Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (161 page)

"No,
I'm
tired.
Let's
talk.
What
happened
the
other
night?"

"I
had
an
awful
nightmare
about
that
galley
of
ours.
I
dreamed
I was
drowned
in
a
fight.
You
see
we
ran
alongside
another
ship
in harbor.
The
water
was
dead
still
except
where
our
oars
whipped
it
up. You
know
where
I
always
sit
in
the
galley?"
He
spoke
haltingly
at first,
under
a
fine
English
fear
of
being
laughed
at.

"No.
That's
news
to
me,"
I
answered,
meekly,
my
heart
beginning to
beat.

"On
the
fourth
oar
from
the
bow
on
the
right
side
on
the
upper
258
deck.
There
were
four
of
us
at
that
oar,
all
chained.
I
remember watching
the
water
and
trying
to
get
my
handcuffs
off
before
the
row began.
Then
we
closed
up
on
the
other
ship,
and
all
their
fighting men
jumped
over
our
bulwarks,
and
my
bench
broke
and
I
was pinned
down
with
the
three
other
fellows
on
top
of
me,
and
the
big oar
jammed
across
our
backs."

"Well?"
Charlie's
eyes
were
alive
and
alight.
He
was
looking
at
the wall
behind
my
chair.

"I
don't
know
how
we
fought.
The
men
were
trampling
all
over
my back,
and
I
lay
low.
Then
our
rowers
on
the
left
side—tied
to
their oars,
you
know—began
to
yell
and
back
water.
I
could
hear
the
water sizzle,
and
we
spun
round
like
a
cockchafer
and
I
knew,
lying
where
I was,
that
there
was
a
galley
coming
up
bow-on,
to
ram
us
on
the
left side.
I
could
just
lift
up
my
head
and
see
her
sail
over
the
bulwarks. We
wanted
to
meet
her
bow
to
bow,
but
it
was
too
late.
We
could only
turn
a
little
bit
because
the
galley
on
our
right
had
hooked
herself
on
to
us
and
stopped
our
moving.
Then,
by
gum!
there
was
a crash!
Our
left
oars
began
to
break
as
the
other
galley,
the
moving
one y'know,
stuck
her
nose
into
them.
Then
the
lower-deck
oars
shot
up through
the
deck
planking,
butt
first,
and
one
of
them
jumped
clean up
into
the
air
and
came
down
again
close
to
my
head."

"How
was
that
managed?"

"The
moving
galley's
bow
was
plunking
them
back
through
their own
oar-holes,
and
I
could
hear
the
devil
of
a
shindy
in
the
decks below.
Then
her
nose
caught
us
nearly
in
the
middle,
and
we
tilted sideways,
and
the
fellows
in
the
right-hand
galley
unhitched
their hooks
and
ropes,
and
threw
things
on
to
our
upper
deck—arrows,
and hot
pitch
or
something
that
stung,
and
we
went
up
and
up
and
up
on the
left
side,
and
the
right
side
dipped,
and
I
twisted
my
head
round and
saw
the
water
stand
still
as
it
topped
the
right
bulwarks,
and
then it
curled
over
and
crashed
down
on
the
whole
lot
of
us
on
the
right side,
and
I
felt
it
hit
my
back,
and
I
woke."