Medusa

by E. H. Visiak

  “I do not absolutely affirm it,” replied Mr Huxtable; “but I think it looks very strangely”; and thereupon proceeded to run over the several occasions which Obadiah had employed to provide himself with supplies of fish with such liberality; which discovered to me that he had observed more than I thought.

  “Well, sir,” said the Captain, “let us immediately have him into the cabin to examine into it. If it is as you suspect,and he has had this monstrous creature concealed aboard there ship - I suppose, in the hold - but who could have thought? ‘Fore George, sir, ’tis incredible! But, if ’tis so, I shall recompense his Moonship, I’ll warrant him, with something of a sharper relish than salt fish!”

  “Certainly we shall examine into it,” answered Mr Huxtable; “but first let us ask Mr Falconer if he saw the creature. I wonder he did not come to us.”

  “Yes, why did he not?” cried the Captain, stating round. “I’ll be a falconer to him; I’ll - Hey! come you hither, Mr Falconer,” he bawled out, while he took a step towards the quarter-deck.

  But Mr Falconer, standing in his station as if nothing beyond ordinary had happened, neither answered not made the least change in his posture - no, not after the Captain called a second time; which enlarged his choler to that degree, he ran down the deck, with his fists clenched, crying:

  “Stock as a fish, the cold-blooded swap! Will nothing move ye? Must the heavens fall?”

  Our men stood watching this violent transport of the Captain, while Mr Huxtable started off after him. “What do you mean?” said he. Is this a time to vent your childish spleen, with our men so overwrought?” which vehement expostulation availed.

  But Mr Falconer continued to stand beside the bulwarks in a posture remarkably rigid, bringing to my remembrance how I saw him that night of the ghost-scare among our men; and, as on that occasion, so now, he looked of a deathly pallor in the moon. As we approached near to him, however, he swiftly turned his head as if he beheld some strange thing in the air, his eyeballs, that appeared vacant and glazed, seeming to gleam with a sort of veiled feverish light.

  The first to speak to him was Mr Huxtable.

  “Why, what do you ail, Mr Falconer?” asked he. “You don’t seem to be yourself. The Captain has twice called you.”

  “But ’tis to no purpose,” said he, breaking off. “He is in some strange state, and cannot hear a word.”

  “Strange state!” exclaimed the Captain, smiting his breast. “Sir, I hope now you will give me leave to wonder if —”

  He stopped, staring on Mr Falconer, who, after once more swiftly turning his head from side to side, began to mutter wandering disjointed words, signifying, as well by the tone as the look in his eyes, some powerful wild amazement.

  For a while he was silent, and then started off anew but now, indeed, he seemed to be in the toils of some fearful dream, starting forward with his face all writhed up, so that it was a dreadful thing to see, while he uttered panic words concerning (as it should seem) a frightful idol.

  Soon, however, he fell silent, and ceased to look so wildly, while his eyes closed. Fetching a sigh, he opened them again, and looked hazily upon us, passing his hand across his brow like a man awakening out of sleep.

  Mr Huxtable would have spoken to him; but, on a sudden, there arose such an alarum and commotion among our men as made us quickly turn about. They were all run together on the larboard side; and, looking where two or three pointed with their fingers, we beheld, at about a cable’s length from our ship, something moving in the water, which, by all appearance, was nothing else than that savage strange hideous creature that had leapt into the sea.

  The Captain, the moment he did spy it, bade me haste and bring him his pistol, which hanged on a pin in his cabin, reproaching himself, with an oath, for not having provided himself already.

  When I returned, the head was no longer to see, and most of our men stood narrowly watching for it. But, over against the hatch, the carpenter’s mate stood in a dispute with Obadiah Moon, who was just come aloft, being heavy and sullen with the effects of his drunken drench; and some wild expressions that he uttered startled me, bringing me to a standstill. “Be he the Captain, or be he the King himself,” cried he, “if he do murder Jerry, I’ll murder him!”

