"Ach, du lieber!" grunted Carl disgustedly. "Der itee oof sailormans being afraidt oof a leedle bit oof a vind! I peen a lubber meinseluf, aber I don'd vas afraidt!"
With that he lowered himself onto the shaking sea ladder and started downward. When Carl stepped off the ladder he came within one of stepping into the sea. Dick grabbed him, however, and heaved him over the gunwale and to a midship thwart by main force.
"Hi, there!" shouted the officer, coming back and leaning over the rail. "You can't go—it's not safe. We're going to catch it good and plenty in a minute."
"Bosh!" shouted Dick. "We can make it all right if you hurry."
Although Dick spoke confidently, for he was eager to join Matt on the Grampus even if it was necessary to take a chance or two, yet his practiced eye told him that fierce weather was imminent.
"Hook on the falls!" roared the officer. "Quick on it, or——"
At that moment, with a terrific shriek and a wild splash and splatter, the squall broke. The whaleboat was under the lee of the steamer, but the larger vessel shifted her position so that the heavy wind caught the whaleboat and jerked her away. The fastenings parted, and in a twinkling the boat had shot off from the steamer on the crest of a huge wave. A mist of rain and spindrift closed in between and the Santa Maria was shut out from the boys' view.
"The oars!" yelled Dick, floundering to a thwart and shipping the oar with which he had been keeping the boat from the steamer's side.
The boat was prancing like a festive broncho, now standing almost straight up in the air, and now dropping with dizzy abruptness, rolling at a hair-raising angle and shipping buckets of water. Carl had been having his hands full keeping himself from going overboard, but he managed to brace his feet and get busy with one of the oars.