Part 4 (2/2)
”I should think you had Why, there never was a pirate in these seas that did so e No mortal knows the shi+ps that devil has captured and burned”
”I hope you have arms for the seamen, at any rate”
”Oh, we have one howitzer, and s the best e can with these; but the owners ought never to send us here without a better equipment”
”I suppose they think it would cost too much”
”Yes; that's it They think only about the profits, and trust to luck for our safety Well, I only hope we'll get safely out of this place--that's all”
And the captain walked off h days of calm, which were succeeded by fierce but short-lived storms, and then followed by calms Their course lay sometimes north, sometimes south, soth, about the , low island of sand
”I've heard of that sand-bank before,” said the captain, who showed so it; ”but I didn't believe it was here It's not down in the charts Here we are three hundred and fifty miles southwest of the Straits of Sunda, and the chart makes this place all open water
Well, seein's believin'; and after this I'll swear that there is such a thing as Coffin Island”
”Is that the naave it, and tried to get the Admiralty to put it on the charts, but they wouldn't But this is it, and no mistake”
”Why did he call it Coffin Island?”
”Well, he thought that rock looked like a coffin, and it's dangerous enough when a fog comes to deserve that name”
Brandon looked earnestly at the island which the captain
It lay toward the north, while the shi+p's course, if it had any in that calm, was southwest It was not more than sixAt the nearest extreht of about fifty feet, which appeared to be about five hundred feet long, and was of such a shape that the iht easily see a resemblance to a coffin At the farthest extremity of the island was a low mound The rest of the island was flat, low, and sandy, with no trace of vegetation perceptible froreen under the rock, which looked like grass
The shi+p drifted slowly on
Meanwhile the captain, in anticipation of a storm, had caused all the sails to be taken in, and stood anxiously watching the sky toward the southwest
There a dense , h they would soon destroy that cal forth all the fury of the winds These clouds seemed to have started up from the sea, so sudden had been their appearance; and now, as they gathered thehtened, and reached forward vast ar upward voluminous cloud masses which swiftly ascended toward the zenith So quick was the progress of these clouds that they did not seeh all the air suddenly condensed its moisture and made it visible in these dark masses
As yet there was no wind, and the water was as slass; but over the wide surface, as far as the eye could reach, the long swell of the ocean had changed into vast rolling undulations, to theand descending as the waters rose and fell, while the yards creaked, and the rigging twanged to the strain upon theathered above so it increased below, till all the sea spread out a smooth ebon mass
Darkness settled down, and the sun's face was thus obscured, and a preternatural glooathered upon the face of nature Overhead vast black clouds went sweeping past, covering all things, faster and faster, till at last far down in the northern sky the heavens were all obscured
But amidst all this there was as yet not a breath of wind Far above the wind careered in a narrow current, which did not touch the surface of the sea but only bore onward the clouds The agitation of the sky above contrasted with the stillness belowbut rather fearful, for this could be none other than that treacherous stillness which precedes the sudden outburst of the hurricane
For that sudden outburst all were now looking, expecting it every moment On the side of the shi+p where the as expected the captain was standing, looking anxiously at the black clouds on the horizon, and all the creere gazing there in sympathy with him From that quarter the ould burst, and it was for this assault that all the preparations had been made
[Illustration: ”HE PUSHED HIM HEADLONG OVER THE RAIL AND HELPLESSLY INTO THE SEA”]
For soth he turned away, and seemed to find a supreme fascination in the sand-bank He stood at the stern of the shi+p, looking fixedly toward the rock, his ar
A low railing ran round the quarter-deck The helmsman stood in a sheltered place which rose only two feet above the deck The captain stood by the co south at the storm; the mate was near the capstan, and all were intent and absorbed in their expectation of a sudden squall