Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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Soun, being pushed by one of the agents, permitted the apparatus to bear him along; while, with a few moves of the paddle, all four soon outdistanced the junk.
The night, which was still very dark, favored their progress. But, if Capt. Yin or any of his sailors had come on deck, they could not have seen the fugitives; besides, no one would have supposed that they could leave the deck in this fashion, and the rascals shut up in the hold could not know of it till the last moment.
“In the second period,” the make-believe corpse in the last coffin said; that is, about the middle of the night.
Kin-Fo and his companions, therefore, had a few hours in which to escape; and in that time they hoped, with the wind in their favor, to gain a mile over the “Sam-Yep.”
Indeed, a breeze now began to ripple the mirror-like waters, but still so lightly that they could only depend on the paddle to take them out of reach of the junk.
In a few moments Kin-Fo, Craig, and Fry were so well accustomed to their apparatus, that they worked it instinctively without once hesitating about the manner of moving, or on the position to take, in the soft, yielding element. Soun soon recovered his wits, and found himself incomparably more at his ease than on board of the junk. His seasickness had suddenly ended; for the sensation caused by the rolling and pitching of a boat is wholly unlike that given by the sea-swell when one is in it up to his waist, which Soun attested with great satisfaction.
But, if Soun was no longer sick, he was terribly afraid. He thought that possibly the sharks had not gone to their rest, and he instinctively doubled up his legs as if he were about to be snapped up; and, to speak frankly, a slight degree of anxiety was not out of place in the situation.
Thus Kin-Fo and his companions, whom mischance continued to place in the most unnatural situations, floated along, and, when using the paddle, lay in an almost horizontal position, resuming the perpendicular when resting.
An hour after they left the “Sam-Yep,” she was half a mile behind, sailing with the wind. Then they stopped, leaned on their paddles, which were lying flat on the water, and held council in a very low voice.
“That rascal of a captain!” cried Craig, to start a conversation.
“That scoundrel of a Lao-Shen!” replied Fry.
“Do they astonish you?” said Kin-Fo, like a man whom nothing can surprise.
“Yes,” answered Craig, “for I cannot understand how those wretches found out that we took passage on the junk.”
“It is indeed incomprehensible,” added Fry.
“But it is of little consequence,” said Kin-Fo, “since we have escaped.”
“Escaped!” answered Craig. “We cannot say that; for, so long as the “Sam-Yep” is in sight, we shall not be out of danger.”
“Well, what can we do?” asked Kin-Fo.
“Use all our strength, and get so far that we shall not be seen at daybreak,” answered Fry. And, inflating his rubber suit with a sufficient quantity of air, he rose out of the water as far as his waist. He then drew his bag in front, opened it, and took out a flask, and a glass which he filled with refreshing brandy, and passed to Kin-Fo, who needed no urging, but emptied it to the last drop. Craig-Fry followed his example, as did Soun, who was not forgotten.
“How does that suit you?” asked Craig.
“Better,” answered Soun, when he had swallowed the brandy. “If we could only have a bite of something to eat!”
“To-morrow,” said Craig, “we shall breakfast at daybreak, and have several cups of tea.”
“Cold!” cried Soun, making up a face.
“Warm!” answered Craig.
“Can you make a fire?”
“Yes.”
“But why wait till to-morrow?” asked Soun.
“Would you have our fire betray us to Capt. Yin and his accomplices?”
“No, no!”
“Well, then, wait until to-morrow.”
Thus these good men chatted as if they were really in their own houses. The slight swell made them rise up and down in a singularly comical manner—first one, then the other—at the caprice of the waves, like the hammers on a keyboard under the touch of a pianist.
“The breeze is springing up,” observed Kin-Fo.
“Let us set sail,” replied Fry-Craig. And they were preparing to make a mast of their stick on which to hoist their sail, when Soun uttered a cry of fear.
“Hold your tongue, you fool!” said his master. “Would you betray us?”
“But I thought I saw”—whimpered Soun.
“What?”
“A monstrous animal coming near me,—a shark!”
“You are mistaken, Soun,” said Craig, after carefully scanning the surface of the water.
“But I thought I felt”—continued Soun.
“Hold your tongue, you coward!” said Kin-Fo, placing one hand on his servant’s shoulder. “Even if you feel your leg being snapped off, I forbid you to cry out, or”—
“Or,” added Fry, “we will thrust our knives into his rubber suit, and send him to the bottom of the sea, where he can cry out as much as he pleases.”
The unhappy Soun was not at the end of his troubles. He was almost frightened out of his senses, but dared not utter a word. If he did not now wish himself back on the junk, with the passengers in the hold, and even seasick, he would before long.
As Kin-Fo observed, the wind was rising; but it was only one of those light breezes which generally die away at sunrise: nevertheless they must profit by it to get as far as possible from the “Sam-Yep.” When Lao-Shen’s companions discovered that Kin-Fo was no longer in his cabin, they would probably start in search of him; and, if he were in sight, the canoe would make it very easy to overtake him: therefore they must, at all costs, be far distant before dawn.
The breeze was blowing from the east, so that to whatever latitude the junk might be driven by the hurricane, sailing in a westerly direction from the Gulf of Leao-Tong, Pe-che-lee, or even from the Yellow Sea, it would probably be going towards the shore where boats of commerce on their way to the mouth of the Pei-ho, and fishing-crafts which sail along the coast day and night might be found: therefore the chances of being rescued would increase with their number. If, on the contrary, the wind should come from the west, and the “Sam-Yep” should be carried farther south than the coast of Corea, Kin-Fo and his companions would have no hope.
Before them spread the wide sea; and, if they should reach the shores of Japan, they would arrive as corpses incased in their floating rubber suits.
But, as we have said, the breeze would probably die away by sunrise; and it was necessary to profit by it, and get safely out of sight.
It was now about ten o’clock in the evening, and the moon would rise a little before midnight, and there was not a moment to lose.
“Let us start,” cried Fry-Craig.
They got under sail in a moment. Nothing was easier; for to the right foot of the rubber suit a socket was fastened, in which the stick which served as a mast was set.
Kin-Fo, Soun, and the two agents first stretched themselves out on their backs; then, by bending their knee, brought one foot round, and drove the stick into the socket, first moving the halyards of the little sail to the end of it. As soon as they resumed the horizontal, the stick, making a right angle with the line of their bodies, stood perpendicularly.
“Hoist the sail!”