But when I listened to the far off parts of the sea, even whilst I looked with solemn feelings at that ghostly island half seen in the dawn, it was as if no sound had ever been out there, except it might be some damp wind that wandered forlorn in the distance of the ocean.
And by all this you will understand something of the mood that had come upon me; and indeed, I think this mood was not mine alone; for the Captain was very quiet, and said little, looking constantly towards the grey gloom of the island in the dawn.
And then, as the sun cast the first beam of light clear over the mists of the hid horizon, there came a little thin noise out of all the dawn of the world. It was as if I heard a small voice far off in the miles, coming to me out of an infinite distance:
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!”
I heard it very faint and lost-seeming in all that mystery of the Eastward sea, drifting out of the quiet of the dawn. Towards the East there was only emptiness and greyness, and the quiver of the dawn-shine, and the first rays of the morning upon the silver-grey shimmer of the sea. Only these things, and the low-lying stretch of the weed island, maybe half a mile to the Eastward—a desolate shadow, quiet upon the water.
I set my hand to my ear and listened, looking at the Captain; he likewise listening, having looked first well through his glasses. But now he stared at me, half questioning with his eyes.
The sun stood up over the edge of the grey-glimmering ocean like a roadway of flame, broken midway by the dull stretch of the weed-island. And in that moment the sound came again:
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!” out of morning light that made glows in the Eastward sea. Far and faint and lonesome was the voice, and so thin and aethereal it might have been a ghost calling vaguely out of the scattering greynesses—the shadow of a voice amid the fleeting shadows.
I started round at all the sea, and surely on every side it was studded with islets of weed, clearly seen upon the silver of the morning sea through the quiet miles into the horizons. As I looked this way and that way with something of astonishment, there came again to my hearing a faint sound, as if I heard a thin, attenuated piping in the East, coming very incredible and far-off sounding and unreal over the hush of the water. Shrill and dree and yet vague it was; and presently I heard it no more.
The Captain and I looked often at one another during this time; and again we searched the width of the Eastward sea, and the desolateness of the long, low island of the weed; but there was nowhere anything that might lead us to an understanding of this thing that bewildered us.
The Mate also had stood near to us listening, and had heard the strange thin, far-off calling and piping; but he, likewise, had no knowledge or understanding by which we might judge the thing.
While we were drinking our morning coffee Captain Johnson and I discoursed upon this mysterious happening, and could in nowise come any the nearer to an understanding, unless it was some lone derelict held in the weed of the great island that lay Eastward of us. This was, in truth, a proper enough explanation, if only we might set proof upon it; and to this end the Captain ordered one of the boats to be lowered, and a large crew to man the boat, and each man to be armed with a musket and a cutlass. Moreover, he sent down into the boat two axes and three double-edged whale-pikes or lances, with six feet blades, very keen and as broad as my palm.
To me he dealt a brace of pistols, and likewise a brace to himself, and the two of us had our knives. And by all of these things you can see, as I have told, that he had known previous adventures with the weed, and that he had knowledge of dangers that were peculiar thereto.
We put out presently in the clear morning light towards the great island of the weed that lay to the Eastward. And this island was, maybe, nearly two miles long, and, as we found, something more than half of a mile broadwise, or as the sailors named it “in the beam.” We came to it pretty quickly, and Captain Johnson bid the men back-water when we were some twenty fathoms off from the midmost part which was opposite to the ship. Here we lay awhile, and looked through our glasses at the weed, searching it all ways, but saw nowhere any sign of derelict craft, nor aught that spoke of human life.
Yet of the life of sea animals there was no end; for all the weed, upon the outer edges seemed a-crawl with various matters; though at first we had not been able to perceive these because of the similarity in colour with the yellowness of the weed, which was very yellow in the light outward fronds spreading out upon the waters. Inward of the mass of the island I saw that there went a dark and greener shading of the yellow, and there I discovered that this green darkness was the colour of the great weedstems that made up the bulk of the island, like so many great cables and serpents of a yellow green, very dank and gloomy, wandering amid their twistings and turning and vast entanglements that made so huge and dreary a labyrinth.
After we had made a pretty good survey of that part we turned to the Northward, and Captain Johnson bid the men pull slowly along the coast of that great island of weed. In this wise we went a good mile until we came to the end, where we set the boat to the Eastward so as to come round to the other side. And all the while as we went forward the Captain and I made constant observation of the island and of the sea about it, using our glasses to the purpose.
This way I saw a thousand matters to give me cause for interest and wonder; for the weed all about the borders of the island had living creatures a-move within amid the fronds, and the sea showed frequently in this place and the glitter of strange fish, very plentiful and various.
