《The sea wolf》Chapter 13
Advertisement
For three days I did my own work and Thomas Mugridge's too; and I flatter myself that I did his work well. I know that it won Wolf Larsen's approval, while the sailors beamed with satisfaction during the brief time my r gime lasted.
"The first clean bite since I come aboard," Harrison said to me at the galley door, as he returned the dinner pots and pans from the forecastle. "Somehow Tommy's grub always tastes of grease, stale grease, and I reckon he ain't changed his shirt since he left 'Frisco."
"I know he hasn't," I answered.
"And I'll bet he sleeps in it," Harrison added.
"And you won't lose," I agreed. "The same shirt, and he hasn't had it off once in all this time."
But three days was all Wolf Larsen allowed him in which to recover from the effects of the beating. On the fourth day, lame and sore, scarcely able to see, so closed were his eyes, he was haled from his bunk by the nape of the neck and set to his duty. He sniffled and wept, but Wolf Larsen was pitiless.
"And see that you serve no more slops," was his parting injunction. "No more grease and dirt, mind, and a clean shirt occasionally, or you'll get a tow over the side. Understand?"
Thomas Mugridge crawled weakly across the galley floor, and a short lurch of the Ghost sent him staggering. In attempting to recover himself, he reached for the iron railing which surrounded the stove and kept the pots from sliding off; but he missed the railing, and his hand, with his weight behind it, landed squarely on the hot surface. There was a sizzle and odor of burning flesh, and a sharp cry of pain.
"Oh, Gawd, Gawd, wot 'ave I done?" he wailed, sitting down in the coal-box and nursing his new hurt by rocking back and forth. "W'y 'as all this come on me? It mykes me fair sick, it does, an' I try so 'ard to go through life 'armless an' 'urtin' nobody."
The tears were running down his puffed and discolored cheeks, and his face was drawn with pain. A savage expression flitted across it.
"Oh, 'ow I 'ate 'im! 'Ow I 'ate 'im!" he gritted out.
"Whom?" I asked; but the poor wretch was weeping again over his misfortunes. Less difficult it was to guess whom he hated than whom he did not hate. For I had come to see a malignant devil in him which impelled him to hate all the world. I sometimes thought that he hated even himself, so grotesquely had life dealt with him, and so monstrously. At such moments a great sympathy welled up within me, and I felt shame that I had ever joyed in his discomfiture or pain. Life had been unfair to him. It had played him a scurvy trick when it fashioned him into the thing he was, and it had played him scurvy tricks ever since. What chance had he to be anything else than he was? And as though answering my unspoken thought, he wailed:
Advertisement
"I never 'ad no chance, nor 'arf a chance! 'Oo was there to send me to school, or put tommy in my 'ungry belly, or wipe my bloody nose for me, w'en I was a kiddy? 'Oo ever did anything for me, heh? 'Oo, I s'y?"
"Never mind, Tommy," I said, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder. "Cheer up. It'll all come right in the end. You've long years before you, and you can make anything you please of yourself."
"It's a lie! a bloody lie!" he shouted in my face, flinging off the hand. "It's a lie, and you know it. I'm already myde, an' myde out of leavin's an' scraps. It's all right for you, 'Ump. You was born a gentleman. You never knew wot it was to go 'ungry, to cry yerself asleep with yer little belly gnawin' an' gnawin', like a rat inside yer. It carn't come right. If I was President of the United Stytes to- morrer, 'ow would it fill my belly for one time w'en I was a kiddy and it went empty?
"'Ow could it, I s'y? I was born to sufferin' and sorrer. I've 'ad more cruel sufferin' than any ten men, I 'ave. I've been in orspital arf my bleedin' life. I've 'ad the fever in Aspinwall, in 'Avana, in New Orleans. I near died of the scurvy and was rotten with it six months in Barbadoes. Smallpox in 'Onolulu, two broken legs in Shanghai, pneumonia in Unalaska, three busted ribs an' my insides all twisted in 'Frisco. An' 'ere I am now. Look at me! Look at me! My ribs kicked loose from my back again. I'll be coughin' blood before eyght bells. 'Ow can it be myde up to me, I arsk? 'Oo's goin' to do it? Gawd? 'Ow Gawd must 'ave 'ated me w'en 'e signed me on for a voyage in this bloomin' world of 'is!"
