The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales Story 1 - The Captain of the "Pole Star" - Part 2

Arthur Conan Doyle (0:00)

Section 2 of The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales by Arthur Conan Doyle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR PART 2 7:30 PM My deliberate opinion is that we are commanded by a madman. Nothing else can account for the extraordinary vagaries of Captain Craigie. It is fortunate that I have kept this journal of our voyage, as it will serve to justify us in case we have to put him under any sort of restraint, a step which I should only consent to as a last resource. Curiously enough, it was he himself who suggested lunacy, and not mere eccentricity, as the secret of his strange conduct. He was standing upon the bridge about an hour ago, peering as usual through his glass, while I was walking up and down the quarter-deck. The majority of the men were below at their tee, for the watches have not been regularly kept of late. Tired of walking, I leaned against the bulwarks, and admired the mellow glow cast by the sinking sun upon the great ice fields which surrounded us. I was suddenly aroused from the reverie into which I had fallen, by a hoarse voice at my elbow, and, starting round, I found that the Captain had descended, and was standing by my side. He was staring out over the ice with an expression in which horror, surprise, and something approaching to joy were contending for the mastery. In spite of the cold, great drops of perspiration were coursing down his forehead, and he was evidently fearfully excited.

His limbs twitched like those of a man, upon the verge of an epileptic fit, and the lines about his mouth were drawn and hard. Look, he gasped, seasoned me by the wrist, but still keeping his eyes upon the distant ice, and moving his head slowly in a horizontal direction, as if following some object which was moving across the field of vision. Look! There a man, there, between the hummocks, now coming out from behind that far one. You see her, you must see her, there still flying from me, by God flying from me, and gone.

He uttered the last two words in a whisper of concentrated agony, which shall never fade from my remembrance. Clinging to the rat lines, he endeavored to climb up upon the top of the wall works, as if in the hope of obtaining a last glance at the departing object. His strength was not equal to the attempt, however, and he staggered back against the saloon skylights, where he leaned panting and exhausted. His face was so livid that I expected him to become unconscious, so lost no time in leading him down the companion and stretching him upon one of the sofas in the cabin. I then poured him out some brandy, which I held to his lips, and which had a wonderful effect upon him, bringing the blood back into his white face and steadying his poor, shaking limbs. He raised himself up upon his elbow, and looking round to see that we were alone, he beckoned to me to come and sit beside him. You saw it, didn't you? he asked, still in the same subdued awesome tone, so foreign to the nature of the man. No, I saw nothing. His head sank back again upon the cushions. No, he wouldn't, without the glass, he murmured. He couldn't. It was the glass that showed her to me. And then the eyes of love, the eyes of love. I say, Doc, don't let the steward in. He'll think I'm mad. Just bolt the door, will you? I rose and did what he had commanded. He lay quiet for a while, lost in thought apparently, and then raised himself up upon his elbow again and asked for some more brandy. You don't think I am, do you, Doc? he asked, as I was putting the bottle back into the afterlocker. Tell me now, as man to man, do you think that I am mad? I think you have something on your mind, I answered him, which is exciting you and doing you a good deal of harm. Right there, lad, he cried, his eyes sparkling from the effects of the brandy. Plenty on my mind, plenty. But I can work out the latitude and the longitude, and I can handle my sextant and manage my logarithms. You couldn't prove me mad in a court of law, could you now? It was curious to hear the man lying back and coolly arguing out the question of his own sanity.

Perhaps not, I said. But I still think you would be wise to get home, as soon as you can, and settle down to a quiet life for a while. Gahoma, he muttered, with a sneer upon his face. One word for me and two for yourself, lad. Settle down with Flora, pretty little Flora. Are bad dreams signs of madness? Sometimes I answered. What else? What would be the first symptoms? Pain in the head, noises in the ears, flashes before the eyes, delusions. Ah, what about them? he interrupted. What would you call a delusion? Seeing a thing which is not there is a delusion. But she was there, he groaned to himself, she was there. And rising, he unbolted the door, and walked with slow and uncertain steps to his own cabin, where I have no doubt that he will remain until tomorrow morning. His system seems to have received a terrible shock, whatever it may have been that he imagined himself to have seen. The man becomes a greater mystery every day, though I fear that the solution, which he has himself suggested is the correct one, and that his reason is affected. I do not think that a guilty conscience has anything to do with his behavior. The idea is a popular one among the officers, and I believe the crew, but I have seen nothing to support it. He is not the heir of a guilty man, but one who has had terrible usage at the hands of fortune, and who should be regarded as a martyr rather than a criminal.