I tried to sleep, but could not, and hearing one o’clock struck on the forecastle, dropped out of my bunk30 for ten minutes of fresh air on deck. Cutbill sat with his back against the table; the small flame of the lamp that hung without the least vibration31 from the cabin ceiling gleamed in the sweat-drops that coated his face as though oil had been thrown upon him. I said softly, pausing a moment to address him: ‘A wonderfully still night, Cutbill.’
[264]
‘Never remember the like of it, sir,’ he answered in a whisper that had a note of strangling in it, with his effort to subdue32 his natural tempestuous33 utterance34.
‘All quiet aft?’
‘As a graveyard35, sir.’
‘In case Sir Wilfrid Monson should look out and see you, what excuse for being here has Captain Finn provided you with?’
‘I’m supposed to be watching the bayrometer, sir. If Sir Wilfrid steps out I’m to seem to be peering hard at that there mercury, then to go on deck as if I’d got something to report.’
‘Oh, that’ll do, I dare say,’ I exclaimed. ‘He may wonder but that must not signify. Heaven grant, Cutbill, that I am unnecessarily nervous; but we’re a middling full ship; it is the right sort of night, too, to make one feel the hugeness of the ocean and the helplessness of sailors when deprived of their little machinery37 for fighting it; and what I say is, a misgiving under such circumstances ought to serve us as a conviction—so keep a bright look-out, Cutbill. Nothing is going to happen, I dare say; but our business is to contrive38 that nothing shall happen.’
The huge fellow lifted his enormous hand very respectfully to his glistening39 forehead, and I passed on to the deck.
The moon shone brightly and her reflection lay upon the sea like a league-long fallen column of silver, with the ocean going black as liquid pitch to the sides of the resplendent shaft40. Not a wrinkle tarnished41 that prostrate42 pillar of light; not the most fairy-like undulation of water put an instant’s warping43, for the space of a foot, into it. I set the mainmast head by a star and watched it, and the trembling, greenish, lovely point of radiance hung poised44 as steadfastly45 on a line with the truck as though it were some little crystal lamp fixed46 to an iron spike47 up there.
I spied Jacob Crimp near the wheel, but I had come up to breathe and not to talk. I desired to coax48 a sleepy humour into me and guessed that that end would be defeated by a chat with the surly little sailor, with whom I rarely exchanged a few sentences without finding myself drifting into an argument. So I lay over the rail striving to cool my hot face with the breath off the surface of the black profound that lay like a sheet of dark, ungleaming mirror beneath. On a sudden I heard a great sigh out in the gloom. It was as though some slumbering49 giant had fetched a long, deep, tremulous breath in a dream. I started, for it had sounded close, and I looked along the obscure deck forward as if, forsooth, there was any sailor on board whose respiration50 could rise to such a note as that! In a moment I spied a block of blackness slowly melting out like a dye of ink upon the indigo51 of the water with the faint flash of moonlight off the wet round of it. A grampus! thought I; and stared about me for others, but no more showed, and the prodigious52 midnight hush seemed to float down again from the stars like a sensible weight with one wide ripple53 from where the great[265] fish had sunk, creeping like a line of oil to the yacht’s side and melting soundlessly in her shadow.
This grave-like repose54 lasted the night through, and when early in the morning, awakened55 by the light of the newly risen sun, I mounted to the deck, I found the ocean stretched flat as the top of a table, the sky, of a dirty bluish haze56, thickening down and merged57 into the ocean line so that you couldn’t see where the horizon was, save just under the sun where the head of the misty58 white sparkle in the water defined the junction59. It baffled and bothered the sight to look into the distance, so vaporous and heavy it all was, with a dull blue gleam here and there upon the water striking into the faintness like a sunbeam into mist, and all close to, as it seemed, though by hard peering you might catch the glimmer60 of the calm past the mixture of hazy61 light and hues63 where sea and sky seemed to end.
Jacob Crimp had charge. I asked him if all had been quiet below in the cabin.
‘Ay,’ he answered, ‘I’ve heard of nothen to the contrairy. Her ledship came on deck during the middle watch and had a bit of a yarn64 with me.’
‘Indeed!’ said I.
‘Yes, she scared me into a reg’lar clam65. I was standing66 at the rail thinking I see a darkness out under the moon as if a breath of wind were coming along, and a woice just behind me says, “What’s your name?” Nigh hand tarned my hair white to see her, so quiet she came and her eyes like corposants.’
