A Man to His Mate Page 4

  CHAPTER IV

  THE BOWHEAD

  Captain Simms appeared again in the cabin and on deck, but he was notthe same man. His illness seemed to have robbed him permanently of whatwas left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had beensucked from his veins and arteries and tissues, leaving him flabby,irresolute, compared to his former self. Even as Lund shadowed Rainey,so Simms shadowed Carlsen.

  The fine weather vanished, snuffed out in an hour and, day after day,the _Karluk_ flung herself at mocking seas that pounded her bows withblows that sounded like the noise of a giant's drum. The sun was neverseen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements ina ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over greatwaves that raised spuming crests to overwhelm her, and were ridden down,hissing and roaring, burying one rail and covering the deck to thehatches with yeasty turmoil.

  The _Karluk_ charged the stubborn fury of the gale, rolling from side toside, lancing the seas, gaining a little headway, losing leeway,fighting, fighting, while every foot of timber, every fathom of rope,groaned and creaked perpetually, but endured.

  To Rainey, this persistent struggle--as he himself controlled theschooner, legs far astride, his oilskins dripping, his feet awash to theankles, spume drenching and whipping him, the wind a lash--broughtexultation and a sense of mastery and confidence such as he had neverbefore held suggestion of. To guide the ship, constantly to baffle thesea and wind, the turbulence, buffeting bows and run and counter,smashing at the rudder, leaping always like a pack of yappinghounds--this was a thing that left the days of his water-front detailfar behind.

  And then he had thought himself in the whirl of things! Even as Simmsseemed to be declining, so Rainey felt that he was coming into thefulness of strength and health.

  Lund was ever with him. Sometimes the girl would come up on deck in herown waterproofs and stand against the rail to watch the storm, silent asfar as the pair were concerned. And presently Carlsen would come frombelow or forward and stand to talk with her until she was tired of thedeck.

  They did not seem much like lovers, Rainey fancied. They lacked thelittle intimacies that he, though he made himself somewhat of anautomaton at the wheel, could not have failed to see. If the girlslipped, Carlsen's hand would catch and steady her by the arm; never goabout her waist. And there was no especial look of welcome in her facewhen the doctor came to her.

  Carlsen seldom took over the wheel. Rainey did more than his share fromsheer love of feeling the control. But one day, at a word from thegirl, Carlsen and she came up to Rainey as he handled the spokes.

  "I'll take the wheel a while, Rainey," said the doctor.

  Rainey gave it up and went amidships. Out of the tail of his eye hecould see that the girl was pleading to handle the ship, and thatCarlsen was going to let her do so.

  Rainey shrugged his shoulders. It was Carlsen's risk. It was no child'splay in that weather to steer properly. The _Karluk_, with her narrowbeam, was lithe and active as a great cat in those waves. It took notonly strength, but watchfulness and experience to hold the course in thewelter of cross-seas.

  Lund, whose recognition of voices was perfect, moved amidships as soonas Carlsen and Peggy Simms came aft. There was no attempt at disguisingthe fact that the schooner's afterward was a divided company and, savefor the fact of his blindness tempering the action, the manner of Lund'sshowing them his back and deliberately walking off would have been adeliberate insult.

  Not to the girl, Rainey thought. At first he had considered Lund'scharacter as comparatively simple--and brutal--but he had qualifiedthis, without seeming consciousness, and he felt that Lund would neverdeliberately insult a woman--any sort of woman. He was beginning to feelsomething more than an admiration for Lund's strength; a liking for theman himself had, almost against his will, begun to assert itself.

  They stood together by the weather-rail. It was still Rainey'sdeck-watch, and at any moment Carlsen might relinquish the wheel back tohim as soon as the girl got tired. Suddenly shouts sounded from forward,a medley of them, indistinct against the quartering wind. Sandy, theroustabout, came dashing aft along the sloping deck, catching clumsilyat rail and rope to steady himself, flushed with excitement, almosthysterical with his news.

  "A bowhead, sir!" he cried when he saw Rainey. "And killers after him!Blowin' dead ahead!"

  Beyond the bows Rainey could see nothing of the whale, that must havesounded in fear of the killers, but he saw half a dozen scythe-like,black fins cutting the water in streaks of foam, all abreast, their highdorsals waving, wolves of the sea, hunting for the gray bowhead whale,to force its mouth open and feast on the delicacy of its living tongue.So Lund told him in swift sentences while they waited for the whale tobroach.

  "Ha'f the time the bowheads won't even try an' git away," said Lund."Lie atop, belly up, plain jellied with fear while the killers help'emselves. Ha'f the bowheads you git have got chunks bitten out of theirtongues. If they're nigh shore when the killers show up the whales'llslide way out over the rocks an' strand 'emselves."

  Rainey glanced aft. Sandy had carried his warning to Carlsen and thegirl, and now was craning over the lee rail, knee-deep in the wash,trying to see something of the combat. Peggy Simms' lithe figure wasleaning to one side as she, too, gazed ahead, though she still paidattention to her steering and held the schooner well up, her face brightwith excitement, wet with flying brine, wisps of yellow hair streamingfree in the wind from beneath the close grip of her woolentam-o'-shanter bonnet of scarlet. Carlsen was pointing out the racingfins of the killers.

  "Bl-o-ows!" started the deep voice of a lookout, from where sailors andhunters had grouped in the bows to witness this gladiatorial combatbetween sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was running wild.Rainey strained his gaze to catch the steamy spiracle and the outthrustof the great head.

  "_Bl-o-ows!_" The deep voice almost leaped an octave in a sudden shrillof apprehension. Other voices mingled with his in a clamor of dismay.

  "Look out! Oh, look out! Dead ahead!"

  The enormous bulk of the whale had appeared, not to spout, but to liebelly up, rocking on the surface with fins outspread, paralyzed withterror, directly in the course of the _Karluk_, while toward it, intentonly on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head asthe schooner surged down. In that tremendous sea the impact would becertain to mean the staving in of something forward, perhaps thespringing of a butt.

  "Hard a lee!" yelled Rainey. "Up with her! Up!"

  It was desire to vent his own feelings, rather than necessity for thecommand, that made Rainey yell the order, for he could see the girlstriving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. Thesheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no needto change the set of fore and main.

  Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The _Karluk_ started tospin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder.But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing withgreat force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenishgray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud.

  As the schooner hung in a deep trough, the wind struck at her, bows on.With the gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed andshivered, and the fore broke loose with the sharp report of a gunshotand disappeared aft in the smother.

  Rainey saw one huge billow rising, curving, high as the gaff of themain, it seemed to him, as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards.Down came the tons of water, booming on the deck that bent under theblow, spilling in a great cataract that swashed across the deck.

  His feet were swept from under him, for a moment he seemed to swinghorizontal in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck theopposite rail with a roar that threatened to tear it away, piling up andthen seething overboard.