In Search of El Dorado Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO.

  THE FOUNDERING OF THE "EVEREST."

  Upon reaching the ladder leading to the boat deck, which was theuppermost deck of all, he found it packed with first-class passengers,among whom the word had already been passed round, so, rather thanincommode them, he sprang up on the rail and swarmed up a stanchion.

  Arrived on the boat deck, he found the preparations for lowering theboats complete, and he also found the captain and chief officerpreparing to supervise the embarkation. These he at once joined, andupon reporting himself, was immediately stationed at the after end ofthe deck on the starboard side, to supervise the dispatch of four boats.The deck was now rapidly filling with passengers, who were coming upfrom below, both fore and aft, men, women and children indiscriminately,despite the efforts of those below to keep them apart. But they werereceived upon their arrival by a number of quartermasters and seamen,who firmly, but with rough courtsey, herded the men along the middlepart of the deck while the women and children were allowed to go to theport and starboard sides of the deck, where the officers received them.

  Dick stationed himself abreast the aftermost of his quartette of boats,and as the anxious mothers with their children came crowding up, hequickly passed them through the opening in the rail and into the boat,where the three men in charge of it received them and directed themwhere to place themselves. So far, there was very little confusion,except that a few women clamoured for their husbands to be allowed to gowith them, so causing a certain amount of delay; but on the wholematters were going very well, and within forty minutes the whole of theboats that had been swung out were safely lowered and dispatched, withorders to lie off at least half a mile, and there wait for furtherorders. These boats took not only all the women and children, but alsoas many men as room could be found for.

  But all told there still remained nearly two thousand men aboard thedoomed ship, whose safety depended upon the possibility of launching thecollapsible boats and life rafts before the now rapidly sinking linerfoundered. And this possibility had become very questionable, for thewater had gained so much that the furnace fires had been extinguishedand steam was rapidly failing, with the result that the pumps were nolonger working at anything like full power. Moreover, although everypossible arrangement had been made to facilitate the launching of thecollapsible and other craft, much still remained to be done before theywould be ready to receive their complement of passengers and bedispatched. Meanwhile the _Everest_ had settled so low in the waterthat many of those still waiting were beginning to betray muchuneasiness, not to say restiveness, at the inevitable delay, thisrestiveness being most apparent among the steerage passengers and, in alesser degree, among the second-class, while the first-class passengers,almost to a man, not only displayed the most perfect coolness, but evenunited with the officers of the ship in their efforts to allay therapidly growing impatience of the others.

  Dick saw that trouble was brewing, and stimulated his gang of workersboth by voice and example, with the result that very soon he had a bigcollapsible boat hooked on to the davit tackles and swung outboard. Butshe still needed a certain amount of preparation before she would beready to receive her living cargo, and to complete that preparationCavendish ordered four of his gang of six men into her. Instantly acrowd of excited foreigners from the steerage, probably mistaking theaction for an indication that the boat was ready, made a rush for herand, thrusting Dick and his remaining two assistants aside, hurledthemselves frantically into her, shrieking and jabbering like maniacs.The result, of course, was that the boat promptly collapsed, and takingthe intruders entirely by surprise, precipitated the greater number ofthem into the water beneath, while the four seamen in her only escaped alike fate by making a spring for and seizing the tackles and guys.

  Dick, who with his two assistants had been knocked down and nearlyoverboard by the rush, quickly scrambled to his feet and droppedoverboard every rope's end he could lay his hands upon, and by thismeans contrived to rescue some twenty of the now thoroughly sobered andfrightened men; but, of course, this involved a most lamentable delayand loss of time; and meanwhile it became apparent to all that the shipwas now fast settling in the water. Even worse than that, however, wasthe effect which the conviction produced upon the ignorant foreignersamong the passengers. These were fast developing a tendency to panic,which manifested itself in a determination to assist the seamen; andsince their efforts to assist were unaided for the most part by thesmallest glimmering of knowledge as to the proper thing to do, theynaturally hindered instead of helping, and not only Dick but the otherofficers as well soon had all their work cut out to keep the zealous butignorant foreigners in anything like order.

