Back we held, two miles and more to windward of the struggling cockle-shell, when the flying jib was run down and the schooner hove to.The sealing boats are not made for windward work.Their hope lies in keeping a weather position so that they may run before the wind for the schooner when it breezes up.But in all that wild waste there was no refuge for Leach and Johnson save on the Ghost , and they resolutely began the windward beat.It was slow work in the heavy sea that was running.At any moment they were liable to be overwhelmed by the hissing combers.Time and again and countless times we watched the boat luff into the big whitecaps, lose headway, and be flung back like a cork.
Johnson was a splendid seaman, and he knew as much about small boats as he did about ships.At the end of an hour and a half he was nearly alongside, standing past our stern on the last leg out, aiming to fetch us on the next leg back.
"So you've changed your mind?" I heard Wolf Larsen mutter, half to himself, half to them as though they could hear."You want to come aboard, eh? Well, then, just keep a-coming.""Hard up with that helm!" he commanded Oofty-Oofty, the Kanaka, who had in the meantime relieved Louis at the wheel.
Command followed command.As the schooner paid off, the fore and main sheets were slacked away for fair wind.And before the wind we were, and leaping, when Johnson, easing his sheet at imminent peril, cut across our wake a hundred feet away.Again Wolf Larsen laughed, at the same time beckoning them with his arm to follow.It was evidently his intention to play with them, -- a lesson, I took it, in lieu of a beating, though a dangerous lesson, for the frail craft stood in momentary danger of being overwhelmed.
Johnson squared away promptly and ran after us.There was nothing else for him to do.Death stalked everywhere, and it was only a matter of time when some one of those many huge seas would fall upon the boat, roll over it, and pass on.
"'Tis the fear iv death at the hearts iv them," Louis muttered in my ear, as I passed forward to see to taking in the flying jib and staysail.
"Oh, he'll heave to in a little while and pick them up," answered cheerfully.
"He's bent upon giving them a lesson, that's all."Louis looked at me shrewdly."Think so?" he asked.
"Surely," I answered."Don't you?"
"I think nothing but iv my own skin, these days," was his answer."An'
'tis with wonder I'm filled as to the workin' out iv things.A pretty mess that 'Frisco whiskey got me into, an' a prettier mess that woman's got you into aft there.Ah, it's myself that knows ye for a blitherin' fool.""What do you mean?" I demanded; for, having sped his shaft, he was turning away.
"What do I mean?" he cried."And it's you that asks me! 'Tis not what I mean, but what the Wolf'll mean.The Wolf, I said, the Wolf!""If trouble comes, will you stand by?" I asked impulsively, for he had voiced my own fear.
"Stand by? 'Tis old fat Louis I stand by, an' trouble enough it'll be.
We're at the beginnin' iv things, I'm tellin' ye, the bare beginnin' iv things.""I had not thought you so great a coward," I sneered.
He favored me with a contemptuous stare."If I raised never a hand for that poor fool," -- pointing astern to the tiny sail, -- "d'ye think I'm hungerin' for a broken head for a woman I never laid me eyes upon before this day?"I turned scornfully away and went aft.
