Latest / Sea Wolf / Stories of Ships and the Sea-Jack London
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Recording by William Tomko. Stories of Ships and the Sea
- 0:05Speaker 1: by Jack London. Story 1. Chris Farrington, Able Seaman. If
- 0:12Speaker 1: you was in the cold country ships, a little shaver
- 0:16Speaker 1: like you would be only their boy, and you would
- 0:19Speaker 1: wait on their table seaman. And when their able seaman
- 0:23Speaker 1: sing out, Boy, the water jug, you would jump quick,
- 0:27Speaker 1: like a shot, and bring the water jug. And when
- 0:31Speaker 1: their able seaman sing out, Boy, my boots, you would
- 0:35Speaker 1: get their boots. And you would be politeful, and say, Yes, sir,
- 0:41Speaker 1: and no, sir. but you pee in der American ship,
- 0:45Speaker 1: and you think you are so good as der able seaman. Chris,
- 0:49Speaker 1: mine boy, I have been a sailor-man for twenty-two years,
- 0:53Speaker 1: und do you think you are so good as me?
- 0:55Speaker 1: I was a sailor-man before you was born, and I
- 1:00Speaker 1: not und reef und splice when you play mit top-strings
- 1:04Speaker 1: und fly kites. But you are unfair, Emil, cried Chris Farrington.
- 1:10Speaker 1: his sensitive face flushed and hurt. He was a slender,
- 1:14Speaker 1: though strongly built, young fellow of seventeen, with Yankee ancestry
- 1:19Speaker 1: writ large all over him. There you go once again,
- 1:23Speaker 1: the Swedish sailor exploded. My name is Mr. Johansen, und
- 1:28Speaker 1: a kid of a boy like you call me Emil.
- 1:31Speaker 1: It was insulting. Und comes because of der American ship,
- 1:36Speaker 1: But you call me Chris, the boy expostulated, reproachfully. But
- 1:41Speaker 1: you've us a boy. Who does a man's work? Chris retorted.
- 1:46Speaker 1: And because I do a man's work, I have as
- 1:48Speaker 1: much right to call you by your first name as
- 1:51Speaker 1: you me. We are all equals in this foe castle,
- 1:55Speaker 1: and you know it. When we signed for the voyage
- 1:58Speaker 1: in San Francisco, we signed as sailors on the Sophie Sutherland,
- 2:02Speaker 1: and there was no difference made with any of us.
- 2:05Speaker 1: Haven't I always done my work? Did I ever shirk?
- 2:09Speaker 1: Did you or any other man ever have to take
- 2:11Speaker 1: a wheel for me? Or a lookout? Or go aloft?
- 2:15Speaker 1: Chris is right, interrupted a young English sailor. No man
- 2:19Speaker 1: has had to do a tap of his work yet.
- 2:21Speaker 1: He signed as good as any of us, and he's
- 2:24Speaker 1: shown himself as good. Better, broke in a Nova Scotia man,
- 2:29Speaker 1: better than some of us— When we struck the sealing grounds,
- 2:32Speaker 1: he turned out to be next to the best boat-steerer aboard.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Only French Louis, who'd been at it for years, could
- 2:39Speaker 1: beat him. I'm only a boat-puller, and you're only a
- 2:43Speaker 1: boat-puller too, Emile Johanson, for all your twenty-two years at sea.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Why don't you become a boat-steerer? Too clumsy, laughed the Englishman,
- 2:53Speaker 1: and too slow. Little that counts one way or the other,
- 2:58Speaker 1: joined in Dane Jurgensen, coming to the aid of his
- 3:01Speaker 1: Scandinavian brother. Emile is a man grown and an able seaman.
- 3:06Speaker 1: The boy is neither. And so the argument raged back
- 3:11Speaker 1: and forth, the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes, because of race kinship,
- 3:16Speaker 1: taking the part of Johansson, and the English, Canadians, and Americans,
- 3:20Speaker 1: taking the part of Chris. From an unprejudiced point of view,
- 3:24Speaker 1: the right was on the side of Chris. As he
- 3:27Speaker 1: had truly said, he did a man's work, and the
- 3:30Speaker 1: same work that any of them did. But they were prejudiced,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and badly so, and out of the words which passed
- 3:38Speaker 1: rose a standard quarrel which divided the forecastle into two parties.
- 3:43Speaker 1: The Sophie Sutherland was a seal hunter, registered out of
- 3:46Speaker 1: San Francisco, and engaged in hunting the furry sea animals
- 3:50Speaker 1: along the Japanese coast north to Bering Sea. The other
- 3:54Speaker 1: vessels were two-masted schooners, but she was a three-master, and
- 3:58Speaker 1: the largest in the fleet. In fact, she was a full-rigged,
- 4:02Speaker 1: three-top-mast schooner, newly built. Although Chris Farrington knew that justice
- 4:08Speaker 1: was with him, and that he performed all his work
- 4:11Speaker 1: faithfully and well, many a time, in secret thought, he
- 4:15Speaker 1: longed for some pressing emergency to arise, whereby he could
- 4:18Speaker 1: demonstrate to the Scandinavian seamen that he also was an
- 4:22Speaker 1: able seaman. But one stormy night, by an accident for
- 4:26Speaker 1: which he was in no wise accountable— In overhauling a
- 4:30Speaker 1: spare anchor-chain, he had all the fingers of his left
- 4:33Speaker 1: hand badly crushed, and his hopes were likewise crushed, for
- 4:37Speaker 1: it was impossible for him to continue hunting with the boats,
- 4:40Speaker 1: and he was forced to stay idly aboard while his
- 4:43Speaker 1: fingers should heal. Yet, although he little dreamed it, this
- 4:47Speaker 1: very accident was to give him the long-looked-for opportunity. One afternoon,
- 4:52Speaker 1: in the latter part of May, the Sophie Sutherland rolled
- 4:56Speaker 1: sluggishly in a breathless calm. The seals were abundant, the
- 5:00Speaker 1: hunting good, and the boats were all away and out
- 5:02Speaker 1: of sight, and with them was almost every man of
- 5:05Speaker 1: the crew. Besides Chris, there remained only the captain, the
- 5:10Speaker 1: sailing master, and the Chinese cook. The captain was captain
- 5:14Speaker 1: only by courtesy. He was an old man, past eighty,
- 5:18Speaker 1: and blissfully ignorant of the sea and its ways. But
- 5:23Speaker 1: he was the owner of the vessel, and hence the
- 5:25Speaker 1: honorable title. Of course, the sailing-master, who was really captain,
- 5:30Speaker 1: was a thorough-going seaman. The mate, whose post was aboard,
- 5:34Speaker 1: was out with the boats, having temporarily taken Chris's place
- 5:38Speaker 1: as boat-steerer. When good weather and good sport came together,
- 5:43Speaker 1: the boats were accustomed to range far and wide, and
- 5:46Speaker 1: often did not return to the schooner until long after dark.
- 5:50Speaker 1: But for all that, it was a perfect hunting-day. Chris
- 5:53Speaker 1: noted a growing anxiety on the part of the sailing-master.
- 5:57Speaker 1: he paced the deck nervously and was constantly sweeping the
- 6:00Speaker 1: horizon with his marine glasses. Not a boat was in sight.
- 6:05Speaker 1: As sunset arrived, he even sent Chris aloft to the
- 6:09Speaker 1: mizzen topmast head, but with no better luck. The boats
- 6:13Speaker 1: could not possibly be back before midnight. Since noon, the
- 6:18Speaker 1: barometer had been falling with startling rapidity, and all the
- 6:21Speaker 1: signs were ripe for a great storm. How great that
- 6:25Speaker 1: even the sailing-master anticipated— He and Chris set to work
- 6:28Speaker 1: to prepare for it. They put storm-gaskets on the furled topsails,
- 6:33Speaker 1: lowered and stowed the foresail and spanker, and took in
- 6:36Speaker 1: the two inner jibs. In the one remaining jib they
- 6:40Speaker 1: put a single reef and a single reef in the mainsail.
- 6:44Speaker 1: Night had fallen before they finished, and with the darkness
- 6:47Speaker 1: came the storm. A low moan swept over the sea,
- 6:51Speaker 1: and the wind struck the Sophie Sutherland flat. but she
- 6:54Speaker 1: righted quickly, and with the sailing-master at the wheel, sheared
- 6:58Speaker 1: her bow into within five points of the wind. Working
- 7:01Speaker 1: as well as he could with his bandaged hand, and
- 7:04Speaker 1: with the feeble aid of the Chinese cook, Chris went
- 7:07Speaker 1: forward and backed the jib over to the weather-side. This,
- 7:11Speaker 1: with a flat mainsail, left the schooner hove-to.' God help
- 7:16Speaker 1: the boats! It's no gale. It's a typhoon!' the sailing-master
- 7:20Speaker 1: shouted to Chris at eleven o'clock. Too much canvas. Got
- 7:24Speaker 1: to get two more reefs into the mainsail, and got
- 7:27Speaker 1: to do it right away. He glanced at the old captain,
- 7:31Speaker 1: shivering in oil skins at the binnacle and holding on
- 7:34Speaker 1: for dear life. There's only you and I, Chris, and
- 7:38Speaker 1: the cook, but he's next to worthless. In order to
- 7:41Speaker 1: make the reef, it was necessary to lower the mainsail,
- 7:45Speaker 1: and the removal of this afterpressure was bound to make
- 7:48Speaker 1: the schooner fall off before the wind and sea because
- 7:51Speaker 1: of the forward pressure of the jib. Take the wheel,
- 7:55Speaker 1: the sailing-master directed, and when I give the word, hard
- 7:58Speaker 1: up with it, and when she's square before it, steady her,
- 8:02Speaker 1: and keep her there. We'll heave to again as soon
- 8:05Speaker 1: as I get the reefs in. Gripping the kicking spokes,
- 8:09Speaker 1: Chris watched him and the reluctant cook go forward into
- 8:12Speaker 1: the howling darkness. The Sophie Sutherland was plunging into the
- 8:16Speaker 1: huge head seas and wallowing tremendously. The tent's steel stays,
- 8:21Speaker 1: and taut rigging, humming like harp-strings to the wind. A
- 8:25Speaker 1: buffeted cry came to his ears, and he felt the
- 8:28Speaker 1: schooner's bow paying off of its own accord. The mainsail
- 8:32Speaker 1: was down. He ran the wheel hard over, and kept
- 8:36Speaker 1: anxious track of the changing direction of the wind on
- 8:38Speaker 1: his face, and of the heave of the vessel. This
- 8:41Speaker 1: was the crucial moment. In performing the evolution, she would
- 8:45Speaker 1: have to pass broadside to the surge before she could
- 8:48Speaker 1: get before it. The wind was blowing directly on his
- 8:51Speaker 1: right cheek. When he felt the Sophie Sutherland lean over
- 8:55Speaker 1: and begin to rise toward the sky. Up, up, an
- 8:59Speaker 1: infinite distance. Would she clear the crest of the gigantic wave? Again,
- 9:04Speaker 1: by the feel of it, for he could see nothing,
- 9:07Speaker 1: he knew that a wall of water was rearing and
- 9:09Speaker 1: curving far above him along the whole weather-side. There was
- 9:13Speaker 1: an instant's calm as the liquid wall intervened and shut
- 9:17Speaker 1: off the wind. The schooner righted, and for that instant
- 9:21Speaker 1: seemed at perfect rest. Then she rolled to meet the
- 9:24Speaker 1: descending rush. Chris shouted to the captain to hold tight,
- 9:28Speaker 1: and prepared himself for the shock. But the man did
- 9:31Speaker 1: not live who could face it. An ocean of water
- 9:33Speaker 1: smote Chris's back, and his clutch on the spokes was
- 9:36Speaker 1: loosened as if it were a baby's. Stunned, powerless, like
- 9:41Speaker 1: a straw on the face of a torrent, he was
- 9:43Speaker 1: swept onward he knew not whither. Missing the corner of
- 9:47Speaker 1: the cabin, he was dashed forward along the poop runway
- 9:50Speaker 1: a hundred feet or more, striking violently against the foot
- 9:53Speaker 1: of the foremast. A second wave, crushing inboard, hurled him
- 9:57Speaker 1: back the way he had come, and left him half-dry.
- 10:00Speaker 1: where the poop steps should have been bruised and bleeding
- 10:05Speaker 1: dimly conscious he felt for the rail and dragged himself
- 10:08Speaker 1: to his feet unless something could be done he knew
- 10:11Speaker 1: the last moment had come As he faced the poop,
- 10:15Speaker 1: the wind drove into his mouth with suffocating force. This
- 10:18Speaker 1: brought him back to his senses with a start. The
- 10:21Speaker 1: wind was blowing from dead aft. The schooner was out
- 10:24Speaker 1: of the trough and before it. But the scent of
- 10:27Speaker 1: the sea was bound to breach her too again. Crawling
- 10:30Speaker 1: up the runway, he managed to get to the wheel
- 10:32Speaker 1: just in time to prevent this. The binnacle light was
- 10:35Speaker 1: still burning. They were safe. That is, he and the
- 10:40Speaker 1: schooner were safe. As to the welfare of his three companions,
- 10:43Speaker 1: he could not say, nor did he dare leave the
- 10:46Speaker 1: wheel in order to find out, for it took every
- 10:48Speaker 1: second of his undivided attention to keep the vessel to
- 10:51Speaker 1: her course. The least fraction of carelessness, and the heave
- 10:55Speaker 1: of the sea under the quarter, was liable to thrust
- 10:58Speaker 1: her into the trough. So, a boy of one hundred
- 11:02Speaker 1: and forty pounds, he clung to his Herculean task of
- 11:05Speaker 1: guiding the two hundred straining tons of fabric amid the
- 11:09Speaker 1: chaos of the great storm-forces. Half an hour later, groaning
- 11:13Speaker 1: and sobbing, the captain crawled to Chris's feet. All was lost,
- 11:17Speaker 1: he whimpered. He was smitten unto death. The galley had
- 11:21Speaker 1: gone by the board, the mainsail and running gear, the cook, everything.'
