This was the reason why Mr. Sterne’s confidential1 com- munication, delivered hurriedly on the shore alongside the dark silent ship, had disturbed his equanimity2. It was the most incomprehensible and unexpected thing that could happen; and the perturbation of his spirit was so great that, forgetting all about his letters, he ran rapidly up the bridge ladder.
The portable table was being put together for dinner to the left of the wheel by two pig-tailed “boys,” who as usual snarled4 at each other over the job, while another, a doleful, burly, very yellow Chinaman, resembling Mr. Massy, waited apathetically5 with the cloth over his arm and a pile of thick dinner-plates against his chest. A common cabin lamp with its globe missing, brought up from below, had been hooked to the wooden framework of the awning6; the side-screens had been lowered all round; Captain Whalley filling the depths of the wicker- chair seemed to sit benumbed in a canvas tent crudely lighted, and used for the storing of nautical7 objects; a shabby steering-wheel, a battered8 brass9 binnacle on a stout10 mahogany stand, two dingy11 life-buoys, an old cork12 fender lying in a corner, dilapidated deck-lockers with loops of thin rope instead of door-handles.
He shook off the appearance of numbness13 to return Mr. Van Wyk’s unusually brisk greeting, but relapsed directly afterwards. To accept a pressing invitation to dinner “up at the house” cost him another very visible physical effort. Mr. Van Wyk, perplexed14, folded his arms, and leaning back against the rail, with his little, black, shiny feet well out, examined him covertly15.
“I’ve noticed of late that you are not quite yourself, old friend.”
He put an affectionate gentleness into the last two words. The real intimacy16 of their intercourse17 had never been so vividly18 expressed before.
“Tut, tut, tut!”
The wicker-chair creaked heavily.
“Irritable,” commented Mr. Van Wyk to himself; and aloud, “I’ll expect to see you in half an hour, then,” he said negligently19, moving off.
“In half an hour,” Captain Whalley’s rigid20 silvery head repeated behind him as if out of a trance.
Amidships, below, two voices, close against the engine- room, could be heard answering each other — one angry and slow, the other alert.
“I tell you the beast has locked himself in to get drunk.”
“Can’t help it now, Mr. Massy. After all, a man has a right to shut himself up in his cabin in his own time.”
“Not to get drunk.”
“I heard him swear that the worry with the boilers21 was enough to drive any man to drink,” Sterne said maliciously22.
Massy hissed23 out something about bursting the door in. Mr. Van Wyk, to avoid them, crossed in the dark to the other side of the deserted24 deck. The planking of the little wharf25 rattled26 faintly under his hasty feet.
“Mr. Van Wyk! Mr. Van Wyk!”
He walked on: somebody was running on the path. “You’ve forgotten to get your mail.”
Sterne, holding a bundle of papers in his hand, caught up with him.
“Oh, thanks.”
But, as the other continued at his elbow, Mr. Van Wyk stopped short. The overhanging eaves, descending28 low upon the lighted front of the bungalow29, threw their black straight-edged shadow into the great body of the night on that side. Everything was very still. A tinkle30 of cutlery and a slight jingle31 of glasses were heard. Mr. Van Wyk’s servants were laying the table for two on the veranda32.
“I’m afraid you give me no credit whatever for my good intentions in the matter I’ve spoken to you about,” said Sterne.
“I simply don’t understand you.”
“Captain Whalley is a very audacious man, but he will understand that his game is up. That’s all that anybody need ever know of it from me. Believe me, I am very considerate in this, but duty is duty. I don’t want to make a fuss. All I ask you, as his friend, is to tell him from me that the game’s up. That will be sufficient.”
Mr. Van Wyk felt a loathsome34 dismay at this queer privilege of friendship. He would not demean himself by asking for the slightest explanation; to drive the other away with contumely he did not think prudent36 — as yet, at any rate. So much assurance staggered him. Who could tell what there could be in it, he thought? His regard for Captain Whalley had the tenacity37 of a disinterested38 sentiment, and his practical instinct coming to his aid, he concealed39 his scorn.
“I gather, then, that this is something grave.”
“Very grave,” Sterne assented40 solemnly, delighted at having produced an effect at last. He was ready to add some effusive42 protestations of regret at the “unavoida- ble necessity,” but Mr. Van Wyk cut him short — very civilly, however.
