A Dream of the North Sea | Page 7

hands up very quietly, and the men hung on anyhow. One drift after
another passed by in dim majesty, and the spectacle, with all its
desolation, was one never to be forgotten. After half an hour or so,
Blair glanced up and noticed a dim form sliding down the shrouds; then
the skipper rushed aft, for the helmsman could not see him, and then
came a strange dark cloud of massive texture looming through the
delirious dance of the fog-wreaths. First a flare was tried, then the bell
was rung with trebled vigour.
"Down below, sir, and call all up. He's yawed into us."
Blair saw the shape of a large vessel start out in desperate closeness;
and running through to the saloon, cried quickly, "All up on deck!
Ferrier, Fullerton, Tom, lend a hand with the ladies."
A yell was heard above; the poor sick folk came out in piteously thin
wrappings, moaning as they walked, and all the company got on deck
just in time to see a big barque go barely clear.
The youngest girl fainted, and Marion Dearsley attended to her with a
steady coolness that earned the admiration of her assistant--the doctor.
The serried ranks of the wreaths ceased to pour on, and the worn-out
landsfolk went below.

Right on into the next night the unwearied gale blew; significant lumps
of wreckage drifted past the schooner, and two floating batches of
fish-boxes hinted at mischief. The frightful sea made it well-nigh
impossible for those below to lie down with any comfort; they hardly
had the seaman's knack of saving themselves from muscular strain, and
they simply endured their misery as best they could. The yelling of
wind and the volleying of tortured water made general conversation
impossible; but Tom went from one lady to another and uttered
ear-splitting howls with a view of cheering the poor things up. Indeed,
he once described the predicament as distinctly fahscinating, but this
example of poetic license was too much even for Thomas, and he
withdrew his remark in the most parliamentary manner. Ferrier was
more useful; his resolute, cheerful air, the curt, brisk coolness of his
chance remarks, were exactly what were wanted to reassure women,
and he did much to make the dreary day pass tolerably. His services as
waiter-general were admirably performed, and he really did more by
resolute helpfulness than could have been done by any quantity of
exhortation. He ventured to take a long view at sundown, and he found
the experience saddening. The enormous chequered floor of the sea
divided with turbulent sweep two sombre hollow hemispheres. Lurid
red, livid blue, cold green shone in the sky, and were reflected in
chance glints of horror from the spume of the charging seas. Cold, cold
it was all round; cold where the lowering black cloud hung in the east;
cold where the west glowed with dull coppery patches; cold
everywhere; and ah! how cold in the dead men's graves down in the
darkling ooze! Ferrier was just thinking, "And the smacksmen go
through this all the winter long!" when the skipper came up.
"It'll blow itself out now, sir, very soon, and a good job. We've had one
or two very near things, and I never had such an anxious time since I
came to sea."
"I suppose we didn't know the real danger?"
"Not when we shipped that big 'un sir. However, praise the Lord, we're
all safe, and I wish I could say as much for our poor commerades. It'll
take two days to get the fleet together, and then we shall hear more."

At midnight a lull became easily perceptible, and the bruised, worn-out
seafarers gathered for a little while to hold a prayer-meeting after their
fashion. They were dropping asleep, but they offered their thanks in
their own simple way; and when Ferrier said, "I've just had a
commonplace thought that was new, however, to me: the fishermen
endure this all the year, and do their work without having any saloons
to take shelter in," then Fullerton softly answered, "Thank God to hear
you say that. You'll be one of us now, and I wish we could only give
thousands the same experience, for then this darkened population might
have some light and comfort and happiness."
And now let me close a plain account of a North Sea gale. When the
weather is like that, the smacksmen must go on performing work that
needs consummate dexterity at any time. Our company of kindly
philanthropists had learned a lesson, and we must see what use they
make of the instruction. I want our good folk ashore to follow me, and I
think I may make them share Lewis Ferrier's new sensation.

CHAPTER III.
THE SECOND GALE.
In thirty-six hours the gale had