The Blue Lagoon / Голубая лагуна. Генри де Вэр Стэкпул

bar’ls of blastin’ powther in the hould[48]!”

      Then he bent to his oars, as no man ever bent before.

      Lestrange, sitting in the stern clasping Emmeline and Dick, saw nothing for a moment after hearing these words. The children, who knew nothing of blasting powder or its effects, though half frightened by all the bustle and excitement, were still amused and pleased at finding themselves in the little boat so close to the blue pretty sea.

      Dick put his finger over the side, so that it made a ripple in the water (the most delightful experience of childhood). Emmeline, with one hand clasped in her uncle’s, watched Mr Button rowing the dinghy.

      The long-boat and the quarter-boat were floating by the side of the Northumberland.

      From the ship men were jumping overboard like water-rats, swimming in the water like ducks, getting on board the boats anyhow.

      From the half-opened main-hatch the black smoke, mixed now with sparks, rose steadily and swiftly, as if through the half-closed teeth of a dragon.

      A mile away from the Northumberland stood the fog bank[49]. It looked solid, like a vast country that had suddenly and strangely built itself on the sea—a country where no birds sang and no trees grew.

      “I’m spint[50]!” suddenly gasped the oarsman, putting the oar handles under his knees, and bending down. “I’m spint—don’t ax me, I’m spint!”

      Mr Lestrange, white as a ghost, gave him time to recover himself and turned to look at the ship. She seemed a great distance off, and the boats, well away from her, were making at a furious pace towards the dinghy. Dick was still playing with the water, but Emmeline’s eyes were entirely occupied with Paddy Button. She had seen him washing the decks, dancing a jig, going round the main deck on all fours[51] with Dick on his back, but she had never seen him going on like this before.

      She saw he was in trouble about something, and, putting her hand in the pocket of her dress, she searched for something that she knew was there. She produced a Tangerine orange[52], and leaning forward she touched his head with it.

      Mr Button raised his head, stared for a second, saw the orange, and at the sight of it the thought of “the childer” and their innocence, himself and the blasting powder, cleared his tired mind, and he took to the oars again.

      “Daddy,” said Dick, “there’s clouds near the ship.”

      In a short space of time the solid fog had broken. The faint wind had reached it, and was now making pictures of it, most wonderful and weird to see. The fog advanced, taking the world for its own.

      Against this grey background stood the smoking ship.

      “Why’s the ship smoking like that?” asked Dick. “And look at those boats coming—when are we going back, daddy?”

      “Uncle,” said Emmeline, putting her hand in his, as she gazed towards the ship, “I’m ’fraid.”

      “What frightens you, Emmy?” he asked, drawing her to him.

      “Shapes,” replied Emmeline, close to his side.

      “Oh, God!” gasped the old sailor, suddenly resting on his oars. “Will yiz look at the fog that’s comin’—”

      “I think we had better wait here for the boats,” said Mr Lestrange; “we are far enough now to be safe if—anything happens.”

      “Ay, ay,” replied the oarsman, “She won’t hit us from here.”

      “Daddy,” said Dick, “when are we going back? I want my tea.”

      “We aren’t going back, my child,” replied his father. “The ship’s on fire; we are waiting for another ship.”

      “Where’s the other ship?” asked the child, looking round at the horizon that was clear.

      “We can’t see it yet,” replied the unhappy man, “but it will come.”

      The long-boat and the quarter-boat were slowly approaching. They looked like beetles crawling over the water.

      Now the wind struck the dinghy. It was like a wind from fairyland, very low, and dimming the sun. As it struck the dinghy, the fog took the distant ship.

      It was a most extraordinary sight, for in less than thirty seconds the ship of wood became a ship of haze, and was gone forever from the sight of man.

      Chapter V

      Voices Heard in the Mist

      The sun became dim, and vanished. Though the air round the dinghy seemed quite clear, the on-coming boats were hazy and dim.

      The long-boat was leading by a good way[53]. When she was within hearing distance the captain’s voice came.

      “Dinghy ahoy[54]!”

      “Ahoy!”

      “Fetch alongside here[55]!”

      The long-boat ceased rowing to wait for the quarter-boat that was slowly moving up. She was a heavy boat to pull, and now she was overloaded.

      The wrath of Captain Le Farge with Paddy Button for the way he had panicked the crew was deep, but he had not time to show it.

      “Here, get aboard us, Mr Lestrange!” said he, when the dinghy was alongside; “we have room for one. Mrs Stannard is in the quarter-boat, and it’s overcrowded; she’s better aboard the dinghy, for she can look after the kids. Come, hurry up! Ahoy!”—to the quarter-boat—“hurry up, hurry up!”

      The quarter-boat had suddenly vanished.

      Mr Lestrange climbed into the long-boat. Paddy pushed the dinghy a few yards away with the tip of an oar, and then lay on his oars[56] waiting.

      “Ahoy! ahoy!” cried Le Farge.

      “Ahoy!” came from the fog bank.

      Next moment the long-boat and the dinghy vanished from each other’s sight: the great fog bank had taken them.

      Now a couple of strokes of the left oar would have brought Mr Button alongside the long-boat, so close was he; but the quarter-boat was in his mind, so he took three powerful strokes in the direction in which he fancied the quarter-boat to be.

      The rest was voices.

      “Dinghy ahoy!”

      “Ahoy!”

      “Ahoy!”

      “Don’t be shoutin’ together, or I’ll not know which way to pull. Quarter-boat ahoy! where are yiz?”

      “Port your helm[57]!”

      “Ay, ay!”—putting his helm, so to speak, to starboard[58]– “I’ll be wid yiz in wan minute—two or three minutes’ hard pulling.”

      “Ahoy!”—much more faint.

      “What d’ye mane rowin’ away from me?”—a dozen strokes.

      “Ahoy!”—fainter still.

      Mr Button rested on his oars.

      “Divil mend them—I believe that was the long-boat shoutin’.”

      He took to his oars again and pulled vigorously.

      “Paddy,” came Dick’s small voice, apparently from nowhere, “where are we now?”

      “Sure, we’re in a fog; where else would we be? Don’t you be affeared.”

      “I

48

Спасайся кто может! Я вспомнил: в трюме две бочки пороха!

49

туман над морем

50

Всё, я выдохся!

51

на четвереньках

52

мандарин

53

Баркас был далеко впереди

54

Эй, на шлюпке!

55

Швартуйтесь сюда!

56

сушил вёсла

57

Лево руля!

58

правый борт судна