登陆注册
15290600000045

第45章 CHAPTER XV(6)

"You son of a gun," Daughtry repeated, cuddling his cheek and ear against the cockatoo's feathered and crested head. "And some folks thinks it's only folks that count in this world."Still the whale delayed, and, with the ocean washing their toes on the level deck, Daughtry ordered the boat lowered away. Ah Moy was eager in his haste to leap into the bow. Nor was Daughtry's judgment correct that the little Chinaman's haste was due to fear of the sinking ship. What Ah Moy sought was the place in the boat remotest from Kwaque and the steward.

Shoving clear, they roughly stored the supplies and dunnage out of the way of the thwarts and took their places, Ah Moy pulling bow-oar, next in order Big John and Kwaque, with Daughtry (Cocky still perched on his shoulder) at stroke. On top of the dunnage, in the stern-sheets, Michael gazed wistfully at the Mary Turner and continued to snarl crustily at Scraps who idiotically wanted to start a romp. The Ancient Mariner stood up at the steering sweep and gave the order, when all was ready, for the first dip of the oars.

A growl and a bristle from Michael warned them that the whale was not only coming but was close upon them. But it was not charging.

Instead, it circled slowly about the schooner as if examining its antagonist.

"I'll bet it's head's sore from all that banging, an' it's beginnin' to feel it," Daughtry grinned, chiefly for the purpose of keeping his comrades unafraid.

Barely had they rowed a dozen strokes, when an exclamation from Big John led them to follow his gaze to the schooners forecastle-head, where the forecastle cat flashed across in pursuit of a big rat. Other rats they saw, evidently driven out of their lairs by the rising water.

"We just can't leave that cat behind," Daughtry soliloquized in suggestive tones.

"Certainly not," the Ancient Mariner responded swinging his weight on the steering-sweep and heading the boat back.

Twice the whale gently rolled them in the course of its leisurely circling, ere they bent to their oars again and pulled away. Of them the whale seemed to take no notice. It was from the huge thing, the schooner, that death had been wreaked upon her calf;and it was upon the schooner that she vented the wrath of her grief.

Even as they pulled away, the whale turned and headed across the ocean. At a half-mile distance she curved about and charged back.

"With all that water in her, the schooner'll have a real kick-back in her when she's hit," Daughtry said. "Lordy me, rest on your oars an' watch."Delivered squarely amidships, it was the hardest blow the Mary Turner had received. Stays and splinters of rail flew in the air as she rolled so far over as to expose half her copper wet-glistening in the sun. As she righted sluggishly, the mainmast swayed drunkenly in the air but did not fall.

"A knock-out!" Daughtry cried, at sight of the whale flurrying the water with aimless, gigantic splashings. "It must a-smashed both of 'em.""Schooner he finish close up altogether," Kwaque observed, as the Mary Turner's rail disappeared.

Swiftly she sank, and no more than a matter of moments was it when the stump of her mainmast was gone. Remained only the whale, floating and floundering, on the surface of the sea.

"It's nothing to brag about," Daughtry delivered himself of the Mary Turner's epitaph. "Nobody'd believe us. A stout little craft like that sunk, deliberately sunk, by an old cow-whale! No, sir. I never believed that old moss-back in Honolulu, when he claimed he was a survivor of the sinkin' of the Essex, an' no more will anybody believe me.""The pretty schooner, the pretty clever craft," mourned the Ancient Mariner. "Never were there more dainty and lovable topmasts on a three-masted schooner, and never was there a three-masted schooner that worked like the witch she was to windward."Dag Daughtry, who had kept always foot-loose and never married, surveyed the boat-load of his responsibilities to which he was anchored--Kwaque, the Black Papuan monstrosity whom he had saved from the bellies of his fellows; Ah Moy, the little old sea-cook whose age was problematical only by decades; the Ancient Mariner, the dignified, the beloved, and the respected; gangly Big John, the youthful Scandinavian with the inches of a giant and the mind of a child; Killeny Boy, the wonder of dogs; Scraps, the outrageously silly and fat-rolling puppy; Cocky, the white-feathered mite of life, imperious as a steel-blade and wheedlingly seductive as a charming child; and even the forecastle cat, the lithe and tawny slayer of rats, sheltering between the legs of Ah Moy. And the Marquesas were two hundred miles distant full-hauled on the tradewind which had ceased but which was as sure to live again as the morning sun in the sky.

