Part 3 (1/2)

The cabin occupied by Augustus communicated by a trap-door with the hold of the Grampus, which was croith barrels, bales, and the innuh the trap-door Arthur Pye wooden chest with a sliding side to it This chest contained a mattress, blankets, a jar of water, shi+p's biscuit, se, a roast quarter of mutton, a few bottles of cordials and liqueurs, and also writing-materials Arthur Pym, supplied with a lantern, candles, and tinder, reustus Barnard had not been able to visit him until just before the Graan to feel the rolling and pitching of the brig He was very uncoot out of it, and in the dark, while holding on by a rope which was stretched across the hold to the trap of his friend's cabin, he was violently sea-sick in the midst of the chaos Then he crept back into his chest, ate, and fell asleep

Several days elapsed without the reappearance of Augustus Barnard Either he had not been able to get down into the hold again, or he had not ventured to do so, fearing to betray the presence of Arthur Py to his father had not yet co to suffer froht, and in vain sought soht breathe a little ined that he was gripped in the claws of an African lion,2and in a paroxys, when he lost consciousness

The fact is that he was not drea upon his chest, it was his own dog, Tiger, a young Newfoundland The aniustus Barnard unperceived by anybody--(this, at least, is an unlikely occurrence) At the er was licking his face and hands with lavish affection

Now the prisoner had a companion Unfortunately, the said companion had drunk the contents of the water jar while Arthur was unconscious, and when Arthur Pym felt thirsty, he discovered that there was ”not a drop to drink!” His lantern had gone out during his prolonged faint; he could not find the candles and the tinder-box, and he then resolved to rejoin Augustus Barnard at all hazards He cah faint fro eakness, he felt his way in the direction of the trap-door by , one of the bales of cargo, shi+fted by the rolling of the shi+p, fell down and blocked up the passage With iet over this obstacle, but when he reached the trap-door under Augustus Barnard's cabin he failed to raise it, and on slipping the blade of his knife through One of the joints he found that a heavy h it were intended to conde himself back towards tile chest, on which he fell, exhausted, while Tiger covered hi were desperately thirsty, and when Arthur stretched out his hand, he found Tiger lying on his back, with his paws up and his hair on end He then felt Tiger all over, and his hand encountered a string passed round the dog's body A strip of paper was fastened to the string under his left shoulder

Arthur Pyence was almost extinct However, after several fruitless atte the paper with a little phosphorus--(the details given in Edgar Poe's narrative are curiously limmer that lasted less than a second he discerned just seven words at the end of a sentence Terrifying words these were: blood--remain hidden--life depends on it

What did these words mean? Let us consider the situation of Arthur Pym, at the bottom of the shi+p's hold, between the boards of a chest, without light, without water, with only ardent liquor to quench his thirst! And this warning to remain hidden, preceded by the word ”blood”--that supre, of terror! Had there been strife on board the Gra been attacked by pirates? Had the crew s lasted?

It ht that the ination in the terror of such a situation; but it was not so There is more to come!

Arthur Pyht, in a sort of lethargy; suddenly he beca breathing It was Tiger, panting, Tiger with eyes that glared in the oneupon Arthur Pyhest pitch of horror, recovered sufficient strength to ward off his fangs, and wrapping around hier had torn with his white teeth, he slipped out of the chest, and shut the sliding side upon the snapping and struggling brute

Arthur Pye of the hold, but his head swaainst a bale, he let his knife drop fro his last sigh he heard his name pronounced, and a bottle of water was held to his lips He sed the whole of its contents, and experienced the ustus Barnard, seated with his comrade in a corner of the hold, told hi

Up to this point, I repeat, the story is admissible, but we have not yet come to the events which ”surpass all probability by their marvellousness”

The crew of the Gra the Barnards, father and son After the brig had put to sea on the 20th of June, Augustus Barnard hadplace, but in vain On the third day a mutiny broke out on board, headed by the shi+p's cook, a negro like our Endicott; but he, leta mutiny

Numerous incidents are related in the romance--the massacre of most of the sailors who re adrift of the captain and four of those men in a small whaler's boat when the shi+p was abreast of the Berain

Augustus Barnard would not have been spared, but for the intervention of the sailing--master was a half-breed naone to look for in Illinois!

The Grampus then took a south-east course under the command of the mate, who intended to pursue the occupation of piracy in the southern seas

These events having taken place, Augustus Barnard would again have joined Arthur Pym, but he had been shut up in the forecastle in irons, and told by the shi+p's cook that he would not be allowed to co” Nevertheless, a few days afterwards, Augustus contrived to get rid of his fetters, to cut through the thin partition between hier, he tried to reach his friend's hiding place He could not succeed, but the dog had scented Arthur Py a note to Tiger's neck bearing the words: ”I scrawl this with blood--remain hidden--your life depends on it--”

This note, as we have already learned, Arthur Pym had received Just as he had arrived at the last extreustus added that discord reigned a the mutineers Some wanted to take the Grampus towards the Cape Verde Islands; others, and Dirk Peters was ot this nuer was notfrom terrible thirst, and soon recovered when it was relieved

The cargo of the Grampus was so badly stoay that Arthur Py of the bales, and Augustus, at all risks, helped him to remove to a corner of the 'tween decks

The half-breed continued to be very friendly with the son of Captain Barnard, so that the latter began to consider whether the sailing-ain possession of the shi+p

They were just thirty days out frory dispute arose a, which some of them wanted to take and others would have allowed to escape In this quarrel a sailor belonging to the cook's party, to which Dirk Peters had attached himself, was mortally injured There were now only thirteenArthur Pym

