The Boats of the Glen Carrig (19 page)

I had stood there awhile, watching the rope, when, suddenly, there came a
commotion amid the weed, about two-thirds of the way to the ship, and now
I saw that the rope had freed itself from the weed, and clutching it,
were, maybe, a score of giant crabs. At this sight, some of the men cried
out their astonishment, and then we saw that there had come a number of
men into the look-out place in the top of the superstructure, and,
immediately, they opened a very brisk fire upon the creatures, and so, by
ones and twos they fell back into the weed, and after that, the men in
the hulk resumed their heaving, and so, in a while, had the rope some
feet clear of the surface.

Now, having tautened the rope so much as they thought proper, they left
it to have its due effect upon the ship, and proceeded to attach a great
block to it; then they signaled to us to slack away on the little rope
until they had the middle part of it, and this they hitched around the
neck of the block, and to the eye in the strop of the block they attached
a bo'sun's chair, and so they had ready a carrier, and by this means we
were able to haul stuff to and from the hulk without having to drag it
across the surface of the weed; being, indeed, the fashion in which we
had intended to haul ashore the people in the ship. But now we had the
bigger project of salvaging the ship herself, and, further, the big rope,
which acted as support for the carrier, was not yet of a sufficient
height above the weed-continent for it to be safe to attempt to bring any
ashore by such means; and now that we had hopes of saving the ship, we
did not intend to risk parting the big rope, by trying to attain such a
degree of tautness as would have been necessary at this time to have
raised its bight to the desired height.

Now, presently, the bo'sun called out to one of the men to make
breakfast, and when it was ready we came to it, leaving the man with the
wounded arm to keep watch; then when we had made an end, he sent him,
that had lost his fingers, to keep a look-out whilst the other came to
the fire and ate his breakfast. And in the meanwhile, the bo'sun took us
down to collect weed and reeds for the night, and so we spent the greater
part of the morning, and when we had made an end of this, we returned to
the top of the hill, to discover how matters were going forward; thus we
found, from the one at the look-out, that they, in the hulk, had been
obliged to heave twice upon the big rope to keep it off the weed, and by
this we knew that the ship was indeed making a slow sternway towards the
island—slipping steadily through the weed, and as we looked at her, it
seemed almost that we could perceive that she was nearer; but this was no
more than imagination; for, at most, she could not have moved more than
some odd fathoms. Yet it cheered us greatly, so that we waved our
congratulations to the man who stood in the lookout in the
superstructure, and he waved back.

Later, we made dinner, and afterwards had a very comfortable smoke, and
then the bo'sun attended to our various hurts. And so through the
afternoon we sat about upon the crest of the hill overlooking the
hulk, and thrice had they in the ship to heave upon the big rope, and
by evening they had made near thirty fathoms towards the island, the
which they told us in reply to a query which the bo'sun desired me to
send them, several messages having passed between us in the course of
the afternoon, so that we had the carrier upon our side. Further than
this, they explained that they would tend the rope during the night, so
that the strain would be kept up, and, more, this would keep the ropes
off the weed.

And so, the night coming down upon us, the bo'sun bade us light the fires
about the top of the hill, the same having been laid earlier in the day,
and thus, our supper having been dispatched, we prepared for the night.
And all through it there burned lights aboard the hulk, the which proved
very companionable to us in our times of watching; and so, at last came
the morning, the darkness having passed without event. And now, to our
huge pleasure, we discovered that the ship had made great progress in the
night; being now so much nearer that none could suppose it a matter of
imagination; for she must have moved nigh sixty fathoms nearer to the
island, so that now we seemed able almost to recognize the face of the
man in the look-out; and many things about the hulk we saw with greater
clearness, so that we scanned her with a fresh interest. Then the man in
the look-out waved a morning greeting to us, the which we returned very
heartily, and, even as we did so, there came a second figure beside the
man, and waved some white matter, perchance a handkerchief, which is like
enough, seeing that it was a woman, and at that, we took off our head
coverings, all of us, and shook them at her, and after this we went to
our breakfast; having finished which, the bo'sun dressed our hurts, and
then, setting the man, who had lost his fingers, to watch, he took the
rest of us, excepting him that was bitten in the arm, down to collect
fuel, and so the time passed until near dinner.

