The Ship of Coral

as a

l shaded, motionless but fo

by its very stillness and steadfastness. There, where the sunlight showed that motionless point of light were crowded

hened, it was as though the ship had sent the joyous breath of life before her, the breezed-up water smacked the boat

him. The blind trust in chance that had possessed hi

ssion of these twenty-one big pieces of gold take possession of him. Side by side57 with the fear of not being rescued stood the vision of the possibilities that lay in them. Each one weighed as much as three t

ve a low horizon. For this reason, too, she seemed bigger than she really was. That she was heading straight fo

r and cursing her; so vivid was the obsession that for a moment, as he drew the picture, blazing wra

main in idleness a moment longer, took the sculls and headed

rom his mind as from his sight. He had to keep it in view and shi

ding, yet the sail had sensibly increased in

picture before him resolved itself into three components: the after part of the boat, white, clean-scoured by spra

wisted to the wind and the current, his eyes passed from the

cance to significance. He could see now the fore topsail distinct from the fore course. She was a square r

a truncated pyramid of pale but brilliant rose, around which

, yet becoming more definite, expanding as a bud expan

ten miles away, or maybe more, her course would bring her directly

ays of the sun on seat and bottom board and

rom his setting; would he cut the sea

ce, and, as though the thought had cast a blight on her, for a long time she hung, not seeming to59 alter in size. Then magically, she took distinctness, mystery and beauty left her;

ers between it and the horizon, but the western blue was just beginning to turn, to tin

ach him. Moment by moment she leapt nearer, and the old stained sails that had l

ship burned like a ship of gold, and before her prow the

delirious, forgetful of distance, forgetful of the sun and then-just as though a bad wizard had touched her she began to lose her brilliancy; she had seemed springing

of fire lingered beneath the gold of the sunset, throu

*

the breeze fell away to a gentle breathing of air. Then, in that moment of darkness and indecision, before the s

with sails just filling and, then, more clearly to view as

f treachery and evasion she came. She would pass by some five cable lengths to

ave fancied it, so thin and hard was his voice, the crying of a sea gu

ng, shouted again, and paused to listen. So close was she that he could hear the wash of the

black as ebony, a barquentine, silent as a phantom, stealthy as a thief. Then, as