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twg_000000037000 | escaping through the chinks of the laboratory, and then the whole valley blazed with patches of vari-coloured fire. It was not a reflection: it was actual physical conflagration of the solid rock, in irregular areas. Some of the fire shapes were most fantastic. And with the unexpectedness of a bursting shell the surface of the ground before our feet crackled | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037001 | into a ghastly blue flame. The Nigger uttered a cry in his throat and disappeared. I felt a sharp breath on my neck, an ejaculation of surprise at my very ear. It was startling enough to scare the soul out of a man, but I held fast and was just about to step forward, when my collar was twisted tight | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037002 | from behind. I raised both hands, felt steel, and knew that I was in the grasp of Handy Solomon's claw. The sailor had me foul. I did my best to twist around, to unbutton the collar, but in vain. I felt my wind leaving me, the ghastly blue light was shot with red. Distinctly I heard the man's sharp intaken | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037003 | breath as some new phenomenon met his eye, and his great oath as he swore. "By the mother of God!" he cried, "it's the devil." Then I was jerked off my feet, and the next I knew I was lying on my back, very wet, on the beach; the day was breaking, and the men, quite sober, were talking vehemently. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037004 | It was impossible to make out what they said, but as Handy Solomon and the Nigger were the centre of discussion, I could imagine the subject. I felt very stiff and sore and hazy in my mind. My neck was lame from the dragging and my tongue dry from the choking. For some time I lay in a half-torpor watching | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037005 | the lilac of dawn change to the rose of sunrise, utterly indifferent to everything. They had thrown me down across the first rise of the little sand dunes back of the tide sands, and from it I could at once look out over the sea full of the restless shadows of dawn, and the land narrowing to the mouth of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037006 | the arroyo. I remember wondering whether Captain Selover were up yet. Then with a sharp stab at the heart I remembered. The thought was like a dash of cold water in clearing my faculties. I raised my head. Seaward a white gull had caught the first rays of the sun beyond the cliffs. Landward--I saw with a choke in my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037007 | throat--a figure emerging from the arroyo. At the sight I made a desperate attempt to move, but with the effort discovered that I was again bound. My stirring thus called Pulz's attention. Before I could look away he had followed the direction of my gaze. The discussion instantly ceased. They waited in grim silence. I did not know what to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037008 | do. Percy Darrow, carrying some sort of large book, was walking rapidly toward us. Perdosa had disappeared. Thrackles after an instant came and sat beside me and clapped his big hand over my mouth. It was horrible. When within a hundred paces or so, I could see that Darrow laboured under some great excitement. His usual indifferent saunter had, as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037009 | I have indicated, given way to a firm and decided step; his ironical eye glistened; his sallow cheek glowed. "Boys," he shouted cheerfully. "The time's up. We've succeeded. We'll sail just as soon as the Lord'll let us get ready. Rustle the stuff aboard. The doctor'll be down in a short time, and we ought to be loaded by night." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037010 | Handy Solomon and Pulz laid hand on two of the rifles near by and began surreptitiously to fill their magazines. The Nigger shook his knife free of the scabbard and sat with it in his left hand, concealed by his body. I could feel Thrackles's muscles stiffen. Another fifty paces and it would be no longer necessary to stop my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037011 | mouth. The thought made me desperate. I had failed as a leader of these men, and I had been forced to stand by at debauching, cruel, and murderous affairs, but now it is over I thank Heaven the reproach cannot be made against me that at any time I counted the consequences to myself. Thrackles's hand lay heavy across my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037012 | mouth. I bit it to the bone, and as he involuntarily snatched it away, I rolled over toward the sea. Thus for an instant I had my mouth free. "Run! Run!" I shouted. "For God's sake----" Thrackles leaped upon me and struck me heavily upon the mouth, then sprang for a rifle. I managed to struggle back to the dune, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037013 | whence I could see. XV FIVE HUNDRED YARDS' RANGE Percy Darrow, with the keenness that always characterised his mental apprehension, had understood enough of my strangled cry. He had not hesitated nor delayed for an explanation, but had turned track and was now running as fast as his long legs would carry him back toward the opening of the ravine. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037014 | My companions stood watching him, but making no attempt either to shoot or to follow. For a moment I could not understand this, then remembered the disappearance of Perdosa. My heart jumped wildly, for the Mexican had been gone quite long enough to have cut off the assistant's escape. I could not doubt that he would pick off his man | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037015 | at close range as soon as the fugitive should have reached the entrance to the arroyo. There can be no question that he would have done so had not his Mexican impatience betrayed him. He shot too soon. Percy Darrow stopped in his tracks. Although we heard the bullet sing by us, for an instant we thought he was hit. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037016 | Then Perdosa fired a second time, again without result. Darrow turned sharp to the left and began desperately to scale the steep cliffs. I once took part in a wild boar hunt on the coast of California. Our dogs had penned a small band at the head of a narrow _barranca_, from which a single steep trail led over the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037017 | hill. We, perched on another hill some three or four hundred yards away, shot at the animals as they toiled up the trail. The range was long, but we had time, for the severity of the climb forced the boars to a foot pace. It was exactly like that. Percy Darrow had two hundred feet of ascent to make. He | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037018 | could go just so fast; must consume just so much time in his snail-like progress up the face of the hill. During that time he furnished an excellent target, and the loose sandstone showed where each shot struck. A significant indication was that the men did not take the trouble to get nearer, for which manoeuvre they would have had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037019 | time in plenty, but distributed themselves leisurely for a shooting match. "First shot," claimed Handy Solomon, and without delay fired off-hand. A puff of dust showed to the right. "Nerve no good," he commented, "jerked her just as I pulled." Pulz fired from the knee. The dust this time puffed below. "Thought she'd carry up at that distance," he muttered. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037020 | The Nigger, too, missed, and Thrackles grinned triumphantly. "I get a show," said he. He spread his massive legs apart, drew a deep breath, and raised his weapon. It lay in his grasp steady as a log, and I saw that Percy Darrow's fate was in the hands of that dangerous class of natural marksman that possesses no nerves. But | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037021 | for the second time my teeth saved his life. The trigger guard slipped against Thrackles's lacerated hand almost at the instant of discharge. He missed; and the bullet went wide. Darrow had climbed a matter of twenty feet. Now the seamen distributed themselves for more leisurely and accurate marksmanship. Handy Solomon lay flat on his stomach, resting the rifle muzzle | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037022 | across the top of a sand dune. Pulz sat down, an elbow on either knee for the greater steadiness. The Nigger knelt; but Thrackles remained on his feet. No rest could be steadier than the stone-like rigidity of his thick arms. The firing now became miscellaneous. No one paid any attention to anyone else. Each discovered what I could have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037023 | told them, that even the human figure at five hundred yards is a small mark for a strange rifle. The constant correction of elevation, however, brought the puffs of dust always closer, and I could not but realise that the doctrine of chances must bring home some of the bullets. I soon discovered by way of comfort that only Thrackles | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037024 | and Handy Solomon really understood firearms; and of those two Thrackles alone had had much experience at long range. He told me afterward he had hunted otter. About halfway up the cliff Thrackles fired his fifth shot. No dust followed the discharge; and I saw Percy Darrow stagger and almost lose his hold. The men yelled savagely, but the assistant | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037025 | pulled himself together and continued his crawling. The sun had been shining in our faces. I could imagine its blurring effect on the sights. Now abruptly it was blotted out, and a semi-twilight fell. We all looked up, in spite of ourselves. An opaque veil had been drawn quite across the heavens, through which we could not make out even | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037026 | the shape of the sun. It was like a thunder cloud except that its under surface instead of being the usual grey-black was a deep earth-brown. As we looked up, a deep bellow stirred the air, which had fallen quite still, long forks of lightning shot horizontally from the direction of the island's interior, and flashes of dull red were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037027 | reflected from the canopy of cloud. The men stared with their mouths open. Undoubtedly the change had been some time in preparation, but all had been so absorbed in the affair of the doctor's assistant that no one had noticed. It came to our consciousness with the suddenness of a theatrical change. A dull roaring commenced, grew in volume, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037028 | then a great explosion shook the very ground under our feet. We stared at each other, our faces whitening. "What kind of hell has broke loose?" muttered Pulz. The Nigger fell flat on his face, uttering deep lamentations. "Voodoo! Voodoo!" he groaned. A gentle