The Nan-Shan was ploughing a vanishing furrow14 upon the circle of the sea that had the surface and the shimmer15 of an undulating piece of gray silk. The sun, pale and without rays, poured down leaden heat in a strangely indecisive light, and the Chinamen were lying prostrate16 about the decks. Their bloodless, pinched, yellow faces were like the faces of bilious17 invalids18. Captain MacWhirr noticed two of them especially, stretched out on their backs below the bridge. As soon as they had closed their eyes they seemed dead. Three others, however, were quarrelling barbarously away forward; and one big fellow, half naked, with herculean shoulders, was hanging limply over a winch; another, sitting on the deck, his knees up and his head drooping19 sideways in a girlish attitude, was plaiting his pigtail with infinite languor20 depicted21 in his whole person and in the very movement of his fingers. The smoke struggled with difficulty out of the funnel22, and instead of streaming away spread itself out like an infernal sort of cloud, smelling of sulphur and raining soot23 all over the decks.
“What the devil are you doing there, Mr. Jukes?” asked Captain MacWhirr.
This unusual form of address, though mumbled24 rather than spoken, caused the body of Mr. Jukes to start as though it had been prodded25 under the fifth rib26. He had had a low bench brought on the bridge, and sitting on it, with a length of rope curled about his feet and a piece of canvas stretched over his knees, was pushing a sail-needle vigorously. He looked up, and his surprise gave to his eyes an expression of innocence27 and candour.
“I am only roping some of that new set of bags we made last trip for whipping up coals,” he remonstrated28, gently. “We shall want them for the next coaling, sir.”
“What became of the others?”
“Why, worn out of course, sir.”
Captain MacWhirr, after glaring down irresolutely29 at his chief mate, disclosed the gloomy and cynical31 conviction that more than half of them had been lost overboard, “if only the truth was known,” and retired32 to the other end of the bridge. Jukes, exasperated33 by this unprovoked attack, broke the needle at the second stitch, and dropping his work got up and cursed the heat in a violent undertone.
The propeller35 thumped36, the three Chinamen forward had given up squabbling very suddenly, and the one who had been plaiting his tail clasped his legs and stared dejectedly over his knees. The lurid37 sunshine cast faint and sickly shadows. The swell38 ran higher and swifter every moment, and the ship lurched heavily in the smooth, deep hollows of the sea.
“I wonder where that beastly swell comes from,” said Jukes aloud, recovering himself after a stagger.
“North-east,” grunted40 the literal MacWhirr, from his side of the bridge. “There’s some dirty weather knocking about. Go and look at the glass.”
When Jukes came out of the chart-room, the cast of his countenance41 had changed to thoughtfulness and concern. He caught hold of the bridge-rail and stared ahead.
The temperature in the engine-room had gone up to a hundred and seventeen degrees. Irritated voices were ascending42 through the skylight and through the fiddle43 of the stokehold in a harsh and resonant44 uproar45, mingled46 with angry clangs and scrapes of metal, as if men with limbs of iron and throats of bronze had been quarrelling down there. The second engineer was falling foul47 of the stokers for letting the steam go down. He was a man with arms like a blacksmith, and generally feared; but that afternoon the stokers were answering him back recklessly, and slammed the furnace
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doors with the fury of despair. Then the noise ceased suddenly, and the second engineer appeared, emerging out of the stokehold streaked48 with grime and soaking wet like a chimney-sweep coming out of a well. As soon as his head was clear of the fiddle he began to scold Jukes for not trimming properly the stokehold ventilators; and in answer Jukes made with his hands deprecatory soothing49 signs meaning: “No wind — can’t be helped — you can see for yourself.” But the other wouldn’t hear reason. His teeth flashed angrily in his dirty face. He didn’t mind, he said, the trouble of punching their blanked heads down there, blank his soul, but did the condemned50 sailors think you could keep steam up in the God-forsaken boilers51 simply by knocking the blanked stokers about? No, by George! You had to get some draught52, too — may he be everlastingly53 blanked for a swab-headed deck-hand if you didn’t! And the chief, too, rampaging before the steam-gauge and carrying on like a lunatic up and down the engine-room ever since noon. What did Jukes think he was stuck up there for, if he couldn’t get one of his decayed, good-for-nothing deck-cripples to turn the ventilators to the wind?
