Текст книги "Рыжик-мореплаватель / Ginger, the sailor"

49. A Pirates’ Paradise

At last the dry cargo ship passed through the Panama Canal and was sailing in free waters.

"The Caribbean Sea", admired Serga. "The best sea for pirates, guys"

"Why, Sergey Ivanich?"

"Just because there used to be a lot of loot here. Pirates robbed the ships which were sailing from Europe to America and much more those sailing from America to Europe. They used to carry gold taken from American Indians. It’s only fitting that you should rob them."

"Indeed!" agreed the young sailors, laughing by stealth.

"And it is very important for a pirate, guys, to have your own nook on the coast. You can hide there your loot, shelter from the storm, mend the bands, clean the planking from the sea shells. There is a lot to do on shore."

"Indeed!"

"It was a paradise for pirates in the Caribbean Sea!" said Serga with enthusiasm. "There are as many islands here as mushrooms in rainy autumn in Moscow area. Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, then came Bahamas…Here is Cuba, the Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, to say nothing of the minor ones."

"Perhaps, minor islands are still better!" wondered the young sailors.

"Certainly!" replied Serga with competence.

"There are no garrisons there. The most important things are that the bay should be suitable and there should be drinking water."

The sailors admired:

"You are speaking as if you used to be a pirate yourself, Sergei Ivanich. You even look like they do."

The old man took a pull at his pipe and exhaled upwards a puff of dense smoke.

"I don’t know, guys! For me it’s enough to be in the sea and to be free to do as I like. There is nothing else a sailor needs.

"Everything you need now is to have a parrot on your shoulder, shouting "Piastres! Piastres!" joked the sailors.

At that very moment a sparrow above chirped loudly.

"Ginger is blackened with smoke, blackened!"

"He is a parrot!" laughed the sailors.

"He is scolding me!" Serga explained. "He can’t stand tobacco smoke."

"If this is the case, give it up then!"

"And what do you think? I will have to."

50. At the Head of the Underwater River

Having passed the Virgin Islands the dry cargo ship put to the open Atlantic Ocean and headed for the strait of Gibraltar which separates Europe from Asia.

"And if we go a bit to the north we will get to the English Channel which lies between England and France… And it’s just a stone’s throw to the Baltic, to Petersburg!" Serga said sighing.

"The Black Sea is not worse," the sailors sighed too.

"Exactly so, but I served on the Baltic, my brers. Being a very young boy I was called up to serve in the navy in the city of Kronstadt. I’d been sailing for three years on the cruiser «Verniy» and got a rank of a senior seaman. I know that there is no such a rank in the merchant navy but the captain reserved it for me, please don’t take it amiss…"

"Well, what of that? We take you in charge, Sergey Ivanich."

"That’s it… Where did we stop at?"

"At the Baltic."

"No, fellows, we are not going to the Baltic today, but as a matter of fact we are passing by very interesting places. The warm current of Gulf Stream, which gives out warmth to all Scandinavia, starts somewhere here, a bit closer to Florida. And even Spitsbergen gets some warmth from it. Do you see river flows into the ocean? It’s twentyfold broader and deeper than all the terrestrial rivers of the world. That’s it!"

"Don’t you exaggerate, Sergey Ivanich?"

"Cross my heart! Ask the captain. And to the north of us to the larboard there will be the famous Sargasso Sea with the Bermuda Islands in the middle of it. The sailors didn’t like it: it’s overgrown with dirt on the surface, ships lapse, stuck there… You know about the Bermuda triangle, don’t you?"

"Sure enough! They say even plains disappear there."

"I’ve heard about it too… But there is something more important about the Sargasso Sea. There is a certain day when congers swim up here from the whole world."

"A delicious fish!"

"You won’t find a tastier one" nodded Serga. "They spawn here, then fries hatch and swim to all the seas and oceans. And when they grow up they return to the Sargasso Sea a world away."

The senior seaman was so excited that the listeners didn’t notice Ginger to have flown away to the stern. He bathed in the bowl, pecked from the feeding-rack and absolutely didn’t know what to do further. He was dull.

