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Typhoon-Part2_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Nan-Shan, and applied himself to the careful navigation of his

ship in the China seas. She had come out on a British register,



but after some time Messrs. Sigg judged it expedient to transfer

her to the Siamese flag.



At the news of the contemplated transfer Jukes grew restless, as

if under a sense of personal affront. He went about grumbling to



himself, and uttering short scornful laughs. "Fancy having a

ridiculous Noah's Ark elephant in the ensign of one's ship," he



said once at the engine-room door. "Dash me if I can stand it:

I'll throw up the billet. Don't it make you sick, Mr. Rout?"



The chief engineer only cleared his throat with the air of a man

who knows the value of a good billet.



The first morning the new flag floated over the stern of the

Nan-Shan Jukes stood looking at it bitterly from the bridge. He



struggled with his feelings for a while, and then remarked,

"Queer flag for a man to sail under, sir."



"What's the matter with the flag?" inquired Captain MacWhirr.

"Seems all right to me." And he walked across to the end of the



bridge to have a good look.

"Well, it looks queer to me," burst out Jukes, greatly



exasperated, and flung off the bridge.

Captain MacWhirr was amazed at these manners. After a while he



stepped quietly into the chart-room, and opened his International

Signal Code-book at the plate where the flags of all the nations



are correctly figured in gaudy rows. He ran his finger over

them, and when he came to Siam he contemplated with great



attention the red field and the white elephant. Nothing could be

more simple; but to make sure he brought the book out on the



bridge for the purpose of comparing the coloured drawing with the

real thing at the flagstaff astern. When next Jukes, who was



carrying on the duty that day with a sort of suppressed

fierceness, happened on the bridge, his commander observed:



"There's nothing amiss with that flag."

"Isn't there?" mumbled Jukes, falling on his knees before a



deck-locker and jerking therefrom viciously a spare lead-line.

"No. I looked up the book. Length twice the breadth and the



elephant exactly in the middle. I thought the people ashore

would know how to make the local flag. Stands to reason. You



were wrong, Jukes. . . ."

"Well, sir," began Jukes, getting up excitedly, "all I can say



--" He fumbled for the end of the coil of line with trembling

hands.



"That's all right." Captain MacWhirr soothed him, sitting

heavily on a little canvas folding-stool he greatly affected.



"All you have to do is to take care they don't hoist the elephant

upside-down before they get quite used to it."



Jukes flung the new lead-line over on the fore-deck with a loud

"Here you are, bo'ss'en -- don't forget to wet it thoroughly,"



and turned with immenseresolution towards his commander; but

Captain MacWhirr spread his elbows on the bridge-rail



comfortably.

"Because it would be, I suppose, understood as a signal of



distress," he went on. "What do you think? That elephant there,

I take it, stands for something in the nature of the Union Jack



in the flag. . . ."

"Does it!" yelled Jukes, so that every head on the Nan-Shan's



decks looked towards the bridge. Then he sighed, and with sudden

resignation: "It would certainly be a dam' distressful sight," he



said, meekly.

Later in the day he accosted the chief engineer with a



confidential, "Here, let me tell you the old man's latest."

Mr. Solomon Rout (frequently alluded to as Long Sol, Old Sol, or



Father Rout), from finding himself almost invariably the tallest

man on board every ship he joined, had acquired the habit of a



stooping, leisurely condescension. His hair was scant and sandy,

his flat cheeks were pale, his bony wrists and long scholarly



hands were pale, too, as though he had lived all his life in the

shade.



He smiled from on high at Jukes, and went on smoking and glancing

about quietly, in the manner of a kind uncle lending an ear to



the tale of an excited schoolboy. Then, greatly amused but




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