I had every reason to be satisfied with my disguise,--if such it could be called. Captain Selover at first failed to recognise me. Then he burst into his shrill1 cackle.
"Didn't know you," he trebled. "But you look shipshape. Come, I'll show you your quarters."
Immediately I discovered what I had suspected before; that on so small a schooner2 the mate took rank with the men rather than the afterguard. Cabin accommodations were of course very limited. My own lurked3 in the waist of the ship--a tiny little airless hole.
"Here's where Johnson stayed," proffered4 Selover. "You can bunk5 here, or you can go in the foc'sle with the men. They's more room there. We'll get under way with the turn of the tide."
He left me. I examined the cabin. It was just a trifle larger than its single berth6, and the berth was just a trifle larger than myself. My chest would have to be left outside. I strongly suspected that my lungs would have to be left outside also; for the life of me I could not see where the air was to come from. With a mental reservation in favour of investigating the forecastle, I went on deck.
The _Laughing Lass_ was one of the prettiest little schooners7 I ever saw. Were it not for the lines of her bilges and the internal arrangement of her hold, it might be imagined she had been built originally as a pleasure yacht. Even the rake of her masts, a little forward of the plumb8, bore out this impression, which a comparatively new suit of canvas, well stopped down, brass9 stanchions forward, and two little guns under tarpaulins10, almost confirmed. One thing struck me as peculiar11. Her complement12 of boats was ample enough. She had two surf boats, a dingy13, and a dory slung14 to the davits. In addition another dory,--the one you picked me up in--was lashed15 to the top of the deck house.
"They'd mighty16 near have a boat apiece," I thought, and went forward.
Just outside the forecastle hatch I paused. Someone below was singing in a voice singularly rich in quality. The words and the quaintness17 of the minor18 air struck me immensely and have clung to my memory like a burr ever since.
"'Are you a man-o'-war or a privateer,' said he.
_Blow high, blow low, what care we!_
'Oh, I am a jolly pirate, and I'm sailing for my fee.'
_Down on the coast of the high Barbare-e-e."_
I stepped to the companion. The voice at once ceased. I descended19.
A glimmer20 of late afternoon struggled through the deadlights. I found myself in a really commodious21 space,--extending far back of where the forward bulk-heads are usually placed,--accommodating rows and row of bunks22--eighteen of them, in fact. The unlighted lamp cast its shadow on wood stained black by much use, but polished like ebony from the continued friction23 of men's garments. I wish I could convey to you the uncanny effect, this--of dropping from the decks of a miniature craft to the internal arrangements of a square-rigged ship. It was as though, entering a cottage door, you were to discover yourself on the floor of Madison Square Garden. A fresh sweet breeze of evening sucked down the hatch. I immediately decided25 on the forecastle. Already it was being borne in on me that I was little more than a glorified26 bo's'n's mate. The situation suited me, however. It enabled me to watch the course of events more safely, less exposed to the danger of recognition.
I stood for a moment at the foot of the companion accustoming27 my eyes to the gloom. After a moment, with a shock of surprise, I made out a shining pair of bead-points gazing at me unblinkingly from the shadow under the bitts. Slowly the man defined himself, as a shape takes form in a fog. He was leaning forward in an attitude of attention, his elbows resting on his knees, his forearms depending between them, his head thrust out. I could detect no faintest movement of eyelash, no faintest sound of breathing. The stillness was portentous29. The creature was exactly like a wax figure, one of the sort you meet in corridors of cheap museums and for a moment mistake for living beings. Almost I thought to make out the customary grey dust lying on the wax of his features.
I am going to tell you more of this man, because, as you shall see, he was destined30 to have much to do with my life, the fate of Dr. Karl Augustus Schermerhorn, and the doom31 of the _Laughing Lass_.
