Works of Jules Verne/A Floating City/Chapter 25
CHAPTER XXV
A SAILOR'S BURIAL
The next day, Monday, the 8th of April, the weather was very fine. I found the Doctor on deck basking in the sun. He came up to me. "Ah well!" said he, "our poor sufferer died in the night. The doctor never gave him up—oh, those doctors! they will never give in. This is the fourth man we have lost since we left Liverpool, the forth gone towards paying the Great Eastern's debt."
"Poor fellow," said I, "just as we are nearing port, and the American coast almost in sight. What will become of his widow and little children?"
"Would you have it otherwise, my dear sir? It is the law, the great law! we must die! We must give way to others. It is my opinion we die simply because we are occupying a place which by rights belongs to another. Now can you tell me how many people will have died during my existence if I live to be sixty?"
"I have no idea, Doctor."
"The calculation is simple enough," resumed Dean Pitferge. "If I live sixty years, I shall have been in the world 21,900 days, or 525,600 hours, or 31,536,000 minutes, or lastly, 1,892,160,000 seconds, in round numbers 2,000,000,000 seconds. Now in that time two thousand million individuals who were in the way of their successors will have died, and when I have become inconvenient, I shall be put out of the way in the same manner, so that the long and short of the matter is to put off becoming inconvenient as long as possible."
The Doctor continued for some time arguing on this subject, tending to prove to me a very simple theory, the mortality of human creatures. I did not think it worth while to discuss the point with him, so I let him have his say. Whilst we paced backwards and forwards, the Doctor talking, and I listening, I noticed that the carpenters on board were busy repairing the battered stem. If Captain Anderson did not wish to arrive in New York with damages, the carpenters would have to hurry over their work, for the Great Eastern was rapidly speeding through the tranquil waters; this I understood from the lively demeanor of the young lovers, who no longer thought of counting the turns of the wheels. The long pistons expanded, and the enormous cylinders heaving on their axle-swings, looked like a great peal of bells clanging together at random. The wheels made eleven revolutions a minute, and the steamship went at the rate of thirteen miles an hour. At noon the officers dispensed with making an observation; they knew their situation by calculation, and land must be signaled before long.
While I was walking on deck after lunch, Captain Corsican came up. I saw, from the thoughtful expression on his face, that he had something to tell me. "Fabian," said he, "has received Drake's seconds. I am to be his second, and he begs me to ask you if you will kindly be present on the occasion. He may rely on you?"
"Yes, captain; so all hope of deferring or preventing this meeting has vanished?"
"All hope."
"But tell me, how did the quarrel arise?"
"A discussion about the play was a pretext for it, nothing else. The fact is if Fabian was not aware who Harry Drake was, it is quite evident he knew Fabian, and the name of Fabian is so odious to him that he would gladly slay the man to whom it belongs."
"Who are Drake's seconds?" I asked.
"One of them is that actor———"
"Doctor T———?"
"Just so; the other is a Yankee I do not know."
"When are you to expect them?"
"I am waiting for them here."
And just as he spoke I saw the seconds coming towards us. Doctor T——— cleared his throat; he undoubtedly thought a great deal more of himself as the representative of a rogue. His companion, another of Drake's associates, was one of those extraordinary merchants who has always for sale anything you may ask him to buy.
Doctor T——— spoke first, after making a very emphatic bow, which Captain Corsican hardly condescended to acknowledge.
"Gentlemen," said Doctor T———, in a grave tone, "our friend Drake, a gentleman whose merit and deportment cannot fail to be appreciated by everyone, has sent us to arrange a somewhat delicate affair with you; that is to say, Captain Fabian MacElwin, to whom we first addressed ourselves, referred us to you as his representative. I hope that we shall be able to come to an understanding between ourselves worthy the position of gentlemen touching the delicate object of our mission."
We made no reply, but allowed the gentleman to become embarrassed with his delicacy.
"Gentlemen," continued he, "there is not the remotest doubt but that Captain MacElwin is in the wrong. That gentleman has unreasonably, and without the slightest pretext, questioned the honor of Harry Drake's proceedings in a matter of play, and without any provocation offered him the greatest insult a gentleman could receive."
These honeyed words made the captain impatient, he bit his mustache, and could refrain speaking no longer. "Come to the point," said he sharply to Doctor T———, whose speech he had interrupted, "we don't want so many words; the affair is simple enough; Captain MacElwin raised his hand against Mr. Drake, your friend accepted the blow, he assumes the part of the offended, and demands satisfaction. He has the choice of arms. What next?"
"Does Captain MacElwin accept the challenge?" asked the Doctor, baffled by Corsican's tone.
"Decidedly."
"Our friend, Harry Drake, has chosen swords."
"Very well, and where is the engagement to take place? In New York?"
"No, here on board."
"On board, be it so; at what time? To-morrow morning?"
"This evening at six o'clock, at the end of the upper deck, which will be deserted at that time."
"Very well." Thus saying, the captain took my arm, and turned his back on Doctor T———.
It was no longer possible to put off the duel. Only a few hours separated us from the moment when Fabian and Harry Drake must meet. What could be the reason of this haste? How was it that Harry Drake had not delayed the duel until he and his enemy had disembarked? Was it because this ship, freighted by a French company, seemed to him the most favorable ground for a meeting which must be a deadly struggle? Or rather, might not Drake have a secret interest in freeing himself of Fabian before the latter could set foot on the American continent, or suspect the presence of Ellen on board, which he must have thought was unknown to all save himself? Yes, it must have been for this reason. "Little matter, after all," said the captain; "far better to have it over."
"Shall I ask Doctor Pitferge to be present at the duel as a doctor?"
"Yes, it would be well to do so."
Corsican left me to go to Fabian. At this moment the bell on deck began tolling, and when I inquired of a steersman the reason of this unusual occurrence, he told me that it was for the burial of the sailor who had died in the night, and that the sad ceremony was about to take place. The sky, until now so clear, became overcast, and dark clouds loomed threateningly in the south.
At the sound of the bell the passengers flocked to the starboard side. The bridges, paddle-boards, bulwarks, masts and shore-boats, hanging from their davits, were crowded with spectators, the officers, sailors, and stokers off duty, stood in ranks on deck.
At two o'clock a group of sailors appeared at the far end of the upper deck, they had left the hospital, and were passing the rudder engine. The corpse, sewn in a piece of sail and stretched on a board, with a cannon ball at the feet, was carried by four men. The body, covered with the British flag, and followed by the dead man's comrades, slowly advanced into the midst of the spectators, who uncovered their heads as the procession passed. On their arrival at the starboard paddle-wheel, the corpse was deposited on a landing of a staircase which terminated at the main deck.
In front of the row of spectators, standing one above the other, were Captain Anderson and his principal officers in full uniform. The captain, holding a prayer book in his hand, took his hat off, and for some minutes, during a profound silence, which not even the breeze interrupted, he solemnly read the prayer for the dead, every word of which was distinctly audible in the deathlike silence. On a sign from the captain, the body, released by the bearers, sank into the sea. For one moment it floated on the surface, became upright, and then disappeared in a circle of foam.
At this moment the voice of the sailor on watch was heard crying "Land!"