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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of ’Twixt Land & Sea, by Joseph Conrad
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: ’Twixt Land & Sea
+
+Author: Joseph Conrad
+
+Release Date: August 21, 1997 [eBook #1055]
+[Most recently updated: December 14, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: David Price
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ’TWIXT LAND & SEA ***
+
+
+                          [Picture: Book cover]
+
+
+
+
+
+                            ’TWIXT LAND & SEA
+                                  TALES
+
+
+                                    BY
+                              JOSEPH CONRAD
+
+                            A SMILE OF FORTUNE
+
+                            THE SECRET SHARER
+
+                            FREYA OF THE SEVEN
+                                  ISLES
+
+                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]
+
+    _Life is a tragic folly_
+    _Let us laugh and be jolly_
+    _Away with melancholy_
+    _Bring me a branch of holly_
+    _Life is a tragic folly_
+
+                                                                A. SYMONS.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                      LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS LTD.
+                    ALDINE HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN · 1920
+
+FIRST EDITION     _October_ 1912
+REPRINTED         _November_ 1912; _January_ 1913; _November_ 1918;
+                  _December_ 1920
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                          _All rights reserved_
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                    TO
+                           CAPTAIN C. M. MARRIS
+                          LATE MASTER AND OWNER
+                                  OF THE
+                      ARABY MAID: ARCHIPELAGO TRADER
+                            IN MEMORY OF THOSE
+                          OLD DAYS OF ADVENTURE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                PAGE
+A Smile of Fortune                 1
+The Secret Sharer                 99
+Freya of the Seven Isles         161
+
+
+
+
+A SMILE OF FORTUNE
+HARBOUR STORY
+
+
+EVER since the sun rose I had been looking ahead.  The ship glided gently
+in smooth water.  After a sixty days’ passage I was anxious to make my
+landfall, a fertile and beautiful island of the tropics.  The more
+enthusiastic of its inhabitants delight in describing it as the “Pearl of
+the Ocean.”  Well, let us call it the “Pearl.”  It’s a good name.  A
+pearl distilling much sweetness upon the world.
+
+This is only a way of telling you that first-rate sugar-cane is grown
+there.  All the population of the Pearl lives for it and by it.  Sugar is
+their daily bread, as it were.  And I was coming to them for a cargo of
+sugar in the hope of the crop having been good and of the freights being
+high.
+
+Mr. Burns, my chief mate, made out the land first; and very soon I became
+entranced by this blue, pinnacled apparition, almost transparent against
+the light of the sky, a mere emanation, the astral body of an island
+risen to greet me from afar.  It is a rare phenomenon, such a sight of
+the Pearl at sixty miles off.  And I wondered half seriously whether it
+was a good omen, whether what would meet me in that island would be as
+luckily exceptional as this beautiful, dreamlike vision so very few
+seamen have been privileged to behold.
+
+But horrid thoughts of business interfered with my enjoyment of an
+accomplished passage.  I was anxious for success and I wished, too, to do
+justice to the flattering latitude of my owners’ instructions contained
+in one noble phrase: “We leave it to you to do the best you can with the
+ship.” . . . All the world being thus given me for a stage, my abilities
+appeared to me no bigger than a pinhead.
+
+Meantime the wind dropped, and Mr. Burns began to make disagreeable
+remarks about my usual bad luck.  I believe it was his devotion for me
+which made him critically outspoken on every occasion.  All the same, I
+would not have put up with his humours if it had not been my lot at one
+time to nurse him through a desperate illness at sea.  After snatching
+him out of the jaws of death, so to speak, it would have been absurd to
+throw away such an efficient officer.  But sometimes I wished he would
+dismiss himself.
+
+We were late in closing in with the land, and had to anchor outside the
+harbour till next day.  An unpleasant and unrestful night followed.  In
+this roadstead, strange to us both, Burns and I remained on deck almost
+all the time.  Clouds swirled down the porphyry crags under which we lay.
+The rising wind made a great bullying noise amongst the naked spars, with
+interludes of sad moaning.  I remarked that we had been in luck to fetch
+the anchorage before dark.  It would have been a nasty, anxious night to
+hang off a harbour under canvas.  But my chief mate was uncompromising in
+his attitude.
+
+“Luck, you call it, sir!  Ay—our usual luck.  The sort of luck to thank
+God it’s no worse!”
+
+And so he fretted through the dark hours, while I drew on my fund of
+philosophy.  Ah, but it was an exasperating, weary, endless night, to be
+lying at anchor close under that black coast!  The agitated water made
+snarling sounds all round the ship.  At times a wild gust of wind out of
+a gully high up on the cliffs struck on our rigging a harsh and plaintive
+note like the wail of a forsaken soul.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+By half-past seven in the morning, the ship being then inside the harbour
+at last and moored within a long stone’s-throw from the quay, my stock of
+philosophy was nearly exhausted.  I was dressing hurriedly in my cabin
+when the steward came tripping in with a morning suit over his arm.
+
+Hungry, tired, and depressed, with my head engaged inside a white shirt
+irritatingly stuck together by too much starch, I desired him peevishly
+to “heave round with that breakfast.”  I wanted to get ashore as soon as
+possible.
+
+“Yes, sir.  Ready at eight, sir.  There’s a gentleman from the shore
+waiting to speak to you, sir.”
+
+This statement was curiously slurred over.  I dragged the shirt violently
+over my head and emerged staring.
+
+“So early!” I cried.  “Who’s he?  What does he want?”
+
+On coming in from sea one has to pick up the conditions of an utterly
+unrelated existence.  Every little event at first has the peculiar
+emphasis of novelty.  I was greatly surprised by that early caller; but
+there was no reason for my steward to look so particularly foolish.
+
+“Didn’t you ask for the name?” I inquired in a stern tone.
+
+“His name’s Jacobus, I believe,” he mumbled shamefacedly.
+
+“Mr. Jacobus!” I exclaimed loudly, more surprised than ever, but with a
+total change of feeling.  “Why couldn’t you say so at once?”
+
+But the fellow had scuttled out of my room.  Through the momentarily
+opened door I had a glimpse of a tall, stout man standing in the cuddy by
+the table on which the cloth was already laid; a “harbour” table-cloth,
+stainless and dazzlingly white.  So far good.
+
+I shouted courteously through the closed door, that I was dressing and
+would be with him in a moment.  In return the assurance that there was no
+hurry reached me in the visitor’s deep, quiet undertone.  His time was my
+own.  He dared say I would give him a cup of coffee presently.
+
+“I am afraid you will have a poor breakfast,” I cried apologetically.
+“We have been sixty-one days at sea, you know.”
+
+A quiet little laugh, with a “That’ll be all right, Captain,” was his
+answer.  All this, words, intonation, the glimpsed attitude of the man in
+the cuddy, had an unexpected character, a something friendly in
+it—propitiatory.  And my surprise was not diminished thereby.  What did
+this call mean?  Was it the sign of some dark design against my
+commercial innocence?
+
+Ah!  These commercial interests—spoiling the finest life under the sun.
+Why must the sea be used for trade—and for war as well?  Why kill and
+traffic on it, pursuing selfish aims of no great importance after all?
+It would have been so much nicer just to sail about with here and there a
+port and a bit of land to stretch one’s legs on, buy a few books and get
+a change of cooking for a while.  But, living in a world more or less
+homicidal and desperately mercantile, it was plainly my duty to make the
+best of its opportunities.
+
+My owners’ letter had left it to me, as I have said before, to do my best
+for the ship, according to my own judgment.  But it contained also a
+postscript worded somewhat as follows:
+
+“Without meaning to interfere with your liberty of action we are writing
+by the outgoing mail to some of our business friends there who may be of
+assistance to you.  We desire you particularly to call on Mr. Jacobus, a
+prominent merchant and charterer.  Should you hit it off with him he may
+be able to put you in the way of profitable employment for the ship.”
+
+Hit it off!  Here was the prominent creature absolutely on board asking
+for the favour of a cup of coffee!  And life not being a fairy-tale the
+improbability of the event almost shocked me.  Had I discovered an
+enchanted nook of the earth where wealthy merchants rush fasting on board
+ships before they are fairly moored?  Was this white magic or merely some
+black trick of trade?  I came in the end (while making the bow of my tie)
+to suspect that perhaps I did not get the name right.  I had been
+thinking of the prominent Mr. Jacobus pretty frequently during the
+passage and my hearing might have been deceived by some remote similarity
+of sound. . .  The steward might have said Antrobus—or maybe Jackson.
+
+But coming out of my stateroom with an interrogative “Mr. Jacobus?” I was
+met by a quiet “Yes,” uttered with a gentle smile.  The “yes” was rather
+perfunctory.  He did not seem to make much of the fact that he was Mr.
+Jacobus.  I took stock of a big, pale face, hair thin on the top,
+whiskers also thin, of a faded nondescript colour, heavy eyelids.  The
+thick, smooth lips in repose looked as if glued together.  The smile was
+faint.  A heavy, tranquil man.  I named my two officers, who just then
+came down to breakfast; but why Mr. Burns’s silent demeanour should
+suggest suppressed indignation I could not understand.
+
+While we were taking our seats round the table some disconnected words of
+an altercation going on in the companionway reached my ear.  A stranger
+apparently wanted to come down to interview me, and the steward was
+opposing him.
+
+“You can’t see him.”
+
+“Why can’t I?”
+
+“The Captain is at breakfast, I tell you.  He’ll be going on shore
+presently, and you can speak to him on deck.”
+
+“That’s not fair.  You let—”
+
+“I’ve had nothing to do with that.”
+
+“Oh, yes, you have.  Everybody ought to have the same chance.  You let
+that fellow—”
+
+The rest I lost.  The person having been repulsed successfully, the
+steward came down.  I can’t say he looked flushed—he was a mulatto—but he
+looked flustered.  After putting the dishes on the table he remained by
+the sideboard with that lackadaisical air of indifference he used to
+assume when he had done something too clever by half and was afraid of
+getting into a scrape over it.  The contemptuous expression of Mr.
+Burns’s face as he looked from him to me was really extraordinary.  I
+couldn’t imagine what new bee had stung the mate now.
+
+The Captain being silent, nobody else cared to speak, as is the way in
+ships.  And I was saying nothing simply because I had been made dumb by
+the splendour of the entertainment.  I had expected the usual
+sea-breakfast, whereas I beheld spread before us a veritable feast of
+shore provisions: eggs, sausages, butter which plainly did not come from
+a Danish tin, cutlets, and even a dish of potatoes.  It was three weeks
+since I had seen a real, live potato.  I contemplated them with interest,
+and Mr. Jacobus disclosed himself as a man of human, homely sympathies,
+and something of a thought-reader.
+
+“Try them, Captain,” he encouraged me in a friendly undertone.  “They are
+excellent.”
+
+“They look that,” I admitted.  “Grown on the island, I suppose.”
+
+“Oh, no, imported.  Those grown here would be more expensive.”
+
+I was grieved at the ineptitude of the conversation.  Were these the
+topics for a prominent and wealthy merchant to discuss?  I thought the
+simplicity with which he made himself at home rather attractive; but what
+is one to talk about to a man who comes on one suddenly, after sixty-one
+days at sea, out of a totally unknown little town in an island one has
+never seen before?  What were (besides sugar) the interests of that crumb
+of the earth, its gossip, its topics of conversation?  To draw him on
+business at once would have been almost indecent—or even worse:
+impolitic.  All I could do at the moment was to keep on in the old
+groove.
+
+“Are the provisions generally dear here?” I asked, fretting inwardly at
+my inanity.
+
+“I wouldn’t say that,” he answered placidly, with that appearance of
+saving his breath his restrained manner of speaking suggested.
+
+He would not be more explicit, yet he did not evade the subject.  Eyeing
+the table in a spirit of complete abstemiousness (he wouldn’t let me help
+him to any eatables) he went into details of supply.  The beef was for
+the most part imported from Madagascar; mutton of course was rare and
+somewhat expensive, but good goat’s flesh—
+
+“Are these goat’s cutlets?” I exclaimed hastily, pointing at one of the
+dishes.
+
+Posed sentimentally by the sideboard, the steward gave a start.
+
+“Lor’, no, sir!  It’s real mutton!”
+
+Mr. Burns got through his breakfast impatiently, as if exasperated by
+being made a party to some monstrous foolishness, muttered a curt excuse,
+and went on deck.  Shortly afterwards the second mate took his smooth red
+countenance out of the cabin.  With the appetite of a schoolboy, and
+after two months of sea-fare, he appreciated the generous spread.  But I
+did not.  It smacked of extravagance.  All the same, it was a remarkable
+feat to have produced it so quickly, and I congratulated the steward on
+his smartness in a somewhat ominous tone.  He gave me a deprecatory smile
+and, in a way I didn’t know what to make of, blinked his fine dark eyes
+in the direction of the guest.
+
+The latter asked under his breath for another cup of coffee, and nibbled
+ascetically at a piece of very hard ship’s biscuit.  I don’t think he
+consumed a square inch in the end; but meantime he gave me, casually as
+it were, a complete account of the sugar crop, of the local business
+houses, of the state of the freight market.  All that talk was
+interspersed with hints as to personalities, amounting to veiled
+warnings, but his pale, fleshy face remained equable, without a gleam, as
+if ignorant of his voice.  As you may imagine I opened my ears very wide.
+Every word was precious.  My ideas as to the value of business friendship
+were being favourably modified.  He gave me the names of all the
+disponible ships together with their tonnage and the names of their
+commanders.  From that, which was still commercial information, he
+condescended to mere harbour gossip.  The _Hilda_ had unaccountably lost
+her figurehead in the Bay of Bengal, and her captain was greatly affected
+by this.  He and the ship had been getting on in years together and the
+old gentleman imagined this strange event to be the forerunner of his own
+early dissolution.  The _Stella_ had experienced awful weather off the
+Cape—had her decks swept, and the chief officer washed overboard.  And
+only a few hours before reaching port the baby died.
+
+Poor Captain H— and his wife were terribly cut up.  If they had only been
+able to bring it into port alive it could have been probably saved; but
+the wind failed them for the last week or so, light breezes, and . . .
+the baby was going to be buried this afternoon.  He supposed I would
+attend—
+
+“Do you think I ought to?” I asked, shrinkingly.
+
+He thought so, decidedly.  It would be greatly appreciated.  All the
+captains in the harbour were going to attend.  Poor Mrs. H— was quite
+prostrated.  Pretty hard on H— altogether.
+
+“And you, Captain—you are not married I suppose?”
+
+“No, I am not married,” I said.  “Neither married nor even engaged.”
+
+Mentally I thanked my stars; and while he smiled in a musing, dreamy
+fashion, I expressed my acknowledgments for his visit and for the
+interesting business information he had been good enough to impart to me.
+But I said nothing of my wonder thereat.
+
+“Of course, I would have made a point of calling on you in a day or two,”
+I concluded.
+
+He raised his eyelids distinctly at me, and somehow managed to look
+rather more sleepy than before.
+
+“In accordance with my owners’ instructions,” I explained.  “You have had
+their letter, of course?”
+
+By that time he had raised his eyebrows too but without any particular
+emotion.  On the contrary he struck me then as absolutely imperturbable.
+
+“Oh!  You must be thinking of my brother.”
+
+It was for me, then, to say “Oh!”  But I hope that no more than civil
+surprise appeared in my voice when I asked him to what, then, I owed the
+pleasure. . . . He was reaching for an inside pocket leisurely.
+
+“My brother’s a very different person.  But I am well known in this part
+of the world.  You’ve probably heard—”
+
+I took a card he extended to me.  A thick business card, as I lived!
+Alfred Jacobus—the other was Ernest—dealer in every description of ship’s
+stores!  Provisions salt and fresh, oils, paints, rope, canvas, etc.,
+etc.  Ships in harbour victualled by contract on moderate terms—
+
+“I’ve never heard of you,” I said brusquely.
+
+His low-pitched assurance did not abandon him.
+
+“You will be very well satisfied,” he breathed out quietly.
+
+I was not placated.  I had the sense of having been circumvented somehow.
+Yet I had deceived myself—if there was any deception.  But the confounded
+cheek of inviting himself to breakfast was enough to deceive any one.
+And the thought struck me: Why!  The fellow had provided all these
+eatables himself in the way of business.  I said:
+
+“You must have got up mighty early this morning.”
+
+He admitted with simplicity that he was on the quay before six o’clock
+waiting for my ship to come in.  He gave me the impression that it would
+be impossible to get rid of him now.
+
+“If you think we are going to live on that scale,” I said, looking at the
+table with an irritated eye, “you are jolly well mistaken.”
+
+“You’ll find it all right, Captain.  I quite understand.”
+
+Nothing could disturb his equanimity.  I felt dissatisfied, but I could
+not very well fly out at him.  He had told me many useful things—and
+besides he was the brother of that wealthy merchant.  That seemed queer
+enough.
+
+I rose and told him curtly that I must now go ashore.  At once he offered
+the use of his boat for all the time of my stay in port.
+
+“I only make a nominal charge,” he continued equably.  “My man remains
+all day at the landing-steps.  You have only to blow a whistle when you
+want the boat.”
+
+And, standing aside at every doorway to let me go through first, he
+carried me off in his custody after all.  As we crossed the quarter-deck
+two shabby individuals stepped forward and in mournful silence offered me
+business cards which I took from them without a word under his heavy eye.
+It was a useless and gloomy ceremony.  They were the touts of the other
+ship-chandlers, and he placid at my back, ignored their existence.
+
+We parted on the quay, after he had expressed quietly the hope of seeing
+me often “at the store.”  He had a smoking-room for captains there, with
+newspapers and a box of “rather decent cigars.”  I left him very
+unceremoniously.
+
+My consignees received me with the usual business heartiness, but their
+account of the state of the freight-market was by no means so favourable
+as the talk of the wrong Jacobus had led me to expect.  Naturally I
+became inclined now to put my trust in his version, rather.  As I closed
+the door of the private office behind me I thought to myself: “H’m.  A
+lot of lies.  Commercial diplomacy.  That’s the sort of thing a man
+coming from sea has got to expect.  They would try to charter the ship
+under the market rate.”
+
+In the big, outer room, full of desks, the chief clerk, a tall, lean,
+shaved person in immaculate white clothes and with a shiny,
+closely-cropped black head on which silvery gleams came and went, rose
+from his place and detained me affably.  Anything they could do for me,
+they would be most happy.  Was I likely to call again in the afternoon?
+What?  Going to a funeral?  Oh, yes, poor Captain H—.
+
+He pulled a long, sympathetic face for a moment, then, dismissing from
+this workaday world the baby, which had got ill in a tempest and had died
+from too much calm at sea, he asked me with a dental, shark-like smile—if
+sharks had false teeth—whether I had yet made my little arrangements for
+the ship’s stay in port.
+
+“Yes, with Jacobus,” I answered carelessly.  “I understand he’s the
+brother of Mr. Ernest Jacobus to whom I have an introduction from my
+owners.”
+
+I was not sorry to let him know I was not altogether helpless in the
+hands of his firm.  He screwed his thin lips dubiously.
+
+“Why,” I cried, “isn’t he the brother?”
+
+“Oh, yes. . . . They haven’t spoken to each other for eighteen years,” he
+added impressively after a pause.
+
+“Indeed!  What’s the quarrel about?”
+
+“Oh, nothing!  Nothing that one would care to mention,” he protested
+primly.  “He’s got quite a large business.  The best ship-chandler here,
+without a doubt.  Business is all very well, but there is such a thing as
+personal character, too, isn’t there?  Good-morning, Captain.”
+
+He went away mincingly to his desk.  He amused me.  He resembled an old
+maid, a commercial old maid, shocked by some impropriety.  Was it a
+commercial impropriety?  Commercial impropriety is a serious matter, for
+it aims at one’s pocket.  Or was he only a purist in conduct who
+disapproved of Jacobus doing his own touting?  It was certainly
+undignified.  I wondered how the merchant brother liked it.  But then
+different countries, different customs.  In a community so isolated and
+so exclusively “trading” social standards have their own scale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+I WOULD have gladly dispensed with the mournful opportunity of becoming
+acquainted by sight with all my fellow-captains at once.  However I found
+my way to the cemetery.  We made a considerable group of bareheaded men
+in sombre garments.  I noticed that those of our company most approaching
+to the now obsolete sea-dog type were the most moved—perhaps because they
+had less “manner” than the new generation.  The old sea-dog, away from
+his natural element, was a simple and sentimental animal.  I noticed
+one—he was facing me across the grave—who was dropping tears.  They
+trickled down his weather-beaten face like drops of rain on an old rugged
+wall.  I learned afterwards that he was looked upon as the terror of
+sailors, a hard man; that he had never had wife or chick of his own, and
+that, engaged from his tenderest years in deep-sea voyages, he knew women
+and children merely by sight.
+
+Perhaps he was dropping those tears over his lost opportunities, from
+sheer envy of paternity and in strange jealousy of a sorrow which he
+could never know.  Man, and even the sea-man, is a capricious animal, the
+creature and the victim of lost opportunities.  But he made me feel
+ashamed of my callousness.  I had no tears.
+
+I listened with horribly critical detachment to that service I had had to
+read myself, once or twice, over childlike men who had died at sea.  The
+words of hope and defiance, the winged words so inspiring in the free
+immensity of water and sky, seemed to fall wearily into the little grave.
+What was the use of asking Death where her sting was, before that small,
+dark hole in the ground?  And then my thoughts escaped me altogether—away
+into matters of life—and no very high matters at that—ships, freights,
+business.  In the instability of his emotions man resembles deplorably a
+monkey.  I was disgusted with my thoughts—and I thought: Shall I be able
+to get a charter soon?  Time’s money. . . . Will that Jacobus really put
+good business in my way?  I must go and see him in a day or two.
+
+Don’t imagine that I pursued these thoughts with any precision.  They
+pursued me rather: vague, shadowy, restless, shamefaced.  Theirs was a
+callous, abominable, almost revolting, pertinacity.  And it was the
+presence of that pertinacious ship-chandler which had started them.  He
+stood mournfully amongst our little band of men from the sea, and I was
+angry at his presence, which, suggesting his brother the merchant, had
+caused me to become outrageous to myself.  For indeed I had preserved
+some decency of feeling.  It was only the mind which—
+
+It was over at last.  The poor father—a man of forty with black, bushy
+side-whiskers and a pathetic gash on his freshly-shaved chin—thanked us
+all, swallowing his tears.  But for some reason, either because I
+lingered at the gate of the cemetery being somewhat hazy as to my way
+back, or because I was the youngest, or ascribing my moodiness caused by
+remorse to some more worthy and appropriate sentiment, or simply because
+I was even more of a stranger to him than the others—he singled me out.
+Keeping at my side, he renewed his thanks, which I listened to in a
+gloomy, conscience-stricken silence.  Suddenly he slipped one hand under
+my arm and waved the other after a tall, stout figure walking away by
+itself down a street in a flutter of thin, grey garments:
+
+“That’s a good fellow—a real good fellow”—he swallowed down a belated
+sob—“this Jacobus.”
+
+And he told me in a low voice that Jacobus was the first man to board his
+ship on arrival, and, learning of their misfortune, had taken charge of
+everything, volunteered to attend to all routine business, carried off
+the ship’s papers on shore, arranged for the funeral—
+
+“A good fellow.  I was knocked over.  I had been looking at my wife for
+ten days.  And helpless.  Just you think of that!  The dear little chap
+died the very day we made the land.  How I managed to take the ship in
+God alone knows!  I couldn’t see anything; I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t.
+. . . You’ve heard, perhaps, that we lost our mate overboard on the
+passage?  There was no one to do it for me.  And the poor woman nearly
+crazy down below there all alone with the . . . By the Lord!  It isn’t
+fair.”
+
+We walked in silence together.  I did not know how to part from him.  On
+the quay he let go my arm and struck fiercely his fist into the palm of
+his other hand.
+
+“By God, it isn’t fair!” he cried again.  “Don’t you ever marry unless
+you can chuck the sea first. . . . It isn’t fair.”
+
+I had no intention to “chuck the sea,” and when he left me to go aboard
+his ship I felt convinced that I would never marry.  While I was waiting
+at the steps for Jacobus’s boatman, who had gone off somewhere, the
+captain of the _Hilda_ joined me, a slender silk umbrella in his hand and
+the sharp points of his archaic, Gladstonian shirt-collar framing a
+small, clean-shaved, ruddy face.  It was wonderfully fresh for his age,
+beautifully modelled and lit up by remarkably clear blue eyes.  A lot of
+white hair, glossy like spun glass, curled upwards slightly under the
+brim of his valuable, ancient, panama hat with a broad black ribbon.  In
+the aspect of that vivacious, neat, little old man there was something
+quaintly angelic and also boyish.
+
+He accosted me, as though he had been in the habit of seeing me every day
+of his life from my earliest childhood, with a whimsical remark on the
+appearance of a stout negro woman who was sitting upon a stool near the
+edge of the quay.  Presently he observed amiably that I had a very pretty
+little barque.
+
+I returned this civil speech by saying readily:
+
+“Not so pretty as the _Hilda_.”
+
+At once the corners of his clear-cut, sensitive mouth dropped dismally.
+
+“Oh, dear!  I can hardly bear to look at her now.”
+
+Did I know, he asked anxiously, that he had lost the figurehead of his
+ship; a woman in a blue tunic edged with gold, the face perhaps not so
+very, very pretty, but her bare white arms beautifully shaped and
+extended as if she were swimming?  Did I?  Who would have expected such a
+things . . . After twenty years too!
+
+Nobody could have guessed from his tone that the woman was made of wood;
+his trembling voice, his agitated manner gave to his lamentations a
+ludicrously scandalous flavour. . . . Disappeared at night—a clear fine
+night with just a slight swell—in the gulf of Bengal.  Went off without a
+splash; no one in the ship could tell why, how, at what hour—after twenty
+years last October. . . . Did I ever hear! . . .
+
+I assured him sympathetically that I had never heard—and he became very
+doleful.  This meant no good he was sure.  There was something in it
+which looked like a warning.  But when I remarked that surely another
+figure of a woman could be procured I found myself being soundly rated
+for my levity.  The old boy flushed pink under his clear tan as if I had
+proposed something improper.  One could replace masts, I was told, or a
+lost rudder—any working part of a ship; but where was the use of sticking
+up a new figurehead?  What satisfaction?  How could one care for it?  It
+was easy to see that I had never been shipmates with a figurehead for
+over twenty years.
+
+“A new figurehead!” he scolded in unquenchable indignation.  “Why!  I’ve
+been a widower now for eight-and-twenty years come next May and I would
+just as soon think of getting a new wife.  You’re as bad as that fellow
+Jacobus.”
+
+I was highly amused.
+
+“What has Jacobus done?  Did he want you to marry again, Captain?” I
+inquired in a deferential tone.  But he was launched now and only grinned
+fiercely.
+
+“Procure—indeed!  He’s the sort of chap to procure you anything you like
+for a price.  I hadn’t been moored here for an hour when he got on board
+and at once offered to sell me a figurehead he happens to have in his
+yard somewhere.  He got Smith, my mate, to talk to me about it.  ‘Mr.
+Smith,’ says I, ‘don’t you know me better than that?  Am I the sort that
+would pick up with another man’s cast-off figurehead?’  And after all
+these years too!  The way some of you young fellows talk—”
+
+I affected great compunction, and as I stepped into the boat I said
+soberly:
+
+“Then I see nothing for it but to fit in a neat fiddlehead—perhaps.  You
+know, carved scrollwork, nicely gilt.”
+
+He became very dejected after his outburst.
+
+“Yes.  Scrollwork.  Maybe.  Jacobus hinted at that too.  He’s never at a
+loss when there’s any money to be extracted from a sailorman.  He would
+make me pay through the nose for that carving.  A gilt fiddlehead did you
+say—eh?  I dare say it would do for you.  You young fellows don’t seem to
+have any feeling for what’s proper.”
+
+He made a convulsive gesture with his right arm.
+
+“Never mind.  Nothing can make much difference.  I would just as soon let
+the old thing go about the world with a bare cutwater,” he cried sadly.
+Then as the boat got away from the steps he raised his voice on the edge
+of the quay with comical animosity:
+
+“I would!  If only to spite that figurehead-procuring bloodsucker.  I am
+an old bird here and don’t you forget it.  Come and see me on board some
+day!”
+
+I spent my first evening in port quietly in my ship’s cuddy; and glad
+enough was I to think that the shore life which strikes one as so pettily
+complex, discordant, and so full of new faces on first coming from sea,
+could be kept off for a few hours longer.  I was however fated to hear
+the Jacobus note once more before I slept.
+
+Mr. Burns had gone ashore after the evening meal to have, as he said, “a
+look round.”  As it was quite dark when he announced his intention I
+didn’t ask him what it was he expected to see.  Some time about midnight,
+while sitting with a book in the saloon, I heard cautious movements in
+the lobby and hailed him by name.
+
+Burns came in, stick and hat in hand, incredibly vulgarised by his smart
+shore togs, with a jaunty air and an odious twinkle in his eye.  Being
+asked to sit down he laid his hat and stick on the table and after we had
+talked of ship affairs for a little while:
+
+“I’ve been hearing pretty tales on shore about that ship-chandler fellow
+who snatched the job from you so neatly, sir.”
+
+I remonstrated with my late patient for his manner of expressing himself.
+But he only tossed his head disdainfully.  A pretty dodge indeed:
+boarding a strange ship with breakfast in two baskets for all hands and
+calmly inviting himself to the captain’s table!  Never heard of anything
+so crafty and so impudent in his life.
+
+I found myself defending Jacobus’s unusual methods.
+
+“He’s the brother of one of the wealthiest merchants in the port.”  The
+mate’s eyes fairly snapped green sparks.
+
+“His grand brother hasn’t spoken to him for eighteen or twenty years,” he
+declared triumphantly.  “So there!”
+
+“I know all about that,” I interrupted loftily.
+
+“Do you sir?  H’m!”  His mind was still running on the ethics of
+commercial competition.  “I don’t like to see your good nature taken
+advantage of.  He’s bribed that steward of ours with a five-rupee note to
+let him come down—or ten for that matter.  He don’t care.  He will shove
+that and more into the bill presently.”
+
+“Is that one of the tales you have heard ashore?” I asked.
+
+He assured me that his own sense could tell him that much.  No; what he
+had heard on shore was that no respectable person in the whole town would
+come near Jacobus.  He lived in a large old-fashioned house in one of the
+quiet streets with a big garden.  After telling me this Burns put on a
+mysterious air.  “He keeps a girl shut up there who, they say—”
+
+“I suppose you’ve heard all this gossip in some eminently respectable
+place?” I snapped at him in a most sarcastic tone.
+
+The shaft told, because Mr. Burns, like many other disagreeable people,
+was very sensitive himself.  He remained as if thunderstruck, with his
+mouth open for some further communication, but I did not give him the
+chance.  “And, anyhow, what the deuce do I care?” I added, retiring into
+my room.
+
+And this was a natural thing to say.  Yet somehow I was not indifferent.
+I admit it is absurd to be concerned with the morals of one’s
+ship-chandler, if ever so well connected; but his personality had stamped
+itself upon my first day in harbour, in the way you know.
+
+After this initial exploit Jacobus showed himself anything but intrusive.
+He was out in a boat early every morning going round the ships he served,
+and occasionally remaining on board one of them for breakfast with the
+captain.
+
+As I discovered that this practice was generally accepted, I just nodded
+to him familiarly when one morning, on coming out of my room, I found him
+in the cabin.  Glancing over the table I saw that his place was already
+laid.  He stood awaiting my appearance, very bulky and placid, holding a
+beautiful bunch of flowers in his thick hand.  He offered them to my
+notice with a faint, sleepy smile.  From his own garden; had a very fine
+old garden; picked them himself that morning before going out to
+business; thought I would like. . . . He turned away.  “Steward, can you
+oblige me with some water in a large jar, please.”
+
+I assured him jocularly, as I took my place at the table, that he made me
+feel as if I were a pretty girl, and that he mustn’t be surprised if I
+blushed.  But he was busy arranging his floral tribute at the sideboard.
+“Stand it before the Captain’s plate, steward, please.”  He made this
+request in his usual undertone.
+
+The offering was so pointed that I could do no less than to raise it to
+my nose, and as he sat down noiselessly he breathed out the opinion that
+a few flowers improved notably the appearance of a ship’s saloon.  He
+wondered why I did not have a shelf fitted all round the skylight for
+flowers in pots to take with me to sea.  He had a skilled workman able to
+fit up shelves in a day, and he could procure me two or three dozen good
+plants—
+
+The tips of his thick, round fingers rested composedly on the edge of the
+table on each side of his cup of coffee.  His face remained immovable.
+Mr. Burns was smiling maliciously to himself.  I declared that I hadn’t
+the slightest intention of turning my skylight into a conservatory only
+to keep the cabin-table in a perpetual mess of mould and dead vegetable
+matter.
+
+“Rear most beautiful flowers,” he insisted with an upward glance.  “It’s
+no trouble really.”
+
+“Oh, yes, it is.  Lots of trouble,” I contradicted.  “And in the end some
+fool leaves the skylight open in a fresh breeze, a flick of salt water
+gets at them and the whole lot is dead in a week.”
+
+Mr. Burns snorted a contemptuous approval.  Jacobus gave up the subject
+passively.  After a time he unglued his thick lips to ask me if I had
+seen his brother yet.  I was very curt in my answer.
+
+“No, not yet.”
+
+“A very different person,” he remarked dreamily and got up.  His
+movements were particularly noiseless.  “Well—thank you, Captain.  If
+anything is not to your liking please mention it to your steward.  I
+suppose you will be giving a dinner to the office-clerks presently.”
+
+“What for?” I cried with some warmth.  “If I were a steady trader to the
+port I could understand it.  But a complete stranger! . . . I may not
+turn up again here for years.  I don’t see why! . . . Do you mean to say
+it is customary?”
+
+“It will be expected from a man like you,” he breathed out placidly.
+“Eight of the principal clerks, the manager, that’s nine, you three
+gentlemen, that’s twelve.  It needn’t be very expensive.  If you tell
+your steward to give me a day’s notice—”
+
+“It will be expected of me!  Why should it be expected of me?  Is it
+because I look particularly soft—or what?”
+
+His immobility struck me as dignified suddenly, his imperturbable quality
+as dangerous.  “There’s plenty of time to think about that,” I concluded
+weakly with a gesture that tried to wave him away.  But before he
+departed he took time to mention regretfully that he had not yet had the
+pleasure of seeing me at his “store” to sample those cigars.  He had a
+parcel of six thousand to dispose of, very cheap.
+
+“I think it would be worth your while to secure some,” he added with a
+fat, melancholy smile and left the cabin.
+
+Mr. Burns struck his fist on the table excitedly.
+
+“Did you ever see such impudence!  He’s made up his mind to get something
+out of you one way or another, sir.”
+
+At once feeling inclined to defend Jacobus, I observed philosophically
+that all this was business, I supposed.  But my absurd mate, muttering
+broken disjointed sentences, such as: “I cannot bear! . . . Mark my
+words! . . .” and so on, flung out of the cabin.  If I hadn’t nursed him
+through that deadly fever I wouldn’t have suffered such manners for a
+single day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+JACOBUS having put me in mind of his wealthy brother I concluded I would
+pay that business call at once.  I had by that time heard a little more
+of him.  He was a member of the Council, where he made himself
+objectionable to the authorities.  He exercised a considerable influence
+on public opinion.  Lots of people owed him money.  He was an importer on
+a great scale of all sorts of goods.  For instance, the whole supply of
+bags for sugar was practically in his hands.  This last fact I did not
+learn till afterwards.  The general impression conveyed to me was that of
+a local personage.  He was a bachelor and gave weekly card-parties in his
+house out of town, which were attended by the best people in the colony.
+
+The greater, then, was my surprise to discover his office in shabby
+surroundings, quite away from the business quarter, amongst a lot of
+hovels.  Guided by a black board with white lettering, I climbed a narrow
+wooden staircase and entered a room with a bare floor of planks littered
+with bits of brown paper and wisps of packing straw.  A great number of
+what looked like wine-cases were piled up against one of the walls.  A
+lanky, inky, light-yellow, mulatto youth, miserably long-necked and
+generally recalling a sick chicken, got off a three-legged stool behind a
+cheap deal desk and faced me as if gone dumb with fright.  I had some
+difficulty in persuading him to take in my name, though I could not get
+from him the nature of his objection.  He did it at last with an almost
+agonised reluctance which ceased to be mysterious to me when I heard him
+being sworn at menacingly with savage, suppressed growls, then audibly
+cuffed and finally kicked out without any concealment whatever; because
+he came back flying head foremost through the door with a stifled shriek.
+
+To say I was startled would not express it.  I remained still, like a man
+lost in a dream.  Clapping both his hands to that part of his frail
+anatomy which had received the shock, the poor wretch said to me simply:
+
+“Will you go in, please.”  His lamentable self-possession was wonderful;
+but it did not do away with the incredibility of the experience.  A
+preposterous notion that I had seen this boy somewhere before, a thing
+obviously impossible, was like a delicate finishing touch of weirdness
+added to a scene fit to raise doubts as to one’s sanity.  I stared
+anxiously about me like an awakened somnambulist.
+
+“I say,” I cried loudly, “there isn’t a mistake, is there?  This is Mr.
+Jacobus’s office.”
+
+The boy gazed at me with a pained expression—and somehow so familiar!  A
+voice within growled offensively:
+
+“Come in, come in, since you are there. . . . I didn’t know.”
+
+I crossed the outer room as one approaches the den of some unknown wild
+beast; with intrepidity but in some excitement.  Only no wild beast that
+ever lived would rouse one’s indignation; the power to do that belongs to
+the odiousness of the human brute.  And I was very indignant, which did
+not prevent me from being at once struck by the extraordinary resemblance
+of the two brothers.
+
+This one was dark instead of being fair like the other; but he was as
+big.  He was without his coat and waistcoat; he had been doubtless
+snoozing in the rocking-chair which stood in a corner furthest from the
+window.  Above the great bulk of his crumpled white shirt, buttoned with
+three diamond studs, his round face looked swarthy.  It was moist; his
+brown moustache hung limp and ragged.  He pushed a common, cane-bottomed
+chair towards me with his foot.
+
+“Sit down.”
+
+I glanced at it casually, then, turning my indignant eyes full upon him,
+I declared in precise and incisive tones that I had called in obedience
+to my owners’ instructions.
+
+“Oh!  Yes.  H’m!  I didn’t understand what that fool was saying. . . .
+But never mind!  It will teach the scoundrel to disturb me at this time
+of the day,” he added, grinning at me with savage cynicism.
+
+I looked at my watch.  It was past three o’clock—quite the full swing of
+afternoon office work in the port.  He snarled imperiously: “Sit down,
+Captain.”
+
+I acknowledged the gracious invitation by saying deliberately:
+
+“I can listen to all you may have to say without sitting down.”
+
+Emitting a loud and vehement “Pshaw!” he glared for a moment, very
+round-eyed and fierce.  It was like a gigantic tomcat spitting at one
+suddenly.  “Look at him! . . . What do you fancy yourself to be?  What
+did you come here for?  If you won’t sit down and talk business you had
+better go to the devil.”
+
+“I don’t know him personally,” I said.  “But after this I wouldn’t mind
+calling on him.  It would be refreshing to meet a gentleman.”
+
+He followed me, growling behind my back:
+
+“The impudence!  I’ve a good mind to write to your owners what I think of
+you.”
+
+I turned on him for a moment:
+
+“As it happens I don’t care.  For my part I assure you I won’t even take
+the trouble to mention you to them.”
+
+He stopped at the door of his office while I traversed the littered
+anteroom.  I think he was somewhat taken aback.
+
+“I will break every bone in your body,” he roared suddenly at the
+miserable mulatto lad, “if you ever dare to disturb me before half-past
+three for anybody.  D’ye hear?  For anybody! . . . Let alone any damned
+skipper,” he added, in a lower growl.
+
+The frail youngster, swaying like a reed, made a low moaning sound.  I
+stopped short and addressed this sufferer with advice.  It was prompted
+by the sight of a hammer (used for opening the wine-cases, I suppose)
+which was lying on the floor.
+
+“If I were you, my boy, I would have that thing up my sleeve when I went
+in next and at the first occasion I would—”
+
+What was there so familiar in that lad’s yellow face?  Entrenched and
+quaking behind the flimsy desk, he never looked up.  His heavy, lowered
+eyelids gave me suddenly the clue of the puzzle.  He resembled—yes, those
+thick glued lips—he resembled the brothers Jacobus.  He resembled both,
+the wealthy merchant and the pushing shopkeeper (who resembled each
+other); he resembled them as much as a thin, light-yellow mulatto lad may
+resemble a big, stout, middle-aged white man.  It was the exotic
+complexion and the slightness of his build which had put me off so
+completely.  Now I saw in him unmistakably the Jacobus strain, weakened,
+attenuated, diluted as it were in a bucket of water—and I refrained from
+finishing my speech.  I had intended to say: “Crack this brute’s head for
+him.”  I still felt the conclusion to be sound.  But it is no trifling
+responsibility to counsel parricide to any one, however deeply injured.
+
+“Beggarly—cheeky—skippers.”
+
+I despised the emphatic growl at my back; only, being much vexed and
+upset, I regret to say that I slammed the door behind me in a most
+undignified manner.
+
+It may not appear altogether absurd if I say that I brought out from that
+interview a kindlier view of the other Jacobus.  It was with a feeling
+resembling partisanship that, a few days later, I called at his “store.”
+That long, cavern-like place of business, very dim at the back and
+stuffed full of all sorts of goods, was entered from the street by a
+lofty archway.  At the far end I saw my Jacobus exerting himself in his
+shirt-sleeves among his assistants.  The captains’ room was a small,
+vaulted apartment with a stone floor and heavy iron bars in its windows
+like a dungeon converted to hospitable purposes.  A couple of cheerful
+bottles and several gleaming glasses made a brilliant cluster round a
+tall, cool red earthenware pitcher on the centre table which was littered
+with newspapers from all parts of the world.  A well-groomed stranger in
+a smart grey check suit, sitting with one leg flung over his knee, put
+down one of these sheets briskly and nodded to me.
+
+I guessed him to be a steamer-captain.  It was impossible to get to know
+these men.  They came and went too quickly and their ships lay moored far
+out, at the very entrance of the harbour.  Theirs was another life
+altogether.  He yawned slightly.
+
+“Dull hole, isn’t it?”
+
+I understood this to allude to the town.
+
+“Do you find it so?” I murmured.
+
+“Don’t you?  But I’m off to-morrow, thank goodness.”
+
+He was a very gentlemanly person, good-natured and superior.  I watched
+him draw the open box of cigars to his side of the table, take a big
+cigar-case out of his pocket and begin to fill it very methodically.
+Presently, on our eyes meeting, he winked like a common mortal and
+invited me to follow his example.  “They are really decent smokes.”  I
+shook my head.
+
+“I am not off to-morrow.”
+
+“What of that?  Think I am abusing old Jacobus’s hospitality?  Heavens!
+It goes into the bill, of course.  He spreads such little matters all
+over his account.  He can take care of himself!  Why, it’s business—”
+
+I noted a shadow fall over his well-satisfied expression, a momentary
+hesitation in closing his cigar-case.  But he ended by putting it in his
+pocket jauntily.  A placid voice uttered in the doorway: “That’s quite
+correct, Captain.”
+
+The large noiseless Jacobus advanced into the room.  His quietness, in
+the circumstances, amounted to cordiality.  He had put on his jacket
+before joining us, and he sat down in the chair vacated by the
+steamer-man, who nodded again to me and went out with a short, jarring
+laugh.  A profound silence reigned.  With his drowsy stare Jacobus seemed
+to be slumbering open-eyed.  Yet, somehow, I was aware of being
+profoundly scrutinised by those heavy eyes.  In the enormous cavern of
+the store somebody began to nail down a case, expertly: tap-tap . . .
+tap-tap-tap.
+
+Two other experts, one slow and nasal, the other shrill and snappy,
+started checking an invoice.
+
+“A half-coil of three-inch manilla rope.”
+
+“Right!”
+
+“Six assorted shackles.”
+
+“Right!”
+
+“Six tins assorted soups, three of paté, two asparagus, fourteen pounds
+tobacco, cabin.”
+
+“Right!”
+
+“It’s for the captain who was here just now,” breathed out the immovable
+Jacobus.  “These steamer orders are very small.  They pick up what they
+want as they go along.  That man will be in Samarang in less than a
+fortnight.  Very small orders indeed.”
+
+The calling over of the items went on in the shop; an extraordinary
+jumble of varied articles, paint-brushes, Yorkshire Relish, etc., etc. . . .
+“Three sacks of best potatoes,” read out the nasal voice.
+
+At this Jacobus blinked like a sleeping man roused by a shake, and
+displayed some animation.  At his order, shouted into the shop, a
+smirking half-caste clerk with his ringlets much oiled and with a pen
+stuck behind his ear, brought in a sample of six potatoes which he
+paraded in a row on the table.
+
+Being urged to look at their beauty I gave them a cold and hostile
+glance.  Calmly, Jacobus proposed that I should order ten or fifteen
+tons—tons!  I couldn’t believe my ears.  My crew could not have eaten
+such a lot in a year; and potatoes (excuse these practical remarks) are a
+highly perishable commodity.  I thought he was joking—or else trying to
+find out whether I was an unutterable idiot.  But his purpose was not so
+simple.  I discovered that he meant me to buy them on my own account.
+
+“I am proposing you a bit of business, Captain.  I wouldn’t charge you a
+great price.”
+
+I told him that I did not go in for trade.  I even added grimly that I
+knew only too well how that sort of spec. generally ended.
+
+He sighed and clasped his hands on his stomach with exemplary
+resignation.  I admired the placidity of his impudence.  Then waking up
+somewhat:
+
+“Won’t you try a cigar, Captain?”
+
+“No, thanks.  I don’t smoke cigars.”
+
+“For once!” he exclaimed, in a patient whisper.  A melancholy silence
+ensued.  You know how sometimes a person discloses a certain unsuspected
+depth and acuteness of thought; that is, in other words, utters something
+unexpected.  It was unexpected enough to hear Jacobus say:
+
+“The man who just went out was right enough.  You might take one,
+Captain.  Here everything is bound to be in the way of business.”
+
+I felt a little ashamed of myself.  The remembrance of his horrid brother
+made him appear quite a decent sort of fellow.  It was with some
+compunction that I said a few words to the effect that I could have no
+possible objection to his hospitality.
+
+Before I was a minute older I saw where this admission was leading me.
+As if changing the subject, Jacobus mentioned that his private house was
+about ten minutes’ walk away.  It had a beautiful old walled garden.
+Something really remarkable.  I ought to come round some day and have a
+look at it.
+
+He seemed to be a lover of gardens.  I too take extreme delight in them;
+but I did not mean my compunction to carry me as far as Jacobus’s
+flower-beds, however beautiful and old.  He added, with a certain
+homeliness of tone:
+
+“There’s only my girl there.”
+
+It is difficult to set everything down in due order; so I must revert
+here to what happened a week or two before.  The medical officer of the
+port had come on board my ship to have a look at one of my crew who was
+ailing, and naturally enough he was asked to step into the cabin.  A
+fellow-shipmaster of mine was there too; and in the conversation, somehow
+or other, the name of Jacobus came to be mentioned.  It was pronounced
+with no particular reverence by the other man, I believe.  I don’t
+remember now what I was going to say.  The doctor—a pleasant, cultivated
+fellow, with an assured manner—prevented me by striking in, in a sour
+tone:
+
+“Ah!  You’re talking about my respected papa-in-law.”
+
+Of course, that sally silenced us at the time.  But I remembered the
+episode, and at this juncture, pushed for something noncommittal to say,
+I inquired with polite surprise:
+
+“You have your married daughter living with you, Mr. Jacobus?”
+
+He moved his big hand from right to left quietly.  No!  That was another
+of his girls, he stated, ponderously and under his breath as usual.  She
+. . . He seemed in a pause to be ransacking his mind for some kind of
+descriptive phrase.  But my hopes were disappointed.  He merely produced
+his stereotyped definition.
+
+“She’s a very different sort of person.”
+
+“Indeed. . . . And by the by, Jacobus, I called on your brother the other
+day.  It’s no great compliment if I say that I found him a very different
+sort of person from you.”
+
+He had an air of profound reflection, then remarked quaintly:
+
+“He’s a man of regular habits.”
+
+He might have been alluding to the habit of late siesta; but I mumbled
+something about “beastly habits anyhow”—and left the store abruptly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+MY little passage with Jacobus the merchant became known generally.  One
+or two of my acquaintances made distant allusions to it.  Perhaps the
+mulatto boy had talked.  I must confess that people appeared rather
+scandalised, but not with Jacobus’s brutality.  A man I knew remonstrated
+with me for my hastiness.
+
+I gave him the whole story of my visit, not forgetting the tell-tale
+resemblance of the wretched mulatto boy to his tormentor.  He was not
+surprised.  No doubt, no doubt.  What of that?  In a jovial tone he
+assured me that there must be many of that sort.  The elder Jacobus had
+been a bachelor all his life.  A highly respectable bachelor.  But there
+had never been open scandal in that connection.  His life had been quite
+regular.  It could cause no offence to any one.
+
+I said that I had been offended considerably.  My interlocutor opened
+very wide eyes.  Why?  Because a mulatto lad got a few knocks?  That was
+not a great affair, surely.  I had no idea how insolent and untruthful
+these half-castes were.  In fact he seemed to think Mr. Jacobus rather
+kind than otherwise to employ that youth at all; a sort of amiable
+weakness which could be forgiven.
+
+This acquaintance of mine belonged to one of the old French families,
+descendants of the old colonists; all noble, all impoverished, and living
+a narrow domestic life in dull, dignified decay.  The men, as a rule,
+occupy inferior posts in Government offices or in business houses.  The
+girls are almost always pretty, ignorant of the world, kind and agreeable
+and generally bilingual; they prattle innocently both in French and
+English.  The emptiness of their existence passes belief.
+
+I obtained my entry into a couple of such households because some years
+before, in Bombay, I had occasion to be of use to a pleasant, ineffectual
+young man who was rather stranded there, not knowing what to do with
+himself or even how to get home to his island again.  It was a matter of
+two hundred rupees or so, but, when I turned up, the family made a point
+of showing their gratitude by admitting me to their intimacy.  My
+knowledge of the French language made me specially acceptable.  They had
+meantime managed to marry the fellow to a woman nearly twice his age,
+comparatively well off: the only profession he was really fit for.  But
+it was not all cakes and ale.  The first time I called on the couple she
+spied a little spot of grease on the poor devil’s pantaloons and made him
+a screaming scene of reproaches so full of sincere passion that I sat
+terrified as at a tragedy of Racine.
+
+Of course there was never question of the money I had advanced him; but
+his sisters, Miss Angele and Miss Mary, and the aunts of both families,
+who spoke quaint archaic French of pre-Revolution period, and a host of
+distant relations adopted me for a friend outright in a manner which was
+almost embarrassing.
+
+It was with the eldest brother (he was employed at a desk in my
+consignee’s office) that I was having this talk about the merchant
+Jacobus.  He regretted my attitude and nodded his head sagely.  An
+influential man.  One never knew when one would need him.  I expressed my
+immense preference for the shopkeeper of the two.  At that my friend
+looked grave.
+
+“What on earth are you pulling that long face about?” I cried
+impatiently.  “He asked me to see his garden and I have a good mind to go
+some day.”
+
+“Don’t do that,” he said, so earnestly that I burst into a fit of
+laughter; but he looked at me without a smile.
+
+This was another matter altogether.  At one time the public conscience of
+the island had been mightily troubled by my Jacobus.  The two brothers
+had been partners for years in great harmony, when a wandering circus
+came to the island and my Jacobus became suddenly infatuated with one of
+the lady-riders.  What made it worse was that he was married.  He had not
+even the grace to conceal his passion.  It must have been strong indeed
+to carry away such a large placid creature.  His behaviour was perfectly
+scandalous.  He followed that woman to the Cape, and apparently travelled
+at the tail of that beastly circus to other parts of the world, in a most
+degrading position.  The woman soon ceased to care for him, and treated
+him worse than a dog.  Most extraordinary stories of moral degradation
+were reaching the island at that time.  He had not the strength of mind
+to shake himself free. . . .
+
+The grotesque image of a fat, pushing ship-chandler, enslaved by an
+unholy love-spell, fascinated me; and I listened rather open-mouthed to
+the tale as old as the world, a tale which had been the subject of
+legend, of moral fables, of poems, but which so ludicrously failed to fit
+the personality.  What a strange victim for the gods!
+
+Meantime his deserted wife had died.  His daughter was taken care of by
+his brother, who married her as advantageously as was possible in the
+circumstances.
+
+“Oh!  The Mrs. Doctor!” I exclaimed.
+
+“You know that?  Yes.  A very able man.  He wanted a lift in the world,
+and there was a good bit of money from her mother, besides the
+expectations. . . Of course, they don’t know him,” he added.  “The doctor
+nods in the street, I believe, but he avoids speaking to him when they
+meet on board a ship, as must happen sometimes.”
+
+I remarked that this surely was an old story by now.
+
+My friend assented.  But it was Jacobus’s own fault that it was neither
+forgiven nor forgotten.  He came back ultimately.  But how?  Not in a
+spirit of contrition, in a way to propitiate his scandalised
+fellow-citizens.  He must needs drag along with him a child—a girl. . . .
+
+“He spoke to me of a daughter who lives with him,” I observed, very much
+interested.
+
+“She’s certainly the daughter of the circus-woman,” said my friend.  “She
+may be his daughter too; I am willing to admit that she is.  In fact I
+have no doubt—”
+
+But he did not see why she should have been brought into a respectable
+community to perpetuate the memory of the scandal.  And that was not the
+worst.  Presently something much more distressing happened.  That
+abandoned woman turned up.  Landed from a mail-boat. . . .
+
+“What!  Here?  To claim the child perhaps,” I suggested.
+
+“Not she!”  My friendly informant was very scornful.  “Imagine a painted,
+haggard, agitated, desperate hag.  Been cast off in Mozambique by
+somebody who paid her passage here.  She had been injured internally by a
+kick from a horse; she hadn’t a cent on her when she got ashore; I don’t
+think she even asked to see the child.  At any rate, not till the last
+day of her life.  Jacobus hired for her a bungalow to die in.  He got a
+couple of Sisters from the hospital to nurse her through these few
+months.  If he didn’t marry her _in extremis_ as the good Sisters tried
+to bring about, it’s because she wouldn’t even hear of it.  As the nuns
+said: ‘The woman died impenitent.’  It was reported that she ordered
+Jacobus out of the room with her last breath.  This may be the real
+reason why he didn’t go into mourning himself; he only put the child into
+black.  While she was little she was to be seen sometimes about the
+streets attended by a negro woman, but since she became of age to put her
+hair up I don’t think she has set foot outside that garden once.  She
+must be over eighteen now.”
+
+Thus my friend, with some added details; such as, that he didn’t think
+the girl had spoken to three people of any position in the island; that
+an elderly female relative of the brothers Jacobus had been induced by
+extreme poverty to accept the position of gouvernante to the girl.  As to
+Jacobus’s business (which certainly annoyed his brother) it was a wise
+choice on his part.  It brought him in contact only with strangers of
+passage; whereas any other would have given rise to all sorts of
+awkwardness with his social equals.  The man was not wanting in a certain
+tact—only he was naturally shameless.  For why did he want to keep that
+girl with him?  It was most painful for everybody.
+
+I thought suddenly (and with profound disgust) of the other Jacobus, and
+I could not refrain from saying slily:
+
+“I suppose if he employed her, say, as a scullion in his household and
+occasionally pulled her hair or boxed her ears, the position would have
+been more regular—less shocking to the respectable class to which he
+belongs.”
+
+He was not so stupid as to miss my intention, and shrugged his shoulders
+impatiently.
+
+“You don’t understand.  To begin with, she’s not a mulatto.  And a
+scandal is a scandal.  People should be given a chance to forget.  I dare
+say it would have been better for her if she had been turned into a
+scullion or something of that kind.  Of course he’s trying to make money
+in every sort of petty way, but in such a business there’ll never be
+enough for anybody to come forward.”
+
+When my friend left me I had a conception of Jacobus and his daughter
+existing, a lonely pair of castaways, on a desert island; the girl
+sheltering in the house as if it were a cavern in a cliff, and Jacobus
+going out to pick up a living for both on the beach—exactly like two
+shipwrecked people who always hope for some rescuer to bring them back at
+last into touch with the rest of mankind.
+
+But Jacobus’s bodily reality did not fit in with this romantic view.
+When he turned up on board in the usual course, he sipped the cup of
+coffee placidly, asked me if I was satisfied—and I hardly listened to the
+harbour gossip he dropped slowly in his low, voice-saving enunciation.  I
+had then troubles of my own.  My ship chartered, my thoughts dwelling on
+the success of a quick round voyage, I had been suddenly confronted by a
+shortage of bags.  A catastrophe!  The stock of one especial kind, called
+pockets, seemed to be totally exhausted.  A consignment was shortly
+expected—it was afloat, on its way, but, meantime, the loading of my ship
+dead stopped, I had enough to worry about.  My consignees, who had
+received me with such heartiness on my arrival, now, in the character of
+my charterers, listened to my complaints with polite helplessness.  Their
+manager, the old-maidish, thin man, who so prudishly didn’t even like to
+speak about the impure Jacobus, gave me the correct commercial view of
+the position.
+
+“My dear Captain”—he was retracting his leathery cheeks into a
+condescending, shark-like smile—“we were not morally obliged to tell you
+of a possible shortage before you signed the charter-party.  It was for
+you to guard against the contingency of a delay—strictly speaking.  But
+of course we shouldn’t have taken any advantage.  This is no one’s fault
+really.  We ourselves have been taken unawares,” he concluded primly,
+with an obvious lie.
+
+This lecture I confess had made me thirsty.  Suppressed rage generally
+produces that effect; and as I strolled on aimlessly I bethought myself
+of the tall earthenware pitcher in the captains’ room of the Jacobus
+“store.”
+
+With no more than a nod to the men I found assembled there, I poured down
+a deep, cool draught on my indignation, then another, and then, becoming
+dejected, I sat plunged in cheerless reflections.  The others read,
+talked, smoked, bandied over my head some unsubtle chaff.  But my
+abstraction was respected.  And it was without a word to any one that I
+rose and went out, only to be quite unexpectedly accosted in the bustle
+of the store by Jacobus the outcast.
+
+“Glad to see you, Captain.  What?  Going away?  You haven’t been looking
+so well these last few days, I notice.  Run down, eh?”
+
+He was in his shirt-sleeves, and his words were in the usual course of
+business, but they had a human note.  It was commercial amenity, but I
+had been a stranger to amenity in that connection.  I do verily believe
+(from the direction of his heavy glance towards a certain shelf) that he
+was going to suggest the purchase of Clarkson’s Nerve Tonic, which he
+kept in stock, when I said impulsively:
+
+“I am rather in trouble with my loading.”
+
+Wide awake under his sleepy, broad mask with glued lips, he understood at
+once, had a movement of the head so appreciative that I relieved my
+exasperation by exclaiming:
+
+“Surely there must be eleven hundred quarter-bags to be found in the
+colony.  It’s only a matter of looking for them.”
+
+Again that slight movement of the big head, and in the noise and activity
+of the store that tranquil murmur:
+
+“To be sure.  But then people likely to have a reserve of quarter-bags
+wouldn’t want to sell.  They’d need that size themselves.”
+
+“That’s exactly what my consignees are telling me.  Impossible to buy.
+Bosh!  They don’t want to.  It suits them to have the ship hung up.  But
+if I were to discover the lot they would have to—Look here, Jacobus!  You
+are the man to have such a thing up your sleeve.”
+
+He protested with a ponderous swing of his big head.  I stood before him
+helplessly, being looked at by those heavy eyes with a veiled expression
+as of a man after some soul-shaking crisis.  Then, suddenly:
+
+“It’s impossible to talk quietly here,” he whispered.  “I am very busy.
+But if you could go and wait for me in my house.  It’s less than ten
+minutes’ walk.  Oh, yes, you don’t know the way.”
+
+He called for his coat and offered to take me there himself.  He would
+have to return to the store at once for an hour or so to finish his
+business, and then he would be at liberty to talk over with me that
+matter of quarter-bags.  This programme was breathed out at me through
+slightly parted, still lips; his heavy, motionless glance rested upon me,
+placid as ever, the glance of a tired man—but I felt that it was
+searching, too.  I could not imagine what he was looking for in me and
+kept silent, wondering.
+
+“I am asking you to wait for me in my house till I am at liberty to talk
+this matter over.  You will?”
+
+“Why, of course!” I cried.
+
+“But I cannot promise—”
+
+“I dare say not,” I said.  “I don’t expect a promise.”
+
+“I mean I can’t even promise to try the move I’ve in my mind.  One must
+see first . . . h’m!”
+
+“All right.  I’ll take the chance.  I’ll wait for you as long as you
+like.  What else have I to do in this infernal hole of a port!”
+
+Before I had uttered my last words we had set off at a swinging pace.  We
+turned a couple of corners and entered a street completely empty of
+traffic, of semi-rural aspect, paved with cobblestones nestling in grass
+tufts.  The house came to the line of the roadway; a single story on an
+elevated basement of rough-stones, so that our heads were below the level
+of the windows as we went along.  All the jalousies were tightly shut,
+like eyes, and the house seemed fast asleep in the afternoon sunshine.
+The entrance was at the side, in an alley even more grass-grown than the
+street: a small door, simply on the latch.
+
+With a word of apology as to showing me the way, Jacobus preceded me up a
+dark passage and led me across the naked parquet floor of what I supposed
+to be the dining-room.  It was lighted by three glass doors which stood
+wide open on to a verandah or rather loggia running its brick arches
+along the garden side of the house.  It was really a magnificent garden:
+smooth green lawns and a gorgeous maze of flower-beds in the foreground,
+displayed around a basin of dark water framed in a marble rim, and in the
+distance the massed foliage of varied trees concealing the roofs of other
+houses.  The town might have been miles away.  It was a brilliantly
+coloured solitude, drowsing in a warm, voluptuous silence.  Where the
+long, still shadows fell across the beds, and in shady nooks, the massed
+colours of the flowers had an extraordinary magnificence of effect.  I
+stood entranced.  Jacobus grasped me delicately above the elbow,
+impelling me to a half-turn to the left.
+
+I had not noticed the girl before.  She occupied a low, deep, wickerwork
+arm-chair, and I saw her in exact profile like a figure in a tapestry,
+and as motionless.  Jacobus released my arm.
+
+“This is Alice,” he announced tranquilly; and his subdued manner of
+speaking made it sound so much like a confidential communication that I
+fancied myself nodding understandingly and whispering: “I see, I see.” . . .
+Of course, I did nothing of the kind.  Neither of us did anything; we
+stood side by side looking down at the girl.  For quite a time she did
+not stir, staring straight before her as if watching the vision of some
+pageant passing through the garden in the deep, rich glow of light and
+the splendour of flowers.
+
+Then, coming to the end of her reverie, she looked round and up.  If I
+had not at first noticed her, I am certain that she too had been unaware
+of my presence till she actually perceived me by her father’s side.  The
+quickened upward movement of the heavy eyelids, the widening of the
+languid glance, passing into a fixed stare, put that beyond doubt.
+
+Under her amazement there was a hint of fear, and then came a flash as of
+anger.  Jacobus, after uttering my name fairly loud, said: “Make yourself
+at home, Captain—I won’t be gone long,” and went away rapidly.  Before I
+had time to make a bow I was left alone with the girl—who, I remembered
+suddenly, had not been seen by any man or woman of that town since she
+had found it necessary to put up her hair.  It looked as though it had
+not been touched again since that distant time of first putting up; it
+was a mass of black, lustrous locks, twisted anyhow high on her head,
+with long, untidy wisps hanging down on each side of the clear sallow
+face; a mass so thick and strong and abundant that, nothing but to look
+at, it gave you a sensation of heavy pressure on the top of your head and
+an impression of magnificently cynical untidiness.  She leaned forward,
+hugging herself with crossed legs; a dingy, amber-coloured, flounced
+wrapper of some thin stuff revealed the young supple body drawn together
+tensely in the deep low seat as if crouching for a spring.  I detected a
+slight, quivering start or two, which looked uncommonly like bounding
+away.  They were followed by the most absolute immobility.
+
+The absurd impulse to run out after Jacobus (for I had been startled,
+too) once repressed, I took a chair, placed it not very far from her, sat
+down deliberately, and began to talk about the garden, caring not what I
+said, but using a gentle caressing intonation as one talks to soothe a
+startled wild animal.  I could not even be certain that she understood
+me.  She never raised her face nor attempted to look my way.  I kept on
+talking only to prevent her from taking flight.  She had another of those
+quivering, repressed starts which made me catch my breath with
+apprehension.
+
+Ultimately I formed a notion that what prevented her perhaps from going
+off in one great, nervous leap, was the scantiness of her attire.  The
+wicker armchair was the most substantial thing about her person.  What
+she had on under that dingy, loose, amber wrapper must have been of the
+most flimsy and airy character.  One could not help being aware of it.
+It was obvious.  I felt it actually embarrassing at first; but that sort
+of embarrassment is got over easily by a mind not enslaved by narrow
+prejudices.  I did not avert my gaze from Alice.  I went on talking with
+ingratiating softness, the recollection that, most likely, she had never
+before been spoken to by a strange man adding to my assurance.  I don’t
+know why an emotional tenseness should have crept into the situation.
+But it did.  And just as I was becoming aware of it a slight scream cut
+short my flow of urbane speech.
+
+The scream did not proceed from the girl.  It was emitted behind me, and
+caused me to turn my head sharply.  I understood at once that the
+apparition in the doorway was the elderly relation of Jacobus, the
+companion, the gouvernante.  While she remained thunderstruck, I got up
+and made her a low bow.
+
+The ladies of Jacobus’s household evidently spent their days in light
+attire.  This stumpy old woman with a face like a large wrinkled lemon,
+beady eyes, and a shock of iron-grey hair, was dressed in a garment of
+some ash-coloured, silky, light stuff.  It fell from her thick neck down
+to her toes with the simplicity of an unadorned nightgown.  It made her
+appear truly cylindrical.  She exclaimed: “How did you get here?”
+
+Before I could say a word she vanished and presently I heard a confusion
+of shrill protestations in a distant part of the house.  Obviously no one
+could tell her how I got there.  In a moment, with great outcries from
+two negro women following her, she waddled back to the doorway,
+infuriated.
+
+“What do you want here?”
+
+I turned to the girl.  She was sitting straight up now, her hands posed
+on the arms of the chair.  I appealed to her.
+
+“Surely, Miss Alice, you will not let them drive me out into the street?”
+
+Her magnificent black eyes, narrowed, long in shape, swept over me with
+an indefinable expression, then in a harsh, contemptuous voice she let
+fall in French a sort of explanation:
+
+“_C’est papa_.”
+
+I made another low bow to the old woman.
+
+She turned her back on me in order to drive away her black henchwomen,
+then surveying my person in a peculiar manner with one small eye nearly
+closed and her face all drawn up on that side as if with a twinge of
+toothache, she stepped out on the verandah, sat down in a rocking-chair
+some distance away, and took up her knitting from a little table.  Before
+she started at it she plunged one of the needles into the mop of her grey
+hair and stirred it vigorously.
+
+Her elementary nightgown-sort of frock clung to her ancient, stumpy, and
+floating form.  She wore white cotton stockings and flat brown velvet
+slippers.  Her feet and ankles were obtrusively visible on the foot-rest.
+She began to rock herself slightly, while she knitted.  I had resumed my
+seat and kept quiet, for I mistrusted that old woman.  What if she
+ordered me to depart?  She seemed capable of any outrage.  She had
+snorted once or twice; she was knitting violently.  Suddenly she piped at
+the young girl in French a question which I translate colloquially:
+
+“What’s your father up to, now?”
+
+The young creature shrugged her shoulders so comprehensively that her
+whole body swayed within the loose wrapper; and in that unexpectedly
+harsh voice which yet had a seductive quality to the senses, like certain
+kinds of natural rough wines one drinks with pleasure:
+
+“It’s some captain.  Leave me alone—will you!”
+
+The chair rocked quicker, the old, thin voice was like a whistle.
+
+“You and your father make a pair.  He would stick at nothing—that’s well
+known.  But I didn’t expect this.”
+
+I thought it high time to air some of my own French.  I remarked
+modestly, but firmly, that this was business.  I had some matters to talk
+over with Mr. Jacobus.
+
+At once she piped out a derisive “Poor innocent!”  Then, with a change of
+tone: “The shop’s for business.  Why don’t you go to the shop to talk
+with him?”
+
+The furious speed of her fingers and knitting-needles made one dizzy; and
+with squeaky indignation:
+
+“Sitting here staring at that girl—is that what you call business?”
+
+“No,” I said suavely.  “I call this pleasure—an unexpected pleasure.  And
+unless Miss Alice objects—”
+
+I half turned to her.  She flung at me an angry and contemptuous “Don’t
+care!” and leaning her elbow on her knees took her chin in her hand—a
+Jacobus chin undoubtedly.  And those heavy eyelids, this black irritated
+stare reminded me of Jacobus, too—the wealthy merchant, the respected
+one.  The design of her eyebrows also was the same, rigid and ill-omened.
+Yes!  I traced in her a resemblance to both of them.  It came to me as a
+sort of surprising remote inference that both these Jacobuses were rather
+handsome men after all.  I said:
+
+“Oh!  Then I shall stare at you till you smile.”
+
+She favoured me again with an even more viciously scornful “Don’t care!”
+
+The old woman broke in blunt and shrill:
+
+“Hear his impudence!  And you too!  Don’t care!  Go at least and put some
+more clothes on.  Sitting there like this before this sailor riff-raff.”
+
+The sun was about to leave the Pearl of the Ocean for other seas, for
+other lands.  The walled garden full of shadows blazed with colour as if
+the flowers were giving up the light absorbed during the day.  The
+amazing old woman became very explicit.  She suggested to the girl a
+corset and a petticoat with a cynical unreserve which humiliated me.  Was
+I of no more account than a wooden dummy?  The girl snapped out:
+“Shan’t!”
+
+It was not the naughty retort of a vulgar child; it had a note of
+desperation.  Clearly my intrusion had somehow upset the balance of their
+established relations.  The old woman knitted with furious accuracy, her
+eyes fastened down on her work.
+
+“Oh, you are the true child of your father!  And _that_ talks of entering
+a convent!  Letting herself be stared at by a fellow.”
+
+“Leave off.”
+
+“Shameless thing!”
+
+“Old sorceress,” the girl uttered distinctly, preserving her meditative
+pose, chin in hand, and a far-away stare over the garden.
+
+It was like the quarrel of the kettle and the pot.  The old woman flew
+out of the chair, banged down her work, and with a great play of thick
+limb perfectly visible in that weird, clinging garment of hers, strode at
+the girl—who never stirred.  I was experiencing a sort of trepidation
+when, as if awed by that unconscious attitude, the aged relative of
+Jacobus turned short upon me.
+
+She was, I perceived, armed with a knitting-needle; and as she raised her
+hand her intention seemed to be to throw it at me like a dart.  But she
+only used it to scratch her head with, examining me the while at close
+range, one eye nearly shut and her face distorted by a whimsical,
+one-sided grimace.
+
+“My dear man,” she asked abruptly, “do you expect any good to come of
+this?”
+
+“I do hope so indeed, Miss Jacobus.”  I tried to speak in the easy tone
+of an afternoon caller.  “You see, I am here after some bags.”
+
+“Bags!  Look at that now!  Didn’t I hear you holding forth to that
+graceless wretch?”
+
+“You would like to see me in my grave,” uttered the motionless girl
+hoarsely.
+
+“Grave!  What about me?  Buried alive before I am dead for the sake of a
+thing blessed with such a pretty father!” she cried; and turning to me:
+“You’re one of these men he does business with.  Well—why don’t you leave
+us in peace, my good fellow?”
+
+It was said in a tone—this “leave us in peace!”  There was a sort of
+ruffianly familiarity, a superiority, a scorn in it.  I was to hear it
+more than once, for you would show an imperfect knowledge of human nature
+if you thought that this was my last visit to that house—where no
+respectable person had put foot for ever so many years.  No, you would be
+very much mistaken if you imagined that this reception had scared me
+away.  First of all I was not going to run before a grotesque and
+ruffianly old woman.
+
+And then you mustn’t forget these necessary bags.  That first evening
+Jacobus made me stay to dinner; after, however, telling me loyally that
+he didn’t know whether he could do anything at all for me.  He had been
+thinking it over.  It was too difficult, he feared. . . . But he did not
+give it up in so many words.
+
+We were only three at table; the girl by means of repeated “Won’t!”
+“Shan’t!” and “Don’t care!” having conveyed and affirmed her intention
+not to come to the table, not to have any dinner, not to move from the
+verandah.  The old relative hopped about in her flat slippers and piped
+indignantly, Jacobus towered over her and murmured placidly in his
+throat; I joined jocularly from a distance, throwing in a few words, for
+which under the cover of the night I received secretly a most vicious
+poke in the ribs from the old woman’s elbow or perhaps her fist.  I
+restrained a cry.  And all the time the girl didn’t even condescend to
+raise her head to look at any of us.  All this may sound childish—and yet
+that stony, petulant sullenness had an obscurely tragic flavour.
+
+And so we sat down to the food around the light of a good many candles
+while she remained crouching out there, staring in the dark as if feeding
+her bad temper on the heavily scented air of the admirable garden.
+
+Before leaving I said to Jacobus that I would come next day to hear if
+the bag affair had made any progress.  He shook his head slightly at
+that.
+
+“I’ll haunt your house daily till you pull it off.  You’ll be always
+finding me here.”
+
+His faint, melancholy smile did not part his thick lips.
+
+“That will be all right, Captain.”
+
+Then seeing me to the door, very tranquil, he murmured earnestly the
+recommendation: “Make yourself at home,” and also the hospitable hint
+about there being always “a plate of soup.”  It was only on my way to the
+quay, down the ill-lighted streets, that I remembered I had been engaged
+to dine that very evening with the S— family.  Though vexed with my
+forgetfulness (it would be rather awkward to explain) I couldn’t help
+thinking that it had procured me a more amusing evening.  And
+besides—business.  The sacred business—.
+
+In a barefooted negro who overtook me at a run and bolted down the
+landing-steps I recognised Jacobus’s boatman, who must have been feeding
+in the kitchen.  His usual “Good-night, sah!” as I went up my ship’s
+ladder had a more cordial sound than on previous occasions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+I KEPT my word to Jacobus.  I haunted his home.  He was perpetually
+finding me there of an afternoon when he popped in for a moment from the
+“store.”  The sound of my voice talking to his Alice greeted him on his
+doorstep; and when he returned for good in the evening, ten to one he
+would hear it still going on in the verandah.  I just nodded to him; he
+would sit down heavily and gently, and watch with a sort of approving
+anxiety my efforts to make his daughter smile.
+
+I called her often “Alice,” right before him; sometimes I would address
+her as Miss “Don’t Care,” and I exhausted myself in nonsensical chatter
+without succeeding once in taking her out of her peevish and tragic self.
+There were moments when I felt I must break out and start swearing at her
+till all was blue.  And I fancied that had I done so Jacobus would not
+have moved a muscle.  A sort of shady, intimate understanding seemed to
+have been established between us.
+
+I must say the girl treated her father exactly in the same way she
+treated me.
+
+And how could it have been otherwise?  She treated me as she treated her
+father.  She had never seen a visitor.  She did not know how men behaved.
+I belonged to the low lot with whom her father did business at the port.
+I was of no account.  So was her father.  The only decent people in the
+world were the people of the island, who would have nothing to do with
+him because of something wicked he had done.  This was apparently the
+explanation Miss Jacobus had given her of the household’s isolated
+position.  For she had to be told something!  And I feel convinced that
+this version had been assented to by Jacobus.  I must say the old woman
+was putting it forward with considerable gusto.  It was on her lips the
+universal explanation, the universal allusion, the universal taunt.
+
+One day Jacobus came in early and, beckoning me into the dining-room,
+wiped his brow with a weary gesture and told me that he had managed to
+unearth a supply of quarter-bags.
+
+“It’s fourteen hundred your ship wanted, did you say, Captain?”
+
+“Yes, yes!” I replied eagerly; but he remained calm.  He looked more
+tired than I had ever seen him before.
+
+“Well, Captain, you may go and tell your people that they can get that
+lot from my brother.”
+
+As I remained open-mouthed at this, he added his usual placid formula of
+assurance:
+
+“You’ll find it correct, Captain.”
+
+“You spoke to your brother about it?”  I was distinctly awed.  “And for
+me?  Because he must have known that my ship’s the only one hung up for
+bags.  How on earth—”
+
+He wiped his brow again.  I noticed that he was dressed with unusual
+care, in clothes in which I had never seen him before.  He avoided my
+eye.
+
+“You’ve heard people talk, of course. . . . That’s true enough.  He . . .
+I . . . We certainly. . . for several years . . .”  His voice declined to
+a mere sleepy murmur.  “You see I had something to tell him of, something
+which—”
+
+His murmur stopped.  He was not going to tell me what this something was.
+And I didn’t care.  Anxious to carry the news to my charterers, I ran
+back on the verandah to get my hat.
+
+At the bustle I made the girl turned her eyes slowly in my direction, and
+even the old woman was checked in her knitting.  I stopped a moment to
+exclaim excitedly:
+
+“Your father’s a brick, Miss Don’t Care.  That’s what he is.”
+
+She beheld my elation in scornful surprise.  Jacobus with unwonted
+familiarity seized my arm as I flew through the dining-room, and breathed
+heavily at me a proposal about “A plate of soup” that evening.  I
+answered distractedly: “Eh?  What?  Oh, thanks!  Certainly.  With
+pleasure,” and tore myself away.  Dine with him?  Of course.  The merest
+gratitude—
+
+But some three hours afterwards, in the dusky, silent street, paved with
+cobble-stones, I became aware that it was not mere gratitude which was
+guiding my steps towards the house with the old garden, where for years
+no guest other than myself had ever dined.  Mere gratitude does not gnaw
+at one’s interior economy in that particular way.  Hunger might; but I
+was not feeling particularly hungry for Jacobus’s food.
+
+On that occasion, too, the girl refused to come to the table.
+
+My exasperation grew.  The old woman cast malicious glances at me.  I
+said suddenly to Jacobus: “Here!  Put some chicken and salad on that
+plate.”  He obeyed without raising his eyes.  I carried it with a knife
+and fork and a serviette out on the verandah.  The garden was one mass of
+gloom, like a cemetery of flowers buried in the darkness, and she, in the
+chair, seemed to muse mournfully over the extinction of light and colour.
+Only whiffs of heavy scent passed like wandering, fragrant souls of that
+departed multitude of blossoms.  I talked volubly, jocularly,
+persuasively, tenderly; I talked in a subdued tone.  To a listener it
+would have sounded like the murmur of a pleading lover.  Whenever I
+paused expectantly there was only a deep silence.  It was like offering
+food to a seated statue.
+
+“I haven’t been able to swallow a single morsel thinking of you out here
+starving yourself in the dark.  It’s positively cruel to be so obstinate.
+Think of my sufferings.”
+
+“Don’t care.”
+
+I felt as if I could have done her some violence—shaken her, beaten her
+maybe.  I said:
+
+“Your absurd behaviour will prevent me coming here any more.”
+
+“What’s that to me?”
+
+“You like it.”
+
+“It’s false,” she snarled.
+
+My hand fell on her shoulder; and if she had flinched I verily believe I
+would have shaken her.  But there was no movement and this immobility
+disarmed my anger.
+
+“You do.  Or you wouldn’t be found on the verandah every day.  Why are
+you here, then?  There are plenty of rooms in the house.  You have your
+own room to stay in—if you did not want to see me.  But you do.  You know
+you do.”
+
+I felt a slight shudder under my hand and released my grip as if
+frightened by that sign of animation in her body.  The scented air of the
+garden came to us in a warm wave like a voluptuous and perfumed sigh.
+
+“Go back to them,” she whispered, almost pitifully.
+
+As I re-entered the dining-room I saw Jacobus cast down his eyes.  I
+banged the plate on the table.  At this demonstration of ill-humour he
+murmured something in an apologetic tone, and I turned on him viciously
+as if he were accountable to me for these “abominable eccentricities,” I
+believe I called them.
+
+“But I dare say Miss Jacobus here is responsible for most of this
+offensive manner,” I added loftily.
+
+She piped out at once in her brazen, ruffianly manner:
+
+“Eh?  Why don’t you leave us in peace, my good fellow?”
+
+I was astonished that she should dare before Jacobus.  Yet what could he
+have done to repress her?  He needed her too much.  He raised a heavy,
+drowsy glance for an instant, then looked down again.  She insisted with
+shrill finality:
+
+“Haven’t you done your business, you two?  Well, then—”
+
+She had the true Jacobus impudence, that old woman.  Her mop of iron-grey
+hair was parted, on the side like a man’s, raffishly, and she made as if
+to plunge her fork into it, as she used to do with the knitting-needle,
+but refrained.  Her little black eyes sparkled venomously.  I turned to
+my host at the head of the table—menacingly as it were.
+
+“Well, and what do you say to that, Jacobus?  Am I to take it that we
+have done with each other?”
+
+I had to wait a little.  The answer when it came was rather unexpected,
+and in quite another spirit than the question.
+
+“I certainly think we might do some business yet with those potatoes of
+mine, Captain.  You will find that—”
+
+I cut him short.
+
+“I’ve told you before that I don’t trade.”
+
+His broad chest heaved without a sound in a noiseless sigh.
+
+“Think it over, Captain,” he murmured, tenacious and tranquil; and I
+burst into a jarring laugh, remembering how he had stuck to the
+circus-rider woman—the depth of passion under that placid surface, which
+even cuts with a riding-whip (so the legend had it) could never raffle
+into the semblance of a storm; something like the passion of a fish would
+be if one could imagine such a thing as a passionate fish.
+
+That evening I experienced more distinctly than ever the sense of moral
+discomfort which always attended me in that house lying under the ban of
+all “decent” people.  I refused to stay on and smoke after dinner; and
+when I put my hand into the thickly-cushioned palm of Jacobus, I said to
+myself that it would be for the last time under his roof.  I pressed his
+bulky paw heartily nevertheless.  Hadn’t he got me out of a serious
+difficulty?  To the few words of acknowledgment I was bound, and indeed
+quite willing, to utter, he answered by stretching his closed lips in his
+melancholy, glued-together smile.
+
+“That will be all right, I hope, Captain,” he breathed out weightily.
+
+“What do you mean?” I asked, alarmed.  “That your brother might yet—”
+
+“Oh, no,” he reassured me.  “He . . . he’s a man of his word, Captain.”
+
+My self-communion as I walked away from his door, trying to believe that
+this was for the last time, was not satisfactory.  I was aware myself
+that I was not sincere in my reflections as to Jacobus’s motives, and, of
+course, the very next day I went back again.
+
+How weak, irrational, and absurd we are!  How easily carried away
+whenever our awakened imagination brings us the irritating hint of a
+desire!  I cared for the girl in a particular way, seduced by the moody
+expression of her face, by her obstinate silences, her rare, scornful
+words; by the perpetual pout of her closed lips, the black depths of her
+fixed gaze turned slowly upon me as if in contemptuous provocation, only
+to be averted next moment with an exasperating indifference.
+
+Of course the news of my assiduity had spread all over the little town.
+I noticed a change in the manner of my acquaintances and even something
+different in the nods of the other captains, when meeting them at the
+landing-steps or in the offices where business called me.  The
+old-maidish head clerk treated me with distant punctiliousness and, as it
+were, gathered his skirts round him for fear of contamination.  It seemed
+to me that the very niggers on the quays turned to look after me as I
+passed; and as to Jacobus’s boatman his “Good-night, sah!” when he put me
+on board was no longer merely cordial—it had a familiar, confidential
+sound as though we had been partners in some villainy.
+
+My friend S— the elder passed me on the other side of the street with a
+wave of the hand and an ironic smile.  The younger brother, the one they
+had married to an elderly shrew, he, on the strength of an older
+friendship and as if paying a debt of gratitude, took the liberty to
+utter a word of warning.
+
+“You’re doing yourself no good by your choice of friends, my dear chap,”
+he said with infantile gravity.
+
+As I knew that the meeting of the brothers Jacobus was the subject of
+excited comment in the whole of the sugary Pearl of the Ocean I wanted to
+know why I was blamed.
+
+“I have been the occasion of a move which may end in a reconciliation
+surely desirable from the point of view of the proprieties—don’t you
+know?”
+
+“Of course, if that girl were disposed of it would certainly facilitate—”
+he mused sagely, then, inconsequential creature, gave me a light tap on
+the lower part of my waistcoat.  “You old sinner,” he cried jovially,
+“much you care for proprieties.  But you had better look out for
+yourself, you know, with a personage like Jacobus who has no sort of
+reputation to lose.”
+
+He had recovered his gravity of a respectable citizen by that time and
+added regretfully:
+
+“All the women of our family are perfectly scandalised.”
+
+But by that time I had given up visiting the S— family and the D— family.
+The elder ladies pulled such faces when I showed myself, and the
+multitude of related young ladies received me with such a variety of
+looks: wondering, awed, mocking (except Miss Mary, who spoke to me and
+looked at me with hushed, pained compassion as though I had been ill),
+that I had no difficulty in giving them all up.  I would have given up
+the society of the whole town, for the sake of sitting near that girl,
+snarling and superb and barely clad in that flimsy, dingy, amber wrapper,
+open low at the throat.  She looked, with the wild wisps of hair hanging
+down her tense face, as though she had just jumped out of bed in the
+panic of a fire.
+
+She sat leaning on her elbow, looking at nothing.  Why did she stay
+listening to my absurd chatter?  And not only that; but why did she
+powder her face in preparation for my arrival?  It seemed to be her idea
+of making a toilette, and in her untidy negligence a sign of great effort
+towards personal adornment.
+
+But I might have been mistaken.  The powdering might have been her daily
+practice and her presence in the verandah a sign of an indifference so
+complete as to take no account of my existence.  Well, it was all one to
+me.
+
+I loved to watch her slow changes of pose, to look at her long
+immobilities composed in the graceful lines of her body, to observe the
+mysterious narrow stare of her splendid black eyes, somewhat long in
+shape, half closed, contemplating the void.  She was like a spellbound
+creature with the forehead of a goddess crowned by the dishevelled
+magnificent hair of a gipsy tramp.  Even her indifference was seductive.
+I felt myself growing attached to her by the bond of an irrealisable
+desire, for I kept my head—quite.  And I put up with the moral discomfort
+of Jacobus’s sleepy watchfulness, tranquil, and yet so expressive; as if
+there had been a tacit pact between us two.  I put up with the insolence
+of the old woman’s: “Aren’t you ever going to leave us in peace, my good
+fellow?” with her taunts; with her brazen and sinister scolding.  She was
+of the true Jacobus stock, and no mistake.
+
+Directly I got away from the girl I called myself many hard names.  What
+folly was this?  I would ask myself.  It was like being the slave of some
+depraved habit.  And I returned to her with my head clear, my heart
+certainly free, not even moved by pity for that castaway (she was as much
+of a castaway as any one ever wrecked on a desert island), but as if
+beguiled by some extraordinary promise.  Nothing more unworthy could be
+imagined.  The recollection of that tremulous whisper when I gripped her
+shoulder with one hand and held a plate of chicken with the other was
+enough to make me break all my good resolutions.
+
+Her insulting taciturnity was enough sometimes to make one gnash one’s
+teeth with rage.  When she opened her mouth it was only to be abominably
+rude in harsh tones to the associate of her reprobate father; and the
+full approval of her aged relative was conveyed to her by offensive
+chuckles.  If not that, then her remarks, always uttered in the tone of
+scathing contempt, were of the most appalling inanity.
+
+How could it have been otherwise?  That plump, ruffianly Jacobus old maid
+in the tight grey frock had never taught her any manners.  Manners I
+suppose are not necessary for born castaways.  No educational
+establishment could ever be induced to accept her as a pupil—on account
+of the proprieties, I imagine.  And Jacobus had not been able to send her
+away anywhere.  How could he have done it?  Who with?  Where to?  He
+himself was not enough of an adventurer to think of settling down
+anywhere else.  His passion had tossed him at the tail of a circus up and
+down strange coasts, but, the storm over, he had drifted back shamelessly
+where, social outcast as he was, he remained still a Jacobus—one of the
+oldest families on the island, older than the French even.  There must
+have been a Jacobus in at the death of the last Dodo. . . . The girl had
+learned nothing, she had never listened to a general conversation, she
+knew nothing, she had heard of nothing.  She could read certainly; but
+all the reading matter that ever came in her way were the newspapers
+provided for the captains’ room of the “store.”  Jacobus had the habit of
+taking these sheets home now and then in a very stained and ragged
+condition.
+
+As her mind could not grasp the meaning of any matters treated there
+except police-court reports and accounts of crimes, she had formed for
+herself a notion of the civilised world as a scene of murders,
+abductions, burglaries, stabbing affrays, and every sort of desperate
+violence.  England and France, Paris and London (the only two towns of
+which she seemed to have heard), appeared to her sinks of abomination,
+reeking with blood, in contrast to her little island where petty larceny
+was about the standard of current misdeeds, with, now and then, some more
+pronounced crime—and that only amongst the imported coolie labourers on
+sugar estates or the negroes of the town.  But in Europe these things
+were being done daily by a wicked population of white men amongst whom,
+as that ruffianly, aristocratic old Miss Jacobus pointed out, the
+wandering sailors, the associates of her precious papa, were the lowest
+of the low.
+
+It was impossible to give her a sense of proportion.  I suppose she
+figured England to herself as about the size of the Pearl of the Ocean;
+in which case it would certainly have been reeking with gore and a mere
+wreck of burgled houses from end to end.  One could not make her
+understand that these horrors on which she fed her imagination were lost
+in the mass of orderly life like a few drops of blood in the ocean.  She
+directed upon me for a moment the uncomprehending glance of her narrowed
+eyes and then would turn her scornful powdered face away without a word.
+She would not even take the trouble to shrug her shoulders.
+
+At that time the batches of papers brought by the last mail reported a
+series of crimes in the East End of London, there was a sensational case
+of abduction in France and a fine display of armed robbery in Australia.
+One afternoon crossing the dining-room I heard Miss Jacobus piping in the
+verandah with venomous animosity: “I don’t know what your precious papa
+is plotting with that fellow.  But he’s just the sort of man who’s
+capable of carrying you off far away somewhere and then cutting your
+throat some day for your money.”
+
+There was a good half of the length of the verandah between their chairs.
+I came out and sat down fiercely midway between them.
+
+“Yes, that’s what we do with girls in Europe,” I began in a grimly
+matter-of-fact tone.  I think Miss Jacobus was disconcerted by my sudden
+appearance.  I turned upon her with cold ferocity:
+
+“As to objectionable old women, they are first strangled quietly, then
+cut up into small pieces and thrown away, a bit here and a bit there.
+They vanish—”
+
+I cannot go so far as to say I had terrified her.  But she was troubled
+by my truculence, the more so because I had been always addressing her
+with a politeness she did not deserve.  Her plump, knitting hands fell
+slowly on her knees.  She said not a word while I fixed her with severe
+determination.  Then as I turned away from her at last, she laid down her
+work gently and, with noiseless movements, retreated from the verandah.
+In fact, she vanished.
+
+But I was not thinking of her.  I was looking at the girl.  It was what I
+was coming for daily; troubled, ashamed, eager; finding in my nearness to
+her a unique sensation which I indulged with dread, self-contempt, and
+deep pleasure, as if it were a secret vice bound to end in my undoing,
+like the habit of some drug or other which ruins and degrades its slave.
+
+I looked her over, from the top of her dishevelled head, down the lovely
+line of the shoulder, following the curve of the hip, the draped form of
+the long limb, right down to her fine ankle below a torn, soiled flounce;
+and as far as the point of the shabby, high-heeled, blue slipper,
+dangling from her well-shaped foot, which she moved slightly, with quick,
+nervous jerks, as if impatient of my presence.  And in the scent of the
+massed flowers I seemed to breathe her special and inexplicable charm,
+the heady perfume of the everlastingly irritated captive of the garden.
+
+I looked at her rounded chin, the Jacobus chin; at the full, red lips
+pouting in the powdered, sallow face; at the firm modelling of the cheek,
+the grains of white in the hairs of the straight sombre eyebrows; at the
+long eyes, a narrowed gleam of liquid white and intense motionless black,
+with their gaze so empty of thought, and so absorbed in their fixity that
+she seemed to be staring at her own lonely image, in some far-off mirror
+hidden from my sight amongst the trees.
+
+And suddenly, without looking at me, with the appearance of a person
+speaking to herself, she asked, in that voice slightly harsh yet mellow
+and always irritated:
+
+“Why do you keep on coming here?”
+
+“Why do I keep on coming here?” I repeated, taken by surprise.  I could
+not have told her.  I could not even tell myself with sincerity why I was
+coming there.  “What’s the good of you asking a question like that?”
+
+“Nothing is any good,” she observed scornfully to the empty air, her chin
+propped on her hand, that hand never extended to any man, that no one had
+ever grasped—for I had only grasped her shoulder once—that generous,
+fine, somewhat masculine hand.  I knew well the peculiarly efficient
+shape—broad at the base, tapering at the fingers—of that hand, for which
+there was nothing in the world to lay hold of.  I pretended to be
+playful.
+
+“No!  But do you really care to know?”
+
+She shrugged indolently her magnificent shoulders, from which the dingy
+thin wrapper was slipping a little.
+
+“Oh—never mind—never mind!”
+
+There was something smouldering under those airs of lassitude.  She
+exasperated me by the provocation of her nonchalance, by something
+elusive and defiant in her very form which I wanted to seize.  I said
+roughly:
+
+“Why?  Don’t you think I should tell you the truth?”
+
+Her eyes glided my way for a sidelong look, and she murmured, moving only
+her full, pouting lips:
+
+“I think you would not dare.”
+
+“Do you imagine I am afraid of you?  What on earth. . . . Well, it’s
+possible, after all, that I don’t know exactly why I am coming here.  Let
+us say, with Miss Jacobus, that it is for no good.  You seem to believe
+the outrageous things she says, if you do have a row with her now and
+then.”
+
+She snapped out viciously:
+
+“Who else am I to believe?
+
+“I don’t know,” I had to own, seeing her suddenly very helpless and
+condemned to moral solitude by the verdict of a respectable community.
+“You might believe me, if you chose.”
+
+She made a slight movement and asked me at once, with an effort as if
+making an experiment:
+
+“What is the business between you and papa?”
+
+“Don’t you know the nature of your father’s business?  Come!  He sells
+provisions to ships.”
+
+She became rigid again in her crouching pose.
+
+“Not that.  What brings you here—to this house?”
+
+“And suppose it’s you?  You would not call that business?  Would you?
+And now let us drop the subject.  It’s no use.  My ship will be ready for
+sea the day after to-morrow.”
+
+She murmured a distinctly scared “So soon,” and getting up quickly, went
+to the little table and poured herself a glass of water.  She walked with
+rapid steps and with an indolent swaying of her whole young figure above
+the hips; when she passed near me I felt with tenfold force the charm of
+the peculiar, promising sensation I had formed the habit to seek near
+her.  I thought with sudden dismay that this was the end of it; that
+after one more day I would be no longer able to come into this verandah,
+sit on this chair, and taste perversely the flavour of contempt in her
+indolent poses, drink in the provocation of her scornful looks, and
+listen to the curt, insolent remarks uttered in that harsh and seductive
+voice.  As if my innermost nature had been altered by the action of some
+moral poison, I felt an abject dread of going to sea.
+
+I had to exercise a sudden self-control, as one puts on a brake, to
+prevent myself jumping up to stride about, shout, gesticulate, make her a
+scene.  What for?  What about?  I had no idea.  It was just the relief of
+violence that I wanted; and I lolled back in my chair, trying to keep my
+lips formed in a smile; that half-indulgent, half-mocking smile which was
+my shield against the shafts of her contempt and the insulting sallies
+flung at me by the old woman.
+
+She drank the water at a draught, with the avidity of raging thirst, and
+let herself fall on the nearest chair, as if utterly overcome.  Her
+attitude, like certain tones of her voice, had in it something masculine:
+the knees apart in the ample wrapper, the clasped hands hanging between
+them, her body leaning forward, with drooping head.  I stared at the
+heavy black coil of twisted hair.  It was enormous, crowning the bowed
+head with a crushing and disdained glory.  The escaped wisps hung
+straight down.  And suddenly I perceived that the girl was trembling from
+head to foot, as though that glass of iced water had chilled her to the
+bone.
+
+“What’s the matter now?” I said, startled, but in no very sympathetic
+mood.
+
+She shook her bowed, overweighted head and cried in a stifled voice but
+with a rising inflection:
+
+“Go away!  Go away!  Go away!”
+
+I got up then and approached her, with a strange sort of anxiety.  I
+looked down at her round, strong neck, then stooped low enough to peep at
+her face.  And I began to tremble a little myself.
+
+“What on earth are you gone wild about, Miss Don’t Care?”
+
+She flung herself backwards violently, her head going over the back of
+the chair.  And now it was her smooth, full, palpitating throat that lay
+exposed to my bewildered stare.  Her eyes were nearly closed, with only a
+horrible white gleam under the lids as if she were dead.
+
+“What has come to you?” I asked in awe.  “What are you terrifying
+yourself with?”
+
+She pulled herself together, her eyes open frightfully wide now.  The
+tropical afternoon was lengthening the shadows on the hot, weary earth,
+the abode of obscure desires, of extravagant hopes, of unimaginable
+terrors.
+
+“Never mind!  Don’t care!”  Then, after a gasp, she spoke with such
+frightful rapidity that I could hardly make out the amazing words: “For
+if you were to shut me up in an empty place as smooth all round as the
+palm of my hand, I could always strangle myself with my hair.”
+
+For a moment, doubting my ears, I let this inconceivable declaration sink
+into me.  It is ever impossible to guess at the wild thoughts that pass
+through the heads of our fellow-creatures.  What monstrous imaginings of
+violence could have dwelt under the low forehead of that girl who had
+been taught to regard her father as “capable of anything” more in the
+light of a misfortune than that of a disgrace; as, evidently, something
+to be resented and feared rather than to be ashamed of?  She seemed,
+indeed, as unaware of shame as of anything else in the world; but in her
+ignorance, her resentment and fear took a childish and violent shape.
+
+Of course she spoke without knowing the value of words.  What could she
+know of death—she who knew nothing of life?  It was merely as the proof
+of her being beside herself with some odious apprehension, that this
+extraordinary speech had moved me, not to pity, but to a fascinated,
+horrified wonder.  I had no idea what notion she had of her danger.  Some
+sort of abduction.  It was quite possible with the talk of that atrocious
+old woman.  Perhaps she thought she could be carried off, bound hand and
+foot and even gagged.  At that surmise I felt as if the door of a furnace
+had been opened in front of me.
+
+“Upon my honour!” I cried.  “You shall end by going crazy if you listen
+to that abominable old aunt of yours—”
+
+I studied her haggard expression, her trembling lips.  Her cheeks even
+seemed sunk a little.  But how I, the associate of her disreputable
+father, the “lowest of the low” from the criminal Europe, could manage to
+reassure her I had no conception.  She was exasperating.
+
+“Heavens and earth!  What do you think I can do?”
+
+“I don’t know.”
+
+Her chin certainly trembled.  And she was looking at me with extreme
+attention.  I made a step nearer to her chair.
+
+“I shall do nothing.  I promise you that.  Will that do?  Do you
+understand?  I shall do nothing whatever, of any kind; and the day after
+to-morrow I shall be gone.”
+
+What else could I have said?  She seemed to drink in my words with the
+thirsty avidity with which she had emptied the glass of water.  She
+whispered tremulously, in that touching tone I had heard once before on
+her lips, and which thrilled me again with the same emotion:
+
+“I would believe you.  But what about papa—”
+
+“He be hanged!”  My emotion betrayed itself by the brutality of my tone.
+“I’ve had enough of your papa.  Are you so stupid as to imagine that I am
+frightened of him?  He can’t make me do anything.”
+
+All that sounded feeble to me in the face of her ignorance.  But I must
+conclude that the “accent of sincerity” has, as some people say, a really
+irresistible power.  The effect was far beyond my hopes,—and even beyond
+my conception.  To watch the change in the girl was like watching a
+miracle—the gradual but swift relaxation of her tense glance, of her
+stiffened muscles, of every fibre of her body.  That black, fixed stare
+into which I had read a tragic meaning more than once, in which I had
+found a sombre seduction, was perfectly empty now, void of all
+consciousness whatever, and not even aware any longer of my presence; it
+had become a little sleepy, in the Jacobus fashion.
+
+But, man being a perverse animal, instead of rejoicing at my complete
+success, I beheld it with astounded and indignant eyes.  There was
+something cynical in that unconcealed alteration, the true Jacobus
+shamelessness.  I felt as though I had been cheated in some rather
+complicated deal into which I had entered against my better judgment.
+Yes, cheated without any regard for, at least, the forms of decency.
+
+With an easy, indolent, and in its indolence supple, feline movement, she
+rose from the chair, so provokingly ignoring me now, that for very rage I
+held my ground within less than a foot of her.  Leisurely and tranquil,
+behaving right before me with the ease of a person alone in a room, she
+extended her beautiful arms, with her hands clenched, her body swaying,
+her head thrown back a little, revelling contemptuously in a sense of
+relief, easing her limbs in freedom after all these days of crouching,
+motionless poses when she had been so furious and so afraid.
+
+All this with supreme indifference, incredible, offensive, exasperating,
+like ingratitude doubled with treachery.
+
+I ought to have been flattered, perhaps, but, on the contrary, my anger
+grew; her movement to pass by me as if I were a wooden post or a piece of
+furniture, that unconcerned movement brought it to a head.
+
+I won’t say I did not know what I was doing, but, certainly, cool
+reflection had nothing to do with the circumstance that next moment both
+my arms were round her waist.  It was an impulsive action, as one
+snatches at something falling or escaping; and it had no hypocritical
+gentleness about it either.  She had no time to make a sound, and the
+first kiss I planted on her closed lips was vicious enough to have been a
+bite.
+
+She did not resist, and of course I did not stop at one.  She let me go
+on, not as if she were inanimate—I felt her there, close against me,
+young, full of vigour, of life, a strong desirable creature, but as if
+she did not care in the least, in the absolute assurance of her safety,
+what I did or left undone.  Our faces brought close together in this
+storm of haphazard caresses, her big, black, wide-open eyes looked into
+mine without the girl appearing either angry or pleased or moved in any
+way.  In that steady gaze which seemed impersonally to watch my madness I
+could detect a slight surprise, perhaps—nothing more.  I showered kisses
+upon her face and there did not seem to be any reason why this should not
+go on for ever.
+
+That thought flashed through my head, and I was on the point of
+desisting, when, all at once, she began to struggle with a sudden
+violence which all but freed her instantly, which revived my exasperation
+with her, indeed a fierce desire never to let her go any more.  I
+tightened my embrace in time, gasping out: “No—you don’t!” as if she were
+my mortal enemy.  On her part not a word was said.  Putting her hands
+against my chest, she pushed with all her might without succeeding to
+break the circle of my arms.  Except that she seemed thoroughly awake
+now, her eyes gave me no clue whatever.  To meet her black stare was like
+looking into a deep well, and I was totally unprepared for her change of
+tactics.  Instead of trying to tear my hands apart, she flung herself
+upon my breast and with a downward, undulating, serpentine motion, a
+quick sliding dive, she got away from me smoothly.  It was all very
+swift; I saw her pick up the tail of her wrapper and run for the door at
+the end of the verandah not very gracefully.  She appeared to be limping
+a little—and then she vanished; the door swung behind her so noiselessly
+that I could not believe it was completely closed.  I had a distinct
+suspicion of her black eye being at the crack to watch what I would do.
+I could not make up my mind whether to shake my fist in that direction or
+blow a kiss.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+EITHER would have been perfectly consistent with my feelings.  I gazed at
+the door, hesitating, but in the end I did neither.  The monition of some
+sixth sense—the sense of guilt, maybe, that sense which always acts too
+late, alas!—warned me to look round; and at once I became aware that the
+conclusion of this tumultuous episode was likely to be a matter of lively
+anxiety.  Jacobus was standing in the doorway of the dining-room.  How
+long he had been there it was impossible to guess; and remembering my
+struggle with the girl I thought he must have been its mute witness from
+beginning to end.  But this supposition seemed almost incredible.
+Perhaps that impenetrable girl had heard him come in and had got away in
+time.
+
+He stepped on to the verandah in his usual manner, heavy-eyed, with glued
+lips.  I marvelled at the girl’s resemblance to this man.  Those long,
+Egyptian eyes, that low forehead of a stupid goddess, she had found in
+the sawdust of the circus; but all the rest of the face, the design and
+the modelling, the rounded chin, the very lips—all that was Jacobus,
+fined down, more finished, more expressive.
+
+His thick hand fell on and grasped with force the back of a light chair
+(there were several standing about) and I perceived the chance of a
+broken head at the end of all this—most likely.  My mortification was
+extreme.  The scandal would be horrible; that was unavoidable.  But how
+to act so as to satisfy myself I did not know.  I stood on my guard and
+at any rate faced him.  There was nothing else for it.  Of one thing I
+was certain, that, however brazen my attitude, it could never equal the
+characteristic Jacobus impudence.
+
+He gave me his melancholy, glued smile and sat down.  I own I was
+relieved.  The perspective of passing from kisses to blows had nothing
+particularly attractive in it.  Perhaps—perhaps he had seen nothing?  He
+behaved as usual, but he had never before found me alone on the verandah.
+If he had alluded to it, if he had asked: “Where’s Alice?” or something
+of the sort, I would have been able to judge from the tone.  He would
+give me no opportunity.  The striking peculiarity was that he had never
+looked up at me yet.  “He knows,” I said to myself confidently.  And my
+contempt for him relieved my disgust with myself.
+
+“You are early home,” I remarked.
+
+“Things are very quiet; nothing doing at the store to-day,” he explained
+with a cast-down air.
+
+“Oh, well, you know, I am off,” I said, feeling that this, perhaps, was
+the best thing to do.
+
+“Yes,” he breathed out.  “Day after to-morrow.”
+
+This was not what I had meant; but as he gazed persistently on the floor,
+I followed the direction of his glance.  In the absolute stillness of the
+house we stared at the high-heeled slipper the girl had lost in her
+flight.  We stared.  It lay overturned.
+
+After what seemed a very long time to me, Jacobus hitched his chair
+forward, stooped with extended arm and picked it up.  It looked a slender
+thing in his big, thick hands.  It was not really a slipper, but a low
+shoe of blue, glazed kid, rubbed and shabby.  It had straps to go over
+the instep, but the girl only thrust her feet in, after her slovenly
+manner.  Jacobus raised his eyes from the shoe to look at me.
+
+“Sit down, Captain,” he said at last, in his subdued tone.
+
+As if the sight of that shoe had renewed the spell, I gave up suddenly
+the idea of leaving the house there and then.  It had become impossible.
+I sat down, keeping my eyes on the fascinating object.  Jacobus turned
+his daughter’s shoe over and over in his cushioned paws as if studying
+the way the thing was made.  He contemplated the thin sole for a time;
+then glancing inside with an absorbed air:
+
+“I am glad I found you here, Captain.”
+
+I answered this by some sort of grunt, watching him covertly.  Then I
+added: “You won’t have much more of me now.”
+
+He was still deep in the interior of that shoe on which my eyes too were
+resting.
+
+“Have you thought any more of this deal in potatoes I spoke to you about
+the other day?”
+
+“No, I haven’t,” I answered curtly.  He checked my movement to rise by an
+austere, commanding gesture of the hand holding that fatal shoe.  I
+remained seated and glared at him.  “You know I don’t trade.”
+
+“You ought to, Captain.  You ought to.”
+
+I reflected.  If I left that house now I would never see the girl again.
+And I felt I must see her once more, if only for an instant.  It was a
+need, not to be reasoned with, not to be disregarded.  No, I did not want
+to go away.  I wanted to stay for one more experience of that strange
+provoking sensation and of indefinite desire, the habit of which had made
+me—me of all people!—dread the prospect of going to sea.
+
+“Mr. Jacobus,” I pronounced slowly.  “Do you really think that upon the
+whole and taking various’ matters into consideration—I mean everything,
+do you understand?—it would be a good thing for me to trade, let us say,
+with you?”
+
+I waited for a while.  He went on looking at the shoe which he held now
+crushed in the middle, the worn point of the toe and the high heel
+protruding on each side of his heavy fist.
+
+“That will be all right,” he said, facing me squarely at last.
+
+“Are you sure?”
+
+“You’ll find it quite correct, Captain.”  He had uttered his habitual
+phrases in his usual placid, breath-saving voice and stood my hard,
+inquisitive stare sleepily without as much as a wink.
+
+“Then let us trade,” I said, turning my shoulder to him.  “I see you are
+bent on it.”
+
+I did not want an open scandal, but I thought that outward decency may be
+bought too dearly at times.  I included Jacobus, myself, the whole
+population of the island, in the same contemptuous disgust as though we
+had been partners in an ignoble transaction.  And the remembered vision
+at sea, diaphanous and blue, of the Pearl of the Ocean at sixty miles
+off; the unsubstantial, clear marvel of it as if evoked by the art of a
+beautiful and pure magic, turned into a thing of horrors too.  Was this
+the fortune this vaporous and rare apparition had held for me in its hard
+heart, hidden within the shape as of fair dreams and mist?  Was this my
+luck?
+
+“I think”—Jacobus became suddenly audible after what seemed the silence
+of vile meditation—“that you might conveniently take some thirty tons.
+That would be about the lot, Captain.”
+
+“Would it?  The lot!  I dare say it would be convenient, but I haven’t
+got enough money for that.”
+
+I had never seen him so animated.
+
+“No!” he exclaimed with what I took for the accent of grim menace.
+“That’s a pity.”  He paused, then, unrelenting: “How much money have you
+got, Captain?” he inquired with awful directness.
+
+It was my turn to face him squarely.  I did so and mentioned the amount I
+could dispose of.  And I perceived that he was disappointed.  He thought
+it over, his calculating gaze lost in mine, for quite a long time before
+he came out in a thoughtful tone with the rapacious suggestion:
+
+“You could draw some more from your charterers.  That would be quite
+easy, Captain.”
+
+“No, I couldn’t,” I retorted brusquely.  “I’ve drawn my salary up to
+date, and besides, the ship’s accounts are closed.”
+
+I was growing furious.  I pursued: “And I’ll tell you what: if I could do
+it I wouldn’t.”  Then throwing off all restraint, I added: “You are a bit
+too much of a Jacobus, Mr. Jacobus.”
+
+The tone alone was insulting enough, but he remained tranquil, only a
+little puzzled, till something seemed to dawn upon him; but the unwonted
+light in his eyes died out instantly.  As a Jacobus on his native heath,
+what a mere skipper chose to say could not touch him, outcast as he was.
+As a ship-chandler he could stand anything.  All I caught of his mumble
+was a vague—“quite correct,” than which nothing could have been more
+egregiously false at bottom—to my view, at least.  But I remembered—I had
+never forgotten—that I must see the girl.  I did not mean to go.  I meant
+to stay in the house till I had seen her once more.
+
+“Look here!” I said finally.  “I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  I’ll take as
+many of your confounded potatoes as my money will buy, on condition that
+you go off at once down to the wharf to see them loaded in the lighter
+and sent alongside the ship straight away.  Take the invoice and a signed
+receipt with you.  Here’s the key of my desk.  Give it to Burns.  He will
+pay you.”
+
+He got up from his chair before I had finished speaking, but he refused
+to take the key.  Burns would never do it.  He wouldn’t like to ask him
+even.
+
+“Well, then,” I said, eyeing him slightingly, “there’s nothing for it,
+Mr. Jacobus, but you must wait on board till I come off to settle with
+you.”
+
+“That will be all right, Captain.  I will go at once.”
+
+He seemed at a loss what to do with the girl’s shoe he was still holding
+in his fist.  Finally, looking dully at me, he put it down on the chair
+from which he had risen.
+
+“And you, Captain?  Won’t you come along, too, just to see—”
+
+“Don’t bother about me.  I’ll take care of myself.”
+
+He remained perplexed for a moment, as if trying to understand; and then
+his weighty: “Certainly, certainly, Captain,” seemed to be the outcome of
+some sudden thought.  His big chest heaved.  Was it a sigh?  As he went
+out to hurry off those potatoes he never looked back at me.
+
+I waited till the noise of his footsteps had died out of the dining-room,
+and I waited a little longer.  Then turning towards the distant door I
+raised my voice along the verandah:
+
+“Alice!”
+
+Nothing answered me, not even a stir behind the door.  Jacobus’s house
+might have been made empty for me to make myself at home in.  I did not
+call again.  I had become aware of a great discouragement.  I was
+mentally jaded, morally dejected.  I turned to the garden again, sitting
+down with my elbows spread on the low balustrade, and took my head in my
+hands.
+
+The evening closed upon me.  The shadows lengthened, deepened, mingled
+together into a pool of twilight in which the flower-beds glowed like
+coloured embers; whiffs of heavy scent came to me as if the dusk of this
+hemisphere were but the dimness of a temple and the garden an enormous
+censer swinging before the altar of the stars.  The colours of the
+blossoms deepened, losing their glow one by one.
+
+The girl, when I turned my head at a slight noise, appeared to me very
+tall and slender, advancing with a swaying limp, a floating and uneven
+motion which ended in the sinking of her shadowy form into the deep low
+chair.  And I don’t know why or whence I received the impression that she
+had come too late.  She ought to have appeared at my call.  She ought to
+have . . . It was as if a supreme opportunity had been missed.
+
+I rose and took a seat close to her, nearly opposite her arm-chair.  Her
+ever discontented voice addressed me at once, contemptuously:
+
+“You are still here.”
+
+I pitched mine low.
+
+“You have come out at last.”
+
+“I came to look for my shoe—before they bring in the lights.”
+
+It was her harsh, enticing whisper, subdued, not very steady, but its low
+tremulousness gave me no thrill now.  I could only make out the oval of
+her face, her uncovered throat, the long, white gleam of her eyes.  She
+was mysterious enough.  Her hands were resting on the arms of the chair.
+But where was the mysterious and provoking sensation which was like the
+perfume of her flower-like youth?  I said quietly:
+
+“I have got your shoe here.”  She made no sound and I continued: “You had
+better give me your foot and I will put it on for you.”
+
+She made no movement.  I bent low down and groped for her foot under the
+flounces of the wrapper.  She did not withdraw it and I put on the shoe,
+buttoning the instep-strap.  It was an inanimate foot.  I lowered it
+gently to the floor.
+
+“If you buttoned the strap you would not be losing your shoe, Miss Don’t
+Care,” I said, trying to be playful without conviction.  I felt more like
+wailing over the lost illusion of vague desire, over the sudden
+conviction that I would never find again near her the strange, half-evil,
+half-tender sensation which had given its acrid flavour to so many days,
+which had made her appear tragic and promising, pitiful and provoking.
+That was all over.
+
+“Your father picked it up,” I said, thinking she may just as well be told
+of the fact.
+
+“I am not afraid of papa—by himself,” she declared scornfully.
+
+“Oh!  It’s only in conjunction with his disreputable associates,
+strangers, the ‘riff-raff of Europe’ as your charming aunt or great-aunt
+says—men like me, for instance—that you—”
+
+“I am not afraid of you,” she snapped out.
+
+“That’s because you don’t know that I am now doing business with your
+father.  Yes, I am in fact doing exactly what he wants me to do.  I’ve
+broken my promise to you.  That’s the sort of man I am.  And now—aren’t
+you afraid?  If you believe what that dear, kind, truthful old lady says
+you ought to be.”
+
+It was with unexpected modulated softness that the affirmed:
+
+“No.  I am not afraid.”  She hesitated. . . . “Not now.”
+
+“Quite right.  You needn’t be.  I shall not see you again before I go to
+sea.”  I rose and stood near her chair.  “But I shall often think of you
+in this old garden, passing under the trees over there, walking between
+these gorgeous flower-beds.  You must love this garden—”
+
+“I love nothing.”
+
+I heard in her sullen tone the faint echo of that resentfully tragic note
+which I had found once so provoking.  But it left me unmoved except for a
+sudden and weary conviction of the emptiness of all things under Heaven.
+
+“Good-bye, Alice,” I said.
+
+She did not answer, she did not move.  To merely take her hand, shake it,
+and go away seemed impossible, almost improper.  I stooped without haste
+and pressed my lips to her smooth forehead.  This was the moment when I
+realised clearly with a sort of terror my complete detachment from that
+unfortunate creature.  And as I lingered in that cruel self-knowledge I
+felt the light touch of her arms falling languidly on my neck and
+received a hasty, awkward, haphazard kiss which missed my lips.  No!  She
+was not afraid; but I was no longer moved.  Her arms slipped off my neck
+slowly, she made no sound, the deep wicker arm-chair creaked slightly;
+only a sense of my dignity prevented me fleeing headlong from that
+catastrophic revelation.
+
+I traversed the dining-room slowly.  I thought: She’s listening to my
+footsteps; she can’t help it; she’ll hear me open and shut that door.
+And I closed it as gently behind me as if I had been a thief retreating
+with his ill-gotten booty.  During that stealthy act I experienced the
+last touch of emotion in that house, at the thought of the girl I had
+left sitting there in the obscurity, with her heavy hair and empty eyes
+as black as the night itself, staring into the walled garden, silent,
+warm, odorous with the perfume of imprisoned flowers, which, like
+herself, were lost to sight in a world buried in darkness.
+
+The narrow, ill-lighted, rustic streets I knew so well on my way to the
+harbour were extremely quiet.  I felt in my heart that the further one
+ventures the better one understands how everything in our life is common,
+short, and empty; that it is in seeking the unknown in our sensations
+that we discover how mediocre are our attempts and how soon defeated!
+Jacobus’s boatman was waiting at the steps with an unusual air of
+readiness.  He put me alongside the ship, but did not give me his
+confidential “Good-evening, sah,” and, instead of shoving off at once,
+remained holding by the ladder.
+
+I was a thousand miles from commercial affairs, when on the dark
+quarter-deck Mr. Burns positively rushed at me, stammering with
+excitement.  He had been pacing the deck distractedly for hours awaiting
+my arrival.  Just before sunset a lighter loaded with potatoes had come
+alongside with that fat ship-chandler himself sitting on the pile of
+sacks.  He was now stuck immovable in the cabin.  What was the meaning of
+it all?  Surely I did not—
+
+“Yes, Mr. Burns, I did,” I cut him short.  He was beginning to make
+gestures of despair when I stopped that, too, by giving him the key of my
+desk and desiring him, in a tone which admitted of no argument, to go
+below at once, pay Mr. Jacobus’s bill, and send him out of the ship.
+
+“I don’t want to see him,” I confessed frankly, climbing the poop-ladder.
+I felt extremely tired.  Dropping on the seat of the skylight, I gave
+myself up to idle gazing at the lights about the quay and at the black
+mass of the mountain on the south side of the harbour.  I never heard
+Jacobus leave the ship with every single sovereign of my ready cash in
+his pocket.  I never heard anything till, a long time afterwards, Mr.
+Burns, unable to contain himself any longer, intruded upon me with his
+ridiculously angry lamentations at my weakness and good nature.
+
+“Of course, there’s plenty of room in the after-hatch.  But they are sure
+to go rotten down there.  Well!  I never heard . . . seventeen tons!  I
+suppose I must hoist in that lot first thing to-morrow morning.”
+
+“I suppose you must.  Unless you drop them overboard.  But I’m afraid you
+can’t do that.  I wouldn’t mind myself, but it’s forbidden to throw
+rubbish into the harbour, you know.”
+
+“That is the truest word you have said for many a day, sir—rubbish.
+That’s just what I expect they are.  Nearly eighty good gold sovereigns
+gone; a perfectly clean sweep of your drawer, sir.  Bless me if I
+understand!”
+
+As it was impossible to throw the right light on this commercial
+transaction I left him to his lamentations and under the impression that
+I was a hopeless fool.  Next day I did not go ashore.  For one thing, I
+had no money to go ashore with—no, not enough to buy a cigarette.
+Jacobus had made a clean sweep.  But that was not the only reason.  The
+Pearl of the Ocean had in a few short hours grown odious to me.  And I
+did not want to meet any one.  My reputation had suffered.  I knew I was
+the object of unkind and sarcastic comments.
+
+The following morning at sunrise, just as our stern-fasts had been let go
+and the tug plucked us out from between the buoys, I saw Jacobus standing
+up in his boat.  The nigger was pulling hard; several baskets of
+provisions for ships were stowed between the thwarts.  The father of
+Alice was going his morning round.  His countenance was tranquil and
+friendly.  He raised his arm and shouted something with great heartiness.
+But his voice was of the sort that doesn’t carry any distance; all I
+could catch faintly, or rather guess at, were the words “next time” and
+“quite correct.”  And it was only of these last that I was certain.
+Raising my arm perfunctorily for all response, I turned away.  I rather
+resented the familiarity of the thing.  Hadn’t I settled accounts finally
+with him by means of that potato bargain?
+
+This being a harbour story it is not my purpose to speak of our passage.
+I was glad enough to be at sea, but not with the gladness of old days.
+Formerly I had no memories to take away with me.  I shared in the blessed
+forgetfulness of sailors, that forgetfulness natural and invincible,
+which resembles innocence in so far that it prevents self-examination.
+Now however I remembered the girl.  During the first few days I was for
+ever questioning myself as to the nature of facts and sensations
+connected with her person and with my conduct.
+
+And I must say also that Mr. Burns’ intolerable fussing with those
+potatoes was not calculated to make me forget the part which I had
+played.  He looked upon it as a purely commercial transaction of a
+particularly foolish kind, and his devotion—if it was devotion and not
+mere cussedness as I came to regard it before long—inspired him with a
+zeal to minimise my loss as much as possible.  Oh, yes!  He took care of
+those infamous potatoes with a vengeance, as the saying goes.
+
+Everlastingly, there was a tackle over the after-hatch and everlastingly
+the watch on deck were pulling up, spreading out, picking over,
+rebagging, and lowering down again, some part of that lot of potatoes.
+My bargain with all its remotest associations, mental and visual—the
+garden of flowers and scents, the girl with her provoking contempt and
+her tragic loneliness of a hopeless castaway—was everlastingly dangled
+before my eyes, for thousands of miles along the open sea.  And as if by
+a satanic refinement of irony it was accompanied by a most awful smell.
+Whiffs from decaying potatoes pursued me on the poop, they mingled with
+my thoughts, with my food, poisoned my very dreams.  They made an
+atmosphere of corruption for the ship.
+
+I remonstrated with Mr. Burns about this excessive care.  I would have
+been well content to batten the hatch down and let them perish under the
+deck.
+
+That perhaps would have been unsafe.  The horrid emanations might have
+flavoured the cargo of sugar.  They seemed strong enough to taint the
+very ironwork.  In addition Mr. Burns made it a personal matter.  He
+assured me he knew how to treat a cargo of potatoes at sea—had been in
+the trade as a boy, he said.  He meant to make my loss as small as
+possible.  What between his devotion—it must have been devotion—and his
+vanity, I positively dared not give him the order to throw my
+commercial-venture overboard.  I believe he would have refused point
+blank to obey my lawful command.  An unprecedented and comical situation
+would have been created with which I did not feel equal to deal.
+
+I welcomed the coming of bad weather as no sailor had ever done.  When at
+last I hove the ship to, to pick up the pilot outside Port Philip Heads,
+the after-hatch had not been opened for more than a week and I might have
+believed that no such thing as a potato had ever been on board.
+
+It was an abominable day, raw, blustering, with great squalls of wind and
+rain; the pilot, a cheery person, looked after the ship and chatted to
+me, streaming from head to foot; and the heavier the lash of the downpour
+the more pleased with himself and everything around him he seemed to be.
+He rubbed his wet hands with a satisfaction, which to me, who had stood
+that kind of thing for several days and nights, seemed inconceivable in
+any non-aquatic creature.
+
+“You seem to enjoy getting wet, Pilot,” I remarked.
+
+He had a bit of land round his house in the suburbs and it was of his
+garden he was thinking.  At the sound of the word garden, unheard,
+unspoken for so many days, I had a vision of gorgeous colour, of sweet
+scents, of a girlish figure crouching in a chair.  Yes.  That was a
+distinct emotion breaking into the peace I had found in the sleepless
+anxieties of my responsibility during a week of dangerous bad weather.
+The Colony, the pilot explained, had suffered from unparalleled drought.
+This was the first decent drop of water they had had for seven months.
+The root crops were lost.  And, trying to be casual, but with visible
+interest, he asked me if I had perchance any potatoes to spare.
+
+Potatoes!  I had managed to forget them.  In a moment I felt plunged into
+corruption up to my neck.  Mr. Burns was making eyes at me behind the
+pilot’s back.
+
+Finally, he obtained a ton, and paid ten pounds for it.  This was twice
+the price of my bargain with Jacobus.  The spirit of covetousness woke up
+in me.  That night, in harbour, before I slept, the Custom House galley
+came alongside.  While his underlings were putting seals on the
+storerooms, the officer in charge took me aside confidentially.  “I say,
+Captain, you don’t happen to have any potatoes to sell.”
+
+Clearly there was a potato famine in the land.  I let him have a ton for
+twelve pounds and he went away joyfully.  That night I dreamt of a pile
+of gold in the form of a grave in which a girl was buried, and woke up
+callous with greed.  On calling at my ship-broker’s office, that man,
+after the usual business had been transacted, pushed his spectacles up on
+his forehead.
+
+“I was thinking, Captain, that coming from the Pearl of the Ocean you may
+have some potatoes to sell.”
+
+I said negligently: “Oh, yes, I could spare you a ton.  Fifteen pounds.”
+
+He exclaimed: “I say!”  But after studying my face for a while accepted
+my terms with a faint grimace.  It seems that these people could not
+exist without potatoes.  I could.  I didn’t want to see a potato as long
+as I lived; but the demon of lucre had taken possession of me.  How the
+news got about I don’t know, but, returning on board rather late, I found
+a small group of men of the coster type hanging about the waist, while
+Mr. Burns walked to and fro the quarterdeck loftily, keeping a triumphant
+eye on them.  They had come to buy potatoes.
+
+“These chaps have been waiting here in the sun for hours,” Burns
+whispered to me excitedly.  “They have drank the water-cask dry.  Don’t
+you throw away your chances, sir.  You are too good-natured.”
+
+I selected a man with thick legs and a man with a cast in his eye to
+negotiate with; simply because they were easily distinguishable from the
+rest.  “You have the money on you?” I inquired, before taking them down
+into the cabin.
+
+“Yes, sir,” they answered in one voice, slapping their pockets.  I liked
+their air of quiet determination.  Long before the end of the day all the
+potatoes were sold at about three times the price I had paid for them.
+Mr. Burns, feverish and exulting, congratulated himself on his skilful
+care of my commercial venture, but hinted plainly that I ought to have
+made more of it.
+
+That night I did not sleep very well.  I thought of Jacobus by fits and
+starts, between snatches of dreams concerned with castaways starving on a
+desert island covered with flowers.  It was extremely unpleasant.  In the
+morning, tired and unrefreshed, I sat down and wrote a long letter to my
+owners, giving them a carefully-thought-out scheme for the ship’s
+employment in the East and about the China Seas for the next two years.
+I spent the day at that task and felt somewhat more at peace when it was
+done.
+
+Their reply came in due course.  They were greatly struck with my
+project; but considering that, notwithstanding the unfortunate difficulty
+with the bags (which they trusted I would know how to guard against in
+the future), the voyage showed a very fair profit, they thought it would
+be better to keep the ship in the sugar trade—at least for the present.
+
+I turned over the page and read on:
+
+“We have had a letter from our good friend Mr. Jacobus.  We are pleased
+to see how well you have hit it off with him; for, not to speak of his
+assistance in the unfortunate matter of the bags, he writes us that
+should you, by using all possible dispatch, manage to bring the ship back
+early in the season he would be able to give us a good rate of freight.
+We have no doubt that your best endeavours . . . etc. . . etc.”
+
+I dropped the letter and sat motionless for a long time.  Then I wrote my
+answer (it was a short one) and went ashore myself to post it.  But I
+passed one letter-box, then another, and in the end found myself going up
+Collins Street with the letter still in my pocket—against my heart.
+Collins Street at four o’clock in the afternoon is not exactly a desert
+solitude; but I had never felt more isolated from the rest of mankind as
+when I walked that day its crowded pavement, battling desperately with my
+thoughts and feeling already vanquished.
+
+There came a moment when the awful tenacity of Jacobus, the man of one
+passion and of one idea, appeared to me almost heroic.  He had not given
+me up.  He had gone again to his odious brother.  And then he appeared to
+me odious himself.  Was it for his own sake or for the sake of the poor
+girl?  And on that last supposition the memory of the kiss which missed
+my lips appalled me; for whatever he had seen, or guessed at, or risked,
+he knew nothing of that.  Unless the girl had told him.  How could I go
+back to fan that fatal spark with my cold breath?  No, no, that
+unexpected kiss had to be paid for at its full price.
+
+At the first letter-box I came to I stopped and reaching into my
+breast-pocket I took out the letter—it was as if I were plucking out my
+very heart—and dropped it through the slit.  Then I went straight on
+board.
+
+I wondered what dreams I would have that night; but as it turned out I
+did not sleep at all.  At breakfast I informed Mr. Burns that I had
+resigned my command.
+
+He dropped his knife and fork and looked at me with indignation.
+
+“You have, sir!  I thought you loved the ship.”
+
+“So I do, Burns,” I said.  “But the fact is that the Indian Ocean and
+everything that is in it has lost its charm for me.  I am going home as
+passenger by the Suez Canal.”
+
+“Everything that is in it,” he repeated angrily.  “I’ve never heard
+anybody talk like this.  And to tell you the truth, sir, all the time we
+have been together I’ve never quite made you out.  What’s one ocean more
+than another?  Charm, indeed!”
+
+He was really devoted to me, I believe.  But he cheered up when I told
+him that I had recommended him for my successor.
+
+“Anyhow,” he remarked, “let people say what they like, this Jacobus has
+served your turn.  I must admit that this potato business has paid
+extremely well.  Of course, if only you had—”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Burns,” I interrupted.  “Quite a smile of fortune.”
+
+But I could not tell him that it was driving me out of the ship I had
+learned to love.  And as I sat heavy-hearted at that parting, seeing all
+my plans destroyed, my modest future endangered—for this command was like
+a foot in the stirrup for a young man—he gave up completely for the first
+time his critical attitude.
+
+“A wonderful piece of luck!” he said.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECRET SHARER
+AN EPISODE FROM THE COAST
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ON my right hand there were lines of fishing-stakes resembling a
+mysterious system of half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible in
+its division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect as if
+abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to the other
+end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human habitation as far as the
+eye could reach.  To the left a group of barren islets, suggesting ruins
+of stone walls, towers, and blockhouses, had its foundations set in a
+blue sea that itself looked solid, so still and stable did it lie below
+my feet; even the track of light from the westering sun shone smoothly,
+without that animated glitter which tells of an imperceptible ripple.
+And when I turned my head to take a parting glance at the tug which had
+just left us anchored outside the bar, I saw the straight line of the
+flat shore joined to the stable sea, edge to edge, with a perfect and
+unmarked closeness, in one levelled floor half brown, half blue under the
+enormous dome of the sky.  Corresponding in their insignificance to the
+islets of the sea, two small clumps of trees, one on each side of the
+only fault in the impeccable joint, marked the mouth of the river Meinam
+we had just left on the first preparatory stage of our homeward journey;
+and, far back on the inland level, a larger and loftier mass, the grove
+surrounding the great Paknam pagoda, was the only thing on which the eye
+could rest from the vain task of exploring the monotonous sweep of the
+horizon.  Here and there gleams as of a few scattered pieces of silver
+marked the windings of the great river; and on the nearest of them, just
+within the bar, the tug steaming right into the land became lost to my
+sight, hull and funnel and masts, as though the impassive earth had
+swallowed her up without an effort, without a tremor.  My eye followed
+the light cloud of her smoke, now here, now there, above the plain,
+according to the devious curves of the stream, but always fainter and
+farther away, till I lost it at last behind the mitre-shaped hill of the
+great pagoda.  And then I was left alone with my ship, anchored at the
+head of the Gulf of Siam.
+
+She floated at the starting-point of a long journey, very still in an
+immense stillness, the shadows of her spars flung far to the eastward by
+the setting sun.  At that moment I was alone on her decks.  There was not
+a sound in her—and around us nothing moved, nothing lived, not a canoe on
+the water, not a bird in the air, not a cloud in the sky.  In this
+breathless pause at the threshold of a long passage we seemed to be
+measuring our fitness for a long and arduous enterprise, the appointed
+task of both our existences to be carried out, far from all human eyes,
+with only sky and sea for spectators and for judges.
+
+There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with one’s sight,
+because it was only just before the sun left us that my roaming eyes made
+out beyond the highest ridge of the principal islet of the group
+something which did away with the solemnity of perfect solitude.  The
+tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with tropical suddenness a swarm
+of stars came out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand
+resting lightly on my ship’s rail as if on the shoulder of a trusted
+friend.  But, with all that multitude of celestial bodies staring down at
+one, the comfort of quiet communion with her was gone for good.  And
+there were also disturbing sounds by this time—voices, footsteps forward;
+the steward flitted along the maindeck, a busily ministering spirit; a
+hand-bell tinkled urgently under the poop-deck. . . .
+
+I found my two officers waiting for me near the supper table, in the
+lighted cuddy.  We sat down at once, and as I helped the chief mate, I
+said:
+
+“Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside the islands?  I saw
+her mastheads above the ridge as the sun went down.”
+
+He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a terrible growth of
+whisker, and emitted his usual ejaculations: “Bless my soul, sir!  You
+don’t say so!”
+
+My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young man, grave beyond his
+years, I thought; but as our eyes happened to meet I detected a slight
+quiver on his lips.  I looked down at once.  It was not my part to
+encourage sneering on board my ship.  It must be said, too, that I knew
+very little of my officers.  In consequence of certain events of no
+particular significance, except to myself, I had been appointed to the
+command only a fortnight before.  Neither did I know much of the hands
+forward.  All these people had been together for eighteen months or so,
+and my position was that of the only stranger on board.  I mention this
+because it has some bearing on what is to follow.  But what I felt most
+was my being a stranger to the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I
+was somewhat of a stranger to myself.  The youngest man on board (barring
+the second mate), and untried as yet by a position of the fullest
+responsibility, I was willing to take the adequacy of the others for
+granted.  They had simply to be equal to their tasks; but I wondered how
+far I should turn out faithful to that ideal conception of one’s own
+personality every man sets up for himself secretly.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+Meantime the chief mate, with an almost visible effect of collaboration
+on the part of his round eyes and frightful whiskers, was trying to
+evolve a theory of the anchored ship.  His dominant trait was to take all
+things into earnest consideration.  He was of a painstaking turn of mind.
+As he used to say, he “liked to account to himself” for practically
+everything that came in his way, down to a miserable scorpion he had
+found in his cabin a week before.  The why and the wherefore of that
+scorpion—how it got on board and came to select his room rather than the
+pantry (which was a dark place and more what a scorpion would be partial
+to), and how on earth it managed to drown itself in the inkwell of his
+writing-desk—had exercised him infinitely.  The ship within the islands
+was much more easily accounted for; and just as we were about to rise
+from table he made his pronouncement.  She was, he doubted not, a ship
+from home lately arrived.  Probably she drew too much water to cross the
+bar except at the top of spring tides.  Therefore she went into that
+natural harbour to wait for a few days in preference to remaining in an
+open roadstead.
+
+“That’s so,” confirmed the second mate, suddenly, in his slightly hoarse
+voice.  “She draws over twenty feet.  She’s the Liverpool ship _Sephora_
+with a cargo of coal.  Hundred and twenty-three days from Cardiff.”
+
+We looked at him in surprise.
+
+“The tugboat skipper told me when he came on board for your letters,
+sir,” explained the young man.  “He expects to take her up the river the
+day after to-morrow.”
+
+After thus overwhelming us with the extent of his information he slipped
+out of the cabin.  The mate observed regretfully that he “could not
+account for that young fellow’s whims.”  What prevented him telling us
+all about it at once, he wanted to know.
+
+I detained him as he was making a move.  For the last two days the crew
+had had plenty of hard work, and the night before they had very little
+sleep.  I felt painfully that I—a stranger—was doing something unusual
+when I directed him to let all hands turn in without setting an
+anchor-watch.  I proposed to keep on deck myself till one o’clock or
+thereabouts.  I would get the second mate to relieve me at that hour.
+
+“He will turn out the cook and the steward at four,” I concluded, “and
+then give you a call.  Of course at the slightest sign of any sort of
+wind we’ll have the hands up and make a start at once.”
+
+He concealed his astonishment.  “Very well, sir.”  Outside the cuddy he
+put his head in the second mate’s door to inform him of my unheard-of
+caprice to take a five hours’ anchor-watch on myself.  I heard the other
+raise his voice incredulously—“What?  The captain himself?”  Then a few
+more murmurs, a door closed, then another.  A few moments later I went on
+deck.
+
+My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that
+unconventional arrangement, as if I had expected in those solitary hours
+of the night to get on terms with the ship of which I knew nothing,
+manned by men of whom I knew very little more.  Fast alongside a wharf,
+littered like any ship in port with a tangle of unrelated things, invaded
+by unrelated shore people, I had hardly seen her yet properly.  Now, as
+she lay cleared for sea, the stretch of her maindeck seemed to me very
+fine under the stars.  Very fine, very roomy for her size, and very
+inviting.  I descended the poop and paced the waist, my mind picturing to
+myself the coming passage through the Malay Archipelago, down the Indian
+Ocean, and up the Atlantic.  All its phases were familiar enough to me,
+every characteristic, all the alternatives which were likely to face me
+on the high seas—everything! . . . except the novel responsibility of
+command.  But I took heart from the reasonable thought that the ship was
+like other ships, the men like other men, and that the sea was not likely
+to keep any special surprises expressly for my discomfiture.
+
+Arrived at that comforting conclusion, I bethought myself of a cigar and
+went below to get it.  All was still down there.  Everybody at the after
+end of the ship was sleeping profoundly.  I came out again on the
+quarter-deck, agreeably at ease in my sleeping-suit on that warm
+breathless night, barefooted, a glowing cigar in my teeth, and, going
+forward, I was met by the profound silence of the fore end of the ship.
+Only as I passed the door of the forecastle I heard a deep, quiet,
+trustful sigh of some sleeper inside.  And suddenly I rejoiced in the
+great security of the sea as compared with the unrest of the land, in my
+choice of that untempted life presenting no disquieting problems,
+invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute
+straightforwardness of its appeal and by the singleness of its purpose.
+
+The riding-light in the fore-rigging burned with a clear, untroubled, as
+if symbolic, flame, confident and bright in the mysterious shades of the
+night.  Passing on my way aft along the other side of the ship, I
+observed that the rope side-ladder, put over, no doubt, for the master of
+the tug when he came to fetch away our letters, had not been hauled in as
+it should have been.  I became annoyed at this, for exactitude in small
+matters is the very soul of discipline.  Then I reflected that I had
+myself peremptorily dismissed my officers from duty, and by my own act
+had prevented the anchor-watch being formally set and things properly
+attended to.  I asked myself whether it was wise ever to interfere with
+the established routine of duties even from the kindest of motives.  My
+action might have made me appear eccentric.  Goodness only knew how that
+absurdly whiskered mate would “account” for my conduct, and what the
+whole ship thought of that informality of their new captain.  I was vexed
+with myself.
+
+Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically, I proceeded
+to get the ladder in myself.  Now a side-ladder of that sort is a light
+affair and comes in easily, yet my vigorous tug, which should have
+brought it flying on board, merely recoiled upon my body in a totally
+unexpected jerk.  What the devil! . . . I was so astounded by the
+immovableness of that ladder that I remained stock-still, trying to
+account for it to myself like that imbecile mate of mine.  In the end, of
+course, I put my head over the rail.
+
+The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling glassy
+shimmer of the sea.  But I saw at once something elongated and pale
+floating very close to the ladder.  Before I could form a guess a faint
+flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the
+naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water with the elusive,
+silent play of summer lightning in a night sky.  With a gasp I saw
+revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs, a broad livid back
+immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous glow.  One hand,
+awash, clutched the bottom rung of the ladder.  He was complete but for
+the head.  A headless corpse!  The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth
+with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness
+of all things under heaven.  At that I suppose he raised up his face, a
+dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship’s side.  But even then I could
+only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired head.
+However, it was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation which had
+gripped me about the chest to pass off.  The moment of vain exclamations
+was past, too.  I only climbed on the spare spar and leaned over the rail
+as far as I could, to bring my eyes nearer to that mystery floating
+alongside.
+
+As he hung by the ladder, like a resting swimmer, the sea-lightning
+played about his limbs at every stir; and he appeared in it ghastly,
+silvery, fish-like.  He remained as mute as a fish, too.  He made no
+motion to get out of the water, either.  It was inconceivable that he
+should not attempt to come on board, and strangely troubling to suspect
+that perhaps he did not want to.  And my first words were prompted by
+just that troubled incertitude.
+
+“What’s the matter?” I asked in my ordinary tone, speaking down to the
+face upturned exactly under mine.
+
+“Cramp,” it answered, no louder.  Then slightly anxious, “I say, no need
+to call any one.”
+
+“I was not going to,” I said.
+
+“Are you alone on deck?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go the
+ladder to swim away beyond my ken—mysterious as he came.  But, for the
+moment, this being appearing as if he had risen from the bottom of the
+sea (it was certainly the nearest land to the ship) wanted only to know
+the time.  I told him.  And he, down there, tentatively:
+
+“I suppose your captain’s turned in?”
+
+“I am sure he isn’t,” I said.
+
+He seemed to struggle with himself, for I heard something like the low,
+bitter murmur of doubt.  “What’s the good?”  His next words came out with
+a hesitating effort.
+
+“Look here, my man.  Could you call him out quietly?”
+
+I thought the time had come to declare myself.
+
+“_I_ am the captain.”
+
+I heard a “By Jove!” whispered at the level of the water.  The
+phosphorescence flashed in the swirl of the water all about his limbs,
+his other hand seized the ladder.
+
+“My name’s Leggatt.”
+
+The voice was calm and resolute.  A good voice.  The self-possession of
+that man had somehow induced a corresponding state in myself.  It was
+very quietly that I remarked:
+
+“You must be a good swimmer.”
+
+“Yes.  I’ve been in the water practically since nine o’clock.  The
+question for me now is whether I am to let go this ladder and go on
+swimming till I sink from exhaustion, or—to come on board here.”
+
+I felt this was no mere formula of desperate speech, but a real
+alternative in the view of a strong soul.  I should have gathered from
+this that he was young; indeed, it is only the young who are ever
+confronted by such clear issues.  But at the time it was pure intuition
+on my part.  A mysterious communication was established already between
+us two—in the face of that silent, darkened tropical sea.  I was young,
+too; young enough to make no comment.  The man in the water began
+suddenly to climb up the ladder, and I hastened away from the rail to
+fetch some clothes.
+
+Before entering the cabin I stood still, listening in the lobby at the
+foot of the stairs.  A faint snore came through the closed door of the
+chief mate’s room.  The second mate’s door was on the hook, but the
+darkness in there was absolutely soundless.  He, too, was young and could
+sleep like a stone.  Remained the steward, but he was not likely to wake
+up before he was called.  I got a sleeping-suit out of my room and,
+coming back on deck, saw the naked man from the sea sitting on the
+main-hatch, glimmering white in the darkness, his elbows on his knees and
+his head in his hands.  In a moment he had concealed his damp body in a
+sleeping-suit of the same grey-stripe pattern as the one I was wearing
+and followed me like my double on the poop.  Together we moved right aft,
+barefooted, silent.
+
+“What is it?” I asked in a deadened voice, taking the lighted lamp out of
+the binnacle, and raising it to his face.
+
+“An ugly business.”
+
+He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under somewhat
+heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no growth on his cheeks;
+a small, brown moustache, and a well-shaped, round chin.  His expression
+was concentrated, meditative, under the inspecting light of the lamp I
+held up to his face; such as a man thinking hard in solitude might wear.
+My sleeping-suit was just right for his size.  A well-knit young fellow
+of twenty-five at most.  He caught his lower lip with the edge of white,
+even teeth.
+
+“Yes,” I said, replacing the lamp in the binnacle.  The warm, heavy
+tropical night closed upon his head again.
+
+“There’s a ship over there,” he murmured.
+
+“Yes, I know.  The _Sephora_.  Did you know of us?”
+
+“Hadn’t the slightest idea.  I am the mate of her—”  He paused and
+corrected himself.  “I should say I _was_.”
+
+“Aha!  Something wrong?”
+
+“Yes.  Very wrong indeed.  I’ve killed a man.”
+
+“What do you mean?  Just now?”
+
+“No, on the passage.  Weeks ago.  Thirty-nine south.  When I say a man—”
+
+“Fit of temper,” I suggested, confidently.
+
+The shadowy, dark head, like mine, seemed to nod imperceptibly above the
+ghostly grey of my sleeping-suit.  It was, in the night, as though I had
+been faced by my own reflection in the depths of a sombre and immense
+mirror.
+
+“A pretty thing to have to own up to for a Conway boy,” murmured my
+double, distinctly.
+
+“You’re a Conway boy?”
+
+“I am,” he said, as if startled.  Then, slowly . . . “Perhaps you too—”
+
+It was so; but being a couple of years older I had left before he joined.
+After a quick interchange of dates a silence fell; and I thought suddenly
+of my absurd mate with his terrific whiskers and the “Bless my soul—you
+don’t say so” type of intellect.  My double gave me an inkling of his
+thoughts by saying:
+
+“My father’s a parson in Norfolk.  Do you see me before a judge and jury
+on that charge?  For myself I can’t see the necessity.  There are fellows
+that an angel from heaven—And I am not that.  He was one of those
+creatures that are just simmering all the time with a silly sort of
+wickedness.  Miserable devils that have no business to live at all.  He
+wouldn’t do his duty and wouldn’t let anybody else do theirs.  But what’s
+the good of talking!  You know well enough the sort of ill-conditioned
+snarling cur—”
+
+He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as our
+clothes.  And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such a
+character where there are no means of legal repression.  And I knew well
+enough also that my double there was no homicidal ruffian.  I did not
+think of asking him for details, and he told me the story roughly in
+brusque, disconnected sentences.  I needed no more.  I saw it all going
+on as though I were myself inside that other sleeping-suit.
+
+“It happened while we were setting a reefed foresail, at dusk.  Reefed
+foresail!  You understand the sort of weather.  The only sail we had left
+to keep the ship running; so you may guess what it had been like for
+days.  Anxious sort of job, that.  He gave me some of his cursed
+insolence at the sheet.  I tell you I was overdone with this terrific
+weather that seemed to have no end to it.  Terrific, I tell you—and a
+deep ship.  I believe the fellow himself was half crazed with funk.  It
+was no time for gentlemanly reproof, so I turned round and felled him
+like an ox.  He up and at me.  We closed just as an awful sea made for
+the ship.  All hands saw it coming and took to the rigging, but I had him
+by the throat, and went on shaking him like a rat, the men above us
+yelling, “Look out! look out!”  Then a crash as if the sky had fallen on
+my head.  They say that for over ten minutes hardly anything was to be
+seen of the ship—just the three masts and a bit of the forecastle head
+and of the poop all awash driving along in a smother of foam.  It was a
+miracle that they found us, jammed together behind the forebits.  It’s
+clear that I meant business, because I was holding him by the throat
+still when they picked us up.  He was black in the face.  It was too much
+for them.  It seems they rushed us aft together, gripped as we were,
+screaming “Murder!” like a lot of lunatics, and broke into the cuddy.
+And the ship running for her life, touch and go all the time, any minute
+her last in a sea fit to turn your hair grey only a-looking at it.  I
+understand that the skipper, too, started raving like the rest of them.
+The man had been deprived of sleep for more than a week, and to have this
+sprung on him at the height of a furious gale nearly drove him out of his
+mind.  I wonder they didn’t fling me overboard after getting the carcass
+of their precious ship-mate out of my fingers.  They had rather a job to
+separate us, I’ve been told.  A sufficiently fierce story to make an old
+judge and a respectable jury sit up a bit.  The first thing I heard when
+I came to myself was the maddening howling of that endless gale, and on
+that the voice of the old man.  He was hanging on to my bunk, staring
+into my face out of his sou’wester.
+
+“‘Mr. Leggatt, you have killed a man.  You can act no longer as chief
+mate of this ship.’”
+
+His care to subdue his voice made it sound monotonous.  He rested a hand
+on the end of the skylight to steady himself with, and all that time did
+not stir a limb, so far as I could see.  “Nice little tale for a quiet
+tea-party,” he concluded in the same tone.
+
+One of my hands, too, rested on the end of the skylight; neither did I
+stir a limb, so far as I knew.  We stood less than a foot from each
+other.  It occurred to me that if old “Bless my soul—you don’t say so”
+were to put his head up the companion and catch sight of us, he would
+think he was seeing double, or imagine himself come upon a scene of weird
+witchcraft; the strange captain having a quiet confabulation by the wheel
+with his own grey ghost.  I became very much concerned to prevent
+anything of the sort.  I heard the other’s soothing undertone.
+
+“My father’s a parson in Norfolk,” it said.  Evidently he had forgotten
+he had told me this important fact before.  Truly a nice little tale.
+
+“You had better slip down into my stateroom now,” I said, moving off
+stealthily.  My double followed my movements; our bare feet made no
+sound; I let him in, closed the door with care, and, after giving a call
+to the second mate, returned on deck for my relief.
+
+“Not much sign of any wind yet,” I remarked when he approached.
+
+“No, sir.  Not much,” he assented, sleepily, in his hoarse voice, with
+just enough deference, no more, and barely suppressing a yawn.
+
+“Well, that’s all you have to look out for.  You have got your orders.”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+I paced a turn or two on the poop and saw him take up his position face
+forward with his elbow in the ratlines of the mizzen-rigging before I
+went below.  The mate’s faint snoring was still going on peacefully.  The
+cuddy lamp was burning over the table on which stood a vase with flowers,
+a polite attention from the ship’s provision merchant—the last flowers we
+should see for the next three months at the very least.  Two bunches of
+bananas hung from the beam symmetrically, one on each side of the
+rudder-casing.  Everything was as before in the ship—except that two of
+her captain’s sleeping-suits were simultaneously in use, one motionless
+in the cuddy, the other keeping very still in the captain’s stateroom.
+
+It must be explained here that my cabin had the form of the capital
+letter L the door being within the angle and opening into the short part
+of the letter.  A couch was to the left, the bed-place to the right; my
+writing-desk and the chronometers’ table faced the door.  But any one
+opening it, unless he stepped right inside, had no view of what I call
+the long (or vertical) part of the letter.  It contained some lockers
+surmounted by a bookcase; and a few clothes, a thick jacket or two, caps,
+oilskin coat, and such like, hung on hooks.  There was at the bottom of
+that part a door opening into my bath-room, which could be entered also
+directly from the saloon.  But that way was never used.
+
+The mysterious arrival had discovered the advantage of this particular
+shape.  Entering my room, lighted strongly by a big bulkhead lamp swung
+on gimbals above my writing-desk, I did not see him anywhere till he
+stepped out quietly from behind the coats hung in the recessed part.
+
+“I heard somebody moving about, and went in there at once,” he whispered.
+
+I, too, spoke under my breath.
+
+“Nobody is likely to come in here without knocking and getting
+permission.”
+
+He nodded.  His face was thin and the sunburn faded, as though he had
+been ill.  And no wonder.  He had been, I heard presently, kept under
+arrest in his cabin for nearly seven weeks.  But there was nothing sickly
+in his eyes or in his expression.  He was not a bit like me, really; yet,
+as we stood leaning over my bed-place, whispering side by side, with our
+dark heads together and our backs to the door, anybody bold enough to
+open it stealthily would have been treated to the uncanny sight of a
+double captain busy talking in whispers with his other self.
+
+“But all this doesn’t tell me how you came to hang on to our
+side-ladder,” I inquired, in the hardly audible murmurs we used, after he
+had told me something more of the proceedings on board the _Sephora_ once
+the bad weather was over.
+
+“When we sighted Java Head I had had time to think all those matters out
+several times over.  I had six weeks of doing nothing else, and with only
+an hour or so every evening for a tramp on the quarter-deck.”
+
+He whispered, his arms folded on the side of my bed-place, staring
+through the open port.  And I could imagine perfectly the manner of this
+thinking out—a stubborn if not a steadfast operation; something of which
+I should have been perfectly incapable.
+
+“I reckoned it would be dark before we closed with the land,” he
+continued, so low that I had to strain my hearing, near as we were to
+each other, shoulder touching shoulder almost.  “So I asked to speak to
+the old man.  He always seemed very sick when he came to see me—as if he
+could not look me in the face.  You know, that foresail saved the ship.
+She was too deep to have run long under bare poles.  And it was I that
+managed to set it for him.  Anyway, he came.  When I had him in my
+cabin—he stood by the door looking at me as if I had the halter round my
+neck already—I asked him right away to leave my cabin door unlocked at
+night while the ship was going through Sunda Straits.  There would be the
+Java coast within two or three miles, off Angier Point.  I wanted nothing
+more.  I’ve had a prize for swimming my second year in the Conway.”
+
+“I can believe it,” I breathed out.
+
+“God only knows why they locked me in every night.  To see some of their
+faces you’d have thought they were afraid I’d go about at night
+strangling people.  Am I a murdering brute?  Do I look it?  By Jove! if I
+had been he wouldn’t have trusted himself like that into my room.  You’ll
+say I might have chucked him aside and bolted out, there and then—it was
+dark already.  Well, no.  And for the same reason I wouldn’t think of
+trying to smash the door.  There would have been a rush to stop me at the
+noise, and I did not mean to get into a confounded scrimmage.  Somebody
+else might have got killed—for I would not have broken out only to get
+chucked back, and I did not want any more of that work.  He refused,
+looking more sick than ever.  He was afraid of the men, and also of that
+old second mate of his who had been sailing with him for years—a
+grey-headed old humbug; and his steward, too, had been with him devil
+knows how long—seventeen years or more—a dogmatic sort of loafer who
+hated me like poison, just because I was the chief mate.  No chief mate
+ever made more than one voyage in the _Sephora_, you know.  Those two old
+chaps ran the ship.  Devil only knows what the skipper wasn’t afraid of
+(all his nerve went to pieces altogether in that hellish spell of bad
+weather we had)—of what the law would do to him—of his wife, perhaps.
+Oh, yes! she’s on board.  Though I don’t think she would have meddled.
+She would have been only too glad to have me out of the ship in any way.
+The ‘brand of Cain’ business, don’t you see.  That’s all right.  I was
+ready enough to go off wandering on the face of the earth—and that was
+price enough to pay for an Abel of that sort.  Anyhow, he wouldn’t listen
+to me.  ‘This thing must take its course.  I represent the law here.’  He
+was shaking like a leaf.  ‘So you won’t?’  ‘No!’  ‘Then I hope you will
+be able to sleep on that,’ I said, and turned my back on him.  ‘I wonder
+that _you_ can,’ cries he, and locks the door.
+
+“Well, after that, I couldn’t.  Not very well.  That was three weeks ago.
+We have had a slow passage through the Java Sea; drifted about Carimata
+for ten days.  When we anchored here they thought, I suppose, it was all
+right.  The nearest land (and that’s five miles) is the ship’s
+destination; the consul would soon set about catching me; and there would
+have been no object in bolting to these islets there.  I don’t suppose
+there’s a drop of water on them.  I don’t know how it was, but to-night
+that steward, after bringing me my supper, went out to let me eat it, and
+left the door unlocked.  And I ate it—all there was, too.  After I had
+finished I strolled out on the quarterdeck.  I don’t know that I meant to
+do anything.  A breath of fresh air was all I wanted, I believe.  Then a
+sudden temptation came over me.  I kicked off my slippers and was in the
+water before I had made up my mind fairly.  Somebody heard the splash and
+they raised an awful hullabaloo.  ‘He’s gone!  Lower the boats!  He’s
+committed suicide!  No, he’s swimming.’  Certainly I was swimming.  It’s
+not so easy for a swimmer like me to commit suicide by drowning.  I
+landed on the nearest islet before the boat left the ship’s side.  I
+heard them pulling about in the dark, hailing, and so on, but after a bit
+they gave up.  Everything quieted down and the anchorage became as still
+as death.  I sat down on a stone and began to think.  I felt certain they
+would start searching for me at daylight.  There was no place to hide on
+those stony things—and if there had been, what would have been the good?
+But now I was clear of that ship, I was not going back.  So after a while
+I took off all my clothes, tied them up in a bundle with a stone inside,
+and dropped them in the deep water on the outer side of that islet.  That
+was suicide enough for me.  Let them think what they liked, but I didn’t
+mean to drown myself.  I meant to swim till I sank—but that’s not the
+same thing.  I struck out for another of these little islands, and it was
+from that one that I first saw your riding-light.  Something to swim for.
+I went on easily, and on the way I came upon a flat rock a foot or two
+above water.  In the daytime, I dare say, you might make it out with a
+glass from your poop.  I scrambled up on it and rested myself for a bit.
+Then I made another start.  That last spell must have been over a mile.”
+
+His whisper was getting fainter and fainter, and all the time he stared
+straight out through the port-hole, in which there was not even a star to
+be seen.  I had not interrupted him.  There was something that made
+comment impossible in his narrative, or perhaps in himself; a sort of
+feeling, a quality, which I can’t find a name for.  And when he ceased,
+all I found was a futile whisper: “So you swam for our light?”
+
+“Yes—straight for it.  It was something to swim for.  I couldn’t see any
+stars low down because the coast was in the way, and I couldn’t see the
+land, either.  The water was like glass.  One might have been swimming in
+a confounded thousand-feet deep cistern with no place for scrambling out
+anywhere; but what I didn’t like was the notion of swimming round and
+round like a crazed bullock before I gave out; and as I didn’t mean to go
+back . . . No.  Do you see me being hauled back, stark naked, off one of
+these little islands by the scruff of the neck and fighting like a wild
+beast?  Somebody would have got killed for certain, and I did not want
+any of that.  So I went on.  Then your ladder—”
+
+“Why didn’t you hail the ship?” I asked, a little louder.
+
+He touched my shoulder lightly.  Lazy footsteps came right over our heads
+and stopped.  The second mate had crossed from the other side of the poop
+and might have been hanging over the rail, for all we knew.
+
+“He couldn’t hear us talking—could he?”  My double breathed into my very
+ear, anxiously.
+
+His anxiety was an answer, a sufficient answer, to the question I had put
+to him.  An answer containing all the difficulty of that situation.  I
+closed the port-hole quietly, to make sure.  A louder word might have
+been overheard.
+
+“Who’s that?” he whispered then.
+
+“My second mate.  But I don’t know much more of the fellow than you do.”
+
+And I told him a little about myself.  I had been appointed to take
+charge while I least expected anything of the sort, not quite a fortnight
+ago.  I didn’t know either the ship or the people.  Hadn’t had the time
+in port to look about me or size anybody up.  And as to the crew, all
+they knew was that I was appointed to take the ship home.  For the rest,
+I was almost as much of a stranger on board as himself, I said.  And at
+the moment I felt it most acutely.  I felt that it would take very little
+to make me a suspect person in the eyes of the ship’s company.
+
+He had turned about meantime; and we, the two strangers in the ship,
+faced each other in identical attitudes.
+
+“Your ladder—” he murmured, after a silence.  “Who’d have thought of
+finding a ladder hanging over at night in a ship anchored out here!  I
+felt just then a very unpleasant faintness.  After the life I’ve been
+leading for nine weeks, anybody would have got out of condition.  I
+wasn’t capable of swimming round as far as your rudder-chains.  And, lo
+and behold! there was a ladder to get hold of.  After I gripped it I said
+to myself, ‘What’s the good?’  When I saw a man’s head looking over I
+thought I would swim away presently and leave him shouting—in whatever
+language it was.  I didn’t mind being looked at.  I—I liked it.  And then
+you speaking to me so quietly—as if you had expected me—made me hold on a
+little longer.  It had been a confounded lonely time—I don’t mean while
+swimming.  I was glad to talk a little to somebody that didn’t belong to
+the _Sephora_.  As to asking for the captain, that was a mere impulse.
+It could have been no use, with all the ship knowing about me and the
+other people pretty certain to be round here in the morning.  I don’t
+know—I wanted to be seen, to talk with somebody, before I went on.  I
+don’t know what I would have said. . . . ‘Fine night, isn’t it?’ or
+something of the sort.”
+
+“Do you think they will be round here presently?” I asked with some
+incredulity.
+
+“Quite likely,” he said, faintly.
+
+He looked extremely haggard all of a sudden.  His head rolled on his
+shoulders.
+
+“H’m.  We shall see then.  Meantime get into that bed,” I whispered.
+“Want help?  There.”
+
+It was a rather high bed-place with a set of drawers underneath.  This
+amazing swimmer really needed the lift I gave him by seizing his leg.  He
+tumbled in, rolled over on his back, and flung one arm across his eyes.
+And then, with his face nearly hidden, he must have looked exactly as I
+used to look in that bed.  I gazed upon my other self for a while before
+drawing across carefully the two green serge curtains which ran on a
+brass rod.  I thought for a moment of pinning them together for greater
+safety, but I sat down on the couch, and once there I felt unwilling to
+rise and hunt for a pin.  I would do it in a moment.  I was extremely
+tired, in a peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness, by
+the effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this excitement.  It
+was three o’clock by now and I had been on my feet since nine, but I was
+not sleepy; I could not have gone to sleep.  I sat there, fagged out,
+looking at the curtains, trying to clear my mind of the confused
+sensation of being in two places at once, and greatly bothered by an
+exasperating knocking in my head.  It was a relief to discover suddenly
+that it was not in my head at all, but on the outside of the door.
+Before I could collect myself the words “Come in” were out of my mouth,
+and the steward entered with a tray, bringing in my morning coffee.  I
+had slept, after all, and I was so frightened that I shouted, “This way!
+I am here, steward,” as though he had been miles away.  He put down the
+tray on the table next the couch and only then said, very quietly, “I can
+see you are here, sir.”  I felt him give me a keen look, but I dared not
+meet his eyes just then.  He must have wondered why I had drawn the
+curtains of my bed before going to sleep on the couch.  He went out,
+hooking the door open as usual.
+
+I heard the crew washing decks above me.  I knew I would have been told
+at once if there had been any wind.  Calm, I thought, and I was doubly
+vexed.  Indeed, I felt dual more than ever.  The steward reappeared
+suddenly in the doorway.  I jumped up from the couch so quickly that he
+gave a start.
+
+“What do you want here?”
+
+“Close your port, sir—they are washing decks.”
+
+“It is closed,” I said, reddening.
+
+“Very well, sir.”  But he did not move from the doorway and returned my
+stare in an extraordinary, equivocal manner for a time.  Then his eyes
+wavered, all his expression changed, and in a voice unusually gentle,
+almost coaxingly:
+
+“May I come in to take the empty cup away, sir?”
+
+“Of course!”  I turned my back on him while he popped in and out.  Then I
+unhooked and closed the door and even pushed the bolt.  This sort of
+thing could not go on very long.  The cabin was as hot as an oven, too.
+I took a peep at my double, and discovered that he had not moved, his arm
+was still over his eyes; but his chest heaved; his hair was wet; his chin
+glistened with perspiration.  I reached over him and opened the port.
+
+“I must show myself on deck,” I reflected.
+
+Of course, theoretically, I could do what I liked, with no one to say nay
+to me within the whole circle of the horizon; but to lock my cabin door
+and take the key away I did not dare.  Directly I put my head out of the
+companion I saw the group of my two officers, the second mate barefooted,
+the chief mate in long india-rubber boots, near the break of the poop,
+and the steward half-way down the poop-ladder talking to them eagerly.
+He happened to catch sight of me and dived, the second ran down on the
+main-deck shouting some order or other, and the chief mate came to meet
+me, touching his cap.
+
+There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not like.  I don’t
+know whether the steward had told them that I was “queer” only, or
+downright drunk, but I know the man meant to have a good look at me.  I
+watched him coming with a smile which, as he got into point-blank range,
+took effect and froze his very whiskers.  I did not give him time to open
+his lips.
+
+“Square the yards by lifts and braces before the hands go to breakfast.”
+
+It was the first particular order I had given on board that ship; and I
+stayed on deck to see it executed, too.  I had felt the need of asserting
+myself without loss of time.  That sneering young cub got taken down a
+peg or two on that occasion, and I also seized the opportunity of having
+a good look at the face of every foremast man as they filed past me to go
+to the after braces.  At breakfast time, eating nothing myself, I
+presided with such frigid dignity that the two mates were only too glad
+to escape from the cabin as soon as decency permitted; and all the time
+the dual working of my mind distracted me almost to the point of
+insanity.  I was constantly watching myself, my secret self, as dependent
+on my actions as my own personality, sleeping in that bed, behind that
+door which faced me as I sat at the head of the table.  It was very much
+like being mad, only it was worse because one was aware of it.
+
+I had to shake him for a solid minute, but when at last he opened his
+eyes it was in the full possession of his senses, with an inquiring look.
+
+“All’s well so far,” I whispered.  “Now you must vanish into the
+bath-room.”
+
+He did so, as noiseless as a ghost, and I then rang for the steward, and
+facing him boldly, directed him to tidy up my stateroom while I was
+having my bath—“and be quick about it.”  As my tone admitted of no
+excuses, he said, “Yes, sir,” and ran off to fetch his dust-pan and
+brushes.  I took a bath and did most of my dressing, splashing, and
+whistling softly for the steward’s edification, while the secret sharer
+of my life stood drawn up bolt upright in that little space, his face
+looking very sunken in daylight, his eyelids lowered under the stern,
+dark line of his eyebrows drawn together by a slight frown.
+
+When I left him there to go back to my room the steward was finishing
+dusting.  I sent for the mate and engaged him in some insignificant
+conversation.  It was, as it were, trifling with the terrific character
+of his whiskers; but my object was to give him an opportunity for a good
+look at my cabin.  And then I could at last shut, with a clear
+conscience, the door of my stateroom and get my double back into the
+recessed part.  There was nothing else for it.  He had to sit still on a
+small folding stool, half smothered by the heavy coats hanging there.  We
+listened to the steward going into the bath-room out of the saloon,
+filling the water-bottles there, scrubbing the bath, setting things to
+rights, whisk, bang, clatter—out again into the saloon—turn the
+key—click.  Such was my scheme for keeping my second self invisible.
+Nothing better could be contrived under the circumstances.  And there we
+sat; I at my writing-desk ready to appear busy with some papers, he
+behind me, out of sight of the door.  It would not have been prudent to
+talk in daytime; and I could not have stood the excitement of that queer
+sense of whispering to myself.  Now and then glancing over my shoulder, I
+saw him far back there, sitting rigidly on the low stool, his bare feet
+close together, his arms folded, his head hanging on his breast—and
+perfectly still.  Anybody would have taken him for me.
+
+I was fascinated by it myself.  Every moment I had to glance over my
+shoulder.  I was looking at him when a voice outside the door said:
+
+“Beg pardon, sir.”
+
+“Well!” . . . I kept my eyes on him, and so, when the voice outside the
+door announced, “There’s a ship’s boat coming our way, sir,” I saw him
+give a start—the first movement he had made for hours.  But he did not
+raise his bowed head.
+
+“All right.  Get the ladder over.”
+
+I hesitated.  Should I whisper something to him?  But what?  His
+immobility seemed to have been never disturbed.  What could I tell him he
+did not know already? . . . Finally I went on deck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+THE skipper of the _Sephora_ had a thin red whisker all round his face,
+and the sort of complexion that goes with hair of that colour; also the
+particular, rather smeary shade of blue in the eyes.  He was not exactly
+a showy figure; his shoulders were high, his stature but middling—one leg
+slightly more bandy than the other.  He shook hands, looking vaguely
+around.  A spiritless tenacity was his main characteristic, I judged.  I
+behaved with a politeness which seemed to disconcert him.  Perhaps he was
+shy.  He mumbled to me as if he were ashamed of what he was saying; gave
+his name (it was something like Archbold—but at this distance of years I
+hardly am sure), his ship’s name, and a few other particulars of that
+sort, in the manner of a criminal making a reluctant and doleful
+confession.  He had had terrible weather on the passage
+out—terrible—terrible—wife aboard, too.
+
+By this time we were seated in the cabin and the steward brought in a
+tray with a bottle and glasses.  “Thanks!  No.”  Never took liquor.
+Would have some water, though.  He drank two tumblerfuls.  Terrible
+thirsty work.  Ever since daylight had been exploring the islands round
+his ship.
+
+“What was that for—fun?” I asked, with an appearance of polite interest.
+
+“No!”  He sighed.  “Painful duty.”
+
+As he persisted in his mumbling and I wanted my double to hear every
+word, I hit upon the notion of informing him that I regretted to say I
+was hard of hearing.
+
+“Such a young man, too!” he nodded, keeping his smeary blue,
+unintelligent eyes fastened upon me.  What was the cause of it—some
+disease? he inquired, without the least sympathy and as if he thought
+that, if so, I’d got no more than I deserved.
+
+“Yes; disease,” I admitted in a cheerful tone which seemed to shock him.
+But my point was gained, because he had to raise his voice to give me his
+tale.  It is not worth while to record that version.  It was just over
+two months since all this had happened, and he had thought so much about
+it that he seemed completely muddled as to its bearings, but still
+immensely impressed.
+
+“What would you think of such a thing happening on board your own ship?
+I’ve had the _Sephora_ for these fifteen years.  I am a well-known
+shipmaster.”
+
+He was densely distressed—and perhaps I should have sympathised with him
+if I had been able to detach my mental vision from the unsuspected sharer
+of my cabin as though he were my second self.  There he was on the other
+side of the bulkhead, four or five feet from us, no more, as we sat in
+the saloon.  I looked politely at Captain Archbold (if that was his
+name), but it was the other I saw, in a grey sleeping-suit, seated on a
+low stool, his bare feet close together, his arms folded, and every word
+said between us falling into the ears of his dark head bowed on his
+chest.
+
+“I have been at sea now, man and boy, for seven-and-thirty years, and
+I’ve never heard of such a thing happening in an English ship.  And that
+it should be my ship.  Wife on board, too.”
+
+I was hardly listening to him.
+
+“Don’t you think,” I said, “that the heavy sea which, you told me, came
+aboard just then might have killed the man?  I have seen the sheer weight
+of a sea kill a man very neatly, by simply breaking his neck.”
+
+“Good God!” he uttered, impressively, fixing his smeary blue eyes on me.
+“The sea!  No man killed by the sea ever looked like that.”  He seemed
+positively scandalised at my suggestion.  And as I gazed at him,
+certainly not prepared for anything original on his part, he advanced his
+head close to mine and thrust his tongue out at me so suddenly that I
+couldn’t help starting back.
+
+After scoring over my calmness in this graphic way he nodded wisely.  If
+I had seen the sight, he assured me, I would never forget it as long as I
+lived.  The weather was too bad to give the corpse a proper sea burial.
+So next day at dawn they took it up on the poop, covering its face with a
+bit of bunting; he read a short prayer, and then, just as it was, in its
+oilskins and long boots, they launched it amongst those mountainous seas
+that seemed ready every moment to swallow up the ship herself and the
+terrified lives on board of her.
+
+“That reefed foresail saved you,” I threw in.
+
+“Under God—it did,” he exclaimed fervently.  “It was by a special mercy,
+I firmly believe, that it stood some of those hurricane squalls.”
+
+“It was the setting of that sail which—” I began.
+
+“God’s own hand in it,” he interrupted me.  “Nothing less could have done
+it.  I don’t mind telling you that I hardly dared give the order.  It
+seemed impossible that we could touch anything without losing it, and
+then our last hope would have been gone.”
+
+The terror of that gale was on him yet.  I let him go on for a bit, then
+said, casually—as if returning to a minor subject:
+
+“You were very anxious to give up your mate to the shore people, I
+believe?”
+
+He was.  To the law.  His obscure tenacity on that point had in it
+something incomprehensible and a little awful; something, as it were,
+mystical, quite apart from his anxiety that he should not be suspected of
+“countenancing any doings of that sort.”  Seven-and-thirty virtuous years
+at sea, of which over twenty of immaculate command, and the last fifteen
+in the _Sephora_, seemed to have laid him under some pitiless obligation.
+
+“And you know,” he went on, groping shamefacedly amongst his feelings, “I
+did not engage that young fellow.  His people had some interest with my
+owners.  I was in a way forced to take him on.  He looked very smart,
+very gentlemanly, and all that.  But do you know—I never liked him,
+somehow.  I am a plain man.  You see, he wasn’t exactly the sort for the
+chief mate of a ship like the _Sephora_.”
+
+I had become so connected in thoughts and impressions with the secret
+sharer of my cabin that I felt as if I, personally, were being given to
+understand that I, too, was not the sort that would have done for the
+chief mate of a ship like the _Sephora_.  I had no doubt of it in my
+mind.
+
+“Not at all the style of man.  You understand,” he insisted,
+superfluously, looking hard at me.
+
+I smiled urbanely.  He seemed at a loss for a while.
+
+“I suppose I must report a suicide.”
+
+“Beg pardon?”
+
+“Suicide!  That’s what I’ll have to write to my owners directly I get
+in.”
+
+“Unless you manage to recover him before to-morrow,” I assented,
+dispassionately. . . “I mean, alive.”
+
+He mumbled something which I really did not catch, and I turned my ear to
+him in a puzzled manner.  He fairly bawled:
+
+“The land—I say, the mainland is at least seven miles off my anchorage.”
+
+“About that.”
+
+My lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of any sort of
+pronounced interest, began to arouse his distrust.  But except for the
+felicitous pretence of deafness I had not tried to pretend anything.  I
+had felt utterly incapable of playing the part of ignorance properly, and
+therefore was afraid to try.  It is also certain that he had brought some
+ready-made suspicions with him, and that he viewed my politeness as a
+strange and unnatural phenomenon.  And yet how else could I have received
+him?  Not heartily!  That was impossible for psychological reasons, which
+I need not state here.  My only object was to keep off his inquiries.
+Surlily?  Yes, but surliness might have provoked a point-blank question.
+From its novelty to him and from its nature, punctilious courtesy was the
+manner best calculated to restrain the man.  But there was the danger of
+his breaking through my defence bluntly.  I could not, I think, have met
+him by a direct lie, also for psychological (not moral) reasons.  If he
+had only known how afraid I was of his putting my feeling of identity
+with the other to the test!  But, strangely enough—(I thought of it only
+afterward)—I believe that he was not a little disconcerted by the reverse
+side of that weird situation, by something in me that reminded him of the
+man he was seeking—suggested a mysterious similitude to the young fellow
+he had distrusted and disliked from the first.
+
+However that might have been, the silence was not very prolonged.  He
+took another oblique step.
+
+“I reckon I had no more than a two-mile pull to your ship.  Not a bit
+more.”
+
+“And quite enough, too, in this awful heat,” I said.
+
+Another pause full of mistrust followed.  Necessity, they say, is mother
+of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.  And
+I was afraid he would ask me point-blank for news of my other self.
+
+“Nice little saloon, isn’t it?” I remarked, as if noticing for the first
+time the way his eyes roamed from one closed door to the other.  “And
+very well fitted out too.  Here, for instance,” I continued, reaching
+over the back of my seat negligently and flinging the door open, “is my
+bath-room.”
+
+He made an eager movement, but hardly gave it a glance.  I got up, shut
+the door of the bath-room, and invited him to have a look round, as if I
+were very proud of my accommodation.  He had to rise and be shown round,
+but he went through the business without any raptures whatever.
+
+“And now we’ll have a look at my stateroom,” I declared, in a voice as
+loud as I dared to make it, crossing the cabin to the starboard side with
+purposely heavy steps.
+
+He followed me in and gazed around.  My intelligent double had vanished.
+I played my part.
+
+“Very convenient—isn’t it?”
+
+“Very nice.  Very comf. . . ”  He didn’t finish, and went out brusquely
+as if to escape from some unrighteous wiles of mine.  But it was not to
+be.  I had been too frightened not to feel vengeful; I felt I had him on
+the run, and I meant to keep him on the run.  My polite insistence must
+have had something menacing in it, because he gave in suddenly.  And I
+did not let him off a single item; mate’s room, pantry, storerooms, the
+very sail-locker which was also under the poop—he had to look into them
+all.  When at last I showed him out on the quarter-deck he drew a long,
+spiritless sigh, and mumbled dismally that he must really be going back
+to his ship now.  I desired my mate, who had joined us, to see to the
+captain’s boat.
+
+The man of whiskers gave a blast on the whistle which he used to wear
+hanging round his neck, and yelled, “_Sephoras_ away!”  My double down
+there in my cabin must have heard, and certainly could not feel more
+relieved than I.  Four fellows came running out from somewhere forward
+and went over the side, while my own men, appearing on deck too, lined
+the rail.  I escorted my visitor to the gangway ceremoniously, and nearly
+overdid it.  He was a tenacious beast.  On the very ladder he lingered,
+and in that unique, guiltily conscientious manner of sticking to the
+point:
+
+“I say . . . you . . . you don’t think that—”
+
+I covered his voice loudly:
+
+“Certainly not. . . . I am delighted.  Good-bye.”
+
+I had an idea of what he meant to say, and just saved myself by the
+privilege of defective hearing.  He was too shaken generally to insist,
+but my mate, close witness of that parting, looked mystified and his face
+took on a thoughtful cast.  As I did not want to appear as if I wished to
+avoid all communication with my officers, he had the opportunity to
+address me.
+
+“Seems a very nice man.  His boat’s crew told our chaps a very
+extraordinary story, if what I am told by the steward is true.  I suppose
+you had it from the captain, sir?”
+
+“Yes.  I had a story from the captain.”
+
+“A very horrible affair—isn’t it, sir?”
+
+“It is.”
+
+“Beats all these tales we hear about murders in Yankee ships.”
+
+“I don’t think it beats them.  I don’t think it resembles them in the
+least.”
+
+“Bless my soul—you don’t say so!  But of course I’ve no acquaintance
+whatever with American ships, not I, so I couldn’t go against your
+knowledge.  It’s horrible enough for me. . . . But the queerest part is
+that those fellows seemed to have some idea the man was hidden aboard
+here.  They had really.  Did you ever hear of such a thing?”
+
+“Preposterous—isn’t it?”
+
+We were walking to and fro athwart the quarterdeck.  No one of the crew
+forward could be seen (the day was Sunday), and the mate pursued:
+
+“There was some little dispute about it.  Our chaps took offence.  ‘As if
+we would harbour a thing like that,’ they said.  ‘Wouldn’t you like to
+look for him in our coal-hole?’  Quite a tiff.  But they made it up in
+the end.  I suppose he did drown himself.  Don’t you, sir?”
+
+“I don’t suppose anything.”
+
+“You have no doubt in the matter, sir?”
+
+“None whatever.”
+
+I left him suddenly.  I felt I was producing a bad impression, but with
+my double down there it was most trying to be on deck.  And it was almost
+as trying to be below.  Altogether a nerve-trying situation.  But on the
+whole I felt less torn in two when I was with him.  There was no one in
+the whole ship whom I dared take into my confidence.  Since the hands had
+got to know his story, it would have been impossible to pass him off for
+any one else, and an accidental discovery was to be dreaded now more than
+ever. . . .
+
+The steward being engaged in laying the table for dinner, we could talk
+only with our eyes when I first went down.  Later in the afternoon we had
+a cautious try at whispering.  The Sunday quietness of the ship was
+against us; the stillness of air and water around her was against us; the
+elements, the men were against us—everything was against us in our secret
+partnership; time itself—for this could not go on forever.  The very
+trust in Providence was, I suppose, denied to his guilt.  Shall I confess
+that this thought cast me down very much?  And as to the chapter of
+accidents which counts for so much in the book of success, I could only
+hope that it was closed.  For what favourable accident could be expected?
+
+“Did you hear everything?” were my first words as soon as we took up our
+position side by side, leaning over my bed-place.
+
+He had.  And the proof of it was his earnest whisper, “The man told you
+he hardly dared to give the order.”
+
+I understood the reference to be to that saving foresail.
+
+“Yes.  He was afraid of it being lost in the setting.”
+
+“I assure you he never gave the order.  He may think he did, but he never
+gave it.  He stood there with me on the break of the poop after the
+maintopsail blew away, and whimpered about our last hope—positively
+whimpered about it and nothing else—and the night coming on!  To hear
+one’s skipper go on like that in such weather was enough to drive any
+fellow out of his mind.  It worked me up into a sort of desperation.  I
+just took it into my own hands and went away from him, boiling, and—  But
+what’s the use telling you?  _You_ know! . . . Do you think that if I had
+not been pretty fierce with them I should have got the men to do
+anything?  Not it!  The bo’s’n perhaps?  Perhaps!  It wasn’t a heavy
+sea—it was a sea gone mad!  I suppose the end of the world will be
+something like that; and a man may have the heart to see it coming once
+and be done with it—but to have to face it day after day—I don’t blame
+anybody.  I was precious little better than the rest.  Only—I was an
+officer of that old coal-waggon, anyhow—”
+
+“I quite understand,” I conveyed that sincere assurance into his ear.  He
+was out of breath with whispering; I could hear him pant slightly.  It
+was all very simple.  The same strung-up force which had given
+twenty-four men a chance, at least, for their lives, had, in a sort of
+recoil, crushed an unworthy mutinous existence.
+
+But I had no leisure to weigh the merits of the matter—footsteps in the
+saloon, a heavy knock.  “There’s enough wind to get under way with, sir.”
+Here was the call of a new claim upon my thoughts and even upon my
+feelings.
+
+“Turn the hands up,” I cried through the door.  “I’ll be on deck
+directly.”
+
+I was going out to make the acquaintance of my ship.  Before I left the
+cabin our eyes met—the eyes of the only two strangers on board.  I
+pointed to the recessed part where the little camp-stool awaited him and
+laid my finger on my lips.  He made a gesture—somewhat vague—a little
+mysterious, accompanied by a faint smile, as if of regret.
+
+This is not the place to enlarge upon the sensations of a man who feels
+for the first time a ship move under his feet to his own independent
+word.  In my case they were not unalloyed.  I was not wholly alone with
+my command; for there was that stranger in my cabin.  Or rather, I was
+not completely and wholly with her.  Part of me was absent.  That mental
+feeling of being in two places at once affected me physically as if the
+mood of secrecy had penetrated my very soul.  Before an hour had elapsed
+since the ship had begun to move, having occasion to ask the mate (he
+stood by my side) to take a compass bearing of the Pagoda, I caught
+myself reaching up to his ear in whispers.  I say I caught myself, but
+enough had escaped to startle the man.  I can’t describe it otherwise
+than by saying that he shied.  A grave, preoccupied manner, as though he
+were in possession of some perplexing intelligence, did not leave him
+henceforth.  A little later I moved away from the rail to look at the
+compass with such a stealthy gait that the helmsman noticed it—and I
+could not help noticing the unusual roundness of his eyes.  These are
+trifling instances, though it’s to no commander’s advantage to be
+suspected of ludicrous eccentricities.  But I was also more seriously
+affected.  There are to a seaman certain words, gestures, that should in
+given conditions come as naturally, as instinctively as the winking of a
+menaced eye.  A certain order should spring on to his lips without
+thinking; a certain sign should get itself made, so to speak, without
+reflection.  But all unconscious alertness had abandoned me.  I had to
+make an effort of will to recall myself back (from the cabin) to the
+conditions of the moment.  I felt that I was appearing an irresolute
+commander to those people who were watching me more or less critically.
+
+And, besides, there were the scares.  On the second day out, for
+instance, coming off the deck in the afternoon (I had straw slippers on
+my bare feet) I stopped at the open pantry door and spoke to the steward.
+He was doing something there with his back to me.  At the sound of my
+voice he nearly jumped out of his skin, as the saying is, and
+incidentally broke a cup.
