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THERE WAS A DEAL OF CURSING and groaning as the men at the
bottom of the ladder crawled to their feet.
'Somebody strike a light; my thumb's out of joint,' said one
of the men, Parsons, a swarthy, saturnine man, steerer in Standish's
boat, in which Harrison was puller.
'You'll find it knockin' about by the bitts,' Leach said, sitting
down on the edge of the bunk in which I was concealed.
There was a fumbling and a scratching of matches, and the sea-lamp
flared up, dim and smoky, and in its weird light bare-legged men
moved about, nursing their bruises and caring for their hurts.
Oofty-Oofty laid hold of Parsons' thumb, pulling it out stoutly
and snapping it back into place. I noticed at the same time that
the Kanaka's knuckles were laid open clear across and to the bone.
Exposing his beautiful white teeth in a grin, he explained that
the wounds had come from striking Wolf Larsen in the mouth.
'So it was you, was it, you black beggar?' belligerently demanded
Kelly, an Irish-American and a longshoreman making his first trip,
and puller for Kerfoot.
As he made the demand he shoved his pugnacious face close to
Oofty-oofty. The Kanaka leaped backward to his bunk, to return
with a leap, flourishing a long knife.
'Aw, go lay down; you make me tired,' Leach interfered. He
was evidently, for all of his youth and inexperience, cock of
the forecastle. 'G'wan, you Kelly. You leave Oofty alone. How
in- did he know it was you in the dark?'
Kelly subsided with some muttering, and the Kanaka flashed
his white teeth in a grateful smile. He was a beautiful creature,
almost feminine in the pleasing lines of his figure, and there
was a softness and dreaminess in his large eyes which seemed to
contradict his reputation for strife and action.
'How did he get away?' said Johnson.
He was sitting on the side of his bunk, the whole pose of his
figure indicating utter dejection and hopelessness. He was still
breathing heavily from the exertion he had made. His shirt had
been ripped entirely from him in the struggle.
'Because he is the devil, as I told you before,' was Leach's
answer, and thereat he was on his feet and raging his disappointment
with tears in his eyes.
'And not one of you to get a knife!' was his unceasing lament.
But the rest had a lively fear of consequences, and gave no
heed to him.
'How'll he know which was which?' Kelly asked, and as he went
on he looked murderously about him- 'unless one of us peaches.'
'He'll know as soon as ever he claps eyes on us,' Parsons replied.
'One look at you'd be enough.'
'Tell him the deck flopped up an' gouged yer teeth out iv yer
jaw,' Louis grinned. He was the only man who was not out of his
bunk, and he was jubilant in that he possessed no bruises to advertise
that he had had a hand in the night's work. 'Just wait till he
gets a glimpse iv yer mugs tomorrow- the gang iv ye,' he chuckled.
'We'll say we thought it was the mate,' said one. And another:
'I know what I'll say- that I heared a row, jumped out of my bunk,
got a jolly good crack on the jaw for my pains, an' sailed in
myself. Couldn't tell who or what it was in the dark an' just
hit out.'
'An' 't was me you hit, of course,' Kelly seconded, his face
brightening.
Leach and Johnson took no part in the discussion, and it was
plain to see that their mates looked upon them as men for whom
the worst was inevitable, who were beyond hope and already dead.
Leach stood their fears and reproaches for some time. Then he
broke out:
'You make me tired! A nice lot of gazabas you are! If you talked
less with yer mouth an' did something with yer hands, he'd 'a'
be'n done with by now. Why couldn't one of you, just one of you,
get me a knife when I sung out? You make me sick! A-beefin' an'
bellerin' round as though he'd kill you when he gets you! You
know he won't. Can't afford to. No shippin'-masters or beachcombers
over here, an' he wants yer in his business, an' he wants yer
bad. Who's to pull or steer or sail ship if he loses yer? It's
me an' Johnson have to face the music. Get into yer bunks, now,
and shut yer faces; I want to get some sleep.'
'That's all right, all right,' Parsons spoke up. 'Mebbe he
won't do for us, but mark my words, hell'll be an ice-box to this
ship from now on.'
All the while I had been apprehensive. What would happen to
me when these men discovered my presence? I could never fight
my way out as Wolf Larsen had done. And at this moment Latimer
called down the scuttle:
'Hump, the Old Man wants you.'
'He ain't down here!' said Parsons.
'Yes, he is,' I said, sliding out of the bunk and striving
my hardest to keep my voice steady and bold.
