XXXVI
HOW MY CAT PROMISED ME GOOD LUCK
What would have been most useful to me as foresight, but was onlyaggravating to me as hindsight--which happened to be the way that Igot it--was the very sensible notion that I might have put all of mystores, and even a good part of my coal, aboard the boat before shewas decked over and launched. A few tons more or less would have madeno difference in moving her; but having to put those extra tons aboardof her over the side of the steamer, and then to drag them through thecabin and through the awkward little hatch, and at last to stow themby the light of a lantern in her stillingly close hot hold--all thatmade a lot of difference to me. However, I could not foreseeeverything; and I think, on the whole, that I really did foresee mostof what I wanted pretty well.
Of provisions I took along enough to last me, by a rough calculation,for three months; being pretty well satisfied that unless within thattime I got through the weed-tangle to open water--over which I couldmake my way to land, or on which I might fall in with a passingvessel--I never would get free at all. And I was the more disposed tokeep down my lading of provisions because I wanted every scrap of roomthat I could save for my cargo of coal. But my stores were plentifulfor the term that I had fixed upon, and the best and the mostnourishing--save that I could not take fresh meat with me--that the_Ville de Saint Remy_ had on board; and I did not forget to take agood supply of the tinned chicken and the condensed milk of which mydainty cat was so fond. As for water--beside having my condenser tofall back upon--I felt pretty sure that until I got well out towardthe open sea I could trust to the morning rains. But for all that Icarried two barrels with me--filled fresh the last thing before Istarted--stowed in the well of the boat aft of the cabin; and theretoo I carried a couple of ten-gallon tins of oil for my lanternsand lamps.
My bone-breaking job was getting my coal aboard. For ease in handlingand in stowing it--though I lost a little room that way--I put it incanvas sacks, of which I luckily found some bales in the steamer'scargo. These I swung up from the engine-room by the cinder-tackle tothe main deck; and having got them that far I packed them on my backto the break in the steamer's side where my boat was lying and tumbledthem aboard of her, and then dragged them along to where I stowedthem in her hold. On my coal holding out at least until I got throughthe weed--for on open water I could lay a course under sail--thesuccess of my adventure wholly depended; and knowing that, I filled myboat with all that I dared to put into her--loading the last twentybags on her deck and on the roof of her cabin, to be used before Idrew on my main supply.
But while this lading was a big one it did not satisfy me; and theonly way that I could think of to better it was to build a long andnarrow raft that I could stow as much more on and tow after me in theboat's wake. This was a big undertaking, but I had to face it and tocarry it through: lowering down three spars (in managing which I useda treble-purchase to swing them clear, and eased them down with acouple of turns of the rope still around the capstan), and when I hadthem over the side in a pool that I had cleared for them I lashed themstrongly together and decked them over with some of the state-roomdoors. This gave me a raft sixty feet long, or thereabouts, butnarrower than my boat; and to make it follow the boat still moreeasily I set a V-shaped cut-water at its bows to turn the weed. To besure, it was a clumsy thing, but it well enough served my turn.
On this structure I was able to carry a prodigious quantity ofcoal--more than I had on the boat, by a good deal; but by a littleplanning in advance I arranged matters so that the lading of it wasnot so hard a piece of work--though in all conscience it was hardenough--as the lading of my boat had been. What I did was to clear apool in the weed for it and to build it directly beneath the outhangof the cinder-tackle; and having that apparatus ready to my hand Iswung my bags of coal up from the engine-room, and then out along thetraveller, and then lowered them away--and so had only to stow them onthe raft when they were down. But there was only one of me to do allthis--to fill each bag in the bunkers and to bring it to theengine-room, to make it fast there to the tackle, to come on deck andhaul it up and set it overboard, to go down the side and set it inplace, and then back to the bunkers again for the next round--and so Ispent a week in doing what three men could have done in a day. And Iwas a tired man and a grimy man when I got this piece of workfinished; but I was comforted by knowing that I had as much coal in mysea-stock as I possibly could have use for--and so I scrubbed myselfclean in the steamers bath-room and was easy in my mind. But it was agood long while before I got the aches out of my bones.
During my last week aboard the _Ville de Saint Remy_ I had steam up inmy boat and my engine at work during the greater part of each day: aswas necessary, the engine being new, in order to get the machineryto running smoothly, and to set right anything that might be wrongwhile I still had the steamer's machine-shop to turn to for repairs.However, the engine proved to be a well-made one, and except that Ihad to tighten a joint here and there and to repack the piston I hadnothing to rectify; and what still more pleased me was to find that mycage answered to keep the screw from fouling, and that my plan forsawing a way through the weed--which I tested by running a littledistance from the steamer through the thick of it--worked well too.But because of the great friction to be overcome as the boat opened away for itself in the dense soft mass my progress was desperatelyslow; and I had to comfort me the reflection that it would be stillslower when I got regularly under way and had in addition to the deadthrust forward of the boat the dead drag after it of the raft.
Slow or fast, though, I had no choice in the matter. With the means atmy command, I had done all that I could do to enable me to climb thewalls of my prison--if I may put it that way--and there remained onlyto muster what pluck I had to help me and to abide by the result. Thiswas the view of the situation that I presented to my cat--for I hadgot into the habit of talking to him quite as much as he talked tome--while we sat at supper together on the last evening that we wereto pass on board of the _Ville de Saint Remy_; and while he did notmake much of a reply to me he did mumble some sort of a purring answerthat I took to mean he was willing, if I were, to make the trial.
Early that morning, while the rain still was falling, I had filled mytwo casks with fresh water; and after my breakfast I got them aboardthe boat and then went to work at setting up my mast--using one of thedavits in place of sheers and so managing the job very well. Afterthat I had rigged the sail, and had set it to make sure that all wasright; and then had furled it and lashed the boom fast on the roof ofthe cabin among the bags of coal--and with rather a heavy heart, too,for I knew that the chances were more than even against my evergetting to open water and fresh breezes, and so loosing again theknots which I had just tied. In the afternoon I had set my engine togoing again for an hour, and then had banked my fires against themorning; and after that, until the shadows began to fall, I had spentmy time in going over the list that I had made of my sea-stock to besure that nothing that I needed was forgotten, and in taking a finalgeneral survey of my boat and its stores. And when darkness came thecat and I had our supper together--which was as good a one as the shipcould provide us with--and when we had finished I told him, as I havesaid, what the chances were for and against our succeeding in ourundertaking and in return asked him for an expression of hisown views.
That he fully understood what I told him I am not prepared to say; buthe certainly did answer me: jumping up on my lap and shoving his pawsalternately against my stomach, and purring in so cheerful a fashion,and altogether making such a show of good spirits as to satisfy methat he was trying to tell me that we certainly would pull through.And my cat's promise of good luck fell in so exactly with my ownconfident hopes--which were rising strongly as the time for testingthem got close at hand--that I hugged him tight to me very lovingly,and on my side promised that within another month or two he shouldstretch his legs in a mouse-hunt on dry land! And with that I put thelamp out and we turned in for the night.