"The mist is suddenly so heavy you can't see from stem to stern out on deck."
Douglass saw that he was wet.
"You've been out on deck?" Douglass asked.
He said, "Lord no, ma'am. I collared Smith, the first lieutenant, just as the hatch was opened."
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"What did you find out, Major?" Joshua asked. Douglass surmised that the men knew he had gone for information.
There was an awful shuddering sound and Jackson slid halfway across the cabin. Joshua and Trumbull held onto Douglass. Jackson steadied himself and answered Joshua, his face grim.
"He told me that several of the bolts of the weather main chain plates have been started. We are not far from Heliogoland, and the northward trend of the coast. Our position is hazardous because we are drifting to leeward." He paused. Then he said strongly, "I know something about commanding men. These officers have no respect or confidence in Gillon. If they don't, the crew doesn't. I don't like the attitude of the crew." He fixed Joshua with a questioning eye.
Joshua said, "I personally voted against Gillon's appointment— it was political. Come over here and sit down, Douglass."
Almost behind her was a locker running at right angles to the locker under the windows. "Can you eat?"
She shook her blond head. One curl had come loose and bounced on her forehead. She had a white woolen shawl with a fringe around her shoulders.
"Alistress Harris," Trumbull said, "we are not sailors. It probably isn't as bad as we think." He leaned over and patted her hand.
Douglass threw a look at Joshua. Jackson said, "Where is Barney?"
The four men looked at each other. Douglass cried, "He is asleep!"
They transferred their gaze to her; she was leaning forward, her breast rising and falling with her quick breath; she added, "At least so we—so he told me—that he was going to go to sleep." She looked from one to the other. Joshua broke the silence.
"There's very bad blood between Barney and Gillon." He frowned, grimly. "Gillon is captain of this ship!"
"I don't give a damn," Jackson began.
They had begun to shout. Quick terror seized Douglass. The whole cabin stood on end, an enormous crash came from above. Douglass leaped to her feet in horrified fear.
"Call him," she cried to Jackson.
"He cannot take command!" Joshua shouted at Jackson. "Not without jeopardizing his—"
The cabin door flew open and banged back against its frame. The fii;st lieutenant stood there, dripping wet, breathing hard. "Are all
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passengers here?" he cried. Feet pounded along the deck outside the door, like three or four men, running. Smith whirled. The crew were out of hand, they had succumbed to terror, he knew. Suddenly another pair of steps sounded, light.
Smith saw Barney first. He stepped out of the door, to let Barney enter. Barney towered there, he had to bend his head to miss the beams; he did so instinctively. His dark eyes went from the faces of the men in the cabin to Douglass.
Douglass stood up. The ship's roll sent her staggering to Barney. He caught and held her disheveled figure upright. He looked over her head to the others. He spoke quickly; he didn't have much time.
"I shall need your testimony, gentlemen," he said briefly. He lifted Douglass and set her down on the locker. "Mr. Smith!"
Smith cried, "Yes, Captain Barney!"
"I'm taking command of this ship. Her movements are ungoverned. Mr. Smith, w^here is Captain Gillon?"
"On deck, sir!"
"You can count on our testimony. Captain," Joshua said.
Barney heard him but made no answer to him save a nod. "Come with me, Mr. Smith."
"Aye, aye, sir," cried Smith, a bit of hope in his voice. They were foundering, he knew. He and Barney together flung themselves at the hatchway, putting strong shoulders to it.
A wall of water poured in. Barney waited a second to let it pour down, then he was up the companionway with Smith right after him. They had just time to bang the hatch closed and fasten it before a towering wave was upon them. Both of them again flung themselves on the hatch and hung on.
Tons of water came down on the stricken "South Carolina." Barney felt her heel over helplessly as she wallowed down the trough. He let go the hatch and dived for the binnacle head.
Storm. It was all around him, raging, shrieking. Rain swept almost horizontally across the face of the heaving seas; the day was grey-black, and great foamy white waves towered endlessly. Above all this was the tearing wind, gale force, hurricane force.
For only a second he stood by the binnacle head, before the first order was roared out against the wind. In that time he saw the men clinging in the tops, indeed it was much safer there. He saw Gillon, clinging to the grating, where he was calling down to the men at the relieving tackles, for the two men at the wheel could not possibly
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have held her and there would be far too much strain on the tiller ropes. He gave a glance up at the weathervane; it confirmed him; the wind had shifted to north-northwest.
"Quartermaster. Hard astarboard!"
A great wave bore down. A high scream went up from one of the men aloft. As the wave struck, the "South Carolina" turned on her side. Barney had a brief vision of the hell below decks, where the men at the pumps would be flung against the sides in the blackness. If she went over much farther, he knew she would roll completely. Barney was not at all sure at that moment that any of them would survive. Then incredibly she righted, water streaming from her, washing across the decks, she lifted.
"Mr. Smith," Barney roared. "Hands to braces in the maintops."
"Aye aye, sir," the answer came singing back.
Dead ahead towered another wave. He bellowed orders to the helmsman; this time there was only a short period of plunging before she was brought around to the wind again.
The howling squall raced across the surface of the seas from the northwest now. Under his feet the planking opened and shut. The ship shuddered, bucking like a mad thing, but she was not ungoverned. The storm canvas rattled in the wind as the squall heeled her over again.
Barney clung to the binnacle head, eyes narrowed against the pelting rain. Then he saw Gillon coming toward him.
"Get off my deck!"
Barney paid no attention. "Hold her so!" he shouted. Another enormous wave was racing toward them, foam on its lips as it curled angrily toward the ship. If he couldn't keep her from drifting to leeward, they would be dashed to pieces on the rending sands of the coast here, as it reached out into the sea.
Gillon grabbed for Barney. Barney raised a murderous fist and struck him with all his might. Gillon rolled back into the grating. The wave broke.
Barney gave no more thought to Gillon, who lay on his face on the grating and hung on. He didn't see him stumble from the deck after the wave had passed. He only knew she was riding the storm now; she was a weatherly ship; he'd known it from the minute he'd laid eyes on her. The most terrible danger had passed now; it took only a few moments of heavy squall to sink a ship. Now in between his orders to the helmsman, he could snap out more commands.
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"Mr. Smith! Check the breechings on the guns! And set the storm staysails!"
Water hissed along the deck and through the scuppers. Barney thought the wind was diminishing; those squall winds never lasted too long. It was God's mercy they didn't. But the men on the pumps should be relieved; probably there was no order below decks. She was paying off now before the wind and Barney shouted down to the helmsman. This time she was brought around quickly.