Something cut at his shoulder as he went down, something struck him over the head. And then something swift and mighty and resistless took him under the arm-pits, swept him up to the low roof, where he ducked his head to take the impact on his arms, and drew him back and down in a roar of waters split through by the bursting of timbers and the shrieking of many voices. Perhaps the instinctive chivalry of the Englishman told him. We must! We -"ĭering bad never spoken to the only white girl on board, but he understood. "She's in Number Five," said the boy, thick in his throat. She heaved with a groan like a wounded animal, lurched as the trade caught her sideways, and then shrieked in all her timbers as the jagged reef tore the side out of her.ĭering was at the boy's elbow as the two leapt aft to the cabins. Below them a shudder ran through the Lulu from bowsprit to stern. Great Heavens, what's that?"Įvery man was on his feet-white-faced, staring, speechless. The boy laughed again, scooping in his pile of matches. What wad ye yersel' do in a wreck, Billy?" This blank dark is ower near the real thing. "Ah, dinna speak o' wrecks the night, man. "There are about thirty women for'ard, and I guess they could mix things up a few." "What happens to the natives in a wreck, Ferguson?" he asked. In the early hours of the evening Dering had seen him flirting earnestly with the only white girl aboard. If we clear these reefs wi'out bumping, we'll do weel, I'm thinkin'."įrom the table a fair-headed boy laughed. For Dering only, among the noisy cheerful men, was an alien, and the shibboleth of trade and shipping did not come easily off his tongue. He had a corner against the transom, and there he had smoked six pipes without speech. The saloon was full of tobacco smoke and the odour of whisky, and of men who sat in their shirt-sleeves and drank pegs or quarrelled over cards at the centre table. She was loaded to the taffrail with island stuff, and, by Ferguson's oath, anxiety had made the skipper "no a fit man to speak to."įerguson was first mate, and he had come down to the little saloon to deliver his opinions. From the bridge sky and sea were black as the pupil of the eye, and the fret of breakers on unseen reefs was all round the Lulu as she ran south before the light trade-wind. THE night smelt of heat and of rotting fruit in the hold, and of tar that had sweated from the decks all day. Author of " Sons of Men " " The Spur ' etc.
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