‘What did she talk about?’ said I in a careless way.
‘Asked what the sailor was a-sitting in the cabin for. “To prevent murder being done,” says I. “Murder?” says she. “Yes,” says I, “and to prewent this wessel from being set on fire and blown to yellow blazes,” says I, “for God knows,” says I, “what weight of gunpowder67 ain’t stowed away forrard.” “Who’s a-going to do all this?” says she; so I jist told her that Sir Wilfrid had been took worse, and that the order had come forward that the cabin was to be watched.’
‘What did she say to that?’ I exclaimed.
‘Why, walked to t’other side of the deck and sot down and remained an hour, till I reckoned that when she went below she must ha’ been pretty nigh streaming with dew.’
‘What do you think of the weather, Mr. Crimp?’
‘It’s agin nature,’ he answered. ‘Like lying off Blackwall for smoothness. ’Taint going to last, though. Nothing that’s agin nature ever do, whether it’s weather, or a dawg with two tails, or a cat with eight legs.’
‘I wish you were a magician,’ said I, ‘I’d tassel68 your handkerchief for a strong breeze. A roasting day with a vengeance69, and the first of a long succession, I fear.’
At breakfast I told Miss Laura of Lady Monson’s visit on deck in the middle watch, and the mate’s blunt statement to her. ‘It[266] was a mighty dose of truth to administer,’ said I. ‘She will pass some bad quarters of an hour, I fear. Think of old Jacob talking to her of murder and fire, and explosions unto yellow blazes, whatever that may mean, with her husband sleeping right abreast70 of her cabin and armed, as she must know.’
‘Has he those pistols?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ I answered; ‘I gave the case to one of the stewards71 to return to him, and now I am sorry I did so.’
‘Of course Henrietta will be frightened,’ she exclaimed. ‘I do not envy her in her loneliness. Why should she refuse to see me? I easily understand her objection to showing herself on deck by daylight; but I am her sister; I could sit with her; I could be company for her, win her, perhaps,’ she said with a wistful look, ‘to something like a gentle mood.’ She sighed deeply and continued: ‘Wilfrid scared me yesterday. There was that in his face which shocked me, but I could not explain what it was. Yet I am not the least bit afraid he will commit any deed of violence. Let him be twenty times madder than he now is, his heart is so tender, his spirit so boylike, pure, honourable72, there is so much of sweetness and affection in his nature that I am certain his cruellest delirium73 would be tempered by his qualities.’
I was grateful to her for thus speaking of my poor cousin, but I could not agree with her. The qualities she pinned her faith to had suffered him at all events to shoot Colonel Hope-Kennedy and to make nothing of the man’s death. Yet, thought I, looking at her, seeing how this sweet little creature values, and to a large extent understands him, what devil’s influence was upon the loving, large-hearted, childlike man when he chose the other one for his wife? But, fond of him and sorry for him as I was, I could not have wished it otherwise—for my sake at all events; though on her part it would have made her ‘her ladyship’ and found her a husband whose brain I don’t doubt might year by year have grown stronger in the cheerful and fructifying74 light of her cordial, sympathetic, radiant character.
I looked in upon him after breakfast. Miss Laura wished to accompany me, but I advised her to delay her visit until I had ascertained75 for myself how he did. He was lying in his bunk, a large pipe in his mouth, at which he pulled so heartily76 that his cabin was dim with tobacco smoke. His cheek was supported by his elbow and his eyes fixed upon his watch, a superb gold time-keeper that dangled77 at the extremity78 of a heavy chain hitched79 to a little hook screwed into the deck over his head. On the back of this watch were his initials set in brilliants, and these gems80 made the golden circle show like a little body of light as it hung motionless before his intent gaze. He did not turn his head when I opened the door, then looked at me in an absent-minded way when I was fairly entered.
‘Ah!’ he exclaimed languidly, ‘it is you, Charles. You promised to sit with me awhile last night.’
[267]
‘I did, but the heat below was unendurable. It is no better now. The temperature of this cabin must be prodigious. What calculations are you making?’ said I.
‘None,’ he answered. ‘I have slung81 the watch to observe if there is any movement in the yacht. She is motionless. Mark it. There is not a hairbreadth of vibration. We are afloat, of course?’ he said, suddenly looking at me.
‘I hope so,’ said I. ‘Afloat? Why, what do you suppose, Wilf? That we’ve gone to the bottom?’
