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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9906-8.txt b/9906-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d27cf22 --- /dev/null +++ b/9906-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6898 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In the Sargasso Sea + A Novel + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Posting Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #9906] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 29, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + +A Novel + + +BY + +THOMAS A. JANVIER + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL" +"THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE" +"STORIES OF OLD NEW SPAIN" ETC. + + * * * * * + +1898 + + + + +TO + +C.A.J. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + II. HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + III. I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + IV. CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + V. I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + VI. I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + VII. I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + VIII. THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + IX. ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + X. I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + XI. MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + XII. I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + XIII. I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + XIV. OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + XV. I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + XVI. I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + XVII. HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + XVIII. I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + XIX. OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + XX. HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + XXI. MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + XXII. I GET SOME FOOD IN ME, AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + XXIII. HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + XXIV. OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + XXV. I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + XXVI. OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + XXVII. I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + XXVIII. HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + XXIX. I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + XXX. I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + XXXI. HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + XXXII. I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + XXXIII. I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + XXXIV. I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + XXXV. I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + XXXVI. HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + XXXVII. HOW MY CAT STILL FURTHER CHEERED ME + XXXVIII. HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + XXXIX. WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + + +I + +I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + + +Captain Luke Chilton counted over the five-dollar notes with a greater +care than I thought was necessary, considering that there were only +ten of them; and cautiously examined each separate one, as though he +feared that I might be trying to pay for my passage in bad money. His +show of distrust set my back up, and I came near to damning him right +out for his impudence--until I reflected that a West Coast trader must +pretty well divide his time between cheating people and seeing to it +that he isn't cheated, and so held my tongue. + +Having satisfied himself that the tale was correct and that the notes +were genuine, he brought out from the inside pocket of his long-tailed +shore-going coat a big canvas pocket-book, into which he stowed them +lengthwise; and from the glimpse I had of it I fancied that until my +money got there it was about bare. As he put away the pocket-book, he +said, and pleasantly enough: + +"You see, Mr. Stetworth, it's this way: fifty dollars is dirt cheap +for a cast across from New York to the Coast, and that's a fact; but +you say that it's an object with you to get your passage low, and I +say that even at that price I can make money out of you. The _Golden +Hind_ has got to call at Loango, anyhow; there's a spare room in her +cabin that'll be empty if you don't fill it; and while you're a big +man and look to be rather extra hearty, I reckon you won't eat more'n +about twenty dollars' worth of victuals--counting 'em at cost--on the +whole run. But the main thing is that I want all the spot cash I can +get a-holt of before I start. Fifty dollars' worth of trade laid in +now means five hundred dollars for me when I get back here in New York +with what I've turned it over for on the Coast. So, you see, if you're +suited, I'm suited too. Shake! And now we'll have another drink. This +time it's on me." + +We shook, and Captain Luke gave me an honest enough grip, just as he +had spoken in an honest enough tone. I knew, of course, that in a +general way he must be a good deal of a rascal--he couldn't well be a +West Coast trader and be anything else; but then his rascality in +general didn't matter much so long as his dealings with me were +square. He called the waiter and ordered arrack again--it was the +most wholesome drink in the world, he said--and we touched glasses, +and so brought our deal to an end. + +That a cheap passage to Loango was an object to me, as Captain Luke +had said, was quite true. It was a very important object. After I got +across, of course, and my pay from the palm-oil people began, I would +be all right; but until I could touch my salary I had to sail mighty +close to the wind. For pretty much all of my capital consisted of my +headful of knowledge of the theory and practice of mechanical +engineering which had brought me out first of my class at the Stevens +Institute--and in that way had got me the offer from the palm-oil +people--and because of which I thought that there wasn't anybody quite +my equal anywhere as a mechanical engineer. And that was only natural, +I suppose, since my passing first had swelled my head a bit, and I was +only three-and-twenty, and more or less of a promiscuously green +young fool. + +As I looked over Captain Luke's shoulder, while we supped our arrack +together--out through the window across the rush and bustle of South +Street--and saw a trim steamer of the Maracaibo line lying at her +dock, I could not but be sorry that my voyage to Africa would be made +under sails. But, on the other hand, I comforted myself by thinking +that if the _Golden Hind_ were half the clipper her captain made her +out to be I should not lose much time--taking into account the +roundabout way I should have to go if I went under steam. And I +comforted myself still more by thinking what a lot of money I had +saved by coming on this chance for a cheap cast across; and I blessed +my lucky stars for putting into my head the notion of cruising along +South Street that October morning and asking every sailor-like man I +met if he knew of a craft bound for the West Coast--and especially for +having run me up against Captain Luke Chilton before my cruise had +lasted an hour. + +The captain looked at his glass so sorrowfully when it was empty that +I begged him to have it filled again, and he did. But he took down his +arrack this time at a single gulp, and then got up briskly and said +that he must be off. + +"We don't sail till to-morrow afternoon, on the half flood, Mr. +Stetworth," he said, "so you'll have lots of time to get your traps +aboard if you'll take a boat off from the Battery about noon. I +wouldn't come earlier than that, if I were you. Things are bound to be +in a mess aboard the brig to-morrow, and the less you have of it the +better. We lie well down the anchorage, you know, only a little this +side of Robbin's Reef. Your boatmen will know the place, and they'll +find the brig for you if you'll tell 'em where to look for her and +that she's painted green. Well, so long." And then Captain Luke shook +hands with me again, and so was off into the South Street crowd. + +I hurried away too. My general outfit was bought and packed; but the +things lying around my lodgings had to be got together, and I had to +buy a few articles in the way of sea-stock for my voyage in a sailing +vessel that I should not have needed had I gone by the regular steam +lines. So I got some lunch inside of me, and after that I took a +cab--a bit of extravagance that my hurry justified--and bustled about +from shop to shop and got what I needed inside of an hour; and then I +told the man to drive me to my lodgings up-town. + +It was while I was driving up Broadway--the first quiet moment for +thinking that had come to me since I had met Captain Luke on South +Street, and we had gone into the saloon together to settle about the +passage he had offered me--that all of a sudden the thought struck me +that perhaps I had made the biggest kind of a fool of myself; and it +struck so hard that for a minute or two I fairly was dizzy and faint. + +What earthly proof had I, beyond Captain Luke's bare word for it, that +there was such a brig as the _Golden Hind_? What proof had I +even--beyond the general look of him and his canvas pocket-book--that +Captain Luke was a sailor? And what proof had I, supposing that there +was such a brig and that he was a sailor, that the two had anything +to do with each other? I simply had accepted for truth all that he +told me, and on the strength of his mere assertion that he was a +ship-master and was about to sail for the West African coast I had +paid him my fifty dollars--and had taken by way of receipt for it no +more than a clinking of our glasses and a shake of his hand. I said +just now that I was only twenty-three years old, and more or less of a +promiscuously green young fool. I suppose that I might as well have +left that out. There are some things that tell themselves. + +For three or four blocks, as I drove along, I was in such a rage with +myself that I could not think clearly. Then I began to cool a little, +and to hope that I had gone off the handle too suddenly and too far. +After all, there were some chances in my favor the other way. Captain +Chilton, I remembered, had told me that he was about to sail for West +Coast ports before I asked him for a passage; and had mentioned, also, +whereabouts on the anchorage the _Golden Hind_ was lying. Had he made +these statements after he knew what I wanted there would have been +some reason for doubting them; but being made on general principles, +without knowledge of what I was after, it seemed to me that they very +well might be true. And if they were true, why then there was no great +cause for my sudden fit of alarm. However, I was so rattled by my +fright, and still so uncertain as to how things were coming out for +me, that the thought of waiting until the next afternoon to know +certainly whether I had or had not been cheated was more than I could +bear. The only way that I could see to settle the matter was to go +right away down to the anchorage, and so satisfy myself that the +_Golden Hind_ was a real brig and really was lying there; and it +occurred to me that I might kill two birds with one stone, and also +have a reason to give for a visit which otherwise might seem +unreasonable, if I were to take down my luggage and put it aboard that +very afternoon. + + + + + +II + +HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + + +Having come to this conclusion, I acted on it. I kept the cab at the +door while I finished my packing with a rush, and then piled my +luggage on it and in it--and what with my two trunks, and my kit of +fine tools, and all my bundles, this made tight stowing--and then away +I went down-town again as fast as the man could drive with such +a load. + +We got to the Battery in a little more than an hour, and there I +transshipped my cargo to a pair-oared boat and started away for the +anchorage. The boatmen comforted me a good deal at the outset by +saying that they thought they knew just where the _Golden Hind_ was +lying, as they were pretty sure they had seen her only that morning +while going down the harbor with another fare; and before we were much +more than past Bedloe's Island--having pulled well over to get out of +the channel and the danger of being run down by one of the swarm of +passing craft--they made my mind quite easy by actually pointing her +out to me. But almost in the same moment I was startled again by one +of them saying to me: "I don't believe you've much time to spare, +captain. There's a lighter just shoved off from her, and she's gettin' +her tops'ls loose. I guess she means to slide out on this tide. That +tug seems to be headin' for her now." + +The men laid to their oars at this, and it was a good thing--or a bad +thing, some people might think--that they did; for had we lost five +minutes on our pull down from the Battery I never should have got +aboard of the _Golden Hind_ at all. As it was, the anchor was a-peak, +and the lines of the tug made fast, by the time that we rounded under +her counter; and the decks were so full of the bustle of starting that +it was only a chance that anybody heard our hail. But somebody did +hear it, and a man--it was the mate, as I found out afterwards--came +to the side. + +"Hold on, captain," one of the boatmen sang out, "here's your +passenger!" + +"Go to hell!" the mate answered, and turned inboard again. + +But just then I caught sight of Captain Chilton, coming aft to stand +by the wheel, and called out to him by name. He turned in a hurry--and +with a look of being scared, I fancied--but it seemed to me a good +half-minute before he answered me. In this time the men had shoved the +boat alongside and had made fast to the main-chains; and just then +the tug began to puff and snort, and the towline lifted, and the brig +slowly began to gather way. I could not understand what they were up +to; but the boatmen, who were quick fellows, took the matter into +their own hands, and began to pass in my boxes over the gunwale--the +brig lying very low in the water--as we moved along. This brought the +mate to the side again, with a rattle of curses and orders to stand +off. And then Captain Chilton came along himself--having finished +whatever he had been doing in the way of thinking--and gave matters a +more reasonable turn. + +"It's all right, George," he said to the mate. "This gentleman is a +friend of mine who's going out with us" (the mate gave him a queer +look at that), "and he's got here just in time." And then he turned to +me and added: "I'd given you up, Mr. Stetworth, and that's a +fact--concluding that the man I sent to your lodgings hadn't found +you. We had to sail this afternoon, you see, all in a hurry; and the +only thing I could do was to rush a man after you to bring you down. +He seems to have overhauled you in time, even if it was a close +call--so all's well." + +While he was talking the boatmen were passing aboard my boxes and +bundles, while the brig went ahead slowly; and when they all were +shipped, and I had paid the men, he gave me his hand in a friendly way +and helped me up the side. What to make of it all I could not tell. +Captain Luke told a straight enough story, and the fact that his +messenger had not got to me before I started did not prove that he +lied. Moreover, he went on to say that if I had not got down to the +brig he had meant to leave my fifty dollars with the palm-oil people +at Loango, and that sounded square enough too. At any rate, if he were +lying to me I had no way of proving it against him, and he was +entitled to the benefit of the doubt; and so, when he had finished +explaining matters--which was short work, as he had the brig to look +after--I did not see my way to refusing his suggestion that we should +call it all right and shake hands. + +For the next three hours or so--until we were clear of the Hook and +had sea-room and the tug had cast us off--I was left to my own +devices: except that a couple of men were detailed to carry to my +state-room what I needed there, while the rest of my boxes were stowed +below. Indeed, nobody had time to spare me a single word--the captain +standing by the wheel in charge of the brig, and the two mates having +their hands full in driving forward the work of finishing the lading, +so that the hatches might be on and things in some sort of order +before the crew should be needed to make sail. + +The decks everywhere were littered with the stuff put aboard from the +lighter that left the brig just before I reached her, and the huddle +and confusion showed that the transfer must have been made in a +tearing hurry. Many of the boxes gave no hint of what was inside of +them; but a good deal of the stuff--as the pigs of lead and cans of +powder, the many five-gallon kegs of spirits, the boxes of fixed +ammunition, the cases of arms, and so on--evidently was regular West +Coast "trade." And all of it was jumbled together just as it had been +tumbled aboard. + +I was surprised by our starting with the brig in such a mess--until it +occurred to me that the captain had no choice in the matter if he +wanted to save the tide. Very likely the tide did enter into his +calculations; but I was led to believe a little later--and all the +more because of his scared look when I hailed him from the boat--that +he had run into some tangle on shore that made him want to get away in +a hurry before the law-officers should bring him up with a round turn. + +What put this notion into my head was a matter that occurred when we +were down almost to the Hook, and its conclusion came when we were +fairly outside and the tug had cast us off; otherwise my boxes and I +assuredly would have gone back on the tug to New York--and I with a +flea in my ear, as the saying is, stinging me to more prudence in my +dealings with chance-met mariners and their offers of cheap passages +on strange craft. + +When we were nearly across the lower bay, the nose of a steamer +showed in the Narrows; and as she swung out from the land I saw that +she flew the revenue flag. Captain Luke, standing aft by the wheel, no +doubt made her out before I did; for all of a sudden he let drive a +volley of curses at the mates to hurry their stowing below of the +stuff with which our decks were cluttered. At first I did not +associate the appearance of the cutter with this outbreak; but as she +came rattling down the bay in our wake I could not but notice his +uneasiness as he kept turning to look at her and then turning forward +again to swear at the slowness of the men. But she was a long way +astern at first, and by the time that she got close up to us we were +fairly outside the Hook and the tug had cast us off--which made a +delay in the stowing, as the men had to be called away from it to set +enough sail to give us steerage way. + +Captain Luke barely gave them time to make fast the sheets before he +hurried them back to the hatch again; and by that time the cutter had +so walked up to us that we had her close aboard. I could see that he +fully expected her to hail us; and I could see also that there seemed +to be a feeling of uneasiness among the crew, though they went on +briskly with their work of getting what remained of the boxes and +barrels below. And then, being close under our stern, the cutter +quietly shifted her helm to clear us--and so slid past us, without +hailing and with scarcely a look at us, and stood on out to sea. + +That the captain and all hands so manifestly should dread being +overhauled by a government vessel greatly increased my vague doubts as +to the kind of company that I had got into; and at the very moment +that the cutter passed us these doubts were so nearly resolved into +bad certainties that my thoughts shot around from speculation upon +Captain Luke's possible perils into consideration of what seemed to be +very real perils of my own. + +With the cutter close aboard of us, and with the captain and both the +mates swearing at them, I suppose that the men at the hatch--who were +swinging the things below with a whip--got rattled a little. At any +rate, some of them rigged the sling so carelessly that a box fell out +from it, and shot down to the main-deck with such a bang that it burst +open. It was a small and strongly made box, that from its shape and +evident weight I had fancied might have arms in it. But when it split +to bits that way--the noise of the crash drawing me to the hatch to +see what had happened--its contents proved to be shackles: and the +sight of them, and the flash of thought which made me realize what +they must be there for, gave me a sudden sick feeling in my inside! + +In my hurried reading about the West Coast--carried on at odd times +since my meeting with the palm-oil people--I had learned enough about +the trade carried on there to know that slaving still was a part of +it; but so small a part that the matter had not much stuck in my mind. +But it was a fact then (as it also is a fact now) that the traders who +run along the coast--exchanging such stuff as Captain Luke carried for +ivory and coffee and hides and whatever offers--do now and then take +the chances and run a cargo of slaves from one or another of the lower +ports into Mogador: where the Arab dealers pay such prices for live +freight in good condition as to make the venture worth the risk that +it involves. This traffic is not so barbarous as the old traffic to +America used to be--when shippers regularly counted upon the loss of a +third or a half of the cargo in transit, and so charged off the +death-rate against profit and loss--for the run is a short one, and +slaves are so hard to get and so dangerous to deal in nowadays that it +is sound business policy to take enough care of them to keep them +alive. But I am safe in saying that the men engaged in the Mogador +trade are about the worst brutes afloat in our time--not excepting the +island traders of the South Pacific--and for an honest man to get +afloat in their company opens to him large possibilities of being +murdered off-hand, with side chances of sharing in their punishment if +he happens to be with them when they are caught. And so it is not to +be wondered at that when I saw the shackles come flying out from that +broken box, and so realized the sort of men I had for shipmates, that +a sweating fright seized me which made my stomach go queer. And then, +as I thought how I had tumbled myself into this scrape that the least +shred of prudence would have kept me out of, I realized for the second +time that day that I was very young and very much of a fool. + + + + + +III + +I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + + +I went to the stern of the brig and looked at the tug, far off and +almost out of sight in the dusk, and at the loom of the Highlands, +above which shone the light-house lamps--and my heart went down into +my boots, and for a while stayed there. For a moment the thought came +into my head to cut away the buoy lashed to the rail and to take my +chances with it overboard--trusting to being picked up by some passing +vessel and so set safe ashore. But the night was closing down fast and +a lively sea was running, and I had sense enough to perceive that +leaving the brig that way would be about the same as getting out of +the frying-pan into the fire. + +Fortunately, in a little while I began to get wholesomely angry; which +always is a good thing, I think, when a man gets into a tight +place--if he don't carry it too far--since it rouses the fighting +spirit in him and so helps him to pull through. In reason, I ought to +have been angry with myself, for the trouble that I was in was all of +my own making; but, beyond giving myself a passing kick or two, all +my anger was turned upon Captain Luke for taking advantage of my +greenness to land me in such a pickle when his gain from it would be +so small. I know now that I did Captain Luke injustice. His subsequent +conduct showed that he did not want me aboard with him any more than I +wanted to be there. Had I not taken matters into my own hands by +boarding the brig in such a desperate hurry--just as I had hurried to +close with his offer and to clinch it by paying down my +passage-money--he would have gone off without me. And very likely he +would have thought that the lesson in worldly wisdom he had given me +was only fairly paid for by the fifty dollars which had jumped so +easily out of my pocket into his. + +But that was not the way I looked at the matter then; and in my heart +I cursed Captain Luke up hill and down dale for having, as I fancied, +lured me aboard the brig and so into peril of my skin. And my anger +was so strong that I went by turns hot and cold with it, and itched to +get at Captain Luke with my fists and give him a dressing--which I +very well could have done, had we come to fighting, for I was a bigger +man than he was and a stronger man, too. + +It is rather absurd as I look back at it, considering what a taking I +was in and how strong was my desire just then to punch Captain Luke's +head for him, that while I was at the top of my rage he came aft to +where I was leaning against the rail and put his hand on my shoulder +as friendly as possible and asked me to come down into the cabin to +supper. I suppose I had a queer pale look, because of my anger, for he +said not to mind if I did feel sickish, but to eat all the same and I +would feel better for it; and he really was so cordial and so pleasant +that for a moment or two I could not answer him. It was upsetting, +when I was so full of fight, to have him come at me in that friendly +way; and I must say that I felt rather sheepish, and wondered whether +I had not been working myself up over a mare's-nest as I followed +him below. + +We had the mate to supper with us, at a square table in the middle of +the cabin, and at breakfast the next morning we had the second mate; +and so it went turn and turn with them at meals--except that they had +some sort of dog-watch way about the Saturday night and Sunday morning +that always gave the mate his Sunday dinner with the captain, as was +the due of his rank. + +The mate was a surly brute, and when Captain Chilton said, in quite a +formal way, "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me make you acquainted with Mr. +George Hinds," he only grunted and gave me a sort of a nod. He did not +have much to say while the supper went on, speaking only when the +captain spoke to him, and then shortly; but from time to time he +snatched a mighty sharp look at me--that I pretended not to notice, +but saw well enough out of the tail of my eye. It was plain enough +that he was taking my measure, and I even fancied that he would have +been better pleased had I been six inches or so shorter and with less +well-made shoulders and arms. When he did speak it was in a growling +rumble of a voice, and he swore naturally. + +Captain Luke evidently tried to make up for the mate's surliness; and +he really was very pleasant indeed--telling me stories about the +Coast, and giving me good advice about guarding against sickness +there, and showing such an interest in my prospects with the palm-oil +people, and in my welfare generally, that I was still more inclined to +think that my scare about the shackles was only foolishness from first +to last. He seemed to be really pleased when he found that I was not +seasick, and interested when I told him how well I knew the sea and +the management of small craft from my sailing in the waters about +Nantucket every summer for so many years; and then we got to talking +about the Coast again and about my outfit for it, which he said was a +very good one; and he especially commended me--instead of laughing at +me, as I was afraid he would--for having brought along such a lot of +quinine. Indeed, the quinine seemed to make a good deal of an +impression on him, for he turned to the mate and said: "Do you hear +that, George? Mr. Stetworth has with him a whole case of +quinine--enough to serve a ship's company through a cruise." And the +mate rumbled out, as he got up from the table and started for the +deck, that quinine was a damned good thing. + +We waited below until the second mate came down, to whom the captain +introduced me with his regular formula: "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me +make you acquainted with Mr. Martin Bowers." He was a young fellow, of +no more than my own age, and I took a fancy to him at sight--for he +not only shook my hand heartily but he looked me squarely in the eyes, +and that is a thing I like a man to do. It seemed to me that my being +there was a good deal of a puzzle to him; and he also took my measure, +but quite frankly--telling me when he had looked me over that if I +knew how to steer I'd be a good man to have at the wheel in a gale. + +The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack, and he and I +had a glass together--in which, as I thought rather hard, Bowers was +not given a chance to join us--and then we went on deck and walked up +and down for a while, smoking our pipes and talking about the weather +and the prospects for the voyage. And it all went so easily and so +pleasantly that I couldn't help laughing a little to myself over +my scare. + +I turned in early, for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day; +but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long +while--although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the +brig lulled me--for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly +was begun. I slipped through my mind all that had happened to me that +day--from my meeting with Captain Luke in the forenoon until there I +was, at nine o'clock at night, fairly out at sea; and I was so pleased +with the series of lucky chances which had put me on my way so rapidly +that my one mischance--my scare about the shackles--seemed +utterly absurd. + +It was perfectly reasonable, I reflected, for Captain Luke to carry +out a lot of shackles simply as "trade." It was pretty dirty "trade," +of course, but so was the vile so-called brandy he was carrying out +with him; and so, for that matter, were the arms--which pretty +certainly would be used in slaving forays up from the Coast. And even +supposing the very worst--that Captain Luke meant to ship a cargo of +slaves himself and had these irons ready for them--that worst would +come after I was out of the brig and done with her; the captain having +told me that Loango, which was my landing-place, would be his first +port of call. When I was well quit of the _Golden Hind_ she and her +crew and her captain, for all that I cared, might all go to the devil +together. It was enough for me that I should be well treated on the +voyage over; and from the way that the voyage had begun--unless the +surly mate and I might have a bit of a flare-up--it looked as though I +were going to be very well treated indeed. And so, having come to this +comforting conclusion, I let the soft motion of the brig have its way +with me and began to snooze. + +A little later I was partly aroused by the sound of steps coming down +the companion-way; and then by hearing, in the mate's rumble, these +words: "I guess you're right, captain. As you had to run for it to-day +before you could buy our quinine, it's a damn good thing he did get +aboard, after all!" + +I was too nearly asleep to pay much attention to this, but in a drowsy +way I felt glad that my stock of quinine had removed the mate's +objections to me as a passenger; and I concluded that my purchase of +such an absurd lot of it--after getting worked up by my reading about +the West Coast fevers--had turned out to be a good thing for me in +the long-run. + +After that the talk went on in the cabin for a good while, but in such +low tones that even had I been wide awake I could not have followed +it. But I kept dozing off, catching only a word or two now and then; +and the only whole sentence I heard was in the mate's rumble again: +"Well, if we can't square things, there's always room for one more +in the sea." + +It all was very dream-like--and fitted into a dream that came later, +in the light sleep of early morning, I suppose, in which the mate wore +the uniform of a street-car conductor, and I was giving him doses of +quinine, and he was asking the passengers in a car full of salt-water +to move up and make room for me, and was telling them and me that in a +sea-car there always was room for one more. + + + + + +IV + +CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + + +During the next fortnight or so my life on board the brig was as +pleasant as it well could be. On the first day out we got a slant of +wind that held by us until it had carried us fairly into the northeast +trades--and then away we went on our course, with everything set and +drawing steady, and nothing much to do but man the wheel and eat three +square meals a day. + +And so everybody was in a good humor, from the captain down. Even the +mate rumbled what he meant to be a civil word to me now and then; and +Bowers and I--being nearly of an age, and each of us with his foot on +the first round of the ladder--struck up a friendship that kept us +talking away together by the hour at a time: and very frankly, except +that he was shy of saying anything about the brig and her doings, and +whenever I tried to draw him on that course got flurried a little and +held off. But in all other matters he was open; and especially +delighted in running on about ships and seafaring--for the man was a +born sailor and loved his profession with all his heart. + +It was in one of these talks with Bowers that I got my first knowledge +of the Sargasso Sea--about which I shortly was to know a great deal +more than he did: that old sea-wonder which puzzled and scared +Columbus when he coasted it on his way to discover America; and which +continued to puzzle all mariners until modern nautical science +revealed its cause--yet still left it a good deal of a mystery--almost +in our own times. + +The subject came up one day while we were crossing the Gulf Stream, +and the sea all around us was pretty well covered with patches of +yellow weed--having much the look of mustard-plasters--amidst which a +bit of a barnacled spar bobbed along slowly near us, and not far off a +new pine plank. The yellow stuff, Bowers said, was gulf-weed, brought +up from the Gulf of Mexico where the Stream had its beginning; and +that, thick though it was around us, this was nothing to the thickness +of it in the part of the ocean where the Stream (so he put it, not +knowing any better) had its end. And to that same place, he added, the +Stream carried all that was caught in its current--like the spar and +the plank floating near us--so that the sea was covered with a thick +tangle of the weed in which was held fast fragments of wreckage, and +stuff washed overboard, and logs adrift from far-off southern shores, +until in its central part the mass was so dense that no ship could +sail through it, nor could a steamer traverse it because of the +fouling of her screw. And this sort of floating island--which lay in a +general way between the Bermudas and the Canaries--covered an area of +ocean, he said, half as big as the area of the United States; and to +clear it ships had to make a wide detour--for even in its thin outward +edges a vessel's way was a good deal retarded and a steamer's wheel +would foul sometimes, and there was danger always of collision with +derelicts drifting in from the open sea to become a part of the +central mass. Our own course, he further said, would be changed +because of it; but we would be for a while upon what might be called +its coast, and so I would have a chance to see for myself something of +its look as we sailed along. + +As I know now, Bowers over-estimated the size of this strange island +of sea-waifs and sea-weed by nearly one-half; and he was partly wrong +as to the making of it: for the Sargasso Sea is not where any current +ends, but lies in that currentless region of the ocean that is found +to the east of the main Gulf Stream and to the south of the branch +which sweeps across the North Atlantic to the Azores; and its floating +stuff is matter cast off from the Gulf Stream's edge into the +bordering still water--as a river eddies into its pools twigs and dead +leaves and such-like small flotsam--and there is compacted by +capillary attraction and by the slow strong pressure of the winds. + +On the whole, though, Bowers was not very much off in his +description--which somehow took a queer deep hold upon me, and +especially set me to wondering what strange old waifs and strays of +the ocean might not be found in the thick of that tangle if only there +were some way of pushing into it and reaching the hidden depths that +no man ever yet had seen. But when I put this view of the matter to +him I did not get much sympathy. He was a practical young man, without +a stitch of romance in his whole make-up, and he only laughed at my +suggestion and said that anybody who tried to push into that mess just +for the sake of seeing some barnacle-covered logs, or perhaps a +rotting hulk or two, would be a good deal of a fool. And so I did not +press my fancy on him, and our talks went on about more +commonplace things. + +It was with Captain Luke that I had most to do, and before long I got +to have a very friendly feeling for him because of the trouble that he +took to make me comfortable and to help me pass the time. The first +day out, seeing that I was interested when he took the sun, he turned +the sextant over to me and showed me how to take an observation; and +then how to work it out and fix the brig's position on the chart--and +was a good deal surprised by my quickness in understanding his +explanations (for I suppose that to him, with his rule-of-thumb +knowledge of mathematics, the matter seemed complex), and still more +surprised when he found, presently, that I really understood the +underlying principle of this simple bit of seamanship far better than +he did himself. He said that I knew more than most of the captains +afloat and that I ought to be a sailor; which he meant, no doubt, to +be the greatest compliment that he could pay me. After that I took the +sights and worked them with him daily; and as I several times +corrected his calculations--for even simple addition and subtraction +were more than he could manage with certainty--he became so impressed +by my knowledge as to treat me with an odd show of respect. + +But in practical matters--knowledge of men and things, and of the many +places about the world which he had seen, and of the management of a +ship in all weathers--he was one of the best-informed men that ever I +came across: being naturally of a hard-headed make, with great +acuteness of observation, and with quick and sound reasoning powers. I +found his talk always worth listening to; and I liked nothing better +than to sit beside him, or to walk the deck with him, while we smoked +our pipes together and he told me in his shrewd way about one queer +thing and another which he had come upon in various parts of the +world--for he had followed the sea from the time that he was a boy, +and there did not seem to be a bit of coast country nor any part of +all the oceans which he did not know well. + +Unlike Bowers, he was very free in talking about the trade that he +carried on in the brig upon the African coast, and quite astonished me +by his showing of the profits that he made; and he generally ended his +discourses on this head by laughingly contrasting the amount of money +that even Bowers got every year--the mates being allowed an interest +in the brig's earnings--with the salary that the palm-oil people were +to pay to me. Indeed, he managed to make me quite discontented with my +prospects, although I had thought them very good indeed when I first +told him about them; and when he would say jokingly, as he very often +did, that I had better drop the palm-oil people and take a berth on +the brig instead, I would be half sorry that he was only in fun. + +In a serious way, too, he told me that the Coast trade had got very +unfairly a bad name that it did not deserve. At one time, he said, a +great many hard characters had got into it, and their doings had given +it a black reputation that still stuck to it. But in recent years, he +explained, it had fallen into the hands of a better class of traders, +and its tone had been greatly improved. As a rule, he declared, the +West Coast traders were as decent men as would be found anywhere--not +saints, perhaps, he said smilingly, but men who played a reasonably +square game and who got big money mainly because they took big risks. +When I asked him what sort of risks, he answered: "Oh, pretty much all +sorts--sometimes your pocket and sometimes your neck," and added that +to a man of spirit these risks made half the fun. And then he said +that for a man who did not care for that sort of thing it was better +to be contented with a safe place and low wages--and asked me how long +I expected to stay at Loango, and if I had a better job ahead, when my +work there was done. + +At first he would shift the subject when I tried to make him talk +about the slave traffic. But one day--it was toward the end of our +second week out, and I was beginning to think from his constant +turning to it that perhaps he really might mean to offer me a berth on +the brig, and that his offer might be pretty well worth accepting--he +all of a sudden spoke out freely and of his own accord. It was true, +he said, that sometimes a few blacks were taken aboard by traders, +when no other stuff offered for barter, and were carried up to Mogador +and there sold for very high prices indeed--for there was a prejudice +against the business, and the naval vessels on the Coast tried so +persistently to stop it that the risk of capture was great and the +profit from a successful venture correspondingly large. But the +prejudice, he continued, was really not well-founded. Slavery, of +course, was a very bad thing; but there were degrees of badness in it, +and since it could not be broken up there was much to be said in favor +of any course that would make it less cruel. The blacks who were the +slaves of other blacks, or of Portuguese,--and it was only these that +the traders bought--were exposed to such barbarous treatment that it +was a charity to rescue them from it on almost any terms. Certainly it +was for their good, as they had to be in bondage somewhere, to deliver +them from such masters by carrying them away to Northern Africa: where +the slavery was of so mild and paternal a sort that cruelty almost was +unknown. And then he went on to tell me about the kindly relations +which he himself had seen existing between slaves and their masters in +those parts, both among Arabs and Moors. + +This presentment of the case put so new a face on it that at first I +could not get my bearings; which I am the less ashamed to own up to +because, as I look at the matter now, I perceive how much trouble +Captain Luke took to win me for his own purposes--he being a +middle-aged man packed full of shrewd worldly wisdom, and I only a +fresh young fool. + +My hesitation about making up an answer to him--for, while I was sure +that in the main point he was all wrong, I was caught for the moment +in his sophisms--made him fancy, I suppose, that he had convinced me; +and so was safe to go ahead in the way that he had intended, no doubt, +all along. At any rate, without stopping until my slow wits had a +chance to get pulled together, he put on a great show of friendly +frankness and said that he now knew me well enough to trust me, and so +would tell me openly that he himself engaged in the Mogador trade when +occasion offered; and that there was more money in it a dozen times +over than in all the other trade that he carried on in the +_Golden Hind_. + +I confess that this avowal completely staggered me, and with a rush +brought back all the fears by which I had been so rattled on the first +day of our voyage. In a hazy way I perceived that the captain had been +playing a part with me, and that the others had been playing parts +too--for I could not hope that among men of that stripe such +friendliness should be natural--and what with my surprise, and the +fresh fright I was thrown into, I was struck fairly dumb. + +But Captain Luke--likely enough deceived by his own hopes, as even +shrewd men will be sometimes--either did not notice the fluster I was +in, or thought to set matters all right with me in his own way; for +when he found that I remained silent he took up the talk himself +again, and went on to show in detail the profits of a single venture +with a live cargo--and his figures were certainly big enough to fire +the fancy of any man who was keen for money-getting and who was +willing to get his money by rotten ways. And then, when he had +finished with this part of the matter, he came out plumply with the +offer to give me a mate's rating on board the brig if I would cast in +my fortunes with his. Of the theory of seamanship, he said, I already +knew more than he did himself; and so much more than either of his +mates that he would feel entirely at ease--as he could not with +them--in trusting the navigation of the brig in my hands. As to the +practical part of the work, that was a matter that with my quickness I +would pick up in no time; and my bigness and strength, he added, would +come in mighty handily when there was trouble among the crew, as +sometimes happened, and in keeping the blacks in order, and in the +little fights that now and then were necessary with folks on shore. +And then he came to the real kernel of the matter: which was that +Bowers did not like his work and was not fit for it, and was +threatening to leave the brig at the first port she made, and so a man +who could be trusted was badly needed to take his place. + +When he had finished with it all I was dumber than ever; for I was in +a rage at him for making me such an offer, and at the same time saw +pretty clearly that if I refused it as plumply as he made it we +should come to such open enmity that I--being in his power +completely--would be in danger of my skin. And so I was glad when he +gave me a breathing spell, and the chance to think things over +quietly, by telling me that he would not hurry me for answer and that +I could take a day or two--or a week or two if I wanted it--in which +to make up my mind. + + + + + +V + +I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + + +For the rest of that day, and for the two days following, Captain Luke +did not in any way refer to his offer; and as he showed himself more +than ever friendly, and talked away to me in his usual entertaining +fashion, my rage and fright began to go off a little--though at +bottom, of course, there was no change in my opinions, nor any doubt +as to my giving him a point-blank refusal when the issue should be +squarely raised. + +All this time the brig was bowling along down the trades; and on the +third morning after I had the captain's offer--we being then close +upon the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude--Bowers called my +attention to the gulf-weed floating about us, and told me that we were +fairly on the outer edge of the Sargasso Sea. We should not get into +any thicker part of it, he said, as we should bear up to clear it; and +so we actually did, hauling away a good deal to the eastward when the +brig's course was set that day at noon. But my interest in the matter +had been so checked--all my thought being given to finding some way +out of the pickle in which I found myself--that I paid little +attention to the patches of yellow weed on the water around us or to +the bits of wreckage that we saw now and then; and when Bowers, +keeping on with his talk, fell to chaffing me about my desire to make +a voyage of discovery into the thick part of this floating mystery I +did not rise to his joking, nor did I make him much of a reply. + +Indeed, I was in rather a low way that day; which was due in part to +my not being able, for all my thinking, to see any sort of a clear +course before me; and in part to the fact that the weather was +thickening and that my spirits were dulled a good deal by what we call +the heaviness of the air. All around the horizon steel-gray clouds +were rising, and a soft sort of a haze hung about us and took the life +out of the sunshine, and the wind fell away until there was almost +nothing of it, and that little fitful--while with the dying out of it +the sea began to stir slowly with a long oily swell. Far down to the +southeast a line of smoke hung along the horizon, coming from the +funnel of some steamer out of sight over the ocean's curve, and the +heaviness of the atmosphere was shown by the way that this smoke held +close to the surface of the sea. + +That Captain Luke did not like the look of things was plain enough +from his sharp glances about him and from his frequent examinations +of the glass; and he seemed to be all the more bothered--his seaman's +instinct that a storm was brewing being at odds with the barometer's +prophecy--by the fact that the mercury showed a marked tendency to +rise. Had he known as much of the scientific side of navigation as he +knew of the practical side he could have reconciled the conduct of the +barometer with his own convictions, and so would have been easier in +his mind; for it is a fact that the mercury often rises suddenly on +the front edge of a storm--that is to say, a little in advance of +it--by reason of the air banking up there. But having only his +rule-of-thumb knowledge to apply in the premises, the apparent +scientific contradiction of his own practical notions as to what was +going to happen confused him and made him irritable--the +nerve-stirring state of the atmosphere no doubt having also a share in +the matter--as was made plain by his sharp quick motions, and by the +way in which on the smallest provocation he fell to swearing at the +men. And so the day wore itself out to nightfall: with the steel-gray +clouds lifting steadily from the horizon toward the zenith, and with +the swell of the weed-spattered sea slowly rising, and with a doubting +uneasiness among all of us that found its most marked expression in +Captain Luke's increasingly savage mood. + +Our supper was a glowering one. The captain had little to say, and +that little of a sharp sort, while the mate only rumbled out a curse +now and then at the boy who served us; and I myself was in a bitter +bad humor as I thought how hard it was on me to be shut up at sea in +such vile company, and how I had only myself to blame for getting into +it--and found my case all the harder because of my nervous uneasiness +due to the coming storm. As to the storm, there no longer could be +doubt about it, for the barometer had got into line with Captain +Luke's convictions and was falling fast. + +When the supper was over the captain brought out his arrack-bottle and +took off a full tumbler, which was more than double his usual +allowance, and then pushed the liquor across to the mate and me. The +mate also took a good pull at it, and I took a fair drink myself in +the hope that it would quiet my nerves--but it had exactly the +opposite effect and made me both excited and cross. And then we all +came on deck together, and all in a rough humor, and Bowers went down +into the cabin to have his supper by himself. + +What happened in the next half-hour happened so quickly that I cannot +give a very clear account of it. A part of it, no doubt, was due to +mere chance and angry impulse; but not the whole of it, and I think +not the worst of it--for the first thing that the captain did was to +order the man who was steering to go forward and to tell the mate to +take the wheel. That left just the three of us together at the stern +of the brig--with Bowers below and so out of sight and hearing, and +with all the crew completely cut off from us and put out of sight and +hearing by the rise of the cabin above the deck. + +Night had settled down on the ocean, but not darkness. Far off to the +eastward the full moon was standing well above the horizon and was +fighting her way upward through the clouds--now and then getting +enough the better of them to send down a dash of brightness on the +water, but for the most part making only a faint twilight through +their gloom. The wind still was very light and fitful, but broken by +strongish puffs which would heel the brig over a little and send her +along sharply for half a mile or so before they died away; and the +swell had so risen that we had a long sleepy roll. Up to windward I +made out a ship's lights--that seemed to be coming down on us rapidly, +from their steady brightening--and I concluded that this must be the +steamer from which the smoke had come that I had seen trailing along +the horizon through the afternoon; and I even fancied, the night being +intensely still, that I could hear across the water the soft purring +sound made by the steady churning of her wheel. Somehow it deepened +the sullen anger that had hold of me to see so close by a ship having +honest men aboard of her, and to know at the same time how hopelessly +fast I was tied to the brig and her dirty crew. I don't mind saying +that the tears came to my eyes, for I was both hurt by my sorrow and +heavy with my dull rage. + +We all three were silent for a matter of ten minutes or so, or it +might even have been longer, and then Captain Luke faced around on me +suddenly and asked: "Well, have you made up your mind?" + +Had I been cooler I should have tried to fence a little, since my only +resource--I being caught like a rat in a trap that way--was to try to +gain time; but I was all in a quiver, just as I suppose he was, with +the excitement of the situation and with the excitement of the +thunderous night, and his short sharp question jostled out of my head +what few wits I had there and made me throw away my only chance. And +so I answered him, just as shortly and as sharply: "Yes, I have." + +"Do you mean to join the brig?" he demanded. + +"No, I don't," I answered, and stepped a little closer to him and +looked him squarely in the eyes. + +"I told you so," the mate broke in with his rumble; and I saw that he +was whipping a light lashing on the wheel in a way that would hold it +steady in case he wanted to let go. + +"Better think a minute," said Captain Luke, speaking coolly enough, +but still with an angry undertone in his voice. "I've made you a good +offer, and I'm ready to stand by it. But if you won't take what I've +offered you you'll take something else that you won't like, my fresh +young man. In a friendly way, and for your information, I've told you +a lot of things that I can't trust to the keeping of any living man +who won't chip in with us and take our chances--the bad ones with the +good ones--just as they happen to come along. You know too much, now, +for me to part company from you while you have a wagging tongue in +your head--and so my offer's still open to you. Only there's this +about it: if you won't take it, overboard you go." + +I had a little gleam of sense at that; for I knew that he spoke in +dead earnest, and that the mate stood ready to back him, and that +against the two of them I had not much show. And so I tried to play +for time, saying: "Well, let me think it over a bit longer. You said +there was no hurry and that I might have a week to consider in. I've +had only three days, so far. Do you call that square?" + +"Squareness be damned," rumbled the mate, and he gave a look aloft and +another to windward--the breeze just then had fallen to a mere +whisper--and took his hands off the wheel and stepped away from it so +that he and the captain were close in front of me, side by side. I +stood off from them a little, and got my back against the cabin--that +I might be safe against an attack from behind--and I was so furiously +angry that I forgot to be scared. + +"Three days is as good as three years," Captain Luke jerked out. "What +I want is an answer right now. Will you join the brig--yes or no?" + +Somehow I remembered just then seeing our pig killed, when I was a +boy--how he ran around the lot with the men after him, and got into a +corner and tried to fight them, and was caught in spite of his poor +little show of fighting, and was rolled over on his back and had his +throat stuck. He was a nice pig, and I had felt sorry for him: +thinking that he didn't deserve such treatment, his life having been a +respectable one, and he never having done anybody any harm. It all +came back to me in a flash, as I settled myself well against the cabin +and answered: "No, I won't join you--and you and your brig may go +to hell!" + +All I remember after that was their rush together upon me, and my +hitting out two or three times--getting in one smasher on the mate's +jaw that was a comfort to me--and then something hard cracking me on +the head, and so stunning me that I knew nothing at all of what +happened until I found myself coming up to the surface of the sea, +sputtering salt-water and partly tangled in a bunch of gulf-weed, and +saw the brig heeling over and sliding fast away from me before a +sudden strong draught of wind. + + + + + +VI + +I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + + +My head was tingling with pain, and so buzzy that I had no sense worth +speaking of, but just kept myself afloat in an instinctive sort of way +by paddling a little with my hands. And I could not see well for what +I thought was water in my eyes--until I found that it was blood +running down over my forehead from a gash in my scalp that went from +the top of my right ear pretty nearly to my crown. Had the blow that +made it struck fair it certainly would have finished me; but from the +way that the scalp was cut loose the blow must have glanced. + +The chill of the water freshened me and brought my senses back a +little: for which I was not especially thankful at first, being in +such pain and misery that to drown without knowing much about it +seemed quite the best thing that I could hope for just then. Indeed, +when I began to think again, though not very clearly, I had half a +mind to drop my arms to my sides and so go under and have done with +it--so despairing was I as I bobbed about on the swell among the +patches of gulf-weed which littered the dark ocean, with the brig +drawing away from me rapidly, and no chance of a rescue from her even +had she been near at hand. + +Whether I had or had not hurried the matter, under I certainly should +have gone shortly--for the crack on my head and the loss of blood from +it had taken most of my strength out of me, and even with my full +strength I could not have kept afloat long--had not a break in the +clouds let through a dash of moonlight that gave me another chance. It +was only for a moment or two that the moonlight lasted, yet long +enough for me to make out within a hundred feet of me a biggish piece +of wreckage--which but for that flash I should not have noticed, or in +the dimness would have taken only for a bunch of weed. + +Near though it was, getting to it was almost more than I could manage; +and when at last I did reach it I was so nearly used up that I barely +had strength to throw my arms about it and one leg over it, and so +hang fast for a good many minutes in a half-swoon of weakness +and pain. + +But the feel of something solid under me, and the certainty that for a +little while at least I was safe from drowning, helped me to pull +myself together; and before long some of my strength came back, and a +little of my spirit with it, and I went about settling myself more +securely on my poor sort of a raft. What I had hit upon, I found, was +a good part of a ship's mast; with the yards still holding fast by it +and steadying it, and all so clean-looking that it evidently had not +been in the water long. The main-top, I saw, would give me a back to +lean against and also a little shelter; and in that nook I would be +still more secure because the futtock-shrouds made a sort of cage +about it and gave me something to catch fast to should the swell of +the sea roll me off. So I worked along the mast from where I first had +caught hold of it until I got myself stowed away under the main-top: +where I had my body fairly out of water, and a chance to rest easily +by leaning against the upstanding woodwork, and a good grip with my +legs to keep me firm. And it is true, though it don't sound so, that I +was almost happy at finding myself so snug and safe there--as it +seemed after having nothing under me but the sea. + +And then I set myself--my head hurting me cruelly, and the flow of +blood still bothering me--to see what I could do in the way of binding +up my wound; and made a pretty good job of it, having a big silk +handkerchief in my pocket that I folded into a smooth bandage and +passed over my crown and under my chin--after first dowsing my head in +the cold sea water, which set the cut to smarting like fury but helped +to keep the blood from flowing after the bandage was made fast. At +first, while I was paddling in the water and splashing my way along +the mast and while the bandage was flapping about my ears, I had no +chance to hear any noises save those little ones close to me which I +was making myself. But when I had finished my rough surgery, and +leaned back against the top to rest after it--and my heart was +beginning to sink with the thought of how utterly desperate my case +was, afloat there on the open ocean with a gale coming on--I heard in +the deep silence a faint rythmic sound that I recognized instantly as +the pulsing of a steamer's engine and the steady churning of her +screw. This mere whisper in the darkness was a very little thing to +hang a hope upon; but hope did return to me with the conviction that +the sound came from the steamer of which I had seen the lights just +before I was pitched overboard, and that I had a chance of her passing +near enough to me to hear my hail. + +I peered eagerly over the waters, trying to make out her lights again +and so settle how she was heading; but I could see no lights, though +with each passing minute the beating of the screw sounded louder to my +straining ears. From that I concluded that she must be coming up +behind me and was hid by the top from me; and so, slowly and +painfully, I managed to get on my hands and knees on the mast, and +then to raise myself until I stood erect and could see over the edge +of the top as it rose like a little wall upright--and gave a weak +shout of joy as I saw what I was looking for, the three bright points +against the blackness, not more than a mile away. And I was all the +more hopeful because her red and green lights showed full on each side +of the white light on her foremast, and by that I knew that she was +heading for me as straight as she could steer. + +I gave another little shout--but fainter than the first, for my +struggle to get to my feet, and then to hold myself erect as the swell +rolled the mast about, made me weak and a little giddy; and I wanted +to keep on shouting--but had the sense not to, that I might save my +strength for the yells that I should have to give when the steamer got +near enough to me for her people to hear my cries. So I stood +silent--swaying with the roll of the mast, and with my head throbbing +horribly because of my excitement and the strain of holding on +there--while I watched her bearing down on me; and making her out so +plainly as she got closer that it never occurred to me that I and my +bit of mast would not be just as plain to her people as her great bulk +was to me. + +I don't suppose that she was within a quarter of a mile of me when I +began my yelling; but I was too much worked up to wait longer, and the +result of my hurry was to make my voice very hoarse and feeble by the +time that she really was within hail. She came dashing along so +straight for me that I suddenly got into a tremor of fear that she +would run me down; and, indeed, she only cleared me by fifty feet or +so--her huge black hull, dotted with the bright lights of her cabin +ports, sliding past me so close that she seemed to tower right up over +me--and I was near to being swamped, so violently was my mast tossed +about by the rush and suck of the water from her big screw. And while +she hung over me, and until she was gone past me and clear out of all +hearing, I yelled and yelled! + +At first I could not believe, so sure had I been of my rescue, that +she had left me; and it was not until she was a good half mile away +from me, with only the sound of her screw ripping the water, and a +faint gleam of light from her after ports showing through the +darkness, that I realized that she was gone--and then I grew so sick +and dizzy that it is a wonder I did not lose my hold altogether and +fall off into the sea. Somehow or another I managed to swing myself +down and to seat myself upon the mast again, with my head fairly +splitting and with my heart altogether gone: and so rested there, +shutting my eyes to hide the sight of my hope vanishing, and as +desolate as any man ever was. + +Presently, in a dull way, I noticed that I no longer heard the swash +of her screw, and rather wondered at her getting out of hearing so +quickly; but for fear of still seeing her lights, and so having more +pain from her, I still kept my eyes tight closed. And then, all of a +sudden, I heard quite close by me a hail--and opened my eyes in a +hurry to see a light not a hundred feet away from me, and to make out +below it the loom of a boat moving slowly over the weed-strewn sea. + +The shout that I gave saved me, but before it saved me I came near to +being done for. Such a rush of blood went up into my broken head with +the sudden burst of joy upon me that a dead faint came upon me and I +fell off into the water; and that I was floating when the boat got to +me was due to the mere chance that as I dropped away from the mast one +of my arms slipped into the tangle of the futtock-shrouds. But I knew +nothing about that, nor about anything else that happened, until we +were half-way back to the steamer and I came to my senses a little; +and very little for a good while longer--except that I was swung up a +ship's side and there was a good deal of talking going on around me; +and then that my clothes were taken off and I was lifted into a soft +delightful berth; and then that somebody with gentle hands was binding +up my broken crown. + +When this job was finished--which hurt me a good deal, but did not +rouse me much--I just fell back upon the soft pillow and went to +sleep: with a blessed sense of rest and safety, as I felt the roll of +a whole ship under me again after the short jerk of my mast, and knew +that I was not back on the brig but aboard an honest steamer by +hearing and by feeling the strong steady pulsing of her screw. + + + + +VII + +I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + +I was roused from my sleep by the sharp motion of the vessel; but did +not get very wide awake, for I felt donsie and there was a dull +ringing in my head along with a great dull pain. I had sense enough, +though, to perceive that the storm had come, about which Captain Luke +and the barometer had been at odds; and to shake a little with a +creepy terror as I thought of the short work it would have made with +me had I waited for it on my mast. But I was too much hurt to feel +anything very keenly, and so heavy that even with the quick short roll +of the ship to rouse me I kept pretty much in a doze. + +After a while the door of my state-room was opened a little and a man +peeped in; and when he saw my open eyes looking at him he came in +altogether, giving me a nod and a smile. He was a tall fellow in a +blue uniform, with a face that I liked the looks of; and when he spoke +to me I liked the sound of his voice. + +"You must be after being own cousin to all the Seven Sleepers of +Ephesus and the dog too, my big young man," he said, holding fast to +the upper berth to steady himself. "You've put in ten solid hours, so +far, and you don't seem to be over wide awake yet. Faith, I'd be after +backing you to sleep standing, like Father O'Rafferty's old dun cow!" + +I did not feel up to answering him, but I managed to grin a little, +and he went on: "I'm for thinking that I'd better let that broken head +of yours alone till this fool of a ship is sitting still +again--instead of trying to teach the porpoises such tricks of rolling +and pitching as never entered into their poor brute minds. But you'll +do without doctoring for the present, myself having last night sewed +up all right and tight for you the bit of your scalp that had fetched +away. How does it feel?" + +"It hurts," was all that I could answer. + +"And small blame to it," said the doctor, and went on: "It's a +well-made thick head you have, and it's tough you are, my son, not to +be killed entirely by such a whack as you got on your brain-box--to +say nothing of your fancy for trying to cure it hydropathically by +taking it into the sea with you when you were for crossing the +Atlantic Ocean on the fag-end of a mast. It's much indeed that you +have to learn, I am thinking, both about surgery and about taking care +of yourself. But in the former you'll now do well, being in the +competent hands of a graduate of Dublin University; and in regard to +your incompetence in the latter good reason have you for being +thankful that the _Hurst Castle_ happened to be travelling in these +parts last night, and that her third officer is blessed with a pair of +extra big ears and so happened to hear you talking to him from out of +the depths of the sea. + +"But talking isn't now the best thing for you, and some more of the +sleep that you're so fond of is--if only the tumbling of the ship will +let you have it; so take this powder into that mouth of yours which +you opened so wide when you were conversing with us as we went sailing +past you, and then stop your present chattering and take all the sleep +that you can hold." + +With that he put a bitter powder into my mouth, and gave me a drink of +water after it--raising me up with a wonderful deftness and gentleness +that I might take it, and settling me back again on the pillow in just +the way that I wanted to lie. "And now be off again to your friends +the Ephesians," he said; "only remember that if you or they--or their +dog either, poor beasty--wants anything, it's only needed to touch +this electric bell. As to the doggy," he added, with his hand on the +door-knob, "tell him to poke at the button with the tip of his foolish +nose." And with that he opened the door and went away. All this +light friendly talk was such a comfort to me--showing, as it did, +along with the good care that I was getting, what kindly people I had +fallen among--that in my weak state I cried a little because of my +happy thankfulness; and then, my weakness and the powder acting +together to lull me, in spite of the ship's sharp motion I went off +again to sleep. + +But that time my sleep did not last long. In less than an hour, I +suppose, the motion became so violent as to shake me awake again--and +to give me all that I could do to keep myself from being shot out of +my berth upon the floor. Presently the doctor came again, fetching +with him one of the cabin stewards to rig the storm-board at the side +of my berth and some extra pillows with which to wedge me fast. But +though he gave me a lot more of his pleasant chaff to cheer me I could +see that his look was anxious, and it seemed to me that the steward +was badly scared. Between them they managed to stow me pretty tight in +my berth and to make me as comfortable as was possible while +everything was in such commotion--with the ship bouncing about like a +pea on a hot shovel and all the wood-work grinding and creaking with +the sudden lifts and strains. + +"It's a baddish gale that's got hold of the old _Hurst Castle_, and +that's a fact," the doctor said, when they had finished with me, in +answer to the questioning look that he saw in my eyes. "But it's +nothing to worry about," he went on; "except that it's hard on you, +with that badly broken head of yours, to be tumbled about worse than +Mother O'Donohue's pig when they took it to Limerick fair in a cart. +So just lie easy there among your pillows, my son; and pretend that +it's exercise that you are taking for the good of your liver--which is +a torpid and a sluggish organ in the best of us, and always the better +for such a shaking as the sea is giving us now. And be remembering +that the _Hurst Castle_ is a Clyde-built boat, with every plate and +rivet in her as good as a Scotsman knows how to make it--and in such +matters it's the Sandies who know more than any other men alive. In my +own ken she's pulled through storms fit to founder the Giant's +Causeway and been none the worse for 'em, and so it's herself that's +certain to weather this bit of a gale--which has been at its worst no +less than two times this same morning, and therefore by all rule and +reason must be for breaking soon. + +"And be thinking, too," he added as he was leaving me, "that I'll be +coming in to look after you now and then when I have a spare +minute--for there are some others, I'm sorry to say, who are after +needing me; and as soon as the gale goes down a bit I'll overhaul +again that cracked head of yours, and likely be singing you at the +same time for your amusement a real Irish song." But not much was +there of singing, nor of any other show of lightheartedness, aboard +the _Hurst Castle_ during the next twelve hours. So far from breaking, +the gale--as the doctor had called it, although in reality it was a +hurricane--got worse steadily; with only a lull now and then, as +though for breath-taking, and then a fiercer rush of wind--before +which the ship would reel and shiver, while the grinding of her iron +frame and the crunching of her wood-work made a sort of wild chorus of +groans and growls. For all my wedging of pillows I was near to flying +over the storm-board out of my berth with some of the plunges that she +took; and very likely I should have had such a tumble had not the +doctor returned again in a little while and with the mattress from the +upper berth so covered me as to jam me fast--and how he managed to do +this, under the circumstances, I am sure I don't know. + +When he had finished my packing he bent down over me--or I could not +have heard him--and said: "It's sorry I am for you, my poor boy, for +you're getting just now more than your full share of troubles. But +we're all in a pickle together, and that's a fact, and the choice +between us is small. And I'd be for suggesting that if you know such a +thing as a prayer or two you'll never have a finer opportunity for +saying them than you have now." And by that, and by the friendly +sorrowful look that he gave me, I knew that our peril must +be extreme. + +I don't like to think of the next few hours; while I lay there packed +tight as any mummy, and with no better than a mummy's chances, as it +seemed to me, of ever seeing the live world again--terrified by the +awful war of the storm and by the confusion of wild noises, and every +now and then sharply startled by hearing on the deck above me a fierce +crash as something fetched away. It was a bad time, Heaven knows, for +everybody; but for me I thought that it was worst of all. For there I +was lying in utter helplessness, with the certainty that if the ship +foundered there was not a chance for me--since I must drown solitary +in my state-room, like a rat drowned in a hole. + + + + + +VIII + +THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + + +At last, having worn itself out, as sailors say, the storm began to +lessen: first showing its weakening by losing its little lulls and +fiercer gusts after them, and then dropping from a tempest to a mere +gale--that in turn fell slowly to a gentle wind. But even after the +wind had fallen, and for a good while after, the ship labored in a +tremendous sea. + +As I grew easier in my mind and body, and so could think a little, I +wondered why my friend the doctor did not come to me; and when at last +my door was opened I looked eagerly--my eyes being the only free part +of me--to see him come in. But it was the steward who entered, and I +had a little sharp pang of disappointment because I missed the face +that I wanted to see. However, the man stooped over me, kindly enough, +and lifted off the mattress and did his best to make me comfortable; +only when I asked him where the doctor was he pretty dismally +shook his head. + +"It's th' doctor himself is needin' doctorin', poor soul," he +answered, "he bein' with his right leg broke, and with his blessed +head broke a-most as bad as yours!" And then he told me that when the +storm was near ended the doctor had gone on deck to have a look at +things, and almost the minute he got there had been knocked over by a +falling spar. "For th' old ship's shook a-most to pieces," the man +went on; "with th' foremast clean overboard, an' th' mizzen so wobbly +that it's dancin' a jig every time she pitches, and everything at rags +an' tatters of loose ends." + +"But the doctor?" I asked. + +"He says himself, sir, that he's not dangerous, and I s'pose he ought +to know. Th' captain an' th' purser together, he orderin' 'em, have +set his leg for him; and his head, he says, 'll take care of itself, +bein' both thick an' hard. But he's worryin' painful because he can't +look after you, sir, an' th' four or five others that got hurt in th' +storm. And I can tell you, sir," the man went on, "that all th' ship's +company, an' th' passengers on top of 'em, are sick with sorrow that +this has happened to him; for there's not a soul ever comes near th' +doctor but loves him for his goodness, and we'd all be glad to break +our own legs this minute if by that we could be mendin' his!" + +The steward spoke very feelingly and earnestly, and with what he said +I was in thorough sympathy; for the doctor's care of me and his +friendliness had won my heart to him, just as it had won to him the +hearts of all on board. But there was comfort in knowing that he had +got off with only a broken leg and a broken head from a peril that so +easily might have been the death of him, and of that consolation I +made the most--while the steward, who was a handy fellow and pretty +well trained as a surgeon's assistant, freshly bandaged my head for me +as the doctor had ordered him to do, and so set me much more at my +ease. After that, for the rest of the day, he came every hour or so to +look after me; giving me some broth to eat and a biscuit, and some +medicine that the doctor sent me with the message that it would put +strength enough into a dead pig to set him to dancing--by which I knew +that even if his head and leg were broken there was no break in his +whimsical fun. + +The steward was the only man who came near me; but this did not +surprise me when he told me more about the condition that the ship was +in, and how all hands--excepting himself, who had been detailed +because of his knowledge that way to look after the hurt people under +the doctor's direction--were hard at work making repairs, with what men +there were among the passengers helping too. The ship was not leaking, +he said, and this was the luckier because her frame was so strained +that it was doubtful if her water-tight compartments would hold; but +the foremast had been carried away, and all the weather-boats had been +mashed out of all shape or swept overboard, and the mizzen was so +shaky that it seemed likely at any moment to fall. Indeed, the mast +was in such a bad way, he said, that the first and second officers +were for getting rid of it--and of the danger that there was of its +coming down all in a heap anyway--by sending it overboard; but that +the captain thought it safe to stand now that the sea was getting +smooth again, and was setting up jury-stays to hold it until we made +the Azores--for which islands our course was laid. + +By the time that night came again the sea had pretty well gone down, +and beyond the easy roll that was on her the ship had no motion save +the steady vibration of her screw. With this comforting change the +pain in my head became only a dull heavy aching, and I had a chance to +feel how utterly weary I was after the strain of mind and body that +had been put on me by the gale. A little after eight o'clock, as I +knew by hearing the ship's bell striking--and mighty pleasant it was +to hear regularly that orderly sound again--the steward brought me a +bowl of broth and propped me up in my berth while I drank it; and +cheered me by telling me that the doctor was swearing at his broken +leg like a good fellow, and was getting on very well indeed. And then +my weariness had its way with me, and I fell off into that deep sleep +which comes to a man only when all his energy has slipped away from +him on a dead low tide. How long I slept I do not know. But I do +know that I was routed suddenly into wakefulness by a jar that almost +pitched me out of my berth, and that an instant later there was a +tremendous crash as though the whole deck above me was smashing to +pieces, and with this a rattle of light woodwork splintering and the +sharp tinkling of breaking glass. For a moment there was silence; and +then I heard shouts and screams close by me in the cabin, and a little +later a great trampling on deck, and then the screw stopped turning +and there was a roar of escaping steam. + +I was so heavy with sleep that at first I thought we still were in the +storm and that this commotion was a part of it; but as I shook off my +drowsiness I got a clearer notion of the situation--remembering what +the steward had told me of the condition of the mizzen-mast, and so +arriving at the conclusion that it had fetched away bodily and had +come crashing through the cabin skylight in its fall. But what the +shock was that had sent it flying--unless we had been in collision--I +could not understand. And all this while the trampling on deck +continued, and out in the cabin the shouts and cries went on. + +I thought that the steward would come to me--forgetting that in times +of danger men are apt to think only of saving their own skins--and so +laid still; being, indeed, so weak and wretched that it did not seem +possible to me to do anything else. But he did not come, and at the +end of what seemed to me to be a desperately long time--though I doubt +if it were more than five minutes--I realized that I must try to do +something to help myself; and was the more nerved to action by the +fact that there no longer was the sound of voices in the cabin, while +the noises on deck a good deal had increased. Indeed, I began to hear +up there the puffing and snorting of the donkey-engine, and so felt +certain that they were hoisting out the boats. + +Somehow or another I managed to get out of my berth, and on my feet, +and so to the door; but when I tried to open the door I could not +budge it, and in the darkness I struck my head against what seemed to +be a bar of wood that stuck in through one of the upper panels and so +held it fast. The blow dizzied me, for it took me close to where my +cut was and put me into intense pain. + +While I stood there, pulling in a weak way at the door-knob and making +nothing of it, I heard voices out in the cabin and through my broken +door saw a gleam of light. But in the moment that my hope rose it went +down again, for I heard some one say quickly and sharply: "It's no +good. The way the spar lies we can't get at him--and to cut it through +would take an hour." + +And then a voice that I recognized for the steward's answered: "But +the doctor ordered it. Where's an axe for a try?" To which the other +man answered back again: "If it was the doctor himself we couldn't do +it, and we'll tell him so. The ship'll be down in five minutes. We've +got to run for it or the boats'll be off." And then away they ran +together, giving no heed in their fright to my yells after them to +come back and not leave me there to drown. + +For a little while I was as nearly wild crazy as a man can be and yet +have a purpose in his mind. The keen sense of my peril made me strong +again. I kicked with my bare feet and pounded with my hands upon the +door to break it, I shouted for help to come to me, and I gave out +shrill screams of terror such as brutes give in their agony--for I was +down to the hard-pan of human nature, and what I felt most strongly +was the purely animal longing to keep alive. + +But no one answered me, and I could tell by the sounds on deck getting +fainter that some of the boats already had put off; and in a little +while longer no sound came from the deck of any sort whatever, and by +that I knew that all the boats must have got away. And as I realized +that I was forsaken, and felt sure from what I had heard that the ship +would float for only a few minutes longer, I gave a cry of downright +despair--and then I lost track of the whole bad business by tumbling +to the floor in the darkness in a dead swoon. + + + + + +IX + +ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + + +When I came to myself again, and found my state-room--although the +dead-light was set--bright with the light which entered through the +broken door, my first feeling was of wonder that I was not yet +drowned; for it was evident that the sun must be well up in the +heavens to shine so strongly, and therefore that a good many hours +must have passed since the smash had happened that had sent everybody +flying to the boats believing that the ship was going right down. And +my next wonder was caused by the queer way in which the ship was +lying--making me fancy at first that I was dizzy again, and my eyes +tricking me--with a pitch forward that gave a slope to the floor of my +state-room, of not less than twenty degrees. + +For a while, in a stupid sort of way, I ruminated over these matters; +and at last got hold of the simple explanation of them. Evidently, in +spite of the straining of the steamer's frame in the storm, her +water-tight compartments--or some of them--had held, leaving her +floating with her broken bow well down in the water and her stern +canted up into the air. And then the farther comforting thought came +to me that if she had kept afloat for so many hours already, and +seemed so steady in her new position, there was no reason why she +should not keep on floating at least for as long as the fine weather +lasted--which gave me a chance of rescue by some passing vessel, and +so brought a good deal of hope back into my heart. + +I still was very weak and shaky, and how I was to get out of the +prison that I was in I did not know. By daylight it was easy to see +what held me there: which was the end of a yard, with the reef-block +hanging to it, smashed through the upper panel and caught so tight in +the splintered wood-work as to anchor the door fast. If the wits of +the steward and of the other fellow had not been scared clean out of +them they easily might have knocked in the lower part of the door with +an axe and so opened a way out for me; but as their only notion had +been to cut away the spar--a tough piece of work--I could not in cool +blood very greatly blame them for having given up my rescue and run +for their own lives. + +These thoughts went through my head while I lay there, most +uncomfortably, on the sloping floor. Presently I managed to get up, +but felt so dizzy that I had to seat myself in a hurry on the edge of +the berth until my head got steadier. Fortunately my water-jug was +half full, and I had a good drink from it which refreshed me greatly; +and then I had the farther good fortune to see some biscuit which the +steward had left on a shelf in the corner, and as I caught sight of +them I realized that I was very hungry indeed. I ate one, along with +some more sups of water, and felt much the better for it; but lay down +in my berth that I might save the strength it gave me until I should +have thought matters over a little and settled some line of action +in my mind. + +That I was too weak to break the door down was quite certain, and the +only other thing that I could think of was cutting out the lower +panels and so making a hole through which I could crawl. As this +thought came to me I remembered the big jack-knife that had been in my +trousers' pocket when I went overboard from the brig; and in a minute +I was on my feet--and without feeling any dizziness, this time--and +got to where my clothes were hanging on a hook, and found to my joy +that my knife and all the other things which had been in my pockets +had been returned to them after the clothes had been dried. The knife +was badly rusted and I had a hard time opening it; but the rust did +not much dull it, and I seated myself upon the floor and fell to +slicing away at the soft pine wood with a will. I had to rest now and +then, although I found that my strength held out better than I had +hoped for, and that put me back a little; but the wood was so soft +that in not much more than half an hour I had the job finished--and +then I slipped on my trousers, and out I went through the hole on my +hands and knees. + +I found the cabin in utter wreck: littered everywhere with broken +glass and broken wood from the skylight, and from the smashed +hanging-racks and the smashed dining-table, and with splinters from +the mast--which had broken in falling, and along the whole length of +the place had made a tangle of its own fragments and of the ropes and +blocks which had held its sails. Of the sails themselves there were +left only some fuzzy traces clinging to the bolt-ropes, all the rest +having been blown loose and frayed away by the storm. Oddly enough, +some of the drinking-glasses still remained unbroken in one of the +racks, and with them a bottle partly filled with wine--to the neck of +which a card was fastened bearing the name, José Rubio y Salinas, of +the passenger to whom it had belonged. I took the liberty of drinking +a glass of Don José's wine--feeling sure that he was not coming back +to claim it--and felt so much better after it that I thanked him +cordially for leaving it there. + +Most of the state-room doors stood open, showing within clothing +tossed about and trunks with their lids turned back, and the general +confusion in which the passengers had left things when they scrambled +together their most precious belongings and rushed for the boats--with +death, as they fancied, treading close upon their heels. But with what +remained in the state-rooms I did not concern myself, being desirous +first of all to get on deck and have a look about me that I might size +up my chances of keeping alive. That there was no companion-way up +from the cabin puzzled me a little, for I knew nothing of the internal +arrangements of steamships; but presently I found a passage leading +forward, and by that I came to the stair to the deck of which I was +in search. + +Up it I went, but when I fairly got outside and saw the desperate +state of the craft that I was afloat on my heart sank. Indeed, it +seemed a flying in the face of all reason that such an utter wreck +should float at all. Of the foremast nothing but the splintered stump +remained. The starboard rail, which had been to windward of it, was +gashed by chance axe-blows made in cutting away the shrouds; and as to +the port rail, twenty feet of it was gone entirely where the mast had +come crashing down, while the side-plates below were bulged out with +the strain put upon them before the standing-rigging fastened there +had fetched away. The mizzen-mast lay aft across the cabin skylight, +with its standing and running rigging making a tangle on each side of +it. The main-mast still stood, but with its top-mast broken off and +dangling nearly to the deck. Two of the weather-boats remained fast +to the davits, but so smashed that they looked like battered tin +wash-basins, and would have floated just about as well. All the other +boats were gone: those on the weather side, as the splintered ways and +broken ropes showed, having been washed overboard; and those to +leeward having been hoisted out by the tackles, which still hung from +the davits and dipped lazily with the ship's easy motion into the sea. + +All this was bad enough, but what most took the spirit out of me was +the way that the ship was lying--her stern high up in the air, and her +bow so deep in the water that the sea came up almost to her main-mast +along her sloping deck. It seemed inevitable that in another moment +she would follow her nose in the start downward that it had made and +go straight to the bottom; and each little wave, as it lapped its way +aft softly, made me fancy that the plunge had begun. + +As to the outlook around me, the only comfort that I got from it was +the fairness of the weather and the smoothness of the sea. For close +upon the water a soft haze was hanging that even to the north, out of +which blew a gentle wind, brought the horizon within a mile of me; and +down to leeward the haze was banked so thick that I could make out +nothing beyond half a mile. And so, even though a whole fleet might be +passing near me, my chances of rescue were very small. But from the +look of the ocean I knew that no fleets were likely to be thereabouts, +and that even though the haze lifted I might search long and vainly +for sight of so much as a single sail. As far as I could see around me +the water was covered thickly with gulf-weed, and with this was all +sorts of desolate flotsam--planks, and parts of masts, and fragments +of ships' timbers--lolling languidly on the soft swell that was +running, yet each scrap having behind it its own personal tragedy of +death and storm. And this mess of wreckage was so much thicker than I +had seen when the brig was on the coast--as Bowers had called it--of +the Sargasso Sea as to convince me that already I must be within the +borders of that ocean mystery which a little while before I had been +so keen for exploring; and my fate seemed sealed to me as I realized +that I therefore was in a region which every living ship steered clear +of, and into which never any but dead ships came. + + + + + +X + +I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + + +When I perceived the tight fix that I was in my broken head went to +throbbing again, and my legs were so shaky under me that I had to sit +down on the deck in a hurry in order to save myself from a fall. +Indeed, I was in no condition to face even an ordinary trouble, let +alone an overwhelming disaster; for what with my loss of blood from +the cut on my head, and the little food I had eaten since I got it, I +was as weak as a cat. + +Luckily I had the sense to realize that I needed the strength which +food would give me in order to save myself from dropping off into +sheer despair. And with the thought of eating there suddenly woke up +in my inside a hungry feeling that surprised me by its sharpness; and +instantly put such vigor into my shaky legs that I was up on them in a +moment, and off to the companion-way to begin my explorations below. +And when, being come to the cabin again, I had another sup of Don +José's wine I got quite ravenous, and felt strong enough to kick a +door in--if that should be necessary--in order to satisfy my +craving for food. + +There was no need for staving in doors, for none of them was fastened; +but it was some little time--because of my ignorance of the +arrangement of steamships--before I could find one that had things to +eat on the other side of it. Around the cabin, and along the passage +leading forward, were only state-rooms; but just beyond the +companion-way I came at last to the pantry--and beyond this again, as +I found later, were the store-rooms and the galley. For the moment, +however, the pantry gave me all that I wanted. In a covered box I +found some loaves of bread, and in a big refrigerator a lot of cold +victuals that set my eyes to dancing--two or three roast fowls, part +of a big joint of beef, a boiled tongue, and so on; and, what was +almost as welcome, in another division of the refrigerator a dozen or +more bottles of beer. On the racks above were dishes and glasses, in a +locker were knives and forks, and I even found hanging on a hook a +corkscrew--and the quickness with which I brought these various things +together and made them serve my purposes was a sight to see! + +When I had eaten nearly a whole fowl, and had drunk a bottle of beer +with it, I felt like another man; and then, pursuing my investigations +more leisurely, I found in one of the lockers--which I took the +liberty of prying open with a big carving-knife--four or five boxes +of capital cigars. In the same locker was a package of safety-matches, +and in a moment I was puffing away with such satisfaction that I +fairly grew light-hearted--so great is the comfort that comes to a man +with good smoking on top of a hearty meal. All sorts of bright fancies +came to me: of making one of the battered boats serviceable again and +getting off in it, of a ship blown out of her course coming to my +rescue, of a strong southerly wind that would carry the hulk of the +poor old _Hurst Castle_ back again into the inhabited parts of the +sea. And with these thoughts cheering me I set myself to work to find +out just what I had in the way of provisions aboard my shattered craft. + +I did not have to search far nor long to satisfy myself that I had a +bigger stock of food by me than I could eat in a dozen years. Forward +of the galley were the store-rooms: a cold-room, with a plenty of ice +still in it, in which was hanging a great quantity of fresh meat; a +wine-room, very well stocked and containing also some cases of tobacco +and cigars; and in the other rooms was stuff enough to fit up a big +grocery shop on shore--hams and bacon and potted meats, and a great +variety of vegetables in tins, and all sorts of sweets and sauces and +table-delicacies in tins and in glass. Indeed, although I was full to +the chin with the meal that I had just eaten, my mouth fairly watered +at sight of all these good things. In the bakery I found only a loaf +or two of bread, and this--as it was lying on the floor--I suppose +must have been dropped in the scramble while the boats were being +provisioned; but in the baker's store-room were a good many cases of +fine biscuit, and more than twenty barrels of flour. In addition to +all this, I did not doubt that somewhere on board was an equally large +store of provisions for the use of the crew; but with that I did not +bother myself, being satisfied to fare as a cabin-passenger on the +good things which I had found. Finally, two of the big water-tanks +still were full--the others, as I inferred from the cocks being open, +having been emptied for the supply of the boats; and as a +reserve--leaving rain out of the question--I had the ice to fall back +upon, of which there was so great a quantity that it alone would last +me for a long while. In a word, so far as eating and drinking were +concerned, I was as well off as a man could be anywhere--having by me +not only all the necessaries of life but most of its luxuries as well. + +Finding all these good things cheered me and put heart in me in much +the same way that I was cheered and heartened by finding my floating +mast after Captain Luke and the mate chucked me overboard. Again I had +the certainty that death for a while could not get a chance at me; and +this second reprieve was of a more promising sort than that which my +mast had given me in the open sea. On board the steamer, or what was +left of her, I was sure of being in positive comfort so long as she +floated; and my good spirits made me so sanguine that I was confident +she would keep on floating until I struck out some plan by which I +could get safe away from her, or until rescue came to me by some lucky +turn of chance. And so, having completed my tour of inspection, and my +general inventory of the property to which by right of survival I had +fallen heir, I went on deck again in a very hopeful mood. + +Even the utter wreck and confusion into which the steamer had fallen, +when I got to the deck and saw it again, did not crush the hope out of +me as it did when I came upon it--being then weak and famished--for +the first time. I even found a cause for greater hopefulness in +observing that the water-line still stood, as it had stood an hour and +more earlier, a little forward of the main-mast; for that showed that +the water-tight compartments were holding, and that the hulk was in no +immediate danger of going down. It did seem, to be sure, that the haze +had grown a little thicker, and that the weed and wreckage around the +steamer were thicker too; and I was convinced that my hulk was +moving--or that the flotsam about it was moving--by seeing a broken +boat floating bottom upward that I was sure was not in sight when I +went below. But I argued with myself cheerfully that the thickening +of the haze might be due to a wind coming down on me that would blow +it clean away; and that a small thing like an empty boat drifting down +from windward proved that the _Hurst Castle_ herself was moving +southward very slowly, or perhaps was not moving at all. And so, still +in good spirits, I set myself to looking carefully for something that +would float me, in case I decided to abandon the hulk and make a dash +for it--on the chance of falling in with a passing vessel--out over +the open sea. + +But when I had made the round of the deck--at least of the part of it +that was out of water--I had to admit that getting away from the +steamer was a sheer impossibility, unless I might manage it by +cobbling together some sort of a raft. It had been all very well for +me to fancy, while I was being cheered with chicken and beer and +tobacco down in the pantry, that I could make one of the battered +boats sea-worthy; but my round of the deck showed me that with all my +training in mechanics I never could make one of them float again--for +the sea had wrenched and hammered them until they were no better than +so much old iron. The raft, certainly, was a possibility. Spars that +would serve for its body were lying around in plenty, and with the +doors from the rooms below I could deck it over so as to make it both +solid and dry; and somewhere aboard the ship, no doubt, were +carpenter's tools--though, most likely, they were down under water +forward and could be come at only by diving for them. Still, the raft +was a possibility; and so was comforting to think about as giving me +another reprieve from drowning in case the water-tight compartments +broke down--and as that break might come at any moment, and as the job +would take me two days at the shortest, I realized that I could not +set about it too soon. + + + + + +XI + +MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + + +But the other chance which I had thought of, that my hulk might be +blown clear of the Sargasso Sea and back into the track of trade +again, still was to be reckoned with; and to know how that chance was +working it was necessary that I should find out my exact position on +the ocean, and then check off the changes in it by fresh observations +taken from day to day. And as I saw that the sun was close upon the +meridian, and no time to waste if I wanted to secure my first +noon-sight, I put off beginning my carpentering until I should have +hunted for the ship's instruments and got the latitude and longitude +that would give me my departure on my drifting voyage. + +This was so simple a piece of work that I anticipated no difficulty in +executing it. While the low-lying haze narrowed my horizon it did not +sufficiently obscure the sun to interfere with sight-taking; I could +count upon finding the chronometers still going, they being made to +run for fifty-six hours and the ship having been abandoned only the +night before; and where I found the chronometers I felt sure that I +should find also a sextant and a chart. But when I went at this +easy-looking task I was brought up with a round turn: there were no +chronometers, there was no sextant, there was no chart of the North +Atlantic--there was not even a compass left on board! + +It took me some little time to arrive at a certainty in this series of +negatives. I fancied--because it had been that way aboard the _Golden +Hind_--that the captain's room would be one of those opening off from +the cabin, and so began my search for it in that quarter. But when I +had made the round of all the state-rooms I was satisfied that they +had been occupied only by passengers. The single timepiece that I +found--for the clock in the cabin had been smashed when the +mizzen-mast came down--was a fine gold watch lying in one of the +berths partly under the pillow, where its owner must have left it in +his hurry to get to the boats. It still was going, and I slipped it +into my pocket--feeling that a thing with even that much of life in it +would be a comfort to me; but the hour that it gave was a quarter past +eleven (it having been set to the ship's time the day before, I +suppose) and therefore was of no use to me as a basis for +sight-taking. + +Having exhausted the possibilities of the cabin I concluded that the +captain's quarters must have been forward, and so shifted my search +to the forward deck-house; and as I found a blue uniform coat and a +suit of oil-skins in the first room that I entered I was sure that in +a general way I was on the right track. But in none of these rooms did +I find what I was looking for--though I did find in one of them, and +greatly to my satisfaction, a chest of carpenter's tools and a big box +of nails. The nails must have been there by pure accident, but the +tools probably were the carpenter's private kit; and as in the course +of my farther search I did not come across the ship's +carpenter-shop--which no doubt was under water forward--I felt that +this chance supply of what I needed for my raft-building was a very +lucky thing for me indeed. + +The upper story of the deck-house still remained to be investigated; +and when, by the steps leading to the steamer's bridge, I got up there +and entered a little room behind the wheel-house, I was pretty sure +that at last I had found the place where what I wanted ought to be. +The part forward of the doors on each side of this room--a good third +of it--was filled by a chart-locker having a dozen or more wide +shallow drawers; and the flat top of the locker showed at its four +corners the prickings of thumb-tacks which had held the charts open +there, and four tacks still were in place with scraps of thick white +paper under them--as though some one in too great a hurry to loosen +it properly had ripped the chart away. + +This would be, of course, the chart actually in use when the steamer +got into trouble, and therefore the one that I needed. As it was gone, +I opened the drawers of the locker and looked through them in search +of a duplicate; or of anything--even a wind-chart or a current-chart +would have answered--that would serve my turn. But while there were +charts in plenty of West Indian and of English waters, and a set +covering the German Ocean, not a chart of any sort relating to the +North Atlantic did I find. Neither were there chronometers nor any +nautical instruments in the room. In one corner was a strongly made +closet in which they may have been kept; but of this the door stood +open and the shelves were bare. Even a barometer which had hung near +the closet had been wrenched away, as I could tell by the broken brass +gimbals still fast to the brass supports; but this was a matter of no +importance, since I had noticed another in good order in the cabin--to +say nothing of the fact that my powerlessness to make any provision +against bad weather made me indifferent to warnings of coming storms. +And then, when I continued my search in the wheel-house, though not +very hopefully, all that I discovered there was that the binnacle was +empty and that the compass was gone too. In a word, there was +absolutely nothing on board the hulk that would enable me to fix my +position on the surface of the ocean, or that would guide me should I +try the pretty hopeless experiment of going cruising on a raft. + +This fact being settled--and hindsight being clearer than foresight--I +had no difficulty in accounting for it. In order to lay a course and +to keep it, the people in the boats would need precisely the things +which had been carried off; and as each boat no doubt had been +furnished so that in case of separation it could make its way alone, a +clean sweep had been made of all the North Atlantic charts and of all +the nautical instruments that the steamer had on board. It was to the +credit of the captain that he had kept his wits so well about +him--seeing to it, in the sudden skurry for the boats, that the +ultimate as well as the immediate safety of his people was provided +for--but when I found out, and fairly realized, what his coolness had +cost me I fell off once more from good spirits into gloom. + +Being left that way all at loose ends as to my reckoning, with no +means of finding out where I was nor whether my position changed for +the better from day to day, the hopes that I had been building of +drifting northward and so falling in with a passing vessel fell down +in a bunch and left me miserable. I see now, though I did not see it +then, that they went quite as unreasonably as they came. In that +region of calms--for I was fairly within the horse-latitudes--the only +bit of wind that I was likely to encounter was an eddy from the +northeast trades that would set me still farther to the southward; and +the only other moving impulse acting upon my hulk--at least while fair +weather lasted--would be the slow eddy setting in from the Gulf Stream +and moving me in the same direction. In the case of a storm coming up +from the south, and so giving me the push northward that I was so +eager for, the chances were a thousand to one that my hulk would go to +the bottom long before I could get to a part of the ocean where ships +were likely to be. And as to navigating a raft through that tangle of +weed, already thick enough around me to check the way of a sharply +built boat, the notion was so absurd that only a man in my desperate +fix would even have thought about it. + +But had there been a Job's comforter at hand to put these black +thoughts into my head they would not have helped me nor harmed me +much. My whole heart had been set on getting my sights, and filled +with the inconsequent hope that in getting them I somehow would be +bettering my chances of coming out safe at last; and so it seemed to +me when I could not get them--and in this, though the sight-taking had +nothing to do with it, there was reason in plenty--that all +likelihood of my being rescued had slipped away. + +I had come out from the wheel-house and was standing on the steamer's +bridge--which rose right out of the water so that I looked down from +it directly on the weed-laden sea. As far as my sight would carry +through the soft golden haze I saw only weed-covered water, broken +here and there by a bit of wreckage or by a little open space on which +the pale sunshine gleamed. A very gentle swell was running, giving to +the ocean the look of some strange sort of meadow with tall grass +swaying evenly in an easy wind. The broken boat had moved a good deal +and already was well to the south of me; showing me that there was +motion in that apparent stillness, and compelling me to believe that +my hulk--though less rapidly than the boat--was moving southward too. +And what that meant for me I knew. The fair weather might continue +almost indefinitely. Days and weeks, even months, might pass, and I +still might live on there in bodily safety; but so far as the world +was concerned I was dead already--being fairly caught in the slow +eddying current which was carrying my hulk steadily and hopelessly +into the dense wreck-filled centre of the Sargasso Sea. + + + + + +XII + +I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + + +Because I had felt hungry and thirsty, and the cold chicken and beer +had tasted good, I had eaten and drunk a great deal more heartily than +was wholesome for me--being so weakened by loss of blood, and by the +strain put upon me by the danger that I had passed through, and by +living only on slops and some scraps of biscuit since my rescue, that +my insides were in no condition to deal with such a lot of strong +food. And then, within an hour after I so unwisely had stuffed myself, +came the blow--in itself hard enough to upset a strong digestion in +good working order--of discovering that I could do nothing to save +myself, and that my hulk was drifting steadily deeper and deeper into +that ocean mystery out of which no man ever yet had come alive. + +The first sign that I had that something was going wrong with me was a +swimming in my head--so sudden and so violent that I lurched forward +and was close to pitching over the rail of the bridge into the sea. +For a moment I fancied that the ship had taken a quick plunge; and +then a sick feeling in my own stomach, and a blurring of my eyes that +made everything seem misty and shadowy, settled for me the fact that +it was I who was reeling about and that the ship was still--and I had +sense enough to lie down at full length on the bridge, between the +wheel-house and the rail, where I was safe against rolling off. And +then the shadows about me got deeper and blacker, and a horrible sense +of oppression came over me, and I seemed to be falling endlessly while +myriads of black specks arranged themselves in curious geometrical +figures before my eyes--and then the black specks and everything else +vanished suddenly, and my consciousness left me with what seemed to me +a great crash and bang. + +Had I begun matters by being roundly sick I might have pulled through +my attack without being much the worse for it. But as that did not +happen--my weakness, I suppose, not giving nature a chance to set +things right in her own way--I had a good deal more to suffer before I +began to mend. After a while I got enough of my senses back to know +that my head was aching as though it would split open, and to realize +how utterly miserable I was lying there on the bridge with the hot +sunshine simmering down on me through the haze; and then to think how +delightful it would be if only I were back in the cabin again--where +the sun could not stew me, and where my berth would be easy and soft. + +How I managed to get to the cabin I scarcely know. I faintly remember +working my way along the bridge on my hands and knees, and going +backward down the steps in the same fashion for fear of falling; and +of trying to walk upright when I got to the deck, so that I should not +get wet above my knees in the water there, and of falling souse into +it and getting soaked all over; and then of crawling aft very +slowly--stopping now and then because of my pain and dizziness--and +down the companion-way and through the passage, and so into the cabin +at last; and then, all in my wet clothes, of tumbling anyhow into my +berth--and after that there is only a long dead blank. + +When I caught up with myself again, night had come and I was in pitch +darkness. My head still ached horridly, and I was burning hot all +over, and yet from time to time shivering with creeping chills. What I +wanted most in the world was a drink of water; but when I tried to get +up, in the hope of finding some in the jug that no doubt was in the +state-room, I went so dizzy that I had to plump back into my berth +again. As the night went on, and I lay there thinking how deliciously +the water would taste going cool and sweet down my throat, I got quite +crazy with longing for it; and, in a way, really crazy--for through +most of the night I was light-headed and saw visions that sometimes +comforted me and sometimes made me afraid. The comforting ones were of +fresh green meadows with streams running through them, and of shady +glens in the woods where springs welled up into little basins +surrounded by ferns--just such as I remembered in the woods which +bordered the creek where I used to go swimming when I was a boy. The +horrible ones were not clear at all, and for that were the more +dreadful--being of a fire that was getting nearer and nearer to me, +and of a blazing sun that fairly withered me, and of huge hot globes +or ponderously vague masses of I knew not what which were coming +straight on to crush me and from which I could not get away. + +At last I got so worn out with it all that I fell off into an uneasy +sleep, which yet was better than no sleep and a little rested me. When +I woke again there was enough light in the room for me to see the +water-jug, and that gave me strength to get to it--and most blessedly +it was nearly full. And so I had a long drink, that for a time checked +the heat of my fever; and then I lay down in my berth again, with the +jug on the floor at my side. + +For a while I was almost comfortable. Then the fever came back, and +the visions with it--but no longer so painful as those which had been +begotten of my thirst. I seemed to be in a region dreamy and unreal. +Sometimes I would see far stretches of mountain peaks, and sometimes +the crowded streets of cities; but for the most part my visions were +of the sea--tall ships sailing, and little boats drifting over calm +water in moonlight, and black steamers gliding quickly past me; and +still more frequently, but always in a calm sea, the broken hulks of +wrecked ships with shattered masts and tangled rigging and with dead +men lying about their decks, and sometimes with a dead man hanging +across the wheel and moving a little with the hulk's motion so that in +a horrible sort of way he seemed to be half alive. + +Night came again, bringing me more pain and the burning of a stronger +fever; and then another day, in which the fever rose still higher and +the visions became almost intolerable--because of their intense +reality, and of my conviction all the while that they were unreal and +that I must be well on the way toward a raving madness in which I +would die. + +It was at the end of this day--or it may have been at the end of still +another day, for I have no clear reckoning of how the time +passed--that my worst vision came to me; hurting me not because it was +terrifying in itself, but because it made me feel that even hope had +parted company with me at last. And it was more like a dream than a +vision, seemingly being brought to my sight by my own bodily +movement--not something which floated before my eyes as I lay still. + +As the afternoon went on my fever increased a good deal; but in a way +that was rather pleasant to me, for the pain in my head lessened and I +seemed to be getting back my strength. After a while I began to long +to get out of the cabin and up on deck, and so have a look around me +over the open sea; and with my longing came the feeling that I was +strong enough to realize it. + +My getting up seemed entirely real and natural, as did my firm +walking--without a touch of dizziness--after I fairly was on my feet; +and all the rest of it seemed real too. Even when I came to the +companion-way I seemed to go up the stairs easily, and to step out on +the deck as steadily as though I had been entirely well. + +The sun was near setting, but as I came on the deck my back was toward +the sunset and I saw only its red light touching the soft swell of the +weed-covered sea extending far before me, and the same red light +shimmering in the mist and caught up more strongly on a bank of +low-lying clouds. The outlook was much the same as that which I had +had from the bridge, only the weed seemed to be packed more closely +and there was wreckage about me everywhere. Masts and spars and planks +were in sight in all directions, sometimes floating singly and +sometimes tangled together in little heaps; half a mile away was what +seemed to be a large ship lying bottom upward; near me was a perfectly +sound boat, having in its stern-sheets a bit of sail that fell in such +folds as to make me think that a human form lay under it; and off +toward the horizon was a large raft, with a sort of mast fitted to it, +and at the foot of the mast I fancied that I saw a woman in a white +robe of some sort stretched out as though asleep. And it seemed to me, +though I could not tell why, that all this flotsam, and my own hulk +along with it, slowly was drifting closer and closer together; and was +packing tighter and tighter in the soft oozy tangle of the weed, which +everywhere was matted so thickly that the water did not show at all. + +Then I seemed to walk around to the other side of my hulk and to look +down into the west--and to feel all hope dying with the sight that I +saw there. Far away, under the red mist, across the red gleaming weed +and against a sunset sky bloody red, I seemed to see a vast ruinous +congregation of wrecks; so far-extending that it was as though all the +wrecked ships in the world were lying huddled together there in a +miserably desolate company. And with sight of them the certain +conviction was borne in upon me that my own wreck presently would take +its station in that shattered fleet for which there was no salvation; +and that it would lie among them rotting slowly, as they were +rotting, through months or years--until finally, in its turn, it would +drop down from amidst those lepers of the ocean, and would sink with +all its foulness upon it into the black depths beneath the oozy weed. + +And I knew, too, that whether I already were dead and went down with +it, or saved my life for a while longer by getting aboard of another +hulk which still floated, sooner or later my end must come to me in +that same way. On one or another of those rotting dead ships my own +dead body surely must sink at last. + + + + + +XIII + +I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + + +That was the end of my visions. Through the night that followed--my +fever having run its course, I suppose--I slept easily; and when +another day came and I woke again my fever was gone. I was pretty weak +and ragged, but the cut in my head was healing and no longer hurt me +much, and my mind was clear. There still was water left in the jug, +and I drank freely and felt the better for it; and toward afternoon I +felt so hungry that I managed to get up and go to the pantry on a +foraging expedition for something to eat. + +This time I was careful not to stuff myself. I found a box of light +biscuit and ate a couple of them; and then I filled my water-jug at +the tank and brought it and the biscuit back to my stateroom without +going on the deck at all. My light meal greatly refreshed me; and in +an hour or two I ate another biscuit--and kept on nibbling at them off +and on through the night when I happened to wake up. In between whiles +my sleep was of a sort to do me good; not deep, but restful. With the +coming of another morning I felt so strong that I went to the pantry +again for food of a better sort--venturing to eat a part of a tin of +meat with my biscuit and to add to my water a little wine; and when +this was down I began to feel quite like myself once more, and to long +so strongly for some sunshine and fresh air that I climbed up the +companion-way to the deck. + +But when I got there I thought at first that my visions were coming +back again. Indeed, what I saw was so nearly my last vision over again +as to make me half believe, later, that I really did go on deck in my +delirium and really did see that blood-red sunset and all the rest +that had seemed to me a dream. At any rate, there was no doubting this +second time--if it were the second time--the reality of what I beheld; +and because I no longer was fever-struck, and so could take in fully +the wonder of it, my astonishment kept my spirits from being wholly +pulled down. + +The haze was so thick as to be almost like a fog hanging about me, but +the hot sunshine pouring down into it gave it a golden brightness and +I could see through it dimly for a good long way; and there was no +need for far-seeing to be sure that I had before me what I think must +be the strangest sight that the world has in it for the eyes of man. +For what I looked at was the host of wrecked ships, the dross of wave +and tempest, which through four centuries--from the time when sailors +first pushed out upon the great western ocean--has been gathering +slowly, and still more slowly wasting, in the central fastnesses of +the Sargasso Sea. + +The nearest edge of this mass of wreckage was not a quarter of a mile +off from me; but it swept away in a great irregular curve to the right +and left and vanished into the golden haze softly--and straight ahead +I could see it stretching dimly away from me, getting thicker and +closer until it seemed to be almost as solid as a real island would +have been. And, indeed, it had a good deal the look of being a real +island; the loom through the haze of countless broken masts rising to +various heights and having frayed ropes streaming from them having +much the effect of trees growing there, while the irregularities of +the surface made it seem as though little houses were scattered +thickly among the trees. But in spite of the golden light which hung +over it, and which ought to have given it a cheerful look, it was the +most desolate and sorrowful place I ever saw; for it seemed to +belong--and in a way really did belong, since every hulk in all that +fleet was the slowly wasting dead body of a ship slain by storm or +disaster--to that outcast region of mortality in which death has +achieved its ugliness but to which the cleansing of a complete +dissolution has not yet been brought by time. + +Yet the curious interest that I found in this strange sight kept me +from feeling only the horror of it. In my talks with Bowers about the +old-time sea-wonders which must be hidden in the Sargasso Sea my +imagination had been fired; and when I thus found myself actually in +the way to see these wonders I half forgot how useless the sight was +to me--being myself about the same as killed in the winning of it--and +was so full of eagerness to press forward that I grew almost angry +because of the infinite slowness with which my hulk drifted on to its +place in the ruined ranks. + +There was no hurrying my progress. Around me the weed and wreckage +were packed so closely that the wonder was that my hulk moved through +it at all. Of wind there was not a particle; indeed, as I found later, +under that soft golden haze was a dead calm that very rarely in those +still latitudes was ruffled by even the faintest breeze. Only a weak +swirl of current from the far-off Gulf Stream pushed my hulk onward; +and this, I suppose, was helped a little by that attraction of +floating bodies for each other which brings chips and leaves together +on the surface of even the stillest pool. But a snail goes faster than +I was going; and it was only at the end of a full hour of watching +that I could see--yet even then could not be quite certain about it--that +my position a very little had changed. + +Save that now and then I went below and got some solid food into me--and +as I was careful to eat but little at a time I got the good of it--I sat +there on the deck all day long gazing; and by nightfall my hulk had gone +forward by perhaps as much as a hundred yards. But my motion was a steady +and direct one, and I saw that if it continued it would end by laying me +aboard of a big steamer--having the look of being a cargo-boat--that stood +out a little from the others and evidently herself had not long been a +part of that broken company. She was less of a wreck, in one way, than +my own hulk; for she floated on an even keel and so high out of the +water as to show that she had no leak in her; but her masts had been +swept clean away and even her funnel and her bridge were gone--as though +a sharp-edged sea had sliced like a razor over her and shaved her decks +clean. + +Immediately beyond this steamer lay a big wooden ship evidently +waterlogged; for she lay so low that the whole of her hull, save a bit of +her stern, was hidden from me by the steamer, and the most of her that +showed was her broken masts. And beyond her again was a jam of wrecks so +confused that I could not make out clearly any one of them from the rest. +Taken all together, they made a sort of promontory that jutted out from +what I may call the main-land of wreckage; and to the right and left of +the promontory there went off in long receding lines the coast of that +country of despair. + +At last the sun sunk away to the horizon, and as it fell off westward pink +tones began to show in the clouds there and then to be reflected in the +haze; and these tones grew warmer and deeper until I saw just such another +blood-red sunset as I had seen in what I had fancied was my dream. And +under the crimson haze lay the dead wrecks, looming large in it, with +gleams of crimson light striking here and there on spars and masts and +giving them the look of being on fire. And then the light faded slowly, +through shades of purple and soft pink and warm gray, until at last the +blessed darkness came and shut off everything from my tired eyes. + +Indeed, I was glad when the darkness fell; for as I sat there looking and +looking and feeling the bitter hopelessness of it all, I was well on my +way to going crazy with sorrow. But somehow, not seeing any longer the +ruin which was so near to me, and of which I knew myself to be a part, it +seemed less real to me--and so less dreadful. And being thus eased a +little I realized that I was hungry again, and that commonplace natural +feeling did me good too. + +I went below to the pantry, striking a match to see my way by; and when +I had lighted the big lamp that was hanging there--the glass chimney of +which, in some wonderful way, had pulled through the crash which had sent +the mizzen-mast flying--the place seemed so cheerful that my desire for +supper increased prodigiously, and tended still farther to down my +sorrowful thoughts. I even had a notion of trying to light a fire in +the galley and cooking over it some of the beef or mutton that I had +found in the cold-room; but I gave that up, just then, because I +really was too hungry to wait until I could carry through so large +a plan. + +But there was a plenty of good food in tins easily to be got at; and +what was still better I felt quite strong enough to eat a lot of it +without hurting myself. I even went at my meal a little daintily, +spreading a napkin--that I got from a locker filled with table +linen--on the pantry dresser, and setting out on it a tin of chicken +and a bunch of cheese and some bread which was pretty stale and hard +and a pot of jam to end off with; and from the wine-room I brought a +bottle of good Bordeaux. + +As I ate my supper, greatly relishing it, the oddness of what I was +doing did not occur to me; but often since I have thought how strange +was that meal of mine--in that brightly lighted cosey little room, +and myself really cheerful over it--in its contrast with the utterly +desperate strait in which I was. And I think that the contrast was +still sharper, my supper being ended, when I fetched a steamer-chair +that I had noticed lying on the floor of the cabin and settled myself +in it easily--facing toward the stern, so that the slope of the deck +only made the slope of the chair still easier--and so sat there in the +brightness smoking a very good cigar. + +And after a while--what with my comfort of body, and the good meal +in my stomach, and the good wine there too--a soothing drowsiness +stole over me, and I had the feeling that in another moment or two I +should fall away into a delicious doze. And then, all of a sudden, I +was roused wide awake again by hearing faintly, but quite distinctly, +a long and piercingly shrill cry. + +I fairly jumped from my chair, so greatly was I startled; and for a +good while I stood quite still, drawing my breath softly, in waiting +wonder for that strange cry to come again. But it did not come +again--and as the silence continued I fell to doubting if I had not +been asleep, and that this sound which had seemed so real to me had +not been only a part of a dream. + + + + + +XIV + +OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + + +Robinson Crusoe's footprint in the sand did not startle him more than +that strange lonely cry startled me. Indeed, as between the two of us, +I had rather the worse of it: for Crusoe, at least, knew that he was +dealing with a reality, while I could not be certain that I was not +dealing with a bit of a dream in which there was no reality at all. + +For a long while I sat there puzzling over it--half hoping that I +might hear it again, and so be sure of it; and half hoping that I +might not hear it, because of the thrilling tone in it which had +filled me with a sharp alarm. I was so shaken that I had not the +courage to go off to my berth in the cabin, with only a candle to +light me there, but stayed on in the little room that the lamp lighted +so brightly that there were no dark corners for my fancy to people +with things horrible; and so, at last, still scared and puzzled, I +went off to sleep in my chair. + +When I woke again the lamp had burned out and had filled the place +with a vile smell of lamp-smoke that set me to sneezing. But I did +not mind that much; for daylight had come, and my nerves were both +quieted by sleep and steadied by that confident courage which most men +feel--no matter how tight a fix they may be in--when they have the +backing of the sun. + +My first thought was to get on deck and have a look about me; the +feeling being strong in my mind that on one or another of the near-by +wrecks I should find the man who had uttered that thrilling cry, and +would find him in some trouble that I might be able to help him out +of. But my second thought, and it was the wiser, was to eat first of +all a good breakfast and so get strength in me that would make me +ready to face whatever might come along--for a vague dread hung by me +that I was in the way of danger, and whatever it might be I knew that +I could the better stand up against it after a hearty meal. Therefore +I got out another tin of meat and ate the whole of it, and a hunk of +stale bread along with it, and washed down my breakfast with a bottle +of beer--longing greatly for a cup of coffee in place of the beer, but +being in too much of a hurry to stop for that while I made a fire. + +As the food got inside of me--though in that smoky and smelly place +eating it was not much of a pleasure--my thoughts took a more cheerful +turn. The hope of meeting a live man to talk to and to help me out of +my utter loneliness rose strong in my mind; and I felt that no matter +who or what he might be--even a man in desperate sickness and pain, +whom I must nurse and care for--finding him in that solitude would +make my own case less sad. And so, when I went on deck, my longing +hope for companionship was the strongest feeling in my heart. + +With my first glance around I saw that during the night my hulk had +made more progress than I had counted on; having moved the faster, I +suppose, as it felt more strongly the pull of the mass of floatage +near by. Be this as it may, I found myself so close alongside the big +cargo-boat that a good jump would carry me aboard of her; and I was so +eager to begin my investigations that I took the jump without a single +moment of delay. And being come to her deck, the first thing that I +saw there was a dead man lying in the middle of it with a pool of +still fresh blood staining the planks by his side. + +I never had seen anything like that, and as I looked at the dead +man--he was a big strong coarse fellow, dressed in a pair of dirty +sail-cloth trousers and in a dirty checked shirt--I went so queasy and +giddy that I had to step back a little and lean for a while against +the steamer's rail. It was clear enough that he had died fighting. His +face had a bad cut on it and there was another on his neck, and his +hands were cut cruelly, as though he had caught again and again at a +sharp knife in trying to keep it away from him; but the stab that had +finished him was in his breast, showing ghastly as he lay on his back +with his shirt open--and no doubt it was as the knife went into him +there that he had uttered the cry of mortal agony which had come to me +through the darkness, with so thrilling a note in it, while I was +sitting in bright comfort drowsily smoking my cigar. And then, as I +remembered my drowsiness, for a moment I seemed to get back into +it--and I had a half hope that perhaps what I was looking at was only +a part of a horrible dream. + +Had there been any sign of a living man about, of the murderer as well +as the murdered, I should have been less broken by what I saw; for +then I should have had something practical to attend to--either in +bringing the other man to book on the poor dead fellow's account, or +in fighting him on my own. But the nearest thing to life in sight, on +that storm-swept hulk under the low-hanging golden haze, was the rough +body out of which life had but just gone forever; and the bloody +stains everywhere on the deck showing that he and another must have +been fighting pretty much all over it before they got to an end. And +the horror of it all was the stronger because of the awful and +hopeless loneliness: with the dead-still weed-covered ocean +stretching away to the horizon on the one hand, and on the other only +dead ships tangled and crushed together going off in a desolate +wilderness that grew fainter--but for its faintness all the more +despairing--until it was lost in the dun-gold murky thickness of +the haze. + +As I got steadier, in a little while, I realized that I must hunt up +the other man, the one who had done the killing, and have things out +with him. Pretty certainly, his disposition would be to try to kill +me; and if I were to have a fight on hand as soon as I fell in with +him it was plain that my chances would be all the better for downing +him could I take him by surprise. I would have given a good deal just +then for a knife, and a good deal more for a pistol; but the best that +I could do to arm myself was to take an iron belaying-pin from the +rail, and with this in my hand I walked aft to the companion-way +--feeling sure that my best chance of coming upon my man +unexpectedly was to find him asleep in the cabin below. And then, +suddenly, the very uncomfortable thought came to me that there might +be more than one man down there--with the likelihood that if I roused +them they all would set upon me together and finish me quickly; and +this brought me to a halt just within the companion-way, in the +shadowy place at the head of the cabin stair. + +I stood there for a minute or two listening closely, but I heard no +sound whatever from below; and presently the dead silence made me feel +rather ashamed of myself for being so easily scared. And then I +noticed, my eyes having become accustomed to the shadow, that there +was a splash of blood on the top step and more blood on the steps +lower down--as though a man badly hurt, and without any one to help +him, had gone down the stair slowly and had rested on almost every +step and bled for a while before he could go on; and seeing this made +it seem likely to me that I would have but a single man to deal with, +and he in such a state that I need not fear him much. But for all that +I kept a tight grip on my belaying-pin, and held it in such a way that +I could use it easily, as I put my foot on the first of the bloody +steps and so went on down. + +The cabin, when I got to it, was but a small one--the boat not being +built to carry passengers--and so dusky that I could not make it out +well; for the skylight was covered with a tarpaulin--put there, I +suppose, to protect it when the gale came on that the steamer was +wrecked in--and all the light there was came in from one corner where +the covering had fetched away. It gave me a sort of shivering feeling +when I looked into that dusky place, where I saw nothing clearly and +where there was at least a chance that in another moment I might be +fighting for my life. I stood in the doorway, gripping my +belaying-pin, until I began to see more clearly--making out that a +small fixed table, with a water-jug and some bottles and glasses on +it, filled a half of the cabin, and that three state-room doors--one +of which stood open--were ranged on each of its sides. And then, just +as I was about to enter, I fairly jumped as there came to me softly +through the silence a low sad sound that was between a groan and a +sigh. But in an instant my reason told me that this was not the sort +of sound to come from a man whom I need be afraid of; and as it came +plainly enough from the state-room of which the door stood open I +stepped briskly over there and looked inside. + + + + + +XV + +I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + + +At first--the dead-light being fast over the port, and the state-room +in darkness save for the little light which came in from the dusky +cabin, and my own person in the doorway making it darker still--I was +sure of nothing there. But presently I made out a biggish heap of some +sort in the lower berth, and then that the heap was a man lying with +his back toward me and his face turned to the ship's side. + +The noise of my footsteps must have roused him, either from sleep or +from the stupor that his hurts had put him in: for while I stood +looking at him his body moved a little, and then his head turned +slowly and in the shadows I caught the glint of his open eyes. What +little light there was being behind me, all that he could see--and +that but in black outline--was the figure of a tall man looming in the +doorway; but instantly at sight of me he let off a yell as sharp as +though I had run a knife into him, and then he covered his head all up +with the bedclothes and lay kicking and shaking as though he were in +deadly fear. I myself was so upset by his outburst, and by the +half-horror that came to me at sight of his spasms of terror, that I +stood for a moment or so silent; but in one way satisfied, since it +was evident that this poor scared wretch could not possibly do me +harm. Just as I was about to speak to him, hoping to soothe him a +little, he pushed the bedclothes down from over his eyes and took +another look at me--and straightway yelled again, and then cried out +at me: "Go away, damn you! Go away, damn you! You're dead! You're +dead, I tell you! Do you want me to kill you all over again, when I've +done it once as well as I know how?" And with that he fell to kicking +again, and to shouting out curses, and to letting off the most +dreadful shrieks and cries--until suddenly a gasping choking checked +him, and he lay silent and still. + +Then the notion came to me that he took me for the dead man up on +deck; I being about the dead fellow's size and build, and therefore +looking very like him as I stood there with the light behind me and +the shadows too deep for him to make out my face. And so, to ease his +mind and get him quiet--and this was quite as much for my own sake as +for his, for his wild fear was strangely horrible to witness--I spoke +to him, asking him if he were badly hurt and if I could help him; and +at the sound of my voice he gave a long sigh, as though of great +relief, and in a moment said: "Who the devil are you, anyway? I +thought you was Jack--come back after my killin' him to have another +round with me. Is Jack true dead?" + +"If you mean the man on deck," I answered, "he is true dead--as dead +as any man can be with a cut straight through his heart." + +He gave another sigh of relief, as though what I told him was a real +comfort to him; and in a moment he said: "Well, that's a good job, and +I'm glad of it. He's killed me, too, I reckon; but I'm glad I got in +on him first an' fixed him fur his damn starin' at me. Now he's dead I +guess he won't stare at me no more." He was silent for nearly a +minute, and then he added: "Jest get me a drink, won't you? I'm all +burnin' up inside. There's water in th' jug out there. An' put a good +dash of gin in it--there's gin out there, too." + +I got him some water from the jug on the cabin table, but when he +tasted it and found that it was water only he began to swear at me for +leaving out the gin; and when I added the gin--thinking that he +probably was so used to strong drink as really to need a little to put +some life into him--he took off the whole glassful at a gulp and +asked for more. + +I told him to wait for another drink until I should have a look at his +hurts and see what I could do to better them; for, while hanging +seemed to be what he deserved, I had a natural desire to ease the +pain that was racking him--as I could tell by the gasps and groans +which he was giving and by the sharp motions which he made. + +"Jest shet your head an' gimme some more drink," he said in a surly +way. "Jack's give me a dose that'll settle me, an' lookin' at me won't +do no good--'cause there's nothin' to be done. He's ripped me up, Jack +has, an' no man can live long that way. All I can do is to die +happy--so it's a good thing there's lots of gin. You'll find a kag of +it over there in th' fur corner. Me an' Jack filled it from th' spirit +room yesterday, afore our fuss begun." + +But I stuck out that I must have a look at his hurts first, and +managed to open the dead-light--which luckily had not been screwed +tight--and so had some light in the room; and in the end, finding that +I would not give him a drink otherwise, he let me have my way. But I +had only to take a glance over him to see that what he said about the +other man having settled him was true enough; for he was cut in a +dozen places savagely, and had one desperate slash--which had laid him +all open about the waist--from which alone he was certain to die in a +very little while. + +There was nothing for me to do, and I did not know what was best to +say to him; and while I was casting about in my mind to comfort him a +little, for his horrible hurts could not but stir my pity, he settled +the matter for both of us in his own way--grunting out that he guessed +I'd found he knew what he was talking about, and then asking for +more gin. + +This time I gave it to him, and gave it to him strong--being certain +that he was past hurting by it, and hoping that it might deaden his +pain. And presently, when he asked for another drink, I gave him +that too. + +The liquor did make him easier, and it raised his spirits so much that +he fell to swearing quite cheerfully at the man Jack who had given him +his death--and seemed to feel a good deal better for freeing his mind +that way. And after a while he began of his own accord to tell me +about the wreck that he had passed through, and about what had come +after it--only stopping now and then to ask for more gin-and-water, +and gulping it down with such satisfaction that I gave him all he +cared to have. Indeed, it was the only thing that I could do to ease +him, and I knew that no matter how much he drank the end shortly would +be the same. + +As well as I could make out from his rambling talk, the storm that had +wrecked him had happened about three months earlier: a tremendous +burst of tempest that had sent everything to smash suddenly, and had +washed the captain and first and second officers overboard--they all +being on the bridge together--and three or four of the crew as well. +At the same time the funnel was carried away, and such a deluge of +water got down to the engine-room that the fires were drowned. This +brought the engineers on deck and the coal-passers with them; and the +coal-passers--"a beach-combin' lot," he called them--led in breaking +into the spirit-room, and before long pretty much all the men of the +crew were as drunk as lords. What happened after that for a while he +did not know; but when he got sober enough to stagger up on deck he +found the man Jack there--who also had just come up after sleeping off +his drunk below somewhere--and they had the ship to themselves. The +others might have found a boat that would float and tried their luck +that way, or they might have been washed overboard. He didn't know +what had become of them, and he didn't care. Then the hulk had taken +to drifting slowly, and at the end of a month or so had settled into +the berth where I found her; and since then the two of them had known +that all chance of their getting back into the world again was gone. + +"At first I didn't mind it much," he went on, "there bein' lashins to +eat aboard, an' more to drink than me an' Jack ever'd hoped to get a +show at in all our lives. But pretty soon Jack he begun to be +worryin'. He'd get drunk, an' then he'd set an' stare at me like a +damn owl--jest a-blinkin' and a-blinkin' his damn eyes. You hev no +idee, ontil it's done to you, how worryin' it is when a drunken man +jest sets an' stares at you fur hours together in that fool way. I +give Jack fair warnin' time and agen when he was sober that I'd hurt +him ef he kep' on starin' at me like that; but then he'd get drunk +agen right off, an' at it he'd go. I s'pose I wouldn't 'a' minded it +in a ornary way an' ashore, or ef we'd had some other folks around. +But here we was jest alone--oh, it was terr'ble how much we was +alone!--an' Jack more'n half the time like a damn starin' owl, till he +a-most druv me wild." + +"An' Jack said as how I was onbearable too. _He_ said it was me as +stared at him--the damn fool not knowin' that I was only a-tryin' to +squench his beastly owlin' by lookin' steady at him; an' he said he'd +settle me ef I kep' on. An' so things went like that atween us fur +days an' days--and all th' time nothin' near us but dead ships with +mos' likely dead men fillin' 'em, an' him an' me knowin' we'd soon got +to be dead too. An' the stinks out of th' rotten weed, and out of all +th' rotten ships whenever a bit of wind breezed up soft from th' +s'uthard over th' hull mess of 'em, was horrider than you hev any +idee! Gettin' drunk was all there was lef' fur us; and even in gettin' +drunk there wasn't no real Christian comfort, 'cause of Jack's damn +owlin' stares." + +"I guess ef anybody stared steady at you fur better'n three months +you'd want to kill him too. Anyway, that's how I felt about it; an' I +told Jack yesterday--soon as he waked up in th' mornin', an' while he +was plumb sober--that ef he didn't let up on it I'd go fur him sure. +An' that fool up an' says it was me done th' starin', and I'd got to +stop it or he'd cut out my damn heart--an' them was his very words. +An' by noon yesterday he was drunker'n a Dutchman, an' was starin' +harder'n ever. An' he kep' at it all along till sunset, an' when we +come down into th' cabin to get supper he still was starin'; and after +supper--when we mought 'a' been jest like two brothers a-gettin' drunk +together on gin-an'-water--he stared wust of all." + +"Nobody could 'a' stood it no longer--and up I gets an' goes fur him, +keepin' my promise fair an' square. At fust we jest punched each other +sort o' friendly with our fists, but after a while Jack give me a clip +that roused my dander and I took my knife to him; an' then he took his +knife to me. I don't remember jest all about it, but I know we licked +away at each other all over th' cabin, an' then up through th' +companion-way, an' then all over th' deck--me a-slicin' into him an' +him a-slicin' into me all th' time. And at last he got this rippin' +cut into me, an' jest then I give him a jab that made him yell like a +stuck pig an' down he fell. I knowed he'd done fur me, but somehow I +managed to work my way along th' deck an' to get down here to my +bunk, where I knowed I'd die easier; an' then things was all black fur +a while--ontil all of a sudden you comes along, and I sees you +standin' in the door there, an' takes you fur Jack's ghost, an' gets +scared th' wust kind. But he's not doin' no ghost racket, Jack ain't. +I've settled him an' his damn owl starin'--and it's a good job I have. +Gimme some more gin." + +And then, having taken the drink that I gave him, he rolled over a +little--so that he lay as I found him, with his face turned away from +me--and for a good long while he did not speak a word. + + + + + +XVI + +I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + + +Only an hour before I had been longing for any sort of a live man to +talk with and so break my loneliness; but having thus found a live +man--who, to be sure, was close to being a dead one--I would have been +almost ready to get rid of him by going back to my mast in the open +sea. Indeed, as I stood there in the shadows beside that dying brute, +and with the other brute lying dead on the deck above me, the feeling +of dull horror that filled me is more than I can put into words. + +I think that the underlying strong strain of my wretchedness was an +intense pity for myself. In what the fellow had told me I saw clearly +outlined a good deal of what must be my own fate in that vile +solitude: which I perceived suddenly must be strewn everywhere with +dead men lying unhidden, corrupting openly; since none there were to +hide the dead from sight as we hide them in the living world. And I +realized that until I myself should be a part of that indecent +exhibition of human carcasses--which might not be for a long while, +for I was a strong man and not likely to die soon--I should have to +dwell in the midst of all that corruption; and always with the +knowledge that sooner or later I must take my place in it, and lie +with all those unhidden others wasting away slowly in the open light +of day. I got so sick as these horrid thoughts pressed upon me that I +turned to the table and poured out for myself a stiff drink of +gin-and-water--being careful first to rinse the glass well--and I was +glad that I thought of it, for it did me good. + +My movement about the cabin roused up the dying fellow and he hailed +me to give him some more gin. His voice was so thick that I knew that +the drink already had fuddled him; and after he had swiped off what I +gave him he began to talk again. But the liquor had taken such hold +upon him that he called me "Jack," not recognizing me, and evidently +fancying that I was his mate--the man whom he had killed. + +At first he rambled on about the storm that had wrecked them; and then +about their chance of falling in with a passing vessel; and then about +some woman named Hannah who would be worrying about him because he did +not come home. As well as I could make out he went over in this +fashion most of what had happened--and it was little enough, in one +way--from the time that the two found themselves alone upon the hulk +until they began to get among the weed, and realized pretty well +what that meant for them. + +"It ain't no use now, Jack," he rambled on. "It ain't no use now +thinkin' about gettin' home, an' Hannah may as well stop lookin' fur +me. This is th' Dead Man's Sea we're gettin' into; an' I knows it +well, an' you knows it well, both on us havin' heerd it talked about +by sailor-men ever sence we come afloat as boys. Down in th' middle of +it is all th' old dead wrecks that ever was sence ships begun sailin'; +and all th' old dead sailor-men is there too. It's a orful place, +Jack, that me an' you's goin' to--more damn orful, I reckon, than we +can hev any idee. Gin's all thet's lef' to us, and it's good luck we +hev such swashins of it aboard. Here's at you, Jack an' gimme some +more out o' the kag, you damn starin' owl." + +There was an angry tone in his voice as he spoke these last words; and +the tone was sharper a moment later when he went on: "Can't you keep +your owl eyes shet, you beast? Don't look at me like that, or I'll +stick a knife into you. No, I'm _not_ starin' at you; it's you who's +starin' at me, damn you. Stop it! Stop it, I say, you--" and he broke +out with a volley of foul names and curses; and partly raised himself, +as though he thought that a fight was coming on. And then the pain +which this movement caused him made him fall back again with a groan. + +Without his asking for it I gave him another drink, which quieted +him a little; and then put fresh strength into him, so that he burst +out again with his curses and abuse. "Cut the heart out of me, will +you--you scum of rottenness? I'd have you to know that cuttin' hearts +out is a game two can play at. Take that, damn you! An' that! An' +that! Them's fur your starin'--you damn fat-faced blinkin' owl. And I +mean now t' keep on till I stop you. No more of your owl-starin' fur +me! Take it agen, you stinkin' starin' owl. So! An' so! An' so!" + +He fairly raised himself up in the berth as he rushed out his words, +and at the same time thrust savagely with his right hand as though he +had a knife in it. For a minute or more he kept his position, cursing +with a strong voice and thrusting all the time. Suddenly he gave a +yell of pain and fell on his back again, crying brokenly: "Hell! It's +_you_ who've finished me!" And then he gave two or three short sharp +gasps, and after that there was a little gurgling in his throat, and +then he was still--lying there as dead as any man could be. + +This quick ending of him came so suddenly that it staggered me; but I +must say that my first feeling, when I fairly realized what had +happened, was thankfulness that his life was gone--for I had had +enough of him to know that having much more of him would drive me mad. + +In the telling of it, of course, most of what made all this horrible +slips away from me, and it don't seem much to strain a man, after all. +But it really was pretty bad: what with the shadowy light in the +state-room, for even with the port uncovered it still was dusky; and +the horrid smell there; and the vividness with which the fellow +somehow managed to make me feel those days and weeks of his half-crazy +half-drunken life, while he and the other man stared at each other +until neither of them could bear it any longer--and so took to +fighting from sheer heart-breaking horror of loneliness and killed +each other out of hand. And back of all that I had the feeling that I +was caught in the same fate that had shut in upon them; and was even +worse off than they had been, since I had no one to fight my life away +with but must take it myself when I found my solitude in that rotten +desolation more than I could stand. + +Even the gin-and-water, though I took another big drink of it, could +not hearten me; but it did give me the courage to rid myself of the +two dead brutes by casting them overboard; and, indeed, getting rid of +them was a necessity, for their presence seemed to me so befouling +that I found it hard to breathe. + +With the man on deck--except that touching him was hateful to me--I +did not have much trouble. I just made fast to him a couple of heavy +iron bars that I found down in the engine-room--pokers, they seemed to +be, for serving the boiler fires--and then dragged him along the deck +to a place where the bulwarks were gone and there shot him overboard. +And luckily the weed was thinnish there, and he went down like a stone +into it and through it and so disappeared. + +But with the man in the cabin I had a harder job. In his horridly cut +condition I could not bring myself to touch him, and the best that I +could do was to make a sort of bundle of him and the mattress and the +bedclothes all together--with a bit of light line whipped around and +around the whole mass until it was snug and firm. When it was finished +I worked it out of the state-room, and rolled it fairly easily along +the floor of the cabin to the companion-way--and there it stuck fast. +Budge it I could not; for it was too long to roll up the stair, and +too heavy for me to haul it up after me or to push it up before me, +though I tried both ways and tried hard. But in the end I managed to +get it up by means of a purchase that I rigged from a ring-bolt in the +deck just outside the companion-way door; and once having it on deck I +could manage it again easily, for there I could roll it along. + +Yet I did not at once cast it overboard; for I had no more iron bars +with which to weight it, and I knew that such a bunch of stuff would +not sink through the weed--and that I should have it still +loathsomely with me, lying only partly hidden in the weed right +alongside. In the end I got up a big iron cinder-bucket that I filled +with coal--making sure that the coal would stay in it by lashing a +piece of canvas over the top--and this I made fast to the bundle by a +rope three or four fathoms long. Then I cast the bucket overboard +through the break in the bulwarks, and as it shot downward I rolled +the bundle after it--and I had the comfort of seeing the whole go down +through the weed and away from my sight forever into the hidden +water below. + +And then I sat down on the deck and rested; for what little cheering +and strength I had got from the gin-and-water had left me and I was +utterly miserable and tired as a dog. But I was well quit of both my +dead men, and that was a good job well done. + + + + + +XVII + +HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + + +Sitting there with the splotches of fresh blood on the deck all around +me was more than I could stomach for very long. The sight of them +brought back to me with a horrid distinctness everything that I had +seen since I came aboard the hulk: the dead man lying on the deck, the +other man with his frightful wounds and his wild talk and his death in +the midst of his passionate ravings, and the disgusting work that I +had been forced to do before I could hide their two bodies from my +sight in the sea-depths beneath the tangled weed. And so, presently, I +scrambled to my feet, thinking to get back to the _Hurst Castle_ +again--where there was no taint of blood to bring up haunting visions +and where, though it seemed a long while past to me, I had been in the +company of honest and kindly men. + +But when I turned toward this poor escape from my misery--which at +best was but a change from a foul prison to a clean one--I saw that I +could not easily compass it; for in the time that had passed since I +had made my jump in the morning--noon being by then upon me--the +_Hurst Castle_ had swung around a little, being caught I suppose upon +some bit of sunken wreckage, so that where the two ships were nearest +to each other there was an open reach of twenty feet or more +across the weed. + +This was too great a distance for a jump, seeing that it must be made +from rail to rail without a run to give me a send-off; and yet it was +so short that my not being able to cross it never even entered my +mind. Had there been a mast standing on the hulk, with a yard fast to +it, I could have rigged a rope from the yard-arm and swung myself +across in a moment; but the decks being sea-swept, with nothing left +standing on them, that way was not open to me; nor could I find a +light spar--even the flag-staff at the stern being snapt away--that I +could stretch across from one rail to the other and make a bridge of. +The only other thing that occurred to me was to tear off some of the +doors in the cabin and to make of them a little raft that I could pass +by, though I saw well enough that pushing a raft through so dense a +tangle even for that short distance would be a hard job. And then I +had the thought that perhaps on the sailing-ship lying beside me I +might find a sound boat, which would better answer my purpose since it +could be the more easily moved through the weed. In point of fact I +could not have moved a boat a single foot through that thicket without +cutting a passage for it, and I might have thrown overboard three or +four doors and so made a bridge over the weed that would have borne me +easily--but I did not know then as much about that strange sea-growth +as I came to know later on. + +As there was no hurry in one way, the ships being so bedded fast there +that they were certain not to move more than a few feet at the utmost, +I hunted up some food before setting myself to what I knew would be a +heavy task; finding cold victuals of a coarse sort in the galley--left +from the last meal that the two men had made there--and fairly fresh +water in the tank. It was hard work eating, on board that foul ship +and thinking of the foul hands which had made the food ready; but +going without eating would have been harder, for I had the healthy +appetite of a sound young fellow three-and-twenty years old. + +When I had finished my meal, and I got through it quickly, I made fast +a line to the steamer's rail and slipped down it to the deck of the +sailing-ship--a fine vessel of above a thousand tons, built of wood +and on clipper lines. There was an immediate sense of relief in +getting aboard of her, and away from the blood-stained steamer where +the dead men had been; but I saw at a glance that what I was after was +not there. She had carried four boats on her rail, as I could tell +by the davits, and likely enough a long-boat on her fore-castle as +well. But all of them were gone, and I could only hope--since they +were not there for my use--that her crew had got safe away in them: as +well enough might have happened when she was floating water-logged +after the storm that had wrecked her was past. + +Without stopping to explore her--and, indeed, after what I had found +on the steamer, I had no fancy for explorations which might end in my +stumbling upon still more horrors--I went on to a trim little brig +lying on the other side of her; a beautiful little vessel, with all +her spars and rigging save her bow-hamper in perfect order for +sea-going--but showing by her broken bow-sprit that she had been in +collision, and by her depth in the water that after the collision she +had filled. Naturally enough, her boats were gone too; and so I left +her and went on. + +In the course of the next two hours or so I must have traversed more +than a hundred wrecks--scrambling up or down from one to another, as +they happened to lie low in the water or high out of it--and with all +their differences of size and build finding them in one way the same: +all of them were dead ships which some sort of a sea-disaster had +slain. And not one of them had a sound boat left on board. The same +reason that kept me from exploring the first of them kept me from +exploring any of them: the dread of finding in their shadowy depths +grisly horrors in the way of dead men long lying there; and, indeed, I +was distinctly warned to hurry away from some of them by the vile +stenches which came to me and made my stomach turn sickish and my +blood go cold. + +I must have walked for a good mile, I suppose, over the dead bodies of +these sea-killed ships--and it was the most dismal walk that ever I +had taken--before I realized that even if I found a boat and got it +overboard it would be of no use to me, since there was no possibility +of my getting back in it to my own hulk through that densely packed +mass of wrecks and weed. Indeed, I should have perceived this plain +certainty sooner had not the wondering curiosity which this strange +walk bred in me lured me on and on. And then, being brought at last to +a halt by my rational reflection, there came over me suddenly a queer +shiver of doubt as to the direction in which the _Hurst Castle_ lay; +and then a still more shivering doubt as to whether I should be able +to get back to her again by the way that I had come, or by any way +at all. + +At the beginning of my march in this haze-covered sea-wilderness I had +tried to keep upon the outer edge of it; but insensibly--having to +pass from ship to ship rather by the way that was open to me than by +the way that I wished to go--I had wandered into the thick of it +more and more. And so, when at last I took thought of my whereabouts, +and stopped to look around me that I might shape a course back again, +I found that in whatever direction I turned I saw only what I had seen +ahead of me when my hulk was drawing in upon its borders: a dense +confusion of broken and ruined ships which fell away from me vaguely +under the golden haze. It had been a dismal sight then; but what gave +a fresh note to it, and a thrilling one, was that it no longer was +only in front of me but was all around me--stretching away on every +side of the wreck on which I was standing, and growing fainter and +fainter as the haze shut down thick upon it until it vanished softly +into the golden blur. + +Yet even then the full meaning of my outlook did not take hold of me. +That I was in something of a coil, out of which I could not find my +way easily, was plain enough; but that I really was lost in it did not +cross my mind. With all my wanderings, I knew that I could not have +traversed any great distance; and the certainty that I had passed +always from one ship to the ship next touching it seemed to make +finding my way back again entirely open and plain. And so I laughed at +myself a little--though that was not much of a place for +laughter--because of my touch of panic fright; and then I turned back +from the ship on which I was standing to the one next to it, over +which I had just come--and so on to the next, and in the same way to +three or four more. Yet even in that short distance--though my way was +unmistakable, for these ships touched only each other as it +happened--I was surprised by finding how differently things looked to +me as I took my course backward: all the ups and downs of my +scrambling walk being inverted, and the lay of the ships one to +another and the look of them being entirely changed. + +Presently I got on board of a brig--which I well remembered, because +it was one of the vessels having about it a vile stench that had made +me cross it quickly--on the farther side of which two ships were +lying, both rising a little above it and both jammed close against its +side. For a moment I hesitated, in doubt as to which of the two I had +come by; and I should have hesitated longer had not a whiff of the +horrid smell struck upon me strongly and urged me to go on. And so +away I went, taking to the ship that I thought was the right one; and +still fancying that it was the right one when I got aboard of it--for +both, as I have said, were ships, and the two had been about equally +mauled by sea and storm. Indeed, except for the differences in their +build and rig, there was a strong family resemblance among these +storm-broken vessels; and the way that they were jammed together made +their build less noticeable, while a good many of them were +dismasted and so had no rig at all. + +Therefore I went on confidently for a dozen ships or more before I had +any misgivings that I had missed my way--which was but a natural +reaction against my momentary doubtfulness--and then I found myself +suddenly pulled up short. Right above me was the side of a big iron +steamer--called the _City of Boston_, as I made out from the weathered +name-plate on her bows, and a packet-boat as I judged by her +build--rising so high out of the water that getting up to her deck was +impossible: as equally impossible was my having forgotten it had I +made such a rattling jump down. Yet this big steamer was the only +vessel in touch with the barque on which I was standing, save the +schooner from which I had just come; and that gave me sharply the +choice between two conclusions: either I had made that big jump +without noticing it, or else--and I felt a queer lump rising in my +throat as I faced this alternative--I had managed to go astray +completely and had lost myself in what had the look of being a +hopeless maze. + + + + + +XVIII + +I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + + +On shore, in a forest, I would not in the least have minded finding +myself in a fix of this sort--though my getting into it would have +been unlikely--because getting out of it would have been the easiest +thing in the world. I know a good deal of wood-craft, and always can +steer a course steadily by having the points of the compass fixed for +me by the size and the trend of the branches, and by the bark growing +thin or thick or by the moss or the lack of moss on the tree-trunks, +and by the other such simple forest signs which are the outcome of the +affection that there is on the part of things growing for the sun. + +But what made my breath come hard and my heart take to pumping--as I +stood looking up the tall side of the _City of Boston_, being certain +that I never had come down it and so must be off my course +entirely--was my conviction that in this forest of the ocean, if I may +call it so, there were no signs which would help me to find my way. +All around me was the same wild hopeless confusion of broken wrecks +jammed tight together, or only a little separated by narrow spaces +thick-grown with weed; and everywhere overhanging it heavily, growing +denser the deeper that I got into the tangle, was the haze that made +it more confusing still. And under the haze--and because of it, I +suppose--was a soft languorish warmth that seemed to steal my strength +away and a good deal of my courage too. + +But I knew that to give way to the feeling of dull fright, having +somehow a touch of awe in it, that was creeping over me would be to +put myself into a panic; and that once my wits fairly were addled my +chance of getting back to the _Hurst Castle_ again would be pretty +much gone. And to get back to her seemed to me the only way of keeping +my heart up and of keeping myself alive. She was the one ship, in all +that great dismal fleet, aboard of which I could be sure that nothing +horrible had happened, and in which I could be certain that no +loathsome sights were to be come upon suddenly in shadowy nooks and +corners to which dying men had crept in their extremity--trying, since +none ever would bury them, to hide away a little their own bodies +against the time when death should be upon them and corruption +should begin. + +And so I pulled myself together as well as I could and tried to do a +little quiet thinking; and presently I came to the conclusion that I +must find my way back to the brig against which the two ships were +lying and start afresh from her; since it was pretty certain that it +was there, by boarding the wrong ship, that I had got off my course. +But because of my certain knowledge of what horridness the brig +sheltered, and of the noisome stench that I must encounter there, it +took a good deal of resolution to put this plan into practice; so +much, indeed, that for a while I wavered about it, and succeeded at +last in starting back again only by setting going the full force of +my will. + +But I need not have whipped myself on to my work so resolutely, nor +have fretted myself in advance with planning the rush that I should +make across the brig when I came to her--for I never, so far as I +know, laid eyes on her again. For a little while, as in my first +turn-about, I found my way backward without much difficulty--though +again the different look that the ships had as I returned across them +pulled me up from time to time with doubts about them; and then, just +as before, I came to a place where more than one line of advance was +open to me and there went wrong--as I knew a little later by finding +myself aboard a vessel so strange in her appearance that my first +glimpse over her deck satisfied me that I saw her then for the +first time. + +This craft was an old-fashioned sloop-of-war, carrying eighteen guns; +and that she had perished in action was as evident as that her +death-battle had been fought a long while back in the past. The +mauling that she had received had made an utter wreck of her--her +masts being shot away and hanging by the board, most of her bulwarks +being splintered, and her whole stern torn open as though a crashing +broad-side had been poured into her at short range. Moreover, nearly +all her guns had been dismounted, and two of them had burst in +firing--as the shattered gun-carriages showed. + +But what most strongly proved the fierceness of her last action, and +the length of time that had passed since she fought it, were the +scores of skeletons lying about her deck--a few with bits of clothing +hanging fast to them, but most of them clean fleshless naked bones. +Just as they had fallen, there they lay: with legs or arms or ribs +splintered or carried off by the shot which had struck them, or with +bullet-holes clean through their skulls. But the sight of them, while +it put a sort of awe upon me, did not horrify me; because time +had done its cleansing work with them and they were pure. + +Indeed, my imagination was taken such fast hold of by coming upon this +thrilling wreck of ancient sea-battle, fought out fiercely to a finish +generations before ever I was born, that for a little while I forgot +my own troubles entirely; and so got over the shock which my first +sight of the riddled sloop and her dead crew had given me by proving +that again I had lost my way. And my longing to know all that I could +find out about it--backed by the certainty that I should not come upon +anything below that would revolt me--led me to go searching in the +shattered cabin for some clue to the sloop's name and nationality, and +to the cause in which her death-fight had been fought. + +The question of nationality was decided the moment that I set my foot +within the cabin doorway--there being a good deal of light there, +coming in through the broken stern--by my seeing stretched over a +standing bed-place in a state-room to starboard an American flag; and +the flag, taken together with the ancient build of the sloop, also +settled the fact pretty clearly that the action which had finished her +must have been fought with an English vessel in the War of 1812. + +Under the flag I could make out faintly the lines of a human figure, +and I knew that one of the sloop's officers--most likely her +commander, from the respect shown to him by covering him with the +colors--must be lying there, just as his men had placed him to wait +for a sea-burial until the fighting should come to an end. And that he +had remained there was proof that not a man of the sloop's company but +had been killed outright in the fight or had got his death-wound in +it; and also of the fact that in a way the fight had been a +victory--since it was evident that the enemy had not taken possession, +and therefore must have been beaten off. + +But the whole matter was settled clearly by my finding the sloop's +log-book lying open on the cabin table, just as it had lain there, and +had entries made in it, while the action was going on. And a very +strange thrill ran through me as I read on the mouldy page in brown +faint letters the date, "October 5, 1814," and across the page-head, +in bigger brown faint letters: "U.S. Sloop-of-war _Wasp_": and so knew +that I was aboard of that stinging little war-sloop--whereof the +record is a bright legend, and the fate a mystery, of our Navy--which +in less than three months' time successively fought and whipped three +English war-vessels--the ship _Reindeer_ and the brigs _Avon_ and +_Atalanta_, all of them bigger than herself--and then, being last +sighted in September, 1814, not far from the Azores, vanished with all +her crew and officers from off the ocean and never was seen nor +heard of again. + +There before me in the mouldy log-book was the record of her last +action--and in gallantry it led the three others which have made +her fame. + +The entries began at 7.20 A.M. with: "A strange sail in sight on the +weather bow;" at 7.45 followed: "The strange brig bearing down on us. +Looks English"; and at 8.10: "The strange brig has shown English +colors." Then came the manoeuvring for position, covering more than an +hour, and the beating to general quarters; and after that the short +entries ran on quickly--in such rough and ready writing as might be +expected of a man dashing in for a moment to make them, and then +dashing out again to where the fighting was going on: + + +"9.20 A.M. Engaged the enemy with our starboard battery, + hulling him severely. + +"9.24. Our foremast by the board. + +"9.28. The enemy's broadside in our stern. Great havoc. + +"9.35. The wreck of the foremast cleared, giving us steerage way. + +"9.40. Our hulling fire telling. The enemy's battery fire + slacking. His musketry fire very hot and galling. + +"9.45. The enemy badly hulled. More than half of our crew + now killed or disabled. + +"9.52. Our main-mast by the board and our mizzen badly + wounded. Action again very severe. Few of our men left. + +"9.56. Captain Blakeley killed and brought below. + +"10.01. Our mizzen down. The enemy's fire slacking again. + +"10.10. The enemy sheering off, with the look of being + sinking. + +"10.15. The enemy sinking. We cannot help him. Most of our men are + dead. All of us living are badly hurt." + + +And there the entries came to an end. + +My breath came fast as I read that short record of as brave a fight as +ever was fought on salt water; and when my reading was finished I +gave a great sigh. It was a fit ending for the little _Wasp_, that +death triumphant: and it was a fit ending to a fight between American +and English sailors that they should hang at each other's throats, +neither yielding, until they died that way--they being each of a +nation unaccustomed to surrender, and both of the one race which alone +in modern times has held the sea. + + + + + +XIX + +OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + + +For a while I was so stirred by the enthusiasm which my discovery +aroused in me that I had no room in my mind for any other thoughts. +But at last, as I still stood pondering in the _Wasp's_ cabin, I +became aware that the daylight was fading into darkness; and as I +realized what that meant for me my thoughts came back suddenly to +myself, and then all my enthusiasm ebbed away. + +I came out upon the deck again, but leaving everything as I had found +it--my momentary impulse to lift the flag having vanished as I felt +how fit it was that this dead battle-captain should rest on +undisturbed where his men had laid him beneath the colors that he had +died for; and I was glad to find when I got into the open that a good +deal of daylight still remained. But it was so far gone, and was +waning so rapidly, that I saw that I had little chance of getting back +to the _Hurst Castle_ before nightfall; and that the most that I could +hope for was to make a start in the right direction--and perhaps to +find a wreck to sleep on that had food and water aboard of it, and +thence take up my search again the next day. + +Yet the dread was strong upon me, as I looked around upon the wrecks +among which the _Wasp_ was bedded, that I might not only be unable to +find the _Hurst Castle_ again, but ever to find my way across that +tangle to the outer edges of it--where only was it possible that ships +on which were provisions fit for eating would be found. The very fact +that the _Wasp_ had settled into her position more than fourscore +years back made it certain that she was deep in the labyrinth; and the +strange old-fashioned look of the craft surrounding her showed me that +I should have to go far before finding a vessel wrecked in +recent times. + +But these disheartening thoughts I crushed down as well as I could, +yet not making much of it; and as trying to go back by the way that I +had come to the _Wasp_ would not serve any good purpose--even +supposing that I could have managed it, which was not likely--I went +on beyond her on a new course: taking a longish jump from her +quarter-rail and landing on the deck of a clumsy little ill-shapen +brig, with a high-built square stern and a high-built bow that was +pretty nearly square too. She was Dutch, I fancy, and a merchant +vessel; but she carried a little battery of brass six-pounders, and +had also a half dozen pederaros set along her rail. And by her +carrying these old-fashioned swivel-guns--which proved that she had +got her armament not much later than the middle of the last +century--and by the general look of her, I knew that she was an older +vessel even than the _Wasp_. + +This observation, and the reflection growing out of it that the deeper +I went into the Sargasso Sea the older must be the craft bedded in +it--since that great dead fleet is recruited constantly by new wrecks +drifting in upon its outer edges from all ways seaward--put into my +head what seemed to me to be a very reasonable plan for finding my way +back to the _Hurst Castle_ again; or, at least, to some other newly +come in hulk on which there would be fresh water and sound food. And +this was to shape my course by considering attentively the look of +each wreck that I came aboard of, and the look of those surrounding +it, and by then going forward to whichever one of them seemed to be of +the most modern build. + +As the first step in carrying out my plan--and it seemed to be such a +good plan that I felt almost light-hearted over it--I got up on the +rail of the old brig and jumped back to the less-old _Wasp_ again: +landing in her main-channels, and thence easily boarding her by +scrambling up what was left of the chains. But in taking my next step +I had no choice in the matter, as only one other vessel was in touch +with the sloop--a heavily-built little schooner that had the look of +being quite as old as the brig which I had just left. And her age +was so evident as I came aboard of her--having crossed the deck of the +_Wasp_ hastily, picking my way among the scattered bones--that of a +sudden my faith in my fine plan for getting out of the tangle began +to wane. + +In a general way, of course, the conclusion which I had arrived at was +a sound one. Broadly speaking, it was certain that could I pass in a +straight line from the centre to the circumference of that vast +assemblage of wrecks I constantly would find vessels of newer build; +and so at last, upon the outermost fringe, would come to the wrecks of +ships belonging to my own day. But one weak point in my calculations +was my inability to hold to a straight line, or to anything like +one--because I had to advance from one wreck to another as they +happened to touch or to be within jumping distance of each other, and +therefore went crookedly upon my course and often fairly