I had unloaded the boat and carried its contents high up on the beach, where I had set about making a camp. There was driftwood, though not much, on the beach, and the sight of a coffee-tin I had taken from the Ghost's larder2 had given me the idea of a fire.
'Blithering idiot!' I was continuing.
But Maud said, 'Tut! tut!' in gentle reproval, and then asked why I was a blithering idiot.
'No matches!' I groaned3. 'Not a match did I bring! And now we shall have no hot coffee, soup, tea, nor anything.'
'Wasn't it er- Crusoe who rubbed sticks together?' she drawled.
'But I have read the personal narratives4 of a score of shipwrecked men who tried, and tried in vain,' I answered. 'I remember Winters, a newspaper fellow with an Alaskan and Siberian reputation. Met him at the Bibelot once, and he was telling us how he attempted to make a fire with a couple of sticks. It was most amusing. He told it inimitably, but it was the story of a failure. I remember his conclusion, his black eyes flashing as he said: "Gentlemen, the South Sea Islander may do it, the Malay may do it, but, take my word, it's beyond the white man."'
'Oh, well, we've managed so far without it,' she said cheerfully; 'and there's no reason why we cannot still manage without it.'
'But think of the coffee!' I cried. 'It's good coffee, too. I know; I took it from Larsen's private stores. And look at that good wood.'
I confess that I wanted the coffee badly, and I learned not long afterward6 that the berry was likewise a little weakness of Maud's. Besides, we had been so long on a cold diet that we were numb7 inside as well as out. Anything warm would have been most gratifying. But I complained no more, and set about making a tent of the sail for Maud.
I had looked upon it as a simple task, what with the oars8, mast, boom, and sprit, to say nothing of plenty of lines. But as I was without experience, and as every detail was an experiment and every successful detail an invention, the day was well gone before her shelter was an accomplished9 fact. And then that night it rained, and Maud was flooded out and driven back into the boat.
The next morning I dug a shallow ditch around the tent, and, an hour later, a sudden gust10 of wind, whipping over the rocky wall behind us, picked up the tent and smashed it down on the sand thirty yards away.
Maud laughed at my crestfallen11 expression, and I said: 'As soon as the wind abates12 I intend going in the boat to explore the island. There must be a station somewhere, and men. And ships must visit the station. Some government must protect all these seals. But I wish to have you comfortable before I start.'
'I should like to go with you,' was all she said.
'It would be better if you remained. You have had enough of hardship. It is a miracle that you have survived. And it won't be comfortable in the boat, rowing and sailing in this rainy weather. What you need is rest, and I should like you to remain and get it.'
Something suspiciously akin1 to moistness dimmed her beautiful eyes before she dropped them and partly turned away her head.
'I should prefer going with you,' she said in a low voice, in which there was just a hint of appeal.
'I might be able to help you a-' her voice broke- 'a little. And if anything should happen to you, think of me left here alone.'
'Oh, I intend being very careful,' I answered. 'And I shall not go so far but what I can get back before night. Yes, all said and done, I think it vastly better for you to remain and sleep and rest and do nothing.'
She turned and looked me in the eyes. Her gaze was soft but unfaltering.
'Please, please!' she said very softly.
I stiffened13 myself to refuse, and shook my head. Still she waited and looked at me, I tried to word my refusal, but wavered. I saw the glad light spring into her eyes, and knew that I had lost. It was impossible to say no after that.
The wind died down in the afternoon, and we were prepared to start the following morning. There was no way of penetrating14 the island from our cove15, for the walls rose perpendicularly16 from the beach, and on each side of the cove rose from the deep water.
Morning broke dull and gray, but calm, and I was awake early and had the boat in readiness.
'Fool! Imbecile! Yahoo!' I shouted, when I thought it was meet to arouse Maud; but this time I shouted in merriment as I danced about the beach, bareheaded, in mock despair.
Her head appeared under the flap of the sail.
'What now?' she asked sleepily and, withal, curiously17.
'Coffee!' I cried. 'What do you say to a cup of coffee- hot coffee, piping hot?'
'My!' she murmured, 'you startled me. And you are cruel. Here I have been composing my soul to do without it, and here you are vexing18 me with your vain suggestions.'
'Watch me,' I said.
From under clefts19 among the rocks I gathered a few dry sticks and chips. These I whittled20 into shavings or split into kindling21. From my notebook I tore out a page, and from the ammunition-box took a shotgun shell. Removing the wads from the latter with my knife. I emptied the powder on a flat rock. Next I pried22 the primer, or cap, from the shell, and laid it on the rock in the midst of the scattered23 powder. All was ready. Maud still watched from the tent. Holding the paper in my left hand, I smashed down upon the cap with a rock held in my right. There was a puff24 of white smoke, a burst of flame, and the rough edge of the paper was alight.
Maud clapped her hands gleefully. 'Prometheus!' she cried.
