human
I don't find anything.
gpt
Look again.
human
I see the stars, a quiet sea, and not another thing.
gpt
Judah! Marsh hurried aft.
human
Take the glass, Mr. Marsh. See what you can find to the northwest.
gpt
Mr. Shawn, sir, my one glim a'n't too sharp.
human
You too maybe?... Well--it may be gone.
gpt
Was it a sail, Captain?
human
It wasn't the Lamb of God walking upon the waters, Mr. Marsh. I am changing course two points. Sou'-sou'east, d'you hear? Call that fool Manuel from aloft, who wouldn't be seeing the entire Royal Navy and it half a mile to wind'ard. He and Dummy will make ready to haul me the tack--will you move, man? Marsh vanished forward; Ben heard his thin snarl crying Manuel down from the masthead.
gpt
Well, Cory?--get to the mizzen, damn you! Ready in his place--what else?--Ben presently heard Marsh's advisory shout.
human
Cory, Mother of God, can't _you_ speak up like a seaman?
gpt
Ready!
human
Am I to take the helm again?
gpt
First look, only once more. Man dear, don't you see?--it could be I'm growing old and foolish, but--but for all you hate me, you can't call me fool, Beneen, you can't do that.
human
I never have.
gpt
Then look once more--the way I might've been deceived--the way the Devil's minions are in the thing tonight, now that's no lie. I waited too long, so I did. I cast about, while time wasted, praying for the easier course--a fleet--men enough--seeing I could not have the support of those who should have understood me. I prayed for the easier course, so I did, but I tell you now, Beneen, a man must never do that.
human
It was a sail?
gpt
I thought so. I thought so, Ben.
human
If you'll call Manuel aft, whose eyes are good as mine----
gpt
Manuel is it? Have I time for the witless, when--but I may have been deceived. Not there, you say, and I'm believing you. Nothing?
human
Nothing. Sometimes, Mr. Shawn, I've been fooled at night by a whale's spouting. The spray of him seems to hang in the air a while, and I suppose moonlight may lend it the look of a sail. Shawn laughed a little, his breathing slower. He seemed not annoyed that an untamed pup should be instructing him concerning sea-born illusions.
gpt
Well, do you take the helm again, and this'll be your bearing, steady as she goes.
human
May I ask, Mr. Shawn, is this course for Martinique?
gpt
It seems to be gone and that's the truth, and yet I could have sworn--what? Martinique? Why, if my reckoning is right, her present course maintained will bear her a very far way to the east of Martinique.
human
Nothing before us then but the South Atlantic.
gpt
The Line, the South Atlantic, and the Horn. No more waiting. No more of this petty cruising about. No more--piracy. Do you hear me?
human
Less than a year ago I might have jumped at the sound of that.
gpt
Not now?
human
You're not speaking to a boy now, Mr. Shawn.
gpt
Who can ever say? It happened.... Mr. Shawn, I've asked you a dozen times, and have been refused, and now I say again: I wish to go in that cabin and speak with Captain Jenks.
human
And I'll be telling you for maybe the hundredth time, Ben, he is not captain of this or any other vessel.... Ben, with all the charity I've seen in you, can you not hear a man acknowledge his error? I said, no more piracy. I have done wrong, almost betraying my purpose. I say now--and this is like something you once said to me yourself--henceforth I will not lift my hand against any man except to defend my life and my purpose. Jenks?--why, I think he can be released, and you too if it must be so. I shall be forced to put in at some Brazilian port for water and provisions, and there, I think--well, we shall see. Can I say more?
gpt
Yes, you could, Mr. Shawn, because I'm asking you again: Why do you hold him at all? Mills says you question him continually, and he answers nothing.
human
That's true. Shawn gazed steadily northward, at the open sea.
gpt
Answers nothing, and will any man hold such a silence with nothing to hide?
human
Must I say again, he is not captain now?... Ben, did you know I spent more than a year in that sorry city of Boston?
gpt
No, how should I?
