Part 9 (1/2)
He sprang forh I was treth of the ripped htened I wilted and shrieked aloud My feet went out froony The reat My biceps was being crushed to a pulp
He seeleam cah that wasvery faint, while he sat down, lighted a cigar, and watched me as a cat watches a mouse As I writhed about I could see in his eyes that curiosity I had so often noted, that wonder and perplexity, that questing, that everlasting query of his as to what it was all about
I finally crawled to my feet and ascended the co left but to return to the galley My left arh paralysed, and days passed before I could use it, while weeks went by before the last stiffness and pain went out of it And he had done nothing but put his hand uponHe had just closed his hand with a steady pressure What he ht have done I did not fully realize till next day, when he put his head into the galley, and, as a sign of renewed friendliness, asked ht have been worse,” he s potatoes He picked one up from the pan It was fair-sized, firm, and unpeeled He closed his hand upon it, squeezed, and the potato squirted out between his fingers in mushy streams The pulpy remnant he dropped back into the pan and turned away, and I had a sharp vision of how it th upon ood in spite of it all, for it had given my knee the very chance it needed It felthadinto its proper place Also, the three days' rest brought the trouble I had foreseen It was plainly Thoe's intention to make me pay for those three days He treated me vilely, cursed me continually, and heaped his oork upon me He even ventured to raise his fist toanimal-like myself, and I snarled in his face so terribly that it htened him back It is no pleasant picture I can conjure up of alley, crouched in a corner over my task, my face raised to the face of the creature about to strikewith fear and helplessness and the courage that comes of fear and helplessness I do not like the picture It rely of a rat in a trap I do not care to think of it; but it was elective, for the threatened blow did not descend
Tho as hatefully and viciously as I glared A pair of beasts is ere, penned together and showing our teeth He was a coward, afraid to strike me because I had not quailed sufficiently in advance; so he chose a neay to intialley knife that, as a knife, ah , lean blade It was unusually cruel-looking, and at first I had shuddered every time I used it The cook borrowed a stone from Johansen and proceeded to sharpen the knife He did it with great ostentation, glancing significantly atEvery odd moment he could find he had the knife and stone out and hetting away The steel acquired a razor edge He tried it with the ball of his thumb or across the nail He shaved hairs froe with ned that he found, always, a slight inequality in its edge soain and whet, whet, whet, till I could have laughed aloud, it was so very ludicrous
It was also serious, for I learned that he was capable of using it, that under all his cowardice there was a courage of cowardice, likehis whole nature protested against doing and was afraid of doing ”Cooky's sharpening his knife for Hu the sailors, and soood part, and was really pleased, nodding his head with direful foreknowledge and e Leach, the erstwhile cabin-boy, ventured soh pleasantry on the subject
Now it happened that Leach was one of the sailors told off to douse Mugridge after his game of cards with the captain Leach had evidently done his task with a thoroughness that Mugridge had not forgiven, for words followed and evil nae hed and hurled ate, and before either he or I knehat had happened, his right arm had been ripped open from elborist by a quick slash of the knife The cook backed away, a fiendish expression on his face, the knife held before him in a position of defence But Leach took it quite calenerously as water froet you, Cooky,” he said, ”and I'll get you hard And I won't be in no hurry about it You'll be without that knife when I co, he turned and walked quietly forward Mugridge's face was livid with fear at what he had done and at what he ht expect sooner or later from the man he had stabbed But his demeanour toward me was more ferocious than ever In spite of his fear at the reckoning he must expect to pay for what he had done, he could see that it had been an object-lesson toand exultant Also there was a lust in hiht of the blood he had drawn He was beginning to see red in whatever direction he looked The psychology of it is sadly tangled, and yet I could read the workings of his h it were a printed book
Several days went by, the Ghost still foa in Thoe's eyes And I confess that I became afraid, veryThe look in his eyes as he felt the keen edge and glared at me was positively carnivorous I was afraid to turn alley I went out backwards-to the aathering in groups to witness hton this shi+p of madmen and brutes Every hour, every minute of my existence was in jeopardy I was a human soul in distress, and yet no soul, fore or aft, betrayed sufficient sy myself on thedevil in his eyes that questioned life and sneered at it would co upon me and compel me to refrain At other times I seriously contemplated suicide, and the whole force ofover the side in the darkness of night
Several tile ave him short answers and eluded him Finally, he commanded me to resume my seat at the cabin table for a ti hie because of the three days of favouritisardedeyes
”So you're afraid, eh?” he sneered
”Yes,” I said defiantly and honestly, ”I am afraid”
”That's the ith you fellows,” he cried, half angrily, ”senti about your iht of a sharp knife and a cowardly cockney the clinging of life to life overcomes all your fond foolishness Why, my dear fellow, you will live for ever You are a God, and God cannot be killed Cooky cannot hurt you You are sure of your resurrection What's there to be afraid of?
