headlands; my men and me knew the people were short of supplies and
had to pinch themselves. It ought to read in the Bible, 'Man

cannot live by fish alone,' if they'd told the truth of things;
'taint bread that wears the worst on you! First part of the time,

old Gaffett, that I lived with, seemed speechless, and I didn't
know what to make of him, nor he of me, I dare say; but as we got

acquainted, I found he'd been through more disasters than I had,
and had troubles that wa'n't going to let him live a great while.

It used to ease his mind to talk to an understanding person, so we
used to sit and talk together all day, if it rained or blew so that

we couldn't get out. I'd got a bad blow on the back of my head at
the time we came ashore, and it pained me at times, and my strength

was broken, anyway; I've never been so able since."
Captain Littlepage fell into a reverie.

"Then I had the good of my reading," he explained presently.
"I had no books; the pastor spoke but little English, and all his

books were foreign; but I used to say over all I could remember.
The old poets little knew what comfort they could be to a

man. I was well acquainted with the works of Milton, but up there
it did seem to me as if Shakespeare was the king; he has his sea

terms very accurate, and some beautiful passages were calming to
the mind. I could say them over until I shed tears; there was

nothing beautiful to me in that place but the stars above and those
passages of verse.

"Gaffett was always brooding and brooding, and talking to
himself; he was afraid he should never get away, and it preyed upon

his mind. He thought when I got home I could interest the
scientific men in his discovery: but they're all taken up with

their own notions; some didn't even take pains to answer the
letters I wrote. You observe that I said this crippled man Gaffett

had been shipped on a voyage of discovery. I now tell you that the
ship was lost on its return, and only Gaffett and two officers were

saved off the Greenland coast, and he had knowledge later that
those men never got back to England; the brig they shipped on was

run down in the night. So no other living soul had the facts, and
he gave them to me. There is a strange sort of a country 'way up

north beyond the ice, and strange folks living in it. Gaffett
believed it was the next world to this."

"What do you mean, Captain Littlepage?" I exclaimed. The old
man was bending forward and whispering; he looked over his shoulder

before he spoke the last sentence.
"To hear old Gaffett tell about it was something awful," he

said, going on with his story quite steadily after the moment of
excitement had passed. "'Twas first a tale of dogs and sledges,

and cold and wind and snow. Then they begun to find the ice grow
rotten; they had been frozen in, and got into a current flowing

north, far up beyond Fox Channel, and they took to their boats when
the ship got crushed, and this warm current took them out of sight

of the ice, and into a great open sea; and they still followed it
due north, just the very way they had planned to go. Then they

struck a coast that wasn't laid down or charted, but the cliffs
were such that no boat could land until they found a bay and struck

across under sail to the other side where the shore looked lower;
they were scant of provisions and out of water, but they got sight

of something that looked like a great town. 'For God's sake,
Gaffett!' said I, the first time he told me. 'You don't mean a

town two degrees farther north than ships had ever been?' for he'd
got their course marked on an old chart that he'd pieced out at the

top; but he insisted upon it, and told it over and over again, to
be sure I had it straight to carry to those who would be

interested. There was no snow and ice, he said, after they had
sailed some days with that warm current, which seemed to come right

from under the ice that they'd been pinched up in and had
been crossing on foot for weeks."

"But what about the town?" I asked. "Did they get to the
town?"

"They did," said the captain, "and found inhabitants; 'twas an
awful condition of things. It appeared, as near as Gaffett could

express it, like a place where there was neither living nor dead.
They could see the place when they were approaching it by sea

pretty near like any town, and thick with habitations; but all at
once they lost sight of it altogether, and when they got close

inshore they could see the shapes of folks, but they never could
get near them,--all blowing gray figures that would pass along

alone, or sometimes gathered in companies as if they were watching.
The men were frightened at first, but the shapes never came near

them,--it was as if they blew back; and at last they all got bold
and went ashore, and found birds' eggs and sea fowl, like any wild

