The Narrow Corner by W. Somerset Maugham Page A

to sea in one of these Australian pearlin’ luggers than in a transatlantic liner.”
    “It’s your crib,” said Fred.
    They were playing on the captain’s mattress, and the doctor, changing his dripping clothes, flung himself on the other. He could not read in the fitful light of the swaying lamp. He lay and listened to the monotonous terms of the game. They struck the ear with an insistent jar. The cabin creaked and groaned and over his head the wind roared furiously. He was shaken from side to side.
    “That was a roll,” said Fred.
    “Takin’ it grand, ain’t she? Fifteen two. Fifteen four.”
    Fred was winning again and the skipper played to a running accompaniment of complaint. Dr. Saunders stiffened his limbs to bear the misery of his fear. Thehours passed with frightful slowness. Towards sunset Captain Nichols went on deck.
    “Blowin’ up a bit,” he said, when he came down again. “I’m goin’ to ’ave a nap. It don’t look to me as if I’d get much sleep to-night.”
    “Why don’t you lay her to?” asked Fred.
    “Bring ’er up to the wind with a sea like this runnin’? No, sir. She’s all right as long as everythin’ ’olds.”
    He coiled himself up on his mattress and in five minutes was snoring peacefully. Fred went on deck to get a breath of air. The doctor was angry with himself for having been such a fool as to take a passage on this small craft, and he was angry with the captain and with Fred because they were free of the terror that obsessed him. But when the ketch had seemed about to founder a hundred times, and each time righted herself, there stole upon him gradually an unwilling admiration for the gallant little boat. At seven the cook brought them their supper and woke Captain Nichols to eat it. He had been able to make a fire, and they had hot stew and hot tea. Then the three of them went on deck and the skipper took the helm. It was a clear night, with the stars in their myriads twinkling brightly; the sea was rough, and in the darkness the waves looked enormous.
    “By God, there’s a big ’un,” cried Fred.
    A huge wall of green water, with a breaking crest, was rushing down on them. It looked as though it mustinevitably fall on them, and if it did, the
Fenton
, powerless to rise to it, must be rolled over and over. The skipper glanced round and jammed himself against the wheel. He steered so that the wave should strike them dead aft. Suddenly the stern slewed off the course and there was a crash and a mass of water swept over the quarter. They were blinded. Then the bulwarks rose above the sea. The
Fenton
shook herself like a dog stepping on to dry land and the water poured out of the scuppers.
    “Gettin’ beyond a joke,” bellowed the skipper.
    “Any islands near?”
    “Yep. If we can keep goin’ for a couple of hours we can get under their lea.”
    “What about reefs?”
    “There ain’t any marked. Moon’ll be out soon. You two chaps better go below.”
    “I’ll stay on deck,” said Fred. “Stuffy in the cabin.”
    “Please yourself. What about you, doc?”
    The doctor hesitated. He hated the look of the angry sea and he was bored with being frightened. He had died so many deaths that he had exhausted his emotion.
    “Can I be any use?”
    “No more than a snowball in ’ell.”
    “Remember you carry Caesar and his fortunes,” he shouted in the skipper’s ear.
    But Captain Nichols, not having had a classical education,did not see the point of the jest. If I perish, I perish, the doctor reflected, and he made up his mind to get all the enjoyment he could out of what might be his last hours on earth. He went forward to fetch Ah Kay. The boy followed him back and came down with him into the cabin.
    “Let’s try Kim Ching’s chandu,” said Dr. Saunders. “No need to stint ourselves to-night.”
    The boy got the lamp and the opium from the valise, and with his accustomed nonchalance started to prepare the pipe. Never had the first long inhalation