“Shall we try below, Sir?” I said, and turned to where a flight of stone steps led down into an utter blackness, out of which rose a strange, dank scent of the sea… an imponderable mixture of brine and darkness.
“The worthy Duprey leads the van!” said the Skipper; but I felt no irritation now. I knew that he must cover his fright, until he had got control again; and I think he felt, somehow, that I was backing him up. I remember now that I went down those stairs into that unknowable and ancient cabin, as much aware in that moment of the Captain’s state, as of that extraordinary thing I had just seen at the little window, or of my own half-funk of what we might see any moment.
The Captain was at my shoulder, as I went, and behind him came the Third Mate, and then the men, all in single file; for the stairs were narrow.
I counted seven steps down, and then my foot splashed into water on the eighth. I held the lamp low, and stared. I had caught no glimpse of a reflection, and I saw now that this was owing to a curious, dull, greyish scum that lay thinly on the water, seeming to match the colour of the stone which composed the steps and bulksheads.
“Stop!” I said. “I’m in water!”
I let my foot down slowly, and got the next step. Then sounded with my axe, and found the floor at the bottom. I stepped down and stood up to my thighs in water.
“It’s all right, Sir,” I said, suddenly whispering. I held my lamp up, and glanced quickly about me. “It’s not deep. There’s two doors here….”
I whirled my axe up as I spoke; for, suddenly, I had realised that one of the doors was open a little. It seemed to move, as I stared, and I could have imagined that a vague undulation ran towards me, across the dull scum-covered water.
“The door’s opening!” I said, aloud, with a sudden sick feeling. “Look out!”
I backed from the door, staring; but nothing came. And abruptly, I had control of myself; for I realised that the door was not moving. It had not moved at all. It was simply ajar.
“It’s all right, Sir,” I said. “It’s not opening.”
I stepped forward again a pace towards the doors, as the Skipper and the Third Mate came down with a jump, splashing the water all over me.
The Captain still had the “nerves” on him, as I think I could feel, even then; but he hid it well.
“Try the door, Mister. I’ve jumped my dam lamp out!” he growled to the Third Mate; who pushed at the door on my right; but it would not open beyond the nine or ten inches it was fixed ajar.
“There’s this one here, Sir,” I whispered, and held my lantern up to the closed door that lay to my left.
“Try it,” said the Skipper, in an undertone. We did so, but it also was fixed. I whirled my axe suddenly, and struck the door heavily in the centre of the main panel, and the whole thing crashed into flinders of stone, that went with hollow sounding splashes into the darkness beyond.
“Goodness!” said the Skipper, in a startled voice; for my action had been so instant and unexpected. He covered his lapse, in a moment, by the warning: —
“Look out for bad air!” But I was already inside with the lamp, and holding my axe handily. There was no bad air; for right across from me, was a split clean through the ship’s side, that I could have put my two arms through, just above the level of the scummy water.
The place I had broken into, was a cabin, of a kind; but seemed strange and dank, and too narrow to breathe in; and wherever I turned, I saw stone. The Third Mate and the Skipper gave simultaneous expressions of disgust at the wet dismalness of the place.
“It’s all stone,” I said, and brought my axe hard against the front of a sort of squat cabinet, which was built into the after bulkshead. It caved in, with a crash of splintered stone.
“Empty!” I said, and turned instantly away.
The Skipper and the Third Mate, with the men who were now peering in at the door, crowded out; and in that moment, I pushed my axe under my arm, and thrust my hand into the burst stone-chest. Twice I did this, with almost the speed of lightning, and shoved what I had seen, into the side-pocket of my coal. Then, I was following the others; and not one of them had noticed a thing. As for me, I was quivering with excitement, so that my knees shook; for I had caught the unmistakable gleam of gems; and had grabbed for them in that one swift instant.
