Then he hesitated. A spark of human pity glimmered yet through the infernal fog of his supreme conceit.
‘What?’ said James Wait, unwillingly.
There was a silence. He turned his head just the least bit and stole a cautious glance. The cook's lips moved inaudibly; his face was rapt his eyes turned up. He seemed to be mentally imploring deck beams, the brass hook of the lamp, two cockroaches.
‘Look here,’ said James Wait, ‘Iwant to go to sleep. I think I could.’‘This is no time for sleep!’ exclaimed the cook, very loud. He had prayerfully divested himself of the last vestige of his humanity. He was a voice -- a fleshless and sublime thing, as on that memorable night -- the night when he went over the sea to make coffee for perishing sinners. ‘This is no time for sleeping,’he repeated with exaltation. ‘I can't sleep.’‘Don't care damn,’ said Wait, with factitious energy. ‘I can. go an' turn in.’‘Swear....in the very jaws!....In the very jaws!
Don't you see the fire....don't you feel it? Blind, chock-full of sin!
I can see it for you. I can't bear it. I hear the call to save you. Night and day. Jimmy let me save you!’ The words of entreaty and menace broke out of him in a roaring torrent. The cockroaches ran away. Jimmy perspired, wriggling stealthily under his blanket. The cook yelled.....‘Your days are numbered!....’ -- ‘Get out of this,’boomed Wait, courageously. -- ‘Pray with me!....’ --‘I won't!....’the little cabin was as hot as an oven.
It contained an immensity of fear and pain; an atmosphere of shrieks and moans; prayers vociferated like blasphemies and whispered curses. Outside, the men called by Charley , who informed them in tones of delight that there was a row going on in Jimmy's place, pushed before the closed door, too startled to open it. All hands were there. The watch below had jumped up, asked: -- ‘What is it?’ Others said: -- ‘Listen!’The muffled screaming went on: -- ‘On your knees! On your knees!’-- Shut up! -- ‘Never! You are delivered into my hands.....Your life has been saved.....Purpose.....Mercy..... Repent.’ -- ‘You are a crazy fool!....’ -- ‘Account of you.... you....Never sleep in this world, if I....’ -- ‘Leave off.’-- ‘No!....stokehold....only think!....’ Then an impassioned screeching babble where words pattered like hail. -- ‘No!’shouted Jim. -- ‘Yes. You are!....No help.....Everybody says so.’ -- ‘You lie!’ -- ‘I see you dying this minnyt!....before my eyes....as good as dead now.’-- ‘Help!’ shouted Jimmy, piercingly. -- ‘Not in this valley....look upwards,’ howled the other. -- ‘Go away! Murder!Help!’ clamoured Jimmy. His voice broke. There were moanings, low mutters, a few sobs.
‘What's the matter now?’ said a seldom-heard voice. -- ‘Fall back, men! Fall back, there!’ repeated Mr. Creighton sternly, pushing through -- ‘Here's the old man.’whispered some. -- ‘The cook's in there, sir’ exclaimed several, backing away. The door clattered open; a broad stream of light4darted out on wondering faces; a warm whiff of vitiated air passed. The two mates towered head and shoulders above the spare, grey-headed man who stood revealed between them, in shabby clothes, stiff and angular like a small carved figure, and with a thin, composed face. The cook got up from knees. Jimmy sat high in the bunk, clasping his drawn-up Page 87legs. The tassel of the blue nightcap almost imperceptibly trembled over his knees. They gazed astonished at his long, curved back, while the white corner of one eye gleamed blindly at them. He was afraid to turn his head, he shrank within himself; and there was an aspect astounding and animal-like in the perfection of his expectant immobility. A thing of instinct -- the unthinking stillness of a scared brute.
‘What are you doing here?’ asked Mr.
Baker, sharply. -- ‘My duty,’ said the cook, with ardour.
-- ‘Your.... what?’began the mate. Captain Allistoun touched his arm lightly. -- ‘I know his caper,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘Coome out of that, Podmore,’he ordered aloud.
The cook wrung his hands, shook his fists above his head, and his arms dropped as if too heavy. For a moment he stood distracted and speechless. -- ‘Never,’ he stammered, ‘I....he....I.’-- ‘What -- do -- you -- say?’ pronounced Captain Allistoun.