by Lord Dunsany
POOR OLD BILL
On an antique haunt of sailors, a tavern of the sea, the light of day wasfading. For several evenings I had frequented this place, in the hope ofhearing something from the sailors, as they sat over strange wines, abouta rumour that had reached my ears of a certain fleet of galleons of oldSpain still said to be afloat in the South Seas in some uncharted region.
In this I was again to be disappointed. Talk was low and seldom, and I wasabout to leave, when a sailor, wearing ear-rings of pure gold, lifted uphis head from his wine, and looking straight before him at the wall, toldhis tale loudly:
(When later on a storm of rain arose and thundered on the tavern's leadedpanes, he raised his voice without effort and spoke on still. The darkerit got the clearer his wild eyes shone.)
"A ship with sails of the olden time was nearing fantastic isles. We hadnever seen such isles.
"We all hated the captain, and he hated us. He hated us all alike, therewas no favouritism about him. And he never would talk a word with any ofus, except sometimes in the evening when it was getting dark he would stopand look up and talk a bit to the men he had hanged at the yard-arm.
"We were a mutinous crew. But Captain was the only man that had pistols.He slept with one under his pillow and kept one close beside him. Therewas a nasty look about the isles. They were small and flat as though theyhad come up only recently from the sea, and they had no sand or rocks likehonest isles, but green grass down to the water. And there were littlecottages there whose looks we did not like. Their thatches came almostdown to the ground, and were strangely turned up at the corners, and underthe low eaves were queer dark windows whose little leaded panes were toothick to see through. And no one, man or beast, was walking about, so thatyou could not know what kind of people lived there. But Captain knew. Andhe went ashore and into one of the cottages, and someone lit lightsinside, and the little windows wore an evil look.
"It was quite dark when he came aboard again, and he bade a cheerygood-night to the men that swung from the yard-arm and he eyed us in a waythat frightened poor old Bill.
"Next night we found that he had learned to curse, for he came on a lot ofus asleep in our bunks, and among them poor old Bill, and he pointed at uswith a finger, and made a curse that our souls should stay all night atthe top of the masts. And suddenly there was the soul of poor old Billsitting like a monkey at the top of the mast, and looking at the stars,and freezing through and through.
"We got up a little mutiny after that, but Captain comes up and pointswith his finger again, and this time poor old Bill and all the rest areswimming behind the ship through the cold green water, though their bodiesremain on deck.
"It was the cabin-boy who found out that Captain couldn't curse when hewas drunk, though he could shoot as well at one time as another.
"After that it was only a matter of waiting, and of losing two men whenthe time came. Some of us were murderous fellows, and wanted to killCaptain, but poor old Bill was for finding a bit of an island, out of thetrack of ships, and leaving him there with his share of our year'sprovisions. And everybody listened to poor old Bill, and we decided tomaroon Captain as soon as we caught him when he couldn't curse.
"It was three whole days before Captain got drunk again, and poor old Billand all had a dreadful time, for Captain invented new curses every day,and wherever he pointed his finger our souls had to go; and the fishes gotto know us, and so did the stars, and none of them pitied us when we frozeon the masts or were hurried through forests of seaweed and lost ourway--both stars and fishes went about their businesses with cold,unastonished eyes. Once when the sun had set and it was twilight, and themoon was showing clearer and clearer in the sky, and we stopped our workfor a moment because Captain seemed to be looking away from us at thecolours in the sky, he suddenly turned and sent our souls to the Moon. Andit was colder there than ice at night; and there were horrible mountainsmaking shadows; and it was all as silent as miles of tombs; and Earth wasshining up in the sky as big as the blade of a scythe, and we all gothomesick for it, but could not speak nor cry. It was quite dark when wegot back, and we were very respectful to Captain all the next day, but hecursed several of us again very soon. What we all feared most was that hewould curse our souls to Hell, and none of us mentioned Hell above awhisper for fear that it should remind him. But on the third evening thecabin-boy came and told us that Captain was drunk. And we all went to hiscabin, and we found him lying there across his bunk, and he shot as he hadnever shot before; but he had no more than the two pistols, and he wouldonly have killed two men if he hadn't caught Joe over the head with theend of one of his pistols. And then we tied him up. And poor old Bill putthe rum between the Captain's teeth, and kept him drunk for two days, sothat he could not curse, till we found a convenient rock. And beforesunset of the second day we found a nice bare island for Captain, out ofthe track of ships, about a hundred yards long and about eighty wide; andwe rowed him along to it in a little boat, and gave him provisions for ayear, the same as we had ourselves, because poor old Bill wanted to befair. And we left him sitting comfortable with his back to a rock singinga sailor's song.
