XVI
Freed
Now, when Mistress Madison had seated herself, she invited me to dolikewise, after which we fell into talk, first touching upon the matterof the stranding of the rope, about which I hastened to assure her, andlater to other things, and so, as is natural enough with a man and maid,to ourselves, and here we were very content to let it remain.
Presently, the second mate came in with a note from the bo'sun, which helaid upon the table for the girl to read, the which she beckoned me to doalso, and so I discovered that it was a suggestion, written very rudelyand ill-spelt, that they should send us a quantity of reeds from theisland, with which we might be able to ease the weed somewhat from aroundthe stern of the hulk, thus aiding her progress. And to this the secondmate desired the girl to write a reply, saying that we should be veryhappy for the reeds, and would endeavor to act upon his hint, and thisMistress Madison did, after which she passed the letter to me, perchanceI desired to send any message. Yet I had naught that I wished to say, andso handed it back, with a word of thanks, and, at once, she gave it tothe second mate, who went, forthwith, and dispatched it.
Later, the stout woman from the galley came aft to set out the table,which occupied the center of the saloon, and whilst she was at this, sheasked for information on many things, being very free and unaffected inher speech, and seeming with less of deference to my companion, than acertain motherliness; for it was very plain that she loved MistressMadison, and in this my heart did not blame her. Further, it was plain tome that the girl had a very warm affection for her old nurse, which wasbut natural, seeing that the old woman had cared for her through all thepast years, besides being companion to her, and a good and cheerful one,as I could guess.
Now awhile I passed in answering the buxom woman's questions, and oddtimes such occasional ones as were slipped in by Mistress Madison; andthen, suddenly there came the clatter of men's feet overhead, and, later,the thud of something being cast down upon the deck, and so we knew thatthe reeds had come. At that, Mistress Madison cried out that we should goand watch the men try them upon the weed; for that if they proved of usein easing that which lay in our path, then should we come the morespeedily to the clear water, and this without the need of putting sogreat a strain upon the hawser, as had been the case hitherto.
When we came to the poop, we found the men removing a portion of thesuperstructure over the stern, and after that they took some of thestronger reeds, and proceeded to work at the weed that stretched away ina line with our taffrail. Yet that they anticipated danger, I perceived;for there stood by them two of the men and the second mate, all armedwith muskets, and these three kept a very strict watch upon the weed,knowing, through much experience of its terrors, how that there might bea need for their weapons at any moment. And so a while passed, and itwas plain that the men's work upon the weed was having effect; for therope grew slack visibly, and those at the capstan had all that theycould do, taking fleet and fleet with the tackle, to keep it anywherenear to tautness, and so, perceiving that they were kept so hard at it,I ran to give a hand, the which did Mistress Madison, pushing upon thecapstan-bars right merrily and with heartiness. And thus a while passed,and the evening began to come down upon the lonesomeness of theweed-continent. Then there appeared the buxom woman, and bade us come toour suppers, and her manner of addressing the two of us was the mannerof one who might have mothered us; but Mistress Madison cried out to herto wait, that we had found work to do, and at that the big womanlaughed, and came towards us threateningly, as though intending toremove us hence by force.
And now, at this moment, there came a sudden interruption which checkedour merriment; for, abruptly, there sounded the report of a musket inthe stern, and then came shouts, and the noise of the two other weapons,seeming like thunder, being pent by the over-arching superstructure.And, directly, the men about the taffrail gave back, running here andthere, and so I saw that great arms had come all about the opening whichthey had made in the superstructure, and two of these flickeredin-board, searching hither and thither; but the stout woman took a mannear to her, and thrust him out of danger, and after that, she caughtMistress Madison up in her big arms, and ran down on to the main-deckwith her, and all this before I had come to a full knowledge of ourdanger. But now I perceived that I should do well to get further backfrom the stern, the which I did with haste, and, coming to a safeposition, I stood and stared at the huge creature, its great arms, vaguein the growing dusk, writhing about in vain search for a victim. Thenreturned the second mate, having been for more weapons, and now Iobserved that he armed all the men, and had brought up a spare musketfor my use, and so we commenced, all of us, to fire at the monster,whereat it began to lash about most furiously, and so, after someminutes, it slipped away from the opening and slid down into the weed.Upon that several of the men rushed to replace those parts of thesuperstructure which had been removed, and I with them; yet there weresufficient for the job, so that I had no need to do aught; thus, beforethey had made up the opening, I had been given chance to look out uponthe weed, and so discovered that all the surface which lay between ourstern and the island, was moving in vast ripples, as though mighty fishwere swimming beneath it, and then, just before the men put back thelast of the great panels, I saw the weed all tossed up like to a vastpot a-boil, and then a vague glimpse of thousands of monstrous arms thatfilled the air, and came towards the ship.