+
+“What on earth’s the matter with you?” I asked, astonished.
+
+He was extremely confused.  “Beg your pardon, sir.  I made sure you were
+in your cabin.”
+
+“You see I wasn’t.”
+
+“No, sir.  I could have sworn I had heard you moving in there not a
+moment ago.  It’s most extraordinary . . . very sorry, sir.”
+
+I passed on with an inward shudder.  I was so identified with my secret
+double that I did not even mention the fact in those scanty, fearful
+whispers we exchanged.  I suppose he had made some slight noise of some
+kind or other.  It would have been miraculous if he hadn’t at one time or
+another.  And yet, haggard as he appeared, he looked always perfectly
+self-controlled, more than calm—almost invulnerable.  On my suggestion he
+remained almost entirely in the bathroom, which, upon the whole, was the
+safest place.  There could be really no shadow of an excuse for any one
+ever wanting to go in there, once the steward had done with it.  It was a
+very tiny place.  Sometimes he reclined on the floor, his legs bent, his
+head sustained on one elbow.  At others I would find him on the
+camp-stool, sitting in his grey sleeping-suit and with his cropped dark
+hair like a patient, unmoved convict.  At night I would smuggle him into
+my bed-place, and we would whisper together, with the regular footfalls
+of the officer of the watch passing and repassing over our heads.  It was
+an infinitely miserable time.  It was lucky that some tins of fine
+preserves were stowed in a locker in my stateroom; hard bread I could
+always get hold of; and so he lived on stewed chicken, paté de foie gras,
+asparagus, cooked oysters, sardines—on all sorts of abominable sham
+delicacies out of tins.  My early morning coffee he always drank; and it
+was all I dared do for him in that respect.
+
+Every day there was the horrible manoeuvring to go through so that my
+room and then the bath-room should be done in the usual way.  I came to
+hate the sight of the steward, to abhor the voice of that harmless man.
+I felt that it was he who would bring on the disaster of discovery.  It
+hung like a sword over our heads.
+
+The fourth day out, I think (we were then working down the east side of
+the Gulf of Siam, tack for tack, in light winds and smooth water)—the
+fourth day, I say, of this miserable juggling with the unavoidable, as we
+sat at our evening meal, that man, whose slightest movement I dreaded,
+after putting down the dishes ran up on deck busily.  This could not be
+dangerous.  Presently he came down again; and then it appeared that he
+had remembered a coat of mine which I had thrown over a rail to dry after
+having been wetted in a shower which had passed over the ship in the
+afternoon.  Sitting stolidly at the head of the table I became terrified
+at the sight of the garment on his arm.  Of course he made for my door.
+There was no time to lose.
+
+“Steward,” I thundered.  My nerves were so shaken that I could not govern
+my voice and conceal my agitation.  This was the sort of thing that made
+my terrifically whiskered mate tap his forehead with his forefinger.  I
+had detected him using that gesture while talking on deck with a
+confidential air to the carpenter.  It was too far to hear a word, but I
+had no doubt that this pantomime could only refer to the strange new
+captain.
+
+“Yes, sir,” the pale-faced steward turned resignedly to me.  It was this
+maddening course of being shouted at, checked without rhyme or reason,
+arbitrarily chased out of my cabin, suddenly called into it, sent flying
+out of his pantry on incomprehensible errands, that accounted for the
+growing wretchedness of his expression.
+
+“Where are you going with that coat?”
+
+“To your room, sir.”
+
+“Is there another shower coming?”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t know, sir.  Shall I go up again and see, sir?”
+
+“No! never mind.”
+
+My object was attained, as of course my other self in there would have
+heard everything that passed.  During this interlude my two officers
+never raised their eyes off their respective plates; but the lip of that
+confounded cub, the second mate, quivered visibly.
+
+I expected the steward to hook my coat on and come out at once.  He was
+very slow about it; but I dominated my nervousness sufficiently not to
+shout after him.  Suddenly I became aware (it could be heard plainly
+enough) that the fellow for some reason or other was opening the door of
+the bath-room.  It was the end.  The place was literally not big enough
+to swing a cat in.  My voice died in my throat and I went stony all over.
+I expected to hear a yell of surprise and terror, and made a movement,
+but had not the strength to get on my legs.  Everything remained still.
+Had my second self taken the poor wretch by the throat?  I don’t know
+what I would have done next moment if I had not seen the steward come out
+of my room, close the door, and then stand quietly by the sideboard.
+
+“Saved,” I thought.  “But, no!  Lost!  Gone!  He was gone!”
+
+I laid my knife and fork down and leaned back in my chair.  My head swam.
+After a while, when sufficiently recovered to speak in a steady voice, I
+instructed my mate to put the ship round at eight o’clock himself.
+
+“I won’t come on deck,” I went on.  “I think I’ll turn in, and unless the
+wind shifts I don’t want to be disturbed before midnight.  I feel a bit
+seedy.”
+
+“You did look middling bad a little while ago,” the chief mate remarked
+without showing any great concern.
+
+They both went out, and I stared at the steward clearing the table.
+There was nothing to be read on that wretched man’s face.  But why did he
+avoid my eyes I asked myself.  Then I thought I should like to hear the
+sound of his voice.
+
+“Steward!”
+
+“Sir!”  Startled as usual.
+
+“Where did you hang up that coat?”
+
+“In the bath-room, sir.”  The usual anxious tone.  “It’s not quite dry
+yet, sir.”
+
+For some time longer I sat in the cuddy.  Had my double vanished as he
+had come?  But of his coming there was an explanation, whereas his
+disappearance would be inexplicable. . . . I went slowly into my dark
+room, shut the door, lighted the lamp, and for a time dared not turn
+round.  When at last I did I saw him standing bolt-upright in the narrow
+recessed part.  It would not be true to say I had a shock, but an
+irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted through my mind.  Can
+it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible to other eyes than mine?
+It was like being haunted.  Motionless, with a grave face, he raised his
+hands slightly at me in a gesture which meant clearly, “Heavens! what a
+narrow escape!”  Narrow indeed.  I think I had come creeping quietly as
+near insanity as any man who has not actually gone over the border.  That
+gesture restrained me, so to speak.
+
+The mate with the terrific whiskers was now putting the ship on the other
+tack.  In the moment of profound silence which follows upon the hands
+going to their stations I heard on the poop his raised voice: “Hard
+alee!” and the distant shout of the order repeated on the maindeck.  The
+sails, in that light breeze, made but a faint fluttering noise.  It
+ceased.  The ship was coming round slowly; I held my breath in the
+renewed stillness of expectation; one wouldn’t have thought that there
+was a single living soul on her decks.  A sudden brisk shout, “Mainsail
+haul!” broke the spell, and in the noisy cries and rush overhead of the
+men running away with the main-brace we two, down in my cabin, came
+together in our usual position by the bed-place.
+
+He did not wait for my question.  “I heard him fumbling here and just
+managed to squat myself down in the bath,” he whispered to me.  “The
+fellow only opened the door and put his arm in to hang the coat up.  All
+the same—”
+
+“I never thought of that,” I whispered back, even more appalled than
+before at the closeness of the shave, and marvelling at that something
+unyielding in his character which was carrying him through so finely.
+There was no agitation in his whisper.  Whoever was being driven
+distracted, it was not he.  He was sane.  And the proof of his sanity was
+continued when he took up the whispering again.
+
+“It would never do for me to come to life again.”
+
+It was something that a ghost might have said.  But what he was alluding
+to was his old captain’s reluctant admission of the theory of suicide.
+It would obviously serve his turn—if I had understood at all the view
+which seemed to govern the unalterable purpose of his action.
+
+“You must maroon me as soon as ever you can get amongst these islands off
+the Cambodje shore,” he went on.
+
+“Maroon you!  We are not living in a boy’s adventure tale,” I protested.
+His scornful whispering took me up.
+
+“We aren’t indeed!  There’s nothing of a boy’s tale in this.  But there’s
+nothing else for it.  I want no more.  You don’t suppose I am afraid of
+what can be done to me?  Prison or gallows or whatever they may please.
+But you don’t see me coming back to explain such things to an old fellow
+in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen, do you?  What can they know
+whether I am guilty or not—or of _what_ I am guilty, either?  That’s my
+affair.  What does the Bible say?  ‘Driven off the face of the earth.’
+Very well.  I am off the face of the earth now.  As I came at night so I
+shall go.”
+
+“Impossible!” I murmured.  “You can’t.”
+
+“Can’t? . . . Not naked like a soul on the Day of Judgment.  I shall
+freeze on to this sleeping-suit.  The Last Day is not yet—and you have
+understood thoroughly.  Didn’t you?”
+
+I felt suddenly ashamed of myself.  I may say truly that I understood—and
+my hesitation in letting that man swim away from my ship’s side had been
+a mere sham sentiment, a sort of cowardice.
+
+“It can’t be done now till next night,” I breathed out.  “The ship is on
+the off-shore tack and the wind may fail us.”
+
+“As long as I know that you understand,” he whispered.  “But of course
+you do.  It’s a great satisfaction to have got somebody to understand.
+You seem to have been there on purpose.”  And in the same whisper, as if
+we two whenever we talked had to say things to each other which were not
+fit for the world to hear, he added, “It’s very wonderful.”  We remained
+side by side talking in our secret way—but sometimes silent or just
+exchanging a whispered word or two at long intervals.  And as usual he
+stared through the port.  A breath of wind came now and again into our
+faces.  The ship might have been moored in dock, so gently and on an even
+keel she slipped through the water, that did not murmur even at our
+passage, shadowy and silent like a phantom sea.
+
+At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate’s great surprise put the ship
+round on the other tack.  His terrible whiskers flitted round me in
+silent criticism.  I certainly should not have done it if it had been
+only a question of getting out of that sleepy gulf as quickly as
+possible.  I believe he told the second mate, who relieved him, that it
+was a great want of judgment.  The other only yawned.  That intolerable
+cub shuffled about so sleepily and lolled against the rails in such a
+slack, improper fashion that I came down on him sharply.
+
+“Aren’t you properly awake yet?”
+
+“Yes, sir!  I am awake.”
+
+“Well, then, be good enough to hold yourself as if you were.  And keep a
+look-out.  If there’s any current we’ll be closing with some islands
+before daylight.”
+
+The east side of the gulf is fringed with islands, some solitary, others
+in groups.  On the blue background of the high coast they seem to float
+on silvery patches of calm water, arid and grey, or dark green and
+rounded like clumps of evergreen bushes, with the larger ones, a mile or
+two long, showing the outlines of ridges, ribs of grey rock under the
+dank mantle of matted leafage.  Unknown to trade, to travel, almost to
+geography, the manner of life they harbour is an unsolved secret.  There
+must be villages—settlements of fishermen at least—on the largest of
+them, and some communication with the world is probably kept up by native
+craft.  But all that forenoon, as we headed for them, fanned along by the
+faintest of breezes, I saw no sign of man or canoe in the field of the
+telescope I kept on pointing at the scattered group.
+
+At noon I gave no orders for a change of course, and the mate’s whiskers
+became much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves unduly to my
+notice.  At last I said:
+
+“I am going to stand right in.  Quite in—as far as I can take her.”
+
+The stare of extreme surprise imparted an air of ferocity also to his
+eyes, and he looked truly terrific for a moment.
+
+“We’re not doing well in the middle of the gulf,” I continued, casually.
+“I am going to look for the land breezes to-night.”
+
+“Bless my soul!  Do you mean, sir, in the dark amongst the lot of all
+them islands and reefs and shoals?”
+
+“Well—if there are any regular land breezes at all on this coast one must
+get close inshore to find them, mustn’t one?”
+
+“Bless my soul!” he exclaimed again under his breath.  All that afternoon
+he wore a dreamy, contemplative appearance which in him was a mark of
+perplexity.  After dinner I went into my stateroom as if I meant to take
+some rest.  There we two bent our dark heads over a half-unrolled chart
+lying on my bed.
+
+“There,” I said.  “It’s got to be Koh-ring.  I’ve been looking at it ever
+since sunrise.  It has got two hills and a low point.  It must be
+inhabited.  And on the coast opposite there is what looks like the mouth
+of a biggish river—with some town, no doubt, not far up.  It’s the best
+chance for you that I can see.”
+
+“Anything.  Koh-ring let it be.”
+
+He looked thoughtfully at the chart as if surveying chances and distances
+from a lofty height—and following with his eyes his own figure wandering
+on the blank land of Cochin-China, and then passing off that piece of
+paper clean out of sight into uncharted regions.  And it was as if the
+ship had two captains to plan her course for her.  I had been so worried
+and restless running up and down that I had not had the patience to dress
+that day.  I had remained in my sleeping-suit, with straw slippers and a
+soft floppy hat.  The closeness of the heat in the gulf had been most
+oppressive, and the crew were used to see me wandering in that airy
+attire.
+
+“She will clear the south point as she heads now,” I whispered into his
+ear.  “Goodness only knows when, though, but certainly after dark.  I’ll
+edge her in to half a mile, as far as I may be able to judge in the
+dark—”
+
+“Be careful,” he murmured, warningly—and I realised suddenly that all my
+future, the only future for which I was fit, would perhaps go
+irretrievably to pieces in any mishap to my first command.
+
+I could not stop a moment longer in the room.  I motioned him to get out
+of sight and made my way on the poop.  That unplayful cub had the watch.
+I walked up and down for a while thinking things out, then beckoned him
+over.
+
+“Send a couple of hands to open the two quarterdeck ports,” I said,
+mildly.
+
+He actually had the impudence, or else so forgot himself in his wonder at
+such an incomprehensible order, as to repeat:
+
+“Open the quarter-deck ports!  What for, sir?”
+
+“The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell you to
+do so.  Have them open wide and fastened properly.”
+
+He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark to the
+carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating a ship’s
+quarter-deck.  I know he popped into the mate’s cabin to impart the fact
+to him because the whiskers came on deck, as it were by chance, and stole
+glances at me from below—for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose.
+
+A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined, for
+a moment, my second self.  And to find him sitting so quietly was
+surprising, like something against nature, inhuman.
+
+I developed my plan in a hurried whisper.
+
+“I shall stand in as close as I dare and then put her round.  I shall
+presently find means to smuggle you out of here into the sail-locker,
+which communicates with the lobby.  But there is an opening, a sort of
+square for hauling the sails out, which gives straight on the
+quarter-deck and which is never closed in fine weather, so as to give air
+to the sails.  When the ship’s way is deadened in stays and all the hands
+are aft at the main-braces you shall have a clear road to slip out and
+get overboard through the open quarter-deck port.  I’ve had them both
+fastened up.  Use a rope’s end to lower yourself into the water so as to
+avoid a splash—you know.  It could be heard and cause some beastly
+complication.”
+
+He kept silent for a while, then whispered, “I understand.”
+
+“I won’t be there to see you go,” I began with an effort.  “The rest . . .
+I only hope I have understood, too.”
+
+“You have.  From first to last”—and for the first time there seemed to be
+a faltering, something strained in his whisper.  He caught hold of my
+arm, but the ringing of the supper bell made me start.  He didn’t,
+though; he only released his grip.
+
+After supper I didn’t come below again till well past eight o’clock.  The
+faint, steady breeze was loaded with dew; and the wet, darkened sails
+held all there was of propelling power in it.  The night, clear and
+starry, sparkled darkly, and the opaque, lightless patches shifting
+slowly against the low stars were the drifting islets.  On the port bow
+there was a big one more distant and shadowily imposing by the great
+space of sky it eclipsed.
+
+On opening the door I had a back view of my very own self looking at a
+chart.  He had come out of the recess and was standing near the table.
+
+“Quite dark enough,” I whispered.
+
+He stepped back and leaned against my bed with a level, quiet glance.  I
+sat on the couch.  We had nothing to say to each other.  Over our heads
+the officer of the watch moved here and there.  Then I heard him move
+quickly.  I knew what that meant.  He was making for the companion; and
+presently his voice was outside my door.
+
+“We are drawing in pretty fast, sir.  Land looks rather close.”
+
+“Very well,” I answered.  “I am coming on deck directly.”
+
+I waited till he was gone out of the cuddy, then rose.  My double moved
+too.  The time had come to exchange our last whispers, for neither of us
+was ever to hear each other’s natural voice.
+
+“Look here!” I opened a drawer and took out three sovereigns.  “Take
+this, anyhow.  I’ve got six and I’d give you the lot, only I must keep a
+little money to buy some fruit and vegetables for the crew from native
+boats as we go through Sunda Straits.”
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“Take it,” I urged him, whispering desperately.  “No one can tell what—”
+
+He smiled and slapped meaningly the only pocket of the sleeping-jacket.
+It was not safe, certainly.  But I produced a large old silk handkerchief
+of mine, and tying the three pieces of gold in a corner, pressed it on
+him.  He was touched, I suppose, because he took it at last and tied it
+quickly round his waist under the jacket, on his bare skin.
+
+Our eyes met; several seconds elapsed, till, our glances still mingled, I
+extended my hand and turned the lamp out.  Then I passed through the
+cuddy, leaving the door of my room wide open. . . . . “Steward!”
+
+He was still lingering in the pantry in the greatness of his zeal, giving
+a rub-up to a plated cruet stand the last thing before going to bed.
+Being careful not to wake up the mate, whose room was opposite, I spoke
+in an undertone.
+
+He looked round anxiously.  “Sir!”
+
+“Can you get me a little hot water from the galley?”
+
+“I am afraid, sir, the galley fire’s been out for some time now.”
+
+“Go and see.”
+
+He fled up the stairs.
+
+“Now,” I whispered, loudly, into the saloon—too loudly, perhaps, but I
+was afraid I couldn’t make a sound.  He was by my side in an instant—the
+double captain slipped past the stairs—through a tiny dark passage . . .
+a sliding door.  We were in the sail-locker, scrambling on our knees over
+the sails.  A sudden thought struck me.  I saw myself wandering
+barefooted, bareheaded, the sun beating on my dark poll.  I snatched off
+my floppy hat and tried hurriedly in the dark to ram it on my other self.
+He dodged and fended off silently.  I wonder what he thought had come to
+me before he understood and suddenly desisted.  Our hands met gropingly,
+lingered united in a steady, motionless clasp for a second. . . . No word
+was breathed by either of us when they separated.
+
+I was standing quietly by the pantry door when the steward returned.
+
+“Sorry, sir.  Kettle barely warm.  Shall I light the spirit-lamp?”
+
+“Never mind.”
+
+I came out on deck slowly.  It was now a matter of conscience to shave
+the land as close as possible—for now he must go overboard whenever the
+ship was put in stays.  Must!  There could be no going back for him.
+After a moment I walked over to leeward and my heart flew into my mouth
+at the nearness of the land on the bow.  Under any other circumstances I
+would not have held on a minute longer.  The second mate had followed me
+anxiously.
+
+I looked on till I felt I could command my voice.  “She will weather,” I
+said then in a quiet tone.  “Are you going to try that, sir?” he
+stammered out incredulously.
+
+I took no notice of him and raised my tone just enough to be heard by the
+helmsman.
+
+“Keep her good full.”
+
+“Good full, sir.”
+
+The wind fanned my cheek, the sails slept, the world was silent.  The
+strain of watching the dark loom of the land grow bigger and denser was
+too much for me.  I had shut my eyes—because the ship must go closer.
+She must!  The stillness was intolerable.  Were we standing still?
+
+When I opened my eyes the second view started my heart with a thump.  The
+black southern hill of Koh-ring seemed to hang right over the ship like a
+towering fragment of the everlasting night.  On that enormous mass of
+blackness there was not a gleam to be seen, not a sound to be heard.  It
+was gliding irresistibly toward us and yet seemed already within reach of
+the hand.  I saw the vague figures of the watch grouped in the waist,
+gazing in awed silence.
+
+“Are you going on, sir,” inquired an unsteady voice at my elbow.
+
+I ignored it.  I had to go on.
+
+“Keep her full.  Don’t check her way.  That won’t do now,” I said,
+warningly.
+
+“I can’t see the sails very well,” the helmsman answered me, in strange,
+quavering tones.
+
+Was she close enough?  Already she was, I won’t say in the shadow of the
+land, but in the very blackness of it, already swallowed up as it were,
+gone too close to be recalled, gone from me altogether.
+
+“Give the mate a call,” I said to the young man who stood at my elbow as
+still as death.  “And turn all hands up.”
+
+My tone had a borrowed loudness reverberated from the height of the land.
+Several voices cried out together: “We are all on deck, sir.”
+
+Then stillness again, with the great shadow gliding closer, towering
+higher, without a light, without a sound.  Such a hush had fallen on the
+ship that she might have been a bark of the dead floating in slowly under
+the very gate of Erebus.
+
+“My God!  Where are we?”
+
+It was the mate moaning at my elbow.  He was thunderstruck, and as it
+were deprived of the moral support of his whiskers.  He clapped his hands
+and absolutely cried out, “Lost!”
+
+“Be quiet,” I said, sternly.
+
+He lowered his tone, but I saw the shadowy gesture of his despair.  “What
+are we doing here?”
+
+“Looking for the land wind.”
+
+He made as if to tear his hair, and addressed me recklessly.
+
+“She will never get out.  You have done it, sir.  I knew it’d end in
+something like this.  She will never weather, and you are too close now
+to stay.  She’ll drift ashore before she’s round.  O my God!”
+
+I caught his arm as he was raising it to batter his poor devoted head,
+and shook it violently.
+
+“She’s ashore already,” he wailed, trying to tear himself away.
+
+“Is she? . . . Keep good full there!”
+
+“Good full, sir,” cried the helmsman in a frightened, thin, child-like
+voice.
+
+I hadn’t let go the mate’s arm and went on shaking it.  “Ready about, do
+you hear?  You go forward”—shake—“and stop there”—shake—“and hold your
+noise”—shake—“and see these head-sheets properly overhauled”—shake,
+shake—shake.
+
+And all the time I dared not look toward the land lest my heart should
+fail me.  I released my grip at last and he ran forward as if fleeing for
+dear life.
+
+I wondered what my double there in the sail-locker thought of this
+commotion.  He was able to hear everything—and perhaps he was able to
+understand why, on my conscience, it had to be thus close—no less.  My
+first order “Hard alee!” re-echoed ominously under the towering shadow of
+Koh-ring as if I had shouted in a mountain gorge.  And then I watched the
+land intently.  In that smooth water and light wind it was impossible to
+feel the ship coming-to.  No!  I could not feel her.  And my second self
+was making now ready to slip out and lower himself overboard.  Perhaps he
+was gone already . . .?
+
+The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to pivot away
+from the ship’s side silently.  And now I forgot the secret stranger
+ready to depart, and remembered only that I was a total stranger to the
+ship.  I did not know her.  Would she do it?  How was she to be handled?
+
+I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly.  She was perhaps stopped, and
+her very fate hung in the balance, with the black mass of Koh-ring like
+the gate of the everlasting night towering over her taffrail.  What would
+she do now?  Had she way on her yet?  I stepped to the side swiftly, and
+on the shadowy water I could see nothing except a faint phosphorescent
+flash revealing the glassy smoothness of the sleeping surface.  It was
+impossible to tell—and I had not learned yet the feel of my ship.  Was
+she moving?  What I needed was something easily seen, a piece of paper,
+which I could throw overboard and watch.  I had nothing on me.  To run
+down for it I didn’t dare.  There was no time.  All at once my strained,
+yearning stare distinguished a white object floating within a yard of the
+ship’s side.  White on the black water.  A phosphorescent flash passed
+under it.  What was that thing? . . . I recognised my own floppy hat.  It
+must have fallen off his head . . . and he didn’t bother.
+
+Now I had what I wanted—the saving mark for my eyes.  But I hardly
+thought of my other self, now gone from the ship, to be hidden forever
+from all friendly faces, to be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth,
+with no brand of the curse on his sane forehead to stay a slaying hand
+. . . too proud to explain.
+
+And I watched the hat—the expression of my sudden pity for his mere
+flesh.  It had been meant to save his homeless head from the dangers of
+the sun.  And now—behold—it was saving the ship, by serving me for a mark
+to help out the ignorance of my strangeness.  Ha!  It was drifting
+forward, warning me just in time that the ship had gathered sternway.
+
+“Shift the helm,” I said in a low voice to the seaman standing still like
+a statue.
+
+The man’s eyes glistened wildly in the binnacle light as he jumped round
+to the other side and spun round the wheel.
+
+I walked to the break of the poop.  On the overshadowed deck all hands
+stood by the forebraces waiting for my order.  The stars ahead seemed to
+be gliding from right to left.  And all was so still in the world that I
+heard the quiet remark “She’s round,” passed in a tone of intense relief
+between two seamen.
+
+“Let go and haul.”
+
+The foreyards ran round with a great noise, amidst cheery cries.  And now
+the frightful whisker’s made themselves heard giving various orders.
+Already the ship was drawing ahead.  And I was alone with her.  Nothing!
+no one in the world should stand now between us, throwing a shadow on the
+way of silent knowledge and mute affection, the perfect communion of a
+seaman with his first command.
+
+Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a
+darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway of
+Erebus—yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of my white hat
+left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of my cabin and of
+my thoughts, as though he were my second self, had lowered himself into
+the water to take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer striking
+out for a new destiny.
+
+
+
+FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES
+A STORY OF SHALLOW WATERS
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ONE day—and that day was many years ago now—I received a long, chatty
+letter from one of my old chums and fellow-wanderers in Eastern waters.
+He was still out there, but settled down, and middle-aged; I imagined
+him—grown portly in figure and domestic in his habits; in short,
+overtaken by the fate common to all except to those who, being specially
+beloved by the gods, get knocked on the head early.  The letter was of
+the reminiscent “do you remember” kind—a wistful letter of backward
+glances.  And, amongst other things, “surely you remember old Nelson,” he
+wrote.
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Certainly.  And to begin with, his name was not
+Nelson.  The Englishmen in the Archipelago called him Nelson because it
+was more convenient, I suppose, and he never protested.  It would have
+been mere pedantry.  The true form of his name was Nielsen.  He had come
+out East long before the advent of telegraph cables, had served English
+firms, had married an English girl, had been one of us for years, trading
+and sailing in all directions through the Eastern Archipelago, across and
+around, transversely, diagonally, perpendicularly, in semi-circles, and
+zigzags, and figures of eights, for years and years.
+
+There was no nook or cranny of these tropical waters that the enterprise
+of old Nelson (or Nielsen) had not penetrated in an eminently pacific
+way.  His tracks, if plotted out, would have covered the map of the
+Archipelago like a cobweb—all of it, with the sole exception of the
+Philippines.  He would never approach that part, from a strange dread of
+Spaniards, or, to be exact, of the Spanish authorities.  What he imagined
+they could do to him it is impossible to say.  Perhaps at some time in
+his life he had read some stories of the Inquisition.
+
+But he was in general afraid of what he called “authorities”; not the
+English authorities, which he trusted and respected, but the other two of
+that part of the world.  He was not so horrified at the Dutch as he was
+at the Spaniards, but he was even more mistrustful of them.  Very
+mistrustful indeed.  The Dutch, in his view, were capable of “playing any
+ugly trick on a man” who had the misfortune to displease them.  There
+were their laws and regulations, but they had no notion of fair play in
+applying them.  It was really pitiable to see the anxious circumspection
+of his dealings with some official or other, and remember that this man
+had been known to stroll up to a village of cannibals in New Guinea in a
+quiet, fearless manner (and note that he was always fleshy all his life,
+and, if I may say so, an appetising morsel) on some matter of barter that
+did not amount perhaps to fifty pounds in the end.
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Rather!  Truly, none of us in my generation had
+known him in his active days.  He was “retired” in our time.  He had
+bought, or else leased, part of a small island from the Sultan of a
+little group called the Seven Isles, not far north from Banka.  It was, I
+suppose, a legitimate transaction, but I have no doubt that had he been
+an Englishman the Dutch would have discovered a reason to fire him out
+without ceremony.  In this connection the real form of his name stood him
+in good stead.  In the character of an unassuming Dane whose conduct was
+most correct, they let him be.  With all his money engaged in cultivation
+he was naturally careful not to give even the shadow of offence, and it
+was mostly for prudential reasons of that sort that he did not look with
+a favourable eye on Jasper Allen.  But of that later.  Yes!  One
+remembered well enough old Nelson’s big, hospitable bungalow erected on a
+shelving point of land, his portly form, costumed generally in a white
+shirt and trousers (he had a confirmed habit of taking off his alpaca
+jacket on the slightest provocation), his round blue eyes, his straggly,
+sandy-white moustache sticking out all ways like the quills of the
+fretful porcupine, his propensity to sit down suddenly and fan himself
+with his hat.  But there’s no use concealing the fact that what one
+remembered really was his daughter, who at that time came out to live
+with him—and be a sort of Lady of the Isles.
+
+Freya Nelson (or Nielsen) was the kind of girl one remembers.  The oval
+of her face was perfect; and within that fascinating frame the most happy
+disposition of line and feature, with an admirable complexion, gave an
+impression of health, strength, and what I might call unconscious
+self-confidence—a most pleasant and, as it were, whimsical determination.
+I will not compare her eyes to violets, because the real shade of their
+colour was peculiar, not so dark and more lustrous.  They were of the
+wide-open kind, and looked at one frankly in every mood.  I never did see
+the long, dark eyelashes lowered—I dare say Jasper Allen did, being a
+privileged person—but I have no doubt that the expression must have been
+charming in a complex way.  She could—Jasper told me once with a
+touchingly imbecile exultation—sit on her hair.  I dare say, I dare say.
+It was not for me to behold these wonders; I was content to admire the
+neat and becoming way she used to do it up so as not to conceal the good
+shape of her head.  And this wealth of hair was so glossy that when the
+screens of the west verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there,
+or in the shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to
+give out a golden light of its own.
+
+She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of walking length,
+showing her neat, laced, brown boots.  If there was any colour about her
+costume it was just a bit of blue perhaps.  No exertion seemed to
+distress her.  I have seen her land from the dinghy after a long pull in
+the sun (she rowed herself about a good deal) with no quickened breath
+and not a single hair out of its place.  In the morning when she came out
+on the verandah for the first look westward, Sumatra way, over the sea,
+she seemed as fresh and sparkling as a dewdrop.  But a dewdrop is
+evanescent, and there was nothing evanescent about Freya.  I remember her
+round, solid arms with the fine wrists, and her broad, capable hands with
+tapering fingers.
+
+I don’t know whether she was actually born at sea, but I do know that up
+to twelve years of age she sailed about with her parents in various
+ships.  After old Nelson lost his wife it became a matter of serious
+concern for him what to do with the girl.  A kind lady in Singapore,
+touched by his dumb grief and deplorable perplexity, offered to take
+charge of Freya.  This arrangement lasted some six years, during which
+old Nelson (or Nielsen) “retired” and established, himself on his island,
+and then it was settled (the kind lady going away to Europe) that his
+daughter should join him.
+
+As the first and most important preparation for that event the old fellow
+ordered from his Singapore agent a Steyn and Ebhart’s “upright grand.”  I
+was then commanding a little steamer in the island trade, and it fell to
+my lot to take it out to him, so I know something of Freya’s “upright
+grand.”  We landed the enormous packing-case with difficulty on a flat
+piece of rock amongst some bushes, nearly knocking the bottom out of one
+of my boats in the course of that nautical operation.  Then, all my crew
+assisting, engineers and firemen included, by the exercise of much
+anxious ingenuity, and by means of rollers, levers, tackles, and inclined
+planes of soaped planks, toiling in the sun like ancient Egyptians at the
+building of a pyramid, we got it as far as the house and up on to the
+edge of the west verandah—which was the actual drawing-room of the
+bungalow.  There, the case being ripped off cautiously, the beautiful
+rosewood monster stood revealed at last.  In reverent excitement we
+coaxed it against the wall and drew the first free breath of the day.  It
+was certainly the heaviest movable object on that islet since the
+creation of the world.  The volume of sound it gave out in that bungalow
+(which acted as a sounding-board) was really astonishing.  It thundered
+sweetly right over the sea.  Jasper Allen told me that early of a morning
+on the deck of the _Bonito_ (his wonderfully fast and pretty brig) he
+could hear Freya playing her scales quite distinctly.  But the fellow
+always anchored foolishly close to the point, as I told him more than
+once.  Of course, these seas are almost uniformly serene, and the Seven
+Isles is a particularly calm and cloudless spot as a rule.  But still,
+now and again, an afternoon thunderstorm over Banka, or even one of these
+vicious thick squalls, from the distant Sumatra coast, would make a
+sudden sally upon the group, enveloping it for a couple of hours in
+whirlwinds and bluish-black murk of a particularly sinister aspect.
+Then, with the lowered rattan-screens rattling desperately in the wind
+and the bungalow shaking all over, Freya would sit down to the piano and
+play fierce Wagner music in the flicker of blinding flashes, with
+thunderbolts falling all round, enough to make your hair stand on end;
+and Jasper would remain stock still on the verandah, adoring the back
+view of her supple, swaying figure, the miraculous sheen of her fair
+head, the rapid hands on the keys, the white nape of her neck—while the
+brig, down at the point there, surged at her cables within a hundred
+yards of nasty, shiny, black rock-heads.  Ugh!
+
+And this, if you please, for no reason but that, when he went on board at
+night and laid his head on the pillow, he should feel that he was as near
+as he could conveniently get to his Freya slumbering in the bungalow.
+Did you ever!  And, mind, this brig was the home to be—their home—the
+floating paradise which he was gradually fitting out like a yacht to sail
+his life blissfully away in with Freya.  Imbecile!  But the fellow was
+always taking chances.
+
+One day, I remember I watched with Freya on the verandah the brig
+approaching the point from the northward.  I suppose Jasper made the girl
+out with his long glass.  What does he do?  Instead of standing on for
+another mile and a half along the shoals and then tacking for the
+anchorage in a proper and seamanlike manner, he spies a gap between two
+disgusting old jagged reefs, puts the helm down suddenly, and shoots the
+brig through, with all her sails shaking and rattling, so that we could
+hear the racket on the verandah.  I drew my breath through my teeth, I
+can tell you, and Freya swore.  Yes!  She clenched her capable fists and
+stamped with her pretty brown boot and said “Damn!”  Then, looking at me
+with a little heightened colour—not much—she remarked, “I forgot you were
+there,” and laughed.  To be sure, to be sure.  When Jasper was in sight
+she was not likely to remember that anybody else in the world was there.
+In my concern at this mad trick I couldn’t help appealing to her
+sympathetic common sense.
+
+“Isn’t he a fool?” I said with feeling.
+
+“Perfect idiot,” she agreed warmly, looking at me straight with her
+wide-open, earnest eyes and the dimple of a smile on her cheek.
+
+“And that,” I pointed out to her, “just to save twenty minutes or so in
+meeting you.”
+
+We heard the anchor go down, and then she became very resolute and
+threatening.
+
+“Wait a bit.  I’ll teach him.”
+
+She went into her own room and shut the door, leaving me alone on the
+verandah with my instructions.  Long before the brig’s sails were furled,
+Jasper came up three steps at a time, forgetting to say how d’ye do, and
+looking right and left eagerly.
+
+“Where’s Freya?  Wasn’t she here just now?”
+
+When I explained to him that he was to be deprived of Miss Freya’s
+presence for a whole hour, “just to teach him,” he said I had put her up
+to it, no doubt, and that he feared he would have yet to shoot me some
+day.  She and I were getting too thick together.  Then he flung himself
+into a chair, and tried to talk to me about his trip.  But the funny
+thing was that the fellow actually suffered.  I could see it.  His voice
+failed him, and he sat there dumb, looking at the door with the face of a
+man in pain.  Fact. . . . And the next still funnier thing was that the
+girl calmly walked out of her room in less than ten minutes.  And then I
+left.  I mean to say that I went away to seek old Nelson (or Nielsen) on
+the back verandah, which was his own special nook in the distribution of
+that house, with the kind purpose of engaging him in conversation lest he
+should start roaming about and intrude unwittingly where he was not
+wanted just then.
+
+He knew that the brig had arrived, though he did not know that Jasper was
+already with his daughter.  I suppose he didn’t think it was possible in
+the time.  A father naturally wouldn’t.  He suspected that Allen was
+sweet on his girl; the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, most
+of the traders in the Archipelago, and all sorts and conditions of men in
+the town of Singapore were aware of it.  But he was not capable of
+appreciating how far the girl was gone on the fellow.  He had an idea
+that Freya was too sensible to ever be gone on anybody—I mean to an
+unmanageable extent.  No; it was not that which made him sit on the back
+verandah and worry himself in his unassuming manner during Jasper’s
+visits.  What he worried about were the Dutch “authorities.”  For it is a
+fact that the Dutch looked askance at the doings of Jasper Allen, owner
+and master of the brig _Bonito_.  They considered him much too
+enterprising in his trading.  I don’t know that he ever did anything
+illegal; but it seems to me that his immense activity was repulsive to
+their stolid character and slow-going methods.  Anyway, in old Nelson’s
+opinion, the captain of the _Bonito_ was a smart sailor, and a nice young
+man, but not a desirable acquaintance upon the whole.  Somewhat
+compromising, you understand.  On the other hand, he did not like to tell
+Jasper in so many words to keep away.  Poor old Nelson himself was a nice
+fellow.  I believe he would have shrunk from hurting the feelings even of
+a mop-headed cannibal, unless, perhaps, under very strong provocation.  I
+mean the feelings, not the bodies.  As against spears, knives, hatchets,
+clubs, or arrows, old Nelson had proved himself capable of taking his own
+part.  In every other respect he had a timorous soul.  So he sat on the
+back verandah with a concerned expression, and whenever the voices of his
+daughter and Jasper Allen reached him, he would blow out his cheeks and
+let the air escape with a dismal sound, like a much tried man.
+
+Naturally I derided his fears which he, more or less, confided to me.  He
+had a certain regard for my judgment, and a certain respect, not for my
+moral qualities, however, but for the good terms I was supposed to be on
+with the Dutch “authorities.”  I knew for a fact that his greatest
+bugbear, the Governor of Banka—a charming, peppery, hearty, retired
+rear-admiral—had a distinct liking for him.  This consoling assurance
+which I used always to put forward, made old Nelson (or Nielsen) brighten
+up for a moment; but in the end he would shake his head doubtfully, as
+much as to say that this was all very well, but that there were depths in
+the Dutch official nature which no one but himself had ever fathomed.
+Perfectly ridiculous.
+
+On this occasion I am speaking of, old Nelson was even fretty; for while
+I was trying to entertain him with a very funny and somewhat scandalous
+adventure which happened to a certain acquaintance of ours in Saigon, he
+exclaimed suddenly:
+
+“What the devil he wants to turn up here for!”
+
+Clearly he had not heard a word of the anecdote.  And this annoyed me,
+because the anecdote was really good.  I stared at him.
+
+“Come, come!” I cried.  “Don’t you know what Jasper Allen is turning up
+here for?”
+
+This was the first open allusion I had ever made to the true state of
+affairs between Jasper and his daughter.  He took it very calmly.
+
+“Oh, Freya is a sensible girl!” he murmured absently, his mind’s eye
+obviously fixed on the “authorities.”  No; Freya was no fool.  He was not
+concerned about that.  He didn’t mind it in the least.  The fellow was
+just company for her; he amused the girl; nothing more.
+
+When the perspicacious old chap left off mumbling, all was still in the
+house.  The other two were amusing themselves very quietly, and no doubt
+very heartily.  What more absorbing and less noisy amusement could they
+have found than to plan their future?  Side by side on the verandah they
+must have been looking at the brig, the third party in that fascinating
+game.  Without her there would have been no future.  She was the fortune
+and the home, and the great free world for them.  Who was it that likened
+a ship to a prison?  May I be ignominiously hanged at a yardarm if that’s
+true.  The white sails of that craft were the white wings—pinions, I
+believe, would be the more poetical style—well, the white pinions, of
+their soaring love.  Soaring as regards Jasper.  Freya, being a woman,
+kept a better hold of the mundane connections of this affair.
+
+But Jasper was elevated in the true sense of the word ever since the day
+when, after they had been gazing at the brig in one of those decisive
+silences that alone establish a perfect communion between creatures
+gifted with speech, he proposed that she should share the ownership of
+that treasure with him.  Indeed, he presented the brig to her altogether.
+But then his heart was in the brig since the day he bought her in Manilla
+from a certain middle-aged Peruvian, in a sober suit of black broadcloth,
+enigmatic and sententious, who, for all I know, might have stolen her on
+the South American coast, whence he said he had come over to the
+Philippines “for family reasons.”  This “for family reasons” was
+distinctly good.  No true _caballero_ would care to push on inquiries
+after such a statement.
+
+Indeed, Jasper was quite the _caballero_.  The brig herself was then all
+black and enigmatical, and very dirty; a tarnished gem of the sea, or,
+rather, a neglected work of art.  For he must have been an artist, the
+obscure builder who had put her body together on lovely lines out of the
+hardest tropical timber fastened with the purest copper.  Goodness only
+knows in what part of the world she was built.  Jasper himself had not
+been able to ascertain much of her history from his sententious,
+saturnine Peruvian—if the fellow was a Peruvian, and not the devil
+himself in disguise, as Jasper jocularly pretended to believe.  My
+opinion is that she was old enough to have been one of the last pirates,
+a slaver perhaps, or else an opium clipper of the early days, if not an
+opium smuggler.
+
+However that may be, she was as sound as on the day she first took the
+water, sailed like a witch, steered like a little boat, and, like some
+fair women of adventurous life famous in history, seemed to have the
+secret of perpetual youth; so that there was nothing unnatural in Jasper
+Allen treating her like a lover.  And that treatment restored the lustre
+of her beauty.  He clothed her in many coats of the very best white paint
+so skilfully, carefully, artistically put on and kept clean by his
+badgered crew of picked Malays, that no costly enamel such as jewellers
+use for their work could have looked better and felt smoother to the
+touch.  A narrow gilt moulding defined her elegant sheer as she sat on
+the water, eclipsing easily the professional good looks of any pleasure
+yacht that ever came to the East in those days.  For myself, I must say I
+prefer a moulding of deep crimson colour on a white hull.  It gives a
+stronger relief besides being less expensive; and I told Jasper so.  But
+no, nothing less than the best gold-leaf would do, because no decoration
+could be gorgeous enough for the future abode of his Freya.
+
+His feelings for the brig and for the girl were as indissolubly united in
+his heart as you may fuse two precious metals together in one crucible.
+And the flame was pretty hot, I can assure you.  It induced in him a
+fierce inward restlessness both of activity and desire.  Too fine in
+face, with a lateral wave in his chestnut hair, spare, long-limbed, with
+an eager glint in his steely eyes and quick, brusque movements, he made
+me think sometimes of a flashing sword-blade perpetually leaping out of
+the scabbard.  It was only when he was near the girl, when he had her
+there to look at, that this peculiarly tense attitude was replaced by a
+grave devout watchfulness of her slightest movements and utterances.  Her
+cool, resolute, capable, good-humoured self-possession seemed to steady
+his heart.  Was it the magic of her face, of her voice, of her glances
+which calmed him so?  Yet these were the very things one must believe
+which had set his imagination ablaze—if love begins in imagination.  But
+I am no man to discuss such mysteries, and it strikes me that we have
+neglected poor old Nelson inflating his cheeks in a state of worry on the
+back verandah.
+
+I pointed out to him that, after all, Jasper was not a very frequent
+visitor.  He and his brig worked hard all over the Archipelago.  But all
+old Nelson said, and he said it uneasily, was:
+
+“I hope Heemskirk won’t turn up here while the brig’s about.”
+
+Getting up a scare about Heemskirk now!  Heemskirk! . . . Really, one
+hadn’t the patience—
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+FOR, pray, who was Heemskirk?  You shall see at once how unreasonable
+this dread of Heemskirk. . . . Certainly, his nature was malevolent
+enough.  That was obvious, directly you heard him laugh.  Nothing gives
+away more a man’s secret disposition than the unguarded ring of his
+laugh.  But, bless my soul! if we were to start at every evil guffaw like
+a hare at every sound, we shouldn’t be fit for anything but the solitude
+of a desert, or the seclusion of a hermitage.  And even there we should
+have to put up with the unavoidable company of the devil.
+
+However, the devil is a considerable personage, who has known better days
+and has moved high up in the hierarchy of Celestial Host; but in the
+hierarchy of mere earthly Dutchmen, Heemskirk, whose early days could not
+have been very splendid, was merely a naval officer forty years of age,
+of no particular connections or ability to boast of.  He was commanding
+the _Neptun_, a little gunboat employed on dreary patrol duty up and down
+the Archipelago, to look after the traders.  Not a very exalted position
+truly.  I tell you, just a common middle-aged lieutenant of some
+twenty-five years’ service and sure to be retired before long—that’s all.
+
+He never bothered his head very much as to what was going on in the Seven
+Isles group till he learned from some talk in Mintok or Palembang, I
+suppose, that there was a pretty girl living there.  Curiosity, I
+presume, caused him to go poking around that way, and then, after he had
+once seen Freya, he made a practice of calling at the group whenever he
+found himself within half a day’s steaming from it.
+
+I don’t mean to say that Heemskirk was a typical Dutch naval officer.  I
+have seen enough of them not to fall into that absurd mistake.  He had a
+big, clean-shaven face; great flat, brown cheeks, with a thin, hooked
+nose and a small, pursy mouth squeezed in between.  There were a few
+silver threads in his black hair, and his unpleasant eyes were nearly
+black, too.  He had a surly way of casting side glances without moving
+his head, which was set low on a short, round neck.  A thick, round trunk
+in a dark undress jacket with gold shoulder-straps, was sustained by a
+straddly pair of thick, round legs, in white drill trousers.  His round
+skull under a white cap looked as if it were immensely thick too, but
+there were brains enough in it to discover and take advantage maliciously
+of poor old Nelson’s nervousness before everything that was invested with
+the merest shred of authority.
+
+Heemskirk would land on the point and perambulate silently every part of
+the plantation as if the whole place belonged to him, before he went to
+the house.  On the verandah he would take the best chair, and would stay
+for tiffin or dinner, just simply stay on, without taking the trouble to
+invite himself by so much as a word.
+
+He ought to have been kicked, if only for his manner to Miss Freya.  Had
+he been a naked savage, armed with spears and poisoned arrows, old Nelson
+(or Nielsen) would have gone for him with his bare fists.  But these gold
+shoulder-straps—Dutch shoulder-straps at that—were enough to terrify the
+old fellow; so he let the beggar treat him with heavy contempt, devour
+his daughter with his eyes, and drink the best part of his little stock
+of wine.
+
+I saw something of this, and on one occasion I tried to pass a remark on
+the subject.  It was pitiable to see the trouble in old Nelson’s round
+eyes.  At first he cried out that the lieutenant was a good friend of
+his; a very good fellow.  I went on staring at him pretty hard, so that
+at last he faltered, and had to own that, of course, Heemskirk was not a
+very genial person outwardly, but all the same at bottom. . . .
+
+“I haven’t yet met a genial Dutchman out here,” I interrupted.
+“Geniality, after all, is not of much consequence, but don’t you see—”
+
+Nelson looked suddenly so frightened at what I was going to say that I
+hadn’t the heart to go on.  Of course, I was going to tell him that the
+fellow was after his girl.  That just describes it exactly.  What
+Heemskirk might have expected or what he thought he could do, I don’t
+know.  For all I can tell, he might have imagined himself irresistible,
+or have taken Freya for what she was not, on account of her lively,
+assured, unconstrained manner.  But there it is.  He was after that girl.
+Nelson could see it well enough.  Only he preferred to ignore it.  He did
+not want to be told of it.
+
+“All I want is to live in peace and quietness with the Dutch
+authorities,” he mumbled shamefacedly.
+
+He was incurable.  I was sorry for him, and I really think Miss Freya was
+sorry for her father, too.  She restrained herself for his sake, and as
+everything she did she did it simply, unaffectedly, and even good
+humouredly.  No small effort that, because in Heemskirk’s attentions
+there was an insolent touch of scorn, hard to put up with.  Dutchmen of
+that sort are over-bearing to their inferiors, and that officer of the
+king looked upon old Nelson and Freya as quite beneath him in every way.
+
+I can’t say I felt sorry for Freya.  She was not the sort of girl to take
+anything tragically.  One could feel for her and sympathise with her
+difficulty, but she seemed equal to any situation.  It was rather
+admiration she extorted by her competent serenity.  It was only when
+Jasper and Heemskirk were together at the bungalow, as it happened now
+and then, that she felt the strain, and even then it was not for
+everybody to see.  My eyes alone could detect a faint shadow on the
+radiance of her personality.  Once I could not help saying to her
+appreciatively:
+
+“Upon my word you are wonderful.”
+
+She let it pass with a faint smile.
+
+“The great thing is to prevent Jasper becoming unreasonable,” she said;
+and I could see real concern lurking in the quiet depths of her frank
+eyes gazing straight at me.  “You will help to keep him quiet, won’t
+you?”
+
+“Of course, we must keep him quiet,” I declared, understanding very well
+the nature of her anxiety.  “He’s such a lunatic, too, when he’s roused.”
+
+“He is!” she assented, in a soft tone; for it was our joke to speak of
+Jasper abusively.  “But I have tamed him a bit.  He’s quite a good boy
+now.”
+
+“He would squash Heemskirk like a blackbeetle all the same,” I remarked.
+
+“Rather!” she murmured.  “And that wouldn’t do,” she added quickly.
+“Imagine the state poor papa would get into.  Besides, I mean to be
+mistress of the dear brig and sail about these seas, not go off wandering
+ten thousand miles away from here.”
+
+“The sooner you are on board to look after the man and the brig the
+better,” I said seriously.  “They need you to steady them both a bit.  I
+don’t think Jasper will ever get sobered down till he has carried you off
+from this island.  You don’t see him when he is away from you, as I do.
+He’s in a state of perpetual elation which almost frightens me.”
+
+At this she smiled again, and then looked serious.  For it could not be
+unpleasant to her to be told of her power, and she had some sense of her
+responsibility.  She slipped away from me suddenly, because Heemskirk,
+with old Nelson in attendance at his elbow, was coming up the steps of
+the verandah.  Directly his head came above the level of the floor his
+ill-natured black eyes shot glances here and there.
+
+“Where’s your girl, Nelson?” he asked, in a tone as if every soul in the
+world belonged to him.  And then to me: “The goddess has flown, eh?”
+
+Nelson’s Cove—as we used to call it—was crowded with shipping that day.
+There was first my steamer, then the _Neptun_ gunboat further out, and
+the _Bonito_, brig, anchored as usual so close inshore that it looked as
+if, with a little skill and judgment, one could shy a hat from the
+verandah on to her scrupulously holystoned quarter-deck.  Her brasses
+flashed like gold, her white body-paint had a sheen like a satin robe.
+The rake of her varnished spars and the big yards, squared to a hair,
+gave her a sort of martial elegance.  She was a beauty.  No wonder that
+in possession of a craft like that and the promise of a girl like Freya,
+Jasper lived in a state of perpetual elation fit, perhaps, for the
+seventh heaven, but not exactly safe in a world like ours.
+
+I remarked politely to Heemskirk that, with three guests in the house,
+Miss Freya had no doubt domestic matters to attend to.  I knew, of
+course, that she had gone to meet Jasper at a certain cleared spot on the
+banks of the only stream on Nelson’s little island.  The commander of the
+_Neptun_ gave me a dubious black look, and began to make himself at home,
+flinging his thick, cylindrical carcass into a rocking-chair, and
+unbuttoning his coat.  Old Nelson sat down opposite him in a most
+unassuming manner, staring anxiously with his round eyes and fanning
+himself with his hat.  I tried to make conversation to while the time
+away; not an easy task with a morose, enamoured Dutchman constantly
+looking from one door to another and answering one’s advances either with
+a jeer or a grunt.
+
+However, the evening passed off all right.  Luckily, there is a degree of
+bliss too intense for elation.  Jasper was quiet and concentrated
+silently in watching Freya.  As we went on board our respective ships I
+offered to give his brig a tow out next morning.  I did it on purpose to
+get him away at the earliest possible moment.  So in the first cold light
+of the dawn we passed by the gunboat lying black and still without a
+sound in her at the mouth of the glassy cove.  But with tropical
+swiftness the sun had climbed twice its diameter above the horizon before
+we had rounded the reef and got abreast of the point.  On the biggest
+boulder there stood Freya, all in white and, in her helmet, like a
+feminine and martial statue with a rosy face, as I could see very well
+with my glasses.  She fluttered an expressive handkerchief, and Jasper,
+running up the main rigging of the white and warlike brig, waved his hat
+in response.  Shortly afterwards we parted, I to the northward and Jasper
+heading east with a light wind on the quarter, for Banjermassin and two
+other ports, I believe it was, that trip.
+
+This peaceful occasion was the last on which I saw all these people
+assembled together; the charmingly fresh and resolute Freya, the
+innocently round-eyed old Nelson, Jasper, keen, long limbed, lean faced,
+admirably self-contained, in his manner, because inconceivably happy
+under the eyes of his Freya; all three tall, fair, and blue-eyed in
+varied shades, and amongst them the swarthy, arrogant, black-haired
+Dutchman, shorter nearly by a head, and so much thicker than any of them
+that he seemed to be a creature capable of inflating itself, a grotesque
+specimen of mankind from some other planet.
+
+The contrast struck me all at once as we stood in the lighted verandah,
+after rising from the dinner-table.  I was fascinated by it for the rest
+of the evening, and I remember the impression of something funny and
+ill-omened at the same time in it to this day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A FEW weeks later, coming early one morning into Singapore, from a
+journey to the southward, I saw the brig lying at anchor in all her usual
+symmetry and splendour of aspect as though she had been taken out of a
+glass case and put delicately into the water that very moment.
+
+She was well out in the roadstead, but I steamed in and took up my
+habitual berth close in front of the town.  Before we had finished
+breakfast a quarter-master came to tell me that Captain Allen’s boat was
+coming our way.
+
+His smart gig dashed alongside, and in two bounds he was up our
+accommodation-ladder and shaking me by the hand with his nervous grip,
+his eyes snapping inquisitively, for he supposed I had called at the
+Seven Isles group on my way.  I reached into my pocket for a nicely
+folded little note, which he grabbed out of my hand without ceremony and
+carried off on the bridge to read by himself.  After a decent interval I
+followed him up there, and found him pacing to and fro; for the nature of
+his emotions made him restless even in his most thoughtful moments.
+
+He shook his head at me triumphantly.
+
+“Well, my dear boy,” he said, “I shall be counting the days now.”
+
+I understood what he meant.  I knew that those young people had settled
+already on a runaway match without official preliminaries.  This was
+really a logical decision.  Old Nelson (or Nielsen) would never have
+agreed to give up Freya peaceably to this compromising Jasper.  Heavens!
+What would the Dutch authorities say to such a match!  It sounds too
+ridiculous for words.  But there’s nothing in the world more selfishly
+hard than a timorous man in a fright about his “little estate,” as old
+Nelson used to call it in apologetic accents.  A heart permeated by a
+particular sort of funk is proof against sense, feeling, and ridicule.
+It’s a flint.
+
+Jasper would have made his request all the same and then taken his own
+way; but it was Freya who decided that nothing should be said, on the
+ground that, “Papa would only worry himself to distraction.”  He was
+capable of making himself ill, and then she wouldn’t have the heart to
+leave him.  Here you have the sanity of feminine outlook and the
+frankness of feminine reasoning.  And for the rest, Miss Freya could read
+“poor dear papa” in the way a woman reads a man—like an open book.  His
+daughter once gone, old Nelson would not worry himself.  He would raise a
+great outcry, and make no end of lamentable fuss, but that’s not the same
+thing.  The real agonies of indecision, the anguish of conflicting
+feelings would be spared to him.  And as he was too unassuming to rage,
+he would, after a period of lamentation, devote himself to his “little
+estate,” and to keeping on good terms with the authorities.
+
+Time would do the rest.  And Freya thought she could afford to wait,
+while ruling over her own home in the beautiful brig and over the man who
+loved her.  This was the life for her who had learned to walk on a ship’s
+deck.  She was a ship-child, a sea-girl if ever there was one.  And of
+course she loved Jasper and trusted him; but there was a shade of anxiety
+in her pride.  It is very fine and romantic to possess for your very own
+a finely tempered and trusty sword-blade, but whether it is the best
+weapon to counter with the common cudgel-play of Fate—that’s another
+question.
+
+She knew that she had the more substance of the two—you needn’t try any
+cheap jokes, I am not talking of their weights.  She was just a little
+anxious while he was away, and she had me who, being a tried confidant,
+took the liberty to whisper frequently “The sooner the better.”  But
+there was a peculiar vein of obstinacy in Miss Freya, and her reason for
+delay was characteristic.  “Not before my twenty-first birthday; so that
+there shall be no mistake in people’s minds as to me being old enough to
+know what I am doing.”
+
+Jasper’s feelings were in such subjection that he had never even
+remonstrated against the decree.  She was just splendid, whatever she did
+or said, and there was an end of it for him.  I believe that he was
+subtle enough to be even flattered at bottom—at times.  And then to
+console him he had the brig which seemed pervaded by the spirit of Freya,
+since whatever he did on board was always done under the supreme sanction
+of his love.
+
+“Yes.  I’ll soon begin to count the days,” he repeated.  “Eleven months
+more.  I’ll have to crowd three trips into that.”
+
+“Mind you don’t come to grief trying to do too much,” I admonished him.
+But he dismissed my caution with a laugh and an elated gesture.  Pooh!
+Nothing, nothing could happen to the brig, he cried, as if the flame of
+his heart could light up the dark nights of uncharted seas, and the image
+of Freya serve for an unerring beacon amongst hidden shoals; as if the
+winds had to wait on his future, the stars fight for it in their courses;
+as if the magic of his passion had the power to float a ship on a drop of
+dew or sail her through the eye of a needle—simply because it was her
+magnificent lot to be the servant of a love so full of grace as to make
+all the ways of the earth safe, resplendent, and easy.
+
+“I suppose,” I said, after he had finished laughing at my innocent enough
+remark, “I suppose you will be off to-day.”
+
+That was what he meant to do.  He had not gone at daylight only because
+he expected me to come in.
+
+“And only fancy what has happened yesterday,” he went on.  “My mate left
+me suddenly.  Had to.  And as there’s nobody to be found at a short
+notice I am going to take Schultz with me.  The notorious Schultz!  Why
+don’t you jump out of your skin?  I tell you I went and unearthed Schultz
+late last evening, after no end of trouble.  ‘I am your man, captain,’ he
+says, in that wonderful voice of his, ‘but I am sorry to confess I have
+practically no clothes to my back.  I have had to sell all my wardrobe to
+get a little food from day to day.’  What a voice that man has got.  Talk
+about moving stones!  But people seem to get used to it.  I had never
+seen him before, and, upon my word, I felt suddenly tears rising to my
+eyes.  Luckily it was dusk.  He was sitting very quiet under a tree in a
+native compound as thin as a lath, and when I peered down at him all he
+had on was an old cotton singlet and a pair of ragged pyjamas.  I bought
+him six white suits and two pairs of canvas shoes.  Can’t clear the ship
+without a mate.  Must have somebody.  I am going on shore presently to
+sign him on, and I shall take him with me as I go back on board to get
+under way.  Now, I am a lunatic—am I not?  Mad, of course.  Come on!  Lay
+it on thick.  Let yourself go.  I like to see you get excited.”
+
+He so evidently expected me to scold that I took especial pleasure in
+exaggerating the calmness of my attitude.
+
+“The worst that can be brought up against Schultz,” I began, folding my
+arms and speaking dispassionately, “is an awkward habit of stealing the
+stores of every ship he has ever been in.  He will do it.  That’s really
+all that’s wrong.  I don’t credit absolutely that story Captain Robinson
+tells of Schultz conspiring in Chantabun with some ruffians in a Chinese
+junk to steal the anchor off the starboard bow of the _Bohemian Girl_
+schooner.  Robinson’s story is too ingenious altogether.  That other tale
+of the engineers of the _Nan-Shan_ finding Schultz at midnight in the
+engine-room busy hammering at the brass bearings to carry them off for
+sale on shore seems to me more authentic.  Apart from this little
+weakness, let me tell you that Schultz is a smarter sailor than many who
+never took a drop of drink in their lives, and perhaps no worse morally
+than some men you and I know who have never stolen the value of a penny.
+He may not be a desirable person to have on board one’s ship, but since
+you have no choice he may be made to do, I believe.  The important thing
+is to understand his psychology.  Don’t give him any money till you have
+done with him.  Not a cent, if he begs ever so.  For as sure as Fate the
+moment you give him any money he will begin to steal.  Just remember
+that.”
+
+I enjoyed Jasper’s incredulous surprise.
+
+“The devil he will!” he cried.  “What on earth for?  Aren’t you trying to
+pull my leg, old boy?”
+
+“No.  I’m not.  You must understand Schultz’s psychology.  He’s neither a
+loafer nor a cadger.  He’s not likely to wander about looking for
+somebody to stand him drinks.  But suppose he goes on shore with five
+dollars, or fifty for that matter, in his pocket?  After the third or
+fourth glass he becomes fuddled and charitable.  He either drops his
+money all over the place, or else distributes the lot around; gives it to
+any one who will take it.  Then it occurs to him that the night is young
+yet, and that he may require a good many more drinks for himself and his
+friends before morning.  So he starts off cheerfully for his ship.  His
+legs never get affected nor his head either in the usual way.  He gets
+aboard and simply grabs the first thing that seems to him suitable—the
+cabin lamp, a coil of rope, a bag of biscuits, a drum of oil—and converts
+it into money without thinking twice about it.  This is the process and
+no other.  You have only to look out that he doesn’t get a start.  That’s
+all.”
+
+“Confound his psychology,” muttered Jasper.  “But a man with a voice like
+his is fit to talk to the angels.  Is he incurable do you think?”
+
+I said that I thought so.  Nobody had prosecuted him yet, but no one
+would employ him any longer.  His end would be, I feared, to starve in
+some hole or other.
+
+“Ah, well,” reflected Jasper.  “The _Bonito_ isn’t trading to any ports
+of civilisation.  That’ll make it easier for him to keep straight.”
+
+That was true.  The brig’s business was on uncivilised coasts, with
+obscure rajahs dwelling in nearly unknown bays; with native settlements
+up mysterious rivers opening their sombre, forest-lined estuaries among a
+welter of pale green reefs and dazzling sand-banks, in lonely straits of
+calm blue water all aglitter with sunshine.  Alone, far from the beaten
+tracks, she glided, all white, round dark, frowning headlands, stole out,
+silent like a ghost, from behind points of land stretching out all black
+in the moonlight; or lay hove-to, like a sleeping sea-bird, under the
+shadow of some nameless mountain waiting for a signal.  She would be
+glimpsed suddenly on misty, squally days dashing disdainfully aside the
+short aggressive waves of the Java Sea; or be seen far, far away, a tiny
+dazzling white speck flying across the brooding purple masses of
+thunderclouds piled up on the horizon.  Sometimes, on the rare mail
+tracks, where civilisation brushes against wild mystery, when the naïve
+passengers crowding along the rail exclaimed, pointing at her with
+interest: “Oh, here’s a yacht!” the Dutch captain, with a hostile glance,
+would grunt contemptuously: “Yacht!  No!  That’s only English Jasper.  A
+pedlar—”
+
+“A good seaman you say,” ejaculated Jasper, still in the matter of the
+hopeless Schultz with the wonderfully touching voice.
+
+“First rate.  Ask any one.  Quite worth having—only impossible,” I
+declared.
+
+“He shall have his chance to reform in the brig,” said Jasper, with a
+laugh.  “There will be no temptations either to drink or steal where I am
+going to this time.”
+
+I didn’t press him for anything more definite on that point.  In fact,
+intimate as we were, I had a pretty clear notion of the general run of
+his business.
+
+But as we are going ashore in his gig he asked suddenly: “By the way, do
+you know where Heemskirk is?”
+
+I eyed him covertly, and was reassured.  He had asked the question, not
+as a lover, but as a trader.  I told him that I had heard in Palembang
+that the _Neptun_ was on duty down about Flores and Sumbawa.  Quite out
+of his way.  He expressed his satisfaction.
+
+“You know,” he went on, “that fellow, when he gets on the Borneo coast,
+amuses himself by knocking down my beacons.  I have had to put up a few
+to help me in and out of the rivers.  Early this year a Celebes trader
+becalmed in a prau was watching him at it.  He steamed the gunboat full
+tilt at two of them, one after another, smashing them to pieces, and then
+lowered a boat on purpose to pull out a third, which I had a lot of
+trouble six months ago to stick up in the middle of a mudflat for a tide
+mark.  Did you ever hear of anything more provoking—eh?”
+
+“I wouldn’t quarrel with the beggar,” I observed casually, yet disliking
+that piece of news strongly.  “It isn’t worth while.”
+
+“I quarrel?” cried Jasper.  “I don’t want to quarrel.  I don’t want to
+hurt a single hair of his ugly head.  My dear fellow, when I think of
+Freya’s twenty-first birthday, all the world’s my friend, Heemskirk
+included.  It’s a nasty, spiteful amusement, all the same.”
+
+We parted rather hurriedly on the quay, each of us having his own
+pressing business to attend to.  I would have been very much cut up had I
+known that this hurried grasp of the hand with “So long, old boy.  Good
+luck to you!” was the last of our partings.
+
+On his return to the Straits I was away, and he was gone again before I
+got back.  He was trying to achieve three trips before Freya’s
+twenty-first birthday.  At Nelson’s Cove I missed him again by only a
+couple of days.  Freya and I talked of “that lunatic” and “perfect idiot”
+with great delight and infinite appreciation.  She was very radiant, with
+a more pronounced gaiety, notwithstanding that she had just parted from
+Jasper.  But this was to be their last separation.
+
+“Do get aboard as soon as you can, Miss Freya,” I entreated.
+
+She looked me straight in the face, her colour a little heightened and
+with a sort of solemn ardour—if there was a little catch in her voice.
+
+“The very next day.”
+
+Ah, yes!  The very next day after her twenty-first birthday.  I was
+pleased at this hint of deep feeling.  It was as if she had grown
+impatient at last of the self-imposed delay.  I supposed that Jasper’s
+recent visit had told heavily.
+
+“That’s right,” I said approvingly.  “I shall be much easier in my mind
+when I know you have taken charge of that lunatic.  Don’t you lose a
+minute.  He, of course, will be on time—unless heavens fall.”
+
+“Yes.  Unless—” she repeated in a thoughtful whisper, raising her eyes to
+the evening sky without a speck of cloud anywhere.  Silent for a time, we
+let our eyes wander over the waters below, looking mysteriously still in
+the twilight, as if trustfully composed for a long, long dream in the
+warm, tropical night.  And the peace all round us seemed without limits
+and without end.
+
+And then we began again to talk Jasper over in our usual strain.  We
+agreed that he was too reckless in many ways.  Luckily, the brig was
+equal to the situation.  Nothing apparently was too much for her.  A
+perfect darling of a ship, said Miss Freya.  She and her father had spent
+an afternoon on board.  Jasper had given them some tea.  Papa was grumpy.
+. . . I had a vision of old Nelson under the brig’s snowy awnings,
+nursing his unassuming vexation, and fanning himself with his hat.  A
+comedy father. . . . As a new instance of Jasper’s lunacy, I was told
+that he was distressed at his inability to have solid silver handles
+fitted to all the cabin doors.  “As if I would have let him!” commented
+Miss Freya, with amused indignation.  Incidentally, I learned also that
+Schultz, the nautical kleptomaniac with the pathetic voice, was still
+hanging on to his job, with Miss Freya’s approval.  Jasper had confided
+to the lady of his heart his purpose of straightening out the fellow’s
+psychology.  Yes, indeed.  All the world was his friend because it
+breathed the same air with Freya.
+
+Somehow or other, I brought Heemskirk’s name into conversation, and, to
+my great surprise, startled Miss Freya.  Her eyes expressed something
+like distress, while she bit her lip as if to contain an explosion of
+laughter.  Oh!  Yes.  Heemskirk was at the bungalow at the same time with
+Jasper, but he arrived the day after.  He left the same day as the brig,
+but a few hours later.
+
+“What a nuisance he must have been to you two,” I said feelingly.
+
+Her eyes flashed at me a sort of frightened merriment, and suddenly she
+exploded into a clear burst of laughter.  “Ha, ha, ha!”
+
+I echoed it heartily, but not with the game charming tone: “Ha, ha, ha!
+. . . Isn’t he grotesque?  Ha, ha, ha!”  And the ludicrousness of old
+Nelson’s inanely fierce round eyes in association with his conciliatory
+manner to the lieutenant presenting itself to my mind brought on another
+fit.
+
+“He looks,” I spluttered, “he looks—Ha, ha, ha!—amongst you three . . .
+like an unhappy black-beetle.  Ha, ha, ha!”
+
+She gave out another ringing peal, ran off into her own room, and slammed
+the door behind her, leaving me profoundly astounded.  I stopped laughing
+at once.
+
+“What’s the joke?” asked old Nelson’s voice, half way down the steps.
+
+He came up, sat down, and blew out his cheeks, looking inexpressibly
+fatuous.  But I didn’t want to laugh any more.  And what on earth, I
+asked myself, have we been laughing at in this uncontrollable fashion.  I
+felt suddenly depressed.
+
+Oh, yes.  Freya had started it.  The girl’s overwrought, I thought.  And
+really one couldn’t wonder at it.
+
+I had no answer to old Nelson’s question, but he was too aggrieved at
+Jasper’s visit to think of anything else.  He as good as asked me whether
+I wouldn’t undertake to hint to Jasper that he was not wanted at the
+Seven Isles group.  I declared that it was not necessary.  From certain
+circumstances which had come to my knowledge lately, I had reason to
+think that he would not be much troubled by Jasper Allen in the future.
+
+He emitted an earnest “Thank God!” which nearly set me laughing again,
+but he did not brighten up proportionately.  It seemed Heemskirk had
+taken special pains to make himself disagreeable.  The lieutenant had
+frightened old Nelson very much by expressing a sinister wonder at the
+Government permitting a white man to settle down in that part at all.
+“It is against our declared policy,” he had remarked.  He had also
+charged him with being in reality no better than an Englishman.  He had
+even tried to pick a quarrel with him for not learning to speak Dutch.
+
+“I told him I was too old to learn now,” sighed out old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) dismally.  “He said I ought to have learned Dutch long before.
+I had been making my living in Dutch dependencies.  It was disgraceful of
+me not to speak Dutch, he said.  He was as savage with me as if I had
+been a Chinaman.”
+
+It was plain he had been viciously badgered.  He did not mention how many
+bottles of his best claret he had offered up on the altar of
+conciliation.  It must have been a generous libation.  But old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) was really hospitable.  He didn’t mind that; and I only
+regretted that this virtue should be lavished on the lieutenant-commander
+of the _Neptun_.  I longed to tell him that in all probability he would
+be relieved from Heemskirk’s visitations also.  I did not do so only from
+the fear (absurd, I admit) of arousing some sort of suspicion in his
+mind.  As if with this guileless comedy father such a thing were
+possible!
+
+Strangely enough, the last words on the subject of Heemskirk were spoken
+by Freya, and in that very sense.  The lieutenant was turning up
+persistently in old Nelson’s conversation at dinner.  At last I muttered
+a half audible “Damn the lieutenant.”  I could see that the girl was
+getting exasperated, too.
+
+“And he wasn’t well at all—was he, Freya?” old Nelson went on moaning.
+“Perhaps it was that which made him so snappish, hey, Freya?  He looked
+very bad when he left us so suddenly.  His liver must be in a bad state,
+too.”
+
+“Oh, he will end by getting over it,” said Freya impatiently.  “And do
+leave off worrying about him, papa.  Very likely you won’t see much of
+him for a long time to come.”
+
+The look she gave me in exchange for my discreet smile had no hidden
+mirth in it.  Her eyes seemed hollowed, her face gone wan in a couple of
+hours.  We had been laughing too much.  Overwrought!  Overwrought by the
+approach of the decisive moment.  After all, sincere, courageous, and
+self-reliant as she was, she must have felt both the passion and the
+compunction of her resolve.  The very strength of love which had carried
+her up to that point must have put her under a great moral strain, in
+which there might have been a little simple remorse, too.  For she was
+honest—and there, across the table, sat poor old Nelson (or Nielsen)
+staring at her, round-eyed and so pathetically comic in his fierce aspect
+as to touch the most lightsome heart.
+
+He retired early to his room to soothe himself for a night’s rest by
+perusing his account-books.  We two remained on the verandah for another
+hour or so, but we exchanged only languid phrases on things without
+importance, as though we had been emotionally jaded by our long day’s
+talk on the only momentous subject.  And yet there was something she
+might have told a friend.  But she didn’t.  We parted silently.  She
+distrusted my masculine lack of common sense, perhaps. . . . O!  Freya!
+
+Going down the precipitous path to the landing-stage, I was confronted in
+the shadows of boulders and bushes by a draped feminine figure whose
+appearance startled me at first.  It glided into my way suddenly from
+behind a piece of rock.  But in a moment it occurred to me that it could
+be no one else but Freya’s maid, a half-caste Malacca Portuguese.  One
+caught fleeting glimpses of her olive face and dazzling white teeth about
+the house.  I had observed her at times from a distance, as she sat
+within call under the shade of some fruit trees, brushing and plaiting
+her long raven locks.  It seemed to be the principal occupation of her
+leisure hours.  We had often exchanged nods and smiles—and a few words,
+too.  She was a pretty creature.  And once I had watched her approvingly
+make funny and expressive grimaces behind Heemskirk’s back.  I understood
+(from Jasper) that she was in the secret, like a comedy camerista.  She
+was to accompany Freya on her irregular way to matrimony and “ever after”
+happiness.  Why should she be roaming by night near the cove—unless on
+some love affair of her own—I asked myself.  But there was nobody
+suitable within the Seven Isles group, as far as I knew.  It flashed upon
+me that it was myself she had been lying in wait for.
+
+She hesitated, muffled from head to foot, shadowy and bashful.  I
+advanced another pace, and how I felt is nobody’s business.
+
+“What is it?” I asked, very low.
+
+“Nobody knows I am here,” she whispered.
+
+“And nobody can see us,” I whispered back.
+
+The murmur of words “I’ve been so frightened” reached me.  Just then
+forty feet above our head, from the yet lighted verandah, unexpected and
+startling, Freya’s voice rang out in a clear, imperious call:
+
+“Antonia!”
+
+With a stifled exclamation, the hesitating girl vanished out of the path.
+A bush near by rustled; then silence.  I waited wondering.  The lights on
+the verandah went out.  I waited a while longer then continued down the
+path to my boat, wondering more than ever.
+
+I remember the occurrences of that visit especially, because this was the
+last time I saw the Nelson bungalow.  On arriving at the Straits I found
+cable messages which made it necessary for me to throw up my employment
+at a moment’s notice and go home at once.  I had a desperate scramble to
+catch the mailboat which was due to leave next day, but I found time to
+write two short notes, one to Freya, the other to Jasper.  Later on I
+wrote at length, this time to Allen alone.  I got no answer.  I hunted up
+then his brother, or, rather, half-brother, a solicitor in the city, a
+sallow, calm, little man who looked at me over his spectacles
+thoughtfully.
+
+Jasper was the only child of his father’s second marriage, a transaction
+which had failed to commend itself to the first, grown-up family.
+
+“You haven’t heard for ages,” I repeated, with secret annoyance.  “May I
+ask what ‘for ages’ means in this connection?”
+
+“It means that I don’t care whether I ever hear from him or not,”
+retorted the little man of law, turning nasty suddenly.
+
+I could not blame Jasper for not wasting his time in correspondence with
+such an outrageous relative.  But why didn’t he write to me—a decent sort
+of friend, after all; enough of a friend to find for his silence the
+excuse of forgetfulness natural to a state of transcendental bliss?  I
+waited indulgently, but nothing ever came.  And the East seemed to drop
+out of my life without an echo, like a stone falling into a well of
+prodigious depth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+I SUPPOSE praiseworthy motives are a sufficient justification almost for
+anything.  What could be more commendable in the abstract than a girl’s
+determination that “poor papa” should not be worried, and her anxiety
+that the man of her choice should be kept by any means from every
+occasion of doing something rash, something which might endanger the
+whole scheme of their happiness?
+
+Nothing could be more tender and more prudent.  We must also remember the
+girl’s self-reliant temperament, and the general unwillingness of women—I
+mean women of sense—to make a fuss over matters of that sort.
+
+As has been said already, Heemskirk turned up some time after Jasper’s
+arrival at Nelson’s Cove.  The sight of the brig lying right under the
+bungalow was very offensive to him.  He did not fly ashore before his
+anchor touched the ground as Jasper used to do.  On the contrary, he hung
+about his quarter-deck mumbling to himself; and when he ordered his boat
+to be manned it was in an angry voice.  Freya’s existence, which lifted
+Jasper out of himself into a blissful elation, was for Heemskirk a cause
+of secret torment, of hours of exasperated brooding.
+
+While passing the brig he hailed her harshly and asked if the master was
+on board.  Schultz, smart and neat in a spotless white suit, leaned over
+the taffrail, finding the question somewhat amusing.  He looked
+humorously down into Heemskirk’s boat, and answered, in the most amiable
+modulations of his beautiful voice: “Captain Allen is up at the house,
+sir.”  But his expression changed suddenly at the savage growl: “What the
+devil are you grinning at?” which acknowledged that information.
+
+He watched Heemskirk land and, instead of going to the house, stride away
+by another path into the grounds.
+
+The desire-tormented Dutchman found old Nelson (or Nielsen) at his
+drying-sheds, very busy superintending the manipulation of his tobacco
+crop, which, though small, was of excellent quality, and enjoying himself
+thoroughly.  But Heemskirk soon put a stop to this simple happiness.  He
+sat down by the old chap, and by the sort of talk which he knew was best
+calculated for the purpose, reduced him before long to a state of
+concealed and perspiring nervousness.  It was a horrid talk of
+“authorities,” and old Nelson tried to defend himself.  If he dealt with
+English traders it was because he had to dispose of his produce somehow.
+He was as conciliatory as he knew how to be, and this very thing seemed
+to excite Heemskirk, who had worked himself up into a heavily breathing
+state of passion.
+
+“And the worst of them all is that Allen,” he growled.  “Your particular
+friend—eh?  You have let in a lot of these Englishmen into this part.
+You ought never to have been allowed to settle here.  Never.  What’s he
+doing here now?”
+
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen), becoming very agitated, declared that Jasper
+Allen was no particular friend of his.  No friend at all—at all.  He had
+bought three tons of rice from him to feed his workpeople on.  What sort
+of evidence of friendship was that?  Heemskirk burst out at last with the
+thought that had been gnawing at his vitals:
+
+“Yes.  Sell three tons of rice and flirt three days with that girl of
+yours.  I am speaking to you as a friend, Nielsen.  This won’t do.  You
+are only on sufferance here.”
+
+Old Nelson was taken aback at first, but recovered pretty quickly.  Won’t
+do!  Certainly!  Of course, it wouldn’t do!  The last man in the world.
+But his girl didn’t care for the fellow, and was too sensible to fall in
+love with any one.  He was very earnest in impressing on Heemskirk his
+own feeling of absolute security.  And the lieutenant, casting doubting
+glances sideways, was yet willing to believe him.
+
+“Much you know about it,” he grunted nevertheless.
+
+“But I do know,” insisted old Nelson, with the greater desperation
+because he wanted to resist the doubts arising in his own mind.  “My own
+daughter!  In my own house, and I not to know!  Come!  It would be a good
+joke, lieutenant.”
+
+“They seem to be carrying on considerably,” remarked Heemskirk moodily.
+“I suppose they are together now,” he added, feeling a pang which changed
+what he meant for a mocking smile into a strange grimace.
+
+The harassed Nelson shook his hand at him.  He was at bottom shocked at
+this insistence, and was even beginning to feel annoyed at the absurdity
+of it.
+
+“Pooh!  Pooh!  I’ll tell you what, lieutenant: you go to the house and
+have a drop of gin-and-bitters before dinner.  Ask for Freya.  I must see
+the last of this tobacco put away for the night, but I’ll be along
+presently.”
+
+Heemskirk was not insensible to this suggestion.  It answered to his
+secret longing, which was not a longing for drink, however.  Old Nelson
+shouted solicitously after his broad back a recommendation to make
+himself comfortable, and that there was a box of cheroots on the
+verandah.
+
+It was the west verandah that old Nelson meant, the one which was the
+living-room of the house, and had split-rattan screens of the very finest
+quality.  The east verandah, sacred to his own privacy, puffing out of
+cheeks, and other signs of perplexed thinking, was fitted with stout
+blinds of sailcloth.  The north verandah was not a verandah at all,
+really.  It was more like a long balcony.  It did not communicate with
+the other two, and could only be approached by a passage inside the
+house.  Thus it had a privacy which made it a convenient place for a
+maiden’s meditations without words, and also for the discourses,
+apparently without sense, which, passing between a young man and a maid,
+become pregnant with a diversity of transcendental meanings.
+
+This north verandah was embowered with climbing plants.  Freya, whose
+room opened out on it, had furnished it as a sort of boudoir for herself,
+with a few cane chairs and a sofa of the same kind.  On this sofa she and
+Jasper sat as close together as is possible in this imperfect world where
+neither can a body be in two places at once nor yet two bodies can be in
+one place at the same time.  They had been sitting together all the
+afternoon, and I won’t say that their talk had been without sense.
+Loving him with a little judicious anxiety lest in his elation he should
+break his heart over some mishap, Freya naturally would talk to him
+soberly.  He, nervous and brusque when away from her, appeared always as
+if overcome by her visibility, by the great wonder of being palpably
+loved.  An old man’s child, having lost his mother early, thrown out to
+sea out of the way while very young, he had not much experience of
+tenderness of any kind.
+
+In this private, foliage-embowered verandah, and at this late hour of the
+afternoon, he bent down a little, and, possessing himself of Freya’s
+hands, was kissing them one after another, while she smiled and looked
+down at his head with the eyes of approving compassion.  At that same
+moment Heemskirk was approaching the house from the north.
+
+Antonia was on the watch on that side.  But she did not keep a very good
+watch.  The sun was setting; she knew that her young mistress and the
+captain of the _Bonito_ were about to separate.  She was walking to and
+fro in the dusky grove with a flower in her hair, and singing softly to
+herself, when suddenly, within a foot of her, the lieutenant appeared
+from behind a tree.  She bounded aside like a startled fawn, but
+Heemskirk, with a lucid comprehension of what she was there for, pounced
+upon her, and, catching her arm, clapped his other thick hand over her
+mouth.
+
+“If you try to make a noise I’ll twist your neck!”
+
+This ferocious figure of speech terrified the girl sufficiently.
+Heemskirk had seen plainly enough on the verandah Freya’s golden head
+with another head very close to it.  He dragged the unresisting maid with
+him by a circuitous way into the compound, where he dismissed her with a
+vicious push in the direction of the cluster of bamboo huts for the
+servants.
+
+She was very much like the faithful camerista of Italian comedy, but in
+her terror she bolted away without a sound from that thick, short,
+black-eyed man with a cruel grip of fingers like a vice.  Quaking all
+over at a distance, extremely scared and half inclined to laugh, she saw
+him enter the house at the back.
+
+The interior of the bungalow was divided by two passages crossing each
+other in the middle.  At that point Heemskirk, by turning his head
+slightly to the left as he passed, secured the evidence of “carrying on”
+so irreconcilable with old Nelson’s assurances that it made him stagger,
+with a rush of blood to his head.  Two white figures, distinct against
+the light, stood in an unmistakable attitude.  Freya’s arms were round
+Jasper’s neck.  Their faces were characteristically superimposed on each
+other, and Heemskirk went on, his throat choked with a sudden rising of
+curses, till on the west verandah he stumbled blindly against a chair and
+then dropped into another as though his legs had been swept from under
+him.  He had indulged too long in the habit of appropriating Freya to
+himself in his thoughts.  “Is that how you entertain your visitors—you . . . ”
+he thought, so outraged that he could not find a sufficiently
+degrading epithet.
+
+Freya struggled a little and threw her head back.
+
+“Somebody has come in,” she whispered.  Jasper, holding her clasped
+closely to his breast, and looking down into her face, suggested
+casually:
+
+“Your father.”
+
+Freya tried to disengage herself, but she had not the heart absolutely to
+push him away with her hands.
+
+“I believe it’s Heemskirk,” she breathed out at him.
+
+He, plunging into her eyes in a quiet rapture, was provoked to a vague
+smile by the sound of the name.
+
+“The ass is always knocking down my beacons outside the river,” he
+murmured.  He attached no other meaning to Heemskirk’s existence; but
+Freya was asking herself whether the lieutenant had seen them.
+
+“Let me go, kid,” she ordered in a peremptory whisper.  Jasper obeyed,
+and, stepping back at once, continued his contemplation of her face under
+another angle.  “I must go and see,” she said to herself anxiously.
+
+She instructed him hurriedly to wait a moment after she was gone and then
+to slip on to the back verandah and get a quiet smoke before he showed
+himself.
+
+“Don’t stay late this evening,” was her last recommendation before she
+left him.
+
+Then Freya came out on the west verandah with her light, rapid step.
+While going through the doorway she managed to shake down the folds of
+the looped-up curtains at the end of the passage so as to cover Jasper’s
+retreat from the bower.  Directly she appeared Heemskirk jumped up as if
+to fly at her.  She paused and he made her an exaggerated low bow.
+
+It irritated Freya.
+
+“Oh!  It’s you, Mr. Heemskirk.  How do you do?”  She spoke in her usual
+tone.  Her face was not plainly visible to him in the dusk of the deep
+verandah.  He dared not trust himself to speak, his rage at what he had
+seen was so great.  And when she added with serenity: “Papa will be
+coming in before long,” he called her horrid names silently, to himself,
+before he spoke with contorted lips.
+
+“I have seen your father already.  We had a talk in the sheds.  He told
+me some very interesting things.  Oh, very—”
+
+Freya sat down.  She thought: “He has seen us, for certain.”  She was not
+ashamed.  What she was afraid of was some foolish or awkward
+complication.  But she could not conceive how much her person had been
+appropriated by Heemskirk (in his thoughts).  She tried to be
+conversational.
+
+“You are coming now from Palembang, I suppose?”
+
+“Eh?  What?  Oh, yes!  I come from Palembang.  Ha, ha, ha!  You know what
+your father said?  He said he was afraid you were having a very dull time
+of it here.”
+
+“And I suppose you are going to cruise in the Moluccas,” continued Freya,
+who wanted to impart some useful information to Jasper if possible.  At
+the same time she was always glad to know that those two men were a few
+hundred miles apart when not under her eye.
+
+Heemskirk growled angrily.
+
+“Yes.  Moluccas,” glaring in the direction of her shadowy figure.  “Your
+father thinks it’s very quiet for you here.  I tell you what, Miss Freya.
+There isn’t such a quiet spot on earth that a woman can’t find an
+opportunity of making a fool of somebody.”
+
+Freya thought: “I mustn’t let him provoke me.”  Presently the Tamil boy,
+who was Nelson’s head servant, came in with the lights.  She addressed
+him at once with voluble directions where to put the lamps, told him to
+bring the tray with the gin and bitters, and to send Antonia into the
+house.
+
+“I will have to leave you to yourself, Mr. Heemskirk, for a while,” she
+said.
+
+And she went to her room to put on another frock.  She made a quick
+change of it because she wished to be on the verandah before her father
+and the lieutenant met again.  She relied on herself to regulate that
+evening’s intercourse between these two.  But Antonia, still scared and
+hysterical, exhibited a bruise on her arm which roused Freya’s
+indignation.
+
+“He jumped on me out of the bush like a tiger,” said the girl, laughing
+nervously with frightened eyes.
+
+“The brute!” thought Freya.  “He meant to spy on us, then.”  She was
+enraged, but the recollection of the thick Dutchman in white trousers
+wide at the hips and narrow at the ankles, with his shoulder-straps and
+black bullet head, glaring at her in the light of the lamps, was so
+repulsively comical that she could not help a smiling grimace.  Then she
+became anxious.  The absurdities of three men were forcing this anxiety
+upon her: Jasper’s impetuosity, her father’s fears, Heemskirk’s
+infatuation.  She was very tender to the first two, and she made up her
+mind to display all her feminine diplomacy.  All this, she said to
+herself, will be over and done with before very long now.
+
+Heemskirk on the verandah, lolling in a chair, his legs extended and his
+white cap reposing on his stomach, was lashing himself into a fury of an
+atrocious character altogether incomprehensible to a girl like Freya.
+His chin was resting on his chest, his eyes gazed stonily at his shoes.
+Freya examined him from behind the curtain.  He didn’t stir.  He was
+ridiculous.  But this absolute stillness was impressive.  She stole back
+along the passage to the east verandah, where Jasper was sitting quietly
+in the dark, doing what he was told, like a good boy.
+
+“Psst,” she hissed.  He was by her side in a moment.
+
+“Yes.  What is it?” he murmured.
+
+“It’s that beetle,” she whispered uneasily.  Under the impression of
+Heemskirk’s sinister immobility she had half a mind to let Jasper know
+that they had been seen.  But she was by no means certain that Heemskirk
+would tell her father—and at any rate not that evening.  She concluded
+rapidly that the safest thing would be to get Jasper out of the way as
+soon as possible.
+
+“What has he been doing?” asked Jasper in a calm undertone.
+
+“Oh, nothing!  Nothing.  He sits there looking cross.  But you know how
+he’s always worrying papa.”
+
+“Your father’s quite unreasonable,” pronounced Jasper judicially.
+
+“I don’t know,” she said in a doubtful tone.  Something of old Nelson’s
+dread of the authorities had rubbed off on the girl since she had to live
+with it day after day.  “I don’t know.  Papa’s afraid of being reduced to
+beggary, as he says, in his old days.  Look here, kid, you had better
+clear out to-morrow, first thing.”
+
+Jasper had hoped for another afternoon with Freya, an afternoon of quiet
+felicity with the girl by his side and his eyes on his brig, anticipating
+a blissful future.  His silence was eloquent with disappointment, and
+Freya understood it very well.  She, too, was disappointed.  But it was
+her business to be sensible.
+
+“We shan’t have a moment to ourselves with that beetle creeping round the
+house,” she argued in a low, hurried voice.  “So what’s the good of your
+staying?  And he won’t go while the brig’s here.  You know he won’t.”
+
+“He ought to be reported for loitering,” murmured Jasper with a vexed
+little laugh.
+
+“Mind you get under way at daylight,” recommended Freya under her breath.
+
+He detained her after the manner of lovers.  She expostulated without
+struggling because it was hard for her to repulse him.  He whispered into
+her ear while he put his arms round her.
+
+“Next time we two meet, next time I hold you like this, it shall be on
+board.  You and I, in the brig—all the world, all the life—”  And then he
+flashed out: “I wonder I can wait!  I feel as if I must carry you off
+now, at once.  I could run with you in my hands—down the path—without
+stumbling—without touching the earth—”
+
+She was still.  She listened to the passion in his voice.  She was saying
+to herself that if she were to whisper the faintest yes, if she were but
+to sigh lightly her consent, he would do it.  He was capable of doing
+it—without touching the earth.  She closed her eyes and smiled in the
+dark, abandoning herself in a delightful giddiness, for an instant, to
+his encircling arm.  But before he could be tempted to tighten his grasp
+she was out of it, a foot away from him and in full possession of
+herself.
+
+That was the steady Freya.  She was touched by the deep sigh which
+floated up to her from the white figure of Jasper, who did not stir.
+
+“You are a mad kid,” she said tremulously.  Then with a change of tone:
+“No one could carry me off.  Not even you.  I am not the sort of girl
+that gets carried off.”  His white form seemed to shrink a little before
+the force of that assertion and she relented.  “Isn’t it enough for you
+to know that you have—that you have carried me away?” she added in a
+tender tone.
+
+He murmured an endearing word, and she continued:
+
+“I’ve promised you—I’ve said I would come—and I shall come of my own free
+will.  You shall wait for me on board.  I shall get up the side—by
+myself, and walk up to you on the deck and say: ‘Here I am, kid.’  And
+then—and then I shall be carried off.  But it will be no man who will
+carry me off—it will be the brig, your brig—our brig. . . . I love the
+beauty!”
+
+She heard an inarticulate sound, something like a moan wrung out by pain
+or delight, and glided away.  There was that other man on the other
+verandah, that dark, surly Dutchman who could make trouble between Jasper
+and her father, bring about a quarrel, ugly words, and perhaps a physical
+collision.  What a horrible situation!  But, even putting aside that
+awful extremity, she shrank from having to live for some three months
+with a wretched, tormented, angry, distracted, absurd man.  And when the
+day came, the day and the hour, what should she do if her father tried to
+detain her by main force—as was, after all, possible?  Could she actually
+struggle with him hand to hand?  But it was of lamentations and
+entreaties that she was really afraid.  Could she withstand them?  What
+an odious, cruel, ridiculous position would that be!
+
+“But it won’t be.  He’ll say nothing,” she thought as she came out
+quickly on the west verandah, and, seeing that Heemskirk did not move,
+sat down on a chair near the doorway and kept her eyes on him.  The
+outraged lieutenant had not changed his attitude; only his cap had fallen
+off his stomach and was lying on the floor.  His thick black eyebrows
+were knitted by a frown, while he looked at her out of the corners of his
+eyes.  And their sideways glance in conjunction with the hooked nose, the
+whole bulky, ungainly, sprawling person, struck Freya as so comically
+moody that, inwardly discomposed as she was, she could not help smiling.
+She did her best to give that smile a conciliatory character.  She did
+not want to provoke Heemskirk needlessly.
+
+And the lieutenant, perceiving that smile, was mollified.  It never
+entered his head that his outward appearance, a naval officer, in
+uniform, could appear ridiculous to that girl of no position—the daughter
+of old Nielsen.  The recollection of her arms round Jasper’s neck still
+irritated and excited him.  “The hussy!” he thought.  “Smiling—eh?
+That’s how you are amusing yourself.  Fooling your father finely, aren’t
+you?  You have a taste for that sort of fun—have you?  Well, we shall
+see—”  He did not alter his position, but on his pursed-up lips there
+also appeared a smile of surly and ill-omened amusement, while his eyes
+returned to the contemplation of his boots.
+
+Freya felt hot with indignation.  She sat radiantly fair in the
+lamplight, her strong, well-shaped hands lying one on top of the other in
+her lap. . . “Odious creature,” she thought.  Her face coloured with
+sudden anger.  “You have scared my maid out of her senses,” she said
+aloud.  “What possessed you?”
+
+He was thinking so deeply of her that the sound of her voice, pronouncing
+these unexpected words, startled him extremely.  He jerked up his head
+and looked so bewildered that Freya insisted impatiently:
+
+“I mean Antonia.  You have bruised her arm.  What did you do it for?”
+
+“Do you want to quarrel with me?” he asked thickly, with a sort of
+amazement.  He blinked like an owl.  He was funny.  Freya, like all
+women, had a keen sense of the ridiculous in outward appearance.
+
+“Well, no; I don’t think I do.”  She could not help herself.  She laughed
+outright, a clear, nervous laugh in which Heemskirk joined suddenly with
+a harsh “Ha, ha, ha!”
+
+Voices and footsteps were heard in the passage, and Jasper, with old
+Nelson, came out.  Old Nelson looked at his daughter approvingly, for he
+liked the lieutenant to be kept in good humour.  And he also joined
+sympathetically in the laugh.  “Now, lieutenant, we shall have some
+dinner,” he said, rubbing his hands cheerily.  Jasper had gone straight
+to the balustrade.  The sky was full of stars, and in the blue velvety
+night the cove below had a denser blackness, in which the riding-lights
+of the brig and of the gunboat glimmered redly, like suspended sparks.
+“Next time this riding-light glimmers down there, I’ll be waiting for her
+on the quarter-deck to come and say ‘Here I am,’” Jasper thought; and his
+heart seemed to grow bigger in his chest, dilated by an oppressive
+happiness that nearly wrung out a cry from him.  There was no wind.  Not
+a leaf below him stirred, and even the sea was but a still uncomplaining
+shadow.  Far away on the unclouded sky the pale lightning, the
+heat-lightning of the tropics, played tremulously amongst the low stars
+in short, faint, mysteriously consecutive flashes, like incomprehensible
+signals from some distant planet.
+
+The dinner passed off quietly.  Freya sat facing her father, calm but
+pale.  Heemskirk affected to talk only to old Nelson.  Jasper’s behaviour
+was exemplary.  He kept his eyes under control, basking in the sense of
+Freya’s nearness, as people bask in the sun without looking up to heaven.
+And very soon after dinner was over, mindful of his instructions, he
+declared that it was time for him to go on board his ship.
+
+Heemskirk did not look up.  Ensconced in the rocking-chair, and puffing
+at a cheroot, he had the air of meditating surlily over some odious
+outbreak.  So at least it seemed to Freya.  Old Nelson said at once:
+“I’ll stroll down with you.”  He had begun a professional conversation
+about the dangers of the New Guinea coast, and wanted to relate to Jasper
+some experience of his own “over there.”  Jasper was such a good
+listener!  Freya made as if to accompany them, but her father frowned,
+shook his head, and nodded significantly towards the immovable Heemskirk
+blotting out smoke with half-closed eyes and protruded lips.  The
+lieutenant must not be left alone.  Take offence, perhaps.
+
+Freya obeyed these signs.  “Perhaps it is better for me to stay,” she
+thought.  Women are not generally prone to review their own conduct,
+still less to condemn it.  The embarrassing masculine absurdities are in
+the main responsible for its ethics.  But, looking at Heemskirk, Freya
+felt regret and even remorse.  His thick bulk in repose suggested the
+idea of repletion, but as a matter of fact he had eaten very little.  He
+had drunk a great deal, however.  The fleshy lobes of his unpleasant big
+ears with deeply folded rims were crimson.  They quite flamed in the
+neighbourhood of the flat, sallow cheeks.  For a considerable time he did
+not raise his heavy brown eyelids.  To be at the mercy of such a creature
+was humiliating; and Freya, who always ended by being frank with herself,
+thought regretfully: “If only I had been open with papa from the first!
+But then what an impossible life he would have led me!”  Yes.  Men were
+absurd in many ways; lovably like Jasper, impracticably like her father,
+odiously like that grotesquely supine creature in the chair.  Was it
+possible to talk him over?  Perhaps it was not necessary?  “Oh!  I can’t
+talk to him,” she thought.  And when Heemskirk, still without looking at
+her, began resolutely to crush his half-smoked cheroot on the
+coffee-tray, she took alarm, glided towards the piano, opened it in
+tremendous haste, and struck the keys before she sat down.
+
+In an instant the verandah, the whole carpetless wooden bungalow raised
+on piles, became filled with an uproarious, confused resonance.  But
+through it all she heard, she felt on the floor the heavy, prowling
+footsteps of the lieutenant moving to and fro at her back.  He was not
+exactly drunk, but he was sufficiently primed to make the suggestions of
+his excited imagination seem perfectly feasible and even clever;
+beautifully, unscrupulously clever.  Freya, aware that he had stopped
+just behind her, went on playing without turning her head.  She played
+with spirit, brilliantly, a fierce piece of music, but when his voice
+reached her she went cold all over.  It was the voice, not the words.
+The insolent familiarity of tone dismayed her to such an extent that she
+could not understand at first what he was saying.  His utterance was
+thick, too.
+
+“I suspected. . . . Of course I suspected something of your little goings
+on.  I am not a child.  But from suspecting to seeing—seeing, you
+understand—there’s an enormous difference.  That sort of thing. . . .
+Come!  One isn’t made of stone.  And when a man has been worried by a
+girl as I have been worried by you, Miss Freya—sleeping and waking, then,
+of course. . . . But I am a man of the world.  It must be dull for you
+here . . . I say, won’t you leave off this confounded playing . . .?”
+
+This last was the only sentence really which she made out.  She shook her
+head negatively, and in desperation put on the loud pedal, but she could
+not make the sound of the piano cover his raised voice.
+
+“Only, I am surprised that you should. . . . An English trading skipper,
+a common fellow.  Low, cheeky lot, infesting these islands.  I would make
+short work of such trash!  While you have here a good friend, a gentleman
+ready to worship at your feet—your pretty feet—an officer, a man of
+family.  Strange, isn’t it?  But what of that!  You are fit for a
+prince.”
+
+Freya did not turn her head.  Her face went stiff with horror and
+indignation.  This adventure was altogether beyond her conception of what
+was possible.  It was not in her character to jump up and run away.  It
+seemed to her, too, that if she did move there was no saying what might
+happen.  Presently her father would be back, and then the other would
+have to leave off.  It was best to ignore—to ignore.  She went on playing
+loudly and correctly, as though she were alone, as if Heemskirk did not
+exist.  That proceeding irritated him.
+
+“Come!  You may deceive your father,” he bawled angrily, “but I am not to
+be made a fool of!  Stop this infernal noise . . . Freya . . . Hey!  You
+Scandinavian Goddess of Love!  Stop!  Do you hear?  That’s what you
+are—of love.  But the heathen gods are only devils in disguise, and
+that’s what you are, too—a deep little devil.  Stop it, I say, or I will
+lift you off that stool!”
+
+Standing behind her, he devoured her with his eyes, from the golden crown
+of her rigidly motionless head to the heels of her shoes, the line of her
+shapely shoulders, the curves of her fine figure swaying a little before
+the keyboard.  She had on a light dress; the sleeves stopped short at the
+elbows in an edging of lace.  A satin ribbon encircled her waist.  In an
+access of irresistible, reckless hopefulness he clapped both his hands on
+that waist—and then the irritating music stopped at last.  But, quick as
+she was in springing away from the contact (the round music-stool going
+over with a crash), Heemskirk’s lips, aiming at her neck, landed a
+hungry, smacking kiss just under her ear.  A deep silence reigned for a
+time.  And then he laughed rather feebly.
+
+He was disconcerted somewhat by her white, still face, the big light
+violet eyes resting on him stonily.  She had not uttered a sound.  She
+faced him, steadying herself on the corner of the piano with one extended
+hand.  The other went on rubbing with mechanical persistency the place
+his lips had touched.
+
+“What’s the trouble?” he said, offended.  “Startled you?  Look here:
+don’t let us have any of that nonsense.  You don’t mean to say a kiss
+frightens you so much as all that. . . . I know better. . . . I don’t
+mean to be left out in the cold.”
+
+He had been gazing into her face with such strained intentness that he
+could no longer see it distinctly.  Everything round him was rather
+misty.  He forgot the overturned stool, caught his foot against it, and
+lurched forward slightly, saying in an ingratiating tone:
+
+“I’m not bad fun, really.  You try a few kisses to begin with—”
+
+He said no more, because his head received a terrific concussion,
+accompanied by an explosive sound.  Freya had swung her round, strong arm
+with such force that the impact of her open palm on his flat cheek turned
+him half round.  Uttering a faint, hoarse yell, the lieutenant clapped
+both his hands to the left side of his face, which had taken on suddenly
+a dusky brick-red tinge.  Freya, very erect, her violet eyes darkened,
+her palm still tingling from the blow, a sort of restrained determined
+smile showing a tiny gleam of her white teeth, heard her father’s rapid,
+heavy tread on the path below the verandah.  Her expression lost its
+pugnacity and became sincerely concerned.  She was sorry for her father.
+She stooped quickly to pick up the music-stool, as if anxious to
+obliterate the traces. . . . But that was no good.  She had resumed her
+attitude, one hand resting lightly on the piano, before old Nelson got up
+to the top of the stairs.
+
+Poor father!  How furious he will be—how upset!  And afterwards, what
+tremors, what unhappiness!  Why had she not been open with him from the
+first?  His round, innocent stare of amazement cut her to the quick.  But
+he was not looking at her.  His stare was directed to Heemskirk, who,
+with his back to him and with his hands still up to his face, was hissing
+curses through his teeth, and (she saw him in profile) glaring at her
+balefully with one black, evil eye.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked old Nelson, very much bewildered.
+
+She did not answer him.  She thought of Jasper on the deck of the brig,
+gazing up at the lighted bungalow, and she felt frightened.  It was a
+mercy that one of them at least was on board out of the way.  She only
+wished he were a hundred miles off.  And yet she was not certain that she
+did.  Had Jasper been mysteriously moved that moment to reappear on the
+verandah she would have thrown her consistency, her firmness, her
+self-possession, to the winds, and flown into his arms.
+
+“What is it?  What is it?” insisted the unsuspecting Nelson, getting
+quite excited.  “Only this minute you were playing a tune, and—”
+
+Freya, unable to speak in her apprehension of what was coming (she was
+also fascinated by that black, evil, glaring eye), only nodded slightly
+at the lieutenant, as much as to say: “Just look at him!”
+
+“Why, yes!” exclaimed old Nelson.  “I see.  What on earth—”
+
+Meantime he had cautiously approached Heemskirk, who, bursting into
+incoherent imprecations, was stamping with both feet where he stood.  The
+indignity of the blow, the rage of baffled purpose, the ridicule of the
+exposure, and the impossibility of revenge maddened him to a point when
+he simply felt he must howl with fury.
+
+“Oh, oh, oh!” he howled, stamping across the verandah as though he meant
+to drive his foot through the floor at every step.
+
+“Why, is his face hurt?” asked the astounded old Nelson.  The truth
+dawned suddenly upon his innocent mind.  “Dear me!” he cried,
+enlightened.  “Get some brandy, quick, Freya. . . . You are subject to
+it, lieutenant?  Fiendish, eh?  I know, I know!  Used to go crazy all of
+a sudden myself in the time. . . . And the little bottle of laudanum from
+the medicine-chest, too, Freya.  Look sharp. . . . Don’t you see he’s got
+a toothache?”
+
+And, indeed, what other explanation could have presented itself to the
+guileless old Nelson, beholding this cheek nursed with both hands, these
+wild glances, these stampings, this distracted swaying of the body?  It
+would have demanded a preternatural acuteness to hit upon the true cause.
+Freya had not moved.  She watched Heemskirk’s savagely inquiring, black
+stare directed stealthily upon herself.  “Aha, you would like to be let
+off!” she said to herself.  She looked at him unflinchingly, thinking it
+out.  The temptation of making an end of it all without further trouble
+was irresistible.  She gave an almost imperceptible nod of assent, and
+glided away.
+
+“Hurry up that brandy!” old Nelson shouted, as she disappeared in the
+passage.
+
+Heemskirk relieved his deeper feelings by a sudden string of curses in
+Dutch and English which he sent after her.  He raved to his heart’s
+content, flinging to and fro the verandah and kicking chairs out of his
+way; while Nelson (or Nielsen), whose sympathy was profoundly stirred by
+these evidences of agonising pain, hovered round his dear (and dreaded)
+lieutenant, fussing like an old hen.
+
+“Dear me, dear me!  Is it so bad?  I know well what it is.  I used to
+frighten my poor wife sometimes.  Do you get it often like this,
+lieutenant?”
+
+Heemskirk shouldered him viciously out of his way, with a short, insane
+laugh.  But his staggering host took it in good part; a man beside
+himself with excruciating toothache is not responsible.
+
+“Go into my room, lieutenant,” he suggested urgently.  “Throw yourself on
+my bed.  We will get something to ease you in a minute.”
+
+He seized the poor sufferer by the arm and forced him gently onwards to
+the very bed, on which Heemskirk, in a renewed access of rage, flung
+himself down with such force that he rebounded from the mattress to the
+height of quite a foot.
+
+“Dear me!” exclaimed the scared Nelson, and incontinently ran off to
+hurry up the brandy and the laudanum, very angry that so little alacrity
+was shown in relieving the tortures of his precious guest.  In the end he
+got these things himself.
+
+Half an hour later he stood in the inner passage of the house, surprised
+by faint, spasmodic sounds of a mysterious nature, between laughter and
+sobs.  He frowned; then went straight towards his daughter’s room and
+knocked at the door.
+
+Freya, her glorious fair hair framing her white face and rippling down a
+dark-blue dressing-gown, opened it partly.
+
+The light in the room was dim.  Antonia, crouching in a corner, rocked
+herself backwards and forwards, uttering feeble moans.  Old Nelson had
+not much experience in various kinds of feminine laughter, but he was
+certain there had been laughter there.
+
+“Very unfeeling, very unfeeling!” he said, with weighty displeasure.
+“What is there so amusing in a man being in pain?  I should have thought
+a woman—a young girl—”
+
+“He was so funny,” murmured Freya, whose eyes glistened strangely in the
+semi-obscurity of the passage.  “And then, you know, I don’t like him,”
+she added, in an unsteady voice.
+
+“Funny!” repeated old Nelson, amazed at this evidence of callousness in
+one so young.  “You don’t like him!  Do you mean to say that, because you
+don’t like him, you—Why, it’s simply cruel!  Don’t you know it’s about
+the worst sort of pain there is?  Dogs have been known to go mad with
+it.”
+
+“He certainly seemed to have gone mad,” Freya said with an effort, as if
+she were struggling with some hidden feeling.
+
+But her father was launched.
+
+“And you know how he is.  He notices everything.  He is a fellow to take
+offence for the least little thing—regular Dutchman—and I want to keep
+friendly with him.  It’s like this, my girl: if that rajah of ours were
+to do something silly—and you know he is a sulky, rebellious beggar—and
+the authorities took into their heads that my influence over him wasn’t
+good, you would find yourself without a roof over your head—”
+
+She cried: “What nonsense, father!” in a not very assured tone, and
+discovered that he was angry, angry enough to achieve irony; yes, old
+Nelson (or Nielsen), irony!  Just a gleam of it.
+
+“Oh, of course, if you have means of your own—a mansion, a plantation
+that I know nothing of—”  But he was not capable of sustained irony.  “I
+tell you they would bundle me out of here,” he whispered forcibly;
+“without compensation, of course.  I know these Dutch.  And the
+lieutenant’s just the fellow to start the trouble going.  He has the ear
+of influential officials.  I wouldn’t offend him for anything—for
+anything—on no consideration whatever. . . . What did you say?”
+
+It was only an inarticulate exclamation.  If she ever had a half-formed
+intention of telling him everything she had given it up now.  It was
+impossible, both out of regard for his dignity and for the peace of his
+poor mind.
+
+“I don’t care for him myself very much,” old Nelson’s subdued undertone
+confessed in a sigh.  “He’s easier now,” he went on, after a silence.
+“I’ve given him up my bed for the night.  I shall sleep on my verandah,
+in the hammock.  No; I can’t say I like him either, but from that to
+laugh at a man because he’s driven crazy with pain is a long way.  You’ve
+surprised me, Freya.  That side of his face is quite flushed.”
+
+Her shoulders shook convulsively under his hands, which he laid on her
+paternally.  His straggly, wiry moustache brushed her forehead in a
+good-night kiss.  She closed the door, and went away from it to the
+middle of the room before she allowed herself a tired-out sort of laugh,
+without buoyancy.
+
+“Flushed!  A little flushed!” she repeated to herself.  “I hope so,
+indeed!  A little—”
+
+Her eyelashes were wet.  Antonia, in her corner, moaned and giggled, and
+it was impossible to tell where the moans ended and the giggles began.
+
+The mistress and the maid had been somewhat hysterical, for Freya, on
+fleeing into her room, had found Antonia there, and had told her
+everything.
+
+“I have avenged you, my girl,” she exclaimed.
+
+And then they had laughingly cried and cryingly laughed with
+admonitions—“Ssh, not so loud!  Be quiet!” on one part, and interludes of
+“I am so frightened. . . . He’s an evil man,” on the other.
+
+Antonia was very much afraid of Heemskirk.  She was afraid of him because
+of his personal appearance: because of his eyes and his eyebrows, and his
+mouth and his nose and his limbs.  Nothing could be more rational.  And
+she thought him an evil man, because, to her eyes, he looked evil.  No
+ground for an opinion could be sounder.  In the dimness of the room, with
+only a nightlight burning at the head of Freya’s bed, the camerista crept
+out of her corner to crouch at the feet of her mistress, supplicating in
+whispers:
+
+“There’s the brig.  Captain Allen.  Let us run away at once—oh, let us
+run away!  I am so frightened.  Let us!  Let us!”
+
+“I!  Run away!” thought Freya to herself, without looking down at the
+scared girl.  “Never.”
+
+Both the resolute mistress under the mosquito-net and the frightened maid
+lying curled up on a mat at the foot of the bed did not sleep very well
+that night.  The person that did not sleep at all was Lieutenant
+Heemskirk.  He lay on his back staring vindictively in the darkness.
+Inflaming images and humiliating reflections succeeded each other in his
+mind, keeping up, augmenting his anger.  A pretty tale this to get about!
+But it must not be allowed to get about.  The outrage had to be swallowed
+in silence.  A pretty affair!  Fooled, led on, and struck by the girl—and
+probably fooled by the father, too.  But no.  Nielsen was but another
+victim of that shameless hussy, that brazen minx, that sly, laughing,
+kissing, lying . . .
+
+“No; he did not deceive me on purpose,” thought the tormented lieutenant.
+“But I should like to pay him off, all the same, for being such an
+imbecile—”
+
+Well, some day, perhaps.  One thing he was firmly resolved on: he had
+made up his mind to steal early out of the house.  He did not think he
+could face the girl without going out of his mind with fury.
+
+“Fire and perdition!  Ten thousand devils!  I shall choke here before the
+morning!” he muttered to himself, lying rigid on his back on old Nelson’s
+bed, his breast heaving for air.
+
+He arose at daylight and started cautiously to open the door.  Faint
+sounds in the passage alarmed him, and remaining concealed he saw Freya
+coming out.  This unexpected sight deprived him of all power to move away
+from the crack of the door.  It was the narrowest crack possible, but
+commanding the view of the end of the verandah.  Freya made for that end
+hastily to watch the brig passing the point.  She wore her dark
+dressing-gown; her feet were bare, because, having fallen asleep towards
+the morning, she ran out headlong in her fear of being too late.
+Heemskirk had never seen her looking like this, with her hair drawn back
+smoothly to the shape of her head, and hanging in one heavy, fair tress
+down her back, and with that air of extreme youth, intensity, and
+eagerness.  And at first he was amazed, and then he gnashed his teeth.
+He could not face her at all.  He muttered a curse, and kept still behind
+the door.
+
+With a low, deep-breathed “Ah!” when she first saw the brig already under
+way, she reached for Nelson’s long glass reposing on brackets high up the
+wall.  The wide sleeve of the dressing-gown slipped back, uncovering her
+white arm as far as the shoulder.  Heemskirk gripping the door-handle, as
+if to crush it, felt like a man just risen to his feet from a drinking
+bout.
+
+And Freya knew that he was watching her.  She knew.  She had seen the
+door move as she came out of the passage.  She was aware of his eyes
+being on her, with scornful bitterness, with triumphant contempt.
+
+“You are there,” she thought, levelling the long glass.  “Oh, well, look
+on, then!”
+
+The green islets appeared like black shadows, the ashen sea was smooth as
+glass, the clear robe of the colourless dawn, in which even the brig
+appeared shadowy, had a hem of light in the east.  Directly Freya had
+made out Jasper on deck, with his own long glass directed to the
+bungalow, she laid hers down and raised both her beautiful white arms
+above her head.  In that attitude of supreme cry she stood still, glowing
+with the consciousness of Jasper’s adoration going out to her figure held
+in the field of his glass away there, and warmed, too, by the feeling of
+evil passion, the burning, covetous eyes of the other, fastened on her
+back.  In the fervour of her love, in the caprice of her mind, and with
+that mysterious knowledge of masculine nature women seem to be born to,
+she thought:
+
+“You are looking on—you will—you must!  Then you shall see something.”
+
+She brought both her hands to her lips, then flung them out, sending a
+kiss over the sea, as if she wanted to throw her heart along with it on
+the deck of the brig.  Her face was rosy, her eyes shone.  Her repeated,
+passionate gesture seemed to fling kisses by the hundred again and again
+and again, while the slowly ascending sun brought the glory of colour to
+the world, turning the islets green, the sea blue, the brig below her
+white—dazzlingly white in the spread of her wings—with the red ensign
+streaming like a tiny flame from the peak.
+
+And each time she murmured with a rising inflexion:
+
+“Take this—and this—and this—” till suddenly her arms fell.  She had seen
+the ensign dipped in response, and next moment the point below hid the
+hull of the brig from her view.  Then she turned away from the
+balustrade, and, passing slowly before the door of her father’s room with
+her eyelids lowered, and an enigmatic expression on her face, she
+disappeared behind the curtain.
+
+But instead of going along the passage, she remained concealed and very
+still on the other side to watch what would happen.  For some time the
+broad, furnished verandah remained empty.  Then the door of old Nelson’s
+room came open suddenly, and Heemskirk staggered out.  His hair was
+rumpled, his eyes bloodshot, his unshaven face looked very dark.  He
+gazed wildly about, saw his cap on a table, snatched it up, and made for
+the stairs quietly, but with a strange, tottering gait, like the last
+effort of waning strength.
+
+Shortly after his head had sunk below the level of the floor, Freya came
+out from behind the curtain, with compressed, scheming lips, and no
+softness at all in her luminous eyes.  He could not be allowed to sneak
+off scot free.  Never—never!  She was excited, she tingled all over, she
+had tasted blood!  He must be made to understand that she had been aware
+of having been watched; he must know that he had been seen slinking off
+shamefully.  But to run to the front rail and shout after him would have
+been childish, crude—undignified.  And to shout—what?  What word?  What
+phrase?  No; it was impossible.  Then how? . . . She frowned, discovered
+it, dashed at the piano, which had stood open all night, and made the
+rosewood monster growl savagery in an irritated bass.  She struck chords
+as if firing shots after that straddling, broad figure in ample white
+trousers and a dark uniform jacket with gold shoulder-straps, and then
+she pursued him with the same thing she had played the evening before—a
+modern, fierce piece of love music which had been tried more than once
+against the thunderstorms of the group.  She accentuated its rhythm with
+triumphant malice, so absorbed in her purpose that she did not notice the
+presence of her father, who, wearing an old threadbare ulster of a check
+pattern over his sleeping suit, had run out from the back verandah to
+inquire the reason of this untimely performance.  He stared at her.
+
+“What on earth? . . . Freya!”  His voice was nearly drowned by the piano.
+“What’s become of the lieutenant?” he shouted.
+
+She looked up at him as if her soul were lost in her music, with unseeing
+eyes.
+
+“Gone.”
+
+“Wha-a-t? . . . Where?”
+
+She shook her head slightly, and went on playing louder than before.  Old
+Nelson’s innocently anxious gaze starting from the open door of his room,
+explored the whole place high and low, as if the lieutenant were
+something small which might have been crawling on the floor or clinging
+to a wall.  But a shrill whistle coming somewhere from below pierced the
+ample volume of sound rolling out of the piano in great, vibrating waves.
+The lieutenant was down at the cove, whistling for the boat to come and
+take him off to his ship.  And he seemed to be in a terrific hurry, too,
+for he whistled again almost directly, waited for a moment, and then sent
+out a long, interminable, shrill call as distressful to hear as though he
+had shrieked without drawing breath.  Freya ceased playing suddenly.
+
+“Going on board,” said old Nelson, perturbed by the event.  “What could
+have made him clear out so early?  Queer chap.  Devilishly touchy, too!
+I shouldn’t wonder if it was your conduct last night that hurt his
+feelings?  I noticed you, Freya.  You as well as laughed in his face,
+while he was suffering agonies from neuralgia.  It isn’t the way to get
+yourself liked.  He’s offended with you.”
+
+Freya’s hands now reposed passive on the keys; she bowed her fair head,
+feeling a sudden discontent, a nervous lassitude, as though she had
+passed through some exhausting crisis.  Old Nelson (or Nielsen), looking
+aggrieved, was revolving matters of policy in his bald head.
+
+“I think it would be right for me to go on board just to inquire, some
+time this morning,” he declared fussily.  “Why don’t they bring me my
+morning tea?  Do you hear, Freya?  You have astonished me, I must say.  I
+didn’t think a young girl could be so unfeeling.  And the lieutenant
+thinks himself a friend of ours, too!  What?  No?  Well, he calls himself
+a friend, and that’s something to a person in my position.  Certainly!
+Oh, yes, I must go on board.”
+
+“Must you?” murmured Freya listlessly; then added, in her thought: “Poor
+man!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+IN respect of the next seven weeks, all that is necessary to say is,
+first, that old Nelson (or Nielsen) failed in paying his politic call.
+The _Neptun_ gunboat of H.M. the King of the Netherlands, commanded by an
+outraged and infuriated lieutenant, left the cove at an unexpectedly
+early hour.  When Freya’s father came down to the shore, after seeing his
+precious crop of tobacco spread out properly in the sun, she was already
+steaming round the point.  Old Nelson regretted the circumstance for many
+days.
+
+“Now, I don’t know in what disposition the man went away,” he lamented to
+his hard daughter.  He was amazed at her hardness.  He was almost
+frightened by her indifference.
+
+Next, it must be recorded that the same day the gunboat _Neptun_,
+steering east, passed the brig _Bonito_ becalmed in sight of Carimata,
+with her head to the eastward, too.  Her captain, Jasper Allen, giving
+himself up consciously to a tender, possessive reverie of his Freya, did
+not get out of his long chair on the poop to look at the _Neptun_ which
+passed so close that the smoke belching out suddenly from her short black
+funnel rolled between the masts of the Bonito, obscuring for a moment the
+sunlit whiteness of her sails, consecrated to the service of love.
+Jasper did not even turn his head for a glance.  But Heemskirk, on the
+bridge, had gazed long and earnestly at the brig from the distance,
+gripping hard the brass rail in front of him, till, the two ships
+closing, he lost all confidence in himself, and retreating to the
+chartroom, pulled the door to with a crash.  There, his brows knitted,
+his mouth drawn on one side in sardonic meditation, he sat through many
+still hours—a sort of Prometheus in the bonds of unholy desire, having
+his very vitals torn by the beak and claws of humiliated passion.
+
+That species of fowl is not to be shooed off as easily as a chicken.
+Fooled, cheated, deceived, led on, outraged, mocked at—beak and claws!  A
+sinister bird!  The lieutenant had no mind to become the talk of the
+Archipelago, as the naval officer who had had his face slapped by a girl.
+Was it possible that she really loved that rascally trader?  He tried not
+to think, but, worse than thoughts, definite impressions beset him in his
+retreat.  He saw her—a vision plain, close to, detailed, plastic,
+coloured, lighted up—he saw her hanging round the neck of that fellow.
+And he shut his eyes, only to discover that this was no remedy.  Then a
+piano began to play near by, very plainly; and he put his fingers to his
+ears with no better effect.  It was not to be borne—not in solitude.  He
+bolted out of the chartroom, and talked of indifferent things somewhat
+wildly with the officer of the watch on the bridge, to the mocking
+accompaniment of a ghostly piano.
+
+The last thing to be recorded is that Lieutenant Heemskirk instead of
+pursuing his course towards Ternate, where he was expected, went out of
+his way to call at Makassar, where no one was looking for his arrival.
+Once there, he gave certain explanations and laid a certain proposal
+before the governor, or some other authority, and obtained permission to
+do what he thought fit in these matters.  Thereupon the _Neptun_, giving
+up Ternate altogether, steamed north in view of the mountainous coast of
+Celebes, and then crossing the broad straits took up her station on the
+low coast of virgin forests, inviolate and mute, in waters phosphorescent
+at night; deep blue in daytime with gleaming green patches over the
+submerged reefs.  For days the _Neptun_ could be seen moving smoothly up
+and down the sombre face of the shore, or hanging about with a watchful
+air near the silvery breaks of broad estuaries, under the great luminous
+sky never softened, never veiled, and flooding the earth with the
+everlasting sunshine of the tropics—that sunshine which, in its unbroken
+splendour, oppresses the soul with an inexpressible melancholy more
+intimate, more penetrating, more profound than the grey sadness of the
+northern mists.
+
+                                . . . . .
+
+The trading brig _Bonito_ appeared gliding round a sombre forest-clad
+point of land on the silvery estuary of a great river.  The breath of air
+that gave her motion would not have fluttered the flame of a torch.  She
+stole out into the open from behind a veil of unstirring leaves,
+mysteriously silent, ghostly white, and solemnly stealthy in her
+imperceptible progress; and Jasper, his elbow in the main rigging, and
+his head leaning against his hand, thought of Freya.  Everything in the
+world reminded him of her.  The beauty of the loved woman exists in the
+beauties of Nature.  The swelling outlines of the hills, the curves of a
+coast, the free sinuosities of a river are less suave than the harmonious
+lines of her body, and when she moves, gliding lightly, the grace of her
+progress suggests the power of occult forces which rule the fascinating
+aspects of the visible world.
+
+Dependent on things as all men are, Jasper loved his vessel—the house of
+his dreams.  He lent to her something of Freya’s soul.  Her deck was the
+foothold of their love.  The possession of his brig appeased his passion
+in a soothing certitude of happiness already conquered.
+
+The full moon was some way up, perfect and serene, floating in air as
+calm and limpid as the glance of Freya’s eyes.  There was not a sound in
+the brig.
+
+“Here she shall stand, by my side, on evenings like this,” he thought,
+with rapture.
+
+And it was at that moment, in this peace, in this serenity, under the
+full, benign gaze of the moon propitious to lovers, on a sea without a
+wrinkle, under a sky without a cloud, as if all Nature had assumed its
+most clement mood in a spirit of mockery, that the gunboat _Neptun_,
+detaching herself from the dark coast under which she had been lying
+invisible, steamed out to intercept the trading brig _Bonito_ standing
+out to sea.
+
+Directly the gunboat had been made out emerging from her ambush, Schultz,
+of the fascinating voice, had given signs of strange agitation.  All that
+day, ever since leaving the Malay town up the river, he had shown a
+haggard face, going about his duties like a man with something weighing
+on his mind.  Jasper had noticed it, but the mate, turning away, as
+though he had not liked being looked at, had muttered shamefacedly of a
+headache and a touch of fever.  He must have had it very badly when,
+dodging behind his captain he wondered aloud: “What can that fellow want
+with us?” . . . A naked man standing in a freezing blast and trying not
+to shiver could not have spoken with a more harshly uncertain intonation.
+But it might have been fever—a cold fit.
+
+“He wants to make himself disagreeable, simply,” said Jasper, with
+perfect good humour.  “He has tried it on me before.  However, we shall
+soon see.”
+
+And, indeed, before long the two vessels lay abreast within easy hail.
+The brig, with her fine lines and her white sails, looked vaporous and
+sylph-like in the moonlight.  The gunboat, short, squat, with her stumpy
+dark spars naked like dead trees, raised against the luminous sky of that
+resplendent night, threw a heavy shadow on the lane of water between the
+two ships.
+
+Freya haunted them both like an ubiquitous spirit, and as if she were the
+only woman in the world.  Jasper remembered her earnest recommendation to
+be guarded and cautious in all his acts and words while he was away from
+her.  In this quite unforeseen encounter he felt on his ear the very
+breath of these hurried admonitions customary to the last moment of their
+partings, heard the half-jesting final whisper of the “Mind, kid, I’d
+never forgive you!” with a quick pressure on his arm, which he answered
+by a quiet, confident smile.  Heemskirk was haunted in another fashion.
+There were no whispers in it; it was more like visions.  He saw that girl
+hanging round the neck of a low vagabond—that vagabond, the vagabond who
+had just answered his hail.  He saw her stealing bare-footed across a
+verandah with great, clear, wide-open, eager eyes to look at a brig—that
+brig.  If she had shrieked, scolded, called names! . . . But she had
+simply triumphed over him.  That was all.  Led on (he firmly believed
+it), fooled, deceived, outraged, struck, mocked at. . . . Beak and claws!
+The two men, so differently haunted by Freya of the Seven Isles, were not
+equally matched.
+
+In the intense stillness, as of sleep, which had fallen upon the two
+vessels, in a world that itself seemed but a delicate dream, a boat
+pulled by Javanese sailors crossing the dark lane of water came alongside
+the brig.  The white warrant officer in her, perhaps the gunner, climbed
+aboard.  He was a short man, with a rotund stomach and a wheezy voice.
+His immovable fat face looked lifeless in the moonlight, and he walked
+with his thick arms hanging away from his body as though he had been
+stuffed.  His cunning little eyes glittered like bits of mica.  He
+conveyed to Jasper, in broken English, a request to come on board the
+_Neptun_.
+
+Jasper had not expected anything so unusual.  But after a short
+reflection he decided to show neither annoyance, nor even surprise.  The
+river from which he had come had been politically disturbed for a couple
+of years, and he was aware that his visits there were looked upon with
+some suspicion.  But he did not mind much the displeasure of the
+authorities, so terrifying to old Nelson.  He prepared to leave the brig,
+and Schultz followed him to the rail as if to say something, but in the
+end stood by in silence.  Jasper getting over the side, noticed his
+ghastly face.  The eyes of the man who had found salvation in the brig
+from the effects of his peculiar psychology looked at him with a dumb,
+beseeching expression.
+
+“What’s the matter?” Jasper asked.
+
+“I wonder how this will end?” said he of the beautiful voice, which had
+even fascinated the steady Freya herself.  But where was its charming
+timbre now?  These words had sounded like a raven’s croak.
+
+“You are ill,” said Jasper positively.
+
+“I wish I were dead!” was the startling statement uttered by Schultz
+talking to himself in the extremity of some mysterious trouble.  Jasper
+gave him a keen glance, but this was not the time to investigate the
+morbid outbreak of a feverish man.  He did not look as though he were
+actually delirious, and that for the moment must suffice.  Schultz made a
+dart forward.
+
+“That fellow means harm!” he said desperately.  “He means harm to you,
+Captain Allen.  I feel it, and I—”
+
+He choked with inexplicable emotion.
+
+“All right, Schultz.  I won’t give him an opening.”  Jasper cut him short
+and swung himself into the boat.
+
+On board the _Neptun_ Heemskirk, standing straddle-legs in the flood of
+moonlight, his inky shadow falling right across the quarter-deck, made no
+sign at his approach, but secretly he felt something like the heave of
+the sea in his chest at the sight of that man.  Jasper waited before him
+in silence.
+
+Brought face to face in direct personal contact, they fell at once into
+the manner of their casual meetings in old Nelson’s bungalow.  They
+ignored each other’s existence—Heemskirk moodily; Jasper, with a
+perfectly colourless quietness.
+
+“What’s going on in that river you’ve just come out of?” asked the
+lieutenant straight away.
+
+“I know nothing of the troubles, if you mean that,” Jasper answered.
+“I’ve landed there half a cargo of rice, for which I got nothing in
+exchange, and went away.  There’s no trade there now, but they would have
+been starving in another week—if I hadn’t turned up.”
+
+“Meddling!  English meddling!  And suppose the rascals don’t deserve
+anything better than to starve, eh?”
+
+“There are women and children there, you know,” observed Jasper, in his
+even tone.
+
+“Oh, yes!  When an Englishman talks of women and children, you may be
+sure there’s something fishy about the business.  Your doings will have
+to be investigated.”
+
+They spoke in turn, as though they had been disembodied spirits—mere
+voices in empty air; for they looked at each other as if there had been
+nothing there, or, at most, with as much recognition as one gives to an
+inanimate object, and no more.  But now a silence fell.  Heemskirk had
+thought, all at once: “She will tell him all about it.  She will tell him
+while she hangs round his neck laughing.”  And the sudden desire to
+annihilate Jasper on the spot almost deprived him of his senses by its
+vehemence.  He lost the power of speech, of vision.  For a moment he
+absolutely couldn’t see Jasper.  But he heard him inquiring, as of the
+world at large:
+
+“Am I, then, to conclude that the brig is detained?”
+
+Heemskirk made a recovery in a flush of malignant satisfaction.
+
+“She is.  I am going to take her to Makassar in tow.”
+
+“The courts will have to decide on the legality of this,” said Jasper,
+aware that the matter was becoming serious, but with assumed
+indifference.
+
+“Oh, yes, the courts!  Certainly.  And as to you, I shall keep you on
+board here.”
+
+Jasper’s dismay at being parted from his ship was betrayed by a stony
+immobility.  It lasted but an instant.  Then he turned away and hailed
+the brig.  Mr. Schultz answered:
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+“Get ready to receive a tow-rope from the gunboat!  We are going to be
+taken to Makassar.”
+
+“Good God!  What’s that for, sir?” came an anxious cry faintly.
+
+“Kindness, I suppose,” Jasper, ironical, shouted with great deliberation.
+“We might have been—becalmed in here—for days.  And hospitality.  I am
+invited to stay—on board here.”
+
+The answer to this information was a loud ejaculation of distress.
+Jasper thought anxiously: “Why, the fellow’s nerve’s gone to pieces;” and
+with an awkward uneasiness of a new sort, looked intently at the brig.
+The thought that he was parted from her—for the first time since they
+came together—shook the apparently careless fortitude of his character to
+its very foundations, which were deep.  All that time neither Heemskirk
+nor even his inky shadow had stirred in the least.
+
+“I am going to send a boat’s crew and an officer on board your vessel,”
+he announced to no one in particular.  Jasper, tearing himself away from
+the absorbed contemplation of the brig, turned round, and, without
+passion, almost without expression in his voice, entered his protest
+against the whole of the proceedings.  What he was thinking of was the
+delay.  He counted the days.  Makassar was actually on his way; and to be
+towed there really saved time.  On the other hand, there would be some
+vexing formalities to go through.  But the thing was too absurd.  “The
+beetle’s gone mad,” he thought.  “I’ll be released at once.  And if not,
+Mesman must enter into a bond for me.”  Mesman was a Dutch merchant with
+whom Jasper had had many dealings, a considerable person in Makassar.
+
+“You protest?  H’m!” Heemskirk muttered, and for a little longer remained
+motionless, his legs planted well apart, and his head lowered as though
+he were studying his own comical, deeply-split shadow.  Then he made a
+sign to the rotund gunner, who had kept at hand, motionless, like a
+vilely-stuffed specimen of a fat man, with a lifeless face and glittering
+little eyes.  The fellow approached, and stood at attention.
+
+“You will board the brig with a boat’s crew!”
+
+“Ya, mynherr!”
+
+“You will have one of your men to steer her all the time,” went on
+Heemskirk, giving his orders in English, apparently for Jasper’s
+edification.  “You hear?”
+
+“Ya, mynherr.”
+
+“You will remain on deck and in charge all the time.”
+
+“Ya, mynherr.”
+
+Jasper felt as if, together with the command of the brig, his very heart
+were being taken out of his breast.  Heemskirk asked, with a change of
+tone:
+
+“What weapons have you on board?”
+
+At one time all the ships trading in the China Seas had a licence to
+carry a certain quantity of firearms for purposes of defence.  Jasper
+answered:
+
+“Eighteen rifles with their bayonets, which were on board when I bought
+her, four years ago.  They have been declared.”
+
+“Where are they kept?”
+
+“Fore-cabin.  Mate has the key.”
+
+“You will take possession of them,” said Heemskirk to the gunner.
+
+“Ya, mynherr.”
+
+“What is this for?  What do you mean to imply?” cried out Jasper; then
+bit his lip.  “It’s monstrous!” he muttered.
+
+Heemskirk raised for a moment a heavy, as if suffering, glance.
+
+“You may go,” he said to his gunner.  The fat man saluted, and departed.
+
+During the next thirty hours the steady towing was interrupted once.  At
+a signal from the brig, made by waving a flag on the forecastle, the
+gunboat was stopped.  The badly-stuffed specimen of a warrant-officer,
+getting into his boat, arrived on board the _Neptun_ and hurried straight
+into his commander’s cabin, his excitement at something he had to
+communicate being betrayed by the blinking of his small eyes.  These two
+were closeted together for some time, while Jasper at the taffrail tried
+to make out if anything out of the common had occurred on board the brig.
+
+But nothing seemed to be amiss on board.  However, he kept a look-out for
+the gunner; and, though he had avoided speaking to anybody since he had
+finished with Heemskirk, he stopped that man when he came out on deck
+again to ask how his mate was.
+
+“He was feeling not very well when I left,” he explained.
+
+The fat warrant-officer, holding himself as though the effort of carrying
+his big stomach in front of him demanded a rigid carriage, understood
+with difficulty.  Not a single one of his features showed the slightest
+animation, but his little eyes blinked rapidly at last.
+
+“Oh, ya!  The mate.  Ya, ya!  He is very well.  But, mein Gott, he is one
+very funny man!”
+
+Jasper could get no explanation of that remark, because the Dutchman got
+into the boat hurriedly, and went back on board the brig.  But he
+consoled himself with the thought that very soon all this unpleasant and
+rather absurd experience would be over.  The roadstead of Makassar was in
+sight already.  Heemskirk passed by him going on the bridge.  For the
+first time the lieutenant looked at Jasper with marked intention; and the
+strange roll of his eyes was so funny—it had been long agreed by Jasper
+and Freya that the lieutenant was funny—so ecstatically gratified, as
+though he were rolling a tasty morsel on his tongue, that Jasper could
+not help a broad smile.  And then he turned to his brig again.
+
+To see her, his cherished possession, animated by something of his
+Freya’s soul, the only foothold of two lives on the wide earth, the
+security of his passion, the companion of adventure, the power to snatch
+the calm, adorable Freya to his breast, and carry her off to the end of
+the world; to see this beautiful thing embodying worthily his pride and
+his love, to see her captive at the end of a tow-rope was not indeed a
+pleasant experience.  It had something nightmarish in it, as, for
+instance, the dream of a wild sea-bird loaded with chains.
+
+Yet what else could he want to look at?  Her beauty would sometimes come
+to his heart with the force of a spell, so that he would forget where he
+was.  And, besides, that sense of superiority which the certitude of
+being loved gives to a young man, that illusion of being set above the
+Fates by a tender look in a woman’s eyes, helped him, the first shock
+over, to go through these experiences with an amused self-confidence.
+For what evil could touch the elect of Freya?
+
+It was now afternoon, the sun being behind the two vessels as they headed
+for the harbour.  “The beetle’s little joke shall soon be over,” thought
+Jasper, without any great animosity.  As a seaman well acquainted with
+that part of the world, a casual glance was enough to tell him what was
+being done.  “Hallo,” he thought, “he is going through Spermonde Passage.
+We shall be rounding Tamissa reef presently.”  And again he returned to
+the contemplation of his brig, that main-stay of his material and
+emotional existence which would be soon in his hands again.  On a sea,
+calm like a millpond, a heavy smooth ripple undulated and streamed away
+from her bows, for the powerful _Neptun_ was towing at great speed, as if
+for a wager.  The Dutch gunner appeared on the forecastle of the
+_Bonito_, and with him a couple of men.  They stood looking at the coast,
+and Jasper lost himself in a loverlike trance.
+
+The deep-toned blast of the gunboat’s steam-whistle made him shudder by
+its unexpectedness.  Slowly he looked about.  Swift as lightning he
+leaped from where he stood, bounding forward along the deck.
+
+“You will be on Tamissa reef!” he yelled.
+
+High up on the bridge Heemskirk looked back over his shoulder heavily;
+two seamen were spinning the wheel round, and the _Neptun_ was already
+swinging rapidly away from the edge of the pale water over the danger.
+Ha! just in time.  Jasper turned about instantly to watch his brig; and,
+even before he realised that—in obedience, it appears, to Heemskirk’s
+orders given beforehand to the gunner—the tow-rope had been let go at the
+blast of the whistle, before he had time to cry out or to move a limb, he
+saw her cast adrift and shooting across the gunboat’s stern with the
+impetus of her speed.  He followed her fine, gliding form with eyes
+growing big with incredulity, wild with horror.  The cries on board of
+her came to him only as a dreadful and confused murmur through the loud
+thumping of blood in his ears, while she held on.  She ran upright in a
+terrible display of her gift of speed, with an incomparable air of life
+and grace.  She ran on till the smooth level of water in front of her
+bows seemed to sink down suddenly as if sucked away; and, with a strange,
+violent tremor of her mast-heads she stopped, inclined her lofty spars a
+little, and lay still.  She lay still on the reef, while the _Neptun_,
+fetching a wide circle, continued at full speed up Spermonde Passage,
+heading for the town.  She lay still, perfectly still, with something
+ill-omened and unnatural in her attitude.  In an instant the subtle
+melancholy of things touched by decay had fallen on her in the sunshine;
+she was but a speck in the brilliant emptiness of space, already lonely,
+already desolate.
+
+“Hold him!” yelled a voice from the bridge.
+
+Jasper had started to run to his brig with a headlong impulse, as a man
+dashes forward to pull away with his hands a living, breathing, loved
+creature from the brink of destruction.  “Hold him!  Stick to him!”
+vociferated the lieutenant at the top of the bridge-ladder, while Jasper
+struggled madly without a word, only his head emerging from the heaving
+crowd of the _Neptun’s_ seamen, who had flung themselves upon him
+obediently.  “Hold—I would not have that fellow drown himself for
+anything now!”
+
+Jasper ceased struggling.
+
+One by one they let go of him; they fell back gradually farther and
+farther, in attentive silence, leaving him standing unsupported in a
+widened, clear space, as if to give him plenty of room to fall after the
+struggle.  He did not even sway perceptibly.  Half an hour later, when
+the _Neptun_ anchored in front of the town, he had not stirred yet, had
+moved neither head nor limb as much as a hair’s breadth.  Directly the
+rumble of the gunboat’s cable had ceased, Heemskirk came down heavily
+from the bridge.
+
+“Call a sampan” he said, in a gloomy tone, as he passed the sentry at the
+gangway, and then moved on slowly towards the spot where Jasper, the
+object of many awed glances, stood looking at the deck, as if lost in a
+brown study.  Heemskirk came up close, and stared at him thoughtfully,
+with his fingers over his lips.  Here he was, the favoured vagabond, the
+only man to whom that infernal girl was likely to tell the story.  But he
+would not find it funny.  The story how Lieutenant Heemskirk—No, he would
+not laugh at it.  He looked as though he would never laugh at anything in
+his life.
+
+Suddenly Jasper looked up.  His eyes, without any other expression but
+bewilderment, met those of Heemskirk, observant and sombre.
+
+“Gone on the reef!” he said, in a low, astounded tone.  “On-the-reef!” he
+repeated still lower, and as if attending inwardly to the birth of some
+awful and amazing sensation.
+
+“On the very top of high-water, spring tides,” Heemskirk struck in, with
+a vindictive, exulting violence which flashed and expired.  He paused, as
+if weary, fixing upon Jasper his arrogant eyes, over which secret
+disenchantment, the unavoidable shadow of all passion, seemed to pass
+like a saddening cloud.  “On the very top,” he repeated, rousing himself
+in fierce reaction to snatch his laced cap off his head with a
+horizontal, derisive flourish towards the gangway.  “And now you may go
+ashore to the courts, you damned Englishman!” he said.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+THE affair of the brig _Bonito_ was bound to cause a sensation in
+Makassar, the prettiest, and perhaps the cleanest-looking of all the
+towns in the Islands; which however knows few occasions for excitement.
+The “front,” with its special population, was soon aware that something
+had happened.  A steamer towing a sailing vessel had been observed far
+out to sea for some time, and when the steamer came in alone, leaving the
+other outside, attention was aroused.  Why was that?  Her masts only
+could be seen—with furled sails—remaining in the same place to the
+southward.  And soon the rumour ran all along the crowded seashore street
+that there was a ship on Tamissa reef.  That crowd interpreted the
+appearance correctly.  Its cause was beyond their penetration, for who
+could associate a girl nine hundred miles away with the stranding of a
+ship on Tamissa reef, or look for the remote filiation of that event in
+the psychology of at least three people, even if one of them, Lieutenant
+Heemskirk, was at that very moment passing amongst them on his way to
+make his verbal report?
+
+No; the minds on the “front” were not competent for that sort of
+investigation, but many hands there—brown hands, yellow hands, white
+hands—were raised to shade the eyes gazing out to sea.  The rumour spread
+quickly.  Chinese shopkeepers came to their doors, more than one white
+merchant, even, rose from his desk to go to the window.  After all, a
+ship on Tamissa was not an everyday occurrence.  And presently the rumour
+took a more definite shape.  An English trader—detained on suspicion at
+sea by the _Neptun_—Heemskirk was towing him in to test a case, and by
+some strange accident—
+
+Later on the name came out.  “The _Bonito_—what!  Impossible!  Yes—yes,
+the _Bonito_.  Look!  You can see from here; only two masts.  It’s a
+brig.  Didn’t think that man would ever let himself be caught.
+Heemskirk’s pretty smart, too.  They say she’s fitted out in her cabin
+like a gentleman’s yacht.  That Allen is a sort of gentleman too.  An
+extravagant beggar.”
+
+A young man entered smartly Messrs. Mesman Brothers’ office on the
+“front,” bubbling with some further information.
+
+“Oh, yes; that’s the _Bonito_ for certain!  But you don’t know the story
+I’ve heard just now.  The fellow must have been feeding that river with
+firearms for the last year or two.  Well, it seems he has grown so
+reckless from long impunity that he has actually dared to sell the very
+ship’s rifles this time.  It’s a fact.  The rifles are not on board.
+What impudence!  Only, he didn’t know that there was one of our warships
+on the coast.  But those Englishmen are so impudent that perhaps he
+thought that nothing would be done to him for it.  Our courts do let off
+these fellows too often, on some miserable excuse or other.  But, at any
+rate, there’s an end of the famous _Bonito_.  I have just heard in the
+harbour-office that she must have gone on at the very top of high-water;
+and she is in ballast, too.  No human power, they think, can move her
+from where she is.  I only hope it is so.  It would be fine to have the
+notorious _Bonito_ stuck up there as a warning to others.”
+
+Mr. J. Mesman, a colonial-born Dutchman, a kind, paternal old fellow,
+with a clean-shaven, quiet, handsome face, and a head of fine iron-grey
+hair curling a little on his collar, did not say a word in defence of
+Jasper and the _Bonito_.  He rose from his arm-chair suddenly.  His face
+was visibly troubled.  It had so happened that once, from a business talk
+of ways and means, island trade, money matters, and so on, Jasper had
+been led to open himself to him on the subject of Freya; and the
+excellent man, who had known old Nelson years before and even remembered
+something of Freya, was much astonished and amused by the unfolding of
+the tale.
+
+“Well, well, well!  Nelson!  Yes; of course.  A very honest sort of man.
+And a little child with very fair hair.  Oh, yes!  I have a distinct
+recollection.  And so she has grown into such a fine girl, so very
+determined, so very—”  And he laughed almost boisterously.  “Mind, when
+you have happily eloped with your future wife, Captain Allen, you must
+come along this way, and we shall welcome her here.  A little fair-headed
+child!  I remember.  I remember.”
+
+It was that knowledge which had brought trouble to his face at the first
+news of the wreck.  He took up his hat.
+
+“Where are you going, Mr. Mesman?”
+
+“I am going to look for Allen.  I think he must be ashore.  Does anybody
+know?”
+
+No one of those present knew.  And Mr. Mesman went out on the “front” to
+make inquiries.
+
+The other part of the town, the part near the church and the fort, got
+its information in another way.  The first thing disclosed to it was
+Jasper himself, walking rapidly, as though he were pursued.  And, as a
+matter of fact, a Chinaman, obviously a sampan man, was following him at
+the same headlong pace.  Suddenly, while passing Orange House, Jasper
+swerved and went in, or, rather, rushed in, startling Gomez, the hotel
+clerk, very much.  But a Chinaman beginning to make an unseemly noise at
+the door claimed the immediate attention of Gomez.  His grievance was
+that the white man whom he had brought on shore from the gunboat had not
+paid him his boat-fare.  He had pursued him so far, asking for it all the
+way.  But the white man had taken no notice whatever of his just claim.
+Gomez satisfied the coolie with a few coppers, and then went to look for
+Jasper, whom he knew very well.  He found him standing stiffly by a
+little round table.  At the other end of the verandah a few men sitting
+there had stopped talking, and were looking at him in silence.  Two
+billiard-players, with cues in their hands, had come to the door of the
+billiard-room and stared, too.
+
+On Gomez coming up to him, Jasper raised one hand to point at his own
+throat.  Gomez noted the somewhat soiled state of his white clothes, then
+took one look at his face, and fled away to order the drink for which
+Jasper seemed to be asking.
+
+Where he wanted to go—or what purpose—where he, perhaps, only imagined
+himself to be going, when a sudden impulse or the sight of a familiar
+place had made him turn into Orange House—it is impossible to say.  He
+was steadying himself lightly with the tips of his fingers on the little
+table.  There were on that verandah two men whom he knew well personally,
+but his gaze roaming incessantly as though he were looking for a way of
+escape, passed and repassed over them without a sign of recognition.
+They, on their side, looking at him, doubted the evidence of their own
+eyes.  It was not that his face was distorted.  On the contrary, it was
+still, it was set.  But its expression, somehow, was unrecognisable.  Can
+that be him? they wondered with awe.
+
+In his head there was a wild chaos of clear thoughts.  Perfectly clear.
+It was this clearness which was so terrible in conjunction with the utter
+inability to lay hold of any single one of them all.  He was saying to
+himself, or to them: “Steady, steady.”  A China boy appeared before him
+with a glass on a tray.  He poured the drink down his throat, and rushed
+out.  His disappearance removed the spell of wonder from the beholders.
+One of the men jumped up and moved quickly to that side of the verandah
+from which almost the whole of the roadstead could be seen.  At the very
+moment when Jasper, issuing from the door of the Orange House, was
+passing under him in the street below, he cried to the others excitedly:
+
+“That was Allen right enough!  But where is his brig?”
+
+Jasper heard these words with extraordinary loudness.  The heavens rang
+with them, as if calling him to account; for those were the very words
+Freya would have to use.  It was an annihilating question; it struck his
+consciousness like a thunderbolt and brought a sudden night upon the
+chaos of his thoughts even as he walked.  He did not check his pace.  He
+went on in the darkness for another three strides, and then fell.
+
+The good Mesman had to push on as far as the hospital before he found
+him.  The doctor there talked of a slight heatstroke.  Nothing very much.
+Out in three days. . . . It must be admitted that the doctor was right.
+In three days, Jasper Allen came out of the hospital and became visible
+to the town—very visible indeed—and remained so for quite a long time;
+long enough to become almost one of the sights of the place; long enough
+to become disregarded at last; long enough for the tale of his haunting
+visibility to be remembered in the islands to this day.
+
+The talk on the “front” and Jasper’s appearance in the Orange House stand
+at the beginning of the famous _Bonito_ case, and give a view of its two
+aspects—the practical and the psychological.  The case for the courts and
+the case for compassion; that last terribly evident and yet obscure.
+
+It has, you must understand, remained obscure even for that friend of
+mine who wrote me the letter mentioned in the very first lines of this
+narrative.  He was one of those in Mr. Mesman’s office, and accompanied
+that gentleman in his search for Jasper.  His letter described to me the
+two aspects and some of the episodes of the case.  Heemskirk’s attitude
+was that of deep thankfulness for not having lost his own ship, and that
+was all.  Haze over the land was his explanation of having got so close
+to Tamissa reef.  He saved his ship, and for the rest he did not care.
+As to the fat gunner, he deposed simply that he thought at the time that
+he was acting for the best by letting go the tow-rope, but admitted that
+he was greatly confused by the suddenness of the emergency.
+
+As a matter of fact, he had acted on very precise instructions from
+Heemskirk, to whom through several years’ service together in the East he
+had become a sort of devoted henchman.  What was most amazing in the
+detention of the _Bonito_ was his story how, proceeding to take
+possession of the firearms as ordered, he discovered that there were no
+firearms on board.  All he found in the fore-cabin was an empty rack for
+the proper number of eighteen rifles, but of the rifles themselves never
+a single one anywhere in the ship.  The mate of the brig, who looked
+rather ill and behaved excitedly, as though he were perhaps a lunatic,
+wanted him to believe that Captain Allen knew nothing of this; that it
+was he, the mate, who had recently sold these rifles in the dead of night
+to a certain person up the river.  In proof of this story he produced a
+bag of silver dollars and pressed it on his, the gunner’s, acceptance.
+Then, suddenly flinging it down on the deck, he beat his own head with
+both his fists and started heaping shocking curses upon his own soul for
+an ungrateful wretch not fit to live.
+
+All this the gunner reported at once to his commanding officer.
+
+What Heemskirk intended by taking upon himself to detain the _Bonito_ it
+is difficult to say, except that he meant to bring some trouble into the
+life of the man favoured by Freya.  He had been looking at Jasper with a
+desire to strike that man of kisses and embraces to the earth.  The
+question was: How could he do it without giving himself away?  But the
+report of the gunner created a serious case enough.  Yet Allen had
+friends—and who could tell whether he wouldn’t somehow succeed in
+wriggling out of it?  The idea of simply towing the brig so much
+compromised on to the reef came to him while he was listening to the fat
+gunner in his cabin.  There was but little risk of being disapproved now.
+And it should be made to appear an accident.
+
+Going out on deck he had gloated upon his unconscious victim with such a
+sinister roll of his eyes, such a queerly pursed mouth, that Jasper could
+not help smiling.  And the lieutenant had gone on the bridge, saying to
+himself:
+
+“You wait!  I shall spoil the taste of those sweet kisses for you.  When
+you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that name won’t bring a
+smile on your lips, I swear.  You are delivered into my hands.”
+
+And this possibility had come about without any planning, one could
+almost say naturally, as if events had mysteriously shaped themselves to
+fit the purposes of a dark passion.  The most astute scheming could not
+have served Heemskirk better.  It was given to him to taste a
+transcendental, an incredible perfection of vengeance; to strike a deadly
+blow into that hated person’s heart, and to watch him afterwards walking
+about with the dagger in his breast.
+
+For that is what the state of Jasper amounted to.  He moved, acted,
+weary-eyed, keen-faced, lank and restless, with brusque movements and
+fierce gestures; he talked incessantly in a frenzied and fatigued voice,
+but within himself he knew that nothing would ever give him back the
+brig, just as nothing can heal a pierced heart.  His soul, kept quiet in
+the stress of love by the unflinching Freya’s influence, was like a still
+but overwound string.  The shock had started it vibrating, and the string
+had snapped.  He had waited for two years in a perfectly intoxicated
+confidence for a day that now would never come to a man disarmed for life
+by the loss of the brig, and, it seemed to him, made unfit for love to
+which he had no foothold to offer.
+
+Day after day he would traverse the length of the town, follow the coast,
+and, reaching the point of land opposite that part of the reef on which
+his brig lay stranded, look steadily across the water at her beloved
+form, once the home of an exulting hope, and now, in her inclined,
+desolated immobility, towering above the lonely sea-horizon, a symbol of
+despair.
+
+The crew had left her in due course in her own boats which directly they
+reached the town were sequestrated by the harbour authorities.  The
+vessel, too, was sequestrated pending proceedings; but these same
+authorities did not take the trouble to set a guard on board.  For,
+indeed, what could move her from there?  Nothing, unless a miracle;
+nothing, unless Jasper’s eyes, fastened on her tensely for hours
+together, as though he hoped by the mere power of vision to draw her to
+his breast.
+
+All this story, read in my friend’s very chatty letter, dismayed me not a
+little.  But it was really appalling to read his relation of how Schultz,
+the mate, went about everywhere affirming with desperate pertinacity that
+it was he alone who had sold the rifles.  “I stole them,” he protested.
+Of course, no one would believe him.  My friend himself did not believe
+him, though he, of course, admired this self-sacrifice.  But a good many
+people thought it was going too far to make oneself out a thief for the
+sake of a friend.  Only, it was such an obvious lie, too, that it did not
+matter, perhaps.
+
+I, who, in view of Schultz’s psychology, knew how true that must be,
+admit that I was appalled.  So this was how a perfidious destiny took
+advantage of a generous impulse!  And I felt as though I were an
+accomplice in this perfidy, since I did to a certain extent encourage
+Jasper.  Yet I had warned him as well.
+
+“The man seemed to have gone crazy on this point,” wrote my friend.  “He
+went to Mesman with his story.  He says that some rascally white man
+living amongst the natives up that river made him drunk with some gin one
+evening, and then jeered at him for never having any money.  Then he,
+protesting to us that he was an honest man and must be believed,
+described himself as being a thief whenever he took a drop too much, and
+told us that he went on board and passed the rifles one by one without
+the slightest compunction to a canoe which came alongside that night,
+receiving ten dollars apiece for them.
+
+“Next day he was ill with shame and grief, but had not the courage to
+confess his lapse to his benefactor.  When the gunboat stopped the brig
+he felt ready to die with the apprehension of the consequences, and would
+have died happily, if he could have been able to bring the rifles back by
+the sacrifice of his life.  He said nothing to Jasper, hoping that the
+brig would be released presently.  When it turned out otherwise and his
+captain was detained on board the gunboat, he was ready to commit suicide
+from despair; only he thought it his duty to live in order to let the
+truth be known.  ‘I am an honest man!  I am an honest man!’ he repeated,
+in a voice that brought tears to our eyes.  ‘You must believe me when I
+tell you that I am a thief—a vile, low, cunning, sneaking thief as soon
+as I’ve had a glass or two.  Take me somewhere where I may tell the truth
+on oath.’
+
+“When we had at last convinced him that his story could be of no use to
+Jasper—for what Dutch court, having once got hold of an English trader,
+would accept such an explanation; and, indeed, how, when, where could one
+hope to find proofs of such a tale?—he made as if to tear his hair in
+handfuls, but, calming down, said: ‘Good-bye, then, gentlemen,’ and went
+out of the room so crushed that he seemed hardly able to put one foot
+before the other.  That very night he committed suicide by cutting his
+throat in the house of a half-caste with whom he had been lodging since
+he came ashore from the wreck.”
+
+That throat, I thought with a shudder, which could produce the tender,
+persuasive, manly, but fascinating voice which had aroused Jasper’s ready
+compassion and had secured Freya’s sympathy!  Who could ever have
+supposed such an end in store for the impossible, gentle Schultz, with
+his idiosyncrasy of naïve pilfering, so absurdly straightforward that,
+even in the people who had suffered from it, it aroused nothing more than
+a sort of amused exasperation?  He was really impossible.  His lot
+evidently should have been a half-starved, mysterious, but by no means
+tragic existence as a mild-eyed, inoffensive beachcomber on the fringe of
+native life.  There are occasions when the irony of fate, which some
+people profess to discover in the working out of our lives, wears the
+aspect of crude and savage jesting.
+
+I shook my head over the manes of Schultz, and went on with my friend’s
+letter.  It told me how the brig on the reef, looted by the natives from
+the coast villages, acquired gradually the lamentable aspect, the grey
+ghastliness of a wreck; while Jasper, fading daily into a mere shadow of
+a man, strode brusquely all along the “front” with horribly lively eyes
+and a faint, fixed smile on his lips, to spend the day on a lonely spit
+of sand looking eagerly at her, as though he had expected some shape on
+board to rise up and make some sort of sign to him over the decaying
+bulwarks.  The Mesmans were taking care of him as far as it was possible.
+The _Bonito_ case had been referred to Batavia, where no doubt it would
+fade away in a fog of official papers. . . . It was heartrending to read
+all this.  That active and zealous officer, Lieutenant Heemskirk, his air
+of sullen, darkly-pained self-importance not lightened by the approval of
+his action conveyed to him unofficially, had gone on to take up his
+station in the Moluccas. . . .
+
+Then, at the end of the bulky, kindly-meant epistle, dealing with the
+island news of half a year at least, my friend wrote: “A couple of months
+ago old Nelson turned up here, arriving by the mail-boat from Java.  Came
+to see Mesman, it seems.  A rather mysterious visit, and extraordinarily
+short, after coming all that way.  He stayed just four days at the Orange
+House, with apparently nothing in particular to do, and then caught the
+south-going steamer for the Straits.  I remember people saying at one
+time that Allen was rather sweet on old Nelson’s daughter, the girl that
+was brought up by Mrs. Harley and then went to live with him at the Seven
+Isles group.  Surely you remember old Nelson—”
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Rather!
+
+The letter went on to inform me further that old Nelson, at least,
+remembered me, since some time after his flying visit to Makassar he had
+written to the Mesmans asking for my address in London.
+
+That old Nelson (or Nielsen), the note of whose personality was a
+profound, echoless irresponsiveness to everything around him, should wish
+to write, or find anything to write about to anybody, was in itself a
+cause for no small wonder.  And to me, of all people!  I waited with
+uneasy impatience for whatever disclosure could come from that naturally
+benighted intelligence, but my impatience had time to wear out before my
+eyes beheld old Nelson’s trembling, painfully-formed handwriting, senile
+and childish at the same time, on an envelope bearing a penny stamp and
+the postal mark of the Notting Hill office.  I delayed opening it in
+order to pay the tribute of astonishment due to the event by flinging my
+hands above my head.  So he had come home to England, to be definitely
+Nelson; or else was on his way home to Denmark, where he would revert for
+ever to his original Nielsen!  But old Nelson (or Nielsen) out of the
+tropics seemed unthinkable.  And yet he was there, asking me to call.
+
+His address was at a boarding-house in one of those Bayswater squares,
+once of leisure, which nowadays are reduced to earning their living.
+Somebody had recommended him there.  I started to call on him on one of
+those January days in London, one of those wintry days composed of the
+four devilish elements, cold, wet, mud, and grime, combined with a
+particular stickiness of atmosphere that clings like an unclean garment
+to one’s very soul.  Yet on approaching his abode I saw, like a flicker
+far behind the soiled veil of the four elements, the wearisome and
+splendid glitter of a blue sea with the Seven Islets like minute specks
+swimming in my eye, the high red roof of the bungalow crowning the very
+smallest of them all.  This visual reminiscence was profoundly
+disturbing.  I knocked at the door with a faltering hand.
+
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen) got up from the table at which he was sitting
+with a shabby pocket-book full of papers before him.  He took off his
+spectacles before shaking hands.  For a moment neither of us said a word;
+then, noticing me looking round somewhat expectantly, he murmured some
+words, of which I caught only “daughter” and “Hong Kong,” cast his eyes
+down, and sighed.
+
+His moustache, sticking all ways out, as of yore, was quite white now.
+His old cheeks were softly rounded, with some colour in them; strangely
+enough, that something childlike always noticeable in the general contour
+of his physiognomy had become much more marked.  Like his handwriting, he
+looked childish and senile.  He showed his age most in his
+unintelligently furrowed, anxious forehead and in his round, innocent
+eyes, which appeared to me weak and blinking and watery; or was it that
+they were full of tears? . . .
+
+To discover old Nelson fully informed upon any matter whatever was a new
+experience.  And after the first awkwardness had worn off he talked
+freely, with, now and then, a question to start him going whenever he
+lapsed into silence, which he would do suddenly, clasping his hands on
+his waistcoat in an attitude which would recall to me the east verandah,
+where he used to sit talking quietly and puffing out his cheeks in what
+seemed now old, very old days.  He talked in a reasonable somewhat
+anxious tone.
+
+“No, no.  We did not know anything for weeks.  Out of the way like that,
+we couldn’t, of course.  No mail service to the Seven Isles.  But one day
+I ran over to Banka in my big sailing-boat to see whether there were any
+letters, and saw a Dutch paper.  But it looked only like a bit of marine
+news: English brig _Bonito_ gone ashore outside Makassar roads.  That was
+all.  I took the paper home with me and showed it to her.  ‘I will never
+forgive him!’ she cries with her old spirit.  ‘My dear,’ I said, ‘you are
+a sensible girl.  The best man may lose a ship.  But what about your
+health?’  I was beginning to be frightened at her looks.  She would not
+let me talk even of going to Singapore before.  But, really, such a
+sensible girl couldn’t keep on objecting for ever.  ‘Do what you like,
+papa,’ she says.  Rather a job, that.  Had to catch a steamer at sea, but
+I got her over all right.  There, doctors, of course.  Fever.  Anæmia.
+Put her to bed.  Two or three women very kind to her.  Naturally in our
+papers the whole story came out before long.  She reads it to the end,
+lying on the couch; then hands the newspaper back to me, whispers
+‘Heemskirk,’ and goes off into a faint.”
+
+He blinked at me for quite a long time, his eyes running full of tears
+again.
+
+“Next day,” he began, without any emotion in his voice, “she felt
+stronger, and we had a long talk.  She told me everything.”
+
+Here old Nelson, with his eyes cast down, gave me the whole story of the
+Heemskirk episode in Freya’s words; then went on in his rather jerky
+utterance, and looking up innocently:
+
+“‘My dear,’ I said, ‘you have behaved in the main like a sensible girl.’
+‘I have been horrid,’ she cries, ‘and he is breaking his heart over
+there.’  Well, she was too sensible not to see she wasn’t in a state to
+travel.  But I went.  She told me to go.  She was being looked after very
+well.  Anæmia.  Getting better, they said.”
+
+He paused.
+
+“You did see him?” I murmured.
+
+“Oh, yes; I did see him,” he started again, talking in that reasonable
+voice as though he were arguing a point.  “I did see him.  I came upon
+him.  Eyes sunk an inch into his head; nothing but skin on the bones of
+his face, a skeleton in dirty white clothes.  That’s what he looked like.
+How Freya . . . But she never did—not really.  He was sitting there, the
+only live thing for miles along that coast, on a drift-log washed up on
+the shore.  They had clipped his hair in the hospital, and it had not
+grown again.  He stared, holding his chin in his hand, and with nothing
+on the sea between him and the sky but that wreck.  When I came up to him
+he just moved his head a bit.  ‘Is that you, old man?’ says he—like that.
+
+“If you had seen him you would have understood at once how impossible it
+was for Freya to have ever loved that man.  Well, well.  I don’t say.
+She might have—something.  She was lonely, you know.  But really to go
+away with him!  Never!  Madness.  She was too sensible . . . I began to
+reproach him gently.  And by and by he turns on me.  ‘Write to you!  What
+about?  Come to her!  What with?  If I had been a man I would have
+carried her off, but she made a child, a happy child, of me.  Tell her
+that the day the only thing I had belonging to me in the world perished
+on this reef I discovered that I had no power over her. . . Has she come
+here with you?’ he shouts, blazing at me suddenly with his hollow eyes.
+I shook my head.  Come with me, indeed!  Anæmia!  ‘Aha!  You see?  Go
+away, then, old man, and leave me alone here with that ghost,’ he says,
+jerking his head at the wreck of his brig.
+
+“Mad!  It was getting dusk.  I did not care to stop any longer all by
+myself with that man in that lonely place.  I was not going to tell him
+of Freya’s illness.  Anæmia!  What was the good?  Mad!  And what sort of
+husband would he have made, anyhow, for a sensible girl like Freya?  Why,
+even my little property I could not have left them.  The Dutch
+authorities would never have allowed an Englishman to settle there.  It
+was not sold then.  My man Mahmat, you know, was looking after it for me.
+Later on I let it go for a tenth of its value to a Dutch half-caste.  But
+never mind.  It was nothing to me then.  Yes; I went away from him.  I
+caught the return mail-boat.  I told everything to Freya.  ‘He’s mad,’ I
+said; ‘and, my dear, the only thing he loved was his brig.’
+
+“‘Perhaps,’ she says to herself, looking straight away—her eyes were
+nearly as hollow as his—‘perhaps it is true.  Yes!  I would never allow
+him any power over me.’”
+
+Old Nelson paused.  I sat fascinated, and feeling a little cold in that
+room with a blazing fire.
+
+“So you see,” he continued, “she never really cared for him.  Much too
+sensible.  I took her away to Hong Kong.  Change of climate, they said.
+Oh, these doctors!  My God!  Winter time!  There came ten days of cold
+mists and wind and rain.  Pneumonia.  But look here!  We talked a lot
+together.  Days and evenings.  Who else had she? . . . She talked a lot
+to me, my own girl.  Sometimes she would laugh a little.  Look at me and
+laugh a little—”
+
+I shuddered.  He looked up vaguely, with a childish, puzzled moodiness.
+
+“She would say: ‘I did not really mean to be a bad daughter to you,
+papa.’  And I would say: ‘Of course, my dear.  You could not have meant
+it.’  She would lie quiet and then say: ‘I wonder?’  And sometimes, ‘I’ve
+been really a coward,’ she would tell me.  You know, sick people they say
+things.  And so she would say too: ‘I’ve been conceited, headstrong,
+capricious.  I sought my own gratification.  I was selfish or afraid.’
+. . . But sick people, you know, they say anything.  And once, after lying
+silent almost all day, she said: ‘Yes; perhaps, when the day came I would
+not have gone.  Perhaps!  I don’t know,’ she cried.  ‘Draw the curtain,
+papa.  Shut the sea out.  It reproaches me with my folly.’”  He gasped
+and paused.
+
+“So you see,” he went on in a murmur.  “Very ill, very ill indeed.
+Pneumonia.  Very sudden.”  He pointed his finger at the carpet, while the
+thought of the poor girl, vanquished in her struggle with three men’s
+absurdities, and coming at last to doubt her own self, held me in a very
+anguish of pity.
+
+“You see yourself,” he began again in a downcast manner.  “She could not
+have really . . . She mentioned you several times.  Good friend.
+Sensible man.  So I wanted to tell you myself—let you know the truth.  A
+fellow like that!  How could it be?  She was lonely.  And perhaps for a
+while . . . Mere nothing.  There could never have been a question of love
+for my Freya—such a sensible girl—”
+
+“Man!” I cried, rising upon him wrathfully, “don’t you see that she died
+of it?”
+
+He got up too.  “No! no!” he stammered, as if angry.  “The doctors!
+Pneumonia.  Low state.  The inflammation of the . . . They told me.
+Pneu—”
+
+He did not finish the word.  It ended in a sob.  He flung his arms out in
+a gesture of despair, giving up his ghastly pretence with a low,
+heartrending cry:
+
+“And I thought that she was so sensible!”
+
+
+
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of 'Twixt Land &amp; Sea, by Joseph Conrad</title>
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of ’Twixt Land &amp; Sea, by Joseph Conrad</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
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+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: ’Twixt Land &amp; Sea</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Joseph Conrad</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 21, 1997 [eBook #1055]<br />
+[Most recently updated: December 14, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Price</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ’TWIXT LAND &amp; SEA ***</div>
+
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/coverb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Book cover"
+title=
+"Book cover"
+src="images/covers.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h1>&rsquo;TWIXT LAND &amp; SEA<br />
+TALES</h1>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br
+/>
+<b>JOSEPH CONRAD</b></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">A SMILE OF FORTUNE</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">THE SECRET SHARER</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">FREYA OF THE SEVEN<br />
+ISLES</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/tpb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Decorative graphic"
+title=
+"Decorative graphic"
+src="images/tps.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<blockquote><p><i>Life is a tragic folly</i><br />
+<i>Let us laugh and be jolly</i><br />
+<i>Away with melancholy</i><br />
+<i>Bring me a branch of holly</i><br />
+<i>Life is a tragic folly</i></p>
+<p style="text-align: right">A. <span
+class="smcap">Symons</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center">LONDON: J. M. DENT &amp; SONS
+LTD.<br />
+ALDINE HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN &middot; 1920</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p><span class="smcap">First Edition</span></p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>October</i> 1912</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><span class="smcap">Reprinted</span></p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>November</i> 1912; <i>January</i> 1913; <i>November</i>
+1918; <i>December</i> 1920</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">To</span><br />
+CAPTAIN C. M. MARRIS<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">LATE MASTER AND OWNER</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">OF THE</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">ARABY MAID: ARCHIPELAGO TRADER</span><br
+/>
+<span class="GutSmall">IN MEMORY OF THOSE</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">OLD DAYS OF ADVENTURE</span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Smile of Fortune</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page1">1</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Secret Sharer</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page99">99</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Freya of the Seven Isles</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>A SMILE
+OF FORTUNE<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">HARBOUR STORY</span></h2>
+<p><span class="smcap">Ever</span> since the sun rose I had been
+looking ahead. The ship glided gently in smooth
+water. After a sixty days&rsquo; passage I was anxious to
+make my landfall, a fertile and beautiful island of the
+tropics. The more enthusiastic of its inhabitants delight
+in describing it as the &ldquo;Pearl of the Ocean.&rdquo;
+Well, let us call it the &ldquo;Pearl.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a
+good name. A pearl distilling much sweetness upon the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>This is only a way of telling you that first-rate sugar-cane
+is grown there. All the population of the Pearl lives for
+it and by it. Sugar is their daily bread, as it were.
+And I was coming to them for a cargo of sugar in the hope of the
+crop having been good and of the freights being high.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns, my chief mate, made out the land first; and very
+soon I became entranced by this blue, pinnacled apparition,
+almost transparent against the light of the sky, a mere
+emanation, the astral body of an island risen to greet me from
+afar. It is a rare phenomenon, such a sight of the Pearl at
+sixty miles off. And I wondered half seriously whether it
+was a good omen, whether what would meet me in that island would
+be as luckily exceptional as this beautiful, dreamlike vision so
+very few seamen have been privileged to behold.</p>
+
+<p>But horrid thoughts of business interfered with my enjoyment
+of an accomplished passage. I was anxious for success and I
+wished, too, to do justice to the flattering latitude of my
+owners&rsquo; instructions contained in one noble phrase:
+&ldquo;We leave it to you to do the best you can with the
+ship.&rdquo; . . . All the world being thus given me for a stage,
+my abilities appeared to me no bigger than a pinhead.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the wind dropped, and Mr. Burns began to make
+disagreeable remarks about my usual bad luck. I believe it
+was his devotion for me which made him critically outspoken on
+every occasion. All the same, I would not have put up with
+his humours if it had not been my lot at one time to nurse him
+through a desperate illness at sea. After snatching him out
+of the jaws of death, so to speak, it would have been absurd to
+throw away such an efficient officer. But sometimes I
+wished he would dismiss himself.</p>
+
+<p>We were late in closing in with the land, and had to anchor
+outside the harbour till next day. An unpleasant and
+unrestful night followed. In this roadstead, strange to us
+both, Burns and I remained on deck almost all the time.
+Clouds swirled down the porphyry crags under which we lay.
+The rising wind made a great bullying noise amongst the naked
+spars, with interludes of sad moaning. I remarked that we
+had been in luck to fetch the anchorage before dark. It
+would have been a nasty, anxious night to hang off a harbour
+under canvas. But my chief mate was uncompromising in his
+attitude.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Luck, you call it, sir! Ay&mdash;our usual
+luck. The sort of luck to thank God it&rsquo;s no
+worse!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And so he fretted through the dark hours, while I drew on my
+fund of philosophy. Ah, but it was an exasperating, weary,
+endless night, to be lying at anchor close under that black
+coast! The agitated water made snarling sounds all round
+the ship. At times a wild gust of wind out of a gully high
+up on the cliffs struck on our rigging a harsh and plaintive note
+like the wail of a forsaken soul.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<p>By half-past seven in the morning, the ship being then inside
+the harbour at last and moored within a long stone&rsquo;s-throw
+from the quay, my stock of philosophy was nearly exhausted.
+I was dressing hurriedly in my cabin when the steward came
+tripping in with a morning suit over his arm.</p>
+
+<p>Hungry, tired, and depressed, with my head engaged inside a
+white shirt irritatingly stuck together by too much starch, I
+desired him peevishly to &ldquo;heave round with that
+breakfast.&rdquo; I wanted to get ashore as soon as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir. Ready at eight, sir.
+There&rsquo;s a gentleman from the shore waiting to speak to you,
+sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This statement was curiously slurred over. I dragged the
+shirt violently over my head and emerged staring.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So early!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s
+he? What does he want?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On coming in from sea one has to pick up the conditions of an
+utterly unrelated existence. Every little event at first
+has the peculiar emphasis of novelty. I was greatly
+surprised by that early caller; but there was no reason for my
+steward to look so particularly foolish.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t you ask for the name?&rdquo; I inquired in
+a stern tone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;His name&rsquo;s Jacobus, I believe,&rdquo; he mumbled
+shamefacedly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Jacobus!&rdquo; I exclaimed loudly, more surprised
+than ever, but with a total change of feeling. &ldquo;Why
+couldn&rsquo;t you say so at once?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But the fellow had scuttled out of my room. Through the
+momentarily opened door I had a glimpse of a tall, stout man
+standing in the cuddy by the table on which the cloth was already
+laid; a &ldquo;harbour&rdquo; table-cloth, stainless and
+dazzlingly white. So far good.</p>
+
+<p>I shouted courteously through the closed door, that I was
+dressing and would be with him in a moment. In return the
+assurance that there was no hurry reached me in the
+visitor&rsquo;s deep, quiet undertone. His time was my
+own. He dared say I would give him a cup of coffee
+presently.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid you will have a poor breakfast,&rdquo; I
+cried apologetically. &ldquo;We have been sixty-one days at
+sea, you know.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A quiet little laugh, with a &ldquo;That&rsquo;ll be all
+right, Captain,&rdquo; was his answer. All this, words,
+intonation, the glimpsed attitude of the man in the cuddy, had an
+unexpected character, a something friendly in
+it&mdash;propitiatory. And my surprise was not diminished
+thereby. What did this call mean? Was it the sign of
+some dark design against my commercial innocence?</p>
+
+<p>Ah! These commercial interests&mdash;spoiling the finest
+life under the sun. Why must the sea be used for
+trade&mdash;and for war as well? Why kill and traffic on
+it, pursuing selfish aims of no great importance after all?
+It would have been so much nicer just to sail about with here and
+there a port and a bit of land to stretch one&rsquo;s legs on,
+buy a few books and get a change of cooking for a while.
+But, living in a world more or less homicidal and desperately
+mercantile, it was plainly my duty to make the best of its
+opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>My owners&rsquo; letter had left it to me, as I have said
+before, to do my best for the ship, according to my own
+judgment. But it contained also a postscript worded
+somewhat as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Without meaning to interfere with your liberty of
+action we are writing by the outgoing mail to some of our
+business friends there who may be of assistance to you. We
+desire you particularly to call on Mr. Jacobus, a prominent
+merchant and charterer. Should you hit it off with him he
+may be able to put you in the way of profitable employment for
+the ship.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Hit it off! Here was the prominent creature absolutely
+on board asking for the favour of a cup of coffee! And life
+not being a fairy-tale the improbability of the event almost
+shocked me. Had I discovered an enchanted nook of the earth
+where wealthy merchants rush fasting on board ships before they
+are fairly moored? Was this white magic or merely some
+black trick of trade? I came in the end (while making the
+bow of my tie) to suspect that perhaps I did not get the name
+right. I had been thinking of the prominent Mr. Jacobus
+pretty frequently during the passage and my hearing might have
+been deceived by some remote similarity of sound. . . The
+steward might have said Antrobus&mdash;or maybe Jackson.</p>
+
+<p>But coming out of my stateroom with an interrogative
+&ldquo;Mr. Jacobus?&rdquo; I was met by a quiet
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; uttered with a gentle smile. The
+&ldquo;yes&rdquo; was rather perfunctory. He did not seem
+to make much of the fact that he was Mr. Jacobus. I took
+stock of a big, pale face, hair thin on the top, whiskers also
+thin, of a faded nondescript colour, heavy eyelids. The
+thick, smooth lips in repose looked as if glued together.
+The smile was faint. A heavy, tranquil man. I named
+my two officers, who just then came down to breakfast; but why
+Mr. Burns&rsquo;s silent demeanour should suggest suppressed
+indignation I could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>While we were taking our seats round the table some
+disconnected words of an altercation going on in the companionway
+reached my ear. A stranger apparently wanted to come down
+to interview me, and the steward was opposing him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t see him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t I?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Captain is at breakfast, I tell you.
+He&rsquo;ll be going on shore presently, and you can speak to him
+on deck.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not fair. You let&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had nothing to do with that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, you have. Everybody ought to have the
+same chance. You let that fellow&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The rest I lost. The person having been repulsed
+successfully, the steward came down. I can&rsquo;t say he
+looked flushed&mdash;he was a mulatto&mdash;but he looked
+flustered. After putting the dishes on the table he
+remained by the sideboard with that lackadaisical air of
+indifference he used to assume when he had done something too
+clever by half and was afraid of getting into a scrape over
+it. The contemptuous expression of Mr. Burns&rsquo;s face
+as he looked from him to me was really extraordinary. I
+couldn&rsquo;t imagine what new bee had stung the mate now.</p>
+
+<p>The Captain being silent, nobody else cared to speak, as is
+the way in ships. And I was saying nothing simply because I
+had been made dumb by the splendour of the entertainment. I
+had expected the usual sea-breakfast, whereas I beheld spread
+before us a veritable feast of shore provisions: eggs, sausages,
+butter which plainly did not come from a Danish tin, cutlets, and
+even a dish of potatoes. It was three weeks since I had
+seen a real, live potato. I contemplated them with
+interest, and Mr. Jacobus disclosed himself as a man of human,
+homely sympathies, and something of a thought-reader.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Try them, Captain,&rdquo; he encouraged me in a
+friendly undertone. &ldquo;They are excellent.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;They look that,&rdquo; I admitted. &ldquo;Grown
+on the island, I suppose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no, imported. Those grown here would be more
+expensive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was grieved at the ineptitude of the conversation.
+Were these the topics for a prominent and wealthy merchant to
+discuss? I thought the simplicity with which he made
+himself at home rather attractive; but what is one to talk about
+to a man who comes on one suddenly, after sixty-one days at sea,
+out of a totally unknown little town in an island one has never
+seen before? What were (besides sugar) the interests of
+that crumb of the earth, its gossip, its topics of
+conversation? To draw him on business at once would have
+been almost indecent&mdash;or even worse: impolitic. All I
+could do at the moment was to keep on in the old groove.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are the provisions generally dear here?&rdquo; I asked,
+fretting inwardly at my inanity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say that,&rdquo; he answered placidly,
+with that appearance of saving his breath his restrained manner
+of speaking suggested.</p>
+
+<p>He would not be more explicit, yet he did not evade the
+subject. Eyeing the table in a spirit of complete
+abstemiousness (he wouldn&rsquo;t let me help him to any
+eatables) he went into details of supply. The beef was for
+the most part imported from Madagascar; mutton of course was rare
+and somewhat expensive, but good goat&rsquo;s flesh&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are these goat&rsquo;s cutlets?&rdquo; I exclaimed
+hastily, pointing at one of the dishes.</p>
+
+<p>Posed sentimentally by the sideboard, the steward gave a
+start.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Lor&rsquo;, no, sir! It&rsquo;s real
+mutton!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns got through his breakfast impatiently, as if
+exasperated by being made a party to some monstrous foolishness,
+muttered a curt excuse, and went on deck. Shortly
+afterwards the second mate took his smooth red countenance out of
+the cabin. With the appetite of a schoolboy, and after two
+months of sea-fare, he appreciated the generous spread. But
+I did not. It smacked of extravagance. All the same,
+it was a remarkable feat to have produced it so quickly, and I
+congratulated the steward on his smartness in a somewhat ominous
+tone. He gave me a deprecatory smile and, in a way I
+didn&rsquo;t know what to make of, blinked his fine dark eyes in
+the direction of the guest.</p>
+
+<p>The latter asked under his breath for another cup of coffee,
+and nibbled ascetically at a piece of very hard ship&rsquo;s
+biscuit. I don&rsquo;t think he consumed a square inch in
+the end; but meantime he gave me, casually as it were, a complete
+account of the sugar crop, of the local business houses, of the
+state of the freight market. All that talk was interspersed
+with hints as to personalities, amounting to veiled warnings, but
+his pale, fleshy face remained equable, without a gleam, as if
+ignorant of his voice. As you may imagine I opened my ears
+very wide. Every word was precious. My ideas as to
+the value of business friendship were being favourably
+modified. He gave me the names of all the disponible ships
+together with their tonnage and the names of their
+commanders. From that, which was still commercial
+information, he condescended to mere harbour gossip. The
+<i>Hilda</i> had unaccountably lost her figurehead in the Bay of
+Bengal, and her captain was greatly affected by this. He
+and the ship had been getting on in years together and the old
+gentleman imagined this strange event to be the forerunner of his
+own early dissolution. The <i>Stella</i> had experienced
+awful weather off the Cape&mdash;had her decks swept, and the
+chief officer washed overboard. And only a few hours before
+reaching port the baby died.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Captain H&mdash; and his wife were terribly cut up.
+If they had only been able to bring it into port alive it could
+have been probably saved; but the wind failed them for the last
+week or so, light breezes, and . . . the baby was going to be
+buried this afternoon. He supposed I would
+attend&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you think I ought to?&rdquo; I asked,
+shrinkingly.</p>
+
+<p>He thought so, decidedly. It would be greatly
+appreciated. All the captains in the harbour were going to
+attend. Poor Mrs. H&mdash; was quite prostrated.
