We worked feverishly at carrying our plunder on deck and depositing it amidships, so feverishly that Maud, whose strength was hardly a positive quantity, had to give over, exhausted, and sit on the steps at the break of the poop.This did not serve to recover her, and she lay on her back, on the hard deck, arms stretched out and whole body relaxed.It was a trick I remembered of my sister, and I knew she would soon be herself again.
I knew, also, that weapons would not come in amiss, and I re ntered Wolf Larsen's state-room to get his rifle and shotgun.I spoke to him, but he made no answer, though his head was still rocking from side to side and he was not asleep.
"Good-bye, Lucifer," I whispered to myself as I softly closed the door.
Next to obtain was a stock of ammunition, -- an easy matter, though I had to enter the steerage companionway to do it.Here the hunters stored the ammunition boxes they carried in the boats, and here, but a few feet from their noisy revels, I took possession of two boxes.
Next, to lower a boat.Not so simple a task for one man.Having cast off the lashings, I hoisted first on the forward tackle, then on the aft, till the boat cleared the rail, when I lowered away, one tackle and then the other, for a couple of feet, till it hung snugly, above the water, against the schooner's side.I made certain that it contained the proper equipment of oars, rowlocks, and sail.Water was a consideration, and Irobbed every boat aboard of its breaker.As there were nine boats all told, it meant that we should have plenty of water, and ballast as well, though there was the chance that the boat would be overloaded, what of the generous supply of other things I was taking.
While Maud was passing me the provisions and I was storing them in the boat, a sailor came on deck from the fore-castle.He stood by the weather rail for a time, (we were lowering over the lee rail), and then sauntered slowly amidships, where he again paused and stood facing the wind, with his back toward us.I could hear my heart beating as crouched low in the boat.Maud had sunk down upon the deck and was, knew, lying motionless, her body in the shadow of the bulwark.But the man never turned, and, after stretching his arms above his head and yawning audibly, he retraced his steps to the forecastle scuttle and disappeared.
A few minutes sufficed to finish the loading, and I lowered the boat into the water.As I helped Maud over the rail and felt her form close to mine, it was all I could do to keep from crying out, "I love you! Ilove you!" Truly Humphrey Van Weyden was at last in love, thought, as her fingers clung to mine while I lowered her down to the boat.I held on to the rail with one hand and supported her weight with the other, and I was proud at the moment of the feat.It was a strength I had not possessed a few months before, on the day I said good-by to Charley Furuseth and started for San Francisco on the ill-fated Martinez.
As the boat ascended on a sea, her feet touched and I released her hands.
I cast off the tackles and leaped after her.I had never rowed in my life, but I put out the oars and at the expense of much effort got the boat clear of the Ghost.Then I experimented with the sail.I had seen the boat-steerers and hunters set their spritsails many times, yet this was my first attempt.What took them possibly two minutes took me twenty, but in the end I succeeded in setting and trimming it, and with the steering-oar in my hands hauled on the wind.
"There lies Japan," I remarked, "straight before us.""Humphrey Van Weyden," she said, "you are a brave man.""Nay," I answered, "it is you who are a brave woman."We turned our heads, swayed by a common impulse to see the last of the Ghost.Her low hull lifted and rolled to windward on a sea; her canvas loomed darkly in the night; her lashed wheel creaked as the rudder kicked; then sight and sound of her faded away and we were alone on the dark sea.