"I am at a loose end" he twittered, and then flew up and down. Suddenly he saw an open porthole and sat on its "windowsill".

During the long cruise the sparrow had a lot of chances to peep in the human habitation on the ship. One day after a storm in the Indian Ocean he even found himself in a sailor’s cabin, and didn’t know how he had got there. But from early childhood he remembered his father’s words about to the human habitation:

"Even if you see an open window keep out of it, sonny. People breed cats in their houses, remember it."

"But I saw a goldfinch in one of the windows. It was packing hempseed and even was singing something."

"And didn’t you see the iron bars around him?.. It’s a cage, sonny. Goldfinches and all sorts of canaries can live in cages, but we can’t. We, sparrows are proud free feathered birds!"

And now it was only curiosity that made Ginger sit on the edge of the porthole. But at that moment a gust of wind, turned the porthole round, slammed it and poor Ginger fell head over hills into the cabin.

"Stand fr-rom under!" he cried. "Let me go! It’s not my fault."

But the thick glass of the porthole deadened all the sounds, and there were no people in the cabin, that’s why nobody heard the twittering of the poor sparrow.

51. Overal

This foreign word means «all hands on deck» and foreshadows the great blast of the nature.

The captain of the dry cargo ship has just been reported: the powerful storm is coming. And though the ship is always ready for the storm, it’s necessary to check and secure everything before the "great rolling".

"All hands on deck!" the captain commanded and his mates took it up. In a minute all the team except the motor mechanics, radio operators, helmsmen and watchers was standing at attention.

The captain looked at the sailors merrily.

"Do you remember the storm in the Indian ocean, brers?"

"You bet!"

"Of course we remember it, chief!"

"That’s it… It was nothing compared with what it to come. Now such a storm is coming to us, so we’ll wish it had never happened… I declare an overall!"

"Yes, sir!" saluted the mates. "Action stations, brers!"

"Don’t be standing, shark throats!" cried the boatswain. "Let’s start!"

The dry cargo ship became like a disturbed anthill. Everyone was running somewhere, was hitching something. Only clever Changa hid out of harm’s way because she understood: you must not get under sailors feet at such moments.

In common bustle only Serga noticed that Ginger was nowhere to be seen, bur the senior seaman didn’t have the right to be distracted from the main things. From time to time he cast a glance at the masts, cranes and other sparrow’s favourite places… Alas! He was nowhere to be seen.

52. With Fear and Insult

Ginger was flying around the cabin which was more spacious than small sailors’ cabins; he kept throwing with all his might at the glass of the porthole, hurting himself, losing his feathers but couldn’t get free.

"What for? What for?" he twittered with insult.

Ginger again sat on the porthole and held its wooden round frame with strong claws. He saw the dark grey shadow swallowed the sun, heard the whistling of the wind – and shrank back from the glass when the wet sea foam hit it from the reverse side…

With fear, pain and insult the sparrow hid into the remotest corner of the cabin, ruffled up his feathers and fell asleep. What else could he do?

He was sleeping fast when the storm of the unseen strength blew over the equatorial Atlantic, tossing the oceangoing ship as shells and displanting the trees on the oncoming islands.

53. The Treat of the Seas

The owner of the cabin returned only toward morning when the storm had calmed down and the captain let his mates go «home».

"Thanks God the danger is over," he said entering the cabin and blessing himself in front of the icon of Saint-Nicolas, who is considered to be a patron of sailors. "Now we can hit the sack…"

He tiredly down on the birth and fell asleep at once because he was a veteran sailor and didn’t like to worry about the past. They hadn’t sunk and that’s it. Though they could have: the storm was too severe.

Soon the owner of the cabin began snoring terribly and it woke the sparrow up. He dreamt that the goldfinches and canaries decoyed him into the cage and were flitting in the wild and laughing at Ginger.

He twittered half-awake, opened his eyes slightly and remembered about yesterday’s event at once.

"It was not a dream, was it?" poor Ginger got upset, flew up, got hold of the frame and saw a pink dawn through the glass. "Let me go! Let me go now! Hey, sea devils! You are the battalion of military-ry offenders!"

