Peggy Owen Patriot Part 35

"Sit still," commanded the mate sharply. "Why, look you! We can't even see the 'Falcon' for the fog."

It was true. Already the hapless "Falcon" had been swallowed up by the dense veil of vapor. It was as if the doomed vessel had been cut off from all the open sea, and its fate hidden in the clinging curtain of black obscurity.

The girl uttered a low cry, and sank back to her place in the sheets covering her face with her hands. Colonel Owen and Harriet had been unkind. They had been selfish almost to cruelty in their treatment of her, but in this hour of what she believed to be certain death to them she forgot everything but that they were kinspeople.

The sea was running very high. Now that they were so near its surface they felt its full power. It had appeared stupendous when they were on the deck of the schooner, but now the great billows hurled them up and down, and tossed and buffeted them as though the boat was a plaything.

Vainly the mate tried to steady it with the oars.

A long time Peggy sat so absorbed in grief for her cousins that she was oblivious to the peril of the situation. At length, however, she looked up, and the dreadful isolation and danger of the position appalled her.

Only that little boat between them and the great Atlantic.

"I am cold," she exclaimed, when she could bear it no longer. "Sir," to the mate, who was making tremendous effort with the oars, "is there naught that will keep me from freezing?"

"No," answered he shortly, turning his set face toward her for a moment.

Its tense lines relaxed at sight of the girlish figure. "Stay! I have it. Come, and row a while. You will be wetter than ever, but 'twill warm you a bit."

Without a question Peggy gladly took the place by his side, and began to scull as vigorously as her numbed fingers would permit with the oar he gave her. She was not of much a.s.sistance, but the exercise served to warm her chilled frame, and to divert her attention from their peril.

In this manner the day went on, the wind died down, and the sea fell to a low, gla.s.sy, foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and round them was the leaden mist of the enveloping fog. Suddenly the mate stopped rowing, and raised his head as though listening.

"It's land," he shouted. "Land, to the westward!" He listened again intently, and added solemnly: "And it's breakers too, G.o.d help us!"

Peggy listened breathlessly. The air was full of sound, a low, deep roar, like the roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp of endless armies, or-what it was-the thunder of a mighty surge upon a pebbly ridge. Louder and nearer grew the sound. The mate's face whitened, and Peggy sat erect, full of terror at the unknown danger that confronted them.

"I must pull," he cried, sweeping her back to her place in the sheets.

"I must pull," he cried again as the fog lifted and the dim outline of a sh.o.r.e line became visible. "It's a race with death, little girl, but we may be the victors."

With mighty strokes he sent the dingey ahead into the boiling surf. A great wave caught the little shallop upon its broad bosom and flung it upon the reef which lay concealed in the foam. There was a horrible rending crash as the stout keel snapped asunder, while a second wave swept over it, sweeping out the struggling occupants, and bearing them onward.

Peggy knew naught of swimming, and so made no attempt to strike out. She felt the water surging into her ears like a torrent of ice. She felt that she was sinking down, down as if a great weight held her remorselessly. This was death, she thought, and as the pain in her lungs increased, visions pa.s.sed swiftly through her brain. Where was the mate, she wondered. A race with death, he had said. And death was the victor after all. Her mother's face flashed before her. She was dying and she would never know. And Sally! And Betty! And Robert! What times they had had! Would they grieve, when they knew? But they would never know.

There was no hope. She must be resigned, came the thought, and so she ceased to struggle just as a huge roller came surging over the outlying reef. It caught her and bore her onward on its crest. Peggy closed her eyes.

"The pore child! She's coming to at last," sounded a kindly voice, and Peggy opened her eyes and gazed into the anxious...o...b.. of an elderly woman who was bending over her. "There now, you pore dear! Don't stir.

Just drink this, and go to sleep."

A cup of something hot was held to her lips. She drank it obediently and sank back too utterly exhausted to even wonder where she was. She was in a warm, dry bed. There was a caress in the touch of the hands that ministered to her which penetrated through the stupor which was stealing over her, and with a sigh of content, she turned over and slept.

The recollections of the next few days were always thereafter dim to her mind. She knew that an elderly woman, somewhat rough-looking, was in the room frequently, but to speak or to move her limbs was quite impossible.

But on the fourth day she was better. The fifth she could speak, move, rise in bed and turn, and when the woman brought some gruel in the middle of the day Peggy ate it with a relish. She felt strong and revived, and a desire for action stirred her. She wished to rise, and sat up suddenly.

"I believe if thee will help me I will get up," she said.