shower of white flakes began, powdering the surface of everything. Far out to sea we could | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037029 | make out the sun on the water. Gradually the roaring died down; the lightning ceased. Comparative peace ensued. We looked again toward the cliff. Percy Darrow had not for one instant ceased to climb. He was just topping the edge of the bluff. Handy Solomon, with a cry of rage, seized another rifle and emptied the magazine at him as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037030 | fast as the lever could be worked. The dust flew wild in a half dozen places. Darrow drew himself up to the sky line, raised his hat ironically, and disappeared. [Illustration: The firing now became miscellaneous. No one paid any attention to any one else.] "Damn his soul!" cried Handy Solomon, his face livid. He threw his rifle to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037031 | beach and danced on it in an ecstasy of rage. "What do we care," growled Thrackles, "he's no good to us. W'at I want to know is, wat's up here, anyhow!" "Didn't you never see a volcano go off, you swab?" snapped Handy Solomon. "Easy with your names, mate. No, I never did. We better get out." "Without the chest?" | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037032 | "S'pose we go up the gulch and get it, then," suggested Thrackles. But at this Handy Solomon drew back in evident terror. "Up that hole of hell?" he objected. "Not I. You an' Pulz go." They wrangled over it, Pulz joining. Perdosa, shaken to the soul, crept in, and made a bee-line for the rum barrel. He and the Nigger | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037033 | were frankly scared. They had the nervous jumps at every little noise or unexpected movement; and even the natural explanation of these phenomena gave them very little reassurance. I knew that Darrow would hurry as fast as he could back to the valley by way of the upper hills; I knew that he had there several sporting rifles; and I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037034 | hoped greatly that he and Dr. Schermerhorn might accomplish something before the men had recovered their wits to the point of foreseeing his probable attack. The uncanny cloud in the heavens, the weird half-light, and the explosions, which now grew more frequent, had their strong effect in spite of explanation. The men were not really afraid to venture in quest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037035 | of the supposed treasure; but they were in a frame of mind that dreaded the first plunge. And time was going by. But the fates were against us, as always in this ill-starred voyage. I, watching from my sand dune, saw a second figure emerge from the arroyo's mouth. It appeared to stagger as though hurt; and every eight or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037036 | ten paces it stopped and rested in a bent-over position. The murky light was too dim for me to make out details; but after a moment a rift in the veil enabled me to identify Dr. Schermerhorn carrying, with great difficulty, the chest. XVI THE MURDER I took no chances, but began at once to shout, as soon as I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037037 | saw the men had noticed his coming. It was impossible for me to tell whether or not Dr. Schermerhorn heard me. If he did, he misunderstood my intention, for he continued painfully to advance. The only result I gained was to get myself well gagged with my own pocket handkerchief, and thrown in a hollow between the dunes. Thence I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037038 | could hear Handy Solomon speaking fiercely and rapidly. "Now you let me run this," he commanded; "we got to find out somethin'. It ain't no good to us without we knows--and we want to find out how he's got the rest hid." They assented. "I'm goin' out to help him carry her in," announced the seaman. A long pause ensued, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037039 | in which I watched the deep canopy of red-black thicken overhead. A strange and unearthly light had fallen on the world, and the air was quite still. After a while I heard Handy Solomon and Dr. Schermerhorn join the group. "There you are, Perfessor," cried Handy Solomon, in tones of the greatest heartiness, "I'll put her right there, and she'll | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037040 | be as safe as a babby at home. She's heavy, though." Dr. Schermerhorn laughed a pleased and excited laugh. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was strung high, and guessed that his triumph needed an audience. "You may say so well!" he said. "It iss heafy; and it iss heafy with the world-desire, the great | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037041 | substance than can do efferything. Where iss Percy?" "He's gone aboard." "We must embark. The time is joost right. A day sooner and the egsperiment would haf been spoilt; but now"--he laughed--"let the island sink, we do not care. We must embark hastily." "It'll take a man long time to carry down all your things, Perfessor." "Oh, led them go! | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037042 | The eruption has alretty swallowed them oop. The lava iss by now a foot deep in the valley. Before long it flows here, so we must embark." "But you've lost all them vallyable things, Perfessor," said Handy Solomon. "Now, I call that hard luck." Dr. Schermerhorn snapped his fingers. "They do not amoundt to that!" he cried. "Here, here, in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037043 | this leetle box iss all the treasure! Here iss the labour of ten years! Here iss the _Laughing Lass_, and the crew, and all the equipmendt comprised. Here iss the world!" "I'm a plain seaman, Perfessor, and I suppose I got to believe you; but she's a main small box for all that." "With that small box you can haf | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037044 | all your wishes," asserted the Professor, still in the German lyric strain over his triumph. "It iss the box of enchantments. You haf but to will the change you would haf taig place--it iss done. The substance of the rocks, the molecule--all!" "Could a man make diamonds?" asked Pulz abruptly. I could hear the sharp intake of the men's breathing | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037045 | as they hung on the reply. "Much more wonderful changes than that it can accomplish," replied the doctor, with an indulgent laugh. "That change iss simple. Carbon iss coal; carbon iss diamond. You see? One has but to change the form, not the substance." "Then it'll change coal to diamonds?" asked Handy Solomon. "Yes, you gather my meanings--" I heard | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037046 | a sharp squeak like a terrified mouse. Then a long, dreadful silence; then two dull, heavy blows, spaced with deliberation. A moment later I caught a glimpse of Handy Solomon bent forward to the labour of dragging a body toward the sea, his steel claw hooked under the angle of the jaw as a man handles a fish. Pulz came | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037047 | and threw off my bonds and gag. "Come along!" said he. All kept looking fearfully toward the arroyo. A dense white steam marked its course. The air was now heavy with portent. Successive explosions, some light, some severe, shook the foundations of the island. Great rocks and boulders bounded down the hills. The flashes of lightning had become more frequent. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037048 | We moved, exaggerated to each other's vision by the strange light, uncouth and gigantic. "Let's get out of this!" cried Thrackles. We turned at the word and ran, Thrackles staggering under the weight of the chest. All our belongings we abandoned, and set out for the _Laughing Lass_ with only the tatters in which we stood. Luckily for us a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037049 | great part of the ship's stores had been returned to her hold after the last thorough scrubbing, so we were in subsistence, but all our clothes, all our personal belongings, were left behind us on the beach. For after once we had topped the cliff that led over to the cove, I doubt if any consideration on earth would have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037050 | induced us to return to that accursed place. The row out to the ship was wet and dangerous. Seismic disturbances were undoubtedly responsible for high pyramidic waves that lifted and fell without onward movement. We fairly tumbled up out of the dory, which we did not hoist on deck, but left at the end of the painter to beat her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037051 | sides against the ship. XVII THE OPEN SEA Our haste, however, availed us little, for there was no wind at all. We lay for over two hours under the weird light, over-canopied by the red- brown cloud, while the explosions shook the foundations of the world. Nobody ventured below. The sails flapped idly from the masts: the blocks and spars | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037052 | creaked: the three-cornered waves rose straight up and fell again as though reaching from the deep. When the men first began to sweat the sails up, evidently in preparation for an immediate departure, I objected vehemently. "You aren't going to leave him on the island," I cried. "He'll die of starvation." They did not answer me; but after a little | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037053 | more, when my expostulations had become more positive, Handy Solomon dropped the halliard, and drew me to one side. "Look here, you," he snarled, "you'd better just stow your gab. You're lucky to be here yourself, let alone botherin' your thick head about anybody else, and you can kiss the Book on that! Do you know why you ain't with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037054 | them carrion?" He jerked his thumb toward the beach. "It's because Solomon Anderson's your friend. Thrackles would have killed you in a minute 'count of his bit hand. I got you your chance. Now don't you be a fool, for I ain't goin' to stand between you and them another time. Besides, he won't last long if that volcano keeps | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037055 | at it." He left me. Whatever truth lay in his assumption of friendship, and I doubted there existed much of either truth or friendship in him, I saw the common sense of his advice. I was in no position to dictate a course of action. After the sails were on her we gathered at the starboard rail to watch the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037056 | shore. There the hills ran into inky blackness, as the horizon sometimes merges into a thunder squall. A dense white steam came from the creek bed within the arroyo. The surges beat on the shore louder than the ordinary, and the foam, even in these day hours, seemed to throw up a faint phosphorescence. Frequent earthquakes oscillated the landscape. We | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037057 | watched, I do not know for what, our eyes straining into the murk of