Across India by Oliver Optic

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"They mean the same locality. Go on, Mr. Scott," added the captain.

"'And the vicinity of the bay of Kuriyan Muriyan, where the winds and
weather are more boisterous and variable than on any other part of the
coast,'" continued Scott.

"Where is that bay?" asked the commander.

"It is between the two points mentioned before; but it is Kuria Muria on
the chart;" and the captain had the point of his pencil on it by this time.

"We are within three hours' sail of the longitude of that bay, but a
hundred and fifty miles south of it," said the commander. "The information
in the book is quite correct. Is there anything more about it?"

"Yes, sir; a few lines more, and I will read them: 'Respecting Kuriyan
Muriyan Bay, Captain S.B. Haines, I.N., remarks that the sudden change of
winds, termed by the Arabs _Belat_, and which blow with great violence
for several days, are much dreaded; but what surprised me more than these
land winds were the frequent and heavy gales from the S.S.W. during
February and March, blowing for six days together.'"

"This gale, for such it appears to be, instead of a mere squall, as I
supposed it was at first, has come before it was due by a few days; but it
proves that what you have read is entirely correct," said the commander.
"My two voyages in the Arabian Sea took me twenty degrees east of this
point, and therefore I had nothing but quiet water. But, Mr. Scott, you
have put an old navigator into the shade, and I commend you for the care
and skill with which you had prepared yourself for the voyage of the Maud
to Bengal."

"I protest that it was only an accident that I happened on that paragraph!"
exclaimed Scott, blushing under his browned face.

"You found what you were looking for, and that was no accident. I feel that
I have added an excellent young officer to the number of my officers,"
added Captain Ringgold.

"I thank you, sir, with all my heart; but may I ask one favor of you?"
inquired the third officer.

"Name it, and I will grant it if possible."

"I earnestly request that you do not mention this little matter to any
person on board of the ship."

The commander of the Guardian-Mother was an honest and just man, and he was
disposed to give credit to any one who deserved it, even at his own
expense, and he looked at the young officer in silence for some moments.
Then they argued the question for a time; but the captain finally granted
the new officer's request, praising him for his modesty, which was rather a
newly developed virtue in his character.

The steamer continued to roll violently when Louis assisted Miss Blanche
down the stairs to the main cabin. The dozen passengers who had not
gone on deck after luncheon were in excellent humor, for all of them
were experienced sailors by this time, and beyond the discomforts of
seasickness. All of them held the commander in such high respect and
regard, that not one of them mentioned the failure of his prediction of
fine weather for the next five or six days. Perhaps all of them wondered,
for the captain's predictions before had been almost invariably verified;
but not one of them spoke of his missing it in this instance.

The gale continued the rest of the day and during the night. When the
morning watch came on duty at four o'clock, Captain Ringgold was pacing the
promenade deck, peering through the darkness, and observing the huge waves
that occasionally washed the upper deck. He had not slept a wink during the
night, though he had reclined an hour on the divan in the pilot-house. He
was not alarmed for the safety of his ship, but he looked out for her very
carefully in heavy weather.

He was particularly interested in the conduct of the Blanche. She had taken
a position to windward of the Guardian-Mother, and appeared to be doing
quite as well in the heavy sea as her consort. She had been built with all
the strength and solidity that money could buy; and she was as handsome a
craft as ever floated, not even excepting her present companion on the
stormy sea, and she was proving herself to be an able sea-boat.

"Good-morning, Mr. Scott," said the commander, as the young officer touched
his cap to him.

Scott had been temporarily placed in the watch with the first officer, and
his post of duty was at the after part of the ship.

"Good-morning, Captain Ringgold," replied Scott, as he halted to ascertain
if the commander had any orders for him. "The gale does not appear to have
moderated since I turned in, sir."

"On the contrary, it blows fresher than ever. I did not expect such a nasty
time as we are having of it," added the commander.

"According to Captain Haines of the Indian navy, we may expect it to last
five days longer, for we have had nearly one day of it."

"Not quite so bad as that, Mr. Scott. If we had stayed in the vicinity of
Kuria Muria Bay, we might have got five days more of it; but this is a
local storm, and we shall doubtless run out of it in a day or two at most,
and come again into the region of the north-east monsoon."

