Etched against the horizon lay a stumpy masted vessel1 that seemed as still and dead as ocean that rotted around it. She had not a sail aloft nor a plume2 of smoke in her funnel3. For the moment this lifelessness was not observed by the hungry castaways. A joyous4 medley5 arose from the dock.
"Th' Vulcan! Hit's th' Vulcan! Th' good Vulcan! We'll 'ave full rations6 t'night, 'at will! Hurrah7!"
They fell to cheering. Voices arose in confusion.
"Vulcan ahoy! Vulcan ah-o-oy!" they bellowed8 in an effort to span the miles with human ices.
"Say, lads, she ain't movin'!" cried someone making the surprising discovery.
"Faith and phwat's th' matter with her now?" exclaimed Hogan in exasperated9 wonder.
A silence fell over the boisterous10 group.
"Out o' coal," hazarded Galton, "that's w'y she harsn't got back no sooner."
"W'ere's 'er sails, then?"
"A tug11 couldn't do nothin' with sails—she isn't made for sails!"
"It ain't w'ot ye're made for, hit's w'ot ye can git in this blarsted sea!"
"Maybe 'er machin'ry's broke?"
"Maybe they're hall sick?"
"Or dead?"
"Maybe——"
Madden hurried to his cabin and returned with binoculars12. The men foregathered curiously13 about him as he scanned the vessel. He ran his eyes over the tub from stem to poop. She stood out with absolute distinctness in the glaring light. He could see her high prow14, the swinging buffers15 along her side, the wide-mouthed ventilators. He could even make out her name in rusty16 letters under the wheel-house. Her small boats were in place, but he saw neither life nor movement aboard. She appeared as deserted18 as a pile of scrap19 iron.
"W'ot are they doin'?" queried20 Galton.
"Nothing." Madden was puzzled over the strange condition of the tug.
"Ain't they crowdin' to th' side, sir, lookin' at us and fixin' to come to us?"
"Nobody's on her," replied Madden. "At least I don't see anyone."
"W'ot! W'ot! Nobody on 'er! Is she deserted, too? Just like the Minnie B!" chorused apprehensive21 voices.
"Seems so," frowned Madden, then he made up his mind quickly and moved over to the small boat which had been hauled up on the forward pontoon.
"Fall to, men, lower that dinghy. We'll go over and see what's the trouble."
The crew went about their task with a sudden slump22 of enthusiasm.
"If the crew's gone, sir," mumbled24 one of the men, as he paid out the rope, "w'ot's the use goin' across?"
"To get to the tug, of course."
"An'w'ot'll we do?"
Madden looked hard at the cockney. "Get the provisions aboard if nothing else."
"There wasn't none on the Minnie B, sir."
"What's the Minnie B got to do with the Vulcan? We're going to run the tug and dock out of this sea, crew or no crew—ease away on that rope, Mulcher. Let go! Now climb down, Galton, loose the tackle and swing her in alongside the ladder."
When the cockneys obeyed, Madden ordered the whole crew into the small boat. They climbed down the ladder one by one with a reluctance25 Madden did not quite understand at the time.
Fifteen minutes later, the little boat, loaded down to her gunwales, set out for the tug. Four oarsmen rowed, one man to the oar17. The slow clacking of shafts27 in tholes echoed sharply from the huge walls of the dock as the dinghy drew away through the burning sunshine.
At some half-mile distance, the harsh outlines of the walls and pontoons changed subtly into a great wine-red castle, that lay on a colorful tapestry28 of seaweed, with a background of blue ocean and bronze sky.
As he drew away, Madden had a premonition that the dock was vanishing out of his life and sight, that never again would he live in its great walls. Like all crafts in this mysterious sea, it seemed completely forsaken29, deserted. With a shake of his shoulders he put the thought from him and turned to face the future in the motionless tug that lay ahead.
Half an hour later the dinghy drew alongside the silent Vulcan and the crew clambered aboard. As they had suspected, there was no sign of the tug's crew aboard.
