Tom Fairfield at Sea; or, The Wreck of the Silver Star Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  A PUZZLED CAPTAIN

  Amid a confusing sound of tooting whistles, the clanging of bells,hoarse commands shouted back and forth, the _Silver Star_ made herway through the shipping of the harbor, and pointed her nose towardthe mysterious Pacific--the ocean that held so many strange lands andislands,--the ocean on whose broad bosom perhaps, Tom's father andmother were drifting helplessly about, in a wreck. Or mayhap they laybeneath the waves.

  But Tom did not dare dwell on that terrible possibility and, for thetime being, he resolutely put all thoughts of never seeing his parentsagain, out of his mind.

  "I'm just going to find them!" he cried bravely, though he knew he hada hard task ahead of him.

  But just now the busy scenes that were taking place, as the steamerstarted off on her voyage, held his attention, and for a moment he evenforgot the mysterious passenger who had gone to his cabin in such ahurry.

  "Well, Tom, my boy!" exclaimed Captain Steerit, as he looked at ourhero, "we've got good clean weather to start off with, and, if I'm anyjudge, it will hold for some time."

  "It isn't so rough on the Pacific as it is on the Atlantic; is it?"asked Tom. "At least I've read so, and the name----"

  "Don't get that idea into your head," laughed the commander. "ThePacific is peaceful in name only. Of course I don't mean to say that itisn't calm a good bit of the time, at certain seasons of the year, justas the Atlantic is. But when it wants to kick up a fuss it can make abigger one than that ocean you've got back east there.

  "Yes, when we get a storm out here, we certainly get a bad one. ButI'm not looking for trouble. We're going to point our nose into thenicest part of the ocean, to my thinking. You'll enjoy it, even if youhave a hard trick at the wheel ahead of you. There'll be lots to see,especially if you go all the way to Australia with me."

  "Well, I expect to go there," answered Tom, "for I haven't much hope ofsighting anything near the place where the wreckage was seen."

  "Nor I, either," spoke the captain, "though I didn't want to discourageyou. The drift of the current, and the wind, wouldn't let anything stayin one place long."

  "Then I'll just have to go on to Sydney and start my search fromthere," ventured our hero earnestly.

  "Well, yes, I suppose so, though of course there's a bare possibilitythat we may sight something on our way out."

  "What do you mean?" asked Tom quickly, a new hope springing up in hisheart.

  "I mean that the _Kangaroo_, from all accounts, was coming over aboutthe same path in the ocean as we'll take going out. She was to stopat Honolulu I see by the papers, just as we are. Of course she waswrecked--or at least we'll suppose so--before she got there. And if wesail over the same course we may sight her--or what's left of her.

  "Mind though!" the captain went on quickly, as he saw the look ofdespair on Tom's face, "I'm not admitting that she was wrecked. Just asyou have told me, I believe that she may have been disabled in a storm,and part of her gear, her masts and her lifeboats, may have been sweptoverboard. That has often happened. In fact it's happened to me when Ihad charge of a big sailing ship.

  "But it's possible to rig up a jury mast, make some sort of sail, andstagger on, when by all accounts one ought to be at the bottom of thesea. So you see it doesn't do to give up hope."

  "And I'll not!" cried Tom. "Oh, I do hope we can pick up the_Kangaroo_. I'm going to keep a lookout every day."

  "Yes, you can do that," agreed the captain. "I'll let you take a goodglass, and I'll also instruct the lookout to keep his eyes peeled dayand night. But it's too soon to begin yet, so you might as well take itas easy as you can. Say, did you notice the passenger who came aboardin such a hurry?"

  "Yes," answered Tom, for the ship was now well on her way and there wasless of interest to hold our hero's attention.

  "Did you think he acted in any way funny?"

  "Well, yes, I did," admitted Tom. "He didn't seem to know exactly whatto do."

  "And another thing," went on the captain. "It seemed to me that thesight of you scared him."

  "Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom, though he was aware that the captain waseyeing him sharply. "Why should he be disturbed on account of me?"

  "I can't say, I'm sure. Did you ever see him before?"

  "Not that I know of," replied Tom. "Though when I heard his voice itsounded like some one I'd heard before, though I couldn't be quitesure, and just now I couldn't even place the voice."

  "Well, perhaps I'm mistaken," admitted the captain. "No matter. Haveyou got your stateroom in shape?"

