登陆注册
4809100000042

第42章 THE SEED OF McCOY.(2)

"Enough of this. We're losing time. What is to be done, Mr. McCoy?"The old man turned his brown eyes, sweet as a woman's, shoreward, and both captain and mate followed his gaze around from the lonely rock of Pitcairn to the crew clustering forward and waiting anxiously for the announcement of a decision. 'mcCoy did not hurry. He thought smoothly and slowly, step by step, with the certitude of a mind that was never vexed or outraged by life.

"The wind is light now," he said finally. "There is a heavy current setting to the westward.""That's what made us fetch to leeward," the captain interrupted, desiring to vindicate his seamanship.

"Yes, that is what fetched you to leeward," McCoy went on. "Well, you can't work up against this current today. And if you did, there is no beach. Your ship will be a total loss."He paused, and captain and mate looked despair at each other.

"But I will tell you what you can do. The breeze will freshen tonight around midnight--see those tails of clouds and that thickness to windward, beyond the point there? That's where she'll come from, out of the southeast, hard. It is three hundred miles to Mangareva. Square away for it. There is a beautiful bed for your ship there."The mate shook his head.

"Come in to the cabin, and we'll look at the chart," said the captain.

McCoy found a stifling, poisonous atmosphere in the pent cabin. Stray waftures of invisible gases bit his eyes and made them sting. The deck was hotter, almost unbearably hot to his bare feet. The sweat poured out of his body. He looked almost with apprehension about him. This malignant, internal heat was astounding. It was a marvel that the cabin did not burst into flames.

He had a feeling as if of being in a huge bake oven where the heat might at any moment increase tremendously and shrivel him up like a blade of grass.

As he lifted one foot and rubbed the hot sole against the leg of his trousers, the mate laughed in a savage, snarling fashion.

"The anteroom of hell," he said. "Hell herself is right down there under your feet.""It's hot!" McCoy cried involuntarily, mopping his face with a bandana handkerchief.

"Here's Mangareva," the captain said, bending over the table and pointing to a black speck in the midst of the white blankness of the chart. "And here, in between, is another island. Why not run for that?"McCoy did not look at the chart.

"That's Crescent Island," he answered. "It is uninhabited, and it is only two or three feet above water. Lagoon, but no entrance. No, Mangareva is the nearest place for your purpose.""Mangareva it is, then," said Captain Davenport, interrupting the mate's growling objection. "Call the crew aft, Mr. Konig."The sailors obeyed, shuffling wearily along the deck and painfully endeavoring to make haste. Exhaustion was evident in every movement. The cook came out of his galley to hear, and the cabin boy hung about near him.

When Captain Davenport had explained the situation and announced his intention of running for Mangareva, an uproar broke out. Against a background of throaty rumbling arose inarticulate cries of rage, with here and there a distinct curse, or word, or phrase. A shrill Cockney voice soared and dominated for a moment, crying: "Gawd! After bein' in ell for fifteen days--an' now e wants us to sail this floatin' ell to sea again?"The captain could not control them, but McCoy's gentle presence seemed to rebuke and calm them, and the muttering and cursing died away, until the full crew, save here and there an anxious face directed at the captain, yearned dumbly toward the green clad peaks and beetling coast of Pitcairn.

Soft as a spring zephyr was the voice of McCoy:

"Captain, I thought I heard some of them say they were starving.""Ay," was the answer, "and so we are. I've had a sea biscuit and a spoonful of salmon in the last two days. We're on whack. You see, when we discovered the fire, we battened down immediately to suffocate the fire. And then we found how little food there was in the pantry. But it was too late. We didn't dare break out the lazarette. Hungry? I'm just as hungry as they are."He spoke to the men again, and again the throat rumbling and cursing arose, their faces convulsed and animal-like with rage. The second and third mates had joined the captain, standing behind him at the break of the poop. Their faces were set and expressionless; they seemed bored, more than anything else, by this mutiny of the crew. Captain Davenport glanced questioningly at his first mate, and that person merely shrugged his shoulders in token of his helplessness.

"You see," the captain said to McCoy, "you can't compel sailors to leave the safe land and go to sea on a burning vessel. She has been their floating coffin for over two weeks now. They are worked out, and starved out, and they've got enough of her. We'll beat up for Pitcairn."But the wind was light, the Pyrenees' bottom was foul, and she could not beat up against the strong westerly current. At the end of two hours she had lost three miles. The sailors worked eagerly, as if by main strength they could compel the PYRENEES against the adverse elements. But steadily, port tack and starboard tack, she sagged off to the westward. The captain paced restlessly up and down, pausing occasionally to survey the vagrant smoke wisps and to trace them back to the portions of the deck from which they sprang. The carpenter was engaged constantly in attempting to locate such places, and, when he succeeded, in calking them tighter and tighter.