"I hope so for the sake of those in the cabin; and I did not think of the
local feature you mention."

"The deck is well officered now," added the captain with a gape, "and I
will take a nap in my cabin for an hour or two. Mr. Boulong will have me
called if the storm gets any worse."

The commander went to his cabin, and Scott walked aft to the compass abaft
the mainmast. The binnacle was lighted, and he looked into it. The course
was all right, though the ship yawed a good deal in the trough of the sea,
the gale pelting her squarely on the beam. Though it was not an easy thing
even for a thorough seaman to preserve his centre of gravity, the young
officer made his way fore and aft with the aid of the life-lines which had
been extended the evening before. He watched the motions of the Blanche,
for there was nothing else to be seen but the waste of angry waters.

Far ahead the light of the breaking day began to penetrate the gloomy black
clouds. It was a pleasure to come out of the deep darkness, and he observed
with interest the increase of the light. While he was watching the east,
the lookout man in the foretop hailed the deck. He listened and moved
forward to the foremast to hear what passed between him and the first
officer.

"Steamer on the port bow, sir!" reported the man aloft.

Scott saw the vessel, but she was too far off to be made out. She passed
and disappeared; but about the moment he lost sight of her, he thought he
heard the report of a musket, or some other firearm, to the northward of
the ship. He listened with all his ears, and then distinguished very
faintly shouts from human voices. He waited only long enough to satisfy
himself that he had not mistaken the roar of the sea for calls for help,
and then went forward to the pilot-house, where he announced that he had
heard the shots and the cries.

"Are you sure of it, Mr. Scott?" asked the first officer.

"Very sure, sir."

"We have heard nothing, and the lookouts have not reported anything," added
Mr. Boulong.

"On deck, sir! Wreck on the port beam!" yelled the lookout aloft.

"Call the captain, Mr. Scott," said the first officer, as he went out on
deck.

He made out the ominous sounds, and judged that they came from a point not
more than a mile distant. The commander and Scott appeared immediately; and
with the increased daylight they discovered several men clinging to what
appeared to be a wreck.

CHAPTER III

A REVIEW OF THE PAST FOURTEEN MONTHS

The Guardian-Mother had sailed from New York about fourteen months before
she appeared in the waters of the Arabian Sea. She was a steam-yacht of 624
tons burden, owned by Louis Belgrave, a young man who had just entered his
eighteenth year. His native place was Von Blonk Park, in New Jersey, most
of whose territory had been the farm of the young gentleman's grandfather,
who had become a millionaire by the sale of his land.

The terrors of the War of the Rebellion had driven the old man to convert
his property into gold, which he had concealed so effectually that no one
could find it. His only son, more patriotic than his father, had enlisted
in the loyal army, and had been severely wounded in the brave and faithful
discharge of his duty, and returned to the home of his childhood a wreck of
his former self.

His father died during his absence, and Paul Belgrave, the soldier, was his
sole heir. His physical condition improved considerably, though he never
ceased to suffer from the effects of his wound. The homestead of his
father, which had not been sold with the rest of his land, afforded the
invalid a sufficient support; and he married Maud Nashwood, the only
daughter of one of the small magnates of Von Blonk Park, which had now
become a thriving town, occupied mainly by business men of New York.

Paul Belgrave was a millionaire without any millions; for he was never able
to find the large property of his deceased parent. For ten years he dug
over the cellar bottom of the old house, and the ground in the vicinity;
but the missing million entirely eluded his search, and he died as soon as
he gave up all hope of finding the treasure.

Mrs. Belgrave was left with their son, then eight years old; but the estate
of her husband, with the property of her father, supported her comfortably.
The widow had been married at sixteen; and she had the reputation of being
the prettiest woman in the Park after her husband died. She had many
suitors, but she finally married a handsome English horse-trainer, who
called himself Wade Farrongate, though that was not his real name.

For some reason not then apparent, this man at once became the enemy of
Louis Belgrave; and the war between them raged for several years, though
the young man did all he could to conciliate his stepfather. The man was a
rascal, a villain to the very core of his being, though he had attained a
position of considerable influence among the sporting gentry of New York
and New Jersey, mainly for his skill as a jockey, and in the management of
the great races.