Although the binoculars had forewarned them of this, the adventurers bunched together on the deck with a qualmish feeling and began talking in low tones, as men converse30 in the presence of mystery, or death.
"We'll search her first," directed Madden, in a tone he tried to make natural.
"Yes," agreed Greer, "and, men, keep a sharp eye out for lunatics. Don't let anything jump on you——"
"Lunatics!" gasped31 Mulcher.
"Greer and I fancied someone scuttled32 the Minnie B," explained Madden with a frown, "but that's no sign such a person is aboard the Vulcan."
"They are wonderful like, sir," observed Gaskin.
"Anyway we'll look her over."
The men agreed and began scattering33 away, two by two for companionship. Presently from the port side Hogan raised his voice guardedly.
"Oh, Misther Madden, just stip this way a moment, if you plaze."
The call instantly attracted several other men. They moved across deck. Hogan was pointing. "Jist th' same as th' other wan," he said gloomily and significantly. "We knew it would be this way, sir. It was th' same hand as done it"
Leonard looked with rising dismay at the sinister34 parallel.
The Vulcan also was lying at sea anchor.
In brief, here was conclusive35 proof that the tug had been abandoned deliberately36 and with forethought by Malone, Captain Black and the whole Vulcan crew. Moreover, as in the case of the Minnie B, they had deserted their ship without taking a boat or even so much as a life buoy37.
The amazed group of men collected about them other members of the searching party, who stuck their heads out of ports and doors now and then to see that no evil magic had set the rigging in flames.
"They all go th' same way," mumbled Hogan, staring at the anchor and wetting his dry lips. "Oi'm thinkin' it'll be our toime nixt."
"Piffle," derided39 the American half-heartedly.
"It makes no difference what happens," put in Caradoc, "we'll see the thing through."
For some reason the men thought better of Smith since the fight and his crisp announcement cheered them somewhat.
"She's got plenty o' coal," volunteered Galton.
"'Er engines look all right," contributed Mulcher, "though I know bloomin' little about hengines."
"I weesh I knew what happened to the men," worried Deschaillon in his filed-down accent.
"My quistion ixactly, Frinchy," nodded Hogan emphatically. "Misther Madden says 'Piffle,' but Oi say where are they piffled to? Did they go over in a storm, or die of fever, or run crazy with heat?"
"They didn't starve," declared Mulcher, "for some of th' fellows are in th' cook's galley40 now eatin'."
Madden lifted his hand for attention, "There's no use speculating on what has happened. It's our job to get dock and tug to the nearest port."
"But suppose—suppose——"
"Suppose what?"
"Suppose th' thing gits arfter us, sir?"
Madden stared, "Thing—what thing?"
The cockney frowned, looked glumly41 across deck. Galton answered,
"W'y, sir, th' thing that run th' crew hoff the Minnie B an' hoff th' Vulcan. Crews don't 'op hoff in th' hocean for amoosement, sir. Some'n' done hit an' that's sure."
"Do you mean you object to sailing this tug on account of some imaginary thing?" demanded Madden in utter surprise.
"Imaginary, sir!" protested Mulcher, "If you please, us lads on th' dock, the night th' Minnie B sunk, saw something swim off to th' south wrapped hall over in fire, sir. Imaginary thing! It bit a 'ole in th' Minnie B an' sunk 'er, sir!"
This recalled to Leonard's mind the peculiar42 phenomenon he had witnessed at the sinking of the Minnie B.
"What do you think the thing is?" he temporized43.
"A—A sea sorpint, sir," stammered44 a cockney embarrassed.
"Sea serpent! Sea serpent!" scouted46 the American. "There is no such thing as a sea serpent!"
"That's w'ot th' hofficers always say," growled47 Mulcher.
"But it is a scientific fact—there's no such thing."
The well-fed Gaskin, who formed one of the group, mad............