THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HORN

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I An Introductory Disaster

II A New Face in Camp

III A Change of Lodgings

IV Another New Face

V The Rackbirds

VI Three Weld Beasts

VII Gone!

VIII The Alarm

IX An Amazing Narration

X The Captain Explores

XI A New Hemisphere

XII A Tradition and a Waistcoat

XIII "Mine!"

XIV A Pile of Fuel

XV The Cliff-Maka Scheme

XVI On a Business Basis

XVII "A Fine Thing, No Matter What Happens"

XVIII Mrs. Cliff is Amazed

XIX Left Behind

XX At the Rackbirds' Cove

XXI In the Caves

XXII A Pack-Mule

XXIII His Present Share

XXVI His Fortune under his Feet




THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HORN




CHAPTER I

AN INTRODUCTORY DISASTER


Early in the spring of the year 1884 the three-masted schooner _Castor_,
from San Francisco to Valparaiso, was struck by a tornado off the coast
of Peru. The storm, which rose with frightful suddenness, was of short
duration, but it left the _Castor_ a helpless wreck. Her masts had
snapped off and gone overboard, her rudder-post had been shattered by
falling wreckage, and she was rolling in the trough of the sea, with her
floating masts and spars thumping and bumping her sides.

The _Castor_ was an American merchant-vessel, commanded by Captain Philip
Horn, an experienced navigator of about thirty-five years of age. Besides
a valuable cargo, she carried three passengers--two ladies and a boy. One
of these, Mrs. William Cliff, a lady past middle age, was going to
Valparaiso to settle some business affairs of her late husband, a New
England merchant. The other lady was Miss Edna Markham, a school-teacher
who had just passed her twenty-fifth year, although she looked older.
She was on her way to Valparaiso to take an important position in an
American seminary. Ralph, a boy of fifteen, was her brother, and she was
taking him with her simply because she did not want to leave him alone in
San Francisco. These two had no near relations, and the education of the
brother depended upon the exertions of the sister. Valparaiso was not the
place she would have selected for a boy's education, but there they could
be together, and, under the circumstances, that was a point of prime
importance.

But when the storm had passed, and the sky was clear, and the mad waves
had subsided into a rolling swell, there seemed no reason to believe that
any one on board the _Castor_ would ever reach Valparaiso. The vessel had
been badly strained by the wrenching of the masts, her sides had been
battered by the floating wreckage, and she was taking in water rapidly.
Fortunately, no one had been injured by the storm, and although the
captain found it would be a useless waste of time and labor to attempt to
work the pumps, he was convinced, after a careful examination, that the
ship would float some hours, and that there would, therefore, be time for
those on board to make an effort to save not only their lives, but some
of their property.