  This diverted the other exceedingly. “Why, Jerry,” said he, clapping his hands to his sides, yet with a vigilant eye for Obadiah’s drawn knife. “Ho! ho! ho! - Jerry is good. A brave handsome Jerry he be, I warrants you! Say, messmates,” cries he, bawling out to two or three of the rest who stood looking round on them, “would you know the hobgoblin’s name? This here mooncalf can tell ‘e —”

  But being afraid to keep the Captain waiting, I had already started off, so that I heard no more. However, I resolved to acquaint Mr Huxtable with what Obadiah had said; since his speaking of that monstrous creature so familiarly, seemed not a little to confirm his suspicions. Him I found in a dispute with the Captain, the occasion being the Captain’s intent to shoot at that monstrous creature; which Mr Huxtable did not desire, but only if it should attempt to come on board to offer us any violence.

  On my stepping to him with his pistol, therefore, he received me after a furious manner, snatching it out of my hand and railing at me for having been gone so long upon his errand. Thereupon, as if he was ashamed of this violent behaviour, he removed himself to the further side of the deck.

  Mr Huxtable, meanwhile, was assisting the mate, who was recovered his senses but looked very shaken and infirm, to his cabin; which disappointed my desire to acquaint him about Obadiah.

  That wretched creature, being by this time sufficiently sober (as it should seem) was parted from the carpenter’s mate and the rest made sport of him, and his present occupation was remarkable as tending to confirm those suspicions yet the more; for he kept roving up and down the ship, with his eyes searching the sea all about, sometimes glancing about, as I suppose, to see if he was observed. But no one took any notice of him, unless by way of jest; only the boatswain, standing near the mainmast smoking tobacco, did sometimes observe him with a shrewd meditative eye. After a while, however, yielding his vain searching, he betook himself below into the forecastle.

  He was scarce gone when Mr Huxtable returned aloft, and mounted to the quarter-deck. Thereupon, looking up and down, he called to know where Obadiah was; and, when I told him, he sent me to bid him immediately to present himself in the cabin.

  “If you will go with me,” said he to the Captain as I set off, “we shall presently interrogate this fellow whether he can tell us anything.”

  I found Obadiah laid sprawled along upon his seaman’s chest, with a bottle of rum in his hand, which he dangled after the manner of a babe. This childish tender appearance was immediately belied, however, by the surly and lowering look that came into his eyes, and (as I may say) eclipsed the foolish moon of his countenance, as soon as he beheld me, concluding, perhaps, or else suspecting, on what errand I was come.

  “What do ‘e want aboard of me?” cried he, when I told him Mr Huxtable’s bidding. “Can’t he leave a poor seaman in peace? I have a head on me like as it might be fashioned out of cork. Do ‘e go and bear word I be too sick to go. Do ‘e now,” said he with a whining tone, “and I’ll give ye a curiosity. I have brave cur’osities such as you have never seen the like, I promise you; and I’ll show them to you, and you shall have the one as likes you best, if so be as you will bear word to Mr Huxtable saying and showing of him that I be very sick. I do think verily,” said he, setting his hand to his brow, “that I have taken a mortal bad distemper and be very sick.”

  “I shall do no such thing,” said I, returning smartly on him. “What you ail is drinking too much rum. You had best go with me and make no more delay; for by this time Mr Huxtable and the Captain will be waiting for you.”

  “What! the Captain too,” cried he, and uttered a horrible curse, while he began knocking his head with his fist as if he would scatter away the drench of his potations. But, however, he rose up
and followed me, murmuring all the while until we were come to the cabin.

  At our entry, Mr Huxtable, looking on Obadiah with a stern aspect, signed to him with his finger to stand before him; which was much unpleasant to Obadiah, being over against the stern-window, he stood blinking in the moonlight with his blear-eyes.