northern spot where creatures were tame and folks had never been,
and there was good water. Gaffett said that he and another man

came near one o' the fog-shaped men that was going along slow with
the look of a pack on his back, among the rocks, an' they chased

him; but, Lord! he flittered away out o' sight like a leaf the wind
takes with it, or a piece of cobweb. They would make as if they

talked together, but there was no sound of voices, and 'they acted
as if they didn't see us, but only felt us coming towards them,'

says Gaffett one day, trying to tell the particulars. They
couldn't see the town when they were ashore. One day the captain

and the doctor were gone till night up across the high land where
the town had seemed to be, and they came back at night beat out and

white as ashes, and wrote and wrote all next day in their
notebooks, and whispered together full of excitement, and they were

sharp-spoken with the men when they offered to ask any questions.
"Then there came a day," said Captain Littlepage, leaning

toward me with a strange look in his eyes, and whispering quickly.
"The men all swore they wouldn't stay any longer; the man on watch

early in the morning gave the alarm, and they all put off in the
boat and got a little way out to sea. Those folks, or whatever

they were, come about 'em like bats; all at once they raised
incessant armies, and come as if to drive 'em back to sea. They

stood thick at the edge o' the water like the ridges o' grim war;
no thought o' flight, none of retreat. Sometimes a standing fight,

then soaring on main wing tormented all the air. And when they'd
got the boat out o' reach o' danger, Gaffett said they looked back,

and there was the town again, standing up just as they'd seen it
first, comin' on the coast. Say what you might, they all believed

'twas a kind of waiting-place between this world an' the next."
The captain had sprung to his feet in his excitement, and made

excited gestures, but he still whispered huskily.
"Sit down, sir," I said as quietly as I could, and he sank

into his chair quite spent.
"Gaffett thought the officers were hurrying home to report and

to fit out a new expedition when they were all lost. At the time,
the men got orders not to talk over what they had seen," the old

man explained presently in a more natural tone.
"Weren't they all starving, and wasn't it a mirage or

something of that sort?" I ventured to ask. But he looked at me
blankly.

"Gaffett had got so that his mind ran on nothing else," he
went on. "The ship's surgeon let fall an opinion to the captain,

one day, that 'twas some condition o' the light and the magnetic
currents that let them see those folks. 'Twa'n't a right-feeling

part of the world, anyway; they had to battle with the compass to
make it serve, an' everything seemed to go wrong. Gaffett had

worked it out in his own mind that they was all common ghosts, but
the conditions were unusualfavorable for seeing them. He was

always talking about the Ge'graphical Society, but he never took
proper steps, as I viewed it now, and stayed right there at the

mission. He was a good deal crippled, and thought they'd confine
him in some jail of a hospital. He said he was waiting to find the

right men to tell, somebody bound north. Once in a while they
stopped there to leave a mail or something. He was set in his

notions, and let two or three proper explorin' expeditions go by
him because he didn't like their looks; but when I was there he had

got restless, fearin' he might be taken away or something. He had
all his directions written out straight as a string to give the

right ones. I wanted him to trust 'em to me, so I might have
something to show, but he wouldn't. I suppose he's dead now. I

wrote to him an' I done all I could. 'Twill be a great exploit
some o' these days."

I assented absent-mindedly, thinking more just then of my
companion's alert, determined look and the seafaring, ready aspect

that had come to his face; but at this moment there fell a sudden
change, and the old, pathetic, scholarly look returned. Behind me

hung a map of North America, and I saw, as I turned a little, that
his eyes were fixed upon the northernmost regions and their careful

recent outlines with a look of bewilderment.
VII

The Outer Island
GAFFETT WITH HIS good bunk and the bird-skins, the story of

the wreck of the Minerva, the human-shaped creatures of fog and
cobweb, the great words of Milton with which he described their

onslaught upon the crew, all this moving tale had such an air of
truth that I could not argue with Captain Littlepage. The old man

looked away from the map as if it had vaguely troubled him, and
regarded me appealingly.