Now I took a particular heed to note the many creatures that lived amid the weed; for I was always interested in the weed-sea from the many accounts which I had heard concerning it, both from Captain Johnson and from other men of the sea that had been ship masters in my voyages. And surely these islands and gatherings together of the weed had been rent from that same great weed-sea which Captain Johnson spoke of always as the Great Eddy. As I have said, I took very good heed to note what manner of creatures lived in the weed, and in this way I perceived presently that there were more crabs than aught else, so far as the power of my glasses could show me; for there were crabs in every place, and all of them yellow in the top parts as the weed. And some were as small as my thumb top, and many were less, I suppose, had I been closer to discover them; but others crawling amid the weed fronds must have spread a great foot across the back, and were all yellow, so that save when they moved they might lie hidden entirely by matching the shades of the weed in which they lived.
We had pulled round the Northward end of the island, and found it, as I have told, something more than the half of a mile wide, or maybe three-quarters for all that we could be sure. And here let me tell concerning the height of the island above the sea, which we judged now, being very low down in the boats and looking upward at the weed, to be about twenty or twenty-five feet good above the ocean, the greatest height being in the middle parts, inland as it were of the island, looking as if it had been a low thick wood with the greater trees in the centre, and all lost in jungle of strange creeping plants. And this is the best likeness I can give of that island to any landward thing.
Having pulled round the North end of the island we made Southward all along the Western coast of the weed, being minded to go entirely about it and chance discovering the cause and the place of that strange calling in the dawn. And indeed it was a dree place to by by; for constantly we would open out some dark, cavern-place of dark green and gloom that went inward of the weed, amid those great stems; and often there seemed to be things moving therein; and always there was a quietness in all that desolate waste save when some small wind played strangely across it, making the yellow fronds of the weed stir a little in this place and that with little sighings of sound, as if doleful beings lurked in all that mass of quiet darkness. And when the little wind had gone away over the sea there came a double silence by the contrast, so that I was glad t
hat the boat was kept well off from the weed.
In this way, with growing caution and quietness because of the dreeness of that dank and lonesome island which had begun now to affect our spirits somewhat, we went downward to the South along that coast of the Westward side of the island; and as we went a greater and a greater hush and caution came upon us, so that the men scarcely dipped their oars with any sound, but pulled daintily, each one staring very keen and tensely into the shadows within that mighty mass of weed.
It chanced that one of the men ceased suddenly to pull upon his oar, looking very eagerly and fearfully at something that he perceived amid the gloom that lurked among the monstrous stems of the weed. And at that, every man ceased likewise to work upon his oar, and peered fearfully into the dark places of the weed, being assured that the man saw something very dreadful.
The Captain made no attempt to chide the men, but stared himself, as even as I did, to see what manner of thing it was that the man saw. And presently each one discovered the Thing for himself; but at the first it seemed only as if we peered at a great and ugly bunching of the weed-stems, far inward from the edge of the island; but in a little while the thing grew plainer to the eye, and we saw that it was some kind of a devil-fish or octopus lying among the weed, very quiet, and shaded with the same gloom and colour as the weed which was its home. The thing was enormous, as my eyes told me, seeming to spread all ways among the weed.
Captain Johnson got up out of the stern of the boat, and called in a low voice to the men to dip their oars very gently so as to have way upon the boat again; and this they did with great care while the Captain steered the boat outward awhile from the island, and we became presently happier in our minds as we drew afar off from so dreadful and horrible a brute.
In this way we pulled nearly a good mile Southward, keeping well from the shore of the island, and soon we saw the weed come outward in something of a ness or cape from the main body. We came round this with a fair offing, and found the shore of the island ran inward in a deep bay, and in the weed in the bight of the bay we saw something that made us suppose we had discovered the place whence came that unnatural calling in the dawn; for there was the hull of a vessel all mastless in among the weed, near the edge, yet not very plain to be seen, because it was so hidden and smothered by the weed.
We were all vastly excited at this, and the Captain bid the men give way with heartiness; and indeed we lost suddenly the fear of lurking monsters which had before made us so quiet and cautious. And because the men set their strength into the oars, we came very soon to the bight of the bay where lay the derelict ship and found that she was no more than maybe a dozen yards or so inward of the weed which was pretty low and flat in that place around her; but beyond the ship the weed was piled up very dark and gloomy for twenty feet high and more, and growing all over her.
We paused now wondering how we should best come up to the ship; and all the time while the Captain considered, I spied through my glasses at the wreck, having little hope that we should find any aboard of her; for it was plain to me now how old she was and all crumbled with time and weather, and the weed girting her in all parts, seeming to grow through the wood of her sides, though this was very incredible; yet so we found it to be when we came near her. Afterwards I searched the weed all near her to see whether there were any monster fish about; Captain Johnson doing the same; but we found nothing. And the Captain then gave orders to put the boat in among the weed, and we cut our way through the low weed to the side of the ship.