The relations of the “engine-room” and the “deck” of the Nan-Shan were, as is known, of a brotherly nature; therefore Jukes leaned over and begged the other in a restrained tone not to make a disgusting ass8 of himself; the skipper was on the other side of the bridge. But the second declared mutinously54 that he didn’t care a rap who was on the other side of the bridge, and Jukes, passing in a flash from lofty disapproval55 into a state of exaltation, invited him in unflattering terms to come up and twist the beastly things to please himself, and catch such wind as a donkey of his sort could find. The second rushed up to the fray56. He flung himself at the port ventilator as though he meant to tear it out bodily and toss it overboard. All he did was to move the cowl round a few inches, with an enormous expenditure57 of force, and seemed spent in the effort. He leaned against the back of the wheelhouse, and Jukes walked up to him.
“Oh, Heavens!” ejaculated the engineer in a feeble voice. He lifted his eyes to the sky, and then let his glassy stare descend58 to meet the horizon that, tilting59 up to an angle of forty degrees, seemed to hang on a slant60 for a while and settled down slowly. “Heavens! Phew! What’s up, anyhow?”
Jukes, straddling his long legs like a pair of compasses, put on an air of superiority. “We’re going to catch it this time,” he said. “The barometer is tumbling down like anything, Harry61. And you trying to kick up that silly row . . . .”
The word “barometer” seemed to revive the second engineer’s mad animosity. Collecting afresh all his energies, he directed Jukes in a low and brutal62 tone to shove the unmentionable instrument down his gory63 throat. Who cared for his crimson64 barometer? It was the steam — the steam — that was going down; and what between the firemen going faint and the chief going silly, it was worse than a dog’s life for him; he didn’t care a tinker’s curse how soon the whole show was blown out of the water. He seemed on the point of having a cry, but after regaining65 his breath he muttered darkly, “I’ll faint them,” and dashed off. He stopped upon the fiddle long enough to shake his fist at the unnatural66 daylight, and dropped into the dark hole with a whoop67.
When Jukes turned, his eyes fell upon the rounded back and the big red ears of Captain MacWhirr, who had come across. He did not look at his chief officer, but said at once, “That’s a very violent man, that second engineer.”
“Jolly good second, anyhow,” grunted Jukes. “They can’t keep up steam,” he added, rapidly, and made a grab at the rail against the coming lurch39.
Captain MacWhirr, unprepared, took a run and brought himself up with a jerk by an awning68 stanchion.
“A profane69 man,” he said, obstinately70. “If this goes on, I’ll have to get rid of him the first chance.”
“It’s the heat,” said Jukes. “The weather’s awful. It would make a saint swear. Even up here I feel exactly as if I had my head tied up in a woollen blanket.”
Captain MacWhirr looked up. “D’ye mean to say, Mr. Jukes, you ever had your head tied up in a blanket? What was that for?”
“It’s a manner of speaking, sir,” said Jukes, stolidly71.
“Some of you fellows do go on! What’s that about saints swearing? I wish you wouldn’t talk so wild. What sort of saint would that be that would swear? No more saint than yourself, I expect. And what’s a blanket got to do with it — or the weather either. . . . The heat does not make me swear — does it? It’s filthy72 bad temper. That’s what it is. And what’s the good of your talking like this?”
Thus Captain MacWhirr expostulated against the use of images in speech, and at the end electrified73 Jukes by a contemptuous snort, followed by words of passion and resentment74: “Damme! I’ll fire him out of the ship if he don’t look out.”
And Jukes, incorrigible75, thought: “Goodness me! Somebody’s put a new inside to my old man. Here’s temper, if you like. Of course it’s the weather; what else? It would make an angel quarrelsome — let alone a saint.”
All the Chinamen on deck appeared at their last gasp13.
At its setting the sun had a diminished diameter and an expiring brown, rayless glow, as if millions of centuries elapsing since the morning had brought it near its end. A dense76 bank of cloud became visible to the northward77; it had a sinister78 dark olive tint79, and lay low and motionless upon the sea, resembling a solid obstacle in the path of the ship. She went floundering towards it like an exhausted80 creature driven to its death. The coppery twilight81 retired slowly, and the darkness brought out overhead a swarm82 of unsteady, big stars, that, as if blown upon, flickered83 exceedingly and seemed to hang very near the earth. At eight o’clock Jukes went into the chart-room to write up the ship’s log.
