Books: Lost in the Fog

J >> James De Mille >> Lost in the Fog

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But, as yet, he did not feel himself forced to anything so
desperate as that. There was another alternative. At high tide
the boat would be afloat, and then, as the tide fell, he could keep
her afloat until it was at its lowest. He could then embark, and
be carried by the returning water straight on to the Straits of
Minas, and up into the basin. He now made a calculation, and
concluded that it would be high tide about midday, and low tide
about six in the evening. If he were to embark at that time, he
would have two hours of daylight in which to run up with the tide.
He saw now that his whole plan was perfectly feasible, and it only
remained to make preparations for the voyage. As the whole
afternoon would be taken up in floating the boat down to low-water
mark, the morning would have to be employed in making whatever
arrangements might be necessary.

Certain things were needed which required all that time. His
hastily extemporized mast and sail had done wonderfully well, but
he needed something to steer with. If he could only procure
something that would serve the purpose of a rudder, he would feel
well prepared for his voyage.

On the search for this he now started. He walked all about the
open ground, looking around in all directions, to see if he could
find anything, but without any success. Then he ascended the
declivity towards the woods, but nothing appeared which was at all
adapted to meet his wants. He saw a young tree, which he thought
might do, and tried to cut it down with his pocket-knife. After
about an hour's hard work he succeeded in bringing it down, and
another hour was spent in trimming the branches. The result of all
this labor at length lay at his feet in the shape of a rough pole,
with jagged splinters sticking out all over it, which promised to
be of about as much utility as a spruce bush. In utter disgust he
turned away, leaving the pole on the ground, and making up his mind
to sail, as he did before, without any rudder. In this mood he
descended the declivity, and walked disconsolately towards the
shore which was on the side of the island directly opposite to
where the boat lay. He had not yet been near enough to see the
beach; but now, as he came nearer, a cry of delight escaped him
involuntarily; for there, all along the beach, and close up to the
bank, lay an immense quantity of drift-wood, which had been brought
here by the tide from all the upper waters of the bay. It was a
most heterogeneous mixture that lay before him--chips from timber
ponds, logs from ship-yards, boards from saw-mills, deals, battens,
fence posts, telegraph poles, deal ends, edgings, laths, palings,
railway sleepers, treenails, shingles, clapboards, and all the
various forms which wood assumes in a country which makes use of it
as the chief material of its manufactures. Along the countless
streams that flow into the bay, and along its far-winding shores,
and along the borders of all its subsidiary bays, and inlets, and
basins, the manufacture of wood is carried on--in saw-mills, in
ship-yards, and in timber ponds; and the currents that move to and
fro are always loaded with the fragments that are snatched away
from these places, most of which are borne afar out to sea, but
many of which are thrown all along the shores for hundreds of
miles. Ile Haute, being directly in the way of some of the
swiftest currents, and close by the entrance to a basin which is
surrounded by mills and ship-yards, naturally received upon its
shores an immense quantity of these scattered and floating
fragments. Such was the sight that now met the eyes of Tom, and
presented him with a countless number of fragments of wood adapted
to his wants, at the very time when he had worked fruitlessly for
two hours at fashioning one for himself.

Looking over the heaps of drift-wood, he found many pieces which
suited him; and out of these he chose one which was shaped a little
like an oar. Securing this prize, he walked over to where the sail
was, and deposited it there.

Then he ate some biscuit, and, after taking a draught from the cool
brook, he rested, and waited, full of hope, for the rising of the
tide.

It was now rapidly approaching the boat. Tom watched it for some
time, and felt new happiness as he viewed the roll of every little
surf. There was not much wind, and nothing but a gentle ripple on
the water. All this was in his favor; for, if he wished for
anything now, it was a moderate breeze and a light sea. From time
to time he turned his attention to the Straits of Minas, and
arranged various plans in his mind. At one time he resolved to try
and reach Pereau; again he thought that he would be content if he
could only get to Parrsboro'; and yet again, he came to the wise
conclusion that if he got to any settlement at all he would be
content. At another time he half decided to take another course,
and try to reach Scott's Bay, where he felt sure of a warm welcome
and a plenteous repast. Aiming thus at so many different points,
it mattered but little to him in what particular direction the tide
might sweep him, so long as it carried him up the bay.

