CHAPTER XXVII.
A MEETING IN A STRANGE CITY.
For the moment after the foretopmast was struck and part of the wreckage came tumbling almost at his feet, Franklin was too startled to either speak or move. He held on to the rail and gazed before him, with his eyes filled with horror and alarm over the situation. He had never witnessed anything similar to it, and to him it was as if the end of everything was close at hand.
But he was soon aroused from his inaction by Captain Cosgrove, who seized him by the shoulder and shook him as a dog might shake a rat.
"Didn't you hear what I said?" shouted the owner of the Sunflower "Stand by to clear away the wreck."
"Yes, sir," murmured Franklin, and he moved along the deck after Ben Stanhope, who had disappeared in the direction of the forecastle.
Every step was full of grave peril to the young electrician. The vessel was pitching up and down like a cork on the angry waves, and the water swept the deck with almost every lunge of the craft. He felt his way along step by step, not daring to let go of one object before he had hold of the next.
At length he met Ben Stanhope returning, broad-ax in hand. He caught hold of the sailor.
"What shall I do, Ben?" he asked, "How can I help the most?"
"Better go below and save yourself from going overboard," returned Ben Stanhope. "You can't do any good up here."
"But the captain ordered me to stand by and help clear away the wreck."
"Well suit yourself. I can't see what you can do, unless you want to go up to the foretop, and help chop away the splintered stick."
"I don't think I can manage it up there!" returned Franklin, with a look up into the darkness overhead.
"But you'll go up just the same," put in the voice of Captain Cosgrove. "I won't have an idler aboard. Up you go with Stanhope and help him with the ropes while he chops."
"But I never climbed a mast in my life," said Franklin, shrinking back, and not without cause, for the trial on the young electrician's part would have been highly dangerous.
"Never mind, cap'n; I can do the work alone," put in Ben Stanhope. "Let him coil up the ropes as they come down."
"Well, go on and do that, then," growled the owner of the Sunflower, and he proceeded to another part of the boat.
The wreckage was soon cleared away, Ben Stanhope working in the foretop, and Franklin and the other sailors on the deck. The lightning and thunder still continued, and the rain beat steadily in their faces; but it was apparent that the worst of the storm was over.
"Don't want no more like this!" exclaimed Ben Stanhope, as he came down on deck, completely exhausted. "Say, boys, but that was a close shave, wasn't it?"
All hands agreed that it was, and Franklin said he wished he would never see another storm like it.
But, as quickly as it had come on, the storm passed by just as rapidly. By ten o'clock the sun was shining once more, and the rain had ceased entirely.
As soon as the deck had been thoroughly cleared, Franklin was sent to the galley once more to help Jeffers, the cook, prepare breakfast. He was kept in the galley nearly the whole of the day, and, as Jeffers proved a hard man to work for, the young electrician was completely tired out when night came.
"We ought to be somewhere near Milwaukee by this time," he thought. "The fast steamers make the trip in six or seven hours, I've been told."
Yet the whole day passed, and they made no attempt to make a landing, although more than once land appeared away off to the westward.
On the morning of the day following when Franklin rolled out of his bunk, he heard a loud hailing from the deck. Another boat, a large steam tug, had been sighted, and by the time the young electrician was on deck the steam tug was lying alongside, and the boxed-up batteries were being transferred to her as fast as Ben Stanhope and two men from the other boat could accomplish the job.
"Get to the alley, you!" shouted Captain Cosgrove, as soon as he saw Franklin standing by watching the operation. "You're not wanted here."
Franklin at once obeyed the command. But his mind was filled with curiosity concerning the steam tug. Before the craft left the side of the freight boat, he noted that every one of the boxed-up batteries which had been shipped by the H. Y. Smith Co. were on board. The steam tug's name was Craigshire.
"If she's not a Canadian vessel then I'll miss my guess," said Franklin to himself, "And if that is so, it's more than likely that we are somewhere in the vicinity of the Straits of Mackinaw, although how close there is no telling."
As soon as the Sunflower had parted company with the Craigshire, the former vessel was turned about, and they began sailing in a southwest direction.
This course was kept for two days by the freight-boat, and then one evening, just as the sun was setting, they sighted Milwaukee, and, entering the harbor, moved past several of the drawbridges, and tied up at one of the numerous docks.
Franklin was allowed to go ashore with the rest, and he eagerly availed himself of the permission, taking his bundle with him. He was very doubtful if he would ever consent to set foot on the Sunflower again.
"I think I have learned about all I can on board of her," he said to himself; "and life would be far more agreeable elsewhere. I'll get a good wash and something fit to eat, and then I'll think the matter over."
The young electrician was somewhat surprised to find that this city, so far removed from New York, and of which he had heard so little, had so many of the points of the metropolis about it. He had yet to learn how really great our country is, and how vast its population.
Passing along one of the business streets, he came to a tonsorial parlor with baths attached. He entered the place, and, after having his hair cut, proceeded to take a bath and change his clothing. When this was over he felt once more like himself.
His next move was towards a restaurant, and, while eating a late supper with exceeding relish, he reviewed the situation as it now stood.
"I will write to Mr. Brice, and tell him what I have learned," he concluded. "And then I'll hang around here for a few days, and see if I can't find Mr. Montague Smith and that Mrs. Bliss. Who knows but what I might stumble across something more worth knowing? There can be no need of hurrying back to Chicago. Mr. Brice told me to take my own time, and I may never have the chance of seeing Milwaukee again."
With his bundle under his arm, Franklin left the restaurant, and strolled along past the stores, looking into this window and that, and noticing everything which looked different to what was to be seen at home. He spent two hours at this, and then, feeling tired, hunted up a cheap hotel, and put up there for the night.
Once more on land, the young electrician felt more like himself, and he slept "like a top," only awakening when the porter rapped loudly on the door at seven o'clock, the hour at which he left orders he should be called.
After breakfast Franklin hardly knew what to do. He strolled out to the front of the hotel to think the matter over.
While he whs standing there, three men passed by, talking earnestly with one another. The young electrician heard the name Mrs. Bliss mentioned, and then the men passed out of hearing. Two of the men were Montague Smith and Captain Cosgrove, and, acting on a sudden impulse, Franklin left the steps upon which he was standing, and started to follow the trio.