He wore on his head a red bandana handkerchief. I never saw him with other covering. From beneath It straggled oily and tangled32 locks of glossy33 black. His face was long, narrow, hook-nosed and sinister34; his eyes, as I have described them, a steady and beady black. I could at first glance ascribe great activity, but only moderate strength to his slender, wiry figure. In this I was mistaken. His sheer physical power was second only to that of Captain Selover. One of his forearms ended in a steel hook. At the moment I could not understand this; could not see how a man so maimed could be useful aboard a ship. Later I wished we had more as handy. He knew a jam hitch35 which he caught over and under his hook quicker than most men can grasp a line with the naked hand. It would render one way, but held fast the other. He told me it was a cinch-hook hitch employed by mule36 packers in the mountains, and that he had used it on swamp-hooks in the lumber37 woods of Michigan. I shouldn't wonder. He was a Wandering Jew.--His name was Anderson, but I never heard him called that. It was always "Handy Solomon" with men and masters.
We stared at each other, I fascinated by something, some spell of the ship, which I have never been able to explain to myself--nor even describe. It was a mystery, a portent28, a premonition such as overtakes a man sometimes in the dark passageways of life. I cannot tell you of it, nor make you believe--let it pass----
Then by a slow process of successive perceptions I became aware that I was watched by other eyes, other wax figures, other human beings with unwavering gaze. They seemed to the sense of mystic apprehension38 that for the moment held possession of me, to be everywhere--in the bunks, on the floor, back in the shadows, watching, watching, watching from the advantage of another world.
I don't know why I tell you this; why I lay so much stress on the first weird39 impression I got of the forecastle. It means something to me now--in view of all that happened subsequently. Almost can I look back and see, in that moment of occultism, a warning, an enlightenment----But the point is, it meant something to me then. I stood there fascinated, unable to move, unable to speak.
Then the grotesque40 figure in the corner stirred.
"Well, mates," said the man, "believe or not believe, it's in the book, and it stands to reason, too. We have gold mines here in Californy and Nevada and all them States; and we hear of gold mines in Mexico and Australia, too, but did you ever hear tell of gold mines in Europe? Tell me that! And where did the gold come from then, before they discovered America? Tell me that! Why they made it, just as the man that wrote this-here says, and you can kiss the Book on that."
"How about that place, Ophir, I read about?" asked a voice from the bunks.
The man shot a keen glance thither41 from beneath his brows.
"Know last year's output from the mines of Ophir, Thrackles?" he inquired in silky tones.
"Why, no," stammered42 the man addressed as Thrackles.
"Well I do," pursued the man with the steel hook, "and it's just the whole of nothing, and you can kiss the Book on that too! There ain't any gold output, because there ain't any mines, and there never have been. They made their gold."
He tossed aside a book he had been holding in his left hand. I recognised the fat little paper duodecimo with amusement, and some wonder. The only other copy I had ever laid my eyes on is in the Astor Library. It is somewhat of a rarity, called _The Secret of Alchemy, or the Grand Doctrine43 of Transmutation Fully44 Explained_, and was written by a Dr. Edward Duvall,--a most extraordinary volume to have fallen into the hands of seamen45.
I stepped forward, greeting and being greeted. Besides the man I have mentioned they were four. The cook was a bullet-headed squat46 negro with a broken nose. I believe he had a name,--Robinson, or something of that sort. He was to all of us, simply the Nigger. Unlike most of his race, he was gloomy and taciturn.
Of the other two, a little white-faced, thin-chested youth named Pulz, and a villainous-looking Mexican called Perdosa, I shall have more to say later.
My arrival broke the talk on alchemy. It resumed its course in the direction of our voyage. Each discovered that the others knew nothing; and each blundered against the astounding47 fact of double wages.
"All I know is the pay's good; and that's enough," concluded Thrackles, from a bunk.
"The pay's too good," growled48 Handy Solomon.
"This ain't no job to go look at the 'clipse of the moon, or the devil's a preacher!"
"W'at you maik heem, den24?" queried49 Perdosa.
"It's treasure, of course," said Handy Solomon shortly.
"He, he, he!" laughed the negro, without mirth.
