The fire in the galley6 was burning well when the two men left, and Dorothy decided7 to postpone8 her dishwashing and tidying up, and to remain on deck and watch their progress. Several times before the tangled9 masts and hulls10, torn canvas, and frayed11 cordage hid them from her view, Howard turned to wave his hand to her and shake his head in token that the search had as yet brought them nothing. When they disappeared at last behind a big, high-floating steamer, she went below to attend to her duties, which included the preparation of what she told herself should be an extra fine dinner, in celebration of the completion of the first stage of their journey.
Time passed rapidly in accompaniment to the cheerful clink of the pans and the rattle12 of the dishes with which she set the table. At last she paused and looked at her watch.
[99]“Twelve o’clock,” she murmured. “He ought to be coming back now.” It was noticeable that she said “he,” not “they.” “I’ll go on deck and look.”
She started up the companionway, then paused, as a faint shout was borne to her ears. “There they are now,” she thought, happily. “I wonder what they have found.” She hurried up the stairway.
The call was repeated as she went, and was unmistakable now. “Ahoy, the ship!” it came again and again.
Cautiously she peered from the door and looked around anxiously. Two unknown sailors were standing14 on the deck of the fire-blackened steamer that lay across the bows of the Queen. As she stared, one of them hailed again. “Ahoy, the steamer!” he shouted.
Dorothy’s first feeling was one of delight.[100] There were people then in this place of desolation, and people, to Dorothy, meant civilization and all that it connotes—including facilities of communication with the world. She was about to answer the hail when something made her hesitate. It might be all right, but she was alone. She turned, and, slipping back to the galley fire, rapidly thrust into it an armful of wet straw. An exclamation15 outside, faintly heard, showed that the smoke had changed accordingly. Twice she repeated the signal with an interval16 between; then warned by the thump17 of feet on the deck overhead, she thrust in a last armful and hurried toward the companionway.
As she reached its top, the sailors appeared at the door. Dorothy bowed.
“Good morning, gentlemen!” she cried. The men started back with one accord; their hands flew to their caps and pulled them from their heads. One seemed too amazed for speech, but the other was somewhat bolder.
[101]“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am,” he stammered18. “I—we—Bill an’ me hailed, but—I hopes you’re well, ma’am.”
Dorothy smiled. “Yes! I’m well,” she returned, “and very glad to see you. Tell me, do you live here?”
“On this ship, ma’am? No, ma’am.”
“Oh, no, I know you don’t live on this ship, for we have just drifted in on it. I mean here.”
She waved her hand comprehensively.
Bill had recovered somewhat by now. “No, ma’am,” he declared positively19. “Joe and me live in little old New York. But we’ve been here ten years!”
“Ten years!” Dorothy’s cheeks paled. “Ten years! Oh! can’t you get away? Don’t tell me you can’t get away!”
“No, ma’am, we can’t get away. We’d go like a shot if we could. You see, ma’am, nothing but wrecks21 ever come in here, and there ain’t no way of getting out.”
“Can’t you build a boat?”
[102]“We might, ma’am, but how could we get it through the weed. Nobody ever has. Everybody who’s ever come in here is here yet.”
“Everybody! How many are there of you?”
“Twenty-two—not countin’ the women and the child.”
“Women! Are there women here? I’m so glad! Oh! poor creatures! Have they—But, there! Come up here and sit down. We drifted in here only yesterday—three of us. The men have gone to explore, but they will be back soon. While we are waiting for them, you must tell me all about everything.”
Dorothy led the way aft, reaching the taffrail just in time to see Howard and Jackson speeding toward her over the wrecks. She waved her hand at them; assured of their safety she felt more secure.
“There comes the rest of our party,” she explained.
[103]The story told by Bill and Joe over the dinner-table was long and involved with many interruptions and many repetitions. According to them, there had always been people living on the assembled wreckage22. The one of their number who had been there longest—for twenty-five years—knew personally others before him who had been there for as long again, and declared that these in turn knew of still others who had been there before them. It seemed very probable that the colony—if such a name could be applied23 to it—had existed for centuries.
The people, like the ships, had always come and never gone; once on the wrecks, they had stayed there till they died. Several of those now there had been born on the wrecks, and had lived there all their lives. Fresh wrecks brought them food, water, clothing, and many luxuries, and if these failed, there were abundant rain, birds’ eggs, and fish to fall back upon. Mostly sailors, trained to handiness,[104] the castaways had developed many lines of industry, and, on the whole, lived very contentedly24.
