The Boats of the Glen Carrig

by William Hope Hodgson

  XI

  The Signals from the Ship

  Now so soon as it was clearly light, we went all of us to the leewardbrow of the hill to stare upon the derelict, which now we had cause tobelieve no derelict, but an inhabited vessel. Yet though we watched herfor upwards of two hours, we could discover no sign of any livingcreature, the which, indeed, had we been in cooler minds, we had notthought strange, seeing that she was all so shut in by the greatsuperstructure; but we were hot to see a fellow creature, after so muchlonesomeness and terror in strange lands and seas, and so could not byany means contain ourselves in patience until those aboard the hulkshould choose to discover themselves to us.

  And so, at last, being wearied with watching, we made it up together toshout when the bo'sun should give us the signal, by this means making agood volume of sound which we conceived the wind might carry down to thevessel. Yet though we raised many shouts, making as it seemed to us avery great noise, there came no response from the ship, and at last wewere fain to cease from our calling, and ponder some other way ofbringing ourselves to the notice of those within the hulk.

  For a while we talked, some proposing one thing, and some another; butnone of them seeming like to achieve our purpose. And after that we fellto marveling that the fire which we had lit in the valley had notawakened them to the fact that some of their fellow creatures were uponthe island; for, had it, we could not suppose but that they would havekept a perpetual watch upon the island until such time as they shouldhave been able to attract our notice. Nay! more than this, it was scarcecredible that they should not have made an answering fire, or set some oftheir bunting above the superstructure, so that our gaze should bearrested upon the instant we chanced to glance towards the hulk. But sofar from this, there appeared even a purpose to shun our attention; forthat light which we had viewed in the past night was more in the way ofan accident, than of the nature of a purposeful exhibition.

  And so, presently, we went to breakfast, eating heartily; our night ofwakefulness having given us mighty appetites; but, for all that, we wereso engrossed by the mystery of the lonesome craft, that I doubt if any ofus knew what manner of food it was with which we filled our bellies. Forfirst one view of the matter would be raised, and when this had beencombated, another would be broached, and in this wise it came up finallythat some of the men were falling in doubt whether the ship was inhabitedby anything human, saying rather that it might be held by some demoniaccreature of the great weed-continent. At this proposition, there cameamong us a very uncomfortable silence; for not only did it chill thewarmth of our hopes; but seemed like to provide us with a fresh terror,who were already acquainted with too much. Then the bo'sun spoke,laughing with a hearty contempt at our sudden fears, and pointed outthat it was just as like that they aboard the ship had been put in fearby the great blaze from the valley, as that they should take it for asign that fellow creatures and friends were at hand. For, as he put it tous, who of us could say what fell brutes and demons the weed-continentdid hold, and if we had reason to know that there were very dread thingsamong the weed, how much the more must they, who had, for all that weknew, been many years beset around by such. And so, as he went on to makeclear, we might suppose that they were very well aware there had comesome creatures to the island; yet, maybe, they desired not to makethemselves known until they had been given sight of them, and because ofthis, we must wait until they chose to discover themselves to us.

  Now when the bo'sun had made an end, we felt each one of us greatlycheered; for his discourse seemed very reasonable. Yet still there weremany matters that troubled our company; for, as one put it, was it notmightily strange that we had not had previous sight of their light, or,in the day, of the smoke from their galley fire? But to this the bo'sunreplied that our camp hitherto had lain in a place where we had notsight, even of the great world of weed, leaving alone any view of thederelict. And more, that at such times as we had crossed to the oppositebeach, we had been occupied too sincerely to have much thought to watchthe hulk, which, indeed, from that position showed only her greatsuperstructure. Further, that, until the preceding day, we had but onceclimbed to any height; and that from our present camp the derelict couldnot be viewed, and to do so, we had to go near to the leeward edge ofthe hill-top.

  And so, breakfast being ended, we went all of us to see if there were yetany signs of life in the hulk; but when an hour had gone, we were nowiser. Therefore, it being folly to waste further time, the bo'sun leftone man to watch from the brow of the hill, charging him very strictly tokeep in such position that he could be seen by any aboard the silentcraft, and so took the rest down to assist him in the repairing of theboat. And from thence on, during the day, he gave the men a turn each atwatching, telling them to wave to him should there come any sign from thehulk. Yet, excepting the watch, he kept every man so busy as might be,some bringing weed to keep up a fire which he had lit near the boat; oneto help him turn and hold the batten upon which he labored; and two hesent across to the wreck of the mast, to detach one of the futtockshrouds, which (as is most rare) were made of iron rods. This, when theybrought it, he bade me heat in the fire, and afterwards beat out straightat one end, and when this was done, he set me to burn holes with itthrough the keel of the boat, at such places as he had marked, thesebeing for the bolts with which he had determined to fasten on the batten.

