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out iv things.
A pretty mess that Frisco whisky got me into, an a prettier mess
that womans got you into aft there. Ah, its myself that knows ye
for a blitherin fool."
"What do you mean?" I demanded; for, having sped his shaft, he was
turning away.
"What do I mean?" he cried. "And its you that asks me! Tis not
what I mean, but what the Wolf ll mean. The Wolf, I said, the
Wolf!"
"If trouble comes, will you stand by?" I asked impulsively, for he
had voiced my own fear.
"Stand by? Tis old fat Louis I stand by, an trouble enough itll
be. Were at the beginnin iv things, Im tellin ye, the bare
beginnin iv things."
"I had not thought you so great a coward," I sneered.
He favoured me with a contemptuous stare. "If I raised never a
hand for that poor fool,"--pointing astern to the tiny sail,--"dye
think Im hungerin for a broken head for a woman I never laid me
eyes upon before this day?"
I turned scornfully away and went aft.
"Better get in those topsails, Mr. Van Weyden," Wolf Larsen said,
as I came on the poop.
I felt relief, at least as far as the two men were concerned. It
was clear he did not wish to run too far away from them. I picked
up hope at the thought and put the order swiftly into execution. I
had scarcely opened my mouth to issue the necessary commands, when
eager men were springing to halyards and downhauls, and others were
racing aloft. This eagerness on their part was noted by Wolf
Larsen with a grim smile.
Still we increased our lead, and when the boat had dropped astern
several miles we hove to and waited. All eyes watched it coming,
even Wolf Larsens; but he was the only unperturbed man aboard.
Louis, gazing fixedly, betrayed a trouble in his face he was not
quite able to hide.
The boat drew closer and closer, hurling along through the seething
green like a thing alive, lifting and sending and uptossing across
the huge-backed breakers, or disappearing behind them only to rush
into sight again and shoot skyward. It seemed impossible that it
could continue to live, yet with each dizzying sweep it did achieve
the impossible. A rain-squall drove past, and out of the flying
wet the boat emerged, almost upon us.
"Hard up, there!" Wolf Larsen shouted, himself springing to the
wheel and whirling it over.
Again the Ghost sprang away and raced before the wind, and for two
hours Johnson and Leach pursued us. We hove to and ran away, hove
to and ran away, and ever astern the struggling patch of sail
tossed skyward and fell into the rushing valleys. It was a quarter
of a mile away when a thick squall of rain veiled it from view. It
never emerged. The wind blew the air clear again, but no patch of
sail broke the troubled surface. I thought I saw, for an instant,
the boats bottom show black in a breaking crest. At the best,
that was all. For Johnson and Leach the travail of existence had
ceased.
The men remained grouped amidships. No one had gone below, and no
one was speaking. Nor were any looks being exchanged. Each man
seemed stunned--deeply contemplative, as it were, and, not quite
sure, trying to realize just what had taken place. Wolf Larsen
gave them little time for thought. He at once put the Ghost upon
her course--a course which meant the seal herd and not Yokohama
harbour. But the men were no longer eager as they pulled and
hauled, and I heard curses amongst them, which left their lips
smothered and as heavy and lifeless as were they. Not so was it
with the hunters. Smoke the irrepressible related a story, and
they descended into the steerage, bellowing with laughter.
As I passed to leeward of the galley on my way aft I was approached
by the engineer we had rescued. His face was white, his lips were
trembling.
"Good God! sir, what kind of a craft is this?" he cried.
"You have eyes, you have seen," I answered, almost brutally, what
of the pain and fear at my own heart.
"Your promise?" I said to Wolf Larsen.
"I was not thinking of taking them aboard when I made that
promise," he answered. "And anyway, youll agree Ive The Sea Wolf page 74 The Sea Wolf page 76 |