had to double +on it. And another weak point was that the sea in its tempests +recognizes no order of seniority, but destroys in the same breath of +storm ships just beginning their lives upon it and ships which have +withstood its ragings for a hundred years: so that I very well might +find--as I actually did find in the case of the _Wasp_--a +comparatively modern-built vessel lying hemmed in by ancient craft, +survivals of obsolete types, which had lingered so long upon the +ocean that in their lives as in their deaths they merged and blended +the present and the past. + +Thus a check was put upon my plan at the very outset; yet in a stolid +sort of way--knowing that to give it up entirely would be to bring +despair upon me, for I could not think of a better one--I tried still +to hold by it: going on from the clumsy little old schooner to that +one of two vessels lying beyond her which I fancied, though both of +them belonged to a long past period, was the more modern-looking in +her build. And so I continued to go onward over a dozen craft of one +sort or another, holding by my rule--or trying to believe that I was +holding by it, for all of the wrecks which I crossed were of an +antique type--and now and then being left with no chance for choosing +by finding open to me only a single way. And all this while the +daylight was leaving me--the sun having gone down a ruddy globe beyond +the forest of wrecks westward, and heavy purple shadows having begun +to close down upon me through the low-hanging haze. + +The imminence of night-fall made clear to me that I had no chance +whatever of getting out from among those long-dead ships before the +next morning; and this certainty was the harder to bear because I was +desperately hungry--more than six hours having passed since I had +eaten anything--and thirsty too: though my thirst, because of the +dampness of the haze I suppose, was not very severe. But the belief +that I really was advancing toward the coast of my strange floating +continent and that I should find both food and drink when I got there, +made me press forward; comforting myself as well as I could with the +reflection that even though I did have to keep a hungry and thirsty +vigil among those old withered hulks I yet should be the nearer, by +every one of them that I put behind me that night, to the freshly come +in wrecks on the coast line--where I made sure of finding a breakfast +on the following day. Moreover, I knew how forlornly miserable I +should be the moment that I lost the excitement of scrambling and +climbing and just sat down there among the ancient dead, with the +darkness closing over me, to wait for the slow coming of another day. +And my dread of that desolate loneliness urged me to push forward +while the least bit of daylight was left by which to see my way. + +It was ticklish work, as the dusk deepened, getting from one wreck to +another; and at last--after nearly going down into the weed between +two of them, because of a rotten belaying-pin that I caught at +breaking in my hand--I had to resign myself to giving over until +morning any farther attempt to advance. But I was cheered by the +thought that I had got on a good way in the hour or more that had gone +since I had left the _Wasp_ behind me; and so I tried to make the +best of things as I cast around me for some sheltered nook on the deck +of the vessel I had come aboard of--a little clumsy old brig--where my +night might be passed. As to going below, either into the cabin or the +forecastle, I could not bring myself to it; for my heart failed me at +the thought of what I might touch in the darkness there, and my +mind--sore and troubled by all that I had passed through, and by the +dim dread filling it--certainly would have crowded those black depths +with grisly phantoms until I very well might have gone mad. + +And so, as I say, I cast about the deck of the brig for some nook that +would shelter me from the dampness while I did my best to sleep away +into forgetfulness my hunger and my thirst; but was troubled all the +while that I was making my round of investigation by a haunting +feeling that I had been on that same deck only a little while before. +Growing stronger and stronger, this feeling became so insistent that I +could not rest for it; and presently compelled me to try to quiet it +by taking a look at the wreck next beyond the brig to see if I +recognized that too--as would be likely, since I must have crossed it +also, had I really come that way. + +I did not try to board this adjoining wreck, but only clambered up on +the rail of the brig so that I could look well at it--and when I got +my look I came more nearly to breaking down completely than I had +done at any time since I had been cast overboard from the _Golden +Hind_, For there, showing faintly in the gloom below me, was the +gun-set deck of a war-ship, and over the deck dimly-gleaming bones +were scattered--and in that moment I knew that the whole of my +wandering had been but a circle, and that I was come back again at the +weary ending of it to the _Wasp_. + +But what crushed the heart of me was not that my afternoon of toil had +been wasted, but the strong conviction--from which I no longer saw any +way of escaping--that I had strayed too deep into that hideous +sea-labyrinth ever to find my way out of it, and that I must die there +slowly for lack of water and of food. + + + + + +XX + +HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + + +I got down from the rail and seated myself on the brig's deck, leaning +my back against her bulwarks and a little sheltered by their +old-fashioned in-board overhang. But I had no very clear notion of +what I was doing; and my feeling, so far as I had any feeling, was +less that I was moving of my own volition than that I was being moved +by some power acting from outside of me--the sensation of +irresponsibility that comes to one sometimes in a dream. + +Indeed, the whole of that night seemed to me then, and still seems to +me, much more a dream than a reality: I being utterly wearied by my +long hard day's work in scrambling about among the wrecks, and a +little light-headed because of my stomach's emptiness, and feverish +because of my growing thirst, and my mind stunned by the dull pain of +my despair. And it was lucky for me, I suppose, that my thinking +powers were so feeble and so blunted. Had I been fully awake to my own +misery I might very well have gone crazy there in the darkness; or +have been moved by a sharp horror of my surroundings to try to escape +them by going on through the black night from ship to ship--which +would have ended quickly by my falling down the side of one or another +of them and so drowning beneath the weed. + +Yet the sort of stupor that I was in did not hold fast my inner +consciousness; being rather a numbing cloud surrounding me and +separating me from things external--though not cutting me off from +them wholly--while within this wrapping my spirit in a way was awake +and free. And the result of my being thus on something less than +speaking terms with my own body was to make my attitude toward it that +of a sympathizing acquaintance, with merely a lively pity for its +ill-being, rather than that of a personal partaker in its pains. And +even my mental attitude toward myself was a good deal of the same +sort: for my thoughts kept turning sorrowfully to the sorrow of my own +spirit solitary there, shrinking within itself because of its chill +forsakenness and lonely pain of finding itself so desolate--the one +thing living in that great sea-garnering of the dead. + +And after a while--either because my light-headedness increased, or +because I dozed and took to dreaming--I had the feeling that the dense +blackness about me, a gloom that the heavily overhanging mist made +almost palpable, was filling with all those dead spirits come to +peer curiously into my living spirit; and that they hated it and were +envious of it because it was not as they were but still was alive. And +from this, presently, I went on to fancying that I could see them +about me clad again dimly in the forms which had clothed them when +they also in their time had been living men. At first they were +uncertain and shadowy, but before long they became so distinct that I +plainly saw them: shaggy-bearded resolute fellows, roughly dressed in +strange old-fashioned sea-gear, with here and there among them others +in finer garb having the still more resolute air of officers; and all +with the fierce determined look of those old-time mariners of the +period when all the ocean was a battling-place where seamen spent +their time--and most of them, in the end, spent their lives also--in +fighting with each other and in fighting with the sea. + +Gradually this throng of the sea-dead filled the whole deck about me +and everywhere hemmed me in; but they gave no heed to me, and were +ranged orderly at their stations as though the service of the ship was +being carried on. Among themselves they seemed to talk; but I could +hear nothing of what they were saying, though I fancied that there was +a humming sound filling the air about me like the murmur of a far-away +crowd. Now and then an angry bout would spring up suddenly between two +or three of them; and in a moment they would be fighting together, +and would keep at it until one of their stern officers was upon them +with blows right and left with his fists or with the butt of his +pistol or with the pommel of his sword--and so would scatter the rough +brutes, scowling, and as it seemed uttering growls such as beasts +lashed by their keepers would give forth. + +And at other times they would seem to be fighting with some +enemy--serving at their guns stripped half-naked, with handkerchiefs +knotted about their heads, and with the grime of powder-smoke upon +their bare flesh and so blackening their faces as to give their +gleaming eyes a still more savage look; falling dead or wounded with +their blood streaming out upon the deck and making slimy pools in +which a man running sometimes would slip and go down headlong--and +would get up, with a laugh and a curse, only in another moment to drop +for good as a musket-ball struck him or as a round-shot sliced him in +two; and all of them with a savage joy in their work, and going at it +with a lust for blood that made them delight in it--and take no more +thought than any other fighting brutes would take of guarding their +own lives. + +Or, again, they would seem to be in the midst of a tempest, with the +roar of the wind and the rush of the waves upon them, and would be +fighting the gale and the ocean's turbulence with the same devil's +daring that they had shown in fighting the enemy--and with the same +carelessness as to what happened to themselves so long as they stuck +to their duty and did the best that was in them to bring their ship +safely through the storm. And so they went on ringing the changes on +their old-time wild sea-life--their savage fights among themselves, +and their battlings with foemen of a like metal, and their warfare +with the ocean--while the dark night wore on. + +Yet even when these visionary forms were thickest about me--and when +it seemed, too, as though from all the dead hulks about me the shadows +of the dead were rising in the same fashion in pale fierce throngs--I +tried to hold fast, and pretty well succeeded in it, to the steadying +conviction that the making of them was in my own imagination and that +they were not real. And then, too, I fell off from time to time into a +light sleep which still was deep enough to rid me of them wholly; and +which also gave me some of the rest that I so much needed after all +that I had passed through during that weary day. + +What I could not get rid of, either sleeping or waking, was my gnawing +hunger and my still worse thirst. For an hour or two after nightfall, +the air being fresher and the haze turning to a damp cool mist, my +thirst was a good deal lessened; which was a gain in one way, though +not in another--for that same chill of night very searchingly +quickened my longing for food. But as the hours wore away my desire +for water got the better of every other feeling, even changing my +haunting visions of dead crews rising from the dead ships about me +into visions of brooks and rivulets--which only made my burning +craving the more keen. + +Nor did what little reasoning I could bring to bear upon my case, when +from time to time I partly came out from the sort of lethargy that had +hold of me, do much for my comforting. It was possible, I perceived, +that I might find even in a long-wrecked ship some half-rotten scraps +of old salted meat, or some remnant of musty flour, that at least +would serve to keep life in me. But even food of this wretched sort +would do me no good without water--and water was to be found only in +one of the wrecks forming the outer fringe of my prison, toward which +I had been trying so long vainly to find my way. + +Yet in spite of my having already gone astray half a dozen times over +in daylight I still did have, deep down in me, a feeling that if only +the darkness would pass I could manage to steer a true course. And +when at last, as it seemed to me after years of waiting for it, I +began to see a little pink tone showing in the mist dimly it almost +seemed as though my troubles were coming instantly to an end. And, +at least, the horror of deep darkness, which all night long had been +crushing me, did leave me from the moment when that first gleam of +returning daylight appeared. + + + + + +XXI + +MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + + +It was a long while before the pale pink gleam to the eastward spread +up into the sky far enough to thin the shadows which hung over my dead +fleet heavily, and longer still before I had light enough to venture +to begin my scrambling walk from ship to ship again. It seemed to me, +indeed, that the mist lay lower and was a good deal thicker than on +the preceding evening; and this, with the fiery glow that was in it +when the sunrise came, gave me hope that a douse of rain might be +coming--which chance of getting the water that I longed for heartened +me even more than did the up-coming of the sun. + +My throat was hurting me a good deal because of its dryness, and my +itching thirst was all the stronger because the last food I had +eaten--being the mess left in the pan by the two men who had killed +each other--had been a salt-meat stew. Of hunger I did not feel much, +save for gripes in my inside now and then; but I was weak because of +my emptiness--as I discovered when I got on my legs, and found myself +staggering a little and the things around me swimming before my eyes. +And what was worse than that was a dull stupidity which so possessed +me that I could not think clearly; and so for a while kept me +wandering about the deck of the brig aimlessly, while my wits went +wool-gathering instead of trying to work out some plan--even a foolish +plan--which would cheer me up with hopes of pulling through. + +I might have gone on all day that way, very likely, if I had not been +aroused suddenly by feeling a big drop of rain on my face; and only a +moment later--the thick mist, I suppose, being surcharged with water, +and some little waft of wind in its upper region having loosened its +vent-peg--I was in the thick of a dashing shower. So violent was the +downpour that in less than a minute the deck was streaming, and I had +only to plug with my shirt one of the scuppers amidships to have in +another minute or two a little lake of fresh sweet water from +which--lying on my belly, with the rain pelting down on me--I drank +and drank until at last I was full. And the feel of the rain on my +body was almost as good as the drinking of it, for it was deliciously +cool and yet not chill. + +When I got at last to my legs again, with the dryness gone from my +throat and only a little pain there because of the swollen glands, I +found that I walked steadily and that my head was clear too; and for +the moment I was so entirely filled with water that I was not hungry +at all. Presently the rain stopped, and that set me to thinking of +finding some better way to keep a store of water by me than leaving it +in a pool on the open deck; where, indeed, it would not stay long, but +would ooze out through the scupper and be sopped up by the +rotten planks. + +And so, though I did not at all fancy going below on the old brig, I +went down the companion-way into the cabin to search for a vessel of +some sort that would be water-tight; and shivered a little as I +entered that dusky place, and did not venture to move about there +until my eyes got accustomed to the half darkness for fear that I +should go stumbling over dead men's bones. + +As it turned out, the cabin was bare enough of dead people, and of +pretty much everything else; from which I inferred that in the long +past time when the brig had been wrecked her crew had got safe away +from her, and had been able in part to strip her before they left her +alone upon the sea. What I wanted, however, they had not taken away. +In a locker I found a case made to hold six big bottles, in which the +skipper had carried his private stock of liquors very likely; and two +of the bottles, no doubt being empty when the cabin was cleared, had +been left behind. They served my turn exactly, and I brought them on +deck and filled them from my pool of rain-water--and so was safe +against thirst for at least another day. + +Being thus freshened by my good drink, and cheered by the certainty of +having water by me, I sat down for a while on the cabin-scuttle that I +might puzzle out a plan for getting to some ship so recently +storm-slain that aboard of her still would be eatable food. As for +rummaging in the hold of the brig, I knew that no good could come of +it--she having lain there, as I judged, for a good deal more than half +a century; and for the same reason I knew that I only would waste time +in searching the other old wrecks about me for stores. All that was +open to me was to press toward the edge of the wreck-pack, for there +alone could I hope to find what I was after--and there it pretty +certainly would be. But after my miserable experience of the preceding +day it was plain that before I started on my hunting expedition I must +hit upon some way of laying a course and holding it; or else, most +likely, go rambling from wreck to wreck until I grew so weak from +starvation that on one or another of them I should fall down at +last and die. + +Close beside me, as I sat on the hatch, was the brig's binnacle, and +in it I could see the shrivelled remnant of what had been the +compass-card; and the sight of this put into my head presently the +thought--that might have got there sooner had my wits been +sharper--to look for a compass still in working order and by means of +it to steer some sort of a steady course. The argument against this +plan was plain enough, and it was a strong one: that in holding as +well as I could to any straight line I might only get deeper and +deeper into my maze--for I was turned around completely, and while I +knew that I could not be very far from the edge of my island of +flotsam I had not the faintest notion in which direction that +near edge lay. + +For some minutes longer I sat on the hatch thinking the matter over +and trying to hit on something that would open to me a better prospect +of success; and all the while I had a hungry pain in my stomach that +made clear thinking difficult, and that at the same time urged me to +do quickly anything that gave even the least promise of getting food. +And so the upshot of the matter was that I slung my two bottles of +water over my shoulders with a bit of line that I found in the brig's +cabin--making the slings short, that the bottles might hang close +under my arms and be pretty safe against breaking--and then away I +went on my cruise after a compass still on speaking terms with the +north pole. + +That I would find one seemed for a good while unlikely; for I searched +a score and more of wrecks, and on every one of them the binnacle +either was empty or the needle entirely rusted away. But at last I +came to a barque that had a newer look about her than that of the +craft amidst which she was lying, and that also had her binnacle +covered with a tarred canvas hood such as is used when vessels are +lying in port. How the hood came to be where it was on that broken +wreck was more than I could account for; but by reason of its being in +place the binnacle had been well protected from the weather, and I +found to my delight that the compass inside was in working trim. + +It was an awkward thing to carry, being an old-fashioned big square +box heavily and clumsily made; but I was so glad to get it that I was +not for quarrelling with it, though it did for a little put me to a +puzzle as to how I should pack it along. What I came to was to sling +it on my back knapsack-fashion, which was a poor way to have it, since +every time that I looked at it I had to unsling it and then to sling +it again; yet there was no other way for me to manage it, because in +my scrambling from one wreck to another I needs must have both hands +free. But what with this big box strapped to my shoulders, and the two +big bottles dangling close up under my arm-pits, I must have +looked--only there was nobody to look at me--nothing less than a +figure of fun. + +As I knew not which way I ought to go, and so had all ways open to me, +I laid my course for the head of the compass; and was the more +disposed thus to go due north because that way, as far as I could see +for the mist and the mast-tangle, the wrecks lay packed so close +together that passing from one to another would be easy for me--which +was a matter to be considered in view of the load that I had to +carry along. + +But just as I was ready to start another notion struck me. I had +noticed the modern look of the barque, as compared with the ancient +build of the hulks amidst which she was lying, when I first came +aboard of her; and as I was about to leave her--my eye being caught by +the soundness of a bit of line made fast to a belaying-pin on her +rail--the thought occurred to me that I might find on her something or +other still fit to be called food. And when this thought came to me I +unslung my compass and my water-bottles in a hurry--for I was as +ravenous as a man well could be. + + + + + +XXII + +I GET SOME FOOD IN ME AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + + +The sun by that time being risen so high that the mist was changing +again to a golden haze, and the cabin of the barque well lighted +through the skylight over it, I felt less creepy and uncomfortable as +I went down the companion-way than I had felt when I went below into +the old brig's dusky cabin in the early dawn. But for all that I +walked gingerly, and stopped to sniff at every step that I took +downward; for I could not by any means get rid of my dread of coming +upon some grewsome thing. However, the air was sweet enough--the slide +of the hatch being closed, but the doors open and the cabin well +ventilated--and when I got to the foot of the stair I saw nothing +horrible in my first sharp look around. + +It was a small cabin, but comfortably fitted; and almost the first +thing that caught my eye was a work-basket spilled down into a corner +and some spools and a pair of rusty scissors lying on the floor, and +then in another corner I saw a little chair. And the sight of these +things, which told that the barque's captain had had his wife and his +child along with him, gave me a heavy sorrowful feeling--for all that +if death had come to this sea-family the pain of it must have been +over quickly a long while back in the past. + +Two of the state-room doors, both on the starboard side, were open; +and both rooms were empty, save for the mouldy bedding in the bunks +and in one of them a canvas bed-bag such as seamen use. The doors of +the other two rooms, there being four in all, were closed, and I +opened them hesitatingly; and felt a good deal easier in my mind when +I found that in neither of them was what I dreaded might be there. In +one of them the bunk had been left in disorder, as though some one had +risen from it hurriedly, and a frock and a bonnet were hanging against +the wall; but the other one seemed to have been used only as a sort of +storeroom--there being in it a pair of rubber boots and a suit of +oil-skins, and a locker in which were some pretty trifles in +shell-work such as might have been picked up in a West Indian port, +and a little rack of books gone mouldy with the damp. One of these +books I opened, and found written on the flyleaf: "Mary Woodbridge, +with Aunt Jane's love. For the coming Christmas of 1879"--and this +date, though it did not settle certainly when the barque had started +on the voyage that had come to so bad an ending, at least proved that +she had not been lying where I found her for a very great +many years. + +As to how the barque had got so deep into the wreck-pack, she being so +lately added to it, I could not determine; but my conjecture was that +some storm had broken the pack and had driven her down into it, and +then that the opening had closed again, leaving her fast a good way in +its inside. But about the way of her getting there I did not much +bother myself, my one strong thought being that I had a chance of +finding on board of her something that I could eat; and so--being by +that time pretty well satisfied that I was safe not to come upon +anything horrid hid away in a dark corner of her--I went at my farther +explorations with a will. Indeed, I was so desperately hungry by that +time that even had I made some nasty discoveries I doubt if they would +have held me back from my eager search for food. + +Luckily I had not far to look before I found what I was after, the +very first door that I tried--a door in the forward side of the +cabin--opening into a pantry in which were stowed what had been, as I +judged from the nature of them and the place where I found them, the +captain's private stores. The door was not locked, and a good many +empty boxes were lying around on the floor with splintered lids, as +though they had been smashed open in a hurry--which looked as though +the pantry had been levied on suddenly to provision the boats after +the wreck occurred, and so made me hope that the captain and his wife +and baby had got away from the barque alive. + +But the stock of stores had been a big one, and I saw that I was safe +enough against starvation if only a part of what was left still were +sound--and that uncertainty I settled in no time by picking up a +hatchet that was lying among the broken boxes and splitting open the +first tin on which I laid my hands. The tin had beans in it, and when +I cracked it open that way more than half of them went flying over the +floor; and they looked so good, those blessed beans, that without +stopping to smell at them critically, or otherwise to test their +soundness, I fell to feeding myself out of the open tin with my +hand--and never stopped until all that remained of them were in my +inside. I don't suppose that they were the better for having lain +there so long, but they certainly were not much the worse for it--as I +proved more conclusively, having by that time taken off the sharp edge +of my hunger, by eating a part of another tin of them and finding them +very good indeed. After that I opened a tin of meat--but on the +instant that the hatchet split into it there came bouncing out such a +dreadful smell that I had to rush on deck in a hurry with it and heave +it over the side. + +But even without the meat my food supply was secure to me for a good +while onward, there being no less than ten boxes with two dozen tins +of beans in each of them--quite enough to keep life in me for more +than half a year. I rummaged through the place thoroughly, but found +nothing more that was fit to eat there. Some boxes of biscuit and a +barrel of flour had gone musty until they fairly were rotten; and all +the other things that I came across were spoiled utterly by damp and +mould. As for the stores for the crew, when I went forward to have a +look at them, they were spoiled too--the flour and biscuit rotten, and +the pickled meat a mouldy mass of tough fibre encrusted thickly +with salt. + +One other thing I did find in the captain's pantry that was as good, +save for the mould that coated the outside of it, as when it came +aboard--and because of its excellent condition was all the more +tantalizing. This was a case of plug tobacco--a bit of which shredded +and filled into one of the pipes that I found with it, could I have +got it lighted, would have made me for the moment almost a happy man. +But as I could think of no way of lighting it I was worse off than if +I had not found it at all. + +Having made my tour of inspection and taken a general inventory of my +new possessions, I came on deck again and seated myself on the roof of +the cabin that I might do some quiet thinking about what should be my +next move; for I realized that only by a stroke of rare good fortune +had I come upon this supply of food far away from, the coast of my +continent, and that should I leave it and keep on the course northward +that I had set for myself I very likely might starve before another +such store fell in my way. And yet, on the other hand, to stay on +where I was merely because I was able to keep alive there--with no +outlook of hope to stay me--was but making a bid for that madness +which comes of despair. + +As to carrying any great quantity of food on with me, it was a sheer +impossibility. The tins of beans weighed each of them more than five +pounds, and a score of them would make as much of a load as I well +could carry on level ground--and far more of a load than I could +manage in the scramble that was before me if I decided to go on. +Indeed, I had found my two bottles of water a serious inconvenience; +and yet I would have them to carry also, and the big compass too. As +to water, however, since the shower of the morning. I felt less +anxiety: and the event proved that my confidence in the rainfall was +justified--for the showers came regularly a little after dawn, and +only once or twice after that first sharp experience did I feel more +than passing pain from thirst. + +I sat there on the roof of the cabin for a good part of the morning +cogitating the matter; and in the end I could think of no better +plan than one which promised certainly a world of hard labor, and only +promised uncertainly to serve my turn. This was to stick to my project +of going steadily northward--carrying with me as much food as I could +stagger under--until I came again to the outer edge of the +wreck--pack; but to safeguard my return to the barque, should my food +give out before my journey was accomplished, by blazing my path: that +is to say, by making a mark on each wreck that I crossed so that I +could retrace my steps easily and without fear of losing my way. What +I would gain in the end I did not try very clearly to tell +myself--having only a vague feeling that in getting again to the coast +of my great dead continent I would be that much the nearer to the +living world once more; and having a clearer feeling that only by +sticking at some sort of hard work that had a little hopefulness in it +could I save myself from going mad. And I cannot but think now, +looking back at it, that a touch of madness already was upon me; for +no man ever set himself to a crazier undertaking than that to which I +set myself then. + + + + + +XXIII + +HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + + +The morning was well spent by the time that I had made my mind up, and +I was growing hungry again. I made a good meal on what was left in the +second tin of beans that I had opened for my breakfast; and when I was +done I tried to get a light for my pipe by rubbing bits of wood +together, but made nothing of it at all. I had read about castaways on +desert islands getting fire that way--but they went at it with dry +wood, I fancy, and in my mist-sodden desert all the wood was soaked +with damp. + +For that afternoon I decided to go forward only as far as I could +fetch it to be back on board the barque again by sunset, taking with +me as many tins of beans as I could carry and leaving them where I +made my turn: by which arrangement I would save the carriage of my +supper and my breakfast, and would have a little store of victuals to +fall back upon--when I should be fairly started on my journey--without +coming all the way again to the barque. + +I got the bed-bag that I had seen in the stateroom, and managed with +the rusty scissors to cut it down to half its size. Into this I packed +ten tins of beans, and made them snug by whipping around the bag one +end of a longish line--which served when coiled as a handle for it; +and, being uncoiled, enabled me to haul it up a ship's side after me, +or to let it down ahead of me, or to sway it across an open space +between two vessels, and so go at my climbing and jumping with both +hands free. As for the compass, my back was the only place for it and +I put it there--where it did not bother me much, having little weight; +and I stuck the hatchet to blaze my path with into a sort of a belt +that I made for myself with a bit of line. + +Considering what a load I was carrying, and that on every vessel which +I crossed I had to stop while I blazed a mark on her, I made a good +long march of it before the waning of the daylight was a sign to me +that I must put about again; and my return journey was both quick and +easy, for I left the whole of my load, excepting the empty bag, behind +me and came back lightly along my plainly marked path. But I was tired +enough when I got on board the barque again, and glad enough to eat my +supper and then stretch myself out to sleep upon the cabin floor. + +That night, being easy in my body--except for my wholesome +weariness--and easier in my mind because it seemed to me that I was +doing something for my deliverance, and being also aboard a vessel +that I knew was clean and pure, I had no visions of any kind whatever, +but went to sleep almost in a moment, and slept like a log, as the +saying is, the whole night through. Indeed, I slept later than suited +my purposes--being for rising early and making a long day's march of +it--and I might have wasted still more time in drowsing lazily had I +not been wakened a little before sunrise by the rattle on the cabin +roof of a dashing burst of rain. I was on deck in a moment, and by +stopping a scupper--as I had done the previous morning--presently had +by me a far bigger supply of water than I needed; from which I got a +good drink lying down to it, and filled an empty bean-tin for another +drink after my breakfast, and so had my two bottles full to last me +until the next day--and was pretty well satisfied by the rain's +recurrence that I could count upon a shower every morning about the +hour of dawn. + +When I had finished my breakfast I stowed ten tins of beans in the bag +and lashed four more together so that I could carry them on my +shoulders--being able to manage them in that way because I had no +other back-load--and so was ready to set out along my blazed path. But +before leaving the barque--hoping never again to lay eyes on her--I +took one more look through the cabin to make sure that I had not +passed over something that might be useful to me: and was lucky enough +to find under one of the bunks a drawer--that had been hidden by the +tumbled sheets hanging down over it--in which were some shirts and a +suit of linen clothing that most opportunely supplied my needs. They +all were badly mildewed, but sound enough, and the trousers--I had no +use for the coat and waistcoat--fitted me very well. So I threw off +the rags and tatters that I was wearing and put on in their place +these sound garments; and then I picked up my load and was off. + +Not having to stop to take bearings or to blaze my way, I made such +good time that I got to the end of the course over which I had spent a +good part of the previous afternoon in not much more than three hours. +I was pretty well pleased to find that I could make such brisk +marching under such a load; for it showed me that even when I should +get a long way from my base of supplies, that is to say from the +barque, I still could return to it at no great expense of time--and +the thought never entered my head that time was of no value to me, +since only by what would be close upon a miracle could I hope for +anything better than to find ways for killing it through all the +remainder of my days. + +Being thus come to my place of deposit I had to rearrange my +packing--going forward with a lighter load of food that I might +carry also the compass and the hatchet; and going slowly because of my +constant stops to take fresh bearings and to mark my path. But that +time I went straight onward until nightfall; and my heart sank a good +deal within me as I found that the farther I went the more antique in +model, and the more anciently sea-worn, were the wrecks which I came +upon--and so I knew that I must be making my way steadily into the +very depths of my maze. + +Yet I could not see that I would gain anything by going back to the +barque and thence taking a fresh departure. The barque, as I knew +certainly from the sort of craft surrounding her, was so deeply bedded +in the pack that no matter how I headed from her I should have to go +far before I came again to the coast of it; and on the other hand I +thought that by holding to my course northward I might work my way in +no great time across the innermost huddle of ancient wrecks--for of +the vast number of these I had no notion then--and so to the outer +belt of wrecks new-made: on board of which I certainly should find +fresh food in plenty, and from which (as I forced myself to believe) I +might get away once more into the living world. And so I pushed on +doggedly until the twilight changed to dusk and I could not venture +farther; and then I ate my supper on board of a strange old ship, as +round as a dumpling and with a high bow and a higher stern; and when +I had finished settled myself for the night, being very weary, under +the in-hang of her heavy bulging side. + +When morning came--and a shower with it that gave me what drink I +wanted and a store of water for the day--I debated for a while with +myself as to whether I should go onward with my whole load, or leave a +part of it in a fresh deposit to which I could return at will. The +second course seemed the better to me; and, indeed, it was necessary +for me to go light-loaded in order to get on at all. For I had come +among ships of such strange old-fashioned build, standing at bow and +stern so high out of the water, that unless they happened to be lying +side by side so that I could pass from one to another amidships--which +was the case but seldom--I had almost as much climbing up and down +among them as though I had been a monkey mounting and descending a +row of trees. + +Therefore I ate as much breakfast as I could pack into myself--that +being as good a way as any other of carrying food with me--and then I +tore the sleeves from my shirt and stuffed them from the tins that I +opened until I had two great bean sausages, which I fastened +belt-fashion about my waist and so carried without any trouble at all. +Indeed, but for this new arrangement of my load I doubt if I could +have gone onward; and even with it I had all that I could do to make +my way. The bag with the remaining tins in it I stood away inside the +cabin of the old ship--which I should have explored farther, so +strange-looking was it, but for my eager desire to get on; and I felt +quite sure that I would find all just as I had left it there even +though I did not come back again for twenty years. + + + + + +XXIV + +OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + + +Bent as I was upon hurrying forward, I could not but stop often in my +wearying marches--which began each morning at sunrise and did not end +until dusk--to gaze about me in wonder at the curious ancient craft +across which lay my way. It seemed to me, indeed, as though I had got +into a great marine museum where were stored together all manner of +such antique vessels as not for two full centuries, and a good many of +them for still longer, had sailed the seas. Some of them were mere +shallops, so little that sailormen nowadays would not venture to go +a-coasting in them, and others were great round-bellied old +merchantmen--yet half war-ships, too--with high-built fore-castles, +and towering poops blossoming out into rich carvings and having +galleries rising one above another and with a big iron lantern at the +top of all. And all of them had been shattered in fights and tempests, +and were so rotten with age that the decks beneath my feet were soft +and spongy; and all were weathered to a soft gray, or to a brownish +blackness, with here and there a gleam of bright upon them where there +still clung fast in some protected recess of their carving a little of +the heavy gilding with which it all had been overlaid. Guns of some +sort were on every one of them--ranging upward from little swivels +mounted on the rail (mere pop-guns they looked like) to long bronze +pieces of which the delicate ornamentation was lost in a thick coat of +verdigris that had been gathering slowly through years and years. But +as to the strange rig that they had worn in their days of active +sea-faring, I could only guess at it; for such of them as had come +into this death-haven with any of their top-hamper still standing, as +some of them no doubt had come, long since had lost it--first the +standing-rigging and later the masts rotting, and so all together +falling in a heap anyway upon the decks or over the side. And such a +company of withered old sea-corpses as these ancient wrecks made +there, all huddled together with the weed thick about them, was as +hopeless and as dismal a sight as ever was seen by the eyes of man. +But a matter that to me was more instantly dismal, as I pressed on +among them, came when I found that I was getting so close to the end +of my stock of provisions--while yet apparently no nearer to the end +of my journey--that there was no shirking the necessity of returning +to the distant barque for a fresh supply: a journey involving such +desperate toil, and so much of it, that the mere thought of it sent +aches through all my bones. + +It was about noon one day, while I was trying to nerve myself to make +this hard expedition, that I called a halt in order to eat my +dinner--which I knew would be a very little one--being just then come +aboard of a great ungainly galleon that from the look of her I thought +could not be less than two centuries and a half old: she being more +curiously ancient in her build than any vessel that I had got upon, +and her timbers so rotten that I had ticklish climbing as I worked my +way up her high quarter--and, indeed, one of her galleries giving way +under me, was near to spilling down her tall side to my death beneath +the tangled weed. And when at last I got to her deck I found it so +soft, partly with rottenness and partly with a sort of moss growing +over it, that I was fearful at each step that it would give way under +me and let me down with a crash into her hold. + +I would have been glad of a better place to eat my dinner in--she +being sodden wet everywhere, and with a chill about her for all the +warmth of the misty air shimmering with dull sunshine, and with a rank +unwholesome smell rising from her rotting mass. But all the hulks +thereabouts were in so much the same condition that by going on I was +not likely greatly to better myself; and I was so tired and so hungry +that I had no heart to attempt any more hard scrambling until I had +had both rest and food. And so I hunted out a spot on her deck where +the moss was thinnest and least oozy with moisture--being a place a +little sheltered by a sort of porch above her cabin doorway--and there +I seated myself and with a good deal of satisfaction fell to upon my +very scanty ration of beans. + +For a while I was busied wholly with my eating, being mighty sharp set +after my morning's walk; but when my short meal was ended I began to +look about me, and especially to peer into the deep old cabin--that +was pretty well lighted through the stern-windows and through the +doorway at my shoulder, of which the door had rotted away. + +From where I was seated I could see nearly the whole of it; and what I +first noted was that a little hatch in the middle of the floor was +open, and that dangling down into it from one of the roof-beams was a +double-purchase--as though an attempt to haul up some heavy thing from +that place had come to a short end. For the rest, there was little to +see: only a clumsy table set fast between fixed benches close under +the stern windows; a locker in which I found, when I looked into it, a +sodden thing that very likely had been the ship's log-book along with +a queer old Jacob's staff (as they were called) such as mariners took +their observations with before quadrants were known; and against the +wall were hanging a couple of long old rusty swords and a rusty thing +that I took at first to be a wash-basin, but made out was a +deep-curved breast-plate that must have belonged to a very +round-bellied little man. + +The floor of the cabin, as I found when I went in there, was so firm +and solid--being laid in teak, very likely, and having been sheltered +by the roof over it from the rains--that I had no fear, as I had on +the open deck, that the planks would give way under me and let me +through. And when I was come inside I found resting on a wooden rack +set against the front wall a couple of old bell-mouthed brass +fire-locks, coated thick with verdigris, and with them three smaller +bell-mouthed pieces which were neither guns nor pistols but something +between the two. As for the log-book, if it were the log-book, I could +make nothing of it. It was so soaked and swelled by the dampness, and +so rotten, that my fingers sank into it when I tried to pick it up as +they would have sunk into porridge; and the slimy stuff left a horrid +smell upon my hand. Therefore I cannot tell what was the name of this +old ship, nor to what country she belonged, nor whither she was +sailing on her last voyage; but that she was Spanish--or perhaps +Portuguese--and was wrecked while on her way homeward from some port +in the Indies, I do not doubt at all. + +When I had made my round of the cabin, finding so little, I came to +the open hatch in the middle of it and gazed down into the dusky depth +curiously: wondering a good deal that in what must have been almost +the moment when death was setting its clutch upon the galleon, and +when all aboard of her assuredly were in peril of their lives, her +people should have tried to rouse out a part of her cargo--as I had +proof that they had tried to do in the tackle still hanging there from +the beam. And the only reasonable way to account for this strange +endeavor, it seemed to me--since provisions were not likely to be +carried in that part of the vessel--was that something so precious was +down there in the blackness as to make the risk of death worth taking +in order to try to save it from the sea. + +With that there came over me an itching curiosity to find out what the +treasure was which the crew of the galleon--in such stress of some +sort that they had been forced to give up the job suddenly--had tried +to get out of their ship and carry off with them; and along with my +curiosity came an eager pounding of my heart as I thought to +myself--without ever stopping to think also how useless riches of any +sort were to me--that by right of discovery their treasure, whatever +it might be, had become mine. + +With my breath coming and going quickly, I got down upon my hands and +knees and stooped my head well into the opening that I might get rid +of the light in my eyes from the cabin windows; and being that way I +made out dimly that the lower block of the purchase was whipped fast +to a little wooden box, and that other small boxes were stowed in +regular tiers under it so that they filled snugly a little chamber +about a dozen feet square. That there were several layers of these +boxes seemed probable, for those in sight were only six feet or so +below the level of the cabin floor, and that they held either gold or +silver I considered to be beyond a doubt; and as I raised my head up +out of the hatch, my eyes blinking as the light struck them, and +thought of the wealth that must be stored there in that little +chamber, and that it was mine because I had found it, I gave a long +great sigh. + +For a minute or two I was quite dazed by my discovery; and then as I +got steadier--or got crazier, perhaps I ought to say--nothing would +serve me but that I must get down to where my treasure was, so that my +eyes might see it and that I might touch it with my hands. And with +that I caught at the tackle and gave a tug on the ropes to test them, +and as they held I swung to them to slide down--and the moment that my +full weight was on them they snapped like punk, and down I went feet +foremost and struck on the tiers of boxes with a bang. As I fell only +a little way, and upon a level surface--for I went clear of the box +to which the tackle was made fast--no harm came to me; but under my +feet I felt the rotten wood going squashily, and then beneath it +something firm and hard. And when I got back my balance and looked +down eagerly my eyes caught a dull gleam in the semi-darkness, and +then made out beneath my feet a mass of yellow ingots: and I gave a +great shout--that seemed to be forced out of me to keep my heart from +bursting--for I knew that I was standing on bars of gold! + + + + + +XXV + +I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + + +For a while, down in that black little place, I was quite a crazy +creature; being so stirred by my finding this great store of riches +that I went to dancing and singing there--and was not a bit bothered +by the vile stench rising from the rotten wood that my feet sent +flying, nor by the still viler stench rising from the reeking mass of +rottenness below me in the galleon's hold. + +And then, that I might see my treasure the more clearly, I fell to +tossing the ingots up through the hatch into the cabin--where I could +have a good light upon them, and could gloat upon the yellow gleam of +them, and could make some sort of a guess at how much each of them +represented in golden coin. From that I went on to calculating how +much the whole of them were worth together; and when I got to the end +of my figuring I fairly was dazed. + +In a rough way I estimated that each ingot weighed at least five +pounds, and as each of the little boxes contained ten of them the +value of every single box stored there was not less than fifteen +thousand dollars. As well as I could make out, the boxes were in rows +of ten and there were ten rows of them--which gave over a million and +a half of dollars for the top tier alone; and as there certainly was +an under-tier the value of my treasure at the least was three +millions. But actually, as I found by digging down through the ingots +until I came to the solid flooring, there were in all five tiers of +boxes; and what made the whole of them worth close upon eight millions +of our American money, or well on toward two millions of English +pounds. My brain reeled as I thought about it. The treasure that I had +possession of was a fortune fit for a king! + +I had swung myself up from the little chamber and was standing in the +cabin while I made these calculations, and when at last I got to my +sum total I felt so light-headed that it seemed as though I were +walking on air. Indeed, I fairly was stunned by my tremendous good +fortune and could not think clearly: and it was because my mind thus +was turned all topsy-turvy, I suppose, that the odd thought popped +into it that in the matter of weight my gold ingots were pretty much +the same as the tins of beans to get which I was about to return to +the barque--a foolish notion which so tickled my fancy that I burst +out into a loud laugh. + +The jarring sound of my laughter, which rang out with a ghastly +impropriety in that deathly place, brought me to my senses a little +and made me calmer. But my mind ran on for a moment or so upon the odd +notion that had provoked it, and in that time certain other thoughts +flashed into my head which had only to get there to spill out of me +every bit of my crazy joy. For first I realized that since I could +carry only the same weight of gold that I could carry of food my +actual wealth was but a single back-load, which brought my millions +down to a few beggarly thousands; and on top of that I realized--and +this came like a douse of ice-water--that for every ingot that I +carried away with me I must leave a like weight of food behind: which +meant neither more nor less than that my great treasure, for all the +good that ever it would be to me--so little could I venture to take of +it on these terms--might as well be already at the bottom of the sea. + +And then, being utterly dispirited and broken, I fell to thinking how +little difference it made one way or the other--how even a single +ingot would be a vain lading--since I had no ground for hoping that +ever again would I get to a region where I would have use for gold. +And with that--though I kept on staring in a dull way at the ingots +scattered over the floor of the cabin--I thought of the treasure no +longer: my heart being filled with a great sorrowing pity for myself, +because of the doom upon me to live out whatever life might be left +me in the most horrid solitude into which ever a man was cast. + +For a long while I stood despairing there; and then at last the hope +of life began to rise in me again--as it always must rise, no matter +how desperate are the odds against it, in the mind of a sound and +vigorous man. And with this saner feeling came again my desire to push +on in the direction that offered me a chance of deliverance--leaving +all my treasure behind me, since it was worth less to me than food; +and presently came the farther hope that when I had succeeded in +finding a way out of my sea-prison, and so was sure of my life once +more, I might be able to return to the galleon and take away with me +at least some portion of the great riches that I had found. + +Because of this foolish hope, and the very human comfort that I found +in knowing myself to be the possessor of such prodigious wealth, I +needs must jump down again to where it was and take another survey of +it before I left it behind. And then, being cooler and looking more +carefully, I noticed that the box to which the tackle had been made +fast was not like the other boxes--though about the same size with +them--but was a little coffer that seemed once to have been locked and +that still had around it the rusty remnants of iron bands. This +difference in the make of it put into my head the notion that its +contents were more precious than the contents of the other +boxes--though how that could be I did not well see; and my notion +seemed the more reasonable as I reflected that if the coffer really +were of an extraordinary value there would have been sense in trying +to save it even in a time of great peril--which was more than could be +said of trying to load down boats launched in the midst of some final +disaster with any of those heavy boxes of gold. + +My mind became excited by another mirage of riches as these thoughts +went through it, and to settle the matter I stooped down and got a +grip on the coffer--which was made of a tougher wood than the boxes +and held together--and managed by a good deal of straining to lift it +up through the hatch into the cabin, where I could examine it at +my ease. + +When it was new an axe would not have made much impression upon it, so +strongly had it been put together; but there were left only black +stains to show where the iron had bound it, and the wood had rotted +until it was softer than the softest bit of pine. Indeed, I had only +to give a little jerk to the lid to open it: both the lock and the +hinges being gone with rust, and the lid held in place only by a sort +of sticky slime. + +But when I did get it open the first thing that came out of it was a +stench so vile that I had to jump up in a hurry and rush to the open +deck until the worst of it had ebbed away; and this exceeding evil +odor was given off by a slimy ooze of rotted leather--as I knew a +little later by finding still unmelted some bits of small leather bags +in which what was stored there had been tied. But even as I jumped up +and left the cabin my eyes caught a gleam of brightness in the horrid +slimy mess that set my heart to beating hard again; and it pounded +away in my breast still harder when I came back and made out clearly +what I had found. + +For there in the rotten ooze, strewn thickly, was such a collection of +glittering jewels that my eyes fairly were dazzled by them; and when I +had turned the coffer upside down on the deck so that the slime flowed +away stickily--giving off the most dreadful stench that ever I have +encountered--I saw a heap of precious stones such as for size and +beauty has not been gathered into one place, I suppose--unless it may +have been in the treasury of some Eastern sovereign--since the very +beginning of the world. At a single glance I knew that the great +treasure of gold, which had seemed to me overwhelming because of its +immensity, was as nothing in comparison with this other treasure +wherein riches were so concentrate and sublimate that I had the very +essence of them: and I reeled and trembled again as I hugged the +thought to me that by my finding of it I was made master of it all. + + + + + +XXVI + +OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + + +I was pretty much mooning mad for a while, I suppose: sometimes +walking about the cabin and thrusting with my feet contemptuously at +the gold ingots strewn over the floor of it, and sometimes standing +still in a sort of rapt wonder over my heap of jewels--and anything +like sensible thinking was quite beyond the power of my unbalanced +mind. But at last I was aroused, and so brought to myself a little, by +the daylight waning suddenly: as it did in that region when the sun +dropped down into the thick layer of mist lying close upon the +water--making at first a strange purplish dusk, and then a rich +crimson after-glow that deepened into purple again, and so turning +slowly into blackness as night came on. + +When I had come aboard the galleon, about noon-time, and had found her +so sodden with wet and so reeking with foul odors--as, indeed, were +all of the very ancient ships which made the mid-part of that sea +graveyard--I had made my mind up to a forced march in the afternoon +that I hoped would carry me through the worst of all that rottenness, +and so to a ship partly dry and less ill-smelling for the night. But +when I came out from the cabin and looked about me, and saw how thick +and black were the shadows in the clefts between the wrecks, I knew +that I could not venture onward, but must pass the night where I was. +And this was a prospect not at all to my mind. + +The cabin, of course, was the only place for me, the soaked deck with +the soaked moss on top of it being quite out of the question; but even +the cabin was not fit for a dog to lie in, so chill and damp was it +and so foul with the stench rising and spreading from the slime of +rotted leather that I had emptied from the coffer and that made a +little vile pool upon the floor. And through the open hatch there came +up a dismal heavy odor of all the rotten stuff down there that almost +turned my stomach, and that made the air laden with it hard to +breathe--though in my hot excitement I had not noticed it at all. But +this last I got the better of in part by covering again the opening, +though I had to move the hatch very gently and carefully to keep it +from falling into rotten fragments in my hands. Yet because it was so +dense with moisture, when I did get it set in place, it pretty well +kept the stench down. And then I kicked away some of the ingots into a +corner, and so cleared a space on the floor where I could stretch +myself just within the cabin door. + +These matters being attended to, I seated myself in the same place +where I had eaten my dinner--just outside the door, under the little +sort of porch overhanging it--and ate the short ration that I allowed +myself for my supper, and found it very much less than my lively +hunger required. When I had finished I sat on there for a good while +longer, being very loath to go into the cabin; but at last, by finding +myself nodding with weary drowsiness, I knew that sleep would come +quickly, and so went inside and laid myself down upon the floor. There +still was a faint glimmer of dying daylight outside, and this little +glow somehow comforted me as I lay there facing the doorway and +blinking now and then before my eyes were tight closed; but I did not +lie long that way half-waking, being so utterly fagged in both mind +and body that I dropped off into deep slumber before the +darkness fell. + +I suppose that even in my sleep I had an uneasy sense of my bleak +surroundings; and that this, in the course of three or four hours--by +which time I was a good deal rested and so slept less soundly--got the +better of my weariness and roused me awake again. But when I first +woke I was sure that I had slept the night through and that early +morning was come--for there was so much light in the cabin that I +never thought to account for it save by the return of day. Yet the +light was not like daylight, as I realized when I had a little more +shaken off my sleepiness, being curiously white and soft. + +I turned over--for I had rolled in my uneasy sleep and got my back +toward the doorway--and raised myself a little on my elbow so that I +might see out clearly; and what I saw was so unearthly strange, and in +a way so awe-compelling, that in another moment I was on my feet and +staring with all my eyes. Over the whole deck of the galleon a soft +lambent light was playing, and this went along her bulwarks and up +over her high fore-castle so that all the lines of her structure were +defined sharply by it; and pale through the mist against the +blackness, out over her low waist, I could catch glimpses of the other +tall old ships lying near her all likewise shining everywhere with the +same soft flames--which yet were not flames exactly, but rather a +flickering glow. + +In a moment or so I realized that this luminous wonder, which at the +first look had so strong a touch of the supernatural in it, was no +more than the manifestation of a natural phenomenon: being the shimmer +of phosphorescent light upon the soaking rotten woodwork of the +galleon and of the ships about her, as rotten and as old. But making +this explanation to myself did not lessen the frightening strangeness +of the spectacle, nor do much to stop the cold creeps which ran over +me as I looked at it: I being there solitary in that marvellous +brightness--that I knew was in a way a death-glow--the one +thing alive. + +But presently my unreasoning shivering dread began to yield a little, +as my curiosity bred in me an eager desire to see the whole of this +wondrous soft splendor; for I made sure from my glimpses over the +galleon's bulwarks that it was about me on every side. And so I +stepped out from the cabin upon the deck, where my feet sank into the +short mossy growth that coated the rotten planks and I was fairly +walking in what seemed like a lake of wavering pale flame; and from +there, that I might see the better, I climbed cautiously up the rotten +stair leading to the roof of the cabin, and thence to the little +over-topping gallery where the stern-lantern was. And from that height +I could gaze about me as far as ever the mist would let me see. + +Everywhere within the circle that my eyes covered--which was not a +very big one, for in the night the mist was thick and low-lying--the +old wrecks wedged together there were lighted with the same lambent +flames: which came and went over their dead carcasses as though they +all suddenly were lighted and then as suddenly were put out again; and +farther away the glow of them in the mist was like a silvery +shimmering haze. By this ebbing and flowing light--which seemed to +me, for all that I knew the natural cause of it, so outside of nature +that I thrilled with a creeping fear as I looked at it--I could see +clearly the shapes of the strange ancient ships around me: their great +poops and fore-castles rising high above their shallow waists, and +here and there among them the remnant of a mast making a line of light +rising higher still--like a huge corpse-candle shining against the +blackness beyond. And the ruin of them--the breaks in their lines, and +the black gaps where bits of their frames had rotted away +completely--gave to them all a ghastly death-like look; while their +wild tangling together made strange ragged lines of brightness +wavering under the veil of mist, as though a desolate sea-city were +lying there dead before me lit up with lanterns of despair. + +Yet that which most keenly thrilled me with a cold dread was my strong +conviction that I could see living men moving hither and thither over +those pale-lit decks, where my reason told me that only ancient death +could be; for the play of the flickering light made such a commotion +of fleeting flames and dancing shadows, going and coming in all manner +of fantastic shapes, that every shattered hulk around me seemed to +have her old crew alive and on board of her again--all hurrying in +bustling crowds fore and aft, and up and down the heights of her, as +though under orderly command. And at times these shapes were so real +and so distinct to me that I was for crying out to them--and would +check myself suddenly, shivering with a fright which I knew was out of +all reason but which for the life of me I could not keep down. + +And so the night wore away: while I stood there on the galleon's poop +with the soft pale flames flickering around me in the mist, and my +fears rising and falling as I lost and regained control of myself; and +I think that it is a wonder that I did not go mad. + + + + + +XXVII + +I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + + +At last, after what seemed to me an age of waiting for it, a little +pinkish tone began to glow in the mist to the eastward; and as that +honest light got stronger the death-fires on the old galleon and on +the wrecks around her paled quickly until they were snuffed out +altogether--and then came the customary morning down-pour of rain. + +With the return of the blessed daylight, and with the enlivening douse +of cool fresh water upon me, I got to be myself again: my fanciful +fears of the night-time leaving me, and my mind coming back soberly to +a consideration of my actual needs. Of these the most pressing, as my +stomach told me, was to get my breakfast; and when that matter, in a +very poor way, had been attended to, and I had drunk what water I +needed--without much relishing it--from a pool that had formed on the +deck where the timbers sagged down a little, I was in better heart to +lay out for myself a plan of campaign. + +In one way planning was not necessary. By holding to a northerly +course I believed that I had got at least half way across my +continent, and my determination was fixed to keep on by the +north--rather than risk a fresh departure that might only carry me by +a fresh way again into the depths of the tangle--until I should come +once more to the open sea: if I may call open sea that far outlying +expanse of ocean covered with thick-grown weed. But it was needful +that I should plan for my supply of food as I went onward, that was to +be got only by returning to the far-away barque; and also I felt an +itching desire--as strong as at first blush it was unreasonable--to +carry away with me some part of the treasure that I had found. That I +ever should get out into the world again, and so have the good of my +riches, seemed likely to me only in my most sanguine moments; but even +on the slimmest chance of accomplishing my own deliverance I had a +very natural human objection to leaving behind me the wealth that I +had found through such peril--only to lie there for a while longer +idly, and then to be lost forever when the galleon sank to the bottom +of the sea. + +As to the gold, it was plain that I could carry off so little of it +that I might as well resign myself--having that which was better worth +working for--to losing it all. But my treasure of jewels was another +matter. This was so very much more valuable than the gold--for the +stones for the most part were of a prodigious size and a rare +fineness--that between the two there really was no comparison; and at +the same time it was so compact in bulk and so petty in weight that I +might easily carry the whole of it with me and a good store of food +too. And so, to make a beginning, I picked the stones out of the slimy +and stinking ooze in which they were lying and washed them clean in +the pool of water on the deck; and then I packed them snugly into the +shirt-sleeve in which my beans had been stored--and tickled myself the +while with the fancy that most men would be willing for the sake of +stuffing a shirt-sleeve that way to cut off the arm to which +it belonged. + +My packing being finished, and my precious bag laid away in a corner +of the cabin until I should come to fetch it again, I was in a better +mood for facing my long march back to the barque: for I had come to +have fortune as well as life to work for, and those two strong +stimulants to endeavor working together gave my spirits a great upward +pull. And, fortunately, my cheerfulness staid by me through my long +scrambling struggle backward along my blazed path; nor was it, in +reality, as hard a journey as I had expected it to be--for I had but a +light load of food to carry, barely enough to last me through, and the +marks which I had left upon the wrecks in passing made my way plain. +And so, at last, I got back to the barque one evening about sunset, +and had almost a feeling of homecoming in boarding her again; and I +was thankful enough to be able to eat all the supper I wanted, and +then to lie down comfortably in her clean cabin and to rest myself in +sound slumber after my many restless nights on rotten old ships +reeking with a chill dampness that struck into my very bones. + +I slept soundly and woke refreshed; and for that I was thankful, since +the work cut out for me--to get back to the galleon with enough +provisions to last me until I could cross the rest of the +wreck-pack--was about as much as a strong man in good condition could +do. However, I had thought of something that would make this hard job +less difficult; for the ease with which I had carried a part of my +food in long narrow bags, sausage-fashion--thereby getting rid of +both the weight and the awkwardness of the tins--had put into my head +the notion of carrying in that way the whole of my fresh supply, and +so carrying at least twice as much of it. And I calculated--since I +could go rapidly along my blazed path--that by cutting myself down to +very short rations I could get back to the galleon with a bigger stock +of provisions than that with which I left the barque when I made my +first start toward the north--and if the galleon lay, as I believed +that she did, about in the centre of the pack, this would give me +enough food to last me until I got across to the other side. So I +rummaged out some more of the linen shirts that I had found--taking a +fresh one for my own wear to begin with--and set myself to my +sausage-making with the sleeves of them; packing each sleeve with +beans as tight as I could ram it, and working over each a netting of +light line that I finished off with loops at the ends. Ten of my big +sausages I made into a bundle to be carried on my shoulders like a +knapsack; and the rest I arranged to swing by their loops from a rope +collar about my neck, with another rope run through the lower loops to +be made fast about my waist and so hold them steady--and this +arrangement, as I found when I tried it, answered very well. And +finally, that I might carry my jewels the more securely, I cut off a +sleeve from the oil-skin jacket to serve for an outer casing for them, +and took along also some of the light line to net over the bundle and +make it solid and strong; in that way guarding against the chance of +their rubbing a hole in their linen covering--by which I might have +lost them all. + +I worked fast over my packing, and got it all finished and was ready +to start away by not a great while after sunrise; yet when the time +for my start came I hesitated a little, so darkly uncertain seemed the +issue of the adventure that I had in hand. Indeed, the whole of my +project was a wild one, such as no man not fairly driven into it +would have entertained at all. Its one certainty was that only by +excessive toil could I even hope to carry it through. All else was +doubtful: for I knew not how distant were the farther bounds of the +desolate dead region into which I was bent upon penetrating; nor had I +ground for believing--since I had food in plenty where I was--that I +would gain anything by traversing it; and back of all that was the +gloomy chance of some accident befalling me that would end in my dying +miserably by the way. While I was busily employed in making ready for +my march I had grown quite cheerful; but suddenly my little crop of +good spirits withered within me, and when at last I did go forward it +was with a very heavy heart. + + + + + +XXVIII + +HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + + +Could I have foreseen all that was ahead of me I doubt if I should +have had the courage to go on: choosing rather to stay there on the +barque until I had eaten what food I had by me, and then to die +slowly--and finding that way easier than the one I chose to follow, +with its many days of struggle and its many chill nights of sorrow and +I throughout the whole of it rubbing shoulders with despair. + +As I think of it now, that long, long march seems to me like a +horrible nightmare; and sometimes it comes back to me as a real +nightmare in my dreams. Again, always heavy laden, I am climbing and +scrambling and jumping, endlessly and hopelessly, among old rotten +hulks; each morning trying to comfort myself with the belief that by +night I may see some sign of ships less ancient, and so know that I am +winning my way a little toward where I would be; and each night +finding myself still surrounded by tall antique craft such as have not +for two centuries and more held the seas, with the feeling coming down +crushingly upon me that I have not advanced at all; and even then no +good rest for me--as I lie down wearily in some foul-smelling old +cabin, chill with heavy night-mist and with the reeking damp of oozy +rotten timbers, and perhaps find in it for my sleeping-mates little +heaps of fungus outgrowing from dead men's bones. And the mere dream +of all this so bitterly hurts me that I wonder how I ever came through +the reality of it alive. + +At the start, as I have said, I had calculated that the treasure-laden +galleon lay about in the centre of the wreck-pack, and therefore that +I would get across from her to the other side of the pack in about the +same time that I had taken to reach her in my first journey from the +barque; and on the basis of that assumption, when I was come to her +again, I shaped my course hopefully for the north. But my calculation, +though on its face a reasonable enough one, proved to be most woefully +wrong: and I have come to the conclusion, after a good deal of +thinking about it, that this was because the whole vast mass of +wreckage had a circular motion--the great current that created it +giving at the same time a swirl to it--which made the seemingly +straight line that I followed in reality a constantly extended curve. +But whatever the cause may have been, the fact remains that when by my +calculation I should have been on the outer edge of the wreck-pack I +still was wandering in its depths. In one way my march was easier the +longer that it lasted, my load growing a little lighter daily as my +store of food was transferred to my stomach from my back. At first +this steady decrease of my burden was a comfort to me; but after a +while--when more than half of it was gone, and I still seemed to be no +nearer to the end of my journey than when I left the galleon--I had a +very different feeling about it: for I realized that unless I came +speedily to ships whereon I would find food--of which there seemed +little probability, so ancient were the craft surrounding me--I either +must go back to the barque and wait on her until death came to me +slowly, or else die quickly where I was. And so I had for my +comforting the option of a tardy death or a speedy one--with the +certainty of the latter if I hesitated long in choosing between +the two. + +I suppose that the two great motive powers in the world are hope and +despair. It was hope that started me on that dismal march, but if +despair had not at last come in to help me I never should have got to +its end: for I took Death by both shoulders and looked straight into +the eyes of him when I decided, having by me only food for three days +longer--and at that but as little as would keep the life in me--to +give over all thought of returning to the barque and to make a dash +forward as fast as I could go. I had little enough to carry, but +that I might have still less I left my hatchet behind me--having, +indeed, no farther use for it since if my dash miscarried I was done +for and there was no use in marking a path over which I never could +return; and I was half-minded to leave my bag of jewels behind me too. +But in the end I decided to carry the jewels along with me--my fancy +being caught by the grim notion that if I did die miserably in that +vile solitude at least I would die one of the richest men in all the +world. As to my water-bottles, one of them I had thrown away when I +found that I could count on the morning showers certainly, and the +other had been broken in one of my many tumbles: yet without much +troubling me--as I found that I could manage fairly well, eating but +little, if I filled myself pretty full of water at the beginning of +each day. And so, with only the bag of food and the bag of jewels upon +my back, and with the compass on top of them, I was ready to press +onward to try conclusions with despair. + +The very hopelessness of my effort, and the fact that at last I was +dealing with what in one way was a certainty--for I knew that if my +plan miscarried I had only a very little while longer to live--gave me +a sort of stolid recklessness which amazingly helped me: stimulating +me to taking risks in climbing which before I should have shrunk +from, and so getting me on faster; and at the same time dulling my +mind to the dreads besetting it and my body to its ceaseless pains +begot of weariness and thirst and scanty food. So little, indeed, did +I care what became of me that even when by the middle of my second +day's march I saw no change in my surroundings I did not mind it much: +but, to be sure, at the outset of this last stage of my journey I had +thrown hope overboard, and a man once become desperate can feel no +farther ills. + +But what does surprise me--as I think of it now, though it did not in +any way touch me then--was the slowness with which, when there was +reason for it, my dead hope got alive again: as it did, and for cause, +at the end of that same second day--for by the evening I came out, +with a sharp suddenness, from among the strange old craft which for so +long on every side had beset me and found myself among ships which by +comparison with the others--though they too, in all conscience, were +old enough--seemed to be quite of a modern build. What is likely, I +think--and this would help to account for my long wanderings over +those ancient rotten hulks--is that some stormy commotion of the whole +mass of wreckage, such as had thrust the barque whereon I had found +food deep into the thick of it, had squeezed a part of the centre of +the pack outward; in that way making a sort of promontory--along +which by mere bad mischance I had been journeying--among the wrecks of +a later time. But this notion did not then occur to me; nor did I, as +I have said, at first feel any very thrilling hope coming back to me +when I found myself among modern ships again--so worn had my long +tussle with difficulties left my body and so sodden was my mind. + +At first I had just a dull feeling of satisfaction that I had got once +more--after my many nights passed on hulks soaked with wet to +rottenness--on good honest dry planks: where I could sleep with no +deadly chill striking into me, and where in my restless wakings I +should not see the pale gleam of death-fires, and where foul stenches +would not half stifle me the whole night long. And it was not until I +had eaten my scant supper, and because of the comfort that even that +little food gave me felt more disposed to cheerfulness, that in a weak +faint-hearted way I began to hope again that perhaps the run of luck +against me had come to an end. + +In truth, though, there was not much to be hopeful about. For my +supper I had eaten the half of what food was left me, and it was so +little that I still had a mighty hungry feeling in my belly after it +was down. For my breakfast I should eat what was left; and after that, +unless I found fresh supplies quickly, I was in a fair way to lie down +beside my bag of jewels and die of starvation--like the veriest +beggar that ever was. But I did hope a little all the same; and when I +went on again the next morning, though my last scrap of food was +eaten, my spirits kept up pretty well--for I was sure from the look of +the wrecks which I traversed that the dead ancient centre of my +continent at last was behind me, and that its living outer fringe +could not be very far away. + +All that day I pressed forward steadily, helped by my little +flickering flame of hope--which burned low because sanguine +expectation does not consort well with an empty stomach, yet which +kept alive because the wreck-pack had more and more of a modern look +about it as I went on. But the faintness that I felt coming over me as +the day waned gave me warning that the rope by which I held my life +was a short one; and as the sun dropped down into the mist--at once +thinning it, so that I could see farther, and giving it a ruddy tone +which sent red streams of brightness gleaming over the tangle of +wreckage far down into the west--I felt that the rope must come to an +end altogether, and that I must stop still and let death overtake me, +by the sunset of one day more. + +And then it was, just as the sun was sinking, that I saw clearly--far +away to the westward--the funnel of a steamer standing out black and +sharp against the blood-red ball that in another minute went down +into the sea. And with that glimpse--which made me sure that I was +close to the edge of the wreck-pack, and so close to food again--a +strong warm rush of hope swept through me that outcast finally my +despair. + + + + + +XXIX + +I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + + +That I should get to the steamer that night I knew was clean +impossible, for she lay a long way off from me, and that I had seen +her funnel at all was due to the mere happy accident of its standing +for that single minute directly between me and the setting sun. I did +hope, though, that by pressing hard toward her I might fetch aboard of +some vessel not long wrecked on which I would find eatable food; yet +in this I was disappointed, the shadows coming down on me so fast that +I was forced in a little while to pull up short--stopping while still +a little daylight remained so that I might stow myself the more +comfortably for the night. + +As to looking for provender on the little old ship that I settled to +camp on, I knew that it was useless. From her build I fixed her as +belonging to the beginning of the present century, and from her depth +in the wreck-pack she probably had met her death-storm not less than +threescore years before; and so what provisions she had carried long +since had wasted away. Yet there was a chance that I might find some +spirits aboard of her--which would be a poor substitute for food, but +better than nothing--and I hurried to have a look in her cabin before +darkness settled down. + +The cabin hatch was closed, and as it was both locked and swelled with +moisture I could not budge it; but two or three kicks sent the doors +beneath the hatch flying and so opened an entrance for me--that I was +slow to make use of because of a heavy musty stench which poured out +from that shut up place and made me turn a little sick, as I got my +first strong whiff of it. Indeed, I was so faint and so hungry that I +was in no condition to stand up against that curiously vile smell. To +lessen it, by getting a current of air into the cabin, I smashed in +the little skylight--over which some ropes were stretched and still +held the remnant of a tarpaulin, that must have been set in place +while the storm was blowing which sent the ship to her account; and +this so far improved matters that presently I was able to go down the +companion-way, though the stench still was horridly strong. + +At the bottom of the stair, the light being faint, I tripped over +something; and looking down saw bones lying there with a sort of +fungus partly covering them, and to the skull there still clung a mat +of woolly hair plaited here and there into little braids: by which, +and by the size of the bones, it seemed that a negro woman must have +been left fastened into the cabin to die there after the crew had +been washed overboard or had taken to the boats. But even then the +business in which the ship had been engaged did not occur to me; and +after hesitating for a moment I went on into the cabin, and looked +about me as well as I could in the twilight for the case of bottles +that I hoped to find. + +The case was there, as I was pretty certain that it would be, such +provision rarely being absent from old-time vessels, but all the +bottles had been taken from it except an empty one--which looked as +though the cabin had been opened at the last moment to fetch out +supplies for the boats, and then deliberately locked fast again with +the poor woman inside: an act so barbarous that it did not seem +possible unless a crew of out and out devils had been in charge of the +ancient craft. However, the matter which just then most concerned me +was the liquor that I was in search of, that I might a little stay my +stomach with it against the hunger that was tormenting me; and so I +ransacked the lockers that ran across the stern of the ship and across +a part of the bulkhead forward, in the faint hope that I might come +upon another supply--but my search was a vain one, two of the lockers +having only some mouldy clothing in them, and all the rest being +filled with arms. The stock of muskets and pistols and cutlasses was +so large, so far beyond any honest traders needs, that I could not at +all account for it: until the thought occurred to me that the vessel +I had come aboard of had been a pirate--and that notion seemed to fit +in pretty well with her crew having gone off and left the poor woman +locked up in the cabin to starve. However, as I found out a little +later, while my guess was a close one it still was wrong. + +The four bunks, two on each side, were not enclosed, and the only door +opening from the cabin was in the bulkhead forward--and worth trying +because it might lead to a store-room, I thought. It was a very +stout-looking door, and across it, resting in strong iron catches, +were two heavy wooden bars. These puzzled me a good deal, there being +no sense in barring the outside of a store-room door in that fashion, +since the door did not seem to be locked and anybody could lift the +bars away. However, I got them out of their sockets without much +difficulty; and after a good deal of tugging at a ring made fast in it +I got the door open too--and instantly I was thrust back from the +opening by an outpouring of the same vile heavy musty stench that had +come up from the cabin when I staved in the hatch, only this was still +ranker and more vile. And I found that the door did not lead into a +little store-room, as I had fancied, but right through from the cabin +to the ship's main-deck--that stretched away forward in a gloomy +tunnel, as black as a cellar on a rainy night, into which I could +see only for four or five yards. Indeed, but for the way that the ship +chanced to be lying--with her stern toward the west, so that a good +deal of light came in through the broken skylight from the ruddy +sunset--I could not have seen into it at all. + +But I saw far enough, and more than far enough--and the sight that I +looked on sent all over me a creeping chill. Wherever the light went, +skeletons were lying--with a fungus growth on the bones that gave a +horrid effect of scraps of flesh still clinging to them, and the +loose-lying skulls (of which a couple were close by the doorway) were +covered still with a matting of woolly hair. And I could tell from the +tangle that the skeletons were in--though also lying in some sort of +orderly rows, because of the chains which held them fast--that the +poor wretches to whom they had belonged had writhed and struggled over +each other in their agony: and I could fancy what a hell that black +place must have been while death was doing his work among them, they +all squirming together like worms in a pot; and it seemed to me that I +could hear their yells and howls--at first loud and terrible, and then +growing fainter and fainter until they came to be but low groans of +misery that at last ended softly in dying sighs. + +The horror of it all came home to me so sharply, after I had stood +there at the doorway for a moment or two held fast by a sort of +ghastly fascination, that I gave a yell myself as keen and as loud as +any which the poor blacks had uttered; and with that I turned about +and dashed up the companionway to the deck as hard as I could go. Nor +could I bear to abide on the slave-ship, nor even near her, for the +night. Very little light was left to me, but I made the most of it and +went scrambling from hulk to hulk until I had put a good distance +behind me--so that I not only could not see her but could not tell +certainly, having twisted and turned a dozen times in my scurrying +flight, in which direction she lay. And being thus rid of her, I +fairly dropped--so weak and so wearied was I--on the deck of the +vessel that I had come to, and lay there for a while resting, with my +breath coming and going in panting sobs. + +What sort of a craft I had fetched aboard of I did not dare to try to +find out. Going any farther then was impossible, the twilight having +slipped away almost into darkness, and whatever she might be I had to +make the best of her for the night. And so I settled myself into a +corner well up in her bows--that I might be as far away as possible +from any grisly things that might be hid in her cabin--and did my best +to go to sleep. But it was a long while, utterly weary though I was, +before sleep would come to me. My stomach, being pretty well +reconciled by that time to emptiness, did not bother me much; but my +frightened rush away from that sickening charnel-house had left me +greatly tormented by thirst, and my mind was so fevered by the horror +of what I had seen that for a long while I could not stop making +pictures to myself of the black wretches, chained and imprisoned, +writhing under the torture of starvation and at last dying desperate +in the dark. And when sleep did come to me I still had the same +loathsome horrors with me in my dreams. + + + + + +XXX + +I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + + +The morning shower that waked me gave me the water that I so longed +for; but it only a little refreshed me, because my chief need was +food. Being past the first sharp pangs of hunger, I was in no great +bodily pain; but a heavy languor was upon me that dulled me in both +flesh and spirit and disposed me to give up struggling for a while, +that I might enjoy what seemed to me just then to be the supreme +delight of sitting still. Yet I had sense enough to know that if I +surrendered to this feeling it would be the end of me; and after a +little I found energy enough to throw it off. + +I was helped thus to rouse myself by finding, as I looked around me +with dull eyes, that the hulk I had come aboard of in such a hurry in +the twilight certainly had not been wrecked for any great length of +time. She was a good-sized schooner, quite modern in her build; and, +although she had weathered everywhere to a pale gray, her timbers were +not rotten and what was left of her cordage still was fairly sound: +all of which, as I took it in slowly, gave me hope of finding aboard +of her some sort of eatable food. + +But while this hope was slow to shape itself in my heavy mind, I was +quick enough to act upon it when once it had taken form. With a +briskness that quite astonished me I got on my feet and walked aft to +the cabin--the cabin pantry being the most likely place in which to +look for food put up in tins; and I was farther encouraged by finding +the hatch open and the cabin itself fresh-smelling and clean. And, to +my joy, the food that I hoped to find in the pantry really was there; +and such a plenty of it that I could not have eaten it in a +whole year. + +I had the good sense to go slowly--and that was not easy, for at sight +of something that would satisfy it my hunger all of a sudden woke up +ragingly; but I knew that I stood a good chance of killing myself +after my long fast unless I held my appetite well in hand, and so I +began with a tin of peaches--opening it with a knife that I found +there--and it seemed to me that those peaches were the most delicious +thing that I had tasted since I was born. After they were down I went +on deck again--to be out of reach of temptation--and staid there +resolutely for an hour; getting at this time, and also keeping myself +a little quiet, by counting six thousand slowly--and it did seem to me +as though I never should get to the end! Then I had another of those +delicious tins; and after a trying half hour of waiting I had a third; +and then--being no longer ravenous, and no longer having the feeling +of infinite emptiness--I laid down on the deck just outside the cabin +scuttle and slept like a tree in winter until well along in the +afternoon. + +I woke as hungry as a hound, but with a comfortable and natural sort +of hunger that I set myself to satisfying with good strong food: +eating a tin of meat with a lively relish and without any following +stomach-ache, and drinking the juice of a tin of peaches after +it--there being no water fit to drink on board. My meal began to set +me on my feet again; but I still felt so tired and so shaky that I +decided to stay where I was until the next morning--having at last a +comforting sense of security that took away my desire to hurry and +made me wholly easy in my mind. And this feeling got stronger as the +sun fell away westward and made a crimson bank of mist along the +horizon, against which I saw the funnels of more than a dozen +steamers--and so knew that the coast of my continent surely was close +by. What I would do when I got to the steamers was a matter that I did +not bother about. For the moment I was satisfied with the certainty +that I would find aboard of them food in plenty and a comfortable +place to sleep in, and that was enough. And so I did not make any +plans, or even think much; but just ate as much supper as I could +stow away in my carcase, and then settled myself in the schooner's +cabin for the night. + +In the morning I was so well rested, and felt so fresh again, that I +was eager to get on; and I was so light-hearted that I fell to singing +as I pushed forward briskly, being full of hope once more and of airy +fancies that I had only to reach the edge of the wreck-pack in order +to hit upon some easy way of getting off from it out over the open +sea. A little thinking would have shown me, of course, that my fancies +had nothing to rest on, and that coming once more to the coast of my +continent was only to be where I was when my long journey through that +death-stricken mass of rottenness began; but the reaction of my +spirits was natural enough after the gloom that for so long had held +them, and so was the castle-building that I took to as I went onward +as to what I would do with my great treasure when at last I had it +safe out in the living world. + +Although I did not doubt that food of some sort was to be found on +board of all the vessels which I should cross that day, I guarded +against losing time in looking for it by carrying along with me a +couple of tins of meat--slung on my shoulders in a wrapping of +canvas--and on one of these, about noon-time, I made a good meal. When +I had finished it I was sorry enough that I had not brought a tin of +peaches too, for the meat was pretty well salted and made me as +thirsty as a fish very soon after I got it down. + +But my thirst was not severe enough to trouble me greatly; and, +indeed, I partly forgot it in my steadily growing excitement as I +pressed forward and more and more distinctly saw the funnels of a +whole fleet of steamers looming up through the golden mist ahead of me +like chimneys in a sun-shot London fog. And so the afternoon went by, +and my crooked rough path slipped away behind me so rapidly that by a +good hour before sunset I was near enough to the steamers to see not +only their funnels but their hulls. + +The look of one of them, and she was one of the nearest, was so +familiar as I began to make her out clearly that I was sure that I had +got back again to the _Hurst Castle_; for she was just about the size +of the _Hurst Castle_, and was lying with her bow down in the water +and her stern high in the air--and the delight of this discovery threw +me into such a ferment that I quite forgot how tired I was and fairly +ran across the last half dozen vessels that I had to traverse before I +came under her tall side. However, when I got close to her I saw that +she was not the _Hurst Castle_ after all, but only another unlucky +vessel that had broken her nose in collision and so had filled forward +and gone sagging down by the bows. + +As it happened, the wreck from which I had to board her was a little +water-logged brig, close under her quarter, so low-lying that the +tilted-up stern of the steamer fairly towered above the brig like a +three-story house; and at first it seemed to me that I was about as +likely to climb up a house-front as I was to climb up that high smooth +wall of iron. But a part of the brig's foremast still was standing, +and from it a yard jutted out to within jumping distance of the +steamer's rail; and while that was not a way that I fancied--nor a way +that ever I should have dared to take, I suppose, had there been any +choice in the matter--up it I had to go. Hot as I was though with +eagerness, I was a badly scared man as I slowly got to my feet and +steadied myself for a moment on the end of the yard and then jumped +for it; and a very thankful man, an instant later, when I struck the +steamer's rail and fell floundering inboard on her deck--though I +bruised myself in my fall pretty badly, and got an unexpected crack on +the back of my head as my bag of jewels flew up and hit me with +a bang. + +However, no real harm was done; and I was so keen to look about me +that in a moment I was on my legs again and went forward, limping a +little, that I might get up on the bridge: for my strongest +desire--stronger even than my longing to go in search, of the water +that I did not doubt I would find in the steamer's tanks--was to gaze +out over the open ocean, across which I had to go in some way if ever +again I was to be free. + +The sun was close down on the horizon, a red ball of fire glowing +through the mist, and in the mist above and over the surface of the +sea below a red light shone. But as I stood on the bridge looking at +this strange splendor all my hope died away slowly within me and a +chill settled upon my heart. As far as ever I could see the water was +covered thickly with tangled and matted weed, broken only here and +there by hummocks of wreckage and by a few hulks drifting in slowly to +take their places in the ranks of the dead. The almost imperceptible +progress of these hulks showed how dense was the mass through which +they were drifting; and showed, too, how utterly impossible it would +be for me to force my way in a boat driven by oars or sails to the +clear water lying far, far off. Even a steamer scarcely could have +pushed through that tangle; and could not have gone twice her own +length without hopelessly fouling her screw. And it seemed to me that +I might better have died on one of the old rotten hulks among which I +had been for so long a time wandering--where hope was not, and where I +was well in the mood for dying--rather than thus to have got clear of +them, and have hope come back to me, only to bring up short against +the wall of my sea-prison and so find myself held fast there for all +the remainder of my days. And I was the more savagely bitter because I +had no right whatever to be disappointed. What I saw was not new to +me, and I had known what I was coming to--though I had kept down my +thoughts about it--all along. + + + + + +XXXI + +HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + + +The steamer that I had come aboard of proved to be French; and that +she had not long been abandoned I knew by finding an abundance of ice +in her cold-room and a great deal of fresh meat there too. Had she +been manned by a stiff-necked crew she would not have been abandoned +at all. She had been in collision, and her bow-compartment was full of +water; but the water had not got aft of her foremast, and except that +she was down by the head a little she was not much the worse for her +bang. That her captain had tried to carry on after the accident was +shown by the sail that had been set in place very snugly over her +smashed bows; and I greatly wondered why he had given up the fight, +until I found--getting a look at her stern from one of the wrecks +lying near her--that her screw was gone. This second accident +evidently had been too much for her people and they had taken to the +boats and left her. But I think that an English or an American crew +would have stood by her, and would have succeeded in getting her +towed into port--or even would have brought her in under her own +sails. She was called the _Ville de Saint Remy_, and was a fine boat +of about five thousand tons. + +All that I had hoped to find aboard of her in the way of comforts and +luxuries was there, and more too. Indeed, if a good bed, and the best +of food, and excellent wines and tobacco, had been all that I wanted I +very well might have settled myself on the _Ville de Saint Remy_ for +the balance of my days. But I almost resented the luck which had +brought me all these things--for which I had been longing so keenly +but a few hours before--because I did not find with them what I +desired still more earnestly: the means that would enable me to get +away seaward and leave them all behind. What such means would be, it +is only fair to add, I could not imagine; at least, I could not +imagine anything at all reasonable--for the only thing I could think +of that would carry me out across that weed-covered ocean to open +water was a balloon. + +And so, although I fed daintily and drank of the best, and had good +tobacco to cheer me after my meals, my first day aboard the _Ville de +Saint Remy_ was as sad a one as any that I had passed since I had come +into my sea-prison; for while the daylight lasted, and I wandered +about her decks looking always at the barrier of weed which held me +there, I had clearly before me the impossibility of ever getting +away. Only when darkness came, hiding my prison walls from me, did I +become a little more cheerful--as the very human disposition to make +light of difficulties when they no longer are visible began to assert +itself in my mind. + +Down in the comfortable cabin, well lighted and airy, I had a capital +dinner--and a bottle of sound Bordeaux with it that no doubt added a +good deal to my sanguine cheerfulness; and to end with I made myself +some delicious coffee--over a spirit-lamp that I found in the +pantry--and had with it a glass of Benedictine and a very choice +cigar. And all of these luxurious refreshments of the flesh--which set +me to smiling a little as I thought of the contrast that they made to +my surroundings--so comforted my spirit that my gloomy thoughts left +me, and I began to plan airily how I would start off in a boat well +loaded with provisions and somehow or another push my way through the +weed. I even got along to details: deciding that it would be quite an +easy matter to open a way through the tangle over the bows of my boat +with an oar--or with an axe, if need be--and then press forward by +poling against the weed on each side; which seemed so feasible a +method that I concluded I could accomplish readily at least a mile a +day. And so, with these fine fancies dancing in my brain, I settled +myself into a delightful bed; and as I drowsed off deliciously I had +the comforting conviction that in a little while longer all my +difficulties would be conquered and all my troubles at an end. + +With the return of daylight, giving me an outlook over the +weed-covered water again, most of my hopefulness left me along with +most of my faith in my airily-made plan; but even in this colder mood +it did seem to me that there was at least a chance of my pulling +through--and my slim courage was strengthened by the feeling within me +that unless I threw myself with all my energy into work of some sort I +presently would find myself going melancholy mad. And so, but only +half-heartedly, I mustered up resolution to make a trial of my poor +project for getting away. + +On board the _Ville de Saint Remy_ there was nothing to be done. The +corner-stone of my undertaking was finding a boat and launching it, +and the Frenchmen--in their panic-stricken scamper from a danger that +was mainly in their own lively imaginations--had carried all their +boats away. It was necessary, therefore, that I should go on a cruise +among the other wrecks lying around me in search of a boat still in a +condition to swim; but I was very careful this time--profiting by my +rough experience--to make sure before I started of my safe return. +Fortunately the stern of the steamer was so high out of the water +that it rose conspicuously above the wrecks lying thereabouts; but to +make her still more conspicuous I roused out a couple of French flags +and an American flag from her signal-chest and set them at her three +mastheads--giving to our own colors the place of honor on the +mainmast--and so made her quite unmistakable from as far off as I +could see her through the haze. And as a still farther precaution +against losing myself I hunted up a hatchet to take along with me to +blaze my way. All of which matters being attended to, I made a rope +fast to the rail--knotting it at intervals, so that I could climb it +again easily--and so slipped down the steamer's side. + +My business was only with the wrecks lying along the extreme outer +edge of the pack--from which alone it would be possible for me to +launch a boat in the event of my finding one--but in order to get from +one to the other of them I had to make so many long detours that my +progress was very slow. Indeed, by the time that noon came, and I +stopped to eat my dinner--which I had brought along with me, that I +need not have to hunt for it--I had made less than half a mile in a +straight line. And in none of the vessels that I had crossed--except +on one lying so far in the pack as to be of no use to me--had I found +a single boat that would swim. Nor had I any better luck when I went +on with my search again in the afternoon. As it had been in the case +of the _Hurst Castle_ so it had been, I suppose, in the case of all +the wrecks which I examined that day: either their boats had been +staved-in or washed overboard by tempest, or else had served to carry +away their crews. But what had become of them, so far as I was +concerned, made no difference--the essential matter was that they were +gone. And so, toward evening, I turned backward from my fruitless +journey and headed for the _Ville de Saint Remy_ again--for I had +found no other ship so comfortable in the course of my explorations--and +got safe aboard of her just as the sun was going down. + +That night I had not much comfort in the good dinner that I set out +for myself--though I was glad enough to get it, being both hungry and +tired--and I only half plucked up my spirits over my coffee and cigar. +But still, as the needs of my body were gratified, my mind got so far +soothed and refreshed that I held to my purpose--which had been pretty +much given over when I came back tired and hungry after my vain +search--and I went to bed resolute to begin again my explorations on +the following day. + +But when the morning came and I set off--though I had a good breakfast +inside of me, and such a store of food by me as fairly would have set +me dancing with delight only a week before--I was in low spirits and +went at my work rather because I was resolved to push through with it +than because I had any strong hope that it would give me what +I desired. + +This time--having already examined the wrecks for near a mile +northward along the edge of the pack--I set my course for the south; +and again, until late in the afternoon, I worked my way from ship to +ship--with long detours inland from time to time in order to get +around some break in the coast-line--and on all of them the result was +the same: not a boat did I find anywhere that was not so riven and +shattered as to be beyond all hope of repair. And at nightfall I came +back once more to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ wearied out in body and +utterly dispirited in mind. + +Even after I had eaten my dinner and was smoking at my ease in the +cheerfully lighted cabin, sitting restfully in a big arm-chair and +with every sort of material comfort at hand, I could not whip myself +up to hoping again. It was true that I had not exhausted the +possibilities of finding the boat that I desired so eagerly, for my +search along the coast-line had extended for only about a mile each +way; but in my down-hearted state it seemed to me that my search had +gone far enough to settle definitely that what I wanted was not to be +found. And this brought down on me heavily the conviction that my +prison--though it was the biggest, I suppose, that ever a man was shut +up in--must hold me fast always: and with that feeling in it there no +longer was room for hope also in my heart. + + + + + +XXXII + +I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + + +When I had finished my breakfast the next morning I faced the worst +thing which I had been forced to face since I had been cast prisoner +into the Sargasso Sea: a whole day of idleness without hope. Until +then there had not been an hour--save when I was asleep--that I had +not been doing something which in some way I had hoped would better my +condition temporarily, or would tend toward my deliverance. But that +morning I was without such spurs to effort and there was absolutely +nothing for me to do. My condition could not be improved by making my +home on another vessel; it was doubtful, indeed, if in all the +wreck-pack I could find a home so comfortable and so abundantly +stocked with the best provisions as I had found aboard of the _Ville +de Saint Remy_. As for working farther for my deliverance, I had set +that behind me after my experience during the two preceding days. And +so I brought a steamer-chair out on the deck and sat in it smoking, +idle and hopeless, gazing straight out before me with a dull +steadfastness over the very gently undulating surface of the +weed-covered sea. + +After a while, tiring of sitting still, I began to pace the deck +slowly; and I was so heavy with my sorrow that I could not think +clearly, but had only in my mind a confused feeling that I was taking +the first of a series of walks such as wild animals imprisoned take +endlessly back and forth behind the bars that shut them in. And from +this I went on to thinking, still in the same confused way, that the +wild animals at least were not outcast in their captivity--having +living people and living beasts around them, and the pleasure of +hearing living sounds--while one of the worst things about my prison +was the absolute dead silence that hung over it like a dismal cloud. +And perhaps it was because my thoughts happened at that moment to be +set to take notice of such matters that I fancied I heard a very faint +sound of scratching and an instant later a still fainter little cry. + +I was standing just then close to the water-line on the deck forward, +beside a covered hatch that seemed to lead to what had been the +quarters of the crew; and it was from beneath this hatch, I was +certain, that the sounds came. Slight though the noise was, it greatly +startled me; and at the same time it aroused in me the +strangely-thrilling hope that there possibly might be a living man +still aboard of the steamer and that I would be no longer horribly +alone. Yet I would not suffer myself too much to give room to this +happy hope, for the little faint scratching--which I heard again +presently--was not the sort of noise that a man shut in would be +likely to make; nor did the little plaintive sound seem like a human +cry. But the matter was one to be investigated in a hurry, and with an +energy quite astonishing, in comparison with my lassitude of a moment +before, I got the hatch open and leaned down it, listening; and then I +heard the scratching so plainly that I hurried down the stair. + +The between-decks was well enough lighted by a good-sized skylight, +and the place that I had got into had fixed tables set in it and +seemed to be the mess-room of the crew. Doors opened out from it both +fore and aft; and from behind the after door--so plainly that I had no +difficulty in placing it--came the scratching sound that I was +pursuing: and with it came the cries again, and this time so +distinctly as to shatter my hope of finding a human being there, but +at the same time to make me, for all my sorrow, almost smile. For the +cry was a very long and plaintive m-i-i-a-a-u! And the next moment, +when I had the door open, a great black cat came out upon me--so +overcome with delight at meeting a human being again that he was +almost choking with his gurgling purr. Indeed the extravagant joy of +the poor lonely creature was as great as mine would have been had I +found a man there--and he manifested it by lunging sidewise against my +legs, and by standing up on his hind paws and reaching his fore paws +up to my knees and clutching them, and then with a spring he climbed +right up me--all the while choking with his great gurgling +purring--and was not satisfied until he found himself bundled close +against my breast as I held him tight in my arms. And on my +side--after I had gulped down my first disappointment because it was +only a cat who was my fellow-prisoner--I was as glad to meet him as he +was to meet me; and I am not ashamed to say that I fairly cried over +him--as a warm rush of joy went over me at finding myself at last, +after being for so long a time surrounded only by the dead, in the +company of a living creature; and a creature which showed toward me by +every means that a brute beast could compass its gratitude and +its love. + +And I must add without delay that my cat's affection for me was wholly +disinterested; at least, I am sure that he loved me--from the first +moment of our encounter--not because he wanted me to do something for +him, but because he longed, as I did, for human companionship and was +filled up with happiness because he had found again a human friend. As +I discovered upon investigation, his prison had been the galley in +which food for the crew had been cooked; and upon the odds and ends +left there he had fared very well indeed--not overeating himself by +gobbling down all his food in a hurry, and then dying of starvation, +as a dog would have done, but temperately eating for his daily rations +only what his sustenance required; and for drink he had had a pot +partly full of what had been hot water that stood upon the galley +stove. But I also must add that this coarse fare was not at all to his +liking; and that thereafter he ordered me around pretty sharply, in +his own way, and insisted always upon my providing him with +dainty food. + +It was a good thing for the cat, certainly, that I had found him; for +his stock of provisions was pretty nearly exhausted, and in a little +while longer he would have come to a dismal end. But my finding him +was a still better thing for me. When I first heard his faint little +scratching, and his still fainter plaintive little call for help, I +was so deep in my despairing melancholy that my reason was in a fair +way to go, and with it all farther effort on my part to set myself +free. From that desperate state my small adventure with him roused me, +which was a good deal to thank him for; but I had more to thank him +for still. + +In the little time that I had been aboard of the _Ville de Saint +Remy_--my days having been passed away from her--I had made no +exploration of her interior beyond her cabin and the region in which +were carried her cabin stores; which latter were so abundant as to set +me at my ease for an indefinite period in regard to food. But this +meeting with my fellow-prisoner so stirred me up, and put such fresh +spirit into me, that I began to think of having a general look all +over her: that I might in a way take stock of my belongings and at the +same time have something to occupy my mind--for I knew that to sit +down idly again would be only again to fall back into despair. And so, +my cat going with me--and, indeed, making a good deal of a convenience +of me, for he by no means would walk on his own legs but insisted upon +jumping up on my shoulder and going that way as a passenger--I set off +on my round. + +As well as I could make out from what I found on board of her--for her +papers either had been carried away or were stowed in some place which +I did not discover--the _Ville de Saint Remy_ had been bound outward +to some colonial port and carried a cargo of general stores. When I +got her hatches off--though that came later--I saw in one place a lot +of wheelbarrows, and some heavy wagons stowed with their wheels inside +of them, and some machinery for threshing along with a portable +steam-engine; and in another place were boxes which seemed to have +dry-goods in them, and a great many cases of wines, and some very big +cases that evidently contained pianos--and so on with a great lot of +stuff such as the people of a flourishing colony would be likely +to need. + +But in my round that morning with the cat on my shoulders--for he was +not content to remain perched on one of them quietly, but kept passing +from one to the other with affectionate rubs against the back of my +head, and all the while purring as hard as he could purr--I did not +get below the main-deck except into the engine-room, my attention +being given to finding out fully what the steamer had on board of her +in the way of work-shops and tools: for already, with my renewed +cheerfulness, the notion was beginning to take hold of me that I might +set to work and build a boat for myself--and so make what I could not +find. And, indeed, I don't doubt that I should have set myself to this +big undertaking--for the appointments of the vessel were admirably +complete and everything that I wanted for my work was there--had not a +bigger, but a more promising, undertaking presented itself to me and +so turned my efforts into another way. + + + + + +XXXIII + +I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + + +It was directly to my cat that I owed the great piece of good fortune +that then came to me: but I must confess that he was an unwilling +agent in the matter, and probably wished himself well out of it, the +immediate result in his case being rather a bad squeeze to one of his +fore paws. + +We had been examining the machine-shop, the cat and I, and whatever +his views about it may have been mine were of great satisfaction; for +when I had got the dead-lights unscrewed so that I could see well +about me I had been delighted by finding there everything that my +boat-building project required. Indeed, I almost fancied myself back +again in one of the work-shops of the Stevens Institute, so well was +the place fitted and supplied--a completeness probably due to the fact +that the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was intended for long voyages to +out-of-the-way ports, and very well might have to depend upon her own +resources for important repairs. + +It was as we were leaving the machine-shop to continue our round of +investigations that my cat suddenly took it into his head to jump down +from my shoulders and stretch his own legs a little; and away he +scampered--being much given to such frisking dashes, as I later +discovered, though for the next week or so after that one he went +limping on three legs mighty soberly--first down the deck aft, and +then past me and up a dark passage leading toward the bows; and I, +being pretty well accustomed to cat habits, stood waiting until he +should have his fun out and so come back again with a miau by way of +"if you please" to be taken up into my arms. But he did not come back +in any great hurry, and off in the darkness I could hear his paws +padding about briskly; and then there was silence for a moment; and +then he broke out into a loud miauling which showed that he was in +trouble of some sort and also in pain. + +As there was no helping him until I could see what was the matter with +him, I hurried first into the machine-shop for a wrench, and then went +forward into that dark place cautiously--until by a glint of light on +the ship's side I made out where a port was, and so got loose the +deadlight and could look around. What I saw was my poor cat in such a +pickle that I did not in the least blame him for crying out about it; +he having, as it seemed, made an unlucky jump upon some small bars of +iron which were lying loose and disorderly, with the one on which he +landed balanced so nicely that it had turned suddenly and jammed fast +his paw. And so he was anchored there very painfully, and was telling +what he thought about it in the most piercing yowls. + +Fortunately it was an easy matter to let him loose from the trap that +he had got into; but even while I was doing it--and before I picked +him up to look at his hurt and to comfort him--I gave a shout of +delight on my own account that was a good deal louder than any of my +poor cat's yells of pain. For there before me was a very stout-looking +and large steam-launch--thirty-two feet over all, as I found when I +came to measure her--stowed snugly in a cradle set athwart-ship and +looking all ready to be put overboard into the sea. And at finding in +this unexpected fashion what I had been so long looking for, and had +quite done with hoping for, it is no wonder that I shouted with joy. + +My cat coming limping to me to be pitied and cared for, holding up his +pinched paw and with little miaus asking for my sympathy quite like a +Christian, I had first of all to give him my attention. But his hurt +was not a very serious one--the flesh not being cut, and no bones +broken--and when I had comforted him as well as I could, until I got +him soothed a little, I put him down out of my arms that I might +examine carefully my great prize; but first of all opening all the +ports so that I might have plenty of light for what I wanted to do. + +Coming to this deliberate survey, I found that the launch truly enough +was complete, but that she was very far from being ready to take the +water; for while all her parts were there--and even duplicates of her +more important pieces, in readiness against a break-down--most of her +fittings and all of her machinery was lying inside of her boxed for +transportation; being arranged that way, I suppose, because she would +have been far too heavy to swing into the snug place where I found her +and out again with everything bolted fast. She was a very beautiful +little boat, evidently intended for a pleasure craft--but very strong +and seaworthy, too; and it no doubt was to keep her in good order for +delivery that she had been stowed between-decks for the long voyage. +Indeed, only with a steam-winch and a good many men to handle her, +could she have been got down there; and the first of my uncomfortable +thoughts about her, of the many that I had first and last, came while +I was taking stock of her equipment--as I fell to wondering how in the +world I should manage, with only a cat to help me, ever to get her +overboard into the sea. + +As to assembling her parts, and so making her ready for cruising, I +had no doubts whatever. That piece of work was directly in the line +of my training and I felt entirely secure about it; but even on that +score I quaked a good deal at the size of the contract to be taken by +a single pair of hands, and at thought of the long, long while that +would be required to carry it through. Yet the hope that came with +finding this boat put such heart into me that my spirits did not go +down far. Working on her--aside from the pleasure that any man with a +natural love for mechanics finds in serious and difficult labor with +his hands--would be a constant delight to me because of what it would +be leading to; and in every moment of my work I would have to sustain +me the thought that each rivet set in place and each bolt fastened +brought me appreciably nearer to being set free. + +Having cursorily finished with the boat, I continued my survey to her +surroundings; that I might plan roughly my scheme of work upon her, +and that I might plan also for getting her launched when my work upon +her should be done. She was stowed on the main-deck--in a place that +probably was intended for the use of third-class passengers, when such +were carried--and the machine-shop was so close to her that in the +matter of fetching tools and so on my steps would be well saved. +Directly over her was the forward hatch; through which she had been +lowered and set in place in the cradle previously made ready for her, +and there fixed firm and fast. For a moment I had the fancy that I +might get up steam to work the donkey-engine and so hoist her out +again by that same way, and overboard too. But a very little +reflection showed me that this airily formed plan must be abandoned, +as all my work on her then would have to be done far away from the +machine-shop and with the additional disadvantage that through the +long time that certainly must pass before I could get her finished she +would lie open to the daily heavy rains. And then I had the much more +reasonable notion--though the amount of extra labor that it involved +was not encouraging to contemplate--that I would do my work on her +where she lay; and when I had finished her that I would cut loose a +sufficient number of plates from the side of the steamer to make a +hole big enough to get her overboard that way. + +But having the hatch directly over where she was lying, though I could +not get her up through it, made my undertaking a good deal easier and +more comfortable for me. Even with all the ports open I would have had +but little light to work by; and, what was of even more importance in +that hot misty region, I would have had little fresh air--and still +less when I had set a-going my forge. But with the hatch off I could +have all the light that I needed and as much fresh air as was to be +had--with the advantage that the hatch could be set in place every +night when I went off duty and not opened again in the morning until +the rain was at an end: so preserving my machinery against the rust +that pretty much would have ruined it--for all that it was well +tallowed--had my slow building gone on in the open air. + +My preliminary investigations being thus well ended, and the morning +ended too, I piped all hands to dinner; that is to say, I whistled to +my cat--who had been sitting still and watching me pretty solemnly, +his friskiness being for the time taken out of him by the pain in his +paw--and when he perceived that I was paying some attention to him +again he came limping to me on his three good legs and said with a +miau that if I pleased he would prefer going to his dinner in my arms. +And when I picked him up--as, indeed, I had to, for he positively +insisted upon my carrying him--he forgot about his hurt and fell to +purring to me at a great rate and to making little gentle thrusts +against my arm with the fore paw that was sound. And so we went aft in +great friendship and contentment and had a gay dinner together: the +cat sitting on the table opposite to me with all possible decorum--but +manifesting his daintiness by refusing to eat anything but tinned +chicken, and only the white meat at that! + + + + + +XXXIV + +I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + + +When my meal was finished I set myself first of all to getting off the +hatch beneath which my boat lay; and this proved to be a bigger job +than I had counted upon--each of its sections being so heavy that I +could not manage it without tackle, and even with tackle the work took +me a good hour. My plan of operations had included removing the hatch +every morning and setting it back again every night, but when I found +how much energy and time would be wasted in that way I changed my +front a little and got at the same result along another line. All that +I needed was a covering for the hatch that would keep the rain out; +and what I did, therefore, was to knock together a light grating of +wood to fit over it--sloping the grating downward on each side from a +sort of a ridge pole--on which a tarpaulin could be stretched; and in +that way I got shortly to a water-tight covering for my hatch that I +could shift back and forth quickly and without any trouble at all. But +the whole of what remained of the afternoon was spent in getting +that piece of preliminary work finished to my mind. + +The next morning I set myself to the examination of the stuff stowed +in the boat--the several parts which I would have to put together in +order to make my craft ready for the sea--and for this job also a +great deal of preliminary arrangement was required. Many of the +pieces--as the boiler, the cylinder, the shaft, the screw, and the +sections of the cabin--were too heavy for me to lift without tackle; +and as they all had to be got out and arranged in order ready for use, +and then in due course put aboard the boat one at a time in their +proper places, I first of all had to set up some sort of lifting +apparatus to take the place of a crane. + +In this matter the open hatch directly over the boat again was a help +to me. Across it, running fore and aft, I stretched a heavy wire rope +on which I had placed a big block for a traveller, and carrying the +end of the rope forward to the capstan I fell to work with the +hand-bars and got it strained so taut that it was like a bar of iron. +Then to the traveller block I made fast my hoisting tackle--and so was +able to swing up the heavy pieces from where they were stowed, and to +run them along the taut rope until they were clear of the boat on +either side, and then to let them down upon the deck: where they would +remain until a reversal of this process would lift them up again and +set them in place as they were required. But even with my tackle--and +double tackle in the case of the heavier pieces--this was a +back-breaking job that took up the whole of three days. + +However, I finished it at last, and had the boat clear and all the +pieces so arranged that as I needed them they would be ready to my +hand; and the examination that I was able to make of them, and of the +boat too after I had her empty, gave very satisfactory results. All +the parts were there, and all numbered so carefully that they could +have been assembled by much less skilful hands than mine; while the +hull of the boat was completely finished, and the sockets and +rivet-holes for attaching her fittings were all as they should be in +her frame. Farther, I could see by the little scratches here and there +on her iron-work that she had been set up and then taken apart again; +and so was sure that all was smooth for her coming together in the +right way. But, for all that I had such plain sailing before me in the +actual work of refitting her, my courage went down a little as I +perceived what a big contract I had taken, and what a very long time +must pass before I could pull it through. + +Moreover, I saw that while the boat was well built for pleasure +cruising in smooth water--and, indeed, was so stout in her frame that +she would stand a great deal of knocking about without being the +worse for it--she by no means was prepared for the chances of an ocean +voyage. Except where her little cabin and engine-room would be--the +two filling about half of her length amidships--she was entirely open; +and while the frame of her cabin was stoutly built, that part of it +intended to rise above the rail was arranged for sliding glass +windows--which would be smashed in a moment by a heavy dash of sea. It +was clear, therefore, that in addition to setting her up on the lines +planned for her--a big job and a long job to start with--there was a +lot more for me to do. To fit her for my purposes it would be +necessary to cover her cabin windows with planking; to deck her over +forward in order to have my stores under cover as well as to guard +against shipping enough water to swamp her in rough weather; and +finally to rig her with a mast and sail upon which to fall back for +motive-power in the event of my running out of coal. This additional +work would not, in one way, present any difficulties--it being in +itself simple and easy of accomplishment; but in another way it was +not pleasant to contemplate, since the doing of it all single-handed +would increase very greatly the time which must pass before I could +start upon my voyage. However, as consideration of that phase of the +matter only tended to discourage me, I put it out of sight as well as +I was able and set myself with a will to finishing my preliminary +work--of which there still was a good deal to do. + +The steamer's machine-shop, as I have said, was unusually well fitted +and supplied; but even in the short time that the vessel had been +lying abandoned in that reeking atmosphere rust had so coated +everything not shut up in lockers that all the tools in the racks and +the fittings of the lathe--although the lathe had an oil-cloth hood +over it--had to be cleaned before they could be used: a job that kept +me busy with the grind-stone, and emery-cloth, and oiled cotton-waste, +for a good long while. And after that I had to get the forge in order, +and to bring up fuel for it from the coal bunkers. And in attending to +all these various matters the time slipped away so quickly that a +whole week had passed before I had done. + +But I must say that as the cat and I labored together--though his +labors were confined to cheering me by following me about on three +legs wherever I went, and pretty much all the while talking to me in +his way so that I should not fail to take notice of him--I got more +and more light-hearted; which was natural enough, seeing that what I +was doing in itself interested me and so made the time pass quickly, +and that I had also a great swelling undercurrent of hope as I +thought of what my slow-going work would bring me to in the end. + +When at last I fairly got started at my building I was in a still +more cheerful mood--there being such a sense of definite +accomplishment as I set each piece in its place, and such a comfort in +the tangible advance that I was making, that half the time I was +singing as I made my bolts and rivets fast. But for all my +cheerfulness I had a plenty of trouble over what I was doing; and I +was sorry enough that I had not somebody beside my cat to help me, or +that I myself had not another pair or two of hands. + +Almost at the start, when I began to swing the pieces of machinery +inboard, I found that I had still another bit of preliminary work to +attend to before I could go on. My travelling tackle crossing the boat +amidships had worked well enough in getting the stuff out of her, but +when I came to hoisting the parts aboard and setting them exactly in +their places, and holding them steady while I made fast the rivets, it +would not in any way serve my turn. What I had to do was to stretch +another wire rope across the hatch--at right angles with and a couple +of feet above the first one, and parallel with the boat's keel--and to +rig on this two travellers, to one or the other of which I could +transfer each piece as I got it inboard and so run it along until I +had it exactly over the place where it was to be made fast. But I was +a whole day in attending to this matter--and it was only one of the +many makeshifts to which I had to resort to accomplish what was too +much for my unaided strength; and in meeting such like side +difficulties I lost in all a good many days. + +But though my work went very slowly, and now and then was stopped +short for a while by some obstacle that had to be overcome in any +rough and ready way that I could think of, I did get on; and at last I +had my boat together on the lines that her builders had planned. Yet +while, in a way, she was finished, there still was a weary lot to do +to her to fit her for my purposes; and in decking her over, and in +making her cabin solid, and in fitting a mast and sail to her, I spent +almost two months more. + +All this work went slowly because I had to spend nearly as much time +in making ready for what I wanted to do as in doing it. Before I began +my planking I had to rip up from the steamer's deck the material for +it; and this was a hard job in itself and did not give me what I +wanted when it was done--for while the stuff served well enough for my +beams and braces it was clumsily heavy for the decking of my little +launch. But it had to answer, and in the end I got it well in place +and the joints so tightly caulked that I was sure of having a dry +hold. And that my deck might the more easily turn the water in a sea +way I made it flush with the rail; and I had no hatch in +it--arranging to get to the hold by a scuttle that I set in the +forward end of the cabin--and that gave me a still better chance of +keeping dry below. + +For my mast I got down one of the top-gallant masts--and I had a close +shave to coming down with it and so ending my adventures right there. +The best way that I could think of to manage this piece of work--and I +have not since thought of any way better--was to make fast a line to +the lower end of the top-gallant mast just above the cap of the +topmast and to carry this line through the top-block and so down to +the deck, and there to pass it through another block to the capstan +and haul it taut and stop it; and when all that was in order, and the +stays cut, to get up into the cross-trees and saw through the spar +just below where I had whipped it with my line. My expectation was +that as the spar parted and fell it would be held hanging by my tackle +until I could get down to the deck again and lower it away; and that +really was what did happen--only as it fell there was a bit of slack +line to take up, and this gave such a tremendous jerk to the +cross-trees that I was within an ace of being shaken out of them and +of going down to the deck with a bang. But I didn't--which is the main +thing--and I did get my mast. It was a good deal heavier than my boat +could stand, and I had to spend a couple of days in taking it down +with a broad-axe and in finishing it with a plane until I got it as it +should be; and from the flag-staff at the steamer's stern I got out +with very little trouble a good boom and gaff. + +After that I had only my sail to fit; and as I did not trouble myself +to make a very neat job of it this did not take me long. Indeed, I +grudged the time that I spent on my mast and sail--close upon a +fortnight, altogether--more than any like amount of time that I gave +to my task; for my hope was strong that I would not need a sail at +all, but would be able to manage--by a way that I had thought of--to +carry enough coal with me to make my voyage under steam. But I was not +leaving anything to chance--so far as chances could be foreseen--in +the adventure that I was about to make, and so I got my sail-power all +ready to fall back upon in case my steam-power failed. And when that +bit of work was finished I was full of a joyful light-heartedness; for +my boat in every way was ready for the water, and I was come at last +to the good ending of my long job. + +That night I made a feast in celebration of what I had accomplished, +and in hope of my greater good fortune that I believed was soon to +come--with a place duly set on the opposite side of the table for my +only guest, and with a champagne-glass beside his plate to hold his +unsweetened condensed milk (for which, when I found it among the +ship's stores, he manifested a strong partiality) that he might lap +properly his responses to the toasts which I pledged him in +champagne. And I don't suppose that a man and a cat ever had a merrier +meal anywhere than we had in that queer place for it that evening; nor +that any two friends ever were happier together than we were when, our +feast being ended, he went through his various tricks--of which he had +learned a great many, and with a wonderful quickness, after his paw +got well--and then settled himself for a snooze on my lap while I sat +smoking my cigar and thinking that at last I had sawn through +my prison bars. + +And it was while I was sitting in that state of placid happiness that +suddenly I was brought up all standing by the reflection--and why it +had not come sooner to me is a mystery--that a dozen turns of the +screw of my launch in that weed-covered ocean would be enough to foul +it hopelessly, and so at the very start to cut short the voyage under +steam that I had planned. + + + + + +XXXV + +I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + + +For a while after this black thought came to me I was pretty much +beaten by it; but when I got steadier--and had finished kicking myself +for a fool because I had not foreseen it all along--I perceived that +the odds were not wholly against me, after all. I had, at least, a +sea-worthy boat in which to make my venture, and therefore was as well +off as I had hoped to be when I had set about looking for one; and if +the plan that I had formed worked out in practice--if I could manage +to force a passage through the tangle by alternately working over the +bow of my boat to break up the weed, and over the sides to pole my +boat forward--I was a great deal better off than I had hoped to be: +for should I win my way to open water I would have steam as well as +sail power at my command. + +But while this more reasonable view of the situation comforted me, it +did not satisfy me. The difficulty of working myself along in that +slow fashion I foresaw would be so enormous that I very well might die +of sheer exhaustion before I got clear of the weed-tangle--which +must extend outward, as I knew from my guess at the time that I had +taken in drifting in through it, for a very long way. What I had been +counting upon ever since I had found the launch was in having part of +the work, and the heaviest part, done by her engine; my part to be the +breaking of a passage, while the motive power was to be supplied by +the screw. But of course if the screw fouled, as it certainly would +foul with the loose weed all around it, that would be the end of my +hopeful plan. + +This consideration of the matter reduced it to a definite problem. +What was needed was some sort of protection for the screw that would +keep the weed away from it and yet would allow it to work freely: and, +having the case thus clearly stated, the thought presently occurred to +me that I could secure this protection by building out from the stern +of the boat, so that the screw would be enclosed in it, some sort of +an iron cage. That arrangement, I conceived, would meet the +requirements of the case fully; and being come to my conclusion I +resigned myself to still another long delay while I carried my plan +into execution, and so went to bed at last hopefully--but well knowing +that this fresh piece of work that I had cut out for myself would be +hard to do. + +I certainly did not overestimate the amount of labor involved in my +cage-building. I was a good three weeks over it. But I was kept up to +the collar by my conviction that without the cage I had no chance of +succeeding in my project; and so I got it finished at last. And then I +considered that my boat really was ready to take the water; and the +cat and I had another banquet in celebration of the long step that we +had taken toward our deliverance--only this time I did not give an +altogether free rein to my rejoicing, being fearful that some other +difficulty might present itself suddenly and bring me up again with a +round turn. + +The boat being ready--for I could think of nothing more to do to +her--I had still to launch her, and the first step toward that end was +breaking out a section in the steamer's side. Luckily the stock of +cold-chisels aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was a good one; but I +dulled them all twice over--and weary work at the grindstone I had +sharpening them again--before I had chipped away the bindings of those +endless rivets and had the satisfaction of seeing the big section of +iron plate between two of her iron ribs pitch outboard and splash down +through the weed into the sea. + +As I have said, the bow compartment of the steamer was full of water, +and this brought her main-deck so low down forward that the boat had +only to be slid out almost on a level through the hole that I had +made. But to slide her that way--which seems easy, because I have +happened to put it glibly--was quite a different thing. With steam +power to work the capstan I could have got the boat overboard in no +time; but without steam power the launching went desperately slowly, +and was altogether the hardest piece of work that I had to do in the +whole of my long hard job. + +The boat had stood all along in the cradle that had been built to hold +her steady for the voyage. This was a very stout wooden framework +built up from two heavy beams joined by cross-pieces, and all so well +bolted together that it was very solid and firm. In this the boat +rested snugly and was held fast by rope lashings; and the cradle +itself--resting on the lower hatch and projecting on each side of +it--was lashed to the hatch ringbolts so as to be safe against +shifting in a heavy sea. I could have removed the cradle by taking it +to pieces, but that would not have helped matters; and the plan that I +decided upon--liking it better because all this wood-work around and +under the boat would protect her from harm as she went overboard--was +to weight the cradle with iron bars that would cause it to sink away +from beneath the boat when they took the water, and then to work it up +with jack-screws until I could get rollers under it and so send them +both together over the side. + +How long I worked over this job I really do not know; but I do know +that at the time it seemed as though it never would come to an end. +First of all I had the rollers to make from another topgallant mast +that I got down, and when these were finished I had to go at the frame +of the cradle with a pair of jack-screws and raise it, by fractions of +an inch, until I could get my rollers under it one at a time. I think +that it was the deadly dullness of this jack-screw work that I most +resented--the stupid monotony of doing precisely the same sort of +utterly wearying work all day long and for day after day. But in the +end I got it finished: all my rollers properly in place, and the +cradle made fast to hold it from starting before I was ready to have +it go--although of that there was not much danger, for while the +steamer had a decided pitch forward she lay on an even keel. + +At first I was for sending my boat overboard the minute that I got the +last roller under her; but I had the sense, luckily, to take a reef in +this brisk intention as the thought struck me that I must have open +water to launch her in or else very likely have boat and cradle +together stuck fast in the weed. And so I set myself to clearing a +little pool into which I could launch her; and as I carried this work +on I came quickly to a realizing sense of what was before me when I +should begin to break a way through the weed for my boat's passage, +and to the conviction that had I tried to make my voyage without steam +to help me I never should have got through at all. + +In point of fact, the weed was so thick and so firmly matted together +that I almost could walk on it; and when I had knocked loose a couple +of doors from their hinges and had thrown them overboard--taking two, +so that I might move one ahead of the other as my cutting advanced--I +had firm enough standing place from which I could slash away. So tough +was the mass that I was a whole day in uncovering a space less than +forty feet long by twenty broad; and when my launching-pool was +finished it had the look of a little pond in a meadow surrounded by +solid banks. + +All this showed me that even with the screw to push while I cleared a +way for the boat's passage I should have my hands full; but it also +put into my head a notion that helped me a good deal in the end. This +was to rig on the straight stem of my boat a set of guide-bars +projecting forward in which I could work perpendicularly a cross-cut +saw, and in that way to cut a slit in the weed--which would be widened +by the boat's nose thrusting into it as the screw shoved her onward, +and so would enable me to squeeze along. And as this was a matter easy +of accomplishment--being only to double over a couple of iron bars so +that there would be a slit a half inch wide for the saw to travel in, +and to bolt them fast to the top and bottom of the boat's stem--I did +it immediately; and it worked so well when I came to try it that I was +glad enough that I had had so lucky a thought. Indeed, had I known +how well it would turn out I should have gone a step farther and +rigged my saw to run by steam power--setting up a frame in the bows to +hold a wheel carrying a pin on which the saw could play and to which I +could make fast a bar from my piston-rod--and in that way saved myself +from the longest bit of back-breaking work that ever I had to do. But +that was a piece of foresight that came afterward, and so did me +no good. + +When my guide-bars were in place, and the saw made ready to slip into +them by taking off one of its handles--and I had still a spare saw to +fall back upon in the event of the first one breaking--my boat was +ready to go overboard into the open water, where she would lie while I +put aboard of her my coal and stores. But the work that was before me, +as I thus came close to it, loomed up very large; and so did the +doubts which beset me as to how my voyage would end. Indeed, it was in +a spirit far from exultant that at last I cut the lashings which held +the cradle; and then with the tackle that I had ready got the heavy +mass started--and in a couple of minutes had my boat safely overboard +and floating free, as the cradle sunk away from under her, carried +down by its lading of iron bars. + +But, whatever was to come of it, the launching of my boat started me +definitely along a fresh line of adventure, and whether I liked it or +not I had to make the best of it: and so I stated the case to my +cat--who had got scared and run off into a corner while the launching +was in progress--when he came marching up to me and seated himself +beside me gravely, as I stood in the break in the steamer's side +looking down at the boat that I hoped would set us free. + + + + + +XXXVI + +HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + + +What would have been most useful to me as foresight, but was only +aggravating to me as hindsight--which happened to be the way that I +got it--was the very sensible notion that I might have put all of my +stores, and even a good part of my coal, aboard the boat before she +was decked over and launched. A few tons more or less would have made +no difference in moving her; but having to put those extra tons aboard +of her over the side of the steamer, and then to drag them through the +cabin and through the awkward little hatch, and at last to stow them +by the light of a lantern in her stillingly close hot hold--all that +made a lot of difference to me. However, I could not foresee +everything; and I think, on the whole, that I really did foresee most +of what I wanted pretty well. + +Of provisions I took along enough to last me, by a rough calculation, +for three months; being pretty well satisfied that unless within that +time I got through the weed-tangle to open water--over which I could +make my way to land, or on which I might fall in with a passing +vessel--I never would get free at all. And I was the more disposed to +keep down my lading of provisions because I wanted every scrap of room +that I could save for my cargo of coal. But my stores were plentiful +for the term that I had fixed upon, and the best and the most +nourishing--save that I could not take fresh meat with me--that the +_Ville de Saint Remy_ had on board; and I did not forget to take a +good supply of the tinned chicken and the condensed milk of which my +dainty cat was so fond. As for water--beside having my condenser to +fall back upon--I felt pretty sure that until I got well out toward +the open sea I could trust to the morning rains. But for all that I +carried two barrels with me--filled fresh the last thing before I +started--stowed in the well of the boat aft of the cabin; and there +too I carried a couple of ten-gallon tins of oil for my lanterns +and lamps. + +My bone-breaking job was getting my coal aboard. For ease in handling +and in stowing it--though I lost a little room that way--I put it in +canvas sacks, of which I luckily found some bales in the steamer's +cargo. These I swung up from the engine-room by the cinder-tackle to +the main deck; and having got them that far I packed them on my back +to the break in the steamer's side where my boat was lying and tumbled +them aboard of her, and then dragged them along to where I stowed +them in her hold. On my coal holding out at least until I got through +the weed--for on open water I could lay a course under sail--the +success of my adventure wholly depended; and knowing that, I filled my +boat with all that I dared to put into her--loading the last twenty +bags on her deck and on the roof of her cabin, to be used before I +drew on my main supply. + +But while this lading was a big one it did not satisfy me; and the +only way that I could think of to better it was to build a long and +narrow raft that I could stow as much more on and tow after me in the +boat's wake. This was a big undertaking, but I had to face it and to +carry it through: lowering down three spars (in managing which I used +a treble-purchase to swing them clear, and eased them down with a +couple of turns of the rope still around the capstan), and when I had +them over the side in a pool that I had cleared for them I lashed them +strongly together and decked them over with some of the state-room +doors. This gave me a raft sixty feet long, or thereabouts, but +narrower than my boat; and to make it follow the boat still more +easily I set a V-shaped cut-water at its bows to turn the weed. To be +sure, it was a clumsy thing, but it well enough served my turn. + +On this structure I was able to carry a prodigious quantity of +coal--more than I had on the boat, by a good deal; but by a little +planning in advance I arranged matters so that the lading of it was +not so hard a piece of work--though in all conscience it was hard +enough--as the lading of my boat had been. What I did was to clear a +pool in the weed for it and to build it directly beneath the outhang +of the cinder-tackle; and having that apparatus ready to my hand I +swung my bags of coal up from the engine-room, and then out along the +traveller, and then lowered them away--and so had only to stow them on +the raft when they were down. But there was only one of me to do all +this--to fill each bag in the bunkers and to bring it to the +engine-room, to make it fast there to the tackle, to come on deck and +haul it up and set it overboard, to go down the side and set it in +place, and then back to the bunkers again for the next round--and so I +spent a week in doing what three men could have done in a day. And I +was a tired man and a grimy man when I got this piece of work +finished; but I was comforted by knowing that I had as much coal in my +sea-stock as I possibly could have use for--and so I scrubbed myself +clean in the steamers bath-room and was easy in my mind. But it was a +good long while before I got the aches out of my bones. + +During my last week aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ I had steam up in +my boat and my engine at work during the greater part of each day: as +was necessary, the engine being new, in order to get the machinery +to running smoothly, and to set right anything that might be wrong +while I still had the steamer's machine-shop to turn to for repairs. +However, the engine proved to be a well-made one, and except that I +had to tighten a joint here and there and to repack the piston I had +nothing to rectify; and what still more pleased me was to find that my +cage answered to keep the screw from fouling, and that my plan for +sawing a way through the weed--which I tested by running a little +distance from the steamer through the thick of it--worked well too. +But because of the great friction to be overcome as the boat opened a +way for itself in the dense soft mass my progress was desperately +slow; and I had to comfort me the reflection that it would be still +slower when I got regularly under way and had in addition to the dead +thrust forward of the boat the dead drag after it of the raft. + +Slow or fast, though, I had no choice in the matter. With the means at +my command, I had done all that I could do to enable me to climb the +walls of my prison--if I may put it that way--and there remained only +to muster what pluck I had to help me and to abide by the result. This +was the view of the situation that I presented to my cat--for I had +got into the habit of talking to him quite as much as he talked to +me--while we sat at supper together on the last evening that we were +to pass on board of the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and while he did not +make much of a reply to me he did mumble some sort of a purring answer +that I took to mean he was willing, if I were, to make the trial. + +Early that morning, while the rain still was falling, I had filled my +two casks with fresh water; and after my breakfast I got them aboard +the boat and then went to work at setting up my mast--using one of the +davits in place of sheers and so managing the job very well. After +that I had rigged the sail, and had set it to make sure that all was +right; and then had furled it and lashed the boom fast on the roof of +the cabin among the bags of coal--and with rather a heavy heart, too, +for I knew that the chances were more than even against my ever +getting to open water and fresh breezes, and so loosing again the +knots which I had just tied. In the afternoon I had set my engine to +going again for an hour, and then had banked my fires against the +morning; and after that, until the shadows began to fall, I had spent +my time in going over the list that I had made of my sea-stock to be +sure that nothing that I needed was forgotten, and in taking a final +general survey of my boat and its stores. And when darkness came the +cat and I had our supper together--which was as good a one as the ship +could provide us with--and when we had finished I told him, as I have +said, what the chances were for and against our succeeding in our +undertaking and in return asked him for an expression of his +own views. + +That he fully understood what I told him I am not prepared to say; but +he certainly did answer me: jumping up on my lap and shoving his paws +alternately against my stomach, and purring in so cheerful a fashion, +and altogether making such a show of good spirits as to satisfy me +that he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through. +And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my own +confident hopes--which were rising strongly as the time for testing +them got close at hand--that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly, +and on my side promised that within another month or two he should +stretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put the +lamp out and we turned in for the night. + + + + + +XXXVII + +HOW MY CAT STILL FARTHER CHEERED ME + + +It was in the grey of early morning, while the rain still was falling, +that the cat and I had our breakfast; and as soon as the rain was over +I was down in the boat, and had off the tarpaulin that covered her +stern-sheets, and was busy bringing up my banked fires. One thing that +I had learned how to do during the week that I had been testing my +engine was to bank my fires well; and that was a matter of a good deal +of importance to me--since every night during my voyage the fires +would have to be kept that way, on the double score of my inability to +hold my course in the darkness and of my need for sleep. + +Presently I had steam up; and then I went back to the ship for the +last and most important piece of my cargo--my bag of jewels. It was +with a queer feeling, half of doubt and half of exultation, that I +fetched out this little bundle--still done up in the sleeve of the +oilskin jacket--and stowed it in one of the lockers in the cabin of my +boat. If my voyage went well, then all the rest of my life--so far as +wealth makes for happiness--would go well too: for in that rough and +dirty little bag was such a treasure--that I had won away from the +dead ship holding it--as would make me one of the richest men in the +world. But against this exultant hope stood up a doubt so dark that +there was no great room in my mind for cheerfulness: for as I stowed +away the jewels in the boat I could not but think of those others who +had stowed them away two hundred years and more before aboard the +galleon; and who had started in their great ship well manned on a +voyage in which the risk of disaster was as nothing in comparison with +the risk that I had to face in the voyage that I was undertaking in my +little boat alone. Yet their venture had ended miserably; and I, +trying singly to accomplish what their whole company had failed in, +very well might surrender the treasure again, as they had surrendered +it, to the storm-power of the sea. + +But thinking these dismal thoughts was no help to me, and so I choked +them down and went once more aboard the steamer to make sure that I +had forgotten nothing that I needed by taking a final look around. +This being ended without my seeing anything that was necessary to me, +I said goodbye to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ and got down into my boat +again; and my cat--who usually sat in the break of the side of the +steamer while I was at work in the boat, though sometimes asking +with a miau to be lifted down into her--of his own accord jumped +aboard ahead of me: and that I took for a good sign. + +Certainly, the cat and I made as queer a ship's company as ever went +afloat together; and our little craft--with its cargo that would have +bought a whole fleet's lading--was such an argosy as never before had +sailed the seas. Nor did even Columbus, when he struck out across the +black ocean westward, start upon a voyage so blind and so seemingly +hopeless as was ours. The Admiral, at least, had with him such aids to +navigation as his times afforded, and went cruising in open water; +failing in his quest, the chance was free to him to put about again +and so come once more to his home among living men. But I had not even +his poor equipment; and as to turning again and so coming back to the +point whence I started--even supposing that I could manage it--that +ending to my voyage would be so miserable that it would be better for +me to die by the way. + +In none of the vessels through which I had searched had I found a +sextant; nor would it have been of any use to me, had I found one, +unless I had found also a chronometer still keeping time. Charts I did +find; but as I had to know my position to get any good from them, and +as I would run straight for any land that I sighted without in the +least caring on what coast I made my landfall, I left them behind. My +only aid to navigation was a compass, that I got from the binnacle of +a ship lying near the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and aboard the same +vessel I found a very good spyglass, and gladly brought it along with +me because it would add to my chances--should I reach open water--not +only of sighting a distant ship but of making out how she was standing +in time to head her off. + +But for all practical purposes the compass was enough for me. I knew +that to the westward lay the American continent, and that between it +and where I then was--for it was certain that I was not far south of +the latitude of the Azores--was that section of the Atlantic which is +more thickly crowded with ships than any other like-sized bit of ocean +in the world. My chance of escape, therefore, and my only chance, lay +in holding to a due west course: hoping first that, being clear of the +weed, I might fall in with some passing vessel; and second that I +might make the coast before a storm came on me by which my little boat +would be swamped. And so I opened the throttle of my engine: and as +the screw began to revolve I headed my boat for the cut in the weed +which I had made when I was testing her--while my tow-rope drew taut +and after me came slowly my long raft. + +No doubt it was only because the hiss of the escaping steam startled +him; but at the first turn of the engine my cat scampered forward and +seated himself in the very bows of the boat--a little black +figure-head--and thence gazed out steadfastly westward as though he +were the pilot charged with the duty of setting our vessel's course. +He had to give place to me in a moment--when I went to the bows to +begin my sawing through the weed--but I was cheered by his planting +himself that way pointing our course with his nose for me: and again I +took his bit of freakishness for a good sign. + + + + + +XXXVIII + +HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + + +What I did on that first day of my voyage was what I did on every +succeeding day during so long a time that it seemed to me the end of +it never would come. + +When my craft fairly was started, with the fire well fed and a light +enough weight on the safety-valve to guard against any sudden chance +rise in the steam pressure, I went forward to the bows with the +compass and set myself to my sawing. The wheel being lashed with the +rudder amidships, all the steering was managed from the bows--any +deviation from the straight line westward being corrected by my taking +the saw out from the guide-bars and cutting to the right or to the +left with it until I had the boat's nose pointing again the right way. +But there was not often need for cutting of this sort. Held by the +guide-bars, the saw cut a straight path for the boat to follow; while, +conversely, the boat held the saw true. And so, for the most part, I +had only to stand like a machine there--endlessly hauling the saw up +and endlessly thrusting it down. Behind me my little engine puffed +and snorted; over the bows, below me, was the soft crunching sound of +the weed opening as the boat thrust her nose into it; and on each side +of me was the soft hissing rustling of the weed against the boat's +sides. From time to time I would stop for sheer weariness--for +anything more back-breaking than the steady working of that saw I +never came across; and from time to time I had to stop my +engine--which I managed, and also the starting of it, by means of a +pair of lines brought forward into the bows from the lever-bar--while +I attended to feeding the fire. + +The only breaks in this deadly monotonous round were when I ate my +meals--and at first these were as pleasant as they were restful, with +the cat sitting beside me and eating very contentedly too--and when I +fell in with a bit of wreckage that I had to steer clear of or to move +out of my way. Interruptions of this latter sort--even though they +gave me a change from my wearying sawing--were hard to put up with; +for they not only held me back woefully, but they kept me in continual +alarm lest I should break my saw. When the obstacle was a derelict, or +anything so large that I could see it well ahead of me and so could +have plenty of time in which to swing the boat to one side of it by +slicing a diagonal way for her, I could get along without much +difficulty; but when it was only a spar or a mast, so bedded in the +weed that my first knowledge of it was finding it close under my bows, +there was no chance to make a detour and I had to thrust it aside with +a boat-hook or go to hacking at it with an axe until I had cut it +through. And often it happened that I knew nothing at all of the +obstacle, the weed covering it completely, until my saw struck against +it; and that would send a cold shiver through me, as I whipped my saw +out of the water--for I had only two saws with me, and I knew that to +break one of them cut down my chances of escape by a half. Indeed, my +first saw did get broken while I still was in the thick of the tangle; +and after that I was in a constant tremor, which became almost agony +when I felt the least jar in my cutting, for fear that the other +would go too. + +But with it all I managed to make pretty fair progress, and better +than I had counted upon; for I succeeded in covering, as nearly as I +could reckon it, close upon three miles a day. After I fairly got out +upon my course I had no means whatever of judging distances; but my +estimate of my advance was made at the end of my first day's run, when +the wreck-pack still was in sight behind me and enabled me to make a +close guess at how far I had come. As the sun went down that night +over my bows--making a long path of crimson along the weed ahead of +me, and filling the mist with a crimson glow--I still could make out, +though very faintly, the continent of wrecks from which I had started; +and with my glass I could distinguish the _Ville de Saint Remy_ by the +three flags which I had left flying on her masts. And the sight of +her, and the thought of how comfortable and how safe I had been aboard +of her, and of how I was done with her forever and was tying to as +slim a chance of life as ever a man tied to, for a while put a great +heaviness upon my heart. Not until darkness came and shut her out from +me, and I was resting in my brightly lighted comfortable little +cabin--with my supper to cheer me, and with my cat to cheer me +too--did my spirits rise again; and I was glad, when I got under way +once more in the morning, that the heavy mist cut her off from me--and +that by the time the sun had thinned the mist a little I had made such +progress as to put her out of sight of me for good and all. + +Through my second day I still could make out the loom of the +wreck-pack behind me--a dark line low down in the mist that I should +have taken for a rain-cloud had I not known what it was; but that also +was pretty well gone by evening, and from my third day onward I was +encompassed wholly by the soft veil of golden mist hanging low around +me over the weed-covered sea. Only about noon time, when this veil +grew thinner and had in it a brighter golden tone--or at sunset, when +it was shot through with streams of crimson light which filled it +with a ruddy glow--was it possible for me to see for more than a mile +or so in any direction; and even when my horizon thus was enlarged a +little my view still was the same: always the weed spread out over the +water so thickly that nowhere was there the slightest break in it, and +so dense and solid that it would have seemed like land around me but +for its very gentle undulating motion--which made me giddy if I looked +at it for long at a time. The only relief to this dull flat surface +was when I came upon a wrecked ship, or upon a hummock of wreckage, +rising a little up from it--also swaying very gently with a wearying +motion that seemed as slow as time. And the silent despairing +desolateness of it all sunk down into my very soul. + +Even my cat seemed to feel the misery of that great loneliness and +lost so much of his cheerfulness that he got to be but a dull +companion for me; though likely enough what ailed him was the reflex +of my own poor spirits, made low by my constant bodily weariness, and +had I shown any liveliness he would have been lively too. But I was +too tired to think much about him--or about anything else--as day +after day I stood in the bow of the boat working my saw up and down +with a deadly dull monotony: that had no break save when I stopped to +rest a little my aching body, or to have a tussle with a bit of +wreckage that barred my passage, or to stoke myself with food, or to +put coal beneath my boiler, or to lie down at night with every one of +my bones and muscles heavy with a dull pain. + +And all the sound that there was in that still misty solitude was the +puffing of my engine, and the wheel churning in the water, and the +sharp hiss of the saw as it severed the matted fibres, and the +crunching and rustling that the boat made as it went onward with a +leaden slowness through the weed. + + + + + +XXXIX + +WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + +I had thought that I had struck the bed-rock of misery when I was +wandering in the dead depths of the wreck-pack, with the conviction +strong upon me that in a little while I would be dead there too. But +as I look back upon that long suffering of lonely sorrow I think now +that the worst of it came to me after I had left the wreck-pack +behind. In that last round that I fought with misfortune the strength +of my body was exhausted so completely that it could give no support +to my spirit; and as the days went on and on--always with the same +weed-covered sea around me and the same soft golden mist over me, and +I always working wearily but with the stolid steadiness of a +machine--so deadening a numbness took hold of me that I seemed to +myself like some far-away strange person--yet one with whom I had a +direct connection, and must needs sorrow for and sympathize +with--struggling interminably through the dull jading mazes of a +night-mare dream. + +Once only was I aroused from this stupor of spirit that went with my +vigorous yet apathetic bodily action. Just at sunset one evening I +sighted a vessel of some sort far ahead of me--a black mass looming +uncertainly against the rich glow of crimson that filled the west--and +for some reason or another I took into my head the fancy that I was +nearing open water and that this was not a wreck but a living ship on +board of which I would find living men: and at the thought of meeting +with live men again I fairly cried with joy. Then darkness fell and +shut her out from me; leaving me so eager that I could not sleep for +thinking of her, and almost tempting me to press on through the night +that I might be close up to her by dawn. But when in the first faint +grey light of early morning I made her out again, and saw that she was +in just the same position and at just the same distance ahead of me, I +was almost as sorry as I would have been had she vanished; for I knew +that had she been a living ship in that long night-time she would have +sailed away. And by noon, being then close upon her, I could see that +she was floating bottom upwards: and so knew certainly that she was +only a dead wreck drifting in slowly to take her place among the dead +wrecks which I had left behind me; and beyond her, instead of open +water, I saw only the weed--covered ocean stretching onward unbroken +until it was lost in the golden haze. + +Even then, though, I had a foolish hope that there might be living men +clinging to her, and I edged my boat off its course a little so that I +might run close under her stern. But no one showed on her hull as I +neared her, and only my own voice broke the heavy silence as I crazily +hailed her again and again. And then I fell into a dull rage with her, +so weary was I of my loneliness and so bitter was my disappointment at +finding her deserted--until suddenly a very different train of +emotions was aroused in me as I made out slowly the weathered inverted +lettering on her up-tilting stern, and so read her name there: +_Golden Hind_! + +Like a flash I had before me clearly all the details of my last +moments aboard of her: my quick sharp words with Captain Luke, my step +backward with my arms up as he and the mate pressed upon me, the +smasher that I got in on the mate's jaw, the crack on my own head that +stunned me--and then my revival of consciousness as I found myself +adrift in the ocean and saw the brig sailing away. And while these +thoughts crowded upon me my boat went onward through the weed +slowly--and presently I had again parted company with the _Golden +Hind_, and this time for good and all. + +After that break in it my dull despairing weariness settled down upon +me again--as the heavy days drifted past me and I pressed steadily on, +and on, and on. How time went I do not know. I could keep no track of +days which always were the same. But I must have been on my voyage for +nearly a month when I fell in with the _Golden Hind_: as I know +because a little while after passing her I used the last of the coal +that was on the raft and cast it off--and my calculation at starting +had been that the coal aboard the raft would last me for about +thirty days. + +Getting rid of the raft was a good thing for me in one way, for when +the boat was relieved from that heavy mass dragging through the weed +after her she went almost twice as fast. But in another way it was a +bad thing for me, for it left me with only what coal I had on the boat +herself and, so far as I could judge from my surroundings, I was no +nearer to being over the wall of my prison than I was on that first +morning when I put off from the _Ville de Saint Remy_. Still the weed +stretched away endlessly on all sides of me, and still the golden mist +ceaselessly hung over me--only it did seem to me, though I did not +trust myself to play much with this hopeful fancy, that the mist was a +good deal thinner than it had been during the earlier part of +my voyage. + +But I was too broken to take much notice of my surroundings. Still I +worked on and on, with the steadfastness and the hopelessness of a +machine: up and down over the bows with my saw interminably, with +only little breaks for rest and eating and to keep my fires up or for +a struggle with a bit of wreckage that barred my way; and at night to +weary sleep that did not rest me; and then up before sunrise to begin +it all again with a fresh day that had no freshness in it--and was +like all the many days of desperate toil which had gone before it, and +like the others which still were to come. + +Even when I saw ahead of me one morning a long lane of open water, a +wide break in the weed, I was too dull to think much about it beyond +steering my way into it thankfully--and then feeling a slow wonder as +the boat slid along with no rustling noise on each side of her at what +seemed to me an almost breathless speed. But as that day went on and +the mist grew lighter and lighter about me and I came to more and more +of these open spaces, and at the same time found that the weed between +them was so much thinner that the boat almost could push through it +without having a path cut for her, I began faintly to realize that +perhaps I had got to the beginning of the end. And then, for the first +time since I had lapsed into my stolid insensibility, a little weak +thrill of hope went through me and I seemed to be waking from my +despairing dream. + +With the next day, however, hope full and strong fairly got hold of +me: for I was out of the mist completely, and the weed was so thin +that I brought my saw inboard and finally had done with it, and the +stretches of open water were so many and so large that I knew that the +blessed free ocean must be very near at hand. And I think that my cat +knew as well as I did that our troubles were close to a good ending; +for all of a sudden he gave over his moping and fell to frisking about +me and to going through all the tricks which I had taught him of his +own accord; and thence onward he spent most of his time on the roof of +the cabin--looking about him with a curious intentness, for all the +world as though I had stationed him there to watch out for a ship +bearing down on us, or for land. Even when I found that day that only +a dozen bags of coal were left to me--for I had fed my furnace while +my heaviness was upon me without paying any attention to how things +were going with my stock of fuel--my spirits were none the worse for +my discovery; for with every mile that I went onward the weed was +growing thinner and I felt safe enough about continuing my voyage +under sail. + +Because my rousing out of my lethargy had been so slow, this change in +my chances seemed to come upon me with a startling suddenness--when in +reality, I suppose, I might have seen signs of it a good while sooner +than I did see them had my mind been clear. But the actual end of my +adventure, the resolving of my hopes into a glad certainty of rescue, +really did come upon me with a rush at last. + +We fairly were in open water, and the cat and I were dining in the +cabin together very cheerfully--with the helm lashed and the boat +going on her course at half speed. I was disposed to linger over my +meal a little, for I was beginning to enjoy once more the luxury of +getting rest when I rested, and when my cat suddenly left me and went +on deck by himself--a thing that he never before had done--I took his +desertion of me in ill part. A moment later I heard the padding of his +feet on the roof of the cabin over me, and smiled to myself as I +thought of him going on watch there; and then, presently, I heard him +calling me--for I had come to understand a good many of his turns of +language--with a lively "Miau!" But it was not until he called me +again, and more urgently, that the oddness of his conduct came home to +me and made me hurry on deck after him; and my first glance at him +made me look in the direction in which he was looking eagerly: and +there I saw the smoke of a steamer trailing black to the horizon, and +beneath it her long black hull--and she was heading straight for me, +and coming along at such a ripping rate that within twenty minutes she +would be across my bows. + +Half an hour more brought matters to a finish. I had only to wait +where I was until the steamer was close down upon me, and then to run +in under her counter so that her people might throw me a line. Her +whole side was crowded with faces as she stopped her way and I came up +with her, and on her rail a tall officer was standing--holding fast +with one hand to the rigging and having in the other a coil of rope +all ready to cast. + +One face among the many clustered there, and a mighty friendly one, +was familiar to me; but I could not place it until a jolly voice +hailed me that I recognized with a warm thrill--and the sound of it +filled me with joy as I thought of my bag of jewels in the cabin +locker, and of how at last my doctor's bill would be paid. + +"And so it's yourself, my fine big young man, and at your old tricks +again. But it's this time that you have the good luck of a black cat +for company in your cruising all alone by yourself over the open sea!" + +And then the tall officer with the coil of rope sung out "Catch!"--and +sent the line whizzing down to me, and I caught the end of it in +my hand. + + +THE END + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. A Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity. +Illustrated by FREDERIC REMINGTON. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. + +This powerful story may well be ranked among the wonder books. No +story-reader should miss it, for it is different from anything he has +ever read.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL, and Other Stories. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25; +Paper, 50 cents. + +Janvier stands in the first rank as a writer of short stories, and a new +volume coming from him is sure to meet with success. In the present +instance it well deserves to, for the stories it contains, from the one +which gives it its title to the last between the covers, are among his +best.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +IN OLD NEW YORK. With 13 Maps and 58 Illustrations. Post 8vo, Cloth, +$1 75. + +Overflows with all sorts of minute and curious information concerning both +the old and the recent town.... Mr. Janvier has long been a zealous and +sympathetic student of this subject. His text is supplemented with +numerous maps and illustrations, instructive and interesting.