Latest / Sea Wolf / 30 - Sea Wolf by Jack London

Transcript

30 - Sea Wolf by Jack London · Sea Wolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Public Domain. The Sea Wolf by Jack London, chapter thirty,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: No wonder we called it. In dever Island. For two
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: weeks we toiled at building a hut. Maud insisted on helping,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and I could have wept over her bruised and bleeding hands,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and still I was proud of her because of it.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: There was something heroic about this gently bred woman, enduring
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: our terrible hardship, and with her pittance of strength, bending
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to the tasks of a peasant woman. She gathered many
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: of the stones which I built into the walls of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the hut. Also, she turned a deaf ear to my
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: entreaties when I begged her to desist. She compromised, however,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: by taking upon herself the lighter labors of cooking and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: gathering driftwood and moss for our winter's supply. The hut's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: walls rose without difficulty, and everything went smoothly until the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: problem of the roof confronted me. Of what use the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: four walls without a roof, and of what could a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: roof be made? There were the spare oards. Very true,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: they would serve as roof beams, but with what was
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I to cover them? Moss would never do tundra grass
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: was impracticable. We needed the sail for the boat, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the tarpaulin had begun to leak. Winters used water skins
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on his hut. I said, there are the seals, she suggested,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So next day the hunting began. I did not know
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: how to shoot, but I proceeded to learn, and when
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I had expended some thirty shells for three seals, I
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: decided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the necessary knowledge. I had used eight shells for lighting
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: fires before I hit upon the device of banking the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: embers with wet moss, and there remained not over a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: hundred shells in the box. We must club them seals,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I announced, when convinced of my poor marchmanship. I have
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: heard the sealers talk about clubbing them. They are so pretty,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: she objected. I cannot bear to think of it being done.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: It is so directly brutal, you know, so different from
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: shooting them. That roof must go on, I answered, grimly.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Winter is almost hear. It is our lives against theirs.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: It is unfortunate that we haven't plenty of ammunition, but
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I think any way that they suffer less from being
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: club than from being all shot up. Besides, I shall
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: do the clubbing. That's just it, she began eagerly, and
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: broke off in sudden confusion. Of course, I began, if
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: you prefer. But what shall I be doing, she interrupted
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: with that softness. I knew full well to be insistent,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: gathering firewood and cooking dinner, I answered lightly. She shook
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: her head. It is too dangerous for you to attempt
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a loan. I know, I know, she waived my protest.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I am only a weak woman, but just my small
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: assistants may enable you to escape disaster. But the clubbing,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I suggested. Of course you will do that. I shall
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: probably scream. I look away when the danger is most serious,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I laughed. I shall use my judgment when to look
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and when not to look, she replied with a grand air.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: The upshot of the affair was that she accompanied me
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: next morning. I rode into the adjoining cove and up
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to the edge of the beach. There were seals all
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: about us in the water, and the bellowing thousands on
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the beach compelled us to shout at each other to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: make ourselves heard. I know, men club them, I said,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: trying to reassure myself, and gazing doubtfully at a large
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: bull not thirty feet away, up reared on his fore
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: flippers and regarding me intently. But the question is, how
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: do they club them? Let us gather to under a
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: grass and thatch the roof. Maud said. She was as
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: frightened as I at the prospect, and we had reason
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to be gazing at close range at the gleaming teeth
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and dog like mouths. I always thought they were afraid
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of men, I said, How do I know they are
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: not afraid? I queried a moment later, after having rowed
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a few more strokes along the beach, perhaps if I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: were to step boldly ashore, they would cut for it,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and I could not catch up with one, And still
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I hesitated. I heard of a man once who invaded
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the nesting grounds of wild geese. Maud said, they killed
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: him the geese. Yes, the geese. My brother told me
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: about it when I was a little girl. But I know, oh,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: men club them, I persisted, I think the tunder grass
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: will make just as good a roof, she said. Far
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: from her intention, her words were maddening me, driving me on.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I could not play the coward before her eyes. Here goes,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I said, backing water with one oar and running the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: bow ashore. I stepped out and advanced valiantly upon a
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: long mained bull in the midst of his wives. I
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was armed with the regular club with which the boat
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: pullers killed the wounded seals gaffed aboard by the hunters.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: It was only a foot and a half long, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: in my superb ignorance, I never dreamed that the club
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: used ashore when raiding the rookeries measured four to five feet.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: The cows lumbered out of my way, and the distance
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: between me and the bull decreased. He raised himself on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: his flippers with an angry movement. We were a dozen
