Sea-Lark

“ There was no “give” to ease her, with that solid weight dragging astern. Sometimes, also, a following sea hit the sloop viciously, breaking over her quarter, half drenching the boy at her wheel, and pouring down into the cockpit. Once, after the sloop had been struck in this manner, Captain Jordan hailed the Sea-Lark from the deck of the schooner.
Putting his hand to his ear Jack turned to listen.
“I’ll send you a man to give a hand if you like,” the fisherman shouted down the wind. ”

“ Sailing was an old accomplishment for both the captain and his young mate, but most of their experience in that direction had been gained in dories, which compared with taking the Sea-Lark out on a trip was child’s play. The Sea-Lark was not, however, too large for two to handle. Other sloops even larger were wont to flit about the waters of Greenport harbor in the summer with only two persons aboard, and there was one, fifty feet over all, which one man usually handled alone. ”

“ It was perhaps half a mile away, and Jack’s thoughts were on the navigation of his own boat, but the brief glance showed him something amiss. With a shout to George to haul in the sheet, he put the helm hard over and jibed the Sea-Lark, rather than make the turn in a safer but slower way. There was a stiff wind blowing, and the boom swept across the deck with a rattle and a bang, fetching up on the other side with a wrench. But the gear stood the strain, and the sloop was now racing in the direction of the canoe, which had capsized. ”

“ After a while Tony saw them and approached.
“Don’t come here yet, Dad,” urged George.
“What are you two young conspirators up to now?” asked the boat-builder.
“We’re artists, Dad,” replied George, chuckling. And then they were quiet again.
“There,” said Jack at length. “How’s that?”
“It’ll fetch them, all right,” commented the mate of the Sea-Lark, with complete satisfaction.
It was a perfect summer morning when Holden’s Ferry came into being. The lightest of breezes came in from the south, leaving a bare ripple on the placid water of Greenport harbor. ”

“ And—why, look here, Jack, maybe these fellows is the ones that stole the money from your father!”
“I wonder!” said Jack. “Anyway, it’s all a puzzle to me. Why should the men have hidden it on the Sea-Lark? And if they did hide it there, why didn’t they take it away again during all the time the sloop lay on the dunes?”
Bob Sennet shook his head in perplexity. “Now’s the time to find out, if it ever is to be found out,” he said as the schooner’s sails dropped and she sidled toward her usual berth, much to the surprise of those who had seen her put to sea a short time before. ”

“ I’m getting hungry, aren’t you?”
“Don’t mention breakfast to me,” protested George. “I could eat the side of a house!”
As Jack put the helm over, the canvas flapped and slashed madly, and then, as the sails bellied, a terrific gust of wind swept down on the Sea-Lark. Before Jack had time to ease her up into the wind again she listed far over, the wind screaming in her halyards while a smother of spume weltered over her deck. It seemed that something must give way under the strain, and in the midst of the confusion the eye-bolt pulled out of the mast. ”

“ If they hear us coming we shall have no better chance than when we drifted away. I expect it will be no good, anyway, but I can’t sit still doing nothing, much longer.”
Judging as accurately as possible the direction of the sound that came across the water occasionally, they began to paddle softly, and within five minutes Jack held up a warning hand and pointed ahead, where the shape of the Sea-Lark loomed dimly.
For another twenty fathoms they urged the dinghy along, until it was possible to see the sloop distinctly. Contrary to Jack’s expectation, there was nobody visible on deck. ”

“ He was down on our wharf yesterday, trying his best to be ugly about this little sloop. Said she got in the way o’ his craft, he did. He’s a misery. Don’t you ever leave the Sea-Lark lying in the way o’ his rotten old boats, or she’ll get crushed for a certainty, if he has anything to do with it. And he’ll sure make out that it was all your fault.”
“Thank you for being a passenger,” said Jack, as the vessel edged up to the hotel landing on the Point. “If you’re not going to stay ashore long I will wait for you.” ”

