Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1916 — The SEA WOLF [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The SEA WOLF

by JACK LONDON

SYNOPSIS. —17 — Humphrey Van Weyden, critic and dilettante. finds himself aboard the sealing schooner Ghost, Captain Wolf Larsen, bound to Japan waters. The captain makes him cabin boy "for the good of his soul." Wolf hazes a seaman and makes It the basis for a philosophic discussion with Hump. Hump's Intimacy with Wolf increases. A carnival of brutality breaks loose In the ship. Wolf proves himself the master brute. Hump Is made mate on the hell-ship and proves that he has learned “to stand on his own legs.’ Two men desert the vessel In one of the small boats. A young woman and four men, survivors of a steamer wreck, are res- . cued from a small boat. The deserters ' are sighted, but Wolf stands away and leaves them to drown. Maude Brewster, the rescued girl, sees the cook towed overside to give him a bath and his foot bitten off by a shark as he Is hauled aboard. She begins to realize her danger at the hands of Wolf. Van Weyden realizes that he loves Maude. Wolf’s brother, Death Larsen, comes on the sealing grounds In the steam sealer Macedonia, “hogs” the sea, and Wolf captures several of his boats. The Ghost runs away In a tog. Wolf furnishes liquor to the prisoners.

CHAPTER XXll—Continued. “He led a lest cause, and he was not afraid of God’s thunderbolts,” Wolf Larsen was saying. “Hurled into hell, he was unbeaten. A third of God’s angels he had led with him, and straightway he incited man to rebel against God, and gained for himself and hell the major portion of all the generations of man. Why was he beaten out of heaven? Because he was less brave than God? less proud? less aspiring? No! A thousand times no! God was more powerful, as he said, Whom thunder hath made greater. But Lucifer was a free spirit. To serve was to suffocate. He preferred suffering in freedom to all the happiness of a comfortable servility. He did not care to serve God. He cared to serve nothing. He was no figurehead. He stood on his own legs. He was an individual.” “The first anarchist," Maud laughed, rising and preparing to withdraw to her stateroom. “Then It Is good to be an anarchist!” he cried. He, too, had risen, and he stood facing her, where she had paused at the door of her room, as he went on: " 'Here at last We ehall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy; will not drive us hence; Here we may reign secure; and In my choice JTo -reign -Is worth- though inhell: V , Better to reign In hell than serve ln> heaven.’ " It was the defiant cry of a mighty spirit. The cabin still rang with his voice, as he stood there, swaying, hiß bronzed face shining, his head up and dominant, and his eyes, golden and .masculine, intensely masculine and insistently soft, flashing upon Maud at the door. —— . - Again that unnamable and unmistakable terror was in her eyes, and she said, almost in a whisper, “You are Lucifer.” The door closed and she was gone. He stood staring after her for a mlnute, then returned to himself and to me. “I’ll relieve Louis at the wheel,” he said shortly, “and call upon you to relieve at midnight. Better turn in now and get some sleep.” CHAPTER XXIII. I knew not what had aroused me, but I found myself out of my bunk, on my feet, wide awake, my soul .vibrating to the warning of danger as It might have thrilled to a trumpet call. I threw open the door. The cabin light was burning low. I saw Maud, n*y Maud, straining and struggling and crushed In the embrace of Wolf Larsen’s arms. I could see the vain berft and flutter of her as she strove, pressing her face against his breast, to escape from him. All this I saw on the very instant of seeing and as I sprang forward. I struck him with my fist, on the face, as he raised his head, but it was a puny blow. He roared in a ferocious, animal-like way, and gave me a shove with hiß hand. It was only a shove, a flirt of the wrist, yet so tremendous was his strength that I was hurled backward as from a catapult, I struck the door of the stateroom which had formerly been Mugridge’s, splintering and smashing the panels with the impact of my body. I struggled to my feet, with difficulty dragging myself clear of the wrecked door, unaware of any hurt whatever. I was conscious only of an overmastering rage. I think I, too, cried aloud, as I drew the knife at my hip and sprang forward a second time. .. But something had happened. They were reeling apart. I was close upon him, my knife uplifted, but I withheld the blow. I was puzzled by the strangeness of it. Maud was leaning against the wall, one hand out for support; but he was staggering, his left hand pressed against his forehead and covering his eyfes. and with the right he was groping about him-in a dazed sort of way. It struck against the wall, and hls body seemed tb express a muscular and physical relief at the contact, as though be had found his bear-ings,-his location in space as well a» something against which to lean. Then I saw red again. All jay

