Chapter 39
"Ay, that will be best," said the captain; "for our main-top is not like that of a man-o'-war."
Sir John looked a little anxious, but he said nothing, and stood watching as Jack went to the starboard main shrouds and began to ascend rather awkwardly but with a quiet determination which soon landed him in the little top, where he and the mate levelled their gla.s.ses, and began to trace the edge of the reef where the great rollers were foaming, but nothing was visible, till all at once Jack said--
"What will the opening be like?"
"A spot where there is no foam--no breakers curling over."
"I've found it then," said Jack quickly, "but it seems to be a very long way off."
"I'm afraid you are mistaken," said the mate, who repeated the process of sweeping the reef with his gla.s.s. "My eyes are pretty good ones, but I can make out nothing but breakers. Try again, and see if you see the place now."
Jack had not taken his double gla.s.s--a very good one presented to him by his father--from his eyes, and a minute had not elapsed before he said--
"Yes, there it is: a dark bit in the white rollers. It's a long way off, but I can see it quite plainly."
"Make anything out?" cried the captain anxiously, as he watched them from the deck.
"I can't, sir," replied the mate, "but Mr Jack here says he can see it quite plainly."
"Well done, young mariner," cried the captain. "Good for the first voyage. Have another look, Bartlett, and see how far it is off."
The mate looked again through his long gla.s.s, and Jack with his short one.
"Yes, there's the dark spot," said the latter. "Can't you see it now?"
"No. Your eyes are better than mine, my lad."
"Perhaps it's my gla.s.s that is better than yours," said the lad. "Try."
The mate lowered his own telescope and took the little binocular handed to him, had a look, focussed it a little better for his own sight, and then cried sharply--
"Yes, sir, there's the gap in the reef."
"How far away?"
"About a couple of miles, sir."
"Tut--tut--tut--tut!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain; "and we shan't make it till the wind rises at night."
"What! be rocking out here all day again?" said the doctor.
"Yes, sir, I'm afraid so."
"But we could land here in the boat."
"What, through that surf, Sir John? Impossible. It looks very trifling from here, but it would be a certain capsize if it was attempted, and the boat smashed to pieces. But we must do better than that;" and giving the orders sharply, the firemen and engine-driver turned to below, and five minutes later the great wreaths of black smoke were pouring out of the funnel and rising high, forming a huge feather that was very slowly left behind.
Before there was steam enough to use they were once more in a dead calm, but the swell consequent on the check given to the current by the obstacle formed by the reef was far heavier than on the previous day, and the captain frowned as the yacht rocked from side to side, her masts describing arcs against the sky.
"I don't like that," he said. "Bad place to be in if
"But there seems to be no likelihood of such a misfortune, for the gla.s.s promised fine weather."
"All the same, though, sir," said Captain Bradleigh, "I am always anxious when I find myself in a place which might prove dangerous, and I am not so situated that I could get out of it."
At last there was a welcome hissing sound from the valve, the order was given, and once more the yacht began to throb, as if it had its heart pulsating rapidly, and the distance which separated them from the opening in the reef was soon pa.s.sed, the panorama being lovely in the extreme. Once there the engine was slowed, stopped, and the captain gave orders for one of the boats to be lowered.
"Why not steam in at once?" asked Jack.
The captain smiled.
"It is some years since I was here, my lad. Then we rowed in, with the lead being heaved all the time, and there was plenty of water for a s.h.i.+p to sail in; but since then the coral insects may have been busy building up walls or mushroom-shaped rocks, or a bit of a mountain top ready to make a hole in our bottom, so we must feel our way. Going with them?"
For answer Jack sprang into the boat, and they pushed off, riding easily over the swell caused by the breakers stretching away in a long line to right and left; and as they rowed on, a man in the bows kept on heaving the lead, and sounding to find deep water everywhere.
"Make a pretty loud din, don't they?" said the mate quietly, as, with a feeling of awe beginning to increase as they neared the opening, Jack sat watching the great rollers which came gliding in with the tide, and then, as if enraged at the barrier to their progress, rose up foaming and curved over to fall with a boom like thunder.
This increased as they drew nearer, the opening proving to be about a hundred yards in width, and the water, which had seemed to be so smooth and calm at a distance, being just outside one wild turmoil of eddy and cross currents consequent upon the action of the breakers on either side.
The boat danced about so at last, as they rowed slowly on to enable the man in the bows to sound more frequently in this the entrance part, that Jack was unable to keep back the question he felt ashamed to put.
Out it came.
"Is it safe for such a small boat as this to go through there, Mr Bartlett?"
"If it were not I should row back," said the mate with a quiet smile.
"Oh, yes, we could go through far worse places than this. But look there to the right; you see now why the captain said no boat could cross the reef."
Jack could not forbear a shudder.
"The oars are nearly useless in that broken water, nearly all foam. The men can get no grip. But here we could run in twice as fast if we liked. Seems to be deep water. Capital channel. Not a suggestion of a rock."
Then after contenting himself with letting the lead go down a few fathoms in the deep water, the man began to keep to one level length of ten fathoms, and this always went down without finding bottom till they were well in the jaws of the reef, when all at once he cried the depth--"By the mark nine," and repeated the announcement again and again. Then it was eight, then seven, and as they glided out of the turmoil into perfectly smooth water the depth shallowed to six fathoms, and kept at that, no less, wherever they rowed.
"Plenty of good anchorage in shelter," said the mate, slewing the boat round head to the opening once more, and they rowed out, sounding again as they went back, after proving that there was a perfectly clear channel for the yacht to pa.s.s in.
Once well outside the mate bade the men lie on their oars, and he hoisted the boat-hook with a handkerchief on the end for the signal agreed upon with the captain.
Then the _Silver Star_ began to move, and glided slowly in, picking up the boat as she pa.s.sed.
Half-an-hour later the anchors were dropped, and the yacht lay moored in perfectly still water, through which Jack gazed down at a wonderful submarine garden, and then at the line of cocoa-nut trees in the sandy beach to their right. Then his eyes went wandering over the forest, and up and up to the perfectly formed volcano which shot skyward.
And so on till his eyes grew misty, and the back of his neck ached with the way in which it had been bent, and he was still gazing through his gla.s.s when the announcement came that the meal was ready.
All too soon, for the boy did not know he was hungry, there had been too much mental food to devour.
But he found that he could eat and pay attention to the conversation too, which was upon the, to him, glorious subject of going ash.o.r.e that afternoon in the boat for the sake of a little exploring before the night closed in, and ended what was to Jack a most exciting day.