When we returned to the hill-top, the man upon the look-out told us that
they in the ship had heaved not less than four separate times upon the
big rope, the which, indeed, they were doing at that present minute; and
it was very plain to see that the ship had come nearer even during the
short space of the morning. Now, when they had made an end of tautening
the rope, I perceived that it was, at last, well clear of the weed
through all its length, being at its lowest part nigh twenty feet above
the surface, and, at that, a sudden thought came to me which sent me
hastily to the bo'sun; for it had occurred to me that there existed no
reason why we should not pay a visit to those aboard the hulk. But when I
put the matter to him, he shook his head, and, for awhile, stood out
against my desire; but, presently, having examined the rope, and
considering that I was the lightest of any in the island, he consented,
and at that I ran to the carrier which had been hauled across to our
side, and got me into the chair. Now, the men, so soon as they perceived
my intention, applauded me very heartily, desiring to follow; but the
bo'sun bade them be silent, and, after that, he lashed me into the chair,
with his own hands, and then signaled to those in the ship to haul upon
the small rope; he, in the meanwhile, checking my descent towards the
weeds, by means of our end of the hauling-line.

And so, presently, I had come to the lowest part, where the bight of the
rope dipped downward in a bow towards the weed, and rose again to the
mizzenmast of the hulk. Here I looked downward with somewhat fearful
eyes; for my weight on the rope made it sag somewhat lower than seemed to
me comfortable, and I had a very lively recollection of some of the
horrors which that quiet surface hid. Yet I was not long in this place;
for they in the ship, perceiving how the rope let me nearer to the weed
than was safe, pulled very heartily upon the hauling-line, and so I came
quickly to the hulk.

Now, as I drew nigh to the ship, the men crowded upon a little platform
which they had built in the superstructure somewhat below the broken head
of the mizzen, and here they received me with loud cheers and very open
arms, and were so eager to get me out of the bo'sun's chair, that they
cut the lashings, being too impatient to cast them loose. Then they led
me down to the deck, and here, before I had knowledge of aught else, a
very buxom woman took me into her arms, kissing me right heartily, at
which I was greatly taken aback; but the men about me did naught but
laugh, and so, in a minute, she loosed me, and there I stood, not knowing
whether to feel like a fool or a hero; but inclining rather to the
latter. Then, at this minute, there came a second woman, who bowed to me
in a manner most formal, so that we might have been met in some
fashionable gathering, rather than in a cast-away hulk in the
lonesomeness and terror of that weed-choked sea; and at her coming all
the mirth of the men died out of them, and they became very sober, whilst
the buxom woman went backward for a piece, and seemed somewhat abashed.
Now, at all this, I was greatly puzzled, and looked from one to another
to learn what it might mean; but in the same moment the woman bowed
again, and said something in a low voice touching the weather, and after
that she raised her glance to my face, so that I saw her eyes, and they
were so strange and full of melancholy, that I knew on the instant why
she spoke and acted in so unmeaning a way; for the poor creature was out
of her mind, and when I learnt afterwards that she was the captain's
wife, and had seen him die in the arms of a mighty devil-fish, I grew to
understand how she had come to such a pass.

Now for a minute after I had discovered the woman's madness, I was so
taken aback as to be unable to answer her remark; but for this there
appeared no necessity; for she turned away and went aft towards the
saloon stairway, which stood open, and here she was met by a maid very
bonny and fair, who led her tenderly down from my sight. Yet, in a
minute, this same maid appeared, and ran along the decks to me, and
caught my two hands, and shook them, and looked up at me with such
roguish, playful eyes, that she warmed my heart, which had been
strangely chilled by the greeting of the poor mad woman. And she said
many hearty things regarding my courage, to which I knew in my heart I
had no claim; but I let her run on, and so, presently, coming more to
possession of herself, she discovered that she was still holding my
hands, the which, indeed, I had been conscious of the while with a very
great pleasure; but at her discovery she dropped them with haste, and
stood back from me a space, and so there came a little coolness into her
talk: yet this lasted not long; for we were both of us young, and, I
think, even thus early we attracted one the other; though, apart from
this, there was so much that we desired each to learn, that we could not
but talk freely, asking question for question, and giving answer for
answer. And thus a time passed, in which the men left us alone, and went
presently to the capstan, about which they had taken the big rope, and
at this they toiled awhile; for already the ship had moved sufficiently
to let the line fall slack.

