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diff --git a/old/17732-0.txt b/old/17732-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3c7c706..0000000 --- a/old/17732-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4048 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales Of Hearsay, by Joseph Conrad - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 - - -Title: Tales Of Hearsay - -Author: Joseph Conrad - -Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17732] -Last Updated: March 2, 2018 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF HEARSAY *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -TALES OF HEARSAY - -BY JOSEPH CONRAD - - - -COPYRIGHT, 1911, 1917, 1918, BY THE METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE CO. GARDEN -CITY, N. Y. - - - - -CONTENTS - -The Warrior's Soul - -Prince Roman - -The Tale - -The Black Mate - - - - - -THE WARRIOR'S SOUL (1917) - - -The old officer with long white moustaches gave rein to his indignation. - -“Is it possible that you youngsters should have no more sense than that! -Some of you had better wipe the milk off your upper lip before you start -to pass judgment on the few poor stragglers of a generation which has -done and suffered not a little in its time.” - -His hearers having expressed much compunction the ancient warrior became -appeased. But he was not silenced. - -“I am one of them--one of the stragglers, I mean,” he went on -patiently. “And what did we do? What have we achieved? He--the great -Napoleon--started upon us to emulate the Macedonian Alexander, with -a ruck of nations at his back. We opposed empty spaces to French -impetuosity, then we offered them an interminable battle so that their -army went at last to sleep in its positions lying down on the heaps of -its own dead. Then came the wall of fire in Moscow. It toppled down on -them. - -“Then began the long rout of the Grand Army. I have seen it stream on, -like the doomed flight of haggard, spectral sinners across the innermost -frozen circle of Dante's Inferno, ever widening before their despairing -eyes. - -“They who escaped must have had their souls doubly riveted inside their -bodies to carry them out of Russia through that frost fit to split -rocks. But to say that it was our fault that a single one of them got -away is mere ignorance. Why! Our own men suffered nearly to the limit of -their strength. Their Russian strength! - -“Of course our spirit was not broken; and then our cause was good--it -was holy. But that did not temper the wind much to men and horses. - -“The flesh is weak. Good or evil purpose, Humanity has to pay the price. -Why! In that very fight for that little village of which I have been -telling you we were fighting for the shelter of those old houses as much -as victory. And with the French it was the same. - -“It wasn't for the sake of glory, or for the sake of strategy. The -French knew that they would have to retreat before morning and we knew -perfectly well that they would go. As far as the war was concerned there -was nothing to fight about. Yet our infantry and theirs fought like wild -cats, or like heroes if you like that better, amongst the houses--hot -work enough---while the supports out in the open stood freezing in -a tempestuous north wind which drove the snow on earth and the great -masses of clouds in the sky at a terrific pace. The very air was -inexpressibly sombre by contrast with the white earth. I have never seen -God's creation look more sinister than on that day. - -“We, the cavalry (we were only a handful), had not much to do except -turn our backs to the wind and receive some stray French round shot. -This, I may tell you, was the last of the French guns and it was the -last time they had their artillery in position. Those guns never went -away from there either. We found them abandoned next morning. But that -afternoon they were keeping up an infernal fire on our attacking column; -the furious wind carried away the smoke and even the noise but we could -see the constant flicker of the tongues of fire along the French front. -Then a driving flurry of snow would hide everything except the dark red -flashes in the white swirl. - -“At intervals when the line cleared we could see away across the plain -to the right a sombre column moving endlessly; the great rout of the -Grand Army creeping on and on all the time while the fight on our left -went on with a great din and fury. The cruel whirlwind of snow swept -over that scene of death and desolation. And then the wind fell as -suddenly as it had arisen in the morning. - -“Presently we got orders to charge the retreating column; I don't know -why unless they wanted to prevent us from getting frozen in our saddles -by giving us something to do. We changed front half right and got into -motion at a walk to take that distant dark line in flank. It might have -been half-past two in the afternoon. - -“You must know that so far in this campaign my regiment had never been -on the main line of Napoleon's advance. All these months since the -invasion the army we belonged to had been wrestling with Oudinot in -the north. We had only come down lately, driving him before us to the -Beresina. - -“This was the first occasion, then, that I and my comrades had a close -view of Napoleon's Grand Army. It was an amazing and terrible sight. I -had heard of it from others; I had seen the stragglers from it: small -bands of marauders, parties of prisoners in the distance. But this was -the very column itself! A crawling, stumbling, starved, half-demented -mob. It issued from the forest a mile away and its head was lost in the -murk of the fields. We rode into it at a trot, which was the most we -could get out of our horses, and we stuck in that human mass as if in a -moving bog. There was no resistance. I heard a few shots, half a dozen -perhaps. Their very senses seemed frozen within them. I had time for a -good look while riding at the head of my squadron. Well, I assure you, -there were men walking on the outer edge so lost to everything but -their misery that they never turned their heads to look at our charge. -Soldiers! - -“My horse pushed over one of them with his chest. The poor wretch had a -dragoon's blue cloak, all torn and scorched, hanging from his shoulders -and he didn't even put his hand out to snatch at my bridle and save -himself. He just went down. Our troopers were pointing and slashing; -well, and of course at first I myself... What would you have! An enemy's -an enemy. Yet a sort of sickening awe crept into my heart. There was no -tumult--only a low deep murmur dwelt over them interspersed with louder -cries and groans while that mob kept on pushing and surging past us, -sightless and without feeling. A smell of scorched rags and festering -wounds hung in the air. My horse staggered in the eddies of swaying -men. But it was like cutting down galvanized corpses that didn't care. -Invaders! Yes... God was already dealing with them. - -“I touched my horse with the spurs to get clear. There was a sudden rush -and a sort of angry moan when our second squadron got into them on our -right. My horse plunged and somebody got hold of my leg. As I had no -mind to get pulled out of the saddle I gave a back-handed slash without -looking. I heard a cry and my leg was let go suddenly. - -“Just then I caught sight of the subaltern of my troop at some little -distance from me. His name was Tomassov. That multitude of resurrected -bodies with glassy eyes was seething round his horse as if blind, -growling crazily. He was sitting erect in his saddle, not looking down -at them and sheathing his sword deliberately. - -“This Tomassov, well, he had a beard. Of course we all had beards then. -Circumstances, lack of leisure, want of razors, too. No, seriously, we -were a wild-looking lot in those unforgotten days which so many, so very -many of us did not survive. You know our losses were awful, too. Yes, we -looked wild. _Des Russes sauvages_--what! - -“So he had a beard--this Tomassov I mean; but he did not look _sauvage_. -He was the youngest of us all. And that meant real youth. At a distance -he passed muster fairly well, what with the grime and the particular -stamp of that campaign on our faces. But directly you were near enough -to have a good look into his eyes, that was where his lack of age -showed, though he was not exactly a boy. - -“Those same eyes were blue, something like the blue of autumn skies, -dreamy and gay, too--innocent, believing eyes. A topknot of fair hair -decorated his brow like a gold diadem in what one would call normal -times. - -“You may think I am talking of him as if he were the hero of a novel. -Why, that's nothing to what the adjutant discovered about him. He -discovered that he had a 'lover's lips'--whatever that may be. If the -adjutant meant a nice mouth, why, it was nice enough, but of course it -was intended for a sneer. That adjutant of ours was not a very delicate -fellow. 'Look at those lover's lips,' he would exclaim in a loud tone -while Tomassov was talking. - -“Tomassov didn't quite like that sort of thing. But to a certain extent -he had laid himself open to banter by the lasting character of his -impressions which were connected with the passion of love and, perhaps, -were not of such a rare kind as he seemed to think them. What made -his comrades tolerant of his rhapsodies was the fact that they were -connected with France, with Paris! - -“You of the present generation, you cannot conceive how much prestige -there was then in those names for the whole world. Paris was the centre -of wonder for all human beings gifted with imagination. There we were, -the majority of us young and well connected, but not long out of our -hereditary nests in the provinces; simple servants of God; mere rustics, -if I may say so. So we were only too ready to listen to the tales of -France from our comrade Tomassov. He had been attached to our mission -in Paris the year before the war. High protections very likely--or maybe -sheer luck. - -“I don't think he could have been a very useful member of the mission -because of his youth and complete inexperience. And apparently all his -time in Paris was his own. The use he made of it was to fall in love, to -remain in that state, to cultivate it, to exist only for it in a manner -of speaking. - -“Thus it was something more than a mere memory that he had brought with -him from France. Memory is a fugitive thing. It can be falsified, it -can be effaced, it can be even doubted. Why! I myself come to doubt -sometimes that I, too, have been in Paris in my turn. And the long road -there with battles for its stages would appear still more incredible if -it were not for a certain musket ball which I have been carrying about -my person ever since a little cavalry affair which happened in Silesia -at the very beginning of the Leipsic campaign. - -“Passages of love, however, are more impressive perhaps than passages -of danger. You don't go affronting love in troops as it were. They are -rarer, more personal and more intimate. And remember that with Tomassov -all that was very fresh yet. He had not been home from France three -months when the war began. - -“His heart, his mind were full of that experience. He was really awed -by it, and he was simple enough to let it appear in his speeches. He -considered himself a sort of privileged person, not because a woman had -looked at him with favour, but simply because, how shall I say it, he -had had the wonderful illumination of his worship for her, as if it were -heaven itself that had done this for him. - -“Oh yes, he was very simple. A nice youngster, yet no fool; and with -that, utterly inexperienced, unsuspicious, and unthinking. You will find -one like that here and there in the provinces. He had some poetry in him -too. It could only be natural, something quite his own, not acquired. I -suppose Father Adam had some poetry in him of that natural sort. For the -rest _un Russe sauvage_ as the French sometimes call us, but not of that -kind which, they maintain, eats tallow candle for a delicacy. As to the -woman, the French woman, well, though I have also been in France with -a hundred thousand Russians, I have never seen her. Very likely she was -not in Paris then. And in any case hers were not the doors that would -fly open before simple fellows of my sort, you understand. Gilded salons -were never in my way. I could not tell you how she looked, which is -strange considering that I was, if I may say so, Tomassov's special -confidant. - -“He very soon got shy of talking before the others. I suppose the usual -camp-fire comments jarred his fine feelings. But I was left to him -and truly I had to submit. You can't very well expect a youngster in -Tomassov's state to hold his tongue altogether; and I--I suppose you -will hardly believe me--I am by nature a rather silent sort of person. - -“Very likely my silence appeared to him sympathetic. All the month of -September our regiment, quartered in villages, had come in for an easy -time. It was then that I heard most of that--you can't call it a story. -The story I have in my mind is not in that. Outpourings, let us call -them. - -“I would sit quite content to hold my peace, a whole hour perhaps, while -Tomassov talked with exaltation. And when he was done I would still hold -my peace. And then there would be produced a solemn effect of silence -which, I imagine, pleased Tomassov in a way. - -“She was of course not a woman in her first youth. A widow, maybe. At -any rate I never heard Tomassov mention her husband. She had a salon, -something very distinguished; a social centre in which she queened it -with great splendour. - -“Somehow, I fancy her court was composed mostly of men. But Tomassov, I -must say, kept such details out of his discourses wonderfully well. Upon -my word I don't know whether her hair was dark or fair, her eyes brown -or blue; what was her stature, her features, or her complexion. His love -soared above mere physical impressions. He never described her to me in -set terms; but he was ready to swear that in her presence everybody's -thoughts and feelings were bound to circle round her. She was that sort -of woman. Most wonderful conversations on all sorts of subjects went -on in her salon: but through them all there flowed unheard like a -mysterious strain of music the assertion, the power, the tyranny of -sheer beauty. So apparently the woman was beautiful. She detached all -these talking people from their life interests, and even from their -vanities. She was a secret delight and a secret trouble. All the men -when they looked at her fell to brooding as if struck by the thought -that their lives had been wasted. She was the very joy and shudder of -felicity and she brought only sadness and torment to the hearts of men. - -“In short, she must have been an extraordinary woman, or else Tomassov -was an extraordinary young fellow to feel in that way and to talk like -this about her. I told you the fellow had a lot of poetry in him and -observed that all this sounded true enough. It would be just about the -sorcery a woman very much out of the common would exercise, you know. -Poets do get close to truth somehow--there is no denying that. - -“There is no poetry in my composition, I know, but I have my share of -common shrewdness, and I have no doubt that the lady was kind to the -youngster, once he did find his way inside her salon. His getting in -is the real marvel. However, he did get in, the innocent, and he found -himself in distinguished company there, amongst men of considerable -position. And you know, what that means: thick waists, bald heads, teeth -that are not--as some satirist puts it. Imagine amongst them a nice -boy, fresh and simple, like an apple just off the tree; a modest, -good-looking, impressionable, adoring young barbarian. My word! What a -change! What a relief for jaded feelings! And with that, having, in his -nature that, dose; of poetry which saves even a simpleton from being a -fool. - -“He became an artlessly, unconditionally devoted slave. He was rewarded -by being smiled on and in time admitted to the intimacy of the house. -It may be that the unsophisticated young barbarian amused the exquisite -lady. Perhaps--since he didn't feed on tallow candles--he satisfied -some need of tenderness in the woman. You know, there are many kinds of -tenderness highly civilized women are capable of. Women with heads and -imagination, I mean, and no temperament to speak of, you understand. But -who is going to fathom their needs or their fancies? Most of the time -they themselves don't know much about their innermost moods, and blunder -out of one into another, sometimes with catastrophic results. And then -who is more surprised than they? However, Tomassov's case was in its -nature quite idyllic. The fashionable world was amused. His devotion -made for him a kind of social success. But he didn't care. There was his -one divinity, and there was the shrine where he was permitted to go in -and out without regard for official reception hours. - -“He took advantage of that privilege freely. Well, he had no official -duties, you know. The Military Mission was supposed to be more -complimentary than anything else, the head of it being a personal -friend of our Emperor Alexander; and he, too, was laying himself out for -successes in fashionable life exclusively--as it seemed. As it seemed. - -“One afternoon Tomassov called on the mistress of his thoughts earlier -than usual. She was not alone. There was a man with her, not one of the -thick-waisted, bald-headed personages, but a somebody all the same, -a man over thirty, a French officer who to some extent was also a -privileged intimate. Tomassov was not jealous of him. Such a sentiment -would have appeared presumptuous to the simple fellow. - -“On the contrary he admired that officer. You have no idea of the French -military men's prestige in those days, even with us Russian soldiers -who had managed to face them perhaps better than the rest. Victory had -marked them on the forehead--it seemed for ever. They would have been -more than human if they had not been conscious of it; but they were good -comrades and had a sort of brotherly feeling for all who bore arms, even -if it was against them. - -“And this was quite a superior example, an officer of the -major-general's staff, and a man of the best society besides. He was -powerfully built, and thoroughly masculine, though he was as carefully -groomed as a woman. He had the courteous self-possession of a man of the -world. His forehead, white as alabaster, contrasted impressively with -the healthy colour of his face. - -“I don't know whether he was jealous of Tomassov, but I suspect that -he might have been a little annoyed at him as at a sort of walking -absurdity of the sentimental order. But these men of the world are -impenetrable, and outwardly he condescended to recognize Tomassov's -existence even more distinctly than was strictly necessary. Once or -twice he had offered him some useful worldly advice with perfect tact -and delicacy. Tomassov was completely conquered by that evidence of -kindness under the cold polish of the best society. - -“Tomassov, introduced into the _petit salon_, found these two exquisite -people sitting on a sofa together and had the feeling of having -interrupted some special conversation. They looked at him strangely, he -thought; but he was not given to understand that he had intruded. After -a time the lady said to the officer--his name was De Castel--'I wish you -would take the trouble to ascertain the exact truth as to that rumour.' - -“'It's much more than a mere rumour,' remarked the officer. But he got -up submissively and went out. The lady turned to Tomassov and said: 'You -may stay with me.' - -“This express command made him supremely happy, though as a matter of -fact he had had no idea of going. - -“She regarded him with her kindly glances, which made something glow and -expand within his chest. It was a delicious feeling, even though it did -cut one's breath short now and then. Ecstatically he drank in the sound -of her tranquil, seductive talk full of innocent gaiety and of spiritual -quietude. His passion appeared to him to flame up and envelop her in -blue fiery tongues from head to foot and over her head, while her soul -reposed in the centre like a big white rose.... - -“H'm, good this. He told me many other things like that. But this is the -one I remember. He himself remembered everything because these were the -last memories of that woman. He was seeing her for the last time though -he did not know it then. - -“M. De Castel returned, breaking into that atmosphere of enchantment -Tomassov had been drinking in even to complete unconsciousness of the -external world. Tomassov could not help being struck by the distinction -of his movements, the ease of his manner, his superiority to all the -other men he knew, and he suffered from it. It occurred to him that -these two brilliant beings on the sofa were made for each other. - -“De Castel sitting down by the side of the lady murmured to her -discreetly, 'There is not the slightest doubt that it's true,' and -they both turned their eyes to Tomassov. Roused thoroughly from his -enchantment he became self-conscious; a feeling of shyness came over -him. He sat smiling faintly at them. - -“The lady without taking her eyes off the blushing Tomassov said with a -dreamy gravity quite unusual to her: - -“'I should like to know that your generosity can be supreme--without a -flaw. Love at its highest should be the origin of every perfection.' - -“Tomassov opened his eyes wide with admiration at this, as though her -lips had been dropping real pearls. The sentiment, however, was -not uttered for the primitive Russian youth but for the exquisitely -accomplished man of the world, De Castel. - -“Tomassov could not see the effect it produced because the French -officer lowered his head and sat there contemplating his admirably -polished boots. The lady whispered in a sympathetic tone: - -“'You have scruples?' - -“De Castel, without looking up, murmured: 'It could be turned into a -nice point of honour.' - -“She said vivaciously: 'That surely is artificial. I am all for natural -feelings. I believe in nothing else. But perhaps your conscience...' - -“He interrupted her: 'Not at all. My conscience is not childish. The -fate of those people is of no military importance to us. What can it -matter? The fortune of France is invincible.' - -“'Well then...' she uttered, meaningly, and rose from the couch. The -French officer stood up, too. Tomassov hastened to follow their example. -He was pained by his state of utter mental darkness. While he was -raising the lady's white hand to his lips he heard the French officer -say with marked emphasis: - -“'If he has the soul of a warrior (at that time, you know, people really -talked in that way), if he has the soul of a warrior he ought to fall at -your feet in gratitude.' - -“Tomassov felt himself plunged into even denser darkness than before. He -followed the French officer out of the room and out of the house; for he -had a notion that this was expected of him. - -“It was getting dusk, the weather was very bad, and the street was quite -deserted. The Frenchman lingered in it strangely. And Tomassov lingered, -too, without impatience. He was never in a hurry to get away from the -house in which she lived. And besides, something wonderful had happened -to him. The hand he had reverently raised by the tips of its fingers had -been pressed against his lips. He had received a secret favour! He was -almost frightened. The world had reeled--and it had hardly steadied -itself yet. De Castel stopped short at the corner of the quiet street. - -“'I don't care to be seen too much with you in the lighted -thoroughfares, M. Tomassov,' he said in a strangely grim tone. - -“'Why?' asked the young man, too startled to be offended. - -“'From prudence,' answered the other curtly. 