Two of our boats, with men all safe, we took off the Cisco, and, to Wolf Larsen's huge delight and my own grief, he culled12 Smoke, with Nilson and Leach13, from the San Diego. So that, at the end of five days, we found ourselves short but four men, Henderson, Holyoak, Williams, and Kelly, and were once more hunting on the flanks of the herd14.
As we followed north, we began to encounter the dreaded15 sea-fogs. Day after day the boats were lowered and swallowed up almost before they touched the water, while we on board pumped the horn at regular intervals16, and every fifteen minutes fired the bomb-gun. Boats were continually being lost and found, it being the custom for a boat to hunt, on lay, with whatever schooner picked it up, until such time as it was recovered by its own schooner. But Wolf Larsen, as was to be expected, being a boat short, took possession of the first stray one and compelled its men to hunt with the Ghost, not permitting them to return to their own schooner when we sighted it. I remember how he forced the hunter and his two men below, a rifle at their breasts, when their captain passed by at biscuit-toss and hailed us for information.
Thomas Mugridge, so strangely and pertinaciously17 clinging to life, was soon limping about again and performing his double duties of cook and cabin-boy. Johnson and Leach were bullied18 and beaten as much as ever, and they looked for their lives to end with the end of the hunting season; while the rest of the crew lived the lives of dogs and were worked like dogs by their pitiless master. As for Wolf Larsen and me, we got along fairly well, though I could not quite rid myself of the idea that right conduct for me lay in killing19 him. He fascinated me immeasurably, and I feared him immeasurably; and yet I could not imagine him lying prone20 in death. There was an endurance, as of perpetual youth, about him, which rose up and forbade the picture. I could see him only as living always and dominating always, fighting and destroying, himself surviving.
One diversion of his, when we were in the midst of the herd and the sea was too rough to lower the boats, was to lower with two boat-pullers and a steerer and go out himself. He was a good shot, too, and brought many a skin aboard under what the hunters termed 'impossible hunting conditions.' It seemed the breath of his nostrils21, this carrying his life in his hands and struggling for it against tremendous odds.
I was learning more and more seamanship, and one clear day, a thing we rarely encountered now, I had the satisfaction of running and handling the Ghost and picking up the boats myself. Wolf Larsen had been smitten22 with one of his headaches, and I stood at the wheel from morning until evening, sailing across the ocean after the last lee boat, and heaving to and picking it and the other five up without command or suggestion from him.
Gales we encountered now and again, for it was a raw and stormy region, and, in the middle of June, a typhoon most memorable23 to me, and most important because of the changes wrought24 through it upon my future. We must have been caught nearly at the center of this circular storm, and Wolf Larsen ran out of it and to the southward, first under a double-reefed jib, and finally under bare poles. Never had I imagined so great a sea. The seas previously25 encountered were as ripples26 compared with these, which ran a half-mile from crest27 to crest and which upreared, I am confident, above our masthead. So great was it that Wolf Larsen himself did not dare heave to, though he was being driven far to the southward and out of the seal herd.
We must have been well in the path of the transpacific steamships28 when the typhoon moderated, and here, to the surprise of the hunters, we found ourselves in the midst of seals- a second herd, or sort of rear-guard, they declared, and a most unusual thing. But it was 'Boats over!' the boom, boom of guns, and pitiful slaughter29 through the long day.
It was at this time that I was approached by Leach. I had just finished tallying30 the skins of the last boat aboard when he came to my side, in the darkness, and said in a low tone:
'Can you tell me, Mr. Van Weyden, how far we are off the coast, and what the bearings of Yokohama are?'
My heart leaped with gladness, for I knew what he had in mind, and I gave him the bearings- west-northwest and five hundred miles away.
'Thank you, sir,' was all he said as he slipped back into the darkness.
Next morning No. 3 boat and Johnson and Leach were missing. The waterbreakers and grub-boxes from all the other boats were likewise missing, as were the beds and sea-bags of the two men. Wolf Larsen was furious. He set sail and bore away into the west-northwest, two hunters constantly at the mastheads, and sweeping31 the sea with glasses, himself pacing the deck like an angry lion. He knew too well my sympathy for the runaways32 to send me aloft as lookout33.
