Laura Lee Hope

“ A bank of clouds, slate colored, and fringed with an ominous yellow, had gathered in the west, and there was a moaning in the air as though a far-off wind were sending a message to those in peril to beware of its breath.
The sea, too, had a glassy look. The big waves rose sullenly, and sank back into troughs, with an oily smooth motion as though they resented being thus confined. It was like the action of some raging beast in leash. There was a curious oppressiveness in the air, too, and more than one found difficulty in breathing. ”

“ Events aboard the Mary Ellen did not transpire at all slowly. In a comparatively short space of time she had been converted from an old hulk into a good sailing vessel, she had put to sea with a party of moving picture workers, including a sailor accused of mutiny, who had broken jail. She had been stopped by the English ship, and now the old schooner was starting to scud before the blast of a hurricane. For the time being the accusation against Jack Jepson was forgotten.
"Lively now, everyone!" cried Captain Brisco. "When a storm breaks down here, it isn't any child's play. ”

“ Ruth found voice to say, "and Captain Brisco isn't going to wait for him."
"You can't hold a ship still on the ocean, and a storm coming up!" the commander cried, as though to justify himself. "We've got to run for it. It would be madness now to lay to."
"But we can't desert Russ and Mr. Sneed!" cried the manager. "I thought he was coming in. What shall we do? We must do something! I shouldn't have asked him to risk it!"
The schooner was rapidly forging ahead, even under reefed sails, so powerful was the wind. ”

“ Poor Jack slunk back, smarting under the undeserved rebuke.
"I don't care who is in command!" cried Mr. Pertell. "This is my ship and you're under my orders, Captain Brisco. I order you to pick up that motorboat!"
"And I tell you we can't do it! They've got to come to us, we can't go to them. They're not dependent on the wind as we are. They can travel any direction they like, and they'll have to head for us."
"But we must make some effort to find them!" cried the manager. "It would be wicked—criminal not to."
"Look here!" cried Captain Brisco. ”

“ It lasted three days, during which the storm nearly blew itself out. And on the morning of the fourth day, when the sullen sea was trying to calm itself, and when the wind had died down to a moderate gale, the lookout of the Sirius called out:
"Sail ho!"
"Where away?" came the demand.
"Dead ahead. She's a schooner, low in the water, and she's flying a signal of distress!" ”

“ The effect was to lower the sail so quickly, and in such a fashion, with the wind blowing hard against it, that there was a crash, a banging and booming of the canvas, and the boom and gaff. The first mate, who was standing near the mast, was knocked down, narrowly escaping going overboard.
"Oh, what has happened?" cried Ruth.
"Be still!" commanded Alice, clutching her sister by the arm. "Yelling isn't going to do any good. We're not hurt."
They were standing near a companionway, well out of reach of the falling sail.
"Oh, we're sinking! We're sinking!" screamed Miss Dixon. ”

“ Russ, setting his camera up on the platform made for it in the bow, began grinding at the crank, taking many views of the pitching, tossing schooner as it rose and fell on the bosom of the heaving ocean.
"I don't like this!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed, when a dash of spray wet him, as he sat at the wheel. "I wish I hadn't come. I'm sure something will happen!"
"Something sure will, if you don't keep her headed up into the seas," declared Russ. "We'll be swamped, that's what will happen. Steady now. ”

“ Meanwhile Captain Brisco had bawled out an order to the helmsman to bring the ship up in the wind. A sailor had tossed overboard a life-ring, and then came to help Lacomb lower the boat, for Alice found it beyond her strength, eager as she was.
"There he is!" cried Russ, as he rushed to the rail beside Alice. He pointed to the water. Fortunately the sea was smooth, and rising and falling on the waves could be seen the head of the old sailor.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Ruth, who glided over to the side of Alice. "If—if a shark should come now."
"There aren't any around here!" declared Russ. ”

