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Page 74
XXV.
THE HAPPINESS OF MAN.
When Manetho,--who shall no longer perplex us with his theft of a
worthier man's name,--when Manetho felt himself worsted in the brief
strenuous struggle, he tried to drag his antagonist overboard with
him. But his convulsive fingers seized only the leathern strap of the
haversack. Balder--his Berserker fury at white heat--flung the man
with such terrible strength as drove him headlong over the taffrail
like a billet of wood, the stout strap snapping like thread!
Manetho struck the water in sorry plight, breathless, bruised, half
strangled. He sank to a chilly depth, but carried his wits down with
him, and these brought him up again alive, however exhausted. Too weak
to swim, he yet had strength left to keep afloat. But for the
collision, he had drowned, after all!
The cool salt bath presently helped him to a little energy, and by the
time the steamer was under way, he could think of striking out. It was
with no small relief that he heard near voices sounding through the
black fog. Partly by dint of feeble struggles, partly shouldered on
by waves,--ready to save as to drown him,--he managed to accomplish
the short distance to the schooner. With all his might he shouted for
a rope, and amidst much yo-heave-ho-ing, cursing, and astonishment,
was at length hauled aboard, the haversack in his grasp.
The skipper and his crew were kind to him; for men still have
compassion upon one another, and give succor according to the need of
the moment,--not to the balance of good and evil in the sufferer. The
wind freshened, an impromptu, bowsprit was rigged, and the
"Resurrection" limped towards New York. Manetho's partial stupor was
relieved by hot grog and the cook's stove. He gave no further account
of himself than that he had fallen overboard at the moment of
collision; adding a request to be landed in New York, since he had
left some valuable luggage on the steamer.
The skipper gave the stranger his own bunk, the off-watch turned in,
and Manetho was left to himself. He lay for a long while thinking over
what had happened. Bewitched by the spell of night, he had spoken to
Helwyse things never before distinctly stated even to his own mind.
The subtle, perverse devil who had discoursed so freely to his unknown
hearer had scarcely been so unreserved to Manetho's private ear; and
the devilish utterances had stirred up the latter not much less than
the former.
Both men had been wrought, according to their diverse natures, to the
pitch of frenzy. But similar crazy seizures had been incident to the
Egyptian from boyhood. He had anxiously watched against them, and
contrived various means to their mitigation,--the most successful
being the music of his violin, which he seldom let beyond his reach.
Yet, again and again would the fit steal a march on him. Hence, in
part, his retired way of life, varied only by the brief journeys
demanded by the twofold craving--for gambling and for news of Thor,
who figured in his morbid imagination as the enemy of his soul!
The news never came, but all the more brooded Manetho over his hatred
and his fancied wrongs. His mind had never been entirely sound, and
years tinged it more and more deeply with insanity. His philosophy of
life--obscure indeed if tried by sane standards--emits a dusky glimmer
when read by this. He would creep through miles of subterranean
passages to achieve an end which one glance above ground would have
argued vain!
Lying on the bunk in the close cabin, lighted by a dirty lantern
pendent from the roof, the Reverend Manetho began to fear that not his
worst misfortune was the having been thrown overboard. At the moment
when madness was smouldering to a blaze within him, the lantern flash
had revealed to him the face which, for twenty years, he had seen in
visions. Often had he rehearsed this meeting, varying his imaginary
behavior to suit all conceivable moods and attitudes of his enemy, but
never thinking to provide for perversity in himself! So far from
veiling his designs with the soft-voiced cunning of his Oriental
nature, he had been a wild beast! A misgiving haunted him, moreover,
that he had babbled something in the false security of darkness, which
might give Helwyse a clew to his secret.
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