Then, with the assistance of the winches, the ends of the hawsers were carried through the hawse-holes and parcelled with chafing-mats to lessen the friction. The Hawk was now astern of the Satellite, which was to be towed off the reef stern foremost, and the work would commence as soon as the hawsers had been made secure.
At last the bos'n reported all ready and the girl rang down "Stand by" to the engine-room. There was a tense pause, and then she again moved the lever. A faint "ting-ting" came from below, the telegraph pointer swung round to "Slow," and the Hawk's engines began to move with a steady, ponderous beat. All eyes were fixed upon the hawsers, which, as the steamer began to move, slowly raised their dripping lengths from the water. Then the moment arrived when the great ropes tautened till they vibrated under the tension like fiddle-strings when a bow is passed across them. The Hawk, which had been slowly forging ahead, seemed to pull up with a sudden jerk, and then gradually slide back, stern foremost, in her own wake, while the hawsers sagged and dipped into the sea. The girl on the bridge waited with her hand on the telegraph, every nerve braced as if for stupendous effort, while she watched the hawsers disappear. Then, as the Hawk's stern-way was arrested, she rang down "Half speed" and the engines pulsated with quickened beats.
Again the hawsers grew taut as the steamer forged ahead, only to recoil once more like a straining hound suddenly jerked back by its leash. But this time the recoil was only momentary and then she gathered a little way, while, at the same moment, the Satellite was seen to move. Once more Dora Fletcher pressed the lever of the telegraph, the decks vibrated to the thunderous beat of the engines, and, to the accompaniment of a cheer from the anxious watchers, the gunboat slid gently into deep water.
"Gawd!" ejaculated the bos'n, wiping the sweat from his brow, and the monosyllable was more eloquent than an oration.
With a little moan of utter fatigue which was not that of the body only, Dora Fletcher slipped into the chart-room and flung herself on the settee. The terrible nervous strain of these hours when she alone had been responsible for the safety of the Hawk and all those souls aboard, added to the strain of the last hour, had been too much for her. She collapsed suddenly in a dead faint, and it was thus that McPhulach discovered her when he put his head into the chart-room some fifteen minutes later.
CHAPTER XXII
MR. SMITH SEEKS A PARTNER
McPhulach, thinking the girl was asleep, shook her gently by the shoulder; but, as this met with no response, he took a closer look at her.
"Losh presairve us!" he ejaculated, "the lassie's fainted."