The Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne (interesting books to read in english TXT) 📖
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can only manage to sit beside the tiller and steer for two hours
every day, so as to let me get a nap, I’ll engage to let you off
duty all the rest of the twenty-four hours. And if you don’t feel
able for steering, I’ll lash the helm and heave to, while I get you
your breakfasts and dinners; and so we’ll manage famously, and soon
reach the Coral Island.”
Bill smiled faintly as I ran on in this strain.
“And what will you do,” said he, “if it comes on to blow a storm?”
This question silenced me, while I considered what I should do in
such a case. At length I laid my hand an his arm, and said, “Bill,
when a man has done all that he CAN do, he ought to leave the rest
to God.”
“Oh, Ralph,” said my companion, in a faint voice, looking anxiously
into my face, “I wish that I had the feelin’s about God that you
seem to have, at this hour. I’m dyin’, Ralph; yet I, who have
braved death a hundred times, am afraid to die. I’m afraid to
enter the next world. Something within tells me there will be a
reckoning when I go there. But it’s all over with me, Ralph. I
feel that there’s no chance o’ my bein’ saved.”
“Don’t say that, Bill,” said I, in deep compassion, “don’t say
that. I’m quite sure there’s hope even for you, but I can’t
remember the words of the Bible that make me think so. Is there
not a Bible on board, Bill?”
“No; the last that was in the ship belonged to a poor boy that was
taken aboard against his will. He died, poor lad, I think, through
ill treatment and fear. After he was gone the captain found his
Bible and flung it overboard.”
I now reflected, with great sadness and self-reproach, on the way
in which I had neglected my Bible; and it flashed across me that I
was actually in the sight of God a greater sinner than this blood-stained pirate; for, thought I, he tells me that he never read the
Bible, and was never brought up to care for it; whereas I was
carefully taught to read it by my own mother, and had read it daily
as long as I possessed one, yet to so little purpose that I could
not now call to mind a single text that would meet this poor man’s
case, and afford him the consolation he so much required. I was
much distressed, and taxed my memory for a long time. At last a
text did flash into my mind, and I wondered much that I had not
thought of it before.
“Bill,” said I, in a low voice, “‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.’”
“Ay, Ralph, I’ve heard the missionaries say that before now, but
what good can it do me? It’s not for me that. It’s not for the
likes o’ me.”
I knew not now what to say, for, although I felt sure that that
word was for him as well as for me, I could not remember any other
word whereby I could prove it.
After a short pause, Bill raised his eyes to mine and said, “Ralph,
I’ve led a terrible life. I’ve been a sailor since I was a boy,
and I’ve gone from bad to worse ever since I left my father’s roof.
I’ve been a pirate three years now. It is true I did not choose
the trade, but I was inveigled aboard this schooner and kept here
by force till I became reckless and at last joined them. Since
that time my hand has been steeped in human blood again and again.
Your young heart would grow cold if I - ; but why should I go on?
‘Tis of no use, Ralph; my doom is fixed.”
“Bill,” said I, “‘Though your sins be red like crimson, they shall
be white as snow.’ ‘Only believe.’”
“Only believe!” cried Bill, starting up on his elbow; “I’ve heard
men talk o’ believing as if it was easy. Ha! ‘tis easy enough for
a man to point to a rope and say, ‘I believe that would bear my
weight;’ but ‘tis another thing for a man to catch hold o’ that
rope, and swing himself by it over the edge of a precipice!”
The energy with which he said this, and the action with which it
was accompanied, were too much for Bill. He sank back with a deep
groan. As if the very elements sympathized with this man’s
sufferings, a low moan came sweeping over the sea.
“Hist! Ralph,” said Bill, opening his eves; “there’s a squall
coming, lad. Look alive, boy. Clew up the fore-sail. Drop the
main-sail peak. Them squalls come quick sometimes.”
I had already started to my feet, and saw that a heavy squall was
indeed bearing down on us. It had hitherto escaped my notice,
owing to my being so much engrossed by our conversation. I
instantly did as Bill desired, for the schooner was still lying
motionless on the glassy sea. I observed with some satisfaction
that the squall was bearing down on the larboard bow, so that it
would strike the vessel in the position in which she would be best
able to stand the shock. Having done my best to shorten sail, I
returned aft, and took my stand at the helm.
“Now, boy,” said Bill, in a faint voice, “keep her close to the
wind.”
A few seconds afterwards he said, “Ralph, let me hear those two
texts again.”
I repeated them.
