Medusa

by E. H. Visiak

  Of how long continuance was this extatical state - whether but a moment or much longer, I know not, since time seemed suspended. But there came - being at first, dull and vague, as a sound heard while you awaken from a dream in the night - a long loud knocking upon the cabin door.

  ’Twas one of our men, being sent by the Captain to acquaint Mr Huxtable that there was sprung up a wind out of the S.E.

  This was, indeed, welcome tidings; and, when he understood the sense - for he appeared not to hear at first, staring wide like one dazed - he rose up from his chair, and immediately went on deck; wither I followed him.

  The new wind, though but faint, yet gave some hopes of delivering us from our prison of calms; and, holding pretty constant all day and most of the night, we made some leagues towards the N.E., thus a second time crossing the equator.

  In the morning we had a flat calm, and sultry hot weather. Our ship was now gotten into a current, and lay slowly drifting eastward.

  CHAPTER XIV -

  Astonishing Mystery of the Pirate Ship

  As we came out on deck, we saw some of our men standing together, looking earnestly out to sea on the larboard side. The weather was hazy, yet not so thick as it was when I came aloft after rising; and looking that way, I presently espied, dim and phantom-like, the form of a large ship, having three masts.

  In the same moment Mr Huxtable uttered an exclamation, griping hold on the Captain's arm.

  “A ship!” cried he, pointing with his finger. “Look! Do you spy it? “

  “Ay,” said the captain, “I spy it. Go, bring me my glass,” said he to me. “In my cabin. Haste ye!”

  I went eagerly; for I did apprehend that this ship might be none other than that pirate vessel which Mr Huxtable, as he told me, had adventured so far to seek.

  When I returned, and gave the Captain his glass, instead of spying himself, he had the grace to present it to Mr. Huxtable; who took a long look; while the Captain and I stood mute and expectant observing him.

  As he lowered the glass, I doubted he was disappointed of his hope, he did look so stern and pale.

  “Is it the same?” asked the Captain.

  “Yes, please God!” answered Mr Huxtable, and immediately bid me to go and fetch Obadiah, who was not anywhere to see on our deck.

  I found him in the forecastle, lying along on his seaman’s chest, asleep and snoring, with his mouth open. Indeed, he lay so sound, I had much ado to waken him.

  Being yet half asleep, he began to mutter, rolling of his blear eyes. But, perceiving me at last, he cursed and swore at me. Nay, I think he had done me a mischief; but I was beforehand in that, having drawn his teeth - I mean, taken his knife from him - before I awakened him.

  But, however, having heard my errand, he rose and went with me aloft to Mr Huxtable; who, immediately giving him the glass, desired him to spy and tell him if he did know that ship.

  The mist was now less, the ship appearing more plain; and Obadiah, having spied, answered:

  “Ay! your honour, I do know’t sure. And who more than me should? asking of your pardon. We be fallen in with the old Captain; and I hopes he will regale me after my long travel. This be a very dry thirsty season, your worship; and, seeing as I have given you such a piece of news as must be hearty welcome to ye, I do make so bold as to ask if you will treat me,” said he grinning.

  But Mr Huxtable only told him to be off; yet, as he began to move away, murmuring, he bid him stay beside the barricade.

  Thereupon, turning to the Captain, he desired him to give charge to launch our ship’s boat. “For I design,” said he, “to go with this man, Moon, to yonder ship.”

  But this was too bold and impetuous a resolution to the Captain, who, lowering his glass (for he was spying), said vehemently:

  “Sir, I hope you will do no such thing. To go with one sole man is but a rash and foolhardy adventure. I intreat that you will go, if go you will, in the long-boat. Give me leave, I will muster a crew.”

  “Nay, sir,” said Mr Huxtable, interrupting him. “I thank you for being so careful for me; but you know, don’t you, that it was agreed with the pirate I should go alone - only with his emissary - this fellow, Moon; and the occasion is in no wise altered though we be fallen in with his ship at sea. ’Tis an unlucky chance, in one way, if he should take it into his head to molest us; for I am not willing to endanger our men, and did never think there would be occasion for it; neither will there be, I hope, in what I purpose. But let us make no delay in my going, lest, not knowing who we are, he should attack us in his boats, and, if they should come, and we could not make his men understand the business (which might well be, if he was not with them, because there might be no Englishmen among them), we should be molested, and perhaps embroiled. If I do not return” (said he, with a lower tone), “you know what to do. Sir, I desire you will immediately give orders to launch the boat.”

  But the Captain immediately began to object all manner of doubts and impediments, protesting that our men would willingly hazard their lives (which, no doubt, they would have done) to go with him; which put Mr Huxtable quite out of patience.

  “I cannot stand to parley with you,” cried he, shortly interrupting him; “and if you do not immediately bid the boatswain lower our boat, I’ll do so myself.”

  This stopped the Captain effectually. “Your servant, sir,” said he, making a small stiff bow; and, stepping quickly to the rail with his face as red as fire, he called for Mr Falconer in a sudden, furious loud voice. And, when he was come, having been on the forecastle talking with the carpenter, “What made you there?” cried he. “Do you esteem yourself one of the common seamen that you are so familiar with ‘em? Belike you have a mind to mess with ‘em in the forecastle.”