'So we will have to part -here; but before we part I'll disclose to you something of which you -will see at once the importance.' - -“This, please note, was an evening in late March of the year 1812. For -a long time already there had been talk of a growing coolness between -Russia and France. The word war was being whispered in drawing rooms -louder and louder, and at last was heard in official circles. Thereupon -the Parisian police discovered that our military envoy had corrupted -some clerks at the Ministry of War and had obtained from them some very -important confidential documents. The wretched men (there were two -of them) had confessed their crime and were to be shot that night. -To-morrow all the town would be talking of the affair. But the worst was -that the Emperor Napoleon was furiously angry at the discovery, and had -made up his mind to have the Russian envoy arrested. - -“Such was De Castel's disclosure; and though he had spoken in low tones -Tomassov was stunned as by a great crash. - -“'Arrested,' he murmured, desolately. - -“'Yes, and kept as a state prisoner--with everybody belonging to -him....' - -“The French officer seized Tomassov's arm above the elbow and pressed it -hard. - -“'And kept in France,' he repeated into Tomassov's very ear, and then -letting him go stepped back a space and remained silent. - -“'And it's you, you, who are telling me this!' cried Tomassov in an -extremity of gratitude that was hardly greater than his admiration for -the generosity of his future foe. Could a brother have done for him -more! He sought to seize the hand of the French officer, but the latter -remained wrapped up closely in his cloak. Possibly in the dark he had -not noticed the attempt. He moved back a bit and in his self-possessed -voice of a man of the world, as though he were speaking across a card -table or something of the sort, he called Tomassov's attention to -the fact that if he meant to make use of the warning the moments were -precious. - -“'Indeed they are,' agreed the awed Tomassov. 'Good-bye then. I have -no word of thanks to equal your generosity; but if ever I have an -opportunity, I swear it, you may command my life....' - -“But the Frenchman retreated, had already vanished in the dark lonely -street. Tomassov was alone, and then he did not waste any of the -precious minutes of that night. - -“See how people's mere gossip and idle talk pass into history. In all -the memoirs of the time if you read them you will find it stated that -our envoy had a warning from some highly placed woman who was in love -with him. Of course it's known that he had successes with women, and in -the highest spheres, too, but the truth is that the person who warned -him was no other than our simple Tomassov--an altogether different sort -of lover from himself. - -“This then is the secret of our Emperor's representative's escape -from arrest. He and all his official household got out of France all -right--as history records. - -“And amongst that household there was our Tomassov of course. He had, -in the words of the French officer, the soul of a warrior. And what more -desolate prospect for a man with such a soul than to be imprisoned -on the eve of war; to be cut off from his country in danger, from his -military family, from his duty, from honour, and--well--from glory, too. - -“Tomassov used to shudder at the mere thought of the moral torture he -had escaped; and he nursed in his heart a boundless gratitude to the two -people who had saved him from that cruel ordeal. They were wonderful! -For him love and friendship were but two aspects of exalted perfection. -He had found these fine examples of it and he vowed them indeed a sort -of cult. It affected his attitude towards Frenchmen in general, great -patriot as he was. He was naturally indignant at the invasion of his -country, but this indignation had no personal animosity in it. His was -fundamentally a fine nature. He grieved at the appalling amount of human -suffering he saw around him. Yes, he was full of compassion for all -forms of mankind's misery in a manly way. - -“Less fine natures than his own did not understand this very well. In -the regiment they had nicknamed him the Humane Tomassov. - -“He didn't take offence at it. There is nothing incompatible between -humanity and a warrior's soul. People without compassion are the -civilians, government officials, merchants and such like. As to the -ferocious talk one hears from a lot of decent people in war time--well, -the tongue is an unruly member at best and when there is some excitement -going on there is no curbing its furious activity. - -“So I had not been very surprised to see our Tomassov sheathe -deliberately his sword right in the middle of that charge, you may say. -As we rode away after it he was very silent. He was not a chatterer as -a rule, but it was evident that this close view of the Grand Army had -affected him deeply, like some sight not of this earth. I had always -been a pretty tough individual myself--well, even I... and there was -that fellow with a lot of poetry in his nature! You may imagine what he -made of it to himself. We rode side by side without opening our lips. It -was simply beyond words. - -“We established our bivouac along the edge of the forest so as to get -some shelter for our horses. However, the boisterous north wind had -dropped as quickly as it had sprung up, and the great winter stillness -lay on the land from the Baltic to the Black Sea. One could almost feel -its cold, lifeless immensity reaching up to the stars. - -“Our men had lighted several fires for their officers and had cleared -the snow around them. We had big logs of wood for seats; it was a -very tolerable bivouac upon the whole, even without the exultation of -victory. We were to feel that later, but at present we were oppressed by -our stern and arduous task. - -“There were three of us round my fire. The third one was that adjutant. -He was perhaps a well-meaning chap but not so nice as he might have been -had he been less rough in manner and less crude in his perceptions. He -would reason about people's conduct as though a man were as simple a -figure as, say, two sticks laid across each other; whereas a man is much -more like the sea whose movements are too complicated to explain, and -whose depths may bring up God only knows what at any moment. - -“We talked a little about that charge. Not much. That sort of thing does -not lend itself to conversation. Tomassov muttered a few words about a -mere butchery. I had nothing to say. As I told you I had very soon let -my sword hang idle at my wrist. That starving mob had not even _tried_ -to defend itself. Just a few shots. We had two men wounded. Two!... and -we had charged the main column of Napoleon's Grand Army. - -“Tomassov muttered wearily: 'What was the good of it?' I did not wish -to argue, so I only just mumbled: 'Ah, well!' But the adjutant struck in -unpleasantly: - -“'Why, it warmed the men a bit. It has made me warm. That's a good -enough reason. But our Tomassov is so humane! And besides he has been in -love with a French woman, and thick as thieves with a lot of Frenchmen, -so he is sorry for them. Never mind, my boy, we are on the Paris road -now and you shall soon see her!' This was one of his usual, as we -believed them, foolish speeches. None of us but believed that the -getting to Paris would be a matter of years--of years. And lo! less than -eighteen months afterwards I was rooked of a lot of money in a gambling -hell in the Palais Royal. - -“Truth, being often the most senseless thing in the world, is sometimes -revealed to fools. I don't think that adjutant of ours believed in his -own words. He just wanted to tease Tomassov from habit. Purely from -habit. We of course said nothing, and so he took his head in his hands -and fell into a doze as he sat on a log in front of the fire. - -“Our cavalry was on the extreme right wing of the army, and I must -confess that we guarded it very badly. We had lost all sense of -insecurity by this time; but still we did keep up a pretence of doing -it in a way. Presently a trooper rode up leading a horse and Tomassov -mounted stiffly and went off on a round of the outposts. Of the -perfectly useless outposts. - -“The night was still, except for the crackling of the fires. The raging -wind had lifted far above the earth and not the faintest breath of it -could be heard. Only the full moon swam out with a rush into the sky and -suddenly hung high and motionless overhead. I remember raising my hairy -face to it for a moment. Then, I verily believe, I dozed off, too, bent -double on my log with my head towards the fierce blaze. - -“You know what an impermanent thing such slumber is. One moment you -drop into an abyss and the next you are back in the world that you would -think too deep for any noise but the trumpet of the Last Judgment. -And then off you go again. Your very soul seems to slip down into a -bottomless black pit. Then up once more into a startled consciousness. A -mere plaything of cruel sleep one is, then. Tormented both ways. - -“However, when my orderly appeared before me, repeating: 'Won't your -Honour be pleased to eat?... Won't your Honour be pleased to eat?...' I -managed to keep my hold of it--I mean that gaping consciousness. He was -offering me a sooty pot containing some grain boiled in water with a -pinch of salt. A wooden spoon was stuck in it. - -“At that time these were the only rations we were getting regularly. -Mere chicken food, confound it! But the Russian soldier is wonderful. -Well, my fellow waited till I had feasted and then went away carrying -off the empty pot. - -“I was no longer sleepy. Indeed, I had become awake with an exaggerated -mental consciousness of existence extending beyond my immediate -surroundings. Those are but exceptional moments with mankind, I am glad -to say. I had the intimate sensation of the earth in all its enormous -expanse wrapped in snow, with nothing showing on it but trees with their -straight stalk-like trunks and their funeral verdure; and in this aspect -of general mourning I seemed to hear the sighs of mankind falling to die -in the midst of a nature without life. They were Frenchmen. We didn't -hate them; they did not hate us; we had existed far apart--and suddenly -they had come rolling in with arms in their hands, without fear of God, -carrying with them other nations, and all to perish together in a long, -long trail of frozen corpses. I had an actual vision of that trail: -a pathetic multitude of small dark mounds stretching away under the -moonlight in a clear, still, and pitiless atmosphere--a sort of horrible -peace. - -“But what other peace could there be for them? What else did they -deserve? I don't know by what connection of emotions there came into my -head the thought that the earth was a pagan planet and not a fit abode -for Christian virtues. - -“You may be surprised that I should remember all this so well. What is -a passing emotion or half-formed thought to last in so many years of a -man's changing, inconsequential life? But what has fixed the emotion -of that evening in my recollection so that the slightest shadows remain -indelible was an event of strange finality, an event not likely to be -forgotten in a life-time--as you shall see. - -“I don't suppose I had been entertaining those thoughts more than five -minutes when something induced me to look over my shoulder. I can't -think it was a noise; the snow deadened all the sounds. Something it -must have been, some sort of signal reaching my consciousness. Anyway, I -turned my head, and there was the event approaching me, not that I knew -it or had the slightest premonition. All I saw in the distance were two -figures approaching in the moonlight. One of them was our Tomassov. The -dark mass behind him which moved across my sight were the horses which -his orderly was leading away. Tomassov was a very familiar appearance, -in long boots, a tall figure ending in a pointed hood. But by his side -advanced another figure. I mistrusted my eyes at first. It was amazing! -It had a shining crested helmet on its head and was muffled up in a -white cloak. The cloak was not as white as snow. Nothing in the world -is. It was white more like mist, with an aspect that was ghostly and -martial to an extraordinary degree. It was as if Tomassov had got hold -of the God of War himself. I could see at once that he was leading this -resplendent vision by the arm. Then I saw that he was holding it -up. While I stared and stared, they crept on--for indeed they were -creeping--and at last they crept into the light of our bivouac fire and -passed beyond the log I was sitting on. The blaze played on the helmet. -It was extremely battered and the frost-bitten face, full of sores, -under it was framed in bits of mangy fur. No God of War this, but a -French officer. The great white cuirassier's cloak was torn, burnt full -of holes. His feet were wrapped up in old sheepskins over remnants -of boots. They looked monstrous and he tottered on them, sustained by -Tomassov who lowered him most carefully on to the log on which I sat. - -“My amazement knew no bounds. - -“'You have brought in a prisoner,' I said to Tomassov, as if I could not -believe my eyes. - -“You must understand that unless they surrendered in large bodies we -made no prisoners. What would have been the good? Our Cossacks either -killed the stragglers or else let them alone, just as it happened. It -came really to the same thing in the end. - -“Tomassov turned to me with a very troubled look. - -“'He sprang up from the ground somewhere as I was leaving the outpost,' -he said. 'I believe he was making for it, for he walked blindly into my -horse. He got hold of my leg and of course none of our chaps dared touch -him then.' - -“'He had a narrow escape,' I said. - -“'He didn't appreciate it,' said Tomassov, looking even more troubled -than before. 'He came along holding to my stirrup leather. That's what -made me so late. He told me he was a staff officer; and then talking in -a voice such, I suppose, as the damned alone use, a croaking of rage -and pain, he said he had a favour to beg of me. A supreme favour. Did I -understand him, he asked in a sort of fiendish whisper. - -“'Of course I told him that I did. I said: _oui, je vous comprends_.' - -“'Then,' said he, 'do it. Now! At once--in the pity of your heart.' - -“Tomassov ceased and stared queerly at me above the head of the -prisoner. - -“I said, 'What did he mean?' - -“'That's what I asked him,' answered Tomassov in a dazed tone, 'and he -said that he wanted me to do him the favour to blow his brains out. As a -fellow soldier he said. 'As a man of feeling--as--as a humane man.' - -“The prisoner sat between us like an awful gashed mummy as to the face, -a martial scarecrow, a grotesque horror of rags and dirt, with awful -living eyes, full of vitality, full of unquenchable fire, in a body -of horrible affliction, a skeleton at the feast of glory. And suddenly -those shining unextinguishable eyes of his became fixed upon Tomassov. -He, poor fellow, fascinated, returned the ghastly stare of a suffering -soul in that mere husk of a man. The prisoner croaked at him in French. - -“'I recognize, you know. You are her Russian youngster. You were -very grateful. I call on you to pay the debt. Pay it, I say, with one -liberating shot. You are a man of honour. I have not even a broken -sabre. All my being recoils from my own degradation. You know me.' - -“Tomassov said nothing. - -“'Haven't you got the soul of a warrior?' the Frenchman asked in an -angry whisper, but with something of a mocking intention in it. - -“'I don't know,' said poor Tomassov. - -“What a look of contempt that scarecrow gave him out of his unquenchable -eyes. He seemed to live only by the force of infuriated and impotent -despair. Suddenly he gave a gasp and fell forward writhing in the -agony of cramp in all his limbs; a not unusual effect of the heat of a -camp-fire. It resembled the application of some horrible torture. But -he tried to fight against the pain at first. He only moaned low while we -bent over him so as to prevent him rolling into the fire, and muttered -feverishly at intervals: '_Tuez moi, tuez moi_...' till, vanquished by -the pain, he screamed in agony, time after time, each cry bursting out -through his compressed lips. - -“The adjutant woke up on the other side of the fire and started swearing -awfully at the beastly row that Frenchman was making. - -“'What's this? More of your infernal humanity, Tomassov,' he yelled -at us. 'Why don't you have him thrown out of this to the devil on the -snow?' - -“As we paid no attention to his shouts, he got up, cursing shockingly, -and went away to another fire. Presently the French officer became -easier. We propped him up against the log and sat silent on each side -of him till the bugles started their call at the first break of day. The -big flame, kept up all through the night, paled on the livid sheet -of snow, while the frozen air all round rang with the brazen notes of -cavalry trumpets. The Frenchman's eyes, fixed in a glassy stare, which -for a moment made us hope that he had died quietly sitting there between -us two, stirred slowly to right and left, looking at each of our faces -in turn. Tomassov and I exchanged glances of dismay. Then De Castel's -voice, unexpected in its renewed strength and ghastly self-possession, -made us shudder inwardly. - -“'_Bonjour, Messieurs_.' - -“His chin dropped on his breast. Tomassov addressed me in Russian. - -“'It is he, the man himself...' I nodded and Tomassov went on in a tone -of anguish: 'Yes, he! Brilliant, accomplished, envied by men, loved by -that woman--this horror--this miserable thing that cannot die. Look at -his eyes. It's terrible.' - -“I did not look, but I understood what Tomassov meant. We could do -nothing for him. This avenging winter of fate held both the fugitives -and the pursuers in its iron grip. Compassion was but a vain word before -that unrelenting destiny. I tried to say something about a convoy being -no doubt collected in the village--but I faltered at the mute glance -Tomassov gave me. We knew what those convoys were like: appalling mobs -of hopeless wretches driven on by the butts of Cossacks' lances, back to -the frozen inferno, with their faces set away from their homes. - -“Our two squadrons had been formed along the edge of the forest. The -minutes of anguish were passing. The Frenchman suddenly struggled to his -feet. We helped him almost without knowing what we were doing. - -“'Come,' he said, in measured tones. 