University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.
Nortkrop, the Skipper.

`There is no doubt that it is our father's
shallop,' said May. `At all events,
the lives of those on board are in jeopardy,
and I will not let them perish if there
is a chance of getting aid to them. Lower
the life-boat, Tom, and hasten with it
to the beach while I take the oars and
buoys.'

`It will be a hard row, May, and I
don't care to risk bein' drowned for the
old un,' answered Tom doggedly.

`I will give you a new green jacket
and a red waistcoat, Tom, if you will go
with me.'

`You won't deceive me, now, May?'
he said, his eyes brightening up, and his
whole face expressive of his satisfaction.

`No. When May gives you her
word it is sacred, Tom.'

`I'll go, then,' he answered decidedly.
`If we are drowned, I shall drown with
you, and so go up to Heaven with you.'

In less than ten minutes the surf-boat
was taken from its place in the cabin,
carried on the dwarf's shoulders down to
the beach, and launched into the frothy
waves.

It was very light, and buoyant as a
nautilus, and was tossed on the waves
like a feather. May sprang into it with
the oars,—the dwarf sent it out upon the
billows with a strong arm, followed her
at a bound, and began to ply his oars.—
It was some moments before they could
get away from the shore; but, when they
did, the strong arms of the idiot sent the
boat forward in the face of the storm with
astonishing speed.

May was so intent on the duty she had
undertaken, that she did not see the gig
to leeward of her. As she came near
the frigate, she would gladly have gone
on board to have got George to aid her,
and also called on the crew to follow
her in a boat. But she felt that every
moment's detention might prove fatal to
her father; for she was confident it was
his shallop. She therefore left the frigate
to leeward and held her way straight out
to the ledge. The boat was seen from
the ship, and as it was evidently a surf-boat,
its mission was understood; for the
situation of the dismasted shallop was
plainly visible whenever the lightning
permitted objects to be seen. But the
English Captain, finding that it would be
impossible to pull one of the frigate's
heavy boats to windward, and to attempt
it would endanger more lives than he
might hope to rescue, gave no orders to
follow the example of the surf-boat. The
little messenger of life, however, was
watched with the deepest interest. The
shallop could be seen every now and
then drifting towards the reef. At times
it seemed to be lost in its foam; but
again would re-appear a helpless wreck
rolling onward to destruction at the mercy
of the waves.

George continued to watch the life-boat's
progress trom the cliff, in the
greatest anguish. He saw the whole extent
of her danger on such an enterprize,
and the more he reflected upon her courage
and daring, which were ever ready
handmaids to her humanity, he trembled
the more; for he knew that she would
count her life nothing so that she could
save that of her father.

He recalled her former acts of generous
bravery in saving the perishing, herself
also saved; but he derived no consolation
from this reflection.

`She will never return. Such a storm
as this she never ventured out in. Besides,
before, when she saved the five
persons from the ledge, she had her father
and Tom with her. Now she probably
has only Tom, who is not always to
be depended on in the hour of greatest
peril.'

These words were uttered aloud. Buttermilk,
who was by, answered,

`Nebber you fear for Missy May,
Mass' Jorge. She nebber be drowned so
long as dere be a angel in heaben to hold
her pretty head 'bove de waves. I don't
feel least consarned at all, Massa Jorge.
You mind me. She sure to come back
safe herself; but wedder she bring back
old Northrop alive is a nodder question.'

`I hope I shall see her again safe, but
I fear not.'

`Well, it nebber do no good to stand
here takin' on. Massa better come in,
for de wind blow him off de cliff for sartain.'

`No. I shall remain here, and by the
aid of the friendly lightning, watch the
progress of the skiff. If she is lost, life
has no more charms for me.'

`Nebber say die, Massa Jorge!' responded
Buttermilk, in a resolute tone.

`I there saw the skiff. It is close to
the ledge, and to windward of it. It
seemed to be trying to pass between the
ledge and the shallop! No power on
earth can save it!'

This was, also, the opinion of those on
board the frigate, who watched as well
as they could with their glasses, the fate
of the sloop, and the bold surf-boat. To
the officers it seemed trying to cut off
the shallop, ere it should be flung upon
the reef.

`Whoever manages that boat,' said
the young officer with the star upon his
coat, `has a true hand, and a fearless
heart.'

`And is reckless of life,' said the captain;
`for the boat will hardly get out
of that surf alive, if it once gets into it.
What brave, skilful fellows these Maine
fishermen are.'

`The skiff was no longer visible by
that flash!' said an officer, in a tone of
anxiety. `I fear it has capsized.'

`No doubt of it. If my own father or
child was in that shallop, I should hardly
venture out to that ledge in such a pampero
as this to try to save 'em,' said the
quarter-master.

`Both shallop and surf-boat are likely
to be lost,' was the response of the English
captain. `It is a pity. For whoever
has launched that boat, and guided it so
resolutely thus far, deserves a better
fate. Has any one been able to see
where the gig landed?'

`No, sir.'

`No signs of her return.'

`No, sir,' was the answer from the
lieutenant of the deck.

`I fear they have been swamped.—
Fire a gun, Mr. Mervin, to bring them
off, if they should be loitering on the
shore!'

The gun was discharged, awakening
the echoes of the encircling cliffs, and
lighting up the bay with its flash.

`Send up a blue light, sir,' said the
captain. `Send up three, one after the
other, so that we can have a look at the

shore; and also see what is become of
the shallop.'

