Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction; Short stories, English
So they tossed till day broke and showed Drake's Island ahead of
them, and the whole Sound running with a tidy send of sea from the
south'ard, grey and forlorn. Some were for turning back, but
Pengelly wouldn't hear of it. "We must make Cawsand Bay," says he,
"if it costs us our lives. Maybe we'll find half a dozen ships
anchored there and ready for sea."
So away for Cawsand they pulled, hour after hour, Hancock all the
while wanting to die, and wondering at the number of times an empty
man could answer up to the call of the sea.
The squalls had eased soon after daybreak, and the sky cleared and
let through the sunshine as they opened the bay and spied two
sloops-of-war and a frigate riding at anchor there. Pulling near
with the little strength left in them, they could see that the
frigate was weighing for sea. She had one anchor lifted and the
other chain shortened in: her top-sails and topgallant sails were
cast off, ready to cant her at the right moment for hauling in.
An officer stood ready by the crew manning the capstan, and right aft
two more officers were pacing back and forth with their hands clasped
under their coat-tails.
"Lord!" groaned Pengelly, "if my poor Ann's aboard of she, we'll
never catch her!" He sprang up in the stern sheets and hailed with
all his might.
Small enough chance had his voice of reaching her, the wind being
dead contrary: and yet for the moment it looked as if the two
officers aft had heard; for they both stepped to the ship's side, and
one put up a telescope and handed it to the other. And still the
crew of the gig, staring over their shoulders while they pulled
weakly, could see the men by the capstan standing motionless and
waiting for orders.
"Seems a'most as if they were expectin' somebody," says Pengelly with
a sudden hopefulness: and with that Treleaven, that was pulling
stroke, casts his eyes over his right shoulder and gives a gasp.
"Good Lord, look!" says he. "The tender!"
And sure enough, out of the thick weather rolling up away over
Bovisand they spied now a Service cutter bearing across close-hauled,
leaning under her big tops'l and knocking up the water like
ginger-beer with the stress of it. When first sighted she couldn't
have been much more than a mile distant, and, pull as they did with
the remains of their strength, she crossed their bows a good
half-mile ahead, taking in tops'l as she fetched near the frigate.
"Use your eyes--oh, use your eyes!" called out Pengelly: but no soul
could they see on her besides two or three of the crew forward and a
little officer standing aft beside the helmsman. Pengelly ran
forward, leaping the thwarts, and fetched the tailor a rousing kick.
"Sit up!" he ordered, "and tell us if that's the orficer you spoke to
last night!"
The poor creature hoisted himself upon his thwart, looking as yellow
as a bad egg. "I--I think that's the man," said he, straining his
eyes, and dropped his head overside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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