Having told everything he thought of the team, Ginger looked back at the birth, gave a sad squeak and flew to his corner.

The most horrible man in the ship – the boatswain – was sleeping on the birth.

54. Searching

The «bumpiness» was still going on, but the leading seaman escorted by the Newfoundland dog Changa had been already walking around the deck and peeping into every secluded corner.

"Ginger, Ginger!" he was calling up the sparrow. "Where on earth are you?"

Changa was sniffing up all the corners carefully, but stormy waves had washed the ship so clearly that there were no other smells but the sea ones. It smelt of iodine, fish, water plants… It didn’t smell of the sparrow.

Other sailors came to the deck and when they came to know about the loss they joined the searching. They carefully examined all the additional storeys of the ship but found nothing either.

"Here it is, the Bermuda triangle!" the sailors were sighing. "Planes disappear here… and sparrows too…"

"Ginger was washed overboard. Such a great storm it was!"

Even the captain smiled bitterly when he learned about the loss:

"He has doubled nearly all the globe with us, the red devil, and here is such a thing… Poor dear!"

And only Serga didn’t want to believe in the end of his favourite.

"He had disappeared before the storm, broke out, my brers. He is sure to shelter somewhere, a sly thing… He might have flown into somebody’s cabin…"

"We have already examined the cabins, the sailors answered gloomyly."

At this time the angry boatswain came on the deck.

"Why are you chattering like tailless gulls? Take your places! Make haste! You don’t let your top brass sleep, ragged terns!"

The sailors began to leave the deck in silence. Only bully– Serga remained in front of the angry boatswain.

"Why have you flown at all of us, boatswain? If you want to blow off the steam scold me alone. I asked my mates to help me…"

"Have they done it?"

"No, – sighed the experienced sailor."

"You are milksops. All the team can’t catch a sparrow."

"How do you know it?" Serga got surprised.

"It’s the boatswain duty to know about everything happening on the ship. Do you pity the sparrow?"

"You can’t feel this, a callous soul. You should have seen him overtaking our old tub in the Black Sea. He clung to reach the stern! He entrusted us with his life. And we… didn’t justify his trust."

The severe boatswain with his arm round his friend’s shoulder whispered into his ear:

"Go, damn finder… He is waiting for you in my den."

Serga opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word.

"Go, I tell you, blockhead!" boatswain cried. "And not a word to anybody!"

"Why?"

"I don’t want them to point their fingers at me: saying 'the boatswain has saved the sparrow! " They’ll spread it over all the seas, mockers."

55. Over Atlantis

A piece of news that red robber had been found spread all over the ship with lightning speed. Not that the disappeared bird himself particularly hid. After he had been got out of the boatswain’s cabin, Ginger took wings at once and a long song about his miraculous escape filled the neighbourhood:

"Forces of evil threw brave Ginger into the dungeon of the dreadful giant which everybody calls a boatswain. But Ginger fearlessly fought with a round window, which didn’t want him to set free. The boatswain’s loud roar awoke brave Ginger, which called his friends and escaped from captivity."

Unfortunately, there are still no interpreters from sparrow’s language into human being’s one. That is why the sailors only heard an age-old charging. But the excitement of the author’s chirping spoke for itself.

"Has been found, dare devil?" smiled the sailors.

"Where have you been, madcap?"

Even the captain was really glad for feathery passenger’s "resurrection":

"This event ought to be written for the "Round the World" magazine. Indeed, this ginger has already made his round the world voyage, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Mediterranean one. But where could he hide during the storm? That is the question. What do you think of it, boatswain?"

"But he is a birdie," scratched his head the boatswain. "Doesn’t he need a lot of space to seek shelter?"

But on the deck at that very moment omniscient Serga explained the phenomenon of Ginger disappearance in his own way: "We are coming across an amazing space now. It said to be an enchanted one. In ancient times there was Atlantis, the whole country. Huge men used to live in there, in a world Atlantis; they used to hold heaven on their shoulders. Women, quite naturally were all nothing but beauties. But they all incensed their Gods and the latter sanked poor Atlantis so that the traces were removed. It has been looking for thousands years, but they cannot find it."