”You have eternal life before you You are a millionaire in immortality, and a millionaire whose fortune cannot be lost, whose fortune is less perishable than the stars and as lasting as space or time It is impossible for you to diinning or end Eternity is eternity, and though you die here and now you will go on living somewhere else and hereafter And it is all very beautiful, this shaking off of the flesh and soaring of the iive you a boost on the path you eternally must tread
”Or, if you do not wish to be boosted just yet, why not boost Cooky? According to your ideas, he, too, must be an immortal millionaire You cannot bankrupt him His paper will always circulate at par You cannot di hio on living, somewhere, somehow Then boost him Stick a knife in him and let his spirit free As it is, it's in a nasty prison, and you'll do hi down the door And who knows?-itup into the blue fro, and I'll pro forty-five dollars a month”
It was plain that I could look for no help or mercy from Wolf Larsen Whatever was to be done I e of fear I evolved the plan of fighting Thoe with his oeapons I borrowed a whetstone froed ar The lazarette, where such delicacies were stored, was situated beneath the cabin floor Watching ht, when it was Louis's watch on deck, I traded theridge's vegetable knife It was rusty and dull, but I turned the grindstone while Louis gave it an edge I slept , after breakfast, Tholanced warily at hi the ashes fro the to Harrison, whose honest yokel's face was filled with fascination and wonder
”Yes,” Mugridge was saying, ”an' wot does 'is worshi+p do but givewas fixed plenty Should 'a seen 'im Knife just like this I stuck it in, like into soft butter, an' the w'y 'e squealed was better'n a tu-penny gaff” He shot a glance init in, and went on ”'I didn't mean it Tommy,' 'e was snifflin'; 'so 'elp ht,' I sez, an' kept right after 'im I cut 'im in ribbons, that's wot I did, an' 'e a-squealin' all the tiot 'is 'and on the knife an' tried to 'old it 'Ad 'is fingers around it, but I pulled it through, cuttin' to the bone O, 'e was a sight, I can tell yer”
A call froory narrative, and Harrison went aft Mugridge sat down on the raised threshold to the galley and went on with his knife-sharpening I put the shovel away and cal hih an to whet it on the stone I had looked for almost any sort of explosion on the cockney's part, but toHe went on whetting his knife So did I And for two hours we sat there, face to face, whet, whet, whet, till the news of it spread abroad and half the shi+p's coht
Encouragement and advice were freely tendered, and Jock Horner, the quiet, self-spoken hunter who looked as though he would not harm a mouse, advised me to leave the ribs alone and to thrust upward for the abdo what he called the ”Spanish twist” to the blade Leach, his bandaged ared me to leave a few remnants of the cook for him; and Wolf Larsen paused once or twice at the break of the poop to glance curiously at whatof the yeasty thing he knew as life
And Ilife assu pretty about it, nothing divine-only tardly roup of other s, cowardly and otherwise, that looked on Half of the each other's blood It would have been entertainment And I do not think there was one ould have interfered had we closed in a death-struggle