Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (e manga reader .txt) đ
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
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âAnd what did the firm say?â Harvey demanded.
âFwhat could they? The fish was on the Banks, anâ Counahan was at T-wharf talkinâ av his record trip east! They tuk their satisfaction out av that, anâ ut all came av not keepinâ the crew and the rum sepârate in the first place; anâ confusinâ Skibbereen wid âQueereau, in the second. Counahan the Navigator, rest his sowl! He was an imprompju citizen!â
âOnce I was in the Lucy Holmes,â said Manuel, in his gentle voice. âThey not want any of her feesh in Gloucester. Eh, wha-at? Give us no price. So we go across the water, and think to sell to some Fayal man. Then it blow fresh, and we cannot see well. Eh, wha-at? Then it blow some more fresh, and we go down below and drive very fastâno one know where. By and by we see a land, and it get some hot. Then come two, three nigger in a brick. Eh, wha-at? We ask where we are, and they sayânow, what you all think?â
âGrand Canary,â said Disko, after a moment. Manuel shook his head, smiling.
âBlanco,â said Tom Platt.
âNo. Worse than that. We was below Bezagos, and the brick she was from Liberia! So we sell our feesh there! Not bad, so? Eh, wha-at?â
âCan a schooner like this go right across to Africa?â said Harvey.
âGo araound the Horn ef thereâs anythinâ worth goinâ fer, and the grub holds aout,â said Disko. âMy father he run his packet, anâ she was a kind oâ pinkey, abaout fifty ton, I guess,âthe Rupert,âhe run her over to Greenlandâs icy mountains the year haâaf our fleet was tryinâ after cod there. Anâ whatâs more, he took my mother along with him,âto show her haow the money was earned, I presoom,âanâ they was all iced up, anâ I was born at Disko. Donât remember nothinâ abaout it, oâ course. We come back when the ice eased in the spring, but they named me fer the place. Kinder mean trick to put up on a baby, but weâre all baound to make mistakes in aour lives.â
âSure! Sure!â said Salters, wagging his head. âAll baound to make mistakes, anâ I tell you two boys here thet after youâve made a mistakeâye donât make fewerân a hundred a dayâthe next best thingâs to own up to it like men.â
Long Jack winked one tremendous wink that embraced all hands except Disko and Salters, and the incident was closed.
Then they made berth after berth to the northward, the dories out almost every day, running along the east edge of the Grand Bank in thirty-to forty-fathom water, and fishing steadily.
It was here Harvey first met the squid, who is one of the best cod-baits, but uncertain in his moods. They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of âSquid O!â from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jigâa piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs. The squidâfor some unknown reasonâlikes, and wraps himself round, this thing, and is hauled up ere he can escape from the pins. But as he leaves his home he squirts first water and next ink into his captorâs face; and it was curious to see the men weaving their heads from side to side to dodge the shot. They were as black as sweeps when the flurry ended; but a pile of fresh squid lay on the deck, and the large cod thinks very well of a little shiny piece of squid tentacle at the tip of a clam-baited hook. Next day they caught many fish, and met the Carrie Pitman, to whom they shouted their luck, and she wanted to tradeâseven cod for one fair-sized squid; but Disko would not agree at the price, and the Carrie dropped sullenly to leeward and anchored half a mile away, in the hope of striking on to some for herself.
Disco said nothing till after supper, when he sent Dan and Manuel out to buoy the âWeâre Hereâsâ cable and announced his intention of turning in with the broad-axe. Dan naturally repeated these remarks to the dory from the Carrie, who wanted to know why they were buoying their cable, since they were not on rocky bottom.
âDad sez he wouldnât trust a ferryboat within five mile oâ you,â Dan howled cheerfully.
âWhy donât he git out, then? Whoâs hinderinâ?â said the other.
ââCause youâve jest the same ez lee-bowed him, anâ he donât take that from any boat, not to speak oâ sech a driftinâ gurry-butt as you be.â
âShe ainât driftinâ any this trip,â said the man angrily, for the Carrie Pitman had an unsavory reputation for breaking her ground-tackle.
âThen haow dâyou make berths?â said Dan. âItâs her best pâint oâ sailinâ. Anâ ef sheâs quit driftinâ, what in thunder are you doinâ with a new jib-boom?â That shot went home.
âHey, you Portugoosy organ-grinder, take your monkey back to Gloucester. Go back to school, Dan Troop,â was the answer.
â0-ver-alls! 0-ver-alls!â yelled Dan, who knew that one of the Carrieâs crew had worked in an overall factory the winter before.
âShrimp! Gloucester shrimp! Git aout, you Novy!â
To call a Gloucester man a Nova Scotian is not well received. Dan answered in kind.
âNovy yourself, ye Scrabble-towners! ye Chatham wreckers! Git aout with your brick in your stockinâ!â And the forces separated, but Chatharn had the worst of it.
âI knew haow âtwould be,â said Disko. âSheâs drawed the wind raound already. Some one oughter put a deesist on thet packet. Sheâll snore till midnight, anâ jest when weâre gettinâ our sleep sheâll strike adrift. Good job we ainât crowded with craft hereaways. But I ainât goinâ to up anchor fer Chatham. She may hold.â
The wind, which had hauled round, rose at sundown and blew steadily. There was not enough sea, though, to disturb even a doryâs tackle, but the Carrie Pitman was a law unto herself. At the end of the boysâ watch they heard the crack-crack-crack of a huge muzzle-loading revolver aboard her.
