The little boat, moving gently to the vast and tremorless heaving of the sea, seemed abandoned in that world where nothing moved save the swell, and, far away, a frigate3 bird drifting south, dwindling4 and vanishing at last, blotted5 out in the blue of the morning sky.
The man in the stern of the boat lay as though he were dead, his arm curled over a water breaker and his head on his arm; but now, at the first touch of the sun, he moved, sat up, and, clasping his head with both hands, stared about him.
Heavens! What an awakening6 that was from sleep, the absolute and profound sleep that follows on disaster! In a moment, as though his mind had been suddenly lit by a great flash of energy that had been accumulating since he closed his eyes, he saw the whole of the events of the last three days in their entirety; he saw the past right back to his childhood, as men see it in that supreme7 moment that comes to the drowning,[Pg 10] and which lights recollection to its farther frontiers.
He saw the schooner8 Cormorant9 landing at Ginnis' Wharf10 in Frisco, and he saw himself on board of it as second mate, Harrod, the first mate, standing11 by the weather rail, and Coxon, the skipper, just come on board, wiping his face with a red bandanna12 handkerchief before giving orders to cast off from the wharf where the tall Cape13 Horners lay moored14 by the Russian oil tanks, and the grain vessels16 by the great elevators were filling with living wheat.
He saw the Golden Gate and towering Tamalpais and the great Pacific, violent with the ruffling17 of the west wind and rolling toward the coast, to burst in eternal song on the beaches of California.
They were bound for Papeetong, away down near the Low Archipelago, with a trade room well stocked and plenty of copra in prospect18.
The Cormorant was well found, well manned, and Coxon was an A-1 schooner captain; everything promised a prosperous voyage and a quick return, when on the evening of the second day out Coxon had called his second mate down to the saloon.
"Floyd," said he, "it's not for me to say a word to the second mate against the first, but Harrod, though he's the best chap in the world in some ways, has a weak spot, and that's drink. You notice he never touches anything, but there's no knowing how long he's on that tack—it may last the voyage, it mayn't. Not that he's any way out of the common when he's on liquor, but it's never no good to have a man boozy out of port, so, like a good chap, lead him off it if he seems taken that way. He's my own brother-in-law, and as good as they make 'em, else he wouldn't be aboard the[Pg 11] Cormorant. It's my ambition to break him of it, and he's willing to be broke; still, the flesh is weak, as you'll soon discover if you live long in this world and knock against men—and there you are. A word to the wise."
Coxon's own weakness was a violent temper—we all have our weaknesses—and Floyd's was a happy-go-lucky optimism that made him believe in all men. He was only twenty-two, the son of a parson in Devonshire, educated up to fifteen at Blundell's School, set adrift in the world by the death of his father, and choosing the sea, prompted by the master ambition of his life, to be a sailor.
Harrod had run straight for the first week, and then he had fallen. He would appear on deck slightly thick of speech, and sometimes he had a stagger in his walk, and he would repeat his remarks in an uncalled-for way, and tend to turn quarrelsome at the least word.
They could not tell where he got the drink from, nor did they know the fact that his condition was due neither to rum or whisky, but to samshu.
Samshu is a horrible, treacly compound made by the Chinese of the coast; it is not kept in a bottle, but in a jar, and it is the last thing in the way of intoxicants. Balloon Juice, Cape Smoke, Valley Tan vie with each other in villainy, but Samshu is the worst.
It is very rarely found out of Canton and Shanghai, and it had been brought on board the Cormorant by the Chinese cook, who traded it to Harrod for money and tobacco.
A gale19 had struck them, driving them some hundred miles from their course, and when it had passed, Harrod, one afternoon, under the influence of this[Pg 12] stuff, had gone into the hole where paint and varnish20 were stored, carrying a light. A few minutes later came a cry of fire. Coxon was the first man on deck. He saw in a moment that there was no hope. The varnish room was blazing like a torch, belching21 smoke and sparks and jets of flame like a dragon, and just as unapproachable.
There was nothing to be done but take to the boats.
The Kanaka crew and the Chinaman whose samshu jar had done all this bundled into the longboat. Floyd ought to have been with them, but he was held back by the work of victualing and lowering the quarter boat, and they shoved off without him, so the three officers were left—Floyd, in the quarter-boat, and the skipper and Harrod quarreling on deck. Coxon's temper had overmastered him. He was the owner of the Cormorant, and his whole fortune was in the trade on board.
