"Oh, if a man should come up an" ask me, I"d say we got a dum good hckin" ." 46 46 "Lickin"-in yer eye! We ain"t licked, sonny. We"re goin" down here aways, swing aroun" , an" come in behint " em."
"Oh, hush, with your comin" in behint "em. I"ve seen all "a that I wanta. Don"t tell me about comin" in behint-"
"Bill Smithers, he ses he"d rather been in ten hundred battles than been in that heluva hospital. He ses they got shootin" in th" night-time, an" sh.e.l.ls dropped plum among "em in th" hospital. He ses sech hollerin" he never see."
"Hasbrouck? He"s th" best off"cer in this here reg"ment. He"s a whale."ao "Didn"t I tell yeh we"d come aroun" in behint "em? Didn"t I tell yeh so? We-"
"Oh, shet yeh mouth!"
For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took all elation from the youth"s veins. He saw his vivid error, and he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life. He took no share in the chatter of his comrades, nor did he look at them or know them, save when he felt sudden suspicion that they were seeing his thoughts and scrutinizing each detail of the scene with the tattered soldier.
Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance. And at last his eyes seemed to open to some new ways. He found that he could look back upon the bra.s.s and bombast of his earlier gospels and see them truly. He was gleeful when he discovered that he now despised them.
With this conviction came a store of a.s.surance. He felt a quiet manhood, nona.s.sertive but of st.u.r.dy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.
So it came to pa.s.s that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath his soul changed. He came from hot plowshares to prospects of clover tranquilly, and it was as if hot plowshares were not.47 Scars faded as flowers. Scars faded as flowers.
It rained. The procession of weary soldiers became a bedraggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churning effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He turned now with a lover"s thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks-an existence of soft and eternal peace.
Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.
THE OPEN BOAT1.
A TALE INTENDED TO BE AFTER THE.
FACT: BEING THE EXPERIENCE OF.
FOUR MEN FROM THE SUNK.
STEAMER COMMODORE.
I.
NONE OF THEM KNEW the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks.
Many a man ought to have a bathtub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea. These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small-boat navigation.
The cook squatted in the bottom, and looked with both eyes at the six inches of gunwaleap which separated him from the ocean. His sleeves were rolled over his fat forearms, and the two flaps of his unb.u.t.toned vest dangled as he bent to bail out the boat. Often he said, "Gawd! that was a narrow clip." which separated him from the ocean. His sleeves were rolled over his fat forearms, and the two flaps of his unb.u.t.toned vest dangled as he bent to bail out the boat. Often he said, "Gawd! that was a narrow clip."aq As he remarked it he invariably gazed eastward over the broken sea. As he remarked it he invariably gazed eastward over the broken sea.
The oiler, steering with one of the two oars in the boat, sometimes raised himself suddenly to keep clear of water that swirled in over the stern. It was a thin little oar, and it seemed often ready to snap.
The correspondent, pulling at the other oar, watched the waves and wondered why he was there.
The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to even the bravest and most enduring when, w.i.l.l.y-nilly,ar the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down. the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down.2 The mind of the master of a vessel is rooted deep in the timbers of her, though he command for a day or a decade; and this captain had on him the stern impression of a scene in the grays of dawn of seven turned faces, and later a stump of a topmast with a white ball on it, that slashed to and fro at the waves, went low and lower, and down. Thereafter there was something strange in his voice. Although steady, it was deep with mourning, and of a quality beyond oration or tears. The mind of the master of a vessel is rooted deep in the timbers of her, though he command for a day or a decade; and this captain had on him the stern impression of a scene in the grays of dawn of seven turned faces, and later a stump of a topmast with a white ball on it, that slashed to and fro at the waves, went low and lower, and down. Thereafter there was something strange in his voice. Although steady, it was deep with mourning, and of a quality beyond oration or tears.
"Keep"er a little more south, Billie," said he.
