Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (156 page)

"How
do
you
know
that?"

"It's
in
the
tale.
There's
a
rope
running
overhead,
looped
to
the upper
deck,
for
the
overseer
to
catch
hold
of
when
the
ship
rolls. When
the
overseer
misses
the
rope
once
and
falls
among
the
rowers, remember
the
hero
laughs
at
him
and
gets
licked
for
it.
He's
chained to
his
oar
of
course—the
hero."

"How
is
he
chained?"

"With
an
iron
band
round
his
waist
fixed
to
the
bench
he
sits
on, and
a
sort
of
handcuff
on
his
left
wrist
chaining
him
to
the
oar.
He's on
the
lower
deck
where
the
worst
men
are
sent,
and
the
only
light comes
from
the
hatchways
and
through
the
oar-holes.
Can't
you imagine
the
sunlight
just
squeezing
through
between
the
handle
and the
hole
and
wobbling
about
as
the
ship
moves?"

"I
can,
but
I
can't
imagine
your
imagining
it."

"How
could
it
be
any
other
way?
Now
you
listen
to
me.
The
long oars
on
the
upper
deck
are
managed
by
four
men
to
each
bench,
the lower
ones
by
three,
and
the
lowest
of
all
by
two.
Remember
it's
quite dark
on
the
lowest
deck
and
all
the
men
there
go
mad.
When
a
man dies
at
his
oar
on
that
deck
he
isn't
thrown
overboard,
but
cut
up
in his
chains
and
stuffed
through
the
oar-hole
in
little
pieces."

"Why?"
I
demanded,
amazed,
not
so
much
at
the
information
as the
tone
of
command
in
which
it
was
flung
out.

"To
save
trouble
and
to
frighten
the
others.
It
needs
two
overseers to
drag
a
man's
body
up
to
the
top
deck;
and
if
the
men
at
the
lower deck
oars
were
left
alone,
of
course
they'd
stop
rowing
and
try
to
pull up
the
benches
by
all
standing
up
together
in
their
chains."

"You've
a
most
provident
imagination.
Where
have
you
been
reading
about
galleys
and
galley-slaves?"

"Nowhere
that
I
remember.
I
row
a
little
when
I
get
the
chance. But,
perhaps,
if
you
say
so,
I
may
have
read
something."

He
went
away
shortly
afterward
to
deal
with
booksellers,
and
I
wondered
how
a
bank
clerk
aged
twenty
could
put
into
my
hands with
a
profligate
abundance
of
detail,
all
given
with
absolute
assurance,
the
story
of
extravagant
and
bloodthirsty
adventure,
riot,
piracy, and
death
in
unnamed
seas.
He
had
led
his
hero
a
desperate
dance through
revolt
against
the
overseers,
to
command
of
a
ship
of
his
own, and
ultimate
establishment
of
a
kingdom
on
an
island
"somewhere
in the
sea,
you
know";
and,
delighted
with
my
paltry
five
pounds,
had gone
out
to
buy
the
notions
of
other
men,
that
these
might
teach
him how
to
write.
I
had
the
consolation
of
knowing
that
this
notion
was mine
by
right
of
purchase,
and
I
thought
that
I
could
make
something
of
it.