James Fenimore Cooper

The Pilot James Fenimore Cooper

When the whale-boat obtained the position we have described, the young lieutenant, who, inconsequence of commanding a schooner, was usually addressed by the title of captain, stepped onthe rocks, followed by the youthful midshipman, who had quitted the barge to aid in the hazardousduty of their expedition."This is, at best, but a Jacob's ladder we have to climb," said Barnstable, casting his eyes upwardat the difficult ascent, "and it's by no means certain that we shall be well received, when we get up, even though we should reach the top.""We are under the guns of the frigate," returned the boy; "and you remember, sir, three oarblades and a pistol, repeated from the barge, will draw her fire.""Yes, on our own heads. Boy, never be so foolish as to trust a long shot. It makes a great smokeand some noise, but it's a terrible uncertain manner of throwing old iron about. In such a business asthis, I would sooner trust Tom Coffin and his harpoon to back me, than the best broadside that everrattled out of the three decks of a ninety-gun ship. Come, gather your limbs together, and try if youcan walk on terra firma, Master Coffin."The seaman who was addressed by this dire appellation arose slowly from the place where he wasstationed as cockswain of the boat, and seemed to ascend high in air by the gradual evolution ofnumberless folds in his body. When erect, he stood nearly six feet and as many inches in his shoes, though, when elevated in his perpendicular attitude, there was a forward inclination about his headand shoulders that appeared to be the consequence of habitual confinement in limited lodgings. Hiswhole frame was destitute of the rounded outlines of a well-formed man, though his enormoushands furnished a display of bones and sinews which gave indication of gigantic strength. On hishead he wore a little, low, brown hat of wool, with an arched top, that threw an expression ofpeculiar solemnity and hardness over his hard visage, the sharp prominent features of which werecompletely encircled by a set of black whiskers that began to be grizzled a little with age. One of hishands grasped, with a sort of instinct, the staff of a bright harpoon, the lower end of which heplaced firmly on the rock, as, in obedience to the order of his commander, he left the place where, considering his vast dimensions, he had been established in an incredibly small spa