Once on the veranda Mr. Van Wyk put his hands in his pockets, and, straddling his legs, stared down at a black panther skin lying on the floor before a rocking- chair. “It looks as if the fellow had not the pluck to play his own precious game openly,” he thought.
This was true enough. In the face of Massy’s last rebuff Sterne dared not declare his knowledge. His object was simply to get charge of the steamer and keep it for some time. Massy would never forgive him for forcing himself on; but if Captain Whalley left the ship of his own accord, the command would devolve upon him for the rest of the trip; so he hit upon the brilliant idea of scaring the old man away. A vague menace, a mere43 hint, would be enough in such a brazen44 case; and, with a strange admixture of compassion45, he thought that Batu Beru was a very good place for throwing up the sponge. The skipper could go ashore46 quietly, and stay with that Dutchman of his. Weren’t these two as thick as thieves together? And on reflec- tion he seemed to see that there was a way to work the whole thing through that great friend of the old man’s. This was another brilliant idea. He had an inborn47 preference for circuitous48 methods. In this particular case he desired to remain in the background as much as possible, to avoid exasperating49 Massy needlessly. No fuss! Let it all happen naturally.
Mr. Van Wyk all through the dinner was conscious of a sense of isolation50 that invades sometimes the close- ness of human intercourse. Captain Whalley failed lamentably51 and obviously in his attempts to eat something. He seemed overcome by a strange absent- mindedness. His hand would hover52 irresolutely54, as if left without guidance by a preoccupied55 mind. Mr. Van Wyk had heard him coming up from a long way off in the profound stillness of the river-side, and had noticed the irresolute53 character of the footfalls. The toe of his boot had struck the bottom stair as though he had come along mooning with his head in the air right up to the steps of the veranda. Had the captain of the Sofala been another sort of man he would have suspected the work of age there. But one glance at him was enough. Time — after, indeed, marking him for its own — had given him up to his usefulness, in which his simple faith would see a proof of Divine mercy. “How could I contrive56 to warn him?” Mr. Van Wyk wondered, as if Captain Whalley had been miles and miles away, out of sight and earshot of all evil. He was sickened by an immense disgust of Sterne. To even mention his threat to a man like Whalley would be positively57 inde- cent. There was something more vile35 and insulting in its hint than in a definite charge of crime — the debasing taint58 of blackmailing59. “What could anyone bring against him?” he asked himself. This was a limpid60 personality. “And for what object?” The Power that man trusted had thought fit to leave him nothing on earth that envy could lay hold of, except a bare crust of bread.
“Won’t you try some of this?” he asked, pushing a dish slightly. Suddenly it seemed to Mr. Van Wyk that Sterne might possibly be coveting61 the command of the Sofala. His cynicism was quite startled by what looked like a proof that no man may count himself safe from his kind unless in the very abyss of misery62. An intrigue63 of that sort was hardly worth troubling about, he judged; but still, with such a fool as Massy to deal with, Whalley ought to and must be warned.
At this moment Captain Whalley, bolt upright, the deep cavities of the eyes overhung by a bushy frown, and one large brown hand resting on each side of his empty plate, spoke33 across the tablecloth64 abruptly65 —
“Mr. Van Wyk, you’ve always treated me with the most humane66 consideration.”
“My dear captain, you make too much of a simple fact that I am not a savage67.” Mr. Van Wyk, utterly68 revolted by the thought of Sterne’s obscure attempt, raised his voice incisively69, as if the mate had been hiding somewhere within earshot. “Any consideration I have been able to show was no more than the rightful due of a character I’ve learned to regard by this time with an esteem70 that nothing can shake.”
A slight ring of glass made him lift his eyes from the slice of pine-apple he was cutting into small pieces on his plate. In changing his position Captain Whalley had contrived71 to upset an empty tumbler.
Without looking that way, leaning sideways on his elbow, his other hand shading his brow, he groped shakily for it, then desisted. Van Wyk stared blankly, as if something momentous72 had happened all at once. He did not know why he should feel so startled; but he forgot Sterne utterly for the moment.
“Why, what’s the matter?”
