Dick watched as the golden brow, almost submerged, showed a lingering crescent of fire and then sank, carrying the day with it as Marua had sunk carrying with it his youth and the last visible threads connecting him with civilization.
He turned. Le Moan had taken the wheel.
The sails that had been golden were now ghost white and a topaz star had already pierced the pansy blue where in the west the new moon hung like a little tilted2 boat.
“To the south,” cried Aioma. “E Haya—to the south, Le Moan, to Karolin now that we have seen there is nothing to be seen, to the south; to the south, for I am weary of these waters.”
Le Moan, dumb and dim in the starlight now flooding the world, spun3 the wheel; on the rattle4 of the rudder chain came the thrashing of canvas and the schooner5 bowing to the swell6 lay over on the port tack—due east.
“The current is fighting us,” said she, “and I would get beyond it. Have patience, Aioma, the way is clear to me.”
He turned away satisfied and lay down on deck. Dick, who had brought up some blankets from below to serve as a sleeping mat, lay down by him, and the kanakas, all but Poni and Tahuku, went to their bunks8 in the foc’sle.
Aioma, lying on his face with his forehead on his arms, heard the rattle of the rudder chain and knew that Le Moan was edging now to the south. She would steer9 all night with the help of Poni, and sure of her and sure of Karolin showing before them at daybreak, he let his mind wander, now to the canoe-building, now to the spearing of great fish, till sleep took him as it had taken Dick.
Le Moan, steering10, could see their bodies in the starlight, and beyond them Poni and Tahuku seated close to the galley11, their heads together talking and smoking, heedless of everything but the eternal chatter12 about nothing which they could keep up for hours together, whilst the schooner under the hands of the steersman was heading again due east.
An hour after midnight the wind shifted, blowing from the west of south. Poni came aft to see if Le Moan wanted anything, food, water, a drinking nut—she wanted nothing; as she had steered13 all that night long ago towards Karolin, she steered now, tireless, wrapt in herself, without effort.
As the dawn showed in the eastern sky she altered the course to full south and handed the wheel to Poni.
She had done her work, e Haya, steered they for ever now they would never raise Karolin—so far to the west that even the lagoon14 light would be all but invisible.
The first sun ray brought Aioma to his feet, he saw Poni at the wheel and Le Moan lying near him fast asleep like a creature caught back into darkness now that her work was done. The sunrise to port told him that the ship was heading south, then he came forward and looked.
The southern sea showed no sign and the southern sky no hint of the great lagoon. Not a bird’s wing appeared.
“There is nothing,” said Aioma—“yet we have come all the night and she is never wrong—not even the light in the sky. Yet by now the trees should have shown.”
Dick, gazing into the remote south at the blue and perfect and pitiless sky, unbroken at the sea line, unstained above it, drew in his breath; a cold hand seemed placed on his heart. Where then was Karolin?
“Who knows,” said Aioma, “it may show when the sun is higher. Let us wait.”
They waited and watched whilst the sun rose in the sky, but the sun revealed nothing that the dawn had not shown—nothing save away to the westward16 unseen by them and so faint as scarcely to be seen, a pale spot in the higher blue—the light of Karolin.
Aioma came running aft. He shook Le Moan and roused her from her sleep and she came forward and stood in the bow, sheltering her eyes against the light.
“It is not there,” said she; “I can see nothing with my eyes nor in my mind—the power has gone from me, Aioma, it has been taken from me in my sleep.”
Aioma struck his head with the flat of his hand, then he turned to her as she stood there with the lie on her lips, close to, almost touching17 Dick, who stood, his hand on the rail, scarcely breathing.
“Gone from you,” cried the canoe-builder, “taken in sleep, aie, what is this! We are adrift and astray, gone! And who could take it but Uta Matu. Taori, we are lost, we are in the hands of the viewless ones; their nets have taken us. I told you this, yet you would not put back. Never more shall we see Karolin.”
Dick did not move. He saw again the figure of Katafa as she stood on the beach when they were leaving, that loved figure from which he had parted with scarcely a thought, so full was he of the schooner and the dream of sailing her on the outer sea. Katafa who even then was watching for him away beneath that tiny stain on the western sky, grown so faint now as to be almost invisible.
Even last night when sure of return, his heart had longed for her, he had dreamed of her; by a thousand little threads, each living, she had joined herself to his very being, and he would never see her again!
“Never more shall we see Karolin.” He turned to the desolate south, to the west, to the east; then, heedless of the others, a savage18 in his grief, he cast himself on the deck, his face on his arms as if to hide himself from the hateful sun.
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1
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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2
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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3
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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4
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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5
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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7
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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8
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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9
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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10
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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11
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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12
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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13
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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14
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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15
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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16
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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17
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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18
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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