CHAPTER XXVIII
A crash which shook him bodily brought Paul Lavelle upstanding from the berth in the lounge. The daze of a heavy sleep clung to him. For an instant he could not imagine where he was. He was in utter darkness.
There was another crash where the spanker boom slammed back from starboard to port again. Then, the Daphne lay over under the impact of a vicious gust of wind.
It was the boom which had awakened the sleeper. He leaped out on deck to find himself in a shapeless blackness. There was barely a breeze, but the air was filled with eery noises. Overhead, overside, wherever he turned, he heard them—snarls, whines, whimperings, and the creaking as of huge pinions wheeling. A wolf pack might have been disputing a kill with a horde of vultures.
The contrast of this with the exquisite moonlight night upon which Lavelle had closed his eyes was appalling. He groped his way to the wheel, which was in beckets to keep it from rolling, and peered into the compass. An unconscious sigh of thankfulness for the forethought which had made him light the binnacle lamp escaped from him. The Daphne was heading north by east. The gust of wind which had slammed the spanker boom must have come out of the southeast. He faced that point. Another gust confirmed the assumption. He ran into the lounge and struck a match. The silver watch lay on the chart table. It said 1 o'clock. He had not returned for this, but to see the barometer. It stood at 30:00; just where it had hung all day.
But what he had not discovered by daylight he now saw in the flickering match light. The barometer hand and the indicator were caught together. His heart went cold, he lit another match and struck the bulkhead with his clenched fist. The blow jarred the hand and indicator apart. The delicate wisp of blue steel quivered at 30:00 for a breath. Then, it began to fall. It reached 29:10 and clung. Even as the match went out it recorded 29:00 and was still falling.
He had seen a mercurial barometer go from 29:30 to 26:03 in the Kau Lung. That was a world's record!
Despair seized him. What could he and a lone woman do in a brute of a vessel like this—undermanned even with twenty men before the mast?
"God Almighty, what have I done?" he cried aloud in agony of spirit.