And Captain Whalley, half-averted, in a deadened, agitated73 voice, muttered —
“Esteem!”
“And I may add something more,” Mr. Van Wyk, very steady-eyed, pronounced slowly.
“Hold! Enough!” Captain Whalley did not change his attitude or raise his voice. “Say no more! I can make you no return. I am too poor even for that now. Your esteem is worth having. You are not a man that would stoop to deceive the poorest sort of devil on earth, or make a ship unseaworthy every time he takes her to sea.”
Mr. Van Wyk, leaning forward, his face gone pink all over, with the starched75 table-napkin over his knees, was inclined to mistrust his senses, his power of com- prehension, the sanity77 of his guest.
“Where? Why? In the name of God!— what’s this? What ship? I don’t understand who. . .”
“Then, in the name of God, it is I! A ship’s unsea- worthy74 when her captain can’t see. I am going blind.”
Mr. Van Wyk made a slight movement, and sat very still afterwards for a few seconds; then, with the thought of Sterne’s “The game’s up,” he ducked under the table to pick up the napkin which had slipped off his knees. This was the game that was up. And at the same time the muffled78 voice of Captain Whalley passed over him —
“I’ve deceived them all. Nobody knows.”
He emerged flushed to the eyes. Captain Whalley, motionless under the full blaze of the lamp, shaded his face with his hand.
“And you had that courage?”
“Call it by what name you like. But you are a hu- mane man — a — a — gentleman, Mr. Van Wyk. You may have asked me what I had done with my conscience.”
He seemed to muse79, profoundly silent, very still in his mournful pose.
“I began to tamper80 with it in my pride. You begin to see a lot of things when you are going blind. I could not be frank with an old chum even. I was not frank with Massy — no, not altogether. I knew he took me for a wealthy sailor fool, and I let him. I wanted to keep up my importance — because there was poor Ivy81 away there — my daughter. What did I want to trade on his misery for? I did trade on it — for her. And now, what mercy could I expect from him? He would trade on mine if he knew it. He would hunt the old fraud out, and stick to the money for a year. Ivy’s money. And I haven’t kept a penny for myself. How am I going to live for a year. A year! In a year there will be no sun in the sky for her father.”
His deep voice came out, awfully82 veiled, as though he had been overwhelmed by the earth of a landslide83, and talking to you of the thoughts that haunt the dead in their graves. A cold shudder84 ran down Mr. Van Wyk’s back.
“And how long is it since you have. . .?” he began.
“It was a long time before I could bring myself to believe in this — this visitation.” Captain Whalley spoke with gloomy patience from under his hand.
He had not thought he had deserved it. He had begun by deceiving himself from day to day, from week to week. He had the Serang at hand there — an old servant. It came on gradually, and when he could no longer deceive himself. . .
His voice died out almost.
“Rather than give her up I set myself to deceive you all.”
“It’s incredible,” whispered Mr. Van Wyk. Captain Whalley’s appalling85 murmur86 flowed on.
“Not even the sign of God’s anger could make me forget her. How could I forsake87 my child, feeling my vigor88 all the time — the blood warm within me? Warm as yours. It seems to me that, like the blinded Samson, I would find the strength to shake down a temple upon my head. She’s a struggling woman — my own child that we used to pray over together, my poor wife and I. Do you remember that day I as well as told you that I believed God would let me live to a hundred for her sake? What sin is there in loving your child? Do you see it? I was ready for her sake to live for ever. I half believed I would. I’ve been praying for death since. Ha! Presumptuous89 man — you wanted to live. . .”
A tremendous, shuddering91 upheaval92 of that big frame, shaken by a gasping93 sob94, set the glasses jingling95 all over the table, seemed to make the whole house tremble to the roof-tree. And Mr. Van Wyk, whose feeling of outraged96 love had been translated into a form of strug- gle with nature, understood very well that, for that man whose whole life had been conditioned by action, there could exist no other expression for all the emotions; that, to voluntarily cease venturing, doing, enduring, for his child’s sake, would have been exactly like plucking his warm love for her out of his living heart. Something too monstrous97, too impossible, even to conceive.
Captain Whalley had not changed his attitude, that seemed to express something of shame, sorrow, and defiance98.