--_N.Y. Sun_. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + +***** This file should be named 9906-8.txt or 9906-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/0/9906/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In the Sargasso Sea + A Novel + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Posting Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #9906] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 29, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + +A Novel + + +BY + +THOMAS A. JANVIER + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL" +"THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE" +"STORIES OF OLD NEW SPAIN" ETC. + + * * * * * + +1898 + + + + +TO + +C.A.J. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + II. HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + III. I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + IV. CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + V. I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + VI. I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + VII. I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + VIII. THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + IX. ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + X. I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + XI. MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + XII. I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + XIII. I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + XIV. OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + XV. I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + XVI. I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + XVII. HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + XVIII. I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + XIX. OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + XX. HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + XXI. MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + XXII. I GET SOME FOOD IN ME, AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + XXIII. HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + XXIV. OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + XXV. I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + XXVI. OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + XXVII. I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + XXVIII. HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + XXIX. I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + XXX. I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + XXXI. HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + XXXII. I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + XXXIII. I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + XXXIV. I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + XXXV. I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + XXXVI. HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + XXXVII. HOW MY CAT STILL FURTHER CHEERED ME + XXXVIII. HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + XXXIX. WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + + +I + +I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + + +Captain Luke Chilton counted over the five-dollar notes with a greater +care than I thought was necessary, considering that there were only +ten of them; and cautiously examined each separate one, as though he +feared that I might be trying to pay for my passage in bad money. His +show of distrust set my back up, and I came near to damning him right +out for his impudence--until I reflected that a West Coast trader must +pretty well divide his time between cheating people and seeing to it +that he isn't cheated, and so held my tongue. + +Having satisfied himself that the tale was correct and that the notes +were genuine, he brought out from the inside pocket of his long-tailed +shore-going coat a big canvas pocket-book, into which he stowed them +lengthwise; and from the glimpse I had of it I fancied that until my +money got there it was about bare. As he put away the pocket-book, he +said, and pleasantly enough: + +"You see, Mr. Stetworth, it's this way: fifty dollars is dirt cheap +for a cast across from New York to the Coast, and that's a fact; but +you say that it's an object with you to get your passage low, and I +say that even at that price I can make money out of you. The _Golden +Hind_ has got to call at Loango, anyhow; there's a spare room in her +cabin that'll be empty if you don't fill it; and while you're a big +man and look to be rather extra hearty, I reckon you won't eat more'n +about twenty dollars' worth of victuals--counting 'em at cost--on the +whole run. But the main thing is that I want all the spot cash I can +get a-holt of before I start. Fifty dollars' worth of trade laid in +now means five hundred dollars for me when I get back here in New York +with what I've turned it over for on the Coast. So, you see, if you're +suited, I'm suited too. Shake! And now we'll have another drink. This +time it's on me." + +We shook, and Captain Luke gave me an honest enough grip, just as he +had spoken in an honest enough tone. I knew, of course, that in a +general way he must be a good deal of a rascal--he couldn't well be a +West Coast trader and be anything else; but then his rascality in +general didn't matter much so long as his dealings with me were +square. He called the waiter and ordered arrack again--it was the +most wholesome drink in the world, he said--and we touched glasses, +and so brought our deal to an end. + +That a cheap passage to Loango was an object to me, as Captain Luke +had said, was quite true. It was a very important object. After I got +across, of course, and my pay from the palm-oil people began, I would +be all right; but until I could touch my salary I had to sail mighty +close to the wind. For pretty much all of my capital consisted of my +headful of knowledge of the theory and practice of mechanical +engineering which had brought me out first of my class at the Stevens +Institute--and in that way had got me the offer from the palm-oil +people--and because of which I thought that there wasn't anybody quite +my equal anywhere as a mechanical engineer. And that was only natural, +I suppose, since my passing first had swelled my head a bit, and I was +only three-and-twenty, and more or less of a promiscuously green +young fool. + +As I looked over Captain Luke's shoulder, while we supped our arrack +together--out through the window across the rush and bustle of South +Street--and saw a trim steamer of the Maracaibo line lying at her +dock, I could not but be sorry that my voyage to Africa would be made +under sails. But, on the other hand, I comforted myself by thinking +that if the _Golden Hind_ were half the clipper her captain made her +out to be I should not lose much time--taking into account the +roundabout way I should have to go if I went under steam. And I +comforted myself still more by thinking what a lot of money I had +saved by coming on this chance for a cheap cast across; and I blessed +my lucky stars for putting into my head the notion of cruising along +South Street that October morning and asking every sailor-like man I +met if he knew of a craft bound for the West Coast--and especially for +having run me up against Captain Luke Chilton before my cruise had +lasted an hour. + +The captain looked at his glass so sorrowfully when it was empty that +I begged him to have it filled again, and he did. But he took down his +arrack this time at a single gulp, and then got up briskly and said +that he must be off. + +"We don't sail till to-morrow afternoon, on the half flood, Mr. +Stetworth," he said, "so you'll have lots of time to get your traps +aboard if you'll take a boat off from the Battery about noon. I +wouldn't come earlier than that, if I were you. Things are bound to be +in a mess aboard the brig to-morrow, and the less you have of it the +better. We lie well down the anchorage, you know, only a little this +side of Robbin's Reef. Your boatmen will know the place, and they'll +find the brig for you if you'll tell 'em where to look for her and +that she's painted green. Well, so long." And then Captain Luke shook +hands with me again, and so was off into the South Street crowd. + +I hurried away too. My general outfit was bought and packed; but the +things lying around my lodgings had to be got together, and I had to +buy a few articles in the way of sea-stock for my voyage in a sailing +vessel that I should not have needed had I gone by the regular steam +lines. So I got some lunch inside of me, and after that I took a +cab--a bit of extravagance that my hurry justified--and bustled about +from shop to shop and got what I needed inside of an hour; and then I +told the man to drive me to my lodgings up-town. + +It was while I was driving up Broadway--the first quiet moment for +thinking that had come to me since I had met Captain Luke on South +Street, and we had gone into the saloon together to settle about the +passage he had offered me--that all of a sudden the thought struck me +that perhaps I had made the biggest kind of a fool of myself; and it +struck so hard that for a minute or two I fairly was dizzy and faint. + +What earthly proof had I, beyond Captain Luke's bare word for it, that +there was such a brig as the _Golden Hind_? What proof had I +even--beyond the general look of him and his canvas pocket-book--that +Captain Luke was a sailor? And what proof had I, supposing that there +was such a brig and that he was a sailor, that the two had anything +to do with each other? I simply had accepted for truth all that he +told me, and on the strength of his mere assertion that he was a +ship-master and was about to sail for the West African coast I had +paid him my fifty dollars--and had taken by way of receipt for it no +more than a clinking of our glasses and a shake of his hand. I said +just now that I was only twenty-three years old, and more or less of a +promiscuously green young fool. I suppose that I might as well have +left that out. There are some things that tell themselves. + +For three or four blocks, as I drove along, I was in such a rage with +myself that I could not think clearly. Then I began to cool a little, +and to hope that I had gone off the handle too suddenly and too far. +After all, there were some chances in my favor the other way. Captain +Chilton, I remembered, had told me that he was about to sail for West +Coast ports before I asked him for a passage; and had mentioned, also, +whereabouts on the anchorage the _Golden Hind_ was lying. Had he made +these statements after he knew what I wanted there would have been +some reason for doubting them; but being made on general principles, +without knowledge of what I was after, it seemed to me that they very +well might be true. And if they were true, why then there was no great +cause for my sudden fit of alarm. However, I was so rattled by my +fright, and still so uncertain as to how things were coming out for +me, that the thought of waiting until the next afternoon to know +certainly whether I had or had not been cheated was more than I could +bear. The only way that I could see to settle the matter was to go +right away down to the anchorage, and so satisfy myself that the +_Golden Hind_ was a real brig and really was lying there; and it +occurred to me that I might kill two birds with one stone, and also +have a reason to give for a visit which otherwise might seem +unreasonable, if I were to take down my luggage and put it aboard that +very afternoon. + + + + + +II + +HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + + +Having come to this conclusion, I acted on it. I kept the cab at the +door while I finished my packing with a rush, and then piled my +luggage on it and in it--and what with my two trunks, and my kit of +fine tools, and all my bundles, this made tight stowing--and then away +I went down-town again as fast as the man could drive with such +a load. + +We got to the Battery in a little more than an hour, and there I +transshipped my cargo to a pair-oared boat and started away for the +anchorage. The boatmen comforted me a good deal at the outset by +saying that they thought they knew just where the _Golden Hind_ was +lying, as they were pretty sure they had seen her only that morning +while going down the harbor with another fare; and before we were much +more than past Bedloe's Island--having pulled well over to get out of +the channel and the danger of being run down by one of the swarm of +passing craft--they made my mind quite easy by actually pointing her +out to me. But almost in the same moment I was startled again by one +of them saying to me: "I don't believe you've much time to spare, +captain. There's a lighter just shoved off from her, and she's gettin' +her tops'ls loose. I guess she means to slide out on this tide. That +tug seems to be headin' for her now." + +The men laid to their oars at this, and it was a good thing--or a bad +thing, some people might think--that they did; for had we lost five +minutes on our pull down from the Battery I never should have got +aboard of the _Golden Hind_ at all. As it was, the anchor was a-peak, +and the lines of the tug made fast, by the time that we rounded under +her counter; and the decks were so full of the bustle of starting that +it was only a chance that anybody heard our hail. But somebody did +hear it, and a man--it was the mate, as I found out afterwards--came +to the side. + +"Hold on, captain," one of the boatmen sang out, "here's your +passenger!" + +"Go to hell!" the mate answered, and turned inboard again. + +But just then I caught sight of Captain Chilton, coming aft to stand +by the wheel, and called out to him by name. He turned in a hurry--and +with a look of being scared, I fancied--but it seemed to me a good +half-minute before he answered me. In this time the men had shoved the +boat alongside and had made fast to the main-chains; and just then +the tug began to puff and snort, and the towline lifted, and the brig +slowly began to gather way. I could not understand what they were up +to; but the boatmen, who were quick fellows, took the matter into +their own hands, and began to pass in my boxes over the gunwale--the +brig lying very low in the water--as we moved along. This brought the +mate to the side again, with a rattle of curses and orders to stand +off. And then Captain Chilton came along himself--having finished +whatever he had been doing in the way of thinking--and gave matters a +more reasonable turn. + +"It's all right, George," he said to the mate. "This gentleman is a +friend of mine who's going out with us" (the mate gave him a queer +look at that), "and he's got here just in time." And then he turned to +me and added: "I'd given you up, Mr. Stetworth, and that's a +fact--concluding that the man I sent to your lodgings hadn't found +you. We had to sail this afternoon, you see, all in a hurry; and the +only thing I could do was to rush a man after you to bring you down. +He seems to have overhauled you in time, even if it was a close +call--so all's well." + +While he was talking the boatmen were passing aboard my boxes and +bundles, while the brig went ahead slowly; and when they all were +shipped, and I had paid the men, he gave me his hand in a friendly way +and helped me up the side. What to make of it all I could not tell. +Captain Luke told a straight enough story, and the fact that his +messenger had not got to me before I started did not prove that he +lied. Moreover, he went on to say that if I had not got down to the +brig he had meant to leave my fifty dollars with the palm-oil people +at Loango, and that sounded square enough too. At any rate, if he were +lying to me I had no way of proving it against him, and he was +entitled to the benefit of the doubt; and so, when he had finished +explaining matters--which was short work, as he had the brig to look +after--I did not see my way to refusing his suggestion that we should +call it all right and shake hands. + +For the next three hours or so--until we were clear of the Hook and +had sea-room and the tug had cast us off--I was left to my own +devices: except that a couple of men were detailed to carry to my +state-room what I needed there, while the rest of my boxes were stowed +below. Indeed, nobody had time to spare me a single word--the captain +standing by the wheel in charge of the brig, and the two mates having +their hands full in driving forward the work of finishing the lading, +so that the hatches might be on and things in some sort of order +before the crew should be needed to make sail. + +The decks everywhere were littered with the stuff put aboard from the +lighter that left the brig just before I reached her, and the huddle +and confusion showed that the transfer must have been made in a +tearing hurry. Many of the boxes gave no hint of what was inside of +them; but a good deal of the stuff--as the pigs of lead and cans of +powder, the many five-gallon kegs of spirits, the boxes of fixed +ammunition, the cases of arms, and so on--evidently was regular West +Coast "trade." And all of it was jumbled together just as it had been +tumbled aboard. + +I was surprised by our starting with the brig in such a mess--until it +occurred to me that the captain had no choice in the matter if he +wanted to save the tide. Very likely the tide did enter into his +calculations; but I was led to believe a little later--and all the +more because of his scared look when I hailed him from the boat--that +he had run into some tangle on shore that made him want to get away in +a hurry before the law-officers should bring him up with a round turn. + +What put this notion into my head was a matter that occurred when we +were down almost to the Hook, and its conclusion came when we were +fairly outside and the tug had cast us off; otherwise my boxes and I +assuredly would have gone back on the tug to New York--and I with a +flea in my ear, as the saying is, stinging me to more prudence in my +dealings with chance-met mariners and their offers of cheap passages +on strange craft. + +When we were nearly across the lower bay, the nose of a steamer +showed in the Narrows; and as she swung out from the land I saw that +she flew the revenue flag. Captain Luke, standing aft by the wheel, no +doubt made her out before I did; for all of a sudden he let drive a +volley of curses at the mates to hurry their stowing below of the +stuff with which our decks were cluttered. At first I did not +associate the appearance of the cutter with this outbreak; but as she +came rattling down the bay in our wake I could not but notice his +uneasiness as he kept turning to look at her and then turning forward +again to swear at the slowness of the men. But she was a long way +astern at first, and by the time that she got close up to us we were +fairly outside the Hook and the tug had cast us off--which made a +delay in the stowing, as the men had to be called away from it to set +enough sail to give us steerage way. + +Captain Luke barely gave them time to make fast the sheets before he +hurried them back to the hatch again; and by that time the cutter had +so walked up to us that we had her close aboard. I could see that he +fully expected her to hail us; and I could see also that there seemed +to be a feeling of uneasiness among the crew, though they went on +briskly with their work of getting what remained of the boxes and +barrels below. And then, being close under our stern, the cutter +quietly shifted her helm to clear us--and so slid past us, without +hailing and with scarcely a look at us, and stood on out to sea. + +That the captain and all hands so manifestly should dread being +overhauled by a government vessel greatly increased my vague doubts as +to the kind of company that I had got into; and at the very moment +that the cutter passed us these doubts were so nearly resolved into +bad certainties that my thoughts shot around from speculation upon +Captain Luke's possible perils into consideration of what seemed to be +very real perils of my own. + +With the cutter close aboard of us, and with the captain and both the +mates swearing at them, I suppose that the men at the hatch--who were +swinging the things below with a whip--got rattled a little. At any +rate, some of them rigged the sling so carelessly that a box fell out +from it, and shot down to the main-deck with such a bang that it burst +open. It was a small and strongly made box, that from its shape and +evident weight I had fancied might have arms in it. But when it split +to bits that way--the noise of the crash drawing me to the hatch to +see what had happened--its contents proved to be shackles: and the +sight of them, and the flash of thought which made me realize what +they must be there for, gave me a sudden sick feeling in my inside! + +In my hurried reading about the West Coast--carried on at odd times +since my meeting with the palm-oil people--I had learned enough about +the trade carried on there to know that slaving still was a part of +it; but so small a part that the matter had not much stuck in my mind. +But it was a fact then (as it also is a fact now) that the traders who +run along the coast--exchanging such stuff as Captain Luke carried for +ivory and coffee and hides and whatever offers--do now and then take +the chances and run a cargo of slaves from one or another of the lower +ports into Mogador: where the Arab dealers pay such prices for live +freight in good condition as to make the venture worth the risk that +it involves. This traffic is not so barbarous as the old traffic to +America used to be--when shippers regularly counted upon the loss of a +third or a half of the cargo in transit, and so charged off the +death-rate against profit and loss--for the run is a short one, and +slaves are so hard to get and so dangerous to deal in nowadays that it +is sound business policy to take enough care of them to keep them +alive. But I am safe in saying that the men engaged in the Mogador +trade are about the worst brutes afloat in our time--not excepting the +island traders of the South Pacific--and for an honest man to get +afloat in their company opens to him large possibilities of being +murdered off-hand, with side chances of sharing in their punishment if +he happens to be with them when they are caught. And so it is not to +be wondered at that when I saw the shackles come flying out from that +broken box, and so realized the sort of men I had for shipmates, that +a sweating fright seized me which made my stomach go queer. And then, +as I thought how I had tumbled myself into this scrape that the least +shred of prudence would have kept me out of, I realized for the second +time that day that I was very young and very much of a fool. + + + + + +III + +I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + + +I went to the stern of the brig and looked at the tug, far off and +almost out of sight in the dusk, and at the loom of the Highlands, +above which shone the light-house lamps--and my heart went down into +my boots, and for a while stayed there. For a moment the thought came +into my head to cut away the buoy lashed to the rail and to take my +chances with it overboard--trusting to being picked up by some passing +vessel and so set safe ashore. But the night was closing down fast and +a lively sea was running, and I had sense enough to perceive that +leaving the brig that way would be about the same as getting out of +the frying-pan into the fire. + +Fortunately, in a little while I began to get wholesomely angry; which +always is a good thing, I think, when a man gets into a tight +place--if he don't carry it too far--since it rouses the fighting +spirit in him and so helps him to pull through. In reason, I ought to +have been angry with myself, for the trouble that I was in was all of +my own making; but, beyond giving myself a passing kick or two, all +my anger was turned upon Captain Luke for taking advantage of my +greenness to land me in such a pickle when his gain from it would be +so small. I know now that I did Captain Luke injustice. His subsequent +conduct showed that he did not want me aboard with him any more than I +wanted to be there. Had I not taken matters into my own hands by +boarding the brig in such a desperate hurry--just as I had hurried to +close with his offer and to clinch it by paying down my +passage-money--he would have gone off without me. And very likely he +would have thought that the lesson in worldly wisdom he had given me +was only fairly paid for by the fifty dollars which had jumped so +easily out of my pocket into his. + +But that was not the way I looked at the matter then; and in my heart +I cursed Captain Luke up hill and down dale for having, as I fancied, +lured me aboard the brig and so into peril of my skin. And my anger +was so strong that I went by turns hot and cold with it, and itched to +get at Captain Luke with my fists and give him a dressing--which I +very well could have done, had we come to fighting, for I was a bigger +man than he was and a stronger man, too. + +It is rather absurd as I look back at it, considering what a taking I +was in and how strong was my desire just then to punch Captain Luke's +head for him, that while I was at the top of my rage he came aft to +where I was leaning against the rail and put his hand on my shoulder +as friendly as possible and asked me to come down into the cabin to +supper. I suppose I had a queer pale look, because of my anger, for he +said not to mind if I did feel sickish, but to eat all the same and I +would feel better for it; and he really was so cordial and so pleasant +that for a moment or two I could not answer him. It was upsetting, +when I was so full of fight, to have him come at me in that friendly +way; and I must say that I felt rather sheepish, and wondered whether +I had not been working myself up over a mare's-nest as I followed +him below. + +We had the mate to supper with us, at a square table in the middle of +the cabin, and at breakfast the next morning we had the second mate; +and so it went turn and turn with them at meals--except that they had +some sort of dog-watch way about the Saturday night and Sunday morning +that always gave the mate his Sunday dinner with the captain, as was +the due of his rank. + +The mate was a surly brute, and when Captain Chilton said, in quite a +formal way, "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me make you acquainted with Mr. +George Hinds," he only grunted and gave me a sort of a nod. He did not +have much to say while the supper went on, speaking only when the +captain spoke to him, and then shortly; but from time to time he +snatched a mighty sharp look at me--that I pretended not to notice, +but saw well enough out of the tail of my eye. It was plain enough +that he was taking my measure, and I even fancied that he would have +been better pleased had I been six inches or so shorter and with less +well-made shoulders and arms. When he did speak it was in a growling +rumble of a voice, and he swore naturally. + +Captain Luke evidently tried to make up for the mate's surliness; and +he really was very pleasant indeed--telling me stories about the +Coast, and giving me good advice about guarding against sickness +there, and showing such an interest in my prospects with the palm-oil +people, and in my welfare generally, that I was still more inclined to +think that my scare about the shackles was only foolishness from first +to last. He seemed to be really pleased when he found that I was not +seasick, and interested when I told him how well I knew the sea and +the management of small craft from my sailing in the waters about +Nantucket every summer for so many years; and then we got to talking +about the Coast again and about my outfit for it, which he said was a +very good one; and he especially commended me--instead of laughing at +me, as I was afraid he would--for having brought along such a lot of +quinine. Indeed, the quinine seemed to make a good deal of an +impression on him, for he turned to the mate and said: "Do you hear +that, George? Mr. Stetworth has with him a whole case of +quinine--enough to serve a ship's company through a cruise." And the +mate rumbled out, as he got up from the table and started for the +deck, that quinine was a damned good thing. + +We waited below until the second mate came down, to whom the captain +introduced me with his regular formula: "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me +make you acquainted with Mr. Martin Bowers." He was a young fellow, of +no more than my own age, and I took a fancy to him at sight--for he +not only shook my hand heartily but he looked me squarely in the eyes, +and that is a thing I like a man to do. It seemed to me that my being +there was a good deal of a puzzle to him; and he also took my measure, +but quite frankly--telling me when he had looked me over that if I +knew how to steer I'd be a good man to have at the wheel in a gale. + +The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack, and he and I +had a glass together--in which, as I thought rather hard, Bowers was +not given a chance to join us--and then we went on deck and walked up +and down for a while, smoking our pipes and talking about the weather +and the prospects for the voyage. And it all went so easily and so +pleasantly that I couldn't help laughing a little to myself over +my scare. + +I turned in early, for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day; +but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long +while--although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the +brig lulled me--for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly +was begun. I slipped through my mind all that had happened to me that +day--from my meeting with Captain Luke in the forenoon until there I +was, at nine o'clock at night, fairly out at sea; and I was so pleased +with the series of lucky chances which had put me on my way so rapidly +that my one mischance--my scare about the shackles--seemed +utterly absurd. + +It was perfectly reasonable, I reflected, for Captain Luke to carry +out a lot of shackles simply as "trade." It was pretty dirty "trade," +of course, but so was the vile so-called brandy he was carrying out +with him; and so, for that matter, were the arms--which pretty +certainly would be used in slaving forays up from the Coast. And even +supposing the very worst--that Captain Luke meant to ship a cargo of +slaves himself and had these irons ready for them--that worst would +come after I was out of the brig and done with her; the captain having +told me that Loango, which was my landing-place, would be his first +port of call. When I was well quit of the _Golden Hind_ she and her +crew and her captain, for all that I cared, might all go to the devil +together. It was enough for me that I should be well treated on the +voyage over; and from the way that the voyage had begun--unless the +surly mate and I might have a bit of a flare-up--it looked as though I +were going to be very well treated indeed. And so, having come to this +comforting conclusion, I let the soft motion of the brig have its way +with me and began to snooze. + +A little later I was partly aroused by the sound of steps coming down +the companion-way; and then by hearing, in the mate's rumble, these +words: "I guess you're right, captain. As you had to run for it to-day +before you could buy our quinine, it's a damn good thing he did get +aboard, after all!" + +I was too nearly asleep to pay much attention to this, but in a drowsy +way I felt glad that my stock of quinine had removed the mate's +objections to me as a passenger; and I concluded that my purchase of +such an absurd lot of it--after getting worked up by my reading about +the West Coast fevers--had turned out to be a good thing for me in +the long-run. + +After that the talk went on in the cabin for a good while, but in such +low tones that even had I been wide awake I could not have followed +it. But I kept dozing off, catching only a word or two now and then; +and the only whole sentence I heard was in the mate's rumble again: +"Well, if we can't square things, there's always room for one more +in the sea." + +It all was very dream-like--and fitted into a dream that came later, +in the light sleep of early morning, I suppose, in which the mate wore +the uniform of a street-car conductor, and I was giving him doses of +quinine, and he was asking the passengers in a car full of salt-water +to move up and make room for me, and was telling them and me that in a +sea-car there always was room for one more. + + + + + +IV + +CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + + +During the next fortnight or so my life on board the brig was as +pleasant as it well could be. On the first day out we got a slant of +wind that held by us until it had carried us fairly into the northeast +trades--and then away we went on our course, with everything set and +drawing steady, and nothing much to do but man the wheel and eat three +square meals a day. + +And so everybody was in a good humor, from the captain down. Even the +mate rumbled what he meant to be a civil word to me now and then; and +Bowers and I--being nearly of an age, and each of us with his foot on +the first round of the ladder--struck up a friendship that kept us +talking away together by the hour at a time: and very frankly, except +that he was shy of saying anything about the brig and her doings, and +whenever I tried to draw him on that course got flurried a little and +held off. But in all other matters he was open; and especially +delighted in running on about ships and seafaring--for the man was a +born sailor and loved his profession with all his heart. + +It was in one of these talks with Bowers that I got my first knowledge +of the Sargasso Sea--about which I shortly was to know a great deal +more than he did: that old sea-wonder which puzzled and scared +Columbus when he coasted it on his way to discover America; and which +continued to puzzle all mariners until modern nautical science +revealed its cause--yet still left it a good deal of a mystery--almost +in our own times. + +The subject came up one day while we were crossing the Gulf Stream, +and the sea all around us was pretty well covered with patches of +yellow weed--having much the look of mustard-plasters--amidst which a +bit of a barnacled spar bobbed along slowly near us, and not far off a +new pine plank. The yellow stuff, Bowers said, was gulf-weed, brought +up from the Gulf of Mexico where the Stream had its beginning; and +that, thick though it was around us, this was nothing to the thickness +of it in the part of the ocean where the Stream (so he put it, not +knowing any better) had its end. And to that same place, he added, the +Stream carried all that was caught in its current--like the spar and +the plank floating near us--so that the sea was covered with a thick +tangle of the weed in which was held fast fragments of wreckage, and +stuff washed overboard, and logs adrift from far-off southern shores, +until in its central part the mass was so dense that no ship could +sail through it, nor could a steamer traverse it because of the +fouling of her screw. And this sort of floating island--which lay in a +general way between the Bermudas and the Canaries--covered an area of +ocean, he said, half as big as the area of the United States; and to +clear it ships had to make a wide detour--for even in its thin outward +edges a vessel's way was a good deal retarded and a steamer's wheel +would foul sometimes, and there was danger always of collision with +derelicts drifting in from the open sea to become a part of the +central mass. Our own course, he further said, would be changed +because of it; but we would be for a while upon what might be called +its coast, and so I would have a chance to see for myself something of +its look as we sailed along. + +As I know now, Bowers over-estimated the size of this strange island +of sea-waifs and sea-weed by nearly one-half; and he was partly wrong +as to the making of it: for the Sargasso Sea is not where any current +ends, but lies in that currentless region of the ocean that is found +to the east of the main Gulf Stream and to the south of the branch +which sweeps across the North Atlantic to the Azores; and its floating +stuff is matter cast off from the Gulf Stream's edge into the +bordering still water--as a river eddies into its pools twigs and dead +leaves and such-like small flotsam--and there is compacted by +capillary attraction and by the slow strong pressure of the winds. + +On the whole, though, Bowers was not very much off in his +description--which somehow took a queer deep hold upon me, and +especially set me to wondering what strange old waifs and strays of +the ocean might not be found in the thick of that tangle if only there +were some way of pushing into it and reaching the hidden depths that +no man ever yet had seen. But when I put this view of the matter to +him I did not get much sympathy. He was a practical young man, without +a stitch of romance in his whole make-up, and he only laughed at my +suggestion and said that anybody who tried to push into that mess just +for the sake of seeing some barnacle-covered logs, or perhaps a +rotting hulk or two, would be a good deal of a fool. And so I did not +press my fancy on him, and our talks went on about more +commonplace things. + +It was with Captain Luke that I had most to do, and before long I got +to have a very friendly feeling for him because of the trouble that he +took to make me comfortable and to help me pass the time. The first +day out, seeing that I was interested when he took the sun, he turned +the sextant over to me and showed me how to take an observation; and +then how to work it out and fix the brig's position on the chart--and +was a good deal surprised by my quickness in understanding his +explanations (for I suppose that to him, with his rule-of-thumb +knowledge of mathematics, the matter seemed complex), and still more +surprised when he found, presently, that I really understood the +underlying principle of this simple bit of seamanship far better than +he did himself. He said that I knew more than most of the captains +afloat and that I ought to be a sailor; which he meant, no doubt, to +be the greatest compliment that he could pay me. After that I took the +sights and worked them with him daily; and as I several times +corrected his calculations--for even simple addition and subtraction +were more than he could manage with certainty--he became so impressed +by my knowledge as to treat me with an odd show of respect. + +But in practical matters--knowledge of men and things, and of the many +places about the world which he had seen, and of the management of a +ship in all weathers--he was one of the best-informed men that ever I +came across: being naturally of a hard-headed make, with great +acuteness of observation, and with quick and sound reasoning powers. I +found his talk always worth listening to; and I liked nothing better +than to sit beside him, or to walk the deck with him, while we smoked +our pipes together and he told me in his shrewd way about one queer +thing and another which he had come upon in various parts of the +world--for he had followed the sea from the time that he was a boy, +and there did not seem to be a bit of coast country nor any part of +all the oceans which he did not know well. + +Unlike Bowers, he was very free in talking about the trade that he +carried on in the brig upon the African coast, and quite astonished me +by his showing of the profits that he made; and he generally ended his +discourses on this head by laughingly contrasting the amount of money +that even Bowers got every year--the mates being allowed an interest +in the brig's earnings--with the salary that the palm-oil people were +to pay to me. Indeed, he managed to make me quite discontented with my +prospects, although I had thought them very good indeed when I first +told him about them; and when he would say jokingly, as he very often +did, that I had better drop the palm-oil people and take a berth on +the brig instead, I would be half sorry that he was only in fun. + +In a serious way, too, he told me that the Coast trade had got very +unfairly a bad name that it did not deserve. At one time, he said, a +great many hard characters had got into it, and their doings had given +it a black reputation that still stuck to it. But in recent years, he +explained, it had fallen into the hands of a better class of traders, +and its tone had been greatly improved. As a rule, he declared, the +West Coast traders were as decent men as would be found anywhere--not +saints, perhaps, he said smilingly, but men who played a reasonably +square game and who got big money mainly because they took big risks. +When I asked him what sort of risks, he answered: "Oh, pretty much all +sorts--sometimes your pocket and sometimes your neck," and added that +to a man of spirit these risks made half the fun. And then he said +that for a man who did not care for that sort of thing it was better +to be contented with a safe place and low wages--and asked me how long +I expected to stay at Loango, and if I had a better job ahead, when my +work there was done. + +At first he would shift the subject when I tried to make him talk +about the slave traffic. But one day--it was toward the end of our +second week out, and I was beginning to think from his constant +turning to it that perhaps he really might mean to offer me a berth on +the brig, and that his offer might be pretty well worth accepting--he +all of a sudden spoke out freely and of his own accord. It was true, +he said, that sometimes a few blacks were taken aboard by traders, +when no other stuff offered for barter, and were carried up to Mogador +and there sold for very high prices indeed--for there was a prejudice +against the business, and the naval vessels on the Coast tried so +persistently to stop it that the risk of capture was great and the +profit from a successful venture correspondingly large. But the +prejudice, he continued, was really not well-founded. Slavery, of +course, was a very bad thing; but there were degrees of badness in it, +and since it could not be broken up there was much to be said in favor +of any course that would make it less cruel. The blacks who were the +slaves of other blacks, or of Portuguese,--and it was only these that +the traders bought--were exposed to such barbarous treatment that it +was a charity to rescue them from it on almost any terms. Certainly it +was for their good, as they had to be in bondage somewhere, to deliver +them from such masters by carrying them away to Northern Africa: where +the slavery was of so mild and paternal a sort that cruelty almost was +unknown. And then he went on to tell me about the kindly relations +which he himself had seen existing between slaves and their masters in +those parts, both among Arabs and Moors. + +This presentment of the case put so new a face on it that at first I +could not get my bearings; which I am the less ashamed to own up to +because, as I look at the matter now, I perceive how much trouble +Captain Luke took to win me for his own purposes--he being a +middle-aged man packed full of shrewd worldly wisdom, and I only a +fresh young fool. + +My hesitation about making up an answer to him--for, while I was sure +that in the main point he was all wrong, I was caught for the moment +in his sophisms--made him fancy, I suppose, that he had convinced me; +and so was safe to go ahead in the way that he had intended, no doubt, +all along. At any rate, without stopping until my slow wits had a +chance to get pulled together, he put on a great show of friendly +frankness and said that he now knew me well enough to trust me, and so +would tell me openly that he himself engaged in the Mogador trade when +occasion offered; and that there was more money in it a dozen times +over than in all the other trade that he carried on in the +_Golden Hind_. + +I confess that this avowal completely staggered me, and with a rush +brought back all the fears by which I had been so rattled on the first +day of our voyage. In a hazy way I perceived that the captain had been +playing a part with me, and that the others had been playing parts +too--for I could not hope that among men of that stripe such +friendliness should be natural--and what with my surprise, and the +fresh fright I was thrown into, I was struck fairly dumb. + +But Captain Luke--likely enough deceived by his own hopes, as even +shrewd men will be sometimes--either did not notice the fluster I was +in, or thought to set matters all right with me in his own way; for +when he found that I remained silent he took up the talk himself +again, and went on to show in detail the profits of a single venture +with a live cargo--and his figures were certainly big enough to fire +the fancy of any man who was keen for money-getting and who was +willing to get his money by rotten ways. And then, when he had +finished with this part of the matter, he came out plumply with the +offer to give me a mate's rating on board the brig if I would cast in +my fortunes with his. Of the theory of seamanship, he said, I already +knew more than he did himself; and so much more than either of his +mates that he would feel entirely at ease--as he could not with +them--in trusting the navigation of the brig in my hands. As to the +practical part of the work, that was a matter that with my quickness I +would pick up in no time; and my bigness and strength, he added, would +come in mighty handily when there was trouble among the crew, as +sometimes happened, and in keeping the blacks in order, and in the +little fights that now and then were necessary with folks on shore. +And then he came to the real kernel of the matter: which was that +Bowers did not like his work and was not fit for it, and was +threatening to leave the brig at the first port she made, and so a man +who could be trusted was badly needed to take his place. + +When he had finished with it all I was dumber than ever; for I was in +a rage at him for making me such an offer, and at the same time saw +pretty clearly that if I refused it as plumply as he made it we +should come to such open enmity that I--being in his power +completely--would be in danger of my skin. And so I was glad when he +gave me a breathing spell, and the chance to think things over +quietly, by telling me that he would not hurry me for answer and that +I could take a day or two--or a week or two if I wanted it--in which +to make up my mind. + + + + + +V + +I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + + +For the rest of that day, and for the two days following, Captain Luke +did not in any way refer to his offer; and as he showed himself more +than ever friendly, and talked away to me in his usual entertaining +fashion, my rage and fright began to go off a little--though at +bottom, of course, there was no change in my opinions, nor any doubt +as to my giving him a point-blank refusal when the issue should be +squarely raised. + +All this time the brig was bowling along down the trades; and on the +third morning after I had the captain's offer--we being then close +upon the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude--Bowers called my +attention to the gulf-weed floating about us, and told me that we were +fairly on the outer edge of the Sargasso Sea. We should not get into +any thicker part of it, he said, as we should bear up to clear it; and +so we actually did, hauling away a good deal to the eastward when the +brig's course was set that day at noon. But my interest in the matter +had been so checked--all my thought being given to finding some way +out of the pickle in which I found myself--that I paid little +attention to the patches of yellow weed on the water around us or to +the bits of wreckage that we saw now and then; and when Bowers, +keeping on with his talk, fell to chaffing me about my desire to make +a voyage of discovery into the thick part of this floating mystery I +did not rise to his joking, nor did I make him much of a reply. + +Indeed, I was in rather a low way that day; which was due in part to +my not being able, for all my thinking, to see any sort of a clear +course before me; and in part to the fact that the weather was +thickening and that my spirits were dulled a good deal by what we call +the heaviness of the air. All around the horizon steel-gray clouds +were rising, and a soft sort of a haze hung about us and took the life +out of the sunshine, and the wind fell away until there was almost +nothing of it, and that little fitful--while with the dying out of it +the sea began to stir slowly with a long oily swell. Far down to the +southeast a line of smoke hung along the horizon, coming from the +funnel of some steamer out of sight over the ocean's curve, and the +heaviness of the atmosphere was shown by the way that this smoke held +close to the surface of the sea. + +That Captain Luke did not like the look of things was plain enough +from his sharp glances about him and from his frequent examinations +of the glass; and he seemed to be all the more bothered--his seaman's +instinct that a storm was brewing being at odds with the barometer's +prophecy--by the fact that the mercury showed a marked tendency to +rise. Had he known as much of the scientific side of navigation as he +knew of the practical side he could have reconciled the conduct of the +barometer with his own convictions, and so would have been easier in +his mind; for it is a fact that the mercury often rises suddenly on +the front edge of a storm--that is to say, a little in advance of +it--by reason of the air banking up there. But having only his +rule-of-thumb knowledge to apply in the premises, the apparent +scientific contradiction of his own practical notions as to what was +going to happen confused him and made him irritable--the +nerve-stirring state of the atmosphere no doubt having also a share in +the matter--as was made plain by his sharp quick motions, and by the +way in which on the smallest provocation he fell to swearing at the +men. And so the day wore itself out to nightfall: with the steel-gray +clouds lifting steadily from the horizon toward the zenith, and with +the swell of the weed-spattered sea slowly rising, and with a doubting +uneasiness among all of us that found its most marked expression in +Captain Luke's increasingly savage mood. + +Our supper was a glowering one. The captain had little to say, and +that little of a sharp sort, while the mate only rumbled out a curse +now and then at the boy who served us; and I myself was in a bitter +bad humor as I thought how hard it was on me to be shut up at sea in +such vile company, and how I had only myself to blame for getting into +it--and found my case all the harder because of my nervous uneasiness +due to the coming storm. As to the storm, there no longer could be +doubt about it, for the barometer had got into line with Captain +Luke's convictions and was falling fast. + +When the supper was over the captain brought out his arrack-bottle and +took off a full tumbler, which was more than double his usual +allowance, and then pushed the liquor across to the mate and me. The +mate also took a good pull at it, and I took a fair drink myself in +the hope that it would quiet my nerves--but it had exactly the +opposite effect and made me both excited and cross. And then we all +came on deck together, and all in a rough humor, and Bowers went down +into the cabin to have his supper by himself. + +What happened in the next half-hour happened so quickly that I cannot +give a very clear account of it. A part of it, no doubt, was due to +mere chance and angry impulse; but not the whole of it, and I think +not the worst of it--for the first thing that the captain did was to +order the man who was steering to go forward and to tell the mate to +take the wheel. That left just the three of us together at the stern +of the brig--with Bowers below and so out of sight and hearing, and +with all the crew completely cut off from us and put out of sight and +hearing by the rise of the cabin above the deck. + +Night had settled down on the ocean, but not darkness. Far off to the +eastward the full moon was standing well above the horizon and was +fighting her way upward through the clouds--now and then getting +enough the better of them to send down a dash of brightness on the +water, but for the most part making only a faint twilight through +their gloom. The wind still was very light and fitful, but broken by +strongish puffs which would heel the brig over a little and send her +along sharply for half a mile or so before they died away; and the +swell had so risen that we had a long sleepy roll. Up to windward I +made out a ship's lights--that seemed to be coming down on us rapidly, +from their steady brightening--and I concluded that this must be the +steamer from which the smoke had come that I had seen trailing along +the horizon through the afternoon; and I even fancied, the night being +intensely still, that I could hear across the water the soft purring +sound made by the steady churning of her wheel. Somehow it deepened +the sullen anger that had hold of me to see so close by a ship having +honest men aboard of her, and to know at the same time how hopelessly +fast I was tied to the brig and her dirty crew. I don't mind saying +that the tears came to my eyes, for I was both hurt by my sorrow and +heavy with my dull rage. + +We all three were silent for a matter of ten minutes or so, or it +might even have been longer, and then Captain Luke faced around on me +suddenly and asked: "Well, have you made up your mind?" + +Had I been cooler I should have tried to fence a little, since my only +resource--I being caught like a rat in a trap that way--was to try to +gain time; but I was all in a quiver, just as I suppose he was, with +the excitement of the situation and with the excitement of the +thunderous night, and his short sharp question jostled out of my head +what few wits I had there and made me throw away my only chance. And +so I answered him, just as shortly and as sharply: "Yes, I have." + +"Do you mean to join the brig?" he demanded. + +"No, I don't," I answered, and stepped a little closer to him and +looked him squarely in the eyes. + +"I told you so," the mate broke in with his rumble; and I saw that he +was whipping a light lashing on the wheel in a way that would hold it +steady in case he wanted to let go. + +"Better think a minute," said Captain Luke, speaking coolly enough, +but still with an angry undertone in his voice. "I've made you a good +offer, and I'm ready to stand by it. But if you won't take what I've +offered you you'll take something else that you won't like, my fresh +young man. In a friendly way, and for your information, I've told you +a lot of things that I can't trust to the keeping of any living man +who won't chip in with us and take our chances--the bad ones with the +good ones--just as they happen to come along. You know too much, now, +for me to part company from you while you have a wagging tongue in +your head--and so my offer's still open to you. Only there's this +about it: if you won't take it, overboard you go." + +I had a little gleam of sense at that; for I knew that he spoke in +dead earnest, and that the mate stood ready to back him, and that +against the two of them I had not much show. And so I tried to play +for time, saying: "Well, let me think it over a bit longer. You said +there was no hurry and that I might have a week to consider in. I've +had only three days, so far. Do you call that square?" + +"Squareness be damned," rumbled the mate, and he gave a look aloft and +another to windward--the breeze just then had fallen to a mere +whisper--and took his hands off the wheel and stepped away from it so +that he and the captain were close in front of me, side by side. I +stood off from them a little, and got my back against the cabin--that +I might be safe against an attack from behind--and I was so furiously +angry that I forgot to be scared. + +"Three days is as good as three years," Captain Luke jerked out. "What +I want is an answer right now. Will you join the brig--yes or no?" + +Somehow I remembered just then seeing our pig killed, when I was a +boy--how he ran around the lot with the men after him, and got into a +corner and tried to fight them, and was caught in spite of his poor +little show of fighting, and was rolled over on his back and had his +throat stuck. He was a nice pig, and I had felt sorry for him: +thinking that he didn't deserve such treatment, his life having been a +respectable one, and he never having done anybody any harm. It all +came back to me in a flash, as I settled myself well against the cabin +and answered: "No, I won't join you--and you and your brig may go +to hell!" + +All I remember after that was their rush together upon me, and my +hitting out two or three times--getting in one smasher on the mate's +jaw that was a comfort to me--and then something hard cracking me on +the head, and so stunning me that I knew nothing at all of what +happened until I found myself coming up to the surface of the sea, +sputtering salt-water and partly tangled in a bunch of gulf-weed, and +saw the brig heeling over and sliding fast away from me before a +sudden strong draught of wind. + + + + + +VI + +I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + + +My head was tingling with pain, and so buzzy that I had no sense worth +speaking of, but just kept myself afloat in an instinctive sort of way +by paddling a little with my hands. And I could not see well for what +I thought was water in my eyes--until I found that it was blood +running down over my forehead from a gash in my scalp that went from +the top of my right ear pretty nearly to my crown. Had the blow that +made it struck fair it certainly would have finished me; but from the +way that the scalp was cut loose the blow must have glanced. + +The chill of the water freshened me and brought my senses back a +little: for which I was not especially thankful at first, being in +such pain and misery that to drown without knowing much about it +seemed quite the best thing that I could hope for just then. Indeed, +when I began to think again, though not very clearly, I had half a +mind to drop my arms to my sides and so go under and have done with +it--so despairing was I as I bobbed about on the swell among the +patches of gulf-weed which littered the dark ocean, with the brig +drawing away from me rapidly, and no chance of a rescue from her even +had she been near at hand. + +Whether I had or had not hurried the matter, under I certainly should +have gone shortly--for the crack on my head and the loss of blood from +it had taken most of my strength out of me, and even with my full +strength I could not have kept afloat long--had not a break in the +clouds let through a dash of moonlight that gave me another chance. It +was only for a moment or two that the moonlight lasted, yet long +enough for me to make out within a hundred feet of me a biggish piece +of wreckage--which but for that flash I should not have noticed, or in +the dimness would have taken only for a bunch of weed. + +Near though it was, getting to it was almost more than I could manage; +and when at last I did reach it I was so nearly used up that I barely +had strength to throw my arms about it and one leg over it, and so +hang fast for a good many minutes in a half-swoon of weakness +and pain. + +But the feel of something solid under me, and the certainty that for a +little while at least I was safe from drowning, helped me to pull +myself together; and before long some of my strength came back, and a +little of my spirit with it, and I went about settling myself more +securely on my poor sort of a raft. What I had hit upon, I found, was +a good part of a ship's mast; with the yards still holding fast by it +and steadying it, and all so clean-looking that it evidently had not +been in the water long. The main-top, I saw, would give me a back to +lean against and also a little shelter; and in that nook I would be +still more secure because the futtock-shrouds made a sort of cage +about it and gave me something to catch fast to should the swell of +the sea roll me off. So I worked along the mast from where I first had +caught hold of it until I got myself stowed away under the main-top: +where I had my body fairly out of water, and a chance to rest easily +by leaning against the upstanding woodwork, and a good grip with my +legs to keep me firm. And it is true, though it don't sound so, that I +was almost happy at finding myself so snug and safe there--as it +seemed after having nothing under me but the sea. + +And then I set myself--my head hurting me cruelly, and the flow of +blood still bothering me--to see what I could do in the way of binding +up my wound; and made a pretty good job of it, having a big silk +handkerchief in my pocket that I folded into a smooth bandage and +passed over my crown and under my chin--after first dowsing my head in +the cold sea water, which set the cut to smarting like fury but helped +to keep the blood from flowing after the bandage was made fast. At +first, while I was paddling in the water and splashing my way along +the mast and while the bandage was flapping about my ears, I had no +chance to hear any noises save those little ones close to me which I +was making myself. But when I had finished my rough surgery, and +leaned back against the top to rest after it--and my heart was +beginning to sink with the thought of how utterly desperate my case +was, afloat there on the open ocean with a gale coming on--I heard in +the deep silence a faint rythmic sound that I recognized instantly as +the pulsing of a steamer's engine and the steady churning of her +screw. This mere whisper in the darkness was a very little thing to +hang a hope upon; but hope did return to me with the conviction that +the sound came from the steamer of which I had seen the lights just +before I was pitched overboard, and that I had a chance of her passing +near enough to me to hear my hail. + +I peered eagerly over the waters, trying to make out her lights again +and so settle how she was heading; but I could see no lights, though +with each passing minute the beating of the screw sounded louder to my +straining ears. From that I concluded that she must be coming up +behind me and was hid by the top from me; and so, slowly and +painfully, I managed to get on my hands and knees on the mast, and +then to raise myself until I stood erect and could see over the edge +of the top as it rose like a little wall upright--and gave a weak +shout of joy as I saw what I was looking for, the three bright points +against the blackness, not more than a mile away. And I was all the +more hopeful because her red and green lights showed full on each side +of the white light on her foremast, and by that I knew that she was +heading for me as straight as she could steer. + +I gave another little shout--but fainter than the first, for my +struggle to get to my feet, and then to hold myself erect as the swell +rolled the mast about, made me weak and a little giddy; and I wanted +to keep on shouting--but had the sense not to, that I might save my +strength for the yells that I should have to give when the steamer got +near enough to me for her people to hear my cries. So I stood +silent--swaying with the roll of the mast, and with my head throbbing +horribly because of my excitement and the strain of holding on +there--while I watched her bearing down on me; and making her out so +plainly as she got closer that it never occurred to me that I and my +bit of mast would not be just as plain to her people as her great bulk +was to me. + +I don't suppose that she was within a quarter of a mile of me when I +began my yelling; but I was too much worked up to wait longer, and the +result of my hurry was to make my voice very hoarse and feeble by the +time that she really was within hail. She came dashing along so +straight for me that I suddenly got into a tremor of fear that she +would run me down; and, indeed, she only cleared me by fifty feet or +so--her huge black hull, dotted with the bright lights of her cabin +ports, sliding past me so close that she seemed to tower right up over +me--and I was near to being swamped, so violently was my mast tossed +about by the rush and suck of the water from her big screw. And while +she hung over me, and until she was gone past me and clear out of all +hearing, I yelled and yelled! + +At first I could not believe, so sure had I been of my rescue, that +she had left me; and it was not until she was a good half mile away +from me, with only the sound of her screw ripping the water, and a +faint gleam of light from her after ports showing through the +darkness, that I realized that she was gone--and then I grew so sick +and dizzy that it is a wonder I did not lose my hold altogether and +fall off into the sea. Somehow or another I managed to swing myself +down and to seat myself upon the mast again, with my head fairly +splitting and with my heart altogether gone: and so rested there, +shutting my eyes to hide the sight of my hope vanishing, and as +desolate as any man ever was. + +Presently, in a dull way, I noticed that I no longer heard the swash +of her screw, and rather wondered at her getting out of hearing so +quickly; but for fear of still seeing her lights, and so having more +pain from her, I still kept my eyes tight closed. And then, all of a +sudden, I heard quite close by me a hail--and opened my eyes in a +hurry to see a light not a hundred feet away from me, and to make out +below it the loom of a boat moving slowly over the weed-strewn sea. + +The shout that I gave saved me, but before it saved me I came near to +being done for. Such a rush of blood went up into my broken head with +the sudden burst of joy upon me that a dead faint came upon me and I +fell off into the water; and that I was floating when the boat got to +me was due to the mere chance that as I dropped away from the mast one +of my arms slipped into the tangle of the futtock-shrouds. But I knew +nothing about that, nor about anything else that happened, until we +were half-way back to the steamer and I came to my senses a little; +and very little for a good while longer--except that I was swung up a +ship's side and there was a good deal of talking going on around me; +and then that my clothes were taken off and I was lifted into a soft +delightful berth; and then that somebody with gentle hands was binding +up my broken crown. + +When this job was finished--which hurt me a good deal, but did not +rouse me much--I just fell back upon the soft pillow and went to +sleep: with a blessed sense of rest and safety, as I felt the roll of +a whole ship under me again after the short jerk of my mast, and knew +that I was not back on the brig but aboard an honest steamer by +hearing and by feeling the strong steady pulsing of her screw. + + + + +VII + +I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + +I was roused from my sleep by the sharp motion of the vessel; but did +not get very wide awake, for I felt donsie and there was a dull +ringing in my head along with a great dull pain. I had sense enough, +though, to perceive that the storm had come, about which Captain Luke +and the barometer had been at odds; and to shake a little with a +creepy terror as I thought of the short work it would have made with +me had I waited for it on my mast. But I was too much hurt to feel +anything very keenly, and so heavy that even with the quick short roll +of the ship to rouse me I kept pretty much in a doze. + +After a while the door of my state-room was opened a little and a man +peeped in; and when he saw my open eyes looking at him he came in +altogether, giving me a nod and a smile. He was a tall fellow in a +blue uniform, with a face that I liked the looks of; and when he spoke +to me I liked the sound of his voice. + +"You must be after being own cousin to all the Seven Sleepers of +Ephesus and the dog too, my big young man," he said, holding fast to +the upper berth to steady himself. "You've put in ten solid hours, so +far, and you don't seem to be over wide awake yet. Faith, I'd be after +backing you to sleep standing, like Father O'Rafferty's old dun cow!" + +I did not feel up to answering him, but I managed to grin a little, +and he went on: "I'm for thinking that I'd better let that broken head +of yours alone till this fool of a ship is sitting still +again--instead of trying to teach the porpoises such tricks of rolling +and pitching as never entered into their poor brute minds. But you'll +do without doctoring for the present, myself having last night sewed +up all right and tight for you the bit of your scalp that had fetched +away. How does it feel?" + +"It hurts," was all that I could answer. + +"And small blame to it," said the doctor, and went on: "It's a +well-made thick head you have, and it's tough you are, my son, not to +be killed entirely by such a whack as you got on your brain-box--to +say nothing of your fancy for trying to cure it hydropathically by +taking it into the sea with you when you were for crossing the +Atlantic Ocean on the fag-end of a mast. It's much indeed that you +have to learn, I am thinking, both about surgery and about taking care +of yourself. But in the former you'll now do well, being in the +competent hands of a graduate of Dublin University; and in regard to +your incompetence in the latter good reason have you for being +thankful that the _Hurst Castle_ happened to be travelling in these +parts last night, and that her third officer is blessed with a pair of +extra big ears and so happened to hear you talking to him from out of +the depths of the sea. + +"But talking isn't now the best thing for you, and some more of the +sleep that you're so fond of is--if only the tumbling of the ship will +let you have it; so take this powder into that mouth of yours which +you opened so wide when you were conversing with us as we went sailing +past you, and then stop your present chattering and take all the sleep +that you can hold." + +With that he put a bitter powder into my mouth, and gave me a drink of +water after it--raising me up with a wonderful deftness and gentleness +that I might take it, and settling me back again on the pillow in just +the way that I wanted to lie. "And now be off again to your friends +the Ephesians," he said; "only remember that if you or they--or their +dog either, poor beasty--wants anything, it's only needed to touch +this electric bell. As to the doggy," he added, with his hand on the +door-knob, "tell him to poke at the button with the tip of his foolish +nose." And with that he opened the door and went away. All this +light friendly talk was such a comfort to me--showing, as it did, +along with the good care that I was getting, what kindly people I had +fallen among--that in my weak state I cried a little because of my +happy thankfulness; and then, my weakness and the powder acting +together to lull me, in spite of the ship's sharp motion I went off +again to sleep. + +But that time my sleep did not last long. In less than an hour, I +suppose, the motion became so violent as to shake me awake again--and +to give me all that I could do to keep myself from being shot out of +my berth upon the floor. Presently the doctor came again, fetching +with him one of the cabin stewards to rig the storm-board at the side +of my berth and some extra pillows with which to wedge me fast. But +though he gave me a lot more of his pleasant chaff to cheer me I could +see that his look was anxious, and it seemed to me that the steward +was badly scared. Between them they managed to stow me pretty tight in +my berth and to make me as comfortable as was possible while +everything was in such commotion--with the ship bouncing about like a +pea on a hot shovel and all the wood-work grinding and creaking with +the sudden lifts and strains. + +"It's a baddish gale that's got hold of the old _Hurst Castle_, and +that's a fact," the doctor said, when they had finished with me, in +answer to the questioning look that he saw in my eyes. "But it's +nothing to worry about," he went on; "except that it's hard on you, +with that badly broken head of yours, to be tumbled about worse than +Mother O'Donohue's pig when they took it to Limerick fair in a cart. +So just lie easy there among your pillows, my son; and pretend that +it's exercise that you are taking for the good of your liver--which is +a torpid and a sluggish organ in the best of us, and always the better +for such a shaking as the sea is giving us now. And be remembering +that the _Hurst Castle_ is a Clyde-built boat, with every plate and +rivet in her as good as a Scotsman knows how to make it--and in such +matters it's the Sandies who know more than any other men alive. In my +own ken she's pulled through storms fit to founder the Giant's +Causeway and been none the worse for 'em, and so it's herself that's +certain to weather this bit of a gale--which has been at its worst no +less than two times this same morning, and therefore by all rule and +reason must be for breaking soon. + +"And be thinking, too," he added as he was leaving me, "that I'll be +coming in to look after you now and then when I have a spare +minute--for there are some others, I'm sorry to say, who are after +needing me; and as soon as the gale goes down a bit I'll overhaul +again that cracked head of yours, and likely be singing you at the +same time for your amusement a real Irish song." But not much was +there of singing, nor of any other show of lightheartedness, aboard +the _Hurst Castle_ during the next twelve hours. So far from breaking, +the gale--as the doctor had called it, although in reality it was a +hurricane--got worse steadily; with only a lull now and then, as +though for breath-taking, and then a fiercer rush of wind--before +which the ship would reel and shiver, while the grinding of her iron +frame and the crunching of her wood-work made a sort of wild chorus of +groans and growls. For all my wedging of pillows I was near to flying +over the storm-board out of my berth with some of the plunges that she +took; and very likely I should have had such a tumble had not the +doctor returned again in a little while and with the mattress from the +upper berth so covered me as to jam me fast--and how he managed to do +this, under the circumstances, I am sure I don't know. + +When he had finished my packing he bent down over me--or I could not +have heard him--and said: "It's sorry I am for you, my poor boy, for +you're getting just now more than your full share of troubles. But +we're all in a pickle together, and that's a fact, and the choice +between us is small. And I'd be for suggesting that if you know such a +thing as a prayer or two you'll never have a finer opportunity for +saying them than you have now." And by that, and by the friendly +sorrowful look that he gave me, I knew that our peril must +be extreme. + +I don't like to think of the next few hours; while I lay there packed +tight as any mummy, and with no better than a mummy's chances, as it +seemed to me, of ever seeing the live world again--terrified by the +awful war of the storm and by the confusion of wild noises, and every +now and then sharply startled by hearing on the deck above me a fierce +crash as something fetched away. It was a bad time, Heaven knows, for +everybody; but for me I thought that it was worst of all. For there I +was lying in utter helplessness, with the certainty that if the ship +foundered there was not a chance for me--since I must drown solitary +in my state-room, like a rat drowned in a hole. + + + + + +VIII + +THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + + +At last, having worn itself out, as sailors say, the storm began to +lessen: first showing its weakening by losing its little lulls and +fiercer gusts after them, and then dropping from a tempest to a mere +gale--that in turn fell slowly to a gentle wind. But even after the +wind had fallen, and for a good while after, the ship labored in a +tremendous sea. + +As I grew easier in my mind and body, and so could think a little, I +wondered why my friend the doctor did not come to me; and when at last +my door was opened I looked eagerly--my eyes being the only free part +of me--to see him come in. But it was the steward who entered, and I +had a little sharp pang of disappointment because I missed the face +that I wanted to see. However, the man stooped over me, kindly enough, +and lifted off the mattress and did his best to make me comfortable; +only when I asked him where the doctor was he pretty dismally +shook his head. + +"It's th' doctor himself is needin' doctorin', poor soul," he +answered, "he bein' with his right leg broke, and with his blessed +head broke a-most as bad as yours!" And then he told me that when the +storm was near ended the doctor had gone on deck to have a look at +things, and almost the minute he got there had been knocked over by a +falling spar. "For th' old ship's shook a-most to pieces," the man +went on; "with th' foremast clean overboard, an' th' mizzen so wobbly +that it's dancin' a jig every time she pitches, and everything at rags +an' tatters of loose ends." + +"But the doctor?" I asked. + +"He says himself, sir, that he's not dangerous, and I s'pose he ought +to know. Th' captain an' th' purser together, he orderin' 'em, have +set his leg for him; and his head, he says, 'll take care of itself, +bein' both thick an' hard. But he's worryin' painful because he can't +look after you, sir, an' th' four or five others that got hurt in th' +storm. And I can tell you, sir," the man went on, "that all th' ship's +company, an' th' passengers on top of 'em, are sick with sorrow that +this has happened to him; for there's not a soul ever comes near th' +doctor but loves him for his goodness, and we'd all be glad to break +our own legs this minute if by that we could be mendin' his!" + +The steward spoke very feelingly and earnestly, and with what he said +I was in thorough sympathy; for the doctor's care of me and his +friendliness had won my heart to him, just as it had won to him the +hearts of all on board. But there was comfort in knowing that he had +got off with only a broken leg and a broken head from a peril that so +easily might have been the death of him, and of that consolation I +made the most--while the steward, who was a handy fellow and pretty +well trained as a surgeon's assistant, freshly bandaged my head for me +as the doctor had ordered him to do, and so set me much more at my +ease. After that, for the rest of the day, he came every hour or so to +look after me; giving me some broth to eat and a biscuit, and some +medicine that the doctor sent me with the message that it would put +strength enough into a dead pig to set him to dancing--by which I knew +that even if his head and leg were broken there was no break in his +whimsical fun. + +The steward was the only man who came near me; but this did not +surprise me when he told me more about the condition that the ship was +in, and how all hands--excepting himself, who had been detailed +because of his knowledge that way to look after the hurt people under +the doctor's direction--were hard at work making repairs, with what men +there were among the passengers helping too. The ship was not leaking, +he said, and this was the luckier because her frame was so strained +that it was doubtful if her water-tight compartments would hold; but +the foremast had been carried away, and all the weather-boats had been +mashed out of all shape or swept overboard, and the mizzen was so +shaky that it seemed likely at any moment to fall. Indeed, the mast +was in such a bad way, he said, that the first and second officers +were for getting rid of it--and of the danger that there was of its +coming down all in a heap anyway--by sending it overboard; but that +the captain thought it safe to stand now that the sea was getting +smooth again, and was setting up jury-stays to hold it until we made +the Azores--for which islands our course was laid. + +By the time that night came again the sea had pretty well gone down, +and beyond the easy roll that was on her the ship had no motion save +the steady vibration of her screw. With this comforting change the +pain in my head became only a dull heavy aching, and I had a chance to +feel how utterly weary I was after the strain of mind and body that +had been put on me by the gale. A little after eight o'clock, as I +knew by hearing the ship's bell striking--and mighty pleasant it was +to hear regularly that orderly sound again--the steward brought me a +bowl of broth and propped me up in my berth while I drank it; and +cheered me by telling me that the doctor was swearing at his broken +leg like a good fellow, and was getting on very well indeed. And then +my weariness had its way with me, and I fell off into that deep sleep +which comes to a man only when all his energy has slipped away from +him on a dead low tide. How long I slept I do not know. But I do +know that I was routed suddenly into wakefulness by a jar that almost +pitched me out of my berth, and that an instant later there was a +tremendous crash as though the whole deck above me was smashing to +pieces, and with this a rattle of light woodwork splintering and the +sharp tinkling of breaking glass. For a moment there was silence; and +then I heard shouts and screams close by me in the cabin, and a little +later a great trampling on deck, and then the screw stopped turning +and there was a roar of escaping steam. + +I was so heavy with sleep that at first I thought we still were in the +storm and that this commotion was a part of it; but as I shook off my +drowsiness I got a clearer notion of the situation--remembering what +the steward had told me of the condition of the mizzen-mast, and so +arriving at the conclusion that it had fetched away bodily and had +come crashing through the cabin skylight in its fall. But what the +shock was that had sent it flying--unless we had been in collision--I +could not understand. And all this while the trampling on deck +continued, and out in the cabin the shouts and cries went on. + +I thought that the steward would come to me--forgetting that in times +of danger men are apt to think only of saving their own skins--and so +laid still; being, indeed, so weak and wretched that it did not seem +possible to me to do anything else. But he did not come, and at the +end of what seemed to me to be a desperately long time--though I doubt +if it were more than five minutes--I realized that I must try to do +something to help myself; and was the more nerved to action by the +fact that there no longer was the sound of voices in the cabin, while +the noises on deck a good deal had increased. Indeed, I began to hear +up there the puffing and snorting of the donkey-engine, and so felt +certain that they were hoisting out the boats. + +Somehow or another I managed to get out of my berth, and on my feet, +and so to the door; but when I tried to open the door I could not +budge it, and in the darkness I struck my head against what seemed to +be a bar of wood that stuck in through one of the upper panels and so +held it fast. The blow dizzied me, for it took me close to where my +cut was and put me into intense pain. + +While I stood there, pulling in a weak way at the door-knob and making +nothing of it, I heard voices out in the cabin and through my broken +door saw a gleam of light. But in the moment that my hope rose it went +down again, for I heard some one say quickly and sharply: "It's no +good. The way the spar lies we can't get at him--and to cut it through +would take an hour." + +And then a voice that I recognized for the steward's answered: "But +the doctor ordered it. Where's an axe for a try?" To which the other +man answered back again: "If it was the doctor himself we couldn't do +it, and we'll tell him so. The ship'll be down in five minutes. We've +got to run for it or the boats'll be off." And then away they ran +together, giving no heed in their fright to my yells after them to +come back and not leave me there to drown. + +For a little while I was as nearly wild crazy as a man can be and yet +have a purpose in his mind. The keen sense of my peril made me strong +again. I kicked with my bare feet and pounded with my hands upon the +door to break it, I shouted for help to come to me, and I gave out +shrill screams of terror such as brutes give in their agony--for I was +down to the hard-pan of human nature, and what I felt most strongly +was the purely animal longing to keep alive. + +But no one answered me, and I could tell by the sounds on deck getting +fainter that some of the boats already had put off; and in a little +while longer no sound came from the deck of any sort whatever, and by +that I knew that all the boats must have got away. And as I realized +that I was forsaken, and felt sure from what I had heard that the ship +would float for only a few minutes longer, I gave a cry of downright +despair--and then I lost track of the whole bad business by tumbling +to the floor in the darkness in a dead swoon. + + + + + +IX + +ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + + +When I came to myself again, and found my state-room--although the +dead-light was set--bright with the light which entered through the +broken door, my first feeling was of wonder that I was not yet +drowned; for it was evident that the sun must be well up in the +heavens to shine so strongly, and therefore that a good many hours +must have passed since the smash had happened that had sent everybody +flying to the boats believing that the ship was going right down. And +my next wonder was caused by the queer way in which the ship was +lying--making me fancy at first that I was dizzy again, and my eyes +tricking me--with a pitch forward that gave a slope to the floor of my +state-room, of not less than twenty degrees. + +For a while, in a stupid sort of way, I ruminated over these matters; +and at last got hold of the simple explanation of them. Evidently, in +spite of the straining of the steamer's frame in the storm, her +water-tight compartments--or some of them--had held, leaving her +floating with her broken bow well down in the water and her stern +canted up into the air. And then the farther comforting thought came +to me that if she had kept afloat for so many hours already, and +seemed so steady in her new position, there was no reason why she +should not keep on floating at least for as long as the fine weather +lasted--which gave me a chance of rescue by some passing vessel, and +so brought a good deal of hope back into my heart. + +I still was very weak and shaky, and how I was to get out of the +prison that I was in I did not know. By daylight it was easy to see +what held me there: which was the end of a yard, with the reef-block +hanging to it, smashed through the upper panel and caught so tight in +the splintered wood-work as to anchor the door fast. If the wits of +the steward and of the other fellow had not been scared clean out of +them they easily might have knocked in the lower part of the door with +an axe and so opened a way out for me; but as their only notion had +been to cut away the spar--a tough piece of work--I could not in cool +blood very greatly blame them for having given up my rescue and run +for their own lives. + +These thoughts went through my head while I lay there, most +uncomfortably, on the sloping floor. Presently I managed to get up, +but felt so dizzy that I had to seat myself in a hurry on the edge of +the berth until my head got steadier. Fortunately my water-jug was +half full, and I had a good drink from it which refreshed me greatly; +and then I had the farther good fortune to see some biscuit which the +steward had left on a shelf in the corner, and as I caught sight of +them I realized that I was very hungry indeed. I ate one, along with +some more sups of water, and felt much the better for it; but lay down +in my berth that I might save the strength it gave me until I should +have thought matters over a little and settled some line of action +in my mind. + +That I was too weak to break the door down was quite certain, and the +only other thing that I could think of was cutting out the lower +panels and so making a hole through which I could crawl. As this +thought came to me I remembered the big jack-knife that had been in my +trousers' pocket when I went overboard from the brig; and in a minute +I was on my feet--and without feeling any dizziness, this time--and +got to where my clothes were hanging on a hook, and found to my joy +that my knife and all the other things which had been in my pockets +had been returned to them after the clothes had been dried. The knife +was badly rusted and I had a hard time opening it; but the rust did +not much dull it, and I seated myself upon the floor and fell to +slicing away at the soft pine wood with a will. I had to rest now and +then, although I found that my strength held out better than I had +hoped for, and that put me back a little; but the wood was so soft +that in not much more than half an hour I had the job finished--and +then I slipped on my trousers, and out I went through the hole on my +hands and knees. + +I found the cabin in utter wreck: littered everywhere with broken +glass and broken wood from the skylight, and from the smashed +hanging-racks and the smashed dining-table, and with splinters from +the mast--which had broken in falling, and along the whole length of +the place had made a tangle of its own fragments and of the ropes and +blocks which had held its sails. Of the sails themselves there were +left only some fuzzy traces clinging to the bolt-ropes, all the rest +having been blown loose and frayed away by the storm. Oddly enough, +some of the drinking-glasses still remained unbroken in one of the +racks, and with them a bottle partly filled with wine--to the neck of +which a card was fastened bearing the name, Jose Rubio y Salinas, of +the passenger to whom it had belonged. I took the liberty of drinking +a glass of Don Jose's wine--feeling sure that he was not coming back +to claim it--and felt so much better after it that I thanked him +cordially for leaving it there. + +Most of the state-room doors stood open, showing within clothing +tossed about and trunks with their lids turned back, and the general +confusion in which the passengers had left things when they scrambled +together their most precious belongings and rushed for the boats--with +death, as they fancied, treading close upon their heels. But with what +remained in the state-rooms I did not concern myself, being desirous +first of all to get on deck and have a look about me that I might size +up my chances of keeping alive. That there was no companion-way up +from the cabin puzzled me a little, for I knew nothing of the internal +arrangements of steamships; but presently I found a passage leading +forward, and by that I came to the stair to the deck of which I was +in search. + +Up it I went, but when I fairly got outside and saw the desperate +state of the craft that I was afloat on my heart sank. Indeed, it +seemed a flying in the face of all reason that such an utter wreck +should float at all. Of the foremast nothing but the splintered stump +remained. The starboard rail, which had been to windward of it, was +gashed by chance axe-blows made in cutting away the shrouds; and as to +the port rail, twenty feet of it was gone entirely where the mast had +come crashing down, while the side-plates below were bulged out with +the strain put upon them before the standing-rigging fastened there +had fetched away. The mizzen-mast lay aft across the cabin skylight, +with its standing and running rigging making a tangle on each side of +it. The main-mast still stood, but with its top-mast broken off and +dangling nearly to the deck. Two of the weather-boats remained fast +to the davits, but so smashed that they looked like battered tin +wash-basins, and would have floated just about as well. All the other +boats were gone: those on the weather side, as the splintered ways and +broken ropes showed, having been washed overboard; and those to +leeward having been hoisted out by the tackles, which still hung from +the davits and dipped lazily with the ship's easy motion into the sea. + +All this was bad enough, but what most took the spirit out of me was +the way that the ship was lying--her stern high up in the air, and her +bow so deep in the water that the sea came up almost to her main-mast +along her sloping deck. It seemed inevitable that in another moment +she would follow her nose in the start downward that it had made and +go straight to the bottom; and each little wave, as it lapped its way +aft softly, made me fancy that the plunge had begun. + +As to the outlook around me, the only comfort that I got from it was +the fairness of the weather and the smoothness of the sea. For close +upon the water a soft haze was hanging that even to the north, out of +which blew a gentle wind, brought the horizon within a mile of me; and +down to leeward the haze was banked so thick that I could make out +nothing beyond half a mile. And so, even though a whole fleet might be +passing near me, my chances of rescue were very small. But from the +look of the ocean I knew that no fleets were likely to be thereabouts, +and that even though the haze lifted I might search long and vainly +for sight of so much as a single sail. As far as I could see around me +the water was covered thickly with gulf-weed, and with this was all +sorts of desolate flotsam--planks, and parts of masts, and fragments +of ships' timbers--lolling languidly on the soft swell that was +running, yet each scrap having behind it its own personal tragedy of +death and storm. And this mess of wreckage was so much thicker than I +had seen when the brig was on the coast--as Bowers had called it--of +the Sargasso Sea as to convince me that already I must be within the +borders of that ocean mystery which a little while before I had been +so keen for exploring; and my fate seemed sealed to me as I realized +that I therefore was in a region which every living ship steered clear +of, and into which never any but dead ships came. + + + + + +X + +I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + + +When I perceived the tight fix that I was in my broken head went to +throbbing again, and my legs were so shaky under me that I had to sit +down on the deck in a hurry in order to save myself from a fall. +Indeed, I was in no condition to face even an ordinary trouble, let +alone an overwhelming disaster; for what with my loss of blood from +the cut on my head, and the little food I had eaten since I got it, I +was as weak as a cat. + +Luckily I had the sense to realize that I needed the strength which +food would give me in order to save myself from dropping off into +sheer despair. And with the thought of eating there suddenly woke up +in my inside a hungry feeling that surprised me by its sharpness; and +instantly put such vigor into my shaky legs that I was up on them in a +moment, and off to the companion-way to begin my explorations below. +And when, being come to the cabin again, I had another sup of Don +Jose's wine I got quite ravenous, and felt strong enough to kick a +door in--if that should be necessary--in order to satisfy my +craving for food. + +There was no need for staving in doors, for none of them was fastened; +but it was some little time--because of my ignorance of the +arrangement of steamships--before I could find one that had things to +eat on the other side of it. Around the cabin, and along the passage +leading forward, were only state-rooms; but just beyond the +companion-way I came at last to the pantry--and beyond this again, as +I found later, were the store-rooms and the galley. For the moment, +however, the pantry gave me all that I wanted. In a covered box I +found some loaves of bread, and in a big refrigerator a lot of cold +victuals that set my eyes to dancing--two or three roast fowls, part +of a big joint of beef, a boiled tongue, and so on; and, what was +almost as welcome, in another division of the refrigerator a dozen or +more bottles of beer. On the racks above were dishes and glasses, in a +locker were knives and forks, and I even found hanging on a hook a +corkscrew--and the quickness with which I brought these various things +together and made them serve my purposes was a sight to see! + +When I had eaten nearly a whole fowl, and had drunk a bottle of beer +with it, I felt like another man; and then, pursuing my investigations +more leisurely, I found in one of the lockers--which I took the +liberty of prying open with a big carving-knife--four or five boxes +of capital cigars. In the same locker was a package of safety-matches, +and in a moment I was puffing away with such satisfaction that I +fairly grew light-hearted--so great is the comfort that comes to a man +with good smoking on top of a hearty meal. All sorts of bright fancies +came to me: of making one of the battered boats serviceable again and +getting off in it, of a ship blown out of her course coming to my +rescue, of a strong southerly wind that would carry the hulk of the +poor old _Hurst Castle_ back again into the inhabited parts of the +sea. And with these thoughts cheering me I set myself to work to find +out just what I had in the way of provisions aboard my shattered craft. + +I did not have to search far nor long to satisfy myself that I had a +bigger stock of food by me than I could eat in a dozen years. Forward +of the galley were the store-rooms: a cold-room, with a plenty of ice +still in it, in which was hanging a great quantity of fresh meat; a +wine-room, very well stocked and containing also some cases of tobacco +and cigars; and in the other rooms was stuff enough to fit up a big +grocery shop on shore--hams and bacon and potted meats, and a great +variety of vegetables in tins, and all sorts of sweets and sauces and +table-delicacies in tins and in glass. Indeed, although I was full to +the chin with the meal that I had just eaten, my mouth fairly watered +at sight of all these good things. In the bakery I found only a loaf +or two of bread, and this--as it was lying on the floor--I suppose +must have been dropped in the scramble while the boats were being +provisioned; but in the baker's store-room were a good many cases of +fine biscuit, and more than twenty barrels of flour. In addition to +all this, I did not doubt that somewhere on board was an equally large +store of provisions for the use of the crew; but with that I did not +bother myself, being satisfied to fare as a cabin-passenger on the +good things which I had found. Finally, two of the big water-tanks +still were full--the others, as I inferred from the cocks being open, +having been emptied for the supply of the boats; and as a +reserve--leaving rain out of the question--I had the ice to fall back +upon, of which there was so great a quantity that it alone would last +me for a long while. In a word, so far as eating and drinking were +concerned, I was as well off as a man could be anywhere--having by me +not only all the necessaries of life but most of its luxuries as well. + +Finding all these good things cheered me and put heart in me in much +the same way that I was cheered and heartened by finding my floating +mast after Captain Luke and the mate chucked me overboard. Again I had +the certainty that death for a while could not get a chance at me; and +this second reprieve was of a more promising sort than that which my +mast had given me in the open sea. On board the steamer, or what was +left of her, I was sure of being in positive comfort so long as she +floated; and my good spirits made me so sanguine that I was confident +she would keep on floating until I struck out some plan by which I +could get safe away from her, or until rescue came to me by some lucky +turn of chance. And so, having completed my tour of inspection, and my +general inventory of the property to which by right of survival I had +fallen heir, I went on deck again in a very hopeful mood. + +Even the utter wreck and confusion into which the steamer had fallen, +when I got to the deck and saw it again, did not crush the hope out of +me as it did when I came upon it--being then weak and famished--for +the first time. I even found a cause for greater hopefulness in +observing that the water-line still stood, as it had stood an hour and +more earlier, a little forward of the main-mast; for that showed that +the water-tight compartments were holding, and that the hulk was in no +immediate danger of going down. It did seem, to be sure, that the haze +had grown a little thicker, and that the weed and wreckage around the +steamer were thicker too; and I was convinced that my hulk was +moving--or that the flotsam about it was moving--by seeing a broken +boat floating bottom upward that I was sure was not in sight when I +went below. But I argued with myself cheerfully that the thickening +of the haze might be due to a wind coming down on me that would blow +it clean away; and that a small thing like an empty boat drifting down +from windward proved that the _Hurst Castle_ herself was moving +southward very slowly, or perhaps was not moving at all. And so, still +in good spirits, I set myself to looking carefully for something that +would float me, in case I decided to abandon the hulk and make a dash +for it--on the chance of falling in with a passing vessel--out over +the open sea. + +But when I had made the round of the deck--at least of the part of it +that was out of water--I had to admit that getting away from the +steamer was a sheer impossibility, unless I might manage it by +cobbling together some sort of a raft. It had been all very well for +me to fancy, while I was being cheered with chicken and beer and +tobacco down in the pantry, that I could make one of the battered +boats sea-worthy; but my round of the deck showed me that with all my +training in mechanics I never could make one of them float again--for +the sea had wrenched and hammered them until they were no better than +so much old iron. The raft, certainly, was a possibility. Spars that +would serve for its body were lying around in plenty, and with the +doors from the rooms below I could deck it over so as to make it both +solid and dry; and somewhere aboard the ship, no doubt, were +carpenter's tools--though, most likely, they were down under water +forward and could be come at only by diving for them. Still, the raft +was a possibility; and so was comforting to think about as giving me +another reprieve from drowning in case the water-tight compartments +broke down--and as that break might come at any moment, and as the job +would take me two days at the shortest, I realized that I could not +set about it too soon. + + + + + +XI + +MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + + +But the other chance which I had thought of, that my hulk might be +blown clear of the Sargasso Sea and back into the track of trade +again, still was to be reckoned with; and to know how that chance was +working it was necessary that I should find out my exact position on +the ocean, and then check off the changes in it by fresh observations +taken from day to day. And as I saw that the sun was close upon the +meridian, and no time to waste if I wanted to secure my first +noon-sight, I put off beginning my carpentering until I should have +hunted for the ship's instruments and got the latitude and longitude +that would give me my departure on my drifting voyage. + +This was so simple a piece of work that I anticipated no difficulty in +executing it. While the low-lying haze narrowed my horizon it did not +sufficiently obscure the sun to interfere with sight-taking; I could +count upon finding the chronometers still going, they being made to +run for fifty-six hours and the ship having been abandoned only the +night before; and where I found the chronometers I felt sure that I +should find also a sextant and a chart. But when I went at this +easy-looking task I was brought up with a round turn: there were no +chronometers, there was no sextant, there was no chart of the North +Atlantic--there was not even a compass left on board! + +It took me some little time to arrive at a certainty in this series of +negatives. I fancied--because it had been that way aboard the _Golden +Hind_--that the captain's room would be one of those opening off from +the cabin, and so began my search for it in that quarter. But when I +had made the round of all the state-rooms I was satisfied that they +had been occupied only by passengers. The single timepiece that I +found--for the clock in the cabin had been smashed when the +mizzen-mast came down--was a fine gold watch lying in one of the +berths partly under the pillow, where its owner must have left it in +his hurry to get to the boats. It still was going, and I slipped it +into my pocket--feeling that a thing with even that much of life in it +would be a comfort to me; but the hour that it gave was a quarter past +eleven (it having been set to the ship's time the day before, I +suppose) and therefore was of no use to me as a basis for +sight-taking. + +Having exhausted the possibilities of the cabin I concluded that the +captain's quarters must have been forward, and so shifted my search +to the forward deck-house; and as I found a blue uniform coat and a +suit of oil-skins in the first room that I entered I was sure that in +a general way I was on the right track. But in none of these rooms did +I find what I was looking for--though I did find in one of them, and +greatly to my satisfaction, a chest of carpenter's tools and a big box +of nails. The nails must have been there by pure accident, but the +tools probably were the carpenter's private kit; and as in the course +of my farther search I did not come across the ship's +carpenter-shop--which no doubt was under water forward--I felt that +this chance supply of what I needed for my raft-building was a very +lucky thing for me indeed. + +The upper story of the deck-house still remained to be investigated; +and when, by the steps leading to the steamer's bridge, I got up there +and entered a little room behind the wheel-house, I was pretty sure +that at last I had found the place where what I wanted ought to be. +The part forward of the doors on each side of this room--a good third +of it--was filled by a chart-locker having a dozen or more wide +shallow drawers; and the flat top of the locker showed at its four +corners the prickings of thumb-tacks which had held the charts open +there, and four tacks still were in place with scraps of thick white +paper under them--as though some one in too great a hurry to loosen +it properly had ripped the chart away. + +This would be, of course, the chart actually in use when the steamer +got into trouble, and therefore the one that I needed. As it was gone, +I opened the drawers of the locker and looked through them in search +of a duplicate; or of anything--even a wind-chart or a current-chart +would have answered--that would serve my turn. But while there were +charts in plenty of West Indian and of English waters, and a set +covering the German Ocean, not a chart of any sort relating to the +North Atlantic did I find. Neither were there chronometers nor any +nautical instruments in the room. In one corner was a strongly made +closet in which they may have been kept; but of this the door stood +open and the shelves were bare. Even a barometer which had hung near +the closet had been wrenched away, as I could tell by the broken brass +gimbals still fast to the brass supports; but this was a matter of no +importance, since I had noticed another in good order in the cabin--to +say nothing of the fact that my powerlessness to make any provision +against bad weather made me indifferent to warnings of coming storms. +And then, when I continued my search in the wheel-house, though not +very hopefully, all that I discovered there was that the binnacle was +empty and that the compass was gone too. In a word, there was +absolutely nothing on board the hulk that would enable me to fix my +position on the surface of the ocean, or that would guide me should I +try the pretty hopeless experiment of going cruising on a raft. + +This fact being settled--and hindsight being clearer than foresight--I +had no difficulty in accounting for it. In order to lay a course and +to keep it, the people in the boats would need precisely the things +which had been carried off; and as each boat no doubt had been +furnished so that in case of separation it could make its way alone, a +clean sweep had been made of all the North Atlantic charts and of all +the nautical instruments that the steamer had on board. It was to the +credit of the captain that he had kept his wits so well about +him--seeing to it, in the sudden skurry for the boats, that the +ultimate as well as the immediate safety of his people was provided +for--but when I found out, and fairly realized, what his coolness had +cost me I fell off once more from good spirits into gloom. + +Being left that way all at loose ends as to my reckoning, with no +means of finding out where I was nor whether my position changed for +the better from day to day, the hopes that I had been building of +drifting northward and so falling in with a passing vessel fell down +in a bunch and left me miserable. I see now, though I did not see it +then, that they went quite as unreasonably as they came. In that +region of calms--for I was fairly within the horse-latitudes--the only +bit of wind that I was likely to encounter was an eddy from the +northeast trades that would set me still farther to the southward; and +the only other moving impulse acting upon my hulk--at least while fair +weather lasted--would be the slow eddy setting in from the Gulf Stream +and moving me in the same direction. In the case of a storm coming up +from the south, and so giving me the push northward that I was so +eager for, the chances were a thousand to one that my hulk would go to +the bottom long before I could get to a part of the ocean where ships +were likely to be. And as to navigating a raft through that tangle of +weed, already thick enough around me to check the way of a sharply +built boat, the notion was so absurd that only a man in my desperate +fix would even have thought about it. + +But had there been a Job's comforter at hand to put these black +thoughts into my head they would not have helped me nor harmed me +much. My whole heart had been set on getting my sights, and filled +with the inconsequent hope that in getting them I somehow would be +bettering my chances of coming out safe at last; and so it seemed to +me when I could not get them--and in this, though the sight-taking had +nothing to do with it, there was reason in plenty--that all +likelihood of my being rescued had slipped away. + +I had come out from the wheel-house and was standing on the steamer's +bridge--which rose right out of the water so that I looked down from +it directly on the weed-laden sea. As far as my sight would carry +through the soft golden haze I saw only weed-covered water, broken +here and there by a bit of wreckage or by a little open space on which +the pale sunshine gleamed. A very gentle swell was running, giving to +the ocean the look of some strange sort of meadow with tall grass +swaying evenly in an easy wind. The broken boat had moved a good deal +and already was well to the south of me; showing me that there was +motion in that apparent stillness, and compelling me to believe that +my hulk--though less rapidly than the boat--was moving southward too. +And what that meant for me I knew. The fair weather might continue +almost indefinitely. Days and weeks, even months, might pass, and I +still might live on there in bodily safety; but so far as the world +was concerned I was dead already--being fairly caught in the slow +eddying current which was carrying my hulk steadily and hopelessly +into the dense wreck-filled centre of the Sargasso Sea. + + + + + +XII + +I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + + +Because I had felt hungry and thirsty, and the cold chicken and beer +had tasted good, I had eaten and drunk a great deal more heartily than +was wholesome for me--being so weakened by loss of blood, and by the +strain put upon me by the danger that I had passed through, and by +living only on slops and some scraps of biscuit since my rescue, that +my insides were in no condition to deal with such a lot of strong +food. And then, within an hour after I so unwisely had stuffed myself, +came the blow--in itself hard enough to upset a strong digestion in +good working order--of discovering that I could do nothing to save +myself, and that my hulk was drifting steadily deeper and deeper into +that ocean mystery out of which no man ever yet had come alive. + +The first sign that I had that something was going wrong with me was a +swimming in my head--so sudden and so violent that I lurched forward +and was close to pitching over the rail of the bridge into the sea. +For a moment I fancied that the ship had taken a quick plunge; and +then a sick feeling in my own stomach, and a blurring of my eyes that +made everything seem misty and shadowy, settled for me the fact that +it was I who was reeling about and that the ship was still--and I had +sense enough to lie down at full length on the bridge, between the +wheel-house and the rail, where I was safe against rolling off. And +then the shadows about me got deeper and blacker, and a horrible sense +of oppression came over me, and I seemed to be falling endlessly while +myriads of black specks arranged themselves in curious geometrical +figures before my eyes--and then the black specks and everything else +vanished suddenly, and my consciousness left me with what seemed to me +a great crash and bang. + +Had I begun matters by being roundly sick I might have pulled through +my attack without being much the worse for it. But as that did not +happen--my weakness, I suppose, not giving nature a chance to set +things right in her own way--I had a good deal more to suffer before I +began to mend. After a while I got enough of my senses back to know +that my head was aching as though it would split open, and to realize +how utterly miserable I was lying there on the bridge with the hot +sunshine simmering down on me through the haze; and then to think how +delightful it would be if only I were back in the cabin again--where +the sun could not stew me, and where my berth would be easy and soft. + +How I managed to get to the cabin I scarcely know. I faintly remember +working my way along the bridge on my hands and knees, and going +backward down the steps in the same fashion for fear of falling; and +of trying to walk upright when I got to the deck, so that I should not +get wet above my knees in the water there, and of falling souse into +it and getting soaked all over; and then of crawling aft very +slowly--stopping now and then because of my pain and dizziness--and +down the companion-way and through the passage, and so into the cabin +at last; and then, all in my wet clothes, of tumbling anyhow into my +berth--and after that there is only a long dead blank. + +When I caught up with myself again, night had come and I was in pitch +darkness. My head still ached horridly, and I was burning hot all +over, and yet from time to time shivering with creeping chills. What I +wanted most in the world was a drink of water; but when I tried to get +up, in the hope of finding some in the jug that no doubt was in the +state-room, I went so dizzy that I had to plump back into my berth +again. As the night went on, and I lay there thinking how deliciously +the water would taste going cool and sweet down my throat, I got quite +crazy with longing for it; and, in a way, really crazy--for through +most of the night I was light-headed and saw visions that sometimes +comforted me and sometimes made me afraid. The comforting ones were of +fresh green meadows with streams running through them, and of shady +glens in the woods where springs welled up into little basins +surrounded by ferns--just such as I remembered in the woods which +bordered the creek where I used to go swimming when I was a boy. The +horrible ones were not clear at all, and for that were the more +dreadful--being of a fire that was getting nearer and nearer to me, +and of a blazing sun that fairly withered me, and of huge hot globes +or ponderously vague masses of I knew not what which were coming +straight on to crush me and from which I could not get away. + +At last I got so worn out with it all that I fell off into an uneasy +sleep, which yet was better than no sleep and a little rested me. When +I woke again there was enough light in the room for me to see the +water-jug, and that gave me strength to get to it--and most blessedly +it was nearly full. And so I had a long drink, that for a time checked +the heat of my fever; and then I lay down in my berth again, with the +jug on the floor at my side. + +For a while I was almost comfortable. Then the fever came back, and +the visions with it--but no longer so painful as those which had been +begotten of my thirst. I seemed to be in a region dreamy and unreal. +Sometimes I would see far stretches of mountain peaks, and sometimes +the crowded streets of cities; but for the most part my visions were +of the sea--tall ships sailing, and little boats drifting over calm +water in moonlight, and black steamers gliding quickly past me; and +still more frequently, but always in a calm sea, the broken hulks of +wrecked ships with shattered masts and tangled rigging and with dead +men lying about their decks, and sometimes with a dead man hanging +across the wheel and moving a little with the hulk's motion so that in +a horrible sort of way he seemed to be half alive. + +Night came again, bringing me more pain and the burning of a stronger +fever; and then another day, in which the fever rose still higher and +the visions became almost intolerable--because of their intense +reality, and of my conviction all the while that they were unreal and +that I must be well on the way toward a raving madness in which I +would die. + +It was at the end of this day--or it may have been at the end of still +another day, for I have no clear reckoning of how the time +passed--that my worst vision came to me; hurting me not because it was +terrifying in itself, but because it made me feel that even hope had +parted company with me at last. And it was more like a dream than a +vision, seemingly being brought to my sight by my own bodily +movement--not something which floated before my eyes as I lay still. + +As the afternoon went on my fever increased a good deal; but in a way +that was rather pleasant to me, for the pain in my head lessened and I +seemed to be getting back my strength. After a while I began to long +to get out of the cabin and up on deck, and so have a look around me +over the open sea; and with my longing came the feeling that I was +strong enough to realize it. + +My getting up seemed entirely real and natural, as did my firm +walking--without a touch of dizziness--after I fairly was on my feet; +and all the rest of it seemed real too. Even when I came to the +companion-way I seemed to go up the stairs easily, and to step out on +the deck as steadily as though I had been entirely well. + +The sun was near setting, but as I came on the deck my back was toward +the sunset and I saw only its red light touching the soft swell of the +weed-covered sea extending far before me, and the same red light +shimmering in the mist and caught up more strongly on a bank of +low-lying clouds. The outlook was much the same as that which I had +had from the bridge, only the weed seemed to be packed more closely +and there was wreckage about me everywhere. Masts and spars and planks +were in sight in all directions, sometimes floating singly and +sometimes tangled together in little heaps; half a mile away was what +seemed to be a large ship lying bottom upward; near me was a perfectly +sound boat, having in its stern-sheets a bit of sail that fell in such +folds as to make me think that a human form lay under it; and off +toward the horizon was a large raft, with a sort of mast fitted to it, +and at the foot of the mast I fancied that I saw a woman in a white +robe of some sort stretched out as though asleep. And it seemed to me, +though I could not tell why, that all this flotsam, and my own hulk +along with it, slowly was drifting closer and closer together; and was +packing tighter and tighter in the soft oozy tangle of the weed, which +everywhere was matted so thickly that the water did not show at all. + +Then I seemed to walk around to the other side of my hulk and to look +down into the west--and to feel all hope dying with the sight that I +saw there. Far away, under the red mist, across the red gleaming weed +and against a sunset sky bloody red, I seemed to see a vast ruinous +congregation of wrecks; so far-extending that it was as though all the +wrecked ships in the world were lying huddled together there in a +miserably desolate company. And with sight of them the certain +conviction was borne in upon me that my own wreck presently would take +its station in that shattered fleet for which there was no salvation; +and that it would lie among them rotting slowly, as they were +rotting, through months or years--until finally, in its turn, it would +drop down from amidst those lepers of the ocean, and would sink with +all its foulness upon it into the black depths beneath the oozy weed. + +And I knew, too, that whether I already were dead and went down with +it, or saved my life for a while longer by getting aboard of another +hulk which still floated, sooner or later my end must come to me in +that same way. On one or another of those rotting dead ships my own +dead body surely must sink at last. + + + + + +XIII + +I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + + +That was the end of my visions. Through the night that followed--my +fever having run its course, I suppose--I slept easily; and when +another day came and I woke again my fever was gone. I was pretty weak +and ragged, but the cut in my head was healing and no longer hurt me +much, and my mind was clear. There still was water left in the jug, +and I drank freely and felt the better for it; and toward afternoon I +felt so hungry that I managed to get up and go to the pantry on a +foraging expedition for something to eat. + +This time I was careful not to stuff myself. I found a box of light +biscuit and ate a couple of them; and then I filled my water-jug at +the tank and brought it and the biscuit back to my stateroom without +going on the deck at all. My light meal greatly refreshed me; and in +an hour or two I ate another biscuit--and kept on nibbling at them off +and on through the night when I happened to wake up. In between whiles +my sleep was of a sort to do me good; not deep, but restful. With the +coming of another morning I felt so strong that I went to the pantry +again for food of a better sort--venturing to eat a part of a tin of +meat with my biscuit and to add to my water a little wine; and when +this was down I began to feel quite like myself once more, and to long +so strongly for some sunshine and fresh air that I climbed up the +companion-way to the deck. + +But when I got there I thought at first that my visions were coming +back again. Indeed, what I saw was so nearly my last vision over again +as to make me half believe, later, that I really did go on deck in my +delirium and really did see that blood-red sunset and all the rest +that had seemed to me a dream. At any rate, there was no doubting this +second time--if it were the second time--the reality of what I beheld; +and because I no longer was fever-struck, and so could take in fully +the wonder of it, my astonishment kept my spirits from being wholly +pulled down. + +The haze was so thick as to be almost like a fog hanging about me, but +the hot sunshine pouring down into it gave it a golden brightness and +I could see through it dimly for a good long way; and there was no +need for far-seeing to be sure that I had before me what I think must +be the strangest sight that the world has in it for the eyes of man. +For what I looked at was the host of wrecked ships, the dross of wave +and tempest, which through four centuries--from the time when sailors +first pushed out upon the great western ocean--has been gathering +slowly, and still more slowly wasting, in the central fastnesses of +the Sargasso Sea. + +The nearest edge of this mass of wreckage was not a quarter of a mile +off from me; but it swept away in a great irregular curve to the right +and left and vanished into the golden haze softly--and straight ahead +I could see it stretching dimly away from me, getting thicker and +closer until it seemed to be almost as solid as a real island would +have been. And, indeed, it had a good deal the look of being a real +island; the loom through the haze of countless broken masts rising to +various heights and having frayed ropes streaming from them having +much the effect of trees growing there, while the irregularities of +the surface made it seem as though little houses were scattered +thickly among the trees. But in spite of the golden light which hung +over it, and which ought to have given it a cheerful look, it was the +most desolate and sorrowful place I ever saw; for it seemed to +belong--and in a way really did belong, since every hulk in all that +fleet was the slowly wasting dead body of a ship slain by storm or +disaster--to that outcast region of mortality in which death has +achieved its ugliness but to which the cleansing of a complete +dissolution has not yet been brought by time. + +Yet the curious interest that I found in this strange sight kept me +from feeling only the horror of it. In my talks with Bowers about the +old-time sea-wonders which must be hidden in the Sargasso Sea my +imagination had been fired; and when I thus found myself actually in +the way to see these wonders I half forgot how useless the sight was +to me--being myself about the same as killed in the winning of it--and +was so full of eagerness to press forward that I grew almost angry +because of the infinite slowness with which my hulk drifted on to its +place in the ruined ranks. + +There was no hurrying my progress. Around me the weed and wreckage +were packed so closely that the wonder was that my hulk moved through +it at all. Of wind there was not a particle; indeed, as I found later, +under that soft golden haze was a dead calm that very rarely in those +still latitudes was ruffled by even the faintest breeze. Only a weak +swirl of current from the far-off Gulf Stream pushed my hulk onward; +and this, I suppose, was helped a little by that attraction of +floating bodies for each other which brings chips and leaves together +on the surface of even the stillest pool. But a snail goes faster than +I was going; and it was only at the end of a full hour of watching +that I could see--yet even then could not be quite certain about it--that +my position a very little had changed. + +Save that now and then I went below and got some solid food into me--and +as I was careful to eat but little at a time I got the good of it--I sat +there on the deck all day long gazing; and by nightfall my hulk had gone +forward by perhaps as much as a hundred yards. But my motion was a steady +and direct one, and I saw that if it continued it would end by laying me +aboard of a big steamer--having the look of being a cargo-boat--that stood +out a little from the others and evidently herself had not long been a +part of that broken company. She was less of a wreck, in one way, than +my own hulk; for she floated on an even keel and so high out of the +water as to show that she had no leak in her; but her masts had been +swept clean away and even her funnel and her bridge were gone--as though +a sharp-edged sea had sliced like a razor over her and shaved her decks +clean. + +Immediately beyond this steamer lay a big wooden ship evidently +waterlogged; for she lay so low that the whole of her hull, save a bit of +her stern, was hidden from me by the steamer, and the most of her that +showed was her broken masts. And beyond her again was a jam of wrecks so +confused that I could not make out clearly any one of them from the rest. +Taken all together, they made a sort of promontory that jutted out from +what I may call the main-land of wreckage; and to the right and left of +the promontory there went off in long receding lines the coast of that +country of despair. + +At last the sun sunk away to the horizon, and as it fell off westward pink +tones began to show in the clouds there and then to be reflected in the +haze; and these tones grew warmer and deeper until I saw just such another +blood-red sunset as I had seen in what I had fancied was my dream. And +under the crimson haze lay the dead wrecks, looming large in it, with +gleams of crimson light striking here and there on spars and masts and +giving them the look of being on fire. And then the light faded slowly, +through shades of purple and soft pink and warm gray, until at last the +blessed darkness came and shut off everything from my tired eyes. + +Indeed, I was glad when the darkness fell; for as I sat there looking and +looking and feeling the bitter hopelessness of it all, I was well on my +way to going crazy with sorrow. But somehow, not seeing any longer the +ruin which was so near to me, and of which I knew myself to be a part, it +seemed less real to me--and so less dreadful. And being thus eased a +little I realized that I was hungry again, and that commonplace natural +feeling did me good too. + +I went below to the pantry, striking a match to see my way by; and when +I had lighted the big lamp that was hanging there--the glass chimney of +which, in some wonderful way, had pulled through the crash which had sent +the mizzen-mast flying--the place seemed so cheerful that my desire for +supper increased prodigiously, and tended still farther to down my +sorrowful thoughts. I even had a notion of trying to light a fire in +the galley and cooking over it some of the beef or mutton that I had +found in the cold-room; but I gave that up, just then, because I +really was too hungry to wait until I could carry through so large +a plan. + +But there was a plenty of good food in tins easily to be got at; and +what was still better I felt quite strong enough to eat a lot of it +without hurting myself. I even went at my meal a little daintily, +spreading a napkin--that I got from a locker filled with table +linen--on the pantry dresser, and setting out on it a tin of chicken +and a bunch of cheese and some bread which was pretty stale and hard +and a pot of jam to end off with; and from the wine-room I brought a +bottle of good Bordeaux. + +As I ate my supper, greatly relishing it, the oddness of what I was +doing did not occur to me; but often since I have thought how strange +was that meal of mine--in that brightly lighted cosey little room, +and myself really cheerful over it--in its contrast with the utterly +desperate strait in which I was. And I think that the contrast was +still sharper, my supper being ended, when I fetched a steamer-chair +that I had noticed lying on the floor of the cabin and settled myself +in it easily--facing toward the stern, so that the slope of the deck +only made the slope of the chair still easier--and so sat there in the +brightness smoking a very good cigar. + +And after a while--what with my comfort of body, and the good meal +in my stomach, and the good wine there too--a soothing drowsiness +stole over me, and I had the feeling that in another moment or two I +should fall away into a delicious doze. And then, all of a sudden, I +was roused wide awake again by hearing faintly, but quite distinctly, +a long and piercingly shrill cry. + +I fairly jumped from my chair, so greatly was I startled; and for a +good while I stood quite still, drawing my breath softly, in waiting +wonder for that strange cry to come again. But it did not come +again--and as the silence continued I fell to doubting if I had not +been asleep, and that this sound which had seemed so real to me had +not been only a part of a dream. + + + + + +XIV + +OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + + +Robinson Crusoe's footprint in the sand did not startle him more than +that strange lonely cry startled me. Indeed, as between the two of us, +I had rather the worse of it: for Crusoe, at least, knew that he was +dealing with a reality, while I could not be certain that I was not +dealing with a bit of a dream in which there was no reality at all. + +For a long while I sat there puzzling over it--half hoping that I +might hear it again, and so be sure of it; and half hoping that I +might not hear it, because of the thrilling tone in it which had +filled me with a sharp alarm. I was so shaken that I had not the +courage to go off to my berth in the cabin, with only a candle to +light me there, but stayed on in the little room that the lamp lighted +so brightly that there were no dark corners for my fancy to people +with things horrible; and so, at last, still scared and puzzled, I +went off to sleep in my chair. + +When I woke again the lamp had burned out and had filled the place +with a vile smell of lamp-smoke that set me to sneezing. But I did +not mind that much; for daylight had come, and my nerves were both +quieted by sleep and steadied by that confident courage which most men +feel--no matter how tight a fix they may be in--when they have the +backing of the sun. + +My first thought was to get on deck and have a look about me; the +feeling being strong in my mind that on one or another of the near-by +wrecks I should find the man who had uttered that thrilling cry, and +would find him in some trouble that I might be able to help him out +of. But my second thought, and it was the wiser, was to eat first of +all a good breakfast and so get strength in me that would make me +ready to face whatever might come along--for a vague dread hung by me +that I was in the way of danger, and whatever it might be I knew that +I could the better stand up against it after a hearty meal. Therefore +I got out another tin of meat and ate the whole of it, and a hunk of +stale bread along with it, and washed down my breakfast with a bottle +of beer--longing greatly for a cup of coffee in place of the beer, but +being in too much of a hurry to stop for that while I made a fire. + +As the food got inside of me--though in that smoky and smelly place +eating it was not much of a pleasure--my thoughts took a more cheerful +turn. The hope of meeting a live man to talk to and to help me out of +my utter loneliness rose strong in my mind; and I felt that no matter +who or what he might be--even a man in desperate sickness and pain, +whom I must nurse and care for--finding him in that solitude would +make my own case less sad. And so, when I went on deck, my longing +hope for companionship was the strongest feeling in my heart. + +With my first glance around I saw that during the night my hulk had +made more progress than I had counted on; having moved the faster, I +suppose, as it felt more strongly the pull of the mass of floatage +near by. Be this as it may, I found myself so close alongside the big +cargo-boat that a good jump would carry me aboard of her; and I was so +eager to begin my investigations that I took the jump without a single +moment of delay. And being come to her deck, the first thing that I +saw there was a dead man lying in the middle of it with a pool of +still fresh blood staining the planks by his side. + +I never had seen anything like that, and as I looked at the dead +man--he was a big strong coarse fellow, dressed in a pair of dirty +sail-cloth trousers and in a dirty checked shirt--I went so queasy and +giddy that I had to step back a little and lean for a while against +the steamer's rail. It was clear enough that he had died fighting. His +face had a bad cut on it and there was another on his neck, and his +hands were cut cruelly, as though he had caught again and again at a +sharp knife in trying to keep it away from him; but the stab that had +finished him was in his breast, showing ghastly as he lay on his back +with his shirt open--and no doubt it was as the knife went into him +there that he had uttered the cry of mortal agony which had come to me +through the darkness, with so thrilling a note in it, while I was +sitting in bright comfort drowsily smoking my cigar. And then, as I +remembered my drowsiness, for a moment I seemed to get back into +it--and I had a half hope that perhaps what I was looking at was only +a part of a horrible dream. + +Had there been any sign of a living man about, of the murderer as well +as the murdered, I should have been less broken by what I saw; for +then I should have had something practical to attend to--either in +bringing the other man to book on the poor dead fellow's account, or +in fighting him on my own. But the nearest thing to life in sight, on +that storm-swept hulk under the low-hanging golden haze, was the rough +body out of which life had but just gone forever; and the bloody +stains everywhere on the deck showing that he and another must have +been fighting pretty much all over it before they got to an end. And +the horror of it all was the stronger because of the awful and +hopeless loneliness: with the dead-still weed-covered ocean +stretching away to the horizon on the one hand, and on the other only +dead ships tangled and crushed together going off in a desolate +wilderness that grew fainter--but for its faintness all the more +despairing--until it was lost in the dun-gold murky thickness of +the haze. + +As I got steadier, in a little while, I realized that I must hunt up +the other man, the one who had done the killing, and have things out +with him. Pretty certainly, his disposition would be to try to kill +me; and if I were to have a fight on hand as soon as I fell in with +him it was plain that my chances would be all the better for downing +him could I take him by surprise. I would have given a good deal just +then for a knife, and a good deal more for a pistol; but the best that +I could do to arm myself was to take an iron belaying-pin from the +rail, and with this in my hand I walked aft to the companion-way +--feeling sure that my best chance of coming upon my man +unexpectedly was to find him asleep in the cabin below. And then, +suddenly, the very uncomfortable thought came to me that there might +be more than one man down there--with the likelihood that if I roused +them they all would set upon me together and finish me quickly; and +this brought me to a halt just within the companion-way, in the +shadowy place at the head of the cabin stair. + +I stood there for a minute or two listening closely, but I heard no +sound whatever from below; and presently the dead silence made me feel +rather ashamed of myself for being so easily scared. And then I +noticed, my eyes having become accustomed to the shadow, that there +was a splash of blood on the top step and more blood on the steps +lower down--as though a man badly hurt, and without any one to help +him, had gone down the stair slowly and had rested on almost every +step and bled for a while before he could go on; and seeing this made +it seem likely to me that I would have but a single man to deal with, +and he in such a state that I need not fear him much. But for all that +I kept a tight grip on my belaying-pin, and held it in such a way that +I could use it easily, as I put my foot on the first of the bloody +steps and so went on down. + +The cabin, when I got to it, was but a small one--the boat not being +built to carry passengers--and so dusky that I could not make it out +well; for the skylight was covered with a tarpaulin--put there, I +suppose, to protect it when the gale came on that the steamer was +wrecked in--and all the light there was came in from one corner where +the covering had fetched away. It gave me a sort of shivering feeling +when I looked into that dusky place, where I saw nothing clearly and +where there was at least a chance that in another moment I might be +fighting for my life. I stood in the doorway, gripping my +belaying-pin, until I began to see more clearly--making out that a +small fixed table, with a water-jug and some bottles and glasses on +it, filled a half of the cabin, and that three state-room doors--one +of which stood open--were ranged on each of its sides. And then, just +as I was about to enter, I fairly jumped as there came to me softly +through the silence a low sad sound that was between a groan and a +sigh. But in an instant my reason told me that this was not the sort +of sound to come from a man whom I need be afraid of; and as it came +plainly enough from the state-room of which the door stood open I +stepped briskly over there and looked inside. + + + + + +XV + +I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + + +At first--the dead-light being fast over the port, and the state-room +in darkness save for the little light which came in from the dusky +cabin, and my own person in the doorway making it darker still--I was +sure of nothing there. But presently I made out a biggish heap of some +sort in the lower berth, and then that the heap was a man lying with +his back toward me and his face turned to the ship's side. + +The noise of my footsteps must have roused him, either from sleep or +from the stupor that his hurts had put him in: for while I stood +looking at him his body moved a little, and then his head turned +slowly and in the shadows I caught the glint of his open eyes. What +little light there was being behind me, all that he could see--and +that but in black outline--was the figure of a tall man looming in the +doorway; but instantly at sight of me he let off a yell as sharp as +though I had run a knife into him, and then he covered his head all up +with the bedclothes and lay kicking and shaking as though he were in +deadly fear. I myself was so upset by his outburst, and by the +half-horror that came to me at sight of his spasms of terror, that I +stood for a moment or so silent; but in one way satisfied, since it +was evident that this poor scared wretch could not possibly do me +harm. Just as I was about to speak to him, hoping to soothe him a +little, he pushed the bedclothes down from over his eyes and took +another look at me--and straightway yelled again, and then cried out +at me: "Go away, damn you! Go away, damn you! You're dead! You're +dead, I tell you! Do you want me to kill you all over again, when I've +done it once as well as I know how?" And with that he fell to kicking +again, and to shouting out curses, and to letting off the most +dreadful shrieks and cries--until suddenly a gasping choking checked +him, and he lay silent and still. + +Then the notion came to me that he took me for the dead man up on +deck; I being about the dead fellow's size and build, and therefore +looking very like him as I stood there with the light behind me and +the shadows too deep for him to make out my face. And so, to ease his +mind and get him quiet--and this was quite as much for my own sake as +for his, for his wild fear was strangely horrible to witness--I spoke +to him, asking him if he were badly hurt and if I could help him; and +at the sound of my voice he gave a long sigh, as though of great +relief, and in a moment said: "Who the devil are you, anyway? I +thought you was Jack--come back after my killin' him to have another +round with me. Is Jack true dead?" + +"If you mean the man on deck," I answered, "he is true dead--as dead +as any man can be with a cut straight through his heart." + +He gave another sigh of relief, as though what I told him was a real +comfort to him; and in a moment he said: "Well, that's a good job, and +I'm glad of it. He's killed me, too, I reckon; but I'm glad I got in +on him first an' fixed him fur his damn starin' at me. Now he's dead I +guess he won't stare at me no more." He was silent for nearly a +minute, and then he added: "Jest get me a drink, won't you? I'm all +burnin' up inside. There's water in th' jug out there. An' put a good +dash of gin in it--there's gin out there, too." + +I got him some water from the jug on the cabin table, but when he +tasted it and found that it was water only he began to swear at me for +leaving out the gin; and when I added the gin--thinking that he +probably was so used to strong drink as really to need a little to put +some life into him--he took off the whole glassful at a gulp and +asked for more. + +I told him to wait for another drink until I should have a look at his +hurts and see what I could do to better them; for, while hanging +seemed to be what he deserved, I had a natural desire to ease the +pain that was racking him--as I could tell by the gasps and groans +which he was giving and by the sharp motions which he made. + +"Jest shet your head an' gimme some more drink," he said in a surly +way. "Jack's give me a dose that'll settle me, an' lookin' at me won't +do no good--'cause there's nothin' to be done. He's ripped me up, Jack +has, an' no man can live long that way. All I can do is to die +happy--so it's a good thing there's lots of gin. You'll find a kag of +it over there in th' fur corner. Me an' Jack filled it from th' spirit +room yesterday, afore our fuss begun." + +But I stuck out that I must have a look at his hurts first, and +managed to open the dead-light--which luckily had not been screwed +tight--and so had some light in the room; and in the end, finding that +I would not give him a drink otherwise, he let me have my way. But I +had only to take a glance over him to see that what he said about the +other man having settled him was true enough; for he was cut in a +dozen places savagely, and had one desperate slash--which had laid him +all open about the waist--from which alone he was certain to die in a +very little while. + +There was nothing for me to do, and I did not know what was best to +say to him; and while I was casting about in my mind to comfort him a +little, for his horrible hurts could not but stir my pity, he settled +the matter for both of us in his own way--grunting out that he guessed +I'd found he knew what he was talking about, and then asking for +more gin. + +This time I gave it to him, and gave it to him strong--being certain +that he was past hurting by it, and hoping that it might deaden his +pain. And presently, when he asked for another drink, I gave him +that too. + +The liquor did make him easier, and it raised his spirits so much that +he fell to swearing quite cheerfully at the man Jack who had given him +his death--and seemed to feel a good deal better for freeing his mind +that way. And after a while he began of his own accord to tell me +about the wreck that he had passed through, and about what had come +after it--only stopping now and then to ask for more gin-and-water, +and gulping it down with such satisfaction that I gave him all he +cared to have. Indeed, it was the only thing that I could do to ease +him, and I knew that no matter how much he drank the end shortly would +be the same. + +As well as I could make out from his rambling talk, the storm that had +wrecked him had happened about three months earlier: a tremendous +burst of tempest that had sent everything to smash suddenly, and had +washed the captain and first and second officers overboard--they all +being on the bridge together--and three or four of the crew as well. +At the same time the funnel was carried away, and such a deluge of +water got down to the engine-room that the fires were drowned. This +brought the engineers on deck and the coal-passers with them; and the +coal-passers--"a beach-combin' lot," he called them--led in breaking +into the spirit-room, and before long pretty much all the men of the +crew were as drunk as lords. What happened after that for a while he +did not know; but when he got sober enough to stagger up on deck he +found the man Jack there--who also had just come up after sleeping off +his drunk below somewhere--and they had the ship to themselves. The +others might have found a boat that would float and tried their luck +that way, or they might have been washed overboard. He didn't know +what had become of them, and he didn't care. Then the hulk had taken +to drifting slowly, and at the end of a month or so had settled into +the berth where I found her; and since then the two of them had known +that all chance of their getting back into the world again was gone. + +"At first I didn't mind it much," he went on, "there bein' lashins to +eat aboard, an' more to drink than me an' Jack ever'd hoped to get a +show at in all our lives. But pretty soon Jack he begun to be +worryin'. He'd get drunk, an' then he'd set an' stare at me like a +damn owl--jest a-blinkin' and a-blinkin' his damn eyes. You hev no +idee, ontil it's done to you, how worryin' it is when a drunken man +jest sets an' stares at you fur hours together in that fool way. I +give Jack fair warnin' time and agen when he was sober that I'd hurt +him ef he kep' on starin' at me like that; but then he'd get drunk +agen right off, an' at it he'd go. I s'pose I wouldn't 'a' minded it +in a ornary way an' ashore, or ef we'd had some other folks around. +But here we was jest alone--oh, it was terr'ble how much we was +alone!--an' Jack more'n half the time like a damn starin' owl, till he +a-most druv me wild." + +"An' Jack said as how I was onbearable too. _He_ said it was me as +stared at him--the damn fool not knowin' that I was only a-tryin' to +squench his beastly owlin' by lookin' steady at him; an' he said he'd +settle me ef I kep' on. An' so things went like that atween us fur +days an' days--and all th' time nothin' near us but dead ships with +mos' likely dead men fillin' 'em, an' him an' me knowin' we'd soon got +to be dead too. An' the stinks out of th' rotten weed, and out of all +th' rotten ships whenever a bit of wind breezed up soft from th' +s'uthard over th' hull mess of 'em, was horrider than you hev any +idee! Gettin' drunk was all there was lef' fur us; and even in gettin' +drunk there wasn't no real Christian comfort, 'cause of Jack's damn +owlin' stares." + +"I guess ef anybody stared steady at you fur better'n three months +you'd want to kill him too. Anyway, that's how I felt about it; an' I +told Jack yesterday--soon as he waked up in th' mornin', an' while he +was plumb sober--that ef he didn't let up on it I'd go fur him sure. +An' that fool up an' says it was me done th' starin', and I'd got to +stop it or he'd cut out my damn heart--an' them was his very words. +An' by noon yesterday he was drunker'n a Dutchman, an' was starin' +harder'n ever. An' he kep' at it all along till sunset, an' when we +come down into th' cabin to get supper he still was starin'; and after +supper--when we mought 'a' been jest like two brothers a-gettin' drunk +together on gin-an'-water--he stared wust of all." + +"Nobody could 'a' stood it no longer--and up I gets an' goes fur him, +keepin' my promise fair an' square. At fust we jest punched each other +sort o' friendly with our fists, but after a while Jack give me a clip +that roused my dander and I took my knife to him; an' then he took his +knife to me. I don't remember jest all about it, but I know we licked +away at each other all over th' cabin, an' then up through th' +companion-way, an' then all over th' deck--me a-slicin' into him an' +him a-slicin' into me all th' time. And at last he got this rippin' +cut into me, an' jest then I give him a jab that made him yell like a +stuck pig an' down he fell. I knowed he'd done fur me, but somehow I +managed to work my way along th' deck an' to get down here to my +bunk, where I knowed I'd die easier; an' then things was all black fur +a while--ontil all of a sudden you comes along, and I sees you +standin' in the door there, an' takes you fur Jack's ghost, an' gets +scared th' wust kind. But he's not doin' no ghost racket, Jack ain't. +I've settled him an' his damn owl starin'--and it's a good job I have. +Gimme some more gin." + +And then, having taken the drink that I gave him, he rolled over a +little--so that he lay as I found him, with his face turned away from +me--and for a good long while he did not speak a word. + + + + + +XVI + +I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + + +Only an hour before I had been longing for any sort of a live man to +talk with and so break my loneliness; but having thus found a live +man--who, to be sure, was close to being a dead one--I would have been +almost ready to get rid of him by going back to my mast in the open +sea. Indeed, as I stood there in the shadows beside that dying brute, +and with the other brute lying dead on the deck above me, the feeling +of dull horror that filled me is more than I can put into words. + +I think that the underlying strong strain of my wretchedness was an +intense pity for myself. In what the fellow had told me I saw clearly +outlined a good deal of what must be my own fate in that vile +solitude: which I perceived suddenly must be strewn everywhere with +dead men lying unhidden, corrupting openly; since none there were to +hide the dead from sight as we hide them in the living world. And I +realized that until I myself should be a part of that indecent +exhibition of human carcasses--which might not be for a long while, +for I was a strong man and not likely to die soon--I should have to +dwell in the midst of all that corruption; and always with the +knowledge that sooner or later I must take my place in it, and lie +with all those unhidden others wasting away slowly in the open light +of day. I got so sick as these horrid thoughts pressed upon me that I +turned to the table and poured out for myself a stiff drink of +gin-and-water--being careful first to rinse the glass well--and I was +glad that I thought of it, for it did me good. + +My movement about the cabin roused up the dying fellow and he hailed +me to give him some more gin. His voice was so thick that I knew that +the drink already had fuddled him; and after he had swiped off what I +gave him he began to talk again. But the liquor had taken such hold +upon him that he called me "Jack," not recognizing me, and evidently +fancying that I was his mate--the man whom he had killed. + +At first he rambled on about the storm that had wrecked them; and then +about their chance of falling in with a passing vessel; and then about +some woman named Hannah who would be worrying about him because he did +not come home. As well as I could make out he went over in this +fashion most of what had happened--and it was little enough, in one +way--from the time that the two found themselves alone upon the hulk +until they began to get among the weed, and realized pretty well +what that meant for them. + +"It ain't no use now, Jack," he rambled on. "It ain't no use now +thinkin' about gettin' home, an' Hannah may as well stop lookin' fur +me. This is th' Dead Man's Sea we're gettin' into; an' I knows it +well, an' you knows it well, both on us havin' heerd it talked about +by sailor-men ever sence we come afloat as boys. Down in th' middle of +it is all th' old dead wrecks that ever was sence ships begun sailin'; +and all th' old dead sailor-men is there too. It's a orful place, +Jack, that me an' you's goin' to--more damn orful, I reckon, than we +can hev any idee. Gin's all thet's lef' to us, and it's good luck we +hev such swashins of it aboard. Here's at you, Jack an' gimme some +more out o' the kag, you damn starin' owl." + +There was an angry tone in his voice as he spoke these last words; and +the tone was sharper a moment later when he went on: "Can't you keep +your owl eyes shet, you beast? Don't look at me like that, or I'll +stick a knife into you. No, I'm _not_ starin' at you; it's you who's +starin' at me, damn you. Stop it! Stop it, I say, you--" and he broke +out with a volley of foul names and curses; and partly raised himself, +as though he thought that a fight was coming on. And then the pain +which this movement caused him made him fall back again with a groan. + +Without his asking for it I gave him another drink, which quieted +him a little; and then put fresh strength into him, so that he burst +out again with his curses and abuse. "Cut the heart out of me, will +you--you scum of rottenness? I'd have you to know that cuttin' hearts +out is a game two can play at. Take that, damn you! An' that! An' +that! Them's fur your starin'--you damn fat-faced blinkin' owl. And I +mean now t' keep on till I stop you. No more of your owl-starin' fur +me! Take it agen, you stinkin' starin' owl. So! An' so! An' so!" + +He fairly raised himself up in the berth as he rushed out his words, +and at the same time thrust savagely with his right hand as though he +had a knife in it. For a minute or more he kept his position, cursing +with a strong voice and thrusting all the time. Suddenly he gave a +yell of pain and fell on his back again, crying brokenly: "Hell! It's +_you_ who've finished me!" And then he gave two or three short sharp +gasps, and after that there was a little gurgling in his throat, and +then he was still--lying there as dead as any man could be. + +This quick ending of him came so suddenly that it staggered me; but I +must say that my first feeling, when I fairly realized what had +happened, was thankfulness that his life was gone--for I had had +enough of him to know that having much more of him would drive me mad. + +In the telling of it, of course, most of what made all this horrible +slips away from me, and it don't seem much to strain a man, after all. +But it really was pretty bad: what with the shadowy light in the +state-room, for even with the port uncovered it still was dusky; and +the horrid smell there; and the vividness with which the fellow +somehow managed to make me feel those days and weeks of his half-crazy +half-drunken life, while he and the other man stared at each other +until neither of them could bear it any longer--and so took to +fighting from sheer heart-breaking horror of loneliness and killed +each other out of hand. And back of all that I had the feeling that I +was caught in the same fate that had shut in upon them; and was even +worse off than they had been, since I had no one to fight my life away +with but must take it myself when I found my solitude in that rotten +desolation more than I could stand. + +Even the gin-and-water, though I took another big drink of it, could +not hearten me; but it did give me the courage to rid myself of the +two dead brutes by casting them overboard; and, indeed, getting rid of +them was a necessity, for their presence seemed to me so befouling +that I found it hard to breathe. + +With the man on deck--except that touching him was hateful to me--I +did not have much trouble. I just made fast to him a couple of heavy +iron bars that I found down in the engine-room--pokers, they seemed to +be, for serving the boiler fires--and then dragged him along the deck +to a place where the bulwarks were gone and there shot him overboard. +And luckily the weed was thinnish there, and he went down like a stone +into it and through it and so disappeared. + +But with the man in the cabin I had a harder job. In his horridly cut +condition I could not bring myself to touch him, and the best that I +could do was to make a sort of bundle of him and the mattress and the +bedclothes all together--with a bit of light line whipped around and +around the whole mass until it was snug and firm. When it was finished +I worked it out of the state-room, and rolled it fairly easily along +the floor of the cabin to the companion-way--and there it stuck fast. +Budge it I could not; for it was too long to roll up the stair, and +too heavy for me to haul it up after me or to push it up before me, +though I tried both ways and tried hard. But in the end I managed to +get it up by means of a purchase that I rigged from a ring-bolt in the +deck just outside the companion-way door; and once having it on deck I +could manage it again easily, for there I could roll it along. + +Yet I did not at once cast it overboard; for I had no more iron bars +with which to weight it, and I knew that such a bunch of stuff would +not sink through the weed--and that I should have it still +loathsomely with me, lying only partly hidden in the weed right +alongside. In the end I got up a big iron cinder-bucket that I filled +with coal--making sure that the coal would stay in it by lashing a +piece of canvas over the top--and this I made fast to the bundle by a +rope three or four fathoms long. Then I cast the bucket overboard +through the break in the bulwarks, and as it shot downward I rolled +the bundle after it--and I had the comfort of seeing the whole go down +through the weed and away from my sight forever into the hidden +water below. + +And then I sat down on the deck and rested; for what little cheering +and strength I had got from the gin-and-water had left me and I was +utterly miserable and tired as a dog. But I was well quit of both my +dead men, and that was a good job well done. + + + + + +XVII + +HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + + +Sitting there with the splotches of fresh blood on the deck all around +me was more than I could stomach for very long. The sight of them +brought back to me with a horrid distinctness everything that I had +seen since I came aboard the hulk: the dead man lying on the deck, the +other man with his frightful wounds and his wild talk and his death in +the midst of his passionate ravings, and the disgusting work that I +had been forced to do before I could hide their two bodies from my +sight in the sea-depths beneath the tangled weed. And so, presently, I +scrambled to my feet, thinking to get back to the _Hurst Castle_ +again--where there was no taint of blood to bring up haunting visions +and where, though it seemed a long while past to me, I had been in the +company of honest and kindly men. + +But when I turned toward this poor escape from my misery--which at +best was but a change from a foul prison to a clean one--I saw that I +could not easily compass it; for in the time that had passed since I +had made my jump in the morning--noon being by then upon me--the +_Hurst Castle_ had swung around a little, being caught I suppose upon +some bit of sunken wreckage, so that where the two ships were nearest +to each other there was an open reach of twenty feet or more +across the weed. + +This was too great a distance for a jump, seeing that it must be made +from rail to rail without a run to give me a send-off; and yet it was +so short that my not being able to cross it never even entered my +mind. Had there been a mast standing on the hulk, with a yard fast to +it, I could have rigged a rope from the yard-arm and swung myself +across in a moment; but the decks being sea-swept, with nothing left +standing on them, that way was not open to me; nor could I find a +light spar--even the flag-staff at the stern being snapt away--that I +could stretch across from one rail to the other and make a bridge of. +The only other thing that occurred to me was to tear off some of the +doors in the cabin and to make of them a little raft that I could pass +by, though I saw well enough that pushing a raft through so dense a +tangle even for that short distance would be a hard job. And then I +had the thought that perhaps on the sailing-ship lying beside me I +might find a sound boat, which would better answer my purpose since it +could be the more easily moved through the weed. In point of fact I +could not have moved a boat a single foot through that thicket without +cutting a passage for it, and I might have thrown overboard three or +four doors and so made a bridge over the weed that would have borne me +easily--but I did not know then as much about that strange sea-growth +as I came to know later on. + +As there was no hurry in one way, the ships being so bedded fast there +that they were certain not to move more than a few feet at the utmost, +I hunted up some food before setting myself to what I knew would be a +heavy task; finding cold victuals of a coarse sort in the galley--left +from the last meal that the two men had made there--and fairly fresh +water in the tank. It was hard work eating, on board that foul ship +and thinking of the foul hands which had made the food ready; but +going without eating would have been harder, for I had the healthy +appetite of a sound young fellow three-and-twenty years old. + +When I had finished my meal, and I got through it quickly, I made fast +a line to the steamer's rail and slipped down it to the deck of the +sailing-ship--a fine vessel of above a thousand tons, built of wood +and on clipper lines. There was an immediate sense of relief in +getting aboard of her, and away from the blood-stained steamer where +the dead men had been; but I saw at a glance that what I was after was +not there. She had carried four boats on her rail, as I could tell +by the davits, and likely enough a long-boat on her fore-castle as +well. But all of them were gone, and I could only hope--since they +were not there for my use--that her crew had got safe away in them: as +well enough might have happened when she was floating water-logged +after the storm that had wrecked her was past. + +Without stopping to explore her--and, indeed, after what I had found +on the steamer, I had no fancy for explorations which might end in my +stumbling upon still more horrors--I went on to a trim little brig +lying on the other side of her; a beautiful little vessel, with all +her spars and rigging save her bow-hamper in perfect order for +sea-going--but showing by her broken bow-sprit that she had been in +collision, and by her depth in the water that after the collision she +had filled. Naturally enough, her boats were gone too; and so I left +her and went on. + +In the course of the next two hours or so I must have traversed more +than a hundred wrecks--scrambling up or down from one to another, as +they happened to lie low in the water or high out of it--and with all +their differences of size and build finding them in one way the same: +all of them were dead ships which some sort of a sea-disaster had +slain. And not one of them had a sound boat left on board. The same +reason that kept me from exploring the first of them kept me from +exploring any of them: the dread of finding in their shadowy depths +grisly horrors in the way of dead men long lying there; and, indeed, I +was distinctly warned to hurry away from some of them by the vile +stenches which came to me and made my stomach turn sickish and my +blood go cold. + +I must have walked for a good mile, I suppose, over the dead bodies of +these sea-killed ships--and it was the most dismal walk that ever I +had taken--before I realized that even if I found a boat and got it +overboard it would be of no use to me, since there was no possibility +of my getting back in it to my own hulk through that densely packed +mass of wrecks and weed. Indeed, I should have perceived this plain +certainty sooner had not the wondering curiosity which this strange +walk bred in me lured me on and on. And then, being brought at last to +a halt by my rational reflection, there came over me suddenly a queer +shiver of doubt as to the direction in which the _Hurst Castle_ lay; +and then a still more shivering doubt as to whether I should be able +to get back to her again by the way that I had come, or by any way +at all. + +At the beginning of my march in this haze-covered sea-wilderness I had +tried to keep upon the outer edge of it; but insensibly--having to +pass from ship to ship rather by the way that was open to me than by +the way that I wished to go--I had wandered into the thick of it +more and more. And so, when at last I took thought of my whereabouts, +and stopped to look around me that I might shape a course back again, +I found that in whatever direction I turned I saw only what I had seen +ahead of me when my hulk was drawing in upon its borders: a dense +confusion of broken and ruined ships which fell away from me vaguely +under the golden haze. It had been a dismal sight then; but what gave +a fresh note to it, and a thrilling one, was that it no longer was +only in front of me but was all around me--stretching away on every +side of the wreck on which I was standing, and growing fainter and +fainter as the haze shut down thick upon it until it vanished softly +into the golden blur. + +Yet even then the full meaning of my outlook did not take hold of me. +That I was in something of a coil, out of which I could not find my +way easily, was plain enough; but that I really was lost in it did not +cross my mind. With all my wanderings, I knew that I could not have +traversed any great distance; and the certainty that I had passed +always from one ship to the ship next touching it seemed to make +finding my way back again entirely open and plain. And so I laughed at +myself a little--though that was not much of a place for +laughter--because of my touch of panic fright; and then I turned back +from the ship on which I was standing to the one next to it, over +which I had just come--and so on to the next, and in the same way to +three or four more. Yet even in that short distance--though my way was +unmistakable, for these ships touched only each other as it +happened--I was surprised by finding how differently things looked to +me as I took my course backward: all the ups and downs of my +scrambling walk being inverted, and the lay of the ships one to +another and the look of them being entirely changed. + +Presently I got on board of a brig--which I well remembered, because +it was one of the vessels having about it a vile stench that had made +me cross it quickly--on the farther side of which two ships were +lying, both rising a little above it and both jammed close against its +side. For a moment I hesitated, in doubt as to which of the two I had +come by; and I should have hesitated longer had not a whiff of the +horrid smell struck upon me strongly and urged me to go on. And so +away I went, taking to the ship that I thought was the right one; and +still fancying that it was the right one when I got aboard of it--for +both, as I have said, were ships, and the two had been about equally +mauled by sea and storm. Indeed, except for the differences in their +build and rig, there was a strong family resemblance among these +storm-broken vessels; and the way that they were jammed together made +their build less noticeable, while a good many of them were +dismasted and so had no rig at all. + +Therefore I went on confidently for a dozen ships or more before I had +any misgivings that I had missed my way--which was but a natural +reaction against my momentary doubtfulness--and then I found myself +suddenly pulled up short. Right above me was the side of a big iron +steamer--called the _City of Boston_, as I made out from the weathered +name-plate on her bows, and a packet-boat as I judged by her +build--rising so high out of the water that getting up to her deck was +impossible: as equally impossible was my having forgotten it had I +made such a rattling jump down. Yet this big steamer was the only +vessel in touch with the barque on which I was standing, save the +schooner from which I had just come; and that gave me sharply the +choice between two conclusions: either I had made that big jump +without noticing it, or else--and I felt a queer lump rising in my +throat as I faced this alternative--I had managed to go astray +completely and had lost myself in what had the look of being a +hopeless maze. + + + + + +XVIII + +I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + + +On shore, in a forest, I would not in the least have minded finding +myself in a fix of this sort--though my getting into it would have +been unlikely--because getting out of it would have been the easiest +thing in the world. I know a good deal of wood-craft, and always can +steer a course steadily by having the points of the compass fixed for +me by the size and the trend of the branches, and by the bark growing +thin or thick or by the moss or the lack of moss on the tree-trunks, +and by the other such simple forest signs which are the outcome of the +affection that there is on the part of things growing for the sun. + +But what made my breath come hard and my heart take to pumping--as I +stood looking up the tall side of the _City of Boston_, being certain +that I never had come down it and so must be off my course +entirely--was my conviction that in this forest of the ocean, if I may +call it so, there were no signs which would help me to find my way. +All around me was the same wild hopeless confusion of broken wrecks +jammed tight together, or only a little separated by narrow spaces +thick-grown with weed; and everywhere overhanging it heavily, growing +denser the deeper that I got into the tangle, was the haze that made +it more confusing still. And under the haze--and because of it, I +suppose--was a soft languorish warmth that seemed to steal my strength +away and a good deal of my courage too. + +But I knew that to give way to the feeling of dull fright, having +somehow a touch of awe in it, that was creeping over me would be to +put myself into a panic; and that once my wits fairly were addled my +chance of getting back to the _Hurst Castle_ again would be pretty +much gone. And to get back to her seemed to me the only way of keeping +my heart up and of keeping myself alive. She was the one ship, in all +that great dismal fleet, aboard of which I could be sure that nothing +horrible had happened, and in which I could be certain that no +loathsome sights were to be come upon suddenly in shadowy nooks and +corners to which dying men had crept in their extremity--trying, since +none ever would bury them, to hide away a little their own bodies +against the time when death should be upon them and corruption +should begin. + +And so I pulled myself together as well as I could and tried to do a +little quiet thinking; and presently I came to the conclusion that I +must find my way back to the brig against which the two ships were +lying and start afresh from her; since it was pretty certain that it +was there, by boarding the wrong ship, that I had got off my course. +But because of my certain knowledge of what horridness the brig +sheltered, and of the noisome stench that I must encounter there, it +took a good deal of resolution to put this plan into practice; so +much, indeed, that for a while I wavered about it, and succeeded at +last in starting back again only by setting going the full force of +my will. + +But I need not have whipped myself on to my work so resolutely, nor +have fretted myself in advance with planning the rush that I should +make across the brig when I came to her--for I never, so far as I +know, laid eyes on her again. For a little while, as in my first +turn-about, I found my way backward without much difficulty--though +again the different look that the ships had as I returned across them +pulled me up from time to time with doubts about them; and then, just +as before, I came to a place where more than one line of advance was +open to me and there went wrong--as I knew a little later by finding +myself aboard a vessel so strange in her appearance that my first +glimpse over her deck satisfied me that I saw her then for the +first time. + +This craft was an old-fashioned sloop-of-war, carrying eighteen guns; +and that she had perished in action was as evident as that her +death-battle had been fought a long while back in the past. The +mauling that she had received had made an utter wreck of her--her +masts being shot away and hanging by the board, most of her bulwarks +being splintered, and her whole stern torn open as though a crashing +broad-side had been poured into her at short range. Moreover, nearly +all her guns had been dismounted, and two of them had burst in +firing--as the shattered gun-carriages showed. + +But what most strongly proved the fierceness of her last action, and +the length of time that had passed since she fought it, were the +scores of skeletons lying about her deck--a few with bits of clothing +hanging fast to them, but most of them clean fleshless naked bones. +Just as they had fallen, there they lay: with legs or arms or ribs +splintered or carried off by the shot which had struck them, or with +bullet-holes clean through their skulls. But the sight of them, while +it put a sort of awe upon me, did not horrify me; because time +had done its cleansing work with them and they were pure. + +Indeed, my imagination was taken such fast hold of by coming upon this +thrilling wreck of ancient sea-battle, fought out fiercely to a finish +generations before ever I was born, that for a little while I forgot +my own troubles entirely; and so got over the shock which my first +sight of the riddled sloop and her dead crew had given me by proving +that again I had lost my way. And my longing to know all that I could +find out about it--backed by the certainty that I should not come upon +anything below that would revolt me--led me to go searching in the +shattered cabin for some clue to the sloop's name and nationality, and +to the cause in which her death-fight had been fought. + +The question of nationality was decided the moment that I set my foot +within the cabin doorway--there being a good deal of light there, +coming in through the broken stern--by my seeing stretched over a +standing bed-place in a state-room to starboard an American flag; and +the flag, taken together with the ancient build of the sloop, also +settled the fact pretty clearly that the action which had finished her +must have been fought with an English vessel in the War of 1812. + +Under the flag I could make out faintly the lines of a human figure, +and I knew that one of the sloop's officers--most likely her +commander, from the respect shown to him by covering him with the +colors--must be lying there, just as his men had placed him to wait +for a sea-burial until the fighting should come to an end. And that he +had remained there was proof that not a man of the sloop's company but +had been killed outright in the fight or had got his death-wound in +it; and also of the fact that in a way the fight had been a +victory--since it was evident that the enemy had not taken possession, +and therefore must have been beaten off. + +But the whole matter was settled clearly by my finding the sloop's +log-book lying open on the cabin table, just as it had lain there, and +had entries made in it, while the action was going on. And a very +strange thrill ran through me as I read on the mouldy page in brown +faint letters the date, "October 5, 1814," and across the page-head, +in bigger brown faint letters: "U.S. Sloop-of-war _Wasp_": and so knew +that I was aboard of that stinging little war-sloop--whereof the +record is a bright legend, and the fate a mystery, of our Navy--which +in less than three months' time successively fought and whipped three +English war-vessels--the ship _Reindeer_ and the brigs _Avon_ and +_Atalanta_, all of them bigger than herself--and then, being last +sighted in September, 1814, not far from the Azores, vanished with all +her crew and officers from off the ocean and never was seen nor +heard of again. + +There before me in the mouldy log-book was the record of her last +action--and in gallantry it led the three others which have made +her fame. + +The entries began at 7.20 A.M. with: "A strange sail in sight on the +weather bow;" at 7.45 followed: "The strange brig bearing down on us. +Looks English"; and at 8.10: "The strange brig has shown English +colors." Then came the manoeuvring for position, covering more than an +hour, and the beating to general quarters; and after that the short +entries ran on quickly--in such rough and ready writing as might be +expected of a man dashing in for a moment to make them, and then +dashing out again to where the fighting was going on: + + +"9.20 A.M. Engaged the enemy with our starboard battery, + hulling him severely. + +"9.24. Our foremast by the board. + +"9.28. The enemy's broadside in our stern. Great havoc. + +"9.35. The wreck of the foremast cleared, giving us steerage way. + +"9.40. Our hulling fire telling. The enemy's battery fire + slacking. His musketry fire very hot and galling. + +"9.45. The enemy badly hulled. More than half of our crew + now killed or disabled. + +"9.52. Our main-mast by the board and our mizzen badly + wounded. Action again very severe. Few of our men left. + +"9.56. Captain Blakeley killed and brought below. + +"10.01. Our mizzen down. The enemy's fire slacking again. + +"10.10. The enemy sheering off, with the look of being + sinking. + +"10.15. The enemy sinking. We cannot help him. Most of our men are + dead. All of us living are badly hurt." + + +And there the entries came to an end. + +My breath came fast as I read that short record of as brave a fight as +ever was fought on salt water; and when my reading was finished I +gave a great sigh. It was a fit ending for the little _Wasp_, that +death triumphant: and it was a fit ending to a fight between American +and English sailors that they should hang at each other's throats, +neither yielding, until they died that way--they being each of a +nation unaccustomed to surrender, and both of the one race which alone +in modern times has held the sea. + + + + + +XIX + +OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + + +For a while I was so stirred by the enthusiasm which my discovery +aroused in me that I had no room in my mind for any other thoughts. +But at last, as I still stood pondering in the _Wasp's_ cabin, I +became aware that the daylight was fading into darkness; and as I +realized what that meant for me my thoughts came back suddenly to +myself, and then all my enthusiasm ebbed away. + +I came out upon the deck again, but leaving everything as I had found +it--my momentary impulse to lift the flag having vanished as I felt +how fit it was that this dead battle-captain should rest on +undisturbed where his men had laid him beneath the colors that he had +died for; and I was glad to find when I got into the open that a good +deal of daylight still remained. But it was so far gone, and was +waning so rapidly, that I saw that I had little chance of getting back +to the _Hurst Castle_ before nightfall; and that the most that I could +hope for was to make a start in the right direction--and perhaps to +find a wreck to sleep on that had food and water aboard of it, and +thence take up my search again the next day. + +Yet the dread was strong upon me, as I looked around upon the wrecks +among which the _Wasp_ was bedded, that I might not only be unable to +find the _Hurst Castle_ again, but ever to find my way across that +tangle to the outer edges of it--where only was it possible that ships +on which were provisions fit for eating would be found. The very fact +that the _Wasp_ had settled into her position more than fourscore +years back made it certain that she was deep in the labyrinth; and the +strange old-fashioned look of the craft surrounding her showed me that +I should have to go far before finding a vessel wrecked in +recent times. + +But these disheartening thoughts I crushed down as well as I could, +yet not making much of it; and as trying to go back by the way that I +had come to the _Wasp_ would not serve any good purpose--even +supposing that I could have managed it, which was not likely--I went +on beyond her on a new course: taking a longish jump from her +quarter-rail and landing on the deck of a clumsy little ill-shapen +brig, with a high-built square stern and a high-built bow that was +pretty nearly square too. She was Dutch, I fancy, and a merchant +vessel; but she carried a little battery of brass six-pounders, and +had also a half dozen pederaros set along her rail. And by her +carrying these old-fashioned swivel-guns--which proved that she had +got her armament not much later than the middle of the last +century--and by the general look of her, I knew that she was an older +vessel even than the _Wasp_. + +This observation, and the reflection growing out of it that the deeper +I went into the Sargasso Sea the older must be the craft bedded in +it--since that great dead fleet is recruited constantly by new wrecks +drifting in upon its outer edges from all ways seaward--put into my +head what seemed to me to be a very reasonable plan for finding my way +back to the _Hurst Castle_ again; or, at least, to some other newly +come in hulk on which there would be fresh water and sound food. And +this was to shape my course by considering attentively the look of +each wreck that I came aboard of, and the look of those surrounding +it, and by then going forward to whichever one of them seemed to be of +the most modern build. + +As the first step in carrying out my plan--and it seemed to be such a +good plan that I felt almost light-hearted over it--I got up on the +rail of the old brig and jumped back to the less-old _Wasp_ again: +landing in her main-channels, and thence easily boarding her by +scrambling up what was left of the chains. But in taking my next step +I had no choice in the matter, as only one other vessel was in touch +with the sloop--a heavily-built little schooner that had the look of +being quite as old as the brig which I had just left. And her age +was so evident as I came aboard of her--having crossed the deck of the +_Wasp_ hastily, picking my way among the scattered bones--that of a +sudden my faith in my fine plan for getting out of the tangle began +to wane. + +In a general way, of course, the conclusion which I had arrived at was +a sound one. Broadly speaking, it was certain that could I pass in a +straight line from the centre to the circumference of that vast +assemblage of wrecks I constantly would find vessels of newer build; +and so at last, upon the outermost fringe, would come to the wrecks of +ships belonging to my own day. But one weak point in my calculations +was my inability to hold to a straight line, or to anything like +one--because I had to advance from one wreck to another as they +happened to touch or to be within jumping distance of each other, and +therefore went crookedly upon my course and