NOTICING that several of the ship’s officers whom they passed eyed Pep askance, the doctor singled out the most affable looking one and went straight to the point. “What about dogs?” he asked. “My dog followed me to the very gangplank and I had to bring him along or miss the boat. He is a very valuable dog. I wouldn’t have anything happen to him for the world. He is a blue ribbon dog.”
The officer looked at the dog doubtfully. “If you really value him,” he said, “you had better not let the first mate see him. He is death on dogs. Why, the last trip across he had four thrown overboard. They were pets of wounded soldiers, too. It made the[57] crew as mad as March hares. There wasn’t any sense in it, either.”
At this the doctor looked troubled, but he was a diplomat and a man of quick action. He knew there was many a way of circumventing unjust regulations like this.
“Here is a five-dollar bill,” he said, slipping the greenback into the hand of the officer. “You introduce me to the official who is the most of a dog lover.”
“That’s the old man,” said the official doubtfully. “I wouldn’t dare to approach him, but you might appeal to him if the worst came. He is the captain of the ship, but we call him the old man. The head steward keeps a little dog in his cabin. Perhaps he might accommodate you.”
So they went to the chief steward’s cabin, where they found that necessary official swearing at his associates.
“Another dog,” he snorted, when the proposition had been put up to him. “Well, I guess not. Ginger worries me nearly to death.”
“He is a blue ribbon dog,” explained the doctor. “They would keep each other company.[58] Take a look at him.” He held Pep up for inspection.
The steward gave Pep a hurried glance, then came nearer to get a better view. He stroked his sleek head and tweaked his ears fondly.
“The very picture of my old Sally. Why I sailed fifteen years with that dog. She was better company than half the folks. Why, yes, I can make a place for him. Here, Ginger, come here and take a sniff at your shipmate.”
The doctor set Pep down on the floor and the small black and tan dog approached gingerly as suited his name, but Pep gave him just one disdainful glance then looked the other way.
“They’ll be all right when they get acquainted,” said the doctor. “You see Pep is rather exclusive.”
Finally the dogs touched noses and were friends. Pep was given an old souwester to lie upon and the steward promised to keep an eye on him while the doctor went to look for his cabin.
Although the doctor visited Pep twice[59] that evening and he seemed snug and comfortable, yet he could not forget the horrible picture of the first mate’s having the pets of the wounded soldiers thrown overboard, so he determined to have it out with the old man as they called him the very next day.
All that night the great ship plowed her way through the darkness. Her lights were all out, but half a mile to the north and half a mile to the south a long rakish torpedo boat ran parallel with her. These were her escort. No one knew at what moment a submarine might appear, so every precaution was taken against those devils of the deep.
The following morning was bright and beautiful, with a stiff wind blowing at the ship’s bow. Every one was in the best of spirits and all danger was forgotten.
In the middle of the forenoon the doctor discovered the ship’s captain standing near the wheel. He had been talking with the man at the wheel, but he was not busy then. The moment seemed auspicious and the doctor approached him without delay.
“Sir,” he said, saluting. “I understand you like dogs.”
[60]The captain was a man of sixty, but he looked much older. His face was wrinkled and weatherbeaten, but a smile shone through his weatherstained visage.
“Who told you that?” he asked. “It wasn’t the first mate.”
“No, sir,” returned the doctor. “It wasn’t the first mate, but you do like dogs.”
“Rather,” said the captain, looking off across the broad expanse of blue rolling sea.
“Would you like to see the champion of the recent New York dog show? He is a gentleman. An English bull terrier.”
“There isn’t any such animal aboard,” returned the captain.
“Yes, there is,” replied the doctor. “If you have a few minutes, come with me and I will show him to you.”
The captain followed, incredulous and excited. If there really was a blue ribbon English bull terrier aboard, he wanted to know it. It would never do to risk such a prize with his present mate, the dog hater.
They found Pep waiting for them and straining at his leash. The doctor picked him up that the captain might better admire[61] him. For several seconds he looked him over in silence, then put out his hand and stroked his sleek head.
“He’s a blue ribbon dog sure enough,” he said at last. “I’ll speak to the mate about him. We don’t want him swimming for his life in the Atlantic. That mate is a strange man. There is something wrong about him, but he is a good officer. Pep is to be a regular passenger with all the privileges of the ship, sir.”
Pep became a prime favorite with several of the passengers, once he was permitted to come out of hiding. Although the first mate glowered at him and muttered ominously, he did not dare lay hands on him since the old man had said he was a regular passenger, with all the privileges of the ship.
One little girl in particular, Hilda Converse, the daughter of an importer who was going across in the interests of his firm, fairly worshiped Pep. Hilda had just lost her mother and that was why her father was taking her with him under such dangerous circumstances.
Hilda and Pep were inseparable, once she[62] had found her way to his warm dog heart.
The morning of the fifth day out dawned dark and stormy. The wind had kicked up a great sea and the mighty swells rolled mountain high.
Finally the wind increased to the dimensions of a hurricane, and all but the most hardy sought their cabins. The doctor, however, liked to stay out in the open where he could watch the storm. The winds fairly shrieked in the rigging and about the tall smokestacks. The sea hissed and seethed, and the winds whipped it and beat upon it, until the air was filled with flying spray. Finally such a yeast was kicked up that one could gather hands full of the feathery foam from the air. Sky and water seemed to meet, and the mighty ship and its human freight were at the very heart of this terrible storm. So far as they could see or feel this was all there was to the world—a world of wind and foam, all turbulence and frightfulness. One of the ship’s boats was broken loose by a mighty sea and swept away. It rose upon the top of a great swell, then sank into the trough and was seen no more.
[63]The doctor watched the ship’s crew narrowly as they worked. They worked like soldiers, each doing his part with dispatch and decision. The captain stood on the bridge, the master mind. The ship, the crew, all obeyed him implicitly. He was the will of the ship, and an iron will at that.
Finally the fury of the storm spent itself and the skies cleared, but the effect of the hurricane was still manifest in the sea. Great foam-covered swells rolled by, many of them breaking over the lower deck. But they were rhythmic and one always knew when to expect the next one. This was all right as long as the waves ran at the regulation height, but the combers were quite different. In them is an element of danger that no seamanship can guard against, no matter how skillful it may be.
A comber is a wave twice or three times as high as its fellows. It is the king of waves, riding head and shoulders above its fellows, and often carrying death and destruction in its wake. Combers sixty feet high have been observed by trustworthy witnesses.
[64]The ship had experienced several combers about five o’clock, none of which did any damage, although they drenched the lower deck and sent hogsheads of water into the cabin. The sun had come out and many of the passengers had reappeared on deck. Little Hilda had gone down into the steerage to visit another girl with whom she had become acquainted. They were standing by the rail chattering away excitedly about the storm, when the father of all combers reared its foam-covered crest close to the ship. The ship’s officers had seen it coming, but had not appreciated how tall it was, because the seas were running so high. It struck the side of the ship with a noise like heaviest thunder and submerged............