“I have even deceived you. If it had not been for that word ‘esteem.’ These are not the words for me. I would have lied to you. Haven’t I lied to you? Weren’t you going to trust your property on board this very trip?”
“I have a floating yearly policy,” Mr. Van Wyk said almost unwittingly, and was amazed at the sudden crop- ping up of a commercial detail.
“The ship is unseaworthy, I tell you. The policy would be invalid99 if it were known. . .”
“We shall share the guilt100, then.”
“Nothing could make mine less,” said Captain Whalley.
He had not dared to consult a doctor; the man would have perhaps asked who he was, what he was doing; Massy might have heard something. He had lived on without any help, human or divine. The very prayers stuck in his throat. What was there to pray for? and death seemed as far as ever. Once he got into his cabin he dared not come out again; when he sat down he dared not get up; he dared not raise his eyes to anybody’s face; he felt reluctant to look upon the sea or up to the sky. The world was fading before his great fear of giving himself away. The old ship was his last friend; he was not afraid of her; he knew every inch of her deck; but at her too he hardly dared to look, for fear of finding he could see less than the day before. A great incertitude101 enveloped102 him. The horizon was gone; the sky mingled103 darkly with the sea. Who was this figure standing104 over yonder? what was this thing lying down there? And a frightful105 doubt of the reality of what he could see made even the remnant of sight that remained to him an added torment106, a pitfall107 always open for his miserable108 pretense109. He was afraid to stumble inexcusably over something — to say a fatal Yes or No to a question. The hand of God was upon him, but it could not tear him away from his child. And, as if in a nightmare of humiliation110, every featureless man seemed an enemy.
He let his hand fall heavily on the table. Mr. Van Wyk, arms down, chin on breast, with a gleam of white teeth pressing on the lower lip, meditated111 on Sterne’s “The game’s up.”
“The Serang of course does not know.”
“Nobody,” said Captain Whalley, with assurance.
“Ah yes. Nobody. Very well. Can you keep it up to the end of the trip? That is the last under the agree- ment with Massy.”
Captain Whalley got up and stood erect112, very stately, with the great white beard lying like a silver breastplate over the awful secret of his heart. Yes; that was the only hope there was for him of ever seeing her again, of securing the money, the last he could do for her, before he crept away somewhere — useless, a burden, a reproach to himself. His voice faltered113.
“Think of it! Never see her any more: the only human being besides myself now on earth that can re- member my wife. She’s just like her mother. Lucky the poor woman is where there are no tears shed over those they loved on earth and that remain to pray not to be led into temptation — because, I suppose, the blessed know the secret of grace in God’s dealings with His created children.”
He swayed a little, said with austere114 dignity —
“I don’t. I know only the child He has given me.”
And he began to walk. Mr. Van Wyk, jumping up, saw the full meaning of the rigid head, the hesitating feet, the vaguely115 extended hand. His heart was beating fast; he moved a chair aside, and instinctively116 ad- vanced as if to offer his arm. But Captain Whalley passed him by, making for the stairs quite straight.
“He could not see me at all out of his line,” Van Wyk thought, with a sort of awe117. Then going to the head of the stairs, he asked a little tremulously —
“What is it like — like a mist — like. . .”
Captain Whalley, half-way down, stopped, and turned round undismayed to answer.
“It is as if the light were ebbing118 out of the world. Have you ever watched the ebbing sea on an open stretch of sands withdrawing farther and farther away from you? It is like this — only there will be no flood to follow. Never. It is as if the sun were growing smaller, the stars going out one by one. There can’t be many left that I can see by this. But I haven’t had the courage to look of late. . .” He must have been able to make out Mr. Van Wyk, because he checked him by an authoritative119 gesture and a stoical —
“I can get about alone yet.”
It was as if he had taken his line, and would accept no help from men, after having been cast out, like a pre- sumptuous90 Titan, from his heaven. Mr. Van Wyk, ar- rested, seemed to count the footsteps right out of ear- shot. He walked between the tables, tapping smartly with his heels, took up a paper-knife, dropped it after a vague glance along the blade; then happening upon the piano, struck a few chords again and again, vigor- ously, standing up before the keyboard with an atten- tive poise120 of the head like a piano-tuner; closing it, he pivoted121 on his heels brusquely, avoided the little terrier sleeping trustfully on crossed forepaws, came upon the stairs next, and, as though he had lost his balance on the top step, ran down headlong out of the house. His servants, beginning to clear the table, heard him mutter to himself (evil words no doubt) down there, and then after a pause go away with a strolling gait in the direc- tion of the wharf.