Under these circumstances a terrible storm arose, and the Graed until the 9th of July, and on that day, Dirk Peters having ustus Barnard readily assured hi the fact of Arthur Pym's presence on board Next day, one of the cook's adherents, a ers, died in convulsions, and, beyond all doubt, of poison Only four of the cook's party then remained, of these Dirk Peters was one Thethe day over the cook's party

There was not an hour to lose The half-breed having inforustus Barnard that the moment for action had arrived, the latter told him the truth about Arthur Pym

While the tere in consultation upon thepossession of the shi+p, a teust of irresistible force struck the Gra herself she shi+pped a tremendous sea, and there was considerable confusion on board This offered a favourable opportunity for beginning the struggle, although thethemselves The latter numbered nine men, while the half-breed's party consisted only of hiustus Barnard and Arthur Pyer It was therefore necessary to act with prudence

Then did Arthur Pym (whose presence on board the mutineers could not suspect) conceive the idea of a trick which had so The body of the poisoned sailor was still lying on the deck; he thought it likely, if he were to put on the dead man's clothes and appear suddenly in the midst of those superstitious sailors, that their terror would place them at the mercy of Dirk Peters It was still dark when the half-breed went softly towards the shi+p's stern, and, exerting his prodigious strength to the ut hiustus Barnard and Arthur Py Dirk Peters in the place of the steersuised as to present the appearance of the dead man, and his coangway The mate, the shi+p's cook, all the others were there, souns and pistols ithin reach of their hands

The teed furiously; it was impossible to stand on the deck

At that ustus Barnard and Dirk Peters to be brought to the forecastle This order was transmitted to the man at the helm, no other than Dirk Peters, ent down, accoustus Barnard, and almost simultaneously Arthur Pym made his appearance

The effect of the apparition was prodigious Theup, beat the air with his hands, and fell down dead Then Dirk Peters rushed upon the others, seconded by Augustus Barnard, Arthur Pyled or knocked on the head save Richard Parker, the sailor, whose life was spared

And nohile the tempest was in full force, only fourterribly with seven feet of water in her hold They had to cut down thecaht was more awful still! If Dirk Peters and his companions had not lashed the, they must have been carried away by a tremendous sea, which drove in the hatches of the Grampus

Then follows in the ro upon this situation, fro for victuals in the sub laden with corpses, which poisoned the ate coffin, the sport of a wind of death; the tor the provision store; the drawing of lots by straws--the shortest gave Richard Parker to be sacrificed for the life of the other three--the death of that unhappy man, as killed by Dirk Peters and devoured; lastly, the finding in the hold of a jar of olives and a so the Grahtful heat caused the torture of thirst to reach the extreustus Baryard died On the 3rd, the brig foundered in the night, and Arthur Py upon the upturned keel, were reduced to feed upon the barnacles hich the botto sharks Finally, after the shi+pwrecked mariners of the Grarees towards the south, they were picked up by the schooner Jane, of Liverpool, Captain Williaed by an adh the situations are strained to the utmost limits of possibility; but that does not surprise us, for the writer is the Aar Poe But from this moment onwards we shall see that no semblance of reality exists in the succession of incidents

Arthur Pylish schooner Jane In a fortnight, having recovered fros, they remembered them no hted Prince Edward's Island on the 13th of October, then the Crozet Islands, and after wards the Kerguelens, which I had left eleven days ago

Three weeks were e sea-calves; these furnished the Jane with a goodly cargo It was during this time that the captain of the Jane buried the bottle in which his namesake of the Halbrane clai William Guy's announcement of his intention to visit the austral seas

On the 12th of Noveuelens, and after a brief stay at Tristan d'Acunha she sailed to reconnoitre the Auroras in 35A 15aE of south latitude, and 37A 38aE of west longitude But these islands were not to be found, and she did not find them

On the 12th of December the Jane headed towards the Antarctic pole On the 26th, the first icebergs caree

From the 1st to the 14th of January, 1828, the movements were difficult, the polar circle was passed in the s' point was doubled and the shi+p sailed on the surface of an open sea--the famous open sea where the tear Poe, every one will allow, gives free rein to his fancy at this point No navigator had ever reached latitudes so high--not even Jaet beyond the seventy-fourth parallel in 1822 But the achieve in co incidents which Arthur Pyar Poe, relates with si the pole itself

In the first place, not a single iceberg is to be seen on this fantastic sea Innu the piece of ice is a bear of the Arctic species and of gigantic size At last land is signalled It is an island of a league in circuiven, in honour of the captain's partner in the ownershi+p of the Jane

Naturally, in proportion as the schooner sailed southwards the variation of the compass became less, while the temperature became milder, with a sky always clear and a uniform northerly breeze Needless to add that in that latitude and in the month of January there was no darkness

The Jane pursued her adventurous course, until, on the 18th of January, land was sighted in latitude 83A 20' and longitude 43A 5aE

This proved to be an island belonging to a nuroup scattered about in a westerly direction

The schooner approached and anchored off the shore Arot into one of the latter with Dirk Peters The men rowed shorewards, but were stopped by four canoes carrying armed men, ”new men” the narrative calls them These men showed no hostile intentions, but cried out continuously ”anaside the schooner, the chief, Too-Wit, was pero on board with twenty ofhis companions There was profound astonishment on their part then, for they todk theshi+p for a living creature, and lavished caresses on the rigging, the masts, and the bulwarks Steered between the reefs by these natives, she crossed a bay with a bottom of black sand, and cast anchor within a es on board, stepped ashore amid the rocks

If Arthur Pym is to be believed, this was Tsalal Island! Its trees resembled none of the species in any other zone of our planet The composition of the rocks revealed a stratification unknown to ists Over the bed of the streams ran a liquid substance without any appearance of limpidity, streaked with distinct veins, which did not reunite by immediate cohesion when they were parted by the blade of a knife!