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Read Ebook: Alle guten Geister...: Roman by Schieber Anna
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Ebook has 3202 lines and 127708 words, and 65 pages
"Four points off the starboard bow the last time we sighted the light, sir."
"How are you heading?"
"East southeast, three quarters, sir."
"Hold the helm steady until we see if we can make out another signal. Up aloft, there!"
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Look sharp for lights. Report them quickly and make sure the word is passed down. Pass the word back after it reaches me, so that you may be sure I have it."
"Aye, aye, sir."
An interval followed, during which only the roar and shriek of the gale were heard. Then all at once the red-haired boy's voice sounded above the storm.
"What's that?" roared the commanding officer.
"I mean--I mean I sighted the green rocket again, sir," explained Sam Hickey lamely.
"I caught the flash of it, sir," spoke the watch officer. "It was as Seaman Hickey said, three points off the starboard bow this time."
"Starboard, two points!" commanded the captain.
"Starboard two points," repeated the quartermaster on duty at the wheel, giving the steering wheel a sharp turn. "She's on the mark, sir."
"Hold it."
"You think it is a wreck, sir?" questioned the watch officer.
"I know no more about it than do you. Naturally it is some vessel in distress, else they would not be making distress signals. You say you caught only the flash--you did not get a sight of the rocket itself?"
"No, sir. I saw the flash, that was all."
The captain glanced up into the darkness.
"She should be ten miles away, then. We ought to be heading about dead on, if your sight was correct. Full speed ahead, both engines."
The throb of the engines far below them rose to a steady purr. The "Long Island" plunged ahead, lurching more violently than before. It was an unsafe speed in such a sea, but perhaps there were human lives at stake off there in that wild swirl of water, and if so it was the first duty of an American seaman to go to their rescue, however great the peril to himself and crew might be.
"There she goes again," shouted the lookout up by the searchlight.
"I caught it that time. The vessel lies dead ahead. Hold your course, quartermaster."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Ord'ly, turn out the executive officer. Tell him to order the boat crews and the first and second divisions out. Be quick about it."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Boatswains' whistles trilled faintly from the depths of the battleship; boatswains' mates roared out their commands, piping the men from their sleep, and a few minutes later the superstructure was thronged with half-clad figures. Every man of them was soaked to the skin the instant he reached the deck, but unmindful of this every eye was peering into the black mist ahead, the men anxiously questioning each other as to the cause of their being piped out.
No one seemed to know, but older heads shrewdly suspected that somewhere off ahead was a sister ship in dire distress.
"Boatswain's mate!" again came the warning call of the watch officer.
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Pipe all hands to stations."
Once again whistles trilled. The entire crew of the battleship was being called to stations, for again the commanding officer had seen the warning signals shooting up into the sky. Powerful glasses were being leveled at the black abyss ahead, but as yet the officers, of whom there was now quite a group assembled on the bridge, were unable to make out anything on the sea, save the mountains of water that were leaping toward them.
"We must be nearing the place, Mr. Coates," shouted the captain in the ear of his executive officer. "Keep a sharp lookout now. We don't want to have a collision with an old water-logged hulk in this gale. We should run an excellent chance of going to the bottom ourselves."
"Yes, sir," agreed Mr. Coates, as, raising his megaphone, he warned all lookouts to be on their guard.
Sam Hickey, proud in the consciousness that he had been the first to sight the signals of distress, was scanning the troubled seas with keen eyes, from which now and then he brushed the salt brine with an impatient hand.
"If I could see, I'd see," he complained to himself. "I wonder if they have turned out Dan. He knows where I am anyway. There she blows!" suddenly shouted the red-haired boy.
"He's sighted a whale," laughed a young midshipman.
"What do you mean?" roared the captain.
"Light dead ahead, sir. Rocket again, sir."
"Aye, aye," was the answer from the bridge.
The officers there had plainly seen the signal rocket this time, and the green ball seemed to shoot up into the clouds from directly beneath the bow of the "Long Island." The battleship was at that moment riding a mountainous swell, while the vessel from which the signal had been fired was wallowing in the trough of the sea far below. It seemed as if the battleship must slide down the steep wall of water and crush the vessel laboring in the hollow so far beneath them.
"Port your helm!" commanded the captain. "Slow speed astern, starboard engine. Hold her there!"
"There she is, sir," shouted the executive officer, leveling his night glass on the sea valley.
"What do you make of her?"
"Not much of anything. I see faint lights aboard, but that is all."
"Number one searchlight there," called the captain.
"Aye, aye, sir," answered the sailor in charge of the light.
"Throw a light off the port quarter and see if you can pick up that ship."
"Aye, aye, sir."
An instant later a broad shaft of light pierced the blackness of the night. The beam of light traveled slowly about, finally coming to rest on an object in the sea some distance ahead. On this object the officers focused their night glasses.
"Four-masted schooner, sir," called Sam Hickey from his elevated position beside the searchlight.
"All sticks standing?"
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