The bulwarks122 of the Sofala lying alongside the bank made a low, black wall on the undulating contour of the shore. Two masts and a funnel123 uprose from behind it with a great rake, as if about to fall: a solid, square elevation124 in the middle bore the ghostly shapes of white boats, the curves of davits, lines of rail and stanchions, all confused and mingling125 darkly everywhere; but low down, amidships, a single lighted port stared out on the night, perfectly126 round, like a small, full moon, whose yellow beam caught a patch of wet mud, the edge of trodden grass, two turns of heavy cable wound round the foot of a thick wooden post in the ground.
Mr. Van Wyk, peering alongside, heard a muzzy boastful voice apparently127 jeering128 at a person called Prendergast. It mouthed abuse thickly, choked; then pronounced very distinctly the word “Murphy,” and chuckled129. Glass tinkled130 tremulously. All these sounds came from the lighted port. Mr. Van Wyk hesitated, stooped; it was impossible to look through unless he went down into the mud.
“Sterne,” he said, half aloud.
The drunken voice within said gladly —
“Sterne — of course. Look at him blink. Look at him! Sterne, Whalley, Massy. Massy, Whalley, Sterne. But Massy’s the best. You can’t come over him. He would just love to see you starve.”
Mr. Van Wyk moved away, made out farther forward a shadowy head stuck out from under the awnings131 as if on the watch, and spoke quietly in Malay, “Is the mate asleep?”
“No. Here, at your service.”
In a moment Sterne appeared, walking as noiselessly as a cat on the wharf.
“It’s so jolly dark, and I had no idea you would be down to-night.”
“What’s this horrible raving132?” asked Mr. Van Wyk, as if to explain the cause of a shudder than ran over him audibly.
“Jack133’s broken out on a drunk. That’s our second. It’s his way. He will be right enough by to-morrow afternoon, only Mr. Massy will keep on worrying up and down the deck. We had better get away.”
He muttered suggestively of a talk “up at the house.” He had long desired to effect an entrance there, but Mr. Van Wyk nonchalantly demurred134: it would not, he feared, be quite prudent, perhaps; and the opaque135 black shadow under one of the two big trees left at the landing-place swallowed them up, impenetrably dense136, by the side of the wide river, that seemed to spin into threads of glitter the light of a few big stars dropped here and there upon its outspread and flowing stillness.
“The situation is grave beyond doubt,” Mr. Van Wyk said. Ghost-like in their white clothes they could not distinguish each others’ features, and their feet made no sound on the soft earth. A sort of purring was heard. Mr. Sterne felt gratified by such a beginning.
“I thought, Mr. Van Wyk, a gentleman of your sort would see at once how awkwardly I was situated137.”
“Yes, very. Obviously his health is bad. Perhaps he’s breaking up. I see, and he himself is well aware — I assume I am speaking to a man of sense — he is well aware that his legs are giving out.”
“His legs — ah!” Mr. Sterne was disconcerted, and then turned sulky. “You may call it his legs if you like; what I want to know is whether he intends to clear out quietly. That’s a good one, too! His legs! Pooh!”
“Why, yes. Only look at the way he walks.” Mr. Van Wyk took him up in a perfectly cool and undoubting tone. “The question, however, is whether your sense of duty does not carry you too far from your true interest. After all, I too could do something to serve you. You know who I am.”
“Everybody along the Straits has heard of you, sir.”
Mr. Van Wyk presumed that this meant something favorable. Sterne had a soft laugh at this pleasantry. He should think so! To the opening statement, that the partnership138 agreement was to expire at the end of this very trip, he gave an attentive139 assent41. He was aware. One heard of nothing else on board all the blessed day long. As to Massy, it was no secret that he was in a jolly deep hole with these worn-out boilers. He would have to borrow somewhere a couple of hundred first of all to pay off the captain; and then he would have to raise money on mortgage upon the ship for the new boilers — that is, if he could find a lender at all. At best it meant loss of time, a break in the trade, short earnings140 for the year — and there was always the danger of having his connection filched141 away from him by the Germans. It was whispered about that he had already tried two firms. Neither would have anything to do with him. Ship too old, and the man too well known in the place . . . . Mr. Sterne’s final rapid winking142 remained buried in the deep darkness sibilating with his whispers.