- 11:26Speaker 1: Where' s the sailing-master?' Chris demanded, when he had caught his
- 11:31Speaker 1: breath after steadying a wild lurch of the schooner. It
- 11:34Speaker 1: was no child's play to steer a vessel under single-reefed
- 11:37Speaker 1: jib before a typhoon.' Clean up forward!' the old man replied,
- 11:42Speaker 1: jammed under the foxhole, Ed, but still breathing. Both his
- 11:46Speaker 1: arms are broken, he says, and he doesn't know how
- 11:49Speaker 1: many ribs. He's hurt bad. Well, he'll drown there the
- 11:54Speaker 1: way she's shipping water through the hoss pipes. Go forward,
- 11:58Speaker 1: Chris commanded, taking charge of things as a matter of course.
- 12:02Speaker 1: Tell him not to worry that I'm at the wheel.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Help him as much as you can and make him help.
- 12:08Speaker 1: He stopped and ran the spokes to starboard as a
- 12:10Speaker 1: tremendous billow rose under the stern and yawed the schooner
- 12:14Speaker 1: to port. And make him help himself for the rest.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Unship the foxhole hatch and get him down into a bunk.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Then ship the hatch again. The captain turned his aged
- 12:25Speaker 1: face forward and wavered pitifully. The waist of the ship
- 12:28Speaker 1: was full of water to the bulwarks. He had just
- 12:31Speaker 1: come through it and knew death lurked every inch of
- 12:33Speaker 1: the way. Go! Chris shouted fiercely. and as the fear-stricken
- 12:39Speaker 1: man started, and take another look for the cook. Two
- 12:43Speaker 1: hours later, almost dead from suffering, the captain returned. He
- 12:47Speaker 1: had obeyed orders. The sailing-master was helpless, although safe in
- 12:51Speaker 1: a bunk. The cook was gone. Chris sent the captain
- 12:55Speaker 1: below to the cabin to change his clothes. After interminable
- 12:59Speaker 1: hours of toil, day broke cold and gray. Chris looked
- 13:04Speaker 1: about him. THE SOPHIE SOUTHERN WAS RACING BEFORE THE TYPHOON
- 13:07Speaker 1: LIKE A THING POSSESSED. THERE WAS NO RAIN, BUT THE
- 13:10Speaker 1: WIND WHIPPED THE SPRAY OF THE SEAMAST HIGH, OBSCURING EVERYTHING
- 13:14Speaker 1: EXCEPT IN THE IMMEDIATE NEIGHBORHOOD. TWO WAVES ONLY COULD CHRIS
- 13:19Speaker 1: SEE AT A TIME, THE ONE BEFORE AND THE ONE BEHIND.
- 13:23Speaker 1: SO SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT THE SCHOONER SEEMED ON THE LONG
- 13:26Speaker 1: PACIFIC ROLE. RUSHING UP A MADDENING MOUNTAIN, She would poise,
- 13:30Speaker 1: like a cockle shell on the giddy summit, breathless and rolling,
- 13:34Speaker 1: leap outward and down into the yawning chasm beneath, and
- 13:38Speaker 1: bury herself in the smother of foam at the bottom.
- 13:42Speaker 1: Then the recovery, another mountain, another sickening upward rush, another poise,
- 13:47Speaker 1: and the downward crash. Abreast of him, to starboard, like
- 13:51Speaker 1: a ghost of the storm, Chris saw the cook dashing
- 13:54Speaker 1: apace with the schooner. Evidently, when washed overboard, he had
- 13:58Speaker 1: grasped and become entangled in a trailing halyard. For three
- 14:02Speaker 1: hours more, alone with this gruesome companion, Chris held the
- 14:06Speaker 1: Sophie Sutherland before the wind and sea. He had long
- 14:10Speaker 1: since forgotten his mangled fingers. The bandages had been torn away,
- 14:14Speaker 1: and the cold salt spray had eaten into the half-healed
- 14:18Speaker 1: wounds until they were numb and no longer pained. But
- 14:22Speaker 1: he was not cold. The terrific labor of steering forced
- 14:25Speaker 1: a perspiration from every pore. Yet he was faint and
- 14:29Speaker 1: weak with hunger and exhaustion, and hailed with delight the
- 14:32Speaker 1: advent on deck of the captain, who fed him all
- 14:35Speaker 1: of a pound of cake chocolate. It strengthened him at once.
- 14:40Speaker 1: He ordered the captain to cut the halyard by which
- 14:42Speaker 1: the cook's body was towing, and also to go forward
- 14:45Speaker 1: and cut loose the jib halyard and sheet. When he
- 14:49Speaker 1: had done so, the jib fluttered a couple of moments,
- 14:52Speaker 1: like a handkerchief, then tore out of the bolt ropes
- 14:55Speaker 1: and vanished. The Sophie Sutherland was running under bare poles.
- 15:00Speaker 1: By noon the storm had spent itself, and by six
- 15:03Speaker 1: in the evening the waves had died down sufficiently to
- 15:06Speaker 1: let Chris leave the helm. It was almost hopeless to
- 15:09Speaker 1: dream of the small boats weathering the typhoon, but there
- 15:12Speaker 1: was always a chance in saving human life, and Chris
- 15:15Speaker 1: at once applied himself to going back over the course
- 15:18Speaker 1: along which he had fled. He managed to get a
- 15:21Speaker 1: reef in one of the inner jibs, and two reefs
- 15:23Speaker 1: in the spanker, and then, with the aid of the watch-tackle,
- 15:27Speaker 1: to hoist them to the stiff breeze that yet blew.
- 15:31Speaker 1: And all through the night, tacking back and forth on
- 15:34Speaker 1: the back-track, he shook out canvas as fast as the
- 15:37Speaker 1: wind would permit. The injured sailing-master had turned delirious, and
- 15:42Speaker 1: between tending him and lending a hand with the ship,
- 15:45Speaker 1: Chris kept the captain busy.' Taught me more seamanship,' as
- 15:49Speaker 1: he afterwards said, than I'd learned on the whole voyage,'
- 15:53Speaker 1: But by daybreak the old man's feeble frame succumbed, and
- 15:57Speaker 1: he fell off into exhausted sleep on the weather-poop. Chris,
- 16:01Speaker 1: who could now lash the wheel, covered the tired man
- 16:04Speaker 1: with blankets from below, and went fishing in the lazaretto
- 16:07Speaker 1: for something to eat. But by the day following he
- 16:10Speaker 1: found himself forced to give in, drowsing fitfully by the wheel,
- 16:14Speaker 1: and waking ever and anon to take a look at things.
- 16:18Speaker 1: On the afternoon of the third day he picked up
- 16:20Speaker 1: a schooner, dismasted and battered, As he approached, close-hauled on
- 16:25Speaker 1: the wind, he saw her decks crowded by an unusually
- 16:28Speaker 1: large crew, and, on sailing in closer, made out, among others,
- 16:33Speaker 1: the faces of his missing comrades. And he was just
- 16:36Speaker 1: in the nick of time, for they were fighting a
- 16:38Speaker 1: losing fight at the pumps. An hour later, they, with
- 16:42Speaker 1: the crew of the sinking craft, were aboard the Sophie Sutherland.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Having wandered so far from their own vessel, they had
- 16:49Speaker 1: taken refuge on the strange schooner just before the storm broke.
- 16:53Speaker 1: She was a Canadian sealer on her first voyage, and,
- 16:57Speaker 1: as was now apparent, her last. The captain of the
- 17:01Speaker 1: Sophie Sutherland had a story to tell also, and he
- 17:04Speaker 1: told it well. So well, in fact, that when all
- 17:07Speaker 1: hands were gathered together on deck during the dog-watch, Emil
- 17:11Speaker 1: Johansson strode over to Chris and gripped him by the hand.' Chris,'
- 17:15Speaker 1: he said, so loudly that all could hear,' Chris, I
- 17:19Speaker 1: give in.' YOU FAS USED SO GOOD A SAILORMAN AS I.
- 17:24Speaker 1: YOU FAS A BULLY BOY UND ABLE SEAMAN, UND I
- 17:27Speaker 1: PEE PROUD FOR YOU. UND CHRIS, HE TURNED AS IF
- 17:31Speaker 1: HE HAD FORGOTTEN SOMETHING, AND CALLED BACK, FROM DIS TIME
- 17:35Speaker 1: ALWAYS YOU CALL ME EMIL MITAUTERMISTER. STORIES OF SHIPS AND
- 17:45Speaker 1: THE SEA BY JACK LONDON STORY 2 Typhoon off the
- 17:50Speaker 1: coast of Japan. Jack London's first story, published at the
- 17:54Speaker 1: age of seventeen. It was four bells in the morning watch.
- 17:59Speaker 1: We had just finished breakfast when the order came forward
- 18:01Speaker 1: for the watch on deck to stand by to heave
- 18:04Speaker 1: her to and all hands stand by the boats.' Port!
- 18:08Speaker 1: Hard a port!' cried our sailing-master.' Clew up the top sails.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Let the flying jib run down. Back the jib over
- 18:17Speaker 1: to windward and run down the fore-sail.' and so was
- 18:20Speaker 1: our schooner, Sophie Sutherland, hove-to off the Japan coast, near
- 18:25Speaker 1: Cape Jeromo, on April 10, 1893. Then came moments of
- 18:31Speaker 1: bustle and confusion. There were eighteen men to man the
- 18:34Speaker 1: six boats. Some were hooking on the falls, others casting
- 18:37Speaker 1: off the lashings. Boat-steers appeared with boat-compasses and water-breakers, and
- 18:43Speaker 1: boat-pullers with the lunch-boxes, Hunters were staggering under two or
- 18:47Speaker 1: three shotguns, a rifle, and heavy ammunition box, all of
- 18:52Speaker 1: which were soon stowed away with their oilskins and mittens
- 18:55Speaker 1: in the boats. The sailing master gave his last orders,
- 18:59Speaker 1: and away we went, pulling three pairs of oars to
- 19:02Speaker 1: gain our positions. We were in the weather-boat, and so
- 19:06Speaker 1: had a longer pull than the others. The first, second,
- 19:10Speaker 1: and third lee-boats soon had all sail set, and were
- 19:14Speaker 1: running off to the southward and westward with the wind-beam,
- 19:18Speaker 1: while the schooner was running off to leeward of them,
- 19:21Speaker 1: so that in case of accident the boats would have
- 19:24Speaker 1: fair wind home. It was a glorious morning, but our
- 19:28Speaker 1: boat-steerer shook his head ominously as he glanced at the
- 19:31Speaker 1: rising sun, and prophetically muttered, Red sun in the morning,
- 19:36Speaker 1: sailor take warning. The sun had an angry look. and
- 19:40Speaker 1: a few light, fleecy niggerheads in that quarter seemed abashed
- 19:44Speaker 1: and frightened, and soon disappeared. Away off to the northward,
- 19:49Speaker 1: Cape Jeromo reared its black, forbidding head, like some huge
- 19:53Speaker 1: monster rising from the deep. The winter snow, not yet
- 19:56Speaker 1: entirely dissipated by the sun, covered it in patches of
- 20:00Speaker 1: glistening white, over which the light wind swept on its
- 20:03Speaker 1: way out to sea. Huge gulls rose slowly, fluttering their
- 20:07Speaker 1: wings in the light breeze, and striking their webbed feet
- 20:10Speaker 1: on the surface of the water for over half a
- 20:12Speaker 1: mile before they could leave it. Hardly had the patter-patter
- 20:16Speaker 1: died away when a flock of sea-quail rose, and with
- 20:19Speaker 1: whistling wings flew away to windward, where members of a
- 20:23Speaker 1: large band of whales were disporting themselves, their blowings sounding
- 20:27Speaker 1: like the exhaust of steam-engines. The harsh, discordant cries of
- 20:31Speaker 1: a sea-parrot grated unpleasantly on the ear, and set half
- 20:35Speaker 1: a dozen alert in a small band of seals that
- 20:37Speaker 1: were ahead of us. Away they went, breaching and jumping
- 20:41Speaker 1: entirely out of water. A seagull, with slow, deliberate flight
- 20:46Speaker 1: and long, majestic curves, circled round us, and, as a
- 20:51Speaker 1: reminder of home, a little English sparrow perched impudently on
- 20:55Speaker 1: the forecastle head, and, cocking his head on one side,
- 20:59Speaker 1: chirped merrily. The boats were soon among the seals, and
- 21:03Speaker 1: the bang-bang of the guns could be heard from down
- 21:06Speaker 1: to leeward. The wind was slowly rising, and by three o'clock, as,
- 21:12Speaker 1: with a dozen seals in our boat, we were deliberating
- 21:15Speaker 1: whether to go on or turn back, the recall flag
- 21:18Speaker 1: was run up at the schooner's mizzen, a sure sign
- 21:22Speaker 1: that with the rising wind the barometer was falling and
- 21:24Speaker 1: that our sailing-master was getting anxious for the welfare of
- 21:28Speaker 1: the boats. Away we went before the wind, with a
- 21:31Speaker 1: single reef in our sail. With clenched teeth sat the boat-steerer,
- 21:35Speaker 1: grasping the steering-oar firmly with both hands, his restless eyes
- 21:40Speaker 1: on the alert. A glance at the schooner ahead, as
- 21:43Speaker 1: we rose on a sea, another at the main-sheet, and
- 21:46Speaker 1: then one astern, where the dark ripple of the wind
- 21:48Speaker 1: on the water told him of a coming puff, or
- 21:51Speaker 1: a large white-cap, that threatened to overwhelm us. The waves
- 21:55Speaker 1: were holding high, carnival-like, performing the strangest antics, as with
- 21:59Speaker 1: wild glee they danced along in fierce pursuit, now up,
- 22:03Speaker 1: now down, here, there, and everywhere, until some great sea
- 22:07Speaker 1: of liquid green, with its milk-white crest of foam, rose
- 22:11Speaker 1: from the ocean's throbbing bosom, and drove the others from view.