The sailors looked at me in consternation. Fear was strong
in their faces, and the devilishness which comes of fear.
'I'm coming!' I shouted up to Latimer.
'No, you don't!' Kelly cried, stepping between me and the ladder,
his right hand shaped into a veritable strangler's clutch. 'You
sneak! I'll shut yer mouth!'
'Let him go!' Leach commanded.
'Not on yer life!' was the angry retort.
Leach never changed his position on the edge of the bunk. 'Let
him go, I say,' he repeated, but this time his voice was gritty
and metallic.
The Irishman wavered. I made to step by him, and he stood aside.
When I had gained the ladder I turned to the circle of brutal
and malignant faces peering at me through the semi-darkness. A
sudden and deep sympathy welled up in me.
'I have seen and heard nothing, believe me,' I said quietly.
'I tell yer, he's all right,' I could hear Leach say as I went
up. 'He don't like the Old Man no more nor you or me.'
I found Wolf Larsen in the cabin, stripped and bloody, waiting
for me. He greeted me with his whimsical smile.
'Come, get to work, doctor. The signs are favorable for an
extensive practice this voyage. I don't know what the Ghost would
have been without you, and if I could cherish such noble sentiments,
I'd tell you that her master is deeply grateful.'
I knew the run of the simple medicine-chest the Ghost carried,
and while I was heating water on the cabin stove and getting the
things ready for dressing his wounds, he moved about, laughing
and chatting, and examining his hurts with a calculating eye.
I had never before seen him stripped, and the sight of his body
quite took my breath away.
I must say that I was fascinated by the perfect lines of Wolf
Larsen's figure, and by what I may term the terrible beauty of
it. I had noted the men in the forecastle. Powerfully muscled
though some of them were, Oofty-Oofty had been the only one whose
lines were at all pleasing, while, in so far as they pleased,
had they been what I should call feminine.
But Wolf Larsen was the man type, the masculine, and almost
a god in his perfectness. As he moved about or raised his arms,
the great muscles leapt and moved under the satiny skin. I have
forgotten to say that the bronze ended with his face. His body,
thanks to his Scandinavian stock, was fair as the fairest woman's.
I remember his putting his hand up to feel of the wound on his
head, and my watching the biceps move like a living thing under
its white sheath.
He noticed me, and I became aware that I was staring at him.
'God made you well,' I said.
'Did he?' he answered. 'I have often thought so myself, and
wondered why.'
'Purpose-' I began.
'Utility,' he interrupted. 'This body was made for use. These
muscles were made to grip and tear and destroy living things that
get between me and life. Feel them,' he commanded.
They were as hard as iron. And I observed, also, that his whole
body had unconsciously drawn itself together, tense and alert;
that muscles were softly crawling and shaping about the hips,
along the back, and across the shoulders; that the arms were slightly
lifted, their muscles contracting, the fingers crooking till the
hands were like talons; and that even the eyes had changed expression
and into them were coming watchfulness and measurement and a light
none other than of battle.
'Stability, equilibrium,' he said, relaxing on the instant
and sinking his body back into repose. 'Feet with which to clutch
the ground, legs to stand on and to help withstand, while with
arms and hands, teeth and nails, I struggle to kill and not to
be killed. Purpose? Utility is the word.'
I did not argue. I had seen the mechanism of the primitive
fighting beast, and I was as strongly impressed as if I had seen
the engines of a battleship or Atlantic liner.
I was surprised, considering the fierce struggle in the forecastle,
at the superficiality of his hurts, and I pride myself that I
dressed them dexterously. With the exception of two bad wounds,
the rest were merely severe bruises and lacerations. The blow
which he had received before going overboard had laid his scalp
open several inches. This, under his direction, I cleansed and
sewed together.
'By the way, Hump, as I have remarked, you are a handy man,'
Wolf Larsen began when my work was done. 'As you know, we're short
a mate. Hereafter you shall stand watches, receive seventy-five
dollars per month, and be addressed fore and aft as Mr. Van Weyden.'
'I- I don't understand navigation, you know,' I gasped.
'Not necessary at all.'
'I really do not care to sit in the high places,' I objected.
'I find life precarious enough in my present humble situation.
I have no experience. Mediocrity, you see, has its compensations.'
He smiled as though it were all settled.
'I won't be mate on this hell-ship!' I cried defiantly.
I saw his face grow hard and the merciless glitter come into
his eyes. He walked to the door of his room, saying:
'And now, Mr. Van Weyden, good night.'
'Good night, Mr. Larsen,' I answered weakly.
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