The tide now came nearer, and Tom went down to the beach for a few
moments. He paced the distance between the boat and the water. He
noticed a few things lying in the boat. In the bow was a coil of
rope which Captain Corbet had probably obtained when he was ashore
at Petitcodiac. There was also a tin pan, used for baling.

As the tide drew nearer, Tom began to feel more and more impatient.
Again and again he paced the intervening space between the boat and
the water, and chafed and fretted because it did not lessen more
rapidly. If the boat were once fairly afloat, he felt that the
time would pass much more rapidly; for then he would be working at
some definite task, and not standing idly waiting.

But everything has an end; and so, at length, the end came here.
The water rose higher and higher, until, at length, it touched the
keel. Tom gave a shout of joy.

He now untied the rope, and tried to shorten his suspense by
pushing the boat towards the water; but his strength was
insufficient. He could not move it. He would have to wait longer.

Thus far the things which he had taken out had been lying on the
grass. It was now time to put them on board. So he carried down
the sail, folded it up, and stowed it away neatly at the bottom of
the boat. On this he stood the box of biscuit, taking care to put
the cover over it, and to spread over that again one fold of the
sail.

This took up some time, and he had the gratification of seeing that
the water had come up a few feet farther. He now tried once more
to force the boat down, using his piece of board as a lever; but
the board bent, and almost broke, without moving the boat. He
stood for a moment waiting, and suddenly thought of the pole which
he had left up in the woods. He determined to get this, and
perhaps, with its help, he would be able to accomplish his wishes.
So off he started at a run, and in a few minutes reached the place.
Hurrying back again, he inserted one end of the pole under the bow,
and exerted all his force to press the boat downward into the
water. At first it did not move; but shortly after, when the water
had risen still higher, he made a new effort. This time he
succeeded; the boat moved slightly.

Again.

The boat moved farther.

Once more.

Still farther.

And now he made a final trial. Thrusting the pole again
underneath, he exerted all his force for the last time, and pushed
the boat down for about a yard.

It was at last afloat.

The tide had not yet fully attained its height, but was close to
it. The wind was blowing from the north, as before, and quite
moderately. The sea sparkled and glittered in the rays of the sun.
The little wavelets tossed their heads on high, and danced far
away ever the sea. The air was bright, and stimulating, and
exhilarating. All the scene filled Tom's heart with gladness; and
the approach of his deliverance deepened and intensified this
feeling.

XI.

Afloat again.--The rushing Water.--Down to the Bottom.--Desperate
Circumstances.--Can they be remedied?--New Hopes and Plans.

The boat was at last afloat before Tom's eyes.

At first he had thought of holding it by the painter, and patiently
standing on the beach, but the sight of it now changed his
purposes. He thought that it would be a far more sensible plan to
get on board, and keep the boat near the beach in that way. His
bit of stick, which he had found among the drift-wood, could be
used as an oar, and was good enough to enable him to move the boat
as much as would be necessary. As he would have to wait for six
hours at least, it was a matter of great importance that he should
be as little fatigued as possible, especially as he had to look
forward to a voyage, after the tide had fallen, attended with the
possibility of increased labor and exertion. All these thoughts
came rapidly to his mind, but passed in much less time than it
takes to tell it, so that Tom had scarcely seen the boat afloat
than he rushed through the water, and clambered into it. Then,
taking his stick, he stood up and looked around.

The scene around has already been described. Tom kept his stick in
the water, so as to have it ready for use. He purposed keeping the
boat at a convenient distance from the shore by pushing and
paddling. By keeping it within a distance of from three to six
yards, he thought he would, for the present at least, be able to
keep afloat, and yet avoid the sweep of the tides. He did not
expect to remain in this particular spot all the time, but expected
to find some place which would be out of the way of the tide, where
he could float comfortably without being forced to keep in too
close to the land.

