Next I remembered the self-wounded Greek, sewed up by Mr. Pike and
lying gibbering between the steel walls of the 'midship-house. This
picture almost decided me, for in my fevered imagination he typified
the whole mad, helpless, idiotic crew. Certainly I could go back to
Baltimore. Thank God I had the money to humour my whims. Had not
Mr. Pike told me, in reply to a question, that he estimated the
running expenses of the Elsinore at two hundred dollars a day? I
could afford to pay two hundred a day, or two thousand, for the
several days that might be necessary to get me back to the land, to a
pilot tug, or any inbound craft to Baltimore.
I was quite wholly of a mind to go down and rout out Captain West to
tell him my decision, when another presented itself: THEN ARE YOU,
THE THINKER AND PHILOSOPHER, THE WORLD-SICK ONE, AFRAID TO GO DOWN,
TO CEASE IN THE DARKNESS? Bah! My own pride in my life-
pridelessness saved Captain West's sleep from interruption. Of
course I would go on with the adventure, if adventure it might be
called, to go sailing around Cape Horn with a shipload of fools and
lunatics--and worse; for I remembered the three Babylonish and
Semitic ones who had aroused Mr.
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