+Pretty hard on H&mdash; altogether.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And you, Captain&mdash;you are not married I
+suppose?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, I am not married,&rdquo; I said.
+&ldquo;Neither married nor even engaged.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mentally I thanked my stars; and while he smiled in a musing,
+dreamy fashion, I expressed my acknowledgments for his visit and
+for the interesting business information he had been good enough
+to impart to me. But I said nothing of my wonder
+thereat.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, I would have made a point of calling on you
+in a day or two,&rdquo; I concluded.</p>
+
+<p>He raised his eyelids distinctly at me, and somehow managed to
+look rather more sleepy than before.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In accordance with my owners&rsquo;
+instructions,&rdquo; I explained. &ldquo;You have had their
+letter, of course?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>By that time he had raised his eyebrows too but without any
+particular emotion. On the contrary he struck me then as
+absolutely imperturbable.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! You must be thinking of my
+brother.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was for me, then, to say &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; But I hope
+that no more than civil surprise appeared in my voice when I
+asked him to what, then, I owed the pleasure. . . . He was
+reaching for an inside pocket leisurely.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My brother&rsquo;s a very different person. But I
+am well known in this part of the world. You&rsquo;ve
+probably heard&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I took a card he extended to me. A thick business card,
+as I lived! Alfred Jacobus&mdash;the other was
+Ernest&mdash;dealer in every description of ship&rsquo;s
+stores! Provisions salt and fresh, oils, paints, rope,
+canvas, etc., etc. Ships in harbour victualled by contract
+on moderate terms&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never heard of you,&rdquo; I said
+brusquely.</p>
+
+<p>His low-pitched assurance did not abandon him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will be very well satisfied,&rdquo; he breathed out
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>I was not placated. I had the sense of having been
+circumvented somehow. Yet I had deceived myself&mdash;if
+there was any deception. But the confounded cheek of
+inviting himself to breakfast was enough to deceive any
+one. And the thought struck me: Why! The fellow had
+provided all these eatables himself in the way of business.
+I said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You must have got up mighty early this
+morning.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He admitted with simplicity that he was on the quay before six
+o&rsquo;clock waiting for my ship to come in. He gave me
+the impression that it would be impossible to get rid of him
+now.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you think we are going to live on that scale,&rdquo;
+I said, looking at the table with an irritated eye, &ldquo;you
+are jolly well mistaken.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it all right, Captain. I quite
+understand.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could disturb his equanimity. I felt
+dissatisfied, but I could not very well fly out at him. He
+had told me many useful things&mdash;and besides he was the
+brother of that wealthy merchant. That seemed queer
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>I rose and told him curtly that I must now go ashore. At
+once he offered the use of his boat for all the time of my stay
+in port.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I only make a nominal charge,&rdquo; he continued
+equably. &ldquo;My man remains all day at the
+landing-steps. You have only to blow a whistle when you
+want the boat.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And, standing aside at every doorway to let me go through
+first, he carried me off in his custody after all. As we
+crossed the quarter-deck two shabby individuals stepped forward
+and in mournful silence offered me business cards which I took
+from them without a word under his heavy eye. It was a
+useless and gloomy ceremony. They were the touts of the
+other ship-chandlers, and he placid at my back, ignored their
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>We parted on the quay, after he had expressed quietly the hope
+of seeing me often &ldquo;at the store.&rdquo; He had a
+smoking-room for captains there, with newspapers and a box of
+&ldquo;rather decent cigars.&rdquo; I left him very
+unceremoniously.</p>
+
+<p>My consignees received me with the usual business heartiness,
+but their account of the state of the freight-market was by no
+means so favourable as the talk of the wrong Jacobus had led me
+to expect. Naturally I became inclined now to put my trust
+in his version, rather. As I closed the door of the private
+office behind me I thought to myself: &ldquo;H&rsquo;m. A
+lot of lies. Commercial diplomacy. That&rsquo;s the
+sort of thing a man coming from sea has got to expect. They
+would try to charter the ship under the market rate.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the big, outer room, full of desks, the chief clerk, a
+tall, lean, shaved person in immaculate white clothes and with a
+shiny, closely-cropped black head on which silvery gleams came
+and went, rose from his place and detained me affably.
+Anything they could do for me, they would be most happy.
+Was I likely to call again in the afternoon? What?
+Going to a funeral? Oh, yes, poor Captain H&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>He pulled a long, sympathetic face for a moment, then,
+dismissing from this workaday world the baby, which had got ill
+in a tempest and had died from too much calm at sea, he asked me
+with a dental, shark-like smile&mdash;if sharks had false
+teeth&mdash;whether I had yet made my little arrangements for the
+ship&rsquo;s stay in port.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, with Jacobus,&rdquo; I answered carelessly.
+&ldquo;I understand he&rsquo;s the brother of Mr. Ernest Jacobus
+to whom I have an introduction from my owners.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was not sorry to let him know I was not altogether helpless
+in the hands of his firm. He screwed his thin lips
+dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;isn&rsquo;t he the
+brother?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes. . . . They haven&rsquo;t spoken to each other
+for eighteen years,&rdquo; he added impressively after a
+pause.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed! What&rsquo;s the quarrel
+about?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, nothing! Nothing that one would care to
+mention,&rdquo; he protested primly. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got
+quite a large business. The best ship-chandler here,
+without a doubt. Business is all very well, but there is
+such a thing as personal character, too, isn&rsquo;t there?
+Good-morning, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He went away mincingly to his desk. He amused me.
+He resembled an old maid, a commercial old maid, shocked by some
+impropriety. Was it a commercial impropriety?
+Commercial impropriety is a serious matter, for it aims at
+one&rsquo;s pocket. Or was he only a purist in conduct who
+disapproved of Jacobus doing his own touting? It was
+certainly undignified. I wondered how the merchant brother
+liked it. But then different countries, different
+customs. In a community so isolated and so exclusively
+&ldquo;trading&rdquo; social standards have their own scale.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">would</span> have gladly dispensed with
+the mournful opportunity of becoming acquainted by sight with all
+my fellow-captains at once. However I found my way to the
+cemetery. We made a considerable group of bareheaded men in
+sombre garments. I noticed that those of our company most
+approaching to the now obsolete sea-dog type were the most
+moved&mdash;perhaps because they had less &ldquo;manner&rdquo;
+than the new generation. The old sea-dog, away from his
+natural element, was a simple and sentimental animal. I
+noticed one&mdash;he was facing me across the grave&mdash;who was
+dropping tears. They trickled down his weather-beaten face
+like drops of rain on an old rugged wall. I learned
+afterwards that he was looked upon as the terror of sailors, a
+hard man; that he had never had wife or chick of his own, and
+that, engaged from his tenderest years in deep-sea voyages, he
+knew women and children merely by sight.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he was dropping those tears over his lost
+opportunities, from sheer envy of paternity and in strange
+jealousy of a sorrow which he could never know. Man, and
+even the sea-man, is a capricious animal, the creature and the
+victim of lost opportunities. But he made me feel ashamed
+of my callousness. I had no tears.</p>
+
+<p>I listened with horribly critical detachment to that service I
+had had to read myself, once or twice, over childlike men who had
+died at sea. The words of hope and defiance, the winged
+words so inspiring in the free immensity of water and sky, seemed
+to fall wearily into the little grave. What was the use of
+asking Death where her sting was, before that small, dark hole in
+the ground? And then my thoughts escaped me
+altogether&mdash;away into matters of life&mdash;and no very high
+matters at that&mdash;ships, freights, business. In the
+instability of his emotions man resembles deplorably a
+monkey. I was disgusted with my thoughts&mdash;and I
+thought: Shall I be able to get a charter soon?
+Time&rsquo;s money. . . . Will that Jacobus really put good
+business in my way? I must go and see him in a day or
+two.</p>
+
+<p>Don&rsquo;t imagine that I pursued these thoughts with any
+precision. They pursued me rather: vague, shadowy,
+restless, shamefaced. Theirs was a callous, abominable,
+almost revolting, pertinacity. And it was the presence of
+that pertinacious ship-chandler which had started them. He
+stood mournfully amongst our little band of men from the sea, and
+I was angry at his presence, which, suggesting his brother the
+merchant, had caused me to become outrageous to myself. For
+indeed I had preserved some decency of feeling. It was only
+the mind which&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It was over at last. The poor father&mdash;a man of
+forty with black, bushy side-whiskers and a pathetic gash on his
+freshly-shaved chin&mdash;thanked us all, swallowing his
+tears. But for some reason, either because I lingered at
+the gate of the cemetery being somewhat hazy as to my way back,
+or because I was the youngest, or ascribing my moodiness caused
+by remorse to some more worthy and appropriate sentiment, or
+simply because I was even more of a stranger to him than the
+others&mdash;he singled me out. Keeping at my side, he
+renewed his thanks, which I listened to in a gloomy,
+conscience-stricken silence. Suddenly he slipped one hand
+under my arm and waved the other after a tall, stout figure
+walking away by itself down a street in a flutter of thin, grey
+garments:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good fellow&mdash;a real good
+fellow&rdquo;&mdash;he swallowed down a belated
+sob&mdash;&ldquo;this Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And he told me in a low voice that Jacobus was the first man
+to board his ship on arrival, and, learning of their misfortune,
+had taken charge of everything, volunteered to attend to all
+routine business, carried off the ship&rsquo;s papers on shore,
+arranged for the funeral&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A good fellow. I was knocked over. I had
+been looking at my wife for ten days. And helpless.
+Just you think of that! The dear little chap died the very
+day we made the land. How I managed to take the ship in God
+alone knows! I couldn&rsquo;t see anything; I
+couldn&rsquo;t speak; I couldn&rsquo;t. . . . You&rsquo;ve heard,
+perhaps, that we lost our mate overboard on the passage?
+There was no one to do it for me. And the poor woman nearly
+crazy down below there all alone with the . . . By the
+Lord! It isn&rsquo;t fair.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We walked in silence together. I did not know how to
+part from him. On the quay he let go my arm and struck
+fiercely his fist into the palm of his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;By God, it isn&rsquo;t fair!&rdquo; he cried
+again. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you ever marry unless you can
+chuck the sea first. . . . It isn&rsquo;t fair.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had no intention to &ldquo;chuck the sea,&rdquo; and when he
+left me to go aboard his ship I felt convinced that I would never
+marry. While I was waiting at the steps for Jacobus&rsquo;s
+boatman, who had gone off somewhere, the captain of the
+<i>Hilda</i> joined me, a slender silk umbrella in his hand and
+the sharp points of his archaic, Gladstonian shirt-collar framing
+a small, clean-shaved, ruddy face. It was wonderfully fresh
+for his age, beautifully modelled and lit up by remarkably clear
+blue eyes. A lot of white hair, glossy like spun glass,
+curled upwards slightly under the brim of his valuable, ancient,
+panama hat with a broad black ribbon. In the aspect of that
+vivacious, neat, little old man there was something quaintly
+angelic and also boyish.</p>
+
+<p>He accosted me, as though he had been in the habit of seeing
+me every day of his life from my earliest childhood, with a
+whimsical remark on the appearance of a stout negro woman who was
+sitting upon a stool near the edge of the quay. Presently
+he observed amiably that I had a very pretty little barque.</p>
+
+<p>I returned this civil speech by saying readily:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not so pretty as the <i>Hilda</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At once the corners of his clear-cut, sensitive mouth dropped
+dismally.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, dear! I can hardly bear to look at her
+now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Did I know, he asked anxiously, that he had lost the
+figurehead of his ship; a woman in a blue tunic edged with gold,
+the face perhaps not so very, very pretty, but her bare white
+arms beautifully shaped and extended as if she were
+swimming? Did I? Who would have expected such a
+things . . . After twenty years too!</p>
+
+<p>Nobody could have guessed from his tone that the woman was
+made of wood; his trembling voice, his agitated manner gave to
+his lamentations a ludicrously scandalous flavour. . . .
+Disappeared at night&mdash;a clear fine night with just a slight
+swell&mdash;in the gulf of Bengal. Went off without a
+splash; no one in the ship could tell why, how, at what
+hour&mdash;after twenty years last October. . . . Did I ever
+hear! . . .</p>
+
+<p>I assured him sympathetically that I had never heard&mdash;and
+he became very doleful. This meant no good he was
+sure. There was something in it which looked like a
+warning. But when I remarked that surely another figure of
+a woman could be procured I found myself being soundly rated for
+my levity. The old boy flushed pink under his clear tan as
+if I had proposed something improper. One could replace
+masts, I was told, or a lost rudder&mdash;any working part of a
+ship; but where was the use of sticking up a new
+figurehead? What satisfaction? How could one care for
+it? It was easy to see that I had never been shipmates with
+a figurehead for over twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A new figurehead!&rdquo; he scolded in unquenchable
+indignation. &ldquo;Why! I&rsquo;ve been a widower
+now for eight-and-twenty years come next May and I would just as
+soon think of getting a new wife. You&rsquo;re as bad as
+that fellow Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was highly amused.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What has Jacobus done? Did he want you to marry
+again, Captain?&rdquo; I inquired in a deferential tone.
+But he was launched now and only grinned fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Procure&mdash;indeed! He&rsquo;s the sort of chap
+to procure you anything you like for a price. I
+hadn&rsquo;t been moored here for an hour when he got on board
+and at once offered to sell me a figurehead he happens to have in
+his yard somewhere. He got Smith, my mate, to talk to me
+about it. &lsquo;Mr. Smith,&rsquo; says I,
+&lsquo;don&rsquo;t you know me better than that? Am I the
+sort that would pick up with another man&rsquo;s cast-off
+figurehead?&rsquo; And after all these years too! The
+way some of you young fellows talk&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I affected great compunction, and as I stepped into the boat I
+said soberly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then I see nothing for it but to fit in a neat
+fiddlehead&mdash;perhaps. You know, carved scrollwork,
+nicely gilt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He became very dejected after his outburst.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. Scrollwork. Maybe. Jacobus
+hinted at that too. He&rsquo;s never at a loss when
+there&rsquo;s any money to be extracted from a sailorman.
+He would make me pay through the nose for that carving. A
+gilt fiddlehead did you say&mdash;eh? I dare say it would
+do for you. You young fellows don&rsquo;t seem to have any
+feeling for what&rsquo;s proper.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He made a convulsive gesture with his right arm.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind. Nothing can make much
+difference. I would just as soon let the old thing go about
+the world with a bare cutwater,&rdquo; he cried sadly. Then
+as the boat got away from the steps he raised his voice on the
+edge of the quay with comical animosity:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I would! If only to spite that
+figurehead-procuring bloodsucker. I am an old bird here and
+don&rsquo;t you forget it. Come and see me on board some
+day!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I spent my first evening in port quietly in my ship&rsquo;s
+cuddy; and glad enough was I to think that the shore life which
+strikes one as so pettily complex, discordant, and so full of new
+faces on first coming from sea, could be kept off for a few hours
+longer. I was however fated to hear the Jacobus note once
+more before I slept.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns had gone ashore after the evening meal to have, as
+he said, &ldquo;a look round.&rdquo; As it was quite dark
+when he announced his intention I didn&rsquo;t ask him what it
+was he expected to see. Some time about midnight, while
+sitting with a book in the saloon, I heard cautious movements in
+the lobby and hailed him by name.</p>
+
+<p>Burns came in, stick and hat in hand, incredibly vulgarised by
+his smart shore togs, with a jaunty air and an odious twinkle in
+his eye. Being asked to sit down he laid his hat and stick
+on the table and after we had talked of ship affairs for a little
+while:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been hearing pretty tales on shore about
+that ship-chandler fellow who snatched the job from you so
+neatly, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I remonstrated with my late patient for his manner of
+expressing himself. But he only tossed his head
+disdainfully. A pretty dodge indeed: boarding a strange
+ship with breakfast in two baskets for all hands and calmly
+inviting himself to the captain&rsquo;s table! Never heard
+of anything so crafty and so impudent in his life.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself defending Jacobus&rsquo;s unusual methods.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the brother of one of the wealthiest
+merchants in the port.&rdquo; The mate&rsquo;s eyes fairly
+snapped green sparks.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;His grand brother hasn&rsquo;t spoken to him for
+eighteen or twenty years,&rdquo; he declared triumphantly.
+&ldquo;So there!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I know all about that,&rdquo; I interrupted
+loftily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you sir? H&rsquo;m!&rdquo; His mind was
+still running on the ethics of commercial competition.
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to see your good nature taken advantage
+of. He&rsquo;s bribed that steward of ours with a
+five-rupee note to let him come down&mdash;or ten for that
+matter. He don&rsquo;t care. He will shove that and
+more into the bill presently.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is that one of the tales you have heard ashore?&rdquo;
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He assured me that his own sense could tell him that
+much. No; what he had heard on shore was that no
+respectable person in the whole town would come near
+Jacobus. He lived in a large old-fashioned house in one of
+the quiet streets with a big garden. After telling me this
+Burns put on a mysterious air. &ldquo;He keeps a girl shut
+up there who, they say&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose you&rsquo;ve heard all this gossip in some
+eminently respectable place?&rdquo; I snapped at him in a most
+sarcastic tone.</p>
+
+<p>The shaft told, because Mr. Burns, like many other
+disagreeable people, was very sensitive himself. He
+remained as if thunderstruck, with his mouth open for some
+further communication, but I did not give him the chance.
+&ldquo;And, anyhow, what the deuce do I care?&rdquo; I added,
+retiring into my room.</p>
+
+<p>And this was a natural thing to say. Yet somehow I was
+not indifferent. I admit it is absurd to be concerned with
+the morals of one&rsquo;s ship-chandler, if ever so well
+connected; but his personality had stamped itself upon my first
+day in harbour, in the way you know.</p>
+
+<p>After this initial exploit Jacobus showed himself anything but
+intrusive. He was out in a boat early every morning going
+round the ships he served, and occasionally remaining on board
+one of them for breakfast with the captain.</p>
+
+<p>As I discovered that this practice was generally accepted, I
+just nodded to him familiarly when one morning, on coming out of
+my room, I found him in the cabin. Glancing over the table
+I saw that his place was already laid. He stood awaiting my
+appearance, very bulky and placid, holding a beautiful bunch of
+flowers in his thick hand. He offered them to my notice
+with a faint, sleepy smile. From his own garden; had a very
+fine old garden; picked them himself that morning before going
+out to business; thought I would like. . . . He turned
+away. &ldquo;Steward, can you oblige me with some water in
+a large jar, please.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I assured him jocularly, as I took my place at the table, that
+he made me feel as if I were a pretty girl, and that he
+mustn&rsquo;t be surprised if I blushed. But he was busy
+arranging his floral tribute at the sideboard. &ldquo;Stand
+it before the Captain&rsquo;s plate, steward,
+please.&rdquo; He made this request in his usual
+undertone.</p>
+
+<p>The offering was so pointed that I could do no less than to
+raise it to my nose, and as he sat down noiselessly he breathed
+out the opinion that a few flowers improved notably the
+appearance of a ship&rsquo;s saloon. He wondered why I did
+not have a shelf fitted all round the skylight for flowers in
+pots to take with me to sea. He had a skilled workman able
+to fit up shelves in a day, and he could procure me two or three
+dozen good plants&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The tips of his thick, round fingers rested composedly on the
+edge of the table on each side of his cup of coffee. His
+face remained immovable. Mr. Burns was smiling maliciously
+to himself. I declared that I hadn&rsquo;t the slightest
+intention of turning my skylight into a conservatory only to keep
+the cabin-table in a perpetual mess of mould and dead vegetable
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Rear most beautiful flowers,&rdquo; he insisted with an
+upward glance. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no trouble
+really.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, it is. Lots of trouble,&rdquo; I
+contradicted. &ldquo;And in the end some fool leaves the
+skylight open in a fresh breeze, a flick of salt water gets at
+them and the whole lot is dead in a week.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns snorted a contemptuous approval. Jacobus gave
+up the subject passively. After a time he unglued his thick
+lips to ask me if I had seen his brother yet. I was very
+curt in my answer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, not yet.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A very different person,&rdquo; he remarked dreamily
+and got up. His movements were particularly
+noiseless. &ldquo;Well&mdash;thank you, Captain. If
+anything is not to your liking please mention it to your
+steward. I suppose you will be giving a dinner to the
+office-clerks presently.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What for?&rdquo; I cried with some warmth.
+&ldquo;If I were a steady trader to the port I could understand
+it. But a complete stranger! . . . I may not turn up again
+here for years. I don&rsquo;t see why! . . . Do you mean to
+say it is customary?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It will be expected from a man like you,&rdquo; he
+breathed out placidly. &ldquo;Eight of the principal
+clerks, the manager, that&rsquo;s nine, you three gentlemen,
+that&rsquo;s twelve. It needn&rsquo;t be very
+expensive. If you tell your steward to give me a
+day&rsquo;s notice&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It will be expected of me! Why should it be
+expected of me? Is it because I look particularly
+soft&mdash;or what?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His immobility struck me as dignified suddenly, his
+imperturbable quality as dangerous. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+plenty of time to think about that,&rdquo; I concluded weakly
+with a gesture that tried to wave him away. But before he
+departed he took time to mention regretfully that he had not yet
+had the pleasure of seeing me at his &ldquo;store&rdquo; to
+sample those cigars. He had a parcel of six thousand to
+dispose of, very cheap.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think it would be worth your while to secure
+some,&rdquo; he added with a fat, melancholy smile and left the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Burns struck his fist on the table excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Did you ever see such impudence! He&rsquo;s made
+up his mind to get something out of you one way or another,
+sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At once feeling inclined to defend Jacobus, I observed
+philosophically that all this was business, I supposed. But
+my absurd mate, muttering broken disjointed sentences, such as:
+&ldquo;I cannot bear! . . . Mark my words! . . .&rdquo; and so
+on, flung out of the cabin. If I hadn&rsquo;t nursed him
+through that deadly fever I wouldn&rsquo;t have suffered such
+manners for a single day.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">Jacobus</span> having put me in mind of
+his wealthy brother I concluded I would pay that business call at
+once. I had by that time heard a little more of him.
+He was a member of the Council, where he made himself
+objectionable to the authorities. He exercised a
+considerable influence on public opinion. Lots of people
+owed him money. He was an importer on a great scale of all
+sorts of goods. For instance, the whole supply of bags for
+sugar was practically in his hands. This last fact I did
+not learn till afterwards. The general impression conveyed
+to me was that of a local personage. He was a bachelor and
+gave weekly card-parties in his house out of town, which were
+attended by the best people in the colony.</p>
+
+<p>The greater, then, was my surprise to discover his office in
+shabby surroundings, quite away from the business quarter,
+amongst a lot of hovels. Guided by a black board with white
+lettering, I climbed a narrow wooden staircase and entered a room
+with a bare floor of planks littered with bits of brown paper and
+wisps of packing straw. A great number of what looked like
+wine-cases were piled up against one of the walls. A lanky,
+inky, light-yellow, mulatto youth, miserably long-necked and
+generally recalling a sick chicken, got off a three-legged stool
+behind a cheap deal desk and faced me as if gone dumb with
+fright. I had some difficulty in persuading him to take in
+my name, though I could not get from him the nature of his
+objection. He did it at last with an almost agonised
+reluctance which ceased to be mysterious to me when I heard him
+being sworn at menacingly with savage, suppressed growls, then
+audibly cuffed and finally kicked out without any concealment
+whatever; because he came back flying head foremost through the
+door with a stifled shriek.</p>
+
+<p>To say I was startled would not express it. I remained
+still, like a man lost in a dream. Clapping both his hands
+to that part of his frail anatomy which had received the shock,
+the poor wretch said to me simply:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you go in, please.&rdquo; His lamentable
+self-possession was wonderful; but it did not do away with the
+incredibility of the experience. A preposterous notion that
+I had seen this boy somewhere before, a thing obviously
+impossible, was like a delicate finishing touch of weirdness
+added to a scene fit to raise doubts as to one&rsquo;s
+sanity. I stared anxiously about me like an awakened
+somnambulist.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I say,&rdquo; I cried loudly, &ldquo;there isn&rsquo;t
+a mistake, is there? This is Mr. Jacobus&rsquo;s
+office.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The boy gazed at me with a pained expression&mdash;and somehow
+so familiar! A voice within growled offensively:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Come in, come in, since you are there. . . . I
+didn&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I crossed the outer room as one approaches the den of some
+unknown wild beast; with intrepidity but in some
+excitement. Only no wild beast that ever lived would rouse
+one&rsquo;s indignation; the power to do that belongs to the
+odiousness of the human brute. And I was very indignant,
+which did not prevent me from being at once struck by the
+extraordinary resemblance of the two brothers.</p>
+
+<p>This one was dark instead of being fair like the other; but he
+was as big. He was without his coat and waistcoat; he had
+been doubtless snoozing in the rocking-chair which stood in a
+corner furthest from the window. Above the great bulk of
+his crumpled white shirt, buttoned with three diamond studs, his
+round face looked swarthy. It was moist; his brown
+moustache hung limp and ragged. He pushed a common,
+cane-bottomed chair towards me with his foot.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sit down.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I glanced at it casually, then, turning my indignant eyes full
+upon him, I declared in precise and incisive tones that I had
+called in obedience to my owners&rsquo; instructions.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! Yes. H&rsquo;m! I didn&rsquo;t
+understand what that fool was saying. . . . But never mind!
+It will teach the scoundrel to disturb me at this time of the
+day,&rdquo; he added, grinning at me with savage cynicism.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at my watch. It was past three
+o&rsquo;clock&mdash;quite the full swing of afternoon office work
+in the port. He snarled imperiously: &ldquo;Sit down,
+Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledged the gracious invitation by saying
+deliberately:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can listen to all you may have to say without sitting
+down.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Emitting a loud and vehement &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; he glared
+for a moment, very round-eyed and fierce. It was like a
+gigantic tomcat spitting at one suddenly. &ldquo;Look at
+him! . . . What do you fancy yourself to be? What did you
+come here for? If you won&rsquo;t sit down and talk
+business you had better go to the devil.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know him personally,&rdquo; I said.
+&ldquo;But after this I wouldn&rsquo;t mind calling on him.
+It would be refreshing to meet a gentleman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He followed me, growling behind my back:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The impudence! I&rsquo;ve a good mind to write to
+your owners what I think of you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I turned on him for a moment:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As it happens I don&rsquo;t care. For my part I
+assure you I won&rsquo;t even take the trouble to mention you to
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He stopped at the door of his office while I traversed the
+littered anteroom. I think he was somewhat taken aback.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will break every bone in your body,&rdquo; he roared
+suddenly at the miserable mulatto lad, &ldquo;if you ever dare to
+disturb me before half-past three for anybody. D&rsquo;ye
+hear? For anybody! . . . Let alone any damned
+skipper,&rdquo; he added, in a lower growl.</p>
+
+<p>The frail youngster, swaying like a reed, made a low moaning
+sound. I stopped short and addressed this sufferer with
+advice. It was prompted by the sight of a hammer (used for
+opening the wine-cases, I suppose) which was lying on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If I were you, my boy, I would have that thing up my
+sleeve when I went in next and at the first occasion I
+would&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>What was there so familiar in that lad&rsquo;s yellow
+face? Entrenched and quaking behind the flimsy desk, he
+never looked up. His heavy, lowered eyelids gave me
+suddenly the clue of the puzzle. He resembled&mdash;yes,
+those thick glued lips&mdash;he resembled the brothers
+Jacobus. He resembled both, the wealthy merchant and the
+pushing shopkeeper (who resembled each other); he resembled them
+as much as a thin, light-yellow mulatto lad may resemble a big,
+stout, middle-aged white man. It was the exotic complexion
+and the slightness of his build which had put me off so
+completely. Now I saw in him unmistakably the Jacobus
+strain, weakened, attenuated, diluted as it were in a bucket of
+water&mdash;and I refrained from finishing my speech. I had
+intended to say: &ldquo;Crack this brute&rsquo;s head for
+him.&rdquo; I still felt the conclusion to be sound.
+But it is no trifling responsibility to counsel parricide to any
+one, however deeply injured.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Beggarly&mdash;cheeky&mdash;skippers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I despised the emphatic growl at my back; only, being much
+vexed and upset, I regret to say that I slammed the door behind
+me in a most undignified manner.</p>
+
+<p>It may not appear altogether absurd if I say that I brought
+out from that interview a kindlier view of the other
+Jacobus. It was with a feeling resembling partisanship
+that, a few days later, I called at his
+&ldquo;store.&rdquo; That long, cavern-like place of
+business, very dim at the back and stuffed full of all sorts of
+goods, was entered from the street by a lofty archway. At
+the far end I saw my Jacobus exerting himself in his
+shirt-sleeves among his assistants. The captains&rsquo;
+room was a small, vaulted apartment with a stone floor and heavy
+iron bars in its windows like a dungeon converted to hospitable
+purposes. A couple of cheerful bottles and several gleaming
+glasses made a brilliant cluster round a tall, cool red
+earthenware pitcher on the centre table which was littered with
+newspapers from all parts of the world. A well-groomed
+stranger in a smart grey check suit, sitting with one leg flung
+over his knee, put down one of these sheets briskly and nodded to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I guessed him to be a steamer-captain. It was impossible
+to get to know these men. They came and went too quickly
+and their ships lay moored far out, at the very entrance of the
+harbour. Theirs was another life altogether. He
+yawned slightly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dull hole, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I understood this to allude to the town.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you find it so?&rdquo; I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you? But I&rsquo;m off to-morrow,
+thank goodness.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was a very gentlemanly person, good-natured and
+superior. I watched him draw the open box of cigars to his
+side of the table, take a big cigar-case out of his pocket and
+begin to fill it very methodically. Presently, on our eyes
+meeting, he winked like a common mortal and invited me to follow
+his example. &ldquo;They are really decent
+smokes.&rdquo; I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am not off to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What of that? Think I am abusing old
+Jacobus&rsquo;s hospitality? Heavens! It goes into
+the bill, of course. He spreads such little matters all
+over his account. He can take care of himself! Why,
+it&rsquo;s business&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I noted a shadow fall over his well-satisfied expression, a
+momentary hesitation in closing his cigar-case. But he
+ended by putting it in his pocket jauntily. A placid voice
+uttered in the doorway: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s quite correct,
+Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The large noiseless Jacobus advanced into the room. His
+quietness, in the circumstances, amounted to cordiality. He
+had put on his jacket before joining us, and he sat down in the
+chair vacated by the steamer-man, who nodded again to me and went
+out with a short, jarring laugh. A profound silence
+reigned. With his drowsy stare Jacobus seemed to be
+slumbering open-eyed. Yet, somehow, I was aware of being
+profoundly scrutinised by those heavy eyes. In the enormous
+cavern of the store somebody began to nail down a case, expertly:
+tap-tap . . . tap-tap-tap.</p>
+
+<p>Two other experts, one slow and nasal, the other shrill and
+snappy, started checking an invoice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A half-coil of three-inch manilla rope.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Six assorted shackles.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Six tins assorted soups, three of pat&eacute;, two
+asparagus, fourteen pounds tobacco, cabin.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s for the captain who was here just
+now,&rdquo; breathed out the immovable Jacobus.
+&ldquo;These steamer orders are very small. They pick up
+what they want as they go along. That man will be in
+Samarang in less than a fortnight. Very small orders
+indeed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The calling over of the items went on in the shop; an
+extraordinary jumble of varied articles, paint-brushes, Yorkshire
+Relish, etc., etc. . . . &ldquo;Three sacks of best
+potatoes,&rdquo; read out the nasal voice.</p>
+
+<p>At this Jacobus blinked like a sleeping man roused by a shake,
+and displayed some animation. At his order, shouted into
+the shop, a smirking half-caste clerk with his ringlets much
+oiled and with a pen stuck behind his ear, brought in a sample of
+six potatoes which he paraded in a row on the table.</p>
+
+<p>Being urged to look at their beauty I gave them a cold and
+hostile glance. Calmly, Jacobus proposed that I should
+order ten or fifteen tons&mdash;tons! I couldn&rsquo;t
+believe my ears. My crew could not have eaten such a lot in
+a year; and potatoes (excuse these practical remarks) are a
+highly perishable commodity. I thought he was
+joking&mdash;or else trying to find out whether I was an
+unutterable idiot. But his purpose was not so simple.
+I discovered that he meant me to buy them on my own account.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am proposing you a bit of business, Captain. I
+wouldn&rsquo;t charge you a great price.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I told him that I did not go in for trade. I even added
+grimly that I knew only too well how that sort of spec. generally
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>He sighed and clasped his hands on his stomach with exemplary
+resignation. I admired the placidity of his
+impudence. Then waking up somewhat:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you try a cigar, Captain?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, thanks. I don&rsquo;t smoke
+cigars.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For once!&rdquo; he exclaimed, in a patient
+whisper. A melancholy silence ensued. You know how
+sometimes a person discloses a certain unsuspected depth and
+acuteness of thought; that is, in other words, utters something
+unexpected. It was unexpected enough to hear Jacobus
+say:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The man who just went out was right enough. You
+might take one, Captain. Here everything is bound to be in
+the way of business.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I felt a little ashamed of myself. The remembrance of
+his horrid brother made him appear quite a decent sort of
+fellow. It was with some compunction that I said a few
+words to the effect that I could have no possible objection to
+his hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>Before I was a minute older I saw where this admission was
+leading me. As if changing the subject, Jacobus mentioned
+that his private house was about ten minutes&rsquo; walk
+away. It had a beautiful old walled garden. Something
+really remarkable. I ought to come round some day and have
+a look at it.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to be a lover of gardens. I too take extreme
+delight in them; but I did not mean my compunction to carry me as
+far as Jacobus&rsquo;s flower-beds, however beautiful and
+old. He added, with a certain homeliness of tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only my girl there.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to set everything down in due order; so I must
+revert here to what happened a week or two before. The
+medical officer of the port had come on board my ship to have a
+look at one of my crew who was ailing, and naturally enough he
+was asked to step into the cabin. A fellow-shipmaster of
+mine was there too; and in the conversation, somehow or other,
+the name of Jacobus came to be mentioned. It was pronounced
+with no particular reverence by the other man, I believe. I
+don&rsquo;t remember now what I was going to say. The
+doctor&mdash;a pleasant, cultivated fellow, with an assured
+manner&mdash;prevented me by striking in, in a sour tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! You&rsquo;re talking about my respected
+papa-in-law.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Of course, that sally silenced us at the time. But I
+remembered the episode, and at this juncture, pushed for
+something noncommittal to say, I inquired with polite
+surprise:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have your married daughter living with you, Mr.
+Jacobus?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He moved his big hand from right to left quietly.
+No! That was another of his girls, he stated, ponderously
+and under his breath as usual. She . . . He seemed in a
+pause to be ransacking his mind for some kind of descriptive
+phrase. But my hopes were disappointed. He merely
+produced his stereotyped definition.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s a very different sort of person.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed. . . . And by the by, Jacobus, I called on your
+brother the other day. It&rsquo;s no great compliment if I
+say that I found him a very different sort of person from
+you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He had an air of profound reflection, then remarked
+quaintly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a man of regular habits.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He might have been alluding to the habit of late siesta; but I
+mumbled something about &ldquo;beastly habits
+anyhow&rdquo;&mdash;and left the store abruptly.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> little passage with Jacobus the
+merchant became known generally. One or two of my
+acquaintances made distant allusions to it. Perhaps the
+mulatto boy had talked. I must confess that people appeared
+rather scandalised, but not with Jacobus&rsquo;s brutality.
+A man I knew remonstrated with me for my hastiness.</p>
+
+<p>I gave him the whole story of my visit, not forgetting the
+tell-tale resemblance of the wretched mulatto boy to his
+tormentor. He was not surprised. No doubt, no
+doubt. What of that? In a jovial tone he assured me
+that there must be many of that sort. The elder Jacobus had
+been a bachelor all his life. A highly respectable
+bachelor. But there had never been open scandal in that
+connection. His life had been quite regular. It could
+cause no offence to any one.</p>
+
+<p>I said that I had been offended considerably. My
+interlocutor opened very wide eyes. Why? Because a
+mulatto lad got a few knocks? That was not a great affair,
+surely. I had no idea how insolent and untruthful these
+half-castes were. In fact he seemed to think Mr. Jacobus
+rather kind than otherwise to employ that youth at all; a sort of
+amiable weakness which could be forgiven.</p>
+
+<p>This acquaintance of mine belonged to one of the old French
+families, descendants of the old colonists; all noble, all
+impoverished, and living a narrow domestic life in dull,
+dignified decay. The men, as a rule, occupy inferior posts
+in Government offices or in business houses. The girls are
+almost always pretty, ignorant of the world, kind and agreeable
+and generally bilingual; they prattle innocently both in French
+and English. The emptiness of their existence passes
+belief.</p>
+
+<p>I obtained my entry into a couple of such households because
+some years before, in Bombay, I had occasion to be of use to a
+pleasant, ineffectual young man who was rather stranded there,
+not knowing what to do with himself or even how to get home to
+his island again. It was a matter of two hundred rupees or
+so, but, when I turned up, the family made a point of showing
+their gratitude by admitting me to their intimacy. My
+knowledge of the French language made me specially
+acceptable. They had meantime managed to marry the fellow
+to a woman nearly twice his age, comparatively well off: the only
+profession he was really fit for. But it was not all cakes
+and ale. The first time I called on the couple she spied a
+little spot of grease on the poor devil&rsquo;s pantaloons and
+made him a screaming scene of reproaches so full of sincere
+passion that I sat terrified as at a tragedy of Racine.</p>
+
+<p>Of course there was never question of the money I had advanced
+him; but his sisters, Miss Angele and Miss Mary, and the aunts of
+both families, who spoke quaint archaic French of pre-Revolution
+period, and a host of distant relations adopted me for a friend
+outright in a manner which was almost embarrassing.</p>
+
+<p>It was with the eldest brother (he was employed at a desk in
+my consignee&rsquo;s office) that I was having this talk about
+the merchant Jacobus. He regretted my attitude and nodded
+his head sagely. An influential man. One never knew
+when one would need him. I expressed my immense preference
+for the shopkeeper of the two. At that my friend looked
+grave.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth are you pulling that long face
+about?&rdquo; I cried impatiently. &ldquo;He asked me to
+see his garden and I have a good mind to go some day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t do that,&rdquo; he said, so earnestly that
+I burst into a fit of laughter; but he looked at me without a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>This was another matter altogether. At one time the
+public conscience of the island had been mightily troubled by my
+Jacobus. The two brothers had been partners for years in
+great harmony, when a wandering circus came to the island and my
+Jacobus became suddenly infatuated with one of the
+lady-riders. What made it worse was that he was
+married. He had not even the grace to conceal his
+passion. It must have been strong indeed to carry away such
+a large placid creature. His behaviour was perfectly
+scandalous. He followed that woman to the Cape, and
+apparently travelled at the tail of that beastly circus to other
+parts of the world, in a most degrading position. The woman
+soon ceased to care for him, and treated him worse than a
+dog. Most extraordinary stories of moral degradation were
+reaching the island at that time. He had not the strength
+of mind to shake himself free. . . .</p>
+
+<p>The grotesque image of a fat, pushing ship-chandler, enslaved
+by an unholy love-spell, fascinated me; and I listened rather
+open-mouthed to the tale as old as the world, a tale which had
+been the subject of legend, of moral fables, of poems, but which
+so ludicrously failed to fit the personality. What a
+strange victim for the gods!</p>
+
+<p>Meantime his deserted wife had died. His daughter was
+taken care of by his brother, who married her as advantageously
+as was possible in the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! The Mrs. Doctor!&rdquo; I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You know that? Yes. A very able man.
+He wanted a lift in the world, and there was a good bit of money
+from her mother, besides the expectations. . . Of course, they
+don&rsquo;t know him,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;The doctor
+nods in the street, I believe, but he avoids speaking to him when
+they meet on board a ship, as must happen sometimes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I remarked that this surely was an old story by now.</p>
+
+<p>My friend assented. But it was Jacobus&rsquo;s own fault
+that it was neither forgiven nor forgotten. He came back
+ultimately. But how? Not in a spirit of contrition,
+in a way to propitiate his scandalised fellow-citizens. He
+must needs drag along with him a child&mdash;a girl. . . .</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He spoke to me of a daughter who lives with him,&rdquo;
+I observed, very much interested.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s certainly the daughter of the
+circus-woman,&rdquo; said my friend. &ldquo;She may be his
+daughter too; I am willing to admit that she is. In fact I
+have no doubt&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But he did not see why she should have been brought into a
+respectable community to perpetuate the memory of the
+scandal. And that was not the worst. Presently
+something much more distressing happened. That abandoned
+woman turned up. Landed from a mail-boat. . . .</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! Here? To claim the child
+perhaps,&rdquo; I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not she!&rdquo; My friendly informant was very
+scornful. &ldquo;Imagine a painted, haggard, agitated,
+desperate hag. Been cast off in Mozambique by somebody who
+paid her passage here. She had been injured internally by a
+kick from a horse; she hadn&rsquo;t a cent on her when she got
+ashore; I don&rsquo;t think she even asked to see the
+child. At any rate, not till the last day of her
+life. Jacobus hired for her a bungalow to die in. He
+got a couple of Sisters from the hospital to nurse her through
+these few months. If he didn&rsquo;t marry her <i>in
+extremis</i> as the good Sisters tried to bring about, it&rsquo;s
+because she wouldn&rsquo;t even hear of it. As the nuns
+said: &lsquo;The woman died impenitent.&rsquo; It was
+reported that she ordered Jacobus out of the room with her last
+breath. This may be the real reason why he didn&rsquo;t go
+into mourning himself; he only put the child into black.
+While she was little she was to be seen sometimes about the
+streets attended by a negro woman, but since she became of age to
+put her hair up I don&rsquo;t think she has set foot outside that
+garden once. She must be over eighteen now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Thus my friend, with some added details; such as, that he
+didn&rsquo;t think the girl had spoken to three people of any
+position in the island; that an elderly female relative of the
+brothers Jacobus had been induced by extreme poverty to accept
+the position of gouvernante to the girl. As to
+Jacobus&rsquo;s business (which certainly annoyed his brother) it
+was a wise choice on his part. It brought him in contact
+only with strangers of passage; whereas any other would have
+given rise to all sorts of awkwardness with his social
+equals. The man was not wanting in a certain
+tact&mdash;only he was naturally shameless. For why did he
+want to keep that girl with him? It was most painful for
+everybody.</p>
+
+<p>I thought suddenly (and with profound disgust) of the other
+Jacobus, and I could not refrain from saying slily:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose if he employed her, say, as a scullion in his
+household and occasionally pulled her hair or boxed her ears, the
+position would have been more regular&mdash;less shocking to the
+respectable class to which he belongs.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was not so stupid as to miss my intention, and shrugged his
+shoulders impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t understand. To begin with,
+she&rsquo;s not a mulatto. And a scandal is a
+scandal. People should be given a chance to forget. I
+dare say it would have been better for her if she had been turned
+into a scullion or something of that kind. Of course
+he&rsquo;s trying to make money in every sort of petty way, but
+in such a business there&rsquo;ll never be enough for anybody to
+come forward.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When my friend left me I had a conception of Jacobus and his
+daughter existing, a lonely pair of castaways, on a desert
+island; the girl sheltering in the house as if it were a cavern
+in a cliff, and Jacobus going out to pick up a living for both on
+the beach&mdash;exactly like two shipwrecked people who always
+hope for some rescuer to bring them back at last into touch with
+the rest of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>But Jacobus&rsquo;s bodily reality did not fit in with this
+romantic view. When he turned up on board in the usual
+course, he sipped the cup of coffee placidly, asked me if I was
+satisfied&mdash;and I hardly listened to the harbour gossip he
+dropped slowly in his low, voice-saving enunciation. I had
+then troubles of my own. My ship chartered, my thoughts
+dwelling on the success of a quick round voyage, I had been
+suddenly confronted by a shortage of bags. A
+catastrophe! The stock of one especial kind, called
+pockets, seemed to be totally exhausted. A consignment was
+shortly expected&mdash;it was afloat, on its way, but, meantime,
+the loading of my ship dead stopped, I had enough to worry
+about. My consignees, who had received me with such
+heartiness on my arrival, now, in the character of my charterers,
+listened to my complaints with polite helplessness. Their
+manager, the old-maidish, thin man, who so prudishly didn&rsquo;t
+even like to speak about the impure Jacobus, gave me the correct
+commercial view of the position.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My dear Captain&rdquo;&mdash;he was retracting his
+leathery cheeks into a condescending, shark-like
+smile&mdash;&ldquo;we were not morally obliged to tell you of a
+possible shortage before you signed the charter-party. It
+was for you to guard against the contingency of a
+delay&mdash;strictly speaking. But of course we
+shouldn&rsquo;t have taken any advantage. This is no
+one&rsquo;s fault really. We ourselves have been taken
+unawares,&rdquo; he concluded primly, with an obvious lie.</p>
+
+<p>This lecture I confess had made me thirsty. Suppressed
+rage generally produces that effect; and as I strolled on
+aimlessly I bethought myself of the tall earthenware pitcher in
+the captains&rsquo; room of the Jacobus &ldquo;store.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>With no more than a nod to the men I found assembled there, I
+poured down a deep, cool draught on my indignation, then another,
+and then, becoming dejected, I sat plunged in cheerless
+reflections. The others read, talked, smoked, bandied over
+my head some unsubtle chaff. But my abstraction was
+respected. And it was without a word to any one that I rose
+and went out, only to be quite unexpectedly accosted in the
+bustle of the store by Jacobus the outcast.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Glad to see you, Captain. What? Going
+away? You haven&rsquo;t been looking so well these last few
+days, I notice. Run down, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was in his shirt-sleeves, and his words were in the usual
+course of business, but they had a human note. It was
+commercial amenity, but I had been a stranger to amenity in that
+connection. I do verily believe (from the direction of his
+heavy glance towards a certain shelf) that he was going to
+suggest the purchase of Clarkson&rsquo;s Nerve Tonic, which he
+kept in stock, when I said impulsively:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am rather in trouble with my loading.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Wide awake under his sleepy, broad mask with glued lips, he
+understood at once, had a movement of the head so appreciative
+that I relieved my exasperation by exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Surely there must be eleven hundred quarter-bags to be
+found in the colony. It&rsquo;s only a matter of looking
+for them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Again that slight movement of the big head, and in the noise
+and activity of the store that tranquil murmur:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To be sure. But then people likely to have a
+reserve of quarter-bags wouldn&rsquo;t want to sell.
+They&rsquo;d need that size themselves.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s exactly what my consignees are telling
+me. Impossible to buy. Bosh! They don&rsquo;t
+want to. It suits them to have the ship hung up. But
+if I were to discover the lot they would have to&mdash;Look here,
+Jacobus! You are the man to have such a thing up your
+sleeve.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He protested with a ponderous swing of his big head. I
+stood before him helplessly, being looked at by those heavy eyes
+with a veiled expression as of a man after some soul-shaking
+crisis. Then, suddenly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to talk quietly here,&rdquo; he
+whispered. &ldquo;I am very busy. But if you could go
+and wait for me in my house. It&rsquo;s less than ten
+minutes&rsquo; walk. Oh, yes, you don&rsquo;t know the
+way.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He called for his coat and offered to take me there
+himself. He would have to return to the store at once for
+an hour or so to finish his business, and then he would be at
+liberty to talk over with me that matter of quarter-bags.
+This programme was breathed out at me through slightly parted,
+still lips; his heavy, motionless glance rested upon me, placid
+as ever, the glance of a tired man&mdash;but I felt that it was
+searching, too. I could not imagine what he was looking for
+in me and kept silent, wondering.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am asking you to wait for me in my house till I am at
+liberty to talk this matter over. You will?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, of course!&rdquo; I cried.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But I cannot promise&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I dare say not,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I
+don&rsquo;t expect a promise.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I mean I can&rsquo;t even promise to try the move
+I&rsquo;ve in my mind. One must see first . . .
+h&rsquo;m!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All right. I&rsquo;ll take the chance.
+I&rsquo;ll wait for you as long as you like. What else have
+I to do in this infernal hole of a port!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Before I had uttered my last words we had set off at a
+swinging pace. We turned a couple of corners and entered a
+street completely empty of traffic, of semi-rural aspect, paved
+with cobblestones nestling in grass tufts. The house came
+to the line of the roadway; a single story on an elevated
+basement of rough-stones, so that our heads were below the level
+of the windows as we went along. All the jalousies were
+tightly shut, like eyes, and the house seemed fast asleep in the
+afternoon sunshine. The entrance was at the side, in an
+alley even more grass-grown than the street: a small door, simply
+on the latch.</p>
+
+<p>With a word of apology as to showing me the way, Jacobus
+preceded me up a dark passage and led me across the naked parquet
+floor of what I supposed to be the dining-room. It was
+lighted by three glass doors which stood wide open on to a
+verandah or rather loggia running its brick arches along the
+garden side of the house. It was really a magnificent
+garden: smooth green lawns and a gorgeous maze of flower-beds in
+the foreground, displayed around a basin of dark water framed in
+a marble rim, and in the distance the massed foliage of varied
+trees concealing the roofs of other houses. The town might
+have been miles away. It was a brilliantly coloured
+solitude, drowsing in a warm, voluptuous silence. Where the
+long, still shadows fell across the beds, and in shady nooks, the
+massed colours of the flowers had an extraordinary magnificence
+of effect. I stood entranced. Jacobus grasped me
+delicately above the elbow, impelling me to a half-turn to the
+left.</p>
+
+<p>I had not noticed the girl before. She occupied a low,
+deep, wickerwork arm-chair, and I saw her in exact profile like a
+figure in a tapestry, and as motionless. Jacobus released
+my arm.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This is Alice,&rdquo; he announced tranquilly; and his
+subdued manner of speaking made it sound so much like a
+confidential communication that I fancied myself nodding
+understandingly and whispering: &ldquo;I see, I see.&rdquo; . . .
+Of course, I did nothing of the kind. Neither of us did
+anything; we stood side by side looking down at the girl.
+For quite a time she did not stir, staring straight before her as
+if watching the vision of some pageant passing through the garden
+in the deep, rich glow of light and the splendour of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Then, coming to the end of her reverie, she looked round and
+up. If I had not at first noticed her, I am certain that
+she too had been unaware of my presence till she actually
+perceived me by her father&rsquo;s side. The quickened
+upward movement of the heavy eyelids, the widening of the languid
+glance, passing into a fixed stare, put that beyond doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Under her amazement there was a hint of fear, and then came a
+flash as of anger. Jacobus, after uttering my name fairly
+loud, said: &ldquo;Make yourself at home, Captain&mdash;I
+won&rsquo;t be gone long,&rdquo; and went away rapidly.
+Before I had time to make a bow I was left alone with the
+girl&mdash;who, I remembered suddenly, had not been seen by any
+man or woman of that town since she had found it necessary to put
+up her hair. It looked as though it had not been touched
+again since that distant time of first putting up; it was a mass
+of black, lustrous locks, twisted anyhow high on her head, with
+long, untidy wisps hanging down on each side of the clear sallow
+face; a mass so thick and strong and abundant that, nothing but
+to look at, it gave you a sensation of heavy pressure on the top
+of your head and an impression of magnificently cynical
+untidiness. She leaned forward, hugging herself with
+crossed legs; a dingy, amber-coloured, flounced wrapper of some
+thin stuff revealed the young supple body drawn together tensely
+in the deep low seat as if crouching for a spring. I
+detected a slight, quivering start or two, which looked
+uncommonly like bounding away. They were followed by the
+most absolute immobility.</p>
+
+<p>The absurd impulse to run out after Jacobus (for I had been
+startled, too) once repressed, I took a chair, placed it not very
+far from her, sat down deliberately, and began to talk about the
+garden, caring not what I said, but using a gentle caressing
+intonation as one talks to soothe a startled wild animal. I
+could not even be certain that she understood me. She never
+raised her face nor attempted to look my way. I kept on
+talking only to prevent her from taking flight. She had
+another of those quivering, repressed starts which made me catch
+my breath with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately I formed a notion that what prevented her perhaps
+from going off in one great, nervous leap, was the scantiness of
+her attire. The wicker armchair was the most substantial
+thing about her person. What she had on under that dingy,
+loose, amber wrapper must have been of the most flimsy and airy
+character. One could not help being aware of it. It
+was obvious. I felt it actually embarrassing at first; but
+that sort of embarrassment is got over easily by a mind not
+enslaved by narrow prejudices. I did not avert my gaze from
+Alice. I went on talking with ingratiating softness, the
+recollection that, most likely, she had never before been spoken
+to by a strange man adding to my assurance. I don&rsquo;t
+know why an emotional tenseness should have crept into the
+situation. But it did. And just as I was becoming
+aware of it a slight scream cut short my flow of urbane
+speech.</p>
+
+<p>The scream did not proceed from the girl. It was emitted
+behind me, and caused me to turn my head sharply. I
+understood at once that the apparition in the doorway was the
+elderly relation of Jacobus, the companion, the
+gouvernante. While she remained thunderstruck, I got up and
+made her a low bow.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies of Jacobus&rsquo;s household evidently spent their
+days in light attire. This stumpy old woman with a face
+like a large wrinkled lemon, beady eyes, and a shock of iron-grey
+hair, was dressed in a garment of some ash-coloured, silky, light
+stuff. It fell from her thick neck down to her toes with
+the simplicity of an unadorned nightgown. It made her
+appear truly cylindrical. She exclaimed: &ldquo;How did you
+get here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Before I could say a word she vanished and presently I heard a
+confusion of shrill protestations in a distant part of the
+house. Obviously no one could tell her how I got
+there. In a moment, with great outcries from two negro
+women following her, she waddled back to the doorway,
+infuriated.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you want here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I turned to the girl. She was sitting straight up now,
+her hands posed on the arms of the chair. I appealed to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Surely, Miss Alice, you will not let them drive me out
+into the street?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her magnificent black eyes, narrowed, long in shape, swept
+over me with an indefinable expression, then in a harsh,
+contemptuous voice she let fall in French a sort of
+explanation:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>C&rsquo;est papa</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I made another low bow to the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her back on me in order to drive away her black
+henchwomen, then surveying my person in a peculiar manner with
+one small eye nearly closed and her face all drawn up on that
+side as if with a twinge of toothache, she stepped out on the
+verandah, sat down in a rocking-chair some distance away, and
+took up her knitting from a little table. Before she
+started at it she plunged one of the needles into the mop of her
+grey hair and stirred it vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>Her elementary nightgown-sort of frock clung to her ancient,
+stumpy, and floating form. She wore white cotton stockings
+and flat brown velvet slippers. Her feet and ankles were
+obtrusively visible on the foot-rest. She began to rock
+herself slightly, while she knitted. I had resumed my seat
+and kept quiet, for I mistrusted that old woman. What if
+she ordered me to depart? She seemed capable of any
+outrage. She had snorted once or twice; she was knitting
+violently. Suddenly she piped at the young girl in French a
+question which I translate colloquially:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s your father up to, now?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The young creature shrugged her shoulders so comprehensively
+that her whole body swayed within the loose wrapper; and in that
+unexpectedly harsh voice which yet had a seductive quality to the
+senses, like certain kinds of natural rough wines one drinks with
+pleasure:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s some captain. Leave me
+alone&mdash;will you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The chair rocked quicker, the old, thin voice was like a
+whistle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You and your father make a pair. He would stick
+at nothing&mdash;that&rsquo;s well known. But I
+didn&rsquo;t expect this.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I thought it high time to air some of my own French. I
+remarked modestly, but firmly, that this was business. I
+had some matters to talk over with Mr. Jacobus.</p>
+
+<p>At once she piped out a derisive &ldquo;Poor
+innocent!&rdquo; Then, with a change of tone: &ldquo;The
+shop&rsquo;s for business. Why don&rsquo;t you go to the
+shop to talk with him?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The furious speed of her fingers and knitting-needles made one
+dizzy; and with squeaky indignation:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sitting here staring at that girl&mdash;is that what
+you call business?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I said suavely. &ldquo;I call this
+pleasure&mdash;an unexpected pleasure. And unless Miss
+Alice objects&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I half turned to her. She flung at me an angry and
+contemptuous &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo; and leaning her
+elbow on her knees took her chin in her hand&mdash;a Jacobus chin
+undoubtedly. And those heavy eyelids, this black irritated
+stare reminded me of Jacobus, too&mdash;the wealthy merchant, the
+respected one. The design of her eyebrows also was the
+same, rigid and ill-omened. Yes! I traced in her a
+resemblance to both of them. It came to me as a sort of
+surprising remote inference that both these Jacobuses were rather
+handsome men after all. I said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! Then I shall stare at you till you
+smile.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She favoured me again with an even more viciously scornful
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The old woman broke in blunt and shrill:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hear his impudence! And you too!
+Don&rsquo;t care! Go at least and put some more clothes
+on. Sitting there like this before this sailor
+riff-raff.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The sun was about to leave the Pearl of the Ocean for other
+seas, for other lands. The walled garden full of shadows
+blazed with colour as if the flowers were giving up the light
+absorbed during the day. The amazing old woman became very
+explicit. She suggested to the girl a corset and a
+petticoat with a cynical unreserve which humiliated me. Was
+I of no more account than a wooden dummy? The girl snapped
+out: &ldquo;Shan&rsquo;t!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was not the naughty retort of a vulgar child; it had a note
+of desperation. Clearly my intrusion had somehow upset the
+balance of their established relations. The old woman
+knitted with furious accuracy, her eyes fastened down on her
+work.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you are the true child of your father! And
+<i>that</i> talks of entering a convent! Letting herself be
+stared at by a fellow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Leave off.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Shameless thing!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Old sorceress,&rdquo; the girl uttered distinctly,
+preserving her meditative pose, chin in hand, and a far-away
+stare over the garden.</p>
+
+<p>It was like the quarrel of the kettle and the pot. The
+old woman flew out of the chair, banged down her work, and with a
+great play of thick limb perfectly visible in that weird,
+clinging garment of hers, strode at the girl&mdash;who never
+stirred. I was experiencing a sort of trepidation when, as
+if awed by that unconscious attitude, the aged relative of
+Jacobus turned short upon me.</p>
+
+<p>She was, I perceived, armed with a knitting-needle; and as she
+raised her hand her intention seemed to be to throw it at me like
+a dart. But she only used it to scratch her head with,
+examining me the while at close range, one eye nearly shut and
+her face distorted by a whimsical, one-sided grimace.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My dear man,&rdquo; she asked abruptly, &ldquo;do you
+expect any good to come of this?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I do hope so indeed, Miss Jacobus.&rdquo; I tried
+to speak in the easy tone of an afternoon caller.
+&ldquo;You see, I am here after some bags.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bags! Look at that now! Didn&rsquo;t I hear
+you holding forth to that graceless wretch?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You would like to see me in my grave,&rdquo; uttered
+the motionless girl hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Grave! What about me? Buried alive before I
+am dead for the sake of a thing blessed with such a pretty
+father!&rdquo; she cried; and turning to me: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re
+one of these men he does business with. Well&mdash;why
+don&rsquo;t you leave us in peace, my good fellow?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was said in a tone&mdash;this &ldquo;leave us in
+peace!&rdquo; There was a sort of ruffianly familiarity, a
+superiority, a scorn in it. I was to hear it more than
+once, for you would show an imperfect knowledge of human nature
+if you thought that this was my last visit to that
+house&mdash;where no respectable person had put foot for ever so
+many years. No, you would be very much mistaken if you
+imagined that this reception had scared me away. First of
+all I was not going to run before a grotesque and ruffianly old
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>And then you mustn&rsquo;t forget these necessary bags.
+That first evening Jacobus made me stay to dinner; after,
+however, telling me loyally that he didn&rsquo;t know whether he
+could do anything at all for me. He had been thinking it
+over. It was too difficult, he feared. . . . But he did not
+give it up in so many words.</p>
+
+<p>We were only three at table; the girl by means of repeated
+&ldquo;Won&rsquo;t!&rdquo; &ldquo;Shan&rsquo;t!&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo; having conveyed and affirmed her
+intention not to come to the table, not to have any dinner, not
+to move from the verandah. The old relative hopped about in
+her flat slippers and piped indignantly, Jacobus towered over her
+and murmured placidly in his throat; I joined jocularly from a
+distance, throwing in a few words, for which under the cover of
+the night I received secretly a most vicious poke in the ribs
+from the old woman&rsquo;s elbow or perhaps her fist. I
+restrained a cry. And all the time the girl didn&rsquo;t
+even condescend to raise her head to look at any of us. All
+this may sound childish&mdash;and yet that stony, petulant
+sullenness had an obscurely tragic flavour.</p>
+
+<p>And so we sat down to the food around the light of a good many
+candles while she remained crouching out there, staring in the
+dark as if feeding her bad temper on the heavily scented air of
+the admirable garden.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving I said to Jacobus that I would come next day to
+hear if the bag affair had made any progress. He shook his
+head slightly at that.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll haunt your house daily till you pull it
+off. You&rsquo;ll be always finding me here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His faint, melancholy smile did not part his thick lips.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Then seeing me to the door, very tranquil, he murmured
+earnestly the recommendation: &ldquo;Make yourself at
+home,&rdquo; and also the hospitable hint about there being
+always &ldquo;a plate of soup.&rdquo; It was only on my way
+to the quay, down the ill-lighted streets, that I remembered I
+had been engaged to dine that very evening with the S&mdash;
+family. Though vexed with my forgetfulness (it would be
+rather awkward to explain) I couldn&rsquo;t help thinking that it
+had procured me a more amusing evening. And
+besides&mdash;business. The sacred business&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>In a barefooted negro who overtook me at a run and bolted down
+the landing-steps I recognised Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman, who must
+have been feeding in the kitchen. His usual
+&ldquo;Good-night, sah!&rdquo; as I went up my ship&rsquo;s
+ladder had a more cordial sound than on previous occasions.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">kept</span> my word to Jacobus. I
+haunted his home. He was perpetually finding me there of an
+afternoon when he popped in for a moment from the
+&ldquo;store.&rdquo; The sound of my voice talking to his
+Alice greeted him on his doorstep; and when he returned for good
+in the evening, ten to one he would hear it still going on in the
+verandah. I just nodded to him; he would sit down heavily
+and gently, and watch with a sort of approving anxiety my efforts
+to make his daughter smile.</p>
+
+<p>I called her often &ldquo;Alice,&rdquo; right before him;
+sometimes I would address her as Miss &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+Care,&rdquo; and I exhausted myself in nonsensical chatter
+without succeeding once in taking her out of her peevish and
+tragic self. There were moments when I felt I must break
+out and start swearing at her till all was blue. And I
+fancied that had I done so Jacobus would not have moved a
+muscle. A sort of shady, intimate understanding seemed to
+have been established between us.</p>
+
+<p>I must say the girl treated her father exactly in the same way
+she treated me.</p>
+
+<p>And how could it have been otherwise? She treated me as
+she treated her father. She had never seen a visitor.
+She did not know how men behaved. I belonged to the low lot
+with whom her father did business at the port. I was of no
+account. So was her father. The only decent people in
+the world were the people of the island, who would have nothing
+to do with him because of something wicked he had done.
+This was apparently the explanation Miss Jacobus had given her of
+the household&rsquo;s isolated position. For she had to be
+told something! And I feel convinced that this version had
+been assented to by Jacobus. I must say the old woman was
+putting it forward with considerable gusto. It was on her
+lips the universal explanation, the universal allusion, the
+universal taunt.</p>
+
+<p>One day Jacobus came in early and, beckoning me into the
+dining-room, wiped his brow with a weary gesture and told me that
+he had managed to unearth a supply of quarter-bags.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fourteen hundred your ship wanted, did you
+say, Captain?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, yes!&rdquo; I replied eagerly; but he remained
+calm. He looked more tired than I had ever seen him
+before.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Captain, you may go and tell your people that
+they can get that lot from my brother.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As I remained open-mouthed at this, he added his usual placid
+formula of assurance:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it correct, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You spoke to your brother about it?&rdquo; I was
+distinctly awed. &ldquo;And for me? Because he must
+have known that my ship&rsquo;s the only one hung up for
+bags. How on earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He wiped his brow again. I noticed that he was dressed
+with unusual care, in clothes in which I had never seen him
+before. He avoided my eye.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve heard people talk, of course. . . .
+That&rsquo;s true enough. He . . . I . . . We certainly. .
+. for several years . . .&rdquo; His voice declined to a
+mere sleepy murmur. &ldquo;You see I had something to tell
+him of, something which&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His murmur stopped. He was not going to tell me what
+this something was. And I didn&rsquo;t care. Anxious
+to carry the news to my charterers, I ran back on the verandah to
+get my hat.</p>
+
+<p>At the bustle I made the girl turned her eyes slowly in my
+direction, and even the old woman was checked in her
+knitting. I stopped a moment to exclaim excitedly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your father&rsquo;s a brick, Miss Don&rsquo;t
+Care. That&rsquo;s what he is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She beheld my elation in scornful surprise. Jacobus with
+unwonted familiarity seized my arm as I flew through the
+dining-room, and breathed heavily at me a proposal about &ldquo;A
+plate of soup&rdquo; that evening. I answered distractedly:
+&ldquo;Eh? What? Oh, thanks! Certainly.
+With pleasure,&rdquo; and tore myself away. Dine with
+him? Of course. The merest gratitude&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But some three hours afterwards, in the dusky, silent street,
+paved with cobble-stones, I became aware that it was not mere
+gratitude which was guiding my steps towards the house with the
+old garden, where for years no guest other than myself had ever
+dined. Mere gratitude does not gnaw at one&rsquo;s interior
+economy in that particular way. Hunger might; but I was not
+feeling particularly hungry for Jacobus&rsquo;s food.</p>
+
+<p>On that occasion, too, the girl refused to come to the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>My exasperation grew. The old woman cast malicious
+glances at me. I said suddenly to Jacobus:
+&ldquo;Here! Put some chicken and salad on that
+plate.&rdquo; He obeyed without raising his eyes. I
+carried it with a knife and fork and a serviette out on the
+verandah. The garden was one mass of gloom, like a cemetery
+of flowers buried in the darkness, and she, in the chair, seemed
+to muse mournfully over the extinction of light and colour.
+Only whiffs of heavy scent passed like wandering, fragrant souls
+of that departed multitude of blossoms. I talked volubly,
+jocularly, persuasively, tenderly; I talked in a subdued
+tone. To a listener it would have sounded like the murmur
+of a pleading lover. Whenever I paused expectantly there
+was only a deep silence. It was like offering food to a
+seated statue.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been able to swallow a single morsel
+thinking of you out here starving yourself in the dark.
+It&rsquo;s positively cruel to be so obstinate. Think of my
+sufferings.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I felt as if I could have done her some violence&mdash;shaken
+her, beaten her maybe. I said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your absurd behaviour will prevent me coming here any
+more.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that to me?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You like it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s false,&rdquo; she snarled.</p>
+
+<p>My hand fell on her shoulder; and if she had flinched I verily
+believe I would have shaken her. But there was no movement
+and this immobility disarmed my anger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You do. Or you wouldn&rsquo;t be found on the
+verandah every day. Why are you here, then? There are
+plenty of rooms in the house. You have your own room to
+stay in&mdash;if you did not want to see me. But you
+do. You know you do.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I felt a slight shudder under my hand and released my grip as
+if frightened by that sign of animation in her body. The
+scented air of the garden came to us in a warm wave like a
+voluptuous and perfumed sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go back to them,&rdquo; she whispered, almost
+pitifully.</p>
+
+<p>As I re-entered the dining-room I saw Jacobus cast down his
+eyes. I banged the plate on the table. At this
+demonstration of ill-humour he murmured something in an
+apologetic tone, and I turned on him viciously as if he were
+accountable to me for these &ldquo;abominable
+eccentricities,&rdquo; I believe I called them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But I dare say Miss Jacobus here is responsible for
+most of this offensive manner,&rdquo; I added loftily.</p>
+
+<p>She piped out at once in her brazen, ruffianly manner:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eh? Why don&rsquo;t you leave us in peace, my
+good fellow?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was astonished that she should dare before Jacobus.
+Yet what could he have done to repress her? He needed her
+too much. He raised a heavy, drowsy glance for an instant,
+then looked down again. She insisted with shrill
+finality:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you done your business, you two?
+Well, then&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She had the true Jacobus impudence, that old woman. Her
+mop of iron-grey hair was parted, on the side like a man&rsquo;s,
+raffishly, and she made as if to plunge her fork into it, as she
+used to do with the knitting-needle, but refrained. Her
+little black eyes sparkled venomously. I turned to my host
+at the head of the table&mdash;menacingly as it were.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, and what do you say to that, Jacobus? Am I
+to take it that we have done with each other?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had to wait a little. The answer when it came was
+rather unexpected, and in quite another spirit than the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I certainly think we might do some business yet with
+those potatoes of mine, Captain. You will find
+that&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I cut him short.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve told you before that I don&rsquo;t
+trade.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His broad chest heaved without a sound in a noiseless
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Think it over, Captain,&rdquo; he murmured, tenacious
+and tranquil; and I burst into a jarring laugh, remembering how
+he had stuck to the circus-rider woman&mdash;the depth of passion
+under that placid surface, which even cuts with a riding-whip (so
+the legend had it) could never raffle into the semblance of a
+storm; something like the passion of a fish would be if one could
+imagine such a thing as a passionate fish.</p>
+
+<p>That evening I experienced more distinctly than ever the sense
+of moral discomfort which always attended me in that house lying
+under the ban of all &ldquo;decent&rdquo; people. I refused
+to stay on and smoke after dinner; and when I put my hand into
+the thickly-cushioned palm of Jacobus, I said to myself that it
+would be for the last time under his roof. I pressed his
+bulky paw heartily nevertheless. Hadn&rsquo;t he got me out
+of a serious difficulty? To the few words of acknowledgment
+I was bound, and indeed quite willing, to utter, he answered by
+stretching his closed lips in his melancholy, glued-together
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, I hope, Captain,&rdquo; he
+breathed out weightily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo; I asked, alarmed.
+&ldquo;That your brother might yet&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; he reassured me. &ldquo;He . . .
+he&rsquo;s a man of his word, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My self-communion as I walked away from his door, trying to
+believe that this was for the last time, was not
+satisfactory. I was aware myself that I was not sincere in
+my reflections as to Jacobus&rsquo;s motives, and, of course, the
+very next day I went back again.</p>
+
+<p>How weak, irrational, and absurd we are! How easily
+carried away whenever our awakened imagination brings us the
+irritating hint of a desire! I cared for the girl in a
+particular way, seduced by the moody expression of her face, by
+her obstinate silences, her rare, scornful words; by the
+perpetual pout of her closed lips, the black depths of her fixed
+gaze turned slowly upon me as if in contemptuous provocation,
+only to be averted next moment with an exasperating
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the news of my assiduity had spread all over the
+little town. I noticed a change in the manner of my
+acquaintances and even something different in the nods of the
+other captains, when meeting them at the landing-steps or in the
+offices where business called me. The old-maidish head
+clerk treated me with distant punctiliousness and, as it were,
+gathered his skirts round him for fear of contamination. It
+seemed to me that the very niggers on the quays turned to look
+after me as I passed; and as to Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman his
+&ldquo;Good-night, sah!&rdquo; when he put me on board was no
+longer merely cordial&mdash;it had a familiar, confidential sound
+as though we had been partners in some villainy.</p>
+
+<p>My friend S&mdash; the elder passed me on the other side of
+the street with a wave of the hand and an ironic smile. The
+younger brother, the one they had married to an elderly shrew,
+he, on the strength of an older friendship and as if paying a
+debt of gratitude, took the liberty to utter a word of
+warning.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re doing yourself no good by your choice of
+friends, my dear chap,&rdquo; he said with infantile gravity.</p>
+
+<p>As I knew that the meeting of the brothers Jacobus was the
+subject of excited comment in the whole of the sugary Pearl of
+the Ocean I wanted to know why I was blamed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have been the occasion of a move which may end in a
+reconciliation surely desirable from the point of view of the
+proprieties&mdash;don&rsquo;t you know?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, if that girl were disposed of it would
+certainly facilitate&mdash;&rdquo; he mused sagely, then,
+inconsequential creature, gave me a light tap on the lower part
+of my waistcoat. &ldquo;You old sinner,&rdquo; he cried
+jovially, &ldquo;much you care for proprieties. But you had
+better look out for yourself, you know, with a personage like
+Jacobus who has no sort of reputation to lose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He had recovered his gravity of a respectable citizen by that
+time and added regretfully:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All the women of our family are perfectly
+scandalised.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But by that time I had given up visiting the S&mdash; family
+and the D&mdash; family. The elder ladies pulled such faces
+when I showed myself, and the multitude of related young ladies
+received me with such a variety of looks: wondering, awed,
+mocking (except Miss Mary, who spoke to me and looked at me with
+hushed, pained compassion as though I had been ill), that I had
+no difficulty in giving them all up. I would have given up
+the society of the whole town, for the sake of sitting near that
+girl, snarling and superb and barely clad in that flimsy, dingy,
+amber wrapper, open low at the throat. She looked, with the
+wild wisps of hair hanging down her tense face, as though she had
+just jumped out of bed in the panic of a fire.</p>
+
+<p>She sat leaning on her elbow, looking at nothing. Why
+did she stay listening to my absurd chatter? And not only
+that; but why did she powder her face in preparation for my
+arrival? It seemed to be her idea of making a toilette, and
+in her untidy negligence a sign of great effort towards personal
+adornment.</p>
+
+<p>But I might have been mistaken. The powdering might have
+been her daily practice and her presence in the verandah a sign
+of an indifference so complete as to take no account of my
+existence. Well, it was all one to me.</p>
+
+<p>I loved to watch her slow changes of pose, to look at her long
+immobilities composed in the graceful lines of her body, to
+observe the mysterious narrow stare of her splendid black eyes,
+somewhat long in shape, half closed, contemplating the
+void. She was like a spellbound creature with the forehead
+of a goddess crowned by the dishevelled magnificent hair of a
+gipsy tramp. Even her indifference was seductive. I
+felt myself growing attached to her by the bond of an
+irrealisable desire, for I kept my head&mdash;quite. And I
+put up with the moral discomfort of Jacobus&rsquo;s sleepy
+watchfulness, tranquil, and yet so expressive; as if there had
+been a tacit pact between us two. I put up with the
+insolence of the old woman&rsquo;s: &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you ever
+going to leave us in peace, my good fellow?&rdquo; with her
+taunts; with her brazen and sinister scolding. She was of
+the true Jacobus stock, and no mistake.</p>
+
+<p>Directly I got away from the girl I called myself many hard
+names. What folly was this? I would ask myself.
+It was like being the slave of some depraved habit. And I
+returned to her with my head clear, my heart certainly free, not
+even moved by pity for that castaway (she was as much of a
+castaway as any one ever wrecked on a desert island), but as if
+beguiled by some extraordinary promise. Nothing more
+unworthy could be imagined. The recollection of that
+tremulous whisper when I gripped her shoulder with one hand and
+held a plate of chicken with the other was enough to make me
+break all my good resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>Her insulting taciturnity was enough sometimes to make one
+gnash one&rsquo;s teeth with rage. When she opened her
+mouth it was only to be abominably rude in harsh tones to the
+associate of her reprobate father; and the full approval of her
+aged relative was conveyed to her by offensive chuckles. If
+not that, then her remarks, always uttered in the tone of
+scathing contempt, were of the most appalling inanity.</p>
+
+<p>How could it have been otherwise? That plump, ruffianly
+Jacobus old maid in the tight grey frock had never taught her any
+manners. Manners I suppose are not necessary for born
+castaways. No educational establishment could ever be
+induced to accept her as a pupil&mdash;on account of the
+proprieties, I imagine. And Jacobus had not been able to
+send her away anywhere. How could he have done it?
+Who with? Where to? He himself was not enough of an
+adventurer to think of settling down anywhere else. His
+passion had tossed him at the tail of a circus up and down
+strange coasts, but, the storm over, he had drifted back
+shamelessly where, social outcast as he was, he remained still a
+Jacobus&mdash;one of the oldest families on the island, older
+than the French even. There must have been a Jacobus in at
+the death of the last Dodo. . . . The girl had learned nothing,
+she had never listened to a general conversation, she knew
+nothing, she had heard of nothing. She could read
+certainly; but all the reading matter that ever came in her way
+were the newspapers provided for the captains&rsquo; room of the
+&ldquo;store.&rdquo; Jacobus had the habit of taking these
+sheets home now and then in a very stained and ragged
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>As her mind could not grasp the meaning of any matters treated
+there except police-court reports and accounts of crimes, she had
+formed for herself a notion of the civilised world as a scene of
+murders, abductions, burglaries, stabbing affrays, and every sort
+of desperate violence. England and France, Paris and London
+(the only two towns of which she seemed to have heard), appeared
+to her sinks of abomination, reeking with blood, in contrast to
+her little island where petty larceny was about the standard of
+current misdeeds, with, now and then, some more pronounced
+crime&mdash;and that only amongst the imported coolie labourers
+on sugar estates or the negroes of the town. But in Europe
+these things were being done daily by a wicked population of
+white men amongst whom, as that ruffianly, aristocratic old Miss
+Jacobus pointed out, the wandering sailors, the associates of her
+precious papa, were the lowest of the low.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to give her a sense of proportion. I
+suppose she figured England to herself as about the size of the
+Pearl of the Ocean; in which case it would certainly have been
+reeking with gore and a mere wreck of burgled houses from end to
+end. One could not make her understand that these horrors
+on which she fed her imagination were lost in the mass of orderly
+life like a few drops of blood in the ocean. She directed
+upon me for a moment the uncomprehending glance of her narrowed
+eyes and then would turn her scornful powdered face away without
+a word. She would not even take the trouble to shrug her
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the batches of papers brought by the last mail
+reported a series of crimes in the East End of London, there was
+a sensational case of abduction in France and a fine display of
+armed robbery in Australia. One afternoon crossing the
+dining-room I heard Miss Jacobus piping in the verandah with
+venomous animosity: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what your precious
+papa is plotting with that fellow. But he&rsquo;s just the
+sort of man who&rsquo;s capable of carrying you off far away
+somewhere and then cutting your throat some day for your
+money.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was a good half of the length of the verandah between
+their chairs. I came out and sat down fiercely midway
+between them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s what we do with girls in
+Europe,&rdquo; I began in a grimly matter-of-fact tone. I
+think Miss Jacobus was disconcerted by my sudden
+appearance. I turned upon her with cold ferocity:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As to objectionable old women, they are first strangled
+quietly, then cut up into small pieces and thrown away, a bit
+here and a bit there. They vanish&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I cannot go so far as to say I had terrified her. But
+she was troubled by my truculence, the more so because I had been
+always addressing her with a politeness she did not
+deserve. Her plump, knitting hands fell slowly on her
+knees. She said not a word while I fixed her with severe
+determination. Then as I turned away from her at last, she
+laid down her work gently and, with noiseless movements,
+retreated from the verandah. In fact, she vanished.</p>
+
+<p>But I was not thinking of her. I was looking at the
+girl. It was what I was coming for daily; troubled,
+ashamed, eager; finding in my nearness to her a unique sensation
+which I indulged with dread, self-contempt, and deep pleasure, as
+if it were a secret vice bound to end in my undoing, like the
+habit of some drug or other which ruins and degrades its
+slave.</p>
+
+<p>I looked her over, from the top of her dishevelled head, down
+the lovely line of the shoulder, following the curve of the hip,
+the draped form of the long limb, right down to her fine ankle
+below a torn, soiled flounce; and as far as the point of the
+shabby, high-heeled, blue slipper, dangling from her well-shaped
+foot, which she moved slightly, with quick, nervous jerks, as if
+impatient of my presence. And in the scent of the massed
+flowers I seemed to breathe her special and inexplicable charm,
+the heady perfume of the everlastingly irritated captive of the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her rounded chin, the Jacobus chin; at the full,
+red lips pouting in the powdered, sallow face; at the firm
+modelling of the cheek, the grains of white in the hairs of the
+straight sombre eyebrows; at the long eyes, a narrowed gleam of
+liquid white and intense motionless black, with their gaze so
+empty of thought, and so absorbed in their fixity that she seemed
+to be staring at her own lonely image, in some far-off mirror
+hidden from my sight amongst the trees.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly, without looking at me, with the appearance of a
+person speaking to herself, she asked, in that voice slightly
+harsh yet mellow and always irritated:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why do you keep on coming here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why do I keep on coming here?&rdquo; I repeated, taken
+by surprise. I could not have told her. I could not
+even tell myself with sincerity why I was coming there.
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the good of you asking a question like
+that?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing is any good,&rdquo; she observed scornfully to
+the empty air, her chin propped on her hand, that hand never
+extended to any man, that no one had ever grasped&mdash;for I had
+only grasped her shoulder once&mdash;that generous, fine,
+somewhat masculine hand. I knew well the peculiarly
+efficient shape&mdash;broad at the base, tapering at the
+fingers&mdash;of that hand, for which there was nothing in the
+world to lay hold of. I pretended to be playful.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No! But do you really care to know?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged indolently her magnificent shoulders, from which
+the dingy thin wrapper was slipping a little.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh&mdash;never mind&mdash;never mind!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was something smouldering under those airs of
+lassitude. She exasperated me by the provocation of her
+nonchalance, by something elusive and defiant in her very form
+which I wanted to seize. I said roughly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why? Don&rsquo;t you think I should tell you the
+truth?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes glided my way for a sidelong look, and she murmured,
+moving only her full, pouting lips:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think you would not dare.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you imagine I am afraid of you? What on earth.
+. . . Well, it&rsquo;s possible, after all, that I don&rsquo;t
+know exactly why I am coming here. Let us say, with Miss
+Jacobus, that it is for no good. You seem to believe the
+outrageous things she says, if you do have a row with her now and
+then.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She snapped out viciously:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who else am I to believe?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; I had to own, seeing her
+suddenly very helpless and condemned to moral solitude by the
+verdict of a respectable community. &ldquo;You might
+believe me, if you chose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She made a slight movement and asked me at once, with an
+effort as if making an experiment:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is the business between you and papa?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know the nature of your father&rsquo;s
+business? Come! He sells provisions to
+ships.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She became rigid again in her crouching pose.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not that. What brings you here&mdash;to this
+house?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And suppose it&rsquo;s you? You would not call
+that business? Would you? And now let us drop the
+subject. It&rsquo;s no use. My ship will be ready for
+sea the day after to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She murmured a distinctly scared &ldquo;So soon,&rdquo; and
+getting up quickly, went to the little table and poured herself a
+glass of water. She walked with rapid steps and with an
+indolent swaying of her whole young figure above the hips; when
+she passed near me I felt with tenfold force the charm of the
+peculiar, promising sensation I had formed the habit to seek near
+her. I thought with sudden dismay that this was the end of
+it; that after one more day I would be no longer able to come
+into this verandah, sit on this chair, and taste perversely the
+flavour of contempt in her indolent poses, drink in the
+provocation of her scornful looks, and listen to the curt,
+insolent remarks uttered in that harsh and seductive voice.
+As if my innermost nature had been altered by the action of some
+moral poison, I felt an abject dread of going to sea.</p>
+
+<p>I had to exercise a sudden self-control, as one puts on a
+brake, to prevent myself jumping up to stride about, shout,
+gesticulate, make her a scene. What for? What
+about? I had no idea. It was just the relief of
+violence that I wanted; and I lolled back in my chair, trying to
+keep my lips formed in a smile; that half-indulgent, half-mocking
+smile which was my shield against the shafts of her contempt and
+the insulting sallies flung at me by the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>She drank the water at a draught, with the avidity of raging
+thirst, and let herself fall on the nearest chair, as if utterly
+overcome. Her attitude, like certain tones of her voice,
+had in it something masculine: the knees apart in the ample
+wrapper, the clasped hands hanging between them, her body leaning
+forward, with drooping head. I stared at the heavy black
+coil of twisted hair. It was enormous, crowning the bowed
+head with a crushing and disdained glory. The escaped wisps
+hung straight down. And suddenly I perceived that the girl
+was trembling from head to foot, as though that glass of iced
+water had chilled her to the bone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; I said, startled,
+but in no very sympathetic mood.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her bowed, overweighted head and cried in a stifled
+voice but with a rising inflection:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go away! Go away! Go away!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I got up then and approached her, with a strange sort of
+anxiety. I looked down at her round, strong neck, then
+stooped low enough to peep at her face. And I began to
+tremble a little myself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth are you gone wild about, Miss Don&rsquo;t
+Care?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She flung herself backwards violently, her head going over the
+back of the chair. And now it was her smooth, full,
+palpitating throat that lay exposed to my bewildered stare.
+Her eyes were nearly closed, with only a horrible white gleam
+under the lids as if she were dead.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What has come to you?&rdquo; I asked in awe.
+&ldquo;What are you terrifying yourself with?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She pulled herself together, her eyes open frightfully wide
+now. The tropical afternoon was lengthening the shadows on
+the hot, weary earth, the abode of obscure desires, of
+extravagant hopes, of unimaginable terrors.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind! Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo; Then,
+after a gasp, she spoke with such frightful rapidity that I could
+hardly make out the amazing words: &ldquo;For if you were to shut
+me up in an empty place as smooth all round as the palm of my
+hand, I could always strangle myself with my hair.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, doubting my ears, I let this inconceivable
+declaration sink into me. It is ever impossible to guess at
+the wild thoughts that pass through the heads of our
+fellow-creatures. What monstrous imaginings of violence
+could have dwelt under the low forehead of that girl who had been
+taught to regard her father as &ldquo;capable of anything&rdquo;
+more in the light of a misfortune than that of a disgrace; as,
+evidently, something to be resented and feared rather than to be
+ashamed of? She seemed, indeed, as unaware of shame as of
+anything else in the world; but in her ignorance, her resentment
+and fear took a childish and violent shape.</p>
+
+<p>Of course she spoke without knowing the value of words.
+What could she know of death&mdash;she who knew nothing of
+life? It was merely as the proof of her being beside
+herself with some odious apprehension, that this extraordinary
+speech had moved me, not to pity, but to a fascinated, horrified
+wonder. I had no idea what notion she had of her
+danger. Some sort of abduction. It was quite possible
+with the talk of that atrocious old woman. Perhaps she
+thought she could be carried off, bound hand and foot and even
+gagged. At that surmise I felt as if the door of a furnace
+had been opened in front of me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my honour!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;You shall
+end by going crazy if you listen to that abominable old aunt of
+yours&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I studied her haggard expression, her trembling lips.
+Her cheeks even seemed sunk a little. But how I, the
+associate of her disreputable father, the &ldquo;lowest of the
+low&rdquo; from the criminal Europe, could manage to reassure her
+I had no conception. She was exasperating.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Heavens and earth! What do you think I can
+do?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her chin certainly trembled. And she was looking at me
+with extreme attention. I made a step nearer to her
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I shall do nothing. I promise you that.
+Will that do? Do you understand? I shall do nothing
+whatever, of any kind; and the day after to-morrow I shall be
+gone.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>What else could I have said? She seemed to drink in my
+words with the thirsty avidity with which she had emptied the
+glass of water. She whispered tremulously, in that touching
+tone I had heard once before on her lips, and which thrilled me
+again with the same emotion:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I would believe you. But what about
+papa&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He be hanged!&rdquo; My emotion betrayed itself
+by the brutality of my tone. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had enough
+of your papa. Are you so stupid as to imagine that I am
+frightened of him? He can&rsquo;t make me do
+anything.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>All that sounded feeble to me in the face of her
+ignorance. But I must conclude that the &ldquo;accent of
+sincerity&rdquo; has, as some people say, a really irresistible
+power. The effect was far beyond my hopes,&mdash;and even
+beyond my conception. To watch the change in the girl was
+like watching a miracle&mdash;the gradual but swift relaxation of
+her tense glance, of her stiffened muscles, of every fibre of her
+body. That black, fixed stare into which I had read a
+tragic meaning more than once, in which I had found a sombre
+seduction, was perfectly empty now, void of all consciousness
+whatever, and not even aware any longer of my presence; it had
+become a little sleepy, in the Jacobus fashion.</p>
+
+<p>But, man being a perverse animal, instead of rejoicing at my
+complete success, I beheld it with astounded and indignant
+eyes. There was something cynical in that unconcealed
+alteration, the true Jacobus shamelessness. I felt as
+though I had been cheated in some rather complicated deal into
+which I had entered against my better judgment. Yes,
+cheated without any regard for, at least, the forms of
+decency.</p>
+
+<p>With an easy, indolent, and in its indolence supple, feline
+movement, she rose from the chair, so provokingly ignoring me
+now, that for very rage I held my ground within less than a foot
+of her. Leisurely and tranquil, behaving right before me
+with the ease of a person alone in a room, she extended her
+beautiful arms, with her hands clenched, her body swaying, her
+head thrown back a little, revelling contemptuously in a sense of
+relief, easing her limbs in freedom after all these days of
+crouching, motionless poses when she had been so furious and so
+afraid.</p>
+
+<p>All this with supreme indifference, incredible, offensive,
+exasperating, like ingratitude doubled with treachery.</p>
+
+<p>I ought to have been flattered, perhaps, but, on the contrary,
+my anger grew; her movement to pass by me as if I were a wooden
+post or a piece of furniture, that unconcerned movement brought
+it to a head.</p>
+
+<p>I won&rsquo;t say I did not know what I was doing, but,
+certainly, cool reflection had nothing to do with the
+circumstance that next moment both my arms were round her
+waist. It was an impulsive action, as one snatches at
+something falling or escaping; and it had no hypocritical
+gentleness about it either. She had no time to make a
+sound, and the first kiss I planted on her closed lips was
+vicious enough to have been a bite.</p>
+
+<p>She did not resist, and of course I did not stop at one.
+She let me go on, not as if she were inanimate&mdash;I felt her
+there, close against me, young, full of vigour, of life, a strong
+desirable creature, but as if she did not care in the least, in
+the absolute assurance of her safety, what I did or left
+undone. Our faces brought close together in this storm of
+haphazard caresses, her big, black, wide-open eyes looked into
+mine without the girl appearing either angry or pleased or moved
+in any way. In that steady gaze which seemed impersonally
+to watch my madness I could detect a slight surprise,
+perhaps&mdash;nothing more. I showered kisses upon her face
+and there did not seem to be any reason why this should not go on
+for ever.</p>
+
+<p>That thought flashed through my head, and I was on the point
+of desisting, when, all at once, she began to struggle with a
+sudden violence which all but freed her instantly, which revived
+my exasperation with her, indeed a fierce desire never to let her
+go any more. I tightened my embrace in time, gasping out:
+&ldquo;No&mdash;you don&rsquo;t!&rdquo; as if she were my mortal
+enemy. On her part not a word was said. Putting her
+hands against my chest, she pushed with all her might without
+succeeding to break the circle of my arms. Except that she
+seemed thoroughly awake now, her eyes gave me no clue
+whatever. To meet her black stare was like looking into a
+deep well, and I was totally unprepared for her change of
+tactics. Instead of trying to tear my hands apart, she
+flung herself upon my breast and with a downward, undulating,
+serpentine motion, a quick sliding dive, she got away from me
+smoothly. It was all very swift; I saw her pick up the tail
+of her wrapper and run for the door at the end of the verandah
+not very gracefully. She appeared to be limping a
+little&mdash;and then she vanished; the door swung behind her so
+noiselessly that I could not believe it was completely
+closed. I had a distinct suspicion of her black eye being
+at the crack to watch what I would do. I could not make up
+my mind whether to shake my fist in that direction or blow a
+kiss.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">Either</span> would have been perfectly
+consistent with my feelings. I gazed at the door,
+hesitating, but in the end I did neither. The monition of
+some sixth sense&mdash;the sense of guilt, maybe, that sense
+which always acts too late, alas!&mdash;warned me to look round;
+and at once I became aware that the conclusion of this tumultuous
+episode was likely to be a matter of lively anxiety.
+Jacobus was standing in the doorway of the dining-room. How
+long he had been there it was impossible to guess; and
+remembering my struggle with the girl I thought he must have been
+its mute witness from beginning to end. But this
+supposition seemed almost incredible. Perhaps that
+impenetrable girl had heard him come in and had got away in
+time.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped on to the verandah in his usual manner, heavy-eyed,
+with glued lips. I marvelled at the girl&rsquo;s
+resemblance to this man. Those long, Egyptian eyes, that
+low forehead of a stupid goddess, she had found in the sawdust of
+the circus; but all the rest of the face, the design and the
+modelling, the rounded chin, the very lips&mdash;all that was
+Jacobus, fined down, more finished, more expressive.</p>
+
+<p>His thick hand fell on and grasped with force the back of a
+light chair (there were several standing about) and I perceived
+the chance of a broken head at the end of all this&mdash;most
+likely. My mortification was extreme. The scandal
+would be horrible; that was unavoidable. But how to act so
+as to satisfy myself I did not know. I stood on my guard
+and at any rate faced him. There was nothing else for
+it. Of one thing I was certain, that, however brazen my
+attitude, it could never equal the characteristic Jacobus
+impudence.</p>
+
+<p>He gave me his melancholy, glued smile and sat down. I
+own I was relieved. The perspective of passing from kisses
+to blows had nothing particularly attractive in it.
+Perhaps&mdash;perhaps he had seen nothing? He behaved as
+usual, but he had never before found me alone on the
+verandah. If he had alluded to it, if he had asked:
+&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Alice?&rdquo; or something of the sort, I
+would have been able to judge from the tone. He would give
+me no opportunity. The striking peculiarity was that he had
+never looked up at me yet. &ldquo;He knows,&rdquo; I said
+to myself confidently. And my contempt for him relieved my
+disgust with myself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are early home,&rdquo; I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Things are very quiet; nothing doing at the store
+to-day,&rdquo; he explained with a cast-down air.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, well, you know, I am off,&rdquo; I said, feeling
+that this, perhaps, was the best thing to do.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he breathed out. &ldquo;Day after
+to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was not what I had meant; but as he gazed persistently on
+the floor, I followed the direction of his glance. In the
+absolute stillness of the house we stared at the high-heeled
+slipper the girl had lost in her flight. We stared.
+It lay overturned.</p>
+
+<p>After what seemed a very long time to me, Jacobus hitched his
+chair forward, stooped with extended arm and picked it up.
+It looked a slender thing in his big, thick hands. It was
+not really a slipper, but a low shoe of blue, glazed kid, rubbed
+and shabby. It had straps to go over the instep, but the
+girl only thrust her feet in, after her slovenly manner.
+Jacobus raised his eyes from the shoe to look at me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sit down, Captain,&rdquo; he said at last, in his
+subdued tone.</p>
+
+<p>As if the sight of that shoe had renewed the spell, I gave up
+suddenly the idea of leaving the house there and then. It
+had become impossible. I sat down, keeping my eyes on the
+fascinating object. Jacobus turned his daughter&rsquo;s
+shoe over and over in his cushioned paws as if studying the way
+the thing was made. He contemplated the thin sole for a
+time; then glancing inside with an absorbed air:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am glad I found you here, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I answered this by some sort of grunt, watching him
+covertly. Then I added: &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t have much
+more of me now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was still deep in the interior of that shoe on which my
+eyes too were resting.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Have you thought any more of this deal in potatoes I
+spoke to you about the other day?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, I haven&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I answered curtly. He
+checked my movement to rise by an austere, commanding gesture of
+the hand holding that fatal shoe. I remained seated and
+glared at him. &ldquo;You know I don&rsquo;t
+trade.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You ought to, Captain. You ought to.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I reflected. If I left that house now I would never see
+the girl again. And I felt I must see her once more, if
+only for an instant. It was a need, not to be reasoned
+with, not to be disregarded. No, I did not want to go
+away. I wanted to stay for one more experience of that
+strange provoking sensation and of indefinite desire, the habit
+of which had made me&mdash;me of all people!&mdash;dread the
+prospect of going to sea.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Jacobus,&rdquo; I pronounced slowly.
+&ldquo;Do you really think that upon the whole and taking
+various&rsquo; matters into consideration&mdash;I mean
+everything, do you understand?&mdash;it would be a good thing for
+me to trade, let us say, with you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I waited for a while. He went on looking at the shoe
+which he held now crushed in the middle, the worn point of the
+toe and the high heel protruding on each side of his heavy
+fist.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right,&rdquo; he said, facing me
+squarely at last.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it quite correct,
+Captain.&rdquo; He had uttered his habitual phrases in his
+usual placid, breath-saving voice and stood my hard, inquisitive
+stare sleepily without as much as a wink.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then let us trade,&rdquo; I said, turning my shoulder
+to him. &ldquo;I see you are bent on it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I did not want an open scandal, but I thought that outward
+decency may be bought too dearly at times. I included
+Jacobus, myself, the whole population of the island, in the same
+contemptuous disgust as though we had been partners in an ignoble
+transaction. And the remembered vision at sea, diaphanous
+and blue, of the Pearl of the Ocean at sixty miles off; the
+unsubstantial, clear marvel of it as if evoked by the art of a
+beautiful and pure magic, turned into a thing of horrors
+too. Was this the fortune this vaporous and rare apparition
+had held for me in its hard heart, hidden within the shape as of
+fair dreams and mist? Was this my luck?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think&rdquo;&mdash;Jacobus became suddenly audible
+after what seemed the silence of vile
+meditation&mdash;&ldquo;that you might conveniently take some
+thirty tons. That would be about the lot,
+Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Would it? The lot! I dare say it would be
+convenient, but I haven&rsquo;t got enough money for
+that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had never seen him so animated.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No!&rdquo; he exclaimed with what I took for the accent
+of grim menace. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a pity.&rdquo; He
+paused, then, unrelenting: &ldquo;How much money have you got,
+Captain?&rdquo; he inquired with awful directness.</p>
+
+<p>It was my turn to face him squarely. I did so and
+mentioned the amount I could dispose of. And I perceived
+that he was disappointed. He thought it over, his
+calculating gaze lost in mine, for quite a long time before he
+came out in a thoughtful tone with the rapacious suggestion:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You could draw some more from your charterers.
+That would be quite easy, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I retorted
+brusquely. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve drawn my salary up to date,
+and besides, the ship&rsquo;s accounts are closed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was growing furious. I pursued: &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ll
+tell you what: if I could do it I wouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+Then throwing off all restraint, I added: &ldquo;You are a bit
+too much of a Jacobus, Mr. Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The tone alone was insulting enough, but he remained tranquil,
+only a little puzzled, till something seemed to dawn upon him;
+but the unwonted light in his eyes died out instantly. As a
+Jacobus on his native heath, what a mere skipper chose to say
+could not touch him, outcast as he was. As a ship-chandler
+he could stand anything. All I caught of his mumble was a
+vague&mdash;&ldquo;quite correct,&rdquo; than which nothing could
+have been more egregiously false at bottom&mdash;to my view, at
+least. But I remembered&mdash;I had never
+forgotten&mdash;that I must see the girl. I did not mean to
+go. I meant to stay in the house till I had seen her once
+more.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; I said finally.
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what I&rsquo;ll do. I&rsquo;ll
+take as many of your confounded potatoes as my money will buy, on
+condition that you go off at once down to the wharf to see them
+loaded in the lighter and sent alongside the ship straight
+away. Take the invoice and a signed receipt with you.
+Here&rsquo;s the key of my desk. Give it to Burns. He
+will pay you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He got up from his chair before I had finished speaking, but
+he refused to take the key. Burns would never do it.
+He wouldn&rsquo;t like to ask him even.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, then,&rdquo; I said, eyeing him slightingly,
+&ldquo;there&rsquo;s nothing for it, Mr. Jacobus, but you must
+wait on board till I come off to settle with you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, Captain. I will go at
+once.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed at a loss what to do with the girl&rsquo;s shoe he
+was still holding in his fist. Finally, looking dully at
+me, he put it down on the chair from which he had risen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And you, Captain? Won&rsquo;t you come along,
+too, just to see&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t bother about me. I&rsquo;ll take care
+of myself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He remained perplexed for a moment, as if trying to
+understand; and then his weighty: &ldquo;Certainly, certainly,
+Captain,&rdquo; seemed to be the outcome of some sudden
+thought. His big chest heaved. Was it a sigh?
+As he went out to hurry off those potatoes he never looked back
+at me.</p>
+
+<p>I waited till the noise of his footsteps had died out of the
+dining-room, and I waited a little longer. Then turning
+towards the distant door I raised my voice along the
+verandah:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Alice!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nothing answered me, not even a stir behind the door.
+Jacobus&rsquo;s house might have been made empty for me to make
+myself at home in. I did not call again. I had become
+aware of a great discouragement. I was mentally jaded,
+morally dejected. I turned to the garden again, sitting
+down with my elbows spread on the low balustrade, and took my
+head in my hands.</p>
+
+<p>The evening closed upon me. The shadows lengthened,
+deepened, mingled together into a pool of twilight in which the
+flower-beds glowed like coloured embers; whiffs of heavy scent
+came to me as if the dusk of this hemisphere were but the dimness
+of a temple and the garden an enormous censer swinging before the
+altar of the stars. The colours of the blossoms deepened,
+losing their glow one by one.</p>
+
+<p>The girl, when I turned my head at a slight noise, appeared to
+me very tall and slender, advancing with a swaying limp, a
+floating and uneven motion which ended in the sinking of her
+shadowy form into the deep low chair. And I don&rsquo;t
+know why or whence I received the impression that she had come
+too late. She ought to have appeared at my call. She
+ought to have . . . It was as if a supreme opportunity had been
+missed.</p>
+
+<p>I rose and took a seat close to her, nearly opposite her
+arm-chair. Her ever discontented voice addressed me at
+once, contemptuously:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are still here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I pitched mine low.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have come out at last.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I came to look for my shoe&mdash;before they bring in
+the lights.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was her harsh, enticing whisper, subdued, not very steady,
+but its low tremulousness gave me no thrill now. I could
+only make out the oval of her face, her uncovered throat, the
+long, white gleam of her eyes. She was mysterious
+enough. Her hands were resting on the arms of the
+chair. But where was the mysterious and provoking sensation
+which was like the perfume of her flower-like youth? I said
+quietly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have got your shoe here.&rdquo; She made no
+sound and I continued: &ldquo;You had better give me your foot
+and I will put it on for you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She made no movement. I bent low down and groped for her
+foot under the flounces of the wrapper. She did not
+withdraw it and I put on the shoe, buttoning the
+instep-strap. It was an inanimate foot. I lowered it
+gently to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you buttoned the strap you would not be losing your
+shoe, Miss Don&rsquo;t Care,&rdquo; I said, trying to be playful
+without conviction. I felt more like wailing over the lost
+illusion of vague desire, over the sudden conviction that I would
+never find again near her the strange, half-evil, half-tender
+sensation which had given its acrid flavour to so many days,
+which had made her appear tragic and promising, pitiful and
+provoking. That was all over.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your father picked it up,&rdquo; I said, thinking she
+may just as well be told of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am not afraid of papa&mdash;by himself,&rdquo; she
+declared scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! It&rsquo;s only in conjunction with his
+disreputable associates, strangers, the &lsquo;riff-raff of
+Europe&rsquo; as your charming aunt or great-aunt says&mdash;men
+like me, for instance&mdash;that you&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am not afraid of you,&rdquo; she snapped out.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s because you don&rsquo;t know that I am now
+doing business with your father. Yes, I am in fact doing
+exactly what he wants me to do. I&rsquo;ve broken my
+promise to you. That&rsquo;s the sort of man I am.
+And now&mdash;aren&rsquo;t you afraid? If you believe what
+that dear, kind, truthful old lady says you ought to
+be.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was with unexpected modulated softness that the
+affirmed:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No. I am not afraid.&rdquo; She hesitated.
+. . . &ldquo;Not now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Quite right. You needn&rsquo;t be. I shall
+not see you again before I go to sea.&rdquo; I rose and
+stood near her chair. &ldquo;But I shall often think of you
+in this old garden, passing under the trees over there, walking
+between these gorgeous flower-beds. You must love this
+garden&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I love nothing.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I heard in her sullen tone the faint echo of that resentfully
+tragic note which I had found once so provoking. But it
+left me unmoved except for a sudden and weary conviction of the
+emptiness of all things under Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Alice,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, she did not move. To merely take her
+hand, shake it, and go away seemed impossible, almost
+improper. I stooped without haste and pressed my lips to
+her smooth forehead. This was the moment when I realised
+clearly with a sort of terror my complete detachment from that
+unfortunate creature. And as I lingered in that cruel
+self-knowledge I felt the light touch of her arms falling
+languidly on my neck and received a hasty, awkward, haphazard
+kiss which missed my lips. No! She was not afraid;
+but I was no longer moved. Her arms slipped off my neck
+slowly, she made no sound, the deep wicker arm-chair creaked
+slightly; only a sense of my dignity prevented me fleeing
+headlong from that catastrophic revelation.</p>
+
+<p>I traversed the dining-room slowly. I thought:
+She&rsquo;s listening to my footsteps; she can&rsquo;t help it;
+she&rsquo;ll hear me open and shut that door. And I closed
+it as gently behind me as if I had been a thief retreating with
+his ill-gotten booty. During that stealthy act I
+experienced the last touch of emotion in that house, at the
+thought of the girl I had left sitting there in the obscurity,
+with her heavy hair and empty eyes as black as the night itself,
+staring into the walled garden, silent, warm, odorous with the
+perfume of imprisoned flowers, which, like herself, were lost to
+sight in a world buried in darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The narrow, ill-lighted, rustic streets I knew so well on my
+way to the harbour were extremely quiet. I felt in my heart
+that the further one ventures the better one understands how
+everything in our life is common, short, and empty; that it is in
+seeking the unknown in our sensations that we discover how
+mediocre are our attempts and how soon defeated!
+Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman was waiting at the steps with an unusual
+air of readiness. He put me alongside the ship, but did not
+give me his confidential &ldquo;Good-evening, sah,&rdquo; and,
+instead of shoving off at once, remained holding by the
+ladder.</p>
+
+<p>I was a thousand miles from commercial affairs, when on the
+dark quarter-deck Mr. Burns positively rushed at me, stammering
+with excitement. He had been pacing the deck distractedly
+for hours awaiting my arrival. Just before sunset a lighter
+loaded with potatoes had come alongside with that fat
+ship-chandler himself sitting on the pile of sacks. He was
+now stuck immovable in the cabin. What was the meaning of
+it all? Surely I did not&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, Mr. Burns, I did,&rdquo; I cut him short. He
+was beginning to make gestures of despair when I stopped that,
+too, by giving him the key of my desk and desiring him, in a tone
+which admitted of no argument, to go below at once, pay Mr.
+Jacobus&rsquo;s bill, and send him out of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to see him,&rdquo; I confessed
+frankly, climbing the poop-ladder. I felt extremely
+tired. Dropping on the seat of the skylight, I gave myself
+up to idle gazing at the lights about the quay and at the black
+mass of the mountain on the south side of the harbour. I
+never heard Jacobus leave the ship with every single sovereign of
+my ready cash in his pocket. I never heard anything till, a
+long time afterwards, Mr. Burns, unable to contain himself any
+longer, intruded upon me with his ridiculously angry lamentations
+at my weakness and good nature.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, there&rsquo;s plenty of room in the
+after-hatch. But they are sure to go rotten down
+there. Well! I never heard . . . seventeen
+tons! I suppose I must hoist in that lot first thing
+to-morrow morning.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose you must. Unless you drop them
+overboard. But I&rsquo;m afraid you can&rsquo;t do
+that. I wouldn&rsquo;t mind myself, but it&rsquo;s
+forbidden to throw rubbish into the harbour, you know.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That is the truest word you have said for many a day,
+sir&mdash;rubbish. That&rsquo;s just what I expect they
+are. Nearly eighty good gold sovereigns gone; a perfectly
+clean sweep of your drawer, sir. Bless me if I
+understand!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As it was impossible to throw the right light on this
+commercial transaction I left him to his lamentations and under
+the impression that I was a hopeless fool. Next day I did
+not go ashore. For one thing, I had no money to go ashore
+with&mdash;no, not enough to buy a cigarette. Jacobus had
+made a clean sweep. But that was not the only reason.
+The Pearl of the Ocean had in a few short hours grown odious to
+me. And I did not want to meet any one. My reputation
+had suffered. I knew I was the object of unkind and
+sarcastic comments.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning at sunrise, just as our stern-fasts had
+been let go and the tug plucked us out from between the buoys, I
+saw Jacobus standing up in his boat. The nigger was pulling
+hard; several baskets of provisions for ships were stowed between
+the thwarts. The father of Alice was going his morning
+round. His countenance was tranquil and friendly. He
+raised his arm and shouted something with great heartiness.
+But his voice was of the sort that doesn&rsquo;t carry any
+distance; all I could catch faintly, or rather guess at, were the
+words &ldquo;next time&rdquo; and &ldquo;quite
+correct.&rdquo; And it was only of these last that I was
+certain. Raising my arm perfunctorily for all response, I
+turned away. I rather resented the familiarity of the
+thing. Hadn&rsquo;t I settled accounts finally with him by
+means of that potato bargain?</p>
+
+<p>This being a harbour story it is not my purpose to speak of
+our passage. I was glad enough to be at sea, but not with
+the gladness of old days. Formerly I had no memories to
+take away with me. I shared in the blessed forgetfulness of
+sailors, that forgetfulness natural and invincible, which
+resembles innocence in so far that it prevents
+self-examination. Now however I remembered the girl.
+During the first few days I was for ever questioning myself as to
+the nature of facts and sensations connected with her person and
+with my conduct.</p>
+
+<p>And I must say also that Mr. Burns&rsquo; intolerable fussing
+with those potatoes was not calculated to make me forget the part
+which I had played. He looked upon it as a purely
+commercial transaction of a particularly foolish kind, and his
+devotion&mdash;if it was devotion and not mere cussedness as I
+came to regard it before long&mdash;inspired him with a zeal to
+minimise my loss as much as possible. Oh, yes! He
+took care of those infamous potatoes with a vengeance, as the
+saying goes.</p>
+
+<p>Everlastingly, there was a tackle over the after-hatch and
+everlastingly the watch on deck were pulling up, spreading out,
+picking over, rebagging, and lowering down again, some part of
+that lot of potatoes. My bargain with all its remotest
+associations, mental and visual&mdash;the garden of flowers and
+scents, the girl with her provoking contempt and her tragic
+loneliness of a hopeless castaway&mdash;was everlastingly dangled
+before my eyes, for thousands of miles along the open sea.
+And as if by a satanic refinement of irony it was accompanied by
+a most awful smell. Whiffs from decaying potatoes pursued
+me on the poop, they mingled with my thoughts, with my food,
+poisoned my very dreams. They made an atmosphere of
+corruption for the ship.</p>
+
+<p>I remonstrated with Mr. Burns about this excessive care.
+I would have been well content to batten the hatch down and let
+them perish under the deck.</p>
+
+<p>That perhaps would have been unsafe. The horrid
+emanations might have flavoured the cargo of sugar. They
+seemed strong enough to taint the very ironwork. In
+addition Mr. Burns made it a personal matter. He assured me
+he knew how to treat a cargo of potatoes at sea&mdash;had been in
+the trade as a boy, he said. He meant to make my loss as
+small as possible. What between his devotion&mdash;it must
+have been devotion&mdash;and his vanity, I positively dared not
+give him the order to throw my commercial-venture
+overboard. I believe he would have refused point blank to
+obey my lawful command. An unprecedented and comical
+situation would have been created with which I did not feel equal
+to deal.</p>
+
+<p>I welcomed the coming of bad weather as no sailor had ever
+done. When at last I hove the ship to, to pick up the pilot
+outside Port Philip Heads, the after-hatch had not been opened
+for more than a week and I might have believed that no such thing
+as a potato had ever been on board.</p>
+
+<p>It was an abominable day, raw, blustering, with great squalls
+of wind and rain; the pilot, a cheery person, looked after the
+ship and chatted to me, streaming from head to foot; and the
+heavier the lash of the downpour the more pleased with himself
+and everything around him he seemed to be. He rubbed his
+wet hands with a satisfaction, which to me, who had stood that
+kind of thing for several days and nights, seemed inconceivable
+in any non-aquatic creature.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You seem to enjoy getting wet, Pilot,&rdquo; I
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p>He had a bit of land round his house in the suburbs and it was
+of his garden he was thinking. At the sound of the word
+garden, unheard, unspoken for so many days, I had a vision of
+gorgeous colour, of sweet scents, of a girlish figure crouching
+in a chair. Yes. That was a distinct emotion breaking
+into the peace I had found in the sleepless anxieties of my
+responsibility during a week of dangerous bad weather. The
+Colony, the pilot explained, had suffered from unparalleled
+drought. This was the first decent drop of water they had
+had for seven months. The root crops were lost. And,
+trying to be casual, but with visible interest, he asked me if I
+had perchance any potatoes to spare.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes! I had managed to forget them. In a
+moment I felt plunged into corruption up to my neck. Mr.
+Burns was making eyes at me behind the pilot&rsquo;s back.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, he obtained a ton, and paid ten pounds for it.
+This was twice the price of my bargain with Jacobus. The
+spirit of covetousness woke up in me. That night, in
+harbour, before I slept, the Custom House galley came
+alongside. While his underlings were putting seals on the
+storerooms, the officer in charge took me aside
+confidentially. &ldquo;I say, Captain, you don&rsquo;t
+happen to have any potatoes to sell.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Clearly there was a potato famine in the land. I let him
+have a ton for twelve pounds and he went away joyfully.
+That night I dreamt of a pile of gold in the form of a grave in
+which a girl was buried, and woke up callous with greed. On
+calling at my ship-broker&rsquo;s office, that man, after the
+usual business had been transacted, pushed his spectacles up on
+his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I was thinking, Captain, that coming from the Pearl of
+the Ocean you may have some potatoes to sell.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I said negligently: &ldquo;Oh, yes, I could spare you a
+ton. Fifteen pounds.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He exclaimed: &ldquo;I say!&rdquo; But after studying my
+face for a while accepted my terms with a faint grimace. It
+seems that these people could not exist without potatoes. I
+could. I didn&rsquo;t want to see a potato as long as I
+lived; but the demon of lucre had taken possession of me.
+How the news got about I don&rsquo;t know, but, returning on
+board rather late, I found a small group of men of the coster
+type hanging about the waist, while Mr. Burns walked to and fro
+the quarterdeck loftily, keeping a triumphant eye on them.
+They had come to buy potatoes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;These chaps have been waiting here in the sun for
+hours,&rdquo; Burns whispered to me excitedly. &ldquo;They
+have drank the water-cask dry. Don&rsquo;t you throw away
+your chances, sir. You are too good-natured.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I selected a man with thick legs and a man with a cast in his
+eye to negotiate with; simply because they were easily
+distinguishable from the rest. &ldquo;You have the money on
+you?&rdquo; I inquired, before taking them down into the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; they answered in one voice, slapping
+their pockets. I liked their air of quiet
+determination. Long before the end of the day all the
+potatoes were sold at about three times the price I had paid for
+them. Mr. Burns, feverish and exulting, congratulated
+himself on his skilful care of my commercial venture, but hinted
+plainly that I ought to have made more of it.</p>
+
+<p>That night I did not sleep very well. I thought of
+Jacobus by fits and starts, between snatches of dreams concerned
+with castaways starving on a desert island covered with
+flowers. It was extremely unpleasant. In the morning,
+tired and unrefreshed, I sat down and wrote a long letter to my
+owners, giving them a carefully-thought-out scheme for the
+ship&rsquo;s employment in the East and about the China Seas for
+the next two years. I spent the day at that task and felt
+somewhat more at peace when it was done.</p>
+
+<p>Their reply came in due course. They were greatly struck
+with my project; but considering that, notwithstanding the
+unfortunate difficulty with the bags (which they trusted I would
+know how to guard against in the future), the voyage showed a
+very fair profit, they thought it would be better to keep the
+ship in the sugar trade&mdash;at least for the present.</p>
+
+<p>I turned over the page and read on:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We have had a letter from our good friend Mr.
+Jacobus. We are pleased to see how well you have hit it off
+with him; for, not to speak of his assistance in the unfortunate
+matter of the bags, he writes us that should you, by using all
+possible dispatch, manage to bring the ship back early in the
+season he would be able to give us a good rate of freight.
+We have no doubt that your best endeavours . . . etc. . .
+etc.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I dropped the letter and sat motionless for a long time.
+Then I wrote my answer (it was a short one) and went ashore
+myself to post it. But I passed one letter-box, then
+another, and in the end found myself going up Collins Street with
+the letter still in my pocket&mdash;against my heart.
+Collins Street at four o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon is not
+exactly a desert solitude; but I had never felt more isolated
+from the rest of mankind as when I walked that day its crowded
+pavement, battling desperately with my thoughts and feeling
+already vanquished.</p>
+
+<p>There came a moment when the awful tenacity of Jacobus, the
+man of one passion and of one idea, appeared to me almost
+heroic. He had not given me up. He had gone again to
+his odious brother. And then he appeared to me odious
+himself. Was it for his own sake or for the sake of the
+poor girl? And on that last supposition the memory of the
+kiss which missed my lips appalled me; for whatever he had seen,
+or guessed at, or risked, he knew nothing of that. Unless
+the girl had told him. How could I go back to fan that
+fatal spark with my cold breath? No, no, that unexpected
+kiss had to be paid for at its full price.</p>
+
+<p>At the first letter-box I came to I stopped and reaching into
+my breast-pocket I took out the letter&mdash;it was as if I were
+plucking out my very heart&mdash;and dropped it through the
+slit. Then I went straight on board.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered what dreams I would have that night; but as it
+turned out I did not sleep at all. At breakfast I informed
+Mr. Burns that I had resigned my command.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his knife and fork and looked at me with
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have, sir! I thought you loved the
+ship.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So I do, Burns,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;But the
+fact is that the Indian Ocean and everything that is in it has
+lost its charm for me. I am going home as passenger by the
+Suez Canal.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Everything that is in it,&rdquo; he repeated
+angrily. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never heard anybody talk like
+this. And to tell you the truth, sir, all the time we have
+been together I&rsquo;ve never quite made you out.
+What&rsquo;s one ocean more than another? Charm,
+indeed!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was really devoted to me, I believe. But he cheered
+up when I told him that I had recommended him for my
+successor.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Anyhow,&rdquo; he remarked, &ldquo;let people say what
+they like, this Jacobus has served your turn. I must admit
+that this potato business has paid extremely well. Of
+course, if only you had&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, Mr. Burns,&rdquo; I interrupted.
+&ldquo;Quite a smile of fortune.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But I could not tell him that it was driving me out of the
+ship I had learned to love. And as I sat heavy-hearted at
+that parting, seeing all my plans destroyed, my modest future
+endangered&mdash;for this command was like a foot in the stirrup
+for a young man&mdash;he gave up completely for the first time
+his critical attitude.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A wonderful piece of luck!&rdquo; he said.</p>
+<h2><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>THE
+SECRET SHARER<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">AN EPISODE FROM THE COAST</span></h2>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> my right hand there were lines
+of fishing-stakes resembling a mysterious system of
+half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible in its division of
+the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect as if
+abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to
+the other end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human
+habitation as far as the eye could reach. To the left a
+group of barren islets, suggesting ruins of stone walls, towers,
+and blockhouses, had its foundations set in a blue sea that
+itself looked solid, so still and stable did it lie below my
+feet; even the track of light from the westering sun shone
+smoothly, without that animated glitter which tells of an
+imperceptible ripple. And when I turned my head to take a
+parting glance at the tug which had just left us anchored outside
+the bar, I saw the straight line of the flat shore joined to the
+stable sea, edge to edge, with a perfect and unmarked closeness,
+in one levelled floor half brown, half blue under the enormous
+dome of the sky. Corresponding in their insignificance to
+the islets of the sea, two small clumps of trees, one on each
+side of the only fault in the impeccable joint, marked the mouth
+of the river Meinam we had just left on the first preparatory
+stage of our homeward journey; and, far back on the inland level,
+a larger and loftier mass, the grove surrounding the great Paknam
+pagoda, was the only thing on which the eye could rest from the
+vain task of exploring the monotonous sweep of the horizon.
+Here and there gleams as of a few scattered pieces of silver
+marked the windings of the great river; and on the nearest of
+them, just within the bar, the tug steaming right into the land
+became lost to my sight, hull and funnel and masts, as though the
+impassive earth had swallowed her up without an effort, without a
+tremor. My eye followed the light cloud of her smoke, now
+here, now there, above the plain, according to the devious curves
+of the stream, but always fainter and farther away, till I lost
+it at last behind the mitre-shaped hill of the great
+pagoda. And then I was left alone with my ship, anchored at
+the head of the Gulf of Siam.</p>
+
+<p>She floated at the starting-point of a long journey, very
+still in an immense stillness, the shadows of her spars flung far
+to the eastward by the setting sun. At that moment I was
+alone on her decks. There was not a sound in her&mdash;and
+around us nothing moved, nothing lived, not a canoe on the water,
+not a bird in the air, not a cloud in the sky. In this
+breathless pause at the threshold of a long passage we seemed to
+be measuring our fitness for a long and arduous enterprise, the
+appointed task of both our existences to be carried out, far from
+all human eyes, with only sky and sea for spectators and for
+judges.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with
+one&rsquo;s sight, because it was only just before the sun left
+us that my roaming eyes made out beyond the highest ridge of the
+principal islet of the group something which did away with the
+solemnity of perfect solitude. The tide of darkness flowed
+on swiftly; and with tropical suddenness a swarm of stars came
+out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered yet, my hand
+resting lightly on my ship&rsquo;s rail as if on the shoulder of
+a trusted friend. But, with all that multitude of celestial
+bodies staring down at one, the comfort of quiet communion with
+her was gone for good. And there were also disturbing
+sounds by this time&mdash;voices, footsteps forward; the steward
+flitted along the maindeck, a busily ministering spirit; a
+hand-bell tinkled urgently under the poop-deck. . . .</p>
+
+<p>I found my two officers waiting for me near the supper table,
+in the lighted cuddy. We sat down at once, and as I helped
+the chief mate, I said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside the
+islands? I saw her mastheads above the ridge as the sun
+went down.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a terrible
+growth of whisker, and emitted his usual ejaculations:
+&ldquo;Bless my soul, sir! You don&rsquo;t say
+so!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young man, grave
+beyond his years, I thought; but as our eyes happened to meet I
+detected a slight quiver on his lips. I looked down at
+once. It was not my part to encourage sneering on board my
+ship. It must be said, too, that I knew very little of my
+officers. In consequence of certain events of no particular
+significance, except to myself, I had been appointed to the
+command only a fortnight before. Neither did I know much of
+the hands forward. All these people had been together for
+eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only
+stranger on board. I mention this because it has some
+bearing on what is to follow. But what I felt most was my
+being a stranger to the ship; and if all the truth must be told,
+I was somewhat of a stranger to myself. The youngest man on
+board (barring the second mate), and untried as yet by a position
+of the fullest responsibility, I was willing to take the adequacy
+of the others for granted. They had simply to be equal to
+their tasks; but I wondered how far I should turn out faithful to
+that ideal conception of one&rsquo;s own personality every man
+sets up for himself secretly.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p>Meantime the chief mate, with an almost visible effect of
+collaboration on the part of his round eyes and frightful
+whiskers, was trying to evolve a theory of the anchored
+ship. His dominant trait was to take all things into
+earnest consideration. He was of a painstaking turn of
+mind. As he used to say, he &ldquo;liked to account to
+himself&rdquo; for practically everything that came in his way,
+down to a miserable scorpion he had found in his cabin a week
+before. The why and the wherefore of that
+scorpion&mdash;how it got on board and came to select his room
+rather than the pantry (which was a dark place and more what a
+scorpion would be partial to), and how on earth it managed to
+drown itself in the inkwell of his writing-desk&mdash;had
+exercised him infinitely. The ship within the islands was
+much more easily accounted for; and just as we were about to rise
+from table he made his pronouncement. She was, he doubted
+not, a ship from home lately arrived. Probably she drew too
+much water to cross the bar except at the top of spring
+tides. Therefore she went into that natural harbour to wait
+for a few days in preference to remaining in an open
+roadstead.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s so,&rdquo; confirmed the second mate,
+suddenly, in his slightly hoarse voice. &ldquo;She draws
+over twenty feet. She&rsquo;s the Liverpool ship
+<i>Sephora</i> with a cargo of coal. Hundred and
+twenty-three days from Cardiff.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We looked at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The tugboat skipper told me when he came on board for
+your letters, sir,&rdquo; explained the young man.
+&ldquo;He expects to take her up the river the day after
+to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After thus overwhelming us with the extent of his information
+he slipped out of the cabin. The mate observed regretfully
+that he &ldquo;could not account for that young fellow&rsquo;s
+whims.&rdquo; What prevented him telling us all about it at
+once, he wanted to know.</p>
+
+<p>I detained him as he was making a move. For the last two
+days the crew had had plenty of hard work, and the night before
+they had very little sleep. I felt painfully that I&mdash;a
+stranger&mdash;was doing something unusual when I directed him to
+let all hands turn in without setting an anchor-watch. I
+proposed to keep on deck myself till one o&rsquo;clock or
+thereabouts. I would get the second mate to relieve me at
+that hour.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He will turn out the cook and the steward at
+four,&rdquo; I concluded, &ldquo;and then give you a call.
+Of course at the slightest sign of any sort of wind we&rsquo;ll
+have the hands up and make a start at once.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He concealed his astonishment. &ldquo;Very well,
+sir.&rdquo; Outside the cuddy he put his head in the second
+mate&rsquo;s door to inform him of my unheard-of caprice to take
+a five hours&rsquo; anchor-watch on myself. I heard the
+other raise his voice incredulously&mdash;&ldquo;What? The
+captain himself?&rdquo; Then a few more murmurs, a door
+closed, then another. A few moments later I went on
+deck.</p>
+
+<p>My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that
+unconventional arrangement, as if I had expected in those
+solitary hours of the night to get on terms with the ship of
+which I knew nothing, manned by men of whom I knew very little
+more. Fast alongside a wharf, littered like any ship in
+port with a tangle of unrelated things, invaded by unrelated
+shore people, I had hardly seen her yet properly. Now, as
+she lay cleared for sea, the stretch of her maindeck seemed to me
+very fine under the stars. Very fine, very roomy for her
+size, and very inviting. I descended the poop and paced the
+waist, my mind picturing to myself the coming passage through the
+Malay Archipelago, down the Indian Ocean, and up the
+Atlantic. All its phases were familiar enough to me, every
+characteristic, all the alternatives which were likely to face me
+on the high seas&mdash;everything! . . . except the novel
+responsibility of command. But I took heart from the
+reasonable thought that the ship was like other ships, the men
+like other men, and that the sea was not likely to keep any
+special surprises expressly for my discomfiture.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at that comforting conclusion, I bethought myself of a
+cigar and went below to get it. All was still down
+there. Everybody at the after end of the ship was sleeping
+profoundly. I came out again on the quarter-deck, agreeably
+at ease in my sleeping-suit on that warm breathless night,
+barefooted, a glowing cigar in my teeth, and, going forward, I
+was met by the profound silence of the fore end of the
+ship. Only as I passed the door of the forecastle I heard a
+deep, quiet, trustful sigh of some sleeper inside. And
+suddenly I rejoiced in the great security of the sea as compared
+with the unrest of the land, in my choice of that untempted life
+presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an elementary
+moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its appeal
+and by the singleness of its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The riding-light in the fore-rigging burned with a clear,
+untroubled, as if symbolic, flame, confident and bright in the
+mysterious shades of the night. Passing on my way aft along
+the other side of the ship, I observed that the rope side-ladder,
+put over, no doubt, for the master of the tug when he came to
+fetch away our letters, had not been hauled in as it should have
+been. I became annoyed at this, for exactitude in small
+matters is the very soul of discipline. Then I reflected
+that I had myself peremptorily dismissed my officers from duty,
+and by my own act had prevented the anchor-watch being formally
+set and things properly attended to. I asked myself whether
+it was wise ever to interfere with the established routine of
+duties even from the kindest of motives. My action might
+have made me appear eccentric. Goodness only knew how that
+absurdly whiskered mate would &ldquo;account&rdquo; for my
+conduct, and what the whole ship thought of that informality of
+their new captain. I was vexed with myself.</p>
+
+<p>Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically,
+I proceeded to get the ladder in myself. Now a side-ladder
+of that sort is a light affair and comes in easily, yet my
+vigorous tug, which should have brought it flying on board,
+merely recoiled upon my body in a totally unexpected jerk.
+What the devil! . . . I was so astounded by the immovableness of
+that ladder that I remained stock-still, trying to account for it
+to myself like that imbecile mate of mine. In the end, of
+course, I put my head over the rail.</p>
+
+<p>The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the
+darkling glassy shimmer of the sea. But I saw at once
+something elongated and pale floating very close to the
+ladder. Before I could form a guess a faint flash of
+phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the
+naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water with the
+elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky.
+With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long
+legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a
+greenish cadaverous glow. One hand, awash, clutched the
+bottom rung of the ladder. He was complete but for the
+head. A headless corpse! The cigar dropped out of my
+gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in
+the absolute stillness of all things under heaven. At that
+I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval in the shadow
+of the ship&rsquo;s side. But even then I could only barely
+make out down there the shape of his black-haired head.
+However, it was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation
+which had gripped me about the chest to pass off. The
+moment of vain exclamations was past, too. I only climbed
+on the spare spar and leaned over the rail as far as I could, to
+bring my eyes nearer to that mystery floating alongside.</p>
+
+<p>As he hung by the ladder, like a resting swimmer, the
+sea-lightning played about his limbs at every stir; and he
+appeared in it ghastly, silvery, fish-like. He remained as
+mute as a fish, too. He made no motion to get out of the
+water, either. It was inconceivable that he should not
+attempt to come on board, and strangely troubling to suspect that
+perhaps he did not want to. And my first words were
+prompted by just that troubled incertitude.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; I asked in my ordinary
+tone, speaking down to the face upturned exactly under mine.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Cramp,&rdquo; it answered, no louder. Then
+slightly anxious, &ldquo;I say, no need to call any
+one.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I was not going to,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you alone on deck?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of
+letting go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken&mdash;mysterious
+as he came. But, for the moment, this being appearing as if
+he had risen from the bottom of the sea (it was certainly the
+nearest land to the ship) wanted only to know the time. I
+told him. And he, down there, tentatively:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose your captain&rsquo;s turned in?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am sure he isn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to struggle with himself, for I heard something like
+the low, bitter murmur of doubt. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the
+good?&rdquo; His next words came out with a hesitating
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look here, my man. Could you call him out
+quietly?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I thought the time had come to declare myself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>I</i> am the captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I heard a &ldquo;By Jove!&rdquo; whispered at the level of the
+water. The phosphorescence flashed in the swirl of the
+water all about his limbs, his other hand seized the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My name&rsquo;s Leggatt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The voice was calm and resolute. A good voice. The
+self-possession of that man had somehow induced a corresponding
+state in myself. It was very quietly that I remarked:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You must be a good swimmer.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. I&rsquo;ve been in the water practically
+since nine o&rsquo;clock. The question for me now is
+whether I am to let go this ladder and go on swimming till I sink
+from exhaustion, or&mdash;to come on board here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I felt this was no mere formula of desperate speech, but a
+real alternative in the view of a strong soul. I should
+have gathered from this that he was young; indeed, it is only the
+young who are ever confronted by such clear issues. But at
+the time it was pure intuition on my part. A mysterious
+communication was established already between us two&mdash;in the
+face of that silent, darkened tropical sea. I was young,
+too; young enough to make no comment. The man in the water
+began suddenly to climb up the ladder, and I hastened away from
+the rail to fetch some clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Before entering the cabin I stood still, listening in the
+lobby at the foot of the stairs. A faint snore came through
+the closed door of the chief mate&rsquo;s room. The second
+mate&rsquo;s door was on the hook, but the darkness in there was
+absolutely soundless. He, too, was young and could sleep
+like a stone. Remained the steward, but he was not likely
+to wake up before he was called. I got a sleeping-suit out
+of my room and, coming back on deck, saw the naked man from the
+sea sitting on the main-hatch, glimmering white in the darkness,
+his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. In a
+moment he had concealed his damp body in a sleeping-suit of the
+same grey-stripe pattern as the one I was wearing and followed me
+like my double on the poop. Together we moved right aft,
+barefooted, silent.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I asked in a deadened voice, taking
+the lighted lamp out of the binnacle, and raising it to his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;An ugly business.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under
+somewhat heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no
+growth on his cheeks; a small, brown moustache, and a
+well-shaped, round chin. His expression was concentrated,
+meditative, under the inspecting light of the lamp I held up to
+his face; such as a man thinking hard in solitude might
+wear. My sleeping-suit was just right for his size. A
+well-knit young fellow of twenty-five at most. He caught
+his lower lip with the edge of white, even teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I said, replacing the lamp in the
+binnacle. The warm, heavy tropical night closed upon his
+head again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a ship over there,&rdquo; he
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, I know. The <i>Sephora</i>. Did you
+know of us?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t the slightest idea. I am the mate of
+her&mdash;&rdquo; He paused and corrected himself.
+&ldquo;I should say I <i>was</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Aha! Something wrong?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. Very wrong indeed. I&rsquo;ve killed a
+man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you mean? Just now?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, on the passage. Weeks ago. Thirty-nine
+south. When I say a man&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Fit of temper,&rdquo; I suggested, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>The shadowy, dark head, like mine, seemed to nod imperceptibly
+above the ghostly grey of my sleeping-suit. It was, in the
+night, as though I had been faced by my own reflection in the
+depths of a sombre and immense mirror.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A pretty thing to have to own up to for a Conway
+boy,&rdquo; murmured my double, distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a Conway boy?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am,&rdquo; he said, as if startled. Then,
+slowly . . . &ldquo;Perhaps you too&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was so; but being a couple of years older I had left before
+he joined. After a quick interchange of dates a silence
+fell; and I thought suddenly of my absurd mate with his terrific
+whiskers and the &ldquo;Bless my soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say
+so&rdquo; type of intellect. My double gave me an inkling
+of his thoughts by saying:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My father&rsquo;s a parson in Norfolk. Do you see
+me before a judge and jury on that charge? For myself I
+can&rsquo;t see the necessity. There are fellows that an
+angel from heaven&mdash;And I am not that. He was one of
+those creatures that are just simmering all the time with a silly
+sort of wickedness. Miserable devils that have no business
+to live at all. He wouldn&rsquo;t do his duty and
+wouldn&rsquo;t let anybody else do theirs. But what&rsquo;s
+the good of talking! You know well enough the sort of
+ill-conditioned snarling cur&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical
+as our clothes. And I knew well enough the pestiferous
+danger of such a character where there are no means of legal
+repression. And I knew well enough also that my double
+there was no homicidal ruffian. I did not think of asking
+him for details, and he told me the story roughly in brusque,
+disconnected sentences. I needed no more. I saw it
+all going on as though I were myself inside that other
+sleeping-suit.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It happened while we were setting a reefed foresail, at
+dusk. Reefed foresail! You understand the sort of
+weather. The only sail we had left to keep the ship
+running; so you may guess what it had been like for days.
+Anxious sort of job, that. He gave me some of his cursed
+insolence at the sheet. I tell you I was overdone with this
+terrific weather that seemed to have no end to it.
+Terrific, I tell you&mdash;and a deep ship. I believe the
+fellow himself was half crazed with funk. It was no time
+for gentlemanly reproof, so I turned round and felled him like an
+ox. He up and at me. We closed just as an awful sea
+made for the ship. All hands saw it coming and took to the
+rigging, but I had him by the throat, and went on shaking him
+like a rat, the men above us yelling, &ldquo;Look out! look
+out!&rdquo; Then a crash as if the sky had fallen on my
+head. They say that for over ten minutes hardly anything
+was to be seen of the ship&mdash;just the three masts and a bit
+of the forecastle head and of the poop all awash driving along in
+a smother of foam. It was a miracle that they found us,
+jammed together behind the forebits. It&rsquo;s clear that
+I meant business, because I was holding him by the throat still
+when they picked us up. He was black in the face. It
+was too much for them. It seems they rushed us aft
+together, gripped as we were, screaming &ldquo;Murder!&rdquo;
+like a lot of lunatics, and broke into the cuddy. And the
+ship running for her life, touch and go all the time, any minute
+her last in a sea fit to turn your hair grey only a-looking at
+it. I understand that the skipper, too, started raving like
+the rest of them. The man had been deprived of sleep for
+more than a week, and to have this sprung on him at the height of
+a furious gale nearly drove him out of his mind. I wonder
+they didn&rsquo;t fling me overboard after getting the carcass of
+their precious ship-mate out of my fingers. They had rather
+a job to separate us, I&rsquo;ve been told. A sufficiently
+fierce story to make an old judge and a respectable jury sit up a
+bit. The first thing I heard when I came to myself was the
+maddening howling of that endless gale, and on that the voice of
+the old man. He was hanging on to my bunk, staring into my
+face out of his sou&rsquo;wester.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Mr. Leggatt, you have killed a man. You
+can act no longer as chief mate of this ship.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His care to subdue his voice made it sound monotonous.
+He rested a hand on the end of the skylight to steady himself
+with, and all that time did not stir a limb, so far as I could
+see. &ldquo;Nice little tale for a quiet tea-party,&rdquo;
+he concluded in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p>One of my hands, too, rested on the end of the skylight;
+neither did I stir a limb, so far as I knew. We stood less
+than a foot from each other. It occurred to me that if old
+&ldquo;Bless my soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say so&rdquo; were to
+put his head up the companion and catch sight of us, he would
+think he was seeing double, or imagine himself come upon a scene
+of weird witchcraft; the strange captain having a quiet
+confabulation by the wheel with his own grey ghost. I
+became very much concerned to prevent anything of the sort.
+I heard the other&rsquo;s soothing undertone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My father&rsquo;s a parson in Norfolk,&rdquo; it
+said. Evidently he had forgotten he had told me this
+important fact before. Truly a nice little tale.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You had better slip down into my stateroom now,&rdquo;
+I said, moving off stealthily. My double followed my
+movements; our bare feet made no sound; I let him in, closed the
+door with care, and, after giving a call to the second mate,
+returned on deck for my relief.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not much sign of any wind yet,&rdquo; I remarked when
+he approached.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir. Not much,&rdquo; he assented, sleepily,
+in his hoarse voice, with just enough deference, no more, and
+barely suppressing a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all you have to look out for.
+You have got your orders.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I paced a turn or two on the poop and saw him take up his
+position face forward with his elbow in the ratlines of the
+mizzen-rigging before I went below. The mate&rsquo;s faint
+snoring was still going on peacefully. The cuddy lamp was
+burning over the table on which stood a vase with flowers, a
+polite attention from the ship&rsquo;s provision
+merchant&mdash;the last flowers we should see for the next three
+months at the very least. Two bunches of bananas hung from
+the beam symmetrically, one on each side of the
+rudder-casing. Everything was as before in the
+ship&mdash;except that two of her captain&rsquo;s sleeping-suits
+were simultaneously in use, one motionless in the cuddy, the
+other keeping very still in the captain&rsquo;s stateroom.</p>
+
+<p>It must be explained here that my cabin had the form of the
+capital letter L the door being within the angle and opening into
+the short part of the letter. A couch was to the left, the
+bed-place to the right; my writing-desk and the
+chronometers&rsquo; table faced the door. But any one
+opening it, unless he stepped right inside, had no view of what I
+call the long (or vertical) part of the letter. It
+contained some lockers surmounted by a bookcase; and a few
+clothes, a thick jacket or two, caps, oilskin coat, and such
+like, hung on hooks. There was at the bottom of that part a
+door opening into my bath-room, which could be entered also
+directly from the saloon. But that way was never used.</p>
+
+<p>The mysterious arrival had discovered the advantage of this
+particular shape. Entering my room, lighted strongly by a
+big bulkhead lamp swung on gimbals above my writing-desk, I did
+not see him anywhere till he stepped out quietly from behind the
+coats hung in the recessed part.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I heard somebody moving about, and went in there at
+once,&rdquo; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>I, too, spoke under my breath.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nobody is likely to come in here without knocking and
+getting permission.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. His face was thin and the sunburn faded, as
+though he had been ill. And no wonder. He had been, I
+heard presently, kept under arrest in his cabin for nearly seven
+weeks. But there was nothing sickly in his eyes or in his
+expression. He was not a bit like me, really; yet, as we
+stood leaning over my bed-place, whispering side by side, with
+our dark heads together and our backs to the door, anybody bold
+enough to open it stealthily would have been treated to the
+uncanny sight of a double captain busy talking in whispers with
+his other self.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But all this doesn&rsquo;t tell me how you came to hang
+on to our side-ladder,&rdquo; I inquired, in the hardly audible
+murmurs we used, after he had told me something more of the
+proceedings on board the <i>Sephora</i> once the bad weather was
+over.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When we sighted Java Head I had had time to think all
+those matters out several times over. I had six weeks of
+doing nothing else, and with only an hour or so every evening for
+a tramp on the quarter-deck.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He whispered, his arms folded on the side of my bed-place,
+staring through the open port. And I could imagine
+perfectly the manner of this thinking out&mdash;a stubborn if not
+a steadfast operation; something of which I should have been
+perfectly incapable.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I reckoned it would be dark before we closed with the
+land,&rdquo; he continued, so low that I had to strain my
+hearing, near as we were to each other, shoulder touching
+shoulder almost. &ldquo;So I asked to speak to the old
+man. He always seemed very sick when he came to see
+me&mdash;as if he could not look me in the face. You know,
+that foresail saved the ship. She was too deep to have run
+long under bare poles. And it was I that managed to set it
+for him. Anyway, he came. When I had him in my
+cabin&mdash;he stood by the door looking at me as if I had the
+halter round my neck already&mdash;I asked him right away to
+leave my cabin door unlocked at night while the ship was going
+through Sunda Straits. There would be the Java coast within
+two or three miles, off Angier Point. I wanted nothing
+more. I&rsquo;ve had a prize for swimming my second year in
+the Conway.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can believe it,&rdquo; I breathed out.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;God only knows why they locked me in every night.
+To see some of their faces you&rsquo;d have thought they were
+afraid I&rsquo;d go about at night strangling people. Am I
+a murdering brute? Do I look it? By Jove! if I had
+been he wouldn&rsquo;t have trusted himself like that into my
+room. You&rsquo;ll say I might have chucked him aside and
+bolted out, there and then&mdash;it was dark already. Well,
+no. And for the same reason I wouldn&rsquo;t think of
+trying to smash the door. There would have been a rush to
+stop me at the noise, and I did not mean to get into a confounded
+scrimmage. Somebody else might have got killed&mdash;for I
+would not have broken out only to get chucked back, and I did not
+want any more of that work. He refused, looking more sick
+than ever. He was afraid of the men, and also of that old
+second mate of his who had been sailing with him for
+years&mdash;a grey-headed old humbug; and his steward, too, had
+been with him devil knows how long&mdash;seventeen years or
+more&mdash;a dogmatic sort of loafer who hated me like poison,
+just because I was the chief mate. No chief mate ever made
+more than one voyage in the <i>Sephora</i>, you know. Those
+two old chaps ran the ship. Devil only knows what the
+skipper wasn&rsquo;t afraid of (all his nerve went to pieces
+altogether in that hellish spell of bad weather we had)&mdash;of
+what the law would do to him&mdash;of his wife, perhaps.
+Oh, yes! she&rsquo;s on board. Though I don&rsquo;t think
+she would have meddled. She would have been only too glad
+to have me out of the ship in any way. The &lsquo;brand of
+Cain&rsquo; business, don&rsquo;t you see. That&rsquo;s all
+right. I was ready enough to go off wandering on the face
+of the earth&mdash;and that was price enough to pay for an Abel
+of that sort. Anyhow, he wouldn&rsquo;t listen to me.
+&lsquo;This thing must take its course. I represent the law
+here.&rsquo; He was shaking like a leaf. &lsquo;So
+you won&rsquo;t?&rsquo; &lsquo;No!&rsquo; &lsquo;Then
+I hope you will be able to sleep on that,&rsquo; I said, and
+turned my back on him. &lsquo;I wonder that <i>you</i>
+can,&rsquo; cries he, and locks the door.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, after that, I couldn&rsquo;t. Not very
+well. That was three weeks ago. We have had a slow
+passage through the Java Sea; drifted about Carimata for ten
+days. When we anchored here they thought, I suppose, it was
+all right. The nearest land (and that&rsquo;s five miles)
+is the ship&rsquo;s destination; the consul would soon set about
+catching me; and there would have been no object in bolting to
+these islets there. I don&rsquo;t suppose there&rsquo;s a
+drop of water on them. I don&rsquo;t know how it was, but
+to-night that steward, after bringing me my supper, went out to
+let me eat it, and left the door unlocked. And I ate
+it&mdash;all there was, too. After I had finished I
+strolled out on the quarterdeck. I don&rsquo;t know that I
+meant to do anything. A breath of fresh air was all I
+wanted, I believe. Then a sudden temptation came over
+me. I kicked off my slippers and was in the water before I
+had made up my mind fairly. Somebody heard the splash and
+they raised an awful hullabaloo. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s
+gone! Lower the boats! He&rsquo;s committed
+suicide! No, he&rsquo;s swimming.&rsquo; Certainly I
+was swimming. It&rsquo;s not so easy for a swimmer like me
+to commit suicide by drowning. I landed on the nearest
+islet before the boat left the ship&rsquo;s side. I heard
+them pulling about in the dark, hailing, and so on, but after a
+bit they gave up. Everything quieted down and the anchorage
+became as still as death. I sat down on a stone and began
+to think. I felt certain they would start searching for me
+at daylight. There was no place to hide on those stony
+things&mdash;and if there had been, what would have been the
+good? But now I was clear of that ship, I was not going
+back. So after a while I took off all my clothes, tied them
+up in a bundle with a stone inside, and dropped them in the deep
+water on the outer side of that islet. That was suicide
+enough for me. Let them think what they liked, but I
+didn&rsquo;t mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I
+sank&mdash;but that&rsquo;s not the same thing. I struck
+out for another of these little islands, and it was from that one
+that I first saw your riding-light. Something to swim
+for. I went on easily, and on the way I came upon a flat
+rock a foot or two above water. In the daytime, I dare say,
+you might make it out with a glass from your poop. I
+scrambled up on it and rested myself for a bit. Then I made
+another start. That last spell must have been over a
+mile.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His whisper was getting fainter and fainter, and all the time
+he stared straight out through the port-hole, in which there was
+not even a star to be seen. I had not interrupted
+him. There was something that made comment impossible in
+his narrative, or perhaps in himself; a sort of feeling, a
+quality, which I can&rsquo;t find a name for. And when he
+ceased, all I found was a futile whisper: &ldquo;So you swam for
+our light?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes&mdash;straight for it. It was something to
+swim for. I couldn&rsquo;t see any stars low down because
+the coast was in the way, and I couldn&rsquo;t see the land,
+either. The water was like glass. One might have been
+swimming in a confounded thousand-feet deep cistern with no place
+for scrambling out anywhere; but what I didn&rsquo;t like was the
+notion of swimming round and round like a crazed bullock before I
+gave out; and as I didn&rsquo;t mean to go back . . . No.
+Do you see me being hauled back, stark naked, off one of these
+little islands by the scruff of the neck and fighting like a wild
+beast? Somebody would have got killed for certain, and I
+did not want any of that. So I went on. Then your
+ladder&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you hail the ship?&rdquo; I asked, a
+little louder.</p>
+
+<p>He touched my shoulder lightly. Lazy footsteps came
+right over our heads and stopped. The second mate had
+crossed from the other side of the poop and might have been
+hanging over the rail, for all we knew.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t hear us talking&mdash;could
+he?&rdquo; My double breathed into my very ear,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>His anxiety was an answer, a sufficient answer, to the
+question I had put to him. An answer containing all the
+difficulty of that situation. I closed the port-hole
+quietly, to make sure. A louder word might have been
+overheard.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; he whispered then.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My second mate. But I don&rsquo;t know much more
+of the fellow than you do.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And I told him a little about myself. I had been
+appointed to take charge while I least expected anything of the
+sort, not quite a fortnight ago. I didn&rsquo;t know either
+the ship or the people. Hadn&rsquo;t had the time in port
+to look about me or size anybody up. And as to the crew,
+all they knew was that I was appointed to take the ship
+home. For the rest, I was almost as much of a stranger on
+board as himself, I said. And at the moment I felt it most
+acutely. I felt that it would take very little to make me a
+suspect person in the eyes of the ship&rsquo;s company.</p>
+
+<p>He had turned about meantime; and we, the two strangers in the
+ship, faced each other in identical attitudes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your ladder&mdash;&rdquo; he murmured, after a
+silence. &ldquo;Who&rsquo;d have thought of finding a
+ladder hanging over at night in a ship anchored out here! I
+felt just then a very unpleasant faintness. After the life
+I&rsquo;ve been leading for nine weeks, anybody would have got
+out of condition. I wasn&rsquo;t capable of swimming round
+as far as your rudder-chains. And, lo and behold! there was
+a ladder to get hold of. After I gripped it I said to
+myself, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s the good?&rsquo; When I saw a
+man&rsquo;s head looking over I thought I would swim away
+presently and leave him shouting&mdash;in whatever language it
+was. I didn&rsquo;t mind being looked at. I&mdash;I
+liked it. And then you speaking to me so quietly&mdash;as
+if you had expected me&mdash;made me hold on a little
+longer. It had been a confounded lonely time&mdash;I
+don&rsquo;t mean while swimming. I was glad to talk a
+little to somebody that didn&rsquo;t belong to the
+<i>Sephora</i>. As to asking for the captain, that was a
+mere impulse. It could have been no use, with all the ship
+knowing about me and the other people pretty certain to be round
+here in the morning. I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;I wanted to
+be seen, to talk with somebody, before I went on. I
+don&rsquo;t know what I would have said. . . . &lsquo;Fine night,
+isn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; or something of the sort.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you think they will be round here presently?&rdquo;
+I asked with some incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Quite likely,&rdquo; he said, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>He looked extremely haggard all of a sudden. His head
+rolled on his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;H&rsquo;m. We shall see then. Meantime get
+into that bed,&rdquo; I whispered. &ldquo;Want help?
+There.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was a rather high bed-place with a set of drawers
+underneath. This amazing swimmer really needed the lift I
+gave him by seizing his leg. He tumbled in, rolled over on
+his back, and flung one arm across his eyes. And then, with
+his face nearly hidden, he must have looked exactly as I used to
+look in that bed. I gazed upon my other self for a while
+before drawing across carefully the two green serge curtains
+which ran on a brass rod. I thought for a moment of pinning
+them together for greater safety, but I sat down on the couch,
+and once there I felt unwilling to rise and hunt for a pin.
+I would do it in a moment. I was extremely tired, in a
+peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness, by the
+effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this
+excitement. It was three o&rsquo;clock by now and I had
+been on my feet since nine, but I was not sleepy; I could not
+have gone to sleep. I sat there, fagged out, looking at the
+curtains, trying to clear my mind of the confused sensation of
+being in two places at once, and greatly bothered by an
+exasperating knocking in my head. It was a relief to
+discover suddenly that it was not in my head at all, but on the
+outside of the door. Before I could collect myself the
+words &ldquo;Come in&rdquo; were out of my mouth, and the steward
+entered with a tray, bringing in my morning coffee. I had
+slept, after all, and I was so frightened that I shouted,
+&ldquo;This way! I am here, steward,&rdquo; as though he
+had been miles away. He put down the tray on the table next
+the couch and only then said, very quietly, &ldquo;I can see you
+are here, sir.&rdquo; I felt him give me a keen look, but I
+dared not meet his eyes just then. He must have wondered
+why I had drawn the curtains of my bed before going to sleep on
+the couch. He went out, hooking the door open as usual.</p>
+
+<p>I heard the crew washing decks above me. I knew I would
+have been told at once if there had been any wind. Calm, I
+thought, and I was doubly vexed. Indeed, I felt dual more
+than ever. The steward reappeared suddenly in the
+doorway. I jumped up from the couch so quickly that he gave
+a start.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What do you want here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Close your port, sir&mdash;they are washing
+decks.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is closed,&rdquo; I said, reddening.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very well, sir.&rdquo; But he did not move from
+the doorway and returned my stare in an extraordinary, equivocal
+manner for a time. Then his eyes wavered, all his
+expression changed, and in a voice unusually gentle, almost
+coaxingly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;May I come in to take the empty cup away,
+sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course!&rdquo; I turned my back on him while
+he popped in and out. Then I unhooked and closed the door
+and even pushed the bolt. This sort of thing could not go
+on very long. The cabin was as hot as an oven, too. I
+took a peep at my double, and discovered that he had not moved,
+his arm was still over his eyes; but his chest heaved; his hair
+was wet; his chin glistened with perspiration. I reached
+over him and opened the port.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I must show myself on deck,&rdquo; I reflected.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, theoretically, I could do what I liked, with no one
+to say nay to me within the whole circle of the horizon; but to
+lock my cabin door and take the key away I did not dare.
+Directly I put my head out of the companion I saw the group of my
+two officers, the second mate barefooted, the chief mate in long
+india-rubber boots, near the break of the poop, and the steward
+half-way down the poop-ladder talking to them eagerly. He
+happened to catch sight of me and dived, the second ran down on
+the main-deck shouting some order or other, and the chief mate
+came to meet me, touching his cap.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not
+like. I don&rsquo;t know whether the steward had told them
+that I was &ldquo;queer&rdquo; only, or downright drunk, but I
+know the man meant to have a good look at me. I watched him
+coming with a smile which, as he got into point-blank range, took
+effect and froze his very whiskers. I did not give him time
+to open his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Square the yards by lifts and braces before the hands
+go to breakfast.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was the first particular order I had given on board that
+ship; and I stayed on deck to see it executed, too. I had
+felt the need of asserting myself without loss of time.
+That sneering young cub got taken down a peg or two on that
+occasion, and I also seized the opportunity of having a good look
+at the face of every foremast man as they filed past me to go to
+the after braces. At breakfast time, eating nothing myself,
+I presided with such frigid dignity that the two mates were only
+too glad to escape from the cabin as soon as decency permitted;
+and all the time the dual working of my mind distracted me almost
+to the point of insanity. I was constantly watching myself,
+my secret self, as dependent on my actions as my own personality,
+sleeping in that bed, behind that door which faced me as I sat at
+the head of the table. It was very much like being mad,
+only it was worse because one was aware of it.</p>
+
+<p>I had to shake him for a solid minute, but when at last he
+opened his eyes it was in the full possession of his senses, with
+an inquiring look.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All&rsquo;s well so far,&rdquo; I whispered.
+&ldquo;Now you must vanish into the bath-room.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He did so, as noiseless as a ghost, and I then rang for the
+steward, and facing him boldly, directed him to tidy up my
+stateroom while I was having my bath&mdash;&ldquo;and be quick
+about it.&rdquo; As my tone admitted of no excuses, he
+said, &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; and ran off to fetch his dust-pan
+and brushes. I took a bath and did most of my dressing,
+splashing, and whistling softly for the steward&rsquo;s
+edification, while the secret sharer of my life stood drawn up
+bolt upright in that little space, his face looking very sunken
+in daylight, his eyelids lowered under the stern, dark line of
+his eyebrows drawn together by a slight frown.</p>
+
+<p>When I left him there to go back to my room the steward was
+finishing dusting. I sent for the mate and engaged him in
+some insignificant conversation. It was, as it were,
+trifling with the terrific character of his whiskers; but my
+object was to give him an opportunity for a good look at my
+cabin. And then I could at last shut, with a clear
+conscience, the door of my stateroom and get my double back into
+the recessed part. There was nothing else for it. He
+had to sit still on a small folding stool, half smothered by the
+heavy coats hanging there. We listened to the steward going
+into the bath-room out of the saloon, filling the water-bottles
+there, scrubbing the bath, setting things to rights, whisk, bang,
+clatter&mdash;out again into the saloon&mdash;turn the
+key&mdash;click. Such was my scheme for keeping my second
+self invisible. Nothing better could be contrived under the
+circumstances. And there we sat; I at my writing-desk ready
+to appear busy with some papers, he behind me, out of sight of
+the door. It would not have been prudent to talk in
+daytime; and I could not have stood the excitement of that queer
+sense of whispering to myself. Now and then glancing over
+my shoulder, I saw him far back there, sitting rigidly on the low
+stool, his bare feet close together, his arms folded, his head
+hanging on his breast&mdash;and perfectly still. Anybody
+would have taken him for me.</p>
+
+<p>I was fascinated by it myself. Every moment I had to
+glance over my shoulder. I was looking at him when a voice
+outside the door said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Beg pardon, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well!&rdquo; . . . I kept my eyes on him, and so, when
+the voice outside the door announced, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a
+ship&rsquo;s boat coming our way, sir,&rdquo; I saw him give a
+start&mdash;the first movement he had made for hours. But
+he did not raise his bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All right. Get the ladder over.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated. Should I whisper something to him?
+But what? His immobility seemed to have been never
+disturbed. What could I tell him he did not know already? .
+. . Finally I went on deck.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> skipper of the <i>Sephora</i>
+had a thin red whisker all round his face, and the sort of
+complexion that goes with hair of that colour; also the
+particular, rather smeary shade of blue in the eyes. He was
+not exactly a showy figure; his shoulders were high, his stature
+but middling&mdash;one leg slightly more bandy than the
+other. He shook hands, looking vaguely around. A
+spiritless tenacity was his main characteristic, I judged.
+I behaved with a politeness which seemed to disconcert him.
+Perhaps he was shy. He mumbled to me as if he were ashamed
+of what he was saying; gave his name (it was something like
+Archbold&mdash;but at this distance of years I hardly am sure),
+his ship&rsquo;s name, and a few other particulars of that sort,
+in the manner of a criminal making a reluctant and doleful
+confession. He had had terrible weather on the passage
+out&mdash;terrible&mdash;terrible&mdash;wife aboard, too.</p>
+
+<p>By this time we were seated in the cabin and the steward
+brought in a tray with a bottle and glasses.
+&ldquo;Thanks! No.&rdquo; Never took liquor.
+Would have some water, though. He drank two
+tumblerfuls. Terrible thirsty work. Ever since
+daylight had been exploring the islands round his ship.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What was that for&mdash;fun?&rdquo; I asked, with an
+appearance of polite interest.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No!&rdquo; He sighed. &ldquo;Painful
+duty.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As he persisted in his mumbling and I wanted my double to hear
+every word, I hit upon the notion of informing him that I
+regretted to say I was hard of hearing.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Such a young man, too!&rdquo; he nodded, keeping his
+smeary blue, unintelligent eyes fastened upon me. What was
+the cause of it&mdash;some disease? he inquired, without the
+least sympathy and as if he thought that, if so, I&rsquo;d got no
+more than I deserved.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes; disease,&rdquo; I admitted in a cheerful tone
+which seemed to shock him. But my point was gained, because
+he had to raise his voice to give me his tale. It is not
+worth while to record that version. It was just over two
+months since all this had happened, and he had thought so much
+about it that he seemed completely muddled as to its bearings,
+but still immensely impressed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What would you think of such a thing happening on board
+your own ship? I&rsquo;ve had the <i>Sephora</i> for these
+fifteen years. I am a well-known shipmaster.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was densely distressed&mdash;and perhaps I should have
+sympathised with him if I had been able to detach my mental
+vision from the unsuspected sharer of my cabin as though he were
+my second self. There he was on the other side of the
+bulkhead, four or five feet from us, no more, as we sat in the
+saloon. I looked politely at Captain Archbold (if that was
+his name), but it was the other I saw, in a grey sleeping-suit,
+seated on a low stool, his bare feet close together, his arms
+folded, and every word said between us falling into the ears of
+his dark head bowed on his chest.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have been at sea now, man and boy, for
+seven-and-thirty years, and I&rsquo;ve never heard of such a
+thing happening in an English ship. And that it should be
+my ship. Wife on board, too.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was hardly listening to him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you think,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;that the
+heavy sea which, you told me, came aboard just then might have
+killed the man? I have seen the sheer weight of a sea kill
+a man very neatly, by simply breaking his neck.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good God!&rdquo; he uttered, impressively, fixing his
+smeary blue eyes on me. &ldquo;The sea! No man killed
+by the sea ever looked like that.&rdquo; He seemed
+positively scandalised at my suggestion. And as I gazed at
+him, certainly not prepared for anything original on his part, he
+advanced his head close to mine and thrust his tongue out at me
+so suddenly that I couldn&rsquo;t help starting back.</p>
+
+<p>After scoring over my calmness in this graphic way he nodded
+wisely. If I had seen the sight, he assured me, I would
+never forget it as long as I lived. The weather was too bad
+to give the corpse a proper sea burial. So next day at dawn
+they took it up on the poop, covering its face with a bit of
+bunting; he read a short prayer, and then, just as it was, in its
+oilskins and long boots, they launched it amongst those
+mountainous seas that seemed ready every moment to swallow up the
+ship herself and the terrified lives on board of her.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That reefed foresail saved you,&rdquo; I threw in.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Under God&mdash;it did,&rdquo; he exclaimed
+fervently. &ldquo;It was by a special mercy, I firmly
+believe, that it stood some of those hurricane
+squalls.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was the setting of that sail which&mdash;&rdquo; I
+began.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;God&rsquo;s own hand in it,&rdquo; he interrupted
+me. &ldquo;Nothing less could have done it. I
+don&rsquo;t mind telling you that I hardly dared give the
+order. It seemed impossible that we could touch anything
+without losing it, and then our last hope would have been
+gone.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The terror of that gale was on him yet. I let him go on
+for a bit, then said, casually&mdash;as if returning to a minor
+subject:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You were very anxious to give up your mate to the shore
+people, I believe?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was. To the law. His obscure tenacity on that
+point had in it something incomprehensible and a little awful;
+something, as it were, mystical, quite apart from his anxiety
+that he should not be suspected of &ldquo;countenancing any
+doings of that sort.&rdquo; Seven-and-thirty virtuous years
+at sea, of which over twenty of immaculate command, and the last
+fifteen in the <i>Sephora</i>, seemed to have laid him under some
+pitiless obligation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And you know,&rdquo; he went on, groping shamefacedly
+amongst his feelings, &ldquo;I did not engage that young
+fellow. His people had some interest with my owners.
+I was in a way forced to take him on. He looked very smart,
+very gentlemanly, and all that. But do you know&mdash;I
+never liked him, somehow. I am a plain man. You see,
+he wasn&rsquo;t exactly the sort for the chief mate of a ship
+like the <i>Sephora</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had become so connected in thoughts and impressions with the
+secret sharer of my cabin that I felt as if I, personally, were
+being given to understand that I, too, was not the sort that
+would have done for the chief mate of a ship like the
+<i>Sephora</i>. I had no doubt of it in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not at all the style of man. You
+understand,&rdquo; he insisted, superfluously, looking hard at
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I smiled urbanely. He seemed at a loss for a while.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose I must report a suicide.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Beg pardon?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Suicide! That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ll have to
+write to my owners directly I get in.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Unless you manage to recover him before
+to-morrow,&rdquo; I assented, dispassionately. . . &ldquo;I mean,
+alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He mumbled something which I really did not catch, and I
+turned my ear to him in a puzzled manner. He fairly
+bawled:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The land&mdash;I say, the mainland is at least seven
+miles off my anchorage.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;About that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of any sort
+of pronounced interest, began to arouse his distrust. But
+except for the felicitous pretence of deafness I had not tried to
+pretend anything. I had felt utterly incapable of playing
+the part of ignorance properly, and therefore was afraid to
+try. It is also certain that he had brought some ready-made
+suspicions with him, and that he viewed my politeness as a
+strange and unnatural phenomenon. And yet how else could I
+have received him? Not heartily! That was impossible
+for psychological reasons, which I need not state here. My
+only object was to keep off his inquiries. Surlily?
+Yes, but surliness might have provoked a point-blank
+question. From its novelty to him and from its nature,
+punctilious courtesy was the manner best calculated to restrain
+the man. But there was the danger of his breaking through
+my defence bluntly. I could not, I think, have met him by a
+direct lie, also for psychological (not moral) reasons. If
+he had only known how afraid I was of his putting my feeling of
+identity with the other to the test! But, strangely
+enough&mdash;(I thought of it only afterward)&mdash;I believe
+that he was not a little disconcerted by the reverse side of that
+weird situation, by something in me that reminded him of the man
+he was seeking&mdash;suggested a mysterious similitude to the
+young fellow he had distrusted and disliked from the first.</p>
+
+<p>However that might have been, the silence was not very
+prolonged. He took another oblique step.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I reckon I had no more than a two-mile pull to your
+ship. Not a bit more.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And quite enough, too, in this awful heat,&rdquo; I
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Another pause full of mistrust followed. Necessity, they
+say, is mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of
+ingenious suggestions. And I was afraid he would ask me
+point-blank for news of my other self.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nice little saloon, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; I remarked,
+as if noticing for the first time the way his eyes roamed from
+one closed door to the other. &ldquo;And very well fitted
+out too. Here, for instance,&rdquo; I continued, reaching
+over the back of my seat negligently and flinging the door open,
+&ldquo;is my bath-room.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He made an eager movement, but hardly gave it a glance.
+I got up, shut the door of the bath-room, and invited him to have
+a look round, as if I were very proud of my accommodation.
+He had to rise and be shown round, but he went through the
+business without any raptures whatever.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And now we&rsquo;ll have a look at my stateroom,&rdquo;
+I declared, in a voice as loud as I dared to make it, crossing
+the cabin to the starboard side with purposely heavy steps.</p>
+
+<p>He followed me in and gazed around. My intelligent
+double had vanished. I played my part.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very convenient&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very nice. Very comf. . . &rdquo; He
+didn&rsquo;t finish, and went out brusquely as if to escape from
+some unrighteous wiles of mine. But it was not to be.
+I had been too frightened not to feel vengeful; I felt I had him
+on the run, and I meant to keep him on the run. My polite
+insistence must have had something menacing in it, because he
+gave in suddenly. And I did not let him off a single item;
+mate&rsquo;s room, pantry, storerooms, the very sail-locker which
+was also under the poop&mdash;he had to look into them all.
+When at last I showed him out on the quarter-deck he drew a long,
+spiritless sigh, and mumbled dismally that he must really be
+going back to his ship now. I desired my mate, who had
+joined us, to see to the captain&rsquo;s boat.</p>
+
+<p>The man of whiskers gave a blast on the whistle which he used
+to wear hanging round his neck, and yelled,
+&ldquo;<i>Sephoras</i> away!&rdquo; My double down there in
+my cabin must have heard, and certainly could not feel more
+relieved than I. Four fellows came running out from
+somewhere forward and went over the side, while my own men,
+appearing on deck too, lined the rail. I escorted my
+visitor to the gangway ceremoniously, and nearly overdid
+it. He was a tenacious beast. On the very ladder he
+lingered, and in that unique, guiltily conscientious manner of
+sticking to the point:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I say . . . you . . . you don&rsquo;t think
+that&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I covered his voice loudly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly not. . . . I am delighted.
+Good-bye.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I had an idea of what he meant to say, and just saved myself
+by the privilege of defective hearing. He was too shaken
+generally to insist, but my mate, close witness of that parting,
+looked mystified and his face took on a thoughtful cast. As
+I did not want to appear as if I wished to avoid all
+communication with my officers, he had the opportunity to address
+me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Seems a very nice man. His boat&rsquo;s crew told
+our chaps a very extraordinary story, if what I am told by the
+steward is true. I suppose you had it from the captain,
+sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. I had a story from the captain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A very horrible affair&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it,
+sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Beats all these tales we hear about murders in Yankee
+ships.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it beats them. I don&rsquo;t
+think it resembles them in the least.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say so! But
+of course I&rsquo;ve no acquaintance whatever with American
+ships, not I, so I couldn&rsquo;t go against your
+knowledge. It&rsquo;s horrible enough for me. . . . But the
+queerest part is that those fellows seemed to have some idea the
+man was hidden aboard here. They had really. Did you
+ever hear of such a thing?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Preposterous&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We were walking to and fro athwart the quarterdeck. No
+one of the crew forward could be seen (the day was Sunday), and
+the mate pursued:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There was some little dispute about it. Our chaps
+took offence. &lsquo;As if we would harbour a thing like
+that,&rsquo; they said. &lsquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you like to
+look for him in our coal-hole?&rsquo; Quite a tiff.
+But they made it up in the end. I suppose he did drown
+himself. Don&rsquo;t you, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t suppose anything.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have no doubt in the matter, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;None whatever.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I left him suddenly. I felt I was producing a bad
+impression, but with my double down there it was most trying to
+be on deck. And it was almost as trying to be below.
+Altogether a nerve-trying situation. But on the whole I
+felt less torn in two when I was with him. There was no one
+in the whole ship whom I dared take into my confidence.
+Since the hands had got to know his story, it would have been
+impossible to pass him off for any one else, and an accidental
+discovery was to be dreaded now more than ever. . . .</p>
+
+<p>The steward being engaged in laying the table for dinner, we
+could talk only with our eyes when I first went down. Later
+in the afternoon we had a cautious try at whispering. The
+Sunday quietness of the ship was against us; the stillness of air
+and water around her was against us; the elements, the men were
+against us&mdash;everything was against us in our secret
+partnership; time itself&mdash;for this could not go on
+forever. The very trust in Providence was, I suppose,
+denied to his guilt. Shall I confess that this thought cast
+me down very much? And as to the chapter of accidents which
+counts for so much in the book of success, I could only hope that
+it was closed. For what favourable accident could be
+expected?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Did you hear everything?&rdquo; were my first words as
+soon as we took up our position side by side, leaning over my
+bed-place.</p>
+
+<p>He had. And the proof of it was his earnest whisper,
+&ldquo;The man told you he hardly dared to give the
+order.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I understood the reference to be to that saving foresail.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. He was afraid of it being lost in the
+setting.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I assure you he never gave the order. He may
+think he did, but he never gave it. He stood there with me
+on the break of the poop after the maintopsail blew away, and
+whimpered about our last hope&mdash;positively whimpered about it
+and nothing else&mdash;and the night coming on! To hear
+one&rsquo;s skipper go on like that in such weather was enough to
+drive any fellow out of his mind. It worked me up into a
+sort of desperation. I just took it into my own hands and
+went away from him, boiling, and&mdash; But what&rsquo;s
+the use telling you? <i>You</i> know! . . . Do you think
+that if I had not been pretty fierce with them I should have got
+the men to do anything? Not it! The
+bo&rsquo;s&rsquo;n perhaps? Perhaps! It wasn&rsquo;t
+a heavy sea&mdash;it was a sea gone mad! I suppose the end
+of the world will be something like that; and a man may have the
+heart to see it coming once and be done with it&mdash;but to have
+to face it day after day&mdash;I don&rsquo;t blame anybody.
+I was precious little better than the rest. Only&mdash;I
+was an officer of that old coal-waggon, anyhow&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I quite understand,&rdquo; I conveyed that sincere
+assurance into his ear. He was out of breath with
+whispering; I could hear him pant slightly. It was all very
+simple. The same strung-up force which had given
+twenty-four men a chance, at least, for their lives, had, in a
+sort of recoil, crushed an unworthy mutinous existence.</p>
+
+<p>But I had no leisure to weigh the merits of the
+matter&mdash;footsteps in the saloon, a heavy knock.
+&ldquo;There&rsquo;s enough wind to get under way with,
+sir.&rdquo; Here was the call of a new claim upon my
+thoughts and even upon my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Turn the hands up,&rdquo; I cried through the
+door. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be on deck directly.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was going out to make the acquaintance of my ship.
+Before I left the cabin our eyes met&mdash;the eyes of the only
+two strangers on board. I pointed to the recessed part
+where the little camp-stool awaited him and laid my finger on my
+lips. He made a gesture&mdash;somewhat vague&mdash;a little
+mysterious, accompanied by a faint smile, as if of regret.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the place to enlarge upon the sensations of a man
+who feels for the first time a ship move under his feet to his
+own independent word. In my case they were not
+unalloyed. I was not wholly alone with my command; for
+there was that stranger in my cabin. Or rather, I was not
+completely and wholly with her. Part of me was
+absent. That mental feeling of being in two places at once
+affected me physically as if the mood of secrecy had penetrated
+my very soul. Before an hour had elapsed since the ship had
+begun to move, having occasion to ask the mate (he stood by my
+side) to take a compass bearing of the Pagoda, I caught myself
+reaching up to his ear in whispers. I say I caught myself,
+but enough had escaped to startle the man. I can&rsquo;t
+describe it otherwise than by saying that he shied. A
+grave, preoccupied manner, as though he were in possession of
+some perplexing intelligence, did not leave him henceforth.
+A little later I moved away from the rail to look at the compass
+with such a stealthy gait that the helmsman noticed it&mdash;and
+I could not help noticing the unusual roundness of his
+eyes. These are trifling instances, though it&rsquo;s to no
+commander&rsquo;s advantage to be suspected of ludicrous
+eccentricities. But I was also more seriously
+affected. There are to a seaman certain words, gestures,
+that should in given conditions come as naturally, as
+instinctively as the winking of a menaced eye. A certain
+order should spring on to his lips without thinking; a certain
+sign should get itself made, so to speak, without
+reflection. But all unconscious alertness had abandoned
+me. I had to make an effort of will to recall myself back
+(from the cabin) to the conditions of the moment. I felt
+that I was appearing an irresolute commander to those people who
+were watching me more or less critically.</p>
+
+<p>And, besides, there were the scares. On the second day
+out, for instance, coming off the deck in the afternoon (I had
+straw slippers on my bare feet) I stopped at the open pantry door
+and spoke to the steward. He was doing something there with
+his back to me. At the sound of my voice he nearly jumped
+out of his skin, as the saying is, and incidentally broke a
+cup.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth&rsquo;s the matter with you?&rdquo; I
+asked, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>He was extremely confused. &ldquo;Beg your pardon,
+sir. I made sure you were in your cabin.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You see I wasn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir. I could have sworn I had heard you
+moving in there not a moment ago. It&rsquo;s most
+extraordinary . . . very sorry, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I passed on with an inward shudder. I was so identified
+with my secret double that I did not even mention the fact in
+those scanty, fearful whispers we exchanged. I suppose he
+had made some slight noise of some kind or other. It would
+have been miraculous if he hadn&rsquo;t at one time or
+another. And yet, haggard as he appeared, he looked always
+perfectly self-controlled, more than calm&mdash;almost
+invulnerable. On my suggestion he remained almost entirely
+in the bathroom, which, upon the whole, was the safest
+place. There could be really no shadow of an excuse for any
+one ever wanting to go in there, once the steward had done with
+it. It was a very tiny place. Sometimes he reclined
+on the floor, his legs bent, his head sustained on one
+elbow. At others I would find him on the camp-stool,
+sitting in his grey sleeping-suit and with his cropped dark hair
+like a patient, unmoved convict. At night I would smuggle
+him into my bed-place, and we would whisper together, with the
+regular footfalls of the officer of the watch passing and
+repassing over our heads. It was an infinitely miserable
+time. It was lucky that some tins of fine preserves were
+stowed in a locker in my stateroom; hard bread I could always get
+hold of; and so he lived on stewed chicken, pat&eacute; de foie
+gras, asparagus, cooked oysters, sardines&mdash;on all sorts of
+abominable sham delicacies out of tins. My early morning
+coffee he always drank; and it was all I dared do for him in that
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>Every day there was the horrible manoeuvring to go through so
+that my room and then the bath-room should be done in the usual
+way. I came to hate the sight of the steward, to abhor the
+voice of that harmless man. I felt that it was he who would
+bring on the disaster of discovery. It hung like a sword
+over our heads.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth day out, I think (we were then working down the
+east side of the Gulf of Siam, tack for tack, in light winds and
+smooth water)&mdash;the fourth day, I say, of this miserable
+juggling with the unavoidable, as we sat at our evening meal,
+that man, whose slightest movement I dreaded, after putting down
+the dishes ran up on deck busily. This could not be
+dangerous. Presently he came down again; and then it
+appeared that he had remembered a coat of mine which I had thrown
+over a rail to dry after having been wetted in a shower which had
+passed over the ship in the afternoon. Sitting stolidly at
+the head of the table I became terrified at the sight of the
+garment on his arm. Of course he made for my door.
+There was no time to lose.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Steward,&rdquo; I thundered. My nerves were so
+shaken that I could not govern my voice and conceal my
+agitation. This was the sort of thing that made my
+terrifically whiskered mate tap his forehead with his
+forefinger. I had detected him using that gesture while
+talking on deck with a confidential air to the carpenter.
+It was too far to hear a word, but I had no doubt that this
+pantomime could only refer to the strange new captain.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; the pale-faced steward turned
+resignedly to me. It was this maddening course of being
+shouted at, checked without rhyme or reason, arbitrarily chased
+out of my cabin, suddenly called into it, sent flying out of his
+pantry on incomprehensible errands, that accounted for the
+growing wretchedness of his expression.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where are you going with that coat?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;To your room, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is there another shower coming?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure I don&rsquo;t know, sir. Shall I
+go up again and see, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No! never mind.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My object was attained, as of course my other self in there
+would have heard everything that passed. During this
+interlude my two officers never raised their eyes off their
+respective plates; but the lip of that confounded cub, the second
+mate, quivered visibly.</p>
+
+<p>I expected the steward to hook my coat on and come out at
+once. He was very slow about it; but I dominated my
+nervousness sufficiently not to shout after him. Suddenly I
+became aware (it could be heard plainly enough) that the fellow
+for some reason or other was opening the door of the
+bath-room. It was the end. The place was literally
+not big enough to swing a cat in. My voice died in my
+throat and I went stony all over. I expected to hear a yell
+of surprise and terror, and made a movement, but had not the
+strength to get on my legs. Everything remained
+still. Had my second self taken the poor wretch by the
+throat? I don&rsquo;t know what I would have done next
+moment if I had not seen the steward come out of my room, close
+the door, and then stand quietly by the sideboard.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Saved,&rdquo; I thought. &ldquo;But, no!
+Lost! Gone! He was gone!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I laid my knife and fork down and leaned back in my
+chair. My head swam. After a while, when sufficiently
+recovered to speak in a steady voice, I instructed my mate to put
+the ship round at eight o&rsquo;clock himself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t come on deck,&rdquo; I went on.
+&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ll turn in, and unless the wind shifts I
+don&rsquo;t want to be disturbed before midnight. I feel a
+bit seedy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You did look middling bad a little while ago,&rdquo;
+the chief mate remarked without showing any great concern.</p>
+
+<p>They both went out, and I stared at the steward clearing the
+table. There was nothing to be read on that wretched
+man&rsquo;s face. But why did he avoid my eyes I asked
+myself. Then I thought I should like to hear the sound of
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Steward!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir!&rdquo; Startled as usual.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where did you hang up that coat?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In the bath-room, sir.&rdquo; The usual anxious
+tone. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not quite dry yet, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>For some time longer I sat in the cuddy. Had my double
+vanished as he had come? But of his coming there was an
+explanation, whereas his disappearance would be inexplicable. . .
+. I went slowly into my dark room, shut the door, lighted the
+lamp, and for a time dared not turn round. When at last I
+did I saw him standing bolt-upright in the narrow recessed
+part. It would not be true to say I had a shock, but an
+irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted through my
+mind. Can it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible to
+other eyes than mine? It was like being haunted.
+Motionless, with a grave face, he raised his hands slightly at me
+in a gesture which meant clearly, &ldquo;Heavens! what a narrow
+escape!&rdquo; Narrow indeed. I think I had come
+creeping quietly as near insanity as any man who has not actually
+gone over the border. That gesture restrained me, so to
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>The mate with the terrific whiskers was now putting the ship
+on the other tack. In the moment of profound silence which
+follows upon the hands going to their stations I heard on the
+poop his raised voice: &ldquo;Hard alee!&rdquo; and the distant
+shout of the order repeated on the maindeck. The sails, in
+that light breeze, made but a faint fluttering noise. It
+ceased. The ship was coming round slowly; I held my breath
+in the renewed stillness of expectation; one wouldn&rsquo;t have
+thought that there was a single living soul on her decks. A
+sudden brisk shout, &ldquo;Mainsail haul!&rdquo; broke the spell,
+and in the noisy cries and rush overhead of the men running away
+with the main-brace we two, down in my cabin, came together in
+our usual position by the bed-place.</p>
+
+<p>He did not wait for my question. &ldquo;I heard him
+fumbling here and just managed to squat myself down in the
+bath,&rdquo; he whispered to me. &ldquo;The fellow only
+opened the door and put his arm in to hang the coat up. All
+the same&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I never thought of that,&rdquo; I whispered back, even
+more appalled than before at the closeness of the shave, and
+marvelling at that something unyielding in his character which
+was carrying him through so finely. There was no agitation
+in his whisper. Whoever was being driven distracted, it was
+not he. He was sane. And the proof of his sanity was
+continued when he took up the whispering again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It would never do for me to come to life
+again.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was something that a ghost might have said. But what
+he was alluding to was his old captain&rsquo;s reluctant
+admission of the theory of suicide. It would obviously
+serve his turn&mdash;if I had understood at all the view which
+seemed to govern the unalterable purpose of his action.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You must maroon me as soon as ever you can get amongst
+these islands off the Cambodje shore,&rdquo; he went on.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Maroon you! We are not living in a boy&rsquo;s
+adventure tale,&rdquo; I protested. His scornful whispering
+took me up.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t indeed! There&rsquo;s nothing of
+a boy&rsquo;s tale in this. But there&rsquo;s nothing else
+for it. I want no more. You don&rsquo;t suppose I am
+afraid of what can be done to me? Prison or gallows or
+whatever they may please. But you don&rsquo;t see me coming
+back to explain such things to an old fellow in a wig and twelve
+respectable tradesmen, do you? What can they know whether I
+am guilty or not&mdash;or of <i>what</i> I am guilty,
+either? That&rsquo;s my affair. What does the Bible
+say? &lsquo;Driven off the face of the earth.&rsquo;
+Very well. I am off the face of the earth now. As I
+came at night so I shall go.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; I murmured. &ldquo;You
+can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t? . . . Not naked like a soul on the Day of
+Judgment. I shall freeze on to this sleeping-suit.
+The Last Day is not yet&mdash;and you have understood
+thoroughly. Didn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I felt suddenly ashamed of myself. I may say truly that
+I understood&mdash;and my hesitation in letting that man swim
+away from my ship&rsquo;s side had been a mere sham sentiment, a
+sort of cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It can&rsquo;t be done now till next night,&rdquo; I
+breathed out. &ldquo;The ship is on the off-shore tack and
+the wind may fail us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As long as I know that you understand,&rdquo; he
+whispered. &ldquo;But of course you do. It&rsquo;s a
+great satisfaction to have got somebody to understand. You
+seem to have been there on purpose.&rdquo; And in the same
+whisper, as if we two whenever we talked had to say things to
+each other which were not fit for the world to hear, he added,
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very wonderful.&rdquo; We remained side
+by side talking in our secret way&mdash;but sometimes silent or
+just exchanging a whispered word or two at long intervals.