This tirade against destiny went on for an hour or more, and then he buckled to his work, limping and groaning, and in his eyes a great hatred for all created things. His diagnosis was correct, however, for he was seized with occasional sicknesses, during which he vomited blood and suffered great pain. And as he said, it seemed God hated him too much to let him die, for he ultimately grew better and waxed more malignant than ever.
Several days more passed before Johnson crawled on deck and went about his work in a half-hearted way. He was still a sick man, and I more than once observed him creeping painfully aloft to a topsail, or drooping wearily as he stood at the wheel. But, still worse, it seemed that his spirit was broken. He was abject before Wolf Larsen and almost grovelled to Johansen. Not so was the conduct of Leach. He went about the deck like a tiger cub, glaring his hatred openly at Wolf Larsen and Johansen.
Advertisement
"I'll do for you yet, you slab-footed Swede," I heard him say to Johansen one night on deck.
The mate cursed him in the darkness, and the next moment some missile struck the galley a sharp rap. There was more cursing, and a mocking laugh, and when all was quiet I stole outside and found a heavy knife imbedded over an inch in the solid wood. A few minutes later the mate came fumbling about in search of it, but I returned it privily to Leach next day. He grinned when I handed it over, yet it was a grin that contained more sincere thanks than a multitude of the verbosities of speech common to the members of my own class.
Unlike any one else in the ship's company, I now found myself with no quarrels on my hands and in the good graces of all. The hunters possibly no more than tolerated me, though none of them disliked me; while Smoke and Henderson, convalescent under a deck awning and swinging day and night in their hammocks, assured me that I was better than any hospital nurse and that they would not forget me at the end of the voyage when they were paid off. (As though I stood in need of their money! I, who could have bought them out, bag and baggage, and the schooner and its equipment, a score of times over!) But upon me had devolved the task of tending their wounds, and pulling them through, and I did my best by them.
Wolf Larsen underwent another bad attack of headache which lasted two days. He must have suffered severely, for he called me in, and obeyed my commands like a sick child. But nothing I could do seemed to relieve him. At my suggestion, however, he gave up smoking and drinking; though why such a magnificent animal as he should have headaches at all puzzles me.
"'Tis the hand of God, I'm tellin' you," is the way Louis sees it. "'Tis a visitation for his black-hearted deeds, and there's more behind and comin', or else -- "
"Or else," I prompted.
"God is noddin' and not doin' his duty, though it's me as shouldn't say it."
I was mistaken when I said that I was in the good graces of all. Not only does Thomas Mugridge continue to hate me, but he has discovered a new reason for hating me. It took me no little while to puzzle it out, but I finally discovered that it was because I was more luckily born than he -- "gentleman born," he put it.
"And still no more dead men," I twitted Louis, when Smoke and Henderson, side by side, in friendly conversation, took their first exercise on deck.
Louis surveyed me with his shrewd gray eyes and shook his head portentously. "She's a-comin', I tell you, and it'll be sheets and halyards, stand by all hands, when she begins to howl. I've had the feel iv it this long time, and I can feel it now as plainly as I feel the rigging iv a dark night. She's close, she's close."
"Who goes first?" I queried.
"Not old fat Louis, I promise you," he laughed. "For 'tis in the bones iv me I know that come this time next year I'll be gazin' in the old mother's eyes, weary with watchin' iv the sea for the five sons she gave to it."
"Wot's 'e been s'yin' to yer?" Thomas Mugridge demanded a moment later.
"That he's going home some day to see his mother," I answered diplomatically.
"I never 'ad none," was the Cockney's comment, as he gazed with lustreless, hopeless eyes into mine.