"Well, what do you think?" the captain finally asked McCoy, who was watching the carpenter with all a child's interest and curiosity in his eyes.

McCoy looked shoreward, where the land was disappearing in the thickening haze.

同类推荐
  • 大光明藏

    大光明藏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 孔氏志怪

    孔氏志怪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘庄严经论

    大乘庄严经论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Poems

    Poems

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 罗氏识遗

    罗氏识遗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 杨公笔录

    杨公笔录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 穿越战国之楚人东渡

    穿越战国之楚人东渡

    楚文化、巴蜀文化、越文化也是中国古代文化的重要组成部分,并且有不同于那时中原文化的风采,其直接影响了后来中国江南、西南的民风民俗。这些文化在秦统一天下之后并入秦及中原文化,显得不那么重要,那么,如果这些文化唱主角,会有哪些有趣的事?且看主角穿来这个时代,如何建设不一样的文明。
  • 最强秘书

    最强秘书

    “伍佰万年薪!”他是年仅二十一岁的正太总裁,脾气火爆,却患有女性厌恶症候群!她是在国际杀手联盟净身出户的最强杀手,以柔克刚,化骨绵掌,擅长冷暴力,次次都把他逼出内伤。为了五百万年薪,她毅然女扮男装进入这间全是男人的公司为他做起了全职秘书!秘书,司机,保镖,她样样接下!
  • 枪毙曹毛崽

    枪毙曹毛崽

    江华明,上世纪六十年代生人,中国作协会员,江西省作协常务理事,景德镇市作协主席。曾就读于江西大学和鲁迅文学院,执教过中学和大学,任职过地方电视和报纸媒体,江西省滕王阁文学院第二届特聘作家。在《上海文学》《花城》《大家》《青年文学》《北京文学》等期刊上发表百多万字,小说被多种选本选刊转载,出版中短篇小说集两部和长篇小说《尖锐的瓷片》。现于景德镇市文联供职。在那一年雨季还没有开始的时候,瓷器镇上的许多镇巴佬都莫名其妙地看到:小窑户老板曹茂斋就像是个游手好闲的二流子一样东游西荡。他心思重重。
  • 解读青少年心理文丛:青少年应该具备的团结协作精神

    解读青少年心理文丛:青少年应该具备的团结协作精神

    《解读青少年心理文丛:青少年应该具备的团结协作精神》针对青少年朋友当中存在的厌学、耐挫力低、不适应集体生活、处事能力不足等方面的问题,提供合理的解决方案,帮助青少年朋友走出困惑,身心得到良好发展。
  • 异大陆修仙记

    异大陆修仙记

    这是个魔法和斗气并存的大陆,增强自身实力的方法,要么学习魔法成为圣法师,要么学习斗气成为斗圣。 他是大陆上最强大帝国的皇子,天赋极高的他却被人陷害无法学习斗气和魔法。她是一个来自异大陆的小女孩,从小也无法学习斗气和魔法。 在这个强者为尊的世界看他们怎么打破枷锁一步步走向成仙之路。“我活这么久本来就是逆天之事,既然上天都可以违逆,何况其他。”“我们修炼的目的只是为了不受天地的约束,最终破碎虚空、永生不灭。”
  • 战神

    战神

    重生的王者,在波澜壮阔的宇宙时代,用双剑书写不朽的战神传奇。战神读者群:28793815踏雪真人书友群:236209069战神盟核心读者群,订阅认证入群:338567119
  • 恋琳风故事剪辑

    恋琳风故事剪辑

    这是个故事合集,剧情略略虐一虐,大概未知个故事。
  • 电竞男神不好惹

    电竞男神不好惹

    【已完结,续篇《全电竞圈都以为我是真的菜》已发】【谁说女生不能打电竞】“她生来就属于舞台。”“不,她属于我。”她是最强中单路人王,亦是乐坛新星。两年前用一周时间登顶国服,低调隐退,无人知晓她竟是女孩子。一朝惹上电竞男神,一纸合约,她债务清空、绝境逢生。*某天他问:“世界冠军夺了、该开的演唱会也开了,什么时候嫁我?”她笑:“我还没毕业。”——次日,她手指上戴的戒指就上了热搜。【1v1甜宠+LOL热血电竞+微娱乐圈,一个关于梦想关于恋爱并不十分玛丽苏的故事】
  • 选择正确的工作

    选择正确的工作

    工作可以产生许多奇迹,它可以擦亮人的眼睛,强健人的肌体,增添面颊的红润;它还可以使头脑更敏锐,使思想更集中,使脚步更矫健。工作可以奇迹般地治愈多种身心疾病,工作的人才是最健康的人。