Frank Nelson in the Forecastle. Or, The Sportman's Club Among the Whalers

The boys looked toward the trapper. The expression of alarm which they had so often seen of late, had settled on his face again. He backed up against the rail for support, and looked wildly about as if he had half a mind to take to his heels. He stood more in fear of the law than he did of a grizzly bear. He had always thought that there was something wrong about it, and now he was firmly convinced of the fact. The law, as he understood it, was to restrain bad people, who were disposed to take advantage of their neighbors whenever an opportunity was offered; but he found that it was likely to prove a means of punishment to the innocent. It would have been just as impossible to give him a clear idea of its workings, as it would to make him understand the causes of the trade-winds or the theory of the ocean-currents.

"I've said a million times, an' Frank says that more'n a thousand, that I'd never put my old moccasins inside a city again, an' now I say it onct more an' I'll stick to it," said the trapper, solemnly, raising his hand toward the mast-head to give emphasis to his words. "I get skeared to death by cars an' steamboats, an' something's allers happenin'."

"Shoulder your rifle an' kit, Dick, an' let's be off," said old Bob, who up to this time had been a silent and amazed spectator and listener. "I'm afeared."

"So am I, Bob, but I dasen't. I dasen't go; the law will ketch me. I wish I was to the ole Bar's Hole, so't I could crawl in an' hide myself."

Dick leaned back against the rail again, rubbing his hands together and groaning as men sometimes do when they are sadly troubled in spirit. The boys tried hard to set his mind at rest. They assured him that no harm should come to him, for they and Uncle Dick were not only able but ready and willing to stand between him and all difficulties; but the trapper said he didn't want them to do it. If anybody was to go to jail (thrusting people into jail and hanging them Dick thought were the only punishments in vogue in civilized communities) it should be himself and nobody else. Furthermore, he did not see why it was necessary that any one should be called upon to stand between him and difficulty. He had only been following out his natural impulses in trying to bring the bogus captain to justice, and now he must suffer for it. He shook his head, refusing to be comforted, and showed a desire to be alone with his own thoughts; so the boys left him and turned to Uncle Dick, who was once more pacing his quarter-deck, after holding a short consultation with his officers.

"I know what you want," said the old sailor, as the boys approached him in a body. "You are anxious to know what I am going to do for Frank. I can only guess at the best plan, and follow it out to the best of my judgment. What do you think ought to be done?"

The boys had no suggestions to offer. One thing was certain, and that was that Frank would not long submit to harsh treatment. A young man who had commanded a fine vessel in Uncle Sam's navy would not consent to take rank next below the captain's dog, as the sailors in the Tycoon's forecastle had assured him he would do as long as he remained in that ship. If the opportunity were ever offered, he would lay his case before the consul of the first port at which the vessel touched; and failing that he would probably be driven to desert. In either case the boys did not expect to see him again. If the consul protected him, he would be sent to the nearest port in the United States free of expense, and he had money enough in his pocket – about twenty dollars, Archie thought – to support him until he could receive a remittance from home. If he was compelled to desert he would probably ship on the first vessel he could find, just as Chase had done, and she might take him to the remotest corner of the earth. All this would sadly interfere with the Club's arrangements. They thought as much of Frank as his cousin did – so much that they one and all declared that they did not care to continue their voyage without him. They couldn't enjoy themselves, for they would worry about him all the while, and if they were to be separated from him they would rather go home and stay there. If their pleasant party and their cruise were to be broken up, they had the boarding-house keeper to thank for it, and Walter declared that there was no punishment known to the law half severe enough for him.

Uncle Dick listened while the boys were talking, and said he fully agreed with them. "Even if Frank should succeed in escaping from the Tycoon, and had a vessel at his command or money enough to take him just where he wanted to go, he would not know which way to steer to find us," said he, "for you boys will remember that you did not decide upon anything definite, and Frank doesn't know whether we are going to Alaska or Japan."

"And all through my foolishness," said Eugene, bitterly. "I wish I had given up, and gone where the others wanted to go."

"So do I," said Bab.

