Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

her, but she is doing splendidly."

"But a flaw might come, even if we have had none to-day; what could you do in that case?" asked Louis.

"Clingman, stand by the sheet!" called the captain.

The seaman was seated on a box not more than three feet from the cleat at which the sheet was made fast. He took his place within reach of it.

"Now she heels over again!" exclaimed Louis, as the water came quite up to the rail, though she took none in.

"Cast off the sheet, Clingman!" called the captain; and the order was obeyed in an instant.

The boat flew up to an even keel almost as though she had been hoisted up by some giant power.

"That is how I should keep her from shipping a big sea," said Scott, as he looked at his companion with a smile on his brown face.

"I give it up, Captain Scott. Of course you know what you are about every time, and I won't say a word again about the boat. But suppose you were not looking when the flaw came?"[151]

"It is not necessary to be looking; for a skipper steers more by the feeling of the boat than by sight. Make fast the sheet, Clingman."

The Blanchita went ahead again; and by this time she was abreast of the Delhi, and gaining upon her. Captain Rayburn was on his quarter-deck.

"Don't run away from me, and I won't run away from you!" he shouted.

But he had hardly spoken before a noise like the distant report of a cannon was heard on board of the yacht.

"He has split his fore squaresail; and if his game was not up before, it is now," said Captain Scott. "The sail was old and rotten, and I don't believe he would have attempted to carry it except on an occasion like the present."

"He was a little too pronounced when he expressed his fears that the Blanchita would not be able to keep up with him, and I fancy he is sorry he said anything about it by this time," added Louis.

The split sail could not be repaired at once; and if it could it was not strong enough to be of any use in the fresh breeze. The crew took it in at once, the yard being lowered to enable them to do so. The captain of the yacht ordered the engineer to reduce his speed to the ordinary rate, though the sail was not furled. Between the steam and the wind the Blanchita ran ahead of the Delhi. The sheet was slacked off as far as it could be without permitting the sail to shake, and the two craft kept well together[152] the rest of the day, passing Great Natuna Island at four in the afternoon.

The captain took the sun at noon, and worked up the position of the boat. The run from the mouth of the Sarawak at that time was two hundred and four sea miles.[153]

CHAPTER XVII THE END OF THE VOYAGE TO BANGKOK

The routine of daily duty on board of the Blanchita has been given; and after the race in the China Sea had proved that she could run away from the Delhi, there was no further excitement on the voyage. On the contrary, it was rather monotonous, and there were no incidents worthy of record. After passing Great Natuna on the afternoon of the second day from the mouth of the Sarawak, no land was seen again till the island of Pulo Obi, about twenty miles south-west of Point Cambodia, was seen on the third day; and the Point on the mainland was passed a little later.

At noon on this day the two vessels were forty-four miles up the Gulf of Siam. The prophecies of Captain Rayburn and Achang in regard to the weather proved to be correct. The monsoon blew steadily all the way, and the yacht carried her sail. Not even a squall disturbed the serenity of the voyage, and everything went on as during the first and second days. The "Four" would have been glad to explore the Great Natuna Island, and determine whether or not it was inhabited; for they could obtain no information in regard to it from any of the books they[154] had brought from the ship, and they forgot to inquire about it at Kuching.

At noon on the third day, in the Gulf, the captain of the Delhi hailed the yacht, and came on board of her.

"I shall have to bear more to the eastward now, Captain Scott, and we shall soon part company," said the commander of the Delhi. "We had quite a lively race on our second day out, and you beat me handsomely. I had no idea that your yacht could sail so fast. I was afraid you could not keep up with me; but I found that you could run away from me, as you suggested before we sailed."

"I did not know myself what speed the Blanchita could make, though I was informed that she had gone nine knots for twelve hours together," replied Scott.

"I am very glad that I met you, and I hope I shall see you again. You have a very agreeable party, and I should think you might enjoy yourselves."

"I think we are likely to meet again at Saigon. The Guardian-Mother will be there, and I hope you will come on board of her," replied Captain Scott, as they shook hands at parting, and the visitor returned to the Delhi.

The Blanchita started her screw again; and the captain gave out north-west as the course for the mouth of the Menan River, on which Bangkok is situated.[155]

"Where do you expect to find the Guardian-Mother, Captain Scott?" asked Louis.

"At Bangkok," replied the captain, as he took his memorandum-book from his pocket. "Captain Ringgold gave me his time for leaving there, and also of sailing from Saigon."

"When was he to leave the capital of Siam?"

"On the first tide Monday morning. This is Saturday, a little after noon," replied Scott. "We have three hundred and twenty-five miles to make. The monsoon is about as fresh here as it has been all the voyage; and we have used up about half of our coal, so that we are considerably lighter than when we left Kuching, and with the sail we can easily log nine knots an hour. We shall go into the Menan River before sundown to-morrow, and it will take two or three hours to go up to the city. We shall be alongside the ship some time in the evening; and that is just the time I should like to be there."

"We shall give our friends a tremendous surprise," added Louis.