“ Neither Tony nor Mr. Holden slept a wink that night, for there was always a chance that some vessel might come towing the Sea-Lark back to port.
[238]
CHAPTER XIV
CASTAWAYS As the wild swirl of water rushed over Jack, he clung desperately to the handle of the sloop’s pump. The vessel staggered under her load, but righted herself bravely.
“Are you there?” the boy spluttered, as soon as he could breathe once more. It was too dark to see anything.
“I—I think so,” came back the mate’s voice. “I didn’t expect to be, though. We don’t want much more of that stuff!” ”

“ But she had escaped the effects of the recent gale by a narrow margin only, for the Sangus had swirled over its banks, eating its way through the sand to a new course, until it now flowed within twenty feet of the Sea-Lark.
The boys climbed aboard the derelict, and with their legs dangling over the side, with [28] healthy appetites attacked a parcel of sandwiches.
“I’m glad she’s still here,” said Jack. “Do you remember when I was a pirate king last summer and made you walk the plank? We’ve had lots of fun on this sloop. ”

“ The rock in question was not easy to scale, as it offered no secure foothold, but its summit was a full twenty feet above the level of the ocean, and before long the captain of the Sea-Lark was perched precariously on the top.
“Hooray!” he cried, shouting down to his chum, and pointing away to the north-west. “We’re all right, George. I can see the coast plainly. And there are two ships in sight—schooners, [245] I think. That must be Bristow harbor over there.”
“We’re all right, George. I can see the coast plainly”
In his excitement he descended from his lofty perch a little too rapidly. ”

“ Taking advantage of a temporary lull in the breeze, the sloop swung round harmlessly.
“Ease off your main sheet!” the skipper ordered. Away ran the boom as a fresh puff filled the sail; and the Sea-Lark was already winging its way before the wind.
“That’s all right,” Tony approved. “You’ve got the hang of it. But remember what I say; that’s a dangerous manœuver if there’s much of a breeze.”
For another hour or two the boat-builder [78] continued to coach the boys in the art of sailing ”

“ Next time they come along I must thank them for it. They were both down on the wharf yesterday, but I was pretty busy and they didn’t speak.”
“It just shows you,” observed the watchman, “how you can be mistaken in folks.”
“Ye-es,” said Jack, a trifle doubtfully. Then, “Hello, here they come,” he added.
Hegan and Martin strolled to the edge of the wharf and looked down on the deck of the Sea-Lark.
“Good morning,” said Jack. “Cap’n Crumbie has been telling me about your being kind enough to start a subscription for the tug when we were blown out to sea. It was awfully kind of you.” ”

“ Holden, though he had never discouraged the boy in his project, had always been a little skeptical as to whether the ferry would bring much grist to the mill, but he now grew really enthusiastic, for there were times when the Sea-Lark carried as many as fifteen people at a time. To some extent Cap’n Crumbie was responsible for the boy’s success in the early stages of the ferry’s career, as he rarely allowed a party of sight-seers to wander down to his wharf without urging them to make the trip in the Sea-Lark. ”

“ They hadn’t got off the wharf when you landed.”
“Mysteriouser and mysteriouser!” commented Jack. “I’ve got a feeling that something is going to happen to some one, somehow.”
“Captain Brains, of the good ship Sea-Lark!” the mate observed, grinning.
“But, joking aside,” said Rod, “there does seem to be something in the wind, doesn’t [141] there? What do you think of it, Mr. Crumbie?”
“Cap’n Crumbie, at your service,” the watchman corrected, with a reproving glance. ”

“ Now, this good-for-nothing son of mine,” and he took George affectionately by the ear, “never thinks of anything except to get up in the morning and go back to bed at night; do you, son? Come along, [74] Jack. I know you’re aching to get to this wheel. I guess it’s quite safe for you to take her now.”
The owner of the Sea-Lark exchanged places with Tony, and the sloop ran slowly toward the ocean under his guiding hand. The breeze was light and steady, and she barely made three knots an hour, but at that moment Jack would not have exchanged places with the captain of the finest liner afloat. ”