Floyd, hanging on with a boat hook, heard the shouting and stamping of the men on deck. He tried to get on board again to separate them, but the smoke drove him back, the heat was terrific, and he cast off, rowing round to the windward side in the hope of boarding her there. As he passed round the stern he was just in time to see the end of the tragedy, Coxon flinging Harrod over the weather rail and following him into the sea.
Neither of the two men appeared again, and the reason was very obvious—the water was filled with gray, flitting shadows. The tragedy of the burning schooner had made its call through the depths of the sea, and the sharks were assembling for the feast. Floyd waited. The whole of this terrible business had[Pg 13] left him numb23 and almost unmoved. Tragedy thrills one most in the theater; on the real stage the imagination becomes paralyzed before the actual.
He pushed away farther from the flaming schooner; she was burning now like a torch, and volumes of white smoke passed away to leeward24 on the wind.
The sun was setting, and the picture of the burning ship against the glowing western sky would have been unparalleled had there been eyes to see it as a picture. Floyd, gazing at it, watched while the flames, half invisible, like the ghosts of brightly spangled snakes, ran up the masts. He saw the canvas wither25 away, and then he watched her lurch26 as the seams opened to the heat and dip her bowsprit in the sea.
She settled slowly, the sea boiling about her, and then suddenly she plunged27 bow first and vanished.
In less than twenty seconds there was nothing to tell that a vessel15 had been there with the exception of a wreath of smoke dissolving in the blue of evening.
The upper limb of the sun had just passed beneath the horizon, and in the momentary28 twilight29 before the rush of the stars Floyd saw the longboat, far away, and with sail hoisted30 to the wind.
Then the night came down, and at dawn next day the longboat had vanished.
As he awoke from sleep now he saw all these pictures vividly31. Till the night before he had not slept at all, and it was the return to normal conditions of his brain refreshed by sleep that now gave him a full view of his past and his position.
The quarter-boat possessed32 a mast and lugsail; he had stepped the mast and hoisted the sail, which now[Pg 14] hung limp and flicking33 to the warm, steadily34 blowing wind.
He rose up, and, standing with one hand on the mast, looked over the sea. North, south, east, and west it lay blazing in the sunshine, with not a sign of sail or wing on the dazzle and the blueness, an infinite world of sky, an infinite world of water all flooded by the living light of the great golden sun.
Floyd, having glanced about him, returned to his former place in the stern of the boat and began to review his stores; he had taken stock of them twice in the last two days, but had you asked him now to give an account of them he would have been at a loss to say exactly how they stood.
The water breaker was his first consideration. It was half full—enough to last him for six days, he reckoned. There was a full bag of ship's bread, another half full, some tins of potatoes, some tins of canned meat, but no can opener, and a few tins of condensed milk. So much for the provisions. There were also in the boat the ship's papers and a japanned tin box containing the ship's money. These Coxon had flung in before the quarrel between him and Harrod had broken out. There was nothing else at all with the exception of a boat hook and a bailer35.
He had in his pockets a knife and one of those tinder boxes in which the flint strikes on a wheel, a pocket handkerchief, a few loose matches, and a pipe and some tobacco. It was American navy twist, and he had nearly half a pound of it. It was the first thing he found in his cabin on rushing down, and it was the only thing he had taken away.
Having breakfasted off a biscuit and a bit of meat[Pg 15] from one of the cans which he managed to haggle36 open with his knife, he lit his pipe, brought the sheet aft, and took the tiller. It did not matter in the least where he steered37, for Australia and China lay away to the west, the whole continent of America to the east—both were hopeless; the Low Archipelago lay to the south, and the hope of an island was just as brilliant in any given direction.
So he gave his sail to the wind, trusting in God.
As the morning wore on, the sea line became hung with light, fleecy clouds that deepened the far-off blue of the sea. This fringe of light cloud often hangs on the skirts of the Trades. Steering38, Floyd could hear the tune22 of the water as it flapped on the boarding and rippled39 in the wake. The breeze was not strong enough to raise any sea, and the swell was scarcely perceptible unless to the eye.
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1
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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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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3
frigate
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| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
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4
dwindling
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| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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6
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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7
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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8
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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cormorant
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| n.鸬鹚，贪婪的人 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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11
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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bandanna
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| n.大手帕 | |
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13
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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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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15
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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17
ruffling
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| 弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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21
belching
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| n. 喷出，打嗝 动词belch的现在分词形式 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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30
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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33
flicking
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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35
bailer
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| 汲出积水的人，水斗； 水瓢； 水勺 | |
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36
haggle
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| vi.讨价还价，争论不休 | |
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37
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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38
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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