I wonder whether anyone can realise what I felt in that moment. I knew that, if my guess were right, I had snatched the power in that one miraculous moment, that would lift me from the weary life of a common shellback, to the life of ease that had been mine during my early years. I tell you, in that instant, as I staggered almost blindly out of that dark little apartment, I had no thought of any horror that might be held in that incredible vessel, out there afloat on the wide Atlantic.
I was full of the one blinding thought, that possibly I was rich! And I wanted to get somewhere by myself as soon as possible, to see whether I was right. Also, if I could, I meant to get back to that strange cabinet of stone, if the chance came; for I knew that the two handfuls I had grabbed, had left a lot behind.
Only, whatever I did, I must let no one guess; for then I should probably lose everything, or have but an infinitesimal share doled out to me, of the wealth that I believed to be in those glittering things there in the side-pocket of my coat.
I began immediately to wonder what other treasures there might be aboard; and then, abruptly, I realised that the Captain was speaking to me: —
“The light, Duprey, damn you!” he was saying, angrily, in a low tone. “What’s the matter with you! Hold it up.”
I pulled myself together, and shoved the lamp above my head. One of the men was swinging his axe, to beat in the door that seemed to have stood so eternally ajar; and the rest were standing back, to give him room. Crash! went the axe, and half the door fell inward, in a shower of broken stone, making dismal splashes in the darkness. The man struck again, and the rest of the door fell away, with a sullen slump into the water.
“The lamp,” muttered the Captain. But I had hold of myself once more, and I was stepping forward slowly through the thigh-deep water, even before he spoke.
I went a couple of paces in through the black gape of the doorway, and then stopped and held the lamp so as to get a view of the place. As I did so, I remember how the intense silence struck home on me. Every man of us must surely have been holding his breath; and there must have been some heavy quality, either in the water, or in the scum that floated on it, that kept it from rippling against the sides of the bulksheads, with the movements we had made.
At first, as I held the lamp (which was burning badly), I could not get its position right to show me anything, except that I was in a very large cabin for so small a vessel. Then I saw that a table ran along the centre, and the top of it was no more than a few inches above the water. On each side of it, there rose the backs of what were evidently two rows of massive, olden looking chairs. At the far end of the table, there was a huge, immobile, humped something.
I stared at this for several moments; then I took three slow steps forward, and stopped again; for the thing resolved itself, under the light from the lamp, into the figure of an enormous man, seated at the end of the table, his face bowed forward upon his arms. I was amazed, and thrilling abruptly with new fears and vague impossible thoughts. Without moving a step, I held the light nearer at arm’s length….
The man was of stone, like everything in that extraordinary ship.
“That foot!” said the Captain’s voice, suddenly cracking. “Look at that foot!” His voice sounded amazingly startling and hollow in that silence, and the words seemed to come back sharply at me from the vaguely seen bulksheads.
I whipped my light to starboard, and saw what he meant — a huge human foot was sticking up out of the water, on the right hand side of the table. It was enormous. I have never seen so vast a foot. And it also was of stone.
And then, as I stared, I saw that there was a great head above the water, over by the bulkshead.
&nb
sp; “I’ve gone mad!” I said, out loud, as I saw something else, more incredible.
“My God! Look at the hair on the head!” said the Captain…. “It’s growing! It’s growing!” His voice cracked again.
“Look at it! It’s growing!” he called out once more.
I was looking. On the great head, there was becoming visible a huge mass of red hair, that was surely and unmistakably rising up, as we watched it.
“It’s what I saw at the window!” I said. “It’s what I saw at the window! I told you I saw it!”
“Come out of that, Duprey,” said the Third Mate, quietly.
“Let’s get out of here!” muttered one of the men. Two or three of them called out the same thing; and then, in a moment, they began a mad rush up the stairway.
