United States or Oman ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Gujarati was soon up and relieved the serang at the wheel; the rest of the crew, haggard melancholy objects, were set to work to make things shipshape. Only the Babu remained below; he lay huddled in the cabin, bruised, prostrate, unable to realize that the bitterness of death was past, unable to believe that life had any further interest for him. Desmond's position was perplexing.
I am not a fool, you know, Captain Whalley partner." Again he paused, as though he had done for good. He passed his tongue over his lips, gave a backward glance at the Serang conning the ship with quiet whispers and slight signs of the hand. The wash of the propeller sent a swift ripple, crested with dark froth, upon a long flat spit of black slime.
"Starboard," muttered the Serang to the helmsman; and the Sofala began to swing round the bend into the second reach. "Ough!" Massy shuddered. "You make my blood run cold. What made you come here? What made you come aboard that evening all of a sudden, with your high talk and your money tempting me? I always wondered what was your motive?
There is Sali, the foolish son of my sister and by your great favour appointed to mind the tiller of this ship. His stupidity is extreme, but his eyes are good nearly as good as mine that by praying and much exercise can see far into the night." Lingard laughed low and then looked earnestly at the serang.
"Very likely," he observed; "that serang has a hang-dog look, which shows that he is capable of attempting any atrocity; but I do not think he will succeed notwithstanding. I will tell the captain in the morning, but there is no necessity to do so now.
The serang himself lay out on the weather yard-arm, and I saw him, earing in hand, working away actively with the rest. The dream was still vivid on my mind; and I could not help feeling surprised at seeing him thus engaged, when I had expected to be struggling in a deadly conflict with him and his companions. The ship was soon brought under snug sail, and standing on her course to the eastward.
Over the water and the empty courtyard came a distinct voice from a small schooner anchored abreast of the Lingard jetty. "Serang! Take a pull at the main peak halyards. This gaff is down on the boom." There was a shrill pipe dying in long-drawn cadence, the song of the men swinging on the rope. The voice said sharply: "That will do!"
Very straight." "It is well; and remember, Serang, that the order is that you are to mind the helmsmen and keep a lookout with care, the same as if I were not on deck." Then, when the Serang had made his answer, the low tones on the bridge would cease, and everything round Sterne seemed to become more still and more profoundly silent.
It was the Serang, an elderly, alert, little Malay, with a very dark skin, who murmured the order to the helmsman. And then slowly Captain Whalley sat down again in the arm-chair on the bridge and fixed his eyes on the deck between his feet. He could not hope to see anything new upon this lane of the sea. He had been on these coasts for the last three years.
The work of loading had been protracted to the utmost by the serang; for Desmond did not wish to leave the neighborhood of Calcutta at the present juncture, when everything turned upon their being on the spot at the critical moment. While they were talking, a man who had every appearance of a respectable banya approached the plank over which the coolies were carrying the jawer on board.
Word Of The Day