"Don't reproach yourselves," replied Uncle Dick. "You had plenty of sport during your debates, and you were not supposed to know that such an emergency as this was about to arise. But perhaps we can do something by following the Tycoon."

"Yes, if we only knew where she is going."

"I have an idea that I do know. She is bound for the Japan station, so the sailors in her forecastle told Dick Lewis. Well, now, she is short-handed. She must be, for her mate released Dick from his irons and brought him on deck to help make sail. She'll never go on her station without a full crew, and the nearest place at which she can get it is the Sandwich Islands. There she will undoubtedly ship Kanakas enough to make up her complement. Then she'll go out for a three or four months' cruise, and come back and fit out for the Japan station. Now, if we can reach Honolulu before she leaves, we shall probably be able to effect the release of our men. If it were not for this incident that has just happened I would sail at once."

"Why can't you do it any way?" asked Walter, who did not like to waste even a moment.

"Because we must see Lewis out of his trouble. If he goes ashore without some one to protect him, he will be sure to fall into the hands of those sharpers, who will frighten him out of the last article of value he's got."

"Cap'n," said Dick, suddenly, "will you take us with you – me and Bob?"

The old sailor looked in astonishment, and so did the boys.

"I'm afeared to go ashore," continued the trapper, who had been holding a council of war with his chum, "an' so is Bob. 'Sides it's a thing we never done yet – run off an' leave Frank in trouble, an' we've knowed him too long to do it now!"

"My good fellow," said Uncle Dick, with a smile, "if Frank were lost in the woods, you and Bob would be just the men to assist him; but you can't help him in any way now."

"Mebbe we can, cap'n. An' even if we can't, we don't want to go back hum without knowing what's come on him. We shouldn't see no peace of mind."

Uncle Dick did not speak for several minutes. He knew just how much these rude men thought of Frank, and told himself that their desire to see him safe among friends again before they took leave of him for ever, was perfectly natural; but there were the dangers they expected to meet on the "under side of the earth" – the Flying Dutchman, the whales, the monstrous "quids" – could they stand all these? "Lewis," said he, suddenly, "have you and your companion fully made up your minds on this point?"

"Yes, an' we won't never change 'em nuther. We allers stand to what we say."

"That settles the matter. Mr. Baldwin, while I am gone to the custom house, hail the first tug you see and stand by to get under way."

The boys would have been delighted by this arrangement a few hours before, but their feelings were different now. They had something to think of besides the amusement they expected the trappers to furnish them.

Uncle Dick went ashore and walked rapidly away, leaving the boys to themselves. Although they were impatient to be off, the time did not hang heavily on their hands, for they had much to talk about. They fully expected the trappers to change their minds when they saw the preparations that were being made for getting under way, but Dick and Bob were not that sort. There was a dogged expression on their faces, such as might have been seen there had the backwoodsmen been in the power of savage foes who were making ready to torture them at the stake. It said that they fully realized the dangers before them, and were prepared to meet them like men who had never shown the white feather.

"Now, if Frank were only here, and if Dick and Bob would get rid of some of their foolish notions, we could look forward to some fun, couldn't we?" said Eugene.

"If and if!" said Walter. "It is surprising how often that little word stands in our way."

"I have been thinking that Dick's short sojourn on the Tycoon has made matters worse for Frank than they would otherwise have been," said Bob, anxiously. "The three principal officers have felt the weight of his arm, and of course they'll have to take satisfaction out of somebody."

"Dick," said Archie, suddenly, "why don't you encourage us by saying that Frank will be sure to come out all right? That's what you used to tell us whenever he got into trouble."

"But he was on the prairie then, an' now he's among civilized folks," replied the trapper.

"Which means, I suppose, that this is the worst scrape he ever got into."

Dick nodded his head.

"I don't know about that," said George Le Dell. "I think if he had his choice, he would rather be where he is now than in the prison at Shreveport, if he had to go through what he did when he made his escape. Frank has been in some tight places, but somehow he has always managed to squeeze through without much trouble."

"And he never was hurt that I remember, except when he burned that house in which Colonel Harrison made his headquarters," said Archie.

