Part 11 (1/2)
”What, without asking, hither hurried Whence?
And, without asking, Whither hurried hence!
Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown the memory of that insolence!”
”Great!” Wolf Larsen cried ”Great! That's the keynote Insolence! He could not have used a better word”
In vain I objected and denied He deluged ument
”It's not the nature of life to be otherwise Life, when it knows that it , will always rebel It cannot help itself The Preacher found life and the works of life all a vanity and vexation, an evil thing; but death, the ceasing to be able to be vain and vexed, he found an eviler thing Through chapter after chapter he is worried by the one event that cometh to all alike So O when Cooky sharpened a knife for you You were afraid to die; the life that was in you, that coreater than you, did not want to die You have talked of the instinct of immortality I talk of the instinct of life, which is to live, and which, when death looe, masters the instinct, so called, of immortality It mastered it in you (you cannot deny it), because a crazy cockney cook sharpened a knife
”You are afraid of him now You are afraid of me You cannot deny it If I should catch you by the throat, thus,”-his hand was about an to press the life out of you thus, and thus, your instinct of i, and your instinct of life, which is longing for life, will flutter up, and you will struggle to save yourself Eh? I see the fear of death in your eyes You beat the air with your arle to live Your hand is clutchingthere Your chest is heaving, your tongue protruding, your skin turning dark, your eyes swi; and you are crying to live here and now, not hereafter You doubt your immortality, eh? Ha! ha! You are not sure of it You won't chance it This life only you are certain is real Ah, it is growing dark and darker It is the darkness of death, the ceasing to be, the ceasing to feel, the ceasing toaround you Your eyes are beco My voice sounds faint and far You cannot see rip You kick with your legs Your body draws itself up in knots like a snake's Your chest heaves and strains To live! To live! To live-”
I heard no more Consciousness was blotted out by the darkness he had so graphically described, and when I caar and regarding ht of curiosity in his eyes
”Well, have I convinced you?” he demanded ”Here take a drink of this I want to ask you soatively on the floor ”Your argued to articulate, at cost of great pain to ht in half-an-hour,” he assured me ”And I promise I won't use any more physical demonstrations Get up now You can sit on a chair”
And, toy that I was of this monster, the discussion of Oht we sat up over it
CHAPTER XII
The last twenty-four hours have witnessed a carnival of brutality From cabin to forecastle it seeion I scarcely knohere to begin Wolf Larsen was really the cause of it The relations arudges, were in a state of unstable equilibriurass
Thoe is a sneak, a spy, an infor to curry favour and reinstate hi tales of the men forward He it was, I know, that carried some of Johnson's hasty talk to Wolf Larsen Johnson, it seeht a suit of oilskins froreatly inferior quality Nor was he slow in advertising the fact The slop-chest is a sort ofschooners and which is stocked with articles peculiar to the needs of the sailors Whatever a sailor purchases is taken frorounds; for, as it is with the hunters so it is with the boat-pullers and steerers-in the place of wages they receive a ”lay,” a rate of so much per skin for every skin captured in their particular boat
But of Johnson's gru, so that what I witnessed came with a shock of sudden surprise I had just finished sweeping the cabin, and had been inveigled by Wolf Larsen into a discussion of Hamlet, his favourite Shakespearian character, when Johansen descended the companion stairs followed by Johnson The latter's cap came off after the custom of the sea, and he stood respectfully in the centre of the cabin, swaying heavily and uneasily to the roll of the schooner and facing the captain
”Shut the doors and draw the slide,” Wolf Larsen said to ht come into Johnson's eyes, but I did not dream of its cause I did not dream of as to occur until it did occur, but he knew fro and awaited it bravely And in his action I found complete refutation of all Wolf Larsen's materialism The sailor Johnson ayed by idea, by principle, and truth, and sincerity He was right, he kneas right, and he was unafraid He would die for the right if needs be, he would be true to himself, sincere with his soul And in this was portrayed the victory of the spirit over the flesh, the indorandeur of the soul that knows no restriction and rises above time and space andelse than eternity and iht in Johnson's eyes, but mistook it for the native shyness and embarrassment of the man The mate, Johansen, stood away several feet to the side of him, and fully three yards in front of him sat Wolf Larsen on one of the pivotal cabin chairs An appreciable pause fell after I had closed the doors and drawn the slide, a pause that must have lasted fully a minute It was broken by Wolf Larsen
”Yonson,” he began
”My name is Johnson, sir,” the sailor boldly corrected
”Well, Johnson, then, dauess why I have sent for you?”
”Yes, and no, sir,” was the slow reply ”My work is done well The mate knows that, and you know it, sir So there cannot be any complaint”
”And is that all?” Wolf Larsen queried, his voice soft, and low, and purring