Down the Rhine; Or, Young America in Germany, Oliver Optic [best english novels to read .TXT] 📗

boat would be stove, and he only got into her for the purpose of assisting the young lady. The captain backed his vessel so that she left the craft alone again. But the bold commander of the Young America was not dismayed by the situation. He instantly let go the halyards, and secured the sail as it came down. He glanced at the trembling lady, who crouched in the stern to save her head from the threshing of the boom. Grasping one of the oars, he pulled the boat around till she lay head to the wind. She was almost water-logged, and he saw that it was necessary to relieve her of some of this extra weight before she could be manageable.

"Won't they save us?" gasped the lady, glancing at the steamer, which was drifting rapidly away from them.

"Don't be alarmed, miss," said Shuffles, as he seized a kind of tub which was filled with fish-lines and other angling gear.

"What shall I do?" asked the young man, whose pluck had by this time become quite exhausted in his vain battle with the elements.

"Can you pull an oar?" demanded Shuffles, rather sharply, of the clumsy boatman.

"I can."

"Take this one, then, and keep her head as it is now."

The young man took the oar, and pulled as he was directed; and Shuffles went to work vigorously with the tub, in throwing out the water. He labored so diligently and effectually, that in a few moments he had relieved the boat of the great burden of water within her. While he did so, he gave the young man such directions as enabled him to keep the craft poised with her head to the fierce gusts that beat upon her. In this position she rose and fell on the great billows, and shipped very little water. The steamer had started her wheels again; but while she did not venture very near the boat, she lay by to render assistance if the latter were swamped. The lady, finding that the frail craft, under her present management, behaved very well, sorely as she was tried by the tempest, was encouraged.

"Can I do anything?" she asked, in soft notes, though they were still shaken by her fears.

"No, miss: if you will only keep perfectly still, I can take care of her."

"Here is a basin," said she, holding up the implement. "Shall I throw the water out of her?"

"If you please," answered Shuffles, willing to encourage her; for even the belief that one is doing some good, in an emergency, assists in quieting one's fears.

She went to work with a zeal which indicated a strong will, and if she did not accomplish as much as she wished to do, it was only because the uneasy tossing of the boat defeated her good intentions.

"Steady!" said Shuffles, to the young man at the oar. "You heave her round so that she will take the wind on the other hand. Now pull away with all your might!" he added, as the boat began to fall off.

"Are we going to stay here all night?" asked the other, who was nearly exhausted by the violence of his efforts to keep her head up to the blast.

"No, no!" replied Shuffles, impatiently, as he put out the other oar, and assisted his companion, when the boat was in danger of catching the wind on her beam. "I will get sail on her in a few moments."

In the lull of the blast, the young commander overhauled the sail, and corrected the non-nautical reefing of his companion.

"Now, mind your eye!" shouted Shuffles, as he grasped the halyards.

"What shall I do?"

"Pull away!"

"I'm losing my wind," gasped the sufferer, who had really struggled with the oar till his exertions and excitement had nearly disabled him.

"Pull away for half a minute more," replied Shuffles, as he ran up the main-sail, which beat and thrashed fearfully in the gale.

Having secured the halyards, the new skipper sprang to the helm, and seized the main sheet. Placing the lady on the weather side, he seated himself on the rail, with the sheet in his right hand, and the tiller in his left.

"Now let her go it!" he shouted to the young man. "Jump up to windward, and keep your weather eye open!"

The weary oarsman was glad to be relieved from his exhausting task, and promptly obeyed the order. Shuffles had put two reefs in the sail; but without the most skilful handling, the boat could not carry even this short canvas in such a fierce tempest. It was not such a sea as rages in a storm upon the ocean, but it was altogether too rough for any ordinary boat. It was not a long, bounding, rolling billow, but a short, angry wave, that tried the timbers of the Swiss boat. As soon as the rower ceased his occupation, the head of the craft fell off, the sail filled, and she careened down to the gunwale.

"We shall certainly tip over!" gasped the lady, clinging to the rail.

"Don't be afraid, miss. This boat behaves very handsomely, and is stiff enough to weather a gale," added Shuffles, confidently, as the little vessel leaped upon one of the snappy, snarling billows, and then plunged down into the trough of the sea.

"I never was terrified in a boat before," said she, shaking with alarm.

"It is a heavy storm, and not just the weather for a lady to be out in. Don't be frightened, miss. The boat is doing very well under her double reefs, and she will weather it, if you only believe in her."

