In The Wreckage: A Tale of Two Brothers Read Online Free PDF

buttered bread, fried mushrooms and a rasher of bacon each.  
    “I can’t stay,” she said, almost invisible in the gloom, her hair tied up off her face. “You have to hide. There’s a storm coming, bad one. I have to get back, stay inside my cabin.”  
    Rufus smeared the side of his face against Conall’s arm. He handed the dog a chunk of bread and half his bacon.  
    “Make it last, don’t know when I’ll be back. Not until the storm passes.” She raised herself out of a crouched position. Footsteps thudded on the deck above, followed by shouts and bellowed orders.  
    “They’ll be down to use the engine,” Faro said. “Eat fast, and get that dog under cover.”  
    The girl scrambled along the hold towards the steps, paused, waiting to hear if the way was clear. Then she was gone.  
    “Good girl, bringing us food,” Faro said.  
    Conall slurped down his share of the milk. “We should have warned her, about Jonah and the map.”  
    “Say nothing,” Faro said. “We’ll save that, use it when we need it most.”  

    ≈≈≈≈

    The hatch to the hold swung open, the lights clicked on and the engineer clambered down. In their lair among the sacks of hay, the brothers lay motionless. Overhead, the wind howled through the rigging and rain hammered onto the deck as sailors stowed the sails, getting the ship ready to face the storm.  
    The engineer started the diesel engine then set about refilling the fuel tanks. The swell of the sea intensified, and the ship pitched and rolled. Jonah shouted something down the hatch, the engineer swore, banged and clanked. The roar of the engine increased. Rufus whimpered, cowering next to Conall under the sacks of hay.  
    The front of the ship veered up, then plunged forward. The hay sacks slid and tilted. Faro bent over on his knees and vomited. Tools and supplies scraped along the deck, the engineer swearing, the ship lurching back to forth, side to side. The wind grew louder in the rigging, the rain drumming on the deck. Conall’s stomach cramped and he knew he’d puke himself soon. Had the engineer heard them? He wriggled to keep out of sight, but lost his grip on Rufus. The dog scurried off, terrified.  
    The stench of Faro’s vomit made Conall’s throat contract. His stomach muscles hardened as he fought the reflex. The ship rolled violently to starboard and they were thrown against the side of the hull. Conall banged his head on a bulkhead and grunted in pain. Rufus barked, repeatedly. Faro swore, and Conall could hear the anger in his voice. Fear too. The ship lurched back towards level, but kept going. The sacks of hay plunged across the deck towards the port side. Conall grasped hold of the steel bulkhead and hung on. Faro reached for it but missed and slid, his arms flailing, smacking into the far wall. They were exposed, in clear sight, but Conall couldn’t see the engineer. He must have left the hold while they were hidden under the sacks. The ship lurched again and the sacks came sliding towards Conall. He crunched into a ball and braced for the impact.  
    “She’s going to sink. She won’t take much more,” Faro said.
    “She’s not sinking.” Conall had been out on fishing boats in seas almost as bad, helping out when the fishermen were short handed, earning scraps of food for his trouble. Faro had spent his time pouring over the encyclopaedia, learning about ships instead. “She’s built to take it.”  
    “We should get up top,” Faro said “If she goes down we’ll be trapped in here.”  
    “We’ll hear the lifeboats going, if it comes to that.” But would these men would find room for a pair of stowaways? “If we go on deck we’ll be washed over.”  
    The steel hull groaned as the ship was thrown high by a wave and came crashing into the trough. They slid against the bulwark. Conall spotted Rufus cowering near the front of the ship where the walls narrowed, tucked up in a folded sail. Smart dog. It looked the safest