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: feet apart. Still, I advanced steadily, looking for him to
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: turn tail at any moment and run. At six feet
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the panicky thought rushed into my mind. What if he
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: will not run, Why then I shall club him? Came
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the answer in my fear. I had forgotten that I
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: was there to get the bull instead of to make
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: him run. And just then he gave a snort and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: a snarl and rushed at me. His eyes were blazing,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: his mouth was wide open, the teeth gleamed cruelly white.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Without shame, I confess that it was I who turned
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and footed it. He ran awkwardly, but he ran well.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: He was but two paces behind when I tumbled into
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the boat, and as I shoved off with an oar,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: his teeth crunched down on the blade. The stout wood
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was crushed like an eggshell. Mauden, I were astounded. A
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: moment later, he had dived under the boat, seized the
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: keel in his mind, and was shaking the boat violently.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: My said, Maud, let's go back. I shook my head.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I can do what other men have done, and I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: know that other men have club seals, but I think
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I'll leave the bulls alone next time. I wish you wouldn't,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: she said, Now, don't say please, please, I cried, half angrily.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I do believe she made no reply, and I knew
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: my tone must have hurt her. I beg your pardon,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I said, or shouted, rather in order to make myself
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hurt over the roar of the rookery. If you say so,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I'll turn and go back, but honestly i'd rather stay. Now.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Don't say that this is what you get for bringing
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: a woman along, she said, She smiled at me whimsically gloriously,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and I knew that there was no need for forgiveness.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I rowed a couple of hundred feet along the beach
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: so as to recover my nerves, and then stepped ashore again.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Do be cautious, she called after me. I nodded my
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: head and proceeded to make a flank attack on the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: nearest harem. All went well until I aimed a blow
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: at an outlying cow's head and fell short. She snorted
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and tried to scramble away. I ran in close and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: struck another blow, hitting the shoulder instead of the head.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Watch out, I heard Maud scream. In my excitement, I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: had not been taking notice of other things, and I
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: looked up to see the lord of the harem charging
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: down upon me again. I fled to the boat, hotly pursued,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: but at this time Maud made no suggestion of turning back.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It would be better, I imagine, if you let harems alone
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and devoted your attention to lonely and inoffensive looking seals.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: That's why she said. I think I have read something
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: about them doctor Jordan's book. I believe they are the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: young bulls, not old enough to have harems of their own.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: He called them the Hollis Chicky or something like that.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: It seems to me, if we were to find where
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: they haul out, it seems to me that you're fighting
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: instinct is aroused, I laughed. She flushed quickly and prettily.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I'll admit I don't like defeat any more than you do,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: or any more than I like the idea of killing
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: such pretty, inoffensive creatures. Pretty, I sniffed. I failed to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: mark anything pre eminently pretty about those foamy mouthed beasts.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: That raised me your point of view, she laughed, you
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: lacked perspective, now if you did not have to get
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: so close to this subject. The very thing, I cried,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: what I need is a longer club, And there's that
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: broken oar ready to hand. It just comes to me.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: She said. That Captain Larson was telling me how the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: men raided the rookeries. They drive the seals in small
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: herds a short distance inland before they killed them. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: don't care to undertake the herding of one of those harems,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I objected. But there are the holliss Chicky, she said.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: The hollist Chiky haul out by themselves and doctor Jordan
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: says that paths are left between the harems, and that
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: as long as the hollist chickie keeps strictly to the path,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: they are unmolested by the masters of the haram. There's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: one now, I said, pointing to a young bull in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the water. Let's watch him and follow him if he
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: hauls out. He swam directly to the beach and clambered
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: out into a small opening between two harems, the masters
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of which made warning noises but did not attack him.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: We watched him travel slowly inward, threading about among the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: harems along what must have been the path. Here goes,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I said, stepping out, But I confess my heart was
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in my mouth as I thought of going through the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: heart of that monstrous herd. It would be wise to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: make the boat fast, Maud said she had stepped out
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: beside me, and I regarded her with wonderment. She nodded
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: her head determinedly. Yes, I am going with you, so
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you may as well secure the boat and arm me
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: with a club. Let's go back, I said, dejectedly. I
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: think tunder grass will do after all, you know it won't,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: was her reply. Shall I lead with a shrug of
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the shoulders. But with the warmest admiration and pride at
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: heart for this woman, I equipped her with the broken
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: oar and took another from myself. It was with nervous
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: trepidation that we made the first few rides of the journey.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Once Maud screamed in terror as a cow thrust an