- 22:15Speaker 1: But only for a moment, for again, under new forms,
- 22:18Speaker 1: they reappeared. In the sun's path they wandered, where every ripple,
- 22:23Speaker 1: great or small, every little spit or spray, looked like
- 22:26Speaker 1: molten silver, where the water lost its dark green color
- 22:30Speaker 1: and became a dazzling, silvery flood, only to vanish and
- 22:34Speaker 1: become a wild waste of sullen turbulence, each dark foreboding
- 22:38Speaker 1: sea rising and breaking, then rolling on again. The dash,
- 22:43Speaker 1: the sparkle, the silvery light soon vanished with the sun,
- 22:46Speaker 1: which became obscured by black clouds, that were rolling swiftly
- 22:50Speaker 1: in from the west, north-west, apt heralds of the coming storm.
- 22:55Speaker 1: We soon reached the schooner, and found ourselves the last aboard.
- 22:59Speaker 1: In a few minutes the seals were skinned, boats and
- 23:02Speaker 1: decks washed, and we were down below by the roaring
- 23:05Speaker 1: forecastle fire, with a wash, change of clothes, and a hot,
- 23:08Speaker 1: substantial supper before us. Sail had been put on the schooner,
- 23:13Speaker 1: as we had a run of seventy-five miles to make
- 23:15Speaker 1: to the southward before morning. so as to get in
- 23:18Speaker 1: the midst of the seals, out of which we had
- 23:20Speaker 1: strayed during the last two days' hunting. We had the
- 23:24Speaker 1: first wash from eight to midnight. The wind was soon
- 23:27Speaker 1: blowing half a gale, and our sailing-master expected little sleep
- 23:31Speaker 1: that night, as he paced up and down the poop.
- 23:34Speaker 1: The top-sails were soon clued up, and made fast, then
- 23:38Speaker 1: the flying jib run down and furled. Quite a sea
- 23:41Speaker 1: was rolling by this time, occasionally breaking over the decks,
- 23:45Speaker 1: flooding them, and threatening to smash the boats. At six
- 23:48Speaker 1: bells we were ordered to turn them over and put
- 23:51Speaker 1: on storm lashings. This occupied us till eight bells, when
- 23:55Speaker 1: we were relieved by the mid-watch. I was the last
- 23:58Speaker 1: to go below, doing so just as the watch on
- 24:01Speaker 1: deck was furling the spanker. Below all were asleep except
- 24:05Speaker 1: our green hand, the bricklayer, who was dying of consumption.
- 24:09Speaker 1: The wildly dancing movements of the sea-lamp cast a pale,
- 24:13Speaker 1: flickering light through the foc'sle, and turned to golden honey
- 24:17Speaker 1: the drops of water on the yellow oil-skins. In all
- 24:20Speaker 1: the corners dark shadows seemed to come and go, while
- 24:23Speaker 1: up in the eyes of her, beyond the pall-bits, descending
- 24:27Speaker 1: from deck to deck, where they seemed to lurk like
- 24:29Speaker 1: some dragon at the cavern's mouth, it was dark as Erebus.
- 24:34Speaker 1: Now and again the light seemed to penetrate for a moment,
- 24:37Speaker 1: as the schooner rolled heavier than usual. only to recede,
- 24:40Speaker 1: leaving it darker and blacker than before. The roar of
- 24:45Speaker 1: the wind through the rigging came to the ear muffled
- 24:48Speaker 1: like the distant rumble of a train crossing a trestle,
- 24:51Speaker 1: or the surf on the beach, while the loud crash
- 24:54Speaker 1: of the seas on her weather-bow seemed almost to rend
- 24:56Speaker 1: the beams and planking asunder as it resounded through the forecastle.
- 25:02Speaker 1: The creaking and groaning of the timbers, stanchions, and bulkheads,
- 25:06Speaker 1: as the strain the vessel was undergoing was felt, served
- 25:09Speaker 1: to drown the groans of the dying man as he
- 25:11Speaker 1: tossed uneasily in his bunk. The working of the foremast
- 25:15Speaker 1: against the deck-beams caused a shower of flaky powder to fall,
- 25:19Speaker 1: and sent another sound mingling with the tumultuous storm. Small
- 25:24Speaker 1: cascades of water streamed from the pall-bits from the foc'sle
- 25:27Speaker 1: head above, and, joining issue with the streams from the
- 25:30Speaker 1: wet oil-skins, ran along the floor and disappeared aft into
- 25:35Speaker 1: the main hold. At two bells in the middle watch,
- 25:39Speaker 1: That is, in land parlance, one o'clock in the morning,
- 25:42Speaker 1: the order was roared out on the fo'c'sle. All hands
- 25:45Speaker 1: on deck, and shorten sail. Then the sleepy sailors tumbled
- 25:49Speaker 1: out of their bunk and into their clothes, oilskins and sea-boots,
- 25:53Speaker 1: and up on deck. Tis when that order comes on cold,
- 25:56Speaker 1: blustering nights, that Jack, grimly mutters, who would not sell
- 26:01Speaker 1: a farm and go to sea? It was on deck
- 26:03Speaker 1: that the force of the wind could be fully appreciated.
- 26:06Speaker 1: especially after leaving the stifling fo'c'sle. It seemed to stand
- 26:10Speaker 1: up against you like a wall, making it almost impossible
- 26:13Speaker 1: to move on the heaving decks, or to breathe as
- 26:16Speaker 1: the fierce gusts came dashing by. The schooner was hove-to
- 26:20Speaker 1: under jib, foresail, and mainsail. We proceeded to lower the
- 26:25Speaker 1: foresail and make it fast. The night was dark. greatly
- 26:28Speaker 1: impeding our labor. Still, though not a star or the
- 26:32Speaker 1: moon could pierce the black masses of storm clouds that
- 26:35Speaker 1: obscured the sky as they swept along before the gale,
- 26:38Speaker 1: nature aided us in a measure. A soft light emanated
- 26:42Speaker 1: from the movement of the ocean. Each mighty sea, all
- 26:45Speaker 1: phosphorescent and glowing, with the tiny lights of myriads of animalcula,
- 26:50Speaker 1: threatened to overwhelm us with a deluge of fire. HIGHER
- 26:54Speaker 1: AND HIGHER, THINNER AND THINNER, THE CREST GREW AS IT
- 26:57Speaker 1: BEGAN TO CURVE AND OVERTOP, PREPARATORY TO BREAKING, UNTIL, WITH
- 27:03Speaker 1: A ROAR, IT FELL OVER THE BALLWORKS, A MASS OF
- 27:06Speaker 1: SOFT GLOWING LIGHT AND TONS OF WATER WHICH SENT THE
- 27:09Speaker 1: SAILORS SPRAWLING IN ALL DIRECTIONS, AND LEFT IN EACH NOOK
- 27:12Speaker 1: AND CRANNY LITTLE SPECKS OF LIGHT THAT GLOWED AND TREMBLED
- 27:16Speaker 1: TILL THE NEXT SEA WASHED THEM AWAY, DEPOSITING NEW ONES
- 27:19Speaker 1: IN THEIR PLACES. Sometimes several seas following each other with
- 27:23Speaker 1: great rapidity and thundering down on our decks filled them
- 27:27Speaker 1: full to the bulwarks, but soon they were discharged through
- 27:30Speaker 1: the lee scuppers. To reef the mainsail we were forced
- 27:34Speaker 1: to run off before the gale under the single-reefed jib.
- 27:38Speaker 1: By the time we had finished the wind had forced
- 27:40Speaker 1: up such a tremendous sea that it was impossible to
- 27:43Speaker 1: heave her to. Away we flew on the wings of
- 27:47Speaker 1: the storm through the muck and flying spray. A wind
- 27:51Speaker 1: shear to starboard, then another to port, as the enormous
- 27:54Speaker 1: seas struck the schooner astern and nearly broached her too.
- 27:58Speaker 1: As day broke, we took in the jib, leaving not
- 28:01Speaker 1: a sail unfurled. Since we had begun scudding, she had
- 28:05Speaker 1: ceased to take the seas over her bow, but amid
- 28:08Speaker 1: ships they broke fast and furious. It was a dry
- 28:11Speaker 1: storm in the matter of rain, but the force of
- 28:14Speaker 1: the wind filled the air with fine spray, which flew
- 28:17Speaker 1: as high as across trees and cut the face like
- 28:20Speaker 1: a knife. making it impossible to see over a hundred
- 28:23Speaker 1: yards ahead. The sea was a dark lead color, as
- 28:26Speaker 1: with long, slow, majestic roll it was heaped up by
- 28:30Speaker 1: the wind into liquid mountains of foam. The wild antics
- 28:34Speaker 1: of the schooner were sickening as she forged along. She
- 28:37Speaker 1: would almost stop, as though climbing a mountain. then rapidly
- 28:42Speaker 1: rolling to right and left as she gained the summit
- 28:44Speaker 1: of a huge sea, she steadied herself and paused for
- 28:48Speaker 1: a moment as though affrighted at the yawning precipice before her.
- 28:52Speaker 1: Like an avalanche, she shot forward and down as a
- 28:56Speaker 1: sea astern struck her with the force of a thousand
- 28:58Speaker 1: battering rams, burying her bow to the cat-heads in the
- 29:02Speaker 1: milky foam at the bottom that came on deck in
- 29:05Speaker 1: all directions, forward, astern, to right and left, through the hawse-pipes,
- 29:11Speaker 1: and over the rail. The wind began to drop, and
- 29:15Speaker 1: by ten o'clock we were talking of heaving her to.
- 29:18Speaker 1: We passed a ship, two schooners, and a four-masted barquentine,
- 29:22Speaker 1: under the smallest canvas, and at eleven o'clock, running up
- 29:26Speaker 1: the spanker and jib, we hovered to, and in another
- 29:29Speaker 1: hour we were beating back again against the after-sea, under
- 29:33Speaker 1: full sail, to regain the sealing ground away to the westward. Below,
- 29:38Speaker 1: a couple of men were sewing the bricklayer's body in
- 29:41Speaker 1: canvas preparatory to the sea burial and so with the
- 29:46Speaker 1: storm passed away the bricklayer's soul recording by william tomko
- 29:55Speaker 1: stories of ships and the sea by jack london Story three,
- 30:01Speaker 1: The Lost Poacher. But they won't take excuses. You're across
- 30:06Speaker 1: the line, and that's enough. They'll take you. In you go,
- 30:10Speaker 1: Siberia and the salt mines. And as for Uncle Sam, why,
- 30:15Speaker 1: what's he to know about it? Never a word will
- 30:18Speaker 1: get back to the States. The Mary Thomas, the papers
- 30:21Speaker 1: will say, the Mary Thomas lost with all hands, probably
- 30:25Speaker 1: in a typhoon in the Japanese seas. That's what the
- 30:28Speaker 1: papers will say. And people, too. In you go, Siberia,
- 30:34Speaker 1: and the salt mines. Dead to the world, and kith
- 30:38Speaker 1: and kin, though you live fifty years. In such manner,
- 30:42Speaker 1: John Lewis, commonly known as the Sea Lawyer, settled the
- 30:46Speaker 1: matter out of hand. It was a serious moment in
- 30:49Speaker 1: the forecastle of the Mary Thomas. No sooner had the
- 30:53Speaker 1: watch below begun to talk the trouble over than the
- 30:56Speaker 1: watch on deck came down and joined them. As there
- 30:59Speaker 1: was no wind, every hand could be spared, with the
- 31:01Speaker 1: exception of the man at the wheel, and he remained
- 31:04Speaker 1: only for the sake of discipline. Even Bub Russell, the
- 31:08Speaker 1: cabin boy, had crept forward to hear what was going on. However,
- 31:12Speaker 1: it was a serious moment, as the grave faces of
- 31:15Speaker 1: the sailors bore witness. For the three preceding months, the
- 31:19Speaker 1: Mary Thomas sealing schooner had hunted the seal pack along
- 31:23Speaker 1: the coast of Japan and north to Bering Sea. Here,
- 31:27Speaker 1: on the Asiatic side of the sea, they were forced
- 31:30Speaker 1: to give over the chase, or rather, to go no farther,
- 31:34Speaker 1: for beyond the Russian cruisers patrolled forbidden ground where the
- 31:38Speaker 1: seals might breed in peace. A week before she had
- 31:41Speaker 1: fallen into a heavy fog accompanied by calm. Since then
- 31:45Speaker 1: the fog bank had not lifted, and the only wind
- 31:48Speaker 1: had been light airs and cat's paws. This in itself
- 31:52Speaker 1: was not so bad, for the sealing schooners are never
- 31:56Speaker 1: in a hurry to so long as they are in
- 31:57Speaker 1: the midst of the seals. But the trouble lay in
- 32:00Speaker 1: the fact that the current at this point bore heavily
- 32:03Speaker 1: to the north. Thus the Mary Thomas had unwittingly drifted
- 32:06Speaker 1: across the line, and every hour she was penetrating, unwillingly,
- 32:11Speaker 1: farther and farther into the dangerous waters where the Russian
- 32:15Speaker 1: bear kept guard. How far she had drifted no man knew.
