CHAPTER IX.
ADRIFT IN THE PACIFIC.
But hardly had Dayton started on the errand which would have spelled disaster to the hopes of Nat and his friend when something happened that, for the time being at least, put all other thoughts out of their heads.
There was a sharp warning shout from forward, followed by a splitting, tearing sound.
The schooner heeled sharply, throwing Nat the length of the boat in which he was concealed. A sharp puff of wind—hot as if from an opened oven door—swept over the sea and passed on. It left the air motionless as before, but it had stripped the schooner of her headsails as Nat could make out by the shouts and cries on her decks.
Utterly forgetting his duty in the emergency—indeed in the dead calm which had followed he was not of any particular use at the wheel—the helmsman followed Colonel Morello and Dayton as they bounded forward.
The moment to act had arrived. Rapidly Nat cast off the falls, belaying them around a cleat. Then he paid out on them and the boat dropped rapidly and noiselessly to the water. A moment later Captain Nelsen, who had been on the lookout, reached out for the dangling rope to the end of which the sapphire chest was attached. He caught it and slid into the boat with the dexterity of a seaman.
"Great Bull Whales, lad," he exclaimed as he landed in the little craft, "voss vos keeping you such a dime? You haf hadt me scared by mein death aind't idt. I dought me sure dot dey had caught you."
"What kept me, captain?" repeated Nat, in a breathless voice. "Just this."
He indicated the sapphire chest dangling just above them.