And then the men had the panel back in its place, and were hasting todrive the supporting struts into their positions. And when this was done,we stood awhile and listened; but there came no sound above that of thewail of the wind across the extent of the weed-continent. And at that, Iturned to the men, asking how it was that I could hear no sounds of thecreatures attacking us, and so they took me up into the look-out place,and from there I stared down at the weed; but it was without movement,save for the stirring of the wind, and there was nowhere any sign of thedevil-fish. Then, seeing me amazed, they told me how that anything whichmoved the weed seemed to draw them from all parts; but that they seldomtouched the hulk unless there was something visible to them which hadmovement. Yet, as they went on to explain, there would be hundreds andhundreds of them lying all about the ship, hiding in the weed; but thatif we took care not to show ourselves within their reach, they would havegone most of them by the morning. And this the men told me in a verymatter-of-fact way; for they had become inured to such happenings.
Presently, I heard Mistress Madison calling to me by name, and sodescended out of the growing darkness, to the interior of thesuperstructure, and here they had lit a number of rude slush-lamps, theoil for which, as I learned later, they obtained from a certain fishwhich haunted the sea, beneath the weed, in very large schools, and tooknear any sort of bait with great readiness. And so, when I had climbeddown into the light, I found the girl waiting for me to come to supper,for which I discovered myself to be in a mightily agreeable humor.
Presently, having made an end of eating, she leaned back in her seat andcommenced once more to bait me in her playful manner, the which appearedto afford her much pleasure, and in which I joined with no less, and sowe fell presently to more earnest talk, and in this wise we passed agreat space of the evening. Then there came to her a sudden idea, andwhat must she do but propose that we should climb to the lookout, and tothis I agreed with a very happy willingness. And to the lookout we went.Now when we had come there, I perceived her reason for this freak; foraway in the night, astern the hulk, there blazed half-way between theheaven and the sea, a mighty glow, and suddenly, as I stared, being dumbwith admiration and surprise, I knew that it was the blaze of our firesupon the crown of the bigger hill; for, all the hill being in shadow, andhidden by the darkness, there showed only the glow of the fires, hung, asit were, in the void, and a very striking and beautiful spectacle it was.Then, as I watched, there came, abruptly a figure into view upon theedge of the glow, showing black and minute, and this I knew to be one ofthe men come to the edge of the hill to take a look at t
he hulk, or testthe strain on the hawser. Now, upon my expressing admiration of the sightto Mistress Madison, she seemed greatly pleased, and told me that she hadbeen up many times in the darkness to view it. And after that we wentdown again into the interior of the superstructure, and here the men weretaking a further heave upon the big rope, before settling the watches forthe night, the which they managed, by having one man at a time to keepawake and call the rest whenever the hawser grew slack.
Later Mistress Madison showed me where I was to sleep, and so, having bidone another a very warm good-night, we parted, she going to see that heraunt was comfortable, and I out on to the main-deck to have a chat withthe man on watch. In this way, I passed the time until midnight, and inthat while we had been forced to call the men thrice to heave upon thehawser, so quickly had the ship begun to make way through the weed. Then,having grown sleepy, I said goodnight, and went to my berth, and so hadmy first sleep upon a mattress, for some weeks.
Now when the morning was come, I waked, hearing Mistress Madison callingupon me from the other side of my door, and rating me very saucily for alie-a-bed, and at that I made good speed at dressing, and came quicklyinto the saloon, where she had ready a breakfast that made me glad I hadwaked. But first, before she would do aught else, she had me out to thelookout place, running up before me most merrily and singing in thefullness of her glee, and so, when I had come to the top of thesuperstructure, I perceived that she had very good reason for so muchmerriment, and the sight which came to my eyes, gladdened me mostmightily, yet at the same time filling me with a great amazement; for,behold! in the course of that one night, we had made near unto twohundred fathoms across the weed, being now, with what we had madepreviously, no more than some thirty fathoms in from the edge of theweed. And there stood Mistress Madison beside me, doing somewhat of adainty step-dance upon the flooring of the look-out, and singing a quaintold lilt that I had not heard that dozen years, and this little thing, Ithink, brought back more clearly to me than aught else how that thiswinsome maid had been lost to the world for so many years, having beenscarce of the age of twelve when the ship had been lost in theweed-continent. Then, as I turned to make some remark, being filled withmany feelings, there came a hail, from far above in the air, as it mightbe, and, looking up, I discovered the man upon the hill to be standingalong the edge, and waving to us, and now I perceived how that the hilltowered a very great way above us, seeming, as it were, to overhang thehulk though we were yet some seventy fathoms distant from the sheer sweepof its nearer precipice. And so, having waved back our greeting, we madedown to breakfast, and, having come to the saloon, set-to upon the goodvictuals, and did very sound justice thereto.