- 32:20Speaker 1: The sun had not been visible for a week, nor
- 32:22Speaker 1: the stars. and the captain had been unable to take
- 32:25Speaker 1: observations in order to determine his position. At any moment
- 32:30Speaker 1: a cruiser might swoop down and hail the crew away
- 32:32Speaker 1: to Siberia. The fate of other poaching seal-hunters was too
- 32:36Speaker 1: well known to the men of the Mary Thomas, and
- 32:39Speaker 1: there was cause for grave faces.' Mein friends,' spoke up
- 32:43Speaker 1: a German boat-steerer,' it was a bad business. Just as
- 32:48Speaker 1: we make a big catch, und all honest, some of
- 32:51Speaker 1: things go wrong.' UND THE RUSSIANS NAB US, DAKE OUR
- 32:55Speaker 1: SKINS AND OUR SCHOONER, UND SEND US MIT DER ANAKRISTS
- 33:00Speaker 1: TO SIBERIA. ACH, A PRETTY PAD PIZZINES. YES, THAT'S WHERE
- 33:06Speaker 1: IT HURTS, THE SEA LAWYER WENT ON. FIFTEEN HUNDRED SKINS
- 33:09Speaker 1: IN THE SALT PILES, AND ALL HONEST. A BIG PAYDAY
- 33:13Speaker 1: COMING TO EVERY MAN. JACK OF US, AND THEN TO
- 33:16Speaker 1: BE CAPTURED, AND LOSE IT ALL. IT'D BE DIFFERENT IF
- 33:19Speaker 1: WE'D BEEN POACHING. but it's all honest work in open water.
- 33:24Speaker 1: But if we haven't done anything wrong, they can't do
- 33:27Speaker 1: anything to us, can they? Bub queried. It strikes me
- 33:32Speaker 1: as how it ain't the proper thing for a boy
- 33:35Speaker 1: your age shoving in when his elders is talking, protested
- 33:39Speaker 1: an English sailor from over the edge of his bunk. Oh,
- 33:43Speaker 1: that's all right, Jack, answered the sea lawyer. He's a
- 33:46Speaker 1: perfect right to.' Ain' t he just as liable to lose
- 33:49Speaker 1: his wages as the rest of us?'' Wouldn' t he give
- 33:52Speaker 1: thruppence for them?' Jack sniffed back. He had been planning
- 33:56Speaker 1: to go home and see his family in Chelsea when
- 33:59Speaker 1: he was paid off, and he was now feeling rather
- 34:01Speaker 1: blue over the highly possible loss, not only of his pay,
- 34:05Speaker 1: but of his liberty.' How are they to know?' the
- 34:08Speaker 1: sea-lawyer asked, in answer to Bub's previous question.' Here we
- 34:12Speaker 1: are in Forbidden Water.' How do they know but what
- 34:15Speaker 1: we came here of our own accord? Here we are,
- 34:19Speaker 1: fifteen hundred skins in the hold. How do they know
- 34:21Speaker 1: whether we got them in open water or in the
- 34:24Speaker 1: closed sea? Don't you see, Bub, the evidence is all
- 34:28Speaker 1: against us? If you caught a man with his pockets
- 34:30Speaker 1: full of apples, like those which grow on your tree,
- 34:33Speaker 1: and if you caught him in your tree besides, what
- 34:36Speaker 1: did you think if he told you he couldn't help
- 34:38Speaker 1: it and had just been sort of blown there, and that, anyway,
- 34:42Speaker 1: those apples came from some other tree? What did you think, eh?
- 34:47Speaker 1: Bub saw it clearly when put in that light, and
- 34:50Speaker 1: shook his head despondently. You'd rather be dead than go
- 34:55Speaker 1: to Siberia, one of the boat pullers said. They put
- 34:58Speaker 1: you into the salt mines and work you till you die.
- 35:02Speaker 1: Never see daylight again. Why, I've heard tell of one
- 35:05Speaker 1: fellow that was chained to his mate, and that mate died.
- 35:08Speaker 1: And they were both chained together. And if they send
- 35:12Speaker 1: you to the quicksilver mines, you get salivated. I'd rather
- 35:15Speaker 1: be hung than salivated. What's salivated? Jack asked, suddenly sitting
- 35:21Speaker 1: up in his bunk at the hint of fresh misfortunes. Why,
- 35:26Speaker 1: the quicksilver gets into your blood. I think that's the way.
- 35:29Speaker 1: And your gums all swell like you had the scurvy.
- 35:33Speaker 1: Only worse. And your teeth get loose in your jaws.
- 35:36Speaker 1: And big ulcers forms. And then you die horrible. The
- 35:40Speaker 1: strongest man can't last long, a mining quicksilver.' A pad pizzeness,'
- 35:46Speaker 1: the boat-steerer reiterated, dolorously, in the silence which followed.' A
- 35:51Speaker 1: pad pizzeness. I vish I was in Yokohama.'' Hey, what
- 35:57Speaker 1: was that?' The vessel had suddenly heeled over. The decks
- 36:01Speaker 1: were aslant. A tin pannikin rolled down the inclined plane,
- 36:04Speaker 1: rattling and banging. From above came the slapping of canvas
- 36:09Speaker 1: and the quivering rat-a-tat of the after-leech of the loosely-stretched foresail.
- 36:14Speaker 1: Then the mate's voice sang down the hatch, All hands
- 36:17Speaker 1: on deck, and make sail! Never had such summons been
- 36:21Speaker 1: answered with more enthusiasm. The calm had broken. The wind
- 36:25Speaker 1: had come which was to carry them south into safety.
- 36:28Speaker 1: With a wild cheer, all sprang on deck. Working with
- 36:31Speaker 1: mad haste, they flung out top sails, flying jibs, and
- 36:34Speaker 1: stay sails. As they worked, the fog bank lifted, and
- 36:38Speaker 1: the black vault of heaven, bespangled with the old familiar stars,
- 36:42Speaker 1: rushed into view. When all was ship-shape, the Mary Thomas
- 36:45Speaker 1: was lying gallantly over on her side to a beam-wind
- 36:49Speaker 1: and plunging ahead due south.' Steamer' s lights ahead on the
- 36:53Speaker 1: port bow, sir,' cried the lookout from his station on
- 36:56Speaker 1: the forecastle-head. There was excitement in the man's voice. The
- 37:00Speaker 1: captain sent Bub below for his night-glasses. Everybody crowded to
- 37:05Speaker 1: the lee-rail to gaze at the suspicious stranger, which already
- 37:08Speaker 1: began to loom up vague and indistinct. In those unfrequented waters,
- 37:13Speaker 1: the chance was one in a thousand that it could
- 37:16Speaker 1: be anything else than a Russian patrol. The captain was
- 37:19Speaker 1: still anxiously gazing through the glasses when a flash of
- 37:22Speaker 1: flame left the stranger's side, followed by the loud report
- 37:26Speaker 1: of a cannon. The worst fears were confirmed. It was
- 37:30Speaker 1: a patrol, evidently firing across the bows of the Mary
- 37:33Speaker 1: Thomas in order to make her heave to. Hard down
- 37:37Speaker 1: with your helm, the captain commanded the steersman. all the
- 37:40Speaker 1: life gone out of his voice. Then to the crew,
- 37:44Speaker 1: back over the jib and foresail, run down the flying jib,
- 37:48Speaker 1: clue up the foretopsail, and aft here and swing on
- 37:52Speaker 1: to the main sheet. The Merry Thomas ran into the
- 37:56Speaker 1: eye of the wind, lost headway, and fell to curtsying
- 38:00Speaker 1: gravely to the long seas rolling up from the west.
- 38:03Speaker 1: The cruiser steamed a little nearer and lowered a boat.
- 38:06Speaker 1: The sealers watched in heartbroken silence. They could see the
- 38:10Speaker 1: white bulk of the boat as it was slacked away
- 38:12Speaker 1: to the water and its crew sliding aboard. They could
- 38:16Speaker 1: hear the creaking of the davits and the commands of
- 38:18Speaker 1: the officers. Then the boat sprang away under the impulse
- 38:21Speaker 1: of the oars and came toward them. The wind had
- 38:24Speaker 1: been rising, and already the sea was too rough to
- 38:27Speaker 1: permit the frail craft to lie alongside the tossing schooner.
- 38:31Speaker 1: but watching their chance and taking advantage of the boarding
- 38:34Speaker 1: ropes thrown to them, an officer and a couple of
- 38:36Speaker 1: men clambered aboard. The boat then sheared off into safety
- 38:41Speaker 1: and lay to its oars, a young midshipman sitting in
- 38:45Speaker 1: the stern and holding the yoke lines in charge. The officer,
- 38:49Speaker 1: whose uniform disclosed his rank as that of a second
- 38:52Speaker 1: lieutenant in the Russian Navy, went below with the captain
- 38:55Speaker 1: of the Mary Thomas to look at the ship's papers.
- 38:59Speaker 1: A few minutes later he emerged, and upon his sailors
- 39:02Speaker 1: removing the hatch-covers, passed down into the hold with a
- 39:05Speaker 1: lantern to inspect the salt-piles. It was a goodly heap
- 39:09Speaker 1: which confronted him. Fifteen hundred fresh skins, the season's catch,
- 39:14Speaker 1: and under the circumstances he could have had but one conclusion.
- 39:19Speaker 1: I am very sorry, he said in broken English to
- 39:22Speaker 1: the sealing-captain, when he again came on deck, but it
- 39:26Speaker 1: is my duty, in the name of the Tsar, to
- 39:29Speaker 1: seize your vessels as a poacher caught with fresh skins
- 39:32Speaker 1: in the closed sea. The penalty, as you may know,
- 39:35Speaker 1: is confiscation and imprisonment. The captain of the Mary Thomas
- 39:40Speaker 1: shrugged his shoulders in seeming indifference and turned away. Although
- 39:44Speaker 1: they may restrain all outward show, strong men, under unmerited misfortune,
- 39:50Speaker 1: are sometimes very close to tears. Just then the vision
- 39:53Speaker 1: of his little California home, and of the wife and
- 39:56Speaker 1: two yellow-haired boys, was strong upon him. And there was
- 40:00Speaker 1: a strange choking sensation in his throat, which made him
- 40:04Speaker 1: afraid that if he attempted to speak he would sob instead.
- 40:09Speaker 1: And also there was upon him the duty he owed
- 40:12Speaker 1: his men. No weakness before them, for he must be
- 40:15Speaker 1: a tower of strength to sustain them in misfortune. He
- 40:19Speaker 1: had already explained to the second lieutenant and knew the
- 40:22Speaker 1: hopelessness of the situation. As the sea lawyer had said,
- 40:25Speaker 1: the evidence was all against him. So he turned aft
- 40:29Speaker 1: and fell to pacing up and down the poop of
- 40:32Speaker 1: the vessel over which he was no longer commander. The
- 40:35Speaker 1: Russian officer now took temporary charge. He ordered more of
- 40:39Speaker 1: his men aboard and had all the canvas clued up
- 40:42Speaker 1: and furled snugly away. While this was being done, the
- 40:46Speaker 1: boat plied back and forth between the two vessels, passing
- 40:50Speaker 1: a heavy hawser, which was made fast to the great
- 40:53Speaker 1: towing bits on the schooner's foc'sle head. During all this work,
- 40:57Speaker 1: the sealers stood about in sullen groups. It was madness
- 41:01Speaker 1: to think of resisting, with the guns of a man
- 41:03Speaker 1: of war, not a biscuit toss away, but they refused
- 41:06Speaker 1: to lend a hand, preferring instead to maintain a gloomy silence.
- 41:11Speaker 1: Having accomplished his task, the lieutenant ordered all but four
- 41:14Speaker 1: of his men back into the boat, Then the midshipman,
- 41:17Speaker 1: a lad of sixteen, looking strangely mature and dignified in
- 41:22Speaker 1: his uniform and sword, came aboard to take command of
- 41:25Speaker 1: the captured sailor. Just as the lieutenant prepared to depart,
- 41:29Speaker 1: his eye chanced to alight upon Bob. Without a word
- 41:33Speaker 1: of warning, he seized him by the arm and dropped
- 41:35Speaker 1: him over the rail into the waiting boat. And then,
- 41:38Speaker 1: with a parting wave of his hand, he followed him.
- 41:42Speaker 1: It was only natural that Bob should be frightened at
- 41:45Speaker 1: this unexpected happening. ALL THE TERRIBLE STORIES HE HAD HEARD
- 41:48Speaker 1: OF THE RUSSIANS SERVED TO MAKE HIM FEAR THEM, AND
- 41:51Speaker 1: NOW RETURN TO HIS MIND WITH DOUBLE FORCE. TO BE
- 41:54Speaker 1: CAPTURED BY THEM WAS BAD ENOUGH, BUT TO BE CARRIED
- 41:57Speaker 1: OFF BY THEM, AWAY FROM HIS COMRADES, WAS A FATE
- 42:00Speaker 1: OF WHICH HE HAD NOT DREAMED.' BE A GOOD BOY, BOB,'
- 42:04Speaker 1: THE CAPTAIN CALLED TO HIM, AS THE BOAT DREW AWAY
- 42:07Speaker 1: FROM THE MARY THOMAS'S SIDE,' AND TELL THE TRUTH.'' Aye, aye, sir,'
- 42:13Speaker 1: he answered bravely, enough by all outward appearance. He felt
- 42:17Speaker 1: a certain pride of race and was ashamed to be
- 42:20Speaker 1: a coward before these strange enemies, these wild Russian bears.'
- 42:23Speaker 1: Und be politeful,' the German boat-steerer added, his rough voice
- 42:29Speaker 1: lifting across the water like a foghorn. Bub waved his
- 42:33Speaker 1: hand in farewell, and his mates clustered along the rail
- 42:37Speaker 1: as they answered with a cheering shout. He found room
- 42:40Speaker 1: in the stern-sheets, where he fell to regarding the lieutenant.