He copies neatly84 out of the rough-book the number of miles, the course of the ship, and in the column for “wind” scrawled85 the word “calm” from top to bottom of the eight hours since noon. He was exasperated by the continuous, monotonous86 rolling of the ship. The heavy inkstand would slide away in a manner that suggested perverse87 intelligence in dodging88 the pen. Having written in the large space under the head of “Remarks” “Heat very oppressive,” he stuck the end of the penholder in his teeth, pipe fashion, and mopped his face carefully.
“Ship rolling heavily in a high cross swell,” he began again, and commented to himself, “Heavily is no word for it.” Then he wrote: “Sunset threatening, with a low bank of clouds to N. and E. Sky clear overhead.”
Sprawling89 over the table with arrested pen, he glanced out of the door, and in that frame of his vision he saw all the stars flying upwards90 between the teakwood jambs on a black sky. The whole lot took flight together and disappeared, leaving only a blackness flecked with white flashes, for the sea was as black as the sky and speckled with foam91 afar. The stars that had flown to the roll came back on the return swing of the ship, rushing downwards92 in their glittering multitude, not of fiery93 points, but enlarged to tiny discs brilliant with a clear wet sheen.
Jukes watched the flying big stars for a moment, and then wrote: “8 P.M. Swell increasing. Ship labouring and taking water on her decks. Battened down the coolies for the night. Barometer still falling.” He paused, and thought to himself, “Perhaps nothing whatever’ll come of it.” And then he closed resolutely30 his entries: “Every appearance of a typhoon coming on.”
On going out he had to stand aside, and Captain MacWhirr strode over the doorstep without saying a word or making a sign.
“Shut the door, Mr. Jukes, will you?” he cried from within.
Jukes turned back to do so, muttering ironically: “Afraid to catch cold, I suppose.” It was his watch below, but he yearned94 for communion with his kind; and he remarked cheerily to the second mate: “Doesn’t look so bad, after all — does it?”
The second mate was marching to and fro on the bridge, tripping down with small steps one moment, and the next climbing with difficulty the shifting slope of the deck. At the sound of Jukes’ voice he stood still, facing forward, but made no reply.
“Hallo! That’s a heavy one,” said Jukes, swaying to meet the long roll till his lowered hand touched the planks95. This time the second mate made in his throat a noise of an unfriendly nature.
He was an oldish, shabby little fellow, with bad teeth and no hair on his face. He had been shipped in a hurry in Shanghai, that trip when the second officer brought from home had delayed the ship three hours in port by contriving96 (in some manner Captain MacWhirr could never understand) to fall overboard into an empty coal-lighter lying alongside, and had to be sent ashore97 to the hospital with concussion98 of the brain and a broken limb or two.
Jukes was not discouraged by the unsympathetic sound. “The Chinamen must be having a lovely time of it down there,” he said. “It’s lucky for them the old girl has the easiest roll of any ship I’ve ever been in. There now! This one wasn’t so bad.”
“You wait,” snarled99 the second mate.
With his sharp nose, red at the tip, and his thin pinched lips, he always looked as though he were raging inwardly; and he was concise100 in his speech to the point of rudeness. All his time off duty he spent in his cabin with the door shut, keeping so still in there that he was supposed to fall asleep as soon as he had disappeared; but the man who came in to wake him for his watch on deck would invariably find him with his eyes wide open, flat on his back in the bunk101, and glaring irritably102 from a soiled pillow. He never wrote any letters, did not seem to hope for news from anywhere; and though he had been heard once to mention West Hartlepool, it was with extreme bitterness, and only in connection with the extortionate charges of a boarding-house. He was one of those men who are picked up at need in the ports of the world. They are competent enough, appear hopelessly hard up, show no evidence of any sort of vice103, and carry about them all the signs of manifest failure. They come aboard on an emergency, care for no ship afloat, live in their own atmosphere of casual connection amongst their shipmates who know nothing of them, and make up their minds to leave at inconvenient104 times. They clear out with no words of leavetaking in some God-forsaken port other men would fear to be stranded105 in, and go ashore in company of a shabby sea-chest, corded like a treasure-box, and with an air of shaking the ship’s dust off their feet.
