The time was sunset. Cugel went forward to the bow and stood under the lantern, as Drofo was wont to do. Tonight the western sky was dramatic with a high array of cirrus wisps scarlet on the dark blue sky. At the horizon the sun lingered and hesitated, as if reluctant to leave the world of daylight. A sour blue-green corona rimmed the edge of the globe: a phenomenon which Cugel had never noticed before. A purple bruise on the sun’s surface seemed to pulse, like the orifice of a polyp: a portent? … Cugel started to turn away, then, struck by a sudden thought, looked up into the lantern. The glow-box, spurts and lumenex, which Cugel had removed from the stern lantern, were not to be seen here either.
It seemed, thought Cugel, as if fertile minds worked hard aboard the Galante. “Nonetheless,” Cugel told himself, “it is with me whom they deal, and I am not known as Cugel the Clever for nothing.”
For still a few minutes Cugel stood at the bow. On the quarter-deck the three girls and Madame Soldinck drank tea and watched Cugel sidelong. Cugel put an arm to the lantern-post, creating a gallant silhouette against the sky of sunset. The high clouds now showed the color of old blood, and were clearly the precursors of wind. It might be wise to tuck a reef into the sail.
The light of sunset died. Cugel pondered the strange events of the voyage. To sail south all day and wake up the next morning in waters farther north than the starting point of the day before: this was an unnatural sequence … What sensible explanation, other than magic, existed? An ocean swirl? A retrograde escalabra?
One conjecture followed another across Cugel’s mind, each more unlikely than the last. At one especially preposterous notion he paused to voice a sardonic chuckle before rejecting it along with other more plausible theories … He stopped short and returned to review the idea, since, oddly enough, the theory fitted precisely to all the facts.
Except in a single crucial aspect.
The theory rested on the premise that Cugel’s mental capacity was of a low order. Cugel chuckled once again, but less comfortably, and presently he stopped chuckling.
The mysteries and paradoxes of the voyage were now illuminated. It seemed that Cugel’s innate chivalry and sense of decency had been exploited and his easy trustfulness had been turned against him. But now the game would change!
A tinkle of silver bells announced the service of his dinner. Cugel delayed a moment for a last look around the horizon. The breeze was blowing with greater force and piling up small waves which slapped against the Galante’s bluff bows.
Cugel walked slowly aft. He climbed to the quarter-deck where Madame Soldinck had only just come on watch. Cugel gave her a crisp nod which she ignored. He looked at the escalabra; the claw indicated ‘South’. Cugel went to the taff-rail and casually glanced up into the lantern. The glow-box was not in place, which proved nothing. Cugel said to Madame Soldinck: “A nice breeze will rest the worms.”
“That may well be.”
“The course is south, fair and true.”
Madame Soldinck deigned no response. Cugel descended to a dinner which in all respects met his critical standards. The meal was served by the ‘night-steward’ Salasser, whom Cugel found no less charming than her sisters. Tonight she had dressed her hair in the style of the Spanssian Corybants, and wore a simple white gown belted at the waist with a golden rope — a costume which nicely set off her slender figure. Of the three girls, Salasser possessed possibly the most refined intelligence, and her conversation, while sometimes quaint, impressed Cugel by reason of its freshness and subtlety.
Salasser served Cugel his dessert: a torte of five flavors, and while Cugel consumed the delicacy, Salasser began to remove his shoes.
Cugel drew his feet back. “For a time I will wear my shoes.”
Salasser raised her eyebrows in surprise. Cugel was usually ready enough to seek the comforts of the couch as soon as he had finished his dessert.
Tonight Cugel put aside the torte half-finished. He jumped to his feet, ran from the cabin and climbed to the quarter-deck where he found Madame Soldinck in the act of putting light to the lantern.
Cugel spoke angrily: “I believe that I have made myself clear on this subject!” He reached into the lantern and despite Madame Soldinck’s cry of protest removed the functioning parts and threw them far into the dark.
He descended to the cabin. “Now,” he told Salasser, “you may remove my shoes.”
An hour later Cugel jumped from the couch and wrapped himself in his gown. Salasser raised to her knees. “Where are you going? I have thought of something innovative.”
“I will be back at once.”
On the quarter-deck Cugel once again discovered Madame Soldinck as she put fire to several candles which she had placed into the lantern. Cugel snatched away the candles and threw them into the sea.
Madame Soldinck protested: “What are you doing? I need the light for steering purposes!”
“You must steer by the glim in the escalabra! You have heard my last warning!”
Madame Soldinck, muttering under her breath, hunched over the wheel. Cugel returned to the cabin. “Now,” he told Salasser, “to your innovation! Although I suspect that, after twenty aeons, few stones have been left unturned.”
“So it may be,” said Salasser with charming simplicity. “But are we then to be deterred from a new trial?”
“Naturally not,” said Cugel.
The innovation was tested, and Cugel suggested a variation which also proved successful. Cugel then jumped to his feet and started to run from the room, but Salasser caught him and drew him back to the couch. “You are as restless as a tonquil! What has vexed you so?”
“The wind is rising! Listen how the sail flaps! I must make an inspection.”
“Why irk yourself?” coaxed Salasser. “Let Mama deal with such things.”
“If she trims the sail, she must leave the wheel. And who is tending the worms?”
“The worms are resting … Cugel! Where are you going?”
Cugel had already run out upon the midship-deck, to find the sail back-winded and furiously flogging at the sheets. He climbed to the quarter-deck, where he discovered that Madame Soldinck, becoming discouraged, had abandoned her post and gone to her quarters.
Cugel checked the escalabra. The claw indicated a northerly direction, with the ship ducking and yawing and sidling astern. Cugel spun the wheel; the bow fell off; the wind caught the sail with a great clap of sound, so that Cugel feared for the sheets. Irritated by the jerking, the worms swung up from the water, plunged, broke their cinctures and swam away.
Cugel called out: “All hands on deck!” but no-one responded. He lashed the wheel and working in the dark brailed up the sail, suffering several sharp blows from the flailing sheets.
The ship now blew directly down-wind, in an easterly direction. Cugel went in search of his crew, to discover that all had locked themselves in their cabins, from which they silently ignored his orders.
Cugel kicked furiously at the doors, but only bruised his foot. He limped back amidships and made all as secure as possible.
The wind howled through the rigging and the ship began to show an inclination to broach. Cugel once more ran forward and roared orders to his crew. He elicited a response only from Madame Soldinck: “Go away, and leave us to die in peace! We are all sick.”
Cugel gave a final kick to the door and, limping, made his way to the wheel, where with great exertion he managed to keep the ship tracking steady before the wind.
All night Cugel stood at the wheel while the wind keened and shrieked and the waves reared ever higher, sometimes to break against the transom in surging white foam. On one such occasion Cugel looked over his shoulder, to discover a glare of reflected light.
