Part 12 (1/2)

”Easy, Johansen; easy as she goes,” Wolf Larsen finally said

But the beast in the mate was up and rampant, and Wolf Larsen was compelled to brush hih, apparently, but which hurled Johansen back like a cork, driving his head against the ith a crash He fell to the floor, half stunned for thehis eyes in a stupid sort of way

”Jerk open the doors,-Hump,” I was commanded

I obeyed, and the two brutes picked up the senseless man like a sack of rubbish and hove hih the narrow doorway, and out on deck The blood froushed in a scarlet stream over the feet of the helmsman, as none other than Louis, his boat-azed imperturbably into the binnacle

Not so was the conduct of George Leach, the erstwhile cabin-boy Fore and aft there was nothing that could have surprised us more than his consequent behaviour He it was that caed Johnson forward, where he set about dressing his wounds as well as he could and nizable; and not only that, for his features, as hunizable, so discoloured and swollen had they beco of the beating and the dragging forward of the body

But of Leach's behaviour-By the ti the cabin he had taken care of Johnson I had coet soht nerves Wolf Larsen was s which the Ghost usually towed astern, but which had been hauled in for some purpose Suddenly Leach's voice came to e I turned and saw hi just beneath the break of the poop on the port side of the galley His face was convulsed and white, his eyes were flashi+ng, his clenched fists raised overhead

”May God daood for you, you coward, yousalutation

I was thunderstruck I looked for his instant annihilation But it was not Wolf Larsen's whim to annihilate him He sauntered slowly forward to the break of the poop, and, leaning his elbow on the corner of the cabin, gazed down thoughtfully and curiously at the excited boy

And the boy indicted Wolf Larsen as he had never been indicted before The sailors asseroup just outside the forecastle scuttle and watched and listened The hunters piled pell-e, but as Leach's tirade continued I saw that there was no levity in their faces Even they were frightened, not at the boy's terrible words, but at his terrible audacity It did not see creature could thus beard Wolf Larsen in his teeth I know for myself that I was shocked into admiration of the boy, and I saw in hi above the flesh and the fears of the flesh, as in the prophets of old, to condehteousness

And such condemnation! He haled forth Wolf Larsen's soul naked to the scorn of h Heaven, and withered it with a heat of invective that savoured of a ahts of wrath that were subli to the vilest and e was a madness His lips were flecked with a soapy froth, and soled and becah it all, cal down, Wolf Larsen see of yeasty life, this terrific revolt and defiance of matter that moved, perplexed and interested him

Each moment I looked, and everybody looked, for him to leap upon the boy and destroy hiar went out, and he continued to gaze silently and curiously

Leach had worked hi!” he was reiterating at the top of his lungs ”Why don't you come down and kill me, you murderer? You can do it! I ain't afraid! There's no one to stop you! daht better dead and outa your reach than alive and in your clutches! Come on, you coward! Kill e that Thoht hialley door, but he now ca so he was certain would take place He sreasily up into the face of Wolf Larsen, who seeh widge! Shockin'!”

Leach's rage was no longer i ready to hand And for the first ti the cockney had appeared outside the galley without his knife The words had barely left his led to his feet, striving to gain the galley, and each time was knocked down

”Oh, Lord!” he cried ”'Elp! 'Elp! Tyke 'ihed froun The sailors noded boldly aft, grinning and shuffling, to watch the pureat joy surge up within iving to Thoh it was as terrible, aliven to Johnson But the expression of Wolf Larsen's face never changed He did not change his position either, but continued to gaze doith a great curiosity For all his pragmatic certitude, it seemed as if he watched the play ands a so which had hitherto escaped him,-the key to its mystery, as it were, which would ! It was quite similar to the one I had witnessed in the cabin The cockney strove in vain to protect hiain the shelter of the cabin He rolled toward it, grovelled toward it, fell toward it when he was knocked down But blow followed bloith bewildering rapidity He was knocked about like a shuttlecock, until, finally, like Johnson, he was beaten and kicked as he lay helpless on the deck And no one interfered Leach could have killed hieance, he dreay fro in a puppyish sort of way, and walked forward

But these two affairs were only the opening events of the day's programme In the afternoon Smoke and Henderson fell foul of each other, and a fusillade of shots cae, followed by a stampede of the other four hunters for the deck A column of thick, acrid sh the open coh it leaped Wolf Larsen The sound of blows and scuffling came to our ears Boththe disobeyed his orders and crippled the season In fact, they were badly wounded, and, having thrashed theical fashi+on and to dress their wounds I served as assistant while he probed and cleansed the passages made by the bullets, and I saw the two ery without anaesthetics and with no more to uphold the-watch, trouble came to a head in the forecastle It took its rise out of the tittle-tattle and tale-bearing which had been the cause of Johnson's beating, and froht of the bruised men next day, it was patent that half the forecastle had soundly drubbed the other half

The second dog-watch and the day ound up by a fight between Johansen and the lean, Yankee-looking hunter, Lati the noises h Johansen hipped, he kept the steerage awake for the rest of the night while he blissfully sluain

As for htmare The day had been like some horrible drea passions and cold-blooded cruelty had driven men to seek one another's lives, and to strive to hurt, and maim, and destroy My nerves were shocked My mind itself was shocked All norance of the animality of man In fact, I had known life only in its intellectual phases Brutality I had experienced, but it was the brutality of the intellect-the cutting sarcasrams and occasional harsh witticisms of the fellows at the Bibelot, and the nasty reraduate days

That was all But thatof the flesh and the letting of blood was so had I been called ”Sissy” Van Weyden, I thought, as I tossed restlessly on htmare and another And it seemed to me that my innocence of the realities of life had been cohed bitterly tophilosophy a more adequate explanation of life than I found in htened when I becaht The continual brutality around enerative in its effect It bid fair to destroy for htest in life My reason dictated that the beating Tho, and yet for the life ofin it And even while I was oppressed by the enormity of ht I was no longer Humphrey Van Weyden I was Hump, cabin-boy on the schooner Ghost Wolf Larsen was e and the rest wererepeated impresses from the die which had stamped them all

CHAPTER XIII

For three days I did e's too; and I flatter myself that I did his ell I know that it won Wolf Larsen's approval, while the sailors beaime lasted