âGory, glory, hallelujah!â sung Dan. âHere she comes, Dad; butt-end first, walkinâ in her sleep sameâs she done on âQueereau.â
Had she been any other boat Disko would have taken his chances, but now he cut the cable as the Carrie Pitman, with all the North Atlantic to play in, lurched down directly upon them. The âWeâre Hereâ, under jib and riding-sail, gave her no more room than was absolutely necessary,âDisko did not wish to spend a week hunting for his cable,âbut scuttled up into the wind as the Carrie passed within easy hail, a silent and angry boat, at the mercy of a raking broadside of Bank chaff.
âGood eveninâ,â said Disko, raising his head-gear, âanâ haow does your garden grow?â
âGo to Ohio anâ hire a mule,â said Uncle Salters. âWe donât want no farmers here.â
âWill I lend YOU my dory-anchor?â cried Long Jack.
âUnship your rudder anâ stick it in the mud,â bawled Tom Platt.
âSay!â Danâs voice rose shrill and high, as he stood on the wheel-box. âSa-ay! Is there a strike in the o-ver-all factory; or hev they hired girls, ye Shackamaxons?â
âVeer out the tiller-lines,â cried Harvey, âand nail âem to the bottom!â That was a salt-flavoured jest he had been put up to by Tom Platt. Manuel leaned over the stern and yelled: âJohanna Morgan play the organ! Ahaaaa!â He flourished his broad thumb with a gesture of unspeakable contempt and derision, while little Penn covered himself with glory by piping up: âGee a little! Hssh! Come here. Haw!â
They rode on their chain for the rest of the night, a short, snappy, uneasy motion, as Harvey found, and wasted half the forenoon recovering the cable. But the boys agreed the trouble was cheap at the price of triumph and glory, and they thought with grief over all the beautiful things that they might have said to the discomfited Carrie.
Next day they fell in with more sails, all circling slowly from the east northerly towards the west. But just when they expected to make the shoals by the Virgin the fog shut down, and they anchored, surrounded by the tinklings of invisible bells. There was not much fishing, but occasionally dory met dory in the fog and exchanged news.
That night, a little before dawn, Dan and Harvey, who had been sleeping most of the day, tumbled out to âhookâ fried pies. There was no reason why they should not have taken them openly; but they tasted better so, and it made the cook angry. The heat and smell below drove them on deck with their plunder, and they found Disko at the bell, which he handed over to Harvey.
âKeep her goinâ,â said he. âI mistrust I hear somethinâ. Ef itâs anything, Iâm best where I am soâs to get at things.â
It was a forlorn little jingle; the thick air seemed to pinch it off, and in the pauses Harvey heard the muffled shriek of a linerâs siren, and he knew enough of the Banks to know what that meant. It came to him, with horrible distinctness, how a boy in a cherry-coloured jerseyâhe despised fancy blazers now with all a fishermanâs contemptâhow an ignorant, rowdy boy had once said it would be âgreatâ if a steamer ran down a fishing-boat. That boy had a stateroom with a hot and cold bath, and spent ten minutes each morning picking over a gilt-edged bill of fare. And that same boyâno, his very much older brotherâwas up at four of the dim dawn in streaming, crackling oilskins, hammering, literally for the dear life, on a bell smaller than the stewardâs breakfast-bell, while somewhere close at hand a thirty-foot steel stem was storming along at twenty miles an hour! The bitterest thought of all was that there were folks asleep in dry, upholstered cabins who would never learn that they had massacred a boat before breakfast. So Harvey rang the bell.
âYes, they slow daown one turn oâ their blame propeller,â said Dan, applying himself to Manuelâs conch, âfer to keep inside the law, anâ thatâs consolinâ when weâre all at the bottom. Hark to her! Sheâs a humper!â
âAooo-whoo-whupp!â went the siren. âWingle-tingle-tink,â went the bell. âGraaa-ouch!â went the conch, while sea and sky were all mired up in milky fog. Then Harvey felt that he was near a moving body, and found himself looking up and up at the wet edge of a cliff-like bow, leaping, it seemed, directly over the schooner. A jaunty little feather of water curled in front of it, and as it lifted it showed a long ladder of Roman numerals-XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII., and so forthâon a salmon-coloured gleaming side. It tilted forward and downward with a heart-stilling âSsssoooâ; the ladder disappeared; a line of brass-rimmed port-holes flashed past; a jet of steam puffed in Harveyâs helplessly uplifted hands; a spout of hot water roared along the rail of the âWeâre Hereâ, and the little schooner staggered and shook in a rush of screw-torn water, as a linerâs stern vanished in the fog. Harvey got ready to faint or be sick, or both, when he heard a crack like a trunk thrown on a sidewalk, and, all small in his ear, a far-away telephone voice drawling: âHeave to! Youâve sunk us!â
âIs it us?â he gasped.
âNo! Boat out yonder. Ring! Weâre goinâ to look,â said Dan, running out a dory.
In half
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