'This is the moment.' He paused -for a long time, then with the same distinctness went on: 'On my word of -honour, all faith is dead in me.' - -“His voice lost suddenly its self-possession. After waiting a little -while he added in a murmur: 'And even my courage.... Upon my honour.' - -“Another long pause ensued before, with a great effort, he whispered -hoarsely: 'Isn't this enough to move a heart of stone? Am I to go on my -knees to you?' - -“Again a deep silence fell upon the three of us. Then the French officer -flung his last word of anger at Tomassov. - -“'Milksop!' - -“Not a feature of the poor fellow moved. I made up my mind to go and -fetch a couple of our troopers to lead that miserable prisoner away to -the village. There was nothing else for it. I had not moved six paces -towards the group of horses and orderlies in front of our squadron -when... but you have guessed it. Of course. And I, too, I guessed it, -for I give you my word that the report of Tomassov's pistol was the most -insignificant thing imaginable. The snow certainly does absorb sound. It -was a mere feeble pop. Of the orderlies holding our horses I don't think -one turned his head round. - -“Yes. Tomassov had done it. Destiny had led that De Castel to the man -who could understand him perfectly. But it was poor Tomassov's lot to be -the predestined victim. You know what the world's justice and mankind's -judgment are like. They fell heavily on him with a sort of inverted -hypocrisy. Why! That brute of an adjutant, himself, was the first to set -going horrified allusions to the shooting of a prisoner in cold blood! -Tomassov was not dismissed from the service of course. But after the -siege of Dantzig he asked for permission to resign from the army, and -went away to bury himself in the depths of his province, where a vague -story of some dark deed clung to him for years. - -“Yes. He had done it. And what was it? One warrior's soul paying its -debt a hundredfold to another warrior's soul by releasing it from a fate -worse than death--the loss of all faith and courage. You may look on -it in that way. I don't know. And perhaps poor Tomassov did not know -himself. But I was the first to approach that appalling dark group on -the snow: the Frenchman extended rigidly on his back, Tomassov kneeling -on one knee rather nearer to the feet than to the Frenchman's head. He -had taken his cap off and his hair shone like gold in the light drift -of flakes that had begun to fall. He was stooping over the dead in a -tenderly contemplative attitude. And his young, ingenuous face, with -lowered eyelids, expressed no grief, no sternness, no horror--but was -set in the repose of a profound, as if endless and endlessly silent, -meditation.” - - - - - -PRINCE ROMAN (1911) - - -“Events which happened seventy years ago are perhaps rather too far off -to be dragged aptly into a mere conversation. Of course the year 1831 is -for us an historical date, one of these fatal years when in the presence -of the world's passive indignation and eloquent sympathies we had once -more to murmur '_Vo Victis_' and count the cost in sorrow. Not that -we were ever very good at calculating, either, in prosperity or -in adversity. That's a lesson we could never learn, to the great -exasperation of our enemies who have bestowed upon us the epithet of -Incorrigible....” - -The speaker was of Polish nationality, that nationality not so much -alive as surviving, which persists in thinking, breathing, speaking, -hoping, and suffering in its grave, railed in by a million of bayonets -and triple-sealed with the seals of three great empires. - -The conversation was about aristocracy. How did this, nowadays -discredited, subject come up? It is some years ago now and the precise -recollection has faded. But I remember that it was not considered -practically as an ingredient in the social mixture; and I verily -believed that we arrived at that subject through some exchange of ideas -about patriotism--a somewhat discredited sentiment, because the delicacy -of our humanitarians regards it as a relic of barbarism. Yet neither the -great Florentine painter who closed his eyes in death thinking of his -city, nor St. Francis blessing with his last breath the town of Assisi, -were barbarians. It requires a certain greatness of soul to interpret -patriotism worthily--or else a sincerity of feeling denied to the -vulgar refinement of modern thought which cannot understand the august -simplicity of a sentiment proceeding from the very nature of things and -men. - -The aristocracy we were talking about was the very highest, the great -families of Europe, not impoverished, not converted, not liberalized, -the most distinctive and specialized class of all classes, for which -even ambition itself does not exist among the usual incentives to -activity and regulators of conduct. - -The undisputed right of leadership having passed away from them, we -judged that their great fortunes, their cosmopolitanism brought about by -wide alliances, their elevated station, in which there is so little to -gain and so much to lose, must make their position difficult in times -of political commotion or national upheaval. No longer born to -command--which is the very essence of aristocracy--it becomes difficult -for them to do aught else but hold aloof from the great movements of -popular passion. - -We had reached that conclusion when the remark about far-off events was -made and the date of 1831 mentioned. And the speaker continued: - -“I don't mean to say that I knew Prince Roman at that remote time. I -begin to feel pretty ancient, but I am not so ancient as that. In fact -Prince Roman was married the very year my father was born. It was in -1828; the 19th Century was young yet and the Prince was even younger -than the century, but I don't know exactly by how much. In any case -his was an early marriage. It was an ideal alliance from every point -of view. The girl was young and beautiful, an orphan heiress of a great -name and of a great fortune. The Prince, then an officer in the -Guards and distinguished amongst his fellows by something reserved -and reflective in his character, had fallen headlong in love with her -beauty, her charm, and the serious qualities of her mind and heart. He -was a rather silent young man; but his glances, his bearing, his whole -person expressed his absolute devotion to the woman of his choice, a -devotion which she returned in her own frank and fascinating manner. - -“The flame of this pure young passion promised to burn for ever; and for -a season it lit up the dry, cynical atmosphere of the great world of St. -Petersburg. The Emperor Nicholas himself, the grandfather of the present -man, the one who died from the Crimean War, the last perhaps of the -Autocrats with a mystical belief in the Divine character of his mission, -showed some interest in this pair of married lovers. It is true that -Nicholas kept a watchful eye on all the doings of the great Polish -nobles. The young people leading a life appropriate to their station -were obviously wrapped up in each other; and society, fascinated by the -sincerity of a feeling moving serenely among the artificialities of -its anxious and fastidious agitation, watched them with benevolent -indulgence and an amused tenderness. - -“The marriage was the social event of 1828, in the capital. Just forty -years afterwards I was staying in the country house of my mother's -brother in our southern provinces. - -“It was the dead of winter. The great lawn in front was as pure and -smooth as an alpine snowfield, a white and feathery level sparkling -under the sun as if sprinkled with diamond-dust, declining gently to -the lake--a long, sinuous piece of frozen water looking bluish and -more solid than the earth. A cold brilliant sun glided low above an -undulating horizon of great folds of snow in which the villages of -Ukrainian peasants remained out of sight, like clusters of boats hidden -in the hollows of a running sea. And everything was very still. - -“I don't know now how I had managed to escape at eleven o'clock in the -morning from the schoolroom. I was a boy of eight, the little girl, -my cousin, a few months younger than myself, though hereditarily more -quick-tempered, was less adventurous. So I had escaped alone; and -presently I found myself in the great stone-paved hall, warmed by a -monumental stove of white tiles, a much more pleasant locality than the -schoolroom, which for some reason or other, perhaps hygienic, was always -kept at a low temperature. - -“We children were aware that there was a guest staying in the house. He -had arrived the night before just as we were being driven off to bed. -We broke back through the line of beaters to rush and flatten our noses -against the dark window panes; but we were too late to see him alight. -We had only watched in a ruddy glare the big travelling carriage on -sleigh-runners harnessed with six horses, a black mass against the snow, -going off to the stables, preceded by a horseman carrying a blazing ball -of tow and resin in an iron basket at the end of a long stick swung from -his saddle bow. Two stable boys had been sent out early in the afternoon -along the snow-tracks to meet the expected guest at dusk and light his -way with these road torches. At that time, you must remember, there -was not a single mile of railways in our southern provinces. My little -cousin and I had no knowledge of trains and engines, except from -picture-books, as of things rather vague, extremely remote, and not -particularly interesting unless to grownups who travelled abroad. - -“Our notion of princes, perhaps a little more precise, was mainly -literary and had a glamour reflected from the light of fairy tales, in -which princes always appear young, charming, heroic, and fortunate. Yet, -as well as any other children, we could draw a firm line between the -real and the ideal. We knew that princes were historical personages. And -there was some glamour in that fact, too. But what had driven me to -roam cautiously over the house like an escaped prisoner was the hope of -snatching an interview with a special friend of mine, the head forester, -who generally came to make his report at that time of the day, I yearned -for news of a certain wolf. You know, in a country where wolves are to -be found, every winter almost brings forward an individual eminent by -the audacity of his misdeeds, by his more perfect wolfishness--so to -speak. I wanted to hear some new thrilling tale of that wolf--perhaps -the dramatic story of his death.... - -“But there was no one in the hall. - -“Deceived in my hopes, I became suddenly very much depressed. Unable to -slip back in triumph to my studies I elected to stroll spiritlessly into -the billiard room where certainly I had no business. There was no one -there either, and I felt very lost and desolate under its high ceiling, -all alone with the massive English billiard table which seemed, in -heavy, rectilinear silence, to disapprove of that small boy's intrusion. - -“As I began to think of retreat I heard footsteps in the adjoining -drawing room; and, before I could turn tail and flee, my uncle and his -guest appeared in the doorway. To run away after having been seen -would have been highly improper, so I stood my ground. My uncle looked -surprised to see me; the guest by his side was a spare man, of average -stature, buttoned up in a black frock coat and holding himself very -erect with a stiffly soldier-like carriage. From the folds of a soft -white cambric neck-cloth peeped the points of a collar close against -each shaven cheek. A few wisps of thin gray hair were brushed smoothly -across the top of his bald head. His face, which must have been -beautiful in its day, had preserved in age the harmonious simplicity -of its lines. What amazed me was its even, almost deathlike pallor. He -seemed to me to be prodigiously old. A faint smile, a mere momentary -alteration in the set of his thin lips acknowledged my blushing -confusion; and I became greatly interested to see him reach into the -inside breastpocket of his coat. He extracted therefrom a lead pencil -and a block of detachable pages, which he handed to my uncle with an -almost imperceptible bow. - -“I was very much astonished, but my uncle received it as a matter -of course. He wrote something at which the other glanced and nodded -slightly. A thin wrinkled hand--the hand was older than the face--patted -my cheek and then rested on my head lightly. An un-ringing voice, a -voice as colourless as the face itself, issued from his sunken lips, -while the eyes, dark and still, looked down at me kindly. - -“'And how old is this shy little boy?'” - -“Before I could answer my uncle wrote down my age on the pad. I was -deeply impressed. What was this ceremony? Was this personage too great -to be spoken to? Again he glanced at the pad, and again gave a nod, and -again that impersonal, mechanical voice was heard: 'He resembles his -grandfather.' - -“I remembered my paternal grandfather. He had died not long before. He, -too, was prodigiously old. And to me it seemed perfectly natural that -two such ancient and venerable persons should have known each other in -the dim ages of creation before my birth. But my uncle obviously had -not been aware of the fact. So obviously that the mechanical voice -explained: 'Yes, yes. Comrades in '31. He was one of those who knew. -Old times, my dear sir, old times....' - -“He made a gesture as if to put aside an importunate ghost. And now they -were both looking down at me. I wondered whether anything was expected -from me. To my round, questioning eyes my uncle remarked: 'He's -completely deaf.' And the unrelated, inexpressive voice said: 'Give me -your hand.' - -“Acutely conscious of inky fingers I put it out timidly. I had never -seen a deaf person before and was rather startled. He pressed it firmly -and then gave me a final pat on the head. - -“My uncle addressed me weightily: 'You have shaken hands with Prince -Roman S---------. It's something for you to remember when you grow up.' - -“I was impressed by his tone. I had enough historical information to -know vaguely that the Princes S--------- counted amongst the sovereign -Princes of Ruthenia till the union of all Ruthenian lands to the kingdom -of Poland, when they became great Polish magnates, sometime at the -beginning of the 15th Century. But what concerned me most was the -failure of the fairy-tale glamour. It was shocking to discover a prince -who was deaf, bald, meagre, and so prodigiously old. It never occurred -to me that this imposing and disappointing man had been young, rich, -beautiful; I could not know that he had been happy in the felicity of an -ideal marriage uniting two young hearts, two great names and two great -fortunes; happy with a happiness which, as in fairy tales, seemed -destined to last for ever.... - -“But it did not last for ever. It was fated not to last very long even -by the measure of the days allotted to men's passage on this earth where -enduring happiness is only found in the conclusion of fairy tales. A -daughter was born to them and shortly afterwards, the health of the -young princess began to fail. For a time she bore up with smiling -intrepidity, sustained by the feeling that now her existence was -necessary for the happiness of two lives. But at last the husband, -thoroughly alarmed by the rapid changes in her appearance, obtained an -unlimited leave and took her away from the capital to his parents in the -country. - -“The old prince and princess were extremely frightened at the state -of their beloved daughter-in-law. Preparations were at once made for a -journey abroad. But it seemed as if it were already too late; and the -invalid herself opposed the project with gentle obstinacy. Thin and pale -in the great armchair, where the insidious and obscure nervous malady -made her appear smaller and more frail every day without effacing the -smile of her eyes or the charming grace of her wasted face, she clung to -her native land and wished to breathe her native air. Nowhere else could -she expect to get well so quickly, nowhere else would it be so easy for -her to die. - -“She died before her little girl was two years old. The grief of -the husband was terrible and the more alarming to his parents because -perfectly silent and dry-eyed. After the funeral, while the immense -bareheaded crowd of peasants surrounding the private chapel on the -grounds was dispersing, the Prince, waving away his friends and -relations, remained alone to watch the masons of the estate closing the -family vault. When the last stone was in position he uttered a groan, -the first sound of pain which had escaped from him for days, and walking -away with lowered head shut himself up again in his apartments. - -“His father and mother feared for his reason. His outward tranquillity -was appalling to them. They had nothing to trust to but that very youth -which made his despair so self-absorbed and so intense. Old Prince John, -fretful and anxious, repeated: 'Poor Roman should be roused somehow. -He's so young.' But they could find nothing to rouse him with. And the -old princess, wiping her eyes, wished in her heart he were young enough -to come and cry at her knee. - -“In time Prince Roman, making an effort, would join now and again the -family circle. But it was as if his heart and his mind had been buried -in the family vault with the wife he had lost. He took to wandering in -the woods with a gun, watched over secretly by one of the keepers, who -would report in the evening that 'His Serenity has never fired a shot -all day.' Sometimes walking to the stables in the morning he would order -in subdued tones a horse to be saddled, wait switching his boot till it -was led up to him, then mount without a word and ride out of the gates -at a walking pace. He would be gone all day. People saw him on the -roads looking neither to the right nor to the left, white-faced, sitting -rigidly in the saddle like a horseman of stone on a living mount. - -“The peasants working in the fields, the great unhedged fields, looked -after him from the distance; and sometimes some sympathetic old woman on -the threshold of a low, thatched hut was moved to make the sign of the -cross in the air behind his back; as though he were one of themselves, a -simple village soul struck by a sore affliction. - -“He rode looking straight ahead seeing no one as if the earth were empty -and all mankind buried in that grave which had opened so suddenly in -his path to swallow up his happiness. What were men to him with their -sorrows, joys, labours and passions from which she who had been all the -world to him had been cut off so early? - -“They did not exist; and he would have felt as completely lonely and -abandoned as a man in the toils of a cruel nightmare if it had not been -for this countryside where he had been born and had spent his happy -boyish years. He knew it well--every slight rise crowned with trees -amongst the ploughed fields, every dell concealing a village. The dammed -streams made a chain of lakes set in the green meadows. Far away to the -north the great Lithuanian forest faced the sun, no higher than a hedge; -and to the south, the way to the plains, the vast brown spaces of the -earth touched the blue sky. - -“And this familiar landscape associated with the days without thought -and without sorrow, this land the charm of which he felt without even -looking at it soothed his pain, like the presence of an old friend who -sits silent and disregarded by one in some dark hour of life. - -“One afternoon, it happened that the Prince after turning his horse's -head for home remarked a low dense cloud of dark dust cutting off -slantwise a part of the view. He reined in on a knoll and peered. -There were slender gleams of steel here and there in that cloud, and it -contained moving forms which revealed themselves at last as a long line -of peasant carts full of soldiers, moving slowly in double file under -the escort of mounted Cossacks. - -“It was like an immense reptile creeping over the fields; its head -dipped out of sight in a slight hollow and its tail went on writhing and -growing shorter as though the monster were eating its way slowly into -the very heart of the land. - -“The Prince directed his way through a village lying a little off -the track. The roadside inn with its stable, byre, and barn under one -enormous thatched roof resembled a deformed, hunch-backed, ragged giant, -sprawling amongst the small huts of the peasants. The innkeeper, a -portly, dignified Jew, clad in a black satin coat reaching down to his -heels and girt with a red sash, stood at the door stroking his long -silvery beard. - -“He watched the Prince approach and bowed gravely from the waist, not -expecting to be noticed even, since it was well known that their young -lord had no eyes for anything or anybody in his grief. It was quite a -shock for him when the Prince pulled up and asked: - -“'What's all this, Yankel?' - -“'That is, please your Serenity, that is a convoy of footsoldiers they -are hurrying down to the south.' - -“He glanced right and left cautiously, but as there was no one near but -some children playing in the dust of the village street, he came up -close to the stirrup. - -“'Doesn't your Serenity know? It has begun already down there. All the -landowners great and small are out in arms and even the common people -have risen. Only yesterday the saddler from Grodek (it was a tiny -market-town near by) went through here with his two apprentices on his -way to join. He left even his cart with me. I gave him a guide through -our neighbourhood. You know, your Serenity, our people they travel a lot -and they see all that's going on, and they know all the roads.' - -“He tried to keep down his excitement, for the Jew Yankel, innkeeper and -tenant of all the mills on the estate, was a Polish patriot. And in a -still lower voice: - -“'I was already a married man when the French and all the other nations -passed this way with Napoleon. Tse! Tse! That was a great harvest for -death, _nu!_ Perhaps this time God will help.' - -“The Prince nodded. 'Perhaps'--and falling into deep meditation he let -his horse take him home. - -“That night he wrote a letter, and early in the morning sent a mounted -express to the post town. During the day he came out of his taciturnity, -to the great joy of the family circle, and conversed with his father -of recent events--the revolt in Warsaw, the flight of the Grand Duke -Constantine, the first slight successes of the Polish army (at that time -there was a Polish army); the risings in the provinces. Old Prince John, -moved and uneasy, speaking from a purely aristocratic point of view, -mistrusted the popular origins of the movement, regretted its democratic -tendencies, and did not believe in the possibility of success. He was -sad, inwardly agitated. - -“'I am judging all this calmly. There are secular principles of -legitimity and order which have been violated in this reckless -enterprise for the sake of most subversive illusions. Though of course -the patriotic impulses of the heart....' - -“Prince Roman had listened in a thoughtful attitude. He took advantage -of the pause to tell his father quietly that he had sent that morning a -letter to St. Petersburg resigning his commission in the Guards. - -“The old prince remained silent. He thought that he ought to have been -consulted. His son was also ordnance officer to the Emperor and he -knew that the Tsar would never forget this appearance of defection in a -Polish noble. In a discontented tone he pointed out to his son that as -it was he had an unlimited leave. The right thing would have been to -keep quiet. They had too much tact at Court to recall a man of his -name. Or at worst some distant mission might have been asked for--to the -Caucasus for instance--away from this unhappy struggle which was wrong -in principle and therefore destined to fail. - -“'Presently you shall find yourself without any interest in life and -with no occupation. And you shall need something to occupy you, my poor -boy. You have acted rashly, I fear.' - -“Prince Roman murmured. - -“'I thought it better.' - -“His father faltered under his steady gaze. - -“'Well, well--perhaps! But as ordnance officer to the Emperor and in -favour with all the Imperial family....' - -“'Those people had never been heard of when our house was already -illustrious,' the young man let fall disdainfully. - -“This was the sort of remark to which the old prince was sensible. - -“'Well--perhaps it is better,' he conceded at last. - -“The father and son parted affectionately for the night. The next -day Prince Roman seemed to have fallen back into the depths of his -indifference. He rode out as usual. He remembered that the day before -he had seen a reptile-like convoy of soldiery, bristling with bayonets, -crawling over the face of that land which was his. The woman he loved -had been his, too. Death had robbed him of her. Her loss had been to him -a moral shock. It had opened his heart to a greater sorrow, his mind -to a vaster thought, his eyes to all the past and to the existence of -another love fraught with pain but as mysteriously imperative as that -lost one to which he had entrusted his happiness. - -“That evening he retired earlier than usual and rang for his personal -servant. - -“'Go and see if there is light yet in the quarters of the -Master-of-the-Horse. If he is still up ask him to come and speak to me.' - -“While the servant was absent on this errand the Prince tore up hastily -some papers, locked the drawers of his desk, and hung a medallion, -containing the miniature of his wife, round his neck against his breast. - -“The man the Prince was expecting belonged to that past which the death -of his love had called to life. He was of a family of small nobles who -for generations had been adherents, servants, and friends of the Princes -S---------. He remembered the times before the last partition and had -taken part in the struggles of the last hour. He was a typical old Pole -of that class, with a great capacity for emotion, for blind enthusiasm; -with martial instincts and simple beliefs; and even with the old-time -habit of larding his speech with Latin words. And his kindly shrewd -eyes, his ruddy face, his lofty brow and his thick, gray, pendent -moustache were also very typical of his kind. - -“'Listen, Master Francis,' the Prince said familiarly and without -preliminaries. 