Boon Island - Kenneth Roberts [136]
He signaled to the man on the pink, who tightened the dory's stern rope.
"All right," Captain Long said to Captain Furber. "Slack away on that bow cable. Hold it tight till she's halfway out."
We stowed the captain in the dory: Neal got in by himself.
The two rowers faced the pink, and when a roller lifted the dory, they dug in their oars and pushed hard. Aboard the pink the man pulled at the stern rope. The dory went stern-first as readily as bow-first.
"How many left in the tent?" I asked Captain Long.
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"We couldn't see," he said. "We brought out four. Who are they?"
I looked at them, sprawled just above the seaweed. They all seemed to be exactly alike. They might have been quadrupletsbearded, foul, horrible-looking.
"One's the captain's brother," I said. "I think the others are Graystock and Saver and Gray. Gray was a gunner."
I couldn't remember what it was that Captain Long had asked me, and so shook my head.
Captain Long, seeing that I was confused, reached out and slapped my cheek, so to jolt me back to reality. "No offense meant," he said. "Who else is there? Have we got 'em all?"
"Let's see," I said, "Neal and Langman and the captain and I hauled in on the bow rope. That's four. Yes, and White. That's five. You took out four. That's nine. There must be another in the tent. Mellen. He can walk. It must have been that damned smoke. That's ten. There were fourteen to begin with."
Captain Furber nudged Captain Long. "The dory's coming back," he said.
They went as close to the water's edge as they could, watching the dory lift with the surges, rock toward us, pushed by the two sailors. When one of them tossed the bow rope ashore, the two captains belayed it around the same boulder we'd used.
The rowers climbed out and hurried back to the tent.
Captain Long came to stand beside me. "Nason told us there were twelve: that two were lost on the raft, though only one was found."
"No," I said, "there were fourteen. The cook died of lung complaint. We set him adrift. Then the carpenter
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died. The men wanted to eat him. We finished him up last night."
Captain Long took me by the shoulder. I saw he once more thought my mind was troubled, and was about to slap me to sensibility again. "I'm all right," I said, pushing his hand away. "You'd have done the same in our place."
Langman crowded up to Captain Long. "I was against it," he shouted. "I said it was barbarous, unchristian and a sin!"
Captain Long dropped his eyes from mine: then looked hard at Langman. "So you didn't eat him?" he asked.
"I didn't eat him as Chips Bullock," Langman explained earnestly. "I didn't eat him the day he was skinned. I only ate him the next day, when he was beef."
"That's a nice distinction," Captain Long said.
He became suddenly irascible, impatiently lifted Henry Dean, and shouted at Saver, Graystock and Gray. "Get on your feet! Stow yourself in that dory!"
He pointed a stubby finger at Langman. "Help 'em if they need help; then get in yourself! Don't stand around! All we need is a capful of wind to be stuck on this damned island ourselves! God knows how you stood it! I couldn't have stood it a week without losing all my anchors!"
His two seamen came back, pushing and pulling at Mellen.
"Get him in! Get him in!" Captain Long shouted. He tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the southwest. There, coming up fast, were two schooners and a brigantine, all three of them running before the wind.
"Word's got around," Captain Long said. "And that wind has shifted! Pack 'em in! Pack 'em in!"
Five minutes later I was hauled over the side of the pink,
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her anchor was up, and we were moving to the westward. Between us and that miserable island there was the mist of breaking seas and the haze of cold air above salt water. That island had visited upon us every conceivable