“You wait,” he repeated, balanced in great swings with his back to Jukes, motionless and implacable.
“Do you mean to say we are going to catch it hot?” asked Jukes with boyish interest.
“Say? . . . I say nothing. You don’t catch me,” snapped the little second mate, with a mixture of pride, scorn, and cunning, as if Jukes’ question had been a trap cleverly detected. “Oh, no! None of you here shall make a fool of me if I know it,” he mumbled to himself.
Jukes reflected rapidly that this second mate was a mean little beast, and in his heart he wished poor Jack106 Allen had never smashed himself up in the coal-lighter. The far-off blackness ahead of the ship was like another night seen through the starry107 night of the earth — the starless night of the immensities beyond the created universe, revealed in its appalling108 stillness through a low fissure109 in the glittering sphere of which the earth is the kernel110.
“Whatever there might be about,” said Jukes, “we are steaming straight into it.”
“You’ve said it,” caught up the second mate, always with his back to Jukes. “You’ve said it, mind — not I.”
“Oh, go to Jericho!” said Jukes, frankly111; and the other emitted a triumphant112 little chuckle113.
“You’ve said it,” he repeated.
“And what of that?”
“I’ve known some real good men get into trouble with their skippers for saying a dam’ sight less,” answered the second mate feverishly114. “Oh, no! You don’t catch me.”
“You seem deucedly anxious not to give yourself away,” said Jukes, completely soured by such absurdity115. “I wouldn’t be afraid to say what I think.”
“Aye, to me! That’s no great trick. I am nobody, and well I know it.”
The ship, after a pause of comparative steadiness, started upon a series of rolls, one worse than the other, and for a time Jukes, preserving his equilibrium116, was too busy to open his mouth. As soon as the violent swinging had quieted down somewhat, he said: “This is a bit too much of a good thing. Whether anything is coming or not I think she ought to be put head on to that swell. The old man is just gone in to lie down. Hang me if I don’t speak to him.”
But when he opened the door of the chart-room he saw his captain reading a book. Captain MacWhirr was not lying down: he was standing117 up with one hand grasping the edge of the bookshelf and the other holding open before his face a thick volume. The lamp wriggled118 in the gimbals, the loosened books toppled from side to side on the shelf, the long barometer swung in jerky circles, the table altered its slant every moment. In the midst of all this stir and movement Captain MacWhirr, holding on, showed his eyes above the upper edge, and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Swell getting worse, sir.”
“Noticed that in here,” muttered Captain MacWhirr. “Anything wrong?”
Jukes, inwardly disconcerted by the seriousness of the eyes looking at him over the top of the book, produced an embarrassed grin.
“Rolling like old boots,” he said, sheepishly.
“Aye! Very heavy — very heavy. What do you want?”
At this Jukes lost his footing and began to flounder. “I was thinking of our passengers,” he said, in the manner of a man clutching at a straw.
“Passengers?” wondered the Captain, gravely. “What passengers?”
“Why, the Chinamen, sir,” explained Jukes, very sick of this conversation.
“The Chinamen! Why don’t you speak plainly? Couldn’t tell what you meant. Never heard a lot of coolies spoken of as passengers before. Passengers, indeed! What’s come to you?”
Captain MacWhirr, closing the book on his forefinger119, lowered his arm and looked completely mystified. “Why are you thinking of the Chinamen, Mr. Jukes?” he inquired.
Jukes took a plunge120, like a man driven to it. “She’s rolling her decks full of water, sir. Thought you might put her head on perhaps — for a while. Till this goes down a bit — very soon, I dare say. Head to the eastward121. I never knew a ship roll like this.”
He held on in the doorway122, and Captain MacWhirr, feeling his grip on the shelf inadequate123, made up his mind to let go in a hurry, and fell heavily on the couch.
“Head to the eastward?” he said, struggling to sit up. “That’s more than four points off her course.”
“Yes, sir. Fifty degrees. . . . Would just bring her head far enough round to meet this . . . .”
Captain MacWhirr was now sitting up. He had not dropped the book, and he had not lost his place.