I stood dumb, where I was. The hair rose up in a horrible living fashion on the great head, waving and moving. It rippled down over the forehead, and spread abruptly over the whole gargantuan stone face, hiding the features completely. Suddenly, I swore at the thing madly, and I hove my axe at it. Then I was backing crazily for the door, slumping the scum as high as the deck-beams, in my fierce haste. I readied the stairs, and caught at the stone rail, that was modelled like a rope; and so hove myself up out of the water. I reached the little deck-house, where I had seen the great head of hair. I jumped through the doorway, out onto the decks, and I felt the night air sweet on my face…. Goodness! I ran forward along the decks. There was a Babel of shouting in the waist of the ship, and a thudding of feet running. Some of the men were singing out, to get into the boat; but the Third Mate was shouting that they must wait for me.
“He’s coming,” called someone. And then I was among them.
“Turn that lamp up, you idiot,” said the Captain’s voice. “This is just where we want light!”
I glanced down, and realised that my lamp was almost out. I turned it up, and it flared, and began again to dwindle.
“Those damned boys never filled it,” I said. “They deserve their necks breaking.”
The men were literally tumbling over the side, and the Skipper was hurrying them.
“Down with you into the boat,” he said to me. “Give me the lamp. I’ll pass it down. Get a move on you!”
The Captain had evidently got his nerve back again.
This was more like the man I knew. I handed him the lamp, and went over the side. All the rest had now gone, and the Third Mate was already in the stern, waiting.
As I landed on the thwart, there was a sudden, strange noise from aboard the ship — a sound, as if some stone object were trundling down the sloping decks, from aft. In that one moment, I got what you might truly call the “horrors.” I seemed suddenly able to believe incredible possibilities.
“The stone men!” I shouted. “Jump, Captain! Jump! Jump!” The vessel seemed to roll oddly.
Abruptly, the Captain yelled out something, that not one of us in the boat understood. There followed a succession of tremendous sounds, aboard the ship, and I saw his shadow swing out huge against the thin mist, as he turned suddenly with the lamp. He fired twice with his revolver.
“The hair!” I shouted. “Look at the hair!”
We all saw it — the great head of red hair that we had seen grow visibly on the monstrous stone head, below in the cabin. It rose above the rail, and there was a moment of intense stillness, in which I heard the Captain gasping. The Third Mate fired six times at the tiling, and I found myself fixing an oar up against the side of that abominable vessel, to get aboard.
As I did so, there came one appalling crash, that shook the stone ship fore and aft, and she began to cant up, and my oar slipped and fell into the boat. Then the Captain’s voice screamed something in a choking fashion above us. The ship lurched forward, and paused. Then another crash came, and she rocked over towards us; then away from us again. The movement away from us, continued, and the round of the vessel’s bottom showed, vaguely. There was a smashing of glass above us, and the dim glow of light aboard, vanished. Then the vessel fell clean over from us, with a giant splash. A huge wave came at us, out of the night, and half filled the boat.
The boat nearly capsized, then righted and presently steadied.
“Captain!” shouted the Third Mate. “Captain!” But there came never a sound; only presently, out of all the night, a strange murmuring of waters.
“Captain!” he shouted once more; but his voice just went lost and remote into the darkness.
“She’s foundered!” I said.
“Out oars,” sung out the Third. “Put your backs into it. Don’t stop to bail!”
For half an hour we circled the spot slowly. But the strange vessel had indeed foundered and gone down into the mystery of the deep sea, with her mysteries.
Finally we put about, and returned to the Alfred Jessop.
Now, I want you to realise that what I am telling you is a plain and simple tale of fact. This is no fairy tale, and I’ve not done yet; and I think this yarn should prove to you that some mighty strange things do happen at sea, and always will while the world lasts. It’s the home of all the mysteries; for it’s the one place that is really difficult for humans to investigate. Now just listen: —
The Mate had kept the bell going, from time to time, and so we came back pretty quickly, having as we came, a strange repetition of the echoey reduplication of our oar-sounds; but we never spoke a word; for not one of us wanted to hear those beastly echoes again, after what we had just gone through. I think we all had a feeling that there was something a bit hellish abroad that night.