"A little more south, sir," said the oiler in the stern.
A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho, and by the same token a broncho is not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high. The manner of her scramble over these walls of water is a mystic thing, and, moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily these problems in white water, the foam racing down from the summit of each wave requiring a new leap, and a leap from the air. Then, after scornfully b.u.mping a crest, she would slide and race and splash down a long incline, and arrive bobbing and nodding in front of the next menace.
A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats. In a ten-foot dinghy one can get an idea of the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience, which is never at sea in a dinghy. As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water. There was a terrible grace in the move of the waves, and they came in silence, save for the snarling of the crests.
In the wan light the faces of the men must have been gray.Their eyes must have glinted in strange ways as they gazed steadily astern. Viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtless have been weirdly picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to see it, and if they had had leisure, there were other things to occupy their minds. The sun swung steadily up the sky, and they knew it was broad day because the color of the sea changed from slate to emerald-green streaked with amber lights, and the foam was like tumbling snow. The process of the breaking day was unknown to them. They were aware only of this effect upon the color of the waves that rolled toward them.
In disjointed sentences the cook and the correspondent argued as to the difference between a life-saving station and a house of refuge. The cook had said: "There"s a house of refuge just north of the Mosquito Inlet Light, and as soon as they see us they"ll come off in their boat and pick us up."3 "As soon as who see us?" said the correspondent.
"The crew," said the cook.
"Houses of refuge don"t have crews," said the correspondent. "As I understand them, they are only places where clothes and grub are stored for the benefit of shipwrecked people. They don"t carry crews."
"Oh, yes, they do," said the cook.
"No, they don"t," said the correspondent.
"Well, we"re not there yet, anyhow," said the oiler, in the stern.
"Well," said the cook, "perhaps it"s not a house of refuge that I"m thinking of as being near Mosquito Inlet Light; perhaps it"s a lifesaving station."
"We"re not there yet," said the oiler in the stern.
II.
As the boat bounced from the top of each wave the wind tore through the hair of the hatless men, and as the craft plopped her stern down again the spray slashed past them. The crest of each of these waves was a hill, from the top of which the men surveyed for a moment a broad tumultuous expanse, shining and wind-riven. It was probably splendid, it was probably glorious, this play of the free sea, wild with lights of emerald and white and amber.
"Bully good thing it"s an onsh.o.r.e wind," said the cook. "If not, where would we be? Wouldn"t have a show"
"That"s right," said the correspondent.
The busy oiler nodded his a.s.sent.
Then the captain, in the bow, chuckled in a way that expressed humor, contempt, tragedy, all in one. "Do you think we"ve got much of a show now, boys?" said he.
Whereupon the three were silent, save for a trifle of hemming and hawing. To express any particular optimism at this time they felt to be childish and stupid, but they all doubtless possessed this sense of the situation in their minds. A young man thinks doggedly at such times. On the other hand, the ethics of their condition was decidedly against any open suggestion of hopelessness. So they were silent.
"Oh, well," said the captain, soothing his children, "we"ll get ash.o.r.e all right."
But there was that in his tone which made them think; so the oiler quoth, "Yes! if this wind holds."
The cook was bailing. "Yes! if we don"t catch h.e.l.l in the surf."