wrongs hnd humiliations flashed upon me with a dazzling brightness, all that I had suffered and others had suffered at his hands, all the enormity of the man’s very existence. I sprang on him, blindly, insanely, and drove the knife into his shoulder. I knew then, that it was no morp than a flesh wound had felt the steel grate on his shoul-der-blade—and I raised the knife to strike at a more vital part. But Maud had seen my first blow, and she cried, “Don’t! Please don’t!" I dropped my arm for a moment, and a moment only. Again the knife was raised, and Wolf Larsen would have surely died had she not stepped between. Her arms were around me, her hair was brushing my face. My pulse rushed up In an unwonted manner, yet my rage mounted with It She looked me bravely In the eyes. “For my sake,” she begged. “1 would kill him for your sake!” I cried, trying to free my arm without hurting her. “Hush!" she said, and laid her fingers lightly on my lips. I could have kissed them, had I dared, even then, In my rage, the touch of them was so sweet, so very sweet. “Please, please," she pleaded, and she disarmed me by the words, as I was to discover they would ever disarm me.

I stepped back, separating from her, and replaced the knife in Its sheath. I looked at Wolf Larsen. He still pressed his left hand against his forehead. It covered his eyes. His head was bowed. He seemed to have grown limp. His body was sagging at the hips, his great shoulders were drooping and shrinking forward. “Van Weyden!” he called hoarsely, and with a note of fright In his voice. “Oh, Van Weyden! where are you?” I looked at Maud. Sh’e did not speak, but nodded her head. “Here I am," I answered, stepping to his side. “What is the matter?” "Help me to a seat," he said, in the same hoarse, frightened voice. “I am a sick man, a very sick man. Hump,” he said, as he left my sustaining grip and sank into a chair. “What is the matter?” I asked, resting my hand on his shoulder. “What can I do for you?” But he shook off my hand with an Irritated movement, and for a long

time I stood by bis side in silence. Maud was looking on, her face awed and frightened. What had happened to him we could not imagine. “Hump,” he said at last, “I must get into my bunk. Lend me a hand. I’ll be all right in a little while. It’s those damn headaches, I believe. I was afraid of them. I had a feeling—no, 1 don’t know what I’ni talking about. Help me into my bunk.” But when I got him into his bunk he again buried his face in his hands, covering his eyes, and as I turned to go I could hear him murmuring, *1 am a sick man, a very sick man.” Maud looked at me inquiringly as I emerged. I shook my head, Saying: “Something has happened to him. What, I don’t know. He is helpless, and frightened, I Imagine, for the first time in his life. It must have oct.urred before he received the knife-thrust, which made only a superficial wound. You must have seen what happened.” She shook ‘her head. “I saw nothing. It is just as mysterious to-me. He suddenly released me and staggered away. But what shall we do? What shall I do?" "If you will wait, please, until l come back,” I answered. I went on deck. Louis was at the wheel. "You may go for’ard and turn in,” I said, taking it from him. He was quick to obey, and I found myself alone on the deck of the Ghost. As quietly as was possible, I clewed up the topsails, lowered the flying jib and staysail, backed the jib over, and flattened the mainsail. Then I went below to Maud. I placed my finger on my lips for silence, and entered Wolf

Larsen's room. He was in the same position in which I had left him, and his head was rocking— almost writhing—from side to side. "Anything I can do for your I asked. He made no reply at first but on my repeating the question be answered, “No. no; I’m all right Leave me alone till morning.” But as 1 turned to go I noted that his head had resumed Its rocking motion. Maud was waiting patiently for me, and I took notice, with a thrill of Joy. of the queenly poise of her head and her glorious, calm eyes. Calm and sure they were as her spirit Itself. "Will you trust yourself to me for a Journey of six hundred miles or so?” I asked. “You mean—?” she asked, and I knew she had guessed aright “Yes, I mean Just that,” I replied. “There is nothing left for us but the open boat.” "For me. you meaij,” she said. "Tou are certainly as safe herb as you have been." "No, there Is nothing left for us but the open boat," I iterated stoutly. “Will you please dress as warmly as you can, at once, ard make Into a bundle whatever you wish to bring with you?” “And make all haste,” I added, as she turned toward her stateroom. The lazaretto was directly beneath the cabin, and. opening the trapdoor In the floor and carrying a candle with me, I dropped down and began overhauling the ship’s stores. I selected mainly from the canned goods, and by the time I was ready, willing hands were extended from above to receive what I passed up. We worked In silence. I helped myself also to blankets, mittens, oilskins, caps, and such things, from the slopchest. It was no light adventure, this trusting ourselves In a small boat to so raw and stormy a sea, and it was imperative that we should guard ourselves against cold and wet.