- 42:44Speaker 1: He didn't look so wild or bearish after all, very
- 42:47Speaker 1: much like other men, Bub concluded, and the sailors were
- 42:51Speaker 1: much the same as all other man-of-war's-men he had ever known. Nevertheless,
- 42:56Speaker 1: as his feet struck the steel deck of the cruiser,
- 42:59Speaker 1: he felt as if he had entered the portals of
- 43:01Speaker 1: a prison. For a few minutes he was left unheeded.
- 43:04Speaker 1: The sailors hoisted the boat up and swung it in
- 43:08Speaker 1: on the davits. Then great clouds of black smoke poured
- 43:12Speaker 1: out of the funnels, and they were under way. TO SIBERIA,
- 43:16Speaker 1: BOB COULD NOT HELP BUT THINK. HE SAW THE MARY
- 43:19Speaker 1: THOMAS SWING ABRUPTLY INTO LINE AS SHE TOOK THE PRESSURE
- 43:22Speaker 1: FROM THE HOUSER, AND HER SIDELIGHTS, RED AND GREEN, ROSE
- 43:26Speaker 1: AND FELL AS SHE WAS TOWED THROUGH THE SEA. BOB'S
- 43:30Speaker 1: EYES DIMMED AT THE MELANCHOLY SIGHT. BUT— BUT JUST THEN THE
- 43:35Speaker 1: LIEUTENANT CAME TO TAKE HIM DOWN TO THE COMMANDER, AND
- 43:37Speaker 1: HE STRAIGHTENED UP AND SET HIS LIPS FIRMLY, AS IF
- 43:40Speaker 1: THIS WERE A VERY COMMONPLACE AFFAIR, and he were used
- 43:43Speaker 1: to being sent to Siberia every day in the week.
- 43:47Speaker 1: The cabin in which the commander sat was like a
- 43:49Speaker 1: palace compared to the humble fittings of the Mary Thomas,
- 43:53Speaker 1: and the commander himself, in gold lace and dignity, was
- 43:56Speaker 1: a most august personage, quite unlike the simple man who
- 44:00Speaker 1: navigated his schooner on the trail of the seal pack.
- 44:04Speaker 1: Bub now quickly learned why he had been brought aboard,
- 44:07Speaker 1: and in the prolonged questioning which followed, told nothing but
- 44:11Speaker 1: the plain truth. The truth was harmless. Only a lie
- 44:14Speaker 1: could have injured his cause. He did not know much,
- 44:18Speaker 1: except that they had been sealing far to the south
- 44:21Speaker 1: and open water, and that when the calm and fog
- 44:24Speaker 1: came down upon them, being close to the line, they
- 44:27Speaker 1: had drifted across. Again and again he insisted that they
- 44:31Speaker 1: had not lowered a boat or shot a seal in
- 44:34Speaker 1: the week they had been drifting about in the forbidden sea.
- 44:38Speaker 1: but the commander chose to consider all that he said
- 44:40Speaker 1: to be a tissue of falsehoods, and adopted a bullying
- 44:44Speaker 1: tone in an effort to frighten the boy. He threatened
- 44:47Speaker 1: and conjoled by turns, but failed in the slightest to
- 44:51Speaker 1: shake Bub's statements, and at last ordered him out of
- 44:55Speaker 1: his presence. By some oversight, Bub was not put in
- 44:59Speaker 1: anybody's charge, and wandered up on deck unobserved. Sometimes the sailors,
- 45:05Speaker 1: in passing, bent curious glances upon him but otherwise he
- 45:09Speaker 1: was left strictly alone. Nor could he have attracted much attention,
- 45:13Speaker 1: for he was small, the night dark, and the watch
- 45:17Speaker 1: on deck intent on its own business. Stumbling over the
- 45:20Speaker 1: strange decks, he made his way aft, where he could
- 45:23Speaker 1: look upon the side lights of the Mary Thomas following
- 45:26Speaker 1: steadily in the rear. For a long while he watched,
- 45:30Speaker 1: and then lay down in the darkness close to where
- 45:33Speaker 1: the Hauser passed over the stern to the captured schooner,
- 45:36Speaker 1: Once an officer came up and examined the straining rope
- 45:39Speaker 1: to see if it were chafing, but Bob cowered away
- 45:42Speaker 1: in the shadow, undiscovered. This, however, gave him an idea
- 45:47Speaker 1: which concerned the lives and liberties of twenty-two men and
- 45:50Speaker 1: which was to avert crushing sorrow from more than one
- 45:53Speaker 1: happy home many thousand miles away. In the first place,
- 45:57Speaker 1: he reasoned, the crew were all guiltless of any crime,
- 46:01Speaker 1: and yet were being carried relentlessly away to imprisonment in Siberia.
- 46:05Speaker 1: A living death, he had heard, and he believed it implicitly.
- 46:09Speaker 1: In the second place, he was a prisoner, hard and fast,
- 46:13Speaker 1: with no chance to escape. In the third, it was
- 46:15Speaker 1: possible for the twenty-two men on the Mary Thomas to escape.
- 46:19Speaker 1: The only thing which bound them was a four-inch hauser.
- 46:23Speaker 1: They dared not cut it at their end, for a
- 46:25Speaker 1: watch was sure to be maintained upon it by their
- 46:27Speaker 1: Russian captors. But at this end, ah, at this end,
- 46:34Speaker 1: Bubb did not stop to reason further. Wriggling close to
- 46:37Speaker 1: the Hauser, he opened his jackknife and went to work.
- 46:40Speaker 1: The blade was not very sharp, and he sawed away,
- 46:43Speaker 1: rope-yarn by rope-yarn, the awful picture of the solitary Siberian
- 46:47Speaker 1: exile he must endure growing clearer and more terrible at
- 46:52Speaker 1: every stroke. Such a fate was bad enough to undergo
- 46:55Speaker 1: with one's comrades, but to face it alone seemed frightful. And, besides,
- 47:00Speaker 1: the very act he was performing— was sure to bring
- 47:03Speaker 1: greater punishment upon him. In the midst of such somber thoughts,
- 47:08Speaker 1: he heard footsteps approaching. He wriggled away into the shadow.
- 47:12Speaker 1: An officer stopped where he had been working, half-stooped to
- 47:15Speaker 1: examine the Hauser, then changed his mind and straightened up.
- 47:19Speaker 1: For a few minutes he stood there, gazing at the
- 47:22Speaker 1: lights of the captured schooner, and then went forward again.
- 47:26Speaker 1: Now was the time. Bub crept back and went on sawing.
- 47:30Speaker 1: Now two parts were severed. Now three. But one remained.
- 47:35Speaker 1: The tension upon this was so great that it readily yielded. Splash!
- 47:40Speaker 1: The freed end went overboard. He lay quietly, his heart
- 47:44Speaker 1: in his mouth, listening. No one on the cruiser but
- 47:47Speaker 1: himself had heard. He saw the red and green lights
- 47:51Speaker 1: of the Mary Thomas grow dimmer and dimmer. Then a
- 47:55Speaker 1: faint hallow came over the water from the Russian prize crew.
- 47:59Speaker 1: Still nobody heard. The smoke continued to pour out of
- 48:03Speaker 1: the cruiser's funnels, and her propellers throbbed as mightily as ever.
- 48:08Speaker 1: What was happening on the Mary Thomas? Bub could only surmise.
- 48:12Speaker 1: But if one thing he was certain, his comrades would
- 48:15Speaker 1: assert themselves and overpower the four sailors and the midshipmen.
- 48:19Speaker 1: A few minutes later he saw a small flash, and,
- 48:22Speaker 1: straining his ears, heard the very faint report of a pistol. Then,
- 48:26Speaker 1: oh joy, both the red and green lights suddenly disappeared.
- 48:31Speaker 1: The Mary Thomas was retaken. Just as an officer came aft,
- 48:36Speaker 1: Bub crept forward and hid away in one of the boats.
- 48:39Speaker 1: Not an instant too soon. The alarm was given. Loud
- 48:43Speaker 1: voices arose in command. The cruiser altered her course. An
- 48:47Speaker 1: electric searchlight began to throw its white rays across the sea, here, there, everywhere,
- 48:52Speaker 1: but in its flashing path no tossing schooner was revealed.
- 48:57Speaker 1: Bub went to sleep soon after that. nor did he
- 49:00Speaker 1: wake till the grey of dawn. The engines were pulsing monotonously,
- 49:04Speaker 1: and the water, splashing noisily, told him the decks were
- 49:08Speaker 1: being washed down. One sweeping glance, and he saw that
- 49:11Speaker 1: they were alone on the expanse of ocean. The Merry
- 49:14Speaker 1: Thomas had escaped. As he lifted his head, a roar
- 49:18Speaker 1: of laughter went up from the sailors. Even the officer,
- 49:21Speaker 1: who ordered him taken below and locked up, could not
- 49:24Speaker 1: quite conceal the laughter in his eyes. Bob thought often
- 49:28Speaker 1: in the days of confinement, which followed, that they were
- 49:30Speaker 1: not very angry with him for what he had done.
- 49:33Speaker 1: He was not far from right. There is a certain
- 49:36Speaker 1: innate nobility deep down in the hearts of all men
- 49:39Speaker 1: which forces them to admire a brave act, even if
- 49:42Speaker 1: it is performed by an enemy. The Russians were in
- 49:45Speaker 1: no wise different from other men. True, a boy had
- 49:49Speaker 1: outwitted them, but they could not blame him, and they
- 49:52Speaker 1: were sore puzzled as to what to do with him.
- 49:55Speaker 1: It would never do to take a little mite like
- 49:57Speaker 1: him in to represent all that remained of the lost butcher. So,
- 50:01Speaker 1: two weeks later, a United States man-of-war, steaming out of
- 50:05Speaker 1: the Russian port of Vladivostok, was signaled by a Russian cruiser.
- 50:09Speaker 1: A boat passed between the two ships, and a small
- 50:12Speaker 1: boy dropped over the rail upon the deck of the
- 50:14Speaker 1: American vessel. A week later, he was put ashore at Hakodate,
- 50:19Speaker 1: and after some telegraphing, his fare was paid on the
- 50:22Speaker 1: railroad to Yokohama. From the depot, he hurried through the
- 50:26Speaker 1: quaint Japanese streets to the harbor and hired a sampan
- 50:30Speaker 1: boatman to put him aboard a certain vessel whose familiar
- 50:33Speaker 1: rigging had quickly caught his eye. Her gaskets were off,
- 50:37Speaker 1: her sails unfurled, She was just starting back to the
- 50:40Speaker 1: United States. As he came closer, a crowd of sailors
- 50:44Speaker 1: sprang upon the forecastle head, and the windless bars rose
- 50:48Speaker 1: and fell as the anchor was torn from its muddy bottom.
- 50:52Speaker 1: Yankee ship, come down the river, the sea lawyer's voice
- 50:55Speaker 1: rolled out as he led the anchor song. Pull, my
- 50:58Speaker 1: bully boys, pull, roared back the old familiar chorus, the
- 51:03Speaker 1: men's bodies lifting and bending to the rhythm. Bub Russell
- 51:07Speaker 1: paid the boatman and stepped on deck. The anchor was forgotten.
- 51:10Speaker 1: A mighty cheer went up from the men, and almost
- 51:13Speaker 1: before he could catch his breath, he was on the
- 51:15Speaker 1: shoulders of the captain, surrounded by his mates, and endeavoring
- 51:19Speaker 1: to answer twenty questions to the second. The next day,
- 51:22Speaker 1: a schooner hoved to off a Japanese fishing village, sent
- 51:26Speaker 1: ashore four sailors and a little midshipman, and sailed away.
- 51:31Speaker 1: These men did not talk English, but they had money,
- 51:34Speaker 1: and quickly made their way to Yokohama. From that day,
- 51:37Speaker 1: the Japanese village folk never heard anything more about them,
- 51:40Speaker 1: and they are still a much-talked-of mystery. As the Russian
- 51:44Speaker 1: government never said anything about the incident, the United States
- 51:48Speaker 1: is still ignorant of the whereabouts of the lost poacher.
- 51:51Speaker 1: Nor has she ever heard, officially, of the way in
- 51:53Speaker 1: which some of her citizens shanghaied five subjects of the Tsar.
- 51:58Speaker 1: Even nations have secrets. Sometimes. Recording by William Tomko STORIES
- 52:07Speaker 1: OF SHIPS AND THE SEA by Jack London STORY 4
- 52:12Speaker 1: THE BANKS OF THE SACRAMENTO And it's blow ye winds, hi-ho,
- 52:18Speaker 1: for California, yo, for there's plenty of gold, so I've
- 52:21Speaker 1: been told, on the banks of the Sacramento. It was
- 52:26Speaker 1: only a little boy singing in a shrill trouble the
- 52:29Speaker 1: sea-chanty which seamen sing the wide world over when they
- 52:32Speaker 1: man the capstan bars and break the anchors out for
- 52:36Speaker 1: Frisco Port. It was only a little boy who had
- 52:39Speaker 1: never seen the sea, but two hundred feet beneath him
- 52:42Speaker 1: rolled the Sacramento. Young Jerry, he was called, after Old Jerry,
- 52:47Speaker 1: his father, from whom he had learned the song, as
- 52:50Speaker 1: well as received a shock of bright red hair, his
- 52:53Speaker 1: blue dancing eyes, and his fair and inevitably freckled skin.
- 52:58Speaker 1: For Old Jerry had been a sailor, and had followed
- 53:00Speaker 1: the sea till middle life, haunted always by the words
- 53:03Speaker 1: of the ringing chanty. Then one day he had sung
- 53:07Speaker 1: the song in earnest in an Asiatic port, swinging and
- 53:11Speaker 1: thrilling round the Capstan circle with twenty others. And at
- 53:14Speaker 1: San Francisco he turned his back upon his ship and
- 53:17Speaker 1: upon the sea, and went to behold with his own
- 53:20Speaker 1: eyes the banks of the Sacramento. He beheld the gold, too,
- 53:25Speaker 1: for he found employment at the Yellow Dream mine, and
- 53:28Speaker 1: proved of utmost usefulness in rigging the great ore cables
- 53:31Speaker 1: across the river and two hundred feet above its surface.
