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And first I said to Hurliguerly: “It was on Atkins that I reckoned to introduce me to Captain Len Guy, for he knows him very intimately, if I am not mistaken.” “Pooh! Atkins is a good sort, and the captain has an esteem for him. But he can’t do what I can. Let me act for you, Mr. Jeorling.” “Is it so difficult a matter to arrange, boatswain, and is there not a cabin on board the Halbrane?
Our speed is slackening, it seems to me, and it is possible that an eddy may bring us back obliquely to the coast.” “That is my opinion too,” said the boatswain, “and if our floating machine is not stationary, it is nearly so. It seems to be turning round.” West and Hurliguerly were not mistaken. For some reason or other the iceberg was getting out of the course which it had followed continuously.
Hurliguerly set foot upon a spot which still offered some resistance. Gratian got out after him, while Francis kept the boat fast by the chain. The two crept along the ice until they reached the corpse, then drew it to them by the arms and legs and so got it into the boat. A few strokes of the oars and the boatswain had rejoined the schooner.
“On what account?” “On account of your intention to embark on the Halbrane.” “Who are you?” “I am Hurliguerly, the boatswain of the Halbrane, and besides, I am the faithful companion of Captain Len Guy, who will listen to me willingly, although he has the reputation of not listening to anybody.” “Well, my friend, let us talk, if you are not required on board just now.”
They were aware, also, that the mate was a man whom it would not do to vex, for Hurliguerly had given them to understand that West would break any man’s head who did not go straight. His chief allowed him full latitude in this respect. “A latitude,” he added, “which is obtained by taking the altitude of the eye with a shut fist.”
Jeorling,” exclaimed Hurliguerly, “and I fear indeed ” “What you also, boatswain you whom I believed to be so confident!” “Confidence, Mr. Jeorling, wears out like the ends of one’s trousers, What would you have me do?
Jeorling,” replied the boatswain, “that what we see there is neither a blower nor a wreck, but merely a lump of ice.” “Hurliguerly is right,” said James West; “it is a lump of ice, a piece of an iceberg which the currents have carried hither.” “What?” said I, “to the forty-fifth parallel?”
With this, Hurliguerly swallowed his last glass of whisky at a gulp I thought the glass would have gone down with the liquor bestowed a patronizing smile on me, and departed. An hour later, I met the innkeeper on the port, and told him what had occurred. “Ah! that Hurliguerly!” said he, “always the old story.
He could not understand the captain’s obstinate refusal. And a fact which touched him more nearly the Green Cormorant had not been visited by either Len Guy or his crew since the arrival of the Halbrane. The men were evidently acting upon orders. So far as Hurliguerly was concerned, it was easy to understand that after his imprudent advance he did not care to keep up useless relations with me.
He was absolutely silent on that and every other subject. “If he does not speak to you, boatswain,” I said, “neither does he speak to me.” “Do you know, Mr. Jeorling, what it is my notion that man has already done?” “Tell me, Hurliguerly.” “Well, then, I believe he has gone far, far into the southern seas, let him be as dumb as a fish about it. Why he is dumb is his own affair.
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