XIV
OF MY MEETING WITH A MURDERED MAN
Robinson Crusoe's footprint in the sand did not startle him more thanthat strange lonely cry startled me. Indeed, as between the two of us,I had rather the worse of it: for Crusoe, at least, knew that he wasdealing with a reality, while I could not be certain that I was notdealing with a bit of a dream in which there was no reality at all.
For a long while I sat there puzzling over it--half hoping that Imight hear it again, and so be sure of it; and half hoping that Imight not hear it, because of the thrilling tone in it which hadfilled me with a sharp alarm. I was so shaken that I had not thecourage to go off to my berth in the cabin, with only a candle tolight me there, but stayed on in the little room that the lamp lightedso brightly that there were no dark corners for my fancy to peoplewith things horrible; and so, at last, still scared and puzzled, Iwent off to sleep in my chair.
When I woke again the lamp had burned out and had filled the placewith a vile smell of lamp-smoke that set me to sneezing. But I didnot mind that much; for daylight had come, and my nerves were bothquieted by sleep and steadied by that confident courage which most menfeel--no matter how tight a fix they may be in--when they have thebacking of the sun.
My first thought was to get on deck and have a look about me; thefeeling being strong in my mind that on one or another of the near-bywrecks I should find the man who had uttered that thrilling cry, andwould find him in some trouble that I might be able to help him outof. But my second thought, and it was the wiser, was to eat first ofall a good breakfast and so get strength in me that would make meready to face whatever might come along--for a vague dread hung by methat I was in the way of danger, and whatever it might be I knew thatI could the better stand up against it after a hearty meal. ThereforeI got out another tin of meat and ate the whole of it, and a hunk ofstale bread along with it, and washed down my breakfast with a bottleof beer--longing greatly for a cup of coffee in place of the beer, butbeing in too much of a hurry to stop for that while I made a fire.
As the food got inside of me--though in that smoky and smelly placeeating it was not much of a pleasure--my thoughts took a more cheerfulturn. The hope of meeting a live man to talk to and to help me out ofmy utter loneliness rose strong in my mind; and I felt that no matterwho or what he might be--even a man in desperate sickness and pain,whom I must nurse and care for--finding him in that solitude wouldmake my own case less sad. And so, when I went on deck, my longinghope for companionship was the strongest feeling in my heart.
With my first glance around I saw that during the night my hulk hadmade more progress than I had counted on; having moved the faster, Isuppose, as it felt more strongly the pull of the mass of floatagenear by. Be this as it may, I found myself so close alongside the bigcargo-boat that a good jump would carry me aboard of her; and I was soeager to begin my investigations that I took the jump without a singlemoment of delay. And being come to her deck, the first thing that Isaw there was a dead man lying in the middle of it with a pool ofstill fresh blood staining the planks by his side.
I never had seen anything like that, and as I looked at the deadman--he was a big strong coarse fellow, dressed in a pair of dirtysail-cloth trousers and in a dirty checked shirt--I went so queasy andgiddy that I had to step back a little and lean for a while againstthe steamer's rail. It was clear enough that he had died fighting. Hisface had a bad cut on it and there was another on his neck, and hishands were cut cruelly, as though he had caught again and again at asharp knife in trying to keep it away from him; but the stab that hadfinished him was in his breast, showing ghastly as he lay on his backwith his shirt open--and no doubt it was as the knife went into himthere that he had uttered the cry of mortal agony which had come to methrough the darkness, with so thrilling a note in it, while I wassitting in bright comfort drowsily smoking my cigar. And then, as Iremembered my drowsiness, for a moment I seemed to get back intoit--and I had a half hope that perhaps what I was looking at was onlya part of a horrible dream.
Had there been any sign of a living man about, of the murderer as wellas the murdered, I should have been less broken by what I saw; forthen I should have had something practical to attend to--either inbringing the other man to book on the poor dead fellow's account, orin fighting him on my own. But the nearest thing to life in sight, onthat storm-swept hulk under the low-hanging golden haze, was the roughbody out of which life had but just gone forever; and the bloodystains everywhere on the deck showing that he and another must havebeen fighting pretty much all over it before they got to an end. Andthe horror of it all was the stronger because of the awful andhopeless loneliness: with the dead-still weed-covered oceanstretching away to the horizon on the one hand, and on the other onlydead ships tangled and crushed together going off in a desolatewilderness that grew fainter--but for its faintness all the moredespairing--until it was lost in the dun-gold murky thickness ofthe haze.
As I got steadier, in a little while, I realized that I must hunt upthe other man, the one who had done the killing, and have things outwith him. Pretty certainly, his disposition would be to try to killme; and if I were to have a fight on hand as soon as I fell in withhim it was plain that my chances would be all the better for downinghim could I take him by surprise. I would have given a good deal justthen for a knife, and a good deal more for a pistol; but the best thatI could do to arm myself was to take an iron belaying-pin from therail, and with this in my hand I walked aft to the companion-way--feeling sure that my best chance of coming upon my manunexpectedly was to find him asleep in the cabin below. And then,suddenly, the very uncomfortable thought came to me that there mightbe more than one man down there--with the likelihood that if I rousedthem they all would set upon me together and finish me quickly; andthis brought me to a halt just within the companion-way, in theshadowy place at the head of the cabin stair.
I stood there for a minute or two listening closely, but I heard nosound whatever from below; and presently the dead silence made me feelrather ashamed of myself for being so easily scared. And then Inoticed, my eyes having become accustomed to the shadow, that therewas a splash of blood on the top step and more blood on the stepslower down--as though a man badly hurt, and without any one to helphim, had gone down the stair slowly and had rested on almost everystep and bled for a while before he could go on; and seeing this madeit seem likely to me that I would have but a single man to deal with,and he in such a state that I need not fear him much. But for all thatI kept a tight grip on my belaying-pin, and held it in such a way thatI could use it easily, as I put my foot on the first of the bloodysteps and so went on down.
The cabin, when I got to it, was but a small one--the boat not beingbuilt to carry passengers--and so dusky that I could not make it outwell; for the skylight was covered with a tarpaulin--put there, Isuppose, to protect it when the gale came on that the steamer waswrecked in--and all the light there was came in from one corner wherethe covering had fetched away. It gave me a sort of shivering feelingwhen I looked into that dusky place, where I saw nothing clearly andwhere there was at least a chance that in another moment I might befighting for my life. I stood in the doorway, gripping mybelaying-pin, until I began to see more clearly--making out that asmall fixed table, with a water-jug and some bottles and glasses onit, filled a half of the cabin, and that three state-room doors--oneof which stood open--were ranged on each of its sides. And then, justas I was about to enter, I fairly jumped as there came to me softlythrough the silence a low sad sound that was between a groan and asigh. But in an instant my reason told me that this was not the sortof sound to come from a man whom I need be afraid of; and as it cameplainly enough from the state-room of which the door stood open Istepped briskly over there and looked inside.
In the Sargasso Sea Page 14
