"Paul! Paul! Quick!"
He sprang out on deck.
"Oh!" Emily gasped2 in relief. "I thought you would never wake. But look!" She pointed3 forward. "A boat's there! Right ahead! A man——There!"
Rubbing his sleep-bewildered eyelids4, Paul made out a small white boat a point off the Daphne's weather bow and not more than five ship's lengths away. Yes, a man was standing5 up in it. He was beckoning6 wildly to the bark and to the sky in turn.
The boat was too far off to make out if the man were alone in it. Paul had to depend on his sight. The bark had been robbed of her glasses.
The Daphne was making about three knots an hour. While he had slept the breeze had lessened7. The swell8 was practically gone.
"Haul her up three points," said Paul, facing the wheel. "Keep an eye on me. Every time I raise my right hand let her go off half a point. When I hold up my left: Haul up half a point—luff!"
With this instruction snapped at Emily, Paul ran forward, leaving her alone, bewildered, fearful of making a mistake. But he was satisfied she would understand. He held responsibility to be as much the mother of capacity as necessity is of invention.
By instinct alone Emily interpreted Paul's orders. She brought the Daphne to windward and until she could see the boat and its passenger's head just over the lee bow. She saw Paul spring into the fore9 shrouds10 with a coil of rope. As he did so he raised his left hand. The boat disappeared. She was sure the Daphne would run it down. Paul raised his right hand. The helmswoman let the bark go off half a point.
Paul, leaning over the rail at his last signal, tried to read a name on the stern of the little boat which came bobbing toward him. He failed.
An old man was standing up between the cockleshell's alter and second thwarts11. He was babbling12 in delirium13. His swollen14 tongue was protruding15 from his lips. He was bareheaded and his hairless crown seemed ready to burst open in fire. Now the boat was close enough to see that the derelict was alone. His clothing consisted of a shirt and trousers—dungarees. He answered Paul's hails with a leer of idiocy16.
Emily steered17 so finely that the Daphne brought the boat alongside just abreast18 of the fore-rigging. As their sides touched, Paul dropped a running bowline over the old man's head and shoulders and a minute later hauled him over the side. The boat overturned as its occupant was jerked out of it and Paul regretfully saw it drift away.
The derelict crumpled19 in a heap at his rescuer's feet as he touched the deck. His face and neck and arms and feet were horribly sunburned. He was literally20 parboiled. It would have taken the woman who mothered him to recognize his pitiably swollen countenance21. He was short and thick-set and between fifty-five and sixty years old. His horny nails and blunt work-worn fingers bespoke22 him a sailor.
Paul carried him up on the poop as the best place to work over him and laid him down in the lee of the lounge house.
"Oh, you poor, poor man!" Emily cried in sympathy at sight of him.
"This is terrible, little woman. I'm afraid we can do little for him."
Paul looked away from the stranger with a shudder24. While he had been forward at the rescue and carrying the stranger aft the breeze had died away. All aloft was now idle.
"Can't I leave here and help you?" asked Emily. "We must try to save his life."
"Don't think of me as being helpless, Paul. Please. I know I can do so many things. I'm not the same woman you met back there."
Emily ran to do as she was bidden and Paul went below to the medicine chest. The medical supplies provided some strychnine tablets and, tincturing a glass of water with this heart stimulant28, the castaways took turn about forcing drops of the fluid between the cracked lips. Emily discovered a jar of beef extract among the stores and made up a little of this for the sufferer.
After two hours of careful and unceasing attention the derelict opened his rheumy eyes and stared at the sky for a second.
"Hello, stranger," said Paul. "Feeling better?"
The eyes closed again and the cracked lips muttered an inaudible blur29 of words. It was plainly an unconscious answer.
A little while later, as Paul was taking another observation of the sun, Emily thought she saw a gleam of consciousness in the faded gaze which found her face and held it.
"Are you from the bark Daphne—the Daphne?" she asked.
Both she and Paul had discussed the possibility of this being so.
"He—walked—'tween—gyves——"
"Paul, he is speaking."
Lavelle laid down his sextant and knelt beside the stranger.
"I asked him," the gold woman explained, "if he belonged to the Daphne. He——Listen——"
The cracked lips were speaking again.
"He—walked—'tween—'tween with—with gyves——"
The stranger was repeating what he had said to Emily.