“To the eastward?” he repeated, with dawning astonishment124. “To the . . . Where do you think we are bound to? You want me to haul a full-powered steamship125 four points off her course to make the Chinamen comfortable! Now, I’ve heard more than enough of mad things done in the world — but this. . . . If I didn’t know you, Jukes, I would think you were in liquor. Steer126 four points off. . . . And what afterwards? Steer four points over the other way, I suppose, to make the course good. What put it into your head that I would start to tack34 a steamer as if she were a sailing-ship?”
“Jolly good thing she isn’t,” threw in Jukes, with bitter readiness. “She would have rolled every blessed stick out of her this afternoon.”
“Aye! And you just would have had to stand and see them go,” said Captain MacWhirr, showing a certain animation127. “It’s a dead calm, isn’t it?”
“It is, sir. But there’s something out of the common coming, for sure.”
“Maybe. I suppose you have a notion I should be getting out of the way of that dirt,” said Captain MacWhirr, speaking with the utmost simplicity128 of manner and tone, and fixing the oilcloth on the floor with a heavy stare. Thus he noticed neither Jukes’ discomfiture129 nor the mixture of vexation and astonished respect on his face.
“Now, here’s this book,” he continued with deliberation, slapping his thigh130 with the closed volume. “I’ve been reading the chapter on the storms there.”
This was true. He had been reading the chapter on the storms. When he had entered the chart-room, it was with no intention of taking the book down. Some influence in the air — the same influence, probably, that caused the steward131 to bring without orders the Captain’s sea-boots and oilskin coat up to the chart-room — had as it were guided his hand to the shelf; and without taking the time to sit down he had waded132 with a conscious effort into the terminology133 of the subject. He lost himself amongst advancing semi-circles, left — and right-hand quadrants, the curves of the tracks, the probable bearing of the centre, the shifts of wind and the readings of barometer. He tried to bring all these things into a definite relation to himself, and ended by becoming contemptuously angry with such a lot of words, and with so much advice, all head-work and supposition, without a glimmer134 of certitude.
“It’s the damnedest thing, Jukes,” he said. “If a fellow was to believe all that’s in there, he would be running most of his time all over the sea trying to get behind the weather.”
Again he slapped his leg with the book; and Jukes opened his mouth, but said nothing.
“Running to get behind the weather! Do you understand that, Mr. Jukes? It’s the maddest thing!” ejaculated Captain MacWhirr, with pauses, gazing at the floor profoundly. “You would think an old woman had been writing this. It passes me. If that thing means anything useful, then it means that I should at once alter the course away, away to the devil somewhere, and come booming down on Fu-chau from the northward at the tail of this dirty weather that’s supposed to be knocking about in our way. From the north! Do you understand, Mr. Jukes? Three hundred extra miles to the distance, and a pretty coal bill to show. I couldn’t bring myself to do that if every word in there was gospel truth, Mr. Jukes. Don’t you expect me . . . .”
And Jukes, silent, marvelled135 at this display of feeling and loquacity136.
“But the truth is that you don’t know if the fellow is right, anyhow. How can you tell what a gale137 is made of till you get it? He isn’t aboard here, is he? Very well. Here he says that the centre of them things bears eight points off the wind; but we haven’t got any wind, for all the barometer falling. Where’s his centre now?”
“We will get the wind presently,” mumbled Jukes.
“Let it come, then,” said Captain MacWhirr, with dignified138 indignation. “It’s only to let you see, Mr. Jukes, that you don’t find everything in books. All these rules for dodging breezes and circumventing139 the winds of heaven, Mr. Jukes, seem to me the maddest thing, when you come to look at it sensibly.”
He raised his eyes, saw Jukes gazing at him dubiously140, and tried to illustrate141 his meaning.
“About as queer as your extraordinary notion of dodging the ship head to sea, for I don’t know how long, to make the Chinamen comfortable; whereas all we’ve got to do is to take them to Fu-chau, being timed to get there before noon on Friday. If the weather delays me — very well. There’s your log-book to talk straight about the weather. But suppose I went swinging off my course and came in two days late, and they asked me: ‘Where have you been all that time, Captain?’ What could I say to that? ‘Went around to dodge142 the bad weather,’ I would say. ‘It must’ve been dam’ bad,’ they would say. ‘Don’t know,’ I would have to say; ‘I’ve dodged143 clear of it.’ See that, Jukes? I have been thinking it all out this afternoon.”