often fairly had to double +on it. And another weak point was that the sea in its tempests +recognizes no order of seniority, but destroys in the same breath of +storm ships just beginning their lives upon it and ships which have +withstood its ragings for a hundred years: so that I very well might +find--as I actually did find in the case of the _Wasp_--a +comparatively modern-built vessel lying hemmed in by ancient craft, +survivals of obsolete types, which had lingered so long upon the +ocean that in their lives as in their deaths they merged and blended +the present and the past. + +Thus a check was put upon my plan at the very outset; yet in a stolid +sort of way--knowing that to give it up entirely would be to bring +despair upon me, for I could not think of a better one--I tried still +to hold by it: going on from the clumsy little old schooner to that +one of two vessels lying beyond her which I fancied, though both of +them belonged to a long past period, was the more modern-looking in +her build. And so I continued to go onward over a dozen craft of one +sort or another, holding by my rule--or trying to believe that I was +holding by it, for all of the wrecks which I crossed were of an +antique type--and now and then being left with no chance for choosing +by finding open to me only a single way. And all this while the +daylight was leaving me--the sun having gone down a ruddy globe beyond +the forest of wrecks westward, and heavy purple shadows having begun +to close down upon me through the low-hanging haze. + +The imminence of night-fall made clear to me that I had no chance +whatever of getting out from among those long-dead ships before the +next morning; and this certainty was the harder to bear because I was +desperately hungry--more than six hours having passed since I had +eaten anything--and thirsty too: though my thirst, because of the +dampness of the haze I suppose, was not very severe. But the belief +that I really was advancing toward the coast of my strange floating +continent and that I should find both food and drink when I got there, +made me press forward; comforting myself as well as I could with the +reflection that even though I did have to keep a hungry and thirsty +vigil among those old withered hulks I yet should be the nearer, by +every one of them that I put behind me that night, to the freshly come +in wrecks on the coast line--where I made sure of finding a breakfast +on the following day. Moreover, I knew how forlornly miserable I +should be the moment that I lost the excitement of scrambling and +climbing and just sat down there among the ancient dead, with the +darkness closing over me, to wait for the slow coming of another day. +And my dread of that desolate loneliness urged me to push forward +while the least bit of daylight was left by which to see my way. + +It was ticklish work, as the dusk deepened, getting from one wreck to +another; and at last--after nearly going down into the weed between +two of them, because of a rotten belaying-pin that I caught at +breaking in my hand--I had to resign myself to giving over until +morning any farther attempt to advance. But I was cheered by the +thought that I had got on a good way in the hour or more that had gone +since I had left the _Wasp_ behind me; and so I tried to make the +best of things as I cast around me for some sheltered nook on the deck +of the vessel I had come aboard of--a little clumsy old brig--where my +night might be passed. As to going below, either into the cabin or the +forecastle, I could not bring myself to it; for my heart failed me at +the thought of what I might touch in the darkness there, and my +mind--sore and troubled by all that I had passed through, and by the +dim dread filling it--certainly would have crowded those black depths +with grisly phantoms until I very well might have gone mad. + +And so, as I say, I cast about the deck of the brig for some nook that +would shelter me from the dampness while I did my best to sleep away +into forgetfulness my hunger and my thirst; but was troubled all the +while that I was making my round of investigation by a haunting +feeling that I had been on that same deck only a little while before. +Growing stronger and stronger, this feeling became so insistent that I +could not rest for it; and presently compelled me to try to quiet it +by taking a look at the wreck next beyond the brig to see if I +recognized that too--as would be likely, since I must have crossed it +also, had I really come that way. + +I did not try to board this adjoining wreck, but only clambered up on +the rail of the brig so that I could look well at it--and when I got +my look I came more nearly to breaking down completely than I had +done at any time since I had been cast overboard from the _Golden +Hind_, For there, showing faintly in the gloom below me, was the +gun-set deck of a war-ship, and over the deck dimly-gleaming bones +were scattered--and in that moment I knew that the whole of my +wandering had been but a circle, and that I was come back again at the +weary ending of it to the _Wasp_. + +But what crushed the heart of me was not that my afternoon of toil had +been wasted, but the strong conviction--from which I no longer saw any +way of escaping--that I had strayed too deep into that hideous +sea-labyrinth ever to find my way out of it, and that I must die there +slowly for lack of water and of food. + + + + + +XX + +HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + + +I got down from the rail and seated myself on the brig's deck, leaning +my back against her bulwarks and a little sheltered by their +old-fashioned in-board overhang. But I had no very clear notion of +what I was doing; and my feeling, so far as I had any feeling, was +less that I was moving of my own volition than that I was being moved +by some power acting from outside of me--the sensation of +irresponsibility that comes to one sometimes in a dream. + +Indeed, the whole of that night seemed to me then, and still seems to +me, much more a dream than a reality: I being utterly wearied by my +long hard day's work in scrambling about among the wrecks, and a +little light-headed because of my stomach's emptiness, and feverish +because of my growing thirst, and my mind stunned by the dull pain of +my despair. And it was lucky for me, I suppose, that my thinking +powers were so feeble and so blunted. Had I been fully awake to my own +misery I might very well have gone crazy there in the darkness; or +have been moved by a sharp horror of my surroundings to try to escape +them by going on through the black night from ship to ship--which +would have ended quickly by my falling down the side of one or another +of them and so drowning beneath the weed. + +Yet the sort of stupor that I was in did not hold fast my inner +consciousness; being rather a numbing cloud surrounding me and +separating me from things external--though not cutting me off from +them wholly--while within this wrapping my spirit in a way was awake +and free. And the result of my being thus on something less than +speaking terms with my own body was to make my attitude toward it that +of a sympathizing acquaintance, with merely a lively pity for its +ill-being, rather than that of a personal partaker in its pains. And +even my mental attitude toward myself was a good deal of the same +sort: for my thoughts kept turning sorrowfully to the sorrow of my own +spirit solitary there, shrinking within itself because of its chill +forsakenness and lonely pain of finding itself so desolate--the one +thing living in that great sea-garnering of the dead. + +And after a while--either because my light-headedness increased, or +because I dozed and took to dreaming--I had the feeling that the dense +blackness about me, a gloom that the heavily overhanging mist made +almost palpable, was filling with all those dead spirits come to +peer curiously into my living spirit; and that they hated it and were +envious of it because it was not as they were but still was alive. And +from this, presently, I went on to fancying that I could see them +about me clad again dimly in the forms which had clothed them when +they also in their time had been living men. At first they were +uncertain and shadowy, but before long they became so distinct that I +plainly saw them: shaggy-bearded resolute fellows, roughly dressed in +strange old-fashioned sea-gear, with here and there among them others +in finer garb having the still more resolute air of officers; and all +with the fierce determined look of those old-time mariners of the +period when all the ocean was a battling-place where seamen spent +their time--and most of them, in the end, spent their lives also--in +fighting with each other and in fighting with the sea. + +Gradually this throng of the sea-dead filled the whole deck about me +and everywhere hemmed me in; but they gave no heed to me, and were +ranged orderly at their stations as though the service of the ship was +being carried on. Among themselves they seemed to talk; but I could +hear nothing of what they were saying, though I fancied that there was +a humming sound filling the air about me like the murmur of a far-away +crowd. Now and then an angry bout would spring up suddenly between two +or three of them; and in a moment they would be fighting together, +and would keep at it until one of their stern officers was upon them +with blows right and left with his fists or with the butt of his +pistol or with the pommel of his sword--and so would scatter the rough +brutes, scowling, and as it seemed uttering growls such as beasts +lashed by their keepers would give forth. + +And at other times they would seem to be fighting with some +enemy--serving at their guns stripped half-naked, with handkerchiefs +knotted about their heads, and with the grime of powder-smoke upon +their bare flesh and so blackening their faces as to give their +gleaming eyes a still more savage look; falling dead or wounded with +their blood streaming out upon the deck and making slimy pools in +which a man running sometimes would slip and go down headlong--and +would get up, with a laugh and a curse, only in another moment to drop +for good as a musket-ball struck him or as a round-shot sliced him in +two; and all of them with a savage joy in their work, and going at it +with a lust for blood that made them delight in it--and take no more +thought than any other fighting brutes would take of guarding their +own lives. + +Or, again, they would seem to be in the midst of a tempest, with the +roar of the wind and the rush of the waves upon them, and would be +fighting the gale and the ocean's turbulence with the same devil's +daring that they had shown in fighting the enemy--and with the same +carelessness as to what happened to themselves so long as they stuck +to their duty and did the best that was in them to bring their ship +safely through the storm. And so they went on ringing the changes on +their old-time wild sea-life--their savage fights among themselves, +and their battlings with foemen of a like metal, and their warfare +with the ocean--while the dark night wore on. + +Yet even when these visionary forms were thickest about me--and when +it seemed, too, as though from all the dead hulks about me the shadows +of the dead were rising in the same fashion in pale fierce throngs--I +tried to hold fast, and pretty well succeeded in it, to the steadying +conviction that the making of them was in my own imagination and that +they were not real. And then, too, I fell off from time to time into a +light sleep which still was deep enough to rid me of them wholly; and +which also gave me some of the rest that I so much needed after all +that I had passed through during that weary day. + +What I could not get rid of, either sleeping or waking, was my gnawing +hunger and my still worse thirst. For an hour or two after nightfall, +the air being fresher and the haze turning to a damp cool mist, my +thirst was a good deal lessened; which was a gain in one way, though +not in another--for that same chill of night very searchingly +quickened my longing for food. But as the hours wore away my desire +for water got the better of every other feeling, even changing my +haunting visions of dead crews rising from the dead ships about me +into visions of brooks and rivulets--which only made my burning +craving the more keen. + +Nor did what little reasoning I could bring to bear upon my case, when +from time to time I partly came out from the sort of lethargy that had +hold of me, do much for my comforting. It was possible, I perceived, +that I might find even in a long-wrecked ship some half-rotten scraps +of old salted meat, or some remnant of musty flour, that at least +would serve to keep life in me. But even food of this wretched sort +would do me no good without water--and water was to be found only in +one of the wrecks forming the outer fringe of my prison, toward which +I had been trying so long vainly to find my way. + +Yet in spite of my having already gone astray half a dozen times over +in daylight I still did have, deep down in me, a feeling that if only +the darkness would pass I could manage to steer a true course. And +when at last, as it seemed to me after years of waiting for it, I +began to see a little pink tone showing in the mist dimly it almost +seemed as though my troubles were coming instantly to an end. And, +at least, the horror of deep darkness, which all night long had been +crushing me, did leave me from the moment when that first gleam of +returning daylight appeared. + + + + + +XXI + +MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + + +It was a long while before the pale pink gleam to the eastward spread +up into the sky far enough to thin the shadows which hung over my dead +fleet heavily, and longer still before I had light enough to venture +to begin my scrambling walk from ship to ship again. It seemed to me, +indeed, that the mist lay lower and was a good deal thicker than on +the preceding evening; and this, with the fiery glow that was in it +when the sunrise came, gave me hope that a douse of rain might be +coming--which chance of getting the water that I longed for heartened +me even more than did the up-coming of the sun. + +My throat was hurting me a good deal because of its dryness, and my +itching thirst was all the stronger because the last food I had +eaten--being the mess left in the pan by the two men who had killed +each other--had been a salt-meat stew. Of hunger I did not feel much, +save for gripes in my inside now and then; but I was weak because of +my emptiness--as I discovered when I got on my legs, and found myself +staggering a little and the things around me swimming before my eyes. +And what was worse than that was a dull stupidity which so possessed +me that I could not think clearly; and so for a while kept me +wandering about the deck of the brig aimlessly, while my wits went +wool-gathering instead of trying to work out some plan--even a foolish +plan--which would cheer me up with hopes of pulling through. + +I might have gone on all day that way, very likely, if I had not been +aroused suddenly by feeling a big drop of rain on my face; and only a +moment later--the thick mist, I suppose, being surcharged with water, +and some little waft of wind in its upper region having loosened its +vent-peg--I was in the thick of a dashing shower. So violent was the +downpour that in less than a minute the deck was streaming, and I had +only to plug with my shirt one of the scuppers amidships to have in +another minute or two a little lake of fresh sweet water from +which--lying on my belly, with the rain pelting down on me--I drank +and drank until at last I was full. And the feel of the rain on my +body was almost as good as the drinking of it, for it was deliciously +cool and yet not chill. + +When I got at last to my legs again, with the dryness gone from my +throat and only a little pain there because of the swollen glands, I +found that I walked steadily and that my head was clear too; and for +the moment I was so entirely filled with water that I was not hungry +at all. Presently the rain stopped, and that set me to thinking of +finding some better way to keep a store of water by me than leaving it +in a pool on the open deck; where, indeed, it would not stay long, but +would ooze out through the scupper and be sopped up by the +rotten planks. + +And so, though I did not at all fancy going below on the old brig, I +went down the companion-way into the cabin to search for a vessel of +some sort that would be water-tight; and shivered a little as I +entered that dusky place, and did not venture to move about there +until my eyes got accustomed to the half darkness for fear that I +should go stumbling over dead men's bones. + +As it turned out, the cabin was bare enough of dead people, and of +pretty much everything else; from which I inferred that in the long +past time when the brig had been wrecked her crew had got safe away +from her, and had been able in part to strip her before they left her +alone upon the sea. What I wanted, however, they had not taken away. +In a locker I found a case made to hold six big bottles, in which the +skipper had carried his private stock of liquors very likely; and two +of the bottles, no doubt being empty when the cabin was cleared, had +been left behind. They served my turn exactly, and I brought them on +deck and filled them from my pool of rain-water--and so was safe +against thirst for at least another day. + +Being thus freshened by my good drink, and cheered by the certainty of +having water by me, I sat down for a while on the cabin-scuttle that I +might puzzle out a plan for getting to some ship so recently +storm-slain that aboard of her still would be eatable food. As for +rummaging in the hold of the brig, I knew that no good could come of +it--she having lain there, as I judged, for a good deal more than half +a century; and for the same reason I knew that I only would waste time +in searching the other old wrecks about me for stores. All that was +open to me was to press toward the edge of the wreck-pack, for there +alone could I hope to find what I was after--and there it pretty +certainly would be. But after my miserable experience of the preceding +day it was plain that before I started on my hunting expedition I must +hit upon some way of laying a course and holding it; or else, most +likely, go rambling from wreck to wreck until I grew so weak from +starvation that on one or another of them I should fall down at +last and die. + +Close beside me, as I sat on the hatch, was the brig's binnacle, and +in it I could see the shrivelled remnant of what had been the +compass-card; and the sight of this put into my head presently the +thought--that might have got there sooner had my wits been +sharper--to look for a compass still in working order and by means of +it to steer some sort of a steady course. The argument against this +plan was plain enough, and it was a strong one: that in holding as +well as I could to any straight line I might only get deeper and +deeper into my maze--for I was turned around completely, and while I +knew that I could not be very far from the edge of my island of +flotsam I had not the faintest notion in which direction that +near edge lay. + +For some minutes longer I sat on the hatch thinking the matter over +and trying to hit on something that would open to me a better prospect +of success; and all the while I had a hungry pain in my stomach that +made clear thinking difficult, and that at the same time urged me to +do quickly anything that gave even the least promise of getting food. +And so the upshot of the matter was that I slung my two bottles of +water over my shoulders with a bit of line that I found in the brig's +cabin--making the slings short, that the bottles might hang close +under my arms and be pretty safe against breaking--and then away I +went on my cruise after a compass still on speaking terms with the +north pole. + +That I would find one seemed for a good while unlikely; for I searched +a score and more of wrecks, and on every one of them the binnacle +either was empty or the needle entirely rusted away. But at last I +came to a barque that had a newer look about her than that of the +craft amidst which she was lying, and that also had her binnacle +covered with a tarred canvas hood such as is used when vessels are +lying in port. How the hood came to be where it was on that broken +wreck was more than I could account for; but by reason of its being in +place the binnacle had been well protected from the weather, and I +found to my delight that the compass inside was in working trim. + +It was an awkward thing to carry, being an old-fashioned big square +box heavily and clumsily made; but I was so glad to get it that I was +not for quarrelling with it, though it did for a little put me to a +puzzle as to how I should pack it along. What I came to was to sling +it on my back knapsack-fashion, which was a poor way to have it, since +every time that I looked at it I had to unsling it and then to sling +it again; yet there was no other way for me to manage it, because in +my scrambling from one wreck to another I needs must have both hands +free. But what with this big box strapped to my shoulders, and the two +big bottles dangling close up under my arm-pits, I must have +looked--only there was nobody to look at me--nothing less than a +figure of fun. + +As I knew not which way I ought to go, and so had all ways open to me, +I laid my course for the head of the compass; and was the more +disposed thus to go due north because that way, as far as I could see +for the mist and the mast-tangle, the wrecks lay packed so close +together that passing from one to another would be easy for me--which +was a matter to be considered in view of the load that I had to +carry along. + +But just as I was ready to start another notion struck me. I had +noticed the modern look of the barque, as compared with the ancient +build of the hulks amidst which she was lying, when I first came +aboard of her; and as I was about to leave her--my eye being caught by +the soundness of a bit of line made fast to a belaying-pin on her +rail--the thought occurred to me that I might find on her something or +other still fit to be called food. And when this thought came to me I +unslung my compass and my water-bottles in a hurry--for I was as +ravenous as a man well could be. + + + + + +XXII + +I GET SOME FOOD IN ME AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + + +The sun by that time being risen so high that the mist was changing +again to a golden haze, and the cabin of the barque well lighted +through the skylight over it, I felt less creepy and uncomfortable as +I went down the companion-way than I had felt when I went below into +the old brig's dusky cabin in the early dawn. But for all that I +walked gingerly, and stopped to sniff at every step that I took +downward; for I could not by any means get rid of my dread of coming +upon some grewsome thing. However, the air was sweet enough--the slide +of the hatch being closed, but the doors open and the cabin well +ventilated--and when I got to the foot of the stair I saw nothing +horrible in my first sharp look around. + +It was a small cabin, but comfortably fitted; and almost the first +thing that caught my eye was a work-basket spilled down into a corner +and some spools and a pair of rusty scissors lying on the floor, and +then in another corner I saw a little chair. And the sight of these +things, which told that the barque's captain had had his wife and his +child along with him, gave me a heavy sorrowful feeling--for all that +if death had come to this sea-family the pain of it must have been +over quickly a long while back in the past. + +Two of the state-room doors, both on the starboard side, were open; +and both rooms were empty, save for the mouldy bedding in the bunks +and in one of them a canvas bed-bag such as seamen use. The doors of +the other two rooms, there being four in all, were closed, and I +opened them hesitatingly; and felt a good deal easier in my mind when +I found that in neither of them was what I dreaded might be there. In +one of them the bunk had been left in disorder, as though some one had +risen from it hurriedly, and a frock and a bonnet were hanging against +the wall; but the other one seemed to have been used only as a sort of +storeroom--there being in it a pair of rubber boots and a suit of +oil-skins, and a locker in which were some pretty trifles in +shell-work such as might have been picked up in a West Indian port, +and a little rack of books gone mouldy with the damp. One of these +books I opened, and found written on the flyleaf: "Mary Woodbridge, +with Aunt Jane's love. For the coming Christmas of 1879"--and this +date, though it did not settle certainly when the barque had started +on the voyage that had come to so bad an ending, at least proved that +she had not been lying where I found her for a very great +many years. + +As to how the barque had got so deep into the wreck-pack, she being so +lately added to it, I could not determine; but my conjecture was that +some storm had broken the pack and had driven her down into it, and +then that the opening had closed again, leaving her fast a good way in +its inside. But about the way of her getting there I did not much +bother myself, my one strong thought being that I had a chance of +finding on board of her something that I could eat; and so--being by +that time pretty well satisfied that I was safe not to come upon +anything horrid hid away in a dark corner of her--I went at my farther +explorations with a will. Indeed, I was so desperately hungry by that +time that even had I made some nasty discoveries I doubt if they would +have held me back from my eager search for food. + +Luckily I had not far to look before I found what I was after, the +very first door that I tried--a door in the forward side of the +cabin--opening into a pantry in which were stowed what had been, as I +judged from the nature of them and the place where I found them, the +captain's private stores. The door was not locked, and a good many +empty boxes were lying around on the floor with splintered lids, as +though they had been smashed open in a hurry--which looked as though +the pantry had been levied on suddenly to provision the boats after +the wreck occurred, and so made me hope that the captain and his wife +and baby had got away from the barque alive. + +But the stock of stores had been a big one, and I saw that I was safe +enough against starvation if only a part of what was left still were +sound--and that uncertainty I settled in no time by picking up a +hatchet that was lying among the broken boxes and splitting open the +first tin on which I laid my hands. The tin had beans in it, and when +I cracked it open that way more than half of them went flying over the +floor; and they looked so good, those blessed beans, that without +stopping to smell at them critically, or otherwise to test their +soundness, I fell to feeding myself out of the open tin with my +hand--and never stopped until all that remained of them were in my +inside. I don't suppose that they were the better for having lain +there so long, but they certainly were not much the worse for it--as I +proved more conclusively, having by that time taken off the sharp edge +of my hunger, by eating a part of another tin of them and finding them +very good indeed. After that I opened a tin of meat--but on the +instant that the hatchet split into it there came bouncing out such a +dreadful smell that I had to rush on deck in a hurry with it and heave +it over the side. + +But even without the meat my food supply was secure to me for a good +while onward, there being no less than ten boxes with two dozen tins +of beans in each of them--quite enough to keep life in me for more +than half a year. I rummaged through the place thoroughly, but found +nothing more that was fit to eat there. Some boxes of biscuit and a +barrel of flour had gone musty until they fairly were rotten; and all +the other things that I came across were spoiled utterly by damp and +mould. As for the stores for the crew, when I went forward to have a +look at them, they were spoiled too--the flour and biscuit rotten, and +the pickled meat a mouldy mass of tough fibre encrusted thickly +with salt. + +One other thing I did find in the captain's pantry that was as good, +save for the mould that coated the outside of it, as when it came +aboard--and because of its excellent condition was all the more +tantalizing. This was a case of plug tobacco--a bit of which shredded +and filled into one of the pipes that I found with it, could I have +got it lighted, would have made me for the moment almost a happy man. +But as I could think of no way of lighting it I was worse off than if +I had not found it at all. + +Having made my tour of inspection and taken a general inventory of my +new possessions, I came on deck again and seated myself on the roof of +the cabin that I might do some quiet thinking about what should be my +next move; for I realized that only by a stroke of rare good fortune +had I come upon this supply of food far away from, the coast of my +continent, and that should I leave it and keep on the course northward +that I had set for myself I very likely might starve before another +such store fell in my way. And yet, on the other hand, to stay on +where I was merely because I was able to keep alive there--with no +outlook of hope to stay me--was but making a bid for that madness +which comes of despair. + +As to carrying any great quantity of food on with me, it was a sheer +impossibility. The tins of beans weighed each of them more than five +pounds, and a score of them would make as much of a load as I well +could carry on level ground--and far more of a load than I could +manage in the scramble that was before me if I decided to go on. +Indeed, I had found my two bottles of water a serious inconvenience; +and yet I would have them to carry also, and the big compass too. As +to water, however, since the shower of the morning. I felt less +anxiety: and the event proved that my confidence in the rainfall was +justified--for the showers came regularly a little after dawn, and +only once or twice after that first sharp experience did I feel more +than passing pain from thirst. + +I sat there on the roof of the cabin for a good part of the morning +cogitating the matter; and in the end I could think of no better +plan than one which promised certainly a world of hard labor, and only +promised uncertainly to serve my turn. This was to stick to my project +of going steadily northward--carrying with me as much food as I could +stagger under--until I came again to the outer edge of the +wreck--pack; but to safeguard my return to the barque, should my food +give out before my journey was accomplished, by blazing my path: that +is to say, by making a mark on each wreck that I crossed so that I +could retrace my steps easily and without fear of losing my way. What +I would gain in the end I did not try very clearly to tell +myself--having only a vague feeling that in getting again to the coast +of my great dead continent I would be that much the nearer to the +living world once more; and having a clearer feeling that only by +sticking at some sort of hard work that had a little hopefulness in it +could I save myself from going mad. And I cannot but think now, +looking back at it, that a touch of madness already was upon me; for +no man ever set himself to a crazier undertaking than that to which I +set myself then. + + + + + +XXIII + +HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + + +The morning was well spent by the time that I had made my mind up, and +I was growing hungry again. I made a good meal on what was left in the +second tin of beans that I had opened for my breakfast; and when I was +done I tried to get a light for my pipe by rubbing bits of wood +together, but made nothing of it at all. I had read about castaways on +desert islands getting fire that way--but they went at it with dry +wood, I fancy, and in my mist-sodden desert all the wood was soaked +with damp. + +For that afternoon I decided to go forward only as far as I could +fetch it to be back on board the barque again by sunset, taking with +me as many tins of beans as I could carry and leaving them where I +made my turn: by which arrangement I would save the carriage of my +supper and my breakfast, and would have a little store of victuals to +fall back upon--when I should be fairly started on my journey--without +coming all the way again to the barque. + +I got the bed-bag that I had seen in the stateroom, and managed with +the rusty scissors to cut it down to half its size. Into this I packed +ten tins of beans, and made them snug by whipping around the bag one +end of a longish line--which served when coiled as a handle for it; +and, being uncoiled, enabled me to haul it up a ship's side after me, +or to let it down ahead of me, or to sway it across an open space +between two vessels, and so go at my climbing and jumping with both +hands free. As for the compass, my back was the only place for it and +I put it there--where it did not bother me much, having little weight; +and I stuck the hatchet to blaze my path with into a sort of a belt +that I made for myself with a bit of line. + +Considering what a load I was carrying, and that on every vessel which +I crossed I had to stop while I blazed a mark on her, I made a good +long march of it before the waning of the daylight was a sign to me +that I must put about again; and my return journey was both quick and +easy, for I left the whole of my load, excepting the empty bag, behind +me and came back lightly along my plainly marked path. But I was tired +enough when I got on board the barque again, and glad enough to eat my +supper and then stretch myself out to sleep upon the cabin floor. + +That night, being easy in my body--except for my wholesome +weariness--and easier in my mind because it seemed to me that I was +doing something for my deliverance, and being also aboard a vessel +that I knew was clean and pure, I had no visions of any kind whatever, +but went to sleep almost in a moment, and slept like a log, as the +saying is, the whole night through. Indeed, I slept later than suited +my purposes--being for rising early and making a long day's march of +it--and I might have wasted still more time in drowsing lazily had I +not been wakened a little before sunrise by the rattle on the cabin +roof of a dashing burst of rain. I was on deck in a moment, and by +stopping a scupper--as I had done the previous morning--presently had +by me a far bigger supply of water than I needed; from which I got a +good drink lying down to it, and filled an empty bean-tin for another +drink after my breakfast, and so had my two bottles full to last me +until the next day--and was pretty well satisfied by the rain's +recurrence that I could count upon a shower every morning about the +hour of dawn. + +When I had finished my breakfast I stowed ten tins of beans in the bag +and lashed four more together so that I could carry them on my +shoulders--being able to manage them in that way because I had no +other back-load--and so was ready to set out along my blazed path. But +before leaving the barque--hoping never again to lay eyes on her--I +took one more look through the cabin to make sure that I had not +passed over something that might be useful to me: and was lucky enough +to find under one of the bunks a drawer--that had been hidden by the +tumbled sheets hanging down over it--in which were some shirts and a +suit of linen clothing that most opportunely supplied my needs. They +all were badly mildewed, but sound enough, and the trousers--I had no +use for the coat and waistcoat--fitted me very well. So I threw off +the rags and tatters that I was wearing and put on in their place +these sound garments; and then I picked up my load and was off. + +Not having to stop to take bearings or to blaze my way, I made such +good time that I got to the end of the course over which I had spent a +good part of the previous afternoon in not much more than three hours. +I was pretty well pleased to find that I could make such brisk +marching under such a load; for it showed me that even when I should +get a long way from my base of supplies, that is to say from the +barque, I still could return to it at no great expense of time--and +the thought never entered my head that time was of no value to me, +since only by what would be close upon a miracle could I hope for +anything better than to find ways for killing it through all the +remainder of my days. + +Being thus come to my place of deposit I had to rearrange my +packing--going forward with a lighter load of food that I might +carry also the compass and the hatchet; and going slowly because of my +constant stops to take fresh bearings and to mark my path. But that +time I went straight onward until nightfall; and my heart sank a good +deal within me as I found that the farther I went the more antique in +model, and the more anciently sea-worn, were the wrecks which I came +upon--and so I knew that I must be making my way steadily into the +very depths of my maze. + +Yet I could not see that I would gain anything by going back to the +barque and thence taking a fresh departure. The barque, as I knew +certainly from the sort of craft surrounding her, was so deeply bedded +in the pack that no matter how I headed from her I should have to go +far before I came again to the coast of it; and on the other hand I +thought that by holding to my course northward I might work my way in +no great time across the innermost huddle of ancient wrecks--for of +the vast number of these I had no notion then--and so to the outer +belt of wrecks new-made: on board of which I certainly should find +fresh food in plenty, and from which (as I forced myself to believe) I +might get away once more into the living world. And so I pushed on +doggedly until the twilight changed to dusk and I could not venture +farther; and then I ate my supper on board of a strange old ship, as +round as a dumpling and with a high bow and a higher stern; and when +I had finished settled myself for the night, being very weary, under +the in-hang of her heavy bulging side. + +When morning came--and a shower with it that gave me what drink I +wanted and a store of water for the day--I debated for a while with +myself as to whether I should go onward with my whole load, or leave a +part of it in a fresh deposit to which I could return at will. The +second course seemed the better to me; and, indeed, it was necessary +for me to go light-loaded in order to get on at all. For I had come +among ships of such strange old-fashioned build, standing at bow and +stern so high out of the water, that unless they happened to be lying +side by side so that I could pass from one to another amidships--which +was the case but seldom--I had almost as much climbing up and down +among them as though I had been a monkey mounting and descending a +row of trees. + +Therefore I ate as much breakfast as I could pack into myself--that +being as good a way as any other of carrying food with me--and then I +tore the sleeves from my shirt and stuffed them from the tins that I +opened until I had two great bean sausages, which I fastened +belt-fashion about my waist and so carried without any trouble at all. +Indeed, but for this new arrangement of my load I doubt if I could +have gone onward; and even with it I had all that I could do to make +my way. The bag with the remaining tins in it I stood away inside the +cabin of the old ship--which I should have explored farther, so +strange-looking was it, but for my eager desire to get on; and I felt +quite sure that I would find all just as I had left it there even +though I did not come back again for twenty years. + + + + + +XXIV + +OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + + +Bent as I was upon hurrying forward, I could not but stop often in my +wearying marches--which began each morning at sunrise and did not end +until dusk--to gaze about me in wonder at the curious ancient craft +across which lay my way. It seemed to me, indeed, as though I had got +into a great marine museum where were stored together all manner of +such antique vessels as not for two full centuries, and a good many of +them for still longer, had sailed the seas. Some of them were mere +shallops, so little that sailormen nowadays would not venture to go +a-coasting in them, and others were great round-bellied old +merchantmen--yet half war-ships, too--with high-built fore-castles, +and towering poops blossoming out into rich carvings and having +galleries rising one above another and with a big iron lantern at the +top of all. And all of them had been shattered in fights and tempests, +and were so rotten with age that the decks beneath my feet were soft +and spongy; and all were weathered to a soft gray, or to a brownish +blackness, with here and there a gleam of bright upon them where there +still clung fast in some protected recess of their carving a little of +the heavy gilding with which it all had been overlaid. Guns of some +sort were on every one of them--ranging upward from little swivels +mounted on the rail (mere pop-guns they looked like) to long bronze +pieces of which the delicate ornamentation was lost in a thick coat of +verdigris that had been gathering slowly through years and years. But +as to the strange rig that they had worn in their days of active +sea-faring, I could only guess at it; for such of them as had come +into this death-haven with any of their top-hamper still standing, as +some of them no doubt had come, long since had lost it--first the +standing-rigging and later the masts rotting, and so all together +falling in a heap anyway upon the decks or over the side. And such a +company of withered old sea-corpses as these ancient wrecks made +there, all huddled together with the weed thick about them, was as +hopeless and as dismal a sight as ever was seen by the eyes of man. +But a matter that to me was more instantly dismal, as I pressed on +among them, came when I found that I was getting so close to the end +of my stock of provisions--while yet apparently no nearer to the end +of my journey--that there was no shirking the necessity of returning +to the distant barque for a fresh supply: a journey involving such +desperate toil, and so much of it, that the mere thought of it sent +aches through all my bones. + +It was about noon one day, while I was trying to nerve myself to make +this hard expedition, that I called a halt in order to eat my +dinner--which I knew would be a very little one--being just then come +aboard of a great ungainly galleon that from the look of her I thought +could not be less than two centuries and a half old: she being more +curiously ancient in her build than any vessel that I had got upon, +and her timbers so rotten that I had ticklish climbing as I worked my +way up her high quarter--and, indeed, one of her galleries giving way +under me, was near to spilling down her tall side to my death beneath +the tangled weed. And when at last I got to her deck I found it so +soft, partly with rottenness and partly with a sort of moss growing +over it, that I was fearful at each step that it would give way under +me and let me down with a crash into her hold. + +I would have been glad of a better place to eat my dinner in--she +being sodden wet everywhere, and with a chill about her for all the +warmth of the misty air shimmering with dull sunshine, and with a rank +unwholesome smell rising from her rotting mass. But all the hulks +thereabouts were in so much the same condition that by going on I was +not likely greatly to better myself; and I was so tired and so hungry +that I had no heart to attempt any more hard scrambling until I had +had both rest and food. And so I hunted out a spot on her deck where +the moss was thinnest and least oozy with moisture--being a place a +little sheltered by a sort of porch above her cabin doorway--and there +I seated myself and with a good deal of satisfaction fell to upon my +very scanty ration of beans. + +For a while I was busied wholly with my eating, being mighty sharp set +after my morning's walk; but when my short meal was ended I began to +look about me, and especially to peer into the deep old cabin--that +was pretty well lighted through the stern-windows and through the +doorway at my shoulder, of which the door had rotted away. + +From where I was seated I could see nearly the whole of it; and what I +first noted was that a little hatch in the middle of the floor was +open, and that dangling down into it from one of the roof-beams was a +double-purchase--as though an attempt to haul up some heavy thing from +that place had come to a short end. For the rest, there was little to +see: only a clumsy table set fast between fixed benches close under +the stern windows; a locker in which I found, when I looked into it, a +sodden thing that very likely had been the ship's log-book along with +a queer old Jacob's staff (as they were called) such as mariners took +their observations with before quadrants were known; and against the +wall were hanging a couple of long old rusty swords and a rusty thing +that I took at first to be a wash-basin, but made out was a +deep-curved breast-plate that must have belonged to a very +round-bellied little man. + +The floor of the cabin, as I found when I went in there, was so firm +and solid--being laid in teak, very likely, and having been sheltered +by the roof over it from the rains--that I had no fear, as I had on +the open deck, that the planks would give way under me and let me +through. And when I was come inside I found resting on a wooden rack +set against the front wall a couple of old bell-mouthed brass +fire-locks, coated thick with verdigris, and with them three smaller +bell-mouthed pieces which were neither guns nor pistols but something +between the two. As for the log-book, if it were the log-book, I could +make nothing of it. It was so soaked and swelled by the dampness, and +so rotten, that my fingers sank into it when I tried to pick it up as +they would have sunk into porridge; and the slimy stuff left a horrid +smell upon my hand. Therefore I cannot tell what was the name of this +old ship, nor to what country she belonged, nor whither she was +sailing on her last voyage; but that she was Spanish--or perhaps +Portuguese--and was wrecked while on her way homeward from some port +in the Indies, I do not doubt at all. + +When I had made my round of the cabin, finding so little, I came to +the open hatch in the middle of it and gazed down into the dusky depth +curiously: wondering a good deal that in what must have been almost +the moment when death was setting its clutch upon the galleon, and +when all aboard of her assuredly were in peril of their lives, her +people should have tried to rouse out a part of her cargo--as I had +proof that they had tried to do in the tackle still hanging there from +the beam. And the only reasonable way to account for this strange +endeavor, it seemed to me--since provisions were not likely to be +carried in that part of the vessel--was that something so precious was +down there in the blackness as to make the risk of death worth taking +in order to try to save it from the sea. + +With that there came over me an itching curiosity to find out what the +treasure was which the crew of the galleon--in such stress of some +sort that they had been forced to give up the job suddenly--had tried +to get out of their ship and carry off with them; and along with my +curiosity came an eager pounding of my heart as I thought to +myself--without ever stopping to think also how useless riches of any +sort were to me--that by right of discovery their treasure, whatever +it might be, had become mine. + +With my breath coming and going quickly, I got down upon my hands and +knees and stooped my head well into the opening that I might get rid +of the light in my eyes from the cabin windows; and being that way I +made out dimly that the lower block of the purchase was whipped fast +to a little wooden box, and that other small boxes were stowed in +regular tiers under it so that they filled snugly a little chamber +about a dozen feet square. That there were several layers of these +boxes seemed probable, for those in sight were only six feet or so +below the level of the cabin floor, and that they held either gold or +silver I considered to be beyond a doubt; and as I raised my head up +out of the hatch, my eyes blinking as the light struck them, and +thought of the wealth that must be stored there in that little +chamber, and that it was mine because I had found it, I gave a long +great sigh. + +For a minute or two I was quite dazed by my discovery; and then as I +got steadier--or got crazier, perhaps I ought to say--nothing would +serve me but that I must get down to where my treasure was, so that my +eyes might see it and that I might touch it with my hands. And with +that I caught at the tackle and gave a tug on the ropes to test them, +and as they held I swung to them to slide down--and the moment that my +full weight was on them they snapped like punk, and down I went feet +foremost and struck on the tiers of boxes with a bang. As I fell only +a little way, and upon a level surface--for I went clear of the box +to which the tackle was made fast--no harm came to me; but under my +feet I felt the rotten wood going squashily, and then beneath it +something firm and hard. And when I got back my balance and looked +down eagerly my eyes caught a dull gleam in the semi-darkness, and +then made out beneath my feet a mass of yellow ingots: and I gave a +great shout--that seemed to be forced out of me to keep my heart from +bursting--for I knew that I was standing on bars of gold! + + + + + +XXV + +I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + + +For a while, down in that black little place, I was quite a crazy +creature; being so stirred by my finding this great store of riches +that I went to dancing and singing there--and was not a bit bothered +by the vile stench rising from the rotten wood that my feet sent +flying, nor by the still viler stench rising from the reeking mass of +rottenness below me in the galleon's hold. + +And then, that I might see my treasure the more clearly, I fell to +tossing the ingots up through the hatch into the cabin--where I could +have a good light upon them, and could gloat upon the yellow gleam of +them, and could make some sort of a guess at how much each of them +represented in golden coin. From that I went on to calculating how +much the whole of them were worth together; and when I got to the end +of my figuring I fairly was dazed. + +In a rough way I estimated that each ingot weighed at least five +pounds, and as each of the little boxes contained ten of them the +value of every single box stored there was not less than fifteen +thousand dollars. As well as I could make out, the boxes were in rows +of ten and there were ten rows of them--which gave over a million and +a half of dollars for the top tier alone; and as there certainly was +an under-tier the value of my treasure at the least was three +millions. But actually, as I found by digging down through the ingots +until I came to the solid flooring, there were in all five tiers of +boxes; and what made the whole of them worth close upon eight millions +of our American money, or well on toward two millions of English +pounds. My brain reeled as I thought about it. The treasure that I had +possession of was a fortune fit for a king! + +I had swung myself up from the little chamber and was standing in the +cabin while I made these calculations, and when at last I got to my +sum total I felt so light-headed that it seemed as though I were +walking on air. Indeed, I fairly was stunned by my tremendous good +fortune and could not think clearly: and it was because my mind thus +was turned all topsy-turvy, I suppose, that the odd thought popped +into it that in the matter of weight my gold ingots were pretty much +the same as the tins of beans to get which I was about to return to +the barque--a foolish notion which so tickled my fancy that I burst +out into a loud laugh. + +The jarring sound of my laughter, which rang out with a ghastly +impropriety in that deathly place, brought me to my senses a little +and made me calmer. But my mind ran on for a moment or so upon the odd +notion that had provoked it, and in that time certain other thoughts +flashed into my head which had only to get there to spill out of me +every bit of my crazy joy. For first I realized that since I could +carry only the same weight of gold that I could carry of food my +actual wealth was but a single back-load, which brought my millions +down to a few beggarly thousands; and on top of that I realized--and +this came like a douse of ice-water--that for every ingot that I +carried away with me I must leave a like weight of food behind: which +meant neither more nor less than that my great treasure, for all the +good that ever it would be to me--so little could I venture to take of +it on these terms--might as well be already at the bottom of the sea. + +And then, being utterly dispirited and broken, I fell to thinking how +little difference it made one way or the other--how even a single +ingot would be a vain lading--since I had no ground for hoping that +ever again would I get to a region where I would have use for gold. +And with that--though I kept on staring in a dull way at the ingots +scattered over the floor of the cabin--I thought of the treasure no +longer: my heart being filled with a great sorrowing pity for myself, +because of the doom upon me to live out whatever life might be left +me in the most horrid solitude into which ever a man was cast. + +For a long while I stood despairing there; and then at last the hope +of life began to rise in me again--as it always must rise, no matter +how desperate are the odds against it, in the mind of a sound and +vigorous man. And with this saner feeling came again my desire to push +on in the direction that offered me a chance of deliverance--leaving +all my treasure behind me, since it was worth less to me than food; +and presently came the farther hope that when I had succeeded in +finding a way out of my sea-prison, and so was sure of my life once +more, I might be able to return to the galleon and take away with me +at least some portion of the great riches that I had found. + +Because of this foolish hope, and the very human comfort that I found +in knowing myself to be the possessor of such prodigious wealth, I +needs must jump down again to where it was and take another survey of +it before I left it behind. And then, being cooler and looking more +carefully, I noticed that the box to which the tackle had been made +fast was not like the other boxes--though about the same size with +them--but was a little coffer that seemed once to have been locked and +that still had around it the rusty remnants of iron bands. This +difference in the make of it put into my head the notion that its +contents were more precious than the contents of the other +boxes--though how that could be I did not well see; and my notion +seemed the more reasonable as I reflected that if the coffer really +were of an extraordinary value there would have been sense in trying +to save it even in a time of great peril--which was more than could be +said of trying to load down boats launched in the midst of some final +disaster with any of those heavy boxes of gold. + +My mind became excited by another mirage of riches as these thoughts +went through it, and to settle the matter I stooped down and got a +grip on the coffer--which was made of a tougher wood than the boxes +and held together--and managed by a good deal of straining to lift it +up through the hatch into the cabin, where I could examine it at +my ease. + +When it was new an axe would not have made much impression upon it, so +strongly had it been put together; but there were left only black +stains to show where the iron had bound it, and the wood had rotted +until it was softer than the softest bit of pine. Indeed, I had only +to give a little jerk to the lid to open it: both the lock and the +hinges being gone with rust, and the lid held in place only by a sort +of sticky slime. + +But when I did get it open the first thing that came out of it was a +stench so vile that I had to jump up in a hurry and rush to the open +deck until the worst of it had ebbed away; and this exceeding evil +odor was given off by a slimy ooze of rotted leather--as I knew a +little later by finding still unmelted some bits of small leather bags +in which what was stored there had been tied. But even as I jumped up +and left the cabin my eyes caught a gleam of brightness in the horrid +slimy mess that set my heart to beating hard again; and it pounded +away in my breast still harder when I came back and made out clearly +what I had found. + +For there in the rotten ooze, strewn thickly, was such a collection of +glittering jewels that my eyes fairly were dazzled by them; and when I +had turned the coffer upside down on the deck so that the slime flowed +away stickily--giving off the most dreadful stench that ever I have +encountered--I saw a heap of precious stones such as for size and +beauty has not been gathered into one place, I suppose--unless it may +have been in the treasury of some Eastern sovereign--since the very +beginning of the world. At a single glance I knew that the great +treasure of gold, which had seemed to me overwhelming because of its +immensity, was as nothing in comparison with this other treasure +wherein riches were so concentrate and sublimate that I had the very +essence of them: and I reeled and trembled again as I hugged the +thought to me that by my finding of it I was made master of it all. + + + + + +XXVI + +OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + + +I was pretty much mooning mad for a while, I suppose: sometimes +walking about the cabin and thrusting with my feet contemptuously at +the gold ingots strewn over the floor of it, and sometimes standing +still in a sort of rapt wonder over my heap of jewels--and anything +like sensible thinking was quite beyond the power of my unbalanced +mind. But at last I was aroused, and so brought to myself a little, by +the daylight waning suddenly: as it did in that region when the sun +dropped down into the thick layer of mist lying close upon the +water--making at first a strange purplish dusk, and then a rich +crimson after-glow that deepened into purple again, and so turning +slowly into blackness as night came on. + +When I had come aboard the galleon, about noon-time, and had found her +so sodden with wet and so reeking with foul odors--as, indeed, were +all of the very ancient ships which made the mid-part of that sea +graveyard--I had made my mind up to a forced march in the afternoon +that I hoped would carry me through the worst of all that rottenness, +and so to a ship partly dry and less ill-smelling for the night. But +when I came out from the cabin and looked about me, and saw how thick +and black were the shadows in the clefts between the wrecks, I knew +that I could not venture onward, but must pass the night where I was. +And this was a prospect not at all to my mind. + +The cabin, of course, was the only place for me, the soaked deck with +the soaked moss on top of it being quite out of the question; but even +the cabin was not fit for a dog to lie in, so chill and damp was it +and so foul with the stench rising and spreading from the slime of +rotted leather that I had emptied from the coffer and that made a +little vile pool upon the floor. And through the open hatch there came +up a dismal heavy odor of all the rotten stuff down there that almost +turned my stomach, and that made the air laden with it hard to +breathe--though in my hot excitement I had not noticed it at all. But +this last I got the better of in part by covering again the opening, +though I had to move the hatch very gently and carefully to keep it +from falling into rotten fragments in my hands. Yet because it was so +dense with moisture, when I did get it set in place, it pretty well +kept the stench down. And then I kicked away some of the ingots into a +corner, and so cleared a space on the floor where I could stretch +myself just within the cabin door. + +These matters being attended to, I seated myself in the same place +where I had eaten my dinner--just outside the door, under the little +sort of porch overhanging it--and ate the short ration that I allowed +myself for my supper, and found it very much less than my lively +hunger required. When I had finished I sat on there for a good while +longer, being very loath to go into the cabin; but at last, by finding +myself nodding with weary drowsiness, I knew that sleep would come +quickly, and so went inside and laid myself down upon the floor. There +still was a faint glimmer of dying daylight outside, and this little +glow somehow comforted me as I lay there facing the doorway and +blinking now and then before my eyes were tight closed; but I did not +lie long that way half-waking, being so utterly fagged in both mind +and body that I dropped off into deep slumber before the +darkness fell. + +I suppose that even in my sleep I had an uneasy sense of my bleak +surroundings; and that this, in the course of three or four hours--by +which time I was a good deal rested and so slept less soundly--got the +better of my weariness and roused me awake again. But when I first +woke I was sure that I had slept the night through and that early +morning was come--for there was so much light in the cabin that I +never thought to account for it save by the return of day. Yet the +light was not like daylight, as I realized when I had a little more +shaken off my sleepiness, being curiously white and soft. + +I turned over--for I had rolled in my uneasy sleep and got my back +toward the doorway--and raised myself a little on my elbow so that I +might see out clearly; and what I saw was so unearthly strange, and in +a way so awe-compelling, that in another moment I was on my feet and +staring with all my eyes. Over the whole deck of the galleon a soft +lambent light was playing, and this went along her bulwarks and up +over her high fore-castle so that all the lines of her structure were +defined sharply by it; and pale through the mist against the +blackness, out over her low waist, I could catch glimpses of the other +tall old ships lying near her all likewise shining everywhere with the +same soft flames--which yet were not flames exactly, but rather a +flickering glow. + +In a moment or so I realized that this luminous wonder, which at the +first look had so strong a touch of the supernatural in it, was no +more than the manifestation of a natural phenomenon: being the shimmer +of phosphorescent light upon the soaking rotten woodwork of the +galleon and of the ships about her, as rotten and as old. But making +this explanation to myself did not lessen the frightening strangeness +of the spectacle, nor do much to stop the cold creeps which ran over +me as I looked at it: I being there solitary in that marvellous +brightness--that I knew was in a way a death-glow--the one +thing alive. + +But presently my unreasoning shivering dread began to yield a little, +as my curiosity bred in me an eager desire to see the whole of this +wondrous soft splendor; for I made sure from my glimpses over the +galleon's bulwarks that it was about me on every side. And so I +stepped out from the cabin upon the deck, where my feet sank into the +short mossy growth that coated the rotten planks and I was fairly +walking in what seemed like a lake of wavering pale flame; and from +there, that I might see the better, I climbed cautiously up the rotten +stair leading to the roof of the cabin, and thence to the little +over-topping gallery where the stern-lantern was. And from that height +I could gaze about me as far as ever the mist would let me see. + +Everywhere within the circle that my eyes covered--which was not a +very big one, for in the night the mist was thick and low-lying--the +old wrecks wedged together there were lighted with the same lambent +flames: which came and went over their dead carcasses as though they +all suddenly were lighted and then as suddenly were put out again; and +farther away the glow of them in the mist was like a silvery +shimmering haze. By this ebbing and flowing light--which seemed to +me, for all that I knew the natural cause of it, so outside of nature +that I thrilled with a creeping fear as I looked at it--I could see +clearly the shapes of the strange ancient ships around me: their great +poops and fore-castles rising high above their shallow waists, and +here and there among them the remnant of a mast making a line of light +rising higher still--like a huge corpse-candle shining against the +blackness beyond. And the ruin of them--the breaks in their lines, and +the black gaps where bits of their frames had rotted away +completely--gave to them all a ghastly death-like look; while their +wild tangling together made strange ragged lines of brightness +wavering under the veil of mist, as though a desolate sea-city were +lying there dead before me lit up with lanterns of despair. + +Yet that which most keenly thrilled me with a cold dread was my strong +conviction that I could see living men moving hither and thither over +those pale-lit decks, where my reason told me that only ancient death +could be; for the play of the flickering light made such a commotion +of fleeting flames and dancing shadows, going and coming in all manner +of fantastic shapes, that every shattered hulk around me seemed to +have her old crew alive and on board of her again--all hurrying in +bustling crowds fore and aft, and up and down the heights of her, as +though under orderly command. And at times these shapes were so real +and so distinct to me that I was for crying out to them--and would +check myself suddenly, shivering with a fright which I knew was out of +all reason but which for the life of me I could not keep down. + +And so the night wore away: while I stood there on the galleon's poop +with the soft pale flames flickering around me in the mist, and my +fears rising and falling as I lost and regained control of myself; and +I think that it is a wonder that I did not go mad. + + + + + +XXVII + +I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + + +At last, after what seemed to me an age of waiting for it, a little +pinkish tone began to glow in the mist to the eastward; and as that +honest light got stronger the death-fires on the old galleon and on +the wrecks around her paled quickly until they were snuffed out +altogether--and then came the customary morning down-pour of rain. + +With the return of the blessed daylight, and with the enlivening douse +of cool fresh water upon me, I got to be myself again: my fanciful +fears of the night-time leaving me, and my mind coming back soberly to +a consideration of my actual needs. Of these the most pressing, as my +stomach told me, was to get my breakfast; and when that matter, in a +very poor way, had been attended to, and I had drunk what water I +needed--without much relishing it--from a pool that had formed on the +deck where the timbers sagged down a little, I was in better heart to +lay out for myself a plan of campaign. + +In one way planning was not necessary. By holding to a northerly +course I believed that I had got at least half way across my +continent, and my determination was fixed to keep on by the +north--rather than risk a fresh departure that might only carry me by +a fresh way again into the depths of the tangle--until I should come +once more to the open sea: if I may call open sea that far outlying +expanse of ocean covered with thick-grown weed. But it was needful +that I should plan for my supply of food as I went onward, that was to +be got only by returning to the far-away barque; and also I felt an +itching desire--as strong as at first blush it was unreasonable--to +carry away with me some part of the treasure that I had found. That I +ever should get out into the world again, and so have the good of my +riches, seemed likely to me only in my most sanguine moments; but even +on the slimmest chance of accomplishing my own deliverance I had a +very natural human objection to leaving behind me the wealth that I +had found through such peril--only to lie there for a while longer +idly, and then to be lost forever when the galleon sank to the bottom +of the sea. + +As to the gold, it was plain that I could carry off so little of it +that I might as well resign myself--having that which was better worth +working for--to losing it all. But my treasure of jewels was another +matter. This was so very much more valuable than the gold--for the +stones for the most part were of a prodigious size and a rare +fineness--that between the two there really was no comparison; and at +the same time it was so compact in bulk and so petty in weight that I +might easily carry the whole of it with me and a good store of food +too. And so, to make a beginning, I picked the stones out of the slimy +and stinking ooze in which they were lying and washed them clean in +the pool of water on the deck; and then I packed them snugly into the +shirt-sleeve in which my beans had been stored--and tickled myself the +while with the fancy that most men would be willing for the sake of +stuffing a shirt-sleeve that way to cut off the arm to which +it belonged. + +My packing being finished, and my precious bag laid away in a corner +of the cabin until I should come to fetch it again, I was in a better +mood for facing my long march back to the barque: for I had come to +have fortune as well as life to work for, and those two strong +stimulants to endeavor working together gave my spirits a great upward +pull. And, fortunately, my cheerfulness staid by me through my long +scrambling struggle backward along my blazed path; nor was it, in +reality, as hard a journey as I had expected it to be--for I had but a +light load of food to carry, barely enough to last me through, and the +marks which I had left upon the wrecks in passing made my way plain. +And so, at last, I got back to the barque one evening about sunset, +and had almost a feeling of homecoming in boarding her again; and I +was thankful enough to be able to eat all the supper I wanted, and +then to lie down comfortably in her clean cabin and to rest myself in +sound slumber after my many restless nights on rotten old ships +reeking with a chill dampness that struck into my very bones. + +I slept soundly and woke refreshed; and for that I was thankful, since +the work cut out for me--to get back to the galleon with enough +provisions to last me until I could cross the rest of the +wreck-pack--was about as much as a strong man in good condition could +do. However, I had thought of something that would make this hard job +less difficult; for the ease with which I had carried a part of my +food in long narrow bags, sausage-fashion--thereby getting rid of +both the weight and the awkwardness of the tins--had put into my head +the notion of carrying in that way the whole of my fresh supply, and +so carrying at least twice as much of it. And I calculated--since I +could go rapidly along my blazed path--that by cutting myself down to +very short rations I could get back to the galleon with a bigger stock +of provisions than that with which I left the barque when I made my +first start toward the north--and if the galleon lay, as I believed +that she did, about in the centre of the pack, this would give me +enough food to last me until I got across to the other side. So I +rummaged out some more of the linen shirts that I had found--taking a +fresh one for my own wear to begin with--and set myself to my +sausage-making with the sleeves of them; packing each sleeve with +beans as tight as I could ram it, and working over each a netting of +light line that I finished off with loops at the ends. Ten of my big +sausages I made into a bundle to be carried on my shoulders like a +knapsack; and the rest I arranged to swing by their loops from a rope +collar about my neck, with another rope run through the lower loops to +be made fast about my waist and so hold them steady--and this +arrangement, as I found when I tried it, answered very well. And +finally, that I might carry my jewels the more securely, I cut off a +sleeve from the oil-skin jacket to serve for an outer casing for them, +and took along also some of the light line to net over the bundle and +make it solid and strong; in that way guarding against the chance of +their rubbing a hole in their linen covering--by which I might have +lost them all. + +I worked fast over my packing, and got it all finished and was ready +to start away by not a great while after sunrise; yet when the time +for my start came I hesitated a little, so darkly uncertain seemed the +issue of the adventure that I had in hand. Indeed, the whole of my +project was a wild one, such as no man not fairly driven into it +would have entertained at all. Its one certainty was that only by +excessive toil could I even hope to carry it through. All else was +doubtful: for I knew not how distant were the farther bounds of the +desolate dead region into which I was bent upon penetrating; nor had I +ground for believing--since I had food in plenty where I was--that I +would gain anything by traversing it; and back of all that was the +gloomy chance of some accident befalling me that would end in my dying +miserably by the way. While I was busily employed in making ready for +my march I had grown quite cheerful; but suddenly my little crop of +good spirits withered within me, and when at last I did go forward it +was with a very heavy heart. + + + + + +XXVIII + +HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + + +Could I have foreseen all that was ahead of me I doubt if I should +have had the courage to go on: choosing rather to stay there on the +barque until I had eaten what food I had by me, and then to die +slowly--and finding that way easier than the one I chose to follow, +with its many days of struggle and its many chill nights of sorrow and +I throughout the whole of it rubbing shoulders with despair. + +As I think of it now, that long, long march seems to me like a +horrible nightmare; and sometimes it comes back to me as a real +nightmare in my dreams. Again, always heavy laden, I am climbing and +scrambling and jumping, endlessly and hopelessly, among old rotten +hulks; each morning trying to comfort myself with the belief that by +night I may see some sign of ships less ancient, and so know that I am +winning my way a little toward where I would be; and each night +finding myself still surrounded by tall antique craft such as have not +for two centuries and more held the seas, with the feeling coming down +crushingly upon me that I have not advanced at all; and even then no +good rest for me--as I lie down wearily in some foul-smelling old +cabin, chill with heavy night-mist and with the reeking damp of oozy +rotten timbers, and perhaps find in it for my sleeping-mates little +heaps of fungus outgrowing from dead men's bones. And the mere dream +of all this so bitterly hurts me that I wonder how I ever came through +the reality of it alive. + +At the start, as I have said, I had calculated that the treasure-laden +galleon lay about in the centre of the wreck-pack, and therefore that +I would get across from her to the other side of the pack in about the +same time that I had taken to reach her in my first journey from the +barque; and on the basis of that assumption, when I was come to her +again, I shaped my course hopefully for the north. But my calculation, +though on its face a reasonable enough one, proved to be most woefully +wrong: and I have come to the conclusion, after a good deal of +thinking about it, that this was because the whole vast mass of +wreckage had a circular motion--the great current that created it +giving at the same time a swirl to it--which made the seemingly +straight line that I followed in reality a constantly extended curve. +But whatever the cause may have been, the fact remains that when by my +calculation I should have been on the outer edge of the wreck-pack I +still was wandering in its depths. In one way my march was easier the +longer that it lasted, my load growing a little lighter daily as my +store of food was transferred to my stomach from my back. At first +this steady decrease of my burden was a comfort to me; but after a +while--when more than half of it was gone, and I still seemed to be no +nearer to the end of my journey than when I left the galleon--I had a +very different feeling about it: for I realized that unless I came +speedily to ships whereon I would find food--of which there seemed +little probability, so ancient were the craft surrounding me--I either +must go back to the barque and wait on her until death came to me +slowly, or else die quickly where I was. And so I had for my +comforting the option of a tardy death or a speedy one--with the +certainty of the latter if I hesitated long in choosing between +the two. + +I suppose that the two great motive powers in the world are hope and +despair. It was hope that started me on that dismal march, but if +despair had not at last come in to help me I never should have got to +its end: for I took Death by both shoulders and looked straight into +the eyes of him when I decided, having by me only food for three days +longer--and at that but as little as would keep the life in me--to +give over all thought of returning to the barque and to make a dash +forward as fast as I could go. I had little enough to carry, but +that I might have still less I left my hatchet behind me--having, +indeed, no farther use for it since if my dash miscarried I was done +for and there was no use in marking a path over which I never could +return; and I was half-minded to leave my bag of jewels behind me too. +But in the end I decided to carry the jewels along with me--my fancy +being caught by the grim notion that if I did die miserably in that +vile solitude at least I would die one of the richest men in all the +world. As to my water-bottles, one of them I had thrown away when I +found that I could count on the morning showers certainly, and the +other had been broken in one of my many tumbles: yet without much +troubling me--as I found that I could manage fairly well, eating but +little, if I filled myself pretty full of water at the beginning of +each day. And so, with only the bag of food and the bag of jewels upon +my back, and with the compass on top of them, I was ready to press +onward to try conclusions with despair. + +The very hopelessness of my effort, and the fact that at last I was +dealing with what in one way was a certainty--for I knew that if my +plan miscarried I had only a very little while longer to live--gave me +a sort of stolid recklessness which amazingly helped me: stimulating +me to taking risks in climbing which before I should have shrunk +from, and so getting me on faster; and at the same time dulling my +mind to the dreads besetting it and my body to its ceaseless pains +begot of weariness and thirst and scanty food. So little, indeed, did +I care what became of me that even when by the middle of my second +day's march I saw no change in my surroundings I did not mind it much: +but, to be sure, at the outset of this last stage of my journey I had +thrown hope overboard, and a man once become desperate can feel no +farther ills. + +But what does surprise me--as I think of it now, though it did not in +any way touch me then--was the slowness with which, when there was +reason for it, my dead hope got alive again: as it did, and for cause, +at the end of that same second day--for by the evening I came out, +with a sharp suddenness, from among the strange old craft which for so +long on every side had beset me and found myself among ships which by +comparison with the others--though they too, in all conscience, were +old enough--seemed to be quite of a modern build. What is likely, I +think--and this would help to account for my long wanderings over +those ancient rotten hulks--is that some stormy commotion of the whole +mass of wreckage, such as had thrust the barque whereon I had found +food deep into the thick of it, had squeezed a part of the centre of +the pack outward; in that way making a sort of promontory--along +which by mere bad mischance I had been journeying--among the wrecks of +a later time. But this notion did not then occur to me; nor did I, as +I have said, at first feel any very thrilling hope coming back to me +when I found myself among modern ships again--so worn had my long +tussle with difficulties left my body and so sodden was my mind. + +At first I had just a dull feeling of satisfaction that I had got once +more--after my many nights passed on hulks soaked with wet to +rottenness--on good honest dry planks: where I could sleep with no +deadly chill striking into me, and where in my restless wakings I +should not see the pale gleam of death-fires, and where foul stenches +would not half stifle me the whole night long. And it was not until I +had eaten my scant supper, and because of the comfort that even that +little food gave me felt more disposed to cheerfulness, that in a weak +faint-hearted way I began to hope again that perhaps the run of luck +against me had come to an end. + +In truth, though, there was not much to be hopeful about. For my +supper I had eaten the half of what food was left me, and it was so +little that I still had a mighty hungry feeling in my belly after it +was down. For my breakfast I should eat what was left; and after that, +unless I found fresh supplies quickly, I was in a fair way to lie down +beside my bag of jewels and die of starvation--like the veriest +beggar that ever was. But I did hope a little all the same; and when I +went on again the next morning, though my last scrap of food was +eaten, my spirits kept up pretty well--for I was sure from the look of +the wrecks which I traversed that the dead ancient centre of my +continent at last was behind me, and that its living outer fringe +could not be very far away. + +All that day I pressed forward steadily, helped by my little +flickering flame of hope--which burned low because sanguine +expectation does not consort well with an empty stomach, yet which +kept alive because the wreck-pack had more and more of a modern look +about it as I went on. But the faintness that I felt coming over me as +the day waned gave me warning that the rope by which I held my life +was a short one; and as the sun dropped down into the mist--at once +thinning it, so that I could see farther, and giving it a ruddy tone +which sent red streams of brightness gleaming over the tangle of +wreckage far down into the west--I felt that the rope must come to an +end altogether, and that I must stop still and let death overtake me, +by the sunset of one day more. + +And then it was, just as the sun was sinking, that I saw clearly--far +away to the westward--the funnel of a steamer standing out black and +sharp against the blood-red ball that in another minute went down +into the sea. And with that glimpse--which made me sure that I was +close to the edge of the wreck-pack, and so close to food again--a +strong warm rush of hope swept through me that outcast finally my +despair. + + + + + +XXIX + +I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + + +That I should get to the steamer that night I knew was clean +impossible, for she lay a long way off from me, and that I had seen +her funnel at all was due to the mere happy accident of its standing +for that single minute directly between me and the setting sun. I did +hope, though, that by pressing hard toward her I might fetch aboard of +some vessel not long wrecked on which I would find eatable food; yet +in this I was disappointed, the shadows coming down on me so fast that +I was forced in a little while to pull up short--stopping while still +a little daylight remained so that I might stow myself the more +comfortably for the night. + +As to looking for provender on the little old ship that I settled to +camp on, I knew that it was useless. From her build I fixed her as +belonging to the beginning of the present century, and from her depth +in the wreck-pack she probably had met her death-storm not less than +threescore years before; and so what provisions she had carried long +since had wasted away. Yet there was a chance that I might find some +spirits aboard of her--which would be a poor substitute for food, but +better than nothing--and I hurried to have a look in her cabin before +darkness settled down. + +The cabin hatch was closed, and as it was both locked and swelled with +moisture I could not budge it; but two or three kicks sent the doors +beneath the hatch flying and so opened an entrance for me--that I was +slow to make use of because of a heavy musty stench which poured out +from that shut up place and made me turn a little sick, as I got my +first strong whiff of it. Indeed, I was so faint and so hungry that I +was in no condition to stand up against that curiously vile smell. To +lessen it, by getting a current of air into the cabin, I smashed in +the little skylight--over which some ropes were stretched and still +held the remnant of a tarpaulin, that must have been set in place +while the storm was blowing which sent the ship to her account; and +this so far improved matters that presently I was able to go down the +companion-way, though the stench still was horridly strong. + +At the bottom of the stair, the light being faint, I tripped over +something; and looking down saw bones lying there with a sort of +fungus partly covering them, and to the skull there still clung a mat +of woolly hair plaited here and there into little braids: by which, +and by the size of the bones, it seemed that a negro woman must have +been left fastened into the cabin to die there after the crew had +been washed overboard or had taken to the boats. But even then the +business in which the ship had been engaged did not occur to me; and +after hesitating for a moment I went on into the cabin, and looked +about me as well as I could in the twilight for the case of bottles +that I hoped to find. + +The case was there, as I was pretty certain that it would be, such +provision rarely being absent from old-time vessels, but all the +bottles had been taken from it except an empty one--which looked as +though the cabin had been opened at the last moment to fetch out +supplies for the boats, and then deliberately locked fast again with +the poor woman inside: an act so barbarous that it did not seem +possible unless a crew of out and out devils had been in charge of the +ancient craft. However, the matter which just then most concerned me +was the liquor that I was in search of, that I might a little stay my +stomach with it against the hunger that was tormenting me; and so I +ransacked the lockers that ran across the stern of the ship and across +a part of the bulkhead forward, in the faint hope that I might come +upon another supply--but my search was a vain one, two of the lockers +having only some mouldy clothing in them, and all the rest being +filled with arms. The stock of muskets and pistols and cutlasses was +so large, so far beyond any honest traders needs, that I could not at +all account for it: until the thought occurred to me that the vessel +I had come aboard of had been a pirate--and that notion seemed to fit +in pretty well with her crew having gone off and left the poor woman +locked up in the cabin to starve. However, as I found out a little +later, while my guess was a close one it still was wrong. + +The four bunks, two on each side, were not enclosed, and the only door +opening from the cabin was in the bulkhead forward--and worth trying +because it might lead to a store-room, I thought. It was a very +stout-looking door, and across it, resting in strong iron catches, +were two heavy wooden bars. These puzzled me a good deal, there being +no sense in barring the outside of a store-room door in that fashion, +since the door did not seem to be locked and anybody could lift the +bars away. However, I got them out of their sockets without much +difficulty; and after a good deal of tugging at a ring made fast in it +I got the door open too--and instantly I was thrust back from the +opening by an outpouring of the same vile heavy musty stench that had +come up from the cabin when I staved in the hatch, only this was still +ranker and more vile. And I found that the door did not lead into a +little store-room, as I had fancied, but right through from the cabin +to the ship's main-deck--that stretched away forward in a gloomy +tunnel, as black as a cellar on a rainy night, into which I could +see only for four or five yards. Indeed, but for the way that the ship +chanced to be lying--with her stern toward the west, so that a good +deal of light came in through the broken skylight from the ruddy +sunset--I could not have seen into it at all. + +But I saw far enough, and more than far enough--and the sight that I +looked on sent all over me a creeping chill. Wherever the light went, +skeletons were lying--with a fungus growth on the bones that gave a +horrid effect of scraps of flesh still clinging to them, and the +loose-lying skulls (of which a couple were close by the doorway) were +covered still with a matting of woolly hair. And I could tell from the +tangle that the skeletons were in--though also lying in some sort of +orderly rows, because of the chains which held them fast--that the +poor wretches to whom they had belonged had writhed and struggled over +each other in their agony: and I could fancy what a hell that black +place must have been while death was doing his work among them, they +all squirming together like worms in a pot; and it seemed to me that I +could hear their yells and howls--at first loud and terrible, and then +growing fainter and fainter until they came to be but low groans of +misery that at last ended softly in dying sighs. + +The horror of it all came home to me so sharply, after I had stood +there at the doorway for a moment or two held fast by a sort of +ghastly fascination, that I gave a yell myself as keen and as loud as +any which the poor blacks had uttered; and with that I turned about +and dashed up the companionway to the deck as hard as I could go. Nor +could I bear to abide on the slave-ship, nor even near her, for the +night. Very little light was left to me, but I made the most of it and +went scrambling from hulk to hulk until I had put a good distance +behind me--so that I not only could not see her but could not tell +certainly, having twisted and turned a dozen times in my scurrying +flight, in which direction she lay. And being thus rid of her, I +fairly dropped--so weak and so wearied was I--on the deck of the +vessel that I had come to, and lay there for a while resting, with my +breath coming and going in panting sobs. + +What sort of a craft I had fetched aboard of I did not dare to try to +find out. Going any farther then was impossible, the twilight having +slipped away almost into darkness, and whatever she might be I had to +make the best of her for the night. And so I settled myself into a +corner well up in her bows--that I might be as far away as possible +from any grisly things that might be hid in her cabin--and did my best +to go to sleep. But it was a long while, utterly weary though I was, +before sleep would come to me. My stomach, being pretty well +reconciled by that time to emptiness, did not bother me much; but my +frightened rush away from that sickening charnel-house had left me +greatly tormented by thirst, and my mind was so fevered by the horror +of what I had seen that for a long while I could not stop making +pictures to myself of the black wretches, chained and imprisoned, +writhing under the torture of starvation and at last dying desperate +in the dark. And when sleep did come to me I still had the same +loathsome horrors with me in my dreams. + + + + + +XXX + +I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + + +The morning shower that waked me gave me the water that I so longed +for; but it only a little refreshed me, because my chief need was +food. Being past the first sharp pangs of hunger, I was in no great +bodily pain; but a heavy languor was upon me that dulled me in both +flesh and spirit and disposed me to give up struggling for a while, +that I might enjoy what seemed to me just then to be the supreme +delight of sitting still. Yet I had sense enough to know that if I +surrendered to this feeling it would be the end of me; and after a +little I found energy enough to throw it off. + +I was helped thus to rouse myself by finding, as I looked around me +with dull eyes, that the hulk I had come aboard of in such a hurry in +the twilight certainly had not been wrecked for any great length of +time. She was a good-sized schooner, quite modern in her build; and, +although she had weathered everywhere to a pale gray, her timbers were +not rotten and what was left of her cordage still was fairly sound: +all of which, as I took it in slowly, gave me hope of finding aboard +of her some sort of eatable food. + +But while this hope was slow to shape itself in my heavy mind, I was +quick enough to act upon it when once it had taken form. With a +briskness that quite astonished me I got on my feet and walked aft to +the cabin--the cabin pantry being the most likely place in which to +look for food put up in tins; and I was farther encouraged by finding +the hatch open and the cabin itself fresh-smelling and clean. And, to +my joy, the food that I hoped to find in the pantry really was there; +and such a plenty of it that I could not have eaten it in a +whole year. + +I had the good sense to go slowly--and that was not easy, for at sight +of something that would satisfy it my hunger all of a sudden woke up +ragingly; but I knew that I stood a good chance of killing myself +after my long fast unless I held my appetite well in hand, and so I +began with a tin of peaches--opening it with a knife that I found +there--and it seemed to me that those peaches were the most delicious +thing that I had tasted since I was born. After they were down I went +on deck again--to be out of reach of temptation--and staid there +resolutely for an hour; getting at this time, and also keeping myself +a little quiet, by counting six thousand slowly--and it did seem to me +as though I never should get to the end! Then I had another of those +delicious tins; and after a trying half hour of waiting I had a third; +and then--being no longer ravenous, and no longer having the feeling +of infinite emptiness--I laid down on the deck just outside the cabin +scuttle and slept like a tree in winter until well along in the +afternoon. + +I woke as hungry as a hound, but with a comfortable and natural sort +of hunger that I set myself to satisfying with good strong food: +eating a tin of meat with a lively relish and without any following +stomach-ache, and drinking the juice of a tin of peaches after +it--there being no water fit to drink on board. My meal began to set +me on my feet again; but I still felt so tired and so shaky that I +decided to stay where I was until the next morning--having at last a +comforting sense of security that took away my desire to hurry and +made me wholly easy in my mind. And this feeling got stronger as the +sun fell away westward and made a crimson bank of mist along the +horizon, against which I saw the funnels of more than a dozen +steamers--and so knew that the coast of my continent surely was close +by. What I would do when I got to the steamers was a matter that I did +not bother about. For the moment I was satisfied with the certainty +that I would find aboard of them food in plenty and a comfortable +place to sleep in, and that was enough. And so I did not make any +plans, or even think much; but just ate as much supper as I could +stow away in my carcase, and then settled myself in the schooner's +cabin for the night. + +In the morning I was so well rested, and felt so fresh again, that I +was eager to get on; and I was so light-hearted that I fell to singing +as I pushed forward briskly, being full of hope once more and of airy +fancies that I had only to reach the edge of the wreck-pack in order +to hit upon some easy way of getting off from it out over the open +sea. A little thinking would have shown me, of course, that my fancies +had nothing to rest on, and that coming once more to the coast of my +continent was only to be where I was when my long journey through that +death-stricken mass of rottenness began; but the reaction of my +spirits was natural enough after the gloom that for so long had held +them, and so was the castle-building that I took to as I went onward +as to what I would do with my great treasure when at last I had it +safe out in the living world. + +Although I did not doubt that food of some sort was to be found on +board of all the vessels which I should cross that day, I guarded +against losing time in looking for it by carrying along with me a +couple of tins of meat--slung on my shoulders in a wrapping of +canvas--and on one of these, about noon-time, I made a good meal. When +I had finished it I was sorry enough that I had not brought a tin of +peaches too, for the meat was pretty well salted and made me as +thirsty as a fish very soon after I got it down. + +But my thirst was not severe enough to trouble me greatly; and, +indeed, I partly forgot it in my steadily growing excitement as I +pressed forward and more and more distinctly saw the funnels of a +whole fleet of steamers looming up through the golden mist ahead of me +like chimneys in a sun-shot London fog. And so the afternoon went by, +and my crooked rough path slipped away behind me so rapidly that by a +good hour before sunset I was near enough to the steamers to see not +only their funnels but their hulls. + +The look of one of them, and she was one of the nearest, was so +familiar as I began to make her out clearly that I was sure that I had +got back again to the _Hurst Castle_; for she was just about the size +of the _Hurst Castle_, and was lying with her bow down in the water +and her stern high in the air--and the delight of this discovery threw +me into such a ferment that I quite forgot how tired I was and fairly +ran across the last half dozen vessels that I had to traverse before I +came under her tall side. However, when I got close to her I saw that +she was not the _Hurst Castle_ after all, but only another unlucky +vessel that had broken her nose in collision and so had filled forward +and gone sagging down by the bows. + +As it happened, the wreck from which I had to board her was a little +water-logged brig, close under her quarter, so low-lying that the +tilted-up stern of the steamer fairly towered above the brig like a +three-story house; and at first it seemed to me that I was about as +likely to climb up a house-front as I was to climb up that high smooth +wall of iron. But a part of the brig's foremast still was standing, +and from it a yard jutted out to within jumping distance of the +steamer's rail; and while that was not a way that I fancied--nor a way +that ever I should have dared to take, I suppose, had there been any +choice in the matter--up it I had to go. Hot as I was though with +eagerness, I was a badly scared man as I slowly got to my feet and +steadied myself for a moment on the end of the yard and then jumped +for it; and a very thankful man, an instant later, when I struck the +steamer's rail and fell floundering inboard on her deck--though I +bruised myself in my fall pretty badly, and got an unexpected crack on +the back of my head as my bag of jewels flew up and hit me with +a bang. + +However, no real harm was done; and I was so keen to look about me +that in a moment I was on my legs again and went forward, limping a +little, that I might get up on the bridge: for my strongest +desire--stronger even than my longing to go in search, of the water +that I did not doubt I would find in the steamer's tanks--was to gaze +out over the open ocean, across which I had to go in some way if ever +again I was to be free. + +The sun was close down on the horizon, a red ball of fire glowing +through the mist, and in the mist above and over the surface of the +sea below a red light shone. But as I stood on the bridge looking at +this strange splendor all my hope died away slowly within me and a +chill settled upon my heart. As far as ever I could see the water was +covered thickly with tangled and matted weed, broken only here and +there by hummocks of wreckage and by a few hulks drifting in slowly to +take their places in the ranks of the dead. The almost imperceptible +progress of these hulks showed how dense was the mass through which +they were drifting; and showed, too, how utterly impossible it would +be for me to force my way in a boat driven by oars or sails to the +clear water lying far, far off. Even a steamer scarcely could have +pushed through that tangle; and could not have gone twice her own +length without hopelessly fouling her screw. And it seemed to me that +I might better have died on one of the old rotten hulks among which I +had been for so long a time wandering--where hope was not, and where I +was well in the mood for dying--rather than thus to have got clear of +them, and have hope come back to me, only to bring up short against +the wall of my sea-prison and so find myself held fast there for all +the remainder of my days. And I was the more savagely bitter because I +had no right whatever to be disappointed. What I saw was not new to +me, and I had known what I was coming to--though I had kept down my +thoughts about it--all along. + + + + + +XXXI + +HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + + +The steamer that I had come aboard of proved to be French; and that +she had not long been abandoned I knew by finding an abundance of ice +in her cold-room and a great deal of fresh meat there too. Had she +been manned by a stiff-necked crew she would not have been abandoned +at all. She had been in collision, and her bow-compartment was full of +water; but the water had not got aft of her foremast, and except that +she was down by the head a little she was not much the worse for her +bang. That her captain had tried to carry on after the accident was +shown by the sail that had been set in place very snugly over her +smashed bows; and I greatly wondered why he had given up the fight, +until I found--getting a look at her stern from one of the wrecks +lying near her--that her screw was gone. This second accident +evidently had been too much for her people and they had taken to the +boats and left her. But I think that an English or an American crew +would have stood by her, and would have succeeded in getting her +towed into port--or even would have brought her in under her own +sails. She was called the _Ville de Saint Remy_, and was a fine boat +of about five thousand tons. + +All that I had hoped to find aboard of her in the way of comforts and +luxuries was there, and more too. Indeed, if a good bed, and the best +of food, and excellent wines and tobacco, had been all that I wanted I +very well might have settled myself on the _Ville de Saint Remy_ for +the balance of my days. But I almost resented the luck which had +brought me all these things--for which I had been longing so keenly +but a few hours before--because I did not find with them what I +desired still more earnestly: the means that would enable me to get +away seaward and leave them all behind. What such means would be, it +is only fair to add, I could not imagine; at least, I could not +imagine anything at all reasonable--for the only thing I could think +of that would carry me out across that weed-covered ocean to open +water was a balloon. + +And so, although I fed daintily and drank of the best, and had good +tobacco to cheer me after my meals, my first day aboard the _Ville de +Saint Remy_ was as sad a one as any that I had passed since I had come +into my sea-prison; for while the daylight lasted, and I wandered +about her decks looking always at the barrier of weed which held me +there, I had clearly before me the impossibility of ever getting +away. Only when darkness came, hiding my prison walls from me, did I +become a little more cheerful--as the very human disposition to make +light of difficulties when they no longer are visible began to assert +itself in my mind. + +Down in the comfortable cabin, well lighted and airy, I had a capital +dinner--and a bottle of sound Bordeaux with it that no doubt added a +good deal to my sanguine cheerfulness; and to end with I made myself +some delicious coffee--over a spirit-lamp that I found in the +pantry--and had with it a glass of Benedictine and a very choice +cigar. And all of these luxurious refreshments of the flesh--which set +me to smiling a little as I thought of the contrast that they made to +my surroundings--so comforted my spirit that my gloomy thoughts left +me, and I began to plan airily how I would start off in a boat well +loaded with provisions and somehow or another push my way through the +weed. I even got along to details: deciding that it would be quite an +easy matter to open a way through the tangle over the bows of my boat +with an oar--or with an axe, if need be--and then press forward by +poling against the weed on each side; which seemed so feasible a +method that I concluded I could accomplish readily at least a mile a +day. And so, with these fine fancies dancing in my brain, I settled +myself into a delightful bed; and as I drowsed off deliciously I had +the comforting conviction that in a little while longer all my +difficulties would be conquered and all my troubles at an end. + +With the return of daylight, giving me an outlook over the +weed-covered water again, most of my hopefulness left me along with +most of my faith in my airily-made plan; but even in this colder mood +it did seem to me that there was at least a chance of my pulling +through--and my slim courage was strengthened by the feeling within me +that unless I threw myself with all my energy into work of some sort I +presently would find myself going melancholy mad. And so, but only +half-heartedly, I mustered up resolution to make a trial of my poor +project for getting away. + +On board the _Ville de Saint Remy_ there was nothing to be done. The +corner-stone of my undertaking was finding a boat and launching it, +and the Frenchmen--in their panic-stricken scamper from a danger that +was mainly in their own lively imaginations--had carried all their +boats away. It was necessary, therefore, that I should go on a cruise +among the other wrecks lying around me in search of a boat still in a +condition to swim; but I was very careful this time--profiting by my +rough experience--to make sure before I started of my safe return. +Fortunately the stern of the steamer was so high out of the water +that it rose conspicuously above the wrecks lying thereabouts; but to +make her still more conspicuous I roused out a couple of French flags +and an American flag from her signal-chest and set them at her three +mastheads--giving to our own colors the place of honor on the +mainmast--and so made her quite unmistakable from as far off as I +could see her through the haze. And as a still farther precaution +against losing myself I hunted up a hatchet to take along with me to +blaze my way. All of which matters being attended to, I made a rope +fast to the rail--knotting it at intervals, so that I could climb it +again easily--and so slipped down the steamer's side. + +My business was only with the wrecks lying along the extreme outer +edge of the pack--from which alone it would be possible for me to +launch a boat in the event of my finding one--but in order to get from +one to the other of them I had to make so many long detours that my +progress was very slow. Indeed, by the time that noon came, and I +stopped to eat my dinner--which I had brought along with me, that I +need not have to hunt for it--I had made less than half a mile in a +straight line. And in none of the vessels that I had crossed--except +on one lying so far in the pack as to be of no use to me--had I found +a single boat that would swim. Nor had I any better luck when I went +on with my search again in the afternoon. As it had been in the case +of the _Hurst Castle_ so it had been, I suppose, in the case of all +the wrecks which I examined that day: either their boats had been +staved-in or washed overboard by tempest, or else had served to carry +away their crews. But what had become of them, so far as I was +concerned, made no difference--the essential matter was that they were +gone. And so, toward evening, I turned backward from my fruitless +journey and headed for the _Ville de Saint Remy_ again--for I had +found no other ship so comfortable in the course of my explorations--and +got safe aboard of her just as the sun was going down. + +That night I had not much comfort in the good dinner that I set out +for myself--though I was glad enough to get it, being both hungry and +tired--and I only half plucked up my spirits over my coffee and cigar. +But still, as the needs of my body were gratified, my mind got so far +soothed and refreshed that I held to my purpose--which had been pretty +much given over when I came back tired and hungry after my vain +search--and I went to bed resolute to begin again my explorations on +the following day. + +But when the morning came and I set off--though I had a good breakfast +inside of me, and such a store of food by me as fairly would have set +me dancing with delight only a week before--I was in low spirits and +went at my work rather because I was resolved to push through with it +than because I had any strong hope that it would give me what +I desired. + +This time--having already examined the wrecks for near a mile +northward along the edge of the pack--I set my course for the south; +and again, until late in the afternoon, I worked my way from ship to +ship--with long detours inland from time to time in order to get +around some break in the coast-line--and on all of them the result was +the same: not a boat did I find anywhere that was not so riven and +shattered as to be beyond all hope of repair. And at nightfall I came +back once more to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ wearied out in body and +utterly dispirited in mind. + +Even after I had eaten my dinner and was smoking at my ease in the +cheerfully lighted cabin, sitting restfully in a big arm-chair and +with every sort of material comfort at hand, I could not whip myself +up to hoping again. It was true that I had not exhausted the +possibilities of finding the boat that I desired so eagerly, for my +search along the coast-line had extended for only about a mile each +way; but in my down-hearted state it seemed to me that my search had +gone far enough to settle definitely that what I wanted was not to be +found. And this brought down on me heavily the conviction that my +prison--though it was the biggest, I suppose, that ever a man was shut +up in--must hold me fast always: and with that feeling in it there no +longer was room for hope also in my heart. + + + + + +XXXII + +I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + + +When I had finished my breakfast the next morning I faced the worst +thing which I had been forced to face since I had been cast prisoner +into the Sargasso Sea: a whole day of idleness without hope. Until +then there had not been an hour--save when I was asleep--that I had +not been doing something which in some way I had hoped would better my +condition temporarily, or would tend toward my deliverance. But that +morning I was without such spurs to effort and there was absolutely +nothing for me to do. My condition could not be improved by making my +home on another vessel; it was doubtful, indeed, if in all the +wreck-pack I could find a home so comfortable and so abundantly +stocked with the best provisions as I had found aboard of the _Ville +de Saint Remy_. As for working farther for my deliverance, I had set +that behind me after my experience during the two preceding days. And +so I brought a steamer-chair out on the deck and sat in it smoking, +idle and hopeless, gazing straight out before me with a dull +steadfastness over the very gently undulating surface of the +weed-covered sea. + +After a while, tiring of sitting still, I began to pace the deck +slowly; and I was so heavy with my sorrow that I could not think +clearly, but had only in my mind a confused feeling that I was taking +the first of a series of walks such as wild animals imprisoned take +endlessly back and forth behind the bars that shut them in. And from +this I went on to thinking, still in the same confused way, that the +wild animals at least were not outcast in their captivity--having +living people and living beasts around them, and the pleasure of +hearing living sounds--while one of the worst things about my prison +was the absolute dead silence that hung over it like a dismal cloud. +And perhaps it was because my thoughts happened at that moment to be +set to take notice of such matters that I fancied I heard a very faint +sound of scratching and an instant later a still fainter little cry. + +I was standing just then close to the water-line on the deck forward, +beside a covered hatch that seemed to lead to what had been the +quarters of the crew; and it was from beneath this hatch, I was +certain, that the sounds came. Slight though the noise was, it greatly +startled me; and at the same time it aroused in me the +strangely-thrilling hope that there possibly might be a living man +still aboard of the steamer and that I would be no longer horribly +alone. Yet I would not suffer myself too much to give room to this +happy hope, for the little faint scratching--which I heard again +presently--was not the sort of noise that a man shut in would be +likely to make; nor did the little plaintive sound seem like a human +cry. But the matter was one to be investigated in a hurry, and with an +energy quite astonishing, in comparison with my lassitude of a moment +before, I got the hatch open and leaned down it, listening; and then I +heard the scratching so plainly that I hurried down the stair. + +The between-decks was well enough lighted by a good-sized skylight, +and the place that I had got into had fixed tables set in it and +seemed to be the mess-room of the crew. Doors opened out from it both +fore and aft; and from behind the after door--so plainly that I had no +difficulty in placing it--came the scratching sound that I was +pursuing: and with it came the cries again, and this time so +distinctly as to shatter my hope of finding a human being there, but +at the same time to make me, for all my sorrow, almost smile. For the +cry was a very long and plaintive m-i-i-a-a-u! And the next moment, +when I had the door open, a great black cat came out upon me--so +overcome with delight at meeting a human being again that he was +almost choking with his gurgling purr. Indeed the extravagant joy of +the poor lonely creature was as great as mine would have been had I +found a man there--and he manifested it by lunging sidewise against my +legs, and by standing up on his hind paws and reaching his fore paws +up to my knees and clutching them, and then with a spring he climbed +right up me--all the while choking with his great gurgling +purring--and was not satisfied until he found himself bundled close +against my breast as I held him tight in my arms. And on my +side--after I had gulped down my first disappointment because it was +only a cat who was my fellow-prisoner--I was as glad to meet him as he +was to meet me; and I am not ashamed to say that I fairly cried over +him--as a warm rush of joy went over me at finding myself at last, +after being for so long a time surrounded only by the dead, in the +company of a living creature; and a creature which showed toward me by +every means that a brute beast could compass its gratitude and +its love. + +And I must add without delay that my cat's affection for me was wholly +disinterested; at least, I am sure that he loved me--from the first +moment of our encounter--not because he wanted me to do something for +him, but because he longed, as I did, for human companionship and was +filled up with happiness because he had found again a human friend. As +I discovered upon investigation, his prison had been the galley in +which food for the crew had been cooked; and upon the odds and ends +left there he had fared very well indeed--not overeating himself by +gobbling down all his food in a hurry, and then dying of starvation, +as a dog would have done, but temperately eating for his daily rations +only what his sustenance required; and for drink he had had a pot +partly full of what had been hot water that stood upon the galley +stove. But I also must add that this coarse fare was not at all to his +liking; and that thereafter he ordered me around pretty sharply, in +his own way, and insisted always upon my providing him with +dainty food. + +It was a good thing for the cat, certainly, that I had found him; for +his stock of provisions was pretty nearly exhausted, and in a little +while longer he would have come to a dismal end. But my finding him +was a still better thing for me. When I first heard his faint little +scratching, and his still fainter plaintive little call for help, I +was so deep in my despairing melancholy that my reason was in a fair +way to go, and with it all farther effort on my part to set myself +free. From that desperate state my small adventure with him roused me, +which was a good deal to thank him for; but I had more to thank him +for still. + +In the little time that I had been aboard of the _Ville de Saint +Remy_--my days having been passed away from her--I had made no +exploration of her interior beyond her cabin and the region in which +were carried her cabin stores; which latter were so abundant as to set +me at my ease for an indefinite period in regard to food. But this +meeting with my fellow-prisoner so stirred me up, and put such fresh +spirit into me, that I began to think of having a general look all +over her: that I might in a way take stock of my belongings and at the +same time have something to occupy my mind--for I knew that to sit +down idly again would be only again to fall back into despair. And so, +my cat going with me--and, indeed, making a good deal of a convenience +of me, for he by no means would walk on his own legs but insisted upon +jumping up on my shoulder and going that way as a passenger--I set off +on my round. + +As well as I could make out from what I found on board of her--for her +papers either had been carried away or were stowed in some place which +I did not discover--the _Ville de Saint Remy_ had been bound outward +to some colonial port and carried a cargo of general stores. When I +got her hatches off--though that came later--I saw in one place a lot +of wheelbarrows, and some heavy wagons stowed with their wheels inside +of them, and some machinery for threshing along with a portable +steam-engine; and in another place were boxes which seemed to have +dry-goods in them, and a great many cases of wines, and some very big +cases that evidently contained pianos--and so on with a great lot of +stuff such as the people of a flourishing colony would be likely +to need. + +But in my round that morning with the cat on my shoulders--for he was +not content to remain perched on one of them quietly, but kept passing +from one to the other with affectionate rubs against the back of my +head, and all the while purring as hard as he could purr--I did not +get below the main-deck except into the engine-room, my attention +being given to finding out fully what the steamer had on board of her +in the way of work-shops and tools: for already, with my renewed +cheerfulness, the notion was beginning to take hold of me that I might +set to work and build a boat for myself--and so make what I could not +find. And, indeed, I don't doubt that I should have set myself to this +big undertaking--for the appointments of the vessel were admirably +complete and everything that I wanted for my work was there--had not a +bigger, but a more promising, undertaking presented itself to me and +so turned my efforts into another way. + + + + + +XXXIII + +I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + + +It was directly to my cat that I owed the great piece of good fortune +that then came to me: but I must confess that he was an unwilling +agent in the matter, and probably wished himself well out of it, the +immediate result in his case being rather a bad squeeze to one of his +fore paws. + +We had been examining the machine-shop, the cat and I, and whatever +his views about it may have been mine were of great satisfaction; for +when I had got the dead-lights unscrewed so that I could see well +about me I had been delighted by finding there everything that my +boat-building project required. Indeed, I almost fancied myself back +again in one of the work-shops of the Stevens Institute, so well was +the place fitted and supplied--a completeness probably due to the fact +that the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was intended for long voyages to +out-of-the-way ports, and very well might have to depend upon her own +resources for important repairs. + +It was as we were leaving the machine-shop to continue our round of +investigations that my cat suddenly took it into his head to jump down +from my shoulders and stretch his own legs a little; and away he +scampered--being much given to such frisking dashes, as I later +discovered, though for the next week or so after that one he went +limping on three legs mighty soberly--first down the deck aft, and +then past me and up a dark passage leading toward the bows; and I, +being pretty well accustomed to cat habits, stood waiting until he +should have his fun out and so come back again with a miau by way of +"if you please" to be taken up into my arms. But he did not come back +in any great hurry, and off in the darkness I could hear his paws +padding about briskly; and then there was silence for a moment; and +then he broke out into a loud miauling which showed that he was in +trouble of some sort and also in pain. + +As there was no helping him until I could see what was the matter with +him, I hurried first into the machine-shop for a wrench, and then went +forward into that dark place cautiously--until by a glint of light on +the ship's side I made out where a port was, and so got loose the +deadlight and could look around. What I saw was my poor cat in such a +pickle that I did not in the least blame him for crying out about it; +he having, as it seemed, made an unlucky jump upon some small bars of +iron which were lying loose and disorderly, with the one on which he +landed balanced so nicely that it had turned suddenly and jammed fast +his paw. And so he was anchored there very painfully, and was telling +what he thought about it in the most piercing yowls. + +Fortunately it was an easy matter to let him loose from the trap that +he had got into; but even while I was doing it--and before I picked +him up to look at his hurt and to comfort him--I gave a shout of +delight on my own account that was a good deal louder than any of my +poor cat's yells of pain. For there before me was a very stout-looking +and large steam-launch--thirty-two feet over all, as I found when I +came to measure her--stowed snugly in a cradle set athwart-ship and +looking all ready to be put overboard into the sea. And at finding in +this unexpected fashion what I had been so long looking for, and had +quite done with hoping for, it is no wonder that I shouted with joy. + +My cat coming limping to me to be pitied and cared for, holding up his +pinched paw and with little miaus asking for my sympathy quite like a +Christian, I had first of all to give him my attention. But his hurt +was not a very serious one--the flesh not being cut, and no bones +broken--and when I had comforted him as well as I could, until I got +him soothed a little, I put him down out of my arms that I might +examine carefully my great prize; but first of all opening all the +ports so that I might have plenty of light for what I wanted to do. + +Coming to this deliberate survey, I found that the launch truly enough +was complete, but that she was very far from being ready to take the +water; for while all her parts were there--and even duplicates of her +more important pieces, in readiness against a break-down--most of her +fittings and all of her machinery was lying inside of her boxed for +transportation; being arranged that way, I suppose, because she would +have been far too heavy to swing into the snug place where I found her +and out again with everything bolted fast. She was a very beautiful +little boat, evidently intended for a pleasure craft--but very strong +and seaworthy, too; and it no doubt was to keep her in good order for +delivery that she had been stowed between-decks for the long voyage. +Indeed, only with a steam-winch and a good many men to handle her, +could she have been got down there; and the first of my uncomfortable +thoughts about her, of the many that I had first and last, came while +I was taking stock of her equipment--as I fell to wondering how in the +world I should manage, with only a cat to help me, ever to get her +overboard into the sea. + +As to assembling her parts, and so making her ready for cruising, I +had no doubts whatever. That piece of work was directly in the line +of my training and I felt entirely secure about it; but even on that +score I quaked a good deal at the size of the contract to be taken by +a single pair of hands, and at thought of the long, long while that +would be required to carry it through. Yet the hope that came with +finding this boat put such heart into me that my spirits did not go +down far. Working on her--aside from the pleasure that any man with a +natural love for mechanics finds in serious and difficult labor with +his hands--would be a constant delight to me because of what it would +be leading to; and in every moment of my work I would have to sustain +me the thought that each rivet set in place and each bolt fastened +brought me appreciably nearer to being set free. + +Having cursorily finished with the boat, I continued my survey to her +surroundings; that I might plan roughly my scheme of work upon her, +and that I might plan also for getting her launched when my work upon +her should be done. She was stowed on the main-deck--in a place that +probably was intended for the use of third-class passengers, when such +were carried--and the machine-shop was so close to her that in the +matter of fetching tools and so on my steps would be well saved. +Directly over her was the forward hatch; through which she had been +lowered and set in place in the cradle previously made ready for her, +and there fixed firm and fast. For a moment I had the fancy that I +might get up steam to work the donkey-engine and so hoist her out +again by that same way, and overboard too. But a very little +reflection showed me that this airily formed plan must be abandoned, +as all my work on her then would have to be done far away from the +machine-shop and with the additional disadvantage that through the +long time that certainly must pass before I could get her finished she +would lie open to the daily heavy rains. And then I had the much more +reasonable notion--though the amount of extra labor that it involved +was not encouraging to contemplate--that I would do my work on her +where she lay; and when I had finished her that I would cut loose a +sufficient number of plates from the side of the steamer to make a +hole big enough to get her overboard that way. + +But having the hatch directly over where she was lying, though I could +not get her up through it, made my undertaking a good deal easier and +more comfortable for me. Even with all the ports open I would have had +but little light to work by; and, what was of even more importance in +that hot misty region, I would have had little fresh air--and still +less when I had set a-going my forge. But with the hatch off I could +have all the light that I needed and as much fresh air as was to be +had--with the advantage that the hatch could be set in place every +night when I went off duty and not opened again in the morning until +the rain was at an end: so preserving my machinery against the rust +that pretty much would have ruined it--for all that it was well +tallowed--had my slow building gone on in the open air. + +My preliminary investigations being thus well ended, and the morning +ended too, I piped all hands to dinner; that is to say, I whistled to +my cat--who had been sitting still and watching me pretty solemnly, +his friskiness being for the time taken out of him by the pain in his +paw--and when he perceived that I was paying some attention to him +again he came limping to me on his three good legs and said with a +miau that if I pleased he would prefer going to his dinner in my arms. +And when I picked him up--as, indeed, I had to, for he positively +insisted upon my carrying him--he forgot about his hurt and fell to +purring to me at a great rate and to making little gentle thrusts +against my arm with the fore paw that was sound. And so we went aft in +great friendship and contentment and had a gay dinner together: the +cat sitting on the table opposite to me with all possible decorum--but +manifesting his daintiness by refusing to eat anything but tinned +chicken, and only the white meat at that! + + + + + +XXXIV + +I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + + +When my meal was finished I set myself first of all to getting off the +hatch beneath which my boat lay; and this proved to be a bigger job +than I had counted upon--each of its sections being so heavy that I +could not manage it without tackle, and even with tackle the work took +me a good hour. My plan of operations had included removing the hatch +every morning and setting it back again every night, but when I found +how much energy and time would be wasted in that way I changed my +front a little and got at the same result along another line. All that +I needed was a covering for the hatch that would keep the rain out; +and what I did, therefore, was to knock together a light grating of +wood to fit over it--sloping the grating downward on each side from a +sort of a ridge pole--on which a tarpaulin could be stretched; and in +that way I got shortly to a water-tight covering for my hatch that I +could shift back and forth quickly and without any trouble at all. But +the whole of what remained of the afternoon was spent in getting +that piece of preliminary work finished to my mind. + +The next morning I set myself to the examination of the stuff stowed +in the boat--the several parts which I would have to put together in +order to make my craft ready for the sea--and for this job also a +great deal of preliminary arrangement was required. Many of the +pieces--as the boiler, the cylinder, the shaft, the screw, and the +sections of the cabin--were too heavy for me to lift without tackle; +and as they all had to be got out and arranged in order ready for use, +and then in due course put aboard the boat one at a time in their +proper places, I first of all had to set up some sort of lifting +apparatus to take the place of a crane. + +In this matter the open hatch directly over the boat again was a help +to me. Across it, running fore and aft, I stretched a heavy wire rope +on which I had placed a big block for a traveller, and carrying the +end of the rope forward to the capstan I fell to work with the +hand-bars and got it strained so taut that it was like a bar of iron. +Then to the traveller block I made fast my hoisting tackle--and so was +able to swing up the heavy pieces from where they were stowed, and to +run them along the taut rope until they were clear of the boat on +either side, and then to let them down upon the deck: where they would +remain until a reversal of this process would lift them up again and +set them in place as they were required. But even with my tackle--and +double tackle in the case of the heavier pieces--this was a +back-breaking job that took up the whole of three days. + +However, I finished it at last, and had the boat clear and all the +pieces so arranged that as I needed them they would be ready to my +hand; and the examination that I was able to make of them, and of the +boat too after I had her empty, gave very satisfactory results. All +the parts were there, and all numbered so carefully that they could +have been assembled by much less skilful hands than mine; while the +hull of the boat was completely finished, and the sockets and +rivet-holes for attaching her fittings were all as they should be in +her frame. Farther, I could see by the little scratches here and there +on her iron-work that she had been set up and then taken apart again; +and so was sure that all was smooth for her coming together in the +right way. But, for all that I had such plain sailing before me in the +actual work of refitting her, my courage went down a little as I +perceived what a big contract I had taken, and what a very long time +must pass before I could pull it through. + +Moreover, I saw that while the boat was well built for pleasure +cruising in smooth water--and, indeed, was so stout in her frame that +she would stand a great deal of knocking about without being the +worse for it--she by no means was prepared for the chances of an ocean +voyage. Except where her little cabin and engine-room would be--the +two filling about half of her length amidships--she was entirely open; +and while the frame of her cabin was stoutly built, that part of it +intended to rise above the rail was arranged for sliding glass +windows--which would be smashed in a moment by a heavy dash of sea. It +was clear, therefore, that in addition to setting her up on the lines +planned for her--a big job and a long job to start with--there was a +lot more for me to do. To fit her for my purposes it would be +necessary to cover her cabin windows with planking; to deck her over +forward in order to have my stores under cover as well as to guard +against shipping enough water to swamp her in rough weather; and +finally to rig her with a mast and sail upon which to fall back for +motive-power in the event of my running out of coal. This additional +work would not, in one way, present any difficulties--it being in +itself simple and easy of accomplishment; but in another way it was +not pleasant to contemplate, since the doing of it all single-handed +would increase very greatly the time which must pass before I could +start upon my voyage. However, as consideration of that phase of the +matter only tended to discourage me, I put it out of sight as well as +I was able and set myself with a will to finishing my preliminary +work--of which there still was a good deal to do. + +The steamer's machine-shop, as I have said, was unusually well fitted +and supplied; but even in the short time that the vessel had been +lying abandoned in that reeking atmosphere rust had so coated +everything not shut up in lockers that all the tools in the racks and +the fittings of the lathe--although the lathe had an oil-cloth hood +over it--had to be cleaned before they could be used: a job that kept +me busy with the grind-stone, and emery-cloth, and oiled cotton-waste, +for a good long while. And after that I had to get the forge in order, +and to bring up fuel for it from the coal bunkers. And in attending to +all these various matters the time slipped away so quickly that a +whole week had passed before I had done. + +But I must say that as the cat and I labored together--though his +labors were confined to cheering me by following me about on three +legs wherever I went, and pretty much all the while talking to me in +his way so that I should not fail to take notice of him--I got more +and more light-hearted; which was natural enough, seeing that what I +was doing in itself interested me and so made the time pass quickly, +and that I had also a great swelling undercurrent of hope as I +thought of what my slow-going work would bring me to in the end. + +When at last I fairly got started at my building I was in a still +more cheerful mood--there being such a sense of definite +accomplishment as I set each piece in its place, and such a comfort in +the tangible advance that I was making, that half the time I was +singing as I made my bolts and rivets fast. But for all my +cheerfulness I had a plenty of trouble over what I was doing; and I +was sorry enough that I had not somebody beside my cat to help me, or +that I myself had not another pair or two of hands. + +Almost at the start, when I began to swing the pieces of machinery +inboard, I found that I had still another bit of preliminary work to +attend to before I could go on. My travelling tackle crossing the boat +amidships had worked well enough in getting the stuff out of her, but +when I came to hoisting the parts aboard and setting them exactly in +their places, and holding them steady while I made fast the rivets, it +would not in any way serve my turn. What I had to do was to stretch +another wire rope across the hatch--at right angles with and a couple +of feet above the first one, and parallel with the boat's keel--and to +rig on this two travellers, to one or the other of which I could +transfer each piece as I got it inboard and so run it along until I +had it exactly over the place where it was to be made fast. But I was +a whole day in attending to this matter--and it was only one of the +many makeshifts to which I had to resort to accomplish what was too +much for my unaided strength; and in meeting such like side +difficulties I lost in all a good many days. + +But though my work went very slowly, and now and then was stopped +short for a while by some obstacle that had to be overcome in any +rough and ready way that I could think of, I did get on; and at last I +had my boat together on the lines that her builders had planned. Yet +while, in a way, she was finished, there still was a weary lot to do +to her to fit her for my purposes; and in decking her over, and in +making her cabin solid, and in fitting a mast and sail to her, I spent +almost two months more. + +All this work went slowly because I had to spend nearly as much time +in making ready for what I wanted to do as in doing it. Before I began +my planking I had to rip up from the steamer's deck the material for +it; and this was a hard job in itself and did not give me what I +wanted when it was done--for while the stuff served well enough for my +beams and braces it was clumsily heavy for the decking of my little +launch. But it had to answer, and in the end I got it well in place +and the joints so tightly caulked that I was sure of having a dry +hold. And that my deck might the more easily turn the water in a sea +way I made it flush with the rail; and I had no hatch in +it--arranging to get to the hold by a scuttle that I set in the +forward end of the cabin--and that gave me a still better chance of +keeping dry below. + +For my mast I got down one of the top-gallant masts--and I had a close +shave to coming down with it and so ending my adventures right there. +The best way that I could think of to manage this piece of work--and I +have not since thought of any way better--was to make fast a line to +the lower end of the top-gallant mast just above the cap of the +topmast and to carry this line through the top-block and so down to +the deck, and there to pass it through another block to the capstan +and haul it taut and stop it; and when all that was in order, and the +stays cut, to get up into the cross-trees and saw through the spar +just below where I had whipped it with my line. My expectation was +that as the spar parted and fell it would be held hanging by my tackle +until I could get down to the deck again and lower it away; and that +really was what did happen--only as it fell there was a bit of slack +line to take up, and this gave such a tremendous jerk to the +cross-trees that I was within an ace of being shaken out of them and +of going down to the deck with a bang. But I didn't--which is the main +thing--and I did get my mast. It was a good deal heavier than my boat +could stand, and I had to spend a couple of days in taking it down +with a broad-axe and in finishing it with a plane until I got it as it +should be; and from the flag-staff at the steamer's stern I got out +with very little trouble a good boom and gaff. + +After that I had only my sail to fit; and as I did not trouble myself +to make a very neat job of it this did not take me long. Indeed, I +grudged the time that I spent on my mast and sail--close upon a +fortnight, altogether--more than any like amount of time that I gave +to my task; for my hope was strong that I would not need a sail at +all, but would be able to manage--by a way that I had thought of--to +carry enough coal with me to make my voyage under steam. But I was not +leaving anything to chance--so far as chances could be foreseen--in +the adventure that I was about to make, and so I got my sail-power all +ready to fall back upon in case my steam-power failed. And when that +bit of work was finished I was full of a joyful light-heartedness; for +my boat in every way was ready for the water, and I was come at last +to the good ending of my long job. + +That night I made a feast in celebration of what I had accomplished, +and in hope of my greater good fortune that I believed was soon to +come--with a place duly set on the opposite side of the table for my +only guest, and with a champagne-glass beside his plate to hold his +unsweetened condensed milk (for which, when I found it among the +ship's stores, he manifested a strong partiality) that he might lap +properly his responses to the toasts which I pledged him in +champagne. And I don't suppose that a man and a cat ever had a merrier +meal anywhere than we had in that queer place for it that evening; nor +that any two friends ever were happier together than we were when, our +feast being ended, he went through his various tricks--of which he had +learned a great many, and with a wonderful quickness, after his paw +got well--and then settled himself for a snooze on my lap while I sat +smoking my cigar and thinking that at last I had sawn through +my prison bars. + +And it was while I was sitting in that state of placid happiness that +suddenly I was brought up all standing by the reflection--and why it +had not come sooner to me is a mystery--that a dozen turns of the +screw of my launch in that weed-covered ocean would be enough to foul +it hopelessly, and so at the very start to cut short the voyage under +steam that I had planned. + + + + + +XXXV + +I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + + +For a while after this black thought came to me I was pretty much +beaten by it; but when I got steadier--and had finished kicking myself +for a fool because I had not foreseen it all along--I perceived that +the odds were not wholly against me, after all. I had, at least, a +sea-worthy boat in which to make my venture, and therefore was as well +off as I had hoped to be when I had set about looking for one; and if +the plan that I had formed worked out in practice--if I could manage +to force a passage through the tangle by alternately working over the +bow of my boat to break up the weed, and over the sides to pole my +boat forward--I was a great deal better off than I had hoped to be: +for should I win my way to open water I would have steam as well as +sail power at my command. + +But while this more reasonable view of the situation comforted me, it +did not satisfy me. The difficulty of working myself along in that +slow fashion I foresaw would be so enormous that I very well might die +of sheer exhaustion before I got clear of the weed-tangle--which +must extend outward, as I knew from my guess at the time that I had +taken in drifting in through it, for a very long way. What I had been +counting upon ever since I had found the launch was in having part of +the work, and the heaviest part, done by her engine; my part to be the +breaking of a passage, while the motive power was to be supplied by +the screw. But of course if the screw fouled, as it certainly would +foul with the loose weed all around it, that would be the end of my +hopeful plan. + +This consideration of the matter reduced it to a definite problem. +What was needed was some sort of protection for the screw that would +keep the weed away from it and yet would allow it to work freely: and, +having the case thus clearly stated, the thought presently occurred to +me that I could secure this protection by building out from the stern +of the boat, so that the screw would be enclosed in it, some sort of +an iron cage. That arrangement, I conceived, would meet the +requirements of the case fully; and being come to my conclusion I +resigned myself to still another long delay while I carried my plan +into execution, and so went to bed at last hopefully--but well knowing +that this fresh piece of work that I had cut out for myself would be +hard to do. + +I certainly did not overestimate the amount of labor involved in my +cage-building. I was a good three weeks over it. But I was kept up to +the collar by my conviction that without the cage I had no chance of +succeeding in my project; and so I got it finished at last. And then I +considered that my boat really was ready to take the water; and the +cat and I had another banquet in celebration of the long step that we +had taken toward our deliverance--only this time I did not give an +altogether free rein to my rejoicing, being fearful that some other +difficulty might present itself suddenly and bring me up again with a +round turn. + +The boat being ready--for I could think of nothing more to do to +her--I had still to launch her, and the first step toward that end was +breaking out a section in the steamer's side. Luckily the stock of +cold-chisels aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was a good one; but I +dulled them all twice over--and weary work at the grindstone I had +sharpening them again--before I had chipped away the bindings of those +endless rivets and had the satisfaction of seeing the big section of +iron plate between two of her iron ribs pitch outboard and splash down +through the weed into the sea. + +As I have said, the bow compartment of the steamer was full of water, +and this brought her main-deck so low down forward that the boat had +only to be slid out almost on a level through the hole that I had +made. But to slide her that way--which seems easy, because I have +happened to put it glibly--was quite a different thing. With steam +power to work the capstan I could have got the boat overboard in no +time; but without steam power the launching went desperately slowly, +and was altogether the hardest piece of work that I had to do in the +whole of my long hard job. + +The boat had stood all along in the cradle that had been built to hold +her steady for the voyage. This was a very stout wooden framework +built up from two heavy beams joined by cross-pieces, and all so well +bolted together that it was very solid and firm. In this the boat +rested snugly and was held fast by rope lashings; and the cradle +itself--resting on the lower hatch and projecting on each side of +it--was lashed to the hatch ringbolts so as to be safe against +shifting in a heavy sea. I could have removed the cradle by taking it +to pieces, but that would not have helped matters; and the plan that I +decided upon--liking it better because all this wood-work around and +under the boat would protect her from harm as she went overboard--was +to weight the cradle with iron bars that would cause it to sink away +from beneath the boat when they took the water, and then to work it up +with jack-screws until I could get rollers under it and so send them +both together over the side. + +How long I worked over this job I really do not know; but I do know +that at the time it seemed as though it never would come to an end. +First of all I had the rollers to make from another topgallant mast +that I got down, and when these were finished I had to go at the frame +of the cradle with a pair of jack-screws and raise it, by fractions of +an inch, until I could get my rollers under it one at a time. I think +that it was the deadly dullness of this jack-screw work that I most +resented--the stupid monotony of doing precisely the same sort of +utterly wearying work all day long and for day after day. But in the +end I got it finished: all my rollers properly in place, and the +cradle made fast to hold it from starting before I was ready to have +it go--although of that there was not much danger, for while the +steamer had a decided pitch forward she lay on an even keel. + +At first I was for sending my boat overboard the minute that I got the +last roller under her; but I had the sense, luckily, to take a reef in +this brisk intention as the thought struck me that I must have open +water to launch her in or else very likely have boat and cradle +together stuck fast in the weed. And so I set myself to clearing a +little pool into which I could launch her; and as I carried this work +on I came quickly to a realizing sense of what was before me when I +should begin to break a way through the weed for my boat's passage, +and to the conviction that had I tried to make my voyage without steam +to help me I never should have got through at all. + +In point of fact, the weed was so thick and so firmly matted together +that I almost could walk on it; and when I had knocked loose a couple +of doors from their hinges and had thrown them overboard--taking two, +so that I might move one ahead of the other as my cutting advanced--I +had firm enough standing place from which I could slash away. So tough +was the mass that I was a whole day in uncovering a space less than +forty feet long by twenty broad; and when my launching-pool was +finished it had the look of a little pond in a meadow surrounded by +solid banks. + +All this showed me that even with the screw to push while I cleared a +way for the boat's passage I should have my hands full; but it also +put into my head a notion that helped me a good deal in the end. This +was to rig on the straight stem of my boat a set of guide-bars +projecting forward in which I could work perpendicularly a cross-cut +saw, and in that way to cut a slit in the weed--which would be widened +by the boat's nose thrusting into it as the screw shoved her onward, +and so would enable me to squeeze along. And as this was a matter easy +of accomplishment--being only to double over a couple of iron bars so +that there would be a slit a half inch wide for the saw to travel in, +and to bolt them fast to the top and bottom of the boat's stem--I did +it immediately; and it worked so well when I came to try it that I was +glad enough that I had had so lucky a thought. Indeed, had I known +how well it would turn out I should have gone a step farther and +rigged my saw to run by steam power--setting up a frame in the bows to +hold a wheel carrying a pin on which the saw could play and to which I +could make fast a bar from my piston-rod--and in that way saved myself +from the longest bit of back-breaking work that ever I had to do. But +that was a piece of foresight that came afterward, and so did me +no good. + +When my guide-bars were in place, and the saw made ready to slip into +them by taking off one of its handles--and I had still a spare saw to +fall back upon in the event of the first one breaking--my boat was +ready to go overboard into the open water, where she would lie while I +put aboard of her my coal and stores. But the work that was before me, +as I thus came close to it, loomed up very large; and so did the +doubts which beset me as to how my voyage would end. Indeed, it was in +a spirit far from exultant that at last I cut the lashings which held +the cradle; and then with the tackle that I had ready got the heavy +mass started--and in a couple of minutes had my boat safely overboard +and floating free, as the cradle sunk away from under her, carried +down by its lading of iron bars. + +But, whatever was to come of it, the launching of my boat started me +definitely along a fresh line of adventure, and whether I liked it or +not I had to make the best of it: and so I stated the case to my +cat--who had got scared and run off into a corner while the launching +was in progress--when he came marching up to me and seated himself +beside me gravely, as I stood in the break in the steamer's side +looking down at the boat that I hoped would set us free. + + + + + +XXXVI + +HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + + +What would have been most useful to me as foresight, but was only +aggravating to me as hindsight--which happened to be the way that I +got it--was the very sensible notion that I might have put all of my +stores, and even a good part of my coal, aboard the boat before she +was decked over and launched. A few tons more or less would have made +no difference in moving her; but having to put those extra tons aboard +of her over the side of the steamer, and then to drag them through the +cabin and through the awkward little hatch, and at last to stow them +by the light of a lantern in her stillingly close hot hold--all that +made a lot of difference to me. However, I could not foresee +everything; and I think, on the whole, that I really did foresee most +of what I wanted pretty well. + +Of provisions I took along enough to last me, by a rough calculation, +for three months; being pretty well satisfied that unless within that +time I got through the weed-tangle to open water--over which I could +make my way to land, or on which I might fall in with a passing +vessel--I never would get free at all. And I was the more disposed to +keep down my lading of provisions because I wanted every scrap of room +that I could save for my cargo of coal. But my stores were plentiful +for the term that I had fixed upon, and the best and the most +nourishing--save that I could not take fresh meat with me--that the +_Ville de Saint Remy_ had on board; and I did not forget to take a +good supply of the tinned chicken and the condensed milk of which my +dainty cat was so fond. As for water--beside having my condenser to +fall back upon--I felt pretty sure that until I got well out toward +the open sea I could trust to the morning rains. But for all that I +carried two barrels with me--filled fresh the last thing before I +started--stowed in the well of the boat aft of the cabin; and there +too I carried a couple of ten-gallon tins of oil for my lanterns +and lamps. + +My bone-breaking job was getting my coal aboard. For ease in handling +and in stowing it--though I lost a little room that way--I put it in +canvas sacks, of which I luckily found some bales in the steamer's +cargo. These I swung up from the engine-room by the cinder-tackle to +the main deck; and having got them that far I packed them on my back +to the break in the steamer's side where my boat was lying and tumbled +them aboard of her, and then dragged them along to where I stowed +them in her hold. On my coal holding out at least until I got through +the weed--for on open water I could lay a course under sail--the +success of my adventure wholly depended; and knowing that, I filled my +boat with all that I dared to put into her--loading the last twenty +bags on her deck and on the roof of her cabin, to be used before I +drew on my main supply. + +But while this lading was a big one it did not satisfy me; and the +only way that I could think of to better it was to build a long and +narrow raft that I could stow as much more on and tow after me in the +boat's wake. This was a big undertaking, but I had to face it and to +carry it through: lowering down three spars (in managing which I used +a treble-purchase to swing them clear, and eased them down with a +couple of turns of the rope still around the capstan), and when I had +them over the side in a pool that I had cleared for them I lashed them +strongly together and decked them over with some of the state-room +doors. This gave me a raft sixty feet long, or thereabouts, but +narrower than my boat; and to make it follow the boat still more +easily I set a V-shaped cut-water at its bows to turn the weed. To be +sure, it was a clumsy thing, but it well enough served my turn. + +On this structure I was able to carry a prodigious quantity of +coal--more than I had on the boat, by a good deal; but by a little +planning in advance I arranged matters so that the lading of it was +not so hard a piece of work--though in all conscience it was hard +enough--as the lading of my boat had been. What I did was to clear a +pool in the weed for it and to build it directly beneath the outhang +of the cinder-tackle; and having that apparatus ready to my hand I +swung my bags of coal up from the engine-room, and then out along the +traveller, and then lowered them away--and so had only to stow them on +the raft when they were down. But there was only one of me to do all +this--to fill each bag in the bunkers and to bring it to the +engine-room, to make it fast there to the tackle, to come on deck and +haul it up and set it overboard, to go down the side and set it in +place, and then back to the bunkers again for the next round--and so I +spent a week in doing what three men could have done in a day. And I +was a tired man and a grimy man when I got this piece of work +finished; but I was comforted by knowing that I had as much coal in my +sea-stock as I possibly could have use for--and so I scrubbed myself +clean in the steamers bath-room and was easy in my mind. But it was a +good long while before I got the aches out of my bones. + +During my last week aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ I had steam up in +my boat and my engine at work during the greater part of each day: as +was necessary, the engine being new, in order to get the machinery +to running smoothly, and to set right anything that might be wrong +while I still had the steamer's machine-shop to turn to for repairs. +However, the engine proved to be a well-made one, and except that I +had to tighten a joint here and there and to repack the piston I had +nothing to rectify; and what still more pleased me was to find that my +cage answered to keep the screw from fouling, and that my plan for +sawing a way through the weed--which I tested by running a little +distance from the steamer through the thick of it--worked well too. +But because of the great friction to be overcome as the boat opened a +way for itself in the dense soft mass my progress was desperately +slow; and I had to comfort me the reflection that it would be still +slower when I got regularly under way and had in addition to the dead +thrust forward of the boat the dead drag after it of the raft. + +Slow or fast, though, I had no choice in the matter. With the means at +my command, I had done all that I could do to enable me to climb the +walls of my prison--if I may put it that way--and there remained only +to muster what pluck I had to help me and to abide by the result. This +was the view of the situation that I presented to my cat--for I had +got into the habit of talking to him quite as much as he talked to +me--while we sat at supper together on the last evening that we were +to pass on board of the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and while he did not +make much of a reply to me he did mumble some sort of a purring answer +that I took to mean he was willing, if I were, to make the trial. + +Early that morning, while the rain still was falling, I had filled my +two casks with fresh water; and after my breakfast I got them aboard +the boat and then went to work at setting up my mast--using one of the +davits in place of sheers and so managing the job very well. After +that I had rigged the sail, and had set it to make sure that all was +right; and then had furled it and lashed the boom fast on the roof of +the cabin among the bags of coal--and with rather a heavy heart, too, +for I knew that the chances were more than even against my ever +getting to open water and fresh breezes, and so loosing again the +knots which I had just tied. In the afternoon I had set my engine to +going again for an hour, and then had banked my fires against the +morning; and after that, until the shadows began to fall, I had spent +my time in going over the list that I had made of my sea-stock to be +sure that nothing that I needed was forgotten, and in taking a final +general survey of my boat and its stores. And when darkness came the +cat and I had our supper together--which was as good a one as the ship +could provide us with--and when we had finished I told him, as I have +said, what the chances were for and against our succeeding in our +undertaking and in return asked him for an expression of his +own views. + +That he fully understood what I told him I am not prepared to say; but +he certainly did answer me: jumping up on my lap and shoving his paws +alternately against my stomach, and purring in so cheerful a fashion, +and altogether making such a show of good spirits as to satisfy me +that he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through. +And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my own +confident hopes--which were rising strongly as the time for testing +them got close at hand--that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly, +and on my side promised that within another month or two he should +stretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put the +lamp out and we turned in for the night. + + + + + +XXXVII + +HOW MY CAT STILL FARTHER CHEERED ME + + +It was in the grey of early morning, while the rain still was falling, +that the cat and I had our breakfast; and as soon as the rain was over +I was down in the boat, and had off the tarpaulin that covered her +stern-sheets, and was busy bringing up my banked fires. One thing that +I had learned how to do during the week that I had been testing my +engine was to bank my fires well; and that was a matter of a good deal +of importance to me--since every night during my voyage the fires +would have to be kept that way, on the double score of my inability to +hold my course in the darkness and of my need for sleep. + +Presently I had steam up; and then I went back to the ship for the +last and most important piece of my cargo--my bag of jewels. It was +with a queer feeling, half of doubt and half of exultation, that I +fetched out this little bundle--still done up in the sleeve of the +oilskin jacket--and stowed it in one of the lockers in the cabin of my +boat. If my voyage went well, then all the rest of my life--so far as +wealth makes for happiness--would go well too: for in that rough and +dirty little bag was such a treasure--that I had won away from the +dead ship holding it--as would make me one of the richest men in the +world. But against this exultant hope stood up a doubt so dark that +there was no great room in my mind for cheerfulness: for as I stowed +away the jewels in the boat I could not but think of those others who +had stowed them away two hundred years and more before aboard the +galleon; and who had started in their great ship well manned on a +voyage in which the risk of disaster was as nothing in comparison with +the risk that I had to face in the voyage that I was undertaking in my +little boat alone. Yet their venture had ended miserably; and I, +trying singly to accomplish what their whole company had failed in, +very well might surrender the treasure again, as they had surrendered +it, to the storm-power of the sea. + +But thinking these dismal thoughts was no help to me, and so I choked +them down and went once more aboard the steamer to make sure that I +had forgotten nothing that I needed by taking a final look around. +This being ended without my seeing anything that was necessary to me, +I said goodbye to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ and got down into my boat +again; and my cat--who usually sat in the break of the side of the +steamer while I was at work in the boat, though sometimes asking +with a miau to be lifted down into her--of his own accord jumped +aboard ahead of me: and that I took for a good sign. + +Certainly, the cat and I made as queer a ship's company as ever went +afloat together; and our little craft--with its cargo that would have +bought a whole fleet's lading--was such an argosy as never before had +sailed the seas. Nor did even Columbus, when he struck out across the +black ocean westward, start upon a voyage so blind and so seemingly +hopeless as was ours. The Admiral, at least, had with him such aids to +navigation as his times afforded, and went cruising in open water; +failing in his quest, the chance was free to him to put about again +and so come once more to his home among living men. But I had not even +his poor equipment; and as to turning again and so coming back to the +point whence I started--even supposing that I could manage it--that +ending to my voyage would be so miserable that it would be better for +me to die by the way. + +In none of the vessels through which I had searched had I found a +sextant; nor would it have been of any use to me, had I found one, +unless I had found also a chronometer still keeping time. Charts I did +find; but as I had to know my position to get any good from them, and +as I would run straight for any land that I sighted without in the +least caring on what coast I made my landfall, I left them behind. My +only aid to navigation was a compass, that I got from the binnacle of +a ship lying near the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and aboard the same +vessel I found a very good spyglass, and gladly brought it along with +me because it would add to my chances--should I reach open water--not +only of sighting a distant ship but of making out how she was standing +in time to head her off. + +But for all practical purposes the compass was enough for me. I knew +that to the westward lay the American continent, and that between it +and where I then was--for it was certain that I was not far south of +the latitude of the Azores--was that section of the Atlantic which is +more thickly crowded with ships than any other like-sized bit of ocean +in the world. My chance of escape, therefore, and my only chance, lay +in holding to a due west course: hoping first that, being clear of the +weed, I might fall in with some passing vessel; and second that I +might make the coast before a storm came on me by which my little boat +would be swamped. And so I opened the throttle of my engine: and as +the screw began to revolve I headed my boat for the cut in the weed +which I had made when I was testing her--while my tow-rope drew taut +and after me came slowly my long raft. + +No doubt it was only because the hiss of the escaping steam startled +him; but at the first turn of the engine my cat scampered forward and +seated himself in the very bows of the boat--a little black +figure-head--and thence gazed out steadfastly westward as though he +were the pilot charged with the duty of setting our vessel's course. +He had to give place to me in a moment--when I went to the bows to +begin my sawing through the weed--but I was cheered by his planting +himself that way pointing our course with his nose for me: and again I +took his bit of freakishness for a good sign. + + + + + +XXXVIII + +HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + + +What I did on that first day of my voyage was what I did on every +succeeding day during so long a time that it seemed to me the end of +it never would come. + +When my craft fairly was started, with the fire well fed and a light +enough weight on the safety-valve to guard against any sudden chance +rise in the steam pressure, I went forward to the bows with the +compass and set myself to my sawing. The wheel being lashed with the +rudder amidships, all the steering was managed from the bows--any +deviation from the straight line westward being corrected by my taking +the saw out from the guide-bars and cutting to the right or to the +left with it until I had the boat's nose pointing again the right way. +But there was not often need for cutting of this sort. Held by the +guide-bars, the saw cut a straight path for the boat to follow; while, +conversely, the boat held the saw true. And so, for the most part, I +had only to stand like a machine there--endlessly hauling the saw up +and endlessly thrusting it down. Behind me my little engine puffed +and snorted; over the bows, below me, was the soft crunching sound of +the weed opening as the boat thrust her nose into it; and on each side +of me was the soft hissing rustling of the weed against the boat's +sides. From time to time I would stop for sheer weariness--for +anything more back-breaking than the steady working of that saw I +never came across; and from time to time I had to stop my +engine--which I managed, and also the starting of it, by means of a +pair of lines brought forward into the bows from the lever-bar--while +I attended to feeding the fire. + +The only breaks in this deadly monotonous round were when I ate my +meals--and at first these were as pleasant as they were restful, with +the cat sitting beside me and eating very contentedly too--and when I +fell in with a bit of wreckage that I had to steer clear of or to move +out of my way. Interruptions of this latter sort--even though they +gave me a change from my wearying sawing--were hard to put up with; +for they not only held me back woefully, but they kept me in continual +alarm lest I should break my saw. When the obstacle was a derelict, or +anything so large that I could see it well ahead of me and so could +have plenty of time in which to swing the boat to one side of it by +slicing a diagonal way for her, I could get along without much +difficulty; but when it was only a spar or a mast, so bedded in the +weed that my first knowledge of it was finding it close under my bows, +there was no chance to make a detour and I had to thrust it aside with +a boat-hook or go to hacking at it with an axe until I had cut it +through. And often it happened that I knew nothing at all of the +obstacle, the weed covering it completely, until my saw struck against +it; and that would send a cold shiver through me, as I whipped my saw +out of the water--for I had only two saws with me, and I knew that to +break one of them cut down my chances of escape by a half. Indeed, my +first saw did get broken while I still was in the thick of the tangle; +and after that I was in a constant tremor, which became almost agony +when I felt the least jar in my cutting, for fear that the other +would go too. + +But with it all I managed to make pretty fair progress, and better +than I had counted upon; for I succeeded in covering, as nearly as I +could reckon it, close upon three miles a day. After I fairly got out +upon my course I had no means whatever of judging distances; but my +estimate of my advance was made at the end of my first day's run, when +the wreck-pack still was in sight behind me and enabled me to make a +close guess at how far I had come. As the sun went down that night +over my bows--making a long path of crimson along the weed ahead of +me, and filling the mist with a crimson glow--I still could make out, +though very faintly, the continent of wrecks from which I had started; +and with my glass I could distinguish the _Ville de Saint Remy_ by the +three flags which I had left flying on her masts. And the sight of +her, and the thought of how comfortable and how safe I had been aboard +of her, and of how I was done with her forever and was tying to as +slim a chance of life as ever a man tied to, for a while put a great +heaviness upon my heart. Not until darkness came and shut her out from +me, and I was resting in my brightly lighted comfortable little +cabin--with my supper to cheer me, and with my cat to cheer me +too--did my spirits rise again; and I was glad, when I got under way +once more in the morning, that the heavy mist cut her off from me--and +that by the time the sun had thinned the mist a little I had made such +progress as to put her out of sight of me for good and all. + +Through my second day I still could make out the loom of the +wreck-pack behind me--a dark line low down in the mist that I should +have taken for a rain-cloud had I not known what it was; but that also +was pretty well gone by evening, and from my third day onward I was +encompassed wholly by the soft veil of golden mist hanging low around +me over the weed-covered sea. Only about noon time, when this veil +grew thinner and had in it a brighter golden tone--or at sunset, when +it was shot through with streams of crimson light which filled it +with a ruddy glow--was it possible for me to see for more than a mile +or so in any direction; and even when my horizon thus was enlarged a +little my view still was the same: always the weed spread out over the +water so thickly that nowhere was there the slightest break in it, and +so dense and solid that it would have seemed like land around me but +for its very gentle undulating motion--which made me giddy if I looked +at it for long at a time. The only relief to this dull flat surface +was when I came upon a wrecked ship, or upon a hummock of wreckage, +rising a little up from it--also swaying very gently with a wearying +motion that seemed as slow as time. And the silent despairing +desolateness of it all sunk down into my very soul. + +Even my cat seemed to feel the misery of that great loneliness and +lost so much of his cheerfulness that he got to be but a dull +companion for me; though likely enough what ailed him was the reflex +of my own poor spirits, made low by my constant bodily weariness, and +had I shown any liveliness he would have been lively too. But I was +too tired to think much about him--or about anything else--as day +after day I stood in the bow of the boat working my saw up and down +with a deadly dull monotony: that had no break save when I stopped to +rest a little my aching body, or to have a tussle with a bit of +wreckage that barred my passage, or to stoke myself with food, or to +put coal beneath my boiler, or to lie down at night with every one of +my bones and muscles heavy with a dull pain. + +And all the sound that there was in that still misty solitude was the +puffing of my engine, and the wheel churning in the water, and the +sharp hiss of the saw as it severed the matted fibres, and the +crunching and rustling that the boat made as it went onward with a +leaden slowness through the weed. + + + + + +XXXIX + +WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + +I had thought that I had struck the bed-rock of misery when I was +wandering in the dead depths of the wreck-pack, with the conviction +strong upon me that in a little while I would be dead there too. But +as I look back upon that long suffering of lonely sorrow I think now +that the worst of it came to me after I had left the wreck-pack +behind. In that last round that I fought with misfortune the strength +of my body was exhausted so completely that it could give no support +to my spirit; and as the days went on and on--always with the same +weed-covered sea around me and the same soft golden mist over me, and +I always working wearily but with the stolid steadiness of a +machine--so deadening a numbness took hold of me that I seemed to +myself like some far-away strange person--yet one with whom I had a +direct connection, and must needs sorrow for and sympathize +with--struggling interminably through the dull jading mazes of a +night-mare dream. + +Once only was I aroused from this stupor of spirit that went with my +vigorous yet apathetic bodily action. Just at sunset one evening I +sighted a vessel of some sort far ahead of me--a black mass looming +uncertainly against the rich glow of crimson that filled the west--and +for some reason or another I took into my head the fancy that I was +nearing open water and that this was not a wreck but a living ship on +board of which I would find living men: and at the thought of meeting +with live men again I fairly cried with joy. Then darkness fell and +shut her out from me; leaving me so eager that I could not sleep for +thinking of her, and almost tempting me to press on through the night +that I might be close up to her by dawn. But when in the first faint +grey light of early morning I made her out again, and saw that she was +in just the same position and at just the same distance ahead of me, I +was almost as sorry as I would have been had she vanished; for I knew +that had she been a living ship in that long night-time she would have +sailed away. And by noon, being then close upon her, I could see that +she was floating bottom upwards: and so knew certainly that she was +only a dead wreck drifting in slowly to take her place among the dead +wrecks which I had left behind me; and beyond her, instead of open +water, I saw only the weed--covered ocean stretching onward unbroken +until it was lost in the golden haze. + +Even then, though, I had a foolish hope that there might be living men +clinging to her, and I edged my boat off its course a little so that I +might run close under her stern. But no one showed on her hull as I +neared her, and only my own voice broke the heavy silence as I crazily +hailed her again and again. And then I fell into a dull rage with her, +so weary was I of my loneliness and so bitter was my disappointment at +finding her deserted--until suddenly a very different train of +emotions was aroused in me as I made out slowly the weathered inverted +lettering on her up-tilting stern, and so read her name there: +_Golden Hind_! + +Like a flash I had before me clearly all the details of my last +moments aboard of her: my quick sharp words with Captain Luke, my step +backward with my arms up as he and the mate pressed upon me, the +smasher that I got in on the mate's jaw, the crack on my own head that +stunned me--and then my revival of consciousness as I found myself +adrift in the ocean and saw the brig sailing away. And while these +thoughts crowded upon me my boat went onward through the weed +slowly--and presently I had again parted company with the _Golden +Hind_, and this time for good and all. + +After that break in it my dull despairing weariness settled down upon +me again--as the heavy days drifted past me and I pressed steadily on, +and on, and on. How time went I do not know. I could keep no track of +days which always were the same. But I must have been on my voyage for +nearly a month when I fell in with the _Golden Hind_: as I know +because a little while after passing her I used the last of the coal +that was on the raft and cast it off--and my calculation at starting +had been that the coal aboard the raft would last me for about +thirty days. + +Getting rid of the raft was a good thing for me in one way, for when +the boat was relieved from that heavy mass dragging through the weed +after her she went almost twice as fast. But in another way it was a +bad thing for me, for it left me with only what coal I had on the boat +herself and, so far as I could judge from my surroundings, I was no +nearer to being over the wall of my prison than I was on that first +morning when I put off from the _Ville de Saint Remy_. Still the weed +stretched away endlessly on all sides of me, and still the golden mist +ceaselessly hung over me--only it did seem to me, though I did not +trust myself to play much with this hopeful fancy, that the mist was a +good deal thinner than it had been during the earlier part of +my voyage. + +But I was too broken to take much notice of my surroundings. Still I +worked on and on, with the steadfastness and the hopelessness of a +machine: up and down over the bows with my saw interminably, with +only little breaks for rest and eating and to keep my fires up or for +a struggle with a bit of wreckage that barred my way; and at night to +weary sleep that did not rest me; and then up before sunrise to begin +it all again with a fresh day that had no freshness in it--and was +like all the many days of desperate toil which had gone before it, and +like the others which still were to come. + +Even when I saw ahead of me one morning a long lane of open water, a +wide break in the weed, I was too dull to think much about it beyond +steering my way into it thankfully--and then feeling a slow wonder as +the boat slid along with no rustling noise on each side of her at what +seemed to me an almost breathless speed. But as that day went on and +the mist grew lighter and lighter about me and I came to more and more +of these open spaces, and at the same time found that the weed between +them was so much thinner that the boat almost could push through it +without having a path cut for her, I began faintly to realize that +perhaps I had got to the beginning of the end. And then, for the first +time since I had lapsed into my stolid insensibility, a little weak +thrill of hope went through me and I seemed to be waking from my +despairing dream. + +With the next day, however, hope full and strong fairly got hold of +me: for I was out of the mist completely, and the weed was so thin +that I brought my saw inboard and finally had done with it, and the +stretches of open water were so many and so large that I knew that the +blessed free ocean must be very near at hand. And I think that my cat +knew as well as I did that our troubles were close to a good ending; +for all of a sudden he gave over his moping and fell to frisking about +me and to going through all the tricks which I had taught him of his +own accord; and thence onward he spent most of his time on the roof of +the cabin--looking about him with a curious intentness, for all the +world as though I had stationed him there to watch out for a ship +bearing down on us, or for land. Even when I found that day that only +a dozen bags of coal were left to me--for I had fed my furnace while +my heaviness was upon me without paying any attention to how things +were going with my stock of fuel--my spirits were none the worse for +my discovery; for with every mile that I went onward the weed was +growing thinner and I felt safe enough about continuing my voyage +under sail. + +Because my rousing out of my lethargy had been so slow, this change in +my chances seemed to come upon me with a startling suddenness--when in +reality, I suppose, I might have seen signs of it a good while sooner +than I did see them had my mind been clear. But the actual end of my +adventure, the resolving of my hopes into a glad certainty of rescue, +really did come upon me with a rush at last. + +We fairly were in open water, and the cat and I were dining in the +cabin together very cheerfully--with the helm lashed and the boat +going on her course at half speed. I was disposed to linger over my +meal a little, for I was beginning to enjoy once more the luxury of +getting rest when I rested, and when my cat suddenly left me and went +on deck by himself--a thing that he never before had done--I took his +desertion of me in ill part. A moment later I heard the padding of his +feet on the roof of the cabin over me, and smiled to myself as I +thought of him going on watch there; and then, presently, I heard him +calling me--for I had come to understand a good many of his turns of +language--with a lively "Miau!" But it was not until he called me +again, and more urgently, that the oddness of his conduct came home to +me and made me hurry on deck after him; and my first glance at him +made me look in the direction in which he was looking eagerly: and +there I saw the smoke of a steamer trailing black to the horizon, and +beneath it her long black hull--and she was heading straight for me, +and coming along at such a ripping rate that within twenty minutes she +would be across my bows. + +Half an hour more brought matters to a finish. I had only to wait +where I was until the steamer was close down upon me, and then to run +in under her counter so that her people might throw me a line. Her +whole side was crowded with faces as she stopped her way and I came up +with her, and on her rail a tall officer was standing--holding fast +with one hand to the rigging and having in the other a coil of rope +all ready to cast. + +One face among the many clustered there, and a mighty friendly one, +was familiar to me; but I could not place it until a jolly voice +hailed me that I recognized with a warm thrill--and the sound of it +filled me with joy as I thought of my bag of jewels in the cabin +locker, and of how at last my doctor's bill would be paid. + +"And so it's yourself, my fine big young man, and at your old tricks +again. But it's this time that you have the good luck of a black cat +for company in your cruising all alone by yourself over the open sea!" + +And then the tall officer with the coil of rope sung out "Catch!"--and +sent the line whizzing down to me, and I caught the end of it in +my hand. + + +THE END + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. A Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity. +Illustrated by FREDERIC REMINGTON. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. + +This powerful story may well be ranked among the wonder books. No +story-reader should miss it, for it is different from anything he has +ever read.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL, and Other Stories. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25; +Paper, 50 cents. + +Janvier stands in the first rank as a writer of short stories, and a new +volume coming from him is sure to meet with success. In the present +instance it well deserves to, for the stories it contains, from the one +which gives it its title to the last between the covers, are among his +best.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +IN OLD NEW YORK. With 13 Maps and 58 Illustrations. Post 8vo, Cloth, +$1 75. + +Overflows with all sorts of minute and curious information concerning both +the old and the recent town.... Mr. Janvier has long been a zealous and +sympathetic student of this subject. His text is supplemented with +numerous maps and illustrations, instructive and interesting.