But suddenly Tom's thoughts and speculations were rudely interrupted.

It appeared to him that there was a very unusual feeling about the
boat. She did not seem as high out of the water as she ought to
have been, and her bows seemed to be lower than they had been.
There was also a slight vibration in her, which he had never
noticed before, and which struck him now as very peculiar. In the
midst of this there came to his ears a low, faint, and scarcely
perceptible sound, made up of peculiar bubbling and gurgling
noises, which sounded from the boat.

One brief examination showed him that the boat was certainly very
much deeper in the water than she had been.

Five seconds later her bows had sunk farther.

Two seconds more, and Tom's feet were surrounded by water up to his
ankles.

The boat was filling!

Scarce had he made this discovery than the water rose swiftly up,
the boat sank quickly down, the sea rolled over her sides, and the
boat went to the bottom.

Very fortunate was it for Tom, at that moment, that he had not
pushed out farther from the shore. When the boat went down he was
not more than three or four yards off, and he did not sink lower
than up to his neck. But the shock was a sudden one, and for a
moment almost paralyzed him. The next instant, however, he
recovered from it; and looking round, he saw the box of biscuit
floating within his reach. Making a wild dash at this, he secured
it, and waded ashore with it in safety. He then turned mournfully
to look after the boat, and found that it was visible, floating on
the surface. As he left it, it had floated up, his weight being
the only thing that had sent it below. The tide was still coming
in, so that it did not float away. Tom flung off his coat and
waistcoat, and hurrying into the water, soon caught and dragged it
as near as he could to the beach. Then he secured it once more,
and waited. Standing there, he looked gloomily at the vessel,
wherein such precious hopes had been freighted only to be lost.
What had happened? Why could not the boat float? What was the
matter with her? These were the wondering questions which occurred
to him without his being able to give any answer.

One thing he saw plainly, and that was, that he had lost this tide.
The next high tide would be after midnight, and the next would be
between one and two on the following day. If he could find out
what was the matter with the boat, and fix it, he would have to
wait till the next day, unless he chose to watch for his chance
after midnight, and make the journey then.

He was not a boy who could be long inactive; so now, after a brief
period, in which he gave up to the natural despondency of his soul,
he stirred himself up once more, and sought comfort in occupation.
The box of biscuit did not seem much injured, it had not floated
long enough for the sea-water to penetrate it. Assuring himself of
this, he next turned to the boat and took out its contents. These
were the old sail, the coil of rope, and the baling dipper.

By this time the tide had reached its height, and after the usual
time of delay, began to fall once more. The boat was secured to
the shore, and after a time the water began to leave her. Tom sat
at a little distance, wondering what could be the matter with her,
and deferring his examination until the boat should be left
aground. It was a mystery to him how this sudden change had
occurred, and why the boat, which had floated so well during his
long drift, should now, all of a sudden, begin to leak with such
astonishing rapidity. Something must have happened--something
serious, too; but what it was, or how it had happened, he could
not, for the life of him, conjecture.

As Tom sat there, the tide gradually left the boat; and as the tide
left, the water ran out, keeping at just the same level inside as
the water outside. This showed, even to his inexperienced eyes,
that the leak must be a very large one, since it admitted of such a
ready flow of water in and out. The water descended lower and
lower as he sat, until, at last, the boat was left by the
retreating waves. The water had all run out.

Tom now advanced, and proceeded to examine her. When he was
arranging her cargo before, the coil of rope had been in the bows.
This had prevented him from detecting anything wrong in the boat.
But now, since everything had been taken out, one glance only was
quite sufficient to make known to him instantly the whole
difficulty. There, in the bows, underneath the very place where
the coil of rope had lain, was a huge aperture. The planks had
been beaten in, and one side of the bow was destroyed beyond hope
of remedy.

The sight of such an irremediable calamity as this renewed for a
time the despondency which he had felt at the first sinking of the
boat. Full of depression, he turned away, and tried to account for
it all. It was on the previous day that he had landed--about
twenty-four hours ago. How had he passed the time since then, and
what had happened? This he tried to remember.

