Part 6 (1/2)
”Ah, my boy,” he shook his head ominously at me, ”'tis the worst schooner ye could iv selected, nor were ye drunk at the time as was I 'Tis sealin' is the sailor's paradise-on other shi+ps than this The mate was the first, but mark me words, there'll be more dead men before the trip is done with Hist, now, between you an' ular devil, an' the Ghost'll be a hell-shi+p like she's always ben since he had hold iv her Don't I know? Don't I know? Don't I reone, when he had a row an' shot four iv his men? Wasn't I a-layin' on the Emma L, not three hundred yards away? An' there was a man the same year he killed with a blow iv his fist Yes, sir, killed 'ishell An' wasn't there the Governor of Kura Island, an' the Chief iv Police, japanese gentleuests, a-bringin' their wives along-wee an' pretty little bits of things like you see 'eettin' under way, didn't the fond husbands get left astern-like in their saht be by accident? An' wasn't it a week later that the poor little ladies was put ashore on the other side of the island, with nothin' before 'em but to walk home acrost the mountains on their weeny-teeny little straw sandals which wouldn't hang together a mile? Don't I know? 'Tis the beast he is, this Wolf Larsen-the great big beast ood end will he ever come to But I've said nothin' to ye, mind ye I've whispered never a word; for old fat Louis'll live the voyage out if the last o to the fishes”
”Wolf Larsen!” he snorted a moment later ”Listen to the word, will ye! Wolf-'tis what he is He's not black-hearted like some men 'Tis no heart he has at all Wolf, just wolf, 'tis what he is D'ye wonder he's well named?”
”But if he is so well-known for what he is,” I queried, ”how is it that he can get eton God's earth an' sea?” Louis demanded with Celtic fire ”How d'ye findwhen I put me name down? There's them that can't sail with better men, like the hunters, and them that don't know, like the poor devils of wind-jammers for'ard there But they'll come to it, they'll come to it, an' be sorry the day they was born I could weep for the poor creatures, did I but forget poor old fat Louis and the troubles before him But 'tis not a whisper I've dropped, mind ye, not a whisper”
”Theain, for he suffered froet to cutting up iv jinks and rowin' 'round He's the boy'll fix 'em 'Tis him that'll put the fear of God in their rotten black hearts Look at that hunter iv mine, Horner 'Jock' Horner they call hiirl, till ye'd think butter wouldn't melt in the mouth iv him Didn't he kill his boat-steerer last year? 'Twas called a sad accident, but I iven me An' there's Smoke, the black little devil-didn't the Roosians have him for three years in the salt mines of Siberia, for poachin' on Copper Island, which is a Roosian preserve? Shackled he was, hand an' foot, with his mate An' didn't they have words or a ruction of some kind?-for 'twas the other fellow Smoke sent up in the buckets to the top of theto-day, an' to-morrow an arm, the next day the head, an' so on”
”But you can't mean it!” I cried out, overcome with the horror of it
”Mean what!” he demanded, quick as a flash ”'Tis nothin' I've said Deef I am, and dumb, as ye should be for the sake iv your mother; an' never once have I opened s iv theatory ten thousand years, and then go down to the last an' deepest hell iv all!”