"What's the matter with you, Doctor?" demanded Thrackles.
"Treasure!" repeated the Nigger. "You see dat box he done carry so cairful? You see dat?"
A pause ensued. Somebody scratched a match and lit a pipe.
"No, I don't see that!" broke out Thrackles finally, with some impatience50. "I _sabe_ how a man goes after treasure with a box; but why should he take treasure away in a box? What do you think, Bucko?" he suddenly appealed to me.
I looked up from my investigation51 of the empty berths52.
"I don't think much about it," I replied, "except that by the look of the stores we're due for more than Honolulu; and from the look of the light we'd better turn to on deck."
An embarrassed pause fell.
"Who are you, anyway?" bluntly demanded the man with the steel hook.
"My name is Eagen," I replied; "I've the berth of mate. Which of these bunks are empty?"
They indicated what I desired with just a trace of sullenness53. I understood well enough their resentment54 at having a ship's officer quartered on them,--the forec'stle they considered as their only liberty when at sea, and my presence as a curtailment55 to the freedom of speech. I subsequently did my best to overcome this feeling, but never quite succeeded.
At my command the Nigger went to his galley56, I ascended57 to the deck. Dusk was falling, in the swift Californian fashion. Already the outlines of the wharf58 houses were growing indistinct, and the lights of the city were beginning to twinkle. Captain Selover came to my side and leaned over the rail, peering critically at the black water against the piles.
"She's at the flood," he squeaked59. "And here comes the Lucy Belle60."
The tug61 took us in charge and puffed62 with us down the harbour and through the Golden Gate. We had sweated the canvas on her, even to the flying jib and a huge club topsail she sometimes carried at the main, for the afternoon trades had lost their strength. About midnight we drew up on the Farallones.
The schooner handled well. Our crew was divided into three watches--an unusual arrangement, but comfortable. Two men could sail her handily in most sorts of weather. Handy Solomon had the wheel. Otherwise the deck was empty. The man's fantastic headgear, the fringe of his curling oily locks, the hawk63 outline of his face momentarily silhouetted64 against the phosphorescence astern as he glanced to windward, all lent him an appearance of another day. I could almost imagine I caught the gleam of silver-butted horse pistols and cutlasses at his waist.
I brooded in wonder at what I had seen and how little I had explained. The number of boats, sufficient for a craft of three times the tonnage; the capacity of the forec'stle with its eighteen bunks, enough for a passenger ship,--what did it mean? And this wild, unkempt, villainous crew with its master and his almost ridiculous contrast of neatness and filth;--did Dr. Schermerhorn realise to what he had trusted himself and his precious expedition, whatever it might be?
The lights of shore had sunk; the _Laughing Lass_ staggered and leaped joyously65 with the glory of the open sea. She seemed alone on the bosom66 of the ocean; and for the life of me I could not but feel that I was embarked67 on some desperate adventure. The notion was utterly68 illogical; that I knew well. In sober thought, I, a reporter, was shadowing a respectable and venerable scientist, who in turn was probably about to investigate at length some little-known deep-sea conditions or phenomena69 of an unexplored island. But that did not suffice to my imagination. The ship, its surroundings, its equipment, its crew--all read fantastic. So much the better story, I thought, shrugging my shoulders at last.
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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schooners
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| n.（有两个以上桅杆的）纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 ) | |
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plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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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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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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complement
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| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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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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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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quaintness
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| n.离奇有趣，古怪的事物 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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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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commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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accustoming
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| v.（使）习惯于( accustom的现在分词 ) | |
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portent
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| n.预兆；恶兆；怪事 | |
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portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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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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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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berths
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| n.（船、列车等的）卧铺( berth的名词复数 )；（船舶的）停泊位或锚位；差事；船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 )；占铺位 | |
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sullenness
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| n. 愠怒, 沉闷, 情绪消沉 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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curtailment
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| n.缩减，缩短 | |
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galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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squeaked
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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silhouetted
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| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
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joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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