'Listen, old friend. I am going to vanish from here -quietly. I go where something louder than my grief and yet something -with a voice very like it calls me. I confide in you alone. You will say -what's necessary when the time comes.' - -“The old man understood. His extended hands trembled exceedingly. But -as soon as he found his voice he thanked God aloud for letting him -live long enough to see the descendant of the illustrious family in its -youngest generation give an example _coram Gentibus_ of the love of his -country and of valour in the field. He doubted not of his dear Prince -attaining a place in council and in war worthy of his high birth; he saw -already that _in fulgore_ of family glory _affulget patride serenitas_. -At the end of the speech he burst into tears and fell into the Prince's -arms. - -“The Prince quieted the old man and when he had him seated in an -armchair and comparatively composed he said: - -“'Don't misunderstand me, Master Francis. You know how I loved my wife. -A loss like that opens one's eyes to unsuspected truths. There is no -question here of leadership and glory. I mean to go alone and to fight -obscurely in the ranks. I am going to offer my country what is mine to -offer, that is my life, as simply as the saddler from Grodek who went -through yesterday with his apprentices.' - -“The old man cried out at this. That could never be. He could not allow -it. But he had to give way before the arguments and the express will -of the Prince. “'Ha! If you say that it is a matter of feeling and -conscience--so be it. But you cannot go utterly alone. Alas! that I am -too old to be of any use. _Cripit verba dolor_, my dear Prince, at the -thought that I am over seventy and of no more account in the world than -a cripple in the church porch. It seems that to sit at home and pray to -God for the nation and for you is all I am fit for. But there is my son, -my youngest son, Peter. He will make a worthy companion for you. And -as it happens he's staying with me here. There has not been for ages a -Prince S--------- hazarding his life without a companion of our name to -ride by his side. You must have by you somebody who knows who you are if -only to let your parents and your old servant hear what is happening to -you. And when does your Princely Mightiness mean to start?' - -“'In an hour,' said the Prince; and the old man hurried off to warn his -son. - -“Prince Roman took up a candlestick and walked quietly along a dark -corridor in the silent house. The head-nurse said afterwards that waking -up suddenly she saw the Prince looking at his child, one hand shading -the light from its eyes. He stood and gazed at her for some time, and -then putting the candlestick on the floor bent over the cot and kissed -lightly the little girl who did not wake. He went out noiselessly, -taking the light away with him. She saw his face perfectly well, but she -could read nothing of his purpose in it. It was pale but perfectly calm -and after he turned away from the cot he never looked back at it once. - -“The only other trusted person, besides the old man and his son Peter, -was the Jew Yankel. When he asked the Prince where precisely he wanted -to be guided the Prince answered: 'To the nearest party.' A grandson -of the Jew, a lanky youth, conducted the two young men by little-known -paths across woods and morasses, and led them in sight of the few fires -of a small detachment camped in a hollow. Some invisible horses neighed, -a voice in the dark cried: 'Who goes there?'... and the young Jew -departed hurriedly, explaining that he must make haste home to be in -time for keeping the Sabbath. - -“Thus humbly and in accord with the simplicity of the vision of duty he -saw when death had removed the brilliant bandage of happiness from his -eyes, did Prince Roman bring his offering to his country. His companion -made himself known as the son of the Master of-the-Horse to the Princes -S--------- and declared him to be a relation, a distant cousin from the -same parts as himself and, as people presumed, of the same name. In -truth no one inquired much. Two more young men clearly of the right sort -had joined. Nothing more natural. - -“Prince Roman did not remain long in the south. One day while scouting -with several others, they were ambushed near the entrance of a village -by some Russian infantry. The first discharge laid low a good many and -the rest scattered in all directions. The Russians, too, did not stay, -being afraid of a return in force. After some time, the peasants coming -to view the scene extricated Prince Roman from under his dead horse. He -was unhurt but his faithful companion had been one of the first to fall. -The Prince helped the peasants to bury him and the other dead. - -“Then alone, not certain where to find the body of partizans which was -constantly moving about in all directions, he resolved to try and join -the main Polish army facing the Russians on the borders of Lithuania. -Disguised in peasant clothes, in case of meeting some marauding -Cossacks, he wandered a couple of weeks before he came upon a village -occupied by a regiment of Polish cavalry on outpost duty. - -“On a bench, before a peasant hut of a better sort, sat an elderly -officer whom he took for the colonel. The Prince approached -respectfully, told his story shortly and stated his desire to enlist; -and when asked his name by the officer, who had been looking him over -carefully, he gave on the spur of the moment the name of his dead -companion. - -“The elderly officer thought to himself: Here's the son of some peasant -proprietor of the liberated class. He liked his appearance. - -“'And can you read and write, my good fellow?'he asked. - -“'Yes, your honour, I can,' said the Prince. - -“'Good. Come along inside the hut; the regimental adjutant is there. He -will enter your name and administer the oath to you.' - -“The adjutant stared very hard at the newcomer but said nothing. When -all the forms had been gone through and the recruit gone out, he turned -to his superior officer. - -“'Do you know who that is?' - -“'Who? That Peter? A likely chap.' - -“'That's Prince Roman S---------.' - -“'Nonsense.' - -“But the adjutant was positive. He had seen the Prince several times, -about two years before, in the Castle in Warsaw. He had even spoken to -him once at a reception of officers held by the Grand Duke. - -“'He's changed. He seems much older, but I am certain of my man. I have -a good memory for faces.' - -“The two officers looked at each other in silence. - -“'He's sure to be recognized sooner or later,' murmured the adjutant. -The colonel shrugged his shoulders. - -“'It's no affair of ours--if he has a fancy to serve in the ranks. As to -being recognized it's not so likely. All our officers and men come from -the other end of Poland.' - -“He meditated gravely for a while, then smiled. 'He told me he could -read and write. There's nothing to prevent me making him a sergeant at -the first opportunity. He's sure to shape all right.' - -“Prince Roman as a non-commissioned officer surpassed the colonel's -expectations. Before long Sergeant Peter became famous for his -resourcefulness and courage. It was not the reckless courage of a -desperate man; it was a self-possessed, as if conscientious, valour -which nothing could dismay; a boundless but equable devotion, unaffected -by time, by reverses, by the discouragement of endless retreats, by the -bitterness of waning hopes and the horrors of pestilence added to the -toils and perils of war. It was in this year that the cholera made its -first appearance in Europe. It devastated the camps of both armies, -affecting the firmest minds with the terror of a mysterious death -stalking silently between the piled-up arms and around the bivouac -fires. - -“A sudden shriek would wake up the harassed soldiers and they would see -in the glow of embers one of themselves writhe on the ground like a worm -trodden on by an invisible foot. And before the dawn broke he would be -stiff and cold. Parties so visited have been known to rise like one man, -abandon the fire and run off into the night in mute panic. Or a comrade -talking to you on the march would stammer suddenly in the middle of a -sentence, roll affrighted eyes, and fall down with distorted face and -blue lips, breaking the ranks with the convulsions of his agony. Men -were struck in the saddle, on sentry duty, in the firing line, carrying -orders, serving the guns. I have been told that in a battalion forming -under fire with perfect steadiness for the assault of a village, three -cases occurred within five minutes at the head of the column; and the -attack could not be delivered because the leading companies scattered -all over the fields like chaff before the wind. - -“Sergeant Peter, young as he was, had a great influence over his men. -It was said that the number of desertions in the squadron in which he -served was less than in any other in the whole of that cavalry division. -Such was supposed to be the compelling example of one man's quiet -intrepidity in facing every form of danger and terror. - -“However that may be, he was liked and trusted generally. When the end -came and the remnants of that army corps, hard pressed on all sides, -were preparing to cross the Prussian frontier, Sergeant Peter had enough -influence to rally round him a score of troopers. He managed to escape -with them at night, from the hemmed-in army. He led this band through -200 miles of country covered by numerous Russian detachments and ravaged -by the cholera. But this was not to avoid captivity, to go into hiding -and try to save themselves. No. He led them into a fortress which was -still occupied by the Poles, and where the last stand of the vanquished -revolution was to be made. - -“This looks like mere fanaticism. But fanaticism is human. Man has -adored ferocious divinities. There is ferocity in every passion, even -in love itself. The religion of undying hope resembles the mad cult of -despair, of death, of annihilation. The difference lies in the moral -motive springing from the secret needs and the unexpressed aspiration -of the believers. It is only to vain men that all is vanity; and all is -deception only to those who have never been sincere with themselves. - -“It was in the fortress that my grandfather found himself together with -Sergeant Peter. My grandfather was a neighbour of the S--------- family -in the country but he did not know Prince Roman, who however knew his -name perfectly well. The Prince introduced himself one night as they -both sat on the ramparts, leaning against a gun carriage. - -“The service he wished to ask for was, in case of his being killed, to -have the intelligence conveyed to his parents. - -“They talked in low tones, the other servants of the piece lying about -near them. My grandfather gave the required promise, and then asked -frankly--for he was greatly interested by the disclosure so unexpectedly -made: - -“But tell me, Prince, why this request? Have you any evil forebodings as -to yourself?' - -“Not in the least; I was thinking of my people. They have no idea where -I am,' answered Prince Roman. 'I'll engage to do as much for you, if you -like. It's certain that half of us at least shall be killed before the -end, so there's an even chance of one of us surviving the other.' - -“My grandfather told him where, as he supposed, his wife and children -were then. From that moment till the end of the siege the two were much -together. On the day of the great assault my grandfather received a -severe wound. The town was taken. Next day the citadel itself, its -hospital full of dead and dying, its magazines empty, its defenders -having burnt their last cartridge, opened its gates. - -“During all the campaign the Prince, exposing his person conscientiously -on every occasion, had not received a scratch. No one had recognized him -or at any rate had betrayed his identity. Till then, as long as he did -his duty, it had mattered nothing who he was. - -“Now, however, the position was changed. As ex-guardsman and as late -ordnance officer to the Emperor, this rebel ran a serious risk of being -given special attention in the shape of a firing squad at ten paces. For -more than a month he remained lost in the miserable crowd of prisoners -packed in the casemates of the citadel, with just enough food to -keep body and soul together but otherwise allowed to die from wounds, -privation, and disease at the rate of forty or so a day. - -“The position of the fortress being central, new parties, captured in -the open in the course of a thorough pacification, were being sent in -frequently. Amongst such newcomers there happened to be a young man, a -personal friend of the Prince from his school days. He recognized him, -and in the extremity of his dismay cried aloud: 'My God! Roman, you -here!' - -“It is said that years of life embittered by remorse paid for this -momentary lack of self-control. All this happened in the main quadrangle -of the citadel. The warning gesture of the Prince came too late. -An officer of the gendarmes on guard had heard the exclamation. The -incident appeared to him worth inquiring into. The investigation which -followed was not very arduous because the Prince, asked categorically -for his real name, owned up at once. - -“The intelligence of the Prince S---------- being found amongst the -prisoners was sent to St. Petersburg. His parents were already there -living in sorrow, incertitude, and apprehension. The capital of the -Empire was the safest place to reside in for a noble whose son had -disappeared so mysteriously from home in a time of rebellion. The old -people had not heard from him, or of him, for months. They took care -not to contradict the rumours of suicide from despair circulating in the -great world, which remembered the interesting love-match, the charming -and frank happiness brought to an end by death. But they hoped secretly -that their son survived, and that he had been able to cross the frontier -with that part of the army which had surrendered to the Prussians. - -“The news of his captivity was a crushing blow. Directly, nothing could -be done for him. But the greatness of their name, of their position, -their wide relations and connections in the highest spheres, enabled his -parents to act indirectly and they moved heaven and earth, as the saying -is, to save their son from the 'consequences of his madness,' as poor -Prince John did not hesitate to express himself. Great personages -were approached by society leaders, high dignitaries were interviewed, -powerful officials were induced to take an interest in that affair. -The help of every possible secret influence was enlisted. Some private -secretaries got heavy bribes. The mistress of a certain senator obtained -a large sum of money. - -“But, as I have said, in such a glaring case no direct appeal could be -made and no open steps taken. All that could be done was to incline -by private representation the mind of the President of the Military -Commission to the side of clemency. He ended by being impressed by the -hints and suggestions, some of them from very high quarters, which he -received from St. Petersburg. And, after all, the gratitude of such -great nobles as the Princes S-------- was something worth having from -a worldly point of view. He was a good Russian but he was also a -good-natured man. Moreover, the hate of Poles was not at that time -a cardinal article of patriotic creed as it became some thirty years -later. He felt well disposed at first sight towards that young man, -bronzed, thin-faced, worn out by months of hard campaigning, the -hardships of the siege and the rigours of captivity. - -“The Commission was composed of three officers. It sat in the citadel in -a bare vaulted room behind a long black table. Some clerks occupied the -two ends, and besides the gendarmes who brought in the Prince there was -no one else there. - -“Within those four sinister walls shutting out from him all the -sights and sounds of liberty, all hopes of the future, all consoling -illusions--alone in the face of his enemies erected for judges, who can -tell how much love of life there was in Prince Roman? How much remained -in that sense of duty, revealed to him in sorrow? How much of his -awakened love for his native country? That country which demands to -be loved as no other country has ever been loved, with the -mournful affection one bears to the unforgotten dead and with the -unextinguishable fire of a hopeless passion which only a living, -breathing, warm ideal can kindle in our breasts for our pride, for our -weariness, for our exultation, for our undoing. - -“There is something monstrous in the thought of such an exaction till -it stands before us embodied in the shape of a fidelity without fear -and without reproach. Nearing the supreme moment of his life the Prince -could only have had the feeling that it was about to end. He answered -the questions put to him clearly, concisely--with the most profound -indifference. After all those tense months of action, to talk was a -weariness to him. But he concealed it, lest his foes should suspect in -his manner the apathy of discouragement or the numbness of a crushed -spirit. The details of his conduct could have no importance one way or -another; with his thoughts these men had nothing to do. He preserved a -scrupulously courteous tone. He had refused the permission to sit down. - -“What happened at this preliminary examination is only known from the -presiding officer. Pursuing the only possible course in that glaringly -bad case he tried from the first to bring to the Prince's mind the line -of defence he wished him to take. He absolutely framed his questions so -as to put the right answers in the culprit's mouth, going so far as to -suggest the very words: how, distracted by excessive grief after his -young wife's death, rendered irresponsible for his conduct by his -despair, in a moment of blind recklessness, without realizing the highly -reprehensible nature of the act, nor yet its danger and its dishonour, -he went off to join the nearest rebels on a sudden impulse. And that -now, penitently... - -“But Prince Roman was silent. The military judges looked at him -hopefully. In silence he reached for a pen and wrote on a sheet of paper -he found under his hand: 'I joined the national rising from conviction.' - -“He pushed the paper across the table. The president took it up, showed -it in turn to his two colleagues sitting to the right and left, then -looking fixedly at Prince Roman let it fall from his hand. And the -silence remained unbroken till he spoke to the gendarmes ordering them -to remove the prisoner. - -“Such was the written testimony of Prince Roman in the supreme moment of -his life. I have heard that the Princes of the S--------- family, in -all its branches, adopted the last two words: 'From conviction' for the -device under the armorial bearings of their house. I don't know whether -the report is true. My uncle could not tell me. He remarked only, that -naturally, it was not to be seen on Prince Roman's own seal. - -“He was condemned for life to Siberian mines. Emperor Nicholas, who -always took personal cognizance of all sentences on Polish nobility, -wrote with his own hand in the margin: 'The authorities are severely -warned to take care that this convict walks in chains like any other -criminal every step of the way.' - -“It was a sentence of deferred death. Very few survived entombment in -these mines for more than three years. Yet as he was reported as still -alive at the end of that time he was allowed, on a petition of his -parents and by way of exceptional grace, to serve as common soldier in -the Caucasus. All communication with him was forbidden. He had no civil -rights. For all practical purposes except that of suffering he was a -dead man. The little child he had been so careful not to wake up when -he kissed her in her cot, inherited all the fortune after Prince John's -death. Her existence saved those immense estates from confiscation. - -“It was twenty-five years before Prince Roman, stone deaf, his health -broken, was permitted to return to Poland. His daughter married -splendidly to a Polish Austrian _grand seigneur_ and, moving in the -cosmopolitan sphere of the highest European aristocracy, lived mostly -abroad in Nice and Vienna. He, settling