+And as usual he stared through the port. A breath of wind
+came now and again into our faces. The ship might have been
+moored in dock, so gently and on an even keel she slipped through
+the water, that did not murmur even at our passage, shadowy and
+silent like a phantom sea.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate&rsquo;s great
+surprise put the ship round on the other tack. His terrible
+whiskers flitted round me in silent criticism. I certainly
+should not have done it if it had been only a question of getting
+out of that sleepy gulf as quickly as possible. I believe
+he told the second mate, who relieved him, that it was a great
+want of judgment. The other only yawned. That
+intolerable cub shuffled about so sleepily and lolled against the
+rails in such a slack, improper fashion that I came down on him
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you properly awake yet?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir! I am awake.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, then, be good enough to hold yourself as if you
+were. And keep a look-out. If there&rsquo;s any
+current we&rsquo;ll be closing with some islands before
+daylight.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The east side of the gulf is fringed with islands, some
+solitary, others in groups. On the blue background of the
+high coast they seem to float on silvery patches of calm water,
+arid and grey, or dark green and rounded like clumps of evergreen
+bushes, with the larger ones, a mile or two long, showing the
+outlines of ridges, ribs of grey rock under the dank mantle of
+matted leafage. Unknown to trade, to travel, almost to
+geography, the manner of life they harbour is an unsolved
+secret. There must be villages&mdash;settlements of
+fishermen at least&mdash;on the largest of them, and some
+communication with the world is probably kept up by native
+craft. But all that forenoon, as we headed for them, fanned
+along by the faintest of breezes, I saw no sign of man or canoe
+in the field of the telescope I kept on pointing at the scattered
+group.</p>
+
+<p>At noon I gave no orders for a change of course, and the
+mate&rsquo;s whiskers became much concerned and seemed to be
+offering themselves unduly to my notice. At last I
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to stand right in. Quite in&mdash;as
+far as I can take her.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The stare of extreme surprise imparted an air of ferocity also
+to his eyes, and he looked truly terrific for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not doing well in the middle of the
+gulf,&rdquo; I continued, casually. &ldquo;I am going to
+look for the land breezes to-night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul! Do you mean, sir, in the dark
+amongst the lot of all them islands and reefs and
+shoals?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well&mdash;if there are any regular land breezes at all
+on this coast one must get close inshore to find them,
+mustn&rsquo;t one?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul!&rdquo; he exclaimed again under his
+breath. All that afternoon he wore a dreamy, contemplative
+appearance which in him was a mark of perplexity. After
+dinner I went into my stateroom as if I meant to take some
+rest. There we two bent our dark heads over a half-unrolled
+chart lying on my bed.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be
+Koh-ring. I&rsquo;ve been looking at it ever since
+sunrise. It has got two hills and a low point. It
+must be inhabited. And on the coast opposite there is what
+looks like the mouth of a biggish river&mdash;with some town, no
+doubt, not far up. It&rsquo;s the best chance for you that
+I can see.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Anything. Koh-ring let it be.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He looked thoughtfully at the chart as if surveying chances
+and distances from a lofty height&mdash;and following with his
+eyes his own figure wandering on the blank land of Cochin-China,
+and then passing off that piece of paper clean out of sight into
+uncharted regions. And it was as if the ship had two
+captains to plan her course for her. I had been so worried
+and restless running up and down that I had not had the patience
+to dress that day. I had remained in my sleeping-suit, with
+straw slippers and a soft floppy hat. The closeness of the
+heat in the gulf had been most oppressive, and the crew were used
+to see me wandering in that airy attire.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She will clear the south point as she heads now,&rdquo;
+I whispered into his ear. &ldquo;Goodness only knows when,
+though, but certainly after dark. I&rsquo;ll edge her in to
+half a mile, as far as I may be able to judge in the
+dark&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Be careful,&rdquo; he murmured, warningly&mdash;and I
+realised suddenly that all my future, the only future for which I
+was fit, would perhaps go irretrievably to pieces in any mishap
+to my first command.</p>
+
+<p>I could not stop a moment longer in the room. I motioned
+him to get out of sight and made my way on the poop. That
+unplayful cub had the watch. I walked up and down for a
+while thinking things out, then beckoned him over.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Send a couple of hands to open the two quarterdeck
+ports,&rdquo; I said, mildly.</p>
+
+<p>He actually had the impudence, or else so forgot himself in
+his wonder at such an incomprehensible order, as to repeat:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Open the quarter-deck ports! What for,
+sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The only reason you need concern yourself about is
+because I tell you to do so. Have them open wide and
+fastened properly.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering
+remark to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of
+ventilating a ship&rsquo;s quarter-deck. I know he popped
+into the mate&rsquo;s cabin to impart the fact to him because the
+whiskers came on deck, as it were by chance, and stole glances at
+me from below&mdash;for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I
+suppose.</p>
+
+<p>A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I
+rejoined, for a moment, my second self. And to find him
+sitting so quietly was surprising, like something against nature,
+inhuman.</p>
+
+<p>I developed my plan in a hurried whisper.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I shall stand in as close as I dare and then put her
+round. I shall presently find means to smuggle you out of
+here into the sail-locker, which communicates with the
+lobby. But there is an opening, a sort of square for
+hauling the sails out, which gives straight on the quarter-deck
+and which is never closed in fine weather, so as to give air to
+the sails. When the ship&rsquo;s way is deadened in stays
+and all the hands are aft at the main-braces you shall have a
+clear road to slip out and get overboard through the open
+quarter-deck port. I&rsquo;ve had them both fastened
+up. Use a rope&rsquo;s end to lower yourself into the water
+so as to avoid a splash&mdash;you know. It could be heard
+and cause some beastly complication.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He kept silent for a while, then whispered, &ldquo;I
+understand.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be there to see you go,&rdquo; I began
+with an effort. &ldquo;The rest . . . I only hope I have
+understood, too.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You have. From first to last&rdquo;&mdash;and for
+the first time there seemed to be a faltering, something strained
+in his whisper. He caught hold of my arm, but the ringing
+of the supper bell made me start. He didn&rsquo;t, though;
+he only released his grip.</p>
+
+<p>After supper I didn&rsquo;t come below again till well past
+eight o&rsquo;clock. The faint, steady breeze was loaded
+with dew; and the wet, darkened sails held all there was of
+propelling power in it. The night, clear and starry,
+sparkled darkly, and the opaque, lightless patches shifting
+slowly against the low stars were the drifting islets. On
+the port bow there was a big one more distant and shadowily
+imposing by the great space of sky it eclipsed.</p>
+
+<p>On opening the door I had a back view of my very own self
+looking at a chart. He had come out of the recess and was
+standing near the table.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Quite dark enough,&rdquo; I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped back and leaned against my bed with a level, quiet
+glance. I sat on the couch. We had nothing to say to
+each other. Over our heads the officer of the watch moved
+here and there. Then I heard him move quickly. I knew
+what that meant. He was making for the companion; and
+presently his voice was outside my door.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We are drawing in pretty fast, sir. Land looks
+rather close.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;I am coming
+on deck directly.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I waited till he was gone out of the cuddy, then rose.
+My double moved too. The time had come to exchange our last
+whispers, for neither of us was ever to hear each other&rsquo;s
+natural voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; I opened a drawer and took out three
+sovereigns. &ldquo;Take this, anyhow. I&rsquo;ve got
+six and I&rsquo;d give you the lot, only I must keep a little
+money to buy some fruit and vegetables for the crew from native
+boats as we go through Sunda Straits.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take it,&rdquo; I urged him, whispering
+desperately. &ldquo;No one can tell what&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled and slapped meaningly the only pocket of the
+sleeping-jacket. It was not safe, certainly. But I
+produced a large old silk handkerchief of mine, and tying the
+three pieces of gold in a corner, pressed it on him. He was
+touched, I suppose, because he took it at last and tied it
+quickly round his waist under the jacket, on his bare skin.</p>
+
+<p>Our eyes met; several seconds elapsed, till, our glances still
+mingled, I extended my hand and turned the lamp out. Then I
+passed through the cuddy, leaving the door of my room wide open.
+. . . . &ldquo;Steward!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was still lingering in the pantry in the greatness of his
+zeal, giving a rub-up to a plated cruet stand the last thing
+before going to bed. Being careful not to wake up the mate,
+whose room was opposite, I spoke in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round anxiously. &ldquo;Sir!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Can you get me a little hot water from the
+galley?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid, sir, the galley fire&rsquo;s been out for
+some time now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go and see.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He fled up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; I whispered, loudly, into the
+saloon&mdash;too loudly, perhaps, but I was afraid I
+couldn&rsquo;t make a sound. He was by my side in an
+instant&mdash;the double captain slipped past the
+stairs&mdash;through a tiny dark passage . . . a sliding
+door. We were in the sail-locker, scrambling on our knees
+over the sails. A sudden thought struck me. I saw
+myself wandering barefooted, bareheaded, the sun beating on my
+dark poll. I snatched off my floppy hat and tried hurriedly
+in the dark to ram it on my other self. He dodged and
+fended off silently. I wonder what he thought had come to
+me before he understood and suddenly desisted. Our hands
+met gropingly, lingered united in a steady, motionless clasp for
+a second. . . . No word was breathed by either of us when they
+separated.</p>
+
+<p>I was standing quietly by the pantry door when the steward
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sorry, sir. Kettle barely warm. Shall I
+light the spirit-lamp?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I came out on deck slowly. It was now a matter of
+conscience to shave the land as close as possible&mdash;for now
+he must go overboard whenever the ship was put in stays.
+Must! There could be no going back for him. After a
+moment I walked over to leeward and my heart flew into my mouth
+at the nearness of the land on the bow. Under any other
+circumstances I would not have held on a minute longer. The
+second mate had followed me anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>I looked on till I felt I could command my voice.
+&ldquo;She will weather,&rdquo; I said then in a quiet
+tone. &ldquo;Are you going to try that, sir?&rdquo; he
+stammered out incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>I took no notice of him and raised my tone just enough to be
+heard by the helmsman.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Keep her good full.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good full, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The wind fanned my cheek, the sails slept, the world was
+silent. The strain of watching the dark loom of the land
+grow bigger and denser was too much for me. I had shut my
+eyes&mdash;because the ship must go closer. She must!
+The stillness was intolerable. Were we standing still?</p>
+
+<p>When I opened my eyes the second view started my heart with a
+thump. The black southern hill of Koh-ring seemed to hang
+right over the ship like a towering fragment of the everlasting
+night. On that enormous mass of blackness there was not a
+gleam to be seen, not a sound to be heard. It was gliding
+irresistibly toward us and yet seemed already within reach of the
+hand. I saw the vague figures of the watch grouped in the
+waist, gazing in awed silence.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you going on, sir,&rdquo; inquired an unsteady
+voice at my elbow.</p>
+
+<p>I ignored it. I had to go on.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Keep her full. Don&rsquo;t check her way.
+That won&rsquo;t do now,&rdquo; I said, warningly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see the sails very well,&rdquo; the
+helmsman answered me, in strange, quavering tones.</p>
+
+<p>Was she close enough? Already she was, I won&rsquo;t say
+in the shadow of the land, but in the very blackness of it,
+already swallowed up as it were, gone too close to be recalled,
+gone from me altogether.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Give the mate a call,&rdquo; I said to the young man
+who stood at my elbow as still as death. &ldquo;And turn
+all hands up.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My tone had a borrowed loudness reverberated from the height
+of the land. Several voices cried out together: &ldquo;We
+are all on deck, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Then stillness again, with the great shadow gliding closer,
+towering higher, without a light, without a sound. Such a
+hush had fallen on the ship that she might have been a bark of
+the dead floating in slowly under the very gate of Erebus.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My God! Where are we?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was the mate moaning at my elbow. He was
+thunderstruck, and as it were deprived of the moral support of
+his whiskers. He clapped his hands and absolutely cried
+out, &ldquo;Lost!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; I said, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>He lowered his tone, but I saw the shadowy gesture of his
+despair. &ldquo;What are we doing here?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Looking for the land wind.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He made as if to tear his hair, and addressed me
+recklessly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She will never get out. You have done it,
+sir. I knew it&rsquo;d end in something like this.
+She will never weather, and you are too close now to stay.
+She&rsquo;ll drift ashore before she&rsquo;s round. O my
+God!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I caught his arm as he was raising it to batter his poor
+devoted head, and shook it violently.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s ashore already,&rdquo; he wailed, trying to
+tear himself away.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is she? . . . Keep good full there!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good full, sir,&rdquo; cried the helmsman in a
+frightened, thin, child-like voice.</p>
+
+<p>I hadn&rsquo;t let go the mate&rsquo;s arm and went on shaking
+it. &ldquo;Ready about, do you hear? You go
+forward&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and stop
+there&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and hold your
+noise&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and see these head-sheets
+properly overhauled&rdquo;&mdash;shake, shake&mdash;shake.</p>
+
+<p>And all the time I dared not look toward the land lest my
+heart should fail me. I released my grip at last and he ran
+forward as if fleeing for dear life.</p>
+
+<p>I wondered what my double there in the sail-locker thought of
+this commotion. He was able to hear everything&mdash;and
+perhaps he was able to understand why, on my conscience, it had
+to be thus close&mdash;no less. My first order &ldquo;Hard
+alee!&rdquo; re-echoed ominously under the towering shadow of
+Koh-ring as if I had shouted in a mountain gorge. And then
+I watched the land intently. In that smooth water and light
+wind it was impossible to feel the ship coming-to.
+No! I could not feel her. And my second self was
+making now ready to slip out and lower himself overboard.
+Perhaps he was gone already . . .?</p>
+
+<p>The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to
+pivot away from the ship&rsquo;s side silently. And now I
+forgot the secret stranger ready to depart, and remembered only
+that I was a total stranger to the ship. I did not know
+her. Would she do it? How was she to be handled?</p>
+
+<p>I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly. She was
+perhaps stopped, and her very fate hung in the balance, with the
+black mass of Koh-ring like the gate of the everlasting night
+towering over her taffrail. What would she do now?
+Had she way on her yet? I stepped to the side swiftly, and
+on the shadowy water I could see nothing except a faint
+phosphorescent flash revealing the glassy smoothness of the
+sleeping surface. It was impossible to tell&mdash;and I had
+not learned yet the feel of my ship. Was she moving?
+What I needed was something easily seen, a piece of paper, which
+I could throw overboard and watch. I had nothing on
+me. To run down for it I didn&rsquo;t dare. There was
+no time. All at once my strained, yearning stare
+distinguished a white object floating within a yard of the
+ship&rsquo;s side. White on the black water. A
+phosphorescent flash passed under it. What was that thing?
+. . . I recognised my own floppy hat. It must have fallen
+off his head . . . and he didn&rsquo;t bother.</p>
+
+<p>Now I had what I wanted&mdash;the saving mark for my
+eyes. But I hardly thought of my other self, now gone from
+the ship, to be hidden forever from all friendly faces, to be a
+fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, with no brand of the curse
+on his sane forehead to stay a slaying hand . . . too proud to
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>And I watched the hat&mdash;the expression of my sudden pity
+for his mere flesh. It had been meant to save his homeless
+head from the dangers of the sun. And
+now&mdash;behold&mdash;it was saving the ship, by serving me for
+a mark to help out the ignorance of my strangeness.
+Ha! It was drifting forward, warning me just in time that
+the ship had gathered sternway.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Shift the helm,&rdquo; I said in a low voice to the
+seaman standing still like a statue.</p>
+
+<p>The man&rsquo;s eyes glistened wildly in the binnacle light as
+he jumped round to the other side and spun round the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>I walked to the break of the poop. On the overshadowed
+deck all hands stood by the forebraces waiting for my
+order. The stars ahead seemed to be gliding from right to
+left. And all was so still in the world that I heard the
+quiet remark &ldquo;She&rsquo;s round,&rdquo; passed in a tone of
+intense relief between two seamen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Let go and haul.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The foreyards ran round with a great noise, amidst cheery
+cries. And now the frightful whisker&rsquo;s made
+themselves heard giving various orders. Already the ship
+was drawing ahead. And I was alone with her. Nothing!
+no one in the world should stand now between us, throwing a
+shadow on the way of silent knowledge and mute affection, the
+perfect communion of a seaman with his first command.</p>
+
+<p>Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the
+very edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the
+very gateway of Erebus&mdash;yes, I was in time to catch an
+evanescent glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot
+where the secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts, as though
+he were my second self, had lowered himself into the water to
+take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for
+a new destiny.</p>
+<h2><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+161</span>FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">A STORY OF SHALLOW WATERS</span></h2>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> day&mdash;and that day was many
+years ago now&mdash;I received a long, chatty letter from one of
+my old chums and fellow-wanderers in Eastern waters. He was
+still out there, but settled down, and middle-aged; I imagined
+him&mdash;grown portly in figure and domestic in his habits; in
+short, overtaken by the fate common to all except to those who,
+being specially beloved by the gods, get knocked on the head
+early. The letter was of the reminiscent &ldquo;do you
+remember&rdquo; kind&mdash;a wistful letter of backward
+glances. And, amongst other things, &ldquo;surely you
+remember old Nelson,&rdquo; he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>Remember old Nelson! Certainly. And to begin with,
+his name was not Nelson. The Englishmen in the Archipelago
+called him Nelson because it was more convenient, I suppose, and
+he never protested. It would have been mere pedantry.
+The true form of his name was Nielsen. He had come out East
+long before the advent of telegraph cables, had served English
+firms, had married an English girl, had been one of us for years,
+trading and sailing in all directions through the Eastern
+Archipelago, across and around, transversely, diagonally,
+perpendicularly, in semi-circles, and zigzags, and figures of
+eights, for years and years.</p>
+
+<p>There was no nook or cranny of these tropical waters that the
+enterprise of old Nelson (or Nielsen) had not penetrated in an
+eminently pacific way. His tracks, if plotted out, would
+have covered the map of the Archipelago like a cobweb&mdash;all
+of it, with the sole exception of the Philippines. He would
+never approach that part, from a strange dread of Spaniards, or,
+to be exact, of the Spanish authorities. What he imagined
+they could do to him it is impossible to say. Perhaps at
+some time in his life he had read some stories of the
+Inquisition.</p>
+
+<p>But he was in general afraid of what he called
+&ldquo;authorities&rdquo;; not the English authorities, which he
+trusted and respected, but the other two of that part of the
+world. He was not so horrified at the Dutch as he was at
+the Spaniards, but he was even more mistrustful of them.
+Very mistrustful indeed. The Dutch, in his view, were
+capable of &ldquo;playing any ugly trick on a man&rdquo; who had
+the misfortune to displease them. There were their laws and
+regulations, but they had no notion of fair play in applying
+them. It was really pitiable to see the anxious
+circumspection of his dealings with some official or other, and
+remember that this man had been known to stroll up to a village
+of cannibals in New Guinea in a quiet, fearless manner (and note
+that he was always fleshy all his life, and, if I may say so, an
+appetising morsel) on some matter of barter that did not amount
+perhaps to fifty pounds in the end.</p>
+
+<p>Remember old Nelson! Rather! Truly, none of us in
+my generation had known him in his active days. He was
+&ldquo;retired&rdquo; in our time. He had bought, or else
+leased, part of a small island from the Sultan of a little group
+called the Seven Isles, not far north from Banka. It was, I
+suppose, a legitimate transaction, but I have no doubt that had
+he been an Englishman the Dutch would have discovered a reason to
+fire him out without ceremony. In this connection the real
+form of his name stood him in good stead. In the character
+of an unassuming Dane whose conduct was most correct, they let
+him be. With all his money engaged in cultivation he was
+naturally careful not to give even the shadow of offence, and it
+was mostly for prudential reasons of that sort that he did not
+look with a favourable eye on Jasper Allen. But of that
+later. Yes! One remembered well enough old
+Nelson&rsquo;s big, hospitable bungalow erected on a shelving
+point of land, his portly form, costumed generally in a white
+shirt and trousers (he had a confirmed habit of taking off his
+alpaca jacket on the slightest provocation), his round blue eyes,
+his straggly, sandy-white moustache sticking out all ways like
+the quills of the fretful porcupine, his propensity to sit down
+suddenly and fan himself with his hat. But there&rsquo;s no
+use concealing the fact that what one remembered really was his
+daughter, who at that time came out to live with him&mdash;and be
+a sort of Lady of the Isles.</p>
+
+<p>Freya Nelson (or Nielsen) was the kind of girl one
+remembers. The oval of her face was perfect; and within
+that fascinating frame the most happy disposition of line and
+feature, with an admirable complexion, gave an impression of
+health, strength, and what I might call unconscious
+self-confidence&mdash;a most pleasant and, as it were, whimsical
+determination. I will not compare her eyes to violets,
+because the real shade of their colour was peculiar, not so dark
+and more lustrous. They were of the wide-open kind, and
+looked at one frankly in every mood. I never did see the
+long, dark eyelashes lowered&mdash;I dare say Jasper Allen did,
+being a privileged person&mdash;but I have no doubt that the
+expression must have been charming in a complex way. She
+could&mdash;Jasper told me once with a touchingly imbecile
+exultation&mdash;sit on her hair. I dare say, I dare
+say. It was not for me to behold these wonders; I was
+content to admire the neat and becoming way she used to do it up
+so as not to conceal the good shape of her head. And this
+wealth of hair was so glossy that when the screens of the west
+verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there, or in the
+shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to
+give out a golden light of its own.</p>
+
+<p>She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of
+walking length, showing her neat, laced, brown boots. If
+there was any colour about her costume it was just a bit of blue
+perhaps. No exertion seemed to distress her. I have
+seen her land from the dinghy after a long pull in the sun (she
+rowed herself about a good deal) with no quickened breath and not
+a single hair out of its place. In the morning when she
+came out on the verandah for the first look westward, Sumatra
+way, over the sea, she seemed as fresh and sparkling as a
+dewdrop. But a dewdrop is evanescent, and there was nothing
+evanescent about Freya. I remember her round, solid arms
+with the fine wrists, and her broad, capable hands with tapering
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>I don&rsquo;t know whether she was actually born at sea, but I
+do know that up to twelve years of age she sailed about with her
+parents in various ships. After old Nelson lost his wife it
+became a matter of serious concern for him what to do with the
+girl. A kind lady in Singapore, touched by his dumb grief
+and deplorable perplexity, offered to take charge of Freya.
+This arrangement lasted some six years, during which old Nelson
+(or Nielsen) &ldquo;retired&rdquo; and established, himself on
+his island, and then it was settled (the kind lady going away to
+Europe) that his daughter should join him.</p>
+
+<p>As the first and most important preparation for that event the
+old fellow ordered from his Singapore agent a Steyn and
+Ebhart&rsquo;s &ldquo;upright grand.&rdquo; I was then
+commanding a little steamer in the island trade, and it fell to
+my lot to take it out to him, so I know something of
+Freya&rsquo;s &ldquo;upright grand.&rdquo; We landed the
+enormous packing-case with difficulty on a flat piece of rock
+amongst some bushes, nearly knocking the bottom out of one of my
+boats in the course of that nautical operation. Then, all
+my crew assisting, engineers and firemen included, by the
+exercise of much anxious ingenuity, and by means of rollers,
+levers, tackles, and inclined planes of soaped planks, toiling in
+the sun like ancient Egyptians at the building of a pyramid, we
+got it as far as the house and up on to the edge of the west
+verandah&mdash;which was the actual drawing-room of the
+bungalow. There, the case being ripped off cautiously, the
+beautiful rosewood monster stood revealed at last. In
+reverent excitement we coaxed it against the wall and drew the
+first free breath of the day. It was certainly the heaviest
+movable object on that islet since the creation of the
+world. The volume of sound it gave out in that bungalow
+(which acted as a sounding-board) was really astonishing.
+It thundered sweetly right over the sea. Jasper Allen told
+me that early of a morning on the deck of the <i>Bonito</i> (his
+wonderfully fast and pretty brig) he could hear Freya playing her
+scales quite distinctly. But the fellow always anchored
+foolishly close to the point, as I told him more than once.
+Of course, these seas are almost uniformly serene, and the Seven
+Isles is a particularly calm and cloudless spot as a rule.
+But still, now and again, an afternoon thunderstorm over Banka,
+or even one of these vicious thick squalls, from the distant
+Sumatra coast, would make a sudden sally upon the group,
+enveloping it for a couple of hours in whirlwinds and
+bluish-black murk of a particularly sinister aspect. Then,
+with the lowered rattan-screens rattling desperately in the wind
+and the bungalow shaking all over, Freya would sit down to the
+piano and play fierce Wagner music in the flicker of blinding
+flashes, with thunderbolts falling all round, enough to make your
+hair stand on end; and Jasper would remain stock still on the
+verandah, adoring the back view of her supple, swaying figure,
+the miraculous sheen of her fair head, the rapid hands on the
+keys, the white nape of her neck&mdash;while the brig, down at
+the point there, surged at her cables within a hundred yards of
+nasty, shiny, black rock-heads. Ugh!</p>
+
+<p>And this, if you please, for no reason but that, when he went
+on board at night and laid his head on the pillow, he should feel
+that he was as near as he could conveniently get to his Freya
+slumbering in the bungalow. Did you ever! And, mind,
+this brig was the home to be&mdash;their home&mdash;the floating
+paradise which he was gradually fitting out like a yacht to sail
+his life blissfully away in with Freya. Imbecile! But
+the fellow was always taking chances.</p>
+
+<p>One day, I remember I watched with Freya on the verandah the
+brig approaching the point from the northward. I suppose
+Jasper made the girl out with his long glass. What does he
+do? Instead of standing on for another mile and a half
+along the shoals and then tacking for the anchorage in a proper
+and seamanlike manner, he spies a gap between two disgusting old
+jagged reefs, puts the helm down suddenly, and shoots the brig
+through, with all her sails shaking and rattling, so that we
+could hear the racket on the verandah. I drew my breath
+through my teeth, I can tell you, and Freya swore.
+Yes! She clenched her capable fists and stamped with her
+pretty brown boot and said &ldquo;Damn!&rdquo; Then,
+looking at me with a little heightened colour&mdash;not
+much&mdash;she remarked, &ldquo;I forgot you were there,&rdquo;
+and laughed. To be sure, to be sure. When Jasper was
+in sight she was not likely to remember that anybody else in the
+world was there. In my concern at this mad trick I
+couldn&rsquo;t help appealing to her sympathetic common
+sense.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t he a fool?&rdquo; I said with feeling.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perfect idiot,&rdquo; she agreed warmly, looking at me
+straight with her wide-open, earnest eyes and the dimple of a
+smile on her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And that,&rdquo; I pointed out to her, &ldquo;just to
+save twenty minutes or so in meeting you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We heard the anchor go down, and then she became very resolute
+and threatening.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wait a bit. I&rsquo;ll teach him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She went into her own room and shut the door, leaving me alone
+on the verandah with my instructions. Long before the
+brig&rsquo;s sails were furled, Jasper came up three steps at a
+time, forgetting to say how d&rsquo;ye do, and looking right and
+left eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Freya? Wasn&rsquo;t she here just
+now?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When I explained to him that he was to be deprived of Miss
+Freya&rsquo;s presence for a whole hour, &ldquo;just to teach
+him,&rdquo; he said I had put her up to it, no doubt, and that he
+feared he would have yet to shoot me some day. She and I
+were getting too thick together. Then he flung himself into
+a chair, and tried to talk to me about his trip. But the
+funny thing was that the fellow actually suffered. I could
+see it. His voice failed him, and he sat there dumb,
+looking at the door with the face of a man in pain. Fact. .
+. . And the next still funnier thing was that the girl calmly
+walked out of her room in less than ten minutes. And then I
+left. I mean to say that I went away to seek old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) on the back verandah, which was his own special nook in
+the distribution of that house, with the kind purpose of engaging
+him in conversation lest he should start roaming about and
+intrude unwittingly where he was not wanted just then.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that the brig had arrived, though he did not know that
+Jasper was already with his daughter. I suppose he
+didn&rsquo;t think it was possible in the time. A father
+naturally wouldn&rsquo;t. He suspected that Allen was sweet
+on his girl; the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, most
+of the traders in the Archipelago, and all sorts and conditions
+of men in the town of Singapore were aware of it. But he
+was not capable of appreciating how far the girl was gone on the
+fellow. He had an idea that Freya was too sensible to ever
+be gone on anybody&mdash;I mean to an unmanageable extent.
+No; it was not that which made him sit on the back verandah and
+worry himself in his unassuming manner during Jasper&rsquo;s
+visits. What he worried about were the Dutch
+&ldquo;authorities.&rdquo; For it is a fact that the Dutch
+looked askance at the doings of Jasper Allen, owner and master of
+the brig <i>Bonito</i>. They considered him much too
+enterprising in his trading. I don&rsquo;t know that he
+ever did anything illegal; but it seems to me that his immense
+activity was repulsive to their stolid character and slow-going
+methods. Anyway, in old Nelson&rsquo;s opinion, the captain
+of the <i>Bonito</i> was a smart sailor, and a nice young man,
+but not a desirable acquaintance upon the whole. Somewhat
+compromising, you understand. On the other hand, he did not
+like to tell Jasper in so many words to keep away. Poor old
+Nelson himself was a nice fellow. I believe he would have
+shrunk from hurting the feelings even of a mop-headed cannibal,
+unless, perhaps, under very strong provocation. I mean the
+feelings, not the bodies. As against spears, knives,
+hatchets, clubs, or arrows, old Nelson had proved himself capable
+of taking his own part. In every other respect he had a
+timorous soul. So he sat on the back verandah with a
+concerned expression, and whenever the voices of his daughter and
+Jasper Allen reached him, he would blow out his cheeks and let
+the air escape with a dismal sound, like a much tried man.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally I derided his fears which he, more or less, confided
+to me. He had a certain regard for my judgment, and a
+certain respect, not for my moral qualities, however, but for the
+good terms I was supposed to be on with the Dutch
+&ldquo;authorities.&rdquo; I knew for a fact that his
+greatest bugbear, the Governor of Banka&mdash;a charming,
+peppery, hearty, retired rear-admiral&mdash;had a distinct liking
+for him. This consoling assurance which I used always to
+put forward, made old Nelson (or Nielsen) brighten up for a
+moment; but in the end he would shake his head doubtfully, as
+much as to say that this was all very well, but that there were
+depths in the Dutch official nature which no one but himself had
+ever fathomed. Perfectly ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion I am speaking of, old Nelson was even fretty;
+for while I was trying to entertain him with a very funny and
+somewhat scandalous adventure which happened to a certain
+acquaintance of ours in Saigon, he exclaimed suddenly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What the devil he wants to turn up here for!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Clearly he had not heard a word of the anecdote. And
+this annoyed me, because the anecdote was really good. I
+stared at him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Come, come!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+you know what Jasper Allen is turning up here for?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was the first open allusion I had ever made to the true
+state of affairs between Jasper and his daughter. He took
+it very calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Freya is a sensible girl!&rdquo; he murmured
+absently, his mind&rsquo;s eye obviously fixed on the
+&ldquo;authorities.&rdquo; No; Freya was no fool. He
+was not concerned about that. He didn&rsquo;t mind it in
+the least. The fellow was just company for her; he amused
+the girl; nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>When the perspicacious old chap left off mumbling, all was
+still in the house. The other two were amusing themselves
+very quietly, and no doubt very heartily. What more
+absorbing and less noisy amusement could they have found than to
+plan their future? Side by side on the verandah they must
+have been looking at the brig, the third party in that
+fascinating game. Without her there would have been no
+future. She was the fortune and the home, and the great
+free world for them. Who was it that likened a ship to a
+prison? May I be ignominiously hanged at a yardarm if
+that&rsquo;s true. The white sails of that craft were the
+white wings&mdash;pinions, I believe, would be the more poetical
+style&mdash;well, the white pinions, of their soaring love.
+Soaring as regards Jasper. Freya, being a woman, kept a
+better hold of the mundane connections of this affair.</p>
+
+<p>But Jasper was elevated in the true sense of the word ever
+since the day when, after they had been gazing at the brig in one
+of those decisive silences that alone establish a perfect
+communion between creatures gifted with speech, he proposed that
+she should share the ownership of that treasure with him.
+Indeed, he presented the brig to her altogether. But then
+his heart was in the brig since the day he bought her in Manilla
+from a certain middle-aged Peruvian, in a sober suit of black
+broadcloth, enigmatic and sententious, who, for all I know, might
+have stolen her on the South American coast, whence he said he
+had come over to the Philippines &ldquo;for family
+reasons.&rdquo; This &ldquo;for family reasons&rdquo; was
+distinctly good. No true <i>caballero</i> would care to
+push on inquiries after such a statement.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Jasper was quite the <i>caballero</i>. The brig
+herself was then all black and enigmatical, and very dirty; a
+tarnished gem of the sea, or, rather, a neglected work of
+art. For he must have been an artist, the obscure builder
+who had put her body together on lovely lines out of the hardest
+tropical timber fastened with the purest copper. Goodness
+only knows in what part of the world she was built. Jasper
+himself had not been able to ascertain much of her history from
+his sententious, saturnine Peruvian&mdash;if the fellow was a
+Peruvian, and not the devil himself in disguise, as Jasper
+jocularly pretended to believe. My opinion is that she was
+old enough to have been one of the last pirates, a slaver
+perhaps, or else an opium clipper of the early days, if not an
+opium smuggler.</p>
+
+<p>However that may be, she was as sound as on the day she first
+took the water, sailed like a witch, steered like a little boat,
+and, like some fair women of adventurous life famous in history,
+seemed to have the secret of perpetual youth; so that there was
+nothing unnatural in Jasper Allen treating her like a
+lover. And that treatment restored the lustre of her
+beauty. He clothed her in many coats of the very best white
+paint so skilfully, carefully, artistically put on and kept clean
+by his badgered crew of picked Malays, that no costly enamel such
+as jewellers use for their work could have looked better and felt
+smoother to the touch. A narrow gilt moulding defined her
+elegant sheer as she sat on the water, eclipsing easily the
+professional good looks of any pleasure yacht that ever came to
+the East in those days. For myself, I must say I prefer a
+moulding of deep crimson colour on a white hull. It gives a
+stronger relief besides being less expensive; and I told Jasper
+so. But no, nothing less than the best gold-leaf would do,
+because no decoration could be gorgeous enough for the future
+abode of his Freya.</p>
+
+<p>His feelings for the brig and for the girl were as
+indissolubly united in his heart as you may fuse two precious
+metals together in one crucible. And the flame was pretty
+hot, I can assure you. It induced in him a fierce inward
+restlessness both of activity and desire. Too fine in face,
+with a lateral wave in his chestnut hair, spare, long-limbed,
+with an eager glint in his steely eyes and quick, brusque
+movements, he made me think sometimes of a flashing sword-blade
+perpetually leaping out of the scabbard. It was only when
+he was near the girl, when he had her there to look at, that this
+peculiarly tense attitude was replaced by a grave devout
+watchfulness of her slightest movements and utterances. Her
+cool, resolute, capable, good-humoured self-possession seemed to
+steady his heart. Was it the magic of her face, of her
+voice, of her glances which calmed him so? Yet these were
+the very things one must believe which had set his imagination
+ablaze&mdash;if love begins in imagination. But I am no man
+to discuss such mysteries, and it strikes me that we have
+neglected poor old Nelson inflating his cheeks in a state of
+worry on the back verandah.</p>
+
+<p>I pointed out to him that, after all, Jasper was not a very
+frequent visitor. He and his brig worked hard all over the
+Archipelago. But all old Nelson said, and he said it
+uneasily, was:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I hope Heemskirk won&rsquo;t turn up here while the
+brig&rsquo;s about.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Getting up a scare about Heemskirk now! Heemskirk! . . .
+Really, one hadn&rsquo;t the patience&mdash;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span>, pray, who was Heemskirk?
+You shall see at once how unreasonable this dread of Heemskirk. .
+. . Certainly, his nature was malevolent enough. That was
+obvious, directly you heard him laugh. Nothing gives away
+more a man&rsquo;s secret disposition than the unguarded ring of
+his laugh. But, bless my soul! if we were to start at every
+evil guffaw like a hare at every sound, we shouldn&rsquo;t be fit
+for anything but the solitude of a desert, or the seclusion of a
+hermitage. And even there we should have to put up with the
+unavoidable company of the devil.</p>
+
+<p>However, the devil is a considerable personage, who has known
+better days and has moved high up in the hierarchy of Celestial
+Host; but in the hierarchy of mere earthly Dutchmen, Heemskirk,
+whose early days could not have been very splendid, was merely a
+naval officer forty years of age, of no particular connections or
+ability to boast of. He was commanding the <i>Neptun</i>, a
+little gunboat employed on dreary patrol duty up and down the
+Archipelago, to look after the traders. Not a very exalted
+position truly. I tell you, just a common middle-aged
+lieutenant of some twenty-five years&rsquo; service and sure to
+be retired before long&mdash;that&rsquo;s all.</p>
+
+<p>He never bothered his head very much as to what was going on
+in the Seven Isles group till he learned from some talk in Mintok
+or Palembang, I suppose, that there was a pretty girl living
+there. Curiosity, I presume, caused him to go poking around
+that way, and then, after he had once seen Freya, he made a
+practice of calling at the group whenever he found himself within
+half a day&rsquo;s steaming from it.</p>
+
+<p>I don&rsquo;t mean to say that Heemskirk was a typical Dutch
+naval officer. I have seen enough of them not to fall into
+that absurd mistake. He had a big, clean-shaven face; great
+flat, brown cheeks, with a thin, hooked nose and a small, pursy
+mouth squeezed in between. There were a few silver threads
+in his black hair, and his unpleasant eyes were nearly black,
+too. He had a surly way of casting side glances without
+moving his head, which was set low on a short, round neck.
+A thick, round trunk in a dark undress jacket with gold
+shoulder-straps, was sustained by a straddly pair of thick, round
+legs, in white drill trousers. His round skull under a
+white cap looked as if it were immensely thick too, but there
+were brains enough in it to discover and take advantage
+maliciously of poor old Nelson&rsquo;s nervousness before
+everything that was invested with the merest shred of
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk would land on the point and perambulate silently
+every part of the plantation as if the whole place belonged to
+him, before he went to the house. On the verandah he would
+take the best chair, and would stay for tiffin or dinner, just
+simply stay on, without taking the trouble to invite himself by
+so much as a word.</p>
+
+<p>He ought to have been kicked, if only for his manner to Miss
+Freya. Had he been a naked savage, armed with spears and
+poisoned arrows, old Nelson (or Nielsen) would have gone for him
+with his bare fists. But these gold
+shoulder-straps&mdash;Dutch shoulder-straps at that&mdash;were
+enough to terrify the old fellow; so he let the beggar treat him
+with heavy contempt, devour his daughter with his eyes, and drink
+the best part of his little stock of wine.</p>
+
+<p>I saw something of this, and on one occasion I tried to pass a
+remark on the subject. It was pitiable to see the trouble
+in old Nelson&rsquo;s round eyes. At first he cried out
+that the lieutenant was a good friend of his; a very good
+fellow. I went on staring at him pretty hard, so that at
+last he faltered, and had to own that, of course, Heemskirk was
+not a very genial person outwardly, but all the same at bottom. .
+. .</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t yet met a genial Dutchman out
+here,&rdquo; I interrupted. &ldquo;Geniality, after all, is
+not of much consequence, but don&rsquo;t you
+see&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nelson looked suddenly so frightened at what I was going to
+say that I hadn&rsquo;t the heart to go on. Of course, I
+was going to tell him that the fellow was after his girl.
+That just describes it exactly. What Heemskirk might have
+expected or what he thought he could do, I don&rsquo;t
+know. For all I can tell, he might have imagined himself
+irresistible, or have taken Freya for what she was not, on
+account of her lively, assured, unconstrained manner. But
+there it is. He was after that girl. Nelson could see
+it well enough. Only he preferred to ignore it. He
+did not want to be told of it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All I want is to live in peace and quietness with the
+Dutch authorities,&rdquo; he mumbled shamefacedly.</p>
+
+<p>He was incurable. I was sorry for him, and I really
+think Miss Freya was sorry for her father, too. She
+restrained herself for his sake, and as everything she did she
+did it simply, unaffectedly, and even good humouredly. No
+small effort that, because in Heemskirk&rsquo;s attentions there
+was an insolent touch of scorn, hard to put up with.
+Dutchmen of that sort are over-bearing to their inferiors, and
+that officer of the king looked upon old Nelson and Freya as
+quite beneath him in every way.</p>
+
+<p>I can&rsquo;t say I felt sorry for Freya. She was not
+the sort of girl to take anything tragically. One could
+feel for her and sympathise with her difficulty, but she seemed
+equal to any situation. It was rather admiration she
+extorted by her competent serenity. It was only when Jasper
+and Heemskirk were together at the bungalow, as it happened now
+and then, that she felt the strain, and even then it was not for
+everybody to see. My eyes alone could detect a faint shadow
+on the radiance of her personality. Once I could not help
+saying to her appreciatively:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my word you are wonderful.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She let it pass with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The great thing is to prevent Jasper becoming
+unreasonable,&rdquo; she said; and I could see real concern
+lurking in the quiet depths of her frank eyes gazing straight at
+me. &ldquo;You will help to keep him quiet, won&rsquo;t
+you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, we must keep him quiet,&rdquo; I declared,
+understanding very well the nature of her anxiety.
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a lunatic, too, when he&rsquo;s
+roused.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He is!&rdquo; she assented, in a soft tone; for it was
+our joke to speak of Jasper abusively. &ldquo;But I have
+tamed him a bit. He&rsquo;s quite a good boy
+now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He would squash Heemskirk like a blackbeetle all the
+same,&rdquo; I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Rather!&rdquo; she murmured. &ldquo;And that
+wouldn&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; she added quickly. &ldquo;Imagine
+the state poor papa would get into. Besides, I mean to be
+mistress of the dear brig and sail about these seas, not go off
+wandering ten thousand miles away from here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The sooner you are on board to look after the man and
+the brig the better,&rdquo; I said seriously. &ldquo;They
+need you to steady them both a bit. I don&rsquo;t think
+Jasper will ever get sobered down till he has carried you off
+from this island. You don&rsquo;t see him when he is away
+from you, as I do. He&rsquo;s in a state of perpetual
+elation which almost frightens me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At this she smiled again, and then looked serious. For
+it could not be unpleasant to her to be told of her power, and
+she had some sense of her responsibility. She slipped away
+from me suddenly, because Heemskirk, with old Nelson in
+attendance at his elbow, was coming up the steps of the
+verandah. Directly his head came above the level of the
+floor his ill-natured black eyes shot glances here and there.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s your girl, Nelson?&rdquo; he asked, in a
+tone as if every soul in the world belonged to him. And
+then to me: &ldquo;The goddess has flown, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Nelson&rsquo;s Cove&mdash;as we used to call it&mdash;was
+crowded with shipping that day. There was first my steamer,
+then the <i>Neptun</i> gunboat further out, and the
+<i>Bonito</i>, brig, anchored as usual so close inshore that it
+looked as if, with a little skill and judgment, one could shy a
+hat from the verandah on to her scrupulously holystoned
+quarter-deck. Her brasses flashed like gold, her white
+body-paint had a sheen like a satin robe. The rake of her
+varnished spars and the big yards, squared to a hair, gave her a
+sort of martial elegance. She was a beauty. No wonder
+that in possession of a craft like that and the promise of a girl
+like Freya, Jasper lived in a state of perpetual elation fit,
+perhaps, for the seventh heaven, but not exactly safe in a world
+like ours.</p>
+
+<p>I remarked politely to Heemskirk that, with three guests in
+the house, Miss Freya had no doubt domestic matters to attend
+to. I knew, of course, that she had gone to meet Jasper at
+a certain cleared spot on the banks of the only stream on
+Nelson&rsquo;s little island. The commander of the
+<i>Neptun</i> gave me a dubious black look, and began to make
+himself at home, flinging his thick, cylindrical carcass into a
+rocking-chair, and unbuttoning his coat. Old Nelson sat
+down opposite him in a most unassuming manner, staring anxiously
+with his round eyes and fanning himself with his hat. I
+tried to make conversation to while the time away; not an easy
+task with a morose, enamoured Dutchman constantly looking from
+one door to another and answering one&rsquo;s advances either
+with a jeer or a grunt.</p>
+
+<p>However, the evening passed off all right. Luckily,
+there is a degree of bliss too intense for elation. Jasper
+was quiet and concentrated silently in watching Freya. As
+we went on board our respective ships I offered to give his brig
+a tow out next morning. I did it on purpose to get him away
+at the earliest possible moment. So in the first cold light
+of the dawn we passed by the gunboat lying black and still
+without a sound in her at the mouth of the glassy cove. But
+with tropical swiftness the sun had climbed twice its diameter
+above the horizon before we had rounded the reef and got abreast
+of the point. On the biggest boulder there stood Freya, all
+in white and, in her helmet, like a feminine and martial statue
+with a rosy face, as I could see very well with my glasses.
+She fluttered an expressive handkerchief, and Jasper, running up
+the main rigging of the white and warlike brig, waved his hat in
+response. Shortly afterwards we parted, I to the northward
+and Jasper heading east with a light wind on the quarter, for
+Banjermassin and two other ports, I believe it was, that
+trip.</p>
+
+<p>This peaceful occasion was the last on which I saw all these
+people assembled together; the charmingly fresh and resolute
+Freya, the innocently round-eyed old Nelson, Jasper, keen, long
+limbed, lean faced, admirably self-contained, in his manner,
+because inconceivably happy under the eyes of his Freya; all
+three tall, fair, and blue-eyed in varied shades, and amongst
+them the swarthy, arrogant, black-haired Dutchman, shorter nearly
+by a head, and so much thicker than any of them that he seemed to
+be a creature capable of inflating itself, a grotesque specimen
+of mankind from some other planet.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast struck me all at once as we stood in the lighted
+verandah, after rising from the dinner-table. I was
+fascinated by it for the rest of the evening, and I remember the
+impression of something funny and ill-omened at the same time in
+it to this day.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<p>A <span class="smcap">few</span> weeks later, coming early one
+morning into Singapore, from a journey to the southward, I saw
+the brig lying at anchor in all her usual symmetry and splendour
+of aspect as though she had been taken out of a glass case and
+put delicately into the water that very moment.</p>
+
+<p>She was well out in the roadstead, but I steamed in and took
+up my habitual berth close in front of the town. Before we
+had finished breakfast a quarter-master came to tell me that
+Captain Allen&rsquo;s boat was coming our way.</p>
+
+<p>His smart gig dashed alongside, and in two bounds he was up
+our accommodation-ladder and shaking me by the hand with his
+nervous grip, his eyes snapping inquisitively, for he supposed I
+had called at the Seven Isles group on my way. I reached
+into my pocket for a nicely folded little note, which he grabbed
+out of my hand without ceremony and carried off on the bridge to
+read by himself. After a decent interval I followed him up
+there, and found him pacing to and fro; for the nature of his
+emotions made him restless even in his most thoughtful
+moments.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head at me triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, my dear boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I shall be
+counting the days now.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I understood what he meant. I knew that those young
+people had settled already on a runaway match without official
+preliminaries. This was really a logical decision.
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen) would never have agreed to give up Freya
+peaceably to this compromising Jasper. Heavens! What
+would the Dutch authorities say to such a match! It sounds
+too ridiculous for words. But there&rsquo;s nothing in the
+world more selfishly hard than a timorous man in a fright about
+his &ldquo;little estate,&rdquo; as old Nelson used to call it in
+apologetic accents. A heart permeated by a particular sort
+of funk is proof against sense, feeling, and ridicule.
+It&rsquo;s a flint.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper would have made his request all the same and then taken
+his own way; but it was Freya who decided that nothing should be
+said, on the ground that, &ldquo;Papa would only worry himself to
+distraction.&rdquo; He was capable of making himself ill,
+and then she wouldn&rsquo;t have the heart to leave him.
+Here you have the sanity of feminine outlook and the frankness of
+feminine reasoning. And for the rest, Miss Freya could read
+&ldquo;poor dear papa&rdquo; in the way a woman reads a
+man&mdash;like an open book. His daughter once gone, old
+Nelson would not worry himself. He would raise a great
+outcry, and make no end of lamentable fuss, but that&rsquo;s not
+the same thing. The real agonies of indecision, the anguish
+of conflicting feelings would be spared to him. And as he
+was too unassuming to rage, he would, after a period of
+lamentation, devote himself to his &ldquo;little estate,&rdquo;
+and to keeping on good terms with the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>Time would do the rest. And Freya thought she could
+afford to wait, while ruling over her own home in the beautiful
+brig and over the man who loved her. This was the life for
+her who had learned to walk on a ship&rsquo;s deck. She was
+a ship-child, a sea-girl if ever there was one. And of
+course she loved Jasper and trusted him; but there was a shade of
+anxiety in her pride. It is very fine and romantic to
+possess for your very own a finely tempered and trusty
+sword-blade, but whether it is the best weapon to counter with
+the common cudgel-play of Fate&mdash;that&rsquo;s another
+question.</p>
+
+<p>She knew that she had the more substance of the two&mdash;you
+needn&rsquo;t try any cheap jokes, I am not talking of their
+weights. She was just a little anxious while he was away,
+and she had me who, being a tried confidant, took the liberty to
+whisper frequently &ldquo;The sooner the better.&rdquo; But
+there was a peculiar vein of obstinacy in Miss Freya, and her
+reason for delay was characteristic. &ldquo;Not before my
+twenty-first birthday; so that there shall be no mistake in
+people&rsquo;s minds as to me being old enough to know what I am
+doing.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper&rsquo;s feelings were in such subjection that he had
+never even remonstrated against the decree. She was just
+splendid, whatever she did or said, and there was an end of it
+for him. I believe that he was subtle enough to be even
+flattered at bottom&mdash;at times. And then to console him
+he had the brig which seemed pervaded by the spirit of Freya,
+since whatever he did on board was always done under the supreme
+sanction of his love.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. I&rsquo;ll soon begin to count the
+days,&rdquo; he repeated. &ldquo;Eleven months more.
+I&rsquo;ll have to crowd three trips into that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mind you don&rsquo;t come to grief trying to do too
+much,&rdquo; I admonished him. But he dismissed my caution
+with a laugh and an elated gesture. Pooh! Nothing,
+nothing could happen to the brig, he cried, as if the flame of
+his heart could light up the dark nights of uncharted seas, and
+the image of Freya serve for an unerring beacon amongst hidden
+shoals; as if the winds had to wait on his future, the stars
+fight for it in their courses; as if the magic of his passion had
+the power to float a ship on a drop of dew or sail her through
+the eye of a needle&mdash;simply because it was her magnificent
+lot to be the servant of a love so full of grace as to make all
+the ways of the earth safe, resplendent, and easy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose,&rdquo; I said, after he had finished
+laughing at my innocent enough remark, &ldquo;I suppose you will
+be off to-day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>That was what he meant to do. He had not gone at
+daylight only because he expected me to come in.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And only fancy what has happened yesterday,&rdquo; he
+went on. &ldquo;My mate left me suddenly. Had
+to. And as there&rsquo;s nobody to be found at a short
+notice I am going to take Schultz with me. The notorious
+Schultz! Why don&rsquo;t you jump out of your skin? I
+tell you I went and unearthed Schultz late last evening, after no
+end of trouble. &lsquo;I am your man, captain,&rsquo; he
+says, in that wonderful voice of his, &lsquo;but I am sorry to
+confess I have practically no clothes to my back. I have
+had to sell all my wardrobe to get a little food from day to
+day.&rsquo; What a voice that man has got. Talk about
+moving stones! But people seem to get used to it. I
+had never seen him before, and, upon my word, I felt suddenly
+tears rising to my eyes. Luckily it was dusk. He was
+sitting very quiet under a tree in a native compound as thin as a
+lath, and when I peered down at him all he had on was an old
+cotton singlet and a pair of ragged pyjamas. I bought him
+six white suits and two pairs of canvas shoes. Can&rsquo;t
+clear the ship without a mate. Must have somebody. I
+am going on shore presently to sign him on, and I shall take him
+with me as I go back on board to get under way. Now, I am a
+lunatic&mdash;am I not? Mad, of course. Come
+on! Lay it on thick. Let yourself go. I like to
+see you get excited.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He so evidently expected me to scold that I took especial
+pleasure in exaggerating the calmness of my attitude.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The worst that can be brought up against
+Schultz,&rdquo; I began, folding my arms and speaking
+dispassionately, &ldquo;is an awkward habit of stealing the
+stores of every ship he has ever been in. He will do
+it. That&rsquo;s really all that&rsquo;s wrong. I
+don&rsquo;t credit absolutely that story Captain Robinson tells
+of Schultz conspiring in Chantabun with some ruffians in a
+Chinese junk to steal the anchor off the starboard bow of the
+<i>Bohemian Girl</i> schooner. Robinson&rsquo;s story is
+too ingenious altogether. That other tale of the engineers
+of the <i>Nan-Shan</i> finding Schultz at midnight in the
+engine-room busy hammering at the brass bearings to carry them
+off for sale on shore seems to me more authentic. Apart
+from this little weakness, let me tell you that Schultz is a
+smarter sailor than many who never took a drop of drink in their
+lives, and perhaps no worse morally than some men you and I know
+who have never stolen the value of a penny. He may not be a
+desirable person to have on board one&rsquo;s ship, but since you
+have no choice he may be made to do, I believe. The
+important thing is to understand his psychology.
+Don&rsquo;t give him any money till you have done with him.
+Not a cent, if he begs ever so. For as sure as Fate the
+moment you give him any money he will begin to steal. Just
+remember that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I enjoyed Jasper&rsquo;s incredulous surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The devil he will!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;What
+on earth for? Aren&rsquo;t you trying to pull my leg, old
+boy?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No. I&rsquo;m not. You must understand
+Schultz&rsquo;s psychology. He&rsquo;s neither a loafer nor
+a cadger. He&rsquo;s not likely to wander about looking for
+somebody to stand him drinks. But suppose he goes on shore
+with five dollars, or fifty for that matter, in his pocket?
+After the third or fourth glass he becomes fuddled and
+charitable. He either drops his money all over the place,
+or else distributes the lot around; gives it to any one who will
+take it. Then it occurs to him that the night is young yet,
+and that he may require a good many more drinks for himself and
+his friends before morning. So he starts off cheerfully for
+his ship. His legs never get affected nor his head either
+in the usual way. He gets aboard and simply grabs the first
+thing that seems to him suitable&mdash;the cabin lamp, a coil of
+rope, a bag of biscuits, a drum of oil&mdash;and converts it into
+money without thinking twice about it. This is the process
+and no other. You have only to look out that he
+doesn&rsquo;t get a start. That&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Confound his psychology,&rdquo; muttered Jasper.
+&ldquo;But a man with a voice like his is fit to talk to the
+angels. Is he incurable do you think?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I said that I thought so. Nobody had prosecuted him yet,
+but no one would employ him any longer. His end would be, I
+feared, to starve in some hole or other.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, well,&rdquo; reflected Jasper. &ldquo;The
+<i>Bonito</i> isn&rsquo;t trading to any ports of
+civilisation. That&rsquo;ll make it easier for him to keep
+straight.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>That was true. The brig&rsquo;s business was on
+uncivilised coasts, with obscure rajahs dwelling in nearly
+unknown bays; with native settlements up mysterious rivers
+opening their sombre, forest-lined estuaries among a welter of
+pale green reefs and dazzling sand-banks, in lonely straits of
+calm blue water all aglitter with sunshine. Alone, far from
+the beaten tracks, she glided, all white, round dark, frowning
+headlands, stole out, silent like a ghost, from behind points of
+land stretching out all black in the moonlight; or lay hove-to,
+like a sleeping sea-bird, under the shadow of some nameless
+mountain waiting for a signal. She would be glimpsed
+suddenly on misty, squally days dashing disdainfully aside the
+short aggressive waves of the Java Sea; or be seen far, far away,
+a tiny dazzling white speck flying across the brooding purple
+masses of thunderclouds piled up on the horizon. Sometimes,
+on the rare mail tracks, where civilisation brushes against wild
+mystery, when the na&iuml;ve passengers crowding along the rail
+exclaimed, pointing at her with interest: &ldquo;Oh, here&rsquo;s
+a yacht!&rdquo; the Dutch captain, with a hostile glance, would
+grunt contemptuously: &ldquo;Yacht! No! That&rsquo;s
+only English Jasper. A pedlar&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A good seaman you say,&rdquo; ejaculated Jasper, still
+in the matter of the hopeless Schultz with the wonderfully
+touching voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;First rate. Ask any one. Quite worth
+having&mdash;only impossible,&rdquo; I declared.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He shall have his chance to reform in the brig,&rdquo;
+said Jasper, with a laugh. &ldquo;There will be no
+temptations either to drink or steal where I am going to this
+time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I didn&rsquo;t press him for anything more definite on that
+point. In fact, intimate as we were, I had a pretty clear
+notion of the general run of his business.</p>
+
+<p>But as we are going ashore in his gig he asked suddenly:
+&ldquo;By the way, do you know where Heemskirk is?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I eyed him covertly, and was reassured. He had asked the
+question, not as a lover, but as a trader. I told him that
+I had heard in Palembang that the <i>Neptun</i> was on duty down
+about Flores and Sumbawa. Quite out of his way. He
+expressed his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You know,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that fellow, when
+he gets on the Borneo coast, amuses himself by knocking down my
+beacons. I have had to put up a few to help me in and out
+of the rivers. Early this year a Celebes trader becalmed in
+a prau was watching him at it. He steamed the gunboat full
+tilt at two of them, one after another, smashing them to pieces,
+and then lowered a boat on purpose to pull out a third, which I
+had a lot of trouble six months ago to stick up in the middle of
+a mudflat for a tide mark. Did you ever hear of anything
+more provoking&mdash;eh?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t quarrel with the beggar,&rdquo; I
+observed casually, yet disliking that piece of news
+strongly. &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t worth while.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I quarrel?&rdquo; cried Jasper. &ldquo;I
+don&rsquo;t want to quarrel. I don&rsquo;t want to hurt a
+single hair of his ugly head. My dear fellow, when I think
+of Freya&rsquo;s twenty-first birthday, all the world&rsquo;s my
+friend, Heemskirk included. It&rsquo;s a nasty, spiteful
+amusement, all the same.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We parted rather hurriedly on the quay, each of us having his
+own pressing business to attend to. I would have been very
+much cut up had I known that this hurried grasp of the hand with
+&ldquo;So long, old boy. Good luck to you!&rdquo; was the
+last of our partings.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to the Straits I was away, and he was gone again
+before I got back. He was trying to achieve three trips
+before Freya&rsquo;s twenty-first birthday. At
+Nelson&rsquo;s Cove I missed him again by only a couple of
+days. Freya and I talked of &ldquo;that lunatic&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;perfect idiot&rdquo; with great delight and infinite
+appreciation. She was very radiant, with a more pronounced
+gaiety, notwithstanding that she had just parted from
+Jasper. But this was to be their last separation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do get aboard as soon as you can, Miss Freya,&rdquo; I
+entreated.</p>
+
+<p>She looked me straight in the face, her colour a little
+heightened and with a sort of solemn ardour&mdash;if there was a
+little catch in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The very next day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ah, yes! The very next day after her twenty-first
+birthday. I was pleased at this hint of deep feeling.
+It was as if she had grown impatient at last of the self-imposed
+delay. I supposed that Jasper&rsquo;s recent visit had told
+heavily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; I said approvingly.
+&ldquo;I shall be much easier in my mind when I know you have
+taken charge of that lunatic. Don&rsquo;t you lose a
+minute. He, of course, will be on time&mdash;unless heavens
+fall.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. Unless&mdash;&rdquo; she repeated in a
+thoughtful whisper, raising her eyes to the evening sky without a
+speck of cloud anywhere. Silent for a time, we let our eyes
+wander over the waters below, looking mysteriously still in the
+twilight, as if trustfully composed for a long, long dream in the
+warm, tropical night. And the peace all round us seemed
+without limits and without end.</p>
+
+<p>And then we began again to talk Jasper over in our usual
+strain. We agreed that he was too reckless in many
+ways. Luckily, the brig was equal to the situation.
+Nothing apparently was too much for her. A perfect darling
+of a ship, said Miss Freya. She and her father had spent an
+afternoon on board. Jasper had given them some tea.
+Papa was grumpy. . . . I had a vision of old Nelson under the
+brig&rsquo;s snowy awnings, nursing his unassuming vexation, and
+fanning himself with his hat. A comedy father. . . . As a
+new instance of Jasper&rsquo;s lunacy, I was told that he was
+distressed at his inability to have solid silver handles fitted
+to all the cabin doors. &ldquo;As if I would have let
+him!&rdquo; commented Miss Freya, with amused indignation.
+Incidentally, I learned also that Schultz, the nautical
+kleptomaniac with the pathetic voice, was still hanging on to his
+job, with Miss Freya&rsquo;s approval. Jasper had confided
+to the lady of his heart his purpose of straightening out the
+fellow&rsquo;s psychology. Yes, indeed. All the world
+was his friend because it breathed the same air with Freya.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow or other, I brought Heemskirk&rsquo;s name into
+conversation, and, to my great surprise, startled Miss
+Freya. Her eyes expressed something like distress, while
+she bit her lip as if to contain an explosion of laughter.
+Oh! Yes. Heemskirk was at the bungalow at the same
+time with Jasper, but he arrived the day after. He left the
+same day as the brig, but a few hours later.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What a nuisance he must have been to you two,&rdquo; I
+said feelingly.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes flashed at me a sort of frightened merriment, and
+suddenly she exploded into a clear burst of laughter.
+&ldquo;Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I echoed it heartily, but not with the game charming tone:
+&ldquo;Ha, ha, ha! . . . Isn&rsquo;t he grotesque? Ha, ha,
+ha!&rdquo; And the ludicrousness of old Nelson&rsquo;s
+inanely fierce round eyes in association with his conciliatory
+manner to the lieutenant presenting itself to my mind brought on
+another fit.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He looks,&rdquo; I spluttered, &ldquo;he
+looks&mdash;Ha, ha, ha!&mdash;amongst you three . . . like an
+unhappy black-beetle. Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She gave out another ringing peal, ran off into her own room,
+and slammed the door behind her, leaving me profoundly
+astounded. I stopped laughing at once.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the joke?&rdquo; asked old Nelson&rsquo;s
+voice, half way down the steps.</p>
+
+<p>He came up, sat down, and blew out his cheeks, looking
+inexpressibly fatuous. But I didn&rsquo;t want to laugh any
+more. And what on earth, I asked myself, have we been
+laughing at in this uncontrollable fashion. I felt suddenly
+depressed.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, yes. Freya had started it. The girl&rsquo;s
+overwrought, I thought. And really one couldn&rsquo;t
+wonder at it.</p>
+
+<p>I had no answer to old Nelson&rsquo;s question, but he was too
+aggrieved at Jasper&rsquo;s visit to think of anything
+else. He as good as asked me whether I wouldn&rsquo;t
+undertake to hint to Jasper that he was not wanted at the Seven
+Isles group. I declared that it was not necessary.
+From certain circumstances which had come to my knowledge lately,
+I had reason to think that he would not be much troubled by
+Jasper Allen in the future.</p>
+
+<p>He emitted an earnest &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; which nearly
+set me laughing again, but he did not brighten up
+proportionately. It seemed Heemskirk had taken special
+pains to make himself disagreeable. The lieutenant had
+frightened old Nelson very much by expressing a sinister wonder
+at the Government permitting a white man to settle down in that
+part at all. &ldquo;It is against our declared
+policy,&rdquo; he had remarked. He had also charged him
+with being in reality no better than an Englishman. He had
+even tried to pick a quarrel with him for not learning to speak
+Dutch.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I told him I was too old to learn now,&rdquo; sighed
+out old Nelson (or Nielsen) dismally. &ldquo;He said I
+ought to have learned Dutch long before. I had been making
+my living in Dutch dependencies. It was disgraceful of me
+not to speak Dutch, he said. He was as savage with me as if
+I had been a Chinaman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was plain he had been viciously badgered. He did not
+mention how many bottles of his best claret he had offered up on
+the altar of conciliation. It must have been a generous
+libation. But old Nelson (or Nielsen) was really
+hospitable. He didn&rsquo;t mind that; and I only regretted
+that this virtue should be lavished on the lieutenant-commander
+of the <i>Neptun</i>. I longed to tell him that in all
+probability he would be relieved from Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+visitations also. I did not do so only from the fear
+(absurd, I admit) of arousing some sort of suspicion in his
+mind. As if with this guileless comedy father such a thing
+were possible!</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, the last words on the subject of Heemskirk
+were spoken by Freya, and in that very sense. The
+lieutenant was turning up persistently in old Nelson&rsquo;s
+conversation at dinner. At last I muttered a half audible
+&ldquo;Damn the lieutenant.&rdquo; I could see that the
+girl was getting exasperated, too.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And he wasn&rsquo;t well at all&mdash;was he,
+Freya?&rdquo; old Nelson went on moaning. &ldquo;Perhaps it
+was that which made him so snappish, hey, Freya? He looked
+very bad when he left us so suddenly. His liver must be in
+a bad state, too.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, he will end by getting over it,&rdquo; said Freya
+impatiently. &ldquo;And do leave off worrying about him,
+papa. Very likely you won&rsquo;t see much of him for a
+long time to come.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The look she gave me in exchange for my discreet smile had no
+hidden mirth in it. Her eyes seemed hollowed, her face gone
+wan in a couple of hours. We had been laughing too
+much. Overwrought! Overwrought by the approach of the
+decisive moment. After all, sincere, courageous, and
+self-reliant as she was, she must have felt both the passion and
+the compunction of her resolve. The very strength of love
+which had carried her up to that point must have put her under a
+great moral strain, in which there might have been a little
+simple remorse, too. For she was honest&mdash;and there,
+across the table, sat poor old Nelson (or Nielsen) staring at
+her, round-eyed and so pathetically comic in his fierce aspect as
+to touch the most lightsome heart.</p>
+
+<p>He retired early to his room to soothe himself for a
+night&rsquo;s rest by perusing his account-books. We two
+remained on the verandah for another hour or so, but we exchanged
+only languid phrases on things without importance, as though we
+had been emotionally jaded by our long day&rsquo;s talk on the
+only momentous subject. And yet there was something she
+might have told a friend. But she didn&rsquo;t. We
+parted silently. She distrusted my masculine lack of common
+sense, perhaps. . . . O! Freya!</p>
+
+<p>Going down the precipitous path to the landing-stage, I was
+confronted in the shadows of boulders and bushes by a draped
+feminine figure whose appearance startled me at first. It
+glided into my way suddenly from behind a piece of rock.
+But in a moment it occurred to me that it could be no one else
+but Freya&rsquo;s maid, a half-caste Malacca Portuguese.
+One caught fleeting glimpses of her olive face and dazzling white
+teeth about the house. I had observed her at times from a
+distance, as she sat within call under the shade of some fruit
+trees, brushing and plaiting her long raven locks. It
+seemed to be the principal occupation of her leisure hours.
+We had often exchanged nods and smiles&mdash;and a few words,
+too. She was a pretty creature. And once I had
+watched her approvingly make funny and expressive grimaces behind
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s back. I understood (from Jasper) that she
+was in the secret, like a comedy camerista. She was to
+accompany Freya on her irregular way to matrimony and &ldquo;ever
+after&rdquo; happiness. Why should she be roaming by night
+near the cove&mdash;unless on some love affair of her own&mdash;I
+asked myself. But there was nobody suitable within the
+Seven Isles group, as far as I knew. It flashed upon me
+that it was myself she had been lying in wait for.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, muffled from head to foot, shadowy and
+bashful. I advanced another pace, and how I felt is
+nobody&rsquo;s business.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I asked, very low.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nobody knows I am here,&rdquo; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And nobody can see us,&rdquo; I whispered back.</p>
+
+<p>The murmur of words &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been so
+frightened&rdquo; reached me. Just then forty feet above
+our head, from the yet lighted verandah, unexpected and
+startling, Freya&rsquo;s voice rang out in a clear, imperious
+call:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Antonia!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>With a stifled exclamation, the hesitating girl vanished out
+of the path. A bush near by rustled; then silence. I
+waited wondering. The lights on the verandah went
+out. I waited a while longer then continued down the path
+to my boat, wondering more than ever.</p>
+
+<p>I remember the occurrences of that visit especially, because
+this was the last time I saw the Nelson bungalow. On
+arriving at the Straits I found cable messages which made it
+necessary for me to throw up my employment at a moment&rsquo;s
+notice and go home at once. I had a desperate scramble to
+catch the mailboat which was due to leave next day, but I found
+time to write two short notes, one to Freya, the other to
+Jasper. Later on I wrote at length, this time to Allen
+alone. I got no answer. I hunted up then his brother,
+or, rather, half-brother, a solicitor in the city, a sallow,
+calm, little man who looked at me over his spectacles
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper was the only child of his father&rsquo;s second
+marriage, a transaction which had failed to commend itself to the
+first, grown-up family.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t heard for ages,&rdquo; I repeated,
+with secret annoyance. &ldquo;May I ask what &lsquo;for
+ages&rsquo; means in this connection?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It means that I don&rsquo;t care whether I ever hear
+from him or not,&rdquo; retorted the little man of law, turning
+nasty suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>I could not blame Jasper for not wasting his time in
+correspondence with such an outrageous relative. But why
+didn&rsquo;t he write to me&mdash;a decent sort of friend, after
+all; enough of a friend to find for his silence the excuse of
+forgetfulness natural to a state of transcendental bliss? I
+waited indulgently, but nothing ever came. And the East
+seemed to drop out of my life without an echo, like a stone
+falling into a well of prodigious depth.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">suppose</span> praiseworthy motives are
+a sufficient justification almost for anything. What could
+be more commendable in the abstract than a girl&rsquo;s
+determination that &ldquo;poor papa&rdquo; should not be worried,
+and her anxiety that the man of her choice should be kept by any
+means from every occasion of doing something rash, something
+which might endanger the whole scheme of their happiness?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be more tender and more prudent. We must
+also remember the girl&rsquo;s self-reliant temperament, and the
+general unwillingness of women&mdash;I mean women of
+sense&mdash;to make a fuss over matters of that sort.</p>
+
+<p>As has been said already, Heemskirk turned up some time after
+Jasper&rsquo;s arrival at Nelson&rsquo;s Cove. The sight of
+the brig lying right under the bungalow was very offensive to
+him. He did not fly ashore before his anchor touched the
+ground as Jasper used to do. On the contrary, he hung about
+his quarter-deck mumbling to himself; and when he ordered his
+boat to be manned it was in an angry voice. Freya&rsquo;s
+existence, which lifted Jasper out of himself into a blissful
+elation, was for Heemskirk a cause of secret torment, of hours of
+exasperated brooding.</p>
+
+<p>While passing the brig he hailed her harshly and asked if the
+master was on board. Schultz, smart and neat in a spotless
+white suit, leaned over the taffrail, finding the question
+somewhat amusing. He looked humorously down into
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s boat, and answered, in the most amiable
+modulations of his beautiful voice: &ldquo;Captain Allen is up at
+the house, sir.&rdquo; But his expression changed suddenly
+at the savage growl: &ldquo;What the devil are you grinning
+at?&rdquo; which acknowledged that information.</p>
+
+<p>He watched Heemskirk land and, instead of going to the house,
+stride away by another path into the grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The desire-tormented Dutchman found old Nelson (or Nielsen) at
+his drying-sheds, very busy superintending the manipulation of
+his tobacco crop, which, though small, was of excellent quality,
+and enjoying himself thoroughly. But Heemskirk soon put a
+stop to this simple happiness. He sat down by the old chap,
+and by the sort of talk which he knew was best calculated for the
+purpose, reduced him before long to a state of concealed and
+perspiring nervousness. It was a horrid talk of
+&ldquo;authorities,&rdquo; and old Nelson tried to defend
+himself. If he dealt with English traders it was because he
+had to dispose of his produce somehow. He was as
+conciliatory as he knew how to be, and this very thing seemed to
+excite Heemskirk, who had worked himself up into a heavily
+breathing state of passion.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And the worst of them all is that Allen,&rdquo; he
+growled. &ldquo;Your particular friend&mdash;eh? You
+have let in a lot of these Englishmen into this part. You
+ought never to have been allowed to settle here.
+Never. What&rsquo;s he doing here now?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Old Nelson (or Nielsen), becoming very agitated, declared that
+Jasper Allen was no particular friend of his. No friend at
+all&mdash;at all. He had bought three tons of rice from him
+to feed his workpeople on. What sort of evidence of
+friendship was that? Heemskirk burst out at last with the
+thought that had been gnawing at his vitals:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. Sell three tons of rice and flirt three days
+with that girl of yours. I am speaking to you as a friend,
+Nielsen. This won&rsquo;t do. You are only on
+sufferance here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Old Nelson was taken aback at first, but recovered pretty
+quickly. Won&rsquo;t do! Certainly! Of course,
+it wouldn&rsquo;t do! The last man in the world. But
+his girl didn&rsquo;t care for the fellow, and was too sensible
+to fall in love with any one. He was very earnest in
+impressing on Heemskirk his own feeling of absolute
+security. And the lieutenant, casting doubting glances
+sideways, was yet willing to believe him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Much you know about it,&rdquo; he grunted
+nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But I do know,&rdquo; insisted old Nelson, with the
+greater desperation because he wanted to resist the doubts
+arising in his own mind. &ldquo;My own daughter! In
+my own house, and I not to know! Come! It would be a
+good joke, lieutenant.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;They seem to be carrying on considerably,&rdquo;
+remarked Heemskirk moodily. &ldquo;I suppose they are
+together now,&rdquo; he added, feeling a pang which changed what
+he meant for a mocking smile into a strange grimace.</p>
+
+<p>The harassed Nelson shook his hand at him. He was at
+bottom shocked at this insistence, and was even beginning to feel
+annoyed at the absurdity of it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Pooh! Pooh! I&rsquo;ll tell you what,
+lieutenant: you go to the house and have a drop of
+gin-and-bitters before dinner. Ask for Freya. I must
+see the last of this tobacco put away for the night, but
+I&rsquo;ll be along presently.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk was not insensible to this suggestion. It
+answered to his secret longing, which was not a longing for
+drink, however. Old Nelson shouted solicitously after his
+broad back a recommendation to make himself comfortable, and that
+there was a box of cheroots on the verandah.</p>
+
+<p>It was the west verandah that old Nelson meant, the one which
+was the living-room of the house, and had split-rattan screens of
+the very finest quality. The east verandah, sacred to his
+own privacy, puffing out of cheeks, and other signs of perplexed
+thinking, was fitted with stout blinds of sailcloth. The
+north verandah was not a verandah at all, really. It was
+more like a long balcony. It did not communicate with the
+other two, and could only be approached by a passage inside the
+house. Thus it had a privacy which made it a convenient
+place for a maiden&rsquo;s meditations without words, and also
+for the discourses, apparently without sense, which, passing
+between a young man and a maid, become pregnant with a diversity
+of transcendental meanings.</p>
+
+<p>This north verandah was embowered with climbing plants.
+Freya, whose room opened out on it, had furnished it as a sort of
+boudoir for herself, with a few cane chairs and a sofa of the
+same kind. On this sofa she and Jasper sat as close
+together as is possible in this imperfect world where neither can
+a body be in two places at once nor yet two bodies can be in one
+place at the same time. They had been sitting together all
+the afternoon, and I won&rsquo;t say that their talk had been
+without sense. Loving him with a little judicious anxiety
+lest in his elation he should break his heart over some mishap,
+Freya naturally would talk to him soberly. He, nervous and
+brusque when away from her, appeared always as if overcome by her
+visibility, by the great wonder of being palpably loved. An
+old man&rsquo;s child, having lost his mother early, thrown out
+to sea out of the way while very young, he had not much
+experience of tenderness of any kind.</p>
+
+<p>In this private, foliage-embowered verandah, and at this late
+hour of the afternoon, he bent down a little, and, possessing
+himself of Freya&rsquo;s hands, was kissing them one after
+another, while she smiled and looked down at his head with the
+eyes of approving compassion. At that same moment Heemskirk
+was approaching the house from the north.</p>
+
+<p>Antonia was on the watch on that side. But she did not
+keep a very good watch. The sun was setting; she knew that
+her young mistress and the captain of the <i>Bonito</i> were
+about to separate. She was walking to and fro in the dusky
+grove with a flower in her hair, and singing softly to herself,
+when suddenly, within a foot of her, the lieutenant appeared from
+behind a tree. She bounded aside like a startled fawn, but
+Heemskirk, with a lucid comprehension of what she was there for,
+pounced upon her, and, catching her arm, clapped his other thick
+hand over her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you try to make a noise I&rsquo;ll twist your
+neck!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This ferocious figure of speech terrified the girl
+sufficiently. Heemskirk had seen plainly enough on the
+verandah Freya&rsquo;s golden head with another head very close
+to it. He dragged the unresisting maid with him by a
+circuitous way into the compound, where he dismissed her with a
+vicious push in the direction of the cluster of bamboo huts for
+the servants.</p>
+
+<p>She was very much like the faithful camerista of Italian
+comedy, but in her terror she bolted away without a sound from
+that thick, short, black-eyed man with a cruel grip of fingers
+like a vice. Quaking all over at a distance, extremely
+scared and half inclined to laugh, she saw him enter the house at
+the back.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the bungalow was divided by two passages
+crossing each other in the middle. At that point Heemskirk,
+by turning his head slightly to the left as he passed, secured
+the evidence of &ldquo;carrying on&rdquo; so irreconcilable with
+old Nelson&rsquo;s assurances that it made him stagger, with a
+rush of blood to his head. Two white figures, distinct
+against the light, stood in an unmistakable attitude.
+Freya&rsquo;s arms were round Jasper&rsquo;s neck. Their
+faces were characteristically superimposed on each other, and
+Heemskirk went on, his throat choked with a sudden rising of
+curses, till on the west verandah he stumbled blindly against a
+chair and then dropped into another as though his legs had been
+swept from under him. He had indulged too long in the habit
+of appropriating Freya to himself in his thoughts.
+&ldquo;Is that how you entertain your visitors&mdash;you . . .
+&rdquo; he thought, so outraged that he could not find a
+sufficiently degrading epithet.</p>
+
+<p>Freya struggled a little and threw her head back.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Somebody has come in,&rdquo; she whispered.
+Jasper, holding her clasped closely to his breast, and looking
+down into her face, suggested casually:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your father.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya tried to disengage herself, but she had not the heart
+absolutely to push him away with her hands.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s Heemskirk,&rdquo; she breathed out
+at him.</p>
+
+<p>He, plunging into her eyes in a quiet rapture, was provoked to
+a vague smile by the sound of the name.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The ass is always knocking down my beacons outside the
+river,&rdquo; he murmured. He attached no other meaning to
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s existence; but Freya was asking herself whether
+the lieutenant had seen them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Let me go, kid,&rdquo; she ordered in a peremptory
+whisper. Jasper obeyed, and, stepping back at once,
+continued his contemplation of her face under another
+angle. &ldquo;I must go and see,&rdquo; she said to herself
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>She instructed him hurriedly to wait a moment after she was
+gone and then to slip on to the back verandah and get a quiet
+smoke before he showed himself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t stay late this evening,&rdquo; was her last
+recommendation before she left him.</p>
+
+<p>Then Freya came out on the west verandah with her light, rapid
+step. While going through the doorway she managed to shake
+down the folds of the looped-up curtains at the end of the
+passage so as to cover Jasper&rsquo;s retreat from the
+bower. Directly she appeared Heemskirk jumped up as if to
+fly at her. She paused and he made her an exaggerated low
+bow.</p>
+
+<p>It irritated Freya.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! It&rsquo;s you, Mr. Heemskirk. How do
+you do?&rdquo; She spoke in her usual tone. Her face
+was not plainly visible to him in the dusk of the deep
+verandah. He dared not trust himself to speak, his rage at
+what he had seen was so great. And when she added with
+serenity: &ldquo;Papa will be coming in before long,&rdquo; he
+called her horrid names silently, to himself, before he spoke
+with contorted lips.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have seen your father already. We had a talk in
+the sheds. He told me some very interesting things.
+Oh, very&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya sat down. She thought: &ldquo;He has seen us, for
+certain.&rdquo; She was not ashamed. What she was
+afraid of was some foolish or awkward complication. But she
+could not conceive how much her person had been appropriated by
+Heemskirk (in his thoughts). She tried to be
+conversational.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are coming now from Palembang, I
+suppose?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eh? What? Oh, yes! I come from
+Palembang. Ha, ha, ha! You know what your father
+said? He said he was afraid you were having a very dull
+time of it here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And I suppose you are going to cruise in the
+Moluccas,&rdquo; continued Freya, who wanted to impart some
+useful information to Jasper if possible. At the same time
+she was always glad to know that those two men were a few hundred
+miles apart when not under her eye.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk growled angrily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. Moluccas,&rdquo; glaring in the direction of
+her shadowy figure. &ldquo;Your father thinks it&rsquo;s
+very quiet for you here. I tell you what, Miss Freya.
+There isn&rsquo;t such a quiet spot on earth that a woman
+can&rsquo;t find an opportunity of making a fool of
+somebody.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya thought: &ldquo;I mustn&rsquo;t let him provoke
+me.&rdquo; Presently the Tamil boy, who was Nelson&rsquo;s
+head servant, came in with the lights. She addressed him at
+once with voluble directions where to put the lamps, told him to
+bring the tray with the gin and bitters, and to send Antonia into
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will have to leave you to yourself, Mr. Heemskirk,
+for a while,&rdquo; she said.</p>
+
+<p>And she went to her room to put on another frock. She
+made a quick change of it because she wished to be on the
+verandah before her father and the lieutenant met again.
+She relied on herself to regulate that evening&rsquo;s
+intercourse between these two. But Antonia, still scared
+and hysterical, exhibited a bruise on her arm which roused
+Freya&rsquo;s indignation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He jumped on me out of the bush like a tiger,&rdquo;
+said the girl, laughing nervously with frightened eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The brute!&rdquo; thought Freya. &ldquo;He meant
+to spy on us, then.&rdquo; She was enraged, but the
+recollection of the thick Dutchman in white trousers wide at the
+hips and narrow at the ankles, with his shoulder-straps and black
+bullet head, glaring at her in the light of the lamps, was so
+repulsively comical that she could not help a smiling
+grimace. Then she became anxious. The absurdities of
+three men were forcing this anxiety upon her: Jasper&rsquo;s
+impetuosity, her father&rsquo;s fears, Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+infatuation. She was very tender to the first two, and she
+made up her mind to display all her feminine diplomacy. All
+this, she said to herself, will be over and done with before very
+long now.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk on the verandah, lolling in a chair, his legs
+extended and his white cap reposing on his stomach, was lashing
+himself into a fury of an atrocious character altogether
+incomprehensible to a girl like Freya. His chin was resting
+on his chest, his eyes gazed stonily at his shoes. Freya
+examined him from behind the curtain. He didn&rsquo;t
+stir. He was ridiculous. But this absolute stillness
+was impressive. She stole back along the passage to the
+east verandah, where Jasper was sitting quietly in the dark,
+doing what he was told, like a good boy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Psst,&rdquo; she hissed. He was by her side in a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes. What is it?&rdquo; he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s that beetle,&rdquo; she whispered
+uneasily. Under the impression of Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+sinister immobility she had half a mind to let Jasper know that
+they had been seen. But she was by no means certain that
+Heemskirk would tell her father&mdash;and at any rate not that
+evening. She concluded rapidly that the safest thing would
+be to get Jasper out of the way as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What has he been doing?&rdquo; asked Jasper in a calm
+undertone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, nothing! Nothing. He sits there looking
+cross. But you know how he&rsquo;s always worrying
+papa.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your father&rsquo;s quite unreasonable,&rdquo;
+pronounced Jasper judicially.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; she said in a doubtful
+tone. Something of old Nelson&rsquo;s dread of the
+authorities had rubbed off on the girl since she had to live with
+it day after day. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.
+Papa&rsquo;s afraid of being reduced to beggary, as he says, in
+his old days. Look here, kid, you had better clear out
+to-morrow, first thing.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper had hoped for another afternoon with Freya, an
+afternoon of quiet felicity with the girl by his side and his
+eyes on his brig, anticipating a blissful future. His
+silence was eloquent with disappointment, and Freya understood it
+very well. She, too, was disappointed. But it was her
+business to be sensible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We shan&rsquo;t have a moment to ourselves with that
+beetle creeping round the house,&rdquo; she argued in a low,
+hurried voice. &ldquo;So what&rsquo;s the good of your
+staying? And he won&rsquo;t go while the brig&rsquo;s
+here. You know he won&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He ought to be reported for loitering,&rdquo; murmured
+Jasper with a vexed little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mind you get under way at daylight,&rdquo; recommended
+Freya under her breath.</p>
+
+<p>He detained her after the manner of lovers. She
+expostulated without struggling because it was hard for her to
+repulse him. He whispered into her ear while he put his
+arms round her.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Next time we two meet, next time I hold you like this,
+it shall be on board. You and I, in the brig&mdash;all the
+world, all the life&mdash;&rdquo; And then he flashed out:
+&ldquo;I wonder I can wait! I feel as if I must carry you
+off now, at once. I could run with you in my
+hands&mdash;down the path&mdash;without stumbling&mdash;without
+touching the earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She was still. She listened to the passion in his
+voice. She was saying to herself that if she were to
+whisper the faintest yes, if she were but to sigh lightly her
+consent, he would do it. He was capable of doing
+it&mdash;without touching the earth. She closed her eyes
+and smiled in the dark, abandoning herself in a delightful
+giddiness, for an instant, to his encircling arm. But
+before he could be tempted to tighten his grasp she was out of
+it, a foot away from him and in full possession of herself.</p>
+
+<p>That was the steady Freya. She was touched by the deep
+sigh which floated up to her from the white figure of Jasper, who
+did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are a mad kid,&rdquo; she said tremulously.
+Then with a change of tone: &ldquo;No one could carry me
+off. Not even you. I am not the sort of girl that
+gets carried off.&rdquo; His white form seemed to shrink a
+little before the force of that assertion and she relented.
+&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it enough for you to know that you
+have&mdash;that you have carried me away?&rdquo; she added in a
+tender tone.</p>
+
+<p>He murmured an endearing word, and she continued:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve promised you&mdash;I&rsquo;ve said I would
+come&mdash;and I shall come of my own free will. You shall
+wait for me on board. I shall get up the side&mdash;by
+myself, and walk up to you on the deck and say: &lsquo;Here I am,
+kid.&rsquo; And then&mdash;and then I shall be carried
+off. But it will be no man who will carry me off&mdash;it
+will be the brig, your brig&mdash;our brig. . . . I love the
+beauty!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She heard an inarticulate sound, something like a moan wrung
+out by pain or delight, and glided away. There was that
+other man on the other verandah, that dark, surly Dutchman who
+could make trouble between Jasper and her father, bring about a
+quarrel, ugly words, and perhaps a physical collision. What
+a horrible situation! But, even putting aside that awful
+extremity, she shrank from having to live for some three months
+with a wretched, tormented, angry, distracted, absurd man.
+And when the day came, the day and the hour, what should she do
+if her father tried to detain her by main force&mdash;as was,
+after all, possible? Could she actually struggle with him
+hand to hand? But it was of lamentations and entreaties
+that she was really afraid. Could she withstand them?
+What an odious, cruel, ridiculous position would that be!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But it won&rsquo;t be. He&rsquo;ll say
+nothing,&rdquo; she thought as she came out quickly on the west
+verandah, and, seeing that Heemskirk did not move, sat down on a
+chair near the doorway and kept her eyes on him. The
+outraged lieutenant had not changed his attitude; only his cap
+had fallen off his stomach and was lying on the floor. His
+thick black eyebrows were knitted by a frown, while he looked at
+her out of the corners of his eyes. And their sideways
+glance in conjunction with the hooked nose, the whole bulky,
+ungainly, sprawling person, struck Freya as so comically moody
+that, inwardly discomposed as she was, she could not help
+smiling. She did her best to give that smile a conciliatory
+character. She did not want to provoke Heemskirk
+needlessly.</p>
+
+<p>And the lieutenant, perceiving that smile, was
+mollified. It never entered his head that his outward
+appearance, a naval officer, in uniform, could appear ridiculous
+to that girl of no position&mdash;the daughter of old
+Nielsen. The recollection of her arms round Jasper&rsquo;s
+neck still irritated and excited him. &ldquo;The
+hussy!&rdquo; he thought. &ldquo;Smiling&mdash;eh?
+That&rsquo;s how you are amusing yourself. Fooling your
+father finely, aren&rsquo;t you? You have a taste for that
+sort of fun&mdash;have you? Well, we shall
+see&mdash;&rdquo; He did not alter his position, but on his
+pursed-up lips there also appeared a smile of surly and
+ill-omened amusement, while his eyes returned to the
+contemplation of his boots.</p>
+
+<p>Freya felt hot with indignation. She sat radiantly fair
+in the lamplight, her strong, well-shaped hands lying one on top
+of the other in her lap. . . &ldquo;Odious creature,&rdquo; she
+thought. Her face coloured with sudden anger.
+&ldquo;You have scared my maid out of her senses,&rdquo; she said
+aloud. &ldquo;What possessed you?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was thinking so deeply of her that the sound of her voice,
+pronouncing these unexpected words, startled him extremely.
+He jerked up his head and looked so bewildered that Freya
+insisted impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I mean Antonia. You have bruised her arm.
+What did you do it for?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Do you want to quarrel with me?&rdquo; he asked
+thickly, with a sort of amazement. He blinked like an
+owl. He was funny. Freya, like all women, had a keen
+sense of the ridiculous in outward appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, no; I don&rsquo;t think I do.&rdquo; She
+could not help herself. She laughed outright, a clear,
+nervous laugh in which Heemskirk joined suddenly with a harsh
+&ldquo;Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Voices and footsteps were heard in the passage, and Jasper,
+with old Nelson, came out. Old Nelson looked at his
+daughter approvingly, for he liked the lieutenant to be kept in
+good humour. And he also joined sympathetically in the
+laugh. &ldquo;Now, lieutenant, we shall have some
+dinner,&rdquo; he said, rubbing his hands cheerily. Jasper
+had gone straight to the balustrade. The sky was full of
+stars, and in the blue velvety night the cove below had a denser
+blackness, in which the riding-lights of the brig and of the
+gunboat glimmered redly, like suspended sparks. &ldquo;Next
+time this riding-light glimmers down there, I&rsquo;ll be waiting
+for her on the quarter-deck to come and say &lsquo;Here I
+am,&rsquo;&rdquo; Jasper thought; and his heart seemed to grow
+bigger in his chest, dilated by an oppressive happiness that
+nearly wrung out a cry from him. There was no wind.
+Not a leaf below him stirred, and even the sea was but a still
+uncomplaining shadow. Far away on the unclouded sky the
+pale lightning, the heat-lightning of the tropics, played
+tremulously amongst the low stars in short, faint, mysteriously
+consecutive flashes, like incomprehensible signals from some
+distant planet.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner passed off quietly. Freya sat facing her
+father, calm but pale. Heemskirk affected to talk only to
+old Nelson. Jasper&rsquo;s behaviour was exemplary.
+He kept his eyes under control, basking in the sense of
+Freya&rsquo;s nearness, as people bask in the sun without looking
+up to heaven. And very soon after dinner was over, mindful
+of his instructions, he declared that it was time for him to go
+on board his ship.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk did not look up. Ensconced in the
+rocking-chair, and puffing at a cheroot, he had the air of
+meditating surlily over some odious outbreak. So at least
+it seemed to Freya. Old Nelson said at once:
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll stroll down with you.&rdquo; He had begun
+a professional conversation about the dangers of the New Guinea
+coast, and wanted to relate to Jasper some experience of his own
+&ldquo;over there.&rdquo; Jasper was such a good
+listener! Freya made as if to accompany them, but her
+father frowned, shook his head, and nodded significantly towards
+the immovable Heemskirk blotting out smoke with half-closed eyes
+and protruded lips. The lieutenant must not be left
+alone. Take offence, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>Freya obeyed these signs. &ldquo;Perhaps it is better
+for me to stay,&rdquo; she thought. Women are not generally
+prone to review their own conduct, still less to condemn
+it. The embarrassing masculine absurdities are in the main
+responsible for its ethics. But, looking at Heemskirk,
+Freya felt regret and even remorse. His thick bulk in
+repose suggested the idea of repletion, but as a matter of fact
+he had eaten very little. He had drunk a great deal,
+however. The fleshy lobes of his unpleasant big ears with
+deeply folded rims were crimson. They quite flamed in the
+neighbourhood of the flat, sallow cheeks. For a
+considerable time he did not raise his heavy brown eyelids.
+To be at the mercy of such a creature was humiliating; and Freya,
+who always ended by being frank with herself, thought
+regretfully: &ldquo;If only I had been open with papa from the
+first! But then what an impossible life he would have led
+me!&rdquo; Yes. Men were absurd in many ways; lovably
+like Jasper, impracticably like her father, odiously like that
+grotesquely supine creature in the chair. Was it possible
+to talk him over? Perhaps it was not necessary?
+&ldquo;Oh! I can&rsquo;t talk to him,&rdquo; she
+thought. And when Heemskirk, still without looking at her,
+began resolutely to crush his half-smoked cheroot on the
+coffee-tray, she took alarm, glided towards the piano, opened it
+in tremendous haste, and struck the keys before she sat down.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant the verandah, the whole carpetless wooden
+bungalow raised on piles, became filled with an uproarious,
+confused resonance. But through it all she heard, she felt
+on the floor the heavy, prowling footsteps of the lieutenant
+moving to and fro at her back. He was not exactly drunk,
+but he was sufficiently primed to make the suggestions of his
+excited imagination seem perfectly feasible and even clever;
+beautifully, unscrupulously clever. Freya, aware that he
+had stopped just behind her, went on playing without turning her
+head. She played with spirit, brilliantly, a fierce piece
+of music, but when his voice reached her she went cold all
+over. It was the voice, not the words. The insolent
+familiarity of tone dismayed her to such an extent that she could
+not understand at first what he was saying. His utterance
+was thick, too.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I suspected. . . . Of course I suspected something of
+your little goings on. I am not a child. But from
+suspecting to seeing&mdash;seeing, you
+understand&mdash;there&rsquo;s an enormous difference. That
+sort of thing. . . . Come! One isn&rsquo;t made of
+stone. And when a man has been worried by a girl as I have
+been worried by you, Miss Freya&mdash;sleeping and waking, then,
+of course. . . . But I am a man of the world. It must be
+dull for you here . . . I say, won&rsquo;t you leave off this
+confounded playing . . .?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This last was the only sentence really which she made
+out. She shook her head negatively, and in desperation put
+on the loud pedal, but she could not make the sound of the piano
+cover his raised voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Only, I am surprised that you should. . . . An English
+trading skipper, a common fellow. Low, cheeky lot,
+infesting these islands. I would make short work of such
+trash! While you have here a good friend, a gentleman ready
+to worship at your feet&mdash;your pretty feet&mdash;an officer,
+a man of family. Strange, isn&rsquo;t it? But what of
+that! You are fit for a prince.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya did not turn her head. Her face went stiff with
+horror and indignation. This adventure was altogether
+beyond her conception of what was possible. It was not in
+her character to jump up and run away. It seemed to her,
+too, that if she did move there was no saying what might
+happen. Presently her father would be back, and then the
+other would have to leave off. It was best to
+ignore&mdash;to ignore. She went on playing loudly and
+correctly, as though she were alone, as if Heemskirk did not
+exist. That proceeding irritated him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Come! You may deceive your father,&rdquo; he
+bawled angrily, &ldquo;but I am not to be made a fool of!
+Stop this infernal noise . . . Freya . . . Hey! You
+Scandinavian Goddess of Love! Stop! Do you
+hear? That&rsquo;s what you are&mdash;of love. But
+the heathen gods are only devils in disguise, and that&rsquo;s
+what you are, too&mdash;a deep little devil. Stop it, I
+say, or I will lift you off that stool!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Standing behind her, he devoured her with his eyes, from the
+golden crown of her rigidly motionless head to the heels of her
+shoes, the line of her shapely shoulders, the curves of her fine
+figure swaying a little before the keyboard. She had on a
+light dress; the sleeves stopped short at the elbows in an edging
+of lace. A satin ribbon encircled her waist. In an
+access of irresistible, reckless hopefulness he clapped both his
+hands on that waist&mdash;and then the irritating music stopped
+at last. But, quick as she was in springing away from the
+contact (the round music-stool going over with a crash),
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s lips, aiming at her neck, landed a hungry,
+smacking kiss just under her ear. A deep silence reigned
+for a time. And then he laughed rather feebly.</p>
+
+<p>He was disconcerted somewhat by her white, still face, the big
+light violet eyes resting on him stonily. She had not
+uttered a sound. She faced him, steadying herself on the
+corner of the piano with one extended hand. The other went
+on rubbing with mechanical persistency the place his lips had
+touched.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the trouble?&rdquo; he said,
+offended. &ldquo;Startled you? Look here: don&rsquo;t
+let us have any of that nonsense. You don&rsquo;t mean to
+say a kiss frightens you so much as all that. . . . I know
+better. . . . I don&rsquo;t mean to be left out in the
+cold.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He had been gazing into her face with such strained intentness
+that he could no longer see it distinctly. Everything round
+him was rather misty. He forgot the overturned stool,
+caught his foot against it, and lurched forward slightly, saying
+in an ingratiating tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bad fun, really. You try a few
+kisses to begin with&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He said no more, because his head received a terrific
+concussion, accompanied by an explosive sound. Freya had
+swung her round, strong arm with such force that the impact of
+her open palm on his flat cheek turned him half round.
+Uttering a faint, hoarse yell, the lieutenant clapped both his
+hands to the left side of his face, which had taken on suddenly a
+dusky brick-red tinge. Freya, very erect, her violet eyes
+darkened, her palm still tingling from the blow, a sort of
+restrained determined smile showing a tiny gleam of her white
+teeth, heard her father&rsquo;s rapid, heavy tread on the path
+below the verandah. Her expression lost its pugnacity and
+became sincerely concerned. She was sorry for her
+father. She stooped quickly to pick up the music-stool, as
+if anxious to obliterate the traces. . . . But that was no
+good. She had resumed her attitude, one hand resting
+lightly on the piano, before old Nelson got up to the top of the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Poor father! How furious he will be&mdash;how
+upset! And afterwards, what tremors, what
+unhappiness! Why had she not been open with him from the
+first? His round, innocent stare of amazement cut her to
+the quick. But he was not looking at her. His stare
+was directed to Heemskirk, who, with his back to him and with his
+hands still up to his face, was hissing curses through his teeth,
+and (she saw him in profile) glaring at her balefully with one
+black, evil eye.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; asked old Nelson, very
+much bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer him. She thought of Jasper on the
+deck of the brig, gazing up at the lighted bungalow, and she felt
+frightened. It was a mercy that one of them at least was on
+board out of the way. She only wished he were a hundred
+miles off. And yet she was not certain that she did.
+Had Jasper been mysteriously moved that moment to reappear on the
+verandah she would have thrown her consistency, her firmness, her
+self-possession, to the winds, and flown into his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is it? What is it?&rdquo; insisted the
+unsuspecting Nelson, getting quite excited. &ldquo;Only
+this minute you were playing a tune, and&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya, unable to speak in her apprehension of what was coming
+(she was also fascinated by that black, evil, glaring eye), only
+nodded slightly at the lieutenant, as much as to say: &ldquo;Just
+look at him!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, yes!&rdquo; exclaimed old Nelson. &ldquo;I
+see. What on earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Meantime he had cautiously approached Heemskirk, who, bursting
+into incoherent imprecations, was stamping with both feet where
+he stood. The indignity of the blow, the rage of baffled
+purpose, the ridicule of the exposure, and the impossibility of
+revenge maddened him to a point when he simply felt he must howl
+with fury.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, oh, oh!&rdquo; he howled, stamping across the
+verandah as though he meant to drive his foot through the floor
+at every step.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, is his face hurt?&rdquo; asked the astounded old
+Nelson. The truth dawned suddenly upon his innocent
+mind. &ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; he cried, enlightened.
+&ldquo;Get some brandy, quick, Freya. . . . You are subject to
+it, lieutenant? Fiendish, eh? I know, I know!
+Used to go crazy all of a sudden myself in the time. . . . And
+the little bottle of laudanum from the medicine-chest, too,
+Freya. Look sharp. . . . Don&rsquo;t you see he&rsquo;s got
+a toothache?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, what other explanation could have presented
+itself to the guileless old Nelson, beholding this cheek nursed
+with both hands, these wild glances, these stampings, this
+distracted swaying of the body? It would have demanded a
+preternatural acuteness to hit upon the true cause. Freya
+had not moved. She watched Heemskirk&rsquo;s savagely
+inquiring, black stare directed stealthily upon herself.
+&ldquo;Aha, you would like to be let off!&rdquo; she said to
+herself. She looked at him unflinchingly, thinking it
+out. The temptation of making an end of it all without
+further trouble was irresistible. She gave an almost
+imperceptible nod of assent, and glided away.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hurry up that brandy!&rdquo; old Nelson shouted, as she
+disappeared in the passage.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk relieved his deeper feelings by a sudden string of
+curses in Dutch and English which he sent after her. He
+raved to his heart&rsquo;s content, flinging to and fro the
+verandah and kicking chairs out of his way; while Nelson (or
+Nielsen), whose sympathy was profoundly stirred by these
+evidences of agonising pain, hovered round his dear (and dreaded)
+lieutenant, fussing like an old hen.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me, dear me! Is it so bad? I know well
+what it is. I used to frighten my poor wife
+sometimes. Do you get it often like this,
+lieutenant?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk shouldered him viciously out of his way, with a
+short, insane laugh. But his staggering host took it in
+good part; a man beside himself with excruciating toothache is
+not responsible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go into my room, lieutenant,&rdquo; he suggested
+urgently. &ldquo;Throw yourself on my bed. We will
+get something to ease you in a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He seized the poor sufferer by the arm and forced him gently
+onwards to the very bed, on which Heemskirk, in a renewed access
+of rage, flung himself down with such force that he rebounded
+from the mattress to the height of quite a foot.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; exclaimed the scared Nelson, and
+incontinently ran off to hurry up the brandy and the laudanum,
+very angry that so little alacrity was shown in relieving the
+tortures of his precious guest. In the end he got these
+things himself.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later he stood in the inner passage of the house,
+surprised by faint, spasmodic sounds of a mysterious nature,
+between laughter and sobs. He frowned; then went straight
+towards his daughter&rsquo;s room and knocked at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Freya, her glorious fair hair framing her white face and
+rippling down a dark-blue dressing-gown, opened it partly.</p>
+
+<p>The light in the room was dim. Antonia, crouching in a
+corner, rocked herself backwards and forwards, uttering feeble
+moans. Old Nelson had not much experience in various kinds
+of feminine laughter, but he was certain there had been laughter
+there.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very unfeeling, very unfeeling!&rdquo; he said, with
+weighty displeasure. &ldquo;What is there so amusing in a
+man being in pain? I should have thought a woman&mdash;a
+young girl&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He was so funny,&rdquo; murmured Freya, whose eyes
+glistened strangely in the semi-obscurity of the passage.
+&ldquo;And then, you know, I don&rsquo;t like him,&rdquo; she
+added, in an unsteady voice.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Funny!&rdquo; repeated old Nelson, amazed at this
+evidence of callousness in one so young. &ldquo;You
+don&rsquo;t like him! Do you mean to say that, because you
+don&rsquo;t like him, you&mdash;Why, it&rsquo;s simply
+cruel! Don&rsquo;t you know it&rsquo;s about the worst sort
+of pain there is? Dogs have been known to go mad with
+it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He certainly seemed to have gone mad,&rdquo; Freya said
+with an effort, as if she were struggling with some hidden
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>But her father was launched.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And you know how he is. He notices
+everything. He is a fellow to take offence for the least
+little thing&mdash;regular Dutchman&mdash;and I want to keep
+friendly with him. It&rsquo;s like this, my girl: if that
+rajah of ours were to do something silly&mdash;and you know he is
+a sulky, rebellious beggar&mdash;and the authorities took into
+their heads that my influence over him wasn&rsquo;t good, you
+would find yourself without a roof over your
+head&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She cried: &ldquo;What nonsense, father!&rdquo; in a not very
+assured tone, and discovered that he was angry, angry enough to
+achieve irony; yes, old Nelson (or Nielsen), irony! Just a
+gleam of it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, of course, if you have means of your own&mdash;a
+mansion, a plantation that I know nothing of&mdash;&rdquo;
+But he was not capable of sustained irony. &ldquo;I tell
+you they would bundle me out of here,&rdquo; he whispered
+forcibly; &ldquo;without compensation, of course. I know
+these Dutch. And the lieutenant&rsquo;s just the fellow to
+start the trouble going. He has the ear of influential
+officials. I wouldn&rsquo;t offend him for
+anything&mdash;for anything&mdash;on no consideration whatever. .
+. . What did you say?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was only an inarticulate exclamation. If she ever had
+a half-formed intention of telling him everything she had given
+it up now. It was impossible, both out of regard for his
+dignity and for the peace of his poor mind.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care for him myself very much,&rdquo; old
+Nelson&rsquo;s subdued undertone confessed in a sigh.
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s easier now,&rdquo; he went on, after a
+silence. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve given him up my bed for the
+night. I shall sleep on my verandah, in the hammock.
+No; I can&rsquo;t say I like him either, but from that to laugh
+at a man because he&rsquo;s driven crazy with pain is a long
+way. You&rsquo;ve surprised me, Freya. That side of
+his face is quite flushed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her shoulders shook convulsively under his hands, which he
+laid on her paternally. His straggly, wiry moustache
+brushed her forehead in a good-night kiss. She closed the
+door, and went away from it to the middle of the room before she
+allowed herself a tired-out sort of laugh, without buoyancy.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Flushed! A little flushed!&rdquo; she repeated to
+herself. &ldquo;I hope so, indeed! A
+little&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyelashes were wet. Antonia, in her corner, moaned
+and giggled, and it was impossible to tell where the moans ended
+and the giggles began.</p>
+
+<p>The mistress and the maid had been somewhat hysterical, for
+Freya, on fleeing into her room, had found Antonia there, and had
+told her everything.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I have avenged you, my girl,&rdquo; she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>And then they had laughingly cried and cryingly laughed with
+admonitions&mdash;&ldquo;Ssh, not so loud! Be quiet!&rdquo;
+on one part, and interludes of &ldquo;I am so frightened. . . .
+He&rsquo;s an evil man,&rdquo; on the other.</p>
+
+<p>Antonia was very much afraid of Heemskirk. She was
+afraid of him because of his personal appearance: because of his
+eyes and his eyebrows, and his mouth and his nose and his
+limbs. Nothing could be more rational. And she
+thought him an evil man, because, to her eyes, he looked
+evil. No ground for an opinion could be sounder. In
+the dimness of the room, with only a nightlight burning at the
+head of Freya&rsquo;s bed, the camerista crept out of her corner
+to crouch at the feet of her mistress, supplicating in
+whispers:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s the brig. Captain Allen. Let
+us run away at once&mdash;oh, let us run away! I am so
+frightened. Let us! Let us!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I! Run away!&rdquo; thought Freya to herself,
+without looking down at the scared girl.
+&ldquo;Never.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Both the resolute mistress under the mosquito-net and the
+frightened maid lying curled up on a mat at the foot of the bed
+did not sleep very well that night. The person that did not
+sleep at all was Lieutenant Heemskirk. He lay on his back
+staring vindictively in the darkness. Inflaming images and
+humiliating reflections succeeded each other in his mind, keeping
+up, augmenting his anger. A pretty tale this to get
+about! But it must not be allowed to get about. The
+outrage had to be swallowed in silence. A pretty
+affair! Fooled, led on, and struck by the girl&mdash;and
+probably fooled by the father, too. But no. Nielsen
+was but another victim of that shameless hussy, that brazen minx,
+that sly, laughing, kissing, lying . . .</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No; he did not deceive me on purpose,&rdquo; thought
+the tormented lieutenant. &ldquo;But I should like to pay
+him off, all the same, for being such an
+imbecile&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Well, some day, perhaps. One thing he was firmly
+resolved on: he had made up his mind to steal early out of the
+house. He did not think he could face the girl without
+going out of his mind with fury.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Fire and perdition! Ten thousand devils! I
+shall choke here before the morning!&rdquo; he muttered to
+himself, lying rigid on his back on old Nelson&rsquo;s bed, his
+breast heaving for air.</p>
+
+<p>He arose at daylight and started cautiously to open the
+door. Faint sounds in the passage alarmed him, and
+remaining concealed he saw Freya coming out. This
+unexpected sight deprived him of all power to move away from the
+crack of the door. It was the narrowest crack possible, but
+commanding the view of the end of the verandah. Freya made
+for that end hastily to watch the brig passing the point.
+She wore her dark dressing-gown; her feet were bare, because,
+having fallen asleep towards the morning, she ran out headlong in
+her fear of being too late. Heemskirk had never seen her
+looking like this, with her hair drawn back smoothly to the shape
+of her head, and hanging in one heavy, fair tress down her back,
+and with that air of extreme youth, intensity, and
+eagerness. And at first he was amazed, and then he gnashed
+his teeth. He could not face her at all. He muttered
+a curse, and kept still behind the door.</p>
+
+<p>With a low, deep-breathed &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; when she first saw
+the brig already under way, she reached for Nelson&rsquo;s long
+glass reposing on brackets high up the wall. The wide
+sleeve of the dressing-gown slipped back, uncovering her white
+arm as far as the shoulder. Heemskirk gripping the
+door-handle, as if to crush it, felt like a man just risen to his
+feet from a drinking bout.</p>
+
+<p>And Freya knew that he was watching her. She knew.
+She had seen the door move as she came out of the passage.
+She was aware of his eyes being on her, with scornful bitterness,
+with triumphant contempt.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are there,&rdquo; she thought, levelling the long
+glass. &ldquo;Oh, well, look on, then!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The green islets appeared like black shadows, the ashen sea
+was smooth as glass, the clear robe of the colourless dawn, in
+which even the brig appeared shadowy, had a hem of light in the
+east. Directly Freya had made out Jasper on deck, with his
+own long glass directed to the bungalow, she laid hers down and
+raised both her beautiful white arms above her head. In
+that attitude of supreme cry she stood still, glowing with the
+consciousness of Jasper&rsquo;s adoration going out to her figure
+held in the field of his glass away there, and warmed, too, by
+the feeling of evil passion, the burning, covetous eyes of the
+other, fastened on her back. In the fervour of her love, in
+the caprice of her mind, and with that mysterious knowledge of
+masculine nature women seem to be born to, she thought:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are looking on&mdash;you will&mdash;you must!
+Then you shall see something.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She brought both her hands to her lips, then flung them out,
+sending a kiss over the sea, as if she wanted to throw her heart
+along with it on the deck of the brig. Her face was rosy,
+her eyes shone. Her repeated, passionate gesture seemed to
+fling kisses by the hundred again and again and again, while the
+slowly ascending sun brought the glory of colour to the world,
+turning the islets green, the sea blue, the brig below her
+white&mdash;dazzlingly white in the spread of her
+wings&mdash;with the red ensign streaming like a tiny flame from
+the peak.</p>
+
+<p>And each time she murmured with a rising inflexion:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take this&mdash;and this&mdash;and this&mdash;&rdquo;
+till suddenly her arms fell. She had seen the ensign dipped
+in response, and next moment the point below hid the hull of the
+brig from her view. Then she turned away from the
+balustrade, and, passing slowly before the door of her
+father&rsquo;s room with her eyelids lowered, and an enigmatic
+expression on her face, she disappeared behind the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of going along the passage, she remained concealed
+and very still on the other side to watch what would
+happen. For some time the broad, furnished verandah
+remained empty. Then the door of old Nelson&rsquo;s room
+came open suddenly, and Heemskirk staggered out. His hair
+was rumpled, his eyes bloodshot, his unshaven face looked very
+dark. He gazed wildly about, saw his cap on a table,
+snatched it up, and made for the stairs quietly, but with a
+strange, tottering gait, like the last effort of waning
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after his head had sunk below the level of the floor,
+Freya came out from behind the curtain, with compressed, scheming
+lips, and no softness at all in her luminous eyes. He could
+not be allowed to sneak off scot free.
+Never&mdash;never! She was excited, she tingled all over,
+she had tasted blood! He must be made to understand that
+she had been aware of having been watched; he must know that he
+had been seen slinking off shamefully. But to run to the
+front rail and shout after him would have been childish,
+crude&mdash;undignified. And to shout&mdash;what?
+What word? What phrase? No; it was impossible.
+Then how? . . . She frowned, discovered it, dashed at the piano,
+which had stood open all night, and made the rosewood monster
+growl savagery in an irritated bass. She struck chords as
+if firing shots after that straddling, broad figure in ample
+white trousers and a dark uniform jacket with gold
+shoulder-straps, and then she pursued him with the same thing she
+had played the evening before&mdash;a modern, fierce piece of
+love music which had been tried more than once against the
+thunderstorms of the group. She accentuated its rhythm with
+triumphant malice, so absorbed in her purpose that she did not
+notice the presence of her father, who, wearing an old threadbare
+ulster of a check pattern over his sleeping suit, had run out
+from the back verandah to inquire the reason of this untimely
+performance. He stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth? . . . Freya!&rdquo; His voice was
+nearly drowned by the piano. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s become of
+the lieutenant?&rdquo; he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him as if her soul were lost in her music,
+with unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gone.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wha-a-t? . . . Where?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head slightly, and went on playing louder than
+before. Old Nelson&rsquo;s innocently anxious gaze starting
+from the open door of his room, explored the whole place high and
+low, as if the lieutenant were something small which might have
+been crawling on the floor or clinging to a wall. But a
+shrill whistle coming somewhere from below pierced the ample
+volume of sound rolling out of the piano in great, vibrating
+waves. The lieutenant was down at the cove, whistling for
+the boat to come and take him off to his ship. And he
+seemed to be in a terrific hurry, too, for he whistled again
+almost directly, waited for a moment, and then sent out a long,
+interminable, shrill call as distressful to hear as though he had
+shrieked without drawing breath. Freya ceased playing
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Going on board,&rdquo; said old Nelson, perturbed by
+the event. &ldquo;What could have made him clear out so
+early? Queer chap. Devilishly touchy, too! I
+shouldn&rsquo;t wonder if it was your conduct last night that
+hurt his feelings? I noticed you, Freya. You as well
+as laughed in his face, while he was suffering agonies from
+neuralgia. It isn&rsquo;t the way to get yourself
+liked. He&rsquo;s offended with you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Freya&rsquo;s hands now reposed passive on the keys; she bowed
+her fair head, feeling a sudden discontent, a nervous lassitude,
+as though she had passed through some exhausting crisis.
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen), looking aggrieved, was revolving matters
+of policy in his bald head.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I think it would be right for me to go on board just to
+inquire, some time this morning,&rdquo; he declared
+fussily. &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t they bring me my morning
+tea? Do you hear, Freya? You have astonished me, I
+must say. I didn&rsquo;t think a young girl could be so
+unfeeling. And the lieutenant thinks himself a friend of
+ours, too! What? No? Well, he calls himself a
+friend, and that&rsquo;s something to a person in my
+position. Certainly! Oh, yes, I must go on
+board.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Must you?&rdquo; murmured Freya listlessly; then added,
+in her thought: &ldquo;Poor man!&rdquo;</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> respect of the next seven weeks,
+all that is necessary to say is, first, that old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) failed in paying his politic call. The
+<i>Neptun</i> gunboat of H.M. the King of the Netherlands,
+commanded by an outraged and infuriated lieutenant, left the cove
+at an unexpectedly early hour. When Freya&rsquo;s father
+came down to the shore, after seeing his precious crop of tobacco
+spread out properly in the sun, she was already steaming round
+the point. Old Nelson regretted the circumstance for many
+days.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, I don&rsquo;t know in what disposition the man
+went away,&rdquo; he lamented to his hard daughter. He was
+amazed at her hardness. He was almost frightened by her
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>Next, it must be recorded that the same day the gunboat
+<i>Neptun</i>, steering east, passed the brig <i>Bonito</i>
+becalmed in sight of Carimata, with her head to the eastward,
+too. Her captain, Jasper Allen, giving himself up
+consciously to a tender, possessive reverie of his Freya, did not
+get out of his long chair on the poop to look at the
+<i>Neptun</i> which passed so close that the smoke belching out
+suddenly from her short black funnel rolled between the masts of
+the Bonito, obscuring for a moment the sunlit whiteness of her
+sails, consecrated to the service of love. Jasper did not
+even turn his head for a glance. But Heemskirk, on the
+bridge, had gazed long and earnestly at the brig from the
+distance, gripping hard the brass rail in front of him, till, the
+two ships closing, he lost all confidence in himself, and
+retreating to the chartroom, pulled the door to with a
+crash. There, his brows knitted, his mouth drawn on one
+side in sardonic meditation, he sat through many still
+hours&mdash;a sort of Prometheus in the bonds of unholy desire,
+having his very vitals torn by the beak and claws of humiliated
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>That species of fowl is not to be shooed off as easily as a
+chicken. Fooled, cheated, deceived, led on, outraged,
+mocked at&mdash;beak and claws! A sinister bird! The
+lieutenant had no mind to become the talk of the Archipelago, as
+the naval officer who had had his face slapped by a girl.
+Was it possible that she really loved that rascally trader?
+He tried not to think, but, worse than thoughts, definite
+impressions beset him in his retreat. He saw her&mdash;a
+vision plain, close to, detailed, plastic, coloured, lighted
+up&mdash;he saw her hanging round the neck of that fellow.
+And he shut his eyes, only to discover that this was no
+remedy. Then a piano began to play near by, very plainly;
+and he put his fingers to his ears with no better effect.
+It was not to be borne&mdash;not in solitude. He bolted out
+of the chartroom, and talked of indifferent things somewhat
+wildly with the officer of the watch on the bridge, to the
+mocking accompaniment of a ghostly piano.</p>
+
+<p>The last thing to be recorded is that Lieutenant Heemskirk
+instead of pursuing his course towards Ternate, where he was
+expected, went out of his way to call at Makassar, where no one
+was looking for his arrival. Once there, he gave certain
+explanations and laid a certain proposal before the governor, or
+some other authority, and obtained permission to do what he
+thought fit in these matters. Thereupon the <i>Neptun</i>,
+giving up Ternate altogether, steamed north in view of the
+mountainous coast of Celebes, and then crossing the broad straits
+took up her station on the low coast of virgin forests, inviolate
+and mute, in waters phosphorescent at night; deep blue in daytime
+with gleaming green patches over the submerged reefs. For
+days the <i>Neptun</i> could be seen moving smoothly up and down
+the sombre face of the shore, or hanging about with a watchful
+air near the silvery breaks of broad estuaries, under the great
+luminous sky never softened, never veiled, and flooding the earth
+with the everlasting sunshine of the tropics&mdash;that sunshine
+which, in its unbroken splendour, oppresses the soul with an
+inexpressible melancholy more intimate, more penetrating, more
+profound than the grey sadness of the northern mists.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">. . . . .</p>
+
+<p>The trading brig <i>Bonito</i> appeared gliding round a sombre
+forest-clad point of land on the silvery estuary of a great
+river. The breath of air that gave her motion would not
+have fluttered the flame of a torch. She stole out into the
+open from behind a veil of unstirring leaves, mysteriously
+silent, ghostly white, and solemnly stealthy in her imperceptible
+progress; and Jasper, his elbow in the main rigging, and his head
+leaning against his hand, thought of Freya. Everything in
+the world reminded him of her. The beauty of the loved
+woman exists in the beauties of Nature. The swelling
+outlines of the hills, the curves of a coast, the free
+sinuosities of a river are less suave than the harmonious lines
+of her body, and when she moves, gliding lightly, the grace of
+her progress suggests the power of occult forces which rule the
+fascinating aspects of the visible world.</p>
+
+<p>Dependent on things as all men are, Jasper loved his
+vessel&mdash;the house of his dreams. He lent to her
+something of Freya&rsquo;s soul. Her deck was the foothold
+of their love. The possession of his brig appeased his
+passion in a soothing certitude of happiness already
+conquered.</p>
+
+<p>The full moon was some way up, perfect and serene, floating in
+air as calm and limpid as the glance of Freya&rsquo;s eyes.
+There was not a sound in the brig.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Here she shall stand, by my side, on evenings like
+this,&rdquo; he thought, with rapture.</p>
+
+<p>And it was at that moment, in this peace, in this serenity,
+under the full, benign gaze of the moon propitious to lovers, on
+a sea without a wrinkle, under a sky without a cloud, as if all
+Nature had assumed its most clement mood in a spirit of mockery,
+that the gunboat <i>Neptun</i>, detaching herself from the dark
+coast under which she had been lying invisible, steamed out to
+intercept the trading brig <i>Bonito</i> standing out to sea.</p>
+
+<p>Directly the gunboat had been made out emerging from her
+ambush, Schultz, of the fascinating voice, had given signs of
+strange agitation. All that day, ever since leaving the
+Malay town up the river, he had shown a haggard face, going about
+his duties like a man with something weighing on his mind.
+Jasper had noticed it, but the mate, turning away, as though he
+had not liked being looked at, had muttered shamefacedly of a
+headache and a touch of fever. He must have had it very
+badly when, dodging behind his captain he wondered aloud:
+&ldquo;What can that fellow want with us?&rdquo; . . . A naked
+man standing in a freezing blast and trying not to shiver could
+not have spoken with a more harshly uncertain intonation.
+But it might have been fever&mdash;a cold fit.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He wants to make himself disagreeable, simply,&rdquo;
+said Jasper, with perfect good humour. &ldquo;He has tried
+it on me before. However, we shall soon see.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, before long the two vessels lay abreast within
+easy hail. The brig, with her fine lines and her white
+sails, looked vaporous and sylph-like in the moonlight. The
+gunboat, short, squat, with her stumpy dark spars naked like dead
+trees, raised against the luminous sky of that resplendent night,
+threw a heavy shadow on the lane of water between the two
+ships.</p>
+
+<p>Freya haunted them both like an ubiquitous spirit, and as if
+she were the only woman in the world. Jasper remembered her
+earnest recommendation to be guarded and cautious in all his acts
+and words while he was away from her. In this quite
+unforeseen encounter he felt on his ear the very breath of these
+hurried admonitions customary to the last moment of their
+partings, heard the half-jesting final whisper of the
+&ldquo;Mind, kid, I&rsquo;d never forgive you!&rdquo; with a
+quick pressure on his arm, which he answered by a quiet,
+confident smile. Heemskirk was haunted in another
+fashion. There were no whispers in it; it was more like
+visions. He saw that girl hanging round the neck of a low
+vagabond&mdash;that vagabond, the vagabond who had just answered
+his hail. He saw her stealing bare-footed across a verandah
+with great, clear, wide-open, eager eyes to look at a
+brig&mdash;that brig. If she had shrieked, scolded, called
+names! . . . But she had simply triumphed over him. That
+was all. Led on (he firmly believed it), fooled, deceived,
+outraged, struck, mocked at. . . . Beak and claws! The two
+men, so differently haunted by Freya of the Seven Isles, were not
+equally matched.</p>
+
+<p>In the intense stillness, as of sleep, which had fallen upon
+the two vessels, in a world that itself seemed but a delicate
+dream, a boat pulled by Javanese sailors crossing the dark lane
+of water came alongside the brig. The white warrant officer
+in her, perhaps the gunner, climbed aboard. He was a short
+man, with a rotund stomach and a wheezy voice. His
+immovable fat face looked lifeless in the moonlight, and he
+walked with his thick arms hanging away from his body as though
+he had been stuffed. His cunning little eyes glittered like
+bits of mica. He conveyed to Jasper, in broken English, a
+request to come on board the <i>Neptun</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper had not expected anything so unusual. But after a
+short reflection he decided to show neither annoyance, nor even
+surprise. The river from which he had come had been
+politically disturbed for a couple of years, and he was aware
+that his visits there were looked upon with some suspicion.
+But he did not mind much the displeasure of the authorities, so
+terrifying to old Nelson. He prepared to leave the brig,
+and Schultz followed him to the rail as if to say something, but
+in the end stood by in silence. Jasper getting over the
+side, noticed his ghastly face. The eyes of the man who had
+found salvation in the brig from the effects of his peculiar
+psychology looked at him with a dumb, beseeching expression.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; Jasper asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I wonder how this will end?&rdquo; said he of the
+beautiful voice, which had even fascinated the steady Freya
+herself. But where was its charming timbre now? These
+words had sounded like a raven&rsquo;s croak.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are ill,&rdquo; said Jasper positively.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I wish I were dead!&rdquo; was the startling statement
+uttered by Schultz talking to himself in the extremity of some
+mysterious trouble. Jasper gave him a keen glance, but this
+was not the time to investigate the morbid outbreak of a feverish
+man. He did not look as though he were actually delirious,
+and that for the moment must suffice. Schultz made a dart
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That fellow means harm!&rdquo; he said
+desperately. &ldquo;He means harm to you, Captain
+Allen. I feel it, and I&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He choked with inexplicable emotion.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All right, Schultz. I won&rsquo;t give him an
+opening.&rdquo; Jasper cut him short and swung himself into
+the boat.</p>
+
+<p>On board the <i>Neptun</i> Heemskirk, standing straddle-legs
+in the flood of moonlight, his inky shadow falling right across
+the quarter-deck, made no sign at his approach, but secretly he
+felt something like the heave of the sea in his chest at the
+sight of that man. Jasper waited before him in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Brought face to face in direct personal contact, they fell at
+once into the manner of their casual meetings in old
+Nelson&rsquo;s bungalow. They ignored each other&rsquo;s
+existence&mdash;Heemskirk moodily; Jasper, with a perfectly
+colourless quietness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s going on in that river you&rsquo;ve just
+come out of?&rdquo; asked the lieutenant straight away.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I know nothing of the troubles, if you mean
+that,&rdquo; Jasper answered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve landed
+there half a cargo of rice, for which I got nothing in exchange,
+and went away. There&rsquo;s no trade there now, but they
+would have been starving in another week&mdash;if I hadn&rsquo;t
+turned up.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Meddling! English meddling! And suppose the
+rascals don&rsquo;t deserve anything better than to starve,
+eh?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There are women and children there, you know,&rdquo;
+observed Jasper, in his even tone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes! When an Englishman talks of women and
+children, you may be sure there&rsquo;s something fishy about the
+business. Your doings will have to be
+investigated.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>They spoke in turn, as though they had been disembodied
+spirits&mdash;mere voices in empty air; for they looked at each
+other as if there had been nothing there, or, at most, with as
+much recognition as one gives to an inanimate object, and no
+more. But now a silence fell. Heemskirk had thought,
+all at once: &ldquo;She will tell him all about it. She
+will tell him while she hangs round his neck
+laughing.&rdquo; And the sudden desire to annihilate Jasper
+on the spot almost deprived him of his senses by its
+vehemence. He lost the power of speech, of vision.
+For a moment he absolutely couldn&rsquo;t see Jasper. But
+he heard him inquiring, as of the world at large:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Am I, then, to conclude that the brig is
+detained?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk made a recovery in a flush of malignant
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She is. I am going to take her to Makassar in
+tow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The courts will have to decide on the legality of
+this,&rdquo; said Jasper, aware that the matter was becoming
+serious, but with assumed indifference.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, the courts! Certainly. And as to
+you, I shall keep you on board here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper&rsquo;s dismay at being parted from his ship was
+betrayed by a stony immobility. It lasted but an
+instant. Then he turned away and hailed the brig. Mr.
+Schultz answered:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Get ready to receive a tow-rope from the gunboat!
+We are going to be taken to Makassar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Good God! What&rsquo;s that for, sir?&rdquo; came
+an anxious cry faintly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Kindness, I suppose,&rdquo; Jasper, ironical, shouted
+with great deliberation. &ldquo;We might have
+been&mdash;becalmed in here&mdash;for days. And
+hospitality. I am invited to stay&mdash;on board
+here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The answer to this information was a loud ejaculation of
+distress. Jasper thought anxiously: &ldquo;Why, the
+fellow&rsquo;s nerve&rsquo;s gone to pieces;&rdquo; and with an
+awkward uneasiness of a new sort, looked intently at the
+brig. The thought that he was parted from her&mdash;for the
+first time since they came together&mdash;shook the apparently
+careless fortitude of his character to its very foundations,
+which were deep. All that time neither Heemskirk nor even
+his inky shadow had stirred in the least.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to send a boat&rsquo;s crew and an officer
+on board your vessel,&rdquo; he announced to no one in
+particular. Jasper, tearing himself away from the absorbed
+contemplation of the brig, turned round, and, without passion,
+almost without expression in his voice, entered his protest
+against the whole of the proceedings. What he was thinking
+of was the delay. He counted the days. Makassar was
+actually on his way; and to be towed there really saved
+time. On the other hand, there would be some vexing
+formalities to go through. But the thing was too
+absurd. &ldquo;The beetle&rsquo;s gone mad,&rdquo; he
+thought. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be released at once. And
+if not, Mesman must enter into a bond for me.&rdquo; Mesman
+was a Dutch merchant with whom Jasper had had many dealings, a
+considerable person in Makassar.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You protest? H&rsquo;m!&rdquo; Heemskirk
+muttered, and for a little longer remained motionless, his legs
+planted well apart, and his head lowered as though he were
+studying his own comical, deeply-split shadow. Then he made
+a sign to the rotund gunner, who had kept at hand, motionless,
+like a vilely-stuffed specimen of a fat man, with a lifeless face
+and glittering little eyes. The fellow approached, and
+stood at attention.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will board the brig with a boat&rsquo;s
+crew!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will have one of your men to steer her all the
+time,&rdquo; went on Heemskirk, giving his orders in English,
+apparently for Jasper&rsquo;s edification. &ldquo;You
+hear?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will remain on deck and in charge all the
+time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper felt as if, together with the command of the brig, his
+very heart were being taken out of his breast. Heemskirk
+asked, with a change of tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What weapons have you on board?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At one time all the ships trading in the China Seas had a
+licence to carry a certain quantity of firearms for purposes of
+defence. Jasper answered:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Eighteen rifles with their bayonets, which were on
+board when I bought her, four years ago. They have been
+declared.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where are they kept?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Fore-cabin. Mate has the key.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will take possession of them,&rdquo; said Heemskirk
+to the gunner.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What is this for? What do you mean to
+imply?&rdquo; cried out Jasper; then bit his lip.
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s monstrous!&rdquo; he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>Heemskirk raised for a moment a heavy, as if suffering,
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You may go,&rdquo; he said to his gunner. The fat
+man saluted, and departed.</p>
+
+<p>During the next thirty hours the steady towing was interrupted
+once. At a signal from the brig, made by waving a flag on
+the forecastle, the gunboat was stopped. The badly-stuffed
+specimen of a warrant-officer, getting into his boat, arrived on
+board the <i>Neptun</i> and hurried straight into his
+commander&rsquo;s cabin, his excitement at something he had to
+communicate being betrayed by the blinking of his small
+eyes. These two were closeted together for some time, while
+Jasper at the taffrail tried to make out if anything out of the
+common had occurred on board the brig.</p>
+
+<p>But nothing seemed to be amiss on board. However, he
+kept a look-out for the gunner; and, though he had avoided
+speaking to anybody since he had finished with Heemskirk, he
+stopped that man when he came out on deck again to ask how his
+mate was.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He was feeling not very well when I left,&rdquo; he
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>The fat warrant-officer, holding himself as though the effort
+of carrying his big stomach in front of him demanded a rigid
+carriage, understood with difficulty. Not a single one of
+his features showed the slightest animation, but his little eyes
+blinked rapidly at last.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, ya! The mate. Ya, ya! He is very
+well. But, mein Gott, he is one very funny man!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper could get no explanation of that remark, because the
+Dutchman got into the boat hurriedly, and went back on board the
+brig. But he consoled himself with the thought that very
+soon all this unpleasant and rather absurd experience would be
+over. The roadstead of Makassar was in sight already.
+Heemskirk passed by him going on the bridge. For the first
+time the lieutenant looked at Jasper with marked intention; and
+the strange roll of his eyes was so funny&mdash;it had been long
+agreed by Jasper and Freya that the lieutenant was funny&mdash;so
+ecstatically gratified, as though he were rolling a tasty morsel
+on his tongue, that Jasper could not help a broad smile.
+And then he turned to his brig again.</p>
+
+<p>To see her, his cherished possession, animated by something of
+his Freya&rsquo;s soul, the only foothold of two lives on the
+wide earth, the security of his passion, the companion of
+adventure, the power to snatch the calm, adorable Freya to his
+breast, and carry her off to the end of the world; to see this
+beautiful thing embodying worthily his pride and his love, to see
+her captive at the end of a tow-rope was not indeed a pleasant
+experience. It had something nightmarish in it, as, for
+instance, the dream of a wild sea-bird loaded with chains.</p>
+
+<p>Yet what else could he want to look at? Her beauty would
+sometimes come to his heart with the force of a spell, so that he
+would forget where he was. And, besides, that sense of
+superiority which the certitude of being loved gives to a young
+man, that illusion of being set above the Fates by a tender look
+in a woman&rsquo;s eyes, helped him, the first shock over, to go
+through these experiences with an amused self-confidence.
+For what evil could touch the elect of Freya?</p>
+
+<p>It was now afternoon, the sun being behind the two vessels as
+they headed for the harbour. &ldquo;The beetle&rsquo;s
+little joke shall soon be over,&rdquo; thought Jasper, without
+any great animosity. As a seaman well acquainted with that
+part of the world, a casual glance was enough to tell him what
+was being done. &ldquo;Hallo,&rdquo; he thought, &ldquo;he
+is going through Spermonde Passage. We shall be rounding
+Tamissa reef presently.&rdquo; And again he returned to the
+contemplation of his brig, that main-stay of his material and
+emotional existence which would be soon in his hands again.
+On a sea, calm like a millpond, a heavy smooth ripple undulated
+and streamed away from her bows, for the powerful <i>Neptun</i>
+was towing at great speed, as if for a wager. The Dutch
+gunner appeared on the forecastle of the <i>Bonito</i>, and with
+him a couple of men. They stood looking at the coast, and
+Jasper lost himself in a loverlike trance.</p>
+
+<p>The deep-toned blast of the gunboat&rsquo;s steam-whistle made
+him shudder by its unexpectedness. Slowly he looked
+about. Swift as lightning he leaped from where he stood,
+bounding forward along the deck.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will be on Tamissa reef!&rdquo; he yelled.</p>
+
+<p>High up on the bridge Heemskirk looked back over his shoulder
+heavily; two seamen were spinning the wheel round, and the
+<i>Neptun</i> was already swinging rapidly away from the edge of
+the pale water over the danger. Ha! just in time.
+Jasper turned about instantly to watch his brig; and, even before
+he realised that&mdash;in obedience, it appears, to
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s orders given beforehand to the gunner&mdash;the
+tow-rope had been let go at the blast of the whistle, before he
+had time to cry out or to move a limb, he saw her cast adrift and
+shooting across the gunboat&rsquo;s stern with the impetus of her
+speed. He followed her fine, gliding form with eyes growing
+big with incredulity, wild with horror. The cries on board
+of her came to him only as a dreadful and confused murmur through
+the loud thumping of blood in his ears, while she held on.
+She ran upright in a terrible display of her gift of speed, with
+an incomparable air of life and grace. She ran on till the
+smooth level of water in front of her bows seemed to sink down
+suddenly as if sucked away; and, with a strange, violent tremor
+of her mast-heads she stopped, inclined her lofty spars a little,
+and lay still. She lay still on the reef, while the
+<i>Neptun</i>, fetching a wide circle, continued at full speed up
+Spermonde Passage, heading for the town. She lay still,
+perfectly still, with something ill-omened and unnatural in her
+attitude. In an instant the subtle melancholy of things
+touched by decay had fallen on her in the sunshine; she was but a
+speck in the brilliant emptiness of space, already lonely,
+already desolate.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hold him!&rdquo; yelled a voice from the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>Jasper had started to run to his brig with a headlong impulse,
+as a man dashes forward to pull away with his hands a living,
+breathing, loved creature from the brink of destruction.
+&ldquo;Hold him! Stick to him!&rdquo; vociferated the
+lieutenant at the top of the bridge-ladder, while Jasper
+struggled madly without a word, only his head emerging from the
+heaving crowd of the <i>Neptun&rsquo;s</i> seamen, who had flung
+themselves upon him obediently. &ldquo;Hold&mdash;I would
+not have that fellow drown himself for anything now!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper ceased struggling.</p>
+
+<p>One by one they let go of him; they fell back gradually
+farther and farther, in attentive silence, leaving him standing
+unsupported in a widened, clear space, as if to give him plenty
+of room to fall after the struggle. He did not even sway
+perceptibly. Half an hour later, when the <i>Neptun</i>
+anchored in front of the town, he had not stirred yet, had moved
+neither head nor limb as much as a hair&rsquo;s breadth.
+Directly the rumble of the gunboat&rsquo;s cable had ceased,
+Heemskirk came down heavily from the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Call a sampan&rdquo; he said, in a gloomy tone, as he
+passed the sentry at the gangway, and then moved on slowly
+towards the spot where Jasper, the object of many awed glances,
+stood looking at the deck, as if lost in a brown study.
+Heemskirk came up close, and stared at him thoughtfully, with his
+fingers over his lips. Here he was, the favoured vagabond,
+the only man to whom that infernal girl was likely to tell the
+story. But he would not find it funny. The story how
+Lieutenant Heemskirk&mdash;No, he would not laugh at it. He
+looked as though he would never laugh at anything in his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Jasper looked up. His eyes, without any other
+expression but bewilderment, met those of Heemskirk, observant
+and sombre.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Gone on the reef!&rdquo; he said, in a low, astounded
+tone. &ldquo;On-the-reef!&rdquo; he repeated still lower,
+and as if attending inwardly to the birth of some awful and
+amazing sensation.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;On the very top of high-water, spring tides,&rdquo;
+Heemskirk struck in, with a vindictive, exulting violence which
+flashed and expired. He paused, as if weary, fixing upon
+Jasper his arrogant eyes, over which secret disenchantment, the
+unavoidable shadow of all passion, seemed to pass like a
+saddening cloud. &ldquo;On the very top,&rdquo; he
+repeated, rousing himself in fierce reaction to snatch his laced
+cap off his head with a horizontal, derisive flourish towards the
+gangway. &ldquo;And now you may go ashore to the courts,
+you damned Englishman!&rdquo; he said.</p>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> affair of the brig
+<i>Bonito</i> was bound to cause a sensation in Makassar, the
+prettiest, and perhaps the cleanest-looking of all the towns in
+the Islands; which however knows few occasions for
+excitement. The &ldquo;front,&rdquo; with its special
+population, was soon aware that something had happened. A
+steamer towing a sailing vessel had been observed far out to sea
+for some time, and when the steamer came in alone, leaving the
+other outside, attention was aroused. Why was that?
+Her masts only could be seen&mdash;with furled
+sails&mdash;remaining in the same place to the southward.
+And soon the rumour ran all along the crowded seashore street
+that there was a ship on Tamissa reef. That crowd
+interpreted the appearance correctly. Its cause was beyond
+their penetration, for who could associate a girl nine hundred
+miles away with the stranding of a ship on Tamissa reef, or look
+for the remote filiation of that event in the psychology of at
+least three people, even if one of them, Lieutenant Heemskirk,
+was at that very moment passing amongst them on his way to make
+his verbal report?</p>
+
+<p>No; the minds on the &ldquo;front&rdquo; were not competent
+for that sort of investigation, but many hands there&mdash;brown
+hands, yellow hands, white hands&mdash;were raised to shade the
+eyes gazing out to sea. The rumour spread quickly.
+Chinese shopkeepers came to their doors, more than one white
+merchant, even, rose from his desk to go to the window.
+After all, a ship on Tamissa was not an everyday
+occurrence. And presently the rumour took a more definite
+shape. An English trader&mdash;detained on suspicion at sea
+by the <i>Neptun</i>&mdash;Heemskirk was towing him in to test a
+case, and by some strange accident&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Later on the name came out. &ldquo;The
+<i>Bonito</i>&mdash;what! Impossible! Yes&mdash;yes,
+the <i>Bonito</i>. Look! You can see from here; only
+two masts. It&rsquo;s a brig. Didn&rsquo;t think that
+man would ever let himself be caught. Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+pretty smart, too. They say she&rsquo;s fitted out in her
+cabin like a gentleman&rsquo;s yacht. That Allen is a sort
+of gentleman too. An extravagant beggar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A young man entered smartly Messrs. Mesman Brothers&rsquo;
+office on the &ldquo;front,&rdquo; bubbling with some further
+information.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes; that&rsquo;s the <i>Bonito</i> for
+certain! But you don&rsquo;t know the story I&rsquo;ve
+heard just now. The fellow must have been feeding that
+river with firearms for the last year or two. Well, it
+seems he has grown so reckless from long impunity that he has
+actually dared to sell the very ship&rsquo;s rifles this
+time. It&rsquo;s a fact. The rifles are not on
+board. What impudence! Only, he didn&rsquo;t know
+that there was one of our warships on the coast. But those
+Englishmen are so impudent that perhaps he thought that nothing
+would be done to him for it. Our courts do let off these
+fellows too often, on some miserable excuse or other. But,
+at any rate, there&rsquo;s an end of the famous
+<i>Bonito</i>. I have just heard in the harbour-office that
+she must have gone on at the very top of high-water; and she is
+in ballast, too. No human power, they think, can move her
+from where she is. I only hope it is so. It would be
+fine to have the notorious <i>Bonito</i> stuck up there as a
+warning to others.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. J. Mesman, a colonial-born Dutchman, a kind, paternal old
+fellow, with a clean-shaven, quiet, handsome face, and a head of
+fine iron-grey hair curling a little on his collar, did not say a
+word in defence of Jasper and the <i>Bonito</i>. He rose
+from his arm-chair suddenly. His face was visibly
+troubled. It had so happened that once, from a business
+talk of ways and means, island trade, money matters, and so on,
+Jasper had been led to open himself to him on the subject of
+Freya; and the excellent man, who had known old Nelson years
+before and even remembered something of Freya, was much
+astonished and amused by the unfolding of the tale.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, well, well! Nelson! Yes; of
+course. A very honest sort of man. And a little child
+with very fair hair. Oh, yes! I have a distinct
+recollection. And so she has grown into such a fine girl,
+so very determined, so very&mdash;&rdquo; And he laughed
+almost boisterously. &ldquo;Mind, when you have happily
+eloped with your future wife, Captain Allen, you must come along
+this way, and we shall welcome her here. A little
+fair-headed child! I remember. I remember.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was that knowledge which had brought trouble to his face at
+the first news of the wreck. He took up his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where are you going, Mr. Mesman?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to look for Allen. I think he must be
+ashore. Does anybody know?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>No one of those present knew. And Mr. Mesman went out on
+the &ldquo;front&rdquo; to make inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>The other part of the town, the part near the church and the
+fort, got its information in another way. The first thing
+disclosed to it was Jasper himself, walking rapidly, as though he
+were pursued. And, as a matter of fact, a Chinaman,
+obviously a sampan man, was following him at the same headlong
+pace. Suddenly, while passing Orange House, Jasper swerved
+and went in, or, rather, rushed in, startling Gomez, the hotel
+clerk, very much. But a Chinaman beginning to make an
+unseemly noise at the door claimed the immediate attention of
+Gomez. His grievance was that the white man whom he had
+brought on shore from the gunboat had not paid him his
+boat-fare. He had pursued him so far, asking for it all the
+way. But the white man had taken no notice whatever of his
+just claim. Gomez satisfied the coolie with a few coppers,
+and then went to look for Jasper, whom he knew very well.
+He found him standing stiffly by a little round table. At
+the other end of the verandah a few men sitting there had stopped
+talking, and were looking at him in silence. Two
+billiard-players, with cues in their hands, had come to the door
+of the billiard-room and stared, too.</p>
+
+<p>On Gomez coming up to him, Jasper raised one hand to point at
+his own throat. Gomez noted the somewhat soiled state of
+his white clothes, then took one look at his face, and fled away
+to order the drink for which Jasper seemed to be asking.</p>
+
+<p>Where he wanted to go&mdash;or what purpose&mdash;where he,
+perhaps, only imagined himself to be going, when a sudden impulse
+or the sight of a familiar place had made him turn into Orange
+House&mdash;it is impossible to say. He was steadying
+himself lightly with the tips of his fingers on the little
+table. There were on that verandah two men whom he knew
+well personally, but his gaze roaming incessantly as though he
+were looking for a way of escape, passed and repassed over them
+without a sign of recognition. They, on their side, looking
+at him, doubted the evidence of their own eyes. It was not
+that his face was distorted. On the contrary, it was still,
+it was set. But its expression, somehow, was
+unrecognisable. Can that be him? they wondered with
+awe.</p>
+
+<p>In his head there was a wild chaos of clear thoughts.
+Perfectly clear. It was this clearness which was so
+terrible in conjunction with the utter inability to lay hold of
+any single one of them all. He was saying to himself, or to
+them: &ldquo;Steady, steady.&rdquo; A China boy appeared
+before him with a glass on a tray. He poured the drink down
+his throat, and rushed out. His disappearance removed the
+spell of wonder from the beholders. One of the men jumped
+up and moved quickly to that side of the verandah from which
+almost the whole of the roadstead could be seen. At the
+very moment when Jasper, issuing from the door of the Orange
+House, was passing under him in the street below, he cried to the
+others excitedly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That was Allen right enough! But where is his
+brig?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Jasper heard these words with extraordinary loudness.
+The heavens rang with them, as if calling him to account; for
+those were the very words Freya would have to use. It was
+an annihilating question; it struck his consciousness like a
+thunderbolt and brought a sudden night upon the chaos of his
+thoughts even as he walked. He did not check his
+pace. He went on in the darkness for another three strides,
+and then fell.</p>
+
+<p>The good Mesman had to push on as far as the hospital before
+he found him. The doctor there talked of a slight
+heatstroke. Nothing very much. Out in three days. . .
+. It must be admitted that the doctor was right. In three
+days, Jasper Allen came out of the hospital and became visible to
+the town&mdash;very visible indeed&mdash;and remained so for
+quite a long time; long enough to become almost one of the sights
+of the place; long enough to become disregarded at last; long
+enough for the tale of his haunting visibility to be remembered
+in the islands to this day.</p>
+
+<p>The talk on the &ldquo;front&rdquo; and Jasper&rsquo;s
+appearance in the Orange House stand at the beginning of the
+famous <i>Bonito</i> case, and give a view of its two
+aspects&mdash;the practical and the psychological. The case
+for the courts and the case for compassion; that last terribly
+evident and yet obscure.</p>
+
+<p>It has, you must understand, remained obscure even for that
+friend of mine who wrote me the letter mentioned in the very
+first lines of this narrative. He was one of those in Mr.
+Mesman&rsquo;s office, and accompanied that gentleman in his
+search for Jasper. His letter described to me the two
+aspects and some of the episodes of the case.
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s attitude was that of deep thankfulness for not
+having lost his own ship, and that was all. Haze over the
+land was his explanation of having got so close to Tamissa
+reef. He saved his ship, and for the rest he did not
+care. As to the fat gunner, he deposed simply that he
+thought at the time that he was acting for the best by letting go
+the tow-rope, but admitted that he was greatly confused by the
+suddenness of the emergency.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, he had acted on very precise instructions
+from Heemskirk, to whom through several years&rsquo; service
+together in the East he had become a sort of devoted
+henchman. What was most amazing in the detention of the
+<i>Bonito</i> was his story how, proceeding to take possession of
+the firearms as ordered, he discovered that there were no
+firearms on board. All he found in the fore-cabin was an
+empty rack for the proper number of eighteen rifles, but of the
+rifles themselves never a single one anywhere in the ship.
+The mate of the brig, who looked rather ill and behaved
+excitedly, as though he were perhaps a lunatic, wanted him to
+believe that Captain Allen knew nothing of this; that it was he,
+the mate, who had recently sold these rifles in the dead of night
+to a certain person up the river. In proof of this story he
+produced a bag of silver dollars and pressed it on his, the
+gunner&rsquo;s, acceptance. Then, suddenly flinging it down
+on the deck, he beat his own head with both his fists and started
+heaping shocking curses upon his own soul for an ungrateful
+wretch not fit to live.</p>
+
+<p>All this the gunner reported at once to his commanding
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>What Heemskirk intended by taking upon himself to detain the
+<i>Bonito</i> it is difficult to say, except that he meant to
+bring some trouble into the life of the man favoured by
+Freya. He had been looking at Jasper with a desire to
+strike that man of kisses and embraces to the earth. The
+question was: How could he do it without giving himself
+away? But the report of the gunner created a serious case
+enough. Yet Allen had friends&mdash;and who could tell
+whether he wouldn&rsquo;t somehow succeed in wriggling out of
+it? The idea of simply towing the brig so much compromised
+on to the reef came to him while he was listening to the fat
+gunner in his cabin. There was but little risk of being
+disapproved now. And it should be made to appear an
+accident.</p>
+
+<p>Going out on deck he had gloated upon his unconscious victim
+with such a sinister roll of his eyes, such a queerly pursed
+mouth, that Jasper could not help smiling. And the
+lieutenant had gone on the bridge, saying to himself:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You wait! I shall spoil the taste of those sweet
+kisses for you. When you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in
+the future that name won&rsquo;t bring a smile on your lips, I
+swear. You are delivered into my hands.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And this possibility had come about without any planning, one
+could almost say naturally, as if events had mysteriously shaped
+themselves to fit the purposes of a dark passion. The most
+astute scheming could not have served Heemskirk better. It
+was given to him to taste a transcendental, an incredible
+perfection of vengeance; to strike a deadly blow into that hated
+person&rsquo;s heart, and to watch him afterwards walking about
+with the dagger in his breast.</p>
+
+<p>For that is what the state of Jasper amounted to. He
+moved, acted, weary-eyed, keen-faced, lank and restless, with
+brusque movements and fierce gestures; he talked incessantly in a
+frenzied and fatigued voice, but within himself he knew that
+nothing would ever give him back the brig, just as nothing can
+heal a pierced heart. His soul, kept quiet in the stress of
+love by the unflinching Freya&rsquo;s influence, was like a still
+but overwound string. The shock had started it vibrating,
+and the string had snapped. He had waited for two years in
+a perfectly intoxicated confidence for a day that now would never
+come to a man disarmed for life by the loss of the brig, and, it
+seemed to him, made unfit for love to which he had no foothold to
+offer.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day he would traverse the length of the town, follow
+the coast, and, reaching the point of land opposite that part of
+the reef on which his brig lay stranded, look steadily across the
+water at her beloved form, once the home of an exulting hope, and
+now, in her inclined, desolated immobility, towering above the
+lonely sea-horizon, a symbol of despair.</p>
+
+<p>The crew had left her in due course in her own boats which
+directly they reached the town were sequestrated by the harbour
+authorities. The vessel, too, was sequestrated pending
+proceedings; but these same authorities did not take the trouble
+to set a guard on board. For, indeed, what could move her
+from there? Nothing, unless a miracle; nothing, unless
+Jasper&rsquo;s eyes, fastened on her tensely for hours together,
+as though he hoped by the mere power of vision to draw her to his
+breast.</p>
+
+<p>All this story, read in my friend&rsquo;s very chatty letter,
+dismayed me not a little. But it was really appalling to
+read his relation of how Schultz, the mate, went about everywhere
+affirming with desperate pertinacity that it was he alone who had
+sold the rifles. &ldquo;I stole them,&rdquo; he
+protested. Of course, no one would believe him. My
+friend himself did not believe him, though he, of course, admired
+this self-sacrifice. But a good many people thought it was
+going too far to make oneself out a thief for the sake of a
+friend. Only, it was such an obvious lie, too, that it did
+not matter, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>I, who, in view of Schultz&rsquo;s psychology, knew how true
+that must be, admit that I was appalled. So this was how a
+perfidious destiny took advantage of a generous impulse!
+And I felt as though I were an accomplice in this perfidy, since
+I did to a certain extent encourage Jasper. Yet I had
+warned him as well.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The man seemed to have gone crazy on this point,&rdquo;
+wrote my friend. &ldquo;He went to Mesman with his
+story. He says that some rascally white man living amongst
+the natives up that river made him drunk with some gin one
+evening, and then jeered at him for never having any money.
+Then he, protesting to us that he was an honest man and must be
+believed, described himself as being a thief whenever he took a
+drop too much, and told us that he went on board and passed the
+rifles one by one without the slightest compunction to a canoe
+which came alongside that night, receiving ten dollars apiece for
+them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Next day he was ill with shame and grief, but had not
+the courage to confess his lapse to his benefactor. When
+the gunboat stopped the brig he felt ready to die with the
+apprehension of the consequences, and would have died happily, if
+he could have been able to bring the rifles back by the sacrifice
+of his life. He said nothing to Jasper, hoping that the
+brig would be released presently. When it turned out
+otherwise and his captain was detained on board the gunboat, he
+was ready to commit suicide from despair; only he thought it his
+duty to live in order to let the truth be known. &lsquo;I
+am an honest man! I am an honest man!&rsquo; he repeated,
+in a voice that brought tears to our eyes. &lsquo;You must
+believe me when I tell you that I am a thief&mdash;a vile, low,
+cunning, sneaking thief as soon as I&rsquo;ve had a glass or
+two. Take me somewhere where I may tell the truth on
+oath.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When we had at last convinced him that his story could
+be of no use to Jasper&mdash;for what Dutch court, having once
+got hold of an English trader, would accept such an explanation;
+and, indeed, how, when, where could one hope to find proofs of
+such a tale?&mdash;he made as if to tear his hair in handfuls,
+but, calming down, said: &lsquo;Good-bye, then, gentlemen,&rsquo;
+and went out of the room so crushed that he seemed hardly able to
+put one foot before the other. That very night he committed
+suicide by cutting his throat in the house of a half-caste with
+whom he had been lodging since he came ashore from the
+wreck.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>That throat, I thought with a shudder, which could produce the
+tender, persuasive, manly, but fascinating voice which had
+aroused Jasper&rsquo;s ready compassion and had secured
+Freya&rsquo;s sympathy! Who could ever have supposed such
+an end in store for the impossible, gentle Schultz, with his
+idiosyncrasy of na&iuml;ve pilfering, so absurdly straightforward
+that, even in the people who had suffered from it, it aroused
+nothing more than a sort of amused exasperation? He was
+really impossible. His lot evidently should have been a
+half-starved, mysterious, but by no means tragic existence as a
+mild-eyed, inoffensive beachcomber on the fringe of native
+life. There are occasions when the irony of fate, which
+some people profess to discover in the working out of our lives,
+wears the aspect of crude and savage jesting.</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head over the manes of Schultz, and went on with my
+friend&rsquo;s letter. It told me how the brig on the reef,
+looted by the natives from the coast villages, acquired gradually
+the lamentable aspect, the grey ghastliness of a wreck; while
+Jasper, fading daily into a mere shadow of a man, strode
+brusquely all along the &ldquo;front&rdquo; with horribly lively
+eyes and a faint, fixed smile on his lips, to spend the day on a
+lonely spit of sand looking eagerly at her, as though he had
+expected some shape on board to rise up and make some sort of
+sign to him over the decaying bulwarks. The Mesmans were
+taking care of him as far as it was possible. The
+<i>Bonito</i> case had been referred to Batavia, where no doubt
+it would fade away in a fog of official papers. . . . It was
+heartrending to read all this. That active and zealous
+officer, Lieutenant Heemskirk, his air of sullen, darkly-pained
+self-importance not lightened by the approval of his action
+conveyed to him unofficially, had gone on to take up his station
+in the Moluccas. . . .</p>
+
+<p>Then, at the end of the bulky, kindly-meant epistle, dealing
+with the island news of half a year at least, my friend wrote:
+&ldquo;A couple of months ago old Nelson turned up here, arriving
+by the mail-boat from Java. Came to see Mesman, it
+seems. A rather mysterious visit, and extraordinarily
+short, after coming all that way. He stayed just four days
+at the Orange House, with apparently nothing in particular to do,
+and then caught the south-going steamer for the Straits. I
+remember people saying at one time that Allen was rather sweet on
+old Nelson&rsquo;s daughter, the girl that was brought up by Mrs.
+Harley and then went to live with him at the Seven Isles
+group. Surely you remember old Nelson&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Remember old Nelson! Rather!</p>
+
+<p>The letter went on to inform me further that old Nelson, at
+least, remembered me, since some time after his flying visit to
+Makassar he had written to the Mesmans asking for my address in
+London.</p>
+
+<p>That old Nelson (or Nielsen), the note of whose personality
+was a profound, echoless irresponsiveness to everything around
+him, should wish to write, or find anything to write about to
+anybody, was in itself a cause for no small wonder. And to
+me, of all people! I waited with uneasy impatience for
+whatever disclosure could come from that naturally benighted
+intelligence, but my impatience had time to wear out before my
+eyes beheld old Nelson&rsquo;s trembling, painfully-formed
+handwriting, senile and childish at the same time, on an envelope
+bearing a penny stamp and the postal mark of the Notting Hill
+office. I delayed opening it in order to pay the tribute of
+astonishment due to the event by flinging my hands above my
+head. So he had come home to England, to be definitely
+Nelson; or else was on his way home to Denmark, where he would
+revert for ever to his original Nielsen! But old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) out of the tropics seemed unthinkable. And yet he
+was there, asking me to call.</p>
+
+<p>His address was at a boarding-house in one of those Bayswater
+squares, once of leisure, which nowadays are reduced to earning
+their living. Somebody had recommended him there. I
+started to call on him on one of those January days in London,
+one of those wintry days composed of the four devilish elements,
+cold, wet, mud, and grime, combined with a particular stickiness
+of atmosphere that clings like an unclean garment to one&rsquo;s
+very soul. Yet on approaching his abode I saw, like a
+flicker far behind the soiled veil of the four elements, the
+wearisome and splendid glitter of a blue sea with the Seven
+Islets like minute specks swimming in my eye, the high red roof
+of the bungalow crowning the very smallest of them all.
+This visual reminiscence was profoundly disturbing. I
+knocked at the door with a faltering hand.</p>
+
+<p>Old Nelson (or Nielsen) got up from the table at which he was
+sitting with a shabby pocket-book full of papers before
+him. He took off his spectacles before shaking hands.
+For a moment neither of us said a word; then, noticing me looking
+round somewhat expectantly, he murmured some words, of which I
+caught only &ldquo;daughter&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hong Kong,&rdquo;
+cast his eyes down, and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>His moustache, sticking all ways out, as of yore, was quite
+white now. His old cheeks were softly rounded, with some
+colour in them; strangely enough, that something childlike always
+noticeable in the general contour of his physiognomy had become
+much more marked. Like his handwriting, he looked childish
+and senile. He showed his age most in his unintelligently
+furrowed, anxious forehead and in his round, innocent eyes, which
+appeared to me weak and blinking and watery; or was it that they
+were full of tears? . . .</p>
+
+<p>To discover old Nelson fully informed upon any matter whatever
+was a new experience. And after the first awkwardness had
+worn off he talked freely, with, now and then, a question to
+start him going whenever he lapsed into silence, which he would
+do suddenly, clasping his hands on his waistcoat in an attitude
+which would recall to me the east verandah, where he used to sit
+talking quietly and puffing out his cheeks in what seemed now
+old, very old days. He talked in a reasonable somewhat
+anxious tone.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, no. We did not know anything for weeks.
+Out of the way like that, we couldn&rsquo;t, of course. No
+mail service to the Seven Isles. But one day I ran over to
+Banka in my big sailing-boat to see whether there were any
+letters, and saw a Dutch paper. But it looked only like a
+bit of marine news: English brig <i>Bonito</i> gone ashore
+outside Makassar roads. That was all. I took the
+paper home with me and showed it to her. &lsquo;I will
+never forgive him!&rsquo; she cries with her old spirit.
+&lsquo;My dear,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;you are a sensible
+girl. The best man may lose a ship. But what about
+your health?&rsquo; I was beginning to be frightened at her
+looks. She would not let me talk even of going to Singapore
+before. But, really, such a sensible girl couldn&rsquo;t
+keep on objecting for ever. &lsquo;Do what you like,
+papa,&rsquo; she says. Rather a job, that. Had to
+catch a steamer at sea, but I got her over all right.
+There, doctors, of course. Fever. An&aelig;mia.
+Put her to bed. Two or three women very kind to her.
+Naturally in our papers the whole story came out before
+long. She reads it to the end, lying on the couch; then
+hands the newspaper back to me, whispers &lsquo;Heemskirk,&rsquo;
+and goes off into a faint.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He blinked at me for quite a long time, his eyes running full
+of tears again.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Next day,&rdquo; he began, without any emotion in his
+voice, &ldquo;she felt stronger, and we had a long talk.
+She told me everything.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here old Nelson, with his eyes cast down, gave me the whole
+story of the Heemskirk episode in Freya&rsquo;s words; then went
+on in his rather jerky utterance, and looking up innocently:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;My dear,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;you have behaved
+in the main like a sensible girl.&rsquo; &lsquo;I have been
+horrid,&rsquo; she cries, &lsquo;and he is breaking his heart
+over there.&rsquo; Well, she was too sensible not to see
+she wasn&rsquo;t in a state to travel. But I went.
+She told me to go. She was being looked after very
+well. An&aelig;mia. Getting better, they
+said.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He paused.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You did see him?&rdquo; I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes; I did see him,&rdquo; he started again,
+talking in that reasonable voice as though he were arguing a
+point. &ldquo;I did see him. I came upon him.
+Eyes sunk an inch into his head; nothing but skin on the bones of
+his face, a skeleton in dirty white clothes. That&rsquo;s
+what he looked like. How Freya . . . But she never
+did&mdash;not really. He was sitting there, the only live
+thing for miles along that coast, on a drift-log washed up on the
+shore. They had clipped his hair in the hospital, and it
+had not grown again. He stared, holding his chin in his
+hand, and with nothing on the sea between him and the sky but
+that wreck. When I came up to him he just moved his head a
+bit. &lsquo;Is that you, old man?&rsquo; says he&mdash;like
+that.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you had seen him you would have understood at once
+how impossible it was for Freya to have ever loved that
+man. Well, well. I don&rsquo;t say. She might
+have&mdash;something. She was lonely, you know. But
+really to go away with him! Never! Madness. She
+was too sensible . . . I began to reproach him gently. And
+by and by he turns on me. &lsquo;Write to you! What
+about? Come to her! What with? If I had been a
+man I would have carried her off, but she made a child, a happy
+child, of me. Tell her that the day the only thing I had
+belonging to me in the world perished on this reef I discovered
+that I had no power over her. . . Has she come here with
+you?&rsquo; he shouts, blazing at me suddenly with his hollow
+eyes. I shook my head. Come with me, indeed!
+An&aelig;mia! &lsquo;Aha! You see? Go away,
+then, old man, and leave me alone here with that ghost,&rsquo; he
+says, jerking his head at the wreck of his brig.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mad! It was getting dusk. I did not care to
+stop any longer all by myself with that man in that lonely
+place. I was not going to tell him of Freya&rsquo;s
+illness. An&aelig;mia! What was the good?
+Mad! And what sort of husband would he have made, anyhow,
+for a sensible girl like Freya? Why, even my little
+property I could not have left them. The Dutch authorities
+would never have allowed an Englishman to settle there. It
+was not sold then. My man Mahmat, you know, was looking
+after it for me. Later on I let it go for a tenth of its
+value to a Dutch half-caste. But never mind. It was
+nothing to me then. Yes; I went away from him. I
+caught the return mail-boat. I told everything to
+Freya. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s mad,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;and, my
+dear, the only thing he loved was his brig.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps,&rsquo; she says to herself, looking
+straight away&mdash;her eyes were nearly as hollow as
+his&mdash;&lsquo;perhaps it is true. Yes! I would
+never allow him any power over me.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Old Nelson paused. I sat fascinated, and feeling a
+little cold in that room with a blazing fire.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So you see,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;she never
+really cared for him. Much too sensible. I took her
+away to Hong Kong. Change of climate, they said. Oh,
+these doctors! My God! Winter time! There came
+ten days of cold mists and wind and rain. Pneumonia.
+But look here! We talked a lot together. Days and
+evenings. Who else had she? . . . She talked a lot to me,
+my own girl. Sometimes she would laugh a little. Look
+at me and laugh a little&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I shuddered. He looked up vaguely, with a childish,
+puzzled moodiness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;She would say: &lsquo;I did not really mean to be a bad
+daughter to you, papa.&rsquo; And I would say: &lsquo;Of
+course, my dear. You could not have meant it.&rsquo;
+She would lie quiet and then say: &lsquo;I wonder?&rsquo;
+And sometimes, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been really a coward,&rsquo; she
+would tell me. You know, sick people they say things.
+And so she would say too: &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been conceited,
+headstrong, capricious. I sought my own
+gratification. I was selfish or afraid.&rsquo; . . . But
+sick people, you know, they say anything. And once, after
+lying silent almost all day, she said: &lsquo;Yes; perhaps, when
+the day came I would not have gone. Perhaps! I
+don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; she cried. &lsquo;Draw the
+curtain, papa. Shut the sea out. It reproaches me
+with my folly.&rsquo;&rdquo; He gasped and paused.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So you see,&rdquo; he went on in a murmur.
+&ldquo;Very ill, very ill indeed. Pneumonia. Very
+sudden.&rdquo; He pointed his finger at the carpet, while
+the thought of the poor girl, vanquished in her struggle with
+three men&rsquo;s absurdities, and coming at last to doubt her
+own self, held me in a very anguish of pity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You see yourself,&rdquo; he began again in a downcast
+manner. &ldquo;She could not have really . . . She
+mentioned you several times. Good friend. Sensible
+man. So I wanted to tell you myself&mdash;let you know the
+truth. A fellow like that! How could it be? She
+was lonely. And perhaps for a while . . . Mere
+nothing. There could never have been a question of love for
+my Freya&mdash;such a sensible girl&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Man!&rdquo; I cried, rising upon him wrathfully,
+&ldquo;don&rsquo;t you see that she died of it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He got up too. &ldquo;No! no!&rdquo; he stammered, as if
+angry. &ldquo;The doctors! Pneumonia. Low
+state. The inflammation of the . . . They told me.
+Pneu&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He did not finish the word. It ended in a sob. He
+flung his arms out in a gesture of despair, giving up his ghastly
+pretence with a low, heartrending cry:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And I thought that she was so sensible!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ’TWIXT LAND &amp; SEA ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Twixt Land & Sea, by Joseph Conrad
+(#15 in our series by Joseph Conrad)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+
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+Title: 'Twixt Land & Sea
+
+Author: Joseph Conrad
+
+Release Date: September, 1997  [EBook #1055]
+[This file was first posted on August 21, 1997]
+[Most recently updated: June 26, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, 'TWIXT LAND & SEA ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+'Twixt Land & Sea Tales
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+A Smile of Fortune
+The Secret Sharer
+Freya of the Seven Isles
+
+
+
+
+A SMILE OF FORTUNE--HARBOUR STORY
+
+
+
+
+Ever since the sun rose I had been looking ahead.  The ship glided
+gently in smooth water.  After a sixty days' passage I was anxious
+to make my landfall, a fertile and beautiful island of the tropics.
+The more enthusiastic of its inhabitants delight in describing it
+as the "Pearl of the Ocean."  Well, let us call it the "Pearl."
+It's a good name.  A pearl distilling much sweetness upon the
+world.
+
+This is only a way of telling you that first-rate sugar-cane is
+grown there.  All the population of the Pearl lives for it and by
+it.  Sugar is their daily bread, as it were.  And I was coming to
+them for a cargo of sugar in the hope of the crop having been good
+and of the freights being high.
+
+Mr. Burns, my chief mate, made out the land first; and very soon I
+became entranced by this blue, pinnacled apparition, almost
+transparent against the light of the sky, a mere emanation, the
+astral body of an island risen to greet me from afar.  It is a rare
+phenomenon, such a sight of the Pearl at sixty miles off.  And I
+wondered half seriously whether it was a good omen, whether what
+would meet me in that island would be as luckily exceptional as
+this beautiful, dreamlike vision so very few seamen have been
+privileged to behold.
+
+But horrid thoughts of business interfered with my enjoyment of an
+accomplished passage.  I was anxious for success and I wished, too,
+to do justice to the flattering latitude of my owners' instructions
+contained in one noble phrase:  "We leave it to you to do the best
+you can with the ship." . . . All the world being thus given me for
+a stage, my abilities appeared to me no bigger than a pinhead.
+
+Meantime the wind dropped, and Mr. Burns began to make disagreeable
+remarks about my usual bad luck.  I believe it was his devotion for
+me which made him critically outspoken on every occasion.  All the
+same, I would not have put up with his humours if it had not been
+my lot at one time to nurse him through a desperate illness at sea.
+After snatching him out of the jaws of death, so to speak, it would
+have been absurd to throw away such an efficient officer.  But
+sometimes I wished he would dismiss himself.
+
+We were late in closing in with the land, and had to anchor outside
+the harbour till next day.  An unpleasant and unrestful night
+followed.  In this roadstead, strange to us both, Burns and I
+remained on deck almost all the time.  Clouds swirled down the
+porphyry crags under which we lay.  The rising wind made a great
+bullying noise amongst the naked spars, with interludes of sad
+moaning.  I remarked that we had been in luck to fetch the
+anchorage before dark.  It would have been a nasty, anxious night
+to hang off a harbour under canvas.  But my chief mate was
+uncompromising in his attitude.
+
+"Luck, you call it, sir!  Ay--our usual luck.  The sort of luck to
+thank God it's no worse!"
+
+And so he fretted through the dark hours, while I drew on my fund
+of philosophy.  Ah, but it was an exasperating, weary, endless
+night, to be lying at anchor close under that black coast!  The
+agitated water made snarling sounds all round the ship.  At times a
+wild gust of wind out of a gully high up on the cliffs struck on
+our rigging a harsh and plaintive note like the wail of a forsaken
+soul.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+By half-past seven in the morning, the ship being then inside the
+harbour at last and moored within a long stone's-throw from the
+quay, my stock of philosophy was nearly exhausted.  I was dressing
+hurriedly in my cabin when the steward came tripping in with a
+morning suit over his arm.
+
+Hungry, tired, and depressed, with my head engaged inside a white
+shirt irritatingly stuck together by too much starch, I desired him
+peevishly to "heave round with that breakfast."  I wanted to get
+ashore as soon as possible.
+
+"Yes, sir.  Ready at eight, sir.  There's a gentleman from the
+shore waiting to speak to you, sir."
+
+This statement was curiously slurred over.  I dragged the shirt
+violently over my head and emerged staring.
+
+"So early!" I cried.  "Who's he?  What does he want?"
+
+On coming in from sea one has to pick up the conditions of an
+utterly unrelated existence.  Every little event at first has the
+peculiar emphasis of novelty.  I was greatly surprised by that
+early caller; but there was no reason for my steward to look so
+particularly foolish.
+
+"Didn't you ask for the name?" I inquired in a stern tone.
+
+"His name's Jacobus, I believe," he mumbled shamefacedly.
+
+"Mr. Jacobus!" I exclaimed loudly, more surprised than ever, but
+with a total change of feeling.  "Why couldn't you say so at once?"
+
+But the fellow had scuttled out of my room.  Through the
+momentarily opened door I had a glimpse of a tall, stout man
+standing in the cuddy by the table on which the cloth was already
+laid; a "harbour" table-cloth, stainless and dazzlingly white.  So
+far good.
+
+I shouted courteously through the closed door, that I was dressing
+and would be with him in a moment.  In return the assurance that
+there was no hurry reached me in the visitor's deep, quiet
+undertone.  His time was my own.  He dared say I would give him a
+cup of coffee presently.
+
+"I am afraid you will have a poor breakfast," I cried
+apologetically.  "We have been sixty-one days at sea, you know."
+
+A quiet little laugh, with a "That'll be all right, Captain," was
+his answer.  All this, words, intonation, the glimpsed attitude of
+the man in the cuddy, had an unexpected character, a something
+friendly in it--propitiatory.  And my surprise was not diminished
+thereby.  What did this call mean?  Was it the sign of some dark
+design against my commercial innocence?
+
+Ah!  These commercial interests--spoiling the finest life under the
+sun.  Why must the sea be used for trade--and for war as well?  Why
+kill and traffic on it, pursuing selfish aims of no great
+importance after all?  It would have been so much nicer just to
+sail about with here and there a port and a bit of land to stretch
+one's legs on, buy a few books and get a change of cooking for a
+while.  But, living in a world more or less homicidal and
+desperately mercantile, it was plainly my duty to make the best of
+its opportunities.
+
+My owners' letter had left it to me, as I have said before, to do
+my best for the ship, according to my own judgment.  But it
+contained also a postscript worded somewhat as follows:
+
+"Without meaning to interfere with your liberty of action we are
+writing by the outgoing mail to some of our business friends there
+who may be of assistance to you.  We desire you particularly to
+call on Mr. Jacobus, a prominent merchant and charterer.  Should
+you hit it off with him he may be able to put you in the way of
+profitable employment for the ship."
+
+Hit it off!  Here was the prominent creature absolutely on board
+asking for the favour of a cup of coffee!  And life not being a
+fairy-tale the improbability of the event almost shocked me.  Had I
+discovered an enchanted nook of the earth where wealthy merchants
+rush fasting on board ships before they are fairly moored?  Was
+this white magic or merely some black trick of trade?  I came in
+the end (while making the bow of my tie) to suspect that perhaps I
+did not get the name right.  I had been thinking of the prominent
+Mr. Jacobus pretty frequently during the passage and my hearing
+might have been deceived by some remote similarity of sound. . .
+The steward might have said Antrobus--or maybe Jackson.
+
+But coming out of my stateroom with an interrogative "Mr. Jacobus?"
+I was met by a quiet "Yes," uttered with a gentle smile.  The "yes"
+was rather perfunctory.  He did not seem to make much of the fact
+that he was Mr. Jacobus.  I took stock of a big, pale face, hair
+thin on the top, whiskers also thin, of a faded nondescript colour,
+heavy eyelids.  The thick, smooth lips in repose looked as if glued
+together.  The smile was faint.  A heavy, tranquil man.  I named my
+two officers, who just then came down to breakfast; but why Mr.
+Burns's silent demeanour should suggest suppressed indignation I
+could not understand.
+
+While we were taking our seats round the table some disconnected
+words of an altercation going on in the companionway reached my
+ear.  A stranger apparently wanted to come down to interview me,
+and the steward was opposing him.
+
+"You can't see him."
+
+"Why can't I?"
+
+"The Captain is at breakfast, I tell you.  He'll be going on shore
+presently, and you can speak to him on deck."
+
+"That's not fair.  You let--"
+
+"I've had nothing to do with that."
+
+"Oh, yes, you have.  Everybody ought to have the same chance.  You
+let that fellow--"
+
+The rest I lost.  The person having been repulsed successfully, the
+steward came down.  I can't say he looked flushed--he was a
+mulatto--but he looked flustered.  After putting the dishes on the
+table he remained by the sideboard with that lackadaisical air of
+indifference he used to assume when he had done something too
+clever by half and was afraid of getting into a scrape over it.
+The contemptuous expression of Mr. Burns's face as he looked from
+him to me was really extraordinary.  I couldn't imagine what new
+bee had stung the mate now.
+
+The Captain being silent, nobody else cared to speak, as is the way
+in ships.  And I was saying nothing simply because I had been made
+dumb by the splendour of the entertainment.  I had expected the
+usual sea-breakfast, whereas I beheld spread before us a veritable
+feast of shore provisions:  eggs, sausages, butter which plainly
+did not come from a Danish tin, cutlets, and even a dish of
+potatoes.  It was three weeks since I had seen a real, live potato.
+I contemplated them with interest, and Mr. Jacobus disclosed
+himself as a man of human, homely sympathies, and something of a
+thought-reader.
+
+"Try them, Captain," he encouraged me in a friendly undertone.
+"They are excellent."
+
+"They look that," I admitted.  "Grown on the island, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, no, imported.  Those grown here would be more expensive."
+
+I was grieved at the ineptitude of the conversation.  Were these
+the topics for a prominent and wealthy merchant to discuss?  I
+thought the simplicity with which he made himself at home rather
+attractive; but what is one to talk about to a man who comes on one
+suddenly, after sixty-one days at sea, out of a totally unknown
+little town in an island one has never seen before?  What were
+(besides sugar) the interests of that crumb of the earth, its
+gossip, its topics of conversation?  To draw him on business at
+once would have been almost indecent--or even worse:  impolitic.
+All I could do at the moment was to keep on in the old groove.
+
+"Are the provisions generally dear here?" I asked, fretting
+inwardly at my inanity.
+
+"I wouldn't say that," he answered placidly, with that appearance
+of saving his breath his restrained manner of speaking suggested.
+
+He would not be more explicit, yet he did not evade the subject.
+Eyeing the table in a spirit of complete abstemiousness (he
+wouldn't let me help him to any eatables) he went into details of
+supply.  The beef was for the most part imported from Madagascar;
+mutton of course was rare and somewhat expensive, but good goat's
+flesh--
+
+"Are these goat's cutlets?" I exclaimed hastily, pointing at one of
+the dishes.
+
+Posed sentimentally by the sideboard, the steward gave a start.
+
+"Lor', no, sir!  It's real mutton!"
+
+Mr. Burns got through his breakfast impatiently, as if exasperated
+by being made a party to some monstrous foolishness, muttered a
+curt excuse, and went on deck.  Shortly afterwards the second mate
+took his smooth red countenance out of the cabin.  With the
+appetite of a schoolboy, and after two months of sea-fare, he
+appreciated the generous spread.  But I did not.  It smacked of
+extravagance.  All the same, it was a remarkable feat to have
+produced it so quickly, and I congratulated the steward on his
+smartness in a somewhat ominous tone.  He gave me a deprecatory
+smile and, in a way I didn't know what to make of, blinked his fine
+dark eyes in the direction of the guest.
+
+The latter asked under his breath for another cup of coffee, and
+nibbled ascetically at a piece of very hard ship's biscuit.  I
+don't think he consumed a square inch in the end; but meantime he
+gave me, casually as it were, a complete account of the sugar crop,
+of the local business houses, of the state of the freight market.
+All that talk was interspersed with hints as to personalities,
+amounting to veiled warnings, but his pale, fleshy face remained
+equable, without a gleam, as if ignorant of his voice.  As you may
+imagine I opened my ears very wide.  Every word was precious.  My
+ideas as to the value of business friendship were being favourably
+modified.  He gave me the names of all the disponible ships
+together with their tonnage and the names of their commanders.
+From that, which was still commercial information, he condescended
+to mere harbour gossip.  The Hilda had unaccountably lost her
+figurehead in the Bay of Bengal, and her captain was greatly
+affected by this.  He and the ship had been getting on in years
+together and the old gentleman imagined this strange event to be
+the forerunner of his own early dissolution.  The Stella had
+experienced awful weather off the Cape--had her decks swept, and
+the chief officer washed overboard.  And only a few hours before
+reaching port the baby died.
+
+Poor Captain H- and his wife were terribly cut up.  If they had
+only been able to bring it into port alive it could have been
+probably saved; but the wind failed them for the last week or so,
+light breezes, and . . . the baby was going to be buried this
+afternoon.  He supposed I would attend--
+
+"Do you think I ought to?" I asked, shrinkingly.
+
+He thought so, decidedly.  It would be greatly appreciated.  All
+the captains in the harbour were going to attend.  Poor Mrs. H- was
+quite prostrated.  Pretty hard on H- altogether.
+
+"And you, Captain--you are not married I suppose?"
+
+"No, I am not married," I said.  "Neither married nor even
+engaged."
+
+Mentally I thanked my stars; and while he smiled in a musing,
+dreamy fashion, I expressed my acknowledgments for his visit and
+for the interesting business information he had been good enough to
+impart to me.  But I said nothing of my wonder thereat.
+
+"Of course, I would have made a point of calling on you in a day or
+two," I concluded.
+
+He raised his eyelids distinctly at me, and somehow managed to look
+rather more sleepy than before.
+
+"In accordance with my owners' instructions," I explained.  "You
+have had their letter, of course?"
+
+By that time he had raised his eyebrows too but without any
+particular emotion.  On the contrary he struck me then as
+absolutely imperturbable.
+
+"Oh!  You must be thinking of my brother."
+
+It was for me, then, to say "Oh!"  But I hope that no more than
+civil surprise appeared in my voice when I asked him to what, then,
+I owed the pleasure. . . . He was reaching for an inside pocket
+leisurely.
+
+"My brother's a very different person.  But I am well known in this
+part of the world.  You've probably heard--"
+
+I took a card he extended to me.  A thick business card, as I
+lived!  Alfred Jacobus--the other was Ernest--dealer in every
+description of ship's stores!  Provisions salt and fresh, oils,
+paints, rope, canvas, etc., etc.  Ships in harbour victualled by
+contract on moderate terms--
+
+"I've never heard of you," I said brusquely.
+
+His low-pitched assurance did not abandon him.
+
+"You will be very well satisfied," he breathed out quietly.
+
+I was not placated.  I had the sense of having been circumvented
+somehow.  Yet I had deceived myself--if there was any deception.
+But the confounded cheek of inviting himself to breakfast was
+enough to deceive any one.  And the thought struck me:  Why!  The
+fellow had provided all these eatables himself in the way of
+business.  I said:
+
+"You must have got up mighty early this morning."
+
+He admitted with simplicity that he was on the quay before six
+o'clock waiting for my ship to come in.  He gave me the impression
+that it would be impossible to get rid of him now.
+
+"If you think we are going to live on that scale," I said, looking
+at the table with an irritated eye, "you are jolly well mistaken."
+
+"You'll find it all right, Captain.  I quite understand."
+
+Nothing could disturb his equanimity.  I felt dissatisfied, but I
+could not very well fly out at him.  He had told me many useful
+things--and besides he was the brother of that wealthy merchant.
+That seemed queer enough.
+
+I rose and told him curtly that I must now go ashore.  At once he
+offered the use of his boat for all the time of my stay in port.
+
+"I only make a nominal charge," he continued equably.  "My man
+remains all day at the landing-steps.  You have only to blow a
+whistle when you want the boat."
+
+And, standing aside at every doorway to let me go through first, he
+carried me off in his custody after all.  As we crossed the
+quarter-deck two shabby individuals stepped forward and in mournful
+silence offered me business cards which I took from them without a
+word under his heavy eye.  It was a useless and gloomy ceremony.
+They were the touts of the other ship-chandlers, and he placid at
+my back, ignored their existence.
+
+We parted on the quay, after he had expressed quietly the hope of
+seeing me often "at the store."  He had a smoking-room for captains
+there, with newspapers and a box of "rather decent cigars."  I left
+him very unceremoniously.
+
+My consignees received me with the usual business heartiness, but
+their account of the state of the freight-market was by no means so
+favourable as the talk of the wrong Jacobus had led me to expect.
+Naturally I became inclined now to put my trust in his version,
+rather.  As I closed the door of the private office behind me I
+thought to myself:  "H'm.  A lot of lies.  Commercial diplomacy.
+That's the sort of thing a man coming from sea has got to expect.
+They would try to charter the ship under the market rate."
+
+In the big, outer room, full of desks, the chief clerk, a tall,
+lean, shaved person in immaculate white clothes and with a shiny,
+closely-cropped black head on which silvery gleams came and went,
+rose from his place and detained me affably.  Anything they could
+do for me, they would be most happy.  Was I likely to call again in
+the afternoon?  What?  Going to a funeral?  Oh, yes, poor Captain
+H-.
+
+He pulled a long, sympathetic face for a moment, then, dismissing
+from this workaday world the baby, which had got ill in a tempest
+and had died from too much calm at sea, he asked me with a dental,
+shark-like smile--if sharks had false teeth--whether I had yet made
+my little arrangements for the ship's stay in port.
+
+"Yes, with Jacobus," I answered carelessly.  "I understand he's the
+brother of Mr. Ernest Jacobus to whom I have an introduction from
+my owners."
+
+I was not sorry to let him know I was not altogether helpless in
+the hands of his firm.  He screwed his thin lips dubiously.
+
+"Why," I cried, "isn't he the brother?"
+
+"Oh, yes. . . . They haven't spoken to each other for eighteen
+years," he added impressively after a pause.
+
+"Indeed!  What's the quarrel about?"
+
+"Oh, nothing!  Nothing that one would care to mention," he
+protested primly.  "He's got quite a large business.  The best
+ship-chandler here, without a doubt.  Business is all very well,
+but there is such a thing as personal character, too, isn't there?
+Good-morning, Captain."
+
+He went away mincingly to his desk.  He amused me.  He resembled an
+old maid, a commercial old maid, shocked by some impropriety.  Was
+it a commercial impropriety?  Commercial impropriety is a serious
+matter, for it aims at one's pocket.  Or was he only a purist in
+conduct who disapproved of Jacobus doing his own touting?  It was
+certainly undignified.  I wondered how the merchant brother liked
+it.  But then different countries, different customs.  In a
+community so isolated and so exclusively "trading" social standards
+have their own scale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+I would have gladly dispensed with the mournful opportunity of
+becoming acquainted by sight with all my fellow-captains at once.
+However I found my way to the cemetery.  We made a considerable
+group of bareheaded men in sombre garments.  I noticed that those
+of our company most approaching to the now obsolete sea-dog type
+were the most moved--perhaps because they had less "manner" than
+the new generation.  The old sea-dog, away from his natural
+element, was a simple and sentimental animal.  I noticed one--he
+was facing me across the grave--who was dropping tears.  They
+trickled down his weather-beaten face like drops of rain on an old
+rugged wall.  I learned afterwards that he was looked upon as the
+terror of sailors, a hard man; that he had never had wife or chick
+of his own, and that, engaged from his tenderest years in deep-sea
+voyages, he knew women and children merely by sight.
