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34 - Sea Wolf by Jack London · Sea Wolf

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  Speaker 1: The Sea Wolf by Jack London, chapter thirty four. It's
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  Speaker 1: too bad the coast has lost her masts. Why we
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  Speaker 1: could sail away in her? Don't you think we could? Humphrey,
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  Speaker 1: I sprang excitedly to my feet. I wonder, I wonder,
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  Speaker 1: I repeated, pacing up and down. Maud's eyes were shining
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  Speaker 1: with anticipation as they followed me. She had such faith
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  Speaker 1: in me, and the thought of it was so much
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  Speaker 1: added power. I remembered Michelaise to man, woman is as
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  Speaker 1: the earth was to her legendary son. He has but
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  Speaker 1: to fall down and kiss her breast, and he is
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  Speaker 1: strong again. For the first time I knew the wonderful
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  Speaker 1: truth of his words. Why I was living them. Maud
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  Speaker 1: was all this to me an unfailing source of strength
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  Speaker 1: and courage. I had but to look at her, or
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  Speaker 1: think of her and be strong again. It can be done,
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  Speaker 1: It can be done. I was thinking and asserting aloud.
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  Speaker 1: What men have done, I can do, And if they
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  Speaker 1: have never done this before, still I can do it.
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  Speaker 1: What for goodness sake? Maud demanded to be merciful. What
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  Speaker 1: is it you can do? We can do it? I amended.
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  Speaker 1: Why nothing else than put the masts back into the
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  Speaker 1: ghosts and sail away Humphrey, she exclaimed, And I felt
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  Speaker 1: as proud of my conception as if it were already
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  Speaker 1: a fact accomplished. But how is it possible to be done,
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  Speaker 1: she asked. I don't know, was my answer. I know
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  Speaker 1: only that I am capable of doing anything these days.
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  Speaker 1: I smiled proudly at her, too proudly, for she dropped
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  Speaker 1: her eyes and was for the moment silent. But there
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  Speaker 1: is Captain Larson, she objected, blind and helpless, I answered, promptly,
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  Speaker 1: waving him side as a straw. Put those terrible hands
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  Speaker 1: of his. You know how he leaped across the opening
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  Speaker 1: of the lazarette, and you know also how I crept
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  Speaker 1: about and avoided him. I contended gaily and lost your shoes.
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  Speaker 1: You'd hardly expect them to avoid Wolf Larsen without my
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  Speaker 1: feet inside of them. We both laughed, and then went
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  Speaker 1: seriously to work constructing the plan, whereby we were to
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  Speaker 1: step the masts of the Ghosts and return to the world.
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  Speaker 1: I remembered hazily the physics of my school days, while
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  Speaker 1: the last few months had given me practical experience with
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  Speaker 1: mechanical purchases, I must say, though, when we walked down
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  Speaker 1: to the Ghosts to inspect more closely the task before us,
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  Speaker 1: at the sight of the great masts lying in the
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  Speaker 1: water almost disheartened me. Where were we to begin? If
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  Speaker 1: there had been one mast standing something high up to
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  Speaker 1: which to fasten blocks and tackles, but there was nothing.
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  Speaker 1: It reminded me of the problem of lifting one's self
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  Speaker 1: by one's bootstraps. I understood the mechanics of levers, but
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  Speaker 1: where was I to get a forecrum? There was the
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  Speaker 1: main mast fifteen inches in diameter, at what was now
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  Speaker 1: the butt still sixty five feet in length, and weighing
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  Speaker 1: I roughly calculated at least three thousand pounds. And then
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  Speaker 1: came the foremast, larger in diameter and weighing surely thirty
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  Speaker 1: five hundred pounds. Where was I to begin? Maud stood
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  Speaker 1: silently by my side while I evolved in my mind
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  Speaker 1: the contrivance known amongst sailors as shears, but though known
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  Speaker 1: to sailors, I invented it there on in Dever Island.
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  Speaker 1: By crossing and lashing the ends of two spars, and
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  Speaker 1: then elevating them in the air like an inverted V.
