“But, supposing that we do not,” I suggested; “supposing that your information happens to be incorrect; what then?”
“Ay, but it won’t be,” he snarled back; “it’ll be correct, and we’ll find the oiland where Oi told ye. And if we don’t, why bedad it’ll be the worse for you and the gal, for we’ll cruise for it until we find it, if we has to cruise until the Judgment Day, like the Flyin’ Dutchman!”
“All right,” I said. “If the island is where you say it is, I will find it for you, never fear. If it is not—well, then it will not be found; and that is all there is about it.”
“Oi tell ye it will be found; it must be found!” shouted O’Gorman, goaded to fury at the suggestion that perhaps, after all, a dire disappointment lay in store for him. “If the oiland isn’t there, it’s somewheres thereabouts, widin a few miles more or less; and we’ve got to find it afore the hooker turns her nose towards home. Now I hopes that’s plain enough for ye.”
And, smiting the chart a mighty blow with his clenched fist, he turned on his heel and walked forward.
It need scarcely be said that after such a dogmatic statement as this I found my anxiety greatly increased; for I by this time knew the Irishman well enough to be fully aware that no mule could be more obstinate than he, and that, having once made up his mind that his island existed, he would never abandon his search until he had found it—or something that might pass for it. And I was determined that should our search prove unsuccessful, I would at once bear up for the Marquesas, and let him take his choice from among the whole group. Indeed, for a moment I felt tempted to shape as straight a course as I could for the centre of the group, without troubling to hunt for O’Gorman’s particular island at all, as I gravely doubted whether it really had an existence outside the man’s own imagination. But, on the other hand, his information was drawn from a document that, while stained and discoloured with age, had every appearance—from my casual inspection of it—of being genuine; and, if so, the island might possibly exist, although uncharted. Moreover, O’Gorman had not seized the brig and become a pirate merely to satisfy an idle curiosity as to the accuracy of the document he had produced; he was going there for a certain definite purpose; to search for something, probably; and, if so, nothing short of our arrival at that particular island would satisfy him. So, having laid off the course upon the chart, I gave it to the helmsman, and called the hands aft to trim sail.
Of our passage into the solitudes of the Pacific I have nothing to relate, save that Miss Onslow’s demeanour toward me became, if possible, more perplexing and tantalising than ever. To convey a clear and accurate idea of her varying moods it would be necessary to relate in tolerably minute detail the particulars of our daily intercourse throughout the voyage—a course of procedure which would not only expand my story far beyond its proper limits, but would also entirely alter its character—I must therefore content myself with merely stating that I believe I may, without exaggeration, assert that I never found her upon any two occasions to behave in a precisely similar manner. She appeared to regulate her treatment of me by the behaviour of the men. She had long ago abandoned that almost insolent hauteur of manner that distinguished her at the outset of our acquaintance; but if the weather was fine, the wind fair, the men upon their best behaviour—as sometimes happened—in short, if things were going well with me in other respects, she invariably kept me at arm’s-length by a certain indefinable, but none the less unmistakable, coolness, indifference, and distance of manner just sufficiently pronounced to suggest a desire to be left to herself. But in proportion as difficulties, anxieties, and vexations arose, so did her manner warm to me until there were times when it became almost caressingly tender; so that, as my passion for her grew, I sometimes felt almost tempted to feign an anxiety or a distress that did not exist, for the mere delight of finding her manner warming to me. But I take credit to myself that I always resisted the temptation, fighting against it as a thing to yield to which would be mean and unmanly on my part.
In this strange and contradictory condition of alternate peace, rendered insipid by Miss Onslow’s coolness, and anxiety converted into happiness unspeakable by the warmth and tenderness of her sympathy, I carried the brig toward the spot indicated in O’Gorman’s document; and at noon on a certain day my observations showed that we had arrived within sixty miles of it. The weather was then brilliantly fine, with a gentle breeze out from about west-north-west, that wafted the brig along over the low, long mounds of the Pacific swell at a rate of about five knots; consequently, if the island happened to be in the position assigned to it, we ought to reach it about midnight. O’Gorman’s desire to be made acquainted with our exact position daily had been growing ever since we had shifted our helm after rounding the Horn, beginning as a condition of languid curiosity, which had strengthened into a state of feverish restlessness and anxiety that, on the day in question, as soon as I had conveyed to him the customary information, found vent in an order that a man should go aloft and maintain a lookout from the topgallant yard until the island should be sighted, the remainder of the crew being set to work during the afternoon to rouse out and bend the cables, and to attend to the various other matters incidental to the approach of a vessel to a port. He also had the spare spars overhauled and suitable ones selected for the purpose of erecting tents in conjunction with the brig’s old sails, from all of which I inferred that our stay at the island—should we happen to find it—would be a somewhat protracted one.
As to the probability of our finding the place, I was exceedingly doubtful; for although I was well aware that hitherto unknown islands were still occasionally being discovered in the Pacific, I was equally well aware that these new islands were almost invariably low, and of insignificant dimensions, being, in fact, merely coral reefs that have been gradually lifted above the surface of the ocean; whereas O’Gorman’s document contained mention of a hill, and the presence of a hill argued a probable existence of ages, and a consequently corresponding likelihood of comparatively early discovery.
But at two bells in the second dog-watch, that night, all doubt was put an end to by a sudden, startling cry from the lookout on the fore-topgallant yard of: