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I had hitherto been scarcely able to keep any account of our run, but we now equipped ourselves a little better by getting a log-line marked and, having practised at counting seconds, several could do it with some degree of exactness.
"I crush the quadrant, the thunder turns the needles, and now the mad sea parts the log-line. But Ahab can mend all. Haul in here, Tahitian; reel up, Manxman. And look ye, let the carpenter make another log, and mend thou the line. See to it." "There he goes now; to him nothing's happened; but to me, the skewer seems loosening out of the middle of the world. Haul in, haul in, Tahitian!
What visitant from the gloom of the deep was I to behold? Whatever it was, I knew that it was climbing aboard by the log-line. I saw a head, the hair wet and straight, shape itself, and then the unmistakable eyes and face of Wolf Larsen. His right cheek was red with blood, which flowed from some wound in the head.
"She's not going less than six knots an hour, I'll warrant, which, with this light wind, is not bad for a craft of her build she's no clipper, I own, sir. Heave the log here. I dare say you'll like to be certain, miss," turning to Ada, as he thought the operation would amuse her. The second mate and two hands came aft with the log-line and reel.
As soon as the raft got fairly before the wind, and the breeze had freshened, I had an opportunity of ascertaining what it would do. The royal was a large one, and it stood well. I had brought a log-line and the slow-glass with me, as well as my quadrant, slate, &c., and began to think of keeping a reckoning.
"No, sir; so far from it, that I was just beginning to like my grog when I could get it. I didn't see the evil of the drink then; I didn't see how the habit keeps winding its little cords round and round a man, till what begins as thin as a log-line, becomes in the end as thick as a hawser.
Quite methodically, just as part of the day's work, the steward chopped down with his knife, catching the log-line between the steel edge and the rail. At once, no longer buoyed up by the Elsinore's two-knot drag ahead, the wounded men began to swim and flounder. The circling hosts of huge sea-birds descended upon them, with carnivorous beaks striking at their heads and shoulders and arms.
Fay instantly rushed into Helyar's General Store to buy a log-line of her own; Mavis and Merle, after cautiously ascertaining the cost, invested in one between them, while Tattle, Nan, and Lizzie contented themselves with purchasing a few fishhooks and a ball of fine string. "I suppose we ought really to take some bait with us," remarked Romola casually.
I then tried my lines by fastening several very long ones, made of the log-line, to the side of the boat, baiting them with several different baits, but took only one fish of about four pounds weight, very much resembling a haddock, part of which I dressed for my supper after my return to the ship, and it proved very good. Towards evening I returned to my home, as I may call it.
I also learnt how to find my latitude, by "bringing down the sun" with the sextant; and was taught the bearings and deviation of the compass, as well as the mastery of the log-line and other similar little niceties of navigation.
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