“At a knot or two an hour,” I pointed out. What’s more, the wind is taking us right after it.” “The important thing is that that hooker is heading straight for the Commonwealth. “Some spirit, I reckon, but I wouldn’t know which one.” Golias scooped water from the bottom of the canoe and swallowed it. “What do you suppose powered that boat?” I asked between nibbles at my tiny portion of sun-dried meat. It wasn’t until the shower was over that I saw we had been reprieved, not rescued.Įven so I could not be downhearted, especially when eating for the first time that day. To move deftly was to know delight, and I shouted for the fun of hearing myself. Where I had had no use of myself, it gave me back my faculties. It was more like a waterfall, and we loved every drop of it. It seemed to break the spell which bound the elements, for a breath of wind came. Close to us as she had sped, she rocked us only a little, but to see the ocean stirred was much. The life in him could not stir even to find an ending. What I saw in his eyes I knew to be in my own.
#Silverlock bench full#
Passing within a few yards, the fellow looked full at me, but I knew that he would do nothing for us. He was clutching a big seagull, I should say it was, dead as the man at the helm. The only other person in sight stood at the rail midway between the high stem and stern. Or rather the helmsman hung over the tiller so that his hands touched the deck. I had barely had time to reason that far, when it drew silently abreast.Ī vessel that size could have been expected to have a wheel instead of a tiller. We were almost in the ship’s course, so those aboard couldn’t miss seeing us.
I wanted to hail it at Golias’ price of sucking my own blood, but I found I could not lift my arm. If there was an auxiliary engine, it gave off neither sound nor exhaust. It was making airplane speed through the water. Moreover, it is not enough to say it was moving. In spite of the fact that there was no wind, all sails on its three masts were set. A vessel of a type new to me was drawing near. When his meaning had penetrated, I turned, slow motion.
#Silverlock bench crack#
I watched his blackened lips crack as his mouth opened once more. The arm which he pointed was still bleeding thinly. To find the moisture to oil his voice he had bitten into a vein already short of blood. He entered my consciousness again by making the first sound I had heard for hours.
Probably I had thought him dead, for I had no sense of company in terror. I don’t know how long it had been since I had looked at Golias. It was vileness on a frolic, and all the life I had was to watch it. Out of it crawled the progeny of this festering to scuttle, many-legged, over the thickened, sour surface. The sea itself had curdled in the still heat. Both on the same side, careening the canoe, we sprawled and stared. We, too, had come to the end of our motion. The wind dropped, and the waves stopped, so that our craft lay on the water as if pinned there by the sun.
It could not have been worse, but it did get worse. We saw nothing but the sun and its glaring accomplice the sea. We looked for land, we looked for a ship, we looked for clouds, or even a lone one that would hold off the heat for a little. Most of the time we looked out of eyes that were robbed of their needed moisture. After a while, I felt that my throat was closed. That was about the last thing either of us said. Golias explained that we might be able to eat raw fish, whose flesh would be moist. We also put out one of the lines we had found in the canoe but had no luck. Keeping wet helped some, though I grew nervous about scooping up water, wondering how long I could refrain from drinking it. It was the only thing which saved us from bad burning. It was well for us that our pelts had had a week of seasoning. It starved us, too, for we were no longer able to swallow our meager rations. The sun rose hot and screwed up the voltage by the minute. Our water used up, thirst took complete charge of our bodies as well as our minds the day following. Forty-eight hours later we had to face the fact that we had missed the peninsula and had a journey of indefinite length ahead of us.
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