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: inquisitive nose toward her foot, and several times I quickened
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: my pace for the same reason. But beyond warning coughs
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: from either side, there were no signs of hostility. It
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: was a rookery which had never been raided by the hunters,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and in consequence, the Seals were mild tempered and at
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the same time unafraid. In the very heart of the herd,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the din was terrific. It was almost dizzying in its effect.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I paused and smiled reassuringly at Maud, for I had
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: recovered my equanimity sooner than she. I could see that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: she was still badly frightened. She came close to me
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and shouted, I'm dreadfully afraid, And I was not. Though
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the novelty had not yet worn off. The peaceful comportment
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of the seals had quieted my alarm. Maud was trembling.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid, and I'm not afraid, she chattered, with shaking jaws.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: It's my miserable body, not I right. It's all right,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I reassured her, my arm passing instinctively and protectively around her.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I shall never forget in that moment, how instantly conscious
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I became of my manhood, the primitive deeps of my
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: nature stirred. I felt myself masculine, the protector of the week,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the fighting mail, and best of all, I felt myself
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the protector of my loved one. She leaned against me,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: so light and lily frail, and as her trembling eased away,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: it seemed as though I became aware of prodigious strength.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I felt myself a match for the most ferocious bull
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: in the herd. And I know had such a bull
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: charged upon me, that I should have met it unflinchingly
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and quite coolly, and I know that I should have
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: killed it. I am all right now, she said, looking
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: up at me, gratefully, let us go on, and that
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the strength in me had quieted her and given her
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: confidence filled me with an exultant joy. The youth of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the race seemed burgeoning in me. Over civilized man that
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I was, and I lived for myself the old hunting
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: days and forest nights of my remote and forgotten ancestry.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I had much for which to thank Wolf Larsen, was
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my thought. As we went along a path between the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: jostling arams a quarter of a mile inland, we came
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: upon the Hollis, Chicky, sleek young bulls living out the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: loneliness of their bachelorhood and gathering strength against the day
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: when they would fight their way into the ranks of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the Benedicts. Everything now went smoothly. I seemed to know
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: just what to do and how to do it, Shouting,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: making threatening gestures with my club, and even prodding the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: lazy ones. I quickly cut out a score of the
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: young bachelors from their companions. Whenever one made an attempt
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to break back toward the water, I headed it off.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Maud took an active part in the drive, and with
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: her cries and flourishings of the broken ore, was of
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: considerable assistance. I noticed, though, that whenever one looked tired
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and laggered, she let it slip past. But I noticed
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: also whenever one, with a show of fight tried to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: break past that her eyes glinted and showed bright, and
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: she wrapped it smartly with her club. My it's exciting,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: she cried, pausing from sheer weakness. I think I'll sit down.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I drove the little herd, a dozen strong, now one
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: of the escapes she had permitted one hundred yards farther on,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and by the time she joined me, I had finished
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the slaughter and was beginning to skin. An hour later
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: we went proudly back along the path between the harems,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and twice again we came down the path burdened with skins,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: till I thought we had enough to roof the hut.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I set the sail, laid one tack out of the cove,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: and on the other tack made our own little inner cove.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: It's just like homecoming, Maud said. As I ran the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: boat ashore. I heard her words with a responsive thrill.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: It was all so dearly, intimate and natural, And I said,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: it seems as though I have lived this life always.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: The world of books and bookish folk is very vague,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: more like a dream memory than an actuality. I surely
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: have hunted and forayed and fought all the days of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: my life, and you too seem a part of it
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you are. I was on the verge of saying, my woman,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: my mate, but glibly changed it to standing the hardship well.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: But her ear had caught the flaw. She recognized a
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: flight that midmost broke. She gave me a quick look.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Not that you were saying that the American missus Minell
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: was living the life of a savage and living it
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: quite successfully, I said, easily. Oh, was all she replied.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: But I could have sworn there was a note of
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: disappointment in her voice. But my woman, my mate kept
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: ringing in my head for the rest of the day,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and for many days. Yet never did it ring more
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: loudly than that night, as I watched her draw back
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the blanket of moss from the coals, blow up the fire,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and cook the evening meal. It must have been latent
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: savagery stirring in me, for the old words so bound
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: up with the roots of the race, to grip me
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and thrill me, and grip and thrill they did till
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I fell asleep, murmuring them to myself over and over again.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirty