When a new crew is shipped on an old vessel¹, the mate's first duty is to search the sailors' dunnage for whiskey; when an old crew is shipped on a new vessel, that officer would do well to search the vessel for rum.  
Madden had neglected this. While the American was in the engine room, the cockneys in the cook's galley² had found intoxicants, had poured raw whiskey into their empty stomachs and the result was the quickest and most complete intoxication³. When Madden regained⁴ the deck he found his crew singing, laughing, fighting, quarreling in an absurd medley⁵.
 
Deschaillon roared out a French song. Two cockneys quarreled bitterly over what words he was saying. Mike Hogan jigged⁶ to the Frenchman's tune⁷, but shouted as he danced that he was spoiling for a fight. The smell of spirits reeked⁸ over the tug⁹ as if someone had sprinkled her deck with liquor.
 
Madden looked with anxious eyes for Caradoc, but did not see him. Smith was probably stuck away in some hole, senseless with poison, his effort at sobriety frustrated¹⁰, his moral courage shattered, his weeks of painful reform smashed.
 
Whatever humor there might have been in the ill-starred situation was destroyed for Madden by his friend's moral relapse. It was much as if some invalid¹¹, nursing a broken leg, should fall and break it over again.
 
Gaskin was the first man who came in reach of the wrathful American. Madden caught his arm, whirled him about.
 
"You ladle rum out to these hogs¹²?" he blazed.
 
Gaskin revolved¹³ with dignity and considered his accuser. "You wouldn't think Hi'd do such a thing, sor!"
 
"Then how did they get it?" Leonard shook the fat arm sharply.
 
"In spite o' me, sor! In spite o' me!" defended the cook, shaking his fat jowls earnestly. "Hi rebooked 'em, sor. Says Hi, 'Gents, this is lootin', it is piratin', it is——'"
 
"You should have refused them a drop!"
 
"Refuse—Hi did refuse, sor! Hi did more. Hi blocked 'em! Hi—Hi fought hout, like a demon¹⁴, sor! There were too many! Hoverpowered me, sor, they did! I was fightin' and blockin', fightin' and blockin', like a d-demon, sor, b-but—b-but——"
 
Here Gaskin's utterance¹⁵ grew thicker, his fat head bobbed, then he slithered down by the rail in the hot sunshine; his face stared skyward and stewed¹⁶ sweat in the terrific heat. Madden gave a grunt¹⁷ of disgust. Gaskin was fast asleep.
 
There was nothing to be done. The men were drunk and he would have to wait till they became sober before making an attempt to run the Vulcan. He stood a moment, staring disgustedly at his useless crew, then finally stooped and dragged Gaskin to the shady side of the superstructure. As he passed with his burden some of the men made clumsy tangle-footed efforts to salute¹⁸.
 
In the shade Leonard found a deck chair, perched himself on its arm so as not to touch its hot canvas, and sat brooding glumly¹⁹. He banished²⁰ the drunken uproar²¹ from his brain and began totting up his prospects²² for escape from this foully²³ beautiful sea. His mind jumped from topic to topic in an exhausted²⁴ fashion. He wondered whether or not Galton really knew anything of marine²⁵ engines? If the dock would be discovered by a passing ship? If the tug's crew had really gone demented and leaped overboard? If there were any connection between the fate of the Minnie B and the Vulcan?
 
It seemed to Madden that he had been in the heat and brilliant garishness²⁶ of the Sargasso for centuries. He wondered if the men would become so starved that they would draw lots to see who should be killed and eaten.
 
Anything, everything, was possible in this isolated²⁷ sea. Its normal happenings were unreasonable²⁸. It was a place of madness. He recalled the words of the navvy on the London dock, "Everything is unreasonable at sea." Certainly that was true of the vast stewing²⁹ labyrinth³⁰ of the Sargasso. He had lived abnormally so long that it seemed strange to him now to think that there were comfortable, well-ordered places on the face of the earth. Just as one cannot imagine snow and ice in the depth of summer, so Madden could not imagine the simple comforts of life. It seemed to him the whole world shriveled under a furnace heat.
 
Such heat, such congestion³¹, he thought, might well breed sea-monsters. After all, why should there not be a sea monster? Who could be sure that the old megalosauri, and megalichthys were extinct? Those monsters existed once upon a time, certainly. He was half persuaded that they still existed.
 
A sea serpent!
 
He wondered what a sea serpent would look like? One might well drive a man insane, cause him to leap overboard in utter horror.
 
His feverish³² brooding was interrupted by a wild flood of abuse from the starboard deck. It was Galton's voice bellowing³³:
 
"Were is 'e? Were is that bloody³⁴ Hamerican? 'E 'it me! 'It me in th' eye for trying to 'elp 'im! You lads goin' to see me murdered for nothin'?"
 
Came a medley of drunken questions:
 
"W'ot's th' matter? Who

Join or Log In! You need to log in to continue reading

Create a new account   I have a account already

	Create an New Account
Email:  (User Name)
Password:	Letters and numbers only. 6-20 characters.
Retype Password:
Screen Name:	Letters and numbers only. 6-50 Characters.
Confirmation Code:	(Please type in the characters in the green image.)

	Login into Your Account
Email:
Password:
	Remember me on this computer.