down on one of her estates, not -the one with the palatial residence but another where there was a modest -little house, saw very little of her. - -“But Prince Roman did not shut himself up as if his work were done. -There was hardly anything done in the private and public life of the -neighbourhood, in which Prince Roman's advice and assistance were not -called upon, and never in vain. It was well said that his days did not -belong to himself but to his fellow citizens. And especially he was the -particular friend of all returned exiles, helping them with purse and -advice, arranging their affairs and finding them means of livelihood. - -“I heard from my uncle many tales of his devoted activity, in which he -was always guided by a simple wisdom, a high sense of honour, and the -most scrupulous conception of private and public probity. He remains a -living figure for me because of that meeting in a billiard room, when, -in my anxiety to hear about a particularly wolfish wolf, I came in -momentary contact with a man who was preeminently a man amongst all men -capable of feeling deeply, of believing steadily, of loving ardently. - -“I remember to this day the grasp of Prince Roman's bony, wrinkled hand -closing on my small inky paw, and my uncle's half-serious, half-amused -way of looking down at his trespassing nephew. - -“They moved on and forgot that little boy. But I did not move; I gazed -after them, not so much disappointed as disconcerted by this prince so -utterly unlike a prince in a fairy tale. They moved very slowly across -the room. Before reaching the other door the Prince stopped, and I heard -him--I seem to hear him now--saying: 'I wish you would write to Vienna -about filling up that post. He's a most deserving fellow--and your -recommendation would be decisive.' - -“My uncle's face turned to him expressed genuine wonder. It said as -plainly as any speech could say: What better recommendation than a -father's can be needed? The Prince was quick at reading expressions. -Again he spoke with the toneless accent of a man who has not heard his -own voice for years, for whom the soundless world is like an abode of -silent shades. - -“And to this day I remember the very words: 'I ask you because, you see, -my daughter and my son-in-law don't believe me to be a good judge -of men. They think that I let myself be guided too much by mere -sentiment.'” - - - - - -THE TALE (1917) - - -Outside the large single window the crepuscular light was dying out -slowly in a great square gleam without colour, framed rigidly in the -gathering shades of the room. - -It was a long room. The irresistible tide of the night ran into the most -distant part of it, where the whispering of a man's voice, passionately -interrupted and passionately renewed, seemed to plead against the -answering murmurs of infinite sadness. - -At last no answering murmur came. His movement when he rose slowly from -his knees by the side of the deep, shadowy couch holding the shadowy -suggestion of a reclining woman revealed him tall under the low ceiling, -and sombre all over except for the crude discord of the white collar -under the shape of his head and the faint, minute spark of a brass -button here and there on his uniform. - -He stood over her a moment, masculine and mysterious in his immobility, -before he sat down on a chair near by. He could see only the faint oval -of her upturned face and, extended on her black dress, her pale hands, a -moment before abandoned to his kisses and now as if too weary to move. - -He dared not make a sound, shrinking as a man would do from the prosaic -necessities of existence. As usual, it was the woman who had the -courage. Her voice was heard first--almost conventional while her being -vibrated yet with conflicting emotions. - -“Tell me something,” she said. - -The darkness hid his surprise and then his smile. Had he not just said -to her everything worth saying in the world--and that not for the first -time! - -“What am I to tell you?” he asked, in a voice creditably steady. He was -beginning to feel grateful to her for that something final in her tone -which had eased the strain. - -“Why not tell me a tale?” - -“A tale!” He was really amazed. - -“Yes. Why not?” - -These words came with a slight petulance, the hint of a loved woman's -capricious will, which is capricious only because it feels itself to to -be a law, embarrassing sometimes and always difficult to elude. - -“Why not?” he repeated, with a slightly mocking accent, as though he had -been asked to give her the moon. But now he was feeling a little angry -with her for that feminine mobility that slips out of an emotion as -easily as out of a splendid gown. - -He heard her say, a little unsteadily with a sort of fluttering -intonation which made him think suddenly of a butterfly's flight: - -“You used to tell--your--your simple and--and professional--tales very -well at one time. Or well enough to interest me. You had a--a sort of -art--in the days--the days before the war.” - -“Really?” he said, with involuntary gloom. “But now, you see, the war -is going on,” he continued in such a dead, equable tone that she felt a -slight chill fall over her shoulders. And yet she persisted. For there's -nothing more unswerving in the world than a woman's caprice. - -“It could be a tale not of this world,” she explained. - -“You want a tale of the other, the better world?” he asked, with a -matter-of-fact surprise. “You must evoke for that task those who have -already gone there.” - -“No. I don't mean that. I mean another--some other--world. In the -universe--not in heaven.” - -“I am relieved. But you forget that I have only five days' leave.” - -“Yes. And I've also taken a five days' leave from--from my duties.” - -“I like that word.” - -“What word?” - -“Duty.” - -“It is horrible--sometimes.” - -“Oh, that's because you think it's narrow. But it isn't. It contains -infinities, and--and so------” - -“What is this jargon?” - -He disregarded the interjected scorn. “An infinity of absolution, for -instance,” he continued. “But as to this another world'--who's going to -look for it and for the tale that is in it?” - -“You,” she said, with a strange, almost rough, sweetness of assertion. - -He made a shadowy movement of assent in his chair, the irony of which -not even the gathered darkness could render mysterious. - -“As you will. In that world, then, there was once upon a time a -Commanding Officer and a Northman. Put in the capitals, please, because -they had no other names. It was a world of seas and continents and -islands------” - -“Like the earth,” she murmured, bitterly. - -“Yes. What else could you expect from sending a man made of our common, -tormented clay on a voyage of discovery? What else could he find? What -else could you understand or care for, or feel the existence of even? -There was comedy in it, and slaughter.” - -“Always like the earth,” she murmured. “Always. And since I could find -in the universe only what was deeply rooted in the fibres of my being -there was love in it, too. But we won't talk of that.” - -“No. We won't,” she said, in a neutral tone which concealed perfectly -her relief--or her disappointment. Then after a pause she added: “It's -going to be a comic story.” - -“Well------” he paused, too. “Yes. In a way. In a very grim way. It will -be human, and, as you know, comedy is but a matter of the visual angle. -And it won't be a noisy story. All the long guns in it will be dumb--as -dumb as so many telescopes.” - -“Ah, there are guns in it, then! And may I ask--where?” - -“Afloat. You remember that the world of which we speak had its seas. A -war was going on in it. It was a funny work! and terribly in earnest. -Its war was being carried on over the land, over the water, under the -water, up in the air, and even under the ground. And many young men -in it, mostly in wardrooms and mess-rooms, used to say to each -other--pardon the unparliamentary word--they used to say, 'It's a damned -bad war, but it's better than no war at all.' Sounds flippant, doesn't -it.” - -He heard a nervous, impatient sigh in the depths of the couch while he -went on without a pause. - -“And yet there is more in it than meets the eye. I mean more wisdom. -Flippancy, like comedy, is but a matter of visual first impression. That -world was not very wise. But there was in it a certain amount of common -working sagacity. That, however, was mostly worked by the neutrals in -diverse ways, public and private, which had to be watched; watched by -acute minds and also by actual sharp eyes. They had to be very sharp -indeed, too, I assure you.” - -“I can imagine,” she murmured, appreciatively. - -“What is there that you can't imagine?” he pronounced, soberly. “You -have the world in you. But let us go back to our commanding officer, -who, of course, commanded a ship of a sort. My tales if often -professional (as you remarked just now) have never been technical. So -I'll just tell you that the ship was of a very ornamental sort once, -with lots of grace and elegance and luxury about her. Yes, once! She -was like a pretty woman who had suddenly put on a suit of sackcloth and -stuck revolvers in her belt. But she floated lightly, she moved nimbly, -she was quite good enough.” - -“That was the opinion of the commanding officer?” said the voice from -the couch. - -“It was. He used to be sent out with her along certain coasts to -see--what he could see. Just that. And sometimes he had some preliminary -information to help him, and sometimes he had not. And it was all one, -really. It was about as useful as information trying to convey the -locality and intentions of a cloud, of a phantom taking shape here and -there and impossible to seize, would have been. - -“It was in the early days of the war. What at first used to amaze -the commanding officer was the unchanged face of the waters, with its -familiar expression, neither more friendly nor more hostile. On fine -days the sun strikes sparks upon the blue; here and there a peaceful -smudge of smoke hangs in the distance, and it is impossible to believe -that the familiar clear horizon traces the limit of one great circular -ambush. - -“Yes, it is impossible to believe, till some day you see a ship not your -own ship (that isn't so impressive), but some ship in company, blow up -all of a sudden and plop under almost before you know what has happened -to her. Then you begin to believe. Henceforth you go out for the work -to see--what you can see, and you keep on at it with the conviction that -some day you will die from something you have not seen. One envies the -soldiers at the end of the day, wiping the sweat and blood from -their faces, counting the dead fallen to their hands, looking at the -devastated fields, the torn earth that seems to suffer and bleed -with them. One does, really. The final brutality of it--the taste of -primitive passion--the ferocious frankness of the blow struck with one's -hand--the direct call and the straight response. Well, the sea gave you -nothing of that, and seemed to pretend that there was nothing the matter -with the world.” - -She interrupted, stirring a little. - -“Oh, yes. Sincerity--frankness--passion--three words of your gospel. -Don't I know them!” - -“Think! Isn't it ours--believed in common?” he asked, anxiously, -yet without expecting an answer, and went on at once: “Such were the -feelings of the commanding officer. When the night came trailing over -the sea, hiding what looked like the hypocrisy of an old friend, it was -a relief. The night blinds you frankly--and there are circumstances when -the sunlight may grow as odious to one as falsehood itself. Night is all -right. - -“At night the commanding officer could let his thoughts get away--I -won't tell you where. Somewhere where there was no choice but between -truth and death. But thick weather, though it blinded one, brought -no such relief. Mist is deceitful, the dead luminosity of the fog is -irritating. It seems that you _ought_ to see. - -“One gloomy, nasty day the ship was steaming along her beat in sight -of a rocky, dangerous coast that stood out intensely black like an -India-ink drawing on gray paper. Presently the second in command spoke -to his chief. He thought he saw something on the water, to seaward. -Small wreckage, perhaps. - -“'But there shouldn't be any wreckage here, sir,' he remarked. - -“'No,' said the commanding officer. 'The last reported submarined ships -were sunk a long way to the westward. But one never knows. There may -have been others since then not reported nor seen. Gone with all hands.' - -“That was how it began. The ship's course was altered to pass the object -close; for it was necessary to have a good look at what one could see. -Close, but without touching; for it was not advisable to come in contact -with objects of any form whatever floating casually about. Close, but -without stopping or even diminishing speed; for in those times it was -not prudent to linger on any particular spot, even for a moment. I may -tell you at once that the object was not dangerous in itself. No use -in describing it. It may have been nothing more remarkable than, say, a -barrel of a certain shape and colour. But it was significant. - -“The smooth bow-wave hove it up as if for a closer inspection, and -then the ship, brought again to her course, turned her back on it with -indifference, while twenty pairs of eyes on her deck stared in all -directions trying to see--what they could see. - -“The commanding officer and his second in command discussed the object -with understanding. It appeared to them to be not so much a proof of the -sagacity as of the activity of certain neutrals. This activity had -in many cases taken the form of replenishing the stores of certain -submarines at sea. This was generally believed, if not absolutely known. -But the very nature of things in those early days pointed that way. -The object, looked at closely and turned away from with apparent -indifference, put it beyond doubt that something of the sort had been -done somewhere in the neighbourhood. - -“The object in itself was more than suspect. But the fact of its being -left in evidence roused other suspicions. Was it the result of some deep -and devilish purpose? As to that all speculation soon appeared to be a -vain thing. Finally the two officers came to the conclusion that it -wras left there most likely by accident, complicated possibly by some -unforeseen necessity; such, perhaps, as the sudden need to get away -quickly from the spot, or something of that kind. - -“Their discussion had been carried on in curt, weighty phrases, -separated by long, thoughtful silences. And all the time their eyes -roamed about the horizon in an everlasting, almost mechanical effort of -vigilance. The younger man summed up grimly: - -“'Well, it's evidence. That's what this is. Evidence of what we were -pretty certain of before. And plain, too.' - -“'And much good it will do to us,' retorted the commanding officer. 'The -parties are miles away; the submarine, devil only knows where, ready -to kill; and the noble neutral slipping away to the eastward, ready to -lie!' - -“The second in command laughed a little at the tone. But he guessed -that the neutral wouldn't even have to lie very much. Fellows like that, -unless caught in the very act, felt themselves pretty safe. They could -afford to chuckle. That fellow was probably chuckling to himself. It's -very possible he had been before at the game and didn't care a rap for -the bit of evidence left behind. It was a game in which practice made -one bold and successful, too. - -“And again he laughed faintly. But his commanding officer was in -revolt against the murderous stealthiness of methods and the atrocious -callousness of complicities that seemed to taint the very source of -men's deep emotions and noblest activities; to corrupt their -imagination which builds up the final conceptions of life and death. He -suffered-------” - -The voice from the sofa interrupted the narrator. - -“How well I can understand that in him!” - -He bent forward slightly. - -“Yes. I, too. Everything should be open in love and war. Open as -the day, since both are the call of an ideal which it is so easy, so -terribly easy, to degrade in the name of Victory.” - -He paused; then went on: I don't know that the commanding officer delved -so deep as that into his feelings. But he did suffer from them--a sort -of disenchanted sadness. It is possible, even, that he suspected himself -of folly. Man is various. But he had no time for much introspection, -because from the southwest a wall of fog had advanced upon his ship. -Great convolutions of vapours flew over, swirling about masts and -funnel, which looked as if they were beginning to melt. Then they -vanished. - -“The ship was stopped, all sounds ceased, and the very fog became -motionless, growing denser and as if solid in its amazing dumb -immobility. The men at their stations lost sight of each other. -Footsteps sounded stealthy; rare voices, impersonal and remote, died out -without resonance. A blind white stillness took possession of the world. - -“It looked, too, as if it would last for days. I don't mean to say that -the fog did not vary a little in its density. Now and then it would -thin out mysteriously, revealing to the men a more or less ghostly -presentment of their ship. Several times the shadow of the coast itself -swam darkly before their eyes through the fluctuating opaque brightness -of the great white cloud clinging to the water. - -“Taking advantage of these moments, the ship had been moved cautiously -nearer the shore. It was useless to remain out in such thick weather. -Her officers knew every nook and cranny of the coast along their beat. -They thought that she would be much better in a certain cove. It wasn't -a large place, just ample room for a ship to swing at her anchor. She -would have an easier time of it till the fog lifted up. - -“Slowly, with infinite caution and patience, they crept closer and -closer, seeing no more of the cliffs than an evanescent dark loom with a -narrow border of angry foam at its foot. At the moment of anchoring -the fog was so thick that for all they could see they might have been a -thousand miles out in the open sea. Yet the shelter of the land could -be felt. There was a peculiar quality in the stillness of the air. Very -faint, very elusive, the wash of the ripple against the encircling land -reached their ears, with mysterious sudden pauses. - -“The anchor dropped, the leads were laid in. The commanding officer went -below into his cabin. But he had not been there very long when a voice -outside his door requested his presence on deck. He thought to himself: -'What is it now?' He felt some impatience at being called out again to -face the wearisome fog. - -“He found that it had thinned again a little and had taken on a gloomy -hue from the dark cliffs which had no form, no outline, but asserted -themselves as a curtain of shadows all round the ship, except in one -bright spot, which was the entrance from the open sea. Several officers -were looking that way from the bridge. The second in command met him -with the breathlessly whispered information that there was another ship -in the cove. - -“She had been made out by several pairs of eyes only a couple of minutes -before. She was lying at anchor very near the entrance--a mere vague -blot on the fog's brightness. And the commanding officer by staring in -the direction pointed out to him by eager hands ended by distinguishing -it at last himself. Indubitably a vessel of some sort. - -“'It's a wonder we didn't run slap into her when coming in,' observed -the second in command. - -“'Send a boat on board before she vanishes,' said the commanding -officer. He surmised that this was a coaster. It could hardly be -anything else. But another thought came into his head suddenly. 'It is -a wonder,' he said to his second in command, who had rejoined him after -sending the boat away. - -“By that time both of them had been struck by the fact that the ship so -suddenly discovered had not manifested her presence by ringing her bell. - -“'We came in very quietly, that's true,' concluded the younger officer. -'But they must have heard our leadsmen at least. We couldn't have passed -her more than fifty yards off. The closest shave! They may even have -made us out, since they were aware of something coming in. And the -strange thing is that we never heard a sound from her. The fellows on -board must have been holding their breath.' - -“'Aye,' said the commanding officer, thoughtfully. - -“In due course the boarding-boat returned, appearing suddenly -alongside, as though she had burrowed her way under the fog. The officer -in charge came up to make his report, but the commanding officer didn't -give him time to begin. He cried from a distance: - -“'Coaster, isn't she?' - -“'No, sir. A stranger--a neutral,' was the answer. - -“'No. Really! Well, tell us all about it. What is she doing here?' - -“The young man stated then that he had been told a long and complicated -story of engine troubles. But it was plausible enough from a strictly -professional point of view and it had the usual features: disablement, -dangerous drifting along the shore, weather more or less thick for days, -fear of a gale, ultimately a resolve to go in and anchor anywhere on the -coast, and so on. Fairly plausible. - -“'Engines still disabled?' inquired the commanding officer. - -“'No, sir. She has steam on them.' - -“The commanding officer took his second aside. 'By Jove!' he said, 'you -were right! They were holding their breaths as we passed them. They -were.' - -“But the second in command had his doubts now. - -“'A fog like this does muffle small sounds, sir,' he remarked. 