The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson Read Free Book Online Page B

bo'sun sung out to us to
haul the crab aboard, that we had it most securely; yet on the instant we
had reason to wish that we had been less successful; for the creature,
feeling the tug of our pull upon it, tossed the weed in all directions,
and thus we had full sight of it, and discovered it to be so great a crab
as is scarce conceivable—a very monster. And further, it was apparent to
us that the brute had no fear of us, nor intention to escape; but rather
made to come at us; whereat the bo'sun, perceiving our danger, cut the
line, and bade us put weight upon the oars, and so in a moment we were in
safety, and very determined to have no more meddlings with such
creatures.
    Presently, the night came upon us, and, the wind remaining low, there
was everywhere about us a great stillness, most solemn after the
continuous roaring of the storm which had beset us in the previous days.
Yet now and again a little wind would rise and blow across the sea, and
where it met the weed, there would come a low, damp rustling, so that I
could hear the passage of it for no little time after the calm had come
once more all about us.
    Now it is a strange thing that I, who had slept amid the noise of the
past days, should find sleeplessness amid so much calm; yet so it was,
and presently I took the steering oar, proposing that the rest should
sleep, and to this the bo'sun agreed, first warning me, however, most
particularly to have care that I kept the boat off the weed (for we had
still a little way on us), and, further, to call him should anything
unforeseen occur. And after that, almost immediately he fell asleep, as
indeed did the most of the men.
    From the time that relieved the bo'sun, until midnight, I sat upon the
gunnel of the boat, with the steering oar under my arm, and watched and
listened, most full of a sense of the strangeness of the seas into
which we had come. It is true that I had heard tell of seas choked up
with weed—seas that were full of stagnation, having no tides; but I
had not thought to come upon such an one in my wanderings; having,
indeed, set down such tales as being bred of imagination, and without
reality in fact.
    Then, a little before the dawn, and when the sea was yet full of
darkness, I was greatly startled to hear a prodigious splash amid the
weed, mayhaps at a distance of some hundred yards from the boat. Then,
as I stood full of alertness, and knowing not what the next moment
might bring forth, there came to me across the immense waste of weed, a
long, mournful cry, and then again the silence. Yet, though I kept very
quiet, there came no further sound, and I was about to re-seat myself,
when, afar off in that strange wilderness, there flashed out a sudden
flame of fire.
    Now upon seeing fire in the midst of so much lonesomeness, I was as one
amazed, and could do naught but stare. Then, my judgment returning to me,
I stooped and waked the bo'sun; for it seemed to me that this was a
matter for his attention. He, after staring at it awhile, declared that
he could see the shape of a vessel's hull beyond the flame; but,
immediately, he was in doubt, as, indeed, I had been all the while. And
then, even as we peered, the light vanished, and though we waited for the
space of some minutes; watching steadfastly, there came no further sight
of that strange illumination.
    From now until the dawn, the bo'sun remained awake with me, and we talked
much upon that which we had seen; yet could come to no satisfactory
conclusion; for it seemed impossible to us that a place of so much
desolation could contain any living being. And then, just as the dawn was
upon us, there loomed up a fresh wonder—the hull of a great vessel maybe
a couple or three score fathoms in from the edge of the weed. Now the
wind was still very light, being no more than an occasional breath, so
that we went past her at a drift, thus the dawn had strengthened
sufficiently to give to us a clear sight of the stranger, before we had
gone more than a little