登陆注册
15687800000128

第128章 CHAPTER L(3)

With Margaret I also left Buckwheat and Tom Spink. Wada, the two sail-makers, Louis, and the two topaz-eyed ones accompanied me. In addition to fighting weapons we were armed with axes. We crossed the main deck unobserved, gained the bridge by way of the 'midship-house, and by way of the bridge gained the top of the for'ard-house. Here were the first boats we began work on; but, first of all, I called in the lookout from the forecastle-head.

He was Mulligan Jacobs; and he picked his way back across the wreck of the bridge where the fore-topgallant-yard still lay, and came up to me unafraid, as implacable and bitter as ever.

"Jacobs," I whispered, "you are to stay here beside me until we finish the job of smashing the boats. Do you get that?""As though it could fright me," he growled all too loudly. "Go ahead for all I care. I know your game. And I know the game of the hell's maggots under our feet this minute. 'Tis they that'd desert in the boats. 'Tis you that'll smash the boats an' jail 'm kit an' crew.""S-s-s-h," I vainly interpolated.

"What of it?" he went on as loudly as ever. "They're sleepin' with full bellies. The only night watch we keep is the lookout. Even Rhine's asleep. A few jolts of the needle has put a clapper to his eternal moanin'. Go on with your work. Smash the boats. 'Tis nothin' I care. 'Tis well I know my own crooked back is worth more to me than the necks of the scum of the world below there.""If you felt that way, why didn't you join us?" I queried.

"Because I like you no better than them an' not half so well. They are what you an' your fathers have made 'em. An' who in hell are you an' your fathers? Robbers of the toil of men. I like them little.

I like you and your fathers not at all. Only I like myself and me crooked back that's a livin' proof there ain't no God and makes Browning a liar.""Join us now," I urged, meeting him in his mood. "It will be easier for your back.""To hell with you," was his answer. "Go ahead an' smash the boats.

You can hang some of them. But you can't touch me with the law.

'Tis me that's a crippled creature of circumstance, too weak to raise a hand against any man--a feather blown about by the windy contention of men strong in their back an' brainless in their heads.""As you please," I said.

"As I can't help pleasin'," he retorted, "bein' what I am an' so made for the little flash between the darknesses which men call life. Now why couldn't I a-ben a butterfly, or a fat pig in a full trough, or a mere mortal man with a straight back an' women to love me? Go on an'

smash the boats. Play hell to the top of your bent. Like me, you'll end in the darkness. And your darkness'll be--as dark as mine.""A full belly puts the spunk back into you," I sneered.

"'Tis on an empty belly that the juice of my dislike turns to acid.

Go on an' smash the boats."

"Whose idea was the sulphur?" I asked.

"I'm not tellin' you the man, but I envied him until it showed failure. An' whose idea was it--to douse the sulphuric into Rhine's face? He'll lose that same face, from the way it's shedding.""Nor will I tell you," I said. "Though I will tell you that I am glad the idea was not mine.""Oh, well," he muttered cryptically, "different customs on different ships, as the cook said when he went for'ard to cast off the spanker sheet."Not until the job was done and I was back on the poop did I have time to work out the drift of that last figure in its terms of the sea.

Mulligan Jacobs might have been an artist, a philosophic poet, had he not been born crooked with a crooked back.

And we smashed the boats. With axes and sledges it was an easier task than I had imagined. On top of both houses we left the boats masses of splintered wreckage, the topaz-eyed ones working most energetically; and we regained the poop without a shot being fired.

The forecastle turned out, of course, at our noise, but made no attempt to interfere with us.

And right here I register another complaint against the sea-novelists. A score of men for'ard, desperate all, with desperate deeds behind them, and jail and the gallows facing them not many days away, should have only begun to fight. And yet this score of men did nothing while we destroyed their last chance for escape.

"But where did they get the grub?" the steward asked me afterwards.

This question he has asked me every day since the first day Mr. Pike began cudgelling his brains over it. I wonder, had I asked Mulligan Jacobs the question, if he would have told me? At any rate, in court at Valparaiso that question will be answered. In the meantime Isuppose I shall submit to having the steward ask me it daily.

"It is murder and mutiny on the high seas," I told them this morning, when they came aft in a body to complain about the destruction of the boats and to demand my intentions.

And as I looked down upon the poor wretches from the break of the poop, standing there in the high place, the vision of my kind down all its mad, violent, and masterful past was strong upon me.

Already, since our departure from Baltimore, three other men, masters, had occupied this high place and gone their way--the Samurai, Mr. Pike, and Mr. Mellaire. I stood here, fourth, no seaman, merely a master by the blood of my ancestors; and the work of the Elsinore in the world went on.