  The worst characteristic of panic is that it is so horribly contagious.Let a crowd of people once get the idea into their heads that they arein peril, and they will fight together like wild beasts in their anxietyto escape. And the officers of the _Everest_ knew this; therefore theydevoted the whole of their energies to the task of reassuring that greatcrowd of men who now filled the boat deck of the sinking ship, arguing,pleading, and even threatening, while the Dagos crowded around them evermore menacingly, with eyes ablaze with mingled terror and ferocity, lipscontracted into savage snarls, and hands in many cases gripping long,ugly-looking, dagger-like knives.

  Then suddenly there came, unceremoniously elbowing his way through theexcited crowd, the well-known form of the purser, his face wreathed withsmiles, and a paper in his hand.

  "Make way, there, make way, good people," he shouted. "I have good newsfor you. The wireless operators have succeeded in getting into touchwith three more ships, and now not only the _Bolivia_, but also the_Cotopaxi_, the _Platonic_, and the _Nigerian_ are hastening to ourrescue and will all be alongside us in the course of a few hours.Therefore, cheer up, there is help and room for everybody on the way."

  "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! Three cheers for the purser and his goodnews," shouted a man with a strong American accent; and all whounderstood him heartily took up the cheering; while the foreigners, whohad failed to catch the meaning of the purser's remarks, at leastunderstood from the cheering that good news of some sort had come tohand, and their attitude at once became less menacing.

  "Good for you, sir," exclaimed Dick to the men who had started thecheering. "Those hurrahs of yours are worth more than diamonds to usjust now. Hurry up lads with that boat and let's get her afloat. Areyou ready, Simpson? Good! Now then, come along, good people, but don'tcrowd, there's plenty of time. Jump in, sir--" to the man with theAmerican accent; "you deserve a place, if only in return for thosecheers."

  "Not I, my son," answered the man addressed--he was only abouttwenty-eight to thirty years of age. "I have neither wife, child, norrelative of any kind, as far as I know. Let the married folk go first.Now then, you husbands and fathers, step out. Any more for the shore?"

  He spoke with a smile on his good-locking face, and that and the littlejest of "Any more for the shore?" were as comforting to many a man thereas all the assurances of the ship's officers had been; nay, more, forthey had been accompanied by a wave of the hand toward the boat and avoluntary stepping aside that seemed to say as plain as words--"Passalong, you who are afraid. I am not, and am entirely willing to wait myturn."

  But although the peril of panic was less imminent than it had been, itwas by no means banished, and probably none recognised this more clearlythan the American, for while the boat just filled was being lowered, heedged up to Dick and murmured:

  "Say, young man, unless you are looking for trouble I would advise youto get all those Dagos out of the ship quick. I know their sort, sir,and I can tell by the look in their eyes, that the smallest thing in theway of an extra scare will just send the whole crowd jumping mad. Soget rid of them in a hurry. That's my advice."

  "And I believe you are right, too," answered Dick. "But I can't act onyour advice, all the same. There are others who are entitled to as gooda chance as the Dagos, and they must have it. T
here is yourself, forinstance--"

  "Nix! I guess not!" interrupted the American. "Of course, I know whatyou mean," he continued, in a low tone; "the ship can't last muchlonger, and a good few of us are in for a cold swim; but I guess I'lltake my chance with the rest of the bathers."

  The launching and the dispatch of the collapsibles was now proceedingwith frantic haste, for it was no longer possible to conceal the factthat the ship's minutes were numbered, while there were still over athousand people aboard. But the discipline was perfect, the work wasgoing forward smoothly and with no more bustle than if the passengerswere being landed upon a wharf; and if it had not been for the horriblynervous condition of the foreigners all might have been well. But theywere in just that state of "nerves" when, as the American had suggested,the smallest scare would act upon them as a spark upon gunpowder; andthe scare presently came, in the form of a small explosion--which mighthave been nothing more than the accidental discharge of a revolversomewhere down in the depths of the ship. Whatever it may have been, itwas enough to turn the scale--to upset the state of delicate, unstableequilibrium prevailing, and after a momentary glance around them, theforeigners, nearly three-hundred in number, set up a yell of terror andhurled themselves in a body upon those who were at work upon the boats.