The steward heaved a sigh, and whimsically shot into his mind the memory-picture in his nursery-book of the old woman who lived in a shoe. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and was dimly aware of the area of the numbness that bordered the centre that was sensationless between his eyebrows, as he said:

"Well, children, rowing won't fetch us to the Marquesas. We'll need a stretch of wind for that. But it's up to us, right now, to put a mile or so between us an' that peevish old cow. Maybe she'll revive, and maybe she won't, but just the same I can't help feelin' leary about her."

同类推荐
  • 乙酉笔记

    乙酉笔记

    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。
  • 佛说宝网经

    佛说宝网经

    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。
  • On Interpretation

    On Interpretation

    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。
  • 将赴朔方军应制

    将赴朔方军应制

    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。
  • 通玄真经注

    通玄真经注

    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。
热门推荐
  • 崛起重生

    崛起重生

    我去过阴间,见过阎王。阎王说我本该和瞿享一同死去,但念在我生前做了件好事,他让我借尸还魂,多享几年阳寿。我的身体被瞿享压成了肉泥,只好借他的躯壳重生了。穷小子的灵魂,高富帅的身份,仍然一路波折。anyway,我在奋斗,在崛起!
  • 我的曾经,也是未来

    我的曾经,也是未来

    顾小璃与叶千辞的偶遇,大大咧咧又萌哒哒的顾小璃让叶千辞心中泛起涟漪,命运又让两人擦出爱的火花,但是生活会让他们岁月静好吗?------------------------------------------------------------[顾小璃,你到底有没有心?]叶千辞对面前故装绝情的顾小璃吼道.[呵呵,叶千辞,我们结束了.......结束了!]顾小璃转身,[......我们始终有缘无分,祝你幸福......]一滴清泪滑下,从此两人是路人。
  • 杨帆:对话《时代智商》

    杨帆:对话《时代智商》

    本书记录的二十几个人物,既有中国顶尖的商业领袖,也有大名鼎鼎的社会名流,还有在天津这座北方经济中心城市开拓奋进的领军人物。改革开放三十多年,中国社会发生了波澜壮阔的巨变,很多普通人的命运也赢得了转机。他们以特有的机智与洞察力和顽强的拼搏精神,创造了一个又一个人生传奇。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 萌妃酷帅狂霸拽:皇上要翻牌

    萌妃酷帅狂霸拽:皇上要翻牌

    纵可后宫三千,他独要她一人!东临睿认为,他有足够的耐心等着顾安然乖乖就范!哪知那小东西居然明目张胆地给他表演脱衣舞,既然如此,他干嘛还要客气?被扑倒的顾安然气的几乎脑溢血,NND,她这满脸绯红各种燥热分明就是被下药的征兆啊!勾引东临睿?她脑子秀逗了要去和三千佳丽抢一根小黄瓜,还不如直接杀了她!东临睿:安安乖,朕不会杀你,只会好好“疼”你!
  • 戴施两案纪略

    戴施两案纪略

    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。
  • 星座史诗

    星座史诗

    他厌倦了一切之后来到了北斗城,在这里他被人称作23号!不一样的奇幻星座,尽在星座传奇!
  • 哈佛东方新秀

    哈佛东方新秀

    本书只是想以海雯步入哈佛的成长历程为线索,介绍培养海雯的一些经验和方法,介绍海雯切实可行的学习方法和人生设计,以点带面,抛砖引玉,并以我的所见所感为视野,介绍美国的家庭和中小学教育,以及美国的教育体系、教育政策,教学、考试、评估学生的方法和道理等。
  • ALMAYER'  S FOLLY

    ALMAYER' S FOLLY

    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。
  • 天帝说

    天帝说

    太古时代,天柱断裂,无边的黑暗之中掉落下一个不详的囚笼。亿万生灵,重演开天,朦胧的混沌深处盛开了一株奇异的藤苗。古法已逝,今法强盛,错乱的新旧天地掀开了一段神秘的岁月。