  “What may it be as your honour wants along of me?” said the miserable creature, Mr Huxtable’s gaze being worse to him, I doubt not, for the shine. “I have a head on me like as it might be dead wood, with a turning in my innards like, as you might say, a wind-vane, it do turn and turn so dizzy.”

  “Well, it’s no wonder if you have, sirrah!” answered Mr Huxtable smartly. “You know, I suppose, the name of that.”

  “I would not go for to give a name to’t, your worship,” said Obadiah surlily, “unless I might call it by a name as would be an affront to the ears of gentlemen such as you are.”

  “Rum,” said Mr Huxtable, “is the name of it. But, that’s beside the business we have in hand; and, if you can’t stand easy on your legs, you may draw a chair up and sit.”

  The Captain was going to exclaim at this, but held his peace upon a look from Mr Huxtable; and, saying “thank’e, your honour, thank’e kindly,” Obadiah went and drew one of the chairs along before the settee.

  “I suppose, Mr Moon,” said Mr Huxtable after a dry sarcastically manner, when Obadiah was sat down, “that to be forsaken by your familiar friend, your beloved mate, after so dear a bond of amity, must be extreme afflicting to you. Can you think of any cause why he should part company with you so sudden? Did you fall out in any point, as for instance, in regard to supplies of fish?”

  This set Obadiah all on a heap; and he sat staring on Mr Huxtable with a foolish face; but the Captain gave him a shog.

  “Come! come!” said he with a high angry tone. “will you sit like a log, or dummy? Did you not hear what was said to you? What have you to answer? Heh?”

  Upon this, the uncouth malcontent heaved himself up in his chair, and said with a whining and dismal tone:

  “What you ha’ been asking of me be all dark to me, your worship. I hadn’t no particular mate as I knows on, except my mate, Ephraim Sawkins; but we ain’t so particular close and familiar in consorting but what we might be more, d’ye see? (begging your honour’s pardon). Nor he an’t parted company with me no more than what he is commonly not so close, as I was saying of, but only, in a manner of speaking, fo’c’sle mates, as you might say. And what you say about supplies of fish, I knows nought on’t. It’s true, your worship, as I have a partic’ler relish for it, but that be no —”

  “Enough!” cried Mr Huxtable, abridging him. “In vain you endeavour to fob me off with your foolish prevarications. You know very well what my meaning is - what companion, or mate, you had with you; how you hid him in the ship and fed him on fish. Confess and make a clean breast, you had better! For if you do, and leave nothing out, and tell me how and when you did come by this outlandish companion, and why you brought him with you on the ship, and anything else appertaining, we are minded to deal leniently with you; but if not —”

  At this juncture, he was obliged to break off to speak to the Captain, who plainly signified his displeasure at such mildness. When he had pacified him, he continued, with a weighty and grave tone, assuring Obadiah the he intended to deal as hard with him if he dissembled, as he would be mild and forbearing if he should discover all, and warned him to be beware how he answered, lest he should run himself on a needless severity and punishment. He ended frowning; while the Captain looked surly on.

  Obadiah for a pace answered nothing, only swayed himself from side to side in his chair, as if in the measure of his uneasy thoughts. At last, he delivered himself as follows: for I do remember the rude, rambling manner of it very well:

  “Why, your worship” (said he), “you, and my duty also, admonishes me to unlade all before you, leaving nothing out, concerning this-here matter what you have inquired of me; for I do confess as I demeaned myself as I ought not, albeit intending no harm, and like as if a seaman should buy a parrot, or an ape, and take it aboard ship with him, as this young gentleman did when we went ashore at Pernambuc. Not as I denies but that be summit more to’t than that is.

