Sea Urchins | Page 5

"Don't you worry your 'ed, cook, about what don't consarn you."
The cook took the advice, and, having made his few simple preparations for the night, blew out the lamp and sprang into his bunk. Then he uttered a sharp exclamation, and getting out again fumbled for the matches and relit the lamp. A minute later he awoke his exasperated friends for the third time.
"S'elp me, cook," began Jem fiercely.
"If you don't I will," said Dobbs, sitting up and trying to reach the cook with his clenched fist.
"It's a letter pinned to my pillow," said the cook in trembling tones, as he held it to the lamp.
"Well, we don't want to 'ear it," said Jem. "Shut up, d'ye hear?"
But there was that in the cook's manner which awed him.
"Dear cook," he read feverishly, "I have made an infernal machine with clockwork, and hid it in the hold near the gunpowder when we were at Fairhaven. I think it will go off between ten and eleven to-night, but I am not quite sure about the time. Don't tell those other beasts, but jump overboard and swim ashore. I have taken the boat I would have taken you too, but you told me you swam seven miles once, so you can eas--"
The reading came to an abrupt termination as his listeners sprang out of their bunks, and, bolting on dock, burst wildly into the cabin, and breathlessly reeled off the heads of the letter to its astonished occupants.
"Stuck a wot in the hold?" gasped the skipper.
"Infernal machine," said the mate; "one of them things wot you blow up the 'Ouses of Parliament with."
"Wot's the time now?" interrogated Jem anxiously.
"'Bout ha'-past ten," said the cook trembling. "Let's give 'em a hail ashore."
They leaned over the side, and sent a mighty shout across the water. Most of Lowport had gone to bed, but the windows in the inn were bright, and lights showed in the upper windows of two or three of the cottages.
Again they shouted in deafening chorus, casting fearful looks behind them, and in the silence a faint answering hail came from the shore. They shouted again like madmen, until listening intently they heard a boat's keel grate on the beach, and then the welcome click of oars in the rowlocks.
"Make haste," bawled Dobbs vociferously, as the boat came creeping out of the darkness. "W'y don't you make 'aste?"
"Wot's the row?" cried a voice from the boat.
"Gunpowder!" yelled the cook frantically; "there's ten tons of it aboard just going to explode. Hurry up."
The sound of the oars ceased and a startled murmur was heard from the boat; then an oar was pulled jerkily.
"They're putting back," said Jem suddenly. "I'm going to swim for it. Stand by to pick me up, mates," he shouted, and lowering himself with a splash into the water struck out strongly towards them.
Dobbs, a poor swimmer, after a moment's hesitation, followed his example.
"I can't swim a stroke," cried the cook, his teeth chattering.
The others, who were in the same predicament, leaned over the side, listening. The swimmers were invisible in the darkness, but their progress was easily followed by the noise they made. Jem was the first to be hauled on board, and a minute or two later the listeners on the schooner heard him assisting Dobbs. Then the sounds of strife, of thumps, and wicked words broke on their delighted ears.
"They're coming back for us," said the mate, taking a deep breath. "Well done, Jem."
The boat came towards them, impelled by powerful strokes, and was soon alongside. The three men tumbled in hurriedly, their fall being modified by the original crew, who were lying crouched up in the bottom of the boat. Jem and Dobbs gave way with hearty goodwill, and the doomed ship receded into the darkness. A little knot of people had gathered on the shore, and, receiving the tidings, became anxious for the safety of their town. It was felt that the windows, at least, were in imminent peril, and messengers were hastily sent round to have them opened.
Still the deserted Susan Jane made no sign. Twelve o'clock struck from the little church at the back of the town, and she was still intact.
"Something's gone wrong," said an old fisherman with a bad way of putting things. "Now's the time for somebody to go and tow her out to sea."
There was no response.
"To save Lowport," said the speaker feelingly.. "If I was only twenty years younger--"
"It's old men's work," said a voice.
The skipper, straining his eyes through the gloom in the direction of his craft, said nothing. He began to think that she had escaped after all.
Two o'clock struck, and the crowd began to disperse..Some of the bolder inhabitants who were fidgety about draughts closed their windows, and children who had been routed out of