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In half a day I got the two topmasts aboard and the shears rigged and guyed as before. And that night I slept on board and on deck beside my work. Maud, who refused to stay alone ashore, slept in the forecastle. Wolf Larsen had sat about, listening to my repairing the windlass and talking with Maud and me upon indifferent subjects.
In the morning the wind increasing and, there being no possibility of putting to sea, we struck yards and topmasts and trusted to our anchors.
The wind changed towards evening, and thus this day passed with murmuring, and we doubted no longer that this was Master John. 25th, Sunday. It blew very hard from the west so that we had to lower the topmasts and let drop the sheet anchor. We saw at daylight a yacht coming down to us before the wind and were rejoiced to find that Margaret was on board, with some other females.
There were several spare spars of various sizes, ranging from topmasts down to studding-sail booms, lashed to the deck on each side of the main-hatchway, and these he deliberately set to work to cast adrift. With considerable difficulty he at length succeeded in accomplishing this task, the result being that the spars were set rolling athwart the deck with the roll of the ship.
He had brought a forlorn "growler" or four-wheeled cab. Climbing in we drove a mile or more along a deserted road, and drew up at last apparently at the back of beyond. "Where is the ship?" I asked. "Why, those are her topmasts," replied my guide, pointing to two posts projecting from the sand. "The tide is low and she is hidden by the quay." "Heavens!" I thought; "she's no tea clipper, anyhow."
The coming of a typhoon is well known to the natives at least twenty-four hours beforehand, and every preparation is made for it. Boats are dragged far up the beach; buildings even are fortified for resistance. Every ship had laid out its anchors, lowered its yards, and housed its topmasts. We had both bowers down, with cables paid out to extreme length.
When the topmasts of the Chilian schooner had disappeared below the horizon line, with no reason to suppose that the schooner would put back again, Captain Horn started for the caves. Had he obeyed his instincts, he would have begun to stroll along the beach as soon as the vessel had weighed anchor.
This day the People were Employed in unbending the Sails, in fitting and rigging the Spare Topmasts in the room of the others, and getting on shore Empty Water Casks. Tuesday, 15th. Fine pleasant weather. Received on board fresh Beef and Greens for the Ship's Company, with which they was served every Day During our Stay here.
A favorable opportunity soon occurred, one of those which so often show that, if a man only puts himself in the way of good luck, good luck is apt to offer. At 8 A.M. the eighty-gun ship "Ça Ira," third from the rear in the French order, ran on board the vessel next ahead of her, and by the collision lost her fore and main topmasts.
He could see the faint outline of topmasts and yard-arms, and the figure of a man upon the shrouds. He aimed as best he could and pulled the trigger. "I'm shot!" were the words that came to him through the mist. "Give 'em the six-pounder with grape," said a voice, followed by a blinding flash, a swish in the water, the roar of a cannon. It had been fired at random, and he was unharmed.
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