We groped in
the ruins and came upon this, and there he was, sitting in his bunk,
surrounded by foam and wreckage, jabbering cheerfully to himself. He
was out of his mind; completely and for ever mad, with this sudden shock
coming upon the fag-end of his endurance. We snatched him up, lugged him
aft, and pitched him head-first down the cabin companion. You understand
there was no time to carry him down with infinite precautions and wait
to see how he got on. Those below would pick him up at the bottom of
the stairs all right. We were in a hurry to go back to the pumps. That
business could not wait. A bad leak is an inhuman thing.
"One would think that the sole purpose of that fiendish gale had been to
make a lunatic of that poor devil of a mulatto. It eased before morning,
and next day the sky cleared, and as the sea went down the leak took up.
When it came to bending a fresh set of sails the crew demanded to put
back--and really there was nothing else to do. Boats gone, decks swept
clean, cabin gutted, men without a stitch but what they stood in, stores
spoiled, ship strained. We put her head for home, and--would you believe
it? The wind came east right in our teeth. It blew fresh, it blew
continuously. We had to beat up every inch of the way, but she did
not leak so badly, the water keeping comparatively smooth. Two hours'
pumping in every four is no joke--but it kept her afloat as far as
Falmouth.
"The good people there live on casualties of the sea, and no doubt were
glad to see us.
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