“Indeed she has not, I fear,” exclaimed Jack, rushing into the cabin. Stella was seated on a sofa, supporting Miss Bradshaw, who, overcome with alarm or illness, appeared to have fainted, while Polly was kneeling by her side, helping her mistress. Miss O’Regan looked amazed at seeing Jack. He, without waiting to utter an exclamation, seized her in his arms, and carried her on deck. Needham took up Miss Bradshaw, while Tim, who had accompanied him, tucked Polly under his arm.
“If you have nerve to leap at the proper time as the boat comes alongside, do so,” said Jack to Mr Bradshaw. “If not, wait and I will come back for you.”
Jack shouted to the men in the boat to return, and waiting till she was close to, let himself down into her, holding Stella firmly with one arm. Needham and Tim dropped safely with their burdens at the same time. Mr Bradshaw still remained on board.
“Let me go, sir,” cried Needham, “I will help him;” and the next moment he was again on deck. Seizing Mr Bradshaw by the hand, he watched the proper opportunity and dragged him down into the boat, both falling, though being caught by the men they were not much hurt. Jack then sheered the boat off from the wreck, and ordered his men to pull away towards the brig. Scarcely had they got clear than the ship’s stern was seen to lift, and her bows plunging into the next sea which came rolling up, it rushed over her deck foaming and hissing, she in a few seconds disappearing beneath the surface, the boat having only just got beyond the influence of the vortex she created. There was no time to ask questions. Jack, being at the helm, could with difficulty attend to the two ladies, who lay in the stern sheets, Stella still attending on her friend. The boat was quickly again alongside the brig, and Jack and Needham lifted the two ladies safely on board. Mr Bradshaw was then helped up the side by the seamen, and the boat being hoisted in, the brig again made sail and stood on her proper course. The ladies were at once conveyed to Jack’s cabin, and McTavish being sent for, his appliances soon restored Miss Bradshaw to consciousness.
So much taken up had Stella been in attending her friend, that she had had no time to thank her preserver, or to speak a word on any other subject. Jack had also been too fully occupied to ask questions. Mr Bradshaw now told him that the Carib had been struck suddenly by the gale, and her masts carried away. At the same time the captain and his mates, with several of the crew, had either been washed or struck overboard, or killed by the falling masts; and that the rest of the crew, left without officers, had, when they believed the ship to be sinking, taken the only boat which remained. As they had previously broken open the spirit-room, they were probably, before long, overwhelmed by the heavy sea. “We would not have gone with them, had they invited us to do so, for we did not then believe that the ship was about to founder,” continued Mr Bradshaw. “When we discovered the awful truth, having no means of escaping, we gave ourselves up as lost, and when you appeared we were awaiting the event which we knew must soon occur.”
Jack, of course, said how thankful he was that he had been providentially directed to the spot in time to save their lives; he then mentioned Alick Murray, and asked Stella when she had last heard from him, telling her of the letter he himself had received.
Hers was of about the same date.
“Poor fellow,” added Jack, “he seems dreadfully out of spirits; and I trust, Miss O’Regan, that you will do your best to restore them.”
Stella said nothing, but Fanny Bradshaw told Jack that she did not think her friend would longer be obdurate.
“I hope not,” he answered, “I have promised to be his best man, and I wish to fulfil that engagement before I pay a visit to my old friend, Adair, at Ballymacree. You, of course, will be one of the bridesmaids?”