The Sea-Wolf

Prev | Current Page 527 | Next

London, Jack

"The Sea-Wolf"

The wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle. At eight o'clock I had succeeded only in putting the second reef into the foresail. At eleven o'clock I was no further along. Blood dripped from every finger-end, while the nails were broken to the quick. From pain and sheer exhaustion, I wept in the darkness, secretly, so that Maud should not know.

? ? ? ? Then, in desperation, I abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail, and resolved to try the experiment of heaving to under the close-reefed foresail. Three hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib, and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and worked out of me, I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the experiment was a success.

? ? ? ? I was famished, but Maud tried vainly to get me to eat. So sleepily helpless was I that she was compelled to hold me in my chair to prevent my being flung to the floor by the violent pitching of the schooner.

? ? ? ? Of the passage from the galley to the cabin I knew nothing.

Pages:
515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533

Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) (page 68) The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island (page 6) The Universal Copyright Convention (1988) (page 15)

Gallery eBooks

London, Jack

"The Sea-Wolf"