--_N.Y. Sun_. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + +***** This file should be named 9906.txt or 9906.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/0/9906/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Janvier + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9906] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 29, 2003] +[Date last updated: December 22, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + +A Novel + + +BY + +THOMAS A. JANVIER + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL" +"THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE" +"STORIES OF OLD NEW SPAIN" ETC. + + * * * * * + +1898 + + + + +TO + +C.A.J. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + II. HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + III. I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + IV. CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + V. I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + VI. I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + VII. I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + VIII. THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + IX. ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + X. I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + XI. MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + XII. I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + XIII. I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + XIV. OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + XV. I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + XVI. I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + XVII. HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + XVIII. I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + XIX. OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + XX. HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + XXI. MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + XXII. I GET SOME FOOD IN ME, AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + XXIII. HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + XXIV. OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + XXV. I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + XXVI. OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + XXVII. I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + XXVIII. HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + XXIX. I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + XXX. I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + XXXI. HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + XXXII. I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + XXXIII. I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + XXXIV. I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + XXXV. I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + XXXVI. HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + XXXVII. HOW MY CAT STILL FURTHER CHEERED ME + XXXVIII. HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + XXXIX. WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + + +I + +I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + + +Captain Luke Chilton counted over the five-dollar notes with a greater +care than I thought was necessary, considering that there were only +ten of them; and cautiously examined each separate one, as though he +feared that I might be trying to pay for my passage in bad money. His +show of distrust set my back up, and I came near to damning him right +out for his impudence--until I reflected that a West Coast trader must +pretty well divide his time between cheating people and seeing to it +that he isn't cheated, and so held my tongue. + +Having satisfied himself that the tale was correct and that the notes +were genuine, he brought out from the inside pocket of his long-tailed +shore-going coat a big canvas pocket-book, into which he stowed them +lengthwise; and from the glimpse I had of it I fancied that until my +money got there it was about bare. As he put away the pocket-book, he +said, and pleasantly enough: + +"You see, Mr. Stetworth, it's this way: fifty dollars is dirt cheap +for a cast across from New York to the Coast, and that's a fact; but +you say that it's an object with you to get your passage low, and I +say that even at that price I can make money out of you. The _Golden +Hind_ has got to call at Loango, anyhow; there's a spare room in her +cabin that'll be empty if you don't fill it; and while you're a big +man and look to be rather extra hearty, I reckon you won't eat more'n +about twenty dollars' worth of victuals--counting 'em at cost--on the +whole run. But the main thing is that I want all the spot cash I can +get a-holt of before I start. Fifty dollars' worth of trade laid in +now means five hundred dollars for me when I get back here in New York +with what I've turned it over for on the Coast. So, you see, if you're +suited, I'm suited too. Shake! And now we'll have another drink. This +time it's on me." + +We shook, and Captain Luke gave me an honest enough grip, just as he +had spoken in an honest enough tone. I knew, of course, that in a +general way he must be a good deal of a rascal--he couldn't well be a +West Coast trader and be anything else; but then his rascality in +general didn't matter much so long as his dealings with me were +square. He called the waiter and ordered arrack again--it was the +most wholesome drink in the world, he said--and we touched glasses, +and so brought our deal to an end. + +That a cheap passage to Loango was an object to me, as Captain Luke +had said, was quite true. It was a very important object. After I got +across, of course, and my pay from the palm-oil people began, I would +be all right; but until I could touch my salary I had to sail mighty +close to the wind. For pretty much all of my capital consisted of my +headful of knowledge of the theory and practice of mechanical +engineering which had brought me out first of my class at the Stevens +Institute--and in that way had got me the offer from the palm-oil +people--and because of which I thought that there wasn't anybody quite +my equal anywhere as a mechanical engineer. And that was only natural, +I suppose, since my passing first had swelled my head a bit, and I was +only three-and-twenty, and more or less of a promiscuously green +young fool. + +As I looked over Captain Luke's shoulder, while we supped our arrack +together--out through the window across the rush and bustle of South +Street--and saw a trim steamer of the Maracaibo line lying at her +dock, I could not but be sorry that my voyage to Africa would be made +under sails. But, on the other hand, I comforted myself by thinking +that if the _Golden Hind_ were half the clipper her captain made her +out to be I should not lose much time--taking into account the +roundabout way I should have to go if I went under steam. And I +comforted myself still more by thinking what a lot of money I had +saved by coming on this chance for a cheap cast across; and I blessed +my lucky stars for putting into my head the notion of cruising along +South Street that October morning and asking every sailor-like man I +met if he knew of a craft bound for the West Coast--and especially for +having run me up against Captain Luke Chilton before my cruise had +lasted an hour. + +The captain looked at his glass so sorrowfully when it was empty that +I begged him to have it filled again, and he did. But he took down his +arrack this time at a single gulp, and then got up briskly and said +that he must be off. + +"We don't sail till to-morrow afternoon, on the half flood, Mr. +Stetworth," he said, "so you'll have lots of time to get your traps +aboard if you'll take a boat off from the Battery about noon. I +wouldn't come earlier than that, if I were you. Things are bound to be +in a mess aboard the brig to-morrow, and the less you have of it the +better. We lie well down the anchorage, you know, only a little this +side of Robbin's Reef. Your boatmen will know the place, and they'll +find the brig for you if you'll tell 'em where to look for her and +that she's painted green. Well, so long." And then Captain Luke shook +hands with me again, and so was off into the South Street crowd. + +I hurried away too. My general outfit was bought and packed; but the +things lying around my lodgings had to be got together, and I had to +buy a few articles in the way of sea-stock for my voyage in a sailing +vessel that I should not have needed had I gone by the regular steam +lines. So I got some lunch inside of me, and after that I took a +cab--a bit of extravagance that my hurry justified--and bustled about +from shop to shop and got what I needed inside of an hour; and then I +told the man to drive me to my lodgings up-town. + +It was while I was driving up Broadway--the first quiet moment for +thinking that had come to me since I had met Captain Luke on South +Street, and we had gone into the saloon together to settle about the +passage he had offered me--that all of a sudden the thought struck me +that perhaps I had made the biggest kind of a fool of myself; and it +struck so hard that for a minute or two I fairly was dizzy and faint. + +What earthly proof had I, beyond Captain Luke's bare word for it, that +there was such a brig as the _Golden Hind_? What proof had I +even--beyond the general look of him and his canvas pocket-book--that +Captain Luke was a sailor? And what proof had I, supposing that there +was such a brig and that he was a sailor, that the two had anything +to do with each other? I simply had accepted for truth all that he +told me, and on the strength of his mere assertion that he was a +ship-master and was about to sail for the West African coast I had +paid him my fifty dollars--and had taken by way of receipt for it no +more than a clinking of our glasses and a shake of his hand. I said +just now that I was only twenty-three years old, and more or less of a +promiscuously green young fool. I suppose that I might as well have +left that out. There are some things that tell themselves. + +For three or four blocks, as I drove along, I was in such a rage with +myself that I could not think clearly. Then I began to cool a little, +and to hope that I had gone off the handle too suddenly and too far. +After all, there were some chances in my favor the other way. Captain +Chilton, I remembered, had told me that he was about to sail for West +Coast ports before I asked him for a passage; and had mentioned, also, +whereabouts on the anchorage the _Golden Hind_ was lying. Had he made +these statements after he knew what I wanted there would have been +some reason for doubting them; but being made on general principles, +without knowledge of what I was after, it seemed to me that they very +well might be true. And if they were true, why then there was no great +cause for my sudden fit of alarm. However, I was so rattled by my +fright, and still so uncertain as to how things were coming out for +me, that the thought of waiting until the next afternoon to know +certainly whether I had or had not been cheated was more than I could +bear. The only way that I could see to settle the matter was to go +right away down to the anchorage, and so satisfy myself that the +_Golden Hind_ was a real brig and really was lying there; and it +occurred to me that I might kill two birds with one stone, and also +have a reason to give for a visit which otherwise might seem +unreasonable, if I were to take down my luggage and put it aboard that +very afternoon. + + + + + +II + +HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + + +Having come to this conclusion, I acted on it. I kept the cab at the +door while I finished my packing with a rush, and then piled my +luggage on it and in it--and what with my two trunks, and my kit of +fine tools, and all my bundles, this made tight stowing--and then away +I went down-town again as fast as the man could drive with such +a load. + +We got to the Battery in a little more than an hour, and there I +transshipped my cargo to a pair-oared boat and started away for the +anchorage. The boatmen comforted me a good deal at the outset by +saying that they thought they knew just where the _Golden Hind_ was +lying, as they were pretty sure they had seen her only that morning +while going down the harbor with another fare; and before we were much +more than past Bedloe's Island--having pulled well over to get out of +the channel and the danger of being run down by one of the swarm of +passing craft--they made my mind quite easy by actually pointing her +out to me. But almost in the same moment I was startled again by one +of them saying to me: "I don't believe you've much time to spare, +captain. There's a lighter just shoved off from her, and she's gettin' +her tops'ls loose. I guess she means to slide out on this tide. That +tug seems to be headin' for her now." + +The men laid to their oars at this, and it was a good thing--or a bad +thing, some people might think--that they did; for had we lost five +minutes on our pull down from the Battery I never should have got +aboard of the _Golden Hind_ at all. As it was, the anchor was a-peak, +and the lines of the tug made fast, by the time that we rounded under +her counter; and the decks were so full of the bustle of starting that +it was only a chance that anybody heard our hail. But somebody did +hear it, and a man--it was the mate, as I found out afterwards--came +to the side. + +"Hold on, captain," one of the boatmen sang out, "here's your +passenger!" + +"Go to hell!" the mate answered, and turned inboard again. + +But just then I caught sight of Captain Chilton, coming aft to stand +by the wheel, and called out to him by name. He turned in a hurry--and +with a look of being scared, I fancied--but it seemed to me a good +half-minute before he answered me. In this time the men had shoved the +boat alongside and had made fast to the main-chains; and just then +the tug began to puff and snort, and the towline lifted, and the brig +slowly began to gather way. I could not understand what they were up +to; but the boatmen, who were quick fellows, took the matter into +their own hands, and began to pass in my boxes over the gunwale--the +brig lying very low in the water--as we moved along. This brought the +mate to the side again, with a rattle of curses and orders to stand +off. And then Captain Chilton came along himself--having finished +whatever he had been doing in the way of thinking--and gave matters a +more reasonable turn. + +"It's all right, George," he said to the mate. "This gentleman is a +friend of mine who's going out with us" (the mate gave him a queer +look at that), "and he's got here just in time." And then he turned to +me and added: "I'd given you up, Mr. Stetworth, and that's a +fact--concluding that the man I sent to your lodgings hadn't found +you. We had to sail this afternoon, you see, all in a hurry; and the +only thing I could do was to rush a man after you to bring you down. +He seems to have overhauled you in time, even if it was a close +call--so all's well." + +While he was talking the boatmen were passing aboard my boxes and +bundles, while the brig went ahead slowly; and when they all were +shipped, and I had paid the men, he gave me his hand in a friendly way +and helped me up the side. What to make of it all I could not tell. +Captain Luke told a straight enough story, and the fact that his +messenger had not got to me before I started did not prove that he +lied. Moreover, he went on to say that if I had not got down to the +brig he had meant to leave my fifty dollars with the palm-oil people +at Loango, and that sounded square enough too. At any rate, if he were +lying to me I had no way of proving it against him, and he was +entitled to the benefit of the doubt; and so, when he had finished +explaining matters--which was short work, as he had the brig to look +after--I did not see my way to refusing his suggestion that we should +call it all right and shake hands. + +For the next three hours or so--until we were clear of the Hook and +had sea-room and the tug had cast us off--I was left to my own +devices: except that a couple of men were detailed to carry to my +state-room what I needed there, while the rest of my boxes were stowed +below. Indeed, nobody had time to spare me a single word--the captain +standing by the wheel in charge of the brig, and the two mates having +their hands full in driving forward the work of finishing the lading, +so that the hatches might be on and things in some sort of order +before the crew should be needed to make sail. + +The decks everywhere were littered with the stuff put aboard from the +lighter that left the brig just before I reached her, and the huddle +and confusion showed that the transfer must have been made in a +tearing hurry. Many of the boxes gave no hint of what was inside of +them; but a good deal of the stuff--as the pigs of lead and cans of +powder, the many five-gallon kegs of spirits, the boxes of fixed +ammunition, the cases of arms, and so on--evidently was regular West +Coast "trade." And all of it was jumbled together just as it had been +tumbled aboard. + +I was surprised by our starting with the brig in such a mess--until it +occurred to me that the captain had no choice in the matter if he +wanted to save the tide. Very likely the tide did enter into his +calculations; but I was led to believe a little later--and all the +more because of his scared look when I hailed him from the boat--that +he had run into some tangle on shore that made him want to get away in +a hurry before the law-officers should bring him up with a round turn. + +What put this notion into my head was a matter that occurred when we +were down almost to the Hook, and its conclusion came when we were +fairly outside and the tug had cast us off; otherwise my boxes and I +assuredly would have gone back on the tug to New York--and I with a +flea in my ear, as the saying is, stinging me to more prudence in my +dealings with chance-met mariners and their offers of cheap passages +on strange craft. + +When we were nearly across the lower bay, the nose of a steamer +showed in the Narrows; and as she swung out from the land I saw that +she flew the revenue flag. Captain Luke, standing aft by the wheel, no +doubt made her out before I did; for all of a sudden he let drive a +volley of curses at the mates to hurry their stowing below of the +stuff with which our decks were cluttered. At first I did not +associate the appearance of the cutter with this outbreak; but as she +came rattling down the bay in our wake I could not but notice his +uneasiness as he kept turning to look at her and then turning forward +again to swear at the slowness of the men. But she was a long way +astern at first, and by the time that she got close up to us we were +fairly outside the Hook and the tug had cast us off--which made a +delay in the stowing, as the men had to be called away from it to set +enough sail to give us steerage way. + +Captain Luke barely gave them time to make fast the sheets before he +hurried them back to the hatch again; and by that time the cutter had +so walked up to us that we had her close aboard. I could see that he +fully expected her to hail us; and I could see also that there seemed +to be a feeling of uneasiness among the crew, though they went on +briskly with their work of getting what remained of the boxes and +barrels below. And then, being close under our stern, the cutter +quietly shifted her helm to clear us--and so slid past us, without +hailing and with scarcely a look at us, and stood on out to sea. + +That the captain and all hands so manifestly should dread being +overhauled by a government vessel greatly increased my vague doubts as +to the kind of company that I had got into; and at the very moment +that the cutter passed us these doubts were so nearly resolved into +bad certainties that my thoughts shot around from speculation upon +Captain Luke's possible perils into consideration of what seemed to be +very real perils of my own. + +With the cutter close aboard of us, and with the captain and both the +mates swearing at them, I suppose that the men at the hatch--who were +swinging the things below with a whip--got rattled a little. At any +rate, some of them rigged the sling so carelessly that a box fell out +from it, and shot down to the main-deck with such a bang that it burst +open. It was a small and strongly made box, that from its shape and +evident weight I had fancied might have arms in it. But when it split +to bits that way--the noise of the crash drawing me to the hatch to +see what had happened--its contents proved to be shackles: and the +sight of them, and the flash of thought which made me realize what +they must be there for, gave me a sudden sick feeling in my inside! + +In my hurried reading about the West Coast--carried on at odd times +since my meeting with the palm-oil people--I had learned enough about +the trade carried on there to know that slaving still was a part of +it; but so small a part that the matter had not much stuck in my mind. +But it was a fact then (as it also is a fact now) that the traders who +run along the coast--exchanging such stuff as Captain Luke carried for +ivory and coffee and hides and whatever offers--do now and then take +the chances and run a cargo of slaves from one or another of the lower +ports into Mogador: where the Arab dealers pay such prices for live +freight in good condition as to make the venture worth the risk that +it involves. This traffic is not so barbarous as the old traffic to +America used to be--when shippers regularly counted upon the loss of a +third or a half of the cargo in transit, and so charged off the +death-rate against profit and loss--for the run is a short one, and +slaves are so hard to get and so dangerous to deal in nowadays that it +is sound business policy to take enough care of them to keep them +alive. But I am safe in saying that the men engaged in the Mogador +trade are about the worst brutes afloat in our time--not excepting the +island traders of the South Pacific--and for an honest man to get +afloat in their company opens to him large possibilities of being +murdered off-hand, with side chances of sharing in their punishment if +he happens to be with them when they are caught. And so it is not to +be wondered at that when I saw the shackles come flying out from that +broken box, and so realized the sort of men I had for shipmates, that +a sweating fright seized me which made my stomach go queer. And then, +as I thought how I had tumbled myself into this scrape that the least +shred of prudence would have kept me out of, I realized for the second +time that day that I was very young and very much of a fool. + + + + + +III + +I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + + +I went to the stern of the brig and looked at the tug, far off and +almost out of sight in the dusk, and at the loom of the Highlands, +above which shone the light-house lamps--and my heart went down into +my boots, and for a while stayed there. For a moment the thought came +into my head to cut away the buoy lashed to the rail and to take my +chances with it overboard--trusting to being picked up by some passing +vessel and so set safe ashore. But the night was closing down fast and +a lively sea was running, and I had sense enough to perceive that +leaving the brig that way would be about the same as getting out of +the frying-pan into the fire. + +Fortunately, in a little while I began to get wholesomely angry; which +always is a good thing, I think, when a man gets into a tight +place--if he don't carry it too far--since it rouses the fighting +spirit in him and so helps him to pull through. In reason, I ought to +have been angry with myself, for the trouble that I was in was all of +my own making; but, beyond giving myself a passing kick or two, all +my anger was turned upon Captain Luke for taking advantage of my +greenness to land me in such a pickle when his gain from it would be +so small. I know now that I did Captain Luke injustice. His subsequent +conduct showed that he did not want me aboard with him any more than I +wanted to be there. Had I not taken matters into my own hands by +boarding the brig in such a desperate hurry--just as I had hurried to +close with his offer and to clinch it by paying down my +passage-money--he would have gone off without me. And very likely he +would have thought that the lesson in worldly wisdom he had given me +was only fairly paid for by the fifty dollars which had jumped so +easily out of my pocket into his. + +But that was not the way I looked at the matter then; and in my heart +I cursed Captain Luke up hill and down dale for having, as I fancied, +lured me aboard the brig and so into peril of my skin. And my anger +was so strong that I went by turns hot and cold with it, and itched to +get at Captain Luke with my fists and give him a dressing--which I +very well could have done, had we come to fighting, for I was a bigger +man than he was and a stronger man, too. + +It is rather absurd as I look back at it, considering what a taking I +was in and how strong was my desire just then to punch Captain Luke's +head for him, that while I was at the top of my rage he came aft to +where I was leaning against the rail and put his hand on my shoulder +as friendly as possible and asked me to come down into the cabin to +supper. I suppose I had a queer pale look, because of my anger, for he +said not to mind if I did feel sickish, but to eat all the same and I +would feel better for it; and he really was so cordial and so pleasant +that for a moment or two I could not answer him. It was upsetting, +when I was so full of fight, to have him come at me in that friendly +way; and I must say that I felt rather sheepish, and wondered whether +I had not been working myself up over a mare's-nest as I followed +him below. + +We had the mate to supper with us, at a square table in the middle of +the cabin, and at breakfast the next morning we had the second mate; +and so it went turn and turn with them at meals--except that they had +some sort of dog-watch way about the Saturday night and Sunday morning +that always gave the mate his Sunday dinner with the captain, as was +the due of his rank. + +The mate was a surly brute, and when Captain Chilton said, in quite a +formal way, "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me make you acquainted with Mr. +George Hinds," he only grunted and gave me a sort of a nod. He did not +have much to say while the supper went on, speaking only when the +captain spoke to him, and then shortly; but from time to time he +snatched a mighty sharp look at me--that I pretended not to notice, +but saw well enough out of the tail of my eye. It was plain enough +that he was taking my measure, and I even fancied that he would have +been better pleased had I been six inches or so shorter and with less +well-made shoulders and arms. When he did speak it was in a growling +rumble of a voice, and he swore naturally. + +Captain Luke evidently tried to make up for the mate's surliness; and +he really was very pleasant indeed--telling me stories about the +Coast, and giving me good advice about guarding against sickness +there, and showing such an interest in my prospects with the palm-oil +people, and in my welfare generally, that I was still more inclined to +think that my scare about the shackles was only foolishness from first +to last. He seemed to be really pleased when he found that I was not +seasick, and interested when I told him how well I knew the sea and +the management of small craft from my sailing in the waters about +Nantucket every summer for so many years; and then we got to talking +about the Coast again and about my outfit for it, which he said was a +very good one; and he especially commended me--instead of laughing at +me, as I was afraid he would--for having brought along such a lot of +quinine. Indeed, the quinine seemed to make a good deal of an +impression on him, for he turned to the mate and said: "Do you hear +that, George? Mr. Stetworth has with him a whole case of +quinine--enough to serve a ship's company through a cruise." And the +mate rumbled out, as he got up from the table and started for the +deck, that quinine was a damned good thing. + +We waited below until the second mate came down, to whom the captain +introduced me with his regular formula: "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me +make you acquainted with Mr. Martin Bowers." He was a young fellow, of +no more than my own age, and I took a fancy to him at sight--for he +not only shook my hand heartily but he looked me squarely in the eyes, +and that is a thing I like a man to do. It seemed to me that my being +there was a good deal of a puzzle to him; and he also took my measure, +but quite frankly--telling me when he had looked me over that if I +knew how to steer I'd be a good man to have at the wheel in a gale. + +The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack, and he and I +had a glass together--in which, as I thought rather hard, Bowers was +not given a chance to join us--and then we went on deck and walked up +and down for a while, smoking our pipes and talking about the weather +and the prospects for the voyage. And it all went so easily and so +pleasantly that I couldn't help laughing a little to myself over +my scare. + +I turned in early, for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day; +but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long +while--although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the +brig lulled me--for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly +was begun. I slipped through my mind all that had happened to me that +day--from my meeting with Captain Luke in the forenoon until there I +was, at nine o'clock at night, fairly out at sea; and I was so pleased +with the series of lucky chances which had put me on my way so rapidly +that my one mischance--my scare about the shackles--seemed +utterly absurd. + +It was perfectly reasonable, I reflected, for Captain Luke to carry +out a lot of shackles simply as "trade." It was pretty dirty "trade," +of course, but so was the vile so-called brandy he was carrying out +with him; and so, for that matter, were the arms--which pretty +certainly would be used in slaving forays up from the Coast. And even +supposing the very worst--that Captain Luke meant to ship a cargo of +slaves himself and had these irons ready for them--that worst would +come after I was out of the brig and done with her; the captain having +told me that Loango, which was my landing-place, would be his first +port of call. When I was well quit of the _Golden Hind_ she and her +crew and her captain, for all that I cared, might all go to the devil +together. It was enough for me that I should be well treated on the +voyage over; and from the way that the voyage had begun--unless the +surly mate and I might have a bit of a flare-up--it looked as though I +were going to be very well treated indeed. And so, having come to this +comforting conclusion, I let the soft motion of the brig have its way +with me and began to snooze. + +A little later I was partly aroused by the sound of steps coming down +the companion-way; and then by hearing, in the mate's rumble, these +words: "I guess you're right, captain. As you had to run for it to-day +before you could buy our quinine, it's a damn good thing he did get +aboard, after all!" + +I was too nearly asleep to pay much attention to this, but in a drowsy +way I felt glad that my stock of quinine had removed the mate's +objections to me as a passenger; and I concluded that my purchase of +such an absurd lot of it--after getting worked up by my reading about +the West Coast fevers--had turned out to be a good thing for me in +the long-run. + +After that the talk went on in the cabin for a good while, but in such +low tones that even had I been wide awake I could not have followed +it. But I kept dozing off, catching only a word or two now and then; +and the only whole sentence I heard was in the mate's rumble again: +"Well, if we can't square things, there's always room for one more +in the sea." + +It all was very dream-like--and fitted into a dream that came later, +in the light sleep of early morning, I suppose, in which the mate wore +the uniform of a street-car conductor, and I was giving him doses of +quinine, and he was asking the passengers in a car full of salt-water +to move up and make room for me, and was telling them and me that in a +sea-car there always was room for one more. + + + + + +IV + +CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + + +During the next fortnight or so my life on board the brig was as +pleasant as it well could be. On the first day out we got a slant of +wind that held by us until it had carried us fairly into the northeast +trades--and then away we went on our course, with everything set and +drawing steady, and nothing much to do but man the wheel and eat three +square meals a day. + +And so everybody was in a good humor, from the captain down. Even the +mate rumbled what he meant to be a civil word to me now and then; and +Bowers and I--being nearly of an age, and each of us with his foot on +the first round of the ladder--struck up a friendship that kept us +talking away together by the hour at a time: and very frankly, except +that he was shy of saying anything about the brig and her doings, and +whenever I tried to draw him on that course got flurried a little and +held off. But in all other matters he was open; and especially +delighted in running on about ships and seafaring--for the man was a +born sailor and loved his profession with all his heart. + +It was in one of these talks with Bowers that I got my first knowledge +of the Sargasso Sea--about which I shortly was to know a great deal +more than he did: that old sea-wonder which puzzled and scared +Columbus when he coasted it on his way to discover America; and which +continued to puzzle all mariners until modern nautical science +revealed its cause--yet still left it a good deal of a mystery--almost +in our own times. + +The subject came up one day while we were crossing the Gulf Stream, +and the sea all around us was pretty well covered with patches of +yellow weed--having much the look of mustard-plasters--amidst which a +bit of a barnacled spar bobbed along slowly near us, and not far off a +new pine plank. The yellow stuff, Bowers said, was gulf-weed, brought +up from the Gulf of Mexico where the Stream had its beginning; and +that, thick though it was around us, this was nothing to the thickness +of it in the part of the ocean where the Stream (so he put it, not +knowing any better) had its end. And to that same place, he added, the +Stream carried all that was caught in its current--like the spar and +the plank floating near us--so that the sea was covered with a thick +tangle of the weed in which was held fast fragments of wreckage, and +stuff washed overboard, and logs adrift from far-off southern shores, +until in its central part the mass was so dense that no ship could +sail through it, nor could a steamer traverse it because of the +fouling of her screw. And this sort of floating island--which lay in a +general way between the Bermudas and the Canaries--covered an area of +ocean, he said, half as big as the area of the United States; and to +clear it ships had to make a wide detour--for even in its thin outward +edges a vessel's way was a good deal retarded and a steamer's wheel +would foul sometimes, and there was danger always of collision with +derelicts drifting in from the open sea to become a part of the +central mass. Our own course, he further said, would be changed +because of it; but we would be for a while upon what might be called +its coast, and so I would have a chance to see for myself something of +its look as we sailed along. + +As I know now, Bowers over-estimated the size of this strange island +of sea-waifs and sea-weed by nearly one-half; and he was partly wrong +as to the making of it: for the Sargasso Sea is not where any current +ends, but lies in that currentless region of the ocean that is found +to the east of the main Gulf Stream and to the south of the branch +which sweeps across the North Atlantic to the Azores; and its floating +stuff is matter cast off from the Gulf Stream's edge into the +bordering still water--as a river eddies into its pools twigs and dead +leaves and such-like small flotsam--and there is compacted by +capillary attraction and by the slow strong pressure of the winds. + +On the whole, though, Bowers was not very much off in his +description--which somehow took a queer deep hold upon me, and +especially set me to wondering what strange old waifs and strays of +the ocean might not be found in the thick of that tangle if only there +were some way of pushing into it and reaching the hidden depths that +no man ever yet had seen. But when I put this view of the matter to +him I did not get much sympathy. He was a practical young man, without +a stitch of romance in his whole make-up, and he only laughed at my +suggestion and said that anybody who tried to push into that mess just +for the sake of seeing some barnacle-covered logs, or perhaps a +rotting hulk or two, would be a good deal of a fool. And so I did not +press my fancy on him, and our talks went on about more +commonplace things. + +It was with Captain Luke that I had most to do, and before long I got +to have a very friendly feeling for him because of the trouble that he +took to make me comfortable and to help me pass the time. The first +day out, seeing that I was interested when he took the sun, he turned +the sextant over to me and showed me how to take an observation; and +then how to work it out and fix the brig's position on the chart--and +was a good deal surprised by my quickness in understanding his +explanations (for I suppose that to him, with his rule-of-thumb +knowledge of mathematics, the matter seemed complex), and still more +surprised when he found, presently, that I really understood the +underlying principle of this simple bit of seamanship far better than +he did himself. He said that I knew more than most of the captains +afloat and that I ought to be a sailor; which he meant, no doubt, to +be the greatest compliment that he could pay me. After that I took the +sights and worked them with him daily; and as I several times +corrected his calculations--for even simple addition and subtraction +were more than he could manage with certainty--he became so impressed +by my knowledge as to treat me with an odd show of respect. + +But in practical matters--knowledge of men and things, and of the many +places about the world which he had seen, and of the management of a +ship in all weathers--he was one of the best-informed men that ever I +came across: being naturally of a hard-headed make, with great +acuteness of observation, and with quick and sound reasoning powers. I +found his talk always worth listening to; and I liked nothing better +than to sit beside him, or to walk the deck with him, while we smoked +our pipes together and he told me in his shrewd way about one queer +thing and another which he had come upon in various parts of the +world--for he had followed the sea from the time that he was a boy, +and there did not seem to be a bit of coast country nor any part of +all the oceans which he did not know well. + +Unlike Bowers, he was very free in talking about the trade that he +carried on in the brig upon the African coast, and quite astonished me +by his showing of the profits that he made; and he generally ended his +discourses on this head by laughingly contrasting the amount of money +that even Bowers got every year--the mates being allowed an interest +in the brig's earnings--with the salary that the palm-oil people were +to pay to me. Indeed, he managed to make me quite discontented with my +prospects, although I had thought them very good indeed when I first +told him about them; and when he would say jokingly, as he very often +did, that I had better drop the palm-oil people and take a berth on +the brig instead, I would be half sorry that he was only in fun. + +In a serious way, too, he told me that the Coast trade had got very +unfairly a bad name that it did not deserve. At one time, he said, a +great many hard characters had got into it, and their doings had given +it a black reputation that still stuck to it. But in recent years, he +explained, it had fallen into the hands of a better class of traders, +and its tone had been greatly improved. As a rule, he declared, the +West Coast traders were as decent men as would be found anywhere--not +saints, perhaps, he said smilingly, but men who played a reasonably +square game and who got big money mainly because they took big risks. +When I asked him what sort of risks, he answered: "Oh, pretty much all +sorts--sometimes your pocket and sometimes your neck," and added that +to a man of spirit these risks made half the fun. And then he said +that for a man who did not care for that sort of thing it was better +to be contented with a safe place and low wages--and asked me how long +I expected to stay at Loango, and if I had a better job ahead, when my +work there was done. + +At first he would shift the subject when I tried to make him talk +about the slave traffic. But one day--it was toward the end of our +second week out, and I was beginning to think from his constant +turning to it that perhaps he really might mean to offer me a berth on +the brig, and that his offer might be pretty well worth accepting--he +all of a sudden spoke out freely and of his own accord. It was true, +he said, that sometimes a few blacks were taken aboard by traders, +when no other stuff offered for barter, and were carried up to Mogador +and there sold for very high prices indeed--for there was a prejudice +against the business, and the naval vessels on the Coast tried so +persistently to stop it that the risk of capture was great and the +profit from a successful venture correspondingly large. But the +prejudice, he continued, was really not well-founded. Slavery, of +course, was a very bad thing; but there were degrees of badness in it, +and since it could not be broken up there was much to be said in favor +of any course that would make it less cruel. The blacks who were the +slaves of other blacks, or of Portuguese,--and it was only these that +the traders bought--were exposed to such barbarous treatment that it +was a charity to rescue them from it on almost any terms. Certainly it +was for their good, as they had to be in bondage somewhere, to deliver +them from such masters by carrying them away to Northern Africa: where +the slavery was of so mild and paternal a sort that cruelty almost was +unknown. And then he went on to tell me about the kindly relations +which he himself had seen existing between slaves and their masters in +those parts, both among Arabs and Moors. + +This presentment of the case put so new a face on it that at first I +could not get my bearings; which I am the less ashamed to own up to +because, as I look at the matter now, I perceive how much trouble +Captain Luke took to win me for his own purposes--he being a +middle-aged man packed full of shrewd worldly wisdom, and I only a +fresh young fool. + +My hesitation about making up an answer to him--for, while I was sure +that in the main point he was all wrong, I was caught for the moment +in his sophisms--made him fancy, I suppose, that he had convinced me; +and so was safe to go ahead in the way that he had intended, no doubt, +all along. At any rate, without stopping until my slow wits had a +chance to get pulled together, he put on a great show of friendly +frankness and said that he now knew me well enough to trust me, and so +would tell me openly that he himself engaged in the Mogador trade when +occasion offered; and that there was more money in it a dozen times +over than in all the other trade that he carried on in the +_Golden Hind_. + +I confess that this avowal completely staggered me, and with a rush +brought back all the fears by which I had been so rattled on the first +day of our voyage. In a hazy way I perceived that the captain had been +playing a part with me, and that the others had been playing parts +too--for I could not hope that among men of that stripe such +friendliness should be natural--and what with my surprise, and the +fresh fright I was thrown into, I was struck fairly dumb. + +But Captain Luke--likely enough deceived by his own hopes, as even +shrewd men will be sometimes--either did not notice the fluster I was +in, or thought to set matters all right with me in his own way; for +when he found that I remained silent he took up the talk himself +again, and went on to show in detail the profits of a single venture +with a live cargo--and his figures were certainly big enough to fire +the fancy of any man who was keen for money-getting and who was +willing to get his money by rotten ways. And then, when he had +finished with this part of the matter, he came out plumply with the +offer to give me a mate's rating on board the brig if I would cast in +my fortunes with his. Of the theory of seamanship, he said, I already +knew more than he did himself; and so much more than either of his +mates that he would feel entirely at ease--as he could not with +them--in trusting the navigation of the brig in my hands. As to the +practical part of the work, that was a matter that with my quickness I +would pick up in no time; and my bigness and strength, he added, would +come in mighty handily when there was trouble among the crew, as +sometimes happened, and in keeping the blacks in order, and in the +little fights that now and then were necessary with folks on shore. +And then he came to the real kernel of the matter: which was that +Bowers did not like his work and was not fit for it, and was +threatening to leave the brig at the first port she made, and so a man +who could be trusted was badly needed to take his place. + +When he had finished with it all I was dumber than ever; for I was in +a rage at him for making me such an offer, and at the same time saw +pretty clearly that if I refused it as plumply as he made it we +should come to such open enmity that I--being in his power +completely--would be in danger of my skin. And so I was glad when he +gave me a breathing spell, and the chance to think things over +quietly, by telling me that he would not hurry me for answer and that +I could take a day or two--or a week or two if I wanted it--in which +to make up my mind. + + + + + +V + +I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + + +For the rest of that day, and for the two days following, Captain Luke +did not in any way refer to his offer; and as he showed himself more +than ever friendly, and talked away to me in his usual entertaining +fashion, my rage and fright began to go off a little--though at +bottom, of course, there was no change in my opinions, nor any doubt +as to my giving him a point-blank refusal when the issue should be +squarely raised. + +All this time the brig was bowling along down the trades; and on the +third morning after I had the captain's offer--we being then close +upon the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude--Bowers called my +attention to the gulf-weed floating about us, and told me that we were +fairly on the outer edge of the Sargasso Sea. We should not get into +any thicker part of it, he said, as we should bear up to clear it; and +so we actually did, hauling away a good deal to the eastward when the +brig's course was set that day at noon. But my interest in the matter +had been so checked--all my thought being given to finding some way +out of the pickle in which I found myself--that I paid little +attention to the patches of yellow weed on the water around us or to +the bits of wreckage that we saw now and then; and when Bowers, +keeping on with his talk, fell to chaffing me about my desire to make +a voyage of discovery into the thick part of this floating mystery I +did not rise to his joking, nor did I make him much of a reply. + +Indeed, I was in rather a low way that day; which was due in part to +my not being able, for all my thinking, to see any sort of a clear +course before me; and in part to the fact that the weather was +thickening and that my spirits were dulled a good deal by what we call +the heaviness of the air. All around the horizon steel-gray clouds +were rising, and a soft sort of a haze hung about us and took the life +out of the sunshine, and the wind fell away until there was almost +nothing of it, and that little fitful--while with the dying out of it +the sea began to stir slowly with a long oily swell. Far down to the +southeast a line of smoke hung along the horizon, coming from the +funnel of some steamer out of sight over the ocean's curve, and the +heaviness of the atmosphere was shown by the way that this smoke held +close to the surface of the sea. + +That Captain Luke did not like the look of things was plain enough +from his sharp glances about him and from his frequent examinations +of the glass; and he seemed to be all the more bothered--his seaman's +instinct that a storm was brewing being at odds with the barometer's +prophecy--by the fact that the mercury showed a marked tendency to +rise. Had he known as much of the scientific side of navigation as he +knew of the practical side he could have reconciled the conduct of the +barometer with his own convictions, and so would have been easier in +his mind; for it is a fact that the mercury often rises suddenly on +the front edge of a storm--that is to say, a little in advance of +it--by reason of the air banking up there. But having only his +rule-of-thumb knowledge to apply in the premises, the apparent +scientific contradiction of his own practical notions as to what was +going to happen confused him and made him irritable--the +nerve-stirring state of the atmosphere no doubt having also a share in +the matter--as was made plain by his sharp quick motions, and by the +way in which on the smallest provocation he fell to swearing at the +men. And so the day wore itself out to nightfall: with the steel-gray +clouds lifting steadily from the horizon toward the zenith, and with +the swell of the weed-spattered sea slowly rising, and with a doubting +uneasiness among all of us that found its most marked expression in +Captain Luke's increasingly savage mood. + +Our supper was a glowering one. The captain had little to say, and +that little of a sharp sort, while the mate only rumbled out a curse +now and then at the boy who served us; and I myself was in a bitter +bad humor as I thought how hard it was on me to be shut up at sea in +such vile company, and how I had only myself to blame for getting into +it--and found my case all the harder because of my nervous uneasiness +due to the coming storm. As to the storm, there no longer could be +doubt about it, for the barometer had got into line with Captain +Luke's convictions and was falling fast. + +When the supper was over the captain brought out his arrack-bottle and +took off a full tumbler, which was more than double his usual +allowance, and then pushed the liquor across to the mate and me. The +mate also took a good pull at it, and I took a fair drink myself in +the hope that it would quiet my nerves--but it had exactly the +opposite effect and made me both excited and cross. And then we all +came on deck together, and all in a rough humor, and Bowers went down +into the cabin to have his supper by himself. + +What happened in the next half-hour happened so quickly that I cannot +give a very clear account of it. A part of it, no doubt, was due to +mere chance and angry impulse; but not the whole of it, and I think +not the worst of it--for the first thing that the captain did was to +order the man who was steering to go forward and to tell the mate to +take the wheel. That left just the three of us together at the stern +of the brig--with Bowers below and so out of sight and hearing, and +with all the crew completely cut off from us and put out of sight and +hearing by the rise of the cabin above the deck. + +Night had settled down on the ocean, but not darkness. Far off to the +eastward the full moon was standing well above the horizon and was +fighting her way upward through the clouds--now and then getting +enough the better of them to send down a dash of brightness on the +water, but for the most part making only a faint twilight through +their gloom. The wind still was very light and fitful, but broken by +strongish puffs which would heel the brig over a little and send her +along sharply for half a mile or so before they died away; and the +swell had so risen that we had a long sleepy roll. Up to windward I +made out a ship's lights--that seemed to be coming down on us rapidly, +from their steady brightening--and I concluded that this must be the +steamer from which the smoke had come that I had seen trailing along +the horizon through the afternoon; and I even fancied, the night being +intensely still, that I could hear across the water the soft purring +sound made by the steady churning of her wheel. Somehow it deepened +the sullen anger that had hold of me to see so close by a ship having +honest men aboard of her, and to know at the same time how hopelessly +fast I was tied to the brig and her dirty crew. I don't mind saying +that the tears came to my eyes, for I was both hurt by my sorrow and +heavy with my dull rage. + +We all three were silent for a matter of ten minutes or so, or it +might even have been longer, and then Captain Luke faced around on me +suddenly and asked: "Well, have you made up your mind?" + +Had I been cooler I should have tried to fence a little, since my only +resource--I being caught like a rat in a trap that way--was to try to +gain time; but I was all in a quiver, just as I suppose he was, with +the excitement of the situation and with the excitement of the +thunderous night, and his short sharp question jostled out of my head +what few wits I had there and made me throw away my only chance. And +so I answered him, just as shortly and as sharply: "Yes, I have." + +"Do you mean to join the brig?" he demanded. + +"No, I don't," I answered, and stepped a little closer to him and +looked him squarely in the eyes. + +"I told you so," the mate broke in with his rumble; and I saw that he +was whipping a light lashing on the wheel in a way that would hold it +steady in case he wanted to let go. + +"Better think a minute," said Captain Luke, speaking coolly enough, +but still with an angry undertone in his voice. "I've made you a good +offer, and I'm ready to stand by it. But if you won't take what I've +offered you you'll take something else that you won't like, my fresh +young man. In a friendly way, and for your information, I've told you +a lot of things that I can't trust to the keeping of any living man +who won't chip in with us and take our chances--the bad ones with the +good ones--just as they happen to come along. You know too much, now, +for me to part company from you while you have a wagging tongue in +your head--and so my offer's still open to you. Only there's this +about it: if you won't take it, overboard you go." + +I had a little gleam of sense at that; for I knew that he spoke in +dead earnest, and that the mate stood ready to back him, and that +against the two of them I had not much show. And so I tried to play +for time, saying: "Well, let me think it over a bit longer. You said +there was no hurry and that I might have a week to consider in. I've +had only three days, so far. Do you call that square?" + +"Squareness be damned," rumbled the mate, and he gave a look aloft and +another to windward--the breeze just then had fallen to a mere +whisper--and took his hands off the wheel and stepped away from it so +that he and the captain were close in front of me, side by side. I +stood off from them a little, and got my back against the cabin--that +I might be safe against an attack from behind--and I was so furiously +angry that I forgot to be scared. + +"Three days is as good as three years," Captain Luke jerked out. "What +I want is an answer right now. Will you join the brig--yes or no?" + +Somehow I remembered just then seeing our pig killed, when I was a +boy--how he ran around the lot with the men after him, and got into a +corner and tried to fight them, and was caught in spite of his poor +little show of fighting, and was rolled over on his back and had his +throat stuck. He was a nice pig, and I had felt sorry for him: +thinking that he didn't deserve such treatment, his life having been a +respectable one, and he never having done anybody any harm. It all +came back to me in a flash, as I settled myself well against the cabin +and answered: "No, I won't join you--and you and your brig may go +to hell!" + +All I remember after that was their rush together upon me, and my +hitting out two or three times--getting in one smasher on the mate's +jaw that was a comfort to me--and then something hard cracking me on +the head, and so stunning me that I knew nothing at all of what +happened until I found myself coming up to the surface of the sea, +sputtering salt-water and partly tangled in a bunch of gulf-weed, and +saw the brig heeling over and sliding fast away from me before a +sudden strong draught of wind. + + + + + +VI + +I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + + +My head was tingling with pain, and so buzzy that I had no sense worth +speaking of, but just kept myself afloat in an instinctive sort of way +by paddling a little with my hands. And I could not see well for what +I thought was water in my eyes--until I found that it was blood +running down over my forehead from a gash in my scalp that went from +the top of my right ear pretty nearly to my crown. Had the blow that +made it struck fair it certainly would have finished me; but from the +way that the scalp was cut loose the blow must have glanced. + +The chill of the water freshened me and brought my senses back a +little: for which I was not especially thankful at first, being in +such pain and misery that to drown without knowing much about it +seemed quite the best thing that I could hope for just then. Indeed, +when I began to think again, though not very clearly, I had half a +mind to drop my arms to my sides and so go under and have done with +it--so despairing was I as I bobbed about on the swell among the +patches of gulf-weed which littered the dark ocean, with the brig +drawing away from me rapidly, and no chance of a rescue from her even +had she been near at hand. + +Whether I had or had not hurried the matter, under I certainly should +have gone shortly--for the crack on my head and the loss of blood from +it had taken most of my strength out of me, and even with my full +strength I could not have kept afloat long--had not a break in the +clouds let through a dash of moonlight that gave me another chance. It +was only for a moment or two that the moonlight lasted, yet long +enough for me to make out within a hundred feet of me a biggish piece +of wreckage--which but for that flash I should not have noticed, or in +the dimness would have taken only for a bunch of weed. + +Near though it was, getting to it was almost more than I could manage; +and when at last I did reach it I was so nearly used up that I barely +had strength to throw my arms about it and one leg over it, and so +hang fast for a good many minutes in a half-swoon of weakness +and pain. + +But the feel of something solid under me, and the certainty that for a +little while at least I was safe from drowning, helped me to pull +myself together; and before long some of my strength came back, and a +little of my spirit with it, and I went about settling myself more +securely on my poor sort of a raft. What I had hit upon, I found, was +a good part of a ship's mast; with the yards still holding fast by it +and steadying it, and all so clean-looking that it evidently had not +been in the water long. The main-top, I saw, would give me a back to +lean against and also a little shelter; and in that nook I would be +still more secure because the futtock-shrouds made a sort of cage +about it and gave me something to catch fast to should the swell of +the sea roll me off. So I worked along the mast from where I first had +caught hold of it until I got myself stowed away under the main-top: +where I had my body fairly out of water, and a chance to rest easily +by leaning against the upstanding woodwork, and a good grip with my +legs to keep me firm. And it is true, though it don't sound so, that I +was almost happy at finding myself so snug and safe there--as it +seemed after having nothing under me but the sea. + +And then I set myself--my head hurting me cruelly, and the flow of +blood still bothering me--to see what I could do in the way of binding +up my wound; and made a pretty good job of it, having a big silk +handkerchief in my pocket that I folded into a smooth bandage and +passed over my crown and under my chin--after first dowsing my head in +the cold sea water, which set the cut to smarting like fury but helped +to keep the blood from flowing after the bandage was made fast. At +first, while I was paddling in the water and splashing my way along +the mast and while the bandage was flapping about my ears, I had no +chance to hear any noises save those little ones close to me which I +was making myself. But when I had finished my rough surgery, and +leaned back against the top to rest after it--and my heart was +beginning to sink with the thought of how utterly desperate my case +was, afloat there on the open ocean with a gale coming on--I heard in +the deep silence a faint rythmic sound that I recognized instantly as +the pulsing of a steamer's engine and the steady churning of her +screw. This mere whisper in the darkness was a very little thing to +hang a hope upon; but hope did return to me with the conviction that +the sound came from the steamer of which I had seen the lights just +before I was pitched overboard, and that I had a chance of her passing +near enough to me to hear my hail. + +I peered eagerly over the waters, trying to make out her lights again +and so settle how she was heading; but I could see no lights, though +with each passing minute the beating of the screw sounded louder to my +straining ears. From that I concluded that she must be coming up +behind me and was hid by the top from me; and so, slowly and +painfully, I managed to get on my hands and knees on the mast, and +then to raise myself until I stood erect and could see over the edge +of the top as it rose like a little wall upright--and gave a weak +shout of joy as I saw what I was looking for, the three bright points +against the blackness, not more than a mile away. And I was all the +more hopeful because her red and green lights showed full on each side +of the white light on her foremast, and by that I knew that she was +heading for me as straight as she could steer. + +I gave another little shout--but fainter than the first, for my +struggle to get to my feet, and then to hold myself erect as the swell +rolled the mast about, made me weak and a little giddy; and I wanted +to keep on shouting--but had the sense not to, that I might save my +strength for the yells that I should have to give when the steamer got +near enough to me for her people to hear my cries. So I stood +silent--swaying with the roll of the mast, and with my head throbbing +horribly because of my excitement and the strain of holding on +there--while I watched her bearing down on me; and making her out so +plainly as she got closer that it never occurred to me that I and my +bit of mast would not be just as plain to her people as her great bulk +was to me. + +I don't suppose that she was within a quarter of a mile of me when I +began my yelling; but I was too much worked up to wait longer, and the +result of my hurry was to make my voice very hoarse and feeble by the +time that she really was within hail. She came dashing along so +straight for me that I suddenly got into a tremor of fear that she +would run me down; and, indeed, she only cleared me by fifty feet or +so--her huge black hull, dotted with the bright lights of her cabin +ports, sliding past me so close that she seemed to tower right up over +me--and I was near to being swamped, so violently was my mast tossed +about by the rush and suck of the water from her big screw. And while +she hung over me, and until she was gone past me and clear out of all +hearing, I yelled and yelled! + +At first I could not believe, so sure had I been of my rescue, that +she had left me; and it was not until she was a good half mile away +from me, with only the sound of her screw ripping the water, and a +faint gleam of light from her after ports showing through the +darkness, that I realized that she was gone--and then I grew so sick +and dizzy that it is a wonder I did not lose my hold altogether and +fall off into the sea. Somehow or another I managed to swing myself +down and to seat myself upon the mast again, with my head fairly +splitting and with my heart altogether gone: and so rested there, +shutting my eyes to hide the sight of my hope vanishing, and as +desolate as any man ever was. + +Presently, in a dull way, I noticed that I no longer heard the swash +of her screw, and rather wondered at her getting out of hearing so +quickly; but for fear of still seeing her lights, and so having more +pain from her, I still kept my eyes tight closed. And then, all of a +sudden, I heard quite close by me a hail--and opened my eyes in a +hurry to see a light not a hundred feet away from me, and to make out +below it the loom of a boat moving slowly over the weed-strewn sea. + +The shout that I gave saved me, but before it saved me I came near to +being done for. Such a rush of blood went up into my broken head with +the sudden burst of joy upon me that a dead faint came upon me and I +fell off into the water; and that I was floating when the boat got to +me was due to the mere chance that as I dropped away from the mast one +of my arms slipped into the tangle of the futtock-shrouds. But I knew +nothing about that, nor about anything else that happened, until we +were half-way back to the steamer and I came to my senses a little; +and very little for a good while longer--except that I was swung up a +ship's side and there was a good deal of talking going on around me; +and then that my clothes were taken off and I was lifted into a soft +delightful berth; and then that somebody with gentle hands was binding +up my broken crown. + +When this job was finished--which hurt me a good deal, but did not +rouse me much--I just fell back upon the soft pillow and went to +sleep: with a blessed sense of rest and safety, as I felt the roll of +a whole ship under me again after the short jerk of my mast, and knew +that I was not back on the brig but aboard an honest steamer by +hearing and by feeling the strong steady pulsing of her screw. + + + + +VII + +I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + +I was roused from my sleep by the sharp motion of the vessel; but did +not get very wide awake, for I felt donsie and there was a dull +ringing in my head along with a great dull pain. I had sense enough, +though, to perceive that the storm had come, about which Captain Luke +and the barometer had been at odds; and to shake a little with a +creepy terror as I thought of the short work it would have made with +me had I waited for it on my mast. But I was too much hurt to feel +anything very keenly, and so heavy that even with the quick short roll +of the ship to rouse me I kept pretty much in a doze. + +After a while the door of my state-room was opened a little and a man +peeped in; and when he saw my open eyes looking at him he came in +altogether, giving me a nod and a smile. He was a tall fellow in a +blue uniform, with a face that I liked the looks of; and when he spoke +to me I liked the sound of his voice. + +"You must be after being own cousin to all the Seven Sleepers of +Ephesus and the dog too, my big young man," he said, holding fast to +the upper berth to steady himself. "You've put in ten solid hours, so +far, and you don't seem to be over wide awake yet. Faith, I'd be after +backing you to sleep standing, like Father O'Rafferty's old dun cow!" + +I did not feel up to answering him, but I managed to grin a little, +and he went on: "I'm for thinking that I'd better let that broken head +of yours alone till this fool of a ship is sitting still +again--instead of trying to teach the porpoises such tricks of rolling +and pitching as never entered into their poor brute minds. But you'll +do without doctoring for the present, myself having last night sewed +up all right and tight for you the bit of your scalp that had fetched +away. How does it feel?" + +"It hurts," was all that I could answer. + +"And small blame to it," said the doctor, and went on: "It's a +well-made thick head you have, and it's tough you are, my son, not to +be killed entirely by such a whack as you got on your brain-box--to +say nothing of your fancy for trying to cure it hydropathically by +taking it into the sea with you when you were for crossing the +Atlantic Ocean on the fag-end of a mast. It's much indeed that you +have to learn, I am thinking, both about surgery and about taking care +of yourself. But in the former you'll now do well, being in the +competent hands of a graduate of Dublin University; and in regard to +your incompetence in the latter good reason have you for being +thankful that the _Hurst Castle_ happened to be travelling in these +parts last night, and that her third officer is blessed with a pair of +extra big ears and so happened to hear you talking to him from out of +the depths of the sea. + +"But talking isn't now the best thing for you, and some more of the +sleep that you're so fond of is--if only the tumbling of the ship will +let you have it; so take this powder into that mouth of yours which +you opened so wide when you were conversing with us as we went sailing +past you, and then stop your present chattering and take all the sleep +that you can hold." + +With that he put a bitter powder into my mouth, and gave me a drink of +water after it--raising me up with a wonderful deftness and gentleness +that I might take it, and settling me back again on the pillow in just +the way that I wanted to lie. "And now be off again to your friends +the Ephesians," he said; "only remember that if you or they--or their +dog either, poor beasty--wants anything, it's only needed to touch +this electric bell. As to the doggy," he added, with his hand on the +door-knob, "tell him to poke at the button with the tip of his foolish +nose." And with that he opened the door and went away. All this +light friendly talk was such a comfort to me--showing, as it did, +along with the good care that I was getting, what kindly people I had +fallen among--that in my weak state I cried a little because of my +happy thankfulness; and then, my weakness and the powder acting +together to lull me, in spite of the ship's sharp motion I went off +again to sleep. + +But that time my sleep did not last long. In less than an hour, I +suppose, the motion became so violent as to shake me awake again--and +to give me all that I could do to keep myself from being shot out of +my berth upon the floor. Presently the doctor came again, fetching +with him one of the cabin stewards to rig the storm-board at the side +of my berth and some extra pillows with which to wedge me fast. But +though he gave me a lot more of his pleasant chaff to cheer me I could +see that his look was anxious, and it seemed to me that the steward +was badly scared. Between them they managed to stow me pretty tight in +my berth and to make me as comfortable as was possible while +everything was in such commotion--with the ship bouncing about like a +pea on a hot shovel and all the wood-work grinding and creaking with +the sudden lifts and strains. + +"It's a baddish gale that's got hold of the old _Hurst Castle_, and +that's a fact," the doctor said, when they had finished with me, in +answer to the questioning look that he saw in my eyes. "But it's +nothing to worry about," he went on; "except that it's hard on you, +with that badly broken head of yours, to be tumbled about worse than +Mother O'Donohue's pig when they took it to Limerick fair in a cart. +So just lie easy there among your pillows, my son; and pretend that +it's exercise that you are taking for the good of your liver--which is +a torpid and a sluggish organ in the best of us, and always the better +for such a shaking as the sea is giving us now. And be remembering +that the _Hurst Castle_ is a Clyde-built boat, with every plate and +rivet in her as good as a Scotsman knows how to make it--and in such +matters it's the Sandies who know more than any other men alive. In my +own ken she's pulled through storms fit to founder the Giant's +Causeway and been none the worse for 'em, and so it's herself that's +certain to weather this bit of a gale--which has been at its worst no +less than two times this same morning, and therefore by all rule and +reason must be for breaking soon. + +"And be thinking, too," he added as he was leaving me, "that I'll be +coming in to look after you now and then when I have a spare +minute--for there are some others, I'm sorry to say, who are after +needing me; and as soon as the gale goes down a bit I'll overhaul +again that cracked head of yours, and likely be singing you at the +same time for your amusement a real Irish song." But not much was +there of singing, nor of any other show of lightheartedness, aboard +the _Hurst Castle_ during the next twelve hours. So far from breaking, +the gale--as the doctor had called it, although in reality it was a +hurricane--got worse steadily; with only a lull now and then, as +though for breath-taking, and then a fiercer rush of wind--before +which the ship would reel and shiver, while the grinding of her iron +frame and the crunching of her wood-work made a sort of wild chorus of +groans and growls. For all my wedging of pillows I was near to flying +over the storm-board out of my berth with some of the plunges that she +took; and very likely I should have had such a tumble had not the +doctor returned again in a little while and with the mattress from the +upper berth so covered me as to jam me fast--and how he managed to do +this, under the circumstances, I am sure I don't know. + +When he had finished my packing he bent down over me--or I could not +have heard him--and said: "It's sorry I am for you, my poor boy, for +you're getting just now more than your full share of troubles. But +we're all in a pickle together, and that's a fact, and the choice +between us is small. And I'd be for suggesting that if you know such a +thing as a prayer or two you'll never have a finer opportunity for +saying them than you have now." And by that, and by the friendly +sorrowful look that he gave me, I knew that our peril must +be extreme. + +I don't like to think of the next few hours; while I lay there packed +tight as any mummy, and with no better than a mummy's chances, as it +seemed to me, of ever seeing the live world again--terrified by the +awful war of the storm and by the confusion of wild noises, and every +now and then sharply startled by hearing on the deck above me a fierce +crash as something fetched away. It was a bad time, Heaven knows, for +everybody; but for me I thought that it was worst of all. For there I +was lying in utter helplessness, with the certainty that if the ship +foundered there was not a chance for me--since I must drown solitary +in my state-room, like a rat drowned in a hole. + + + + + +VIII + +THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + + +At last, having worn itself out, as sailors say, the storm began to +lessen: first showing its weakening by losing its little lulls and +fiercer gusts after them, and then dropping from a tempest to a mere +gale--that in turn fell slowly to a gentle wind. But even after the +wind had fallen, and for a good while after, the ship labored in a +tremendous sea. + +As I grew easier in my mind and body, and so could think a little, I +wondered why my friend the doctor did not come to me; and when at last +my door was opened I looked eagerly--my eyes being the only free part +of me--to see him come in. But it was the steward who entered, and I +had a little sharp pang of disappointment because I missed the face +that I wanted to see. However, the man stooped over me, kindly enough, +and lifted off the mattress and did his best to make me comfortable; +only when I asked him where the doctor was he pretty dismally +shook his head. + +"It's th' doctor himself is needin' doctorin', poor soul," he +answered, "he bein' with his right leg broke, and with his blessed +head broke a-most as bad as yours!" And then he told me that when the +storm was near ended the doctor had gone on deck to have a look at +things, and almost the minute he got there had been knocked over by a +falling spar. "For th' old ship's shook a-most to pieces," the man +went on; "with th' foremast clean overboard, an' th' mizzen so wobbly +that it's dancin' a jig every time she pitches, and everything at rags +an' tatters of loose ends." + +"But the doctor?" I asked. + +"He says himself, sir, that he's not dangerous, and I s'pose he ought +to know. Th' captain an' th' purser together, he orderin' 'em, have +set his leg for him; and his head, he says, 'll take care of itself, +bein' both thick an' hard. But he's worryin' painful because he can't +look after you, sir, an' th' four or five others that got hurt in th' +storm. And I can tell you, sir," the man went on, "that all th' ship's +company, an' th' passengers on top of 'em, are sick with sorrow that +this has happened to him; for there's not a soul ever comes near th' +doctor but loves him for his goodness, and we'd all be glad to break +our own legs this minute if by that we could be mendin' his!" + +The steward spoke very feelingly and earnestly, and with what he said +I was in thorough sympathy; for the doctor's care of me and his +friendliness had won my heart to him, just as it had won to him the +hearts of all on board. But there was comfort in knowing that he had +got off with only a broken leg and a broken head from a peril that so +easily might have been the death of him, and of that consolation I +made the most--while the steward, who was a handy fellow and pretty +well trained as a surgeon's assistant, freshly bandaged my head for me +as the doctor had ordered him to do, and so set me much more at my +ease. After that, for the rest of the day, he came every hour or so to +look after me; giving me some broth to eat and a biscuit, and some +medicine that the doctor sent me with the message that it would put +strength enough into a dead pig to set him to dancing--by which I knew +that even if his head and leg were broken there was no break in his +whimsical fun. + +The steward was the only man who came near me; but this did not +surprise me when he told me more about the condition that the ship was +in, and how all hands--excepting himself, who had been detailed +because of his knowledge that way to look after the hurt people under +the doctor's direction--were hard at work making repairs, with what men +there were among the passengers helping too. The ship was not leaking, +he said, and this was the luckier because her frame was so strained +that it was doubtful if her water-tight compartments would hold; but +the foremast had been carried away, and all the weather-boats had been +mashed out of all shape or swept overboard, and the mizzen was so +shaky that it seemed likely at any moment to fall. Indeed, the mast +was in such a bad way, he said, that the first and second officers +were for getting rid of it--and of the danger that there was of its +coming down all in a heap anyway--by sending it overboard; but that +the captain thought it safe to stand now that the sea was getting +smooth again, and was setting up jury-stays to hold it until we made +the Azores--for which islands our course was laid. + +By the time that night came again the sea had pretty well gone down, +and beyond the easy roll that was on her the ship had no motion save +the steady vibration of her screw. With this comforting change the +pain in my head became only a dull heavy aching, and I had a chance to +feel how utterly weary I was after the strain of mind and body that +had been put on me by the gale. A little after eight o'clock, as I +knew by hearing the ship's bell striking--and mighty pleasant it was +to hear regularly that orderly sound again--the steward brought me a +bowl of broth and propped me up in my berth while I drank it; and +cheered me by telling me that the doctor was swearing at his broken +leg like a good fellow, and was getting on very well indeed. And then +my weariness had its way with me, and I fell off into that deep sleep +which comes to a man only when all his energy has slipped away from +him on a dead low tide. How long I slept I do not know. But I do +know that I was routed suddenly into wakefulness by a jar that almost +pitched me out of my berth, and that an instant later there was a +tremendous crash as though the whole deck above me was smashing to +pieces, and with this a rattle of light woodwork splintering and the +sharp tinkling of breaking glass. For a moment there was silence; and +then I heard shouts and screams close by me in the cabin, and a little +later a great trampling on deck, and then the screw stopped turning +and there was a roar of escaping steam. + +I was so heavy with sleep that at first I thought we still were in the +storm and that this commotion was a part of it; but as I shook off my +drowsiness I got a clearer notion of the situation--remembering what +the steward had told me of the condition of the mizzen-mast, and so +arriving at the conclusion that it had fetched away bodily and had +come crashing through the cabin skylight in its fall. But what the +shock was that had sent it flying--unless we had been in collision--I +could not understand. And all this while the trampling on deck +continued, and out in the cabin the shouts and cries went on. + +I thought that the steward would come to me--forgetting that in times +of danger men are apt to think only of saving their own skins--and so +laid still; being, indeed, so weak and wretched that it did not seem +possible to me to do anything else. But he did not come, and at the +end of what seemed to me to be a desperately long time--though I doubt +if it were more than five minutes--I realized that I must try to do +something to help myself; and was the more nerved to action by the +fact that there no longer was the sound of voices in the cabin, while +the noises on deck a good deal had increased. Indeed, I began to hear +up there the puffing and snorting of the donkey-engine, and so felt +certain that they were hoisting out the boats. + +Somehow or another I managed to get out of my berth, and on my feet, +and so to the door; but when I tried to open the door I could not +budge it, and in the darkness I struck my head against what seemed to +be a bar of wood that stuck in through one of the upper panels and so +held it fast. The blow dizzied me, for it took me close to where my +cut was and put me into intense pain. + +While I stood there, pulling in a weak way at the door-knob and making +nothing of it, I heard voices out in the cabin and through my broken +door saw a gleam of light. But in the moment that my hope rose it went +down again, for I heard some one say quickly and sharply: "It's no +good. The way the spar lies we can't get at him--and to cut it through +would take an hour." + +And then a voice that I recognized for the steward's answered: "But +the doctor ordered it. Where's an axe for a try?" To which the other +man answered back again: "If it was the doctor himself we couldn't do +it, and we'll tell him so. The ship'll be down in five minutes. We've +got to run for it or the boats'll be off." And then away they ran +together, giving no heed in their fright to my yells after them to +come back and not leave me there to drown. + +For a little while I was as nearly wild crazy as a man can be and yet +have a purpose in his mind. The keen sense of my peril made me strong +again. I kicked with my bare feet and pounded with my hands upon the +door to break it, I shouted for help to come to me, and I gave out +shrill screams of terror such as brutes give in their agony--for I was +down to the hard-pan of human nature, and what I felt most strongly +was the purely animal longing to keep alive. + +But no one answered me, and I could tell by the sounds on deck getting +fainter that some of the boats already had put off; and in a little +while longer no sound came from the deck of any sort whatever, and by +that I knew that all the boats must have got away. And as I realized +that I was forsaken, and felt sure from what I had heard that the ship +would float for only a few minutes longer, I gave a cry of downright +despair--and then I lost track of the whole bad business by tumbling +to the floor in the darkness in a dead swoon. + + + + + +IX + +ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + + +When I came to myself again, and found my state-room--although the +dead-light was set--bright with the light which entered through the +broken door, my first feeling was of wonder that I was not yet +drowned; for it was evident that the sun must be well up in the +heavens to shine so strongly, and therefore that a good many hours +must have passed since the smash had happened that had sent everybody +flying to the boats believing that the ship was going right down. And +my next wonder was caused by the queer way in which the ship was +lying--making me fancy at first that I was dizzy again, and my eyes +tricking me--with a pitch forward that gave a slope to the floor of my +state-room, of not less than twenty degrees. + +For a while, in a stupid sort of way, I ruminated over these matters; +and at last got hold of the simple explanation of them. Evidently, in +spite of the straining of the steamer's frame in the storm, her +water-tight compartments--or some of them--had held, leaving her +floating with her broken bow well down in the water and her stern +canted up into the air. And then the farther comforting thought came +to me that if she had kept afloat for so many hours already, and +seemed so steady in her new position, there was no reason why she +should not keep on floating at least for as long as the fine weather +lasted--which gave me a chance of rescue by some passing vessel, and +so brought a good deal of hope back into my heart. + +I still was very weak and shaky, and how I was to get out of the +prison that I was in I did not know. By daylight it was easy to see +what held me there: which was the end of a yard, with the reef-block +hanging to it, smashed through the upper panel and caught so tight in +the splintered wood-work as to anchor the door fast. If the wits of +the steward and of the other fellow had not been scared clean out of +them they easily might have knocked in the lower part of the door with +an axe and so opened a way out for me; but as their only notion had +been to cut away the spar--a tough piece of work--I could not in cool +blood very greatly blame them for having given up my rescue and run +for their own lives. + +These thoughts went through my head while I lay there, most +uncomfortably, on the sloping floor. Presently I managed to get up, +but felt so dizzy that I had to seat myself in a hurry on the edge of +the berth until my head got steadier. Fortunately my water-jug was +half full, and I had a good drink from it which refreshed me greatly; +and then I had the farther good fortune to see some biscuit which the +steward had left on a shelf in the corner, and as I caught sight of +them I realized that I was very hungry indeed. I ate one, along with +some more sups of water, and felt much the better for it; but lay down +in my berth that I might save the strength it gave me until I should +have thought matters over a little and settled some line of action +in my mind. + +That I was too weak to break the door down was quite certain, and the +only other thing that I could think of was cutting out the lower +panels and so making a hole through which I could crawl. As this +thought came to me I remembered the big jack-knife that had been in my +trousers' pocket when I went overboard from the brig; and in a minute +I was on my feet--and without feeling any dizziness, this time--and +got to where my clothes were hanging on a hook, and found to my joy +that my knife and all the other things which had been in my pockets +had been returned to them after the clothes had been dried. The knife +was badly rusted and I had a hard time opening it; but the rust did +not much dull it, and I seated myself upon the floor and fell to +slicing away at the soft pine wood with a will. I had to rest now and +then, although I found that my strength held out better than I had +hoped for, and that put me back a little; but the wood was so soft +that in not much more than half an hour I had the job finished--and +then I slipped on my trousers, and out I went through the hole on my +hands and knees. + +I found the cabin in utter wreck: littered everywhere with broken +glass and broken wood from the skylight, and from the smashed +hanging-racks and the smashed dining-table, and with splinters from +the mast--which had broken in falling, and along the whole length of +the place had made a tangle of its own fragments and of the ropes and +blocks which had held its sails. Of the sails themselves there were +left only some fuzzy traces clinging to the bolt-ropes, all the rest +having been blown loose and frayed away by the storm. Oddly enough, +some of the drinking-glasses still remained unbroken in one of the +racks, and with them a bottle partly filled with wine--to the neck of +which a card was fastened bearing the name, Jose Rubio y Salinas, of +the passenger to whom it had belonged. I took the liberty of drinking +a glass of Don Jose's wine--feeling sure that he was not coming back +to claim it--and felt so much better after it that I thanked him +cordially for leaving it there. + +Most of the state-room doors stood open, showing within clothing +tossed about and trunks with their lids turned back, and the general +confusion in which the passengers had left things when they scrambled +together their most precious belongings and rushed for the boats--with +death, as they fancied, treading close upon their heels. But with what +remained in the state-rooms I did not concern myself, being desirous +first of all to get on deck and have a look about me that I might size +up my chances of keeping alive. That there was no companion-way up +from the cabin puzzled me a little, for I knew nothing of the internal +arrangements of steamships; but presently I found a passage leading +forward, and by that I came to the stair to the deck of which I was +in search. + +Up it I went, but when I fairly got outside and saw the desperate +state of the craft that I was afloat on my heart sank. Indeed, it +seemed a flying in the face of all reason that such an utter wreck +should float at all. Of the foremast nothing but the splintered stump +remained. The starboard rail, which had been to windward of it, was +gashed by chance axe-blows made in cutting away the shrouds; and as to +the port rail, twenty feet of it was gone entirely where the mast had +come crashing down, while the side-plates below were bulged out with +the strain put upon them before the standing-rigging fastened there +had fetched away. The mizzen-mast lay aft across the cabin skylight, +with its standing and running rigging making a tangle on each side of +it. The main-mast still stood, but with its top-mast broken off and +dangling nearly to the deck. Two of the weather-boats remained fast +to the davits, but so smashed that they looked like battered tin +wash-basins, and would have floated just about as well. All the other +boats were gone: those on the weather side, as the splintered ways and +broken ropes showed, having been washed overboard; and those to +leeward having been hoisted out by the tackles, which still hung from +the davits and dipped lazily with the ship's easy motion into the sea. + +All this was bad enough, but what most took the spirit out of me was +the way that the ship was lying--her stern high up in the air, and her +bow so deep in the water that the sea came up almost to her main-mast +along her sloping deck. It seemed inevitable that in another moment +she would follow her nose in the start downward that it had made and +go straight to the bottom; and each little wave, as it lapped its way +aft softly, made me fancy that the plunge had begun. + +As to the outlook around me, the only comfort that I got from it was +the fairness of the weather and the smoothness of the sea. For close +upon the water a soft haze was hanging that even to the north, out of +which blew a gentle wind, brought the horizon within a mile of me; and +down to leeward the haze was banked so thick that I could make out +nothing beyond half a mile. And so, even though a whole fleet might be +passing near me, my chances of rescue were very small. But from the +look of the ocean I knew that no fleets were likely to be thereabouts, +and that even though the haze lifted I might search long and vainly +for sight of so much as a single sail. As far as I could see around me +the water was covered thickly with gulf-weed, and with this was all +sorts of desolate flotsam--planks, and parts of masts, and fragments +of ships' timbers--lolling languidly on the soft swell that was +running, yet each scrap having behind it its own personal tragedy of +death and storm. And this mess of wreckage was so much thicker than I +had seen when the brig was on the coast--as Bowers had called it--of +the Sargasso Sea as to convince me that already I must be within the +borders of that ocean mystery which a little while before I had been +so keen for exploring; and my fate seemed sealed to me as I realized +that I therefore was in a region which every living ship steered clear +of, and into which never any but dead ships came. + + + + + +X + +I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + + +When I perceived the tight fix that I was in my broken head went to +throbbing again, and my legs were so shaky under me that I had to sit +down on the deck in a hurry in order to save myself from a fall. +Indeed, I was in no condition to face even an ordinary trouble, let +alone an overwhelming disaster; for what with my loss of blood from +the cut on my head, and the little food I had eaten since I got it, I +was as weak as a cat. + +Luckily I had the sense to realize that I needed the strength which +food would give me in order to save myself from dropping off into +sheer despair. And with the thought of eating there suddenly woke up +in my inside a hungry feeling that surprised me by its sharpness; and +instantly put such vigor into my shaky legs that I was up on them in a +moment, and off to the companion-way to begin my explorations below. +And when, being come to the cabin again, I had another sup of Don +Jose's wine I got quite ravenous, and felt strong enough to kick a +door in--if that should be necessary--in order to satisfy my +craving for food. + +There was no need for staving in doors, for none of them was fastened; +but it was some little time--because of my ignorance of the +arrangement of steamships--before I could find one that had things to +eat on the other side of it. Around the cabin, and along the passage +leading forward, were only state-rooms; but just beyond the +companion-way I came at last to the pantry--and beyond this again, as +I found later, were the store-rooms and the galley. For the moment, +however, the pantry gave me all that I wanted. In a covered box I +found some loaves of bread, and in a big refrigerator a lot of cold +victuals that set my eyes to dancing--two or three roast fowls, part +of a big joint of beef, a boiled tongue, and so on; and, what was +almost as welcome, in another division of the refrigerator a dozen or +more bottles of beer. On the racks above were dishes and glasses, in a +locker were knives and forks, and I even found hanging on a hook a +corkscrew--and the quickness with which I brought these various things +together and made them serve my purposes was a sight to see! + +When I had eaten nearly a whole fowl, and had drunk a bottle of beer +with it, I felt like another man; and then, pursuing my investigations +more leisurely, I found in one of the lockers--which I took the +liberty of prying open with a big carving-knife--four or five boxes +of capital cigars. In the same locker was a package of safety-matches, +and in a moment I was puffing away with such satisfaction that I +fairly grew light-hearted--so great is the comfort that comes to a man +with good smoking on top of a hearty meal. All sorts of bright fancies +came to me: of making one of the battered boats serviceable again and +getting off in it, of a ship blown out of her course coming to my +rescue, of a strong southerly wind that would carry the hulk of the +poor old _Hurst Castle_ back again into the inhabited parts of the +sea. And with these thoughts cheering me I set myself to work to find +out just what I had in the way of provisions aboard my shattered craft. + +I did not have to search far nor long to satisfy myself that I had a +bigger stock of food by me than I could eat in a dozen years. Forward +of the galley were the store-rooms: a cold-room, with a plenty of ice +still in it, in which was hanging a great quantity of fresh meat; a +wine-room, very well stocked and containing also some cases of tobacco +and cigars; and in the other rooms was stuff enough to fit up a big +grocery shop on shore--hams and bacon and potted meats, and a great +variety of vegetables in tins, and all sorts of sweets and sauces and +table-delicacies in tins and in glass. Indeed, although I was full to +the chin with the meal that I had just eaten, my mouth fairly watered +at sight of all these good things. In the bakery I found only a loaf +or two of bread, and this--as it was lying on the floor--I suppose +must have been dropped in the scramble while the boats were being +provisioned; but in the baker's store-room were a good many cases of +fine biscuit, and more than twenty barrels of flour. In addition to +all this, I did not doubt that somewhere on board was an equally large +store of provisions for the use of the crew; but with that I did not +bother myself, being satisfied to fare as a cabin-passenger on the +good things which I had found. Finally, two of the big water-tanks +still were full--the others, as I inferred from the cocks being open, +having been emptied for the supply of the boats; and as a +reserve--leaving rain out of the question--I had the ice to fall back +upon, of which there was so great a quantity that it alone would last +me for a long while. In a word, so far as eating and drinking were +concerned, I was as well off as a man could be anywhere--having by me +not only all the necessaries of life but most of its luxuries as well. + +Finding all these good things cheered me and put heart in me in much +the same way that I was cheered and heartened by finding my floating +mast after Captain Luke and the mate chucked me overboard. Again I had +the certainty that death for a while could not get a chance at me; and +this second reprieve was of a more promising sort than that which my +mast had given me in the open sea. On board the steamer, or what was +left of her, I was sure of being in positive comfort so long as she +floated; and my good spirits made me so sanguine that I was confident +she would keep on floating until I struck out some plan by which I +could get safe away from her, or until rescue came to me by some lucky +turn of chance. And so, having completed my tour of inspection, and my +general inventory of the property to which by right of survival I had +fallen heir, I went on deck again in a very hopeful mood. + +Even the utter wreck and confusion into which the steamer had fallen, +when I got to the deck and saw it again, did not crush the hope out of +me as it did when I came upon it--being then weak and famished--for +the first time. I even found a cause for greater hopefulness in +observing that the water-line still stood, as it had stood an hour and +more earlier, a little forward of the main-mast; for that showed that +the water-tight compartments were holding, and that the hulk was in no +immediate danger of going down. It did seem, to be sure, that the haze +had grown a little thicker, and that the weed and wreckage around the +steamer were thicker too; and I was convinced that my hulk was +moving--or that the flotsam about it was moving--by seeing a broken +boat floating bottom upward that I was sure was not in sight when I +went below. But I argued with myself cheerfully that the thickening +of the haze might be due to a wind coming down on me that would blow +it clean away; and that a small thing like an empty boat drifting down +from windward proved that the _Hurst Castle_ herself was moving +southward very slowly, or perhaps was not moving at all. And so, still +in good spirits, I set myself to looking carefully for something that +would float me, in case I decided to abandon the hulk and make a dash +for it--on the chance of falling in with a passing vessel--out over +the open sea. + +But when I had made the round of the deck--at least of the part of it +that was out of water--I had to admit that getting away from the +steamer was a sheer impossibility, unless I might manage it by +cobbling together some sort of a raft. It had been all very well for +me to fancy, while I was being cheered with chicken and beer and +tobacco down in the pantry, that I could make one of the battered +boats sea-worthy; but my round of the deck showed me that with all my +training in mechanics I never could make one of them float again--for +the sea had wrenched and hammered them until they were no better than +so much old iron. The raft, certainly, was a possibility. Spars that +would serve for its body were lying around in plenty, and with the +doors from the rooms below I could deck it over so as to make it both +solid and dry; and somewhere aboard the ship, no doubt, were +carpenter's tools--though, most likely, they were down under water +forward and could be come at only by diving for them. Still, the raft +was a possibility; and so was comforting to think about as giving me +another reprieve from drowning in case the water-tight compartments +broke down--and as that break might come at any moment, and as the job +would take me two days at the shortest, I realized that I could not +set about it too soon. + + + + + +XI + +MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + + +But the other chance which I had thought of, that my hulk might be +blown clear of the Sargasso Sea and back into the track of trade +again, still was to be reckoned with; and to know how that chance was +working it was necessary that I should find out my exact position on +the ocean, and then check off the changes in it by fresh observations +taken from day to day. And as I saw that the sun was close upon the +meridian, and no time to waste if I wanted to secure my first +noon-sight, I put off beginning my carpentering until I should have +hunted for the ship's instruments and got the latitude and longitude +that would give me my departure on my drifting voyage. + +This was so simple a piece of work that I anticipated no difficulty in +executing it. While the low-lying haze narrowed my horizon it did not +sufficiently obscure the sun to interfere with sight-taking; I could +count upon finding the chronometers still going, they being made to +run for fifty-six hours and the ship having been abandoned only the +night before; and where I found the chronometers I felt sure that I +should find also a sextant and a chart. But when I went at this +easy-looking task I was brought up with a round turn: there were no +chronometers, there was no sextant, there was no chart of the North +Atlantic--there was not even a compass left on board! + +It took me some little time to arrive at a certainty in this series of +negatives. I fancied--because it had been that way aboard the _Golden +Hind_--that the captain's room would be one of those opening off from +the cabin, and so began my search for it in that quarter. But when I +had made the round of all the state-rooms I was satisfied that they +had been occupied only by passengers. The single timepiece that I +found--for the clock in the cabin had been smashed when the +mizzen-mast came down--was a fine gold watch lying in one of the +berths partly under the pillow, where its owner must have left it in +his hurry to get to the boats. It still was going, and I slipped it +into my pocket--feeling that a thing with even that much of life in it +would be a comfort to me; but the hour that it gave was a quarter past +eleven (it having been set to the ship's time the day before, I +suppose) and therefore was of no use to me as a basis for +sight-taking. + +Having exhausted the possibilities of the cabin I concluded that the +captain's quarters must have been forward, and so shifted my search +to the forward deck-house; and as I found a blue uniform coat and a +suit of oil-skins in the first room that I entered I was sure that in +a general way I was on the right track. But in none of these rooms did +I find what I was looking for--though I did find in one of them, and +greatly to my satisfaction, a chest of carpenter's tools and a big box +of nails. The nails must have been there by pure accident, but the +tools probably were the carpenter's private kit; and as in the course +of my farther search I did not come across the ship's +carpenter-shop--which no doubt was under water forward--I felt that +this chance supply of what I needed for my raft-building was a very +lucky thing for me indeed. + +The upper story of the deck-house still remained to be investigated; +and when, by the steps leading to the steamer's bridge, I got up there +and entered a little room behind the wheel-house, I was pretty sure +that at last I had found the place where what I wanted ought to be. +The part forward of the doors on each side of this room--a good third +of it--was filled by a chart-locker having a dozen or more wide +shallow drawers; and the flat top of the locker showed at its four +corners the prickings of thumb-tacks which had held the charts open +there, and four tacks still were in place with scraps of thick white +paper under them--as though some one in too great a hurry to loosen +it properly had ripped the chart away. + +This would be, of course, the chart actually in use when the steamer +got into trouble, and therefore the one that I needed. As it was gone, +I opened the drawers of the locker and looked through them in search +of a duplicate; or of anything--even a wind-chart or a current-chart +would have answered--that would serve my turn. But while there were +charts in plenty of West Indian and of English waters, and a set +covering the German Ocean, not a chart of any sort relating to the +North Atlantic did I find. Neither were there chronometers nor any +nautical instruments in the room. In one corner was a strongly made +closet in which they may have been kept; but of this the door stood +open and the shelves were bare. Even a barometer which had hung near +the closet had been wrenched away, as I could tell by the broken brass +gimbals still fast to the brass supports; but this was a matter of no +importance, since I had noticed another in good order in the cabin--to +say nothing of the fact that my powerlessness to make any provision +against bad weather made me indifferent to warnings of coming storms. +And then, when I continued my search in the wheel-house, though not +very hopefully, all that I discovered there was that the binnacle was +empty and that the compass was gone too. In a word, there was +absolutely nothing on board the hulk that would enable me to fix my +position on the surface of the ocean, or that would guide me should I +try the pretty hopeless experiment of going cruising on a raft. + +This fact being settled--and hindsight being clearer than foresight--I +had no difficulty in accounting for it. In order to lay a course and +to keep it, the people in the boats would need precisely the things +which had been carried off; and as each boat no doubt had been +furnished so that in case of separation it could make its way alone, a +clean sweep had been made of all the North Atlantic charts and of all +the nautical instruments that the steamer had on board. It was to the +credit of the captain that he had kept his wits so well about +him--seeing to it, in the sudden skurry for the boats, that the +ultimate as well as the immediate safety of his people was provided +for--but when I found out, and fairly realized, what his coolness had +cost me I fell off once more from good spirits into gloom. + +Being left that way all at loose ends as to my reckoning, with no +means of finding out where I was nor whether my position changed for +the better from day to day, the hopes that I had been building of +drifting northward and so falling in with a passing vessel fell down +in a bunch and left me miserable. I see now, though I did not see it +then, that they went quite as unreasonably as they came. In that +region of calms--for I was fairly within the horse-latitudes--the only +bit of wind that I was likely to encounter was an eddy from the +northeast trades that would set me still farther to the southward; and +the only other moving impulse acting upon my hulk--at least while fair +weather lasted--would be the slow eddy setting in from the Gulf Stream +and moving me in the same direction. In the case of a storm coming up +from the south, and so giving me the push northward that I was so +eager for, the chances were a thousand to one that my hulk would go to +the bottom long before I could get to a part of the ocean where ships +were likely to be. And as to navigating a raft through that tangle of +weed, already thick enough around me to check the way of a sharply +built boat, the notion was so absurd that only a man in my desperate +fix would even have thought about it. + +But had there been a Job's comforter at hand to put these black +thoughts into my head they would not have helped me nor harmed me +much. My whole heart had been set on getting my sights, and filled +with the inconsequent hope that in getting them I somehow would be +bettering my chances of coming out safe at last; and so it seemed to +me when I could not get them--and in this, though the sight-taking had +nothing to do with it, there was reason in plenty--that all +likelihood of my being rescued had slipped away. + +I had come out from the wheel-house and was standing on the steamer's +bridge--which rose right out of the water so that I looked down from +it directly on the weed-laden sea. As far as my sight would carry +through the soft golden haze I saw only weed-covered water, broken +here and there by a bit of wreckage or by a little open space on which +the pale sunshine gleamed. A very gentle swell was running, giving to +the ocean the look of some strange sort of meadow with tall grass +swaying evenly in an easy wind. The broken boat had moved a good deal +and already was well to the south of me; showing me that there was +motion in that apparent stillness, and compelling me to believe that +my hulk--though less rapidly than the boat--was moving southward too. +And what that meant for me I knew. The fair weather might continue +almost indefinitely. Days and weeks, even months, might pass, and I +still might live on there in bodily safety; but so far as the world +was concerned I was dead already--being fairly caught in the slow +eddying current which was carrying my hulk steadily and hopelessly +into the dense wreck-filled centre of the Sargasso Sea. + + + + + +XII + +I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + + +Because I had felt hungry and thirsty, and the cold chicken and beer +had tasted good, I had eaten and drunk a great deal more heartily than +was wholesome for me--being so weakened by loss of blood, and by the +strain put upon me by the danger that I had passed through, and by +living only on slops and some scraps of biscuit since my rescue, that +my insides were in no condition to deal with such a lot of strong +food. And then, within an hour after I so unwisely had stuffed myself, +came the blow--in itself hard enough to upset a strong digestion in +good working order--of discovering that I could do nothing to save +myself, and that my hulk was drifting steadily deeper and deeper into +that ocean mystery out of which no man ever yet had come alive. + +The first sign that I had that something was going wrong with me was a +swimming in my head--so sudden and so violent that I lurched forward +and was close to pitching over the rail of the bridge into the sea. +For a moment I fancied that the ship had taken a quick plunge; and +then a sick feeling in my own stomach, and a blurring of my eyes that +made everything seem misty and shadowy, settled for me the fact that +it was I who was reeling about and that the ship was still--and I had +sense enough to lie down at full length on the bridge, between the +wheel-house and the rail, where I was safe against rolling off. And +then the shadows about me got deeper and blacker, and a horrible sense +of oppression came over me, and I seemed to be falling endlessly while +myriads of black specks arranged themselves in curious geometrical +figures before my eyes--and then the black specks and everything else +vanished suddenly, and my consciousness left me with what seemed to me +a great crash and bang. + +Had I begun matters by being roundly sick I might have pulled through +my attack without being much the worse for it. But as that did not +happen--my weakness, I suppose, not giving nature a chance to set +things right in her own way--I had a good deal more to suffer before I +began to mend. After a while I got enough of my senses back to know +that my head was aching as though it would split open, and to realize +how utterly miserable I was lying there on the bridge with the hot +sunshine simmering down on me through the haze; and then to think how +delightful it would be if only I were back in the cabin again--where +the sun could not stew me, and where my berth would be easy and soft. + +How I managed to get to the cabin I scarcely know. I faintly remember +working my way along the bridge on my hands and knees, and going +backward down the steps in the same fashion for fear of falling; and +of trying to walk upright when I got to the deck, so that I should not +get wet above my knees in the water there, and of falling souse into +it and getting soaked all over; and then of crawling aft very +slowly--stopping now and then because of my pain and dizziness--and +down the companion-way and through the passage, and so into the cabin +at last; and then, all in my wet clothes, of tumbling anyhow into my +berth--and after that there is only a long dead blank. + +When I caught up with myself again, night had come and I was in pitch +darkness. My head still ached horridly, and I was burning hot all +over, and yet from time to time shivering with creeping chills. What I +wanted most in the world was a drink of water; but when I tried to get +up, in the hope of finding some in the jug that no doubt was in the +state-room, I went so dizzy that I had to plump back into my berth +again. As the night went on, and I lay there thinking how deliciously +the water would taste going cool and sweet down my throat, I got quite +crazy with longing for it; and, in a way, really crazy--for through +most of the night I was light-headed and saw visions that sometimes +comforted me and sometimes made me afraid. The comforting ones were of +fresh green meadows with streams running through them, and of shady +glens in the woods where springs welled up into little basins +surrounded by ferns--just such as I remembered in the woods which +bordered the creek where I used to go swimming when I was a boy. The +horrible ones were not clear at all, and for that were the more +dreadful--being of a fire that was getting nearer and nearer to me, +and of a blazing sun that fairly withered me, and of huge hot globes +or ponderously vague masses of I knew not what which were coming +straight on to crush me and from which I could not get away. + +At last I got so worn out with it all that I fell off into an uneasy +sleep, which yet was better than no sleep and a little rested me. When +I woke again there was enough light in the room for me to see the +water-jug, and that gave me strength to get to it--and most blessedly +it was nearly full. And so I had a long drink, that for a time checked +the heat of my fever; and then I lay down in my berth again, with the +jug on the floor at my side. + +For a while I was almost comfortable. Then the fever came back, and +the visions with it--but no longer so painful as those which had been +begotten of my thirst. I seemed to be in a region dreamy and unreal. +Sometimes I would see far stretches of mountain peaks, and sometimes +the crowded streets of cities; but for the most part my visions were +of the sea--tall ships sailing, and little boats drifting over calm +water in moonlight, and black steamers gliding quickly past me; and +still more frequently, but always in a calm sea, the broken hulks of +wrecked ships with shattered masts and tangled rigging and with dead +men lying about their decks, and sometimes with a dead man hanging +across the wheel and moving a little with the hulk's motion so that in +a horrible sort of way he seemed to be half alive. + +Night came again, bringing me more pain and the burning of a stronger +fever; and then another day, in which the fever rose still higher and +the visions became almost intolerable--because of their intense +reality, and of my conviction all the while that they were unreal and +that I must be well on the way toward a raving madness in which I +would die. + +It was at the end of this day--or it may have been at the end of still +another day, for I have no clear reckoning of how the time +passed--that my worst vision came to me; hurting me not because it was +terrifying in itself, but because it made me feel that even hope had +parted company with me at last. And it was more like a dream than a +vision, seemingly being brought to my sight by my own bodily +movement--not something which floated before my eyes as I lay still. + +As the afternoon went on my fever increased a good deal; but in a way +that was rather pleasant to me, for the pain in my head lessened and I +seemed to be getting back my strength. After a while I began to long +to get out of the cabin and up on deck, and so have a look around me +over the open sea; and with my longing came the feeling that I was +strong enough to realize it. + +My getting up seemed entirely real and natural, as did my firm +walking--without a touch of dizziness--after I fairly was on my feet; +and all the rest of it seemed real too. Even when I came to the +companion-way I seemed to go up the stairs easily, and to step out on +the deck as steadily as though I had been entirely well. + +The sun was near setting, but as I came on the deck my back was toward +the sunset and I saw only its red light touching the soft swell of the +weed-covered sea extending far before me, and the same red light +shimmering in the mist and caught up more strongly on a bank of +low-lying clouds. The outlook was much the same as that which I had +had from the bridge, only the weed seemed to be packed more closely +and there was wreckage about me everywhere. Masts and spars and planks +were in sight in all directions, sometimes floating singly and +sometimes tangled together in little heaps; half a mile away was what +seemed to be a large ship lying bottom upward; near me was a perfectly +sound boat, having in its stern-sheets a bit of sail that fell in such +folds as to make me think that a human form lay under it; and off +toward the horizon was a large raft, with a sort of mast fitted to it, +and at the foot of the mast I fancied that I saw a woman in a white +robe of some sort stretched out as though asleep. And it seemed to me, +though I could not tell why, that all this flotsam, and my own hulk +along with it, slowly was drifting closer and closer together; and was +packing tighter and tighter in the soft oozy tangle of the weed, which +everywhere was matted so thickly that the water did not show at all. + +Then I seemed to walk around to the other side of my hulk and to look +down into the west--and to feel all hope dying with the sight that I +saw there. Far away, under the red mist, across the red gleaming weed +and against a sunset sky bloody red, I seemed to see a vast ruinous +congregation of wrecks; so far-extending that it was as though all the +wrecked ships in the world were lying huddled together there in a +miserably desolate company. And with sight of them the certain +conviction was borne in upon me that my own wreck presently would take +its station in that shattered fleet for which there was no salvation; +and that it would lie among them rotting slowly, as they were +rotting, through months or years--until finally, in its turn, it would +drop down from amidst those lepers of the ocean, and would sink with +all its foulness upon it into the black depths beneath the oozy weed. + +And I knew, too, that whether I already were dead and went down with +it, or saved my life for a while longer by getting aboard of another +hulk which still floated, sooner or later my end must come to me in +that same way. On one or another of those rotting dead ships my own +dead body surely must sink at last. + + + + + +XIII + +I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + + +That was the end of my visions. Through the night that followed--my +fever having run its course, I suppose--I slept easily; and when +another day came and I woke again my fever was gone. I was pretty weak +and ragged, but the cut in my head was healing and no longer hurt me +much, and my mind was clear. There still was water left in the jug, +and I drank freely and felt the better for it; and toward afternoon I +felt so hungry that I managed to get up and go to the pantry on a +foraging expedition for something to eat. + +This time I was careful not to stuff myself. I found a box of light +biscuit and ate a couple of them; and then I filled my water-jug at +the tank and brought it and the biscuit back to my stateroom without +going on the deck at all. My light meal greatly refreshed me; and in +an hour or two I ate another biscuit--and kept on nibbling at them off +and on through the night when I happened to wake up. In between whiles +my sleep was of a sort to do me good; not deep, but restful. With the +coming of another morning I felt so strong that I went to the pantry +again for food of a better sort--venturing to eat a part of a tin of +meat with my biscuit and to add to my water a little wine; and when +this was down I began to feel quite like myself once more, and to long +so strongly for some sunshine and fresh air that I climbed up the +companion-way to the deck. + +But when I got there I thought at first that my visions were coming +back again. Indeed, what I saw was so nearly my last vision over again +as to make me half believe, later, that I really did go on deck in my +delirium and really did see that blood-red sunset and all the rest +that had seemed to me a dream. At any rate, there was no doubting this +second time--if it were the second time--the reality of what I beheld; +and because I no longer was fever-struck, and so could take in fully +the wonder of it, my astonishment kept my spirits from being wholly +pulled down. + +The haze was so thick as to be almost like a fog hanging about me, but +the hot sunshine pouring down into it gave it a golden brightness and +I could see through it dimly for a good long way; and there was no +need for far-seeing to be sure that I had before me what I think must +be the strangest sight that the world has in it for the eyes of man. +For what I looked at was the host of wrecked ships, the dross of wave +and tempest, which through four centuries--from the time when sailors +first pushed out upon the great western ocean--has been gathering +slowly, and still more slowly wasting, in the central fastnesses of +the Sargasso Sea. + +The nearest edge of this mass of wreckage was not a quarter of a mile +off from me; but it swept away in a great irregular curve to the right +and left and vanished into the golden haze softly--and straight ahead +I could see it stretching dimly away from me, getting thicker and +closer until it seemed to be almost as solid as a real island would +have been. And, indeed, it had a good deal the look of being a real +island; the loom through the haze of countless broken masts rising to +various heights and having frayed ropes streaming from them having +much the effect of trees growing there, while the irregularities of +the surface made it seem as though little houses were scattered +thickly among the trees. But in spite of the golden light which hung +over it, and which ought to have given it a cheerful look, it was the +most desolate and sorrowful place I ever saw; for it seemed to +belong--and in a way really did belong, since every hulk in all that +fleet was the slowly wasting dead body of a ship slain by storm or +disaster--to that outcast region of mortality in which death has +achieved its ugliness but to which the cleansing of a complete +dissolution has not yet been brought by time. + +Yet the curious interest that I found in this strange sight kept me +from feeling only the horror of it. In my talks with Bowers about the +old-time sea-wonders which must be hidden in the Sargasso Sea my +imagination had been fired; and when I thus found myself actually in +the way to see these wonders I half forgot how useless the sight was +to me--being myself about the same as killed in the winning of it--and +was so full of eagerness to press forward that I grew almost angry +because of the infinite slowness with which my hulk drifted on to its +place in the ruined ranks. + +There was no hurrying my progress. Around me the weed and wreckage +were packed so closely that the wonder was that my hulk moved through +it at all. Of wind there was not a particle; indeed, as I found later, +under that soft golden haze was a dead calm that very rarely in those +still latitudes was ruffled by even the faintest breeze. Only a weak +swirl of current from the far-off Gulf Stream pushed my hulk onward; +and this, I suppose, was helped a little by that attraction of +floating bodies for each other which brings chips and leaves together +on the surface of even the stillest pool. But a snail goes faster than +I was going; and it was only at the end of a full hour of watching +that I could see--yet even then could not be quite certain about it--that +my position a very little had changed. + +Save that now and then I went below and got some solid food into me--and +as I was careful to eat but little at a time I got the good of it--I sat +there on the deck all day long gazing; and by nightfall my hulk had gone +forward by perhaps as much as a hundred yards. But my motion was a steady +and direct one, and I saw that if it continued it would end by laying me +aboard of a big steamer--having the look of being a cargo-boat--that stood +out a little from the others and evidently herself had not long been a +part of that broken company. She was less of a wreck, in one way, than +my own hulk; for she floated on an even keel and so high out of the +water as to show that she had no leak in her; but her masts had been +swept clean away and even her funnel and her bridge were gone--as though +a sharp-edged sea had sliced like a razor over her and shaved her decks +clean. + +Immediately beyond this steamer lay a big wooden ship evidently +waterlogged; for she lay so low that the whole of her hull, save a bit of +her stern, was hidden from me by the steamer, and the most of her that +showed was her broken masts. And beyond her again was a jam of wrecks so +confused that I could not make out clearly any one of them from the rest. +Taken all together, they made a sort of promontory that jutted out from +what I may call the main-land of wreckage; and to the right and left of +the promontory there went off in long receding lines the coast of that +country of despair. + +At last the sun sunk away to the horizon, and as it fell off westward pink +tones began to show in the clouds there and then to be reflected in the +haze; and these tones grew warmer and deeper until I saw just such another +blood-red sunset as I had seen in what I had fancied was my dream. And +under the crimson haze lay the dead wrecks, looming large in it, with +gleams of crimson light striking here and there on spars and masts and +giving them the look of being on fire. And then the light faded slowly, +through shades of purple and soft pink and warm gray, until at last the +blessed darkness came and shut off everything from my tired eyes. + +Indeed, I was glad when the darkness fell; for as I sat there looking and +looking and feeling the bitter hopelessness of it all, I was well on my +way to going crazy with sorrow. But somehow, not seeing any longer the +ruin which was so near to me, and of which I knew myself to be a part, it +seemed less real to me--and so less dreadful. And being thus eased a +little I realized that I was hungry again, and that commonplace natural +feeling did me good too. + +I went below to the pantry, striking a match to see my way by; and when +I had lighted the big lamp that was hanging there--the glass chimney of +which, in some wonderful way, had pulled through the crash which had sent +the mizzen-mast flying--the place seemed so cheerful that my desire for +supper increased prodigiously, and tended still farther to down my +sorrowful thoughts. I even had a notion of trying to light a fire in +the galley and cooking over it some of the beef or mutton that I had +found in the cold-room; but I gave that up, just then, because I +really was too hungry to wait until I could carry through so large +a plan. + +But there was a plenty of good food in tins easily to be got at; and +what was still better I felt quite strong enough to eat a lot of it +without hurting myself. I even went at my meal a little daintily, +spreading a napkin--that I got from a locker filled with table +linen--on the pantry dresser, and setting out on it a tin of chicken +and a bunch of cheese and some bread which was pretty stale and hard +and a pot of jam to end off with; and from the wine-room I brought a +bottle of good Bordeaux. + +As I ate my supper, greatly relishing it, the oddness of what I was +doing did not occur to me; but often since I have thought how strange +was that meal of mine--in that brightly lighted cosey little room, +and myself really cheerful over it--in its contrast with the utterly +desperate strait in which I was. And I think that the contrast was +still sharper, my supper being ended, when I fetched a steamer-chair +that I had noticed lying on the floor of the cabin and settled myself +in it easily--facing toward the stern, so that the slope of the deck +only made the slope of the chair still easier--and so sat there in the +brightness smoking a very good cigar. + +And after a while--what with my comfort of body, and the good meal +in my stomach, and the good wine there too--a soothing drowsiness +stole over me, and I had the feeling that in another moment or two I +should fall away into a delicious doze. And then, all of a sudden, I +was roused wide awake again by hearing faintly, but quite distinctly, +a long and piercingly shrill cry. + +I fairly jumped from my chair, so greatly was I startled; and for a +good while I stood quite still, drawing my breath softly, in waiting +wonder for that strange cry to come again. But it did not come +again--and as the silence continued I fell to doubting if I had not +been asleep, and that this sound which had seemed so real to me had +not been only a part of a dream. + + + + + +XIV + +OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + + +Robinson Crusoe's footprint in the sand did not startle him more than +that strange lonely cry startled me. Indeed, as between the two of us, +I had rather the worse of it: for Crusoe, at least, knew that he was +dealing with a reality, while I could not be certain that I was not +dealing with a bit of a dream in which there was no reality at all. + +For a long while I sat there puzzling over it--half hoping that I +might hear it again, and so be sure of it; and half hoping that I +might not hear it, because of the thrilling tone in it which had +filled me with a sharp alarm. I was so shaken that I had not the +courage to go off to my berth in the cabin, with only a candle to +light me there, but stayed on in the little room that the lamp lighted +so brightly that there were no dark corners for my fancy to people +with things horrible; and so, at last, still scared and puzzled, I +went off to sleep in my chair. + +When I woke again the lamp had burned out and had filled the place +with a vile smell of lamp-smoke that set me to sneezing. But I did +not mind that much; for daylight had come, and my nerves were both +quieted by sleep and steadied by that confident courage which most men +feel--no matter how tight a fix they may be in--when they have the +backing of the sun. + +My first thought was to get on deck and have a look about me; the +feeling being strong in my mind that on one or another of the near-by +wrecks I should find the man who had uttered that thrilling cry, and +would find him in some trouble that I might be able to help him out +of. But my second thought, and it was the wiser, was to eat first of +all a good breakfast and so get strength in me that would make me +ready to face whatever might come along--for a vague dread hung by me +that I was in the way of danger, and whatever it might be I knew that +I could the better stand up against it after a hearty meal. Therefore +I got out another tin of meat and ate the whole of it, and a hunk of +stale bread along with it, and washed down my breakfast with a bottle +of beer--longing greatly for a cup of coffee in place of the beer, but +being in too much of a hurry to stop for that while I made a fire. + +As the food got inside of me--though in that smoky and smelly place +eating it was not much of a pleasure--my thoughts took a more cheerful +turn. The hope of meeting a live man to talk to and to help me out of +my utter loneliness rose strong in my mind; and I felt that no matter +who or what he might be--even a man in desperate sickness and pain, +whom I must nurse and care for--finding him in that solitude would +make my own case less sad. And so, when I went on deck, my longing +hope for companionship was the strongest feeling in my heart. + +With my first glance around I saw that during the night my hulk had +made more progress than I had counted on; having moved the faster, I +suppose, as it felt more strongly the pull of the mass of floatage +near by. Be this as it may, I found myself so close alongside the big +cargo-boat that a good jump would carry me aboard of her; and I was so +eager to begin my investigations that I took the jump without a single +moment of delay. And being come to her deck, the first thing that I +saw there was a dead man lying in the middle of it with a pool of +still fresh blood staining the planks by his side. + +I never had seen anything like that, and as I looked at the dead +man--he was a big strong coarse fellow, dressed in a pair of dirty +sail-cloth trousers and in a dirty checked shirt--I went so queasy and +giddy that I had to step back a little and lean for a while against +the steamer's rail. It was clear enough that he had died fighting. His +face had a bad cut on it and there was another on his neck, and his +hands were cut cruelly, as though he had caught again and again at a +sharp knife in trying to keep it away from him; but the stab that had +finished him was in his breast, showing ghastly as he lay on his back +with his shirt open--and no doubt it was as the knife went into him +there that he had uttered the cry of mortal agony which had come to me +through the darkness, with so thrilling a note in it, while I was +sitting in bright comfort drowsily smoking my cigar. And then, as I +remembered my drowsiness, for a moment I seemed to get back into +it--and I had a half hope that perhaps what I was looking at was only +a part of a horrible dream. + +Had there been any sign of a living man about, of the murderer as well +as the murdered, I should have been less broken by what I saw; for +then I should have had something practical to attend to--either in +bringing the other man to book on the poor dead fellow's account, or +in fighting him on my own. But the nearest thing to life in sight, on +that storm-swept hulk under the low-hanging golden haze, was the rough +body out of which life had but just gone forever; and the bloody +stains everywhere on the deck showing that he and another must have +been fighting pretty much all over it before they got to an end. And +the horror of it all was the stronger because of the awful and +hopeless loneliness: with the dead-still weed-covered ocean +stretching away to the horizon on the one hand, and on the other only +dead ships tangled and crushed together going off in a desolate +wilderness that grew fainter--but for its faintness all the more +despairing--until it was lost in the dun-gold murky thickness of +the haze. + +As I got steadier, in a little while, I realized that I must hunt up +the other man, the one who had done the killing, and have things out +with him. Pretty certainly, his disposition would be to try to kill +me; and if I were to have a fight on hand as soon as I fell in with +him it was plain that my chances would be all the better for downing +him could I take him by surprise. I would have given a good deal just +then for a knife, and a good deal more for a pistol; but the best that +I could do to arm myself was to take an iron belaying-pin from the +rail, and with this in my hand I walked aft to the companion-way +--feeling sure that my best chance of coming upon my man +unexpectedly was to find him asleep in the cabin below. And then, +suddenly, the very uncomfortable thought came to me that there might +be more than one man down there--with the likelihood that if I roused +them they all would set upon me together and finish me quickly; and +this brought me to a halt just within the companion-way, in the +shadowy place at the head of the cabin stair. + +I stood there for a minute or two listening closely, but I heard no +sound whatever from below; and presently the dead silence made me feel +rather ashamed of myself for being so easily scared. And then I +noticed, my eyes having become accustomed to the shadow, that there +was a splash of blood on the top step and more blood on the steps +lower down--as though a man badly hurt, and without any one to help +him, had gone down the stair slowly and had rested on almost every +step and bled for a while before he could go on; and seeing this made +it seem likely to me that I would have but a single man to deal with, +and he in such a state that I need not fear him much. But for all that +I kept a tight grip on my belaying-pin, and held it in such a way that +I could use it easily, as I put my foot on the first of the bloody +steps and so went on down. + +The cabin, when I got to it, was but a small one--the boat not being +built to carry passengers--and so dusky that I could not make it out +well; for the skylight was covered with a tarpaulin--put there, I +suppose, to protect it when the gale came on that the steamer was +wrecked in--and all the light there was came in from one corner where +the covering had fetched away. It gave me a sort of shivering feeling +when I looked into that dusky place, where I saw nothing clearly and +where there was at least a chance that in another moment I might be +fighting for my life. I stood in the doorway, gripping my +belaying-pin, until I began to see more clearly--making out that a +small fixed table, with a water-jug and some bottles and glasses on +it, filled a half of the cabin, and that three state-room doors--one +of which stood open--were ranged on each of its sides. And then, just +as I was about to enter, I fairly jumped as there came to me softly +through the silence a low sad sound that was between a groan and a +sigh. But in an instant my reason told me that this was not the sort +of sound to come from a man whom I need be afraid of; and as it came +plainly enough from the state-room of which the door stood open I +stepped briskly over there and looked inside. + + + + + +XV + +I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + + +At first--the dead-light being fast over the port, and the state-room +in darkness save for the little light which came in from the dusky +cabin, and my own person in the doorway making it darker still--I was +sure of nothing there. But presently I made out a biggish heap of some +sort in the lower berth, and then that the heap was a man lying with +his back toward me and his face turned to the ship's side. + +The noise of my footsteps must have roused him, either from sleep or +from the stupor that his hurts had put him in: for while I stood +looking at him his body moved a little, and then his head turned +slowly and in the shadows I caught the glint of his open eyes. What +little light there was being behind me, all that he could see--and +that but in black outline--was the figure of a tall man looming in the +doorway; but instantly at sight of me he let off a yell as sharp as +though I had run a knife into him, and then he covered his head all up +with the bedclothes and lay kicking and shaking as though he were in +deadly fear. I myself was so upset by his outburst, and by the +half-horror that came to me at sight of his spasms of terror, that I +stood for a moment or so silent; but in one way satisfied, since it +was evident that this poor scared wretch could not possibly do me +harm. Just as I was about to speak to him, hoping to soothe him a +little, he pushed the bedclothes down from over his eyes and took +another look at me--and straightway yelled again, and then cried out +at me: "Go away, damn you! Go away, damn you! You're dead! You're +dead, I tell you! Do you want me to kill you all over again, when I've +done it once as well as I know how?" And with that he fell to kicking +again, and to shouting out curses, and to letting off the most +dreadful shrieks and cries--until suddenly a gasping choking checked +him, and he lay silent and still. + +Then the notion came to me that he took me for the dead man up on +deck; I being about the dead fellow's size and build, and therefore +looking very like him as I stood there with the light behind me and +the shadows too deep for him to make out my face. And so, to ease his +mind and get him quiet--and this was quite as much for my own sake as +for his, for his wild fear was strangely horrible to witness--I spoke +to him, asking him if he were badly hurt and if I could help him; and +at the sound of my voice he gave a long sigh, as though of great +relief, and in a moment said: "Who the devil are you, anyway? I +thought you was Jack--come back after my killin' him to have another +round with me. Is Jack true dead?" + +"If you mean the man on deck," I answered, "he is true dead--as dead +as any man can be with a cut straight through his heart." + +He gave another sigh of relief, as though what I told him was a real +comfort to him; and in a moment he said: "Well, that's a good job, and +I'm glad of it. He's killed me, too, I reckon; but I'm glad I got in +on him first an' fixed him fur his damn starin' at me. Now he's dead I +guess he won't stare at me no more." He was silent for nearly a +minute, and then he added: "Jest get me a drink, won't you? I'm all +burnin' up inside. There's water in th' jug out there. An' put a good +dash of gin in it--there's gin out there, too." + +I got him some water from the jug on the cabin table, but when he +tasted it and found that it was water only he began to swear at me for +leaving out the gin; and when I added the gin--thinking that he +probably was so used to strong drink as really to need a little to put +some life into him--he took off the whole glassful at a gulp and +asked for more. + +I told him to wait for another drink until I should have a look at his +hurts and see what I could do to better them; for, while hanging +seemed to be what he deserved, I had a natural desire to ease the +pain that was racking him--as I could tell by the gasps and groans +which he was giving and by the sharp motions which he made. + +"Jest shet your head an' gimme some more drink," he said in a surly +way. "Jack's give me a dose that'll settle me, an' lookin' at me won't +do no good--'cause there's nothin' to be done. He's ripped me up, Jack +has, an' no man can live long that way. All I can do is to die +happy--so it's a good thing there's lots of gin. You'll find a kag of +it over there in th' fur corner. Me an' Jack filled it from th' spirit +room yesterday, afore our fuss begun." + +But I stuck out that I must have a look at his hurts first, and +managed to open the dead-light--which luckily had not been screwed +tight--and so had some light in the room; and in the end, finding that +I would not give him a drink otherwise, he let me have my way. But I +had only to take a glance over him to see that what he said about the +other man having settled him was true enough; for he was cut in a +dozen places savagely, and had one desperate slash--which had laid him +all open about the waist--from which alone he was certain to die in a +very little while. + +There was nothing for me to do, and I did not know what was best to +say to him; and while I was casting about in my mind to comfort him a +little, for his horrible hurts could not but stir my pity, he settled +the matter for both of us in his own way--grunting out that he guessed +I'd found he knew what he was talking about, and then asking for +more gin. + +This time I gave it to him, and gave it to him strong--being certain +that he was past hurting by it, and hoping that it might deaden his +pain. And presently, when he asked for another drink, I gave him +that too. + +The liquor did make him easier, and it raised his spirits so much that +he fell to swearing quite cheerfully at the man Jack who had given him +his death--and seemed to feel a good deal better for freeing his mind +that way. And after a while he began of his own accord to tell me +about the wreck that he had passed through, and about what had come +after it--only stopping now and then to ask for more gin-and-water, +and gulping it down with such satisfaction that I gave him all he +cared to have. Indeed, it was the only thing that I could do to ease +him, and I knew that no matter how much he drank the end shortly would +be the same. + +As well as I could make out from his rambling talk, the storm that had +wrecked him had happened about three months earlier: a tremendous +burst of tempest that had sent everything to smash suddenly, and had +washed the captain and first and second officers overboard--they all +being on the bridge together--and three or four of the crew as well. +At the same time the funnel was carried away, and such a deluge of +water got down to the engine-room that the fires were drowned. This +brought the engineers on deck and the coal-passers with them; and the +coal-passers--"a beach-combin' lot," he called them--led in breaking +into the spirit-room, and before long pretty much all the men of the +crew were as drunk as lords. What happened after that for a while he +did not know; but when he got sober enough to stagger up on deck he +found the man Jack there--who also had just come up after sleeping off +his drunk below somewhere--and they had the ship to themselves. The +others might have found a boat that would float and tried their luck +that way, or they might have been washed overboard. He didn't know +what had become of them, and he didn't care. Then the hulk had taken +to drifting slowly, and at the end of a month or so had settled into +the berth where I found her; and since then the two of them had known +that all chance of their getting back into the world again was gone. + +"At first I didn't mind it much," he went on, "there bein' lashins to +eat aboard, an' more to drink than me an' Jack ever'd hoped to get a +show at in all our lives. But pretty soon Jack he begun to be +worryin'. He'd get drunk, an' then he'd set an' stare at me like a +damn owl--jest a-blinkin' and a-blinkin' his damn eyes. You hev no +idee, ontil it's done to you, how worryin' it is when a drunken man +jest sets an' stares at you fur hours together in that fool way. I +give Jack fair warnin' time and agen when he was sober that I'd hurt +him ef he kep' on starin' at me like that; but then he'd get drunk +agen right off, an' at it he'd go. I s'pose I wouldn't 'a' minded it +in a ornary way an' ashore, or ef we'd had some other folks around. +But here we was jest alone--oh, it was terr'ble how much we was +alone!--an' Jack more'n half the time like a damn starin' owl, till he +a-most druv me wild." + +"An' Jack said as how I was onbearable too. _He_ said it was me as +stared at him--the damn fool not knowin' that I was only a-tryin' to +squench his beastly owlin' by lookin' steady at him; an' he said he'd +settle me ef I kep' on. An' so things went like that atween us fur +days an' days--and all th' time nothin' near us but dead ships with +mos' likely dead men fillin' 'em, an' him an' me knowin' we'd soon got +to be dead too. An' the stinks out of th' rotten weed, and out of all +th' rotten ships whenever a bit of wind breezed up soft from th' +s'uthard over th' hull mess of 'em, was horrider than you hev any +idee! Gettin' drunk was all there was lef' fur us; and even in gettin' +drunk there wasn't no real Christian comfort, 'cause of Jack's damn +owlin' stares." + +"I guess ef anybody stared steady at you fur better'n three months +you'd want to kill him too. Anyway, that's how I felt about it; an' I +told Jack yesterday--soon as he waked up in th' mornin', an' while he +was plumb sober--that ef he didn't let up on it I'd go fur him sure. +An' that fool up an' says it was me done th' starin', and I'd got to +stop it or he'd cut out my damn heart--an' them was his very words. +An' by noon yesterday he was drunker'n a Dutchman, an' was starin' +harder'n ever. An' he kep' at it all along till sunset, an' when we +come down into th' cabin to get supper he still was starin'; and after +supper--when we mought 'a' been jest like two brothers a-gettin' drunk +together on gin-an'-water--he stared wust of all." + +"Nobody could 'a' stood it no longer--and up I gets an' goes fur him, +keepin' my promise fair an' square. At fust we jest punched each other +sort o' friendly with our fists, but after a while Jack give me a clip +that roused my dander and I took my knife to him; an' then he took his +knife to me. I don't remember jest all about it, but I know we licked +away at each other all over th' cabin, an' then up through th' +companion-way, an' then all over th' deck--me a-slicin' into him an' +him a-slicin' into me all th' time. And at last he got this rippin' +cut into me, an' jest then I give him a jab that made him yell like a +stuck pig an' down he fell. I knowed he'd done fur me, but somehow I +managed to work my way along th' deck an' to get down here to my +bunk, where I knowed I'd die easier; an' then things was all black fur +a while--ontil all of a sudden you comes along, and I sees you +standin' in the door there, an' takes you fur Jack's ghost, an' gets +scared th' wust kind. But he's not doin' no ghost racket, Jack ain't. +I've settled him an' his damn owl starin'--and it's a good job I have. +Gimme some more gin." + +And then, having taken the drink that I gave him, he rolled over a +little--so that he lay as I found him, with his face turned away from +me--and for a good long while he did not speak a word. + + + + + +XVI + +I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + + +Only an hour before I had been longing for any sort of a live man to +talk with and so break my loneliness; but having thus found a live +man--who, to be sure, was close to being a dead one--I would have been +almost ready to get rid of him by going back to my mast in the open +sea. Indeed, as I stood there in the shadows beside that dying brute, +and with the other brute lying dead on the deck above me, the feeling +of dull horror that filled me is more than I can put into words. + +I think that the underlying strong strain of my wretchedness was an +intense pity for myself. In what the fellow had told me I saw clearly +outlined a good deal of what must be my own fate in that vile +solitude: which I perceived suddenly must be strewn everywhere with +dead men lying unhidden, corrupting openly; since none there were to +hide the dead from sight as we hide them in the living world. And I +realized that until I myself should be a part of that indecent +exhibition of human carcasses--which might not be for a long while, +for I was a strong man and not likely to die soon--I should have to +dwell in the midst of all that corruption; and always with the +knowledge that sooner or later I must take my place in it, and lie +with all those unhidden others wasting away slowly in the open light +of day. I got so sick as these horrid thoughts pressed upon me that I +turned to the table and poured out for myself a stiff drink of +gin-and-water--being careful first to rinse the glass well--and I was +glad that I thought of it, for it did me good. + +My movement about the cabin roused up the dying fellow and he hailed +me to give him some more gin. His voice was so thick that I knew that +the drink already had fuddled him; and after he had swiped off what I +gave him he began to talk again. But the liquor had taken such hold +upon him that he called me "Jack," not recognizing me, and evidently +fancying that I was his mate--the man whom he had killed. + +At first he rambled on about the storm that had wrecked them; and then +about their chance of falling in with a passing vessel; and then about +some woman named Hannah who would be worrying about him because he did +not come home. As well as I could make out he went over in this +fashion most of what had happened--and it was little enough, in one +way--from the time that the two found themselves alone upon the hulk +until they began to get among the weed, and realized pretty well +what that meant for them. + +"It ain't no use now, Jack," he rambled on. "It ain't no use now +thinkin' about gettin' home, an' Hannah may as well stop lookin' fur +me. This is th' Dead Man's Sea we're gettin' into; an' I knows it +well, an' you knows it well, both on us havin' heerd it talked about +by sailor-men ever sence we come afloat as boys. Down in th' middle of +it is all th' old dead wrecks that ever was sence ships begun sailin'; +and all th' old dead sailor-men is there too. It's a orful place, +Jack, that me an' you's goin' to--more damn orful, I reckon, than we +can hev any idee. Gin's all thet's lef' to us, and it's good luck we +hev such swashins of it aboard. Here's at you, Jack an' gimme some +more out o' the kag, you damn starin' owl." + +There was an angry tone in his voice as he spoke these last words; and +the tone was sharper a moment later when he went on: "Can't you keep +your owl eyes shet, you beast? Don't look at me like that, or I'll +stick a knife into you. No, I'm _not_ starin' at you; it's you who's +starin' at me, damn you. Stop it! Stop it, I say, you--" and he broke +out with a volley of foul names and curses; and partly raised himself, +as though he thought that a fight was coming on. And then the pain +which this movement caused him made him fall back again with a groan. + +Without his asking for it I gave him another drink, which quieted +him a little; and then put fresh strength into him, so that he burst +out again with his curses and abuse. "Cut the heart out of me, will +you--you scum of rottenness? I'd have you to know that cuttin' hearts +out is a game two can play at. Take that, damn you! An' that! An' +that! Them's fur your starin'--you damn fat-faced blinkin' owl. And I +mean now t' keep on till I stop you. No more of your owl-starin' fur +me! Take it agen, you stinkin' starin' owl. So! An' so! An' so!" + +He fairly raised himself up in the berth as he rushed out his words, +and at the same time thrust savagely with his right hand as though he +had a knife in it. For a minute or more he kept his position, cursing +with a strong voice and thrusting all the time. Suddenly he gave a +yell of pain and fell on his back again, crying brokenly: "Hell! It's +_you_ who've finished me!" And then he gave two or three short sharp +gasps, and after that there was a little gurgling in his throat, and +then he was still--lying there as dead as any man could be. + +This quick ending of him came so suddenly that it staggered me; but I +must say that my first feeling, when I fairly realized what had +happened, was thankfulness that his life was gone--for I had had +enough of him to know that having much more of him would drive me mad. + +In the telling of it, of course, most of what made all this horrible +slips away from me, and it don't seem much to strain a man, after all. +But it really was pretty bad: what with the shadowy light in the +state-room, for even with the port uncovered it still was dusky; and +the horrid smell there; and the vividness with which the fellow +somehow managed to make me feel those days and weeks of his half-crazy +half-drunken life, while he and the other man stared at each other +until neither of them could bear it any longer--and so took to +fighting from sheer heart-breaking horror of loneliness and killed +each other out of hand. And back of all that I had the feeling that I +was caught in the same fate that had shut in upon them; and was even +worse off than they had been, since I had no one to fight my life away +with but must take it myself when I found my solitude in that rotten +desolation more than I could stand. + +Even the gin-and-water, though I took another big drink of it, could +not hearten me; but it did give me the courage to rid myself of the +two dead brutes by casting them overboard; and, indeed, getting rid of +them was a necessity, for their presence seemed to me so befouling +that I found it hard to breathe. + +With the man on deck--except that touching him was hateful to me--I +did not have much trouble. I just made fast to him a couple of heavy +iron bars that I found down in the engine-room--pokers, they seemed to +be, for serving the boiler fires--and then dragged him along the deck +to a place where the bulwarks were gone and there shot him overboard. +And luckily the weed was thinnish there, and he went down like a stone +into it and through it and so disappeared. + +But with the man in the cabin I had a harder job. In his horridly cut +condition I could not bring myself to touch him, and the best that I +could do was to make a sort of bundle of him and the mattress and the +bedclothes all together--with a bit of light line whipped around and +around the whole mass until it was snug and firm. When it was finished +I worked it out of the state-room, and rolled it fairly easily along +the floor of the cabin to the companion-way--and there it stuck fast. +Budge it I could not; for it was too long to roll up the stair, and +too heavy for me to haul it up after me or to push it up before me, +though I tried both ways and tried hard. But in the end I managed to +get it up by means of a purchase that I rigged from a ring-bolt in the +deck just outside the companion-way door; and once having it on deck I +could manage it again easily, for there I could roll it along. + +Yet I did not at once cast it overboard; for I had no more iron bars +with which to weight it, and I knew that such a bunch of stuff would +not sink through the weed--and that I should have it still +loathsomely with me, lying only partly hidden in the weed right +alongside. In the end I got up a big iron cinder-bucket that I filled +with coal--making sure that the coal would stay in it by lashing a +piece of canvas over the top--and this I made fast to the bundle by a +rope three or four fathoms long. Then I cast the bucket overboard +through the break in the bulwarks, and as it shot downward I rolled +the bundle after it--and I had the comfort of seeing the whole go down +through the weed and away from my sight forever into the hidden +water below. + +And then I sat down on the deck and rested; for what little cheering +and strength I had got from the gin-and-water had left me and I was +utterly miserable and tired as a dog. But I was well quit of both my +dead men, and that was a good job well done. + + + + + +XVII + +HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + + +Sitting there with the splotches of fresh blood on the deck all around +me was more than I could stomach for very long. The sight of them +brought back to me with a horrid distinctness everything that I had +seen since I came aboard the hulk: the dead man lying on the deck, the +other man with his frightful wounds and his wild talk and his death in +the midst of his passionate ravings, and the disgusting work that I +had been forced to do before I could hide their two bodies from my +sight in the sea-depths beneath the tangled weed. And so, presently, I +scrambled to my feet, thinking to get back to the _Hurst Castle_ +again--where there was no taint of blood to bring up haunting visions +and where, though it seemed a long while past to me, I had been in the +company of honest and kindly men. + +But when I turned toward this poor escape from my misery--which at +best was but a change from a foul prison to a clean one--I saw that I +could not easily compass it; for in the time that had passed since I +had made my jump in the morning--noon being by then upon me--the +_Hurst Castle_ had swung around a little, being caught I suppose upon +some bit of sunken wreckage, so that where the two ships were nearest +to each other there was an open reach of twenty feet or more +across the weed. + +This was too great a distance for a jump, seeing that it must be made +from rail to rail without a run to give me a send-off; and yet it was +so short that my not being able to cross it never even entered my +mind. Had there been a mast standing on the hulk, with a yard fast to +it, I could have rigged a rope from the yard-arm and swung myself +across in a moment; but the decks being sea-swept, with nothing left +standing on them, that way was not open to me; nor could I find a +light spar--even the flag-staff at the stern being snapt away--that I +could stretch across from one rail to the other and make a bridge of. +The only other thing that occurred to me was to tear off some of the +doors in the cabin and to make of them a little raft that I could pass +by, though I saw well enough that pushing a raft through so dense a +tangle even for that short distance would be a hard job. And then I +had the thought that perhaps on the sailing-ship lying beside me I +might find a sound boat, which would better answer my purpose since it +could be the more easily moved through the weed. In point of fact I +could not have moved a boat a single foot through that thicket without +cutting a passage for it, and I might have thrown overboard three or +four doors and so made a bridge over the weed that would have borne me +easily--but I did not know then as much about that strange sea-growth +as I came to know later on. + +As there was no hurry in one way, the ships being so bedded fast there +that they were certain not to move more than a few feet at the utmost, +I hunted up some food before setting myself to what I knew would be a +heavy task; finding cold victuals of a coarse sort in the galley--left +from the last meal that the two men had made there--and fairly fresh +water in the tank. It was hard work eating, on board that foul ship +and thinking of the foul hands which had made the food ready; but +going without eating would have been harder, for I had the healthy +appetite of a sound young fellow three-and-twenty years old. + +When I had finished my meal, and I got through it quickly, I made fast +a line to the steamer's rail and slipped down it to the deck of the +sailing-ship--a fine vessel of above a thousand tons, built of wood +and on clipper lines. There was an immediate sense of relief in +getting aboard of her, and away from the blood-stained steamer where +the dead men had been; but I saw at a glance that what I was after was +not there. She had carried four boats on her rail, as I could tell +by the davits, and likely enough a long-boat on her fore-castle as +well. But all of them were gone, and I could only hope--since they +were not there for my use--that her crew had got safe away in them: as +well enough might have happened when she was floating water-logged +after the storm that had wrecked her was past. + +Without stopping to explore her--and, indeed, after what I had found +on the steamer, I had no fancy for explorations which might end in my +stumbling upon still more horrors--I went on to a trim little brig +lying on the other side of her; a beautiful little vessel, with all +her spars and rigging save her bow-hamper in perfect order for +sea-going--but showing by her broken bow-sprit that she had been in +collision, and by her depth in the water that after the collision she +had filled. Naturally enough, her boats were gone too; and so I left +her and went on. + +In the course of the next two hours or so I must have traversed more +than a hundred wrecks--scrambling up or down from one to another, as +they happened to lie low in the water or high out of it--and with all +their differences of size and build finding them in one way the same: +all of them were dead ships which some sort of a sea-disaster had +slain. And not one of them had a sound boat left on board. The same +reason that kept me from exploring the first of them kept me from +exploring any of them: the dread of finding in their shadowy depths +grisly horrors in the way of dead men long lying there; and, indeed, I +was distinctly warned to hurry away from some of them by the vile +stenches which came to me and made my stomach turn sickish and my +blood go cold. + +I must have walked for a good mile, I suppose, over the dead bodies of +these sea-killed ships--and it was the most dismal walk that ever I +had taken--before I realized that even if I found a boat and got it +overboard it would be of no use to me, since there was no possibility +of my getting back in it to my own hulk through that densely packed +mass of wrecks and weed. Indeed, I should have perceived this plain +certainty sooner had not the wondering curiosity which this strange +walk bred in me lured me on and on. And then, being brought at last to +a halt by my rational reflection, there came over me suddenly a queer +shiver of doubt as to the direction in which the _Hurst Castle_ lay; +and then a still more shivering doubt as to whether I should be able +to get back to her again by the way that I had come, or by any way +at all. + +At the beginning of my march in this haze-covered sea-wilderness I had +tried to keep upon the outer edge of it; but insensibly--having to +pass from ship to ship rather by the way that was open to me than by +the way that I wished to go--I had wandered into the thick of it +more and more. And so, when at last I took thought of my whereabouts, +and stopped to look around me that I might shape a course back again, +I found that in whatever direction I turned I saw only what I had seen +ahead of me when my hulk was drawing in upon its borders: a dense +confusion of broken and ruined ships which fell away from me vaguely +under the golden haze. It had been a dismal sight then; but what gave +a fresh note to it, and a thrilling one, was that it no longer was +only in front of me but was all around me--stretching away on every +side of the wreck on which I was standing, and growing fainter and +fainter as the haze shut down thick upon it until it vanished softly +into the golden blur. + +Yet even then the full meaning of my outlook did not take hold of me. +That I was in something of a coil, out of which I could not find my +way easily, was plain enough; but that I really was lost in it did not +cross my mind. With all my wanderings, I knew that I could not have +traversed any great distance; and the certainty that I had passed +always from one ship to the ship next touching it seemed to make +finding my way back again entirely open and plain. And so I laughed at +myself a little--though that was not much of a place for +laughter--because of my touch of panic fright; and then I turned back +from the ship on which I was standing to the one next to it, over +which I had just come--and so on to the next, and in the same way to +three or four more. Yet even in that short distance--though my way was +unmistakable, for these ships touched only each other as it +happened--I was surprised by finding how differently things looked to +me as I took my course backward: all the ups and downs of my +scrambling walk being inverted, and the lay of the ships one to +another and the look of them being entirely changed. + +Presently I got on board of a brig--which I well remembered, because +it was one of the vessels having about it a vile stench that had made +me cross it quickly--on the farther side of which two ships were +lying, both rising a little above it and both jammed close against its +side. For a moment I hesitated, in doubt as to which of the two I had +come by; and I should have hesitated longer had not a whiff of the +horrid smell struck upon me strongly and urged me to go on. And so +away I went, taking to the ship that I thought was the right one; and +still fancying that it was the right one when I got aboard of it--for +both, as I have said, were ships, and the two had been about equally +mauled by sea and storm. Indeed, except for the differences in their +build and rig, there was a strong family resemblance among these +storm-broken vessels; and the way that they were jammed together made +their build less noticeable, while a good many of them were +dismasted and so had no rig at all. + +Therefore I went on confidently for a dozen ships or more before I had +any misgivings that I had missed my way--which was but a natural +reaction against my momentary doubtfulness--and then I found myself +suddenly pulled up short. Right above me was the side of a big iron +steamer--called the _City of Boston_, as I made out from the weathered +name-plate on her bows, and a packet-boat as I judged by her +build--rising so high out of the water that getting up to her deck was +impossible: as equally impossible was my having forgotten it had I +made such a rattling jump down. Yet this big steamer was the only +vessel in touch with the barque on which I was standing, save the +schooner from which I had just come; and that gave me sharply the +choice between two conclusions: either I had made that big jump +without noticing it, or else--and I felt a queer lump rising in my +throat as I faced this alternative--I had managed to go astray +completely and had lost myself in what had the look of being a +hopeless maze. + + + + + +XVIII + +I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + + +On shore, in a forest, I would not in the least have minded finding +myself in a fix of this sort--though my getting into it would have +been unlikely--because getting out of it would have been the easiest +thing in the world. I know a good deal of wood-craft, and always can +steer a course steadily by having the points of the compass fixed for +me by the size and the trend of the branches, and by the bark growing +thin or thick or by the moss or the lack of moss on the tree-trunks, +and by the other such simple forest signs which are the outcome of the +affection that there is on the part of things growing for the sun. + +But what made my breath come hard and my heart take to pumping--as I +stood looking up the tall side of the _City of Boston_, being certain +that I never had come down it and so must be off my course +entirely--was my conviction that in this forest of the ocean, if I may +call it so, there were no signs which would help me to find my way. +All around me was the same wild hopeless confusion of broken wrecks +jammed tight together, or only a little separated by narrow spaces +thick-grown with weed; and everywhere overhanging it heavily, growing +denser the deeper that I got into the tangle, was the haze that made +it more confusing still. And under the haze--and because of it, I +suppose--was a soft languorish warmth that seemed to steal my strength +away and a good deal of my courage too. + +But I knew that to give way to the feeling of dull fright, having +somehow a touch of awe in it, that was creeping over me would be to +put myself into a panic; and that once my wits fairly were addled my +chance of getting back to the _Hurst Castle_ again would be pretty +much gone. And to get back to her seemed to me the only way of keeping +my heart up and of keeping myself alive. She was the one ship, in all +that great dismal fleet, aboard of which I could be sure that nothing +horrible had happened, and in which I could be certain that no +loathsome sights were to be come upon suddenly in shadowy nooks and +corners to which dying men had crept in their extremity--trying, since +none ever would bury them, to hide away a little their own bodies +against the time when death should be upon them and corruption +should begin. + +And so I pulled myself together as well as I could and tried to do a +little quiet thinking; and presently I came to the conclusion that I +must find my way back to the brig against which the two ships were +lying and start afresh from her; since it was pretty certain that it +was there, by boarding the wrong ship, that I had got off my course. +But because of my certain knowledge of what horridness the brig +sheltered, and of the noisome stench that I must encounter there, it +took a good deal of resolution to put this plan into practice; so +much, indeed, that for a while I wavered about it, and succeeded at +last in starting back again only by setting going the full force of +my will. + +But I need not have whipped myself on to my work so resolutely, nor +have fretted myself in advance with planning the rush that I should +make across the brig when I came to her--for I never, so far as I +know, laid eyes on her again. For a little while, as in my first +turn-about, I found my way backward without much difficulty--though +again the different look that the ships had as I returned across them +pulled me up from time to time with doubts about them; and then, just +as before, I came to a place where more than one line of advance was +open to me and there went wrong--as I knew a little later by finding +myself aboard a vessel so strange in her appearance that my first +glimpse over her deck satisfied me that I saw her then for the +first time. + +This craft was an old-fashioned sloop-of-war, carrying eighteen guns; +and that she had perished in action was as evident as that her +death-battle had been fought a long while back in the past. The +mauling that she had received had made an utter wreck of her--her +masts being shot away and hanging by the board, most of her bulwarks +being splintered, and her whole stern torn open as though a crashing +broad-side had been poured into her at short range. Moreover, nearly +all her guns had been dismounted, and two of them had burst in +firing--as the shattered gun-carriages showed. + +But what most strongly proved the fierceness of her last action, and +the length of time that had passed since she fought it, were the +scores of skeletons lying about her deck--a few with bits of clothing +hanging fast to them, but most of them clean fleshless naked bones. +Just as they had fallen, there they lay: with legs or arms or ribs +splintered or carried off by the shot which had struck them, or with +bullet-holes clean through their skulls. But the sight of them, while +it put a sort of awe upon me, did not horrify me; because time +had done its cleansing work with them and they were pure. + +Indeed, my imagination was taken such fast hold of by coming upon this +thrilling wreck of ancient sea-battle, fought out fiercely to a finish +generations before ever I was born, that for a little while I forgot +my own troubles entirely; and so got over the shock which my first +sight of the riddled sloop and her dead crew had given me by proving +that again I had lost my way. And my longing to know all that I could +find out about it--backed by the certainty that I should not come upon +anything below that would revolt me--led me to go searching in the +shattered cabin for some clue to the sloop's name and nationality, and +to the cause in which her death-fight had been fought. + +The question of nationality was decided the moment that I set my foot +within the cabin doorway--there being a good deal of light there, +coming in through the broken stern--by my seeing stretched over a +standing bed-place in a state-room to starboard an American flag; and +the flag, taken together with the ancient build of the sloop, also +settled the fact pretty clearly that the action which had finished her +must have been fought with an English vessel in the War of 1812. + +Under the flag I could make out faintly the lines of a human figure, +and I knew that one of the sloop's officers--most likely her +commander, from the respect shown to him by covering him with the +colors--must be lying there, just as his men had placed him to wait +for a sea-burial until the fighting should come to an end. And that he +had remained there was proof that not a man of the sloop's company but +had been killed outright in the fight or had got his death-wound in +it; and also of the fact that in a way the fight had been a +victory--since it was evident that the enemy had not taken possession, +and therefore must have been beaten off. + +But the whole matter was settled clearly by my finding the sloop's +log-book lying open on the cabin table, just as it had lain there, and +had entries made in it, while the action was going on. And a very +strange thrill ran through me as I read on the mouldy page in brown +faint letters the date, "October 5, 1814," and across the page-head, +in bigger brown faint letters: "U.S. Sloop-of-war _Wasp_": and so knew +that I was aboard of that stinging little war-sloop--whereof the +record is a bright legend, and the fate a mystery, of our Navy--which +in less than three months' time successively fought and whipped three +English war-vessels--the ship _Reindeer_ and the brigs _Avon_ and +_Atalanta_, all of them bigger than herself--and then, being last +sighted in September, 1814, not far from the Azores, vanished with all +her crew and officers from off the ocean and never was seen nor +heard of again. + +There before me in the mouldy log-book was the record of her last +action--and in gallantry it led the three others which have made +her fame. + +The entries began at 7.20 A.M. with: "A strange sail in sight on the +weather bow;" at 7.45 followed: "The strange brig bearing down on us. +Looks English"; and at 8.10: "The strange brig has shown English +colors." Then came the manoeuvring for position, covering more than an +hour, and the beating to general quarters; and after that the short +entries ran on quickly--in such rough and ready writing as might be +expected of a man dashing in for a moment to make them, and then +dashing out again to where the fighting was going on: + + +"9.20 A.M. Engaged the enemy with our starboard battery, + hulling him severely. + +"9.24. Our foremast by the board. + +"9.28. The enemy's broadside in our stern. Great havoc. + +"9.35. The wreck of the foremast cleared, giving us steerage way. + +"9.40. Our hulling fire telling. The enemy's battery fire + slacking. His musketry fire very hot and galling. + +"9.45. The enemy badly hulled. More than half of our crew + now killed or disabled. + +"9.52. Our main-mast by the board and our mizzen badly + wounded. Action again very severe. Few of our men left. + +"9.56. Captain Blakeley killed and brought below. + +"10.01. Our mizzen down. The enemy's fire slacking again. + +"10.10. The enemy sheering off, with the look of being + sinking. + +"10.15. The enemy sinking. We cannot help him. Most of our men are + dead. All of us living are badly hurt." + + +And there the entries came to an end. + +My breath came fast as I read that short record of as brave a fight as +ever was fought on salt water; and when my reading was finished I +gave a great sigh. It was a fit ending for the little _Wasp_, that +death triumphant: and it was a fit ending to a fight between American +and English sailors that they should hang at each other's throats, +neither yielding, until they died that way--they being each of a +nation unaccustomed to surrender, and both of the one race which alone +in modern times has held the sea. + + + + + +XIX + +OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + + +For a while I was so stirred by the enthusiasm which my discovery +aroused in me that I had no room in my mind for any other thoughts. +But at last, as I still stood pondering in the _Wasp's_ cabin, I +became aware that the daylight was fading into darkness; and as I +realized what that meant for me my thoughts came back suddenly to +myself, and then all my enthusiasm ebbed away. + +I came out upon the deck again, but leaving everything as I had found +it--my momentary impulse to lift the flag having vanished as I felt +how fit it was that this dead battle-captain should rest on +undisturbed where his men had laid him beneath the colors that he had +died for; and I was glad to find when I got into the open that a good +deal of daylight still remained. But it was so far gone, and was +waning so rapidly, that I saw that I had little chance of getting back +to the _Hurst Castle_ before nightfall; and that the most that I could +hope for was to make a start in the right direction--and perhaps to +find a wreck to sleep on that had food and water aboard of it, and +thence take up my search again the next day. + +Yet the dread was strong upon me, as I looked around upon the wrecks +among which the _Wasp_ was bedded, that I might not only be unable to +find the _Hurst Castle_ again, but ever to find my way across that +tangle to the outer edges of it--where only was it possible that ships +on which were provisions fit for eating would be found. The very fact +that the _Wasp_ had settled into her position more than fourscore +years back made it certain that she was deep in the labyrinth; and the +strange old-fashioned look of the craft surrounding her showed me that +I should have to go far before finding a vessel wrecked in +recent times. + +But these disheartening thoughts I crushed down as well as I could, +yet not making much of it; and as trying to go back by the way that I +had come to the _Wasp_ would not serve any good purpose--even +supposing that I could have managed it, which was not likely--I went +on beyond her on a new course: taking a longish jump from her +quarter-rail and landing on the deck of a clumsy little ill-shapen +brig, with a high-built square stern and a high-built bow that was +pretty nearly square too. She was Dutch, I fancy, and a merchant +vessel; but she carried a little battery of brass six-pounders, and +had also a half dozen pederaros set along her rail. And by her +carrying these old-fashioned swivel-guns--which proved that she had +got her armament not much later than the middle of the last +century--and by the general look of her, I knew that she was an older +vessel even than the _Wasp_. + +This observation, and the reflection growing out of it that the deeper +I went into the Sargasso Sea the older must be the craft bedded in +it--since that great dead fleet is recruited constantly by new wrecks +drifting in upon its outer edges from all ways seaward--put into my +head what seemed to me to be a very reasonable plan for finding my way +back to the _Hurst Castle_ again; or, at least, to some other newly +come in hulk on which there would be fresh water and sound food. And +this was to shape my course by considering attentively the look of +each wreck that I came aboard of, and the look of those surrounding +it, and by then going forward to whichever one of them seemed to be of +the most modern build. + +As the first step in carrying out my plan--and it seemed to be such a +good plan that I felt almost light-hearted over it--I got up on the +rail of the old brig and jumped back to the less-old _Wasp_ again: +landing in her main-channels, and thence easily boarding her by +scrambling up what was left of the chains. But in taking my next step +I had no choice in the matter, as only one other vessel was in touch +with the sloop--a heavily-built little schooner that had the look of +being quite as old as the brig which I had just left. And her age +was so evident as I came aboard of her--having crossed the deck of the +_Wasp_ hastily, picking my way among the scattered bones--that of a +sudden my faith in my fine plan for getting out of the tangle began +to wane. + +In a general way, of course, the conclusion which I had arrived at was +a sound one. Broadly speaking, it was certain that could I pass in a +straight line from the centre to the circumference of that vast +assemblage of wrecks I constantly would find vessels of newer build; +and so at last, upon the outermost fringe, would come to the wrecks of +ships belonging to my own day. But one weak point in my calculations +was my inability to hold to a straight line, or to anything like +one--because I had to advance from one wreck to another as they +happened to touch or to be within jumping distance of each other, and +therefore went crookedly upon my course and often fairly had to double +on it. And another weak point was that the sea in its tempests +recognizes no order of seniority, but destroys in the same breath of +storm ships just beginning their lives upon it and ships which have +withstood its ragings for a hundred years: so that I very well might +find--as I actually did find in the case of the _Wasp_--a +comparatively modern-built vessel lying hemmed in by ancient craft, +survivals of obsolete types, which had lingered so long upon the +ocean that in their lives as in their deaths they merged and blended +the present and the past. + +Thus a check was put upon my plan at the very outset; yet in a stolid +sort of way--knowing that to give it up entirely would be to bring +despair upon me, for I could not think of a better one--I tried still +to hold by it: going on from the clumsy little old schooner to that +one of two vessels lying beyond her which I fancied, though both of +them belonged to a long past period, was the more modern-looking in +her build. And so I continued to go onward over a dozen craft of one +sort or another, holding by my rule--or trying to believe that I was +holding by it, for all of the wrecks which I crossed were of an +antique type--and now and then being left with no chance for choosing +by finding open to me only a single way. And all this while the +daylight was leaving me--the sun having gone down a ruddy globe beyond +the forest of wrecks westward, and heavy purple shadows having begun +to close down upon me through the low-hanging haze. + +The imminence of night-fall made clear to me that I had no chance +whatever of getting out from among those long-dead ships before the +next morning; and this certainty was the harder to bear because I was +desperately hungry--more than six hours having passed since I had +eaten anything--and thirsty too: though my thirst, because of the +dampness of the haze I suppose, was not very severe. But the belief +that I really was advancing toward the coast of my strange floating +continent and that I should find both food and drink when I got there, +made me press forward; comforting myself as well as I could with the +reflection that even though I did have to keep a hungry and thirsty +vigil among those old withered hulks I yet should be the nearer, by +every one of them that I put behind me that night, to the freshly come +in wrecks on the coast line--where I made sure of finding a breakfast +on the following day. Moreover, I knew how forlornly miserable I +should be the moment that I lost the excitement of scrambling and +climbing and just sat down there among the ancient dead, with the +darkness closing over me, to wait for the slow coming of another day. +And my dread of that desolate loneliness urged me to push forward +while the least bit of daylight was left by which to see my way. + +It was ticklish work, as the dusk deepened, getting from one wreck to +another; and at last--after nearly going down into the weed between +two of them, because of a rotten belaying-pin that I caught at +breaking in my hand--I had to resign myself to giving over until +morning any farther attempt to advance. But I was cheered by the +thought that I had got on a good way in the hour or more that had gone +since I had left the _Wasp_ behind me; and so I tried to make the +best of things as I cast around me for some sheltered nook on the deck +of the vessel I had come aboard of--a little clumsy old brig--where my +night might be passed. As to going below, either into the cabin or the +forecastle, I could not bring myself to it; for my heart failed me at +the thought of what I might touch in the darkness there, and my +mind--sore and troubled by all that I had passed through, and by the +dim dread filling it--certainly would have crowded those black depths +with grisly phantoms until I very well might have gone mad. + +And so, as I say, I cast about the deck of the brig for some nook that +would shelter me from the dampness while I did my best to sleep away +into forgetfulness my hunger and my thirst; but was troubled all the +while that I was making my round of investigation by a haunting +feeling that I had been on that same deck only a little while before. +Growing stronger and stronger, this feeling became so insistent that I +could not rest for it; and presently compelled me to try to quiet it +by taking a look at the wreck next beyond the brig to see if I +recognized that too--as would be likely, since I must have crossed it +also, had I really come that way. + +I did not try to board this adjoining wreck, but only clambered up on +the rail of the brig so that I could look well at it--and when I got +my look I came more nearly to breaking down completely than I had +done at any time since I had been cast overboard from the _Golden +Hind_, For there, showing faintly in the gloom below me, was the +gun-set deck of a war-ship, and over the deck dimly-gleaming bones +were scattered--and in that moment I knew that the whole of my +wandering had been but a circle, and that I was come back again at the +weary ending of it to the _Wasp_. + +But what crushed the heart of me was not that my afternoon of toil had +been wasted, but the strong conviction--from which I no longer saw any +way of escaping--that I had strayed too deep into that hideous +sea-labyrinth ever to find my way out of it, and that I must die there +slowly for lack of water and of food. + + + + + +XX + +HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + + +I got down from the rail and seated myself on the brig's deck, leaning +my back against her bulwarks and a little sheltered by their +old-fashioned in-board overhang. But I had no very clear notion of +what I was doing; and my feeling, so far as I had any feeling, was +less that I was moving of my own volition than that I was being moved +by some power acting from outside of me--the sensation of +irresponsibility that comes to one sometimes in a dream. + +Indeed, the whole of that night seemed to me then, and still seems to +me, much more a dream than a reality: I being utterly wearied by my +long hard day's work in scrambling about among the wrecks, and a +little light-headed because of my stomach's emptiness, and feverish +because of my growing thirst, and my mind stunned by the dull pain of +my despair. And it was lucky for me, I suppose, that my thinking +powers were so feeble and so blunted. Had I been fully awake to my own +misery I might very well have gone crazy there in the darkness; or +have been moved by a sharp horror of my surroundings to try to escape +them by going on through the black night from ship to ship--which +would have ended quickly by my falling down the side of one or another +of them and so drowning beneath the weed. + +Yet the sort of stupor that I was in did not hold fast my inner +consciousness; being rather a numbing cloud surrounding me and +separating me from things external--though not cutting me off from +them wholly--while within this wrapping my spirit in a way was awake +and free. And the result of my being thus on something less than +speaking terms with my own body was to make my attitude toward it that +of a sympathizing acquaintance, with merely a lively pity for its +ill-being, rather than that of a personal partaker in its pains. And +even my mental attitude toward myself was a good deal of the same +sort: for my thoughts kept turning sorrowfully to the sorrow of my own +spirit solitary there, shrinking within itself because of its chill +forsakenness and lonely pain of finding itself so desolate--the one +thing living in that great sea-garnering of the dead. + +And after a while--either because my light-headedness increased, or +because I dozed and took to dreaming--I had the feeling that the dense +blackness about me, a gloom that the heavily overhanging mist made +almost palpable, was filling with all those dead spirits come to +peer curiously into my living spirit; and that they hated it and were +envious of it because it was not as they were but still was alive. And +from this, presently, I went on to fancying that I could see them +about me clad again dimly in the forms which had clothed them when +they also in their time had been living men. At first they were +uncertain and shadowy, but before long they became so distinct that I +plainly saw them: shaggy-bearded resolute fellows, roughly dressed in +strange old-fashioned sea-gear, with here and there among them others +in finer garb having the still more resolute air of officers; and all +with the fierce determined look of those old-time mariners of the +period when all the ocean was a battling-place where seamen spent +their time--and most of them, in the end, spent their lives also--in +fighting with each other and in fighting with the sea. + +Gradually this throng of the sea-dead filled the whole deck about me +and everywhere hemmed me in; but they gave no heed to me, and were +ranged orderly at their stations as though the service of the ship was +being carried on. Among themselves they seemed to talk; but I could +hear nothing of what they were saying, though I fancied that there was +a humming sound filling the air about me like the murmur of a far-away +crowd. Now and then an angry bout would spring up suddenly between two +or three of them; and in a moment they would be fighting together, +and would keep at it until one of their stern officers was upon them +with blows right and left with his fists or with the butt of his +pistol or with the pommel of his sword--and so would scatter the rough +brutes, scowling, and as it seemed uttering growls such as beasts +lashed by their keepers would give forth. + +And at other times they would seem to be fighting with some +enemy--serving at their guns stripped half-naked, with handkerchiefs +knotted about their heads, and with the grime of powder-smoke upon +their bare flesh and so blackening their faces as to give their +gleaming eyes a still more savage look; falling dead or wounded with +their blood streaming out upon the deck and making slimy pools in +which a man running sometimes would slip and go down headlong--and +would get up, with a laugh and a curse, only in another moment to drop +for good as a musket-ball struck him or as a round-shot sliced him in +two; and all of them with a savage joy in their work, and going at it +with a lust for blood that made them delight in it--and take no more +thought than any other fighting brutes would take of guarding their +own lives. + +Or, again, they would seem to be in the midst of a tempest, with the +roar of the wind and the rush of the waves upon them, and would be +fighting the gale and the ocean's turbulence with the same devil's +daring that they had shown in fighting the enemy--and with the same +carelessness as to what happened to themselves so long as they stuck +to their duty and did the best that was in them to bring their ship +safely through the storm. And so they went on ringing the changes on +their old-time wild sea-life--their savage fights among themselves, +and their battlings with foemen of a like metal, and their warfare +with the ocean--while the dark night wore on. + +Yet even when these visionary forms were thickest about me--and when +it seemed, too, as though from all the dead hulks about me the shadows +of the dead were rising in the same fashion in pale fierce throngs--I +tried to hold fast, and pretty well succeeded in it, to the steadying +conviction that the making of them was in my own imagination and that +they were not real. And then, too, I fell off from time to time into a +light sleep which still was deep enough to rid me of them wholly; and +which also gave me some of the rest that I so much needed after all +that I had passed through during that weary day. + +What I could not get rid of, either sleeping or waking, was my gnawing +hunger and my still worse thirst. For an hour or two after nightfall, +the air being fresher and the haze turning to a damp cool mist, my +thirst was a good deal lessened; which was a gain in one way, though +not in another--for that same chill of night very searchingly +quickened my longing for food. But as the hours wore away my desire +for water got the better of every other feeling, even changing my +haunting visions of dead crews rising from the dead ships about me +into visions of brooks and rivulets--which only made my burning +craving the more keen. + +Nor did what little reasoning I could bring to bear upon my case, when +from time to time I partly came out from the sort of lethargy that had +hold of me, do much for my comforting. It was possible, I perceived, +that I might find even in a long-wrecked ship some half-rotten scraps +of old salted meat, or some remnant of musty flour, that at least +would serve to keep life in me. But even food of this wretched sort +would do me no good without water--and water was to be found only in +one of the wrecks forming the outer fringe of my prison, toward which +I had been trying so long vainly to find my way. + +Yet in spite of my having already gone astray half a dozen times over +in daylight I still did have, deep down in me, a feeling that if only +the darkness would pass I could manage to steer a true course. And +when at last, as it seemed to me after years of waiting for it, I +began to see a little pink tone showing in the mist dimly it almost +seemed as though my troubles were coming instantly to an end. And, +at least, the horror of deep darkness, which all night long had been +crushing me, did leave me from the moment when that first gleam of +returning daylight appeared. + + + + + +XXI + +MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + + +It was a long while before the pale pink gleam to the eastward spread +up into the sky far enough to thin the shadows which hung over my dead +fleet heavily, and longer still before I had light enough to venture +to begin my scrambling walk from ship to ship again. It seemed to me, +indeed, that the mist lay lower and was a good deal thicker than on +the preceding evening; and this, with the fiery glow that was in it +when the sunrise came, gave me hope that a douse of rain might be +coming--which chance of getting the water that I longed for heartened +me even more than did the up-coming of the sun. + +My throat was hurting me a good deal because of its dryness, and my +itching thirst was all the stronger because the last food I had +eaten--being the mess left in the pan by the two men who had killed +each other--had been a salt-meat stew. Of hunger I did not feel much, +save for gripes in my inside now and then; but I was weak because of +my emptiness--as I discovered when I got on my legs, and found myself +staggering a little and the things around me swimming before my eyes. +And what was worse than that was a dull stupidity which so possessed +me that I could not think clearly; and so for a while kept me +wandering about the deck of the brig aimlessly, while my wits went +wool-gathering instead of trying to work out some plan--even a foolish +plan--which would cheer me up with hopes of pulling through. + +I might have gone on all day that way, very likely, if I had not been +aroused suddenly by feeling a big drop of rain on my face; and only a +moment later--the thick mist, I suppose, being surcharged with water, +and some little waft of wind in its upper region having loosened its +vent-peg--I was in the thick of a dashing shower. So violent was the +downpour that in less than a minute the deck was streaming, and I had +only to plug with my shirt one of the scuppers amidships to have in +another minute or two a little lake of fresh sweet water from +which--lying on my belly, with the rain pelting down on me--I drank +and drank until at last I was full. And the feel of the rain on my +body was almost as good as the drinking of it, for it was deliciously +cool and yet not chill. + +When I got at last to my legs again, with the dryness gone from my +throat and only a little pain there because of the swollen glands, I +found that I walked steadily and that my head was clear too; and for +the moment I was so entirely filled with water that I was not hungry +at all. Presently the rain stopped, and that set me to thinking of +finding some better way to keep a store of water by me than leaving it +in a pool on the open deck; where, indeed, it would not stay long, but +would ooze out through the scupper and be sopped up by the +rotten planks. + +And so, though I did not at all fancy going below on the old brig, I +went down the companion-way into the cabin to search for a vessel of +some sort that would be water-tight; and shivered a little as I +entered that dusky place, and did not venture to move about there +until my eyes got accustomed to the half darkness for fear that I +should go stumbling over dead men's bones. + +As it turned out, the cabin was bare enough of dead people, and of +pretty much everything else; from which I inferred that in the long +past time when the brig had been wrecked her crew had got safe away +from her, and had been able in part to strip her before they left her +alone upon the sea. What I wanted, however, they had not taken away. +In a locker I found a case made to hold six big bottles, in which the +skipper had carried his private stock of liquors very likely; and two +of the bottles, no doubt being empty when the cabin was cleared, had +been left behind. They served my turn exactly, and I brought them on +deck and filled them from my pool of rain-water--and so was safe +against thirst for at least another day. + +Being thus freshened by my good drink, and cheered by the certainty of +having water by me, I sat down for a while on the cabin-scuttle that I +might puzzle out a plan for getting to some ship so recently +storm-slain that aboard of her still would be eatable food. As for +rummaging in the hold of the brig, I knew that no good could come of +it--she having lain there, as I judged, for a good deal more than half +a century; and for the same reason I knew that I only would waste time +in searching the other old wrecks about me for stores. All that was +open to me was to press toward the edge of the wreck-pack, for there +alone could I hope to find what I was after--and there it pretty +certainly would be. But after my miserable experience of the preceding +day it was plain that before I started on my hunting expedition I must +hit upon some way of laying a course and holding it; or else, most +likely, go rambling from wreck to wreck until I grew so weak from +starvation that on one or another of them I should fall down at +last and die. + +Close beside me, as I sat on the hatch, was the brig's binnacle, and +in it I could see the shrivelled remnant of what had been the +compass-card; and the sight of this put into my head presently the +thought--that might have got there sooner had my wits been +sharper--to look for a compass still in working order and by means of +it to steer some sort of a steady course. The argument against this +plan was plain enough, and it was a strong one: that in holding as +well as I could to any straight line I might only get deeper and +deeper into my maze--for I was turned around completely, and while I +knew that I could not be very far from the edge of my island of +flotsam I had not the faintest notion in which direction that +near edge lay. + +For some minutes longer I sat on the hatch thinking the matter over +and trying to hit on something that would open to me a better prospect +of success; and all the while I had a hungry pain in my stomach that +made clear thinking difficult, and that at the same time urged me to +do quickly anything that gave even the least promise of getting food. +And so the upshot of the matter was that I slung my two bottles of +water over my shoulders with a bit of line that I found in the brig's +cabin--making the slings short, that the bottles might hang close +under my arms and be pretty safe against breaking--and then away I +went on my cruise after a compass still on speaking terms with the +north pole. + +That I would find one seemed for a good while unlikely; for I searched +a score and more of wrecks, and on every one of them the binnacle +either was empty or the needle entirely rusted away. But at last I +came to a barque that had a newer look about her than that of the +craft amidst which she was lying, and that also had her binnacle +covered with a tarred canvas hood such as is used when vessels are +lying in port. How the hood came to be where it was on that broken +wreck was more than I could account for; but by reason of its being in +place the binnacle had been well protected from the weather, and I +found to my delight that the compass inside was in working trim. + +It was an awkward thing to carry, being an old-fashioned big square +box heavily and clumsily made; but I was so glad to get it that I was +not for quarrelling with it, though it did for a little put me to a +puzzle as to how I should pack it along. What I came to was to sling +it on my back knapsack-fashion, which was a poor way to have it, since +every time that I looked at it I had to unsling it and then to sling +it again; yet there was no other way for me to manage it, because in +my scrambling from one wreck to another I needs must have both hands +free. But what with this big box strapped to my shoulders, and the two +big bottles dangling close up under my arm-pits, I must have +looked--only there was nobody to look at me--nothing less than a +figure of fun. + +As I knew not which way I ought to go, and so had all ways open to me, +I laid my course for the head of the compass; and was the more +disposed thus to go due north because that way, as far as I could see +for the mist and the mast-tangle, the wrecks lay packed so close +together that passing from one to another would be easy for me--which +was a matter to be considered in view of the load that I had to +carry along. + +But just as I was ready to start another notion struck me. I had +noticed the modern look of the barque, as compared with the ancient +build of the hulks amidst which she was lying, when I first came +aboard of her; and as I was about to leave her--my eye being caught by +the soundness of a bit of line made fast to a belaying-pin on her +rail--the thought occurred to me that I might find on her something or +other still fit to be called food. And when this thought came to me I +unslung my compass and my water-bottles in a hurry--for I was as +ravenous as a man well could be. + + + + + +XXII + +I GET SOME FOOD IN ME AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + + +The sun by that time being risen so high that the mist was changing +again to a golden haze, and the cabin of the barque well lighted +through the skylight over it, I felt less creepy and uncomfortable as +I went down the companion-way than I had felt when I went below into +the old brig's dusky cabin in the early dawn. But for all that I +walked gingerly, and stopped to sniff at every step that I took +downward; for I could not by any means get rid of my dread of coming +upon some grewsome thing. However, the air was sweet enough--the slide +of the hatch being closed, but the doors open and the cabin well +ventilated--and when I got to the foot of the stair I saw nothing +horrible in my first sharp look around. + +It was a small cabin, but comfortably fitted; and almost the first +thing that caught my eye was a work-basket spilled down into a corner +and some spools and a pair of rusty scissors lying on the floor, and +then in another corner I saw a little chair. And the sight of these +things, which told that the barque's captain had had his wife and his +child along with him, gave me a heavy sorrowful feeling--for all that +if death had come to this sea-family the pain of it must have been +over quickly a long while back in the past. + +Two of the state-room doors, both on the starboard side, were open; +and both rooms were empty, save for the mouldy bedding in the bunks +and in one of them a canvas bed-bag such as seamen use. The doors of +the other two rooms, there being four in all, were closed, and I +opened them hesitatingly; and felt a good deal easier in my mind when +I found that in neither of them was what I dreaded might be there. In +one of them the bunk had been left in disorder, as though some one had +risen from it hurriedly, and a frock and a bonnet were hanging against +the wall; but the other one seemed to have been used only as a sort of +storeroom--there being in it a pair of rubber boots and a suit of +oil-skins, and a locker in which were some pretty trifles in +shell-work such as might have been picked up in a West Indian port, +and a little rack of books gone mouldy with the damp. One of these +books I opened, and found written on the flyleaf: "Mary Woodbridge, +with Aunt Jane's love. For the coming Christmas of 1879"--and this +date, though it did not settle certainly when the barque had started +on the voyage that had come to so bad an ending, at least proved that +she had not been lying where I found her for a very great +many years. + +As to how the barque had got so deep into the wreck-pack, she being so +lately added to it, I could not determine; but my conjecture was that +some storm had broken the pack and had driven her down into it, and +then that the opening had closed again, leaving her fast a good way in +its inside. But about the way of her getting there I did not much +bother myself, my one strong thought being that I had a chance of +finding on board of her something that I could eat; and so--being by +that time pretty well satisfied that I was safe not to come upon +anything horrid hid away in a dark corner of her--I went at my farther +explorations with a will. Indeed, I was so desperately hungry by that +time that even had I made some nasty discoveries I doubt if they would +have held me back from my eager search for food. + +Luckily I had not far to look before I found what I was after, the +very first door that I tried--a door in the forward side of the +cabin--opening into a pantry in which were stowed what had been, as I +judged from the nature of them and the place where I found them, the +captain's private stores. The door was not locked, and a good many +empty boxes were lying around on the floor with splintered lids, as +though they had been smashed open in a hurry--which looked as though +the pantry had been levied on suddenly to provision the boats after +the wreck occurred, and so made me hope that the captain and his wife +and baby had got away from the barque alive. + +But the stock of stores had been a big one, and I saw that I was safe +enough against starvation if only a part of what was left still were +sound--and that uncertainty I settled in no time by picking up a +hatchet that was lying among the broken boxes and splitting open the +first tin on which I laid my hands. The tin had beans in it, and when +I cracked it open that way more than half of them went flying over the +floor; and they looked so good, those blessed beans, that without +stopping to smell at them critically, or otherwise to test their +soundness, I fell to feeding myself out of the open tin with my +hand--and never stopped until all that remained of them were in my +inside. I don't suppose that they were the better for having lain +there so long, but they certainly were not much the worse for it--as I +proved more conclusively, having by that time taken off the sharp edge +of my hunger, by eating a part of another tin of them and finding them +very good indeed. After that I opened a tin of meat--but on the +instant that the hatchet split into it there came bouncing out such a +dreadful smell that I had to rush on deck in a hurry with it and heave +it over the side. + +But even without the meat my food supply was secure to me for a good +while onward, there being no less than ten boxes with two dozen tins +of beans in each of them--quite enough to keep life in me for more +than half a year. I rummaged through the place thoroughly, but found +nothing more that was fit to eat there. Some boxes of biscuit and a +barrel of flour had gone musty until they fairly were rotten; and all +the other things that I came across were spoiled utterly by damp and +mould. As for the stores for the crew, when I went forward to have a +look at them, they were spoiled too--the flour and biscuit rotten, and +the pickled meat a mouldy mass of tough fibre encrusted thickly +with salt. + +One other thing I did find in the captain's pantry that was as good, +save for the mould that coated the outside of it, as when it came +aboard--and because of its excellent condition was all the more +tantalizing. This was a case of plug tobacco--a bit of which shredded +and filled into one of the pipes that I found with it, could I have +got it lighted, would have made me for the moment almost a happy man. +But as I could think of no way of lighting it I was worse off than if +I had not found it at all. + +Having made my tour of inspection and taken a general inventory of my +new possessions, I came on deck again and seated myself on the roof of +the cabin that I might do some quiet thinking about what should be my +next move; for I realized that only by a stroke of rare good fortune +had I come upon this supply of food far away from, the coast of my +continent, and that should I leave it and keep on the course northward +that I had set for myself I very likely might starve before another +such store fell in my way. And yet, on the other hand, to stay on +where I was merely because I was able to keep alive there--with no +outlook of hope to stay me--was but making a bid for that madness +which comes of despair. + +As to carrying any great quantity of food on with me, it was a sheer +impossibility. The tins of beans weighed each of them more than five +pounds, and a score of them would make as much of a load as I well +could carry on level ground--and far more of a load than I could +manage in the scramble that was before me if I decided to go on. +Indeed, I had found my two bottles of water a serious inconvenience; +and yet I would have them to carry also, and the big compass too. As +to water, however, since the shower of the morning. I felt less +anxiety: and the event proved that my confidence in the rainfall was +justified--for the showers came regularly a little after dawn, and +only once or twice after that first sharp experience did I feel more +than passing pain from thirst. + +I sat there on the roof of the cabin for a good part of the morning +cogitating the matter; and in the end I could think of no better +plan than one which promised certainly a world of hard labor, and only +promised uncertainly to serve my turn. This was to stick to my project +of going steadily northward--carrying with me as much food as I could +stagger under--until I came again to the outer edge of the +wreck--pack; but to safeguard my return to the barque, should my food +give out before my journey was accomplished, by blazing my path: that +is to say, by making a mark on each wreck that I crossed so that I +could retrace my steps easily and without fear of losing my way. What +I would gain in the end I did not try very clearly to tell +myself--having only a vague feeling that in getting again to the coast +of my great dead continent I would be that much the nearer to the +living world once more; and having a clearer feeling that only by +sticking at some sort of hard work that had a little hopefulness in it +could I save myself from going mad. And I cannot but think now, +looking back at it, that a touch of madness already was upon me; for +no man ever set himself to a crazier undertaking than that to which I +set myself then. + + + + + +XXIII + +HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + + +The morning was well spent by the time that I had made my mind up, and +I was growing hungry again. I made a good meal on what was left in the +second tin of beans that I had opened for my breakfast; and when I was +done I tried to get a light for my pipe by rubbing bits of wood +together, but made nothing of it at all. I had read about castaways on +desert islands getting fire that way--but they went at it with dry +wood, I fancy, and in my mist-sodden desert all the wood was soaked +with damp. + +For that afternoon I decided to go forward only as far as I could +fetch it to be back on board the barque again by sunset, taking with +me as many tins of beans as I could carry and leaving them where I +made my turn: by which arrangement I would save the carriage of my +supper and my breakfast, and would have a little store of victuals to +fall back upon--when I should be fairly started on my journey--without +coming all the way again to the barque. + +I got the bed-bag that I had seen in the stateroom, and managed with +the rusty scissors to cut it down to half its size. Into this I packed +ten tins of beans, and made them snug by whipping around the bag one +end of a longish line--which served when coiled as a handle for it; +and, being uncoiled, enabled me to haul it up a ship's side after me, +or to let it down ahead of me, or to sway it across an open space +between two vessels, and so go at my climbing and jumping with both +hands free. As for the compass, my back was the only place for it and +I put it there--where it did not bother me much, having little weight; +and I stuck the hatchet to blaze my path with into a sort of a belt +that I made for myself with a bit of line. + +Considering what a load I was carrying, and that on every vessel which +I crossed I had to stop while I blazed a mark on her, I made a good +long march of it before the waning of the daylight was a sign to me +that I must put about again; and my return journey was both quick and +easy, for I left the whole of my load, excepting the empty bag, behind +me and came back lightly along my plainly marked path. But I was tired +enough when I got on board the barque again, and glad enough to eat my +supper and then stretch myself out to sleep upon the cabin floor. + +That night, being easy in my body--except for my wholesome +weariness--and easier in my mind because it seemed to me that I was +doing something for my deliverance, and being also aboard a vessel +that I knew was clean and pure, I had no visions of any kind whatever, +but went to sleep almost in a moment, and slept like a log, as the +saying is, the whole night through. Indeed, I slept later than suited +my purposes--being for rising early and making a long day's march of +it--and I might have wasted still more time in drowsing lazily had I +not been wakened a little before sunrise by the rattle on the cabin +roof of a dashing burst of rain. I was on deck in a moment, and by +stopping a scupper--as I had done the previous morning--presently had +by me a far bigger supply of water than I needed; from which I got a +good drink lying down to it, and filled an empty bean-tin for another +drink after my breakfast, and so had my two bottles full to last me +until the next day--and was pretty well satisfied by the rain's +recurrence that I could count upon a shower every morning about the +hour of dawn. + +When I had finished my breakfast I stowed ten tins of beans in the bag +and lashed four more together so that I could carry them on my +shoulders--being able to manage them in that way because I had no +other back-load--and so was ready to set out along my blazed path. But +before leaving the barque--hoping never again to lay eyes on her--I +took one more look through the cabin to make sure that I had not +passed over something that might be useful to me: and was lucky enough +to find under one of the bunks a drawer--that had been hidden by the +tumbled sheets hanging down over it--in which were some shirts and a +suit of linen clothing that most opportunely supplied my needs. They +all were badly mildewed, but sound enough, and the trousers--I had no +use for the coat and waistcoat--fitted me very well. So I threw off +the rags and tatters that I was wearing and put on in their place +these sound garments; and then I picked up my load and was off. + +Not having to stop to take bearings or to blaze my way, I made such +good time that I got to the end of the course over which I had spent a +good part of the previous afternoon in not much more than three hours. +I was pretty well pleased to find that I could make such brisk +marching under such a load; for it showed me that even when I should +get a long way from my base of supplies, that is to say from the +barque, I still could return to it at no great expense of time--and +the thought never entered my head that time was of no value to me, +since only by what would be close upon a miracle could I hope for +anything better than to find ways for killing it through all the +remainder of my days. + +Being thus come to my place of deposit I had to rearrange my +packing--going forward with a lighter load of food that I might +carry also the compass and the hatchet; and going slowly because of my +constant stops to take fresh bearings and to mark my path. But that +time I went straight onward until nightfall; and my heart sank a good +deal within me as I found that the farther I went the more antique in +model, and the more anciently sea-worn, were the wrecks which I came +upon--and so I knew that I must be making my way steadily into the +very depths of my maze. + +Yet I could not see that I would gain anything by going back to the +barque and thence taking a fresh departure. The barque, as I knew +certainly from the sort of craft surrounding her, was so deeply bedded +in the pack that no matter how I headed from her I should have to go +far before I came again to the coast of it; and on the other hand I +thought that by holding to my course northward I might work my way in +no great time across the innermost huddle of ancient wrecks--for of +the vast number of these I had no notion then--and so to the outer +belt of wrecks new-made: on board of which I certainly should find +fresh food in plenty, and from which (as I forced myself to believe) I +might get away once more into the living world. And so I pushed on +doggedly until the twilight changed to dusk and I could not venture +farther; and then I ate my supper on board of a strange old ship, as +round as a dumpling and with a high bow and a higher stern; and when +I had finished settled myself for the night, being very weary, under +the in-hang of her heavy bulging side. + +When morning came--and a shower with it that gave me what drink I +wanted and a store of water for the day--I debated for a while with +myself as to whether I should go onward with my whole load, or leave a +part of it in a fresh deposit to which I could return at will. The +second course seemed the better to me; and, indeed, it was necessary +for me to go light-loaded in order to get on at all. For I had come +among ships of such strange old-fashioned build, standing at bow and +stern so high out of the water, that unless they happened to be lying +side by side so that I could pass from one to another amidships--which +was the case but seldom--I had almost as much climbing up and down +among them as though I had been a monkey mounting and descending a +row of trees. + +Therefore I ate as much breakfast as I could pack into myself--that +being as good a way as any other of carrying food with me--and then I +tore the sleeves from my shirt and stuffed them from the tins that I +opened until I had two great bean sausages, which I fastened +belt-fashion about my waist and so carried without any trouble at all. +Indeed, but for this new arrangement of my load I doubt if I could +have gone onward; and even with it I had all that I could do to make +my way. The bag with the remaining tins in it I stood away inside the +cabin of the old ship--which I should have explored farther, so +strange-looking was it, but for my eager desire to get on; and I felt +quite sure that I would find all just as I had left it there even +though I did not come back again for twenty years. + + + + + +XXIV + +OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + + +Bent as I was upon hurrying forward, I could not but stop often in my +wearying marches--which began each morning at sunrise and did not end +until dusk--to gaze about me in wonder at the curious ancient craft +across which lay my way. It seemed to me, indeed, as though I had got +into a great marine museum where were stored together all manner of +such antique vessels as not for two full centuries, and a good many of +them for still longer, had sailed the seas. Some of them were mere +shallops, so little that sailormen nowadays would not venture to go +a-coasting in them, and others were great round-bellied old +merchantmen--yet half war-ships, too--with high-built fore-castles, +and towering poops blossoming out into rich carvings and having +galleries rising one above another and with a big iron lantern at the +top of all. And all of them had been shattered in fights and tempests, +and were so rotten with age that the decks beneath my feet were soft +and spongy; and all were weathered to a soft gray, or to a brownish +blackness, with here and there a gleam of bright upon them where there +still clung fast in some protected recess of their carving a little of +the heavy gilding with which it all had been overlaid. Guns of some +sort were on every one of them--ranging upward from little swivels +mounted on the rail (mere pop-guns they looked like) to long bronze +pieces of which the delicate ornamentation was lost in a thick coat of +verdigris that had been gathering slowly through years and years. But +as to the strange rig that they had worn in their days of active +sea-faring, I could only guess at it; for such of them as had come +into this death-haven with any of their top-hamper still standing, as +some of them no doubt had come, long since had lost it--first the +standing-rigging and later the masts rotting, and so all together +falling in a heap anyway upon the decks or over the side. And such a +company of withered old sea-corpses as these ancient wrecks made +there, all huddled together with the weed thick about them, was as +hopeless and as dismal a sight as ever was seen by the eyes of man. +But a matter that to me was more instantly dismal, as I pressed on +among them, came when I found that I was getting so close to the end +of my stock of provisions--while yet apparently no nearer to the end +of my journey--that there was no shirking the necessity of returning +to the distant barque for a fresh supply: a journey involving such +desperate toil, and so much of it, that the mere thought of it sent +aches through all my bones. + +It was about noon one day, while I was trying to nerve myself to make +this hard expedition, that I called a halt in order to eat my +dinner--which I knew would be a very little one--being just then come +aboard of a great ungainly galleon that from the look of her I thought +could not be less than two centuries and a half old: she being more +curiously ancient in her build than any vessel that I had got upon, +and her timbers so rotten that I had ticklish climbing as I worked my +way up her high quarter--and, indeed, one of her galleries giving way +under me, was near to spilling down her tall side to my death beneath +the tangled weed. And when at last I got to her deck I found it so +soft, partly with rottenness and partly with a sort of moss growing +over it, that I was fearful at each step that it would give way under +me and let me down with a crash into her hold. + +I would have been glad of a better place to eat my dinner in--she +being sodden wet everywhere, and with a chill about her for all the +warmth of the misty air shimmering with dull sunshine, and with a rank +unwholesome smell rising from her rotting mass. But all the hulks +thereabouts were in so much the same condition that by going on I was +not likely greatly to better myself; and I was so tired and so hungry +that I had no heart to attempt any more hard scrambling until I had +had both rest and food. And so I hunted out a spot on her deck where +the moss was thinnest and least oozy with moisture--being a place a +little sheltered by a sort of porch above her cabin doorway--and there +I seated myself and with a good deal of satisfaction fell to upon my +very scanty ration of beans. + +For a while I was busied wholly with my eating, being mighty sharp set +after my morning's walk; but when my short meal was ended I began to +look about me, and especially to peer into the deep old cabin--that +was pretty well lighted through the stern-windows and through the +doorway at my shoulder, of which the door had rotted away. + +From where I was seated I could see nearly the whole of it; and what I +first noted was that a little hatch in the middle of the floor was +open, and that dangling down into it from one of the roof-beams was a +double-purchase--as though an attempt to haul up some heavy thing from +that place had come to a short end. For the rest, there was little to +see: only a clumsy table set fast between fixed benches close under +the stern windows; a locker in which I found, when I looked into it, a +sodden thing that very likely had been the ship's log-book along with +a queer old Jacob's staff (as they were called) such as mariners took +their observations with before quadrants were known; and against the +wall were hanging a couple of long old rusty swords and a rusty thing +that I took at first to be a wash-basin, but made out was a +deep-curved breast-plate that must have belonged to a very +round-bellied little man. + +The floor of the cabin, as I found when I went in there, was so firm +and solid--being laid in teak, very likely, and having been sheltered +by the roof over it from the rains--that I had no fear, as I had on +the open deck, that the planks would give way under me and let me +through. And when I was come inside I found resting on a wooden rack +set against the front wall a couple of old bell-mouthed brass +fire-locks, coated thick with verdigris, and with them three smaller +bell-mouthed pieces which were neither guns nor pistols but something +between the two. As for the log-book, if it were the log-book, I could +make nothing of it. It was so soaked and swelled by the dampness, and +so rotten, that my fingers sank into it when I tried to pick it up as +they would have sunk into porridge; and the slimy stuff left a horrid +smell upon my hand. Therefore I cannot tell what was the name of this +old ship, nor to what country she belonged, nor whither she was +sailing on her last voyage; but that she was Spanish--or perhaps +Portuguese--and was wrecked while on her way homeward from some port +in the Indies, I do not doubt at all. + +When I had made my round of the cabin, finding so little, I came to +the open hatch in the middle of it and gazed down into the dusky depth +curiously: wondering a good deal that in what must have been almost +the moment when death was setting its clutch upon the galleon, and +when all aboard of her assuredly were in peril of their lives, her +people should have tried to rouse out a part of her cargo--as I had +proof that they had tried to do in the tackle still hanging there from +the beam. And the only reasonable way to account for this strange +endeavor, it seemed to me--since provisions were not likely to be +carried in that part of the vessel--was that something so precious was +down there in the blackness as to make the risk of death worth taking +in order to try to save it from the sea. + +With that there came over me an itching curiosity to find out what the +treasure was which the crew of the galleon--in such stress of some +sort that they had been forced to give up the job suddenly--had tried +to get out of their ship and carry off with them; and along with my +curiosity came an eager pounding of my heart as I thought to +myself--without ever stopping to think also how useless riches of any +sort were to me--that by right of discovery their treasure, whatever +it might be, had become mine. + +With my breath coming and going quickly, I got down upon my hands and +knees and stooped my head well into the opening that I might get rid +of the light in my eyes from the cabin windows; and being that way I +made out dimly that the lower block of the purchase was whipped fast +to a little wooden box, and that other small boxes were stowed in +regular tiers under it so that they filled snugly a little chamber +about a dozen feet square. That there were several layers of these +boxes seemed probable, for those in sight were only six feet or so +below the level of the cabin floor, and that they held either gold or +silver I considered to be beyond a doubt; and as I raised my head up +out of the hatch, my eyes blinking as the light struck them, and +thought of the wealth that must be stored there in that little +chamber, and that it was mine because I had found it, I gave a long +great sigh. + +For a minute or two I was quite dazed by my discovery; and then as I +got steadier--or got crazier, perhaps I ought to say--nothing would +serve me but that I must get down to where my treasure was, so that my +eyes might see it and that I might touch it with my hands. And with +that I caught at the tackle and gave a tug on the ropes to test them, +and as they held I swung to them to slide down--and the moment that my +full weight was on them they snapped like punk, and down I went feet +foremost and struck on the tiers of boxes with a bang. As I fell only +a little way, and upon a level surface--for I went clear of the box +to which the tackle was made fast--no harm came to me; but under my +feet I felt the rotten wood going squashily, and then beneath it +something firm and hard. And when I got back my balance and looked +down eagerly my eyes caught a dull gleam in the semi-darkness, and +then made out beneath my feet a mass of yellow ingots: and I gave a +great shout--that seemed to be forced out of me to keep my heart from +bursting--for I knew that I was standing on bars of gold! + + + + + +XXV + +I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + + +For a while, down in that black little place, I was quite a crazy +creature; being so stirred by my finding this great store of riches +that I went to dancing and singing there--and was not a bit bothered +by the vile stench rising from the rotten wood that my feet sent +flying, nor by the still viler stench rising from the reeking mass of +rottenness below me in the galleon's hold. + +And then, that I might see my treasure the more clearly, I fell to +tossing the ingots up through the hatch into the cabin--where I could +have a good light upon them, and could gloat upon the yellow gleam of +them, and could make some sort of a guess at how much each of them +represented in golden coin. From that I went on to calculating how +much the whole of them were worth together; and when I got to the end +of my figuring I fairly was dazed. + +In a rough way I estimated that each ingot weighed at least five +pounds, and as each of the little boxes contained ten of them the +value of every single box stored there was not less than fifteen +thousand dollars. As well as I could make out, the boxes were in rows +of ten and there were ten rows of them--which gave over a million and +a half of dollars for the top tier alone; and as there certainly was +an under-tier the value of my treasure at the least was three +millions. But actually, as I found by digging down through the ingots +until I came to the solid flooring, there were in all five tiers of +boxes; and what made the whole of them worth close upon eight millions +of our American money, or well on toward two millions of English +pounds. My brain reeled as I thought about it. The treasure that I had +possession of was a fortune fit for a king! + +I had swung myself up from the little chamber and was standing in the +cabin while I made these calculations, and when at last I got to my +sum total I felt so light-headed that it seemed as though I were +walking on air. Indeed, I fairly was stunned by my tremendous good +fortune and could not think clearly: and it was because my mind thus +was turned all topsy-turvy, I suppose, that the odd thought popped +into it that in the matter of weight my gold ingots were pretty much +the same as the tins of beans to get which I was about to return to +the barque--a foolish notion which so tickled my fancy that I burst +out into a loud laugh. + +The jarring sound of my laughter, which rang out with a ghastly +impropriety in that deathly place, brought me to my senses a little +and made me calmer. But my mind ran on for a moment or so upon the odd +notion that had provoked it, and in that time certain other thoughts +flashed into my head which had only to get there to spill out of me +every bit of my crazy joy. For first I realized that since I could +carry only the same weight of gold that I could carry of food my +actual wealth was but a single back-load, which brought my millions +down to a few beggarly thousands; and on top of that I realized--and +this came like a douse of ice-water--that for every ingot that I +carried away with me I must leave a like weight of food behind: which +meant neither more nor less than that my great treasure, for all the +good that ever it would be to me--so little could I venture to take of +it on these terms--might as well be already at the bottom of the sea. + +And then, being utterly dispirited and broken, I fell to thinking how +little difference it made one way or the other--how even a single +ingot would be a vain lading--since I had no ground for hoping that +ever again would I get to a region where I would have use for gold. +And with that--though I kept on staring in a dull way at the ingots +scattered over the floor of the cabin--I thought of the treasure no +longer: my heart being filled with a great sorrowing pity for myself, +because of the doom upon me to live out whatever life might be left +me in the most horrid solitude into which ever a man was cast. + +For a long while I stood despairing there; and then at last the hope +of life began to rise in me again--as it always must rise, no matter +how desperate are the odds against it, in the mind of a sound and +vigorous man. And with this saner feeling came again my desire to push +on in the direction that offered me a chance of deliverance--leaving +all my treasure behind me, since it was worth less to me than food; +and presently came the farther hope that when I had succeeded in +finding a way out of my sea-prison, and so was sure of my life once +more, I might be able to return to the galleon and take away with me +at least some portion of the great riches that I had found. + +Because of this foolish hope, and the very human comfort that I found +in knowing myself to be the possessor of such prodigious wealth, I +needs must jump down again to where it was and take another survey of +it before I left it behind. And then, being cooler and looking more +carefully, I noticed that the box to which the tackle had been made +fast was not like the other boxes--though about the same size with +them--but was a little coffer that seemed once to have been locked and +that still had around it the rusty remnants of iron bands. This +difference in the make of it put into my head the notion that its +contents were more precious than the contents of the other +boxes--though how that could be I did not well see; and my notion +seemed the more reasonable as I reflected that if the coffer really +were of an extraordinary value there would have been sense in trying +to save it even in a time of great peril--which was more than could be +said of trying to load down boats launched in the midst of some final +disaster with any of those heavy boxes of gold. + +My mind became excited by another mirage of riches as these thoughts +went through it, and to settle the matter I stooped down and got a +grip on the coffer--which was made of a tougher wood than the boxes +and held together--and managed by a good deal of straining to lift it +up through the hatch into the cabin, where I could examine it at +my ease. + +When it was new an axe would not have made much impression upon it, so +strongly had it been put together; but there were left only black +stains to show where the iron had bound it, and the wood had rotted +until it was softer than the softest bit of pine. Indeed, I had only +to give a little jerk to the lid to open it: both the lock and the +hinges being gone with rust, and the lid held in place only by a sort +of sticky slime. + +But when I did get it open the first thing that came out of it was a +stench so vile that I had to jump up in a hurry and rush to the open +deck until the worst of it had ebbed away; and this exceeding evil +odor was given off by a slimy ooze of rotted leather--as I knew a +little later by finding still unmelted some bits of small leather bags +in which what was stored there had been tied. But even as I jumped up +and left the cabin my eyes caught a gleam of brightness in the horrid +slimy mess that set my heart to beating hard again; and it pounded +away in my breast still harder when I came back and made out clearly +what I had found. + +For there in the rotten ooze, strewn thickly, was such a collection of +glittering jewels that my eyes fairly were dazzled by them; and when I +had turned the coffer upside down on the deck so that the slime flowed +away stickily--giving off the most dreadful stench that ever I have +encountered--I saw a heap of precious stones such as for size and +beauty has not been gathered into one place, I suppose--unless it may +have been in the treasury of some Eastern sovereign--since the very +beginning of the world. At a single glance I knew that the great +treasure of gold, which had seemed to me overwhelming because of its +immensity, was as nothing in comparison with this other treasure +wherein riches were so concentrate and sublimate that I had the very +essence of them: and I reeled and trembled again as I hugged the +thought to me that by my finding of it I was made master of it all. + + + + + +XXVI + +OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + + +I was pretty much mooning mad for a while, I suppose: sometimes +walking about the cabin and thrusting with my feet contemptuously at +the gold ingots strewn over the floor of it, and sometimes standing +still in a sort of rapt wonder over my heap of jewels--and anything +like sensible thinking was quite beyond the power of my unbalanced +mind. But at last I was aroused, and so brought to myself a little, by +the daylight waning suddenly: as it did in that region when the sun +dropped down into the thick layer of mist lying close upon the +water--making at first a strange purplish dusk, and then a rich +crimson after-glow that deepened into purple again, and so turning +slowly into blackness as night came on. + +When I had come aboard the galleon, about noon-time, and had found her +so sodden with wet and so reeking with foul odors--as, indeed, were +all of the very ancient ships which made the mid-part of that sea +graveyard--I had made my mind up to a forced march in the afternoon +that I hoped would carry me through the worst of all that rottenness, +and so to a ship partly dry and less ill-smelling for the night. But +when I came out from the cabin and looked about me, and saw how thick +and black were the shadows in the clefts between the wrecks, I knew +that I could not venture onward, but must pass the night where I was. +And this was a prospect not at all to my mind. + +The cabin, of course, was the only place for me, the soaked deck with +the soaked moss on top of it being quite out of the question; but even +the cabin was not fit for a dog to lie in, so chill and damp was it +and so foul with the stench rising and spreading from the slime of +rotted leather that I had emptied from the coffer and that made a +little vile pool upon the floor. And through the open hatch there came +up a dismal heavy odor of all the rotten stuff down there that almost +turned my stomach, and that made the air laden with it hard to +breathe--though in my hot excitement I had not noticed it at all. But +this last I got the better of in part by covering again the opening, +though I had to move the hatch very gently and carefully to keep it +from falling into rotten fragments in my hands. Yet because it was so +dense with moisture, when I did get it set in place, it pretty well +kept the stench down. And then I kicked away some of the ingots into a +corner, and so cleared a space on the floor where I could stretch +myself just within the cabin door. + +These matters being attended to, I seated myself in the same place +where I had eaten my dinner--just outside the door, under the little +sort of porch overhanging it--and ate the short ration that I allowed +myself for my supper, and found it very much less than my lively +hunger required. When I had finished I sat on there for a good while +longer, being very loath to go into the cabin; but at last, by finding +myself nodding with weary drowsiness, I knew that sleep would come +quickly, and so went inside and laid myself down upon the floor. There +still was a faint glimmer of dying daylight outside, and this little +glow somehow comforted me as I lay there facing the doorway and +blinking now and then before my eyes were tight closed; but I did not +lie long that way half-waking, being so utterly fagged in both mind +and body that I dropped off into deep slumber before the +darkness fell. + +I suppose that even in my sleep I had an uneasy sense of my bleak +surroundings; and that this, in the course of three or four hours--by +which time I was a good deal rested and so slept less soundly--got the +better of my weariness and roused me awake again. But when I first +woke I was sure that I had slept the night through and that early +morning was come--for there was so much light in the cabin that I +never thought to account for it save by the return of day. Yet the +light was not like daylight, as I realized when I had a little more +shaken off my sleepiness, being curiously white and soft. + +I turned over--for I had rolled in my uneasy sleep and got my back +toward the doorway--and raised myself a little on my elbow so that I +might see out clearly; and what I saw was so unearthly strange, and in +a way so awe-compelling, that in another moment I was on my feet and +staring with all my eyes. Over the whole deck of the galleon a soft +lambent light was playing, and this went along her bulwarks and up +over her high fore-castle so that all the lines of her structure were +defined sharply by it; and pale through the mist against the +blackness, out over her low waist, I could catch glimpses of the other +tall old ships lying near her all likewise shining everywhere with the +same soft flames--which yet were not flames exactly, but rather a +flickering glow. + +In a moment or so I realized that this luminous wonder, which at the +first look had so strong a touch of the supernatural in it, was no +more than the manifestation of a natural phenomenon: being the shimmer +of phosphorescent light upon the soaking rotten woodwork of the +galleon and of the ships about her, as rotten and as old. But making +this explanation to myself did not lessen the frightening strangeness +of the spectacle, nor do much to stop the cold creeps which ran over +me as I looked at it: I being there solitary in that marvellous +brightness--that I knew was in a way a death-glow--the one +thing alive. + +But presently my unreasoning shivering dread began to yield a little, +as my curiosity bred in me an eager desire to see the whole of this +wondrous soft splendor; for I made sure from my glimpses over the +galleon's bulwarks that it was about me on every side. And so I +stepped out from the cabin upon the deck, where my feet sank into the +short mossy growth that coated the rotten planks and I was fairly +walking in what seemed like a lake of wavering pale flame; and from +there, that I might see the better, I climbed cautiously up the rotten +stair leading to the roof of the cabin, and thence to the little +over-topping gallery where the stern-lantern was. And from that height +I could gaze about me as far as ever the mist would let me see. + +Everywhere within the circle that my eyes covered--which was not a +very big one, for in the night the mist was thick and low-lying--the +old wrecks wedged together there were lighted with the same lambent +flames: which came and went over their dead carcasses as though they +all suddenly were lighted and then as suddenly were put out again; and +farther away the glow of them in the mist was like a silvery +shimmering haze. By this ebbing and flowing light--which seemed to +me, for all that I knew the natural cause of it, so outside of nature +that I thrilled with a creeping fear as I looked at it--I could see +clearly the shapes of the strange ancient ships around me: their great +poops and fore-castles rising high above their shallow waists, and +here and there among them the remnant of a mast making a line of light +rising higher still--like a huge corpse-candle shining against the +blackness beyond. And the ruin of them--the breaks in their lines, and +the black gaps where bits of their frames had rotted away +completely--gave to them all a ghastly death-like look; while their +wild tangling together made strange ragged lines of brightness +wavering under the veil of mist, as though a desolate sea-city were +lying there dead before me lit up with lanterns of despair. + +Yet that which most keenly thrilled me with a cold dread was my strong +conviction that I could see living men moving hither and thither over +those pale-lit decks, where my reason told me that only ancient death +could be; for the play of the flickering light made such a commotion +of fleeting flames and dancing shadows, going and coming in all manner +of fantastic shapes, that every shattered hulk around me seemed to +have her old crew alive and on board of her again--all hurrying in +bustling crowds fore and aft, and up and down the heights of her, as +though under orderly command. And at times these shapes were so real +and so distinct to me that I was for crying out to them--and would +check myself suddenly, shivering with a fright which I knew was out of +all reason but which for the life of me I could not keep down. + +And so the night wore away: while I stood there on the galleon's poop +with the soft pale flames flickering around me in the mist, and my +fears rising and falling as I lost and regained control of myself; and +I think that it is a wonder that I did not go mad. + + + + + +XXVII + +I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + + +At last, after what seemed to me an age of waiting for it, a little +pinkish tone began to glow in the mist to the eastward; and as that +honest light got stronger the death-fires on the old galleon and on +the wrecks around her paled quickly until they were snuffed out +altogether--and then came the customary morning down-pour of rain. + +With the return of the blessed daylight, and with the enlivening douse +of cool fresh water upon me, I got to be myself again: my fanciful +fears of the night-time leaving me, and my mind coming back soberly to +a consideration of my actual needs. Of these the most pressing, as my +stomach told me, was to get my breakfast; and when that matter, in a +very poor way, had been attended to, and I had drunk what water I +needed--without much relishing it--from a pool that had formed on the +deck where the timbers sagged down a little, I was in better heart to +lay out for myself a plan of campaign. + +In one way planning was not necessary. By holding to a northerly +course I believed that I had got at least half way across my +continent, and my determination was fixed to keep on by the +north--rather than risk a fresh departure that might only carry me by +a fresh way again into the depths of the tangle--until I should come +once more to the open sea: if I may call open sea that far outlying +expanse of ocean covered with thick-grown weed. But it was needful +that I should plan for my supply of food as I went onward, that was to +be got only by returning to the far-away barque; and also I felt an +itching desire--as strong as at first blush it was unreasonable--to +carry away with me some part of the treasure that I had found. That I +ever should get out into the world again, and so have the good of my +riches, seemed likely to me only in my most sanguine moments; but even +on the slimmest chance of accomplishing my own deliverance I had a +very natural human objection to leaving behind me the wealth that I +had found through such peril--only to lie there for a while longer +idly, and then to be lost forever when the galleon sank to the bottom +of the sea. + +As to the gold, it was plain that I could carry off so little of it +that I might as well resign myself--having that which was better worth +working for--to losing it all. But my treasure of jewels was another +matter. This was so very much more valuable than the gold--for the +stones for the most part were of a prodigious size and a rare +fineness--that between the two there really was no comparison; and at +the same time it was so compact in bulk and so petty in weight that I +might easily carry the whole of it with me and a good store of food +too. And so, to make a beginning, I picked the stones out of the slimy +and stinking ooze in which they were lying and washed them clean in +the pool of water on the deck; and then I packed them snugly into the +shirt-sleeve in which my beans had been stored--and tickled myself the +while with the fancy that most men would be willing for the sake of +stuffing a shirt-sleeve that way to cut off the arm to which +it belonged. + +My packing being finished, and my precious bag laid away in a corner +of the cabin until I should come to fetch it again, I was in a better +mood for facing my long march back to the barque: for I had come to +have fortune as well as life to work for, and those two strong +stimulants to endeavor working together gave my spirits a great upward +pull. And, fortunately, my cheerfulness staid by me through my long +scrambling struggle backward along my blazed path; nor was it, in +reality, as hard a journey as I had expected it to be--for I had but a +light load of food to carry, barely enough to last me through, and the +marks which I had left upon the wrecks in passing made my way plain. +And so, at last, I got back to the barque one evening about sunset, +and had almost a feeling of homecoming in boarding her again; and I +was thankful enough to be able to eat all the supper I wanted, and +then to lie down comfortably in her clean cabin and to rest myself in +sound slumber after my many restless nights on rotten old ships +reeking with a chill dampness that struck into my very bones. + +I slept soundly and woke refreshed; and for that I was thankful, since +the work cut out for me--to get back to the galleon with enough +provisions to last me until I could cross the rest of the +wreck-pack--was about as much as a strong man in good condition could +do. However, I had thought of something that would make this hard job +less difficult; for the ease with which I had carried a part of my +food in long narrow bags, sausage-fashion--thereby getting rid of +both the weight and the awkwardness of the tins--had put into my head +the notion of carrying in that way the whole of my fresh supply, and +so carrying at least twice as much of it. And I calculated--since I +could go rapidly along my blazed path--that by cutting myself down to +very short rations I could get back to the galleon with a bigger stock +of provisions than that with which I left the barque when I made my +first start toward the north--and if the galleon lay, as I believed +that she did, about in the centre of the pack, this would give me +enough food to last me until I got across to the other side. So I +rummaged out some more of the linen shirts that I had found--taking a +fresh one for my own wear to begin with--and set myself to my +sausage-making with the sleeves of them; packing each sleeve with +beans as tight as I could ram it, and working over each a netting of +light line that I finished off with loops at the ends. Ten of my big +sausages I made into a bundle to be carried on my shoulders like a +knapsack; and the rest I arranged to swing by their loops from a rope +collar about my neck, with another rope run through the lower loops to +be made fast about my waist and so hold them steady--and this +arrangement, as I found when I tried it, answered very well. And +finally, that I might carry my jewels the more securely, I cut off a +sleeve from the oil-skin jacket to serve for an outer casing for them, +and took along also some of the light line to net over the bundle and +make it solid and strong; in that way guarding against the chance of +their rubbing a hole in their linen covering--by which I might have +lost them all. + +I worked fast over my packing, and got it all finished and was ready +to start away by not a great while after sunrise; yet when the time +for my start came I hesitated a little, so darkly uncertain seemed the +issue of the adventure that I had in hand. Indeed, the whole of my +project was a wild one, such as no man not fairly driven into it +would have entertained at all. Its one certainty was that only by +excessive toil could I even hope to carry it through. All else was +doubtful: for I knew not how distant were the farther bounds of the +desolate dead region into which I was bent upon penetrating; nor had I +ground for believing--since I had food in plenty where I was--that I +would gain anything by traversing it; and back of all that was the +gloomy chance of some accident befalling me that would end in my dying +miserably by the way. While I was busily employed in making ready for +my march I had grown quite cheerful; but suddenly my little crop of +good spirits withered within me, and when at last I did go forward it +was with a very heavy heart. + + + + + +XXVIII + +HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + + +Could I have foreseen all that was ahead of me I doubt if I should +have had the courage to go on: choosing rather to stay there on the +barque until I had eaten what food I had by me, and then to die +slowly--and finding that way easier than the one I chose to follow, +with its many days of struggle and its many chill nights of sorrow and +I throughout the whole of it rubbing shoulders with despair. + +As I think of it now, that long, long march seems to me like a +horrible nightmare; and sometimes it comes back to me as a real +nightmare in my dreams. Again, always heavy laden, I am climbing and +scrambling and jumping, endlessly and hopelessly, among old rotten +hulks; each morning trying to comfort myself with the belief that by +night I may see some sign of ships less ancient, and so know that I am +winning my way a little toward where I would be; and each night +finding myself still surrounded by tall antique craft such as have not +for two centuries and more held the seas, with the feeling coming down +crushingly upon me that I have not advanced at all; and even then no +good rest for me--as I lie down wearily in some foul-smelling old +cabin, chill with heavy night-mist and with the reeking damp of oozy +rotten timbers, and perhaps find in it for my sleeping-mates little +heaps of fungus outgrowing from dead men's bones. And the mere dream +of all this so bitterly hurts me that I wonder how I ever came through +the reality of it alive. + +At the start, as I have said, I had calculated that the treasure-laden +galleon lay about in the centre of the wreck-pack, and therefore that +I would get across from her to the other side of the pack in about the +same time that I had taken to reach her in my first journey from the +barque; and on the basis of that assumption, when I was come to her +again, I shaped my course hopefully for the north. But my calculation, +though on its face a reasonable enough one, proved to be most woefully +wrong: and I have come to the conclusion, after a good deal of +thinking about it, that this was because the whole vast mass of +wreckage had a circular motion--the great current that created it +giving at the same time a swirl to it--which made the seemingly +straight line that I followed in reality a constantly extended curve. +But whatever the cause may have been, the fact remains that when by my +calculation I should have been on the outer edge of the wreck-pack I +still was wandering in its depths. In one way my march was easier the +longer that it lasted, my load growing a little lighter daily as my +store of food was transferred to my stomach from my back. At first +this steady decrease of my burden was a comfort to me; but after a +while--when more than half of it was gone, and I still seemed to be no +nearer to the end of my journey than when I left the galleon--I had a +very different feeling about it: for I realized that unless I came +speedily to ships whereon I would find food--of which there seemed +little probability, so ancient were the craft surrounding me--I either +must go back to the barque and wait on her until death came to me +slowly, or else die quickly where I was. And so I had for my +comforting the option of a tardy death or a speedy one--with the +certainty of the latter if I hesitated long in choosing between +the two. + +I suppose that the two great motive powers in the world are hope and +despair. It was hope that started me on that dismal march, but if +despair had not at last come in to help me I never should have got to +its end: for I took Death by both shoulders and looked straight into +the eyes of him when I decided, having by me only food for three days +longer--and at that but as little as would keep the life in me--to +give over all thought of returning to the barque and to make a dash +forward as fast as I could go. I had little enough to carry, but +that I might have still less I left my hatchet behind me--having, +indeed, no farther use for it since if my dash miscarried I was done +for and there was no use in marking a path over which I never could +return; and I was half-minded to leave my bag of jewels behind me too. +But in the end I decided to carry the jewels along with me--my fancy +being caught by the grim notion that if I did die miserably in that +vile solitude at least I would die one of the richest men in all the +world. As to my water-bottles, one of them I had thrown away when I +found that I could count on the morning showers certainly, and the +other had been broken in one of my many tumbles: yet without much +troubling me--as I found that I could manage fairly well, eating but +little, if I filled myself pretty full of water at the beginning of +each day. And so, with only the bag of food and the bag of jewels upon +my back, and with the compass on top of them, I was ready to press +onward to try conclusions with despair. + +The very hopelessness of my effort, and the fact that at last I was +dealing with what in one way was a certainty--for I knew that if my +plan miscarried I had only a very little while longer to live--gave me +a sort of stolid recklessness which amazingly helped me: stimulating +me to taking risks in climbing which before I should have shrunk +from, and so getting me on faster; and at the same time dulling my +mind to the dreads besetting it and my body to its ceaseless pains +begot of weariness and thirst and scanty food. So little, indeed, did +I care what became of me that even when by the middle of my second +day's march I saw no change in my surroundings I did not mind it much: +but, to be sure, at the outset of this last stage of my journey I had +thrown hope overboard, and a man once become desperate can feel no +farther ills. + +But what does surprise me--as I think of it now, though it did not in +any way touch me then--was the slowness with which, when there was +reason for it, my dead hope got alive again: as it did, and for cause, +at the end of that same second day--for by the evening I came out, +with a sharp suddenness, from among the strange old craft which for so +long on every side had beset me and found myself among ships which by +comparison with the others--though they too, in all conscience, were +old enough--seemed to be quite of a modern build. What is likely, I +think--and this would help to account for my long wanderings over +those ancient rotten hulks--is that some stormy commotion of the whole +mass of wreckage, such as had thrust the barque whereon I had found +food deep into the thick of it, had squeezed a part of the centre of +the pack outward; in that way making a sort of promontory--along +which by mere bad mischance I had been journeying--among the wrecks of +a later time. But this notion did not then occur to me; nor did I, as +I have said, at first feel any very thrilling hope coming back to me +when I found myself among modern ships again--so worn had my long +tussle with difficulties left my body and so sodden was my mind. + +At first I had just a dull feeling of satisfaction that I had got once +more--after my many nights passed on hulks soaked with wet to +rottenness--on good honest dry planks: where I could sleep with no +deadly chill striking into me, and where in my restless wakings I +should not see the pale gleam of death-fires, and where foul stenches +would not half stifle me the whole night long. And it was not until I +had eaten my scant supper, and because of the comfort that even that +little food gave me felt more disposed to cheerfulness, that in a weak +faint-hearted way I began to hope again that perhaps the run of luck +against me had come to an end. + +In truth, though, there was not much to be hopeful about. For my +supper I had eaten the half of what food was left me, and it was so +little that I still had a mighty hungry feeling in my belly after it +was down. For my breakfast I should eat what was left; and after that, +unless I found fresh supplies quickly, I was in a fair way to lie down +beside my bag of jewels and die of starvation--like the veriest +beggar that ever was. But I did hope a little all the same; and when I +went on again the next morning, though my last scrap of food was +eaten, my spirits kept up pretty well--for I was sure from the look of +the wrecks which I traversed that the dead ancient centre of my +continent at last was behind me, and that its living outer fringe +could not be very far away. + +All that day I pressed forward steadily, helped by my little +flickering flame of hope--which burned low because sanguine +expectation does not consort well with an empty stomach, yet which +kept alive because the wreck-pack had more and more of a modern look +about it as I went on. But the faintness that I felt coming over me as +the day waned gave me warning that the rope by which I held my life +was a short one; and as the sun dropped down into the mist--at once +thinning it, so that I could see farther, and giving it a ruddy tone +which sent red streams of brightness gleaming over the tangle of +wreckage far down into the west--I felt that the rope must come to an +end altogether, and that I must stop still and let death overtake me, +by the sunset of one day more. + +And then it was, just as the sun was sinking, that I saw clearly--far +away to the westward--the funnel of a steamer standing out black and +sharp against the blood-red ball that in another minute went down +into the sea. And with that glimpse--which made me sure that I was +close to the edge of the wreck-pack, and so close to food again--a +strong warm rush of hope swept through me that outcast finally my +despair. + + + + + +XXIX + +I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + + +That I should get to the steamer that night I knew was clean +impossible, for she lay a long way off from me, and that I had seen +her funnel at all was due to the mere happy accident of its standing +for that single minute directly between me and the setting sun. I did +hope, though, that by pressing hard toward her I might fetch aboard of +some vessel not long wrecked on which I would find eatable food; yet +in this I was disappointed, the shadows coming down on me so fast that +I was forced in a little while to pull up short--stopping while still +a little daylight remained so that I might stow myself the more +comfortably for the night. + +As to looking for provender on the little old ship that I settled to +camp on, I knew that it was useless. From her build I fixed her as +belonging to the beginning of the present century, and from her depth +in the wreck-pack she probably had met her death-storm not less than +threescore years before; and so what provisions she had carried long +since had wasted away. Yet there was a chance that I might find some +spirits aboard of her--which would be a poor substitute for food, but +better than nothing--and I hurried to have a look in her cabin before +darkness settled down. + +The cabin hatch was closed, and as it was both locked and swelled with +moisture I could not budge it; but two or three kicks sent the doors +beneath the hatch flying and so opened an entrance for me--that I was +slow to make use of because of a heavy musty stench which poured out +from that shut up place and made me turn a little sick, as I got my +first strong whiff of it. Indeed, I was so faint and so hungry that I +was in no condition to stand up against that curiously vile smell. To +lessen it, by getting a current of air into the cabin, I smashed in +the little skylight--over which some ropes were stretched and still +held the remnant of a tarpaulin, that must have been set in place +while the storm was blowing which sent the ship to her account; and +this so far improved matters that presently I was able to go down the +companion-way, though the stench still was horridly strong. + +At the bottom of the stair, the light being faint, I tripped over +something; and looking down saw bones lying there with a sort of +fungus partly covering them, and to the skull there still clung a mat +of woolly hair plaited here and there into little braids: by which, +and by the size of the bones, it seemed that a negro woman must have +been left fastened into the cabin to die there after the crew had +been washed overboard or had taken to the boats. But even then the +business in which the ship had been engaged did not occur to me; and +after hesitating for a moment I went on into the cabin, and looked +about me as well as I could in the twilight for the case of bottles +that I hoped to find. + +The case was there, as I was pretty certain that it would be, such +provision rarely being absent from old-time vessels, but all the +bottles had been taken from it except an empty one--which looked as +though the cabin had been opened at the last moment to fetch out +supplies for the boats, and then deliberately locked fast again with +the poor woman inside: an act so barbarous that it did not seem +possible unless a crew of out and out devils had been in charge of the +ancient craft. However, the matter which just then most concerned me +was the liquor that I was in search of, that I might a little stay my +stomach with it against the hunger that was tormenting me; and so I +ransacked the lockers that ran across the stern of the ship and across +a part of the bulkhead forward, in the faint hope that I might come +upon another supply--but my search was a vain one, two of the lockers +having only some mouldy clothing in them, and all the rest being +filled with arms. The stock of muskets and pistols and cutlasses was +so large, so far beyond any honest traders needs, that I could not at +all account for it: until the thought occurred to me that the vessel +I had come aboard of had been a pirate--and that notion seemed to fit +in pretty well with her crew having gone off and left the poor woman +locked up in the cabin to starve. However, as I found out a little +later, while my guess was a close one it still was wrong. + +The four bunks, two on each side, were not enclosed, and the only door +opening from the cabin was in the bulkhead forward--and worth trying +because it might lead to a store-room, I thought. It was a very +stout-looking door, and across it, resting in strong iron catches, +were two heavy wooden bars. These puzzled me a good deal, there being +no sense in barring the outside of a store-room door in that fashion, +since the door did not seem to be locked and anybody could lift the +bars away. However, I got them out of their sockets without much +difficulty; and after a good deal of tugging at a ring made fast in it +I got the door open too--and instantly I was thrust back from the +opening by an outpouring of the same vile heavy musty stench that had +come up from the cabin when I staved in the hatch, only this was still +ranker and more vile. And I found that the door did not lead into a +little store-room, as I had fancied, but right through from the cabin +to the ship's main-deck--that stretched away forward in a gloomy +tunnel, as black as a cellar on a rainy night, into which I could +see only for four or five yards. Indeed, but for the way that the ship +chanced to be lying--with her stern toward the west, so that a good +deal of light came in through the broken skylight from the ruddy +sunset--I could not have seen into it at all. + +But I saw far enough, and more than far enough--and the sight that I +looked on sent all over me a creeping chill. Wherever the light went, +skeletons were lying--with a fungus growth on the bones that gave a +horrid effect of scraps of flesh still clinging to them, and the +loose-lying skulls (of which a couple were close by the doorway) were +covered still with a matting of woolly hair. And I could tell from the +tangle that the skeletons were in--though also lying in some sort of +orderly rows, because of the chains which held them fast--that the +poor wretches to whom they had belonged had writhed and struggled over +each other in their agony: and I could fancy what a hell that black +place must have been while death was doing his work among them, they +all squirming together like worms in a pot; and it seemed to me that I +could hear their yells and howls--at first loud and terrible, and then +growing fainter and fainter until they came to be but low groans of +misery that at last ended softly in dying sighs. + +The horror of it all came home to me so sharply, after I had stood +there at the doorway for a moment or two held fast by a sort of +ghastly fascination, that I gave a yell myself as keen and as loud as +any which the poor blacks had uttered; and with that I turned about +and dashed up the companionway to the deck as hard as I could go. Nor +could I bear to abide on the slave-ship, nor even near her, for the +night. Very little light was left to me, but I made the most of it and +went scrambling from hulk to hulk until I had put a good distance +behind me--so that I not only could not see her but could not tell +certainly, having twisted and turned a dozen times in my scurrying +flight, in which direction she lay. And being thus rid of her, I +fairly dropped--so weak and so wearied was I--on the deck of the +vessel that I had come to, and lay there for a while resting, with my +breath coming and going in panting sobs. + +What sort of a craft I had fetched aboard of I did not dare to try to +find out. Going any farther then was impossible, the twilight having +slipped away almost into darkness, and whatever she might be I had to +make the best of her for the night. And so I settled myself into a +corner well up in her bows--that I might be as far away as possible +from any grisly things that might be hid in her cabin--and did my best +to go to sleep. But it was a long while, utterly weary though I was, +before sleep would come to me. My stomach, being pretty well +reconciled by that time to emptiness, did not bother me much; but my +frightened rush away from that sickening charnel-house had left me +greatly tormented by thirst, and my mind was so fevered by the horror +of what I had seen that for a long while I could not stop making +pictures to myself of the black wretches, chained and imprisoned, +writhing under the torture of starvation and at last dying desperate +in the dark. And when sleep did come to me I still had the same +loathsome horrors with me in my dreams. + + + + + +XXX + +I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + + +The morning shower that waked me gave me the water that I so longed +for; but it only a little refreshed me, because my chief need was +food. Being past the first sharp pangs of hunger, I was in no great +bodily pain; but a heavy languor was upon me that dulled me in both +flesh and spirit and disposed me to give up struggling for a while, +that I might enjoy what seemed to me just then to be the supreme +delight of sitting still. Yet I had sense enough to know that if I +surrendered to this feeling it would be the end of me; and after a +little I found energy enough to throw it off. + +I was helped thus to rouse myself by finding, as I looked around me +with dull eyes, that the hulk I had come aboard of in such a hurry in +the twilight certainly had not been wrecked for any great length of +time. She was a good-sized schooner, quite modern in her build; and, +although she had weathered everywhere to a pale gray, her timbers were +not rotten and what was left of her cordage still was fairly sound: +all of which, as I took it in slowly, gave me hope of finding aboard +of her some sort of eatable food. + +But while this hope was slow to shape itself in my heavy mind, I was +quick enough to act upon it when once it had taken form. With a +briskness that quite astonished me I got on my feet and walked aft to +the cabin--the cabin pantry being the most likely place in which to +look for food put up in tins; and I was farther encouraged by finding +the hatch open and the cabin itself fresh-smelling and clean. And, to +my joy, the food that I hoped to find in the pantry really was there; +and such a plenty of it that I could not have eaten it in a +whole year. + +I had the good sense to go slowly--and that was not easy, for at sight +of something that would satisfy it my hunger all of a sudden woke up +ragingly; but I knew that I stood a good chance of killing myself +after my long fast unless I held my appetite well in hand, and so I +began with a tin of peaches--opening it with a knife that I found +there--and it seemed to me that those peaches were the most delicious +thing that I had tasted since I was born. After they were down I went +on deck again--to be out of reach of temptation--and staid there +resolutely for an hour; getting at this time, and also keeping myself +a little quiet, by counting six thousand slowly--and it did seem to me +as though I never should get to the end! Then I had another of those +delicious tins; and after a trying half hour of waiting I had a third; +and then--being no longer ravenous, and no longer having the feeling +of infinite emptiness--I laid down on the deck just outside the cabin +scuttle and slept like a tree in winter until well along in the +afternoon. + +I woke as hungry as a hound, but with a comfortable and natural sort +of hunger that I set myself to satisfying with good strong food: +eating a tin of meat with a lively relish and without any following +stomach-ache, and drinking the juice of a tin of peaches after +it--there being no water fit to drink on board. My meal began to set +me on my feet again; but I still felt so tired and so shaky that I +decided to stay where I was until the next morning--having at last a +comforting sense of security that took away my desire to hurry and +made me wholly easy in my mind. And this feeling got stronger as the +sun fell away westward and made a crimson bank of mist along the +horizon, against which I saw the funnels of more than a dozen +steamers--and so knew that the coast of my continent surely was close +by. What I would do when I got to the steamers was a matter that I did +not bother about. For the moment I was satisfied with the certainty +that I would find aboard of them food in plenty and a comfortable +place to sleep in, and that was enough. And so I did not make any +plans, or even think much; but just ate as much supper as I could +stow away in my carcase, and then settled myself in the schooner's +cabin for the night. + +In the morning I was so well rested, and felt so fresh again, that I +was eager to get on; and I was so light-hearted that I fell to singing +as I pushed forward briskly, being full of hope once more and of airy +fancies that I had only to reach the edge of the wreck-pack in order +to hit upon some easy way of getting off from it out over the open +sea. A little thinking would have shown me, of course, that my fancies +had nothing to rest on, and that coming once more to the coast of my +continent was only to be where I was when my long journey through that +death-stricken mass of rottenness began; but the reaction of my +spirits was natural enough after the gloom that for so long had held +them, and so was the castle-building that I took to as I went onward +as to what I would do with my great treasure when at last I had it +safe out in the living world. + +Although I did not doubt that food of some sort was to be found on +board of all the vessels which I should cross that day, I guarded +against losing time in looking for it by carrying along with me a +couple of tins of meat--slung on my shoulders in a wrapping of +canvas--and on one of these, about noon-time, I made a good meal. When +I had finished it I was sorry enough that I had not brought a tin of +peaches too, for the meat was pretty well salted and made me as +thirsty as a fish very soon after I got it down. + +But my thirst was not severe enough to trouble me greatly; and, +indeed, I partly forgot it in my steadily growing excitement as I +pressed forward and more and more distinctly saw the funnels of a +whole fleet of steamers looming up through the golden mist ahead of me +like chimneys in a sun-shot London fog. And so the afternoon went by, +and my crooked rough path slipped away behind me so rapidly that by a +good hour before sunset I was near enough to the steamers to see not +only their funnels but their hulls. + +The look of one of them, and she was one of the nearest, was so +familiar as I began to make her out clearly that I was sure that I had +got back again to the _Hurst Castle_; for she was just about the size +of the _Hurst Castle_, and was lying with her bow down in the water +and her stern high in the air--and the delight of this discovery threw +me into such a ferment that I quite forgot how tired I was and fairly +ran across the last half dozen vessels that I had to traverse before I +came under her tall side. However, when I got close to her I saw that +she was not the _Hurst Castle_ after all, but only another unlucky +vessel that had broken her nose in collision and so had filled forward +and gone sagging down by the bows. + +As it happened, the wreck from which I had to board her was a little +water-logged brig, close under her quarter, so low-lying that the +tilted-up stern of the steamer fairly towered above the brig like a +three-story house; and at first it seemed to me that I was about as +likely to climb up a house-front as I was to climb up that high smooth +wall of iron. But a part of the brig's foremast still was standing, +and from it a yard jutted out to within jumping distance of the +steamer's rail; and while that was not a way that I fancied--nor a way +that ever I should have dared to take, I suppose, had there been any +choice in the matter--up it I had to go. Hot as I was though with +eagerness, I was a badly scared man as I slowly got to my feet and +steadied myself for a moment on the end of the yard and then jumped +for it; and a very thankful man, an instant later, when I struck the +steamer's rail and fell floundering inboard on her deck--though I +bruised myself in my fall pretty badly, and got an unexpected crack on +the back of my head as my bag of jewels flew up and hit me with +a bang. + +However, no real harm was done; and I was so keen to look about me +that in a moment I was on my legs again and went forward, limping a +little, that I might get up on the bridge: for my strongest +desire--stronger even than my longing to go in search, of the water +that I did not doubt I would find in the steamer's tanks--was to gaze +out over the open ocean, across which I had to go in some way if ever +again I was to be free. + +The sun was close down on the horizon, a red ball of fire glowing +through the mist, and in the mist above and over the surface of the +sea below a red light shone. But as I stood on the bridge looking at +this strange splendor all my hope died away slowly within me and a +chill settled upon my heart. As far as ever I could see the water was +covered thickly with tangled and matted weed, broken only here and +there by hummocks of wreckage and by a few hulks drifting in slowly to +take their places in the ranks of the dead. The almost imperceptible +progress of these hulks showed how dense was the mass through which +they were drifting; and showed, too, how utterly impossible it would +be for me to force my way in a boat driven by oars or sails to the +clear water lying far, far off. Even a steamer scarcely could have +pushed through that tangle; and could not have gone twice her own +length without hopelessly fouling her screw. And it seemed to me that +I might better have died on one of the old rotten hulks among which I +had been for so long a time wandering--where hope was not, and where I +was well in the mood for dying--rather than thus to have got clear of +them, and have hope come back to me, only to bring up short against +the wall of my sea-prison and so find myself held fast there for all +the remainder of my days. And I was the more savagely bitter because I +had no right whatever to be disappointed. What I saw was not new to +me, and I had known what I was coming to--though I had kept down my +thoughts about it--all along. + + + + + +XXXI + +HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + + +The steamer that I had come aboard of proved to be French; and that +she had not long been abandoned I knew by finding an abundance of ice +in her cold-room and a great deal of fresh meat there too. Had she +been manned by a stiff-necked crew she would not have been abandoned +at all. She had been in collision, and her bow-compartment was full of +water; but the water had not got aft of her foremast, and except that +she was down by the head a little she was not much the worse for her +bang. That her captain had tried to carry on after the accident was +shown by the sail that had been set in place very snugly over her +smashed bows; and I greatly wondered why he had given up the fight, +until I found--getting a look at her stern from one of the wrecks +lying near her--that her screw was gone. This second accident +evidently had been too much for her people and they had taken to the +boats and left her. But I think that an English or an American crew +would have stood by her, and would have succeeded in getting her +towed into port--or even would have brought her in under her own +sails. She was called the _Ville de Saint Remy_, and was a fine boat +of about five thousand tons. + +All that I had hoped to find aboard of her in the way of comforts and +luxuries was there, and more too. Indeed, if a good bed, and the best +of food, and excellent wines and tobacco, had been all that I wanted I +very well might have settled myself on the _Ville de Saint Remy_ for +the balance of my days. But I almost resented the luck which had +brought me all these things--for which I had been longing so keenly +but a few hours before--because I did not find with them what I +desired still more earnestly: the means that would enable me to get +away seaward and leave them all behind. What such means would be, it +is only fair to add, I could not imagine; at least, I could not +imagine anything at all reasonable--for the only thing I could think +of that would carry me out across that weed-covered ocean to open +water was a balloon. + +And so, although I fed daintily and drank of the best, and had good +tobacco to cheer me after my meals, my first day aboard the _Ville de +Saint Remy_ was as sad a one as any that I had passed since I had come +into my sea-prison; for while the daylight lasted, and I wandered +about her decks looking always at the barrier of weed which held me +there, I had clearly before me the impossibility of ever getting +away. Only when darkness came, hiding my prison walls from me, did I +become a little more cheerful--as the very human disposition to make +light of difficulties when they no longer are visible began to assert +itself in my mind. + +Down in the comfortable cabin, well lighted and airy, I had a capital +dinner--and a bottle of sound Bordeaux with it that no doubt added a +good deal to my sanguine cheerfulness; and to end with I made myself +some delicious coffee--over a spirit-lamp that I found in the +pantry--and had with it a glass of Benedictine and a very choice +cigar. And all of these luxurious refreshments of the flesh--which set +me to smiling a little as I thought of the contrast that they made to +my surroundings--so comforted my spirit that my gloomy thoughts left +me, and I began to plan airily how I would start off in a boat well +loaded with provisions and somehow or another push my way through the +weed. I even got along to details: deciding that it would be quite an +easy matter to open a way through the tangle over the bows of my boat +with an oar--or with an axe, if need be--and then press forward by +poling against the weed on each side; which seemed so feasible a +method that I concluded I could accomplish readily at least a mile a +day. And so, with these fine fancies dancing in my brain, I settled +myself into a delightful bed; and as I drowsed off deliciously I had +the comforting conviction that in a little while longer all my +difficulties would be conquered and all my troubles at an end. + +With the return of daylight, giving me an outlook over the +weed-covered water again, most of my hopefulness left me along with +most of my faith in my airily-made plan; but even in this colder mood +it did seem to me that there was at least a chance of my pulling +through--and my slim courage was strengthened by the feeling within me +that unless I threw myself with all my energy into work of some sort I +presently would find myself going melancholy mad. And so, but only +half-heartedly, I mustered up resolution to make a trial of my poor +project for getting away. + +On board the _Ville de Saint Remy_ there was nothing to be done. The +corner-stone of my undertaking was finding a boat and launching it, +and the Frenchmen--in their panic-stricken scamper from a danger that +was mainly in their own lively imaginations--had carried all their +boats away. It was necessary, therefore, that I should go on a cruise +among the other wrecks lying around me in search of a boat still in a +condition to swim; but I was very careful this time--profiting by my +rough experience--to make sure before I started of my safe return. +Fortunately the stern of the steamer was so high out of the water +that it rose conspicuously above the wrecks lying thereabouts; but to +make her still more conspicuous I roused out a couple of French flags +and an American flag from her signal-chest and set them at her three +mastheads--giving to our own colors the place of honor on the +mainmast--and so made her quite unmistakable from as far off as I +could see her through the haze. And as a still farther precaution +against losing myself I hunted up a hatchet to take along with me to +blaze my way. All of which matters being attended to, I made a rope +fast to the rail--knotting it at intervals, so that I could climb it +again easily--and so slipped down the steamer's side. + +My business was only with the wrecks lying along the extreme outer +edge of the pack--from which alone it would be possible for me to +launch a boat in the event of my finding one--but in order to get from +one to the other of them I had to make so many long detours that my +progress was very slow. Indeed, by the time that noon came, and I +stopped to eat my dinner--which I had brought along with me, that I +need not have to hunt for it--I had made less than half a mile in a +straight line. And in none of the vessels that I had crossed--except +on one lying so far in the pack as to be of no use to me--had I found +a single boat that would swim. Nor had I any better luck when I went +on with my search again in the afternoon. As it had been in the case +of the _Hurst Castle_ so it had been, I suppose, in the case of all +the wrecks which I examined that day: either their boats had been +staved-in or washed overboard by tempest, or else had served to carry +away their crews. But what had become of them, so far as I was +concerned, made no difference--the essential matter was that they were +gone. And so, toward evening, I turned backward from my fruitless +journey and headed for the _Ville de Saint Remy_ again--for I had +found no other ship so comfortable in the course of my explorations--and +got safe aboard of her just as the sun was going down. + +That night I had not much comfort in the good dinner that I set out +for myself--though I was glad enough to get it, being both hungry and +tired--and I only half plucked up my spirits over my coffee and cigar. +But still, as the needs of my body were gratified, my mind got so far +soothed and refreshed that I held to my purpose--which had been pretty +much given over when I came back tired and hungry after my vain +search--and I went to bed resolute to begin again my explorations on +the following day. + +But when the morning came and I set off--though I had a good breakfast +inside of me, and such a store of food by me as fairly would have set +me dancing with delight only a week before--I was in low spirits and +went at my work rather because I was resolved to push through with it +than because I had any strong hope that it would give me what +I desired. + +This time--having already examined the wrecks for near a mile +northward along the edge of the pack--I set my course for the south; +and again, until late in the afternoon, I worked my way from ship to +ship--with long detours inland from time to time in order to get +around some break in the coast-line--and on all of them the result was +the same: not a boat did I find anywhere that was not so riven and +shattered as to be beyond all hope of repair. And at nightfall I came +back once more to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ wearied out in body and +utterly dispirited in mind. + +Even after I had eaten my dinner and was smoking at my ease in the +cheerfully lighted cabin, sitting restfully in a big arm-chair and +with every sort of material comfort at hand, I could not whip myself +up to hoping again. It was true that I had not exhausted the +possibilities of finding the boat that I desired so eagerly, for my +search along the coast-line had extended for only about a mile each +way; but in my down-hearted state it seemed to me that my search had +gone far enough to settle definitely that what I wanted was not to be +found. And this brought down on me heavily the conviction that my +prison--though it was the biggest, I suppose, that ever a man was shut +up in--must hold me fast always: and with that feeling in it there no +longer was room for hope also in my heart. + + + + + +XXXII + +I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + + +When I had finished my breakfast the next morning I faced the worst +thing which I had been forced to face since I had been cast prisoner +into the Sargasso Sea: a whole day of idleness without hope. Until +then there had not been an hour--save when I was asleep--that I had +not been doing something which in some way I had hoped would better my +condition temporarily, or would tend toward my deliverance. But that +morning I was without such spurs to effort and there was absolutely +nothing for me to do. My condition could not be improved by making my +home on another vessel; it was doubtful, indeed, if in all the +wreck-pack I could find a home so comfortable and so abundantly +stocked with the best provisions as I had found aboard of the _Ville +de Saint Remy_. As for working farther for my deliverance, I had set +that behind me after my experience during the two preceding days. And +so I brought a steamer-chair out on the deck and sat in it smoking, +idle and hopeless, gazing straight out before me with a dull +steadfastness over the very gently undulating surface of the +weed-covered sea. + +After a while, tiring of sitting still, I began to pace the deck +slowly; and I was so heavy with my sorrow that I could not think +clearly, but had only in my mind a confused feeling that I was taking +the first of a series of walks such as wild animals imprisoned take +endlessly back and forth behind the bars that shut them in. And from +this I went on to thinking, still in the same confused way, that the +wild animals at least were not outcast in their captivity--having +living people and living beasts around them, and the pleasure of +hearing living sounds--while one of the worst things about my prison +was the absolute dead silence that hung over it like a dismal cloud. +And perhaps it was because my thoughts happened at that moment to be +set to take notice of such matters that I fancied I heard a very faint +sound of scratching and an instant later a still fainter little cry. + +I was standing just then close to the water-line on the deck forward, +beside a covered hatch that seemed to lead to what had been the +quarters of the crew; and it was from beneath this hatch, I was +certain, that the sounds came. Slight though the noise was, it greatly +startled me; and at the same time it aroused in me the +strangely-thrilling hope that there possibly might be a living man +still aboard of the steamer and that I would be no longer horribly +alone. Yet I would not suffer myself too much to give room to this +happy hope, for the little faint scratching--which I heard again +presently--was not the sort of noise that a man shut in would be +likely to make; nor did the little plaintive sound seem like a human +cry. But the matter was one to be investigated in a hurry, and with an +energy quite astonishing, in comparison with my lassitude of a moment +before, I got the hatch open and leaned down it, listening; and then I +heard the scratching so plainly that I hurried down the stair. + +The between-decks was well enough lighted by a good-sized skylight, +and the place that I had got into had fixed tables set in it and +seemed to be the mess-room of the crew. Doors opened out from it both +fore and aft; and from behind the after door--so plainly that I had no +difficulty in placing it--came the scratching sound that I was +pursuing: and with it came the cries again, and this time so +distinctly as to shatter my hope of finding a human being there, but +at the same time to make me, for all my sorrow, almost smile. For the +cry was a very long and plaintive m-i-i-a-a-u! And the next moment, +when I had the door open, a great black cat came out upon me--so +overcome with delight at meeting a human being again that he was +almost choking with his gurgling purr. Indeed the extravagant joy of +the poor lonely creature was as great as mine would have been had I +found a man there--and he manifested it by lunging sidewise against my +legs, and by standing up on his hind paws and reaching his fore paws +up to my knees and clutching them, and then with a spring he climbed +right up me--all the while choking with his great gurgling +purring--and was not satisfied until he found himself bundled close +against my breast as I held him tight in my arms. And on my +side--after I had gulped down my first disappointment because it was +only a cat who was my fellow-prisoner--I was as glad to meet him as he +was to meet me; and I am not ashamed to say that I fairly cried over +him--as a warm rush of joy went over me at finding myself at last, +after being for so long a time surrounded only by the dead, in the +company of a living creature; and a creature which showed toward me by +every means that a brute beast could compass its gratitude and +its love. + +And I must add without delay that my cat's affection for me was wholly +disinterested; at least, I am sure that he loved me--from the first +moment of our encounter--not because he wanted me to do something for +him, but because he longed, as I did, for human companionship and was +filled up with happiness because he had found again a human friend. As +I discovered upon investigation, his prison had been the galley in +which food for the crew had been cooked; and upon the odds and ends +left there he had fared very well indeed--not overeating himself by +gobbling down all his food in a hurry, and then dying of starvation, +as a dog would have done, but temperately eating for his daily rations +only what his sustenance required; and for drink he had had a pot +partly full of what had been hot water that stood upon the galley +stove. But I also must add that this coarse fare was not at all to his +liking; and that thereafter he ordered me around pretty sharply, in +his own way, and insisted always upon my providing him with +dainty food. + +It was a good thing for the cat, certainly, that I had found him; for +his stock of provisions was pretty nearly exhausted, and in a little +while longer he would have come to a dismal end. But my finding him +was a still better thing for me. When I first heard his faint little +scratching, and his still fainter plaintive little call for help, I +was so deep in my despairing melancholy that my reason was in a fair +way to go, and with it all farther effort on my part to set myself +free. From that desperate state my small adventure with him roused me, +which was a good deal to thank him for; but I had more to thank him +for still. + +In the little time that I had been aboard of the _Ville de Saint +Remy_--my days having been passed away from her--I had made no +exploration of her interior beyond her cabin and the region in which +were carried her cabin stores; which latter were so abundant as to set +me at my ease for an indefinite period in regard to food. But this +meeting with my fellow-prisoner so stirred me up, and put such fresh +spirit into me, that I began to think of having a general look all +over her: that I might in a way take stock of my belongings and at the +same time have something to occupy my mind--for I knew that to sit +down idly again would be only again to fall back into despair. And so, +my cat going with me--and, indeed, making a good deal of a convenience +of me, for he by no means would walk on his own legs but insisted upon +jumping up on my shoulder and going that way as a passenger--I set off +on my round. + +As well as I could make out from what I found on board of her--for her +papers either had been carried away or were stowed in some place which +I did not discover--the _Ville de Saint Remy_ had been bound outward +to some colonial port and carried a cargo of general stores. When I +got her hatches off--though that came later--I saw in one place a lot +of wheelbarrows, and some heavy wagons stowed with their wheels inside +of them, and some machinery for threshing along with a portable +steam-engine; and in another place were boxes which seemed to have +dry-goods in them, and a great many cases of wines, and some very big +cases that evidently contained pianos--and so on with a great lot of +stuff such as the people of a flourishing colony would be likely +to need. + +But in my round that morning with the cat on my shoulders--for he was +not content to remain perched on one of them quietly, but kept passing +from one to the other with affectionate rubs against the back of my +head, and all the while purring as hard as he could purr--I did not +get below the main-deck except into the engine-room, my attention +being given to finding out fully what the steamer had on board of her +in the way of work-shops and tools: for already, with my renewed +cheerfulness, the notion was beginning to take hold of me that I might +set to work and build a boat for myself--and so make what I could not +find. And, indeed, I don't doubt that I should have set myself to this +big undertaking--for the appointments of the vessel were admirably +complete and everything that I wanted for my work was there--had not a +bigger, but a more promising, undertaking presented itself to me and +so turned my efforts into another way. + + + + + +XXXIII + +I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + + +It was directly to my cat that I owed the great piece of good fortune +that then came to me: but I must confess that he was an unwilling +agent in the matter, and probably wished himself well out of it, the +immediate result in his case being rather a bad squeeze to one of his +fore paws. + +We had been examining the machine-shop, the cat and I, and whatever +his views about it may have been mine were of great satisfaction; for +when I had got the dead-lights unscrewed so that I could see well +about me I had been delighted by finding there everything that my +boat-building project required. Indeed, I almost fancied myself back +again in one of the work-shops of the Stevens Institute, so well was +the place fitted and supplied--a completeness probably due to the fact +that the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was intended for long voyages to +out-of-the-way ports, and very well might have to depend upon her own +resources for important repairs. + +It was as we were leaving the machine-shop to continue our round of +investigations that my cat suddenly took it into his head to jump down +from my shoulders and stretch his own legs a little; and away he +scampered--being much given to such frisking dashes, as I later +discovered, though for the next week or so after that one he went +limping on three legs mighty soberly--first down the deck aft, and +then past me and up a dark passage leading toward the bows; and I, +being pretty well accustomed to cat habits, stood waiting until he +should have his fun out and so come back again with a miau by way of +"if you please" to be taken up into my arms. But he did not come back +in any great hurry, and off in the darkness I could hear his paws +padding about briskly; and then there was silence for a moment; and +then he broke out into a loud miauling which showed that he was in +trouble of some sort and also in pain. + +As there was no helping him until I could see what was the matter with +him, I hurried first into the machine-shop for a wrench, and then went +forward into that dark place cautiously--until by a glint of light on +the ship's side I made out where a port was, and so got loose the +deadlight and could look around. What I saw was my poor cat in such a +pickle that I did not in the least blame him for crying out about it; +he having, as it seemed, made an unlucky jump upon some small bars of +iron which were lying loose and disorderly, with the one on which he +landed balanced so nicely that it had turned suddenly and jammed fast +his paw. And so he was anchored there very painfully, and was telling +what he thought about it in the most piercing yowls. + +Fortunately it was an easy matter to let him loose from the trap that +he had got into; but even while I was doing it--and before I picked +him up to look at his hurt and to comfort him--I gave a shout of +delight on my own account that was a good deal louder than any of my +poor cat's yells of pain. For there before me was a very stout-looking +and large steam-launch--thirty-two feet over all, as I found when I +came to measure her--stowed snugly in a cradle set athwart-ship and +looking all ready to be put overboard into the sea. And at finding in +this unexpected fashion what I had been so long looking for, and had +quite done with hoping for, it is no wonder that I shouted with joy. + +My cat coming limping to me to be pitied and cared for, holding up his +pinched paw and with little miaus asking for my sympathy quite like a +Christian, I had first of all to give him my attention. But his hurt +was not a very serious one--the flesh not being cut, and no bones +broken--and when I had comforted him as well as I could, until I got +him soothed a little, I put him down out of my arms that I might +examine carefully my great prize; but first of all opening all the +ports so that I might have plenty of light for what I wanted to do. + +Coming to this deliberate survey, I found that the launch truly enough +was complete, but that she was very far from being ready to take the +water; for while all her parts were there--and even duplicates of her +more important pieces, in readiness against a break-down--most of her +fittings and all of her machinery was lying inside of her boxed for +transportation; being arranged that way, I suppose, because she would +have been far too heavy to swing into the snug place where I found her +and out again with everything bolted fast. She was a very beautiful +little boat, evidently intended for a pleasure craft--but very strong +and seaworthy, too; and it no doubt was to keep her in good order for +delivery that she had been stowed between-decks for the long voyage. +Indeed, only with a steam-winch and a good many men to handle her, +could she have been got down there; and the first of my uncomfortable +thoughts about her, of the many that I had first and last, came while +I was taking stock of her equipment--as I fell to wondering how in the +world I should manage, with only a cat to help me, ever to get her +overboard into the sea. + +As to assembling her parts, and so making her ready for cruising, I +had no doubts whatever. That piece of work was directly in the line +of my training and I felt entirely secure about it; but even on that +score I quaked a good deal at the size of the contract to be taken by +a single pair of hands, and at thought of the long, long while that +would be required to carry it through. Yet the hope that came with +finding this boat put such heart into me that my spirits did not go +down far. Working on her--aside from the pleasure that any man with a +natural love for mechanics finds in serious and difficult labor with +his hands--would be a constant delight to me because of what it would +be leading to; and in every moment of my work I would have to sustain +me the thought that each rivet set in place and each bolt fastened +brought me appreciably nearer to being set free. + +Having cursorily finished with the boat, I continued my survey to her +surroundings; that I might plan roughly my scheme of work upon her, +and that I might plan also for getting her launched when my work upon +her should be done. She was stowed on the main-deck--in a place that +probably was intended for the use of third-class passengers, when such +were carried--and the machine-shop was so close to her that in the +matter of fetching tools and so on my steps would be well saved. +Directly over her was the forward hatch; through which she had been +lowered and set in place in the cradle previously made ready for her, +and there fixed firm and fast. For a moment I had the fancy that I +might get up steam to work the donkey-engine and so hoist her out +again by that same way, and overboard too. But a very little +reflection showed me that this airily formed plan must be abandoned, +as all my work on her then would have to be done far away from the +machine-shop and with the additional disadvantage that through the +long time that certainly must pass before I could get her finished she +would lie open to the daily heavy rains. And then I had the much more +reasonable notion--though the amount of extra labor that it involved +was not encouraging to contemplate--that I would do my work on her +where she lay; and when I had finished her that I would cut loose a +sufficient number of plates from the side of the steamer to make a +hole big enough to get her overboard that way. + +But having the hatch directly over where she was lying, though I could +not get her up through it, made my undertaking a good deal easier and +more comfortable for me. Even with all the ports open I would have had +but little light to work by; and, what was of even more importance in +that hot misty region, I would have had little fresh air--and still +less when I had set a-going my forge. But with the hatch off I could +have all the light that I needed and as much fresh air as was to be +had--with the advantage that the hatch could be set in place every +night when I went off duty and not opened again in the morning until +the rain was at an end: so preserving my machinery against the rust +that pretty much would have ruined it--for all that it was well +tallowed--had my slow building gone on in the open air. + +My preliminary investigations being thus well ended, and the morning +ended too, I piped all hands to dinner; that is to say, I whistled to +my cat--who had been sitting still and watching me pretty solemnly, +his friskiness being for the time taken out of him by the pain in his +paw--and when he perceived that I was paying some attention to him +again he came limping to me on his three good legs and said with a +miau that if I pleased he would prefer going to his dinner in my arms. +And when I picked him up--as, indeed, I had to, for he positively +insisted upon my carrying him--he forgot about his hurt and fell to +purring to me at a great rate and to making little gentle thrusts +against my arm with the fore paw that was sound. And so we went aft in +great friendship and contentment and had a gay dinner together: the +cat sitting on the table opposite to me with all possible decorum--but +manifesting his daintiness by refusing to eat anything but tinned +chicken, and only the white meat at that! + + + + + +XXXIV + +I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + + +When my meal was finished I set myself first of all to getting off the +hatch beneath which my boat lay; and this proved to be a bigger job +than I had counted upon--each of its sections being so heavy that I +could not manage it without tackle, and even with tackle the work took +me a good hour. My plan of operations had included removing the hatch +every morning and setting it back again every night, but when I found +how much energy and time would be wasted in that way I changed my +front a little and got at the same result along another line. All that +I needed was a covering for the hatch that would keep the rain out; +and what I did, therefore, was to knock together a light grating of +wood to fit over it--sloping the grating downward on each side from a +sort of a ridge pole--on which a tarpaulin could be stretched; and in +that way I got shortly to a water-tight covering for my hatch that I +could shift back and forth quickly and without any trouble at all. But +the whole of what remained of the afternoon was spent in getting +that piece of preliminary work finished to my mind. + +The next morning I set myself to the examination of the stuff stowed +in the boat--the several parts which I would have to put together in +order to make my craft ready for the sea--and for this job also a +great deal of preliminary arrangement was required. Many of the +pieces--as the boiler, the cylinder, the shaft, the screw, and the +sections of the cabin--were too heavy for me to lift without tackle; +and as they all had to be got out and arranged in order ready for use, +and then in due course put aboard the boat one at a time in their +proper places, I first of all had to set up some sort of lifting +apparatus to take the place of a crane. + +In this matter the open hatch directly over the boat again was a help +to me. Across it, running fore and aft, I stretched a heavy wire rope +on which I had placed a big block for a traveller, and carrying the +end of the rope forward to the capstan I fell to work with the +hand-bars and got it strained so taut that it was like a bar of iron. +Then to the traveller block I made fast my hoisting tackle--and so was +able to swing up the heavy pieces from where they were stowed, and to +run them along the taut rope until they were clear of the boat on +either side, and then to let them down upon the deck: where they would +remain until a reversal of this process would lift them up again and +set them in place as they were required. But even with my tackle--and +double tackle in the case of the heavier pieces--this was a +back-breaking job that took up the whole of three days. + +However, I finished it at last, and had the boat clear and all the +pieces so arranged that as I needed them they would be ready to my +hand; and the examination that I was able to make of them, and of the +boat too after I had her empty, gave very satisfactory results. All +the parts were there, and all numbered so carefully that they could +have been assembled by much less skilful hands than mine; while the +hull of the boat was completely finished, and the sockets and +rivet-holes for attaching her fittings were all as they should be in +her frame. Farther, I could see by the little scratches here and there +on her iron-work that she had been set up and then taken apart again; +and so was sure that all was smooth for her coming together in the +right way. But, for all that I had such plain sailing before me in the +actual work of refitting her, my courage went down a little as I +perceived what a big contract I had taken, and what a very long time +must pass before I could pull it through. + +Moreover, I saw that while the boat was well built for pleasure +cruising in smooth water--and, indeed, was so stout in her frame that +she would stand a great deal of knocking about without being the +worse for it--she by no means was prepared for the chances of an ocean +voyage. Except where her little cabin and engine-room would be--the +two filling about half of her length amidships--she was entirely open; +and while the frame of her cabin was stoutly built, that part of it +intended to rise above the rail was arranged for sliding glass +windows--which would be smashed in a moment by a heavy dash of sea. It +was clear, therefore, that in addition to setting her up on the lines +planned for her--a big job and a long job to start with--there was a +lot more for me to do. To fit her for my purposes it would be +necessary to cover her cabin windows with planking; to deck her over +forward in order to have my stores under cover as well as to guard +against shipping enough water to swamp her in rough weather; and +finally to rig her with a mast and sail upon which to fall back for +motive-power in the event of my running out of coal. This additional +work would not, in one way, present any difficulties--it being in +itself simple and easy of accomplishment; but in another way it was +not pleasant to contemplate, since the doing of it all single-handed +would increase very greatly the time which must pass before I could +start upon my voyage. However, as consideration of that phase of the +matter only tended to discourage me, I put it out of sight as well as +I was able and set myself with a will to finishing my preliminary +work--of which there still was a good deal to do. + +The steamer's machine-shop, as I have said, was unusually well fitted +and supplied; but even in the short time that the vessel had been +lying abandoned in that reeking atmosphere rust had so coated +everything not shut up in lockers that all the tools in the racks and +the fittings of the lathe--although the lathe had an oil-cloth hood +over it--had to be cleaned before they could be used: a job that kept +me busy with the grind-stone, and emery-cloth, and oiled cotton-waste, +for a good long while. And after that I had to get the forge in order, +and to bring up fuel for it from the coal bunkers. And in attending to +all these various matters the time slipped away so quickly that a +whole week had passed before I had done. + +But I must say that as the cat and I labored together--though his +labors were confined to cheering me by following me about on three +legs wherever I went, and pretty much all the while talking to me in +his way so that I should not fail to take notice of him--I got more +and more light-hearted; which was natural enough, seeing that what I +was doing in itself interested me and so made the time pass quickly, +and that I had also a great swelling undercurrent of hope as I +thought of what my slow-going work would bring me to in the end. + +When at last I fairly got started at my building I was in a still +more cheerful mood--there being such a sense of definite +accomplishment as I set each piece in its place, and such a comfort in +the tangible advance that I was making, that half the time I was +singing as I made my bolts and rivets fast. But for all my +cheerfulness I had a plenty of trouble over what I was doing; and I +was sorry enough that I had not somebody beside my cat to help me, or +that I myself had not another pair or two of hands. + +Almost at the start, when I began to swing the pieces of machinery +inboard, I found that I had still another bit of preliminary work to +attend to before I could go on. My travelling tackle crossing the boat +amidships had worked well enough in getting the stuff out of her, but +when I came to hoisting the parts aboard and setting them exactly in +their places, and holding them steady while I made fast the rivets, it +would not in any way serve my turn. What I had to do was to stretch +another wire rope across the hatch--at right angles with and a couple +of feet above the first one, and parallel with the boat's keel--and to +rig on this two travellers, to one or the other of which I could +transfer each piece as I got it inboard and so run it along until I +had it exactly over the place where it was to be made fast. But I was +a whole day in attending to this matter--and it was only one of the +many makeshifts to which I had to resort to accomplish what was too +much for my unaided strength; and in meeting such like side +difficulties I lost in all a good many days. + +But though my work went very slowly, and now and then was stopped +short for a while by some obstacle that had to be overcome in any +rough and ready way that I could think of, I did get on; and at last I +had my boat together on the lines that her builders had planned. Yet +while, in a way, she was finished, there still was a weary lot to do +to her to fit her for my purposes; and in decking her over, and in +making her cabin solid, and in fitting a mast and sail to her, I spent +almost two months more. + +All this work went slowly because I had to spend nearly as much time +in making ready for what I wanted to do as in doing it. Before I began +my planking I had to rip up from the steamer's deck the material for +it; and this was a hard job in itself and did not give me what I +wanted when it was done--for while the stuff served well enough for my +beams and braces it was clumsily heavy for the decking of my little +launch. But it had to answer, and in the end I got it well in place +and the joints so tightly caulked that I was sure of having a dry +hold. And that my deck might the more easily turn the water in a sea +way I made it flush with the rail; and I had no hatch in +it--arranging to get to the hold by a scuttle that I set in the +forward end of the cabin--and that gave me a still better chance of +keeping dry below. + +For my mast I got down one of the top-gallant masts--and I had a close +shave to coming down with it and so ending my adventures right there. +The best way that I could think of to manage this piece of work--and I +have not since thought of any way better--was to make fast a line to +the lower end of the top-gallant mast just above the cap of the +topmast and to carry this line through the top-block and so down to +the deck, and there to pass it through another block to the capstan +and haul it taut and stop it; and when all that was in order, and the +stays cut, to get up into the cross-trees and saw through the spar +just below where I had whipped it with my line. My expectation was +that as the spar parted and fell it would be held hanging by my tackle +until I could get down to the deck again and lower it away; and that +really was what did happen--only as it fell there was a bit of slack +line to take up, and this gave such a tremendous jerk to the +cross-trees that I was within an ace of being shaken out of them and +of going down to the deck with a bang. But I didn't--which is the main +thing--and I did get my mast. It was a good deal heavier than my boat +could stand, and I had to spend a couple of days in taking it down +with a broad-axe and in finishing it with a plane until I got it as it +should be; and from the flag-staff at the steamer's stern I got out +with very little trouble a good boom and gaff. + +After that I had only my sail to fit; and as I did not trouble myself +to make a very neat job of it this did not take me long. Indeed, I +grudged the time that I spent on my mast and sail--close upon a +fortnight, altogether--more than any like amount of time that I gave +to my task; for my hope was strong that I would not need a sail at +all, but would be able to manage--by a way that I had thought of--to +carry enough coal with me to make my voyage under steam. But I was not +leaving anything to chance--so far as chances could be foreseen--in +the adventure that I was about to make, and so I got my sail-power all +ready to fall back upon in case my steam-power failed. And when that +bit of work was finished I was full of a joyful light-heartedness; for +my boat in every way was ready for the water, and I was come at last +to the good ending of my long job. + +That night I made a feast in celebration of what I had accomplished, +and in hope of my greater good fortune that I believed was soon to +come--with a place duly set on the opposite side of the table for my +only guest, and with a champagne-glass beside his plate to hold his +unsweetened condensed milk (for which, when I found it among the +ship's stores, he manifested a strong partiality) that he might lap +properly his responses to the toasts which I pledged him in +champagne. And I don't suppose that a man and a cat ever had a merrier +meal anywhere than we had in that queer place for it that evening; nor +that any two friends ever were happier together than we were when, our +feast being ended, he went through his various tricks--of which he had +learned a great many, and with a wonderful quickness, after his paw +got well--and then settled himself for a snooze on my lap while I sat +smoking my cigar and thinking that at last I had sawn through +my prison bars. + +And it was while I was sitting in that state of placid happiness that +suddenly I was brought up all standing by the reflection--and why it +had not come sooner to me is a mystery--that a dozen turns of the +screw of my launch in that weed-covered ocean would be enough to foul +it hopelessly, and so at the very start to cut short the voyage under +steam that I had planned. + + + + + +XXXV + +I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + + +For a while after this black thought came to me I was pretty much +beaten by it; but when I got steadier--and had finished kicking myself +for a fool because I had not foreseen it all along--I perceived that +the odds were not wholly against me, after all. I had, at least, a +sea-worthy boat in which to make my venture, and therefore was as well +off as I had hoped to be when I had set about looking for one; and if +the plan that I had formed worked out in practice--if I could manage +to force a passage through the tangle by alternately working over the +bow of my boat to break up the weed, and over the sides to pole my +boat forward--I was a great deal better off than I had hoped to be: +for should I win my way to open water I would have steam as well as +sail power at my command. + +But while this more reasonable view of the situation comforted me, it +did not satisfy me. The difficulty of working myself along in that +slow fashion I foresaw would be so enormous that I very well might die +of sheer exhaustion before I got clear of the weed-tangle--which +must extend outward, as I knew from my guess at the time that I had +taken in drifting in through it, for a very long way. What I had been +counting upon ever since I had found the launch was in having part of +the work, and the heaviest part, done by her engine; my part to be the +breaking of a passage, while the motive power was to be supplied by +the screw. But of course if the screw fouled, as it certainly would +foul with the loose weed all around it, that would be the end of my +hopeful plan. + +This consideration of the matter reduced it to a definite problem. +What was needed was some sort of protection for the screw that would +keep the weed away from it and yet would allow it to work freely: and, +having the case thus clearly stated, the thought presently occurred to +me that I could secure this protection by building out from the stern +of the boat, so that the screw would be enclosed in it, some sort of +an iron cage. That arrangement, I conceived, would meet the +requirements of the case fully; and being come to my conclusion I +resigned myself to still another long delay while I carried my plan +into execution, and so went to bed at last hopefully--but well knowing +that this fresh piece of work that I had cut out for myself would be +hard to do. + +I certainly did not overestimate the amount of labor involved in my +cage-building. I was a good three weeks over it. But I was kept up to +the collar by my conviction that without the cage I had no chance of +succeeding in my project; and so I got it finished at last. And then I +considered that my boat really was ready to take the water; and the +cat and I had another banquet in celebration of the long step that we +had taken toward our deliverance--only this time I did not give an +altogether free rein to my rejoicing, being fearful that some other +difficulty might present itself suddenly and bring me up again with a +round turn. + +The boat being ready--for I could think of nothing more to do to +her--I had still to launch her, and the first step toward that end was +breaking out a section in the steamer's side. Luckily the stock of +cold-chisels aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was a good one; but I +dulled them all twice over--and weary work at the grindstone I had +sharpening them again--before I had chipped away the bindings of those +endless rivets and had the satisfaction of seeing the big section of +iron plate between two of her iron ribs pitch outboard and splash down +through the weed into the sea. + +As I have said, the bow compartment of the steamer was full of water, +and this brought her main-deck so low down forward that the boat had +only to be slid out almost on a level through the hole that I had +made. But to slide her that way--which seems easy, because I have +happened to put it glibly--was quite a different thing. With steam +power to work the capstan I could have got the boat overboard in no +time; but without steam power the launching went desperately slowly, +and was altogether the hardest piece of work that I had to do in the +whole of my long hard job. + +The boat had stood all along in the cradle that had been built to hold +her steady for the voyage. This was a very stout wooden framework +built up from two heavy beams joined by cross-pieces, and all so well +bolted together that it was very solid and firm. In this the boat +rested snugly and was held fast by rope lashings; and the cradle +itself--resting on the lower hatch and projecting on each side of +it--was lashed to the hatch ringbolts so as to be safe against +shifting in a heavy sea. I could have removed the cradle by taking it +to pieces, but that would not have helped matters; and the plan that I +decided upon--liking it better because all this wood-work around and +under the boat would protect her from harm as she went overboard--was +to weight the cradle with iron bars that would cause it to sink away +from beneath the boat when they took the water, and then to work it up +with jack-screws until I could get rollers under it and so send them +both together over the side. + +How long I worked over this job I really do not know; but I do know +that at the time it seemed as though it never would come to an end. +First of all I had the rollers to make from another topgallant mast +that I got down, and when these were finished I had to go at the frame +of the cradle with a pair of jack-screws and raise it, by fractions of +an inch, until I could get my rollers under it one at a time. I think +that it was the deadly dullness of this jack-screw work that I most +resented--the stupid monotony of doing precisely the same sort of +utterly wearying work all day long and for day after day. But in the +end I got it finished: all my rollers properly in place, and the +cradle made fast to hold it from starting before I was ready to have +it go--although of that there was not much danger, for while the +steamer had a decided pitch forward she lay on an even keel. + +At first I was for sending my boat overboard the minute that I got the +last roller under her; but I had the sense, luckily, to take a reef in +this brisk intention as the thought struck me that I must have open +water to launch her in or else very likely have boat and cradle +together stuck fast in the weed. And so I set myself to clearing a +little pool into which I could launch her; and as I carried this work +on I came quickly to a realizing sense of what was before me when I +should begin to break a way through the weed for my boat's passage, +and to the conviction that had I tried to make my voyage without steam +to help me I never should have got through at all. + +In point of fact, the weed was so thick and so firmly matted together +that I almost could walk on it; and when I had knocked loose a couple +of doors from their hinges and had thrown them overboard--taking two, +so that I might move one ahead of the other as my cutting advanced--I +had firm enough standing place from which I could slash away. So tough +was the mass that I was a whole day in uncovering a space less than +forty feet long by twenty broad; and when my launching-pool was +finished it had the look of a little pond in a meadow surrounded by +solid banks. + +All this showed me that even with the screw to push while I cleared a +way for the boat's passage I should have my hands full; but it also +put into my head a notion that helped me a good deal in the end. This +was to rig on the straight stem of my boat a set of guide-bars +projecting forward in which I could work perpendicularly a cross-cut +saw, and in that way to cut a slit in the weed--which would be widened +by the boat's nose thrusting into it as the screw shoved her onward, +and so would enable me to squeeze along. And as this was a matter easy +of accomplishment--being only to double over a couple of iron bars so +that there would be a slit a half inch wide for the saw to travel in, +and to bolt them fast to the top and bottom of the boat's stem--I did +it immediately; and it worked so well when I came to try it that I was +glad enough that I had had so lucky a thought. Indeed, had I known +how well it would turn out I should have gone a step farther and +rigged my saw to run by steam power--setting up a frame in the bows to +hold a wheel carrying a pin on which the saw could play and to which I +could make fast a bar from my piston-rod--and in that way saved myself +from the longest bit of back-breaking work that ever I had to do. But +that was a piece of foresight that came afterward, and so did me +no good. + +When my guide-bars were in place, and the saw made ready to slip into +them by taking off one of its handles--and I had still a spare saw to +fall back upon in the event of the first one breaking--my boat was +ready to go overboard into the open water, where she would lie while I +put aboard of her my coal and stores. But the work that was before me, +as I thus came close to it, loomed up very large; and so did the +doubts which beset me as to how my voyage would end. Indeed, it was in +a spirit far from exultant that at last I cut the lashings which held +the cradle; and then with the tackle that I had ready got the heavy +mass started--and in a couple of minutes had my boat safely overboard +and floating free, as the cradle sunk away from under her, carried +down by its lading of iron bars. + +But, whatever was to come of it, the launching of my boat started me +definitely along a fresh line of adventure, and whether I liked it or +not I had to make the best of it: and so I stated the case to my +cat--who had got scared and run off into a corner while the launching +was in progress--when he came marching up to me and seated himself +beside me gravely, as I stood in the break in the steamer's side +looking down at the boat that I hoped would set us free. + + + + + +XXXVI + +HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + + +What would have been most useful to me as foresight, but was only +aggravating to me as hindsight--which happened to be the way that I +got it--was the very sensible notion that I might have put all of my +stores, and even a good part of my coal, aboard the boat before she +was decked over and launched. A few tons more or less would have made +no difference in moving her; but having to put those extra tons aboard +of her over the side of the steamer, and then to drag them through the +cabin and through the awkward little hatch, and at last to stow them +by the light of a lantern in her stillingly close hot hold--all that +made a lot of difference to me. However, I could not foresee +everything; and I think, on the whole, that I really did foresee most +of what I wanted pretty well. + +Of provisions I took along enough to last me, by a rough calculation, +for three months; being pretty well satisfied that unless within that +time I got through the weed-tangle to open water--over which I could +make my way to land, or on which I might fall in with a passing +vessel--I never would get free at all. And I was the more disposed to +keep down my lading of provisions because I wanted every scrap of room +that I could save for my cargo of coal. But my stores were plentiful +for the term that I had fixed upon, and the best and the most +nourishing--save that I could not take fresh meat with me--that the +_Ville de Saint Remy_ had on board; and I did not forget to take a +good supply of the tinned chicken and the condensed milk of which my +dainty cat was so fond. As for water--beside having my condenser to +fall back upon--I felt pretty sure that until I got well out toward +the open sea I could trust to the morning rains. But for all that I +carried two barrels with me--filled fresh the last thing before I +started--stowed in the well of the boat aft of the cabin; and there +too I carried a couple of ten-gallon tins of oil for my lanterns +and lamps. + +My bone-breaking job was getting my coal aboard. For ease in handling +and in stowing it--though I lost a little room that way--I put it in +canvas sacks, of which I luckily found some bales in the steamer's +cargo. These I swung up from the engine-room by the cinder-tackle to +the main deck; and having got them that far I packed them on my back +to the break in the steamer's side where my boat was lying and tumbled +them aboard of her, and then dragged them along to where I stowed +them in her hold. On my coal holding out at least until I got through +the weed--for on open water I could lay a course under sail--the +success of my adventure wholly depended; and knowing that, I filled my +boat with all that I dared to put into her--loading the last twenty +bags on her deck and on the roof of her cabin, to be used before I +drew on my main supply. + +But while this lading was a big one it did not satisfy me; and the +only way that I could think of to better it was to build a long and +narrow raft that I could stow as much more on and tow after me in the +boat's wake. This was a big undertaking, but I had to face it and to +carry it through: lowering down three spars (in managing which I used +a treble-purchase to swing them clear, and eased them down with a +couple of turns of the rope still around the capstan), and when I had +them over the side in a pool that I had cleared for them I lashed them +strongly together and decked them over with some of the state-room +doors. This gave me a raft sixty feet long, or thereabouts, but +narrower than my boat; and to make it follow the boat still more +easily I set a V-shaped cut-water at its bows to turn the weed. To be +sure, it was a clumsy thing, but it well enough served my turn. + +On this structure I was able to carry a prodigious quantity of +coal--more than I had on the boat, by a good deal; but by a little +planning in advance I arranged matters so that the lading of it was +not so hard a piece of work--though in all conscience it was hard +enough--as the lading of my boat had been. What I did was to clear a +pool in the weed for it and to build it directly beneath the outhang +of the cinder-tackle; and having that apparatus ready to my hand I +swung my bags of coal up from the engine-room, and then out along the +traveller, and then lowered them away--and so had only to stow them on +the raft when they were down. But there was only one of me to do all +this--to fill each bag in the bunkers and to bring it to the +engine-room, to make it fast there to the tackle, to come on deck and +haul it up and set it overboard, to go down the side and set it in +place, and then back to the bunkers again for the next round--and so I +spent a week in doing what three men could have done in a day. And I +was a tired man and a grimy man when I got this piece of work +finished; but I was comforted by knowing that I had as much coal in my +sea-stock as I possibly could have use for--and so I scrubbed myself +clean in the steamers bath-room and was easy in my mind. But it was a +good long while before I got the aches out of my bones. + +During my last week aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ I had steam up in +my boat and my engine at work during the greater part of each day: as +was necessary, the engine being new, in order to get the machinery +to running smoothly, and to set right anything that might be wrong +while I still had the steamer's machine-shop to turn to for repairs. +However, the engine proved to be a well-made one, and except that I +had to tighten a joint here and there and to repack the piston I had +nothing to rectify; and what still more pleased me was to find that my +cage answered to keep the screw from fouling, and that my plan for +sawing a way through the weed--which I tested by running a little +distance from the steamer through the thick of it--worked well too. +But because of the great friction to be overcome as the boat opened a +way for itself in the dense soft mass my progress was desperately +slow; and I had to comfort me the reflection that it would be still +slower when I got regularly under way and had in addition to the dead +thrust forward of the boat the dead drag after it of the raft. + +Slow or fast, though, I had no choice in the matter. With the means at +my command, I had done all that I could do to enable me to climb the +walls of my prison--if I may put it that way--and there remained only +to muster what pluck I had to help me and to abide by the result. This +was the view of the situation that I presented to my cat--for I had +got into the habit of talking to him quite as much as he talked to +me--while we sat at supper together on the last evening that we were +to pass on board of the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and while he did not +make much of a reply to me he did mumble some sort of a purring answer +that I took to mean he was willing, if I were, to make the trial. + +Early that morning, while the rain still was falling, I had filled my +two casks with fresh water; and after my breakfast I got them aboard +the boat and then went to work at setting up my mast--using one of the +davits in place of sheers and so managing the job very well. After +that I had rigged the sail, and had set it to make sure that all was +right; and then had furled it and lashed the boom fast on the roof of +the cabin among the bags of coal--and with rather a heavy heart, too, +for I knew that the chances were more than even against my ever +getting to open water and fresh breezes, and so loosing again the +knots which I had just tied. In the afternoon I had set my engine to +going again for an hour, and then had banked my fires against the +morning; and after that, until the shadows began to fall, I had spent +my time in going over the list that I had made of my sea-stock to be +sure that nothing that I needed was forgotten, and in taking a final +general survey of my boat and its stores. And when darkness came the +cat and I had our supper together--which was as good a one as the ship +could provide us with--and when we had finished I told him, as I have +said, what the chances were for and against our succeeding in our +undertaking and in return asked him for an expression of his +own views. + +That he fully understood what I told him I am not prepared to say; but +he certainly did answer me: jumping up on my lap and shoving his paws +alternately against my stomach, and purring in so cheerful a fashion, +and altogether making such a show of good spirits as to satisfy me +that he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through. +And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my own +confident hopes--which were rising strongly as the time for testing +them got close at hand--that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly, +and on my side promised that within another month or two he should +stretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put the +lamp out and we turned in for the night. + + + + + +XXXVII + +HOW MY CAT STILL FARTHER CHEERED ME + + +It was in the grey of early morning, while the rain still was falling, +that the cat and I had our breakfast; and as soon as the rain was over +I was down in the boat, and had off the tarpaulin that covered her +stern-sheets, and was busy bringing up my banked fires. One thing that +I had learned how to do during the week that I had been testing my +engine was to bank my fires well; and that was a matter of a good deal +of importance to me--since every night during my voyage the fires +would have to be kept that way, on the double score of my inability to +hold my course in the darkness and of my need for sleep. + +Presently I had steam up; and then I went back to the ship for the +last and most important piece of my cargo--my bag of jewels. It was +with a queer feeling, half of doubt and half of exultation, that I +fetched out this little bundle--still done up in the sleeve of the +oilskin jacket--and stowed it in one of the lockers in the cabin of my +boat. If my voyage went well, then all the rest of my life--so far as +wealth makes for happiness--would go well too: for in that rough and +dirty little bag was such a treasure--that I had won away from the +dead ship holding it--as would make me one of the richest men in the +world. But against this exultant hope stood up a doubt so dark that +there was no great room in my mind for cheerfulness: for as I stowed +away the jewels in the boat I could not but think of those others who +had stowed them away two hundred years and more before aboard the +galleon; and who had started in their great ship well manned on a +voyage in which the risk of disaster was as nothing in comparison with +the risk that I had to face in the voyage that I was undertaking in my +little boat alone. Yet their venture had ended miserably; and I, +trying singly to accomplish what their whole company had failed in, +very well might surrender the treasure again, as they had surrendered +it, to the storm-power of the sea. + +But thinking these dismal thoughts was no help to me, and so I choked +them down and went once more aboard the steamer to make sure that I +had forgotten nothing that I needed by taking a final look around. +This being ended without my seeing anything that was necessary to me, +I said goodbye to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ and got down into my boat +again; and my cat--who usually sat in the break of the side of the +steamer while I was at work in the boat, though sometimes asking +with a miau to be lifted down into her--of his own accord jumped +aboard ahead of me: and that I took for a good sign. + +Certainly, the cat and I made as queer a ship's company as ever went +afloat together; and our little craft--with its cargo that would have +bought a whole fleet's lading--was such an argosy as never before had +sailed the seas. Nor did even Columbus, when he struck out across the +black ocean westward, start upon a voyage so blind and so seemingly +hopeless as was ours. The Admiral, at least, had with him such aids to +navigation as his times afforded, and went cruising in open water; +failing in his quest, the chance was free to him to put about again +and so come once more to his home among living men. But I had not even +his poor equipment; and as to turning again and so coming back to the +point whence I started--even supposing that I could manage it--that +ending to my voyage would be so miserable that it would be better for +me to die by the way. + +In none of the vessels through which I had searched had I found a +sextant; nor would it have been of any use to me, had I found one, +unless I had found also a chronometer still keeping time. Charts I did +find; but as I had to know my position to get any good from them, and +as I would run straight for any land that I sighted without in the +least caring on what coast I made my landfall, I left them behind. My +only aid to navigation was a compass, that I got from the binnacle of +a ship lying near the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and aboard the same +vessel I found a very good spyglass, and gladly brought it along with +me because it would add to my chances--should I reach open water--not +only of sighting a distant ship but of making out how she was standing +in time to head her off. + +But for all practical purposes the compass was enough for me. I knew +that to the westward lay the American continent, and that between it +and where I then was--for it was certain that I was not far south of +the latitude of the Azores--was that section of the Atlantic which is +more thickly crowded with ships than any other like-sized bit of ocean +in the world. My chance of escape, therefore, and my only chance, lay +in holding to a due west course: hoping first that, being clear of the +weed, I might fall in with some passing vessel; and second that I +might make the coast before a storm came on me by which my little boat +would be swamped. And so I opened the throttle of my engine: and as +the screw began to revolve I headed my boat for the cut in the weed +which I had made when I was testing her--while my tow-rope drew taut +and after me came slowly my long raft. + +No doubt it was only because the hiss of the escaping steam startled +him; but at the first turn of the engine my cat scampered forward and +seated himself in the very bows of the boat--a little black +figure-head--and thence gazed out steadfastly westward as though he +were the pilot charged with the duty of setting our vessel's course. +He had to give place to me in a moment--when I went to the bows to +begin my sawing through the weed--but I was cheered by his planting +himself that way pointing our course with his nose for me: and again I +took his bit of freakishness for a good sign. + + + + + +XXXVIII + +HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + + +What I did on that first day of my voyage was what I did on every +succeeding day during so long a time that it seemed to me the end of +it never would come. + +When my craft fairly was started, with the fire well fed and a light +enough weight on the safety-valve to guard against any sudden chance +rise in the steam pressure, I went forward to the bows with the +compass and set myself to my sawing. The wheel being lashed with the +rudder amidships, all the steering was managed from the bows--any +deviation from the straight line westward being corrected by my taking +the saw out from the guide-bars and cutting to the right or to the +left with it until I had the boat's nose pointing again the right way. +But there was not often need for cutting of this sort. Held by the +guide-bars, the saw cut a straight path for the boat to follow; while, +conversely, the boat held the saw true. And so, for the most part, I +had only to stand like a machine there--endlessly hauling the saw up +and endlessly thrusting it down. Behind me my little engine puffed +and snorted; over the bows, below me, was the soft crunching sound of +the weed opening as the boat thrust her nose into it; and on each side +of me was the soft hissing rustling of the weed against the boat's +sides. From time to time I would stop for sheer weariness--for +anything more back-breaking than the steady working of that saw I +never came across; and from time to time I had to stop my +engine--which I managed, and also the starting of it, by means of a +pair of lines brought forward into the bows from the lever-bar--while +I attended to feeding the fire. + +The only breaks in this deadly monotonous round were when I ate my +meals--and at first these were as pleasant as they were restful, with +the cat sitting beside me and eating very contentedly too--and when I +fell in with a bit of wreckage that I had to steer clear of or to move +out of my way. Interruptions of this latter sort--even though they +gave me a change from my wearying sawing--were hard to put up with; +for they not only held me back woefully, but they kept me in continual +alarm lest I should break my saw. When the obstacle was a derelict, or +anything so large that I could see it well ahead of me and so could +have plenty of time in which to swing the boat to one side of it by +slicing a diagonal way for her, I could get along without much +difficulty; but when it was only a spar or a mast, so bedded in the +weed that my first knowledge of it was finding it close under my bows, +there was no chance to make a detour and I had to thrust it aside with +a boat-hook or go to hacking at it with an axe until I had cut it +through. And often it happened that I knew nothing at all of the +obstacle, the weed covering it completely, until my saw struck against +it; and that would send a cold shiver through me, as I whipped my saw +out of the water--for I had only two saws with me, and I knew that to +break one of them cut down my chances of escape by a half. Indeed, my +first saw did get broken while I still was in the thick of the tangle; +and after that I was in a constant tremor, which became almost agony +when I felt the least jar in my cutting, for fear that the other +would go too. + +But with it all I managed to make pretty fair progress, and better +than I had counted upon; for I succeeded in covering, as nearly as I +could reckon it, close upon three miles a day. After I fairly got out +upon my course I had no means whatever of judging distances; but my +estimate of my advance was made at the end of my first day's run, when +the wreck-pack still was in sight behind me and enabled me to make a +close guess at how far I had come. As the sun went down that night +over my bows--making a long path of crimson along the weed ahead of +me, and filling the mist with a crimson glow--I still could make out, +though very faintly, the continent of wrecks from which I had started; +and with my glass I could distinguish the _Ville de Saint Remy_ by the +three flags which I had left flying on her masts. And the sight of +her, and the thought of how comfortable and how safe I had been aboard +of her, and of how I was done with her forever and was tying to as +slim a chance of life as ever a man tied to, for a while put a great +heaviness upon my heart. Not until darkness came and shut her out from +me, and I was resting in my brightly lighted comfortable little +cabin--with my supper to cheer me, and with my cat to cheer me +too--did my spirits rise again; and I was glad, when I got under way +once more in the morning, that the heavy mist cut her off from me--and +that by the time the sun had thinned the mist a little I had made such +progress as to put her out of sight of me for good and all. + +Through my second day I still could make out the loom of the +wreck-pack behind me--a dark line low down in the mist that I should +have taken for a rain-cloud had I not known what it was; but that also +was pretty well gone by evening, and from my third day onward I was +encompassed wholly by the soft veil of golden mist hanging low around +me over the weed-covered sea. Only about noon time, when this veil +grew thinner and had in it a brighter golden tone--or at sunset, when +it was shot through with streams of crimson light which filled it +with a ruddy glow--was it possible for me to see for more than a mile +or so in any direction; and even when my horizon thus was enlarged a +little my view still was the same: always the weed spread out over the +water so thickly that nowhere was there the slightest break in it, and +so dense and solid that it would have seemed like land around me but +for its very gentle undulating motion--which made me giddy if I looked +at it for long at a time. The only relief to this dull flat surface +was when I came upon a wrecked ship, or upon a hummock of wreckage, +rising a little up from it--also swaying very gently with a wearying +motion that seemed as slow as time. And the silent despairing +desolateness of it all sunk down into my very soul. + +Even my cat seemed to feel the misery of that great loneliness and +lost so much of his cheerfulness that he got to be but a dull +companion for me; though likely enough what ailed him was the reflex +of my own poor spirits, made low by my constant bodily weariness, and +had I shown any liveliness he would have been lively too. But I was +too tired to think much about him--or about anything else--as day +after day I stood in the bow of the boat working my saw up and down +with a deadly dull monotony: that had no break save when I stopped to +rest a little my aching body, or to have a tussle with a bit of +wreckage that barred my passage, or to stoke myself with food, or to +put coal beneath my boiler, or to lie down at night with every one of +my bones and muscles heavy with a dull pain. + +And all the sound that there was in that still misty solitude was the +puffing of my engine, and the wheel churning in the water, and the +sharp hiss of the saw as it severed the matted fibres, and the +crunching and rustling that the boat made as it went onward with a +leaden slowness through the weed. + + + + + +XXXIX + +WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + +I had thought that I had struck the bed-rock of misery when I was +wandering in the dead depths of the wreck-pack, with the conviction +strong upon me that in a little while I would be dead there too. But +as I look back upon that long suffering of lonely sorrow I think now +that the worst of it came to me after I had left the wreck-pack +behind. In that last round that I fought with misfortune the strength +of my body was exhausted so completely that it could give no support +to my spirit; and as the days went on and on--always with the same +weed-covered sea around me and the same soft golden mist over me, and +I always working wearily but with the stolid steadiness of a +machine--so deadening a numbness took hold of me that I seemed to +myself like some far-away strange person--yet one with whom I had a +direct connection, and must needs sorrow for and sympathize +with--struggling interminably through the dull jading mazes of a +night-mare dream. + +Once only was I aroused from this stupor of spirit that went with my +vigorous yet apathetic bodily action. Just at sunset one evening I +sighted a vessel of some sort far ahead of me--a black mass looming +uncertainly against the rich glow of crimson that filled the west--and +for some reason or another I took into my head the fancy that I was +nearing open water and that this was not a wreck but a living ship on +board of which I would find living men: and at the thought of meeting +with live men again I fairly cried with joy. Then darkness fell and +shut her out from me; leaving me so eager that I could not sleep for +thinking of her, and almost tempting me to press on through the night +that I might be close up to her by dawn. But when in the first faint +grey light of early morning I made her out again, and saw that she was +in just the same position and at just the same distance ahead of me, I +was almost as sorry as I would have been had she vanished; for I knew +that had she been a living ship in that long night-time she would have +sailed away. And by noon, being then close upon her, I could see that +she was floating bottom upwards: and so knew certainly that she was +only a dead wreck drifting in slowly to take her place among the dead +wrecks which I had left behind me; and beyond her, instead of open +water, I saw only the weed--covered ocean stretching onward unbroken +until it was lost in the golden haze. + +Even then, though, I had a foolish hope that there might be living men +clinging to her, and I edged my boat off its course a little so that I +might run close under her stern. But no one showed on her hull as I +neared her, and only my own voice broke the heavy silence as I crazily +hailed her again and again. And then I fell into a dull rage with her, +so weary was I of my loneliness and so bitter was my disappointment at +finding her deserted--until suddenly a very different train of +emotions was aroused in me as I made out slowly the weathered inverted +lettering on her up-tilting stern, and so read her name there: +_Golden Hind_! + +Like a flash I had before me clearly all the details of my last +moments aboard of her: my quick sharp words with Captain Luke, my step +backward with my arms up as he and the mate pressed upon me, the +smasher that I got in on the mate's jaw, the crack on my own head that +stunned me--and then my revival of consciousness as I found myself +adrift in the ocean and saw the brig sailing away. And while these +thoughts crowded upon me my boat went onward through the weed +slowly--and presently I had again parted company with the _Golden +Hind_, and this time for good and all. + +After that break in it my dull despairing weariness settled down upon +me again--as the heavy days drifted past me and I pressed steadily on, +and on, and on. How time went I do not know. I could keep no track of +days which always were the same. But I must have been on my voyage for +nearly a month when I fell in with the _Golden Hind_: as I know +because a little while after passing her I used the last of the coal +that was on the raft and cast it off--and my calculation at starting +had been that the coal aboard the raft would last me for about +thirty days. + +Getting rid of the raft was a good thing for me in one way, for when +the boat was relieved from that heavy mass dragging through the weed +after her she went almost twice as fast. But in another way it was a +bad thing for me, for it left me with only what coal I had on the boat +herself and, so far as I could judge from my surroundings, I was no +nearer to being over the wall of my prison than I was on that first +morning when I put off from the _Ville de Saint Remy_. Still the weed +stretched away endlessly on all sides of me, and still the golden mist +ceaselessly hung over me--only it did seem to me, though I did not +trust myself to play much with this hopeful fancy, that the mist was a +good deal thinner than it had been during the earlier part of +my voyage. + +But I was too broken to take much notice of my surroundings. Still I +worked on and on, with the steadfastness and the hopelessness of a +machine: up and down over the bows with my saw interminably, with +only little breaks for rest and eating and to keep my fires up or for +a struggle with a bit of wreckage that barred my way; and at night to +weary sleep that did not rest me; and then up before sunrise to begin +it all again with a fresh day that had no freshness in it--and was +like all the many days of desperate toil which had gone before it, and +like the others which still were to come. + +Even when I saw ahead of me one morning a long lane of open water, a +wide break in the weed, I was too dull to think much about it beyond +steering my way into it thankfully--and then feeling a slow wonder as +the boat slid along with no rustling noise on each side of her at what +seemed to me an almost breathless speed. But as that day went on and +the mist grew lighter and lighter about me and I came to more and more +of these open spaces, and at the same time found that the weed between +them was so much thinner that the boat almost could push through it +without having a path cut for her, I began faintly to realize that +perhaps I had got to the beginning of the end. And then, for the first +time since I had lapsed into my stolid insensibility, a little weak +thrill of hope went through me and I seemed to be waking from my +despairing dream. + +With the next day, however, hope full and strong fairly got hold of +me: for I was out of the mist completely, and the weed was so thin +that I brought my saw inboard and finally had done with it, and the +stretches of open water were so many and so large that I knew that the +blessed free ocean must be very near at hand. And I think that my cat +knew as well as I did that our troubles were close to a good ending; +for all of a sudden he gave over his moping and fell to frisking about +me and to going through all the tricks which I had taught him of his +own accord; and thence onward he spent most of his time on the roof of +the cabin--looking about him with a curious intentness, for all the +world as though I had stationed him there to watch out for a ship +bearing down on us, or for land. Even when I found that day that only +a dozen bags of coal were left to me--for I had fed my furnace while +my heaviness was upon me without paying any attention to how things +were going with my stock of fuel--my spirits were none the worse for +my discovery; for with every mile that I went onward the weed was +growing thinner and I felt safe enough about continuing my voyage +under sail. + +Because my rousing out of my lethargy had been so slow, this change in +my chances seemed to come upon me with a startling suddenness--when in +reality, I suppose, I might have seen signs of it a good while sooner +than I did see them had my mind been clear. But the actual end of my +adventure, the resolving of my hopes into a glad certainty of rescue, +really did come upon me with a rush at last. + +We fairly were in open water, and the cat and I were dining in the +cabin together very cheerfully--with the helm lashed and the boat +going on her course at half speed. I was disposed to linger over my +meal a little, for I was beginning to enjoy once more the luxury of +getting rest when I rested, and when my cat suddenly left me and went +on deck by himself--a thing that he never before had done--I took his +desertion of me in ill part. A moment later I heard the padding of his +feet on the roof of the cabin over me, and smiled to myself as I +thought of him going on watch there; and then, presently, I heard him +calling me--for I had come to understand a good many of his turns of +language--with a lively "Miau!" But it was not until he called me +again, and more urgently, that the oddness of his conduct came home to +me and made me hurry on deck after him; and my first glance at him +made me look in the direction in which he was looking eagerly: and +there I saw the smoke of a steamer trailing black to the horizon, and +beneath it her long black hull--and she was heading straight for me, +and coming along at such a ripping rate that within twenty minutes she +would be across my bows. + +Half an hour more brought matters to a finish. I had only to wait +where I was until the steamer was close down upon me, and then to run +in under her counter so that her people might throw me a line. Her +whole side was crowded with faces as she stopped her way and I came up +with her, and on her rail a tall officer was standing--holding fast +with one hand to the rigging and having in the other a coil of rope +all ready to cast. + +One face among the many clustered there, and a mighty friendly one, +was familiar to me; but I could not place it until a jolly voice +hailed me that I recognized with a warm thrill--and the sound of it +filled me with joy as I thought of my bag of jewels in the cabin +locker, and of how at last my doctor's bill would be paid. + +"And so it's yourself, my fine big young man, and at your old tricks +again. But it's this time that you have the good luck of a black cat +for company in your cruising all alone by yourself over the open sea!" + +And then the tall officer with the coil of rope sung out "Catch!"--and +sent the line whizzing down to me, and I caught the end of it in +my hand. + + +THE END + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. A Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity. +Illustrated by FREDERIC REMINGTON. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. + +This powerful story may well be ranked among the wonder books. No +story-reader should miss it, for it is different from anything he has +ever read.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL, and Other Stories. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25; +Paper, 50 cents. + +Janvier stands in the first rank as a writer of short stories, and a new +volume coming from him is sure to meet with success. In the present +instance it well deserves to, for the stories it contains, from the one +which gives it its title to the last between the covers, are among his +best.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +IN OLD NEW YORK. With 13 Maps and 58 Illustrations. Post 8vo, Cloth, +$1 75. + +Overflows with all sorts of minute and curious information concerning both +the old and the recent town.... Mr. Janvier has long been a zealous and +sympathetic student of this subject. His text is supplemented with +numerous maps and illustrations, instructive and interesting.