Digital heart book

About the wreck
thus transformed into an overflowing granary, the sea-
fowl swarmed in myriads and with surprising insolence.
The sight of so much food confounded them; they
deafened us with their shrill tongues, swooped in our
midst, dashed in our faces, and snatched the grain from
between our fingers. The men--their hands bleeding
from these assaults--turned savagely on the offensive,
drove their knives into the birds, drew them out
crimsoned, and turned again to dig among the rice,
unmindful of the gawking creatures that struggled and
died among their feet. We made a singular picture--the
hovering and diving birds; the bodies of the dead
discolouring the rice with blood; the scuppers vomiting
breadstuff; the men, frenzied by the gold hunt,
toiling, slaying, and shouting aloud; over all the
lofty intricacy of rigging and the radiant heaven of
the Pacific. Every man there toiled in the immediate
hope of fifty dollars, and I of fifty thousand. Small
wonder if we waded callously in blood and food.
It was perhaps about ten in the forenoon when the scene
was interrupted.


Pages:
365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389