this discovery marked a new departure in our relations towards each other. hitherto i had looked upon you sing as i might have done upon a big faithful dog, but never dreamed of crediting him with any intelligent initiative. his behaviour so far had certainly justified me in this opinion; but now he became completely transformed. in the most energetic pantomime, and with strangely severe struggles to enunciate a few words of my language, he endeavoured to explain to me the origin of all these treasures. i did not find it hard to understand the general drift of his attempt to enlighten me, because i had already74 suspected something of what i was now gathering from him. roughly, it was to the effect that the cargo we had relieved the junk of was the accumulated hoard of a nest of pirates who had long been preying upon such seafarers as they dared attack without fear of reprisals, and who were all deliberately slain after they had been plundered and their vessels scuttled. then the wretches had turned their bloody hands against each other, and by so doing somewhat atoned for their innumerable crimes by ridding the world of two-thirds of the gang. the survivors then loaded up all the most valuable of the stored plunder into the most seaworthy junk they possessed, and, divesting her of all suspicious appearance, sailed for some port where they intended to dispose of their loot. again nemesis overtook them; they had befouled the seas too long. they stealthily murdered one another as opportunity served, until there were hardly enough of them left to handle the junk. you sing was a slave who had done their cooking, having been spared for that purpose alone out of the entire crew of a large barque they had surprised one night. doubtless his turn to perish had nearly arrived, when, going down into their store-room under the cabin for some rice, he found himself in a sort of trap from which he was unable to escape. there he would certainly have perished of starvation, instead of sharing the unknown fate of the remnant of his tyrants, but for our intervention. and in various quaint ways he gave me to understand that he considered his life to belong to this ship and her crew, of whom the75 child asleep and my small self were now the sole representatives.
i could not bring myself to the point of heaving all those pretty things overboard; but seeing what a dread he had of them, i stowed them all in the late skipper’s berth under his bed-place, in two large drawers, which i locked, and hung the key round my neck. then, for the first time, i began to think about working the ship. unfortunately, i had not the faintest idea of which was the best direction to steer in, for i did not know, within at least a thousand miles, our position. i imagined, of course, that we were somewhere south of formosa, and between that great island and the philippines; but that was vague in the extreme. and i was in hourly terror of being sighted by a wandering junk of whatever character, feeling certain of a barbarous death at the hands of any of you sing’s countrymen who might happen to find such a prize as the blitzen. how i longed for the sight of a smoke-wreath festooning the horizon! that vision would have nearly sent me crazy with joy. but i suppose we were far out of the track of steamers, for we saw no sign of one.
aided most manfully and sensibly by you sing, i clewed up the royals and topgallant sails with a view of making the vessel easier to handle, and with a great deal of labour managed to haul up the courses (mainsail and foresail) as well, taking the gear to the capstan where it was too heavy for our united efforts, until those great squares of canvas hung snug as they could be without being actually furled. then, after long cogitation, i decided to make for the coast of china, which i knew must be west of us, and trust to a merciful god to bring us in sight of either some civilized port or ship before any of those calm, merciless pagans came across us. now we each took a regular trick at the wheel (you sing learned to do so in less than half an hour); and little elsie, all her high spirits gone, and docile as you sing himself, even took a spell at steering when we would let her. heaven alone knows what our track would have looked like on the chart, but it’s my belief that we were getting to the westward at the rate of about twenty miles a day for the best part of a week (i lost all count of time); and, though it seems hard to believe, i was actually beginning to feel quite important as the commander of a big vessel on the high seas. we fed well and we slept well—at least elsie and i did; as for you sing, i don’t know whether he ever slept at all. he did all the cooking, kept everything clean and tidy, and was ever ready when called upon. besides all this, he had won his way into the affections of elsie; and i almost felt a pang of jealousy when i heard her clear laugh at some of the quaint antics he cut in order to amuse her. had it not been for the one haunting dread of being overhauled by a junk, i believe we should have been quite happy; for the terror of the past tragedy had faded from our minds, and the sea was kind and gentle, the soft breeze blew sweetly, though it varied a great deal, making our task of trimming the yards in order to keep the vessel somewhere near her course—due west—an uncommonly heavy one.
then it fell a flat calm. now, i had, even at that early age, all a sailor’s horror of a calm, and this one troubled me more than any i had yet experienced. the silence was almost unbearable. i could not rest day or night—it lasted three days—for more than an hour or so at a time; and when i fell asleep from sheer weariness, i always woke with my heart thumping furiously and in an icy sweat of fear. the inaction got upon my nerves, so that i began to hear strange noises, and to imagine that the dead crew were among us, grieving because we were yet alive, and scheming to secure our company. this state of mind grew upon me to such an extent that at last i dared not leave you sing, clinging to him as the one hope i had of ever again seeing the land of the living. he—grave, careful, and kind as ever—accepted this entire change in our relative positions with the same serene behaviour as before; and in my worst mental trouble i had only to look into his eyes to be completely comforted. elsie, strange to say, seemed quite happy. she was carelessly kind to me; but she loved our chinese friend. a word or two from him, in an unintelligible jargon, would set her dancing with delight, and it was only during his unavoidable absence from her for a short time that she ever seemed to feel the misery of our position.
