AT last Cooper ordered Fenner to hold his jaw, and come aft, and help
sail the boat.
But the man, being now stark mad, took no notice of the order. His
madness grew on him, and took a turn by no means uncommon in these cases.
He saw before him sumptuous feasts, and streams of fresh water flowing.
These he began to describe with great volubility and rapture, smacking
his lips and exulting. And so he went on tantalizing them till noon.
Meantime, Cooper asked Mr. Hazel if he could sail the boat.
"I can steer," said he, "but that is all. My right arm is benumbed."
The silvery voice of Helen Rolleston then uttered brave and welcome
words. "I will do whatever you tell me, Mr. Cooper."
"Long life to you, miss!" said the wounded seaman. He then directed her
how to reef the sail, and splice the sheet which he had been obliged to
cut; and, in a word, to sail the boat; which she did with some little
assistance from Hazel.
And so they all depended upon her, whom some of them had been for
killing. And the blood-stained boat glided before the wind.
At two P. M. Fenner jumped suddenly up, and, looking at the sea with
rapture, cried out, "Aha! my boys, here's a beautiful green meadow; and
there's a sweet brook with bulrushes. Green, green, green! Let's have a
roll among the daisies." And in a moment, ere any of his stiff and
wounded shipmates could put out a hand, he threw himself on his back upon
the water, and sunk forever, with inexpressible rapture on his
corpse-like face.
A feeble groan was the only tribute those who remained behind could
afford him.
At three P. M. Mr. Hazel happened to look over the weather-side of the
boat, as she heeled to leeward under a smart breeze, and he saw a shell
or two fastened to her side, about eleven inches above keel. He looked
again, and gave a loud hurrah. "Barnacles! barnacles!" he cried. "I see
them sticking."
He leaned over, and, with some difficulty, detached one, and held it up.
It was not a barnacle, but a curious oblong shell-fish, open at one end.
At sight of this, the wounded forgot their wounds, and leaned over the
boat's side, detaching the shell-fish with their knives. They broke them
with the handles of their knives, and devoured the fish. They were as
thick as a man's finger and about an inch long, and as sweet as a nut. It
seems that in the long calm these shellfish had fastened on the boat.
More than a hundred of them were taken off her weather-side, and evenly
divided.
Miss Rolleston, at Hazel's earnest request, ate only six, and these very
slowly, and laid the rest by. But the sailors could not restrain
themselves; and Prince, in particular, gorged himself so fiercely that he
turned purple in the face, and began to breathe very hard.
That black speck on the horizon had grown by noon to a beetle, and by
three o'clock to something more like an elephant, and it now diffused
itself into a huge black cloud, that gradually overspread the heavens;
and at last, about half an hour before sunset, came a peculiar chill, and
then, in due course, a drop or two fell upon the parched wretches. They
sat, less like animals than like plants, all stretching toward their
preserver.
Their eyes were turned up to the clouds, so were their open mouths, and
their arms and hands held up toward it.
The drops increased in number, and praise went up to Heaven in return.
Patter, patter, patter; down came a shower, a rain--a heavy, steady rain.
With cries of joy, they put out every vessel to catch it; they lowered
the sail, and, putting ballast in the center, bellied it into a great
vessel to catch it. They used all their spare canvas to catch it. They
filled the water-cask with it; they filled the keg that had held the
fatal spirit; and all the time they were sucking the wet canvas, and
their own clothes, and their very hands and garments on which the
life-giving drops kept falling.
Then they set their little sail again, and prayed for land to Him who had
sent the wind and rain.