He looked up again in his unseeing, unimaginative way. No one had ever heard him say so much at one time. Jukes, with his arms open in the doorway, was like a man invited to behold144 a miracle. Unbounded wonder was the intellectual meaning of his eye, while incredulity was seated in his whole countenance.
“A gale is a gale, Mr. Jukes,” resumed the Captain, “and a full-powered steam-ship has got to face it. There’s just so much dirty weather knocking about the world, and the proper thing is to go through it with none of what old Captain Wilson of the Melita calls ‘storm strategy.’ The other day ashore I heard him hold forth145 about it to a lot of shipmasters who came in and sat at a table next to mine. It seemed to me the greatest nonsense. He was telling them how he outmanœuvred, I think he said, a terrific gale, so that it never came nearer than fifty miles to him. A neat piece of head-work he called it. How he knew there was a terrific gale fifty miles off beats me altogether. It was like listening to a crazy man. I would have thought Captain Wilson was old enough to know better.”
Captain MacWhirr ceased for a moment, then said, “It’s your watch below, Mr. Jukes?”
Jukes came to himself with a start. “Yes, sir.”
“Leave orders to call me at the slightest change,” said the Captain. He reached up to put the book away, and tucked his legs upon the couch. “Shut the door so that it don’t fly open, will you? I can’t stand a door banging. They’ve put a lot of rubbishy locks into this ship, I must say.”
Captain MacWhirr closed his eyes.
He did so to rest himself. He was tired, and he experienced that state of mental vacuity146 which comes at the end of an exhaustive discussion that has liberated147 some belief matured in the course of meditative148 years. He had indeed been making his confession149 of faith, had he only known it; and its effect was to make Jukes, on the other side of the door, stand scratching his head for a good while.
Captain MacWhirr opened his eyes.
He thought he must have been asleep. What was that loud noise? Wind? Why had he not been called? The lamp wriggled in its gimbals, the barometer swung in circles, the table altered its slant every moment; a pair of limp sea-boots with collapsed150 tops went sliding past the couch. He put out his hand instantly, and captured one.
Jukes’ face appeared in a crack of the door: only his face, very red, with staring eyes. The flame of the lamp leaped, a piece of paper flew up, a rush of air enveloped151 Captain MacWhirr. Beginning to draw on the boot, he directed an expectant gaze at Jukes’ swollen152, excited features.
“Came on like this,” shouted Jukes, “five minutes ago . . . all of a sudden.”
The head disappeared with a bang, and a heavy splash and patter of drops swept past the closed door as if a pailful of melted lead had been flung against the house. A whistling could be heard now upon the deep vibrating noise outside. The stuffy153 chart-room seemed as full of draughts154 as a shed. Captain MacWhirr collared the other sea-boot on its violent passage along the floor. He was not flustered155, but he could not find at once the opening for inserting his foot. The shoes he had flung off were scurrying156 from end to end of the cabin, gambolling157 playfully over each other like puppies. As soon as he stood up he kicked at them viciously, but without effect.
He threw himself into the attitude of a lunging fencer, to reach after his oilskin coat; and afterwards he staggered all over the confined space while he jerked himself into it. Very grave, straddling his legs far apart, and stretching his neck, he started to tie deliberately158 the strings159 of his sou’-wester under his chin, with thick fingers that trembled slightly. He went through all the movements of a woman putting on her bonnet160 before a glass, with a strained, listening attention, as though he had expected every moment to hear the shout of his name in the confused clamour that had suddenly beset161 his ship. Its increase filled his ears while he was getting ready to go out and confront whatever it might mean. It was tumultuous and very loud — made up of the rush of the wind, the crashes of the sea, with that prolonged deep vibration162 of the air, like the roll of an immense and remote drum beating the charge of the gale.
He stood for a moment in the light of the lamp, thick, clumsy, shapeless in his panoply163 of combat, vigilant164 and red-faced.
“There’s a lot of weight in this,” he muttered.
As soon as he attempted to open the door the wind caught it. Clinging to the handle, he was dragged out over the doorstep, and at once found himself engaged with the wind in a sort of personal scuffle whose object was the shutting of that door. At the last moment a tongue of air scurried165 in and licked out the flame of the lamp.
