Part 17 (1/2)
”What nonsense, Preston!” he said; ”why, the man and his crew are like so many good-tempered gypsy boys. No, sir, I am not going to be scared because the night is coming on. Poor fellows, they are honest enough.
That sour Turk--I don't like the fellow--has been filling our heads with nonsense to make himself seem more important. It's all right.”
”I hope it is,” said the professor to himself, and in due course he lay down, but not to sleep.
During the day, by a quiet understanding, he and Yussuf had taken it in turns to s.n.a.t.c.h an hour's repose, with the result that they were far better prepared to encounter the night than might have been supposed.
”We will lie down, excellency,” Yussuf took the opportunity of whispering; ”but one of us must not sleep.”
After a time the old lawyer, who had been leaning back watching the stars from far above till they seemed to dip down in the transparent sea, yawned aloud, and then began to talk in an unknown tongue, using a strange guttural language which for the most part consisted of a repet.i.tion, at regular intervals, of the word ”_Snorruk_,” and this had a wonderful effect upon his companions, who had felt listless and drowsy after the hot day; but the coolness of the night and the interesting nature of Mr Burne's discourse effectually banished sleep, and hence it was that, when the skipper and a couple of his men came stealing aft to apparently change the steersman, the professor sat up, and Lawrence saw that Yussuf was wide awake and on the _qui vive_.
This occurred three times, and then the rosy morning lit up the tops of the distant mountains, and made the sea flash as if it were all so much molten topaz.
A pleasant listless day followed, and another and another, during which the travellers slept in turn, and watched the various islands seem to rise out of the sea, grow larger, and then, after they were pa.s.sed, sink down again into the soft blue water.
It was a delicious dreamy time, the only drawbacks being the suspicions of the boatmen, and the cramped nature of the s.p.a.ce at disposal.
They sailed on and on now, with the water surging beneath their bows and the little vessel careening over in the brilliant suns.h.i.+ne; but they were still far from their destination, and now the question had arisen whether it would not be wise to put in at the princ.i.p.al port of Cyprus, which they were now nearing, to obtain more provisions, as the wind was so light that the prospect of their reaching Ansina that night was very doubtful.
The evening had come on, with the sun going down in the midst of a peculiar bank of clouds that would have looked threatening to experienced eyes; but to the travellers it was one scene of glory, the edges of the vapours being of a glowing orange, while the sky and sea were gorgeous with tints that were almost painful in their dazzling sheen. There was not a breath of wind, not a sound upon the smooth sea.
The sails hung motionless, and the heat was as oppressive as if those on board were facing some mighty furnace.
”Very, very grand!” said Mr Burne at last, after he had sat with the others for some time silently watching the glorious sight; ”but to my mind there's too much of it. I should like to have it spread over months, a little bit every night, not like this, all at once.”
”Oh, Mr Burne!” cried Lawrence reproachfully.
”I once saw a pantomime many years ago, when I took some of my sister's children to a box I was foolish enough to pay for. This reminds me of one of the scenes, only there are no sham fairies and stupid people bobbing about and standing on one leg. Just when everything was at the brightest a great dark curtain came down, and it was all over, and it seems to be coming here, only it's coming up instead of coming down.
Heigho--ha--hum! how sleepy I am!”
He lay down as he spoke close under the low bulwark, and as he did so Lawrence glanced forward and saw that the gorgeous sunset had no charms for the sailors, for they were lying among the baskets fast asleep, their faces upon their arms, while, upon looking aft, the man at the helm was crouched up all of a heap sleeping heavily.
”It is very beautiful,” said the professor; ”but I daresay some of our English sunsets are nearly as bright, only we do not notice them, being either shut up or too busy to look.”
”Doesn't this curious stuffy feeling of heat make you feel drowsy, Mr Preston?” said Lawrence, after a few minutes' silence, ”or do I feel it because I am weak with being ill so long?”
”My dear boy,” replied the professor laughing, ”at the present moment I feel as if all my bones had been dissolved into so much gristle. It is the heat, my lad, the heat.”
Lawrence lay back upon the deck with his head resting upon a pillow formed out of a doubled-up coat. He had tried going below, but the little cabin was suffocating. It was as if the bulkheads and deck had imbibed the sun's heat all day and were now slowly giving it out. To sleep there would have been impossible, and he had returned on deck bathed in perspiration to try and get a breath of air.
As he lay there he could see the old lawyer sleeping heavily, the professor with his head resting upon his hand, and his face glorified by the reflection from sea and sky, and their guide Yussuf seated cross-legged smoking placidly at his water-pipe, his dark eyes seeming to glow like hot coals.
Beyond him lay the Greek and his men upon their faces, motionless as the man at the helm, and then all at once the muttering bubbling noise made by Yussuf's pipe seemed to be coming from the old lawyer's parted lips, and the pipe, instead of justifying its name of ”hubble-bubble,” kept on saying _snorruk_--_snorruk_, after the fas.h.i.+on of Mr Burne. Finally, there was nothing--nothing at all but sleep, deep, heavy, satisfying sleep that might have lasted one hour, two hours, any length of time.
It seemed as if there was no dreaming, till all at once Lawrence imagined that the professor was bitterly angry with him for getting better that he jumped up and kicked him violently, and that then, as he tried to rise, he stamped upon him, and the stamp made a loud report.
He was awake.
Awake, but in a dazed, puzzled state, for all was pitchy dark, and as he jumped up he was knocked down again, and would have gone over the side had he not struck against and clung to one of the ropes which supported the mast.
About him a terrible struggle was going on; there was heavy, hoa.r.s.e breathing; men were trampling here and there with falls and struggles upon the sc.r.a.p of a deck.