- 53:35Speaker 1: After that he took charge of the cables and kept
- 53:38Speaker 1: them in repair, and ran them, and loved them, and
- 53:41Speaker 1: became himself an indispensable fixture of the yellow dream mine.
- 53:45Speaker 1: Then he loved pretty Margaret Kelly, but she had left
- 53:48Speaker 1: him and young Jerry, the latter barely toddling, to take
- 53:52Speaker 1: up her last long sleep in the little graveyard among
- 53:56Speaker 1: the great sober pines. Old Jerry never went back to
- 54:00Speaker 1: the sea. He remained by his cables and lavished upon
- 54:04Speaker 1: them and young Jerry all the love of his nature.
- 54:08Speaker 1: When evil days came to the yellow dream, he still
- 54:10Speaker 1: remained in the employ of the company as watchman over
- 54:13Speaker 1: the all but abandoned property. But this morning he was
- 54:17Speaker 1: not visible. Young Jerry only was to be seen sitting
- 54:21Speaker 1: on the cabin step and singing the ancient chanty. He
- 54:25Speaker 1: had cooked and eaten his breakfast all by himself, and
- 54:28Speaker 1: had just come out to take a look at the world.
- 54:31Speaker 1: Twenty feet before him stood the steel drum, round which
- 54:34Speaker 1: the endless cable worked. By the drum, snug and fast,
- 54:38Speaker 1: was the ore-car. Following with his eyes a dizzy flight
- 54:42Speaker 1: of the cables to the farther bank, he could see
- 54:44Speaker 1: the other drum and the other car. The contrivance was
- 54:48Speaker 1: worked by gravity, the loaded car crossing the river by
- 54:51Speaker 1: virtue of its own weight, and, at the same time,
- 54:55Speaker 1: dragging the empty car back. The loaded car being emptied,
- 54:58Speaker 1: and the empty car being loaded with more ore, the
- 55:01Speaker 1: performance could be repeated, a performance which had been repeated
- 55:05Speaker 1: tens of thousands of times since the day old Jerry
- 55:08Speaker 1: became the keeper of the cables. Young Jerry broke off
- 55:11Speaker 1: his song at the sound of approaching footsteps. A tall,
- 55:15Speaker 1: blue-shirted man, a rifle across the hollow of his arm,
- 55:19Speaker 1: came out from the gloom of the pine trees. It
- 55:22Speaker 1: was Hall, watchman of the Yellow Dragon Mine. the cables
- 55:26Speaker 1: of which spanned the Sacramento a mile farther up.' Yellow Yonker,'
- 55:31Speaker 1: was his greeting.' What you doing here by your lonesome?'' Oh, Batchen,'
- 55:36Speaker 1: Jerry tried to answer unconcernedly, as if it were a
- 55:39Speaker 1: very ordinary sort of thing.' Dad' s away, you see.'' Where' s
- 55:44Speaker 1: he gone?' the man asked.' San Francisco. Went last night.
- 55:49Speaker 1: His brother's dead in the old country, and he's gone
- 55:51Speaker 1: down to see the lawyers. Won't be back till tomorrow night.'
- 55:56Speaker 1: SO SPOKE GERRY, AND WITH PRIDE, BECAUSE OF THE RESPONSIBILITY
- 55:59Speaker 1: WHICH HAD FALLEN TO HIM OF KEEPING AN EYE ON
- 56:02Speaker 1: THE PROPERTY OF THE YELLOW DREAM, AND THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE
- 56:06Speaker 1: OF LIVING ALONE ON THE CLIFF ABOVE THE RIVER, AND
- 56:09Speaker 1: OF COOKING HIS OWN MEALS.' WELL, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF,'
- 56:13Speaker 1: HALL SAID,' AND DON'T MONKEY WITH THE CABLES. I'M GOING
- 56:17Speaker 1: TO SEE IF I CAN PICK UP A DEER IN
- 56:19Speaker 1: THE CRIPPLE COW CANYON.'' IT' S GOING TO RAIN, I THINK,'
- 56:23Speaker 1: GERRY SAID, WITH MATURE DELIBERATION.'' And it's little I mind
- 56:27Speaker 1: a wet'n,' Hall laughed as he strode away among the trees.
- 56:32Speaker 1: Jerry's prediction concerning rain was more than fulfilled. By ten
- 56:36Speaker 1: o'clock the pines were swaying and moaning, the cabin windows rattling,
- 56:40Speaker 1: and the rain driving by in fierce squalls. At half-past
- 56:44Speaker 1: eleven he kindled a fire, and promptly, at the stroke
- 56:47Speaker 1: of twelve, sat down to his dinner. No out-of-doors for
- 56:51Speaker 1: him that day, he decided. WHEN HE HAD WASHED THE
- 56:54Speaker 1: FEW DISHES AND PUT THEM NEATLY AWAY, AND HE WONDERED
- 56:57Speaker 1: HOW WET HALL WAS AND WHETHER HE HAD SUCCEEDED IN
- 57:00Speaker 1: PICKING UP A DEER. AT ONE O'CLOCK THERE CAME A
- 57:03Speaker 1: KNOCK AT THE DOOR, AND WHEN HE OPENED IT A
- 57:06Speaker 1: MAN AND A WOMAN STAGGERED IN ON THE BREAST OF
- 57:08Speaker 1: A GREAT GUST OF WIND. THEY WERE MR. AND MRS. SPILLANE, RANCHERS,
- 57:13Speaker 1: WHO LIVED IN A LONELY VALLEY A DOZEN MILES BACK
- 57:16Speaker 1: FROM THE RIVER. WHERE'S HALL? WAS SPILLANE'S OPENING SPEECH, AND
- 57:21Speaker 1: HE SPOKE SHARPLY AND QUICKLY. Jerry noted that he was
- 57:25Speaker 1: nervous and abrupt in his movements, and that Mrs. Spillane
- 57:29Speaker 1: seemed laboring under some strong anxiety. She was a thin, washed-out,
- 57:33Speaker 1: worked-out woman whose life of dreary and unending toil had
- 57:37Speaker 1: stamped itself harshly upon her face. It was the same
- 57:41Speaker 1: life that had bowed her husband's shoulders and gnarled his
- 57:44Speaker 1: hands and turned his hair to a dry and dusty gray.'
- 57:48Speaker 1: He' s gone hunting up Cripple Cow,' Jerry answered.' Did you
- 57:52Speaker 1: want to cross?' The woman began to weep quietly, while
- 57:56Speaker 1: Spillane dropped a troubled explanation and strode to the window.
- 58:01Speaker 1: Jerry joined him in gazing out to where the cables
- 58:03Speaker 1: lost themselves in the thick downpour. It was the custom
- 58:07Speaker 1: of the backwoods people in that section of country to
- 58:10Speaker 1: cross the Sacramento on the Yellow Dragon cable. For this service,
- 58:13Speaker 1: a small toll was charged, which tolls the Yellow Dragon
- 58:17Speaker 1: Company apply to the payment of Hall's wages.' We' ve got
- 58:20Speaker 1: to get across, Jerry,' Spillane said. at the same time
- 58:24Speaker 1: jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of
- 58:26Speaker 1: his wife. Her father's hurt at the clover leaf. Powder explosion.
- 58:31Speaker 1: Not expected to live. We just got word. Jerry felt
- 58:36Speaker 1: himself fluttering inwardly. He knew that Spillane wanted to cross
- 58:40Speaker 1: on the Yellow Dream cable, and in the absence of
- 58:42Speaker 1: his father, he felt that he dared not assume such
- 58:45Speaker 1: a responsibility, for the cable had never been used for passengers.
- 58:49Speaker 1: In fact, had not been used at all for a
- 58:51Speaker 1: long time. Maybe Hall will be back soon, he said.
- 58:56Speaker 1: Spillane shook his head and demanded, Where's your father? San Francisco,
- 59:01Speaker 1: Jerry answered briefly. Spillane groaned and fiercely drove his clenched
- 59:06Speaker 1: fist into the palm of the other hand. His wife
- 59:09Speaker 1: was crying more. audibly, and Jerry could hear her murmuring,'
- 59:12Speaker 1: And Daddy's dying. Dying!' The tears welled up in his
- 59:18Speaker 1: own eyes, and he stood irresolute, not knowing what he
- 59:21Speaker 1: should do. But the man decided for him.' Look here, kid,'
- 59:26Speaker 1: he said with determination. The wife and me are going
- 59:29Speaker 1: over on this here cable of yours. Will you run
- 59:31Speaker 1: it for us? Jerry backed slightly away. He did it unconsciously,
- 59:37Speaker 1: as if recoiling instinctively from something unwelcome. Better see if
- 59:41Speaker 1: Hall's back, he suggested. And if he ain't? Again Jerry hesitated.
- 59:47Speaker 1: I'll stand for the risk, Spillane added. Don't you see, kid,
- 59:51Speaker 1: we've simply got to cross. Jerry nodded his head reluctantly.'
- 59:56Speaker 1: And there ain't no use waitin' for Hall,' Spillane went on.'
- 59:59Speaker 1: You know, as well as me, he ain't back from
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: Cripple Cow this time of day.' So come along, and
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: let's get started.'' No wonder that Mrs. Spillane seemed terrified
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: as they helped her into the oar-car,' 'so Jerry thought,
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: as he gazed into the apparently fathomless gulf beneath her.'
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: For it was so filled with rain and cloud, hurtling
- 1:00:20Speaker 1: and curling in the fierce blast,' that the other shore,
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: seven hundred feet away, was invisible.' while the cliff at
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: their feet dropped sheer down and lost itself in the
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: swirling vapor. By all appearances, it might be a mile
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: to bottom instead of two hundred feet.' All ready?' he asked.'
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: Let her go,' Spillane shouted, to make himself heard above
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: the roar of the wind. He had clambered in beside
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: his wife, and was holding one of her hands in his.
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: Jerry looked upon this with disapproval.' You' ll need all your
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: hands for holding on, the way the wind's yowling.' The
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: man and the woman shifted their hands accordingly, tightly gripping
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: the sides of the car, and Jerry slowly and carefully
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: released the brake. The drum began to revolve as the
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: endless cable passed round it, and the car slid slowly
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: out into the chasm, its trolley wheels rolling on the
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: stationary cable overhead, to which it was suspended. It was
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: not the first time Jerry had worked the cable, but
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: it was the first time he had done so away
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: from the supervising eye of his father. By means of
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: the brake, he regulated the speed of the car. It
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: needed regulating, for at times, caught by the stronger gusts
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: of wind, it swayed violently back and forth, and once,
- 1:01:36Speaker 1: just before it was swallowed up in a rain squall,
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: it seemed about to spill out its human contents. After that,
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: Jerry had no way of knowing where the car was,
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: except by means of the cable. This he watched keenly
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: as it glided around the drum. Three hundred feet, he
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: breathed to himself. As the cable markings went by, 350, 400,
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: 400 and... The cable had stopped. Jerry threw off the brake,
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: but it did not move. He caught the cable with
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: his hands and tried to start it by tugging smartly.
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: Something had gone wrong. What? He could not guess. He
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: could not see. LOOKING UP, HE COULD VAGUELY MAKE OUT
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: THE EMPTY CAR, WHICH HAD BEEN CROSSING FROM THE OPPOSITE
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: CLIFF AT A SPEED EQUAL TO THAT OF THE LOADED CAR.
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: IT WAS ABOUT TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FEET AWAY. THAT MEANT,
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: HE KNEW, THAT SOMEWHERE IN THE GRAY OBSCURITY, TWO HUNDRED
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: FEET ABOVE THE RIVER AND TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FEET
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: FROM THE OTHER BANK, SPILLANE AND HIS WIFE WERE SUSPENDED
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: AND STATIONARY. THREE TIMES JERRY SHOUTED WITH ALL THE SHRILL
- 1:02:41Speaker 1: FORCE OF HIS LUNGS, BUT NO ANSWERING CRY CAME OUT
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: OF THE STORM. It was impossible for him to hear them,
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: or to make himself heard. As he stood for a moment,
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: thinking rapidly, the flying clouds seemed to thin and lift.
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: He caught a brief glimpse of the swollen Sacramento beneath,
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: and a briefer glimpse of the car, and the man
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: and woman. Then the clouds descended thicker than ever. The
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: boy examined the drum closely, and found nothing the matter
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: with it. Evidently it was the drum on the other
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: side that had gone wrong. He was appalled at the
- 1:03:13Speaker 1: thought of the man and woman out there in the
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: midst of the storm, hanging over the abyss, rocking back
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: and forth in the frail car, and ignorant of what
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: was taking place on shore. And he did not like
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: to think of their hanging there, while he went around
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: by the yellow dragon cable to the other drum. But
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: he remembered a block and tackle in the tool house,
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: and ran and brought it. They were double blocks, and
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: he murmured aloud, a purchase of four. as he made
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: the tackle fast to the endless cable. Then he heaved
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: upon it, heaved, until it seemed that his arms were
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: being drawn out from their sockets, and that his shoulder
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: muscles would be ripped asunder. Yet the cable did not budge.
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: Nothing remained but to cross over to the other side.
