The Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne (top rated books of all time .txt) 📕

can only manage to sit beside the tiller and steer for two hours

every day, so as to let me get a nap, I’ll engage to let you off

duty all the rest of the twenty-four hours. And if you don’t feel

able for steering, I’ll lash the helm and heave to, while I get you

your breakfasts and dinners; and so we’ll manage famously, and soon

reach the Coral Island.”

Bill smiled faintly as I ran on in this strain.

“And what will you do,” said he, “if it comes on to blow a storm?”

This question silenced me, while I considered what I should do in

such a case. At length I laid my hand an his arm, and said, “Bill,

when a man has done all that he CAN do, he ought to leave the rest

to God.”

“Oh, Ralph,” said my companion, in a faint voice, looking anxiously

into my face, “I wish that I had the feelin’s about God that you

seem to have, at this hour. I’m dyin’, Ralph; yet I, who have

braved death a hundred times, am afraid to die. I’m afraid to

enter the next world. Something within tells me there will be a

reckoning when I go there. But it’s all over with me, Ralph. I

feel that there’s no chance o’ my bein’ saved.”

“Don’t say that, Bill,” said I, in deep compassion, “don’t say

that. I’m quite sure there’s hope even for you, but I can’t

remember the words of the Bible that make me think so. Is there

not a Bible on board, Bill?”

“No; the last that was in the ship belonged to a poor boy that was

taken aboard against his will. He died, poor lad, I think, through

ill treatment and fear. After he was gone the captain found his

Bible and flung it overboard.”

I now reflected, with great sadness and self-reproach, on the way

in which I had neglected my Bible; and it flashed across me that I

was actually in the sight of God a greater sinner than this blood-stained pirate; for, thought I, he tells me that he never read the

Bible, and was never brought up to care for it; whereas I was

carefully taught to read it by my own mother, and had read it daily

as long as I possessed one, yet to so little purpose that I could

not now call to mind a single text that would meet this poor man’s

case, and afford him the consolation he so much required. I was

much distressed, and taxed my memory for a long time. At last a

text did flash into my mind, and I wondered much that I had not

thought of it before.

“Bill,” said I, in a low voice, “‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and thou shalt be saved.’”

“Ay, Ralph, I’ve heard the missionaries say that before now, but

what good can it do me? It’s not for me that. It’s not for the

likes o’ me.”

I knew not now what to say, for, although I felt sure that that

word was for him as well as for me, I could not remember any other

word whereby I could prove it.

After a short pause, Bill raised his eyes to mine and said, “Ralph,

I’ve led a terrible life. I’ve been a sailor since I was a boy,

and I’ve gone from bad to worse ever since I left my father’s roof.

I’ve been a pirate three years now. It is true I did not choose

the trade, but I was inveigled aboard this schooner and kept here

by force till I became reckless and at last joined them. Since

that time my hand has been steeped in human blood again and again.

Your young heart would grow cold if I - ; but why should I go on?

‘Tis of no use, Ralph; my doom is fixed.”

“Bill,” said I, “‘Though your sins be red like crimson, they shall

be white as snow.’ ‘Only believe.’”

“Only believe!” cried Bill, starting up on his elbow; “I’ve heard

men talk o’ believing as if it was easy. Ha! ‘tis easy enough for

a man to point to a rope and say, ‘I believe that would bear my

weight;’ but ‘tis another thing for a man to catch hold o’ that

rope, and swing himself by it over the edge of a precipice!”

The energy with which he said this, and the action with which it

was accompanied, were too much for Bill. He sank back with a deep

groan. As if the very elements sympathized with this man’s

sufferings, a low moan came sweeping over the sea.

“Hist! Ralph,” said Bill, opening his eves; “there’s a squall

coming, lad. Look alive, boy. Clew up the fore-sail. Drop the

main-sail peak. Them squalls come quick sometimes.”

I had already started to my feet, and saw that a heavy squall was

indeed bearing down on us. It had hitherto escaped my notice,

owing to my being so much engrossed by our conversation. I

instantly did as Bill desired, for the schooner was still lying

motionless on the glassy sea. I observed with some satisfaction

that the squall was bearing down on the larboard bow, so that it

would strike the vessel in the position in which she would be best

able to stand the shock. Having done my best to shorten sail, I

returned aft, and took my stand at the helm.

“Now, boy,” said Bill, in a faint voice, “keep her close to the

wind.”

A few seconds afterwards he said, “Ralph, let me hear those two

texts again.”

I repeated them.