"When we could no longer hear Captain singing we all grew very cheerfuland made a banquet out of our year's provisions, as we all hoped to behome again in under three weeks. We had three great banquets every day fora week--every man had more than he could eat, and what was left over wethrew on the floor like gentlemen. And then one day, as we saw SanHuegedos, and wanted to sail in to spend our money, the wind changed roundfrom behind us and beat us out to sea. There was no tacking against it,and no getting into the harbour, though other ships sailed by us andanchored there. Sometimes a dead calm would fall on us, while fishingboats all around us flew before half a gale, and sometimes the wind wouldbeat us out to sea when nothing else was moving. All day we tried, and atnight we laid to and tried again the next day. And all the sailors of theother ships were spending their money in San Huegedos and we could notcome nigh it. Then we spoke horrible things against the wind and againstSan Huegedos, and sailed away.
"It was just the same at Norenna.
"We kept close together now and talked in low voices. Suddenly poor oldBill grew frightened. As we went all along the Siractic coast-line, wetried again and again, and the wind was waiting for us in every harbourand sent us out to sea. Even the little islands would not have us. Andthen we knew that there was no landing yet for poor old Bill, and everyone upbraided his kind heart that had made them maroon Captain on a rock,so as not to have his blood upon their heads. There was nothing to do butto drift about the seas. There were no banquets now, because we fearedthat Captain might live his year and keep us out to sea.
"At first we used to hail all passing ships, and used to try to board themin the boats; but there was no towing against Captain's curse, and we hadto give that up. So we played cards for a year in Captain's cabin, nightand day, storm and fine, and every one promised to pay poor old Bill whenwe got ashore.
"It was horrible to us to think what a frugal man Captain really was, hethat used to get drunk every other day whenever he was at sea, and here hewas still alive, and sober too, for his curse still kept us out of everyport, and our provisions were gone.
"Well, it came to drawing lots, and Jim was the unlucky one. Jim only keptus about three days, and then we drew lots again, and this time it was thenigger. The nigger didn't keep us any longer, and we drew again, and thistime it was Charlie, and still Captain was alive.
"As we got fewer one of us kept us longer. Longer and longer a mate usedto last us, and we all wondered how ever Captain did it. It was five weeksover the year when we drew Mike, and he kept us for a week, and Captainwas still alive. We wondered he didn't get tired of the same old curse;but we supposed things looked different when one is alone on an island.
"When there was only Jakes and poor old Bill and the cabin-boy and Dick,we didn't draw any longer. We said that the cabin-boy had had all theluck, and he mustn't expect any more. Then poor old
Bill was alone withJakes and Dick, and Captain was still alive. When there was no more boy,and the Captain still alive, Dick, who was a huge strong man like poor oldBill, said that it was Jakes' turn, and he was very lucky to have lived aslong as he had. But poor old Bill talked it all over with Jakes, and theythought it better than Dick should take his turn.
"Then there was Jakes and poor old Bill; and Captain would not die.
"And these two used to watch one another night and day, when Dick was goneand no one else was left to them. And at last poor old Bill fell down in afaint and lay there for an hour. Then Jakes came up to him slowly with hisknife, and makes a stab at poor old Bill as he lies there on the deck. Andpoor old Bill caught hold of him by the wrist, and put his knife into himtwice to make quite sure, although it spoiled the best part of the meat.Then poor old Bill was all alone at sea.
"And the very next week, before the food gave out, Captain must have diedon his bit of an island; for poor old Bill heard the Captain's soul goingcursing over the sea, and the day after that the ship was cast on a rockycoast.
"And Captain's been dead now for over a hundred years, and poor old Billis safe ashore again. But it looks as if Captain hadn't done with him yet,for poor old Bill doesn't ever get any older, and somehow or other hedoesn't seem to die. Poor old Bill!"
When this was over the man's fascination suddenly snapped, and we alljumped up and left him.
It was not only his revolting story, but it was the fearful look in theeyes of the man who told it, and the terrible ease with which his voicesurpassed the roar of the rain, that decided me never again to enter thathaunt of sailors--the tavern of the sea.