We got aboard, and the Third explained to the Mate what had happened; but he would hardly believe the yarn. However, there was nothing to do, but wait for daylight; so we were told to keep about the deck, and keep our eyes and ears open.
One thing the Mate did, showed he was more impressed by our yarn, than he would admit. He had all the ship’s lanterns lashed up round the decks, to the sheerpoles; and he never told us to give up either the axes or the cutlass.
It was while we were keeping about the decks, that I took the chance to have a look at what I had grabbed. I tell you, what I found, made me nearly forget the Skipper, and all the rummy things that had happened. I had twenty-six stones in my pocket and four of them were diamonds, respectively 9, 11, 13½ and 17 carats in weight, uncut, that is. I know quite something about diamonds. I’m not going to tell you how I learnt what I know; but I would not have taken a thousand pounds for the four, as they lay there, in my hand. There was also a big, dull stone, that looked red inside. I’d have dumped it over the side, I thought so little of it; only, I argued that it must be something, or it would never have been among that lot. Lord! but I little knew what I’d got; not then. Why, the thing was as big as a fair-sized walnut. You may think it funny that I thought of the four diamonds first; but you see, I know diamonds when I see them. They’re things I understand; but I never saw a ruby, in the rough, before or since. Good Lord! And to think I’d have thought nothing of heaving it over the side!
You see, a lot of the stories were not anything much; that is, not in the modern market. There were two big topaz, and several onyx and cornelians — nothing much. There were five hammered slugs of gold about two ounces each they would be. And then a prize — one winking green devil of an emerald. You’ve got to know an emerald to look for the “eye” of it, in the rough; but it is there — the eye of some hidden devil staring up at you. Yes, I’d seen an emerald before, and I knew I held a lot of money in that one stone alone.
And then I remembered what I’d missed, and cursed myself for not grabbing a third time. But that feeling lasted only a moment. I thought of the beastly part that had been the Skipper’s share; while there I stood safe under one of the lamps, with a fortune in my hands. And then, abruptly, as you can understand, my mind was filled with the crazy wonder and bewilderment of what had happened. I felt how absurdly ineffectual my imagination was to comprehend anything understandable out of it all, except that the Captai
n had certainly gone, and I had just as certainly had a piece of impossible luck.
Often, during that time of waiting, I stopped to take a look at the things I had in my pocket; always careful that no one about the decks should come near me, to see what I was looking at.
Suddenly the Mate’s voice came sharp along the decks: —
“Call the Doctor, one of you,” he said. “Tell him to get the fire in and the coffee made.”
“ ‘i, ‘i, Sir,” said one of the men; and I realised that the dawn was growing vaguely over the sea.
Half an hour later, the “Doctor” shoved his head out of the galley doorway, and sung out that coffee was ready.
The watch below turned out, and had theirs with the watch on deck, all sitting along the spar that lay under the port rail.
As the daylight grew, we kept a constant watch over the side; but even now we could see nothing; for the thin mist still hung low on the sea.
“Hear that?” said one of the men, suddenly. And, indeed, the sound must have been plain for half a mile round.
“Ooaaze, ooaaze, arrr, arrrr, oooaze—”
“By George!” said Tallett, one of the other watch; “that’s a beastly sort of thing to hear.”
“Look!” I said. “What’s that out yonder?”
The mist was thinning under the effect of the rising sun, and tremendous shapes seemed to stand towering half-seen, away to port. A few minutes passed, while we stared. Then, suddenly, we heard the Mate’s voice: —
“All hands on deck!” he was shouting, along the decks.
I ran aft a few steps.
“Both watches are out, Sir,” I called.
“Very good!” said the Mate. “Keep handy all of you. Some of you have got the axes. The rest had better take a caps’n-bar each, and stand-by till I find what this devilment is, out yonder.”
Complete Works of William Hope Hodgson Page 162