PART FIVE: My Sea Adventure
Chapter 26: Israel Hands
(continued)
"Why?" said he. "Now, you tell me why."
"Why?" I cried. "You were asking me just now about the
dead. You've broken your trust; you've lived in sin
and lies and blood; there's a man you killed lying at
your feet this moment, and you ask me why! For God's
mercy, Mr. Hands, that's why."
I spoke with a little heat, thinking of the bloody dirk
he had hidden in his pocket and designed, in his ill
thoughts, to end me with. He, for his part, took a
great draught of the wine and spoke with the most
unusual solemnity.
"For thirty years," he said, "I've sailed the seas and
seen good and bad, better and worse, fair weather and
foul, provisions running out, knives going, and what
not. Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o'
goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead
men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it. And
now, you look here," he added, suddenly changing his
tone, "we've had about enough of this foolery. The
tide's made good enough by now. You just take my orders,
Cap'n Hawkins, and we'll sail slap in and be done with it."
All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the
navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern
anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east
and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled
to be got in. I think I was a good, prompt subaltern,
and I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot,
for we went about and about and dodged in, shaving the
banks, with a certainty and a neatness that were a
pleasure to behold.
Scarcely had we passed the heads before the land closed
around us. The shores of North Inlet were as thickly
wooded as those of the southern anchorage, but the
space was longer and narrower and more like, what in
truth it was, the estuary of a river. Right before us,
at the southern end, we saw the wreck of a ship in the
last stages of dilapidation. It had been a great
vessel of three masts but had lain so long exposed to
the injuries of the weather that it was hung about with
great webs of dripping seaweed, and on the deck of it
shore bushes had taken root and now flourished thick
with flowers. It was a sad sight, but it showed us
that the anchorage was calm.
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