"Ship ahoy!"
There was an answer from our bark--for such it seemed to me by this
time--but I could not make out the words.
"Where do you hail from?" was the next question.
I strained my ears to catch the response, being naturally anxious to
know whence I had come.
"From the City of Destruction!" was what I thought I heard; and I
confess that it surprised me not a little.
"Where are you bound?" was asked in turn.
Again I listened with intensest interest, and again did the reply
astonish me greatly.
"Ultima Thule!" was the answer from our boat, and the voice of the man
who answered was deep and melancholy.
Then I knew that I had set out strange countries for to see, and that I
was all unequipped for so distant a voyage. Thule I knew, or at least I
had heard of the king who reigned there once and who cast his goblet
into the sea. But Ultima Thule! was not that beyond the uttermost
borders of the earth?
"Any passengers?" was the next query, and I noted that the voice came
now from the left and was almost abreast of us.
"One only," responded the captain of our boat.
"Where bound?" was the final inquiry.
"To the Fortunate Islands!" was the answer; and as I heard this my
spirits rose again, and I was glad, as what man would not be who was on
his way to the paradise where the crimson-flowered meadows are full of
the shade of frankincense-trees and of fruits of gold?
Then the boat bounded forward again, and I heard the wash of the waves.
All this time it seemed as though I were in darkness; but now I began
dimly to discern the objects about me. I found that I was lying on a
settee in a state-room at the stern of the vessel. Through the small
round window over my head the first rays of the rising sun darted and
soon lighted the little cabin.
As I looked about me with curiosity, wondering how I came to be a
passenger on so unexpected a voyage, I saw the figure of a man framed
in the doorway at the foot of the stairs leading to the deck above.
How it was I do not know, but I made sure at once that he was the
captain of the ship, the man whose voice I had heard answering the
hail.
He was tall and dark, with a scant beard and a fiery and piercing gaze,
which penetrated me as I faced him. Yet the expression of his
countenance was not unfriendly; nor could any man lay eyes upon him
without a movement of pity for the sadness written on his visage.