登陆注册
4443800000051

第51章

"Leap as far as you can, sir; we will pick you up."

They did not hear him answer. But their shouting seemed to remind him of something. He groped his way back, and sought for Mr. Massy's coat. He could swim indeed; people sucked down by the whirlpool of a sinking ship do come up sometimes to the surface, and it was unseemly that a Whalley, who had made up his mind to die, should be beguiled by chance into a struggle. He would put all these pieces of iron into his own pockets.

They, looking from the boat, saw the Sofala, a black mass upon a black sea, lying still at an appalling cant.

No sound came from her. Then, with a great bizarre shuffling noise, as if the boilers had broken through the bulkheads, and with a faint muffled detonation, where the ship had been there appeared for a moment some-thing standing upright and narrow, like a rock out of the sea. Then that too disappeared.

When the Sofala failed to come back to Batu Beru at the proper time, Mr. Van Wyk understood at once that he would never see her any more. But he did not know what had happened till some months afterwards, when, in a native craft lent him by his Sultan, he had made his way to the Sofala's port of registry, where already her existence and the official inquiry into her loss was beginning to be forgotten.

It had not been a very remarkable or interesting case, except for the fact that the captain had gone down with his sinking ship. It was the only life lost; and Mr. Van Wyk would not have been able to learn any details had it not been for Sterne, whom he met one day on the quay near the bridge over the creek, almost on the very spot where Captain Whalley, to preserve his daughter's five hundred pounds intact, had turned to get a sampan which would take him on board the Sofala.

From afar Mr. Van Wyk saw Sterne blink straight at him and raise his hand to his hat. They drew into the shade of a building (it was a bank), and the mate re-lated how the boat with the crew got into Pangu Bay about six hours after the accident, and how they had lived for a fortnight in a state of destitution before they found an opportunity to get away from that beastly place. The inquiry had exonerated everybody from all blame. The loss of the ship was put down to an un-usual set of the current. Indeed, it could not have been anything else: there was no other way to account for the ship being set seven miles to the eastward of her position during the middle watch.

"A piece of bad luck for me, sir."

Sterne passed his tongue on his lips, and glanced aside.

"I lost the advantage of being employed by you, sir.

I can never be sorry enough. But here it is: one man's poison, another man's meat. This could not have been handier for Mr. Massy if he had arranged that ship-wreck himself. The most timely total loss I've ever heard of."

"What became of that Massy?" asked Mr. Van Wyk.

"He, sir? Ha! ha! He would keep on telling me that he meant to buy another ship; but as soon as he had the money in his pocket he cleared out for Manilla by mail-boat early in the morning. I gave him chase right aboard, and he told me then he was going to make his fortune dead sure in Manilla. I could go to the devil for all he cared. And yet he as good as promised to give me the command if I didn't talk too much."

"You never said anything . . ." Mr. Van Wyk began.

"Not I, sir. Why should I? I mean to get on, but the dead aren't in my way," said Sterne. His eyelids were beating rapidly, then drooped for an instant.

"Besides, sir, it would have been an awkward business.

You made me hold my tongue just a bit too long."

"Do you know how it was that Captain Whalley re-mained on board? Did he really refuse to leave? Come now! Or was it perhaps an accidental . . .?"

"Nothing!" Sterne interrupted with energy. "I tell you I yelled for him to leap overboard. He simply MUST have cast off the painter of the boat himself. We all yelled to him--that is, Jack and I. He wouldn't even answer us. The ship was as silent as a grave to the last.

Then the boilers fetched away, and down she went.

Accident! Not it! The game was up, sir, I tell you."

This was all that Sterne had to say.

Mr. Van Wyk had been of course made the guest of the club for a fortnight, and it was there that he met the lawyer in whose office had been signed the agreement between Massy and Captain Whalley.

"Extraordinary old man," he said. "He came into my office from nowhere in particular as you may say, with his five hundred pounds to place, and that engineer fellow following him anxiously. And now he is gone out a little inexplicably, just as he came. I could never understand him quite. There was no mystery at all about that Massy, eh? I wonder whether Whalley re-fused to leave the ship. It would have been foolish.

He was blameless, as the court found."

Mr. Van Wyk had known him well, he said, and he could not believe in suicide. Such an act would not have been in character with what he knew of the man.

