Dorymates: A Tale of the Fishing BanksMunroe, Kirk
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Dorymates: A Tale of the Fishing Banks
Munroe, Kirk
Newfoundland and Labrador -- Fiction
All at once, as they were lifted from a deep, watery hollow, and looked
for the lights, they gave utterance to exclamations of dismay. They
could still see the green light and the two yellow lights, but the red
one was no longer visible.
“’Tain’t no use. She’s going to windward of us;” muttered one of the
men, at once giving up all hope, and again lying down in the bottom of
the boat. “Luck’s against us, and we might as well reckon on help from
the old _Curlew_ as from that craft.”
Most of the others evidently thought as he did, and they turned their
eyes resolutely away from the lights, as though determined to be no
longer tantalized by them. But Breeze could not give up so easily, and
he still watched the lights whenever a lifting wave afforded him an
opportunity of seeing them.
What! Can it be? Or are his eyes deceiving him? No. It certainly is the
red light again, now much more distinct than before. The steamer has
altered her course and is heading directly for them. The men are filled
with new life at the boy’s exultant cry announcing his discovery. They
spring up and gaze incredulously. It is true, and both lights are now to
be plainly seen, not more than half a mile away and bearing directly
towards them. Now they fear that she may run them down, and begin to
pull to windward, so as to give her a clear berth. At last she is close
upon them, and the green light disappears, while the red shows clear and
steady.
“Now for a shout, men! All together as I give the word. One! two!
three!” commands the skipper.
It is a wild, desperate cry that startles the lookout on the forward
deck of the steamer from the half reverie into which he has fallen.
Again it comes to his ears, and again, borne on the wings of the gale
across the angry waters; and now it is heard by the steamer’s captain,
who has not left the pilot-house that night.
A gong clangs down among the engines, and a hoarse order is shouted to
the engineer through the speaking-tube. The great screw under the
steamer’s stern stops for a moment, and then churns the water violently
as its motion is reversed and it revolves rapidly backward.
“See if you can pick them up with the electric,” is the captain’s order
to the second officer, who has just appeared on deck. At the same
instant a dazzling flash of white light darts forth from the steamer’s
bow, and cuts a gleaming path-way between two solid walls of blackness
above the raging waters.
The second officer seizes the handles at the back of the great lamp, and
the broad band of light is slowly swept round to the direction from
which the cries have come. In another moment it flashes full in the
white faces of Breeze McCloud and his companions, sitting in their
seine-boat not more than a hundred yards away. The wonderful eye of the
search-light has discovered them, and they cover theirs with their
hands, or turn away from the unbearable radiance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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