“Are ye sure, lad, ye saw them in the Bible?”

“Quite sure,” I replied.

Almost before the words had left my lips the wind burst upon us,

and the spray dashed over our decks. For a time the schooner stood

it bravely, and sprang forward against the rising sea like a war-horse. Meanwhile clouds darkened the sky, and the sea began to

rise in huge billows. There was still too much sail on the

schooner, and, as the gale increased, I feared that the masts would

be torn out of her or carried away, while the wind whistled and

shrieked through the strained rigging. Suddenly the wind shifted a

point, a heavy sea struck us on the bow, and the schooner was

almost laid on her beam-ends, so that I could scarcely keep my

legs. At the same moment Bill lost his hold of the belaying-pin

which had served to steady him, and he slid with stunning violence

against the sky-light. As he lay on the deck close beside me, I

could see that the shock had rendered him insensible, but I did not

dare to quit the tiller for an instant, as it required all my

faculties, bodily and mental, to manage the schooner. For an hour

the blast drove us along, while, owing to the sharpness of the

vessel’s bow and the press of canvass, she dashed through the waves

instead of breasting over them, thereby drenching the decks with

water fore and aft. At the end of that time the squall passed

away, and left us rocking on the bosom of the agitated sea.

My first care, the instant I could quit the helm, was to raise Bill

from the deck and place him on the couch. I then ran below for the

brandy bottle and rubbed his face and hands with it, and

endeavoured to pour a little down his throat. But my efforts,

although I continued them long and assiduously, were of no avail;

as I let go the hand which I had been chafing it fell heavily on

the deck. I laid my hand over his heart, and sat for some time

quite motionless, but there was no flutter there - the pirate was

dead!

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Alone on the deep - Necessity the mother of invention - A valuable

book discovered - Natural phenomenon - A bright day in my history.

IT was with feelings of awe, not unmingled with fear, that I now

seated myself on the cabin sky-light and gazed upon the rigid

features of my late comrade, while my mind wandered over his past

history and contemplated with anxiety my present position. Alone!

in the midst of the wide Pacific, having a most imperfect knowledge

of navigation, and in a schooner requiring at least eight men as

her proper crew. But I will not tax the reader’s patience with a

minute detail of my feelings and doings during the first few days

that followed the death of my companion. I will merely mention

that I tied a cannon ball to his feet and, with feelings of the

deepest sorrow, consigned him to the deep.

For fully a week after that a steady breeze blew from the east,

and, as my course lay west-and-by-north, I made rapid progress

towards my destination. I could not take an observation, which I

very much regretted, as the captain’s quadrant was in the cabin;

but, from the day of setting sail from the island of the savages, I

had kept a dead reckoning, and as I knew pretty well now how much

lee-way the schooner made, I hoped to hit the Coral Island without

much difficulty. In this I was the more confident that I knew its

position on the chart (which I understood was a very good one), and

so had its correct bearings by compass.

As the weather seemed now quite settled and fine, and as I had got

into the trade-winds, I set about preparations for hoisting the

topsails. This was a most arduous task, and my first attempts

were complete failures, owing, in a great degree, to my

reprehensible ignorance of mechanical forces. The first error I

made was in applying my apparatus of blocks and pulleys to a rope

which was too weak, so that the very first heave I made broke it in

two, and sent me staggering against the after-hatch, over which I

tripped, and, striking against the main-boom, tumbled down the

companion ladder into the cabin. I was much bruised and somewhat

stunned by this untoward accident. However, I considered it

fortunate that I was not killed. In my next attempt I made sure of

not coming by a similar accident, so I unreeved the tackling and

fitted up larger blocks and ropes. But although the principle on

which I acted was quite correct, the machinery was now so massive

and heavy that the mere friction and stiffness of the thick cordage

prevented me from moving it at all. Afterwards, however, I came to

proportion things more correctly; but I could not avoid reflecting

at the time how much better it would have been had I learned all

this from observation and study, instead of waiting till I was

forced to acquire it through the painful and tedious lessons of

experience.

After the tackling was prepared and in good working order, it took

me the greater part of a day to hoist the main-top sail. As I

could not steer and work at this at the same time, I lashed the

helm in such a position that, with a little watching now and then,

it kept the schooner in her proper course. By this means I was

enabled also to go about the deck and down below for things that I

wanted, as occasion required; also to cook and eat my victuals.

But I did not dare to trust to this plan during the three hours of

rest that I allowed myself at night, as the wind might have

shifted, in which case I should have