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: He was already soaking wet, so he did not mind
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: the rain as he ran over the trail to the
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: yellow dragon. The storm was with him, and it was
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: easy going, although there was no haul at the other
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: end of it, to man the brake for him and
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: regulate the speed of the car. This he did for himself, however,
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: by means of a stout rope, which he passed with
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: a turn round the stationary cable. As the full force
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: of the wind struck him in mid-air, swaying the cable
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: and whistling and roaring past it, and rocking and careening
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: the car, he appreciated more fully what must be the
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: condition of mind of Spillane and his wife. and this
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: appreciation gave strength to him, as, safely across, he fought
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: his way up the other bank in the teeth of
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: the gale to the yellow dream cable. To his consternation,
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: he found the drum in thorough working order. Everything was
- 1:04:49Speaker 1: running smoothly at both ends. Where was the hitch? In
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: the middle, without a doubt. From this side, the car
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: containing Spillane was only two hundred and fifty feet away.
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: He could make out the man and woman through the
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: whirling vapor, crouching in the bottom of the car and
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: exposed to the pelting rain and the full fury of
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: the wind. In a lull between the squalls, he shouted
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: to Spillane to examine the trolley of the car. Spillane heard,
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: for he saw him rise up cautiously on his knees
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: and with his hands go over both trolley wheels. Then
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: he turned his face toward the bank.' She' s all right, kid,'
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: Jerry heard the words, faint and far, as from a
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: remote distance. Then what was the matter? Nothing remained but
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: the other and empty car, which he could not see,
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: but which he knew to be there, somewhere in that
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: terrible gulf, two hundred feet beyond Spillane's car. His mind
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: was made up on the instant. He was only fourteen
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: years old, slightly and wirely built. but his life had
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: been lived among the mountains. His father had taught him
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: no small measure of sailoring, and he was not particularly
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: afraid of heights. In the toolbox by the drum he
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: found an old monkey-wrench and a short bar of iron,
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: also a coil of fairly new manila rope. He looked
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: in vain for a piece of board with which to
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: rig a boatswain's chair. There was nothing at hand but
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: large planks, which he had no means of sawing, so
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: he was compelled to do without the more comfortable form
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: of saddle. The saddle he rigged was very simple. With
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: a rope he made merely a large loop round the
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: stationary cable to which hung the empty car. When he
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: sat in the loop, his hands could just reach the
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: cable conveniently, and where the rope was likely to fray
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: against the cable, he lashed his coat, in lieu of
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: the old sack he would have used had he been
- 1:06:38Speaker 1: able to find one. These preparations swiftly completed, he swung
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: out over the chasm, sitting in the rope saddle and
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: pulling himself along the cable by his hands. With him
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: he carried the monkey-wrench and short iron bar and a
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: few spare feet of rope. It was a slightly uphill pull,
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: but this he did not mind, so much as the wind.
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: When the furious gusts hurled him back and forth, sometimes
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: half twisting him about, and he gazed down into the
- 1:07:05Speaker 1: grey depths, he was aware that he was afraid. It
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: was an old cable. What if it should break under
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: his weight and the pressure of the wind? It was
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: fear he was experiencing— honest fear— and he knew that there
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: was a gone feeling in the pit of his stomach,
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: and a trembling of the knees which he could not quell.
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: But he held himself bravely to the task. The cable
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: was old and worn, sharp pieces of wire projected from it,
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: and his hands were cut and bleeding by the time
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: he took his first rest, and held a shouted conversation
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: with Spillane. The car was directly beneath him, and only
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: a few feet away, so he was able to explain
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: the condition of affairs and his errand.' Wish I could
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: help you,' Spillane shouted at him as he started on.'
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: But the wife's gone all to pieces. Anyway, kid, take
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: care of yourself. I got myself in this fix, but
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: it's up to you to get me out.'' Oh, I'll
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: do it,' Jerry shouted back.' Tell Mrs. Spillane that she'll
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: be ashore now in a jiffy.' In the midst of
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: pelting rain, which half blinded him, swinging from side to
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: side like a rapid and erratic pendulum, his torn hands
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: paining him severely, and his lungs panting from his exertions,
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: and panting from the very air which the wind sometimes
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: blew into his mouth with strangling force, he finally arrived
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: at the empty car. A single glance showed him that
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: he had not made the dangerous journey in vain. The
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: front trolley-wheel, loose from long wear, had jumped the cable,
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: and the cable was now jammed tightly against the wheel
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: and the sheave-block. One thing was clear— the wheel must
- 1:08:44Speaker 1: be removed from the block a second thing was equally
- 1:08:47Speaker 1: clear while the wheel was being removed the car would
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: have to be fastened to the cable by the rope
- 1:08:52Speaker 1: he had brought at the end of a quarter of
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: an hour beyond making the car secure he had accomplished
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: nothing the key which bound the wheel on its axle
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: was rusted and jammed he hammered at it with one
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: hand and held on the best he could with the
- 1:09:07Speaker 1: other but the wind persisted in swinging and twisting his
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: body and made his blows miss more often than not
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: nine tenths of the strength he expended was in trying
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: to hold himself steady For fear that he might drop
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: the monkey wrench, he made it fast to his wrist
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: with his handkerchief. At the end of half an hour,
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: Jerry had hammered the key clear, but he could not
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: draw it out. A dozen times it seemed that he
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: must give up in despair, that all the danger and
- 1:09:36Speaker 1: toil he had gone through were for nothing. Then an
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: idea came to him, and he went through his pockets
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: with feverish haste and found what he sought, a ten-penny nail.
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: but for that nail, put in his pocket, he knew
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: not when or why he would have had to make
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: another trip over the cable and back. Thrusting the nail
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: through the looped head of the key, he at last
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: had a grip, and in no time the key was out.
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: Then came punching and prying with the iron bar to
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: get the wheel itself free from where it was jammed
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: by the cable against the side of the block. After that,
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: Jerry replaced the wheel with and, by means of the rope,
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: heaved up on the car till the trolley once more
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: rested properly on the cable. All this took time. More
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: than an hour and a half had elapsed since his
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: arrival at the empty car. And now, for the first time,
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: he dropped out of his saddle and down into the car.
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: He removed the detaining ropes, and the trolley wheel began
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: slowly to revolve. The car was moving, and he knew that,
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: somewhere beyond, although he could not see, the car of
- 1:10:40Speaker 1: Spillane was likewise moving, and in the opposite direction. There
- 1:10:45Speaker 1: was no need for a brake, for his weight sufficiently
- 1:10:48Speaker 1: counterbalanced the weight in the other car, and soon he
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: saw the cliff rising out of the cloud depths and
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: the old familiar drum going round and round. Jerry climbed
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: out and made the car securely fast. He did it
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: deliberately and carefully, and then, quite unhero-like, he sank down
- 1:11:06Speaker 1: by the drum, regardless of the pelting storm, and burst
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: out sobbing. There were many reasons why he sobbed, partly
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: from the pain of his hand, which was excruciating, partly
- 1:11:17Speaker 1: from exhaustion, partly from relief, and release from the nerve
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: tension he had been under for so long, and, in
- 1:11:24Speaker 1: a large measure, for thankfulness that the man and woman
- 1:11:27Speaker 1: were saved. They were not there to thank him, but
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: somewhere beyond that howling, storm-driven gulf, he knew they were
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: hurrying over the trail toward the cloverleaf. Jerry staggered to
- 1:11:39Speaker 1: the cabin. and his hand left the white knob red
- 1:11:42Speaker 1: with blood as he opened the door, but he took
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: no notice of it. He was too proudly contented with himself,
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: for he was certain that he had done well, and
- 1:11:51Speaker 1: he was honest enough to admit to himself that he
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: had done well. But a small regret arose and persisted
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: in his thoughts, if his father had only been there
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: to see. Recording by William Tomko STORIES OF SHIPS AND
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: THE SEA by Jack London STORY 5 IN YEDDO BAY
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: Somewhere along Theatre Street he had lost it. He remembered
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: being hustled somewhat roughly on the bridge over one of
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: the canals across that busy thoroughfare. Possibly some slant-eyed, light-fingered
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: pickpocket was even then enjoying the fifty-odd yen his purse
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: had contained. And then again, he thought, he might have
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: lost it himself. just lost it carelessly. Hopelessly, and for
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: the twentieth time, he searched in all his pockets for
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: the missing purse. It was not there. His hand lingered
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: in his empty hip pocket, and he woefully regarded the
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: voluble and vociferous restaurant-keeper, who insanely clamored,' Twenty- five sen! You
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: pay now! Twenty-five sen!'' But my purse,' the boy said.'
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: I tell you, I've lost it somewhere.' Whereupon the restaurant-keeper
- 1:13:06Speaker 1: lifted his arms indignantly, and shrieked,' Twenty- five sen! Twenty-five sen!
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: You pay now!' Quite a crowd had collected, and it
- 1:13:15Speaker 1: was growing embarrassing for Alf Davis. It was so ridiculous
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: and petty, Alf thought, such a disturbance about nothing. And, decidedly,
- 1:13:24Speaker 1: he must be doing something. Thoughts of diving wildly through
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: that forest of legs, and of striking out at whomsoever
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: opposed him, flashed through his mind. But, as though divining
- 1:13:35Speaker 1: his purpose, one of the waiters, a short and chunky chap,
- 1:13:39Speaker 1: with an evil-looking cast in one eye, seized him by
- 1:13:41Speaker 1: the arm.' You pay now! You pay now! Twenty-five sen!'
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: yelled the proprietor, hoarse with rage. Alf was red in
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: the face, too, from mortification. but he resolutely set out
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: on another exploration. He had given up the purse, pinning
- 1:13:59Speaker 1: his last hope on stray coins. In the little change
- 1:14:03Speaker 1: pocket of his coat he found a ten-cent piece and
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: five copper cent, and, remembering having recently missed a ten-cent piece,
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: he cut the seam of the pocket and resurrected the
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: coin from the depths of the lining. Twenty-five cent he
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: held in his hand, the sum required to pay for
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: the supper he had eaten. he turned them over to
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: the proprietor, who counted them, grew suddenly calm, and bowed obsequiously.
- 1:14:29Speaker 1: In fact, the whole crowd bowed obsequiously, and melted away.
- 1:14:33Speaker 1: Alf Davis was a young sailor, just turned sixteen, on
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: board the Annie Mine, an American sailing schooner which had
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: run into Yokohama to ship its season's catch of skins
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: to London. And in this, his second trip ashore, HE
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: WAS BEGINNING TO SNATCH HIS FIRST PUZZLING GLIMPSES OF THE
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: ORIENTAL MIND. HE LAUGHED WHEN THE BOWING AND KATOWING WAS OVER,
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: AND TURNED ON HIS HEEL TO CONFRONT ANOTHER PROBLEM. HOW
- 1:15:00Speaker 1: WAS HE TO GET ABOARD SHIP? IT WAS ELEVEN O'CLOCK
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: AT NIGHT, AND THERE WOULD BE NO SHIPS BOATS ASHORE,
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: WHILE THE OUTLOOK FOR HIRING A NATIVE BOATMAN, WITH NOTHING
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: WITH EMPTY POCKETS TO DRAW UPON, WAS NOT PARTICULARLY INVITING.
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: KEEPING A SHARP LOOKOUT FOR SHIPMATES, HE WENT DOWN TO
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: THE PIER. At Yokohama there are no long lines of wharves.
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: The shipping lies out at anchor, enabling a few hundred
- 1:15:24Speaker 1: of the short-legged people to make a livelihood by carrying
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: passengers to and from the shore. A dozen Sampan men
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: and boys hailed Alf and offered their services. He selected
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: the most favorable-looking one, an old and beneficent-appearing man with
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: a withered leg. ALF STEPPED INTO HIS SAMPAN AND SAT DOWN.
- 1:15:45Speaker 1: IT WAS QUITE DARK, AND HE COULD NOT SEE WHAT
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: THE OLD FELLOW WAS DOING, THOUGH HE EVIDENTLY WAS DOING
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: NOTHING ABOUT SHOVING OFF AND GETTING UNDERWAY. AT LAST HE
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: LIMPED OVER AND PEERED INTO ALF'S FACE. TEN CEN, HE SAID. YES,
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: I KNOW, TEN CEN, ALF ANSWERED CARELESSLY. BUT HURRY UP,
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: AMERICAN SCHOONER. TEN CEN, YOU PAY NOW, THE OLD FELLOW INSISTED.
- 1:16:11Speaker 1: Alf felt himself grow hot all over at the hateful words,'
- 1:16:14Speaker 1: Pay now.'' You take me to American Schooner, then I pay,'
- 1:16:19Speaker 1: he said. But the man stood up patiently before him,
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: held out his hand, and said,' Ten sen. You pay now.'
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: Alf tried to explain. He had no money. He had
- 1:16:30Speaker 1: lost his purse. But he would pay, as soon as
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: he got aboard the American Schooner, then he would pay.' No.'
- 1:16:38Speaker 1: HE WOULD NOT EVEN GO ABOARD THE AMERICAN SCHOONER. HE
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: WOULD CALL TO HIS SHIPMATES, AND THEY WOULD GIVE THE
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: SAMPAN MAN THE TEN CEN FIRST. AFTER THAT HE WOULD
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: GO ABOARD. SO IT WAS ALL RIGHT, OF COURSE. TO
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: ALL OF WHICH THE BENEFICENT APPEARING OLD MAN REPLIED, YOU
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: PAY NOW, TEN CEN. AND TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, THE
- 1:16:58Speaker 1: OTHER SAMPAN MEN SQUATTED ON THE PIER STEPS, LISTENING. ALF,
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: SHAGRINNED AND ANGRY, STOOD UP TO STEP ASHORE. but the
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: old fellow laid a detaining hand on his sleeve.' You
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: give shirt now. I take you, American schooner,' he proposed.
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: Then it was that all of Alf's American independence flamed
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: up in his breast. The Anglo-Saxon has a born dislike
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: of being imposed upon, and to Alf this was sheer robbery.