  In the meanwhile, he continued to shape the batten until it was a verygood and true fit according to his liking. And all the while he cried outto this man and to that one to do this or that; and so I perceived that,apart from the necessity of getting the boat into a seaworthy condition,he was desirous to keep the men busied; for they were become so excitedat the thought of fellow creatures almost within hail, that he could nothope to keep them sufficiently in hand without some matter upon which toemploy them.

  Now, it must not be supposed that the bo'sun had no share of ourexcitement; for I noticed that he gave ever and anon a glance to thecrown of the far hill, perchance the watchman had some news for us. Yetthe morning went by, and no signal came to tell us that the people in theship had design to show themselves to the man upon watch, and so we cameto dinner. At this meal, as might be supposed, we had a seconddiscussion upon the strangeness of the behavior of those aboard the hulk;yet none could give any more reasonable explanation than the bo'sun hadgiven in the morning, and so we left it at that.

  Presently, when we had smoked and rested very comfortably, for the bo'sunwas no tyrant, we rose at his bidding to descend once more to the beach.But at this moment, one of the men having run to the edge of the hill totake a short look at the hulk, cried out that a part of the greatsuperstructure over the quarter had been removed, or pushed back, andthat there was a figure there, seeming, so far as his unaided sight couldtell, to be looking through a spy-glass at the island. Now it would bedifficult to tell of all our excitement at this news, and we ran eagerlyto see for ourselves if it could be as he informed us. And so it was; forwe could see the person very clearly; though remote and small because ofthe distance. That he had seen us, we discovered in a moment; for hebegan suddenly to wave something, which I judged to be the spy-glass, ina very wild manner, seeming also to be jumping up and down. Yet, I doubtnot but that we were as much excited; for suddenly I discovered myself tobe shouting with the rest in a most insane fashion, and more-over I waswaving my hands and running to and fro upon the brow of the hill. Then, Iobserved that the figure on the hulk had disappeared; but it was for nomore than a moment, and then it was back and there were near a dozen withit, and it seemed to me that some of them were females; but the distancewas over great for surety. Now these, all of them, seeing us upon thebrow of the hill, where we must have shown up plain against the sky,began at once to wave in a very frantic way, and we, replying in likemanner, shouted ourselves hoarse with vain greetings. But soon we grewwearied of the unsatisfactoriness of this method of showing ourexcitement, and one took a piece of the square canvas, and let it streamout into the wind, waving it to them,
and another took a second piece anddid likewise, while a third man rolled up a short bit into a cone andmade use of it as a speaking trumpet; though I doubt if his voice carriedany the further because of it. For my part, I had seized one of the longbamboo-like reeds which were lying about near the fire, and with this Iwas making a very brave show. And so it may be seen how very great andgenuine was our exaltation upon our discovery of these poor people shutoff from the world within that lonesome craft.

  Then, suddenly, it seemed to come to us to realize that _they_ were amongthe weed, and _we_ upon the hilltop, and that we had no means of bridgingthat which lay between. And at this we faced one another to discuss whatwe should do to effect the rescue of those within the hulk. Yet it waslittle that we could even suggest; for though one spoke of how he hadseen a rope cast by means of a mortar to a ship that lay off shore, yetthis helped us not, for we had no mortar; but here the same man cried outthat they in the ship might have such a thing, so that they would be ableto shoot the rope to us, and at this we thought more upon his saying; forif they had such a weapon, then might our difficulties be solved. Yet wewere greatly at a loss to know how we should discover whether they werepossessed of one, and further to explain our design to them. But here thebo'sun came to our help, and bade one man go quickly and char some of thereeds in the fire, and whilst this was doing he spread out upon the rockone of the spare lengths of canvas; then he sung out to the man to bringhim one of the pieces of charred reed, and with this he wrote ourquestion upon the canvas, calling for fresh charcoal as he required it.Then, having made an end of writing, he bade two of the men take hold ofthe canvas by the ends and expose it to the view of those in the ship,and in this manner we got them to understand our desires. For, presently,some of them went away, and came back after a little, and held up for usto see, a very great square of white, and upon it a great "NO," and atthis were we again at our wits' ends to know how it would be possible torescue those within the ship; for, suddenly, our whole desire to leavethe island, was changed into a determination to rescue the people in thehulk, and, indeed, had our intentions not been such we had been veritablecurs; though I am happy to tell that we had no thought at this juncturebut for those who were now looking to us to restore them once more to theworld to which they had been so long strangers.

