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- some unaccountable chance, once more missed. Though it is well known
that such failures will happen at times, they, nevertheless, occasion
the bitterest disappointment to a boat’s crew, generally expressed in
curses both loud and deep. And no wonder. Let any man pull with might
and main for hours and hours together, under a burning sun; and if it
do not make him a little peevish, he is no sailor.
The taunts of the seamen may have maddened the Mowree; however it was,
no sooner was he brought up again, than, harpoon in hand, he bounded
upon the whale’s back, and for one dizzy second was seen there. The
next, all was foam and fury, and both were out of sight. The men
sheered off, flinging overboard the line as fast as they could; while
ahead, nothing was seen but a red whirlpool of blood and brine.
Presently, a dark object swam out; the line began to straighten; then
smoked round the loggerhead, and, quick as thought, the boat sped like
an arrow through the water. They were “fast,” and the whale was
running.
Where was the Mowree? His brown hand was on the boat’s gunwale; and he
was hauled aboard in the very midst of the mad bubbles that burst under
the bows.
Such a man, or devil, if you will, was Bembo.
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROUND ROBIN—VISITORS FROM SHORE
After the captain left, the land-breeze died away; and, as is usual
about these islands, toward noon it fell a dead calm. There was nothing
to do but haul up the courses, run down the jib, and lay and roll upon
the swells. The repose of the elements seemed to communicate itself to
the men; and for a time there was a lull.
Early in the afternoon, the mate, having left the captain at Papeetee,
returned to the ship. According to the steward, they were to go ashore
again right after dinner with the remainder of Guy’s effects.
On gaining the deck, Jermin purposely avoided us and went below without
saying a word. Meanwhile, Long Ghost and I laboured hard to diffuse the
right spirit among the crew; impressing upon them that a little
patience and management would, in the end, accomplish all that their
violence could; and that, too, without making a serious matter of it.
For my own part, I felt that I was under a foreign flag; that an
English consul was close at hand, and that sailors seldom obtain
justice. It was best to be prudent. Still, so much did I sympathize
with the men, so far, at least, as their real grievances were
concerned; and so convinced was I of the cruelty and injustice of what
Captain Guy seemed bent upon, that if need were, I stood ready to raise
a hand.
In spite of all we could do, some of them again became most refractory,
breathing nothing but downright mutiny. When we went below to dinner
these fellows stirred up such a prodigious tumult that the old hull
fairly echoed. Many, and fierce too, were the speeches delivered, and
uproarious the comments of the sailors. Among others Long Jim, or—as
the doctor afterwards called him—Lacedaemonian Jim, rose in his place,
and addressed the forecastle parliament in the following strain:
“Look ye, Britons! if after what’s happened, this here craft goes to
sea with us, we are no men; and that’s the way to say it. Speak the
word, my livelies, and I’ll pilot her in. I’ve been to Tahiti before
and I can do it.” Whereupon, he sat down amid a universal pounding of
chest-lids, and cymbaling of tin pans; the few invalids, who, as yet,
had not been actively engaged with the rest, now taking part in the
applause, creaking their bunk-boards and swinging their hammocks. Cries
also were heard, of “Handspikes and a shindy!” “Out stun-sails!”
“Hurrah!”
Several now ran on deck, and, for the moment, I thought it was all over
with us; but we finally succeeded in restoring some degree of quiet.
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