  In a flash, Dick, the American, and half a dozen more were swept outthrough the temporary gangway by the maddened crowd, and, before theyfully realised what was happening, found themselves floundering in thewater alongside, while others came hurtling down on all sides. Luckilyfor himself, Dick went down straight--and consequently somewhat deep,and before his descent was checked his presence of mind returned. Hepictured to himself exactly what was happening above him, and struck outpowerfully under water, so as to escape the shower of falling bodieswhen he should reach the surface.

  The water was bitterly cold, but Dick kept under as long as he could,swimming straight away from the ship; and when at length he rose he sawwith satisfaction that he was some ten yards distant from her, and wellclear of the struggling mass of men alongside, who were being added toby dozens, even as he watched.

  The next moment another head broke water alongside him, and as it did soa voice which Dick instantly recognised ejaculated, amidst a fusilladeof coughs and splutterings--

  "B-r-r-ur! It's colder'n charity! Darn those Dagos, anyway! It wascold enough up there on the hurricane deck, but here--ugh!"

  "You are right," returned Dick. "It _is_ cold, and no mistake. I hopethose fellows didn't hurt you in their mad rush."

  "Nary a hurt," replied Dick's companion. "So it's you, young man, isit? Good! Say! although it is so tarnation cold down here, I guesswe're better off than the people up there on deck. For now we'll have achance to get clear of the ship before she sinks, if we hustle a bit.See that star over there? I guess we'd better make a bee line for itand swim for all we're worth; then, if we're lucky we may escape beingdragged down in the vortex; and perhaps we may find a boat to hang on tountil something comes along and picks us up."

  Dick agreeing, the pair struck out strongly in the direction of thestar. But, as they swam, their ears were assailed by a veritablepandemonium of sound aboard the sinking steamer--shouts, yells, screams,and a regular fusillade of pistol shots, bearing eloquent evidence ofthe terrible scenes that were enacting aboard her.

  As the two swimmers proceeded the mingled sounds aboard the _Everest_seemed to swell rather than diminish, to such an extent indeed thatpresently the American turned to Dick and gasped, through chatteringteeth--

  "S-s-say! s-s-seems to m-me that there's a r-reg-ular pitched b-a-attlegoing on aboard there--ugh! G-g-guess w-we're b-b-better off hereth-th-than there--eh?"

  "R-r-rather!" stammered Dick back, but he was suffering so intenselyfrom the icy nip of the water that he felt no disposition to talk, andsimply pushed ahead for all he was worth, hoping that by dint of violentexertion he might be able to conquer the numbing sensation that wasgradually clogging his movements.

  For another ten minutes the pair pressed forward side by side. Thensuddenly Dick's companion ceased his exertions, and, with a groan,turned over on his back. He managed to stammer a question whether therewere any boats at hand; and upon Dick replying in the negative theAmerican gasped:

  "Then I'm d-d-done. C-cramp all over. C-can't s-swim 'nother s-stroke.G-good-bye!"

  "Good-bye be hanged!" shouted Dick, stirred to new life by hiscompanion's extremity. "Just y-you lie as y-you are--I'll l-l-lookafter you."

  And flinging himself on his back, Cavendish gripped the other man firmlyby the collar, and, kicking out vigorously, towed him along. Some fiveminutes later the youngster became conscious of a sudden and verydecided fall in the temperature of the water, and looking about insearch of the cause, found himself within a few yards of a large cake offield ice. There, at all events, was a refuge of a sort--something thatwould serve the purpose of a raft, and with a few vigorous strokes hewas alongside it. It was a great slab of field ice, its flat uppersurface not more than six inches above water; and after a tremendousstruggle Dick not only got upon the slab himself but also contrived todrag his companion up also. Their combined weight seemed to have verylittle effect upon the stability of the mass, merely depressing theadjacent edge perhaps a couple of inches; and, this fact ascertained,Dick lost no time, but set to work upon the body of the insensibleAmerican, pounding, rubbing, and rolling it with such vigour that notonly did he at length feel the chill departing from his own limbs butalso felt his companion stir and heard him groan.