Louis discovered a plan on the part of Farrongate to appropriate the stakes
and other money dependent upon the great race of the season, and escape to
England with his wife and stepson. In this scheme Louis, after he had
obtained the evidence of the jockey's villany, went on board of the steamer
which was to convey them all over the ocean, and succeeded, with no little
difficulty, in convincing his mother of the unworthiness of her husband;
and she returned with her son to Von Blonk Park. The young man went back to
the steamer, and by skilful management obtained all the plunder of the
villain, who sailed for England without his treasure.

Farrongate, or rather John Scoble, which was his real name, was a deserter
from the British army. He was arrested on his return, and compelled to
serve out the remainder of his term of service. The death of an uncle in
India recruited his finances, and he returned to New York. It afterwards
appeared that he had some clew to Peter Belgrave's missing million, and he
was therefore anxious to recover the possession of the wife who had
repudiated him.

A successful conspiracy enabled him to convey her to Bermuda. At this stage
of the drama, Captain Royal Ringgold, an early admirer of the pretty widow,
became an active participant in the proceedings, and from that time he had
been the director of all the steps taken to recover Louis's mother.

In the interim of Scoble's absence, Louis, assisted by his schoolfellow and
devoted friend, Felix McGavonty, had accomplished what his father had
failed to achieve in ten years of incessant search: he had found the
missing million of his grandfather, and had become a millionaire at
sixteen. The young man fancied that yachting would suit him; and he
proposed to Squire Moses Scarburn, the trustee of all his property, to
purchase a cheap vessel for his use.

The spiriting away of his mother gave a new importance to the nautical
fancy of the young man. Captain Ringgold condemned the plan to buy a cheap
vessel. He had made a part of his ample fortune as a shipmaster, and had
been an officer in the navy during the last half of the War of the
Rebellion. He advised the young man's mother, who was also his guardian,
and the trustee to buy a good-sized steam-yacht.

A New York millionaire had just completed one of the most magnificent
steamers ever built, of over six hundred tons' burden; but his sudden death
robbed him of the pleasures he anticipated from a voyage around the world
in her, and the vessel was for sale at a reasonable price. The shipmaster
fixed upon this craft as the one for the young millionaire, declaring that
she would give the owner an education such as could not be obtained at any
college; and that she could be sold for nearly all she cost when she was no
longer needed.

This argument, and the pressing necessity of such a steamer for the
recovery of Mrs. Belgrave, carried the day with the trustee. The vessel
was bought; and as she had not yet been named, Louis called her the
Guardian-Mother, in love and reverence for her who had watched over him
from his birth. After some stirring adventures which befell Louis, the new
steam-yacht proceeded to Bermuda, where Scoble had wrecked his vessel on
the reefs; but the object of the search and all the ship's company were
saved.

The Guardian-Mother returned to New York after this successful voyage,
though not till Captain Ringgold had obtained a strong hint that Scoble had
a wife in England. The educational scheme of the commander was then fully
considered, and it was decided to make a voyage around the world in the
Guardian-Mother. She was duly prepared for the purpose by Captain Ringgold.
A ship's company of the highest grade was obtained. The last to be shipped
was W. Penn Sharp as a quartermaster, the only vacancy on board. He had
been a skilful detective most of his life, and failing health alone
compelled him to go to sea; and he had been a sailor in his early years,
attaining the position of first officer of a large Indiaman.

The captain made him third officer at Bermuda, the better to have his
services as a detective. He had investigated Scoble's record, and
eventually found Mrs. Scoble in Cuba, where she had inherited the large
fortune of an uncle whom she had nursed in his last sickness. Scoble had
come into the possession of the wealth of a brother who had recently died
in Bermuda. He had purchased a steam-yacht of four hundred tons, in which
he had followed the Guardian-Mother, and had several times attempted to
sink her in collisions.

Officers came to Cuba to arrest him for his crimes at the races, and he was
sent to the scene of his villany, where the court sentenced him to Sing
Sing for a long term. The court in Cuba decreed that his yacht belonged to
his wife; and her new owner, at the suggestion of the commander of the
Guardian-Mother, made Penn Sharp, to whom she was largely indebted for the
fortune to which she had succeeded, the captain of her. The steam-yacht was
the Viking, and Mrs. Scoble sailed in her to New York, and then to England,
where she obtained a divorce from her recreant husband, and became the wife
of Captain Sharp, who was now in command of the Blanche, the white steamer
that sailed abreast of the Guardian-Mother when the wreck in the Arabian
Sea was discovered.