Now as we made way through the weed it amazed us to see how much life had been hidden there, very still; for all the weed now about the boat was a-swarm with small crabs, running along the fronds and smaller stems; while the water that showed between the growths of the weed was full of living things, great shrimps that seemed bigger than prawns, darting a thousand ways at once, and coloured fish that passed very swiftly. From the weed itself numberless insects of a peculiar kind jumped like any flea, only that they were a hundred times greater. And twice and trice as we put the boat through the weed we disturbed great crabs that were lain there sullen or waiting for their prey; one of them as big across the back as a dish-cover, which caught at the oar of one of the men with its pincers, and nipped the thin wood of the blade through quick and cleanly. Afterwards it went away, rough and active, shaking the weed in its passage, which will show you the vigour and strength that was in the creature.
In a few minutes we had cut a way in to the ship, using the axes and the men’s knives and the oars; but the cutlasses the Captain would not have used on the weed because they were weapons and to be kept as such.
When we came close in upon the ship we found that the weed grew completely through her side as though the weed had rooted in the wood of her; and we were all somewhat astonished at this thing, and many another which we discovered; for when we came to clamber up her side, we found the wood had gone soft and rotted to a sponginess, so that we could kick our shod toes into the wood, and thereby make each an immediate ladder upwards.
When we came to the top level of the hulk, and could look aboard there was nothing to her but the shell of her sides and of her bows and stern; for all the decks were gone, and the beams that had held the decks were part missing, and few of those which remained were complete. The bottom of the ship was rotted nigh out of her so that the weed came upward in plenty that way with the water showing down below very gloomy and dark. And the weed grew through the sides of the vessel, or over the rails, just as it had seemed to suit the convenience of that strange vegetable, if I may call it so.
It was very dismal looking downward into that desert hull which had been upheld from its sinking by the grip of the weed through a hundred or maybe two hundred years. When I asked the Captain about this he set her age to be something more than four hundred years, speaking learnedly concerning the rotted stern and bow, and the way and set of the frame-timbers; so that it was plain to me that he had considerable knowledge on such matters.
Presently, because there was nothing more to be done, we came down again to the boat, kicking our toes into the soft hull of the old ship for our footholds. And before we left her I broke away a lump of one of her smaller timbers for a memento of the adventure.
And after that we backed out from the weed, glad to be free of it now that the lust of adventure had somewhat died out of us, and the memory of what lurked therein still strong upon us. So we made the complete round of that island which was more than seven good miles in all to circumnavigate. And afterwards we pulled to our own ship with very good appetites for our breakfast, as you may think.
All that day it remained calm, and often I turned my glass upon the weed islets that studded the sea in other parts; but none was very great or high, though I reminded myself that they would have appeared higher had we approached them in a boat. And this we found to be true; for we used that afternoon to go from one small islet to another, in the boat; and crabs and fish and small living things we found in plenty but never any sign of a wreck or of human life. We returned to our ship in the evening, and had much talk upon the strangeness of that calling that had come to us in the dawn; but no reasonable explanation could we make. And presently I went to my bed, being weary by the lack of rest on the night that had passed.
I was waked in the early morn by the Captain shaking me, and when I had come properly to my senses he told me to hasten on deck, that it was still calm and they had heard the voice again in the dawn that was just breaking.
On hearing this I made speed to go with Captain Johnson on deck, and here, upon the poop, I found the Second Mate with his glass, staring Eastward across the sea towards the weed island which was barely seen save as a vague shadow, low upon the water.
The Second Mate held up his hand to us and whispered “Hist!” and we all fell to listening; but there came no sound for a time, and meanwhile I was greatly aware of the very solemn beauty of the dawn; for the Eastward sky seemed lost in waters of quiet emerald, from a str
ange and apparent green to a translucence of shimmering green that surely stretched to the very borders of the Eternal, in palest lights that carried the consciousness through aethereal deeps of space, until the soul went lost through the glimmering dawn, greeting unknown spirits. And this is but a clumsy wording of the way that the holiness of that dim light and wonder hushed my very being with a silent happiness. Then, even as I came to this condition of mind, out of the Eastward sea and of all that quiet of the dawn, there came again that far attenuated voice:
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!” coming faint and thin and incredible out of the utter stillness of the wonder and silent glamour of the East. The green of the lower sky faded even as we listened, breathless, and upward there stole the stain of purple lights that blended into a growing bloom of fire-clouds in the middle and lower sky, and so to warmer lights and then to the silver-grey paling of the early morning. And still we waited.
Presently, Eastward, there came a golden warmth upward into the pearly-quiet of the lower sky, and the edge of the sun rose up calm and assured out of the mists, casting a roadway of light over the sea. And in that moment the far, lost voice came again:
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!
“Son of Man!” drifting to us strangely over the hushed sea, seeming to come out of immense and infinite distances—a voice thin and lonesome, as might be thought to be the call of a spirit crying in the morning. As we looked at one another, questioning wordless things, there came a vague, impossible piping far away and away over the sea, to be presently lost again in the quietness. And we were all adrift to know what it might portend.
Boats of the Glen Carrig and Other Nautical Adventures Page 28