  "Feel better?" demanded Dick. Then, without waiting for a reply, headded: "If you can only manage to get to your feet and walk about a bit,we'll soon restore our circulation. Let me give you a lift."

  "Wait," gasped the American. "Breast pocket--br-r-randy flask. Takenip and give me one."

  The brandy flask was found, and after applying it to the lips of itsowner, Dick took a mouthful himself before replacing the top. Theeffect of the spirit upon their chilled bodies was almost miraculous, awave of warmth surged through them, and presently the American was onhis feet, and, with Dick's arm linked in his, was staggering to and froupon the surface of the ice. As the stiffness and cramp worked out oftheir limbs they were able to increase their pace, until within a fewminutes they were trotting to and fro across the mass and feeling almostwarm once more.

  Meanwhile, although the sounds of conflict and confusion aboard the_Everest_ still floated to the pair, horribly suggesting the awfulscenes that were being enacted on her deck, the ship herself had settledso deeply in the water that only the lights in the cabins of thepromenade deck and the clusters illuminating the boat deck now markedher whereabouts, and it soon became apparent that the end was very near.As a matter of fact it was even nearer than the occupants of the floeimagined, for as with one accord they paused to glance at the ship inresponse to an exceptionally strident outburst of sound, they beheld theline of lights suddenly incline from the horizontal, saw the slope growsteadily steeper, and then, as the great mass of the vessel's stern hoveup, an indistinct blur of deeper blackness on the darkness of the night,the line of lights slid forward and vanished one after another until allhad disappeared, while at the same moment a heartrending wail fromhundreds of throats pealed out across the water, punctuated by acrackling volley of pistol shots.

  "Gone!" ejaculated Dick's companion--and the ejaculation was almost agroan. "The unsinkable _Everest_, that triumph of human ingenuity whichwas finally to insure travellers against every peril of the sea, isgone, sent to the bottom by a chunk of ice so small that, we may assume,the look-outs never saw it until it was too late. And with her she hastaken, I suppose, the best part of a thousand people--of whom you and I,my friend, might have been two, if those tarnation cowardly Dagos hadnot knocked us overboard, for which I am obliged to them, although Iwasn't by a long chalk, a quarter of an hour ago. Now I guess we'rejust as well off here as those people are in the boats; better, maybe,for we can at least move about an
d keep ourselves warm here, whereas--say! What's that? See, over there! Isn't it a rocket?"

  As Dick looked in the direction toward which his companion pointed, hecaught a momentary glimpse of a sudden faint irradiation in the sky,followed by the appearance of a minute cluster of tiny falling stars.

  "Yes," he replied, "that's a rocket all right; and it means that the_Bolivia_ or one of the other ships is coming up, and is firing rocketsto let us know that help is at hand. But whatever she is, she is a longway off yet, and probably will not arrive for the next half-hour atleast. So let me recommend another sprint or two across the ice just tokeep the blood moving in our veins."

  "Correct again," returned the American, as they started off at a briskwalk. "But--say!" he continued, turning to Dick and extending his hand,"we've been so darned busy getting ourselves warm that I haven't yetfound time to thank you for saving my life. But I'll do it now--"

  "Saving your life?" ejaculated Dick. "I don't think I understand."

  "Oh yes, I guess you do," answered the American. "Or, if you don't, Icalculate I can easily enlighten you. You saved my life, young man,when you took me in tow out there and navigated me to this desirable icefloe, and don't you forget it. You may bet your bottom dollar that Ishall not, and there's my hand upon it, stranger. Now, let me introducemyself. I know who you are all right; you're Mr Cavendish, late fifthofficer of the unsinkable steamship _Everest_, very recently gone to thebottom. Isn't that right?"

  Dick acknowledged the truth of his companion's statement, whereupon thelatter resumed.

