The Boats of the Glen Carrig

by William Hope Hodgson

  IV

  The Two Faces

  Of the remainder of that night, I have but a confused memory. At times weheard the door shaken behind the great chests; but no harm came to it.And, odd whiles, there was a soft thudding and rubbing upon the decksover our heads, and once, as I recollect, the Thing made a final try atthe teak covers across the windows; but the day came at last, and foundme sleeping. Indeed, we had slept beyond the noon, but that the bo'sun,mindful of our needs, waked us, and we removed the chests. Yet, forperhaps the space of a minute, none durst open the door, until the bo'sunbid us stand to one side. We faced about at him then, and saw that heheld a great cutlass in his right hand.

  He called to us that there were four more of the weapons, and made abackward motion with his left hand towards an open locker. At that, asmight be supposed, we made some haste to the place to which he pointed,and found that, among some other gear, there were three more weapons suchas he held; but the fourth was a straight cut-and-thrust, and this I hadthe good fortune to secure.

  Being now armed, we ran to join the bo'sun; for by this he had the dooropen, and was scanning the main cabin. I would remark here how a goodweapon doth seem to put heart into a man; for I, who but a few, shorthours since had feared for my life, was now right full of lustiness andfight; which, mayhap, was no matter for regret.

  From the main cabin, the bo'sun led up on to the deck, and I remembersome surprise at finding the lid of the scuttle even as we had left itthe previous night; but then I recollected that the skylight was broken,and there was access to the big cabin that way. Yet, I questioned withinmyself as to what manner of thing it could be which ignored theconvenience of the scuttle, and descended by way of the broken skylight.

  We made a search of the decks and fo'cas'le, but found nothing, and,after that, the bo'sun stationed two of us on guard, whilst the rest wentabout such duties as were needful. In a little, we came to breakfast,and, after that, we prepared to test the story upon the sample wrappersand see perchance whether there was indeed a spring of fresh water amongthe trees.

  Now between the vessel and the trees, lay a slope of the thick mud,against which the vessel rested. To have scrambled up this bank had beennext to impossible, by reason of its fat richness; for, indeed, it lookedfit to crawl; but that Josh called out to the bo'sun that he had comeupon a ladder, lashed across the fo'cas'le head. This was brought, alsoseveral hatch covers. The latter were placed first upon the mud, and theladder laid upon them; by which means we were enabled to pass up to thetop of the bank without contact with the mud.

  Here, we entered at once among the trees; for they grew right up to theedge; but we had no trouble in making a way; for they were nowhereclose together; but standing, rather, each one in a little open spaceby itself.

  We had gone a little way among the trees, when, suddenly, one who waswith us cried out that he could see something away on our right, and weclutched everyone his weapon the more determinedly, and went towards it.Yet it proved to be but a seaman's chest, and a space further off, wediscovered another. And so, after a little walking, we found the camp;but there was small semblance of a camp about it; for the sail of whichthe tent had been formed, was all torn and stained, and lay muddy uponthe ground. Yet the spring was all we had wished, clear and sweet, and sowe knew we might dream of deliverance.

  Now, upon our discovery of the spring, it might be thought that we shouldset up a shout to those upon the vessel; but this was not so; for therewas something in the air of the place which cast a gloom upon ourspirits, and we had no disinclination to return unto the vessel.

  Upon coming to the brig, the bo'sun called to four of the men to go downinto the boats, and pass up the breakers: also, he collected all thebuckets belonging to the brig, and forthwith each of us was set to ourwork. Some, those with the weapons, entered into the wood, and gave downthe water to those stationed upon the bank, and these, in turn, passed itto those in the vessel. To the man in the galley, the bo'sun gave commandto fill a boiler with some of the most select pieces of the pork and beeffrom the casks and get them cooked so soon as might be, and so we werekept at it; for it had been determined--now that we had come uponwater--that we should stay not an hour longer in that monster-riddencraft, and we were all agog to get the boats revictualled, and put backto the sea, from which we had too gladly escaped.

  So we worked through all that remainder of the morning, and right on intothe afternoon; for we were in mortal fear of the coming dark. Towardsfour o'clock, the bo'sun sent the man, who had been set to do ourcooking, up to us with slices of salt meat upon biscuits, and we ate aswe worked, washing our throats with water from the spring, and so, beforethe evening, we had filled our breakers, and near every vessel which wasconvenient for us to take in the boats. More, some of us snatched thechance to wash our bodies; for we were sore with brine, having dipped inthe sea to keep down thirst as much as might be.

  Now, though it had not taken us so great a while to make a finish of ourwater-carrying if matters had been more convenient; yet because of thesoftness of the ground under our feet, and the care with which we had topick our steps, and some little distance between us and the brig, it hadgrown later than we desired, before we had made an end. Therefore, whenthe bo'sun sent word that we should come aboard, and bring our gear, wemade all haste. Thus, as it chanced, I found that I had left my swordbeside the spring, having placed it there to have two hands for thecarrying of one of the breakers. At my remarking my loss, George, whostood near, cried out that he would run for it, and was gone in a moment,being greatly curious to see the spring.

  Now, at this moment, the bo'sun came up, and called for George; but Iinformed him that he had run to the spring to bring me my sword. At this,the bo'sun stamped his foot, and swore a great oath, declaring that hehad kept the lad by him all the day; having a wish to keep him from anydanger which the wood might hold, and knowing the lad's desire toadventure there. At this, a matter which I should have known, Ireproached myself for so gross a piece of stupidity, and hastened afterthe bo'sun, who had disappeared over the top of the bank. I saw his backas he passed into the wood, and ran until I was up with him; for,suddenly, as it were, I found that a sense of chilly dampness had comeamong the trees; though a while before the place had been full of thewarmth of the sun. This, I put to the account of evening, which wasdrawing on apace; and also, it must be borne in mind, that there were butthe two of us.