'And what -could his object be, after all?' - -“'To sneak out unnoticed,' answered the commanding officer. - -“'Then why didn't he? He might have done it, you know. Not exactly -unnoticed, perhaps. I don't suppose he could have slipped his cable -without making some noise. Still, in a minute or so he would have been -lost to view--clean gone before we had made him out fairly. Yet he -didn't.' - -“They looked at each other. The commanding officer shook his head. -Such suspicions as the one which had entered his head are not defended -easily. He did not even state it openly. The boarding officer finished -his report. The cargo of the ship was of a harmless and useful -character. She was bound to an English port. Papers and everything in -perfect order. Nothing suspicious to be detected anywhere. - -“Then passing to the men, he reported the crew on deck as the usual lot. -Engineers of the well-known type, and very full of their achievement in -repairing the engines. The mate surly. The master rather a fine specimen -of a Northman, civil enough, but appeared to have been drinking. Seemed -to be recover-ing from a regular bout of it. - -“'I told him I couldn't give him permission to proceed. He said he -wouldn't dare to move his ship her own length out in such weather as -this, permission or no permission. I left a man on board, though.' - -“'Quite right.' - -“The commanding officer, after communing with his suspicions for a time, -called his second aside. - -“'What if she were the very ship which had been feeding some infernal -submarine or other?' he said in an undertone. - -“The other started. Then, with conviction: - -“'She would get off scot-free. You couldn't prove it, sir.' - -“'I want to look into it myself.' - -“'From the report we've heard I am afraid you couldn't even make a case -for reasonable suspicion, sir.' - -“'I'll go on board all the same.' - -“He had made up his mind. Curiosity is the great motive power of -hatred and love. What did he expect to find? He could not have told -anybody--not even himself. - -“What he really expected to find there was the atmosphere, the -atmosphere of gratuitous treachery, which in his view nothing could -excuse; for he thought that even a passion of unrighteousness for its -own sake could not excuse that. But could he detect it? Sniff it? -Taste it? Receive some mysterious communication which would turn his -invincible suspicions into a certitude strong enough to provoke action -with all its risks? - -“The master met him on the after-deck, looming up in the fog amongst the -blurred shapes of the usual snip's fittings. He was a robust Northman, -bearded, and in the force of his age. A round leather cap fitted his -head closely. His hands were rammed deep into the pockets of his short -leather jacket. He kept them there while lie explained that at sea he -lived in the chart-room, and led the way there, striding carelessly. -Just before reaching the door under the bridge he staggered a little, -recovered himself, flung it open, and stood aside, leaning his shoulder -as if involuntarily against the side of the house, and staring vaguely -into the fog-filled space. But he followed the commanding officer at -once, flung the door to, snapped on the electric light, and hastened to -thrust his hands back into his pockets, as though afraid of being seized -by them either in friendship or in hostility. - -“The place was stuffy and hot. The usual chart-rack overhead was full, -and the chart on the table was kept unrolled by an empty cup standing on -a saucer half-full of some spilt dark liquid. A slightly nibbled biscuit -reposed on the chronometer-case. There were two settees, and one of them -had been made up into a bed with a pillow and some blankets, which were -now very much tumbled. The Northman let himself fall on it, his hands -still in his pockets. - -“'Well, here I am,' he said, with a curious air of being surprised at -the sound of his own voice. - -“The commanding officer from the other settee observed the handsome, -flushed face. Drops of fog hung on the yellow beard and moustaches of -the Northman. The much darker eyebrows ran together in a puzzled frown, -and suddenly he jumped up. - -“'What I mean is that I don't know where I am. I really don't,' he -burst out, with extreme earnestness. 'Hang it all! I got turned around -somehow. The fog has been after me for a week. More than a week. And -then my engines broke down. I will tell you how it was.' - -“He burst out into loquacity. It was not hurried, but it was insistent. -It was not continuous for all that. It was broken by the most queer, -thoughtful pauses. Each of these pauses lasted no more than a couple of -seconds, and each had the profoundity of an endless meditation. When he -began again nothing betrayed in him the slightest consciousness of -these intervals. There was the same fixed glance, the same unchanged -earnestness of tone. He didn't know. Indeed, more than one of these -pauses occurred in the middle of a sentence. - -“The commanding officer listened to the tale. It struck him as more -plausible than simple truth is in the habit of being. But that, perhaps, -was prejudice. All the time the Northman was speaking the commanding -officer had been aware of an inward voice, a grave murmur in the depth -of his very own self, telling another tale, as if on purpose to keep -alive in him his indignation and his anger with that baseness of greed -or of mere outlook which lies often at the root of simple ideas. - -“It was the story that had been already told to the boarding officer -an hour or so before. The commanding officer nodded slightly at the -Northman from time to time. The latter came to an end and turned his -eyes away. He added, as an afterthought: - -“'Wasn't it enough to drive a man out of his mind with worry? And it's my -first voyage to this part, too. And the ship's my own. Your officer has -seen the papers. She isn't much, as you can see for yourself. Just an -old cargo-boat. Bare living for my family.' - -“He raised a big arm to point at a row of photographs plastering the -bulkhead. The movement was ponderous, as if the arm had been made of -lead. The commanding officer said, carelessly: - -“'You will be making a fortune yet for your family with this old ship.' - -“'Yes, if I don't lose her,' said the Northman, gloomily. - -“'I mean--out of this war,' added the commanding officer. - -“The Northman stared at him in a curiously unseeing and at the same time -interested manner, as only eyes of a particular blue shade can stare. - -“'And you wouldn't be angry at it,' he said, 'would you? You are too -much of a gentleman. We didn't bring this on you. And suppose we sat -down and cried. What good would that be? Let those cry who made -the trouble,' he concluded, with energy. 'Time's money, you say. -Well--_this_ time _is_ money. Oh! isn't it!' - -“The commanding officer tried to keep under the feeling of immense -disgust. He said to himself that it was unreasonable. Men were like -that--moral cannibals feeding on each other's misfortunes. He said -aloud: - -“'You have made it perfectly plain how it is that you are here. Your -log-book confirms you very minutely. Of course, a log-book may be -cooked. Nothing easier.' - -“The Northman never moved a muscle. He was gazing at the floor; he -seemed not to have heard. He raised his head after a while. - -“'But you can't suspect me of anything,' he muttered, negligently. - -“The commanding officer thought: 'Why should he say this?' - -“Immediately afterwards the man before him added: 'My cargo is for an -English port.' - -“His voice had turned husky for the moment. The commanding officer -reflected: 'That's true. There can be nothing. I can't suspect him. Yet -why was he lying with steam up in this fog--and then, hearing us come -in, why didn't he give some sign of life? Why? Could it be anything else -but a guilty conscience? He could tell by the leadsmen that this was a -man-of-war.' - -“Yes--why? The commanding officer went on thinking: 'Suppose I ask -him and then watch his face. He will betray himself in some way. It's -perfectly plain that the fellow _has_ been drinking. Yes, he has been -drinking; but he will have a lie ready all the same.' The commanding -officer was one of those men who are made morally and almost physically -uncomfortable by the mere thought of having to beat down a lie. He -shrank from the act in scorn and disgust, which were invincible because -more temperamental than moral. - -“So he went out on deck instead and had the crew mustered formally for -his inspection. He found them very much what the report of the boarding -officer had led him to expect. And from their answers to his questions -he could discover no flaw in the log-book story. - -“He dismissed them. His impression of them was--a picked lot; have been -promised a fistful of money each if this came off; all slightly anxious, -but not frightened. Not a single one of them likely to give the show -away. They don't feel in danger of their life. They know England and -English ways too well! - -“He felt alarmed at catching himself thinking as if his vaguest -suspicions were turning into a certitude. For, indeed, there was no -shadow of reason for his inferences. There was nothing to give away. - -“He returned to the chart-room. The Northman had lingered behind there; -and something subtly different in his bearing, more bold in his blue, -glassy stare, induced the commanding officer to conclude that the fellow -had snatched at the opportunity to take another swig at the bottle he -must have had concealed somewhere. - -“He noticed, too, that the Northman on meeting his eyes put on an -elaborately surprised expression. At least, it seemed elaborated. -Nothing could be trusted. And the Englishman felt himself with -astonishing conviction faced by an enormous lie, solid like a wall, with -no way round to get at the truth, whose ugly murderous face he seemed to -see peeping over at him with a cynical grin. - -“'I dare say,' he began, suddenly, 'you are wondering at my proceedings, -though I am not detaining you, am I? You wouldn't dare to move in this -fog?' - -“'I don't know where I am,' the Northman ejaculated, earnestly. 'I -really don't.' - -“He looked around as if the very chart-room fittings were strange -to him. The commanding officer asked him whether he had not seen any -unusual objects floating about while he was at sea. - -“'Objects! What objects? We were groping blind in the fog for days.' - -“'We had a few clear intervals' said the commanding officer. 'And I'll -tell you what we have seen and the conclusion I've come to about it.' - -“He told him in a few words. He heard the sound of a sharp breath -indrawn through closed teeth. The Northman with his hand on the table -stood absolutely motionless and dumb. He stood as if thunderstruck. Then -he produced a fatuous smile. - -“Or at least so it appeared to the commanding officer. Was this -significant, or of no meaning whatever? He didn't know, he couldn't -tell. All the truth had departed out of the world as if drawn in, -absorbed in this monstrous villainy this man was--or was not--guilty of. - -“'Shooting's too good for people that conceive neutrality in this pretty -way,' remarked the commanding officer, after a silence. - -“'Yes, yes, yes,' the Northman assented, hurriedly--then added an -unexpected and dreamy-voiced 'Perhaps.' - -“Was he pretending to be drunk, or only trying to appear sober? His -glance was straight, but it was somewhat glazed. His lips outlined -themselves firmly under his yellow moustache. But they twitched. Did -they twitch? And why was he drooping like this in his attitude? - -“'There's no perhaps about it,' pronounced the commanding officer -sternly. - -“The Northman had straightened himself. And unexpectedly he looked -stern, too. - -“'No. But what about the tempters? Better kill that lot off. There's -about four, five, six million of them,' he said, grimly; but in a moment -changed into a whining key. 'But I had better hold my tongue. You have -some suspicions.' - -“'No, I've no suspicions,' declared the commanding officer. - -“He never faltered. At that moment he had the certitude. The air of the -chart-room was thick with guilt and falsehood braving the discovery, -defying simple right, common decency, all humanity of feeling, every -scruple of conduct. - -“The Northman drew a long breath. 'Well, we know that you English are -gentlemen. But let us speak the truth. Why should we love you so very -much? You haven't done anything to be loved. We don't love the other -people, of course. They haven't done anything for that either. A fellow -comes along with a bag of gold... I haven't been in Rotterdam my last -voyage for nothing.' - -“'You may be able to tell something interesting, then, to our people -when you come into port,' interjected the officer. - -“I might. But you keep some people in your pay at Rotterdam. Let them -report. I am a neutral--am I not?... Have you ever seen a poor man -on one side and a bag of gold on the other? Of course, I couldn't be -tempted. I haven't the nerve for it. Really I haven't. It's nothing to -me. I am just talking openly for once.' - -“'Yes. And I am listening to you,' said the commanding officer, quietly. - -“The Northman leaned forward over the table. 'Now that I know you have -no suspicions, I talk. You don't know what a poor man is. I do. I am -poor myself. This old ship, she isn't much, and she is mortgaged, too. -Bare living, no more. Of course, I wouldn't have the nerve. But a man -who has nerve! See. The stuff he takes aboard looks like any other -cargo--packages, barrels, tins, copper tubes--what not. He doesn't see -it work. It isn't real to him. But he sees the gold. That's real. Of -course, nothing could induce me. I suffer from an internal disease. I -would either go crazy from anxiety--or--or--take to drink or something. -The risk is too great. Why--ruin!' - -“'It should be death.' The commanding officer got up, after this curt -declaration, which the other received with a hard stare oddly combined -with an uncertain smile. The officer's gorge rose at the atmosphere of -murderous complicity which surrounded him, denser, more impenetrable, -more acrid than the fog outside. - -“'It's nothing to me,' murmured the Northman, swaying visibly. - -“'Of course not,' assented the commanding officer, with a great effort -to keep his voice calm and low. The certitude was strong within him. -'But I am going to clear all you fellows off this coast at once. And I -will begin with you. You must leave in half an hour.' - -“By that time the officer was walking along the deck with the Northman -at his elbow. - -“'What! In this fog?' the latter cried out, huskily. - -“'Yes, you will have to go in this fog.' - -“'But I don't know where I am. I really don't.' - -“The commanding officer turned round. A sort of fury possessed him. -The eyes of the two men met. Those of the Northman expressed a profound -amazement. - -“'Oh, you don't know how to get out.' The commanding officer spoke with -composure, but his heart was beating with anger and dread. 'I will give -you your course. Steer south-by-east-half-east for about four miles -and then you will be clear to haul to the eastward for your port. The -weather will clear up before very long.' - -“'Must I? What could induce me? I haven't the nerve.' - -“'And yet you must go. Unless you want to------' - -“'I don't want to,' panted the Northman. 'I've enough of it.' - -“The commanding officer got over the side. The Northman remained -still as if rooted to the deck. Before his boat reached his ship the -commanding officer heard the steamer beginning to pick up her anchor. -Then, shadowy in the fog, she steamed out on the given course. - -“'Yes,' he said to his officers, 'I let him go.'” - -The narrator bent forward towards the couch, where no movement betrayed -the presence of a living person. - -“Listen,” he said, forcibly. “That course would lead the Northman -straight on a deadly ledge of rock. And the commanding officer gave it -to him. He steamed out--ran on it--and went down. So he had spoken the -truth. He did not know where he was. But it proves nothing. Nothing -either way. It may have been the only truth in all his story. And yet... -He seems to have been driven out by a menacing stare--nothing more.” - -He abandoned all pretence. - -“Yes, I gave that course to him. It seemed to me a supreme test. I -believe--no, I don't believe. I don't know. At the time I was certain. -They all went down; and I don't know whether I have done stern -retribution--or murder; whether I have added to the corpses that litter -the bed of the unreadable sea the bodies of men completely innocent or -basely guilty. I don't know. I shall never know.” - -He rose. The woman on the couch got up and threw her arms round his -neck. Her eyes put two gleams in the deep shadow of the room. She knew -his passion for truth, his horror of deceit, his humanity. - -“Oh, my poor, poor------” - -“I shall never know,” he repeated, sternly, disengaged himself, pressed -her hands to his lips, and went out. - - - - - -THE BLACK MATE (1884) - - -A good many years ago there were several ships loading at the Jetty, -London Dock. I am speaking here of the 'eighties of the last century, of -the time when London had plenty of fine ships in the docks, though not -so many fine buildings in its streets. - -The ships at the Jetty were fine enough; they lay one behind the other; -and the __Sapphire__, third from the end, was as good as the rest of -them, and nothing more. Each ship at the Jetty had, of course, her chief -officer on board. So had every other ship in dock. - -The policeman at the gates knew them all by sight, without being able to -say at once, without thinking, to what ship any particular man belonged. -As a matter of fact, the mates of the ships then lying in the London -Dock were like the majority of officers in the Merchant Service--a -steady, hard-working, staunch, un-romantic-looking set of men, -belonging to various classes of society, but with the professional stamp -obliterating the personal characteristics, which were not very marked -anyhow. - -This last was true of them all, with the exception of the mate of the -_Sapphire_. Of him the policemen could not be in doubt. This one had a -presence. - -He was noticeable to them in the street from a great distance; and when -in the morning he strode down the Jetty to his ship, the lumpers and -the dock labourers rolling the bales and trundling the cases of cargo on -their hand-trucks would remark to each other: - -“Here's the black mate coming along.” - -That was the name they gave him, being a gross lot, who could have no -appreciation of the man's dignified bearing. And to call him black was -the superficial impressionism of the ignorant. - -Of course, Mr. Bunter, the mate of the _Sapphire_, was not black. He was -no more black than you or I, and certainly as white as any chief mate -of a ship in the whole of the Port of London. His complexion was of the -sort that did not take the tan easily; and I happen to know that -the poor fellow had had a month's illness just before he joined the -_Sapphire_. - -From this you will perceive that I knew Bunter. Of course I knew -him. And, what's more, I knew his secret at the time, this secret -which--never mind just now. Returning to Bunter's personal appearance, -it was nothing but ignorant prejudice on the part of the foreman -stevedore to say, as he did in my hearing: “I bet he's a furriner of -some sort.” A man may have black hair without being set down for a Dago. -I have known a West-country sailor, boatswain of a fine ship, who looked -more Spanish than any Spaniard afloat I've ever met. He looked like a -Spaniard in a picture. - -Competent authorities tell us that this earth is to be finally the -inheritance of men with dark hair and brown eyes. It seems that already -the great majority of mankind is dark-haired in various shades. But -it is only when you meet one that you notice how men with really black -hair, black as ebony, are rare. Bunter's hair was absolutely black, -black as a raven's wing. He wore, too, all his beard (clipped, but a -good length all the same), and his eyebrows were thick and bushy. Add -to this steely blue eyes, which in a fair-haired man would have been -nothing so extraordinary, but in that sombre framing made a startling -contrast, and you will easily understand that Bunter was noticeable -enough. - -If it had not been for the quietness of his movements, for the general -soberness of his demeanour, one would have given him credit for a -fiercely passionate nature. - -Of course, he was not in his first youth; but if the expression “in the -force of his age” has any meaning, he realized it completely. He was -a tall man, too, though rather spare. Seeing him from his poop -indefatigably busy with his duties, Captain Ashton, of the clipper -ship _Elsinore_, lying just ahead of the _Sapphire_, remarked once to a -friend that “Johns has got somebody there to hustle his ship along for -him.” - -Captain Johns, master of the _Sapphire_, having commanded ships for -many years, was well known without being much respected or liked. In the -company of his fellows he was either neglected or chaffed. The chaffing -was generally undertaken by Captain Ashton, a cynical and teasing sort -of man. It was Captain Ashton who permitted himself the unpleasant joke -of proclaiming once in company that “Johns is of the opinion that every -sailor above forty years of age ought to be poisoned--shipmasters in -actual command excepted.” - -It was in a City restaurant, where several well-known shipmasters were -having lunch together. There was Captain Ashton, florid and jovial, in a -large white waistcoat and with a yellow rose in his buttonhole; Captain -Sellers in a sack-coat, thin and pale-faced, with his iron-gray hair -tucked behind his ears, and, but for the absence of spectacles, looking -like an ascetical mild man of books; Captain Hell, a bluff sea-dog with -hairy fingers, in blue serge and a black felt hat pushed far back off -his crimson forehead. There was also a very young shipmaster, with -a little fair moustache and serious eyes, who said nothing, and only -smiled faintly from time to time. - -Captain Johns, very much startled, raised his perplexed and credulous -glance, which, together with a low and horizontally wrinkled brow, did -not make a very intellectual _ensemble_. This impression was by no means -mended by the slightly pointed form of his bald head. - -Everybody laughed outright, and, thus guided, Captain Johns ended by -smiling rather sourly, and attempted to defend himself. It was all very -well to joke, but nowadays, when ships, to pay anything at all, had to -be driven hard on the passage and in harbour, the sea was no place for -elderly men. Only young men and men in their prime were equal to modern -conditions of push and hurry. Look at the great firms: almost every -single one of them was getting rid of men showing any signs of age. He, -for one, didn't want any oldsters on board his ship. - -And, indeed, in this opinion Captain Johns was not singular. There was -at that time a lot of seamen, with nothing against them but that they -were grizzled, wearing out the soles of their last pair of boots on the -pavements of the City in the heart-breaking search for a berth. - -Captain Johns added with a sort of ill-humoured innocence that from -holding that opinion to thinking of poisoning people was a very long -step. - -This seemed final but Captain Ashton would not let go his joke. - -“Oh, yes. I am sure you would. You said distinctly 'of no use.' What's -to be done with men who are 'of no use?' You are a kind-hearted fellow, -Johns. I am sure that if only you thought it over carefully you would -consent to have them poisoned in some painless manner.” - -Captain Sellers twitched his thin, sinuous lips. - -“Make ghosts of them,” he suggested, pointedly. - -At the mention of ghosts Captain Johns became shy, in his perplexed, -sly, and unlovely manner. - -Captain Ashton winked. - -“Yes. And then perhaps you would get a chance to have a communication -with the world of spirits. Surely the ghosts of seamen should haunt -ships. Some of them would be sure to call on an old shipmate.” - -Captain Sellers remarked drily: - -“Don't raise his hopes like this. It's cruel. He won't see anything. You -know, Johns, that nobody has ever seen a ghost.” - -At this intolerable provocation Captain Johns came out of his reserve. -With no perplexity whatever, but with a positive passion of credulity -giving momentary lustre to his dull little eyes, he brought up a lot of -authenticated instances. There were books and books full of instances. -It was merest ignorance to deny supernatural apparitions. Cases were -published every month in a special newspaper. Professor Cranks saw -ghosts daily. And Professor Cranks was no small potatoes either. One -of the biggest scientific men living. And there was that newspaper -fellow--what's his name?