From a sailing-yacht sunk in a squall in the harbor of New York, the crew
of the steamer had saved two gentlemen. One was a celebrated physician and
surgeon, suffering from overwork, Dr. Philip Hawkes. He was induced to
accept the commander's offer of a passage around the world for his services
as the surgeon of the ship. His companion was a learned Frenchman,
afflicted in the same manner as his friend; and he became the instructor on
board.

Squire Scarburn, Louis's trustee, who was always called "Uncle Moses," was
a passenger. Mrs. Belgrave had taken with her Mrs. Sarah Blossom, as a
companion. She had been Uncle Moses's housekeeper. She was a good-looking
woman of thirty-six, and one of the "salt of the earth," though her
education, except on Scripture subjects, had been greatly neglected. Felix
McGavonty, the Milesian crony of Louis, had been brought up by the trustee,
and had lived in his family. The good lady wanted to be regarded as the
mother of Felix, and the young man did not fully fall in with the idea.

When Louis recovered the stolen treasure of the jockey, he had applied to
one of the principal losers by the crime, Mr. Lowell Woolridge, then
devoted to horse-racing and yachting, for advice in regard to the disposal
of the plunder. All who had lost any of the money were paid in full; and
the gentleman took a fancy to the young man who consulted him. For the
benefit of his son he discarded racing from his amusements. He invited
Louis and his mother to several excursions in his yacht; and the two
families became very intimate, though they were not of the same social
rank, for Mr. Woolridge was a millionaire and a magnate of the Fifth
Avenue.

The ex-sportsman was the father of a daughter and a son. At fifteen Miss
Blanche was remarkably beautiful, and Louis could not help recognizing the
fact. But he was then a poor boy; and his mother warned him not to get
entangled in any affair of the heart, which had never entered the head of
the subject of the warning. When the missing million came to light, she did
not repeat her warning.

After the Guardian-Mother had sailed on her voyage all-over-the-world, Miss
Blanche took a severe cold, which threatened serious consequences; and the
doctors had advised her father to take her to Orotava, in the Canary
Islands, in his yacht. The family had departed on the voyage; but
before the Blanche, as the white sailing-yacht was called, reached her
destination, she encountered a severe gale, and had a hole stove in her
planking by a mass of wreckage. Her ship's company were thoroughly
exhausted when the Guardian-Mother, bound to the same islands, discovered
her, and after almost incredible exertions, saved the yacht and the family.

The beautiful young lady entirely recovered her health during the voyage,
and Dr. Hawkes declared that she was in no danger whatever. The Blanche
proceeded with the steamer to Mogadore, on the north-west coast of Africa,
in Morocco. Here the ship was visited by a high officer of the army of
Morocco, who was the possessor of almost unbounded wealth. He was
fascinated by the beauty of Miss Blanche, and his marked attentions excited
the alarm of her father and mother, as well as of the commander. He had
promised to visit the ship again, and take the party to all the noted
places in the city.

The parents and the captain regarded such a visit as a calamity, and the
steamer made her way out of the harbor very early the next morning, towing
the yacht. The Guardian-Mother sailed for Madeira, accommodating her speed
to that of the Blanche. The party had been there only long enough to see
the sights, before the high official, Ali-Noury Pacha, in his steam-yacht
come into the harbor of Funchal.

The commander immediately beat another retreat; but the Fatime, as the
Moroccan steamer was called, followed her to Gibraltar. Here the Pacha
desired an interview with Captain Ringgold, who refused to receive him on
board, for he had learned in Funchal that his character was very bad, and
he told him so to his face. When the commander went on shore he was
attacked in the street by the Pacha and some of his followers; but the
stalwart captain knocked him with a blow of his fist in a gutter filled
with mud. Ali-Noury was fined by the court for the assault, and, thirsting
for revenge, he had followed the Guardian-Mother to Constantinople, and
through the Archipelago, seeking the vengeance his evil nature demanded. He
employed a man named Mazagan to capture Miss Blanche or Louis, or both of
them.

