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
  • 敬简堂学治杂录

    敬简堂学治杂录

    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。
  • 大乘四法经

    大乘四法经

    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。
  • 杂记上

    杂记上

    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。
  • 普陀列祖录

    普陀列祖录

    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。
  • The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

    The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

    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
  • 至尊少年

    至尊少年

    古昊群雄逐鹿决赛归来,一度曾因为失败而沦为众人眼中的笑柄,但他得大荒展翅诀,横扫众多天才强者,从此一鸣惊人,为了得到原本属于自己的荣耀与女人,举世皆敌,古昊凭借着自身的努力,碾压众敌,最终集荣耀与美女于一身,揭开自己的身世之谜,夺回属于自己的一切,成为无上至尊……
  • 追龙术

    追龙术

    她抓鱼刺伤鲤鱼精,又被鲤鱼精打伤,龙王九太子为救她取出龙珠,她和龙太子定下一段来生缘。对龙太子念念不忘的鲤鱼精企图想唤醒龙太子的前世;狐妖对龙太子也觊觎已久.九太子失去龙珠,又用龙胆救了鲤鱼精,他只能到了阎王殿听判,阎王再三审核,判他转世为人。一场追龙的较量展开,无论对方是妖还是精,她坚信,人力可抗天,亦可抗妖精,猫仙、哮天犬和孔雀仙子都来助阵,九太子的今生只属于她——宁玲歌。本文一对一。红简介无能,请看正文。
  • 爱美皇妃:拐个帅哥做老公

    爱美皇妃:拐个帅哥做老公

    她,堂堂伊家大小姐想找个帅哥做男朋友而已,可是为什么全是青蛙?穿越古代的她遇见他,不可一世的太子。遇见他,邻家大哥的三皇子。遇见他,花心自恋的二皇子。遇见他,冷酷默然的大皇子。她在纵多帅哥之间游走……她将如何抉择?伊浅云懊恼的嘀咕:“古代为什么不可以一妻多夫呢?害她要这么浪费脑细胞。”【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 大道无所不在:老子的智慧

    大道无所不在:老子的智慧

    本书作为中国古代先秦诸子分家前的一部,是中国古代著名的哲学家、思想家老聃的经典著作,同时也是中国历史上首部完整的哲学著作,为其时诸子共仰,是道家哲学思想的重要来源。它从多个角度和层面论证了“道”和“德”这两个核心概念,在为政、处世等方面也有深刻的见解。
  • 我们俩

    我们俩

    两个性格迥异的少年,出生、成长、死亡;两个截然不同的家庭,友情、亲情、爱情。小心翼翼地试探和破罐破摔地莽撞;不知所措地给予和饮鸩止渴地渴求。李子从肖凡身上汲取温暖,肖凡从李子身上汲取安宁,太多巧合或者必然,注定这两人的足迹不能一直交缠。
  • 绯色情战:错惹妖孽老公

    绯色情战:错惹妖孽老公

    昏黄的灯下,他眼里带着一抹残忍看着微微颤抖的她;一夜疯狂,便注定了一场赢定的狩猎游戏。一纸契约,她成了他的契约情人……“林子苏,你放过我,我也放过你!”她眼里的倔强是她最后剩下的东西;他冰冷的眸子里带着丝乞求,“不要走,好不好?”一张机票她绝尘而去,他却在手术台上与死神抗争……七年之后,她已经是世界闻名的设计师,身边还有一个五岁的孩子。“舒小姐,既然可以抛弃我,为什么连个理由都不敢说?”,他冰冷的眸子带着莫大的痛楚以及无比的愤恨。“何必再执着于当初的事呢?”她说得轻描淡写,心却在揪痛。舒悦,我这一次绝不会放手;林子苏,若这注定是一场谁都会难过的游戏,我宁愿放弃。
  • 一错成婚之首席不好惹

    一错成婚之首席不好惹

    四年前,年氏少爷钻石王老王年景同在美国时,在参加过一个化装舞意外发生了一夜q,但是他始终不知道那个女人是谁,更加不知道她长的什么样子,最可气的是,那女人居然用钱来侮辱他,在临走的时候桌面上居然放了一沓钱,难道那女人是把他当做牛郎了吗?年景同想撕碎那个女人的心都有了,但是心里同时也多了一种异样的感觉,始终对那个女人念念不忘,更加念念不忘那个夜晚的感觉,四年后的化装舞会,年景同又看到了那个吸血鬼面具,她们,是同一个人吗?
  • 多少个剑决

    多少个剑决

    他从雪中走来,一步迈出,胜似常人十步之远,风过雪落,却是踏雪无痕。他从风中飘过,一身衣衫尽是白色,却是单衫,有些单薄,显出他有些瘦。他面容清秀,发髻用一根玉簪穿过,似没完全长开的少年郎,加上腰间佩的一柄长剑,漫步走来,如同浊世佳公子。
  • 忆西楼

    忆西楼

    某朝代年间,五位出身不同、性格各异、而皆正当年华的女子:温婉医女、乐坊名伎、侍郎夫人、帝王爱女,还有一个来自异国联姻的公主,因缘际会,盛春之时齐聚在京城的某个皇宫寿宴,五人的命运就此交织,相互牵连,历经家族变故、命运颠沛、夫妻分离,或看破红尘,或香消玉殒,或归隐田园……
  • 我怎么变成了女生

    我怎么变成了女生

    正在放假中的我,明明一切日常安好,享受着假期的美妙生活,结果在前一天与同学喝酒的晚上回来后,第二天早上起来,莫名其妙的变成了一个美少女!欢迎加入变身女生书友群,群聊号码:662957562