"Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 3 of 5" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

It is hardly possible to conceive the extremity of my terror. The
fumes of the wine lately taken had evaporated, leaving me doubly
timid and irresolute. I knew that I was altogether incapable of
managing the boat, and that a fierce wind and strong ebb tide were
hurrying us to destruction. A storm was evidently gathering behind
us; we had neither compass nor provisions; and it was clear that, if
we held our present course, we should be out of sight of land before
daybreak. These thoughts, with a crowd of others equally fearful,
flashed through my mind with a bewildering rapidity, and for some
moments paralyzed me beyond the possibility of making any exertion.
The boat was going through the water at a terrible rate- full before
the wind- no reef in either jib or mainsail- running her bows
completely under the foam. It was a thousand wonders she did not
broach to- Augustus having let go the tiller, as I said before, and I
being too much agitated to think of taking it myself. By good luck,
however, she kept steady, and gradually I recovered some degree of
presence of mind. Still the wind was increasing fearfully, and
whenever we rose from a plunge forward, the sea behind fell combing
over our counter, and deluged us with water. I was so utterly
benumbed, too, in every limb, as to be nearly unconscious of
sensation. At length I summoned up the resolution of despair, and
rushing to the mainsail let it go by the run. As might have been
expected, it flew over the bows, and, getting drenched with water,
carried away the mast short off by the board. This latter accident
alone saved me from instant destruction. Under the jib only, I now
boomed along before the wind, shipping heavy seas occasionally over
the counter, but relieved from the terror of immediate death. I took
the helm, and breathed with greater freedom as I found that there yet
remained to us a chance of ultimate escape. Augustus still lay
senseless in the bottom of the boat; and as there was imminent danger
of his drowning (the water being nearly a foot deep just where he
fell), I contrived to raise him partially up, and keep him in a
sitting position, by passing a rope round his waist, and lashing it
to a ringbolt in the deck of the cuddy. Having thus arranged every
thing as well as I could in my chilled and agitated condition, I
recommended myself to God, and made up my mind to bear whatever might
happen with all the fortitude in my power.

Hardly had I come to this resolution, when, suddenly, a loud and
long scream or yell, as if from the throats of a thousand demons,
seemed to pervade the whole atmosphere around and above the boat.
Never while I live shall I forget the intense agony of terror I
experienced at that moment. My hair stood erect on my head -- I felt
the blood congealing in my veins -- my heart ceased utterly to beat,
and without having once raised my eyes to learn the source of my
alarm, I tumbled headlong and insensible upon the body of my fallen
companion.

I found myself, upon reviving, in the cabin of a large