+
+Perhaps he was dropping those tears over his lost opportunities,
+from sheer envy of paternity and in strange jealousy of a sorrow
+which he could never know.  Man, and even the sea-man, is a
+capricious animal, the creature and the victim of lost
+opportunities.  But he made me feel ashamed of my callousness.  I
+had no tears.
+
+I listened with horribly critical detachment to that service I had
+had to read myself, once or twice, over childlike men who had died
+at sea.  The words of hope and defiance, the winged words so
+inspiring in the free immensity of water and sky, seemed to fall
+wearily into the little grave.  What was the use of asking Death
+where her sting was, before that small, dark hole in the ground?
+And then my thoughts escaped me altogether--away into matters of
+life--and no very high matters at that--ships, freights, business.
+In the instability of his emotions man resembles deplorably a
+monkey.  I was disgusted with my thoughts--and I thought:  Shall I
+be able to get a charter soon?  Time's money. . . . Will that
+Jacobus really put good business in my way?  I must go and see him
+in a day or two.
+
+Don't imagine that I pursued these thoughts with any precision.
+They pursued me rather:  vague, shadowy, restless, shamefaced.
+Theirs was a callous, abominable, almost revolting, pertinacity.
+And it was the presence of that pertinacious ship-chandler which
+had started them.  He stood mournfully amongst our little band of
+men from the sea, and I was angry at his presence, which,
+suggesting his brother the merchant, had caused me to become
+outrageous to myself.  For indeed I had preserved some decency of
+feeling.  It was only the mind which--
+
+It was over at last.  The poor father--a man of forty with black,
+bushy side-whiskers and a pathetic gash on his freshly-shaved chin-
+-thanked us all, swallowing his tears.  But for some reason, either
+because I lingered at the gate of the cemetery being somewhat hazy
+as to my way back, or because I was the youngest, or ascribing my
+moodiness caused by remorse to some more worthy and appropriate
+sentiment, or simply because I was even more of a stranger to him
+than the others--he singled me out.  Keeping at my side, he renewed
+his thanks, which I listened to in a gloomy, conscience-stricken
+silence.  Suddenly he slipped one hand under my arm and waved the
+other after a tall, stout figure walking away by itself down a
+street in a flutter of thin, grey garments:
+
+"That's a good fellow--a real good fellow"--he swallowed down a
+belated sob--"this Jacobus."
+
+And he told me in a low voice that Jacobus was the first man to
+board his ship on arrival, and, learning of their misfortune, had
+taken charge of everything, volunteered to attend to all routine
+business, carried off the ship's papers on shore, arranged for the
+funeral--
+
+"A good fellow.  I was knocked over.  I had been looking at my wife
+for ten days.  And helpless.  Just you think of that!  The dear
+little chap died the very day we made the land.  How I managed to
+take the ship in God alone knows!  I couldn't see anything; I
+couldn't speak; I couldn't. . . . You've heard, perhaps, that we
+lost our mate overboard on the passage?  There was no one to do it
+for me.  And the poor woman nearly crazy down below there all alone
+with the . . . By the Lord!  It isn't fair."
+
+We walked in silence together.  I did not know how to part from
+him.  On the quay he let go my arm and struck fiercely his fist
+into the palm of his other hand.
+
+"By God, it isn't fair!" he cried again.  "Don't you ever marry
+unless you can chuck the sea first. . . . It isn't fair."
+
+I had no intention to "chuck the sea," and when he left me to go
+aboard his ship I felt convinced that I would never marry.  While I
+was waiting at the steps for Jacobus's boatman, who had gone off
+somewhere, the captain of the Hilda joined me, a slender silk
+umbrella in his hand and the sharp points of his archaic,
+Gladstonian shirt-collar framing a small, clean-shaved, ruddy face.
+It was wonderfully fresh for his age, beautifully modelled and lit
+up by remarkably clear blue eyes.  A lot of white hair, glossy like
+spun glass, curled upwards slightly under the brim of his valuable,
+ancient, panama hat with a broad black ribbon.  In the aspect of
+that vivacious, neat, little old man there was something quaintly
+angelic and also boyish.
+
+He accosted me, as though he had been in the habit of seeing me
+every day of his life from my earliest childhood, with a whimsical
+remark on the appearance of a stout negro woman who was sitting
+upon a stool near the edge of the quay.  Presently he observed
+amiably that I had a very pretty little barque.
+
+I returned this civil speech by saying readily:
+
+"Not so pretty as the Hilda."
+
+At once the corners of his clear-cut, sensitive mouth dropped
+dismally.
+
+"Oh, dear!  I can hardly bear to look at her now."
+
+Did I know, he asked anxiously, that he had lost the figurehead of
+his ship; a woman in a blue tunic edged with gold, the face perhaps
+not so very, very pretty, but her bare white arms beautifully
+shaped and extended as if she were swimming?  Did I?  Who would
+have expected such a things . . . After twenty years too!
+
+Nobody could have guessed from his tone that the woman was made of
+wood; his trembling voice, his agitated manner gave to his
+lamentations a ludicrously scandalous flavour. . . . Disappeared at
+night--a clear fine night with just a slight swell--in the gulf of
+Bengal.  Went off without a splash; no one in the ship could tell
+why, how, at what hour--after twenty years last October. . . . Did
+I ever hear! . . .
+
+I assured him sympathetically that I had never heard--and he became
+very doleful.  This meant no good he was sure.  There was something
+in it which looked like a warning.  But when I remarked that surely
+another figure of a woman could be procured I found myself being
+soundly rated for my levity.  The old boy flushed pink under his
+clear tan as if I had proposed something improper.  One could
+replace masts, I was told, or a lost rudder--any working part of a
+ship; but where was the use of sticking up a new figurehead?  What
+satisfaction?  How could one care for it?  It was easy to see that
+I had never been shipmates with a figurehead for over twenty years.
+
+"A new figurehead!" he scolded in unquenchable indignation.  "Why!
+I've been a widower now for eight-and-twenty years come next May
+and I would just as soon think of getting a new wife.  You're as
+bad as that fellow Jacobus."
+
+I was highly amused.
+
+"What has Jacobus done?  Did he want you to marry again, Captain?"
+I inquired in a deferential tone.  But he was launched now and only
+grinned fiercely.
+
+"Procure--indeed!  He's the sort of chap to procure you anything
+you like for a price.  I hadn't been moored here for an hour when
+he got on board and at once offered to sell me a figurehead he
+happens to have in his yard somewhere.  He got Smith, my mate, to
+talk to me about it.  'Mr. Smith,' says I, 'don't you know me
+better than that?  Am I the sort that would pick up with another
+man's cast-off figurehead?'  And after all these years too!  The
+way some of you young fellows talk--"
+
+I affected great compunction, and as I stepped into the boat I said
+soberly:
+
+"Then I see nothing for it but to fit in a neat fiddlehead--
+perhaps.  You know, carved scrollwork, nicely gilt."
+
+He became very dejected after his outburst.
+
+"Yes.  Scrollwork.  Maybe.  Jacobus hinted at that too.  He's never
+at a loss when there's any money to be extracted from a sailorman.
+He would make me pay through the nose for that carving.  A gilt
+fiddlehead did you say--eh?  I dare say it would do for you.  You
+young fellows don't seem to have any feeling for what's proper."
+
+He made a convulsive gesture with his right arm.
+
+"Never mind.  Nothing can make much difference.  I would just as
+soon let the old thing go about the world with a bare cutwater," he
+cried sadly.  Then as the boat got away from the steps he raised
+his voice on the edge of the quay with comical animosity:
+
+"I would!  If only to spite that figurehead-procuring bloodsucker.
+I am an old bird here and don't you forget it.  Come and see me on
+board some day!"
+
+I spent my first evening in port quietly in my ship's cuddy; and
+glad enough was I to think that the shore life which strikes one as
+so pettily complex, discordant, and so full of new faces on first
+coming from sea, could be kept off for a few hours longer.  I was
+however fated to hear the Jacobus note once more before I slept.
+
+Mr. Burns had gone ashore after the evening meal to have, as he
+said, "a look round."  As it was quite dark when he announced his
+intention I didn't ask him what it was he expected to see.  Some
+time about midnight, while sitting with a book in the saloon, I
+heard cautious movements in the lobby and hailed him by name.
+
+Burns came in, stick and hat in hand, incredibly vulgarised by his
+smart shore togs, with a jaunty air and an odious twinkle in his
+eye.  Being asked to sit down he laid his hat and stick on the
+table and after we had talked of ship affairs for a little while:
+
+"I've been hearing pretty tales on shore about that ship-chandler
+fellow who snatched the job from you so neatly, sir."
+
+I remonstrated with my late patient for his manner of expressing
+himself.  But he only tossed his head disdainfully.  A pretty dodge
+indeed:  boarding a strange ship with breakfast in two baskets for
+all hands and calmly inviting himself to the captain's table!
+Never heard of anything so crafty and so impudent in his life.
+
+I found myself defending Jacobus's unusual methods.
+
+"He's the brother of one of the wealthiest merchants in the port."
+The mate's eyes fairly snapped green sparks.
+
+"His grand brother hasn't spoken to him for eighteen or twenty
+years," he declared triumphantly.  "So there!"
+
+"I know all about that," I interrupted loftily.
+
+"Do you sir?  H'm!"  His mind was still running on the ethics of
+commercial competition.  "I don't like to see your good nature
+taken advantage of.  He's bribed that steward of ours with a five-
+rupee note to let him come down--or ten for that matter.  He don't
+care.  He will shove that and more into the bill presently."
+
+"Is that one of the tales you have heard ashore?" I asked.
+
+He assured me that his own sense could tell him that much.  No;
+what he had heard on shore was that no respectable person in the
+whole town would come near Jacobus.  He lived in a large old-
+fashioned house in one of the quiet streets with a big garden.
+After telling me this Burns put on a mysterious air.  "He keeps a
+girl shut up there who, they say--"
+
+"I suppose you've heard all this gossip in some eminently
+respectable place?" I snapped at him in a most sarcastic tone.
+
+The shaft told, because Mr. Burns, like many other disagreeable
+people, was very sensitive himself.  He remained as if
+thunderstruck, with his mouth open for some further communication,
+but I did not give him the chance.  "And, anyhow, what the deuce do
+I care?" I added, retiring into my room.
+
+And this was a natural thing to say.  Yet somehow I was not
+indifferent.  I admit it is absurd to be concerned with the morals
+of one's ship-chandler, if ever so well connected; but his
+personality had stamped itself upon my first day in harbour, in the
+way you know.
+
+After this initial exploit Jacobus showed himself anything but
+intrusive.  He was out in a boat early every morning going round
+the ships he served, and occasionally remaining on board one of
+them for breakfast with the captain.
+
+As I discovered that this practice was generally accepted, I just
+nodded to him familiarly when one morning, on coming out of my
+room, I found him in the cabin.  Glancing over the table I saw that
+his place was already laid.  He stood awaiting my appearance, very
+bulky and placid, holding a beautiful bunch of flowers in his thick
+hand.  He offered them to my notice with a faint, sleepy smile.
+From his own garden; had a very fine old garden; picked them
+himself that morning before going out to business; thought I would
+like. . . . He turned away.  "Steward, can you oblige me with some
+water in a large jar, please."
+
+I assured him jocularly, as I took my place at the table, that he
+made me feel as if I were a pretty girl, and that he mustn't be
+surprised if I blushed.  But he was busy arranging his floral
+tribute at the sideboard.  "Stand it before the Captain's plate,
+steward, please."  He made this request in his usual undertone.
+
+The offering was so pointed that I could do no less than to raise
+it to my nose, and as he sat down noiselessly he breathed out the
+opinion that a few flowers improved notably the appearance of a
+ship's saloon.  He wondered why I did not have a shelf fitted all
+round the skylight for flowers in pots to take with me to sea.  He
+had a skilled workman able to fit up shelves in a day, and he could
+procure me two or three dozen good plants--
+
+The tips of his thick, round fingers rested composedly on the edge
+of the table on each side of his cup of coffee.  His face remained
+immovable.  Mr. Burns was smiling maliciously to himself.  I
+declared that I hadn't the slightest intention of turning my
+skylight into a conservatory only to keep the cabin-table in a
+perpetual mess of mould and dead vegetable matter.
+
+"Rear most beautiful flowers," he insisted with an upward glance.
+"It's no trouble really."
+
+"Oh, yes, it is.  Lots of trouble," I contradicted.  "And in the
+end some fool leaves the skylight open in a fresh breeze, a flick
+of salt water gets at them and the whole lot is dead in a week."
+
+Mr. Burns snorted a contemptuous approval.  Jacobus gave up the
+subject passively.  After a time he unglued his thick lips to ask
+me if I had seen his brother yet.  I was very curt in my answer.
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"A very different person," he remarked dreamily and got up.  His
+movements were particularly noiseless.  "Well--thank you, Captain.
+If anything is not to your liking please mention it to your
+steward.  I suppose you will be giving a dinner to the office-
+clerks presently."
+
+"What for?" I cried with some warmth.  "If I were a steady trader
+to the port I could understand it.  But a complete stranger! . . .
+I may not turn up again here for years.  I don't see why! . . . Do
+you mean to say it is customary?"
+
+"It will be expected from a man like you," he breathed out
+placidly.  "Eight of the principal clerks, the manager, that's
+nine, you three gentlemen, that's twelve.  It needn't be very
+expensive.  If you tell your steward to give me a day's notice--"
+
+"It will be expected of me!  Why should it be expected of me?  Is
+it because I look particularly soft--or what?
+
+His immobility struck me as dignified suddenly, his imperturbable
+quality as dangerous.  "There's plenty of time to think about
+that," I concluded weakly with a gesture that tried to wave him
+away.  But before he departed he took time to mention regretfully
+that he had not yet had the pleasure of seeing me at his "store" to
+sample those cigars.  He had a parcel of six thousand to dispose
+of, very cheap.
+
+"I think it would be worth your while to secure some," he added
+with a fat, melancholy smile and left the cabin.
+
+Mr. Burns struck his fist on the table excitedly.
+
+"Did you ever see such impudence!  He's made up his mind to get
+something out of you one way or another, sir."
+
+At once feeling inclined to defend Jacobus, I observed
+philosophically that all this was business, I supposed.  But my
+absurd mate, muttering broken disjointed sentences, such as:  "I
+cannot bear! . . . Mark my words! . . ." and so on, flung out of
+the cabin.  If I hadn't nursed him through that deadly fever I
+wouldn't have suffered such manners for a single day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+Jacobus having put me in mind of his wealthy brother I concluded I
+would pay that business call at once.  I had by that time heard a
+little more of him.  He was a member of the Council, where he made
+himself objectionable to the authorities.  He exercised a
+considerable influence on public opinion.  Lots of people owed him
+money.  He was an importer on a great scale of all sorts of goods.
+For instance, the whole supply of bags for sugar was practically in
+his hands.  This last fact I did not learn till afterwards.  The
+general impression conveyed to me was that of a local personage.
+He was a bachelor and gave weekly card-parties in his house out of
+town, which were attended by the best people in the colony.
+
+The greater, then, was my surprise to discover his office in shabby
+surroundings, quite away from the business quarter, amongst a lot
+of hovels.  Guided by a black board with white lettering, I climbed
+a narrow wooden staircase and entered a room with a bare floor of
+planks littered with bits of brown paper and wisps of packing
+straw.  A great number of what looked like wine-cases were piled up
+against one of the walls.  A lanky, inky, light-yellow, mulatto
+youth, miserably long-necked and generally recalling a sick
+chicken, got off a three-legged stool behind a cheap deal desk and
+faced me as if gone dumb with fright.  I had some difficulty in
+persuading him to take in my name, though I could not get from him
+the nature of his objection.  He did it at last with an almost
+agonised reluctance which ceased to be mysterious to me when I
+heard him being sworn at menacingly with savage, suppressed growls,
+then audibly cuffed and finally kicked out without any concealment
+whatever; because he came back flying head foremost through the
+door with a stifled shriek.
+
+To say I was startled would not express it.  I remained still, like
+a man lost in a dream.  Clapping both his hands to that part of his
+frail anatomy which had received the shock, the poor wretch said to
+me simply:
+
+"Will you go in, please."  His lamentable self-possession was
+wonderful; but it did not do away with the incredibility of the
+experience.  A preposterous notion that I had seen this boy
+somewhere before, a thing obviously impossible, was like a delicate
+finishing touch of weirdness added to a scene fit to raise doubts
+as to one's sanity.  I stared anxiously about me like an awakened
+somnambulist.
+
+"I say," I cried loudly, "there isn't a mistake, is there?  This is
+Mr. Jacobus's office."
+
+The boy gazed at me with a pained expression--and somehow so
+familiar!  A voice within growled offensively:
+
+"Come in, come in, since you are there. . . . I didn't know."
+
+I crossed the outer room as one approaches the den of some unknown
+wild beast; with intrepidity but in some excitement.  Only no wild
+beast that ever lived would rouse one's indignation; the power to
+do that belongs to the odiousness of the human brute.  And I was
+very indignant, which did not prevent me from being at once struck
+by the extraordinary resemblance of the two brothers.
+
+This one was dark instead of being fair like the other; but he was
+as big.  He was without his coat and waistcoat; he had been
+doubtless snoozing in the rocking-chair which stood in a corner
+furthest from the window.  Above the great bulk of his crumpled
+white shirt, buttoned with three diamond studs, his round face
+looked swarthy.  It was moist; his brown moustache hung limp and
+ragged.  He pushed a common, cane-bottomed chair towards me with
+his foot.
+
+"Sit down."
+
+I glanced at it casually, then, turning my indignant eyes full upon
+him, I declared in precise and incisive tones that I had called in
+obedience to my owners' instructions.
+
+"Oh!  Yes.  H'm!  I didn't understand what that fool was saying. .
+. . But never mind!  It will teach the scoundrel to disturb me at
+this time of the day," he added, grinning at me with savage
+cynicism.
+
+I looked at my watch.  It was past three o'clock--quite the full
+swing of afternoon office work in the port.  He snarled
+imperiously:  "Sit down, Captain."
+
+I acknowledged the gracious invitation by saying deliberately:
+
+"I can listen to all you may have to say without sitting down."
+
+Emitting a loud and vehement "Pshaw!" he glared for a moment, very
+round-eyed and fierce.  It was like a gigantic tomcat spitting at
+one suddenly.  "Look at him! . . . What do you fancy yourself to
+be?  What did you come here for?  If you won't sit down and talk
+business you had better go to the devil."
+
+"I don't know him personally," I said.  "But after this I wouldn't
+mind calling on him.  It would be refreshing to meet a gentleman."
+
+He followed me, growling behind my back:
+
+"The impudence!  I've a good mind to write to your owners what I
+think of you."
+
+I turned on him for a moment:
+
+"As it happens I don't care.  For my part I assure you I won't even
+take the trouble to mention you to them."
+
+He stopped at the door of his office while I traversed the littered
+anteroom.  I think he was somewhat taken aback.
+
+"I will break every bone in your body," he roared suddenly at the
+miserable mulatto lad, "if you ever dare to disturb me before half-
+past three for anybody.  D'ye hear?  For anybody! . . . Let alone
+any damned skipper," he added, in a lower growl.
+
+The frail youngster, swaying like a reed, made a low moaning sound.
+I stopped short and addressed this sufferer with advice.  It was
+prompted by the sight of a hammer (used for opening the wine-cases,
+I suppose) which was lying on the floor.
+
+"If I were you, my boy, I would have that thing up my sleeve when I
+went in next and at the first occasion I would--"
+
+What was there so familiar in that lad's yellow face?  Entrenched
+and quaking behind the flimsy desk, he never looked up.  His heavy,
+lowered eyelids gave me suddenly the clue of the puzzle.  He
+resembled--yes, those thick glued lips--he resembled the brothers
+Jacobus.  He resembled both, the wealthy merchant and the pushing
+shopkeeper (who resembled each other); he resembled them as much as
+a thin, light-yellow mulatto lad may resemble a big, stout, middle-
+aged white man.  It was the exotic complexion and the slightness of
+his build which had put me off so completely.  Now I saw in him
+unmistakably the Jacobus strain, weakened, attenuated, diluted as
+it were in a bucket of water--and I refrained from finishing my
+speech.  I had intended to say:  "Crack this brute's head for him."
+I still felt the conclusion to be sound.  But it is no trifling
+responsibility to counsel parricide to any one, however deeply
+injured.
+
+"Beggarly--cheeky--skippers."
+
+I despised the emphatic growl at my back; only, being much vexed
+and upset, I regret to say that I slammed the door behind me in a
+most undignified manner.
+
+It may not appear altogether absurd if I say that I brought out
+from that interview a kindlier view of the other Jacobus.  It was
+with a feeling resembling partisanship that, a few days later, I
+called at his "store."  That long, cavern-like place of business,
+very dim at the back and stuffed full of all sorts of goods, was
+entered from the street by a lofty archway.  At the far end I saw
+my Jacobus exerting himself in his shirt-sleeves among his
+assistants.  The captains' room was a small, vaulted apartment with
+a stone floor and heavy iron bars in its windows like a dungeon
+converted to hospitable purposes.  A couple of cheerful bottles and
+several gleaming glasses made a brilliant cluster round a tall,
+cool red earthenware pitcher on the centre table which was littered
+with newspapers from all parts of the world.  A well-groomed
+stranger in a smart grey check suit, sitting with one leg flung
+over his knee, put down one of these sheets briskly and nodded to
+me.
+
+I guessed him to be a steamer-captain.  It was impossible to get to
+know these men.  They came and went too quickly and their ships lay
+moored far out, at the very entrance of the harbour.  Theirs was
+another life altogether.  He yawned slightly.
+
+"Dull hole, isn't it?"
+
+I understood this to allude to the town.
+
+"Do you find it so?" I murmured.
+
+"Don't you?  But I'm off to-morrow, thank goodness."
+
+He was a very gentlemanly person, good-natured and superior.  I
+watched him draw the open box of cigars to his side of the table,
+take a big cigar-case out of his pocket and begin to fill it very
+methodically.  Presently, on our eyes meeting, he winked like a
+common mortal and invited me to follow his example.  "They are
+really decent smokes."  I shook my head.
+
+"I am not off to-morrow."
+
+"What of that?  Think I am abusing old Jacobus's hospitality?
+Heavens!  It goes into the bill, of course.  He spreads such little
+matters all over his account.  He can take care of himself!  Why,
+it's business--"
+
+I noted a shadow fall over his well-satisfied expression, a
+momentary hesitation in closing his cigar-case.  But he ended by
+putting it in his pocket jauntily.  A placid voice uttered in the
+doorway:  "That's quite correct, Captain."
+
+The large noiseless Jacobus advanced into the room.  His quietness,
+in the circumstances, amounted to cordiality.  He had put on his
+jacket before joining us, and he sat down in the chair vacated by
+the steamer-man, who nodded again to me and went out with a short,
+jarring laugh.  A profound silence reigned.  With his drowsy stare
+Jacobus seemed to be slumbering open-eyed.  Yet, somehow, I was
+aware of being profoundly scrutinised by those heavy eyes.  In the
+enormous cavern of the store somebody began to nail down a case,
+expertly:  tap-tap . . . tap-tap-tap.
+
+Two other experts, one slow and nasal, the other shrill and snappy,
+started checking an invoice.
+
+"A half-coil of three-inch manilla rope."
+
+"Right!"
+
+"Six assorted shackles."
+
+"Right!"
+
+"Six tins assorted soups, three of pate, two asparagus, fourteen
+pounds tobacco, cabin."
+
+"Right!"
+
+"It's for the captain who was here just now," breathed out the
+immovable Jacobus.  "These steamer orders are very small.  They
+pick up what they want as they go along.  That man will be in
+Samarang in less than a fortnight.  Very small orders indeed."
+
+The calling over of the items went on in the shop; an extraordinary
+jumble of varied articles, paint-brushes, Yorkshire Relish, etc.,
+etc. . . . "Three sacks of best potatoes," read out the nasal
+voice.
+
+At this Jacobus blinked like a sleeping man roused by a shake, and
+displayed some animation.  At his order, shouted into the shop, a
+smirking half-caste clerk with his ringlets much oiled and with a
+pen stuck behind his ear, brought in a sample of six potatoes which
+he paraded in a row on the table.
+
+Being urged to look at their beauty I gave them a cold and hostile
+glance.  Calmly, Jacobus proposed that I should order ten or
+fifteen tons--tons!  I couldn't believe my ears.  My crew could not
+have eaten such a lot in a year; and potatoes (excuse these
+practical remarks) are a highly perishable commodity.  I thought he
+was joking--or else trying to find out whether I was an unutterable
+idiot.  But his purpose was not so simple.  I discovered that he
+meant me to buy them on my own account.
+
+"I am proposing you a bit of business, Captain.  I wouldn't charge
+you a great price."
+
+I told him that I did not go in for trade.  I even added grimly
+that I knew only too well how that sort of spec. generally ended.
+
+He sighed and clasped his hands on his stomach with exemplary
+resignation.  I admired the placidity of his impudence.  Then
+waking up somewhat:
+
+"Won't you try a cigar, Captain?"
+
+"No, thanks.  I don't smoke cigars."
+
+"For once!" he exclaimed, in a patient whisper.  A melancholy
+silence ensued.  You know how sometimes a person discloses a
+certain unsuspected depth and acuteness of thought; that is, in
+other words, utters something unexpected.  It was unexpected enough
+to hear Jacobus say:
+
+"The man who just went out was right enough.  You might take one,
+Captain.  Here everything is bound to be in the way of business."
+
+I felt a little ashamed of myself.  The remembrance of his horrid
+brother made him appear quite a decent sort of fellow.  It was with
+some compunction that I said a few words to the effect that I could
+have no possible objection to his hospitality.
+
+Before I was a minute older I saw where this admission was leading
+me.  As if changing the subject, Jacobus mentioned that his private
+house was about ten minutes' walk away.  It had a beautiful old
+walled garden.  Something really remarkable.  I ought to come round
+some day and have a look at it.
+
+He seemed to be a lover of gardens.  I too take extreme delight in
+them; but I did not mean my compunction to carry me as far as
+Jacobus's flower-beds, however beautiful and old.  He added, with a
+certain homeliness of tone:
+
+"There's only my girl there."
+
+It is difficult to set everything down in due order; so I must
+revert here to what happened a week or two before.  The medical
+officer of the port had come on board my ship to have a look at one
+of my crew who was ailing, and naturally enough he was asked to
+step into the cabin.  A fellow-shipmaster of mine was there too;
+and in the conversation, somehow or other, the name of Jacobus came
+to be mentioned.  It was pronounced with no particular reverence by
+the other man, I believe.  I don't remember now what I was going to
+say.  The doctor--a pleasant, cultivated fellow, with an assured
+manner--prevented me by striking in, in a sour tone:
+
+"Ah!  You're talking about my respected papa-in-law."
+
+Of course, that sally silenced us at the time.  But I remembered
+the episode, and at this juncture, pushed for something
+noncommittal to say, I inquired with polite surprise:
+
+"You have your married daughter living with you, Mr. Jacobus?"
+
+He moved his big hand from right to left quietly.  No!  That was
+another of his girls, he stated, ponderously and under his breath
+as usual.  She . . . He seemed in a pause to be ransacking his mind
+for some kind of descriptive phrase.  But my hopes were
+disappointed.  He merely produced his stereotyped definition.
+
+"She's a very different sort of person."
+
+"Indeed. . . . And by the by, Jacobus, I called on your brother the
+other day.  It's no great compliment if I say that I found him a
+very different sort of person from you."
+
+He had an air of profound reflection, then remarked quaintly:
+
+"He's a man of regular habits."
+
+He might have been alluding to the habit of late siesta; but I
+mumbled something about "beastly habits anyhow"--and left the store
+abruptly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+My little passage with Jacobus the merchant became known generally.
+One or two of my acquaintances made distant allusions to it.
+Perhaps the mulatto boy had talked.  I must confess that people
+appeared rather scandalised, but not with Jacobus's brutality.  A
+man I knew remonstrated with me for my hastiness.
+
+I gave him the whole story of my visit, not forgetting the tell-
+tale resemblance of the wretched mulatto boy to his tormentor.  He
+was not surprised.  No doubt, no doubt.  What of that?  In a jovial
+tone he assured me that there must be many of that sort.  The elder
+Jacobus had been a bachelor all his life.  A highly respectable
+bachelor.  But there had never been open scandal in that
+connection.  His life had been quite regular.  It could cause no
+offence to any one.
+
+I said that I had been offended considerably.  My interlocutor
+opened very wide eyes.  Why?  Because a mulatto lad got a few
+knocks?  That was not a great affair, surely.  I had no idea how
+insolent and untruthful these half-castes were.  In fact he seemed
+to think Mr. Jacobus rather kind than otherwise to employ that
+youth at all; a sort of amiable weakness which could be forgiven.
+
+This acquaintance of mine belonged to one of the old French
+families, descendants of the old colonists; all noble, all
+impoverished, and living a narrow domestic life in dull, dignified
+decay.  The men, as a rule, occupy inferior posts in Government
+offices or in business houses.  The girls are almost always pretty,
+ignorant of the world, kind and agreeable and generally bilingual;
+they prattle innocently both in French and English.  The emptiness
+of their existence passes belief.
+
+I obtained my entry into a couple of such households because some
+years before, in Bombay, I had occasion to be of use to a pleasant,
+ineffectual young man who was rather stranded there, not knowing
+what to do with himself or even how to get home to his island
+again.  It was a matter of two hundred rupees or so, but, when I
+turned up, the family made a point of showing their gratitude by
+admitting me to their intimacy.  My knowledge of the French
+language made me specially acceptable.  They had meantime managed
+to marry the fellow to a woman nearly twice his age, comparatively
+well off:  the only profession he was really fit for.  But it was
+not all cakes and ale.  The first time I called on the couple she
+spied a little spot of grease on the poor devil's pantaloons and
+made him a screaming scene of reproaches so full of sincere passion
+that I sat terrified as at a tragedy of Racine.
+
+Of course there was never question of the money I had advanced him;
+but his sisters, Miss Angele and Miss Mary, and the aunts of both
+families, who spoke quaint archaic French of pre-Revolution period,
+and a host of distant relations adopted me for a friend outright in
+a manner which was almost embarrassing.
+
+It was with the eldest brother (he was employed at a desk in my
+consignee's office) that I was having this talk about the merchant
+Jacobus.  He regretted my attitude and nodded his head sagely.  An
+influential man.  One never knew when one would need him.  I
+expressed my immense preference for the shopkeeper of the two.  At
+that my friend looked grave.
+
+"What on earth are you pulling that long face about?" I cried
+impatiently.  "He asked me to see his garden and I have a good mind
+to go some day."
+
+"Don't do that," he said, so earnestly that I burst into a fit of
+laughter; but he looked at me without a smile.
+
+This was another matter altogether.  At one time the public
+conscience of the island had been mightily troubled by my Jacobus.
+The two brothers had been partners for years in great harmony, when
+a wandering circus came to the island and my Jacobus became
+suddenly infatuated with one of the lady-riders.  What made it
+worse was that he was married.  He had not even the grace to
+conceal his passion.  It must have been strong indeed to carry away
+such a large placid creature.  His behaviour was perfectly
+scandalous.  He followed that woman to the Cape, and apparently
+travelled at the tail of that beastly circus to other parts of the
+world, in a most degrading position.  The woman soon ceased to care
+for him, and treated him worse than a dog.  Most extraordinary
+stories of moral degradation were reaching the island at that time.
+He had not the strength of mind to shake himself free. . . .
+
+The grotesque image of a fat, pushing ship-chandler, enslaved by an
+unholy love-spell, fascinated me; and I listened rather open-
+mouthed to the tale as old as the world, a tale which had been the
+subject of legend, of moral fables, of poems, but which so
+ludicrously failed to fit the personality.  What a strange victim
+for the gods!
+
+Meantime his deserted wife had died.  His daughter was taken care
+of by his brother, who married her as advantageously as was
+possible in the circumstances.
+
+"Oh!  The Mrs. Doctor!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You know that?  Yes.  A very able man.  He wanted a lift in the
+world, and there was a good bit of money from her mother, besides
+the expectations. . . Of course, they don't know him," he added.
+"The doctor nods in the street, I believe, but he avoids speaking
+to him when they meet on board a ship, as must happen sometimes."
+
+I remarked that this surely was an old story by now.
+
+My friend assented.  But it was Jacobus's own fault that it was
+neither forgiven nor forgotten.  He came back ultimately.  But how?
+Not in a spirit of contrition, in a way to propitiate his
+scandalised fellow-citizens.  He must needs drag along with him a
+child--a girl. . . .
+
+"He spoke to me of a daughter who lives with him," I observed, very
+much interested.
+
+"She's certainly the daughter of the circus-woman," said my friend.
+"She may be his daughter too; I am willing to admit that she is.
+In fact I have no doubt--"
+
+But he did not see why she should have been brought into a
+respectable community to perpetuate the memory of the scandal.  And
+that was not the worst.  Presently something much more distressing
+happened.  That abandoned woman turned up.  Landed from a mail-
+boat. . . .
+
+"What!  Here?  To claim the child perhaps," I suggested.
+
+"Not she!"  My friendly informant was very scornful.  "Imagine a
+painted, haggard, agitated, desperate hag.  Been cast off in
+Mozambique by somebody who paid her passage here.  She had been
+injured internally by a kick from a horse; she hadn't a cent on her
+when she got ashore; I don't think she even asked to see the child.
+At any rate, not till the last day of her life.  Jacobus hired for
+her a bungalow to die in.  He got a couple of Sisters from the
+hospital to nurse her through these few months.  If he didn't marry
+her in extremis as the good Sisters tried to bring about, it's
+because she wouldn't even hear of it.  As the nuns said:  'The
+woman died impenitent.'  It was reported that she ordered Jacobus
+out of the room with her last breath.  This may be the real reason
+why he didn't go into mourning himself; he only put the child into
+black.  While she was little she was to be seen sometimes about the
+streets attended by a negro woman, but since she became of age to
+put her hair up I don't think she has set foot outside that garden
+once.  She must be over eighteen now."
+
+Thus my friend, with some added details; such as, that he didn't
+think the girl had spoken to three people of any position in the
+island; that an elderly female relative of the brothers Jacobus had
+been induced by extreme poverty to accept the position of
+gouvernante to the girl.  As to Jacobus's business (which certainly
+annoyed his brother) it was a wise choice on his part.  It brought
+him in contact only with strangers of passage; whereas any other
+would have given rise to all sorts of awkwardness with his social
+equals.  The man was not wanting in a certain tact--only he was
+naturally shameless.  For why did he want to keep that girl with
+him?  It was most painful for everybody.
+
+I thought suddenly (and with profound disgust) of the other
+Jacobus, and I could not refrain from saying slily:
+
+"I suppose if he employed her, say, as a scullion in his household
+and occasionally pulled her hair or boxed her ears, the position
+would have been more regular--less shocking to the respectable
+class to which he belongs."
+
+He was not so stupid as to miss my intention, and shrugged his
+shoulders impatiently.
+
+"You don't understand.  To begin with, she's not a mulatto.  And a
+scandal is a scandal.  People should be given a chance to forget.
+I dare say it would have been better for her if she had been turned
+into a scullion or something of that kind.  Of course he's trying
+to make money in every sort of petty way, but in such a business
+there'll never be enough for anybody to come forward."
+
+When my friend left me I had a conception of Jacobus and his
+daughter existing, a lonely pair of castaways, on a desert island;
+the girl sheltering in the house as if it were a cavern in a cliff,
+and Jacobus going out to pick up a living for both on the beach--
+exactly like two shipwrecked people who always hope for some
+rescuer to bring them back at last into touch with the rest of
+mankind.
+
+But Jacobus's bodily reality did not fit in with this romantic
+view.  When he turned up on board in the usual course, he sipped
+the cup of coffee placidly, asked me if I was satisfied--and I
+hardly listened to the harbour gossip he dropped slowly in his low,
+voice-saving enunciation.  I had then troubles of my own.  My ship
+chartered, my thoughts dwelling on the success of a quick round
+voyage, I had been suddenly confronted by a shortage of bags.  A
+catastrophe!  The stock of one especial kind, called pockets,
+seemed to be totally exhausted.  A consignment was shortly
+expected--it was afloat, on its way, but, meantime, the loading of
+my ship dead stopped, I had enough to worry about.  My consignees,
+who had received me with such heartiness on my arrival, now, in the
+character of my charterers, listened to my complaints with polite
+helplessness.  Their manager, the old-maidish, thin man, who so
+prudishly didn't even like to speak about the impure Jacobus, gave
+me the correct commercial view of the position.
+
+"My dear Captain"--he was retracting his leathery cheeks into a
+condescending, shark-like smile--"we were not morally obliged to
+tell you of a possible shortage before you signed the charter-
+party.  It was for you to guard against the contingency of a delay-
+-strictly speaking.  But of course we shouldn't have taken any
+advantage.  This is no one's fault really.  We ourselves have been
+taken unawares," he concluded primly, with an obvious lie.
+
+This lecture I confess had made me thirsty.  Suppressed rage
+generally produces that effect; and as I strolled on aimlessly I
+bethought myself of the tall earthenware pitcher in the captains'
+room of the Jacobus "store."
+
+With no more than a nod to the men I found assembled there, I
+poured down a deep, cool draught on my indignation, then another,
+and then, becoming dejected, I sat plunged in cheerless
+reflections.  The others read, talked, smoked, bandied over my head
+some unsubtle chaff.  But my abstraction was respected.  And it was
+without a word to any one that I rose and went out, only to be
+quite unexpectedly accosted in the bustle of the store by Jacobus
+the outcast.
+
+"Glad to see you, Captain.  What?  Going away?  You haven't been
+looking so well these last few days, I notice.  Run down, eh?"
+
+He was in his shirt-sleeves, and his words were in the usual course
+of business, but they had a human note.  It was commercial amenity,
+but I had been a stranger to amenity in that connection.  I do
+verily believe (from the direction of his heavy glance towards a
+certain shelf) that he was going to suggest the purchase of
+Clarkson's Nerve Tonic, which he kept in stock, when I said
+impulsively:
+
+"I am rather in trouble with my loading."
+
+Wide awake under his sleepy, broad mask with glued lips, he
+understood at once, had a movement of the head so appreciative that
+I relieved my exasperation by exclaiming:
+
+"Surely there must be eleven hundred quarter-bags to be found in
+the colony.  It's only a matter of looking for them."
+
+Again that slight movement of the big head, and in the noise and
+activity of the store that tranquil murmur:
+
+"To be sure.  But then people likely to have a reserve of quarter-
+bags wouldn't want to sell.  They'd need that size themselves."
+
+"That's exactly what my consignees are telling me.  Impossible to
+buy.  Bosh!  They don't want to.  It suits them to have the ship
+hung up.  But if I were to discover the lot they would have to--
+Look here, Jacobus!  You are the man to have such a thing up your
+sleeve."
+
+He protested with a ponderous swing of his big head.  I stood
+before him helplessly, being looked at by those heavy eyes with a
+veiled expression as of a man after some soul-shaking crisis.
+Then, suddenly:
+
+"It's impossible to talk quietly here," he whispered.  "I am very
+busy.  But if you could go and wait for me in my house.  It's less
+than ten minutes' walk.  Oh, yes, you don't know the way."
+
+He called for his coat and offered to take me there himself.  He
+would have to return to the store at once for an hour or so to
+finish his business, and then he would be at liberty to talk over
+with me that matter of quarter-bags.  This programme was breathed
+out at me through slightly parted, still lips; his heavy,
+motionless glance rested upon me, placid as ever, the glance of a
+tired man--but I felt that it was searching, too.  I could not
+imagine what he was looking for in me and kept silent, wondering.
+
+"I am asking you to wait for me in my house till I am at liberty to
+talk this matter over.  You will?"
+
+"Why, of course!" I cried.
+
+"But I cannot promise--"
+
+"I dare say not," I said.  "I don't expect a promise."
+
+"I mean I can't even promise to try the move I've in my mind.  One
+must see first . . . h'm!"
+
+"All right.  I'll take the chance.  I'll wait for you as long as
+you like.  What else have I to do in this infernal hole of a port!"
+
+Before I had uttered my last words we had set off at a swinging
+pace.  We turned a couple of corners and entered a street
+completely empty of traffic, of semi-rural aspect, paved with
+cobblestones nestling in grass tufts.  The house came to the line
+of the roadway; a single story on an elevated basement of rough-
+stones, so that our heads were below the level of the windows as we
+went along.  All the jalousies were tightly shut, like eyes, and
+the house seemed fast asleep in the afternoon sunshine.  The
+entrance was at the side, in an alley even more grass-grown than
+the street:  a small door, simply on the latch.
+
+With a word of apology as to showing me the way, Jacobus preceded
+me up a dark passage and led me across the naked parquet floor of
+what I supposed to be the dining-room.  It was lighted by three
+glass doors which stood wide open on to a verandah or rather loggia
+running its brick arches along the garden side of the house.  It
+was really a magnificent garden:  smooth green lawns and a gorgeous
+maze of flower-beds in the foreground, displayed around a basin of
+dark water framed in a marble rim, and in the distance the massed
+foliage of varied trees concealing the roofs of other houses.  The
+town might have been miles away.  It was a brilliantly coloured
+solitude, drowsing in a warm, voluptuous silence.  Where the long,
+still shadows fell across the beds, and in shady nooks, the massed
+colours of the flowers had an extraordinary magnificence of effect.
+I stood entranced.  Jacobus grasped me delicately above the elbow,
+impelling me to a half-turn to the left.
+
+I had not noticed the girl before.  She occupied a low, deep,
+wickerwork arm-chair, and I saw her in exact profile like a figure
+in a tapestry, and as motionless.  Jacobus released my arm.
+
+"This is Alice," he announced tranquilly; and his subdued manner of
+speaking made it sound so much like a confidential communication
+that I fancied myself nodding understandingly and whispering:  "I
+see, I see." . . . Of course, I did nothing of the kind.  Neither
+of us did anything; we stood side by side looking down at the girl.
+For quite a time she did not stir, staring straight before her as
+if watching the vision of some pageant passing through the garden
+in the deep, rich glow of light and the splendour of flowers.
+
+Then, coming to the end of her reverie, she looked round and up.
+If I had not at first noticed her, I am certain that she too had
+been unaware of my presence till she actually perceived me by her
+father's side.  The quickened upward movement of the heavy eyelids,
+the widening of the languid glance, passing into a fixed stare, put
+that beyond doubt.
+
+Under her amazement there was a hint of fear, and then came a flash
+as of anger.  Jacobus, after uttering my name fairly loud, said:
+"Make yourself at home, Captain--I won't be gone long," and went
+away rapidly.  Before I had time to make a bow I was left alone
+with the girl--who, I remembered suddenly, had not been seen by any
+man or woman of that town since she had found it necessary to put
+up her hair.  It looked as though it had not been touched again
+since that distant time of first putting up; it was a mass of
+black, lustrous locks, twisted anyhow high on her head, with long,
+untidy wisps hanging down on each side of the clear sallow face; a
+mass so thick and strong and abundant that, nothing but to look at,
+it gave you a sensation of heavy pressure on the top of your head
+and an impression of magnificently cynical untidiness.  She leaned
+forward, hugging herself with crossed legs; a dingy, amber-
+coloured, flounced wrapper of some thin stuff revealed the young
+supple body drawn together tensely in the deep low seat as if
+crouching for a spring.  I detected a slight, quivering start or
+two, which looked uncommonly like bounding away.  They were
+followed by the most absolute immobility.
+
+The absurd impulse to run out after Jacobus (for I had been
+startled, too) once repressed, I took a chair, placed it not very
+far from her, sat down deliberately, and began to talk about the
+garden, caring not what I said, but using a gentle caressing
+intonation as one talks to soothe a startled wild animal.  I could
+not even be certain that she understood me.  She never raised her
+face nor attempted to look my way.  I kept on talking only to
+prevent her from taking flight.  She had another of those
+quivering, repressed starts which made me catch my breath with
+apprehension.
+
+Ultimately I formed a notion that what prevented her perhaps from
+going off in one great, nervous leap, was the scantiness of her
+attire.  The wicker armchair was the most substantial thing about
+her person.  What she had on under that dingy, loose, amber wrapper
+must have been of the most flimsy and airy character.  One could
+not help being aware of it.  It was obvious.  I felt it actually
+embarrassing at first; but that sort of embarrassment is got over
+easily by a mind not enslaved by narrow prejudices.  I did not
+avert my gaze from Alice.  I went on talking with ingratiating
+softness, the recollection that, most likely, she had never before
+been spoken to by a strange man adding to my assurance.  I don't
+know why an emotional tenseness should have crept into the
+situation.  But it did.  And just as I was becoming aware of it a
+slight scream cut short my flow of urbane speech.
+
+The scream did not proceed from the girl.  It was emitted behind
+me, and caused me to turn my head sharply.  I understood at once
+that the apparition in the doorway was the elderly relation of
+Jacobus, the companion, the gouvernante.  While she remained
+thunderstruck, I got up and made her a low bow.
+
+The ladies of Jacobus's household evidently spent their days in
+light attire.  This stumpy old woman with a face like a large
+wrinkled lemon, beady eyes, and a shock of iron-grey hair, was
+dressed in a garment of some ash-coloured, silky, light stuff.  It
+fell from her thick neck down to her toes with the simplicity of an
+unadorned nightgown.  It made her appear truly cylindrical.  She
+exclaimed:  "How did you get here?"
+
+Before I could say a word she vanished and presently I heard a
+confusion of shrill protestations in a distant part of the house.
+Obviously no one could tell her how I got there.  In a moment, with
+great outcries from two negro women following her, she waddled back
+to the doorway, infuriated.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+I turned to the girl.  She was sitting straight up now, her hands
+posed on the arms of the chair.  I appealed to her.
+
+"Surely, Miss Alice, you will not let them drive me out into the
+street?"
+
+Her magnificent black eyes, narrowed, long in shape, swept over me
+with an indefinable expression, then in a harsh, contemptuous voice
+she let fall in French a sort of explanation:
+
+"C'est papa."
+
+I made another low bow to the old woman.
+
+She turned her back on me in order to drive away her black
+henchwomen, then surveying my person in a peculiar manner with one
+small eye nearly closed and her face all drawn up on that side as
+if with a twinge of toothache, she stepped out on the verandah, sat
+down in a rocking-chair some distance away, and took up her
+knitting from a little table.  Before she started at it she plunged
+one of the needles into the mop of her grey hair and stirred it
+vigorously.
+
+Her elementary nightgown-sort of frock clung to her ancient,
+stumpy, and floating form.  She wore white cotton stockings and
+flat brown velvet slippers.  Her feet and ankles were obtrusively
+visible on the foot-rest.  She began to rock herself slightly,
+while she knitted.  I had resumed my seat and kept quiet, for I
+mistrusted that old woman.  What if she ordered me to depart?  She
+seemed capable of any outrage.  She had snorted once or twice; she
+was knitting violently.  Suddenly she piped at the young girl in
+French a question which I translate colloquially:
+
+"What's your father up to, now?"
+
+The young creature shrugged her shoulders so comprehensively that
+her whole body swayed within the loose wrapper; and in that
+unexpectedly harsh voice which yet had a seductive quality to the
+senses, like certain kinds of natural rough wines one drinks with
+pleasure:
+
+"It's some captain.  Leave me alone--will you!"
+
+The chair rocked quicker, the old, thin voice was like a whistle.
+
+"You and your father make a pair.  He would stick at nothing--
+that's well known.  But I didn't expect this."
+
+I thought it high time to air some of my own French.  I remarked
+modestly, but firmly, that this was business.  I had some matters
+to talk over with Mr. Jacobus.
+
+At once she piped out a derisive "Poor innocent!"  Then, with a
+change of tone:  "The shop's for business.  Why don't you go to the
+shop to talk with him?"
+
+The furious speed of her fingers and knitting-needles made one
+dizzy; and with squeaky indignation:
+
+"Sitting here staring at that girl--is that what you call
+business?"
+
+"No," I said suavely.  "I call this pleasure--an unexpected
+pleasure.  And unless Miss Alice objects--"
+
+I half turned to her.  She flung at me an angry and contemptuous
+"Don't care!" and leaning her elbow on her knees took her chin in
+her hand--a Jacobus chin undoubtedly.  And those heavy eyelids,
+this black irritated stare reminded me of Jacobus, too--the wealthy
+merchant, the respected one.  The design of her eyebrows also was
+the same, rigid and ill-omened.  Yes!  I traced in her a
+resemblance to both of them.  It came to me as a sort of surprising
+remote inference that both these Jacobuses were rather handsome men
+after all.  I said:
+
+"Oh!  Then I shall stare at you till you smile."
+
+She favoured me again with an even more viciously scornful "Don't
+care!"
+
+The old woman broke in blunt and shrill:
+
+"Hear his impudence!  And you too!  Don't care!  Go at least and
+put some more clothes on.  Sitting there like this before this
+sailor riff-raff."
+
+The sun was about to leave the Pearl of the Ocean for other seas,
+for other lands.  The walled garden full of shadows blazed with
+colour as if the flowers were giving up the light absorbed during
+the day.  The amazing old woman became very explicit.  She
+suggested to the girl a corset and a petticoat with a cynical
+unreserve which humiliated me.  Was I of no more account than a
+wooden dummy?  The girl snapped out:  "Shan't!"
+
+It was not the naughty retort of a vulgar child; it had a note of
+desperation.  Clearly my intrusion had somehow upset the balance of
+their established relations.  The old woman knitted with furious
+accuracy, her eyes fastened down on her work.
+
+"Oh, you are the true child of your father!  And THAT talks of
+entering a convent!  Letting herself be stared at by a fellow."
+
+"Leave off."
+
+"Shameless thing!"
+
+"Old sorceress," the girl uttered distinctly, preserving her
+meditative pose, chin in hand, and a far-away stare over the
+garden.
+
+It was like the quarrel of the kettle and the pot.  The old woman
+flew out of the chair, banged down her work, and with a great play
+of thick limb perfectly visible in that weird, clinging garment of
+hers, strode at the girl--who never stirred.  I was experiencing a
+sort of trepidation when, as if awed by that unconscious attitude,
+the aged relative of Jacobus turned short upon me.
+
+She was, I perceived, armed with a knitting-needle; and as she
+raised her hand her intention seemed to be to throw it at me like a
+dart.  But she only used it to scratch her head with, examining me
+the while at close range, one eye nearly shut and her face
+distorted by a whimsical, one-sided grimace.
+
+"My dear man," she asked abruptly, "do you expect any good to come
+of this?"
+
+ "I do hope so indeed, Miss Jacobus."  I tried to speak in the easy
+tone of an afternoon caller.  "You see, I am here after some bags."
+
+"Bags!  Look at that now!  Didn't I hear you holding forth to that
+graceless wretch?"
+
+"You would like to see me in my grave," uttered the motionless girl
+hoarsely.
+
+"Grave!  What about me?  Buried alive before I am dead for the sake
+of a thing blessed with such a pretty father!" she cried; and
+turning to me:  "You're one of these men he does business with.
+Well--why don't you leave us in peace, my good fellow?"
+
+It was said in a tone--this "leave us in peace!"  There was a sort
+of ruffianly familiarity, a superiority, a scorn in it.  I was to
+hear it more than once, for you would show an imperfect knowledge
+of human nature if you thought that this was my last visit to that
+house--where no respectable person had put foot for ever so many
+years.  No, you would be very much mistaken if you imagined that
+this reception had scared me away.  First of all I was not going to
+run before a grotesque and ruffianly old woman.
+
+And then you mustn't forget these necessary bags.  That first
+evening Jacobus made me stay to dinner; after, however, telling me
+loyally that he didn't know whether he could do anything at all for
+me.  He had been thinking it over.  It was too difficult, he
+feared. . . . But he did not give it up in so many words.
+
+We were only three at table; the girl by means of repeated "Won't!"
+"Shan't!" and "Don't care!" having conveyed and affirmed her
+intention not to come to the table, not to have any dinner, not to
+move from the verandah.  The old relative hopped about in her flat
+slippers and piped indignantly, Jacobus towered over her and
+murmured placidly in his throat; I joined jocularly from a
+distance, throwing in a few words, for which under the cover of the
+night I received secretly a most vicious poke in the ribs from the
+old woman's elbow or perhaps her fist.  I restrained a cry.  And
+all the time the girl didn't even condescend to raise her head to
+look at any of us.  All this may sound childish--and yet that
+stony, petulant sullenness had an obscurely tragic flavour.
+
+And so we sat down to the food around the light of a good many
+candles while she remained crouching out there, staring in the dark
+as if feeding her bad temper on the heavily scented air of the
+admirable garden.
+
+Before leaving I said to Jacobus that I would come next day to hear
+if the bag affair had made any progress.  He shook his head
+slightly at that.
+
+"I'll haunt your house daily till you pull it off.  You'll be
+always finding me here."
+
+His faint, melancholy smile did not part his thick lips.
+
+"That will be all right, Captain."
+
+Then seeing me to the door, very tranquil, he murmured earnestly
+the recommendation:  "Make yourself at home," and also the
+hospitable hint about there being always "a plate of soup."  It was
+only on my way to the quay, down the ill-lighted streets, that I
+remembered I had been engaged to dine that very evening with the S-
+family.  Though vexed with my forgetfulness (it would be rather
+awkward to explain) I couldn't help thinking that it had procured
+me a more amusing evening.  And besides--business.  The sacred
+business--.
+
+In a barefooted negro who overtook me at a run and bolted down the
+landing-steps I recognised Jacobus's boatman, who must have been
+feeding in the kitchen.  His usual "Good-night, sah!" as I went up
+my ship's ladder had a more cordial sound than on previous
+occasions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+I kept my word to Jacobus.  I haunted his home.  He was perpetually
+finding me there of an afternoon when he popped in for a moment
+from the "store."  The sound of my voice talking to his Alice
+greeted him on his doorstep; and when he returned for good in the
+evening, ten to one he would hear it still going on in the
+verandah.  I just nodded to him; he would sit down heavily and
+gently, and watch with a sort of approving anxiety my efforts to
+make his daughter smile.
+
+I called her often "Alice," right before him; sometimes I would
+address her as Miss "Don't Care," and I exhausted myself in
+nonsensical chatter without succeeding once in taking her out of
+her peevish and tragic self.  There were moments when I felt I must
+break out and start swearing at her till all was blue.  And I
+fancied that had I done so Jacobus would not have moved a muscle.
+A sort of shady, intimate understanding seemed to have been
+established between us.
+
+I must say the girl treated her father exactly in the same way she
+treated me.
+
+And how could it have been otherwise?  She treated me as she
+treated her father.  She had never seen a visitor.  She did not
+know how men behaved.  I belonged to the low lot with whom her
+father did business at the port.  I was of no account.  So was her
+father.  The only decent people in the world were the people of the
+island, who would have nothing to do with him because of something
+wicked he had done.  This was apparently the explanation Miss
+Jacobus had given her of the household's isolated position.  For
+she had to be told something!  And I feel convinced that this
+version had been assented to by Jacobus.  I must say the old woman
+was putting it forward with considerable gusto.  It was on her lips
+the universal explanation, the universal allusion, the universal
+taunt.
+
+One day Jacobus came in early and, beckoning me into the dining-
+room, wiped his brow with a weary gesture and told me that he had
+managed to unearth a supply of quarter-bags.
+
+"It's fourteen hundred your ship wanted, did you say, Captain?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" I replied eagerly; but he remained calm.  He looked
+more tired than I had ever seen him before.
+
+"Well, Captain, you may go and tell your people that they can get
+that lot from my brother."
+
+As I remained open-mouthed at this, he added his usual placid
+formula of assurance:
+
+"You'll find it correct, Captain."
+
+"You spoke to your brother about it?"  I was distinctly awed.  "And
+for me?  Because he must have known that my ship's the only one
+hung up for bags.  How on earth--"
+
+He wiped his brow again.  I noticed that he was dressed with
+unusual care, in clothes in which I had never seen him before.  He
+avoided my eye.
+
+"You've heard people talk, of course. . . . That's true enough.  He
+. . . I . . . We certainly. . . for several years . . ."  His voice
+declined to a mere sleepy murmur.  "You see I had something to tell
+him of, something which--"
+
+His murmur stopped.  He was not going to tell me what this
+something was.  And I didn't care.  Anxious to carry the news to my
+charterers, I ran back on the verandah to get my hat.
+
+At the bustle I made the girl turned her eyes slowly in my
+direction, and even the old woman was checked in her knitting.  I
+stopped a moment to exclaim excitedly:
+
+"Your father's a brick, Miss Don't Care.  That's what he is."
+
+She beheld my elation in scornful surprise.  Jacobus with unwonted
+familiarity seized my arm as I flew through the dining-room, and
+breathed heavily at me a proposal about "A plate of soup" that
+evening.  I answered distractedly:  "Eh?  What?  Oh, thanks!
+Certainly.  With pleasure," and tore myself away.  Dine with him?
+Of course.  The merest gratitude
+
+But some three hours afterwards, in the dusky, silent street, paved
+with cobble-stones, I became aware that it was not mere gratitude
+which was guiding my steps towards the house with the old garden,
+where for years no guest other than myself had ever dined.  Mere
+gratitude does not gnaw at one's interior economy in that
+particular way.  Hunger might; but I was not feeling particularly
+hungry for Jacobus's food.
+
+On that occasion, too, the girl refused to come to the table.
+
+My exasperation grew.  The old woman cast malicious glances at me.
+I said suddenly to Jacobus:  "Here!  Put some chicken and salad on
+that plate."  He obeyed without raising his eyes.  I carried it
+with a knife and fork and a serviette out on the verandah.  The
+garden was one mass of gloom, like a cemetery of flowers buried in
+the darkness, and she, in the chair, seemed to muse mournfully over
+the extinction of light and colour.  Only whiffs of heavy scent
+passed like wandering, fragrant souls of that departed multitude of
+blossoms.  I talked volubly, jocularly, persuasively, tenderly; I
+talked in a subdued tone.  To a listener it would have sounded like
+the murmur of a pleading lover.  Whenever I paused expectantly
+there was only a deep silence.  It was like offering food to a
+seated statue.
+
+"I haven't been able to swallow a single morsel thinking of you out
+here starving yourself in the dark.  It's positively cruel to be so
+obstinate.  Think of my sufferings."
+
+"Don't care."
+
+I felt as if I could have done her some violence--shaken her,
+beaten her maybe.  I said:
+
+"Your absurd behaviour will prevent me coming here any more."
+
+"What's that to me?"
+
+"You like it."
+
+"It's false," she snarled.
+
+My hand fell on her shoulder; and if she had flinched I verily
+believe I would have shaken her.  But there was no movement and
+this immobility disarmed my anger.
+
+"You do.  Or you wouldn't be found on the verandah every day.  Why
+are you here, then?  There are plenty of rooms in the house.  You
+have your own room to stay in--if you did not want to see me.  But
+you do.  You know you do."
+
+I felt a slight shudder under my hand and released my grip as if
+frightened by that sign of animation in her body.  The scented air
+of the garden came to us in a warm wave like a voluptuous and
+perfumed sigh.
+
+"Go back to them," she whispered, almost pitifully.
+
+As I re-entered the dining-room I saw Jacobus cast down his eyes.
+I banged the plate on the table.  At this demonstration of ill-
+humour he murmured something in an apologetic tone, and I turned on
+him viciously as if he were accountable to me for these "abominable
+eccentricities," I believe I called them.
+
+"But I dare say Miss Jacobus here is responsible for most of this
+offensive manner," I added loftily.
+
+She piped out at once in her brazen, ruffianly manner:
+
+"Eh?  Why don't you leave us in peace, my good fellow?"
+
+I was astonished that she should dare before Jacobus.  Yet what
+could he have done to repress her?  He needed her too much.  He
+raised a heavy, drowsy glance for an instant, then looked down
+again.  She insisted with shrill finality:
+
+"Haven't you done your business, you two?  Well, then--"
+
+She had the true Jacobus impudence, that old woman.  Her mop of
+iron-grey hair was parted, on the side like a man's, raffishly, and
+she made as if to plunge her fork into it, as she used to do with
+the knitting-needle, but refrained.  Her little black eyes sparkled
+venomously.  I turned to my host at the head of the table--
+menacingly as it were.
+
+"Well, and what do you say to that, Jacobus?  Am I to take it that
+we have done with each other?"
+
+I had to wait a little.  The answer when it came was rather
+unexpected, and in quite another spirit than the question.
+
+"I certainly think we might do some business yet with those
+potatoes of mine, Captain.  You will find that--"
+
+I cut him short.
+
+"I've told you before that I don't trade."
+
+His broad chest heaved without a sound in a noiseless sigh.
+
+"Think it over, Captain," he murmured, tenacious and tranquil; and
+I burst into a jarring laugh, remembering how he had stuck to the
+circus-rider woman--the depth of passion under that placid surface,
+which even cuts with a riding-whip (so the legend had it) could
+never raffle into the semblance of a storm; something like the
+passion of a fish would be if one could imagine such a thing as a
+passionate fish.
+
+That evening I experienced more distinctly than ever the sense of
+moral discomfort which always attended me in that house lying under
+the ban of all "decent" people.  I refused to stay on and smoke
+after dinner; and when I put my hand into the thickly-cushioned
+palm of Jacobus, I said to myself that it would be for the last
+time under his roof.  I pressed his bulky paw heartily
+nevertheless.  Hadn't he got me out of a serious difficulty?  To
+the few words of acknowledgment I was bound, and indeed quite
+willing, to utter, he answered by stretching his closed lips in his
+melancholy, glued-together smile.
+
+"That will be all right, I hope, Captain," he breathed out
+weightily.
+
+"What do you mean?" I asked, alarmed.  "That your brother might
+yet--"
+
+"Oh, no," he reassured me.  "He . . . he's a man of his word,
+Captain."
+
+My self-communion as I walked away from his door, trying to believe
+that this was for the last time, was not satisfactory.  I was aware
+myself that I was not sincere in my reflections as to Jacobus's
+motives, and, of course, the very next day I went back again.
+
+How weak, irrational, and absurd we are!  How easily carried away
+whenever our awakened imagination brings us the irritating hint of
+a desire!  I cared for the girl in a particular way, seduced by the
+moody expression of her face, by her obstinate silences, her rare,
+scornful words; by the perpetual pout of her closed lips, the black
+depths of her fixed gaze turned slowly upon me as if in
+contemptuous provocation, only to be averted next moment with an
+exasperating indifference.
+
+Of course the news of my assiduity had spread all over the little
+town.  I noticed a change in the manner of my acquaintances and
+even something different in the nods of the other captains, when
+meeting them at the landing-steps or in the offices where business
+called me.  The old-maidish head clerk treated me with distant
+punctiliousness and, as it were, gathered his skirts round him for
+fear of contamination.  It seemed to me that the very niggers on
+the quays turned to look after me as I passed; and as to Jacobus's
+boatman his "Good-night, sah!" when he put me on board was no
+longer merely cordial--it had a familiar, confidential sound as
+though we had been partners in some villainy.
+
+My friend S- the elder passed me on the other side of the street
+with a wave of the hand and an ironic smile.  The younger brother,
+the one they had married to an elderly shrew, he, on the strength
+of an older friendship and as if paying a debt of gratitude, took
+the liberty to utter a word of warning.
+
+"You're doing yourself no good by your choice of friends, my dear
+chap," he said with infantile gravity.
+
+As I knew that the meeting of the brothers Jacobus was the subject
+of excited comment in the whole of the sugary Pearl of the Ocean I
+wanted to know why I was blamed.
+
+"I have been the occasion of a move which may end in a
+reconciliation surely desirable from the point of view of the
+proprieties--don't you know?"
+
+"Of course, if that girl were disposed of it would certainly
+facilitate--" he mused sagely, then, inconsequential creature, gave
+me a light tap on the lower part of my waistcoat.  "You old
+sinner," he cried jovially, "much you care for proprieties.  But
+you had better look out for yourself, you know, with a personage
+like Jacobus who has no sort of reputation to lose."
+
+He had recovered his gravity of a respectable citizen by that time
+and added regretfully:
+
+"All the women of our family are perfectly scandalised."
+
+But by that time I had given up visiting the S- family and the D-
+family.  The elder ladies pulled such faces when I showed myself,
+and the multitude of related young ladies received me with such a
+variety of looks:  wondering, awed, mocking (except Miss Mary, who
+spoke to me and looked at me with hushed, pained compassion as
+though I had been ill), that I had no difficulty in giving them all
+up.  I would have given up the society of the whole town, for the
+sake of sitting near that girl, snarling and superb and barely clad
+in that flimsy, dingy, amber wrapper, open low at the throat.  She
+looked, with the wild wisps of hair hanging down her tense face, as
+though she had just jumped out of bed in the panic of a fire.
+
+She sat leaning on her elbow, looking at nothing.  Why did she stay
+listening to my absurd chatter?  And not only that; but why did she
+powder her face in preparation for my arrival?  It seemed to be her
+idea of making a toilette, and in her untidy negligence a sign of
+great effort towards personal adornment.
+
+But I might have been mistaken.  The powdering might have been her
+daily practice and her presence in the verandah a sign of an
+indifference so complete as to take no account of my existence.
+Well, it was all one to me.
+
+I loved to watch her slow changes of pose, to look at her long
+immobilities composed in the graceful lines of her body, to observe
+the mysterious narrow stare of her splendid black eyes, somewhat
+long in shape, half closed, contemplating the void.  She was like a
+spellbound creature with the forehead of a goddess crowned by the
+dishevelled magnificent hair of a gipsy tramp.  Even her
+indifference was seductive.  I felt myself growing attached to her
+by the bond of an irrealisable desire, for I kept my head--quite.
+And I put up with the moral discomfort of Jacobus's sleepy
+watchfulness, tranquil, and yet so expressive; as if there had been
+a tacit pact between us two.  I put up with the insolence of the
+old woman's:  "Aren't you ever going to leave us in peace, my good
+fellow?" with her taunts; with her brazen and sinister scolding.
+She was of the true Jacobus stock, and no mistake.
+
+Directly I got away from the girl I called myself many hard names.
+What folly was this?  I would ask myself.  It was like being the
+slave of some depraved habit.  And I returned to her with my head
+clear, my heart certainly free, not even moved by pity for that
+castaway (she was as much of a castaway as any one ever wrecked on
+a desert island), but as if beguiled by some extraordinary promise.
+Nothing more unworthy could be imagined.  The recollection of that
+tremulous whisper when I gripped her shoulder with one hand and
+held a plate of chicken with the other was enough to make me break
+all my good resolutions.
+
+Her insulting taciturnity was enough sometimes to make one gnash
+one's teeth with rage.  When she opened her mouth it was only to be
+abominably rude in harsh tones to the associate of her reprobate
+father; and the full approval of her aged relative was conveyed to
+her by offensive chuckles.  If not that, then her remarks, always
+uttered in the tone of scathing contempt, were of the most
+appalling inanity.
+
+How could it have been otherwise?  That plump, ruffianly Jacobus
+old maid in the tight grey frock had never taught her any manners.
+Manners I suppose are not necessary for born castaways.  No
+educational establishment could ever be induced to accept her as a
+pupil--on account of the proprieties, I imagine.  And Jacobus had
+not been able to send her away anywhere.  How could he have done
+it?  Who with?  Where to?  He himself was not enough of an
+adventurer to think of settling down anywhere else.  His passion
+had tossed him at the tail of a circus up and down strange coasts,
+but, the storm over, he had drifted back shamelessly where, social
+outcast as he was, he remained still a Jacobus--one of the oldest
+families on the island, older than the French even.  There must
+have been a Jacobus in at the death of the last Dodo. . . . The
+girl had learned nothing, she had never listened to a general
+conversation, she knew nothing, she had heard of nothing.  She
+could read certainly; but all the reading matter that ever came in
+her way were the newspapers provided for the captains' room of the
+"store."  Jacobus had the habit of taking these sheets home now and
+then in a very stained and ragged condition.
+
+As her mind could not grasp the meaning of any matters treated
+there except police-court reports and accounts of crimes, she had
+formed for herself a notion of the civilised world as a scene of
+murders, abductions, burglaries, stabbing affrays, and every sort
+of desperate violence.  England and France, Paris and London (the
+only two towns of which she seemed to have heard), appeared to her
+sinks of abomination, reeking with blood, in contrast to her little
+island where petty larceny was about the standard of current
+misdeeds, with, now and then, some more pronounced crime--and that
+only amongst the imported coolie labourers on sugar estates or the
+negroes of the town.  But in Europe these things were being done
+daily by a wicked population of white men amongst whom, as that
+ruffianly, aristocratic old Miss Jacobus pointed out, the wandering
+sailors, the associates of her precious papa, were the lowest of
+the low.
+
+It was impossible to give her a sense of proportion.  I suppose she
+figured England to herself as about the size of the Pearl of the
+Ocean; in which case it would certainly have been reeking with gore
+and a mere wreck of burgled houses from end to end.  One could not
+make her understand that these horrors on which she fed her
+imagination were lost in the mass of orderly life like a few drops
+of blood in the ocean.  She directed upon me for a moment the
+uncomprehending glance of her narrowed eyes and then would turn her
+scornful powdered face away without a word.  She would not even
+take the trouble to shrug her shoulders.
+
+At that time the batches of papers brought by the last mail
+reported a series of crimes in the East End of London, there was a
+sensational case of abduction in France and a fine display of armed
+robbery in Australia.  One afternoon crossing the dining-room I
+heard Miss Jacobus piping in the verandah with venomous animosity:
+"I don't know what your precious papa is plotting with that fellow.
+But he's just the sort of man who's capable of carrying you off far
+away somewhere and then cutting your throat some day for your
+money."
+
+There was a good half of the length of the verandah between their
+chairs.  I came out and sat down fiercely midway between them.
+
+"Yes, that's what we do with girls in Europe," I began in a grimly
+matter-of-fact tone.  I think Miss Jacobus was disconcerted by my
+sudden appearance.  I turned upon her with cold ferocity:
+
+"As to objectionable old women, they are first strangled quietly,
+then cut up into small pieces and thrown away, a bit here and a bit
+there.  They vanish--"
+
+I cannot go so far as to say I had terrified her.  But she was
+troubled by my truculence, the more so because I had been always
+addressing her with a politeness she did not deserve.  Her plump,
+knitting hands fell slowly on her knees.  She said not a word while
+I fixed her with severe determination.  Then as I turned away from
+her at last, she laid down her work gently and, with noiseless
+movements, retreated from the verandah.  In fact, she vanished.
+
+But I was not thinking of her.  I was looking at the girl.  It was
+what I was coming for daily; troubled, ashamed, eager; finding in
+my nearness to her a unique sensation which I indulged with dread,
+self-contempt, and deep pleasure, as if it were a secret vice bound
+to end in my undoing, like the habit of some drug or other which
+ruins and degrades its slave.
+
+I looked her over, from the top of her dishevelled head, down the
+lovely line of the shoulder, following the curve of the hip, the
+draped form of the long limb, right down to her fine ankle below a
+torn, soiled flounce; and as far as the point of the shabby, high-
+heeled, blue slipper, dangling from her well-shaped foot, which she
+moved slightly, with quick, nervous jerks, as if impatient of my
+presence.  And in the scent of the massed flowers I seemed to
+breathe her special and inexplicable charm, the heady perfume of
+the everlastingly irritated captive of the garden.
+
+I looked at her rounded chin, the Jacobus chin; at the full, red
+lips pouting in the powdered, sallow face; at the firm modelling of
+the cheek, the grains of white in the hairs of the straight sombre
+eyebrows; at the long eyes, a narrowed gleam of liquid white and
+intense motionless black, with their gaze so empty of thought, and
+so absorbed in their fixity that she seemed to be staring at her
+own lonely image, in some far-off mirror hidden from my sight
+amongst the trees.
+
+And suddenly, without looking at me, with the appearance of a
+person speaking to herself, she asked, in that voice slightly harsh
+yet mellow and always irritated:
+
+"Why do you keep on coming here?"
+
+"Why do I keep on coming here?" I repeated, taken by surprise.  I
+could not have told her.  I could not even tell myself with
+sincerity why I was coming there.  "What's the good of you asking a
+question like that?"
+
+"Nothing is any good," she observed scornfully to the empty air,
+her chin propped on her hand, that hand never extended to any man,
+that no one had ever grasped--for I had only grasped her shoulder
+once--that generous, fine, somewhat masculine hand.  I knew well
+the peculiarly efficient shape--broad at the base, tapering at the
+fingers--of that hand, for which there was nothing in the world to
+lay hold of.  I pretended to be playful.
+
+"No!  But do you really care to know?"
+
+She shrugged indolently her magnificent shoulders, from which the
+dingy thin wrapper was slipping a little.
+
+"Oh--never mind--never mind!"
+
+There was something smouldering under those airs of lassitude.  She
+exasperated me by the provocation of her nonchalance, by something
+elusive and defiant in her very form which I wanted to seize.  I
+said roughly:
+
+"Why?  Don't you think I should tell you the truth?"
+
+Her eyes glided my way for a sidelong look, and she murmured,
+moving only her full, pouting lips:
+
+"I think you would not dare."
+
+"Do you imagine I am afraid of you?  What on earth. . . . Well,
+it's possible, after all, that I don't know exactly why I am coming
+here.  Let us say, with Miss Jacobus, that it is for no good.  You
+seem to believe the outrageous things she says, if you do have a
+row with her now and then."
+
+She snapped out viciously:
+
+"Who else am I to believe?
+
+"I don't know," I had to own, seeing her suddenly very helpless and
+condemned to moral solitude by the verdict of a respectable
+community.  "You might believe me, if you chose."
+
+She made a slight movement and asked me at once, with an effort as
+if making an experiment:
+
+"What is the business between you and papa?"
+
+"Don't you know the nature of your father's business?  Come!  He
+sells provisions to ships."
+
+She became rigid again in her crouching pose.
+
+"Not that.  What brings you here--to this house?"
+
+"And suppose it's you?  You would not call that business?  Would
+you?  And now let us drop the subject.  It's no use.  My ship will
+be ready for sea the day after to-morrow."
+
+She murmured a distinctly scared "So soon," and getting up quickly,
+went to the little table and poured herself a glass of water.  She
+walked with rapid steps and with an indolent swaying of her whole
+young figure above the hips; when she passed near me I felt with
+tenfold force the charm of the peculiar, promising sensation I had
+formed the habit to seek near her.  I thought with sudden dismay
+that this was the end of it; that after one more day I would be no
+longer able to come into this verandah, sit on this chair, and
+taste perversely the flavour of contempt in her indolent poses,
+drink in the provocation of her scornful looks, and listen to the
+curt, insolent remarks uttered in that harsh and seductive voice.
+As if my innermost nature had been altered by the action of some
+moral poison, I felt an abject dread of going to sea.
+
+I had to exercise a sudden self-control, as one puts on a brake, to
+prevent myself jumping up to stride about, shout, gesticulate, make
+her a scene.  What for?  What about?  I had no idea.  It was just
+the relief of violence that I wanted; and I lolled back in my
+chair, trying to keep my lips formed in a smile; that half-
+indulgent, half-mocking smile which was my shield against the
+shafts of her contempt and the insulting sallies flung at me by the
+old woman.
+
+She drank the water at a draught, with the avidity of raging
+thirst, and let herself fall on the nearest chair, as if utterly
+overcome.  Her attitude, like certain tones of her voice, had in it
+something masculine:  the knees apart in the ample wrapper, the
+clasped hands hanging between them, her body leaning forward, with
+drooping head.  I stared at the heavy black coil of twisted hair.
+It was enormous, crowning the bowed head with a crushing and
+disdained glory.  The escaped wisps hung straight down.  And
+suddenly I perceived that the girl was trembling from head to foot,
+as though that glass of iced water had chilled her to the bone.
+
+"What's the matter now?" I said, startled, but in no very
+sympathetic mood.
+
+She shook her bowed, overweighted head and cried in a stifled voice
+but with a rising inflection:
+
+"Go away!  Go away!  Go away!"
+
+I got up then and approached her, with a strange sort of anxiety.
+I looked down at her round, strong neck, then stooped low enough to
+peep at her face.  And I began to tremble a little myself.
+
+"What on earth are you gone wild about, Miss Don't Care?"
+
+She flung herself backwards violently, her head going over the back
+of the chair.  And now it was her smooth, full, palpitating throat
+that lay exposed to my bewildered stare.  Her eyes were nearly
+closed, with only a horrible white gleam under the lids as if she
+were dead.
+
+"What has come to you?" I asked in awe.  "What are you terrifying
+yourself with?"
+
+She pulled herself together, her eyes open frightfully wide now.
+The tropical afternoon was lengthening the shadows on the hot,
+weary earth, the abode of obscure desires, of extravagant hopes, of
+unimaginable terrors.
+
+"Never mind!  Don't care!"  Then, after a gasp, she spoke with such
+frightful rapidity that I could hardly make out the amazing words:
+"For if you were to shut me up in an empty place as smooth all
+round as the palm of my hand, I could always strangle myself with
+my hair."
+
+For a moment, doubting my ears, I let this inconceivable
+declaration sink into me.  It is ever impossible to guess at the
+wild thoughts that pass through the heads of our fellow-creatures.
+What monstrous imaginings of violence could have dwelt under the
+low forehead of that girl who had been taught to regard her father
+as "capable of anything" more in the light of a misfortune than
+that of a disgrace; as, evidently, something to be resented and
+feared rather than to be ashamed of?  She seemed, indeed, as
+unaware of shame as of anything else in the world; but in her
+ignorance, her resentment and fear took a childish and violent
+shape.
+
+Of course she spoke without knowing the value of words.  What could
+she know of death--she who knew nothing of life?  It was merely as
+the proof of her being beside herself with some odious
+apprehension, that this extraordinary speech had moved me, not to
+pity, but to a fascinated, horrified wonder.  I had no idea what
+notion she had of her danger.  Some sort of abduction.  It was
+quite possible with the talk of that atrocious old woman.  Perhaps
+she thought she could be carried off, bound hand and foot and even
+gagged.  At that surmise I felt as if the door of a furnace had
+been opened in front of me.
+
+"Upon my honour!" I cried.  "You shall end by going crazy if you
+listen to that abominable old aunt of yours--"
+
+I studied her haggard expression, her trembling lips.  Her cheeks
+even seemed sunk a little.  But how I, the associate of her
+disreputable father, the "lowest of the low" from the criminal
+Europe, could manage to reassure her I had no conception.  She was
+exasperating.
+
+"Heavens and earth!  What do you think I can do?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Her chin certainly trembled.  And she was looking at me with
+extreme attention.  I made a step nearer to her chair.
+
+"I shall do nothing.  I promise you that.  Will that do?  Do you
+understand?  I shall do nothing whatever, of any kind; and the day
+after to-morrow I shall be gone."
+
+What else could I have said?  She seemed to drink in my words with
+the thirsty avidity with which she had emptied the glass of water.
+She whispered tremulously, in that touching tone I had heard once
+before on her lips, and which thrilled me again with the same
+emotion:
+
+"I would believe you.  But what about papa--"
+
+"He be hanged!"  My emotion betrayed itself by the brutality of my
+tone.  "I've had enough of your papa.  Are you so stupid as to
+imagine that I am frightened of him?  He can't make me do
+anything."
+
+All that sounded feeble to me in the face of her ignorance.  But I
+must conclude that the "accent of sincerity" has, as some people
+say, a really irresistible power.  The effect was far beyond my
+hopes,--and even beyond my conception.  To watch the change in the
+girl was like watching a miracle--the gradual but swift relaxation
+of her tense glance, of her stiffened muscles, of every fibre of
+her body.  That black, fixed stare into which I had read a tragic
+meaning more than once, in which I had found a sombre seduction,
+was perfectly empty now, void of all consciousness whatever, and
+not even aware any longer of my presence; it had become a little
+sleepy, in the Jacobus fashion.
+
+But, man being a perverse animal, instead of rejoicing at my
+complete success, I beheld it with astounded and indignant eyes.
+There was something cynical in that unconcealed alteration, the
+true Jacobus shamelessness.  I felt as though I had been cheated in
+some rather complicated deal into which I had entered against my
+better judgment.  Yes, cheated without any regard for, at least,
+the forms of decency.
+
+With an easy, indolent, and in its indolence supple, feline
+movement, she rose from the chair, so provokingly ignoring me now,
+that for very rage I held my ground within less than a foot of her.
+Leisurely and tranquil, behaving right before me with the ease of a
+person alone in a room, she extended her beautiful arms, with her
+hands clenched, her body swaying, her head thrown back a little,
+revelling contemptuously in a sense of relief, easing her limbs in
+freedom after all these days of crouching, motionless poses when
+she had been so furious and so afraid.
+
+All this with supreme indifference, incredible, offensive,
+exasperating, like ingratitude doubled with treachery.
+
+I ought to have been flattered, perhaps, but, on the contrary, my
+anger grew; her movement to pass by me as if I were a wooden post
+or a piece of furniture, that unconcerned movement brought it to a
+head.
+
+I won't say I did not know what I was doing, but, certainly, cool
+reflection had nothing to do with the circumstance that next moment
+both my arms were round her waist.  It was an impulsive action, as
+one snatches at something falling or escaping; and it had no
+hypocritical gentleness about it either.  She had no time to make a
+sound, and the first kiss I planted on her closed lips was vicious
+enough to have been a bite.
+
+She did not resist, and of course I did not stop at one.  She let
+me go on, not as if she were inanimate--I felt her there, close
+against me, young, full of vigour, of life, a strong desirable
+creature, but as if she did not care in the least, in the absolute
+assurance of her safety, what I did or left undone.  Our faces
+brought close together in this storm of haphazard caresses, her
+big, black, wide-open eyes looked into mine without the girl
+appearing either angry or pleased or moved in any way.  In that
+steady gaze which seemed impersonally to watch my madness I could
+detect a slight surprise, perhaps--nothing more.  I showered kisses
+upon her face and there did not seem to be any reason why this
+should not go on for ever.
+
+That thought flashed through my head, and I was on the point of
+desisting, when, all at once, she began to struggle with a sudden
+violence which all but freed her instantly, which revived my
+exasperation with her, indeed a fierce desire never to let her go
+any more.  I tightened my embrace in time, gasping out:  "No--you
+don't!" as if she were my mortal enemy.  On her part not a word was
+said.  Putting her hands against my chest, she pushed with all her
+might without succeeding to break the circle of my arms.  Except
+that she seemed thoroughly awake now, her eyes gave me no clue
+whatever.  To meet her black stare was like looking into a deep
+well, and I was totally unprepared for her change of tactics.
+Instead of trying to tear my hands apart, she flung herself upon my
+breast and with a downward, undulating, serpentine motion, a quick
+sliding dive, she got away from me smoothly.  It was all very
+swift; I saw her pick up the tail of her wrapper and run for the
+door at the end of the verandah not very gracefully.  She appeared
+to be limping a little--and then she vanished; the door swung
+behind her so noiselessly that I could not believe it was
+completely closed.  I had a distinct suspicion of her black eye
+being at the crack to watch what I would do.  I could not make up
+my mind whether to shake my fist in that direction or blow a kiss.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+Either would have been perfectly consistent with my feelings.  I
+gazed at the door, hesitating, but in the end I did neither.  The
+monition of some sixth sense--the sense of guilt, maybe, that sense
+which always acts too late, alas!--warned me to look round; and at
+once I became aware that the conclusion of this tumultuous episode
+was likely to be a matter of lively anxiety.  Jacobus was standing
+in the doorway of the dining-room.  How long he had been there it
+was impossible to guess; and remembering my struggle with the girl
+I thought he must have been its mute witness from beginning to end.
+But this supposition seemed almost incredible.  Perhaps that
+impenetrable girl had heard him come in and had got away in time.
+
+He stepped on to the verandah in his usual manner, heavy-eyed, with
+glued lips.  I marvelled at the girl's resemblance to this man.
+Those long, Egyptian eyes, that low forehead of a stupid goddess,
+she had found in the sawdust of the circus; but all the rest of the
+face, the design and the modelling, the rounded chin, the very
+lips--all that was Jacobus, fined down, more finished, more
+expressive.
+
+His thick hand fell on and grasped with force the back of a light
+chair (there were several standing about) and I perceived the
+chance of a broken head at the end of all this--most likely.  My
+mortification was extreme.  The scandal would be horrible; that was
+unavoidable.  But how to act so as to satisfy myself I did not
+know.  I stood on my guard and at any rate faced him.  There was
+nothing else for it.  Of one thing I was certain, that, however
+brazen my attitude, it could never equal the characteristic Jacobus
+impudence.
+
+He gave me his melancholy, glued smile and sat down.  I own I was
+relieved.  The perspective of passing from kisses to blows had
+nothing particularly attractive in it.  Perhaps--perhaps he had
+seen nothing?  He behaved as usual, but he had never before found
+me alone on the verandah.  If he had alluded to it, if he had
+asked:  "Where's Alice?" or something of the sort, I would have
+been able to judge from the tone.  He would give me no opportunity.
+The striking peculiarity was that he had never looked up at me yet.
+"He knows," I said to myself confidently.  And my contempt for him
+relieved my disgust with myself.
+
+"You are early home," I remarked.
+
+"Things are very quiet; nothing doing at the store to-day," he
+explained with a cast-down air.
+
+"Oh, well, you know, I am off," I said, feeling that this, perhaps,
+was the best thing to do.
+
+"Yes," he breathed out.  "Day after to-morrow."
+
+This was not what I had meant; but as he gazed persistently on the
+floor, I followed the direction of his glance.  In the absolute
+stillness of the house we stared at the high-heeled slipper the
+girl had lost in her flight.  We stared.  It lay overturned.
+
+After what seemed a very long time to me, Jacobus hitched his chair
+forward, stooped with extended arm and picked it up.  It looked a
+slender thing in his big, thick hands.  It was not really a
+slipper, but a low shoe of blue, glazed kid, rubbed and shabby.  It
+had straps to go over the instep, but the girl only thrust her feet
+in, after her slovenly manner.  Jacobus raised his eyes from the
+shoe to look at me.
+
+"Sit down, Captain," he said at last, in his subdued tone.
+
+As if the sight of that shoe had renewed the spell, I gave up
+suddenly the idea of leaving the house there and then.  It had
+become impossible.  I sat down, keeping my eyes on the fascinating
+object.  Jacobus turned his daughter's shoe over and over in his
+cushioned paws as if studying the way the thing was made.  He
+contemplated the thin sole for a time; then glancing inside with an
+absorbed air:
+
+"I am glad I found you here, Captain."
+
+I answered this by some sort of grunt, watching him covertly.  Then
+I added:  "You won't have much more of me now."
+
+He was still deep in the interior of that shoe on which my eyes too
+were resting.
+
+"Have you thought any more of this deal in potatoes I spoke to you
+about the other day?"
+
+"No, I haven't," I answered curtly.  He checked my movement to rise
+by an austere, commanding gesture of the hand holding that fatal
+shoe.  I remained seated and glared at him.  "You know I don't
+trade."
+
+"You ought to, Captain.  You ought to."
+
+I reflected.  If I left that house now I would never see the girl
+again.  And I felt I must see her once more, if only for an
+instant.  It was a need, not to be reasoned with, not to be
+disregarded.  No, I did not want to go away.  I wanted to stay for
+one more experience of that strange provoking sensation and of
+indefinite desire, the habit of which had made me--me of all
+people!--dread the prospect of going to sea.
+
+"Mr. Jacobus," I pronounced slowly.  "Do you really think that upon
+the whole and taking various' matters into consideration--I mean
+everything, do you understand?--it would be a good thing for me to
+trade, let us say, with you?"
+
+I waited for a while.  He went on looking at the shoe which he held
+now crushed in the middle, the worn point of the toe and the high
+heel protruding on each side of his heavy fist.
+
+"That will be all right," he said, facing me squarely at last.
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"You'll find it quite correct, Captain."  He had uttered his
+habitual phrases in his usual placid, breath-saving voice and stood
+my hard, inquisitive stare sleepily without as much as a wink.
+
+"Then let us trade," I said, turning my shoulder to him.  "I see
+you are bent on it."
+
+I did not want an open scandal, but I thought that outward decency
+may be bought too dearly at times.  I included Jacobus, myself, the
+whole population of the island, in the same contemptuous disgust as
+though we had been partners in an ignoble transaction.  And the
+remembered vision at sea, diaphanous and blue, of the Pearl of the
+Ocean at sixty miles off; the unsubstantial, clear marvel of it as
+if evoked by the art of a beautiful and pure magic, turned into a
+thing of horrors too.  Was this the fortune this vaporous and rare
+apparition had held for me in its hard heart, hidden within the
+shape as of fair dreams and mist?  Was this my luck?
+
+"I think"--Jacobus became suddenly audible after what seemed the
+silence of vile meditation--"that you might conveniently take some
+thirty tons.  That would be about the lot, Captain."
+
+"Would it?  The lot!  I dare say it would be convenient, but I
+haven't got enough money for that."
+
+I had never seen him so animated.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed with what I took for the accent of grim menace.
+"That's a pity."  He paused, then, unrelenting:  "How much money
+have you got, Captain?" he inquired with awful directness.
+
+It was my turn to face him squarely.  I did so and mentioned the
+amount I could dispose of.  And I perceived that he was
+disappointed.  He thought it over, his calculating gaze lost in
+mine, for quite a long time before he came out in a thoughtful tone
+with the rapacious suggestion:
+
+"You could draw some more from your charterers.  That would be
+quite easy, Captain."
+
+"No, I couldn't," I retorted brusquely.  "I've drawn my salary up
+to date, and besides, the ship's accounts are closed."
+
+I was growing furious.  I pursued:  "And I'll tell you what:  if I
+could do it I wouldn't."  Then throwing off all restraint, I added:
+"You are a bit too much of a Jacobus, Mr. Jacobus."
+
+The tone alone was insulting enough, but he remained tranquil, only
+a little puzzled, till something seemed to dawn upon him; but the
+unwonted light in his eyes died out instantly.  As a Jacobus on his
+native heath, what a mere skipper chose to say could not touch him,
+outcast as he was.  As a ship-chandler he could stand anything.
+All I caught of his mumble was a vague--"quite correct," than which
+nothing could have been more egregiously false at bottom--to my
+view, at least.  But I remembered--I had never forgotten--that I
+must see the girl.  I did not mean to go.  I meant to stay in the
+house till I had seen her once more.
+
+"Look here!" I said finally.  "I'll tell you what I'll do.  I'll
+take as many of your confounded potatoes as my money will buy, on
+condition that you go off at once down to the wharf to see them
+loaded in the lighter and sent alongside the ship straight away.
+Take the invoice and a signed receipt with you.  Here's the key of
+my desk.  Give it to Burns.  He will pay you.
+
+He got up from his chair before I had finished speaking, but he
+refused to take the key.  Burns would never do it.  He wouldn't
+like to ask him even.
+
+"Well, then," I said, eyeing him slightingly, "there's nothing for
+it, Mr. Jacobus, but you must wait on board till I come off to
+settle with you."
+
+"That will be all right, Captain.  I will go at once."
+
+He seemed at a loss what to do with the girl's shoe he was still
+holding in his fist.  Finally, looking dully at me, he put it down
+on the chair from which he had risen.
+
+"And you, Captain?  Won't you come along, too, just to see--"
+
+"Don't bother about me.  I'll take care of myself."
+
+He remained perplexed for a moment, as if trying to understand; and
+then his weighty:  "Certainly, certainly, Captain," seemed to be
+the outcome of some sudden thought.  His big chest heaved.  Was it
+a sigh?  As he went out to hurry off those potatoes he never looked
+back at me.
+
+I waited till the noise of his footsteps had died out of the
+dining-room, and I waited a little longer.  Then turning towards
+the distant door I raised my voice along the verandah:
+
+"Alice!"
+
+Nothing answered me, not even a stir behind the door.  Jacobus's
+house might have been made empty for me to make myself at home in.
+I did not call again.  I had become aware of a great
+discouragement.  I was mentally jaded, morally dejected.  I turned
+to the garden again, sitting down with my elbows spread on the low
+balustrade, and took my head in my hands.
+
+The evening closed upon me.  The shadows lengthened, deepened,
+mingled together into a pool of twilight in which the flower-beds
+glowed like coloured embers; whiffs of heavy scent came to me as if
+the dusk of this hemisphere were but the dimness of a temple and
+the garden an enormous censer swinging before the altar of the
+stars.  The colours of the blossoms deepened, losing their glow one
+by one.
+
+The girl, when I turned my head at a slight noise, appeared to me
+very tall and slender, advancing with a swaying limp, a floating
+and uneven motion which ended in the sinking of her shadowy form
+into the deep low chair.  And I don't know why or whence I received
+the impression that she had come too late.  She ought to have
+appeared at my call.  She ought to have . . . It was as if a
+supreme opportunity had been missed.
+
+I rose and took a seat close to her, nearly opposite her arm-chair.
+Her ever discontented voice addressed me at once, contemptuously:
+
+"You are still here."
+
+I pitched mine low.
+
+"You have come out at last."
+
+"I came to look for my shoe--before they bring in the lights."
+
+It was her harsh, enticing whisper, subdued, not very steady, but
+its low tremulousness gave me no thrill now.  I could only make out
+the oval of her face, her uncovered throat, the long, white gleam
+of her eyes.  She was mysterious enough.  Her hands were resting on
+the arms of the chair.  But where was the mysterious and provoking
+sensation which was like the perfume of her flower-like youth?  I
+said quietly:
+
+"I have got your shoe here."  She made no sound and I continued:
+"You had better give me your foot and I will put it on for you."
+
+She made no movement.  I bent low down and groped for her foot
+under the flounces of the wrapper.  She did not withdraw it and I
+put on the shoe, buttoning the instep-strap.  It was an inanimate
+foot.  I lowered it gently to the floor.
+
+"If you buttoned the strap you would not be losing your shoe, Miss
+Don't Care," I said, trying to be playful without conviction.  I
+felt more like wailing over the lost illusion of vague desire, over
+the sudden conviction that I would never find again near her the
+strange, half-evil, half-tender sensation which had given its acrid
+flavour to so many days, which had made her appear tragic and
+promising, pitiful and provoking.  That was all over.
+
+"Your father picked it up," I said, thinking she may just as well
+be told of the fact.
+
+"I am not afraid of papa--by himself," she declared scornfully.
+
+"Oh!  It's only in conjunction with his disreputable associates,
+strangers, the 'riff-raff of Europe' as your charming aunt or
+great-aunt says--men like me, for instance--that you--"
+
+"I am not afraid of you," she snapped out.
+
+"That's because you don't know that I am now doing business with
+your father.  Yes, I am in fact doing exactly what he wants me to
+do.  I've broken my promise to you.  That's the sort of man I am.
+And now--aren't you afraid?  If you believe what that dear, kind,
+truthful old lady says you ought to be."
+
+It was with unexpected modulated softness that the affirmed:
+
+"No.  I am not afraid."  She hesitated. . . . "Not now."
+
+"Quite right.  You needn't be.  I shall not see you again before I
+go to sea."  I rose and stood near her chair.  "But I shall often
+think of you in this old garden, passing under the trees over
+there, walking between these gorgeous flower-beds.  You must love
+this garden--"
+
+"I love nothing."
+
+I heard in her sullen tone the faint echo of that resentfully
+tragic note which I had found once so provoking.  But it left me
+unmoved except for a sudden and weary conviction of the emptiness
+of all things under Heaven.
+
+"Good-bye, Alice," I said.
+
+She did not answer, she did not move.  To merely take her hand,
+shake it, and go away seemed impossible, almost improper.  I
+stooped without haste and pressed my lips to her smooth forehead.
+This was the moment when I realised clearly with a sort of terror
+my complete detachment from that unfortunate creature.  And as I
+lingered in that cruel self-knowledge I felt the light touch of her
+arms falling languidly on my neck and received a hasty, awkward,
+haphazard kiss which missed my lips.  No!  She was not afraid; but
+I was no longer moved.  Her arms slipped off my neck slowly, she
+made no sound, the deep wicker arm-chair creaked slightly; only a
+sense of my dignity prevented me fleeing headlong from that
+catastrophic revelation.
+
+I traversed the dining-room slowly.  I thought:  She's listening to
+my footsteps; she can't help it; she'll hear me open and shut that
+door.  And I closed it as gently behind me as if I had been a thief
+retreating with his ill-gotten booty.  During that stealthy act I
+experienced the last touch of emotion in that house, at the thought
+of the girl I had left sitting there in the obscurity, with her
+heavy hair and empty eyes as black as the night itself, staring
+into the walled garden, silent, warm, odorous with the perfume of
+imprisoned flowers, which, like herself, were lost to sight in a
+world buried in darkness.
+
+The narrow, ill-lighted, rustic streets I knew so well on my way to
+the harbour were extremely quiet.  I felt in my heart that the
+further one ventures the better one understands how everything in
+our life is common, short, and empty; that it is in seeking the
+unknown in our sensations that we discover how mediocre are our
+attempts and how soon defeated!  Jacobus's boatman was waiting at
+the steps with an unusual air of readiness.  He put me alongside
+the ship, but did not give me his confidential "Good-evening, sah,"
+and, instead of shoving off at once, remained holding by the
+ladder.
+
+I was a thousand miles from commercial affairs, when on the dark
+quarter-deck Mr. Burns positively rushed at me, stammering with
+excitement.  He had been pacing the deck distractedly for hours
+awaiting my arrival.  Just before sunset a lighter loaded with
+potatoes had come alongside with that fat ship-chandler himself
+sitting on the pile of sacks.  He was now stuck immovable in the
+cabin.  What was the meaning of it all?  Surely I did not--
+
+"Yes, Mr. Burns, I did," I cut him short.  He was beginning to make
+gestures of despair when I stopped that, too, by giving him the key
+of my desk and desiring him, in a tone which admitted of no
+argument, to go below at once, pay Mr. Jacobus's bill, and send him
+out of the ship.
+
+"I don't want to see him," I confessed frankly, climbing the poop-
+ladder.  I felt extremely tired.  Dropping on the seat of the
+skylight, I gave myself up to idle gazing at the lights about the
+quay and at the black mass of the mountain on the south side of the
+harbour.  I never heard Jacobus leave the ship with every single
+sovereign of my ready cash in his pocket.  I never heard anything
+till, a long time afterwards, Mr. Burns, unable to contain himself
+any longer, intruded upon me with his ridiculously angry
+lamentations at my weakness and good nature.
+
+"Of course, there's plenty of room in the after-hatch.  But they
+are sure to go rotten down there.  Well!  I never heard . . .
+seventeen tons!  I suppose I must hoist in that lot first thing to-
+morrow morning."
+
+"I suppose you must.  Unless you drop them overboard.  But I'm
+afraid you can't do that.  I wouldn't mind myself, but it's
+forbidden to throw rubbish into the harbour, you know."
+
+"That is the truest word you have said for many a day, sir--
+rubbish.  That's just what I expect they are.  Nearly eighty good
+gold sovereigns gone; a perfectly clean sweep of your drawer, sir.
+Bless me if I understand!"
+
+As it was impossible to throw the right light on this commercial
+transaction I left him to his lamentations and under the impression
+that I was a hopeless fool.  Next day I did not go ashore.  For one
+thing, I had no money to go ashore with--no, not enough to buy a
+cigarette.  Jacobus had made a clean sweep.  But that was not the
+only reason.  The Pearl of the Ocean had in a few short hours grown
+odious to me.  And I did not want to meet any one.  My reputation
+had suffered.  I knew I was the object of unkind and sarcastic
+comments.
+
+The following morning at sunrise, just as our stern-fasts had been
+let go and the tug plucked us out from between the buoys, I saw
+Jacobus standing up in his boat.  The nigger was pulling hard;
+several baskets of provisions for ships were stowed between the
+thwarts.  The father of Alice was going his morning round.  His
+countenance was tranquil and friendly.  He raised his arm and
+shouted something with great heartiness.  But his voice was of the
+sort that doesn't carry any distance; all I could catch faintly, or
+rather guess at, were the words "next time" and "quite correct."
+And it was only of these last that I was certain.  Raising my arm
+perfunctorily for all response, I turned away.  I rather resented
+the familiarity of the thing.  Hadn't I settled accounts finally
+with him by means of that potato bargain?
+
+This being a harbour story it is not my purpose to speak of our
+passage.  I was glad enough to be at sea, but not with the gladness
+of old days.  Formerly I had no memories to take away with me.  I
+shared in the blessed forgetfulness of sailors, that forgetfulness
+natural and invincible, which resembles innocence in so far that it
+prevents self-examination.  Now however I remembered the girl.
+During the first few days I was for ever questioning myself as to
+the nature of facts and sensations connected with her person and
+with my conduct.
+
+And I must say also that Mr. Burns' intolerable fussing with those
+potatoes was not calculated to make me forget the part which I had
+played.  He looked upon it as a purely commercial transaction of a
+particularly foolish kind, and his devotion--if it was devotion and
+not mere cussedness as I came to regard it before long--inspired
+him with a zeal to minimise my loss as much as possible.  Oh, yes!
+He took care of those infamous potatoes with a vengeance, as the
+saying goes.
+
+Everlastingly, there was a tackle over the after-hatch and
+everlastingly the watch on deck were pulling up, spreading out,
+picking over, rebagging, and lowering down again, some part of that
+lot of potatoes.  My bargain with all its remotest associations,
+mental and visual--the garden of flowers and scents, the girl with
+her provoking contempt and her tragic loneliness of a hopeless
+castaway--was everlastingly dangled before my eyes, for thousands
+of miles along the open sea.  And as if by a satanic refinement of
+irony it was accompanied by a most awful smell.  Whiffs from
+decaying potatoes pursued me on the poop, they mingled with my
+thoughts, with my food, poisoned my very dreams.  They made an
+atmosphere of corruption for the ship.
+
+I remonstrated with Mr. Burns about this excessive care.  I would
+have been well content to batten the hatch down and let them perish
+under the deck.
+
+That perhaps would have been unsafe.  The horrid emanations might
+have flavoured the cargo of sugar.  They seemed strong enough to
+taint the very ironwork.  In addition Mr. Burns made it a personal
+matter.  He assured me he knew how to treat a cargo of potatoes at
+sea--had been in the trade as a boy, he said.  He meant to make my
+loss as small as possible.  What between his devotion--it must have
+been devotion--and his vanity, I positively dared not give him the
+order to throw my commercial-venture overboard.  I believe he would
+have refused point blank to obey my lawful command.  An
+unprecedented and comical situation would have been created with
+which I did not feel equal to deal.
+
+I welcomed the coming of bad weather as no sailor had ever done.
+When at last I hove the ship to, to pick up the pilot outside Port
+Philip Heads, the after-hatch had not been opened for more than a
+week and I might have believed that no such thing as a potato had
+ever been on board.
+
+It was an abominable day, raw, blustering, with great squalls of
+wind and rain; the pilot, a cheery person, looked after the ship
+and chatted to me, streaming from head to foot; and the heavier the
+lash of the downpour the more pleased with himself and everything
+around him he seemed to be.  He rubbed his wet hands with a
+satisfaction, which to me, who had stood that kind of thing for
+several days and nights, seemed inconceivable in any non-aquatic
+creature.
+
+"You seem to enjoy getting wet, Pilot," I remarked.
+
+He had a bit of land round his house in the suburbs and it was of
+his garden he was thinking.  At the sound of the word garden,
+unheard, unspoken for so many days, I had a vision of gorgeous
+colour, of sweet scents, of a girlish figure crouching in a chair.
+Yes.  That was a distinct emotion breaking into the peace I had
+found in the sleepless anxieties of my responsibility during a week
+of dangerous bad weather.  The Colony, the pilot explained, had
+suffered from unparalleled drought.  This was the first decent drop
+of water they had had for seven months.  The root crops were lost.
+And, trying to be casual, but with visible interest, he asked me if
+I had perchance any potatoes to spare.
+
+Potatoes!  I had managed to forget them.  In a moment I felt
+plunged into corruption up to my neck.  Mr. Burns was making eyes
+at me behind the pilot's back.
+
+Finally, he obtained a ton, and paid ten pounds for it.  This was
+twice the price of my bargain with Jacobus.  The spirit of
+covetousness woke up in me.  That night, in harbour, before I
+slept, the Custom House galley came alongside.  While his
+underlings were putting seals on the storerooms, the officer in
+charge took me aside confidentially.  "I say, Captain, you don't
+happen to have any potatoes to sell."
+
+Clearly there was a potato famine in the land.  I let him have a
+ton for twelve pounds and he went away joyfully.  That night I
+dreamt of a pile of gold in the form of a grave in which a girl was
+buried, and woke up callous with greed.  On calling at my ship-
+broker's office, that man, after the usual business had been
+transacted, pushed his spectacles up on his forehead.
+
+"I was thinking, Captain, that coming from the Pearl of the Ocean
+you may have some potatoes to sell."
+
+I said negligently:  "Oh, yes, I could spare you a ton.  Fifteen
+pounds."
+
+He exclaimed:  "I say!"  But after studying my face for a while
+accepted my terms with a faint grimace.  It seems that these people
+could not exist without potatoes.  I could.  I didn't want to see a
+potato as long as I lived; but the demon of lucre had taken
+possession of me.  How the news got about I don't know, but,
+returning on board rather late, I found a small group of men of the
+coster type hanging about the waist, while Mr. Burns walked to and
+fro the quarterdeck loftily, keeping a triumphant eye on them.
+They had come to buy potatoes.
+
+"These chaps have been waiting here in the sun for hours," Burns
+whispered to me excitedly.  "They have drank the water-cask dry.
+Don't you throw away your chances, sir.  You are too good-natured."
+
+I selected a man with thick legs and a man with a cast in his eye
+to negotiate with; simply because they were easily distinguishable
+from the rest.  "You have the money on you?" I inquired, before
+taking them down into the cabin.
+
+"Yes, sir," they answered in one voice, slapping their pockets.  I
+liked their air of quiet determination.  Long before the end of the
+day all the potatoes were sold at about three times the price I had
+paid for them.  Mr. Burns, feverish and exulting, congratulated
+himself on his skilful care of my commercial venture, but hinted
+plainly that I ought to have made more of it.
+
+That night I did not sleep very well.  I thought of Jacobus by fits
+and starts, between snatches of dreams concerned with castaways
+starving on a desert island covered with flowers.  It was extremely
+unpleasant.  In the morning, tired and unrefreshed, I sat down and
+wrote a long letter to my owners, giving them a carefully-thought-
+out scheme for the ship's employment in the East and about the
+China Seas for the next two years.  I spent the day at that task
+and felt somewhat more at peace when it was done.
+
+Their reply came in due course.  They were greatly struck with my
+project; but considering that, notwithstanding the unfortunate
+difficulty with the bags (which they trusted I would know how to
+guard against in the future), the voyage showed a very fair profit,
+they thought it would be better to keep the ship in the sugar
+trade--at least for the present.
+
+I turned over the page and read on:
+
+"We have had a letter from our good friend Mr. Jacobus.  We are
+pleased to see how well you have hit it off with him; for, not to
+speak of his assistance in the unfortunate matter of the bags, he
+writes us that should you, by using all possible dispatch, manage
+to bring the ship back early in the season he would be able to give
+us a good rate of freight.  We have no doubt that your best
+endeavours . . . etc. . . etc."
+
+I dropped the letter and sat motionless for a long time.  Then I
+wrote my answer (it was a short one) and went ashore myself to post
+it.  But I passed one letter-box, then another, and in the end
+found myself going up Collins Street with the letter still in my
+pocket--against my heart.  Collins Street at four o'clock in the
+afternoon is not exactly a desert solitude; but I had never felt
+more isolated from the rest of mankind as when I walked that day
+its crowded pavement, battling desperately with my thoughts and
+feeling already vanquished.
+
+There came a moment when the awful tenacity of Jacobus, the man of
+one passion and of one idea, appeared to me almost heroic.  He had
+not given me up.  He had gone again to his odious brother.  And
+then he appeared to me odious himself.  Was it for his own sake or
+for the sake of the poor girl?  And on that last supposition the
+memory of the kiss which missed my lips appalled me; for whatever
+he had seen, or guessed at, or risked, he knew nothing of that.
+Unless the girl had told him.  How could I go back to fan that
+fatal spark with my cold breath?  No, no, that unexpected kiss had
+to be paid for at its full price.
+
+At the first letter-box I came to I stopped and reaching into my
+breast-pocket I took out the letter--it was as if I were plucking
+out my very heart--and dropped it through the slit.  Then I went
+straight on board.
+
+I wondered what dreams I would have that night; but as it turned
+out I did not sleep at all.  At breakfast I informed Mr. Burns that
+I had resigned my command.
+
+He dropped his knife and fork and looked at me with indignation.
+
+"You have, sir!  I thought you loved the ship."
+
+"So I do, Burns," I said.  "But the fact is that the Indian Ocean
+and everything that is in it has lost its charm for me.  I am going
+home as passenger by the Suez Canal."
+
+"Everything that is in it," he repeated angrily.  "I've never heard
+anybody talk like this.  And to tell you the truth, sir, all the
+time we have been together I've never quite made you out.  What's
+one ocean more than another?  Charm, indeed!"
+
+He was really devoted to me, I believe.  But he cheered up when I
+told him that I had recommended him for my successor.
+
+"Anyhow," he remarked, "let people say what they like, this Jacobus
+has served your turn.  I must admit that this potato business has
+paid extremely well.  Of course, if only you had--"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Burns," I interrupted.  "Quite a smile of fortune."
+
+But I could not tell him that it was driving me out of the ship I
+had learned to love.  And as I sat heavy-hearted at that parting,
+seeing all my plans destroyed, my modest future endangered--for
+this command was like a foot in the stirrup for a young man--he
+gave up completely for the first time his critical attitude.
+
+"A wonderful piece of luck!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECRET SHARER--AN EPISODE FROM THE COAST
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+On my right hand there were lines of fishing-stakes resembling a
+mysterious system of half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible
+in its division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of
+aspect as if abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now
+gone to the other end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human
+habitation as far as the eye could reach.  To the left a group of
+barren islets, suggesting ruins of stone walls, towers, and
+blockhouses, had its foundations set in a blue sea that itself
+looked solid, so still and stable did it lie below my feet; even
+the track of light from the westering sun shone smoothly, without
+that animated glitter which tells of an imperceptible ripple.  And
+when I turned my head to take a parting glance at the tug which had
+just left us anchored outside the bar, I saw the straight line of
+the flat shore joined to the stable sea, edge to edge, with a
+perfect and unmarked closeness, in one levelled floor half brown,
+half blue under the enormous dome of the sky.  Corresponding in
+their insignificance to the islets of the sea, two small clumps of
+trees, one on each side of the only fault in the impeccable joint,
+marked the mouth of the river Meinam we had just left on the first
+preparatory stage of our homeward journey; and, far back on the
+inland level, a larger and loftier mass, the grove surrounding the
+great Paknam pagoda, was the only thing on which the eye could rest
+from the vain task of exploring the monotonous sweep of the
+horizon.  Here and there gleams as of a few scattered pieces of
+silver marked the windings of the great river; and on the nearest
+of them, just within the bar, the tug steaming right into the land
+became lost to my sight, hull and funnel and masts, as though the
+impassive earth had swallowed her up without an effort, without a
+tremor.  My eye followed the light cloud of her smoke, now here,
+now there, above the plain, according to the devious curves of the
+stream, but always fainter and farther away, till I lost it at last
+behind the mitre-shaped hill of the great pagoda.  And then I was
+left alone with my ship, anchored at the head of the Gulf of Siam.
+
+She floated at the starting-point of a long journey, very still in
+an immense stillness, the shadows of her spars flung far to the
+eastward by the setting sun.  At that moment I was alone on her
+decks.  There was not a sound in her--and around us nothing moved,
+nothing lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not
+a cloud in the sky.  In this breathless pause at the threshold of a
+long passage we seemed to be measuring our fitness for a long and
+arduous enterprise, the appointed task of both our existences to be
+carried out, far from all human eyes, with only sky and sea for
+spectators and for judges.
+
+There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with one's
+sight, because it was only just before the sun left us that my
+roaming eyes made out beyond the highest ridge of the principal
+islet of the group something which did away with the solemnity of
+perfect solitude.  The tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with
+tropical suddenness a swarm of stars came out above the shadowy
+earth, while I lingered yet, my hand resting lightly on my ship's
+rail as if on the shoulder of a trusted friend.  But, with all that
+multitude of celestial bodies staring down at one, the comfort of
+quiet communion with her was gone for good.  And there were also
+disturbing sounds by this time--voices, footsteps forward; the
+steward flitted along the maindeck, a busily ministering spirit; a
+hand-bell tinkled urgently under the poop-deck. . . .
+
+I found my two officers waiting for me near the supper table, in
+the lighted cuddy.  We sat down at once, and as I helped the chief
+mate, I said:
+
+"Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside the islands?  I
+saw her mastheads above the ridge as the sun went down."
+
+He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a terrible growth
+of whisker, and emitted his usual ejaculations:  "Bless my soul,
+sir!  You don't say so!"
+
+My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young man, grave beyond
+his years, I thought; but as our eyes happened to meet I detected a
+slight quiver on his lips.  I looked down at once.  It was not my
+part to encourage sneering on board my ship.  It must be said, too,
+that I knew very little of my officers.  In consequence of certain
+events of no particular significance, except to myself, I had been
+appointed to the command only a fortnight before.  Neither did I
+know much of the hands forward.  All these people had been together
+for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only
+stranger on board.  I mention this because it has some bearing on
+what is to follow.  But what I felt most was my being a stranger to
+the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I was somewhat of a
+stranger to myself.  The youngest man on board (barring the second
+mate), and untried as yet by a position of the fullest
+responsibility, I was willing to take the adequacy of the others
+for granted.  They had simply to be equal to their tasks; but I
+wondered how far I should turn out faithful to that ideal
+conception of one's own personality every man sets up for himself
+secretly.
+
+
+Meantime the chief mate, with an almost visible effect of
+collaboration on the part of his round eyes and frightful whiskers,
+was trying to evolve a theory of the anchored ship.  His dominant
+trait was to take all things into earnest consideration.  He was of
+a painstaking turn of mind.  As he used to say, he "liked to
+account to himself" for practically everything that came in his
+way, down to a miserable scorpion he had found in his cabin a week
+before.  The why and the wherefore of that scorpion--how it got on
+board and came to select his room rather than the pantry (which was
+a dark place and more what a scorpion would be partial to), and how
+on earth it managed to drown itself in the inkwell of his writing-
+desk--had exercised him infinitely.  The ship within the islands
+was much more easily accounted for; and just as we were about to
+rise from table he made his pronouncement.  She was, he doubted
+not, a ship from home lately arrived.  Probably she drew too much
+water to cross the bar except at the top of spring tides.
+Therefore she went into that natural harbour to wait for a few days
+in preference to remaining in an open roadstead.
+
+"That's so," confirmed the second mate, suddenly, in his slightly
+hoarse voice.  "She draws over twenty feet.  She's the Liverpool
+ship Sephora with a cargo of coal.  Hundred and twenty-three days
+from Cardiff."
+
+We looked at him in surprise.
+
+"The tugboat skipper told me when he came on board for your
+letters, sir," explained the young man.  "He expects to take her up
+the river the day after to-morrow."
+
+After thus overwhelming us with the extent of his information he
+slipped out of the cabin.  The mate observed regretfully that he
+"could not account for that young fellow's whims."  What prevented
+him telling us all about it at once, he wanted to know.
+
+I detained him as he was making a move.  For the last two days the
+crew had had plenty of hard work, and the night before they had
+very little sleep.  I felt painfully that I--a stranger--was doing
+something unusual when I directed him to let all hands turn in
+without setting an anchor-watch.  I proposed to keep on deck myself
+till one o'clock or thereabouts.  I would get the second mate to
+relieve me at that hour.
+
+"He will turn out the cook and the steward at four," I concluded,
+"and then give you a call.  Of course at the slightest sign of any
+sort of wind we'll have the hands up and make a start at once."
+
+He concealed his astonishment.  "Very well, sir."  Outside the
+cuddy he put his head in the second mate's door to inform him of my
+unheard-of caprice to take a five hours' anchor-watch on myself.  I
+heard the other raise his voice incredulously--"What?  The captain
+himself?"  Then a few more murmurs, a door closed, then another.  A
+few moments later I went on deck.
+
+My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that
+unconventional arrangement, as if I had expected in those solitary
+hours of the night to get on terms with the ship of which I knew
+nothing, manned by men of whom I knew very little more.  Fast
+alongside a wharf, littered like any ship in port with a tangle of
+unrelated things, invaded by unrelated shore people, I had hardly
+seen her yet properly.  Now, as she lay cleared for sea, the
+stretch of her maindeck seemed to me very fine under the stars.
+Very fine, very roomy for her size, and very inviting.  I descended
+the poop and paced the waist, my mind picturing to myself the
+coming passage through the Malay Archipelago, down the Indian
+Ocean, and up the Atlantic.  All its phases were familiar enough to
+me, every characteristic, all the alternatives which were likely to
+face me on the high seas--everything! . . . except the novel
+responsibility of command.  But I took heart from the reasonable
+thought that the ship was like other ships, the men like other men,
+and that the sea was not likely to keep any special surprises
+expressly for my discomfiture.
+
+Arrived at that comforting conclusion, I bethought myself of a
+cigar and went below to get it.  All was still down there.
+Everybody at the after end of the ship was sleeping profoundly.  I
+came out again on the quarter-deck, agreeably at ease in my
+sleeping-suit on that warm breathless night, barefooted, a glowing
+cigar in my teeth, and, going forward, I was met by the profound
+silence of the fore end of the ship.  Only as I passed the door of
+the forecastle I heard a deep, quiet, trustful sigh of some sleeper
+inside.  And suddenly I rejoiced in the great security of the sea
+as compared with the unrest of the land, in my choice of that
+untempted life presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an
+elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its
+appeal and by the singleness of its purpose.
+
+The riding-light in the fore-rigging burned with a clear,
+untroubled, as if symbolic, flame, confident and bright in the
+mysterious shades of the night.  Passing on my way aft along the
+other side of the ship, I observed that the rope side-ladder, put
+over, no doubt, for the master of the tug when he came to fetch
+away our letters, had not been hauled in as it should have been.  I
+became annoyed at this, for exactitude in small matters is the very
+soul of discipline.  Then I reflected that I had myself
+peremptorily dismissed my officers from duty, and by my own act had
+prevented the anchor-watch being formally set and things properly
+attended to.  I asked myself whether it was wise ever to interfere
+with the established routine of duties even from the kindest of
+motives.  My action might have made me appear eccentric.  Goodness
+only knew how that absurdly whiskered mate would "account" for my
+conduct, and what the whole ship thought of that informality of
+their new captain.  I was vexed with myself.
+
+Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically, I
+proceeded to get the ladder in myself.  Now a side-ladder of that
+sort is a light affair and comes in easily, yet my vigorous tug,
+which should have brought it flying on board, merely recoiled upon
+my body in a totally unexpected jerk.  What the devil! . . . I was
+so astounded by the immovableness of that ladder that I remained
+stock-still, trying to account for it to myself like that imbecile
+mate of mine.  In the end, of course, I put my head over the rail.
+
+The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling
+glassy shimmer of the sea.  But I saw at once something elongated
+and pale floating very close to the ladder.  Before I could form a
+guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue
+suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping
+water with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night
+sky.  With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the
+long legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a
+greenish cadaverous glow.  One hand, awash, clutched the bottom
+rung of the ladder.  He was complete but for the head.  A headless
+corpse!  The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop
+and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all
+things under heaven.  At that I suppose he raised up his face, a
+dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship's side.  But even then I
+could only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired
+head.  However, it was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation
+which had gripped me about the chest to pass off.  The moment of
+vain exclamations was past, too.  I only climbed on the spare spar
+and leaned over the rail as far as I could, to bring my eyes nearer
+to that mystery floating alongside.
+
+As he hung by the ladder, like a resting swimmer, the sea-lightning
+played about his limbs at every stir; and he appeared in it
+ghastly, silvery, fish-like.  He remained as mute as a fish, too.
+He made no motion to get out of the water, either.  It was
+inconceivable that he should not attempt to come on board, and
+strangely troubling to suspect that perhaps he did not want to.
+And my first words were prompted by just that troubled incertitude.
+
+"What's the matter?" I asked in my ordinary tone, speaking down to
+the face upturned exactly under mine.
+
+"Cramp," it answered, no louder.  Then slightly anxious, "I say, no
+need to call any one."
+
+"I was not going to," I said.
+
+"Are you alone on deck?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting go
+the ladder to swim away beyond my ken--mysterious as he came.  But,
+for the moment, this being appearing as if he had risen from the
+bottom of the sea (it was certainly the nearest land to the ship)
+wanted only to know the time.  I told him.  And he, down there,
+tentatively:
+
+"I suppose your captain's turned in?"
+
+"I am sure he isn't," I said.
+
+He seemed to struggle with himself, for I heard something like the
+low, bitter murmur of doubt.  "What's the good?"  His next words
+came out with a hesitating effort.
+
+"Look here, my man.  Could you call him out quietly?"
+
+I thought the time had come to declare myself.
+
+"_I_ am the captain."
+
+I heard a "By Jove!" whispered at the level of the water.  The
+phosphorescence flashed in the swirl of the water all about his
+limbs, his other hand seized the ladder.
+
+"My name's Leggatt."
+
+The voice was calm and resolute.  A good voice.  The self-
+possession of that man had somehow induced a corresponding state in
+myself.  It was very quietly that I remarked:
+
+"You must be a good swimmer."
+
+"Yes.  I've been in the water practically since nine o'clock.  The
+question for me now is whether I am to let go this ladder and go on
+swimming till I sink from exhaustion, or--to come on board here."
+
+I felt this was no mere formula of desperate speech, but a real
+alternative in the view of a strong soul.  I should have gathered
+from this that he was young; indeed, it is only the young who are
+ever confronted by such clear issues.  But at the time it was pure
+intuition on my part.  A mysterious communication was established
+already between us two--in the face of that silent, darkened
+tropical sea.  I was young, too; young enough to make no comment.
+The man in the water began suddenly to climb up the ladder, and I
+hastened away from the rail to fetch some clothes.
+
+Before entering the cabin I stood still, listening in the lobby at
+the foot of the stairs.  A faint snore came through the closed door
+of the chief mate's room.  The second mate's door was on the hook,
+but the darkness in there was absolutely soundless.  He, too, was
+young and could sleep like a stone.  Remained the steward, but he
+was not likely to wake up before he was called.  I got a sleeping-
+suit out of my room and, coming back on deck, saw the naked man
+from the sea sitting on the main-hatch, glimmering white in the
+darkness, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.  In a
+moment he had concealed his damp body in a sleeping-suit of the
+same grey-stripe pattern as the one I was wearing and followed me
+like my double on the poop.  Together we moved right aft,
+barefooted, silent.
+
+"What is it?" I asked in a deadened voice, taking the lighted lamp
+out of the binnacle, and raising it to his face.
+
+"An ugly business."
+
+He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under
+somewhat heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no growth
+on his cheeks; a small, brown moustache, and a well-shaped, round
+chin.  His expression was concentrated, meditative, under the
+inspecting light of the lamp I held up to his face; such as a man
+thinking hard in solitude might wear.  My sleeping-suit was just
+right for his size.  A well-knit young fellow of twenty-five at
+most.  He caught his lower lip with the edge of white, even teeth.
+
+"Yes," I said, replacing the lamp in the binnacle.  The warm, heavy
+tropical night closed upon his head again.
+
+"There's a ship over there," he murmured.
+
+"Yes, I know.  The Sephora.  Did you know of us?"
+
+"Hadn't the slightest idea.  I am the mate of her--"  He paused and
+corrected himself.  "I should say I WAS."
+
+"Aha!  Something wrong?"
+
+"Yes.  Very wrong indeed.  I've killed a man."
+
+"What do you mean?  Just now?"
+
+"No, on the passage.  Weeks ago.  Thirty-nine south.  When I say a
+man--"
+
+"Fit of temper," I suggested, confidently.
+
+The shadowy, dark head, like mine, seemed to nod imperceptibly
+above the ghostly grey of my sleeping-suit.  It was, in the night,
+as though I had been faced by my own reflection in the depths of a
+sombre and immense mirror.
+
+"A pretty thing to have to own up to for a Conway boy," murmured my
+double, distinctly.
+
+"You're a Conway boy?"
+
+"I am," he said, as if startled.  Then, slowly . . . "Perhaps you
+too--"
+
+It was so; but being a couple of years older I had left before he
+joined.  After a quick interchange of dates a silence fell; and I
+thought suddenly of my absurd mate with his terrific whiskers and
+the "Bless my soul--you don't say so" type of intellect.  My double
+gave me an inkling of his thoughts by saying:
+
+"My father's a parson in Norfolk.  Do you see me before a judge and
+jury on that charge?  For myself I can't see the necessity.  There
+are fellows that an angel from heaven--And I am not that.  He was
+one of those creatures that are just simmering all the time with a
+silly sort of wickedness.  Miserable devils that have no business
+to live at all.  He wouldn't do his duty and wouldn't let anybody
+else do theirs.  But what's the good of talking!  You know well
+enough the sort of ill-conditioned snarling cur--"
+
+He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as
+our clothes.  And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such
+a character where there are no means of legal repression.  And I
+knew well enough also that my double there was no homicidal
+ruffian.  I did not think of asking him for details, and he told me
+the story roughly in brusque, disconnected sentences.  I needed no
+more.  I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside that
+other sleeping-suit.
+
+"It happened while we were setting a reefed foresail, at dusk.
+Reefed foresail!  You understand the sort of weather.  The only
+sail we had left to keep the ship running; so you may guess what it
+had been like for days.  Anxious sort of job, that.  He gave me
+some of his cursed insolence at the sheet.  I tell you I was
+overdone with this terrific weather that seemed to have no end to
+it.  Terrific, I tell you--and a deep ship.  I believe the fellow
+himself was half crazed with funk.  It was no time for gentlemanly
+reproof, so I turned round and felled him like an ox.  He up and at
+me.  We closed just as an awful sea made for the ship.  All hands
+saw it coming and took to the rigging, but I had him by the throat,
+and went on shaking him like a rat, the men above us yelling, "Look
+out! look out!"  Then a crash as if the sky had fallen on my head.
+They say that for over ten minutes hardly anything was to be seen
+of the ship--just the three masts and a bit of the forecastle head
+and of the poop all awash driving along in a smother of foam.  It
+was a miracle that they found us, jammed together behind the
+forebits.  It's clear that I meant business, because I was holding
+him by the throat still when they picked us up.  He was black in
+the face.  It was too much for them.  It seems they rushed us aft
+together, gripped as we were, screaming "Murder!" like a lot of
+lunatics, and broke into the cuddy.  And the ship running for her
+life, touch and go all the time, any minute her last in a sea fit
+to turn your hair grey only a-looking at it.  I understand that the
+skipper, too, started raving like the rest of them.  The man had
+been deprived of sleep for more than a week, and to have this
+sprung on him at the height of a furious gale nearly drove him out
+of his mind.  I wonder they didn't fling me overboard after getting
+the carcass of their precious ship-mate out of my fingers.  They
+had rather a job to separate us, I've been told.  A sufficiently
+fierce story to make an old judge and a respectable jury sit up a
+bit.  The first thing I heard when I came to myself was the
+maddening howling of that endless gale, and on that the voice of
+the old man.  He was hanging on to my bunk, staring into my face
+out of his sou'wester.
+
+"'Mr. Leggatt, you have killed a man.  You can act no longer as
+chief mate of this ship.'"
+
+His care to subdue his voice made it sound monotonous.  He rested a
+hand on the end of the skylight to steady himself with, and all
+that time did not stir a limb, so far as I could see.  "Nice little
+tale for a quiet tea-party," he concluded in the same tone.
+
+One of my hands, too, rested on the end of the skylight; neither
+did I stir a limb, so far as I knew.  We stood less than a foot
+from each other.  It occurred to me that if old "Bless my soul--you
+don't say so" were to put his head up the companion and catch sight
+of us, he would think he was seeing double, or imagine himself come
+upon a scene of weird witchcraft; the strange captain having a
+quiet confabulation by the wheel with his own grey ghost.  I became
+very much concerned to prevent anything of the sort.  I heard the
+other's soothing undertone.
+
+"My father's a parson in Norfolk," it said.  Evidently he had
+forgotten he had told me this important fact before.  Truly a nice
+little tale.
+
+"You had better slip down into my stateroom now," I said, moving
+off stealthily.  My double followed my movements; our bare feet
+made no sound; I let him in, closed the door with care, and, after
+giving a call to the second mate, returned on deck for my relief.
+
+"Not much sign of any wind yet," I remarked when he approached.
+
+"No, sir.  Not much," he assented, sleepily, in his hoarse voice,
+with just enough deference, no more, and barely suppressing a yawn.
+
+"Well, that's all you have to look out for.  You have got your
+orders."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+I paced a turn or two on the poop and saw him take up his position
+face forward with his elbow in the ratlines of the mizzen-rigging
+before I went below.  The mate's faint snoring was still going on
+peacefully.  The cuddy lamp was burning over the table on which
+stood a vase with flowers, a polite attention from the ship's
+provision merchant--the last flowers we should see for the next
+three months at the very least.  Two bunches of bananas hung from
+the beam symmetrically, one on each side of the rudder-casing.
+Everything was as before in the ship--except that two of her
+captain's sleeping-suits were simultaneously in use, one motionless
+in the cuddy, the other keeping very still in the captain's
+stateroom.
+
+It must be explained here that my cabin had the form of the capital
+letter L the door being within the angle and opening into the short
+part of the letter.  A couch was to the left, the bed-place to the
+right; my writing-desk and the chronometers' table faced the door.
+But any one opening it, unless he stepped right inside, had no view
+of what I call the long (or vertical) part of the letter.  It
+contained some lockers surmounted by a bookcase; and a few clothes,
+a thick jacket or two, caps, oilskin coat, and such like, hung on
+hooks.  There was at the bottom of that part a door opening into my
+bath-room, which could be entered also directly from the saloon.
+But that way was never used.
+
+The mysterious arrival had discovered the advantage of this
+particular shape.  Entering my room, lighted strongly by a big
+bulkhead lamp swung on gimbals above my writing-desk, I did not see
+him anywhere till he stepped out quietly from behind the coats hung
+in the recessed part.
+
+"I heard somebody moving about, and went in there at once," he
+whispered.
+
+I, too, spoke under my breath.
+
+"Nobody is likely to come in here without knocking and getting
+permission."
+
+He nodded.  His face was thin and the sunburn faded, as though he
+had been ill.  And no wonder.  He had been, I heard presently, kept
+under arrest in his cabin for nearly seven weeks.  But there was
+nothing sickly in his eyes or in his expression.  He was not a bit
+like me, really; yet, as we stood leaning over my bed-place,
+whispering side by side, with our dark heads together and our backs
+to the door, anybody bold enough to open it stealthily would have
+been treated to the uncanny sight of a double captain busy talking
+in whispers with his other self.
+
+"But all this doesn't tell me how you came to hang on to our side-
+ladder," I inquired, in the hardly audible murmurs we used, after
+he had told me something more of the proceedings on board the
+Sephora once the bad weather was over.
+
+"When we sighted Java Head I had had time to think all those
+matters out several times over.  I had six weeks of doing nothing
+else, and with only an hour or so every evening for a tramp on the
+quarter-deck."
+
+He whispered, his arms folded on the side of my bed-place, staring
+through the open port.  And I could imagine perfectly the manner of
+this thinking out--a stubborn if not a steadfast operation;
+something of which I should have been perfectly incapable.
+
+"I reckoned it would be dark before we closed with the land," he
+continued, so low that I had to strain my hearing, near as we were
+to each other, shoulder touching shoulder almost.  "So I asked to
+speak to the old man.  He always seemed very sick when he came to
+see me--as if he could not look me in the face.  You know, that
+foresail saved the ship.  She was too deep to have run long under
+bare poles.  And it was I that managed to set it for him.  Anyway,
+he came.  When I had him in my cabin--he stood by the door looking
+at me as if I had the halter round my neck already--I asked him
+right away to leave my cabin door unlocked at night while the ship
+was going through Sunda Straits.  There would be the Java coast
+within two or three miles, off Angier Point.  I wanted nothing
+more.  I've had a prize for swimming my second year in the Conway."
+
+"I can believe it," I breathed out.
+
+"God only knows why they locked me in every night.  To see some of
+their faces you'd have thought they were afraid I'd go about at
+night strangling people.  Am I a murdering brute?  Do I look it?
+By Jove! if I had been he wouldn't have trusted himself like that
+into my room.  You'll say I might have chucked him aside and bolted
+out, there and then--it was dark already.  Well, no.  And for the
+same reason I wouldn't think of trying to smash the door.  There
+would have been a rush to stop me at the noise, and I did not mean
+to get into a confounded scrimmage.  Somebody else might have got
+killed--for I would not have broken out only to get chucked back,
+and I did not want any more of that work.  He refused, looking more
+sick than ever.  He was afraid of the men, and also of that old
+second mate of his who had been sailing with him for years--a grey-
+headed old humbug; and his steward, too, had been with him devil
+knows how long--seventeen years or more--a dogmatic sort of loafer
+who hated me like poison, just because I was the chief mate.  No
+chief mate ever made more than one voyage in the Sephora, you know.
+Those two old chaps ran the ship.  Devil only knows what the
+skipper wasn't afraid of (all his nerve went to pieces altogether
+in that hellish spell of bad weather we had)--of what the law would
+do to him--of his wife, perhaps.  Oh, yes! she's on board.  Though
+I don't think she would have meddled.  She would have been only too
+glad to have me out of the ship in any way.  The 'brand of Cain'
+business, don't you see.  That's all right.  I was ready enough to
+go off wandering on the face of the earth--and that was price
+enough to pay for an Abel of that sort.  Anyhow, he wouldn't listen
+to me.  'This thing must take its course.  I represent the law
+here.'  He was shaking like a leaf.  'So you won't?'  'No!'  'Then
+I hope you will be able to sleep on that,' I said, and turned my
+back on him.  'I wonder that YOU can,' cries he, and locks the
+door.
+
+"Well, after that, I couldn't.  Not very well.  That was three
+weeks ago.  We have had a slow passage through the Java Sea;
+drifted about Carimata for ten days.  When we anchored here they
+thought, I suppose, it was all right.  The nearest land (and that's
+five miles) is the ship's destination; the consul would soon set
+about catching me; and there would have been no object in bolting
+to these islets there.  I don't suppose there's a drop of water on
+them.  I don't know how it was, but to-night that steward, after
+bringing me my supper, went out to let me eat it, and left the door
+unlocked.  And I ate it--all there was, too.  After I had finished
+I strolled out on the quarterdeck.  I don't know that I meant to do
+anything.  A breath of fresh air was all I wanted, I believe.  Then
+a sudden temptation came over me.  I kicked off my slippers and was
+in the water before I had made up my mind fairly.  Somebody heard
+the splash and they raised an awful hullabaloo.  'He's gone!  Lower
+the boats!  He's committed suicide!  No, he's swimming.'  Certainly
+I was swimming.  It's not so easy for a swimmer like me to commit
+suicide by drowning.  I landed on the nearest islet before the boat
+left the ship's side.  I heard them pulling about in the dark,
+hailing, and so on, but after a bit they gave up.  Everything
+quieted down and the anchorage became as still as death.  I sat
+down on a stone and began to think.  I felt certain they would
+start searching for me at daylight.  There was no place to hide on
+those stony things--and if there had been, what would have been the
+good?  But now I was clear of that ship, I was not going back.  So
+after a while I took off all my clothes, tied them up in a bundle
+with a stone inside, and dropped them in the deep water on the
+outer side of that islet.  That was suicide enough for me.  Let
+them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself.  I
+meant to swim till I sank--but that's not the same thing.  I struck
+out for another of these little islands, and it was from that one
+that I first saw your riding-light.  Something to swim for.  I went
+on easily, and on the way I came upon a flat rock a foot or two
+above water.  In the daytime, I dare say, you might make it out
+with a glass from your poop.  I scrambled up on it and rested
+myself for a bit.  Then I made another start.  That last spell must
+have been over a mile."
+
+His whisper was getting fainter and fainter, and all the time he
+stared straight out through the port-hole, in which there was not
+even a star to be seen.  I had not interrupted him.  There was
+something that made comment impossible in his narrative, or perhaps
+in himself; a sort of feeling, a quality, which I can't find a name
+for.  And when he ceased, all I found was a futile whisper:  "So
+you swam for our light?"
+
+"Yes--straight for it.  It was something to swim for.  I couldn't
+see any stars low down because the coast was in the way, and I
+couldn't see the land, either.  The water was like glass.  One
+might have been swimming in a confounded thousand-feet deep cistern
+with no place for scrambling out anywhere; but what I didn't like
+was the notion of swimming round and round like a crazed bullock
+before I gave out; and as I didn't mean to go back . . . No.  Do
+you see me being hauled back, stark naked, off one of these little
+islands by the scruff of the neck and fighting like a wild beast?
+Somebody would have got killed for certain, and I did not want any
+of that.  So I went on.  Then your ladder--"
+
+"Why didn't you hail the ship?" I asked, a little louder.
+
+He touched my shoulder lightly.  Lazy footsteps came right over our
+heads and stopped.  The second mate had crossed from the other side
+of the poop and might have been hanging over the rail, for all we
+knew.
+
+"He couldn't hear us talking--could he?"  My double breathed into
+my very ear, anxiously.
+
+His anxiety was an answer, a sufficient answer, to the question I
+had put to him.  An answer containing all the difficulty of that
+situation.  I closed the port-hole quietly, to make sure.  A louder
+word might have been overheard.
+
+"Who's that?" he whispered then.
+
+"My second mate.  But I don't know much more of the fellow than you
+do."
+
+And I told him a little about myself.  I had been appointed to take
+charge while I least expected anything of the sort, not quite a
+fortnight ago.  I didn't know either the ship or the people.
+Hadn't had the time in port to look about me or size anybody up.
+And as to the crew, all they knew was that I was appointed to take
+the ship home.  For the rest, I was almost as much of a stranger on
+board as himself, I said.  And at the moment I felt it most
+acutely.  I felt that it would take very little to make me a
+suspect person in the eyes of the ship's company.
+
+He had turned about meantime; and we, the two strangers in the
+ship, faced each other in identical attitudes.
+
+"Your ladder--" he murmured, after a silence.  "Who'd have thought
+of finding a ladder hanging over at night in a ship anchored out
+here!  I felt just then a very unpleasant faintness.  After the
+life I've been leading for nine weeks, anybody would have got out
+of condition.  I wasn't capable of swimming round as far as your
+rudder-chains.  And, lo and behold! there was a ladder to get hold
+of.  After I gripped it I said to myself, 'What's the good?'  When
+I saw a man's head looking over I thought I would swim away
+presently and leave him shouting--in whatever language it was.  I
+didn't mind being looked at.  I--I liked it.  And then you speaking
+to me so quietly--as if you had expected me--made me hold on a
+little longer.  It had been a confounded lonely time--I don't mean
+while swimming.  I was glad to talk a little to somebody that
+didn't belong to the Sephora.  As to asking for the captain, that
+was a mere impulse.  It could have been no use, with all the ship
+knowing about me and the other people pretty certain to be round
+here in the morning.  I don't know--I wanted to be seen, to talk
+with somebody, before I went on.  I don't know what I would have
+said. . . . 'Fine night, isn't it?' or something of the sort."
+
+"Do you think they will be round here presently?" I asked with some
+incredulity.
+
+"Quite likely," he said, faintly.
+
+He looked extremely haggard all of a sudden.  His head rolled on
+his shoulders.
+
+"H'm.  We shall see then.  Meantime get into that bed," I
+whispered.  "Want help?  There."
+
+It was a rather high bed-place with a set of drawers underneath.
+This amazing swimmer really needed the lift I gave him by seizing
+his leg.  He tumbled in, rolled over on his back, and flung one arm
+across his eyes.  And then, with his face nearly hidden, he must
+have looked exactly as I used to look in that bed.  I gazed upon my
+other self for a while before drawing across carefully the two
+green serge curtains which ran on a brass rod.  I thought for a
+moment of pinning them together for greater safety, but I sat down
+on the couch, and once there I felt unwilling to rise and hunt for
+a pin.  I would do it in a moment.  I was extremely tired, in a
+peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness, by the
+effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this excitement.
+It was three o'clock by now and I had been on my feet since nine,
+but I was not sleepy; I could not have gone to sleep.  I sat there,
+fagged out, looking at the curtains, trying to clear my mind of the
+confused sensation of being in two places at once, and greatly
+bothered by an exasperating knocking in my head.  It was a relief
+to discover suddenly that it was not in my head at all, but on the
+outside of the door.  Before I could collect myself the words "Come
+in" were out of my mouth, and the steward entered with a tray,
+bringing in my morning coffee.  I had slept, after all, and I was
+so frightened that I shouted, "This way!  I am here, steward," as
+though he had been miles away.  He put down the tray on the table
+next the couch and only then said, very quietly, "I can see you are
+here, sir."  I felt him give me a keen look, but I dared not meet
+his eyes just then.  He must have wondered why I had drawn the
+curtains of my bed before going to sleep on the couch.  He went
+out, hooking the door open as usual.
+
+I heard the crew washing decks above me.  I knew I would have been
+told at once if there had been any wind.  Calm, I thought, and I
+was doubly vexed.  Indeed, I felt dual more than ever.  The steward
+reappeared suddenly in the doorway.  I jumped up from the couch so
+quickly that he gave a start.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"Close your port, sir--they are washing decks."
+
+"It is closed," I said, reddening.
+
+"Very well, sir."  But he did not move from the doorway and
+returned my stare in an extraordinary, equivocal manner for a time.
+Then his eyes wavered, all his expression changed, and in a voice
+unusually gentle, almost coaxingly:
+
+"May I come in to take the empty cup away, sir?"
+
+"Of course!"  I turned my back on him while he popped in and out.
+Then I unhooked and closed the door and even pushed the bolt.  This
+sort of thing could not go on very long.  The cabin was as hot as
+an oven, too.  I took a peep at my double, and discovered that he
+had not moved, his arm was still over his eyes; but his chest
+heaved; his hair was wet; his chin glistened with perspiration.  I
+reached over him and opened the port.
+
+"I must show myself on deck," I reflected.
+
+Of course, theoretically, I could do what I liked, with no one to
+say nay to me within the whole circle of the horizon; but to lock
+my cabin door and take the key away I did not dare.  Directly I put
+my head out of the companion I saw the group of my two officers,
+the second mate barefooted, the chief mate in long india-rubber
+boots, near the break of the poop, and the steward half-way down
+the poop-ladder talking to them eagerly.  He happened to catch
+sight of me and dived, the second ran down on the main-deck
+shouting some order or other, and the chief mate came to meet me,
+touching his cap.
+
+There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not like.  I
+don't know whether the steward had told them that I was "queer"
+only, or downright drunk, but I know the man meant to have a good
+look at me.  I watched him coming with a smile which, as he got
+into point-blank range, took effect and froze his very whiskers.  I
+did not give him time to open his lips.
+
+"Square the yards by lifts and braces before the hands go to
+breakfast."
+
+It was the first particular order I had given on board that ship;
+and I stayed on deck to see it executed, too.  I had felt the need
+of asserting myself without loss of time.  That sneering young cub
+got taken down a peg or two on that occasion, and I also seized the
+opportunity of having a good look at the face of every foremast man
+as they filed past me to go to the after braces.  At breakfast
+time, eating nothing myself, I presided with such frigid dignity
+that the two mates were only too glad to escape from the cabin as
+soon as decency permitted; and all the time the dual working of my
+mind distracted me almost to the point of insanity.  I was
+constantly watching myself, my secret self, as dependent on my
+actions as my own personality, sleeping in that bed, behind that
+door which faced me as I sat at the head of the table.  It was very
+much like being mad, only it was worse because one was aware of it.
+
+I had to shake him for a solid minute, but when at last he opened
+his eyes it was in the full possession of his senses, with an
+inquiring look.
+
+"All's well so far," I whispered.  "Now you must vanish into the
+bath-room."
+
+He did so, as noiseless as a ghost, and I then rang for the
+steward, and facing him boldly, directed him to tidy up my
+stateroom while I was having my bath--"and be quick about it."  As
+my tone admitted of no excuses, he said, "Yes, sir," and ran off to
+fetch his dust-pan and brushes.  I took a bath and did most of my
+dressing, splashing, and whistling softly for the steward's
+edification, while the secret sharer of my life stood drawn up bolt
+upright in that little space, his face looking very sunken in
+daylight, his eyelids lowered under the stern, dark line of his
+eyebrows drawn together by a slight frown.
+
+When I left him there to go back to my room the steward was
+finishing dusting.  I sent for the mate and engaged him in some
+insignificant conversation.  It was, as it were, trifling with the
+terrific character of his whiskers; but my object was to give him
+an opportunity for a good look at my cabin.  And then I could at
+last shut, with a clear conscience, the door of my stateroom and
+get my double back into the recessed part.  There was nothing else
+for it.  He had to sit still on a small folding stool, half
+smothered by the heavy coats hanging there.  We listened to the
+steward going into the bath-room out of the saloon, filling the
+water-bottles there, scrubbing the bath, setting things to rights,
+whisk, bang, clatter--out again into the saloon--turn the key--
+click.  Such was my scheme for keeping my second self invisible.
+Nothing better could be contrived under the circumstances.  And
+there we sat; I at my writing-desk ready to appear busy with some
+papers, he behind me, out of sight of the door.  It would not have
+been prudent to talk in daytime; and I could not have stood the
+excitement of that queer sense of whispering to myself.  Now and
+then glancing over my shoulder, I saw him far back there, sitting
+rigidly on the low stool, his bare feet close together, his arms
+folded, his head hanging on his breast--and perfectly still.
+Anybody would have taken him for me.
+
+I was fascinated by it myself.  Every moment I had to glance over
+my shoulder.  I was looking at him when a voice outside the door
+said:
+
+"Beg pardon, sir."
+
+"Well!" . . . I kept my eyes on him, and so, when the voice outside
+the door announced, "There's a ship's boat coming our way, sir," I
+saw him give a start--the first movement he had made for hours.
+But he did not raise his bowed head.
+
+"All right.  Get the ladder over."
+
+I hesitated.  Should I whisper something to him?  But what?  His
+immobility seemed to have been never disturbed.  What could I tell
+him he did not know already? . . . Finally I went on deck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+The skipper of the Sephora had a thin red whisker all round his
+face, and the sort of complexion that goes with hair of that
+colour; also the particular, rather smeary shade of blue in the
+eyes.  He was not exactly a showy figure; his shoulders were high,
+his stature but middling--one leg slightly more bandy than the
+other.  He shook hands, looking vaguely around.  A spiritless
+tenacity was his main characteristic, I judged.  I behaved with a
+politeness which seemed to disconcert him.  Perhaps he was shy.  He
+mumbled to me as if he were ashamed of what he was saying; gave his
+name (it was something like Archbold--but at this distance of years
+I hardly am sure), his ship's name, and a few other particulars of
+that sort, in the manner of a criminal making a reluctant and
+doleful confession.  He had had terrible weather on the passage
+out--terrible--terrible--wife aboard, too.
+
+By this time we were seated in the cabin and the steward brought in
+a tray with a bottle and glasses.  "Thanks!  No."  Never took
+liquor.  Would have some water, though.  He drank two tumblerfuls.
+Terrible thirsty work.  Ever since daylight had been exploring the
+islands round his ship.
+
+"What was that for--fun?" I asked, with an appearance of polite
+interest.
+
+"No!"  He sighed.  "Painful duty."
+
+As he persisted in his mumbling and I wanted my double to hear
+every word, I hit upon the notion of informing him that I regretted
+to say I was hard of hearing.
+
+"Such a young man, too!" he nodded, keeping his smeary blue,
+unintelligent eyes fastened upon me.  What was the cause of it--
+some disease? he inquired, without the least sympathy and as if he
+thought that, if so, I'd got no more than I deserved.
+
+"Yes; disease," I admitted in a cheerful tone which seemed to shock
+him.  But my point was gained, because he had to raise his voice to
+give me his tale.  It is not worth while to record that version.
+It was just over two months since all this had happened, and he had
+thought so much about it that he seemed completely muddled as to
+its bearings, but still immensely impressed.
+
+"What would you think of such a thing happening on board your own
+ship?  I've had the Sephora for these fifteen years.  I am a well-
+known shipmaster."
+
+He was densely distressed--and perhaps I should have sympathised
+with him if I had been able to detach my mental vision from the
+unsuspected sharer of my cabin as though he were my second self.
+There he was on the other side of the bulkhead, four or five feet
+from us, no more, as we sat in the saloon.  I looked politely at
+Captain Archbold (if that was his name), but it was the other I
+saw, in a grey sleeping-suit, seated on a low stool, his bare feet
+close together, his arms folded, and every word said between us
+falling into the ears of his dark head bowed on his chest.
+
+"I have been at sea now, man and boy, for seven-and-thirty years,
+and I've never heard of such a thing happening in an English ship.
+And that it should be my ship.  Wife on board, too."
+
+I was hardly listening to him.
+
+"Don't you think," I said, "that the heavy sea which, you told me,
+came aboard just then might have killed the man?  I have seen the
+sheer weight of a sea kill a man very neatly, by simply breaking
+his neck."
+
+"Good God!" he uttered, impressively, fixing his smeary blue eyes
+on me.  "The sea!  No man killed by the sea ever looked like that."
+He seemed positively scandalised at my suggestion.  And as I gazed
+at him, certainly not prepared for anything original on his part,
+he advanced his head close to mine and thrust his tongue out at me
+so suddenly that I couldn't help starting back.
+
+After scoring over my calmness in this graphic way he nodded
+wisely.  If I had seen the sight, he assured me, I would never
+forget it as long as I lived.  The weather was too bad to give the
+corpse a proper sea burial.  So next day at dawn they took it up on
+the poop, covering its face with a bit of bunting; he read a short
+prayer, and then, just as it was, in its oilskins and long boots,
+they launched it amongst those mountainous seas that seemed ready
+every moment to swallow up the ship herself and the terrified lives
+on board of her.
+
+"That reefed foresail saved you," I threw in.
+
+"Under God--it did," he exclaimed fervently.  "It was by a special
+mercy, I firmly believe, that it stood some of those hurricane
+squalls."
+
+"It was the setting of that sail which--" I began.
+
+"God's own hand in it," he interrupted me.  "Nothing less could
+have done it.  I don't mind telling you that I hardly dared give
+the order.  It seemed impossible that we could touch anything
+without losing it, and then our last hope would have been gone."
+
+The terror of that gale was on him yet.  I let him go on for a bit,
+then said, casually--as if returning to a minor subject:
+
+"You were very anxious to give up your mate to the shore people, I
+believe?"
+
+He was.  To the law.  His obscure tenacity on that point had in it
+something incomprehensible and a little awful; something, as it
+were, mystical, quite apart from his anxiety that he should not be
+suspected of "countenancing any doings of that sort."  Seven-and-
+thirty virtuous years at sea, of which over twenty of immaculate
+command, and the last fifteen in the Sephora, seemed to have laid
+him under some pitiless obligation.
+
+"And you know," he went on, groping shamefacedly amongst his
+feelings, "I did not engage that young fellow.  His people had some
+interest with my owners.  I was in a way forced to take him on.  He
+looked very smart, very gentlemanly, and all that.  But do you
+know--I never liked him, somehow.  I am a plain man.  You see, he
+wasn't exactly the sort for the chief mate of a ship like the
+Sephora."
+
+I had become so connected in thoughts and impressions with the
+secret sharer of my cabin that I felt as if I, personally, were
+being given to understand that I, too, was not the sort that would
+have done for the chief mate of a ship like the Sephora.  I had no
+doubt of it in my mind.
+
+"Not at all the style of man.  You understand," he insisted,
+superfluously, looking hard at me.
+
+I smiled urbanely.  He seemed at a loss for a while.
+
+"I suppose I must report a suicide."
+
+"Beg pardon?"
+
+"Suicide!  That's what I'll have to write to my owners directly I
+get in."
+
+"Unless you manage to recover him before to-morrow," I assented,
+dispassionately. . . "I mean, alive."
+
+He mumbled something which I really did not catch, and I turned my
+ear to him in a puzzled manner.  He fairly bawled:
+
+"The land--I say, the mainland is at least seven miles off my
+anchorage."
+
+"About that."
+
+My lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of any sort of
+pronounced interest, began to arouse his distrust.  But except for
+the felicitous pretence of deafness I had not tried to pretend
+anything.  I had felt utterly incapable of playing the part of
+ignorance properly, and therefore was afraid to try.  It is also
+certain that he had brought some ready-made suspicions with him,
+and that he viewed my politeness as a strange and unnatural
+phenomenon.  And yet how else could I have received him?  Not
+heartily!  That was impossible for psychological reasons, which I
+need not state here.  My only object was to keep off his inquiries.
+Surlily?  Yes, but surliness might have provoked a point-blank
+question.  From its novelty to him and from its nature, punctilious
+courtesy was the manner best calculated to restrain the man.  But
+there was the danger of his breaking through my defence bluntly.  I
+could not, I think, have met him by a direct lie, also for
+psychological (not moral) reasons.  If he had only known how afraid
+I was of his putting my feeling of identity with the other to the
+test!  But, strangely enough--(I thought of it only afterward)--I
+believe that he was not a little disconcerted by the reverse side
+of that weird situation, by something in me that reminded him of
+the man he was seeking--suggested a mysterious similitude to the
+young fellow he had distrusted and disliked from the first.
+
+However that might have been, the silence was not very prolonged.
+He took another oblique step.
+
+"I reckon I had no more than a two-mile pull to your ship.  Not a
+bit more."
+
+"And quite enough, too, in this awful heat," I said.
+
+Another pause full of mistrust followed.  Necessity, they say, is
+mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious
+suggestions.  And I was afraid he would ask me point-blank for news
+of my other self.
+
+"Nice little saloon, isn't it?" I remarked, as if noticing for the
+first time the way his eyes roamed from one closed door to the
+other.  "And very well fitted out too.  Here, for instance," I
+continued, reaching over the back of my seat negligently and
+flinging the door open, "is my bath-room."
+
+He made an eager movement, but hardly gave it a glance.  I got up,
+shut the door of the bath-room, and invited him to have a look
+round, as if I were very proud of my accommodation.  He had to rise
+and be shown round, but he went through the business without any
+raptures whatever.
+
+"And now we'll have a look at my stateroom," I declared, in a voice
+as loud as I dared to make it, crossing the cabin to the starboard
+side with purposely heavy steps.
+
+He followed me in and gazed around.  My intelligent double had
+vanished.  I played my part.
+
+"Very convenient--isn't it?"
+
+"Very nice.  Very comf. . . "  He didn't finish, and went out
+brusquely as if to escape from some unrighteous wiles of mine.  But
+it was not to be.  I had been too frightened not to feel vengeful;
+I felt I had him on the run, and I meant to keep him on the run.
+My polite insistence must have had something menacing in it,
+because he gave in suddenly.  And I did not let him off a single
+item; mate's room, pantry, storerooms, the very sail-locker which
+was also under the poop--he had to look into them all.  When at
+last I showed him out on the quarter-deck he drew a long,
+spiritless sigh, and mumbled dismally that he must really be going
+back to his ship now.  I desired my mate, who had joined us, to see
+to the captain's boat.
+
+The man of whiskers gave a blast on the whistle which he used to
+wear hanging round his neck, and yelled, "Sephoras away!"  My
+double down there in my cabin must have heard, and certainly could
+not feel more relieved than I.  Four fellows came running out from
+somewhere forward and went over the side, while my own men,
+appearing on deck too, lined the rail.  I escorted my visitor to
+the gangway ceremoniously, and nearly overdid it.  He was a
+tenacious beast.  On the very ladder he lingered, and in that
+unique, guiltily conscientious manner of sticking to the point:
+
+"I say . . . you . . . you don't think that--"
+
+I covered his voice loudly:
+
+"Certainly not. . . . I am delighted.  Good-bye."
+
+I had an idea of what he meant to say, and just saved myself by the
+privilege of defective hearing.  He was too shaken generally to
+insist, but my mate, close witness of that parting, looked
+mystified and his face took on a thoughtful cast.  As I did not
+want to appear as if I wished to avoid all communication with my
+officers, he had the opportunity to address me.
+
+"Seems a very nice man.  His boat's crew told our chaps a very
+extraordinary story, if what I am told by the steward is true.  I
+suppose you had it from the captain, sir?"
+
+"Yes.  I had a story from the captain."
+
+"A very horrible affair--isn't it, sir?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Beats all these tales we hear about murders in Yankee ships."
+
+"I don't think it beats them.  I don't think it resembles them in
+the least."
+
+"Bless my soul--you don't say so!  But of course I've no
+acquaintance whatever with American ships, not I, so I couldn't go
+against your knowledge.  It's horrible enough for me. . . . But the
+queerest part is that those fellows seemed to have some idea the
+man was hidden aboard here.  They had really.  Did you ever hear of
+such a thing?"
+
+"Preposterous--isn't it?"
+
+We were walking to and fro athwart the quarterdeck.  No one of the
+crew forward could be seen (the day was Sunday), and the mate
+pursued:
+
+"There was some little dispute about it.  Our chaps took offence.
+'As if we would harbour a thing like that,' they said.  'Wouldn't
+you like to look for him in our coal-hole?'  Quite a tiff.  But
+they made it up in the end.  I suppose he did drown himself.  Don't
+you, sir?"
+
+"I don't suppose anything."
+
+"You have no doubt in the matter, sir?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+I left him suddenly.  I felt I was producing a bad impression, but
+with my double down there it was most trying to be on deck.  And it
+was almost as trying to be below.  Altogether a nerve-trying
+situation.  But on the whole I felt less torn in two when I was
+with him.  There was no one in the whole ship whom I dared take
+into my confidence.  Since the hands had got to know his story, it
+would have been impossible to pass him off for any one else, and an
+accidental discovery was to be dreaded now more than ever. . . .
+
+The steward being engaged in laying the table for dinner, we could
+talk only with our eyes when I first went down.  Later in the
+afternoon we had a cautious try at whispering.  The Sunday
+quietness of the ship was against us; the stillness of air and
+water around her was against us; the elements, the men were against
+us--everything was against us in our secret partnership; time
+itself--for this could not go on forever.  The very trust in
+Providence was, I suppose, denied to his guilt.  Shall I confess
+that this thought cast me down very much?  And as to the chapter of
+accidents which counts for so much in the book of success, I could
+only hope that it was closed.  For what favourable accident could
+be expected?
+
+"Did you hear everything?" were my first words as soon as we took
+up our position side by side, leaning over my bed-place.
+
+He had.  And the proof of it was his earnest whisper, "The man told
+you he hardly dared to give the order."
+
+I understood the reference to be to that saving foresail.
+
+"Yes.  He was afraid of it being lost in the setting."
+
+"I assure you he never gave the order.  He may think he did, but he
+never gave it.  He stood there with me on the break of the poop
+after the maintopsail blew away, and whimpered about our last hope-
+-positively whimpered about it and nothing else--and the night
+coming on!  To hear one's skipper go on like that in such weather
+was enough to drive any fellow out of his mind.  It worked me up
+into a sort of desperation.  I just took it into my own hands and
+went away from him, boiling, and-- But what's the use telling you?
+YOU know! . . . Do you think that if I had not been pretty fierce
+with them I should have got the men to do anything?  Not it!  The
+bo's'n perhaps?  Perhaps!  It wasn't a heavy sea--it was a sea gone
+mad!  I suppose the end of the world will be something like that;
+and a man may have the heart to see it coming once and be done with
+it--but to have to face it day after day--I don't blame anybody.  I
+was precious little better than the rest.  Only--I was an officer
+of that old coal-waggon, anyhow--"
+
+"I quite understand," I conveyed that sincere assurance into his
+ear.  He was out of breath with whispering; I could hear him pant
+slightly.  It was all very simple.  The same strung-up force which
+had given twenty-four men a chance, at least, for their lives, had,
+in a sort of recoil, crushed an unworthy mutinous existence.
+
+But I had no leisure to weigh the merits of the matter--footsteps
+in the saloon, a heavy knock.  "There's enough wind to get under
+way with, sir."  Here was the call of a new claim upon my thoughts
+and even upon my feelings.
+
+"Turn the hands up," I cried through the door.  "I'll be on deck
+directly."
+
+I was going out to make the acquaintance of my ship.  Before I left
+the cabin our eyes met--the eyes of the only two strangers on
+board.  I pointed to the recessed part where the little camp-stool
+awaited him and laid my finger on my lips.  He made a gesture--
+somewhat vague--a little mysterious, accompanied by a faint smile,
+as if of regret.
+
+This is not the place to enlarge upon the sensations of a man who
+feels for the first time a ship move under his feet to his own
+independent word.  In my case they were not unalloyed.  I was not
+wholly alone with my command; for there was that stranger in my
+cabin.  Or rather, I was not completely and wholly with her.  Part
+of me was absent.  That mental feeling of being in two places at
+once affected me physically as if the mood of secrecy had
+penetrated my very soul.  Before an hour had elapsed since the ship
+had begun to move, having occasion to ask the mate (he stood by my
+side) to take a compass bearing of the Pagoda, I caught myself
+reaching up to his ear in whispers.  I say I caught myself, but
+enough had escaped to startle the man.  I can't describe it
+otherwise than by saying that he shied.  A grave, preoccupied
+manner, as though he were in possession of some perplexing
+intelligence, did not leave him henceforth.  A little later I moved
+away from the rail to look at the compass with such a stealthy gait
+that the helmsman noticed it--and I could not help noticing the
+unusual roundness of his eyes.  These are trifling instances,
+though it's to no commander's advantage to be suspected of
+ludicrous eccentricities.  But I was also more seriously affected.
+There are to a seaman certain words, gestures, that should in given
+conditions come as naturally, as instinctively as the winking of a
+menaced eye.  A certain order should spring on to his lips without
+thinking; a certain sign should get itself made, so to speak,
+without reflection.  But all unconscious alertness had abandoned
+me.  I had to make an effort of will to recall myself back (from
+the cabin) to the conditions of the moment.  I felt that I was
+appearing an irresolute commander to those people who were watching
+me more or less critically.
+
+And, besides, there were the scares.  On the second day out, for
+instance, coming off the deck in the afternoon (I had straw
+slippers on my bare feet) I stopped at the open pantry door and
+spoke to the steward.  He was doing something there with his back
+to me.  At the sound of my voice he nearly jumped out of his skin,
+as the saying is, and incidentally broke a cup.
+
+"What on earth's the matter with you?" I asked, astonished.
+
+He was extremely confused.  "Beg your pardon, sir.  I made sure you
+were in your cabin."
+
+"You see I wasn't."
+
+"No, sir.  I could have sworn I had heard you moving in there not a
+moment ago.  It's most extraordinary . . . very sorry, sir."
+
+I passed on with an inward shudder.  I was so identified with my
+secret double that I did not even mention the fact in those scanty,
+fearful whispers we exchanged.  I suppose he had made some slight
+noise of some kind or other.  It would have been miraculous if he
+hadn't at one time or another.  And yet, haggard as he appeared, he
+looked always perfectly self-controlled, more than calm--almost
+invulnerable.  On my suggestion he remained almost entirely in the
+bathroom, which, upon the whole, was the safest place.  There could
+be really no shadow of an excuse for any one ever wanting to go in
+there, once the steward had done with it.  It was a very tiny
+place.  Sometimes he reclined on the floor, his legs bent, his head
+sustained on one elbow.  At others I would find him on the camp-
+stool, sitting in his grey sleeping-suit and with his cropped dark
+hair like a patient, unmoved convict.  At night I would smuggle him
+into my bed-place, and we would whisper together, with the regular
+footfalls of the officer of the watch passing and repassing over
+our heads.  It was an infinitely miserable time.  It was lucky that
+some tins of fine preserves were stowed in a locker in my
+stateroom; hard bread I could always get hold of; and so he lived
+on stewed chicken, pate de foie gras, asparagus, cooked oysters,
+sardines--on all sorts of abominable sham delicacies out of tins.
+My early morning coffee he always drank; and it was all I dared do
+for him in that respect.
+
+Every day there was the horrible manoeuvring to go through so that
+my room and then the bath-room should be done in the usual way.  I
+came to hate the sight of the steward, to abhor the voice of that
+harmless man.  I felt that it was he who would bring on the
+disaster of discovery.  It hung like a sword over our heads.
+
+The fourth day out, I think (we were then working down the east
+side of the Gulf of Siam, tack for tack, in light winds and smooth
+water)--the fourth day, I say, of this miserable juggling with the
+unavoidable, as we sat at our evening meal, that man, whose
+slightest movement I dreaded, after putting down the dishes ran up
+on deck busily.  This could not be dangerous.  Presently he came
+down again; and then it appeared that he had remembered a coat of
+mine which I had thrown over a rail to dry after having been wetted
+in a shower which had passed over the ship in the afternoon.
+Sitting stolidly at the head of the table I became terrified at the
+sight of the garment on his arm.  Of course he made for my door.
+There was no time to lose.
+
+"Steward," I thundered.  My nerves were so shaken that I could not
+govern my voice and conceal my agitation.  This was the sort of
+thing that made my terrifically whiskered mate tap his forehead
+with his forefinger.  I had detected him using that gesture while
+talking on deck with a confidential air to the carpenter.  It was
+too far to hear a word, but I had no doubt that this pantomime
+could only refer to the strange new captain.
+
+"Yes, sir," the pale-faced steward turned resignedly to me.  It was
+this maddening course of being shouted at, checked without rhyme or
+reason, arbitrarily chased out of my cabin, suddenly called into
+it, sent flying out of his pantry on incomprehensible errands, that
+accounted for the growing wretchedness of his expression.
+
+"Where are you going with that coat?"
+
+"To your room, sir."
+
+"Is there another shower coming?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know, sir.  Shall I go up again and see, sir?"
+
+"No! never mind."
+
+My object was attained, as of course my other self in there would
+have heard everything that passed.  During this interlude my two
+officers never raised their eyes off their respective plates; but
+the lip of that confounded cub, the second mate, quivered visibly.
+
+I expected the steward to hook my coat on and come out at once.  He
+was very slow about it; but I dominated my nervousness sufficiently
+not to shout after him.  Suddenly I became aware (it could be heard
+plainly enough) that the fellow for some reason or other was
+opening the door of the bath-room.  It was the end.  The place was
+literally not big enough to swing a cat in.  My voice died in my
+throat and I went stony all over.  I expected to hear a yell of
+surprise and terror, and made a movement, but had not the strength
+to get on my legs.  Everything remained still.  Had my second self
+taken the poor wretch by the throat?  I don't know what I would
+have done next moment if I had not seen the steward come out of my
+room, close the door, and then stand quietly by the sideboard.
+
+"Saved," I thought.  "But, no!  Lost!  Gone!  He was gone!"
+
+I laid my knife and fork down and leaned back in my chair.  My head
+swam.  After a while, when sufficiently recovered to speak in a
+steady voice, I instructed my mate to put the ship round at eight
+o'clock himself.
+
+"I won't come on deck," I went on.  "I think I'll turn in, and
+unless the wind shifts I don't want to be disturbed before
+midnight.  I feel a bit seedy."
+
+"You did look middling bad a little while ago," the chief mate
+remarked without showing any great concern.
+
+They both went out, and I stared at the steward clearing the table.
+There was nothing to be read on that wretched man's face.  But why
+did he avoid my eyes I asked myself.  Then I thought I should like
+to hear the sound of his voice.
+
+"Steward!"
+
+"Sir!"  Startled as usual.
+
+"Where did you hang up that coat?"
+
+"In the bath-room, sir."  The usual anxious tone.  "It's not quite
+dry yet, sir."
+
+For some time longer I sat in the cuddy.  Had my double vanished as
+he had come?  But of his coming there was an explanation, whereas
+his disappearance would be inexplicable. . . . I went slowly into
+my dark room, shut the door, lighted the lamp, and for a time dared
+not turn round.  When at last I did I saw him standing bolt-upright
+in the narrow recessed part.  It would not be true to say I had a
+shock, but an irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted
+through my mind.  Can it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible
+to other eyes than mine?  It was like being haunted.  Motionless,
+with a grave face, he raised his hands slightly at me in a gesture
+which meant clearly, "Heavens! what a narrow escape!"  Narrow
+indeed.  I think I had come creeping quietly as near insanity as
+any man who has not actually gone over the border.  That gesture
+restrained me, so to speak.
+
+The mate with the terrific whiskers was now putting the ship on the
+other tack.  In the moment of profound silence which follows upon
+the hands going to their stations I heard on the poop his raised
+voice:  "Hard alee!" and the distant shout of the order repeated on
+the maindeck.  The sails, in that light breeze, made but a faint
+fluttering noise.  It ceased.  The ship was coming round slowly; I
+held my breath in the renewed stillness of expectation; one
+wouldn't have thought that there was a single living soul on her
+decks.  A sudden brisk shout, "Mainsail haul!" broke the spell, and
+in the noisy cries and rush overhead of the men running away with
+the main-brace we two, down in my cabin, came together in our usual
+position by the bed-place.
+
+He did not wait for my question.  "I heard him fumbling here and
+just managed to squat myself down in the bath," he whispered to me.
+"The fellow only opened the door and put his arm in to hang the
+coat up.  All the same--"
+
+"I never thought of that," I whispered back, even more appalled
+than before at the closeness of the shave, and marvelling at that
+something unyielding in his character which was carrying him
+through so finely.  There was no agitation in his whisper.  Whoever
+was being driven distracted, it was not he.  He was sane.  And the
+proof of his sanity was continued when he took up the whispering
+again.
+
+"It would never do for me to come to life again."
+
+It was something that a ghost might have said.  But what he was
+alluding to was his old captain's reluctant admission of the theory
+of suicide.  It would obviously serve his turn--if I had understood
+at all the view which seemed to govern the unalterable purpose of
+his action.
+
+"You must maroon me as soon as ever you can get amongst these
+islands off the Cambodje shore," he went on.
+
+"Maroon you!  We are not living in a boy's adventure tale," I
+protested.  His scornful whispering took me up.
+
+"We aren't indeed!  There's nothing of a boy's tale in this.  But
+there's nothing else for it.  I want no more.  You don't suppose I
+am afraid of what can be done to me?  Prison or gallows or whatever
+they may please.  But you don't see me coming back to explain such
+things to an old fellow in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen,
+do you?  What can they know whether I am guilty or not--or of WHAT
+I am guilty, either?  That's my affair.  What does the Bible say?
+'Driven off the face of the earth.'  Very well.  I am off the face
+of the earth now.  As I came at night so I shall go."
+
+"Impossible!" I murmured.  "You can't."
+
+"Can't? . . . Not naked like a soul on the Day of Judgment.  I
+shall freeze on to this sleeping-suit.  The Last Day is not yet--
+and you have understood thoroughly.  Didn't you?"
+
+I felt suddenly ashamed of myself.  I may say truly that I
+understood--and my hesitation in letting that man swim away from my
+ship's side had been a mere sham sentiment, a sort of cowardice.
+
+"It can't be done now till next night," I breathed out.  "The ship
+is on the off-shore tack and the wind may fail us."
+
+"As long as I know that you understand," he whispered.  "But of
+course you do.  It's a great satisfaction to have got somebody to
+understand.  You seem to have been there on purpose."  And in the
+same whisper, as if we two whenever we talked had to say things to
+each other which were not fit for the world to hear, he added,
+"It's very wonderful."  We remained side by side talking in our
+secret way--but sometimes silent or just exchanging a whispered
+word or two at long intervals.  And as usual he stared through the
+port.  A breath of wind came now and again into our faces.  The
+ship might have been moored in dock, so gently and on an even keel
+she slipped through the water, that did not murmur even at our
+passage, shadowy and silent like a phantom sea.
+
+At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate's great surprise put the
+ship round on the other tack.  His terrible whiskers flitted round
+me in silent criticism.  I certainly should not have done it if it
+had been only a question of getting out of that sleepy gulf as
+quickly as possible.  I believe he told the second mate, who
+relieved him, that it was a great want of judgment.  The other only
+yawned.  That intolerable cub shuffled about so sleepily and lolled
+against the rails in such a slack, improper fashion that I came
+down on him sharply.
+
+"Aren't you properly awake yet?"
+
+"Yes, sir!  I am awake."
+
+"Well, then, be good enough to hold yourself as if you were.  And
+keep a look-out.  If there's any current we'll be closing with some
+islands before daylight."
+
+The east side of the gulf is fringed with islands, some solitary,
+others in groups.  On the blue background of the high coast they
+seem to float on silvery patches of calm water, arid and grey, or
+dark green and rounded like clumps of evergreen bushes, with the
+larger ones, a mile or two long, showing the outlines of ridges,
+ribs of grey rock under the dank mantle of matted leafage.  Unknown
+to trade, to travel, almost to geography, the manner of life they
+harbour is an unsolved secret.  There must be villages--settlements
+of fishermen at least--on the largest of them, and some
+communication with the world is probably kept up by native craft.
+But all that forenoon, as we headed for them, fanned along by the
+faintest of breezes, I saw no sign of man or canoe in the field of
+the telescope I kept on pointing at the scattered group.
+
+At noon I gave no orders for a change of course, and the mate's
+whiskers became much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves
+unduly to my notice.  At last I said:
+
+"I am going to stand right in.  Quite in--as far as I can take
+her."
+
+The stare of extreme surprise imparted an air of ferocity also to
+his eyes, and he looked truly terrific for a moment.
+
+"We're not doing well in the middle of the gulf," I continued,
+casually.  "I am going to look for the land breezes to-night."
+
+"Bless my soul!  Do you mean, sir, in the dark amongst the lot of
+all them islands and reefs and shoals?"
+
+"Well--if there are any regular land breezes at all on this coast
+one must get close inshore to find them, mustn't one?"
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed again under his breath.  All that
+afternoon he wore a dreamy, contemplative appearance which in him
+was a mark of perplexity.  After dinner I went into my stateroom as
+if I meant to take some rest.  There we two bent our dark heads
+over a half-unrolled chart lying on my bed.
+
+"There," I said.  "It's got to be Koh-ring.  I've been looking at
+it ever since sunrise.  It has got two hills and a low point.  It
+must be inhabited.  And on the coast opposite there is what looks
+like the mouth of a biggish river--with some town, no doubt, not
+far up.  It's the best chance for you that I can see."
+
+"Anything.  Koh-ring let it be."
+
+He looked thoughtfully at the chart as if surveying chances and
+distances from a lofty height--and following with his eyes his own
+figure wandering on the blank land of Cochin-China, and then
+passing off that piece of paper clean out of sight into uncharted
+regions.  And it was as if the ship had two captains to plan her
+course for her.  I had been so worried and restless running up and
+down that I had not had the patience to dress that day.  I had
+remained in my sleeping-suit, with straw slippers and a soft floppy
+hat.  The closeness of the heat in the gulf had been most
+oppressive, and the crew were used to see me wandering in that airy
+attire.
+
+"She will clear the south point as she heads now," I whispered into
+his ear.  "Goodness only knows when, though, but certainly after
+dark.  I'll edge her in to half a mile, as far as I may be able to
+judge in the dark--"
+
+"Be careful," he murmured, warningly--and I realised suddenly that
+all my future, the only future for which I was fit, would perhaps
+go irretrievably to pieces in any mishap to my first command.
+
+I could not stop a moment longer in the room.  I motioned him to
+get out of sight and made my way on the poop.  That unplayful cub
+had the watch.  I walked up and down for a while thinking things
+out, then beckoned him over.
+
+"Send a couple of hands to open the two quarterdeck ports," I said,
+mildly.
+
+He actually had the impudence, or else so forgot himself in his
+wonder at such an incomprehensible order, as to repeat:
+
+"Open the quarter-deck ports!  What for, sir?"
+
+"The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell
+you to do so.  Have them open wide and fastened properly."
+
+He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark to
+the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating a ship's
+quarter-deck.  I know he popped into the mate's cabin to impart the
+fact to him because the whiskers came on deck, as it were by
+chance, and stole glances at me from below--for signs of lunacy or
+drunkenness, I suppose.
+
+A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I
+rejoined, for a moment, my second self.  And to find him sitting so
+quietly was surprising, like something against nature, inhuman.
+
+I developed my plan in a hurried whisper.
+
+"I shall stand in as close as I dare and then put her round.  I
+shall presently find means to smuggle you out of here into the
+sail-locker, which communicates with the lobby.  But there is an
+opening, a sort of square for hauling the sails out, which gives
+straight on the quarter-deck and which is never closed in fine
+weather, so as to give air to the sails.  ' When the ship's way is
+deadened in stays and all the hands are aft at the main-braces you
+shall have a clear road to slip out and get overboard through the
+open quarter-deck port.  I've had them both fastened up.  Use a
+rope's end to lower yourself into the water so as to avoid a
+splash--you know.  It could be heard and cause some beastly
+complication."
+
+He kept silent for a while, then whispered, "I understand."
+
+"I won't be there to see you go," I began with an effort.  "The
+rest . . . I only hope I have understood, too."
+
+"You have.  From first to last"--and for the first time there
+seemed to be a faltering, something strained in his whisper.  He
+caught hold of my arm, but the ringing of the supper bell made me
+start.  He didn't, though; he only released his grip.
+
+After supper I didn't come below again till well past eight
+o'clock.  The faint, steady breeze was loaded with dew; and the
+wet, darkened sails held all there was of propelling power in it.
+The night, clear and starry, sparkled darkly, and the opaque,
+lightless patches shifting slowly against the low stars were the
+drifting islets.  On the port bow there was a big one more distant
+and shadowily imposing by the great space of sky it eclipsed.
+
+On opening the door I had a back view of my very own self looking
+at a chart.  He had come out of the recess and was standing near
+the table.
+
+"Quite dark enough," I whispered.
+
+He stepped back and leaned against my bed with a level, quiet
+glance.  I sat on the couch.  We had nothing to say to each other.
+Over our heads the officer of the watch moved here and there.  Then
+I heard him move quickly.  I knew what that meant.  He was making
+for the companion; and presently his voice was outside my door.
+
+"We are drawing in pretty fast, sir.  Land looks rather close."
+
+"Very well," I answered.  "I am coming on deck directly."
+
+I waited till he was gone out of the cuddy, then rose.  My double
+moved too.  The time had come to exchange our last whispers, for
+neither of us was ever to hear each other's natural voice.
+
+"Look here!" I opened a drawer and took out three sovereigns.
+"Take this, anyhow.  I've got six and I'd give you the lot, only I
+must keep a little money to buy some fruit and vegetables for the
+crew from native boats as we go through Sunda Straits."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Take it," I urged him, whispering desperately.  "No one can tell
+what--"
+
+He smiled and slapped meaningly the only pocket of the sleeping-
+jacket.  It was not safe, certainly.  But I produced a large old
+silk handkerchief of mine, and tying the three pieces of gold in a
+corner, pressed it on him.  He was touched, I suppose, because he
+took it at last and tied it quickly round his waist under the
+jacket, on his bare skin.
+
+Our eyes met; several seconds elapsed, till, our glances still
+mingled, I extended my hand and turned the lamp out.  Then I passed
+through the cuddy, leaving the door of my room wide open. . . . .
+"Steward!"
+
+He was still lingering in the pantry in the greatness of his zeal,
+giving a rub-up to a plated cruet stand the last thing before going
+to bed.  Being careful not to wake up the mate, whose room was
+opposite, I spoke in an undertone.
+
+He looked round anxiously.  "Sir!"
+
+"Can you get me a little hot water from the galley?"
+
+"I am afraid, sir, the galley fire's been out for some time now."
+
+"Go and see."
+
+He fled up the stairs.
+
+"Now," I whispered, loudly, into the saloon--too loudly, perhaps,
+but I was afraid I couldn't make a sound.  He was by my side in an
+instant--the double captain slipped past the stairs--through a tiny
+dark passage . . . a sliding door.  We were in the sail-locker,
+scrambling on our knees over the sails.  A sudden thought struck
+me.  I saw myself wandering barefooted, bareheaded, the sun beating
+on my dark poll.  I snatched off my floppy hat and tried hurriedly
+in the dark to ram it on my other self.  He dodged and fended off
+silently.  I wonder what he thought had come to me before he
+understood and suddenly desisted.  Our hands met gropingly,
+lingered united in a steady, motionless clasp for a second. . . .
+No word was breathed by either of us when they separated.
+
+I was standing quietly by the pantry door when the steward
+returned.
+
+"Sorry, sir.  Kettle barely warm.  Shall I light the spirit-lamp?"
+
+"Never mind."
+
+I came out on deck slowly.  It was now a matter of conscience to
+shave the land as close as possible--for now he must go overboard
+whenever the ship was put in stays.  Must!  There could be no going
+back for him.  After a moment I walked over to leeward and my heart
+flew into my mouth at the nearness of the land on the bow.  Under
+any other circumstances I would not have held on a minute longer.
+The second mate had followed me anxiously.
+
+I looked on till I felt I could command my voice.  "She will
+weather," I said then in a quiet tone.  "Are you going to try that,
+sir?" he stammered out incredulously.
+
+I took no notice of him and raised my tone just enough to be heard
+by the helmsman.
+
+"Keep her good full."
+
+"Good full, sir."
+
+The wind fanned my cheek, the sails slept, the world was silent.
+The strain of watching the dark loom of the land grow bigger and
+denser was too much for me.  I had shut my eyes--because the ship
+must go closer.  She must!  The stillness was intolerable.  Were we
+standing still?
+
+When I opened my eyes the second view started my heart with a
+thump.  The black southern hill of Koh-ring seemed to hang right
+over the ship like a towering fragment of the everlasting night.
+On that enormous mass of blackness there was not a gleam to be
+seen, not a sound to be heard.  It was gliding irresistibly toward
+us and yet seemed already within reach of the hand.  I saw the
+vague figures of the watch grouped in the waist, gazing in awed
+silence.
+
+"Are you going on, sir," inquired an unsteady voice at my elbow.
+
+I ignored it.  I had to go on.
+
+"Keep her full.  Don't check her way.  That won't do now," I said,
+warningly.
+
+"I can't see the sails very well," the helmsman answered me, in
+strange, quavering tones.
+
+Was she close enough?  Already she was, I won't say in the shadow
+of the land, but in the very blackness of it, already swallowed up
+as it were, gone too close to be recalled, gone from me altogether.
+
+"Give the mate a call," I said to the young man who stood at my
+elbow as still as death.  "And turn all hands up."
+
+My tone had a borrowed loudness reverberated from the height of the
+land.  Several voices cried out together:  "We are all on deck,
+sir."
+
+Then stillness again, with the great shadow gliding closer,
+towering higher, without a light, without a sound.  Such a hush had
+fallen on the ship that she might have been a bark of the dead
+floating in slowly under the very gate of Erebus.
+
+"My God!  Where are we?"
+
+It was the mate moaning at my elbow.  He was thunderstruck, and as
+it were deprived of the moral support of his whiskers.  He clapped
+his hands and absolutely cried out, "Lost!"
+
+"Be quiet," I said, sternly.
+
+He lowered his tone, but I saw the shadowy gesture of his despair.
+"What are we doing here?"
+
+"Looking for the land wind."
+
+He made as if to tear his hair, and addressed me recklessly.
+
+"She will never get out.  You have done it, sir.  I knew it'd end
+in something like this.  She will never weather, and you are too
+close now to stay.  She'll drift ashore before she's round.  O my
+God!"
+
+I caught his arm as he was raising it to batter his poor devoted
+head, and shook it violently.
+
+"She's ashore already," he wailed, trying to tear himself away.
+
+"Is she? . . . Keep good full there!"
+
+"Good full, sir," cried the helmsman in a frightened, thin, child-
+like voice.
+
+I hadn't let go the mate's arm and went on shaking it.  "Ready
+about, do you hear?  You go forward"--shake--"and stop there"--
+shake--"and hold your noise"--shake--"and see these head-sheets
+properly overhauled"--shake, shake--shake.
+
+And all the time I dared not look toward the land lest my heart
+should fail me.  I released my grip at last and he ran forward as
+if fleeing for dear life.
+
+I wondered what my double there in the sail-locker thought of this
+commotion.  He was able to hear everything--and perhaps he was able
+to understand why, on my conscience, it had to be thus close--no
+less.  My first order "Hard alee!" re-echoed ominously under the
+towering shadow of Koh-ring as if I had shouted in a mountain
+gorge.  And then I watched the land intently.  In that smooth water
+and light wind it was impossible to feel the ship coming-to.  No!
+I could not feel her.  And my second self was making now ready to
+slip out and lower himself overboard.  Perhaps he was gone already
+. . .?
+
+The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to
+pivot away from the ship's side silently.  And now I forgot the
+secret stranger ready to depart, and remembered only that I was a
+total stranger to the ship.  I did not know her.  Would she do it?
+How was she to be handled?
+
+I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly.  She was perhaps
+stopped, and her very fate hung in the balance, with the black mass
+of Koh-ring like the gate of the everlasting night towering over
+her taffrail.  What would she do now?  Had she way on her yet?  I
+stepped to the side swiftly, and on the shadowy water I could see
+nothing except a faint phosphorescent flash revealing the glassy
+smoothness of the sleeping surface.  It was impossible to tell--and
+I had not learned yet the feel of my ship.  Was she moving?  What I
+needed was something easily seen, a piece of paper, which I could
+throw overboard and watch.  I had nothing on me.  To run down for
+it I didn't dare.  There was no time.  All at once my strained,
+yearning stare distinguished a white object floating within a yard
+of the ship's side.  White on the black water.  A phosphorescent
+flash passed under it.  What was that thing? . . . I recognised my
+own floppy hat.  It must have fallen off his head . . . and he
+didn't bother.
+
+Now I had what I wanted--the saving mark for my eyes.  But I hardly
+thought of my other self, now gone from the ship, to be hidden
+forever from all friendly faces, to be a fugitive and a vagabond on
+the earth, with no brand of the curse on his sane forehead to stay
+a slaying hand . . . too proud to explain.
+
+And I watched the hat--the expression of my sudden pity for his
+mere flesh.  It had been meant to save his homeless head from the
+dangers of the sun.  And now--behold--it was saving the ship, by
+serving me for a mark to help out the ignorance of my strangeness.
+Ha!  It was drifting forward, warning me just in time that the ship
+had gathered sternway.
+
+"Shift the helm," I said in a low voice to the seaman standing
+still like a statue.
+
+The man's eyes glistened wildly in the binnacle light as he jumped
+round to the other side and spun round the wheel.
+
+I walked to the break of the poop.  On the overshadowed deck all
+hands stood by the forebraces waiting for my order.  The stars
+ahead seemed to be gliding from right to left.  And all was so
+still in the world that I heard the quiet remark "She's round,"
+passed in a tone of intense relief between two seamen.
+
+"Let go and haul."
+
+The foreyards ran round with a great noise, amidst cheery cries.
+And now the frightful whisker's made themselves heard giving
+various orders.  Already the ship was drawing ahead.  And I was
+alone with her.  Nothing! no one in the world should stand now
+between us, throwing a shadow on the way of silent knowledge and
+mute affection, the perfect communion of a seaman with his first
+command.
+
+Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very
+edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very
+gateway of Erebus--yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent
+glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the
+secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts, as though he were my
+second self, had lowered himself into the water to take his
+punishment:  a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new
+destiny.
+
+
+
+
+FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+One day--and that day was many years ago now--I received a long,
+chatty letter from one of my old chums and fellow-wanderers in
+Eastern waters.  He was still out there, but settled down, and
+middle-aged; I imagined him--grown portly in figure and domestic in
+his habits; in short, overtaken by the fate common to all except to
+those who, being specially beloved by the gods, get knocked on the
+head early.  The letter was of the reminiscent "do you remember"
+kind--a wistful letter of backward glances.  And, amongst other
+things, "surely you remember old Nelson," he wrote.
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Certainly.  And to begin with, his name was
+not Nelson.  The Englishmen in the Archipelago called him Nelson
+because it was more convenient, I suppose, and he never protested.
+It would have been mere pedantry.  The true form of his name was
+Nielsen.  He had come out East long before the advent of telegraph
+cables, had served English firms, had married an English girl, had
+been one of us for years, trading and sailing in all directions
+through the Eastern Archipelago, across and around, transversely,
+diagonally, perpendicularly, in semi-circles, and zigzags, and
+figures of eights, for years and years.
+
+There was no nook or cranny of these tropical waters that the
+enterprise of old Nelson (or Nielsen) had not penetrated in an
+eminently pacific way.  His tracks, if plotted out, would have
+covered the map of the Archipelago like a cobweb--all of it, with
+the sole exception of the Philippines.  He would never approach
+that part, from a strange dread of Spaniards, or, to be exact, of
+the Spanish authorities.  What he imagined they could do to him it
+is impossible to say.  Perhaps at some time in his life he had read
+some stories of the Inquisition.
+
+But he was in general afraid of what he called "authorities"; not
+the English authorities, which he trusted and respected, but the
+other two of that part of the world.  He was not so horrified at
+the Dutch as he was at the Spaniards, but he was even more
+mistrustful of them.  Very mistrustful indeed.  The Dutch, in his
+view, were capable of "playing any ugly trick on a man" who had the
+misfortune to displease them.  There were their laws and
+regulations, but they had no notion of fair play in applying them.
+It was really pitiable to see the anxious circumspection of his
+dealings with some official or other, and remember that this man
+had been known to stroll up to a village of cannibals in New Guinea
+in a quiet, fearless manner (and note that he was always fleshy all
+his life, and, if I may say so, an appetising morsel) on some
+matter of barter that did not amount perhaps to fifty pounds in the
+end.
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Rather!  Truly, none of us in my generation
+had known him in his active days.  He was "retired" in our time.
+He had bought, or else leased, part of a small island from the
+Sultan of a little group called the Seven Isles, not far north from
+Banka.  It was, I suppose, a legitimate transaction, but I have no
+doubt that had he been an Englishman the Dutch would have
+discovered a reason to fire him out without ceremony.  In this
+connection the real form of his name stood him in good stead.  In
+the character of an unassuming Dane whose conduct was most correct,
+they let him be.  With all his money engaged in cultivation he was
+naturally careful not to give even the shadow of offence, and it
+was mostly for prudential reasons of that sort that he did not look
+with a favourable eye on Jasper Allen.  But of that later.  Yes!
+One remembered well enough old Nelson's big, hospitable bungalow
+erected on a shelving point of land, his portly form, costumed
+generally in a white shirt and trousers (he had a confirmed habit
+of taking off his alpaca jacket on the slightest provocation), his
+round blue eyes, his straggly, sandy-white moustache sticking out
+all ways like the quills of the fretful porcupine, his propensity
+to sit down suddenly and fan himself with his hat.  But there's no
+use concealing the fact that what one remembered really was his
+daughter, who at that time came out to live with him--and be a sort
+of Lady of the Isles.
+
+Freya Nelson (or Nielsen) was the kind of girl one remembers.  The
+oval of her face was perfect; and within that fascinating frame the
+most happy disposition of line and feature, with an admirable
+complexion, gave an impression of health, strength, and what I
+might call unconscious self-confidence--a most pleasant and, as it
+were, whimsical determination.  I will not compare her eyes to
+violets, because the real shade of their colour was peculiar, not
+so dark and more lustrous.  They were of the wide-open kind, and
+looked at one frankly in every mood.  I never did see the long,
+dark eyelashes lowered--I dare say Jasper Allen did, being a
+privileged person--but I have no doubt that the expression must
+have been charming in a complex way.  She could--Jasper told me
+once with a touchingly imbecile exultation--sit on her hair.  I
+dare say, I dare say.  It was not for me to behold these wonders; I
+was content to admire the neat and becoming way she used to do it
+up so as not to conceal the good shape of her head.  And this
+wealth of hair was so glossy that when the screens of the west
+verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there, or in the
+shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to give
+out a golden light of its own.
+
+She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of walking
+length, showing her neat, laced, brown boots.  If there was any
+colour about her costume it was just a bit of blue perhaps.  No
+exertion seemed to distress her.  I have seen her land from the
+dinghy after a long pull in the sun (she rowed herself about a good
+deal) with no quickened breath and not a single hair out of its
+place.  In the morning when she came out on the verandah for the
+first look westward, Sumatra way, over the sea, she seemed as fresh
+and sparkling as a dewdrop.  But a dewdrop is evanescent, and there
+was nothing evanescent about Freya.  I remember her round, solid
+arms with the fine wrists, and her broad, capable hands with
+tapering fingers.
+
+I don't know whether she was actually born at sea, but I do know
+that up to twelve years of age she sailed about with her parents in
+various ships.  After old Nelson lost his wife it became a matter
+of serious concern for him what to do with the girl.  A kind lady
+in Singapore, touched by his dumb grief and deplorable perplexity,
+offered to take charge of Freya.  This arrangement lasted some six
+years, during which old Nelson (or Nielsen) "retired" and
+established, himself on his island, and then it was settled (the
+kind lady going away to Europe) that his daughter should join him.
+
+As the first and most important preparation for that event the old
+fellow ordered from his Singapore agent a Steyn and Ebhart's
+"upright grand."  I was then commanding a little steamer in the
+island trade, and it fell to my lot to take it out to him, so I
+know something of Freya's "upright grand."  We landed the enormous
+packing-case with difficulty on a flat piece of rock amongst some
+bushes, nearly knocking the bottom out of one of my boats in the
+course of that nautical operation.  Then, all my crew assisting,
+engineers and firemen included, by the exercise of much anxious
+ingenuity, and by means of rollers, levers, tackles, and inclined
+planes of soaped planks, toiling in the sun like ancient Egyptians
+at the building of a pyramid, we got it as far as the house and up
+on to the edge of the west verandah--which was the actual drawing-
+room of the bungalow.  There, the case being ripped off cautiously,
+the beautiful rosewood monster stood revealed at last.  In reverent
+excitement we coaxed it against the wall and drew the first free
+breath of the day.  It was certainly the heaviest movable object on
+that islet since the creation of the world.  The volume of sound it
+gave out in that bungalow (which acted as a sounding-board) was
+really astonishing.  It thundered sweetly right over the sea.
+Jasper Allen told me that early of a morning on the deck of the
+Bonito (his wonderfully fast and pretty brig) he could hear Freya
+playing her scales quite distinctly.  But the fellow always
+anchored foolishly close to the point, as I told him more than
+once.  Of course, these seas are almost uniformly serene, and the
+Seven Isles is a particularly calm and cloudless spot as a rule.
+But still, now and again, an afternoon thunderstorm over Banka, or
+even one of these vicious thick squalls, from the distant Sumatra
+coast, would make a sudden sally upon the group, enveloping it for
+a couple of hours in whirlwinds and bluish-black murk of a
+particularly sinister aspect.  Then, with the lowered rattan-
+screens rattling desperately in the wind and the bungalow shaking
+all over, Freya would sit down to the piano and play fierce Wagner
+music in the flicker of blinding flashes, with thunderbolts falling
+all round, enough to make your hair stand on end; and Jasper would
+remain stock still on the verandah, adoring the back view of her
+supple, swaying figure, the miraculous sheen of her fair head, the
+rapid hands on the keys, the white nape of her neck--while the
+brig, down at the point there, surged at her cables within a
+hundred yards of nasty, shiny, black rock-heads.  Ugh!
+
+And this, if you please, for no reason but that, when he went on
+board at night and laid his head on the pillow, he should feel that
+he was as near as he could conveniently get to his Freya slumbering
+in the bungalow.  Did you ever!  And, mind, this brig was the home
+to be--their home--the floating paradise which he was gradually
+fitting out like a yacht to sail his life blissfully away in with
+Freya.  Imbecile!  But the fellow was always taking chances.
+
+One day, I remember I watched with Freya on the verandah the brig
+approaching the point from the northward.  I suppose Jasper made
+the girl out with his long glass.  What does he do?  Instead of
+standing on for another mile and a half along the shoals and then
+tacking for the anchorage in a proper and seamanlike manner, he
+spies a gap between two disgusting old jagged reefs, puts the helm
+down suddenly, and shoots the brig through, with all her sails
+shaking and rattling, so that we could hear the racket on the
+verandah.  I drew my breath through my teeth, I can tell you, and
+Freya swore.  Yes!  She clenched her capable fists and stamped with
+her pretty brown boot and said "Damn!"  Then, looking at me with a
+little heightened colour--not much--she remarked, "I forgot you
+were there," and laughed.  To be sure, to be sure.  When Jasper was
+in sight she was not likely to remember that anybody else in the
+world was there.  In my concern at this mad trick I couldn't help
+appealing to her sympathetic common sense.
+
+"Isn't he a fool?" I said with feeling.
+
+"Perfect idiot," she agreed warmly, looking at me straight with her
+wide-open, earnest eyes and the dimple of a smile on her cheek.
+
+"And that," I pointed out to her, "just to save twenty minutes or
+so in meeting you."
+
+We heard the anchor go down, and then she became very resolute and
+threatening.
+
+"Wait a bit.  I'll teach him."
+
+She went into her own room and shut the door, leaving me alone on
+the verandah with my instructions.  Long before the brig's sails
+were furled, Jasper came up three steps at a time, forgetting to
+say how d'ye do, and looking right and left eagerly.
+
+"Where's Freya?  Wasn't she here just now?"
+
+When I explained to him that he was to be deprived of Miss Freya's
+presence for a whole hour, "just to teach him," he said I had put
+her up to it, no doubt, and that he feared he would have yet to
+shoot me some day.  She and I were getting too thick together.
+Then he flung himself into a chair, and tried to talk to me about
+his trip.  But the funny thing was that the fellow actually
+suffered.  I could see it.  His voice failed him, and he sat there
+dumb, looking at the door with the face of a man in pain.  Fact. .
+. . And the next still funnier thing was that the girl calmly
+walked out of her room in less than ten minutes.  And then I left.
+I mean to say that I went away to seek old Nelson (or Nielsen) on
+the back verandah, which was his own special nook in the
+distribution of that house, with the kind purpose of engaging him
+in conversation lest he should start roaming about and intrude
+unwittingly where he was not wanted just then.
+
+He knew that the brig had arrived, though he did not know that
+Jasper was already with his daughter.  I suppose he didn't think it
+was possible in the time.  A father naturally wouldn't.  He
+suspected that Allen was sweet on his girl; the fowls of the air
+and the fishes of the sea, most of the traders in the Archipelago,
+and all sorts and conditions of men in the town of Singapore were
+aware of it.  But he was not capable of appreciating how far the
+girl was gone on the fellow.  He had an idea that Freya was too
+sensible to ever be gone on anybody--I mean to an unmanageable
+extent.  No; it was not that which made him sit on the back
+verandah and worry himself in his unassuming manner during Jasper's
+visits.  What he worried about were the Dutch "authorities."  For
+it is a fact that the Dutch looked askance at the doings of Jasper
+Allen, owner and master of the brig Bonito.  They considered him
+much too enterprising in his trading.  I don't know that he ever
+did anything illegal; but it seems to me that his immense activity
+was repulsive to their stolid character and slow-going methods.
+Anyway, in old Nelson's opinion, the captain of the Bonito was a
+smart sailor, and a nice young man, but not a desirable
+acquaintance upon the whole.  Somewhat compromising, you
+understand.  On the other hand, he did not like to tell Jasper in
+so many words to keep away.  Poor old Nelson himself was a nice
+fellow.  I believe he would have shrunk from hurting the feelings
+even of a mop-headed cannibal, unless, perhaps, under very strong
+provocation.  I mean the feelings, not the bodies.  As against
+spears, knives, hatchets, clubs, or arrows, old Nelson had proved
+himself capable of taking his own part.  In every other respect he
+had a timorous soul.  So he sat on the back verandah with a
+concerned expression, and whenever the voices of his daughter and
+Jasper Allen reached him, he would blow out his cheeks and let the
+air escape with a dismal sound, like a much tried man.
+
+Naturally I derided his fears which he, more or less, confided to
+me.  He had a certain regard for my judgment, and a certain
+respect, not for my moral qualities, however, but for the good
+terms I was supposed to be on with the Dutch "authorities."  I knew
+for a fact that his greatest bugbear, the Governor of Banka--a
+charming, peppery, hearty, retired rear-admiral--had a distinct
+liking for him.  This consoling assurance which I used always to
+put forward, made old Nelson (or Nielsen) brighten up for a moment;
+but in the end he would shake his head doubtfully, as much as to
+say that this was all very well, but that there were depths in the
+Dutch official nature which no one but himself had ever fathomed.
+Perfectly ridiculous.
+
+On this occasion I am speaking of, old Nelson was even fretty; for
+while I was trying to entertain him with a very funny and somewhat
+scandalous adventure which happened to a certain acquaintance of
+ours in Saigon, he exclaimed suddenly:
+
+"What the devil he wants to turn up here for!"
+
+Clearly he had not heard a word of the anecdote.  And this annoyed
+me, because the anecdote was really good.  I stared at him.
+
+"Come, come!" I cried.  "Don't you know what Jasper Allen is
+turning up here for?"
+
+This was the first open allusion I had ever made to the true state
+of affairs between Jasper and his daughter.  He took it very
+calmly.
+
+"Oh, Freya is a sensible girl!" he murmured absently, his mind's
+eye obviously fixed on the "authorities."  No; Freya was no fool.
+He was not concerned about that.  He didn't mind it in the least.
+The fellow was just company for her; he amused the girl; nothing
+more.
+
+When the perspicacious old chap left off mumbling, all was still in
+the house.  The other two were amusing themselves very quietly, and
+no doubt very heartily.  What more absorbing and less noisy
+amusement could they have found than to plan their future?  Side by
+side on the verandah they must have been looking at the brig, the
+third party in that fascinating game.  Without her there would have
+been no future.  She was the fortune and the home, and the great
+free world for them.  Who was it that likened a ship to a prison?
+May I be ignominiously hanged at a yardarm if that's true.  The
+white sails of that craft were the white wings--pinions, I believe,
+would be the more poetical style--well, the white pinions, of their
+soaring love.  Soaring as regards Jasper.  Freya, being a woman,
+kept a better hold of the mundane connections of this affair.
+
+But Jasper was elevated in the true sense of the word ever since
+the day when, after they had been gazing at the brig in one of
+those decisive silences that alone establish a perfect communion
+between creatures gifted with speech, he proposed that she should
+share the ownership of that treasure with him.  Indeed, he
+presented the brig to her altogether.  But then his heart was in
+the brig since the day he bought her in Manilla from a certain
+middle-aged Peruvian, in a sober suit of black broadcloth,
+enigmatic and sententious, who, for all I know, might have stolen
+her on the South American coast, whence he said he had come over to
+the Philippines "for family reasons."  This "for family reasons"
+was distinctly good.  No true caballero would care to push on
+inquiries after such a statement.
+
+Indeed, Jasper was quite the caballero.  The brig herself was then
+all black and enigmatical, and very dirty; a tarnished gem of the
+sea, or, rather, a neglected work of art.  For he must have been an
+artist, the obscure builder who had put her body together on lovely
+lines out of the hardest tropical timber fastened with the purest
+copper.  Goodness only knows in what part of the world she was
+built.  Jasper himself had not been able to ascertain much of her
+history from his sententious, saturnine Peruvian--if the fellow was
+a Peruvian, and not the devil himself in disguise, as Jasper
+jocularly pretended to believe.  My opinion is that she was old
+enough to have been one of the last pirates, a slaver perhaps, or
+else an opium clipper of the early days, if not an opium smuggler.
+
+However that may be, she was as sound as on the day she first took
+the water, sailed like a witch, steered like a little boat, and,
+like some fair women of adventurous life famous in history, seemed
+to have the secret of perpetual youth; so that there was nothing
+unnatural in Jasper Allen treating her like a lover.  And that
+treatment restored the lustre of her beauty.  He clothed her in
+many coats of the very best white paint so skilfully, carefully,
+artistically put on and kept clean by his badgered crew of picked
+Malays, that no costly enamel such as jewellers use for their work
+could have looked better and felt smoother to the touch.  A narrow
+gilt moulding defined her elegant sheer as she sat on the water,
+eclipsing easily the professional good looks of any pleasure yacht
+that ever came to the East in those days.  For myself, I must say I
+prefer a moulding of deep crimson colour on a white hull.  It gives
+a stronger relief besides being less expensive; and I told Jasper
+so.  But no, nothing less than the best gold-leaf would do, because
+no decoration could be gorgeous enough for the future abode of his
+Freya.
+
+His feelings for the brig and for the girl were as indissolubly
+united in his heart as you may fuse two precious metals together in
+one crucible.  And the flame was pretty hot, I can assure you.  It
+induced in him a fierce inward restlessness both of activity and
+desire.  Too fine in face, with a lateral wave in his chestnut
+hair, spare, long-limbed, with an eager glint in his steely eyes
+and quick, brusque movements, he made me think sometimes of a
+flashing sword-blade perpetually leaping out of the scabbard.  It
+was only when he was near the girl, when he had her there to look
+at, that this peculiarly tense attitude was replaced by a grave
+devout watchfulness of her slightest movements and utterances.  Her
+cool, resolute, capable, good-humoured self-possession seemed to
+steady his heart.  Was it the magic of her face, of her voice, of
+her glances which calmed him so?  Yet these were the very things
+one must believe which had set his imagination ablaze--if love
+begins in imagination.  But I am no man to discuss such mysteries,
+and it strikes me that we have neglected poor old Nelson inflating
+his cheeks in a state of worry on the back verandah.
+
+I pointed out to him that, after all, Jasper was not a very
+frequent visitor.  He and his brig worked hard all over the
+Archipelago.  But all old Nelson said, and he said it uneasily,
+was:
+
+"I hope Heemskirk won't turn up here while the brig's about."
+
+Getting up a scare about Heemskirk now!  Heemskirk! . . . Really,
+one hadn't the patience--
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+For, pray, who was Heemskirk?  You shall see at once how
+unreasonable this dread of Heemskirk. . . . Certainly, his nature
+was malevolent enough.  That was obvious, directly you heard him
+laugh.  Nothing gives away more a man's secret disposition than the
+unguarded ring of his laugh.  But, bless my soul! if we were to
+start at every evil guffaw like a hare at every sound, we shouldn't
+be fit for anything but the solitude of a desert, or the seclusion
+of a hermitage.  And even there we should have to put up with the
+unavoidable company of the devil.
+
+However, the devil is a considerable personage, who has known
+better days and has moved high up in the hierarchy of Celestial
+Host; but in the hierarchy of mere earthly Dutchmen, Heemskirk,
+whose early days could not have been very splendid, was merely a
+naval officer forty years of age, of no particular connections or
+ability to boast of.  He was commanding the Neptun, a little
+gunboat employed on dreary patrol duty up and down the Archipelago,
+to look after the traders.  Not a very exalted position truly.  I
+tell you, just a common middle-aged lieutenant of some twenty-five
+years' service and sure to be retired before long--that's all.
+
+He never bothered his head very much as to what was going on in the
+Seven Isles group till he learned from some talk in Mintok or
+Palembang, I suppose, that there was a pretty girl living there.
+Curiosity, I presume, caused him to go poking around that way, and
+then, after he had once seen Freya, he made a practice of calling
+at the group whenever he found himself within half a day's steaming
+from it.
+
+I don't mean to say that Heemskirk was a typical Dutch naval
+officer.  I have seen enough of them not to fall into that absurd
+mistake.  He had a big, clean-shaven face; great flat, brown
+cheeks, with a thin, hooked nose and a small, pursy mouth squeezed
+in between.  There were a few silver threads in his black hair, and
+his unpleasant eyes were nearly black, too.  He had a surly way of
+casting side glances without moving his head, which was set low on
+a short, round neck.  A thick, round trunk in a dark undress jacket
+with gold shoulder-straps, was sustained by a straddly pair of
+thick, round legs, in white drill trousers.  His round skull under
+a white cap looked as if it were immensely thick too, but there
+were brains enough in it to discover and take advantage maliciously
+of poor old Nelson's nervousness before everything that was
+invested with the merest shred of authority.
+
+Heemskirk would land on the point and perambulate silently every
+part of the plantation as if the whole place belonged to him,
+before her went to the house.  On the verandah he would take the
+best chair, and would stay for tiffin or dinner, just simply stay
+on, without taking the trouble to invite himself by so much as a
+word.
+
+He ought to have been kicked, if only for his manner to Miss Freya.
+Had he been a naked savage, armed with spears and poisoned arrows,
+old Nelson (or Nielsen) would have gone for him with his bare
+fists.  But these gold shoulder-straps--Dutch shoulder-straps at
+that--were enough to terrify the old fellow; so he let the beggar
+treat him with heavy contempt, devour his daughter with his eyes,
+and drink the best part of his little stock of wine.
+
+I saw something of this, and on one occasion I tried to pass a
+remark on the subject.  It was pitiable to see the trouble in old
+Nelson's round eyes.  At first he cried out that the lieutenant was
+a good friend of his; a very good fellow.  I went on staring at him
+pretty hard, so that at last he faltered, and had to own that, of
+course, Heemskirk was not a very genial person outwardly, but all
+the same at bottom. . . .
+
+"I haven't yet met a genial Dutchman out here," I interrupted.
+"Geniality, after all, is not of much consequence, but don't you
+see--"
+
+Nelson looked suddenly so frightened at what I was going to say
+that I hadn't the heart to go on.  Of course, I was going to tell
+him that the fellow was after his girl.  That just describes it
+exactly.  What Heemskirk might have expected or what he thought he
+could do, I don't know.  For all I can tell, he might have imagined
+himself irresistible, or have taken Freya for what she was not, on
+account of her lively, assured, unconstrained manner.  But there it
+is.  He was after that girl.  Nelson could see it well enough.
+Only he preferred to ignore it.  He did not want to be told of it.
+
+"All I want is to live in peace and quietness with the Dutch
+authorities," he mumbled shamefacedly.
+
+He was incurable.  I was sorry for him, and I really think Miss
+Freya was sorry for her father, too.  She restrained herself for
+his sake, and as everything she did she did it simply,
+unaffectedly, and even good humouredly.  No small effort that,
+because in Heemskirk's attentions there was an insolent touch of
+scorn, hard to put up with.  Dutchmen of that sort are over-bearing
+to their inferiors, and that officer of the king looked upon old
+Nelson and Freya as quite beneath him in every way.
+
+I can't say I felt sorry for Freya.  She was not the sort of girl
+to take anything tragically.  One could feel for her and sympathise
+with her difficulty, but she seemed equal to any situation.  It was
+rather admiration she extorted by her competent serenity.  It was
+only when Jasper and Heemskirk were together at the bungalow, as it
+happened now and then, that she felt the strain, and even then it
+was not for everybody to see.  My eyes alone could detect a faint
+shadow on the radiance of her personality.  Once I could not help
+saying to her appreciatively:
+
+"Upon my word you are wonderful."
+
+She let it pass with a faint smile.
+
+"The great thing is to prevent Jasper becoming unreasonable," she
+said; and I could see real concern lurking in the quiet depths of
+her frank eyes gazing straight at me.  "You will help to keep him
+quiet, won't you?"
+
+"Of course, we must keep him quiet," I declared, understanding very
+well the nature of her anxiety.  "He's such a lunatic, too, when
+he's roused."
+
+"He is!" she assented, in a soft tone; for it was our joke to speak
+of Jasper abusively.  "But I have tamed him a bit.  He's quite a
+good boy now."
+
+"He would squash Heemskirk like a blackbeetle all the same," I
+remarked.
+
+"Rather!" she murmured.  "And that wouldn't do," she added quickly.
+"Imagine the state poor papa would get into.  Besides, I mean to be
+mistress of the dear brig and sail about these seas, not go off
+wandering ten thousand miles away from here."
+
+"The sooner you are on board to look after the man and the brig the
+better," I said seriously.  "They need you to steady them both a
+bit.  I don't think Jasper will ever get sobered down till he has
+carried you off from this island.  You don't see him when he is
+away from you, as I do.  He's in a state of perpetual elation which
+almost frightens me."
+
+At this she smiled again, and then looked serious.  For it could
+not be unpleasant to her to be told of her power, and she had some
+sense of her responsibility.  She slipped away from me suddenly,
+because Heemskirk, with old Nelson in attendance at his elbow, was
+coming up the steps of the verandah.  Directly his head came above
+the level of the floor his ill-natured black eyes shot glances here
+and there.
+
+"Where's your girl, Nelson?" he asked, in a tone as if every soul
+in the world belonged to him.  And then to me:  "The goddess has
+flown, eh?"
+
+Nelson's Cove--as we used to call it--was crowded with shipping
+that day.  There was first my steamer, then the Neptun gunboat
+further out, and the Bonito, brig, anchored as usual so close
+inshore that it looked as if, with a little skill and judgment, one
+could shy a hat from the verandah on to her scrupulously holystoned
+quarter-deck.  Her brasses flashed like gold, her white body-paint
+had a sheen like a satin robe.  The rake of her varnished spars and
+the big yards, squared to a hair, gave her a sort of martial
+elegance.  She was a beauty.  No wonder that in possession of a
+craft like that and the promise of a girl like Freya, Jasper lived
+in a state of perpetual elation fit, perhaps, for the seventh
+heaven, but not exactly safe in a world like ours.
+
+I remarked politely to Heemskirk that, with three guests in the
+house, Miss Freya had no doubt domestic matters to attend to.  I
+knew, of course, that she had gone to meet Jasper at a certain
+cleared spot on the banks of the only stream on Nelson's little
+island.  The commander of the Neptun gave me a dubious black look,
+and began to make himself at home, flinging his thick, cylindrical
+carcass into a rocking-chair, and unbuttoning his coat.  Old Nelson
+sat down opposite him in a most unassuming manner, staring
+anxiously with his round eyes and fanning himself with his hat.  I
+tried to make conversation to while the time away; not an easy task
+with a morose, enamoured Dutchman constantly looking from one door
+to another and answering one's advances either with a jeer or a
+grunt.
+
+However, the evening passed off all right.  Luckily, there is a
+degree of bliss too intense for elation.  Jasper was quiet and
+concentrated silently in watching Freya.  As we went on board our
+respective ships I offered to give his brig a tow out next morning.
+I did it on purpose to get him away at the earliest possible
+moment.  So in the first cold light of the dawn we passed by the
+gunboat lying black and still without a sound in her at the mouth
+of the glassy cove.  But with tropical swiftness the sun had
+climbed twice its diameter above the horizon before we had rounded
+the reef and got abreast of the point.  On the biggest boulder
+there stood Freya, all in white and, in her helmet, like a feminine
+and martial statue with a rosy face, as I could see very well with
+my glasses.  She fluttered an expressive handkerchief, and Jasper,
+running up the main rigging of the white and warlike brig, waved
+his hat in response.  Shortly afterwards we parted, I to the
+northward and Jasper heading east with a light wind on the quarter,
+for Banjermassin and two other ports, I believe it was, that trip.
+
+This peaceful occasion was the last on which I saw all these people
+assembled together; the charmingly fresh and resolute Freya, the
+innocently round-eyed old Nelson, Jasper, keen, long limbed, lean
+faced, admirably self-contained, in his manner, because
+inconceivably happy under the eyes of his Freya; all three tall,
+fair, and blue-eyed in varied shades, and amongst them the swarthy,
+arrogant, black-haired Dutchman, shorter nearly by a head, and so
+much thicker than any of them that he seemed to be a creature
+capable of inflating itself, a grotesque specimen of mankind from
+some other planet.
+
+The contrast struck me all at once as we stood in the lighted
+verandah, after rising from the dinner-table.  I was fascinated by
+it for the rest of the evening, and I remember the impression of
+something funny and ill-omened at the same time in it to this day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+A few weeks later, coming early one morning into Singapore, from a
+journey to the southward, I saw the brig lying at anchor in all her
+usual symmetry and splendour of aspect as though she had been taken
+out of a glass case and put delicately into the water that very
+moment.
+
+She was well out in the roadstead, but I steamed in and took up my
+habitual berth close in front of the town.  Before we had finished
+breakfast a quarter-master came to tell me that Captain Allen's
+boat was coming our way.
+
+His smart gig dashed alongside, and in two bounds he was up our
+accommodation-ladder and shaking me by the hand with his nervous
+grip, his eyes snapping inquisitively, for he supposed I had called
+at the Seven Isles group on my way.  I reached into my pocket for a
+nicely folded little note, which he grabbed out of my hand without
+ceremony and carried off on the bridge to read by himself.  After a
+decent interval I followed him up there, and found him pacing to
+and fro; for the nature of his emotions made him restless even in
+his most thoughtful moments.
+
+He shook his head at me triumphantly.
+
+"Well, my dear boy," he said, "I shall be counting the days now."
+
+I understood what he meant.  I knew that those young people had
+settled already on a runaway match without official preliminaries.
+This was really a logical decision.  Old Nelson (or Nielsen) would
+never have agreed to give up Freya peaceably to this compromising
+Jasper.  Heavens!  What would the Dutch authorities say to such a
+match!  It sounds too ridiculous for words.  But there's nothing in
+the world more selfishly hard than a timorous man in a fright about
+his "little estate," as old Nelson used to call it in apologetic
+accents.  A heart permeated by a particular sort of funk is proof
+against sense, feeling, and ridicule.  It's a flint.
+
+Jasper would have made his request all the same and then taken his
+own way; but it was Freya who decided that nothing should be said,
+on the ground that, "Papa would only worry himself to distraction."
+He was capable of making himself ill, and then she wouldn't have
+the heart to leave him.  Here you have the sanity of feminine
+outlook and the frankness of feminine reasoning.  And for the rest,
+Miss Freya could read "poor dear papa" in the way a woman reads a
+man--like an open book.  His daughter once gone, old Nelson would
+not worry himself.  He would raise a great outcry, and make no end
+of lamentable fuss, but that's not the same thing.  The real
+agonies of indecision, the anguish of conflicting feelings would be
+spared to him.  And as he was too unassuming to rage, he would,
+after a period of lamentation, devote himself to his "little
+estate," and to keeping on good terms with the authorities.
+
+Time would do the rest.  And Freya thought she could afford to
+wait, while ruling over her own home in the beautiful brig and over
+the man who loved her.  This was the life for her who had learned
+to walk on a ship's deck.  She was a ship-child, a sea-girl if ever
+there was one.  And of course she loved Jasper and trusted him; but
+there was a shade of anxiety in her pride.  It is very fine and
+romantic to possess for your very own a finely tempered and trusty
+sword-blade, but whether it is the best weapon to counter with the
+common cudgel-play of Fate--that's another question.
+
+She knew that she had the more substance of the two--you needn't
+try any cheap jokes, I am not talking of their weights.  She was
+just a little anxious while he was away, and she had me who, being
+a tried confidant, took the liberty to whisper frequently "The
+sooner the better."  But there was a peculiar vein of obstinacy in
+Miss Freya, and her reason for delay was characteristic.  "Not
+before my twenty-first birthday; so that there shall be no mistake
+in people's minds as to me being old enough to know what I am
+doing."
+
+Jasper's feelings were in such subjection that he had never even
+remonstrated against the decree.  She was just splendid, whatever
+she did or said, and there was an end of it for him.  I believe
+that he was subtle enough to be even flattered at bottom--at times.
+And then to console him he had the brig which seemed pervaded by
+the spirit of Freya, since whatever he did on board was always done
+under the supreme sanction of his love.
+
+"Yes.  I'll soon begin to count the days," he repeated.  "Eleven
+months more.  I'll have to crowd three trips into that."
+
+"Mind you don't come to grief trying to do too much," I admonished
+him.  But he dismissed my caution with a laugh and an elated
+gesture.  Pooh!  Nothing, nothing could happen to the brig, he
+cried, as if the flame of his heart could light up the dark nights
+of uncharted seas, and the image of Freya serve for an unerring
+beacon amongst hidden shoals; as if the winds had to wait on his
+future, the stars fight for it in their courses; as if the magic of
+his passion had the power to float a ship on a drop of dew or sail
+her through the eye of a needle--simply because it was her
+magnificent lot to be the servant of a love so full of grace as to
+make all the ways of the earth safe, resplendent, and easy.
+
+"I suppose," I said, after he had finished laughing at my innocent
+enough remark, "I suppose you will be off to-day."
+
+That was what he meant to do.  He had not gone at daylight only
+because he expected me to come in.
+
+"And only fancy what has happened yesterday," he went on.  "My mate
+left me suddenly.  Had to.  And as there's nobody to be found at a
+short notice I am going to take Schultz with me.  The notorious
+Schultz!  Why don't you jump out of your skin?  I tell you I went
+and unearthed Schultz late last evening, after no end of trouble.
+'I am your man, captain,' he says, in that wonderful voice of his,
+'but I am sorry to confess I have practically no clothes to my
+back.  I have had to sell all my wardrobe to get a little food from
+day to day.'  What a voice that man has got.  Talk about moving
+stones!  But people seem to get used to it.  I had never seen him
+before, and, upon my word, I felt suddenly tears rising to my eyes.
+Luckily it was dusk.  He was sitting very quiet under a tree in a
+native compound as thin as a lath, and when I peered down at him
+all he had on was an old cotton singlet and a pair of ragged
+pyjamas.  I bought him six white suits and two pairs of canvas
+shoes.  Can't clear the ship without a mate.  Must have somebody.
+I am going on shore presently to sign him on, and I shall take him
+with me as I go back on board to get under way.  Now, I am a
+lunatic--am I not?  Mad, of course.  Come on!  Lay it on thick.
+Let yourself go.  I like to see you get excited."
+
+He so evidently expected me to scold that I took especial pleasure
+in exaggerating the calmness of my attitude.
+
+"The worst that can be brought up against Schultz," I began,
+folding my arms and speaking dispassionately, "is an awkward habit
+of stealing the stores of every ship he has ever been in.  He will
+do it.  That's really all that's wrong.  I don't credit absolutely
+that story Captain Robinson tells of Schultz conspiring in
+Chantabun with some ruffians in a Chinese junk to steal the anchor
+off the starboard bow of the Bohemian Girl schooner.  Robinson's
+story is too ingenious altogether.  That other tale of the
+engineers of the Nan-Shan finding Schultz at midnight in the
+engine-room busy hammering at the brass bearings to carry them off
+for sale on shore seems to me more authentic.  Apart from this
+little weakness, let me tell you that Schultz is a smarter sailor
+than many who never took a drop of drink in their lives, and
+perhaps no worse morally than some men you and I know who have
+never stolen the value of a penny.  He may not be a desirable
+person to have on board one's ship, but since you have no choice he
+may be made to do, I believe.  The important thing is to understand
+his psychology.  Don't give him any money till you have done with
+him.  Not a cent, if he begs ever so.  For as sure as Fate the
+moment you give him any money he will begin to steal.  Just
+remember that."
+
+I enjoyed Jasper's incredulous surprise.
+
+"The devil he will!" he cried.  "What on earth for?  Aren't you
+trying to pull my leg, old boy?"
+
+"No.  I'm not.  You must understand Schultz's psychology.  He's
+neither a loafer nor a cadger.  He's not likely to wander about
+looking for somebody to stand him drinks.  But suppose he goes on
+shore with five dollars, or fifty for that matter, in his pocket?
+After the third or fourth glass he becomes fuddled and charitable.
+He either drops his money all over the place, or else distributes
+the lot around; gives it to any one who will take it.  Then it
+occurs to him that the night is young yet, and that he may require
+a good many more drinks for himself and his friends before morning.
+So he starts off cheerfully for his ship.  His legs never get
+affected nor his head either in the usual way.  He gets aboard and
+simply grabs the first thing that seems to him suitable--the cabin
+lamp, a coil of rope, a bag of biscuits, a drum of oil--and
+converts it into money without thinking twice about it.  This is
+the process and no other.  You have only to look out that he
+doesn't get a start.  That's all."
+
+"Confound his psychology," muttered Jasper.  "But a man with a
+voice like his is fit to talk to the angels.  Is he incurable do
+you think?"
+
+I said that I thought so.  Nobody had prosecuted him yet, but no
+one would employ him any longer.  His end would be, I feared, to
+starve in some hole or other.
+
+"Ah, well," reflected Jasper.  "The Bonito isn't trading to any
+ports of civilisation.  That'll make it easier for him to keep
+straight."
+
+That was true.  The brig's business was on uncivilised coasts, with
+obscure rajahs dwelling in nearly unknown bays; with native
+settlements up mysterious rivers opening their sombre, forest-lined
+estuaries among a welter of pale green reefs and dazzling sand-
+banks, in lonely straits of calm blue water all aglitter with
+sunshine.  Alone, far from the beaten tracks, she glided, all
+white, round dark, frowning headlands, stole out, silent like a
+ghost, from behind points of land stretching out all black in the
+moonlight; or lay hove-to, like a sleeping sea-bird, under the
+shadow of some nameless mountain waiting for a signal.  She would
+be glimpsed suddenly on misty, squally days dashing disdainfully
+aside the short aggressive waves of the Java Sea; or be seen far,
+far away, a tiny dazzling white speck flying across the brooding
+purple masses of thunderclouds piled up on the horizon.  Sometimes,
+on the rare mail tracks, where civilisation brushes against wild
+mystery, when the naive passengers crowding along the rail
+exclaimed, pointing at her with interest:  "Oh, here's a yacht!"
+the Dutch captain, with a hostile glance, would grunt
+contemptuously:  "Yacht!  No!  That's only English Jasper.  A
+pedlar--"
+
+"A good seaman you say," ejaculated Jasper, still in the matter of
+the hopeless Schultz with the wonderfully touching voice.
+
+"First rate.  Ask any one.  Quite worth having--only impossible," I
+declared.
+
+"He shall have his chance to reform in the brig," said Jasper, with
+a laugh.  "There will be no temptations either to drink or steal
+where I am going to this time."
+
+I didn't press him for anything more definite on that point.  In
+fact, intimate as we were, I had a pretty clear notion of the
+general run of his business.
+
+But as we are going ashore in his gig he asked suddenly:  "By the
+way, do you know where Heemskirk is?"
+
+I eyed him covertly, and was reassured.  He had asked the question,
+not as a lover, but as a trader.  I told him that I had heard in
+Palembang that the Neptun was on duty down about Flores and
+Sumbawa.  Quite out of his way.  He expressed his satisfaction.
+
+"You know," he went on, "that fellow, when he gets on the Borneo
+coast, amuses himself by knocking down my beacons.  I have had to
+put up a few to help me in and out of the rivers.  Early this year
+a Celebes trader becalmed in a prau was watching him at it.  He
+steamed the gunboat full tilt at two of them, one after another,
+smashing them to pieces, and then lowered a boat on purpose to pull
+out a third, which I had a lot of trouble six months ago to stick
+up in the middle of a mudflat for a tide mark.  Did you ever hear
+of anything more provoking--eh?"
+
+"I wouldn't quarrel with the beggar," I observed casually, yet
+disliking that piece of news strongly.  "It isn't worth while."
+
+"I quarrel?" cried Jasper.  "I don't want to quarrel.  I don't want
+to hurt a single hair of his ugly head.  My dear fellow, when I
+think of Freya's twenty-first birthday, all the world's my friend,
+Heemskirk included.  It's a nasty, spiteful amusement, all the
+same."
+
+We parted rather hurriedly on the quay, each of us having his own
+pressing business to attend to.  I would have been very much cut up
+had I known that this hurried grasp of the hand with "So long, old
+boy.  Good luck to you!" was the last of our partings.
+
+On his return to the Straits I was away, and he was gone again
+before I got back.  He was trying to achieve three trips before
+Freya's twenty-first birthday.  At Nelson's Cove I missed him again
+by only a couple of days.  Freya and I talked of "that lunatic" and
+"perfect idiot" with great delight and infinite appreciation.  She
+was very radiant, with a more pronounced gaiety, notwithstanding
+that she had just parted from Jasper.  But this was to be their
+last separation.
+
+"Do get aboard as soon as you can, Miss Freya," I entreated.
+
+She looked me straight in the face, her colour a little heightened
+and with a sort of solemn ardour--if there was a little catch in
+her voice.
+
+"The very next day."
+
+Ah, yes!  The very next day after her twenty-first birthday.  I was
+pleased at this hint of deep feeling.  It was as if she had grown
+impatient at last of the self-imposed delay.  I supposed that
+Jasper's recent visit had told heavily.
+
+"That's right," I said approvingly.  "I shall be much easier in my
+mind when I know you have taken charge of that lunatic.  Don't you
+lose a minute.  He, of course, will be on time--unless heavens
+fall."
+
+"Yes.  Unless--" she repeated in a thoughtful whisper, raising her
+eyes to the evening sky without a speck of cloud anywhere.  Silent
+for a time, we let our eyes wander over the waters below, looking
+mysteriously still in the twilight, as if trustfully composed for a
+long, long dream in the warm, tropical night.  And the peace all
+round us seemed without limits and without end.
+
+And then we began again to talk Jasper over in our usual strain.
+We agreed that he was too reckless in many ways.  Luckily, the brig
+was equal to the situation.  Nothing apparently was too much for
+her.  A perfect darling of a ship, said Miss Freya.  She and her
+father had spent an afternoon on board.  Jasper had given them some
+tea.  Papa was grumpy. . . . I had a vision of old Nelson under the
+brig's snowy awnings, nursing his unassuming vexation, and fanning
+himself with his hat.  A comedy father. . . . As a new instance of
+Jasper's lunacy, I was told that he was distressed at his inability
+to have solid silver handles fitted to all the cabin doors.  "As if
+I would have let him!" commented Miss Freya, with amused
+indignation.  Incidentally, I learned also that Schultz, the
+nautical kleptomaniac with the pathetic voice, was still hanging on
+to his job, with Miss Freya's approval.  Jasper had confided to the
+lady of his heart his purpose of straightening out the fellow's
+psychology.  Yes, indeed.  All the world was his friend because it
+breathed the same air with Freya.
+
+Somehow or other, I brought Heemskirk's name into conversation,
+and, to my great surprise, startled Miss Freya.  Her eyes expressed
+something like distress, while she bit her lip as if to contain an
+explosion of laughter.  Oh!  Yes.  Heemskirk was at the bungalow at
+the same time with Jasper, but he arrived the day after.  He left
+the same day as the brig, but a few hours later.
+
+"What a nuisance he must have been to you two," I said feelingly.
+
+Her eyes flashed at me a sort of frightened merriment, and suddenly
+she exploded into a clear burst of laughter.  "Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+I echoed it heartily, but not with the game charming tone:  "Ha,
+ha, ha! . . . Isn't he grotesque?  Ha, ha, ha!"  And the
+ludicrousness of old Nelson's inanely fierce round eyes in
+association with his conciliatory manner to the lieutenant
+presenting itself to my mind brought on another fit.
+
+"He looks," I spluttered, "he looks--Ha, ha, ha!--amongst you three
+. . . like an unhappy black-beetle.  Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+She gave out another ringing peal, ran off into her own room, and
+slammed the door behind her, leaving me profoundly astounded.  I
+stopped laughing at once.
+
+"What's the joke?" asked old Nelson's voice, half way down the
+steps.
+
+He came up, sat down, and blew out his cheeks, looking
+inexpressibly fatuous.  But I didn't want to laugh any more.  And
+what on earth, I asked myself, have we been laughing at in this
+uncontrollable fashion.  I felt suddenly depressed.
+
+Oh, yes.  Freya had started it.  The girl's overwrought, I thought.
+And really one couldn't wonder at it.
+
+I had no answer to old Nelson's question, but he was too aggrieved
+at Jasper's visit to think of anything else.  He as good as asked
+me whether I wouldn't undertake to hint to Jasper that he was not
+wanted at the Seven Isles group.  I declared that it was not
+necessary.  From certain circumstances which had come to my
+knowledge lately, I had reason to think that he would not be much
+troubled by Jasper Allen in the future.
+
+He emitted an earnest "Thank God!" which nearly set me laughing
+again, but he did not brighten up proportionately.  It seemed
+Heemskirk had taken special pains to make himself disagreeable.
+The lieutenant had frightened old Nelson very much by expressing a
+sinister wonder at the Government permitting a white man to settle
+down in that part at all.  "It is against our declared policy," he
+had remarked.  He had also charged him with being in reality no
+better than an Englishman.  He had even tried to pick a quarrel
+with him for not learning to speak Dutch.
+
+"I told him I was too old to learn now," sighed out old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) dismally.  "He said I ought to have learned Dutch long
+before.  I had been making my living in Dutch dependencies.  It was
+disgraceful of me not to speak Dutch, he said.  He was as savage
+with me as if I had been a Chinaman."
+
+It was plain he had been viciously badgered.  He did not mention
+how many bottles of his best claret he had offered up on the altar
+of conciliation.  It must have been a generous libation.  But old
+Nelson (or Nielsen) was really hospitable.  He didn't mind that;
+and I only regretted that this virtue should be lavished on the
+lieutenant-commander of the Neptun.  I longed to tell him that in
+all probability he would be relieved from Heemskirk's visitations
+also.  I did not do so only from the fear (absurd, I admit) of
+arousing some sort of suspicion in his mind.  As if with this
+guileless comedy father such a thing were possible!
+
+Strangely enough, the last words on the subject of Heemskirk were
+spoken by Freya, and in that very sense.  The lieutenant was
+turning up persistently in old Nelson's conversation at dinner.  At
+last I muttered a half audible "Damn the lieutenant."  I could see
+that the girl was getting exasperated, too.
+
+"And he wasn't well at all--was he, Freya?" old Nelson went on
+moaning.  "Perhaps it was that which made him so snappish, hey,
+Freya?  He looked very bad when he left us so suddenly.  His liver
+must be in a bad state, too."
+
+"Oh, he will end by getting over it," said Freya impatiently.  "And
+do leave off worrying about him, papa.  Very likely you won't see
+much of him for a long time to come."
+
+The look she gave me in exchange for my discreet smile had no
+hidden mirth in it.  Her eyes seemed hollowed, her face gone wan in
+a couple of hours.  We had been laughing too much.  Overwrought!
+Overwrought by the approach of the decisive moment.  After all,
+sincere, courageous, and self-reliant as she was, she must have
+felt both the passion and the compunction of her resolve.  The very
+strength of love which had carried her up to that point must have
+put her under a great moral strain, in which there might have been
+a little simple remorse, too.  For she was honest--and there,
+across the table, sat poor old Nelson (or Nielsen) staring at her,
+round-eyed and so pathetically comic in his fierce aspect as to
+touch the most lightsome heart.
+
+He retired early to his room to soothe himself for a night's rest
+by perusing his account-books.  We two remained on the verandah for
+another hour or so, but we exchanged only languid phrases on things
+without importance, as though we had been emotionally jaded by our
+long day's talk on the only momentous subject.  And yet there was
+something she might have told a friend.  But she didn't.  We parted
+silently.  She distrusted my masculine lack of common sense,
+perhaps. . . . O!  Freya!
+
+Going down the precipitous path to the landing-stage, I was
+confronted in the shadows of boulders and bushes by a draped
+feminine figure whose appearance startled me at first.  It glided
+into my way suddenly from behind a piece of rock.  But in a moment
+it occurred to me that it could be no one else but Freya's maid, a
+half-caste Malacca Portuguese.  One caught fleeting glimpses of her
+olive face and dazzling white teeth about the house.  I had
+observed her at times from a distance, as she sat within call under
+the shade of some fruit trees, brushing and plaiting her long raven
+locks.  It seemed to be the principal occupation of her leisure
+hours.  We had often exchanged nods and smiles--and a few words,
+too.  She was a pretty creature.  And once I had watched her
+approvingly make funny and expressive grimaces behind Heemskirk's
+back.  I understood (from Jasper) that she was in the secret, like
+a comedy camerista.  She was to accompany Freya on her irregular
+way to matrimony and "ever after" happiness.  Why should she be
+roaming by night near the cove--unless on some love affair of her
+own--I asked myself.  But there was nobody suitable within the
+Seven Isles group, as far as I knew.  It flashed upon me that it
+was myself she had been lying in wait for.
+
+She hesitated, muffled from head to foot, shadowy and bashful.  I
+advanced another pace, and how I felt is nobody's business.
+
+"What is it?" I asked, very low.
+
+"Nobody knows I am here," she whispered.
+
+"And nobody can see us," I whispered back.
+
+The murmur of words "I've been so frightened" reached me.  Just
+then forty feet above our head, from the yet lighted verandah,
+unexpected and startling, Freya's voice rang out in a clear,
+imperious call:
+
+"Antonia!"
+
+With a stifled exclamation, the hesitating girl vanished out of the
+path.  A bush near by rustled; then silence.  I waited wondering.
+The lights on the verandah went out.  I waited a while longer then
+continued down the path to my boat, wondering more than ever.
+
+I remember the occurrences of that visit especially, because this
+was the last time I saw the Nelson bungalow.  On arriving at the
+Straits I found cable messages which made it necessary for me to
+throw up my employment at a moment's notice and go home at once.  I
+had a desperate scramble to catch the mailboat which was due to
+leave next day, but I found time to write two short notes, one to
+Freya, the other to Jasper.  Later on I wrote at length, this time
+to Allen alone.  I got no answer.  I hunted up then his brother,
+or, rather, half-brother, a solicitor in the city, a sallow, calm,
+little man who looked at me over his spectacles thoughtfully.
+
+Jasper was the only child of his father's second marriage, a
+transaction which had failed to commend itself to the first, grown-
+up family.
+
+"You haven't heard for ages," I repeated, with secret annoyance.
+"May I ask what 'for ages' means in this connection?"
+
+"It means that I don't care whether I ever hear from him or not,"
+retorted the little man of law, turning nasty suddenly.
+
+I could not blame Jasper for not wasting his time in correspondence
+with such an outrageous relative.  But why didn't he write to me--a
+decent sort of friend, after all; enough of a friend to find for
+his silence the excuse of forgetfulness natural to a state of
+transcendental bliss?  I waited indulgently, but nothing ever came.
+And the East seemed to drop out of my life without an echo, like a
+stone falling into a well of prodigious depth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+I suppose praiseworthy motives are a sufficient justification
+almost for anything.  What could be more commendable in the
+abstract than a girl's determination that "poor papa" should not be
+worried, and her anxiety that the man of her choice should be kept
+by any means from every occasion of doing something rash, something
+which might endanger the whole scheme of their happiness?
+
+Nothing could be more tender and more prudent.  We must also
+remember the girl's self-reliant temperament, and the general
+unwillingness of women--I mean women of sense--to make a fuss over
+matters of that sort.
+
+As has been said already, Heemskirk turned up some time after
+Jasper's arrival at Nelson's Cove.  The sight of the brig lying
+right under the bungalow was very offensive to him.  He did not fly
+ashore before his anchor touched the ground as Jasper used to do.
+On the contrary, he hung about his quarter-deck mumbling to
+himself; and when he ordered his boat to be manned it was in an
+angry voice.  Freya's existence, which lifted Jasper out of himself
+into a blissful elation, was for Heemskirk a cause of secret
+torment, of hours of exasperated brooding.
+
+While passing the brig he hailed her harshly and asked if the
+master was on board.  Schultz, smart and neat in a spotless white
+suit, leaned over the taffrail, finding the question somewhat
+amusing.  He looked humorously down into Heemskirk's boat, and
+answered, in the most amiable modulations of his beautiful voice:
+"Captain Allen is up at the house, sir."  But his expression
+changed suddenly at the savage growl:  "What the devil are you
+grinning at?" which acknowledged that information.
+
+He watched Heemskirk land and, instead of going to the house,
+stride away by another path into the grounds.
+
+The desire-tormented Dutchman found old Nelson (or Nielsen) at his
+drying-sheds, very busy superintending the manipulation of his
+tobacco crop, which, though small, was of excellent quality, and
+enjoying himself thoroughly.  But Heemskirk soon put a stop to this
+simple happiness.  He sat down by the old chap, and by the sort of
+talk which he knew was best calculated for the purpose, reduced him
+before long to a state of concealed and perspiring nervousness.  It
+was a horrid talk of "authorities," and old Nelson tried to defend
+himself.  If he dealt with English traders it was because he had to
+dispose of his produce somehow.  He was as conciliatory as he knew
+how to be, and this very thing seemed to excite Heemskirk, who had
+worked himself up into a heavily breathing state of passion.
+
+"And the worst of them all is that Allen," he growled.  "Your
+particular friend--eh?  You have let in a lot of these Englishmen
+into this part.  You ought never to have been allowed to settle
+here.  Never.  What's he doing here now?"
+
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen), becoming very agitated, declared that
+Jasper Allen was no particular friend of his.  No friend at all--at
+all.  He had bought three tons of rice from him to feed his
+workpeople on.  What sort of evidence of friendship was that?
+Heemskirk burst out at last with the thought that had been gnawing
+at his vitals:
+
+"Yes.  Sell three tons of rice and flirt three days with that girl
+of yours.  I am speaking to you as a friend, Nielsen.  This won't
+do.  You are only on sufferance here."
+
+Old Nelson was taken aback at first, but recovered pretty quickly.
+Won't do!  Certainly!  Of course, it wouldn't do!  The last man in
+the world.  But his girl didn't care for the fellow, and was too
+sensible to fall in love with any one.  He was very earnest in
+impressing on Heemskirk his own feeling of absolute security.  And
+the lieutenant, casting doubting glances sideways, was yet willing
+to believe him.
+
+"Much you know about it," he grunted nevertheless.
+
+"But I do know," insisted old Nelson, with the greater desperation
+because he wanted to resist the doubts arising in his own mind.
+"My own daughter!  In my own house, and I not to know!  Come!  It
+would be a good joke, lieutenant."
+
+"They seem to be carrying on considerably," remarked Heemskirk
+moodily.  "I suppose they are together now," he added, feeling a
+pang which changed what he meant for a mocking smile into a strange
+grimace.
+
+The harassed Nelson shook his hand at him.  He was at bottom
+shocked at this insistence, and was even beginning to feel annoyed
+at the absurdity of it.
+
+"Pooh!  Pooh!  I'll tell you what, lieutenant:  you go to the house
+and have a drop of gin-and-bitters before dinner.  Ask for Freya.
+I must see the last of this tobacco put away for the night, but
+I'll be along presently."
+
+Heemskirk was not insensible to this suggestion.  It answered to
+his secret longing, which was not a longing for drink, however.
+Old Nelson shouted solicitously after his broad back a
+recommendation to make himself comfortable, and that there was a
+box of cheroots on the verandah.
+
+It was the west verandah that old Nelson meant, the one which was
+the living-room of the house, and had split-rattan screens of the
+very finest quality.  The east verandah, sacred to his own privacy,
+puffing out of cheeks, and other signs of perplexed thinking, was
+fitted with stout blinds of sailcloth.  The north verandah was not
+a verandah at all, really.  It was more like a long balcony.  It
+did not communicate with the other two, and could only be
+approached by a passage inside the house.  Thus it had a privacy
+which made it a convenient place for a maiden's meditations without
+words, and also for the discourses, apparently without sense,
+which, passing between a young man and a maid, become pregnant with
+a diversity of transcendental meanings.
+
+This north verandah was embowered with climbing plants.  Freya,
+whose room opened out on it, had furnished it as a sort of boudoir
+for herself, with a few cane chairs and a sofa of the same kind.
+On this sofa she and Jasper sat as close together as is possible in
+this imperfect world where neither can a body be in two places at
+once nor yet two bodies can be in one place at the same time.  They
+had been sitting together all the afternoon, and I won't say that
+their talk had been without sense.  Loving him with a little
+judicious anxiety lest in his elation he should break his heart
+over some mishap, Freya naturally would talk to him soberly.  He,
+nervous and brusque when away from her, appeared always as if
+overcome by her visibility, by the great wonder of being palpably
+loved.  An old man's child, having lost his mother early, thrown
+out to sea out of the way while very young, he had not much
+experience of tenderness of any kind.
+
+In this private, foliage-embowered verandah, and at this late hour
+of the afternoon, he bent down a little, and, possessing himself of
+Freya's hands, was kissing them one after another, while she smiled
+and looked down at his head with the eyes of approving compassion.
+At that same moment Heemskirk was approaching the house from the
+north.
+
+Antonia was on the watch on that side.  But she did not keep a very
+good watch.  The sun was setting; she knew that her young mistress
+and the captain of the Bonito were about to separate.  She was
+walking to and fro in the dusky grove with a flower in her hair,
+and singing softly to herself, when suddenly, within a foot of her,
+the lieutenant appeared from behind a tree.  She bounded aside like
+a startled fawn, but Heemskirk, with a lucid comprehension of what
+she was there for, pounced upon her, and, catching her arm, clapped
+his other thick hand over her mouth.
+
+"If you try to make a noise I'll twist your neck!"
+
+This ferocious figure of speech terrified the girl sufficiently.
+Heemskirk had seen plainly enough on the verandah Freya's golden
+head with another head very close to it.  He dragged the
+unresisting maid with him by a circuitous way into the compound,
+where he dismissed her with a vicious push in the direction of the
+cluster of bamboo huts for the servants.
+
+She was very much like the faithful camerista of Italian comedy,
+but in her terror she bolted away without a sound from that thick,
+short, black-eyed man with a cruel grip of fingers like a vice.
+Quaking all over at a distance, extremely scared and half inclined
+to laugh, she saw him enter the house at the back.
+
+The interior of the bungalow was divided by two passages crossing
+each other in the middle.  At that point Heemskirk, by turning his
+head slightly to the left as he passed, secured the evidence of
+"carrying on" so irreconcilable with old Nelson's assurances that
+it made him stagger, with a rush of blood to his head.  Two white
+figures, distinct against the light, stood in an unmistakable
+attitude.  Freya's arms were round Jasper's neck.  Their faces were
+characteristically superimposed on each other, and Heemskirk went
+on, his throat choked with a sudden rising of curses, till on the
+west verandah he stumbled blindly against a chair and then dropped
+into another as though his legs had been swept from under him.  He
+had indulged too long in the habit of appropriating Freya to
+himself in his thoughts.  "Is that how you entertain your visitors-
+-you . . " he thought, so outraged that he could not find a
+sufficiently degrading epithet.
+
+Freya struggled a little and threw her head back.
+
+"Somebody has come in," she whispered.  Jasper, holding her clasped
+closely to his breast, and looking down into her face, suggested
+casually:
+
+"Your father."
+
+Freya tried to disengage herself, but she had not the heart
+absolutely to push him away with her hands.
+
+"I believe it's Heemskirk," she breathed out at him.
+
+He, plunging into her eyes in a quiet rapture, was provoked to a
+vague smile by the sound of the name.
+
+"The ass is always knocking down my beacons outside the river," he
+murmured.  He attached no other meaning to Heemskirk's existence;
+but Freya was asking herself whether the lieutenant had seen them.
+
+"Let me go, kid," she ordered in a peremptory whisper.  Jasper
+obeyed, and, stepping back at once, continued his contemplation of
+her face under another angle.  "I must go and see," she said to
+herself anxiously.
+
+She instructed him hurriedly to wait a moment after she was gone
+and then to slip on to the back verandah and get a quiet smoke
+before he showed himself.
+
+"Don't stay late this evening," was her last recommendation before
+she left him.
+
+Then Freya came out on the west verandah with her light, rapid
+step.  While going through the doorway she managed to shake down
+the folds of the looped-up curtains at the end of the passage so as
+to cover Jasper's retreat from the bower.  Directly she appeared
+Heemskirk jumped up as if to fly at her.  She paused and he made
+her an exaggerated low bow.
+
+It irritated Freya.
+
+"Oh!  It's you, Mr. Heemskirk.  How do you do?"  She spoke in her
+usual tone.  Her face was not plainly visible to him in the dusk of
+the deep verandah.  He dared not trust himself to speak, his rage
+at what he had seen was so great.  And when she added with
+serenity:  "Papa will be coming in before long," he called her
+horrid names silently, to himself, before he spoke with contorted
+lips.
+
+"I have seen your father already.  We had a talk in the sheds.  He
+told me some very interesting things.  Oh, very--"
+
+Freya sat down.  She thought:  "He has seen us, for certain."  She
+was not ashamed.  What she was afraid of was some foolish or
+awkward complication.  But she could not conceive how much her
+person had been appropriated by Heemskirk (in his thoughts).  She
+tried to be conversational.
+
+"You are coming now from Palembang, I suppose?"
+
+"Eh?  What?  Oh, yes!  I come from Palembang.  Ha, ha, ha!  You
+know what your father said?  He said he was afraid you were having
+a very dull time of it here."
+
+"And I suppose you are going to cruise in the Moluccas," continued
+Freya, who wanted to impart some useful information to Jasper if
+possible.  At the same time she was always glad to know that those
+two men were a few hundred miles apart when not under her eye.
+
+Heemskirk growled angrily.
+
+"Yes.  Moluccas," glaring in the direction of her shadowy figure.
+"Your father thinks it's very quiet for you here.  I tell you what,
+Miss Freya.  There isn't such a quiet spot on earth that a woman
+can't find an opportunity of making a fool of somebody."
+
+Freya thought:  "I mustn't let him provoke me."  Presently the
+Tamil boy, who was Nelson's head servant, came in with the lights.
+She addressed him at once with voluble directions where to put the
+lamps, told him to bring the tray with the gin and bitters, and to
+send Antonia into the house.
+
+"I will have to leave you to yourself, Mr. Heemskirk, for a while,"
+she said.
+
+And she went to her room to put on another frock.  She made a quick
+change of it because she wished to be on the verandah before her
+father and the lieutenant met again.  She relied on herself to
+regulate that evening's intercourse between these two.  But
+Antonia, still scared and hysterical, exhibited a bruise on her arm
+which roused Freya's indignation.
+
+"He jumped on me out of the bush like a tiger," said the girl,
+laughing nervously with frightened eyes.
+
+"The brute!" thought Freya.  "He meant to spy on us, then."  She
+was enraged, but the recollection of the thick Dutchman in white
+trousers wide at the hips and narrow at the ankles, with his
+shoulder-straps and black bullet head, glaring at her in the light
+of the lamps, was so repulsively comical that she could not help a
+smiling grimace.  Then she became anxious.  The absurdities of
+three men were forcing this anxiety upon her:  Jasper's
+impetuosity, her father's fears, Heemskirk's infatuation.  She was
+very tender to the first two, and she made up her mind to display
+all her feminine diplomacy.  All this, she said to herself, will be
+over and done with before very long now.
+
+Heemskirk on the verandah, lolling in a chair, his legs extended
+and his white cap reposing on his stomach, was lashing himself into
+a fury of an atrocious character altogether incomprehensible to a
+girl like Freya.  His chin was resting on his chest, his eyes gazed
+stonily at his shoes.  Freya examined him from behind the curtain.
+He didn't stir.  He was ridiculous.  But this absolute stillness
+was impressive.  She stole back along the passage to the east
+verandah, where Jasper was sitting quietly in the dark, doing what
+he was told, like a good boy.
+
+"Psst," she hissed.  He was by her side in a moment.
+
+"Yes.  What is it?" he murmured.
+
+"It's that beetle," she whispered uneasily.  Under the impression
+of Heemskirk's sinister immobility she had half a mind to let
+Jasper know that they had been seen.  But she was by no means
+certain that Heemskirk would tell her father--and at any rate not
+that evening.  She concluded rapidly that the safest thing would be
+to get Jasper out of the way as soon as possible.
+
+"What has he been doing?" asked Jasper in a calm undertone.
+
+"Oh, nothing!  Nothing.  He sits there looking cross.  But you know
+how he's always worrying papa."
+
+"Your father's quite unreasonable," pronounced Jasper judicially.
+
+"I don't know," she said in a doubtful tone.  Something of old
+Nelson's dread of the authorities had rubbed off on the girl since
+she had to live with it day after day.  "I don't know.  Papa's
+afraid of being reduced to beggary, as he says, in his old days.
+Look here, kid, you had better clear out to-morrow, first thing."
+
+Jasper had hoped for another afternoon with Freya, an afternoon of
+quiet felicity with the girl by his side and his eyes on his brig,
+anticipating a blissful future.  His silence was eloquent with
+disappointment, and Freya understood it very well.  She, too, was
+disappointed.  But it was her business to be sensible.
+
+"We shan't have a moment to ourselves with that beetle creeping
+round the house," she argued in a low, hurried voice.  "So what's
+the good of your staying?  And he won't go while the brig's here.
+You know he won't."
+
+"He ought to be reported for loitering," murmured Jasper with a
+vexed little laugh.
+
+"Mind you get under way at daylight," recommended Freya under her
+breath.
+
+He detained her after the manner of lovers.  She expostulated
+without struggling because it was hard for her to repulse him.  He
+whispered into her ear while he put his arms round her.
+
+"Next time we two meet, next time I hold you like this, it shall be
+on board.  You and I, in the brig--all the world, all the life--"
+And then he flashed out:  "I wonder I can wait!  I feel as if I
+must carry you off now, at once.  I could run with you in my hands-
+-down the path--without stumbling--without touching the earth--"
+
+She was still.  She listened to the passion in his voice.  She was
+saying to herself that if she were to whisper the faintest yes, if
+she were but to sigh lightly her consent, he would do it.  He was
+capable of doing it--without touching the earth.  She closed her
+eyes and smiled in the dark, abandoning herself in a delightful
+giddiness, for an instant, to his encircling arm.  But before he
+could be tempted to tighten his grasp she was out of it, a foot
+away from him and in full possession of herself.
+
+That was the steady Freya.  She was touched by the deep sigh which
+floated up to her from the white figure of Jasper, who did not
+stir.
+
+"You are a mad kid," she said tremulously.  Then with a change of
+tone:  "No one could carry me off.  Not even you.  I am not the
+sort of girl that gets carried off."  His white form seemed to
+shrink a little before the force of that assertion and she
+relented.  "Isn't it enough for you to know that you have--that you
+have carried me away?" she added in a tender tone.
+
+He murmured an endearing word, and she continued:
+
+"I've promised you--I've said I would come--and I shall come of my
+own free will.  You shall wait for me on board.  I shall get up the
+side--by myself, and walk up to you on the deck and say:  'Here I
+am, kid.'  And then--and then I shall be carried off.  But it will
+be no man who will carry me off--it will be the brig, your brig--
+our brig. . . . I love the beauty!"
+
+She heard an inarticulate sound, something like a moan wrung out by
+pain or delight, and glided away.  There was that other man on the
+other verandah, that dark, surly Dutchman who could make trouble
+between Jasper and her father, bring about a quarrel, ugly words,
+and perhaps a physical collision.  What a horrible situation!  But,
+even putting aside that awful extremity, she shrank from having to
+live for some three months with a wretched, tormented, angry,
+distracted, absurd man.  And when the day came, the day and the
+hour, what should she do if her father tried to detain her by main
+force--as was, after all, possible?  Could she actually struggle
+with him hand to hand?  But it was of lamentations and entreaties
+that she was really afraid.  Could she withstand them?  What an
+odious, cruel, ridiculous position would that be!
+
+"But it won't be.  He'll say nothing," she thought as she came out
+quickly on the west verandah, and, seeing that Heemskirk did not
+move, sat down on a chair near the doorway and kept her eyes on
+him.  The outraged lieutenant had not changed his attitude; only
+his cap had fallen off his stomach and was lying on the floor.  His
+thick black eyebrows were knitted by a frown, while he looked at
+her out of the corners of his eyes.  And their sideways glance in
+conjunction with the hooked nose, the whole bulky, ungainly,
+sprawling person, struck Freya as so comically moody that, inwardly
+discomposed as she was, she could not help smiling.  She did her
+best to give that smile a conciliatory character.  She did not want
+to provoke Heemskirk needlessly.
+
+And the lieutenant, perceiving that smile, was mollified.  It never
+entered his head that his outward appearance, a naval officer, in
+uniform, could appear ridiculous to that girl of no position--the
+daughter of old Nielsen.  The recollection of her arms round
+Jasper's neck still irritated and excited him.  "The hussy!" he
+thought.  "Smiling--eh?  That's how you are amusing yourself.
+Fooling your father finely, aren't you?  You have a taste for that
+sort of fun--have you?  Well, we shall see--"  He did not alter his
+position, but on his pursed-up lips there also appeared a smile of
+surly and ill-omened amusement, while his eyes returned to the
+contemplation of his boots.
+
+Freya felt hot with indignation.  She sat radiantly fair in the
+lamplight, her strong, well-shaped hands lying one on top of the
+other in her lap. . . "Odious creature," she thought.  Her face
+coloured with sudden anger.  "You have scared my maid out of her
+senses," she said aloud.  "What possessed you?"
+
+He was thinking so deeply of her that the sound of her voice,
+pronouncing these unexpected words, startled him extremely.  He
+jerked up his head and looked so bewildered that Freya insisted
+impatiently:
+
+"I mean Antonia.  You have bruised her arm.  What did you do it
+for?"
+
+"Do you want to quarrel with me?" he asked thickly, with a sort of
+amazement.  He blinked like an owl.  He was funny.  Freya, like all
+women, had a keen sense of the ridiculous in outward appearance.
+
+"Well, no; I don't think I do."  She could not help herself.  She
+laughed outright, a clear, nervous laugh in which Heemskirk joined
+suddenly with a harsh "Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Voices and footsteps were heard in the passage, and Jasper, with
+old Nelson, came out.  Old Nelson looked at his daughter
+approvingly, for he liked the lieutenant to be kept in good humour.
+And he also joined sympathetically in the laugh.  "Now, lieutenant,
+we shall have some dinner," he said, rubbing his hands cheerily.
+Jasper had gone straight to the balustrade.  The sky was full of
+stars, and in the blue velvety night the cove below had a denser
+blackness, in which the riding-lights of the brig and of the
+gunboat glimmered redly, like suspended sparks.  "Next time this
+riding-light glimmers down there, I'll be waiting for her on the
+quarter-deck to come and say 'Here I am,'" Jasper thought; and his
+heart seemed to grow bigger in his chest, dilated by an oppressive
+happiness that nearly wrung out a cry from him.  There was no wind.
+Not a leaf below him stirred, and even the sea was but a still
+uncomplaining shadow.  Far away on the unclouded sky the pale
+lightning, the heat-lightning of the tropics, played tremulously
+amongst the low stars in short, faint, mysteriously consecutive
+flashes, like incomprehensible signals from some distant planet.
+
+The dinner passed off quietly.  Freya sat facing her father, calm
+but pale.  Heemskirk affected to talk only to old Nelson.  Jasper's
+behaviour was exemplary.  He kept his eyes under control, basking
+in the sense of Freya's nearness, as people bask in the sun without
+looking up to heaven.  And very soon after dinner was over, mindful
+of his instructions, he declared that it was time for him to go on
+board his ship.
+
+Heemskirk did not look up.  Ensconced in the rocking-chair, and
+puffing at a cheroot, he had the air of meditating surlily over
+some odious outbreak.  So at least it seemed to Freya.  Old Nelson
+said at once:  "I'll stroll down with you."  He had begun a
+professional conversation about the dangers of the New Guinea
+coast, and wanted to relate to Jasper some experience of his own
+"over there."  Jasper was such a good listener!  Freya made as if
+to accompany them, but her father frowned, shook his head, and
+nodded significantly towards the immovable Heemskirk blotting out
+smoke with half-closed eyes and protruded lips.  The lieutenant
+must not be left alone.  Take offence, perhaps.
+
+Freya obeyed these signs.  "Perhaps it is better for me to stay,"
+she thought.  Women are not generally prone to review their own
+conduct, still less to condemn it.  The embarrassing masculine
+absurdities are in the main responsible for its ethics.  But,
+looking at Heemskirk, Freya felt regret and even remorse.  His
+thick bulk in repose suggested the idea of repletion, but as a
+matter of fact he had eaten very little.  He had drunk a great
+deal, however.  The fleshy lobes of his unpleasant big ears with
+deeply folded rims were crimson.  They quite flamed in the
+neighbourhood of the flat, sallow cheeks.  For a considerable time
+he did not raise his heavy brown eyelids.  To be at the mercy of
+such a creature was humiliating; and Freya, who always ended by
+being frank with herself, thought regretfully:  "If only I had been
+open with papa from the first!  But then what an impossible life he
+would have led me!"  Yes.  Men were absurd in many ways; lovably
+like Jasper, impracticably like her father, odiously like that
+grotesquely supine creature in the chair.  Was it possible to talk
+him over?  Perhaps it was not necessary?  "Oh!  I can't talk to
+him," she thought.  And when Heemskirk, still without looking at
+her, began resolutely to crush his half-smoked cheroot on the
+coffee-tray, she took alarm, glided towards the piano, opened it in
+tremendous haste, and struck the keys before she sat down.
+
+In an instant the verandah, the whole carpetless wooden bungalow
+raised on piles, became filled with an uproarious, confused
+resonance.  But through it all she heard, she felt on the floor the
+heavy, prowling footsteps of the lieutenant moving to and fro at
+her back.  He was not exactly drunk, but he was sufficiently primed
+to make the suggestions of his excited imagination seem perfectly
+feasible and even clever; beautifully, unscrupulously clever.
+Freya, aware that he had stopped just behind her, went on playing
+without turning her head.  She played with spirit, brilliantly, a
+fierce piece of music, but when his voice reached her she went cold
+all over.  It was the voice, not the words.  The insolent
+familiarity of tone dismayed her to such an extent that she could
+not understand at first what he was saying.  His utterance was
+thick, too.
+
+"I suspected. . . . Of course I suspected something of your little
+goings on.  I am not a child.  But from suspecting to seeing--
+seeing, you understand--there's an enormous difference.  That sort
+of thing. . . . Come!  One isn't made of stone.  And when a man has
+been worried by a girl as I have been worried by you, Miss Freya--
+sleeping and waking, then, of course. . . . But I am a man of the
+world.  It must be dull for you here . . . I say, won't you leave
+off this confounded playing . . .?"
+
+This last was the only sentence really which she made out.  She
+shook her head negatively, and in desperation put on the loud
+pedal, but she could not make the sound of the piano cover his
+raised voice.
+
+"Only, I am surprised that you should. . . . An English trading
+skipper, a common fellow.  Low, cheeky lot, infesting these
+islands.  I would make short work of such trash!  While you have
+here a good friend, a gentleman ready to worship at your feet--your
+pretty feet--an officer, a man of family.  Strange, isn't it?  But
+what of that!  You are fit for a prince."
+
+Freya did not turn her head.  Her face went stiff with horror and
+indignation.  This adventure was altogether beyond her conception
+of what was possible.  It was not in her character to jump up and
+run away.  It seemed to her, too, that if she did move there was no
+saying what might happen.  Presently her father would be back, and
+then the other would have to leave off.  It was best to ignore--to
+ignore.  She went on playing loudly and correctly, as though she
+were alone, as if Heemskirk did not exist.  That proceeding
+irritated him.
+
+"Come!  You may deceive your father," he bawled angrily, "but I am
+not to be made a fool of!  Stop this infernal noise . . . Freya . .
+. Hey!  You Scandinavian Goddess of Love!  Stop!  Do you hear?
+That's what you are--of love.  But the heathen gods are only devils
+in disguise, and that's what you are, too--a deep little devil.
+Stop it, I say, or I will lift you off that stool!"
+
+Standing behind her, he devoured her with his eyes, from the golden
+crown of her rigidly motionless head to the heels of her shoes, the
+line of her shapely shoulders, the curves of her fine figure
+swaying a little before the keyboard.  She had on a light dress;
+the sleeves stopped short at the elbows in an edging of lace.  A
+satin ribbon encircled her waist.  In an access of irresistible,
+reckless hopefulness he clapped both his hands on that waist--and
+then the irritating music stopped at last.  But, quick as she was
+in springing away from the contact (the round music-stool going
+over with a crash), Heemskirk's lips, aiming at her neck, landed a
+hungry, smacking kiss just under her ear.  A deep silence reigned
+for a time.  And then he laughed rather feebly.
+
+He was disconcerted somewhat by her white, still face, the big
+light violet eyes resting on him stonily.  She had not uttered a
+sound.  She faced him, steadying herself on the corner of the piano
+with one extended hand.  The other went on rubbing with mechanical
+persistency the place his lips had touched.
+
+"What's the trouble?" he said, offended.  "Startled you?  Look
+here:  don't let us have any of that nonsense.  You don't mean to
+say a kiss frightens you so much as all that. . . . I know better.
+. . . I don't mean to be left out in the cold."
+
+He had been gazing into her face with such strained intentness that
+he could no longer see it distinctly.  Everything round him was
+rather misty.  He forgot the overturned stool, caught his foot
+against it, and lurched forward slightly, saying in an ingratiating
+tone:
+
+"I'm not bad fun, really.  You try a few kisses to begin with--"
+
+He said no more, because his head received a terrific concussion,
+accompanied by an explosive sound.  Freya had swung her round,
+strong arm with such force that the impact of her open palm on his
+flat cheek turned him half round.  Uttering a faint, hoarse yell,
+the lieutenant clapped both his hands to the left side of his face,
+which had taken on suddenly a dusky brick-red tinge.  Freya, very
+erect, her violet eyes darkened, her palm still tingling from the
+blow, a sort of restrained determined smile showing a tiny gleam of
+her white teeth, heard her father's rapid, heavy tread on the path
+below the verandah.  Her expression lost its pugnacity and became
+sincerely concerned.  She was sorry for her father.  She stooped
+quickly to pick up the music-stool, as if anxious to obliterate the
+traces. . . . But that was no good.  She had resumed her attitude,
+one hand resting lightly on the piano, before old Nelson got up to
+the top of the stairs.
+
+Poor father!  How furious he will be--how upset!  And afterwards,
+what tremors, what unhappiness!  Why had she not been open with him
+from the first?  His round, innocent stare of amazement cut her to
+the quick.  But he was not looking at her.  His stare was directed
+to Heemskirk, who, with his back to him and with his hands still up
+to his face, was hissing curses through his teeth, and (she saw him
+in profile) glaring at her balefully with one black, evil eye.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked old Nelson, very much bewildered.
+
+She did not answer him.  She thought of Jasper on the deck of the
+brig, gazing up at the lighted bungalow, and she felt frightened.
+It was a mercy that one of them at least was on board out of the
+way.  She only wished he were a hundred miles off.  And yet she was
+not certain that she did.  Had Jasper been mysteriously moved that
+moment to reappear on the verandah she would have thrown her
+consistency, her firmness, her self-possession, to the winds, and
+flown into his arms.
+
+"What is it?  What is it?" insisted the unsuspecting Nelson,
+getting quite excited.  "Only this minute you were playing a tune,
+and--"
+
+Freya, unable to speak in her apprehension of what was coming (she
+was also fascinated by that black, evil, glaring eye), only nodded
+slightly at the lieutenant, as much as to say:  "Just look at him!"
+
+"Why, yes!" exclaimed old Nelson.  "I see.  What on earth--"
+
+Meantime he had cautiously approached Heemskirk, who, bursting into
+incoherent imprecations, was stamping with both feet where he
+stood.  The indignity of the blow, the rage of baffled purpose, the
+ridicule of the exposure, and the impossibility of revenge maddened
+him to a point when he simply felt he must howl with fury.
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" he howled, stamping across the verandah as though he
+meant to drive his foot through the floor at every step.
+
+"Why, is his face hurt?" asked the astounded old Nelson.  The truth
+dawned suddenly upon his innocent mind.  "Dear me!" he cried,
+enlightened.  "Get some brandy, quick, Freya. . . . You are subject
+to it, lieutenant?  Fiendish, eh?  I know, I know!  Used to go
+crazy all of a sudden myself in the time. . . . And the little
+bottle of laudanum from the medicine-chest, too, Freya.  Look
+sharp. . . . Don't you see he's got a toothache?"
+
+And, indeed, what other explanation could have presented itself to
+the guileless old Nelson, beholding this cheek nursed with both
+hands, these wild glances, these stampings, this distracted swaying
+of the body?  It would have demanded a preternatural acuteness to
+hit upon the true cause.  Freya had not moved.  She watched
+Heemskirk's savagely inquiring, black stare directed stealthily
+upon herself.  "Aha, you would like to be let off!" she said to
+herself.  She looked at him unflinchingly, thinking it out.  The
+temptation of making an end of it all without further trouble was
+irresistible.  She gave an almost imperceptible nod of assent, and
+glided away.
+
+"Hurry up that brandy!" old Nelson shouted, as she disappeared in
+the passage.
+
+Heemskirk relieved his deeper feelings by a sudden string of curses
+in Dutch and English which he sent after her.  He raved to his
+heart's content, flinging to and fro the verandah and kicking
+chairs out of his way; while Nelson (or Nielsen), whose sympathy
+was profoundly stirred by these evidences of agonising pain,
+hovered round his dear (and dreaded) lieutenant, fussing like an
+old hen.
+
+"Dear me, dear me!  Is it so bad?  I know well what it is.  I used
+to frighten my poor wife sometimes.  Do you get it often like this,
+lieutenant?"
+
+Heemskirk shouldered him viciously out of his way, with a short,
+insane laugh.  But his staggering host took it in good part; a man
+beside himself with excruciating toothache is not responsible.
+
+"Go into my room, lieutenant," he suggested urgently.  "Throw
+yourself on my bed.  We will get something to ease you in a
+minute."
+
+He seized the poor sufferer by the arm and forced him gently
+onwards to the very bed, on which Heemskirk, in a renewed access of
+rage, flung himself down with such force that he rebounded from the
+mattress to the height of quite a foot.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed the scared Nelson, and incontinently ran off
+to hurry up the brandy and the laudanum, very angry that so little
+alacrity was shown in relieving the tortures of his precious guest.
+In the end he got these things himself.
+
+Half an hour later he stood in the inner passage of the house,
+surprised by faint, spasmodic sounds of a mysterious nature,
+between laughter and sobs.  He frowned; then went straight towards
+his daughter's room and knocked at the door.
+
+Freya, her glorious fair hair framing her white face and rippling
+down a dark-blue dressing-gown, opened it partly.
+
+The light in the room was dim.  Antonia, crouching in a corner,
+rocked herself backwards and forwards, uttering feeble moans.  Old
+Nelson had not much experience in various kinds of feminine
+laughter, but he was certain there had been laughter there.
+
+"Very unfeeling, very unfeeling!" he said, with weighty
+displeasure.  "What is there so amusing in a man being in pain?  I
+should have thought a woman--a young girl--"
+
+"He was so funny," murmured Freya, whose eyes glistened strangely
+in the semi-obscurity of the passage.  "And then, you know, I don't
+like him," she added, in an unsteady voice.
+
+"Funny!" repeated old Nelson, amazed at this evidence of
+callousness in one so young.  "You don't like him!  Do you mean to
+say that, because you don't like him, you--Why, it's simply cruel!
+Don't you know it's about the worst sort of pain there is?  Dogs
+have been known to go mad with it."
+
+"He certainly seemed to have gone mad," Freya said with an effort,
+as if she were struggling with some hidden feeling.
+
+But her father was launched.
+
+"And you know how he is.  He notices everything.  He is a fellow to
+take offence for the least little thing--regular Dutchman--and I
+want to keep friendly with him.  It's like this, my girl:  if that
+rajah of ours were to do something silly--and you know he is a
+sulky, rebellious beggar--and the authorities took into their heads
+that my influence over him wasn't good, you would find yourself
+without a roof over your head--"
+
+She cried:  "What nonsense, father!" in a not very assured tone,
+and discovered that he was angry, angry enough to achieve irony;
+yes, old Nelson (or Nielsen), irony!  Just a gleam of it.
+
+"Oh, of course, if you have means of your own--a mansion, a
+plantation that I know nothing of--"  But he was not capable of
+sustained irony.  "I tell you they would bundle me out of here," he
+whispered forcibly; "without compensation, of course.  I know these
+Dutch.  And the lieutenant's just the fellow to start the trouble
+going.  He has the ear of influential officials.  I wouldn't offend
+him for anything--for anything--on no consideration whatever. . . .
+What did you say?"
+
+It was only an inarticulate exclamation.  If she ever had a half-
+formed intention of telling him everything she had given it up now.
+It was impossible, both out of regard for his dignity and for the
+peace of his poor mind.
+
+"I don't care for him myself very much," old Nelson's subdued
+undertone confessed in a sigh.  "He's easier now," he went on,
+after a silence.  "I've given him up my bed for the night.  I shall
+sleep on my verandah, in the hammock.  No; I can't say I like him
+either, but from that to laugh at a man because he's driven crazy
+with pain is a long way.  You've surprised me, Freya.  That side of
+his face is quite flushed."
+
+Her shoulders shook convulsively under his hands, which he laid on
+her paternally.  His straggly, wiry moustache brushed her forehead
+in a good-night kiss.  She closed the door, and went away from it
+to the middle of the room before she allowed herself a tired-out
+sort of laugh, without buoyancy.
+
+"Flushed!  A little flushed!" she repeated to herself.  "I hope so,
+indeed!  A little--"
+
+Her eyelashes were wet.  Antonia, in her corner, moaned and
+giggled, and it was impossible to tell where the moans ended and
+the giggles began.
+
+The mistress and the maid had been somewhat hysterical, for Freya,
+on fleeing into her room, had found Antonia there, and had told her
+everything.
+
+"I have avenged you, my girl," she exclaimed.
+
+And then they had laughingly cried and cryingly laughed with
+admonitions--"Ssh, not so loud!  Be quiet!" on one part, and
+interludes of "I am so frightened. . . . He's an evil man," on the
+other.
+
+Antonia was very much afraid of Heemskirk.  She was afraid of him
+because of his personal appearance:  because of his eyes and his
+eyebrows, and his mouth and his nose and his limbs.  Nothing could
+be more rational.  And she thought him an evil man, because, to her
+eyes, he looked evil.  No ground for an opinion could be sounder.
+In the dimness of the room, with only a nightlight burning at the
+head of Freya's bed, the camerista crept out of her corner to
+crouch at the feet of her mistress, supplicating in whispers:
+
+"There's the brig.  Captain Allen.  Let us run away at once--oh,
+let us run away!  I am so frightened.  Let us!  Let us!"
+
+"I!  Run away!" thought Freya to herself, without looking down at
+the scared girl.  "Never."
+
+Both the resolute mistress under the mosquito-net and the
+frightened maid lying curled up on a mat at the foot of the bed did
+not sleep very well that night.  The person that did not sleep at
+all was Lieutenant Heemskirk.  He lay on his back staring
+vindictively in the darkness.  Inflaming images and humiliating
+reflections succeeded each other in his mind, keeping up,
+augmenting his anger.  A pretty tale this to get about!  But it
+must not be allowed to get about.  The outrage had to be swallowed
+in silence.  A pretty affair!  Fooled, led on, and struck by the
+girl--and probably fooled by the father, too.  But no.  Nielsen was
+but another victim of that shameless hussy, that brazen minx, that
+sly, laughing, kissing, lying . . .
+
+"No; he did not deceive me on purpose," thought the tormented
+lieutenant.  "But I should like to pay him off, all the same, for
+being such an imbecile--"
+
+Well, some day, perhaps.  One thing he was firmly resolved on:  he
+had made up his mind to steal early out of the house.  He did not
+think he could face the girl without going out of his mind with
+fury.
+
+"Fire and perdition!  Ten thousand devils!  I shall choke here
+before the morning!" he muttered to himself, lying rigid on his
+back on old Nelson's bed, his breast heaving for air.
+
+He arose at daylight and started cautiously to open the door.
+Faint sounds in the passage alarmed him, and remaining concealed he
+saw Freya coming out.  This unexpected sight deprived him of all
+power to move away from the crack of the door.  It was the
+narrowest crack possible, but commanding the view of the end of the
+verandah.  Freya made for that end hastily to watch the brig
+passing the point.  She wore her dark dressing-gown; her feet were
+bare, because, having fallen asleep towards the morning, she ran
+out headlong in her fear of being too late.  Heemskirk had never
+seen her looking like this, with her hair drawn back smoothly to
+the shape of her head, and hanging in one heavy, fair tress down
+her back, and with that air of extreme youth, intensity, and
+eagerness.  And at first he was amazed, and then he gnashed his
+teeth.  He could not face her at all.  He muttered a curse, and
+kept still behind the door.
+
+With a low, deep-breathed "Ah!" when she first saw the brig already
+under way, she reached for Nelson's long glass reposing on brackets
+high up the wall.  The wide sleeve of the dressing-gown slipped
+back, uncovering her white arm as far as the shoulder.  Heemskirk
+gripping the door-handle, as if to crush it, felt like a man just
+risen to his feet from a drinking bout.
+
+And Freya knew that he was watching her.  She knew.  She had seen
+the door move as she came out of the passage.  She was aware of his
+eyes being on her, with scornful bitterness, with triumphant
+contempt.
+
+"You are there," she thought, levelling the long glass.  "Oh, well,
+look on, then!"
+
+The green islets appeared like black shadows, the ashen sea was
+smooth as glass, the clear robe of the colourless dawn, in which
+even the brig appeared shadowy, had a hem of light in the east.
+Directly Freya had made out Jasper on deck, with his own long glass
+directed to the bungalow, she laid hers down and raised both her
+beautiful white arms above her head.  In that attitude of supreme
+cry she stood still, glowing with the consciousness of Jasper's
+adoration going out to her figure held in the field of his glass
+away there, and warmed, too, by the feeling of evil passion, the
+burning, covetous eyes of the other, fastened on her back.  In the
+fervour of her love, in the caprice of her mind, and with that
+mysterious knowledge of masculine nature women seem to be born to,
+she thought:
+
+"You are looking on--you will--you must!  Then you shall see
+something."
+
+She brought both her hands to her lips, then flung them out,
+sending a kiss over the sea, as if she wanted to throw her heart
+along with it on the deck of the brig.  Her face was rosy, her eyes
+shone.  Her repeated, passionate gesture seemed to fling kisses by
+the hundred again and again and again, while the slowly ascending
+sun brought the glory of colour to the world, turning the islets
+green, the sea blue, the brig below her white--dazzlingly white in
+the spread of her wings--with the red ensign streaming like a tiny
+flame from the peak.
+
+And each time she murmured with a rising inflexion:
+
+"Take this--and this--and this--" till suddenly her arms fell.  She
+had seen the ensign dipped in response, and next moment the point
+below hid the hull of the brig from her view.  Then she turned away
+from the balustrade, and, passing slowly before the door of her
+father's room with her eyelids lowered, and an enigmatic expression
+on her face, she disappeared behind the curtain.
+
+But instead of going along the passage, she remained concealed and
+very still on the other side to watch what would happen.  For some
+time the broad, furnished verandah remained empty.  Then the door
+of old Nelson's room came open suddenly, and Heemskirk staggered
+out.  His hair was rumpled, his eyes bloodshot, his unshaven face
+looked very dark.  He gazed wildly about, saw his cap on a table,
+snatched it up, and made for the stairs quietly, but with a
+strange, tottering gait, like the last effort of waning strength.
+
+Shortly after his head had sunk below the level of the floor, Freya
+came out from behind the curtain, with compressed, scheming lips,
+and no softness at all in her luminous eyes.  He could not be
+allowed to sneak off scot free.  Never--never!  She was excited,
+she tingled all over, she had tasted blood!  He must be made to
+understand that she had been aware of having been watched; he must
+know that he had been seen slinking off shamefully.  But to run to
+the front rail and shout after him would have been childish, crude-
+-undignified.  And to shout--what?  What word?  What phrase?  No;
+it was impossible.  Then how? . . . She frowned, discovered it,
+dashed at the piano, which had stood open all night, and made the
+rosewood monster growl savagery in an irritated bass.  She struck
+chords as if firing shots after that straddling, broad figure in
+ample white trousers and a dark uniform jacket with gold shoulder-
+straps, and then she pursued him with the same thing she had played
+the evening before--a modern, fierce piece of love music which had
+been tried more than once against the thunderstorms of the group.
+She accentuated its rhythm with triumphant malice, so absorbed in
+her purpose that she did not notice the presence of her father,
+who, wearing an old threadbare ulster of a check pattern over his
+sleeping suit, had run out from the back verandah to inquire the
+reason of this untimely performance.  He stared at her.
+
+"What on earth? . . . Freya!"  His voice was nearly drowned by the
+piano.  "What's become of the lieutenant?" he shouted.
+
+She looked up at him as if her soul were lost in her music, with
+unseeing eyes.
+
+"Gone."
+
+"Wha-a-t? . . . Where?"
+
+She shook her head slightly, and went on playing louder than
+before.  Old Nelson's innocently anxious gaze starting from the
+open door of his room, explored the whole place high and low, as if
+the lieutenant were something small which might have been crawling
+on the floor or clinging to a wall.  But a shrill whistle coming
+somewhere from below pierced the ample volume of sound rolling out
+of the piano in great, vibrating waves.  The lieutenant was down at
+the cove, whistling for the boat to come and take him off to his
+ship.  And he seemed to be in a terrific hurry, too, for he
+whistled again almost directly, waited for a moment, and then sent
+out a long, interminable, shrill call as distressful to hear as
+though he had shrieked without drawing breath.  Freya ceased
+playing suddenly.
+
+"Going on board," said old Nelson, perturbed by the event.  "What
+could have made him clear out so early?  Queer chap.  Devilishly
+touchy, too!  I shouldn't wonder if it was your conduct last night
+that hurt his feelings?  I noticed you, Freya.  You as well as
+laughed in his face, while he was suffering agonies from neuralgia.
+It isn't the way to get yourself liked.  He's offended with you."
+
+Freya's hands now reposed passive on the keys; she bowed her fair
+head, feeling a sudden discontent, a nervous lassitude, as though
+she had passed through some exhausting crisis.  Old Nelson (or
+Nielsen), looking aggrieved, was revolving matters of policy in his
+bald head.
+
+"I think it would be right for me to go on board just to inquire,
+some time this morning," he declared fussily.  "Why don't they
+bring me my morning tea?  Do you hear, Freya?  You have astonished
+me, I must say.  I didn't think a young girl could be so unfeeling.
+And the lieutenant thinks himself a friend of ours, too!  What?
+No?  Well, he calls himself a friend, and that's something to a
+person in my position.  Certainly!  Oh, yes, I must go on board."
+
+"Must you?" murmured Freya listlessly; then added, in her thought:
+"Poor man!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+In respect of the next seven weeks, all that is necessary to say
+is, first, that old Nelson (or Nielsen) failed in paying his
+politic call.  The Neptun gunboat of H.M. the King of the
+Netherlands, commanded by an outraged and infuriated lieutenant,
+left the cove at an unexpectedly early hour.  When Freya's father
+came down to the shore, after seeing his precious crop of tobacco
+spread out properly in the sun, she was already steaming round the
+point.  Old Nelson regretted the circumstance for many days.
+
+"Now, I don't know in what disposition the man went away," he
+lamented to his hard daughter.  He was amazed at her hardness.  He
+was almost frightened by her indifference.
+
+Next, it must be recorded that the same day the gunboat Neptun,
+steering east, passed the brig Bonito becalmed in sight of
+Carimata, with her head to the eastward, too.  Her captain, Jasper
+Allen, giving himself up consciously to a tender, possessive
+reverie of his Freya, did not get out of his long chair on the poop
+to look at the Neptun which passed so close that the smoke belching
+out suddenly from her short black funnel rolled between the masts
+of the Bonito, obscuring for a moment the sunlit whiteness of her
+sails, consecrated to the service of love.  Jasper did not even
+turn his head for a glance.  But Heemskirk, on the bridge, had
+gazed long and earnestly at the brig from the distance, gripping
+hard the brass rail in front of him, till, the two ships closing,
+he lost all confidence in himself, and retreating to the chartroom,
+pulled the door to with a crash.  There, his brows knitted, his
+mouth drawn on one side in sardonic meditation, he sat through many
+still hours--a sort of Prometheus in the bonds of unholy desire,
+having his very vitals torn by the beak and claws of humiliated
+passion.
+
+That species of fowl is not to be shooed off as easily as a
+chicken.  Fooled, cheated, deceived, led on, outraged, mocked at--
+beak and claws!  A sinister bird!  The lieutenant had no mind to
+become the talk of the Archipelago, as the naval officer who had
+had his face slapped by a girl.  Was it possible that she really
+loved that rascally trader?  He tried not to think, but, worse than
+thoughts, definite impressions beset him in his retreat.  He saw
+her--a vision plain, close to, detailed, plastic, coloured, lighted
+up--he saw her hanging round the neck of that fellow.  And he shut
+his eyes, only to discover that this was no remedy.  Then a piano
+began to play near by, very plainly; and he put his fingers to his
+ears with no better effect.  It was not to be borne--not in
+solitude.  He bolted out of the chartroom, and talked of
+indifferent things somewhat wildly with the officer of the watch on
+the bridge, to the mocking accompaniment of a ghostly piano.
+
+The last thing to be recorded is that Lieutenant Heemskirk instead
+of pursuing his course towards Ternate, where he was expected, went
+out of his way to call at Makassar, where no one was looking for
+his arrival.  Once there, he gave certain explanations and laid a
+certain proposal before the governor, or some other authority, and
+obtained permission to do what he thought fit in these matters.
+Thereupon the Neptun, giving up Ternate altogether, steamed north
+in view of the mountainous coast of Celebes, and then crossing the
+broad straits took up her station on the low coast of virgin
+forests, inviolate and mute, in waters phosphorescent at night;
+deep blue in daytime with gleaming green patches over the submerged
+reefs.  For days the Neptun could be seen moving smoothly up and
+down the sombre face of the shore, or hanging about with a watchful
+air near the silvery breaks of broad estuaries, under the great
+luminous sky never softened, never veiled, and flooding the earth
+with the everlasting sunshine of the tropics--that sunshine which,
+in its unbroken splendour, oppresses the soul with an inexpressible
+melancholy more intimate, more penetrating, more profound than the
+grey sadness of the northern mists.
+
+
+The trading brig Bonito appeared gliding round a sombre forest-clad
+point of land on the silvery estuary of a great river.  The breath
+of air that gave her motion would not have fluttered the flame of a
+torch.  She stole out into the open from behind a veil of
+unstirring leaves, mysteriously silent, ghostly white, and solemnly
+stealthy in her imperceptible progress; and Jasper, his elbow in
+the main rigging, and his head leaning against his hand, thought of
+Freya.  Everything in the world reminded him of her.  The beauty of
+the loved woman exists in the beauties of Nature.  The swelling
+outlines of the hills, the curves of a coast, the free sinuosities
+of a river are less suave than the harmonious lines of her body,
+and when she moves, gliding lightly, the grace of her progress
+suggests the power of occult forces which rule the fascinating
+aspects of the visible world.
+
+Dependent on things as all men are, Jasper loved his vessel--the
+house of his dreams.  He lent to her something of Freya's soul.
+Her deck was the foothold of their love.  The possession of his
+brig appeased his passion in a soothing certitude of happiness
+already conquered.
+
+The full moon was some way up, perfect and serene, floating in air
+as calm and limpid as the glance of Freya's eyes.  There was not a
+sound in the brig.
+
+"Here she shall stand, by my side, on evenings like this," he
+thought, with rapture.
+
+And it was at that moment, in this peace, in this serenity, under
+the full, benign gaze of the moon propitious to lovers, on a sea
+without a wrinkle, under a sky without a cloud, as if all Nature
+had assumed its most clement mood in a spirit of mockery, that the
+gunboat Neptun, detaching herself from the dark coast under which
+she had been lying invisible, steamed out to intercept the trading
+brig Bonito standing out to sea.
+
+Directly the gunboat had been made out emerging from her ambush,
+Schultz, of the fascinating voice, had given signs of strange
+agitation.  All that day, ever since leaving the Malay town up the
+river, he had shown a haggard face, going about his duties like a
+man with something weighing on his mind.  Jasper had noticed it,
+but the mate, turning away, as though he had not liked being looked
+at, had muttered shamefacedly of a headache and a touch of fever.
+He must have had it very badly when, dodging behind his captain he
+wondered aloud:  "What can that fellow want with us?" . . . A naked
+man standing in a freezing blast and trying not to shiver could not
+have spoken with a more harshly uncertain intonation.  But it might
+have been fever--a cold fit.
+
+"He wants to make himself disagreeable, simply," said Jasper, with
+perfect good humour.  "He has tried it on me before.  However, we
+shall soon see."
+
+And, indeed, before long the two vessels lay abreast within easy
+hail.  The brig, with her fine lines and her white sails, looked
+vaporous and sylph-like in the moonlight.  The gunboat, short,
+squat, with her stumpy dark spars naked like dead trees, raised
+against the luminous sky of that resplendent night, threw a heavy
+shadow on the lane of water between the two ships.
+
+Freya haunted them both like an ubiquitous spirit, and as if she
+were the only woman in the world.  Jasper remembered her earnest
+recommendation to be guarded and cautious in all his acts and words
+while he was away from her.  In this quite unforeseen encounter he
+felt on his ear the very breath of these hurried admonitions
+customary to the last moment of their partings, heard the half-
+jesting final whisper of the "Mind, kid, I'd never forgive you!"
+with a quick pressure on his arm, which he answered by a quiet,
+confident smile.  Heemskirk was haunted in another fashion.  There
+were no whispers in it; it was more like visions.  He saw that girl
+hanging round the neck of a low vagabond--that vagabond, the
+vagabond who had just answered his hail.  He saw her stealing bare-
+footed across a verandah with great, clear, wide-open, eager eyes
+to look at a brig--that brig.  If she had shrieked, scolded, called
+names! . . . But she had simply triumphed over him.  That was all.
+Led on (he firmly believed it), fooled, deceived, outraged, struck,
+mocked at. . . . Beak and claws!  The two men, so differently
+haunted by Freya of the Seven Isles, were not equally matched.
+
+In the intense stillness, as of sleep, which had fallen upon the
+two vessels, in a world that itself seemed but a delicate dream, a
+boat pulled by Javanese sailors crossing the dark lane of water
+came alongside the brig.  The white warrant officer in her, perhaps
+the gunner, climbed aboard.  He was a short man, with a rotund
+stomach and a wheezy voice.  His immovable fat face looked lifeless
+in the moonlight, and he walked with his thick arms hanging away
+from his body as though he had been stuffed.  His cunning little
+eyes glittered like bits of mica.  He conveyed to Jasper, in broken
+English, a request to come on board the Neptun.
+
+Jasper had not expected anything so unusual.  But after a short
+reflection he decided to show neither annoyance, nor even surprise.
+The river from which he had come had been politically disturbed for
+a couple of years, and he was aware that his visits there were
+looked upon with some suspicion.  But he did not mind much the
+displeasure of the authorities, so terrifying to old Nelson.  He
+prepared to leave the brig, and Schultz followed him to the rail as
+if to say something, but in the end stood by in silence.  Jasper
+getting over the side, noticed his ghastly face.  The eyes of the
+man who had found salvation in the brig from the effects of his
+peculiar psychology looked at him with a dumb, beseeching
+expression.
+
+"What's the matter?" Jasper asked.
+
+"I wonder how this will end?" said he of the beautiful voice, which
+had even fascinated the steady Freya herself.  But where was its
+charming timbre now?  These words had sounded like a raven's croak.
+
+"You are ill," said Jasper positively.
+
+"I wish I were dead!" was the startling statement uttered by
+Schultz talking to himself in the extremity of some mysterious
+trouble.  Jasper gave him a keen glance, but this was not the time
+to investigate the morbid outbreak of a feverish man.  He did not
+look as though he were actually delirious, and that for the moment
+must suffice.  Schultz made a dart forward.
+
+"That fellow means harm!" he said desperately.  "He means harm to
+you, Captain Allen.  I feel it, and I--"
+
+He choked with inexplicable emotion.
+
+"All right, Schultz.  I won't give him an opening."  Jasper cut him
+short and swung himself into the boat.
+
+On board the Neptun Heemskirk, standing straddle-legs in the flood
+of moonlight, his inky shadow falling right across the quarter-
+deck, made no sign at his approach, but secretly he felt something
+like the heave of the sea in his chest at the sight of that man.
+Jasper waited before him in silence.
+
+Brought face to face in direct personal contact, they fell at once
+into the manner of their casual meetings in old Nelson's bungalow.
+They ignored each other's existence--Heemskirk moodily; Jasper,
+with a perfectly colourless quietness.
+
+"What's going on in that river you've just come out of?" asked the
+lieutenant straight away.
+
+"I know nothing of the troubles, if you mean that," Jasper
+answered.  "I've landed there half a cargo of rice, for which I got
+nothing in exchange, and went away.  There's no trade there now,
+but they would have been starving in another week--if I hadn't
+turned up."
+
+"Meddling!  English meddling!  And suppose the rascals don't
+deserve anything better than to starve, eh?"
+
+"There are women and children there, you know," observed Jasper, in
+his even tone.
+
+"Oh, yes!  When an Englishman talks of women and children, you may
+be sure there's something fishy about the business.  Your doings
+will have to be investigated."
+
+They spoke in turn, as though they had been disembodied spirits--
+mere voices in empty air; for they looked at each other as if there
+had been nothing there, or, at most, with as much recognition as
+one gives to an inanimate object, and no more.  But now a silence
+fell.  Heemskirk had thought, all at once:  "She will tell him all
+about it.  She will tell him while she hangs round his neck
+laughing."  And the sudden desire to annihilate Jasper on the spot
+almost deprived him of his senses by its vehemence.  He lost the
+power of speech, of vision.  For a moment he absolutely couldn't
+see Jasper.  But he heard him inquiring, as of the world at large:
+
+"Am I, then, to conclude that the brig is detained?"
+
+Heemskirk made a recovery in a flush of malignant satisfaction.
+
+"She is.  I am going to take her to Makassar in tow."
+
+"The courts will have to decide on the legality of this," said
+Jasper, aware that the matter was becoming serious, but with
+assumed indifference.
+
+"Oh, yes, the courts!  Certainly.  And as to you, I shall keep you
+on board here."
+
+Jasper's dismay at being parted from his ship was betrayed by a
+stony immobility.  It lasted but an instant.  Then he turned away
+and hailed the brig.  Mr. Schultz answered:
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Get ready to receive a tow-rope from the gunboat!  We are going to
+be taken to Makassar."
+
+"Good God!  What's that for, sir?" came an anxious cry faintly.
+
+"Kindness, I suppose," Jasper, ironical, shouted with great
+deliberation.  "We might have been--becalmed in here--for days.
+And hospitality.  I am invited to stay--on board here."
+
+The answer to this information was a loud ejaculation of distress.
+Jasper thought anxiously:  "Why, the fellow's nerve's gone to
+pieces;" and with an awkward uneasiness of a new sort, looked
+intently at the brig.  The thought that he was parted from her--for
+the first time since they came together--shook the apparently
+careless fortitude of his character to its very foundations, which
+were deep.  All that time neither Heemskirk nor even his inky
+shadow had stirred in the least.
+
+"I am going to send a boat's crew and an officer on board your
+vessel," he announced to no one in particular.  Jasper, tearing
+himself away from the absorbed contemplation of the brig, turned
+round, and, without passion, almost without expression in his
+voice, entered his protest against the whole of the proceedings.
+What he was thinking of was the delay.  He counted the days.
+Makassar was actually on his way; and to be towed there really
+saved time.  On the other hand, there would be some vexing
+formalities to go through.  But the thing was too absurd.  "The
+beetle's gone mad," he thought.  "I'll be released at once.  And if
+not, Mesman must enter into a bond for me."  Mesman was a Dutch
+merchant with whom Jasper had had many dealings, a considerable
+person in Makassar.
+
+"You protest?  H'm!" Heemskirk muttered, and for a little longer
+remained motionless, his legs planted well apart, and his head
+lowered as though he were studying his own comical, deeply-split
+shadow.  Then he made a sign to the rotund gunner, who had kept at
+hand, motionless, like a vilely-stuffed specimen of a fat man, with
+a lifeless face and glittering little eyes.  The fellow approached,
+and stood at attention.
+
+"You will board the brig with a boat's crew!"
+
+"Ya, mynherr!"
+
+"You will have one of your men to steer her all the time," went on
+Heemskirk, giving his orders in English, apparently for Jasper's
+edification.  "You hear?"
+
+"Ya, mynherr."
+
+"You will remain on deck and in charge all the time."
+
+"Ya, mynherr."
+
+Jasper felt as if, together with the command of the brig, his very
+heart were being taken out of his breast.  Heemskirk asked, with a
+change of tone:
+
+"What weapons have you on board?"
+
+At one time all the ships trading in the China Seas had a licence
+to carry a certain quantity of firearms for purposes of defence.
+Jasper answered:
+
+"Eighteen rifles with their bayonets, which were on board when I
+bought her, four years ago.  They have been declared."
+
+"Where are they kept?"
+
+"Fore-cabin.  Mate has the key."
+
+"You will take possession of them," said Heemskirk to the gunner.
+
+"Ya, mynherr."
+
+"What is this for?  What do you mean to imply?" cried out Jasper;
+then bit his lip.  "It's monstrous!" he muttered.
+
+Heemskirk raised for a moment a heavy, as if suffering, glance.
+
+"You may go," he said to his gunner.  The fat man saluted, and
+departed.
+
+During the next thirty hours the steady towing was interrupted
+once.  At a signal from the brig, made by waving a flag on the
+forecastle, the gunboat was stopped.  The badly-stuffed specimen of
+a warrant-officer, getting into his boat, arrived on board the
+Neptun and hurried straight into his commander's cabin, his
+excitement at something he had to communicate being betrayed by the
+blinking of his small eyes.  These two were closeted together for
+some time, while Jasper at the taffrail tried to make out if
+anything out of the common had occurred on board the brig.
+
+But nothing seemed to be amiss on board.  However, he kept a look-
+out for the gunner; and, though he had avoided speaking to anybody
+since he had finished with Heemskirk, he stopped that man when he
+came out on deck again to ask how his mate was.
+
+"He was feeling not very well when I left," he explained.
+
+The fat warrant-officer, holding himself as though the effort of
+carrying his big stomach in front of him demanded a rigid carriage,
+understood with difficulty.  Not a single one of his features
+showed the slightest animation, but his little eyes blinked rapidly
+at last.
+
+"Oh, ya!  The mate.  Ya, ya!  He is very well.  But, mein Gott, he
+is one very funny man!"
+
+Jasper could get no explanation of that remark, because the
+Dutchman got into the boat hurriedly, and went back on board the
+brig.  But he consoled himself with the thought that very soon all
+this unpleasant and rather absurd experience would be over.  The
+roadstead of Makassar was in sight already.  Heemskirk passed by
+him going on the bridge.  For the first time the lieutenant looked
+at Jasper with marked intention; and the strange roll of his eyes
+was so funny--it had been long agreed by Jasper and Freya that the
+lieutenant was funny--so ecstatically gratified, as though he were
+rolling a tasty morsel on his tongue, that Jasper could not help a
+broad smile.  And then he turned to his brig again.
+
+To see her, his cherished possession, animated by something of his
+Freya's soul, the only foothold of two lives on the wide earth, the
+security of his passion, the companion of adventure, the power to
+snatch the calm, adorable Freya to his breast, and carry her off to
+the end of the world; to see this beautiful thing embodying
+worthily his pride and his love, to see her captive at the end of a
+tow-rope was not indeed a pleasant experience.  It had something
+nightmarish in it, as, for instance, the dream of a wild sea-bird
+loaded with chains.
+
+Yet what else could he want to look at?  Her beauty would sometimes
+come to his heart with the force of a spell, so that he would
+forget where he was.  And, besides, that sense of superiority which
+the certitude of being loved gives to a young man, that illusion of
+being set above the Fates by a tender look in a woman's eyes,
+helped him, the first shock over, to go through these experiences
+with an amused self-confidence.  For what evil could touch the
+elect of Freya?
+
+It was now afternoon, the sun being behind the two vessels as they
+headed for the harbour.  "The beetle's little joke shall soon be
+over," thought Jasper, without any great animosity.  As a seaman
+well acquainted with that part of the world, a casual glance was
+enough to tell him what was being done.  "Hallo," he thought, "he
+is going through Spermonde Passage.  We shall be rounding Tamissa
+reef presently."  And again he returned to the contemplation of his
+brig, that main-stay of his material and emotional existence which
+would be soon in his hands again.  On a sea, calm like a millpond,
+a heavy smooth ripple undulated and streamed away from her bows,
+for the powerful Neptun was towing at great speed, as if for a
+wager.  The Dutch gunner appeared on the forecastle of the Bonito,
+and with him a couple of men.  They stood looking at the coast, and
+Jasper lost himself in a loverlike trance.
+
+The deep-toned blast of the gunboat's steam-whistle made him
+shudder by its unexpectedness.  Slowly he looked about.  Swift as
+lightning he leaped from where he stood, bounding forward along the
+deck.
+
+"You will be on Tamissa reef!" he yelled.
+
+High up on the bridge Heemskirk looked back over his shoulder
+heavily; two seamen were spinning the wheel round, and the Neptun
+was already swinging rapidly away from the edge of the pale water
+over the danger.  Ha! just in time.  Jasper turned about instantly
+to watch his brig; and, even before he realised that--in obedience,
+it appears, to Heemskirk's orders given beforehand to the gunner--
+the tow-rope had been let go at the blast of the whistle, before he
+had time to cry out or to move a limb, he saw her cast adrift and
+shooting across the gunboat's stern with the impetus of her speed.
+He followed her fine, gliding form with eyes growing big with
+incredulity, wild with horror.  The cries on board of her came to
+him only as a dreadful and confused murmur through the loud
+thumping of blood in his ears, while she held on.  She ran upright
+in a terrible display of her gift of speed, with an incomparable
+air of life and grace.  She ran on till the smooth level of water
+in front of her bows seemed to sink down suddenly as if sucked
+away; and, with a strange, violent tremor of her mast-heads she
+stopped, inclined her lofty spars a little, and lay still.  She lay
+still on the reef, while the Neptun, fetching a wide circle,
+continued at full speed up Spermonde Passage, heading for the town.
+She lay still, perfectly still, with something ill-omened and
+unnatural in her attitude.  In an instant the subtle melancholy of
+things touched by decay had fallen on her in the sunshine; she was
+but a speck in the brilliant emptiness of space, already lonely,
+already desolate.
+
+"Hold him!" yelled a voice from the bridge.
+
+Jasper had started to run to his brig with a headlong impulse, as a
+man dashes forward to pull away with his hands a living, breathing,
+loved creature from the brink of destruction.  "Hold him!  Stick to
+him!" vociferated the lieutenant at the top of the bridge-ladder,
+while Jasper struggled madly without a word, only his head emerging
+from the heaving crowd of the Neptun's seamen, who had flung
+themselves upon him obediently.  "Hold--I would not have that
+fellow drown himself for anything now!"
+
+Jasper ceased struggling.
+
+One by one they let go of him; they fell back gradually farther and
+farther, in attentive silence, leaving him standing unsupported in
+a widened, clear space, as if to give him plenty of room to fall
+after the struggle.  He did not even sway perceptibly.  Half an
+hour later, when the Neptun anchored in front of the town, he had
+not stirred yet, had moved neither head nor limb as much as a
+hair's breadth.  Directly the rumble of the gunboat's cable had
+ceased, Heemskirk came down heavily from the bridge.
+
+"Call a sampan" he said, in a gloomy tone, as he passed the sentry
+at the gangway, and then moved on slowly towards the spot where
+Jasper, the object of many awed glances, stood looking at the deck,
+as if lost in a brown study.  Heemskirk came up close, and stared
+at him thoughtfully, with his fingers over his lips.  Here he was,
+the favoured vagabond, the only man to whom that infernal girl was
+likely to tell the story.  But he would not find it funny.  The
+story how Lieutenant Heemskirk--No, he would not laugh at it.  He
+looked as though he would never laugh at anything in his life.
+
+Suddenly Jasper looked up.  His eyes, without any other expression
+but bewilderment, met those of Heemskirk, observant and sombre.
+
+"Gone on the reef!" he said, in a low, astounded tone.  "On-the-
+reef!" he repeated still lower, and as if attending inwardly to the
+birth of some awful and amazing sensation.
+
+"On the very top of high-water, spring tides," Heemskirk struck in,
+with a vindictive, exulting violence which flashed and expired.  He
+paused, as if weary, fixing upon Jasper his arrogant eyes, over
+which secret disenchantment, the unavoidable shadow of all passion,
+seemed to pass like a saddening cloud.  "On the very top," he
+repeated, rousing himself in fierce reaction to snatch his laced
+cap off his head with a horizontal, derisive flourish towards the
+gangway.  "And now you may go ashore to the courts, you damned
+Englishman!" he said.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+The affair of the brig Bonito was bound to cause a sensation in
+Makassar, the prettiest, and perhaps the cleanest-looking of all
+the towns in the Islands; which however knows few occasions for
+excitement.  The "front," with its special population, was soon
+aware that something had happened.  A steamer towing a sailing
+vessel had been observed far out to sea for some time, and when the
+steamer came in alone, leaving the other outside, attention was
+aroused.  Why was that?  Her masts only could be seen--with furled
+sails--remaining in the same place to the southward.  And soon the
+rumour ran all along the crowded seashore street that there was a
+ship on Tamissa reef.  That crowd interpreted the appearance
+correctly.  Its cause was beyond their penetration, for who could
+associate a girl nine hundred miles away with the stranding of a
+ship on Tamissa reef, or look for the remote filiation of that
+event in the psychology of at least three people, even if one of
+them, Lieutenant Heemskirk, was at that very moment passing amongst
+them on his way to make his verbal report?
+
+No; the minds on the "front" were not competent for that sort of
+investigation, but many hands there--brown hands, yellow hands,
+white hands--were raised to shade the eyes gazing out to sea.  The
+rumour spread quickly.  Chinese shopkeepers came to their doors,
+more than one white merchant, even, rose from his desk to go to the
+window.  After all, a ship on Tamissa was not an everyday
+occurrence.  And presently the rumour took a more definite shape.
+An English trader--detained on suspicion at sea by the Neptun--
+Heemskirk was towing him in to test a case, and by some strange
+accident--
+
+Later on the name came out.  "The Bonito--what!  Impossible!  Yes--
+yes, the Bonito.  Look!  You can see from here; only two masts.
+It's a brig.  Didn't think that man would ever let himself be
+caught.  Heemskirk's pretty smart, too.  They say she's fitted out
+in her cabin like a gentleman's yacht.  That Allen is a sort of
+gentleman too.  An extravagant beggar."
+
+A young man entered smartly Messrs. Mesman Brothers' office on the
+"front," bubbling with some further information.
+
+"Oh, yes; that's the Bonito for certain!  But you don't know the
+story I've heard just now.  The fellow must have been feeding that
+river with firearms for the last year or two.  Well, it seems he
+has grown so reckless from long impunity that he has actually dared
+to sell the very ship's rifles this time.  It's a fact.  The rifles
+are not on board.  What impudence!  Only, he didn't know that there
+was one of our warships on the coast.  But those Englishmen are so
+impudent that perhaps he thought that nothing would be done to him
+for it.  Our courts do let off these fellows too often, on some
+miserable excuse or other.  But, at any rate, there's an end of the
+famous Bonito.  I have just heard in the harbour-office that she
+must have gone on at the very top of high-water; and she is in
+ballast, too.  No human power, they think, can move her from where
+she is.  I only hope it is so.  It would be fine to have the
+notorious Bonito stuck up there as a warning to others."
+
+Mr. J. Mesman, a colonial-born Dutchman, a kind, paternal old
+fellow, with a clean-shaven, quiet, handsome fade, and a head of
+fine iron-grey hair curling a little on his collar, did not say a
+word in defence of Jasper and the Bonito.  He rose from his arm-
+chair suddenly.  His face was visibly troubled.  It had so happened
+that once, from a business talk of ways and means, island trade,
+money matters, and so on, Jasper had been led to open himself to
+him on the subject of Freya; and the excellent man, who had known
+old Nelson years before and even remembered something of Freya, was
+much astonished and amused by the unfolding of the tale.
+
+"Well, well, well!  Nelson!  Yes; of course.  A very honest sort of
+man.  And a little child with very fair hair.  Oh, yes!  I have a
+distinct recollection.  And so she has grown into such a fine girl,
+so very determined, so very--"  And he laughed almost boisterously.
+"Mind, when you have happily eloped with your future wife, Captain
+Allen, you must come along this way, and we shall welcome her here.
+A little fair-headed child!  I remember.  I remember."
+
+It was that knowledge which had brought trouble to his face at the
+first news of the wreck.  He took up his hat.
+
+"Where are you going, Mr. Mesman?"
+
+"I am going to look for Allen.  I think he must be ashore.  Does
+anybody know?"
+
+No one of those present knew.  And Mr. Mesman went out on the
+"front" to make inquiries.
+
+The other part of the town, the part near the church and the fort,
+got its information in another way.  The first thing disclosed to
+it was Jasper himself, walking rapidly, as though he were pursued.
+And, as a matter of fact, a Chinaman, obviously a sampan man, was
+following him at the same headlong pace.  Suddenly, while passing
+Orange House, Jasper swerved and went in, or, rather, rushed in,
+startling Gomez, the hotel clerk, very much.  But a Chinaman
+beginning to make an unseemly noise at the door claimed the
+immediate attention of Gomez.  His grievance was that the white man
+whom he had brought on shore from the gunboat had not paid him his
+boat-fare.  He had pursued him so far, asking for it all the way.
+But the white man had taken no notice whatever of his just claim.
+Gomez satisfied the coolie with a few coppers, and then went to
+look for Jasper, whom he knew very well.  He found him standing
+stiffly by a little round table.  At the other end of the verandah
+a few men sitting there had stopped talking, and were looking at
+him in silence.  Two billiard-players, with cues in their hands,
+had come to the door of the billiard-room and stared, too.
+
+On Gomez coming up to him, Jasper raised one hand to point at his
+own throat.  Gomez noted the somewhat soiled state of his white
+clothes, then took one look at his face, and fled away to order the
+drink for which Jasper seemed to be asking.
+
+Where he wanted to go--or what purpose--where he, perhaps, only
+imagined himself to be going, when a sudden impulse or the sight of
+a familiar place had made him turn into Orange House--it is
+impossible to say.  He was steadying himself lightly with the tips
+of his fingers on the little table.  There were on that verandah
+two men whom he knew well personally, but his gaze roaming
+incessantly as though he were looking for a way of escape, passed
+and repassed over them without a sign of recognition.  They, on
+their side, looking at him, doubted the evidence of their own eyes.
+It was not that his face was distorted.  On the contrary, it was
+still, it was set.  But its expression, somehow, was
+unrecognisable.  Can that be him? they wondered with awe.
+
+In his head there was a wild chaos of clear thoughts.  Perfectly
+clear.  It was this clearness which was so terrible in conjunction
+with the utter inability to lay hold of any single one of them all.
+He was saying to himself, or to them:  "Steady, steady."  A China
+boy appeared before him with a glass on a tray.  He poured the
+drink down his throat, and rushed out.  His disappearance removed
+the spell of wonder from the beholders.  One of the men jumped up
+and moved quickly to that side of the verandah from which almost
+the whole of the roadstead could be seen.  At the very moment when
+Jasper, issuing from the door of the Orange House, was passing
+under him in the street below, he cried to the others excitedly:
+
+"That was Allen right enough!  But where is his brig?"
+
+Jasper heard these words with extraordinary loudness.  The heavens
+rang with them, as if calling him to account; for those were the
+very words Freya would have to use.  It was an annihilating
+question; it struck his consciousness like a thunderbolt and
+brought a sudden night upon the chaos of his thoughts even as he
+walked.  He did not check his pace.  He went on in the darkness for
+another three strides, and then fell.
+
+The good Mesman had to push on as far as the hospital before he
+found him.  The doctor there talked of a slight heatstroke.
+Nothing very much.  Out in three days. . . . It must be admitted
+that the doctor was right.  In three days, Jasper Allen came out of
+the hospital and became visible to the town--very visible indeed--
+and remained so for quite a long time; long enough to become almost
+one of the sights of the place; long enough to become disregarded
+at last; long enough for the tale of his haunting visibility to be
+remembered in the islands to this day.
+
+The talk on the "front" and Jasper's appearance in the Orange House
+stand at the beginning of the famous Bonito case, and give a view
+of its two aspects--the practical and the psychological.  The case
+for the courts and the case for compassion; that last terribly
+evident and yet obscure.
+
+It has, you must understand, remained obscure even for that friend
+of mine who wrote me the letter mentioned in the very first lines
+of this narrative.  He was one of those in Mr. Mesman's office, and
+accompanied that gentleman in his search for Jasper.  His letter
+described to me the two aspects and some of the episodes of the
+case.  Heemskirk's attitude was that of deep thankfulness for not
+having lost his own ship, and that was all.  Haze over the land was
+his explanation of having got so close to Tamissa reef.  He saved
+his ship, and for the rest he did not care.  As to the fat gunner,
+he deposed simply that he thought at the time that he was acting
+for the best by letting go the tow-rope, but admitted that he was
+greatly confused by the suddenness of the emergency.
+
+As a matter of fact, he had acted on very precise instructions from
+Heemskirk, to whom through several years' service together in the
+East he had become a sort of devoted henchman.  What was most
+amazing in the detention of the Bonito was his story how,
+proceeding to take possession of the firearms as ordered, he
+discovered that there were no firearms on board.  All he found in
+the fore-cabin was an empty rack for the proper number of eighteen
+rifles, but of the rifles themselves never a single one anywhere in
+the ship.  The mate of the brig, who looked rather ill and behaved
+excitedly, as though he were perhaps a lunatic, wanted him to
+believe that Captain Allen knew nothing of this; that it was he,
+the mate, who had recently sold these rifles in the dead of night
+to a certain person up the river.  In proof of this story he
+produced a bag of silver dollars and pressed it on his, the
+gunner's, acceptance.  Then, suddenly flinging it down on the deck,
+he beat his own head with both his fists and started heaping
+shocking curses upon his own soul for an ungrateful wretch not fit
+to live.
+
+All this the gunner reported at once to his commanding officer.
+
+What Heemskirk intended by taking upon himself to detain the Bonito
+it is difficult to say, except that he meant to bring some trouble
+into the life of the man favoured by Freya.  He had been looking at
+Jasper with a desire to strike that man of kisses and embraces to
+the earth.  The question was:  How could he do it without giving
+himself away?  But the report of the gunner created a serious case
+enough.  Yet Allen had friends--and who could tell whether he
+wouldn't somehow succeed in wriggling out of it?  The idea of
+simply towing the brig so much compromised on to the reef came to
+him while he was listening to the fat gunner in his cabin.  There
+was but little risk of being disapproved now.  And it should be
+made to appear an accident.
+
+Going out on deck he had gloated upon his unconscious victim with
+such a sinister roll of his eyes, such a queerly pursed mouth, that
+Jasper could not help smiling.  And the lieutenant had gone on the
+bridge, saying to himself:
+
+"You wait!  I shall spoil the taste of those sweet kisses for you.
+When you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that name won't
+bring a smile on your lips, I swear.  You are delivered into my
+hands."
+
+And this possibility had come about without any planning, one could
+almost say naturally, as if events had mysteriously shaped
+themselves to fit the purposes of a dark passion.  The most astute
+scheming could not have served Heemskirk better.  It was given to
+him to taste a transcendental, an incredible perfection of
+vengeance; to strike a deadly blow into that hated person's heart,
+and to watch him afterwards walking about with the dagger in his
+breast.
+
+For that is what the state of Jasper amounted to.  He moved, acted,
+weary-eyed, keen-faced, lank and restless, with brusque movements
+and fierce gestures; he talked incessantly in a frenzied and
+fatigued voice, but within himself he knew that nothing would ever
+give him back the brig, just as nothing can heal a pierced heart.
+His soul, kept quiet in the stress of love by the unflinching
+Freya's influence, was like a still but overwound string.  The
+shock had started it vibrating, and the string had snapped.  He had
+waited for two years in a perfectly intoxicated confidence for a
+day that now would never come to a man disarmed for life by the
+loss of the brig, and, it seemed to him, made unfit for love to
+which he had no foothold to offer.
+
+Day after day he would traverse the length of the town, follow the
+coast, and, reaching the point of land opposite that part of the
+reef on which his brig lay stranded, look steadily across the water
+at her beloved form, once the home of an exulting hope, and now, in
+her inclined, desolated immobility, towering above the lonely sea-
+horizon, a symbol of despair.
+
+The crew had left her in due course in her own boats which directly
+they reached the town were sequestrated by the harbour authorities.
+The vessel, too, was sequestrated pending proceedings; but these
+same authorities did not take the trouble to set a guard on board.
+For, indeed, what could move her from there?  Nothing, unless a
+miracle; nothing, unless Jasper's eyes, fastened on her tensely for
+hours together, as though he hoped by the mere power of vision to
+draw her to his breast.
+
+All this story, read in my friend's very chatty letter, dismayed me
+not a little.  But it was really appalling to read his relation of
+how Schultz, the mate, went about everywhere affirming with
+desperate pertinacity that it was he alone who had sold the rifles.
+"I stole them," he protested.  Of course, no one would believe him.
+My friend himself did not believe him, though he, of course,
+admired this self-sacrifice.  But a good many people thought it was
+going too far to make oneself out a thief for the sake of a friend.
+Only, it was such an obvious lie, too, that it did not matter,
+perhaps.
+
+I, who, in view of Schultz's psychology, knew how true that must
+be, admit that I was appalled.  So this was how a perfidious
+destiny took advantage of a generous impulse!  And I felt as though
+I were an accomplice in this perfidy, since I did to a certain
+extent encourage Jasper.  Yet I had warned him as well.
+
+"The man seemed to have gone crazy on this point," wrote my friend.
+"He went to Mesman with his story.  He says that some rascally
+white man living amongst the natives up that river made him drunk
+with some gin one evening, and then jeered at him for never having
+any money.  Then he, protesting to us that he was an honest man and
+must be believed, described himself as being a thief whenever he
+took a drop too much, and told us that he went on board and passed
+the rifles one by one without the slightest compunction to a canoe
+which came alongside that night, receiving ten dollars apiece for
+them.
+
+"Next day he was ill with shame and grief, but had not the courage
+to confess his lapse to his benefactor.  When the gunboat stopped
+the brig he felt ready to die with the apprehension of the
+consequences, and would have died happily, if he could have been
+able to bring the rifles back by the sacrifice of his life.  He
+said nothing to Jasper, hoping that the brig would be released
+presently.  When it turned out otherwise and his captain was
+detained on board the gunboat, he was ready to commit suicide from
+despair; only he thought it his duty to live in order to let the
+truth be known.  'I am an honest man!  I am an honest man!' he
+repeated, in a voice that brought tears to our eyes.  'You must
+believe me when I tell you that I am a thief--a vile, low, cunning,
+sneaking thief as soon as I've had a glass or two.  Take me
+somewhere where I may tell the truth on oath.'
+
+"When we had at last convinced him that his story could be of no
+use to Jasper--for what Dutch court, having once got hold of an
+English trader, would accept such an explanation; and, indeed, how,
+when, where could one hope to find proofs of such a tale?--he made
+as if to tear his hair in handfuls, but, calming down, said:
+'Good-bye, then, gentlemen,' and went out of the room so crushed
+that he seemed hardly able to put one foot before the other.  That
+very night he committed suicide by cutting his throat in the house
+of a half-caste with whom he had been lodging since he came ashore
+from the wreck."
+
+That throat, I thought with a shudder, which could produce the
+tender, persuasive, manly, but fascinating voice which had aroused
+Jasper's ready compassion and had secured Freya's sympathy!  Who
+could ever have supposed such an end in store for the impossible,
+gentle Schultz, with his idiosyncrasy of naive pilfering, so
+absurdly straightforward that, even in the people who had suffered
+from it, it aroused nothing more than a sort of amused
+exasperation?  He was really impossible.  His lot evidently should
+have been a half-starved, mysterious, but by no means tragic
+existence as a mild-eyed, inoffensive beachcomber on the fringe of
+native life.  There are occasions when the irony of fate, which
+some people profess to discover in the working out of our lives,
+wears the aspect of crude and savage jesting.
+
+I shook my head over the manes of Schultz, and went on with my
+friend's letter.  It told me how the brig on the reef, looted by
+the natives from the coast villages, acquired gradually the
+lamentable aspect, the grey ghastliness of a wreck; while Jasper,
+fading daily into a mere shadow of a man, strode brusquely all
+along the "front" with horribly lively eyes and a faint, fixed
+smile on his lips, to spend the day on a lonely spit of sand
+looking eagerly at her, as though he had expected some shape on
+board to rise up and make some sort of sign to him over the
+decaying bulwarks.  The Mesmans were taking care of him as far as
+it was possible.  The Bonito case had been referred to Batavia,
+where no doubt it would fade away in a fog of official papers. . .
+. It was heartrending to read all this.  That active and zealous
+officer, Lieutenant Heemskirk, his air of sullen, darkly-pained
+self-importance not lightened by the approval of his action
+conveyed to him unofficially, had gone on to take up his station in
+the Moluccas. . . .
+
+Then, at the end of the bulky, kindly-meant epistle, dealing with
+the island news of half a year at least, my friend wrote:  "A
+couple of months ago old Nelson turned up here, arriving by the
+mail-boat from Java.  Came to see Mesman, it seems.  A rather
+mysterious visit, and extraordinarily short, after coming all that
+way.  He stayed just four days at the Orange House, with apparently
+nothing in particular to do, and then caught the south-going
+steamer for the Straits.  I remember people saying at one time that
+Allen was rather sweet on old Nelson's daughter, the girl that was
+brought up by Mrs. Harley and then went to live with him at the
+Seven Isles group.  Surely you remember old Nelson--"
+
+Remember old Nelson!  Rather!
+
+The letter went on to inform me further that old Nelson, at least,
+remembered me, since some time after his flying visit to Makassar
+he had written to the Mesmans asking for my address in London.
+
+That old Nelson (or Nielsen), the note of whose personality was a
+profound, echoless irresponsiveness to everything around him,
+should wish to write, or find anything to write about to anybody,
+was in itself a cause for no small wonder.  And to me, of all
+people!  I waited with uneasy impatience for whatever disclosure
+could come from that naturally benighted intelligence, but my
+impatience had time to wear out before my eyes beheld old Nelson's
+trembling, painfully-formed handwriting, senile and childish at the
+same time, on an envelope bearing a penny stamp and the postal mark
+of the Notting Hill office.  I delayed opening it in order to pay
+the tribute of astonishment due to the event by flinging my hands
+above my head.  So he had come home to England, to be definitely
+Nelson; or else was on his way home to Denmark, where he would
+revert for ever to his original Nielsen!  But old Nelson (or
+Nielsen) out of the tropics seemed unthinkable.  And yet he was
+there, asking me to call.
+
+His address was at a boarding-house in one of those Bayswater
+squares, once of leisure, which nowadays are reduced to earning
+their living.  Somebody had recommended him there.  I started to
+call on him on one of those January days in London, one of those
+wintry days composed of the four devilish elements, cold, wet, mud,
+and grime, combined with a particular stickiness of atmosphere that
+clings like an unclean garment to one's very soul.  Yet on
+approaching his abode I saw, like a flicker far behind the soiled
+veil of the four elements, the wearisome and splendid glitter of a
+blue sea with the Seven Islets like minute specks swimming in my
+eye, the high red roof of the bungalow crowning the very smallest
+of them all.  This visual reminiscence was profoundly disturbing.
+I knocked at the door with a faltering hand.
+
+Old Nelson (or Nielsen) got up from the table at which he was
+sitting with a shabby pocket-book full of papers before him.  He
+took off his spectacles before shaking hands.  For a moment neither
+of us said a word; then, noticing me looking round somewhat
+expectantly, he murmured some words, of which I caught only
+"daughter" and "Hong Kong," cast his eyes down, and sighed.
+
+His moustache, sticking all ways out, as of yore, was quite white
+now.  His old cheeks were softly rounded, with some colour in them;
+strangely enough, that something childlike always noticeable in the
+general contour of his physiognomy had become much more marked.
+Like his handwriting, he looked childish and senile.  He showed his
+age most in his unintelligently furrowed, anxious forehead and in
+his round, innocent eyes, which appeared to me weak and blinking
+and watery; or was it that they were full of tears? . . .
+
+To discover old Nelson fully informed upon any matter whatever was
+a new experience.  And after the first awkwardness had worn off he
+talked freely, with, now and then, a question to start him going
+whenever he lapsed into silence, which he would do suddenly,
+clasping his hands on his waistcoat in an attitude which would
+recall to me the east verandah, where he used to sit talking
+quietly and puffing out his cheeks in what seemed now old, very old
+days.  He talked in a reasonable somewhat anxious tone.
+
+"No, no.  We did not know anything for weeks.  Out of the way like
+that, we couldn't, of course.  No mail service to the Seven Isles.
+But one day I ran over to Banka in my big sailing-boat to see
+whether there were any letters, and saw a Dutch paper.  But it
+looked only like a bit of marine news:  English brig Bonito gone
+ashore outside Makassar roads.  That was all.  I took the paper
+home with me and showed it to her.  'I will never forgive him!' she
+cries with her old spirit.  'My dear,' I said, 'you are a sensible
+girl.  The best man may lose a ship.  But what about your health?'
+I was beginning to be frightened at her looks.  She would not let
+me talk even of going to Singapore before.  But, really, such a
+sensible girl couldn't keep on objecting for ever.  'Do what you
+like, papa,' she says.  Rather a job, that.  Had to catch a steamer
+at sea, but I got her over all right.  There, doctors, of course.
+Fever.  Anaemia.  Put her to bed.  Two or three women very kind to
+her.  Naturally in our papers the whole story came out before long.
+She reads it to the end, lying on the couch; then hands the
+newspaper back to me, whispers 'Heemskirk,' and goes off into a
+faint."
+
+He blinked at me for quite a long time, his eyes running full of
+tears again.
+
+"Next day," he began, without any emotion in his voice, "she felt
+stronger, and we had a long talk.  She told me everything."
+
+Here old Nelson, with his eyes cast down, gave me the whole story
+of the Heemskirk episode in Freya's words; then went on in his
+rather jerky utterance, and looking up innocently:
+
+"'My dear,' I said, 'you have behaved in the main like a sensible
+girl.'  'I have been horrid,' she cries, 'and he is breaking his
+heart over there.'  Well, she was too sensible not to see she
+wasn't in a state to travel.  But I went.  She told me to go.  She
+was being looked after very well.  Anaemia.  Getting better, they
+said."
+
+He paused.
+
+"You did see him?" I murmured.
+
+"Oh, yes; I did see him," he started again, talking in that
+reasonable voice as though he were arguing a point.  "I did see
+him.  I came upon him.  Eyes sunk an inch into his head; nothing
+but skin on the bones of his face, a skeleton in dirty white
+clothes.  That's what he looked like.  How Freya . . . But she
+never did--not really.  He was sitting there, the only live thing
+for miles along that coast, on a drift-log washed up on the shore.
+They had clipped his hair in the hospital, and it had not grown
+again.  He stared, holding his chin in his hand, and with nothing
+on the sea between him and the sky but that wreck.  When I came up
+to him he just moved his head a bit.  'Is that you, old man?' says
+he--like that.
+
+"If you had seen him you would have understood at once how
+impossible it was for Freya to have ever loved that man.  Well,
+well.  I don't say.  She might have--something.  She was lonely,
+you know.  But really to go away with him!  Never!  Madness.  She
+was too sensible . . . I began to reproach him gently.  And by and
+by he turns on me.  'Write to you!  What about?  Come to her!  What
+with?  If I had been a man I would have carried her off, but she
+made a child, a happy child, of me.  Tell her that the day the only
+thing I had belonging to me in the world perished on this reef I
+discovered that I had no power over her. . . Has she come here with
+you?' he shouts, blazing at me suddenly with his hollow eyes.  I
+shook my head.  Come with me, indeed!  Anaemia!  'Aha!  You see?
+Go away, then, old man, and leave me alone here with that ghost,'
+he says, jerking his head at the wreck of his brig.
+
+"Mad!  It was getting dusk.  I did not care to stop any longer all
+by myself with that man in that lonely place.  I was not going to
+tell him of Freya's illness.  Anaemia!  What was the good?  Mad!
+And what sort of husband would he have made, anyhow, for a sensible
+girl like Freya?  Why, even my little property I could not have
+left them.  The Dutch authorities would never have allowed an
+Englishman to settle there.  It was not sold then.  My man Mahmat,
+you know, was looking after it for me.  Later on I let it go for a
+tenth of its value to a Dutch half-caste.  But never mind.  It was
+nothing to me then.  Yes; I went away from him.  I caught the
+return mail-boat.  I told everything to Freya.  'He's mad,' I said;
+'and, my dear, the only thing he loved was his brig.'
+
+"'Perhaps,' she says to herself, looking straight away--her eyes
+were nearly as hollow as his--'perhaps it is true.  Yes!  I would
+never allow him any power over me.'"
+
+Old Nelson paused.  I sat fascinated, and feeling a little cold in
+that room with a blazing fire.
+
+"So you see," he continued, "she never really cared for him.  Much
+too sensible.  I took her away to Hong Kong.  Change of climate,
+they said.  Oh, these doctors!  My God!  Winter time!  There came
+ten days of cold mists and wind and rain.  Pneumonia.  But look
+here!  We talked a lot together.  Days and evenings.  Who else had
+she? . . . She talked a lot to me, my own girl.  Sometimes she
+would laugh a little.  Look at me and laugh a little--"
+
+I shuddered.  He looked up vaguely, with a childish, puzzled
+moodiness.
+
+"She would say:  'I did not really mean to be a bad daughter to
+you, papa.'  And I would say:  'Of course, my dear.  You could not
+have meant it.'  She would lie quiet and then say:  'I wonder?'
+And sometimes, 'I've been really a coward,' she would tell me.  You
+know, sick people they say things.  And so she would say too:
+'I've been conceited, headstrong, capricious.  I sought my own
+gratification.  I was selfish or afraid.' . . . But sick people,
+you know, they say anything.  And once, after lying silent almost
+all day, she said:  'Yes; perhaps, when the day came I would not
+have gone.  Perhaps!  I don't know,' she cried.  'Draw the curtain,
+papa.  Shut the sea out.  It reproaches me with my folly.'"  He
+gasped and paused.
+
+"So you see," he went on in a murmur.  "Very ill, very ill indeed.
+Pneumonia.  Very sudden."  He pointed his finger at the carpet,
+while the thought of the poor girl, vanquished in her struggle with
+three men's absurdities, and coming at last to doubt her own self,
+held me in a very anguish of pity.
+
+"You see yourself," he began again in a downcast manner.  "She
+could not have really . . . She mentioned you several times.  Good
+friend.  Sensible man.  So I wanted to tell you myself--let you
+know the truth.  A fellow like that!  How could it be?  She was
+lonely.  And perhaps for a while . . . Mere nothing.  There could
+never have been a question of love for my Freya--such a sensible
+girl--"
+
+"Man!" I cried, rising upon him wrathfully, "don't you see that she
+died of it?"
+
+He got up too.  "No! no!" he stammered, as if angry.  "The doctors!
+Pneumonia.  Low state.  The inflammation of the . . . They told me.
+Pneu--"
+
+He did not finish the word.  It ended in a sob.  He flung his arms
+out in a gesture of despair, giving up his ghastly pretence with a
+low, heartrending cry:
+
+"And I thought that she was so sensible!"
+
+
+
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+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" />
+<title>'Twixt Land & Sea</title>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h2>
+<a href="#startoftext">'Twixt Land & Sea, by Joseph Conrad</a>
+</h2>
+<pre>
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Twixt Land &amp; Sea, by Joseph Conrad
+(#15 in our series by Joseph Conrad)
+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: 'Twixt Land &amp; Sea
+
+Author: Joseph Conrad
+
+Release Date: September, 1997  [EBook #1055]
+[This file was first posted on August 21, 1997]
+[Most recently updated: June 26, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+</pre>
+<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p>
+<p>Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h1>&rsquo;Twixt Land &amp; Sea Tales</h1>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Contents</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>A Smile of Fortune<br />The Secret Sharer<br />Freya of the Seven
+Isles</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>A SMILE OF FORTUNE&mdash;HARBOUR STORY</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Ever since the sun rose I had been looking ahead.&nbsp; The ship
+glided gently in smooth water.&nbsp; After a sixty days&rsquo; passage
+I was anxious to make my landfall, a fertile and beautiful island of
+the tropics.&nbsp; The more enthusiastic of its inhabitants delight
+in describing it as the &ldquo;Pearl of the Ocean.&rdquo;&nbsp; Well,
+let us call it the &ldquo;Pearl.&rdquo;&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a good name.&nbsp;
+A pearl distilling much sweetness upon the world.</p>
+<p>This is only a way of telling you that first-rate sugar-cane is grown
+there.&nbsp; All the population of the Pearl lives for it and by it.&nbsp;
+Sugar is their daily bread, as it were.&nbsp; And I was coming to them
+for a cargo of sugar in the hope of the crop having been good and of
+the freights being high.</p>
+<p>Mr. Burns, my chief mate, made out the land first; and very soon
+I became entranced by this blue, pinnacled apparition, almost transparent
+against the light of the sky, a mere emanation, the astral body of an
+island risen to greet me from afar.&nbsp; It is a rare phenomenon, such
+a sight of the Pearl at sixty miles off.&nbsp; And I wondered half seriously
+whether it was a good omen, whether what would meet me in that island
+would be as luckily exceptional as this beautiful, dreamlike vision
+so very few seamen have been privileged to behold.</p>
+<p>But horrid thoughts of business interfered with my enjoyment of an
+accomplished passage.&nbsp; I was anxious for success and I wished,
+too, to do justice to the flattering latitude of my owners&rsquo; instructions
+contained in one noble phrase: &ldquo;We leave it to you to do the best
+you can with the ship.&rdquo; . . . All the world being thus given me
+for a stage, my abilities appeared to me no bigger than a pinhead.</p>
+<p>Meantime the wind dropped, and Mr. Burns began to make disagreeable
+remarks about my usual bad luck.&nbsp; I believe it was his devotion
+for me which made him critically outspoken on every occasion.&nbsp;
+All the same, I would not have put up with his humours if it had not
+been my lot at one time to nurse him through a desperate illness at
+sea.&nbsp; After snatching him out of the jaws of death, so to speak,
+it would have been absurd to throw away such an efficient officer.&nbsp;
+But sometimes I wished he would dismiss himself.</p>
+<p>We were late in closing in with the land, and had to anchor outside
+the harbour till next day.&nbsp; An unpleasant and unrestful night followed.&nbsp;
+In this roadstead, strange to us both, Burns and I remained on deck
+almost all the time.&nbsp; Clouds swirled down the porphyry crags under
+which we lay.&nbsp; The rising wind made a great bullying noise amongst
+the naked spars, with interludes of sad moaning.&nbsp; I remarked that
+we had been in luck to fetch the anchorage before dark.&nbsp; It would
+have been a nasty, anxious night to hang off a harbour under canvas.&nbsp;
+But my chief mate was uncompromising in his attitude.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Luck, you call it, sir!&nbsp; Ay&mdash;our usual luck.&nbsp;
+The sort of luck to thank God it&rsquo;s no worse!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And so he fretted through the dark hours, while I drew on my fund
+of philosophy.&nbsp; Ah, but it was an exasperating, weary, endless
+night, to be lying at anchor close under that black coast!&nbsp; The
+agitated water made snarling sounds all round the ship.&nbsp; At times
+a wild gust of wind out of a gully high up on the cliffs struck on our
+rigging a harsh and plaintive note like the wail of a forsaken soul.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>By half-past seven in the morning, the ship being then inside the
+harbour at last and moored within a long stone&rsquo;s-throw from the
+quay, my stock of philosophy was nearly exhausted.&nbsp; I was dressing
+hurriedly in my cabin when the steward came tripping in with a morning
+suit over his arm.</p>
+<p>Hungry, tired, and depressed, with my head engaged inside a white
+shirt irritatingly stuck together by too much starch, I desired him
+peevishly to &ldquo;heave round with that breakfast.&rdquo;&nbsp; I
+wanted to get ashore as soon as possible.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&nbsp; Ready at eight, sir.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s a
+gentleman from the shore waiting to speak to you, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This statement was curiously slurred over.&nbsp; I dragged the shirt
+violently over my head and emerged staring.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So early!&rdquo; I cried.&nbsp; &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s he?&nbsp;
+What does he want?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>On coming in from sea one has to pick up the conditions of an utterly
+unrelated existence.&nbsp; Every little event at first has the peculiar
+emphasis of novelty.&nbsp; I was greatly surprised by that early caller;
+but there was no reason for my steward to look so particularly foolish.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t you ask for the name?&rdquo; I inquired in a
+stern tone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His name&rsquo;s Jacobus, I believe,&rdquo; he mumbled shamefacedly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Jacobus!&rdquo; I exclaimed loudly, more surprised than
+ever, but with a total change of feeling.&nbsp; &ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t
+you say so at once?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But the fellow had scuttled out of my room.&nbsp; Through the momentarily
+opened door I had a glimpse of a tall, stout man standing in the cuddy
+by the table on which the cloth was already laid; a &ldquo;harbour&rdquo;
+table-cloth, stainless and dazzlingly white.&nbsp; So far good.</p>
+<p>I shouted courteously through the closed door, that I was dressing
+and would be with him in a moment.&nbsp; In return the assurance that
+there was no hurry reached me in the visitor&rsquo;s deep, quiet undertone.&nbsp;
+His time was my own.&nbsp; He dared say I would give him a cup of coffee
+presently.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid you will have a poor breakfast,&rdquo; I cried
+apologetically.&nbsp; &ldquo;We have been sixty-one days at sea, you
+know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A quiet little laugh, with a &ldquo;That&rsquo;ll be all right, Captain,&rdquo;
+was his answer.&nbsp; All this, words, intonation, the glimpsed attitude
+of the man in the cuddy, had an unexpected character, a something friendly
+in it&mdash;propitiatory.&nbsp; And my surprise was not diminished thereby.&nbsp;
+What did this call mean?&nbsp; Was it the sign of some dark design against
+my commercial innocence?</p>
+<p>Ah!&nbsp; These commercial interests&mdash;spoiling the finest life
+under the sun.&nbsp; Why must the sea be used for trade&mdash;and for
+war as well?&nbsp; Why kill and traffic on it, pursuing selfish aims
+of no great importance after all?&nbsp; It would have been so much nicer
+just to sail about with here and there a port and a bit of land to stretch
+one&rsquo;s legs on, buy a few books and get a change of cooking for
+a while.&nbsp; But, living in a world more or less homicidal and desperately
+mercantile, it was plainly my duty to make the best of its opportunities.</p>
+<p>My owners&rsquo; letter had left it to me, as I have said before,
+to do my best for the ship, according to my own judgment.&nbsp; But
+it contained also a postscript worded somewhat as follows:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Without meaning to interfere with your liberty of action we
+are writing by the outgoing mail to some of our business friends there
+who may be of assistance to you.&nbsp; We desire you particularly to
+call on Mr. Jacobus, a prominent merchant and charterer.&nbsp; Should
+you hit it off with him he may be able to put you in the way of profitable
+employment for the ship.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Hit it off!&nbsp; Here was the prominent creature absolutely on board
+asking for the favour of a cup of coffee!&nbsp; And life not being a
+fairy-tale the improbability of the event almost shocked me.&nbsp; Had
+I discovered an enchanted nook of the earth where wealthy merchants
+rush fasting on board ships before they are fairly moored?&nbsp; Was
+this white magic or merely some black trick of trade?&nbsp; I came in
+the end (while making the bow of my tie) to suspect that perhaps I did
+not get the name right.&nbsp; I had been thinking of the prominent Mr.
+Jacobus pretty frequently during the passage and my hearing might have
+been deceived by some remote similarity of sound. . .&nbsp; The steward
+might have said Antrobus&mdash;or maybe Jackson.</p>
+<p>But coming out of my stateroom with an interrogative &ldquo;Mr. Jacobus?&rdquo;
+I was met by a quiet &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; uttered with a gentle smile.&nbsp;
+The &ldquo;yes&rdquo; was rather perfunctory.&nbsp; He did not seem
+to make much of the fact that he was Mr. Jacobus.&nbsp; I took stock
+of a big, pale face, hair thin on the top, whiskers also thin, of a
+faded nondescript colour, heavy eyelids.&nbsp; The thick, smooth lips
+in repose looked as if glued together.&nbsp; The smile was faint.&nbsp;
+A heavy, tranquil man.&nbsp; I named my two officers, who just then
+came down to breakfast; but why Mr. Burns&rsquo;s silent demeanour should
+suggest suppressed indignation I could not understand.</p>
+<p>While we were taking our seats round the table some disconnected
+words of an altercation going on in the companionway reached my ear.&nbsp;
+A stranger apparently wanted to come down to interview me, and the steward
+was opposing him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t see him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t I?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Captain is at breakfast, I tell you.&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll
+be going on shore presently, and you can speak to him on deck.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not fair.&nbsp; You let&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had nothing to do with that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, you have.&nbsp; Everybody ought to have the same
+chance.&nbsp; You let that fellow&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The rest I lost.&nbsp; The person having been repulsed successfully,
+the steward came down.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t say he looked flushed&mdash;he
+was a mulatto&mdash;but he looked flustered.&nbsp; After putting the
+dishes on the table he remained by the sideboard with that lackadaisical
+air of indifference he used to assume when he had done something too
+clever by half and was afraid of getting into a scrape over it.&nbsp;
+The contemptuous expression of Mr. Burns&rsquo;s face as he looked from
+him to me was really extraordinary.&nbsp; I couldn&rsquo;t imagine what
+new bee had stung the mate now.</p>
+<p>The Captain being silent, nobody else cared to speak, as is the way
+in ships.&nbsp; And I was saying nothing simply because I had been made
+dumb by the splendour of the entertainment.&nbsp; I had expected the
+usual sea-breakfast, whereas I beheld spread before us a veritable feast
+of shore provisions: eggs, sausages, butter which plainly did not come
+from a Danish tin, cutlets, and even a dish of potatoes.&nbsp; It was
+three weeks since I had seen a real, live potato.&nbsp; I contemplated
+them with interest, and Mr. Jacobus disclosed himself as a man of human,
+homely sympathies, and something of a thought-reader.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Try them, Captain,&rdquo; he encouraged me in a friendly undertone.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;They are excellent.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They look that,&rdquo; I admitted.&nbsp; &ldquo;Grown on the
+island, I suppose.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no, imported.&nbsp; Those grown here would be more expensive.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was grieved at the ineptitude of the conversation.&nbsp; Were these
+the topics for a prominent and wealthy merchant to discuss?&nbsp; I
+thought the simplicity with which he made himself at home rather attractive;
+but what is one to talk about to a man who comes on one suddenly, after
+sixty-one days at sea, out of a totally unknown little town in an island
+one has never seen before?&nbsp; What were (besides sugar) the interests
+of that crumb of the earth, its gossip, its topics of conversation?&nbsp;
+To draw him on business at once would have been almost indecent&mdash;or
+even worse: impolitic.&nbsp; All I could do at the moment was to keep
+on in the old groove.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are the provisions generally dear here?&rdquo; I asked, fretting
+inwardly at my inanity.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say that,&rdquo; he answered placidly, with
+that appearance of saving his breath his restrained manner of speaking
+suggested.</p>
+<p>He would not be more explicit, yet he did not evade the subject.&nbsp;
+Eyeing the table in a spirit of complete abstemiousness (he wouldn&rsquo;t
+let me help him to any eatables) he went into details of supply.&nbsp;
+The beef was for the most part imported from Madagascar; mutton of course
+was rare and somewhat expensive, but good goat&rsquo;s flesh&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are these goat&rsquo;s cutlets?&rdquo; I exclaimed hastily,
+pointing at one of the dishes.</p>
+<p>Posed sentimentally by the sideboard, the steward gave a start.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Lor&rsquo;, no, sir!&nbsp; It&rsquo;s real mutton!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mr. Burns got through his breakfast impatiently, as if exasperated
+by being made a party to some monstrous foolishness, muttered a curt
+excuse, and went on deck.&nbsp; Shortly afterwards the second mate took
+his smooth red countenance out of the cabin.&nbsp; With the appetite
+of a schoolboy, and after two months of sea-fare, he appreciated the
+generous spread.&nbsp; But I did not.&nbsp; It smacked of extravagance.&nbsp;
+All the same, it was a remarkable feat to have produced it so quickly,
+and I congratulated the steward on his smartness in a somewhat ominous
+tone.&nbsp; He gave me a deprecatory smile and, in a way I didn&rsquo;t
+know what to make of, blinked his fine dark eyes in the direction of
+the guest.</p>
+<p>The latter asked under his breath for another cup of coffee, and
+nibbled ascetically at a piece of very hard ship&rsquo;s biscuit.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t think he consumed a square inch in the end; but meantime
+he gave me, casually as it were, a complete account of the sugar crop,
+of the local business houses, of the state of the freight market.&nbsp;
+All that talk was interspersed with hints as to personalities, amounting
+to veiled warnings, but his pale, fleshy face remained equable, without
+a gleam, as if ignorant of his voice.&nbsp; As you may imagine I opened
+my ears very wide.&nbsp; Every word was precious.&nbsp; My ideas as
+to the value of business friendship were being favourably modified.&nbsp;
+He gave me the names of all the disponible ships together with their
+tonnage and the names of their commanders.&nbsp; From that, which was
+still commercial information, he condescended to mere harbour gossip.&nbsp;
+The <i>Hilda</i> had unaccountably lost her figurehead in the Bay of
+Bengal, and her captain was greatly affected by this.&nbsp; He and the
+ship had been getting on in years together and the old gentleman imagined
+this strange event to be the forerunner of his own early dissolution.&nbsp;
+The <i>Stella</i> had experienced awful weather off the Cape&mdash;had
+her decks swept, and the chief officer washed overboard.&nbsp; And only
+a few hours before reaching port the baby died.</p>
+<p>Poor Captain H- and his wife were terribly cut up.&nbsp; If they
+had only been able to bring it into port alive it could have been probably
+saved; but the wind failed them for the last week or so, light breezes,
+and . . . the baby was going to be buried this afternoon.&nbsp; He supposed
+I would attend&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you think I ought to?&rdquo; I asked, shrinkingly.</p>
+<p>He thought so, decidedly.&nbsp; It would be greatly appreciated.&nbsp;
+All the captains in the harbour were going to attend.&nbsp; Poor Mrs.
+H- was quite prostrated.&nbsp; Pretty hard on H- altogether.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you, Captain&mdash;you are not married I suppose?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, I am not married,&rdquo; I said.&nbsp; &ldquo;Neither
+married nor even engaged.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mentally I thanked my stars; and while he smiled in a musing, dreamy
+fashion, I expressed my acknowledgments for his visit and for the interesting
+business information he had been good enough to impart to me.&nbsp;
+But I said nothing of my wonder thereat.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, I would have made a point of calling on you in
+a day or two,&rdquo; I concluded.</p>
+<p>He raised his eyelids distinctly at me, and somehow managed to look
+rather more sleepy than before.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In accordance with my owners&rsquo; instructions,&rdquo; I
+explained.&nbsp; &ldquo;You have had their letter, of course?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>By that time he had raised his eyebrows too but without any particular
+emotion.&nbsp; On the contrary he struck me then as absolutely imperturbable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; You must be thinking of my brother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was for me, then, to say &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo;&nbsp; But I hope that
+no more than civil surprise appeared in my voice when I asked him to
+what, then, I owed the pleasure. . . . He was reaching for an inside
+pocket leisurely.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My brother&rsquo;s a very different person.&nbsp; But I am
+well known in this part of the world.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ve probably heard&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I took a card he extended to me.&nbsp; A thick business card, as
+I lived!&nbsp; Alfred Jacobus&mdash;the other was Ernest&mdash;dealer
+in every description of ship&rsquo;s stores!&nbsp; Provisions salt and
+fresh, oils, paints, rope, canvas, etc., etc.&nbsp; Ships in harbour
+victualled by contract on moderate terms&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never heard of you,&rdquo; I said brusquely.</p>
+<p>His low-pitched assurance did not abandon him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will be very well satisfied,&rdquo; he breathed out quietly.</p>
+<p>I was not placated.&nbsp; I had the sense of having been circumvented
+somehow.&nbsp; Yet I had deceived myself&mdash;if there was any deception.&nbsp;
+But the confounded cheek of inviting himself to breakfast was enough
+to deceive any one.&nbsp; And the thought struck me: Why!&nbsp; The
+fellow had provided all these eatables himself in the way of business.&nbsp;
+I said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must have got up mighty early this morning.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He admitted with simplicity that he was on the quay before six o&rsquo;clock
+waiting for my ship to come in.&nbsp; He gave me the impression that
+it would be impossible to get rid of him now.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If you think we are going to live on that scale,&rdquo; I
+said, looking at the table with an irritated eye, &ldquo;you are jolly
+well mistaken.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it all right, Captain.&nbsp; I quite understand.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nothing could disturb his equanimity.&nbsp; I felt dissatisfied,
+but I could not very well fly out at him.&nbsp; He had told me many
+useful things&mdash;and besides he was the brother of that wealthy merchant.&nbsp;
+That seemed queer enough.</p>
+<p>I rose and told him curtly that I must now go ashore.&nbsp; At once
+he offered the use of his boat for all the time of my stay in port.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I only make a nominal charge,&rdquo; he continued equably.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;My man remains all day at the landing-steps.&nbsp; You have only
+to blow a whistle when you want the boat.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And, standing aside at every doorway to let me go through first,
+he carried me off in his custody after all.&nbsp; As we crossed the
+quarter-deck two shabby individuals stepped forward and in mournful
+silence offered me business cards which I took from them without a word
+under his heavy eye.&nbsp; It was a useless and gloomy ceremony.&nbsp;
+They were the touts of the other ship-chandlers, and he placid at my
+back, ignored their existence.</p>
+<p>We parted on the quay, after he had expressed quietly the hope of
+seeing me often &ldquo;at the store.&rdquo;&nbsp; He had a smoking-room
+for captains there, with newspapers and a box of &ldquo;rather decent
+cigars.&rdquo;&nbsp; I left him very unceremoniously.</p>
+<p>My consignees received me with the usual business heartiness, but
+their account of the state of the freight-market was by no means so
+favourable as the talk of the wrong Jacobus had led me to expect.&nbsp;
+Naturally I became inclined now to put my trust in his version, rather.&nbsp;
+As I closed the door of the private office behind me I thought to myself:
+&ldquo;H&rsquo;m.&nbsp; A lot of lies.&nbsp; Commercial diplomacy.&nbsp;
+That&rsquo;s the sort of thing a man coming from sea has got to expect.&nbsp;
+They would try to charter the ship under the market rate.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In the big, outer room, full of desks, the chief clerk, a tall, lean,
+shaved person in immaculate white clothes and with a shiny, closely-cropped
+black head on which silvery gleams came and went, rose from his place
+and detained me affably.&nbsp; Anything they could do for me, they would
+be most happy.&nbsp; Was I likely to call again in the afternoon?&nbsp;
+What?&nbsp; Going to a funeral?&nbsp; Oh, yes, poor Captain H-.</p>
+<p>He pulled a long, sympathetic face for a moment, then, dismissing
+from this workaday world the baby, which had got ill in a tempest and
+had died from too much calm at sea, he asked me with a dental, shark-like
+smile&mdash;if sharks had false teeth&mdash;whether I had yet made my
+little arrangements for the ship&rsquo;s stay in port.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, with Jacobus,&rdquo; I answered carelessly.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+understand he&rsquo;s the brother of Mr. Ernest Jacobus to whom I have
+an introduction from my owners.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was not sorry to let him know I was not altogether helpless in
+the hands of his firm.&nbsp; He screwed his thin lips dubiously.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; I cried, &ldquo;isn&rsquo;t he the brother?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes. . . . They haven&rsquo;t spoken to each other for
+eighteen years,&rdquo; he added impressively after a pause.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed!&nbsp; What&rsquo;s the quarrel about?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, nothing!&nbsp; Nothing that one would care to mention,&rdquo;
+he protested primly.&nbsp; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got quite a large business.&nbsp;
+The best ship-chandler here, without a doubt.&nbsp; Business is all
+very well, but there is such a thing as personal character, too, isn&rsquo;t
+there?&nbsp; Good-morning, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He went away mincingly to his desk.&nbsp; He amused me.&nbsp; He
+resembled an old maid, a commercial old maid, shocked by some impropriety.&nbsp;
+Was it a commercial impropriety?&nbsp; Commercial impropriety is a serious
+matter, for it aims at one&rsquo;s pocket.&nbsp; Or was he only a purist
+in conduct who disapproved of Jacobus doing his own touting?&nbsp; It
+was certainly undignified.&nbsp; I wondered how the merchant brother
+liked it.&nbsp; But then different countries, different customs.&nbsp;
+In a community so isolated and so exclusively &ldquo;trading&rdquo;
+social standards have their own scale.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I would have gladly dispensed with the mournful opportunity of becoming
+acquainted by sight with all my fellow-captains at once.&nbsp; However
+I found my way to the cemetery.&nbsp; We made a considerable group of
+bareheaded men in sombre garments.&nbsp; I noticed that those of our
+company most approaching to the now obsolete sea-dog type were the most
+moved&mdash;perhaps because they had less &ldquo;manner&rdquo; than
+the new generation.&nbsp; The old sea-dog, away from his natural element,
+was a simple and sentimental animal.&nbsp; I noticed one&mdash;he was
+facing me across the grave&mdash;who was dropping tears.&nbsp; They
+trickled down his weather-beaten face like drops of rain on an old rugged
+wall.&nbsp; I learned afterwards that he was looked upon as the terror
+of sailors, a hard man; that he had never had wife or chick of his own,
+and that, engaged from his tenderest years in deep-sea voyages, he knew
+women and children merely by sight.</p>
+<p>Perhaps he was dropping those tears over his lost opportunities,
+from sheer envy of paternity and in strange jealousy of a sorrow which
+he could never know.&nbsp; Man, and even the sea-man, is a capricious
+animal, the creature and the victim of lost opportunities.&nbsp; But
+he made me feel ashamed of my callousness.&nbsp; I had no tears.</p>
+<p>I listened with horribly critical detachment to that service I had
+had to read myself, once or twice, over childlike men who had died at
+sea.&nbsp; The words of hope and defiance, the winged words so inspiring
+in the free immensity of water and sky, seemed to fall wearily into
+the little grave.&nbsp; What was the use of asking Death where her sting
+was, before that small, dark hole in the ground?&nbsp; And then my thoughts
+escaped me altogether&mdash;away into matters of life&mdash;and no very
+high matters at that&mdash;ships, freights, business.&nbsp; In the instability
+of his emotions man resembles deplorably a monkey.&nbsp; I was disgusted
+with my thoughts&mdash;and I thought: Shall I be able to get a charter
+soon?&nbsp; Time&rsquo;s money. . . . Will that Jacobus really put good
+business in my way?&nbsp; I must go and see him in a day or two.</p>
+<p>Don&rsquo;t imagine that I pursued these thoughts with any precision.&nbsp;
+They pursued me rather: vague, shadowy, restless, shamefaced.&nbsp;
+Theirs was a callous, abominable, almost revolting, pertinacity.&nbsp;
+And it was the presence of that pertinacious ship-chandler which had
+started them.&nbsp; He stood mournfully amongst our little band of men
+from the sea, and I was angry at his presence, which, suggesting his
+brother the merchant, had caused me to become outrageous to myself.&nbsp;
+For indeed I had preserved some decency of feeling.&nbsp; It was only
+the mind which&mdash;</p>
+<p>It was over at last.&nbsp; The poor father&mdash;a man of forty with
+black, bushy side-whiskers and a pathetic gash on his freshly-shaved
+chin&mdash;thanked us all, swallowing his tears.&nbsp; But for some
+reason, either because I lingered at the gate of the cemetery being
+somewhat hazy as to my way back, or because I was the youngest, or ascribing
+my moodiness caused by remorse to some more worthy and appropriate sentiment,
+or simply because I was even more of a stranger to him than the others&mdash;he
+singled me out.&nbsp; Keeping at my side, he renewed his thanks, which
+I listened to in a gloomy, conscience-stricken silence.&nbsp; Suddenly
+he slipped one hand under my arm and waved the other after a tall, stout
+figure walking away by itself down a street in a flutter of thin, grey
+garments:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good fellow&mdash;a real good fellow&rdquo;&mdash;he
+swallowed down a belated sob&mdash;&ldquo;this Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And he told me in a low voice that Jacobus was the first man to board
+his ship on arrival, and, learning of their misfortune, had taken charge
+of everything, volunteered to attend to all routine business, carried
+off the ship&rsquo;s papers on shore, arranged for the funeral&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A good fellow.&nbsp; I was knocked over.&nbsp; I had been
+looking at my wife for ten days.&nbsp; And helpless.&nbsp; Just you
+think of that!&nbsp; The dear little chap died the very day we made
+the land.&nbsp; How I managed to take the ship in God alone knows!&nbsp;
+I couldn&rsquo;t see anything; I couldn&rsquo;t speak; I couldn&rsquo;t.
+. . . You&rsquo;ve heard, perhaps, that we lost our mate overboard on
+the passage?&nbsp; There was no one to do it for me.&nbsp; And the poor
+woman nearly crazy down below there all alone with the . . . By the
+Lord!&nbsp; It isn&rsquo;t fair.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We walked in silence together.&nbsp; I did not know how to part from
+him.&nbsp; On the quay he let go my arm and struck fiercely his fist
+into the palm of his other hand.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;By God, it isn&rsquo;t fair!&rdquo; he cried again.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you ever marry unless you can chuck the sea first.
+. . . It isn&rsquo;t fair.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had no intention to &ldquo;chuck the sea,&rdquo; and when he left
+me to go aboard his ship I felt convinced that I would never marry.&nbsp;
+While I was waiting at the steps for Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman, who had
+gone off somewhere, the captain of the <i>Hilda</i> joined me, a slender
+silk umbrella in his hand and the sharp points of his archaic, Gladstonian
+shirt-collar framing a small, clean-shaved, ruddy face.&nbsp; It was
+wonderfully fresh for his age, beautifully modelled and lit up by remarkably
+clear blue eyes.&nbsp; A lot of white hair, glossy like spun glass,
+curled upwards slightly under the brim of his valuable, ancient, panama
+hat with a broad black ribbon.&nbsp; In the aspect of that vivacious,
+neat, little old man there was something quaintly angelic and also boyish.</p>
+<p>He accosted me, as though he had been in the habit of seeing me every
+day of his life from my earliest childhood, with a whimsical remark
+on the appearance of a stout negro woman who was sitting upon a stool
+near the edge of the quay.&nbsp; Presently he observed amiably that
+I had a very pretty little barque.</p>
+<p>I returned this civil speech by saying readily:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not so pretty as the <i>Hilda</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>At once the corners of his clear-cut, sensitive mouth dropped dismally.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, dear!&nbsp; I can hardly bear to look at her now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Did I know, he asked anxiously, that he had lost the figurehead of
+his ship; a woman in a blue tunic edged with gold, the face perhaps
+not so very, very pretty, but her bare white arms beautifully shaped
+and extended as if she were swimming?&nbsp; Did I?&nbsp; Who would have
+expected such a things . . . After twenty years too!</p>
+<p>Nobody could have guessed from his tone that the woman was made of
+wood; his trembling voice, his agitated manner gave to his lamentations
+a ludicrously scandalous flavour. . . . Disappeared at night&mdash;a
+clear fine night with just a slight swell&mdash;in the gulf of Bengal.&nbsp;
+Went off without a splash; no one in the ship could tell why, how, at
+what hour&mdash;after twenty years last October. . . . Did I ever hear!
+. . .</p>
+<p>I assured him sympathetically that I had never heard&mdash;and he
+became very doleful.&nbsp; This meant no good he was sure.&nbsp; There
+was something in it which looked like a warning.&nbsp; But when I remarked
+that surely another figure of a woman could be procured I found myself
+being soundly rated for my levity.&nbsp; The old boy flushed pink under
+his clear tan as if I had proposed something improper.&nbsp; One could
+replace masts, I was told, or a lost rudder&mdash;any working part of
+a ship; but where was the use of sticking up a new figurehead?&nbsp;
+What satisfaction?&nbsp; How could one care for it?&nbsp; It was easy
+to see that I had never been shipmates with a figurehead for over twenty
+years.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A new figurehead!&rdquo; he scolded in unquenchable indignation.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Why!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve been a widower now for eight-and-twenty
+years come next May and I would just as soon think of getting a new
+wife.&nbsp; You&rsquo;re as bad as that fellow Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was highly amused.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What has Jacobus done?&nbsp; Did he want you to marry again,
+Captain?&rdquo; I inquired in a deferential tone.&nbsp; But he was launched
+now and only grinned fiercely.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Procure&mdash;indeed!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s the sort of chap to
+procure you anything you like for a price.&nbsp; I hadn&rsquo;t been
+moored here for an hour when he got on board and at once offered to
+sell me a figurehead he happens to have in his yard somewhere.&nbsp;
+He got Smith, my mate, to talk to me about it.&nbsp; &lsquo;Mr. Smith,&rsquo;
+says I, &lsquo;don&rsquo;t you know me better than that?&nbsp; Am I
+the sort that would pick up with another man&rsquo;s cast-off figurehead?&rsquo;&nbsp;
+And after all these years too!&nbsp; The way some of you young fellows
+talk&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I affected great compunction, and as I stepped into the boat I said
+soberly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then I see nothing for it but to fit in a neat fiddlehead&mdash;perhaps.&nbsp;
+You know, carved scrollwork, nicely gilt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He became very dejected after his outburst.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; Scrollwork.&nbsp; Maybe.&nbsp; Jacobus hinted at
+that too.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s never at a loss when there&rsquo;s any money
+to be extracted from a sailorman.&nbsp; He would make me pay through
+the nose for that carving.&nbsp; A gilt fiddlehead did you say&mdash;eh?&nbsp;
+I dare say it would do for you.&nbsp; You young fellows don&rsquo;t
+seem to have any feeling for what&rsquo;s proper.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He made a convulsive gesture with his right arm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind.&nbsp; Nothing can make much difference.&nbsp;
+I would just as soon let the old thing go about the world with a bare
+cutwater,&rdquo; he cried sadly.&nbsp; Then as the boat got away from
+the steps he raised his voice on the edge of the quay with comical animosity:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would!&nbsp; If only to spite that figurehead-procuring
+bloodsucker.&nbsp; I am an old bird here and don&rsquo;t you forget
+it.&nbsp; Come and see me on board some day!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I spent my first evening in port quietly in my ship&rsquo;s cuddy;
+and glad enough was I to think that the shore life which strikes one
+as so pettily complex, discordant, and so full of new faces on first
+coming from sea, could be kept off for a few hours longer.&nbsp; I was
+however fated to hear the Jacobus note once more before I slept.</p>
+<p>Mr. Burns had gone ashore after the evening meal to have, as he said,
+&ldquo;a look round.&rdquo;&nbsp; As it was quite dark when he announced
+his intention I didn&rsquo;t ask him what it was he expected to see.&nbsp;
+Some time about midnight, while sitting with a book in the saloon, I
+heard cautious movements in the lobby and hailed him by name.</p>
+<p>Burns came in, stick and hat in hand, incredibly vulgarised by his
+smart shore togs, with a jaunty air and an odious twinkle in his eye.&nbsp;
+Being asked to sit down he laid his hat and stick on the table and after
+we had talked of ship affairs for a little while:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been hearing pretty tales on shore about that ship-chandler
+fellow who snatched the job from you so neatly, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I remonstrated with my late patient for his manner of expressing
+himself.&nbsp; But he only tossed his head disdainfully.&nbsp; A pretty
+dodge indeed: boarding a strange ship with breakfast in two baskets
+for all hands and calmly inviting himself to the captain&rsquo;s table!&nbsp;
+Never heard of anything so crafty and so impudent in his life.</p>
+<p>I found myself defending Jacobus&rsquo;s unusual methods.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the brother of one of the wealthiest merchants
+in the port.&rdquo;&nbsp; The mate&rsquo;s eyes fairly snapped green
+sparks.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His grand brother hasn&rsquo;t spoken to him for eighteen
+or twenty years,&rdquo; he declared triumphantly.&nbsp; &ldquo;So there!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know all about that,&rdquo; I interrupted loftily.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you sir?&nbsp; H&rsquo;m!&rdquo;&nbsp; His mind was still
+running on the ethics of commercial competition.&nbsp; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+like to see your good nature taken advantage of.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s bribed
+that steward of ours with a five-rupee note to let him come down&mdash;or
+ten for that matter.&nbsp; He don&rsquo;t care.&nbsp; He will shove
+that and more into the bill presently.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is that one of the tales you have heard ashore?&rdquo; I asked.</p>
+<p>He assured me that his own sense could tell him that much.&nbsp;
+No; what he had heard on shore was that no respectable person in the
+whole town would come near Jacobus.&nbsp; He lived in a large old-fashioned
+house in one of the quiet streets with a big garden.&nbsp; After telling
+me this Burns put on a mysterious air.&nbsp; &ldquo;He keeps a girl
+shut up there who, they say&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose you&rsquo;ve heard all this gossip in some eminently
+respectable place?&rdquo; I snapped at him in a most sarcastic tone.</p>
+<p>The shaft told, because Mr. Burns, like many other disagreeable people,
+was very sensitive himself.&nbsp; He remained as if thunderstruck, with
+his mouth open for some further communication, but I did not give him
+the chance.&nbsp; &ldquo;And, anyhow, what the deuce do I care?&rdquo;
+I added, retiring into my room.</p>
+<p>And this was a natural thing to say.&nbsp; Yet somehow I was not
+indifferent.&nbsp; I admit it is absurd to be concerned with the morals
+of one&rsquo;s ship-chandler, if ever so well connected; but his personality
+had stamped itself upon my first day in harbour, in the way you know.</p>
+<p>After this initial exploit Jacobus showed himself anything but intrusive.&nbsp;
+He was out in a boat early every morning going round the ships he served,
+and occasionally remaining on board one of them for breakfast with the
+captain.</p>
+<p>As I discovered that this practice was generally accepted, I just
+nodded to him familiarly when one morning, on coming out of my room,
+I found him in the cabin.&nbsp; Glancing over the table I saw that his
+place was already laid.&nbsp; He stood awaiting my appearance, very
+bulky and placid, holding a beautiful bunch of flowers in his thick
+hand.&nbsp; He offered them to my notice with a faint, sleepy smile.&nbsp;
+From his own garden; had a very fine old garden; picked them himself
+that morning before going out to business; thought I would like. . .
