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"
Fifteen
feet
.
Fifteen
,
fifteen
!
Fourteen
,
fourteen
...
"
Captain
Whalley
lowered
the
arm
holding
the
glasses
.
It
descended
slowly
as
if
by
its
own
weight
;
no
other
part
of
his
towering
body
stirred
;
and
the
swift
cries
with
their
eager
warning
note
passed
him
by
as
though
he
had
been
deaf
.
Massy
,
very
still
,
and
turning
an
attentive
ear
,
had
fastened
his
eyes
upon
the
silvery
,
close-cropped
back
of
the
steady
old
head
.
The
ship
herself
seemed
to
be
arrested
but
for
the
gradual
decrease
of
depth
under
her
keel
.
"
Thirteen
feet
...
Thirteen
!
Twelve
!
"
cried
the
leadsman
anxiously
below
the
bridge
.
And
suddenly
the
barefooted
Serang
stepped
away
noiselessly
to
steal
a
glance
over
the
side
.
Narrow
of
shoulder
,
in
a
suit
of
faded
blue
cotton
,
an
old
gray
felt
hat
rammed
down
on
his
head
,
with
a
hollow
in
the
nape
of
his
dark
neck
,
and
with
his
slender
limbs
,
he
appeared
from
the
back
no
bigger
than
a
boy
of
fourteen
.
There
was
a
childlike
impulsiveness
in
the
curiosity
with
which
he
watched
the
spread
of
the
voluminous
,
yellowish
convolutions
rolling
up
from
below
to
the
surface
of
the
blue
water
like
massive
clouds
driving
slowly
upwards
on
the
unfathomable
sky
.
He
was
not
startled
at
the
sight
in
the
least
.
It
was
not
doubt
,
but
the
certitude
that
the
keel
of
the
Sofala
must
be
stirring
the
mud
now
,
which
made
him
peep
over
the
side
.
His
peering
eyes
,
set
aslant
in
a
face
of
the
Chinese
type
,
a
little
old
face
,
immovable
,
as
if
carved
in
old
brown
oak
,
had
informed
him
long
before
that
the
ship
was
not
headed
at
the
bar
properly
.
Paid
off
from
the
Fair
Maid
,
together
with
the
rest
of
the
crew
,
after
the
completion
of
the
sale
,
he
had
hung
,
in
his
faded
blue
suit
and
floppy
gray
hat
,
about
the
doors
of
the
Harbor
Office
,
till
one
day
,
seeing
Captain
Whalley
coming
along
to
get
a
crew
for
the
Sofala
,
he
had
put
himself
quietly
in
the
way
,
with
his
bare
feet
in
the
dust
and
an
upward
mute
glance
.
The
eyes
of
his
old
commander
had
fallen
on
him
favorably
--
it
must
have
been
an
auspicious
day
--
and
in
less
than
half
an
hour
the
white
men
in
the
"
Ofiss
"
had
written
his
name
on
a
document
as
Serang
of
the
fire-ship
Sofala
.
Since
that
time
he
had
repeatedly
looked
at
that
estuary
,
upon
that
coast
,
from
this
bridge
and
from
this
side
of
the
bar
.
The
record
of
the
visual
world
fell
through
his
eyes
upon
his
unspeculating
mind
as
on
a
sensitized
plate
through
the
lens
of
a
camera
.
His
knowledge
was
absolute
and
precise
;
nevertheless
,
had
he
been
asked
his
opinion
,
and
especially
if
questioned
in
the
downright
,
alarming
manner
of
white
men
,
he
would
have
displayed
the
hesitation
of
ignorance
.
He
was
certain
of
his
facts
--
but
such
a
certitude
counted
for
little
against
the
doubt
what
answer
would
be
pleasing
.
Fifty
years
ago
,
in
a
jungle
village
,
and
before
he
was
a
day
old
,
his
father
(
who
died
without
ever
seeing
a
white
face
)
had
had
his
nativity
cast
by
a
man
of
skill
and
wisdom
in
astrology
,
because
in
the
arrangement
of
the
stars
may
be
read
the
last
word
of
human
destiny
.
His
destiny
had
been
to
thrive
by
the
favor
of
various
white
men
on
the
sea
.
He
had
swept
the
decks
of
ships
,
had
tended
their
helms
,
had
minded
their
stores
,
had
risen
at
last
to
be
a
Serang
;
and
his
placid
mind
had
remained
as
incapable
of
penetrating
the
simplest
motives
of
those
he
served
as
they
themselves
were
incapable
of
detecting
through
the
crust
of
the
earth
the
secret
nature
of
its
heart
,
which
may
be
fire
or
may
be
stone
.
But
he
had
no
doubt
whatever
that
the
Sofala
was
out
of
the
proper
track
for
crossing
the
bar
at
Batu
Beru
.
It
was
a
slight
error
.
The
ship
could
not
have
been
more
than
twice
her
own
length
too
far
to
the
northward
;
and
a
white
man
at
a
loss
for
a
cause
(
since
it
was
impossible
to
suspect
Captain
Whalley
of
blundering
ignorance
,
of
want
of
skill
,
or
of
neglect
)
would
have
been
inclined
to
doubt
the
testimony
of
his
senses
.
It
was
some
such
feeling
that
kept
Massy
motionless
,
with
his
teeth
laid
bare
by
an
anxious
grin
.
Not
so
the
Serang
.
He
was
not
troubled
by
any
intellectual
mistrust
of
his
senses
.
If
his
captain
chose
to
stir
the
mud
it
was
well
.
He
had
known
in
his
life
white
men
indulge
in
outbreaks
equally
strange
.
He
was
only
genuinely
interested
to
see
what
would
come
of
it
.
At
last
,
apparently
satisfied
,
he
stepped
back
from
the
rail
.