Advertisement
- In Serial127 Chapters
BlackCrown
Three hundred years ago multiple meteors broke into earth's atmosphere and landed in various places. The meteors change the world. By releasing strange substances into the earth, air, and water the planet started to change. It was not until ten years later that the first batch of superhumans was born. They had abilities that could not be explained. Superspeed. Superstrength. Magic. The superhumans showed the world that all of it was possible. They called the abilities EXO and the people who wielded such an ability, EXO users. They quickly found out that not every EXO was the same. One EXO user had one EXO ability and what that ability was could be categorized into one of three types. Offensive, Defensive or Support. The government was the first to act after five years. Every EXO user must be subjected to whole new laws and they must get their abilities under control. Specialized schools were built all across the world that were made to train them. Under the pretense of saying it was to develop their abilities, the government was actually building an army. Humans were not the only ones to change…
8 184 - In Serial14 Chapters
I Totally Don't Have Anger Problems!
Discontinued 7/11/2020 Sorry if anyone was hoping for more updates. It seems I'm losing interest in the character as time goes on - not sure if that's due to miscalculated character development direction or just a limited amount to express in the first place. If I do any writing projects in the future, I'll make sure the premise has a lot of room for long-term, interesting, development before posting anything. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback! I’m Talia Shimada, and my life just got a lot more complicated. One moment I was just doing some regular investigation of an interesting boy from my senior year in high school, and then suddenly, everything went wrong and I was stranded in another world in the middle of nowhere. It’s not my fault he left a clear line of sight to his house keys where they could be photographed and replicated on a 3D printer! Now I’m stuck in the middle of a giant forest with all these annoying creatures that keep attacking me until I SMASH THEM INTO PIECES AND STOMP ON THEIR REMAINS, surviving off of raw meat and, well, other kinds of raw meat. What, am I supposed to know which plants are edible in some far-away wilderness on another PLANET!? This is a planet right? It has to be! What did I do to deserve this? At least that class I got is useful. Now, when something doesn’t do what it’s supposed to, I can keep smashing it until it CAN’T BE A PROBLEM ANY MORE BECAUSE IT’S NOT ABLE TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL! If anyone else tries to get in the way of my plans, I’ll just PICK UP THEIR PUNY BODIES AND THROW THEM ASIDE and watch them sail away, never to trouble me again, because I am DONE having people mess with my life and not being able to do anything about it! From now on, anyone who tries will get to briefly realize their error as I SMASH THEM INTO PASTE BECAUSE THEY PICKED A FIGHT WITH THE WRONG WOMAN! I totally don’t have anger problems! Updates Sundays and Wednesdays, occassionaly Fridays
8 101 - In Serial42 Chapters
Have Hope
Y/n Grant is called up by Jill Ellis to be the starting Goal keeper for the 2019 World Cup. At first, the team isn't a huge fan of the cocky player, but she starts to wiggle her way into the hearts of millions over the course of the tournament. One heart in particular. Returning and starting star forward, Alex Morgan, finds herself having some unusual feelings towards her teammate. With Alex's complicated situation relationship wise, and Y/n's own family struggles that she's hidden from her friends, will her and Alex be able to make it out okay? Set with the 2019 USWNTY/n is 22Alex is 25Y/n G!P
8 74 - In Serial14 Chapters
Of the Fifty-Two
Jace awakes in a small room surrounded by people with idea of who they are. With no memory other than a name he's believes is his own. Jace must navigate floors of a strange place, fight hordes of zombies and escape into the outside world, hoping it'll be better out there. Warning: This story contains extreme violence, sexual situations and possibly a harem. Enjoy.
8 107 - In Serial11 Chapters
The Summoner of Cuties (Indefinite Hiatus)
Earth 2207, the new game, "AXIS Online" is released, a world of magic and monsters is open and full of danger and excitement. Our MC, Aris, has entered the game and burns with a desire to be cool. He chooses a summoner and summons his first monster. But whats this? There's no awesome monster at all! How come I get a cute turtle? Why does he have a fire ape? She even has a baby dragon?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? ~~~~2 CHAPTERS A WEEK (I'M A COLLEGE STUDENT AND I'M WORKING)~~~~ =^_^=
8 331 - In Serial18 Chapters
First Priority // Fantastic Beasts
His first priority was taking care of the creatures in his case but the lady with the blue bow was a close second. - Fantastic Beasts and where to find them -(Book one - First Priority)(Book two - If I Fall)(Book three - Dear Happy)>> obviously I don't anything involving Fantastic Beasts. All right reserved to JK Rowling and all that good stuff(Soon to be rewritten cause once again my writing is terrible in this)
8 199