the island. Nobody thought of the chest, which lay on the cabin table aft. I contributed maliciously my bit to their fear. "These volcanic islands sometimes sink entirely," I suggested, "and in that case we'd be carried down by the suction." It was intended merely to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037058 | increase their uneasiness, but, strangely enough, after a few moments it ended by imposing itself on my own fears. I began to be afraid the island would sink, began to watch for it, began to share the fascinated terror of these men. The suspense after a time became unbearable, for while the portent-- whether physical or moral we were too | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037059 | far under its influence to distinguish--grew momentarily, our own souls did not expand in due correspondence. We talked of towing, of kedging out, of going to any extreme, even to small boats. Then just as we were about to move toward some accomplishment, a new phenomenon chained our attention to the shore. In the mouth of the arroyo appeared a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037060 | red glow. A moment later a wave of lava, white-hot, red, iridescent, cooling to a black crust cracked in incandescence, rolled majestically out over the grassy plain. Each instant it grew in volume, until the ravine must have been flowing half full. Before its scorching the grasses even at the edge of the sea were smoking, and our camp had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037061 | already burst into flames. We had to shield our faces against the heat, and the wooden railing under our hands was growing warm. Pulz turned an ashy countenance toward us. "My God," he screamed. "What's going to happen when she hits the sea?" She hit the sea, and immediately a great cloud of steam arose, and the hissing as of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037062 | a thousand serpents. We felt the strong suction under our keel, and staggered under the jerk of the ship's cable as she swung toward the beach. The paint was beginning to crackle along the rail. We could see nothing for the scalding white veil that enveloped us; we could hear nothing for the roar of steam, the bombardment of explosions, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037063 | and the crash of thunder; but our nostrils were assaulted by a most unearthly medley of smells. "Hell's loose," growled Thrackles. We were clinging hard as the ship reeled. Huge surges were racing in from seaward, growing larger with each successive billow. Handy Solomon raised his head, listened intently, and struck his forehead. "Wind," he screamed at the top of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037064 | his voice, and jumped for the halliards. Thrackles followed him, but no one else moved. In an instant the two were back, striking and kicking savagely, rousing their companions to the danger. We all laid into the canvas like mad, and in no time had snugged down to a staysail and the peak of our mainsail. Thrackles drew his knife | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037065 | and jumped for the cable, while Handy Solomon, his eyes snapping, seized the wheel. We finished just in time. I was turning away after tying the last gasket on the foresail, when the deck up-ended and tipped me headforemost into the starboard scupper. At the same time a smother of salt water blew over the port rail, now far above | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037066 | me, to drench me as thoroughly as though I had fallen overboard. I brushed out my eyes to find the ship smack on her beam ends, and the wind howling by from the sea. I had company enough in the scuppers. Only Handy Solomon clung desperately to the wheel, jamming his weight to port in the hope she might pay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037067 | up: Thrackles, too, his eye squinted along some bearing of his own, was waiting for her to drag. Presently it became evident that she was doing so, whereupon he drew his knife across our hawser. "My God," chattered Pulz at my ear. "If we go ashore--" He did not need to finish. Unless the _Laughing Lass_ could recover before the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037068 | squall had driven her to leeward a scant half mile, we should be cooked alive in the boiling cauldron at the shore's edge. For an interminable time, as it seemed to me, we lay absolutely motionless. The scene is stamped indelibly on my memory--the bulwarks high above me, the steep, sleek deck, the piratical figure tense at the wheel, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037069 | snarling water racing from beneath us, the lurid glow to landward crawling up on us inch by inch like a hungry wild beast. Then almost imperceptibly the brave schooner righted. The strained lines on Handy Solomon's carven features relaxed little by little. Thrackles, staring over the side, let out a mighty roar. "Steerage way," he shouted, and executed an awkward | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037070 | clog dance on the reeling deck. She moved forward, there was no doubt of that, for gradually we were eating toward the wind--but we made considerable leeway as well. Handy Solomon, taut as the weather rigging, took his little advantages one by one like precious gifts. Light there was none; the land was blotted out by the steam and murk | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037071 | which had crept to sea and now was hurled back by the wind. All we could do was to hang there, tasting the copper