Johnson, the man who had chafed me rahen I first came aboard, seemed the least equivocal of theequivocal about hihtforwardness and manliness, which, in turn, were teht be mistaken for timidity But tie of his convictions, the certainty of his manhood It was this that ainst being called Yonson And upon this, and himent and prophecy
”'Tis a fine chap, that squarehead Johnson we've for'ard with us,” he said ”The best sailorman in the fo'c'sle He's my boat-puller But it's to trouble he'll come with Wolf Larsen, as the sparks fly upward It's meself that knows I can see it brewin' an' comin' up like a storm in the sky I've talked to hihts or flyin' false signals He gruo to suit him, and there'll be always some tell-tale carryin' word iv it aft to the Wolf The Wolf is strong, and it's the way of a wolf to hate strength, an' strength it is he'll see in Johnson-no knucklin' under, and a 'Yes, sir, thank ye kindly, sir,' for a curse or a blow Oh, she's a-coet another boat-puller! What does the fool up an' say, when the old man calls him Yonson, but 'Me name is Johnson, sir,' an' then spells it out, letter for letter Ye should iv seen the old ht he'd let drive at him on the spot He didn't, but he will, an' he'll break that squarehead's heart, or it's little I know iv the ways iv e is beco unendurable I am compelled to Mister him and to Sir him with every speech One reason for this is that Wolf Larsen see, I take it, for a captain to be chummy with the cook; but this is certainly what Wolf Larsen is doing Two or three tiood-naturedly, and once, this afternoon, he stood by the break of the poop and chatted with hie was back in the galley, he beca coster songs in a nerve-racking and discordant falsetto
”I always get along with the officers,” he remarked to me in a confidential tone ”I know the w'y, I do, to myke ht nothin' of droppin' down in the cabin for a little chat and a friendly glass 'Mugridge,' sez 'e to e,' sez 'e, 'you've missed yer vokytion' 'An' 'ow's that?' sez I 'Yer should 'a been born a gentleman, an' never 'ad to work for yer livin'' God strike me dead, 'Ump, if that ayn't wot 'e sez, an' me a-sittin' there in 'is own cabin, jolly-like an' coars an' drinkin' 'is rum”
This chitter-chatter drove me to distraction I never heard a voice I hated so His oily, insinuating tones, his greasy srated on my nerves till sometiusting and loathso was indescribable; and, as he cooked everything that was eaten aboard, I was coreat circu from the least dirty of his concoctions
My hands bothered reat deal, unused as they were to work The nails were discoloured and black, while the skin was already grained with dirt which even a scrubbing-brush could not re procession, and I had a great burn onainst the galley stove Nor was one down, and the cap was still up on edge Hobbling about on it fro it any What I needed was rest, if it were ever to get well
Rest! I never before knew theall my life and did not know it But now, could I sit still for one half-hour and do nothing, not even think, it would be thein the world But it is a revelation, on the other hand I shall be able to appreciate the lives of the working people hereafter I did not drea Froht I am everybody's slave, with not one moment to myself, except such as I can steal near the end of the second dog-watch Letin the sun, or to gaze at a sailor going aloft to the gaff-topsails, or running out the bowsprit, and I aerin' I've got ns of ra around that Sht Henderson see fellow, and hard to rouse; but roused he must have been, for Smoke had a bruised and discoloured eye, and looked particularly vicious when he ca happened just before supper, indicative of the callousness and brutishness of these reen hand in the crew, Harrison by naine, by the spirit of adventure, andairs the schooner had been tacking about a great deal, at which times the sails pass from one side to the other and a aff-topsail In some hen Harrison was aloft, the sheet jaaff As I understood it, there were tays of getting it cleared,-first, by lowering the foresail, which was co out the peak-halyards to the end of the gaff itself, an exceedingly hazardous perforo out the halyards It was patent to everybody that the boy was afraid And well he hty feet above the deck, to trust hi ropes Had there been a steady breeze it would not have been so bad, but the Ghost was rolling e sea, and with each roll the canvas flapped and boomed and the halyards slacked and jerked taut They were capable of snapping a man off like a fly from a whip-lash
Harrison heard the order and understood as demanded of him, but hesitated It was probably the first tiht the contagion of Wolf Larsen's masterfulness, burst out with a volley of abuse and curses
”That'll do, Johansen,” Wolf Larsen said brusquely ”I'll have you know that I do the swearing on this shi+p If I need your assistance, I'll call you in”
”Yes, sir,” the ed submissively
In the meanti up fro, as if with ague, in every limb He proceeded very slowly and cautiously, an inch at a tiainst the clear blue of the sky, he had the appearance of an enor the tracery of its web
It was a slight uphill cli through various blocks on the gaff and ave him separate holds for hands and feet But the trouble lay in that the as not strong enough nor steady enough to keep the sail full When he was half-way out, the Ghost took a long roll to ard and back again into the holloeen two seas Harrison ceased his progress and held on tightly Eighty feet beneath, I could see the agonized strain of his ripped for very life The sail e ah it all happened very quickly, I could see the to the side with an abrupt swiftness, the great sail boomed like a cannon, and the three rows of reef-points slatted against the canvas like a volley of rifles Harrison, clinging on, h the air This rush ceased abruptly The halyards became instantly taut It was the snap of the whip His clutch was broken One hand was torn loose froered desperately for a moment, and followed His body pitched out and down, but in soing by theht his hands up to the halyards again; but he was a long ti, a pitiable object
”I'll bet he has no appetite for supper,” I heard Wolf Larsen's voice, which caalley ”Stand from under, you, Johansen! Watch out! Here she comes!”