"I had just braced myself between the foremast and the edge of a bunk, and was reaching for the coffee, when the vessel seemed to give a great leap in the air. When she dropped it was on her beam ends, and I could feel her settling down. The cook got out someway, how I don’t know; but Dick was met by the water pouring in the companion-way. He pulled the slide to keep it out, thinking she’d right in a minute if she didn’t fill first.
"At the first shock I was so braced that, lying on my back as I was, I couldn’t move, and when I did get right side up, there we were, Dick and I, shut up like two rats in a trap, and the schooner was bottom side up.
"Dick stood it as long as he could, which I suppose was some time the next day. By then it had got so quiet overhead that we judged the storm had gone down. At the same time we knew our air must be escaping, for we could feel the water slowly but surely rising in the forecastle. The rats were becoming troublesome, too, and swarming over us. Though we couldn’t see them, we managed to catch and drown quite a number of them.
"At last Dick said he couldn’t die but once anyhow, and that he was going to make a try for one more breath of fresh air and one more sight of God’s blessed daylight. He succeeded in smashing off the companion-way slide, and a faint light came in through the water, so we knew it was day. I didn’t remember till afterwards that it was Christmas-day, and I’m glad I didn’t.
"Dick’s plan was to dive through the opening with the hope that he’d clear the rigging and sails underneath it some way or another. I tried to dissuade him from trying it, and pointed out how slim his chance was; but he was bound to go. He said it was better to drown at once and have it over with than to stay in there and meet a slow death along with the rats. He stripped off his clothes so as to have a better chance of swimming, wrung my hand, and said, ‘Good-by, skipper. If I get out, you’ll hear me pounding. If you don’t hear anything you’ll know what’s happened.’ Then he drew in a long breath, and made a dive for the hole. He got through it, I know, for I saw the ray of light darken and then come again; but I didn’t hear a sound from him afterwards, though I listened for more than an hour.
“But hello, boys! here comes a puff of wind and there’s more behind it. If you and Nimbus can manage to get some sail on the old craft we will make a start for home, and I’ll spin you the rest of my yarn some other time.”
CHAPTER XVI.
NAVIGATING THE BRIG.
The brigantine, on which our dorymates now found themselves shipped as able seamen under the command of Captain McCloud, had been almost left to herself for nearly two weeks, during which time the current of the Gulf Stream had carried her far to the northward of her course. No observations had been taken on board in all this time, and the dense fog, through which the vessel had been drifting for the past four days, would have effectually prevented this work even had Captain McCloud been strong enough to perform it. He was therefore not surprised to learn from the boys that he was now on the Grand Bank, but he determined to try and take an observation at noon that day, and discover their exact position.
The promise of wind that interrupted the captain’s story was fulfilled by a steady breeze from the southward, which, as their general course was westerly, was favorable and satisfactory. While the captain took the wheel, Nimbus and the boys hoisted the jib, got the foresail loosed and sheeted home, shook the reefs out of the fore-topsail, swayed up the heavy yard by means of a winch, and set the royal. They got one reef out of the main-sail without much trouble, but when it came to the second they found it so difficult to hoist the great folds of heavy canvas and its weighty spar that the boys became wholly exhausted with their efforts, and even the enormous strength of Nimbus was exerted to its utmost. After bracing the yards, trimming the sheets of the head-sails, and even getting in a bit of the main-sheet, they set to work overhauling the running rigging, and bringing order out of its confused tangle.
At this last work Wolfe, having sailed before the mast on a square-rigged vessel, was more at home than Breeze, but the latter was quick to comprehend, and so learned easily; for a ready comprehension is more than half of learning. While the boys were thus employed Captain McCloud called Breeze to take the wheel, as it was nearly noon, and time to take his observation. Fortunately, amid all the trouble and disaster that had overtaken the brig, her chronometer had not been allowed to run down, and with the sextant, and other instruments belonging to her late captain, it was still in a serviceable condition.