  "Very good," he said. "Now, I suppose you've never heard of WilfridEarle, of New York, the man who undertook to hunt his way from Cairo tothe Cape--"

  "Oh! but of course I have," interrupted Dick. "I've read about you inthe papers--and, come to think of it, I've seen your photograph also inthe papers. Somehow your face seemed familiar when I noticed you awhile ago on the boat deck--"

  "Sure!" cut in the other. "That's me--Wilfrid Earle, the eccentric NewYorker, all right, all right. Only arrived home from Cape Town littlemore than a fortnight ago, with a whole caravan load of skins, horns,tusks, and so on; and now I guess they're about half a mile down, in thehull of the _Everest_. Gee! Guess you're thinking me a heartless brutefor talking so lightly about the awful thing that's just happened; but,man, I've got to do it--or else go clean crazy with thinking about it.Or, better still, not think about it at all, since thinking about itwon't mend matters the least little bit. Say! what are all those littlelights dotted about over there?"

  "Oh!" answered Dick, "they are the lights of the _Everest's_ boats.Each boat was provided with a lantern, in order that they might keeptogether, and be the more easily found when the rescuing ships come up."

  "Ah!" returned Earle. "A very excellent arrangement. But say! whatabout us? We have no lantern. How are we going to make our whereaboutsknown? Those boats are a good mile away, and--"

  "I don't think we need worry very greatly about that," answered Dick."Naturally, the _Bolivia_--or whatever the coming craft may be--willpick up the people in the boats directly she arrives; but she'll lowerher own boats, too, and send them away to search the sea in theimmediate neighbourhood for people who may be floating about inlifebuoys or cork jackets. There must be quite a number of them at nogreat distance from us--though how long they are likely to survive,drifting about in the ice-cold water, I should not like to say. But Ithink we may take it for granted that, once they have arrived, therescuing ships will not quit the scene of the disaster until they havemade quite sure that they have got all the survivors. They will waitabout until daylight comes, without a shadow of doubt."

  "Good! it is comforting to hear you say that," returned Earle. "Yousee, I don't know much about the sea and sailor ways, and it occurred tome that those rescuing ships might take it for granted that when theyhad recovered the people from the boats, they would have done all thatwas possible--and quit. Gee! but it's cold here on this ice. Luckythat there's no wind, or we should be frozen stiff in half an hour.We'll have another nip of brandy each; it'll do us both good. Luckything, too, that I had the sense to fill the flask and slip it into mypocket when I knew what had happened to the ship. I sort of foresawsome such experience as this, and concluded that a drop of brandy mightbe a good thing to have about one's person."

  They had their nip and felt all the better for it; but it was necessaryfor them to keep moving briskly in order to combat the numbing chill oftheir wet clothes, and they resumed their pacing to and fro across theirnarrow block of ice.

  For a time their conversation was of a desultory and fragmentarycharacter, for they were both intently watching the progress of theapproaching steamer, which continued to send up rockets until the glowof the flames from her funnels became clearly visible. Then the displayof rockets suddenly ceased, no doubt because--as Dick surmised--thelights of the boats had been sighted by the eager look-outs aboard her.Then her mast-head light came into view, followed, a little later, byher port and starboard side lights; and at length the dark, scarcelydiscernible blotch that represented her hull lengthened out suddenly,revealing a long triple tier of brightly gleaming ports; and a fewseconds later the roar of steam escaping as her engines stopped, reachedthe two watchers on the ice.

  "Hurrah!" shouted Dick, "she is among the boats at last and doubtlesspicking them up. Now we must keep our ears open listening for the soundof oars, or hailing, for I'll bet that the skipper will have had hisboats swung out ready for lowering, and their crews standing by, longago."

  But nearly half an hour elapsed before the welcome sound of oars workingin rowlocks faintly reached their ears, followed quickly by the shrillnote of an officer's whistle.

  "At last!" breathed Dick, in tones of profound relief. "Now is ourchance, Mr Earle. We will shout together: `Boat ahoy!' Take the timefrom me. Now--one, two, three, Boat ahoy-y-oy!"