Presently, having made an end of eating, and hearing the clack of thecapstan-pawls, we hurried out on deck, and put our hands upon the bars,intending to join in that last heave which should bring the ship free outof her long captivity, and so for a time we moved round about thecapstan, and I glanced at the girl beside me; for she had become verysolemn, and indeed it was a strange and solemn time for her; for she, whohad dreamed of the world as her childish eyes had seen it, was now, aftermany hopeless years, to go forth once more to it--to live in it, and tolearn how much had been dreams, and how much real; and with all thesethoughts I credited her; for they seemed such as would have come to me atsuch a time, and, presently, I made some blundering effort to show toher that I had understanding of the tumult which possessed her, and atthat she smiled up at me with a sudden queer flash of sadness andmerriment, and our glances met, and I saw something in hers, which wasbut newborn, and though I was but a young man, my heart interpreted itfor me, and I was all hot suddenly with the pain and sweet delight ofthis new thing; for I had not dared to think upon that which already myheart had made bold to whisper to me, so that even thus soon I wasmiserable out of her presence. Then she looked downward at her hands uponthe bar; and, in the same instant, there came a loud, abrupt cry from thesecond mate, to vast heaving, and at that all the men pulled out theirbars and cast them upon the deck, and ran, shouting, to the ladder thatled to the look-out, and we followed, and so came to the top, anddiscovered that at last the ship was clear of the weed, and floating inthe open water between it and the island.
Now at the discovery that the hulk was free, the men commenced to cheerand shout in a very wild fashion, as, indeed, is no cause for wonder, andwe cheered with them. Then, suddenly, in the midst of our shouting,Mistress Madison plucked me by the sleeve and pointed to the end of theisland where the foot of the bigger hill jutted out in a great spur, andnow I perceived a boat, coming round into view, and in another moment Isaw that the bo'sun stood in the stern, steering; thus I knew that hemust have finished repairing her whilst I had been on the hulk. By this,the men about us had discovered the nearness of the boat, and commencedshouting afresh, and they ran down, and to the bows of the vessel, andgot ready a rope to cast. Now when the boat came near, the men in herscanned us very curiously, but the bo'sun took off his head-gear, with aclumsy grace that well became him; at which Mistress Madison smiled verykindly upon him, and, after that, she told me with great frankness thathe pleased her, and, more, that she had never seen so great a man, whichwas not strange seeing that she had seen but few since she had come toyears when men become of interest to a maid.
After saluting us the bo'sun called out to the second mate that he wouldtow us round to the far side of the island, and to this the officeragreed, being, I surmised, by no means sorry to put some solid matterbetween himself and the desolation of the great weed-continent; and so,having loosed the hawser, which fell from the hill-top with a prodigioussplash, we had the boat head, towing. In this wise we opened out,presently, the end of the hill; but feeling now the force of the breeze,we bent a kedge to the hawser, and, the bo'sun carrying it seawards, wewarped ourselves to windward of the island, and here, in forty fathoms,we vast heaving, and rode to the kedge.
Now when this was accomplished they called to our men to come aboard, andthis they did, and spent all of that day in talk and eating; for those inthe ship could scarce make enough of our fellows. And then, when it hadcome to night, they replaced that part of the superstructure which theyhad removed from about the head of the mizzen-stump, and so, all beingsecure, each one turned-in and had a full night's rest, of the which,indeed, many of them stood in sore need.
The following morning, the second mate had a consultation with thebo'sun, after which he gave the order to commence upon the removal of thegreat superstructure, and to this each one of us set himself with vigor.Yet it was a work requiring some time, and near five days had passedbefore we had the ship stripped clear. When this had been accomplished,there came a busy time of routing out various matter of which we shouldhave need in jury rigging her; for they had been so long in disuse, thatnone remembered where to look for them. At this a day and a half wasspent, and after that we set-to about fitting her with such jury-masts aswe could manage from our material.