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  Speaker 1: I could get a point above the deck to which
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  Speaker 1: to make fast my hoisting tackle. To this hoisting tackle,
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  Speaker 1: I could, if necessary attach a second hoisting tackle. And
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  Speaker 1: then there was the windlass. Maud saw that I had
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  Speaker 1: achieved a solution, and her eyes warm sympathetically. What are
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  Speaker 1: you going to do? She asked, Clear that Raffle, I answered,
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  Speaker 1: pointing to the tangled wreckage overside. Ah. The decisiveness, the
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  Speaker 1: very sound of the words was good in my ears,
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  Speaker 1: Clear that Raffle, imagine so salty a phrase on the
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  Speaker 1: lips of the Humphrey van Waden of a few months gone.
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  Speaker 1: There must have been a touch of the melodramatic in
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  Speaker 1: my pose and voice, For Maud smiled. Her appreciation of
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  Speaker 1: the ridiculous was keen, and in all things she unerringly
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  Speaker 1: saw and felt where it existed, the touch of sham,
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  Speaker 1: the overshading, the overtone. It was this which had given
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  Speaker 1: poise and penetration to her own work and made her
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  Speaker 1: of worth to the world. The serious critic, with the
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  Speaker 1: sense of humor and the power of expression must inevitably
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  Speaker 1: command the world's ear, And so it was that she
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  Speaker 1: had commanded Her sense of humor was really the artist's
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  Speaker 1: instinct for proportion. I'm sure I've heard it before somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in books, she murmured, gleefully. I had an instinct for
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  Speaker 1: proportion myself, and I collapsed forthwith, descending from the dominant
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  Speaker 1: pose of a master of matter to a state of
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  Speaker 1: humble confusion, which was, to say the least, very miserable.
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  Speaker 1: Her hand leapt out at once to mine. I'm so sorry,
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  Speaker 1: she said, No need to be. I gulped. It does
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  Speaker 1: me good. There's too much of the schoolboy in me,
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  Speaker 1: all of which is neither here nor there. What we've
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  Speaker 1: got to do is actually and literally to clear that raffle.
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  Speaker 1: If you'll come with me in the boat, we'll get
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  Speaker 1: to work and straighten things out. When the topmen clear
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  Speaker 1: the raffle with their clasp knives in their teeth, she
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  Speaker 1: quoted at me, And for the rest of the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: we made merry over our labor. Her task was to
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  Speaker 1: hold the boat in position while I worked at the tangle.
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  Speaker 1: And such a tangle halliards, sheets, guys, down hauls, shrouds, stays,
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  Speaker 1: all washed about and back and forth and through and
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  Speaker 1: twined and knotted by the sea. I cut no more
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  Speaker 1: than was necessary, and what with passing the long ropes
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  Speaker 1: under and around the booms and masts, of unwreaving the hallards,
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  Speaker 1: and sheets of coiling down in the boat, and uncoiling
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  Speaker 1: in order to pass through another knot in the bight,
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  Speaker 1: I was soon wet to the skin. The sails did
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  Speaker 1: require some cutting, and the canvas heavy with water tried
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  Speaker 1: my strength severely, but I succeeded before nightfall in getting
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  Speaker 1: it all spread out on the beach to dry. We
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  Speaker 1: were both very tired when we knocked off a supper,
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  Speaker 1: and we had done good work, too, though to the
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  Speaker 1: eye it appeared insignificant. Next morning, with Maud as able assistant,
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  Speaker 1: I went into the hold of the Ghost to clear
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  Speaker 1: the steps of the mast butts. We had no more
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  Speaker 1: than begun work when the sound of my knocking and
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  Speaker 1: hammering brought Wolf Larsen Hello below, he cried down the
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  Speaker 1: open hatch. The sound of his voice made Maud quickly
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  Speaker 1: draw close to me as for protection, and she rested
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  Speaker 1: one hand on my arm while we parleyed hello on deck.
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  Speaker 1: I replied, good morning to you. What are you doing
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  Speaker 1: down there? He demanded, trying to scuttle my ship for me?
