A THOUSAND DEATHS
Jack London
[The Black Cat, 1899.]
I had been in the water about an hour, and cold, exhausted, with a terrible cramp in my right calf,
it seemed as though my hour had come. Fruitlessly struggling against the strong ebb tide, I had
beheld the maddening procession of the water-front lights slip by, but now a gave up attempting
to breast the stream and contended myself with the bitter thoughts of a wasted career, now
drawing to a close.
It had been my luck to come of good, English stock, but of parents whose account with the
bankers far exceeded their knowledge of child-nature and the rearing of children. While born
with a silver spoon in my mouth, the blessed atmosphere of the home circle was to me unknown.
My father, a very learned man and a celebrated antiquarian, gave no thought to his family, being
constantly lost in the abstractions of his study; while my mother, noted far more for her good
looks than her good sense, sated herself with the adulation of the society in which she was
perpetually plunged. I went through the regular school and college routine of a boy of the
English bourgeoisie, and as the years brought me increasing strength and passions, my parents
suddenly became aware that I was possessed of an immortal soul, and endeavoured to draw the
curb. But it was too late; I perpetrated the wildest and most audacious folly, and was disowned
by my people, ostracised by the society I had so long outraged, and with the thousand pounds my
father gave me, with the declaration that he would neither see me again nor give me more, I took
a first-class passage to Australia.
Since then my life had been one long peregrination–from the Orient to the Occident, from the
Arctic to the Antarctic–to find myself at last, an able seaman at thirty, in the full vigour of my
manhood, drowning in San Francisco bay because of a disastrously successful attempt to desert
my ship.
My right leg was drawn up by the cramp, and I was suffering the keenest agony. A slight breeze
stirred up a choppy sea, which washed into my mouth and down my throat, nor could I prevent
it. Though I still contrived to keep afloat, it was merely mechanical, for I was rapidly becoming
unconscious. I have a dim recollection of drifting past the sea-wall, and of catching a glimpse of
an upriver steamer’s starboard light; then everything became a blank.
* * *
I heard the low hum of insect life, and felt the balmy air of a spring morning fanning my cheek.
Gradually it assumed a rhythmic flow, to whose soft pulsations my body seemed to respond. I
floated on the gentle bosom of a summer’s sea, rising and falling with dreamy pleasure on each
crooning wave. But the pulsations grew stronger; the humming, louder; the waves, larger,
fiercer–I was dashed about on a stormy sea. A great agony fastened upon me. Brilliant,
intermittent sparks of light flashed athwart my inner consciousness; in my ears there was the
sound of many waters; then a sudden snapping of an intangible something, and I awoke.
A THOUSAND DEATHS
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The scene, of which I was protagonist, was a curious one. A glance sufficed to inform me that I
lay on the cabin floor of some gentleman’s yacht, in a most uncomfortable posture. On either
side, grasping my arms and working them up and down like pump handles, were two peculiarly
clad, dark-skinned creatures. Though conversant with most aboriginal types, I could not
conjecture their nationality. Some attachment had been fastened about my head, which connected
my respiratory organs with the machine I shall next describe. My nostrils, however, had been
closed, forcing me to breathe through my mouth. Foreshortened by the obliquity of my line of
vision, I beheld two tubes, similar to small hosing but of different composition, which emerged
from my mouth and went off at an acute angle from each other. The first came to an abrupt
termination and lay on the floor beside me; the second traversed the floor in numerous coils,
connecting with the apparatus I have promised to describe.
In the days before my life had become tangential, I had dabbled not a little in science, and,
conversant with the appurtenances and general paraphernalia of the laboratory, I appreciated the
machine I now beheld. It was composed chiefly of glass, the construction being of that crude sort
which is employed for experimentative purposes. A vessel of water was surrounded by an air
chamber, to which was fixed a vertical tube, surmounted by a globe. In the centre of this was a
vacuum gauge. The water in the tube moved upwards and downwards, creating alternate
inhalations and exhalations, which were in turn communicated to me through the hose. With this,
and the aid of the men who pumped my arms, so vigorously, had the process of breathing been
artificially carried on, my chest rising and falling and my lungs expanding and contracting, till
nature could be persuaded to again take up her wonted labour.
As I opened my eyes the appliance about my head, nostrils and mouth was removed. Draining a
stiff three fingers of brandy, I staggered to my feet to thank my preserver, and confronted–my
father. But long years of fellowship with danger had taught me self-control, and I waited to see if
he would recognise me. Not so; he saw in me no more than a runaway sailor and treated me
accordingly.
Leaving me to the care of the blackies, he fell to revising the notes he had made on my
resuscitation. As I ate of the handsome fare served up to me, confusion began on deck, and from
the chanteys of the sailors and the rattling of blocks and tackles I surmised that we were getting
under way. What a lark! Off on a cruise with my recluse father into the wide Pacific! Little did I
realise, as I laughed to myself, which side the joke was to be on. Aye, had I known, I would have
plunged overboard and welcomed the dirty fo’c’sle from which I had just escaped.
I was not allowed on deck till we had sunk the Farallones and the last pilot boat. I appreciated
this forethought on the part of my father and made it a point to thank him heartily, in my bluff
seaman’s manner. I could not suspect that he had his own ends in view, in thus keeping my
presence secret to all save the crew. He told me briefly of my rescue by his sailors, assuring me
that the obligation was on his side, as my appearance had been most opportune. He had
constructed the apparatus for the vindication of a theory concerning certain biological
phenomena, and had been waiting for an opportunity to use it.
“You have proved it beyond all doubt,” he said; then added with a sigh, “But only in the small
matter of drowning.” But, to take a reef in my yarn–he offered me an advance of two pounds on
A THOUSAND DEATHS
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my previous wages to sail with him, and this I considered handsome, for he really did not need
me. Contrary to my expectations, I did not join the sailor’ mess, for’ard, being assigned to a
comfortable stateroom and eating at the captain’s table. He had perceived that I was no common
sailor, and I resolved to take this chance for reinstating myself in his good graces. I wove a
fictitious past to account for my education and present position, and did my best to come in touch
with him. I was not long in disclosing a predilection for scientific pursuits, nor he in appreciating
my aptitude. I became his assistant, with a corresponding increase in wages, and before long, as
he grew confidential and expounded his theories, I was as enthusiastic as himself.
The days flew quickly by, for I was deeply interested in my new studies, passing my waking
hours in his well-stocked library, or listening to his plans and aiding him in his laboratory work.
But we were forced to forego many enticing experiments, a rolling ship not being exactly the
proper place for delicate or intricate work. He promised me, however, many delightful hours in
the magnificent laboratory for which we were bound. He had taken possession of an uncharted
South Sea island, as he said, and turned it into a scientific paradise.
We had not been on the island long, before I discovered to horrible mare’s nest I had fallen into.
But before I describe the strange things which came to pass, I must briefly outline the causes
which culminated in as startling an experience as ever fell to the lot of man.
Late in life, my father had abandoned the musty charms of antiquity and succumbed to the more
fascinating ones embraced under the general head of biology. Having been thoroughly grounded