"That is so; for while your anxious mamma is worrying for fear you have been chewed up by an orang-outang, and Flix's grandma is dreaming that he has been swallowed whole by a big boa-constrictor, we shall drop in on them while they are singing gospel hymns in the music-room."

"I shall be sorry to disappoint grandma; but if she insists upon dreaming such nonsense, it is not[156] my fault," added Felix. "She ought to know by this time that snakes don't swallow me till they get a bullet through their heads."

"I don't think my mother has been greatly worried about me, for she has learned that I am able to take care of myself," said Louis.

"But the mothers will hug their boys as soon as they get hold of them."

"I wish the hugging might be confined to the mothers, for it is perfectly proper for them to do that thing; but when it comes to a grandma who hasn't a drop of Irish blood in her veins, I beg to be excused, and, what is more, I won't stand it," protested Felix, making a very comical face.

"But you can't help yourself, Flix," laughed the captain.

"You see if I don't!" replied the Milesian, shaking his head as though his plan to avoid the endearing reception had already been formed.

"We shall see what we shall see," added the captain. "It seems to me that the breeze is stronger here than it was out at sea."

"There is a hot country to the east of us, and perhaps the wind is hurrying up to fill a partial vacuum there," suggested Louis.

"You are a philosopher, my darling Louis, and that must be the reason," added Felix.

The Blanchita seemed to be flying through the water, for her speed had sensibly increased since she came into the Gulf. There were several large[157] islands along the coast of Cambodia; but the course was fifty miles outside of the mainland, which could not be seen.

"Why do you keep so far from the shore, Captain Scott?" asked Louis; for all the party would have been glad to observe the shore.

"Because we all wish to get to Bangkok to-morrow evening. What is the shortest way between two points, Louis?"

"A straight line, of course."

"That's the reason we keep her so far from the land. A north-west course from a point outside of Obi Island to Cape Liant takes the yacht on the course we are running now."

"That explains it all," replied Louis.

The watches were regularly kept, and the captain was satisfied that the Blanchita was making over nine knots an hour. There was no excitement of any kind on board, and the rest of the day was without anything worthy of note. The Delhi had gone in behind an island, and in a few hours she was no longer to be seen. And so it was all day Sunday. Cape Liant was passed about one o'clock. A river pilot was taken about five o'clock. He could not speak English, but Achang spoke to him in Malay.

"Ask him if the Guardian-Mother is in the river, Achang," said the captain.

The pilot could not make out the name, and the interpreter described the ship so that he understood him at last. The face of the Siamese lighted up[158] when he got the idea, and it was seen by the four that the ship was there. Achang informed them that the Guardian-Mother was anchored in the river.

The river was full of boats, and on many of them houses were built. The people were new to the Americans, though they were not very different to the ordinary observer from the Burmese and other natives they had seen. Before the yacht was half-way up to the city, it was too dark to see anything distinctly, and the party were more interested in the expected surprise of their friends on board the ship than anything else.

When the yacht was within a short distance of the ship, the pilot pointed her out. The singing in the music-room could be distinctly heard, and everything was working precisely as Scott had said it would. At the gangway the barge of the Blanche was made fast; and it was evident that General Noury and his wife were on board, and perhaps Captain Sharp and his lady. The boat was worked very carefully and noiselessly up to the platform of the gangway, where several sailors were seated.

"The Blanchita!" exclaimed Quartermaster Bangs, as he recognized the craft. "Captain Scott! I will inform the captain that you are alongside."

"Don't do anything of the kind, Bangs!" replied Scott. "Don't say a word, and don't make any noise, any of you. We want to drop in on the party without any notice."

The quartermaster was a very intelligent fellow,[159] and he took in the situation at a glance. The "Big Four" stepped lightly on the platform, and Felix had taken pains to be the last one to mount the gangway. Scott led the way, and halted at the door of the music-room. He waited there till the hymn they were singing was finished, and then threw open the door, and marched in. He took off his cap, and bowed as gracefully as a dancing-master to the assembly.

Louis and Morris followed him, and imitated the example he had given them; but Felix had disappeared, and they did not know what had become of him. The musical party seemed to be so utterly confounded at the sudden and unexpected appearance of the hunters from Borneo that they seemed to be struck dumb with amazement.

"Louis, my son!" Mrs. Belgrave screamed as she rushed upon her boy, and folded him in her arms, kissing him as though he had come back to her from a tomb or a grave beneath the ocean.

"Morris!" cried Mrs. Woolridge, as she imitated the example of Mrs. Belgrave.

"My brother!" exclaimed Miss Blanche, as she divided the neck and arms of the returned hunter with her mother.

"This is somewhat unexpected, Captain Scott," said Captain Ringgold, as he came forward, and took the hand of the captain of the Blanchita, who alone of the trio was not in the arms of a mother.

"I should say that it might be, Captain," replied[160] Scott as coolly as though the meeting was nothing unusual.

"But how under the sun did you get here, Scott?" demanded the commander, scrutinizing the expression of the third officer,—which was his rank on board of