"When you burned it, you mean," said George. "You did that, and if you had been a line instead of a staff officer, you would have got another stripe around your arm for it, too. I told the Colonel all about it after you left our house."

"Why did you do that?" exclaimed Archie, hastily. "Now I shall never dare to meet him again."

"Ha! ha!" laughed George. "Why, he is one of your warmest friends. I told him because I wanted him to know that the boy who killed that bear and beat Somers in a fair race through the woods, had something in him. The Colonel scolded me for not telling him before. He said if he had known it while you were in our neighborhood, you wouldn't have got away from his house for one good long month at least. He would have kept you if he'd had to put a guard over you."

"Well, I shouldn't have enjoyed the visit."

"You couldn't have helped yourself, if plenty of hunting, riding and good company are aids to enjoyment."

From this subject the boys gradually got back to the one that occupied the most of their minds and thoughts, and that was Frank's sudden disappearance. They asked the trapper a multitude of questions, but learned nothing new, for he had already told his story in detail. While they were talking Uncle Dick returned, and the tug being alongside and the pilot aboard, the lines were cast off and the Stranger swung slowly around until her bow pointed toward the headlands at the entrance to the bay. In the bustle and hurry that followed the boys found time to turn an eye toward the trappers now and then, but they saw no signs of regret or alarm on their faces; and when the lines that held the tug were let go, and the steamer with a farewell shriek of her whistle turned back toward the city, and the schooner unfolded her white wings one after the other, and the Golden Gate was passed, and the broad expanse of the Pacific was fairly spread out before them, there were still no signs of backing out. But it was too late now. The die was cast, and Dick and old Bob were bound for the "under side of the earth!"

CHAPTER VII

TOO LATE

THE very presence of Uncle Dick was enough to infuse new life and comfort into the boys, who were disposed to make themselves miserable over the absence of their genial companion. The old sailor believed in looking on the bright side of things, and thought there was no use in worrying over the matter that they could not just then better in any way. His example made a great change in the feelings of the Club.

"Now, Walter," said he, briskly, "we are fairly afloat again, and our sailing-master having deserted us, we are compelled to call on you to fill his place. Suppose you work out a course for us. We're bound for the Sandwich Islands, Eugene; which way are they from here?"

"Oh, you can't catch me on that," replied the boy, "for I posted myself only a few days ago. The twentieth parallel runs through them. They're in the same latitude as Vera Cruz, in Mexico."

"Well, I want to make the run in as short a time as may be, so what shall I do?"

"Stand to the southwest to get the benefit of the northeast trades, and the equatorial current. The same route would take you to China or Japan."

"Suppose, now, we were in China and wanted to come back to the States: would I follow the same course?"

"No, sir. You would steer in a northerly direction until you got between the parallels of thirty-five and forty-five degrees north latitude, and there you would find strong westerly winds to help you along. Perhaps you'd get some assistance from the North Pacific drift current, but on that point I am not sure."

"Well, it is just as well you are not," shouted Walter from the cabin, where he was busy with his chart. "The North Pacific drift current might help you if you wanted to go to Alaska from China. When it strikes the shores of our continent it divides, part of it flowing on down the coast and forming the California coast current, and the rest bending back across the Pacific again; so it would retard your progress rather than help you."

"Well, I am not the sailing-master of this craft, am I?" replied Eugene. "If I was, I'd keep posted. Besides, almost anybody with a chart before him, could clatter away as though his tongue was hung in the middle. Wait till Frank gets back if you want to talk about navigation."

"He's a good one, that's a fact," said Uncle Dick. "He's as fit to command a vessel as I am."

Just then Walter came up, having worked out a course, which being approved by the captain and given to the officer of the deck, the bow of the Stranger was brought around a point or two, and the voyage was fairly begun. There was nothing to be done now, but to await developments with all the patience they possessed.