"Well, what of it?" the sailors didn’t entirely understand it.

"That is to say, the place is not good, but enchanted, it may be said. As our ginger first disappeared and then appeared. So Atlantis will be found as well in due course."

"Well, are you kidding?" laughed the sailors. "Can it be compared?"

56. Herculean Gates

The next day general enlivening announced at the ship that the dry cargo ship had nevertheless got over the world’s second ocean and came nearer to great Gibraltar.

"Herculean pillars!" said Serga significantly. "In old times the world ended here."

"What is that?"

"It is very simple. People hadn’t heard about America yet, they regarded the world to be flat, standing on three whales… They sailed to Herculean pillars and ship oars! There was no way to go further."

"Well, but where is the strait?" asked young sailors looking into the distance.

"Oh, dear, it’s not Panama, smiled Serga. There are 14 kilometers in the nearest place here. If we bear the right side we’ll see Africa, if we bear the left side then we’ll see Europe."

"The whole of Europe?"

"Certainly not. It is the cape that is called Europe."

The dry cargo ship sailed through the centre of the strait and only distant strips of land were seen first on the left then on the right seaway through powerful sea binoculars.

Ginger was as always at his best position. From the top of fore mast of the ship he could see almost simultaneously both mainlands: it ought to hop on the mast and turn round to the other side.

"Land! Land!" twittered the sparrow merrily. "And here is the land! Choose any you like, water devils but pull in to somewhere! I am bored with your sea! I am bored with!"

57. Corrida’s Fancier

Ginger’s expectations couldn’t but came true. Spanish Cartagena was the first port where the dry cargo ship called at.

"Do love I Spain, brers! They are alive, gay and friendly people," spoke Serga, intending to come ashore. "How strongly I love corrida, it is impossible to say."

"Did you really see it himself?" asked his friends with envy.

"Really I did as I see you now. When these Andalussian bulls are running, the earth is trembling with clatter."

"Where are they running?"

"To arena, why? Corrida de torres that is the name of the Bull’s running. Can’t you imagine what these Spaniards are doing while the bulls are running. These Spaniards are running ahead the bulls and along side. It happens that the bulls toss a bear devil, not without that. But friends run up to, turn off, snatch out from under hoofs. Here is the spectacle!"

"Everything is clear. You were unlikely to be at Corrida itself."

"And what haven’t I seen there? How do they kill poor animals?.. By the way, fellows: the ticket to the Corrida costs as much as one half of our "Zhiguli".

"Well, then say so, Sergey Ivanich."

"And so do I. Whence has a general sailor got a lot of money? But I have seen the bull’s running and this spectacle is not a bit worse than a murder in the arena."

They went ashore and as always went on in the lap of nature.

"I am so tired of big cities!" said Serga, slashed with an edge of palm on the neck. "The earth attracts in one’s old age, brers… By the way my fellow-travellers are nature-lovers."

Changa was smiling listening to the host and Ginger sang merrily like a nightingale.

"Why are we standing? Why are we standing?" twittered he, setting on the light. "It’s time to be on the grass, on the grass!"

Having got to the grass, Serga took off his shoes and went on the ground barefoot for a long time, then lay in the shade under the tree, experiencing bliss. Next to him Changa rushed about and somewhere on the spot Ginger was hopping in the grass.

"Marvellous worm! Marvellous!" he admired. "And what a centipede! Just feast your eyes upon it, what a centipede!"

Serga took a cherished flask with him and a packet with sandwiches, so that towards the evening they came back to the ship being elated.

"Hi! Hello!" twittered Ginger. "Welcome us, welcome!"

58. Marquis Roger

From Cartagena the dry cargo ship headed for north-east and dropped anchor in Marceilles.

"This is France for you, brers!" admired Serga as if he was the first one to discover these lands. "What wineyards are here! – out of my sences."

On the outskirts of Marseilles, among vineyards and flowbeds Ginger met his new love. He had never had an occasion to see such a graceful female sparrow. She was independent and daring.