Paul ran the words over under his breath. They sounded familiar. They had a rhythm that touched some cell of memory. Suddenly his mind groped upon discovery. Emily uttered an exclamation31 in the same instant. Both of them knew what the stranger was attempting to say.
"Don't you remember Hood's 'The Dream of Eugene Aram,' Paul?"
"Yes," he said with a nod. "'And Eugene Aram walked between, with gyves upon his wrists.'"
"What can the poor brain be thinking? What is hidden back of this strange thought?" Emily asked in a whisper.
"It may be as we have thought—that he belongs to the Daphne's crew. Perhaps in its disorder33 his brain is reflecting the crime committed aboard here in the words of Hood's poem. Yet one would imagine that if there is anything in the theory of crime suggesting crime that it would be something of the sea of which he would be thinking. Eugene Aram was a schoolmaster and he killed in the woods. This man is a sailor. There is no doubt about that."
"Could he have been the one——"
Emily shrank from the stranger at the thought which leaped into her mind.
"Don't think that, Emily. If he had a hand in what happened here——But let as not think of what's past."
Paul carried the derelict below and put him in the room next to the mate's. He swathed his burns in carron oil and tied him in the bunk34 so that the rolling of the vessel35 would not turn him out. The man had become unconscious again immediately after mumbling36 the bit of "Eugene Aram" which Emily had called Paul to hear. Lavelle left the derelict sleeping in apparent peace, but with a heart action that was extremely weak.
"If he lives he will be a Godsend toward helping37 us work ship," Paul told Emily as they went aft together to the lounge.
"May be that is why it was given to us to pick him up."
Paul smiled doubtfully.
"What time is it, Emily?" he asked.
"Only quarter past three," she said, looking at the silver watch which he had given her to carry when he put her at the wheel.
"Didn't have much of a sleep, did I?"
"No, you didn't. Please lie down again."
"Will in a little while. Got to. But first I must work out this observation—see where in this world or Kingdom Come we are."
He sat down at the chart table and in a few minutes, weary though he was, finished his calculations. The result checked and confirmed his noon reckoning.
Emily stood beside him holding down the edges of the chart while he pricked38 off the Daphne's position and ran a line to the southeastward. It ended at Ocean Island. He ran a second to Midway; a third to Honolulu. The woman watched his long fine fingers—wondrously fine for the rough, hard things of which she knew them to be capable—handling pencil and ruler and dividers with a fascinating deftness40 and certainty. He seemed oblivious41 of everything else. An eager stimulation42 seemed to be driving him. The mystery of the student was about him. A feeling of woful incompetence43 possessed44 her. She realized how narrow and little her life had always been until now; how little she actually knew of all the things there were to be known. Her heart stirred of a sudden with a marvelous thrill at the thought of what a woman's triumph must be to suffer the giving of such a man as this to the world. Her breath paused tremulously. What Shanghai Elsie had said to her in the boat flashed into her mind: "You were made for the mother of men—strong men—like him."
The navigator, glancing up from his work, beheld46 an expression in her beautiful face which was beyond his understanding. Her glance dropped as it met his and a glow suffused47 her cheeks and thin, delicate ears that the dawn might have envied. A second later her eyes lifted to his again and in their expression and her smile he read elation48. In his blindness he believed that she had been able to follow his work and that it was the prospect49 of an early deliverance which enlightened her countenance.
"There you are!" he exclaimed in a note of lively and natural pleasure. "Look! Only five hundred miles to the southeast——See that speck50? That's Ocean Island. If we can't fetch that we'll try for Midway. A cable station's there. If we can't make any of these islands we'll keep right on to Honolulu. All the while we'll be lying along in the steamship51 track. Isn't it wonderful, eh?"
"Too wonderful to be true, Paul."
The answer came in a whisper. Tears glinted in her eyes. She was glad for his sake; glad that the stress which was upon him was so near an end. His escape, of course, meant hers and——Intuitively she sensed that he was very far away from her; that he was slipping further and further away and she started to put out a hand to touch him; to hold him. Her arm dropped as she raised it. This was not the man who had held her in his arms that morning. She heard his words dimly.
"If we can work to the south'ard and the eastward39, by to-morrow noon we may begin to keep our eyes open for ships. With any kind of fair weather and a breeze from the westward land should be rising over the bows in three or four days. Think of it! Another twelve hours and you may be going over the Daphne's side into a homeward bounder!"