But we will not wait for the rockets to
go up, but follow the surf-skiff as she approached
the shallop.

As we have already described, the
shallop was outside the bay, dismasted
and drifting, without human remedy, fast
upon the inner ledge, over the long line
of which the wild waves of the storm,
lashed deep, foamed and roared with appalling
power.

The rain had some time ceased, and
here and there a chasm opened in the
dark curtain of clouds, that were rolling
along upon the black wings of the tempest.
The wind outside had lessened
its force in no degree, but went howling
on over the ocean, and ploughing up its
blue depths, and turning out its snow-white
lining like paths of snow.

The strange sail, when first seen from
the frigate, was coursing like an affrighted
bird over the wild scene, with only a
small sail closely reefed, presented to
the gale. It was a small, sloop-rigged,
craft, of the rudest description, containing
two old fishermen, and two young
men or youths. Her forward deck was
open, and the cargo protected with tanned
canvass. At the helm, stood a strong
built, grey-headed man, of large stature,
and stern visage. His countenance was
deeply lined with the furrows of a hardy
and exposed life; and upon his brow
were impressed resolution and courage,
that amounted almost to ferocity.

His large frame was dressed in a long
coarse blue storm-coat; he wore a tarpaulin
upon his head, lapping over his
ears, and high boots that reached to his
knees. As he stood at the helm, his
keen eye bent forward upon the wild
flight of his little craft, there was no
signs of fear of the result. Firm and
cool he stood at his post, riding on the
storm, like its presiding spirit.

Behind him stood a young fisherman,
broad-shouldered and ill-made, who aided
him in holding the tiller in its place.—
Forward were the others; one of them
was a thin, old man, with a long back
and longer limbs; the other, a lad with
a black head of hair, exceedingly black
restless eyes that shone like diamonds, a
dark skin, and teeth like the most brilliant
ivory. He wore a red flannel shirt,
or what was left of it, and a pair of duck
trowsers cut off at the knee. He was
bare-headed, and his legs and feet were
naked. In shape, he was a young Apollo;
and in his bearing and fearless eye
he showed the calm and fearless character
of the untamed child of the forest.

It was a noble spectacle to see the little
vessel go swooping onward from wave
to wave, half the time submerged, and at
others with the spray leaping over her
in cataracts of sparkling foam. All
around her the sea, where it was not inky
black, was white, like cream. The billows
rolled now on the right, now on the
left of her, higher than her straining
mast; and occasionally a gigantic wave
would give it a chase astern, and coming
up with it, swift as it blew, hang above it
for an appalling moment, and then leap
with a hissing roar upon its deck, plunging
the little vessel far beneath the surface.
But, buoyant as a water-fowl, the shallop
would rise to the surface, shake off the
volumes of water, and go again bounding
upon her mad way.

The helmsman of the shallop was William
Northrop, the father of May Fawn.
His crew were composed of a father and
son, poor neighbors, who lived near Cape
Small Point; and a young full-blooded
Indian of the Tarrantine tribe.

William Northrop kept his eyes fixed
resolutely upon the reef before him. He
was fully alive to the danger of his situation.
He would have laughed at the
storm, if he could have carried sail

enough to govern the course of his shallop
and keep her to her helm. But the
wind swept the sea so strongly that he
had to reef his mainsail down almost
close to the deck; for to display any
more canvass to such a hurricane would
have been to be driven bodily under the
surface. At this moment they saw the
beacon on the cliff, and also first caught
sight of the frigate after she had passed
the inner ledge. The beacon showed
Northrop that he was seen; but he could
not explain the appearance of the frigate.

`Saul,' he said to the old man; `I wonder
how that ship has got into the bay.
I find the current sweeps towards White
Pine Head faster than we can run towards
the entrance. Some one has lighted
a beacon fire, for us or the ship. It
will do us no good. The old Porpus
Ledge ahead of us is howling and foaming
like a pack of mad wolves!'

`I've made up my mind, Cap'n Northrop,'
answered the old man with a melancholy
shake of his long grey head.

`What do you mean?'

`I mean to say that this ere shallop
never 'll drop anchor again in the bay.
She'll never see Porpus Reef astern on
her. We are driving jist as fast as wind
and water can carry us right slap on to
the reef!'

`Not if I can help it, Saul,' answered
Northrop with resolutely clenched teeth
as he stooped and bent his keen eyes
ahead. `It will be a tight push, though!'
he added as his eyes fell on the long wall
of snowy spray! Hard up with the
helm!' he called to his assistant. `We
must try and weather this ledge on a
tack. If we run on this way, we are lost
to a certainty.'

`I know'd it, Cap'n,' responded the
old man, with another shake of the head.
`We shall be sure never to get in this
night. If you have any sins, as men say
you have, to repent of, I'd recommend
you to think of 'em! We can't get out
o' this. See! How the sea piles itself
up on the ledge in great waves. No,
no! Long as I've been on the coast,
man and boy, I never seed nothing like
this!'

`Hold on all!' shouted William Northrop,
as the shallop came round to the
wind under the influence of the helm.
The sheet-block of the main-sail was
wrenched from its bed by the force with
which the boom was jerked as the vessel
came to the wind,and the sail went swinging
overboard slatting wildly and furiously.
It swung three quarters round
the mast, clearing the deck in its dreadful
sweep. The old man was struck in
the head and knocked many feet into the
sea, in which he sunk shrieking.