We worked feverishly at carrying our plunder on deck and depositing it amidships, so feverishly that Maud, whose strength was hardly a positive quantity, hgd to give over, exhapsted. and sit on the steps at the break of the poop. This did not serve to recover her, and she lay on her back, on the hard deck, arms stretched out and whole body relaxed. It was a trick I remembered of my sister, and I knew she would soon be herself again. I knew, also, that weapons would not come amiss, and I re-entered Wolf Larsen’s stateroom to get his rifle and shotgun. I spoke to him, but he made no answer, though his head was still rocking from side to side and he was not asleep. “Good-by, Lucifer,” I whispered to myself as I softly closed the door. Next to obtain was a stock of ammunition —air easy matter, though I had to enter the steerage companionway to do it. Here the hunters, stored the ammunition boxes they carried in the boats, and here, but a few feet from their noisy revels, I took possession of two boxes. Next, to lower a boat Not so simple a task for one man. Having cast off the lashings, I hoisted first on the forward tackle, then on the aft. till the boat cleared the rail, when I lowered away, one tackle and then the other, for a couple of feet, till it hung snugly, above the water, against the schooner’s side. I made certain that it contained the proper equipment of oars, rowlocks and sail. Water was a consideration, and I robbed every boat aboard of its breaker. As there were nine boats all told, it meant that we should have plenty Of water, and ballast as well, though there was the chance that the boat would be overloaded, what of the generous supply of other things I was taking. A few minutes sufficed to finish the loading, and I lowered the boat into the water. As I helped Maud over the rail and felt her form close to mine, it was all I could do to keep from crying out, "I love you! I love you!” Truly Humphrey Van Weyden was at last in love, I thought, as her fingers clung to mine while r lowered her down to the boat. I held on to the rail with one hand and supported her weight with the other, and I was proud at the moment of the feat. It waß a strength I had not possessed a few months before, on the day I said goodby to Charley Furuseth and started for San Francisco on the ill-fated Martinez. As the boat ascended on a sea, her feet touched and I released her hands. I cast off the tackles and leaped after her. I had never rowed in my life, but I put out the oars and at the expense of much effort got the boat clear of the Ghost. Then I experimented with the sail. I had seen the boat steerers and hunters their spritsails many times, yet this was my first attempt. What took them possibly two minutes took me twenty, but in the end I succeeded in setting and trimming it. and with the steering oar in my hands hauled on the wind. “There lies Japan,” 1 remarked, “straight before us.” “Humphrey Van Weyden," she said, “you are a brave man.” “Nay,” I answered, “it is you who are a brave woman.” We turned our heads, swayed by a common impulse to see the last of the Ghost. Her low hull lifted and rolled to windward on a sea; her canvas loomed darkly in the night; her lashed wheel creaked as the rudder kicked; then sight and sound of her faded away and we were alone-on the dark sea. CHAPTER XXIV. There is no need of going into an extended recital of our suffering in the small boat during the tnany days we were driven and drifted, here and

there, willy-nilly, across the wide expanse of ocean. The high wind blew from the northwest for twentyfour hours, when It fell calm, and In the night sprang up from the southwest. Thiq was dead In our teeth, but I took in the sea-anchor I had roughly made and set sail, hauling a course on the wiqd which took us in a southsoutheasterly direction. It was an even choice between this and the westnorthwesterly course which the wind permitted, but the warm airs of the south fanned my desire for a wanner sea and swayed my decision. In three hours—lt was midnight, l well remember, and as dark as I had ever seen It on the sea—the wind, still blowing out of the southwest, rose furiously, and once again I was compelled to set the sea-anchor. Day broke and found me wan-eyed and the ocean lashed white, the boat pitching, almost on end, to Its drag. We were in imminent danger of being swamped by the whltecaps. As it was, spray and spume came aboard in such quantities that I bailed without cessation. The blankets were soaking. Ev-

erything was wet except Maud, and she. In oilskins, rubber boots, and sou’wester, was dry, all but her face and hands and a stray wisp of hair. She relieved me at the .balling hole from time to time, and bravely she threw out the water and faced the storm. All things are relative. It was no more than a stiff blow, but to us, fighting for life In our frail craft, It was Indeed a storm. Cold and cheerless, the wind beating on our faces, the white seas roaring by, we struggled through the day. Night came, but neither of us slept. Day came, and still the wind heat on our faces and the white seas roared past. By the second night Maud was falling asleep from exhaustion. I covered her with oilskins and a tarpaulin. She was comparatively dry, but she was numb with the cold. I feared greatly that she might die In the night; but day broke, cold and cheerless, with the same clouded sky and beating wind and roaring seas. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

I Saw Maud —Crushed in the Embrace of Wolf Larsen's Arms.

“Good-by, Lucifer,” I whispered to Myself, as I Softly Closed the Door.