“Supposing, then, he got the loan,” Mr. Van Wyk resumed in a deliberate undertone, “on your own showing he’s more than likely to get a mortgagee’s man thrust upon him as captain. For my part, I know that I would make that very stipulation143 myself if I had to find the money. And as a matter of fact I am thinking of doing so. It would be worth my while in many ways. Do you see how this would bear on the case under discussion?”
“Thank you, sir. I am sure you couldn’t get anybody that would care more for your interests.”
“Well, it suits my interest that Captain Whalley should finish his time. I shall probably take a passage with you down the Straits. If that can be done, I’ll be on the spot when all these changes take place, and in a position to look after YOUR interests.”
“Mr. Van Wyk, I want nothing better. I am sure I am infinitely144. . .”
“I take it, then, that this may be done without any trouble.”
“Well, sir, what risk there is can’t be helped; but (speaking to you as my employer now) the thing is more safe than it looks. If anybody had told me of it I wouldn’t have believed it, but I have been looking on myself. That old Serang has been trained up to the game. There’s nothing the matter with his — his — limbs, sir. He’s got used to doing things himself in a remarkable145 way. And let me tell you, sir, that Captain Whalley, poor man, is by no means useless. Fact. Let me explain to you, sir. He stiffens146 up that old monkey of a Malay, who knows well enough what to do. Why, he must have kept captain’s watches in all sorts of country ships off and on for the last five-and-twenty years. These natives, sir, as long as they have a white man close at the back, will go on doing the right thing most surprisingly well — even if left quite to themselves. Only the white man must be of the sort to put starch76 into them, and the captain is just the one for that. Why, sir, he has drilled him so well that now he needs hardly speak at all. I have seen that little wrinkled ape made to take the ship out of Pangu Bay on a blowy morning and on all through the islands; take her out first-rate, sir, dodging147 under the old man’s elbow, and in such quiet style that you could not have told for the life of you which of the two was doing the work up there. That’s where our poor friend would be still of use to the ship even if — if — he could no longer lift a foot, sir. Provided the Serang does not know that there’s anything wrong.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Naturally not. Quite beyond his apprehension148. They aren’t capable of finding out anything about us, sir.”
“You seem to be a shrewd man,” said Mr. Van Wyk in a choked mutter, as though he were feeling sick.
“You’ll find me a good enough servant, sir.”
Mr. Sterne hoped now for a handshake at least, but unexpectedly, with a “What’s this? Better not to be seen together,” Mr. Van Wyk’s white shape wavered, and instantly seemed to melt away in the black air under the roof of boughs149. The mate was startled. Yes. There was that faint thumping150 clatter151.
He stole out silently from under the shade. The lighted port-hole shone from afar. His head swam with the intoxication152 of sudden success. What a thing it was to have a gentleman to deal with! He crept aboard, and there was something weird153 in the shadowy stretch of empty decks, echoing with shouts and blows proceeding154 from a darker part amidships. Mr. Massy was raging before the door of the berth155: the drunken voice within flowed on undisturbed in the violent racket of kicks.
“Shut up! Put your light out and turn in, you confounded swilling156 pig — you! D’you hear me, you beast?”
The kicking stopped, and in the pause the muzzy oracular voice announced from within —
“Ah! Massy, now — that’s another thing. Massy’s deep.”
“Who’s that aft there? You, Sterne? He’ll drink himself into a fit of horrors.” The chief engineer appeared vague and big at the corner of the engine-room.
“He will be good enough for duty to-morrow. I would let him be, Mr. Massy.”
Sterne slipped away into his berth, and at once had to sit down. His head swam with exultation157. He got into his bunk158 as if in a dream. A feeling of profound peace, of pacific joy, came over him. On deck all was quiet.