"Why——You mustn't be crying now. You must laugh! Sing! The chief mate of the bark Daphne would better be thinking of her shore-going togs! This is what we'll be singing in a very short time:
"I thought I heard the captain say,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
It's time for us to leave her.
"We'll sing. Oh, may we never be,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her;
On a hungry ship the like of she,
It's time for us to leave her."
With a laugh and those snatches of the old chanty of "Leave Her, Johnny" ringing from his lips in a clear, deep voice Paul led the way out on deck.
He turned from her and went forward to the standard compass. Going and returning, he looked aloft and around at the silent plain of brine. The sails still drooped58 in idleness. There was the barest heave in the ocean. The bark was without steerage way.
"Better lie down and take a nap," Paul said as he came back and stood at the wheel for a second. "Can't tell how long this calm will last. I'm going to try to steal a little sleep."
"Please do. I will lie down presently."
He did not meet her gaze, and she turned toward the sea as if she hoped its purple heart would give her throbbing59 one an answer. She heard Paul leave the poop and then a clang from the engine room told her he was there. It sounded like a door closing between them—a door that would never open again—and she went into the lounge to weep bitter tears which would not be stayed.
If she could have seen Paul Lavelle's face when he turned away from her and at the moment when she was giving way to her loneliness she would have understood that he was suffering, too.
After overhauling60 the fires under the donkey boiler61, Paul threw himself at full length across the main hatch. He was mind weary; body weary; at war with himself. Staring up at the sky he brought his whole life in contemplation. Another day, as he had told the gold woman, might see them delivered from their peril62 in the Daphne. Anyway he felt that the world—the world in which she belonged and must have her being—was not very far off. And she would be going out of his life forever. She must. A pariah63 like him could not say to her, "Stay." The man who stood marked as he was could say to no woman, "Stay." All day the past had lashed45 him. All day the fineness of him had arraigned64 the weakness which had permitted him to forget that he could never claim her love. All day the memory of his madness in daring to kiss her as he had had tortured him. He groaned65 in his agony of spirit.
"God," he prayed aloud with lips strange to prayer, "grant that I may finish 'what remains66 before us of the course without dishonor to ourselves or hurt to others.' For my soul's sake I ask this."
With this thought his mother's dear face smiled into his vision.
"Mother mine, mother mine," he murmured, and his eyes closed in exhaustion67.
It was dusk when Emily awoke in the lounge. By the silver watch she saw that it was a quarter past six o'clock. All was quiet as when she lay down. The bark was in the same dead calm. The creaking of the gear overhead and the slatting of the idle sails were the only sounds in the stillness. She stole below, and on her way forward paused at the door of the derelict's room. He still slept. She tiptoed inside and wet his lips with a sip68 of water. He murmured in unconscious thankfulness. She hurried on then toward the engine room. Paul must be there or in the galley. She came upon him lying across the main hatch. He was asleep, his head pillowed on his right arm. The light of a love that would never die came into her eyes as she stood for a second listening to his deep breathing of honest weariness.
The chill of the coming night was in the air. Emily stole aft again on tiptoe and returned with a blanket. She spread it over the sleeper69 with a mother's gentleness. He did not move. Sighing, she turned away and with the silence of a thief went to the galley to prepare the evening meal.
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1
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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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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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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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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6
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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7
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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thwarts
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| 阻挠( thwart的第三人称单数 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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12
babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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13
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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14
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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15
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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16
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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17
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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18
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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19
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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21
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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22
bespoke
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| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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23
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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24
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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25
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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27
galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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28
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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29
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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30
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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31
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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32
weirdness
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| n.古怪，离奇，不可思议 | |
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33
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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34
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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35
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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36
mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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37
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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38
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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39
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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40
deftness
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41
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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42
stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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43
incompetence
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| n.不胜任，不称职 | |
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44
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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45
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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46
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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47
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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49
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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50
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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51
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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52
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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53
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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55
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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56
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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57
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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58
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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59
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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60
overhauling
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| n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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61
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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62
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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63
pariah
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| n.被社会抛弃者 | |
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64
arraigned
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| v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责 | |
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65
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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66
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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67
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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68
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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69
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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