John Galsworthy

“ The world seemed suddenly enclosed within the walls of this wooden crib, time was annihilated, everything stood still, there was no longer anything outside—just the cabin—we three—and the dead man. I felt giddy and stifled, but the moment young Raymond began to speak, all that feeling merged in wonder at the intense earnestness in his face and the tones of his voice.
'After we left him, last night,' he said, 'I slung my hammock on the main deck, starboard side, just where the gymnastic bars are rigged by the main mast; it seemed cooler there than on the poop. ”

“ It was no longer twisted; the eyes stared quietly at the roof of the bunk, the hands were crossed peacefully on the sunken chest. In that face, which had writhed the night before in hunted agony, there remained only the little brown stain at the corner of the mouth to mark it as the same.
'Dead?'
'Quite.' The mate knelt, and reverently drew the lids over the quiet eyes.
Young Raymond was leaning silently apart against the side of the cabin, his head framed in the open port-hole, and his face was ever grey and drawn. I turned from him to the mate. ”

“ But away from the stifled ship.
Fleeter than any wind.
With a kiss on the twisted lip
Of the face that she leaves behind,
A breath steals forth—and the wind but plays
On a mask that is left behind. ”

“ Yellow devils! they've only one virtue.'
'And that, Doctor?'
'Opium, sirree. They're tolerable, when they're opium drunk.'
The mate looked up sharply, and with his brown, almond-shaped Slav eyes scrutinized keenly the dim figure of the speaker, and his mouth, between the close-trimmed pointed beard and drooping moustaches, took a more than usually cynical and mournful curve.
'You are severe, Doctor,' he said; but the other, without answering, turned away, and leaned over the bulwark wearily.
'Ah! that is bad, you know,' I heard the mate say to himself under his breath. ”

“ But also,'—the whisper almost died away, 'he learnt one supreme good, ' (Greek characters) ,' that without which man withers—life has no taste, no colour, no scent,—the great, the glorious—My God! O my God!!' The voice from the faintest whisper rose suddenly to a scream. With a spring young Raymond's lithe white-clothed figure was by the Doctor's side, his arm round his neck.
'Steady, dear old boy!' he said.
The meaning of those muttered sayings had suddenly been rendered plain, and the mate stood leaning forward with his long arms half stretched towards the Doctor. ”

“ Ugh! devils—devils—hog-skinned, slit-eyed devils!'
'It is all tempérrament, you know,' said the mate, 'dosé fallows, you know, they are different all through, it is not a question of degree. A white man will never understand how their minds wōrrk. Will you have a cigarette, Doctor?' He watched the thin face and trembling hand closely, and shook his head, as the Doctor turned back with his lighted cigarette to the ship's side.
'It is bad, you know,' he muttered again to himself. Young Raymond had strolled to the wheel, and was standing talking cheerily to the helmsman ”

“ How's her head, my son?' he called to the grey-bearded helmsman.
'Nor-nor West, zurr.'
'Is she doing anny?'
'Noa, zurr, but zims theer's a but of a swell tu th' Sou East, mebbe we 'll 'ave wind 'fore the marnin'.' The Shellback spat on his hand and held it out, then shook his head doubtfully.
'The dawn will bring it,' said the mate, 'you will see.'
'Not to me,' said the Doctor to himself, 'I'm through.'
Young Raymond turned at the sound of the dreary despairing voice.
'What's that?' he said, 'Through! we're all through, we're all kippered to the nines; don't be so beastly egotistical. ”

“ He cowered as the light fell upon him, and buried his head like a child on young Raymond's shoulder.
When I turned again, old Carey, the Shellback, was looking steadily at the deck, and, contrary to all orders, spitting vigourously upon it.
'Fact is we'm tu fur tu the East; yu zee, zurr, these y'er ca'ms is all along o' that.'
What answer I made to the soft West-country drawl I know not, because it is bewildering to hear a man's sobs drawn under hard pressure against a linen coat. Then the mate was speaking.
'Come down to your bunk, my dear fallow, it will be all right, you know ”