‘It would be all one for me,’ he answered with a deep sigh, and then applying himself to his pipe again with a sort of avidity that made one think of a hungry baby sucking at a feeding bottle. He clouded the air with tobacco smoke and said: ‘I am heartily weary of life.’
‘And why?’ cried I: ‘because we are in a dead calm with the equator close aboard. The very deep is rotting. A calm of this kind penetrates82 through the pores of the skin, enters the soul and creates a thirsty yearning83 for extinction84. Being younger than you. Wilf, I give myself another twelve hours, and then, if no breeze blows, I shall, like you, be weary of life and desire to die.’
‘It is easily managed,’ said he.
‘Yes,’ cried I, startled, ‘no doubt; but the weather may change, you know.’ And not at all relishing85 his remark nor the looks that accompanied it, I seized my hat and fell to fanning the atmosphere with the notion of expelling some of the tobacco smoke through the open porthole.
‘I am of opinion,’ said he, puffing86 and dropping his words alternately with the clouds he expelled whilst he kept his eyes fixed upon his watch, ‘that, spite of the arguments of the divines, life is a free gift to us to be disposed of as we may decide. Nature is invariably compensative87. We are brought into this world without our knowledge, and therefore, of course, without our consent, d’ye see, Charles,’ and here he rolled his eyes upon me, ‘and by way of balancing this distracting obligation of compulsory88 being, nature says you may do what you like with existence: keep it or part with it.’
‘I say, Wilfrid,’ said I, ‘there are surely more cheerful topics for an equinoctial dog-day than this you have lighted on. Don’t speculate, my dear fellow; leave poor old nature alone. Take short views, and let the puzzling distance unfold and determine itself to your approach. It is the wayfarers89 who decline to look ahead, who whistle as they trudge90 along the road of life. The melancholy91 faces are those whose eyes are endeavouring to see beyond the horizon towards which they are advancing. Tell me now—about this cabin door of yours. My dear fellow, it must be big enough this morning to enable you to pass through; so come along on deck, will you, Wilfrid?’
‘Damn it, how blind you are!’ he exclaimed.
‘No, I’m not,’ said I.
[268]
‘D’ye mean to say that you can’t see what’s happened to me since we last met?’
‘What now, Wilfrid?’
‘What now?’ he shouted. ‘Why, man, I can’t stand upright.’
‘Why not?’ I asked.
‘Because I’m too tall for this cabin,’ he answered in a voice of passion and grief.
‘Pray when did you find that out?’ said I.
‘On rising to dress myself this morning,’ he answered, ‘I was obliged to clothe myself in my bunk. What a dreadful blow to befall a man! I can’t even quit my bed now, and everything I want must be handed to me.’
Well, well! thought I; God mend him soon. Hot as it was, a chill ran through me to the crazy, wistful, despairful look he directed at me, and I was oppressed for a moment with the same sickness of heart that had visited me during my interview with him on the preceding day.
‘I had resolved to sell the “Bride,”’ said he mournfully, putting his pipe into a shelf at the back of him and folding his hands, which seemed to me to have grown thin and white during the past few days, upon his breast, ‘but I shan’t be able to do so now.’ I was silent. ‘She will have to be broken up,’ he added.
‘Nonsense!’ I exclaimed.
‘But I say yes!’ he suddenly roared; ‘how the devil else am I to get out of her?’
‘Oh, I see!’ I answered soothingly92, ‘I forgot that. But, Wilf, since you’re too big to use this cabin, for the present only, for I am certain you will dwindle93 to your old proportions before long, don’t you think you ought to have an attendant constantly with you, some one at hand sitting here to wait upon you?’
‘Why, yes,’ said he, ‘no doubt of it. I am almost helpless now. But I’ll not have that rascal94 Muffin.’
‘No, no,’ said I. ‘Nor would the stewards make the sort of servants you want. If I were in your place I should like to be waited on by a couple of jolly hearty95 sailors, fellows to take turn and turn about in looking after me, chaps with their memories full of long yarns96, unconventional, sympathetic, no matter how rough their manners, agile97, strong as horses, with lively limbs, used to springing about. One or two such men are to be met forward amongst your crew.’
‘A good idea,’ he cried. ‘Gad! after my experiences of Muffin I’d rather be waited upon by the tarriest of tarry tarpaulins98 than one of your sleek99, soft-stepping, trained rogues100 who come and ask you for a situation with an excellent character in one pocket from their late master, and in the other the contents of his dressing-case. Ha, ha, ha!’ and here he delivered one of his short roars of laughter.
