She drifted down outside the Great Barrier, was blown off the land to the eastward3 of Sandy Cape2, and blown back again towards Point Danger.
Jean Petit, alone, and grown strangely like a wild beast, looked out and across with bloodshot eyes one morning and saw a hazy4 blue line at the far western verge5. A fair wind filled the tattered6 sail. Hour by hour the line grew up and up like a bank of cloud, with uneven7 summits—up and up out of the desolate8, silent ocean.
The solitary9 convict gazed at this bank of cloud with eager, fascinated eyes.
Often enough during the awful past weeks he had watched in the same way, only to see the bank change shape and disappear as the sun grew stronger.
But this time the vision became every hour more[116] definite and real. At last he uttered a deep growl10 of satisfaction, which was his nearest approach to a prayer, and a shudder11 of relief, of thanksgiving passed through his lean frame.
Petit presented an illustration of the possibilities which underlie12 the smooth, well-fed exterior13 of civilised humanity.
His hair fell down in matted skeins about his bony shoulders; his beard almost covered his chest, and below its ragged14 edges his ribs15 stood out one by one like the ribs of a corpse16 which has dried in the sun until the tightened17 skin shows the outline of the skeleton beneath. His lips fell back, and showed his yellow fangs18.
The nails of his hands and feet were as long as eagles’ claws. He was burnt copper19-colour by the sun, and against the dark background of his skin stood numerous significant sores.
The land which this horrid20 corpse-like figure regarded out of hollow eyes was that portion of New South Wales which lies to the north’ard of Woogoolga—a land alternating along the immediate21 coast, between hardwood forests and scrubby sand-hills.
All day long the emaciated22 convict watched eagerly. Before nightfall he was close enough to discern steep beaches on which the rollers broke in white anger, and dark spray-wet headlands glistening23 under their bath of seas.
The sun, with banners of scarlet24 and gold, sailed out through the gates of the west, lending the white rollers a faint pink blush—the sea answering to the wooing of her departing lover.
[117]
Snipe called along the edge of the sands, littered with brown sea-weed, shells, pumice, and sponges.
Across a bank of thin fleecy cloud went a moving line of black swans, going inland to the fresh water lagoons25. They flew with their long necks stretched forward, and as they passed over his head the man in the boat could see the white on their wings and the scarlet of their beaks26. The swans were followed by a mob of black duck and teal.
Petit noticed that all these birds followed a certain direction, and studying closely he observed a break in the surf where a narrow channel ran inland, to broaden out again in a great spread of creeks27 and lagoons.
A red rock showed conspicuously28 at the mouth of the channel, and keeping this to the port side of the boat, he came about and let the insetting tide take him through.
The keel grated on the sand, and Petit rose up gaunt and unsteady in the starlight and crawled ashore29.
The escaped convict discovered that the rocks on the foreshore were covered with oysters30, and he fed. Refreshed, he crossed the beach in search of fresh water. After walking some time he found it trickling31 from a rock—clear and cold.
And again Jean Petit growled32 in thanksgiving, and throwing himself full length on his back like a drought-stricken beast, he let the little rill trickle33 into his mouth, overflow34 his lips, and moisten his chest.
At last, with a deep-heaved sigh, he rolled away[118] from the spring and with his head resting on the green damp moss35, fell asleep.
In the morning Petit woke with the young sun on his face.
He rose, and with his hand shading his eyes, looked up and down. As far as his eye could reach there were no signs of human habitation; no evidences of life. He had landed upon a lonely and unsettled part of the North Coast.
Hunger was still strong in him. He moved his cramped36 limbs in the direction of the beach.
When he reached his landing place of the previous night he found the boat gone! The tide had carried it out. He could see it drifting on the swell37 of the deep Pacific, just beyond the edge of the breakers.
It was as well, he told himself, inasmuch as he had intended to stave her in and sink her. The boat was a piece of evidence which he was not anxious to leave behind him.
In a few hours no doubt it would be washed by the incoming tide against the rocks and smashed to pieces.
As a matter of fact, the boat was, by a little series of coincidences, in which the ocean sometimes indulges, carried round into the mouth of the Clarence River to fall at last into the hands of Tom Pagdin. She was first picked up by a fisherman near the Heads. He sold her to a dealer38, who had a little trade steamer running up one of the creeks. She had broken adrift one night from the stern of the steamer, and the tide brought her into the Broadstream, where a farmer found her with her nose stuck in the mud next morning.