同类推荐
  • 明实录宪宗实录

    明实录宪宗实录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 根本说一切有部苾刍习学略法

    根本说一切有部苾刍习学略法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 送房杭州

    送房杭州

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 修真十书盘山语录卷

    修真十书盘山语录卷

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 断袖篇

    断袖篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 今天的时崎狂三也想回天宫市

    今天的时崎狂三也想回天宫市

    狂三:所以,是你把咱弄过来的?创世神:没错,并且你每次穿越到新的世界就必须上交三十年的时间!狂三:神经病啊!咱五年省吃省喝【假】才攒了三十年的时间,还没经过咱的同意就把咱扔到这个世界,咱还要拯救咱的那个世界錒!创世神:那就这样谈定啦,再见!今天的狂三也在攒时间回到天宫市。
  • 雷武战神

    雷武战神

    传承世家平庸嫡子“雷宇”被逼无奈,入驻伽蓝学院,却幸得雷龙逆鳞。从此雷宇修武道,战天穹;灭天尊,驭神龙;以神雷淬体,修无上雷诀!从小人物迅速崛起,登战神云顶!于万域称尊!美女相伴,万强伏首,亿万诸天,唯我至尊!【新书《重生之武法无天》已经上传。一本很独特的玄幻,求鼎力支持!】
  • 郑繁星之万点星光只为你

    郑繁星之万点星光只为你

    打包了一点星星的耀眼,随手撒在我跑向他的终点,努力去冒险想见他一眼。送给女孩们最真挚的礼物,愿你们的生命里都会出现一个愿意永远守护你的那个“郑繁星”。禁止抄袭或转载借梗,感谢合作。石榴出品。
  • 折鬼师

    折鬼师

    你是人是鬼?——你猜。别之匆匆,离之惘惘,擦身是福,再遇成劫。要怪只怪在劫难逃,要怨只怨人鬼无缘。她是他的天下无双,更是他的在劫难逃。
  • 沧澜月满笑天下

    沧澜月满笑天下

    一朝穿越,成为了被众人欺负,被皇帝忌惮的惠妃,熟悉情形后,便开始了她的“宫逗”生涯。四王之乱,边疆大战,且看她如何招架。
  • 无形的线索

    无形的线索

    “你已经研究过这个案子了?”“研究过这个案子的人不是我。”“最近几天没有研究这个案子怎么能够为那些报纸提供那么引人注目的大标题?”“我不看那些报纸。整整一个星期我都没看过一张报纸。”“斯特兰奇小姐,眼下,你的社交活动想必安排得非常紧凑吗?”“那是自然。”“那你的职业嗅觉暂时处于搁置状态?”“何以见得?”“你就不问问自己是否已经读过那些报纸?”
  • 北城有霄

    北城有霄

    俞北北第一次见到蒲霄就喜欢上了,当时想的是她以后也不在N市了,这么合眼缘的男人以后也不一定会见到,她想勾搭!于是就勾引了......蒲霄被俞北北的亲吻给迷住,觉得她长得很讨喜,甚至想到尝试在一起试试,只是他还没来得及付诸行动呢,俞北北已经穿着他的衬衣逃跑了,而他留下了她的身份证......
  • 哥伦布:地理大发现的先驱

    哥伦布:地理大发现的先驱

    《图说世界名人:哥伦布(地理大发现的先驱)》介绍了,哥伦布,意大利著名的航海家。哥伦布的远航是大航海时代的开端。新航路的开辟,改变了世界历史的进程。它使海外贸易的路线由地中海转移到大西洋沿岸。从那以后,西方终于走出了中世纪的黑暗,开始以不可阻挡之势崛起于世界,并在之后的几个世纪中,成就海上霸业。
  • 路过你心里,余光都是你①

    路过你心里,余光都是你①

    爷爷病重,一个陌生女人的介入,让夏知微从一个集万千宠爱于一身的千金小公主沦为落难灰姑娘——第一次住宿,和“校霸”、“狗仔小天后”同住一个屋檐下;第一次兼职,和“人气男神”沐星澜在小吃店相遇相杀;她在遍布荆棘的小道上艰难前行,试图寻找身世的真相,重拾王冠,却迷雾重重,障碍重重;好在有沐星澜相伴,像骑士一般守在她的身边,给她勇气和温暖。相知之前,沐星澜一直以为夏知微是一位高高在上、目中无人的大小姐,夏知微亦对这位刻薄的人气男神毫无好感;相知之后,两个人才发现,彼此光鲜亮丽的外表下,藏着同样一颗柔软的心……
  • 王妃是个小吃货

    王妃是个小吃货

    说起江小白,有人竖起大拇指,有人说她粗鲁,行事豪迈,没有一点女儿家的矜持,温婉。某男:大胆!不许议论本王的女人!