Canton-flannelas gulls flew near and far. Sometimes they sat down on the sea, near patches of brown seaweed that rolled over the waves with a movement like carpets on a line in a gale. The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes. At these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny, and the men hooted angrily at them, telling them to be gone. One came, and evidently decided to alight on the top of the captain"s head. The bird flew parallel to the boat and did not circle, but made short sidelong jumps in the air in chicken fashion. His black eyes were wistfully fixed upon the captain"s head. "Ugly brute," said the oiler to the bird. "You look as if you were made with a jackknife."The cook and the correspondent swore darkly at the creature. The captain naturally wished to knock it away with the end of the heavy painter, gulls flew near and far. Sometimes they sat down on the sea, near patches of brown seaweed that rolled over the waves with a movement like carpets on a line in a gale. The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes. At these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny, and the men hooted angrily at them, telling them to be gone. One came, and evidently decided to alight on the top of the captain"s head. The bird flew parallel to the boat and did not circle, but made short sidelong jumps in the air in chicken fashion. His black eyes were wistfully fixed upon the captain"s head. "Ugly brute," said the oiler to the bird. "You look as if you were made with a jackknife."The cook and the correspondent swore darkly at the creature. The captain naturally wished to knock it away with the end of the heavy painter,at but he did not dare do it, because anything resemblingan emphatic gesture would have capsized this freighted boat; and so, with his open hand, the captain gently and carefully waved the gull away. After it had been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome and ominous. but he did not dare do it, because anything resemblingan emphatic gesture would have capsized this freighted boat; and so, with his open hand, the captain gently and carefully waved the gull away. After it had been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome and ominous.
In the meantime the oiler and the correspondent rowed. And also they rowed. They sat together in the same seat, and each rowed an oar. Then the oiler took both oars; then the correspondent took both oars; then the oiler; then the correspondent. They rowed and they rowed. The very ticklish part of the business was when the time came for the reclining one in the stern to take his turn at the oars. By the very last star of truth, it is easier to steal eggs from under a hen than it was to change seats in the dinghy. First the man in the stern slid his hand along the thwartau and moved with care, as if he were of Sevres. and moved with care, as if he were of Sevres.av Then the man in the rowing-seat slid his hand along the other thwart. It was all done with the most extraordinary care. As the two sidled past each other, the whole party kept watchful eyes on the coming wave, and the captain cried: "Look out, now! Steady, there!" Then the man in the rowing-seat slid his hand along the other thwart. It was all done with the most extraordinary care. As the two sidled past each other, the whole party kept watchful eyes on the coming wave, and the captain cried: "Look out, now! Steady, there!"
The brown mats of seaweed that appeared from time to time were like islands, bits of earth. They were traveling, apparently, neither one way nor the other. They were, to all intents, stationary. They informed the men in the boat that it was making progress slowly toward the land.
The captain, rearing cautiously in the bow after the dinghy soared on a great swell, said that he had seen the lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet. Presently the cook remarked that he had seen it. The correspondent was at the oars then, and for some reason he too wished to look at the lighthouse; but his back was toward the far sh.o.r.e, and the waves were important, and for some time he could not seize an opportunity to turn his head. But at last there came a wave more gentle than the others, and when at the crest of it he swiftly scoured the western horizon.
"See it?" said the captain.
"No," said the correspondent, slowly; "I didn"t see anything."
"Look again," said the captain. He pointed. "It"s exactly in that direction."
At the top of another wave the correspondent did as he was bid, and this time his eyes chanced on a small, still thing on the edge of the swaying horizon. It was precisely like the point of a pin. It took an anxious eye to find a lighthouse so tiny.
"Think we"ll make it, Captain?"
"If this wind holds and the boat don"t swamp, we can"t do much else," said the captain.
The little boat, lifted by each towering sea and splashed viciously by the crests, made progress that in the absence of seaweed was not apparent to those in her. She seemed just a wee thing wallowing, miraculously top up, at the mercy of five oceans. Occasionally a great spread of water, like white flames, swarmed into her.
"Bail her, cook," said the captain, serenely.
"All right, Captain," said the cheerful cook.
III.
It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas. No one said that it was so. No one mentioned it. But it dwelt in the boat, and each man felt it warm him. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent, and they were friends-friends in a more curiously ironbound degree than may be common. The hurt captain, lying against the water jar in the bow, spoke always in a low voice and calmly; but he could never command a more ready and swiftly obedient crew than the motley three of the dinghy. It was more than a mere recognition of what was best for the common safety. There was surely in it a quality that was personal and heartfelt. And after this devotion to the commander of the boat, there was this comradeship, that the correspondent, for instance, who had been taught to be cynical of men, knew even at the time was the best experience of his life. But no one said that it was so. No one mentioned it.
