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Jerry of the Islands-Part12_JACK LONDON(1876-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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But Borckman made no reply and sullenly went about his work. There

was little wind in the bay, and the Arangi slowly forged in and



dropped anchor in thirty fathoms. So steep was the slope of the

harbour bed from the beach that even in such excessive depth the



Arangi's stern swung in within a hundred feet of the mangroves.

Van Horn continued to cast anxious glances at the wooded shore. For



Su'u had an evil name. Since the schooner Fair Hathaway, recruiting

labour for the Queensland plantations, had been captured by the



natives and all hands slain fifteen years before, no vessel, with

the exception of the Arangi, had dared to venture into Su'u. And



most white men condemned Van Horn's recklessness for so venturing.

Far up the mountains, that towered many thousands of feet into the



trade-wind clouds, arose many signal smokes that advertised the

coming of the vessel. Far and near, the Arangi's presence was



known; yet from the jungle so near at hand only shrieks of parrots

and chatterings of cockatoos could be heard.



The whaleboat, manned with six of the boat's crew, was drawn

alongside, and the fifteen Su'u boys and their boxes were loaded in.



Under the canvas flaps along the thwarts, ready to hand for the

rowers, were laid five of the Lee-Enfields. On deck, another of the



boat's crew, rifle in hand, guarded the remaining weapons. Borckman

had brought up his own rifle to be ready for instant use. Van



Horn's rifle lay handy in the stern sheets where he stood near

Tambi, who steered with a long sweep. Jerry raised a low whine and



yearned over the rail after Skipper, who yielded and lifted him

down.



The place of danger was in the boat; for there was little

likelihood, at this particular time, of a rising of the return boys



on the Arangi. Being of Somo, No-ola, Langa-Langa, and far Malu

they were in wholesome fear, did they lose the protection of their



white masters, of being eaten by the Su'u folk, just as the Su'u

boys would have feared being eaten by the Somo and Langa-Langa and



No-ola folk.

What increased the danger of the boat was the absence of a covering



boat. The invariable custom of the larger recruiting vessels was to

send two boats on any shore errand. While one landed on the beach,



the other lay off a short distance to cover the retreat of the shore

party, if trouble broke out. Too small to carry one boat on deck,



the Arangi could not conveniently tow two astern; so Van Horn, who

was the most daring of the recruiters, lacked this essential



safeguard.

Tambi, under Van Horn's low-uttered commands, steered a parallel



course along the shore. Where the mangroves ceased, and where high

ground and a beaten runway came down to the water's edge, Van Horn



motioned the rowers to back water and lay on their oars. High palms

and lofty, wide-branched trees rose above the jungle at this spot,



and the runway showed like the entrance of a tunnel into the dense,

green wall of tropicalvegetation.



Van Horn, regarding the shore for some sign of life, lighted a cigar

and put one hand to the waist-line of his loin-cloth to reassure



himself of the presence of the stick of dynamite that was tucked

between the loin-cloth and his skin. The lighted cigar was for the



purpose, if emergency arose, of igniting the fuse of the dynamite.

And the fuse was so short, with its end split to accommodate the



inserted head of a safety match, that between the time of touching

it off with the live cigar to the time of the explosion not more



than three seconds could elapse. This required quick cool work on

Van Horn's part, in case need arose. In three seconds he would have



to light the fuse and throw the sputtering stick with directed aim

to its objective. However, he did not expect to use it, and had it



ready merely as a precautionary measure.

Five minutes passed, and the silence of the shore remained profound.



Jerry sniffed Skipper's bare leg as if to assure him that he was

beside him no matter what threatened from the hostile silence of the



land, then stood up with his forepaws on the gunwale and continued

to sniff eagerly and audibly, to prick his neck hair, and to utter



low growls.

"They're there, all right," Skipper confided to him; and Jerry, with



a sideward glance of smiling eyes, with a bobbing of his tail and a

quick love-flattening of his ears, turned his nose shoreward again



and resumed his reading of the jungle tale that was wafted to him on




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