A Son of the Sun by Jack London (Illustrated) by Jack London

Author:Jack London [LONDON, JACK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 15 of 57 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

III

After a giddy night of grand and lofty tumbling, in which, over a big and dying sea, without a breath of wind to steady her, the Uncle Toby rolled every person on board sick of soul, a light breeze sprang up and the reefs were shaken out. By midday, on a smooth ocean floor, the clouds thinned and cleared and sights of the sun were obtained. Two degrees and fifteen minutes south, the observation gave them. With a broken chronometer longitude was out of the question.

“We’re anywhere within five hundred and a thousand miles along that latitude line,” Grief remarked, as he and the mate bent over the chart.

“Leu-Leu is to the south’ard somewhere, and this section of ocean is all blank. There is neither an island nor a reef by which we can regulate the chronometer. The only thing to do — ”

“Land ho, skipper!” the Tongan called down the companionway.

Grief took a quick glance at the empty blank of the chart, whistled his surprise, and sank back feebly in a chair.

“It gets me,” he said. “There can’t be land around here. We never drifted or ran like that. The whole voyage has been crazy. Will you kindly go up, Mr. Snow, and see what’s ailing Jackie.”

“It’s land all right,” the mate called down a minute afterward. “You can see it from the deck — tops of cocoanuts — an atoll of some sort. Maybe it’s Leu-Leu after all.”

Grief shook his head positively as he gazed at the fringe of palms, only the tops visible, apparently rising out of the sea.

“Haul up on the wind, Mr. Snow, close-and-by, and we’ll take a look. We can just reach past to the south, and if it spreads off in that direction we’ll hit the southwest corner.”

Very near must palms be to be seen from the low deck of a schooner, and, slowly as the Uncle Toby sailed, she quickly raised the low land above the sea, while more palms increased the definition of the atoll circle.

“She’s a beauty,” the mate remarked. “A perfect circle.... Looks as if it might be eight or nine miles across.... Wonder if there’s an entrance to the lagoon.... Who knows? Maybe it’s a brand new find.”

They coasted up the west side of the atoll, making short tacks in to the surf-pounded coral rock and out again. From the masthead, across the palm-fringe, a Kanaka announced the lagoon and a small island in the middle.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Grief said to his mate.

Snow, who had been muttering and shaking his head, looked up with quick and challenging incredulity.

“You’re thinking the entrance will be on the northwest.” Grief went on, as if reciting.

“Two cable lengths wide, marked on the north by three separated cocoanuts, and on the south by pandanus trees. Eight miles in diameter, a perfect circle, with an island in the dead centre.”

“I was thinking that,” Snow acknowledged.

“And there’s the entrance opening up just where it ought to be — — ”

“And the three palms,” Snow almost whispered, “and the pandanus trees.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.