CHAPTER XI
IN WHICH JIM AND I TAKE DIFFERENT WAYS
I was unhappy when I closed my eyes; and it was to unhappiness that I opened them again next morning, to a confused sense of some calamity still inarticulate, and to the consciousness of jaded limbs and of a swimming head. I must have lain for some time inert and stupidly miserable before I became aware of a reiterated knocking at the door; with which discovery all my wits flowed back in their accustomed channels, and I remembered the sale and the wreck, and Goddedaal and Nares, and Johnson and Black Tom, and the troubles of yesterday and the manifold engagements of the day that was to come. The thought thrilled me like a trumpet in the hour of battle. In a moment I had leaped from bed, crossed the office where Pinkerton lay in a deep trance of sleep on the convertible sofa, and stood in the doorway, in my night gear, to receive our visitors.
Johnson was first, by way of usher, smiling. From a little behind, with his Sunday hat tilted forward over his brow and a cigar glowing between his lips, Captain Nares acknowledged our previous acquaintance with a succinct nod. Behind him again, in the top of the stairway, a knot of sailors, the new crew of the Norah Creina, stood polishing the wall with back and elbow. These I left without to their reflections. But our two officers I carried at once into the office, where (taking Jim by the shoulder) I shook him slowly into consciousness. He sat up, all abroad for the moment, and stared on the new captain.
“Jim,” said I, “this is Captain Nares. Captain, Mr. Pinkerton.”
Nares repeated his curt nod, still without speech; and I thought he held us both under a watchful scrutiny.
“O!” says Jim, “this is Captain Nares, is it? Good-morning, Captain Nares. Happy to have the pleasure of your acquaintance, sir. I know you well by reputation.”
Perhaps, under the circumstances of the moment, this was scarce a welcome speech. At least, Nares received it with a grunt.
“Well, captain,” Jim continued, “you know about the size of the business? You’re to take the Norah Creina to Midway Island, break up a wreck, call at Honolulu, and back to this port? I suppose that’s understood?”