“ After putting them through their short apprenticeship, the boat-builder sat on an upturned box, lighted his pipe with deliberation, and for a while watched his pupils at work.
“Steady, there!” he said. “Don’t try to go too fast. You’re not out to make a record. Not too hard with the mallet, or you may do more harm than good. That’s the style!”
As the tide had receded it had left the vessel canting over on her starboard side, and Tony had told the repair gang to take one seam at a time, working from stem to stern as far as [55] possible, for the Sea-Lark was high and dry only at low water. ”

“ How’s your leg?”
“Nothing much wrong,” replied Jack. “I’ll be on board again by Tuesday, but I’ve got to stop in bed till then.”
“You’d better let George and me run the ferry for a day or two,” said Rodney. “You see if we don’t do a roaring business. The story’s got all over the place by now, and half the town has been down to look at the bullet holes on the sloop. Everybody will want to run across in the Sea-Lark to-morrow.” ”

“ It isn’t exactly the idea of losing the salvage money that makes me hope the tug will miss us somehow, though,” he added with a grim smile.
“It’s quite enough reason,” observed Rod.
“Yes, but I want to keep this tow till we get right into the harbor,” said Jack. “I can’t very well be in two places at the same time, [172] but I’d give a month’s earnings at the ferry to be standing near Mr. Simon Barker and watch his face when he sees this schooner of his being towed in by the Sea-Lark. ”

“ And then they landed and dug cabins below and raised the anchor out of the deep sea, and soon they made the island what they called shipshape. But the Desperate Lark they sent away empty under full sail to sea, where more nations than Shard suspected were watching for her, and where she was presently captured by an admiral of Spain, who, when he found none of that famous crew on board to hang by the neck from the yard-arm, grew ill through disappointment. ”

“ He can’t help paying. He can fight, and stand us off for a long time if he wants to, but sooner or later, Jack, he’s got to come to terms. So sit tight, my boy, and let Simon and me do the worrying.”
[182]
CHAPTER XI
THE STRUGGLE IN THE DARK Jack was by now becoming accustomed to sleeping aboard the Sea-Lark. The slight motion of the sloop as she lay at her moorings, and the gentle lapping of water against the side of the craft, instead of keeping him awake, lulled him to sleep. ”

“ It is written in the first Book of Wonder how Captain Shard of the bad ship Desperate Lark, having looted the sea-coast city Bombasharna, retired from active life; and resigning piracy to younger men, with the good will of the North and South Atlantic, settled down with a captured queen on his floating island.
Sometimes he sank a ship for the sake of old times but he no longer hovered along the trade-routes; and timid merchants watched for other men. ”

“ Mr. Astor next sent out the ship Lark, Captain Northrope, with instructions to touch at the Sandwich Islands: but when they got into their latitude, and were running down before the wind, it came on to blow very hard, which reduced them to a close-reefed main top-sail and fore-sail. The sea was running mountain high, and the ship being very crank, in the middle watch (which was kept by Mr. Machal, a relative of Mr. Astor's) she suddenly broached-to, and a sea struck her, which laid her on her beam-ends. The people lost no time in cutting away the masts, by which means she righted. ”

“ Tommy Lark waited for the sea to roll on.
"You bother me," he complained. "I might have been half way across by this time."
"You'd have been cotched on the side of a swell. If you're cotched like that you'll slip off the ice. There isn't a man livin' can cross that ice on the slant of a sea."
"Be still!"
The pan was subsiding from the incline of a sea to the level of the trough.
"Now!" Sandy Rowl snapped.
When the ice floated in the trough, Tommy Lark leaped, designing to attain his objective as nearly as possible before the following wave lifted his path to an incline. ”

“ With flaring flambeaux that the wind blew down;
The Saturnalia were a wild boy's lark
With rain-quenched torches dripping thru the town—
But you have found a god and filched from him
A fire that neither wind nor rain can dim.
SEA LONGING A THOUSAND miles beyond this sun-steeped wall
Somewhere the waves creep cool along the sand,
The ebbing tide forsakes the listless land
With the old murmur, long and musical;
The windy waves mount up and curve and fall,
And round the rocks the foam blows up like snow,—
Tho' I am inland far, I hear and know,
For I was born the sea's eternal thrall. ”