on the tenth evening (i think) of our loneliness, and the third of the calm, i was lolling against the useless wheel watching, with eyes that observed naught, the fantastic efforts of you sing to amuse elsie, when an appalling feeling of dread suddenly78 came over me. it was as if i was going to be violently sea-sick, and affected my limbs to such an extent that i slid down from the wheel to the deck. this disabling sensation was happily only momentary in its effect, so that i was able to rise to my feet again almost immediately, though trembling violently. whatever mysterious cause had thus affected me i could not tell, and it was evidently peculiar to myself, for my two shipmates were still merry at their play. but i was desperately uneasy, fearing that i was going to be very ill. i left the deck, and descended into the cabin, seeing, to my astonishment, several rats prowling uneasily about. they took scarcely any notice of me, and i was too upset to obey the momentary impulse to chase them. i sank down on a settee and tried to collect myself, but i was too uneasy to sit still, and soon wandered out on the main-deck again.
aimlessly i slouched forrard and climbed up on the forecastle head. as soon as i reached it, on looking ahead, i saw a sight that thickened my blood. right before the vessel rose a dense mass of inky cloud, extending over an arc of the horizon of about one-sixth of its circumference. it was dome-shaped, and upon its apex rested the descending sun, his glowing disc changed into a dull bronze-green ball that shed no light around. it looked as if the glorious orb was sick unto death. as i watched with growing anxiety, the painfully changed luminary sank slowly into that black mountain of gloom and disappeared. but above it the clear sky reflected its ghastliness, not by reason of its rays ascending, for it appeared to have none, but as if some unknown light from the bowels of the earth had broken through the sea, and was thus disfiguring the beautiful face of the heavens.
tearing myself away from the disabling fascination of the sight, i returned to the poop, noticing with much satisfaction that my trembling had almost ceased. i found you sing and elsie sitting on a hen-coop, watching with solemn faces the rising gloom ahead in perfect silence, all their pleasant play at an end. meeting you sing’s eye, i read therein a reflection of my own concern, and in an instant we understood each other. doubtless, it being his native country, he understood the ominous signs far better than i, although even the child could see and feel that something terrible was impending; and as i went up to her to coax her below he murmured in my ear two words of pure chinese, which, because they have passed into the english language, i understood at once: “ty foong!” they rang through my brain like a sentence of death; but i actually felt some relief at knowing the worst. for if we were about to encounter a typhoon in our utter helplessness either to prepare for it by furling sail, or to handle the vessel in any way, what hope could there be of our survival? but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that, whatever happens, it is no fault of yours; that you can do nothing of any service, but just endure and hope. and that was exactly our position.
we got elsie down below without alarming her, laid in a stock of fresh water in the cabin, and barricaded the doors opening on to the main-deck. then80 we got some old sails up from the locker and covered the cabin skylight, lashing it down as securely as we knew how. the cabin being as secure as we could make it, we braced the yards sharp up on the starboard tack (although i don’t know why i chose that side, i’m sure), for i had a dim idea that we should stand a better chance so than with the yards square as they were, since i knew very well that in heavy gales of wind a vessel ought to be hove to, and that that was always effected by bracing the yards forrard. then i let go the topsail-sheets and lowered the upper topsails down on the cap. we also hauled all the jibs and stay-sails down, making them as snug as we could. last of all, i put the helm hard down, and lashed it there. my hope was that in the first burst of the tempest the big sails that were loose would blow away, and that the vessel would then heave herself to naturally, although i knew well enough that if caught by the lee she would probably capsize or drive under stern foremost.
while we had been thus busy the rising pall of clouds had imperceptibly grown until exactly half of the concave above was perfectly black—black as the adit of a coal-mine. the other half astern was of an ugly green tint, as unlike the deep violet of the night sky in those latitudes as could well be imagined. its chief peculiarity, though, was its light. that segment of the sky was full of glare, diffused light that was even reflected on to the vessel, and yet could not be traced to any definite source. the contrast between this uncanny radiance and the crêpe-like darkness of the other half of the sky was tremendous, and of itself enough to inspire fear in the breast of any creature living.
presently, as we watched in strained silence, came the beginning of what we were to know; a twining golden webwork of electric fires all over the swart roof of cloud, or whatever that gloom was built of, and in a hot puff of wind the destroying genie of the tropics uplifted the opening strains of his song. all cries of uttermost woe were blended in it as it faintly fell upon our ears, indistinctly, as if echoed and re-echoed from immeasurable distances, but growing louder and wilder with every burning breath. then, in one furious blast, accompanied by a cracking blaze of lightning, the typhoon burst upon us. it was just sufficiently on the starboard bow to avoid catching us aback, and the vessel paid off, heeling over to its force until her lee rail was awash, and the gleaming foam toppled inboard in a smother of pale light. lower and lower the sky descended, until it seemed as if we might have reached upward and touched it; and, unable to bear the sight any longer, i fled below, followed by you sing, and securely fastened the scuttle behind us.
elsie was asleep when i peeped into her room, for which i felt profoundly thankful; since how could we have comforted her? i sat down by you sing’s side and looked up wonderingly into his impassive face which, as usual, was lighted by a tender smile as he met my troubled gaze. he took hold of my hand and patted it, murmuring his shibboleth, “’ullo, tommy;” and, in spite of my terrors, i smiled. outside, the uproar was beyond description; but except that we lay over at a most dangerous angle we were fairly steady. the force of the wind did not permit the sea to rise, and so between sleeping and waking that awful night passed.