  The long drawn out "ahoy" had scarcely died on their lips before it wasanswered by an equally long blast from the whistle, to which theyresponded by repeating the hail at brief intervals, each answering blastof the whistle telling them that the boat was drawing nearer, until atlength the faint loom of the boat showed in the darkness, and a lanternwas suddenly held high above a man's head. Then they heard a voiceexclaim:

  "There they are, sir--two of 'em--on that block of ice!" And a minutelater they were being carefully helped into the stern sheets of theboat, which was already floating deep with a load of motionless formsenwrapped in cork jackets. Whether they were living or dead it wasimpossible just then to say.

  "Any more on the ice?" demanded the officer in charge of the boat.Then, following Dick's reply in the negative, he continued: "Right!shove off, bow! pull port! Give way all! Now it's us for the ship.Put your backs into it, lads. A minute or two may make all thedifference between life and death for some of these poor chaps thatwe've fished up. Here, have a sip of brandy, you two. You must befrozen pretty nearly stiff."

  "No brandy, thanks--unless my friend here--Mr Cavendish, fifth officerof the _Everest_--would care to have another nip. But we've already hadsome--filled a flask and slipped it into my pocket when I realised thatthe ship was going to sink--and I guess it saved our lives."

  Upon Dick also declining "another nip" the officer in charge held outhis hand.

  "Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr Cavendish, and to have picked youup. My name is Urquhart--`chief' of the _Bolivia_. By the way, sincewe got your S.O.S. and learned particulars of the smash-up, we've allbeen wondering how the mischief you managed to pile up your ship on aberg, after our warning of this afternoon. Was it thick at the time,or--how was it?"

  "Your warning!" exclaimed Dick. "Did you warn us, then? If so, it isthe first that I've heard of it."

  "Oh! we warned you all right," answered Urquhart, "and got youracceptance of the message."

  "The dickens!" ejaculated Dick. "That's very queer. Nobody said a wordto me of any warning having been received. Yet--no, I
cannot understandit. Mr Brown, our `chief,' you know, and some seven or eight more weredown in the ward-room when we hit the berg, and he seemed as muchastonished as any of us. If he had heard anything about it, I think hewould certainly have passed the word round, but--he didn't."

  "Ah!" remarked the _Bolivia's_ chief, with deep meaning. "Were you byany chance trying to break the record?"

  "Well," answered Dick, "I believe the skipper had some such idea in hismind. You see we've had the most perfect weather all the way; little orno wind, and water like glass; the ship reeling off hertwenty-six-and-a-half knots as steadily as clockwork, and everythinggoing beautifully. I certainly did get a hint that Captain Prowse wouldlike to set up a new record--"

  "Exactly!" concurred Urquhart, dryly. "That, to my mind, explainseverything. Your skipper got our warning--and simply suppressed it. Hewas out after a new record, and was willing to `take a chance,' as theAmericans say. And here is the result--a brand-new ship gone to thebottom, and, I suppose, hundreds of lives lost. How many did youmuster, all told?"

  "I couldn't say, exactly," answered Dick, "but probably not far short ofthree thousand."

  "Yes; there you are!" commented Urquhart. "Three thousand; and boatsfor only about half of 'em. What became of your skipper? Went downwith his ship, I expect."

  "I'm afraid so," answered Dick. "In fact, I should not be very greatlysurprised if it should prove that I am the only surviving officer."

  "That so? And how did you manage to escape?" demanded Urquhart.

  Whereupon Dick launched forth into the full story of the disaster. Butbefore he had nearly finished, the boat arrived alongside the _Bolivia_,and her freight, whether living or dead, was quickly passed up on deckto the waiting doctor, who quickly distributed the units here and thereabout the ship, while the boat departed upon a further quest.

  Dick and Earle, being both very little the worse for their adventure,were first taken below and given a hot bath; then they were led to avacant passenger cabin, packed in hot blankets, and given a certainnauseous draught which quickly threw them into a profuse perspirationand a deep sleep, from which they emerged, some hours later, not a pennythe worse for their adventure.