"I wish we had a sail," remarked the captain. "We might try my overcoat on the end of an oar, and give you two boys a chance to rest." So the cook and the correspondent held the mast and spread wide the overcoat; the oiler steered; and the little boat made good way with her new rig. Sometimes the oiler had to scull sharply to keep a sea from breaking into the boat, but otherwise sailing was a success.
Meanwhile the lighthouse had been growing slowly larger. It had now almost a.s.sumed color, and appeared like a little gray shadow on the sky. The man at the oars could not be prevented from turning his head rather often to try for a glimpse of this little gray shadow.
At last, from the top of each wave, the men in the tossing boat could see land. Even as the lighthouse was an upright shadow on the sky, this land seemed but a long black shadow on the sea. It certainly was thinner than paper. "We must be about opposite New Smyrna,"aw said the cook, who had coasted this sh.o.r.e often in schooners. "Captain, by the way, I believe they abandoned that lifesaving station there about a year ago. said the cook, who had coasted this sh.o.r.e often in schooners. "Captain, by the way, I believe they abandoned that lifesaving station there about a year ago.
"Did they?" said the captain.
The wind slowly died away. The cook and the correspondent were not now obliged to slave in order to hold high the oar. But the waves continued their old impetuous swooping at the dinghy, and the little craft, no longer under way, struggled woundily over them. The oiler or the correspondent took the oars again.
Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. If men could only train for them and have them occur when the men had reached pink condition, there would be less drowning at sea. Of the four in the dinghy none had slept any time worth mentioning for two days and two nights previous to embarking in the dinghy, and in the excitement of clambering about the deck of a foundering ship they had also forgotten to eat heartily.
For these reasons, and for others, neither the oiler nor the correspondent was fond of rowing at this time. The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat. It was not an amus.e.m.e.nt; it was a diabolical punishment, and even a genius of mental aberrations could never conclude that it was anything but a horror to the muscles and a crime against the back. He mentioned to the boat in general how the amus.e.m.e.nt of rowing struck him, and the weary-faced oiler smiled in full sympathy. Previously to the foundering, by the way, the oiler had worked a double watch in the engine room of the ship.
"Take her easy now, boys," said the captain. "Don"t spend yourselves. If we have to run a surf you"ll need all your strength, because we"ll sure have to swim for it. Take your time."
Slowly the land arose from the sea. From a black line it became a line of black and a line of white-trees and sand. Finally the captain said that he could make out a house on the sh.o.r.e. "That"s the house of refuge, sure," said the cook. "They"ll see us before long, and come out after us."
The distant lighthouse reared high. "The keeper ought to be able to make us out now, if he"s looking through a gla.s.s," said the captain. "He"ll notify the lifesaving people."
"None of those other boats could have got ash.o.r.e to give word of this wreck," said the oiler, in a low voice, "else the lifeboat would be out hunting us."
Slowly and beautifully the land loomed out of the sea. The wind came again. It had veered from the northeast to the southeast. Finally a new sound struck the ears of the men in the boat. It was the low thunder of the surf on the sh.o.r.e. "We"ll never be able to make the lighthouse now," said the captain. "Swing her head a little more north, Billie."
"A little more north, sir," said the oiler.
Whereupon the little boat turned her nose once more down the wind, and all but the oarsman watched the sh.o.r.e grow. Under the influence of this expansion doubt and direful apprehension were leaving the minds of the men. The management of the boat was still most absorbing, but it could not prevent a quiet cheerfulness. In an hour, perhaps, they would be ash.o.r.e.
