"Isn't there?" indignantly demanded the lady in a queer sort of half suffocated voice from behind the barred door of her cabin. "If you were jumbled in a pool of water, with all your luggage on top of you, I don't think you'd think everything right. Help, man! release me at once, or I'll be drowned and flattened into a pancake!"
"Say, you Mister Steward, you jest hurry up and git the lady out of her muss, and come and fix me up," chimed in the voice of Mr Zachariah Lathrope. "I guess I've had my innards a'most squoze out agin the durned bunk, an' feel like a dough-nut in a frying-pan. If you leave me much longer I kalkerlate this old boss'll be cold meat, you bet, and you'll have the funeral to pay!"
Mr Meldrum coming to Llewellyn's aid, the steward managed at length to clear away the wreckage from before the door of Mrs Major Negus' cabin, and then from that of the American, when both the occupants were found more seriously hurt than either of their rescuers had imagined, they thinking that their outcries had proceeded more from alarm than any real injury.
The wife of the deputy-assistant comptroller-general of Waikatoo was lying, all purple in the face, with a heavy portmanteau on the top of her, on the deck of her cabin in nearly a foot of water; and by the time they got her up from her perilous position she fainted dead away in the steward's arms.
"Here, Mary!" called out Llewellyn to his wife, the stewardess, who quickly appeared on the scene half-dressed. "Attend to this lady, while we go and see after Mister Lathrope."
The American was in a much worse plight; for, whereas Mrs Major Negus had only swallowed a lot of sea-water and had been only nearly frightened to death, Mr Lathrope's sallow face was so unearthly pale that Mr Meldrum was certain he had received some severe injury; as he was tightly jammed between his bunk and the washing-stand, while a heavy packing-case had tumbled out of the top berth on to one of his shoulders, preventing him from moving.
"I guess, mister, you jest come in time," said the poor fellow with a sickly smile, as they pulled away the case and wash-stand, and helped him into a sitting position on the bunk, "another minnit and it would have been all up with Z Lathrope, Esquire!" And he gasped for breath, putting his hand to his left side, as if feeling pain there.
"Oh, papa, are you there?" said Kate, coming out, in a charming state of dishabille, from the state-room she shared with her sister on the opposite side of the saloon, alongside to that of Mr Meldrum. "Is anybody hurt?"
"Yes, my dear," answered her father, "you'd better bring some sal volatile or something. Mrs Negus has fainted; and I'm afraid poor Mr Lathrope is in a bad way."
The plucky girl did not delay, or exhibit any of that feminine weakness or nervousness which might have been expected under the circumstances.
Retiring for a moment, to throw a shawl round herself and get what was required in the emergency, she quickly reappeared again at the door of the state-room,--which she closed behind her to prevent Miss Florry, inquisitive as usual, from coming forth; and then proceeded to cross the floor of the cuddy as well as she was able--a somewhat difficult task considering the rolling and pitching of the vessel, and the fact that the table and seats, which generally formed points of vantage for holding on, had been swept away, so that there was nothing for her to cling to.
Half running, half sliding, she, however, reached the opposite side and was quickly engaged in the Samaritan task of bathing Mr Lathrope's temples with Eau de Cologne.
"Don't you bother, miss," said the American faintly, "I guess I ain't so much hurt arter all!" but he couldn't help groaning as he spoke, whereupon Mr Meldrum laid him down gently and sent the steward for some brandy, which revived him somewhat.
"I got a pretty considerable gouge in the ribs from that air wash- stand," said he, pointing out the objectionable piece of furniture as he uttered the words; "but I guess I'll be all right presently. How's Madam Negus!"
"Oh, she was more frightened than hurt," said Mr Meldrum laughing; "she was in a nice pickle on the floor of her cabin. You should just have seen her. I really don't think she could ever be dignified to me any more!"
"For shame, papa, to laugh at misfortune!" said Kate; "and now, as Mr Lathrope seems better, I'll go and look after his fellow-sufferer." So saying, the girl clambered along by the side of the saloon to where Mrs Major Negus was ensconced in state, in the adjoining cabin--now revived from her fainting fit and with Mary Llewellyn ministering to her wants, although "the Major" could not help scolding the latter at intervals, as if she were the cause of the disaster.
In the midst of all this, down came Mr McCarthy, the first mate, from the poop.
"Be jabers and it's a foine time you are having of it, any way!" said he by way of greeting, looking round with a quizzical cock of his eye at the dismantled cuddy. "I only thought you'd have had a drop of wather or two whin the skoilight got adrift, and we've rigged up tarpaulins over it and battened it down comfortably, so that ye'll not be throubled any more by the say washing down. But, how did the table git carried away! It was fixed down so strong it's a puzzle to me entirely!"
"Goodness only knows," said Mr Meldrum; "there came a tremendous crash amidships soon after midnight, and away it went!"
"Ah that was whin that gossoon Adams had howlt of the helm. The omahdawn, he was looking up at the spars and tellin' the cap'en about taking the topsails off her, as she was carrying too much sail, instead of mindin' his own business and lookin' to the steering; and, faix, he let the ship broach to, bad cess to him!"
"And how are you getting on now, on deck?" asked Mr Meldrum.
"Will, sorr," said the mate, speaking more earnestly than was his usual wont, and dropping his voice so that no one else could hear him. "To spake the truth and shame the divil--faix it's no lie I'm telling--we're right in the centre of a cyclone, and the Lord only knows if we'll iver git out of it!"
"I thought so," murmured Mr Meldrum; "my poor children!"
