_ CHAPTER VIII. A GREAT DEAL OF EXCITEMENT
Russ and Rose Bunker were very much excited by the discovery of the schooner in distress. They were actually afraid that the vessel was going to sink in the ocean right before their eyes!
But the wireless operator reassured them. He said it probably would not sink at all. He seemed to have learned at first glance a lot about that schooner.
"It's lumber laden, from some Maine port. Probably going to Baltimore, or some port down that way. They have jettisoned her deck load, and now she'll just float soggily. But her sails will never carry her to port."
Russ eagerly asked what "jettisoned" meant, and the man explained that the crew had pushed overboard all the deckload of lumber. The hold was filled with the same kind of cargo, and of course lumber would not really sink. But the dirty, torn sails which the children saw did not promise to hold wind enough to propel the water-logged craft.
"She's got to have help," said the wireless operator, and Russ and Rose realized that the _Kammerboy_ was slowing down.
"Are we going to stop?" asked Rose. "Will they take the men off that ship into our small boats? Oh, it's a regular shipwreck, Russ!"
"Not much it isn't, little girl," said the operator. "And this steamer can't stop to do much in the way of rescue. The crew wouldn't want to leave that schooner in good weather, anyway."
"What shall we do, then?" Rose asked again.
Just then their friend, the quartermaster, hurried up with a written paper which he handed to the operator.
"Get that out, Sparks," he said, and the operator turned swiftly to his instrument and fitted on his cap and "earlaps" again. At least, Rose said they were "earlaps."
"Can't we help that schooner?" asked Russ of the quartermaster.
"They don't need us to help them. Only to send a message," was the reply, as the wireless spark began to crackle again. "We are telling the Government about her plight and a revenue cutter will be sent out to tow the schooner into some near port. She has drifted a good way off shore, but the weather is settled and there is nothing to fear."
In a few moments the operator had sent the message and got a reply.
"Right out of the air," breathed Rose wonderingly. "I think that is very funny, Russ. If that mast isn't exactly wireless, it is almost wireless. Anyway, the wires aren't long enough to take much of a message, I should think."
This was a mystery that Russ could not expound, so they went to hunt up Daddy Bunker for further information regarding the wonder of the wireless service. The other four little Bunkers were already greatly interested in the deeply rolling lumber schooner.
After more signals with flags had been exchanged between the steamship the children were on and the schooner, the former picked up speed again. Soon the masts of the schooner were almost out of sight; but the little Bunkers continued to discuss the strange incident.
"I wish we could have put out boats and saved them," said Rose. "Like a regular wreck, I mean."
"The crew of the schooner would be castaways, then," Russ mused. "I like to read stories about castaways."
"Robinson Crusoe had goats," remarked Laddie. "I like goats."
"You wouldn't like goats if they butted you, would you?" asked Vi.
"All goats don't butt," said her twin with assurance.
"Have those men got goats on that wabbly schooner?" Margy demanded. "I didn't see any."
"Of course they haven't," Rose replied.
"Then how could they be castaways?" put in Vi promptly. "If castaways have goats----"
"Oh! you don't understand," declared Russ. "They only get the goats after they get to the desert islands. That is what Laddie means."
"Of course," agreed Laddie.
"Do they eat 'em?" Margy asked.
"Only if they need to," Russ told her, with superior wisdom. "Of course, they most always make pets of them."
"Oh!"
"I guess," said Russ, becoming reflective, "that we might play at castaway."
"When we get ashore, do you mean, Russ?" Vi asked.
"Right here."
"No," said Vi. "We'd get our feet wet. We can't play on the ocean, can we?"
"We can play on this deck. The officers won't mind. Now all of you come up on to this life raft. We'll play you are floating around on the sea waiting for somebody to come along in a boat and rescue you."
"Who is going to be the rescuer?" Vi asked.
"I am."
"Are you sure you can rescue us, Russ?" she demanded. "Where's your boat?"
Russ pointed to a long lifeboat covered with canvas which lay some distance from the life-raft. "That will be my boat," he said eagerly. "Rose, you must be in command of the raft. Of course, you have been drifting about a long time and you are all hungry and thirsty."
"Mun Bun wants bwead and milk," put in the littlest Bunker, on hearing this.
"Well," said Laddie soberly, "you've got to want it a lot before you get rescued, Mun Bun. Castaways have to drink the ocean and eat their shoes before anybody rescues them."
At this Mun Bun set up a wail. It seemed that his shoes were brand new and he was very proud of them. He would not consider eating them for a moment!
"Never mind," said Rose, hugging him. "If you get so very hungry before Russ rescues us, you can chew on your belt. That is what Laddie means."
Mun Bun observed his belt with round eyes. It seemed to him, and he confessed it to Rose, that he would have to be awfully hungry to chew that belt. The others entered into the spirit of the play and when Vi chanced to step off the raft her twin and Margy seized her and screamed.
"You'll be drowned, Vi Bunker!" said Margy.
"You'll more than get your feet wet if you don't stay on the raft," her twin scolded. "And, then, maybe there are sharks."
"Sharks?" put in Margy.
"Yes, big sharks."
"What do they do?" asked Margy, who had not heard so much about this castaway play as the older children.
"Big fish," said Laddie promptly.
"I like fish," Margy announced. "You know, Grandma Bell had goldfish. They were pretty."
"And I like fish to eat," said Vi. "Are sharks good to eat?"
"Maybe they will eat you," warned Laddie, who had entered into the play with all his thought and interest.
"Oh, Laddie Bunker! They wouldn't," cried Vi.
"Well, they might. Anyway, you've got to be afraid of the sharks and not step off the raft."
Meanwhile Russ had gone over to the lifeboat. He had not asked even his friend, the quartermaster, if he could play in that boat. But he saw no reason why he could not, as nobody seemed to be using it.
The canvas cover was tied down with many strings; but the knots slipped very easily and the boy pulled out three of the knots and then laid back a corner of the canvas. It was dark inside the boat, and before Russ crept into it as he intended, he bent over the gunwale and peered in.
Suddenly he gasped, and pulled his head back. He was startled, but Russ Bunker was a courageous boy. He had seen something--or he thought he had seen something--squirming in the brown darkness inside the boat.
He waited a little, and then put his head under the canvas and took a long look. Was there something or somebody there? Russ was determined to find out! _