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used from in old days. It hath lost its strength by long lying. Press it with thy fingers and thou shalt feel it soft to the touch.
Here upon this white sheet of paper I lay four corns of this powder. This other powder" -- and he chose a second package --
"is from a barrel new opened. Press it and thou shalt see how firm and hard is each corn. And this, too, is firm and of a fair
azure. And so, also, this. But this --" and he first put his eyes close to the notes on each remaining packet, then held them far
off, for his sight, although good at a great distance, made out with difficulty things near at hand, "this is from a barrel that
hath lost its strength by moisture; and this hath a fault I shall tell you of."
Taking a pinch of each, as he spoke, he had laid the corns, each some three fingers distant from the next, in a circle on the
paper. He then struck tinder, and lighting a match made of twisted cords of tow boiled in strong lye-ashes and saltpetre, he
held it over a corn of the good powder. There was a flash and puff, and the ring of powder was gone. The corns of good
powder had fired speedily and left only a chalky whiteness in their place, nor had they burned the paper or given off smoke;
but the corns of poor powder had burned slowly, and some had scorched the paper and some had given forth smoke.
The Old One softly swore. "And have we, then," asked he, "but three barrels of good powder~" "Nay, there are more than
three. This last is weak because they have neglected to turn the barrels upside down, so the petre has settled from top to
bottom, as is its way. We shall find the bottom as strong as the top is weak, and by turning the barrel we shall renew its
strength evenly.''
"As for the powder that hath spoiled by long lying," cried Philip Marsham, "I will undertake to make it as good as new."
"Do you, boatswain, mind your sails and cordage," said old Jacob, with a wry smile. "An you wish to grind it in the mortar,
that you may; but it is I who will measure the petre. Nay, I will make you, if you wish it for a wonder to show friends, a
powder of any colour you please -- white, red, blue, or green."
Of the three who leaned over the packets of powder, old Jacob was the only one who bore with even temper the sad reverse of
the night before; for master and mate glared at each other in such wrath as had thrown a shadow over every soul in the ship.
Some had waked with aching heads, for which they had their own folly to thank; some were like men who dream they have
got a great treasure but wake to find pebble stones or worse under the pillow: since the Porcupine ketch had yielded them no
gold and had stung them instead with her quills. In all truth the ship was by the ears, for in extremities your sea sharks are
uncertain friends, as a touch of foul weather will manifest to any man's satisfaction.
"Enough of this," said the Old One, and he pushed aside the packets and folded his arms. "We lose time. There is a thief
amongst us."
"A thief, you say?" And the hot red of anger burned its way across the boatswain's face, for the three had turned and locked
hard at him.
The Old One and Harry Malcolm then exchanged quick glances, and Jacob shut his small mouth tight and knotted his brews.
"Well," cried Phil, "would you charge me with theft!"
"Some one," said the Old One, lingering over each word, "hath wrought a clever plot against us."
"Say on, say on! "
"He is a man, I make no doubt, whose buttons are breaking with venom."
There was heavy silence in the cabin. Jacob, pursing his lips and knotting his brews, looked from one of them to another, and
Phil, vaguely on the defensive, drew back and gave them a gaze as steady as they sent.
"He is doubtless a very cunning rascal," Harry Malcolm put in, "who hath cut his cloth by his wits; but he is making a suit
that will throttle him by its narrowness about the neck."
The master and mate once more exchanged glances and the Old One then smiled lightly, as if again there were sunlight
rippling over dark water.
"Nay, Philip, we think no ill of thee. But do thou have care to thy company. A foul trick hath been done with a mind to render
us helpless at sea, so that we must crawl to the nearest land, where some base dung-hill spirit is doubtless of a mind to leave
our company. But we have resources; yea, and of thee, Philip, we think no ill."
Despite their fair words, though, they were watching Philip Marsham like three old tomcats watching a sparrow, and he,
being no fool, knew the reason why.
Three hard faces they showed: the one, handsome in a devilish way and keen; the second, unassuming, yet deeply astute and
marked by a deeper rooted, if less frank, selfishness; the third, older, wiser, more self-centred.
The eyes of master and mate were coldly cruel; but old Jacob was too intent on his own thoughts to be cruel save by
indifference.
All that day Jacob squatted on the deck and toiled with tools and wood. From the wood he chose certain long pieces, fine-
grained and straight and dry and free from knots, and certain shorter and broader pieces that were suited to his purpose, and
bade the carpenter plane them smooth. He laid out scales, working with a small square and a pair of compasses, and engraved
them with utmost care. He wrought brass into curious shapes by a plan he made, and from morning till night he kept at the
task, frowning and ciphering and sitting deep in thought. He called for charcoal and a mortar, and beat the charcoal to a fine
powder and tempered it with linseed oil. This he rubbed into the wood he had shaped to his liking, and watched it a long
while, now and again touching it to try it; then with oil from a phial he had found in a chest in the great cabin he rubbed the
wood clean, and there were left in the wood, set off neatly in black, the gradations and figures he had so exactly etched.
Taking his work into the great cabin, he toiled on by lanthorn light until a late hour, and there through the open door men as
they passed might see him hunched over the table with his medley of tools about him. But when at last he leaned back and
drew a long breath of relief, very serious and very wise, his work was done, and curiously and deftly contrived it was.
On the table before him there lay a cross-staff, a nocturnal and a Gunter's scale, "with which," said he, to the Old One, who
sat opposite him quietly taking tobacco and sipping wine, "and with what instruments the thief hath left us, a man can
navigate a ship where he will."
Examining closely the nocturnal, which was intricately carved and engraved, the Old One muttered, as if ignoring Jacob's
words, "I will yet lime that bird."
"Though he be never so mad a callant, I misdoubt he will put his head into a noose," said Jacob in his thick, serious voice.
"Be he the one we think or not the one we think, I will set him such a trap," said the Old One, "as will take the cunningest fox
that ever doubled on the hounds."
And the thin face smiled in a way that was not pleasant to see.
CHAPTER XIV
A Wonderful Excellent Cook
IF AN ASTROLOGER Or an Arabian enchanter could say to a man, "Beware of this or that, for it is a thing conceived of the
Devil to work thy ruin," there would be reason for studying the stars or smiting the sand. And this, indeed, they do, according
to the old tales. But if a sailor seek out an astrologer to learn things that shall profit him, he is more likely to find a man
grown foolish by much study, who will stroke his chin sagely and say, "Come, let us look into this matter. Under Capricorn
are all diseases in the knees and hams, leprosies, itches and scales and schirrous tumors, fallow grounds and barren fields, ox-
houses and cow-houses, low dark places near the ground, and places where sails and materials for ships be laid." And while
he talks of fixed angles and of the Lord of the Ascendant being in the fourth week, some small unsuspected thing may be the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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