Читать «Cup of Gold (Золотая чаша)» онлайн - страница 28

The ship was a rocking quaking prison for him who would fly ahead and up. Ah! to be a god and ride on the storm! not under it. Here was the intoxication of the winds, a desire which satisfied desire while it led his yearning onward. He cried for the shoulders of omnipotence, and the elements blew into his muscles a new strength.

Then, as quickly as the devil servants of the year had rushed at them, they slunk away, leaving a clear, clean sea. The ship rode under full sail before the eternal trade wind. It is a fresh, fair wind out of heaven, breathed by the God of Navigation for the tall ships with sails. All the tension was gone from them; the sailors played about the deck like wild, strong children-for there is young happiness in the trade wind.

Sunday came, a day of sullen fear and foreboding on the Bristol Girl. Henry finished his work in the galley and went on deck. An aged seaman was sitting on a hatch plaiting a long splice. His fingers seemed each a nimble intelligence as they worked, for their master never looked at them. Instead, his small blue eyes, after the manner of sailors' eyes, looked out beyond the end of things.

"So you would know the secrets of the lines?" he said, without moving his gaze from the horizon. "Well, you must just watch. It's so long I've been doing it that my old head has forgotten how; only my fingers remember. If I think what I'm doing I get muddled up. Will you be a sailor and go aloft one day?"

"Why, I'd like to, if I could learn the workings," Henry said.

"It's not so hard to learn the workings. You must learn first to bear things that landsmen never heard of.

That's the first thing. It's very cruel, but you may never leave it once you start. Here I've been trying to take my old hulk ashore and berth it in front of a fire for a dozen years. I want to think awhile and die.

But it's no use. Every time I find myself running my legs off to get aboard some ship or other."

He was interrupted by a vicious ringing of the ship's bell.

"Come," he said, "the master will be telling us the hot ta1es now."

The skull-faced master stood before his crew, armed with his God. The men looked fearfully at him, as small birds gaze at an approaching snake, for his faith was in his eyes and words of fury fell from his thin lips.

"God has struck you with only the title of his shattering might," he shouted. "He has shown you the strength of His little finger that you may repent before you go screaming in hell-fire. Hear the name of the Lord in the frightful wind and repent you of your whorings and your blasphemies! Ah! He will punish you even for the wicked thoughts in your heads.