Captain Sharp, who was cruising in the Viking with his wife, while
at Messina found the Pacha beset by robbers, and badly wounded. The
ex-detective took him on board of his steamer, procured a surgeon, and
saved the life of the Moor, not only in beating off the robbers that beset
him, but in the care of him after he was wounded. They became strong
friends; and both the captain and Mrs. Sharp, who had been the most devoted
of nurses to him, spoke their minds to him very plainly.

The Pacha was repentant, for his vices were as contrary to the religion of
Mohammed as to that of the New Testament. Captain Sharp was confident that
his guest was thoroughly reformed, though he did not become a Christian, as
his nurse hoped he would. Then his preserver learned that the Pacha had
settled his accounts with Captain Mazagan, and sold him the Fatime.

It appeared when Captain Sharp told his story to the commander of the
Guardian-Mother at Aden, that Mazagan had been operating on his own hook in
Egypt and elsewhere to "blackmail" the trustee of Louis. The Pacha had
ordered a new steamer to be built for him in England; and when she arrived
at Gibraltar, he had given the command of her to Captain Sharp, to whom he
owed his life and reformation.

At Aden, Captain Ringgold discovered the white steamer, and fearing she was
the one built for the Pacha, as Mazagan had informed him in regard to her,
he paid her a visit, and found Captain Sharp in command of her. The Moor
was known as General Noury here, and he made an abject apology to the
visitor. Convinced that the Moor had really reformed his life, they were
reconciled, and General Noury was received with favor by all the party.

The Blanche was sailing in company of the Guardian-Mother for Bombay when
the wreck with several men on it was discovered. And now having reviewed
the incidents of the past, fully related in the preceding volumes of the
series, it is quite time to attend to the imperilled persons on the wreck.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST AND SECOND CUTTERS TO THE RESCUE

It was still but a dim light when the commander appeared on deck. He could
not have slept more than an hour, but he was as wideawake and active as
ever before in his life. He had a spyglass in his hand, with which he
proceeded to examine the wreck as soon as he had obtained its bearings; for
he never did anything, even under such desperate circumstances as the
present, until he had first ascertained what was best to be done.

"How long is it since you made out the wreck, Mr. Boulong?" he inquired,
still looking through the glass.

"Mr. Scott reported cries from that direction not ten minutes ago, and the
lookout aloft hailed the deck a minute or two later," replied the first
officer.

"Make the course north by east," added the captain.

"North by east, sir," replied Mr. Boulong, mounting the promenade, and
giving the order to the quartermaster through the window. "Steer small till
you get the course, Bangs."

The captain and the third officer remained on the promenade deck, still
observing the persons on the wreck, who continued to shout and to discharge
their firearms till they saw the head of the steamer slowly turned to the
north, when they appeared to be satisfied that relief was at hand.

"They are in a very dangerous position," said the commander. "I cannot make
out what they are clinging too; but it is washed by the sea at every wave,
and they cannot hold out long in that situation. I wonder that all of them
have not been knocked off before this time."

"They must have some strong hold on the thing that floats them, whatever it
is, for they are under water half the time," replied Scott, who was also
using a spyglass. "I can't make out what they are on; but it looks like a
whaleback to me, with her upper works carried away."

"There are no whalebacks in these seas," replied the captain.

"But I saw one in New York Harbor; and I have read that one has crossed the
Atlantic, going through the Welland Canal from the great lakes."

"They have no mission in these waters, though what floats that party looks
very much like one. Call all hands, Mr. Boulong, and clear away the first
cutter."

By this time the Guardian-Mother was on her course to the northward. The
storm was severe, but not as savage as it might have been, or as the
steamer had encountered on the Atlantic when she saved the sailing-yacht
Blanche from foundering. The ship had been kept on her course for Bombay,
though, as she had the gale on the beam, she was condemned to wallow in the
trough of the sea; and stiff and able as she was, she rolled heavily, as
any vessel would have done under the same conditions.

The change of course gave her the wind very nearly over the stern, and she
pitched instead of rolling, sometimes lifting her propeller almost out of
the water, which made it whirl like a top, and then burying it deep in the
waves, causing it to moan and groan and shake the whole after part of the
ship, rousing all the party in the cabin from their slumbers. The ship had
hardly changed her course before Louis came on deck, and was soon followed
by Felix McGavonty.

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