Mr. Massy, with his ear against the door of Jack’s cabin, listened critically to a deep stertorous159 breathing within. This was a dead-drunk sleep. The bout3 was over: tranquilized on that score, he too went in, and with slow wriggles160 got out of his old tweed jacket. It was a garment with many pockets, which he used to put on at odd times of the day, being subject to sudden chilly161 fits, and when he felt warmed he would take it off and hang it about anywhere all over the ship. It would be seen swinging on belaying-pins, thrown over the heads of winches, suspended on people’s very door- handles for that matter. Was he not the owner? But his favorite place was a hook on a wooden awning stanchion on the bridge, almost against the binnacle. He had even in the early days more than one tussle162 on that point with Captain Whalley, who desired the bridge to be kept tidy. He had been overawed then. Of late, though, he had been able to defy his partner with impunity163. Captain Whalley never seemed to notice anything now. As to the Malays, in their awe of that scowling164 man not one of the crew would dream of laying a hand on the thing, no matter where or what it swung from.
With an unexpectedness which made Mr. Massy jump and drop the coat at his feet, there came from the next berth the crash and thud of a headlong, jingling, clat- tering fall. The faithful Jack must have dropped to sleep suddenly as he sat at his revels165, and now had gone over chair and all, breaking, as it seemed by the sound, every single glass and bottle in the place. After the terrific smash all was still for a time in there, as though he had killed himself outright166 on the spot. Mr. Massy held his breath. At last a sleepy uneasy groaning167 sigh was exhaled168 slowly on the other side of the bulkhead.
“I hope to goodness he’s too drunk to wake up now,” muttered Mr. Massy.
The sound of a softly knowing laugh nearly drove him to despair. He swore violently under his breath. The fool would keep him awake all night now for cer- tain. He cursed his luck. He wanted to forget his maddening troubles in sleep sometimes. He could detect no movements. Without apparently making the slight- est attempt to get up, Jack went on sniggering to him- self where he lay; then began to speak, where he had left off as it were —
“Massy! I love the dirty rascal169. He would like to see his poor old Jack starve — but just you look where he has climbed to.” . . . He hiccoughed in a superior, leisurely170 manner. . . . “Ship-owning it with the best. A lottery171 ticket you want. Ha! ha! I will give you lottery tickets, my boy. Let the old ship sink and the old chum starve — that’s right. He don’t go wrong — Massy don’t. Not he. He’s a genius — that man is. That’s the way to win your money. Ship and chum must go.”
“The silly fool has taken it to heart,” muttered Massy to himself. And, listening with a softened172 expression of face for any slight sign of returning drowsiness173, he was discouraged profoundly by a burst of laughter full of joyful174 irony175.
“Would like to see her at the bottom of the sea! Oh, you clever, clever devil! Wish her sunk, eh? I should think you would, my boy; the damned old thing and all your troubles with her. Rake in the insurance money — turn your back on your old chum — all’s well — gentle- man again.”
A grim stillness had come over Massy’s face. Only his big black eyes rolled uneasily. The raving fool. And yet it was all true. Yes. Lottery tickets, too. All true. What? Beginning again? He wished he wouldn’t . . . .
But it was even so. The imaginative drunkard on the other side of the bulkhead shook off the deathlike stillness that after his last words had fallen on the dark ship moored176 to a silent shore.
“Don’t you dare to say anything against George Massy, Esquire. When he’s tired of waiting he will do away with her. Look out! Down she goes — chum and all. He’ll know how to. . .”
The voice hesitated, weary, dreamy, lost, as if dying away in a vast open space.
“ . . . Find a trick that will work. He’s up to it — never fear. . .”
He must have been very drunk, for at last the heavy sleep gripped him with the suddenness of a magic spell, and the last word lengthened177 itself into an interminable, noisy, in-drawn snore. And then even the snoring stopped, and all was still.
But it seemed as though Mr. Massy had suddenly come to doubt the efficacy of sleep as against a man’s troubles; or perhaps he had found the relief he needed in the stillness of a calm contemplation that may contain the vivid thoughts of wealth, of a stroke of luck, of long idleness, and may bring before you the imagined form of every desire; for, turning about and throwing his arms over the edge of his bunk, he stood there with his feet on his favorite old coat, looking out through the round port into the night over the river. Sometimes a breath of wind would enter and touch his face, a cool breath charged with the damp, fresh feel from a vast body of water. A glimmer178 here and there was all he could see of it; and once he might after all suppose he had dozed179 off, since there appeared before his vision, unexpectedly and connected with no dream, a row of flaming and gigantic figures — three naught180 seven one two — making up a number such as you may see on a lottery ticket. And then all at once the port was no longer black: it was pearly gray, framing a shore crowded with houses, thatched roof beyond thatched roof, walls of mats and bamboo, gables of carved teak timber. Rows of dwellings181 raised on a forest of piles lined the steely band of the river, brimful and still, with the tide at the turn. This was Batu Beru — and the day had come.
Mr. Massy shook himself, put on the tweed coat, and, shivering nervously182 as if from some great shock, made a note of the number. A fortunate, rare hint that. Yes; but to pursue fortune one wanted money — ready cash.
Then he went out and prepared to descend27 into the engine-room. Several small jobs had to be seen to, and Jack was lying dead drunk on the floor of his cabin, with the door locked at that. His gorge183 rose at the thought of work. Ay! But if you wanted to do nothing you had to get first a good bit of money. A ship won’t save you. He cursed the Sofala. True, all true. He was tired of waiting for some chance that would rid him at last of that ship that had turned out a curse on his life.
收听单词发音 |
1
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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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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apathetically
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| adv.不露感情地；无动于衷地；不感兴趣地；冷淡地 | |
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awning
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| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
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nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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numbness
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| n.无感觉，麻木，惊呆 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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negligently
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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boilers
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| 锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 ) | |
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maliciously
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| adv.有敌意地 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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29
bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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30
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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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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loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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48
circuitous
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| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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49
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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50
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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lamentably
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| adv.哀伤地，拙劣地 | |
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52
hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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53
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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54
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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55
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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56
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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57
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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58
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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59
blackmailing
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| 胁迫，尤指以透露他人不体面行为相威胁以勒索钱财( blackmail的现在分词 ) | |
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60
limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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61
coveting
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| v.贪求，觊觎( covet的现在分词 ) | |
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62
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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63
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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64
tablecloth
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| n.桌布，台布 | |
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65
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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66
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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67
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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68
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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69
incisively
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| adv.敏锐地，激烈地 | |
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70
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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71
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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72
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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73
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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74
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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75
starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
starch
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| n.淀粉；vt.给...上浆 | |
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77
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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78
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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79
muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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80
tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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81
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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82
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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83
landslide
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| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
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84
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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85
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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86
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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87
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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88
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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89
presumptuous
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| adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的 | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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91
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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92
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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93
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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94
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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95
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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97
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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98
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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99
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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100
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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101
incertitude
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| n.疑惑，不确定 | |
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102
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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103
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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104
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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105
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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106
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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107
pitfall
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| n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套 | |
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108
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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109
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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110
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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111
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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112
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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113
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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114
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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115
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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116
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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117
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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118
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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119
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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120
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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121
pivoted
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| adj.转动的，回转的，装在枢轴上的v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开 | |
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122
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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123
funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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124
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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125
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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126
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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127
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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128
jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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129
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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130
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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131
awnings
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| 篷帐布 | |
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132
raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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133
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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134
demurred
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| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
opaque
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| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
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136
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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137
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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138
partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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139
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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140
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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141
filched
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| v.偷（尤指小的或不贵重的物品）( filch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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142
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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143
stipulation
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| n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明 | |
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144
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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145
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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146
stiffens
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| （使）变硬，（使）强硬( stiffen的第三人称单数 ) | |
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147
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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148
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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149
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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150
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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151
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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152
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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153
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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154
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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155
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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156
swilling
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| v.冲洗( swill的现在分词 )；猛喝；大口喝；（使）液体流动 | |
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157
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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158
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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159
stertorous
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| adj.打鼾的 | |
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160
wriggles
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| n.蠕动，扭动( wriggle的名词复数 )v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的第三人称单数 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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161
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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162
tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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163
impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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164
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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165
revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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166
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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167
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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168
exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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169
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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170
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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171
lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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172
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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173
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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174
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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175
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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176
moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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177
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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178
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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179
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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180
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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181
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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182
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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183
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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