Part 5 (1/2)
”Look at 'i ”An' with a gy I won't 'it yer; no, I won't”
I came back and went on with h further developments were yet to take place I set the breakfast-table in the cabin, and at seven o'clock waited on the hunters and officers The store sea was still running and a stiff wind blowing Sail had beenunder everything except the two topsails and the flying jib These three sails, I gathered from the conversation, were to be set immediately after breakfast I learned, also, that Wolf Larsen was anxious tohim to the south-west into that portion of the sea where he expected to pick up with the north-east trades It was before this steady wind that he hoped tosouth into the tropics and north again as he approached the coast of Asia
After breakfast I had another unenviable experience When I had finished washi+ng the dishes, I cleaned the cabin stove and carried the ashes up on deck to e near the wheel, deep in conversation The sailor, Johnson, was steering As I started toward the weather side I saw him make a sudden nition and good- to warn me to throw my ashes over the lee side Unconscious of my blunder, I passed by Wolf Larsen and the hunter and flung the ashes over the side to ard The wind drove them back, and not only over me, but over Henderson and Wolf Larsen The next instant the latter kicked me, violently, as a cur is kicked I had not realized there could be so ainst the cabin in a half-fainting condition Everything i before my eyes, and I turned sick The nausea overpowered ed to crawl to the side of the vessel But Wolf Larsen did not followthe ashes from his clothes, he had resumed his conversation with Henderson Johansen, who had seen the affair from the break of the poop, sent a couple of sailors aft to clean up theI received a surprise of a totally different sort Following the cook's instructions, I had gone into Wolf Larsen's state-rooainst the wall, near the head of the bunk, was a rack filled with books I glanced over the with astonishment such names as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe, and De Quincey There were scientific works, too, a which were represented men such as Tyndall, Proctor, and Darwin Astronoe of Fable, Shaw's History of English and Ae volura's; and I slish
I could not reconcile these books with the man from what I had seen of him, and I wondered if he could possibly read them But when I came to make the bed I found, between the blankets, dropped apparently as he had sunk off to sleep, a coe Edition It was open at ”In a Balcony,” and I noticed, here and there, passages underlined in pencil Further, letting drop the volu a lurch of the shi+p, a sheet of paper fell out It was scrawled over with georams and calculations of sonorant clod, such as one would inevitably suppose him to be froma One side or the other of his nature was perfectly co I had already ree was excellent, ht inaccuracy Of course, in common speech with the sailors and hunters, it sometimes fairly bristled with errors, which was due to the vernacular itself; but in the feords he had held with liht of his other side must have emboldened me, for I resolved to speak to him about the money I had lost
”I have been robbed,” I said to hi up and down the poop alone
”Sir,” he corrected, not harshly, but sternly
”I have been robbed, sir,” I amended
”How did it happen?” he asked
Then I told him the whole circualley, and how, later, I was nearly beaten by the cook when I s,” he concluded; ”Cooky's pickings And don't you think your miserable life worth the price? Besides, consider it a lesson You'll learn in time how to take care of your money for yourself I suppose, up to now, your lawyer has done it for you, or your business agent”
I could feel the quiet sneer through his words, but deain?”
”That's your look-out You haven't any lawyer or business agent now, so you'll have to depend on yourself When you get a dollar, hang on to it Aaround, the way you did, deserves to lose it Besides, you have sinned You have no right to put temptation in the way of your fellow-creatures You tempted Cooky, and he fell You have placed his immortal soul in jeopardy By the way, do you believe in the immortal soul?”
His lids lifted lazily as he asked the question, and it see into his soul But it was an illusion Far as it ht have seemed, no man has ever seen very far into Wolf Larsen's soul, or seen it at all,-of this I am convinced It was a very lonely soul, I was to learn, that never un so
”I read i the ”sir,”-an experiht the intimacy of the conversation warranted it
He took no notice ”By that, I take it, you see so that is alive, but that necessarily does not have to live for ever”
”I read more than that,” I continued boldly
”Then you read consciousness You read the consciousness of life that it is alive; but still no further away, no endlessness of life”
How clearly he thought, and hoell he expressed what he thought! Frolanced out over the leaden sea to ard A bleakness carew severe and harsh He was evidently in a pessimisticback to me ”If I am immortal-why?”
I halted How could I explain my idealis felt, a so that convinced yet transcended utterance?