"Sakes alive, child! air you able?" cried the woman in alarm.

"Yes," said Peggy stoutly. "And I have troubled thee greatly, I fear."

"Why, you little storm-tossed bird," exclaimed the woman, "don't you go for to call it trouble. Me and Henry just feel as though you was sent to us. Well, if you will get up, here are your clothes." She brought Peggy her own things, clean and dry, and proceeded to help her dress. "There, you do look better now you are dressed. Let me help you to the kitchen."

She put her arm about the maiden, and drew her gently across the room to the one beyond which was kitchen and living-room as well. It was a large room with a sanded floor clean scoured, a high backed settle, a deal table, a dresser with pewter plates ranged in rows, reflecting the redness and radiance of a glowing fire in a huge fireplace. The woman bustled about hospitably.

"You must have something to eat," she declared. "You've had naught but gruel for so long that you must be hungry."

"I am," replied Peggy, watching her in a maze of content. Presently she sat up as a thought came to her. "Friend," she cried, "how came I here?"

"Why, Henry brought you," responded the woman. "It was after the big storm. We ain't seen such a storm in years. Henry's my husband. He's a fisherman, as mayhap you've surmised. That is, he fishes for food, but I reckon you might call him a wrecker too," she added with a smile. "Well, as I was saying, he was down on the beach when you was washed up by the waves. He thought you was dead at first, but when you got up, and tried to walk he just ran over to you as you fell and brought you right up to the house. Land! but we thought you was never coming to! But you did, and now you'll be all right in a day or two."

"How good thee has been," said Peggy gratefully. "Why, thou and thy husband have saved my life. I was so cold in the water and I-I was drowning. Then that terrible wave threw me--" She paused shuddering at the remembrance.

"Dear heart, don't think about it," exclaimed the good dame hastening to her. "Here, child, eat this piece of chicken. It will hearten you up more than anything. After a bit mayhap you can tell me about yourself.

But not a word until every bite of chicken is gone."

Peggy smiled at the good woman's insistence, but did not refuse the chicken. Her appet.i.te was awakened and keen, and she ate the piece with such a relish that her hostess was well pleased. "There now! you look better already," she declared. "Henry will be glad to see it. He takes a heap of interest in the folks he saves. I reckon he's saved more lives than any man on the coast of North Carolina."

"Is this North Carolina?" asked Peggy.

"Yes; and this is Fisherman's Inlet, near the Cape Fear River. What s.h.i.+p did you say you was on?"

"'Twas the schooner 'Falcon,' from New York," Peggy told her. "It was one of the vessels with Sir Henry Clinton, who set forth to attack Charleston."

The woman's face darkened ominously. "And you air a Tory, of course, being as you air a Quaker and with a British s.h.i.+p?" she said questioningly.

"I? Oh, no, no!" cried Peggy quickly. "Why, my father is David Owen of the Pennsylvania Light Horse. He is with the Continental army. I am a patriot, but I was captured and taken to New York City, where I have been since the last day of February of last year. It's nearly a year,"

she ended, her lips quivering.

"You don't say!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the woman. "Then you must be a prisoner of war?"

"I know not that I would be truly a prisoner of war," answered Peggy, "for 'twas my father's cousin who captured me. I will tell thee all about it."

"You pore child," exclaimed the woman, who ceased her work as Peggy unfolded her story, and listened with wide-eyed attention. "What a lot you've been through! I'm glad that you're not one of them English."

"And is thee a Whig?" asked Peggy.

"As I said, we air fisher folks, and don't mingle in politics. We don't wish harm to n.o.body, English or any other. Why, even though we air wreckers we always pray for the poor sailors in a storm, but we pray too that if there air any wrecks they will be washed up on Fisherman's Inlet."

A ripple of laughter rose to Peggy's lips, but she checked it instantly.

"How can I laugh," she reproached herself, "when 'tis but a few days since I was on the s.h.i.+p? And the others have all perished, I doubt not."

"Don't think about it," advised the dame. "Laugh if you can. A light heart is the only way to bear trouble. 'Tis a just punishment that they should be drowned."

"But if Harriet had not made me go first I would not have been here,"

said Peggy her voice growing tender at the mention of her cousin. All the old love and admiration for Harriet had returned with that act.

"I wonder," she added presently, "if 'twould be possible for me to get to Philadelphia from here?"

"Philadelphia! I am afraid not, child. You don't know the way, and I doubt if 'twould be safe to try it. Get strong first, and mayhap something will turn up that will help you to get there."

"Yes," said Peggy. "I must get strong first."