  Mr Falconer returned some humble answer, which did enrage the Captain but the more.

  “You appear to me,” said he, with a bitter sarcastically tone, “to be liker a figure of earth, or of clay, than a reasonable man. Was you kneaded out of some Netherland flat? But let us see how you can move,” said he, abridging his insulting speech as his eye fell upon Mr Huxtable, who did look very angrily. “Have out the ship’s boat. Haste ye, or I’ll come down and give you a shog.”

  As he ended, Mr Huxtable, scarce able to contain his indignation at this outrageous treatment of Mr Falconer, betook himself abruptly to the gang-way; where Obadiah stood waiting while they launched the boat.

  But when it was afloat, and Mr Huxtable was setting his foot on the step of the ladder, such a pang of sorrow afflicted me, on a sudden, as I looked upon him, such a sharp apprehension of the danger he run in going to the pirate ship, such a searching desperate sense of desolation, that, if he had been my very father (as, indeed, he had treated me like the most affectionate of fathers), I am sure I could not have felt a sharper sense of it. Running forward, and catching hold of the skirt of his coat, I besought him, with tears in my eyes, not to go; or, at least, to let me go with him. When he told me that he could not, and was stepping into the boat, I desperately essayed to have followed him; but he turned and set me back to the gangway, bidding me pluck up a spirit and not be so childish.

  “And why should you be so fearful for me?” said he. “Come, you don’t suppose, so you, that this pirate would put the treasure in jeopardy for the sake of murdering me? What, do you think he would kill the golden goose?”

  With this he sat down, and Obadiah entering after him, they took up the oars and pulled away through the small waves.

  When they had gotten about a quarter of a mile, the Captain, who till then stood leaning with his arm on the gunnel, sometimes raising his glass to spy at the pirate ship, on a sudden turned away, and addressed himself, in a somewhat mollified temper, to put the ship in a posture of defence, desiring Mr Falconer to have small-arms (of which he had a store in his cabin) provided to our men, and the like. But our ship carried no guns, being in accordance with what the pirate captain had demanded.

  While this was doing, comes to me th
e boatswain, taking the occasion when the Captain was gone below, and essayed to have gotten some intelligence from me, shrewdly suspecting that I knew something. But, however, having perceived his intent in time, I made a shift to fob him off by pretending to think the like of him, and to have been willing to draw him. I believe he was seriously concerned for Mr Huxtable, and the rest of them no less. Although they knew not the occasion, they divined he ran some hazard; and, when they were at leisure, they gathered together in knots of twos and threes to discourse, questioning among themselves in hushed low voices, solemnly wagging their heads.

  In this manner the time passed, being about four hours (which was sufficiently long for me); until, a little after noon, to my great satisfaction, the ship’s boat came in sight. Nevertheless, a weight came over me presently while I stood observing it; and, when it was gotten near and I could see Mr Huxtable plain, I perceived things wrought not well, he did look so heavily, as if, indeed, he had been stunned.

  When he had returned on board, I, stepping up behind him, heard him tell the Captain that the ship was, indeed, the pirate ship, but that it was quite deserted: not a soul on board; yet, notwithstanding, all her boats were aboard, and nothing, in any the least particular, seemed wanting or amiss. There was no appearance of any violence or disorder, either aloft or below; nor was there any lack, but plenty of provisions and of everything they wanted, and (to fill up the mystery) he found in the great cabin a chest full of treasure.

  Mr Huxtable and the Captain seriously debated this astonishing confounding enigma, while they paced, with slow steps, up and down on the deck. But, at dinner, which was presently served, they spoke but little, and ate but little too - Mr Huxtable, looking dull and heavy as if he had suffered a blow (as, indeed, he had); the Captain, after passing his hand once or twice over his forehead, complained of a megrim; and, at last, with some muttered words of apology, he rose up from his chair and went and lay down on the settee in the stern.

  Mr Huxtable immediately after went out, and gave charge to Mr Falconer to launch our jolly-boat, designing to take another journey to the deserted ship.

  When this was done and the crew was on board, I followed after him down the ladder, and (he not denying me this time) sat down beside him in the stern. He gave the order to pull away in a low dispirited voice; but the men, as if they were willing to signify their affection for him (for they did apprehend he suffered some sore disappointment), pulled lustily, toiling in the scorching rays of the sun; so that we soon approached the ship. But when we were gotten near, I began to grow afraid.

  Void and solitary things, as deserted houses, and the like, do sometimes solemnly affect our thoughts; nor would my readers think me phantastical if I felt the same (and not the less since it was so mysterious) while beholding from our boat this great void ship, standing up still and silent, with her tall masts and heavy sagging sails that appeared of no ordinary bigness in the glassy air. Yet was there, in this my sense of it, more than emptiness, which could not of itself have daunted me. ’Twas a sense as of some horrid possession, as if a corpse should be possessed of a malign spirit casting his influence, thickening the sultry air. And this was mingled (I know not how) with some dreadful imaginations of what my grandfather had told me in his doctrine of hell; so that, in a horrid whimsey, I thought to see the deck suddenly burst asunder vomiting strange fire.