+. He turned away.&nbsp; &ldquo;Steward, can you oblige me with some
+water in a large jar, please.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I assured him jocularly, as I took my place at the table, that he
+made me feel as if I were a pretty girl, and that he mustn&rsquo;t be
+surprised if I blushed.&nbsp; But he was busy arranging his floral tribute
+at the sideboard.&nbsp; &ldquo;Stand it before the Captain&rsquo;s plate,
+steward, please.&rdquo;&nbsp; He made this request in his usual undertone.</p>
+<p>The offering was so pointed that I could do no less than to raise
+it to my nose, and as he sat down noiselessly he breathed out the opinion
+that a few flowers improved notably the appearance of a ship&rsquo;s
+saloon.&nbsp; He wondered why I did not have a shelf fitted all round
+the skylight for flowers in pots to take with me to sea.&nbsp; He had
+a skilled workman able to fit up shelves in a day, and he could procure
+me two or three dozen good plants&mdash;</p>
+<p>The tips of his thick, round fingers rested composedly on the edge
+of the table on each side of his cup of coffee.&nbsp; His face remained
+immovable.&nbsp; Mr. Burns was smiling maliciously to himself.&nbsp;
+I declared that I hadn&rsquo;t the slightest intention of turning my
+skylight into a conservatory only to keep the cabin-table in a perpetual
+mess of mould and dead vegetable matter.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Rear most beautiful flowers,&rdquo; he insisted with an upward
+glance.&nbsp; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no trouble really.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, it is.&nbsp; Lots of trouble,&rdquo; I contradicted.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;And in the end some fool leaves the skylight open in a fresh
+breeze, a flick of salt water gets at them and the whole lot is dead
+in a week.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mr. Burns snorted a contemptuous approval.&nbsp; Jacobus gave up
+the subject passively.&nbsp; After a time he unglued his thick lips
+to ask me if I had seen his brother yet.&nbsp; I was very curt in my
+answer.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, not yet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A very different person,&rdquo; he remarked dreamily and got
+up.&nbsp; His movements were particularly noiseless.&nbsp; &ldquo;Well&mdash;thank
+you, Captain.&nbsp; If anything is not to your liking please mention
+it to your steward.&nbsp; I suppose you will be giving a dinner to the
+office-clerks presently.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What for?&rdquo; I cried with some warmth.&nbsp; &ldquo;If
+I were a steady trader to the port I could understand it.&nbsp; But
+a complete stranger! . . . I may not turn up again here for years.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t see why! . . . Do you mean to say it is customary?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It will be expected from a man like you,&rdquo; he breathed
+out placidly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Eight of the principal clerks, the manager,
+that&rsquo;s nine, you three gentlemen, that&rsquo;s twelve.&nbsp; It
+needn&rsquo;t be very expensive.&nbsp; If you tell your steward to give
+me a day&rsquo;s notice&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It will be expected of me!&nbsp; Why should it be expected
+of me?&nbsp; Is it because I look particularly soft&mdash;or what?</p>
+<p>His immobility struck me as dignified suddenly, his imperturbable
+quality as dangerous.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s plenty of time to think
+about that,&rdquo; I concluded weakly with a gesture that tried to wave
+him away.&nbsp; But before he departed he took time to mention regretfully
+that he had not yet had the pleasure of seeing me at his &ldquo;store&rdquo;
+to sample those cigars.&nbsp; He had a parcel of six thousand to dispose
+of, very cheap.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think it would be worth your while to secure some,&rdquo;
+he added with a fat, melancholy smile and left the cabin.</p>
+<p>Mr. Burns struck his fist on the table excitedly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Did you ever see such impudence!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s made up
+his mind to get something out of you one way or another, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>At once feeling inclined to defend Jacobus, I observed philosophically
+that all this was business, I supposed.&nbsp; But my absurd mate, muttering
+broken disjointed sentences, such as: &ldquo;I cannot bear! . . . Mark
+my words! . . .&rdquo; and so on, flung out of the cabin.&nbsp; If I
+hadn&rsquo;t nursed him through that deadly fever I wouldn&rsquo;t have
+suffered such manners for a single day.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Jacobus having put me in mind of his wealthy brother I concluded
+I would pay that business call at once.&nbsp; I had by that time heard
+a little more of him.&nbsp; He was a member of the Council, where he
+made himself objectionable to the authorities.&nbsp; He exercised a
+considerable influence on public opinion.&nbsp; Lots of people owed
+him money.&nbsp; He was an importer on a great scale of all sorts of
+goods.&nbsp; For instance, the whole supply of bags for sugar was practically
+in his hands.&nbsp; This last fact I did not learn till afterwards.&nbsp;
+The general impression conveyed to me was that of a local personage.&nbsp;
+He was a bachelor and gave weekly card-parties in his house out of town,
+which were attended by the best people in the colony.</p>
+<p>The greater, then, was my surprise to discover his office in shabby
+surroundings, quite away from the business quarter, amongst a lot of
+hovels.&nbsp; Guided by a black board with white lettering, I climbed
+a narrow wooden staircase and entered a room with a bare floor of planks
+littered with bits of brown paper and wisps of packing straw.&nbsp;
+A great number of what looked like wine-cases were piled up against
+one of the walls.&nbsp; A lanky, inky, light-yellow, mulatto youth,
+miserably long-necked and generally recalling a sick chicken, got off
+a three-legged stool behind a cheap deal desk and faced me as if gone
+dumb with fright.&nbsp; I had some difficulty in persuading him to take
+in my name, though I could not get from him the nature of his objection.&nbsp;
+He did it at last with an almost agonised reluctance which ceased to
+be mysterious to me when I heard him being sworn at menacingly with
+savage, suppressed growls, then audibly cuffed and finally kicked out
+without any concealment whatever; because he came back flying head foremost
+through the door with a stifled shriek.</p>
+<p>To say I was startled would not express it.&nbsp; I remained still,
+like a man lost in a dream.&nbsp; Clapping both his hands to that part
+of his frail anatomy which had received the shock, the poor wretch said
+to me simply:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will you go in, please.&rdquo;&nbsp; His lamentable self-possession
+was wonderful; but it did not do away with the incredibility of the
+experience.&nbsp; A preposterous notion that I had seen this boy somewhere
+before, a thing obviously impossible, was like a delicate finishing
+touch of weirdness added to a scene fit to raise doubts as to one&rsquo;s
+sanity.&nbsp; I stared anxiously about me like an awakened somnambulist.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I say,&rdquo; I cried loudly, &ldquo;there isn&rsquo;t a mistake,
+is there?&nbsp; This is Mr. Jacobus&rsquo;s office.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The boy gazed at me with a pained expression&mdash;and somehow so
+familiar!&nbsp; A voice within growled offensively:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come in, come in, since you are there. . . . I didn&rsquo;t
+know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I crossed the outer room as one approaches the den of some unknown
+wild beast; with intrepidity but in some excitement.&nbsp; Only no wild
+beast that ever lived would rouse one&rsquo;s indignation; the power
+to do that belongs to the odiousness of the human brute.&nbsp; And I
+was very indignant, which did not prevent me from being at once struck
+by the extraordinary resemblance of the two brothers.</p>
+<p>This one was dark instead of being fair like the other; but he was
+as big.&nbsp; He was without his coat and waistcoat; he had been doubtless
+snoozing in the rocking-chair which stood in a corner furthest from
+the window.&nbsp; Above the great bulk of his crumpled white shirt,
+buttoned with three diamond studs, his round face looked swarthy.&nbsp;
+It was moist; his brown moustache hung limp and ragged.&nbsp; He pushed
+a common, cane-bottomed chair towards me with his foot.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sit down.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I glanced at it casually, then, turning my indignant eyes full upon
+him, I declared in precise and incisive tones that I had called in obedience
+to my owners&rsquo; instructions.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; H&rsquo;m!&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t understand
+what that fool was saying. . . . But never mind!&nbsp; It will teach
+the scoundrel to disturb me at this time of the day,&rdquo; he added,
+grinning at me with savage cynicism.</p>
+<p>I looked at my watch.&nbsp; It was past three o&rsquo;clock&mdash;quite
+the full swing of afternoon office work in the port.&nbsp; He snarled
+imperiously: &ldquo;Sit down, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I acknowledged the gracious invitation by saying deliberately:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I can listen to all you may have to say without sitting down.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Emitting a loud and vehement &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; he glared for a
+moment, very round-eyed and fierce.&nbsp; It was like a gigantic tomcat
+spitting at one suddenly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Look at him! . . . What do you
+fancy yourself to be?&nbsp; What did you come here for?&nbsp; If you
+won&rsquo;t sit down and talk business you had better go to the devil.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know him personally,&rdquo; I said.&nbsp; &ldquo;But
+after this I wouldn&rsquo;t mind calling on him.&nbsp; It would be refreshing
+to meet a gentleman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He followed me, growling behind my back:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The impudence!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve a good mind to write to your
+owners what I think of you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I turned on him for a moment:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As it happens I don&rsquo;t care.&nbsp; For my part I assure
+you I won&rsquo;t even take the trouble to mention you to them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He stopped at the door of his office while I traversed the littered
+anteroom.&nbsp; I think he was somewhat taken aback.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will break every bone in your body,&rdquo; he roared suddenly
+at the miserable mulatto lad, &ldquo;if you ever dare to disturb me
+before half-past three for anybody.&nbsp; D&rsquo;ye hear?&nbsp; For
+anybody! . . . Let alone any damned skipper,&rdquo; he added, in a lower
+growl.</p>
+<p>The frail youngster, swaying like a reed, made a low moaning sound.&nbsp;
+I stopped short and addressed this sufferer with advice.&nbsp; It was
+prompted by the sight of a hammer (used for opening the wine-cases,
+I suppose) which was lying on the floor.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If I were you, my boy, I would have that thing up my sleeve
+when I went in next and at the first occasion I would&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>What was there so familiar in that lad&rsquo;s yellow face?&nbsp;
+Entrenched and quaking behind the flimsy desk, he never looked up.&nbsp;
+His heavy, lowered eyelids gave me suddenly the clue of the puzzle.&nbsp;
+He resembled&mdash;yes, those thick glued lips&mdash;he resembled the
+brothers Jacobus.&nbsp; He resembled both, the wealthy merchant and
+the pushing shopkeeper (who resembled each other); he resembled them
+as much as a thin, light-yellow mulatto lad may resemble a big, stout,
+middle-aged white man.&nbsp; It was the exotic complexion and the slightness
+of his build which had put me off so completely.&nbsp; Now I saw in
+him unmistakably the Jacobus strain, weakened, attenuated, diluted as
+it were in a bucket of water&mdash;and I refrained from finishing my
+speech.&nbsp; I had intended to say: &ldquo;Crack this brute&rsquo;s
+head for him.&rdquo;&nbsp; I still felt the conclusion to be sound.&nbsp;
+But it is no trifling responsibility to counsel parricide to any one,
+however deeply injured.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Beggarly&mdash;cheeky&mdash;skippers.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I despised the emphatic growl at my back; only, being much vexed
+and upset, I regret to say that I slammed the door behind me in a most
+undignified manner.</p>
+<p>It may not appear altogether absurd if I say that I brought out from
+that interview a kindlier view of the other Jacobus.&nbsp; It was with
+a feeling resembling partisanship that, a few days later, I called at
+his &ldquo;store.&rdquo;&nbsp; That long, cavern-like place of business,
+very dim at the back and stuffed full of all sorts of goods, was entered
+from the street by a lofty archway.&nbsp; At the far end I saw my Jacobus
+exerting himself in his shirt-sleeves among his assistants.&nbsp; The
+captains&rsquo; room was a small, vaulted apartment with a stone floor
+and heavy iron bars in its windows like a dungeon converted to hospitable
+purposes.&nbsp; A couple of cheerful bottles and several gleaming glasses
+made a brilliant cluster round a tall, cool red earthenware pitcher
+on the centre table which was littered with newspapers from all parts
+of the world.&nbsp; A well-groomed stranger in a smart grey check suit,
+sitting with one leg flung over his knee, put down one of these sheets
+briskly and nodded to me.</p>
+<p>I guessed him to be a steamer-captain.&nbsp; It was impossible to
+get to know these men.&nbsp; They came and went too quickly and their
+ships lay moored far out, at the very entrance of the harbour.&nbsp;
+Theirs was another life altogether.&nbsp; He yawned slightly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dull hole, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I understood this to allude to the town.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you find it so?&rdquo; I murmured.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you?&nbsp; But I&rsquo;m off to-morrow, thank
+goodness.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was a very gentlemanly person, good-natured and superior.&nbsp;
+I watched him draw the open box of cigars to his side of the table,
+take a big cigar-case out of his pocket and begin to fill it very methodically.&nbsp;
+Presently, on our eyes meeting, he winked like a common mortal and invited
+me to follow his example.&nbsp; &ldquo;They are really decent smokes.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+I shook my head.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am not off to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What of that?&nbsp; Think I am abusing old Jacobus&rsquo;s
+hospitality?&nbsp; Heavens!&nbsp; It goes into the bill, of course.&nbsp;
+He spreads such little matters all over his account.&nbsp; He can take
+care of himself!&nbsp; Why, it&rsquo;s business&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I noted a shadow fall over his well-satisfied expression, a momentary
+hesitation in closing his cigar-case.&nbsp; But he ended by putting
+it in his pocket jauntily.&nbsp; A placid voice uttered in the doorway:
+&ldquo;That&rsquo;s quite correct, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The large noiseless Jacobus advanced into the room.&nbsp; His quietness,
+in the circumstances, amounted to cordiality.&nbsp; He had put on his
+jacket before joining us, and he sat down in the chair vacated by the
+steamer-man, who nodded again to me and went out with a short, jarring
+laugh.&nbsp; A profound silence reigned.&nbsp; With his drowsy stare
+Jacobus seemed to be slumbering open-eyed.&nbsp; Yet, somehow, I was
+aware of being profoundly scrutinised by those heavy eyes.&nbsp; In
+the enormous cavern of the store somebody began to nail down a case,
+expertly: tap-tap . . . tap-tap-tap.</p>
+<p>Two other experts, one slow and nasal, the other shrill and snappy,
+started checking an invoice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A half-coil of three-inch manilla rope.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Six assorted shackles.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Six tins assorted soups, three of pat&eacute;, two asparagus,
+fourteen pounds tobacco, cabin.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Right!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s for the captain who was here just now,&rdquo; breathed
+out the immovable Jacobus.&nbsp; &ldquo;These steamer orders are very
+small.&nbsp; They pick up what they want as they go along.&nbsp; That
+man will be in Samarang in less than a fortnight.&nbsp; Very small orders
+indeed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The calling over of the items went on in the shop; an extraordinary
+jumble of varied articles, paint-brushes, Yorkshire Relish, etc., etc.
+. . . &ldquo;Three sacks of best potatoes,&rdquo; read out the nasal
+voice.</p>
+<p>At this Jacobus blinked like a sleeping man roused by a shake, and
+displayed some animation.&nbsp; At his order, shouted into the shop,
+a smirking half-caste clerk with his ringlets much oiled and with a
+pen stuck behind his ear, brought in a sample of six potatoes which
+he paraded in a row on the table.</p>
+<p>Being urged to look at their beauty I gave them a cold and hostile
+glance.&nbsp; Calmly, Jacobus proposed that I should order ten or fifteen
+tons&mdash;tons!&nbsp; I couldn&rsquo;t believe my ears.&nbsp; My crew
+could not have eaten such a lot in a year; and potatoes (excuse these
+practical remarks) are a highly perishable commodity.&nbsp; I thought
+he was joking&mdash;or else trying to find out whether I was an unutterable
+idiot.&nbsp; But his purpose was not so simple.&nbsp; I discovered that
+he meant me to buy them on my own account.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am proposing you a bit of business, Captain.&nbsp; I wouldn&rsquo;t
+charge you a great price.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I told him that I did not go in for trade.&nbsp; I even added grimly
+that I knew only too well how that sort of spec. generally ended.</p>
+<p>He sighed and clasped his hands on his stomach with exemplary resignation.&nbsp;
+I admired the placidity of his impudence.&nbsp; Then waking up somewhat:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you try a cigar, Captain?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, thanks.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t smoke cigars.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;For once!&rdquo; he exclaimed, in a patient whisper.&nbsp;
+A melancholy silence ensued.&nbsp; You know how sometimes a person discloses
+a certain unsuspected depth and acuteness of thought; that is, in other
+words, utters something unexpected.&nbsp; It was unexpected enough to
+hear Jacobus say:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The man who just went out was right enough.&nbsp; You might
+take one, Captain.&nbsp; Here everything is bound to be in the way of
+business.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I felt a little ashamed of myself.&nbsp; The remembrance of his horrid
+brother made him appear quite a decent sort of fellow.&nbsp; It was
+with some compunction that I said a few words to the effect that I could
+have no possible objection to his hospitality.</p>
+<p>Before I was a minute older I saw where this admission was leading
+me.&nbsp; As if changing the subject, Jacobus mentioned that his private
+house was about ten minutes&rsquo; walk away.&nbsp; It had a beautiful
+old walled garden.&nbsp; Something really remarkable.&nbsp; I ought
+to come round some day and have a look at it.</p>
+<p>He seemed to be a lover of gardens.&nbsp; I too take extreme delight
+in them; but I did not mean my compunction to carry me as far as Jacobus&rsquo;s
+flower-beds, however beautiful and old.&nbsp; He added, with a certain
+homeliness of tone:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only my girl there.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It is difficult to set everything down in due order; so I must revert
+here to what happened a week or two before.&nbsp; The medical officer
+of the port had come on board my ship to have a look at one of my crew
+who was ailing, and naturally enough he was asked to step into the cabin.&nbsp;
+A fellow-shipmaster of mine was there too; and in the conversation,
+somehow or other, the name of Jacobus came to be mentioned.&nbsp; It
+was pronounced with no particular reverence by the other man, I believe.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t remember now what I was going to say.&nbsp; The doctor&mdash;a
+pleasant, cultivated fellow, with an assured manner&mdash;prevented
+me by striking in, in a sour tone:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&nbsp; You&rsquo;re talking about my respected papa-in-law.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Of course, that sally silenced us at the time.&nbsp; But I remembered
+the episode, and at this juncture, pushed for something noncommittal
+to say, I inquired with polite surprise:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You have your married daughter living with you, Mr. Jacobus?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He moved his big hand from right to left quietly.&nbsp; No!&nbsp;
+That was another of his girls, he stated, ponderously and under his
+breath as usual.&nbsp; She . . . He seemed in a pause to be ransacking
+his mind for some kind of descriptive phrase.&nbsp; But my hopes were
+disappointed.&nbsp; He merely produced his stereotyped definition.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s a very different sort of person.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed. . . . And by the by, Jacobus, I called on your brother
+the other day.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s no great compliment if I say that I
+found him a very different sort of person from you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He had an air of profound reflection, then remarked quaintly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a man of regular habits.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He might have been alluding to the habit of late siesta; but I mumbled
+something about &ldquo;beastly habits anyhow&rdquo;&mdash;and left the
+store abruptly.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>My little passage with Jacobus the merchant became known generally.&nbsp;
+One or two of my acquaintances made distant allusions to it.&nbsp; Perhaps
+the mulatto boy had talked.&nbsp; I must confess that people appeared
+rather scandalised, but not with Jacobus&rsquo;s brutality.&nbsp; A
+man I knew remonstrated with me for my hastiness.</p>
+<p>I gave him the whole story of my visit, not forgetting the tell-tale
+resemblance of the wretched mulatto boy to his tormentor.&nbsp; He was
+not surprised.&nbsp; No doubt, no doubt.&nbsp; What of that?&nbsp; In
+a jovial tone he assured me that there must be many of that sort.&nbsp;
+The elder Jacobus had been a bachelor all his life.&nbsp; A highly respectable
+bachelor.&nbsp; But there had never been open scandal in that connection.&nbsp;
+His life had been quite regular.&nbsp; It could cause no offence to
+any one.</p>
+<p>I said that I had been offended considerably.&nbsp; My interlocutor
+opened very wide eyes.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because a mulatto lad got a
+few knocks?&nbsp; That was not a great affair, surely.&nbsp; I had no
+idea how insolent and untruthful these half-castes were.&nbsp; In fact
+he seemed to think Mr. Jacobus rather kind than otherwise to employ
+that youth at all; a sort of amiable weakness which could be forgiven.</p>
+<p>This acquaintance of mine belonged to one of the old French families,
+descendants of the old colonists; all noble, all impoverished, and living
+a narrow domestic life in dull, dignified decay.&nbsp; The men, as a
+rule, occupy inferior posts in Government offices or in business houses.&nbsp;
+The girls are almost always pretty, ignorant of the world, kind and
+agreeable and generally bilingual; they prattle innocently both in French
+and English.&nbsp; The emptiness of their existence passes belief.</p>
+<p>I obtained my entry into a couple of such households because some
+years before, in Bombay, I had occasion to be of use to a pleasant,
+ineffectual young man who was rather stranded there, not knowing what
+to do with himself or even how to get home to his island again.&nbsp;
+It was a matter of two hundred rupees or so, but, when I turned up,
+the family made a point of showing their gratitude by admitting me to
+their intimacy.&nbsp; My knowledge of the French language made me specially
+acceptable.&nbsp; They had meantime managed to marry the fellow to a
+woman nearly twice his age, comparatively well off: the only profession
+he was really fit for.&nbsp; But it was not all cakes and ale.&nbsp;
+The first time I called on the couple she spied a little spot of grease
+on the poor devil&rsquo;s pantaloons and made him a screaming scene
+of reproaches so full of sincere passion that I sat terrified as at
+a tragedy of Racine.</p>
+<p>Of course there was never question of the money I had advanced him;
+but his sisters, Miss Angele and Miss Mary, and the aunts of both families,
+who spoke quaint archaic French of pre-Revolution period, and a host
+of distant relations adopted me for a friend outright in a manner which
+was almost embarrassing.</p>
+<p>It was with the eldest brother (he was employed at a desk in my consignee&rsquo;s
+office) that I was having this talk about the merchant Jacobus.&nbsp;
+He regretted my attitude and nodded his head sagely.&nbsp; An influential
+man.&nbsp; One never knew when one would need him.&nbsp; I expressed
+my immense preference for the shopkeeper of the two.&nbsp; At that my
+friend looked grave.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth are you pulling that long face about?&rdquo;
+I cried impatiently.&nbsp; &ldquo;He asked me to see his garden and
+I have a good mind to go some day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t do that,&rdquo; he said, so earnestly that I burst
+into a fit of laughter; but he looked at me without a smile.</p>
+<p>This was another matter altogether.&nbsp; At one time the public
+conscience of the island had been mightily troubled by my Jacobus.&nbsp;
+The two brothers had been partners for years in great harmony, when
+a wandering circus came to the island and my Jacobus became suddenly
+infatuated with one of the lady-riders.&nbsp; What made it worse was
+that he was married.&nbsp; He had not even the grace to conceal his
+passion.&nbsp; It must have been strong indeed to carry away such a
+large placid creature.&nbsp; His behaviour was perfectly scandalous.&nbsp;
+He followed that woman to the Cape, and apparently travelled at the
+tail of that beastly circus to other parts of the world, in a most degrading
+position.&nbsp; The woman soon ceased to care for him, and treated him
+worse than a dog.&nbsp; Most extraordinary stories of moral degradation
+were reaching the island at that time.&nbsp; He had not the strength
+of mind to shake himself free. . . .</p>
+<p>The grotesque image of a fat, pushing ship-chandler, enslaved by
+an unholy love-spell, fascinated me; and I listened rather open-mouthed
+to the tale as old as the world, a tale which had been the subject of
+legend, of moral fables, of poems, but which so ludicrously failed to
+fit the personality.&nbsp; What a strange victim for the gods!</p>
+<p>Meantime his deserted wife had died.&nbsp; His daughter was taken
+care of by his brother, who married her as advantageously as was possible
+in the circumstances.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; The Mrs. Doctor!&rdquo; I exclaimed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You know that?&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; A very able man.&nbsp; He
+wanted a lift in the world, and there was a good bit of money from her
+mother, besides the expectations. . . Of course, they don&rsquo;t know
+him,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp; &ldquo;The doctor nods in the street, I
+believe, but he avoids speaking to him when they meet on board a ship,
+as must happen sometimes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I remarked that this surely was an old story by now.</p>
+<p>My friend assented.&nbsp; But it was Jacobus&rsquo;s own fault that
+it was neither forgiven nor forgotten.&nbsp; He came back ultimately.&nbsp;
+But how?&nbsp; Not in a spirit of contrition, in a way to propitiate
+his scandalised fellow-citizens.&nbsp; He must needs drag along with
+him a child&mdash;a girl. . . .</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He spoke to me of a daughter who lives with him,&rdquo; I
+observed, very much interested.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s certainly the daughter of the circus-woman,&rdquo;
+said my friend.&nbsp; &ldquo;She may be his daughter too; I am willing
+to admit that she is.&nbsp; In fact I have no doubt&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But he did not see why she should have been brought into a respectable
+community to perpetuate the memory of the scandal.&nbsp; And that was
+not the worst.&nbsp; Presently something much more distressing happened.&nbsp;
+That abandoned woman turned up.&nbsp; Landed from a mail-boat. . . .</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What!&nbsp; Here?&nbsp; To claim the child perhaps,&rdquo;
+I suggested.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not she!&rdquo;&nbsp; My friendly informant was very scornful.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Imagine a painted, haggard, agitated, desperate hag.&nbsp; Been
+cast off in Mozambique by somebody who paid her passage here.&nbsp;
+She had been injured internally by a kick from a horse; she hadn&rsquo;t
+a cent on her when she got ashore; I don&rsquo;t think she even asked
+to see the child.&nbsp; At any rate, not till the last day of her life.&nbsp;
+Jacobus hired for her a bungalow to die in.&nbsp; He got a couple of
+Sisters from the hospital to nurse her through these few months.&nbsp;
+If he didn&rsquo;t marry her <i>in extremis</i> as the good Sisters
+tried to bring about, it&rsquo;s because she wouldn&rsquo;t even hear
+of it.&nbsp; As the nuns said: &lsquo;The woman died impenitent.&rsquo;&nbsp;
+It was reported that she ordered Jacobus out of the room with her last
+breath.&nbsp; This may be the real reason why he didn&rsquo;t go into
+mourning himself; he only put the child into black.&nbsp; While she
+was little she was to be seen sometimes about the streets attended by
+a negro woman, but since she became of age to put her hair up I don&rsquo;t
+think she has set foot outside that garden once.&nbsp; She must be over
+eighteen now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Thus my friend, with some added details; such as, that he didn&rsquo;t
+think the girl had spoken to three people of any position in the island;
+that an elderly female relative of the brothers Jacobus had been induced
+by extreme poverty to accept the position of gouvernante to the girl.&nbsp;
+As to Jacobus&rsquo;s business (which certainly annoyed his brother)
+it was a wise choice on his part.&nbsp; It brought him in contact only
+with strangers of passage; whereas any other would have given rise to
+all sorts of awkwardness with his social equals.&nbsp; The man was not
+wanting in a certain tact&mdash;only he was naturally shameless.&nbsp;
+For why did he want to keep that girl with him?&nbsp; It was most painful
+for everybody.</p>
+<p>I thought suddenly (and with profound disgust) of the other Jacobus,
+and I could not refrain from saying slily:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose if he employed her, say, as a scullion in his household
+and occasionally pulled her hair or boxed her ears, the position would
+have been more regular&mdash;less shocking to the respectable class
+to which he belongs.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was not so stupid as to miss my intention, and shrugged his shoulders
+impatiently.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t understand.&nbsp; To begin with, she&rsquo;s
+not a mulatto.&nbsp; And a scandal is a scandal.&nbsp; People should
+be given a chance to forget.&nbsp; I dare say it would have been better
+for her if she had been turned into a scullion or something of that
+kind.&nbsp; Of course he&rsquo;s trying to make money in every sort
+of petty way, but in such a business there&rsquo;ll never be enough
+for anybody to come forward.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>When my friend left me I had a conception of Jacobus and his daughter
+existing, a lonely pair of castaways, on a desert island; the girl sheltering
+in the house as if it were a cavern in a cliff, and Jacobus going out
+to pick up a living for both on the beach&mdash;exactly like two shipwrecked
+people who always hope for some rescuer to bring them back at last into
+touch with the rest of mankind.</p>
+<p>But Jacobus&rsquo;s bodily reality did not fit in with this romantic
+view.&nbsp; When he turned up on board in the usual course, he sipped
+the cup of coffee placidly, asked me if I was satisfied&mdash;and I
+hardly listened to the harbour gossip he dropped slowly in his low,
+voice-saving enunciation.&nbsp; I had then troubles of my own.&nbsp;
+My ship chartered, my thoughts dwelling on the success of a quick round
+voyage, I had been suddenly confronted by a shortage of bags.&nbsp;
+A catastrophe!&nbsp; The stock of one especial kind, called pockets,
+seemed to be totally exhausted.&nbsp; A consignment was shortly expected&mdash;it
+was afloat, on its way, but, meantime, the loading of my ship dead stopped,
+I had enough to worry about.&nbsp; My consignees, who had received me
+with such heartiness on my arrival, now, in the character of my charterers,
+listened to my complaints with polite helplessness.&nbsp; Their manager,
+the old-maidish, thin man, who so prudishly didn&rsquo;t even like to
+speak about the impure Jacobus, gave me the correct commercial view
+of the position.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My dear Captain&rdquo;&mdash;he was retracting his leathery
+cheeks into a condescending, shark-like smile&mdash;&ldquo;we were not
+morally obliged to tell you of a possible shortage before you signed
+the charter-party.&nbsp; It was for you to guard against the contingency
+of a delay&mdash;strictly speaking.&nbsp; But of course we shouldn&rsquo;t
+have taken any advantage.&nbsp; This is no one&rsquo;s fault really.&nbsp;
+We ourselves have been taken unawares,&rdquo; he concluded primly, with
+an obvious lie.</p>
+<p>This lecture I confess had made me thirsty.&nbsp; Suppressed rage
+generally produces that effect; and as I strolled on aimlessly I bethought
+myself of the tall earthenware pitcher in the captains&rsquo; room of
+the Jacobus &ldquo;store.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>With no more than a nod to the men I found assembled there, I poured
+down a deep, cool draught on my indignation, then another, and then,
+becoming dejected, I sat plunged in cheerless reflections.&nbsp; The
+others read, talked, smoked, bandied over my head some unsubtle chaff.&nbsp;
+But my abstraction was respected.&nbsp; And it was without a word to
+any one that I rose and went out, only to be quite unexpectedly accosted
+in the bustle of the store by Jacobus the outcast.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Glad to see you, Captain.&nbsp; What?&nbsp; Going away?&nbsp;
+You haven&rsquo;t been looking so well these last few days, I notice.&nbsp;
+Run down, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was in his shirt-sleeves, and his words were in the usual course
+of business, but they had a human note.&nbsp; It was commercial amenity,
+but I had been a stranger to amenity in that connection.&nbsp; I do
+verily believe (from the direction of his heavy glance towards a certain
+shelf) that he was going to suggest the purchase of Clarkson&rsquo;s
+Nerve Tonic, which he kept in stock, when I said impulsively:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am rather in trouble with my loading.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Wide awake under his sleepy, broad mask with glued lips, he understood
+at once, had a movement of the head so appreciative that I relieved
+my exasperation by exclaiming:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Surely there must be eleven hundred quarter-bags to be found
+in the colony.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s only a matter of looking for them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again that slight movement of the big head, and in the noise and
+activity of the store that tranquil murmur:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To be sure.&nbsp; But then people likely to have a reserve
+of quarter-bags wouldn&rsquo;t want to sell.&nbsp; They&rsquo;d need
+that size themselves.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s exactly what my consignees are telling me.&nbsp;
+Impossible to buy.&nbsp; Bosh!&nbsp; They don&rsquo;t want to.&nbsp;
+It suits them to have the ship hung up.&nbsp; But if I were to discover
+the lot they would have to&mdash;Look here, Jacobus!&nbsp; You are the
+man to have such a thing up your sleeve.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He protested with a ponderous swing of his big head.&nbsp; I stood
+before him helplessly, being looked at by those heavy eyes with a veiled
+expression as of a man after some soul-shaking crisis.&nbsp; Then, suddenly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to talk quietly here,&rdquo; he whispered.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I am very busy.&nbsp; But if you could go and wait for me in
+my house.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s less than ten minutes&rsquo; walk.&nbsp;
+Oh, yes, you don&rsquo;t know the way.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He called for his coat and offered to take me there himself.&nbsp;
+He would have to return to the store at once for an hour or so to finish
+his business, and then he would be at liberty to talk over with me that
+matter of quarter-bags.&nbsp; This programme was breathed out at me
+through slightly parted, still lips; his heavy, motionless glance rested
+upon me, placid as ever, the glance of a tired man&mdash;but I felt
+that it was searching, too.&nbsp; I could not imagine what he was looking
+for in me and kept silent, wondering.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am asking you to wait for me in my house till I am at liberty
+to talk this matter over.&nbsp; You will?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why, of course!&rdquo; I cried.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I cannot promise&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I dare say not,&rdquo; I said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+expect a promise.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I mean I can&rsquo;t even promise to try the move I&rsquo;ve
+in my mind.&nbsp; One must see first . . . h&rsquo;m!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All right.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll take the chance.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll
+wait for you as long as you like.&nbsp; What else have I to do in this
+infernal hole of a port!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Before I had uttered my last words we had set off at a swinging pace.&nbsp;
+We turned a couple of corners and entered a street completely empty
+of traffic, of semi-rural aspect, paved with cobblestones nestling in
+grass tufts.&nbsp; The house came to the line of the roadway; a single
+story on an elevated basement of rough-stones, so that our heads were
+below the level of the windows as we went along.&nbsp; All the jalousies
+were tightly shut, like eyes, and the house seemed fast asleep in the
+afternoon sunshine.&nbsp; The entrance was at the side, in an alley
+even more grass-grown than the street: a small door, simply on the latch.</p>
+<p>With a word of apology as to showing me the way, Jacobus preceded
+me up a dark passage and led me across the naked parquet floor of what
+I supposed to be the dining-room.&nbsp; It was lighted by three glass
+doors which stood wide open on to a verandah or rather loggia running
+its brick arches along the garden side of the house.&nbsp; It was really
+a magnificent garden: smooth green lawns and a gorgeous maze of flower-beds
+in the foreground, displayed around a basin of dark water framed in
+a marble rim, and in the distance the massed foliage of varied trees
+concealing the roofs of other houses.&nbsp; The town might have been
+miles away.&nbsp; It was a brilliantly coloured solitude, drowsing in
+a warm, voluptuous silence.&nbsp; Where the long, still shadows fell
+across the beds, and in shady nooks, the massed colours of the flowers
+had an extraordinary magnificence of effect.&nbsp; I stood entranced.&nbsp;
+Jacobus grasped me delicately above the elbow, impelling me to a half-turn
+to the left.</p>
+<p>I had not noticed the girl before.&nbsp; She occupied a low, deep,
+wickerwork arm-chair, and I saw her in exact profile like a figure in
+a tapestry, and as motionless.&nbsp; Jacobus released my arm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;This is Alice,&rdquo; he announced tranquilly; and his subdued
+manner of speaking made it sound so much like a confidential communication
+that I fancied myself nodding understandingly and whispering: &ldquo;I
+see, I see.&rdquo; . . . Of course, I did nothing of the kind.&nbsp;
+Neither of us did anything; we stood side by side looking down at the
+girl.&nbsp; For quite a time she did not stir, staring straight before
+her as if watching the vision of some pageant passing through the garden
+in the deep, rich glow of light and the splendour of flowers.</p>
+<p>Then, coming to the end of her reverie, she looked round and up.&nbsp;
+If I had not at first noticed her, I am certain that she too had been
+unaware of my presence till she actually perceived me by her father&rsquo;s
+side.&nbsp; The quickened upward movement of the heavy eyelids, the
+widening of the languid glance, passing into a fixed stare, put that
+beyond doubt.</p>
+<p>Under her amazement there was a hint of fear, and then came a flash
+as of anger.&nbsp; Jacobus, after uttering my name fairly loud, said:
+&ldquo;Make yourself at home, Captain&mdash;I won&rsquo;t be gone long,&rdquo;
+and went away rapidly.&nbsp; Before I had time to make a bow I was left
+alone with the girl&mdash;who, I remembered suddenly, had not been seen
+by any man or woman of that town since she had found it necessary to
+put up her hair.&nbsp; It looked as though it had not been touched again
+since that distant time of first putting up; it was a mass of black,
+lustrous locks, twisted anyhow high on her head, with long, untidy wisps
+hanging down on each side of the clear sallow face; a mass so thick
+and strong and abundant that, nothing but to look at, it gave you a
+sensation of heavy pressure on the top of your head and an impression
+of magnificently cynical untidiness.&nbsp; She leaned forward, hugging
+herself with crossed legs; a dingy, amber-coloured, flounced wrapper
+of some thin stuff revealed the young supple body drawn together tensely
+in the deep low seat as if crouching for a spring.&nbsp; I detected
+a slight, quivering start or two, which looked uncommonly like bounding
+away.&nbsp; They were followed by the most absolute immobility.</p>
+<p>The absurd impulse to run out after Jacobus (for I had been startled,
+too) once repressed, I took a chair, placed it not very far from her,
+sat down deliberately, and began to talk about the garden, caring not
+what I said, but using a gentle caressing intonation as one talks to
+soothe a startled wild animal.&nbsp; I could not even be certain that
+she understood me.&nbsp; She never raised her face nor attempted to
+look my way.&nbsp; I kept on talking only to prevent her from taking
+flight.&nbsp; She had another of those quivering, repressed starts which
+made me catch my breath with apprehension.</p>
+<p>Ultimately I formed a notion that what prevented her perhaps from
+going off in one great, nervous leap, was the scantiness of her attire.&nbsp;
+The wicker armchair was the most substantial thing about her person.&nbsp;
+What she had on under that dingy, loose, amber wrapper must have been
+of the most flimsy and airy character.&nbsp; One could not help being
+aware of it.&nbsp; It was obvious.&nbsp; I felt it actually embarrassing
+at first; but that sort of embarrassment is got over easily by a mind
+not enslaved by narrow prejudices.&nbsp; I did not avert my gaze from
+Alice.&nbsp; I went on talking with ingratiating softness, the recollection
+that, most likely, she had never before been spoken to by a strange
+man adding to my assurance.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know why an emotional
+tenseness should have crept into the situation.&nbsp; But it did.&nbsp;
+And just as I was becoming aware of it a slight scream cut short my
+flow of urbane speech.</p>
+<p>The scream did not proceed from the girl.&nbsp; It was emitted behind
+me, and caused me to turn my head sharply.&nbsp; I understood at once
+that the apparition in the doorway was the elderly relation of Jacobus,
+the companion, the gouvernante.&nbsp; While she remained thunderstruck,
+I got up and made her a low bow.</p>
+<p>The ladies of Jacobus&rsquo;s household evidently spent their days
+in light attire.&nbsp; This stumpy old woman with a face like a large
+wrinkled lemon, beady eyes, and a shock of iron-grey hair, was dressed
+in a garment of some ash-coloured, silky, light stuff.&nbsp; It fell
+from her thick neck down to her toes with the simplicity of an unadorned
+nightgown.&nbsp; It made her appear truly cylindrical.&nbsp; She exclaimed:
+&ldquo;How did you get here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Before I could say a word she vanished and presently I heard a confusion
+of shrill protestations in a distant part of the house.&nbsp; Obviously
+no one could tell her how I got there.&nbsp; In a moment, with great
+outcries from two negro women following her, she waddled back to the
+doorway, infuriated.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What do you want here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I turned to the girl.&nbsp; She was sitting straight up now, her
+hands posed on the arms of the chair.&nbsp; I appealed to her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Surely, Miss Alice, you will not let them drive me out into
+the street?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her magnificent black eyes, narrowed, long in shape, swept over me
+with an indefinable expression, then in a harsh, contemptuous voice
+she let fall in French a sort of explanation:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;<i>C&rsquo;est papa</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I made another low bow to the old woman.</p>
+<p>She turned her back on me in order to drive away her black henchwomen,
+then surveying my person in a peculiar manner with one small eye nearly
+closed and her face all drawn up on that side as if with a twinge of
+toothache, she stepped out on the verandah, sat down in a rocking-chair
+some distance away, and took up her knitting from a little table.&nbsp;
+Before she started at it she plunged one of the needles into the mop
+of her grey hair and stirred it vigorously.</p>
+<p>Her elementary nightgown-sort of frock clung to her ancient, stumpy,
+and floating form.&nbsp; She wore white cotton stockings and flat brown
+velvet slippers.&nbsp; Her feet and ankles were obtrusively visible
+on the foot-rest.&nbsp; She began to rock herself slightly, while she
+knitted.&nbsp; I had resumed my seat and kept quiet, for I mistrusted
+that old woman.&nbsp; What if she ordered me to depart?&nbsp; She seemed
+capable of any outrage.&nbsp; She had snorted once or twice; she was
+knitting violently.&nbsp; Suddenly she piped at the young girl in French
+a question which I translate colloquially:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s your father up to, now?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The young creature shrugged her shoulders so comprehensively that
+her whole body swayed within the loose wrapper; and in that unexpectedly
+harsh voice which yet had a seductive quality to the senses, like certain
+kinds of natural rough wines one drinks with pleasure:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s some captain.&nbsp; Leave me alone&mdash;will you!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The chair rocked quicker, the old, thin voice was like a whistle.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You and your father make a pair.&nbsp; He would stick at nothing&mdash;that&rsquo;s
+well known.&nbsp; But I didn&rsquo;t expect this.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I thought it high time to air some of my own French.&nbsp; I remarked
+modestly, but firmly, that this was business.&nbsp; I had some matters
+to talk over with Mr. Jacobus.</p>
+<p>At once she piped out a derisive &ldquo;Poor innocent!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Then, with a change of tone: &ldquo;The shop&rsquo;s for business.&nbsp;
+Why don&rsquo;t you go to the shop to talk with him?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The furious speed of her fingers and knitting-needles made one dizzy;
+and with squeaky indignation:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sitting here staring at that girl&mdash;is that what you call
+business?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I said suavely.&nbsp; &ldquo;I call this pleasure&mdash;an
+unexpected pleasure.&nbsp; And unless Miss Alice objects&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I half turned to her.&nbsp; She flung at me an angry and contemptuous
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo; and leaning her elbow on her knees took
+her chin in her hand&mdash;a Jacobus chin undoubtedly.&nbsp; And those
+heavy eyelids, this black irritated stare reminded me of Jacobus, too&mdash;the
+wealthy merchant, the respected one.&nbsp; The design of her eyebrows
+also was the same, rigid and ill-omened.&nbsp; Yes!&nbsp; I traced in
+her a resemblance to both of them.&nbsp; It came to me as a sort of
+surprising remote inference that both these Jacobuses were rather handsome
+men after all.&nbsp; I said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; Then I shall stare at you till you smile.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She favoured me again with an even more viciously scornful &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+care!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The old woman broke in blunt and shrill:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hear his impudence!&nbsp; And you too!&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t care!&nbsp;
+Go at least and put some more clothes on.&nbsp; Sitting there like this
+before this sailor riff-raff.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The sun was about to leave the Pearl of the Ocean for other seas,
+for other lands.&nbsp; The walled garden full of shadows blazed with
+colour as if the flowers were giving up the light absorbed during the
+day.&nbsp; The amazing old woman became very explicit.&nbsp; She suggested
+to the girl a corset and a petticoat with a cynical unreserve which
+humiliated me.&nbsp; Was I of no more account than a wooden dummy?&nbsp;
+The girl snapped out: &ldquo;Shan&rsquo;t!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was not the naughty retort of a vulgar child; it had a note of
+desperation.&nbsp; Clearly my intrusion had somehow upset the balance
+of their established relations.&nbsp; The old woman knitted with furious
+accuracy, her eyes fastened down on her work.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you are the true child of your father!&nbsp; And <i>that</i>
+talks of entering a convent!&nbsp; Letting herself be stared at by a
+fellow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Leave off.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Shameless thing!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Old sorceress,&rdquo; the girl uttered distinctly, preserving
+her meditative pose, chin in hand, and a far-away stare over the garden.</p>
+<p>It was like the quarrel of the kettle and the pot.&nbsp; The old
+woman flew out of the chair, banged down her work, and with a great
+play of thick limb perfectly visible in that weird, clinging garment
+of hers, strode at the girl&mdash;who never stirred.&nbsp; I was experiencing
+a sort of trepidation when, as if awed by that unconscious attitude,
+the aged relative of Jacobus turned short upon me.</p>
+<p>She was, I perceived, armed with a knitting-needle; and as she raised
+her hand her intention seemed to be to throw it at me like a dart.&nbsp;
+But she only used it to scratch her head with, examining me the while
+at close range, one eye nearly shut and her face distorted by a whimsical,
+one-sided grimace.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My dear man,&rdquo; she asked abruptly, &ldquo;do you expect
+any good to come of this?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;&ldquo;I do hope so indeed, Miss Jacobus.&rdquo;&nbsp; I tried
+to speak in the easy tone of an afternoon caller.&nbsp; &ldquo;You see,
+I am here after some bags.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bags!&nbsp; Look at that now!&nbsp; Didn&rsquo;t I hear you
+holding forth to that graceless wretch?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You would like to see me in my grave,&rdquo; uttered the motionless
+girl hoarsely.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Grave!&nbsp; What about me?&nbsp; Buried alive before I am
+dead for the sake of a thing blessed with such a pretty father!&rdquo;
+she cried; and turning to me: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re one of these men he
+does business with.&nbsp; Well&mdash;why don&rsquo;t you leave us in
+peace, my good fellow?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was said in a tone&mdash;this &ldquo;leave us in peace!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+There was a sort of ruffianly familiarity, a superiority, a scorn in
+it.&nbsp; I was to hear it more than once, for you would show an imperfect
+knowledge of human nature if you thought that this was my last visit
+to that house&mdash;where no respectable person had put foot for ever
+so many years.&nbsp; No, you would be very much mistaken if you imagined
+that this reception had scared me away.&nbsp; First of all I was not
+going to run before a grotesque and ruffianly old woman.</p>
+<p>And then you mustn&rsquo;t forget these necessary bags.&nbsp; That
+first evening Jacobus made me stay to dinner; after, however, telling
+me loyally that he didn&rsquo;t know whether he could do anything at
+all for me.&nbsp; He had been thinking it over.&nbsp; It was too difficult,
+he feared. . . . But he did not give it up in so many words.</p>
+<p>We were only three at table; the girl by means of repeated &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t!&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Shan&rsquo;t!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo; having
+conveyed and affirmed her intention not to come to the table, not to
+have any dinner, not to move from the verandah.&nbsp; The old relative
+hopped about in her flat slippers and piped indignantly, Jacobus towered
+over her and murmured placidly in his throat; I joined jocularly from
+a distance, throwing in a few words, for which under the cover of the
+night I received secretly a most vicious poke in the ribs from the old
+woman&rsquo;s elbow or perhaps her fist.&nbsp; I restrained a cry.&nbsp;
+And all the time the girl didn&rsquo;t even condescend to raise her
+head to look at any of us.&nbsp; All this may sound childish&mdash;and
+yet that stony, petulant sullenness had an obscurely tragic flavour.</p>
+<p>And so we sat down to the food around the light of a good many candles
+while she remained crouching out there, staring in the dark as if feeding
+her bad temper on the heavily scented air of the admirable garden.</p>
+<p>Before leaving I said to Jacobus that I would come next day to hear
+if the bag affair had made any progress.&nbsp; He shook his head slightly
+at that.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll haunt your house daily till you pull it off.&nbsp;
+You&rsquo;ll be always finding me here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His faint, melancholy smile did not part his thick lips.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Then seeing me to the door, very tranquil, he murmured earnestly
+the recommendation: &ldquo;Make yourself at home,&rdquo; and also the
+hospitable hint about there being always &ldquo;a plate of soup.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+It was only on my way to the quay, down the ill-lighted streets, that
+I remembered I had been engaged to dine that very evening with the S-
+family.&nbsp; Though vexed with my forgetfulness (it would be rather
+awkward to explain) I couldn&rsquo;t help thinking that it had procured
+me a more amusing evening.&nbsp; And besides&mdash;business.&nbsp; The
+sacred business&mdash;.</p>
+<p>In a barefooted negro who overtook me at a run and bolted down the
+landing-steps I recognised Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman, who must have been
+feeding in the kitchen.&nbsp; His usual &ldquo;Good-night, sah!&rdquo;
+as I went up my ship&rsquo;s ladder had a more cordial sound than on
+previous occasions.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I kept my word to Jacobus.&nbsp; I haunted his home.&nbsp; He was
+perpetually finding me there of an afternoon when he popped in for a
+moment from the &ldquo;store.&rdquo;&nbsp; The sound of my voice talking
+to his Alice greeted him on his doorstep; and when he returned for good
+in the evening, ten to one he would hear it still going on in the verandah.&nbsp;
+I just nodded to him; he would sit down heavily and gently, and watch
+with a sort of approving anxiety my efforts to make his daughter smile.</p>
+<p>I called her often &ldquo;Alice,&rdquo; right before him; sometimes
+I would address her as Miss &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Care,&rdquo; and I exhausted
+myself in nonsensical chatter without succeeding once in taking her
+out of her peevish and tragic self.&nbsp; There were moments when I
+felt I must break out and start swearing at her till all was blue.&nbsp;
+And I fancied that had I done so Jacobus would not have moved a muscle.&nbsp;
+A sort of shady, intimate understanding seemed to have been established
+between us.</p>
+<p>I must say the girl treated her father exactly in the same way she
+treated me.</p>
+<p>And how could it have been otherwise?&nbsp; She treated me as she
+treated her father.&nbsp; She had never seen a visitor.&nbsp; She did
+not know how men behaved.&nbsp; I belonged to the low lot with whom
+her father did business at the port.&nbsp; I was of no account.&nbsp;
+So was her father.&nbsp; The only decent people in the world were the
+people of the island, who would have nothing to do with him because
+of something wicked he had done.&nbsp; This was apparently the explanation
+Miss Jacobus had given her of the household&rsquo;s isolated position.&nbsp;
+For she had to be told something!&nbsp; And I feel convinced that this
+version had been assented to by Jacobus.&nbsp; I must say the old woman
+was putting it forward with considerable gusto.&nbsp; It was on her
+lips the universal explanation, the universal allusion, the universal
+taunt.</p>
+<p>One day Jacobus came in early and, beckoning me into the dining-room,
+wiped his brow with a weary gesture and told me that he had managed
+to unearth a supply of quarter-bags.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fourteen hundred your ship wanted, did you say,
+Captain?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, yes!&rdquo; I replied eagerly; but he remained calm.&nbsp;
+He looked more tired than I had ever seen him before.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Captain, you may go and tell your people that they can
+get that lot from my brother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>As I remained open-mouthed at this, he added his usual placid formula
+of assurance:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it correct, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You spoke to your brother about it?&rdquo;&nbsp; I was distinctly
+awed.&nbsp; &ldquo;And for me?&nbsp; Because he must have known that
+my ship&rsquo;s the only one hung up for bags.&nbsp; How on earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He wiped his brow again.&nbsp; I noticed that he was dressed with
+unusual care, in clothes in which I had never seen him before.&nbsp;
+He avoided my eye.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve heard people talk, of course. . . . That&rsquo;s
+true enough.&nbsp; He . . . I . . . We certainly. . . for several years
+. . .&rdquo;&nbsp; His voice declined to a mere sleepy murmur.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;You see I had something to tell him of, something which&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His murmur stopped.&nbsp; He was not going to tell me what this something
+was.&nbsp; And I didn&rsquo;t care.&nbsp; Anxious to carry the news
+to my charterers, I ran back on the verandah to get my hat.</p>
+<p>At the bustle I made the girl turned her eyes slowly in my direction,
+and even the old woman was checked in her knitting.&nbsp; I stopped
+a moment to exclaim excitedly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your father&rsquo;s a brick, Miss Don&rsquo;t Care.&nbsp;
+That&rsquo;s what he is.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She beheld my elation in scornful surprise.&nbsp; Jacobus with unwonted
+familiarity seized my arm as I flew through the dining-room, and breathed
+heavily at me a proposal about &ldquo;A plate of soup&rdquo; that evening.&nbsp;
+I answered distractedly: &ldquo;Eh?&nbsp; What?&nbsp; Oh, thanks!&nbsp;
+Certainly.&nbsp; With pleasure,&rdquo; and tore myself away.&nbsp; Dine
+with him?&nbsp; Of course.&nbsp; The merest gratitude</p>
+<p>But some three hours afterwards, in the dusky, silent street, paved
+with cobble-stones, I became aware that it was not mere gratitude which
+was guiding my steps towards the house with the old garden, where for
+years no guest other than myself had ever dined.&nbsp; Mere gratitude
+does not gnaw at one&rsquo;s interior economy in that particular way.&nbsp;
+Hunger might; but I was not feeling particularly hungry for Jacobus&rsquo;s
+food.</p>
+<p>On that occasion, too, the girl refused to come to the table.</p>
+<p>My exasperation grew.&nbsp; The old woman cast malicious glances
+at me.&nbsp; I said suddenly to Jacobus: &ldquo;Here!&nbsp; Put some
+chicken and salad on that plate.&rdquo;&nbsp; He obeyed without raising
+his eyes.&nbsp; I carried it with a knife and fork and a serviette out
+on the verandah.&nbsp; The garden was one mass of gloom, like a cemetery
+of flowers buried in the darkness, and she, in the chair, seemed to
+muse mournfully over the extinction of light and colour.&nbsp; Only
+whiffs of heavy scent passed like wandering, fragrant souls of that
+departed multitude of blossoms.&nbsp; I talked volubly, jocularly, persuasively,
+tenderly; I talked in a subdued tone.&nbsp; To a listener it would have
+sounded like the murmur of a pleading lover.&nbsp; Whenever I paused
+expectantly there was only a deep silence.&nbsp; It was like offering
+food to a seated statue.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been able to swallow a single morsel thinking
+of you out here starving yourself in the dark.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s positively
+cruel to be so obstinate.&nbsp; Think of my sufferings.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I felt as if I could have done her some violence&mdash;shaken her,
+beaten her maybe.&nbsp; I said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your absurd behaviour will prevent me coming here any more.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that to me?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You like it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s false,&rdquo; she snarled.</p>
+<p>My hand fell on her shoulder; and if she had flinched I verily believe
+I would have shaken her.&nbsp; But there was no movement and this immobility
+disarmed my anger.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You do.&nbsp; Or you wouldn&rsquo;t be found on the verandah
+every day.&nbsp; Why are you here, then?&nbsp; There are plenty of rooms
+in the house.&nbsp; You have your own room to stay in&mdash;if you did
+not want to see me.&nbsp; But you do.&nbsp; You know you do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I felt a slight shudder under my hand and released my grip as if
+frightened by that sign of animation in her body.&nbsp; The scented
+air of the garden came to us in a warm wave like a voluptuous and perfumed
+sigh.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Go back to them,&rdquo; she whispered, almost pitifully.</p>
+<p>As I re-entered the dining-room I saw Jacobus cast down his eyes.&nbsp;
+I banged the plate on the table.&nbsp; At this demonstration of ill-humour
+he murmured something in an apologetic tone, and I turned on him viciously
+as if he were accountable to me for these &ldquo;abominable eccentricities,&rdquo;
+I believe I called them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I dare say Miss Jacobus here is responsible for most of
+this offensive manner,&rdquo; I added loftily.</p>
+<p>She piped out at once in her brazen, ruffianly manner:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Eh?&nbsp; Why don&rsquo;t you leave us in peace, my good fellow?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was astonished that she should dare before Jacobus.&nbsp; Yet what
+could he have done to repress her?&nbsp; He needed her too much.&nbsp;
+He raised a heavy, drowsy glance for an instant, then looked down again.&nbsp;
+She insisted with shrill finality:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you done your business, you two?&nbsp; Well,
+then&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She had the true Jacobus impudence, that old woman.&nbsp; Her mop
+of iron-grey hair was parted, on the side like a man&rsquo;s, raffishly,
+and she made as if to plunge her fork into it, as she used to do with
+the knitting-needle, but refrained.&nbsp; Her little black eyes sparkled
+venomously.&nbsp; I turned to my host at the head of the table&mdash;menacingly
+as it were.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, and what do you say to that, Jacobus?&nbsp; Am I to
+take it that we have done with each other?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had to wait a little.&nbsp; The answer when it came was rather
+unexpected, and in quite another spirit than the question.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I certainly think we might do some business yet with those
+potatoes of mine, Captain.&nbsp; You will find that&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I cut him short.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve told you before that I don&rsquo;t trade.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His broad chest heaved without a sound in a noiseless sigh.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Think it over, Captain,&rdquo; he murmured, tenacious and
+tranquil; and I burst into a jarring laugh, remembering how he had stuck
+to the circus-rider woman&mdash;the depth of passion under that placid
+surface, which even cuts with a riding-whip (so the legend had it) could
+never raffle into the semblance of a storm; something like the passion
+of a fish would be if one could imagine such a thing as a passionate
+fish.</p>
+<p>That evening I experienced more distinctly than ever the sense of
+moral discomfort which always attended me in that house lying under
+the ban of all &ldquo;decent&rdquo; people.&nbsp; I refused to stay
+on and smoke after dinner; and when I put my hand into the thickly-cushioned
+palm of Jacobus, I said to myself that it would be for the last time
+under his roof.&nbsp; I pressed his bulky paw heartily nevertheless.&nbsp;
+Hadn&rsquo;t he got me out of a serious difficulty?&nbsp; To the few
+words of acknowledgment I was bound, and indeed quite willing, to utter,
+he answered by stretching his closed lips in his melancholy, glued-together
+smile.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, I hope, Captain,&rdquo; he breathed
+out weightily.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What do you mean?&rdquo; I asked, alarmed.&nbsp; &ldquo;That
+your brother might yet&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; he reassured me.&nbsp; &ldquo;He . . . he&rsquo;s
+a man of his word, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>My self-communion as I walked away from his door, trying to believe
+that this was for the last time, was not satisfactory.&nbsp; I was aware
+myself that I was not sincere in my reflections as to Jacobus&rsquo;s
+motives, and, of course, the very next day I went back again.</p>
+<p>How weak, irrational, and absurd we are!&nbsp; How easily carried
+away whenever our awakened imagination brings us the irritating hint
+of a desire!&nbsp; I cared for the girl in a particular way, seduced
+by the moody expression of her face, by her obstinate silences, her
+rare, scornful words; by the perpetual pout of her closed lips, the
+black depths of her fixed gaze turned slowly upon me as if in contemptuous
+provocation, only to be averted next moment with an exasperating indifference.</p>
+<p>Of course the news of my assiduity had spread all over the little
+town.&nbsp; I noticed a change in the manner of my acquaintances and
+even something different in the nods of the other captains, when meeting
+them at the landing-steps or in the offices where business called me.&nbsp;
+The old-maidish head clerk treated me with distant punctiliousness and,
+as it were, gathered his skirts round him for fear of contamination.&nbsp;
+It seemed to me that the very niggers on the quays turned to look after
+me as I passed; and as to Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman his &ldquo;Good-night,
+sah!&rdquo; when he put me on board was no longer merely cordial&mdash;it
+had a familiar, confidential sound as though we had been partners in
+some villainy.</p>
+<p>My friend S- the elder passed me on the other side of the street
+with a wave of the hand and an ironic smile.&nbsp; The younger brother,
+the one they had married to an elderly shrew, he, on the strength of
+an older friendship and as if paying a debt of gratitude, took the liberty
+to utter a word of warning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re doing yourself no good by your choice of friends,
+my dear chap,&rdquo; he said with infantile gravity.</p>
+<p>As I knew that the meeting of the brothers Jacobus was the subject
+of excited comment in the whole of the sugary Pearl of the Ocean I wanted
+to know why I was blamed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have been the occasion of a move which may end in a reconciliation
+surely desirable from the point of view of the proprieties&mdash;don&rsquo;t
+you know?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, if that girl were disposed of it would certainly
+facilitate&mdash;&rdquo; he mused sagely, then, inconsequential creature,
+gave me a light tap on the lower part of my waistcoat.&nbsp; &ldquo;You
+old sinner,&rdquo; he cried jovially, &ldquo;much you care for proprieties.&nbsp;
+But you had better look out for yourself, you know, with a personage
+like Jacobus who has no sort of reputation to lose.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He had recovered his gravity of a respectable citizen by that time
+and added regretfully:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All the women of our family are perfectly scandalised.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But by that time I had given up visiting the S- family and the D-
+family.&nbsp; The elder ladies pulled such faces when I showed myself,
+and the multitude of related young ladies received me with such a variety
+of looks: wondering, awed, mocking (except Miss Mary, who spoke to me
+and looked at me with hushed, pained compassion as though I had been
+ill), that I had no difficulty in giving them all up.&nbsp; I would
+have given up the society of the whole town, for the sake of sitting
+near that girl, snarling and superb and barely clad in that flimsy,
+dingy, amber wrapper, open low at the throat.&nbsp; She looked, with
+the wild wisps of hair hanging down her tense face, as though she had
+just jumped out of bed in the panic of a fire.</p>
+<p>She sat leaning on her elbow, looking at nothing.&nbsp; Why did she
+stay listening to my absurd chatter?&nbsp; And not only that; but why
+did she powder her face in preparation for my arrival?&nbsp; It seemed
+to be her idea of making a toilette, and in her untidy negligence a
+sign of great effort towards personal adornment.</p>
+<p>But I might have been mistaken.&nbsp; The powdering might have been
+her daily practice and her presence in the verandah a sign of an indifference
+so complete as to take no account of my existence.&nbsp; Well, it was
+all one to me.</p>
+<p>I loved to watch her slow changes of pose, to look at her long immobilities
+composed in the graceful lines of her body, to observe the mysterious
+narrow stare of her splendid black eyes, somewhat long in shape, half
+closed, contemplating the void.&nbsp; She was like a spellbound creature
+with the forehead of a goddess crowned by the dishevelled magnificent
+hair of a gipsy tramp.&nbsp; Even her indifference was seductive.&nbsp;
+I felt myself growing attached to her by the bond of an irrealisable
+desire, for I kept my head&mdash;quite.&nbsp; And I put up with the
+moral discomfort of Jacobus&rsquo;s sleepy watchfulness, tranquil, and
+yet so expressive; as if there had been a tacit pact between us two.&nbsp;
+I put up with the insolence of the old woman&rsquo;s: &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t
+you ever going to leave us in peace, my good fellow?&rdquo; with her
+taunts; with her brazen and sinister scolding.&nbsp; She was of the
+true Jacobus stock, and no mistake.</p>
+<p>Directly I got away from the girl I called myself many hard names.&nbsp;
+What folly was this?&nbsp; I would ask myself.&nbsp; It was like being
+the slave of some depraved habit.&nbsp; And I returned to her with my
+head clear, my heart certainly free, not even moved by pity for that
+castaway (she was as much of a castaway as any one ever wrecked on a
+desert island), but as if beguiled by some extraordinary promise.&nbsp;
+Nothing more unworthy could be imagined.&nbsp; The recollection of that
+tremulous whisper when I gripped her shoulder with one hand and held
+a plate of chicken with the other was enough to make me break all my
+good resolutions.</p>
+<p>Her insulting taciturnity was enough sometimes to make one gnash
+one&rsquo;s teeth with rage.&nbsp; When she opened her mouth it was
+only to be abominably rude in harsh tones to the associate of her reprobate
+father; and the full approval of her aged relative was conveyed to her
+by offensive chuckles.&nbsp; If not that, then her remarks, always uttered
+in the tone of scathing contempt, were of the most appalling inanity.</p>
+<p>How could it have been otherwise?&nbsp; That plump, ruffianly Jacobus
+old maid in the tight grey frock had never taught her any manners.&nbsp;
+Manners I suppose are not necessary for born castaways.&nbsp; No educational
+establishment could ever be induced to accept her as a pupil&mdash;on
+account of the proprieties, I imagine.&nbsp; And Jacobus had not been
+able to send her away anywhere.&nbsp; How could he have done it?&nbsp;
+Who with?&nbsp; Where to?&nbsp; He himself was not enough of an adventurer
+to think of settling down anywhere else.&nbsp; His passion had tossed
+him at the tail of a circus up and down strange coasts, but, the storm
+over, he had drifted back shamelessly where, social outcast as he was,
+he remained still a Jacobus&mdash;one of the oldest families on the
+island, older than the French even.&nbsp; There must have been a Jacobus
+in at the death of the last Dodo. . . . The girl had learned nothing,
+she had never listened to a general conversation, she knew nothing,
+she had heard of nothing.&nbsp; She could read certainly; but all the
+reading matter that ever came in her way were the newspapers provided
+for the captains&rsquo; room of the &ldquo;store.&rdquo;&nbsp; Jacobus
+had the habit of taking these sheets home now and then in a very stained
+and ragged condition.</p>
+<p>As her mind could not grasp the meaning of any matters treated there
+except police-court reports and accounts of crimes, she had formed for
+herself a notion of the civilised world as a scene of murders, abductions,
+burglaries, stabbing affrays, and every sort of desperate violence.&nbsp;
+England and France, Paris and London (the only two towns of which she
+seemed to have heard), appeared to her sinks of abomination, reeking
+with blood, in contrast to her little island where petty larceny was
+about the standard of current misdeeds, with, now and then, some more
+pronounced crime&mdash;and that only amongst the imported coolie labourers
+on sugar estates or the negroes of the town.&nbsp; But in Europe these
+things were being done daily by a wicked population of white men amongst
+whom, as that ruffianly, aristocratic old Miss Jacobus pointed out,
+the wandering sailors, the associates of her precious papa, were the
+lowest of the low.</p>
+<p>It was impossible to give her a sense of proportion.&nbsp; I suppose
+she figured England to herself as about the size of the Pearl of the
+Ocean; in which case it would certainly have been reeking with gore
+and a mere wreck of burgled houses from end to end.&nbsp; One could
+not make her understand that these horrors on which she fed her imagination
+were lost in the mass of orderly life like a few drops of blood in the
+ocean.&nbsp; She directed upon me for a moment the uncomprehending glance
+of her narrowed eyes and then would turn her scornful powdered face
+away without a word.&nbsp; She would not even take the trouble to shrug
+her shoulders.</p>
+<p>At that time the batches of papers brought by the last mail reported
+a series of crimes in the East End of London, there was a sensational
+case of abduction in France and a fine display of armed robbery in Australia.&nbsp;
+One afternoon crossing the dining-room I heard Miss Jacobus piping in
+the verandah with venomous animosity: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what
+your precious papa is plotting with that fellow.&nbsp; But he&rsquo;s
+just the sort of man who&rsquo;s capable of carrying you off far away
+somewhere and then cutting your throat some day for your money.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was a good half of the length of the verandah between their
+chairs.&nbsp; I came out and sat down fiercely midway between them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s what we do with girls in Europe,&rdquo;
+I began in a grimly matter-of-fact tone.&nbsp; I think Miss Jacobus
+was disconcerted by my sudden appearance.&nbsp; I turned upon her with
+cold ferocity:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As to objectionable old women, they are first strangled quietly,
+then cut up into small pieces and thrown away, a bit here and a bit
+there.&nbsp; They vanish&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I cannot go so far as to say I had terrified her.&nbsp; But she was
+troubled by my truculence, the more so because I had been always addressing
+her with a politeness she did not deserve.&nbsp; Her plump, knitting
+hands fell slowly on her knees.&nbsp; She said not a word while I fixed
+her with severe determination.&nbsp; Then as I turned away from her
+at last, she laid down her work gently and, with noiseless movements,
+retreated from the verandah.&nbsp; In fact, she vanished.</p>
+<p>But I was not thinking of her.&nbsp; I was looking at the girl.&nbsp;
+It was what I was coming for daily; troubled, ashamed, eager; finding
+in my nearness to her a unique sensation which I indulged with dread,
+self-contempt, and deep pleasure, as if it were a secret vice bound
+to end in my undoing, like the habit of some drug or other which ruins
+and degrades its slave.</p>
+<p>I looked her over, from the top of her dishevelled head, down the
+lovely line of the shoulder, following the curve of the hip, the draped
+form of the long limb, right down to her fine ankle below a torn, soiled
+flounce; and as far as the point of the shabby, high-heeled, blue slipper,
+dangling from her well-shaped foot, which she moved slightly, with quick,
+nervous jerks, as if impatient of my presence.&nbsp; And in the scent
+of the massed flowers I seemed to breathe her special and inexplicable
+charm, the heady perfume of the everlastingly irritated captive of the
+garden.</p>
+<p>I looked at her rounded chin, the Jacobus chin; at the full, red
+lips pouting in the powdered, sallow face; at the firm modelling of
+the cheek, the grains of white in the hairs of the straight sombre eyebrows;
+at the long eyes, a narrowed gleam of liquid white and intense motionless
+black, with their gaze so empty of thought, and so absorbed in their
+fixity that she seemed to be staring at her own lonely image, in some
+far-off mirror hidden from my sight amongst the trees.</p>
+<p>And suddenly, without looking at me, with the appearance of a person
+speaking to herself, she asked, in that voice slightly harsh yet mellow
+and always irritated:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why do you keep on coming here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why do I keep on coming here?&rdquo; I repeated, taken by
+surprise.&nbsp; I could not have told her.&nbsp; I could not even tell
+myself with sincerity why I was coming there.&nbsp; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s
+the good of you asking a question like that?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing is any good,&rdquo; she observed scornfully to the
+empty air, her chin propped on her hand, that hand never extended to
+any man, that no one had ever grasped&mdash;for I had only grasped her
+shoulder once&mdash;that generous, fine, somewhat masculine hand.&nbsp;
+I knew well the peculiarly efficient shape&mdash;broad at the base,
+tapering at the fingers&mdash;of that hand, for which there was nothing
+in the world to lay hold of.&nbsp; I pretended to be playful.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No!&nbsp; But do you really care to know?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She shrugged indolently her magnificent shoulders, from which the
+dingy thin wrapper was slipping a little.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh&mdash;never mind&mdash;never mind!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>There was something smouldering under those airs of lassitude.&nbsp;
+She exasperated me by the provocation of her nonchalance, by something
+elusive and defiant in her very form which I wanted to seize.&nbsp;
+I said roughly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why?&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you think I should tell you the truth?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her eyes glided my way for a sidelong look, and she murmured, moving
+only her full, pouting lips:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think you would not dare.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you imagine I am afraid of you?&nbsp; What on earth. .
+. . Well, it&rsquo;s possible, after all, that I don&rsquo;t know exactly
+why I am coming here.&nbsp; Let us say, with Miss Jacobus, that it is
+for no good.&nbsp; You seem to believe the outrageous things she says,
+if you do have a row with her now and then.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She snapped out viciously:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who else am I to believe?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; I had to own, seeing her suddenly
+very helpless and condemned to moral solitude by the verdict of a respectable
+community.&nbsp; &ldquo;You might believe me, if you chose.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She made a slight movement and asked me at once, with an effort as
+if making an experiment:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is the business between you and papa?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know the nature of your father&rsquo;s business?&nbsp;
+Come!&nbsp; He sells provisions to ships.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She became rigid again in her crouching pose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not that.&nbsp; What brings you here&mdash;to this house?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And suppose it&rsquo;s you?&nbsp; You would not call that
+business?&nbsp; Would you?&nbsp; And now let us drop the subject.&nbsp;
+It&rsquo;s no use.&nbsp; My ship will be ready for sea the day after
+to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She murmured a distinctly scared &ldquo;So soon,&rdquo; and getting
+up quickly, went to the little table and poured herself a glass of water.&nbsp;
+She walked with rapid steps and with an indolent swaying of her whole
+young figure above the hips; when she passed near me I felt with tenfold
+force the charm of the peculiar, promising sensation I had formed the
+habit to seek near her.&nbsp; I thought with sudden dismay that this
+was the end of it; that after one more day I would be no longer able
+to come into this verandah, sit on this chair, and taste perversely
+the flavour of contempt in her indolent poses, drink in the provocation
+of her scornful looks, and listen to the curt, insolent remarks uttered
+in that harsh and seductive voice.&nbsp; As if my innermost nature had
+been altered by the action of some moral poison, I felt an abject dread
+of going to sea.</p>
+<p>I had to exercise a sudden self-control, as one puts on a brake,
+to prevent myself jumping up to stride about, shout, gesticulate, make
+her a scene.&nbsp; What for?&nbsp; What about?&nbsp; I had no idea.&nbsp;
+It was just the relief of violence that I wanted; and I lolled back
+in my chair, trying to keep my lips formed in a smile; that half-indulgent,
+half-mocking smile which was my shield against the shafts of her contempt
+and the insulting sallies flung at me by the old woman.</p>
+<p>She drank the water at a draught, with the avidity of raging thirst,
+and let herself fall on the nearest chair, as if utterly overcome.&nbsp;
+Her attitude, like certain tones of her voice, had in it something masculine:
+the knees apart in the ample wrapper, the clasped hands hanging between
+them, her body leaning forward, with drooping head.&nbsp; I stared at
+the heavy black coil of twisted hair.&nbsp; It was enormous, crowning
+the bowed head with a crushing and disdained glory.&nbsp; The escaped
+wisps hung straight down.&nbsp; And suddenly I perceived that the girl
+was trembling from head to foot, as though that glass of iced water
+had chilled her to the bone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter now?&rdquo; I said, startled, but
+in no very sympathetic mood.</p>
+<p>She shook her bowed, overweighted head and cried in a stifled voice
+but with a rising inflection:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Go away!&nbsp; Go away!&nbsp; Go away!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I got up then and approached her, with a strange sort of anxiety.&nbsp;
+I looked down at her round, strong neck, then stooped low enough to
+peep at her face.&nbsp; And I began to tremble a little myself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth are you gone wild about, Miss Don&rsquo;t Care?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She flung herself backwards violently, her head going over the back
+of the chair.&nbsp; And now it was her smooth, full, palpitating throat
+that lay exposed to my bewildered stare.&nbsp; Her eyes were nearly
+closed, with only a horrible white gleam under the lids as if she were
+dead.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What has come to you?&rdquo; I asked in awe.&nbsp; &ldquo;What
+are you terrifying yourself with?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She pulled herself together, her eyes open frightfully wide now.&nbsp;
+The tropical afternoon was lengthening the shadows on the hot, weary
+earth, the abode of obscure desires, of extravagant hopes, of unimaginable
+terrors.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind!&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t care!&rdquo;&nbsp; Then, after
+a gasp, she spoke with such frightful rapidity that I could hardly make
+out the amazing words: &ldquo;For if you were to shut me up in an empty
+place as smooth all round as the palm of my hand, I could always strangle
+myself with my hair.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For a moment, doubting my ears, I let this inconceivable declaration
+sink into me.&nbsp; It is ever impossible to guess at the wild thoughts
+that pass through the heads of our fellow-creatures.&nbsp; What monstrous
+imaginings of violence could have dwelt under the low forehead of that
+girl who had been taught to regard her father as &ldquo;capable of anything&rdquo;
+more in the light of a misfortune than that of a disgrace; as, evidently,
+something to be resented and feared rather than to be ashamed of?&nbsp;
+She seemed, indeed, as unaware of shame as of anything else in the world;
+but in her ignorance, her resentment and fear took a childish and violent
+shape.</p>
+<p>Of course she spoke without knowing the value of words.&nbsp; What
+could she know of death&mdash;she who knew nothing of life?&nbsp; It
+was merely as the proof of her being beside herself with some odious
+apprehension, that this extraordinary speech had moved me, not to pity,
+but to a fascinated, horrified wonder.&nbsp; I had no idea what notion
+she had of her danger.&nbsp; Some sort of abduction.&nbsp; It was quite
+possible with the talk of that atrocious old woman.&nbsp; Perhaps she
+thought she could be carried off, bound hand and foot and even gagged.&nbsp;
+At that surmise I felt as if the door of a furnace had been opened in
+front of me.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my honour!&rdquo; I cried.&nbsp; &ldquo;You shall end
+by going crazy if you listen to that abominable old aunt of yours&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I studied her haggard expression, her trembling lips.&nbsp; Her cheeks
+even seemed sunk a little.&nbsp; But how I, the associate of her disreputable
+father, the &ldquo;lowest of the low&rdquo; from the criminal Europe,
+could manage to reassure her I had no conception.&nbsp; She was exasperating.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Heavens and earth!&nbsp; What do you think I can do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her chin certainly trembled.&nbsp; And she was looking at me with
+extreme attention.&nbsp; I made a step nearer to her chair.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall do nothing.&nbsp; I promise you that.&nbsp; Will that
+do?&nbsp; Do you understand?&nbsp; I shall do nothing whatever, of any
+kind; and the day after to-morrow I shall be gone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>What else could I have said?&nbsp; She seemed to drink in my words
+with the thirsty avidity with which she had emptied the glass of water.&nbsp;
+She whispered tremulously, in that touching tone I had heard once before
+on her lips, and which thrilled me again with the same emotion:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would believe you.&nbsp; But what about papa&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He be hanged!&rdquo;&nbsp; My emotion betrayed itself by the
+brutality of my tone.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had enough of your papa.&nbsp;
+Are you so stupid as to imagine that I am frightened of him?&nbsp; He
+can&rsquo;t make me do anything.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>All that sounded feeble to me in the face of her ignorance.&nbsp;
+But I must conclude that the &ldquo;accent of sincerity&rdquo; has,
+as some people say, a really irresistible power.&nbsp; The effect was
+far beyond my hopes,&mdash;and even beyond my conception.&nbsp; To watch
+the change in the girl was like watching a miracle&mdash;the gradual
+but swift relaxation of her tense glance, of her stiffened muscles,
+of every fibre of her body.&nbsp; That black, fixed stare into which
+I had read a tragic meaning more than once, in which I had found a sombre
+seduction, was perfectly empty now, void of all consciousness whatever,
+and not even aware any longer of my presence; it had become a little
+sleepy, in the Jacobus fashion.</p>
+<p>But, man being a perverse animal, instead of rejoicing at my complete
+success, I beheld it with astounded and indignant eyes.&nbsp; There
+was something cynical in that unconcealed alteration, the true Jacobus
+shamelessness.&nbsp; I felt as though I had been cheated in some rather
+complicated deal into which I had entered against my better judgment.&nbsp;
+Yes, cheated without any regard for, at least, the forms of decency.</p>
+<p>With an easy, indolent, and in its indolence supple, feline movement,
+she rose from the chair, so provokingly ignoring me now, that for very
+rage I held my ground within less than a foot of her.&nbsp; Leisurely
+and tranquil, behaving right before me with the ease of a person alone
+in a room, she extended her beautiful arms, with her hands clenched,
+her body swaying, her head thrown back a little, revelling contemptuously
+in a sense of relief, easing her limbs in freedom after all these days
+of crouching, motionless poses when she had been so furious and so afraid.</p>
+<p>All this with supreme indifference, incredible, offensive, exasperating,
+like ingratitude doubled with treachery.</p>
+<p>I ought to have been flattered, perhaps, but, on the contrary, my
+anger grew; her movement to pass by me as if I were a wooden post or
+a piece of furniture, that unconcerned movement brought it to a head.</p>
+<p>I won&rsquo;t say I did not know what I was doing, but, certainly,
+cool reflection had nothing to do with the circumstance that next moment
+both my arms were round her waist.&nbsp; It was an impulsive action,
+as one snatches at something falling or escaping; and it had no hypocritical
+gentleness about it either.&nbsp; She had no time to make a sound, and
+the first kiss I planted on her closed lips was vicious enough to have
+been a bite.</p>
+<p>She did not resist, and of course I did not stop at one.&nbsp; She
+let me go on, not as if she were inanimate&mdash;I felt her there, close
+against me, young, full of vigour, of life, a strong desirable creature,
+but as if she did not care in the least, in the absolute assurance of
+her safety, what I did or left undone.&nbsp; Our faces brought close
+together in this storm of haphazard caresses, her big, black, wide-open
+eyes looked into mine without the girl appearing either angry or pleased
+or moved in any way.&nbsp; In that steady gaze which seemed impersonally
+to watch my madness I could detect a slight surprise, perhaps&mdash;nothing
+more.&nbsp; I showered kisses upon her face and there did not seem to
+be any reason why this should not go on for ever.</p>
+<p>That thought flashed through my head, and I was on the point of desisting,
+when, all at once, she began to struggle with a sudden violence which
+all but freed her instantly, which revived my exasperation with her,
+indeed a fierce desire never to let her go any more.&nbsp; I tightened
+my embrace in time, gasping out: &ldquo;No&mdash;you don&rsquo;t!&rdquo;
+as if she were my mortal enemy.&nbsp; On her part not a word was said.&nbsp;
+Putting her hands against my chest, she pushed with all her might without
+succeeding to break the circle of my arms.&nbsp; Except that she seemed
+thoroughly awake now, her eyes gave me no clue whatever.&nbsp; To meet
+her black stare was like looking into a deep well, and I was totally
+unprepared for her change of tactics.&nbsp; Instead of trying to tear
+my hands apart, she flung herself upon my breast and with a downward,
+undulating, serpentine motion, a quick sliding dive, she got away from
+me smoothly.&nbsp; It was all very swift; I saw her pick up the tail
+of her wrapper and run for the door at the end of the verandah not very
+gracefully.&nbsp; She appeared to be limping a little&mdash;and then
+she vanished; the door swung behind her so noiselessly that I could
+not believe it was completely closed.&nbsp; I had a distinct suspicion
+of her black eye being at the crack to watch what I would do.&nbsp;
+I could not make up my mind whether to shake my fist in that direction
+or blow a kiss.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Either would have been perfectly consistent with my feelings.&nbsp;
+I gazed at the door, hesitating, but in the end I did neither.&nbsp;
+The monition of some sixth sense&mdash;the sense of guilt, maybe, that
+sense which always acts too late, alas!&mdash;warned me to look round;
+and at once I became aware that the conclusion of this tumultuous episode
+was likely to be a matter of lively anxiety.&nbsp; Jacobus was standing
+in the doorway of the dining-room.&nbsp; How long he had been there
+it was impossible to guess; and remembering my struggle with the girl
+I thought he must have been its mute witness from beginning to end.&nbsp;
+But this supposition seemed almost incredible.&nbsp; Perhaps that impenetrable
+girl had heard him come in and had got away in time.</p>
+<p>He stepped on to the verandah in his usual manner, heavy-eyed, with
+glued lips.&nbsp; I marvelled at the girl&rsquo;s resemblance to this
+man.&nbsp; Those long, Egyptian eyes, that low forehead of a stupid
+goddess, she had found in the sawdust of the circus; but all the rest
+of the face, the design and the modelling, the rounded chin, the very
+lips&mdash;all that was Jacobus, fined down, more finished, more expressive.</p>
+<p>His thick hand fell on and grasped with force the back of a light
+chair (there were several standing about) and I perceived the chance
+of a broken head at the end of all this&mdash;most likely.&nbsp; My
+mortification was extreme.&nbsp; The scandal would be horrible; that
+was unavoidable.&nbsp; But how to act so as to satisfy myself I did
+not know.&nbsp; I stood on my guard and at any rate faced him.&nbsp;
+There was nothing else for it.&nbsp; Of one thing I was certain, that,
+however brazen my attitude, it could never equal the characteristic
+Jacobus impudence.</p>
+<p>He gave me his melancholy, glued smile and sat down.&nbsp; I own
+I was relieved.&nbsp; The perspective of passing from kisses to blows
+had nothing particularly attractive in it.&nbsp; Perhaps&mdash;perhaps
+he had seen nothing?&nbsp; He behaved as usual, but he had never before
+found me alone on the verandah.&nbsp; If he had alluded to it, if he
+had asked: &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Alice?&rdquo; or something of the sort,
+I would have been able to judge from the tone.&nbsp; He would give me
+no opportunity.&nbsp; The striking peculiarity was that he had never
+looked up at me yet.&nbsp; &ldquo;He knows,&rdquo; I said to myself
+confidently.&nbsp; And my contempt for him relieved my disgust with
+myself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are early home,&rdquo; I remarked.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Things are very quiet; nothing doing at the store to-day,&rdquo;
+he explained with a cast-down air.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, well, you know, I am off,&rdquo; I said, feeling that
+this, perhaps, was the best thing to do.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he breathed out.&nbsp; &ldquo;Day after to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This was not what I had meant; but as he gazed persistently on the
+floor, I followed the direction of his glance.&nbsp; In the absolute
+stillness of the house we stared at the high-heeled slipper the girl
+had lost in her flight.&nbsp; We stared.&nbsp; It lay overturned.</p>
+<p>After what seemed a very long time to me, Jacobus hitched his chair
+forward, stooped with extended arm and picked it up.&nbsp; It looked
+a slender thing in his big, thick hands.&nbsp; It was not really a slipper,
+but a low shoe of blue, glazed kid, rubbed and shabby.&nbsp; It had
+straps to go over the instep, but the girl only thrust her feet in,
+after her slovenly manner.&nbsp; Jacobus raised his eyes from the shoe
+to look at me.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sit down, Captain,&rdquo; he said at last, in his subdued
+tone.</p>
+<p>As if the sight of that shoe had renewed the spell, I gave up suddenly
+the idea of leaving the house there and then.&nbsp; It had become impossible.&nbsp;
+I sat down, keeping my eyes on the fascinating object.&nbsp; Jacobus
+turned his daughter&rsquo;s shoe over and over in his cushioned paws
+as if studying the way the thing was made.&nbsp; He contemplated the
+thin sole for a time; then glancing inside with an absorbed air:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am glad I found you here, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I answered this by some sort of grunt, watching him covertly.&nbsp;
+Then I added: &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t have much more of me now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was still deep in the interior of that shoe on which my eyes too
+were resting.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Have you thought any more of this deal in potatoes I spoke
+to you about the other day?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, I haven&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I answered curtly.&nbsp; He checked
+my movement to rise by an austere, commanding gesture of the hand holding
+that fatal shoe.&nbsp; I remained seated and glared at him.&nbsp; &ldquo;You
+know I don&rsquo;t trade.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You ought to, Captain.&nbsp; You ought to.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I reflected.&nbsp; If I left that house now I would never see the
+girl again.&nbsp; And I felt I must see her once more, if only for an
+instant.&nbsp; It was a need, not to be reasoned with, not to be disregarded.&nbsp;
+No, I did not want to go away.&nbsp; I wanted to stay for one more experience
+of that strange provoking sensation and of indefinite desire, the habit
+of which had made me&mdash;me of all people!&mdash;dread the prospect
+of going to sea.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Jacobus,&rdquo; I pronounced slowly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Do you
+really think that upon the whole and taking various&rsquo; matters into
+consideration&mdash;I mean everything, do you understand?&mdash;it would
+be a good thing for me to trade, let us say, with you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I waited for a while.&nbsp; He went on looking at the shoe which
+he held now crushed in the middle, the worn point of the toe and the
+high heel protruding on each side of his heavy fist.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right,&rdquo; he said, facing me squarely
+at last.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll find it quite correct, Captain.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He had uttered his habitual phrases in his usual placid, breath-saving
+voice and stood my hard, inquisitive stare sleepily without as much
+as a wink.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then let us trade,&rdquo; I said, turning my shoulder to him.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I see you are bent on it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I did not want an open scandal, but I thought that outward decency
+may be bought too dearly at times.&nbsp; I included Jacobus, myself,
+the whole population of the island, in the same contemptuous disgust
+as though we had been partners in an ignoble transaction.&nbsp; And
+the remembered vision at sea, diaphanous and blue, of the Pearl of the
+Ocean at sixty miles off; the unsubstantial, clear marvel of it as if
+evoked by the art of a beautiful and pure magic, turned into a thing
+of horrors too.&nbsp; Was this the fortune this vaporous and rare apparition
+had held for me in its hard heart, hidden within the shape as of fair
+dreams and mist?&nbsp; Was this my luck?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think&rdquo;&mdash;Jacobus became suddenly audible after
+what seemed the silence of vile meditation&mdash;&ldquo;that you might
+conveniently take some thirty tons.&nbsp; That would be about the lot,
+Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Would it?&nbsp; The lot!&nbsp; I dare say it would be convenient,
+but I haven&rsquo;t got enough money for that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had never seen him so animated.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No!&rdquo; he exclaimed with what I took for the accent of
+grim menace.&nbsp; &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a pity.&rdquo;&nbsp; He paused,
+then, unrelenting: &ldquo;How much money have you got, Captain?&rdquo;
+he inquired with awful directness.</p>
+<p>It was my turn to face him squarely.&nbsp; I did so and mentioned
+the amount I could dispose of.&nbsp; And I perceived that he was disappointed.&nbsp;
+He thought it over, his calculating gaze lost in mine, for quite a long
+time before he came out in a thoughtful tone with the rapacious suggestion:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You could draw some more from your charterers.&nbsp; That
+would be quite easy, Captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, I couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I retorted brusquely.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+drawn my salary up to date, and besides, the ship&rsquo;s accounts are
+closed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was growing furious.&nbsp; I pursued: &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ll tell
+you what: if I could do it I wouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;&nbsp; Then throwing
+off all restraint, I added: &ldquo;You are a bit too much of a Jacobus,
+Mr. Jacobus.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The tone alone was insulting enough, but he remained tranquil, only
+a little puzzled, till something seemed to dawn upon him; but the unwonted
+light in his eyes died out instantly.&nbsp; As a Jacobus on his native
+heath, what a mere skipper chose to say could not touch him, outcast
+as he was.&nbsp; As a ship-chandler he could stand anything.&nbsp; All
+I caught of his mumble was a vague&mdash;&ldquo;quite correct,&rdquo;
+than which nothing could have been more egregiously false at bottom&mdash;to
+my view, at least.&nbsp; But I remembered&mdash;I had never forgotten&mdash;that
+I must see the girl.&nbsp; I did not mean to go.&nbsp; I meant to stay
+in the house till I had seen her once more.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; I said finally.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll
+tell you what I&rsquo;ll do.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll take as many of your confounded
+potatoes as my money will buy, on condition that you go off at once
+down to the wharf to see them loaded in the lighter and sent alongside
+the ship straight away.&nbsp; Take the invoice and a signed receipt
+with you.&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s the key of my desk.&nbsp; Give it to Burns.&nbsp;
+He will pay you.</p>
+<p>He got up from his chair before I had finished speaking, but he refused
+to take the key.&nbsp; Burns would never do it.&nbsp; He wouldn&rsquo;t
+like to ask him even.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, then,&rdquo; I said, eyeing him slightingly, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s
+nothing for it, Mr. Jacobus, but you must wait on board till I come
+off to settle with you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That will be all right, Captain.&nbsp; I will go at once.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He seemed at a loss what to do with the girl&rsquo;s shoe he was
+still holding in his fist.&nbsp; Finally, looking dully at me, he put
+it down on the chair from which he had risen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you, Captain?&nbsp; Won&rsquo;t you come along, too, just
+to see&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t bother about me.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll take care of
+myself.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He remained perplexed for a moment, as if trying to understand; and
+then his weighty: &ldquo;Certainly, certainly, Captain,&rdquo; seemed
+to be the outcome of some sudden thought.&nbsp; His big chest heaved.&nbsp;
+Was it a sigh?&nbsp; As he went out to hurry off those potatoes he never
+looked back at me.</p>
+<p>I waited till the noise of his footsteps had died out of the dining-room,
+and I waited a little longer.&nbsp; Then turning towards the distant
+door I raised my voice along the verandah:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alice!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nothing answered me, not even a stir behind the door.&nbsp; Jacobus&rsquo;s
+house might have been made empty for me to make myself at home in.&nbsp;
+I did not call again.&nbsp; I had become aware of a great discouragement.&nbsp;
+I was mentally jaded, morally dejected.&nbsp; I turned to the garden
+again, sitting down with my elbows spread on the low balustrade, and
+took my head in my hands.</p>
+<p>The evening closed upon me.&nbsp; The shadows lengthened, deepened,
+mingled together into a pool of twilight in which the flower-beds glowed
+like coloured embers; whiffs of heavy scent came to me as if the dusk
+of this hemisphere were but the dimness of a temple and the garden an
+enormous censer swinging before the altar of the stars.&nbsp; The colours
+of the blossoms deepened, losing their glow one by one.</p>
+<p>The girl, when I turned my head at a slight noise, appeared to me
+very tall and slender, advancing with a swaying limp, a floating and
+uneven motion which ended in the sinking of her shadowy form into the
+deep low chair.&nbsp; And I don&rsquo;t know why or whence I received
+the impression that she had come too late.&nbsp; She ought to have appeared
+at my call.&nbsp; She ought to have . . . It was as if a supreme opportunity
+had been missed.</p>
+<p>I rose and took a seat close to her, nearly opposite her arm-chair.&nbsp;
+Her ever discontented voice addressed me at once, contemptuously:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are still here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I pitched mine low.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You have come out at last.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I came to look for my shoe&mdash;before they bring in the
+lights.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was her harsh, enticing whisper, subdued, not very steady, but
+its low tremulousness gave me no thrill now.&nbsp; I could only make
+out the oval of her face, her uncovered throat, the long, white gleam
+of her eyes.&nbsp; She was mysterious enough.&nbsp; Her hands were resting
+on the arms of the chair.&nbsp; But where was the mysterious and provoking
+sensation which was like the perfume of her flower-like youth?&nbsp;
+I said quietly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have got your shoe here.&rdquo;&nbsp; She made no sound
+and I continued: &ldquo;You had better give me your foot and I will
+put it on for you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She made no movement.&nbsp; I bent low down and groped for her foot
+under the flounces of the wrapper.&nbsp; She did not withdraw it and
+I put on the shoe, buttoning the instep-strap.&nbsp; It was an inanimate
+foot.&nbsp; I lowered it gently to the floor.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If you buttoned the strap you would not be losing your shoe,
+Miss Don&rsquo;t Care,&rdquo; I said, trying to be playful without conviction.&nbsp;
+I felt more like wailing over the lost illusion of vague desire, over
+the sudden conviction that I would never find again near her the strange,
+half-evil, half-tender sensation which had given its acrid flavour to
+so many days, which had made her appear tragic and promising, pitiful
+and provoking.&nbsp; That was all over.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your father picked it up,&rdquo; I said, thinking she may
+just as well be told of the fact.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am not afraid of papa&mdash;by himself,&rdquo; she declared
+scornfully.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; It&rsquo;s only in conjunction with his disreputable
+associates, strangers, the &lsquo;riff-raff of Europe&rsquo; as your
+charming aunt or great-aunt says&mdash;men like me, for instance&mdash;that
+you&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am not afraid of you,&rdquo; she snapped out.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s because you don&rsquo;t know that I am now doing
+business with your father.&nbsp; Yes, I am in fact doing exactly what
+he wants me to do.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve broken my promise to you.&nbsp;
+That&rsquo;s the sort of man I am.&nbsp; And now&mdash;aren&rsquo;t
+you afraid?&nbsp; If you believe what that dear, kind, truthful old
+lady says you ought to be.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was with unexpected modulated softness that the affirmed:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No.&nbsp; I am not afraid.&rdquo;&nbsp; She hesitated. . .
+. &ldquo;Not now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Quite right.&nbsp; You needn&rsquo;t be.&nbsp; I shall not
+see you again before I go to sea.&rdquo;&nbsp; I rose and stood near
+her chair.&nbsp; &ldquo;But I shall often think of you in this old garden,
+passing under the trees over there, walking between these gorgeous flower-beds.&nbsp;
+You must love this garden&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I love nothing.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I heard in her sullen tone the faint echo of that resentfully tragic
+note which I had found once so provoking.&nbsp; But it left me unmoved
+except for a sudden and weary conviction of the emptiness of all things
+under Heaven.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Alice,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+<p>She did not answer, she did not move.&nbsp; To merely take her hand,
+shake it, and go away seemed impossible, almost improper.&nbsp; I stooped
+without haste and pressed my lips to her smooth forehead.&nbsp; This
+was the moment when I realised clearly with a sort of terror my complete
+detachment from that unfortunate creature.&nbsp; And as I lingered in
+that cruel self-knowledge I felt the light touch of her arms falling
+languidly on my neck and received a hasty, awkward, haphazard kiss which
+missed my lips.&nbsp; No!&nbsp; She was not afraid; but I was no longer
+moved.&nbsp; Her arms slipped off my neck slowly, she made no sound,
+the deep wicker arm-chair creaked slightly; only a sense of my dignity
+prevented me fleeing headlong from that catastrophic revelation.</p>
+<p>I traversed the dining-room slowly.&nbsp; I thought: She&rsquo;s
+listening to my footsteps; she can&rsquo;t help it; she&rsquo;ll hear
+me open and shut that door.&nbsp; And I closed it as gently behind me
+as if I had been a thief retreating with his ill-gotten booty.&nbsp;
+During that stealthy act I experienced the last touch of emotion in
+that house, at the thought of the girl I had left sitting there in the
+obscurity, with her heavy hair and empty eyes as black as the night
+itself, staring into the walled garden, silent, warm, odorous with the
+perfume of imprisoned flowers, which, like herself, were lost to sight
+in a world buried in darkness.</p>
+<p>The narrow, ill-lighted, rustic streets I knew so well on my way
+to the harbour were extremely quiet.&nbsp; I felt in my heart that the
+further one ventures the better one understands how everything in our
+life is common, short, and empty; that it is in seeking the unknown
+in our sensations that we discover how mediocre are our attempts and
+how soon defeated!&nbsp; Jacobus&rsquo;s boatman was waiting at the
+steps with an unusual air of readiness.&nbsp; He put me alongside the
+ship, but did not give me his confidential &ldquo;Good-evening, sah,&rdquo;
+and, instead of shoving off at once, remained holding by the ladder.</p>
+<p>I was a thousand miles from commercial affairs, when on the dark
+quarter-deck Mr. Burns positively rushed at me, stammering with excitement.&nbsp;
+He had been pacing the deck distractedly for hours awaiting my arrival.&nbsp;
+Just before sunset a lighter loaded with potatoes had come alongside
+with that fat ship-chandler himself sitting on the pile of sacks.&nbsp;
+He was now stuck immovable in the cabin.&nbsp; What was the meaning
+of it all?&nbsp; Surely I did not&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, Mr. Burns, I did,&rdquo; I cut him short.&nbsp; He was
+beginning to make gestures of despair when I stopped that, too, by giving
+him the key of my desk and desiring him, in a tone which admitted of
+no argument, to go below at once, pay Mr. Jacobus&rsquo;s bill, and
+send him out of the ship.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to see him,&rdquo; I confessed frankly,
+climbing the poop-ladder.&nbsp; I felt extremely tired.&nbsp; Dropping
+on the seat of the skylight, I gave myself up to idle gazing at the
+lights about the quay and at the black mass of the mountain on the south
+side of the harbour.&nbsp; I never heard Jacobus leave the ship with
+every single sovereign of my ready cash in his pocket.&nbsp; I never
+heard anything till, a long time afterwards, Mr. Burns, unable to contain
+himself any longer, intruded upon me with his ridiculously angry lamentations
+at my weakness and good nature.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, there&rsquo;s plenty of room in the after-hatch.&nbsp;
+But they are sure to go rotten down there.&nbsp; Well!&nbsp; I never
+heard . . . seventeen tons!&nbsp; I suppose I must hoist in that lot
+first thing to-morrow morning.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose you must.&nbsp; Unless you drop them overboard.&nbsp;
+But I&rsquo;m afraid you can&rsquo;t do that.&nbsp; I wouldn&rsquo;t
+mind myself, but it&rsquo;s forbidden to throw rubbish into the harbour,
+you know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That is the truest word you have said for many a day, sir&mdash;rubbish.&nbsp;
+That&rsquo;s just what I expect they are.&nbsp; Nearly eighty good gold
+sovereigns gone; a perfectly clean sweep of your drawer, sir.&nbsp;
+Bless me if I understand!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>As it was impossible to throw the right light on this commercial
+transaction I left him to his lamentations and under the impression
+that I was a hopeless fool.&nbsp; Next day I did not go ashore.&nbsp;
+For one thing, I had no money to go ashore with&mdash;no, not enough
+to buy a cigarette.&nbsp; Jacobus had made a clean sweep.&nbsp; But
+that was not the only reason.&nbsp; The Pearl of the Ocean had in a
+few short hours grown odious to me.&nbsp; And I did not want to meet
+any one.&nbsp; My reputation had suffered.&nbsp; I knew I was the object
+of unkind and sarcastic comments.</p>
+<p>The following morning at sunrise, just as our stern-fasts had been
+let go and the tug plucked us out from between the buoys, I saw Jacobus
+standing up in his boat.&nbsp; The nigger was pulling hard; several
+baskets of provisions for ships were stowed between the thwarts.&nbsp;
+The father of Alice was going his morning round.&nbsp; His countenance
+was tranquil and friendly.&nbsp; He raised his arm and shouted something
+with great heartiness.&nbsp; But his voice was of the sort that doesn&rsquo;t
+carry any distance; all I could catch faintly, or rather guess at, were
+the words &ldquo;next time&rdquo; and &ldquo;quite correct.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And it was only of these last that I was certain.&nbsp; Raising my arm
+perfunctorily for all response, I turned away.&nbsp; I rather resented
+the familiarity of the thing.&nbsp; Hadn&rsquo;t I settled accounts
+finally with him by means of that potato bargain?</p>
+<p>This being a harbour story it is not my purpose to speak of our passage.&nbsp;
+I was glad enough to be at sea, but not with the gladness of old days.&nbsp;
+Formerly I had no memories to take away with me.&nbsp; I shared in the
+blessed forgetfulness of sailors, that forgetfulness natural and invincible,
+which resembles innocence in so far that it prevents self-examination.&nbsp;
+Now however I remembered the girl.&nbsp; During the first few days I
+was for ever questioning myself as to the nature of facts and sensations
+connected with her person and with my conduct.</p>
+<p>And I must say also that Mr. Burns&rsquo; intolerable fussing with
+those potatoes was not calculated to make me forget the part which I
+had played.&nbsp; He looked upon it as a purely commercial transaction
+of a particularly foolish kind, and his devotion&mdash;if it was devotion
+and not mere cussedness as I came to regard it before long&mdash;inspired
+him with a zeal to minimise my loss as much as possible.&nbsp; Oh, yes!&nbsp;
+He took care of those infamous potatoes with a vengeance, as the saying
+goes.</p>
+<p>Everlastingly, there was a tackle over the after-hatch and everlastingly
+the watch on deck were pulling up, spreading out, picking over, rebagging,
+and lowering down again, some part of that lot of potatoes.&nbsp; My
+bargain with all its remotest associations, mental and visual&mdash;the
+garden of flowers and scents, the girl with her provoking contempt and
+her tragic loneliness of a hopeless castaway&mdash;was everlastingly
+dangled before my eyes, for thousands of miles along the open sea.&nbsp;
+And as if by a satanic refinement of irony it was accompanied by a most
+awful smell.&nbsp; Whiffs from decaying potatoes pursued me on the poop,
+they mingled with my thoughts, with my food, poisoned my very dreams.&nbsp;
+They made an atmosphere of corruption for the ship.</p>
+<p>I remonstrated with Mr. Burns about this excessive care.&nbsp; I
+would have been well content to batten the hatch down and let them perish
+under the deck.</p>
+<p>That perhaps would have been unsafe.&nbsp; The horrid emanations
+might have flavoured the cargo of sugar.&nbsp; They seemed strong enough
+to taint the very ironwork.&nbsp; In addition Mr. Burns made it a personal
+matter.&nbsp; He assured me he knew how to treat a cargo of potatoes
+at sea&mdash;had been in the trade as a boy, he said.&nbsp; He meant
+to make my loss as small as possible.&nbsp; What between his devotion&mdash;it
+must have been devotion&mdash;and his vanity, I positively dared not
+give him the order to throw my commercial-venture overboard.&nbsp; I
+believe he would have refused point blank to obey my lawful command.&nbsp;
+An unprecedented and comical situation would have been created with
+which I did not feel equal to deal.</p>
+<p>I welcomed the coming of bad weather as no sailor had ever done.&nbsp;
+When at last I hove the ship to, to pick up the pilot outside Port Philip
+Heads, the after-hatch had not been opened for more than a week and
+I might have believed that no such thing as a potato had ever been on
+board.</p>
+<p>It was an abominable day, raw, blustering, with great squalls of
+wind and rain; the pilot, a cheery person, looked after the ship and
+chatted to me, streaming from head to foot; and the heavier the lash
+of the downpour the more pleased with himself and everything around
+him he seemed to be.&nbsp; He rubbed his wet hands with a satisfaction,
+which to me, who had stood that kind of thing for several days and nights,
+seemed inconceivable in any non-aquatic creature.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You seem to enjoy getting wet, Pilot,&rdquo; I remarked.</p>
+<p>He had a bit of land round his house in the suburbs and it was of
+his garden he was thinking.&nbsp; At the sound of the word garden, unheard,
+unspoken for so many days, I had a vision of gorgeous colour, of sweet
+scents, of a girlish figure crouching in a chair.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; That
+was a distinct emotion breaking into the peace I had found in the sleepless
+anxieties of my responsibility during a week of dangerous bad weather.&nbsp;
+The Colony, the pilot explained, had suffered from unparalleled drought.&nbsp;
+This was the first decent drop of water they had had for seven months.&nbsp;
+The root crops were lost.&nbsp; And, trying to be casual, but with visible
+interest, he asked me if I had perchance any potatoes to spare.</p>
+<p>Potatoes!&nbsp; I had managed to forget them.&nbsp; In a moment I
+felt plunged into corruption up to my neck.&nbsp; Mr. Burns was making
+eyes at me behind the pilot&rsquo;s back.</p>
+<p>Finally, he obtained a ton, and paid ten pounds for it.&nbsp; This
+was twice the price of my bargain with Jacobus.&nbsp; The spirit of
+covetousness woke up in me.&nbsp; That night, in harbour, before I slept,
+the Custom House galley came alongside.&nbsp; While his underlings were
+putting seals on the storerooms, the officer in charge took me aside
+confidentially.&nbsp; &ldquo;I say, Captain, you don&rsquo;t happen
+to have any potatoes to sell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Clearly there was a potato famine in the land.&nbsp; I let him have
+a ton for twelve pounds and he went away joyfully.&nbsp; That night
+I dreamt of a pile of gold in the form of a grave in which a girl was
+buried, and woke up callous with greed.&nbsp; On calling at my ship-broker&rsquo;s
+office, that man, after the usual business had been transacted, pushed
+his spectacles up on his forehead.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I was thinking, Captain, that coming from the Pearl of the
+Ocean you may have some potatoes to sell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I said negligently: &ldquo;Oh, yes, I could spare you a ton.&nbsp;
+Fifteen pounds.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He exclaimed: &ldquo;I say!&rdquo;&nbsp; But after studying my face
+for a while accepted my terms with a faint grimace.&nbsp; It seems that
+these people could not exist without potatoes.&nbsp; I could.&nbsp;
+I didn&rsquo;t want to see a potato as long as I lived; but the demon
+of lucre had taken possession of me.&nbsp; How the news got about I
+don&rsquo;t know, but, returning on board rather late, I found a small
+group of men of the coster type hanging about the waist, while Mr. Burns
+walked to and fro the quarterdeck loftily, keeping a triumphant eye
+on them.&nbsp; They had come to buy potatoes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;These chaps have been waiting here in the sun for hours,&rdquo;
+Burns whispered to me excitedly.&nbsp; &ldquo;They have drank the water-cask
+dry.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you throw away your chances, sir.&nbsp; You are
+too good-natured.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I selected a man with thick legs and a man with a cast in his eye
+to negotiate with; simply because they were easily distinguishable from
+the rest.&nbsp; &ldquo;You have the money on you?&rdquo; I inquired,
+before taking them down into the cabin.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; they answered in one voice, slapping their
+pockets.&nbsp; I liked their air of quiet determination.&nbsp; Long
+before the end of the day all the potatoes were sold at about three
+times the price I had paid for them.&nbsp; Mr. Burns, feverish and exulting,
+congratulated himself on his skilful care of my commercial venture,
+but hinted plainly that I ought to have made more of it.</p>
+<p>That night I did not sleep very well.&nbsp; I thought of Jacobus
+by fits and starts, between snatches of dreams concerned with castaways
+starving on a desert island covered with flowers.&nbsp; It was extremely
+unpleasant.&nbsp; In the morning, tired and unrefreshed, I sat down
+and wrote a long letter to my owners, giving them a carefully-thought-out
+scheme for the ship&rsquo;s employment in the East and about the China
+Seas for the next two years.&nbsp; I spent the day at that task and
+felt somewhat more at peace when it was done.</p>
+<p>Their reply came in due course.&nbsp; They were greatly struck with
+my project; but considering that, notwithstanding the unfortunate difficulty
+with the bags (which they trusted I would know how to guard against
+in the future), the voyage showed a very fair profit, they thought it
+would be better to keep the ship in the sugar trade&mdash;at least for
+the present.</p>
+<p>I turned over the page and read on:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We have had a letter from our good friend Mr. Jacobus.&nbsp;
+We are pleased to see how well you have hit it off with him; for, not
+to speak of his assistance in the unfortunate matter of the bags, he
+writes us that should you, by using all possible dispatch, manage to
+bring the ship back early in the season he would be able to give us
+a good rate of freight.&nbsp; We have no doubt that your best endeavours
+. . . etc. . . etc.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I dropped the letter and sat motionless for a long time.&nbsp; Then
+I wrote my answer (it was a short one) and went ashore myself to post
+it.&nbsp; But I passed one letter-box, then another, and in the end
+found myself going up Collins Street with the letter still in my pocket&mdash;against
+my heart.&nbsp; Collins Street at four o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon
+is not exactly a desert solitude; but I had never felt more isolated
+from the rest of mankind as when I walked that day its crowded pavement,
+battling desperately with my thoughts and feeling already vanquished.</p>
+<p>There came a moment when the awful tenacity of Jacobus, the man of
+one passion and of one idea, appeared to me almost heroic.&nbsp; He
+had not given me up.&nbsp; He had gone again to his odious brother.&nbsp;
+And then he appeared to me odious himself.&nbsp; Was it for his own
+sake or for the sake of the poor girl?&nbsp; And on that last supposition
+the memory of the kiss which missed my lips appalled me; for whatever
+he had seen, or guessed at, or risked, he knew nothing of that.&nbsp;
+Unless the girl had told him.&nbsp; How could I go back to fan that
+fatal spark with my cold breath?&nbsp; No, no, that unexpected kiss
+had to be paid for at its full price.</p>
+<p>At the first letter-box I came to I stopped and reaching into my
+breast-pocket I took out the letter&mdash;it was as if I were plucking
+out my very heart&mdash;and dropped it through the slit.&nbsp; Then
+I went straight on board.</p>
+<p>I wondered what dreams I would have that night; but as it turned
+out I did not sleep at all.&nbsp; At breakfast I informed Mr. Burns
+that I had resigned my command.</p>
+<p>He dropped his knife and fork and looked at me with indignation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You have, sir!&nbsp; I thought you loved the ship.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So I do, Burns,&rdquo; I said.&nbsp; &ldquo;But the fact is
+that the Indian Ocean and everything that is in it has lost its charm
+for me.&nbsp; I am going home as passenger by the Suez Canal.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Everything that is in it,&rdquo; he repeated angrily.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never heard anybody talk like this.&nbsp; And to tell
+you the truth, sir, all the time we have been together I&rsquo;ve never
+quite made you out.&nbsp; What&rsquo;s one ocean more than another?&nbsp;
+Charm, indeed!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was really devoted to me, I believe.&nbsp; But he cheered up when
+I told him that I had recommended him for my successor.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Anyhow,&rdquo; he remarked, &ldquo;let people say what they
+like, this Jacobus has served your turn.&nbsp; I must admit that this
+potato business has paid extremely well.&nbsp; Of course, if only you
+had&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, Mr. Burns,&rdquo; I interrupted.&nbsp; &ldquo;Quite a
+smile of fortune.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But I could not tell him that it was driving me out of the ship I
+had learned to love.&nbsp; And as I sat heavy-hearted at that parting,
+seeing all my plans destroyed, my modest future endangered&mdash;for
+this command was like a foot in the stirrup for a young man&mdash;he
+gave up completely for the first time his critical attitude.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A wonderful piece of luck!&rdquo; he said.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>THE SECRET SHARER&mdash;AN EPISODE FROM THE COAST</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>On my right hand there were lines of fishing-stakes resembling a
+mysterious system of half-submerged bamboo fences, incomprehensible
+in its division of the domain of tropical fishes, and crazy of aspect
+as if abandoned forever by some nomad tribe of fishermen now gone to
+the other end of the ocean; for there was no sign of human habitation
+as far as the eye could reach.&nbsp; To the left a group of barren islets,
+suggesting ruins of stone walls, towers, and blockhouses, had its foundations
+set in a blue sea that itself looked solid, so still and stable did
+it lie below my feet; even the track of light from the westering sun
+shone smoothly, without that animated glitter which tells of an imperceptible
+ripple.&nbsp; And when I turned my head to take a parting glance at
+the tug which had just left us anchored outside the bar, I saw the straight
+line of the flat shore joined to the stable sea, edge to edge, with
+a perfect and unmarked closeness, in one levelled floor half brown,
+half blue under the enormous dome of the sky.&nbsp; Corresponding in
+their insignificance to the islets of the sea, two small clumps of trees,
+one on each side of the only fault in the impeccable joint, marked the
+mouth of the river Meinam we had just left on the first preparatory
+stage of our homeward journey; and, far back on the inland level, a
+larger and loftier mass, the grove surrounding the great Paknam pagoda,
+was the only thing on which the eye could rest from the vain task of
+exploring the monotonous sweep of the horizon.&nbsp; Here and there
+gleams as of a few scattered pieces of silver marked the windings of
+the great river; and on the nearest of them, just within the bar, the
+tug steaming right into the land became lost to my sight, hull and funnel
+and masts, as though the impassive earth had swallowed her up without
+an effort, without a tremor.&nbsp; My eye followed the light cloud of
+her smoke, now here, now there, above the plain, according to the devious
+curves of the stream, but always fainter and farther away, till I lost
+it at last behind the mitre-shaped hill of the great pagoda.&nbsp; And
+then I was left alone with my ship, anchored at the head of the Gulf
+of Siam.</p>
+<p>She floated at the starting-point of a long journey, very still in
+an immense stillness, the shadows of her spars flung far to the eastward
+by the setting sun.&nbsp; At that moment I was alone on her decks.&nbsp;
+There was not a sound in her&mdash;and around us nothing moved, nothing
+lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not a cloud
+in the sky.&nbsp; In this breathless pause at the threshold of a long
+passage we seemed to be measuring our fitness for a long and arduous
+enterprise, the appointed task of both our existences to be carried
+out, far from all human eyes, with only sky and sea for spectators and
+for judges.</p>
+<p>There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with one&rsquo;s
+sight, because it was only just before the sun left us that my roaming
+eyes made out beyond the highest ridge of the principal islet of the
+group something which did away with the solemnity of perfect solitude.&nbsp;
+The tide of darkness flowed on swiftly; and with tropical suddenness
+a swarm of stars came out above the shadowy earth, while I lingered
+yet, my hand resting lightly on my ship&rsquo;s rail as if on the shoulder
+of a trusted friend.&nbsp; But, with all that multitude of celestial
+bodies staring down at one, the comfort of quiet communion with her
+was gone for good.&nbsp; And there were also disturbing sounds by this
+time&mdash;voices, footsteps forward; the steward flitted along the
+maindeck, a busily ministering spirit; a hand-bell tinkled urgently
+under the poop-deck. . . .</p>
+<p>I found my two officers waiting for me near the supper table, in
+the lighted cuddy.&nbsp; We sat down at once, and as I helped the chief
+mate, I said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside the islands?&nbsp;
+I saw her mastheads above the ridge as the sun went down.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a terrible growth
+of whisker, and emitted his usual ejaculations: &ldquo;Bless my soul,
+sir!&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t say so!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young man, grave beyond
+his years, I thought; but as our eyes happened to meet I detected a
+slight quiver on his lips.&nbsp; I looked down at once.&nbsp; It was
+not my part to encourage sneering on board my ship.&nbsp; It must be
+said, too, that I knew very little of my officers.&nbsp; In consequence
+of certain events of no particular significance, except to myself, I
+had been appointed to the command only a fortnight before.&nbsp; Neither
+did I know much of the hands forward.&nbsp; All these people had been
+together for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the
+only stranger on board.&nbsp; I mention this because it has some bearing
+on what is to follow.&nbsp; But what I felt most was my being a stranger
+to the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I was somewhat of a
+stranger to myself.&nbsp; The youngest man on board (barring the second
+mate), and untried as yet by a position of the fullest responsibility,
+I was willing to take the adequacy of the others for granted.&nbsp;
+They had simply to be equal to their tasks; but I wondered how far I
+should turn out faithful to that ideal conception of one&rsquo;s own
+personality every man sets up for himself secretly.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Meantime the chief mate, with an almost visible effect of collaboration
+on the part of his round eyes and frightful whiskers, was trying to
+evolve a theory of the anchored ship.&nbsp; His dominant trait was to
+take all things into earnest consideration.&nbsp; He was of a painstaking
+turn of mind.&nbsp; As he used to say, he &ldquo;liked to account to
+himself&rdquo; for practically everything that came in his way, down
+to a miserable scorpion he had found in his cabin a week before.&nbsp;
+The why and the wherefore of that scorpion&mdash;how it got on board
+and came to select his room rather than the pantry (which was a dark
+place and more what a scorpion would be partial to), and how on earth
+it managed to drown itself in the inkwell of his writing-desk&mdash;had
+exercised him infinitely.&nbsp; The ship within the islands was much
+more easily accounted for; and just as we were about to rise from table
+he made his pronouncement.&nbsp; She was, he doubted not, a ship from
+home lately arrived.&nbsp; Probably she drew too much water to cross
+the bar except at the top of spring tides.&nbsp; Therefore she went
+into that natural harbour to wait for a few days in preference to remaining
+in an open roadstead.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s so,&rdquo; confirmed the second mate, suddenly,
+in his slightly hoarse voice.&nbsp; &ldquo;She draws over twenty feet.&nbsp;
+She&rsquo;s the Liverpool ship <i>Sephora</i> with a cargo of coal.&nbsp;
+Hundred and twenty-three days from Cardiff.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We looked at him in surprise.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The tugboat skipper told me when he came on board for your
+letters, sir,&rdquo; explained the young man.&nbsp; &ldquo;He expects
+to take her up the river the day after to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>After thus overwhelming us with the extent of his information he
+slipped out of the cabin.&nbsp; The mate observed regretfully that he
+&ldquo;could not account for that young fellow&rsquo;s whims.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+What prevented him telling us all about it at once, he wanted to know.</p>
+<p>I detained him as he was making a move.&nbsp; For the last two days
+the crew had had plenty of hard work, and the night before they had
+very little sleep.&nbsp; I felt painfully that I&mdash;a stranger&mdash;was
+doing something unusual when I directed him to let all hands turn in
+without setting an anchor-watch.&nbsp; I proposed to keep on deck myself
+till one o&rsquo;clock or thereabouts.&nbsp; I would get the second
+mate to relieve me at that hour.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He will turn out the cook and the steward at four,&rdquo;
+I concluded, &ldquo;and then give you a call.&nbsp; Of course at the
+slightest sign of any sort of wind we&rsquo;ll have the hands up and
+make a start at once.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He concealed his astonishment.&nbsp; &ldquo;Very well, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Outside the cuddy he put his head in the second mate&rsquo;s door to
+inform him of my unheard-of caprice to take a five hours&rsquo; anchor-watch
+on myself.&nbsp; I heard the other raise his voice incredulously&mdash;&ldquo;What?&nbsp;
+The captain himself?&rdquo;&nbsp; Then a few more murmurs, a door closed,
+then another.&nbsp; A few moments later I went on deck.</p>
+<p>My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that unconventional
+arrangement, as if I had expected in those solitary hours of the night
+to get on terms with the ship of which I knew nothing, manned by men
+of whom I knew very little more.&nbsp; Fast alongside a wharf, littered
+like any ship in port with a tangle of unrelated things, invaded by
+unrelated shore people, I had hardly seen her yet properly.&nbsp; Now,
+as she lay cleared for sea, the stretch of her maindeck seemed to me
+very fine under the stars.&nbsp; Very fine, very roomy for her size,
+and very inviting.&nbsp; I descended the poop and paced the waist, my
+mind picturing to myself the coming passage through the Malay Archipelago,
+down the Indian Ocean, and up the Atlantic.&nbsp; All its phases were
+familiar enough to me, every characteristic, all the alternatives which
+were likely to face me on the high seas&mdash;everything! . . . except
+the novel responsibility of command.&nbsp; But I took heart from the
+reasonable thought that the ship was like other ships, the men like
+other men, and that the sea was not likely to keep any special surprises
+expressly for my discomfiture.</p>
+<p>Arrived at that comforting conclusion, I bethought myself of a cigar
+and went below to get it.&nbsp; All was still down there.&nbsp; Everybody
+at the after end of the ship was sleeping profoundly.&nbsp; I came out
+again on the quarter-deck, agreeably at ease in my sleeping-suit on
+that warm breathless night, barefooted, a glowing cigar in my teeth,
+and, going forward, I was met by the profound silence of the fore end
+of the ship.&nbsp; Only as I passed the door of the forecastle I heard
+a deep, quiet, trustful sigh of some sleeper inside.&nbsp; And suddenly
+I rejoiced in the great security of the sea as compared with the unrest
+of the land, in my choice of that untempted life presenting no disquieting
+problems, invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness
+of its appeal and by the singleness of its purpose.</p>
+<p>The riding-light in the fore-rigging burned with a clear, untroubled,
+as if symbolic, flame, confident and bright in the mysterious shades
+of the night.&nbsp; Passing on my way aft along the other side of the
+ship, I observed that the rope side-ladder, put over, no doubt, for
+the master of the tug when he came to fetch away our letters, had not
+been hauled in as it should have been.&nbsp; I became annoyed at this,
+for exactitude in small matters is the very soul of discipline.&nbsp;
+Then I reflected that I had myself peremptorily dismissed my officers
+from duty, and by my own act had prevented the anchor-watch being formally
+set and things properly attended to.&nbsp; I asked myself whether it
+was wise ever to interfere with the established routine of duties even
+from the kindest of motives.&nbsp; My action might have made me appear
+eccentric.&nbsp; Goodness only knew how that absurdly whiskered mate
+would &ldquo;account&rdquo; for my conduct, and what the whole ship
+thought of that informality of their new captain.&nbsp; I was vexed
+with myself.</p>
+<p>Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically, I proceeded
+to get the ladder in myself.&nbsp; Now a side-ladder of that sort is
+a light affair and comes in easily, yet my vigorous tug, which should
+have brought it flying on board, merely recoiled upon my body in a totally
+unexpected jerk.&nbsp; What the devil! . . . I was so astounded by the
+immovableness of that ladder that I remained stock-still, trying to
+account for it to myself like that imbecile mate of mine.&nbsp; In the
+end, of course, I put my head over the rail.</p>
+<p>The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling
+glassy shimmer of the sea.&nbsp; But I saw at once something elongated
+and pale floating very close to the ladder.&nbsp; Before I could form
+a guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue
+suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water
+with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky.&nbsp;
+With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs,
+a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous
+glow.&nbsp; One hand, awash, clutched the bottom rung of the ladder.&nbsp;
+He was complete but for the head.&nbsp; A headless corpse!&nbsp; The
+cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss
+quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven.&nbsp;
+At that I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval in the shadow
+of the ship&rsquo;s side.&nbsp; But even then I could only barely make
+out down there the shape of his black-haired head.&nbsp; However, it
+was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation which had gripped me
+about the chest to pass off.&nbsp; The moment of vain exclamations was
+past, too.&nbsp; I only climbed on the spare spar and leaned over the
+rail as far as I could, to bring my eyes nearer to that mystery floating
+alongside.</p>
+<p>As he hung by the ladder, like a resting swimmer, the sea-lightning
+played about his limbs at every stir; and he appeared in it ghastly,
+silvery, fish-like.&nbsp; He remained as mute as a fish, too.&nbsp;
+He made no motion to get out of the water, either.&nbsp; It was inconceivable
+that he should not attempt to come on board, and strangely troubling
+to suspect that perhaps he did not want to.&nbsp; And my first words
+were prompted by just that troubled incertitude.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; I asked in my ordinary tone,
+speaking down to the face upturned exactly under mine.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Cramp,&rdquo; it answered, no louder.&nbsp; Then slightly
+anxious, &ldquo;I say, no need to call any one.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I was not going to,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are you alone on deck?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had somehow the impression that he was on the point of letting
+go the ladder to swim away beyond my ken&mdash;mysterious as he came.&nbsp;
+But, for the moment, this being appearing as if he had risen from the
+bottom of the sea (it was certainly the nearest land to the ship) wanted
+only to know the time.&nbsp; I told him.&nbsp; And he, down there, tentatively:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose your captain&rsquo;s turned in?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am sure he isn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+<p>He seemed to struggle with himself, for I heard something like the
+low, bitter murmur of doubt.&nbsp; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the good?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+His next words came out with a hesitating effort.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look here, my man.&nbsp; Could you call him out quietly?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I thought the time had come to declare myself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;<i>I</i> am the captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I heard a &ldquo;By Jove!&rdquo; whispered at the level of the water.&nbsp;
+The phosphorescence flashed in the swirl of the water all about his
+limbs, his other hand seized the ladder.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My name&rsquo;s Leggatt.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The voice was calm and resolute.&nbsp; A good voice.&nbsp; The self-possession
+of that man had somehow induced a corresponding state in myself.&nbsp;
+It was very quietly that I remarked:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must be a good swimmer.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve been in the water practically since
+nine o&rsquo;clock.&nbsp; The question for me now is whether I am to
+let go this ladder and go on swimming till I sink from exhaustion, or&mdash;to
+come on board here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I felt this was no mere formula of desperate speech, but a real alternative
+in the view of a strong soul.&nbsp; I should have gathered from this
+that he was young; indeed, it is only the young who are ever confronted
+by such clear issues.&nbsp; But at the time it was pure intuition on
+my part.&nbsp; A mysterious communication was established already between
+us two&mdash;in the face of that silent, darkened tropical sea.&nbsp;
+I was young, too; young enough to make no comment.&nbsp; The man in
+the water began suddenly to climb up the ladder, and I hastened away
+from the rail to fetch some clothes.</p>
+<p>Before entering the cabin I stood still, listening in the lobby at
+the foot of the stairs.&nbsp; A faint snore came through the closed
+door of the chief mate&rsquo;s room.&nbsp; The second mate&rsquo;s door
+was on the hook, but the darkness in there was absolutely soundless.&nbsp;
+He, too, was young and could sleep like a stone.&nbsp; Remained the
+steward, but he was not likely to wake up before he was called.&nbsp;
+I got a sleeping-suit out of my room and, coming back on deck, saw the
+naked man from the sea sitting on the main-hatch, glimmering white in
+the darkness, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.&nbsp;
+In a moment he had concealed his damp body in a sleeping-suit of the
+same grey-stripe pattern as the one I was wearing and followed me like
+my double on the poop.&nbsp; Together we moved right aft, barefooted,
+silent.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I asked in a deadened voice, taking the
+lighted lamp out of the binnacle, and raising it to his face.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;An ugly business.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under somewhat
+heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no growth on his cheeks;
+a small, brown moustache, and a well-shaped, round chin.&nbsp; His expression
+was concentrated, meditative, under the inspecting light of the lamp
+I held up to his face; such as a man thinking hard in solitude might
+wear.&nbsp; My sleeping-suit was just right for his size.&nbsp; A well-knit
+young fellow of twenty-five at most.&nbsp; He caught his lower lip with
+the edge of white, even teeth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; I said, replacing the lamp in the binnacle.&nbsp;
+The warm, heavy tropical night closed upon his head again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a ship over there,&rdquo; he murmured.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, I know.&nbsp; The <i>Sephora</i>.&nbsp; Did you know
+of us?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t the slightest idea.&nbsp; I am the mate of her&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He paused and corrected himself.&nbsp; &ldquo;I should say I <i>was</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Aha!&nbsp; Something wrong?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; Very wrong indeed.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve killed a man.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What do you mean?&nbsp; Just now?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, on the passage.&nbsp; Weeks ago.&nbsp; Thirty-nine south.&nbsp;
+When I say a man&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fit of temper,&rdquo; I suggested, confidently.</p>
+<p>The shadowy, dark head, like mine, seemed to nod imperceptibly above
+the ghostly grey of my sleeping-suit.&nbsp; It was, in the night, as
+though I had been faced by my own reflection in the depths of a sombre
+and immense mirror.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A pretty thing to have to own up to for a Conway boy,&rdquo;
+murmured my double, distinctly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a Conway boy?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am,&rdquo; he said, as if startled.&nbsp; Then, slowly .
+. . &ldquo;Perhaps you too&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was so; but being a couple of years older I had left before he
+joined.&nbsp; After a quick interchange of dates a silence fell; and
+I thought suddenly of my absurd mate with his terrific whiskers and
+the &ldquo;Bless my soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say so&rdquo; type of
+intellect.&nbsp; My double gave me an inkling of his thoughts by saying:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My father&rsquo;s a parson in Norfolk.&nbsp; Do you see me
+before a judge and jury on that charge?&nbsp; For myself I can&rsquo;t
+see the necessity.&nbsp; There are fellows that an angel from heaven&mdash;And
+I am not that.&nbsp; He was one of those creatures that are just simmering
+all the time with a silly sort of wickedness.&nbsp; Miserable devils
+that have no business to live at all.&nbsp; He wouldn&rsquo;t do his
+duty and wouldn&rsquo;t let anybody else do theirs.&nbsp; But what&rsquo;s
+the good of talking!&nbsp; You know well enough the sort of ill-conditioned
+snarling cur&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as
+our clothes.&nbsp; And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of
+such a character where there are no means of legal repression.&nbsp;
+And I knew well enough also that my double there was no homicidal ruffian.&nbsp;
+I did not think of asking him for details, and he told me the story
+roughly in brusque, disconnected sentences.&nbsp; I needed no more.&nbsp;
+I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside that other sleeping-suit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It happened while we were setting a reefed foresail, at dusk.&nbsp;
+Reefed foresail!&nbsp; You understand the sort of weather.&nbsp; The
+only sail we had left to keep the ship running; so you may guess what
+it had been like for days.&nbsp; Anxious sort of job, that.&nbsp; He
+gave me some of his cursed insolence at the sheet.&nbsp; I tell you
+I was overdone with this terrific weather that seemed to have no end
+to it.&nbsp; Terrific, I tell you&mdash;and a deep ship.&nbsp; I believe
+the fellow himself was half crazed with funk.&nbsp; It was no time for
+gentlemanly reproof, so I turned round and felled him like an ox.&nbsp;
+He up and at me.&nbsp; We closed just as an awful sea made for the ship.&nbsp;
+All hands saw it coming and took to the rigging, but I had him by the
+throat, and went on shaking him like a rat, the men above us yelling,
+&ldquo;Look out! look out!&rdquo;&nbsp; Then a crash as if the sky had
+fallen on my head.&nbsp; They say that for over ten minutes hardly anything
+was to be seen of the ship&mdash;just the three masts and a bit of the
+forecastle head and of the poop all awash driving along in a smother
+of foam.&nbsp; It was a miracle that they found us, jammed together
+behind the forebits.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s clear that I meant business, because
+I was holding him by the throat still when they picked us up.&nbsp;
+He was black in the face.&nbsp; It was too much for them.&nbsp; It seems
+they rushed us aft together, gripped as we were, screaming &ldquo;Murder!&rdquo;
+like a lot of lunatics, and broke into the cuddy.&nbsp; And the ship
+running for her life, touch and go all the time, any minute her last
+in a sea fit to turn your hair grey only a-looking at it.&nbsp; I understand
+that the skipper, too, started raving like the rest of them.&nbsp; The
+man had been deprived of sleep for more than a week, and to have this
+sprung on him at the height of a furious gale nearly drove him out of
+his mind.&nbsp; I wonder they didn&rsquo;t fling me overboard after
+getting the carcass of their precious ship-mate out of my fingers.&nbsp;
+They had rather a job to separate us, I&rsquo;ve been told.&nbsp; A
+sufficiently fierce story to make an old judge and a respectable jury
+sit up a bit.&nbsp; The first thing I heard when I came to myself was
+the maddening howling of that endless gale, and on that the voice of
+the old man.&nbsp; He was hanging on to my bunk, staring into my face
+out of his sou&rsquo;wester.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Mr. Leggatt, you have killed a man.&nbsp; You can act
+no longer as chief mate of this ship.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His care to subdue his voice made it sound monotonous.&nbsp; He rested
+a hand on the end of the skylight to steady himself with, and all that
+time did not stir a limb, so far as I could see.&nbsp; &ldquo;Nice little
+tale for a quiet tea-party,&rdquo; he concluded in the same tone.</p>
+<p>One of my hands, too, rested on the end of the skylight; neither
+did I stir a limb, so far as I knew.&nbsp; We stood less than a foot
+from each other.&nbsp; It occurred to me that if old &ldquo;Bless my
+soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say so&rdquo; were to put his head up the
+companion and catch sight of us, he would think he was seeing double,
+or imagine himself come upon a scene of weird witchcraft; the strange
+captain having a quiet confabulation by the wheel with his own grey
+ghost.&nbsp; I became very much concerned to prevent anything of the
+sort.&nbsp; I heard the other&rsquo;s soothing undertone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My father&rsquo;s a parson in Norfolk,&rdquo; it said.&nbsp;
+Evidently he had forgotten he had told me this important fact before.&nbsp;
+Truly a nice little tale.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You had better slip down into my stateroom now,&rdquo; I said,
+moving off stealthily.&nbsp; My double followed my movements; our bare
+feet made no sound; I let him in, closed the door with care, and, after
+giving a call to the second mate, returned on deck for my relief.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not much sign of any wind yet,&rdquo; I remarked when he approached.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir.&nbsp; Not much,&rdquo; he assented, sleepily, in
+his hoarse voice, with just enough deference, no more, and barely suppressing
+a yawn.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all you have to look out for.&nbsp; You
+have got your orders.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I paced a turn or two on the poop and saw him take up his position
+face forward with his elbow in the ratlines of the mizzen-rigging before
+I went below.&nbsp; The mate&rsquo;s faint snoring was still going on
+peacefully.&nbsp; The cuddy lamp was burning over the table on which
+stood a vase with flowers, a polite attention from the ship&rsquo;s
+provision merchant&mdash;the last flowers we should see for the next
+three months at the very least.&nbsp; Two bunches of bananas hung from
+the beam symmetrically, one on each side of the rudder-casing.&nbsp;
+Everything was as before in the ship&mdash;except that two of her captain&rsquo;s
+sleeping-suits were simultaneously in use, one motionless in the cuddy,
+the other keeping very still in the captain&rsquo;s stateroom.</p>
+<p>It must be explained here that my cabin had the form of the capital
+letter L the door being within the angle and opening into the short
+part of the letter.&nbsp; A couch was to the left, the bed-place to
+the right; my writing-desk and the chronometers&rsquo; table faced the
+door.&nbsp; But any one opening it, unless he stepped right inside,
+had no view of what I call the long (or vertical) part of the letter.&nbsp;
+It contained some lockers surmounted by a bookcase; and a few clothes,
+a thick jacket or two, caps, oilskin coat, and such like, hung on hooks.&nbsp;
+There was at the bottom of that part a door opening into my bath-room,
+which could be entered also directly from the saloon.&nbsp; But that
+way was never used.</p>
+<p>The mysterious arrival had discovered the advantage of this particular
+shape.&nbsp; Entering my room, lighted strongly by a big bulkhead lamp
+swung on gimbals above my writing-desk, I did not see him anywhere till
+he stepped out quietly from behind the coats hung in the recessed part.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I heard somebody moving about, and went in there at once,&rdquo;
+he whispered.</p>
+<p>I, too, spoke under my breath.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nobody is likely to come in here without knocking and getting
+permission.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He nodded.&nbsp; His face was thin and the sunburn faded, as though
+he had been ill.&nbsp; And no wonder.&nbsp; He had been, I heard presently,
+kept under arrest in his cabin for nearly seven weeks.&nbsp; But there
+was nothing sickly in his eyes or in his expression.&nbsp; He was not
+a bit like me, really; yet, as we stood leaning over my bed-place, whispering
+side by side, with our dark heads together and our backs to the door,
+anybody bold enough to open it stealthily would have been treated to
+the uncanny sight of a double captain busy talking in whispers with
+his other self.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But all this doesn&rsquo;t tell me how you came to hang on
+to our side-ladder,&rdquo; I inquired, in the hardly audible murmurs
+we used, after he had told me something more of the proceedings on board
+the <i>Sephora</i> once the bad weather was over.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When we sighted Java Head I had had time to think all those
+matters out several times over.&nbsp; I had six weeks of doing nothing
+else, and with only an hour or so every evening for a tramp on the quarter-deck.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He whispered, his arms folded on the side of my bed-place, staring
+through the open port.&nbsp; And I could imagine perfectly the manner
+of this thinking out&mdash;a stubborn if not a steadfast operation;
+something of which I should have been perfectly incapable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I reckoned it would be dark before we closed with the land,&rdquo;
+he continued, so low that I had to strain my hearing, near as we were
+to each other, shoulder touching shoulder almost.&nbsp; &ldquo;So I
+asked to speak to the old man.&nbsp; He always seemed very sick when
+he came to see me&mdash;as if he could not look me in the face.&nbsp;
+You know, that foresail saved the ship.&nbsp; She was too deep to have
+run long under bare poles.&nbsp; And it was I that managed to set it
+for him.&nbsp; Anyway, he came.&nbsp; When I had him in my cabin&mdash;he
+stood by the door looking at me as if I had the halter round my neck
+already&mdash;I asked him right away to leave my cabin door unlocked
+at night while the ship was going through Sunda Straits.&nbsp; There
+would be the Java coast within two or three miles, off Angier Point.&nbsp;
+I wanted nothing more.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve had a prize for swimming my
+second year in the Conway.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I can believe it,&rdquo; I breathed out.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;God only knows why they locked me in every night.&nbsp; To
+see some of their faces you&rsquo;d have thought they were afraid I&rsquo;d
+go about at night strangling people.&nbsp; Am I a murdering brute?&nbsp;
+Do I look it?&nbsp; By Jove! if I had been he wouldn&rsquo;t have trusted
+himself like that into my room.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll say I might have
+chucked him aside and bolted out, there and then&mdash;it was dark already.&nbsp;
+Well, no.&nbsp; And for the same reason I wouldn&rsquo;t think of trying
+to smash the door.&nbsp; There would have been a rush to stop me at
+the noise, and I did not mean to get into a confounded scrimmage.&nbsp;
+Somebody else might have got killed&mdash;for I would not have broken
+out only to get chucked back, and I did not want any more of that work.&nbsp;
+He refused, looking more sick than ever.&nbsp; He was afraid of the
+men, and also of that old second mate of his who had been sailing with
+him for years&mdash;a grey-headed old humbug; and his steward, too,
+had been with him devil knows how long&mdash;seventeen years or more&mdash;a
+dogmatic sort of loafer who hated me like poison, just because I was
+the chief mate.&nbsp; No chief mate ever made more than one voyage in
+the <i>Sephora</i>, you know.&nbsp; Those two old chaps ran the ship.&nbsp;
+Devil only knows what the skipper wasn&rsquo;t afraid of (all his nerve
+went to pieces altogether in that hellish spell of bad weather we had)&mdash;of
+what the law would do to him&mdash;of his wife, perhaps.&nbsp; Oh, yes!
+she&rsquo;s on board.&nbsp; Though I don&rsquo;t think she would have
+meddled.&nbsp; She would have been only too glad to have me out of the
+ship in any way.&nbsp; The &lsquo;brand of Cain&rsquo; business, don&rsquo;t
+you see.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s all right.&nbsp; I was ready enough to go
+off wandering on the face of the earth&mdash;and that was price enough
+to pay for an Abel of that sort.&nbsp; Anyhow, he wouldn&rsquo;t listen
+to me.&nbsp; &lsquo;This thing must take its course.&nbsp; I represent
+the law here.&rsquo;&nbsp; He was shaking like a leaf.&nbsp; &lsquo;So
+you won&rsquo;t?&rsquo;&nbsp; &lsquo;No!&rsquo;&nbsp; &lsquo;Then I
+hope you will be able to sleep on that,&rsquo; I said, and turned my
+back on him.&nbsp; &lsquo;I wonder that <i>you</i> can,&rsquo; cries
+he, and locks the door.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, after that, I couldn&rsquo;t.&nbsp; Not very well.&nbsp;
+That was three weeks ago.&nbsp; We have had a slow passage through the
+Java Sea; drifted about Carimata for ten days.&nbsp; When we anchored
+here they thought, I suppose, it was all right.&nbsp; The nearest land
+(and that&rsquo;s five miles) is the ship&rsquo;s destination; the consul
+would soon set about catching me; and there would have been no object
+in bolting to these islets there.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t suppose there&rsquo;s
+a drop of water on them.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know how it was, but to-night
+that steward, after bringing me my supper, went out to let me eat it,
+and left the door unlocked.&nbsp; And I ate it&mdash;all there was,
+too.&nbsp; After I had finished I strolled out on the quarterdeck.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t know that I meant to do anything.&nbsp; A breath of fresh
+air was all I wanted, I believe.&nbsp; Then a sudden temptation came
+over me.&nbsp; I kicked off my slippers and was in the water before
+I had made up my mind fairly.&nbsp; Somebody heard the splash and they
+raised an awful hullabaloo.&nbsp; &lsquo;He&rsquo;s gone!&nbsp; Lower
+the boats!&nbsp; He&rsquo;s committed suicide!&nbsp; No, he&rsquo;s
+swimming.&rsquo;&nbsp; Certainly I was swimming.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s not
+so easy for a swimmer like me to commit suicide by drowning.&nbsp; I
+landed on the nearest islet before the boat left the ship&rsquo;s side.&nbsp;
+I heard them pulling about in the dark, hailing, and so on, but after
+a bit they gave up.&nbsp; Everything quieted down and the anchorage
+became as still as death.&nbsp; I sat down on a stone and began to think.&nbsp;
+I felt certain they would start searching for me at daylight.&nbsp;
+There was no place to hide on those stony things&mdash;and if there
+had been, what would have been the good?&nbsp; But now I was clear of
+that ship, I was not going back.&nbsp; So after a while I took off all
+my clothes, tied them up in a bundle with a stone inside, and dropped
+them in the deep water on the outer side of that islet.&nbsp; That was
+suicide enough for me.&nbsp; Let them think what they liked, but I didn&rsquo;t
+mean to drown myself.&nbsp; I meant to swim till I sank&mdash;but that&rsquo;s
+not the same thing.&nbsp; I struck out for another of these little islands,
+and it was from that one that I first saw your riding-light.&nbsp; Something
+to swim for.&nbsp; I went on easily, and on the way I came upon a flat
+rock a foot or two above water.&nbsp; In the daytime, I dare say, you
+might make it out with a glass from your poop.&nbsp; I scrambled up
+on it and rested myself for a bit.&nbsp; Then I made another start.&nbsp;
+That last spell must have been over a mile.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>His whisper was getting fainter and fainter, and all the time he
+stared straight out through the port-hole, in which there was not even
+a star to be seen.&nbsp; I had not interrupted him.&nbsp; There was
+something that made comment impossible in his narrative, or perhaps
+in himself; a sort of feeling, a quality, which I can&rsquo;t find a
+name for.&nbsp; And when he ceased, all I found was a futile whisper:
+&ldquo;So you swam for our light?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes&mdash;straight for it.&nbsp; It was something to swim
+for.&nbsp; I couldn&rsquo;t see any stars low down because the coast
+was in the way, and I couldn&rsquo;t see the land, either.&nbsp; The
+water was like glass.&nbsp; One might have been swimming in a confounded
+thousand-feet deep cistern with no place for scrambling out anywhere;
+but what I didn&rsquo;t like was the notion of swimming round and round
+like a crazed bullock before I gave out; and as I didn&rsquo;t mean
+to go back . . . No.&nbsp; Do you see me being hauled back, stark naked,
+off one of these little islands by the scruff of the neck and fighting
+like a wild beast?&nbsp; Somebody would have got killed for certain,
+and I did not want any of that.&nbsp; So I went on.&nbsp; Then your
+ladder&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you hail the ship?&rdquo; I asked, a little
+louder.</p>
+<p>He touched my shoulder lightly.&nbsp; Lazy footsteps came right over
+our heads and stopped.&nbsp; The second mate had crossed from the other
+side of the poop and might have been hanging over the rail, for all
+we knew.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t hear us talking&mdash;could he?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+My double breathed into my very ear, anxiously.</p>
+<p>His anxiety was an answer, a sufficient answer, to the question I
+had put to him.&nbsp; An answer containing all the difficulty of that
+situation.&nbsp; I closed the port-hole quietly, to make sure.&nbsp;
+A louder word might have been overheard.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; he whispered then.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My second mate.&nbsp; But I don&rsquo;t know much more of
+the fellow than you do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And I told him a little about myself.&nbsp; I had been appointed
+to take charge while I least expected anything of the sort, not quite
+a fortnight ago.&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t know either the ship or the people.&nbsp;
+Hadn&rsquo;t had the time in port to look about me or size anybody up.&nbsp;
+And as to the crew, all they knew was that I was appointed to take the
+ship home.&nbsp; For the rest, I was almost as much of a stranger on
+board as himself, I said.&nbsp; And at the moment I felt it most acutely.&nbsp;
+I felt that it would take very little to make me a suspect person in
+the eyes of the ship&rsquo;s company.</p>
+<p>He had turned about meantime; and we, the two strangers in the ship,
+faced each other in identical attitudes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your ladder&mdash;&rdquo; he murmured, after a silence.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Who&rsquo;d have thought of finding a ladder hanging over at
+night in a ship anchored out here!&nbsp; I felt just then a very unpleasant
+faintness.&nbsp; After the life I&rsquo;ve been leading for nine weeks,
+anybody would have got out of condition.&nbsp; I wasn&rsquo;t capable
+of swimming round as far as your rudder-chains.&nbsp; And, lo and behold!
+there was a ladder to get hold of.&nbsp; After I gripped it I said to
+myself, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s the good?&rsquo;&nbsp; When I saw a man&rsquo;s
+head looking over I thought I would swim away presently and leave him
+shouting&mdash;in whatever language it was.&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t mind
+being looked at.&nbsp; I&mdash;I liked it.&nbsp; And then you speaking
+to me so quietly&mdash;as if you had expected me&mdash;made me hold
+on a little longer.&nbsp; It had been a confounded lonely time&mdash;I
+don&rsquo;t mean while swimming.&nbsp; I was glad to talk a little to
+somebody that didn&rsquo;t belong to the <i>Sephora</i>.&nbsp; As to
+asking for the captain, that was a mere impulse.&nbsp; It could have
+been no use, with all the ship knowing about me and the other people
+pretty certain to be round here in the morning.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t
+know&mdash;I wanted to be seen, to talk with somebody, before I went
+on.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know what I would have said. . . . &lsquo;Fine
+night, isn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; or something of the sort.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you think they will be round here presently?&rdquo; I asked
+with some incredulity.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Quite likely,&rdquo; he said, faintly.</p>
+<p>He looked extremely haggard all of a sudden.&nbsp; His head rolled
+on his shoulders.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;H&rsquo;m.&nbsp; We shall see then.&nbsp; Meantime get into
+that bed,&rdquo; I whispered.&nbsp; &ldquo;Want help?&nbsp; There.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was a rather high bed-place with a set of drawers underneath.&nbsp;
+This amazing swimmer really needed the lift I gave him by seizing his
+leg.&nbsp; He tumbled in, rolled over on his back, and flung one arm
+across his eyes.&nbsp; And then, with his face nearly hidden, he must
+have looked exactly as I used to look in that bed.&nbsp; I gazed upon
+my other self for a while before drawing across carefully the two green
+serge curtains which ran on a brass rod.&nbsp; I thought for a moment
+of pinning them together for greater safety, but I sat down on the couch,
+and once there I felt unwilling to rise and hunt for a pin.&nbsp; I
+would do it in a moment.&nbsp; I was extremely tired, in a peculiarly
+intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness, by the effort of whispering
+and the general secrecy of this excitement.&nbsp; It was three o&rsquo;clock
+by now and I had been on my feet since nine, but I was not sleepy; I
+could not have gone to sleep.&nbsp; I sat there, fagged out, looking
+at the curtains, trying to clear my mind of the confused sensation of
+being in two places at once, and greatly bothered by an exasperating
+knocking in my head.&nbsp; It was a relief to discover suddenly that
+it was not in my head at all, but on the outside of the door.&nbsp;
+Before I could collect myself the words &ldquo;Come in&rdquo; were out
+of my mouth, and the steward entered with a tray, bringing in my morning
+coffee.&nbsp; I had slept, after all, and I was so frightened that I
+shouted, &ldquo;This way!&nbsp; I am here, steward,&rdquo; as though
+he had been miles away.&nbsp; He put down the tray on the table next
+the couch and only then said, very quietly, &ldquo;I can see you are
+here, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; I felt him give me a keen look, but I dared
+not meet his eyes just then.&nbsp; He must have wondered why I had drawn
+the curtains of my bed before going to sleep on the couch.&nbsp; He
+went out, hooking the door open as usual.</p>
+<p>I heard the crew washing decks above me.&nbsp; I knew I would have
+been told at once if there had been any wind.&nbsp; Calm, I thought,
+and I was doubly vexed.&nbsp; Indeed, I felt dual more than ever.&nbsp;
+The steward reappeared suddenly in the doorway.&nbsp; I jumped up from
+the couch so quickly that he gave a start.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What do you want here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Close your port, sir&mdash;they are washing decks.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is closed,&rdquo; I said, reddening.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Very well, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; But he did not move from the
+doorway and returned my stare in an extraordinary, equivocal manner
+for a time.&nbsp; Then his eyes wavered, all his expression changed,
+and in a voice unusually gentle, almost coaxingly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;May I come in to take the empty cup away, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course!&rdquo;&nbsp; I turned my back on him while he popped
+in and out.&nbsp; Then I unhooked and closed the door and even pushed
+the bolt.&nbsp; This sort of thing could not go on very long.&nbsp;
+The cabin was as hot as an oven, too.&nbsp; I took a peep at my double,
+and discovered that he had not moved, his arm was still over his eyes;
+but his chest heaved; his hair was wet; his chin glistened with perspiration.&nbsp;
+I reached over him and opened the port.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I must show myself on deck,&rdquo; I reflected.</p>
+<p>Of course, theoretically, I could do what I liked, with no one to
+say nay to me within the whole circle of the horizon; but to lock my
+cabin door and take the key away I did not dare.&nbsp; Directly I put
+my head out of the companion I saw the group of my two officers, the
+second mate barefooted, the chief mate in long india-rubber boots, near
+the break of the poop, and the steward half-way down the poop-ladder
+talking to them eagerly.&nbsp; He happened to catch sight of me and
+dived, the second ran down on the main-deck shouting some order or other,
+and the chief mate came to meet me, touching his cap.</p>
+<p>There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not like.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t know whether the steward had told them that I was &ldquo;queer&rdquo;
+only, or downright drunk, but I know the man meant to have a good look
+at me.&nbsp; I watched him coming with a smile which, as he got into
+point-blank range, took effect and froze his very whiskers.&nbsp; I
+did not give him time to open his lips.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Square the yards by lifts and braces before the hands go to
+breakfast.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was the first particular order I had given on board that ship;
+and I stayed on deck to see it executed, too.&nbsp; I had felt the need
+of asserting myself without loss of time.&nbsp; That sneering young
+cub got taken down a peg or two on that occasion, and I also seized
+the opportunity of having a good look at the face of every foremast
+man as they filed past me to go to the after braces.&nbsp; At breakfast
+time, eating nothing myself, I presided with such frigid dignity that
+the two mates were only too glad to escape from the cabin as soon as
+decency permitted; and all the time the dual working of my mind distracted
+me almost to the point of insanity.&nbsp; I was constantly watching
+myself, my secret self, as dependent on my actions as my own personality,
+sleeping in that bed, behind that door which faced me as I sat at the
+head of the table.&nbsp; It was very much like being mad, only it was
+worse because one was aware of it.</p>
+<p>I had to shake him for a solid minute, but when at last he opened
+his eyes it was in the full possession of his senses, with an inquiring
+look.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All&rsquo;s well so far,&rdquo; I whispered.&nbsp; &ldquo;Now
+you must vanish into the bath-room.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He did so, as noiseless as a ghost, and I then rang for the steward,
+and facing him boldly, directed him to tidy up my stateroom while I
+was having my bath&mdash;&ldquo;and be quick about it.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+As my tone admitted of no excuses, he said, &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo;
+and ran off to fetch his dust-pan and brushes.&nbsp; I took a bath and
+did most of my dressing, splashing, and whistling softly for the steward&rsquo;s
+edification, while the secret sharer of my life stood drawn up bolt
+upright in that little space, his face looking very sunken in daylight,
+his eyelids lowered under the stern, dark line of his eyebrows drawn
+together by a slight frown.</p>
+<p>When I left him there to go back to my room the steward was finishing
+dusting.&nbsp; I sent for the mate and engaged him in some insignificant
+conversation.&nbsp; It was, as it were, trifling with the terrific character
+of his whiskers; but my object was to give him an opportunity for a
+good look at my cabin.&nbsp; And then I could at last shut, with a clear
+conscience, the door of my stateroom and get my double back into the
+recessed part.&nbsp; There was nothing else for it.&nbsp; He had to
+sit still on a small folding stool, half smothered by the heavy coats
+hanging there.&nbsp; We listened to the steward going into the bath-room
+out of the saloon, filling the water-bottles there, scrubbing the bath,
+setting things to rights, whisk, bang, clatter&mdash;out again into
+the saloon&mdash;turn the key&mdash;click.&nbsp; Such was my scheme
+for keeping my second self invisible.&nbsp; Nothing better could be
+contrived under the circumstances.&nbsp; And there we sat; I at my writing-desk
+ready to appear busy with some papers, he behind me, out of sight of
+the door.&nbsp; It would not have been prudent to talk in daytime; and
+I could not have stood the excitement of that queer sense of whispering
+to myself.&nbsp; Now and then glancing over my shoulder, I saw him far
+back there, sitting rigidly on the low stool, his bare feet close together,
+his arms folded, his head hanging on his breast&mdash;and perfectly
+still.&nbsp; Anybody would have taken him for me.</p>
+<p>I was fascinated by it myself.&nbsp; Every moment I had to glance
+over my shoulder.&nbsp; I was looking at him when a voice outside the
+door said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Beg pardon, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well!&rdquo; . . . I kept my eyes on him, and so, when the
+voice outside the door announced, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a ship&rsquo;s
+boat coming our way, sir,&rdquo; I saw him give a start&mdash;the first
+movement he had made for hours.&nbsp; But he did not raise his bowed
+head.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All right.&nbsp; Get the ladder over.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I hesitated.&nbsp; Should I whisper something to him?&nbsp; But what?&nbsp;
+His immobility seemed to have been never disturbed.&nbsp; What could
+I tell him he did not know already? . . . Finally I went on deck.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The skipper of the <i>Sephora</i> had a thin red whisker all round
+his face, and the sort of complexion that goes with hair of that colour;
+also the particular, rather smeary shade of blue in the eyes.&nbsp;
+He was not exactly a showy figure; his shoulders were high, his stature
+but middling&mdash;one leg slightly more bandy than the other.&nbsp;
+He shook hands, looking vaguely around.&nbsp; A spiritless tenacity
+was his main characteristic, I judged.&nbsp; I behaved with a politeness
+which seemed to disconcert him.&nbsp; Perhaps he was shy.&nbsp; He mumbled
+to me as if he were ashamed of what he was saying; gave his name (it
+was something like Archbold&mdash;but at this distance of years I hardly
+am sure), his ship&rsquo;s name, and a few other particulars of that
+sort, in the manner of a criminal making a reluctant and doleful confession.&nbsp;
+He had had terrible weather on the passage out&mdash;terrible&mdash;terrible&mdash;wife
+aboard, too.</p>
+<p>By this time we were seated in the cabin and the steward brought
+in a tray with a bottle and glasses.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thanks!&nbsp; No.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Never took liquor.&nbsp; Would have some water, though.&nbsp; He drank
+two tumblerfuls.&nbsp; Terrible thirsty work.&nbsp; Ever since daylight
+had been exploring the islands round his ship.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What was that for&mdash;fun?&rdquo; I asked, with an appearance
+of polite interest.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No!&rdquo;&nbsp; He sighed.&nbsp; &ldquo;Painful duty.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>As he persisted in his mumbling and I wanted my double to hear every
+word, I hit upon the notion of informing him that I regretted to say
+I was hard of hearing.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Such a young man, too!&rdquo; he nodded, keeping his smeary
+blue, unintelligent eyes fastened upon me.&nbsp; What was the cause
+of it&mdash;some disease? he inquired, without the least sympathy and
+as if he thought that, if so, I&rsquo;d got no more than I deserved.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes; disease,&rdquo; I admitted in a cheerful tone which seemed
+to shock him.&nbsp; But my point was gained, because he had to raise
+his voice to give me his tale.&nbsp; It is not worth while to record
+that version.&nbsp; It was just over two months since all this had happened,
+and he had thought so much about it that he seemed completely muddled
+as to its bearings, but still immensely impressed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What would you think of such a thing happening on board your
+own ship?&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve had the <i>Sephora</i> for these fifteen
+years.&nbsp; I am a well-known shipmaster.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was densely distressed&mdash;and perhaps I should have sympathised
+with him if I had been able to detach my mental vision from the unsuspected
+sharer of my cabin as though he were my second self.&nbsp; There he
+was on the other side of the bulkhead, four or five feet from us, no
+more, as we sat in the saloon.&nbsp; I looked politely at Captain Archbold
+(if that was his name), but it was the other I saw, in a grey sleeping-suit,
+seated on a low stool, his bare feet close together, his arms folded,
+and every word said between us falling into the ears of his dark head
+bowed on his chest.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have been at sea now, man and boy, for seven-and-thirty
+years, and I&rsquo;ve never heard of such a thing happening in an English
+ship.&nbsp; And that it should be my ship.&nbsp; Wife on board, too.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was hardly listening to him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you think,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;that the heavy
+sea which, you told me, came aboard just then might have killed the
+man?&nbsp; I have seen the sheer weight of a sea kill a man very neatly,
+by simply breaking his neck.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good God!&rdquo; he uttered, impressively, fixing his smeary
+blue eyes on me.&nbsp; &ldquo;The sea!&nbsp; No man killed by the sea
+ever looked like that.&rdquo;&nbsp; He seemed positively scandalised
+at my suggestion.&nbsp; And as I gazed at him, certainly not prepared
+for anything original on his part, he advanced his head close to mine
+and thrust his tongue out at me so suddenly that I couldn&rsquo;t help
+starting back.</p>
+<p>After scoring over my calmness in this graphic way he nodded wisely.&nbsp;
+If I had seen the sight, he assured me, I would never forget it as long
+as I lived.&nbsp; The weather was too bad to give the corpse a proper
+sea burial.&nbsp; So next day at dawn they took it up on the poop, covering
+its face with a bit of bunting; he read a short prayer, and then, just
+as it was, in its oilskins and long boots, they launched it amongst
+those mountainous seas that seemed ready every moment to swallow up
+the ship herself and the terrified lives on board of her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That reefed foresail saved you,&rdquo; I threw in.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Under God&mdash;it did,&rdquo; he exclaimed fervently.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;It was by a special mercy, I firmly believe, that it stood some
+of those hurricane squalls.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It was the setting of that sail which&mdash;&rdquo; I began.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;God&rsquo;s own hand in it,&rdquo; he interrupted me.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Nothing less could have done it.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t mind telling
+you that I hardly dared give the order.&nbsp; It seemed impossible that
+we could touch anything without losing it, and then our last hope would
+have been gone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The terror of that gale was on him yet.&nbsp; I let him go on for
+a bit, then said, casually&mdash;as if returning to a minor subject:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You were very anxious to give up your mate to the shore people,
+I believe?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was.&nbsp; To the law.&nbsp; His obscure tenacity on that point
+had in it something incomprehensible and a little awful; something,
+as it were, mystical, quite apart from his anxiety that he should not
+be suspected of &ldquo;countenancing any doings of that sort.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Seven-and-thirty virtuous years at sea, of which over twenty of immaculate
+command, and the last fifteen in the <i>Sephora</i>, seemed to have
+laid him under some pitiless obligation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you know,&rdquo; he went on, groping shamefacedly amongst
+his feelings, &ldquo;I did not engage that young fellow.&nbsp; His people
+had some interest with my owners.&nbsp; I was in a way forced to take
+him on.&nbsp; He looked very smart, very gentlemanly, and all that.&nbsp;
+But do you know&mdash;I never liked him, somehow.&nbsp; I am a plain
+man.&nbsp; You see, he wasn&rsquo;t exactly the sort for the chief mate
+of a ship like the <i>Sephora</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had become so connected in thoughts and impressions with the secret
+sharer of my cabin that I felt as if I, personally, were being given
+to understand that I, too, was not the sort that would have done for
+the chief mate of a ship like the <i>Sephora</i>.&nbsp; I had no doubt
+of it in my mind.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not at all the style of man.&nbsp; You understand,&rdquo;
+he insisted, superfluously, looking hard at me.</p>
+<p>I smiled urbanely.&nbsp; He seemed at a loss for a while.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose I must report a suicide.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Beg pardon?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Suicide!&nbsp; That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ll have to write
+to my owners directly I get in.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Unless you manage to recover him before to-morrow,&rdquo;
+I assented, dispassionately. . . &ldquo;I mean, alive.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He mumbled something which I really did not catch, and I turned my
+ear to him in a puzzled manner.&nbsp; He fairly bawled:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The land&mdash;I say, the mainland is at least seven miles
+off my anchorage.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;About that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>My lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of any sort of
+pronounced interest, began to arouse his distrust.&nbsp; But except
+for the felicitous pretence of deafness I had not tried to pretend anything.&nbsp;
+I had felt utterly incapable of playing the part of ignorance properly,
+and therefore was afraid to try.&nbsp; It is also certain that he had
+brought some ready-made suspicions with him, and that he viewed my politeness
+as a strange and unnatural phenomenon.&nbsp; And yet how else could
+I have received him?&nbsp; Not heartily!&nbsp; That was impossible for
+psychological reasons, which I need not state here.&nbsp; My only object
+was to keep off his inquiries.&nbsp; Surlily?&nbsp; Yes, but surliness
+might have provoked a point-blank question.&nbsp; From its novelty to
+him and from its nature, punctilious courtesy was the manner best calculated
+to restrain the man.&nbsp; But there was the danger of his breaking
+through my defence bluntly.&nbsp; I could not, I think, have met him
+by a direct lie, also for psychological (not moral) reasons.&nbsp; If
+he had only known how afraid I was of his putting my feeling of identity
+with the other to the test!&nbsp; But, strangely enough&mdash;(I thought
+of it only afterward)&mdash;I believe that he was not a little disconcerted
+by the reverse side of that weird situation, by something in me that
+reminded him of the man he was seeking&mdash;suggested a mysterious
+similitude to the young fellow he had distrusted and disliked from the
+first.</p>
+<p>However that might have been, the silence was not very prolonged.&nbsp;
+He took another oblique step.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I reckon I had no more than a two-mile pull to your ship.&nbsp;
+Not a bit more.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And quite enough, too, in this awful heat,&rdquo; I said.</p>
+<p>Another pause full of mistrust followed.&nbsp; Necessity, they say,
+is mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.&nbsp;
+And I was afraid he would ask me point-blank for news of my other self.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nice little saloon, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; I remarked, as
+if noticing for the first time the way his eyes roamed from one closed
+door to the other.&nbsp; &ldquo;And very well fitted out too.&nbsp;
+Here, for instance,&rdquo; I continued, reaching over the back of my
+seat negligently and flinging the door open, &ldquo;is my bath-room.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He made an eager movement, but hardly gave it a glance.&nbsp; I got
+up, shut the door of the bath-room, and invited him to have a look round,
+as if I were very proud of my accommodation.&nbsp; He had to rise and
+be shown round, but he went through the business without any raptures
+whatever.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And now we&rsquo;ll have a look at my stateroom,&rdquo; I
+declared, in a voice as loud as I dared to make it, crossing the cabin
+to the starboard side with purposely heavy steps.</p>
+<p>He followed me in and gazed around.&nbsp; My intelligent double had
+vanished.&nbsp; I played my part.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Very convenient&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Very nice.&nbsp; Very comf. . . &rdquo;&nbsp; He didn&rsquo;t
+finish, and went out brusquely as if to escape from some unrighteous
+wiles of mine.&nbsp; But it was not to be.&nbsp; I had been too frightened
+not to feel vengeful; I felt I had him on the run, and I meant to keep
+him on the run.&nbsp; My polite insistence must have had something menacing
+in it, because he gave in suddenly.&nbsp; And I did not let him off
+a single item; mate&rsquo;s room, pantry, storerooms, the very sail-locker
+which was also under the poop&mdash;he had to look into them all.&nbsp;
+When at last I showed him out on the quarter-deck he drew a long, spiritless
+sigh, and mumbled dismally that he must really be going back to his
+ship now.&nbsp; I desired my mate, who had joined us, to see to the
+captain&rsquo;s boat.</p>
+<p>The man of whiskers gave a blast on the whistle which he used to
+wear hanging round his neck, and yelled, &ldquo;<i>Sephoras</i> away!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+My double down there in my cabin must have heard, and certainly could
+not feel more relieved than I.&nbsp; Four fellows came running out from
+somewhere forward and went over the side, while my own men, appearing
+on deck too, lined the rail.&nbsp; I escorted my visitor to the gangway
+ceremoniously, and nearly overdid it.&nbsp; He was a tenacious beast.&nbsp;
+On the very ladder he lingered, and in that unique, guiltily conscientious
+manner of sticking to the point:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I say . . . you . . . you don&rsquo;t think that&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I covered his voice loudly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly not. . . . I am delighted.&nbsp; Good-bye.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I had an idea of what he meant to say, and just saved myself by the
+privilege of defective hearing.&nbsp; He was too shaken generally to
+insist, but my mate, close witness of that parting, looked mystified
+and his face took on a thoughtful cast.&nbsp; As I did not want to appear
+as if I wished to avoid all communication with my officers, he had the
+opportunity to address me.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Seems a very nice man.&nbsp; His boat&rsquo;s crew told our
+chaps a very extraordinary story, if what I am told by the steward is
+true.&nbsp; I suppose you had it from the captain, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; I had a story from the captain.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A very horrible affair&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Beats all these tales we hear about murders in Yankee ships.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it beats them.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t think
+it resembles them in the least.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul&mdash;you don&rsquo;t say so!&nbsp; But of course
+I&rsquo;ve no acquaintance whatever with American ships, not I, so I
+couldn&rsquo;t go against your knowledge.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s horrible
+enough for me. . . . But the queerest part is that those fellows seemed
+to have some idea the man was hidden aboard here.&nbsp; They had really.&nbsp;
+Did you ever hear of such a thing?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Preposterous&mdash;isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We were walking to and fro athwart the quarterdeck.&nbsp; No one
+of the crew forward could be seen (the day was Sunday), and the mate
+pursued:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There was some little dispute about it.&nbsp; Our chaps took
+offence.&nbsp; &lsquo;As if we would harbour a thing like that,&rsquo;
+they said.&nbsp; &lsquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you like to look for him in our
+coal-hole?&rsquo;&nbsp; Quite a tiff.&nbsp; But they made it up in the
+end.&nbsp; I suppose he did drown himself.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t suppose anything.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You have no doubt in the matter, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;None whatever.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I left him suddenly.&nbsp; I felt I was producing a bad impression,
+but with my double down there it was most trying to be on deck.&nbsp;
+And it was almost as trying to be below.&nbsp; Altogether a nerve-trying
+situation.&nbsp; But on the whole I felt less torn in two when I was
+with him.&nbsp; There was no one in the whole ship whom I dared take
+into my confidence.&nbsp; Since the hands had got to know his story,
+it would have been impossible to pass him off for any one else, and
+an accidental discovery was to be dreaded now more than ever. . . .</p>
+<p>The steward being engaged in laying the table for dinner, we could
+talk only with our eyes when I first went down.&nbsp; Later in the afternoon
+we had a cautious try at whispering.&nbsp; The Sunday quietness of the
+ship was against us; the stillness of air and water around her was against
+us; the elements, the men were against us&mdash;everything was against
+us in our secret partnership; time itself&mdash;for this could not go
+on forever.&nbsp; The very trust in Providence was, I suppose, denied
+to his guilt.&nbsp; Shall I confess that this thought cast me down very
+much?&nbsp; And as to the chapter of accidents which counts for so much
+in the book of success, I could only hope that it was closed.&nbsp;
+For what favourable accident could be expected?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Did you hear everything?&rdquo; were my first words as soon
+as we took up our position side by side, leaning over my bed-place.</p>
+<p>He had.&nbsp; And the proof of it was his earnest whisper, &ldquo;The
+man told you he hardly dared to give the order.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I understood the reference to be to that saving foresail.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; He was afraid of it being lost in the setting.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I assure you he never gave the order.&nbsp; He may think he
+did, but he never gave it.&nbsp; He stood there with me on the break
+of the poop after the maintopsail blew away, and whimpered about our
+last hope&mdash;positively whimpered about it and nothing else&mdash;and
+the night coming on!&nbsp; To hear one&rsquo;s skipper go on like that
+in such weather was enough to drive any fellow out of his mind.&nbsp;
+It worked me up into a sort of desperation.&nbsp; I just took it into
+my own hands and went away from him, boiling, and&mdash; But what&rsquo;s
+the use telling you?&nbsp; <i>You</i> know! . . . Do you think that
+if I had not been pretty fierce with them I should have got the men
+to do anything?&nbsp; Not it!&nbsp; The bo&rsquo;s&rsquo;n perhaps?&nbsp;
+Perhaps!&nbsp; It wasn&rsquo;t a heavy sea&mdash;it was a sea gone mad!&nbsp;
+I suppose the end of the world will be something like that; and a man
+may have the heart to see it coming once and be done with it&mdash;but
+to have to face it day after day&mdash;I don&rsquo;t blame anybody.&nbsp;
+I was precious little better than the rest.&nbsp; Only&mdash;I was an
+officer of that old coal-waggon, anyhow&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I quite understand,&rdquo; I conveyed that sincere assurance
+into his ear.&nbsp; He was out of breath with whispering; I could hear
+him pant slightly.&nbsp; It was all very simple.&nbsp; The same strung-up
+force which had given twenty-four men a chance, at least, for their
+lives, had, in a sort of recoil, crushed an unworthy mutinous existence.</p>
+<p>But I had no leisure to weigh the merits of the matter&mdash;footsteps
+in the saloon, a heavy knock.&nbsp; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s enough wind
+to get under way with, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; Here was the call of a new
+claim upon my thoughts and even upon my feelings.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Turn the hands up,&rdquo; I cried through the door.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be on deck directly.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I was going out to make the acquaintance of my ship.&nbsp; Before
+I left the cabin our eyes met&mdash;the eyes of the only two strangers
+on board.&nbsp; I pointed to the recessed part where the little camp-stool
+awaited him and laid my finger on my lips.&nbsp; He made a gesture&mdash;somewhat
+vague&mdash;a little mysterious, accompanied by a faint smile, as if
+of regret.</p>
+<p>This is not the place to enlarge upon the sensations of a man who
+feels for the first time a ship move under his feet to his own independent
+word.&nbsp; In my case they were not unalloyed.&nbsp; I was not wholly
+alone with my command; for there was that stranger in my cabin.&nbsp;
+Or rather, I was not completely and wholly with her.&nbsp; Part of me
+was absent.&nbsp; That mental feeling of being in two places at once
+affected me physically as if the mood of secrecy had penetrated my very
+soul.&nbsp; Before an hour had elapsed since the ship had begun to move,
+having occasion to ask the mate (he stood by my side) to take a compass
+bearing of the Pagoda, I caught myself reaching up to his ear in whispers.&nbsp;
+I say I caught myself, but enough had escaped to startle the man.&nbsp;
+I can&rsquo;t describe it otherwise than by saying that he shied.&nbsp;
+A grave, preoccupied manner, as though he were in possession of some
+perplexing intelligence, did not leave him henceforth.&nbsp; A little
+later I moved away from the rail to look at the compass with such a
+stealthy gait that the helmsman noticed it&mdash;and I could not help
+noticing the unusual roundness of his eyes.&nbsp; These are trifling
+instances, though it&rsquo;s to no commander&rsquo;s advantage to be
+suspected of ludicrous eccentricities.&nbsp; But I was also more seriously
+affected.&nbsp; There are to a seaman certain words, gestures, that
+should in given conditions come as naturally, as instinctively as the
+winking of a menaced eye.&nbsp; A certain order should spring on to
+his lips without thinking; a certain sign should get itself made, so
+to speak, without reflection.&nbsp; But all unconscious alertness had
+abandoned me.&nbsp; I had to make an effort of will to recall myself
+back (from the cabin) to the conditions of the moment.&nbsp; I felt
+that I was appearing an irresolute commander to those people who were
+watching me more or less critically.</p>
+<p>And, besides, there were the scares.&nbsp; On the second day out,
+for instance, coming off the deck in the afternoon (I had straw slippers
+on my bare feet) I stopped at the open pantry door and spoke to the
+steward.&nbsp; He was doing something there with his back to me.&nbsp;
+At the sound of my voice he nearly jumped out of his skin, as the saying
+is, and incidentally broke a cup.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth&rsquo;s the matter with you?&rdquo; I asked,
+astonished.</p>
+<p>He was extremely confused.&nbsp; &ldquo;Beg your pardon, sir.&nbsp;
+I made sure you were in your cabin.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You see I wasn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, sir.&nbsp; I could have sworn I had heard you moving in
+there not a moment ago.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s most extraordinary . . . very
+sorry, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I passed on with an inward shudder.&nbsp; I was so identified with
+my secret double that I did not even mention the fact in those scanty,
+fearful whispers we exchanged.&nbsp; I suppose he had made some slight
+noise of some kind or other.&nbsp; It would have been miraculous if
+he hadn&rsquo;t at one time or another.&nbsp; And yet, haggard as he
+appeared, he looked always perfectly self-controlled, more than calm&mdash;almost
+invulnerable.&nbsp; On my suggestion he remained almost entirely in
+the bathroom, which, upon the whole, was the safest place.&nbsp; There
+could be really no shadow of an excuse for any one ever wanting to go
+in there, once the steward had done with it.&nbsp; It was a very tiny
+place.&nbsp; Sometimes he reclined on the floor, his legs bent, his
+head sustained on one elbow.&nbsp; At others I would find him on the
+camp-stool, sitting in his grey sleeping-suit and with his cropped dark
+hair like a patient, unmoved convict.&nbsp; At night I would smuggle
+him into my bed-place, and we would whisper together, with the regular
+footfalls of the officer of the watch passing and repassing over our
+heads.&nbsp; It was an infinitely miserable time.&nbsp; It was lucky
+that some tins of fine preserves were stowed in a locker in my stateroom;
+hard bread I could always get hold of; and so he lived on stewed chicken,
+pat&eacute; de foie gras, asparagus, cooked oysters, sardines&mdash;on
+all sorts of abominable sham delicacies out of tins.&nbsp; My early
+morning coffee he always drank; and it was all I dared do for him in
+that respect.</p>
+<p>Every day there was the horrible manoeuvring to go through so that
+my room and then the bath-room should be done in the usual way.&nbsp;
+I came to hate the sight of the steward, to abhor the voice of that
+harmless man.&nbsp; I felt that it was he who would bring on the disaster
+of discovery.&nbsp; It hung like a sword over our heads.</p>
+<p>The fourth day out, I think (we were then working down the east side
+of the Gulf of Siam, tack for tack, in light winds and smooth water)&mdash;the
+fourth day, I say, of this miserable juggling with the unavoidable,
+as we sat at our evening meal, that man, whose slightest movement I
+dreaded, after putting down the dishes ran up on deck busily.&nbsp;
+This could not be dangerous.&nbsp; Presently he came down again; and
+then it appeared that he had remembered a coat of mine which I had thrown
+over a rail to dry after having been wetted in a shower which had passed
+over the ship in the afternoon.&nbsp; Sitting stolidly at the head of
+the table I became terrified at the sight of the garment on his arm.&nbsp;
+Of course he made for my door.&nbsp; There was no time to lose.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Steward,&rdquo; I thundered.&nbsp; My nerves were so shaken
+that I could not govern my voice and conceal my agitation.&nbsp; This
+was the sort of thing that made my terrifically whiskered mate tap his
+forehead with his forefinger.&nbsp; I had detected him using that gesture
+while talking on deck with a confidential air to the carpenter.&nbsp;
+It was too far to hear a word, but I had no doubt that this pantomime
+could only refer to the strange new captain.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; the pale-faced steward turned resignedly
+to me.&nbsp; It was this maddening course of being shouted at, checked
+without rhyme or reason, arbitrarily chased out of my cabin, suddenly
+called into it, sent flying out of his pantry on incomprehensible errands,
+that accounted for the growing wretchedness of his expression.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where are you going with that coat?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To your room, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is there another shower coming?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure I don&rsquo;t know, sir.&nbsp; Shall I go up
+again and see, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No! never mind.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>My object was attained, as of course my other self in there would
+have heard everything that passed.&nbsp; During this interlude my two
+officers never raised their eyes off their respective plates; but the
+lip of that confounded cub, the second mate, quivered visibly.</p>
+<p>I expected the steward to hook my coat on and come out at once.&nbsp;
+He was very slow about it; but I dominated my nervousness sufficiently
+not to shout after him.&nbsp; Suddenly I became aware (it could be heard
+plainly enough) that the fellow for some reason or other was opening
+the door of the bath-room.&nbsp; It was the end.&nbsp; The place was
+literally not big enough to swing a cat in.&nbsp; My voice died in my
+throat and I went stony all over.&nbsp; I expected to hear a yell of
+surprise and terror, and made a movement, but had not the strength to
+get on my legs.&nbsp; Everything remained still.&nbsp; Had my second
+self taken the poor wretch by the throat?&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know what
+I would have done next moment if I had not seen the steward come out
+of my room, close the door, and then stand quietly by the sideboard.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Saved,&rdquo; I thought.&nbsp; &ldquo;But, no!&nbsp; Lost!&nbsp;
+Gone!&nbsp; He was gone!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I laid my knife and fork down and leaned back in my chair.&nbsp;
+My head swam.&nbsp; After a while, when sufficiently recovered to speak
+in a steady voice, I instructed my mate to put the ship round at eight
+o&rsquo;clock himself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t come on deck,&rdquo; I went on.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+think I&rsquo;ll turn in, and unless the wind shifts I don&rsquo;t want
+to be disturbed before midnight.&nbsp; I feel a bit seedy.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You did look middling bad a little while ago,&rdquo; the chief
+mate remarked without showing any great concern.</p>
+<p>They both went out, and I stared at the steward clearing the table.&nbsp;
+There was nothing to be read on that wretched man&rsquo;s face.&nbsp;
+But why did he avoid my eyes I asked myself.&nbsp; Then I thought I
+should like to hear the sound of his voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Steward!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sir!&rdquo;&nbsp; Startled as usual.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where did you hang up that coat?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In the bath-room, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; The usual anxious tone.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not quite dry yet, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>For some time longer I sat in the cuddy.&nbsp; Had my double vanished
+as he had come?&nbsp; But of his coming there was an explanation, whereas
+his disappearance would be inexplicable. . . . I went slowly into my
+dark room, shut the door, lighted the lamp, and for a time dared not
+turn round.&nbsp; When at last I did I saw him standing bolt-upright
+in the narrow recessed part.&nbsp; It would not be true to say I had
+a shock, but an irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted through
+my mind.&nbsp; Can it be, I asked myself, that he is not visible to
+other eyes than mine?&nbsp; It was like being haunted.&nbsp; Motionless,
+with a grave face, he raised his hands slightly at me in a gesture which
+meant clearly, &ldquo;Heavens! what a narrow escape!&rdquo;&nbsp; Narrow
+indeed.&nbsp; I think I had come creeping quietly as near insanity as
+any man who has not actually gone over the border.&nbsp; That gesture
+restrained me, so to speak.</p>
+<p>The mate with the terrific whiskers was now putting the ship on the
+other tack.&nbsp; In the moment of profound silence which follows upon
+the hands going to their stations I heard on the poop his raised voice:
+&ldquo;Hard alee!&rdquo; and the distant shout of the order repeated
+on the maindeck.&nbsp; The sails, in that light breeze, made but a faint
+fluttering noise.&nbsp; It ceased.&nbsp; The ship was coming round slowly;
+I held my breath in the renewed stillness of expectation; one wouldn&rsquo;t
+have thought that there was a single living soul on her decks.&nbsp;
+A sudden brisk shout, &ldquo;Mainsail haul!&rdquo; broke the spell,
+and in the noisy cries and rush overhead of the men running away with
+the main-brace we two, down in my cabin, came together in our usual
+position by the bed-place.</p>
+<p>He did not wait for my question.&nbsp; &ldquo;I heard him fumbling
+here and just managed to squat myself down in the bath,&rdquo; he whispered
+to me.&nbsp; &ldquo;The fellow only opened the door and put his arm
+in to hang the coat up.&nbsp; All the same&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I never thought of that,&rdquo; I whispered back, even more
+appalled than before at the closeness of the shave, and marvelling at
+that something unyielding in his character which was carrying him through
+so finely.&nbsp; There was no agitation in his whisper.&nbsp; Whoever
+was being driven distracted, it was not he.&nbsp; He was sane.&nbsp;
+And the proof of his sanity was continued when he took up the whispering
+again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It would never do for me to come to life again.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was something that a ghost might have said.&nbsp; But what he
+was alluding to was his old captain&rsquo;s reluctant admission of the
+theory of suicide.&nbsp; It would obviously serve his turn&mdash;if
+I had understood at all the view which seemed to govern the unalterable
+purpose of his action.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must maroon me as soon as ever you can get amongst these
+islands off the Cambodje shore,&rdquo; he went on.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Maroon you!&nbsp; We are not living in a boy&rsquo;s adventure
+tale,&rdquo; I protested.&nbsp; His scornful whispering took me up.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t indeed!&nbsp; There&rsquo;s nothing of a boy&rsquo;s
+tale in this.&nbsp; But there&rsquo;s nothing else for it.&nbsp; I want
+no more.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t suppose I am afraid of what can be done
+to me?&nbsp; Prison or gallows or whatever they may please.&nbsp; But
+you don&rsquo;t see me coming back to explain such things to an old
+fellow in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen, do you?&nbsp; What
+can they know whether I am guilty or not&mdash;or of <i>what</i> I am
+guilty, either?&nbsp; That&rsquo;s my affair.&nbsp; What does the Bible
+say?&nbsp; &lsquo;Driven off the face of the earth.&rsquo;&nbsp; Very
+well.&nbsp; I am off the face of the earth now.&nbsp; As I came at night
+so I shall go.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; I murmured.&nbsp; &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t? . . . Not naked like a soul on the Day of Judgment.&nbsp;
+I shall freeze on to this sleeping-suit.&nbsp; The Last Day is not yet&mdash;and
+you have understood thoroughly.&nbsp; Didn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I felt suddenly ashamed of myself.&nbsp; I may say truly that I understood&mdash;and
+my hesitation in letting that man swim away from my ship&rsquo;s side
+had been a mere sham sentiment, a sort of cowardice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It can&rsquo;t be done now till next night,&rdquo; I breathed
+out.&nbsp; &ldquo;The ship is on the off-shore tack and the wind may
+fail us.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As long as I know that you understand,&rdquo; he whispered.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;But of course you do.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a great satisfaction to
+have got somebody to understand.&nbsp; You seem to have been there on
+purpose.&rdquo;&nbsp; And in the same whisper, as if we two whenever
+we talked had to say things to each other which were not fit for the
+world to hear, he added, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very wonderful.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+We remained side by side talking in our secret way&mdash;but sometimes
+silent or just exchanging a whispered word or two at long intervals.&nbsp;
+And as usual he stared through the port.&nbsp; A breath of wind came
+now and again into our faces.&nbsp; The ship might have been moored
+in dock, so gently and on an even keel she slipped through the water,
+that did not murmur even at our passage, shadowy and silent like a phantom
+sea.</p>
+<p>At midnight I went on deck, and to my mate&rsquo;s great surprise
+put the ship round on the other tack.&nbsp; His terrible whiskers flitted
+round me in silent criticism.&nbsp; I certainly should not have done
+it if it had been only a question of getting out of that sleepy gulf
+as quickly as possible.&nbsp; I believe he told the second mate, who
+relieved him, that it was a great want of judgment.&nbsp; The other
+only yawned.&nbsp; That intolerable cub shuffled about so sleepily and
+lolled against the rails in such a slack, improper fashion that I came
+down on him sharply.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you properly awake yet?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir!&nbsp; I am awake.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, then, be good enough to hold yourself as if you were.&nbsp;
+And keep a look-out.&nbsp; If there&rsquo;s any current we&rsquo;ll
+be closing with some islands before daylight.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The east side of the gulf is fringed with islands, some solitary,
+others in groups.&nbsp; On the blue background of the high coast they
+seem to float on silvery patches of calm water, arid and grey, or dark
+green and rounded like clumps of evergreen bushes, with the larger ones,
+a mile or two long, showing the outlines of ridges, ribs of grey rock
+under the dank mantle of matted leafage.&nbsp; Unknown to trade, to
+travel, almost to geography, the manner of life they harbour is an unsolved
+secret.&nbsp; There must be villages&mdash;settlements of fishermen
+at least&mdash;on the largest of them, and some communication with the
+world is probably kept up by native craft.&nbsp; But all that forenoon,
+as we headed for them, fanned along by the faintest of breezes, I saw
+no sign of man or canoe in the field of the telescope I kept on pointing
+at the scattered group.</p>
+<p>At noon I gave no orders for a change of course, and the mate&rsquo;s
+whiskers became much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves
+unduly to my notice.&nbsp; At last I said:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to stand right in.&nbsp; Quite in&mdash;as far
+as I can take her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The stare of extreme surprise imparted an air of ferocity also to
+his eyes, and he looked truly terrific for a moment.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not doing well in the middle of the gulf,&rdquo;
+I continued, casually.&nbsp; &ldquo;I am going to look for the land
+breezes to-night.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul!&nbsp; Do you mean, sir, in the dark amongst
+the lot of all them islands and reefs and shoals?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well&mdash;if there are any regular land breezes at all on
+this coast one must get close inshore to find them, mustn&rsquo;t one?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bless my soul!&rdquo; he exclaimed again under his breath.&nbsp;
+All that afternoon he wore a dreamy, contemplative appearance which
+in him was a mark of perplexity.&nbsp; After dinner I went into my stateroom
+as if I meant to take some rest.&nbsp; There we two bent our dark heads
+over a half-unrolled chart lying on my bed.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There,&rdquo; I said.&nbsp; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be Koh-ring.&nbsp;
+I&rsquo;ve been looking at it ever since sunrise.&nbsp; It has got two
+hills and a low point.&nbsp; It must be inhabited.&nbsp; And on the
+coast opposite there is what looks like the mouth of a biggish river&mdash;with
+some town, no doubt, not far up.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s the best chance for
+you that I can see.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Anything.&nbsp; Koh-ring let it be.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He looked thoughtfully at the chart as if surveying chances and distances
+from a lofty height&mdash;and following with his eyes his own figure
+wandering on the blank land of Cochin-China, and then passing off that
+piece of paper clean out of sight into uncharted regions.&nbsp; And
+it was as if the ship had two captains to plan her course for her.&nbsp;
+I had been so worried and restless running up and down that I had not
+had the patience to dress that day.&nbsp; I had remained in my sleeping-suit,
+with straw slippers and a soft floppy hat.&nbsp; The closeness of the
+heat in the gulf had been most oppressive, and the crew were used to
+see me wandering in that airy attire.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She will clear the south point as she heads now,&rdquo; I
+whispered into his ear.&nbsp; &ldquo;Goodness only knows when, though,
+but certainly after dark.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll edge her in to half a mile,
+as far as I may be able to judge in the dark&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Be careful,&rdquo; he murmured, warningly&mdash;and I realised
+suddenly that all my future, the only future for which I was fit, would
+perhaps go irretrievably to pieces in any mishap to my first command.</p>
+<p>I could not stop a moment longer in the room.&nbsp; I motioned him
+to get out of sight and made my way on the poop.&nbsp; That unplayful
+cub had the watch.&nbsp; I walked up and down for a while thinking things
+out, then beckoned him over.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Send a couple of hands to open the two quarterdeck ports,&rdquo;
+I said, mildly.</p>
+<p>He actually had the impudence, or else so forgot himself in his wonder
+at such an incomprehensible order, as to repeat:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Open the quarter-deck ports!&nbsp; What for, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The only reason you need concern yourself about is because
+I tell you to do so.&nbsp; Have them open wide and fastened properly.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark
+to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating a ship&rsquo;s
+quarter-deck.&nbsp; I know he popped into the mate&rsquo;s cabin to
+impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck, as it were
+by chance, and stole glances at me from below&mdash;for signs of lunacy
+or drunkenness, I suppose.</p>
+<p>A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined,
+for a moment, my second self.&nbsp; And to find him sitting so quietly
+was surprising, like something against nature, inhuman.</p>
+<p>I developed my plan in a hurried whisper.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shall stand in as close as I dare and then put her round.&nbsp;
+I shall presently find means to smuggle you out of here into the sail-locker,
+which communicates with the lobby.&nbsp; But there is an opening, a
+sort of square for hauling the sails out, which gives straight on the
+quarter-deck and which is never closed in fine weather, so as to give
+air to the sails.&nbsp; &lsquo; When the ship&rsquo;s way is deadened
+in stays and all the hands are aft at the main-braces you shall have
+a clear road to slip out and get overboard through the open quarter-deck
+port.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve had them both fastened up.&nbsp; Use a rope&rsquo;s
+end to lower yourself into the water so as to avoid a splash&mdash;you
+know.&nbsp; It could be heard and cause some beastly complication.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He kept silent for a while, then whispered, &ldquo;I understand.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be there to see you go,&rdquo; I began with
+an effort.&nbsp; &ldquo;The rest . . . I only hope I have understood,
+too.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You have.&nbsp; From first to last&rdquo;&mdash;and for the
+first time there seemed to be a faltering, something strained in his
+whisper.&nbsp; He caught hold of my arm, but the ringing of the supper
+bell made me start.&nbsp; He didn&rsquo;t, though; he only released
+his grip.</p>
+<p>After supper I didn&rsquo;t come below again till well past eight
+o&rsquo;clock.&nbsp; The faint, steady breeze was loaded with dew; and
+the wet, darkened sails held all there was of propelling power in it.&nbsp;
+The night, clear and starry, sparkled darkly, and the opaque, lightless
+patches shifting slowly against the low stars were the drifting islets.&nbsp;
+On the port bow there was a big one more distant and shadowily imposing
+by the great space of sky it eclipsed.</p>
+<p>On opening the door I had a back view of my very own self looking
+at a chart.&nbsp; He had come out of the recess and was standing near
+the table.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Quite dark enough,&rdquo; I whispered.</p>
+<p>He stepped back and leaned against my bed with a level, quiet glance.&nbsp;
+I sat on the couch.&nbsp; We had nothing to say to each other.&nbsp;
+Over our heads the officer of the watch moved here and there.&nbsp;
+Then I heard him move quickly.&nbsp; I knew what that meant.&nbsp; He
+was making for the companion; and presently his voice was outside my
+door.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We are drawing in pretty fast, sir.&nbsp; Land looks rather
+close.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; I answered.&nbsp; &ldquo;I am coming on
+deck directly.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I waited till he was gone out of the cuddy, then rose.&nbsp; My double
+moved too.&nbsp; The time had come to exchange our last whispers, for
+neither of us was ever to hear each other&rsquo;s natural voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Look here!&rdquo; I opened a drawer and took out three sovereigns.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Take this, anyhow.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ve got six and I&rsquo;d give
+you the lot, only I must keep a little money to buy some fruit and vegetables
+for the crew from native boats as we go through Sunda Straits.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Take it,&rdquo; I urged him, whispering desperately.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;No one can tell what&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He smiled and slapped meaningly the only pocket of the sleeping-jacket.&nbsp;
+It was not safe, certainly.&nbsp; But I produced a large old silk handkerchief
+of mine, and tying the three pieces of gold in a corner, pressed it
+on him.&nbsp; He was touched, I suppose, because he took it at last
+and tied it quickly round his waist under the jacket, on his bare skin.</p>
+<p>Our eyes met; several seconds elapsed, till, our glances still mingled,
+I extended my hand and turned the lamp out.&nbsp; Then I passed through
+the cuddy, leaving the door of my room wide open. . . . . &ldquo;Steward!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was still lingering in the pantry in the greatness of his zeal,
+giving a rub-up to a plated cruet stand the last thing before going
+to bed.&nbsp; Being careful not to wake up the mate, whose room was
+opposite, I spoke in an undertone.</p>
+<p>He looked round anxiously.&nbsp; &ldquo;Sir!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Can you get me a little hot water from the galley?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am afraid, sir, the galley fire&rsquo;s been out for some
+time now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Go and see.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He fled up the stairs.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; I whispered, loudly, into the saloon&mdash;too
+loudly, perhaps, but I was afraid I couldn&rsquo;t make a sound.&nbsp;
+He was by my side in an instant&mdash;the double captain slipped past
+the stairs&mdash;through a tiny dark passage . . . a sliding door.&nbsp;
+We were in the sail-locker, scrambling on our knees over the sails.&nbsp;
+A sudden thought struck me.&nbsp; I saw myself wandering barefooted,
+bareheaded, the sun beating on my dark poll.&nbsp; I snatched off my
+floppy hat and tried hurriedly in the dark to ram it on my other self.&nbsp;
+He dodged and fended off silently.&nbsp; I wonder what he thought had
+come to me before he understood and suddenly desisted.&nbsp; Our hands
+met gropingly, lingered united in a steady, motionless clasp for a second.
