Page:Weird Tales Volume 02 Number 2 (1937-02).djvu/71

 held them on that ship with a force as strong as bars of iron. Every member of the crew was an opium fiend and each night, in lieu of pay, he received a little round pellet of the drug. I wish I could describe the weird character of those nights. The forecastle reeked with opium fumes. Usually I slipped into slumber, into a semi-stupor with the sweet deadly perfume in my nostrils. Sometimes I would have the wildest dreams. I walked on the bottom of the sea through caverns filled with gold and jewels. From such fantasies I disliked to awaken, for I always rose with a nauseating taste in my mouth. As I strode to the deck I used to glance at my drug-ridden companions. There was a look of profound repose on every face, even though crawling things were gliding unmolested over the inert forms.

"Much happened on that ship that I should like to relate, but if I did it would be like singing an endless, mournful chantey of the sea. Day followed day, week followed week in utter monotony. On all that ship there were no two men who trusted each other, no two who were even casual friends. They had known all the horrors and hatreds of life, and their faith in things was utterly shattered. Gradually I grew as crafty as the rest. I fawned over Jolly Cauldron, became a thing of the most despicable hyprocrisy [sic].

"Far from pleasing him, my new attitude made him hate me the more.

"'I had thought,' he snarled, 'that you were a thoroughbred. But I was wrong. You're just a mongrel, utterly worthless.' But a day was to come when Jolly Cauldron placed his faith in me above any Other man on the ship.

came about because Slim Williams went mad. It was on a certain day after we had been at sea for several months, while we were sailing slowly through the Yellow Sea. For more than a week the temperature had been over a hundred and the humidity was so high we could scarcely breathe. At best Slim Williams was feeble mentally, and when the constant glare of the sun fell upon him, his mind broke completely. He imagined that he was extremely religious, that he had been sent to save from destruction. He crept stealthily down into Jolly Cauldron's cabin and seized the steel-bound chest in which the opium was kept. Staggering under its great weight, he returned to the deck. Before any of us could stop him, he had hoisted it over the side and it splashed out of sight into the Yellow Sea.

"Never have I beheld such a frightful expression as was on the face of Jolly Cauldron at that moment. His mouth worked convulsively as though he were having a fit, and his face was gray-white. The inflamed circles about his eyes were red, as red as raw flesh. The next minute his great arms had closed about Slim Williams with such terrific force we could hear the bones crack. Slim moaned slightly and frothed at the lips. For a few seconds only Jolly Cauldron held him thus; then, uttering a long, harsh laugh, he pitched him headlong into the sea. As I stood at the rail I could see the gruesome shadows of sharks circling the ship.

"That night was the hottest I have ever experienced. There was not a breath of air stirring. The water glowed with a peculiar yellow light, caused no doubt by some phosphorescent sea-anemone, but to me it seemed weird and ghastly. In the forecastle the men lay on their bunks, panting for breath, cursing and screaming for their day's pay of opium. A single oil lamp swung from the rafters overhead. The feeble flame of it made the shadows all about us more