Facing the World by Jr. Horatio Alger (ebook reader below 3000 .txt) 📖

“Captain Hill was in too much of a hurry to leave the vessel,” remarked Harry.

“Yes,” answered Holdfast. “Such was my opinion when I thought the Nantucket in much worse condition than at present. If the captain and sailors had remained on board, we could have continued our voyage to Melbourne without difficulty.

“And now?” said Mr. Stubbs, interrogatively.

“Now we have no force to man her. Little Jack and myself are the only sailors on board.”

“But not the only men.”

“That is true. I think, however, that you or the professor would find it rather hard to spread or take in sail.”

Mr. Stubbs looked up into the rigging and shrugged his shoulders.

The next day Mr. Clinton appeared on deck. He looked faded and played out, but he was no longer the woebegone creature of a day or two previous. Even he turned out to be of use, for he knew something about cooking, and volunteered to assist in preparing the meals, the ship’s cook having left the ship with the captain. Accordingly, he rose in the estimation of the passengers—having proved that he was not wholly a drone.

Jack and Harry grew still more intimate. The young sailor was under no restraint now that the captain was not on board, for with the mate he had always been a favorite.

All efforts were made to keep the ship on her course. They could not put up all the sails, however, and made but slow progress. They did little but drift. Nor did they encounter any other vessel for several days, so that there was no chance of obtaining the desired assistance.

“I wonder where it will all end, Jack?” said Harry, one evening.

“I don’t trouble myself much about that, Harry,” said the young sailor. “I am content as I am.”

“Don’t you look ahead, then?”

“I am happy with you and the few we have on board. They are kind to me; what more do I need?”

“I can’t be contented so easily, Jack. I hope there is a long life before us. Here we are, making no progress. We are doing nothing to advance ourselves.”

But this did not make much impression on Jack. He did not look beyond the present, and so that this was comfortable, he left the future to look out for itself.

“What do you think has become of Captain Hill and his companions, Mr. Holdfast?” asked Mr. Stubbs, on the third evening after the separation.

“He is probably still afloat, unless he has been fortunate enough to be picked up by some vessel.”

“There is no hope of reaching land in the Nantucket is there,” continued Mr. Stubbs.

“There is considerable fear of it,” said the mate.

“Why do you use the word fear?” asked Stubbs, puzzled.

“What I mean is, that we are likely to run aground upon some unknown island. If the shore is rocky, it may break us to pieces, and that, of course, will be attended with danger to life or limb.”

Stubbs looked thoughtful.

“I should like to see land,” he said, “but I wouldn’t like to land in that way. It reminds me of an old lady who, traveling by cars for the first time, was upset in a collision. As she crawled out of the window, she asked, innocently: ‘Do you always stop this way?’”

“There are dangers on land as well as on the sea,” said the mate, “as your story proves; though one is not so likely to realize them. In our present circumstances, there is one thing I earnestly hope for.”

“What is that?”

“That we may not have another storm. I fear, in her dismantled condition, the Nantucket would have a poor chance of outliving it, particularly as we have no one but Jack and myself to do seamen’s work.”

Mr. Stubbs walked thoughtfully away.

Harry, who had seen him talking with the mate, asked him what the nature of the conversation was.

Mr. Stubbs told him.

“The fact is, Harry,” he said, “we are in a critical condition. Whether we are ever to see old terry firmy again”—Mr. Stubbs was not a classical scholar—“seems a matter of doubt.”

“And the worst of it is,” said Harry, “there seems to be nothing you or I can do to increase our chances of safety.”

“No, unless we could manage to see a ship which the chief officer had overlooked. That, I take it, is not very likely.”

It was toward morning of the fifth night after the captain had left the ship that all on board were startled by a mighty thumping, accompanied by a shock that threw the sleepers out of bed.

Harry ran hastily on deck. The mate was there already.

“What’s happened, Mr. Holdfast?” asked the boy, anxiously.

“The ship has struck on a rocky ledge!”

“Are we in danger?”

“In great danger. Call all the passengers. We must take to the boat, for the Nantucket is doomed!”