Presently, the maid, whom I had learnt was niece to the captain's wife,
and named Mary Madison, proposed to take me the round of the ship, to
which proposal I agreed very willingly; but first I stopped to examine
the mizzen stump, and the manner in which the people of the ship had
stayed it, the which they had done very cunningly, and I noted how that
they had removed some of the superstructure from about the head of the
mast, so as to allow passage for the rope, without putting a strain upon
the superstructure itself. Then when I had made an end upon the poop, she
led me down on to the main-deck, and here I was very greatly impressed by
the prodigious size of the structure which they had built about the hulk,
and the skill with which it had been carried out, the supports crossing
from side to side and to the decks in a manner calculated to give great
solidity to that which they upheld. Yet, I was very greatly puzzled to
know where they had gotten a sufficiency of timber to make so large a
matter; but upon this point she satisfied me by explaining that they had
taken up the 'tween decks, and used all such bulkheads as they could
spare, and, further, that there had been a good deal among the dunnage
which had proved usable.

And so we came at last to the galley, and here I discovered the buxom
woman to be installed as cook, and there were in with her a couple of
fine children, one of whom I guessed to be a boy of maybe some five
years, and the second a girl, scarce able to do more than toddle. At this
I turned and asked Mistress Madison whether these were her cousins; but
in the next moment I remembered that they could not be; for, as I knew,
the captain had been dead some seven years; yet it was the woman in the
galley who answered my question; for she turned and, with something of a
red face, informed me that they were hers, at which I felt some surprise;
but supposed that she had taken passage in the ship with her husband; yet
in this I was not correct; for she proceeded to explain that, thinking
they were cut off from the world for the rest of this life, and falling
very fond of the carpenter, they had made it up together to make a sort
of marriage, and had gotten the second mate to read the service over
them. She told me then, how that she had taken passage with her mistress,
the captain's wife, to help her with her niece, who had been but a child
when the ship sailed; for she had been very attached to them both, and
they to her. And so she came to an end of her story, expressing a hope
that she had done no wrong by her marriage, as none had been intended.
And to this I made answer, assuring her that no decent-minded man could
think the worse of her; but that I, for my part, thought rather the
better, seeing that I liked the pluck which she had shown. At that she
cast down the soup ladle, which she had in her fist, and came towards me,
wiping her hands; but I gave back, for I shamed to be hugged again, and
before Mistress Mary Madison, and at that she came to a stop and laughed
very heartily; but, all the same, called down a very warm blessing upon
my head; for which I had no cause to feel the worse. And so I passed on
with the captain's niece.

Presently, having made the round of the hulk, we came aft again to the
poop, and discovered that they were heaving once more upon the big rope,
the which was very heartening, proving, as it did, that the ship was
still a-move. And so, a little later, the girl left me, having to attend
to her aunt. Now whilst she was gone, the men came all about me, desiring
news of the world beyond the weed-continent, and so for the next hour I
was kept very busy, answering their questions. Then the second mate
called out to them to take another heave upon the rope, and at that they
turned to the capstan, and I with them, and so we hove it taut again,
after which they got about me once more, questioning; for so much seemed
to have happened in the seven years in which they had been imprisoned.
And then, after a while, I turned-to and questioned them on such points
as I had neglected to ask Mistress Madison, and they discovered to me
their terror and sickness of the weed-continent, its desolation and
horror, and the dread which had beset them at the thought that they
should all of them come to their ends without sight of their homes and
countrymen.