Ahead of the ship he perceived a great darkness lying upon a multitude of white flashes; on the starboard beam a few amazing stars drooped166, dim and fitful, above an immense waste of broken seas, as if seen through a mad drift of smoke.
On the bridge a knot of men, indistinct and toiling167, were making great efforts in the light of the wheelhouse windows that shone mistily168 on their heads and backs. Suddenly darkness closed upon one pane169, then on another. The voices of the lost group reached him after the manner of men’s voices in a gale, in shreds170 and fragments of forlorn shouting snatched past the ear. All at once Jukes appeared at his side, yelling, with his head down.
“Watch — put in — wheelhouse shutters171 — glass — afraid — blow in.”
Jukes heard his commander upbraiding172.
“This — come — anything — warning — call me.”
He tried to explain, with the uproar pressing on his lips.
“Light air — remained — bridge — sudden — north-east — could turn — thought — you — sure — hear.”
They had gained the shelter of the weather-cloth, and could converse173 with raised voices, as people quarrel.
“I got the hands along to cover up all the ventilators. Good job I had remained on deck. I didn’t think you would be asleep, and so . . . What did you say, sir? What?”
“Nothing,” cried Captain MacWhirr. “I said — all right.”
“By all the powers! We’ve got it this time,” observed Jukes in a howl.
“You haven’t altered her course?” inquired Captain MacWhirr, straining his voice.
“No, sir. Certainly not. Wind came out right ahead. And here comes the head sea.”
A plunge of the ship ended in a shock as if she had landed her forefoot upon something solid. After a moment of stillness a lofty flight of sprays drove hard with the wind upon their faces.
“Keep her at it as long as we can,” shouted Captain MacWhirr.
Before Jukes had squeezed the salt water out of his eyes all the stars had disappeared.
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barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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8
ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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9
cataclysms
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| n.（突然降临的）大灾难( cataclysm的名词复数 ) | |
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cyclones
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| n.气旋( cyclone的名词复数 )；旋风；飓风；暴风 | |
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11
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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12
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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13
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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14
furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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15
shimmer
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| v./n.发微光，发闪光；微光 | |
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16
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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17
bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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18
invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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19
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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20
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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21
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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22
funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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23
soot
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| n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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24
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
prodded
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| v.刺，戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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26
rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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27
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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28
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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29
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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30
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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31
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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32
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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33
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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34
tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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35
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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36
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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38
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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39
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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40
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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41
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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42
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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43
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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44
resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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45
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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46
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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47
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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48
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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49
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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50
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
boilers
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| 锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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52
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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53
everlastingly
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| 永久地，持久地 | |
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54
mutinously
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| adv.反抗地，叛变地 | |
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55
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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56
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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57
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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58
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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59
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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60
slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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61
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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62
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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63
gory
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| adj.流血的；残酷的 | |
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64
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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65
regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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66
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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67
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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68
awning
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| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
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69
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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70
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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71
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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72
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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73
electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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74
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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75
incorrigible
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| adj.难以纠正的，屡教不改的 | |
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76
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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77
northward
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|
| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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78
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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79
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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80
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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81
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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82
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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83
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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85
scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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87
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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88
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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89
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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90
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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91
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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92
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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93
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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94
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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95
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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96
contriving
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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97
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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98
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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99
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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100
concise
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| adj.简洁的，简明的 | |
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101
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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102
irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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103
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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104
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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105
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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106
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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107
starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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108
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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109
fissure
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| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
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110
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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111
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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112
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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113
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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114
feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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115
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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116
equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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117
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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118
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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119
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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120
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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121
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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122
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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123
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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124
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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125
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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126
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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127
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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128
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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129
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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130
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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131
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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132
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
terminology
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| n.术语；专有名词 | |
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134
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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135
marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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loquacity
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| n.多话，饶舌 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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circumventing
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| v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的现在分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行 | |
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dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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142
dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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143
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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vacuity
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| n.(想象力等)贫乏，无聊，空白 | |
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liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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156
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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gambolling
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的现在分词 ) | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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panoply
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| n.全副甲胄，礼服 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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166
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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mistily
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| adv.有雾地，朦胧地，不清楚地 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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170
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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171
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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172
upbraiding
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| adj.& n.谴责（的）v.责备，申斥，谴责( upbraid的现在分词 ) | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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