+. . . No word was breathed by either of us when they separated.</p>
+<p>I was standing quietly by the pantry door when the steward returned.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Sorry, sir.&nbsp; Kettle barely warm.&nbsp; Shall I light
+the spirit-lamp?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I came out on deck slowly.&nbsp; It was now a matter of conscience
+to shave the land as close as possible&mdash;for now he must go overboard
+whenever the ship was put in stays.&nbsp; Must!&nbsp; There could be
+no going back for him.&nbsp; After a moment I walked over to leeward
+and my heart flew into my mouth at the nearness of the land on the bow.&nbsp;
+Under any other circumstances I would not have held on a minute longer.&nbsp;
+The second mate had followed me anxiously.</p>
+<p>I looked on till I felt I could command my voice.&nbsp; &ldquo;She
+will weather,&rdquo; I said then in a quiet tone.&nbsp; &ldquo;Are you
+going to try that, sir?&rdquo; he stammered out incredulously.</p>
+<p>I took no notice of him and raised my tone just enough to be heard
+by the helmsman.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Keep her good full.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good full, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The wind fanned my cheek, the sails slept, the world was silent.&nbsp;
+The strain of watching the dark loom of the land grow bigger and denser
+was too much for me.&nbsp; I had shut my eyes&mdash;because the ship
+must go closer.&nbsp; She must!&nbsp; The stillness was intolerable.&nbsp;
+Were we standing still?</p>
+<p>When I opened my eyes the second view started my heart with a thump.&nbsp;
+The black southern hill of Koh-ring seemed to hang right over the ship
+like a towering fragment of the everlasting night.&nbsp; On that enormous
+mass of blackness there was not a gleam to be seen, not a sound to be
+heard.&nbsp; It was gliding irresistibly toward us and yet seemed already
+within reach of the hand.&nbsp; I saw the vague figures of the watch
+grouped in the waist, gazing in awed silence.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Are you going on, sir,&rdquo; inquired an unsteady voice at
+my elbow.</p>
+<p>I ignored it.&nbsp; I had to go on.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Keep her full.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t check her way.&nbsp; That
+won&rsquo;t do now,&rdquo; I said, warningly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see the sails very well,&rdquo; the helmsman
+answered me, in strange, quavering tones.</p>
+<p>Was she close enough?&nbsp; Already she was, I won&rsquo;t say in
+the shadow of the land, but in the very blackness of it, already swallowed
+up as it were, gone too close to be recalled, gone from me altogether.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Give the mate a call,&rdquo; I said to the young man who stood
+at my elbow as still as death.&nbsp; &ldquo;And turn all hands up.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>My tone had a borrowed loudness reverberated from the height of the
+land.&nbsp; Several voices cried out together: &ldquo;We are all on
+deck, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Then stillness again, with the great shadow gliding closer, towering
+higher, without a light, without a sound.&nbsp; Such a hush had fallen
+on the ship that she might have been a bark of the dead floating in
+slowly under the very gate of Erebus.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My God!&nbsp; Where are we?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was the mate moaning at my elbow.&nbsp; He was thunderstruck,
+and as it were deprived of the moral support of his whiskers.&nbsp;
+He clapped his hands and absolutely cried out, &ldquo;Lost!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; I said, sternly.</p>
+<p>He lowered his tone, but I saw the shadowy gesture of his despair.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;What are we doing here?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Looking for the land wind.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He made as if to tear his hair, and addressed me recklessly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She will never get out.&nbsp; You have done it, sir.&nbsp;
+I knew it&rsquo;d end in something like this.&nbsp; She will never weather,
+and you are too close now to stay.&nbsp; She&rsquo;ll drift ashore before
+she&rsquo;s round.&nbsp; O my God!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I caught his arm as he was raising it to batter his poor devoted
+head, and shook it violently.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s ashore already,&rdquo; he wailed, trying to tear
+himself away.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is she? . . . Keep good full there!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good full, sir,&rdquo; cried the helmsman in a frightened,
+thin, child-like voice.</p>
+<p>I hadn&rsquo;t let go the mate&rsquo;s arm and went on shaking it.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Ready about, do you hear?&nbsp; You go forward&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and
+stop there&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and hold your noise&rdquo;&mdash;shake&mdash;&ldquo;and
+see these head-sheets properly overhauled&rdquo;&mdash;shake, shake&mdash;shake.</p>
+<p>And all the time I dared not look toward the land lest my heart should
+fail me.&nbsp; I released my grip at last and he ran forward as if fleeing
+for dear life.</p>
+<p>I wondered what my double there in the sail-locker thought of this
+commotion.&nbsp; He was able to hear everything&mdash;and perhaps he
+was able to understand why, on my conscience, it had to be thus close&mdash;no
+less.&nbsp; My first order &ldquo;Hard alee!&rdquo; re-echoed ominously
+under the towering shadow of Koh-ring as if I had shouted in a mountain
+gorge.&nbsp; And then I watched the land intently.&nbsp; In that smooth
+water and light wind it was impossible to feel the ship coming-to.&nbsp;
+No!&nbsp; I could not feel her.&nbsp; And my second self was making
+now ready to slip out and lower himself overboard.&nbsp; Perhaps he
+was gone already . . .?</p>
+<p>The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to pivot
+away from the ship&rsquo;s side silently.&nbsp; And now I forgot the
+secret stranger ready to depart, and remembered only that I was a total
+stranger to the ship.&nbsp; I did not know her.&nbsp; Would she do it?&nbsp;
+How was she to be handled?</p>
+<p>I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly.&nbsp; She was perhaps
+stopped, and her very fate hung in the balance, with the black mass
+of Koh-ring like the gate of the everlasting night towering over her
+taffrail.&nbsp; What would she do now?&nbsp; Had she way on her yet?&nbsp;
+I stepped to the side swiftly, and on the shadowy water I could see
+nothing except a faint phosphorescent flash revealing the glassy smoothness
+of the sleeping surface.&nbsp; It was impossible to tell&mdash;and I
+had not learned yet the feel of my ship.&nbsp; Was she moving?&nbsp;
+What I needed was something easily seen, a piece of paper, which I could
+throw overboard and watch.&nbsp; I had nothing on me.&nbsp; To run down
+for it I didn&rsquo;t dare.&nbsp; There was no time.&nbsp; All at once
+my strained, yearning stare distinguished a white object floating within
+a yard of the ship&rsquo;s side.&nbsp; White on the black water.&nbsp;
+A phosphorescent flash passed under it.&nbsp; What was that thing? .
+. . I recognised my own floppy hat.&nbsp; It must have fallen off his
+head . . . and he didn&rsquo;t bother.</p>
+<p>Now I had what I wanted&mdash;the saving mark for my eyes.&nbsp;
+But I hardly thought of my other self, now gone from the ship, to be
+hidden forever from all friendly faces, to be a fugitive and a vagabond
+on the earth, with no brand of the curse on his sane forehead to stay
+a slaying hand . . . too proud to explain.</p>
+<p>And I watched the hat&mdash;the expression of my sudden pity for
+his mere flesh.&nbsp; It had been meant to save his homeless head from
+the dangers of the sun.&nbsp; And now&mdash;behold&mdash;it was saving
+the ship, by serving me for a mark to help out the ignorance of my strangeness.&nbsp;
+Ha!&nbsp; It was drifting forward, warning me just in time that the
+ship had gathered sternway.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Shift the helm,&rdquo; I said in a low voice to the seaman
+standing still like a statue.</p>
+<p>The man&rsquo;s eyes glistened wildly in the binnacle light as he
+jumped round to the other side and spun round the wheel.</p>
+<p>I walked to the break of the poop.&nbsp; On the overshadowed deck
+all hands stood by the forebraces waiting for my order.&nbsp; The stars
+ahead seemed to be gliding from right to left.&nbsp; And all was so
+still in the world that I heard the quiet remark &ldquo;She&rsquo;s
+round,&rdquo; passed in a tone of intense relief between two seamen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Let go and haul.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The foreyards ran round with a great noise, amidst cheery cries.&nbsp;
+And now the frightful whisker&rsquo;s made themselves heard giving various
+orders.&nbsp; Already the ship was drawing ahead.&nbsp; And I was alone
+with her.&nbsp; Nothing! no one in the world should stand now between
+us, throwing a shadow on the way of silent knowledge and mute affection,
+the perfect communion of a seaman with his first command.</p>
+<p>Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge
+of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway
+of Erebus&mdash;yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of
+my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of
+my cabin and of my thoughts, as though he were my second self, had lowered
+himself into the water to take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer
+striking out for a new destiny.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>One day&mdash;and that day was many years ago now&mdash;I received
+a long, chatty letter from one of my old chums and fellow-wanderers
+in Eastern waters.&nbsp; He was still out there, but settled down, and
+middle-aged; I imagined him&mdash;grown portly in figure and domestic
+in his habits; in short, overtaken by the fate common to all except
+to those who, being specially beloved by the gods, get knocked on the
+head early.&nbsp; The letter was of the reminiscent &ldquo;do you remember&rdquo;
+kind&mdash;a wistful letter of backward glances.&nbsp; And, amongst
+other things, &ldquo;surely you remember old Nelson,&rdquo; he wrote.</p>
+<p>Remember old Nelson!&nbsp; Certainly.&nbsp; And to begin with, his
+name was not Nelson.&nbsp; The Englishmen in the Archipelago called
+him Nelson because it was more convenient, I suppose, and he never protested.&nbsp;
+It would have been mere pedantry.&nbsp; The true form of his name was
+Nielsen.&nbsp; He had come out East long before the advent of telegraph
+cables, had served English firms, had married an English girl, had been
+one of us for years, trading and sailing in all directions through the
+Eastern Archipelago, across and around, transversely, diagonally, perpendicularly,
+in semi-circles, and zigzags, and figures of eights, for years and years.</p>
+<p>There was no nook or cranny of these tropical waters that the enterprise
+of old Nelson (or Nielsen) had not penetrated in an eminently pacific
+way.&nbsp; His tracks, if plotted out, would have covered the map of
+the Archipelago like a cobweb&mdash;all of it, with the sole exception
+of the Philippines.&nbsp; He would never approach that part, from a
+strange dread of Spaniards, or, to be exact, of the Spanish authorities.&nbsp;
+What he imagined they could do to him it is impossible to say.&nbsp;
+Perhaps at some time in his life he had read some stories of the Inquisition.</p>
+<p>But he was in general afraid of what he called &ldquo;authorities&rdquo;;
+not the English authorities, which he trusted and respected, but the
+other two of that part of the world.&nbsp; He was not so horrified at
+the Dutch as he was at the Spaniards, but he was even more mistrustful
+of them.&nbsp; Very mistrustful indeed.&nbsp; The Dutch, in his view,
+were capable of &ldquo;playing any ugly trick on a man&rdquo; who had
+the misfortune to displease them.&nbsp; There were their laws and regulations,
+but they had no notion of fair play in applying them.&nbsp; It was really
+pitiable to see the anxious circumspection of his dealings with some
+official or other, and remember that this man had been known to stroll
+up to a village of cannibals in New Guinea in a quiet, fearless manner
+(and note that he was always fleshy all his life, and, if I may say
+so, an appetising morsel) on some matter of barter that did not amount
+perhaps to fifty pounds in the end.</p>
+<p>Remember old Nelson!&nbsp; Rather!&nbsp; Truly, none of us in my
+generation had known him in his active days.&nbsp; He was &ldquo;retired&rdquo;
+in our time.&nbsp; He had bought, or else leased, part of a small island
+from the Sultan of a little group called the Seven Isles, not far north
+from Banka.&nbsp; It was, I suppose, a legitimate transaction, but I
+have no doubt that had he been an Englishman the Dutch would have discovered
+a reason to fire him out without ceremony.&nbsp; In this connection
+the real form of his name stood him in good stead.&nbsp; In the character
+of an unassuming Dane whose conduct was most correct, they let him be.&nbsp;
+With all his money engaged in cultivation he was naturally careful not
+to give even the shadow of offence, and it was mostly for prudential
+reasons of that sort that he did not look with a favourable eye on Jasper
+Allen.&nbsp; But of that later.&nbsp; Yes!&nbsp; One remembered well
+enough old Nelson&rsquo;s big, hospitable bungalow erected on a shelving
+point of land, his portly form, costumed generally in a white shirt
+and trousers (he had a confirmed habit of taking off his alpaca jacket
+on the slightest provocation), his round blue eyes, his straggly, sandy-white
+moustache sticking out all ways like the quills of the fretful porcupine,
+his propensity to sit down suddenly and fan himself with his hat.&nbsp;
+But there&rsquo;s no use concealing the fact that what one remembered
+really was his daughter, who at that time came out to live with him&mdash;and
+be a sort of Lady of the Isles.</p>
+<p>Freya Nelson (or Nielsen) was the kind of girl one remembers.&nbsp;
+The oval of her face was perfect; and within that fascinating frame
+the most happy disposition of line and feature, with an admirable complexion,
+gave an impression of health, strength, and what I might call unconscious
+self-confidence&mdash;a most pleasant and, as it were, whimsical determination.&nbsp;
+I will not compare her eyes to violets, because the real shade of their
+colour was peculiar, not so dark and more lustrous.&nbsp; They were
+of the wide-open kind, and looked at one frankly in every mood.&nbsp;
+I never did see the long, dark eyelashes lowered&mdash;I dare say Jasper
+Allen did, being a privileged person&mdash;but I have no doubt that
+the expression must have been charming in a complex way.&nbsp; She could&mdash;Jasper
+told me once with a touchingly imbecile exultation&mdash;sit on her
+hair.&nbsp; I dare say, I dare say.&nbsp; It was not for me to behold
+these wonders; I was content to admire the neat and becoming way she
+used to do it up so as not to conceal the good shape of her head.&nbsp;
+And this wealth of hair was so glossy that when the screens of the west
+verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there, or in the shade
+of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to give out a
+golden light of its own.</p>
+<p>She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of walking length,
+showing her neat, laced, brown boots.&nbsp; If there was any colour
+about her costume it was just a bit of blue perhaps.&nbsp; No exertion
+seemed to distress her.&nbsp; I have seen her land from the dinghy after
+a long pull in the sun (she rowed herself about a good deal) with no
+quickened breath and not a single hair out of its place.&nbsp; In the
+morning when she came out on the verandah for the first look westward,
+Sumatra way, over the sea, she seemed as fresh and sparkling as a dewdrop.&nbsp;
+But a dewdrop is evanescent, and there was nothing evanescent about
+Freya.&nbsp; I remember her round, solid arms with the fine wrists,
+and her broad, capable hands with tapering fingers.</p>
+<p>I don&rsquo;t know whether she was actually born at sea, but I do
+know that up to twelve years of age she sailed about with her parents
+in various ships.&nbsp; After old Nelson lost his wife it became a matter
+of serious concern for him what to do with the girl.&nbsp; A kind lady
+in Singapore, touched by his dumb grief and deplorable perplexity, offered
+to take charge of Freya.&nbsp; This arrangement lasted some six years,
+during which old Nelson (or Nielsen) &ldquo;retired&rdquo; and established,
+himself on his island, and then it was settled (the kind lady going
+away to Europe) that his daughter should join him.</p>
+<p>As the first and most important preparation for that event the old
+fellow ordered from his Singapore agent a Steyn and Ebhart&rsquo;s &ldquo;upright
+grand.&rdquo;&nbsp; I was then commanding a little steamer in the island
+trade, and it fell to my lot to take it out to him, so I know something
+of Freya&rsquo;s &ldquo;upright grand.&rdquo;&nbsp; We landed the enormous
+packing-case with difficulty on a flat piece of rock amongst some bushes,
+nearly knocking the bottom out of one of my boats in the course of that
+nautical operation.&nbsp; Then, all my crew assisting, engineers and
+firemen included, by the exercise of much anxious ingenuity, and by
+means of rollers, levers, tackles, and inclined planes of soaped planks,
+toiling in the sun like ancient Egyptians at the building of a pyramid,
+we got it as far as the house and up on to the edge of the west verandah&mdash;which
+was the actual drawing-room of the bungalow.&nbsp; There, the case being
+ripped off cautiously, the beautiful rosewood monster stood revealed
+at last.&nbsp; In reverent excitement we coaxed it against the wall
+and drew the first free breath of the day.&nbsp; It was certainly the
+heaviest movable object on that islet since the creation of the world.&nbsp;
+The volume of sound it gave out in that bungalow (which acted as a sounding-board)
+was really astonishing.&nbsp; It thundered sweetly right over the sea.&nbsp;
+Jasper Allen told me that early of a morning on the deck of the <i>Bonito</i>
+(his wonderfully fast and pretty brig) he could hear Freya playing her
+scales quite distinctly.&nbsp; But the fellow always anchored foolishly
+close to the point, as I told him more than once.&nbsp; Of course, these
+seas are almost uniformly serene, and the Seven Isles is a particularly
+calm and cloudless spot as a rule.&nbsp; But still, now and again, an
+afternoon thunderstorm over Banka, or even one of these vicious thick
+squalls, from the distant Sumatra coast, would make a sudden sally upon
+the group, enveloping it for a couple of hours in whirlwinds and bluish-black
+murk of a particularly sinister aspect.&nbsp; Then, with the lowered
+rattan-screens rattling desperately in the wind and the bungalow shaking
+all over, Freya would sit down to the piano and play fierce Wagner music
+in the flicker of blinding flashes, with thunderbolts falling all round,
+enough to make your hair stand on end; and Jasper would remain stock
+still on the verandah, adoring the back view of her supple, swaying
+figure, the miraculous sheen of her fair head, the rapid hands on the
+keys, the white nape of her neck&mdash;while the brig, down at the point
+there, surged at her cables within a hundred yards of nasty, shiny,
+black rock-heads.&nbsp; Ugh!</p>
+<p>And this, if you please, for no reason but that, when he went on
+board at night and laid his head on the pillow, he should feel that
+he was as near as he could conveniently get to his Freya slumbering
+in the bungalow.&nbsp; Did you ever!&nbsp; And, mind, this brig was
+the home to be&mdash;their home&mdash;the floating paradise which he
+was gradually fitting out like a yacht to sail his life blissfully away
+in with Freya.&nbsp; Imbecile!&nbsp; But the fellow was always taking
+chances.</p>
+<p>One day, I remember I watched with Freya on the verandah the brig
+approaching the point from the northward.&nbsp; I suppose Jasper made
+the girl out with his long glass.&nbsp; What does he do?&nbsp; Instead
+of standing on for another mile and a half along the shoals and then
+tacking for the anchorage in a proper and seamanlike manner, he spies
+a gap between two disgusting old jagged reefs, puts the helm down suddenly,
+and shoots the brig through, with all her sails shaking and rattling,
+so that we could hear the racket on the verandah.&nbsp; I drew my breath
+through my teeth, I can tell you, and Freya swore.&nbsp; Yes!&nbsp;
+She clenched her capable fists and stamped with her pretty brown boot
+and said &ldquo;Damn!&rdquo;&nbsp; Then, looking at me with a little
+heightened colour&mdash;not much&mdash;she remarked, &ldquo;I forgot
+you were there,&rdquo; and laughed.&nbsp; To be sure, to be sure.&nbsp;
+When Jasper was in sight she was not likely to remember that anybody
+else in the world was there.&nbsp; In my concern at this mad trick I
+couldn&rsquo;t help appealing to her sympathetic common sense.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t he a fool?&rdquo; I said with feeling.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Perfect idiot,&rdquo; she agreed warmly, looking at me straight
+with her wide-open, earnest eyes and the dimple of a smile on her cheek.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And that,&rdquo; I pointed out to her, &ldquo;just to save
+twenty minutes or so in meeting you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We heard the anchor go down, and then she became very resolute and
+threatening.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Wait a bit.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll teach him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She went into her own room and shut the door, leaving me alone on
+the verandah with my instructions.&nbsp; Long before the brig&rsquo;s
+sails were furled, Jasper came up three steps at a time, forgetting
+to say how d&rsquo;ye do, and looking right and left eagerly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Freya?&nbsp; Wasn&rsquo;t she here just now?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>When I explained to him that he was to be deprived of Miss Freya&rsquo;s
+presence for a whole hour, &ldquo;just to teach him,&rdquo; he said
+I had put her up to it, no doubt, and that he feared he would have yet
+to shoot me some day.&nbsp; She and I were getting too thick together.&nbsp;
+Then he flung himself into a chair, and tried to talk to me about his
+trip.&nbsp; But the funny thing was that the fellow actually suffered.&nbsp;
+I could see it.&nbsp; His voice failed him, and he sat there dumb, looking
+at the door with the face of a man in pain.&nbsp; Fact. . . . And the
+next still funnier thing was that the girl calmly walked out of her
+room in less than ten minutes.&nbsp; And then I left.&nbsp; I mean to
+say that I went away to seek old Nelson (or Nielsen) on the back verandah,
+which was his own special nook in the distribution of that house, with
+the kind purpose of engaging him in conversation lest he should start
+roaming about and intrude unwittingly where he was not wanted just then.</p>
+<p>He knew that the brig had arrived, though he did not know that Jasper
+was already with his daughter.&nbsp; I suppose he didn&rsquo;t think
+it was possible in the time.&nbsp; A father naturally wouldn&rsquo;t.&nbsp;
+He suspected that Allen was sweet on his girl; the fowls of the air
+and the fishes of the sea, most of the traders in the Archipelago, and
+all sorts and conditions of men in the town of Singapore were aware
+of it.&nbsp; But he was not capable of appreciating how far the girl
+was gone on the fellow.&nbsp; He had an idea that Freya was too sensible
+to ever be gone on anybody&mdash;I mean to an unmanageable extent.&nbsp;
+No; it was not that which made him sit on the back verandah and worry
+himself in his unassuming manner during Jasper&rsquo;s visits.&nbsp;
+What he worried about were the Dutch &ldquo;authorities.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+For it is a fact that the Dutch looked askance at the doings of Jasper
+Allen, owner and master of the brig <i>Bonito</i>.&nbsp; They considered
+him much too enterprising in his trading.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know that
+he ever did anything illegal; but it seems to me that his immense activity
+was repulsive to their stolid character and slow-going methods.&nbsp;
+Anyway, in old Nelson&rsquo;s opinion, the captain of the <i>Bonito</i>
+was a smart sailor, and a nice young man, but not a desirable acquaintance
+upon the whole.&nbsp; Somewhat compromising, you understand.&nbsp; On
+the other hand, he did not like to tell Jasper in so many words to keep
+away.&nbsp; Poor old Nelson himself was a nice fellow.&nbsp; I believe
+he would have shrunk from hurting the feelings even of a mop-headed
+cannibal, unless, perhaps, under very strong provocation.&nbsp; I mean
+the feelings, not the bodies.&nbsp; As against spears, knives, hatchets,
+clubs, or arrows, old Nelson had proved himself capable of taking his
+own part.&nbsp; In every other respect he had a timorous soul.&nbsp;
+So he sat on the back verandah with a concerned expression, and whenever
+the voices of his daughter and Jasper Allen reached him, he would blow
+out his cheeks and let the air escape with a dismal sound, like a much
+tried man.</p>
+<p>Naturally I derided his fears which he, more or less, confided to
+me.&nbsp; He had a certain regard for my judgment, and a certain respect,
+not for my moral qualities, however, but for the good terms I was supposed
+to be on with the Dutch &ldquo;authorities.&rdquo;&nbsp; I knew for
+a fact that his greatest bugbear, the Governor of Banka&mdash;a charming,
+peppery, hearty, retired rear-admiral&mdash;had a distinct liking for
+him.&nbsp; This consoling assurance which I used always to put forward,
+made old Nelson (or Nielsen) brighten up for a moment; but in the end
+he would shake his head doubtfully, as much as to say that this was
+all very well, but that there were depths in the Dutch official nature
+which no one but himself had ever fathomed.&nbsp; Perfectly ridiculous.</p>
+<p>On this occasion I am speaking of, old Nelson was even fretty; for
+while I was trying to entertain him with a very funny and somewhat scandalous
+adventure which happened to a certain acquaintance of ours in Saigon,
+he exclaimed suddenly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What the devil he wants to turn up here for!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Clearly he had not heard a word of the anecdote.&nbsp; And this annoyed
+me, because the anecdote was really good.&nbsp; I stared at him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come, come!&rdquo; I cried.&nbsp; &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know
+what Jasper Allen is turning up here for?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This was the first open allusion I had ever made to the true state
+of affairs between Jasper and his daughter.&nbsp; He took it very calmly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Freya is a sensible girl!&rdquo; he murmured absently,
+his mind&rsquo;s eye obviously fixed on the &ldquo;authorities.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+No; Freya was no fool.&nbsp; He was not concerned about that.&nbsp;
+He didn&rsquo;t mind it in the least.&nbsp; The fellow was just company
+for her; he amused the girl; nothing more.</p>
+<p>When the perspicacious old chap left off mumbling, all was still
+in the house.&nbsp; The other two were amusing themselves very quietly,
+and no doubt very heartily.&nbsp; What more absorbing and less noisy
+amusement could they have found than to plan their future?&nbsp; Side
+by side on the verandah they must have been looking at the brig, the
+third party in that fascinating game.&nbsp; Without her there would
+have been no future.&nbsp; She was the fortune and the home, and the
+great free world for them.&nbsp; Who was it that likened a ship to a
+prison?&nbsp; May I be ignominiously hanged at a yardarm if that&rsquo;s
+true.&nbsp; The white sails of that craft were the white wings&mdash;pinions,
+I believe, would be the more poetical style&mdash;well, the white pinions,
+of their soaring love.&nbsp; Soaring as regards Jasper.&nbsp; Freya,
+being a woman, kept a better hold of the mundane connections of this
+affair.</p>
+<p>But Jasper was elevated in the true sense of the word ever since
+the day when, after they had been gazing at the brig in one of those
+decisive silences that alone establish a perfect communion between creatures
+gifted with speech, he proposed that she should share the ownership
+of that treasure with him.&nbsp; Indeed, he presented the brig to her
+altogether.&nbsp; But then his heart was in the brig since the day he
+bought her in Manilla from a certain middle-aged Peruvian, in a sober
+suit of black broadcloth, enigmatic and sententious, who, for all I
+know, might have stolen her on the South American coast, whence he said
+he had come over to the Philippines &ldquo;for family reasons.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+This &ldquo;for family reasons&rdquo; was distinctly good.&nbsp; No
+true <i>caballero</i> would care to push on inquiries after such a statement.</p>
+<p>Indeed, Jasper was quite the <i>caballero</i>.&nbsp; The brig herself
+was then all black and enigmatical, and very dirty; a tarnished gem
+of the sea, or, rather, a neglected work of art.&nbsp; For he must have
+been an artist, the obscure builder who had put her body together on
+lovely lines out of the hardest tropical timber fastened with the purest
+copper.&nbsp; Goodness only knows in what part of the world she was
+built.&nbsp; Jasper himself had not been able to ascertain much of her
+history from his sententious, saturnine Peruvian&mdash;if the fellow
+was a Peruvian, and not the devil himself in disguise, as Jasper jocularly
+pretended to believe.&nbsp; My opinion is that she was old enough to
+have been one of the last pirates, a slaver perhaps, or else an opium
+clipper of the early days, if not an opium smuggler.</p>
+<p>However that may be, she was as sound as on the day she first took
+the water, sailed like a witch, steered like a little boat, and, like
+some fair women of adventurous life famous in history, seemed to have
+the secret of perpetual youth; so that there was nothing unnatural in
+Jasper Allen treating her like a lover.&nbsp; And that treatment restored
+the lustre of her beauty.&nbsp; He clothed her in many coats of the
+very best white paint so skilfully, carefully, artistically put on and
+kept clean by his badgered crew of picked Malays, that no costly enamel
+such as jewellers use for their work could have looked better and felt
+smoother to the touch.&nbsp; A narrow gilt moulding defined her elegant
+sheer as she sat on the water, eclipsing easily the professional good
+looks of any pleasure yacht that ever came to the East in those days.&nbsp;
+For myself, I must say I prefer a moulding of deep crimson colour on
+a white hull.&nbsp; It gives a stronger relief besides being less expensive;
+and I told Jasper so.&nbsp; But no, nothing less than the best gold-leaf
+would do, because no decoration could be gorgeous enough for the future
+abode of his Freya.</p>
+<p>His feelings for the brig and for the girl were as indissolubly united
+in his heart as you may fuse two precious metals together in one crucible.&nbsp;
+And the flame was pretty hot, I can assure you.&nbsp; It induced in
+him a fierce inward restlessness both of activity and desire.&nbsp;
+Too fine in face, with a lateral wave in his chestnut hair, spare, long-limbed,
+with an eager glint in his steely eyes and quick, brusque movements,
+he made me think sometimes of a flashing sword-blade perpetually leaping
+out of the scabbard.&nbsp; It was only when he was near the girl, when
+he had her there to look at, that this peculiarly tense attitude was
+replaced by a grave devout watchfulness of her slightest movements and
+utterances.&nbsp; Her cool, resolute, capable, good-humoured self-possession
+seemed to steady his heart.&nbsp; Was it the magic of her face, of her
+voice, of her glances which calmed him so?&nbsp; Yet these were the
+very things one must believe which had set his imagination ablaze&mdash;if
+love begins in imagination.&nbsp; But I am no man to discuss such mysteries,
+and it strikes me that we have neglected poor old Nelson inflating his
+cheeks in a state of worry on the back verandah.</p>
+<p>I pointed out to him that, after all, Jasper was not a very frequent
+visitor.&nbsp; He and his brig worked hard all over the Archipelago.&nbsp;
+But all old Nelson said, and he said it uneasily, was:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I hope Heemskirk won&rsquo;t turn up here while the brig&rsquo;s
+about.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Getting up a scare about Heemskirk now!&nbsp; Heemskirk! . . . Really,
+one hadn&rsquo;t the patience&mdash;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>For, pray, who was Heemskirk?&nbsp; You shall see at once how unreasonable
+this dread of Heemskirk. . . . Certainly, his nature was malevolent
+enough.&nbsp; That was obvious, directly you heard him laugh.&nbsp;
+Nothing gives away more a man&rsquo;s secret disposition than the unguarded
+ring of his laugh.&nbsp; But, bless my soul! if we were to start at
+every evil guffaw like a hare at every sound, we shouldn&rsquo;t be
+fit for anything but the solitude of a desert, or the seclusion of a
+hermitage.&nbsp; And even there we should have to put up with the unavoidable
+company of the devil.</p>
+<p>However, the devil is a considerable personage, who has known better
+days and has moved high up in the hierarchy of Celestial Host; but in
+the hierarchy of mere earthly Dutchmen, Heemskirk, whose early days
+could not have been very splendid, was merely a naval officer forty
+years of age, of no particular connections or ability to boast of.&nbsp;
+He was commanding the <i>Neptun</i>, a little gunboat employed on dreary
+patrol duty up and down the Archipelago, to look after the traders.&nbsp;
+Not a very exalted position truly.&nbsp; I tell you, just a common middle-aged
+lieutenant of some twenty-five years&rsquo; service and sure to be retired
+before long&mdash;that&rsquo;s all.</p>
+<p>He never bothered his head very much as to what was going on in the
+Seven Isles group till he learned from some talk in Mintok or Palembang,
+I suppose, that there was a pretty girl living there.&nbsp; Curiosity,
+I presume, caused him to go poking around that way, and then, after
+he had once seen Freya, he made a practice of calling at the group whenever
+he found himself within half a day&rsquo;s steaming from it.</p>
+<p>I don&rsquo;t mean to say that Heemskirk was a typical Dutch naval
+officer.&nbsp; I have seen enough of them not to fall into that absurd
+mistake.&nbsp; He had a big, clean-shaven face; great flat, brown cheeks,
+with a thin, hooked nose and a small, pursy mouth squeezed in between.&nbsp;
+There were a few silver threads in his black hair, and his unpleasant
+eyes were nearly black, too.&nbsp; He had a surly way of casting side
+glances without moving his head, which was set low on a short, round
+neck.&nbsp; A thick, round trunk in a dark undress jacket with gold
+shoulder-straps, was sustained by a straddly pair of thick, round legs,
+in white drill trousers.&nbsp; His round skull under a white cap looked
+as if it were immensely thick too, but there were brains enough in it
+to discover and take advantage maliciously of poor old Nelson&rsquo;s
+nervousness before everything that was invested with the merest shred
+of authority.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk would land on the point and perambulate silently every
+part of the plantation as if the whole place belonged to him, before
+her went to the house.&nbsp; On the verandah he would take the best
+chair, and would stay for tiffin or dinner, just simply stay on, without
+taking the trouble to invite himself by so much as a word.</p>
+<p>He ought to have been kicked, if only for his manner to Miss Freya.&nbsp;
+Had he been a naked savage, armed with spears and poisoned arrows, old
+Nelson (or Nielsen) would have gone for him with his bare fists.&nbsp;
+But these gold shoulder-straps&mdash;Dutch shoulder-straps at that&mdash;were
+enough to terrify the old fellow; so he let the beggar treat him with
+heavy contempt, devour his daughter with his eyes, and drink the best
+part of his little stock of wine.</p>
+<p>I saw something of this, and on one occasion I tried to pass a remark
+on the subject.&nbsp; It was pitiable to see the trouble in old Nelson&rsquo;s
+round eyes.&nbsp; At first he cried out that the lieutenant was a good
+friend of his; a very good fellow.&nbsp; I went on staring at him pretty
+hard, so that at last he faltered, and had to own that, of course, Heemskirk
+was not a very genial person outwardly, but all the same at bottom.
+. . .</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t yet met a genial Dutchman out here,&rdquo;
+I interrupted.&nbsp; &ldquo;Geniality, after all, is not of much consequence,
+but don&rsquo;t you see&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nelson looked suddenly so frightened at what I was going to say that
+I hadn&rsquo;t the heart to go on.&nbsp; Of course, I was going to tell
+him that the fellow was after his girl.&nbsp; That just describes it
+exactly.&nbsp; What Heemskirk might have expected or what he thought
+he could do, I don&rsquo;t know.&nbsp; For all I can tell, he might
+have imagined himself irresistible, or have taken Freya for what she
+was not, on account of her lively, assured, unconstrained manner.&nbsp;
+But there it is.&nbsp; He was after that girl.&nbsp; Nelson could see
+it well enough.&nbsp; Only he preferred to ignore it.&nbsp; He did not
+want to be told of it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All I want is to live in peace and quietness with the Dutch
+authorities,&rdquo; he mumbled shamefacedly.</p>
+<p>He was incurable.&nbsp; I was sorry for him, and I really think Miss
+Freya was sorry for her father, too.&nbsp; She restrained herself for
+his sake, and as everything she did she did it simply, unaffectedly,
+and even good humouredly.&nbsp; No small effort that, because in Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+attentions there was an insolent touch of scorn, hard to put up with.&nbsp;
+Dutchmen of that sort are over-bearing to their inferiors, and that
+officer of the king looked upon old Nelson and Freya as quite beneath
+him in every way.</p>
+<p>I can&rsquo;t say I felt sorry for Freya.&nbsp; She was not the sort
+of girl to take anything tragically.&nbsp; One could feel for her and
+sympathise with her difficulty, but she seemed equal to any situation.&nbsp;
+It was rather admiration she extorted by her competent serenity.&nbsp;
+It was only when Jasper and Heemskirk were together at the bungalow,
+as it happened now and then, that she felt the strain, and even then
+it was not for everybody to see.&nbsp; My eyes alone could detect a
+faint shadow on the radiance of her personality.&nbsp; Once I could
+not help saying to her appreciatively:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my word you are wonderful.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She let it pass with a faint smile.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The great thing is to prevent Jasper becoming unreasonable,&rdquo;
+she said; and I could see real concern lurking in the quiet depths of
+her frank eyes gazing straight at me.&nbsp; &ldquo;You will help to
+keep him quiet, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Of course, we must keep him quiet,&rdquo; I declared, understanding
+very well the nature of her anxiety.&nbsp; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a
+lunatic, too, when he&rsquo;s roused.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He is!&rdquo; she assented, in a soft tone; for it was our
+joke to speak of Jasper abusively.&nbsp; &ldquo;But I have tamed him
+a bit.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s quite a good boy now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He would squash Heemskirk like a blackbeetle all the same,&rdquo;
+I remarked.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Rather!&rdquo; she murmured.&nbsp; &ldquo;And that wouldn&rsquo;t
+do,&rdquo; she added quickly.&nbsp; &ldquo;Imagine the state poor papa
+would get into.&nbsp; Besides, I mean to be mistress of the dear brig
+and sail about these seas, not go off wandering ten thousand miles away
+from here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The sooner you are on board to look after the man and the
+brig the better,&rdquo; I said seriously.&nbsp; &ldquo;They need you
+to steady them both a bit.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t think Jasper will ever
+get sobered down till he has carried you off from this island.&nbsp;
+You don&rsquo;t see him when he is away from you, as I do.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s
+in a state of perpetual elation which almost frightens me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>At this she smiled again, and then looked serious.&nbsp; For it could
+not be unpleasant to her to be told of her power, and she had some sense
+of her responsibility.&nbsp; She slipped away from me suddenly, because
+Heemskirk, with old Nelson in attendance at his elbow, was coming up
+the steps of the verandah.&nbsp; Directly his head came above the level
+of the floor his ill-natured black eyes shot glances here and there.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where&rsquo;s your girl, Nelson?&rdquo; he asked, in a tone
+as if every soul in the world belonged to him.&nbsp; And then to me:
+&ldquo;The goddess has flown, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nelson&rsquo;s Cove&mdash;as we used to call it&mdash;was crowded
+with shipping that day.&nbsp; There was first my steamer, then the <i>Neptun</i>
+gunboat further out, and the <i>Bonito</i>, brig, anchored as usual
+so close inshore that it looked as if, with a little skill and judgment,
+one could shy a hat from the verandah on to her scrupulously holystoned
+quarter-deck.&nbsp; Her brasses flashed like gold, her white body-paint
+had a sheen like a satin robe.&nbsp; The rake of her varnished spars
+and the big yards, squared to a hair, gave her a sort of martial elegance.&nbsp;
+She was a beauty.&nbsp; No wonder that in possession of a craft like
+that and the promise of a girl like Freya, Jasper lived in a state of
+perpetual elation fit, perhaps, for the seventh heaven, but not exactly
+safe in a world like ours.</p>
+<p>I remarked politely to Heemskirk that, with three guests in the house,
+Miss Freya had no doubt domestic matters to attend to.&nbsp; I knew,
+of course, that she had gone to meet Jasper at a certain cleared spot
+on the banks of the only stream on Nelson&rsquo;s little island.&nbsp;
+The commander of the <i>Neptun</i> gave me a dubious black look, and
+began to make himself at home, flinging his thick, cylindrical carcass
+into a rocking-chair, and unbuttoning his coat.&nbsp; Old Nelson sat
+down opposite him in a most unassuming manner, staring anxiously with
+his round eyes and fanning himself with his hat.&nbsp; I tried to make
+conversation to while the time away; not an easy task with a morose,
+enamoured Dutchman constantly looking from one door to another and answering
+one&rsquo;s advances either with a jeer or a grunt.</p>
+<p>However, the evening passed off all right.&nbsp; Luckily, there is
+a degree of bliss too intense for elation.&nbsp; Jasper was quiet and
+concentrated silently in watching Freya.&nbsp; As we went on board our
+respective ships I offered to give his brig a tow out next morning.&nbsp;
+I did it on purpose to get him away at the earliest possible moment.&nbsp;
+So in the first cold light of the dawn we passed by the gunboat lying
+black and still without a sound in her at the mouth of the glassy cove.&nbsp;
+But with tropical swiftness the sun had climbed twice its diameter above
+the horizon before we had rounded the reef and got abreast of the point.&nbsp;
+On the biggest boulder there stood Freya, all in white and, in her helmet,
+like a feminine and martial statue with a rosy face, as I could see
+very well with my glasses.&nbsp; She fluttered an expressive handkerchief,
+and Jasper, running up the main rigging of the white and warlike brig,
+waved his hat in response.&nbsp; Shortly afterwards we parted, I to
+the northward and Jasper heading east with a light wind on the quarter,
+for Banjermassin and two other ports, I believe it was, that trip.</p>
+<p>This peaceful occasion was the last on which I saw all these people
+assembled together; the charmingly fresh and resolute Freya, the innocently
+round-eyed old Nelson, Jasper, keen, long limbed, lean faced, admirably
+self-contained, in his manner, because inconceivably happy under the
+eyes of his Freya; all three tall, fair, and blue-eyed in varied shades,
+and amongst them the swarthy, arrogant, black-haired Dutchman, shorter
+nearly by a head, and so much thicker than any of them that he seemed
+to be a creature capable of inflating itself, a grotesque specimen of
+mankind from some other planet.</p>
+<p>The contrast struck me all at once as we stood in the lighted verandah,
+after rising from the dinner-table.&nbsp; I was fascinated by it for
+the rest of the evening, and I remember the impression of something
+funny and ill-omened at the same time in it to this day.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>A few weeks later, coming early one morning into Singapore, from
+a journey to the southward, I saw the brig lying at anchor in all her
+usual symmetry and splendour of aspect as though she had been taken
+out of a glass case and put delicately into the water that very moment.</p>
+<p>She was well out in the roadstead, but I steamed in and took up my
+habitual berth close in front of the town.&nbsp; Before we had finished
+breakfast a quarter-master came to tell me that Captain Allen&rsquo;s
+boat was coming our way.</p>
+<p>His smart gig dashed alongside, and in two bounds he was up our accommodation-ladder
+and shaking me by the hand with his nervous grip, his eyes snapping
+inquisitively, for he supposed I had called at the Seven Isles group
+on my way.&nbsp; I reached into my pocket for a nicely folded little
+note, which he grabbed out of my hand without ceremony and carried off
+on the bridge to read by himself.&nbsp; After a decent interval I followed
+him up there, and found him pacing to and fro; for the nature of his
+emotions made him restless even in his most thoughtful moments.</p>
+<p>He shook his head at me triumphantly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, my dear boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I shall be counting
+the days now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I understood what he meant.&nbsp; I knew that those young people
+had settled already on a runaway match without official preliminaries.&nbsp;
+This was really a logical decision.&nbsp; Old Nelson (or Nielsen) would
+never have agreed to give up Freya peaceably to this compromising Jasper.&nbsp;
+Heavens!&nbsp; What would the Dutch authorities say to such a match!&nbsp;
+It sounds too ridiculous for words.&nbsp; But there&rsquo;s nothing
+in the world more selfishly hard than a timorous man in a fright about
+his &ldquo;little estate,&rdquo; as old Nelson used to call it in apologetic
+accents.&nbsp; A heart permeated by a particular sort of funk is proof
+against sense, feeling, and ridicule.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a flint.</p>
+<p>Jasper would have made his request all the same and then taken his
+own way; but it was Freya who decided that nothing should be said, on
+the ground that, &ldquo;Papa would only worry himself to distraction.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He was capable of making himself ill, and then she wouldn&rsquo;t have
+the heart to leave him.&nbsp; Here you have the sanity of feminine outlook
+and the frankness of feminine reasoning.&nbsp; And for the rest, Miss
+Freya could read &ldquo;poor dear papa&rdquo; in the way a woman reads
+a man&mdash;like an open book.&nbsp; His daughter once gone, old Nelson
+would not worry himself.&nbsp; He would raise a great outcry, and make
+no end of lamentable fuss, but that&rsquo;s not the same thing.&nbsp;
+The real agonies of indecision, the anguish of conflicting feelings
+would be spared to him.&nbsp; And as he was too unassuming to rage,
+he would, after a period of lamentation, devote himself to his &ldquo;little
+estate,&rdquo; and to keeping on good terms with the authorities.</p>
+<p>Time would do the rest.&nbsp; And Freya thought she could afford
+to wait, while ruling over her own home in the beautiful brig and over
+the man who loved her.&nbsp; This was the life for her who had learned
+to walk on a ship&rsquo;s deck.&nbsp; She was a ship-child, a sea-girl
+if ever there was one.&nbsp; And of course she loved Jasper and trusted
+him; but there was a shade of anxiety in her pride.&nbsp; It is very
+fine and romantic to possess for your very own a finely tempered and
+trusty sword-blade, but whether it is the best weapon to counter with
+the common cudgel-play of Fate&mdash;that&rsquo;s another question.</p>
+<p>She knew that she had the more substance of the two&mdash;you needn&rsquo;t
+try any cheap jokes, I am not talking of their weights.&nbsp; She was
+just a little anxious while he was away, and she had me who, being a
+tried confidant, took the liberty to whisper frequently &ldquo;The sooner
+the better.&rdquo;&nbsp; But there was a peculiar vein of obstinacy
+in Miss Freya, and her reason for delay was characteristic.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not
+before my twenty-first birthday; so that there shall be no mistake in
+people&rsquo;s minds as to me being old enough to know what I am doing.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper&rsquo;s feelings were in such subjection that he had never
+even remonstrated against the decree.&nbsp; She was just splendid, whatever
+she did or said, and there was an end of it for him.&nbsp; I believe
+that he was subtle enough to be even flattered at bottom&mdash;at times.&nbsp;
+And then to console him he had the brig which seemed pervaded by the
+spirit of Freya, since whatever he did on board was always done under
+the supreme sanction of his love.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll soon begin to count the days,&rdquo;
+he repeated.&nbsp; &ldquo;Eleven months more.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll have
+to crowd three trips into that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mind you don&rsquo;t come to grief trying to do too much,&rdquo;
+I admonished him.&nbsp; But he dismissed my caution with a laugh and
+an elated gesture.&nbsp; Pooh!&nbsp; Nothing, nothing could happen to
+the brig, he cried, as if the flame of his heart could light up the
+dark nights of uncharted seas, and the image of Freya serve for an unerring
+beacon amongst hidden shoals; as if the winds had to wait on his future,
+the stars fight for it in their courses; as if the magic of his passion
+had the power to float a ship on a drop of dew or sail her through the
+eye of a needle&mdash;simply because it was her magnificent lot to be
+the servant of a love so full of grace as to make all the ways of the
+earth safe, resplendent, and easy.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suppose,&rdquo; I said, after he had finished laughing at
+my innocent enough remark, &ldquo;I suppose you will be off to-day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>That was what he meant to do.&nbsp; He had not gone at daylight only
+because he expected me to come in.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And only fancy what has happened yesterday,&rdquo; he went
+on.&nbsp; &ldquo;My mate left me suddenly.&nbsp; Had to.&nbsp; And as
+there&rsquo;s nobody to be found at a short notice I am going to take
+Schultz with me.&nbsp; The notorious Schultz!&nbsp; Why don&rsquo;t
+you jump out of your skin?&nbsp; I tell you I went and unearthed Schultz
+late last evening, after no end of trouble.&nbsp; &lsquo;I am your man,
+captain,&rsquo; he says, in that wonderful voice of his, &lsquo;but
+I am sorry to confess I have practically no clothes to my back.&nbsp;
+I have had to sell all my wardrobe to get a little food from day to
+day.&rsquo;&nbsp; What a voice that man has got.&nbsp; Talk about moving
+stones!&nbsp; But people seem to get used to it.&nbsp; I had never seen
+him before, and, upon my word, I felt suddenly tears rising to my eyes.&nbsp;
+Luckily it was dusk.&nbsp; He was sitting very quiet under a tree in
+a native compound as thin as a lath, and when I peered down at him all
+he had on was an old cotton singlet and a pair of ragged pyjamas.&nbsp;
+I bought him six white suits and two pairs of canvas shoes.&nbsp; Can&rsquo;t
+clear the ship without a mate.&nbsp; Must have somebody.&nbsp; I am
+going on shore presently to sign him on, and I shall take him with me
+as I go back on board to get under way.&nbsp; Now, I am a lunatic&mdash;am
+I not?&nbsp; Mad, of course.&nbsp; Come on!&nbsp; Lay it on thick.&nbsp;
+Let yourself go.&nbsp; I like to see you get excited.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He so evidently expected me to scold that I took especial pleasure
+in exaggerating the calmness of my attitude.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The worst that can be brought up against Schultz,&rdquo; I
+began, folding my arms and speaking dispassionately, &ldquo;is an awkward
+habit of stealing the stores of every ship he has ever been in.&nbsp;
+He will do it.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s really all that&rsquo;s wrong.&nbsp;
+I don&rsquo;t credit absolutely that story Captain Robinson tells of
+Schultz conspiring in Chantabun with some ruffians in a Chinese junk
+to steal the anchor off the starboard bow of the <i>Bohemian</i> <i>Girl</i>
+schooner.&nbsp; Robinson&rsquo;s story is too ingenious altogether.&nbsp;
+That other tale of the engineers of the <i>Nan</i>-<i>Shan</i> finding
+Schultz at midnight in the engine-room busy hammering at the brass bearings
+to carry them off for sale on shore seems to me more authentic.&nbsp;
+Apart from this little weakness, let me tell you that Schultz is a smarter
+sailor than many who never took a drop of drink in their lives, and
+perhaps no worse morally than some men you and I know who have never
+stolen the value of a penny.&nbsp; He may not be a desirable person
+to have on board one&rsquo;s ship, but since you have no choice he may
+be made to do, I believe.&nbsp; The important thing is to understand
+his psychology.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t give him any money till you have done
+with him.&nbsp; Not a cent, if he begs ever so.&nbsp; For as sure as
+Fate the moment you give him any money he will begin to steal.&nbsp;
+Just remember that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I enjoyed Jasper&rsquo;s incredulous surprise.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The devil he will!&rdquo; he cried.&nbsp; &ldquo;What on earth
+for?&nbsp; Aren&rsquo;t you trying to pull my leg, old boy?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m not.&nbsp; You must understand Schultz&rsquo;s
+psychology.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s neither a loafer nor a cadger.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s
+not likely to wander about looking for somebody to stand him drinks.&nbsp;
+But suppose he goes on shore with five dollars, or fifty for that matter,
+in his pocket?&nbsp; After the third or fourth glass he becomes fuddled
+and charitable.&nbsp; He either drops his money all over the place,
+or else distributes the lot around; gives it to any one who will take
+it.&nbsp; Then it occurs to him that the night is young yet, and that
+he may require a good many more drinks for himself and his friends before
+morning.&nbsp; So he starts off cheerfully for his ship.&nbsp; His legs
+never get affected nor his head either in the usual way.&nbsp; He gets
+aboard and simply grabs the first thing that seems to him suitable&mdash;the
+cabin lamp, a coil of rope, a bag of biscuits, a drum of oil&mdash;and
+converts it into money without thinking twice about it.&nbsp; This is
+the process and no other.&nbsp; You have only to look out that he doesn&rsquo;t
+get a start.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Confound his psychology,&rdquo; muttered Jasper.&nbsp; &ldquo;But
+a man with a voice like his is fit to talk to the angels.&nbsp; Is he
+incurable do you think?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I said that I thought so.&nbsp; Nobody had prosecuted him yet, but
+no one would employ him any longer.&nbsp; His end would be, I feared,
+to starve in some hole or other.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, well,&rdquo; reflected Jasper.&nbsp; &ldquo;The <i>Bonito</i>
+isn&rsquo;t trading to any ports of civilisation.&nbsp; That&rsquo;ll
+make it easier for him to keep straight.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>That was true.&nbsp; The brig&rsquo;s business was on uncivilised
+coasts, with obscure rajahs dwelling in nearly unknown bays; with native
+settlements up mysterious rivers opening their sombre, forest-lined
+estuaries among a welter of pale green reefs and dazzling sand-banks,
+in lonely straits of calm blue water all aglitter with sunshine.&nbsp;
+Alone, far from the beaten tracks, she glided, all white, round dark,
+frowning headlands, stole out, silent like a ghost, from behind points
+of land stretching out all black in the moonlight; or lay hove-to, like
+a sleeping sea-bird, under the shadow of some nameless mountain waiting
+for a signal.&nbsp; She would be glimpsed suddenly on misty, squally
+days dashing disdainfully aside the short aggressive waves of the Java
+Sea; or be seen far, far away, a tiny dazzling white speck flying across
+the brooding purple masses of thunderclouds piled up on the horizon.&nbsp;
+Sometimes, on the rare mail tracks, where civilisation brushes against
+wild mystery, when the naive passengers crowding along the rail exclaimed,
+pointing at her with interest: &ldquo;Oh, here&rsquo;s a yacht!&rdquo;
+the Dutch captain, with a hostile glance, would grunt contemptuously:
+&ldquo;Yacht!&nbsp; No!&nbsp; That&rsquo;s only English Jasper.&nbsp;
+A pedlar&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;A good seaman you say,&rdquo; ejaculated Jasper, still in
+the matter of the hopeless Schultz with the wonderfully touching voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;First rate.&nbsp; Ask any one.&nbsp; Quite worth having&mdash;only
+impossible,&rdquo; I declared.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He shall have his chance to reform in the brig,&rdquo; said
+Jasper, with a laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;There will be no temptations either
+to drink or steal where I am going to this time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I didn&rsquo;t press him for anything more definite on that point.&nbsp;
+In fact, intimate as we were, I had a pretty clear notion of the general
+run of his business.</p>
+<p>But as we are going ashore in his gig he asked suddenly: &ldquo;By
+the way, do you know where Heemskirk is?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I eyed him covertly, and was reassured.&nbsp; He had asked the question,
+not as a lover, but as a trader.&nbsp; I told him that I had heard in
+Palembang that the <i>Neptun</i> was on duty down about Flores and Sumbawa.&nbsp;
+Quite out of his way.&nbsp; He expressed his satisfaction.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You know,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;that fellow, when he gets
+on the Borneo coast, amuses himself by knocking down my beacons.&nbsp;
+I have had to put up a few to help me in and out of the rivers.&nbsp;
+Early this year a Celebes trader becalmed in a prau was watching him
+at it.&nbsp; He steamed the gunboat full tilt at two of them, one after
+another, smashing them to pieces, and then lowered a boat on purpose
+to pull out a third, which I had a lot of trouble six months ago to
+stick up in the middle of a mudflat for a tide mark.&nbsp; Did you ever
+hear of anything more provoking&mdash;eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t quarrel with the beggar,&rdquo; I observed
+casually, yet disliking that piece of news strongly.&nbsp; &ldquo;It
+isn&rsquo;t worth while.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I quarrel?&rdquo; cried Jasper.&nbsp; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+want to quarrel.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t want to hurt a single hair of his
+ugly head.&nbsp; My dear fellow, when I think of Freya&rsquo;s twenty-first
+birthday, all the world&rsquo;s my friend, Heemskirk included.&nbsp;
+It&rsquo;s a nasty, spiteful amusement, all the same.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We parted rather hurriedly on the quay, each of us having his own
+pressing business to attend to.&nbsp; I would have been very much cut
+up had I known that this hurried grasp of the hand with &ldquo;So long,
+old boy.&nbsp; Good luck to you!&rdquo; was the last of our partings.</p>
+<p>On his return to the Straits I was away, and he was gone again before
+I got back.&nbsp; He was trying to achieve three trips before Freya&rsquo;s
+twenty-first birthday.&nbsp; At Nelson&rsquo;s Cove I missed him again
+by only a couple of days.&nbsp; Freya and I talked of &ldquo;that lunatic&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;perfect idiot&rdquo; with great delight and infinite appreciation.&nbsp;
+She was very radiant, with a more pronounced gaiety, notwithstanding
+that she had just parted from Jasper.&nbsp; But this was to be their
+last separation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do get aboard as soon as you can, Miss Freya,&rdquo; I entreated.</p>
+<p>She looked me straight in the face, her colour a little heightened
+and with a sort of solemn ardour&mdash;if there was a little catch in
+her voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The very next day.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Ah, yes!&nbsp; The very next day after her twenty-first birthday.&nbsp;
+I was pleased at this hint of deep feeling.&nbsp; It was as if she had
+grown impatient at last of the self-imposed delay.&nbsp; I supposed
+that Jasper&rsquo;s recent visit had told heavily.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; I said approvingly.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+shall be much easier in my mind when I know you have taken charge of
+that lunatic.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you lose a minute.&nbsp; He, of course,
+will be on time&mdash;unless heavens fall.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; Unless&mdash;&rdquo; she repeated in a thoughtful
+whisper, raising her eyes to the evening sky without a speck of cloud
+anywhere.&nbsp; Silent for a time, we let our eyes wander over the waters
+below, looking mysteriously still in the twilight, as if trustfully
+composed for a long, long dream in the warm, tropical night.&nbsp; And
+the peace all round us seemed without limits and without end.</p>
+<p>And then we began again to talk Jasper over in our usual strain.&nbsp;
+We agreed that he was too reckless in many ways.&nbsp; Luckily, the
+brig was equal to the situation.&nbsp; Nothing apparently was too much
+for her.&nbsp; A perfect darling of a ship, said Miss Freya.&nbsp; She
+and her father had spent an afternoon on board.&nbsp; Jasper had given
+them some tea.&nbsp; Papa was grumpy. . . . I had a vision of old Nelson
+under the brig&rsquo;s snowy awnings, nursing his unassuming vexation,
+and fanning himself with his hat.&nbsp; A comedy father. . . . As a
+new instance of Jasper&rsquo;s lunacy, I was told that he was distressed
+at his inability to have solid silver handles fitted to all the cabin
+doors.&nbsp; &ldquo;As if I would have let him!&rdquo; commented Miss
+Freya, with amused indignation.&nbsp; Incidentally, I learned also that
+Schultz, the nautical kleptomaniac with the pathetic voice, was still
+hanging on to his job, with Miss Freya&rsquo;s approval.&nbsp; Jasper
+had confided to the lady of his heart his purpose of straightening out
+the fellow&rsquo;s psychology.&nbsp; Yes, indeed.&nbsp; All the world
+was his friend because it breathed the same air with Freya.</p>
+<p>Somehow or other, I brought Heemskirk&rsquo;s name into conversation,
+and, to my great surprise, startled Miss Freya.&nbsp; Her eyes expressed
+something like distress, while she bit her lip as if to contain an explosion
+of laughter.&nbsp; Oh!&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; Heemskirk was at the bungalow
+at the same time with Jasper, but he arrived the day after.&nbsp; He
+left the same day as the brig, but a few hours later.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What a nuisance he must have been to you two,&rdquo; I said
+feelingly.</p>
+<p>Her eyes flashed at me a sort of frightened merriment, and suddenly
+she exploded into a clear burst of laughter.&nbsp; &ldquo;Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I echoed it heartily, but not with the game charming tone: &ldquo;Ha,
+ha, ha! . . . Isn&rsquo;t he grotesque?&nbsp; Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And the ludicrousness of old Nelson&rsquo;s inanely fierce round eyes
+in association with his conciliatory manner to the lieutenant presenting
+itself to my mind brought on another fit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He looks,&rdquo; I spluttered, &ldquo;he looks&mdash;Ha, ha,
+ha!&mdash;amongst you three . . . like an unhappy black-beetle.&nbsp;
+Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She gave out another ringing peal, ran off into her own room, and
+slammed the door behind her, leaving me profoundly astounded.&nbsp;
+I stopped laughing at once.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the joke?&rdquo; asked old Nelson&rsquo;s voice,
+half way down the steps.</p>
+<p>He came up, sat down, and blew out his cheeks, looking inexpressibly
+fatuous.&nbsp; But I didn&rsquo;t want to laugh any more.&nbsp; And
+what on earth, I asked myself, have we been laughing at in this uncontrollable
+fashion.&nbsp; I felt suddenly depressed.</p>
+<p>Oh, yes.&nbsp; Freya had started it.&nbsp; The girl&rsquo;s overwrought,
+I thought.&nbsp; And really one couldn&rsquo;t wonder at it.</p>
+<p>I had no answer to old Nelson&rsquo;s question, but he was too aggrieved
+at Jasper&rsquo;s visit to think of anything else.&nbsp; He as good
+as asked me whether I wouldn&rsquo;t undertake to hint to Jasper that
+he was not wanted at the Seven Isles group.&nbsp; I declared that it
+was not necessary.&nbsp; From certain circumstances which had come to
+my knowledge lately, I had reason to think that he would not be much
+troubled by Jasper Allen in the future.</p>
+<p>He emitted an earnest &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; which nearly set me
+laughing again, but he did not brighten up proportionately.&nbsp; It
+seemed Heemskirk had taken special pains to make himself disagreeable.&nbsp;
+The lieutenant had frightened old Nelson very much by expressing a sinister
+wonder at the Government permitting a white man to settle down in that
+part at all.&nbsp; &ldquo;It is against our declared policy,&rdquo;
+he had remarked.&nbsp; He had also charged him with being in reality
+no better than an Englishman.&nbsp; He had even tried to pick a quarrel
+with him for not learning to speak Dutch.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I told him I was too old to learn now,&rdquo; sighed out old
+Nelson (or Nielsen) dismally.&nbsp; &ldquo;He said I ought to have learned
+Dutch long before.&nbsp; I had been making my living in Dutch dependencies.&nbsp;
+It was disgraceful of me not to speak Dutch, he said.&nbsp; He was as
+savage with me as if I had been a Chinaman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was plain he had been viciously badgered.&nbsp; He did not mention
+how many bottles of his best claret he had offered up on the altar of
+conciliation.&nbsp; It must have been a generous libation.&nbsp; But
+old Nelson (or Nielsen) was really hospitable.&nbsp; He didn&rsquo;t
+mind that; and I only regretted that this virtue should be lavished
+on the lieutenant-commander of the <i>Neptun</i>.&nbsp; I longed to
+tell him that in all probability he would be relieved from Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+visitations also.&nbsp; I did not do so only from the fear (absurd,
+I admit) of arousing some sort of suspicion in his mind.&nbsp; As if
+with this guileless comedy father such a thing were possible!</p>
+<p>Strangely enough, the last words on the subject of Heemskirk were
+spoken by Freya, and in that very sense.&nbsp; The lieutenant was turning
+up persistently in old Nelson&rsquo;s conversation at dinner.&nbsp;
+At last I muttered a half audible &ldquo;Damn the lieutenant.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+I could see that the girl was getting exasperated, too.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And he wasn&rsquo;t well at all&mdash;was he, Freya?&rdquo;
+old Nelson went on moaning.&nbsp; &ldquo;Perhaps it was that which made
+him so snappish, hey, Freya?&nbsp; He looked very bad when he left us
+so suddenly.&nbsp; His liver must be in a bad state, too.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, he will end by getting over it,&rdquo; said Freya impatiently.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;And do leave off worrying about him, papa.&nbsp; Very likely
+you won&rsquo;t see much of him for a long time to come.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The look she gave me in exchange for my discreet smile had no hidden
+mirth in it.&nbsp; Her eyes seemed hollowed, her face gone wan in a
+couple of hours.&nbsp; We had been laughing too much.&nbsp; Overwrought!&nbsp;
+Overwrought by the approach of the decisive moment.&nbsp; After all,
+sincere, courageous, and self-reliant as she was, she must have felt
+both the passion and the compunction of her resolve.&nbsp; The very
+strength of love which had carried her up to that point must have put
+her under a great moral strain, in which there might have been a little
+simple remorse, too.&nbsp; For she was honest&mdash;and there, across
+the table, sat poor old Nelson (or Nielsen) staring at her, round-eyed
+and so pathetically comic in his fierce aspect as to touch the most
+lightsome heart.</p>
+<p>He retired early to his room to soothe himself for a night&rsquo;s
+rest by perusing his account-books.&nbsp; We two remained on the verandah
+for another hour or so, but we exchanged only languid phrases on things
+without importance, as though we had been emotionally jaded by our long
+day&rsquo;s talk on the only momentous subject.&nbsp; And yet there
+was something she might have told a friend.&nbsp; But she didn&rsquo;t.&nbsp;
+We parted silently.&nbsp; She distrusted my masculine lack of common
+sense, perhaps. . . . O!&nbsp; Freya!</p>
+<p>Going down the precipitous path to the landing-stage, I was confronted
+in the shadows of boulders and bushes by a draped feminine figure whose
+appearance startled me at first.&nbsp; It glided into my way suddenly
+from behind a piece of rock.&nbsp; But in a moment it occurred to me
+that it could be no one else but Freya&rsquo;s maid, a half-caste Malacca
+Portuguese.&nbsp; One caught fleeting glimpses of her olive face and
+dazzling white teeth about the house.&nbsp; I had observed her at times
+from a distance, as she sat within call under the shade of some fruit
+trees, brushing and plaiting her long raven locks.&nbsp; It seemed to
+be the principal occupation of her leisure hours.&nbsp; We had often
+exchanged nods and smiles&mdash;and a few words, too.&nbsp; She was
+a pretty creature.&nbsp; And once I had watched her approvingly make
+funny and expressive grimaces behind Heemskirk&rsquo;s back.&nbsp; I
+understood (from Jasper) that she was in the secret, like a comedy camerista.&nbsp;
+She was to accompany Freya on her irregular way to matrimony and &ldquo;ever
+after&rdquo; happiness.&nbsp; Why should she be roaming by night near
+the cove&mdash;unless on some love affair of her own&mdash;I asked myself.&nbsp;
+But there was nobody suitable within the Seven Isles group, as far as
+I knew.&nbsp; It flashed upon me that it was myself she had been lying
+in wait for.</p>
+<p>She hesitated, muffled from head to foot, shadowy and bashful.&nbsp;
+I advanced another pace, and how I felt is nobody&rsquo;s business.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I asked, very low.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nobody knows I am here,&rdquo; she whispered.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And nobody can see us,&rdquo; I whispered back.</p>
+<p>The murmur of words &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been so frightened&rdquo; reached
+me.&nbsp; Just then forty feet above our head, from the yet lighted
+verandah, unexpected and startling, Freya&rsquo;s voice rang out in
+a clear, imperious call:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Antonia!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>With a stifled exclamation, the hesitating girl vanished out of the
+path.&nbsp; A bush near by rustled; then silence.&nbsp; I waited wondering.&nbsp;
+The lights on the verandah went out.&nbsp; I waited a while longer then
+continued down the path to my boat, wondering more than ever.</p>
+<p>I remember the occurrences of that visit especially, because this
+was the last time I saw the Nelson bungalow.&nbsp; On arriving at the
+Straits I found cable messages which made it necessary for me to throw
+up my employment at a moment&rsquo;s notice and go home at once.&nbsp;
+I had a desperate scramble to catch the mailboat which was due to leave
+next day, but I found time to write two short notes, one to Freya, the
+other to Jasper.&nbsp; Later on I wrote at length, this time to Allen
+alone.&nbsp; I got no answer.&nbsp; I hunted up then his brother, or,
+rather, half-brother, a solicitor in the city, a sallow, calm, little
+man who looked at me over his spectacles thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>Jasper was the only child of his father&rsquo;s second marriage,
+a transaction which had failed to commend itself to the first, grown-up
+family.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t heard for ages,&rdquo; I repeated, with
+secret annoyance.&nbsp; &ldquo;May I ask what &lsquo;for ages&rsquo;
+means in this connection?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It means that I don&rsquo;t care whether I ever hear from
+him or not,&rdquo; retorted the little man of law, turning nasty suddenly.</p>
+<p>I could not blame Jasper for not wasting his time in correspondence
+with such an outrageous relative.&nbsp; But why didn&rsquo;t he write
+to me&mdash;a decent sort of friend, after all; enough of a friend to
+find for his silence the excuse of forgetfulness natural to a state
+of transcendental bliss?&nbsp; I waited indulgently, but nothing ever
+came.&nbsp; And the East seemed to drop out of my life without an echo,
+like a stone falling into a well of prodigious depth.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I suppose praiseworthy motives are a sufficient justification almost
+for anything.&nbsp; What could be more commendable in the abstract than
+a girl&rsquo;s determination that &ldquo;poor papa&rdquo; should not
+be worried, and her anxiety that the man of her choice should be kept
+by any means from every occasion of doing something rash, something
+which might endanger the whole scheme of their happiness?</p>
+<p>Nothing could be more tender and more prudent.&nbsp; We must also
+remember the girl&rsquo;s self-reliant temperament, and the general
+unwillingness of women&mdash;I mean women of sense&mdash;to make a fuss
+over matters of that sort.</p>
+<p>As has been said already, Heemskirk turned up some time after Jasper&rsquo;s
+arrival at Nelson&rsquo;s Cove.&nbsp; The sight of the brig lying right
+under the bungalow was very offensive to him.&nbsp; He did not fly ashore
+before his anchor touched the ground as Jasper used to do.&nbsp; On
+the contrary, he hung about his quarter-deck mumbling to himself; and
+when he ordered his boat to be manned it was in an angry voice.&nbsp;
+Freya&rsquo;s existence, which lifted Jasper out of himself into a blissful
+elation, was for Heemskirk a cause of secret torment, of hours of exasperated
+brooding.</p>
+<p>While passing the brig he hailed her harshly and asked if the master
+was on board.&nbsp; Schultz, smart and neat in a spotless white suit,
+leaned over the taffrail, finding the question somewhat amusing.&nbsp;
+He looked humorously down into Heemskirk&rsquo;s boat, and answered,
+in the most amiable modulations of his beautiful voice: &ldquo;Captain
+Allen is up at the house, sir.&rdquo;&nbsp; But his expression changed
+suddenly at the savage growl: &ldquo;What the devil are you grinning
+at?&rdquo; which acknowledged that information.</p>
+<p>He watched Heemskirk land and, instead of going to the house, stride
+away by another path into the grounds.</p>
+<p>The desire-tormented Dutchman found old Nelson (or Nielsen) at his
+drying-sheds, very busy superintending the manipulation of his tobacco
+crop, which, though small, was of excellent quality, and enjoying himself
+thoroughly.&nbsp; But Heemskirk soon put a stop to this simple happiness.&nbsp;
+He sat down by the old chap, and by the sort of talk which he knew was
+best calculated for the purpose, reduced him before long to a state
+of concealed and perspiring nervousness.&nbsp; It was a horrid talk
+of &ldquo;authorities,&rdquo; and old Nelson tried to defend himself.&nbsp;
+If he dealt with English traders it was because he had to dispose of
+his produce somehow.&nbsp; He was as conciliatory as he knew how to
+be, and this very thing seemed to excite Heemskirk, who had worked himself
+up into a heavily breathing state of passion.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And the worst of them all is that Allen,&rdquo; he growled.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Your particular friend&mdash;eh?&nbsp; You have let in a lot
+of these Englishmen into this part.&nbsp; You ought never to have been
+allowed to settle here.&nbsp; Never.&nbsp; What&rsquo;s he doing here
+now?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Old Nelson (or Nielsen), becoming very agitated, declared that Jasper
+Allen was no particular friend of his.&nbsp; No friend at all&mdash;at
+all.&nbsp; He had bought three tons of rice from him to feed his workpeople
+on.&nbsp; What sort of evidence of friendship was that?&nbsp; Heemskirk
+burst out at last with the thought that had been gnawing at his vitals:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; Sell three tons of rice and flirt three days with
+that girl of yours.&nbsp; I am speaking to you as a friend, Nielsen.&nbsp;
+This won&rsquo;t do.&nbsp; You are only on sufferance here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Old Nelson was taken aback at first, but recovered pretty quickly.&nbsp;
+Won&rsquo;t do!&nbsp; Certainly!&nbsp; Of course, it wouldn&rsquo;t
+do!&nbsp; The last man in the world.&nbsp; But his girl didn&rsquo;t
+care for the fellow, and was too sensible to fall in love with any one.&nbsp;
+He was very earnest in impressing on Heemskirk his own feeling of absolute
+security.&nbsp; And the lieutenant, casting doubting glances sideways,
+was yet willing to believe him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Much you know about it,&rdquo; he grunted nevertheless.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I do know,&rdquo; insisted old Nelson, with the greater
+desperation because he wanted to resist the doubts arising in his own
+mind.&nbsp; &ldquo;My own daughter!&nbsp; In my own house, and I not
+to know!&nbsp; Come!&nbsp; It would be a good joke, lieutenant.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;They seem to be carrying on considerably,&rdquo; remarked
+Heemskirk moodily.&nbsp; &ldquo;I suppose they are together now,&rdquo;
+he added, feeling a pang which changed what he meant for a mocking smile
+into a strange grimace.</p>
+<p>The harassed Nelson shook his hand at him.&nbsp; He was at bottom
+shocked at this insistence, and was even beginning to feel annoyed at
+the absurdity of it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Pooh!&nbsp; Pooh!&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll tell you what, lieutenant:
+you go to the house and have a drop of gin-and-bitters before dinner.&nbsp;
+Ask for Freya.&nbsp; I must see the last of this tobacco put away for
+the night, but I&rsquo;ll be along presently.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Heemskirk was not insensible to this suggestion.&nbsp; It answered
+to his secret longing, which was not a longing for drink, however.&nbsp;
+Old Nelson shouted solicitously after his broad back a recommendation
+to make himself comfortable, and that there was a box of cheroots on
+the verandah.</p>
+<p>It was the west verandah that old Nelson meant, the one which was
+the living-room of the house, and had split-rattan screens of the very
+finest quality.&nbsp; The east verandah, sacred to his own privacy,
+puffing out of cheeks, and other signs of perplexed thinking, was fitted
+with stout blinds of sailcloth.&nbsp; The north verandah was not a verandah
+at all, really.&nbsp; It was more like a long balcony.&nbsp; It did
+not communicate with the other two, and could only be approached by
+a passage inside the house.&nbsp; Thus it had a privacy which made it
+a convenient place for a maiden&rsquo;s meditations without words, and
+also for the discourses, apparently without sense, which, passing between
+a young man and a maid, become pregnant with a diversity of transcendental
+meanings.</p>
+<p>This north verandah was embowered with climbing plants.&nbsp; Freya,
+whose room opened out on it, had furnished it as a sort of boudoir for
+herself, with a few cane chairs and a sofa of the same kind.&nbsp; On
+this sofa she and Jasper sat as close together as is possible in this
+imperfect world where neither can a body be in two places at once nor
+yet two bodies can be in one place at the same time.&nbsp; They had
+been sitting together all the afternoon, and I won&rsquo;t say that
+their talk had been without sense.&nbsp; Loving him with a little judicious
+anxiety lest in his elation he should break his heart over some mishap,
+Freya naturally would talk to him soberly.&nbsp; He, nervous and brusque
+when away from her, appeared always as if overcome by her visibility,
+by the great wonder of being palpably loved.&nbsp; An old man&rsquo;s
+child, having lost his mother early, thrown out to sea out of the way
+while very young, he had not much experience of tenderness of any kind.</p>
+<p>In this private, foliage-embowered verandah, and at this late hour
+of the afternoon, he bent down a little, and, possessing himself of
+Freya&rsquo;s hands, was kissing them one after another, while she smiled
+and looked down at his head with the eyes of approving compassion.&nbsp;
+At that same moment Heemskirk was approaching the house from the north.</p>
+<p>Antonia was on the watch on that side.&nbsp; But she did not keep
+a very good watch.&nbsp; The sun was setting; she knew that her young
+mistress and the captain of the <i>Bonito</i> were about to separate.&nbsp;
+She was walking to and fro in the dusky grove with a flower in her hair,
+and singing softly to herself, when suddenly, within a foot of her,
+the lieutenant appeared from behind a tree.&nbsp; She bounded aside
+like a startled fawn, but Heemskirk, with a lucid comprehension of what
+she was there for, pounced upon her, and, catching her arm, clapped
+his other thick hand over her mouth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If you try to make a noise I&rsquo;ll twist your neck!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This ferocious figure of speech terrified the girl sufficiently.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk had seen plainly enough on the verandah Freya&rsquo;s golden
+head with another head very close to it.&nbsp; He dragged the unresisting
+maid with him by a circuitous way into the compound, where he dismissed
+her with a vicious push in the direction of the cluster of bamboo huts
+for the servants.</p>
+<p>She was very much like the faithful camerista of Italian comedy,
+but in her terror she bolted away without a sound from that thick, short,
+black-eyed man with a cruel grip of fingers like a vice.&nbsp; Quaking
+all over at a distance, extremely scared and half inclined to laugh,
+she saw him enter the house at the back.</p>
+<p>The interior of the bungalow was divided by two passages crossing
+each other in the middle.&nbsp; At that point Heemskirk, by turning
+his head slightly to the left as he passed, secured the evidence of
+&ldquo;carrying on&rdquo; so irreconcilable with old Nelson&rsquo;s
+assurances that it made him stagger, with a rush of blood to his head.&nbsp;
+Two white figures, distinct against the light, stood in an unmistakable
+attitude.&nbsp; Freya&rsquo;s arms were round Jasper&rsquo;s neck.&nbsp;
+Their faces were characteristically superimposed on each other, and
+Heemskirk went on, his throat choked with a sudden rising of curses,
+till on the west verandah he stumbled blindly against a chair and then
+dropped into another as though his legs had been swept from under him.&nbsp;
+He had indulged too long in the habit of appropriating Freya to himself
+in his thoughts.&nbsp; &ldquo;Is that how you entertain your visitors&mdash;you
+. . &rdquo; he thought, so outraged that he could not find a sufficiently
+degrading epithet.</p>
+<p>Freya struggled a little and threw her head back.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Somebody has come in,&rdquo; she whispered.&nbsp; Jasper,
+holding her clasped closely to his breast, and looking down into her
+face, suggested casually:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your father.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya tried to disengage herself, but she had not the heart absolutely
+to push him away with her hands.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s Heemskirk,&rdquo; she breathed out at
+him.</p>
+<p>He, plunging into her eyes in a quiet rapture, was provoked to a
+vague smile by the sound of the name.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The ass is always knocking down my beacons outside the river,&rdquo;
+he murmured.&nbsp; He attached no other meaning to Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+existence; but Freya was asking herself whether the lieutenant had seen
+them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Let me go, kid,&rdquo; she ordered in a peremptory whisper.&nbsp;
+Jasper obeyed, and, stepping back at once, continued his contemplation
+of her face under another angle.&nbsp; &ldquo;I must go and see,&rdquo;
+she said to herself anxiously.</p>
+<p>She instructed him hurriedly to wait a moment after she was gone
+and then to slip on to the back verandah and get a quiet smoke before
+he showed himself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t stay late this evening,&rdquo; was her last recommendation
+before she left him.</p>
+<p>Then Freya came out on the west verandah with her light, rapid step.&nbsp;
+While going through the doorway she managed to shake down the folds
+of the looped-up curtains at the end of the passage so as to cover Jasper&rsquo;s
+retreat from the bower.&nbsp; Directly she appeared Heemskirk jumped
+up as if to fly at her.&nbsp; She paused and he made her an exaggerated
+low bow.</p>
+<p>It irritated Freya.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; It&rsquo;s you, Mr. Heemskirk.&nbsp; How do you
+do?&rdquo;&nbsp; She spoke in her usual tone.&nbsp; Her face was not
+plainly visible to him in the dusk of the deep verandah.&nbsp; He dared
+not trust himself to speak, his rage at what he had seen was so great.&nbsp;
+And when she added with serenity: &ldquo;Papa will be coming in before
+long,&rdquo; he called her horrid names silently, to himself, before
+he spoke with contorted lips.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have seen your father already.&nbsp; We had a talk in the
+sheds.&nbsp; He told me some very interesting things.&nbsp; Oh, very&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya sat down.&nbsp; She thought: &ldquo;He has seen us, for certain.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+She was not ashamed.&nbsp; What she was afraid of was some foolish or
+awkward complication.&nbsp; But she could not conceive how much her
+person had been appropriated by Heemskirk (in his thoughts).&nbsp; She
+tried to be conversational.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are coming now from Palembang, I suppose?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Eh?&nbsp; What?&nbsp; Oh, yes!&nbsp; I come from Palembang.&nbsp;
+Ha, ha, ha!&nbsp; You know what your father said?&nbsp; He said he was
+afraid you were having a very dull time of it here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I suppose you are going to cruise in the Moluccas,&rdquo;
+continued Freya, who wanted to impart some useful information to Jasper
+if possible.&nbsp; At the same time she was always glad to know that
+those two men were a few hundred miles apart when not under her eye.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk growled angrily.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; Moluccas,&rdquo; glaring in the direction of her
+shadowy figure.&nbsp; &ldquo;Your father thinks it&rsquo;s very quiet
+for you here.&nbsp; I tell you what, Miss Freya.&nbsp; There isn&rsquo;t
+such a quiet spot on earth that a woman can&rsquo;t find an opportunity
+of making a fool of somebody.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya thought: &ldquo;I mustn&rsquo;t let him provoke me.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Presently the Tamil boy, who was Nelson&rsquo;s head servant, came in
+with the lights.&nbsp; She addressed him at once with voluble directions
+where to put the lamps, told him to bring the tray with the gin and
+bitters, and to send Antonia into the house.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will have to leave you to yourself, Mr. Heemskirk, for a
+while,&rdquo; she said.</p>
+<p>And she went to her room to put on another frock.&nbsp; She made
+a quick change of it because she wished to be on the verandah before
+her father and the lieutenant met again.&nbsp; She relied on herself
+to regulate that evening&rsquo;s intercourse between these two.&nbsp;
+But Antonia, still scared and hysterical, exhibited a bruise on her
+arm which roused Freya&rsquo;s indignation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He jumped on me out of the bush like a tiger,&rdquo; said
+the girl, laughing nervously with frightened eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The brute!&rdquo; thought Freya.&nbsp; &ldquo;He meant to
+spy on us, then.&rdquo;&nbsp; She was enraged, but the recollection
+of the thick Dutchman in white trousers wide at the hips and narrow
+at the ankles, with his shoulder-straps and black bullet head, glaring
+at her in the light of the lamps, was so repulsively comical that she
+could not help a smiling grimace.&nbsp; Then she became anxious.&nbsp;
+The absurdities of three men were forcing this anxiety upon her: Jasper&rsquo;s
+impetuosity, her father&rsquo;s fears, Heemskirk&rsquo;s infatuation.&nbsp;
+She was very tender to the first two, and she made up her mind to display
+all her feminine diplomacy.&nbsp; All this, she said to herself, will
+be over and done with before very long now.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk on the verandah, lolling in a chair, his legs extended
+and his white cap reposing on his stomach, was lashing himself into
+a fury of an atrocious character altogether incomprehensible to a girl
+like Freya.&nbsp; His chin was resting on his chest, his eyes gazed
+stonily at his shoes.&nbsp; Freya examined him from behind the curtain.&nbsp;
+He didn&rsquo;t stir.&nbsp; He was ridiculous.&nbsp; But this absolute
+stillness was impressive.&nbsp; She stole back along the passage to
+the east verandah, where Jasper was sitting quietly in the dark, doing
+what he was told, like a good boy.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Psst,&rdquo; she hissed.&nbsp; He was by her side in a moment.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&nbsp; What is it?&rdquo; he murmured.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s that beetle,&rdquo; she whispered uneasily.&nbsp;
+Under the impression of Heemskirk&rsquo;s sinister immobility she had
+half a mind to let Jasper know that they had been seen.&nbsp; But she
+was by no means certain that Heemskirk would tell her father&mdash;and
+at any rate not that evening.&nbsp; She concluded rapidly that the safest
+thing would be to get Jasper out of the way as soon as possible.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What has he been doing?&rdquo; asked Jasper in a calm undertone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, nothing!&nbsp; Nothing.&nbsp; He sits there looking cross.&nbsp;
+But you know how he&rsquo;s always worrying papa.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Your father&rsquo;s quite unreasonable,&rdquo; pronounced
+Jasper judicially.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; she said in a doubtful tone.&nbsp;
+Something of old Nelson&rsquo;s dread of the authorities had rubbed
+off on the girl since she had to live with it day after day.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+don&rsquo;t know.&nbsp; Papa&rsquo;s afraid of being reduced to beggary,
+as he says, in his old days.&nbsp; Look here, kid, you had better clear
+out to-morrow, first thing.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper had hoped for another afternoon with Freya, an afternoon of
+quiet felicity with the girl by his side and his eyes on his brig, anticipating
+a blissful future.&nbsp; His silence was eloquent with disappointment,
+and Freya understood it very well.&nbsp; She, too, was disappointed.&nbsp;
+But it was her business to be sensible.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We shan&rsquo;t have a moment to ourselves with that beetle
+creeping round the house,&rdquo; she argued in a low, hurried voice.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;So what&rsquo;s the good of your staying?&nbsp; And he won&rsquo;t
+go while the brig&rsquo;s here.&nbsp; You know he won&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He ought to be reported for loitering,&rdquo; murmured Jasper
+with a vexed little laugh.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mind you get under way at daylight,&rdquo; recommended Freya
+under her breath.</p>
+<p>He detained her after the manner of lovers.&nbsp; She expostulated
+without struggling because it was hard for her to repulse him.&nbsp;
+He whispered into her ear while he put his arms round her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Next time we two meet, next time I hold you like this, it
+shall be on board.&nbsp; You and I, in the brig&mdash;all the world,
+all the life&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he flashed out: &ldquo;I wonder
+I can wait!&nbsp; I feel as if I must carry you off now, at once.&nbsp;
+I could run with you in my hands&mdash;down the path&mdash;without stumbling&mdash;without
+touching the earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She was still.&nbsp; She listened to the passion in his voice.&nbsp;
+She was saying to herself that if she were to whisper the faintest yes,
+if she were but to sigh lightly her consent, he would do it.&nbsp; He
+was capable of doing it&mdash;without touching the earth.&nbsp; She
+closed her eyes and smiled in the dark, abandoning herself in a delightful
+giddiness, for an instant, to his encircling arm.&nbsp; But before he
+could be tempted to tighten his grasp she was out of it, a foot away
+from him and in full possession of herself.</p>
+<p>That was the steady Freya.&nbsp; She was touched by the deep sigh
+which floated up to her from the white figure of Jasper, who did not
+stir.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are a mad kid,&rdquo; she said tremulously.&nbsp; Then
+with a change of tone: &ldquo;No one could carry me off.&nbsp; Not even
+you.&nbsp; I am not the sort of girl that gets carried off.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+His white form seemed to shrink a little before the force of that assertion
+and she relented.&nbsp; &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it enough for you to know
+that you have&mdash;that you have carried me away?&rdquo; she added
+in a tender tone.</p>
+<p>He murmured an endearing word, and she continued:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve promised you&mdash;I&rsquo;ve said I would come&mdash;and
+I shall come of my own free will.&nbsp; You shall wait for me on board.&nbsp;
+I shall get up the side&mdash;by myself, and walk up to you on the deck
+and say: &lsquo;Here I am, kid.&rsquo;&nbsp; And then&mdash;and then
+I shall be carried off.&nbsp; But it will be no man who will carry me
+off&mdash;it will be the brig, your brig&mdash;our brig. . . . I love
+the beauty!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She heard an inarticulate sound, something like a moan wrung out
+by pain or delight, and glided away.&nbsp; There was that other man
+on the other verandah, that dark, surly Dutchman who could make trouble
+between Jasper and her father, bring about a quarrel, ugly words, and
+perhaps a physical collision.&nbsp; What a horrible situation!&nbsp;
+But, even putting aside that awful extremity, she shrank from having
+to live for some three months with a wretched, tormented, angry, distracted,
+absurd man.&nbsp; And when the day came, the day and the hour, what
+should she do if her father tried to detain her by main force&mdash;as
+was, after all, possible?&nbsp; Could she actually struggle with him
+hand to hand?&nbsp; But it was of lamentations and entreaties that she
+was really afraid.&nbsp; Could she withstand them?&nbsp; What an odious,
+cruel, ridiculous position would that be!</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But it won&rsquo;t be.&nbsp; He&rsquo;ll say nothing,&rdquo;
+she thought as she came out quickly on the west verandah, and, seeing
+that Heemskirk did not move, sat down on a chair near the doorway and
+kept her eyes on him.&nbsp; The outraged lieutenant had not changed
+his attitude; only his cap had fallen off his stomach and was lying
+on the floor.&nbsp; His thick black eyebrows were knitted by a frown,
+while he looked at her out of the corners of his eyes.&nbsp; And their
+sideways glance in conjunction with the hooked nose, the whole bulky,
+ungainly, sprawling person, struck Freya as so comically moody that,
+inwardly discomposed as she was, she could not help smiling.&nbsp; She
+did her best to give that smile a conciliatory character.&nbsp; She
+did not want to provoke Heemskirk needlessly.</p>
+<p>And the lieutenant, perceiving that smile, was mollified.&nbsp; It
+never entered his head that his outward appearance, a naval officer,
+in uniform, could appear ridiculous to that girl of no position&mdash;the
+daughter of old Nielsen.&nbsp; The recollection of her arms round Jasper&rsquo;s
+neck still irritated and excited him.&nbsp; &ldquo;The hussy!&rdquo;
+he thought.&nbsp; &ldquo;Smiling&mdash;eh?&nbsp; That&rsquo;s how you
+are amusing yourself.&nbsp; Fooling your father finely, aren&rsquo;t
+you?&nbsp; You have a taste for that sort of fun&mdash;have you?&nbsp;
+Well, we shall see&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp; He did not alter his position,
+but on his pursed-up lips there also appeared a smile of surly and ill-omened
+amusement, while his eyes returned to the contemplation of his boots.</p>
+<p>Freya felt hot with indignation.&nbsp; She sat radiantly fair in
+the lamplight, her strong, well-shaped hands lying one on top of the
+other in her lap. . . &ldquo;Odious creature,&rdquo; she thought.&nbsp;
+Her face coloured with sudden anger.&nbsp; &ldquo;You have scared my
+maid out of her senses,&rdquo; she said aloud.&nbsp; &ldquo;What possessed
+you?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He was thinking so deeply of her that the sound of her voice, pronouncing
+these unexpected words, startled him extremely.&nbsp; He jerked up his
+head and looked so bewildered that Freya insisted impatiently:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I mean Antonia.&nbsp; You have bruised her arm.&nbsp; What
+did you do it for?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Do you want to quarrel with me?&rdquo; he asked thickly, with
+a sort of amazement.&nbsp; He blinked like an owl.&nbsp; He was funny.&nbsp;
+Freya, like all women, had a keen sense of the ridiculous in outward
+appearance.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, no; I don&rsquo;t think I do.&rdquo;&nbsp; She could
+not help herself.&nbsp; She laughed outright, a clear, nervous laugh
+in which Heemskirk joined suddenly with a harsh &ldquo;Ha, ha, ha!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Voices and footsteps were heard in the passage, and Jasper, with
+old Nelson, came out.&nbsp; Old Nelson looked at his daughter approvingly,
+for he liked the lieutenant to be kept in good humour.&nbsp; And he
+also joined sympathetically in the laugh.&nbsp; &ldquo;Now, lieutenant,
+we shall have some dinner,&rdquo; he said, rubbing his hands cheerily.&nbsp;
+Jasper had gone straight to the balustrade.&nbsp; The sky was full of
+stars, and in the blue velvety night the cove below had a denser blackness,
+in which the riding-lights of the brig and of the gunboat glimmered
+redly, like suspended sparks.&nbsp; &ldquo;Next time this riding-light
+glimmers down there, I&rsquo;ll be waiting for her on the quarter-deck
+to come and say &lsquo;Here I am,&rsquo;&rdquo; Jasper thought; and
+his heart seemed to grow bigger in his chest, dilated by an oppressive
+happiness that nearly wrung out a cry from him.&nbsp; There was no wind.&nbsp;
+Not a leaf below him stirred, and even the sea was but a still uncomplaining
+shadow.&nbsp; Far away on the unclouded sky the pale lightning, the
+heat-lightning of the tropics, played tremulously amongst the low stars
+in short, faint, mysteriously consecutive flashes, like incomprehensible
+signals from some distant planet.</p>
+<p>The dinner passed off quietly.&nbsp; Freya sat facing her father,
+calm but pale.&nbsp; Heemskirk affected to talk only to old Nelson.&nbsp;
+Jasper&rsquo;s behaviour was exemplary.&nbsp; He kept his eyes under
+control, basking in the sense of Freya&rsquo;s nearness, as people bask
+in the sun without looking up to heaven.&nbsp; And very soon after dinner
+was over, mindful of his instructions, he declared that it was time
+for him to go on board his ship.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk did not look up.&nbsp; Ensconced in the rocking-chair,
+and puffing at a cheroot, he had the air of meditating surlily over
+some odious outbreak.&nbsp; So at least it seemed to Freya.&nbsp; Old
+Nelson said at once: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll stroll down with you.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He had begun a professional conversation about the dangers of the New
+Guinea coast, and wanted to relate to Jasper some experience of his
+own &ldquo;over there.&rdquo;&nbsp; Jasper was such a good listener!&nbsp;
+Freya made as if to accompany them, but her father frowned, shook his
+head, and nodded significantly towards the immovable Heemskirk blotting
+out smoke with half-closed eyes and protruded lips.&nbsp; The lieutenant
+must not be left alone.&nbsp; Take offence, perhaps.</p>
+<p>Freya obeyed these signs.&nbsp; &ldquo;Perhaps it is better for me
+to stay,&rdquo; she thought.&nbsp; Women are not generally prone to
+review their own conduct, still less to condemn it.&nbsp; The embarrassing
+masculine absurdities are in the main responsible for its ethics.&nbsp;
+But, looking at Heemskirk, Freya felt regret and even remorse.&nbsp;
+His thick bulk in repose suggested the idea of repletion, but as a matter
+of fact he had eaten very little.&nbsp; He had drunk a great deal, however.&nbsp;
+The fleshy lobes of his unpleasant big ears with deeply folded rims
+were crimson.&nbsp; They quite flamed in the neighbourhood of the flat,
+sallow cheeks.&nbsp; For a considerable time he did not raise his heavy
+brown eyelids.&nbsp; To be at the mercy of such a creature was humiliating;
+and Freya, who always ended by being frank with herself, thought regretfully:
+&ldquo;If only I had been open with papa from the first!&nbsp; But then
+what an impossible life he would have led me!&rdquo;&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp;
+Men were absurd in many ways; lovably like Jasper, impracticably like
+her father, odiously like that grotesquely supine creature in the chair.&nbsp;
+Was it possible to talk him over?&nbsp; Perhaps it was not necessary?&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Oh!&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t talk to him,&rdquo; she thought.&nbsp;
+And when Heemskirk, still without looking at her, began resolutely to
+crush his half-smoked cheroot on the coffee-tray, she took alarm, glided
+towards the piano, opened it in tremendous haste, and struck the keys
+before she sat down.</p>
+<p>In an instant the verandah, the whole carpetless wooden bungalow
+raised on piles, became filled with an uproarious, confused resonance.&nbsp;
+But through it all she heard, she felt on the floor the heavy, prowling
+footsteps of the lieutenant moving to and fro at her back.&nbsp; He
+was not exactly drunk, but he was sufficiently primed to make the suggestions
+of his excited imagination seem perfectly feasible and even clever;
+beautifully, unscrupulously clever.&nbsp; Freya, aware that he had stopped
+just behind her, went on playing without turning her head.&nbsp; She
+played with spirit, brilliantly, a fierce piece of music, but when his
+voice reached her she went cold all over.&nbsp; It was the voice, not
+the words.&nbsp; The insolent familiarity of tone dismayed her to such
+an extent that she could not understand at first what he was saying.&nbsp;
+His utterance was thick, too.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I suspected. . . . Of course I suspected something of your
+little goings on.&nbsp; I am not a child.&nbsp; But from suspecting
+to seeing&mdash;seeing, you understand&mdash;there&rsquo;s an enormous
+difference.&nbsp; That sort of thing. . . . Come!&nbsp; One isn&rsquo;t
+made of stone.&nbsp; And when a man has been worried by a girl as I
+have been worried by you, Miss Freya&mdash;sleeping and waking, then,
+of course. . . . But I am a man of the world.&nbsp; It must be dull
+for you here . . . I say, won&rsquo;t you leave off this confounded
+playing . . .?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>This last was the only sentence really which she made out.&nbsp;
+She shook her head negatively, and in desperation put on the loud pedal,
+but she could not make the sound of the piano cover his raised voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Only, I am surprised that you should. . . . An English trading
+skipper, a common fellow.&nbsp; Low, cheeky lot, infesting these islands.&nbsp;
+I would make short work of such trash!&nbsp; While you have here a good
+friend, a gentleman ready to worship at your feet&mdash;your pretty
+feet&mdash;an officer, a man of family.&nbsp; Strange, isn&rsquo;t it?&nbsp;
+But what of that!&nbsp; You are fit for a prince.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya did not turn her head.&nbsp; Her face went stiff with horror
+and indignation.&nbsp; This adventure was altogether beyond her conception
+of what was possible.&nbsp; It was not in her character to jump up and
+run away.&nbsp; It seemed to her, too, that if she did move there was
+no saying what might happen.&nbsp; Presently her father would be back,
+and then the other would have to leave off.&nbsp; It was best to ignore&mdash;to
+ignore.&nbsp; She went on playing loudly and correctly, as though she
+were alone, as if Heemskirk did not exist.&nbsp; That proceeding irritated
+him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Come!&nbsp; You may deceive your father,&rdquo; he bawled
+angrily, &ldquo;but I am not to be made a fool of!&nbsp; Stop this infernal
+noise . . . Freya . . . Hey!&nbsp; You Scandinavian Goddess of Love!&nbsp;
+Stop!&nbsp; Do you hear?&nbsp; That&rsquo;s what you are&mdash;of love.&nbsp;
+But the heathen gods are only devils in disguise, and that&rsquo;s what
+you are, too&mdash;a deep little devil.&nbsp; Stop it, I say, or I will
+lift you off that stool!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Standing behind her, he devoured her with his eyes, from the golden
+crown of her rigidly motionless head to the heels of her shoes, the
+line of her shapely shoulders, the curves of her fine figure swaying
+a little before the keyboard.&nbsp; She had on a light dress; the sleeves
+stopped short at the elbows in an edging of lace.&nbsp; A satin ribbon
+encircled her waist.&nbsp; In an access of irresistible, reckless hopefulness
+he clapped both his hands on that waist&mdash;and then the irritating
+music stopped at last.&nbsp; But, quick as she was in springing away
+from the contact (the round music-stool going over with a crash), Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+lips, aiming at her neck, landed a hungry, smacking kiss just under
+her ear.&nbsp; A deep silence reigned for a time.&nbsp; And then he
+laughed rather feebly.</p>
+<p>He was disconcerted somewhat by her white, still face, the big light
+violet eyes resting on him stonily.&nbsp; She had not uttered a sound.&nbsp;
+She faced him, steadying herself on the corner of the piano with one
+extended hand.&nbsp; The other went on rubbing with mechanical persistency
+the place his lips had touched.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the trouble?&rdquo; he said, offended.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Startled you?&nbsp; Look here: don&rsquo;t let us have any of
+that nonsense.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t mean to say a kiss frightens you
+so much as all that. . . . I know better. . . . I don&rsquo;t mean to
+be left out in the cold.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He had been gazing into her face with such strained intentness that
+he could no longer see it distinctly.&nbsp; Everything round him was
+rather misty.&nbsp; He forgot the overturned stool, caught his foot
+against it, and lurched forward slightly, saying in an ingratiating
+tone:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bad fun, really.&nbsp; You try a few kisses
+to begin with&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He said no more, because his head received a terrific concussion,
+accompanied by an explosive sound.&nbsp; Freya had swung her round,
+strong arm with such force that the impact of her open palm on his flat
+cheek turned him half round.&nbsp; Uttering a faint, hoarse yell, the
+lieutenant clapped both his hands to the left side of his face, which
+had taken on suddenly a dusky brick-red tinge.&nbsp; Freya, very erect,
+her violet eyes darkened, her palm still tingling from the blow, a sort
+of restrained determined smile showing a tiny gleam of her white teeth,
+heard her father&rsquo;s rapid, heavy tread on the path below the verandah.&nbsp;
+Her expression lost its pugnacity and became sincerely concerned.&nbsp;
+She was sorry for her father.&nbsp; She stooped quickly to pick up the
+music-stool, as if anxious to obliterate the traces. . . . But that
+was no good.&nbsp; She had resumed her attitude, one hand resting lightly
+on the piano, before old Nelson got up to the top of the stairs.</p>
+<p>Poor father!&nbsp; How furious he will be&mdash;how upset!&nbsp;
+And afterwards, what tremors, what unhappiness!&nbsp; Why had she not
+been open with him from the first?&nbsp; His round, innocent stare of
+amazement cut her to the quick.&nbsp; But he was not looking at her.&nbsp;
+His stare was directed to Heemskirk, who, with his back to him and with
+his hands still up to his face, was hissing curses through his teeth,
+and (she saw him in profile) glaring at her balefully with one black,
+evil eye.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; asked old Nelson, very much
+bewildered.</p>
+<p>She did not answer him.&nbsp; She thought of Jasper on the deck of
+the brig, gazing up at the lighted bungalow, and she felt frightened.&nbsp;
+It was a mercy that one of them at least was on board out of the way.&nbsp;
+She only wished he were a hundred miles off.&nbsp; And yet she was not
+certain that she did.&nbsp; Had Jasper been mysteriously moved that
+moment to reappear on the verandah she would have thrown her consistency,
+her firmness, her self-possession, to the winds, and flown into his
+arms.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is it?&nbsp; What is it?&rdquo; insisted the unsuspecting
+Nelson, getting quite excited.&nbsp; &ldquo;Only this minute you were
+playing a tune, and&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya, unable to speak in her apprehension of what was coming (she
+was also fascinated by that black, evil, glaring eye), only nodded slightly
+at the lieutenant, as much as to say: &ldquo;Just look at him!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why, yes!&rdquo; exclaimed old Nelson.&nbsp; &ldquo;I see.&nbsp;
+What on earth&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Meantime he had cautiously approached Heemskirk, who, bursting into
+incoherent imprecations, was stamping with both feet where he stood.&nbsp;
+The indignity of the blow, the rage of baffled purpose, the ridicule
+of the exposure, and the impossibility of revenge maddened him to a
+point when he simply felt he must howl with fury.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, oh, oh!&rdquo; he howled, stamping across the verandah
+as though he meant to drive his foot through the floor at every step.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why, is his face hurt?&rdquo; asked the astounded old Nelson.&nbsp;
+The truth dawned suddenly upon his innocent mind.&nbsp; &ldquo;Dear
+me!&rdquo; he cried, enlightened.&nbsp; &ldquo;Get some brandy, quick,
+Freya. . . . You are subject to it, lieutenant?&nbsp; Fiendish, eh?&nbsp;
+I know, I know!&nbsp; Used to go crazy all of a sudden myself in the
+time. . . . And the little bottle of laudanum from the medicine-chest,
+too, Freya.&nbsp; Look sharp. . . . Don&rsquo;t you see he&rsquo;s got
+a toothache?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And, indeed, what other explanation could have presented itself to
+the guileless old Nelson, beholding this cheek nursed with both hands,
+these wild glances, these stampings, this distracted swaying of the
+body?&nbsp; It would have demanded a preternatural acuteness to hit
+upon the true cause.&nbsp; Freya had not moved.&nbsp; She watched Heemskirk&rsquo;s
+savagely inquiring, black stare directed stealthily upon herself.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Aha, you would like to be let off!&rdquo; she said to herself.&nbsp;
+She looked at him unflinchingly, thinking it out.&nbsp; The temptation
+of making an end of it all without further trouble was irresistible.&nbsp;
+She gave an almost imperceptible nod of assent, and glided away.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hurry up that brandy!&rdquo; old Nelson shouted, as she disappeared
+in the passage.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk relieved his deeper feelings by a sudden string of curses
+in Dutch and English which he sent after her.&nbsp; He raved to his
+heart&rsquo;s content, flinging to and fro the verandah and kicking
+chairs out of his way; while Nelson (or Nielsen), whose sympathy was
+profoundly stirred by these evidences of agonising pain, hovered round
+his dear (and dreaded) lieutenant, fussing like an old hen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me, dear me!&nbsp; Is it so bad?&nbsp; I know well what
+it is.&nbsp; I used to frighten my poor wife sometimes.&nbsp; Do you
+get it often like this, lieutenant?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Heemskirk shouldered him viciously out of his way, with a short,
+insane laugh.&nbsp; But his staggering host took it in good part; a
+man beside himself with excruciating toothache is not responsible.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Go into my room, lieutenant,&rdquo; he suggested urgently.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Throw yourself on my bed.&nbsp; We will get something to ease
+you in a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He seized the poor sufferer by the arm and forced him gently onwards
+to the very bed, on which Heemskirk, in a renewed access of rage, flung
+himself down with such force that he rebounded from the mattress to
+the height of quite a foot.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; exclaimed the scared Nelson, and incontinently
+ran off to hurry up the brandy and the laudanum, very angry that so
+little alacrity was shown in relieving the tortures of his precious
+guest.&nbsp; In the end he got these things himself.</p>
+<p>Half an hour later he stood in the inner passage of the house, surprised
+by faint, spasmodic sounds of a mysterious nature, between laughter
+and sobs.&nbsp; He frowned; then went straight towards his daughter&rsquo;s
+room and knocked at the door.</p>
+<p>Freya, her glorious fair hair framing her white face and rippling
+down a dark-blue dressing-gown, opened it partly.</p>
+<p>The light in the room was dim.&nbsp; Antonia, crouching in a corner,
+rocked herself backwards and forwards, uttering feeble moans.&nbsp;
+Old Nelson had not much experience in various kinds of feminine laughter,
+but he was certain there had been laughter there.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Very unfeeling, very unfeeling!&rdquo; he said, with weighty
+displeasure.&nbsp; &ldquo;What is there so amusing in a man being in
+pain?&nbsp; I should have thought a woman&mdash;a young girl&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He was so funny,&rdquo; murmured Freya, whose eyes glistened
+strangely in the semi-obscurity of the passage.&nbsp; &ldquo;And then,
+you know, I don&rsquo;t like him,&rdquo; she added, in an unsteady voice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Funny!&rdquo; repeated old Nelson, amazed at this evidence
+of callousness in one so young.&nbsp; &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t like him!&nbsp;
+Do you mean to say that, because you don&rsquo;t like him, you&mdash;Why,
+it&rsquo;s simply cruel!&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you know it&rsquo;s about
+the worst sort of pain there is?&nbsp; Dogs have been known to go mad
+with it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He certainly seemed to have gone mad,&rdquo; Freya said with
+an effort, as if she were struggling with some hidden feeling.</p>
+<p>But her father was launched.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you know how he is.&nbsp; He notices everything.&nbsp;
+He is a fellow to take offence for the least little thing&mdash;regular
+Dutchman&mdash;and I want to keep friendly with him.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s
+like this, my girl: if that rajah of ours were to do something silly&mdash;and
+you know he is a sulky, rebellious beggar&mdash;and the authorities
+took into their heads that my influence over him wasn&rsquo;t good,
+you would find yourself without a roof over your head&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She cried: &ldquo;What nonsense, father!&rdquo; in a not very assured
+tone, and discovered that he was angry, angry enough to achieve irony;
+yes, old Nelson (or Nielsen), irony!&nbsp; Just a gleam of it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, of course, if you have means of your own&mdash;a mansion,
+a plantation that I know nothing of&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp; But he was not
+capable of sustained irony.&nbsp; &ldquo;I tell you they would bundle
+me out of here,&rdquo; he whispered forcibly; &ldquo;without compensation,
+of course.&nbsp; I know these Dutch.&nbsp; And the lieutenant&rsquo;s
+just the fellow to start the trouble going.&nbsp; He has the ear of
+influential officials.&nbsp; I wouldn&rsquo;t offend him for anything&mdash;for
+anything&mdash;on no consideration whatever. . . . What did you say?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was only an inarticulate exclamation.&nbsp; If she ever had a
+half-formed intention of telling him everything she had given it up
+now.&nbsp; It was impossible, both out of regard for his dignity and
+for the peace of his poor mind.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care for him myself very much,&rdquo; old Nelson&rsquo;s
+subdued undertone confessed in a sigh.&nbsp; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s easier
+now,&rdquo; he went on, after a silence.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve given
+him up my bed for the night.&nbsp; I shall sleep on my verandah, in
+the hammock.&nbsp; No; I can&rsquo;t say I like him either, but from
+that to laugh at a man because he&rsquo;s driven crazy with pain is
+a long way.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ve surprised me, Freya.&nbsp; That side
+of his face is quite flushed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her shoulders shook convulsively under his hands, which he laid on
+her paternally.&nbsp; His straggly, wiry moustache brushed her forehead
+in a good-night kiss.&nbsp; She closed the door, and went away from
+it to the middle of the room before she allowed herself a tired-out
+sort of laugh, without buoyancy.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Flushed!&nbsp; A little flushed!&rdquo; she repeated to herself.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I hope so, indeed!&nbsp; A little&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Her eyelashes were wet.&nbsp; Antonia, in her corner, moaned and
+giggled, and it was impossible to tell where the moans ended and the
+giggles began.</p>
+<p>The mistress and the maid had been somewhat hysterical, for Freya,
+on fleeing into her room, had found Antonia there, and had told her
+everything.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I have avenged you, my girl,&rdquo; she exclaimed.</p>
+<p>And then they had laughingly cried and cryingly laughed with admonitions&mdash;&ldquo;Ssh,
+not so loud!&nbsp; Be quiet!&rdquo; on one part, and interludes of &ldquo;I
+am so frightened. . . . He&rsquo;s an evil man,&rdquo; on the other.</p>
+<p>Antonia was very much afraid of Heemskirk.&nbsp; She was afraid of
+him because of his personal appearance: because of his eyes and his
+eyebrows, and his mouth and his nose and his limbs.&nbsp; Nothing could
+be more rational.&nbsp; And she thought him an evil man, because, to
+her eyes, he looked evil.&nbsp; No ground for an opinion could be sounder.&nbsp;
+In the dimness of the room, with only a nightlight burning at the head
+of Freya&rsquo;s bed, the camerista crept out of her corner to crouch
+at the feet of her mistress, supplicating in whispers:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s the brig.&nbsp; Captain Allen.&nbsp; Let us
+run away at once&mdash;oh, let us run away!&nbsp; I am so frightened.&nbsp;
+Let us!&nbsp; Let us!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I!&nbsp; Run away!&rdquo; thought Freya to herself, without
+looking down at the scared girl.&nbsp; &ldquo;Never.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Both the resolute mistress under the mosquito-net and the frightened
+maid lying curled up on a mat at the foot of the bed did not sleep very
+well that night.&nbsp; The person that did not sleep at all was Lieutenant
+Heemskirk.&nbsp; He lay on his back staring vindictively in the darkness.&nbsp;
+Inflaming images and humiliating reflections succeeded each other in
+his mind, keeping up, augmenting his anger.&nbsp; A pretty tale this
+to get about!&nbsp; But it must not be allowed to get about.&nbsp; The
+outrage had to be swallowed in silence.&nbsp; A pretty affair!&nbsp;
+Fooled, led on, and struck by the girl&mdash;and probably fooled by
+the father, too.&nbsp; But no.&nbsp; Nielsen was but another victim
+of that shameless hussy, that brazen minx, that sly, laughing, kissing,
+lying . . .</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No; he did not deceive me on purpose,&rdquo; thought the tormented
+lieutenant.&nbsp; &ldquo;But I should like to pay him off, all the same,
+for being such an imbecile&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Well, some day, perhaps.&nbsp; One thing he was firmly resolved on:
+he had made up his mind to steal early out of the house.&nbsp; He did
+not think he could face the girl without going out of his mind with
+fury.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fire and perdition!&nbsp; Ten thousand devils!&nbsp; I shall
+choke here before the morning!&rdquo; he muttered to himself, lying
+rigid on his back on old Nelson&rsquo;s bed, his breast heaving for
+air.</p>
+<p>He arose at daylight and started cautiously to open the door.&nbsp;
+Faint sounds in the passage alarmed him, and remaining concealed he
+saw Freya coming out.&nbsp; This unexpected sight deprived him of all
+power to move away from the crack of the door.&nbsp; It was the narrowest
+crack possible, but commanding the view of the end of the verandah.&nbsp;
+Freya made for that end hastily to watch the brig passing the point.&nbsp;
+She wore her dark dressing-gown; her feet were bare, because, having
+fallen asleep towards the morning, she ran out headlong in her fear
+of being too late.&nbsp; Heemskirk had never seen her looking like this,
+with her hair drawn back smoothly to the shape of her head, and hanging
+in one heavy, fair tress down her back, and with that air of extreme
+youth, intensity, and eagerness.&nbsp; And at first he was amazed, and
+then he gnashed his teeth.&nbsp; He could not face her at all.&nbsp;
+He muttered a curse, and kept still behind the door.</p>
+<p>With a low, deep-breathed &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; when she first saw the
+brig already under way, she reached for Nelson&rsquo;s long glass reposing
+on brackets high up the wall.&nbsp; The wide sleeve of the dressing-gown
+slipped back, uncovering her white arm as far as the shoulder.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk gripping the door-handle, as if to crush it, felt like a man
+just risen to his feet from a drinking bout.</p>
+<p>And Freya knew that he was watching her.&nbsp; She knew.&nbsp; She
+had seen the door move as she came out of the passage.&nbsp; She was
+aware of his eyes being on her, with scornful bitterness, with triumphant
+contempt.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are there,&rdquo; she thought, levelling the long glass.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Oh, well, look on, then!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The green islets appeared like black shadows, the ashen sea was smooth
+as glass, the clear robe of the colourless dawn, in which even the brig
+appeared shadowy, had a hem of light in the east.&nbsp; Directly Freya
+had made out Jasper on deck, with his own long glass directed to the
+bungalow, she laid hers down and raised both her beautiful white arms
+above her head.&nbsp; In that attitude of supreme cry she stood still,
+glowing with the consciousness of Jasper&rsquo;s adoration going out
+to her figure held in the field of his glass away there, and warmed,
+too, by the feeling of evil passion, the burning, covetous eyes of the
+other, fastened on her back.&nbsp; In the fervour of her love, in the
+caprice of her mind, and with that mysterious knowledge of masculine
+nature women seem to be born to, she thought:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are looking on&mdash;you will&mdash;you must!&nbsp; Then
+you shall see something.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She brought both her hands to her lips, then flung them out, sending
+a kiss over the sea, as if she wanted to throw her heart along with
+it on the deck of the brig.&nbsp; Her face was rosy, her eyes shone.&nbsp;
+Her repeated, passionate gesture seemed to fling kisses by the hundred
+again and again and again, while the slowly ascending sun brought the
+glory of colour to the world, turning the islets green, the sea blue,
+the brig below her white&mdash;dazzlingly white in the spread of her
+wings&mdash;with the red ensign streaming like a tiny flame from the
+peak.</p>
+<p>And each time she murmured with a rising inflexion:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Take this&mdash;and this&mdash;and this&mdash;&rdquo; till
+suddenly her arms fell.&nbsp; She had seen the ensign dipped in response,
+and next moment the point below hid the hull of the brig from her view.&nbsp;
+Then she turned away from the balustrade, and, passing slowly before
+the door of her father&rsquo;s room with her eyelids lowered, and an
+enigmatic expression on her face, she disappeared behind the curtain.</p>
+<p>But instead of going along the passage, she remained concealed and
+very still on the other side to watch what would happen.&nbsp; For some
+time the broad, furnished verandah remained empty.&nbsp; Then the door
+of old Nelson&rsquo;s room came open suddenly, and Heemskirk staggered
+out.&nbsp; His hair was rumpled, his eyes bloodshot, his unshaven face
+looked very dark.&nbsp; He gazed wildly about, saw his cap on a table,
+snatched it up, and made for the stairs quietly, but with a strange,
+tottering gait, like the last effort of waning strength.</p>
+<p>Shortly after his head had sunk below the level of the floor, Freya
+came out from behind the curtain, with compressed, scheming lips, and
+no softness at all in her luminous eyes.&nbsp; He could not be allowed
+to sneak off scot free.&nbsp; Never&mdash;never!&nbsp; She was excited,
+she tingled all over, she had tasted blood!&nbsp; He must be made to
+understand that she had been aware of having been watched; he must know
+that he had been seen slinking off shamefully.&nbsp; But to run to the
+front rail and shout after him would have been childish, crude&mdash;undignified.&nbsp;
+And to shout&mdash;what?&nbsp; What word?&nbsp; What phrase?&nbsp; No;
+it was impossible.&nbsp; Then how? . . . She frowned, discovered it,
+dashed at the piano, which had stood open all night, and made the rosewood
+monster growl savagery in an irritated bass.&nbsp; She struck chords
+as if firing shots after that straddling, broad figure in ample white
+trousers and a dark uniform jacket with gold shoulder-straps, and then
+she pursued him with the same thing she had played the evening before&mdash;a
+modern, fierce piece of love music which had been tried more than once
+against the thunderstorms of the group.&nbsp; She accentuated its rhythm
+with triumphant malice, so absorbed in her purpose that she did not
+notice the presence of her father, who, wearing an old threadbare ulster
+of a check pattern over his sleeping suit, had run out from the back
+verandah to inquire the reason of this untimely performance.&nbsp; He
+stared at her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What on earth? . . . Freya!&rdquo;&nbsp; His voice was nearly
+drowned by the piano.&nbsp; &ldquo;What&rsquo;s become of the lieutenant?&rdquo;
+he shouted.</p>
+<p>She looked up at him as if her soul were lost in her music, with
+unseeing eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Gone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Wha-a-t? . . . Where?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She shook her head slightly, and went on playing louder than before.&nbsp;
+Old Nelson&rsquo;s innocently anxious gaze starting from the open door
+of his room, explored the whole place high and low, as if the lieutenant
+were something small which might have been crawling on the floor or
+clinging to a wall.&nbsp; But a shrill whistle coming somewhere from
+below pierced the ample volume of sound rolling out of the piano in
+great, vibrating waves.&nbsp; The lieutenant was down at the cove, whistling
+for the boat to come and take him off to his ship.&nbsp; And he seemed
+to be in a terrific hurry, too, for he whistled again almost directly,
+waited for a moment, and then sent out a long, interminable, shrill
+call as distressful to hear as though he had shrieked without drawing
+breath.&nbsp; Freya ceased playing suddenly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Going on board,&rdquo; said old Nelson, perturbed by the event.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;What could have made him clear out so early?&nbsp; Queer chap.&nbsp;
+Devilishly touchy, too!&nbsp; I shouldn&rsquo;t wonder if it was your
+conduct last night that hurt his feelings?&nbsp; I noticed you, Freya.&nbsp;
+You as well as laughed in his face, while he was suffering agonies from
+neuralgia.&nbsp; It isn&rsquo;t the way to get yourself liked.&nbsp;
+He&rsquo;s offended with you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Freya&rsquo;s hands now reposed passive on the keys; she bowed her
+fair head, feeling a sudden discontent, a nervous lassitude, as though
+she had passed through some exhausting crisis.&nbsp; Old Nelson (or
+Nielsen), looking aggrieved, was revolving matters of policy in his
+bald head.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think it would be right for me to go on board just to inquire,
+some time this morning,&rdquo; he declared fussily.&nbsp; &ldquo;Why
+don&rsquo;t they bring me my morning tea?&nbsp; Do you hear, Freya?&nbsp;
+You have astonished me, I must say.&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t think a young
+girl could be so unfeeling.&nbsp; And the lieutenant thinks himself
+a friend of ours, too!&nbsp; What?&nbsp; No?&nbsp; Well, he calls himself
+a friend, and that&rsquo;s something to a person in my position.&nbsp;
+Certainly!&nbsp; Oh, yes, I must go on board.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Must you?&rdquo; murmured Freya listlessly; then added, in
+her thought: &ldquo;Poor man!&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>In respect of the next seven weeks, all that is necessary to say
+is, first, that old Nelson (or Nielsen) failed in paying his politic
+call.&nbsp; The <i>Neptun</i> gunboat of H.M. the King of the Netherlands,
+commanded by an outraged and infuriated lieutenant, left the cove at
+an unexpectedly early hour.&nbsp; When Freya&rsquo;s father came down
+to the shore, after seeing his precious crop of tobacco spread out properly
+in the sun, she was already steaming round the point.&nbsp; Old Nelson
+regretted the circumstance for many days.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Now, I don&rsquo;t know in what disposition the man went away,&rdquo;
+he lamented to his hard daughter.&nbsp; He was amazed at her hardness.&nbsp;
+He was almost frightened by her indifference.</p>
+<p>Next, it must be recorded that the same day the gunboat <i>Neptun</i>,
+steering east, passed the brig <i>Bonito</i> becalmed in sight of Carimata,
+with her head to the eastward, too.&nbsp; Her captain, Jasper Allen,
+giving himself up consciously to a tender, possessive reverie of his
+Freya, did not get out of his long chair on the poop to look at the
+<i>Neptun</i> which passed so close that the smoke belching out suddenly
+from her short black funnel rolled between the masts of the Bonito,
+obscuring for a moment the sunlit whiteness of her sails, consecrated
+to the service of love.&nbsp; Jasper did not even turn his head for
+a glance.&nbsp; But Heemskirk, on the bridge, had gazed long and earnestly
+at the brig from the distance, gripping hard the brass rail in front
+of him, till, the two ships closing, he lost all confidence in himself,
+and retreating to the chartroom, pulled the door to with a crash.&nbsp;
+There, his brows knitted, his mouth drawn on one side in sardonic meditation,
+he sat through many still hours&mdash;a sort of Prometheus in the bonds
+of unholy desire, having his very vitals torn by the beak and claws
+of humiliated passion.</p>
+<p>That species of fowl is not to be shooed off as easily as a chicken.&nbsp;
+Fooled, cheated, deceived, led on, outraged, mocked at&mdash;beak and
+claws!&nbsp; A sinister bird!&nbsp; The lieutenant had no mind to become
+the talk of the Archipelago, as the naval officer who had had his face
+slapped by a girl.&nbsp; Was it possible that she really loved that
+rascally trader?&nbsp; He tried not to think, but, worse than thoughts,
+definite impressions beset him in his retreat.&nbsp; He saw her&mdash;a
+vision plain, close to, detailed, plastic, coloured, lighted up&mdash;he
+saw her hanging round the neck of that fellow.&nbsp; And he shut his
+eyes, only to discover that this was no remedy.&nbsp; Then a piano began
+to play near by, very plainly; and he put his fingers to his ears with
+no better effect.&nbsp; It was not to be borne&mdash;not in solitude.&nbsp;
+He bolted out of the chartroom, and talked of indifferent things somewhat
+wildly with the officer of the watch on the bridge, to the mocking accompaniment
+of a ghostly piano.</p>
+<p>The last thing to be recorded is that Lieutenant Heemskirk instead
+of pursuing his course towards Ternate, where he was expected, went
+out of his way to call at Makassar, where no one was looking for his
+arrival.&nbsp; Once there, he gave certain explanations and laid a certain
+proposal before the governor, or some other authority, and obtained
+permission to do what he thought fit in these matters.&nbsp; Thereupon
+the <i>Neptun</i>, giving up Ternate altogether, steamed north in view
+of the mountainous coast of Celebes, and then crossing the broad straits
+took up her station on the low coast of virgin forests, inviolate and
+mute, in waters phosphorescent at night; deep blue in daytime with gleaming
+green patches over the submerged reefs.&nbsp; For days the <i>Neptun</i>
+could be seen moving smoothly up and down the sombre face of the shore,
+or hanging about with a watchful air near the silvery breaks of broad
+estuaries, under the great luminous sky never softened, never veiled,
+and flooding the earth with the everlasting sunshine of the tropics&mdash;that
+sunshine which, in its unbroken splendour, oppresses the soul with an
+inexpressible melancholy more intimate, more penetrating, more profound
+than the grey sadness of the northern mists.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>The trading brig <i>Bonito</i> appeared gliding round a sombre forest-clad
+point of land on the silvery estuary of a great river.&nbsp; The breath
+of air that gave her motion would not have fluttered the flame of a
+torch.&nbsp; She stole out into the open from behind a veil of unstirring
+leaves, mysteriously silent, ghostly white, and solemnly stealthy in
+her imperceptible progress; and Jasper, his elbow in the main rigging,
+and his head leaning against his hand, thought of Freya.&nbsp; Everything
+in the world reminded him of her.&nbsp; The beauty of the loved woman
+exists in the beauties of Nature.&nbsp; The swelling outlines of the
+hills, the curves of a coast, the free sinuosities of a river are less
+suave than the harmonious lines of her body, and when she moves, gliding
+lightly, the grace of her progress suggests the power of occult forces
+which rule the fascinating aspects of the visible world.</p>
+<p>Dependent on things as all men are, Jasper loved his vessel&mdash;the
+house of his dreams.&nbsp; He lent to her something of Freya&rsquo;s
+soul.&nbsp; Her deck was the foothold of their love.&nbsp; The possession
+of his brig appeased his passion in a soothing certitude of happiness
+already conquered.</p>
+<p>The full moon was some way up, perfect and serene, floating in air
+as calm and limpid as the glance of Freya&rsquo;s eyes.&nbsp; There
+was not a sound in the brig.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Here she shall stand, by my side, on evenings like this,&rdquo;
+he thought, with rapture.</p>
+<p>And it was at that moment, in this peace, in this serenity, under
+the full, benign gaze of the moon propitious to lovers, on a sea without
+a wrinkle, under a sky without a cloud, as if all Nature had assumed
+its most clement mood in a spirit of mockery, that the gunboat <i>Neptun</i>,
+detaching herself from the dark coast under which she had been lying
+invisible, steamed out to intercept the trading brig <i>Bonito</i> standing
+out to sea.</p>
+<p>Directly the gunboat had been made out emerging from her ambush,
+Schultz, of the fascinating voice, had given signs of strange agitation.&nbsp;
+All that day, ever since leaving the Malay town up the river, he had
+shown a haggard face, going about his duties like a man with something
+weighing on his mind.&nbsp; Jasper had noticed it, but the mate, turning
+away, as though he had not liked being looked at, had muttered shamefacedly
+of a headache and a touch of fever.&nbsp; He must have had it very badly
+when, dodging behind his captain he wondered aloud: &ldquo;What can
+that fellow want with us?&rdquo; . . . A naked man standing in a freezing
+blast and trying not to shiver could not have spoken with a more harshly
+uncertain intonation.&nbsp; But it might have been fever&mdash;a cold
+fit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He wants to make himself disagreeable, simply,&rdquo; said
+Jasper, with perfect good humour.&nbsp; &ldquo;He has tried it on me
+before.&nbsp; However, we shall soon see.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And, indeed, before long the two vessels lay abreast within easy
+hail.&nbsp; The brig, with her fine lines and her white sails, looked
+vaporous and sylph-like in the moonlight.&nbsp; The gunboat, short,
+squat, with her stumpy dark spars naked like dead trees, raised against
+the luminous sky of that resplendent night, threw a heavy shadow on
+the lane of water between the two ships.</p>
+<p>Freya haunted them both like an ubiquitous spirit, and as if she
+were the only woman in the world.&nbsp; Jasper remembered her earnest
+recommendation to be guarded and cautious in all his acts and words
+while he was away from her.&nbsp; In this quite unforeseen encounter
+he felt on his ear the very breath of these hurried admonitions customary
+to the last moment of their partings, heard the half-jesting final whisper
+of the &ldquo;Mind, kid, I&rsquo;d never forgive you!&rdquo; with a
+quick pressure on his arm, which he answered by a quiet, confident smile.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk was haunted in another fashion.&nbsp; There were no whispers
+in it; it was more like visions.&nbsp; He saw that girl hanging round
+the neck of a low vagabond&mdash;that vagabond, the vagabond who had
+just answered his hail.&nbsp; He saw her stealing bare-footed across
+a verandah with great, clear, wide-open, eager eyes to look at a brig&mdash;that
+brig.&nbsp; If she had shrieked, scolded, called names! . . . But she
+had simply triumphed over him.&nbsp; That was all.&nbsp; Led on (he
+firmly believed it), fooled, deceived, outraged, struck, mocked at.
+. . . Beak and claws!&nbsp; The two men, so differently haunted by Freya
+of the Seven Isles, were not equally matched.</p>
+<p>In the intense stillness, as of sleep, which had fallen upon the
+two vessels, in a world that itself seemed but a delicate dream, a boat
+pulled by Javanese sailors crossing the dark lane of water came alongside
+the brig.&nbsp; The white warrant officer in her, perhaps the gunner,
+climbed aboard.&nbsp; He was a short man, with a rotund stomach and
+a wheezy voice.&nbsp; His immovable fat face looked lifeless in the
+moonlight, and he walked with his thick arms hanging away from his body
+as though he had been stuffed.&nbsp; His cunning little eyes glittered
+like bits of mica.&nbsp; He conveyed to Jasper, in broken English, a
+request to come on board the <i>Neptun.</i></p>
+<p>Jasper had not expected anything so unusual.&nbsp; But after a short
+reflection he decided to show neither annoyance, nor even surprise.&nbsp;
+The river from which he had come had been politically disturbed for
+a couple of years, and he was aware that his visits there were looked
+upon with some suspicion.&nbsp; But he did not mind much the displeasure
+of the authorities, so terrifying to old Nelson.&nbsp; He prepared to
+leave the brig, and Schultz followed him to the rail as if to say something,
+but in the end stood by in silence.&nbsp; Jasper getting over the side,
+noticed his ghastly face.&nbsp; The eyes of the man who had found salvation
+in the brig from the effects of his peculiar psychology looked at him
+with a dumb, beseeching expression.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; Jasper asked.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wonder how this will end?&rdquo; said he of the beautiful
+voice, which had even fascinated the steady Freya herself.&nbsp; But
+where was its charming timbre now?&nbsp; These words had sounded like
+a raven&rsquo;s croak.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You are ill,&rdquo; said Jasper positively.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I wish I were dead!&rdquo; was the startling statement uttered
+by Schultz talking to himself in the extremity of some mysterious trouble.&nbsp;
+Jasper gave him a keen glance, but this was not the time to investigate
+the morbid outbreak of a feverish man.&nbsp; He did not look as though
+he were actually delirious, and that for the moment must suffice.&nbsp;
+Schultz made a dart forward.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That fellow means harm!&rdquo; he said desperately.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;He means harm to you, Captain Allen.&nbsp; I feel it, and I&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He choked with inexplicable emotion.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;All right, Schultz.&nbsp; I won&rsquo;t give him an opening.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Jasper cut him short and swung himself into the boat.</p>
+<p>On board the <i>Neptun</i> Heemskirk, standing straddle-legs in the
+flood of moonlight, his inky shadow falling right across the quarter-deck,
+made no sign at his approach, but secretly he felt something like the
+heave of the sea in his chest at the sight of that man.&nbsp; Jasper
+waited before him in silence.</p>
+<p>Brought face to face in direct personal contact, they fell at once
+into the manner of their casual meetings in old Nelson&rsquo;s bungalow.&nbsp;
+They ignored each other&rsquo;s existence&mdash;Heemskirk moodily; Jasper,
+with a perfectly colourless quietness.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s going on in that river you&rsquo;ve just come
+out of?&rdquo; asked the lieutenant straight away.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know nothing of the troubles, if you mean that,&rdquo; Jasper
+answered.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve landed there half a cargo of rice,
+for which I got nothing in exchange, and went away.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s
+no trade there now, but they would have been starving in another week&mdash;if
+I hadn&rsquo;t turned up.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Meddling!&nbsp; English meddling!&nbsp; And suppose the rascals
+don&rsquo;t deserve anything better than to starve, eh?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There are women and children there, you know,&rdquo; observed
+Jasper, in his even tone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes!&nbsp; When an Englishman talks of women and children,
+you may be sure there&rsquo;s something fishy about the business.&nbsp;
+Your doings will have to be investigated.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They spoke in turn, as though they had been disembodied spirits&mdash;mere
+voices in empty air; for they looked at each other as if there had been
+nothing there, or, at most, with as much recognition as one gives to
+an inanimate object, and no more.&nbsp; But now a silence fell.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk had thought, all at once: &ldquo;She will tell him all about
+it.&nbsp; She will tell him while she hangs round his neck laughing.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And the sudden desire to annihilate Jasper on the spot almost deprived
+him of his senses by its vehemence.&nbsp; He lost the power of speech,
+of vision.&nbsp; For a moment he absolutely couldn&rsquo;t see Jasper.&nbsp;
+But he heard him inquiring, as of the world at large:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Am I, then, to conclude that the brig is detained?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Heemskirk made a recovery in a flush of malignant satisfaction.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She is.&nbsp; I am going to take her to Makassar in tow.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The courts will have to decide on the legality of this,&rdquo;
+said Jasper, aware that the matter was becoming serious, but with assumed
+indifference.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, the courts!&nbsp; Certainly.&nbsp; And as to you,
+I shall keep you on board here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper&rsquo;s dismay at being parted from his ship was betrayed
+by a stony immobility.&nbsp; It lasted but an instant.&nbsp; Then he
+turned away and hailed the brig.&nbsp; Mr. Schultz answered:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, sir.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Get ready to receive a tow-rope from the gunboat!&nbsp; We
+are going to be taken to Makassar.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good God!&nbsp; What&rsquo;s that for, sir?&rdquo; came an
+anxious cry faintly.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Kindness, I suppose,&rdquo; Jasper, ironical, shouted with
+great deliberation.&nbsp; &ldquo;We might have been&mdash;becalmed in
+here&mdash;for days.&nbsp; And hospitality.&nbsp; I am invited to stay&mdash;on
+board here.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The answer to this information was a loud ejaculation of distress.&nbsp;
+Jasper thought anxiously: &ldquo;Why, the fellow&rsquo;s nerve&rsquo;s
+gone to pieces;&rdquo; and with an awkward uneasiness of a new sort,
+looked intently at the brig.&nbsp; The thought that he was parted from
+her&mdash;for the first time since they came together&mdash;shook the
+apparently careless fortitude of his character to its very foundations,
+which were deep.&nbsp; All that time neither Heemskirk nor even his
+inky shadow had stirred in the least.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to send a boat&rsquo;s crew and an officer on board
+your vessel,&rdquo; he announced to no one in particular.&nbsp; Jasper,
+tearing himself away from the absorbed contemplation of the brig, turned
+round, and, without passion, almost without expression in his voice,
+entered his protest against the whole of the proceedings.&nbsp; What
+he was thinking of was the delay.&nbsp; He counted the days.&nbsp; Makassar
+was actually on his way; and to be towed there really saved time.&nbsp;
+On the other hand, there would be some vexing formalities to go through.&nbsp;
+But the thing was too absurd.&nbsp; &ldquo;The beetle&rsquo;s gone mad,&rdquo;
+he thought.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be released at once.&nbsp; And if
+not, Mesman must enter into a bond for me.&rdquo;&nbsp; Mesman was a
+Dutch merchant with whom Jasper had had many dealings, a considerable
+person in Makassar.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You protest?&nbsp; H&rsquo;m!&rdquo; Heemskirk muttered, and
+for a little longer remained motionless, his legs planted well apart,
+and his head lowered as though he were studying his own comical, deeply-split
+shadow.&nbsp; Then he made a sign to the rotund gunner, who had kept
+at hand, motionless, like a vilely-stuffed specimen of a fat man, with
+a lifeless face and glittering little eyes.&nbsp; The fellow approached,
+and stood at attention.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will board the brig with a boat&rsquo;s crew!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will have one of your men to steer her all the time,&rdquo;
+went on Heemskirk, giving his orders in English, apparently for Jasper&rsquo;s
+edification.&nbsp; &ldquo;You hear?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will remain on deck and in charge all the time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper felt as if, together with the command of the brig, his very
+heart were being taken out of his breast.&nbsp; Heemskirk asked, with
+a change of tone:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What weapons have you on board?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>At one time all the ships trading in the China Seas had a licence
+to carry a certain quantity of firearms for purposes of defence.&nbsp;
+Jasper answered:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Eighteen rifles with their bayonets, which were on board when
+I bought her, four years ago.&nbsp; They have been declared.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where are they kept?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fore-cabin.&nbsp; Mate has the key.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will take possession of them,&rdquo; said Heemskirk to
+the gunner.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ya, mynherr.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What is this for?&nbsp; What do you mean to imply?&rdquo;
+cried out Jasper; then bit his lip.&nbsp; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s monstrous!&rdquo;
+he muttered.</p>
+<p>Heemskirk raised for a moment a heavy, as if suffering, glance.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You may go,&rdquo; he said to his gunner.&nbsp; The fat man
+saluted, and departed.</p>
+<p>During the next thirty hours the steady towing was interrupted once.&nbsp;
+At a signal from the brig, made by waving a flag on the forecastle,
+the gunboat was stopped.&nbsp; The badly-stuffed specimen of a warrant-officer,
+getting into his boat, arrived on board the <i>Neptun</i> and hurried
+straight into his commander&rsquo;s cabin, his excitement at something
+he had to communicate being betrayed by the blinking of his small eyes.&nbsp;
+These two were closeted together for some time, while Jasper at the
+taffrail tried to make out if anything out of the common had occurred
+on board the brig.</p>
+<p>But nothing seemed to be amiss on board.&nbsp; However, he kept a
+look-out for the gunner; and, though he had avoided speaking to anybody
+since he had finished with Heemskirk, he stopped that man when he came
+out on deck again to ask how his mate was.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He was feeling not very well when I left,&rdquo; he explained.</p>
+<p>The fat warrant-officer, holding himself as though the effort of
+carrying his big stomach in front of him demanded a rigid carriage,
+understood with difficulty.&nbsp; Not a single one of his features showed
+the slightest animation, but his little eyes blinked rapidly at last.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, ya!&nbsp; The mate.&nbsp; Ya, ya!&nbsp; He is very well.&nbsp;
+But, mein Gott, he is one very funny man!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper could get no explanation of that remark, because the Dutchman
+got into the boat hurriedly, and went back on board the brig.&nbsp;
+But he consoled himself with the thought that very soon all this unpleasant
+and rather absurd experience would be over.&nbsp; The roadstead of Makassar
+was in sight already.&nbsp; Heemskirk passed by him going on the bridge.&nbsp;
+For the first time the lieutenant looked at Jasper with marked intention;
+and the strange roll of his eyes was so funny&mdash;it had been long
+agreed by Jasper and Freya that the lieutenant was funny&mdash;so ecstatically
+gratified, as though he were rolling a tasty morsel on his tongue, that
+Jasper could not help a broad smile.&nbsp; And then he turned to his
+brig again.</p>
+<p>To see her, his cherished possession, animated by something of his
+Freya&rsquo;s soul, the only foothold of two lives on the wide earth,
+the security of his passion, the companion of adventure, the power to
+snatch the calm, adorable Freya to his breast, and carry her off to
+the end of the world; to see this beautiful thing embodying worthily
+his pride and his love, to see her captive at the end of a tow-rope
+was not indeed a pleasant experience.&nbsp; It had something nightmarish
+in it, as, for instance, the dream of a wild sea-bird loaded with chains.</p>
+<p>Yet what else could he want to look at?&nbsp; Her beauty would sometimes
+come to his heart with the force of a spell, so that he would forget
+where he was.&nbsp; And, besides, that sense of superiority which the
+certitude of being loved gives to a young man, that illusion of being
+set above the Fates by a tender look in a woman&rsquo;s eyes, helped
+him, the first shock over, to go through these experiences with an amused
+self-confidence.&nbsp; For what evil could touch the elect of Freya?</p>
+<p>It was now afternoon, the sun being behind the two vessels as they
+headed for the harbour.&nbsp; &ldquo;The beetle&rsquo;s little joke
+shall soon be over,&rdquo; thought Jasper, without any great animosity.&nbsp;
+As a seaman well acquainted with that part of the world, a casual glance
+was enough to tell him what was being done.&nbsp; &ldquo;Hallo,&rdquo;
+he thought, &ldquo;he is going through Spermonde Passage.&nbsp; We shall
+be rounding Tamissa reef presently.&rdquo;&nbsp; And again he returned
+to the contemplation of his brig, that main-stay of his material and
+emotional existence which would be soon in his hands again.&nbsp; On
+a sea, calm like a millpond, a heavy smooth ripple undulated and streamed
+away from her bows, for the powerful <i>Neptun</i> was towing at great
+speed, as if for a wager.&nbsp; The Dutch gunner appeared on the forecastle
+of the <i>Bonito</i>, and with him a couple of men.&nbsp; They stood
+looking at the coast, and Jasper lost himself in a loverlike trance.</p>
+<p>The deep-toned blast of the gunboat&rsquo;s steam-whistle made him
+shudder by its unexpectedness.&nbsp; Slowly he looked about.&nbsp; Swift
+as lightning he leaped from where he stood, bounding forward along the
+deck.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will be on Tamissa reef!&rdquo; he yelled.</p>
+<p>High up on the bridge Heemskirk looked back over his shoulder heavily;
+two seamen were spinning the wheel round, and the <i>Neptun</i> was
+already swinging rapidly away from the edge of the pale water over the
+danger.&nbsp; Ha! just in time.&nbsp; Jasper turned about instantly
+to watch his brig; and, even before he realised that&mdash;in obedience,
+it appears, to Heemskirk&rsquo;s orders given beforehand to the gunner&mdash;the
+tow-rope had been let go at the blast of the whistle, before he had
+time to cry out or to move a limb, he saw her cast adrift and shooting
+across the gunboat&rsquo;s stern with the impetus of her speed.&nbsp;
+He followed her fine, gliding form with eyes growing big with incredulity,
+wild with horror.&nbsp; The cries on board of her came to him only as
+a dreadful and confused murmur through the loud thumping of blood in
+his ears, while she held on.&nbsp; She ran upright in a terrible display
+of her gift of speed, with an incomparable air of life and grace.&nbsp;
+She ran on till the smooth level of water in front of her bows seemed
+to sink down suddenly as if sucked away; and, with a strange, violent
+tremor of her mast-heads she stopped, inclined her lofty spars a little,
+and lay still.&nbsp; She lay still on the reef, while the <i>Neptun</i>,
+fetching a wide circle, continued at full speed up Spermonde Passage,
+heading for the town.&nbsp; She lay still, perfectly still, with something
+ill-omened and unnatural in her attitude.&nbsp; In an instant the subtle
+melancholy of things touched by decay had fallen on her in the sunshine;
+she was but a speck in the brilliant emptiness of space, already lonely,
+already desolate.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hold him!&rdquo; yelled a voice from the bridge.</p>
+<p>Jasper had started to run to his brig with a headlong impulse, as
+a man dashes forward to pull away with his hands a living, breathing,
+loved creature from the brink of destruction.&nbsp; &ldquo;Hold him!&nbsp;
+Stick to him!&rdquo; vociferated the lieutenant at the top of the bridge-ladder,
+while Jasper struggled madly without a word, only his head emerging
+from the heaving crowd of the <i>Neptun&rsquo;s</i> seamen, who had
+flung themselves upon him obediently.&nbsp; &ldquo;Hold&mdash;I would
+not have that fellow drown himself for anything now!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper ceased struggling.</p>
+<p>One by one they let go of him; they fell back gradually farther and
+farther, in attentive silence, leaving him standing unsupported in a
+widened, clear space, as if to give him plenty of room to fall after
+the struggle.&nbsp; He did not even sway perceptibly.&nbsp; Half an
+hour later, when the <i>Neptun</i> anchored in front of the town, he
+had not stirred yet, had moved neither head nor limb as much as a hair&rsquo;s
+breadth.&nbsp; Directly the rumble of the gunboat&rsquo;s cable had
+ceased, Heemskirk came down heavily from the bridge.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Call a sampan&rdquo; he said, in a gloomy tone, as he passed
+the sentry at the gangway, and then moved on slowly towards the spot
+where Jasper, the object of many awed glances, stood looking at the
+deck, as if lost in a brown study.&nbsp; Heemskirk came up close, and
+stared at him thoughtfully, with his fingers over his lips.&nbsp; Here
+he was, the favoured vagabond, the only man to whom that infernal girl
+was likely to tell the story.&nbsp; But he would not find it funny.&nbsp;
+The story how Lieutenant Heemskirk&mdash;No, he would not laugh at it.&nbsp;
+He looked as though he would never laugh at anything in his life.</p>
+<p>Suddenly Jasper looked up.&nbsp; His eyes, without any other expression
+but bewilderment, met those of Heemskirk, observant and sombre.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Gone on the reef!&rdquo; he said, in a low, astounded tone.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;On-the-reef!&rdquo; he repeated still lower, and as if attending
+inwardly to the birth of some awful and amazing sensation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;On the very top of high-water, spring tides,&rdquo; Heemskirk
+struck in, with a vindictive, exulting violence which flashed and expired.&nbsp;
+He paused, as if weary, fixing upon Jasper his arrogant eyes, over which
+secret disenchantment, the unavoidable shadow of all passion, seemed
+to pass like a saddening cloud.&nbsp; &ldquo;On the very top,&rdquo;
+he repeated, rousing himself in fierce reaction to snatch his laced
+cap off his head with a horizontal, derisive flourish towards the gangway.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;And now you may go ashore to the courts, you damned Englishman!&rdquo;
+he said.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The affair of the brig <i>Bonito</i> was bound to cause a sensation
+in Makassar, the prettiest, and perhaps the cleanest-looking of all
+the towns in the Islands; which however knows few occasions for excitement.&nbsp;
+The &ldquo;front,&rdquo; with its special population, was soon aware
+that something had happened.&nbsp; A steamer towing a sailing vessel
+had been observed far out to sea for some time, and when the steamer
+came in alone, leaving the other outside, attention was aroused.&nbsp;
+Why was that?&nbsp; Her masts only could be seen&mdash;with furled sails&mdash;remaining
+in the same place to the southward.&nbsp; And soon the rumour ran all
+along the crowded seashore street that there was a ship on Tamissa reef.&nbsp;
+That crowd interpreted the appearance correctly.&nbsp; Its cause was
+beyond their penetration, for who could associate a girl nine hundred
+miles away with the stranding of a ship on Tamissa reef, or look for
+the remote filiation of that event in the psychology of at least three
+people, even if one of them, Lieutenant Heemskirk, was at that very
+moment passing amongst them on his way to make his verbal report?</p>
+<p>No; the minds on the &ldquo;front&rdquo; were not competent for that
+sort of investigation, but many hands there&mdash;brown hands, yellow
+hands, white hands&mdash;were raised to shade the eyes gazing out to
+sea.&nbsp; The rumour spread quickly.&nbsp; Chinese shopkeepers came
+to their doors, more than one white merchant, even, rose from his desk
+to go to the window.&nbsp; After all, a ship on Tamissa was not an everyday
+occurrence.&nbsp; And presently the rumour took a more definite shape.&nbsp;
+An English trader&mdash;detained on suspicion at sea by the <i>Neptun</i>&mdash;Heemskirk
+was towing him in to test a case, and by some strange accident&mdash;</p>
+<p>Later on the name came out.&nbsp; &ldquo;The <i>Bonito</i>&mdash;what!&nbsp;
+Impossible!&nbsp; Yes&mdash;yes, the <i>Bonito</i>.&nbsp; Look!&nbsp;
+You can see from here; only two masts.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a brig.&nbsp;
+Didn&rsquo;t think that man would ever let himself be caught.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s pretty smart, too.&nbsp; They say she&rsquo;s fitted
+out in her cabin like a gentleman&rsquo;s yacht.&nbsp; That Allen is
+a sort of gentleman too.&nbsp; An extravagant beggar.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A young man entered smartly Messrs. Mesman Brothers&rsquo; office
+on the &ldquo;front,&rdquo; bubbling with some further information.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes; that&rsquo;s the <i>Bonito</i> for certain!&nbsp;
+But you don&rsquo;t know the story I&rsquo;ve heard just now.&nbsp;
+The fellow must have been feeding that river with firearms for the last
+year or two.&nbsp; Well, it seems he has grown so reckless from long
+impunity that he has actually dared to sell the very ship&rsquo;s rifles
+this time.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a fact.&nbsp; The rifles are not on board.&nbsp;
+What impudence!&nbsp; Only, he didn&rsquo;t know that there was one
+of our warships on the coast.&nbsp; But those Englishmen are so impudent
+that perhaps he thought that nothing would be done to him for it.&nbsp;
+Our courts do let off these fellows too often, on some miserable excuse
+or other.&nbsp; But, at any rate, there&rsquo;s an end of the famous
+<i>Bonito</i>.&nbsp; I have just heard in the harbour-office that she
+must have gone on at the very top of high-water; and she is in ballast,
+too.&nbsp; No human power, they think, can move her from where she is.&nbsp;
+I only hope it is so.&nbsp; It would be fine to have the notorious <i>Bonito</i>
+stuck up there as a warning to others.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Mr. J. Mesman, a colonial-born Dutchman, a kind, paternal old fellow,
+with a clean-shaven, quiet, handsome fade, and a head of fine iron-grey
+hair curling a little on his collar, did not say a word in defence of
+Jasper and the <i>Bonito</i>.&nbsp; He rose from his arm-chair suddenly.&nbsp;
+His face was visibly troubled.&nbsp; It had so happened that once, from
+a business talk of ways and means, island trade, money matters, and
+so on, Jasper had been led to open himself to him on the subject of
+Freya; and the excellent man, who had known old Nelson years before
+and even remembered something of Freya, was much astonished and amused
+by the unfolding of the tale.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, well, well!&nbsp; Nelson!&nbsp; Yes; of course.&nbsp;
+A very honest sort of man.&nbsp; And a little child with very fair hair.&nbsp;
+Oh, yes!&nbsp; I have a distinct recollection.&nbsp; And so she has
+grown into such a fine girl, so very determined, so very&mdash;&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And he laughed almost boisterously.&nbsp; &ldquo;Mind, when you have
+happily eloped with your future wife, Captain Allen, you must come along
+this way, and we shall welcome her here.&nbsp; A little fair-headed
+child!&nbsp; I remember.&nbsp; I remember.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was that knowledge which had brought trouble to his face at the
+first news of the wreck.&nbsp; He took up his hat.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Where are you going, Mr. Mesman?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to look for Allen.&nbsp; I think he must be ashore.&nbsp;
+Does anybody know?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>No one of those present knew.&nbsp; And Mr. Mesman went out on the
+&ldquo;front&rdquo; to make inquiries.</p>
+<p>The other part of the town, the part near the church and the fort,
+got its information in another way.&nbsp; The first thing disclosed
+to it was Jasper himself, walking rapidly, as though he were pursued.&nbsp;
+And, as a matter of fact, a Chinaman, obviously a sampan man, was following
+him at the same headlong pace.&nbsp; Suddenly, while passing Orange
+House, Jasper swerved and went in, or, rather, rushed in, startling
+Gomez, the hotel clerk, very much.&nbsp; But a Chinaman beginning to
+make an unseemly noise at the door claimed the immediate attention of
+Gomez.&nbsp; His grievance was that the white man whom he had brought
+on shore from the gunboat had not paid him his boat-fare.&nbsp; He had
+pursued him so far, asking for it all the way.&nbsp; But the white man
+had taken no notice whatever of his just claim.&nbsp; Gomez satisfied
+the coolie with a few coppers, and then went to look for Jasper, whom
+he knew very well.&nbsp; He found him standing stiffly by a little round
+table.&nbsp; At the other end of the verandah a few men sitting there
+had stopped talking, and were looking at him in silence.&nbsp; Two billiard-players,
+with cues in their hands, had come to the door of the billiard-room
+and stared, too.</p>
+<p>On Gomez coming up to him, Jasper raised one hand to point at his
+own throat.&nbsp; Gomez noted the somewhat soiled state of his white
+clothes, then took one look at his face, and fled away to order the
+drink for which Jasper seemed to be asking.</p>
+<p>Where he wanted to go&mdash;or what purpose&mdash;where he, perhaps,
+only imagined himself to be going, when a sudden impulse or the sight
+of a familiar place had made him turn into Orange House&mdash;it is
+impossible to say.&nbsp; He was steadying himself lightly with the tips
+of his fingers on the little table.&nbsp; There were on that verandah
+two men whom he knew well personally, but his gaze roaming incessantly
+as though he were looking for a way of escape, passed and repassed over
+them without a sign of recognition.&nbsp; They, on their side, looking
+at him, doubted the evidence of their own eyes.&nbsp; It was not that
+his face was distorted.&nbsp; On the contrary, it was still, it was
+set.&nbsp; But its expression, somehow, was unrecognisable.&nbsp; Can
+that be him? they wondered with awe.</p>
+<p>In his head there was a wild chaos of clear thoughts.&nbsp; Perfectly
+clear.&nbsp; It was this clearness which was so terrible in conjunction
+with the utter inability to lay hold of any single one of them all.&nbsp;
+He was saying to himself, or to them: &ldquo;Steady, steady.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+A China boy appeared before him with a glass on a tray.&nbsp; He poured
+the drink down his throat, and rushed out.&nbsp; His disappearance removed
+the spell of wonder from the beholders.&nbsp; One of the men jumped
+up and moved quickly to that side of the verandah from which almost
+the whole of the roadstead could be seen.&nbsp; At the very moment when
+Jasper, issuing from the door of the Orange House, was passing under
+him in the street below, he cried to the others excitedly:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That was Allen right enough!&nbsp; But where is his brig?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Jasper heard these words with extraordinary loudness.&nbsp; The heavens
+rang with them, as if calling him to account; for those were the very
+words Freya would have to use.&nbsp; It was an annihilating question;
+it struck his consciousness like a thunderbolt and brought a sudden
+night upon the chaos of his thoughts even as he walked.&nbsp; He did
+not check his pace.&nbsp; He went on in the darkness for another three
+strides, and then fell.</p>
+<p>The good Mesman had to push on as far as the hospital before he found
+him.&nbsp; The doctor there talked of a slight heatstroke.&nbsp; Nothing
+very much.&nbsp; Out in three days. . . . It must be admitted that the
+doctor was right.&nbsp; In three days, Jasper Allen came out of the
+hospital and became visible to the town&mdash;very visible indeed&mdash;and
+remained so for quite a long time; long enough to become almost one
+of the sights of the place; long enough to become disregarded at last;
+long enough for the tale of his haunting visibility to be remembered
+in the islands to this day.</p>
+<p>The talk on the &ldquo;front&rdquo; and Jasper&rsquo;s appearance
+in the Orange House stand at the beginning of the famous <i>Bonito</i>
+case, and give a view of its two aspects&mdash;the practical and the
+psychological.&nbsp; The case for the courts and the case for compassion;
+that last terribly evident and yet obscure.</p>
+<p>It has, you must understand, remained obscure even for that friend
+of mine who wrote me the letter mentioned in the very first lines of
+this narrative.&nbsp; He was one of those in Mr. Mesman&rsquo;s office,
+and accompanied that gentleman in his search for Jasper.&nbsp; His letter
+described to me the two aspects and some of the episodes of the case.&nbsp;
+Heemskirk&rsquo;s attitude was that of deep thankfulness for not having
+lost his own ship, and that was all.&nbsp; Haze over the land was his
+explanation of having got so close to Tamissa reef.&nbsp; He saved his
+ship, and for the rest he did not care.&nbsp; As to the fat gunner,
+he deposed simply that he thought at the time that he was acting for
+the best by letting go the tow-rope, but admitted that he was greatly
+confused by the suddenness of the emergency.</p>
+<p>As a matter of fact, he had acted on very precise instructions from
+Heemskirk, to whom through several years&rsquo; service together in
+the East he had become a sort of devoted henchman.&nbsp; What was most
+amazing in the detention of the <i>Bonito</i> was his story how, proceeding
+to take possession of the firearms as ordered, he discovered that there
+were no firearms on board.&nbsp; All he found in the fore-cabin was
+an empty rack for the proper number of eighteen rifles, but of the rifles
+themselves never a single one anywhere in the ship.&nbsp; The mate of
+the brig, who looked rather ill and behaved excitedly, as though he
+were perhaps a lunatic, wanted him to believe that Captain Allen knew
+nothing of this; that it was he, the mate, who had recently sold these
+rifles in the dead of night to a certain person up the river.&nbsp;
+In proof of this story he produced a bag of silver dollars and pressed
+it on his, the gunner&rsquo;s, acceptance.&nbsp; Then, suddenly flinging
+it down on the deck, he beat his own head with both his fists and started
+heaping shocking curses upon his own soul for an ungrateful wretch not
+fit to live.</p>
+<p>All this the gunner reported at once to his commanding officer.</p>
+<p>What Heemskirk intended by taking upon himself to detain the <i>Bonito</i>
+it is difficult to say, except that he meant to bring some trouble into
+the life of the man favoured by Freya.&nbsp; He had been looking at
+Jasper with a desire to strike that man of kisses and embraces to the
+earth.&nbsp; The question was: How could he do it without giving himself
+away?&nbsp; But the report of the gunner created a serious case enough.&nbsp;
+Yet Allen had friends&mdash;and who could tell whether he wouldn&rsquo;t
+somehow succeed in wriggling out of it?&nbsp; The idea of simply towing
+the brig so much compromised on to the reef came to him while he was
+listening to the fat gunner in his cabin.&nbsp; There was but little
+risk of being disapproved now.&nbsp; And it should be made to appear
+an accident.</p>
+<p>Going out on deck he had gloated upon his unconscious victim with
+such a sinister roll of his eyes, such a queerly pursed mouth, that
+Jasper could not help smiling.&nbsp; And the lieutenant had gone on
+the bridge, saying to himself:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You wait!&nbsp; I shall spoil the taste of those sweet kisses
+for you.&nbsp; When you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that
+name won&rsquo;t bring a smile on your lips, I swear.&nbsp; You are
+delivered into my hands.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And this possibility had come about without any planning, one could
+almost say naturally, as if events had mysteriously shaped themselves
+to fit the purposes of a dark passion.&nbsp; The most astute scheming
+could not have served Heemskirk better.&nbsp; It was given to him to
+taste a transcendental, an incredible perfection of vengeance; to strike
+a deadly blow into that hated person&rsquo;s heart, and to watch him
+afterwards walking about with the dagger in his breast.</p>
+<p>For that is what the state of Jasper amounted to.&nbsp; He moved,
+acted, weary-eyed, keen-faced, lank and restless, with brusque movements
+and fierce gestures; he talked incessantly in a frenzied and fatigued
+voice, but within himself he knew that nothing would ever give him back
+the brig, just as nothing can heal a pierced heart.&nbsp; His soul,
+kept quiet in the stress of love by the unflinching Freya&rsquo;s influence,
+was like a still but overwound string.&nbsp; The shock had started it
+vibrating, and the string had snapped.&nbsp; He had waited for two years
+in a perfectly intoxicated confidence for a day that now would never
+come to a man disarmed for life by the loss of the brig, and, it seemed
+to him, made unfit for love to which he had no foothold to offer.</p>
+<p>Day after day he would traverse the length of the town, follow the
+coast, and, reaching the point of land opposite that part of the reef
+on which his brig lay stranded, look steadily across the water at her
+beloved form, once the home of an exulting hope, and now, in her inclined,
+desolated immobility, towering above the lonely sea-horizon, a symbol
+of despair.</p>
+<p>The crew had left her in due course in her own boats which directly
+they reached the town were sequestrated by the harbour authorities.&nbsp;
+The vessel, too, was sequestrated pending proceedings; but these same
+authorities did not take the trouble to set a guard on board.&nbsp;
+For, indeed, what could move her from there?&nbsp; Nothing, unless a
+miracle; nothing, unless Jasper&rsquo;s eyes, fastened on her tensely
+for hours together, as though he hoped by the mere power of vision to
+draw her to his breast.</p>
+<p>All this story, read in my friend&rsquo;s very chatty letter, dismayed
+me not a little.&nbsp; But it was really appalling to read his relation
+of how Schultz, the mate, went about everywhere affirming with desperate
+pertinacity that it was he alone who had sold the rifles.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+stole them,&rdquo; he protested.&nbsp; Of course, no one would believe
+him.&nbsp; My friend himself did not believe him, though he, of course,
+admired this self-sacrifice.&nbsp; But a good many people thought it
+was going too far to make oneself out a thief for the sake of a friend.&nbsp;
+Only, it was such an obvious lie, too, that it did not matter, perhaps.</p>
+<p>I, who, in view of Schultz&rsquo;s psychology, knew how true that
+must be, admit that I was appalled.&nbsp; So this was how a perfidious
+destiny took advantage of a generous impulse!&nbsp; And I felt as though
+I were an accomplice in this perfidy, since I did to a certain extent
+encourage Jasper.&nbsp; Yet I had warned him as well.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The man seemed to have gone crazy on this point,&rdquo; wrote
+my friend.&nbsp; &ldquo;He went to Mesman with his story.&nbsp; He says
+that some rascally white man living amongst the natives up that river
+made him drunk with some gin one evening, and then jeered at him for
+never having any money.&nbsp; Then he, protesting to us that he was
+an honest man and must be believed, described himself as being a thief
+whenever he took a drop too much, and told us that he went on board
+and passed the rifles one by one without the slightest compunction to
+a canoe which came alongside that night, receiving ten dollars apiece
+for them.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Next day he was ill with shame and grief, but had not the
+courage to confess his lapse to his benefactor.&nbsp; When the gunboat
+stopped the brig he felt ready to die with the apprehension of the consequences,
+and would have died happily, if he could have been able to bring the
+rifles back by the sacrifice of his life.&nbsp; He said nothing to Jasper,
+hoping that the brig would be released presently.&nbsp; When it turned
+out otherwise and his captain was detained on board the gunboat, he
+was ready to commit suicide from despair; only he thought it his duty
+to live in order to let the truth be known.&nbsp; &lsquo;I am an honest
+man!&nbsp; I am an honest man!&rsquo; he repeated, in a voice that brought
+tears to our eyes.&nbsp; &lsquo;You must believe me when I tell you
+that I am a thief&mdash;a vile, low, cunning, sneaking thief as soon
+as I&rsquo;ve had a glass or two.&nbsp; Take me somewhere where I may
+tell the truth on oath.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When we had at last convinced him that his story could be
+of no use to Jasper&mdash;for what Dutch court, having once got hold
+of an English trader, would accept such an explanation; and, indeed,
+how, when, where could one hope to find proofs of such a tale?&mdash;he
+made as if to tear his hair in handfuls, but, calming down, said: &lsquo;Good-bye,
+then, gentlemen,&rsquo; and went out of the room so crushed that he
+seemed hardly able to put one foot before the other.&nbsp; That very
+night he committed suicide by cutting his throat in the house of a half-caste
+with whom he had been lodging since he came ashore from the wreck.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>That throat, I thought with a shudder, which could produce the tender,
+persuasive, manly, but fascinating voice which had aroused Jasper&rsquo;s
+ready compassion and had secured Freya&rsquo;s sympathy!&nbsp; Who could
+ever have supposed such an end in store for the impossible, gentle Schultz,
+with his idiosyncrasy of na&iuml;ve pilfering, so absurdly straightforward
+that, even in the people who had suffered from it, it aroused nothing
+more than a sort of amused exasperation?&nbsp; He was really impossible.&nbsp;
+His lot evidently should have been a half-starved, mysterious, but by
+no means tragic existence as a mild-eyed, inoffensive beachcomber on
+the fringe of native life.&nbsp; There are occasions when the irony
+of fate, which some people profess to discover in the working out of
+our lives, wears the aspect of crude and savage jesting.</p>
+<p>I shook my head over the manes of Schultz, and went on with my friend&rsquo;s
+letter.&nbsp; It told me how the brig on the reef, looted by the natives
+from the coast villages, acquired gradually the lamentable aspect, the
+grey ghastliness of a wreck; while Jasper, fading daily into a mere
+shadow of a man, strode brusquely all along the &ldquo;front&rdquo;
+with horribly lively eyes and a faint, fixed smile on his lips, to spend
+the day on a lonely spit of sand looking eagerly at her, as though he
+had expected some shape on board to rise up and make some sort of sign
+to him over the decaying bulwarks.&nbsp; The Mesmans were taking care
+of him as far as it was possible.&nbsp; The <i>Bonito</i> case had been
+referred to Batavia, where no doubt it would fade away in a fog of official
+papers. . . . It was heartrending to read all this.&nbsp; That active
+and zealous officer, Lieutenant Heemskirk, his air of sullen, darkly-pained
+self-importance not lightened by the approval of his action conveyed
+to him unofficially, had gone on to take up his station in the Moluccas.
+. . .</p>
+<p>Then, at the end of the bulky, kindly-meant epistle, dealing with
+the island news of half a year at least, my friend wrote: &ldquo;A couple
+of months ago old Nelson turned up here, arriving by the mail-boat from
+Java.&nbsp; Came to see Mesman, it seems.&nbsp; A rather mysterious
+visit, and extraordinarily short, after coming all that way.&nbsp; He
+stayed just four days at the Orange House, with apparently nothing in
+particular to do, and then caught the south-going steamer for the Straits.&nbsp;
+I remember people saying at one time that Allen was rather sweet on
+old Nelson&rsquo;s daughter, the girl that was brought up by Mrs. Harley
+and then went to live with him at the Seven Isles group.&nbsp; Surely
+you remember old Nelson&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Remember old Nelson!&nbsp; Rather!</p>
+<p>The letter went on to inform me further that old Nelson, at least,
+remembered me, since some time after his flying visit to Makassar he
+had written to the Mesmans asking for my address in London.</p>
+<p>That old Nelson (or Nielsen), the note of whose personality was a
+profound, echoless irresponsiveness to everything around him, should
+wish to write, or find anything to write about to anybody, was in itself
+a cause for no small wonder.&nbsp; And to me, of all people!&nbsp; I
+waited with uneasy impatience for whatever disclosure could come from
+that naturally benighted intelligence, but my impatience had time to
+wear out before my eyes beheld old Nelson&rsquo;s trembling, painfully-formed
+handwriting, senile and childish at the same time, on an envelope bearing
+a penny stamp and the postal mark of the Notting Hill office.&nbsp;
+I delayed opening it in order to pay the tribute of astonishment due
+to the event by flinging my hands above my head.&nbsp; So he had come
+home to England, to be definitely Nelson; or else was on his way home
+to Denmark, where he would revert for ever to his original Nielsen!&nbsp;
+But old Nelson (or Nielsen) out of the tropics seemed unthinkable.&nbsp;
+And yet he was there, asking me to call.</p>
+<p>His address was at a boarding-house in one of those Bayswater squares,
+once of leisure, which nowadays are reduced to earning their living.&nbsp;
+Somebody had recommended him there.&nbsp; I started to call on him on
+one of those January days in London, one of those wintry days composed
+of the four devilish elements, cold, wet, mud, and grime, combined with
+a particular stickiness of atmosphere that clings like an unclean garment
+to one&rsquo;s very soul.&nbsp; Yet on approaching his abode I saw,
+like a flicker far behind the soiled veil of the four elements, the
+wearisome and splendid glitter of a blue sea with the Seven Islets like
+minute specks swimming in my eye, the high red roof of the bungalow
+crowning the very smallest of them all.&nbsp; This visual reminiscence
+was profoundly disturbing.&nbsp; I knocked at the door with a faltering
+hand.</p>
+<p>Old Nelson (or Nielsen) got up from the table at which he was sitting
+with a shabby pocket-book full of papers before him.&nbsp; He took off
+his spectacles before shaking hands.&nbsp; For a moment neither of us
+said a word; then, noticing me looking round somewhat expectantly, he
+murmured some words, of which I caught only &ldquo;daughter&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Hong Kong,&rdquo; cast his eyes down, and sighed.</p>
+<p>His moustache, sticking all ways out, as of yore, was quite white
+now.&nbsp; His old cheeks were softly rounded, with some colour in them;
+strangely enough, that something childlike always noticeable in the
+general contour of his physiognomy had become much more marked.&nbsp;
+Like his handwriting, he looked childish and senile.&nbsp; He showed
+his age most in his unintelligently furrowed, anxious forehead and in
+his round, innocent eyes, which appeared to me weak and blinking and
+watery; or was it that they were full of tears? . . .</p>
+<p>To discover old Nelson fully informed upon any matter whatever was
+a new experience.&nbsp; And after the first awkwardness had worn off
+he talked freely, with, now and then, a question to start him going
+whenever he lapsed into silence, which he would do suddenly, clasping
+his hands on his waistcoat in an attitude which would recall to me the
+east verandah, where he used to sit talking quietly and puffing out
+his cheeks in what seemed now old, very old days.&nbsp; He talked in
+a reasonable somewhat anxious tone.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, no.&nbsp; We did not know anything for weeks.&nbsp; Out
+of the way like that, we couldn&rsquo;t, of course.&nbsp; No mail service
+to the Seven Isles.&nbsp; But one day I ran over to Banka in my big
+sailing-boat to see whether there were any letters, and saw a Dutch
+paper.&nbsp; But it looked only like a bit of marine news: English brig
+<i>Bonito</i> gone ashore outside Makassar roads.&nbsp; That was all.&nbsp;
+I took the paper home with me and showed it to her.&nbsp; &lsquo;I will
+never forgive him!&rsquo; she cries with her old spirit.&nbsp; &lsquo;My
+dear,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;you are a sensible girl.&nbsp; The best
+man may lose a ship.&nbsp; But what about your health?&rsquo;&nbsp;
+I was beginning to be frightened at her looks.&nbsp; She would not let
+me talk even of going to Singapore before.&nbsp; But, really, such a
+sensible girl couldn&rsquo;t keep on objecting for ever.&nbsp; &lsquo;Do
+what you like, papa,&rsquo; she says.&nbsp; Rather a job, that.&nbsp;
+Had to catch a steamer at sea, but I got her over all right.&nbsp; There,
+doctors, of course.&nbsp; Fever.&nbsp; Anaemia.&nbsp; Put her to bed.&nbsp;
+Two or three women very kind to her.&nbsp; Naturally in our papers the
+whole story came out before long.&nbsp; She reads it to the end, lying
+on the couch; then hands the newspaper back to me, whispers &lsquo;Heemskirk,&rsquo;
+and goes off into a faint.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He blinked at me for quite a long time, his eyes running full of
+tears again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Next day,&rdquo; he began, without any emotion in his voice,
+&ldquo;she felt stronger, and we had a long talk.&nbsp; She told me
+everything.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Here old Nelson, with his eyes cast down, gave me the whole story
+of the Heemskirk episode in Freya&rsquo;s words; then went on in his
+rather jerky utterance, and looking up innocently:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;My dear,&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;you have behaved in
+the main like a sensible girl.&rsquo;&nbsp; &lsquo;I have been horrid,&rsquo;
+she cries, &lsquo;and he is breaking his heart over there.&rsquo;&nbsp;
+Well, she was too sensible not to see she wasn&rsquo;t in a state to
+travel.&nbsp; But I went.&nbsp; She told me to go.&nbsp; She was being
+looked after very well.&nbsp; Anaemia.&nbsp; Getting better, they said.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He paused.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You did see him?&rdquo; I murmured.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes; I did see him,&rdquo; he started again, talking in
+that reasonable voice as though he were arguing a point.&nbsp; &ldquo;I
+did see him.&nbsp; I came upon him.&nbsp; Eyes sunk an inch into his
+head; nothing but skin on the bones of his face, a skeleton in dirty
+white clothes.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s what he looked like.&nbsp; How Freya
+. . . But she never did&mdash;not really.&nbsp; He was sitting there,
+the only live thing for miles along that coast, on a drift-log washed
+up on the shore.&nbsp; They had clipped his hair in the hospital, and
+it had not grown again.&nbsp; He stared, holding his chin in his hand,
+and with nothing on the sea between him and the sky but that wreck.&nbsp;
+When I came up to him he just moved his head a bit.&nbsp; &lsquo;Is
+that you, old man?&rsquo; says he&mdash;like that.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;If you had seen him you would have understood at once how
+impossible it was for Freya to have ever loved that man.&nbsp; Well,
+well.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t say.&nbsp; She might have&mdash;something.&nbsp;
+She was lonely, you know.&nbsp; But really to go away with him!&nbsp;
+Never!&nbsp; Madness.&nbsp; She was too sensible . . . I began to reproach
+him gently.&nbsp; And by and by he turns on me.&nbsp; &lsquo;Write to
+you!&nbsp; What about?&nbsp; Come to her!&nbsp; What with?&nbsp; If
+I had been a man I would have carried her off, but she made a child,
+a happy child, of me.&nbsp; Tell her that the day the only thing I had
+belonging to me in the world perished on this reef I discovered that
+I had no power over her. . . Has she come here with you?&rsquo; he shouts,
+blazing at me suddenly with his hollow eyes.&nbsp; I shook my head.&nbsp;
+Come with me, indeed!&nbsp; Anaemia!&nbsp; &lsquo;Aha!&nbsp; You see?&nbsp;
+Go away, then, old man, and leave me alone here with that ghost,&rsquo;
+he says, jerking his head at the wreck of his brig.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Mad!&nbsp; It was getting dusk.&nbsp; I did not care to stop
+any longer all by myself with that man in that lonely place.&nbsp; I
+was not going to tell him of Freya&rsquo;s illness.&nbsp; Anaemia!&nbsp;
+What was the good?&nbsp; Mad!&nbsp; And what sort of husband would he
+have made, anyhow, for a sensible girl like Freya?&nbsp; Why, even my
+little property I could not have left them.&nbsp; The Dutch authorities
+would never have allowed an Englishman to settle there.&nbsp; It was
+not sold then.&nbsp; My man Mahmat, you know, was looking after it for
+me.&nbsp; Later on I let it go for a tenth of its value to a Dutch half-caste.&nbsp;
+But never mind.&nbsp; It was nothing to me then.&nbsp; Yes; I went away
+from him.&nbsp; I caught the return mail-boat.&nbsp; I told everything
+to Freya.&nbsp; &lsquo;He&rsquo;s mad,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;and, my
+dear, the only thing he loved was his brig.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps,&rsquo; she says to herself, looking straight
+away&mdash;her eyes were nearly as hollow as his&mdash;&lsquo;perhaps
+it is true.&nbsp; Yes!&nbsp; I would never allow him any power over
+me.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Old Nelson paused.&nbsp; I sat fascinated, and feeling a little cold
+in that room with a blazing fire.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So you see,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;she never really cared
+for him.&nbsp; Much too sensible.&nbsp; I took her away to Hong Kong.&nbsp;
+Change of climate, they said.&nbsp; Oh, these doctors!&nbsp; My God!&nbsp;
+Winter time!&nbsp; There came ten days of cold mists and wind and rain.&nbsp;
+Pneumonia.&nbsp; But look here!&nbsp; We talked a lot together.&nbsp;
+Days and evenings.&nbsp; Who else had she? . . . She talked a lot to
+me, my own girl.&nbsp; Sometimes she would laugh a little.&nbsp; Look
+at me and laugh a little&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I shuddered.&nbsp; He looked up vaguely, with a childish, puzzled
+moodiness.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She would say: &lsquo;I did not really mean to be a bad daughter
+to you, papa.&rsquo;&nbsp; And I would say: &lsquo;Of course, my dear.&nbsp;
+You could not have meant it.&rsquo;&nbsp; She would lie quiet and then
+say: &lsquo;I wonder?&rsquo;&nbsp; And sometimes, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve
+been really a coward,&rsquo; she would tell me.&nbsp; You know, sick
+people they say things.&nbsp; And so she would say too: &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve
+been conceited, headstrong, capricious.&nbsp; I sought my own gratification.&nbsp;
+I was selfish or afraid.&rsquo; . . . But sick people, you know, they
+say anything.&nbsp; And once, after lying silent almost all day, she
+said: &lsquo;Yes; perhaps, when the day came I would not have gone.&nbsp;
+Perhaps!&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; she cried.&nbsp; &lsquo;Draw
+the curtain, papa.&nbsp; Shut the sea out.&nbsp; It reproaches me with
+my folly.&rsquo;&rdquo;&nbsp; He gasped and paused.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;So you see,&rdquo; he went on in a murmur.&nbsp; &ldquo;Very
+ill, very ill indeed.&nbsp; Pneumonia.&nbsp; Very sudden.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+He pointed his finger at the carpet, while the thought of the poor girl,
+vanquished in her struggle with three men&rsquo;s absurdities, and coming
+at last to doubt her own self, held me in a very anguish of pity.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You see yourself,&rdquo; he began again in a downcast manner.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;She could not have really . . . She mentioned you several times.&nbsp;
+Good friend.&nbsp; Sensible man.&nbsp; So I wanted to tell you myself&mdash;let
+you know the truth.&nbsp; A fellow like that!&nbsp; How could it be?&nbsp;
+She was lonely.&nbsp; And perhaps for a while . . . Mere nothing.&nbsp;
+There could never have been a question of love for my Freya&mdash;such
+a sensible girl&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Man!&rdquo; I cried, rising upon him wrathfully, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t
+you see that she died of it?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He got up too.&nbsp; &ldquo;No! no!&rdquo; he stammered, as if angry.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;The doctors!&nbsp; Pneumonia.&nbsp; Low state.&nbsp; The inflammation
+of the . . . They told me.&nbsp; Pneu&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He did not finish the word.&nbsp; It ended in a sob.&nbsp; He flung
+his arms out in a gesture of despair, giving up his ghastly pretence
+with a low, heartrending cry:</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I thought that she was so sensible!&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
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