The wind was fair but fitful, and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to raise that tiny boat out of the blue immensity. But he put the Ghost through her best paces, so as to get between the deserters and the land. This accomplished35, he cruised back and forth across what he knew must be their course.
On the morning of the third day, shortly after eight bells, a cry that the boat was sighted came down from Smoke at the masthead. All hands lined the rail. A snappy breeze was blowing from the west, with the promise of more wind behind it; and there, to leeward36, in the troubled silver of the rising sun, appeared and disappeared a black speck37.
We squared away and ran for it. My heart was as lead. I felt myself turning sick in anticipation38; and as I looked at the gleam of triumph in Wolf Larsen's eyes, his form swam before me, and I felt almost irresistibly39 impelled40 to fling myself upon him. So unnerved was I by the thought of impending41 violence to Leach and Johnson that my reason must have left me. I know that I slipped down into the steerage, in a daze42, and that I was just beginning the ascent43 to the deck, a loaded shotgun in my hands, when I heard the startled cry:
'There's five men in that boat!'
I supported myself in the companion-way, weak and trembling, while the observation was being verified by the remarks of the rest of the men. Then my knees gave from under me, and I sank down, myself again, but overcome by shock at knowledge of what I had so nearly done. Also, I was very thankful as I put the gun away and slipped back on deck.
No one had remarked my absence. The boat was near enough for us to make out that it was larger than any sealing-boat and built on different lines. As we drew closer, the sail was taken in and the mast unstepped. Oars44 were shipped, and its occupants waited for us to heave to and take them aboard.
Smoke, who had descended45 to the deck and was now standing46 by my side, began to chuckle47 in a significant way. I looked at him inquiringly.
'Talk of a mess!' he giggled48. 'It's a pretty one we've got now.'
'What's wrong?' I demanded.
Again he chuckled49. 'Don't you see there, in the stern- sheets, on the bottom? May I never shoot a seal again if that ain't a woman!'
I looked closely, but was not sure until exclamation50 broke out on all sides. The boat contained four men, and its fifth occupant was certainly a woman.
We were agog51 with excitement, all except Wolf Larsen, who was too evidently disappointed in that it was not his own boat with the two victims of his malice52.
We ran down the flying jib, hauled the jib-sheets to windward and the mainsheet flat, and came up into the wind. The oars struck the water, and with a few strokes the boat was alongside. I now caught my first fair glimpse of the woman. She was wrapped in a long ulster, for the morning was raw, and I could see nothing but her face and a mass of light-brown hair escaping from under the seaman's cap on her head. The eyes were large and brown and lustrous53, the mouth sweet and sensitive, and the face itself a delicate oval, though sun and exposure to briny54 wind had burned the face scarlet55.
She seemed to me like a being from another world. I was aware of a hungry outreaching for her, as of a starving man for bread. But then I had not seen a woman for a very long time. I know that I was lost in a great wonder, almost a stupor,- this, then, was a woman?- so that I forgot myself and my mate's duties, and took no part in helping56 the newcomers aboard. For when one of the sailors lifted her into Wolf Larsen's down-stretched arms, she looked up into our curious faces and smiled amusedly and sweetly, as only a woman can smile, and as I had seen no one smile for so long that I had forgotten such smiles existed.
'Mr. Van Weyden!'
Wolf Larsen's voice brought me sharply back to myself.
'Will you take the lady below and see to her comfort? Make up that spare port cabin. Put Cooky to work on it. And see what you can do for that face. It's burned badly.'
He turned brusquely away from us and began to question the new men. The boat was cast adrift, though one of them called it a 'bloody57 shame,' with Yokohama so near.
I found myself strangely afraid of this woman I was escorting aft. Also, I was awkward. It seemed to me that I was realizing for the first time what a delicate, fragile creature a woman is, and as I caught her arm to help her down the companion-stairs, I was startled by its smallness and softness. Indeed, she was a slender, delicate woman, as women go, but to me she was so ethereally slender and delicate that I was quite prepared for her arm to crumble58 in my grasp. All this in frankness, to show my first impression, after long deprivation59, of women in general and of Maud Brewster in particular.
'No need to go to any great trouble for me,' she protested, when I had seated her in Wolf Larsen's armchair, which I had dragged hastily from his cabin. 'The men were looking for land at any moment this morning, and the vessel60 should be in by night, don't you think so?'
