In every short interval of the fiendish noises around he could
be heard there, without cap or slippers, imploring in that storm the
Master of our lives not to lead him into temptation. Soon he also became
silent. In all that crowd of cold and hungry men, waiting wearily for
a violent death, not a voice was heard; they were mute, and in sombre
thoughtfulness listened to the horrible imprecations of the gale.
Hours passed. They were sheltered by the heavy inclination of the ship
from the wind that rushed in one long unbroken moan above their heads,
but cold rain showers fell at times into the uneasy calm of their
refuge. Under the torment of that new infliction a pair of shoulders
would writhe a little. Teeth chattered. The sky was clearing, and bright
sunshine gleamed over the ship. After every burst of battering seas,
vivid and fleeting rainbows arched over the drifting hull in the flick
of sprays. The gale was ending in a clear blow, which gleamed and cut
like a knife. Between two bearded shellbacks Charley, fastened with
somebody's long muffler to a deck ring-bolt, wept quietly, with rare
tears wrung out by bewilderment, cold, hunger, and general misery.
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