I remained conversing101 with him until an hour was gone. Now that he had put his pipe down the atmosphere of the cabin grew[269] somewhat endurable, yet the heat was extraordinarily102 great, and due, so far as one’s sensations went, not more to the temperature than to the incredible motionlessness of the yacht, so that there was not the faintest stir of air in the porthole. I spoke103 of Lady Monson, fancying that the thought of her might help to steady his mind and bring him away from his crazy notions of growth and expansion; but he would not talk of her; as regularly as I worked round to the subject of her ladyship, as regularly was he sliding off into some other topic. Sometimes I’d think that feeling had utterly changed in him; that there had grown up in him for the woman whom he had again and again vowed104 to me he adored, a loathing105 to which his innate106 good taste forbade him to give expression. How it would be if they should meet I could not tell. Her black tragic107 eyes might not have lost their fascination108, nor her shape of beauty and dignity its power of delighting and enamouring him. But certainly, as we sat conversing, the sort of cowering109 air that accompanied his abrupt110 changing of the subject every time I mentioned his wife’s name was strongly suggestive of disgust and aversion. He talked very sensibly save about his dimensions, but I took notice in him of a hankering after the topic of suicide. Several times he tried to bring me into an argument upon it.
‘Am I to be told,’ he said, ‘that a man’s life is not his own? If not, to whom does it belong, pray?’
‘To heaven,’ I responded sullenly111.
‘Prove it,’ he sneered112.
‘Oh, ’tis too plain and established a fact to need proving,’ said I.
‘If a man’s life is his own,’ he cried, ‘who the deuce in this world has the right to hinder him from doing what he will with it?’
‘Wilf, if this goes on,’ said I, ‘we shall be landed in a religious controversy113; a thing unendurable even under the sign of the frozen serpent, but down here with a thermometer at about 112° in the cabin, no ice nearer than 56° north?—see here, my dear cousin, get you small again as soon as you can, back to your old size, join Laura and myself at the table afresh, walk the decks with us, taste the fragrance114 of a cigar upon the cool night air; realise that your little one is at home waiting for you, and that on your return you will have plenty of homely115 occupation in looking after those excellent improvements in your property which you were telling me the other day you had in your mind. This sudoriferous speculation116 as to whether people have a right to hinder a man from taking his life will then exhale117.’
And so I would go on chatting, talking him away, so to speak, from this gloomy subject which his condition rendered depressing and most uncomfortably significant in his mouth.
However, my visit to him had led to one stroke of good, for on quitting him I at once went to Finn, who was on deck, and told him how Sir Wilfrid had fallen into my scheme and was for having a couple of sailors to wait upon him, one of whom should be constantly in his cabin.
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‘You must be plain with the fellows, captain,’ said I; ‘tell them that Sir Wilfrid’s craze grows upon him and that he must be narrowly watched, but with tact118.’
‘I’ll see to it, sir,’ said he; ‘can’t do better than Cutbill and Furlong, I think. They’re both hearty chaps, chock-a-block with lively yarns, and they’ve both got good tempers. But dorn’t his honour get no better then, sir?’
‘No,’ said I.
‘Dorn’t he feel as if he was a-coming back to his old shape, sir?’
‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ‘yesterday he had only broadened, but this morning he feels so tall that he can’t stand upright.’
‘Well to be sure!’ cried the worthy119 fellow, with his long face working all over with concern and anxiety. ‘It’s all her ladyship’s doing. It’s all her caper-cutting that’s brought him to this. Such a gentle heart as he has, too, and a true gentleman through and through him when his mind sits square in his head? But lor’ bless me, sir, what did he want to go and get married for? ’Taint as if he wanted a home, or a gal22 with money enough to keep him. Not that it’s for me to say a word agin marriage, for my missus has always kept a straight helm steady in my wake ever since I took her in tow. But all the same, I’m of opinion that matrimony is an institootion that don’t fit this here earth. It’s a sort of lock-up; a man’s put into a cell along with a gal. If she’s a proper kind of gal, why well and good. The window dorn’t seem barred and ye don’t take much notice of your liberty being gone; but if she tarns120 out to be of her ladyship’s sort, why there’s nothen to do but to sing out through the keyhole for a rope to hang yourself with, or, if ye ain’t got sperret enough for that remedy, to hang her with.’
The delivery of this harangue121 seemed to ease his mind, and he went forward with a face tolerably composed to give instructions to the two men who were to serve as companions or, to put it bluntly, as keepers to Wilfrid.
The weather held phenomenally silent and breathless. Just before lunch I went right aft, where I commanded the length of the vessel122, and steadfastly watched her, and though I had my eye upon the line of her jibboom I did not see that the end of the spar lifted or fell to the extent of the breadth of a finger-nail. The sole satisfaction that was to be got out of this unparalleled condition of stagnation was the feeling that it could not possibly last. The dim and dirty blue of the sea went rounding not above a mile distant into a like hue62 of atmosphere, with a confused half-blinded vagueness of sky overhead that did not seem to be higher up than twice the height of our masts, and the appearance made you think of sitting in a glass globe sunk a fathom123 or two under water with the light sifting124 through to you in a tarnished, misty, ugly azure125. A strange part of it was that though the sky was cloudless the atmosphere was so thick you could watch the sun, which hovered[271] shapeless as a jelly-fish almost overhead, for a whole minute at a time, without inconvenience; yet his heat bit fiercely for all that; there was a wake, too, under him, flakes126 of muddy yellow-like sheets of a ship’s sheathing127 scaling one under another, as though they were going to the bottom in a procession. If you put your hand upon the rail clear of the awning128 you brought it away with a stamp of pain. I touched the brass129 binnacle hood130 by accident and bawled131 aloud to the burn which raised me a blister132 on the side of my hand that lasted for three days. A sort of impalpable steam rose from the very decks, so that if a man stood still a moment you saw his figure trembling in it like the quivering of an object beheld133 in clear running water. And how am I to express that deeper quality of heat which seemed to come into the atmosphere with the smell of the blistering134 of paint along the yacht’s sides?
Yet there was no fall in the mercury, no hint above or below to indicate a change at hand. Close alongside the burnished135 water lay clear as crystal and gave back every image with almost startling brilliance136. I remember looking over and seeing my face in the clear profound as distinctly as ever I had viewed it in a mirror. It lay like a daguerreotype137 there. It was of course as deep down as I was high above the surface, and I protest it was like looking at one’s self as though one floated a drowned man.
It was the right kind of day for a plunge138, and I pined for a swim, for the delight of the cool embrace of the glass-clear brine. But the skipper would not hear of it.
‘To the first splash, sir,’ he exclaimed, ‘there’d sprout139 up a regular crop of black fins140. It isn’t because there’s nothing showing now that there ain’t a deal more than I for one ’ud care to see close at hand. No sir; be advised by me; don’t you go overboard.’
‘Oh, captain,’ said I, ‘I’ve been a sailor in my day and of course know how to obey orders. But I’ve cruised a good deal in my time in John Sharkee’s waters, and with all due deference141 to you I must say that whenever there are sharks about one or more will be showing.’
‘Sorry to contradict ye, sir, but my answer’s no to that,’ he replied. ‘Tell ’ee what I’ll do, sir—there’s nothen resembling a shark hanging round now, is there?’
We both stared carefully over the water, and I said no.
‘Well, now, sir,’ he exclaimed, ‘I’ll bet ’ee a farden’s worth of silver spoons that I’ll call up a shark to anything I may choose to chuck overboard.’
‘Make it a pennyworth of silver spoons,’ said I, ‘and I’ll bet.’
‘Done,’ said he with a grin, and straightway walked forward. After a little he returned with a canvas-bag stuffed full of rubbish, potato-parings, yarns, shavings enough to make it floatable, and the like. He hitched the end of a leadline to it, jumped on to the taffrail clear of the awning, and whirling it three or four times, sent it speeding some distance away on the quarter. It fell with a splash,[272] and the blur142 it made upon the flawless surface was for all the world like the impress of a damp finger upon a sheet of looking-glass. He towed it gently, and scarce had he drawn143 in three fathoms144 of the line when a little distance past the bag up shot the fin36 of a shark with a gleam off its black wetness as though it were a beer-bottle. He hauled the bag aboard and the fin disappeared.
‘Are they to be egg-spoons or dessert-spoons, Finn?’ said I, laughing. ‘By George, I shouldn’t have believed it, though. But it’s always so. Let a man fancy that he knows anything to the very top of it, and he’s sure to fall in with somebody who has a trick above him.’
