“They’re loudenin’,” said Satan. “They’ll be comin’ this way with the current. Come forward and have a look.”
Leaning over the rail, they watched the moon-shot water. The sounds had ceased.
“They’ve stopped playin’,” said Satan, as though he knew exactly what they were doing.
“It’s too shallow for them here,” said Jude.
“Shallow! It’s fifty foot of water and a sandy bottom. What are you talkin’ about? Told you.”
The depths of the sea suddenly became lit. Down below vast forms came drifting like the mainsails of ships ablaze with phosphorescent light, drifting and turning over as they drifted like gargantuan leaves blown by the wind. The whiplike tails could be seen as streaks of flame. Glimpses of devilish faces and lambent eyes showed as they turned, the fins waving like frills of fire.
Then they were gone.
The Tylers showed little concern over the marvelous sight; allowing, however, that it was the biggest school of “bats” they had ever struck; but to Ratcliffe it was as though the sea had disclosed a peep of its true heart and real mystery.
Then they went to rest, and as he lay in Pap’s cabin, listening to the occasional trickle of the water against the planking and the groan of the rudder moved by the lilt of the swell, it seemed to him that daring in its everyday and cold-blooded form could not have carried a man much further than it had carried him. The sea bats had underscored the business as far as the mystery of the ocean and danger of cruising in such a small boat were concerned; the hardness of Pap’s bunk bedding told of comforts renounced; while the morals of the Tylers, though good enough no doubt, had, as disclosed in their conversation, a touch of the free lance and a threat of port authority troubles and differences of opinion with the customs. Absolute respect for the rights of man, partial respect for the rights of shipping companies and steamer lines, no respect at all for governments and customs,—that was an outline of the Tyler morality. What had made him renounce the Dryad for the Sarah? What, lying in his hard bunk, made him contented with the exchange? The love of adventure and the craving for something new contributed, no doubt, but the main reason he felt to be the Tylers,—Satan with his strange mentality and queer methods; Jude, unlike any other being he had ever met.
Then, as he lay considering all this, came muted voices from the “saloon.” Satan’s voice: