XXIII
HOW I STARTED ON A JOURNEY DUE NORTH
The morning was well spent by the time that I had made my mind up, andI was growing hungry again. I made a good meal on what was left in thesecond tin of beans that I had opened for my breakfast; and when I wasdone I tried to get a light for my pipe by rubbing bits of woodtogether, but made nothing of it at all. I had read about castaways ondesert islands getting fire that way--but they went at it with drywood, I fancy, and in my mist-sodden desert all the wood was soakedwith damp.
For that afternoon I decided to go forward only as far as I couldfetch it to be back on board the barque again by sunset, taking withme as many tins of beans as I could carry and leaving them where Imade my turn: by which arrangement I would save the carriage of mysupper and my breakfast, and would have a little store of victuals tofall back upon--when I should be fairly started on my journey--withoutcoming all the way again to the barque.
I got the bed-bag that I had seen in the stateroom, and managed withthe rusty scissors to cut it down to half its size. Into this I packedten tins of beans, and made them snug by whipping around the bag oneend of a longish line--which served when coiled as a handle for it;and, being uncoiled, enabled me to haul it up a ship's side after me,or to let it down ahead of me, or to sway it across an open spacebetween two vessels, and so go at my climbing and jumping with bothhands free. As for the compass, my back was the only place for it andI put it there--where it did not bother me much, having little weight;and I stuck the hatchet to blaze my path with into a sort of a beltthat I made for myself with a bit of line.
Considering what a load I was carrying, and that on every vessel whichI crossed I had to stop while I blazed a mark on her, I made a goodlong march of it before the waning of the daylight was a sign to methat I must put about again; and my return journey was both quick andeasy, for I left the whole of my load, excepting the empty bag, behindme and came back lightly along my plainly marked path. But I was tiredenough when I got on board the barque again, and glad enough to eat mysupper and then stretch myself out to sleep upon the cabin floor.
That night, being easy in my body--except for my wholesomeweariness--and easier in my mind because it seemed to me that I wasdoing something for my deliverance, and being also aboard a vesselthat I knew was clean and pure, I had no visions of any kind whatever,but went to sleep almost in a moment, and slept like a log, as thesaying is, the whole night through. Indeed, I slept later than suitedmy purposes--being for rising early and making a long day's march ofit--and I might have wasted still more time in drowsing lazily had Inot been wakened a little before sunrise by the rattle on the cabinroof of a dashing burst of rain. I was on deck in a moment, and bystopping a scupper--as I had done the previous morning--presently hadby me a far bigger supply of water than I needed; from which I got agood drink lying down to it, and filled an empty bean-tin for anotherdrink after my breakfast, and so had my two bottles full to last meuntil the next day--and was pretty well satisfied by the rain'srecurrence that I could count upon a shower every morning about thehour of dawn.
When I had finished my breakfast I stowed ten tins of beans in the bagand lashed four more together so that I could carry them on myshoulders--being able to manage them in that way because I had noother back-load--and so was ready to set out along my blazed path. Butbefore leaving the barque--hoping never again to lay eyes on her--Itook one more look through the cabin to make sure that I had notpassed over something that might be useful to me: and was lucky enoughto find under one of the bunks a drawer--that had been hidden by thetumbled sheets hanging down over it--in which were some shirts and asuit of linen clothing that most opportunely supplied my needs. Theyall were badly mildewed, but sound enough, and the trousers--I had nouse for the coat and waistcoat--fitted me very well. So I threw offthe rags and tatters that I was wearing and put on in their placethese sound garments; and then I picked up my load and was off.
Not having to stop to take bearings or to blaze my way, I made suchgood time that I got to the end of the course over which I had spent agood part of the previous afternoon in not much more than three hours.I was pretty well pleased to find that I could make such briskmarching under such a load; for it showed me that even when I shouldget a long way from my base of supplies, that is to say from thebarque, I still could return to it at no great expense of time--andthe thought never entered my head that time was of no value to me,since only by what would be close upon a miracle could I hope foranything better than to find ways for killing it through all theremainder of my days.
Being thus come to my place of deposit I had to rearrange mypacking--going forward with a lighter load of food that I mightcarry also the compass and the hatchet; and going slowly because of myconstant stops to take fresh bearings and to mark my path. But thattime I went straight onward until nightfall; and my heart sank a gooddeal within me as I found that the farther I went the more antique inmodel, and the more anciently sea-worn, were the wrecks which I cameupon--and so I knew that I must be making my way steadily into thevery depths of my maze.
Yet I could not see that I would gain anything by going back to thebarque and thence taking a fresh departure. The barque, as I knewcertainly from the sort of craft surrounding her, was so deeply beddedin the pack that no matter how I headed from her I should have to gofar before I came again to the coast of it; and on the other hand Ithought that by holding to my course northward I might work my way inno great time across the innermost huddle of ancient wrecks--for ofthe vast number of these I had no notion then--and so to the outerbelt of wrecks new-made: on board of which I certainly should findfresh food in plenty, and from which (as I forced myself to believe) Imight get away once more into the living world. And so I pushed ondoggedly until the twilight changed to dusk and I could not venturefarther; and then I ate my supper on board of a strange old ship, asround as a dumpling and with a high bow and a higher stern; and whenI had finished settled myself for the night, being very weary, underthe in-hang of her heavy bulging side.
When morning came--and a shower with it that gave me what drink Iwanted and a store of water for the day--I debated for a while withmyself as to whether I should go onward with my whole load, or leave apart of it in a fresh deposit to which I could return at will. Thesecond course seemed the better to me; and, indeed, it was necessaryfor me to go light-loaded in order to get on at all. For I had comeamong ships of such strange old-fashioned build, standing at bow andstern so high out of the water, that unless they happened to be lyingside by side so that I could pass from one to another amidships--whichwas the case but seldom--I had almost as much climbing up and downamong them as though I had been a monkey mounting and descending arow of trees.
Therefore I ate as much breakfast as I could pack into myself--thatbeing as good a way as any other of carrying food with me--and then Itore the sleeves from my shirt and stuffed them from the tins that Iopened until I had two great bean sausages, which I fastenedbelt-fashion about my waist and so carried without any trouble at all.Indeed, but for this new arrangement of my load I doubt if I couldhave gone onward; and even with it I had all that I could do to makemy way. The bag with the remaining tins in it I stood away inside thecabin of the old ship--which I should have explored farther, sostrange-looking was it, but for my eager desire to get on; and I feltquite sure that I would find all just as I had left it there eventhough I did not come back again for twenty years.
In the Sargasso Sea Page 23