There came another tremendous gust, which seemed to strike the boat like a blow from an immense sledgehammer; and she bent down under it till her rail was buried in the foaming waters. Shuffles "touched her up" a little, and let out the sheet till the sail shook in the blast. The boat righted, and for a moment had a partial respite from the savage pounding of the tempest. The young man, who clung to the weather rail with a tenacity which indicated that he had not yet recovered his self-possession, glanced ahead, and then at the steamer, whose course now diverged from that of the sail-boat, and the two craft were increasing their distance from each other.

"We wish to go to Friedrichshafen," said he, apparently troubled by the discovery he had made.

"So do I," replied Shuffles, quietly, without taking his eye from the sail.

"This will not bring us there," added the ex-skipper.

"Any port in a storm," said the gallant helmsman. "If I let the boat fall off enough to lay a course for Friedrichshafen, she will fill in the twinkling of an eye."

"I don't see why she should," added the young man, evidently not satisfied with the action of the new skipper.

"I think you ought to see it, after you have half filled the boat yourself on that tack. Don't you understand that it would throw the boat into the trough of the sea, and make her roll? Look at that steamer. I am not sure that she will not be obliged to throw her head up into it, and lay too for a while."

"Pray do just as you think best, sir," interposed the lady.

"That is what I intend to do, miss. Really there is only one thing you can do when it blows like this—keep her head up to it."

Again it was necessary for Shuffles to use all his skill and strength, as the heavy gusts were repeated, to prevent the boat from filling. Easing off the sheet, and crowding her up into the wind, the boat weathered another shock, and then had another brief respite. The spray dashed in the fierce blast like hailstones into the face and eyes of the intrepid captain, and he was nearly blinded by the charge. His hands were full, holding the tiller and the sheet. Securing the latter with his knee, he tried to take his handkerchief from his pocket, to wipe the water from his eyes. But a jerk of the boat compelled him to grasp the helm suddenly, and the wind carried away the handkerchief like a feather.

"My eyes are full of spray," said he, without even glancing at the flight of the lost article.

"You have lost your handkerchief," replied the young lady, tenderly. "Pray take mine."

"I am obliged to use both hands. May I trouble you to wipe the water from my eyes? I can hardly see, I am so blinded."

The young lady promptly complied with the request, and holding on to the rail with her left hand, she wiped the water from the captain's eyes.

"Thank you," said he, greatly relieved by the act.

"Let me change seats with you, Feodora," interposed the young man. "Perhaps I may be able to assist in working the boat."

"Sit still! Don't move!" shouted Shuffles, sternly.

"I only wish to help you," replied the other.

"You will help me most by keeping entirely still," answered Shuffles, as another fierce blast struck the sail, and required the skipper's whole attention. Again the cutting spray blinded him, though, as any other skilful boatman can, he was able to comprehend by the feeling the motion of the boat.

"Shall I wipe your eyes again?" asked the young lady.

"If you please."

Gently, her eyes beaming with interest and sympathy, the lady wiped the drops of water from his eyes. Though her companion said nothing, he did not seem to regard the operation with much favor. Very likely he thought it was quite unnecessary to wipe the skipper's eyes at every fresh gust. Again he proposed to change places with her; but Shuffles peremptorily forbade the movement, either because he thought the young lady could wipe his eyes better than the young man, or because he was afraid some accident would happen in making the change.

The storm rather increased than diminished in violence, and for an hour Shuffles held on his course. The steamer had gone into Friedrichshafen, though she had been obliged, in some of the fiercest blasts, to throw her head up into the wind, and hold on till its fierceness subsided a little. After every gust, the young lady wiped the eyes of her gallant preserver, for as such she regarded him; and such he doubtless was, for the boat would have gone to the bottom long before without his skilful assistance. She soon learned to perform the kindly office without a word, though the captain did not fail to thank her every time.

The boat did not make rapid progress; by keeping her close-hauled, continually easing off the sheet, and touching her up, she made considerable lee way. At the end of two hours, and when it was beginning to grow dark, Shuffles found himself nearing the shore on the north side of the lake. He must either make a harbor or go about on the other tack. It was impossible to land on the exposed shore, against which the waves were beating in the madness of their fury. He was at least ten miles above the port to which he and his passenger wished to go. Directly ahead of him was a point of land, which projected out into the lake. Beyond it there was an indentation in the shore, within which he might possibly find a partial shelter from the fury of the storm. It was doubtful whether he could weather the point; but he did not wish to tack, and stand farther out into the lake. The night was coming on, and all his skill and courage could not insure the safety of the boat in the darkness and on unknown waters.

Hauling in the sheet a little, he braced the craft sharp up, and struggled with the elements to clear the headland. He looked anxiously into the green waters for any shoals on the lee bow. Fortunately there was no obstruction in his path, and the boat weathered the headland, though without the fraction of a point to spare. Easing off the sheet, he ran the boat into the