-known “S. O. S.” Then followed a rapid succession of short sentences, relating what had occurred and giving the location of the wrecked steamer.
Walter sat at the table in the deck house of the Jetta listening to the messages almost as rigidly as if he himself had been immersed into an icy bath and frozen stiff. Not a letter escaped him. No operator, however skillful, could have dot-and-dashed too rapidly for him now. Every nerve, every fiber in his body was at its highest tension, and almost the only cause that could have stolen a word from his listening ears was the snapping of a vital cord.
Anxiety for the safety of his mother and Guy was the zero temperature that held him frozen to his chair and to the receivers. As the appeals and the crisp, snappy descriptions of what had happened came to him, he pictured the scene rapidly, instinctively, vividly. He saw his mother and brother on a deck of the steamer, nervously awaiting their fate in the decision of events. He heard them speak to each other, uttering words of cheer and fondly remarking about folks at home. He saw the ship sink lower and lower and the lifeboats descending from the davits.
Of course they were safe unless the sea were too rough for small boats. And such danger was improbable, for the operator had said nothing about it in his calls for help. He had said that it was cold, but this was all the information he had given regarding the weather. Guy saw the passengers getting into the boats, and then an awful possibility occurred to him.
Suppose there were not enough boats for all!
The Herculanea was one of the largest steamers in the world and carried enough passengers to populate a small city. It would require many boats to accommodate all these. Walter was somewhat reassured when he recalled that the Titanic disaster had waked up the leading nations of the world to the necessity of ample lifesaving facilities on all seagoing vessels, but he could not quite dismiss his fears in this regard.