right oar the boat around the two remaining oars were quickly the men tried to row with the had them shot out of their up a bottom board and began but dropped it with a cry of pain as its drove into his bands then they gave up letting the boat drift till a second boat sent from the shore by wolf them in tow and brought them aboard late that afternoon wc up anchor and got nothing was before us but the three or four months hunting on th se grounds the outlook was black indeed and i went about my work with a heavy heart an almost to have descended upon the s v i i h d to his with on � f his strange stood at the wheel half supporting himself by it as though wearied by the weight of his flesh the rest of the men were and silent i came upon crouching to the ice at the his head on his knees his arms about hit head in an attitude of unutterable despondency t lying full length on the head at the troubled of the and i remembered with horror the suggestion wolf had made it seemed likely to bear fruit i tried to break in on the man s morbid thoughts by calling him away but he smiled sadly at me and refused to obey approached me as i returned aft i want to ask a favor mr van he if it s luck to ever make once more will you u p he s my old man he lives on the hill back of the baker a s shop that everybody knows and you ll have no trouble tell him i to be sorry for the trouble i brought him the sea wolf the things i done and � and just tell him god bless him for me i nodded my head but said we ll all win back to san and you ll be with me when i go to see rd like to believe you he answered shaking my hand but i can t wolf ll do for me i know it and all i can hope is he ll do it quick and as he left me i was aware of the same desire at my heart since it was to be done let it be done with despatch the general gloom had gathered me into its folds the worst appeared inevitable and as i paced the deck hour after hour i found myself afflicted with wolf s repulsive ideas what was it all about where was the grandeur of life that it should permit such wanton destruction of human souls it was a cheap and sordid thing after all this life and the sooner over the better over and done with i too leaned upon the rail and gazed into the sea with the certainty that sooner or later i should be sinking down down through the cool green depths of its oblivion chapter xvii to say in spite of the general nothing o moment happened on the ghost we ran on to the north and west tiu wc raised coast of k and picked up seal herd coming from no man knew where in the pacific it travelling north on its annual to the of sea and north we travelled with it and destroying th naked s to sailing down the skins so that they might later adorn the fair shoulders of the women of the cities it was wanton slaughter and all for woman s sake no man ate of the seal meat or the oil after a good day killing i have seen our decks covered with hides and bodies slippery with fat and blood the running red ropes and rails with the color and the men like their trade naked and red of arm and hand hard at work with and knives removing the from the pretty sea creatures they had killed it was my task to the as they came aboard from the boats to the and afterward of the decks and bringing things again it was not pleasant work my soul my stomach at it and yet in a way this and directing of many men was good for me it what little ability i possessed and i was aware of a or which i was the sea wolf going and which could not be anything but wholesome for van one thing i was beginning to feel and that was that i could never again be quite the same man i had i een while my hope and faith in human life still survived wolf s s destructive criticism he had nevertheless been a cause of change in minor matters he had opened up for me the world of the real of which i had known practically nothing and from which i had always shrunk i had learned to look more closely at life as it was lived to recognize that there were such things as facts in the world to from the realm of mind and idea and to place certain on the and phases of existence i saw more of wolf than ever when we had gained the grounds for when the weather was fair and we were in the midst of the herd all hands were away in the boats and left on board were only he and i and thomas who did not count but there was no play about it the six boats spreading out fan wise from the until the first weather boat and the last lee boat were anywhere from ten to twenty miles apart along a straight course over the sea till nightfall or bad weather drove them in it was our duty to sail the ghost well to of the last lee boat so that all the boats should have fair wind to run for us in case of or threatening weather it 