[119]
The farmer, in hope of a reward, in turn, had hidden her in the reeds, and it was there Tom Pagdin found her. He surmised39 that she was a stray boat, unhitched her, took her further up the stream one evening, and planted her again in the reeds of the opposite bank.
Jean Petit presented a peculiar40 appearance as he slunk across the sand in his rags, and disappeared in the bush.
The bush has seen many strange characters, of comedy and tragedy; has witnessed in her solitudes41 many ludicrous and awful things, but none, perhaps, more ludicrously awful than the hairy figure in streaming rags, which stalked slowly along, like a bedraggled bird of prey43, beneath the shade of honeysuckle and gum.
For three days this beast-man, whom the clean sea had spewed up on the land, went northward44.
He made himself a lair45 under the rocks, or in the thick bushes at night, and fed upon roots and berries, now and then descending46 the sandy hills to the sea for shellfish and oysters.
Gradually those livid sores which had corroded47 his flesh as verdigris48 corrodes49 copper, began to disappear.
Hans Holterman had run away from his ship in Hobson’s Bay to the goldfields in the time of the gold fever. He had, like many more, followed the Yellow Butterfly for years across mountain and gully and plain, till at last the growing stiffness in his joints50 told him that it was time to think of old age.
So Hans, who had never been a practical man, went prospecting51 for a selection as he went prospecting[120] for gold—in the further places,—and at last pegged52 out his land.
It was not particularly good land, although heavily timbered; but Hans believed it would grow vines, and he remembered the days, before he ran away to sea, when, with his German brothers and sisters, he had worked amidst his father’s grape vines by the banks of beloved Rhine.
So Hans set to the growing of vines, without thought of market.
It was not till the fourth or fifth year, when all his capital was gone, that he realised he was thirty miles from a town.
But a vigneron he had decided53 to become, and a vigneron he must remain.
He had cleared and fenced and planted a twelve-acre block with Isabella vines, which, being phylloxera-and-odium-proof, are certain to crop. But the Isabella was not yet a popular grape in this country, and Holterman’s Isabella proved a drug even on the local market, which was not fastidious. After five years the grapes flourished, and bore marvelously—soil, climate, and position being all eminently54 favourable55. Each latter vintage Hans added fresh barrels to the row of stained casks in the outroom which served as a cellar.
His wine-press was a home-made box, tin-lined, with a long sapling for a lever. He tied bags of stone to the sapling to get pressure, and drained off the purple juice in a kerosene-tin bucket.
Hans Holterman soon discovered that his wine was[121] practically unsaleable, and this took the heart out of him.
He retired56 within himself, living in solitude42, and worst of all—consuming his own stock.
He drank a jug57 of wine when he rose, a jug at breakfast, a jug before going to work, and thereafter throughout the day and night jugs58 at frequent intervals59.
Sometimes on Sunday afternoons would ride up to Holterman’s door bushmen from the neighbourhood, and these in return for unlimited60 quantities of new wine, supplied in opposition61 to the Licensing62 Act, they would leave him a little silver.
This was practically Hans Holterman’s sole medium of existence. The few shillings which he received from casual drinkers bought him flour, and occasionally meat. The man who can buy flour and meat can live on the land.
One evening at dusk, a ragged figure crept out of the shadow of the forest and listened.
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1
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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10
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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12
underlie
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| v.位于...之下，成为...的基础 | |
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13
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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15
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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16
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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17
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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18
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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19
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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23
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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24
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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25
lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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26
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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27
creeks
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| n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪 | |
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conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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30
oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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31
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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32
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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33
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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overflow
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| v.(使)外溢，(使)溢出；溢出，流出，漫出 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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38
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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39
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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40
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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41
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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42
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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43
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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46
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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corroded
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| 已被腐蚀的 | |
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verdigris
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| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
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49
corrodes
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| v.使腐蚀，侵蚀( corrode的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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51
prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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52
pegged
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| v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的过去式和过去分词 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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53
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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jugs
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| （有柄及小口的）水壶( jug的名词复数 ) | |
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59
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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60
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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61
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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62
licensing
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| v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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