"Where are you from, stranger?" chirped female sparrow its bird language, intelligible for all the feathered of any continent of the Earth. "I haven’t seen such bronzed ones here before."

"From Spain at the moment," replied Ginger proudly, turning so that his bronzed leathers to be played in the Sun.

"And I have been in Panama before and in America as well. I am a traveler, madam."

"I am Juliet, or simply Julie…"

"A marvelous name, dear! And my name is…"

At the moment Ginger faltered as his own name seemed to be inharmonious to him at the moment. "Juliet and… Ginger! No, it is not fitted," thought the sparrow.

"Me name is Roger… Yes, that’s it! Exactly Roger!"

"I have heard something about you," twittered Juliet. "Marquis Roger from Perpinyan is your relative, isn’t he?"

"A distant one."

"It comes you are a marquis as well, are you not?"

Ginger was fond of boasting a little, but to assume one’s stranger’s title was too much for him and he by-passed this question:

"During long voyages you accumulate titles as bilge of a ship accumulates cockle-shells. I was called "Bull’s infuriator" in Africa, "Terror of local snakes" in Ceylon, "Tamer of ostriches" in Australia, my feathers were compared with blossoming cherry tree in Japan. And I am simply an "Alert eye" for my friends."

"That’s wonderful!" said Juliet. "My children just need such a father: moderately impudent with bronzed feathers."

"What children?" didn’t understand Ginger.

"Future ones, crank."

And they took wings into vineyard brushwoods…

59. Amorous Triangle

In that very evening Ginger came flying to the ship to say good bye.

The day spent with Juliet opened his eyes Ginger seems to know nothing about love. The grey Japanese bird as well as timid Pinchi from Nachodka and paradise beauties from Panama has become the thing of the past. Only Julie, so graceful, independent, daring, will be all his life’s companion for many years. This was what Ginger was thinking about making his way back to the dry cargo ship to look at it for the last time, to twitter on the mast, to peck from the basin of silly Changa…

"Where have you been, a mischievous bird?" met his pet the senior sailor Serga. "Have you made love to any she-hen?"

"Eh, Serga, Serga! A good man you are! But you don’t understand a thing in sparrow’s love," said Ginger, having set on the handrail, one metre from the sailor.

"I’ll fly away from you tomorrow, you’ll recall me, sea vagrant!"

"What’s the cause now, why you are twittering so sadly," said Serga with suspicion.

…The next morning Ginger took wing on the mast and piped his farewell song. It was about the happy life of the dry cargo ship’s sailors on those days, when there was the Infiltree, Bull’s infuriator, Terror of snakes, Tamer of ostriches and Alert eye Ginger. How lucky they have to be: Changa, Serga and all the sailors, coming to love the fearless and cheerful Black Sea sparrow… But all good things come to an end: Ginger was offered to live in France, and he as an honest sparrow ought to stay.

"Farewell, friends! Welcome to Marseilles next time you’ll come to!" said Ginger, flushed and fly to his beloved.

Juliet was not alone. There was a blacky sleek sparrow that was wisely setting at the edge of the nest near Juliet and looked at Ginger with interest.

"Make the acquaintance, gentlemen: this is Roger, the traveler and that is Mr. Chizhen, my husband," said Julie with hospitality.

"I’m very glad," chirped a blacky politely.

Ginger was embarrassed and only nodded.

"Marquis Roger is sailing East from America… It is in fashion now to go on a voyage somewhere far off on board a large ship. But we sailed only twice on board the yacht as far as Toulon and back, dear," cooed Julie.

"But when should we travel, darling? We hatch eggs, or feed our children…"

"Yes, yes, we like children very much," the she-sparrow said to her husband. "Besides would you mind if our babies should have the shot with bronze? It’s just in fashion today!"

Her husband looked sideways to the guest’s feathers and agreed with his wife:

"If it’s in fashion, how can I object?

…Ginger went back to the dry cargo ship, gloomy and calm.

"The hell with these foreign countries. I want to go home!" he twittered and flew to his nook on the stern.