Their backbones had become thoroughly used to balancing in the boat, and they now rode this wild colt of a dinghy like circus men. The correspondent thought that he had been drenched to the skin, but happening to feel in the top pocket of his coat, he found therein eight cigars. Four of them were soaked with seawater; four were perfectly scatheless. After a search, somebody produced three dry matches; and thereupon the four waifs rode impudently in their little boat and, with an a.s.surance of an impending rescue shining in their eyes, puffed at the big cigars, and judged well and ill of all men. Everybody took a drink of water.
IV.
"Cook," remarked the captain, "there don"t seem to be any signs of life about your house of refuge."
"No," replied the cook. "Funny they don"t see us!"
A broad stretch of lowly coast lay before the eyes of the men. It was of low dunes topped with dark vegetation. The roar of the surf was plain, and sometimes they could see the white lip of a wave as it spun up the beach. A tiny house was blocked out black upon the sky. Southward, the slim lighthouse lifted its little gray length.
Tide, wind, and waves were swinging the dinghy northward. "Funny they don"t see us," said the men.
The surf"s roar was here dulled, but its tone was nevertheless thunderous and mighty. As the boat swam over the great rollers the men sat listening to this roar. "We"ll swamp sure," said everybody.
It is fair to say here that there was not a lifesaving station within twenty miles in either direction; but the men did not know this fact, and in consequence they made dark and opprobrious remarks concerning the eyesight of the nation"s lifesavers. Four scowling men sat in the dinghy and surpa.s.sed records in the invention of epithets.
"Funny they don"t see us."
The light-heartedness of a former time had completely faded. To their sharpened minds it was easy to conjure pictures of all kinds of in-competency and blindness and, indeed, cowardice. There was the sh.o.r.e of the populous land, and it was bitter and bitter to them that from it came no sign.
"Well," said the captain, ultimately, "I suppose we"ll have to make a try for ourselves. If we stay out here too long, we"ll none of us have strength left to swim after the boat swamps."
And so the oiler, who was at the oars, turned the boat straight for the sh.o.r.e. There was a sudden tightening of muscles. There was some thinking.
"If we don"t all get ash.o.r.e," said the captain-"if we don"t all get ash.o.r.e, I suppose you fellows know where to send news of my finish?"
They then briefly exchanged some addresses and admonitions. As for the reflections of the men, there was a great deal of rage in them. Perchance they might be formulated thus: "If I am going to be drowned-if I am going to be drowned-if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad G.o.ds who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?4 Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheeseax of life? It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman, of life? It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman,ay Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men"s fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intention. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble? The whole affair is absurd ... But no; she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work." Afterward the man might have had an impulse to shake his fist at the clouds. "Just you drown me now and then hear what I call you!" Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men"s fortunes. She is an old hen who knows not her intention. If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all this trouble? The whole affair is absurd ... But no; she cannot mean to drown me. She dare not drown me. She cannot drown me. Not after all this work." Afterward the man might have had an impulse to shake his fist at the clouds. "Just you drown me now and then hear what I call you!"
The billows that came at this time were more formidable. They seemed always just about to break and roll over the little boat in a turmoil of foam. There was a preparatory and long growl in the speech of them. No mind unused to the sea would have concluded that the dinghy could ascend these sheer heights in time. The sh.o.r.e was still afar. The oiler was a wily surfman. "Boys," he said swiftly, "she won"t live three minutes more, and we"re too far out to swim. Shall I take her to sea again, Captain?"
"Yes; go ahead!" said the captain.
This oiler, by a series of quick miracles and fast and steady oars manship, turned the boat in the middle of the surf and took her safely to sea again.
There was a considerable silence as the boat b.u.mped over the furrowed sea to deeper water. Then somebody in gloom spoke: "Well, anyhow, they must have seen us from the sh.o.r.e by now."
The gulls went in slanting flight up the wind toward the gray, desolate east. A squall, marked by dingy clouds and clouds brick-red, like smoke from a burning building, appeared from the southeast.
"What do you think of those lifesaving people? Ain"t they peaches?"