But I was far too busy to acknowledge her delight. The feeble flame must be cherished tenderly if it were to gather strength and live. I fed it shaving by shaving and sliver25 by sliver, till at last it was snapping and crackling as it laid hold of the smaller chips and sticks. To be cast away on an island had not entered into my calculations, so we were without a kettle or cooking-utensils of any sort; but I made shift with the tin used for baling the boat, and later, as we consumed our supply of canned goods, we accumulated quite an imposing26 array of cooking-vessels.
I boiled the water, but it was Maud who made the coffee. And how good it was! My contribution was canned beef fried with crumpled27 sea-biscuit and water. The breakfast was a success, and we sat about the fire much longer than enterprising explorers should have done, sipping28 the hot black coffee and talking over our situation.
I was confident that we would find a station in some one of the coves29, for I knew that the rookeries of Bering Sea were thus guarded; but Maud advanced the theory- to prepare me for disappointment, I do believe, if disappointment were to come- that we had discovered an unknown rookery. She was in very good spirits, however, and made quite merry in accepting our plight30 as a grave one.
'If you are right,' I said, 'then we must prepare to winter here. Our food will not last, but there are the seals. They go away in the fall, so I must soon begin to lay in a supply of meat. Then there will be huts to build, and driftwood to gather. Also, we shall try out seal fat for lighting31 purposes. Altogether, we'll have our hands full if we find the island uninhabited. Which we shall not, I know.'
But she was right. We sailed with a beam wind along the shore, searching the coves with our glasses, and landing occasionally, without finding a sign of human life. Yet we learned that we were not the first that had landed on Endeavor Island. High up on the beach of the second cove from ours, we discovered the splintered wreck5 of a boat- a sealer's boat, for the rowlocks were bound in sennit, a gun-rack was on the starboard side of the bow, and in white letters was faintly visible Gazelle No. 2. The boat had lain there for a long time, for it was half filled with sand, and the splintered wood had that weather-worn appearance due to long exposure to the elements. In the stern-sheets I found a rusty32 ten-gauge shotgun and a sailor's sheath-knife broken short across and so rusted33 as to be almost unrecognizable.
'They got away,' I said cheerfully; but I felt a sinking at the heart and seemed to divine the presence of bleached34 bones somewhere on that beach.
I did not wish Maud's spirits to be dampened by such a find, so I turned seaward again with our boat and skirted the northeastern point of the island. There were no beaches on the southern shore, and by early afternoon we rounded the black promontory35 and completed the circumnavigation of the island. I estimated its circumference36 at twenty-five miles, its width as varying from two to five miles; while my most conservative calculation placed on its beaches two hundred thousand seals. The island was highest at its extreme southwestern point, the headlands and backbone37 diminishing regularly until the northeastern portion was only a few feet above the sea. With the exception of our little cove, the other beaches sloped gently back for a distance of half a mile or so, into what I might call rocky meadows, with here and there patches of moss38 and tundra39 grass. Here the seals hauled out, and the old bulls guarded their harems, while the young bulls hauled out by themselves.
This brief description is all that Endeavor Island merits. Damp and soggy where it was not sharp and rocky, buffeted40 by storm-winds and lashed41 by the sea, with the air continually a-tremble with the bellowing42 of two hundred thousand amphibians43, it was a melancholy44 and miserable45 sojourning-place. Maud, who had prepared me for disappointment, and who had been sprightly46 and vivacious47 all day, broke down as we landed in our own little cove. She strove bravely to hide it from me, but while I was kindling another fire I knew she was stifling48 her sobs49 in the blankets under the sail-tent.
It was my turn to be cheerful, and I played the part to the best of my ability, and with such success that I brought the laughter back into her dear eyes and song on her lips, for she sang to me before she went to an early bed. It was the first time I had heard her sing, and I lay by the fire, listening and transported; for she was nothing if not an artist in everything she did, and her voice, though not strong, was wonderfully sweet and expressive50.
I still slept in the boat, and I lay awake long that night, gazing up at the first stars I had seen in many nights and pondering the situation. Responsibility of this sort was a new thing to me. Wolf Larsen had been quite right. I had stood on my father's legs. My lawyers and agents had taken care of my money for me. I had had no responsibilities at all. Then, on the Ghost, I had learned to be responsible for myself. And now, for the first time in my life, I found myself responsible for some one else. And it was required of me that this should be the gravest of responsibilities, for she was the one woman in the world- the one small woman, as I loved to think of her.
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1
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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larder
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| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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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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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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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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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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abates
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| 减少( abate的第三人称单数 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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perpendicularly
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| adv. 垂直地, 笔直地, 纵向地 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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whittled
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| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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sliver
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| n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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tundra
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| n.苔原，冻土地带 | |
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40
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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41
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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42
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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43
amphibians
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| 两栖动物( amphibian的名词复数 )； 水陆两用车； 水旱两生植物； 水陆两用飞行器 | |
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44
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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45
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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49
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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