  We came to the spring; but George was not to be seen, and I saw no signof my sword. At this, the bo'sun raised his voice, and cried out thelad's name. Once he called, and again; then at the second shout we heardthe boy's shrill halloo, from some distance ahead among the trees. Atthat, we ran towards the sound, plunging heavily across the ground, whichwas every-where covered with a thick scum, that clogged the feet inwalking. As we ran, we hallooed, and so came upon the boy, and I saw thathe had my sword.

  The bo'sun ran towards him, and caught him by the arm, speaking withanger, and commanding him to return with us immediately to the vessel.

  But the lad, for reply, pointed with my sword, and we saw that he pointedat what appeared to be a bird against the trunk of one of the trees.This, as I moved closer, I perceived to be a part of the tree, and nobird; but it had a very wondrous likeness to a bird; so much so that Iwent up to it, to see if my eyes had deceived me. Yet it seemed no morethan a freak of nature, though most wondrous in its fidelity; being butan excrescence upon the trunk. With a sudden thought that it would makeme a curio, I reached up to see whether I could break it away from thetree; but it was above my reach, so that I had to leave it. Yet, onething I discovered; for, in stretching towards the protuberance, I hadplaced a hand upon the tree, and its trunk was soft as pulp under myfingers, much after the fashion of a mushroom.

  As we turned to go, the bo'sun inquired of George his reason for goingbeyond the spring, and George told him that he had seemed to hear someonecalling to him among the trees, and there had been so much pain in thevoice that he had run towards it; but been
unable to discover the owner.Immediately afterwards he had seen the curious, bird-like excrescenceupon a tree nearby. Then we had called, and of the rest we had knowledge.

  We had come nigh to the spring on our return journey, when a sudden lowwhine seemed to run among the trees. I glanced towards the sky, andrealized that the evening was upon us. I was about to remark upon this tothe bo'sun, when, abruptly, he came to a stand, and bent forward to stareinto the shadows to our right. At that, George and I turned ourselvesabout to perceive what matter it was which had attracted the attention ofthe bo'sun; thus we made out a tree some twenty yards away, which had allits branches wrapped about its trunk, much as the lash of a whip is woundabout its stock. Now this seemed to us a very strange sight, and we madeall of us toward it, to learn the reason of so extraordinary a happening.

  Yet, when we had come close upon it, we had no means of arriving at aknowledge of that which it portended; but walked each of us around thetree, and were more astonished, after our circumnavigation of the greatvegetable than before.

  Now, suddenly, and in the distance, I caught the far wailing that camebefore the night, and abruptly, as it seemed to me, the tree wailed atus. At that I was vastly astonished and frightened; yet, though Iretreated, I could not withdraw my gaze from the tree; but scanned itthe more intently; and, suddenly, I saw a brown, human face peering atus from between the wrapped branches. At this, I stood very still, beingseized with that fear which renders one shortly incapable of movement.Then, before I had possession of myself, I saw that it was of a partwith the trunk of the tree; for I could not tell where it ended and thetree began.

  Then I caught the bo'sun by the arm, and pointed; for whether it was apart of the tree or not, it was a work of the devil; but the bo'sun, onseeing it, ran straightway so close to the tree that he might havetouched it with his hand, and I found myself beside him. Now, George, whowas on the bo'sun's other side, whispered that there was another face,not unlike to a woman's, and, indeed, so soon as I perceived it, I sawthat the tree had a second excrescence, most strangely after the face ofa woman. Then the bo'sun cried out with an oath, at the strangeness ofthe thing, and I felt the arm, which I held, shake somewhat, as it mightbe with a deep emotion. Then, far away, I heard again the sound of thewailing and, immediately, from among the trees about us, there cameanswering wails and a great sighing. And before I had time to be morethan aware of these things, the tree wailed again at us. And at that, thebo'sun cried out suddenly that he knew; though of what it was that he_knew_ I had at that time no knowledge. And, immediately, he began withhis cutlass to strike at the tree before us, and to cry upon God to blastit; and lo! at his smiting a very fearsome thing happened, for the treedid bleed like any live creature. Thereafter, a great yowling came fromit, and it began to writhe. And, suddenly, I became aware that all aboutus the trees were a-quiver.

  Then George cried out, and ran round upon my side of the bo'sun, and Isaw that one of the great cabbage-like things pursued him upon its stem,even as an evil serpent; and very dreadful it was, for it had becomeblood red in color; but I smote it with the sword, which I had taken fromthe lad, and it fell to the ground.

  Now from the brig I heard them hallooing, and the trees had becomelike live things, and there was a vast growling in the air, andhideous trumpetings. Then I caught the bo'sun again by the arm, andshouted to him that we must run for our lives; and this we did,smiting with our swords as we ran; for there came things at us, outfrom the growing dusk.

  Thus we made the brig, and, the boats being ready, I scrambled after thebo'sun into his, and we put straightway into the creek, all of us,pulling with so much haste as our loads would allow. As we went I lookedback at the brig, and it seemed to me that a multitude of things hungover the bank above her, and there seemed a flicker of things movinghither and thither aboard of her. And then we were in the great creek upwhich we had come, and so, in a little, it was night.

  All that night we rowed, keeping very strictly to the center of the bigcreek, and all about us bellowed the vast growling, being more fearsomethan ever I had heard it, until it seemed to me that we had waked allthat land of terror to a knowledge of our presence. But, when the morningcame, so good a speed had we made, what with our fear, and the currentbeing with us, that we were nigh upon the open sea; whereat each one ofus raised a shout, feeling like freed prisoners.

  And so, full of thankfulness to the Almighty, we rowed outward to thesea.