The UNKNOWN SEA
BY
CLEMENCE HOUSMAN
LONDON
DUCKWORTH and CO.
3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.
1898
All rights reserved
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER I
A solitary fisher ploughed the lively blue ofa southern sea. Strength of limb, fair hair,and clear grey eyes told of a northern race,though his skin had been tanned to a red-brown,dark as the tint of the slender, dark-eyed,olive-skinned fishers born under thesewarm skies. In stature and might a man, hewas scarcely more than a boy in years; beardlessyet, and of an open, boyish countenance.As his boat raced eagerly forward he laughedfor pride of heart, and praised her aloud aftera fashion native to the south: she was hisbeloved, his bird, his blossom, his queen; andfor his warrant well built she was, promisingstrength and speed in due degrees, and beautifulobedience to him. Her paint was bright, herruddy canvas unstained, in contrast to a pile oftackle, black from age and use: the nets and theweighted cross-beams of coral fishing.
White wings against the sky, and white[2]crests upon the sea, broke the entire blue.Far away to eastward, faint and hazy, suavelines extended; but a coast that the boy nearedlifted gaunt and desolate cliffs, overlooking awaste of roaring breakers. Midmost of these,sheer and black as the crags beyond, a darkmass rose dominant, like a sullen outcast fromthe land holding rule, whose mere aspect fittedwell the name, Isle Sinister, without an evilimplication that went therewith. The youngfisher's memory was stored with dark tales,born long ago to night and fear, cherished bygenerations into fine growth, not by such as heto be utterly scouted. The sound of buoy-bellsreached his ears for warning, but he eyedthe intricate lines of breakers, he recalled ominousreports, only to estimate the nerve of bodyand mind needful to any mortal bent thereupon a perilous trespass.
For a tale went that kept every fisher wella