"Sure and be a man now!" whispered the mate as Kate came out of Mrs Major Negus' cabin. "I wouldn't have tould you if I had thought contrariwise!"
"I was not thinking of myself," said Mr Meldrum sternly; "what sail are you carrying?"
"Sail!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy; "faix and its joking ye are! Ivery stitch of canvas, sure, was blown to smithereens when the ship broached to, and the foretop-mast was thin took out of her, too, by the same token! The divil a hap'orth are we carrying, save a piece of tarpaulin lashed in the weather rigging to kape her hid to the say, and that's all we can do till daylight comes, if we iver say it, please God, for it's as dark now as a blue dog in a black entry, and you couldn't say your hand before your face to set any sail, if ever a man could git up the rigging--but whist now about that! Steward," he added in a louder key, "come, look alive here and git the cuddy to rights in shipshape fashion!
By the powers, but the skipper'd be in a foine rage if he saw it all mops and brooms like this! Bear a hand, man, and be smart, and I'll send the carpenter to help you as soon as the watch is relayed." With these words he bustled on deck again, after changing his oilskin, which was all knocked to pieces, for a rough pea-jacket, and saying to Mr Meldrum that he thought the latter would be more handy, for it was blowing enough to take one's hair off!
"Papa," said Kate as soon as the mate had ascended the companion, "what was that Mr McCarthy was saying when he spoke so low to you?"
"Eh, my dear?" answered her father a little confusedly, with some hesitation in his voice. "Oh, only that the storm was raging violently and did not seem to lull at all yet."
"Did he say that there was any danger?"
"Danger, eh? no, I--I can't say. I think I'll just step up and see for myself;" and, anxious to escape this cross-examination, as well as really to judge whether the position of the ship was as precarious as the chief mate had indicated, Mr Meldrum likewise went up on to the poop, finding some trouble when he reached the top of the companion stairs, in opening the hatch.
For a moment, after emerging on to the deck, all was terribly dark--as black as ink, as Mr McCarthy had said; but, the next instant, the whole awful scene was lit up by the most intense and vivid flash of lightning Mr Meldrum had ever beheld--the electric fluid being quite unaccompanied by any peal of thunder, although that might have been drowned by the continuous roar and shriek of the howling wind which appeared to have gone mad with the unbridled fury of a demon.
During the brief space of time in which the zigazag stream of fire from the vault of heaven momentarily lit up the surroundings of the ship, which it did with a brightness that eclipsed the light of day, Mr Meldrum could see the vessel tumbling about amid a chaotic mass of waves, which it was no exaggeration to term mountains high, as if she were in the vortex of a whirlpool; while dense opaque black clouds hovered over her, vomiting forth wind, apparently from every quarter of the horizon, the gusts tearing at the ship with harpy-like clutches, as if they would rend her to pieces--she, like a poor human thing racked with pain, labouring and groaning, and bending this way and that to escape the relentless wind, so well aided by the clutching billows from below that leaped up to engulf the vessel when they themselves were not absolutely flattened to the surface of the water, as they were sometimes, by the force of the hurricane.
The scene was literally awful!
The next moment all was darkness again; with the night black as Erebus, and Mr Meldrum unable, as the mate had said, to see his hand before his face.
Captain Dinks, however, had noted his arrival on deck; and approached him without being seen.
"I advise you to go below, Mr Meldrum," said he, "you can do no good here, nor any of us, indeed, until morning, when I hope we'll have better weather. It's a terrible night, the worst I have ever seen at sea in all my time!"
"Aye, terrible," replied the other, shouting in the ear of the captain, but, as he was facing the wind, his voice seemed to the latter only like a whisper. "I'll take your advice, as I see I could be of no use; still, if I can be of any service, mind you call me!"
"Aye, aye," said Captain Dinks, "you go down and go to sleep. We are all in God's hands now, though I'll do all that man can--good night!"
"Good night," said Mr Meldrum; and he then went below again to give what report he could to Kate, who was waiting anxiously for his expected reappearance, as he had said he should not be gone long when he left her.
She had been certain the ship was in great danger; and she now read the confirmation of her worst fears in her father's face.
"Oh, papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck as soon as he came down the companion, without waiting to hear a word from him. "I thought so, I thought so!"
"Hush, my child!" said he soothingly, leading her towards her state-room and opening the door, "go in to your cabin and pray!"
And thus the weary night passed away.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
IN UNKNOWN LATITUDES.
When daylight came, through the exertions of Ben Boltrope, the carpenter, and a couple of the crew sent to aid him, the cuddy offered a more presentable appearance than it had done just immediately after the midnight scare; for, the table and seats were fixed back in their original positions, the debris cleared away, and a portion of the skylight restored--all of which so brightened up the interior that what had passed but a few hours before seemed but a dream, at first, to those of the passengers who turned out early. The continuous sustained roar of the wind and waves had so drowned the noise of the men hammering and moving about that the repairs appeared to have been accomplished by magic.
As soon as Mr Meldrum went on deck, however, he could see little alteration for the better there.
The great rolling billows, as Maury has described them, were running high and fast, tossing their white caps in the air, looking like the green hills of a western prairie capped with snow, and chasing each other in sport; while the wind was still blowing a hurricane, and the ship, resembling a crippled bird with her foretop-mast gone, was running now before the gale under a single storm-staysail, that looked no bigger than an ordinary sized pocket-handkerchief, at a greater rate of speed than she would have done in a stiff breeze with all her canvas spread.
The outlook around, too, was by no means cheering.