  Now, as I have said, we were again at our wits' ends to know how to comeat those within the hulk, and there we stood all of us, talking together,perchance we should hit upon some plan, and anon we would turn and waveto those who watched us so anxiously. Yet, a while passed, and we hadcome no nearer to a method of rescue. Then a thought came to me (wakedperchance by the mention of shooting the rope over to the hulk by meansof a mortar) how that I had read once in a book, of a fair maid whoselover effected her escape from a castle by a similar artifice, only thatin his case he made use of a bow in place of a mortar, and a cord insteadof a rope, his sweetheart hauling up the rope by means of the cord.

  Now it seemed to me a possible thing to substitute a bow for the mortar,if only we could find the material with which to make such a weapon, andwith this in view, I took up one of the lengths of the bamboo-like reed,and tried the spring of it, which I found to be very good; for thiscurious growth, of which I have spoken hitherto as a reed, had noresemblance to that plant, beyond its appearance; it beingextraordinarily tough and woody, and having considerably more naturethan a bamboo. Now, having tried the spring of it, I went over to thetent and cut a piece of sampsonline which I found among the gear, andwith this and the reed I contrived a rough bow. Then I looked about untilI came upon a very young and slender reed which had been cut with therest, and from this I fashioned some sort of an arrow, feathering it witha piece of one of the broad, stiff leaves, which grew upon the plant, andafter that I went forth to the crowd about the leeward edge of the hill.Now when they saw me thus armed, they seemed to think that I intended ajest, and some of them laughed, conceiving that it was a very odd actionon my part; but when I explained that which was in my mind, they ceasedfrom laughter, and shook their heads, making that I did but waste time;for, as they said, nothing save gunpowder could cover so great adistance. And after that they turned again to the bo'sun with whom someof them seemed to be in argument. And so for a little space I held mypeace, and listened; thus I discovered that certain of the men advocatedthe taking of the boat--so soon as it was sufficiently repaired--andmaking a passage through the weed to the ship, which they proposed to doby cutting a narrow canal. But the bo'sun shook his head, and remindedthem of the great devil-fish and crabs, and the worse things which theweed concealed, saying that those in the ship would have done it longsince had it been possible, and at that the men were silenced, beingrobbed of their unreasoning ardor by his warnings.

  Now just at this point there happened a thing which proved the wisdom ofthat which the bo'sun contended; for, suddenly, one of the men cried outto us to look, and at that we turned quickly, and saw that there was agreat commotion among those who were in the open place in thesuperstructure; for they were running this way and that, and some werepushing to the slide which filled the opening. And then, immediately, wesaw the reason for their agitation and haste; for there was a stir in theweed near to the stem of the ship, and the next instant, monstroustentacles were reached up to the place where had been the opening; butthe door was shut, and those aboard the hulk in safety. At thismanifestation, the men about me who had proposed to make use of the boat,and the others also, cried out their horror of the vast creature, and, Iam convinced, had the rescue depended upon their use of the boat, thenhad those in the hulk been forever doomed.

  Now, conceiving that this was a good point at which to renew myimportunities, I began once again to explain the probabilities of my plansucceeding, addressing myself more particularly to the bo'sun. I told howthat I had read that the ancients made mighty weapons, some of whichcould throw a great stone so heavy as two men, over a distance surpassinga quarter of a mile; moreover, that they compassed huge catapults whichthrew a lance, or great arrow, even further. On this, he expressed muchsurprise, never having heard of the like; but doubted greatly that weshould be able to construct such a weapon. Yet, I told him that I wasprepared; for I had the plan of one clearly in my mind, and further Ipointed out to him that we had the wind in our favor, and that we were agreat height up, which would allow the arrow to travel the farther beforeit came so low as the weed.

  Then I stepped to the edge of the hill, and, bidding him watch, fitted myarrow to the string, and, having bent the bow, loosed it, whereupon,being aided by the wind and the height on which I stood, the arrowplunged into the weed at a distance of near two hundred yards from wherewe stood, that being about a quarter of the distance on the road to thederelict. At that, the bo'sun was won over to my idea; though, as heremarked, the arrow had fallen nearer had it been drawing a length ofyarn after it, and to this I assented; but pointed out that my bow andarrow was but a rough affair, and, more, that I was no archer; yet Ipromised him, with the bow that I should make, to cast a shaft clean overthe hulk, did he but give me his assistance, and bid the men to help.

  Now, as I have come to regard it in the light of greater knowledge, mypromise was exceeding rash; but I had faith in my conception, and wasvery eager to put it to the test; the which, after much discussion atsupper, it was decided I should be allowed to do.