"We were just speaking of"--and he stopped. I saw that he had
suddenly forgotten his subject.

"There were a great many persons at the funeral," I hastened
to say.

"Oh yes," the captain answered, with satisfaction. "All
showed respect who could. The sad circumstances had for a moment

slipped my mind. Yes, Mrs. Begg will be very much missed. She was
a capital manager for her husband when he was at sea. Oh yes,

shipping is a very great loss." And he sighed heavily. "There was
hardly a man of any standing who didn't interest himself in some

way in navigation. It always gave credit to a town. I call it
low-water mark now here in Dunnet."

He rose with dignity to take leave, and asked me to stop at
his house some day, when he would show me some outlandish things

that he had brought home from sea. I was familiar with the subject
of the decadence of shipping interests in all its affecting

branches, having been already some time in Dunnet, and I felt sure
that Captain Littlepage's mind had now returned to a safe level.

As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided,
and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece

of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the
best of friends. "Step in some afternoon," he said, as

affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee
shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met

Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression.
"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill," she

suggested.
"Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him," I

answered, and her face brightened.
"Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his

flighty spells, an' Mari' Harris wouldn't"--
"Yes," I returned, smiling, "he has been telling me some old

stories, but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and
Paradise Lost."

"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives,"
she answered, looking at me shrewdly. "Funerals always sets him

goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well," she
added, with a sharper look than before. "An' he's been a great

reader all his seafarin' days. Some thinks he overdid, and
affected his head, but for a man o' his years he's amazin' now when

he's at his best. Oh, he used to be a beautiful man!"
We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and

its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the
pointed firs, darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to

embark. As we looked far seaward among the outer islands, the

• ashore [ə´ʃɔ:] ad.向岸上 (初中英语单词)
• shakespeare [´ʃeikspiə] n.莎士比亚 (初中英语单词)
• accurate [´ækjurət] a.准确的；精密的 (初中英语单词)
• voyage [´vɔi-idʒ] n.&vi.航海；航程；旅行 (初中英语单词)
• steadily [´stedili] ad.坚定地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
• frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
• altogether [,ɔ:ltə´geðə] ad.完全；总而言之 (初中英语单词)
• excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• retreat [ri´tri:t] v.&n.退却；撤退；放弃 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• expedition [,ekspi´diʃən] n.远征；探险；迅速 (初中英语单词)
• presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
• compass [´kʌmpəs] n.指南针；圆规 (初中英语单词)
• unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl] a.不平常的；异常的 (初中英语单词)
• favorable [´feivərəbəl] a.赞成的；顺利的 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• restless [´restləs] a.没有休息的 (初中英语单词)
• satisfaction [,sætis´fækʃən] n.满意；满足 (初中英语单词)
• manager [´mænidʒə] n.经理；管理人；干事 (初中英语单词)
• dignity [´digniti] n.尊严，尊贵；高官显贵 (初中英语单词)
• shipping [´ʃipiŋ] n.船运业；船舶(总数) (初中英语单词)
• anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
• funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
• pastor [´pɑ:stə] n.牧师 (高中英语单词)
• sprung [sprʌŋ] spring的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
• surgeon [´sə:dʒən] n.外科医生；军医 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• navigation [,nævi´geiʃən] n.航行；航空；导航 (高中英语单词)
• sidewalk [´saidwɔ:k] n.人行道 (高中英语单词)
• speechless [´spi:tʃləs] a.说不出话的 (英语四级单词)
• cobweb [´kɔbweb] n.蜘蛛网；蛛丝 (英语四级单词)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
• pathetic [pə´θetik] a.可怜的；悲哀的 (英语四级单词)
• vaguely [´veigli] ad.含糊地，暖昧地 (英语四级单词)
• speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
• darkly [´dɑ:kli] adv.暗，黑；暗中 (英语六级单词)
• seaward [´si:wəd] a.&ad.朝海(的) (英语六级单词)