  “And, having regard as it is a matter which so nearly concerns you and what you’re after in this-here voyage, I makes bold (bating not your worship’s promising to pardon me, which I am deeply sensible of, and render thanks with a full tide) - I makes so bold as to beg of you a little more. I am, as your worship doth know, but an humble poor seaman, having little in this world but what I do bear about with me, in my belt, in an old cotton cloth; and seeing as it be come into my thoughts after hearkening to your worship’s gracious admonishing discourses to us seamen on the deck - it be come into my thoughts —”

  “Bless us!” cried the Captain at this juncture, breaking in, “Will you never come to your course? Will you not? Heh?”

  But Mr Huxtable, with a stern tone, bade Obadiah to proceed, and he continued after a halting manner.

  “I was a-saying, your worship” (said he), “being emboldened and drawn on by your worship’s kindness, as that, when I was ashore once more in my native country, I took up a resolution to leave following the sea, which has been my ruin and undoing all my days; for it be crabbed and lean - the sea, your honour - villainous lean to the soul. So, as you was so kind in what you says to me, it was come into my thoughts you would give me some hopes to lead a better life and repent of my sins when I be come ashore again in my native country (as, please God, we all shall!); seeing, I mean, as what I can tell you is of such concernment to ye, ands powerfully aiding the intent you have in this-here voyage. And it is but a matter of a few pounds as I am asking of, for to buy a snug small cottage with a garden to it, and —”

  “And an orchard, may be, and a grove of pear trees,” said Mr Huxtable satirically, abridging this impudent request. “Nay, I had forgot to add a fish-pond; else, where would you provide for your supplies of fish? For, I suppose, you don’t intend to banish your precious companion and dear beloved crony from your cottage paradise. You have one virtue, Master Moon, you are not tardy in seeking, and I wish I could think you was honest in your rural hopes. But there’s no end to your cheats and impudence; and if you do not immediately proceed with your relation, and if I should perceive anything false or equivocating (for I am no seagull - or I should say, rather I am no fish to be took with your bait), I do assure you, I shall have you set down on the ballast and not illiberally provided with chains.”

  This severe admonishment was enough for Obadiah, who appeared to bow beneath its burden; and he did continue in sober earnest.

  “Well, your worship,” said he, “this-here, what I shall be telling you, is what fell out plain and faithful, and not leaving anything out, begging of your pardon for the liberty I run into, a hoisting up too much sail, in a manner of speaking.

  “I was aboard of a ship of you know who; but whether the Captain knows (begging your worship’s pardon) I knows not.”

  “Ay, ay,” answered Mr Huxtable, “the Captain is acquainted with my business with your Captain. You need not make any stop or concealment, but plainly tell all out.”

  “Thank’e, your worship,” said Obadiah. “Well, then, as I was a-telling you, I was aboard of our ship what was cruising in these seas, and, as I recollect, not far from where we now lies. It was not above a year ago, as I particularly remember, it being my natal day, which I always keeps and celebrates.”

  “By drinking, belike,” said the Captain sarcastically.

  “I do not deny it, your worship,” replied Obadiah, “for there an’t no harm, as I says to myself, in drinking down a dram for to celebrate my natal day.”

  “The more by token because nobody else will celebrate it, I suppose,” returned the Captain.

  “On! on!” cried Mr Huxtable, with a furious impatient tone, which silenced the Captain sufficiently. “About a year ago, you say, you were
cruising in these seas - well?”

  “Ay, your worship,” answered Obadiah, “and we had such calm and sultry weather as we have at this present; and the first thing I spied, when as I looked out in the morning, was what your worship is pleased to call my companion, what was a-swimming in the sea close under our larboard bow. At first, I took him for some wild Indian; but when he came about the water and I saw him plain, it did set me all on a tremor. For I beheld him the first time, and was not yet grown accustomed to him, as after I was. For we did entice him upon our ship and made much of him. But if it had been in the moonlight when I first beheld him, and not sunshine, as it was, the stark grim sight of him had set me beside my wits.”

  “You enticed him to board your ship?” said Mr Huxtable. “How did you conceive to do it? He did not come readily - did he? But I have yet to hear what this extraordinary strange savage creature may be.”