The Emerald Key - By Christopher Dinsdale Page 0,15
and grabbed a thick beam that seemed to be the right length.
“Grab some extra pieces of wood about the same size!” he commanded. The sailor, twice Jamie’s age, didn’t argue. Together, they heaved the wood back to the spraying sea water. It was getting worse. Jamie took his piece of lumber and wedged it against a rib in the flooring and then leaned it into the spray. With grim determination, he threw that aside, grabbed another longer piece from the sailor, tossed that aside too, then tried a third. Officer Keates returned with the fire axe. Jamie dropped the wood, took the axe, strode through the spray, and drove its blade into the heart of the buckling plank in the hull.
“Are you mad?” Officer Keates screamed as Jamie splintered out a chunk of wood from the plank. “You’ll destroy the entire plank!”
“He’ll sink us all!” shouted another.
Officer Keates grabbed the handle of the axe and yanked it away from Jamie. Jamie didn’t seem to mind as he reached down and picked up the last piece of wood he had dropped and again wedged it down against the thick rib on the ship’s floor. He then lowered the top of the timber until it rested against the spray gushing out over the top of the stricken plank. The freezing sea water thoroughly soaked Jamie as he backed into the spray, took hold of the top of the piece of wood, and heaved downwards.
“That won’t do any good,” yelled one of the fathers, now seeing what he was up to. “The water’s coming in too fast!”
“Do you want your families to see the shores of Canada?” Jamie hollered over the roar of the sea and the cries of the frightened crowd. “Grab hold and help me!”
“Come on, men!” shouted Officer Keates, wading into the icy spray and grabbing an edge of the board. “Let’s do what the lad says!”
Jamie wrapped both arms around the top of the timber. Officer Keates, followed by his men, grabbed on as well. They all heaved down on the makeshift beam, but the pressure of the ocean water coming in was simply too great.
“Pull down with all you have!” shouted Jamie. It made no difference. The ocean poured in relentlessly.
“Everyone!” Jamie pleaded to the gathered crowd. “Grab on to this beam and help us pull!”
At first, the frightened crowd remained frozen, but then, a boy no older than ten ran up beside Jamie and grabbed on. The boy’s father waded up and joined him. Several of the mothers then stepped into the water and grabbed hold. Suddenly, with shouts of growing encouragement, dozens of hands grabbed on to the timber, so many that large sections of the wood could no longer be seen.
“All together now! Heave!” Jamie screamed.
The tremendous tug suddenly jolted the wood along the wet surface until its edge slipped neatly into Jamie’s newly hacked V-shaped groove. There was a tremendous whoop from the passengers as the gushing sea water was reduced to a thin spray. Jamie was suddenly in the centre of a swirling hurricane of hugs, kisses, and congratulatory rufflings of his sopping hair from the ecstatic passengers and crew.
The repair crew finally arrived among the revellers. The chief admired Jamie’s work of engineering before setting out to complete a more permanent repair to the ship’s hull.
Officer Keates managed to pry Jamie away from the admiring crowd.
“Let’s get you back up top and dried off,” Keates shouted above the hoopla.
Together they weaved their way through the crowd. Several young women blew Jamie kisses as he passed.
“Now how did you come up with that idea?” asked the officer as they reached the first staircase.
“I just used Pythagoras’s theorem,” said Jamie, following him up. Ryan, he knew, would have been proud.
Officer Keates shot him a strange glance. “A Greek trick? Well, whatever you want to call it, lad, I’m just glad it worked. Well done! I’d say this calls for a drink.”
As they neared the hatch, a voice shouted out from the crowd.
“Jamie! Jamie Galway!”
For a moment, Jamie’s heart leaped in hope that it was his brother calling out to him. He scanned the mass of people until his eyes came to rest on the face of a familiar man. It was the husband of the family that had been ahead of him when he’d boarded the ship.
“Thank you for saving my family, Jamie,” he said, making his way to the bottom of the stairs. “What you did over there was simply brilliant.”