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: Ten cent was equivalent of six American cents, while his shirt,
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: which was of good quality and was new, had cost
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: him two dollars.' He turned his back on the man
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: without a word, and went on to the end of
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: the pier, the crowd laughing with great gusto, following at
- 1:17:43Speaker 1: his heels. The majority of them were heavyset, muscular fellows,
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: and the July night being one of sweltering heat, they
- 1:17:50Speaker 1: were clad in the least possible raiment. The water people
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: of any race are rough and turbulent, and it struck
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: Alf that to be out at midnight on a pier
- 1:17:59Speaker 1: end with such a crowd of wharfmen in a big
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: Japanese city was not as safe as it might be.
- 1:18:05Speaker 1: One burly fellow, with a shock of black hair and
- 1:18:08Speaker 1: ferocious eyes, came up. The rest shoved in after him
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: to take part in the discussion. Give me shoes, the
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: man said. Give me shoes now. I take you, American schooner.
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: Alf shook his head, whereat the crowd clamored that he
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: accept the proposal. Now the Anglo-Saxon is so constituted that
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: to browbeat or bully him is the last way under
- 1:18:30Speaker 1: the sun of getting him to do any certain thing.
- 1:18:34Speaker 1: He will dare willingly, but he will not permit himself
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: to be driven. So this attempt of the boatman to
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: force Alf only aroused all the dogged stubbornness of his race.
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: The same qualities were in him that are in men
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: who lead forlorn homes. and there, under the stars, on
- 1:18:52Speaker 1: the lonely pier, encircled by the jostling and shouldering gang,
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: he resolved that he would die rather than submit to
- 1:18:59Speaker 1: the indignity of being robbed of a single stitch of clothing.
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: Not value, but principle, was at stake. Then somebody thrust
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: roughly against him from behind. He whirled about with flashing eyes,
- 1:19:13Speaker 1: and the circle involuntarily gave ground. But the crowd was
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: growing more boisterous. Each and every article of clothing he
- 1:19:21Speaker 1: had on was demanded by one or another, and these
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: demands were shouted simultaneously at the tops of very healthy lungs.
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: Alf had long since ceased to say anything, but he
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: knew that the situation was getting dangerous, and that the
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: only thing left to him was to get away. His
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: face was set doggedly, his eyes glinted like points of steel,
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: and his body was firmly and confidently poised. This air
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: of determination sufficiently impressed the boatman to make them give
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: way before him. When he started to walk toward the
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: shore end of the pier, but they trooped along beside
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: more noisily than ever. One of the youngsters about Alf's
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: size and build impudently snatched his cap from his head,
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: and before he could put it on his own head,
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: Alf struck out from the shoulder and set the fellow
- 1:20:08Speaker 1: rolling on the stones. The cap flew out of his
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: hand and disappeared among the many legs. Alf did some
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: quick thinking. His sailor pride would not permit him to
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: leave the cap in their hands. He followed in the
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: direction it had sped, and soon found it under the
- 1:20:23Speaker 1: bare foot of a stalwart fellow, who kept his weight
- 1:20:26Speaker 1: stolidly upon it. Alf tried to get the cap by
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: a sudden jerk, but failed. He shoved against the man's leg,
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: but the man only grunted, It was challenge direct, and
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: Alf accepted it. Like a flash, one leg was behind
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: the man, and Alf had thrust strongly with his shoulder
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: against the fellow's chest. Nothing could save the man from
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: the fierce vigorousness of the trick, and he was hurled
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: over and backward. Next, the cap was on Alf's head,
- 1:20:54Speaker 1: and his fists were up before him. Then he whirled
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: about to prevent attack from behind, and all those in
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: that quarter fled precipitately. This was what he wanted. NONE
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: REMAINED BETWEEN HIM AND THE SHORE END. THE PIER WAS NARROW.
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: FACING THEM AND THREATENING WITH HIS FIST THOSE WHO ATTEMPTED
- 1:21:13Speaker 1: TO PASS HIM ON EITHER SIDE, HE CONTINUED HIS RETREAT.
- 1:21:16Speaker 1: IT WAS EXCITING WORK, WALKING BACKWARD AND AT THE SAME
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: TIME CHECKING THAT SURGING MASS OF MEN. BUT THE DARK-SKINNED
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: PEOPLES THE WORLD OVER HAVE LEARNED TO RESPECT THE WHITE
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: MAN'S FIST, AND IT WAS THE BATTLES FOUGHT BY MANY SAILORS.
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: more than his own warlike front that gave Alf the victory.
- 1:21:36Speaker 1: Where the pier adjoins the shore was the station of
- 1:21:39Speaker 1: the harbor police, and Alf backed into the electric-lighted office
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: very much to the amusement of the dapper lieutenant in charge.
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: The sampan men, grown quiet and orderly, clustered like flies
- 1:21:51Speaker 1: by the open door, through which they could see and
- 1:21:53Speaker 1: hear what passed. Alf explained his difficulty in few words,
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: and demanded, as the privilege of a stranger in a
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: strange land, that the lieutenant put him aboard in the
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: police boat. The lieutenant, in turn, who knew all the
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: rules and regulations by heart, explained that the harbor police
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: were not ferrymen, and that the police boats had other
- 1:22:13Speaker 1: functions to perform than that of transporting belated and penniless
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: sailormen to their ships. He also said he knew the
- 1:22:21Speaker 1: Sampan men to be natural-born robbers, but that so long
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: as they robbed within the law, he was powerless. It
- 1:22:28Speaker 1: was their right to collect fares in advance. and who
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: was he to command them to take a passenger and
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: collect fare at the journey's end? Alf acknowledged the justice
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: of his remarks, but suggested that while he could not command,
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: he might persuade. The lieutenant was willing to oblige, and
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: went to the door, from where he delivered a speech
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: to the crowd. But they, too, knew their rights, and,
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: when the officer had finished, shouted in chorus their abominable,
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: Ten sen! You pay now! You pay now! You see,
- 1:23:01Speaker 1: I can do nothing, said the lieutenant, who, by the way,
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: spoke perfect English. But I have warned them not to
- 1:23:08Speaker 1: harm or molest you, so you will be safe at least.
- 1:23:11Speaker 1: The night is warm and half over. Lie down somewhere
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: and go to sleep. I would permit you to sleep
- 1:23:17Speaker 1: here in the office were it not against the rules
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: and regulations. Alf thanked him for his kindness and courtesy.
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: BUT THE SAMPAN MEN HAD ARROWSED ALL HIS PRIDE OF
- 1:23:27Speaker 1: RACE AND DOGGEDNESS, AND THE PROBLEM COULD NOT BE SOLVED
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: THAT WAY. TO SLEEP OUT THE NIGHT ON THE STONES
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: WAS AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF DEFEAT. THE SAMPAN MEN REFUSED TO
- 1:23:38Speaker 1: TAKE ME OUT, THE LIEUTENANT NODDED. AND YOU REFUSE TO
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: TAKE ME OUT? AGAIN THE LIEUTENANT NODDED. WELL, THEN, IT'S
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: NOT IN THE RULES AND REGULATIONS THAT YOU CAN PREVENT
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: ANY TAKING MYSELF OUT. THE LIEUTENANT WAS PERPLEXED. THERE IS
- 1:23:53Speaker 1: NO BOAT, HE SAID.' That' s not the question,' Alf proclaimed hotly.'
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: If I take myself out, everybody's satisfied and no harm done.'' Yes,
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: what you say is true,' persisted the puzzled lieutenant.' But
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: you cannot take yourself out.'' You just watch me,' was
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: the retort. Down went Alf's cap on the office floor.
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: Right and left he kicked off his low-cut shoes. Trousers
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: and shirt followed.' Remember,' he said in ringing tones, I,
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: as a citizen of the United States, shall hold you,
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: the city of Yokohama, and the government of Japan responsible
- 1:24:30Speaker 1: for those clothes. Good night. He plunged through the doorway,
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: scattering the astounded boatmen to either side, and ran out
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: on the pier. But they quickly recovered and ran after him,
- 1:24:42Speaker 1: shouting with glee at the new phase the situation had
- 1:24:44Speaker 1: taken on. It was a night long remembered among the
- 1:24:47Speaker 1: water folk of Yokohama town. Straight to the end, Alf ran, and,
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: without pause, dived off cleanly and neatly into the water.
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: He struck out with a lusty, single overhand stroke, till
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: curiosity prompted him to halt for a moment. Out of
- 1:25:03Speaker 1: the darkness, from where the pier should be, voices were
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: calling to him. He turned on his back, floated, and listened.'
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: All right!' All right, he could distinguish from the babble.
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: No pay now. Pay by-and-by. Come back. Come back now.
- 1:25:20Speaker 1: Pay by-and-by. No thank you, he called back. No pay
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: at all. Good night. Then he faced about in order
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: to locate the Annie mine. She was fully a mile away,
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: and in the darkness it was no easy task to
- 1:25:36Speaker 1: get her bearings. FIRST HE SETTLED UPON A BLAZE OF
- 1:25:39Speaker 1: LIGHTS WHICH HE KNEW NOTHING BUT A MAN OF WAR
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: COULD MAKE. THAT MUST BE THE UNITED STATES WARSHIP, LANCASTER.
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: SOMEWHERE TO THE LEFT, AND BEYOND, SHOULD BE THE ANNIE MINE. BUT,
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: TO THE LEFT, HE MADE OUT THREE LIGHTS CLOSE TOGETHER.
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: THAT COULD NOT BE THE SCHOONER, FOR THE MOMENT HE
- 1:25:57Speaker 1: WAS CONFUSED. HE ROLLED OVER ON HIS BACK AND SHUT
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: HIS EYES, STRIVING TO CONSTRUCT A METAL PICTURE OF THE
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: HARBOR AS HE HAD SEEN IT IN DAYTIME. With a
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: snort of satisfaction, he rolled back again. The three lights
- 1:26:09Speaker 1: evidently belonged to the big English tramp steamer. Therefore, the
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: schooner must lie somewhere between the three lights and the Lancaster.
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: He gazed long and steadily, and there, very dim and low,
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: but at the point he expected, burned a single light,
- 1:26:26Speaker 1: the anchor light of the Annie Mine. And it was
- 1:26:30Speaker 1: a fine swim under the starshine. The air was warm
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: as the water. and the water as warm as tepid milk.
- 1:26:37Speaker 1: The good salt taste of it was in his mouth,
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: the tingling of it along his limbs, and the steady
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: beat of his heart, heavy and strong, made him glad
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: for living. But beyond being glorious, the swim was uneventful.
- 1:26:50Speaker 1: On the right hand he passed a many-lighted Lancaster, on
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: the left hand the English Tramp, and ere long the
- 1:26:57Speaker 1: Annie Mine loomed large above him. He grasped the hanging
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: rope ladder, and drew himself noiselessly on deck. There was
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: no one in sight. He saw a light in the
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: galley and knew that the captain's son, who kept the
- 1:27:09Speaker 1: lonely anchor watch, was making coffee. Alf went forward to
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: the foxhole. The men were snoring in their bunks, and
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: in that confined space the heat seemed to him insufferable.
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: So he put on a thin cotton shirt and a
- 1:27:23Speaker 1: pair of dungaree trousers, tucked a blanket and pillow under
- 1:27:26Speaker 1: his arm, and went up on deck and out on
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: the foxhole head. Hardly had he begun to doze when
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: he was roused by a boat coming alongside and hailing
- 1:27:35Speaker 1: the anchor watch. It was the police boat, and to
- 1:27:38Speaker 1: Alf it was given to enjoy the excited conversation that ensued. Yes,
- 1:27:43Speaker 1: the captain's son recognized the clothes. They belonged to Alf Davis,
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: one of the seamen. What had happened? No, Alf Davis
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: had not come aboard. He was ashore. He was not ashore?
- 1:27:55Speaker 1: Then he must be drowned. Here both the lieutenant and
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: the captain's son talked at the same time, and Alf
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: could make out nothing. Then he heard them come forward
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: and rouse out the crew. The crew grumbled sleepily and
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: said that Alf Davis was not in the foxhole, whereupon
- 1:28:12Speaker 1: the captain's son waxed indignant at the Yokohama police and
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: their ways, and the lieutenant quoted rules and regulations in
- 1:28:19Speaker 1: despairing accents. Alf rose up from the foxhole head and
- 1:28:23Speaker 1: extended his hand, saying, I guess I'll take those clothes.
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing them aboard so promptly. I don't
- 1:28:31Speaker 1: see why he couldn't have brought you aboard inside of them,
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: said the captain's son. And the police lieutenant said nothing,
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: though he turned the clothes over some sheepishly to their
- 1:28:41Speaker 1: rightful owner. The next day, when Elf started to go ashore,
- 1:28:45Speaker 1: he found himself surrounded by shouting and gesticulating, though very respectful,
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: sampan men, all extraordinarily anxious to have him for a passenger.
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: Nor did the one he selected say, You pay now.
- 1:28:59Speaker 1: WHEN HE ENTERED THE BOAT. WHEN ALF PREPARED TO STEP
- 1:29:02Speaker 1: OUT ON THE PIER, HE OFFERED THE MAN THE CUSTOMARY
- 1:29:04Speaker 1: TEN CEN, BUT THE MAN DREW HIMSELF UP AND SHOOK
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: HIS HEAD. YOU ALL RIGHT, HE SAID. YOU NO PAY.
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: YOU NEVER NO PAY. YOU BULLY BOY. AND ALL RIGHT.
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: AND FOR THE REST OF THE ANTI-MIND STAY IN PORT,
- 1:29:20Speaker 1: THE SAMPAN MEN REFUSED MONEY AT ALF DAVIS'S HAND. OUT
- 1:29:24Speaker 1: OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS PLUCK AND INDEPENDENCE, THEY HAD GIVEN
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: HIM THE FREEDOM End of story five.