"Conrad, Joseph - The Secret Sharer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Conrad Joseph)

She floated at the starting point of a long journey,
very still in an immense stillness, the shadows of her
spars flung far to the eastward by the setting sun. At that
moment I was alone on her decks. There was not a
sound in her--and around us nothing moved, nothing
lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not
a cloud in the sky. In this breathless pause at the thresh-
old of a long passage we seemed to be measuring our
fitness for a long and arduous enterprise, the appointed
task of both our existences to be carried out, far from
all human eyes, with only sky and sea for spectators and
for judges.

There must have been some glare in the air to in-
terfere with one's sight, because it was only just before
the sun left us that my roaming eyes made out beyond
the highest ridges of the principal islet of the group some-
thing which did away with the solemnity of perfect soli-
tude. The tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with
tropical suddenness a swarm of stars came out above the
shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand resting
lightly on my ship's rail as if on the shoulder of a
trusted friend. But, with all that multitude of celestial
bodies staring down at one, the comfort of quiet com-
munion with her was gone for good. And there were also
disturbing sounds by this time--voices, footsteps for-
ward; the steward flitted along the main-deck, a busily
ministering spirit; a hand bell tinkled urgently under the
poop deck....

I found my two officers waiting for me near the sup-
per table, in the lighted cuddy. We sat down at once,
and as I helped the chief mate, I said:

"Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside
the islands? I saw her mastheads above the ridge as
the sun went down."

He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a
terrible growth of whisker, and emitted his usual ejac-
ulations: "Bless my soul, sir! You don't say so!"

My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young
man, grave beyond his years, I thought; but as our eyes
happened to meet I detected a slight quiver on his lips.
I looked down at once. It was not my part to encourage
sneering on board my ship. It must be said, too, that
I knew very little of my officers. In consequence of cer-
tain events of no particular significance, except to my-
self, I had been appointed to the command only a