Adrift in a Boat | Page 5

wind increased the sea got up, and
the little vessels, more suited to fine weather than foul, had hard work
to look up to the rising gale. Still there was no help for it. The tide
helped them along, but by its meeting the wind much more sea was
knocked up than if both had been going the same way. Had such been
the case, the vessels could not have made good their passage. Darkness
coming on made matters worse: poor old Mr Sowton became
wonderfully silent, and Mr Burnaby, who was sitting on the deck of the
cabin, holding on by the leg of the table, looked the very picture of woe.
Mary Rymer, who was well accustomed to yachting, and a few others,
kept up their spirits, though all hailed with no little satisfaction the
lights which showed the entrance to Pencliffe harbour, into which they
were bound.
Mr Moreton's party had been at home some time, and most of the
family had retired to their rooms, when they began to wonder why
David had not appeared.
"He is probably still at the Rymers', or has accompanied Harry to Mrs
Merryweather's," said Mrs Moreton to her husband; still, as night drew
on, she became somewhat anxious. Her anxiety increased when a
servant came with a message from Mrs Merryweather to inquire why
Mr Harry did not come home.
Mr Moreton himself now became even more anxious than his wife.
Neither his daughters, nor some friends staying with them, remembered
seeing either Harry or David for some time before they embarked.
Mr Moreton, putting on a thick coat, for it was now blowing very hard,
went off to Captain Rymer's house, which was close down to the bay,
accompanied by Mrs Merryweather's servant, and greatly alarmed the

family by asking for his son and Harry.
"Why, did they not come back with you?" asked the captain. "No, we
thought they were on board the Arrow," answered Mr Moreton. "They
may have gone with the Trevanians, but I do not think that Harry would
have failed to come back to his mother. I will go back and see her.
They must have set off by land, and there may have been an upset or a
break-down. It will be all right tomorrow."
The morrow, however, came, but the boys did not appear. Mr Moreton
therefore rode over early to the Trevanians, but they knew nothing of
the boys.
He now became seriously alarmed. As it was blowing too hard to go by
sea, he sent a messenger to say that he should not be home for some
hours, and continued on to the bay where the picnic had been held.
Then he made inquiries at the nearest cottages, but no one had seen his
son or Harry Merryweather. He went from cottage to cottage in vain,
making inquiries.
At last a fisherman suggested that the beach should be searched. Mr
Moreton at once set out with a party quickly assembled to perform the
anxious task, dreading to find the mangled body of his son and his
brave young friend. No signs of them could be found. Still his anxiety
was in no respect lessened.
He stopped on his way back at one cottage which he had not before
visited. He found the inmate, an old woman, in deep affliction. Her
husband, old Jonathan Jefferies, a fisherman, when out on his calling,
had perished during the gale in the night. He could sympathise with her,
and as far as money help was concerned, he promised all in his power.
With an almost broken heart he returned home to give the sad news to
his wife and family.
Poor Mrs Merryweather, she was even still more to be pitied. To have
her son restored to her, and then to find him snatched away again so
suddenly, perhaps for ever!

Day after day passed by, and no news came of the much-loved missing
ones.
CHAPTER TWO.
ON THE ROCKS--A BRAVE LAD--SAVED--TRISTRAM'S
FATE--STILL IN A BOAT.
"David, you must try to swim on shore, and save yourself," exclaimed
Harry Merryweather, looking at the foaming seas, which now began,
with a deafening noise, to dash furiously round the rock on which he
and his friend stood. "If you don't go soon, you will not be able to get
there at all. Leave me, I beg you. There is no reason why both should
be lost."
"No indeed, that I will not," answered David, stoutly. "If I thought that
I could get help by trying to swim on shore I would go, but I do not
think there is a place near where I could find a boat."
Harry did not speak for a minute or two.
At last he put his hand on David's shoulder, and said,