time as best our cramped space allowed. Twice we detected the black, ugly face
of a Dyak peering from out the jungle. The men were for hunting them down for
the price on their heads, but the captain said he never killed a human being
except in self-defence, and that if the Rajah wanted to get rid of the savages he
had better give the contract to a Mississippi slave-trader. Secretly, I was longing
for some kind of excitement, and was hoping that the men’s clamorous talk
would have some effect. I never doubted our ability to raid a Dyak village and
kill the head-hunters and carry off the beautiful maidens. I could not see why a
parcel of blacks should be such a terror to the good Rajah, when Big Tom said
he could easily handle a dozen, and flattered me by saying that such a brawny
lad as I ought to take care of two at least.
In the course of three days we reached the mouth of the river, and prepared the
sail for the trip across the bay to the Bangor. Just as everything was in readiness,
one of those peculiar and rapid changes in the weather, that are so common here
in the tropics near the equator, took place. A great blue-black cloud, looking like
an immense cartridge, came up from the west. Through it played vivid flashes of
lightning, and around it was a red haze. “A nasty animal,” I heard the bo’s’n tell
the captain, and yet I was foolishly delighted when they decided to risk a blow
and put out to sea. The sky on all sides grew darker from hour to hour. A smell
of sulphur came to our nostrils. It was oppressively hot; not a breath of wind was
stirring. The sail flapped uselessly against the mast, and the men labored at the
oars, while streams of sweat ran from their bodies.
The captain had just taken down the mast, when, without a moment’s warning,
the gale struck us and the boat half filled with water. We managed to head it
with the wind, and were soon driving with the rapidity of a cannon-ball over the
boiling and surging waters. It was a fearful gale; we blew for hours before it,
ofttimes in danger of a volcanic reef, again almost sunk by a giant wave. I baled
until I was completely exhausted. But the long-boat was a stanch little craft, and
there were plenty of men to manage it, so as long as we could keep her before
the wind, the captain felt no great anxiety as to our safety.