  "Yes, but I guess I can put a few finishing touches on it. I've been sointerested in watching our start that I haven't been below much."

  "Well, I'm going down to get something to eat," went on the commanderwith a smile, "and if you'd like to come along I can offer you a meal,"for he had arranged that Tom should sit at his table.

  "I will!" exclaimed the lad. "This sea air makes me hungry."

  "I thought it would," responded the commander, with a laugh. "Keep heron this course, Mr. Merton," he said to the first mate, who had come upon the bridge, at a signal, to take charge of the wheel.

  "I wonder if I ought to knock on his door and ask him if he's hungry?"spoke the captain, half aloud, as he and Tom went below.

  "Who?" inquired our hero, though the question was not exactly addressedto him.

  "That passenger I was speaking of--Mr. Pierson Trendell his nameis--the one who came on board late. He was recommended to my care by afriend of one of the owners of this steamer, though I don't know himpersonally. He's going to Honolulu for his health I understand. GuessI'll have to be decent to him, though I didn't take much of a notionto him, and I don't like anyone who can't arrive on time.

  "But I'll take a chance, and ask him to come with us and have a littlelunch. As you say, this sea air does give one an appetite."

  They were on the berth deck now--the deck where Tom's stateroom, anoutside one, was located. The captain turned into a passageway, andpaused before the door of a room not far from our hero's.

  "This is his berth," he remarked as he rapped on the panel.

  "Who's there?" came a quick demand.

  "Captain Steerit," was the reply. "Would you like to come to lunch withme, Mr. Trendell?"

  "In a private room?" was the query.

  "No, but at my private table."

  "Any one else?"

  "Humph! You're mighty particular," murmured the commander. "Why, yes,"he made answer in a louder tone. "My friend, Tom Fairfield, is comingwith us. Shall I have a place laid for you?"

  "No, thank you--er--that is, I'm not feeling very well. The motion ofthe boat, you know--in fact I haven't quite got my sea legs on. Someother time, Captain."

  "Oh, very well, just as you like," and with rather a frown ofannoyance the captain passed on.

  "Very strange," he murmured, half to himself, but loud enough for Tomto hear. "They said he was an experienced sailor, and had been in allsorts of rough blows. And yet he's seasick when the water is as calm asa millpond. I can't understand it," and the puzzled captain shook hishead.

  "Can a person get seasick more than once?" asked our hero, ratheranxious on his own account.

  "Oh, yes, there are lots of such cases. And again there are some whonever suffer from it. It's all a matter of nerves, I think. It neverbothers me, and yet I had a first mate once, who was always very sickthe first two days out, and then he'd be as steady on his legs as a sealawyer. But every new voyage it would be the same way. But come in tolunch now," and he led the way to a private table, where Tom was soonputting away a substantial meal that was more like dinner than luncheon.

  There was only a slight motion to the _Silver Star_ now, hardly anymore than to Tom's motorboat when he had been out in a blow, and he wasbeginning to feel that he would not suffer from seasickness.

  Captain Steerit left him to his own devices after the meal, for thecommander had many things to look after. Tom went to his own stateroom,which he put in shipshap
e. Then he went on deck again.

  The Golden Gate was fading from sight now, and the routine of a vesselout at sea was well under way. Tom saw several passengers, but the manhe had begun to classify as the "mysterious one," did not appear.

  "If he's going to be seasick now's his chance," mused Tom, for therewas now quite a decided roll to the ship.

  But it did not bother our hero, who was feeling in excellent health. Ofcourse he could not help worrying about his father and mother, but helooked on the brightest side, and made up his mind that if there wasany possibility of rescuing them he would do so.

  It was coming on toward evening, and Tom was wondering how he wouldsleep on his first night at sea. As he passed near the bridge, on theupper deck, he saw Captain Steerit and the first mate in conversation.

  "I can't understand it," the commander was saying. "He comes on boardas a man who is traveling for his health, and who wants to get all thesea air he can. Yet when I give him an outside stateroom, near youngFairfield's, he goes and changes it before I know it. He won't comeout to lunch, and now you tell me he asks to have all his meals servedin his cabin."

  "That's it," said the mate. "He sent the steward to ask me, and Ithought it best to speak to you."

  "Quite right. Well, I suppose we'll have to let him have his way, butI can't understand it. He wants fresh air, but he won't come out andget it," and the captain filled his lungs with the salty, ocean breeze."Very puzzling! Very puzzling!"