Read Books Online, for Free |
South Sea Tales | Jack London | |
The Terrible Solomons |
Page 5 of 10 |
"I--I thought--" Bertie was beginning. "Shots?" said Captain Hansen, dreamily. "Shots? Did you hear any shots, Mr. Jacobs?" "Not a shot," replied Mr. Jacobs. The skipper looked at his guest triumphantly, and said: "Evidently an accident. Let us go down, Mr. Arkwright, and finish dinner." Bertie slept that night in the captain's cabin, a tiny stateroom off the main cabin. The for'ard bulkhead was decorated with a stand of rifles. Over the bunk were three more rifles. Under the bunk was a big drawer, which, when he pulled it out, he found filled with ammunition, dynamite, and several boxes of detonators. He elected to take the settee on the opposite side. Lying conspicuously on the small table, was the Arla's log. Bertie did not know that it had been especially prepared for the occasion by Captain Malu, and he read therein how on September 21, two boat's crew had fallen overboard and been drowned. Bertie read between the lines and knew better. He read how the Arla's whale boat had been bushwhacked at Su'u and had lost three men; of how the skipper discovered the cook stewing human flesh on the galley fire--flesh purchased by the boat's crew ashore in Fui; of how an accidental discharge of dynamite, while signaling, had killed another boat's crew; of night attacks; ports fled from between the dawns; attacks by bushmen in mangrove swamps and by fleets of salt-water men in the larger passages. One item that occurred with monotonous frequency was death by dysentery. He noticed with alarm that two white men had so died--guests, like himself, on the Arla. "I say, you know," Bertie said next day to Captain Hansen. "I've been glancing through your log." The skipper displayed quick vexation that the log had been left lying about. |
Who's On Your Reading List? Read Classic Books Online for Free at Page by Page Books.TM |
South Sea Tales Jack London |
Home | More Books | About Us | Copyright 2004