“ Alice appealed.
"Who?" the first mate wanted to know.
"This ship."
"I—I think so," he said. "Yes, surely," he added quickly. "We will ride out the storm, never fear. It hasn't gotten here yet, and we may only get the outer edge of it. But you must excuse me now," and he hastened along the deck.
"There!" cried Alice. "What did I tell you?" she asked triumphantly.
"Well, I'll stay here with you a little while," Ruth agreed. "Then I'm going below and——"
"Bundle up all your possessions and sit on a life preserver," broke in Alice with a laugh. "Oh, Ruth, you are—hopeless!" ”

“ A glance served to tell the commander what had happened. He saw that Jack Jepson had matters well in hand, and though Alice guessed that Captain Brisco had no love for his second mate, the commander knew seamanship when he saw it.
"Lively now!" he cried. "That's the idea! We'll run before the gale now."
"But the motorboat!" cried Ruth, who had conquered her desire to flee to the cabin, and hide her eyes and ears from such nerve-racking sights and sounds. "Where is the Ajax—and Mr. Sneed—and—Russ?" she faltered. ”

“ It stood out straight, like a board, so strong was the wind that whipped it.
"I hope they see that," commented the actor.
"I hope so, too," added Russ. "It doesn't do any good to yell, for the wind is blowing from them to us."
More than once, as they urged their craft on a long slant toward the steamer, they almost gave up hope. But it sprang up again, and finally, as a break in the clouds let out a little rift of light, someone on the watch aboard the steamer saw the fluttering signal.
"She's seen us! She's seen us!" cried Russ in delight. ”

“ Alice reproached him.
"That's how I feel about her," he answered.
"What can be done about picking up the motorboat?" asked Mr. DeVere. They all looked anxiously toward Captain Brisco.
"I have a man on the lookout," answered the commander. "It may seem to some of you heartless to go away and leave her."
"It was," murmured gentle Ruth. But she only whispered the words. There were tears in her eyes.
"But I could do nothing else," resumed Captain Brisco. "As I told you, a vessel can't remain stationary on the sea. We had to move on before the gale. ”

“ A shadow seemed to pass over the face of the old actor. He had been jokingly gay during the meal, but now there seemed to be a sense of depression.
"Might as well tell us, and have it over with," suggested Ruth. "We don't believe in dreams, anyhow. Do we Alice?"
"Not a bit, and I've named the corners of my bed ever so many times," and she laughed at that old sweethearts' superstition.
"Well, my dream was very vivid," Mr. DeVere said. "I don't usually believe in omens, but this one impressed me. I dreamed we were all at sea, on a vessel in a storm, and, somehow, we became separated. ”

“ It was evident that something had taken place aboard the steamer. A signal flag broke out at her mast, and Captain Brisco, seeing it, exclaimed impatiently:
"What can they want with us?"
"They want to talk, that's evident," said Hen Lacomb, who stood near the commander.
"But what about?"
"We'll soon know."
As the Mary Ellen lay almost motionless on the sea, for she had been brought up sharply, the steamer approached. It was so calm that she could come quite close without danger of a collision. A man, evidently an officer, hailed through a megaphone. Jack dared not desert his place as lookout. ”

“ The storm which at that moment was enveloping the Mary Ellen was, at the same time, buffeting about the smaller motorboat. When she lost headway by the stopping of her engine she no longer took the seas head, or bow, on. She fell into the trough, and was in imminent danger of being swamped.
"We've got to bring her up, the first thing we do," Russ decided. "What we need is a drag anchor. That will bring her head on to the waves, and we can ride them better until help comes."
"Will help ever come?" asked the actor, despondently.
"Of course it will. Or else we'll find the schooner, or they us!" ”

“ Pertell will venture out far from the harbor in a bad blow. Even a little wind will kick up enough sea to make it look pretty rough in a picture."
"Oh, I don't mind a storm!" exclaimed Alice. "I just love it."
"Oh—Alice!" cried her sister. "You know you'll be as frightened as I'll be."
"We'll see," challenged the younger girl with sparkling eyes and a flush on her cheeks.
They found the Ajax, after some little difficulty, among a score of other boats, in process of repair.
"Oh, what a big one!" exclaimed Alice as she caught sight of the craft. "I do hope you'll give us a ride in her, Russ." ”

