V
I GIVE CAPTAIN LUKE MY ANSWER
For the rest of that day, and for the two days following, Captain Lukedid not in any way refer to his offer; and as he showed himself morethan ever friendly, and talked away to me in his usual entertainingfashion, my rage and fright began to go off a little--though atbottom, of course, there was no change in my opinions, nor any doubtas to my giving him a point-blank refusal when the issue should besquarely raised.
All this time the brig was bowling along down the trades; and on thethird morning after I had the captain's offer--we being then closeupon the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude--Bowers called myattention to the gulf-weed floating about us, and told me that we werefairly on the outer edge of the Sargasso Sea. We should not get intoany thicker part of it, he said, as we should bear up to clear it; andso we actually did, hauling away a good deal to the eastward when thebrig's course was set that day at noon. But my interest in the matterhad been so checked--all my thought being given to finding some wayout of the pickle in which I found myself--that I paid littleattention to the patches of yellow weed on the water around us or tothe bits of wreckage that we saw now and then; and when Bowers,keeping on with his talk, fell to chaffing me about my desire to makea voyage of discovery into the thick part of this floating mystery Idid not rise to his joking, nor did I make him much of a reply.
Indeed, I was in rather a low way that day; which was due in part tomy not being able, for all my thinking, to see any sort of a clearcourse before me; and in part to the fact that the weather wasthickening and that my spirits were dulled a good deal by what we callthe heaviness of the air. All around the horizon steel-gray cloudswere rising, and a soft sort of a haze hung about us and took the lifeout of the sunshine, and the wind fell away until there was almostnothing of it, and that little fitful--while with the dying out of itthe sea began to stir slowly with a long oily swell. Far down to thesoutheast a line of smoke hung along the horizon, coming from thefunnel of some steamer out of sight over the ocean's curve, and theheaviness of the atmosphere was shown by the way that this smoke heldclose to the surface of the sea.
That Captain Luke did not like the look of things was plain enoughfrom his sharp glances about him and from his frequent examinationsof the glass; and he seemed to be all the more bothered--his seaman'sinstinct that a storm was brewing being at odds with the barometer'sprophecy--by the fact that the mercury showed a marked tendency torise. Had he known as much of the scientific side of navigation as heknew of the practical side he could have reconciled the conduct of thebarometer with his own convictions, and so would have been easier inhis mind; for it is a fact that the mercury often rises suddenly onthe front edge of a storm--that is to say, a little in advance ofit--by reason of the air banking up there. But having only hisrule-of-thumb knowledge to apply in the premises, the apparentscientific contradiction of his own practical notions as to what wasgoing to happen confused him and made him irritable--thenerve-stirring state of the atmosphere no doubt having also a share inthe matter--as was made plain by his sharp quick motions, and by theway in which on the smallest provocation he fell to swearing at themen. And so the day wore itself out to nightfall: with the steel-grayclouds lifting steadily from the horizon toward the zenith, and withthe swell of the weed-spattered sea slowly rising, and with a doubtinguneasiness among all of us that found its most marked expression inCaptain Luke's increasingly savage mood.
Our supper was a glowering one. The captain had little to say, andthat little of a sharp sort, while the mate only rumbled out a cursenow and then at the boy who served us; and I myself was in a bitterbad humor as I thought how hard it was on me to be shut up at sea insuch vile company, and how I had only myself to blame for getting intoit--and found my case all the harder because of my nervous uneasinessdue to the coming storm. As to the storm, there no longer could bedoubt about it, for the barometer had got into line with CaptainLuke's convictions and was falling fast.
When the supper was over the captain brought out his arrack-bottle andtook off a full tumbler, which was more than double his usualallowance, and then pushed the liquor across to the mate and me. Themate also took a good pull at it, and I took a fair drink myself inthe hope that it would quiet my nerves--but it had exactly theopposite effect and made me both excited and cross. And then we allcame on deck together, and all in a rough humor, and Bowers went downinto the cabin to have his supper by himself.
What happened in the next half-hour happened so quickly that I cannotgive a very clear account of it. A part of it, no doubt, was due tomere chance and angry impulse; but not the whole of it, and I thinknot the worst of it--for the first thing that the captain did was toorder the man who was steering to go forward and to tell the mate totake the wheel. That left just the three of us together at the sternof the brig--with Bowers below and so out of sight and hearing, andwith all the crew completely cut off from us and put out of sight andhearing by the rise of the cabin above the deck.