But few incidents worthy of record happened during the voyage, which, after they struck the trade winds became monotonous enough. The schooner bowled along before a fine breeze, and as it was never necessary to change the sails, there was no work to be done except ordinary ship's duty. The Club passed the time mostly in reading and conversation with the trappers, who, as soon as they fully recovered from their sea-sickness, kept a constant lookout for some of those terrible dangers which had been so graphically described to them. By dint of much talking and argument the boys finally succeeded in making them take a more sensible view of their situation, and as the days wore away without bringing with them any of the perils they had expected to encounter, the backwoodsmen began to act a little more like themselves. But when an ignorant person once gets hold of an idea it is almost impossible to make him let go of it, and the trappers' minds could not be set wholly at rest. They steadily refused to go into the forecastle at night, and always slept on deck. The boys found the reason for this in a remark they heard Bob make to his companion. They wanted plenty of elbow room when they reached the under side of the earth, the old fellow said, so that when the schooner dropped off among the clouds, they could take to the water. They saw sharks, dolphins and flying-fish (the trappers began to put more faith in what the boys said after they had seen one of the latter rise from the water and sail through the air like a bird on the wing), and one day the sailors pointed out to them an object which made them believe that their time had come. It first showed itself while the boys were at dinner. They were summoned on deck by the officers of the watch, and found themselves close alongside the first whale they had ever seen. The monster was taking matters very leisurely, moving along about a hundred yards from the schooner, lifting his huge head out of the water now and then and spouting a cloud of spray into the air, and although the vessel was running at a rate of eight miles an hour, he kept pace with her without the least exertion. The boys were all disappointed.

"This must be a small one," said George.

"Small!" echoed Uncle Dick. "How big do you think a whale is, any how – as big as the Rocky Mountains?"

"No, sir; but I have read that they have been found sixty and seventy feet long," replied George.

"Well, this fellow is every inch of eighty, and I shouldn't wonder if he was ninety feet in length."

"I wish some whaler would come along and pitch into him," said Eugene. "I'd like to see the operation of catching a whale."

"If fifty whalers should come along they would not trouble this fellow," said Uncle Dick.

"Why not?"

"Because he is neither a sperm nor a right whale. He belongs to the species known as finbacks. He would not yield oil or bone enough to pay for the trouble of lowering the boats, and besides he is so swift and strong that it would be dangerous to meddle with him."

The finback kept alongside the schooner for nearly a mile, and during that time the boys had ample opportunity to take a good view of him. He sank and rose at regular intervals, executing the manoeuvre with an ease and grace that was astonishing, and now and then he showed so much of his huge bulk above the water that the boys opened their eyes in amazement, and Featherweight declared that there was no end to him. The longer they looked at him the larger he seemed to grow. At length he began to edge away from the schooner, and finally disappeared. Then each boy turned and looked at his neighbor to see what he thought about it.

"What makes you look so sober?" demanded Featherweight of Archie, who stood by pulling his chin, and gazing fixedly at the spot where the whale had last been seen.

"I was just thinking," was the reply.

"And I'll warrant we can all tell what you were thinking about," said George. "I guess there is no one in this small party who would like to be ordered into a small boat to attack a beast of that size, and you were wondering what Frank's feelings will be the first time he tries it. Well, I don't want to know them by experience."

Archie walked to the side and looked over into the water, while George turned to Dick and Bob, who just then came up. Their faces were very white.

"Well, Dick," said George, "you have seen your first whale, and it isn't such a terrible looking object after all, is it?"

"I dunno," replied the trapper. "If the babies look like that, what must the ole ones be?"

"The babies?" repeated George.

"One of the fellows showed that thing to me when it fust come in sight, and I showed it to Rodgers, but he couldn't see it. Rodgers, he called another of the sailors, and he said he could see something, but it was so small he couldn't tell whether it was a whale or not."

"Now, Dick, don't you believe a word those men in the forecastle say to you," said Eugene, indignantly. "Uncle Dick says that is one of the largest whales he ever saw."

"Wal, Rodgers he couldn't see it at fust 'cause it was so small, but when he did see it, he said mebbee it was a baby. He said the ole one will be along purty soon lookin' fur it, an' then we'll see a whale. If the ole one don't find the baby, she'll think we've done something to it, an' she'll brush us off'n the 'arth like a feller would brush a fly off his Sundy trowsers."