“ She wanted the statement of Alice disproved.
"I'm afraid it is," the young actor made answer. "And the tide, I am sorry to say, is likely to be unusually high today. The moon has something to do with it. But we will be taken off before then."
"Suppose we aren't?" asked Alice. "The wind and the sea are rising, and if we are swept off the rocks——"
"Don't be so tragic about it!" broke in Ruth. "If we are to go to sea, and be in a shipwreck, even if it is only pictured, we must learn to face perils. And here we are only a little way from shore."
"That's right!" cried Paul. ”

“ There is all the difference in the world on a sailing ship, whether a man bunks "forward" or "aft." In the latter case he is either an officer or a passenger, and in the former case he is classed as a member of the crew, a "foremast hand," and, as such, has no authority.
"Hen Lacomb is evidently someone in power," decided Alice, though she said nothing to her sister or father, or even Jack. She managed to learn, by judicious questions, that Hen, as she began to think of him, was a friend of Captain Brisco, and a sort of passenger-helper on the Mary Ellen. ”

“ Meanwhile the lookout on the Mary Ellen was eagerly watching for any signs of the Ajax, but he had even less chance of seeing her than Russ and Mr. Sneed did of sighting the larger vessel.
The storm was constantly growing worse. As old Jack had said, the schooner had actually been caught in the very vortex of it, but the whirling motion, imparted by the meeting of two different wind currents, had been the saving of the craft. She had been shunted to the outer edge, as a cork, going around in a whirlpool, is sometimes tossed to safety by the very violence of the motion. ”

“ While Russ was "loading" his camera, Ruth and Alice watched the sailors getting the Ajax ready. The engine had been tested, and seemed to work well. Jack Jepson came along with a small keg of water, and a bundle done up in a piece of sail cloth.
"What's that for?" asked Alice.
"Provisions and water," answered the old sailor.
"But they're only going to be away a few minutes," the girl objected. "They won't want anything to eat or drink."
"It's a rule of th' sea," said old Jack, "never to put a boat over the side without provisioning and watering her. ”

“ Jepson," ordered the commander, "will you go forward, and see how the bitts are standing up under the strain of that hawser? I don't want them to pull out, and they're none too strong. Lively now!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" dutifully answered the second mate, and he shuffled off along the deck, while Captain Brisco and the new arrival went below, being, apparently, on very friendly terms.
"And that is another queer part of it," mused Alice. "That new man is supposed to be a common sailor—he must be, as all the offices, from captain down, are filled. And yet Captain Brisco treats him as an equal. ”

“ Who is he?" asked Alice, accepting this chance to get out of answering, though what she had meant was the identity of the mysterious Hen Lacomb, and not the youth on the dock.
"I've seen him before," Ruth said.
"Who?" asked Alice quickly, her mind still intent on the mystery.
"Why, Alice, how odd you are! That young man of whom we are speaking, to be sure. I mean I've seen him around the studio. He seems to be quite impressed by Miss Dixon."
"Yes," said Alice, vaguely. "Well, let's go below," she suggested. "You notice how nautical I'm getting," she went on. ”

“ Seems rather queer to go to all this work and expense," he went on to Mr. Pertell, "just to fit a schooner out, and then sink her. It's a waste of good money, I should say."
"We'll get our money back, never fear, if the film turns out all right," said Mr. Pertell. "Now how are you coming on? That's what I came to see. I want some of my principal actors to get familiar with the ship, so I brought them down. I started with Jepson, up in the studio," he added in a lower voice, for the benefit of Captain Brisco, "but he balked, I'll tell you about it later. He can stay and help you if you like." ”

“ A hurricane is sweeping up fast, and this is a bad locality in which to be caught," called one of the steamer's officers through a megaphone. "We'll have to get out of here, and so had you better. There's no sea-room here. We'll pick you up later, and don't forget you are in English waters, and subject to our orders. We're going to have that man!"
"Well, if you put it that way, of course I'll have to give in," said Captain Brisco. "I'll wait for you after the blow."
"Well, that's a respite, anyhow, but not a very pleasant one," said Alice.
"No," agreed Jack Jepson, who breathed easier now. ”