“Some of us is willing to live here always,” said Joe, “an’ some ain’t—especially at first. But, Lord love ye, they comes round to it after a while, seein’ they’ve got to.”
The castaways, it seemed, had developed a sort of government, under a former ship captain named Peter Forbes, whose ascendency rested partly on the fact that his strength enabled him to overcome everyone who contested the leadership with him, and partly on his native ability. Under his rule, stores were collected from the newly arrived ships and carried, sometimes from miles away, to what may be called the village—the central point where the castaways lived. A patrol—Joe and Bill, at present—was maintained, which made regular trips for fifty miles in each direction, investigating such new wrecks as might[105] come in. The patrol only went as far as fifty miles in order to pick up any new arrivals, it being impracticable to transport stores more than a few miles over the ragged26 surface of the wreckage, even by swinging them on an aerial trolley27 from mast to mast.
Forbes divided up the work, and saw that each individual did his share. He also acted as a fount of justice, settling disputes in a rough-and-ready fashion, and, on occasion, dealing28 out punishments, more or less severe, for infractions of the rules he had laid down. Altogether, he seemed such an exceptional sort of man that Howard could not understand why he had made no effort to escape to shore.
Bill tried to make things clear. “You see, sir,” he explained, “it’s like this: This here weed stretches out for two hundred miles and more. We’d first have to build a boat, and then cut our way through it inch by inch. We couldn’t get[106] grub or water enough in the boat to last us till we got out. An’ if we did get out, where’d we be? At sea without a compass or nothin’! We all wanted to try at first, but Forbes, he explains things to us so plain that we sees how impossible it is. Two or three times coves29 have tried to get out, but they allus got stuck in the weed, an’ mighty30 glad they was to get back to where there was plenty to eat and drink.”
Howard nodded. “I see the difficulty,” he conceded. “But have you no instruments? Of course there are not likely to be many, but I should think you would have found a few in all these years.”
Joe hesitated. “The cap’n allers looks out for them things,” he declared at last. “Nobody knows how to use ’em but him.”
“Ah! I see.”
To himself Howard added that it was tolerably evident that Forbes was not over-anxious to escape; probably he[107] agreed with Cæsar that he “would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome”; and, contented25 with his little realm and sway, threw his influence against any attempt of the others to deplete31 it. Howard felt that he and Forbes might come to a clash later on.
Dorothy changed the subject by asking about the women. There were two, it appeared, one old and one young. The older one, of whom the sailors spoke32 affectionately as Mother Joyce, was nearly sixty years old; she and her husband had been on the wrecks for fifteen years. The younger had been there only two years; she had been a widow, but had married one Gallegher, Forbes’s right-hand man, some time before. The only child in the community was hers.
“So you marry here, just as you do elsewhere?” interjected Dorothy, lightly, at this point. “Who performs the ceremonies?”
Joe hesitated. “Cap’n Forbes used to[108] up to last year,” he answered at last. “Then Mr. Willoughby floated in on a wreck20. He’s a regular gospel sharp, an’ he’s done it since.”
“Gallegher ain’t pretty,” continued Joe, thoughtfully. “An’ I guess Mrs. Strother that was wasn’t over-anxious to marry him. But women is awful skearce here, and they generally gits married right off.” He paused and looked from Dorothy to Howard. “Your wife, sir?” he questioned.
Dorothy flushed hotly, but Howard did not seem to notice it.
“No,” he said. “This is Miss Fairfax. I am Lieutenant33 Howard, of the navy. This is Mr. Jackson, of the New York police force.”
The men ducked their heads awkwardly. “We did have another lady here,” remarked Bill, abstractedly. “She was the cap’n’s wife, but she died a month or two ago. The cap’n is mighty anxious to marry again—mighty anxious.”
[109]“Ah! indeed.” Howard rose from the table. “Come,” he continued, “let’s go on deck. I want you to point out something to me!”
As Dorothy led the way, followed by Bill and Joe, Howard turned to Jackson, who had been listening to the sailors in dazed silence.
“If you want to get away from here, Jackson,” he counselled hurriedly, “for God’s sake keep quiet about me. If you don’t, Forbes is likely to keep us here for the rest of our lives. The chances are he will try to do it anyway.”
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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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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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6
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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7
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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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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hulls
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| 船体( hull的名词复数 )； 船身； 外壳； 豆荚 | |
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11
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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13
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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14
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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15
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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16
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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18
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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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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23
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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29
coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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30
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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31
deplete
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| v.弄空，排除，减轻，减少...体液，放去...的血 | |
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32
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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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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