Now, after the ship had been dismasted, all those seven years gone, thecrew had been able to save many of her spars, these having remainedattached to her, through their inability to cut away all of the gear; andthough this had put them in sore peril at the time, of being sent to thebottom with a hole in their side, yet now had they every reason to bethankful; for, by this accident, we had now a foreyard, a topsail-yard, amain t'gallant-yard, and the fore-topmast. They had saved more thanthese; but had made use of the smaller spars to shore up thesuperstructure, sawing them into lengths for that purpose. Apart fromsuch spars as they had managed to secure, they had a spare topmast lashedalong under the larboard bulwarks, and a spare t'gallant and royal mastlying along the starboard side.
Now, the second mate and the bo'sun set the carpenter to work upon thespare topmast, bidding him make for it some trestle-trees and bolsters,upon which to lay the eyes of the rigging; but they did not trouble himto shape it. Further, they ordered the same to be fitted to theforetopmast and the spare t'gallant and royal mast. And in the meanwhile,the
rigging was prepared, and when this was finished, they made ready theshears to hoist the spare topmast, intending this to take the place ofthe main lower-mast. Then, when the carpenter had carried out theirorders, he was set to make three partners with a step cut in each, thesebeing intended to take the heels of the three masts, and when these werecompleted, they bolted them securely to the decks at the fore part ofeach one of the stumps of the three lower-masts. And so, having allready, we hove the mainmast into position, after which we proceeded torig it. Now, when we had made an end of this, we set-to upon theforemast, using for this the foretopmast which they had saved, and afterthat we hove the mizzenmast into place, having for this the sparet'gallant and royal mast.
Now the manner in which we secured the masts, before ever we came to therigging of them, was by lashing them to the stumps of the lower-masts,and after we had lashed them, we drove dunnage and wedges between themasts and the lashings, thus making them very secure. And so, when we hadset up the rigging, we had confidence that they would stand all such sailas we should be able to set upon them. Yet, further than this, the bo'sunbade the carpenter make wooden caps of six inch oak, these caps to fitover the _squared_ heads of the lower-mast stumps, and having a hole,each of them, to embrace the jury-mast, and by making these caps in twohalves, they were able to bolt them on after the masts had been hoveinto position.
And so, having gotten in our three jury lower-masts, we hoisted up theforeyard to the main, to act as our mainyard, and did likewise with thetopsail-yard to the fore, and after that, we sent up the t'gallant-yardto the mizzen. Thus we had her sparred, all but a bowsprit and jibboom;yet this we managed by making a stumpy, spike bowsprit from one of thesmaller spars which they had used to shore up the superstructure, andbecause we feared that it lacked strength to bear the strain of our foreand aft stays, we took down two hawsers from the fore, passing them inthrough the hawse-holes and setting them up there. And so we had herrigged, and, after that, we bent such sail as our gear abled us to carry,and in this wise had the hulk ready for sea.
Now, the time that it took us to rig the ship, and fit her out, was sevenweeks, saving one day. And in all this time we suffered no molestationfrom any of the strange habitants of the weed-continent; though this mayhave been because we kept fires of dried weed going all the night aboutthe decks, these fires being lit on big flat pieces of rock which we hadgotten from the island. Yet, for all that we had not been troubled, wehad more than once discovered strange things in the water swimming nearto the vessel; but a flare of weed, hung over the side, on the end of areed, had sufficed always to scare away such unholy visitants.
And so at last we came to the day on which we were in so good acondition that the bo'sun and the second mate considered the ship to bein a fit state to put to sea--the carpenter having gone over so much ofher hull as he could get at and found her everywhere very sound; thoughher lower parts were hideously overgrown with weed, barnacles and othermatters; yet this we could not help, and it was not wise to attempt toscrape her, having consideration to the creatures which we knew toabound in those waters.
Now in those seven weeks, Mistress Madison and I had come very close toone another, so that I had ceased to call her by any name save Mary,unless it were a dearer one than that; though this would be one of my owninvention, and would leave my heart too naked did I put it down here.
Of our love one for the other, I think yet, and ponder how that mightyman, the bo'sun, came so quickly to a knowledge of the state of ourhearts; for he gave me a very sly hint one day that he had a sound ideaof the way in which the wind blew, and yet, though he said it with ahalf-jest, methought there was something wistful in his voice, as hespoke, and at that I just clapped my hand in his, and he gave it a veryhuge grip. And after that he ceased from the subject.