Part 4 (1/2)
”Well, if he'd just signal us to try the surf again, or to go to sea and wait, or go north, or go south, or go to h.e.l.l--there would be some reason in it. But look at him. He just stands there and keeps his coat revolving like a wheel. The a.s.s!”
”There come more people.”
”Now there's quite a mob. Look! Isn't that a boat?”
”Where? Oh, I see where you mean. No, that's no boat.”
”That fellow is still waving his coat.”
”He must think we like to see him do that. Why don't he quit it? It don't mean anything.”
”I don't know. I think he is trying to make us go north. It must be that there's a life-saving station there somewhere.”
”Say, he ain't tired yet. Look at 'im wave.”
”Wonder how long he can keep that up. He's been revolving his coat ever since he caught sight of us. He's an idiot. Why aren't they getting men to bring a boat out? A fis.h.i.+ng boat--one of those big yawls--could come out here all right. Why don't he do something?”
”Oh, it's all right, now.”
”They'll have a boat out here for us in less than no time, now that they've seen us.”
A faint yellow tone came into the sky over the low land. The shadows on the sea slowly deepened. The wind bore coldness with it, and the men began to s.h.i.+ver.
”Holy smoke!” said one, allowing his voice to express his impious mood, ”if we keep on monkeying out here! If we've got to flounder out here all night!”
”Oh, we'll never have to stay here all night! Don't you worry. They've seen us now, and it won't be long before they'll come chasing out after us.”
The sh.o.r.e grew dusky. The man waving a coat blended gradually into this gloom, and it swallowed in the same manner the omnibus and the group of people. The spray, when it dashed uproariously over the side, made the voyagers shrink and swear like men who were being branded.
”I'd like to catch the chump who waved the coat. I feel like soaking him one, just for luck.”
”Why? What did he do?”
”Oh, nothing, but then he seemed so d.a.m.ned cheerful.”
In the meantime the oiler rowed, and then the correspondent rowed, and then the oiler rowed. Grey-faced and bowed forward, they mechanically, turn by turn, plied the leaden oars. The form of the lighthouse had vanished from the southern horizon, but finally a pale star appeared, just lifting from the sea. The streaked saffron in the west pa.s.sed before the all-merging darkness, and the sea to the east was black. The land had vanished, and was expressed only by the low and drear thunder of the surf.
”If I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad G.o.ds who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?
Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?”
The patient captain, drooped over the water-jar, was sometimes obliged to speak to the oarsman.
”Keep her head up! Keep her head up!”
”'Keep her head up,' sir.” The voices were weary and low.
This was surely a quiet evening. All save the oarsman lay heavily and listlessly in the boat's bottom. As for him, his eyes were just capable of noting the tall black waves that swept forward in a most sinister silence, save for an occasional subdued growl of a crest.
The cook's head was on a thwart, and he looked without interest at the water under his nose. He was deep in other scenes. Finally he spoke.
”Billie,” he murmured, dreamfully, ”what kind of pie do you like best?”