--_N.Y. Sun_. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + +This file should be named 7sarg10.txt or 7sarg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7sarg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7sarg10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: In the Sargasso Sea + A Novel + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9906] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 29, 2003] +[Date last updated: December 22, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + +A Novel + + +BY + +THOMAS A. JANVIER + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL" +"THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE" +"STORIES OF OLD NEW SPAIN" ETC. + + * * * * * + +1898 + + + + +TO + +C.A.J. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + II. HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + III. I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + IV. CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + V. I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + VI. I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + VII. I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + VIII. THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + IX. ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + X. I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + XI. MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + XII. I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + XIII. I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + XIV. OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + XV. I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + XVI. I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + XVII. HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + XVIII. I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + XIX. OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + XX. HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + XXI. MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + XXII. I GET SOME FOOD IN ME, AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + XXIII. HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + XXIV. OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + XXV. I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + XXVI. OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + XXVII. I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + XXVIII. HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + XXIX. I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + XXX. I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + XXXI. HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + XXXII. I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + XXXIII. I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + XXXIV. I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + XXXV. I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + XXXVI. HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + XXXVII. HOW MY CAT STILL FURTHER CHEERED ME + XXXVIII. HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + XXXIX. WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + + + + +IN THE SARGASSO SEA + + +I + +I PAY FOR MY PASSAGE TO LOANGO + + +Captain Luke Chilton counted over the five-dollar notes with a greater +care than I thought was necessary, considering that there were only +ten of them; and cautiously examined each separate one, as though he +feared that I might be trying to pay for my passage in bad money. His +show of distrust set my back up, and I came near to damning him right +out for his impudence--until I reflected that a West Coast trader must +pretty well divide his time between cheating people and seeing to it +that he isn't cheated, and so held my tongue. + +Having satisfied himself that the tale was correct and that the notes +were genuine, he brought out from the inside pocket of his long-tailed +shore-going coat a big canvas pocket-book, into which he stowed them +lengthwise; and from the glimpse I had of it I fancied that until my +money got there it was about bare. As he put away the pocket-book, he +said, and pleasantly enough: + +"You see, Mr. Stetworth, it's this way: fifty dollars is dirt cheap +for a cast across from New York to the Coast, and that's a fact; but +you say that it's an object with you to get your passage low, and I +say that even at that price I can make money out of you. The _Golden +Hind_ has got to call at Loango, anyhow; there's a spare room in her +cabin that'll be empty if you don't fill it; and while you're a big +man and look to be rather extra hearty, I reckon you won't eat more'n +about twenty dollars' worth of victuals--counting 'em at cost--on the +whole run. But the main thing is that I want all the spot cash I can +get a-holt of before I start. Fifty dollars' worth of trade laid in +now means five hundred dollars for me when I get back here in New York +with what I've turned it over for on the Coast. So, you see, if you're +suited, I'm suited too. Shake! And now we'll have another drink. This +time it's on me." + +We shook, and Captain Luke gave me an honest enough grip, just as he +had spoken in an honest enough tone. I knew, of course, that in a +general way he must be a good deal of a rascal--he couldn't well be a +West Coast trader and be anything else; but then his rascality in +general didn't matter much so long as his dealings with me were +square. He called the waiter and ordered arrack again--it was the +most wholesome drink in the world, he said--and we touched glasses, +and so brought our deal to an end. + +That a cheap passage to Loango was an object to me, as Captain Luke +had said, was quite true. It was a very important object. After I got +across, of course, and my pay from the palm-oil people began, I would +be all right; but until I could touch my salary I had to sail mighty +close to the wind. For pretty much all of my capital consisted of my +headful of knowledge of the theory and practice of mechanical +engineering which had brought me out first of my class at the Stevens +Institute--and in that way had got me the offer from the palm-oil +people--and because of which I thought that there wasn't anybody quite +my equal anywhere as a mechanical engineer. And that was only natural, +I suppose, since my passing first had swelled my head a bit, and I was +only three-and-twenty, and more or less of a promiscuously green +young fool. + +As I looked over Captain Luke's shoulder, while we supped our arrack +together--out through the window across the rush and bustle of South +Street--and saw a trim steamer of the Maracaibo line lying at her +dock, I could not but be sorry that my voyage to Africa would be made +under sails. But, on the other hand, I comforted myself by thinking +that if the _Golden Hind_ were half the clipper her captain made her +out to be I should not lose much time--taking into account the +roundabout way I should have to go if I went under steam. And I +comforted myself still more by thinking what a lot of money I had +saved by coming on this chance for a cheap cast across; and I blessed +my lucky stars for putting into my head the notion of cruising along +South Street that October morning and asking every sailor-like man I +met if he knew of a craft bound for the West Coast--and especially for +having run me up against Captain Luke Chilton before my cruise had +lasted an hour. + +The captain looked at his glass so sorrowfully when it was empty that +I begged him to have it filled again, and he did. But he took down his +arrack this time at a single gulp, and then got up briskly and said +that he must be off. + +"We don't sail till to-morrow afternoon, on the half flood, Mr. +Stetworth," he said, "so you'll have lots of time to get your traps +aboard if you'll take a boat off from the Battery about noon. I +wouldn't come earlier than that, if I were you. Things are bound to be +in a mess aboard the brig to-morrow, and the less you have of it the +better. We lie well down the anchorage, you know, only a little this +side of Robbin's Reef. Your boatmen will know the place, and they'll +find the brig for you if you'll tell 'em where to look for her and +that she's painted green. Well, so long." And then Captain Luke shook +hands with me again, and so was off into the South Street crowd. + +I hurried away too. My general outfit was bought and packed; but the +things lying around my lodgings had to be got together, and I had to +buy a few articles in the way of sea-stock for my voyage in a sailing +vessel that I should not have needed had I gone by the regular steam +lines. So I got some lunch inside of me, and after that I took a +cab--a bit of extravagance that my hurry justified--and bustled about +from shop to shop and got what I needed inside of an hour; and then I +told the man to drive me to my lodgings up-town. + +It was while I was driving up Broadway--the first quiet moment for +thinking that had come to me since I had met Captain Luke on South +Street, and we had gone into the saloon together to settle about the +passage he had offered me--that all of a sudden the thought struck me +that perhaps I had made the biggest kind of a fool of myself; and it +struck so hard that for a minute or two I fairly was dizzy and faint. + +What earthly proof had I, beyond Captain Luke's bare word for it, that +there was such a brig as the _Golden Hind_? What proof had I +even--beyond the general look of him and his canvas pocket-book--that +Captain Luke was a sailor? And what proof had I, supposing that there +was such a brig and that he was a sailor, that the two had anything +to do with each other? I simply had accepted for truth all that he +told me, and on the strength of his mere assertion that he was a +ship-master and was about to sail for the West African coast I had +paid him my fifty dollars--and had taken by way of receipt for it no +more than a clinking of our glasses and a shake of his hand. I said +just now that I was only twenty-three years old, and more or less of a +promiscuously green young fool. I suppose that I might as well have +left that out. There are some things that tell themselves. + +For three or four blocks, as I drove along, I was in such a rage with +myself that I could not think clearly. Then I began to cool a little, +and to hope that I had gone off the handle too suddenly and too far. +After all, there were some chances in my favor the other way. Captain +Chilton, I remembered, had told me that he was about to sail for West +Coast ports before I asked him for a passage; and had mentioned, also, +whereabouts on the anchorage the _Golden Hind_ was lying. Had he made +these statements after he knew what I wanted there would have been +some reason for doubting them; but being made on general principles, +without knowledge of what I was after, it seemed to me that they very +well might be true. And if they were true, why then there was no great +cause for my sudden fit of alarm. However, I was so rattled by my +fright, and still so uncertain as to how things were coming out for +me, that the thought of waiting until the next afternoon to know +certainly whether I had or had not been cheated was more than I could +bear. The only way that I could see to settle the matter was to go +right away down to the anchorage, and so satisfy myself that the +_Golden Hind_ was a real brig and really was lying there; and it +occurred to me that I might kill two birds with one stone, and also +have a reason to give for a visit which otherwise might seem +unreasonable, if I were to take down my luggage and put it aboard that +very afternoon. + + + + + +II + +HOW I BOARDED THE BRIG _GOLDEN HIND_ + + +Having come to this conclusion, I acted on it. I kept the cab at the +door while I finished my packing with a rush, and then piled my +luggage on it and in it--and what with my two trunks, and my kit of +fine tools, and all my bundles, this made tight stowing--and then away +I went down-town again as fast as the man could drive with such +a load. + +We got to the Battery in a little more than an hour, and there I +transshipped my cargo to a pair-oared boat and started away for the +anchorage. The boatmen comforted me a good deal at the outset by +saying that they thought they knew just where the _Golden Hind_ was +lying, as they were pretty sure they had seen her only that morning +while going down the harbor with another fare; and before we were much +more than past Bedloe's Island--having pulled well over to get out of +the channel and the danger of being run down by one of the swarm of +passing craft--they made my mind quite easy by actually pointing her +out to me. But almost in the same moment I was startled again by one +of them saying to me: "I don't believe you've much time to spare, +captain. There's a lighter just shoved off from her, and she's gettin' +her tops'ls loose. I guess she means to slide out on this tide. That +tug seems to be headin' for her now." + +The men laid to their oars at this, and it was a good thing--or a bad +thing, some people might think--that they did; for had we lost five +minutes on our pull down from the Battery I never should have got +aboard of the _Golden Hind_ at all. As it was, the anchor was a-peak, +and the lines of the tug made fast, by the time that we rounded under +her counter; and the decks were so full of the bustle of starting that +it was only a chance that anybody heard our hail. But somebody did +hear it, and a man--it was the mate, as I found out afterwards--came +to the side. + +"Hold on, captain," one of the boatmen sang out, "here's your +passenger!" + +"Go to hell!" the mate answered, and turned inboard again. + +But just then I caught sight of Captain Chilton, coming aft to stand +by the wheel, and called out to him by name. He turned in a hurry--and +with a look of being scared, I fancied--but it seemed to me a good +half-minute before he answered me. In this time the men had shoved the +boat alongside and had made fast to the main-chains; and just then +the tug began to puff and snort, and the towline lifted, and the brig +slowly began to gather way. I could not understand what they were up +to; but the boatmen, who were quick fellows, took the matter into +their own hands, and began to pass in my boxes over the gunwale--the +brig lying very low in the water--as we moved along. This brought the +mate to the side again, with a rattle of curses and orders to stand +off. And then Captain Chilton came along himself--having finished +whatever he had been doing in the way of thinking--and gave matters a +more reasonable turn. + +"It's all right, George," he said to the mate. "This gentleman is a +friend of mine who's going out with us" (the mate gave him a queer +look at that), "and he's got here just in time." And then he turned to +me and added: "I'd given you up, Mr. Stetworth, and that's a +fact--concluding that the man I sent to your lodgings hadn't found +you. We had to sail this afternoon, you see, all in a hurry; and the +only thing I could do was to rush a man after you to bring you down. +He seems to have overhauled you in time, even if it was a close +call--so all's well." + +While he was talking the boatmen were passing aboard my boxes and +bundles, while the brig went ahead slowly; and when they all were +shipped, and I had paid the men, he gave me his hand in a friendly way +and helped me up the side. What to make of it all I could not tell. +Captain Luke told a straight enough story, and the fact that his +messenger had not got to me before I started did not prove that he +lied. Moreover, he went on to say that if I had not got down to the +brig he had meant to leave my fifty dollars with the palm-oil people +at Loango, and that sounded square enough too. At any rate, if he were +lying to me I had no way of proving it against him, and he was +entitled to the benefit of the doubt; and so, when he had finished +explaining matters--which was short work, as he had the brig to look +after--I did not see my way to refusing his suggestion that we should +call it all right and shake hands. + +For the next three hours or so--until we were clear of the Hook and +had sea-room and the tug had cast us off--I was left to my own +devices: except that a couple of men were detailed to carry to my +state-room what I needed there, while the rest of my boxes were stowed +below. Indeed, nobody had time to spare me a single word--the captain +standing by the wheel in charge of the brig, and the two mates having +their hands full in driving forward the work of finishing the lading, +so that the hatches might be on and things in some sort of order +before the crew should be needed to make sail. + +The decks everywhere were littered with the stuff put aboard from the +lighter that left the brig just before I reached her, and the huddle +and confusion showed that the transfer must have been made in a +tearing hurry. Many of the boxes gave no hint of what was inside of +them; but a good deal of the stuff--as the pigs of lead and cans of +powder, the many five-gallon kegs of spirits, the boxes of fixed +ammunition, the cases of arms, and so on--evidently was regular West +Coast "trade." And all of it was jumbled together just as it had been +tumbled aboard. + +I was surprised by our starting with the brig in such a mess--until it +occurred to me that the captain had no choice in the matter if he +wanted to save the tide. Very likely the tide did enter into his +calculations; but I was led to believe a little later--and all the +more because of his scared look when I hailed him from the boat--that +he had run into some tangle on shore that made him want to get away in +a hurry before the law-officers should bring him up with a round turn. + +What put this notion into my head was a matter that occurred when we +were down almost to the Hook, and its conclusion came when we were +fairly outside and the tug had cast us off; otherwise my boxes and I +assuredly would have gone back on the tug to New York--and I with a +flea in my ear, as the saying is, stinging me to more prudence in my +dealings with chance-met mariners and their offers of cheap passages +on strange craft. + +When we were nearly across the lower bay, the nose of a steamer +showed in the Narrows; and as she swung out from the land I saw that +she flew the revenue flag. Captain Luke, standing aft by the wheel, no +doubt made her out before I did; for all of a sudden he let drive a +volley of curses at the mates to hurry their stowing below of the +stuff with which our decks were cluttered. At first I did not +associate the appearance of the cutter with this outbreak; but as she +came rattling down the bay in our wake I could not but notice his +uneasiness as he kept turning to look at her and then turning forward +again to swear at the slowness of the men. But she was a long way +astern at first, and by the time that she got close up to us we were +fairly outside the Hook and the tug had cast us off--which made a +delay in the stowing, as the men had to be called away from it to set +enough sail to give us steerage way. + +Captain Luke barely gave them time to make fast the sheets before he +hurried them back to the hatch again; and by that time the cutter had +so walked up to us that we had her close aboard. I could see that he +fully expected her to hail us; and I could see also that there seemed +to be a feeling of uneasiness among the crew, though they went on +briskly with their work of getting what remained of the boxes and +barrels below. And then, being close under our stern, the cutter +quietly shifted her helm to clear us--and so slid past us, without +hailing and with scarcely a look at us, and stood on out to sea. + +That the captain and all hands so manifestly should dread being +overhauled by a government vessel greatly increased my vague doubts as +to the kind of company that I had got into; and at the very moment +that the cutter passed us these doubts were so nearly resolved into +bad certainties that my thoughts shot around from speculation upon +Captain Luke's possible perils into consideration of what seemed to be +very real perils of my own. + +With the cutter close aboard of us, and with the captain and both the +mates swearing at them, I suppose that the men at the hatch--who were +swinging the things below with a whip--got rattled a little. At any +rate, some of them rigged the sling so carelessly that a box fell out +from it, and shot down to the main-deck with such a bang that it burst +open. It was a small and strongly made box, that from its shape and +evident weight I had fancied might have arms in it. But when it split +to bits that way--the noise of the crash drawing me to the hatch to +see what had happened--its contents proved to be shackles: and the +sight of them, and the flash of thought which made me realize what +they must be there for, gave me a sudden sick feeling in my inside! + +In my hurried reading about the West Coast--carried on at odd times +since my meeting with the palm-oil people--I had learned enough about +the trade carried on there to know that slaving still was a part of +it; but so small a part that the matter had not much stuck in my mind. +But it was a fact then (as it also is a fact now) that the traders who +run along the coast--exchanging such stuff as Captain Luke carried for +ivory and coffee and hides and whatever offers--do now and then take +the chances and run a cargo of slaves from one or another of the lower +ports into Mogador: where the Arab dealers pay such prices for live +freight in good condition as to make the venture worth the risk that +it involves. This traffic is not so barbarous as the old traffic to +America used to be--when shippers regularly counted upon the loss of a +third or a half of the cargo in transit, and so charged off the +death-rate against profit and loss--for the run is a short one, and +slaves are so hard to get and so dangerous to deal in nowadays that it +is sound business policy to take enough care of them to keep them +alive. But I am safe in saying that the men engaged in the Mogador +trade are about the worst brutes afloat in our time--not excepting the +island traders of the South Pacific--and for an honest man to get +afloat in their company opens to him large possibilities of being +murdered off-hand, with side chances of sharing in their punishment if +he happens to be with them when they are caught. And so it is not to +be wondered at that when I saw the shackles come flying out from that +broken box, and so realized the sort of men I had for shipmates, that +a sweating fright seized me which made my stomach go queer. And then, +as I thought how I had tumbled myself into this scrape that the least +shred of prudence would have kept me out of, I realized for the second +time that day that I was very young and very much of a fool. + + + + + +III + +I HAVE A SCARE, AND GET OVER IT + + +I went to the stern of the brig and looked at the tug, far off and +almost out of sight in the dusk, and at the loom of the Highlands, +above which shone the light-house lamps--and my heart went down into +my boots, and for a while stayed there. For a moment the thought came +into my head to cut away the buoy lashed to the rail and to take my +chances with it overboard--trusting to being picked up by some passing +vessel and so set safe ashore. But the night was closing down fast and +a lively sea was running, and I had sense enough to perceive that +leaving the brig that way would be about the same as getting out of +the frying-pan into the fire. + +Fortunately, in a little while I began to get wholesomely angry; which +always is a good thing, I think, when a man gets into a tight +place--if he don't carry it too far--since it rouses the fighting +spirit in him and so helps him to pull through. In reason, I ought to +have been angry with myself, for the trouble that I was in was all of +my own making; but, beyond giving myself a passing kick or two, all +my anger was turned upon Captain Luke for taking advantage of my +greenness to land me in such a pickle when his gain from it would be +so small. I know now that I did Captain Luke injustice. His subsequent +conduct showed that he did not want me aboard with him any more than I +wanted to be there. Had I not taken matters into my own hands by +boarding the brig in such a desperate hurry--just as I had hurried to +close with his offer and to clinch it by paying down my +passage-money--he would have gone off without me. And very likely he +would have thought that the lesson in worldly wisdom he had given me +was only fairly paid for by the fifty dollars which had jumped so +easily out of my pocket into his. + +But that was not the way I looked at the matter then; and in my heart +I cursed Captain Luke up hill and down dale for having, as I fancied, +lured me aboard the brig and so into peril of my skin. And my anger +was so strong that I went by turns hot and cold with it, and itched to +get at Captain Luke with my fists and give him a dressing--which I +very well could have done, had we come to fighting, for I was a bigger +man than he was and a stronger man, too. + +It is rather absurd as I look back at it, considering what a taking I +was in and how strong was my desire just then to punch Captain Luke's +head for him, that while I was at the top of my rage he came aft to +where I was leaning against the rail and put his hand on my shoulder +as friendly as possible and asked me to come down into the cabin to +supper. I suppose I had a queer pale look, because of my anger, for he +said not to mind if I did feel sickish, but to eat all the same and I +would feel better for it; and he really was so cordial and so pleasant +that for a moment or two I could not answer him. It was upsetting, +when I was so full of fight, to have him come at me in that friendly +way; and I must say that I felt rather sheepish, and wondered whether +I had not been working myself up over a mare's-nest as I followed +him below. + +We had the mate to supper with us, at a square table in the middle of +the cabin, and at breakfast the next morning we had the second mate; +and so it went turn and turn with them at meals--except that they had +some sort of dog-watch way about the Saturday night and Sunday morning +that always gave the mate his Sunday dinner with the captain, as was +the due of his rank. + +The mate was a surly brute, and when Captain Chilton said, in quite a +formal way, "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me make you acquainted with Mr. +George Hinds," he only grunted and gave me a sort of a nod. He did not +have much to say while the supper went on, speaking only when the +captain spoke to him, and then shortly; but from time to time he +snatched a mighty sharp look at me--that I pretended not to notice, +but saw well enough out of the tail of my eye. It was plain enough +that he was taking my measure, and I even fancied that he would have +been better pleased had I been six inches or so shorter and with less +well-made shoulders and arms. When he did speak it was in a growling +rumble of a voice, and he swore naturally. + +Captain Luke evidently tried to make up for the mate's surliness; and +he really was very pleasant indeed--telling me stories about the +Coast, and giving me good advice about guarding against sickness +there, and showing such an interest in my prospects with the palm-oil +people, and in my welfare generally, that I was still more inclined to +think that my scare about the shackles was only foolishness from first +to last. He seemed to be really pleased when he found that I was not +seasick, and interested when I told him how well I knew the sea and +the management of small craft from my sailing in the waters about +Nantucket every summer for so many years; and then we got to talking +about the Coast again and about my outfit for it, which he said was a +very good one; and he especially commended me--instead of laughing at +me, as I was afraid he would--for having brought along such a lot of +quinine. Indeed, the quinine seemed to make a good deal of an +impression on him, for he turned to the mate and said: "Do you hear +that, George? Mr. Stetworth has with him a whole case of +quinine--enough to serve a ship's company through a cruise." And the +mate rumbled out, as he got up from the table and started for the +deck, that quinine was a damned good thing. + +We waited below until the second mate came down, to whom the captain +introduced me with his regular formula: "Mr. Roger Stetworth, let me +make you acquainted with Mr. Martin Bowers." He was a young fellow, of +no more than my own age, and I took a fancy to him at sight--for he +not only shook my hand heartily but he looked me squarely in the eyes, +and that is a thing I like a man to do. It seemed to me that my being +there was a good deal of a puzzle to him; and he also took my measure, +but quite frankly--telling me when he had looked me over that if I +knew how to steer I'd be a good man to have at the wheel in a gale. + +The captain brought out a bottle of his favorite arrack, and he and I +had a glass together--in which, as I thought rather hard, Bowers was +not given a chance to join us--and then we went on deck and walked up +and down for a while, smoking our pipes and talking about the weather +and the prospects for the voyage. And it all went so easily and so +pleasantly that I couldn't help laughing a little to myself over +my scare. + +I turned in early, for I was pretty well tired after so lively a day; +but when I got into my bunk I could not get to sleep for a long +while--although the bunk was a good one and the easy motion of the +brig lulled me--for the excitement I was in because my voyage fairly +was begun. I slipped through my mind all that had happened to me that +day--from my meeting with Captain Luke in the forenoon until there I +was, at nine o'clock at night, fairly out at sea; and I was so pleased +with the series of lucky chances which had put me on my way so rapidly +that my one mischance--my scare about the shackles--seemed +utterly absurd. + +It was perfectly reasonable, I reflected, for Captain Luke to carry +out a lot of shackles simply as "trade." It was pretty dirty "trade," +of course, but so was the vile so-called brandy he was carrying out +with him; and so, for that matter, were the arms--which pretty +certainly would be used in slaving forays up from the Coast. And even +supposing the very worst--that Captain Luke meant to ship a cargo of +slaves himself and had these irons ready for them--that worst would +come after I was out of the brig and done with her; the captain having +told me that Loango, which was my landing-place, would be his first +port of call. When I was well quit of the _Golden Hind_ she and her +crew and her captain, for all that I cared, might all go to the devil +together. It was enough for me that I should be well treated on the +voyage over; and from the way that the voyage had begun--unless the +surly mate and I might have a bit of a flare-up--it looked as though I +were going to be very well treated indeed. And so, having come to this +comforting conclusion, I let the soft motion of the brig have its way +with me and began to snooze. + +A little later I was partly aroused by the sound of steps coming down +the companion-way; and then by hearing, in the mate's rumble, these +words: "I guess you're right, captain. As you had to run for it to-day +before you could buy our quinine, it's a damn good thing he did get +aboard, after all!" + +I was too nearly asleep to pay much attention to this, but in a drowsy +way I felt glad that my stock of quinine had removed the mate's +objections to me as a passenger; and I concluded that my purchase of +such an absurd lot of it--after getting worked up by my reading about +the West Coast fevers--had turned out to be a good thing for me in +the long-run. + +After that the talk went on in the cabin for a good while, but in such +low tones that even had I been wide awake I could not have followed +it. But I kept dozing off, catching only a word or two now and then; +and the only whole sentence I heard was in the mate's rumble again: +"Well, if we can't square things, there's always room for one more +in the sea." + +It all was very dream-like--and fitted into a dream that came later, +in the light sleep of early morning, I suppose, in which the mate wore +the uniform of a street-car conductor, and I was giving him doses of +quinine, and he was asking the passengers in a car full of salt-water +to move up and make room for me, and was telling them and me that in a +sea-car there always was room for one more. + + + + + +IV + +CAPTAIN LUKE MAKES ME AN OFFER + + +During the next fortnight or so my life on board the brig was as +pleasant as it well could be. On the first day out we got a slant of +wind that held by us until it had carried us fairly into the northeast +trades--and then away we went on our course, with everything set and +drawing steady, and nothing much to do but man the wheel and eat three +square meals a day. + +And so everybody was in a good humor, from the captain down. Even the +mate rumbled what he meant to be a civil word to me now and then; and +Bowers and I--being nearly of an age, and each of us with his foot on +the first round of the ladder--struck up a friendship that kept us +talking away together by the hour at a time: and very frankly, except +that he was shy of saying anything about the brig and her doings, and +whenever I tried to draw him on that course got flurried a little and +held off. But in all other matters he was open; and especially +delighted in running on about ships and seafaring--for the man was a +born sailor and loved his profession with all his heart. + +It was in one of these talks with Bowers that I got my first knowledge +of the Sargasso Sea--about which I shortly was to know a great deal +more than he did: that old sea-wonder which puzzled and scared +Columbus when he coasted it on his way to discover America; and which +continued to puzzle all mariners until modern nautical science +revealed its cause--yet still left it a good deal of a mystery--almost +in our own times. + +The subject came up one day while we were crossing the Gulf Stream, +and the sea all around us was pretty well covered with patches of +yellow weed--having much the look of mustard-plasters--amidst which a +bit of a barnacled spar bobbed along slowly near us, and not far off a +new pine plank. The yellow stuff, Bowers said, was gulf-weed, brought +up from the Gulf of Mexico where the Stream had its beginning; and +that, thick though it was around us, this was nothing to the thickness +of it in the part of the ocean where the Stream (so he put it, not +knowing any better) had its end. And to that same place, he added, the +Stream carried all that was caught in its current--like the spar and +the plank floating near us--so that the sea was covered with a thick +tangle of the weed in which was held fast fragments of wreckage, and +stuff washed overboard, and logs adrift from far-off southern shores, +until in its central part the mass was so dense that no ship could +sail through it, nor could a steamer traverse it because of the +fouling of her screw. And this sort of floating island--which lay in a +general way between the Bermudas and the Canaries--covered an area of +ocean, he said, half as big as the area of the United States; and to +clear it ships had to make a wide detour--for even in its thin outward +edges a vessel's way was a good deal retarded and a steamer's wheel +would foul sometimes, and there was danger always of collision with +derelicts drifting in from the open sea to become a part of the +central mass. Our own course, he further said, would be changed +because of it; but we would be for a while upon what might be called +its coast, and so I would have a chance to see for myself something of +its look as we sailed along. + +As I know now, Bowers over-estimated the size of this strange island +of sea-waifs and sea-weed by nearly one-half; and he was partly wrong +as to the making of it: for the Sargasso Sea is not where any current +ends, but lies in that currentless region of the ocean that is found +to the east of the main Gulf Stream and to the south of the branch +which sweeps across the North Atlantic to the Azores; and its floating +stuff is matter cast off from the Gulf Stream's edge into the +bordering still water--as a river eddies into its pools twigs and dead +leaves and such-like small flotsam--and there is compacted by +capillary attraction and by the slow strong pressure of the winds. + +On the whole, though, Bowers was not very much off in his +description--which somehow took a queer deep hold upon me, and +especially set me to wondering what strange old waifs and strays of +the ocean might not be found in the thick of that tangle if only there +were some way of pushing into it and reaching the hidden depths that +no man ever yet had seen. But when I put this view of the matter to +him I did not get much sympathy. He was a practical young man, without +a stitch of romance in his whole make-up, and he only laughed at my +suggestion and said that anybody who tried to push into that mess just +for the sake of seeing some barnacle-covered logs, or perhaps a +rotting hulk or two, would be a good deal of a fool. And so I did not +press my fancy on him, and our talks went on about more +commonplace things. + +It was with Captain Luke that I had most to do, and before long I got +to have a very friendly feeling for him because of the trouble that he +took to make me comfortable and to help me pass the time. The first +day out, seeing that I was interested when he took the sun, he turned +the sextant over to me and showed me how to take an observation; and +then how to work it out and fix the brig's position on the chart--and +was a good deal surprised by my quickness in understanding his +explanations (for I suppose that to him, with his rule-of-thumb +knowledge of mathematics, the matter seemed complex), and still more +surprised when he found, presently, that I really understood the +underlying principle of this simple bit of seamanship far better than +he did himself. He said that I knew more than most of the captains +afloat and that I ought to be a sailor; which he meant, no doubt, to +be the greatest compliment that he could pay me. After that I took the +sights and worked them with him daily; and as I several times +corrected his calculations--for even simple addition and subtraction +were more than he could manage with certainty--he became so impressed +by my knowledge as to treat me with an odd show of respect. + +But in practical matters--knowledge of men and things, and of the many +places about the world which he had seen, and of the management of a +ship in all weathers--he was one of the best-informed men that ever I +came across: being naturally of a hard-headed make, with great +acuteness of observation, and with quick and sound reasoning powers. I +found his talk always worth listening to; and I liked nothing better +than to sit beside him, or to walk the deck with him, while we smoked +our pipes together and he told me in his shrewd way about one queer +thing and another which he had come upon in various parts of the +world--for he had followed the sea from the time that he was a boy, +and there did not seem to be a bit of coast country nor any part of +all the oceans which he did not know well. + +Unlike Bowers, he was very free in talking about the trade that he +carried on in the brig upon the African coast, and quite astonished me +by his showing of the profits that he made; and he generally ended his +discourses on this head by laughingly contrasting the amount of money +that even Bowers got every year--the mates being allowed an interest +in the brig's earnings--with the salary that the palm-oil people were +to pay to me. Indeed, he managed to make me quite discontented with my +prospects, although I had thought them very good indeed when I first +told him about them; and when he would say jokingly, as he very often +did, that I had better drop the palm-oil people and take a berth on +the brig instead, I would be half sorry that he was only in fun. + +In a serious way, too, he told me that the Coast trade had got very +unfairly a bad name that it did not deserve. At one time, he said, a +great many hard characters had got into it, and their doings had given +it a black reputation that still stuck to it. But in recent years, he +explained, it had fallen into the hands of a better class of traders, +and its tone had been greatly improved. As a rule, he declared, the +West Coast traders were as decent men as would be found anywhere--not +saints, perhaps, he said smilingly, but men who played a reasonably +square game and who got big money mainly because they took big risks. +When I asked him what sort of risks, he answered: "Oh, pretty much all +sorts--sometimes your pocket and sometimes your neck," and added that +to a man of spirit these risks made half the fun. And then he said +that for a man who did not care for that sort of thing it was better +to be contented with a safe place and low wages--and asked me how long +I expected to stay at Loango, and if I had a better job ahead, when my +work there was done. + +At first he would shift the subject when I tried to make him talk +about the slave traffic. But one day--it was toward the end of our +second week out, and I was beginning to think from his constant +turning to it that perhaps he really might mean to offer me a berth on +the brig, and that his offer might be pretty well worth accepting--he +all of a sudden spoke out freely and of his own accord. It was true, +he said, that sometimes a few blacks were taken aboard by traders, +when no other stuff offered for barter, and were carried up to Mogador +and there sold for very high prices indeed--for there was a prejudice +against the business, and the naval vessels on the Coast tried so +persistently to stop it that the risk of capture was great and the +profit from a successful venture correspondingly large. But the +prejudice, he continued, was really not well-founded. Slavery, of +course, was a very bad thing; but there were degrees of badness in it, +and since it could not be broken up there was much to be said in favor +of any course that would make it less cruel. The blacks who were the +slaves of other blacks, or of Portuguese,--and it was only these that +the traders bought--were exposed to such barbarous treatment that it +was a charity to rescue them from it on almost any terms. Certainly it +was for their good, as they had to be in bondage somewhere, to deliver +them from such masters by carrying them away to Northern Africa: where +the slavery was of so mild and paternal a sort that cruelty almost was +unknown. And then he went on to tell me about the kindly relations +which he himself had seen existing between slaves and their masters in +those parts, both among Arabs and Moors. + +This presentment of the case put so new a face on it that at first I +could not get my bearings; which I am the less ashamed to own up to +because, as I look at the matter now, I perceive how much trouble +Captain Luke took to win me for his own purposes--he being a +middle-aged man packed full of shrewd worldly wisdom, and I only a +fresh young fool. + +My hesitation about making up an answer to him--for, while I was sure +that in the main point he was all wrong, I was caught for the moment +in his sophisms--made him fancy, I suppose, that he had convinced me; +and so was safe to go ahead in the way that he had intended, no doubt, +all along. At any rate, without stopping until my slow wits had a +chance to get pulled together, he put on a great show of friendly +frankness and said that he now knew me well enough to trust me, and so +would tell me openly that he himself engaged in the Mogador trade when +occasion offered; and that there was more money in it a dozen times +over than in all the other trade that he carried on in the +_Golden Hind_. + +I confess that this avowal completely staggered me, and with a rush +brought back all the fears by which I had been so rattled on the first +day of our voyage. In a hazy way I perceived that the captain had been +playing a part with me, and that the others had been playing parts +too--for I could not hope that among men of that stripe such +friendliness should be natural--and what with my surprise, and the +fresh fright I was thrown into, I was struck fairly dumb. + +But Captain Luke--likely enough deceived by his own hopes, as even +shrewd men will be sometimes--either did not notice the fluster I was +in, or thought to set matters all right with me in his own way; for +when he found that I remained silent he took up the talk himself +again, and went on to show in detail the profits of a single venture +with a live cargo--and his figures were certainly big enough to fire +the fancy of any man who was keen for money-getting and who was +willing to get his money by rotten ways. And then, when he had +finished with this part of the matter, he came out plumply with the +offer to give me a mate's rating on board the brig if I would cast in +my fortunes with his. Of the theory of seamanship, he said, I already +knew more than he did himself; and so much more than either of his +mates that he would feel entirely at ease--as he could not with +them--in trusting the navigation of the brig in my hands. As to the +practical part of the work, that was a matter that with my quickness I +would pick up in no time; and my bigness and strength, he added, would +come in mighty handily when there was trouble among the crew, as +sometimes happened, and in keeping the blacks in order, and in the +little fights that now and then were necessary with folks on shore. +And then he came to the real kernel of the matter: which was that +Bowers did not like his work and was not fit for it, and was +threatening to leave the brig at the first port she made, and so a man +who could be trusted was badly needed to take his place. + +When he had finished with it all I was dumber than ever; for I was in +a rage at him for making me such an offer, and at the same time saw +pretty clearly that if I refused it as plumply as he made it we +should come to such open enmity that I--being in his power +completely--would be in danger of my skin. And so I was glad when he +gave me a breathing spell, and the chance to think things over +quietly, by telling me that he would not hurry me for answer and that +I could take a day or two--or a week or two if I wanted it--in which +to make up my mind. + + + + + +V + +I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER + + +For the rest of that day, and for the two days following, Captain Luke +did not in any way refer to his offer; and as he showed himself more +than ever friendly, and talked away to me in his usual entertaining +fashion, my rage and fright began to go off a little--though at +bottom, of course, there was no change in my opinions, nor any doubt +as to my giving him a point-blank refusal when the issue should be +squarely raised. + +All this time the brig was bowling along down the trades; and on the +third morning after I had the captain's offer--we being then close +upon the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude--Bowers called my +attention to the gulf-weed floating about us, and told me that we were +fairly on the outer edge of the Sargasso Sea. We should not get into +any thicker part of it, he said, as we should bear up to clear it; and +so we actually did, hauling away a good deal to the eastward when the +brig's course was set that day at noon. But my interest in the matter +had been so checked--all my thought being given to finding some way +out of the pickle in which I found myself--that I paid little +attention to the patches of yellow weed on the water around us or to +the bits of wreckage that we saw now and then; and when Bowers, +keeping on with his talk, fell to chaffing me about my desire to make +a voyage of discovery into the thick part of this floating mystery I +did not rise to his joking, nor did I make him much of a reply. + +Indeed, I was in rather a low way that day; which was due in part to +my not being able, for all my thinking, to see any sort of a clear +course before me; and in part to the fact that the weather was +thickening and that my spirits were dulled a good deal by what we call +the heaviness of the air. All around the horizon steel-gray clouds +were rising, and a soft sort of a haze hung about us and took the life +out of the sunshine, and the wind fell away until there was almost +nothing of it, and that little fitful--while with the dying out of it +the sea began to stir slowly with a long oily swell. Far down to the +southeast a line of smoke hung along the horizon, coming from the +funnel of some steamer out of sight over the ocean's curve, and the +heaviness of the atmosphere was shown by the way that this smoke held +close to the surface of the sea. + +That Captain Luke did not like the look of things was plain enough +from his sharp glances about him and from his frequent examinations +of the glass; and he seemed to be all the more bothered--his seaman's +instinct that a storm was brewing being at odds with the barometer's +prophecy--by the fact that the mercury showed a marked tendency to +rise. Had he known as much of the scientific side of navigation as he +knew of the practical side he could have reconciled the conduct of the +barometer with his own convictions, and so would have been easier in +his mind; for it is a fact that the mercury often rises suddenly on +the front edge of a storm--that is to say, a little in advance of +it--by reason of the air banking up there. But having only his +rule-of-thumb knowledge to apply in the premises, the apparent +scientific contradiction of his own practical notions as to what was +going to happen confused him and made him irritable--the +nerve-stirring state of the atmosphere no doubt having also a share in +the matter--as was made plain by his sharp quick motions, and by the +way in which on the smallest provocation he fell to swearing at the +men. And so the day wore itself out to nightfall: with the steel-gray +clouds lifting steadily from the horizon toward the zenith, and with +the swell of the weed-spattered sea slowly rising, and with a doubting +uneasiness among all of us that found its most marked expression in +Captain Luke's increasingly savage mood. + +Our supper was a glowering one. The captain had little to say, and +that little of a sharp sort, while the mate only rumbled out a curse +now and then at the boy who served us; and I myself was in a bitter +bad humor as I thought how hard it was on me to be shut up at sea in +such vile company, and how I had only myself to blame for getting into +it--and found my case all the harder because of my nervous uneasiness +due to the coming storm. As to the storm, there no longer could be +doubt about it, for the barometer had got into line with Captain +Luke's convictions and was falling fast. + +When the supper was over the captain brought out his arrack-bottle and +took off a full tumbler, which was more than double his usual +allowance, and then pushed the liquor across to the mate and me. The +mate also took a good pull at it, and I took a fair drink myself in +the hope that it would quiet my nerves--but it had exactly the +opposite effect and made me both excited and cross. And then we all +came on deck together, and all in a rough humor, and Bowers went down +into the cabin to have his supper by himself. + +What happened in the next half-hour happened so quickly that I cannot +give a very clear account of it. A part of it, no doubt, was due to +mere chance and angry impulse; but not the whole of it, and I think +not the worst of it--for the first thing that the captain did was to +order the man who was steering to go forward and to tell the mate to +take the wheel. That left just the three of us together at the stern +of the brig--with Bowers below and so out of sight and hearing, and +with all the crew completely cut off from us and put out of sight and +hearing by the rise of the cabin above the deck. + +Night had settled down on the ocean, but not darkness. Far off to the +eastward the full moon was standing well above the horizon and was +fighting her way upward through the clouds--now and then getting +enough the better of them to send down a dash of brightness on the +water, but for the most part making only a faint twilight through +their gloom. The wind still was very light and fitful, but broken by +strongish puffs which would heel the brig over a little and send her +along sharply for half a mile or so before they died away; and the +swell had so risen that we had a long sleepy roll. Up to windward I +made out a ship's lights--that seemed to be coming down on us rapidly, +from their steady brightening--and I concluded that this must be the +steamer from which the smoke had come that I had seen trailing along +the horizon through the afternoon; and I even fancied, the night being +intensely still, that I could hear across the water the soft purring +sound made by the steady churning of her wheel. Somehow it deepened +the sullen anger that had hold of me to see so close by a ship having +honest men aboard of her, and to know at the same time how hopelessly +fast I was tied to the brig and her dirty crew. I don't mind saying +that the tears came to my eyes, for I was both hurt by my sorrow and +heavy with my dull rage. + +We all three were silent for a matter of ten minutes or so, or it +might even have been longer, and then Captain Luke faced around on me +suddenly and asked: "Well, have you made up your mind?" + +Had I been cooler I should have tried to fence a little, since my only +resource--I being caught like a rat in a trap that way--was to try to +gain time; but I was all in a quiver, just as I suppose he was, with +the excitement of the situation and with the excitement of the +thunderous night, and his short sharp question jostled out of my head +what few wits I had there and made me throw away my only chance. And +so I answered him, just as shortly and as sharply: "Yes, I have." + +"Do you mean to join the brig?" he demanded. + +"No, I don't," I answered, and stepped a little closer to him and +looked him squarely in the eyes. + +"I told you so," the mate broke in with his rumble; and I saw that he +was whipping a light lashing on the wheel in a way that would hold it +steady in case he wanted to let go. + +"Better think a minute," said Captain Luke, speaking coolly enough, +but still with an angry undertone in his voice. "I've made you a good +offer, and I'm ready to stand by it. But if you won't take what I've +offered you you'll take something else that you won't like, my fresh +young man. In a friendly way, and for your information, I've told you +a lot of things that I can't trust to the keeping of any living man +who won't chip in with us and take our chances--the bad ones with the +good ones--just as they happen to come along. You know too much, now, +for me to part company from you while you have a wagging tongue in +your head--and so my offer's still open to you. Only there's this +about it: if you won't take it, overboard you go." + +I had a little gleam of sense at that; for I knew that he spoke in +dead earnest, and that the mate stood ready to back him, and that +against the two of them I had not much show. And so I tried to play +for time, saying: "Well, let me think it over a bit longer. You said +there was no hurry and that I might have a week to consider in. I've +had only three days, so far. Do you call that square?" + +"Squareness be damned," rumbled the mate, and he gave a look aloft and +another to windward--the breeze just then had fallen to a mere +whisper--and took his hands off the wheel and stepped away from it so +that he and the captain were close in front of me, side by side. I +stood off from them a little, and got my back against the cabin--that +I might be safe against an attack from behind--and I was so furiously +angry that I forgot to be scared. + +"Three days is as good as three years," Captain Luke jerked out. "What +I want is an answer right now. Will you join the brig--yes or no?" + +Somehow I remembered just then seeing our pig killed, when I was a +boy--how he ran around the lot with the men after him, and got into a +corner and tried to fight them, and was caught in spite of his poor +little show of fighting, and was rolled over on his back and had his +throat stuck. He was a nice pig, and I had felt sorry for him: +thinking that he didn't deserve such treatment, his life having been a +respectable one, and he never having done anybody any harm. It all +came back to me in a flash, as I settled myself well against the cabin +and answered: "No, I won't join you--and you and your brig may go +to hell!" + +All I remember after that was their rush together upon me, and my +hitting out two or three times--getting in one smasher on the mate's +jaw that was a comfort to me--and then something hard cracking me on +the head, and so stunning me that I knew nothing at all of what +happened until I found myself coming up to the surface of the sea, +sputtering salt-water and partly tangled in a bunch of gulf-weed, and +saw the brig heeling over and sliding fast away from me before a +sudden strong draught of wind. + + + + + +VI + +I TIE UP MY BROKEN HEAD, AND TRY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + + +My head was tingling with pain, and so buzzy that I had no sense worth +speaking of, but just kept myself afloat in an instinctive sort of way +by paddling a little with my hands. And I could not see well for what +I thought was water in my eyes--until I found that it was blood +running down over my forehead from a gash in my scalp that went from +the top of my right ear pretty nearly to my crown. Had the blow that +made it struck fair it certainly would have finished me; but from the +way that the scalp was cut loose the blow must have glanced. + +The chill of the water freshened me and brought my senses back a +little: for which I was not especially thankful at first, being in +such pain and misery that to drown without knowing much about it +seemed quite the best thing that I could hope for just then. Indeed, +when I began to think again, though not very clearly, I had half a +mind to drop my arms to my sides and so go under and have done with +it--so despairing was I as I bobbed about on the swell among the +patches of gulf-weed which littered the dark ocean, with the brig +drawing away from me rapidly, and no chance of a rescue from her even +had she been near at hand. + +Whether I had or had not hurried the matter, under I certainly should +have gone shortly--for the crack on my head and the loss of blood from +it had taken most of my strength out of me, and even with my full +strength I could not have kept afloat long--had not a break in the +clouds let through a dash of moonlight that gave me another chance. It +was only for a moment or two that the moonlight lasted, yet long +enough for me to make out within a hundred feet of me a biggish piece +of wreckage--which but for that flash I should not have noticed, or in +the dimness would have taken only for a bunch of weed. + +Near though it was, getting to it was almost more than I could manage; +and when at last I did reach it I was so nearly used up that I barely +had strength to throw my arms about it and one leg over it, and so +hang fast for a good many minutes in a half-swoon of weakness +and pain. + +But the feel of something solid under me, and the certainty that for a +little while at least I was safe from drowning, helped me to pull +myself together; and before long some of my strength came back, and a +little of my spirit with it, and I went about settling myself more +securely on my poor sort of a raft. What I had hit upon, I found, was +a good part of a ship's mast; with the yards still holding fast by it +and steadying it, and all so clean-looking that it evidently had not +been in the water long. The main-top, I saw, would give me a back to +lean against and also a little shelter; and in that nook I would be +still more secure because the futtock-shrouds made a sort of cage +about it and gave me something to catch fast to should the swell of +the sea roll me off. So I worked along the mast from where I first had +caught hold of it until I got myself stowed away under the main-top: +where I had my body fairly out of water, and a chance to rest easily +by leaning against the upstanding woodwork, and a good grip with my +legs to keep me firm. And it is true, though it don't sound so, that I +was almost happy at finding myself so snug and safe there--as it +seemed after having nothing under me but the sea. + +And then I set myself--my head hurting me cruelly, and the flow of +blood still bothering me--to see what I could do in the way of binding +up my wound; and made a pretty good job of it, having a big silk +handkerchief in my pocket that I folded into a smooth bandage and +passed over my crown and under my chin--after first dowsing my head in +the cold sea water, which set the cut to smarting like fury but helped +to keep the blood from flowing after the bandage was made fast. At +first, while I was paddling in the water and splashing my way along +the mast and while the bandage was flapping about my ears, I had no +chance to hear any noises save those little ones close to me which I +was making myself. But when I had finished my rough surgery, and +leaned back against the top to rest after it--and my heart was +beginning to sink with the thought of how utterly desperate my case +was, afloat there on the open ocean with a gale coming on--I heard in +the deep silence a faint rythmic sound that I recognized instantly as +the pulsing of a steamer's engine and the steady churning of her +screw. This mere whisper in the darkness was a very little thing to +hang a hope upon; but hope did return to me with the conviction that +the sound came from the steamer of which I had seen the lights just +before I was pitched overboard, and that I had a chance of her passing +near enough to me to hear my hail. + +I peered eagerly over the waters, trying to make out her lights again +and so settle how she was heading; but I could see no lights, though +with each passing minute the beating of the screw sounded louder to my +straining ears. From that I concluded that she must be coming up +behind me and was hid by the top from me; and so, slowly and +painfully, I managed to get on my hands and knees on the mast, and +then to raise myself until I stood erect and could see over the edge +of the top as it rose like a little wall upright--and gave a weak +shout of joy as I saw what I was looking for, the three bright points +against the blackness, not more than a mile away. And I was all the +more hopeful because her red and green lights showed full on each side +of the white light on her foremast, and by that I knew that she was +heading for me as straight as she could steer. + +I gave another little shout--but fainter than the first, for my +struggle to get to my feet, and then to hold myself erect as the swell +rolled the mast about, made me weak and a little giddy; and I wanted +to keep on shouting--but had the sense not to, that I might save my +strength for the yells that I should have to give when the steamer got +near enough to me for her people to hear my cries. So I stood +silent--swaying with the roll of the mast, and with my head throbbing +horribly because of my excitement and the strain of holding on +there--while I watched her bearing down on me; and making her out so +plainly as she got closer that it never occurred to me that I and my +bit of mast would not be just as plain to her people as her great bulk +was to me. + +I don't suppose that she was within a quarter of a mile of me when I +began my yelling; but I was too much worked up to wait longer, and the +result of my hurry was to make my voice very hoarse and feeble by the +time that she really was within hail. She came dashing along so +straight for me that I suddenly got into a tremor of fear that she +would run me down; and, indeed, she only cleared me by fifty feet or +so--her huge black hull, dotted with the bright lights of her cabin +ports, sliding past me so close that she seemed to tower right up over +me--and I was near to being swamped, so violently was my mast tossed +about by the rush and suck of the water from her big screw. And while +she hung over me, and until she was gone past me and clear out of all +hearing, I yelled and yelled! + +At first I could not believe, so sure had I been of my rescue, that +she had left me; and it was not until she was a good half mile away +from me, with only the sound of her screw ripping the water, and a +faint gleam of light from her after ports showing through the +darkness, that I realized that she was gone--and then I grew so sick +and dizzy that it is a wonder I did not lose my hold altogether and +fall off into the sea. Somehow or another I managed to swing myself +down and to seat myself upon the mast again, with my head fairly +splitting and with my heart altogether gone: and so rested there, +shutting my eyes to hide the sight of my hope vanishing, and as +desolate as any man ever was. + +Presently, in a dull way, I noticed that I no longer heard the swash +of her screw, and rather wondered at her getting out of hearing so +quickly; but for fear of still seeing her lights, and so having more +pain from her, I still kept my eyes tight closed. And then, all of a +sudden, I heard quite close by me a hail--and opened my eyes in a +hurry to see a light not a hundred feet away from me, and to make out +below it the loom of a boat moving slowly over the weed-strewn sea. + +The shout that I gave saved me, but before it saved me I came near to +being done for. Such a rush of blood went up into my broken head with +the sudden burst of joy upon me that a dead faint came upon me and I +fell off into the water; and that I was floating when the boat got to +me was due to the mere chance that as I dropped away from the mast one +of my arms slipped into the tangle of the futtock-shrouds. But I knew +nothing about that, nor about anything else that happened, until we +were half-way back to the steamer and I came to my senses a little; +and very little for a good while longer--except that I was swung up a +ship's side and there was a good deal of talking going on around me; +and then that my clothes were taken off and I was lifted into a soft +delightful berth; and then that somebody with gentle hands was binding +up my broken crown. + +When this job was finished--which hurt me a good deal, but did not +rouse me much--I just fell back upon the soft pillow and went to +sleep: with a blessed sense of rest and safety, as I felt the roll of +a whole ship under me again after the short jerk of my mast, and knew +that I was not back on the brig but aboard an honest steamer by +hearing and by feeling the strong steady pulsing of her screw. + + + + +VII + +I ENCOUNTER A GOOD DOCTOR AND A VIOLENT GALE + +I was roused from my sleep by the sharp motion of the vessel; but did +not get very wide awake, for I felt donsie and there was a dull +ringing in my head along with a great dull pain. I had sense enough, +though, to perceive that the storm had come, about which Captain Luke +and the barometer had been at odds; and to shake a little with a +creepy terror as I thought of the short work it would have made with +me had I waited for it on my mast. But I was too much hurt to feel +anything very keenly, and so heavy that even with the quick short roll +of the ship to rouse me I kept pretty much in a doze. + +After a while the door of my state-room was opened a little and a man +peeped in; and when he saw my open eyes looking at him he came in +altogether, giving me a nod and a smile. He was a tall fellow in a +blue uniform, with a face that I liked the looks of; and when he spoke +to me I liked the sound of his voice. + +"You must be after being own cousin to all the Seven Sleepers of +Ephesus and the dog too, my big young man," he said, holding fast to +the upper berth to steady himself. "You've put in ten solid hours, so +far, and you don't seem to be over wide awake yet. Faith, I'd be after +backing you to sleep standing, like Father O'Rafferty's old dun cow!" + +I did not feel up to answering him, but I managed to grin a little, +and he went on: "I'm for thinking that I'd better let that broken head +of yours alone till this fool of a ship is sitting still +again--instead of trying to teach the porpoises such tricks of rolling +and pitching as never entered into their poor brute minds. But you'll +do without doctoring for the present, myself having last night sewed +up all right and tight for you the bit of your scalp that had fetched +away. How does it feel?" + +"It hurts," was all that I could answer. + +"And small blame to it," said the doctor, and went on: "It's a +well-made thick head you have, and it's tough you are, my son, not to +be killed entirely by such a whack as you got on your brain-box--to +say nothing of your fancy for trying to cure it hydropathically by +taking it into the sea with you when you were for crossing the +Atlantic Ocean on the fag-end of a mast. It's much indeed that you +have to learn, I am thinking, both about surgery and about taking care +of yourself. But in the former you'll now do well, being in the +competent hands of a graduate of Dublin University; and in regard to +your incompetence in the latter good reason have you for being +thankful that the _Hurst Castle_ happened to be travelling in these +parts last night, and that her third officer is blessed with a pair of +extra big ears and so happened to hear you talking to him from out of +the depths of the sea. + +"But talking isn't now the best thing for you, and some more of the +sleep that you're so fond of is--if only the tumbling of the ship will +let you have it; so take this powder into that mouth of yours which +you opened so wide when you were conversing with us as we went sailing +past you, and then stop your present chattering and take all the sleep +that you can hold." + +With that he put a bitter powder into my mouth, and gave me a drink of +water after it--raising me up with a wonderful deftness and gentleness +that I might take it, and settling me back again on the pillow in just +the way that I wanted to lie. "And now be off again to your friends +the Ephesians," he said; "only remember that if you or they--or their +dog either, poor beasty--wants anything, it's only needed to touch +this electric bell. As to the doggy," he added, with his hand on the +door-knob, "tell him to poke at the button with the tip of his foolish +nose." And with that he opened the door and went away. All this +light friendly talk was such a comfort to me--showing, as it did, +along with the good care that I was getting, what kindly people I had +fallen among--that in my weak state I cried a little because of my +happy thankfulness; and then, my weakness and the powder acting +together to lull me, in spite of the ship's sharp motion I went off +again to sleep. + +But that time my sleep did not last long. In less than an hour, I +suppose, the motion became so violent as to shake me awake again--and +to give me all that I could do to keep myself from being shot out of +my berth upon the floor. Presently the doctor came again, fetching +with him one of the cabin stewards to rig the storm-board at the side +of my berth and some extra pillows with which to wedge me fast. But +though he gave me a lot more of his pleasant chaff to cheer me I could +see that his look was anxious, and it seemed to me that the steward +was badly scared. Between them they managed to stow me pretty tight in +my berth and to make me as comfortable as was possible while +everything was in such commotion--with the ship bouncing about like a +pea on a hot shovel and all the wood-work grinding and creaking with +the sudden lifts and strains. + +"It's a baddish gale that's got hold of the old _Hurst Castle_, and +that's a fact," the doctor said, when they had finished with me, in +answer to the questioning look that he saw in my eyes. "But it's +nothing to worry about," he went on; "except that it's hard on you, +with that badly broken head of yours, to be tumbled about worse than +Mother O'Donohue's pig when they took it to Limerick fair in a cart. +So just lie easy there among your pillows, my son; and pretend that +it's exercise that you are taking for the good of your liver--which is +a torpid and a sluggish organ in the best of us, and always the better +for such a shaking as the sea is giving us now. And be remembering +that the _Hurst Castle_ is a Clyde-built boat, with every plate and +rivet in her as good as a Scotsman knows how to make it--and in such +matters it's the Sandies who know more than any other men alive. In my +own ken she's pulled through storms fit to founder the Giant's +Causeway and been none the worse for 'em, and so it's herself that's +certain to weather this bit of a gale--which has been at its worst no +less than two times this same morning, and therefore by all rule and +reason must be for breaking soon. + +"And be thinking, too," he added as he was leaving me, "that I'll be +coming in to look after you now and then when I have a spare +minute--for there are some others, I'm sorry to say, who are after +needing me; and as soon as the gale goes down a bit I'll overhaul +again that cracked head of yours, and likely be singing you at the +same time for your amusement a real Irish song." But not much was +there of singing, nor of any other show of lightheartedness, aboard +the _Hurst Castle_ during the next twelve hours. So far from breaking, +the gale--as the doctor had called it, although in reality it was a +hurricane--got worse steadily; with only a lull now and then, as +though for breath-taking, and then a fiercer rush of wind--before +which the ship would reel and shiver, while the grinding of her iron +frame and the crunching of her wood-work made a sort of wild chorus of +groans and growls. For all my wedging of pillows I was near to flying +over the storm-board out of my berth with some of the plunges that she +took; and very likely I should have had such a tumble had not the +doctor returned again in a little while and with the mattress from the +upper berth so covered me as to jam me fast--and how he managed to do +this, under the circumstances, I am sure I don't know. + +When he had finished my packing he bent down over me--or I could not +have heard him--and said: "It's sorry I am for you, my poor boy, for +you're getting just now more than your full share of troubles. But +we're all in a pickle together, and that's a fact, and the choice +between us is small. And I'd be for suggesting that if you know such a +thing as a prayer or two you'll never have a finer opportunity for +saying them than you have now." And by that, and by the friendly +sorrowful look that he gave me, I knew that our peril must +be extreme. + +I don't like to think of the next few hours; while I lay there packed +tight as any mummy, and with no better than a mummy's chances, as it +seemed to me, of ever seeing the live world again--terrified by the +awful war of the storm and by the confusion of wild noises, and every +now and then sharply startled by hearing on the deck above me a fierce +crash as something fetched away. It was a bad time, Heaven knows, for +everybody; but for me I thought that it was worst of all. For there I +was lying in utter helplessness, with the certainty that if the ship +foundered there was not a chance for me--since I must drown solitary +in my state-room, like a rat drowned in a hole. + + + + + +VIII + +THE _HURST CASTLE_ IS DONE FOR + + +At last, having worn itself out, as sailors say, the storm began to +lessen: first showing its weakening by losing its little lulls and +fiercer gusts after them, and then dropping from a tempest to a mere +gale--that in turn fell slowly to a gentle wind. But even after the +wind had fallen, and for a good while after, the ship labored in a +tremendous sea. + +As I grew easier in my mind and body, and so could think a little, I +wondered why my friend the doctor did not come to me; and when at last +my door was opened I looked eagerly--my eyes being the only free part +of me--to see him come in. But it was the steward who entered, and I +had a little sharp pang of disappointment because I missed the face +that I wanted to see. However, the man stooped over me, kindly enough, +and lifted off the mattress and did his best to make me comfortable; +only when I asked him where the doctor was he pretty dismally +shook his head. + +"It's th' doctor himself is needin' doctorin', poor soul," he +answered, "he bein' with his right leg broke, and with his blessed +head broke a-most as bad as yours!" And then he told me that when the +storm was near ended the doctor had gone on deck to have a look at +things, and almost the minute he got there had been knocked over by a +falling spar. "For th' old ship's shook a-most to pieces," the man +went on; "with th' foremast clean overboard, an' th' mizzen so wobbly +that it's dancin' a jig every time she pitches, and everything at rags +an' tatters of loose ends." + +"But the doctor?" I asked. + +"He says himself, sir, that he's not dangerous, and I s'pose he ought +to know. Th' captain an' th' purser together, he orderin' 'em, have +set his leg for him; and his head, he says, 'll take care of itself, +bein' both thick an' hard. But he's worryin' painful because he can't +look after you, sir, an' th' four or five others that got hurt in th' +storm. And I can tell you, sir," the man went on, "that all th' ship's +company, an' th' passengers on top of 'em, are sick with sorrow that +this has happened to him; for there's not a soul ever comes near th' +doctor but loves him for his goodness, and we'd all be glad to break +our own legs this minute if by that we could be mendin' his!" + +The steward spoke very feelingly and earnestly, and with what he said +I was in thorough sympathy; for the doctor's care of me and his +friendliness had won my heart to him, just as it had won to him the +hearts of all on board. But there was comfort in knowing that he had +got off with only a broken leg and a broken head from a peril that so +easily might have been the death of him, and of that consolation I +made the most--while the steward, who was a handy fellow and pretty +well trained as a surgeon's assistant, freshly bandaged my head for me +as the doctor had ordered him to do, and so set me much more at my +ease. After that, for the rest of the day, he came every hour or so to +look after me; giving me some broth to eat and a biscuit, and some +medicine that the doctor sent me with the message that it would put +strength enough into a dead pig to set him to dancing--by which I knew +that even if his head and leg were broken there was no break in his +whimsical fun. + +The steward was the only man who came near me; but this did not +surprise me when he told me more about the condition that the ship was +in, and how all hands--excepting himself, who had been detailed +because of his knowledge that way to look after the hurt people under +the doctor's direction--were hard at work making repairs, with what men +there were among the passengers helping too. The ship was not leaking, +he said, and this was the luckier because her frame was so strained +that it was doubtful if her water-tight compartments would hold; but +the foremast had been carried away, and all the weather-boats had been +mashed out of all shape or swept overboard, and the mizzen was so +shaky that it seemed likely at any moment to fall. Indeed, the mast +was in such a bad way, he said, that the first and second officers +were for getting rid of it--and of the danger that there was of its +coming down all in a heap anyway--by sending it overboard; but that +the captain thought it safe to stand now that the sea was getting +smooth again, and was setting up jury-stays to hold it until we made +the Azores--for which islands our course was laid. + +By the time that night came again the sea had pretty well gone down, +and beyond the easy roll that was on her the ship had no motion save +the steady vibration of her screw. With this comforting change the +pain in my head became only a dull heavy aching, and I had a chance to +feel how utterly weary I was after the strain of mind and body that +had been put on me by the gale. A little after eight o'clock, as I +knew by hearing the ship's bell striking--and mighty pleasant it was +to hear regularly that orderly sound again--the steward brought me a +bowl of broth and propped me up in my berth while I drank it; and +cheered me by telling me that the doctor was swearing at his broken +leg like a good fellow, and was getting on very well indeed. And then +my weariness had its way with me, and I fell off into that deep sleep +which comes to a man only when all his energy has slipped away from +him on a dead low tide. How long I slept I do not know. But I do +know that I was routed suddenly into wakefulness by a jar that almost +pitched me out of my berth, and that an instant later there was a +tremendous crash as though the whole deck above me was smashing to +pieces, and with this a rattle of light woodwork splintering and the +sharp tinkling of breaking glass. For a moment there was silence; and +then I heard shouts and screams close by me in the cabin, and a little +later a great trampling on deck, and then the screw stopped turning +and there was a roar of escaping steam. + +I was so heavy with sleep that at first I thought we still were in the +storm and that this commotion was a part of it; but as I shook off my +drowsiness I got a clearer notion of the situation--remembering what +the steward had told me of the condition of the mizzen-mast, and so +arriving at the conclusion that it had fetched away bodily and had +come crashing through the cabin skylight in its fall. But what the +shock was that had sent it flying--unless we had been in collision--I +could not understand. And all this while the trampling on deck +continued, and out in the cabin the shouts and cries went on. + +I thought that the steward would come to me--forgetting that in times +of danger men are apt to think only of saving their own skins--and so +laid still; being, indeed, so weak and wretched that it did not seem +possible to me to do anything else. But he did not come, and at the +end of what seemed to me to be a desperately long time--though I doubt +if it were more than five minutes--I realized that I must try to do +something to help myself; and was the more nerved to action by the +fact that there no longer was the sound of voices in the cabin, while +the noises on deck a good deal had increased. Indeed, I began to hear +up there the puffing and snorting of the donkey-engine, and so felt +certain that they were hoisting out the boats. + +Somehow or another I managed to get out of my berth, and on my feet, +and so to the door; but when I tried to open the door I could not +budge it, and in the darkness I struck my head against what seemed to +be a bar of wood that stuck in through one of the upper panels and so +held it fast. The blow dizzied me, for it took me close to where my +cut was and put me into intense pain. + +While I stood there, pulling in a weak way at the door-knob and making +nothing of it, I heard voices out in the cabin and through my broken +door saw a gleam of light. But in the moment that my hope rose it went +down again, for I heard some one say quickly and sharply: "It's no +good. The way the spar lies we can't get at him--and to cut it through +would take an hour." + +And then a voice that I recognized for the steward's answered: "But +the doctor ordered it. Where's an axe for a try?" To which the other +man answered back again: "If it was the doctor himself we couldn't do +it, and we'll tell him so. The ship'll be down in five minutes. We've +got to run for it or the boats'll be off." And then away they ran +together, giving no heed in their fright to my yells after them to +come back and not leave me there to drown. + +For a little while I was as nearly wild crazy as a man can be and yet +have a purpose in his mind. The keen sense of my peril made me strong +again. I kicked with my bare feet and pounded with my hands upon the +door to break it, I shouted for help to come to me, and I gave out +shrill screams of terror such as brutes give in their agony--for I was +down to the hard-pan of human nature, and what I felt most strongly +was the purely animal longing to keep alive. + +But no one answered me, and I could tell by the sounds on deck getting +fainter that some of the boats already had put off; and in a little +while longer no sound came from the deck of any sort whatever, and by +that I knew that all the boats must have got away. And as I realized +that I was forsaken, and felt sure from what I had heard that the ship +would float for only a few minutes longer, I gave a cry of downright +despair--and then I lost track of the whole bad business by tumbling +to the floor in the darkness in a dead swoon. + + + + + +IX + +ON THE EDGE OF THE SARGASSO SEA + + +When I came to myself again, and found my state-room--although the +dead-light was set--bright with the light which entered through the +broken door, my first feeling was of wonder that I was not yet +drowned; for it was evident that the sun must be well up in the +heavens to shine so strongly, and therefore that a good many hours +must have passed since the smash had happened that had sent everybody +flying to the boats believing that the ship was going right down. And +my next wonder was caused by the queer way in which the ship was +lying--making me fancy at first that I was dizzy again, and my eyes +tricking me--with a pitch forward that gave a slope to the floor of my +state-room, of not less than twenty degrees. + +For a while, in a stupid sort of way, I ruminated over these matters; +and at last got hold of the simple explanation of them. Evidently, in +spite of the straining of the steamer's frame in the storm, her +water-tight compartments--or some of them--had held, leaving her +floating with her broken bow well down in the water and her stern +canted up into the air. And then the farther comforting thought came +to me that if she had kept afloat for so many hours already, and +seemed so steady in her new position, there was no reason why she +should not keep on floating at least for as long as the fine weather +lasted--which gave me a chance of rescue by some passing vessel, and +so brought a good deal of hope back into my heart. + +I still was very weak and shaky, and how I was to get out of the +prison that I was in I did not know. By daylight it was easy to see +what held me there: which was the end of a yard, with the reef-block +hanging to it, smashed through the upper panel and caught so tight in +the splintered wood-work as to anchor the door fast. If the wits of +the steward and of the other fellow had not been scared clean out of +them they easily might have knocked in the lower part of the door with +an axe and so opened a way out for me; but as their only notion had +been to cut away the spar--a tough piece of work--I could not in cool +blood very greatly blame them for having given up my rescue and run +for their own lives. + +These thoughts went through my head while I lay there, most +uncomfortably, on the sloping floor. Presently I managed to get up, +but felt so dizzy that I had to seat myself in a hurry on the edge of +the berth until my head got steadier. Fortunately my water-jug was +half full, and I had a good drink from it which refreshed me greatly; +and then I had the farther good fortune to see some biscuit which the +steward had left on a shelf in the corner, and as I caught sight of +them I realized that I was very hungry indeed. I ate one, along with +some more sups of water, and felt much the better for it; but lay down +in my berth that I might save the strength it gave me until I should +have thought matters over a little and settled some line of action +in my mind. + +That I was too weak to break the door down was quite certain, and the +only other thing that I could think of was cutting out the lower +panels and so making a hole through which I could crawl. As this +thought came to me I remembered the big jack-knife that had been in my +trousers' pocket when I went overboard from the brig; and in a minute +I was on my feet--and without feeling any dizziness, this time--and +got to where my clothes were hanging on a hook, and found to my joy +that my knife and all the other things which had been in my pockets +had been returned to them after the clothes had been dried. The knife +was badly rusted and I had a hard time opening it; but the rust did +not much dull it, and I seated myself upon the floor and fell to +slicing away at the soft pine wood with a will. I had to rest now and +then, although I found that my strength held out better than I had +hoped for, and that put me back a little; but the wood was so soft +that in not much more than half an hour I had the job finished--and +then I slipped on my trousers, and out I went through the hole on my +hands and knees. + +I found the cabin in utter wreck: littered everywhere with broken +glass and broken wood from the skylight, and from the smashed +hanging-racks and the smashed dining-table, and with splinters from +the mast--which had broken in falling, and along the whole length of +the place had made a tangle of its own fragments and of the ropes and +blocks which had held its sails. Of the sails themselves there were +left only some fuzzy traces clinging to the bolt-ropes, all the rest +having been blown loose and frayed away by the storm. Oddly enough, +some of the drinking-glasses still remained unbroken in one of the +racks, and with them a bottle partly filled with wine--to the neck of +which a card was fastened bearing the name, José Rubio y Salinas, of +the passenger to whom it had belonged. I took the liberty of drinking +a glass of Don José's wine--feeling sure that he was not coming back +to claim it--and felt so much better after it that I thanked him +cordially for leaving it there. + +Most of the state-room doors stood open, showing within clothing +tossed about and trunks with their lids turned back, and the general +confusion in which the passengers had left things when they scrambled +together their most precious belongings and rushed for the boats--with +death, as they fancied, treading close upon their heels. But with what +remained in the state-rooms I did not concern myself, being desirous +first of all to get on deck and have a look about me that I might size +up my chances of keeping alive. That there was no companion-way up +from the cabin puzzled me a little, for I knew nothing of the internal +arrangements of steamships; but presently I found a passage leading +forward, and by that I came to the stair to the deck of which I was +in search. + +Up it I went, but when I fairly got outside and saw the desperate +state of the craft that I was afloat on my heart sank. Indeed, it +seemed a flying in the face of all reason that such an utter wreck +should float at all. Of the foremast nothing but the splintered stump +remained. The starboard rail, which had been to windward of it, was +gashed by chance axe-blows made in cutting away the shrouds; and as to +the port rail, twenty feet of it was gone entirely where the mast had +come crashing down, while the side-plates below were bulged out with +the strain put upon them before the standing-rigging fastened there +had fetched away. The mizzen-mast lay aft across the cabin skylight, +with its standing and running rigging making a tangle on each side of +it. The main-mast still stood, but with its top-mast broken off and +dangling nearly to the deck. Two of the weather-boats remained fast +to the davits, but so smashed that they looked like battered tin +wash-basins, and would have floated just about as well. All the other +boats were gone: those on the weather side, as the splintered ways and +broken ropes showed, having been washed overboard; and those to +leeward having been hoisted out by the tackles, which still hung from +the davits and dipped lazily with the ship's easy motion into the sea. + +All this was bad enough, but what most took the spirit out of me was +the way that the ship was lying--her stern high up in the air, and her +bow so deep in the water that the sea came up almost to her main-mast +along her sloping deck. It seemed inevitable that in another moment +she would follow her nose in the start downward that it had made and +go straight to the bottom; and each little wave, as it lapped its way +aft softly, made me fancy that the plunge had begun. + +As to the outlook around me, the only comfort that I got from it was +the fairness of the weather and the smoothness of the sea. For close +upon the water a soft haze was hanging that even to the north, out of +which blew a gentle wind, brought the horizon within a mile of me; and +down to leeward the haze was banked so thick that I could make out +nothing beyond half a mile. And so, even though a whole fleet might be +passing near me, my chances of rescue were very small. But from the +look of the ocean I knew that no fleets were likely to be thereabouts, +and that even though the haze lifted I might search long and vainly +for sight of so much as a single sail. As far as I could see around me +the water was covered thickly with gulf-weed, and with this was all +sorts of desolate flotsam--planks, and parts of masts, and fragments +of ships' timbers--lolling languidly on the soft swell that was +running, yet each scrap having behind it its own personal tragedy of +death and storm. And this mess of wreckage was so much thicker than I +had seen when the brig was on the coast--as Bowers had called it--of +the Sargasso Sea as to convince me that already I must be within the +borders of that ocean mystery which a little while before I had been +so keen for exploring; and my fate seemed sealed to me as I realized +that I therefore was in a region which every living ship steered clear +of, and into which never any but dead ships came. + + + + + +X + +I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION + + +When I perceived the tight fix that I was in my broken head went to +throbbing again, and my legs were so shaky under me that I had to sit +down on the deck in a hurry in order to save myself from a fall. +Indeed, I was in no condition to face even an ordinary trouble, let +alone an overwhelming disaster; for what with my loss of blood from +the cut on my head, and the little food I had eaten since I got it, I +was as weak as a cat. + +Luckily I had the sense to realize that I needed the strength which +food would give me in order to save myself from dropping off into +sheer despair. And with the thought of eating there suddenly woke up +in my inside a hungry feeling that surprised me by its sharpness; and +instantly put such vigor into my shaky legs that I was up on them in a +moment, and off to the companion-way to begin my explorations below. +And when, being come to the cabin again, I had another sup of Don +José's wine I got quite ravenous, and felt strong enough to kick a +door in--if that should be necessary--in order to satisfy my +craving for food. + +There was no need for staving in doors, for none of them was fastened; +but it was some little time--because of my ignorance of the +arrangement of steamships--before I could find one that had things to +eat on the other side of it. Around the cabin, and along the passage +leading forward, were only state-rooms; but just beyond the +companion-way I came at last to the pantry--and beyond this again, as +I found later, were the store-rooms and the galley. For the moment, +however, the pantry gave me all that I wanted. In a covered box I +found some loaves of bread, and in a big refrigerator a lot of cold +victuals that set my eyes to dancing--two or three roast fowls, part +of a big joint of beef, a boiled tongue, and so on; and, what was +almost as welcome, in another division of the refrigerator a dozen or +more bottles of beer. On the racks above were dishes and glasses, in a +locker were knives and forks, and I even found hanging on a hook a +corkscrew--and the quickness with which I brought these various things +together and made them serve my purposes was a sight to see! + +When I had eaten nearly a whole fowl, and had drunk a bottle of beer +with it, I felt like another man; and then, pursuing my investigations +more leisurely, I found in one of the lockers--which I took the +liberty of prying open with a big carving-knife--four or five boxes +of capital cigars. In the same locker was a package of safety-matches, +and in a moment I was puffing away with such satisfaction that I +fairly grew light-hearted--so great is the comfort that comes to a man +with good smoking on top of a hearty meal. All sorts of bright fancies +came to me: of making one of the battered boats serviceable again and +getting off in it, of a ship blown out of her course coming to my +rescue, of a strong southerly wind that would carry the hulk of the +poor old _Hurst Castle_ back again into the inhabited parts of the +sea. And with these thoughts cheering me I set myself to work to find +out just what I had in the way of provisions aboard my shattered craft. + +I did not have to search far nor long to satisfy myself that I had a +bigger stock of food by me than I could eat in a dozen years. Forward +of the galley were the store-rooms: a cold-room, with a plenty of ice +still in it, in which was hanging a great quantity of fresh meat; a +wine-room, very well stocked and containing also some cases of tobacco +and cigars; and in the other rooms was stuff enough to fit up a big +grocery shop on shore--hams and bacon and potted meats, and a great +variety of vegetables in tins, and all sorts of sweets and sauces and +table-delicacies in tins and in glass. Indeed, although I was full to +the chin with the meal that I had just eaten, my mouth fairly watered +at sight of all these good things. In the bakery I found only a loaf +or two of bread, and this--as it was lying on the floor--I suppose +must have been dropped in the scramble while the boats were being +provisioned; but in the baker's store-room were a good many cases of +fine biscuit, and more than twenty barrels of flour. In addition to +all this, I did not doubt that somewhere on board was an equally large +store of provisions for the use of the crew; but with that I did not +bother myself, being satisfied to fare as a cabin-passenger on the +good things which I had found. Finally, two of the big water-tanks +still were full--the others, as I inferred from the cocks being open, +having been emptied for the supply of the boats; and as a +reserve--leaving rain out of the question--I had the ice to fall back +upon, of which there was so great a quantity that it alone would last +me for a long while. In a word, so far as eating and drinking were +concerned, I was as well off as a man could be anywhere--having by me +not only all the necessaries of life but most of its luxuries as well. + +Finding all these good things cheered me and put heart in me in much +the same way that I was cheered and heartened by finding my floating +mast after Captain Luke and the mate chucked me overboard. Again I had +the certainty that death for a while could not get a chance at me; and +this second reprieve was of a more promising sort than that which my +mast had given me in the open sea. On board the steamer, or what was +left of her, I was sure of being in positive comfort so long as she +floated; and my good spirits made me so sanguine that I was confident +she would keep on floating until I struck out some plan by which I +could get safe away from her, or until rescue came to me by some lucky +turn of chance. And so, having completed my tour of inspection, and my +general inventory of the property to which by right of survival I had +fallen heir, I went on deck again in a very hopeful mood. + +Even the utter wreck and confusion into which the steamer had fallen, +when I got to the deck and saw it again, did not crush the hope out of +me as it did when I came upon it--being then weak and famished--for +the first time. I even found a cause for greater hopefulness in +observing that the water-line still stood, as it had stood an hour and +more earlier, a little forward of the main-mast; for that showed that +the water-tight compartments were holding, and that the hulk was in no +immediate danger of going down. It did seem, to be sure, that the haze +had grown a little thicker, and that the weed and wreckage around the +steamer were thicker too; and I was convinced that my hulk was +moving--or that the flotsam about it was moving--by seeing a broken +boat floating bottom upward that I was sure was not in sight when I +went below. But I argued with myself cheerfully that the thickening +of the haze might be due to a wind coming down on me that would blow +it clean away; and that a small thing like an empty boat drifting down +from windward proved that the _Hurst Castle_ herself was moving +southward very slowly, or perhaps was not moving at all. And so, still +in good spirits, I set myself to looking carefully for something that +would float me, in case I decided to abandon the hulk and make a dash +for it--on the chance of falling in with a passing vessel--out over +the open sea. + +But when I had made the round of the deck--at least of the part of it +that was out of water--I had to admit that getting away from the +steamer was a sheer impossibility, unless I might manage it by +cobbling together some sort of a raft. It had been all very well for +me to fancy, while I was being cheered with chicken and beer and +tobacco down in the pantry, that I could make one of the battered +boats sea-worthy; but my round of the deck showed me that with all my +training in mechanics I never could make one of them float again--for +the sea had wrenched and hammered them until they were no better than +so much old iron. The raft, certainly, was a possibility. Spars that +would serve for its body were lying around in plenty, and with the +doors from the rooms below I could deck it over so as to make it both +solid and dry; and somewhere aboard the ship, no doubt, were +carpenter's tools--though, most likely, they were down under water +forward and could be come at only by diving for them. Still, the raft +was a possibility; and so was comforting to think about as giving me +another reprieve from drowning in case the water-tight compartments +broke down--and as that break might come at any moment, and as the job +would take me two days at the shortest, I realized that I could not +set about it too soon. + + + + + +XI + +MY GOOD SPIRITS ARE WRUNG OUT OF ME + + +But the other chance which I had thought of, that my hulk might be +blown clear of the Sargasso Sea and back into the track of trade +again, still was to be reckoned with; and to know how that chance was +working it was necessary that I should find out my exact position on +the ocean, and then check off the changes in it by fresh observations +taken from day to day. And as I saw that the sun was close upon the +meridian, and no time to waste if I wanted to secure my first +noon-sight, I put off beginning my carpentering until I should have +hunted for the ship's instruments and got the latitude and longitude +that would give me my departure on my drifting voyage. + +This was so simple a piece of work that I anticipated no difficulty in +executing it. While the low-lying haze narrowed my horizon it did not +sufficiently obscure the sun to interfere with sight-taking; I could +count upon finding the chronometers still going, they being made to +run for fifty-six hours and the ship having been abandoned only the +night before; and where I found the chronometers I felt sure that I +should find also a sextant and a chart. But when I went at this +easy-looking task I was brought up with a round turn: there were no +chronometers, there was no sextant, there was no chart of the North +Atlantic--there was not even a compass left on board! + +It took me some little time to arrive at a certainty in this series of +negatives. I fancied--because it had been that way aboard the _Golden +Hind_--that the captain's room would be one of those opening off from +the cabin, and so began my search for it in that quarter. But when I +had made the round of all the state-rooms I was satisfied that they +had been occupied only by passengers. The single timepiece that I +found--for the clock in the cabin had been smashed when the +mizzen-mast came down--was a fine gold watch lying in one of the +berths partly under the pillow, where its owner must have left it in +his hurry to get to the boats. It still was going, and I slipped it +into my pocket--feeling that a thing with even that much of life in it +would be a comfort to me; but the hour that it gave was a quarter past +eleven (it having been set to the ship's time the day before, I +suppose) and therefore was of no use to me as a basis for +sight-taking. + +Having exhausted the possibilities of the cabin I concluded that the +captain's quarters must have been forward, and so shifted my search +to the forward deck-house; and as I found a blue uniform coat and a +suit of oil-skins in the first room that I entered I was sure that in +a general way I was on the right track. But in none of these rooms did +I find what I was looking for--though I did find in one of them, and +greatly to my satisfaction, a chest of carpenter's tools and a big box +of nails. The nails must have been there by pure accident, but the +tools probably were the carpenter's private kit; and as in the course +of my farther search I did not come across the ship's +carpenter-shop--which no doubt was under water forward--I felt that +this chance supply of what I needed for my raft-building was a very +lucky thing for me indeed. + +The upper story of the deck-house still remained to be investigated; +and when, by the steps leading to the steamer's bridge, I got up there +and entered a little room behind the wheel-house, I was pretty sure +that at last I had found the place where what I wanted ought to be. +The part forward of the doors on each side of this room--a good third +of it--was filled by a chart-locker having a dozen or more wide +shallow drawers; and the flat top of the locker showed at its four +corners the prickings of thumb-tacks which had held the charts open +there, and four tacks still were in place with scraps of thick white +paper under them--as though some one in too great a hurry to loosen +it properly had ripped the chart away. + +This would be, of course, the chart actually in use when the steamer +got into trouble, and therefore the one that I needed. As it was gone, +I opened the drawers of the locker and looked through them in search +of a duplicate; or of anything--even a wind-chart or a current-chart +would have answered--that would serve my turn. But while there were +charts in plenty of West Indian and of English waters, and a set +covering the German Ocean, not a chart of any sort relating to the +North Atlantic did I find. Neither were there chronometers nor any +nautical instruments in the room. In one corner was a strongly made +closet in which they may have been kept; but of this the door stood +open and the shelves were bare. Even a barometer which had hung near +the closet had been wrenched away, as I could tell by the broken brass +gimbals still fast to the brass supports; but this was a matter of no +importance, since I had noticed another in good order in the cabin--to +say nothing of the fact that my powerlessness to make any provision +against bad weather made me indifferent to warnings of coming storms. +And then, when I continued my search in the wheel-house, though not +very hopefully, all that I discovered there was that the binnacle was +empty and that the compass was gone too. In a word, there was +absolutely nothing on board the hulk that would enable me to fix my +position on the surface of the ocean, or that would guide me should I +try the pretty hopeless experiment of going cruising on a raft. + +This fact being settled--and hindsight being clearer than foresight--I +had no difficulty in accounting for it. In order to lay a course and +to keep it, the people in the boats would need precisely the things +which had been carried off; and as each boat no doubt had been +furnished so that in case of separation it could make its way alone, a +clean sweep had been made of all the North Atlantic charts and of all +the nautical instruments that the steamer had on board. It was to the +credit of the captain that he had kept his wits so well about +him--seeing to it, in the sudden skurry for the boats, that the +ultimate as well as the immediate safety of his people was provided +for--but when I found out, and fairly realized, what his coolness had +cost me I fell off once more from good spirits into gloom. + +Being left that way all at loose ends as to my reckoning, with no +means of finding out where I was nor whether my position changed for +the better from day to day, the hopes that I had been building of +drifting northward and so falling in with a passing vessel fell down +in a bunch and left me miserable. I see now, though I did not see it +then, that they went quite as unreasonably as they came. In that +region of calms--for I was fairly within the horse-latitudes--the only +bit of wind that I was likely to encounter was an eddy from the +northeast trades that would set me still farther to the southward; and +the only other moving impulse acting upon my hulk--at least while fair +weather lasted--would be the slow eddy setting in from the Gulf Stream +and moving me in the same direction. In the case of a storm coming up +from the south, and so giving me the push northward that I was so +eager for, the chances were a thousand to one that my hulk would go to +the bottom long before I could get to a part of the ocean where ships +were likely to be. And as to navigating a raft through that tangle of +weed, already thick enough around me to check the way of a sharply +built boat, the notion was so absurd that only a man in my desperate +fix would even have thought about it. + +But had there been a Job's comforter at hand to put these black +thoughts into my head they would not have helped me nor harmed me +much. My whole heart had been set on getting my sights, and filled +with the inconsequent hope that in getting them I somehow would be +bettering my chances of coming out safe at last; and so it seemed to +me when I could not get them--and in this, though the sight-taking had +nothing to do with it, there was reason in plenty--that all +likelihood of my being rescued had slipped away. + +I had come out from the wheel-house and was standing on the steamer's +bridge--which rose right out of the water so that I looked down from +it directly on the weed-laden sea. As far as my sight would carry +through the soft golden haze I saw only weed-covered water, broken +here and there by a bit of wreckage or by a little open space on which +the pale sunshine gleamed. A very gentle swell was running, giving to +the ocean the look of some strange sort of meadow with tall grass +swaying evenly in an easy wind. The broken boat had moved a good deal +and already was well to the south of me; showing me that there was +motion in that apparent stillness, and compelling me to believe that +my hulk--though less rapidly than the boat--was moving southward too. +And what that meant for me I knew. The fair weather might continue +almost indefinitely. Days and weeks, even months, might pass, and I +still might live on there in bodily safety; but so far as the world +was concerned I was dead already--being fairly caught in the slow +eddying current which was carrying my hulk steadily and hopelessly +into the dense wreck-filled centre of the Sargasso Sea. + + + + + +XII + +I HAVE A FEVER AND SEE VISIONS + + +Because I had felt hungry and thirsty, and the cold chicken and beer +had tasted good, I had eaten and drunk a great deal more heartily than +was wholesome for me--being so weakened by loss of blood, and by the +strain put upon me by the danger that I had passed through, and by +living only on slops and some scraps of biscuit since my rescue, that +my insides were in no condition to deal with such a lot of strong +food. And then, within an hour after I so unwisely had stuffed myself, +came the blow--in itself hard enough to upset a strong digestion in +good working order--of discovering that I could do nothing to save +myself, and that my hulk was drifting steadily deeper and deeper into +that ocean mystery out of which no man ever yet had come alive. + +The first sign that I had that something was going wrong with me was a +swimming in my head--so sudden and so violent that I lurched forward +and was close to pitching over the rail of the bridge into the sea. +For a moment I fancied that the ship had taken a quick plunge; and +then a sick feeling in my own stomach, and a blurring of my eyes that +made everything seem misty and shadowy, settled for me the fact that +it was I who was reeling about and that the ship was still--and I had +sense enough to lie down at full length on the bridge, between the +wheel-house and the rail, where I was safe against rolling off. And +then the shadows about me got deeper and blacker, and a horrible sense +of oppression came over me, and I seemed to be falling endlessly while +myriads of black specks arranged themselves in curious geometrical +figures before my eyes--and then the black specks and everything else +vanished suddenly, and my consciousness left me with what seemed to me +a great crash and bang. + +Had I begun matters by being roundly sick I might have pulled through +my attack without being much the worse for it. But as that did not +happen--my weakness, I suppose, not giving nature a chance to set +things right in her own way--I had a good deal more to suffer before I +began to mend. After a while I got enough of my senses back to know +that my head was aching as though it would split open, and to realize +how utterly miserable I was lying there on the bridge with the hot +sunshine simmering down on me through the haze; and then to think how +delightful it would be if only I were back in the cabin again--where +the sun could not stew me, and where my berth would be easy and soft. + +How I managed to get to the cabin I scarcely know. I faintly remember +working my way along the bridge on my hands and knees, and going +backward down the steps in the same fashion for fear of falling; and +of trying to walk upright when I got to the deck, so that I should not +get wet above my knees in the water there, and of falling souse into +it and getting soaked all over; and then of crawling aft very +slowly--stopping now and then because of my pain and dizziness--and +down the companion-way and through the passage, and so into the cabin +at last; and then, all in my wet clothes, of tumbling anyhow into my +berth--and after that there is only a long dead blank. + +When I caught up with myself again, night had come and I was in pitch +darkness. My head still ached horridly, and I was burning hot all +over, and yet from time to time shivering with creeping chills. What I +wanted most in the world was a drink of water; but when I tried to get +up, in the hope of finding some in the jug that no doubt was in the +state-room, I went so dizzy that I had to plump back into my berth +again. As the night went on, and I lay there thinking how deliciously +the water would taste going cool and sweet down my throat, I got quite +crazy with longing for it; and, in a way, really crazy--for through +most of the night I was light-headed and saw visions that sometimes +comforted me and sometimes made me afraid. The comforting ones were of +fresh green meadows with streams running through them, and of shady +glens in the woods where springs welled up into little basins +surrounded by ferns--just such as I remembered in the woods which +bordered the creek where I used to go swimming when I was a boy. The +horrible ones were not clear at all, and for that were the more +dreadful--being of a fire that was getting nearer and nearer to me, +and of a blazing sun that fairly withered me, and of huge hot globes +or ponderously vague masses of I knew not what which were coming +straight on to crush me and from which I could not get away. + +At last I got so worn out with it all that I fell off into an uneasy +sleep, which yet was better than no sleep and a little rested me. When +I woke again there was enough light in the room for me to see the +water-jug, and that gave me strength to get to it--and most blessedly +it was nearly full. And so I had a long drink, that for a time checked +the heat of my fever; and then I lay down in my berth again, with the +jug on the floor at my side. + +For a while I was almost comfortable. Then the fever came back, and +the visions with it--but no longer so painful as those which had been +begotten of my thirst. I seemed to be in a region dreamy and unreal. +Sometimes I would see far stretches of mountain peaks, and sometimes +the crowded streets of cities; but for the most part my visions were +of the sea--tall ships sailing, and little boats drifting over calm +water in moonlight, and black steamers gliding quickly past me; and +still more frequently, but always in a calm sea, the broken hulks of +wrecked ships with shattered masts and tangled rigging and with dead +men lying about their decks, and sometimes with a dead man hanging +across the wheel and moving a little with the hulk's motion so that in +a horrible sort of way he seemed to be half alive. + +Night came again, bringing me more pain and the burning of a stronger +fever; and then another day, in which the fever rose still higher and +the visions became almost intolerable--because of their intense +reality, and of my conviction all the while that they were unreal and +that I must be well on the way toward a raving madness in which I +would die. + +It was at the end of this day--or it may have been at the end of still +another day, for I have no clear reckoning of how the time +passed--that my worst vision came to me; hurting me not because it was +terrifying in itself, but because it made me feel that even hope had +parted company with me at last. And it was more like a dream than a +vision, seemingly being brought to my sight by my own bodily +movement--not something which floated before my eyes as I lay still. + +As the afternoon went on my fever increased a good deal; but in a way +that was rather pleasant to me, for the pain in my head lessened and I +seemed to be getting back my strength. After a while I began to long +to get out of the cabin and up on deck, and so have a look around me +over the open sea; and with my longing came the feeling that I was +strong enough to realize it. + +My getting up seemed entirely real and natural, as did my firm +walking--without a touch of dizziness--after I fairly was on my feet; +and all the rest of it seemed real too. Even when I came to the +companion-way I seemed to go up the stairs easily, and to step out on +the deck as steadily as though I had been entirely well. + +The sun was near setting, but as I came on the deck my back was toward +the sunset and I saw only its red light touching the soft swell of the +weed-covered sea extending far before me, and the same red light +shimmering in the mist and caught up more strongly on a bank of +low-lying clouds. The outlook was much the same as that which I had +had from the bridge, only the weed seemed to be packed more closely +and there was wreckage about me everywhere. Masts and spars and planks +were in sight in all directions, sometimes floating singly and +sometimes tangled together in little heaps; half a mile away was what +seemed to be a large ship lying bottom upward; near me was a perfectly +sound boat, having in its stern-sheets a bit of sail that fell in such +folds as to make me think that a human form lay under it; and off +toward the horizon was a large raft, with a sort of mast fitted to it, +and at the foot of the mast I fancied that I saw a woman in a white +robe of some sort stretched out as though asleep. And it seemed to me, +though I could not tell why, that all this flotsam, and my own hulk +along with it, slowly was drifting closer and closer together; and was +packing tighter and tighter in the soft oozy tangle of the weed, which +everywhere was matted so thickly that the water did not show at all. + +Then I seemed to walk around to the other side of my hulk and to look +down into the west--and to feel all hope dying with the sight that I +saw there. Far away, under the red mist, across the red gleaming weed +and against a sunset sky bloody red, I seemed to see a vast ruinous +congregation of wrecks; so far-extending that it was as though all the +wrecked ships in the world were lying huddled together there in a +miserably desolate company. And with sight of them the certain +conviction was borne in upon me that my own wreck presently would take +its station in that shattered fleet for which there was no salvation; +and that it would lie among them rotting slowly, as they were +rotting, through months or years--until finally, in its turn, it would +drop down from amidst those lepers of the ocean, and would sink with +all its foulness upon it into the black depths beneath the oozy weed. + +And I knew, too, that whether I already were dead and went down with +it, or saved my life for a while longer by getting aboard of another +hulk which still floated, sooner or later my end must come to me in +that same way. On one or another of those rotting dead ships my own +dead body surely must sink at last. + + + + + +XIII + +I HEAR A STRANGE CRY IN THE NIGHT + + +That was the end of my visions. Through the night that followed--my +fever having run its course, I suppose--I slept easily; and when +another day came and I woke again my fever was gone. I was pretty weak +and ragged, but the cut in my head was healing and no longer hurt me +much, and my mind was clear. There still was water left in the jug, +and I drank freely and felt the better for it; and toward afternoon I +felt so hungry that I managed to get up and go to the pantry on a +foraging expedition for something to eat. + +This time I was careful not to stuff myself. I found a box of light +biscuit and ate a couple of them; and then I filled my water-jug at +the tank and brought it and the biscuit back to my stateroom without +going on the deck at all. My light meal greatly refreshed me; and in +an hour or two I ate another biscuit--and kept on nibbling at them off +and on through the night when I happened to wake up. In between whiles +my sleep was of a sort to do me good; not deep, but restful. With the +coming of another morning I felt so strong that I went to the pantry +again for food of a better sort--venturing to eat a part of a tin of +meat with my biscuit and to add to my water a little wine; and when +this was down I began to feel quite like myself once more, and to long +so strongly for some sunshine and fresh air that I climbed up the +companion-way to the deck. + +But when I got there I thought at first that my visions were coming +back again. Indeed, what I saw was so nearly my last vision over again +as to make me half believe, later, that I really did go on deck in my +delirium and really did see that blood-red sunset and all the rest +that had seemed to me a dream. At any rate, there was no doubting this +second time--if it were the second time--the reality of what I beheld; +and because I no longer was fever-struck, and so could take in fully +the wonder of it, my astonishment kept my spirits from being wholly +pulled down. + +The haze was so thick as to be almost like a fog hanging about me, but +the hot sunshine pouring down into it gave it a golden brightness and +I could see through it dimly for a good long way; and there was no +need for far-seeing to be sure that I had before me what I think must +be the strangest sight that the world has in it for the eyes of man. +For what I looked at was the host of wrecked ships, the dross of wave +and tempest, which through four centuries--from the time when sailors +first pushed out upon the great western ocean--has been gathering +slowly, and still more slowly wasting, in the central fastnesses of +the Sargasso Sea. + +The nearest edge of this mass of wreckage was not a quarter of a mile +off from me; but it swept away in a great irregular curve to the right +and left and vanished into the golden haze softly--and straight ahead +I could see it stretching dimly away from me, getting thicker and +closer until it seemed to be almost as solid as a real island would +have been. And, indeed, it had a good deal the look of being a real +island; the loom through the haze of countless broken masts rising to +various heights and having frayed ropes streaming from them having +much the effect of trees growing there, while the irregularities of +the surface made it seem as though little houses were scattered +thickly among the trees. But in spite of the golden light which hung +over it, and which ought to have given it a cheerful look, it was the +most desolate and sorrowful place I ever saw; for it seemed to +belong--and in a way really did belong, since every hulk in all that +fleet was the slowly wasting dead body of a ship slain by storm or +disaster--to that outcast region of mortality in which death has +achieved its ugliness but to which the cleansing of a complete +dissolution has not yet been brought by time. + +Yet the curious interest that I found in this strange sight kept me +from feeling only the horror of it. In my talks with Bowers about the +old-time sea-wonders which must be hidden in the Sargasso Sea my +imagination had been fired; and when I thus found myself actually in +the way to see these wonders I half forgot how useless the sight was +to me--being myself about the same as killed in the winning of it--and +was so full of eagerness to press forward that I grew almost angry +because of the infinite slowness with which my hulk drifted on to its +place in the ruined ranks. + +There was no hurrying my progress. Around me the weed and wreckage +were packed so closely that the wonder was that my hulk moved through +it at all. Of wind there was not a particle; indeed, as I found later, +under that soft golden haze was a dead calm that very rarely in those +still latitudes was ruffled by even the faintest breeze. Only a weak +swirl of current from the far-off Gulf Stream pushed my hulk onward; +and this, I suppose, was helped a little by that attraction of +floating bodies for each other which brings chips and leaves together +on the surface of even the stillest pool. But a snail goes faster than +I was going; and it was only at the end of a full hour of watching +that I could see--yet even then could not be quite certain about it--that +my position a very little had changed. + +Save that now and then I went below and got some solid food into me--and +as I was careful to eat but little at a time I got the good of it--I sat +there on the deck all day long gazing; and by nightfall my hulk had gone +forward by perhaps as much as a hundred yards. But my motion was a steady +and direct one, and I saw that if it continued it would end by laying me +aboard of a big steamer--having the look of being a cargo-boat--that stood +out a little from the others and evidently herself had not long been a +part of that broken company. She was less of a wreck, in one way, than +my own hulk; for she floated on an even keel and so high out of the +water as to show that she had no leak in her; but her masts had been +swept clean away and even her funnel and her bridge were gone--as though +a sharp-edged sea had sliced like a razor over her and shaved her decks +clean. + +Immediately beyond this steamer lay a big wooden ship evidently +waterlogged; for she lay so low that the whole of her hull, save a bit of +her stern, was hidden from me by the steamer, and the most of her that +showed was her broken masts. And beyond her again was a jam of wrecks so +confused that I could not make out clearly any one of them from the rest. +Taken all together, they made a sort of promontory that jutted out from +what I may call the main-land of wreckage; and to the right and left of +the promontory there went off in long receding lines the coast of that +country of despair. + +At last the sun sunk away to the horizon, and as it fell off westward pink +tones began to show in the clouds there and then to be reflected in the +haze; and these tones grew warmer and deeper until I saw just such another +blood-red sunset as I had seen in what I had fancied was my dream. And +under the crimson haze lay the dead wrecks, looming large in it, with +gleams of crimson light striking here and there on spars and masts and +giving them the look of being on fire. And then the light faded slowly, +through shades of purple and soft pink and warm gray, until at last the +blessed darkness came and shut off everything from my tired eyes. + +Indeed, I was glad when the darkness fell; for as I sat there looking and +looking and feeling the bitter hopelessness of it all, I was well on my +way to going crazy with sorrow. But somehow, not seeing any longer the +ruin which was so near to me, and of which I knew myself to be a part, it +seemed less real to me--and so less dreadful. And being thus eased a +little I realized that I was hungry again, and that commonplace natural +feeling did me good too. + +I went below to the pantry, striking a match to see my way by; and when +I had lighted the big lamp that was hanging there--the glass chimney of +which, in some wonderful way, had pulled through the crash which had sent +the mizzen-mast flying--the place seemed so cheerful that my desire for +supper increased prodigiously, and tended still farther to down my +sorrowful thoughts. I even had a notion of trying to light a fire in +the galley and cooking over it some of the beef or mutton that I had +found in the cold-room; but I gave that up, just then, because I +really was too hungry to wait until I could carry through so large +a plan. + +But there was a plenty of good food in tins easily to be got at; and +what was still better I felt quite strong enough to eat a lot of it +without hurting myself. I even went at my meal a little daintily, +spreading a napkin--that I got from a locker filled with table +linen--on the pantry dresser, and setting out on it a tin of chicken +and a bunch of cheese and some bread which was pretty stale and hard +and a pot of jam to end off with; and from the wine-room I brought a +bottle of good Bordeaux. + +As I ate my supper, greatly relishing it, the oddness of what I was +doing did not occur to me; but often since I have thought how strange +was that meal of mine--in that brightly lighted cosey little room, +and myself really cheerful over it--in its contrast with the utterly +desperate strait in which I was. And I think that the contrast was +still sharper, my supper being ended, when I fetched a steamer-chair +that I had noticed lying on the floor of the cabin and settled myself +in it easily--facing toward the stern, so that the slope of the deck +only made the slope of the chair still easier--and so sat there in the +brightness smoking a very good cigar. + +And after a while--what with my comfort of body, and the good meal +in my stomach, and the good wine there too--a soothing drowsiness +stole over me, and I had the feeling that in another moment or two I +should fall away into a delicious doze. And then, all of a sudden, I +was roused wide awake again by hearing faintly, but quite distinctly, +a long and piercingly shrill cry. + +I fairly jumped from my chair, so greatly was I startled; and for a +good while I stood quite still, drawing my breath softly, in waiting +wonder for that strange cry to come again. But it did not come +again--and as the silence continued I fell to doubting if I had not +been asleep, and that this sound which had seemed so real to me had +not been only a part of a dream. + + + + + +XIV + +OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN + + +Robinson Crusoe's footprint in the sand did not startle him more than +that strange lonely cry startled me. Indeed, as between the two of us, +I had rather the worse of it: for Crusoe, at least, knew that he was +dealing with a reality, while I could not be certain that I was not +dealing with a bit of a dream in which there was no reality at all. + +For a long while I sat there puzzling over it--half hoping that I +might hear it again, and so be sure of it; and half hoping that I +might not hear it, because of the thrilling tone in it which had +filled me with a sharp alarm. I was so shaken that I had not the +courage to go off to my berth in the cabin, with only a candle to +light me there, but stayed on in the little room that the lamp lighted +so brightly that there were no dark corners for my fancy to people +with things horrible; and so, at last, still scared and puzzled, I +went off to sleep in my chair. + +When I woke again the lamp had burned out and had filled the place +with a vile smell of lamp-smoke that set me to sneezing. But I did +not mind that much; for daylight had come, and my nerves were both +quieted by sleep and steadied by that confident courage which most men +feel--no matter how tight a fix they may be in--when they have the +backing of the sun. + +My first thought was to get on deck and have a look about me; the +feeling being strong in my mind that on one or another of the near-by +wrecks I should find the man who had uttered that thrilling cry, and +would find him in some trouble that I might be able to help him out +of. But my second thought, and it was the wiser, was to eat first of +all a good breakfast and so get strength in me that would make me +ready to face whatever might come along--for a vague dread hung by me +that I was in the way of danger, and whatever it might be I knew that +I could the better stand up against it after a hearty meal. Therefore +I got out another tin of meat and ate the whole of it, and a hunk of +stale bread along with it, and washed down my breakfast with a bottle +of beer--longing greatly for a cup of coffee in place of the beer, but +being in too much of a hurry to stop for that while I made a fire. + +As the food got inside of me--though in that smoky and smelly place +eating it was not much of a pleasure--my thoughts took a more cheerful +turn. The hope of meeting a live man to talk to and to help me out of +my utter loneliness rose strong in my mind; and I felt that no matter +who or what he might be--even a man in desperate sickness and pain, +whom I must nurse and care for--finding him in that solitude would +make my own case less sad. And so, when I went on deck, my longing +hope for companionship was the strongest feeling in my heart. + +With my first glance around I saw that during the night my hulk had +made more progress than I had counted on; having moved the faster, I +suppose, as it felt more strongly the pull of the mass of floatage +near by. Be this as it may, I found myself so close alongside the big +cargo-boat that a good jump would carry me aboard of her; and I was so +eager to begin my investigations that I took the jump without a single +moment of delay. And being come to her deck, the first thing that I +saw there was a dead man lying in the middle of it with a pool of +still fresh blood staining the planks by his side. + +I never had seen anything like that, and as I looked at the dead +man--he was a big strong coarse fellow, dressed in a pair of dirty +sail-cloth trousers and in a dirty checked shirt--I went so queasy and +giddy that I had to step back a little and lean for a while against +the steamer's rail. It was clear enough that he had died fighting. His +face had a bad cut on it and there was another on his neck, and his +hands were cut cruelly, as though he had caught again and again at a +sharp knife in trying to keep it away from him; but the stab that had +finished him was in his breast, showing ghastly as he lay on his back +with his shirt open--and no doubt it was as the knife went into him +there that he had uttered the cry of mortal agony which had come to me +through the darkness, with so thrilling a note in it, while I was +sitting in bright comfort drowsily smoking my cigar. And then, as I +remembered my drowsiness, for a moment I seemed to get back into +it--and I had a half hope that perhaps what I was looking at was only +a part of a horrible dream. + +Had there been any sign of a living man about, of the murderer as well +as the murdered, I should have been less broken by what I saw; for +then I should have had something practical to attend to--either in +bringing the other man to book on the poor dead fellow's account, or +in fighting him on my own. But the nearest thing to life in sight, on +that storm-swept hulk under the low-hanging golden haze, was the rough +body out of which life had but just gone forever; and the bloody +stains everywhere on the deck showing that he and another must have +been fighting pretty much all over it before they got to an end. And +the horror of it all was the stronger because of the awful and +hopeless loneliness: with the dead-still weed-covered ocean +stretching away to the horizon on the one hand, and on the other only +dead ships tangled and crushed together going off in a desolate +wilderness that grew fainter--but for its faintness all the more +despairing--until it was lost in the dun-gold murky thickness of +the haze. + +As I got steadier, in a little while, I realized that I must hunt up +the other man, the one who had done the killing, and have things out +with him. Pretty certainly, his disposition would be to try to kill +me; and if I were to have a fight on hand as soon as I fell in with +him it was plain that my chances would be all the better for downing +him could I take him by surprise. I would have given a good deal just +then for a knife, and a good deal more for a pistol; but the best that +I could do to arm myself was to take an iron belaying-pin from the +rail, and with this in my hand I walked aft to the companion-way +--feeling sure that my best chance of coming upon my man +unexpectedly was to find him asleep in the cabin below. And then, +suddenly, the very uncomfortable thought came to me that there might +be more than one man down there--with the likelihood that if I roused +them they all would set upon me together and finish me quickly; and +this brought me to a halt just within the companion-way, in the +shadowy place at the head of the cabin stair. + +I stood there for a minute or two listening closely, but I heard no +sound whatever from below; and presently the dead silence made me feel +rather ashamed of myself for being so easily scared. And then I +noticed, my eyes having become accustomed to the shadow, that there +was a splash of blood on the top step and more blood on the steps +lower down--as though a man badly hurt, and without any one to help +him, had gone down the stair slowly and had rested on almost every +step and bled for a while before he could go on; and seeing this made +it seem likely to me that I would have but a single man to deal with, +and he in such a state that I need not fear him much. But for all that +I kept a tight grip on my belaying-pin, and held it in such a way that +I could use it easily, as I put my foot on the first of the bloody +steps and so went on down. + +The cabin, when I got to it, was but a small one--the boat not being +built to carry passengers--and so dusky that I could not make it out +well; for the skylight was covered with a tarpaulin--put there, I +suppose, to protect it when the gale came on that the steamer was +wrecked in--and all the light there was came in from one corner where +the covering had fetched away. It gave me a sort of shivering feeling +when I looked into that dusky place, where I saw nothing clearly and +where there was at least a chance that in another moment I might be +fighting for my life. I stood in the doorway, gripping my +belaying-pin, until I began to see more clearly--making out that a +small fixed table, with a water-jug and some bottles and glasses on +it, filled a half of the cabin, and that three state-room doors--one +of which stood open--were ranged on each of its sides. And then, just +as I was about to enter, I fairly jumped as there came to me softly +through the silence a low sad sound that was between a groan and a +sigh. But in an instant my reason told me that this was not the sort +of sound to come from a man whom I need be afraid of; and as it came +plainly enough from the state-room of which the door stood open I +stepped briskly over there and looked inside. + + + + + +XV + +I HAVE SOME TALK WITH A MURDERER + + +At first--the dead-light being fast over the port, and the state-room +in darkness save for the little light which came in from the dusky +cabin, and my own person in the doorway making it darker still--I was +sure of nothing there. But presently I made out a biggish heap of some +sort in the lower berth, and then that the heap was a man lying with +his back toward me and his face turned to the ship's side. + +The noise of my footsteps must have roused him, either from sleep or +from the stupor that his hurts had put him in: for while I stood +looking at him his body moved a little, and then his head turned +slowly and in the shadows I caught the glint of his open eyes. What +little light there was being behind me, all that he could see--and +that but in black outline--was the figure of a tall man looming in the +doorway; but instantly at sight of me he let off a yell as sharp as +though I had run a knife into him, and then he covered his head all up +with the bedclothes and lay kicking and shaking as though he were in +deadly fear. I myself was so upset by his outburst, and by the +half-horror that came to me at sight of his spasms of terror, that I +stood for a moment or so silent; but in one way satisfied, since it +was evident that this poor scared wretch could not possibly do me +harm. Just as I was about to speak to him, hoping to soothe him a +little, he pushed the bedclothes down from over his eyes and took +another look at me--and straightway yelled again, and then cried out +at me: "Go away, damn you! Go away, damn you! You're dead! You're +dead, I tell you! Do you want me to kill you all over again, when I've +done it once as well as I know how?" And with that he fell to kicking +again, and to shouting out curses, and to letting off the most +dreadful shrieks and cries--until suddenly a gasping choking checked +him, and he lay silent and still. + +Then the notion came to me that he took me for the dead man up on +deck; I being about the dead fellow's size and build, and therefore +looking very like him as I stood there with the light behind me and +the shadows too deep for him to make out my face. And so, to ease his +mind and get him quiet--and this was quite as much for my own sake as +for his, for his wild fear was strangely horrible to witness--I spoke +to him, asking him if he were badly hurt and if I could help him; and +at the sound of my voice he gave a long sigh, as though of great +relief, and in a moment said: "Who the devil are you, anyway? I +thought you was Jack--come back after my killin' him to have another +round with me. Is Jack true dead?" + +"If you mean the man on deck," I answered, "he is true dead--as dead +as any man can be with a cut straight through his heart." + +He gave another sigh of relief, as though what I told him was a real +comfort to him; and in a moment he said: "Well, that's a good job, and +I'm glad of it. He's killed me, too, I reckon; but I'm glad I got in +on him first an' fixed him fur his damn starin' at me. Now he's dead I +guess he won't stare at me no more." He was silent for nearly a +minute, and then he added: "Jest get me a drink, won't you? I'm all +burnin' up inside. There's water in th' jug out there. An' put a good +dash of gin in it--there's gin out there, too." + +I got him some water from the jug on the cabin table, but when he +tasted it and found that it was water only he began to swear at me for +leaving out the gin; and when I added the gin--thinking that he +probably was so used to strong drink as really to need a little to put +some life into him--he took off the whole glassful at a gulp and +asked for more. + +I told him to wait for another drink until I should have a look at his +hurts and see what I could do to better them; for, while hanging +seemed to be what he deserved, I had a natural desire to ease the +pain that was racking him--as I could tell by the gasps and groans +which he was giving and by the sharp motions which he made. + +"Jest shet your head an' gimme some more drink," he said in a surly +way. "Jack's give me a dose that'll settle me, an' lookin' at me won't +do no good--'cause there's nothin' to be done. He's ripped me up, Jack +has, an' no man can live long that way. All I can do is to die +happy--so it's a good thing there's lots of gin. You'll find a kag of +it over there in th' fur corner. Me an' Jack filled it from th' spirit +room yesterday, afore our fuss begun." + +But I stuck out that I must have a look at his hurts first, and +managed to open the dead-light--which luckily had not been screwed +tight--and so had some light in the room; and in the end, finding that +I would not give him a drink otherwise, he let me have my way. But I +had only to take a glance over him to see that what he said about the +other man having settled him was true enough; for he was cut in a +dozen places savagely, and had one desperate slash--which had laid him +all open about the waist--from which alone he was certain to die in a +very little while. + +There was nothing for me to do, and I did not know what was best to +say to him; and while I was casting about in my mind to comfort him a +little, for his horrible hurts could not but stir my pity, he settled +the matter for both of us in his own way--grunting out that he guessed +I'd found he knew what he was talking about, and then asking for +more gin. + +This time I gave it to him, and gave it to him strong--being certain +that he was past hurting by it, and hoping that it might deaden his +pain. And presently, when he asked for another drink, I gave him +that too. + +The liquor did make him easier, and it raised his spirits so much that +he fell to swearing quite cheerfully at the man Jack who had given him +his death--and seemed to feel a good deal better for freeing his mind +that way. And after a while he began of his own accord to tell me +about the wreck that he had passed through, and about what had come +after it--only stopping now and then to ask for more gin-and-water, +and gulping it down with such satisfaction that I gave him all he +cared to have. Indeed, it was the only thing that I could do to ease +him, and I knew that no matter how much he drank the end shortly would +be the same. + +As well as I could make out from his rambling talk, the storm that had +wrecked him had happened about three months earlier: a tremendous +burst of tempest that had sent everything to smash suddenly, and had +washed the captain and first and second officers overboard--they all +being on the bridge together--and three or four of the crew as well. +At the same time the funnel was carried away, and such a deluge of +water got down to the engine-room that the fires were drowned. This +brought the engineers on deck and the coal-passers with them; and the +coal-passers--"a beach-combin' lot," he called them--led in breaking +into the spirit-room, and before long pretty much all the men of the +crew were as drunk as lords. What happened after that for a while he +did not know; but when he got sober enough to stagger up on deck he +found the man Jack there--who also had just come up after sleeping off +his drunk below somewhere--and they had the ship to themselves. The +others might have found a boat that would float and tried their luck +that way, or they might have been washed overboard. He didn't know +what had become of them, and he didn't care. Then the hulk had taken +to drifting slowly, and at the end of a month or so had settled into +the berth where I found her; and since then the two of them had known +that all chance of their getting back into the world again was gone. + +"At first I didn't mind it much," he went on, "there bein' lashins to +eat aboard, an' more to drink than me an' Jack ever'd hoped to get a +show at in all our lives. But pretty soon Jack he begun to be +worryin'. He'd get drunk, an' then he'd set an' stare at me like a +damn owl--jest a-blinkin' and a-blinkin' his damn eyes. You hev no +idee, ontil it's done to you, how worryin' it is when a drunken man +jest sets an' stares at you fur hours together in that fool way. I +give Jack fair warnin' time and agen when he was sober that I'd hurt +him ef he kep' on starin' at me like that; but then he'd get drunk +agen right off, an' at it he'd go. I s'pose I wouldn't 'a' minded it +in a ornary way an' ashore, or ef we'd had some other folks around. +But here we was jest alone--oh, it was terr'ble how much we was +alone!--an' Jack more'n half the time like a damn starin' owl, till he +a-most druv me wild." + +"An' Jack said as how I was onbearable too. _He_ said it was me as +stared at him--the damn fool not knowin' that I was only a-tryin' to +squench his beastly owlin' by lookin' steady at him; an' he said he'd +settle me ef I kep' on. An' so things went like that atween us fur +days an' days--and all th' time nothin' near us but dead ships with +mos' likely dead men fillin' 'em, an' him an' me knowin' we'd soon got +to be dead too. An' the stinks out of th' rotten weed, and out of all +th' rotten ships whenever a bit of wind breezed up soft from th' +s'uthard over th' hull mess of 'em, was horrider than you hev any +idee! Gettin' drunk was all there was lef' fur us; and even in gettin' +drunk there wasn't no real Christian comfort, 'cause of Jack's damn +owlin' stares." + +"I guess ef anybody stared steady at you fur better'n three months +you'd want to kill him too. Anyway, that's how I felt about it; an' I +told Jack yesterday--soon as he waked up in th' mornin', an' while he +was plumb sober--that ef he didn't let up on it I'd go fur him sure. +An' that fool up an' says it was me done th' starin', and I'd got to +stop it or he'd cut out my damn heart--an' them was his very words. +An' by noon yesterday he was drunker'n a Dutchman, an' was starin' +harder'n ever. An' he kep' at it all along till sunset, an' when we +come down into th' cabin to get supper he still was starin'; and after +supper--when we mought 'a' been jest like two brothers a-gettin' drunk +together on gin-an'-water--he stared wust of all." + +"Nobody could 'a' stood it no longer--and up I gets an' goes fur him, +keepin' my promise fair an' square. At fust we jest punched each other +sort o' friendly with our fists, but after a while Jack give me a clip +that roused my dander and I took my knife to him; an' then he took his +knife to me. I don't remember jest all about it, but I know we licked +away at each other all over th' cabin, an' then up through th' +companion-way, an' then all over th' deck--me a-slicin' into him an' +him a-slicin' into me all th' time. And at last he got this rippin' +cut into me, an' jest then I give him a jab that made him yell like a +stuck pig an' down he fell. I knowed he'd done fur me, but somehow I +managed to work my way along th' deck an' to get down here to my +bunk, where I knowed I'd die easier; an' then things was all black fur +a while--ontil all of a sudden you comes along, and I sees you +standin' in the door there, an' takes you fur Jack's ghost, an' gets +scared th' wust kind. But he's not doin' no ghost racket, Jack ain't. +I've settled him an' his damn owl starin'--and it's a good job I have. +Gimme some more gin." + +And then, having taken the drink that I gave him, he rolled over a +little--so that he lay as I found him, with his face turned away from +me--and for a good long while he did not speak a word. + + + + + +XVI + +I RID MYSELF OF TWO DEAD MEN + + +Only an hour before I had been longing for any sort of a live man to +talk with and so break my loneliness; but having thus found a live +man--who, to be sure, was close to being a dead one--I would have been +almost ready to get rid of him by going back to my mast in the open +sea. Indeed, as I stood there in the shadows beside that dying brute, +and with the other brute lying dead on the deck above me, the feeling +of dull horror that filled me is more than I can put into words. + +I think that the underlying strong strain of my wretchedness was an +intense pity for myself. In what the fellow had told me I saw clearly +outlined a good deal of what must be my own fate in that vile +solitude: which I perceived suddenly must be strewn everywhere with +dead men lying unhidden, corrupting openly; since none there were to +hide the dead from sight as we hide them in the living world. And I +realized that until I myself should be a part of that indecent +exhibition of human carcasses--which might not be for a long while, +for I was a strong man and not likely to die soon--I should have to +dwell in the midst of all that corruption; and always with the +knowledge that sooner or later I must take my place in it, and lie +with all those unhidden others wasting away slowly in the open light +of day. I got so sick as these horrid thoughts pressed upon me that I +turned to the table and poured out for myself a stiff drink of +gin-and-water--being careful first to rinse the glass well--and I was +glad that I thought of it, for it did me good. + +My movement about the cabin roused up the dying fellow and he hailed +me to give him some more gin. His voice was so thick that I knew that +the drink already had fuddled him; and after he had swiped off what I +gave him he began to talk again. But the liquor had taken such hold +upon him that he called me "Jack," not recognizing me, and evidently +fancying that I was his mate--the man whom he had killed. + +At first he rambled on about the storm that had wrecked them; and then +about their chance of falling in with a passing vessel; and then about +some woman named Hannah who would be worrying about him because he did +not come home. As well as I could make out he went over in this +fashion most of what had happened--and it was little enough, in one +way--from the time that the two found themselves alone upon the hulk +until they began to get among the weed, and realized pretty well +what that meant for them. + +"It ain't no use now, Jack," he rambled on. "It ain't no use now +thinkin' about gettin' home, an' Hannah may as well stop lookin' fur +me. This is th' Dead Man's Sea we're gettin' into; an' I knows it +well, an' you knows it well, both on us havin' heerd it talked about +by sailor-men ever sence we come afloat as boys. Down in th' middle of +it is all th' old dead wrecks that ever was sence ships begun sailin'; +and all th' old dead sailor-men is there too. It's a orful place, +Jack, that me an' you's goin' to--more damn orful, I reckon, than we +can hev any idee. Gin's all thet's lef' to us, and it's good luck we +hev such swashins of it aboard. Here's at you, Jack an' gimme some +more out o' the kag, you damn starin' owl." + +There was an angry tone in his voice as he spoke these last words; and +the tone was sharper a moment later when he went on: "Can't you keep +your owl eyes shet, you beast? Don't look at me like that, or I'll +stick a knife into you. No, I'm _not_ starin' at you; it's you who's +starin' at me, damn you. Stop it! Stop it, I say, you--" and he broke +out with a volley of foul names and curses; and partly raised himself, +as though he thought that a fight was coming on. And then the pain +which this movement caused him made him fall back again with a groan. + +Without his asking for it I gave him another drink, which quieted +him a little; and then put fresh strength into him, so that he burst +out again with his curses and abuse. "Cut the heart out of me, will +you--you scum of rottenness? I'd have you to know that cuttin' hearts +out is a game two can play at. Take that, damn you! An' that! An' +that! Them's fur your starin'--you damn fat-faced blinkin' owl. And I +mean now t' keep on till I stop you. No more of your owl-starin' fur +me! Take it agen, you stinkin' starin' owl. So! An' so! An' so!" + +He fairly raised himself up in the berth as he rushed out his words, +and at the same time thrust savagely with his right hand as though he +had a knife in it. For a minute or more he kept his position, cursing +with a strong voice and thrusting all the time. Suddenly he gave a +yell of pain and fell on his back again, crying brokenly: "Hell! It's +_you_ who've finished me!" And then he gave two or three short sharp +gasps, and after that there was a little gurgling in his throat, and +then he was still--lying there as dead as any man could be. + +This quick ending of him came so suddenly that it staggered me; but I +must say that my first feeling, when I fairly realized what had +happened, was thankfulness that his life was gone--for I had had +enough of him to know that having much more of him would drive me mad. + +In the telling of it, of course, most of what made all this horrible +slips away from me, and it don't seem much to strain a man, after all. +But it really was pretty bad: what with the shadowy light in the +state-room, for even with the port uncovered it still was dusky; and +the horrid smell there; and the vividness with which the fellow +somehow managed to make me feel those days and weeks of his half-crazy +half-drunken life, while he and the other man stared at each other +until neither of them could bear it any longer--and so took to +fighting from sheer heart-breaking horror of loneliness and killed +each other out of hand. And back of all that I had the feeling that I +was caught in the same fate that had shut in upon them; and was even +worse off than they had been, since I had no one to fight my life away +with but must take it myself when I found my solitude in that rotten +desolation more than I could stand. + +Even the gin-and-water, though I took another big drink of it, could +not hearten me; but it did give me the courage to rid myself of the +two dead brutes by casting them overboard; and, indeed, getting rid of +them was a necessity, for their presence seemed to me so befouling +that I found it hard to breathe. + +With the man on deck--except that touching him was hateful to me--I +did not have much trouble. I just made fast to him a couple of heavy +iron bars that I found down in the engine-room--pokers, they seemed to +be, for serving the boiler fires--and then dragged him along the deck +to a place where the bulwarks were gone and there shot him overboard. +And luckily the weed was thinnish there, and he went down like a stone +into it and through it and so disappeared. + +But with the man in the cabin I had a harder job. In his horridly cut +condition I could not bring myself to touch him, and the best that I +could do was to make a sort of bundle of him and the mattress and the +bedclothes all together--with a bit of light line whipped around and +around the whole mass until it was snug and firm. When it was finished +I worked it out of the state-room, and rolled it fairly easily along +the floor of the cabin to the companion-way--and there it stuck fast. +Budge it I could not; for it was too long to roll up the stair, and +too heavy for me to haul it up after me or to push it up before me, +though I tried both ways and tried hard. But in the end I managed to +get it up by means of a purchase that I rigged from a ring-bolt in the +deck just outside the companion-way door; and once having it on deck I +could manage it again easily, for there I could roll it along. + +Yet I did not at once cast it overboard; for I had no more iron bars +with which to weight it, and I knew that such a bunch of stuff would +not sink through the weed--and that I should have it still +loathsomely with me, lying only partly hidden in the weed right +alongside. In the end I got up a big iron cinder-bucket that I filled +with coal--making sure that the coal would stay in it by lashing a +piece of canvas over the top--and this I made fast to the bundle by a +rope three or four fathoms long. Then I cast the bucket overboard +through the break in the bulwarks, and as it shot downward I rolled +the bundle after it--and I had the comfort of seeing the whole go down +through the weed and away from my sight forever into the hidden +water below. + +And then I sat down on the deck and rested; for what little cheering +and strength I had got from the gin-and-water had left me and I was +utterly miserable and tired as a dog. But I was well quit of both my +dead men, and that was a good job well done. + + + + + +XVII + +HOW I WALKED MYSELF INTO A MAZE + + +Sitting there with the splotches of fresh blood on the deck all around +me was more than I could stomach for very long. The sight of them +brought back to me with a horrid distinctness everything that I had +seen since I came aboard the hulk: the dead man lying on the deck, the +other man with his frightful wounds and his wild talk and his death in +the midst of his passionate ravings, and the disgusting work that I +had been forced to do before I could hide their two bodies from my +sight in the sea-depths beneath the tangled weed. And so, presently, I +scrambled to my feet, thinking to get back to the _Hurst Castle_ +again--where there was no taint of blood to bring up haunting visions +and where, though it seemed a long while past to me, I had been in the +company of honest and kindly men. + +But when I turned toward this poor escape from my misery--which at +best was but a change from a foul prison to a clean one--I saw that I +could not easily compass it; for in the time that had passed since I +had made my jump in the morning--noon being by then upon me--the +_Hurst Castle_ had swung around a little, being caught I suppose upon +some bit of sunken wreckage, so that where the two ships were nearest +to each other there was an open reach of twenty feet or more +across the weed. + +This was too great a distance for a jump, seeing that it must be made +from rail to rail without a run to give me a send-off; and yet it was +so short that my not being able to cross it never even entered my +mind. Had there been a mast standing on the hulk, with a yard fast to +it, I could have rigged a rope from the yard-arm and swung myself +across in a moment; but the decks being sea-swept, with nothing left +standing on them, that way was not open to me; nor could I find a +light spar--even the flag-staff at the stern being snapt away--that I +could stretch across from one rail to the other and make a bridge of. +The only other thing that occurred to me was to tear off some of the +doors in the cabin and to make of them a little raft that I could pass +by, though I saw well enough that pushing a raft through so dense a +tangle even for that short distance would be a hard job. And then I +had the thought that perhaps on the sailing-ship lying beside me I +might find a sound boat, which would better answer my purpose since it +could be the more easily moved through the weed. In point of fact I +could not have moved a boat a single foot through that thicket without +cutting a passage for it, and I might have thrown overboard three or +four doors and so made a bridge over the weed that would have borne me +easily--but I did not know then as much about that strange sea-growth +as I came to know later on. + +As there was no hurry in one way, the ships being so bedded fast there +that they were certain not to move more than a few feet at the utmost, +I hunted up some food before setting myself to what I knew would be a +heavy task; finding cold victuals of a coarse sort in the galley--left +from the last meal that the two men had made there--and fairly fresh +water in the tank. It was hard work eating, on board that foul ship +and thinking of the foul hands which had made the food ready; but +going without eating would have been harder, for I had the healthy +appetite of a sound young fellow three-and-twenty years old. + +When I had finished my meal, and I got through it quickly, I made fast +a line to the steamer's rail and slipped down it to the deck of the +sailing-ship--a fine vessel of above a thousand tons, built of wood +and on clipper lines. There was an immediate sense of relief in +getting aboard of her, and away from the blood-stained steamer where +the dead men had been; but I saw at a glance that what I was after was +not there. She had carried four boats on her rail, as I could tell +by the davits, and likely enough a long-boat on her fore-castle as +well. But all of them were gone, and I could only hope--since they +were not there for my use--that her crew had got safe away in them: as +well enough might have happened when she was floating water-logged +after the storm that had wrecked her was past. + +Without stopping to explore her--and, indeed, after what I had found +on the steamer, I had no fancy for explorations which might end in my +stumbling upon still more horrors--I went on to a trim little brig +lying on the other side of her; a beautiful little vessel, with all +her spars and rigging save her bow-hamper in perfect order for +sea-going--but showing by her broken bow-sprit that she had been in +collision, and by her depth in the water that after the collision she +had filled. Naturally enough, her boats were gone too; and so I left +her and went on. + +In the course of the next two hours or so I must have traversed more +than a hundred wrecks--scrambling up or down from one to another, as +they happened to lie low in the water or high out of it--and with all +their differences of size and build finding them in one way the same: +all of them were dead ships which some sort of a sea-disaster had +slain. And not one of them had a sound boat left on board. The same +reason that kept me from exploring the first of them kept me from +exploring any of them: the dread of finding in their shadowy depths +grisly horrors in the way of dead men long lying there; and, indeed, I +was distinctly warned to hurry away from some of them by the vile +stenches which came to me and made my stomach turn sickish and my +blood go cold. + +I must have walked for a good mile, I suppose, over the dead bodies of +these sea-killed ships--and it was the most dismal walk that ever I +had taken--before I realized that even if I found a boat and got it +overboard it would be of no use to me, since there was no possibility +of my getting back in it to my own hulk through that densely packed +mass of wrecks and weed. Indeed, I should have perceived this plain +certainty sooner had not the wondering curiosity which this strange +walk bred in me lured me on and on. And then, being brought at last to +a halt by my rational reflection, there came over me suddenly a queer +shiver of doubt as to the direction in which the _Hurst Castle_ lay; +and then a still more shivering doubt as to whether I should be able +to get back to her again by the way that I had come, or by any way +at all. + +At the beginning of my march in this haze-covered sea-wilderness I had +tried to keep upon the outer edge of it; but insensibly--having to +pass from ship to ship rather by the way that was open to me than by +the way that I wished to go--I had wandered into the thick of it +more and more. And so, when at last I took thought of my whereabouts, +and stopped to look around me that I might shape a course back again, +I found that in whatever direction I turned I saw only what I had seen +ahead of me when my hulk was drawing in upon its borders: a dense +confusion of broken and ruined ships which fell away from me vaguely +under the golden haze. It had been a dismal sight then; but what gave +a fresh note to it, and a thrilling one, was that it no longer was +only in front of me but was all around me--stretching away on every +side of the wreck on which I was standing, and growing fainter and +fainter as the haze shut down thick upon it until it vanished softly +into the golden blur. + +Yet even then the full meaning of my outlook did not take hold of me. +That I was in something of a coil, out of which I could not find my +way easily, was plain enough; but that I really was lost in it did not +cross my mind. With all my wanderings, I knew that I could not have +traversed any great distance; and the certainty that I had passed +always from one ship to the ship next touching it seemed to make +finding my way back again entirely open and plain. And so I laughed at +myself a little--though that was not much of a place for +laughter--because of my touch of panic fright; and then I turned back +from the ship on which I was standing to the one next to it, over +which I had just come--and so on to the next, and in the same way to +three or four more. Yet even in that short distance--though my way was +unmistakable, for these ships touched only each other as it +happened--I was surprised by finding how differently things looked to +me as I took my course backward: all the ups and downs of my +scrambling walk being inverted, and the lay of the ships one to +another and the look of them being entirely changed. + +Presently I got on board of a brig--which I well remembered, because +it was one of the vessels having about it a vile stench that had made +me cross it quickly--on the farther side of which two ships were +lying, both rising a little above it and both jammed close against its +side. For a moment I hesitated, in doubt as to which of the two I had +come by; and I should have hesitated longer had not a whiff of the +horrid smell struck upon me strongly and urged me to go on. And so +away I went, taking to the ship that I thought was the right one; and +still fancying that it was the right one when I got aboard of it--for +both, as I have said, were ships, and the two had been about equally +mauled by sea and storm. Indeed, except for the differences in their +build and rig, there was a strong family resemblance among these +storm-broken vessels; and the way that they were jammed together made +their build less noticeable, while a good many of them were +dismasted and so had no rig at all. + +Therefore I went on confidently for a dozen ships or more before I had +any misgivings that I had missed my way--which was but a natural +reaction against my momentary doubtfulness--and then I found myself +suddenly pulled up short. Right above me was the side of a big iron +steamer--called the _City of Boston_, as I made out from the weathered +name-plate on her bows, and a packet-boat as I judged by her +build--rising so high out of the water that getting up to her deck was +impossible: as equally impossible was my having forgotten it had I +made such a rattling jump down. Yet this big steamer was the only +vessel in touch with the barque on which I was standing, save the +schooner from which I had just come; and that gave me sharply the +choice between two conclusions: either I had made that big jump +without noticing it, or else--and I felt a queer lump rising in my +throat as I faced this alternative--I had managed to go astray +completely and had lost myself in what had the look of being a +hopeless maze. + + + + + +XVIII + +I FIND THE KEY TO A SEA MYSTERY + + +On shore, in a forest, I would not in the least have minded finding +myself in a fix of this sort--though my getting into it would have +been unlikely--because getting out of it would have been the easiest +thing in the world. I know a good deal of wood-craft, and always can +steer a course steadily by having the points of the compass fixed for +me by the size and the trend of the branches, and by the bark growing +thin or thick or by the moss or the lack of moss on the tree-trunks, +and by the other such simple forest signs which are the outcome of the +affection that there is on the part of things growing for the sun. + +But what made my breath come hard and my heart take to pumping--as I +stood looking up the tall side of the _City of Boston_, being certain +that I never had come down it and so must be off my course +entirely--was my conviction that in this forest of the ocean, if I may +call it so, there were no signs which would help me to find my way. +All around me was the same wild hopeless confusion of broken wrecks +jammed tight together, or only a little separated by narrow spaces +thick-grown with weed; and everywhere overhanging it heavily, growing +denser the deeper that I got into the tangle, was the haze that made +it more confusing still. And under the haze--and because of it, I +suppose--was a soft languorish warmth that seemed to steal my strength +away and a good deal of my courage too. + +But I knew that to give way to the feeling of dull fright, having +somehow a touch of awe in it, that was creeping over me would be to +put myself into a panic; and that once my wits fairly were addled my +chance of getting back to the _Hurst Castle_ again would be pretty +much gone. And to get back to her seemed to me the only way of keeping +my heart up and of keeping myself alive. She was the one ship, in all +that great dismal fleet, aboard of which I could be sure that nothing +horrible had happened, and in which I could be certain that no +loathsome sights were to be come upon suddenly in shadowy nooks and +corners to which dying men had crept in their extremity--trying, since +none ever would bury them, to hide away a little their own bodies +against the time when death should be upon them and corruption +should begin. + +And so I pulled myself together as well as I could and tried to do a +little quiet thinking; and presently I came to the conclusion that I +must find my way back to the brig against which the two ships were +lying and start afresh from her; since it was pretty certain that it +was there, by boarding the wrong ship, that I had got off my course. +But because of my certain knowledge of what horridness the brig +sheltered, and of the noisome stench that I must encounter there, it +took a good deal of resolution to put this plan into practice; so +much, indeed, that for a while I wavered about it, and succeeded at +last in starting back again only by setting going the full force of +my will. + +But I need not have whipped myself on to my work so resolutely, nor +have fretted myself in advance with planning the rush that I should +make across the brig when I came to her--for I never, so far as I +know, laid eyes on her again. For a little while, as in my first +turn-about, I found my way backward without much difficulty--though +again the different look that the ships had as I returned across them +pulled me up from time to time with doubts about them; and then, just +as before, I came to a place where more than one line of advance was +open to me and there went wrong--as I knew a little later by finding +myself aboard a vessel so strange in her appearance that my first +glimpse over her deck satisfied me that I saw her then for the +first time. + +This craft was an old-fashioned sloop-of-war, carrying eighteen guns; +and that she had perished in action was as evident as that her +death-battle had been fought a long while back in the past. The +mauling that she had received had made an utter wreck of her--her +masts being shot away and hanging by the board, most of her bulwarks +being splintered, and her whole stern torn open as though a crashing +broad-side had been poured into her at short range. Moreover, nearly +all her guns had been dismounted, and two of them had burst in +firing--as the shattered gun-carriages showed. + +But what most strongly proved the fierceness of her last action, and +the length of time that had passed since she fought it, were the +scores of skeletons lying about her deck--a few with bits of clothing +hanging fast to them, but most of them clean fleshless naked bones. +Just as they had fallen, there they lay: with legs or arms or ribs +splintered or carried off by the shot which had struck them, or with +bullet-holes clean through their skulls. But the sight of them, while +it put a sort of awe upon me, did not horrify me; because time +had done its cleansing work with them and they were pure. + +Indeed, my imagination was taken such fast hold of by coming upon this +thrilling wreck of ancient sea-battle, fought out fiercely to a finish +generations before ever I was born, that for a little while I forgot +my own troubles entirely; and so got over the shock which my first +sight of the riddled sloop and her dead crew had given me by proving +that again I had lost my way. And my longing to know all that I could +find out about it--backed by the certainty that I should not come upon +anything below that would revolt me--led me to go searching in the +shattered cabin for some clue to the sloop's name and nationality, and +to the cause in which her death-fight had been fought. + +The question of nationality was decided the moment that I set my foot +within the cabin doorway--there being a good deal of light there, +coming in through the broken stern--by my seeing stretched over a +standing bed-place in a state-room to starboard an American flag; and +the flag, taken together with the ancient build of the sloop, also +settled the fact pretty clearly that the action which had finished her +must have been fought with an English vessel in the War of 1812. + +Under the flag I could make out faintly the lines of a human figure, +and I knew that one of the sloop's officers--most likely her +commander, from the respect shown to him by covering him with the +colors--must be lying there, just as his men had placed him to wait +for a sea-burial until the fighting should come to an end. And that he +had remained there was proof that not a man of the sloop's company but +had been killed outright in the fight or had got his death-wound in +it; and also of the fact that in a way the fight had been a +victory--since it was evident that the enemy had not taken possession, +and therefore must have been beaten off. + +But the whole matter was settled clearly by my finding the sloop's +log-book lying open on the cabin table, just as it had lain there, and +had entries made in it, while the action was going on. And a very +strange thrill ran through me as I read on the mouldy page in brown +faint letters the date, "October 5, 1814," and across the page-head, +in bigger brown faint letters: "U.S. Sloop-of-war _Wasp_": and so knew +that I was aboard of that stinging little war-sloop--whereof the +record is a bright legend, and the fate a mystery, of our Navy--which +in less than three months' time successively fought and whipped three +English war-vessels--the ship _Reindeer_ and the brigs _Avon_ and +_Atalanta_, all of them bigger than herself--and then, being last +sighted in September, 1814, not far from the Azores, vanished with all +her crew and officers from off the ocean and never was seen nor +heard of again. + +There before me in the mouldy log-book was the record of her last +action--and in gallantry it led the three others which have made +her fame. + +The entries began at 7.20 A.M. with: "A strange sail in sight on the +weather bow;" at 7.45 followed: "The strange brig bearing down on us. +Looks English"; and at 8.10: "The strange brig has shown English +colors." Then came the manoeuvring for position, covering more than an +hour, and the beating to general quarters; and after that the short +entries ran on quickly--in such rough and ready writing as might be +expected of a man dashing in for a moment to make them, and then +dashing out again to where the fighting was going on: + + +"9.20 A.M. Engaged the enemy with our starboard battery, + hulling him severely. + +"9.24. Our foremast by the board. + +"9.28. The enemy's broadside in our stern. Great havoc. + +"9.35. The wreck of the foremast cleared, giving us steerage way. + +"9.40. Our hulling fire telling. The enemy's battery fire + slacking. His musketry fire very hot and galling. + +"9.45. The enemy badly hulled. More than half of our crew + now killed or disabled. + +"9.52. Our main-mast by the board and our mizzen badly + wounded. Action again very severe. Few of our men left. + +"9.56. Captain Blakeley killed and brought below. + +"10.01. Our mizzen down. The enemy's fire slacking again. + +"10.10. The enemy sheering off, with the look of being + sinking. + +"10.15. The enemy sinking. We cannot help him. Most of our men are + dead. All of us living are badly hurt." + + +And there the entries came to an end. + +My breath came fast as I read that short record of as brave a fight as +ever was fought on salt water; and when my reading was finished I +gave a great sigh. It was a fit ending for the little _Wasp_, that +death triumphant: and it was a fit ending to a fight between American +and English sailors that they should hang at each other's throats, +neither yielding, until they died that way--they being each of a +nation unaccustomed to surrender, and both of the one race which alone +in modern times has held the sea. + + + + + +XIX + +OF A GOOD PLAN THAT WENT WRONG WITH ME + + +For a while I was so stirred by the enthusiasm which my discovery +aroused in me that I had no room in my mind for any other thoughts. +But at last, as I still stood pondering in the _Wasp's_ cabin, I +became aware that the daylight was fading into darkness; and as I +realized what that meant for me my thoughts came back suddenly to +myself, and then all my enthusiasm ebbed away. + +I came out upon the deck again, but leaving everything as I had found +it--my momentary impulse to lift the flag having vanished as I felt +how fit it was that this dead battle-captain should rest on +undisturbed where his men had laid him beneath the colors that he had +died for; and I was glad to find when I got into the open that a good +deal of daylight still remained. But it was so far gone, and was +waning so rapidly, that I saw that I had little chance of getting back +to the _Hurst Castle_ before nightfall; and that the most that I could +hope for was to make a start in the right direction--and perhaps to +find a wreck to sleep on that had food and water aboard of it, and +thence take up my search again the next day. + +Yet the dread was strong upon me, as I looked around upon the wrecks +among which the _Wasp_ was bedded, that I might not only be unable to +find the _Hurst Castle_ again, but ever to find my way across that +tangle to the outer edges of it--where only was it possible that ships +on which were provisions fit for eating would be found. The very fact +that the _Wasp_ had settled into her position more than fourscore +years back made it certain that she was deep in the labyrinth; and the +strange old-fashioned look of the craft surrounding her showed me that +I should have to go far before finding a vessel wrecked in +recent times. + +But these disheartening thoughts I crushed down as well as I could, +yet not making much of it; and as trying to go back by the way that I +had come to the _Wasp_ would not serve any good purpose--even +supposing that I could have managed it, which was not likely--I went +on beyond her on a new course: taking a longish jump from her +quarter-rail and landing on the deck of a clumsy little ill-shapen +brig, with a high-built square stern and a high-built bow that was +pretty nearly square too. She was Dutch, I fancy, and a merchant +vessel; but she carried a little battery of brass six-pounders, and +had also a half dozen pederaros set along her rail. And by her +carrying these old-fashioned swivel-guns--which proved that she had +got her armament not much later than the middle of the last +century--and by the general look of her, I knew that she was an older +vessel even than the _Wasp_. + +This observation, and the reflection growing out of it that the deeper +I went into the Sargasso Sea the older must be the craft bedded in +it--since that great dead fleet is recruited constantly by new wrecks +drifting in upon its outer edges from all ways seaward--put into my +head what seemed to me to be a very reasonable plan for finding my way +back to the _Hurst Castle_ again; or, at least, to some other newly +come in hulk on which there would be fresh water and sound food. And +this was to shape my course by considering attentively the look of +each wreck that I came aboard of, and the look of those surrounding +it, and by then going forward to whichever one of them seemed to be of +the most modern build. + +As the first step in carrying out my plan--and it seemed to be such a +good plan that I felt almost light-hearted over it--I got up on the +rail of the old brig and jumped back to the less-old _Wasp_ again: +landing in her main-channels, and thence easily boarding her by +scrambling up what was left of the chains. But in taking my next step +I had no choice in the matter, as only one other vessel was in touch +with the sloop--a heavily-built little schooner that had the look of +being quite as old as the brig which I had just left. And her age +was so evident as I came aboard of her--having crossed the deck of the +_Wasp_ hastily, picking my way among the scattered bones--that of a +sudden my faith in my fine plan for getting out of the tangle began +to wane. + +In a general way, of course, the conclusion which I had arrived at was +a sound one. Broadly speaking, it was certain that could I pass in a +straight line from the centre to the circumference of that vast +assemblage of wrecks I constantly would find vessels of newer build; +and so at last, upon the outermost fringe, would come to the wrecks of +ships belonging to my own day. But one weak point in my calculations +was my inability to hold to a straight line, or to anything like +one--because I had to advance from one wreck to another as they +happened to touch or to be within jumping distance of each other, and +therefore went crookedly upon my course and often fairly had to double +on it. And another weak point was that the sea in its tempests +recognizes no order of seniority, but destroys in the same breath of +storm ships just beginning their lives upon it and ships which have +withstood its ragings for a hundred