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  Speaker 1: Quite the opposite her, was my answer. But what in
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  Speaker 1: thunder are you repairing? There was puzzlement in his voice.
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  Speaker 1: Why am getting everything ready for re stepping the masts,
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  Speaker 1: I replied easily, as though it were the simplest project imaginable.
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  Speaker 1: It seems as though you're standing on your own legs.
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  Speaker 1: At last, hump, we heard him say, And then for
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  Speaker 1: some time he was silent. But I say hump, he
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  Speaker 1: called down. You can't do it. Oh yes I can,
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  Speaker 1: I retorted, I'm doing it now. But this is my vessel,
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  Speaker 1: my particular property. What if I forbid you, you forget,
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  Speaker 1: I replied. You were no longer the biggest bit of
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  Speaker 1: the ferment. You were once and able to eat me,
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  Speaker 1: as you were pleased to phrase it, But there has
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  Speaker 1: been a diminishing, and now I am able to eat you.
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  Speaker 1: The yeast has grown steal. He gave a short, disagreeable laugh.
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  Speaker 1: I see you are working my philosophy back on me
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  Speaker 1: for all it's worth. But don't make the mistake of
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  Speaker 1: underestimating me for your own good, I warn you, Since
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  Speaker 1: when have you become a philanthropist? I query confess now
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  Speaker 1: in warning me for my own good, that you were
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  Speaker 1: very consistent he ignored my sarcasm, saying, suppose I clapped
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  Speaker 1: the hatch on now, you won't fool me as you
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  Speaker 1: did in the lazarette Wolf Larsen, I said sternly, for
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  Speaker 1: the first time, addressing him by this his most familiar name.
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  Speaker 1: I am unable to shoot a helpless, unresisting man. You
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  Speaker 1: have proved that to my satisfaction as well as yours.
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  Speaker 1: But I warn you now, and not so much for
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  Speaker 1: your own good as for mine, that I shall shoot
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  Speaker 1: you the moment you attempt a hostile act. I can
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  Speaker 1: shoot you now as I stand here, And if you
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  Speaker 1: are so minded, just go ahead and try to clap
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  Speaker 1: on that hatch. Nevertheless, I forbid you. I distinctly forbid
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  Speaker 1: your tampering with my ship. But man, I expostulated, you
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  Speaker 1: advance the fact that it is your ship as though
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  Speaker 1: it were a moral right. You have never considered moral
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  Speaker 1: rights in your dealings with others. You surely do not
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  Speaker 1: dream that I'll consider them in dealing with you. I
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  Speaker 1: had stepped underneath the open hatchway so that I could
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  Speaker 1: see him. The lack of expression on his face, so
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  Speaker 1: different from when I had watched him unseen, was enhanced
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  Speaker 1: by the unblinking, staring eyes. It was not a pleasant
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  Speaker 1: face to look upon, and none so poor, not even
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  Speaker 1: Hump to do him reverence, he sneered. The sneer was
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  Speaker 1: wholly in his voice. His face remained expressionless. As ever,
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  Speaker 1: how do you do, miss brister, he said suddenly, after
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  Speaker 1: a pause, I started. She had made no noise, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: had not even moved. Could it be that some glimmer
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  Speaker 1: of vision remained to him, or that his vision was
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  Speaker 1: coming back? How do you do, Captain Larson? She answered? Pray?
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  Speaker 1: How did you know I was here? Heard your breathing?
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  Speaker 1: Of course, I say, Hump's approving, don't you think so?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, she answered, smiling at me. I have
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  Speaker 1: never seen him. Otherwise you should have seen him before, then,
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  Speaker 1: Wolf Larsen in large doses, I murmured, before and after
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  Speaker 1: taking I want to tell you again, Hump, he said, threateningly,
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  Speaker 1: that you'd better leave things alone. But don't you care
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  Speaker 1: to escape as well as we? I asked, incredulously, No
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  Speaker 1: was his answer. I intend dying here. Well we don't,
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  Speaker 1: I concluded, defiantly, beginning again my knocking and end of
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  Speaker 1: chapter thirty four,