In the first place, up to the moment of landing the boat was
perfectly sound, and far from all injury. It had not been hurt
during the drift. It had struck at one place, but the long voyage
that had followed showed that no damage had resulted. Finally, it
had not been harmed by landing on Quaco Ledge. Since that time he
had drifted in safety far across the bay, without meeting with any
accident. All this proved clearly that the damage must have been
done to the boat since his landing on the island.

He found it very difficult to recall anything that had happened
since then. On his first arrival he was worn out and exhausted.
He remembered vaguely how he came in sight of the giant cliff, how
he dragged the boat along, how he secured it to a tree, and then
how he flung himself down on the grass and fell asleep. After that
all was obscure to his memory; but he could recall his waking at
midnight and listening to the roar of the wind and the dash of the
surf. Evidently there must have been a heavier sea on the beach at
that time than when he landed, and this was sufficient to account
for the accident to the boat. She had been beating on the rough
rocks at high tide, exposed to the full sweep of the surf, and her
bows had been stove in.

The melancholy spectacle of the ruined boat made Tom see that his
stay on the island might be prolonged even beyond the following
day. No sooner had this thought occurred to him than he went over
to the articles which he had taken out of the boat, and passed them
all in review before him, as though he were anxious to know the
full extent of his resources. He spread out the wet sail in the
sun. He spread out his coat and waistcoat. In the pocket of the
latter he found a card of matches, which were a little damp. These
he seized eagerly and laid on the top of a stone, exposed to the
rays of the sun, so as to dry them. The clothes which he kept on
were wet through, of course, but he allowed them to dry on him.

He had been working now pretty industriously all the morning, first
at searching after a piece of wood, then in cutting down the pole,
then in searching among the drift-wood, and finally at the boat.
He felt, at length, hungry; and as he could not yet decide upon
what was to be done next, he determined to satisfy his desires, and
kill the time by taking his dinner. The repast was a frugal one,
consisting as before, of biscuit, which were washed down by cold
water; but Tom did not complain. The presence of food of any sort
was a cause for thankfulness to one in his position, and it was
with a feeling of this sort, in spite of his general depression of
spirits, that he ate his meal.

After this he felt much more refreshed, and began to consider what
he had better do next. Of course, the centre of interest to him
was the boat, and he could not give up that hope of escape without
a struggle. As long as there was a hope of making his way from the
island by means of that, so long might he keep up his heart; but if
the damage that had been done should prove irreparable, how would
he be able to endure his situation? Whatever it was, it would be
best to know the worst once for all. Perhaps he might stop the
leak. He had material around which seemed to be the right sort of
thing to stop a leak with. He had the piece of sail, which could
be cut up into small pieces, and used to stop the leak. If he had
possessed a hatchet and some nails, he would have made an effort to
repair the fracture in the planks of the boat; but as he had
nothing of that sort, he tried to devise some method by which the
water might be kept out. As he thought, there gradually grew up in
his mind the rude outline of a plan which promised something, and
seemed to him to be certainly worth trying. At any rate, he
thought, it will serve to give me an occupation; and any
occupation, even if it proves to be of no practical value, is
better than sitting here doing nothing at all.

Having something to do once more quickened Tom's energies anew, and
starting to his feet, he prepared to put his plan into execution.
First of all, in order to carry out that plan, it was necessary for
him to get a number of blocks and boards of different sizes.
These, he knew, could easily be found among the driftwood on the
beach. Over there he hurried, and after a moderate search he
succeeded, at length, in finding bits of wood that seemed suited to
the purpose which he had in view. With these he came back to the
boat; but as there was a large number of them, he had to make
several journeys before the whole collection was brought over.