“Are ye sure, lad, ye saw them in the Bible?”
“Quite sure,” I replied.
Almost before the words had left my lips the wind burst upon us,
and the spray dashed over our decks. For a time the schooner stood
it bravely, and sprang forward against the rising sea like a war-horse. Meanwhile clouds darkened the sky, and the sea began to
rise in huge billows. There was still too much sail on the
schooner, and, as the gale increased, I feared that the masts would
be torn out of her or carried away, while the wind whistled and
shrieked through the strained rigging. Suddenly the wind shifted a
point, a heavy sea struck us on the bow, and the schooner was
almost laid on her beam-ends, so that I could scarcely keep my
legs. At the same moment Bill lost his hold of the belaying-pin
which had served to steady him, and he slid with stunning violence
against the sky-light. As he lay on the deck close beside me, I
could see that the shock had rendered him insensible, but I did not
dare to quit the tiller for an instant, as it required all my
faculties, bodily and mental, to manage the schooner. For an hour
the blast drove us along, while, owing to the sharpness of the
vessel’s bow and the press of canvass, she dashed through the waves
instead of breasting over them, thereby drenching the decks with
water fore and aft. At the end of that time the squall passed
away, and left us rocking on the bosom of the agitated sea.
My first care, the instant I could quit the helm, was to raise Bill
from the deck and place him on the couch. I then ran below for the
brandy bottle and rubbed his face and hands with it, and
endeavoured to pour a little down his throat. But my efforts,
although I continued them long and assiduously, were of no avail;
as I let go the hand which I had been chafing it fell heavily on
the deck. I laid my hand over his heart, and sat for some time
quite motionless, but there was no flutter there - the pirate was
dead!
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Alone on the deep - Necessity the mother of invention - A valuable
book discovered - Natural phenomenon - A bright day in my history.
IT was with feelings of awe, not unmingled with fear, that I now
seated myself on the cabin sky-light and gazed upon the rigid
features of my late comrade, while my mind wandered over his past
history and contemplated with anxiety my present position. Alone!
in the midst of the wide Pacific, having a most imperfect knowledge
of navigation, and in a schooner requiring at least eight men as
her proper crew. But I will not tax the reader’s patience with a
minute detail of my feelings and doings during the first few days
that followed the death of my companion. I will merely mention
that I tied a cannon ball to his feet and, with feelings of the
deepest sorrow, consigned him to the deep.
For fully a week after that a steady breeze blew from the east,
and, as my course lay west-and-by-north, I made rapid progress
towards my destination. I could not take an observation, which I
very much regretted, as the captain’s quadrant was in the cabin;
but, from the day of setting sail from the island of the savages, I
had kept a dead reckoning, and as I knew pretty well now how much
lee-way the schooner made, I hoped to hit the Coral Island without
much difficulty. In this I was the more confident that I knew its
position on the chart (which I understood was a very good one), and
so had its correct bearings by compass.
As the weather seemed now quite settled and fine, and as I had got
into the trade-winds, I set about preparations for hoisting the
topsails. This was a most arduous task, and my first attempts
were complete failures, owing, in a great degree, to my
reprehensible ignorance of mechanical forces. The first error I
made was in applying my apparatus of blocks and pulleys to a rope
which was too weak, so that the very first heave I made broke it in
two, and sent me staggering against the after-hatch, over which I
tripped, and, striking against the main-boom, tumbled down the
companion ladder into the cabin. I was much bruised and somewhat
stunned by this untoward accident. However, I considered it
fortunate that I was not killed. In my next attempt I made sure of
not coming by a similar accident, so I unreeved the tackling and
fitted up larger blocks and ropes. But although the principle on
which I acted was quite correct, the machinery was now so massive
and heavy that the mere friction and stiffness of the thick cordage
prevented me from moving it at all. Afterwards, however, I came to
proportion things more correctly; but I could not avoid reflecting
at the time how much better it would have been had I learned all
this from observation and study, instead of waiting till I was
forced to acquire it through the painful and tedious lessons of
experience.
After the tackling was prepared and in good working order, it took
me the greater part of a day to hoist the main-top sail. As I
could not steer and work at this at the same time, I lashed the
helm in such a position that, with a little watching now and then,
it kept the schooner in her proper course. By this means I was
enabled also to go about the deck and down below for things that I
wanted, as occasion required; also to cook and eat my victuals.
But I did not dare to trust to this plan during the three hours of
rest that I allowed myself at night, as the wind might have
shifted, in which case I should have
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