The trappers were frightened again, and for the rest of the day kept close company with their young friends, no doubt feeling safer in their presence than anywhere else. The boys, one and all, exerted themselves to correct the wrong impressions they had received, but the foremast hands had had the first chance at them, as Fred remarked, and it was a matter of impossibility to set their fears at rest. For a week afterward Dick and his companion kept a sharp lookout, expecting every minute to see the old whale coming in search of her young one; but she did not appear, and the next thing that happened to relieve the monotony of the voyage, was the discovery of land, dead ahead. Walter had been anxiously looking for it for the last twenty-four hours. Having taken Frank's place as sailing-master, he was eager to earn a reputation as a navigator, and he was not a little elated to find that he had made no mistake.

The discovery of land set the sailors going again. Rodgers and a few of his companions, who, when the trappers were in hearing, were continually talking about mermaids and dragons and other sea monsters, and the awful sights that would be presented when they came to the under side of the earth, looked through their hands at the dim outline in advance, and after comparing notes in a tone of voice loud enough for Dick and Bob to hear, declared that it wasn't land after all – that the man at the mast was mistaken.

"That's no more land nor I be," declared Rodgers. "If my head is worth a tar-bucket, it is the old whale. She can't find her baby, and so she's coming down to ask the skipper what he's done with it. She's coming like lightning too. Can't you see the water a boiling up under her bows? I can."

"Now, mate, I think it's a squid," said another, "and he's waiting there to gobble up something. I can see his long arms resting on the water, and ready to catch the first moving thing that comes within reach. I hope the cap'n 'll keep away a few points."

"Mebbe he don't know what it is," said a third, "and I think Lewis had better go aft and tell him about it – I do indeed!"

"'Taint a whale nor a squid neither," said an old gray-headed seaman, who, using his hands for a spy-glass, had been looking at the island ever since they first came in sight of it. "It's the equator. I can see the waves rolling over it!"

"Well, Jack, you've been to sea longer nor me and ought to know about these things," said Rodgers. "I seen the waves, but I thought they was the bone the whale was carrying in her teeth. When we get over it, if we ever do, we're on the under side of the earth, ain't we?"

"That's what's the matter," said the gray-headed sailor.

Dick fairly jumped, as each one of these opinions was solemnly advanced, and hurried off to speak to the boys. The latter, especially Eugene and Archie, could hardly refrain from laughing outright at his ludicrous display of terror, but they quieted his fears as well as they could, and by giving him a solemn promise that they would see him safely through any danger that might arise if he would remain close by them, they succeeded in keeping him out of the company of the foremast hands all the rest of the day. But it was not until nearly sunset that the fears the sailors had conjured up were entirely banished. By that time the object that had excited his alarm was so plainly visible that Dick could see for himself that it was land and nothing else.

The boys did not see many of the new and novel sights that were presented to their gaze, as the Stranger made her way through the strait that runs between the islands of Hawaii and Mani. They had eyes for nothing but the whale ship they expected to find there. The huge fishing canoes they saw the next day; the natives that came aboard in swarms while they were running about in the light, baffling winds they found under the lee of the land, the fruits they offered for barter – none of these things possessed the interest for them that they would under almost any other circumstances. They paid little attention to anything but the vessels that now and then passed them. But the Tycoon was not among them.

Uncle Dick took time, as he passed along, to look into every bay and inlet where the Tycoon was likely to be, and it was not until nearly a week after they first sighted the Sandwich Islands that the Stranger dropped anchor outside the coral reef that marks the entrance to the harbor of Honolulu. As the wind came strong down the mountain gorges, everything was made snug, and then the gig was called away and the captain set out for the town, leaving the boys to enjoy themselves as best they could during his absence. But it was dull business, this trying to pass away the time when they were so impatient and anxious. They kept up their spirits by telling one another that something would surely happen to restore their friend Frank to them, but the face that Uncle Dick brought back with him, when he returned six hours later, dashed all their hopes to the ground. No sooner was the gig fairly hoisted at the davits, than he gave the order to heave up the anchor and go to sea. The boys stood around and looked at one another in silence while these orders were being executed, and when Uncle Dick went into the cabin, they followed him.