Part 27 (1/2)
”Look at that!” I cried involuntarily, pointing to the north-east
The blot of smoke which indicated the Macedonia's position had reappeared
”Yes, I've been watching it,” was Wolf Larsen's cal-bank, and for an instant paused to feel the weight of the wind on his cheek ”We'll make it, I think; but you can depend upon it that blessed brother offor us Ah, look at that!”
The blot of ser, and it was very black
”I'll beat you out, though, brother mine,” he chuckled ”I'll beat you out, and I hope you no worse than that you rack your old engines into scrap”
When we hove to, a hasty though orderly confusion reigned The boats came aboard from every side at once As fast as the prisoners came over the rail they were marshalled forward to the forecastle by our hunters, while our sailors hoisted in the boats, pell- to lash the, and the sheets being slacked off for a wind abea in the tackles
There was need for haste The Macedonia, belching the blackest of s down upon us fro the boats that remained to her, she had altered her course so as to anticipate ours She was not running straight for us, but ahead of us Our courses were converging like the sides of an angle, the vertex of which was at the edge of the fog-bank It was there, or not at all, that the Macedonia could hope to catch us The hope for the Ghost lay in that she should pass that point before the Macedonia arrived at it
Wolf Larsen was steering, his eyes glistening and snapping as they dwelt upon and leaped from detail to detail of the chase Now he studied the sea to ard for signs of the wind slackening or freshening, now the Macedonia; and again, his eyes roved over every sail, and he gave commands to slack a sheet here a trifle, to co out of the Ghost the last bit of speed she possessed All feuds and grudges were forgotten, and I was surprised at the alacrity hich theto execute his orders Strange to say, the unfortunate Johnson ca, and I are of a regret that he was not alive and present; he had so loved the Ghost and delighted in her sailing powers
”Better get your rifles, you fellows,” Wolf Larsen called to our hunters; and the five uns in hand, and waited
The Macedonia was now but a ht angle, so h the sea at a seventeen-knot gait-”'Sky-hooting through the brine,” as Wolf Larsen quoted while gazing at her We were not -bank was very near
A puff of smoke broke from the Macedonia's deck, we heard a heavy report, and a round hole took for at us with one of the small cannon which ru aain there was a puff of s nottwice from sea to sea to ard ere it sank
But there was no rifle-firing for the reason that all their hunters were out in the boats or our prisoners When the two vessels were half-a-mile apart, a third shotIt was about us, veiling and hiding us in its dense wet gauze
The sudden transition was startling The h the sunshi+ne, the clear sky above us, the sea breaking and rolling wide to the horizon, and a shi+p, vo madly upon us And at once, as in an instant's leap, the sun was blotted out, there was no sky, even our mastheads were lost to view, and our horizon was such as tear-blinded eyes rey arments, every hair of our heads and faces, was jewelled with a crystal globule The shrouds ithoverhead; and on the underside of our boo lines, which were detached and flung to the deck in e of the schooner I are of a pent, stifled feeling As the sounds of the shi+p thrusting herself through the waves were hurled back upon us by the fog, so were one's thoughts The mind recoiled from contemplation of a world beyond this wet veil which wrapped us around This was the world, the universe itself, its bounds so near one felt impelled to reach out both arms and push them back It was irey The rest was a dream, no ely weird I looked at Maud Brewster and knew that she was similarly affected Then I looked at Wolf Larsen, but there was nothing subjective about his state of consciousness His whole concern ith the immediate, objective present He still held the wheel, and I felt that he was tie of the e and leeward roll of the Ghost
”Go for'ard and hard alee without any noise,” he said to me in a low voice ”Clew up the topsails first Setof blocks, no sound of voices No noise, understand, no noise”
When all was ready, the word ”hard-a-lee” was passed forward to me from man to man; and the Ghost heeled about on the port tack with practically no noise at all And what little there was,-the slapping of a few reef-points and the creaking of a sheave in a block or tas ghostly under the hollow echoing pall in which ere swathed
We had scarcely filled away, it seeain in the sunshi+ne, the wide-stretching sea breaking before us to the sky-line But the ocean was bare No wrathful Macedonia broke its surface nor blackened the sky with her smoke
Wolf Larsen at once squared away and ran down along the ri-bank His trick was obvious He had entered the fog to ard of the stea in the chance of catching him, he had co down to re-enter to leeward Successful in this, the old simile of the needle in the haystack would behi the fore- and ain, we headed back into the bank As we entered I could have sworn I saw a vague bulk e to ard I looked quickly at Wolf Larsen Already ere ourselves buried in the fog, but he nodded his head He, too, had seen it-the Macedonia, guessing hisit There was no doubt that we had escaped unseen
”He can't keep this up,” Wolf Larsen said ”He'll have to go back for the rest of his boats Send a man to the wheel, Mr Van Weyden, keep this course for the present, and youto-night”
”I'd give five hundred dollars, though,” he added, ”just to be aboard the Macedonia for fiveto my brother curse”
”And now, Mr Van Weyden,” he said to me when he had been relieved from the wheel, ”we must make these new-comers welcome Serve out plenty of whisky to the hunters and see that a few bottles slip for'ard I'll wager everyfor Wolf Larsen as contentedly as ever they hunted for Death Larsen”
”But won't they escape as Wainwright did?” I asked