  We spied a rope dangling over the stern, which served us both to fasten our boat and to swarm up on board the ship. When we were all gotten aboard, Mr Huxtable, bidding our men, and me also, to stay for him on the deck, immediately went below, taking Obadiah with him.

  I began to rove about to see if I could spy anything extraordinary such as might explicate the riddle of the ship’s being deserted. ’Twas a handsome ship - or rather, it had been so once; but much of the high, carved work had been shorn away, more than in our ship, and the gilt of what remained was much battered and the paint was peeled in the sun; the deck was covered with tar marks.

  The open spaces were all of a shine; which made the shadows cast by the sails to appear the darker. The horror I conceived of the ship yet hanged upon my mind, and terrible outlandish phantasies came into my thoughts that it was enchanted - nay, that the crew had been spirited away, and that Mr Huxtable and every one of us, while we stayed on board, was at any moment in danger of a supernatural power. What other cause (thought I) could possibly be conceived but something beyond natural for their leaving their ship, in all appearance, for no reason at all? I earnestly wished Mr Huxtable’s return, that, if anything should happen, I might be by his side.

  But the glare was become fiercer this while; the heavens had brazen appearance; the small waves moved sluggardly as in a sea of oil. I felt a drowsy torpor come over me; and, after taking two or three turns more about the deck, I went and lay down on a mattress that was spread near the main-mast. Whereupon, sinking into a sort of distempered sleep, I dreamt a dream, that was possessed with dark and inchoate images of horror.

  I awoke, clutching the air in a transport; but, to my inexpressible content, beheld Mr Huxtable standing by my side; and, stooping over me with a serious countenance, “Do not be afraid,” said he, “’tis only a dream. Perhaps the sun has touched you, to make you dream so fearfully. I shall give you a draught from my medical-chest when we are returned to our ship.”

  “O, let us be gone immediately!” cried I.

  “We shall soon be gone,” answered he. “But I have not yet finished my search. Come! you shall return with me to the cabin, I’ll show you a pirate’s treasure.”

  I followed him to the great cabin; but, at the entry, he suddenly stopped, with his hand on the door-handle; and I, looking in at his side, stood perfectly astonished at what I did behold. For, on a high, carved oaken chair at the table, there sat a little plump man, having a smooth, sanguine, shaven countenance, dressed very neat in blue clothes, and wearing a peruke like our Captain’s; and his present occupation was as strange as his being in that cabin, which Mr Huxtable before had found empty; for ’twas nothing else but threading of little coloured glass beads such as children use to make necklaces. Neither, indeed, did he make the last stop of it now, nor showed any sign of being sensible of our coming. But, as I looked upon him, a sense of joy and efficacy came over me such as scattered away those vapours of horror from my mind.

  “Who are you, sir?” asked Mr Huxtable; but the little man returned no answer; nor appeared so much as to have heard him speak, but continued threading his beads.

  “Why, what does he ail?” said Mr Huxtable, stepping into the cabin. “Hi, sir! I do ask you who you are, and what your quality is aboard this ship.”

  “Well, this is a strange thing,” said he, having still no answer; and, stepping to him, he laid hold on his arm. “Look you, sir,” said he, “if you are pretending, or play-acting, for some design you have, I do assure you it will not do with me. Come! leave this child’s game, if you please, and attend to me.”

  Upon this, the little man stirred in his chair, yet with never a look at us; and, rising to his feet, stepped slow and staid across the cabin, and opened a little door in the wall. He thrust his hand in, and took forth a book. This he set upon the table, being a manuscript quarto, covered with sailcloth. Hereupon, he returned, after the same astonishing odd manner, to his chair, falling again to his childish occupation.

  The writing, which was in a small, neat character, was inscribed after the fashion of a journal-book. But this was all that I could see of it; for Mr Huxtable was not willing that I should look it over. Neither would he tell me what it was; and what it signified he told me that he did not know.

  “It’s total amazement,” said he, reading over the page, and turning others.

  At length, he rose up, and made another endeavour to have spoke with our strange companion, inviting him to go with him to our ship.

  “Why, this is the strangest thing of all!” said he, when nothing - neither speech nor sign - would serve, the little man continue
d to thread his beads, smiling to himself as in a rapture. “You would think he was under some enchantment.“

  While he spoke, I was glancing my eyes round the cabin, which was extreme handsome, especially the walls being hung round with rich embroidered or painted cloths, with curved swords, or scimitars, daggers, and battleaxes, artfully disposed about brazen shields, several being richly overlaid upon the hilts with precious stones.

  Over against the window in the stern, there stood a chest, bound with triple bands of iron. ’Twas unlocked, and I discovered within an ebony box, being not much smaller than the chest, very curiously wrought with the figures of elephants inclosed with forest trees. This was near full of jewels - as rings, set with diamonds, rubies, or emeralds, and the like costly trinkets - and of precious stones, some being in the crude or natural state. There were also five or six large money-bags as well as some pieces of plate, as silver tankards and a great goblet that looked to be of pure gold.