But it was too hot for shark-fishing, let alone the mess of a capture on our ivory-white planks145. At first I was for decoying the beasts to the surface and letting fly at them with one of the muskets146 below, but Finn suggested that the firing might irritate Sir Wilfrid. What was to be done but lie down and pant? Miss Laura was so overcome by the heat that for once she proved bad company. At lunch she could not eat; she was too languid to talk.
‘Just the afternoon for a game of draughts,’ said I, in playful allusion147 to the want of air.
She waved away the suggestion with a weak movement. In fact she was so oppressed that when I told her about Wilfrid’s new phase of growth she could only look at me dully as though all capacity of emotion lay swooning in her heart. I sat by her side fanning her, whilst the perspiration148 hopped149 from my forehead like parched150 peas.
‘Oh,’ cried the little creature, ‘how long is this calm going to last? What would I give for an English Christmas day to tumble down out of the sky upon us, with its snow and hail.’
‘Let us go on deck,’ said I; ‘I am certain it is cooler up there.’
We mounted the steps, but she was scarcely out of the companion hatch when she declared it was a great deal hotter above than below, and down she went again. After all, thought I, Sir Wilfrid and his wife are as well off in their cabins as though they had permitted themselves to wander at large about the yacht. Yet it seemed a roasting existence to my fancy for the self-made prisoners when I glanced aft and thought of the size of their cabins, with not air enough to stir a feather in the open ports, and Cutbill’s huge form in Wilfrid’s berth151 to give as distinct a rise to the thermometer there as though a stove had been introduced and a fire kindled152 in it.
All day long it was the same smoky, confused blending of misty blue water and heaven shrouding153 down overhead and closing upon us, with the sea like a dish of polished steel set in the midst of it, bright as glass where we lay, then dimming into a bluish faintness in the atmospheric154 thickness at its confines, and the sun a distorted face of weak yellow brightness staring down as he slided westwards with an aspect that made him look as though he were some newly-created luminary155. At about six o’clock he hung over[273] the sea line glowing like a huge live cinder156, and the air was filled with his smoky crimson157 glare that went sifting and tingling158 into the distance till one was able to see twice as far again, a red gleam of sea opening past the dimness and a delicate liquid dye of violet melting down, as one might have thought, from the highest reaches of the heavens into the eastern atmosphere.
‘Hillo!’ cried I to Jacob Crimp, who was leaning over the side with his face purple with heat and full of loathing of the weather; ‘direct your eyes into the south, will ye, and tell me what you see there?’
He turned with the leisurely159 action peculiar160 to merchant-sailors, lifted the sharp of his hand to his brow and peered sulkily in the direction which I had indicated.
‘Clouds,’ said he. ‘Is that what ye mean?’
‘Yes,’ said I, ‘and a very noble and promising161 coast of them, too, as I believe we shall be finding out presently when the change which I hope their brows are charged with shall have clarified the air.’
In fact I had just then caught sight, away down in the south amidst the haziness162 there, of some bronze streaks163 stretching from south-east to south-west, with here and there dashes of exceedingly faint shadow of the colour of flint. Much looking was not needful; it was quickly to be seen that right astern of our course, though as the yacht lay just then the appearance was off the starboard beam, there had gathered and was slowly mounting a long, heavy body of thunderous cloud scarce visible as yet save in its few bronze outlines.
‘It will mean a change I hope,’ said I to Crimp; ‘more than mere164 thunder and lightning, let us pray. Yet the drop in the glass is scarcely noticeable.’
‘Time something happened anyway,’ said he. ‘Dum me if it ain’t been too hot even for the sharks to show themselves. I allow the “’Liza Robbins” ain’t over sweet just now.’
‘No, I’d rather be you than your brother to-day, Crimp.’
‘Sorry to hear from the captain,’ said he, ‘that Sir Wilfrid’s got the notion in his head that he’s growed in the night till he’s too tall to stand upright.’
‘Yes,’ said I, ‘and I hope his craze may end at that.’
‘There’s but one cure for the likes of such tantrums,’ said he.
‘And pray what is that, Mr. Crimp?’
‘Fright. Git the hair of a chap that’s mad to stand on end, and see if his crazes don’t fly clean off out of it like cannon165 balls out of a broadside of guns.’
‘Ay, but fright, as you call it, might drive my poor cousin entirely166 mad, Mr. Crimp.’
‘No fear,’ he answered. ‘Tell ’ee what I’ll ondertake to do. What’s the hour now?’
‘Call it six o’clock,’ said I.