--who had a girl-ghost visitor. He printed in -his paper things she said to him. And to say there were no ghosts after -that! - -“Why, they have been photographed! What more proof do you want?” - -Captain Johns was indignant. Captain Bell's lips twitched, but Captain -Ashton protested now. - -“For goodness' sake don't keep him going with that. And by the by, -Johns, who's that hairy pirate you've got for your new mate? Nobody in -the Dock seems to have seen him before.” - -Captain Johns, pacified by the change of subjects, answered simply that -Willy, the tobacconist at the corner of Fenchurch Street, had sent him -along. - -Willy, his shop, and the very house in Fenchurch Street, I believe, are -gone now. In his time, wearing a careworn, absent-minded look on his -pasty face, Willy served with tobacco many southern-going ships out of -the Port of London. At certain times of the day the shop would be full -of shipmasters. They sat on casks, they lounged against the counter. - -Many a youngster found his first lift in life there; many a man got -a sorely needed berth by simply dropping in for four pennyworth of -birds'-eye at an auspicious moment. Even Willy's assistant, a redheaded, -uninterested, delicate-looking young fellow, would hand you across -the counter sometimes a bit of valuable intelligence with your box of -cigarettes, in a whisper, lips hardly moving, thus: “The _Bellona_, -South Dock. Second officer wanted. You may be in time for it if you -hurry up.” - -And didn't one just fly! - -“Oh, Willy sent him,” said Captain Ashton. “He's a very striking man. If -you were to put a red sash round his waist and a red handkerchief round -his head he would look exactly like one of them buccaneering chaps that -made men walk the plank and carried women off into captivity. Look out, -Johns, he don't cut your throat for you and run off with the _Sapphire_. -What ship has he come out of last?” - -Captain Johns, after looking up credulously as usual, wrinkled his -brow, and said placidly that the man had seen better days. His name was -Bunter. - -“He's had command of a Liverpool ship, the _Samaria_, some years ago. He -lost her in the Indian Ocean, and had his certificate suspended for a -year. Ever since then he has not been able to get another command. He's -been knocking about in the Western Ocean trade lately.” - -“That accounts for him being a stranger to everybody about the Docks,” - Captain Ashton concluded as they rose from table. - -Captain Johns walked down to the Dock after lunch. He was short -of stature and slightly bandy. His appearance did not inspire the -generality of mankind with esteem; but it must have been otherwise -with his employers. He had the reputation of being an uncomfortable -commander, meticulous in trifles, always nursing a grievance of some -sort and incessantly nagging. He was not a man to kick up a row with you -and be done with it, but to say nasty things in a whining voice; a man -capable of making one's life a perfect misery if he took a dislike to an -officer. - -That very evening I went to see Bunter on board, and sympathized with -him on his prospects for the voyage. He was subdued. I suppose a man -with a secret locked up in his breast loses his buoyancy. And there was -another reason why I could not expect Bunter to show a great -elasticity of spirits. For one thing he had been very seedy lately, and -besides--but of that later. - -Captain Johns had been on board that afternoon and had loitered and -dodged about his chief mate in a manner which had annoyed Bunter -exceedingly. - -“What could he mean?” he asked with calm exasperation. “One would think -he suspected I had stolen something and tried to see in what pocket I -had stowed it away; or that somebody told him I had a tail and he wanted -to find out how I managed to conceal it. I don't like to be approached -from behind several times in one afternoon in that creepy way and then -to be looked up at suddenly in front from under my elbow. Is it a new -sort of peep-bo game? It doesn't amuse me. I am no longer a baby.” - -I assured him that if anyone were to tell Captain Johns that -he--Bunter--had a tail, Johns would manage to get himself to believe -the story in some mysterious manner. He would. He was suspicious and -credulous to an inconceivable degree. He would believe any silly tale, -suspect any man of anything, and crawl about with it and ruminate the -stuff, and turn it over and over in his mind in the most miserable, -inwardly whining perplexity. He would take the meanest possible view in -the end, and discover the meanest possible course of action by a sort of -natural genius for that sort of thing. - -Bunter also told me that the mean creature had crept all over the ship -on his little, bandy legs, taking him along to grumble and whine -to about a lot of trifles. Crept about the decks like a wretched -insect--like a cockroach, only not so lively. - -Thus did the self-possessed Bunter express himself with great disgust. -Then, going on with his usual stately deliberation, made sinister by the -frown of his jet-black eyebrows: - -“And the fellow is mad, too. He tried to be sociable for a bit, and -could find nothing else but to make big eyes at me, and ask me if I -believed 'in communication beyond the grave.' Communication beyond--I -didn't know what he meant at first. I didn't know what to say. 'A very -solemn subject, Mr. Bunter,' says he. I've given a great deal of study -to it.” - -Had Johns lived on shore he would have been the predestined prey of -fraudulent mediums; or even if he had had any decent opportunities -between the voyages. Luckily for him, when in England, he lived -somewhere far away in Leytonstone, with a maiden sister ten years older -than himself, a fearsome virago twice his size, before whom he trembled. -It was said she bullied him terribly in general; and in the particular -instance of his spiritualistic leanings she had her own views. - -These leanings were to her simply satanic. She was reported as having -declared that, “With God's help, she would prevent that fool from -giving himself up to the Devils.” It was beyond doubt that Johns' secret -ambition was to get into personal communication with the spirits of the -dead--if only his sister would let him. But she was adamant. I was told -that while in London he had to account to her for every penny of the -money he took with him in the morning, and for every hour of his time. -And she kept the bankbook, too. - -Bunter (he had been a wild youngster, but he was well connected; -had ancestors; there was a family tomb somewhere in the home -counties)--Bunter was indignant, perhaps on account of his own dead. -Those steely-blue eyes of his flashed with positive ferocity out of that -black-bearded face. He impressed me--there was so much dark passion in -his leisurely contempt. - -“The cheek of the fellow! Enter into relations with... A mean little cad -like this! It would be an impudent intrusion. He wants to enter!... What -is it? A new sort of snobbishness or what?” - -I laughed outright at this original view of spiritism--or whatever the -ghost craze is called. Even Bunter himself condescended to smile. But it -was an austere, quickly vanished smile. A man in his almost, I may say, -tragic position couldn't be expected--you understand. He was really -worried. He was ready eventually to put up with any dirty trick in the -course of the voyage. A man could not expect much consideration should -he find himself at the mercy of a fellow like Johns. A misfortune is -a misfortune, and there's an end of it. But to be bored by mean, -low-spirited, inane ghost stories in the Johns style, all the way out -to Calcutta and back again, was an intolerable apprehension to be under. -Spiritism was indeed a solemn subject to think about in that light. -Dreadful, even! - -Poor fellow! Little we both thought that before very long he himself... -However, I could give him no comfort. I was rather appalled myself. - -Bunter had also another annoyance that day. A confounded berthing master -came on board on some pretence or other, but in reality, Bunter thought, -simply impelled by an inconvenient curiosity--inconvenient to Bunter, -that is. After some beating about the bush, that man suddenly said: - -“I can't help thinking. I've seen you before somewhere, Mr. Mate. If I -heard your name, perhaps Bunter--” - -That's the worst of a life with a mystery in it--he was much alarmed. It -was very likely that the man had seen him before--worse luck to his -excellent memory. Bunter himself could not be expected to remember every -casual dock walloper he might have had to do with. Bunter brazened it -out by turning upon the man, making use of that impressive, -black-as-night sternness of expression his unusual hair furnished -him with: - -“My name's Bunter, sir. Does that enlighten your inquisitive intellect? -And I don't ask what your name may be. I don't want to know. I've no -use for it, sir. An individual who calmly tells me to my face that he is -_not sure_ if he has seen me before, either means to be impudent or is -no better than a worm, sir. Yes, I said a worm--a blind worm!” - -Brave Bunter. That was the line to take. He fairly drove the beggar out -of the ship, as if every word had been a blow. But the pertinacity of -that brass-bound Paul Pry was astonishing. He cleared out of the ship, -of course, before Bunter's ire, not saying anything, and only trying to -cover up his retreat by a sickly smile. But once on the Jetty he turned -deliberately round, and set himself to stare in dead earnest at -the ship. He remained planted there like a mooring-post, absolutely -motionless, and with his stupid eyes winking no more than a pair of -cabin portholes. - -What could Bunter do? It was awkward for him, you know. He could not -go and put his head into the bread-locker. What he did was to take up -a position abaft the mizzen-rigging, and stare back as unwinking as -the other. So they remained, and I don't know which of them grew giddy -first; but the man on the Jetty, not having the advantage of something -to hold on to, got tired the soonest, flung his arm, giving the contest -up, as it were, and went away at last. - -Bunter told me he was glad the _Sapphire_, “that gem amongst ships” as -he alluded to her sarcastically, was going to sea next day. He had had -enough of the Dock. I understood his impatience. He had steeled himself -against any possible worry the voyage might bring, though it is clear -enough now that he was not prepared for the extraordinary experience -that was awaiting him already, and in no other part of the world than -the Indian Ocean itself; the very part of the world where the poor -fellow had lost his ship and had broken his luck, as it seemed for good -and all, at the same time. - -As to his remorse in regard to a certain secret action of his life, -well, I understand that a man of Bunter's fine character would suffer -not a little. Still, between ourselves, and without the slightest wish -to be cynical, it cannot be denied that with the noblest of us the fear -of being found out enters for some considerable part into the composition -of remorse. I didn't say this in so many words to Bunter, but, as the -poor fellow harped a bit on it, I told him that there were skeletons in -a good many honest cupboards, and that, as to his own particular guilt, -it wasn't writ large on his face for everybody to see--so he needn't -worry as to that. And besides, he would be gone to sea in about twelve -hours from now. - -He said there was some comfort in that thought, and went off then -to spend his last evening for many months with his wife. For all his -wildness, Bunter had made no mistake in his marrying. He had married a -lady. A perfect lady. She was a dear little woman, too. As to her pluck, -I, who know what times they had to go through, I cannot admire her -enough for it. Real, hard-wearing every day and day after day pluck that -only a woman is capable of when she is of the right sort--the undismayed -sort I would call it. - -The black mate felt this parting with his wife more than any of -the previous ones in all the years of bad luck. But she was of the -undismayed kind, and showed less trouble in her gentle face than the -black-haired, buccaneer-like, but dignified mate of the _Sapphire_. It -may be that her conscience was less disturbed than her husband's. Of -course, his life had no secret places for her; but a woman's conscience -is somewhat more resourceful in finding good and valid excuses. It -depends greatly on the person that needs them, too. - -They had agreed that she should not come down to the Dock to see him -off. “I wonder you care to look at me at all,” said the sensitive man. -And she did not laugh. - -Bunter was very sensitive; he left her rather brusquely at the last. -He got on board in good time, and produced the usual impression on the -mud-pilot in the broken-down straw hat who took the _Sapphire_ out of -dock. The river-man was very polite to the dignified, striking-looking -chief mate. “The five-inch manilla for the check-rope, Mr.--Bunter, -thank you--Mr. Bunter, please.” The sea-pilot who left the “gem of -ships” heading comfortably down Channel off Dover told some of his -friends that, this voyage, the _Sapphire_ had for chief mate a man -who seemed a jolly sight too good for old Johns. “Bunter's his name. -I wonder where he's sprung from? Never seen him before in any ship -I piloted in or out all these years. He's the sort of man you don't -forget. You couldn't. A thorough good sailor, too. And won't old Johns -just worry his head off! Unless the old fool should take fright at -him--for he does not seem the sort of man that would let himself be put -upon without letting you know what he thinks of you. And that's exactly -what old Johns would be more afraid of than of anything else.” - -As this is really meant to be the record of a spiritualistic experience -which came, if not precisely to Captain Johns himself, at any rate to -his ship, there is no use in recording the other events of the passage -out. It was an ordinary passage, the crew was an ordinary crew, the -weather was of the usual kind. The black mate's quiet, sedate method of -going to work had given a sober tone to the life of the ship. Even in -gales of wind everything went on quietly somehow. - -There was only one severe blow which made things fairly lively for all -hands for full four-and-twenty hours. That was off the coast of Africa, -after passing the Cape of Good Hope. At the very height of it several -heavy seas were shipped with no serious results, but there was a -considerable smashing of breakable objects in the pantry and in the -staterooms. Mr. Bunter, who was so greatly respected on board, found -himself treated scurvily by the Southern Ocean, which, bursting open the -door of his room like a ruffianly burglar, carried off several useful -things, and made all the others extremely wet. - -Later, on the same day, the Southern Ocean caused the _Sapphire_ to -lurch over in such an unrestrained fashion that the two drawers fitted -under Mr. Bunter's sleeping-berth flew out altogether, spilling all -their contents. They ought, of course, to have been locked, and Mr. -Bunter had only to thank himself for what had happened. He ought to have -turned the key on each before going out on deck. - -His consternation was very great. The steward, who was paddling about -all the time with swabs, trying to dry out the flooded cuddy, heard him -exclaim “Hallo!” in a startled and dismayed tone. In the midst of his -work the steward felt a sympathetic concern for the mate's distress. - -Captain Johns was secretly glad when he heard of the damage. He was -indeed afraid of his chief mate, as the sea-pilot had ventured to -foretell, and afraid of him for the very reason the sea-pilot had put -forward as likely. - -Captain Johns, therefore, would have liked very much to hold that -black mate of his at his mercy in some way or other. But the man was -irreproachable, as near absolute perfection as could be. And Captain -Johns was much annoyed, and at the same time congratulated himself on -his chief officer's efficiency. - -He made a great show of living sociably with him, on the principle that -the more friendly you are with a man the more easily you may catch him -tripping; and also for the reason that he wanted to have somebody who -would listen to his stories of manifestations, apparitions, ghosts, and -all the rest of the imbecile spook-lore. He had it all at his fingers' -ends; and he spun those ghostly yarns in a persistent, colourless voice, -giving them a futile turn peculiarly his own. - -“I like to converse with my officers,” he used to say. “There are -masters that hardly ever open their mouths from beginning to end of a -passage for fear of losing their dignity. What's that, after all--this -bit of position a man holds!” - -His sociability was most to be dreaded in the second dog-watch, because -he was one of those men who grow lively towards the evening, and the -officer on duty was unable then to find excuses for leaving the poop. -Captain Johns would pop up the companion suddenly, and, sidling up in -his creeping way to poor Bunter, as he walked up and down, would fire -into him some spiritualistic proposition, such as: - -“Spirits, male and female, show a good deal of refinement in a general -way, don't they?” - -To which Bunter, holding his black-whiskered head high, would mutter: - -“I don't know.” - -“Ah! that's because you don't want to. You are the most obstinate, -prejudiced man I've ever met, Mr. Bunter. I told you you may have any -book out of my bookcase. You may just go into my stateroom and help -yourself to any volume.” - -And if Bunter protested that he was too tired in his watches below to -spare any time for reading, Captain Johns would smile nastily behind -his back, and remark that of course some people needed more sleep than -others to keep themselves fit for their work. If Mr. Bunter was afraid -of not keeping properly awake when on duty at night, that was another -matter. - -“But I think you borrowed a novel to read from the second mate the other -day--a trashy pack of lies,” Captain Johns sighed. “I am afraid you are -not a spiritually minded man, Mr. Bunter. That's what's the matter.” - -Sometimes he would appear on deck in the middle of the night, looking -very grotesque and bandy-legged in his sleeping suit. At that sight the -persecuted Bunter would wring his hands stealthily, and break out into -moisture all over his forehead. After standing sleepily by the binnacle, -scratching himself in an unpleasant manner, Captain Johns was sure to -start on some aspect or other of his only topic. - -He would, for instance, discourse on the improvement of morality to be -expected from the establishment of general and close intercourse with -the spirits of the departed. The spirits, Captain Johns thought, would -consent to associate familiarly with the living if it were not for the -unbelief of the great mass of mankind. He himself would not care to -have anything to do with a crowd that would not believe in his--Captain -Johns'--existence. Then why should a spirit? This was asking too much. - -He went on breathing hard by the binnacle and trying to reach round his -shoulder-blades; then, with a thick, drowsy severity, declared: - -“Incredulity, sir, is the evil of the age!” - -It rejected the evidence of Professor Cranks and of the journalist chap. -It resisted the production of photographs. - -For Captain Johns believed firmly that certain spirits had been -photographed. He had read something of it in the papers. And the idea of -it having been done had got a tremendous hold on him, because his mind -was not critical. Bunter said afterwards that nothing could be more -weird than this little man, swathed in a sleeping suit three sizes -too large for him, shuffling with excitement in the moonlight near the -wheel, and shaking his fist at the serene sea. - -“Photographs! photographs!” he would repeat, in a voice as creaky as a -rusty hinge. - -The very helmsman just behind him got uneasy at that performance, not -being capable of understanding exactly what the “old man was kicking up -a row with the mate about.” - -Then Johns, after calming down a bit, would begin again. - -“The sensitised plate can't lie. No, sir.” - -Nothing