of excitement, waiting for these different forces to adjust themselves. Inch by inch we crept forward: foot by foot we made leeway. The intensest of the lava glow worked its way from directly abeam to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037072 | quarter. By this we knew we must be nearly opposite the cove. At once a new doubt sprang up in our minds. A moment ago all the energy of our desires had gone up in the ambition to avoid being cast on the beach. Now we saw that that was not enough. It was necessary to squeeze around the point | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037073 | where lay the _Golden Horn_, in order to avoid the fate that had overtaken her. Handy Solomon yelled something at us. We could not hear, but our own knowledge told us what it must be, and with one accord we turned to on the foresail. With the peak of it hoisted we moved a trifle faster, though the schooner lay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037074 | over at a perilous angle. A moment later the fogs parted to show us the cliffs looming startlingly near. There were the donkey engine and the works we had constructed for wrecking--and there beside them, watching us reflectively, stood Percy Darrow. For ten minutes we stared at him fascinated, during which time the ship laboured against the staggering winds, gained | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037075 | and lost in its buffeting with the great surges. The breakers hurling themselves in wild abandon against the rocks sent their back-wash of tumbling peaks to our very bilges. The few remains of the _Golden Horn_, alternately drenched and draining, seemed to picture to us our inevitable end. I think we had all selected the same two points for our | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037076 | "bearings," a rock and a drop of the cliff bolder than the ordinary. If the rock opened from the cliff to eastward, we were lost; if it remained stationary, we were at least holding our own; if it opened out to westward, we were saved. We watched with a strained eagerness impossible to describe. At each momentary gain or rebuff | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037077 | we uttered ejaculations. The Nigger mumbled charms. Every once in a while one of us would snatch a glance to leeward at the cruel, white waters, the whirl of eddies where the sea was beaten, only to hurry back to the rock and the point of the cliff whence our message of safety or destruction was to be flung. Once | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037078 | I looked up. Percy Darrow was leaning gracefully against a stanchion, watching. His soft hat was pulled over his eyes; he stroked softly his little moustache; I caught the white puff of his cigarette. During the moment of my inattention something happened. A wild shout burst from the men. I whirled, and saw to my great joy a strip of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037079 | sky westward between the cliff and the rock. And at that very instant a billow larger than the ordinary rolled beneath us, and in the back suction of its passage I could dimly make out cruel, dangerous rocks lying almost under our keel. Slowly we crept away. Our progress seemed infinitesimal, and yet it was real. In a while we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037080 | had gained sea room; in a while more we were fairly under sailing way, and the cliffs had begun to drop from our quarter. With one accord we looked back. Percy Darrow waved his hand in an indescribably graceful and ironic gesture; then turned square on his heel and sauntered away to the north valley, out of the course of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037081 | the lava. That was the last I ever saw of him. As we made our way from beneath the island, the weight of the wind seemed to lessen. We got the foresail on her, then a standing jib; finally little by little all her ordinary working canvas. Before we knew it, we were bowling along under a stiff breeze, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037082 | the island was dropping astern. From a distance it presented a truly imposing sight. The centre shot intermittent blasts of ruddy light; explosions, deadened by distance, still reverberated strongly; the broad canopy of brown-red, split with lightnings, spread out like a huge umbrella. The lurid gloom that had enveloped us in the atmosphere apparently of a nether world had given | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037083 | place to a twilight. Abruptly we passed from it to a sun-kissed, sparkling sea. The breeze blew sweet and strong; the waves ran untortured in their natural long courses. At once the men seemed to throw off the superstitious terror that had cowed them. Pulz and Thrackles went to bail the extra dory, alongside, which by a miracle had escaped | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037084 | swamping. The Nigger disappeared in the galley. Perdosa relieved Handy Solomon at the wheel; and Handy Solomon came directly over to me. XVIII THE CATASTROPHE He approached me with a confidence that proclaimed the new leader. A brace of Colt's revolvers swung from his belt, the tatters of his blood-stained garments hung about him. "Well, here we are," he remarked. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037085 | I nodded, waiting for what he had to disclose. "And lucky for you that you're here at all, say I," he continued. "And now that you're here, w'at are you going to do? That's the question--w'at are you going to do?" He cocked his head sidewise and looked at me speculatively as a cat might look at a rather large | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037086 | mouse. "We been a little rough," he went on after a moment, "and some folks is strait-laced. There might be trouble. And you know a heap too much." "What do you want of me?" I demanded. "It's just this," he returned briskly. "If you'll lay us our course to San Salvador, we'll let you go as one of us and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037087 | no questions asked." "If not?" I inquired. He shrugged his shoulders. "I leave it to you." "There's always the sea," I suggested. "And it's deep," he agreed. We looked out to the horizon in a diplomatic silence. I did not know whether to be angry, amused, or alarmed that the man estimated my cleverness so slightly. Why, the hook was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037088 | barely concealed, and the bait of the coarsest. That I would go safe to a sight of San Salvador I did not doubt: that I would never enter the harbour I was absolutely certain. The choice offered me was practically whether I preferred being thrown overboard now or several hundred miles to southeastward. I thought rapidly. It might be possible | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037089 | to announce a daily false reckoning to the crew, to sail the ship within rowing distance of some coast; and then to escape while the men believed themselves many hundred miles at sea. It would take nice calculation to prevent suspicion, but as it was the only chance I resolved upon it immediately. "That's all very well," I said firmly, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037090 | "but you can't get anywhere without me, and I'm not going to put in two years and then keep my mouth shut for nothing. I want a share in the swag--an even share with the rest of you." "Oh, that'll be all right," he cried; "you can have it." If anything was needed to convince me of the man's sinister | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037091 | intentions, this too ready acquiescence would have been enough. I knew him too well. If he had had the slightest intention of permitting me to go free, he would have bargained. The Nigger called us to mess. We ate in the after cabin. The chest was locked and the men had as yet been unable to break into it. Pulz | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037092 | professed some skill in locksmithing and promised to experiment later. After mess we went on deck again. The island had dropped down to the horizon and showed as a brilliant glow under a dark canopy. I leaned over the rail looking at it. Below me the extra dory bumped along. The idea came to me that if I could escape | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037093 | that night, I could row back to Percy Darrow. The two of us could make shift to live on fish and shellfish and mutton. The plan rapidly defined itself in my brain. From the remains of the _Golden Horn_ we could construct some kind of a craft in which to run free to the summer trades. Thus we might in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037094 | time reach some one or another of the Sandwich Islands, whence a passing trader could take us back to civilisation. There were many elements of uncertainty in the scheme, but it seemed to me less desperate than trusting to the caprices of these men, especially since they now had free access to the liquor stores. While I leaned over the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037095 | rail engrossed in these thoughts, one of the black thunder clouds that had been gathering and dissipating over the island during the entire afternoon suddenly glowed overhead with a strange white incandescence startlingly akin to Darrow's so-called "devil fires." Strangely enough, this illumination, unlike the volcanic glows, appeared to be cast on the clouds from without rather than shot through | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037096 | them from within, as were the other volcanic emanations. At the same instant I experienced a sharp interior revulsion of some sort, most briefly momentary, but of a character that shook me from head to toe. I had no time to analyse these various impressions, however, for my attention was almost instantly distracted. From the cabin came the sound of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037097 | a sharp fall, then a man cried out, and on the heels of it Pulz darted from the cabin, screaming horribly. We were all on deck, and as the little man rushed toward the stern Handy Solomon twisted him deftly from his feet. "My God, mate, what is it?" he cried, as he pinned the sufferer to the deck. But | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037098 | Pulz could not answer. He shivered, stiffened, and lay rigid, his eyes rolled back. "Fits," remarked Thrackles impatiently. The excitement died. Rum was forced between the victim's lips. After a little he recovered, but could tell us nothing of his seizure. After the dishes had been swept aside from supper, Handy Solomon announced a second attempt to open the chest. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000037099 | "Pancho, here, says he's been a mechanic," said he. "I right well know he's been a housebreaker. So he's got the _sabe_ for the job, and you can kiss the Book on that." Perdosa, with a grin, leaned over the cover from behind and began to pick away at the lock with a long, crooked wire. The others drew close | 60 | gutenberg |
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