by Jack London
"Didn't know you were a gasoline expert," Captain Warfield admired whenGrief came into the cabin to catch a breath of little less impure air.
"I bathe in gasoline," he grated savagely through his teeth. "I eat it."
What other uses he might have found for it were never given, for at thatmoment all the men in the cabin, as well as the gasoline being strained,were smashed forward against the bulkhead as the _Malahini_ took anabrupt, deep dive. For the space of several minutes, unable to gaintheir feet, they rolled back and forth and pounded and hammered fromwall to wall. The schooner, swept by three big seas, creaked and groanedand quivered, and from the weight of water on her decks behaved logily.Grief crept to the engine, while Captain Warfield waited his chance toget through the companion-way and out on deck.
It was half an hour before he came back.
"Whaleboat's gone!" he reported. "Galley's gone! Everything gone exceptthe deck and hatches! And if that engine hadn't been going we'd be gone!Keep up the good work!"
By midnight the engineer's lungs and head had been sufficiently clearedof gas fumes to let him relieve Grief, who went on deck to get his ownhead and lungs clear. He joined the others, who crouched behindthe cabin, holding on with their hands and made doubly secure byrope-lashings. It was a complicated huddle, for it was the only placeof refuge for the Kanakas. Some of them had accepted the skipper'sinvitation into the cabin but had been driven out by the fumes. The_Malahini_ was being plunged down and swept frequently, and what theybreathed was air and spray and water commingled.
"Making heavy weather of it, Mulhall!" Grief shouted to his guestbetween immersions.
Mulhall, strangling and choking, could only nod. The scuppers could notcarry off the burden of water on the schooner's deck. She rolled it outand took it in over one rail and the other; and at times, nose thrownskyward, sitting down on her heel, she avalanched it aft. It surgedalong the poop gangways, poured over the top of the cabin, submergingand bruising those that clung on, and went out over the stern-rail.
Mulhall saw him first, and drew Grief's attention. It was Narii Herring,crouching and holding on where the dim binnacle light shone upon him. Hewas quite naked, save for a belt and a bare-bladed knife thrust betweenit and the skin.
Captain Warfield untied his lashings and made his way over the bodies ofthe others. When his face became visible in the light from the binnacleit was working with anger. They could see him speak, but the wind torethe sound away. He would not put his lips to Narii's ear. Instead, hepointed over the side. Narii Herring understood. His white teeth showedin an amused and sneering smile, and he stood up, a magnificent figureof a man.
"It's murder!" Mulhall yelled to Grief.
"He'd have murdered Old Parlay!" Grief yelled back.
For the moment the poop was clear of water and the _Malahini_ on an evenkeel. Narii made a bravado attempt to walk to the rail, but was flungdown by the wind. Thereafter he crawled, disappearing in the darkness,though there was certitude in all of them that he had gone over theside. The Malahini dived deep, and when they emerged from the flood thatswept aft, Grief got Mulhall's ear.
"Can't lose him! He's the Fish Man of Tahiti! He'll cross the lagoon andland on the other rim of the atoll if there's any atoll left!"
Five minutes afterward, in another submergence, a mess of bodies poureddown on them over the top of the cabin. These they seized and heldtill the water cleared, when they carried them below and learned theiridentity. Old Parlay lay oh his back on the floor, with closed eyes andwithout movement. The other two were his Kanaka cousins. All three werenaked and bloody. The arm of one Kanaka hung helpless and broken at hisside. The other man bled freely from a hideous scalp wound.
"Narii did that?" Mulhall demanded.
Grief shook his head. "No; it's from being smashed along the deck andover the house!"
Something suddenly ceased, leaving them in dizzying uncertainty. Forthe moment it was hard to realize there was no wind. With the absoluteabruptness of a sword slash, the wind had been chopped off. The schoonerrolled and plunged, fetching up on her anchors with a crash which forthe first time they could hear. Also, for the first time they could hearthe water washing about on deck. The engineer threw off the propellerand eased the engine down.
"We're in the dead centre," Grief said. "Now for the shift. It will comeas hard as ever." He looked at the barometer. "29:32," he read.
Not in a moment could he tone down the voice which for hours had battledagainst the wind, and so loudly did he speak that in the quiet it hurtthe others' ears.
"All his ribs are smashed," the supercargo said, feeling along Parlay'sside. "He's still breathing, but he's a goner."
Old Parlay groaned, moved one arm impotently, and opened his eyes. Inthem was the light of recognition.
"My brave gentlemen," he whispered haltingly. "Don't forget... theauction... at ten o'clock... in hell."
His eyes dropped shut and the lower jaw threatened to drop, but hemastered the qualms of dissolution long enough to omit one final, loud,derisive cackle.
Above and below pandemonium broke out.
The old familiar roar of the wind was with them. The _Malahini_, caughtbroadside, was pressed down almost on her beam ends as she swung thearc compelled by her anchors. They rounded her into the wind, where shejerked to an even keel. The propeller was thrown on, and the engine tookup its work again.
"Northwest!" Captain Warfield shouted to Grief when he came on deck."Hauled eight points like a shot!"
"Narii'll never get across the lagoon now!" Grief observed.
"Then he'll blow back to our side, worse luck!"
V
After the passing of the centre the barometer began to rise. Equallyrapid was the fall of the wind. When it was no more than a howlinggale, the engine lifted up in the air, parted its bed-plates with a lastconvulsive effort of its forty horsepower, and lay down on its side.A wash of water from the bilge sizzled over it and the steam arose inclouds. The engineer wailed his dismay, but Grief glanced over the wreckaffectionately and went into the cabin to swab the grease off his chestand arms with bunches of cotton waste.
The sun was up and the gentlest of summer breezes blowing when he cameon deck, after sewing up the scalp of one Kanaka and setting the other'sarm. The _Malahini_ lay close in to the beach. For'ard, Hermann and thecrew were heaving in and straightening out the tangle of anchors. The_Papara_ and the _Tahaa_ were gone, and Captain Warfield, through theglasses, was searching the opposite rim of the atoll.
"Not a stick left of them," he said. "That's what comes of not havingengines. They must have dragged across before the big shift came."
Ashore, where Parlay's house had been, was no vestige of any house. Forthe space of three hundred yards, where the sea had breached, no tree oreven stump was left. Here and there, farther along, stood an occasionalpalm, and there were numbers which had been snapped off above theground. In the crown of one surviving palm Tai-Hotauri asserted he sawsomething move. There were no boats left to the _Malahini_, and theywatched him swim ashore and climb the tree.
When he came back, they helped over the rail a young native girl ofParley's household. But first she passed up to them a battered basket.In it was a litter of blind kittens--all dead save one, that feeblymewed and staggered on awkward legs.
"Hello!" said Mulhall. "Who's that?"
Along the beach they saw a man walking. He moved casually, as if outfor a morning stroll. Captain Warfield gritted his teeth. It was NariiHerring.
"Hello, skipper!" Narii called, when he was abreast of them. "Can I comeaboard and get some breakfast?"
Captain Warfield's face and neck began to swell and turn purple. Hetried to speak, but choked.
"For two cents--for two cents----" was all he could manage toarticulate.
THE END
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