“Grab that wheel,” he cried. “Keep her straight down stream.”
Harvey sprang aft.
“Jim,” cried Haley, in the next breath, “get the boys on to the sheets, there—quick, for your life, or we’re good for doing time. Trim her! Trim her! We’ve got to jump her, if we ever did. Curse that Folly!”
The next moment, Haley was among the crew with a bound, knocking them like ten-pins away from the winders, and bidding them jump for the fore and main sheets, if they valued their lives. Snatching a sheath-knife from his belt, Haley darted for the nearest dredge-line. With an exclamation of rage at the loss he was inflicting upon himself, he cut it with a single slash, leaving the dredge behind in two fathoms of water. In a moment, he was at the other side. Another stroke of the keen knife and the second dredge-line was severed.
As the bug-eye, cleared of the weight of the heavy dredges, gathered headway, the sheets were hauled in, under the command and with the assistance of the mate. The craft heeled to the breeze and sped away.
And for all this, but for the loyalty of Jack Harvey toward a friend, Captain Hamilton Haley would have lost his vessel and his freedom. A bit of heroism had been done that he knew naught of—never would know.
When Tom Edwards, in the first excitement, had seen his friend, Harvey, dart aft, he had slipped away in the confusion, and followed. With him, the idea ever was that, come what would, they should stick together—and so they had sworn. Jack Harvey found Tom Edwards by his side, as he sprang to the wheel and, obeying orders, held the vessel on its course down the river.
The next instant, the thought of freedom flashed again into Harvey’s mind.
“Tom,” he said, “strip off that slicker as quick as ever you can. I’m ready. I’ll swing her into the wind when you say the word. Then we’ll jump and swim for it. That’s the Folly. She’ll pick us up, and catch Haley, too. We’ve got to jump the second I swing her, though, or Haley’ll shoot us both. We’ve got only a minute. Say when you’re ready.”
Tom Edwards, the vision of freedom opening before his eyes in one brief instant, gave a groan of dismay and disappointment.