Bert Rhine, his head and face swathed in bandages, stood there beneath me, and I felt for him a tingle of respect. He, too, in a subterranean, ghetto way was master over his rats. Nosey Murphy and Kid Twist stood shoulder to shoulder with their stricken gangster leader. It was his will, because of his terrible injury, to get in to land and doctors as quickly as possible. He preferred taking his chance in court against the chance of losing his life, or, perhaps, his eyesight.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 花剑侠情

    花剑侠情

    拥有了绝学独孤九剑,是否就能够通过层层磨难,且看主角花辰穿越后大侠的成长之路和他所遇到的重重磨难,还有那穿越时空的爱恋!
  • 仙剑为神

    仙剑为神

    不是为了说什么成仙的故事,只是每个人在成长中都可能遇到过的故事。武侠修真
  • tfboys之泪血倾城

    tfboys之泪血倾城

    面对朋友的背叛,亲人的死亡,爱情的考验,身负血海深仇的她们会如何做……
  • 纠缠小甜心:恶魔校草别乱来

    纠缠小甜心:恶魔校草别乱来

    瞪着妈妈给进修考研的她的一纸婚约,在复旦大学图书馆上吊的心思都有了!“我成人未满不能结婚!”林蓓贝红眼。“辩驳无效!”老妈狠心瞪着她。“反正只同居1个月,1个月过后说双方无感,拒婚,不就行了?”夏墨航低身说到。“好主意!”林蓓贝眨了眨眼。…谁又能预测想到最后,我不想放开你的手,也不愿放开你的手。
  • 我们注定一起的

    我们注定一起的

    一个人走着,就在这时,有位女孩骑自行车撞上了我,砰!的一下,坏了,我的衣服湿了,她也从车子上摔了下来,我看了看自己,很火的看了她,(当时不在意,他很可爱,也很美丽,尤其那双眼睛很好看,仿佛在笑。就这样开始了,一段揪心而又难忘的事慢慢的就发生了起来。名叫芯舒的一个女孩,而男孩永少,就是我啦。)我走上前,你要死啊,没有眼啊,骑那么快。她上前连忙给我道歉:对不起,对不起,我不是故意的,对不起。因为当时很恼火。根本没有理会她的道歉,本来就不怎么开心,还遇到这事。喂!道歉有用的话,要警察干嘛。他还是委屈的在和说好话,道歉。】我于是不在理会了。走上前:如果你不是女生我一定要你不好过,快滚,别再让我看到你。不然我不客气。就这样她牵着自行车,从我身边快速的离开,我也赖的搞我身上的水滴,还好没弄脏,只是都是水,拿着伞继续往学校走去,
  • 重生之校园千金大小姐

    重生之校园千金大小姐

    当灵魂出窍,诺唯终于想明白了,但是她却不甘心,不甘心为什么好人,却比坏人命短,坏人的命就可以比好人长得多,老天爷你怎么这么不公。
  • 致命飞船

    致命飞船

    2016年,第五次冰川时期来临,人类面临灭绝。一艘“泰坦尼克”号的巨型宇宙飞船,承载5万移民前往遥远的类地行星,而可怕怪物疯狂突袭,神秘消失的人们又在哪里,他们是否能够抵达目的地“盖亚”星球,而人们渐渐的发现,这一切只是可怕的开始,进化!才刚刚开始。
  • 盛世天下:少年本红妆

    盛世天下:少年本红妆

    痴情帝王,亡国公主,纠缠一生,忆初夏,倾世,伊人……清裕,乱世佳人,该如何把握自身的命运?君渂贤,青楼初遇,却丢失了自己的心?夙陵勋,青梅竹马,可佳人依旧记得幼时许诺?夙陵亦,我终究明白,你非我良人......
  • 末日后的浮空城

    末日后的浮空城

    电能莫名消失,灾难转瞬而至。进30年时光过去,规则的改变,那些原来只是电视和游戏里的东西,已经不在那么的遥不可及。魔法,道术,魔法枪械,以及行尸,鬼魂,变异兽,以及新的智慧生命。主角为2015年因为一场车祸穿越的宅男,在新世界探索的故事。
  • 风云傲神州

    风云傲神州

    一个边远的农家孩子,一次偶然的机缘,一次心灵的抉择,为了最初的梦想,奋斗、欣喜、失落、挫败、成功,如梦似幻,却又如此的真实。天生的灵体,创造出不一样的属于自己的传奇,父母、爱人、师友,这些,万年之后,如何追寻?家、国、甚至宇宙,亿年之后,如何拯救?有风就是精彩,有云便不寂寞!新书求收藏!求推荐!谢谢大家的支持!推广群:105966043