We could see the lights ashore now and then, and knew how the folks would be looking out for the lifeboat, and the very thought of it all gave one a shudder, for it seemed that they were all lost ships crew and lifeboats crew while we four had been looking idly on.
Id crept along to the bows of the ship, and was trying to peer out into the thick haze ahead, when all at once I gave a start, for I seemed to hear a cry like some one hailing very faintly.
I looked out again and again on both sides, and then settled as it was fancy, for the noise of the wind and water was deafening; but just as Id made up my mind that it was nothing I hears the cry again, and this time it made me shiver, for I knew that any one of the ships crew, or the lifeboats crew, must have been swept away half an hour before. So, as I said, I gave quite a shiver and crept back to where my mates stood, and shouts in Bob Gunniss ear, Theres some one a hailing of us!
Dont be a fool, he says, quite crusty; but I stuck out as there was, and then he crept forward too, and stood listening. Now then, he says, wheres your hailin now? Why, it was the
Help! came a faint cry from somewhere ahead, and Bob stopped short with his mouth open, and his hand over his eyes, gazing out to sea.
Say, mate, he says, ketching hold of my arm, and whispering in my ear, with his mouth quite close say, mate, lets get back; taint natral.
Well, feeling a bit queer after hearing that wild cry from somewhere off the water, and knowing that nothing could live in the sea then on, we thought it was what Alick Frazer, another of our chaps, called No canny, and we crept back along the bulwarks to where tother two stood, and I say, bo, says Bob to Alick, you can hear em drowning out there now; and Bob was obliged to shout it all.
Ah! says Alick, and so we shall every storm night as comes, laddie; and Ill no stay in the ship if we do.
Help! came the cry again off the water such a long low cry, heard in the lull, that it seemed to go through us all, and we stood there trembling and afraid to move.
Taint human, says Alick its a sperrit; but somehow or other we all went up to the ships head again, and stood trying to make something out as the light turned round. All just in front of us was dark, for it was some little way out before the light struck the water; but we could see nothing; and shaking our heads, we were about going back again, when a sea came aboard with a rush, and made us hold on for dear life; and then directly after came very faintly the cry, Help! so close at hand that it seemed on board.
Why, theres a chap on the chain? cried Bob Gunnis excitedly. Look here, mates, he cried; and there right below, and evidently lashed on to the big mooring cable, we could make out a figure, sometimes clear of the water, and sometimes with it washing clean over him.
Ahoy! I sings out; but there was no answer, and during the next minute as we stood there no cry for help came, for it seemed the poor fellow was beat out.
Well, I says, we must fetch him aboard somehow.
Ah! says Bob Gunnis, thats werry easy said, mate; praps youll go down the cable and do it.
That was home certainly, for with the sea, as we kept shipping, it was hard enough to hold your own in the shelter of the bulwarks, without going over the bows, where you would have to hang on, and get the full rush. Well, but, I say, some one must go; and I shouted it out, and looked at the other two. But they wouldnt see it, and Bob Gunnis only said it was bad enough there as we were; so I goes down below, feeling all of a shiver as if something was going to happen, and they shouted at me, but I came up again,
and shoved the hatch on, and then crept forward with some inch rope in my hand; makes one end fast round my waist, and gives them the rest to pay out; and then gets ready to go over the bows and slip down the cable.
I waited till a sea had struck us, and then climbed over and began to swarm down the cold, slippery iron links; and not being far, I soon got hold of the poor fellow hanging there; then the sea came right over us, and it seemed as if I was going to be torn away; but I held on, and then as it went down I got lower, and held tight hold of the poor chap both arms round him, and fancying how it would be if my knot wasnt fast, or the rope parted. I shouted for them to haul us aboard; but they couldnt have heard me, for while I was watching the black bows of the ship, another wave come over us, and I was almost drowned before it sank. But now they began to haul on tight, and dragged so that the rope cut awfully, for I found that the poor chap didnt move; and loosing one hand as they slackened a moment, I could feel as he had lashed himself to the cable, and then the rope tightened again, and before I could shout I was being dragged away, and the next moment they had me over the side.
But I was a bit up now, and, opening my knife, I tried the knot, got my breath, and went over again, slid down the chain, and getting where I was afore, managed to cut through the poor fellows lashings; and then holding on tightly, shouted to them to haul; but as I shouted, the sea washed right over us, and dashed us bang up against the ships bows, so that I was half stunned; but I held on, and then as the wave was sucking us back, and I felt that it was all over, the rope tightened, the fellows hauled in fast, and once more I was aboard, and this time not alone though, mind you, it was no easy task to get us over the side, for I couldnt help them a bit.