human
Oh, you might've.... More than a year, seeking support for the greatest venture a man's spirit ever conceived. I was ignored, laughed at, brushed aside. I sought out the merchants, for behind all the pious canting they've become the rulers of your Boston and I suppose you know it. Sought 'em out one after another, and spilled my heart, the while they looked at my poor clothes and shuffled their feet and remembered important business. I sought audience with your Governor Dudley himself--Mother of God, would he even admit me to the bloody presence? Queen Anne's man, body and soul.... Somehow, Ben--and mark this, I pray you--at some time that miserable year, the story was passed about that I had been with John Quelch. And--why, damn their souls, so I was, for a while. I did ship with him, being penniless and starving, and escaped him as soon as I might. He was evil, Ben, a common pirate, it was right he should hang. I served him briefly, I did that, having no choice, and the rumor of it was made a cause why I should be persecuted, ignored, laughed at, brushed aside. Compassed about.... And still, didn't I ask far less than was asked by Cabot, Drake, Magellan? A trifle of support, mind you, a tiny fleet, a sound crew, a charter to explore--don't you see any man of them might have compounded his fortune a hundred times and written his name in history beside my own? But would they? You know the answer, and they shall know the whole of it too, in time.... And somehow, Ben--while I went from one to another wearing my heart out--somehow a few of them did finally understand a little of what I so recklessly told concerning this venture. Certain of them began to think: Why not the venture without the man? You see? Have you ever heard of such a thing as stealing a man's dreams?
gpt
What has this to do with Captain Jenks?
human
Surely it's plain? The man you childishly call Captain was one of those who began to ask themselves: What if this wild, shabby, tedious Irishman hath glimpsed something of value after all? What if there _are_ new lands for the taking in the western sea, and why should this miserable noisy Sligo man, this old Shawn, why should _he_ have any part of it?... Why, I couldn't believe this of Peter Jenks myself for a long time--never came to me that he was one of 'em, till he hired that man Hanson in the room of me--and that in despite of your great-uncle.
gpt
But----
human
Whisht, Ben! You'll be telling me your great-uncle gave me no promise hard and fast, but I know men's hearts. But for Jenks, I'd've had my way, and glory in it for Mr. Kenny as well as me, don't you doubt it. It wasn't to be. When he took on that agent Hanson, sure my voice was plain enough, I could see how they'd been planning it all the while. You see now, don't you? Had I not taken _Artemis_ from him, Jenks would have her now the other side of the Horn, and Boston would never see her again. But I, Ben--why, I shall give her back the name of _Artemis_, and I'll send her home, when she's taken us to the new country.... In the silence Ben caught the glint of something--merely the copper farthing; at length Shawn spoke again, quietly:
gpt
True, Ben--nothing before you now but the Line, and the South Atlantic, and the Horn. Nothing below you but the Atlantic. And once on a time wasn't I a boy of your age who believed that God was over me? He was moving away. Ben thought he might be weeping, but his voice often sounded so when his eyes were dry.
human
And over you, over all that breathe. Oh, but in those days I was that young and foolish you wouldn't know the misguided thoughts that would seize hold of me and deceive, for the voices I heard then were not God's voice, they were far other. Maybe even now I'm not certain of anything, except that I cannot die until I've looked again on the color of the western sea. He returned swift and silent out of the shadow and stood close to the helm, eyes level with Ben's; no taller than Ben. Not even as tall, perhaps.
gpt
What now? Why did I say that, Ben? Why did I say, the _color_ of the western sea?
human
How could I know why you say any of the things you do?
gpt
Ah? But you must sail with me, all the way. Will you not say it? Will you be forcing me to destroy you? Then I'll be alone, Ben. These men with us--what are they but phantoms, all of 'em? Knife 'em, they'd bleed smoke--not blood, Ben--smoke, and drift away downwind. None aboard but you and me, now that's no lie....
human
If the wind changes, Mr. Marsh, you needn't be calling me--I shall know it.