While all the signalling had been going on, the wind was gradually freshening and the sea getting up; and by the time we made sail again the waves had put on their white caps, while a heavy, rolling swell had set in.

This met us almost full b.u.t.t as we lay on our course and broke over our weather bow in columns of spray, washing the forecastle fore and aft and tumbling into the waist in a cataract of foam.

The water was knee-deep on the lee side of the deck, whenever the ship heeled over to port under the pressure of her canvas, pa.s.sing out of the scuppers like a mill-race on her rising again and righting on an even keel.

The more the gale blew, however, the better the old _Candahar_ appeared to like it; racing along in grand style, and kicking up her heels to the Frenchman who was pretty soon hull down astern, the distance between us widening each instant all the more rapidly from the fact of our proceeding in opposite directions!

At Two Bells, when the log was hove, we were found to be going over nine knots but the ship began to plunge so much presently, that Commander Nesbitt, after one or two anxious glances aloft, ordered the boatswain's mate to call the hands to shorten sail, setting them to work the moment they came up from below, the topgallant sails and royals being taken in without delay and the royal yards sent down.

"I thought we were going to have bad luck," observed Mr Stormc.o.c.k, who had made his appearance again on the quarter-deck on hearing the boatswain's pipe for all hands. "We haven't seen the worst of it yet, I'm afraid."

"Shut up, you old croaker," said Mr Jellaby. "Why, you're a regular Jonah with your prophecies of evil!"

"I hope you won't chuck me overboard for it, though, as they did him!"

replied Mr Stormc.o.c.k, good-humouredly. "Goodness knows, I don't wish any harm to the old ship, or anyone in her! It isn't likely I would; but, look at those clouds there away to win'ard and judge for yourself what sort of weather we're likely to have before nightfall!"

"Yes; no doubt you're right, Stormc.o.c.k," said "Joe" in answer to this, squinting as he spoke over the side to the westward, where a heavy bank of cloud was rising up and nearly blotting out now the sun as it sank lower and lower towards the horizon. "It does look squally, certainly; still, I can't see the use of antic.i.p.ating the worst and trying to meet troubles half-way, as you do, old chap!"

"I would rather be prepared for them than be caught napping," rejoined the master's mate, eyeing the quartermaster at the wheel, who was giving a helping hand to the two helmsmen, their task being by no means easy to make the ship keep her luff under the circ.u.mstances of wind and sea. "I wonder the commander doesn't reef tops'ls? We can't carry on much longer like this!"

"I hope he won't," whispered little Tommy Mills to me aside, my chum having come up with the rest from the gunroom at the general call.

"Ain't it jolly, spinning along like this, eh, Jack?"

Before I could reply, however, the commander seemed to have arrived at Mr Stormc.o.c.k's opinion, that we were still carrying too much canvas, for he came to the break of the p.o.o.p and shouted out to the boatswain's mate.

"Hands reef topsails!" he cried. "Topmen aloft! Take in two reefs!"

"Not a bit too soon," growled the master's mate, under his breath. "He ought to have given that order when the to'gallants were taken in!"

"Better late than never, say I," said Mr Jellaby, laughing, as the topmen raced up the ratlines and the weather braces were rounded-in, preparatory to reefing. "Really, Stormc.o.c.k, you're the most inveterate growler I have come across in the service since first I went to sea, by Jove!"

Tom Mills and I chuckled at this; but, alas! our merriment was suddenly hushed by hearing a wild shriek come from aloft, that rose above the moaning of the wind as it whistled through the rigging and the melancholy wash of the waves, while, at the same instant, a dark body whizzed through the air and fell into the water alongside with a heavy plunge.

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Commander Nesbitt, as we all stared at one another with blanched faces. "What is that?"

His question was answered in the moment of its utterance by a loud shout from forward that rang through the ship, sending a chill to every heart.

"Man overboard!"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A HOPELESS QUEST.

"Sentry, let go the life-buoy!" cried out Commander Nesbitt at once to the marine guard on duty on the p.o.o.p, as the shout reached his ears; and then, facing round again forward, he said, "Bosun's mate, call away the lifeboat crew!"

On the order being given, the marine had instantly pulled the trigger releasing the slip by which the patent buoy was suspended over the stern, whereupon it dropped into the sea below; the same mechanism igniting the port fire with which it was charged, although it was not yet dark, as the friction-tube had been put in a short while previously when the watch was relieved at Eight Bells, it being the rule on board for the gunner's mate to do this every day before sunset and take out the percussion-tube again in the morning at daybreak when the hands turned out to wash and scrub decks.

So, no sooner had the buoy touched the water than it floated away, flaming in our wake; the lurid blue light casting a spectral glare on the phosph.o.r.escent foam of the broken wave crests that contrasted weirdly with the last expiring gleams of the setting sun, now nearly hidden by the pall-like black cloud, which had gradually risen along the horizon and stretched itself across the whole western sky, creeping up steadily towards the zenith and shutting out little by little the last bit of blue.

At the sound of the boatswain's pipe, too, the cutter's crew had begun to muster on the p.o.o.p, the leading hands unloosing the gripes with which the boat was secured and the c.o.xswain attending to the tiller; while two or three of the men had already put on their cork jackets and taken their seats on the thwarts, ready for lowering away, the little craft being swung out from the davits to leeward.

Excitement there was, of course, amongst us all, everybody looking eager enough, as was natural; but I noticed that, while the commander's orders were executed with the utmost prompt.i.tude, there was no reckless hurry and confusion.

The most perfect order and discipline prevailed, everything being done systematically, although the accident had occurred so suddenly and unexpectedly; ay, and despite the fact that every soul on board, from Captain Farmer, who had come out of his cabin again immediately on hearing the lifeboat's crew called away, down to the youngest cadet and powder-monkey, was willing and anxious to do his best to save our unfortunate shipmate, without one of us knowing as yet who the poor fellow was whose life was thus imperilled.

No; nor, indeed, did we learn his name until after the topsails had been double-reefed and hoisted again and the ship hove-to with her maintopsail to the mast--which was accomplished in less time, I believe, than was ever known before, the operation not taking more than three minutes from first to last!

Then it was that we heard who had been lost overboard.

"It's poor Popplethorne," said Charley Gilham, the third lieutenant, who had rushed up to the p.o.o.p from amidships, where he had been stationed, to take command of the lifeboat. "He fell from the upper rigging as he was climbing up into the foretop. The sail ballooned out; and then, slatting against the yard as the brace was hauled in, the clewline caught him unexpectedly, tripping him up and knocked him out of the rigging headlong into the sea!"

"Poor young fellow!" said Captain Farmer. "Do you think he was hurt at all, or fell clear of the ship?"

"I'm afraid not, sir," replied Mr Gilham, sorrowfully, as he grasped the after falls and sprang into the cutter. "One of the foretopmen, who witnessed the accident, says that he appeared to cannon off something below, bounding out from the ship's side before striking the water, when he sank like a stone."

"I'm afraid, then, there's no hope of picking him up," said the captain.

"Are you all ready, Gilham?"

"All ready, sir."

"Lower away, then," cried Captain Farmer. "We can but try to save him!"

With that, down went the boat into the water alongside, in such a speedy fashion that the after falls slipping too quickly through the lieutenant's fingers peeled off the skin from the palms of his hands: though Mr Gilham was quite unconscious of the injury he had received until he returned on board, his attention being absorbed in the attempt to save the unhappy midshipman by endeavouring to reach the spot where he had gone down, by this time half-a-mile or so astern.

Meanwhile, the commander had stationed lookout men on the crossjack yard and mizzen top, as well as in the weather rigging, to seek for any trace of the poor fellow.

The captain and a dozen of the officers or more were also on the alert, scanning the broken surface of the choppy sea surrounding us; but, alas, it was all in vain, no dark speck was to be seen anywhere in the distance resembling the head of the poor fellow trying to keep himself afloat, although the signal staff of the life-buoy could be made out distinctly from the deck, without the a.s.sistance of its flaming fuse, which the shades of evening rendered all the more visible as daylight waned.

Beyond this and the boat, which was cruising about beyond the buoy, away to leeward, roving hither and thither on its vain quest, there was nothing in sight of us on board the ship, either from the hammock nettings or mast-head.

No, nothing but the restless, rolling billows, tossing up their white caps in triumph over the victim who had fallen a sacrifice to Neptune; and the breaking waves, that seemed to chuckle with malicious glee while the remorseless deep below seemed to give vent every now and again to a hoa.r.s.e roar of triumph!

"Signalman, hoist the cutter's recall," said Captain Farmer, presently; after an age of waiting and looking out, as it appeared to me, during which not a word was spoken by anyone. "There is no use searching any more now. If he were afloat, they would have found him long since!"

"Alas! I'm afraid there's no hope," replied the commander. "He will never be seen again, sir, I think, till the sea gives up its dead!"

"No, poor fellow. May he rest in peace."

Captain Farmer raised his cap reverently as he said this; the commander doing the like and adding in his deep voice--

"Amen to that, sir."

The signalman had run up B flag for the cutter's return; but, as no notice was apparently taken of the signal, the captain ordered one of the bow guns to be fired.

Even then, however, the boat did not at once obey this imperative command, rowing off, indeed, in the opposite direction still, as if those in charge of her had noticed some object in the water, which we could not observe from the ship.

A minute or two later, we could see the cutter come to a stop; when, by the aid of the telescope, Larkyns, who was standing by the side of Captain Farmer, said he was sure he saw them pick up something and that they had now turned and were making for the ship.