In the Sargasso Sea
Page 10
X
I TAKE A CHEERFUL VIEW OF A BAD SITUATION
When I perceived the tight fix that I was in my broken head went tothrobbing again, and my legs were so shaky under me that I had to sitdown on the deck in a hurry in order to save myself from a fall.Indeed, I was in no condition to face even an ordinary trouble, letalone an overwhelming disaster; for what with my loss of blood fromthe cut on my head, and the little food I had eaten since I got it, Iwas as weak as a cat.
Luckily I had the sense to realize that I needed the strength whichfood would give me in order to save myself from dropping off intosheer despair. And with the thought of eating there suddenly woke upin my inside a hungry feeling that surprised me by its sharpness; andinstantly put such vigor into my shaky legs that I was up on them in amoment, and off to the companion-way to begin my explorations below.And when, being come to the cabin again, I had another sup of DonJose's wine I got quite ravenous, and felt strong enough to kick adoor in--if that should be necessary--in order to satisfy mycraving for food.
There was no need for staving in doors, for none of them was fastened;but it was some little time--because of my ignorance of thearrangement of steamships--before I could find one that had things toeat on the other side of it. Around the cabin, and along the passageleading forward, were only state-rooms; but just beyond thecompanion-way I came at last to the pantry--and beyond this again, asI found later, were the store-rooms and the galley. For the moment,however, the pantry gave me all that I wanted. In a covered box Ifound some loaves of bread, and in a big refrigerator a lot of coldvictuals that set my eyes to dancing--two or three roast fowls, partof a big joint of beef, a boiled tongue, and so on; and, what wasalmost as welcome, in another division of the refrigerator a dozen ormore bottles of beer. On the racks above were dishes and glasses, in alocker were knives and forks, and I even found hanging on a hook acorkscrew--and the quickness with which I brought these various thingstogether and made them serve my purposes was a sight to see!
When I had eaten nearly a whole fowl, and had drunk a bottle of beerwith it, I felt like another man; and then, pursuing my investigationsmore leisurely, I found in one of the lockers--which I took theliberty of prying open with a big carving-knife--four or five boxesof capital cigars. In the same locker was a package of safety-matches,and in a moment I was puffing away with such satisfaction that Ifairly grew light-hearted--so great is the comfort that comes to a manwith good smoking on top of a hearty meal. All sorts of bright fanciescame to me: of making one of the battered boats serviceable again andgetting off in it, of a ship blown out of her course coming to myrescue, of a strong southerly wind that would carry the hulk of thepoor old _Hurst Castle_ back again into the inhabited parts of thesea. And with these thoughts cheering me I set myself to work to findout just what I had in the way of provisions aboard my shattered craft.
I did not have to search far nor long to satisfy myself that I had abigger stock of food by me than I could eat in a dozen years. Forwardof the galley were the store-rooms: a cold-room, with a plenty of icestill in it, in which was hanging a great quantity of fresh meat; awine-room, very well stocked and containing also some cases of tobaccoand cigars; and in the other rooms was stuff enough to fit up a biggrocery shop on shore--hams and bacon and potted meats, and a greatvariety of vegetables in tins, and all sorts of sweets and sauces andtable-delicacies in tins and in glass. Indeed, although I was full tothe chin with the meal that I had just eaten, my mouth fairly wateredat sight of all these good things. In the bakery I found only a loafor two of bread, and this--as it was lying on the floor--I supposemust have been dropped in the scramble while the boats were beingprovisioned; but in the baker's store-room were a good many cases offine biscuit, and more than twenty barrels of flour. In addition toall this, I did not doubt that somewhere on board was an equally largestore of provisions for the use of the crew; but with that I did notbother myself, being satisfied to fare as a cabin-passenger on thegood things which I had found. Finally, two of the big water-tanksstill were full--the others, as I inferred from the cocks being open,having been emptied for the supply of the boats; and as areserve--leaving rain out of the question--I had the ice to fall backupon, of which there was so great a quantity that it alone would lastme for a long while. In a word, so far as eating and drinking wereconcerned, I was as well off as a man could be anywhere--having by menot only all the necessaries of life but most of its luxuries as well.
Finding all these good things cheered me and put heart in me in muchthe same way that I was cheered and heartened by finding my floatingmast after Captain Luke and the mate chucked me overboard. Again I hadthe certainty that death for a while could not get a chance at me; andthis second reprieve was of a more promising sort than that which mymast had given me in the open sea. On board the steamer, or what wasleft of her, I was sure of being in positive comfort so long as shefloated; and my good spirits made me so sanguine that I was confidentshe would keep on floating until I struck out some plan by which Icould get safe away from her, or until rescue came to me by some luckyturn of chance. And so, having completed my tour of inspection, and mygeneral inventory of the property to which by right of survival I hadfallen heir, I went on deck again in a very hopeful mood.
Even the utter wreck and confusion into which the steamer had fallen,when I got to the deck and saw it again, did not crush the hope out ofme as it did when I came upon it--being then weak and famished--forthe first time. I even found a cause for greater hopefulness inobserving that the water-line still stood, as it had stood an hour andmore earlier, a little forward of the main-mast; for that showed thatthe water-tight compartments were holding, and that the hulk was in noimmediate danger of going down. It did seem, to be sure, that the hazehad grown a little thicker, and that the weed and wreckage around thesteamer were thicker too; and I was convinced that my hulk wasmoving--or that the flotsam about it was moving--by seeing a brokenboat floating bottom upward that I was sure was not in sight when Iwent below. But I argued with myself cheerfully that the thickeningof the haze might be due to a wind coming down on me that would blowit clean away; and that a small thing like an empty boat drifting downfrom windward proved that the _Hurst Castle_ herself was movingsouthward very slowly, or perhaps was not moving at all. And so, stillin good spirits, I set myself to looking carefully for something thatwould float me, in case I decided to abandon the hulk and make a dashfor it--on the chance of falling in with a passing vessel--out overthe open sea.
But when I had made the round of the deck--at least of the part of itthat was out of water--I had to admit that getting away from thesteamer was a sheer impossibility, unless I might manage it bycobbling together some sort of a raft. It had been all very well forme to fancy, while I was being cheered with chicken and beer andtobacco down in the pantry, that I could make one of the batteredboats sea-worthy; but my round of the deck showed me that with all mytraining in mechanics I never could make one of them float again--forthe sea had wrenched and hammered them until they were no better thanso much old iron. The raft, certainly, was a possibility. Spars thatwould serve for its body were lying around in plenty, and with thedoors from the rooms below I could deck it over so as to make it bothsolid and dry; and somewhere aboard the ship, no doubt, werecarpenter's tools--though, most likely, they were down under waterforward and could be come at only by diving for them. Still, the raftwas a possibility; and so was comforting to think about as giving meanother reprieve from drowning in case the water-tight compartmentsbroke down--and as that break might come at any moment, and as the jobwould take me two days at the shortest, I realized that I could notset about it too soon.