Then he took his pole, and, putting a block under it, used it as a
lever to raise up the boat. By dexterous management he succeeded
in doing this, and at the same time he ran a board underneath the
bow of the boat as it was slightly raised. This manoeuvre he
repeated several times, each time raising his lever higher, by
means of a higher fulcrum, and thus constantly raising the bow of
the boat; while after each elevation the bow was secured in its new
position by running an additional board underneath it, over the
other preceding boards. By carefully and perseveringly pursuing
this course, he at length succeeded in raising the bow of the boat
about a foot in the air. This gave him an opportunity to examine
it thoroughly outside as well as inside, and to see the whole
extent of the damage that had been done.

It has already been said that the damage was serious. Tom's
examination now convinced him that it was in every respect as
serious as he had supposed, if not still more so. Even if he did
possess a hatchet and nails, or a whole box full of tools, he
doubted whether it would be in his power to do anything whatever in
the way of repairing it. No less than three of the lower planks of
the bows, down to the very keel, were beaten in and broken so badly
that they seemed actually crushed and mangled. It must have been a
fearful beating, and pounding, and grinding on the rocks which had
caused this. The planks, though thus broken, still held together;
but it seemed to Tom that with a blow of his fist he could easily
beat it all in; and as he looked at it he could not help wondering
how it had happened that the work which the rocks had thus so
nearly effected had not been completely finished. However, the
planks did hold together yet; and now the question was, Could any
thing be done?

In answer to this question, Tom thought of the old sail and the
coil of rope. Already he had conceived the rude outline of a plan
whereby the entrance of the water might be checked. The plan was
worth trying, and he determined to set about it at once, and use up
the hours before him as long as he could, without any further delay.
If by any possibility he could stop that leak, he determined to
start off at the next high tide, that very night, and run the risk.
It was a daring, even a foolhardy thought; but Tom was desperate,
and the only idea which he had was, to escape as soon as possible.

He now made some measurements, after which he went to the old sail,
and cut a piece from the end of it. This he divided into smaller
pieces, each about a yard square. Each of these pieces he folded
up in three folds, so as to make them about a foot wide and
eighteen inches long. Others he folded into six folds, making them
about half the size of the larger pieces. All this took up much
time, for he measured and planned very carefully, and his
calculations and measurements had to be done slowly and cautiously.
Returning to the boat with these bits of folded canvas, he put one
of the larger pieces on the inside, against the bow, right over the
broken place. Another large piece was placed carefully over this,
and then the smaller pieces were laid against these. In this way
he adjusted all the pieces of canvas in such a way as to cover up
the whole place where the leak was.

Then he went over to the drift-wood, and spent a long time
searching after some bits of wood. He at length found a half dozen
pieces of board, about a foot long, and from six to eight inches in
width. He also found some bits of scantling, and palings, which
were only a foot or so in length. All these he brought back, and
laid them down on the beach near the boat.

He now proceeded to place these bits of wood in the bows, in such a
way as to keep the canvas in a firm position. His idea was, that
the canvas, by being pressed against the opening, might keep out
the water, and the wood, by being properly arranged, might keep the
canvas secure in its place. The arrangement of the wood required
the greatest care. First of all, he took the smallest bits, and
stood these up against the canvas, so that they might correspond as
nearly as possible with the curve of the bows. A few more pieces
were placed in the hollow part of this curve, and outside these the
larger pieces were placed. Between the outside pieces and the
inner ones he thrust some of the smallest pieces which he could
find. After thus arranging all his boards, he found that there lay
between the outside board and the first seat of the boat a space of
about one foot. Selecting a piece of wood of about that length, he
put one end against the board, and the other against the seat, and
pressed it into a position where it served to keep the board tight
in its place. Then he took other pieces of about the same length,
and arranged them in the same way, so that, by being fixed between
the board and the seat, they might keep the whole mass of boards
and canvas pressed tight against the opening in the bows. After
placing as many blocks in position as he conveniently could, his
next work was to secure them all. In order to effect this, another
journey to the drift-wood was necessary, and another search. This
time he selected carefully a number of sticks, not more than half
an inch in thickness, some of them being much thinner. He found
pieces of paling, and laths, and shingles which suited his ideas.
Returning with these to the boat, he proceeded to thrust them, one
by one, into the interstices of the boards, using a stone to drive
them into their places.

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