[274]
‘Well, I’ll ondertake by half-past six to have Sir Wilfrid running about these ’ere decks.’
‘And what’s the prescription167, pray?’
‘Why, there’s a scuttle168 to his cabin, ain’t there?’
‘Yes,’ I answered.
‘An’ it lies open, I allow, a day like this. Werry well. Give me ten minutes to go forrards and black my face and dress up my head according to the notion that’s in my mind; then let me be lowered by a bowline over the side. I pops my head into the scuttle and sings out in a terrible woice, “Hullo, there, I’m the devil,” I says, says I, “and I’ve come,” says I, “to see if ye’ve got any soul left that’s worth treating for.” And what d’ye think he’d do at sight of me? Why run out of his cabin as fast as his legs ’ud carry him.’
‘More likely let fly a pistol at you,’ I exclaimed, laughing at the look of self-complacency with which the sour little fellow eyed me. ‘However, Mr. Crimp, we’ll leave all remedies for Sir Wilfrid alone till we see what yonder shadow to the southward is going to do for us,’ and so saying I stepped below to change my coat for dinner.
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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8
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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9
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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10
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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11
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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12
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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13
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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14
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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16
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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17
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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18
soothes
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| v.安慰( soothe的第三人称单数 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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19
vexes
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| v.使烦恼( vex的第三人称单数 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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20
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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21
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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22
gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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23
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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24
lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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25
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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26
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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27
portentously
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28
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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29
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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30
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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31
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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32
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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33
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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34
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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35
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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36
fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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37
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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38
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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39
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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40
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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41
tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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42
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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43
warping
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| n.翘面，扭曲，变形v.弄弯，变歪( warp的现在分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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44
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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45
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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46
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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47
spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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48
coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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49
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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50
respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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51
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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52
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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53
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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54
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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55
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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56
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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57
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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58
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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59
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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60
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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61
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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62
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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63
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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64
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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65
clam
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| n.蛤，蛤肉 | |
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66
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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67
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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68
tassel
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| n.流苏，穗；v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须 | |
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69
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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70
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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71
stewards
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| （轮船、飞机等的）乘务员( steward的名词复数 )； （俱乐部、旅馆、工会等的）管理员； （大型活动的）组织者； （私人家中的）管家 | |
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72
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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73
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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74
fructifying
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| v.结果实( fructify的现在分词 )；使结果实，使多产，使土地肥沃 | |
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75
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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77
dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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78
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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79
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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80
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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81
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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82
penetrates
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| v.穿过( penetrate的第三人称单数 )；刺入；了解；渗透 | |
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83
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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84
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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85
relishing
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| v.欣赏( relish的现在分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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86
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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87
compensative
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| 偿还的，补充的 | |
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88
compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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89
wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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90
trudge
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| v.步履艰难地走；n.跋涉，费力艰难的步行 | |
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91
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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92
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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93
dwindle
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| v.逐渐变小（或减少） | |
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94
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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95
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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96
yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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97
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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98
tarpaulins
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| n.防水帆布，防水帆布罩( tarpaulin的名词复数 ) | |
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99
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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100
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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101
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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102
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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103
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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104
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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105
loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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106
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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107
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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108
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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109
cowering
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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110
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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111
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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112
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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113
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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114
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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115
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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116
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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117
exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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118
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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119
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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120
tarns
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| n.冰斗湖，山中小湖( tarn的名词复数 ) | |
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121
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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122
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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123
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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124
sifting
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| n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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125
azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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126
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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127
sheathing
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| n.覆盖物，罩子v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的现在分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
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128
awning
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| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
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129
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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130
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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131
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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132
blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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133
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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134
blistering
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| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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135
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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136
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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137
daguerreotype
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| n.银板照相 | |
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138
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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139
sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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140
fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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141
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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142
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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143
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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144
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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145
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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146
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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147
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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148
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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149
hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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150
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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151
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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152
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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153
shrouding
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| n.覆盖v.隐瞒( shroud的现在分词 )；保密 | |
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154
atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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155
luminary
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| n.名人，天体 | |
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156
cinder
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| n.余烬，矿渣 | |
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157
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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158
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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159
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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160
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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161
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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162
haziness
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| 有薄雾，模糊； 朦胧之性质或状态； 零能见度 | |
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163
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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164
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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165
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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166
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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167
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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168
scuttle
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| v.急赶，疾走，逃避；n.天窗；舷窗 | |
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