Night had settled down on the ocean, but not darkness. Far off to theeastward the full moon was standing well above the horizon and wasfighting her way upward through the clouds--now and then gettingenough the better of them to send down a dash of brightness on thewater, but for the most part making only a faint twilight throughtheir gloom. The wind still was very light and fitful, but broken bystrongish puffs which would heel the brig over a little and send heralong sharply for half a mile or so before they died away; and theswell had so risen that we had a long sleepy roll. Up to windward Imade out a ship's lights--that seemed to be coming down on us rapidly,from their steady brightening--and I concluded that this must be thesteamer from which the smoke had come that I had seen trailing alongthe horizon through the afternoon; and I even fancied, the night beingintensely still, that I could hear across the water the soft purringsound made by the steady churning of her wheel. Somehow it deepenedthe sullen anger that had hold of me to see so close by a ship havinghonest men aboard of her, and to know at the same time how hopelesslyfast I was tied to the brig and her dirty crew. I don't mind sayingthat the tears came to my eyes, for I was both hurt by my sorrow andheavy with my dull rage.
We all three were silent for a matter of ten minutes or so, or itmight even have been longer, and then Captain Luke faced around on mesuddenly and asked: "Well, have you made up your mind?"
Had I been cooler I should have tried to fence a little, since my onlyresource--I being caught like a rat in a trap that way--was to try togain time; but I was all in a quiver, just as I suppose he was, withthe excitement of the situation and with the excitement of thethunderous night, and his short sharp question jostled out of my headwhat few wits I had there and made me throw away my only chance. Andso I answered him, just as shortly and as sharply: "Yes, I have."
"Do you mean to join the brig?" he demanded.
"No, I don't," I answered, and stepped a little closer to him andlooked him squarely in the eyes.
"I told you so," the mate broke in with his rumble; and I saw that hewas whipping a light lashing on the wheel in a way that would hold itsteady in case he wanted to let go.
"Better think a minute," said Captain Luke, speaking coolly enough,but still with an angry undertone in his voice. "I've made you a goodoffer, and I'm ready to stand by it. But if you won't take what I'veoffered you you'll take something else that you won't like, my freshyoung man. In a friendly way, and for your information, I've told youa lot of things that I can't trust to the keeping of any living manwho won't chip in with us and take our chances--the bad ones with thegood ones--just as they happen to come along. You know too much, now,for me to part company from you while you have a wagging tongue inyour head--and so my offer's still open to you. Only there's thisabout it: if you won't take it, overboard you go."
I had a little gleam of sense at that; for I knew that he spoke indead earnest, and that the mate stood ready to back him, and thatagainst the two of them I had not much show. And so I tried to playfor time, saying: "Well, let me think it ov
er a bit longer. You saidthere was no hurry and that I might have a week to consider in. I'vehad only three days, so far. Do you call that square?"
"Squareness be damned," rumbled the mate, and he gave a look aloft andanother to windward--the breeze just then had fallen to a merewhisper--and took his hands off the wheel and stepped away from it sothat he and the captain were close in front of me, side by side. Istood off from them a little, and got my back against the cabin--thatI might be safe against an attack from behind--and I was so furiouslyangry that I forgot to be scared.
"Three days is as good as three years," Captain Luke jerked out. "WhatI want is an answer right now. Will you join the brig--yes or no?"
Somehow I remembered just then seeing our pig killed, when I was aboy--how he ran around the lot with the men after him, and got into acorner and tried to fight them, and was caught in spite of his poorlittle show of fighting, and was rolled over on his back and had histhroat stuck. He was a nice pig, and I had felt sorry for him:thinking that he didn't deserve such treatment, his life having been arespectable one, and he never having done anybody any harm. It allcame back to me in a flash, as I settled myself well against the cabinand answered: "No, I won't join you--and you and your brig may goto hell!"
All I remember after that was their rush together upon me, and myhitting out two or three times--getting in one smasher on the mate'sjaw that was a comfort to me--and then something hard cracking me onthe head, and so stunning me that I knew nothing at all of whathappened until I found myself coming up to the surface of the sea,sputtering salt-water and partly tangled in a bunch of gulf-weed, andsaw the brig heeling over and sliding fast away from me before asudden strong draught of wind.
In the Sargasso Sea Page 5
