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Elisha Cuthbert Photos Books: Martin Eden The Pickwick Papers The Sea Wolf |
of their shipmates, who lined the rail amidships. There was
no greeting. They were as dead men in their comrades eyes, and
between them was the gulf that parts the living and the dead.
The next instant they were opposite the poop, where stood Wolf
Larsen and I. We were falling in the trough, they were rising on
the surge. Johnson looked at me, and I could see that his face was
worn and haggard. I waved my hand to him, and he answered the
greeting, but with a wave that was hopeless and despairing. It was
as if he were saying farewell. I did not see into the eyes of
Leach, for he was looking at Wolf Larsen, the old and implacable
snarl of hatred strong as ever on his face.
Then they were gone astern. The spritsail filled with the wind,
suddenly, careening the frail open craft till it seemed it would
surely capsize. A whitecap foamed above it and broke across in a
snow-white smother. Then the boat emerged, half swamped, Leach
flinging the water out and Johnson clinging to the steering-oar,
his face white and anxious.
Wolf Larsen barked a short laugh in my ear and strode away to the
weather side of the poop. I expected him to give orders for the
Ghost to heave to, but she kept on her course and he made no sign.
Louis stood imperturbably at the wheel, but I noticed the grouped
sailors forward turning troubled faces in our direction. Still the
Ghost tore along, till the boat dwindled to a speck, when Wolf
Larsens voice rang out in command and he went about on the
starboard tack.
Back we held, two miles and more to windward of the struggling
cockle-shell, when the flying jib was run down and the schooner
hove to. The sealing boats are not made for windward work. Their
hope lies in keeping a weather position so that they may run before
the wind for the schooner when it breezes up. But in all that wild
waste there was no refuge for Leach and Johnson save on the Ghost,
and they resolutely began the windward beat. It was slow work in
the heavy sea that was running. At any moment they were liable to
be overwhelmed by the hissing combers. Time and again and
countless times we watched the boat luff into the big whitecaps,
lose headway, and be flung back like a cork.
Johnson was a splendid seaman, and he knew as much about small
boats as he did about ships. At the end of an hour and a half he
was nearly alongside, standing past our stern on the last leg out,
aiming to fetch us on the next leg back.
"So youve changed your mind?" I heard Wolf Larsen mutter, half to
himself, half to them as though they could hear. "You want to come
aboard, eh? Well, then, just keep a-coming."
"Hard up with that helm!" he commanded Oofty-Oofty, the Kanaka, who
had in the meantime relieved Louis at the wheel.
Command followed command. As the schooner paid off, the fore- and
main-sheets were slacked away for fair wind. And before the wind
we were, and leaping, when Johnson, easing his sheet at imminent
peril, cut across our wake a hundred feet away. Again Wolf Larsen
laughed, at the same time beckoning them with his arm to follow.
It was evidently his intention to play with them,--a lesson, I took
it, in lieu of a beating, though a dangerous lesson, for the frail
craft stood in momentary danger of being overwhelmed.
Johnson squared away promptly and ran after us. There was nothing
else for him to do. Death stalked everywhere, and it was only a
matter of time when some one of those many huge seas would fall
upon the boat, roll over it, and pass on.
"Tis the fear iv death at the hearts iv them," Louis muttered in
my ear, as I passed forward to see to taking in the flying jib and
staysail.
"Oh, hell heave to in a little while and pick them up," I answered
cheerfully. "Hes bent upon giving them a lesson, thats all."
Louis looked at me shrewdly. "Think so?" he asked.
"Surely," I answered. "Dont you?"
"I think nothing but iv my own skin, these days," was his answer.
"An tis with wonder Im filled as to the workin The Sea Wolf page 73 The Sea Wolf page 75 |