“Looks bad to me,” said the first officer. “The barometer is falling fast. Something is sure to come out of it. And now’s just the time of year when the worst storms hit the Gulf. If we can get past the Dry Tortugas before it strikes us, we’ll be all right. We’ll have the entire Gulf before us then.”
“What does the captain think of it?” inquired Roy.
“He never says much about what he thinks,” replied the big mate, “but he’s had his eye on the barometer all the forenoon, and he’s asleep now, so it’s evident what he thinks.”
“You mean he thinks there’s nothing to worry about?”
“I mean just the contrary. If we do have a bad storm, the captain will be out here on the bridge until it’s over or until he can’t stand any longer, and he’s resting up.”
Roy returned to the wireless house, feeling vaguely uneasy.
Palm Beach was passed early in the afternoon. Roy saw that even at her best speed the Lycoming could hardly reach the Straits before midnight, and it would be close to ten hours more before they were safely past the Dry Tortugas. Twenty hours must elapse before they were through the danger zone and had the wide Gulf before them. He hoped that the storm would hold off that length of time.
Sunset saw little change in the weather. Wind and wave were far from boisterous. The thing that troubled the first officer was the way in which the barometer still fell steadily. Late in the day he gave an order to make everything fast. Roy, chancing to come out of the wireless house, saw sailors below battening down hatches, lashing every movable object fast, and otherwise making things tight. He had never seen that done before. At supper Roy noticed that the waiters were serious and preoccupied. Somehow a distinct air of apprehension seemed to be abroad. And yet there was nothing to be alarmed at excepting the steady fall of the barometer.
Roy went directly from the supper table to his instrument and began searching the seas for ships. The atmosphere played all sorts of tricks with his wireless. One minute he could hear nothing and the next he would catch part of a message from New York. He got into touch with the Mallory liner Comal. She was anchored at Key West. He heard the steamer Valbanera and talked with her. She was off Havana. A terrible storm was raging there and the ship’s master was afraid to try to enter the harbor. So he had put to sea again. Once Roy heard a message sent by the Empress to some other ship. The Empress had left Havana for Galveston, a new schedule having gone into effect.