years: so that I very well might +find--as I actually did find in the case of the _Wasp_--a +comparatively modern-built vessel lying hemmed in by ancient craft, +survivals of obsolete types, which had lingered so long upon the +ocean that in their lives as in their deaths they merged and blended +the present and the past. + +Thus a check was put upon my plan at the very outset; yet in a stolid +sort of way--knowing that to give it up entirely would be to bring +despair upon me, for I could not think of a better one--I tried still +to hold by it: going on from the clumsy little old schooner to that +one of two vessels lying beyond her which I fancied, though both of +them belonged to a long past period, was the more modern-looking in +her build. And so I continued to go onward over a dozen craft of one +sort or another, holding by my rule--or trying to believe that I was +holding by it, for all of the wrecks which I crossed were of an +antique type--and now and then being left with no chance for choosing +by finding open to me only a single way. And all this while the +daylight was leaving me--the sun having gone down a ruddy globe beyond +the forest of wrecks westward, and heavy purple shadows having begun +to close down upon me through the low-hanging haze. + +The imminence of night-fall made clear to me that I had no chance +whatever of getting out from among those long-dead ships before the +next morning; and this certainty was the harder to bear because I was +desperately hungry--more than six hours having passed since I had +eaten anything--and thirsty too: though my thirst, because of the +dampness of the haze I suppose, was not very severe. But the belief +that I really was advancing toward the coast of my strange floating +continent and that I should find both food and drink when I got there, +made me press forward; comforting myself as well as I could with the +reflection that even though I did have to keep a hungry and thirsty +vigil among those old withered hulks I yet should be the nearer, by +every one of them that I put behind me that night, to the freshly come +in wrecks on the coast line--where I made sure of finding a breakfast +on the following day. Moreover, I knew how forlornly miserable I +should be the moment that I lost the excitement of scrambling and +climbing and just sat down there among the ancient dead, with the +darkness closing over me, to wait for the slow coming of another day. +And my dread of that desolate loneliness urged me to push forward +while the least bit of daylight was left by which to see my way. + +It was ticklish work, as the dusk deepened, getting from one wreck to +another; and at last--after nearly going down into the weed between +two of them, because of a rotten belaying-pin that I caught at +breaking in my hand--I had to resign myself to giving over until +morning any farther attempt to advance. But I was cheered by the +thought that I had got on a good way in the hour or more that had gone +since I had left the _Wasp_ behind me; and so I tried to make the +best of things as I cast around me for some sheltered nook on the deck +of the vessel I had come aboard of--a little clumsy old brig--where my +night might be passed. As to going below, either into the cabin or the +forecastle, I could not bring myself to it; for my heart failed me at +the thought of what I might touch in the darkness there, and my +mind--sore and troubled by all that I had passed through, and by the +dim dread filling it--certainly would have crowded those black depths +with grisly phantoms until I very well might have gone mad. + +And so, as I say, I cast about the deck of the brig for some nook that +would shelter me from the dampness while I did my best to sleep away +into forgetfulness my hunger and my thirst; but was troubled all the +while that I was making my round of investigation by a haunting +feeling that I had been on that same deck only a little while before. +Growing stronger and stronger, this feeling became so insistent that I +could not rest for it; and presently compelled me to try to quiet it +by taking a look at the wreck next beyond the brig to see if I +recognized that too--as would be likely, since I must have crossed it +also, had I really come that way. + +I did not try to board this adjoining wreck, but only clambered up on +the rail of the brig so that I could look well at it--and when I got +my look I came more nearly to breaking down completely than I had +done at any time since I had been cast overboard from the _Golden +Hind_, For there, showing faintly in the gloom below me, was the +gun-set deck of a war-ship, and over the deck dimly-gleaming bones +were scattered--and in that moment I knew that the whole of my +wandering had been but a circle, and that I was come back again at the +weary ending of it to the _Wasp_. + +But what crushed the heart of me was not that my afternoon of toil had +been wasted, but the strong conviction--from which I no longer saw any +way of escaping--that I had strayed too deep into that hideous +sea-labyrinth ever to find my way out of it, and that I must die there +slowly for lack of water and of food. + + + + + +XX + +HOW I SPENT A NIGHT WEARILY + + +I got down from the rail and seated myself on the brig's deck, leaning +my back against her bulwarks and a little sheltered by their +old-fashioned in-board overhang. But I had no very clear notion of +what I was doing; and my feeling, so far as I had any feeling, was +less that I was moving of my own volition than that I was being moved +by some power acting from outside of me--the sensation of +irresponsibility that comes to one sometimes in a dream. + +Indeed, the whole of that night seemed to me then, and still seems to +me, much more a dream than a reality: I being utterly wearied by my +long hard day's work in scrambling about among the wrecks, and a +little light-headed because of my stomach's emptiness, and feverish +because of my growing thirst, and my mind stunned by the dull pain of +my despair. And it was lucky for me, I suppose, that my thinking +powers were so feeble and so blunted. Had I been fully awake to my own +misery I might very well have gone crazy there in the darkness; or +have been moved by a sharp horror of my surroundings to try to escape +them by going on through the black night from ship to ship--which +would have ended quickly by my falling down the side of one or another +of them and so drowning beneath the weed. + +Yet the sort of stupor that I was in did not hold fast my inner +consciousness; being rather a numbing cloud surrounding me and +separating me from things external--though not cutting me off from +them wholly--while within this wrapping my spirit in a way was awake +and free. And the result of my being thus on something less than +speaking terms with my own body was to make my attitude toward it that +of a sympathizing acquaintance, with merely a lively pity for its +ill-being, rather than that of a personal partaker in its pains. And +even my mental attitude toward myself was a good deal of the same +sort: for my thoughts kept turning sorrowfully to the sorrow of my own +spirit solitary there, shrinking within itself because of its chill +forsakenness and lonely pain of finding itself so desolate--the one +thing living in that great sea-garnering of the dead. + +And after a while--either because my light-headedness increased, or +because I dozed and took to dreaming--I had the feeling that the dense +blackness about me, a gloom that the heavily overhanging mist made +almost palpable, was filling with all those dead spirits come to +peer curiously into my living spirit; and that they hated it and were +envious of it because it was not as they were but still was alive. And +from this, presently, I went on to fancying that I could see them +about me clad again dimly in the forms which had clothed them when +they also in their time had been living men. At first they were +uncertain and shadowy, but before long they became so distinct that I +plainly saw them: shaggy-bearded resolute fellows, roughly dressed in +strange old-fashioned sea-gear, with here and there among them others +in finer garb having the still more resolute air of officers; and all +with the fierce determined look of those old-time mariners of the +period when all the ocean was a battling-place where seamen spent +their time--and most of them, in the end, spent their lives also--in +fighting with each other and in fighting with the sea. + +Gradually this throng of the sea-dead filled the whole deck about me +and everywhere hemmed me in; but they gave no heed to me, and were +ranged orderly at their stations as though the service of the ship was +being carried on. Among themselves they seemed to talk; but I could +hear nothing of what they were saying, though I fancied that there was +a humming sound filling the air about me like the murmur of a far-away +crowd. Now and then an angry bout would spring up suddenly between two +or three of them; and in a moment they would be fighting together, +and would keep at it until one of their stern officers was upon them +with blows right and left with his fists or with the butt of his +pistol or with the pommel of his sword--and so would scatter the rough +brutes, scowling, and as it seemed uttering growls such as beasts +lashed by their keepers would give forth. + +And at other times they would seem to be fighting with some +enemy--serving at their guns stripped half-naked, with handkerchiefs +knotted about their heads, and with the grime of powder-smoke upon +their bare flesh and so blackening their faces as to give their +gleaming eyes a still more savage look; falling dead or wounded with +their blood streaming out upon the deck and making slimy pools in +which a man running sometimes would slip and go down headlong--and +would get up, with a laugh and a curse, only in another moment to drop +for good as a musket-ball struck him or as a round-shot sliced him in +two; and all of them with a savage joy in their work, and going at it +with a lust for blood that made them delight in it--and take no more +thought than any other fighting brutes would take of guarding their +own lives. + +Or, again, they would seem to be in the midst of a tempest, with the +roar of the wind and the rush of the waves upon them, and would be +fighting the gale and the ocean's turbulence with the same devil's +daring that they had shown in fighting the enemy--and with the same +carelessness as to what happened to themselves so long as they stuck +to their duty and did the best that was in them to bring their ship +safely through the storm. And so they went on ringing the changes on +their old-time wild sea-life--their savage fights among themselves, +and their battlings with foemen of a like metal, and their warfare +with the ocean--while the dark night wore on. + +Yet even when these visionary forms were thickest about me--and when +it seemed, too, as though from all the dead hulks about me the shadows +of the dead were rising in the same fashion in pale fierce throngs--I +tried to hold fast, and pretty well succeeded in it, to the steadying +conviction that the making of them was in my own imagination and that +they were not real. And then, too, I fell off from time to time into a +light sleep which still was deep enough to rid me of them wholly; and +which also gave me some of the rest that I so much needed after all +that I had passed through during that weary day. + +What I could not get rid of, either sleeping or waking, was my gnawing +hunger and my still worse thirst. For an hour or two after nightfall, +the air being fresher and the haze turning to a damp cool mist, my +thirst was a good deal lessened; which was a gain in one way, though +not in another--for that same chill of night very searchingly +quickened my longing for food. But as the hours wore away my desire +for water got the better of every other feeling, even changing my +haunting visions of dead crews rising from the dead ships about me +into visions of brooks and rivulets--which only made my burning +craving the more keen. + +Nor did what little reasoning I could bring to bear upon my case, when +from time to time I partly came out from the sort of lethargy that had +hold of me, do much for my comforting. It was possible, I perceived, +that I might find even in a long-wrecked ship some half-rotten scraps +of old salted meat, or some remnant of musty flour, that at least +would serve to keep life in me. But even food of this wretched sort +would do me no good without water--and water was to be found only in +one of the wrecks forming the outer fringe of my prison, toward which +I had been trying so long vainly to find my way. + +Yet in spite of my having already gone astray half a dozen times over +in daylight I still did have, deep down in me, a feeling that if only +the darkness would pass I could manage to steer a true course. And +when at last, as it seemed to me after years of waiting for it, I +began to see a little pink tone showing in the mist dimly it almost +seemed as though my troubles were coming instantly to an end. And, +at least, the horror of deep darkness, which all night long had been +crushing me, did leave me from the moment when that first gleam of +returning daylight appeared. + + + + + +XXI + +MY THIRST IS QUENCHED, AND I FIND A COMPASS + + +It was a long while before the pale pink gleam to the eastward spread +up into the sky far enough to thin the shadows which hung over my dead +fleet heavily, and longer still before I had light enough to venture +to begin my scrambling walk from ship to ship again. It seemed to me, +indeed, that the mist lay lower and was a good deal thicker than on +the preceding evening; and this, with the fiery glow that was in it +when the sunrise came, gave me hope that a douse of rain might be +coming--which chance of getting the water that I longed for heartened +me even more than did the up-coming of the sun. + +My throat was hurting me a good deal because of its dryness, and my +itching thirst was all the stronger because the last food I had +eaten--being the mess left in the pan by the two men who had killed +each other--had been a salt-meat stew. Of hunger I did not feel much, +save for gripes in my inside now and then; but I was weak because of +my emptiness--as I discovered when I got on my legs, and found myself +staggering a little and the things around me swimming before my eyes. +And what was worse than that was a dull stupidity which so possessed +me that I could not think clearly; and so for a while kept me +wandering about the deck of the brig aimlessly, while my wits went +wool-gathering instead of trying to work out some plan--even a foolish +plan--which would cheer me up with hopes of pulling through. + +I might have gone on all day that way, very likely, if I had not been +aroused suddenly by feeling a big drop of rain on my face; and only a +moment later--the thick mist, I suppose, being surcharged with water, +and some little waft of wind in its upper region having loosened its +vent-peg--I was in the thick of a dashing shower. So violent was the +downpour that in less than a minute the deck was streaming, and I had +only to plug with my shirt one of the scuppers amidships to have in +another minute or two a little lake of fresh sweet water from +which--lying on my belly, with the rain pelting down on me--I drank +and drank until at last I was full. And the feel of the rain on my +body was almost as good as the drinking of it, for it was deliciously +cool and yet not chill. + +When I got at last to my legs again, with the dryness gone from my +throat and only a little pain there because of the swollen glands, I +found that I walked steadily and that my head was clear too; and for +the moment I was so entirely filled with water that I was not hungry +at all. Presently the rain stopped, and that set me to thinking of +finding some better way to keep a store of water by me than leaving it +in a pool on the open deck; where, indeed, it would not stay long, but +would ooze out through the scupper and be sopped up by the +rotten planks. + +And so, though I did not at all fancy going below on the old brig, I +went down the companion-way into the cabin to search for a vessel of +some sort that would be water-tight; and shivered a little as I +entered that dusky place, and did not venture to move about there +until my eyes got accustomed to the half darkness for fear that I +should go stumbling over dead men's bones. + +As it turned out, the cabin was bare enough of dead people, and of +pretty much everything else; from which I inferred that in the long +past time when the brig had been wrecked her crew had got safe away +from her, and had been able in part to strip her before they left her +alone upon the sea. What I wanted, however, they had not taken away. +In a locker I found a case made to hold six big bottles, in which the +skipper had carried his private stock of liquors very likely; and two +of the bottles, no doubt being empty when the cabin was cleared, had +been left behind. They served my turn exactly, and I brought them on +deck and filled them from my pool of rain-water--and so was safe +against thirst for at least another day. + +Being thus freshened by my good drink, and cheered by the certainty of +having water by me, I sat down for a while on the cabin-scuttle that I +might puzzle out a plan for getting to some ship so recently +storm-slain that aboard of her still would be eatable food. As for +rummaging in the hold of the brig, I knew that no good could come of +it--she having lain there, as I judged, for a good deal more than half +a century; and for the same reason I knew that I only would waste time +in searching the other old wrecks about me for stores. All that was +open to me was to press toward the edge of the wreck-pack, for there +alone could I hope to find what I was after--and there it pretty +certainly would be. But after my miserable experience of the preceding +day it was plain that before I started on my hunting expedition I must +hit upon some way of laying a course and holding it; or else, most +likely, go rambling from wreck to wreck until I grew so weak from +starvation that on one or another of them I should fall down at +last and die. + +Close beside me, as I sat on the hatch, was the brig's binnacle, and +in it I could see the shrivelled remnant of what had been the +compass-card; and the sight of this put into my head presently the +thought--that might have got there sooner had my wits been +sharper--to look for a compass still in working order and by means of +it to steer some sort of a steady course. The argument against this +plan was plain enough, and it was a strong one: that in holding as +well as I could to any straight line I might only get deeper and +deeper into my maze--for I was turned around completely, and while I +knew that I could not be very far from the edge of my island of +flotsam I had not the faintest notion in which direction that +near edge lay. + +For some minutes longer I sat on the hatch thinking the matter over +and trying to hit on something that would open to me a better prospect +of success; and all the while I had a hungry pain in my stomach that +made clear thinking difficult, and that at the same time urged me to +do quickly anything that gave even the least promise of getting food. +And so the upshot of the matter was that I slung my two bottles of +water over my shoulders with a bit of line that I found in the brig's +cabin--making the slings short, that the bottles might hang close +under my arms and be pretty safe against breaking--and then away I +went on my cruise after a compass still on speaking terms with the +north pole. + +That I would find one seemed for a good while unlikely; for I searched +a score and more of wrecks, and on every one of them the binnacle +either was empty or the needle entirely rusted away. But at last I +came to a barque that had a newer look about her than that of the +craft amidst which she was lying, and that also had her binnacle +covered with a tarred canvas hood such as is used when vessels are +lying in port. How the hood came to be where it was on that broken +wreck was more than I could account for; but by reason of its being in +place the binnacle had been well protected from the weather, and I +found to my delight that the compass inside was in working trim. + +It was an awkward thing to carry, being an old-fashioned big square +box heavily and clumsily made; but I was so glad to get it that I was +not for quarrelling with it, though it did for a little put me to a +puzzle as to how I should pack it along. What I came to was to sling +it on my back knapsack-fashion, which was a poor way to have it, since +every time that I looked at it I had to unsling it and then to sling +it again; yet there was no other way for me to manage it, because in +my scrambling from one wreck to another I needs must have both hands +free. But what with this big box strapped to my shoulders, and the two +big bottles dangling close up under my arm-pits, I must have +looked--only there was nobody to look at me--nothing less than a +figure of fun. + +As I knew not which way I ought to go, and so had all ways open to me, +I laid my course for the head of the compass; and was the more +disposed thus to go due north because that way, as far as I could see +for the mist and the mast-tangle, the wrecks lay packed so close +together that passing from one to another would be easy for me--which +was a matter to be considered in view of the load that I had to +carry along. + +But just as I was ready to start another notion struck me. I had +noticed the modern look of the barque, as compared with the ancient +build of the hulks amidst which she was lying, when I first came +aboard of her; and as I was about to leave her--my eye being caught by +the soundness of a bit of line made fast to a belaying-pin on her +rail--the thought occurred to me that I might find on her something or +other still fit to be called food. And when this thought came to me I +unslung my compass and my water-bottles in a hurry--for I was as +ravenous as a man well could be. + + + + + +XXII + +I GET SOME FOOD IN ME AND FORM A CRAZY PLAN + + +The sun by that time being risen so high that the mist was changing +again to a golden haze, and the cabin of the barque well lighted +through the skylight over it, I felt less creepy and uncomfortable as +I went down the companion-way than I had felt when I went below into +the old brig's dusky cabin in the early dawn. But for all that I +walked gingerly, and stopped to sniff at every step that I took +downward; for I could not by any means get rid of my dread of coming +upon some grewsome thing. However, the air was sweet enough--the slide +of the hatch being closed, but the doors open and the cabin well +ventilated--and when I got to the foot of the stair I saw nothing +horrible in my first sharp look around. + +It was a small cabin, but comfortably fitted; and almost the first +thing that caught my eye was a work-basket spilled down into a corner +and some spools and a pair of rusty scissors lying on the floor, and +then in another corner I saw a little chair. And the sight of these +things, which told that the barque's captain had had his wife and his +child along with him, gave me a heavy sorrowful feeling--for all that +if death had come to this sea-family the pain of it must have been +over quickly a long while back in the past. + +Two of the state-room doors, both on the starboard side, were open; +and both rooms were empty, save for the mouldy bedding in the bunks +and in one of them a canvas bed-bag such as seamen use. The doors of +the other two rooms, there being four in all, were closed, and I +opened them hesitatingly; and felt a good deal easier in my mind when +I found that in neither of them was what I dreaded might be there. In +one of them the bunk had been left in disorder, as though some one had +risen from it hurriedly, and a frock and a bonnet were hanging against +the wall; but the other one seemed to have been used only as a sort of +storeroom--there being in it a pair of rubber boots and a suit of +oil-skins, and a locker in which were some pretty trifles in +shell-work such as might have been picked up in a West Indian port, +and a little rack of books gone mouldy with the damp. One of these +books I opened, and found written on the flyleaf: "Mary Woodbridge, +with Aunt Jane's love. For the coming Christmas of 1879"--and this +date, though it did not settle certainly when the barque had started +on the voyage that had come to so bad an ending, at least proved that +she had not been lying where I found her for a very great +many years. + +As to how the barque had got so deep into the wreck-pack, she being so +lately added to it, I could not determine; but my conjecture was that +some storm had broken the pack and had driven her down into it, and +then that the opening had closed again, leaving her fast a good way in +its inside. But about the way of her getting there I did not much +bother myself, my one strong thought being that I had a chance of +finding on board of her something that I could eat; and so--being by +that time pretty well satisfied that I was safe not to come upon +anything horrid hid away in a dark corner of her--I went at my farther +explorations with a will. Indeed, I was so desperately hungry by that +time that even had I made some nasty discoveries I doubt if they would +have held me back from my eager search for food. + +Luckily I had not far to look before I found what I was after, the +very first door that I tried--a door in the forward side of the +cabin--opening into a pantry in which were stowed what had been, as I +judged from the nature of them and the place where I found them, the +captain's private stores. The door was not locked, and a good many +empty boxes were lying around on the floor with splintered lids, as +though they had been smashed open in a hurry--which looked as though +the pantry had been levied on suddenly to provision the boats after +the wreck occurred, and so made me hope that the captain and his wife +and baby had got away from the barque alive. + +But the stock of stores had been a big one, and I saw that I was safe +enough against starvation if only a part of what was left still were +sound--and that uncertainty I settled in no time by picking up a +hatchet that was lying among the broken boxes and splitting open the +first tin on which I laid my hands. The tin had beans in it, and when +I cracked it open that way more than half of them went flying over the +floor; and they looked so good, those blessed beans, that without +stopping to smell at them critically, or otherwise to test their +soundness, I fell to feeding myself out of the open tin with my +hand--and never stopped until all that remained of them were in my +inside. I don't suppose that they were the better for having lain +there so long, but they certainly were not much the worse for it--as I +proved more conclusively, having by that time taken off the sharp edge +of my hunger, by eating a part of another tin of them and finding them +very good indeed. After that I opened a tin of meat--but on the +instant that the hatchet split into it there came bouncing out such a +dreadful smell that I had to rush on deck in a hurry with it and heave +it over the side. + +But even without the meat my food supply was secure to me for a good +while onward, there being no less than ten boxes with two dozen tins +of beans in each of them--quite enough to keep life in me for more +than half a year. I rummaged through the place thoroughly, but found +nothing more that was fit to eat there. Some boxes of biscuit and a +barrel of flour had gone musty until they fairly were rotten; and all +the other things that I came across were spoiled utterly by damp and +mould. As for the stores for the crew, when I went forward to have a +look at them, they were spoiled too--the flour and biscuit rotten, and +the pickled meat a mouldy mass of tough fibre encrusted thickly +with salt. + +One other thing I did find in the captain's pantry that was as good, +save for the mould that coated the outside of it, as when it came +aboard--and because of its excellent condition was all the more +tantalizing. This was a case of plug tobacco--a bit of which shredded +and filled into one of the pipes that I found with it, could I have +got it lighted, would have made me for the moment almost a happy man. +But as I could think of no way of lighting it I was worse off than if +I had not found it at all. + +Having made my tour of inspection and taken a general inventory of my +new possessions, I came on deck again and seated myself on the roof of +the cabin that I might do some quiet thinking about what should be my +next move; for I realized that only by a stroke of rare good fortune +had I come upon this supply of food far away from, the coast of my +continent, and that should I leave it and keep on the course northward +that I had set for myself I very likely might starve before another +such store fell in my way. And yet, on the other hand, to stay on +where I was merely because I was able to keep alive there--with no +outlook of hope to stay me--was but making a bid for that madness +which comes of despair. + +As to carrying any great quantity of food on with me, it was a sheer +impossibility. The tins of beans weighed each of them more than five +pounds, and a score of them would make as much of a load as I well +could carry on level ground--and far more of a load than I could +manage in the scramble that was before me if I decided to go on. +Indeed, I had found my two bottles of water a serious inconvenience; +and yet I would have them to carry also, and the big compass too. As +to water, however, since the shower of the morning. I felt less +anxiety: and the event proved that my confidence in the rainfall was +justified--for the showers came regularly a little after dawn, and +only once or twice after that first sharp experience did I feel more +than passing pain from thirst. + +I sat there on the roof of the cabin for a good part of the morning +cogitating the matter; and in the end I could think of no better +plan than one which promised certainly a world of hard labor, and only +promised uncertainly to serve my turn. This was to stick to my project +of going steadily northward--carrying with me as much food as I could +stagger under--until I came again to the outer edge of the +wreck--pack; but to safeguard my return to the barque, should my food +give out before my journey was accomplished, by blazing my path: that +is to say, by making a mark on each wreck that I crossed so that I +could retrace my steps easily and without fear of losing my way. What +I would gain in the end I did not try very clearly to tell +myself--having only a vague feeling that in getting again to the coast +of my great dead continent I would be that much the nearer to the +living world once more; and having a clearer feeling that only by +sticking at some sort of hard work that had a little hopefulness in it +could I save myself from going mad. And I cannot but think now, +looking back at it, that a touch of madness already was upon me; for +no man ever set himself to a crazier undertaking than that to which I +set myself then. + + + + + +XXIII + +HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH + + +The morning was well spent by the time that I had made my mind up, and +I was growing hungry again. I made a good meal on what was left in the +second tin of beans that I had opened for my breakfast; and when I was +done I tried to get a light for my pipe by rubbing bits of wood +together, but made nothing of it at all. I had read about castaways on +desert islands getting fire that way--but they went at it with dry +wood, I fancy, and in my mist-sodden desert all the wood was soaked +with damp. + +For that afternoon I decided to go forward only as far as I could +fetch it to be back on board the barque again by sunset, taking with +me as many tins of beans as I could carry and leaving them where I +made my turn: by which arrangement I would save the carriage of my +supper and my breakfast, and would have a little store of victuals to +fall back upon--when I should be fairly started on my journey--without +coming all the way again to the barque. + +I got the bed-bag that I had seen in the stateroom, and managed with +the rusty scissors to cut it down to half its size. Into this I packed +ten tins of beans, and made them snug by whipping around the bag one +end of a longish line--which served when coiled as a handle for it; +and, being uncoiled, enabled me to haul it up a ship's side after me, +or to let it down ahead of me, or to sway it across an open space +between two vessels, and so go at my climbing and jumping with both +hands free. As for the compass, my back was the only place for it and +I put it there--where it did not bother me much, having little weight; +and I stuck the hatchet to blaze my path with into a sort of a belt +that I made for myself with a bit of line. + +Considering what a load I was carrying, and that on every vessel which +I crossed I had to stop while I blazed a mark on her, I made a good +long march of it before the waning of the daylight was a sign to me +that I must put about again; and my return journey was both quick and +easy, for I left the whole of my load, excepting the empty bag, behind +me and came back lightly along my plainly marked path. But I was tired +enough when I got on board the barque again, and glad enough to eat my +supper and then stretch myself out to sleep upon the cabin floor. + +That night, being easy in my body--except for my wholesome +weariness--and easier in my mind because it seemed to me that I was +doing something for my deliverance, and being also aboard a vessel +that I knew was clean and pure, I had no visions of any kind whatever, +but went to sleep almost in a moment, and slept like a log, as the +saying is, the whole night through. Indeed, I slept later than suited +my purposes--being for rising early and making a long day's march of +it--and I might have wasted still more time in drowsing lazily had I +not been wakened a little before sunrise by the rattle on the cabin +roof of a dashing burst of rain. I was on deck in a moment, and by +stopping a scupper--as I had done the previous morning--presently had +by me a far bigger supply of water than I needed; from which I got a +good drink lying down to it, and filled an empty bean-tin for another +drink after my breakfast, and so had my two bottles full to last me +until the next day--and was pretty well satisfied by the rain's +recurrence that I could count upon a shower every morning about the +hour of dawn. + +When I had finished my breakfast I stowed ten tins of beans in the bag +and lashed four more together so that I could carry them on my +shoulders--being able to manage them in that way because I had no +other back-load--and so was ready to set out along my blazed path. But +before leaving the barque--hoping never again to lay eyes on her--I +took one more look through the cabin to make sure that I had not +passed over something that might be useful to me: and was lucky enough +to find under one of the bunks a drawer--that had been hidden by the +tumbled sheets hanging down over it--in which were some shirts and a +suit of linen clothing that most opportunely supplied my needs. They +all were badly mildewed, but sound enough, and the trousers--I had no +use for the coat and waistcoat--fitted me very well. So I threw off +the rags and tatters that I was wearing and put on in their place +these sound garments; and then I picked up my load and was off. + +Not having to stop to take bearings or to blaze my way, I made such +good time that I got to the end of the course over which I had spent a +good part of the previous afternoon in not much more than three hours. +I was pretty well pleased to find that I could make such brisk +marching under such a load; for it showed me that even when I should +get a long way from my base of supplies, that is to say from the +barque, I still could return to it at no great expense of time--and +the thought never entered my head that time was of no value to me, +since only by what would be close upon a miracle could I hope for +anything better than to find ways for killing it through all the +remainder of my days. + +Being thus come to my place of deposit I had to rearrange my +packing--going forward with a lighter load of food that I might +carry also the compass and the hatchet; and going slowly because of my +constant stops to take fresh bearings and to mark my path. But that +time I went straight onward until nightfall; and my heart sank a good +deal within me as I found that the farther I went the more antique in +model, and the more anciently sea-worn, were the wrecks which I came +upon--and so I knew that I must be making my way steadily into the +very depths of my maze. + +Yet I could not see that I would gain anything by going back to the +barque and thence taking a fresh departure. The barque, as I knew +certainly from the sort of craft surrounding her, was so deeply bedded +in the pack that no matter how I headed from her I should have to go +far before I came again to the coast of it; and on the other hand I +thought that by holding to my course northward I might work my way in +no great time across the innermost huddle of ancient wrecks--for of +the vast number of these I had no notion then--and so to the outer +belt of wrecks new-made: on board of which I certainly should find +fresh food in plenty, and from which (as I forced myself to believe) I +might get away once more into the living world. And so I pushed on +doggedly until the twilight changed to dusk and I could not venture +farther; and then I ate my supper on board of a strange old ship, as +round as a dumpling and with a high bow and a higher stern; and when +I had finished settled myself for the night, being very weary, under +the in-hang of her heavy bulging side. + +When morning came--and a shower with it that gave me what drink I +wanted and a store of water for the day--I debated for a while with +myself as to whether I should go onward with my whole load, or leave a +part of it in a fresh deposit to which I could return at will. The +second course seemed the better to me; and, indeed, it was necessary +for me to go light-loaded in order to get on at all. For I had come +among ships of such strange old-fashioned build, standing at bow and +stern so high out of the water, that unless they happened to be lying +side by side so that I could pass from one to another amidships--which +was the case but seldom--I had almost as much climbing up and down +among them as though I had been a monkey mounting and descending a +row of trees. + +Therefore I ate as much breakfast as I could pack into myself--that +being as good a way as any other of carrying food with me--and then I +tore the sleeves from my shirt and stuffed them from the tins that I +opened until I had two great bean sausages, which I fastened +belt-fashion about my waist and so carried without any trouble at all. +Indeed, but for this new arrangement of my load I doubt if I could +have gone onward; and even with it I had all that I could do to make +my way. The bag with the remaining tins in it I stood away inside the +cabin of the old ship--which I should have explored farther, so +strange-looking was it, but for my eager desire to get on; and I felt +quite sure that I would find all just as I had left it there even +though I did not come back again for twenty years. + + + + + +XXIV + +OF WHAT I FOUND ABOARD A SPANISH GALLEON + + +Bent as I was upon hurrying forward, I could not but stop often in my +wearying marches--which began each morning at sunrise and did not end +until dusk--to gaze about me in wonder at the curious ancient craft +across which lay my way. It seemed to me, indeed, as though I had got +into a great marine museum where were stored together all manner of +such antique vessels as not for two full centuries, and a good many of +them for still longer, had sailed the seas. Some of them were mere +shallops, so little that sailormen nowadays would not venture to go +a-coasting in them, and others were great round-bellied old +merchantmen--yet half war-ships, too--with high-built fore-castles, +and towering poops blossoming out into rich carvings and having +galleries rising one above another and with a big iron lantern at the +top of all. And all of them had been shattered in fights and tempests, +and were so rotten with age that the decks beneath my feet were soft +and spongy; and all were weathered to a soft gray, or to a brownish +blackness, with here and there a gleam of bright upon them where there +still clung fast in some protected recess of their carving a little of +the heavy gilding with which it all had been overlaid. Guns of some +sort were on every one of them--ranging upward from little swivels +mounted on the rail (mere pop-guns they looked like) to long bronze +pieces of which the delicate ornamentation was lost in a thick coat of +verdigris that had been gathering slowly through years and years. But +as to the strange rig that they had worn in their days of active +sea-faring, I could only guess at it; for such of them as had come +into this death-haven with any of their top-hamper still standing, as +some of them no doubt had come, long since had lost it--first the +standing-rigging and later the masts rotting, and so all together +falling in a heap anyway upon the decks or over the side. And such a +company of withered old sea-corpses as these ancient wrecks made +there, all huddled together with the weed thick about them, was as +hopeless and as dismal a sight as ever was seen by the eyes of man. +But a matter that to me was more instantly dismal, as I pressed on +among them, came when I found that I was getting so close to the end +of my stock of provisions--while yet apparently no nearer to the end +of my journey--that there was no shirking the necessity of returning +to the distant barque for a fresh supply: a journey involving such +desperate toil, and so much of it, that the mere thought of it sent +aches through all my bones. + +It was about noon one day, while I was trying to nerve myself to make +this hard expedition, that I called a halt in order to eat my +dinner--which I knew would be a very little one--being just then come +aboard of a great ungainly galleon that from the look of her I thought +could not be less than two centuries and a half old: she being more +curiously ancient in her build than any vessel that I had got upon, +and her timbers so rotten that I had ticklish climbing as I worked my +way up her high quarter--and, indeed, one of her galleries giving way +under me, was near to spilling down her tall side to my death beneath +the tangled weed. And when at last I got to her deck I found it so +soft, partly with rottenness and partly with a sort of moss growing +over it, that I was fearful at each step that it would give way under +me and let me down with a crash into her hold. + +I would have been glad of a better place to eat my dinner in--she +being sodden wet everywhere, and with a chill about her for all the +warmth of the misty air shimmering with dull sunshine, and with a rank +unwholesome smell rising from her rotting mass. But all the hulks +thereabouts were in so much the same condition that by going on I was +not likely greatly to better myself; and I was so tired and so hungry +that I had no heart to attempt any more hard scrambling until I had +had both rest and food. And so I hunted out a spot on her deck where +the moss was thinnest and least oozy with moisture--being a place a +little sheltered by a sort of porch above her cabin doorway--and there +I seated myself and with a good deal of satisfaction fell to upon my +very scanty ration of beans. + +For a while I was busied wholly with my eating, being mighty sharp set +after my morning's walk; but when my short meal was ended I began to +look about me, and especially to peer into the deep old cabin--that +was pretty well lighted through the stern-windows and through the +doorway at my shoulder, of which the door had rotted away. + +From where I was seated I could see nearly the whole of it; and what I +first noted was that a little hatch in the middle of the floor was +open, and that dangling down into it from one of the roof-beams was a +double-purchase--as though an attempt to haul up some heavy thing from +that place had come to a short end. For the rest, there was little to +see: only a clumsy table set fast between fixed benches close under +the stern windows; a locker in which I found, when I looked into it, a +sodden thing that very likely had been the ship's log-book along with +a queer old Jacob's staff (as they were called) such as mariners took +their observations with before quadrants were known; and against the +wall were hanging a couple of long old rusty swords and a rusty thing +that I took at first to be a wash-basin, but made out was a +deep-curved breast-plate that must have belonged to a very +round-bellied little man. + +The floor of the cabin, as I found when I went in there, was so firm +and solid--being laid in teak, very likely, and having been sheltered +by the roof over it from the rains--that I had no fear, as I had on +the open deck, that the planks would give way under me and let me +through. And when I was come inside I found resting on a wooden rack +set against the front wall a couple of old bell-mouthed brass +fire-locks, coated thick with verdigris, and with them three smaller +bell-mouthed pieces which were neither guns nor pistols but something +between the two. As for the log-book, if it were the log-book, I could +make nothing of it. It was so soaked and swelled by the dampness, and +so rotten, that my fingers sank into it when I tried to pick it up as +they would have sunk into porridge; and the slimy stuff left a horrid +smell upon my hand. Therefore I cannot tell what was the name of this +old ship, nor to what country she belonged, nor whither she was +sailing on her last voyage; but that she was Spanish--or perhaps +Portuguese--and was wrecked while on her way homeward from some port +in the Indies, I do not doubt at all. + +When I had made my round of the cabin, finding so little, I came to +the open hatch in the middle of it and gazed down into the dusky depth +curiously: wondering a good deal that in what must have been almost +the moment when death was setting its clutch upon the galleon, and +when all aboard of her assuredly were in peril of their lives, her +people should have tried to rouse out a part of her cargo--as I had +proof that they had tried to do in the tackle still hanging there from +the beam. And the only reasonable way to account for this strange +endeavor, it seemed to me--since provisions were not likely to be +carried in that part of the vessel--was that something so precious was +down there in the blackness as to make the risk of death worth taking +in order to try to save it from the sea. + +With that there came over me an itching curiosity to find out what the +treasure was which the crew of the galleon--in such stress of some +sort that they had been forced to give up the job suddenly--had tried +to get out of their ship and carry off with them; and along with my +curiosity came an eager pounding of my heart as I thought to +myself--without ever stopping to think also how useless riches of any +sort were to me--that by right of discovery their treasure, whatever +it might be, had become mine. + +With my breath coming and going quickly, I got down upon my hands and +knees and stooped my head well into the opening that I might get rid +of the light in my eyes from the cabin windows; and being that way I +made out dimly that the lower block of the purchase was whipped fast +to a little wooden box, and that other small boxes were stowed in +regular tiers under it so that they filled snugly a little chamber +about a dozen feet square. That there were several layers of these +boxes seemed probable, for those in sight were only six feet or so +below the level of the cabin floor, and that they held either gold or +silver I considered to be beyond a doubt; and as I raised my head up +out of the hatch, my eyes blinking as the light struck them, and +thought of the wealth that must be stored there in that little +chamber, and that it was mine because I had found it, I gave a long +great sigh. + +For a minute or two I was quite dazed by my discovery; and then as I +got steadier--or got crazier, perhaps I ought to say--nothing would +serve me but that I must get down to where my treasure was, so that my +eyes might see it and that I might touch it with my hands. And with +that I caught at the tackle and gave a tug on the ropes to test them, +and as they held I swung to them to slide down--and the moment that my +full weight was on them they snapped like punk, and down I went feet +foremost and struck on the tiers of boxes with a bang. As I fell only +a little way, and upon a level surface--for I went clear of the box +to which the tackle was made fast--no harm came to me; but under my +feet I felt the rotten wood going squashily, and then beneath it +something firm and hard. And when I got back my balance and looked +down eagerly my eyes caught a dull gleam in the semi-darkness, and +then made out beneath my feet a mass of yellow ingots: and I gave a +great shout--that seemed to be forced out of me to keep my heart from +bursting--for I knew that I was standing on bars of gold! + + + + + +XXV + +I AM THE MASTER OF A GREAT TREASURE + + +For a while, down in that black little place, I was quite a crazy +creature; being so stirred by my finding this great store of riches +that I went to dancing and singing there--and was not a bit bothered +by the vile stench rising from the rotten wood that my feet sent +flying, nor by the still viler stench rising from the reeking mass of +rottenness below me in the galleon's hold. + +And then, that I might see my treasure the more clearly, I fell to +tossing the ingots up through the hatch into the cabin--where I could +have a good light upon them, and could gloat upon the yellow gleam of +them, and could make some sort of a guess at how much each of them +represented in golden coin. From that I went on to calculating how +much the whole of them were worth together; and when I got to the end +of my figuring I fairly was dazed. + +In a rough way I estimated that each ingot weighed at least five +pounds, and as each of the little boxes contained ten of them the +value of every single box stored there was not less than fifteen +thousand dollars. As well as I could make out, the boxes were in rows +of ten and there were ten rows of them--which gave over a million and +a half of dollars for the top tier alone; and as there certainly was +an under-tier the value of my treasure at the least was three +millions. But actually, as I found by digging down through the ingots +until I came to the solid flooring, there were in all five tiers of +boxes; and what made the whole of them worth close upon eight millions +of our American money, or well on toward two millions of English +pounds. My brain reeled as I thought about it. The treasure that I had +possession of was a fortune fit for a king! + +I had swung myself up from the little chamber and was standing in the +cabin while I made these calculations, and when at last I got to my +sum total I felt so light-headed that it seemed as though I were +walking on air. Indeed, I fairly was stunned by my tremendous good +fortune and could not think clearly: and it was because my mind thus +was turned all topsy-turvy, I suppose, that the odd thought popped +into it that in the matter of weight my gold ingots were pretty much +the same as the tins of beans to get which I was about to return to +the barque--a foolish notion which so tickled my fancy that I burst +out into a loud laugh. + +The jarring sound of my laughter, which rang out with a ghastly +impropriety in that deathly place, brought me to my senses a little +and made me calmer. But my mind ran on for a moment or so upon the odd +notion that had provoked it, and in that time certain other thoughts +flashed into my head which had only to get there to spill out of me +every bit of my crazy joy. For first I realized that since I could +carry only the same weight of gold that I could carry of food my +actual wealth was but a single back-load, which brought my millions +down to a few beggarly thousands; and on top of that I realized--and +this came like a douse of ice-water--that for every ingot that I +carried away with me I must leave a like weight of food behind: which +meant neither more nor less than that my great treasure, for all the +good that ever it would be to me--so little could I venture to take of +it on these terms--might as well be already at the bottom of the sea. + +And then, being utterly dispirited and broken, I fell to thinking how +little difference it made one way or the other--how even a single +ingot would be a vain lading--since I had no ground for hoping that +ever again would I get to a region where I would have use for gold. +And with that--though I kept on staring in a dull way at the ingots +scattered over the floor of the cabin--I thought of the treasure no +longer: my heart being filled with a great sorrowing pity for myself, +because of the doom upon me to live out whatever life might be left +me in the most horrid solitude into which ever a man was cast. + +For a long while I stood despairing there; and then at last the hope +of life began to rise in me again--as it always must rise, no matter +how desperate are the odds against it, in the mind of a sound and +vigorous man. And with this saner feeling came again my desire to push +on in the direction that offered me a chance of deliverance--leaving +all my treasure behind me, since it was worth less to me than food; +and presently came the farther hope that when I had succeeded in +finding a way out of my sea-prison, and so was sure of my life once +more, I might be able to return to the galleon and take away with me +at least some portion of the great riches that I had found. + +Because of this foolish hope, and the very human comfort that I found +in knowing myself to be the possessor of such prodigious wealth, I +needs must jump down again to where it was and take another survey of +it before I left it behind. And then, being cooler and looking more +carefully, I noticed that the box to which the tackle had been made +fast was not like the other boxes--though about the same size with +them--but was a little coffer that seemed once to have been locked and +that still had around it the rusty remnants of iron bands. This +difference in the make of it put into my head the notion that its +contents were more precious than the contents of the other +boxes--though how that could be I did not well see; and my notion +seemed the more reasonable as I reflected that if the coffer really +were of an extraordinary value there would have been sense in trying +to save it even in a time of great peril--which was more than could be +said of trying to load down boats launched in the midst of some final +disaster with any of those heavy boxes of gold. + +My mind became excited by another mirage of riches as these thoughts +went through it, and to settle the matter I stooped down and got a +grip on the coffer--which was made of a tougher wood than the boxes +and held together--and managed by a good deal of straining to lift it +up through the hatch into the cabin, where I could examine it at +my ease. + +When it was new an axe would not have made much impression upon it, so +strongly had it been put together; but there were left only black +stains to show where the iron had bound it, and the wood had rotted +until it was softer than the softest bit of pine. Indeed, I had only +to give a little jerk to the lid to open it: both the lock and the +hinges being gone with rust, and the lid held in place only by a sort +of sticky slime. + +But when I did get it open the first thing that came out of it was a +stench so vile that I had to jump up in a hurry and rush to the open +deck until the worst of it had ebbed away; and this exceeding evil +odor was given off by a slimy ooze of rotted leather--as I knew a +little later by finding still unmelted some bits of small leather bags +in which what was stored there had been tied. But even as I jumped up +and left the cabin my eyes caught a gleam of brightness in the horrid +slimy mess that set my heart to beating hard again; and it pounded +away in my breast still harder when I came back and made out clearly +what I had found. + +For there in the rotten ooze, strewn thickly, was such a collection of +glittering jewels that my eyes fairly were dazzled by them; and when I +had turned the coffer upside down on the deck so that the slime flowed +away stickily--giving off the most dreadful stench that ever I have +encountered--I saw a heap of precious stones such as for size and +beauty has not been gathered into one place, I suppose--unless it may +have been in the treasury of some Eastern sovereign--since the very +beginning of the world. At a single glance I knew that the great +treasure of gold, which had seemed to me overwhelming because of its +immensity, was as nothing in comparison with this other treasure +wherein riches were so concentrate and sublimate that I had the very +essence of them: and I reeled and trembled again as I hugged the +thought to me that by my finding of it I was made master of it all. + + + + + +XXVI + +OF A STRANGE SIGHT THAT I SAW IN THE NIGHT-TIME + + +I was pretty much mooning mad for a while, I suppose: sometimes +walking about the cabin and thrusting with my feet contemptuously at +the gold ingots strewn over the floor of it, and sometimes standing +still in a sort of rapt wonder over my heap of jewels--and anything +like sensible thinking was quite beyond the power of my unbalanced +mind. But at last I was aroused, and so brought to myself a little, by +the daylight waning suddenly: as it did in that region when the sun +dropped down into the thick layer of mist lying close upon the +water--making at first a strange purplish dusk, and then a rich +crimson after-glow that deepened into purple again, and so turning +slowly into blackness as night came on. + +When I had come aboard the galleon, about noon-time, and had found her +so sodden with wet and so reeking with foul odors--as, indeed, were +all of the very ancient ships which made the mid-part of that sea +graveyard--I had made my mind up to a forced march in the afternoon +that I hoped would carry me through the worst of all that rottenness, +and so to a ship partly dry and less ill-smelling for the night. But +when I came out from the cabin and looked about me, and saw how thick +and black were the shadows in the clefts between the wrecks, I knew +that I could not venture onward, but must pass the night where I was. +And this was a prospect not at all to my mind. + +The cabin, of course, was the only place for me, the soaked deck with +the soaked moss on top of it being quite out of the question; but even +the cabin was not fit for a dog to lie in, so chill and damp was it +and so foul with the stench rising and spreading from the slime of +rotted leather that I had emptied from the coffer and that made a +little vile pool upon the floor. And through the open hatch there came +up a dismal heavy odor of all the rotten stuff down there that almost +turned my stomach, and that made the air laden with it hard to +breathe--though in my hot excitement I had not noticed it at all. But +this last I got the better of in part by covering again the opening, +though I had to move the hatch very gently and carefully to keep it +from falling into rotten fragments in my hands. Yet because it was so +dense with moisture, when I did get it set in place, it pretty well +kept the stench down. And then I kicked away some of the ingots into a +corner, and so cleared a space on the floor where I could stretch +myself just within the cabin door. + +These matters being attended to, I seated myself in the same place +where I had eaten my dinner--just outside the door, under the little +sort of porch overhanging it--and ate the short ration that I allowed +myself for my supper, and found it very much less than my lively +hunger required. When I had finished I sat on there for a good while +longer, being very loath to go into the cabin; but at last, by finding +myself nodding with weary drowsiness, I knew that sleep would come +quickly, and so went inside and laid myself down upon the floor. There +still was a faint glimmer of dying daylight outside, and this little +glow somehow comforted me as I lay there facing the doorway and +blinking now and then before my eyes were tight closed; but I did not +lie long that way half-waking, being so utterly fagged in both mind +and body that I dropped off into deep slumber before the +darkness fell. + +I suppose that even in my sleep I had an uneasy sense of my bleak +surroundings; and that this, in the course of three or four hours--by +which time I was a good deal rested and so slept less soundly--got the +better of my weariness and roused me awake again. But when I first +woke I was sure that I had slept the night through and that early +morning was come--for there was so much light in the cabin that I +never thought to account for it save by the return of day. Yet the +light was not like daylight, as I realized when I had a little more +shaken off my sleepiness, being curiously white and soft. + +I turned over--for I had rolled in my uneasy sleep and got my back +toward the doorway--and raised myself a little on my elbow so that I +might see out clearly; and what I saw was so unearthly strange, and in +a way so awe-compelling, that in another moment I was on my feet and +staring with all my eyes. Over the whole deck of the galleon a soft +lambent light was playing, and this went along her bulwarks and up +over her high fore-castle so that all the lines of her structure were +defined sharply by it; and pale through the mist against the +blackness, out over her low waist, I could catch glimpses of the other +tall old ships lying near her all likewise shining everywhere with the +same soft flames--which yet were not flames exactly, but rather a +flickering glow. + +In a moment or so I realized that this luminous wonder, which at the +first look had so strong a touch of the supernatural in it, was no +more than the manifestation of a natural phenomenon: being the shimmer +of phosphorescent light upon the soaking rotten woodwork of the +galleon and of the ships about her, as rotten and as old. But making +this explanation to myself did not lessen the frightening strangeness +of the spectacle, nor do much to stop the cold creeps which ran over +me as I looked at it: I being there solitary in that marvellous +brightness--that I knew was in a way a death-glow--the one +thing alive. + +But presently my unreasoning shivering dread began to yield a little, +as my curiosity bred in me an eager desire to see the whole of this +wondrous soft splendor; for I made sure from my glimpses over the +galleon's bulwarks that it was about me on every side. And so I +stepped out from the cabin upon the deck, where my feet sank into the +short mossy growth that coated the rotten planks and I was fairly +walking in what seemed like a lake of wavering pale flame; and from +there, that I might see the better, I climbed cautiously up the rotten +stair leading to the roof of the cabin, and thence to the little +over-topping gallery where the stern-lantern was. And from that height +I could gaze about me as far as ever the mist would let me see. + +Everywhere within the circle that my eyes covered--which was not a +very big one, for in the night the mist was thick and low-lying--the +old wrecks wedged together there were lighted with the same lambent +flames: which came and went over their dead carcasses as though they +all suddenly were lighted and then as suddenly were put out again; and +farther away the glow of them in the mist was like a silvery +shimmering haze. By this ebbing and flowing light--which seemed to +me, for all that I knew the natural cause of it, so outside of nature +that I thrilled with a creeping fear as I looked at it--I could see +clearly the shapes of the strange ancient ships around me: their great +poops and fore-castles rising high above their shallow waists, and +here and there among them the remnant of a mast making a line of light +rising higher still--like a huge corpse-candle shining against the +blackness beyond. And the ruin of them--the breaks in their lines, and +the black gaps where bits of their frames had rotted away +completely--gave to them all a ghastly death-like look; while their +wild tangling together made strange ragged lines of brightness +wavering under the veil of mist, as though a desolate sea-city were +lying there dead before me lit up with lanterns of despair. + +Yet that which most keenly thrilled me with a cold dread was my strong +conviction that I could see living men moving hither and thither over +those pale-lit decks, where my reason told me that only ancient death +could be; for the play of the flickering light made such a commotion +of fleeting flames and dancing shadows, going and coming in all manner +of fantastic shapes, that every shattered hulk around me seemed to +have her old crew alive and on board of her again--all hurrying in +bustling crowds fore and aft, and up and down the heights of her, as +though under orderly command. And at times these shapes were so real +and so distinct to me that I was for crying out to them--and would +check myself suddenly, shivering with a fright which I knew was out of +all reason but which for the life of me I could not keep down. + +And so the night wore away: while I stood there on the galleon's poop +with the soft pale flames flickering around me in the mist, and my +fears rising and falling as I lost and regained control of myself; and +I think that it is a wonder that I did not go mad. + + + + + +XXVII + +I SET MYSELF TO A HEAVY TASK + + +At last, after what seemed to me an age of waiting for it, a little +pinkish tone began to glow in the mist to the eastward; and as that +honest light got stronger the death-fires on the old galleon and on +the wrecks around her paled quickly until they were snuffed out +altogether--and then came the customary morning down-pour of rain. + +With the return of the blessed daylight, and with the enlivening douse +of cool fresh water upon me, I got to be myself again: my fanciful +fears of the night-time leaving me, and my mind coming back soberly to +a consideration of my actual needs. Of these the most pressing, as my +stomach told me, was to get my breakfast; and when that matter, in a +very poor way, had been attended to, and I had drunk what water I +needed--without much relishing it--from a pool that had formed on the +deck where the timbers sagged down a little, I was in better heart to +lay out for myself a plan of campaign. + +In one way planning was not necessary. By holding to a northerly +course I believed that I had got at least half way across my +continent, and my determination was fixed to keep on by the +north--rather than risk a fresh departure that might only carry me by +a fresh way again into the depths of the tangle--until I should come +once more to the open sea: if I may call open sea that far outlying +expanse of ocean covered with thick-grown weed. But it was needful +that I should plan for my supply of food as I went onward, that was to +be got only by returning to the far-away barque; and also I felt an +itching desire--as strong as at first blush it was unreasonable--to +carry away with me some part of the treasure that I had found. That I +ever should get out into the world again, and so have the good of my +riches, seemed likely to me only in my most sanguine moments; but even +on the slimmest chance of accomplishing my own deliverance I had a +very natural human objection to leaving behind me the wealth that I +had found through such peril--only to lie there for a while longer +idly, and then to be lost forever when the galleon sank to the bottom +of the sea. + +As to the gold, it was plain that I could carry off so little of it +that I might as well resign myself--having that which was better worth +working for--to losing it all. But my treasure of jewels was another +matter. This was so very much more valuable than the gold--for the +stones for the most part were of a prodigious size and a rare +fineness--that between the two there really was no comparison; and at +the same time it was so compact in bulk and so petty in weight that I +might easily carry the whole of it with me and a good store of food +too. And so, to make a beginning, I picked the stones out of the slimy +and stinking ooze in which they were lying and washed them clean in +the pool of water on the deck; and then I packed them snugly into the +shirt-sleeve in which my beans had been stored--and tickled myself the +while with the fancy that most men would be willing for the sake of +stuffing a shirt-sleeve that way to cut off the arm to which +it belonged. + +My packing being finished, and my precious bag laid away in a corner +of the cabin until I should come to fetch it again, I was in a better +mood for facing my long march back to the barque: for I had come to +have fortune as well as life to work for, and those two strong +stimulants to endeavor working together gave my spirits a great upward +pull. And, fortunately, my cheerfulness staid by me through my long +scrambling struggle backward along my blazed path; nor was it, in +reality, as hard a journey as I had expected it to be--for I had but a +light load of food to carry, barely enough to last me through, and the +marks which I had left upon the wrecks in passing made my way plain. +And so, at last, I got back to the barque one evening about sunset, +and had almost a feeling of homecoming in boarding her again; and I +was thankful enough to be able to eat all the supper I wanted, and +then to lie down comfortably in her clean cabin and to rest myself in +sound slumber after my many restless nights on rotten old ships +reeking with a chill dampness that struck into my very bones. + +I slept soundly and woke refreshed; and for that I was thankful, since +the work cut out for me--to get back to the galleon with enough +provisions to last me until I could cross the rest of the +wreck-pack--was about as much as a strong man in good condition could +do. However, I had thought of something that would make this hard job +less difficult; for the ease with which I had carried a part of my +food in long narrow bags, sausage-fashion--thereby getting rid of +both the weight and the awkwardness of the tins--had put into my head +the notion of carrying in that way the whole of my fresh supply, and +so carrying at least twice as much of it. And I calculated--since I +could go rapidly along my blazed path--that by cutting myself down to +very short rations I could get back to the galleon with a bigger stock +of provisions than that with which I left the barque when I made my +first start toward the north--and if the galleon lay, as I believed +that she did, about in the centre of the pack, this would give me +enough food to last me until I got across to the other side. So I +rummaged out some more of the linen shirts that I had found--taking a +fresh one for my own wear to begin with--and set myself to my +sausage-making with the sleeves of them; packing each sleeve with +beans as tight as I could ram it, and working over each a netting of +light line that I finished off with loops at the ends. Ten of my big +sausages I made into a bundle to be carried on my shoulders like a +knapsack; and the rest I arranged to swing by their loops from a rope +collar about my neck, with another rope run through the lower loops to +be made fast about my waist and so hold them steady--and this +arrangement, as I found when I tried it, answered very well. And +finally, that I might carry my jewels the more securely, I cut off a +sleeve from the oil-skin jacket to serve for an outer casing for them, +and took along also some of the light line to net over the bundle and +make it solid and strong; in that way guarding against the chance of +their rubbing a hole in their linen covering--by which I might have +lost them all. + +I worked fast over my packing, and got it all finished and was ready +to start away by not a great while after sunrise; yet when the time +for my start came I hesitated a little, so darkly uncertain seemed the +issue of the adventure that I had in hand. Indeed, the whole of my +project was a wild one, such as no man not fairly driven into it +would have entertained at all. Its one certainty was that only by +excessive toil could I even hope to carry it through. All else was +doubtful: for I knew not how distant were the farther bounds of the +desolate dead region into which I was bent upon penetrating; nor had I +ground for believing--since I had food in plenty where I was--that I +would gain anything by traversing it; and back of all that was the +gloomy chance of some accident befalling me that would end in my dying +miserably by the way. While I was busily employed in making ready for +my march I had grown quite cheerful; but suddenly my little crop of +good spirits withered within me, and when at last I did go forward it +was with a very heavy heart. + + + + + +XXVIII + +HOW I RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH DESPAIR + + +Could I have foreseen all that was ahead of me I doubt if I should +have had the courage to go on: choosing rather to stay there on the +barque until I had eaten what food I had by me, and then to die +slowly--and finding that way easier than the one I chose to follow, +with its many days of struggle and its many chill nights of sorrow and +I throughout the whole of it rubbing shoulders with despair. + +As I think of it now, that long, long march seems to me like a +horrible nightmare; and sometimes it comes back to me as a real +nightmare in my dreams. Again, always heavy laden, I am climbing and +scrambling and jumping, endlessly and hopelessly, among old rotten +hulks; each morning trying to comfort myself with the belief that by +night I may see some sign of ships less ancient, and so know that I am +winning my way a little toward where I would be; and each night +finding myself still surrounded by tall antique craft such as have not +for two centuries and more held the seas, with the feeling coming down +crushingly upon me that I have not advanced at all; and even then no +good rest for me--as I lie down wearily in some foul-smelling old +cabin, chill with heavy night-mist and with the reeking damp of oozy +rotten timbers, and perhaps find in it for my sleeping-mates little +heaps of fungus outgrowing from dead men's bones. And the mere dream +of all this so bitterly hurts me that I wonder how I ever came through +the reality of it alive. + +At the start, as I have said, I had calculated that the treasure-laden +galleon lay about in the centre of the wreck-pack, and therefore that +I would get across from her to the other side of the pack in about the +same time that I had taken to reach her in my first journey from the +barque; and on the basis of that assumption, when I was come to her +again, I shaped my course hopefully for the north. But my calculation, +though on its face a reasonable enough one, proved to be most woefully +wrong: and I have come to the conclusion, after a good deal of +thinking about it, that this was because the whole vast mass of +wreckage had a circular motion--the great current that created it +giving at the same time a swirl to it--which made the seemingly +straight line that I followed in reality a constantly extended curve. +But whatever the cause may have been, the fact remains that when by my +calculation I should have been on the outer edge of the wreck-pack I +still was wandering in its depths. In one way my march was easier the +longer that it lasted, my load growing a little lighter daily as my +store of food was transferred to my stomach from my back. At first +this steady decrease of my burden was a comfort to me; but after a +while--when more than half of it was gone, and I still seemed to be no +nearer to the end of my journey than when I left the galleon--I had a +very different feeling about it: for I realized that unless I came +speedily to ships whereon I would find food--of which there seemed +little probability, so ancient were the craft surrounding me--I either +must go back to the barque and wait on her until death came to me +slowly, or else die quickly where I was. And so I had for my +comforting the option of a tardy death or a speedy one--with the +certainty of the latter if I hesitated long in choosing between +the two. + +I suppose that the two great motive powers in the world are hope and +despair. It was hope that started me on that dismal march, but if +despair had not at last come in to help me I never should have got to +its end: for I took Death by both shoulders and looked straight into +the eyes of him when I decided, having by me only food for three days +longer--and at that but as little as would keep the life in me--to +give over all thought of returning to the barque and to make a dash +forward as fast as I could go. I had little enough to carry, but +that I might have still less I left my hatchet behind me--having, +indeed, no farther use for it since if my dash miscarried I was done +for and there was no use in marking a path over which I never could +return; and I was half-minded to leave my bag of jewels behind me too. +But in the end I decided to carry the jewels along with me--my fancy +being caught by the grim notion that if I did die miserably in that +vile solitude at least I would die one of the richest men in all the +world. As to my water-bottles, one of them I had thrown away when I +found that I could count on the morning showers certainly, and the +other had been broken in one of my many tumbles: yet without much +troubling me--as I found that I could manage fairly well, eating but +little, if I filled myself pretty full of water at the beginning of +each day. And so, with only the bag of food and the bag of jewels upon +my back, and with the compass on top of them, I was ready to press +onward to try conclusions with despair. + +The very hopelessness of my effort, and the fact that at last I was +dealing with what in one way was a certainty--for I knew that if my +plan miscarried I had only a very little while longer to live--gave me +a sort of stolid recklessness which amazingly helped me: stimulating +me to taking risks in climbing which before I should have shrunk +from, and so getting me on faster; and at the same time dulling my +mind to the dreads besetting it and my body to its ceaseless pains +begot of weariness and thirst and scanty food. So little, indeed, did +I care what became of me that even when by the middle of my second +day's march I saw no change in my surroundings I did not mind it much: +but, to be sure, at the outset of this last stage of my journey I had +thrown hope overboard, and a man once become desperate can feel no +farther ills. + +But what does surprise me--as I think of it now, though it did not in +any way touch me then--was the slowness with which, when there was +reason for it, my dead hope got alive again: as it did, and for cause, +at the end of that same second day--for by the evening I came out, +with a sharp suddenness, from among the strange old craft which for so +long on every side had beset me and found myself among ships which by +comparison with the others--though they too, in all conscience, were +old enough--seemed to be quite of a modern build. What is likely, I +think--and this would help to account for my long wanderings over +those ancient rotten hulks--is that some stormy commotion of the whole +mass of wreckage, such as had thrust the barque whereon I had found +food deep into the thick of it, had squeezed a part of the centre of +the pack outward; in that way making a sort of promontory--along +which by mere bad mischance I had been journeying--among the wrecks of +a later time. But this notion did not then occur to me; nor did I, as +I have said, at first feel any very thrilling hope coming back to me +when I found myself among modern ships again--so worn had my long +tussle with difficulties left my body and so sodden was my mind. + +At first I had just a dull feeling of satisfaction that I had got once +more--after my many nights passed on hulks soaked with wet to +rottenness--on good honest dry planks: where I could sleep with no +deadly chill striking into me, and where in my restless wakings I +should not see the pale gleam of death-fires, and where foul stenches +would not half stifle me the whole night long. And it was not until I +had eaten my scant supper, and because of the comfort that even that +little food gave me felt more disposed to cheerfulness, that in a weak +faint-hearted way I began to hope again that perhaps the run of luck +against me had come to an end. + +In truth, though, there was not much to be hopeful about. For my +supper I had eaten the half of what food was left me, and it was so +little that I still had a mighty hungry feeling in my belly after it +was down. For my breakfast I should eat what was left; and after that, +unless I found fresh supplies quickly, I was in a fair way to lie down +beside my bag of jewels and die of starvation--like the veriest +beggar that ever was. But I did hope a little all the same; and when I +went on again the next morning, though my last scrap of food was +eaten, my spirits kept up pretty well--for I was sure from the look of +the wrecks which I traversed that the dead ancient centre of my +continent at last was behind me, and that its living outer fringe +could not be very far away. + +All that day I pressed forward steadily, helped by my little +flickering flame of hope--which burned low because sanguine +expectation does not consort well with an empty stomach, yet which +kept alive because the wreck-pack had more and more of a modern look +about it as I went on. But the faintness that I felt coming over me as +the day waned gave me warning that the rope by which I held my life +was a short one; and as the sun dropped down into the mist--at once +thinning it, so that I could see farther, and giving it a ruddy tone +which sent red streams of brightness gleaming over the tangle of +wreckage far down into the west--I felt that the rope must come to an +end altogether, and that I must stop still and let death overtake me, +by the sunset of one day more. + +And then it was, just as the sun was sinking, that I saw clearly--far +away to the westward--the funnel of a steamer standing out black and +sharp against the blood-red ball that in another minute went down +into the sea. And with that glimpse--which made me sure that I was +close to the edge of the wreck-pack, and so close to food again--a +strong warm rush of hope swept through me that outcast finally my +despair. + + + + + +XXIX + +I GET INTO A SEA CHARNEL-HOUSE + + +That I should get to the steamer that night I knew was clean +impossible, for she lay a long way off from me, and that I had seen +her funnel at all was due to the mere happy accident of its standing +for that single minute directly between me and the setting sun. I did +hope, though, that by pressing hard toward her I might fetch aboard of +some vessel not long wrecked on which I would find eatable food; yet +in this I was disappointed, the shadows coming down on me so fast that +I was forced in a little while to pull up short--stopping while still +a little daylight remained so that I might stow myself the more +comfortably for the night. + +As to looking for provender on the little old ship that I settled to +camp on, I knew that it was useless. From her build I fixed her as +belonging to the beginning of the present century, and from her depth +in the wreck-pack she probably had met her death-storm not less than +threescore years before; and so what provisions she had carried long +since had wasted away. Yet there was a chance that I might find some +spirits aboard of her--which would be a poor substitute for food, but +better than nothing--and I hurried to have a look in her cabin before +darkness settled down. + +The cabin hatch was closed, and as it was both locked and swelled with +moisture I could not budge it; but two or three kicks sent the doors +beneath the hatch flying and so opened an entrance for me--that I was +slow to make use of because of a heavy musty stench which poured out +from that shut up place and made me turn a little sick, as I got my +first strong whiff of it. Indeed, I was so faint and so hungry that I +was in no condition to stand up against that curiously vile smell. To +lessen it, by getting a current of air into the cabin, I smashed in +the little skylight--over which some ropes were stretched and still +held the remnant of a tarpaulin, that must have been set in place +while the storm was blowing which sent the ship to her account; and +this so far improved matters that presently I was able to go down the +companion-way, though the stench still was horridly strong. + +At the bottom of the stair, the light being faint, I tripped over +something; and looking down saw bones lying there with a sort of +fungus partly covering them, and to the skull there still clung a mat +of woolly hair plaited here and there into little braids: by which, +and by the size of the bones, it seemed that a negro woman must have +been left fastened into the cabin to die there after the crew had +been washed overboard or had taken to the boats. But even then the +business in which the ship had been engaged did not occur to me; and +after hesitating for a moment I went on into the cabin, and looked +about me as well as I could in the twilight for the case of bottles +that I hoped to find. + +The case was there, as I was pretty certain that it would be, such +provision rarely being absent from old-time vessels, but all the +bottles had been taken from it except an empty one--which looked as +though the cabin had been opened at the last moment to fetch out +supplies for the boats, and then deliberately locked fast again with +the poor woman inside: an act so barbarous that it did not seem +possible unless a crew of out and out devils had been in charge of the +ancient craft. However, the matter which just then most concerned me +was the liquor that I was in search of, that I might a little stay my +stomach with it against the hunger that was tormenting me; and so I +ransacked the lockers that ran across the stern of the ship and across +a part of the bulkhead forward, in the faint hope that I might come +upon another supply--but my search was a vain one, two of the lockers +having only some mouldy clothing in them, and all the rest being +filled with arms. The stock of muskets and pistols and cutlasses was +so large, so far beyond any honest traders needs, that I could not at +all account for it: until the thought occurred to me that the vessel +I had come aboard of had been a pirate--and that notion seemed to fit +in pretty well with her crew having gone off and left the poor woman +locked up in the cabin to starve. However, as I found out a little +later, while my guess was a close one it still was wrong. + +The four bunks, two on each side, were not enclosed, and the only door +opening from the cabin was in the bulkhead forward--and worth trying +because it might lead to a store-room, I thought. It was a very +stout-looking door, and across it, resting in strong iron catches, +were two heavy wooden bars. These puzzled me a good deal, there being +no sense in barring the outside of a store-room door in that fashion, +since the door did not seem to be locked and anybody could lift the +bars away. However, I got them out of their sockets without much +difficulty; and after a good deal of tugging at a ring made fast in it +I got the door open too--and instantly I was thrust back from the +opening by an outpouring of the same vile heavy musty stench that had +come up from the cabin when I staved in the hatch, only this was still +ranker and more vile. And I found that the door did not lead into a +little store-room, as I had fancied, but right through from the cabin +to the ship's main-deck--that stretched away forward in a gloomy +tunnel, as black as a cellar on a rainy night, into which I could +see only for four or five yards. Indeed, but for the way that the ship +chanced to be lying--with her stern toward the west, so that a good +deal of light came in through the broken skylight from the ruddy +sunset--I could not have seen into it at all. + +But I saw far enough, and more than far enough--and the sight that I +looked on sent all over me a creeping chill. Wherever the light went, +skeletons were lying--with a fungus growth on the bones that gave a +horrid effect of scraps of flesh still clinging to them, and the +loose-lying skulls (of which a couple were close by the doorway) were +covered still with a matting of woolly hair. And I could tell from the +tangle that the skeletons were in--though also lying in some sort of +orderly rows, because of the chains which held them fast--that the +poor wretches to whom they had belonged had writhed and struggled over +each other in their agony: and I could fancy what a hell that black +place must have been while death was doing his work among them, they +all squirming together like worms in a pot; and it seemed to me that I +could hear their yells and howls--at first loud and terrible, and then +growing fainter and fainter until they came to be but low groans of +misery that at last ended softly in dying sighs. + +The horror of it all came home to me so sharply, after I had stood +there at the doorway for a moment or two held fast by a sort of +ghastly fascination, that I gave a yell myself as keen and as loud as +any which the poor blacks had uttered; and with that I turned about +and dashed up the companionway to the deck as hard as I could go. Nor +could I bear to abide on the slave-ship, nor even near her, for the +night. Very little light was left to me, but I made the most of it and +went scrambling from hulk to hulk until I had put a good distance +behind me--so that I not only could not see her but could not tell +certainly, having twisted and turned a dozen times in my scurrying +flight, in which direction she lay. And being thus rid of her, I +fairly dropped--so weak and so wearied was I--on the deck of the +vessel that I had come to, and lay there for a while resting, with my +breath coming and going in panting sobs. + +What sort of a craft I had fetched aboard of I did not dare to try to +find out. Going any farther then was impossible, the twilight having +slipped away almost into darkness, and whatever she might be I had to +make the best of her for the night. And so I settled myself into a +corner well up in her bows--that I might be as far away as possible +from any grisly things that might be hid in her cabin--and did my best +to go to sleep. But it was a long while, utterly weary though I was, +before sleep would come to me. My stomach, being pretty well +reconciled by that time to emptiness, did not bother me much; but my +frightened rush away from that sickening charnel-house had left me +greatly tormented by thirst, and my mind was so fevered by the horror +of what I had seen that for a long while I could not stop making +pictures to myself of the black wretches, chained and imprisoned, +writhing under the torture of starvation and at last dying desperate +in the dark. And when sleep did come to me I still had the same +loathsome horrors with me in my dreams. + + + + + +XXX + +I COME TO THE WALL OF MY SEA-PRISON + + +The morning shower that waked me gave me the water that I so longed +for; but it only a little refreshed me, because my chief need was +food. Being past the first sharp pangs of hunger, I was in no great +bodily pain; but a heavy languor was upon me that dulled me in both +flesh and spirit and disposed me to give up struggling for a while, +that I might enjoy what seemed to me just then to be the supreme +delight of sitting still. Yet I had sense enough to know that if I +surrendered to this feeling it would be the end of me; and after a +little I found energy enough to throw it off. + +I was helped thus to rouse myself by finding, as I looked around me +with dull eyes, that the hulk I had come aboard of in such a hurry in +the twilight certainly had not been wrecked for any great length of +time. She was a good-sized schooner, quite modern in her build; and, +although she had weathered everywhere to a pale gray, her timbers were +not rotten and what was left of her cordage still was fairly sound: +all of which, as I took it in slowly, gave me hope of finding aboard +of her some sort of eatable food. + +But while this hope was slow to shape itself in my heavy mind, I was +quick enough to act upon it when once it had taken form. With a +briskness that quite astonished me I got on my feet and walked aft to +the cabin--the cabin pantry being the most likely place in which to +look for food put up in tins; and I was farther encouraged by finding +the hatch open and the cabin itself fresh-smelling and clean. And, to +my joy, the food that I hoped to find in the pantry really was there; +and such a plenty of it that I could not have eaten it in a +whole year. + +I had the good sense to go slowly--and that was not easy, for at sight +of something that would satisfy it my hunger all of a sudden woke up +ragingly; but I knew that I stood a good chance of killing myself +after my long fast unless I held my appetite well in hand, and so I +began with a tin of peaches--opening it with a knife that I found +there--and it seemed to me that those peaches were the most delicious +thing that I had tasted since I was born. After they were down I went +on deck again--to be out of reach of temptation--and staid there +resolutely for an hour; getting at this time, and also keeping myself +a little quiet, by counting six thousand slowly--and it did seem to me +as though I never should get to the end! Then I had another of those +delicious tins; and after a trying half hour of waiting I had a third; +and then--being no longer ravenous, and no longer having the feeling +of infinite emptiness--I laid down on the deck just outside the cabin +scuttle and slept like a tree in winter until well along in the +afternoon. + +I woke as hungry as a hound, but with a comfortable and natural sort +of hunger that I set myself to satisfying with good strong food: +eating a tin of meat with a lively relish and without any following +stomach-ache, and drinking the juice of a tin of peaches after +it--there being no water fit to drink on board. My meal began to set +me on my feet again; but I still felt so tired and so shaky that I +decided to stay where I was until the next morning--having at last a +comforting sense of security that took away my desire to hurry and +made me wholly easy in my mind. And this feeling got stronger as the +sun fell away westward and made a crimson bank of mist along the +horizon, against which I saw the funnels of more than a dozen +steamers--and so knew that the coast of my continent surely was close +by. What I would do when I got to the steamers was a matter that I did +not bother about. For the moment I was satisfied with the certainty +that I would find aboard of them food in plenty and a comfortable +place to sleep in, and that was enough. And so I did not make any +plans, or even think much; but just ate as much supper as I could +stow away in my carcase, and then settled myself in the schooner's +cabin for the night. + +In the morning I was so well rested, and felt so fresh again, that I +was eager to get on; and I was so light-hearted that I fell to singing +as I pushed forward briskly, being full of hope once more and of airy +fancies that I had only to reach the edge of the wreck-pack in order +to hit upon some easy way of getting off from it out over the open +sea. A little thinking would have shown me, of course, that my fancies +had nothing to rest on, and that coming once more to the coast of my +continent was only to be where I was when my long journey through that +death-stricken mass of rottenness began; but the reaction of my +spirits was natural enough after the gloom that for so long had held +them, and so was the castle-building that I took to as I went onward +as to what I would do with my great treasure when at last I had it +safe out in the living world. + +Although I did not doubt that food of some sort was to be found on +board of all the vessels which I should cross that day, I guarded +against losing time in looking for it by carrying along with me a +couple of tins of meat--slung on my shoulders in a wrapping of +canvas--and on one of these, about noon-time, I made a good meal. When +I had finished it I was sorry enough that I had not brought a tin of +peaches too, for the meat was pretty well salted and made me as +thirsty as a fish very soon after I got it down. + +But my thirst was not severe enough to trouble me greatly; and, +indeed, I partly forgot it in my steadily growing excitement as I +pressed forward and more and more distinctly saw the funnels of a +whole fleet of steamers looming up through the golden mist ahead of me +like chimneys in a sun-shot London fog. And so the afternoon went by, +and my crooked rough path slipped away behind me so rapidly that by a +good hour before sunset I was near enough to the steamers to see not +only their funnels but their hulls. + +The look of one of them, and she was one of the nearest, was so +familiar as I began to make her out clearly that I was sure that I had +got back again to the _Hurst Castle_; for she was just about the size +of the _Hurst Castle_, and was lying with her bow down in the water +and her stern high in the air--and the delight of this discovery threw +me into such a ferment that I quite forgot how tired I was and fairly +ran across the last half dozen vessels that I had to traverse before I +came under her tall side. However, when I got close to her I saw that +she was not the _Hurst Castle_ after all, but only another unlucky +vessel that had broken her nose in collision and so had filled forward +and gone sagging down by the bows. + +As it happened, the wreck from which I had to board her was a little +water-logged brig, close under her quarter, so low-lying that the +tilted-up stern of the steamer fairly towered above the brig like a +three-story house; and at first it seemed to me that I was about as +likely to climb up a house-front as I was to climb up that high smooth +wall of iron. But a part of the brig's foremast still was standing, +and from it a yard jutted out to within jumping distance of the +steamer's rail; and while that was not a way that I fancied--nor a way +that ever I should have dared to take, I suppose, had there been any +choice in the matter--up it I had to go. Hot as I was though with +eagerness, I was a badly scared man as I slowly got to my feet and +steadied myself for a moment on the end of the yard and then jumped +for it; and a very thankful man, an instant later, when I struck the +steamer's rail and fell floundering inboard on her deck--though I +bruised myself in my fall pretty badly, and got an unexpected crack on +the back of my head as my bag of jewels flew up and hit me with +a bang. + +However, no real harm was done; and I was so keen to look about me +that in a moment I was on my legs again and went forward, limping a +little, that I might get up on the bridge: for my strongest +desire--stronger even than my longing to go in search, of the water +that I did not doubt I would find in the steamer's tanks--was to gaze +out over the open ocean, across which I had to go in some way if ever +again I was to be free. + +The sun was close down on the horizon, a red ball of fire glowing +through the mist, and in the mist above and over the surface of the +sea below a red light shone. But as I stood on the bridge looking at +this strange splendor all my hope died away slowly within me and a +chill settled upon my heart. As far as ever I could see the water was +covered thickly with tangled and matted weed, broken only here and +there by hummocks of wreckage and by a few hulks drifting in slowly to +take their places in the ranks of the dead. The almost imperceptible +progress of these hulks showed how dense was the mass through which +they were drifting; and showed, too, how utterly impossible it would +be for me to force my way in a boat driven by oars or sails to the +clear water lying far, far off. Even a steamer scarcely could have +pushed through that tangle; and could not have gone twice her own +length without hopelessly fouling her screw. And it seemed to me that +I might better have died on one of the old rotten hulks among which I +had been for so long a time wandering--where hope was not, and where I +was well in the mood for dying--rather than thus to have got clear of +them, and have hope come back to me, only to bring up short against +the wall of my sea-prison and so find myself held fast there for all +the remainder of my days. And I was the more savagely bitter because I +had no right whatever to be disappointed. What I saw was not new to +me, and I had known what I was coming to--though I had kept down my +thoughts about it--all along. + + + + + +XXXI + +HOW HOPE DIED OUT OF MY HEART + + +The steamer that I had come aboard of proved to be French; and that +she had not long been abandoned I knew by finding an abundance of ice +in her cold-room and a great deal of fresh meat there too. Had she +been manned by a stiff-necked crew she would not have been abandoned +at all. She had been in collision, and her bow-compartment was full of +water; but the water had not got aft of her foremast, and except that +she was down by the head a little she was not much the worse for her +bang. That her captain had tried to carry on after the accident was +shown by the sail that had been set in place very snugly over her +smashed bows; and I greatly wondered why he had given up the fight, +until I found--getting a look at her stern from one of the wrecks +lying near her--that her screw was gone. This second accident +evidently had been too much for her people and they had taken to the +boats and left her. But I think that an English or an American crew +would have stood by her, and would have succeeded in getting her +towed into port--or even would have brought her in under her own +sails. She was called the _Ville de Saint Remy_, and was a fine boat +of about five thousand tons. + +All that I had hoped to find aboard of her in the way of comforts and +luxuries was there, and more too. Indeed, if a good bed, and the best +of food, and excellent wines and tobacco, had been all that I wanted I +very well might have settled myself on the _Ville de Saint Remy_ for +the balance of my days. But I almost resented the luck which had +brought me all these things--for which I had been longing so keenly +but a few hours before--because I did not find with them what I +desired still more earnestly: the means that would enable me to get +away seaward and leave them all behind. What such means would be, it +is only fair to add, I could not imagine; at least, I could not +imagine anything at all reasonable--for the only thing I could think +of that would carry me out across that weed-covered ocean to open +water was a balloon. + +And so, although I fed daintily and drank of the best, and had good +tobacco to cheer me after my meals, my first day aboard the _Ville de +Saint Remy_ was as sad a one as any that I had passed since I had come +into my sea-prison; for while the daylight lasted, and I wandered +about her decks looking always at the barrier of weed which held me +there, I had clearly before me the impossibility of ever getting +away. Only when darkness came, hiding my prison walls from me, did I +become a little more cheerful--as the very human disposition to make +light of difficulties when they no longer are visible began to assert +itself in my mind. + +Down in the comfortable cabin, well lighted and airy, I had a capital +dinner--and a bottle of sound Bordeaux with it that no doubt added a +good deal to my sanguine cheerfulness; and to end with I made myself +some delicious coffee--over a spirit-lamp that I found in the +pantry--and had with it a glass of Benedictine and a very choice +cigar. And all of these luxurious refreshments of the flesh--which set +me to smiling a little as I thought of the contrast that they made to +my surroundings--so comforted my spirit that my gloomy thoughts left +me, and I began to plan airily how I would start off in a boat well +loaded with provisions and somehow or another push my way through the +weed. I even got along to details: deciding that it would be quite an +easy matter to open a way through the tangle over the bows of my boat +with an oar--or with an axe, if need be--and then press forward by +poling against the weed on each side; which seemed so feasible a +method that I concluded I could accomplish readily at least a mile a +day. And so, with these fine fancies dancing in my brain, I settled +myself into a delightful bed; and as I drowsed off deliciously I had +the comforting conviction that in a little while longer all my +difficulties would be conquered and all my troubles at an end. + +With the return of daylight, giving me an outlook over the +weed-covered water again, most of my hopefulness left me along with +most of my faith in my airily-made plan; but even in this colder mood +it did seem to me that there was at least a chance of my pulling +through--and my slim courage was strengthened by the feeling within me +that unless I threw myself with all my energy into work of some sort I +presently would find myself going melancholy mad. And so, but only +half-heartedly, I mustered up resolution to make a trial of my poor +project for getting away. + +On board the _Ville de Saint Remy_ there was nothing to be done. The +corner-stone of my undertaking was finding a boat and launching it, +and the Frenchmen--in their panic-stricken scamper from a danger that +was mainly in their own lively imaginations--had carried all their +boats away. It was necessary, therefore, that I should go on a cruise +among the other wrecks lying around me in search of a boat still in a +condition to swim; but I was very careful this time--profiting by my +rough experience--to make sure before I started of my safe return. +Fortunately the stern of the steamer was so high out of the water +that it rose conspicuously above the wrecks lying thereabouts; but to +make her still more conspicuous I roused out a couple of French flags +and an American flag from her signal-chest and set them at her three +mastheads--giving to our own colors the place of honor on the +mainmast--and so made her quite unmistakable from as far off as I +could see her through the haze. And as a still farther precaution +against losing myself I hunted up a hatchet to take along with me to +blaze my way. All of which matters being attended to, I made a rope +fast to the rail--knotting it at intervals, so that I could climb it +again easily--and so slipped down the steamer's side. + +My business was only with the wrecks lying along the extreme outer +edge of the pack--from which alone it would be possible for me to +launch a boat in the event of my finding one--but in order to get from +one to the other of them I had to make so many long detours that my +progress was very slow. Indeed, by the time that noon came, and I +stopped to eat my dinner--which I had brought along with me, that I +need not have to hunt for it--I had made less than half a mile in a +straight line. And in none of the vessels that I had crossed--except +on one lying so far in the pack as to be of no use to me--had I found +a single boat that would swim. Nor had I any better luck when I went +on with my search again in the afternoon. As it had been in the case +of the _Hurst Castle_ so it had been, I suppose, in the case of all +the wrecks which I examined that day: either their boats had been +staved-in or washed overboard by tempest, or else had served to carry +away their crews. But what had become of them, so far as I was +concerned, made no difference--the essential matter was that they were +gone. And so, toward evening, I turned backward from my fruitless +journey and headed for the _Ville de Saint Remy_ again--for I had +found no other ship so comfortable in the course of my explorations--and +got safe aboard of her just as the sun was going down. + +That night I had not much comfort in the good dinner that I set out +for myself--though I was glad enough to get it, being both hungry and +tired--and I only half plucked up my spirits over my coffee and cigar. +But still, as the needs of my body were gratified, my mind got so far +soothed and refreshed that I held to my purpose--which had been pretty +much given over when I came back tired and hungry after my vain +search--and I went to bed resolute to begin again my explorations on +the following day. + +But when the morning came and I set off--though I had a good breakfast +inside of me, and such a store of food by me as fairly would have set +me dancing with delight only a week before--I was in low spirits and +went at my work rather because I was resolved to push through with it +than because I had any strong hope that it would give me what +I desired. + +This time--having already examined the wrecks for near a mile +northward along the edge of the pack--I set my course for the south; +and again, until late in the afternoon, I worked my way from ship to +ship--with long detours inland from time to time in order to get +around some break in the coast-line--and on all of them the result was +the same: not a boat did I find anywhere that was not so riven and +shattered as to be beyond all hope of repair. And at nightfall I came +back once more to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ wearied out in body and +utterly dispirited in mind. + +Even after I had eaten my dinner and was smoking at my ease in the +cheerfully lighted cabin, sitting restfully in a big arm-chair and +with every sort of material comfort at hand, I could not whip myself +up to hoping again. It was true that I had not exhausted the +possibilities of finding the boat that I desired so eagerly, for my +search along the coast-line had extended for only about a mile each +way; but in my down-hearted state it seemed to me that my search had +gone far enough to settle definitely that what I wanted was not to be +found. And this brought down on me heavily the conviction that my +prison--though it was the biggest, I suppose, that ever a man was shut +up in--must hold me fast always: and with that feeling in it there no +longer was room for hope also in my heart. + + + + + +XXXII + +I FALL IN WITH A FELLOW-PRISONER + + +When I had finished my breakfast the next morning I faced the worst +thing which I had been forced to face since I had been cast prisoner +into the Sargasso Sea: a whole day of idleness without hope. Until +then there had not been an hour--save when I was asleep--that I had +not been doing something which in some way I had hoped would better my +condition temporarily, or would tend toward my deliverance. But that +morning I was without such spurs to effort and there was absolutely +nothing for me to do. My condition could not be improved by making my +home on another vessel; it was doubtful, indeed, if in all the +wreck-pack I could find a home so comfortable and so abundantly +stocked with the best provisions as I had found aboard of the _Ville +de Saint Remy_. As for working farther for my deliverance, I had set +that behind me after my experience during the two preceding days. And +so I brought a steamer-chair out on the deck and sat in it smoking, +idle and hopeless, gazing straight out before me with a dull +steadfastness over the very gently undulating surface of the +weed-covered sea. + +After a while, tiring of sitting still, I began to pace the deck +slowly; and I was so heavy with my sorrow that I could not think +clearly, but had only in my mind a confused feeling that I was taking +the first of a series of walks such as wild animals imprisoned take +endlessly back and forth behind the bars that shut them in. And from +this I went on to thinking, still in the same confused way, that the +wild animals at least were not outcast in their captivity--having +living people and living beasts around them, and the pleasure of +hearing living sounds--while one of the worst things about my prison +was the absolute dead silence that hung over it like a dismal cloud. +And perhaps it was because my thoughts happened at that moment to be +set to take notice of such matters that I fancied I heard a very faint +sound of scratching and an instant later a still fainter little cry. + +I was standing just then close to the water-line on the deck forward, +beside a covered hatch that seemed to lead to what had been the +quarters of the crew; and it was from beneath this hatch, I was +certain, that the sounds came. Slight though the noise was, it greatly +startled me; and at the same time it aroused in me the +strangely-thrilling hope that there possibly might be a living man +still aboard of the steamer and that I would be no longer horribly +alone. Yet I would not suffer myself too much to give room to this +happy hope, for the little faint scratching--which I heard again +presently--was not the sort of noise that a man shut in would be +likely to make; nor did the little plaintive sound seem like a human +cry. But the matter was one to be investigated in a hurry, and with an +energy quite astonishing, in comparison with my lassitude of a moment +before, I got the hatch open and leaned down it, listening; and then I +heard the scratching so plainly that I hurried down the stair. + +The between-decks was well enough lighted by a good-sized skylight, +and the place that I had got into had fixed tables set in it and +seemed to be the mess-room of the crew. Doors opened out from it both +fore and aft; and from behind the after door--so plainly that I had no +difficulty in placing it--came the scratching sound that I was +pursuing: and with it came the cries again, and this time so +distinctly as to shatter my hope of finding a human being there, but +at the same time to make me, for all my sorrow, almost smile. For the +cry was a very long and plaintive m-i-i-a-a-u! And the next moment, +when I had the door open, a great black cat came out upon me--so +overcome with delight at meeting a human being again that he was +almost choking with his gurgling purr. Indeed the extravagant joy of +the poor lonely creature was as great as mine would have been had I +found a man there--and he manifested it by lunging sidewise against my +legs, and by standing up on his hind paws and reaching his fore paws +up to my knees and clutching them, and then with a spring he climbed +right up me--all the while choking with his great gurgling +purring--and was not satisfied until he found himself bundled close +against my breast as I held him tight in my arms. And on my +side--after I had gulped down my first disappointment because it was +only a cat who was my fellow-prisoner--I was as glad to meet him as he +was to meet me; and I am not ashamed to say that I fairly cried over +him--as a warm rush of joy went over me at finding myself at last, +after being for so long a time surrounded only by the dead, in the +company of a living creature; and a creature which showed toward me by +every means that a brute beast could compass its gratitude and +its love. + +And I must add without delay that my cat's affection for me was wholly +disinterested; at least, I am sure that he loved me--from the first +moment of our encounter--not because he wanted me to do something for +him, but because he longed, as I did, for human companionship and was +filled up with happiness because he had found again a human friend. As +I discovered upon investigation, his prison had been the galley in +which food for the crew had been cooked; and upon the odds and ends +left there he had fared very well indeed--not overeating himself by +gobbling down all his food in a hurry, and then dying of starvation, +as a dog would have done, but temperately eating for his daily rations +only what his sustenance required; and for drink he had had a pot +partly full of what had been hot water that stood upon the galley +stove. But I also must add that this coarse fare was not at all to his +liking; and that thereafter he ordered me around pretty sharply, in +his own way, and insisted always upon my providing him with +dainty food. + +It was a good thing for the cat, certainly, that I had found him; for +his stock of provisions was pretty nearly exhausted, and in a little +while longer he would have come to a dismal end. But my finding him +was a still better thing for me. When I first heard his faint little +scratching, and his still fainter plaintive little call for help, I +was so deep in my despairing melancholy that my reason was in a fair +way to go, and with it all farther effort on my part to set myself +free. From that desperate state my small adventure with him roused me, +which was a good deal to thank him for; but I had more to thank him +for still. + +In the little time that I had been aboard of the _Ville de Saint +Remy_--my days having been passed away from her--I had made no +exploration of her interior beyond her cabin and the region in which +were carried her cabin stores; which latter were so abundant as to set +me at my ease for an indefinite period in regard to food. But this +meeting with my fellow-prisoner so stirred me up, and put such fresh +spirit into me, that I began to think of having a general look all +over her: that I might in a way take stock of my belongings and at the +same time have something to occupy my mind--for I knew that to sit +down idly again would be only again to fall back into despair. And so, +my cat going with me--and, indeed, making a good deal of a convenience +of me, for he by no means would walk on his own legs but insisted upon +jumping up on my shoulder and going that way as a passenger--I set off +on my round. + +As well as I could make out from what I found on board of her--for her +papers either had been carried away or were stowed in some place which +I did not discover--the _Ville de Saint Remy_ had been bound outward +to some colonial port and carried a cargo of general stores. When I +got her hatches off--though that came later--I saw in one place a lot +of wheelbarrows, and some heavy wagons stowed with their wheels inside +of them, and some machinery for threshing along with a portable +steam-engine; and in another place were boxes which seemed to have +dry-goods in them, and a great many cases of wines, and some very big +cases that evidently contained pianos--and so on with a great lot of +stuff such as the people of a flourishing colony would be likely +to need. + +But in my round that morning with the cat on my shoulders--for he was +not content to remain perched on one of them quietly, but kept passing +from one to the other with affectionate rubs against the back of my +head, and all the while purring as hard as he could purr--I did not +get below the main-deck except into the engine-room, my attention +being given to finding out fully what the steamer had on board of her +in the way of work-shops and tools: for already, with my renewed +cheerfulness, the notion was beginning to take hold of me that I might +set to work and build a boat for myself--and so make what I could not +find. And, indeed, I don't doubt that I should have set myself to this +big undertaking--for the appointments of the vessel were admirably +complete and everything that I wanted for my work was there--had not a +bigger, but a more promising, undertaking presented itself to me and +so turned my efforts into another way. + + + + + +XXXIII + +I MAKE A GLAD DISCOVERY + + +It was directly to my cat that I owed the great piece of good fortune +that then came to me: but I must confess that he was an unwilling +agent in the matter, and probably wished himself well out of it, the +immediate result in his case being rather a bad squeeze to one of his +fore paws. + +We had been examining the machine-shop, the cat and I, and whatever +his views about it may have been mine were of great satisfaction; for +when I had got the dead-lights unscrewed so that I could see well +about me I had been delighted by finding there everything that my +boat-building project required. Indeed, I almost fancied myself back +again in one of the work-shops of the Stevens Institute, so well was +the place fitted and supplied--a completeness probably due to the fact +that the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was intended for long voyages to +out-of-the-way ports, and very well might have to depend upon her own +resources for important repairs. + +It was as we were leaving the machine-shop to continue our round of +investigations that my cat suddenly took it into his head to jump down +from my shoulders and stretch his own legs a little; and away he +scampered--being much given to such frisking dashes, as I later +discovered, though for the next week or so after that one he went +limping on three legs mighty soberly--first down the deck aft, and +then past me and up a dark passage leading toward the bows; and I, +being pretty well accustomed to cat habits, stood waiting until he +should have his fun out and so come back again with a miau by way of +"if you please" to be taken up into my arms. But he did not come back +in any great hurry, and off in the darkness I could hear his paws +padding about briskly; and then there was silence for a moment; and +then he broke out into a loud miauling which showed that he was in +trouble of some sort and also in pain. + +As there was no helping him until I could see what was the matter with +him, I hurried first into the machine-shop for a wrench, and then went +forward into that dark place cautiously--until by a glint of light on +the ship's side I made out where a port was, and so got loose the +deadlight and could look around. What I saw was my poor cat in such a +pickle that I did not in the least blame him for crying out about it; +he having, as it seemed, made an unlucky jump upon some small bars of +iron which were lying loose and disorderly, with the one on which he +landed balanced so nicely that it had turned suddenly and jammed fast +his paw. And so he was anchored there very painfully, and was telling +what he thought about it in the most piercing yowls. + +Fortunately it was an easy matter to let him loose from the trap that +he had got into; but even while I was doing it--and before I picked +him up to look at his hurt and to comfort him--I gave a shout of +delight on my own account that was a good deal louder than any of my +poor cat's yells of pain. For there before me was a very stout-looking +and large steam-launch--thirty-two feet over all, as I found when I +came to measure her--stowed snugly in a cradle set athwart-ship and +looking all ready to be put overboard into the sea. And at finding in +this unexpected fashion what I had been so long looking for, and had +quite done with hoping for, it is no wonder that I shouted with joy. + +My cat coming limping to me to be pitied and cared for, holding up his +pinched paw and with little miaus asking for my sympathy quite like a +Christian, I had first of all to give him my attention. But his hurt +was not a very serious one--the flesh not being cut, and no bones +broken--and when I had comforted him as well as I could, until I got +him soothed a little, I put him down out of my arms that I might +examine carefully my great prize; but first of all opening all the +ports so that I might have plenty of light for what I wanted to do. + +Coming to this deliberate survey, I found that the launch truly enough +was complete, but that she was very far from being ready to take the +water; for while all her parts were there--and even duplicates of her +more important pieces, in readiness against a break-down--most of her +fittings and all of her machinery was lying inside of her boxed for +transportation; being arranged that way, I suppose, because she would +have been far too heavy to swing into the snug place where I found her +and out again with everything bolted fast. She was a very beautiful +little boat, evidently intended for a pleasure craft--but very strong +and seaworthy, too; and it no doubt was to keep her in good order for +delivery that she had been stowed between-decks for the long voyage. +Indeed, only with a steam-winch and a good many men to handle her, +could she have been got down there; and the first of my uncomfortable +thoughts about her, of the many that I had first and last, came while +I was taking stock of her equipment--as I fell to wondering how in the +world I should manage, with only a cat to help me, ever to get her +overboard into the sea. + +As to assembling her parts, and so making her ready for cruising, I +had no doubts whatever. That piece of work was directly in the line +of my training and I felt entirely secure about it; but even on that +score I quaked a good deal at the size of the contract to be taken by +a single pair of hands, and at thought of the long, long while that +would be required to carry it through. Yet the hope that came with +finding this boat put such heart into me that my spirits did not go +down far. Working on her--aside from the pleasure that any man with a +natural love for mechanics finds in serious and difficult labor with +his hands--would be a constant delight to me because of what it would +be leading to; and in every moment of my work I would have to sustain +me the thought that each rivet set in place and each bolt fastened +brought me appreciably nearer to being set free. + +Having cursorily finished with the boat, I continued my survey to her +surroundings; that I might plan roughly my scheme of work upon her, +and that I might plan also for getting her launched when my work upon +her should be done. She was stowed on the main-deck--in a place that +probably was intended for the use of third-class passengers, when such +were carried--and the machine-shop was so close to her that in the +matter of fetching tools and so on my steps would be well saved. +Directly over her was the forward hatch; through which she had been +lowered and set in place in the cradle previously made ready for her, +and there fixed firm and fast. For a moment I had the fancy that I +might get up steam to work the donkey-engine and so hoist her out +again by that same way, and overboard too. But a very little +reflection showed me that this airily formed plan must be abandoned, +as all my work on her then would have to be done far away from the +machine-shop and with the additional disadvantage that through the +long time that certainly must pass before I could get her finished she +would lie open to the daily heavy rains. And then I had the much more +reasonable notion--though the amount of extra labor that it involved +was not encouraging to contemplate--that I would do my work on her +where she lay; and when I had finished her that I would cut loose a +sufficient number of plates from the side of the steamer to make a +hole big enough to get her overboard that way. + +But having the hatch directly over where she was lying, though I could +not get her up through it, made my undertaking a good deal easier and +more comfortable for me. Even with all the ports open I would have had +but little light to work by; and, what was of even more importance in +that hot misty region, I would have had little fresh air--and still +less when I had set a-going my forge. But with the hatch off I could +have all the light that I needed and as much fresh air as was to be +had--with the advantage that the hatch could be set in place every +night when I went off duty and not opened again in the morning until +the rain was at an end: so preserving my machinery against the rust +that pretty much would have ruined it--for all that it was well +tallowed--had my slow building gone on in the open air. + +My preliminary investigations being thus well ended, and the morning +ended too, I piped all hands to dinner; that is to say, I whistled to +my cat--who had been sitting still and watching me pretty solemnly, +his friskiness being for the time taken out of him by the pain in his +paw--and when he perceived that I was paying some attention to him +again he came limping to me on his three good legs and said with a +miau that if I pleased he would prefer going to his dinner in my arms. +And when I picked him up--as, indeed, I had to, for he positively +insisted upon my carrying him--he forgot about his hurt and fell to +purring to me at a great rate and to making little gentle thrusts +against my arm with the fore paw that was sound. And so we went aft in +great friendship and contentment and had a gay dinner together: the +cat sitting on the table opposite to me with all possible decorum--but +manifesting his daintiness by refusing to eat anything but tinned +chicken, and only the white meat at that! + + + + + +XXXIV + +I END A GOOD JOB WELL, AND GET A SET-BACK + + +When my meal was finished I set myself first of all to getting off the +hatch beneath which my boat lay; and this proved to be a bigger job +than I had counted upon--each of its sections being so heavy that I +could not manage it without tackle, and even with tackle the work took +me a good hour. My plan of operations had included removing the hatch +every morning and setting it back again every night, but when I found +how much energy and time would be wasted in that way I changed my +front a little and got at the same result along another line. All that +I needed was a covering for the hatch that would keep the rain out; +and what I did, therefore, was to knock together a light grating of +wood to fit over it--sloping the grating downward on each side from a +sort of a ridge pole--on which a tarpaulin could be stretched; and in +that way I got shortly to a water-tight covering for my hatch that I +could shift back and forth quickly and without any trouble at all. But +the whole of what remained of the afternoon was spent in getting +that piece of preliminary work finished to my mind. + +The next morning I set myself to the examination of the stuff stowed +in the boat--the several parts which I would have to put together in +order to make my craft ready for the sea--and for this job also a +great deal of preliminary arrangement was required. Many of the +pieces--as the boiler, the cylinder, the shaft, the screw, and the +sections of the cabin--were too heavy for me to lift without tackle; +and as they all had to be got out and arranged in order ready for use, +and then in due course put aboard the boat one at a time in their +proper places, I first of all had to set up some sort of lifting +apparatus to take the place of a crane. + +In this matter the open hatch directly over the boat again was a help +to me. Across it, running fore and aft, I stretched a heavy wire rope +on which I had placed a big block for a traveller, and carrying the +end of the rope forward to the capstan I fell to work with the +hand-bars and got it strained so taut that it was like a bar of iron. +Then to the traveller block I made fast my hoisting tackle--and so was +able to swing up the heavy pieces from where they were stowed, and to +run them along the taut rope until they were clear of the boat on +either side, and then to let them down upon the deck: where they would +remain until a reversal of this process would lift them up again and +set them in place as they were required. But even with my tackle--and +double tackle in the case of the heavier pieces--this was a +back-breaking job that took up the whole of three days. + +However, I finished it at last, and had the boat clear and all the +pieces so arranged that as I needed them they would be ready to my +hand; and the examination that I was able to make of them, and of the +boat too after I had her empty, gave very satisfactory results. All +the parts were there, and all numbered so carefully that they could +have been assembled by much less skilful hands than mine; while the +hull of the boat was completely finished, and the sockets and +rivet-holes for attaching her fittings were all as they should be in +her frame. Farther, I could see by the little scratches here and there +on her iron-work that she had been set up and then taken apart again; +and so was sure that all was smooth for her coming together in the +right way. But, for all that I had such plain sailing before me in the +actual work of refitting her, my courage went down a little as I +perceived what a big contract I had taken, and what a very long time +must pass before I could pull it through. + +Moreover, I saw that while the boat was well built for pleasure +cruising in smooth water--and, indeed, was so stout in her frame that +she would stand a great deal of knocking about without being the +worse for it--she by no means was prepared for the chances of an ocean +voyage. Except where her little cabin and engine-room would be--the +two filling about half of her length amidships--she was entirely open; +and while the frame of her cabin was stoutly built, that part of it +intended to rise above the rail was arranged for sliding glass +windows--which would be smashed in a moment by a heavy dash of sea. It +was clear, therefore, that in addition to setting her up on the lines +planned for her--a big job and a long job to start with--there was a +lot more for me to do. To fit her for my purposes it would be +necessary to cover her cabin windows with planking; to deck her over +forward in order to have my stores under cover as well as to guard +against shipping enough water to swamp her in rough weather; and +finally to rig her with a mast and sail upon which to fall back for +motive-power in the event of my running out of coal. This additional +work would not, in one way, present any difficulties--it being in +itself simple and easy of accomplishment; but in another way it was +not pleasant to contemplate, since the doing of it all single-handed +would increase very greatly the time which must pass before I could +start upon my voyage. However, as consideration of that phase of the +matter only tended to discourage me, I put it out of sight as well as +I was able and set myself with a will to finishing my preliminary +work--of which there still was a good deal to do. + +The steamer's machine-shop, as I have said, was unusually well fitted +and supplied; but even in the short time that the vessel had been +lying abandoned in that reeking atmosphere rust had so coated +everything not shut up in lockers that all the tools in the racks and +the fittings of the lathe--although the lathe had an oil-cloth hood +over it--had to be cleaned before they could be used: a job that kept +me busy with the grind-stone, and emery-cloth, and oiled cotton-waste, +for a good long while. And after that I had to get the forge in order, +and to bring up fuel for it from the coal bunkers. And in attending to +all these various matters the time slipped away so quickly that a +whole week had passed before I had done. + +But I must say that as the cat and I labored together--though his +labors were confined to cheering me by following me about on three +legs wherever I went, and pretty much all the while talking to me in +his way so that I should not fail to take notice of him--I got more +and more light-hearted; which was natural enough, seeing that what I +was doing in itself interested me and so made the time pass quickly, +and that I had also a great swelling undercurrent of hope as I +thought of what my slow-going work would bring me to in the end. + +When at last I fairly got started at my building I was in a still +more cheerful mood--there being such a sense of definite +accomplishment as I set each piece in its place, and such a comfort in +the tangible advance that I was making, that half the time I was +singing as I made my bolts and rivets fast. But for all my +cheerfulness I had a plenty of trouble over what I was doing; and I +was sorry enough that I had not somebody beside my cat to help me, or +that I myself had not another pair or two of hands. + +Almost at the start, when I began to swing the pieces of machinery +inboard, I found that I had still another bit of preliminary work to +attend to before I could go on. My travelling tackle crossing the boat +amidships had worked well enough in getting the stuff out of her, but +when I came to hoisting the parts aboard and setting them exactly in +their places, and holding them steady while I made fast the rivets, it +would not in any way serve my turn. What I had to do was to stretch +another wire rope across the hatch--at right angles with and a couple +of feet above the first one, and parallel with the boat's keel--and to +rig on this two travellers, to one or the other of which I could +transfer each piece as I got it inboard and so run it along until I +had it exactly over the place where it was to be made fast. But I was +a whole day in attending to this matter--and it was only one of the +many makeshifts to which I had to resort to accomplish what was too +much for my unaided strength; and in meeting such like side +difficulties I lost in all a good many days. + +But though my work went very slowly, and now and then was stopped +short for a while by some obstacle that had to be overcome in any +rough and ready way that I could think of, I did get on; and at last I +had my boat together on the lines that her builders had planned. Yet +while, in a way, she was finished, there still was a weary lot to do +to her to fit her for my purposes; and in decking her over, and in +making her cabin solid, and in fitting a mast and sail to her, I spent +almost two months more. + +All this work went slowly because I had to spend nearly as much time +in making ready for what I wanted to do as in doing it. Before I began +my planking I had to rip up from the steamer's deck the material for +it; and this was a hard job in itself and did not give me what I +wanted when it was done--for while the stuff served well enough for my +beams and braces it was clumsily heavy for the decking of my little +launch. But it had to answer, and in the end I got it well in place +and the joints so tightly caulked that I was sure of having a dry +hold. And that my deck might the more easily turn the water in a sea +way I made it flush with the rail; and I had no hatch in +it--arranging to get to the hold by a scuttle that I set in the +forward end of the cabin--and that gave me a still better chance of +keeping dry below. + +For my mast I got down one of the top-gallant masts--and I had a close +shave to coming down with it and so ending my adventures right there. +The best way that I could think of to manage this piece of work--and I +have not since thought of any way better--was to make fast a line to +the lower end of the top-gallant mast just above the cap of the +topmast and to carry this line through the top-block and so down to +the deck, and there to pass it through another block to the capstan +and haul it taut and stop it; and when all that was in order, and the +stays cut, to get up into the cross-trees and saw through the spar +just below where I had whipped it with my line. My expectation was +that as the spar parted and fell it would be held hanging by my tackle +until I could get down to the deck again and lower it away; and that +really was what did happen--only as it fell there was a bit of slack +line to take up, and this gave such a tremendous jerk to the +cross-trees that I was within an ace of being shaken out of them and +of going down to the deck with a bang. But I didn't--which is the main +thing--and I did get my mast. It was a good deal heavier than my boat +could stand, and I had to spend a couple of days in taking it down +with a broad-axe and in finishing it with a plane until I got it as it +should be; and from the flag-staff at the steamer's stern I got out +with very little trouble a good boom and gaff. + +After that I had only my sail to fit; and as I did not trouble myself +to make a very neat job of it this did not take me long. Indeed, I +grudged the time that I spent on my mast and sail--close upon a +fortnight, altogether--more than any like amount of time that I gave +to my task; for my hope was strong that I would not need a sail at +all, but would be able to manage--by a way that I had thought of--to +carry enough coal with me to make my voyage under steam. But I was not +leaving anything to chance--so far as chances could be foreseen--in +the adventure that I was about to make, and so I got my sail-power all +ready to fall back upon in case my steam-power failed. And when that +bit of work was finished I was full of a joyful light-heartedness; for +my boat in every way was ready for the water, and I was come at last +to the good ending of my long job. + +That night I made a feast in celebration of what I had accomplished, +and in hope of my greater good fortune that I believed was soon to +come--with a place duly set on the opposite side of the table for my +only guest, and with a champagne-glass beside his plate to hold his +unsweetened condensed milk (for which, when I found it among the +ship's stores, he manifested a strong partiality) that he might lap +properly his responses to the toasts which I pledged him in +champagne. And I don't suppose that a man and a cat ever had a merrier +meal anywhere than we had in that queer place for it that evening; nor +that any two friends ever were happier together than we were when, our +feast being ended, he went through his various tricks--of which he had +learned a great many, and with a wonderful quickness, after his paw +got well--and then settled himself for a snooze on my lap while I sat +smoking my cigar and thinking that at last I had sawn through +my prison bars. + +And it was while I was sitting in that state of placid happiness that +suddenly I was brought up all standing by the reflection--and why it +had not come sooner to me is a mystery--that a dozen turns of the +screw of my launch in that weed-covered ocean would be enough to foul +it hopelessly, and so at the very start to cut short the voyage under +steam that I had planned. + + + + + +XXXV + +I AM READY FOR A FRESH HAZARD OF FORTUNE + + +For a while after this black thought came to me I was pretty much +beaten by it; but when I got steadier--and had finished kicking myself +for a fool because I had not foreseen it all along--I perceived that +the odds were not wholly against me, after all. I had, at least, a +sea-worthy boat in which to make my venture, and therefore was as well +off as I had hoped to be when I had set about looking for one; and if +the plan that I had formed worked out in practice--if I could manage +to force a passage through the tangle by alternately working over the +bow of my boat to break up the weed, and over the sides to pole my +boat forward--I was a great deal better off than I had hoped to be: +for should I win my way to open water I would have steam as well as +sail power at my command. + +But while this more reasonable view of the situation comforted me, it +did not satisfy me. The difficulty of working myself along in that +slow fashion I foresaw would be so enormous that I very well might die +of sheer exhaustion before I got clear of the weed-tangle--which +must extend outward, as I knew from my guess at the time that I had +taken in drifting in through it, for a very long way. What I had been +counting upon ever since I had found the launch was in having part of +the work, and the heaviest part, done by her engine; my part to be the +breaking of a passage, while the motive power was to be supplied by +the screw. But of course if the screw fouled, as it certainly would +foul with the loose weed all around it, that would be the end of my +hopeful plan. + +This consideration of the matter reduced it to a definite problem. +What was needed was some sort of protection for the screw that would +keep the weed away from it and yet would allow it to work freely: and, +having the case thus clearly stated, the thought presently occurred to +me that I could secure this protection by building out from the stern +of the boat, so that the screw would be enclosed in it, some sort of +an iron cage. That arrangement, I conceived, would meet the +requirements of the case fully; and being come to my conclusion I +resigned myself to still another long delay while I carried my plan +into execution, and so went to bed at last hopefully--but well knowing +that this fresh piece of work that I had cut out for myself would be +hard to do. + +I certainly did not overestimate the amount of labor involved in my +cage-building. I was a good three weeks over it. But I was kept up to +the collar by my conviction that without the cage I had no chance of +succeeding in my project; and so I got it finished at last. And then I +considered that my boat really was ready to take the water; and the +cat and I had another banquet in celebration of the long step that we +had taken toward our deliverance--only this time I did not give an +altogether free rein to my rejoicing, being fearful that some other +difficulty might present itself suddenly and bring me up again with a +round turn. + +The boat being ready--for I could think of nothing more to do to +her--I had still to launch her, and the first step toward that end was +breaking out a section in the steamer's side. Luckily the stock of +cold-chisels aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ was a good one; but I +dulled them all twice over--and weary work at the grindstone I had +sharpening them again--before I had chipped away the bindings of those +endless rivets and had the satisfaction of seeing the big section of +iron plate between two of her iron ribs pitch outboard and splash down +through the weed into the sea. + +As I have said, the bow compartment of the steamer was full of water, +and this brought her main-deck so low down forward that the boat had +only to be slid out almost on a level through the hole that I had +made. But to slide her that way--which seems easy, because I have +happened to put it glibly--was quite a different thing. With steam +power to work the capstan I could have got the boat overboard in no +time; but without steam power the launching went desperately slowly, +and was altogether the hardest piece of work that I had to do in the +whole of my long hard job. + +The boat had stood all along in the cradle that had been built to hold +her steady for the voyage. This was a very stout wooden framework +built up from two heavy beams joined by cross-pieces, and all so well +bolted together that it was very solid and firm. In this the boat +rested snugly and was held fast by rope lashings; and the cradle +itself--resting on the lower hatch and projecting on each side of +it--was lashed to the hatch ringbolts so as to be safe against +shifting in a heavy sea. I could have removed the cradle by taking it +to pieces, but that would not have helped matters; and the plan that I +decided upon--liking it better because all this wood-work around and +under the boat would protect her from harm as she went overboard--was +to weight the cradle with iron bars that would cause it to sink away +from beneath the boat when they took the water, and then to work it up +with jack-screws until I could get rollers under it and so send them +both together over the side. + +How long I worked over this job I really do not know; but I do know +that at the time it seemed as though it never would come to an end. +First of all I had the rollers to make from another topgallant mast +that I got down, and when these were finished I had to go at the frame +of the cradle with a pair of jack-screws and raise it, by fractions of +an inch, until I could get my rollers under it one at a time. I think +that it was the deadly dullness of this jack-screw work that I most +resented--the stupid monotony of doing precisely the same sort of +utterly wearying work all day long and for day after day. But in the +end I got it finished: all my rollers properly in place, and the +cradle made fast to hold it from starting before I was ready to have +it go--although of that there was not much danger, for while the +steamer had a decided pitch forward she lay on an even keel. + +At first I was for sending my boat overboard the minute that I got the +last roller under her; but I had the sense, luckily, to take a reef in +this brisk intention as the thought struck me that I must have open +water to launch her in or else very likely have boat and cradle +together stuck fast in the weed. And so I set myself to clearing a +little pool into which I could launch her; and as I carried this work +on I came quickly to a realizing sense of what was before me when I +should begin to break a way through the weed for my boat's passage, +and to the conviction that had I tried to make my voyage without steam +to help me I never should have got through at all. + +In point of fact, the weed was so thick and so firmly matted together +that I almost could walk on it; and when I had knocked loose a couple +of doors from their hinges and had thrown them overboard--taking two, +so that I might move one ahead of the other as my cutting advanced--I +had firm enough standing place from which I could slash away. So tough +was the mass that I was a whole day in uncovering a space less than +forty feet long by twenty broad; and when my launching-pool was +finished it had the look of a little pond in a meadow surrounded by +solid banks. + +All this showed me that even with the screw to push while I cleared a +way for the boat's passage I should have my hands full; but it also +put into my head a notion that helped me a good deal in the end. This +was to rig on the straight stem of my boat a set of guide-bars +projecting forward in which I could work perpendicularly a cross-cut +saw, and in that way to cut a slit in the weed--which would be widened +by the boat's nose thrusting into it as the screw shoved her onward, +and so would enable me to squeeze along. And as this was a matter easy +of accomplishment--being only to double over a couple of iron bars so +that there would be a slit a half inch wide for the saw to travel in, +and to bolt them fast to the top and bottom of the boat's stem--I did +it immediately; and it worked so well when I came to try it that I was +glad enough that I had had so lucky a thought. Indeed, had I known +how well it would turn out I should have gone a step farther and +rigged my saw to run by steam power--setting up a frame in the bows to +hold a wheel carrying a pin on which the saw could play and to which I +could make fast a bar from my piston-rod--and in that way saved myself +from the longest bit of back-breaking work that ever I had to do. But +that was a piece of foresight that came afterward, and so did me +no good. + +When my guide-bars were in place, and the saw made ready to slip into +them by taking off one of its handles--and I had still a spare saw to +fall back upon in the event of the first one breaking--my boat was +ready to go overboard into the open water, where she would lie while I +put aboard of her my coal and stores. But the work that was before me, +as I thus came close to it, loomed up very large; and so did the +doubts which beset me as to how my voyage would end. Indeed, it was in +a spirit far from exultant that at last I cut the lashings which held +the cradle; and then with the tackle that I had ready got the heavy +mass started--and in a couple of minutes had my boat safely overboard +and floating free, as the cradle sunk away from under her, carried +down by its lading of iron bars. + +But, whatever was to come of it, the launching of my boat started me +definitely along a fresh line of adventure, and whether I liked it or +not I had to make the best of it: and so I stated the case to my +cat--who had got scared and run off into a corner while the launching +was in progress--when he came marching up to me and seated himself +beside me gravely, as I stood in the break in the steamer's side +looking down at the boat that I hoped would set us free. + + + + + +XXXVI + +HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK + + +What would have been most useful to me as foresight, but was only +aggravating to me as hindsight--which happened to be the way that I +got it--was the very sensible notion that I might have put all of my +stores, and even a good part of my coal, aboard the boat before she +was decked over and launched. A few tons more or less would have made +no difference in moving her; but having to put those extra tons aboard +of her over the side of the steamer, and then to drag them through the +cabin and through the awkward little hatch, and at last to stow them +by the light of a lantern in her stillingly close hot hold--all that +made a lot of difference to me. However, I could not foresee +everything; and I think, on the whole, that I really did foresee most +of what I wanted pretty well. + +Of provisions I took along enough to last me, by a rough calculation, +for three months; being pretty well satisfied that unless within that +time I got through the weed-tangle to open water--over which I could +make my way to land, or on which I might fall in with a passing +vessel--I never would get free at all. And I was the more disposed to +keep down my lading of provisions because I wanted every scrap of room +that I could save for my cargo of coal. But my stores were plentiful +for the term that I had fixed upon, and the best and the most +nourishing--save that I could not take fresh meat with me--that the +_Ville de Saint Remy_ had on board; and I did not forget to take a +good supply of the tinned chicken and the condensed milk of which my +dainty cat was so fond. As for water--beside having my condenser to +fall back upon--I felt pretty sure that until I got well out toward +the open sea I could trust to the morning rains. But for all that I +carried two barrels with me--filled fresh the last thing before I +started--stowed in the well of the boat aft of the cabin; and there +too I carried a couple of ten-gallon tins of oil for my lanterns +and lamps. + +My bone-breaking job was getting my coal aboard. For ease in handling +and in stowing it--though I lost a little room that way--I put it in +canvas sacks, of which I luckily found some bales in the steamer's +cargo. These I swung up from the engine-room by the cinder-tackle to +the main deck; and having got them that far I packed them on my back +to the break in the steamer's side where my boat was lying and tumbled +them aboard of her, and then dragged them along to where I stowed +them in her hold. On my coal holding out at least until I got through +the weed--for on open water I could lay a course under sail--the +success of my adventure wholly depended; and knowing that, I filled my +boat with all that I dared to put into her--loading the last twenty +bags on her deck and on the roof of her cabin, to be used before I +drew on my main supply. + +But while this lading was a big one it did not satisfy me; and the +only way that I could think of to better it was to build a long and +narrow raft that I could stow as much more on and tow after me in the +boat's wake. This was a big undertaking, but I had to face it and to +carry it through: lowering down three spars (in managing which I used +a treble-purchase to swing them clear, and eased them down with a +couple of turns of the rope still around the capstan), and when I had +them over the side in a pool that I had cleared for them I lashed them +strongly together and decked them over with some of the state-room +doors. This gave me a raft sixty feet long, or thereabouts, but +narrower than my boat; and to make it follow the boat still more +easily I set a V-shaped cut-water at its bows to turn the weed. To be +sure, it was a clumsy thing, but it well enough served my turn. + +On this structure I was able to carry a prodigious quantity of +coal--more than I had on the boat, by a good deal; but by a little +planning in advance I arranged matters so that the lading of it was +not so hard a piece of work--though in all conscience it was hard +enough--as the lading of my boat had been. What I did was to clear a +pool in the weed for it and to build it directly beneath the outhang +of the cinder-tackle; and having that apparatus ready to my hand I +swung my bags of coal up from the engine-room, and then out along the +traveller, and then lowered them away--and so had only to stow them on +the raft when they were down. But there was only one of me to do all +this--to fill each bag in the bunkers and to bring it to the +engine-room, to make it fast there to the tackle, to come on deck and +haul it up and set it overboard, to go down the side and set it in +place, and then back to the bunkers again for the next round--and so I +spent a week in doing what three men could have done in a day. And I +was a tired man and a grimy man when I got this piece of work +finished; but I was comforted by knowing that I had as much coal in my +sea-stock as I possibly could have use for--and so I scrubbed myself +clean in the steamers bath-room and was easy in my mind. But it was a +good long while before I got the aches out of my bones. + +During my last week aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ I had steam up in +my boat and my engine at work during the greater part of each day: as +was necessary, the engine being new, in order to get the machinery +to running smoothly, and to set right anything that might be wrong +while I still had the steamer's machine-shop to turn to for repairs. +However, the engine proved to be a well-made one, and except that I +had to tighten a joint here and there and to repack the piston I had +nothing to rectify; and what still more pleased me was to find that my +cage answered to keep the screw from fouling, and that my plan for +sawing a way through the weed--which I tested by running a little +distance from the steamer through the thick of it--worked well too. +But because of the great friction to be overcome as the boat opened a +way for itself in the dense soft mass my progress was desperately +slow; and I had to comfort me the reflection that it would be still +slower when I got regularly under way and had in addition to the dead +thrust forward of the boat the dead drag after it of the raft. + +Slow or fast, though, I had no choice in the matter. With the means at +my command, I had done all that I could do to enable me to climb the +walls of my prison--if I may put it that way--and there remained only +to muster what pluck I had to help me and to abide by the result. This +was the view of the situation that I presented to my cat--for I had +got into the habit of talking to him quite as much as he talked to +me--while we sat at supper together on the last evening that we were +to pass on board of the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and while he did not +make much of a reply to me he did mumble some sort of a purring answer +that I took to mean he was willing, if I were, to make the trial. + +Early that morning, while the rain still was falling, I had filled my +two casks with fresh water; and after my breakfast I got them aboard +the boat and then went to work at setting up my mast--using one of the +davits in place of sheers and so managing the job very well. After +that I had rigged the sail, and had set it to make sure that all was +right; and then had furled it and lashed the boom fast on the roof of +the cabin among the bags of coal--and with rather a heavy heart, too, +for I knew that the chances were more than even against my ever +getting to open water and fresh breezes, and so loosing again the +knots which I had just tied. In the afternoon I had set my engine to +going again for an hour, and then had banked my fires against the +morning; and after that, until the shadows began to fall, I had spent +my time in going over the list that I had made of my sea-stock to be +sure that nothing that I needed was forgotten, and in taking a final +general survey of my boat and its stores. And when darkness came the +cat and I had our supper together--which was as good a one as the ship +could provide us with--and when we had finished I told him, as I have +said, what the chances were for and against our succeeding in our +undertaking and in return asked him for an expression of his +own views. + +That he fully understood what I told him I am not prepared to say; but +he certainly did answer me: jumping up on my lap and shoving his paws +alternately against my stomach, and purring in so cheerful a fashion, +and altogether making such a show of good spirits as to satisfy me +that he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through. +And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my own +confident hopes--which were rising strongly as the time for testing +them got close at hand--that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly, +and on my side promised that within another month or two he should +stretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put the +lamp out and we turned in for the night. + + + + + +XXXVII + +HOW MY CAT STILL FARTHER CHEERED ME + + +It was in the grey of early morning, while the rain still was falling, +that the cat and I had our breakfast; and as soon as the rain was over +I was down in the boat, and had off the tarpaulin that covered her +stern-sheets, and was busy bringing up my banked fires. One thing that +I had learned how to do during the week that I had been testing my +engine was to bank my fires well; and that was a matter of a good deal +of importance to me--since every night during my voyage the fires +would have to be kept that way, on the double score of my inability to +hold my course in the darkness and of my need for sleep. + +Presently I had steam up; and then I went back to the ship for the +last and most important piece of my cargo--my bag of jewels. It was +with a queer feeling, half of doubt and half of exultation, that I +fetched out this little bundle--still done up in the sleeve of the +oilskin jacket--and stowed it in one of the lockers in the cabin of my +boat. If my voyage went well, then all the rest of my life--so far as +wealth makes for happiness--would go well too: for in that rough and +dirty little bag was such a treasure--that I had won away from the +dead ship holding it--as would make me one of the richest men in the +world. But against this exultant hope stood up a doubt so dark that +there was no great room in my mind for cheerfulness: for as I stowed +away the jewels in the boat I could not but think of those others who +had stowed them away two hundred years and more before aboard the +galleon; and who had started in their great ship well manned on a +voyage in which the risk of disaster was as nothing in comparison with +the risk that I had to face in the voyage that I was undertaking in my +little boat alone. Yet their venture had ended miserably; and I, +trying singly to accomplish what their whole company had failed in, +very well might surrender the treasure again, as they had surrendered +it, to the storm-power of the sea. + +But thinking these dismal thoughts was no help to me, and so I choked +them down and went once more aboard the steamer to make sure that I +had forgotten nothing that I needed by taking a final look around. +This being ended without my seeing anything that was necessary to me, +I said goodbye to the _Ville de Saint Remy_ and got down into my boat +again; and my cat--who usually sat in the break of the side of the +steamer while I was at work in the boat, though sometimes asking +with a miau to be lifted down into her--of his own accord jumped +aboard ahead of me: and that I took for a good sign. + +Certainly, the cat and I made as queer a ship's company as ever went +afloat together; and our little craft--with its cargo that would have +bought a whole fleet's lading--was such an argosy as never before had +sailed the seas. Nor did even Columbus, when he struck out across the +black ocean westward, start upon a voyage so blind and so seemingly +hopeless as was ours. The Admiral, at least, had with him such aids to +navigation as his times afforded, and went cruising in open water; +failing in his quest, the chance was free to him to put about again +and so come once more to his home among living men. But I had not even +his poor equipment; and as to turning again and so coming back to the +point whence I started--even supposing that I could manage it--that +ending to my voyage would be so miserable that it would be better for +me to die by the way. + +In none of the vessels through which I had searched had I found a +sextant; nor would it have been of any use to me, had I found one, +unless I had found also a chronometer still keeping time. Charts I did +find; but as I had to know my position to get any good from them, and +as I would run straight for any land that I sighted without in the +least caring on what coast I made my landfall, I left them behind. My +only aid to navigation was a compass, that I got from the binnacle of +a ship lying near the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and aboard the same +vessel I found a very good spyglass, and gladly brought it along with +me because it would add to my chances--should I reach open water--not +only of sighting a distant ship but of making out how she was standing +in time to head her off. + +But for all practical purposes the compass was enough for me. I knew +that to the westward lay the American continent, and that between it +and where I then was--for it was certain that I was not far south of +the latitude of the Azores--was that section of the Atlantic which is +more thickly crowded with ships than any other like-sized bit of ocean +in the world. My chance of escape, therefore, and my only chance, lay +in holding to a due west course: hoping first that, being clear of the +weed, I might fall in with some passing vessel; and second that I +might make the coast before a storm came on me by which my little boat +would be swamped. And so I opened the throttle of my engine: and as +the screw began to revolve I headed my boat for the cut in the weed +which I had made when I was testing her--while my tow-rope drew taut +and after me came slowly my long raft. + +No doubt it was only because the hiss of the escaping steam startled +him; but at the first turn of the engine my cat scampered forward and +seated himself in the very bows of the boat--a little black +figure-head--and thence gazed out steadfastly westward as though he +were the pilot charged with the duty of setting our vessel's course. +He had to give place to me in a moment--when I went to the bows to +begin my sawing through the weed--but I was cheered by his planting +himself that way pointing our course with his nose for me: and again I +took his bit of freakishness for a good sign. + + + + + +XXXVIII + +HOW I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THE SARGASSO WEED + + +What I did on that first day of my voyage was what I did on every +succeeding day during so long a time that it seemed to me the end of +it never would come. + +When my craft fairly was started, with the fire well fed and a light +enough weight on the safety-valve to guard against any sudden chance +rise in the steam pressure, I went forward to the bows with the +compass and set myself to my sawing. The wheel being lashed with the +rudder amidships, all the steering was managed from the bows--any +deviation from the straight line westward being corrected by my taking +the saw out from the guide-bars and cutting to the right or to the +left with it until I had the boat's nose pointing again the right way. +But there was not often need for cutting of this sort. Held by the +guide-bars, the saw cut a straight path for the boat to follow; while, +conversely, the boat held the saw true. And so, for the most part, I +had only to stand like a machine there--endlessly hauling the saw up +and endlessly thrusting it down. Behind me my little engine puffed +and snorted; over the bows, below me, was the soft crunching sound of +the weed opening as the boat thrust her nose into it; and on each side +of me was the soft hissing rustling of the weed against the boat's +sides. From time to time I would stop for sheer weariness--for +anything more back-breaking than the steady working of that saw I +never came across; and from time to time I had to stop my +engine--which I managed, and also the starting of it, by means of a +pair of lines brought forward into the bows from the lever-bar--while +I attended to feeding the fire. + +The only breaks in this deadly monotonous round were when I ate my +meals--and at first these were as pleasant as they were restful, with +the cat sitting beside me and eating very contentedly too--and when I +fell in with a bit of wreckage that I had to steer clear of or to move +out of my way. Interruptions of this latter sort--even though they +gave me a change from my wearying sawing--were hard to put up with; +for they not only held me back woefully, but they kept me in continual +alarm lest I should break my saw. When the obstacle was a derelict, or +anything so large that I could see it well ahead of me and so could +have plenty of time in which to swing the boat to one side of it by +slicing a diagonal way for her, I could get along without much +difficulty; but when it was only a spar or a mast, so bedded in the +weed that my first knowledge of it was finding it close under my bows, +there was no chance to make a detour and I had to thrust it aside with +a boat-hook or go to hacking at it with an axe until I had cut it +through. And often it happened that I knew nothing at all of the +obstacle, the weed covering it completely, until my saw struck against +it; and that would send a cold shiver through me, as I whipped my saw +out of the water--for I had only two saws with me, and I knew that to +break one of them cut down my chances of escape by a half. Indeed, my +first saw did get broken while I still was in the thick of the tangle; +and after that I was in a constant tremor, which became almost agony +when I felt the least jar in my cutting, for fear that the other +would go too. + +But with it all I managed to make pretty fair progress, and better +than I had counted upon; for I succeeded in covering, as nearly as I +could reckon it, close upon three miles a day. After I fairly got out +upon my course I had no means whatever of judging distances; but my +estimate of my advance was made at the end of my first day's run, when +the wreck-pack still was in sight behind me and enabled me to make a +close guess at how far I had come. As the sun went down that night +over my bows--making a long path of crimson along the weed ahead of +me, and filling the mist with a crimson glow--I still could make out, +though very faintly, the continent of wrecks from which I had started; +and with my glass I could distinguish the _Ville de Saint Remy_ by the +three flags which I had left flying on her masts. And the sight of +her, and the thought of how comfortable and how safe I had been aboard +of her, and of how I was done with her forever and was tying to as +slim a chance of life as ever a man tied to, for a while put a great +heaviness upon my heart. Not until darkness came and shut her out from +me, and I was resting in my brightly lighted comfortable little +cabin--with my supper to cheer me, and with my cat to cheer me +too--did my spirits rise again; and I was glad, when I got under way +once more in the morning, that the heavy mist cut her off from me--and +that by the time the sun had thinned the mist a little I had made such +progress as to put her out of sight of me for good and all. + +Through my second day I still could make out the loom of the +wreck-pack behind me--a dark line low down in the mist that I should +have taken for a rain-cloud had I not known what it was; but that also +was pretty well gone by evening, and from my third day onward I was +encompassed wholly by the soft veil of golden mist hanging low around +me over the weed-covered sea. Only about noon time, when this veil +grew thinner and had in it a brighter golden tone--or at sunset, when +it was shot through with streams of crimson light which filled it +with a ruddy glow--was it possible for me to see for more than a mile +or so in any direction; and even when my horizon thus was enlarged a +little my view still was the same: always the weed spread out over the +water so thickly that nowhere was there the slightest break in it, and +so dense and solid that it would have seemed like land around me but +for its very gentle undulating motion--which made me giddy if I looked +at it for long at a time. The only relief to this dull flat surface +was when I came upon a wrecked ship, or upon a hummock of wreckage, +rising a little up from it--also swaying very gently with a wearying +motion that seemed as slow as time. And the silent despairing +desolateness of it all sunk down into my very soul. + +Even my cat seemed to feel the misery of that great loneliness and +lost so much of his cheerfulness that he got to be but a dull +companion for me; though likely enough what ailed him was the reflex +of my own poor spirits, made low by my constant bodily weariness, and +had I shown any liveliness he would have been lively too. But I was +too tired to think much about him--or about anything else--as day +after day I stood in the bow of the boat working my saw up and down +with a deadly dull monotony: that had no break save when I stopped to +rest a little my aching body, or to have a tussle with a bit of +wreckage that barred my passage, or to stoke myself with food, or to +put coal beneath my boiler, or to lie down at night with every one of +my bones and muscles heavy with a dull pain. + +And all the sound that there was in that still misty solitude was the +puffing of my engine, and the wheel churning in the water, and the +sharp hiss of the saw as it severed the matted fibres, and the +crunching and rustling that the boat made as it went onward with a +leaden slowness through the weed. + + + + + +XXXIX + +WHY MY CAT CALLED OUT TO ME + + +I had thought that I had struck the bed-rock of misery when I was +wandering in the dead depths of the wreck-pack, with the conviction +strong upon me that in a little while I would be dead there too. But +as I look back upon that long suffering of lonely sorrow I think now +that the worst of it came to me after I had left the wreck-pack +behind. In that last round that I fought with misfortune the strength +of my body was exhausted so completely that it could give no support +to my spirit; and as the days went on and on--always with the same +weed-covered sea around me and the same soft golden mist over me, and +I always working wearily but with the stolid steadiness of a +machine--so deadening a numbness took hold of me that I seemed to +myself like some far-away strange person--yet one with whom I had a +direct connection, and must needs sorrow for and sympathize +with--struggling interminably through the dull jading mazes of a +night-mare dream. + +Once only was I aroused from this stupor of spirit that went with my +vigorous yet apathetic bodily action. Just at sunset one evening I +sighted a vessel of some sort far ahead of me--a black mass looming +uncertainly against the rich glow of crimson that filled the west--and +for some reason or another I took into my head the fancy that I was +nearing open water and that this was not a wreck but a living ship on +board of which I would find living men: and at the thought of meeting +with live men again I fairly cried with joy. Then darkness fell and +shut her out from me; leaving me so eager that I could not sleep for +thinking of her, and almost tempting me to press on through the night +that I might be close up to her by dawn. But when in the first faint +grey light of early morning I made her out again, and saw that she was +in just the same position and at just the same distance ahead of me, I +was almost as sorry as I would have been had she vanished; for I knew +that had she been a living ship in that long night-time she would have +sailed away. And by noon, being then close upon her, I could see that +she was floating bottom upwards: and so knew certainly that she was +only a dead wreck drifting in slowly to take her place among the dead +wrecks which I had left behind me; and beyond her, instead of open +water, I saw only the weed--covered ocean stretching onward unbroken +until it was lost in the golden haze. + +Even then, though, I had a foolish hope that there might be living men +clinging to her, and I edged my boat off its course a little so that I +might run close under her stern. But no one showed on her hull as I +neared her, and only my own voice broke the heavy silence as I crazily +hailed her again and again. And then I fell into a dull rage with her, +so weary was I of my loneliness and so bitter was my disappointment at +finding her deserted--until suddenly a very different train of +emotions was aroused in me as I made out slowly the weathered inverted +lettering on her up-tilting stern, and so read her name there: +_Golden Hind_! + +Like a flash I had before me clearly all the details of my last +moments aboard of her: my quick sharp words with Captain Luke, my step +backward with my arms up as he and the mate pressed upon me, the +smasher that I got in on the mate's jaw, the crack on my own head that +stunned me--and then my revival of consciousness as I found myself +adrift in the ocean and saw the brig sailing away. And while these +thoughts crowded upon me my boat went onward through the weed +slowly--and presently I had again parted company with the _Golden +Hind_, and this time for good and all. + +After that break in it my dull despairing weariness settled down upon +me again--as the heavy days drifted past me and I pressed steadily on, +and on, and on. How time went I do not know. I could keep no track of +days which always were the same. But I must have been on my voyage for +nearly a month when I fell in with the _Golden Hind_: as I know +because a little while after passing her I used the last of the coal +that was on the raft and cast it off--and my calculation at starting +had been that the coal aboard the raft would last me for about +thirty days. + +Getting rid of the raft was a good thing for me in one way, for when +the boat was relieved from that heavy mass dragging through the weed +after her she went almost twice as fast. But in another way it was a +bad thing for me, for it left me with only what coal I had on the boat +herself and, so far as I could judge from my surroundings, I was no +nearer to being over the wall of my prison than I was on that first +morning when I put off from the _Ville de Saint Remy_. Still the weed +stretched away endlessly on all sides of me, and still the golden mist +ceaselessly hung over me--only it did seem to me, though I did not +trust myself to play much with this hopeful fancy, that the mist was a +good deal thinner than it had been during the earlier part of +my voyage. + +But I was too broken to take much notice of my surroundings. Still I +worked on and on, with the steadfastness and the hopelessness of a +machine: up and down over the bows with my saw interminably, with +only little breaks for rest and eating and to keep my fires up or for +a struggle with a bit of wreckage that barred my way; and at night to +weary sleep that did not rest me; and then up before sunrise to begin +it all again with a fresh day that had no freshness in it--and was +like all the many days of desperate toil which had gone before it, and +like the others which still were to come. + +Even when I saw ahead of me one morning a long lane of open water, a +wide break in the weed, I was too dull to think much about it beyond +steering my way into it thankfully--and then feeling a slow wonder as +the boat slid along with no rustling noise on each side of her at what +seemed to me an almost breathless speed. But as that day went on and +the mist grew lighter and lighter about me and I came to more and more +of these open spaces, and at the same time found that the weed between +them was so much thinner that the boat almost could push through it +without having a path cut for her, I began faintly to realize that +perhaps I had got to the beginning of the end. And then, for the first +time since I had lapsed into my stolid insensibility, a little weak +thrill of hope went through me and I seemed to be waking from my +despairing dream. + +With the next day, however, hope full and strong fairly got hold of +me: for I was out of the mist completely, and the weed was so thin +that I brought my saw inboard and finally had done with it, and the +stretches of open water were so many and so large that I knew that the +blessed free ocean must be very near at hand. And I think that my cat +knew as well as I did that our troubles were close to a good ending; +for all of a sudden he gave over his moping and fell to frisking about +me and to going through all the tricks which I had taught him of his +own accord; and thence onward he spent most of his time on the roof of +the cabin--looking about him with a curious intentness, for all the +world as though I had stationed him there to watch out for a ship +bearing down on us, or for land. Even when I found that day that only +a dozen bags of coal were left to me--for I had fed my furnace while +my heaviness was upon me without paying any attention to how things +were going with my stock of fuel--my spirits were none the worse for +my discovery; for with every mile that I went onward the weed was +growing thinner and I felt safe enough about continuing my voyage +under sail. + +Because my rousing out of my lethargy had been so slow, this change in +my chances seemed to come upon me with a startling suddenness--when in +reality, I suppose, I might have seen signs of it a good while sooner +than I did see them had my mind been clear. But the actual end of my +adventure, the resolving of my hopes into a glad certainty of rescue, +really did come upon me with a rush at last. + +We fairly were in open water, and the cat and I were dining in the +cabin together very cheerfully--with the helm lashed and the boat +going on her course at half speed. I was disposed to linger over my +meal a little, for I was beginning to enjoy once more the luxury of +getting rest when I rested, and when my cat suddenly left me and went +on deck by himself--a thing that he never before had done--I took his +desertion of me in ill part. A moment later I heard the padding of his +feet on the roof of the cabin over me, and smiled to myself as I +thought of him going on watch there; and then, presently, I heard him +calling me--for I had come to understand a good many of his turns of +language--with a lively "Miau!" But it was not until he called me +again, and more urgently, that the oddness of his conduct came home to +me and made me hurry on deck after him; and my first glance at him +made me look in the direction in which he was looking eagerly: and +there I saw the smoke of a steamer trailing black to the horizon, and +beneath it her long black hull--and she was heading straight for me, +and coming along at such a ripping rate that within twenty minutes she +would be across my bows. + +Half an hour more brought matters to a finish. I had only to wait +where I was until the steamer was close down upon me, and then to run +in under her counter so that her people might throw me a line. Her +whole side was crowded with faces as she stopped her way and I came up +with her, and on her rail a tall officer was standing--holding fast +with one hand to the rigging and having in the other a coil of rope +all ready to cast. + +One face among the many clustered there, and a mighty friendly one, +was familiar to me; but I could not place it until a jolly voice +hailed me that I recognized with a warm thrill--and the sound of it +filled me with joy as I thought of my bag of jewels in the cabin +locker, and of how at last my doctor's bill would be paid. + +"And so it's yourself, my fine big young man, and at your old tricks +again. But it's this time that you have the good luck of a black cat +for company in your cruising all alone by yourself over the open sea!" + +And then the tall officer with the coil of rope sung out "Catch!"--and +sent the line whizzing down to me, and I caught the end of it in +my hand. + + +THE END + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +THE AZTEC TREASURE-HOUSE. A Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity. +Illustrated by FREDERIC REMINGTON. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. + +This powerful story may well be ranked among the wonder books. No +story-reader should miss it, for it is different from anything he has +ever read.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL, and Other Stories. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25; +Paper, 50 cents. + +Janvier stands in the first rank as a writer of short stories, and a new +volume coming from him is sure to meet with success. In the present +instance it well deserves to, for the stories it contains, from the one +which gives it its title to the last between the covers, are among his +best.--_Christian at Work_, N.Y. + +IN OLD NEW YORK. With 13 Maps and 58 Illustrations. Post 8vo, Cloth, +$1 75. + +Overflows with all sorts of minute and curious information concerning both +the old and the recent town.... Mr. Janvier has long been a zealous and +sympathetic student of this subject. His text is supplemented with +numerous maps and illustrations, instructive and interesting.--_N.Y. Sun_. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SARGASSO SEA *** + +This file should be named 8sarg10.txt or 8sarg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sarg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sarg10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Michael Lockey +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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