Her simple faith in the immediate61 future took me aback. How could I explain to her the situation, the strange man who stalked the sea like Destiny, all that it had taken me months to learn? But I answered honestly:
'If it were any other captain except ours, I should say you would be ashore62 in Yokohama tomorrow. But our captain is a strange man, and I beg of you to be prepared for anything- understand?- for anything.'
'I- I confess I hardly do understand,' she hesitated, a perturbed63 but not frightened expression in her eyes. 'Or is it a misconception of mine that shipwrecked people are always shown every consideration? This is such a little thing, you know, we are so close to land.'
'Candidly, I do not know,' I strove to reassure64 her. 'I wished merely to prepare you for the worst, if the worst is to come. This man, this captain, is a brute65, a demon66, and one can never tell what will be his next fantastic act.'
I was growing excited, but she interrupted me with an 'Oh, I see,' and her voice sounded weary. To think was patently an effort. She was clearly on the verge67 of physical collapse68.
She asked no further questions, and I vouchsafed69 no remarks, devoting myself to Wolf Larsen's command, which was to make her comfortable. I bustled70 about in quite housewifely fashion, procuring71 soothing72 lotions73 for her sunburn, raiding Wolf Larsen's private stores for a bottle of port I knew to be there, and directing Thomas Mugridge in the preparation of the spare state-room.
The wind was freshening rapidly, the Ghost heeling over more and more, and by the time the state-room was ready she was dashing through the water at a lively clip. I had quite forgotten the existence of Leach and Johnson, when suddenly, like a thunder-clap, 'Boat ho!' came down the open companionway. It was Smoke's unmistakable voice, crying from the masthead. I shot a glance at the woman, but she was leaning back in the armchair, her eyes closed, unutterably tired. I doubted that she had heard, and I resolved to prevent her seeing the brutality74 I knew would follow the capture of the deserters. She was tired. Very good. She should sleep.
There were swift commands on deck, a stamping of feet and a slapping of reefpoints, as the Ghost shot into the wind and about on the other tack34. As she filled away and heeled, the armchair began to slide across the cabin floor, and I sprang for it just in time to prevent the rescued woman from being spilled out.
Her eyes were too heavy to suggest more than a hint of the sleepy surprise that perplexed75 her as she looked up at me, and she half stumbled, half tottered76 as I led her to her cabin. Mugridge grinned insinuatingly77 in my face as I shoved him out and ordered him back to his galley work, and he won his revenge by spreading glowing reports among the hunters as to what an excellent 'Lydy's-myde' I was proving myself to be.
She leaned heavily against me, and I do believe that she had fallen asleep again between the armchair and the state-room. This I discovered when she nearly fell into the bunk78 during a sudden lurch79 of the schooner. She aroused, smiled drowsily80, and was off to sleep again; and asleep I left her, under a heavy pair of sailor's blankets, her head resting on a pillow I had appropriated from Wolf Larsen's bunk.
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1
crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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2
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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3
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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4
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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7
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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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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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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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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11
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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12
culled
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| v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
leach
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| v.分离，过滤掉；n.过滤；过滤器 | |
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14
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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15
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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16
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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17
pertinaciously
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| adv.坚持地；固执地；坚决地；执拗地 | |
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bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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21
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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22
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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23
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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24
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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25
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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28
steamships
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| n.汽船，大轮船( steamship的名词复数 ) | |
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29
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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30
tallying
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| v.计算，清点( tally的现在分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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31
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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32
runaways
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| （轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 ) | |
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33
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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34
tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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35
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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36
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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37
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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38
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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39
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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40
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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42
daze
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| v.(使)茫然，(使)发昏 | |
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43
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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44
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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46
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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47
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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48
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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51
agog
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| adj.兴奋的，有强烈兴趣的； adv.渴望地 | |
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52
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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53
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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54
briny
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| adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋 | |
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55
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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56
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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57
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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58
crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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59
deprivation
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| n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困 | |
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60
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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61
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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62
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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63
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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65
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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66
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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67
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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68
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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69
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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70
bustled
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| 闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促 | |
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71
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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72
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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73
lotions
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| n.洗液，洗剂，护肤液( lotion的名词复数 ) | |
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74
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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75
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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76
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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77
insinuatingly
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78
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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79
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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80
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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