could be more funny than this ridiculous little man's -conviction--his dogmatic tone. Bunter would go on swinging up and down -the poop like a deliberate, dignified pendulum. He said not a word. But -the poor fellow had not a trifle on his conscience, as you know; and to -have imbecile ghosts rammed down his throat like this on top of his own -worry nearly drove him crazy. He knew that on many occasions he was -on the verge of lunacy, because he could not help indulging in -half-delirious visions of Captain Johns being picked up by the scruff of -the neck and dropped over the taffrail into the ship's wake--the sort -of thing no sane sailorman would think of doing to a cat or any other -animal, anyhow. He imagined him bobbing up--a tiny black speck left far -astern on the moonlit ocean. - -I don't think that even at the worst moments Bunter really desired to -drown Captain Johns. I fancy that all his disordered imagination longed -for was merely to stop the ghostly inanity of the skipper's talk. - -But, all the same, it was a dangerous form of self-indulgence. Just -picture to yourself that ship in the Indian Ocean, on a clear, tropical -night, with her sails full and still, the watch on deck stowed away out -of sight; and on her poop, flooded with moonlight, the stately black -mate walking up and down with measured, dignified steps, preserving -an awful silence, and that grotesquely mean little figure in striped -flannelette alternately creaking and droning of “personal intercourse -beyond the grave.” - -It makes me creepy all over to think of. And sometimes the folly of -Captain Johns would appear clothed in a sort of weird utilitarianism. -How useful it would be if the spirits of the departed could be induced -to take a practical interest in the affairs of the living! What a help, -say, to the police, for instance, in the detection of crime! The number -of murders, at any rate, would be considerably reduced, he guessed -with an air of great sagacity. Then he would give way to grotesque -discouragement. - -Where was the use of trying to communicate with people that had no -faith, and more likely than not would scorn the offered information? -Spirits had their feelings. They were _all_ feelings in a way. But -he was surprised at the forbearance shown towards murderers by their -victims. That was the sort of apparition that no guilty man would dare -to pooh-pooh. And perhaps the undiscovered murderers--whether believing -or not--were haunted. They wouldn't be likely to boast about it, would -they? - -“For myself,” he pursued, in a sort of vindictive, malevolent whine, “if -anybody murdered me I would not let him forget it. I would wither him -up--I would terrify him to death.” - -The idea of his skipper's ghost terrifying anyone was so ludicrous -that the black mate, little disposed to mirth as he was, could not help -giving vent to a weary laugh. - -And this laugh, the only acknowledgment of a long and earnest discourse, -offended Captain Johns. - -“What's there to laugh at in this conceited manner, Mr. Bunter?” he -snarled. “Supernatural visitations have terrified better men than you. -Don't you allow me enough soul to make a ghost of?” - -I think it was the nasty tone that caused Bunter to stop short and turn -about. - -“I shouldn't wonder,” went on the angry fanatic of spiritism, “if you -weren't one of them people that take no more account of a man than if -he were a beast. You would be capable, I don't doubt, to deny the -possession of an immortal soul to your own father.” - -And then Bunter, being bored beyond endurance, and also exasperated by -the private worry, lost his self-possession. - -He walked up suddenly to Captain Johns, and, stooping a little to look -close into his face, said, in a low, even tone: - -“You don't know what a man like me is capable of.” - -Captain Johns threw his head back, but was too astonished to budge. -Bunter resumed his walk; and for a long time his measured footsteps and -the low wash of the water alongside were the only sounds which troubled -the silence brooding over the great waters. Then Captain Johns cleared -his throat uneasily, and, after sidling away towards the companion for -greater safety, plucked up enough courage to retreat under an act of -authority: - -“Raise the starboard clew of the mainsail, and lay the yards dead -square, Mr. Bunter. Don't you see the wind is nearly right aft?” - -Bunter at once answered “Ay, ay, sir,” though there was not the -slightest necessity to touch the yards, and the wind was well out on -the quarter. While he was executing the order Captain Johns hung on the -companion-steps, growling to himself: “Walk this poop like an admiral -and don't even notice when the yards want trimming!”--loud enough for -the helmsman to overhear. Then he sank slowly backwards out of the man's -sight; and when he reached the bottom of the stairs he stood still and -thought. - -“He's an awful ruffian, with all his gentlemanly airs. No more gentleman -mates for me.” - -Two nights afterwards he was slumbering peacefully in his berth, when a -heavy thumping just above his head (a well-understood signal that he was -wanted on deck) made him leap out of bed, broad awake in a moment. - -“What's up?” he muttered, running out barefooted. On passing through the -cabin he glanced at the clock. It was the middle watch. “What on earth -can the mate want me for?” he thought. - -Bolting out of the companion, he found a clear, dewy moonlit night and a -strong, steady breeze. He looked around wildly. There was no one on the -poop except the helmsman, who addressed him at once. - -“It was me, sir. I let go the wheel for a second to stamp over your -head. I am afraid there's something wrong with the mate.” - -“Where's he got to?” asked the captain sharply. - -The man, who was obviously nervous, said: - -“The last I saw of him was as he-fell down the port poop-ladder.” - -“Fell down the poop-ladder! What did he do that for? What made him?” - -“I don't know, sir. He was walking the port side. Then just as he turned -towards me to come aft...” - -“You saw him?” interrupted the captain. - -“I did. I was looking at him. And I heard the crash, too--something -awful. Like the mainmast going overboard. It was as if something had -struck him.” - -Captain Johns became very uneasy and alarmed. “Come,” he said sharply. -“Did anybody strike him? What did you see?” - -“Nothing, sir, so help me! There was nothing to see. He just gave -a little sort of hallo! threw his hands before him, and over he -went--crash. I couldn't hear anything more, so I just let go the wheel -for a second to call you up.” - -“You're scared!” said Captain Johns. “I am, sir, straight!” - -Captain Johns stared at him. The silence of his ship driving on her way -seemed to contain a danger--a mystery. He was reluctant to go and look -for his mate himself, in the shadows of the main-deck, so quiet, so -still. - -All he did was to advance to the break of the poop, and call for the -watch. As the sleepy men came trooping aft, he shouted to them fiercely: - -“Look at the foot of the port poop-ladder, some of you! See the mate -lying there?” - -Their startled exclamations told him immediately that they did see him. -Somebody even screeched out emotionally: “He's dead!” - -Mr. Bunter was laid in his bunk and when the lamp in his room was lit -he looked indeed as if he were dead, but it was obvious also that he was -breathing yet. The steward had been roused out, the second mate called -and sent on deck to look after the ship, and for an hour or so Captain -Johns devoted himself silently to the restoring of consciousness. Mr. -Bunter at last opened his eyes, but he could not speak. He was dazed and -inert. The steward bandaged a nasty scalp-wound while Captain Johns -held an additional light. They had to cut away a lot of Mr. Bunter's -jet-black hair to make a good dressing. This done, and after gazing for -a while at their patient, the two left the cabin. - -“A rum go, this, steward,” said Captain Johns in the passage. - -“Yessir.” - -“A sober man that's right in his head does not fall down a poop-ladder -like a sack of potatoes. The ship's as steady as a church.” - -“Yessir. Fit of some kind, I shouldn't wonder.” - -“Well, I should. He doesn't look as if he were subject to fits and -giddiness. Why, the man's in the prime of life. I wouldn't have another -kind of mate--not if I knew it. You don't think he has a private store -of liquor, do you, eh? He seemed to me a bit strange in his manner -several times lately. Off his feed, too, a bit, I noticed.” - -“Well, sir, if he ever had a bottle or two of grog in his cabin, that -must have gone a long time ago. I saw him throw some broken glass -overboard after the last gale we had; but that didn't amount to -anything. Anyway, sir, you couldn't call Mr. Bunter a drinking man.” - -“No,” conceded the captain, reflectively. And the steward, locking -the pantry door, tried to escape out of the passage, thinking he could -manage to snatch another hour of sleep before it was time for him to -turn out for the day. - -Captain Johns shook his head. - -“There's some mystery there.” - -“There's special Providence that he didn't crack his head like an -eggshell on the quarter-deck mooring-bits, sir. The men tell me he -couldn't have missed them by more than an inch.” - -And the steward vanished skilfully. - -Captain Johns spent the rest of the night and the whole of the ensuing -day between his own room and that of the mate. - -In his own room he sat with his open hands reposing on his knees, his -lips pursed up, and the horizontal furrows on his forehead marked -very heavily. Now and then raising his arm by a slow, as if cautious -movement, he scratched lightly the top of his bald head. In the mate's -room he stood for long periods of time with his hand to his lips, gazing -at the half-conscious man. - -For three days Mr. Bunter did not say a single word. He looked at people -sensibly enough but did not seem to be able to hear any questions put -to him. They cut off some more of his hair and swathed his head in -wet cloths. He took some nourishment, and was made as comfortable as -possible. At dinner on the third day the second mate remarked to the -captain, in connection with the affair: - -“These half-round brass plates on the steps of the poop-ladders are -beastly dangerous things!” - -“Are they?” retorted Captain Johns, sourly. “It takes more than a brass -plate to account for an able-bodied man crashing down in this fashion -like a felled ox.” - -The second mate was impressed by that view. There was something in that, -he thought. - -“And the weather fine, everything dry, and the ship going along as -steady as a church!” pursued Captain Johns, gruffly. - -As Captain Johns continued to look extremely sour, the second mate did -not open his lips any more during the dinner. Captain Johns was annoyed -and hurt by an innocent remark, because the fitting of the aforesaid -brass plates had been done at his suggestion only the voyage before, in -order to smarten up the appearance of the poop-ladders. - -On the fourth day Mr. Bunter looked decidedly better; very languid yet, -of course, but he heard and understood what was said to him, and even -could say a few words in a feeble voice. - -Captain Johns, coming in, contemplated him attentively, without much -visible sympathy. - -“Well, can you give us your account of this accident, Mr. Bunter?” - -Bunter moved slightly his bandaged head, and fixed his cold blue stare -on Captain Johns' face, as if taking stock and appraising the value of -every feature; the perplexed forehead, the credulous eyes, the inane -droop of the mouth. And he gazed so long that Captain Johns grew -restive, and looked over his shoulder at the door. - -“No accident,” breathed out Bunter, in a peculiar tone. - -“You don't mean to say you've got the falling sickness,” said Captain -Johns. “How would you call it signing as chief mate of a clipper ship -with a thing like that on you?” - -Bunter answered him only by a sinister look. The skipper shuffled his -feet a little. - -“Well, what made you have that tumble, then?” - -Bunter raised himself a little, and, looking straight into Captain -Johns' eyes said, in a very distinct whisper: - -“You--were--right!” - -He fell back and closed his eyes. Not a word more could Captain Johns -get out of him; and, the steward coming into the cabin, the skipper -withdrew. - -But that very night, unobserved, Captain Johns, opening the door -cautiously, entered again the mate's cabin. He could wait no longer. The -suppressed eagerness, the excitement expressed in all his mean, creeping -little person, did not escape the chief mate, who was lying awake, -looking frightfully pulled down and perfectly impassive. - -“You are coming to gloat over me, I suppose,” said Bunter without -moving, and yet making a palpable hit. - -“Bless my soul!” exclaimed Captain Johns with a start, and assuming a -sobered demeanour. “There's a thing to say!” - -“Well, gloat, then! You and your ghosts, you've managed to get over a -live man.” - -This was said by Bunter without stirring, in a low voice, and with not -much expression. - -“Do you mean to say,” inquired Captain Johns, in awe-struck whisper, -“that you had a supernatural experience that night? You saw an -apparition, then, on board my ship?” - -Reluctance, shame, disgust, would have been visible on poor Bunter's -countenance if the great part of it had not been swathed up in -cotton-wool and bandages. His ebony eyebrows, more sinister than ever -amongst all that lot of white linen, came together in a frown as he made -a mighty effort to say: - -“Yes, I have seen.” - -The wretchedness in his eyes would have awakened the compassion of -any other man than Captain Johns. But Captain Johns was all agog with -triumphant excitement. He was just a little bit frightened, too. He -looked at that unbelieving scoffer laid low, and did not even dimly -guess at his profound, humiliating distress. He was not generally -capable of taking much part in the anguish of his fellow-creatures. This -time, moreover, he was excessively anxious to know what had happened. -Fixing his credulous eyes on the bandaged head, he asked, trembling -slightly: - -“And did it--did it knock you down?” - -“Come! am I the sort of man to be knocked down by a ghost?” protested -Bunter in a little stronger tone. “Don't you remember what you said -yourself the other night? Better men than me------Ha! you'll have to -look a long time before you find a better man for a mate of your ship.” - -Captain Johns pointed a solemn finger at Bunter's bedplace. - -“You've been terrified,” he said. “That's what's the matter. You've been -terrified. Why, even the man at the wheel was scared, though he couldn't -see anything. He _felt_ the supernatural. You are punished for your -incredulity, Mr. Bunter. You were terrified.” - -“And suppose I was,” said Bunter. “Do you know what I had seen? Can you -conceive the sort of ghost that would haunt a man like me? Do you think -it was a ladyish, afternoon call, another-cup-of-tea-please apparition -that visits your Professor Cranks and that journalist chap you are -always talking about? No; I can't tell you what it was like. Every man -has his own ghosts. You couldn't conceive...” - -Bunter stopped, out of breath; and Captain Johns remarked, with the glow -of inward satisfaction reflected in his tone: - -“I've always thought you were the sort of man that was ready for -anything; from pitch-and-toss to wilful murder, as the saying goes. -Well, well! So you were terrified.” - -“I stepped back,” said Bunter, curtly. “I don't remember anything else.” - -“The man at the wheel told me you went backwards as if something had hit -you.” - -“It was a sort of inward blow,” explained Bunter. “Something too deep -for you, Captain Johns, to understand. Your life and mine haven't been -the same. Aren't you satisfied to see me converted?” - -“And you can't tell me any more?” asked Captain Johns, anxiously. - -“No, I can't. I wouldn't. It would be no use if I did. That sort of -experience must be gone through. Say I am being punished. Well, I take -my punishment, but talk of it I won't.” - -“Very well,” said Captain Johns; “you won't. But, mind, I can draw my -own conclusions from that.” - -“Draw what you like; but be careful what you say, sir. You don't terrify -me. _You_ aren't a ghost.” - -“One word. Has it any connection with what you said to me on that last -night, when we had a talk together on spiritualism?” - -Bunter looked weary and puzzled. - -“What did I say?” - -“You told me that I couldn't know what a man like you was capable of.” - -“Yes, yes. Enough!” - -“Very good. I am fixed, then,” remarked Captain Johns. “All I say is -that I am jolly glad not to be you, though I would have given almost -anything for the privilege of personal communication with the world of -spirits. Yes, sir, but not in that way.” - -Poor Bunter moaned pitifully. - -“It has made me feel twenty years older.” - -Captain Johns retired quietly. He was delighted to observe this -overbearing ruffian humbled to the dust by the moralizing agency of the -spirits. The whole occurrence was a source of pride and gratification; -and he began to feel a sort of regard for his chief mate. - -It is true that in further interviews Bunter showed himself very -mild and deferential. He seemed to cling to his captain for spiritual -protection. He used to send for him, and say, “I feel so nervous,” and -Captain Johns would stay patiently for hours in the hot little cabin, -and feel proud of the call. - -For Mr. Bunter was ill, and could not leave his berth for a good many -days. He became a convinced spiritualist, not enthusiastically--that -could hardly have been expected from him--but in a grim, unshakable way. -He could not be called exactly friendly to the disembodied inhabitants -of our globe, as Captain Johns was. But he was now a firm, if gloomy, -recruit of spiritualism. - -One afternoon, as the ship was already well to the north in the Gulf -of Bengal, the steward knocked at the door of the captain's cabin, and -said, without opening it: - -“The mate asks if you could spare him a moment, sir. He seems to be in a -state in there.” - -Captain Johns jumped up from the couch at once. - -“Yes. Tell him I am coming.” - -He thought: Could it be possible there had been another spiritual -manifestation--in the daytime, too! - -He revelled in the hope. It was not exactly that, however. Still, -Bunter, whom he saw sitting collapsed in a chair--he had been up -for several days, but not on deck as yet--poor Bunter had something -startling enough to communicate. His hands covered his face. His legs -were stretched straight out, dismally. - -“What's the news now?” croaked Captain Johns, not unkindly, because in -truth it always pleased him to see Bunter--as he expressed it--tamed. - -“News!” exclaimed the crushed sceptic through his hands. “Ay, news -enough, Captain Johns. Who will be able to deny the awfulness, the -genuineness? Another man would have dropped dead. You want to know what -I had seen. All I can tell you is that since I've seen it my hair is -turning white.” - -Bunter detached his hands from his face, and they hung on each side of -his chair as if dead. He looked broken in the dusky cabin. - -“You don't say!” stammered out Captain Johns. “Turned white! Hold on a -bit! I'll light the lamp!” - -When the lamp was lit, the startling phenomenon could be seen plainly -enough. As if the dread, the horror, the anguish of the supernatural -were being exhaled through the pores of his skin, a sort of silvery mist -seemed to cling to the cheeks and the head of the mate. His short beard, -his cropped hair, were growing, not black, but gray--almost white. - -When Mr. Bunter, thin-faced and shaky, came on deck for duty, he -was clean-shaven, and his head was white. The hands were awe-struck. -“Another man,” they whispered to each other. It was generally and -mysteriously agreed that the mate had “seen something,” with the -exception of the man at the wheel at the time, who maintained that the -mate was “struck by something.” - -This distinction hardly amounted to a difference. On the other hand, -everybody admitted that, after he picked up his strength a bit, he -seemed even smarter in his movements than before. - -One day in Calcutta, Captain Johns, pointing out to a visitor his -white-headed chief mate standing by the main-hatch, was heard to say -oracularly: - -“That man's in the prime of life.” - -Of course, while Bunter was away, I called regularly on Mrs. Bunter -every Saturday, just to see whether she had any use for my services. It -was understood I would do that. She had just his half-pay to live on--it -amounted to about a pound a week. She had taken one room in a quiet -little square in the East End. - -And this was affluence to what I had heard that the couple were reduced -to for a time after Bunter had to give up the Western Ocean trade--he -used to go as mate of all sorts of hard packets after he lost his ship -and his luck together--it was affluence to that time when Bunter would -start at seven o'clock in the morning with but a glass of hot water -and a crust of dry bread. It won't stand thinking about, especially for -those who know Mrs. Bunter. I had seen something of them, too, at that -time; and it just makes me shudder to remember what that born lady had -to put up with. Enough! - -Dear Mrs. Bunter used to worry a good deal after the _Sapphire_ left -for Calcutta. She would say to me: “It must be so awful for poor -Winston”--Winston is Bunter's name--and I tried to comfort her the best -I could. Afterwards, she got some small children to teach in a family, -and was half the day with them, and the occupation was good for her. - -In the very first letter she had from Calcutta, Bunter told her he had -had a fall down the poop-ladder, and cut his head, but no bones broken, -thank God. That was all. Of course, she had other letters from him, but -that vagabond Bunter never gave me a scratch of the pen the solid eleven -months. I supposed, naturally, that everything was going on all right. -Who could imagine what was happening? - -Then one day dear Mrs. Bunter got a letter from a legal firm in the -City, advising her that her uncle was dead--her old curmudgeon of an -uncle--a retired stockbroker, a heartless, petrified antiquity that had -lasted on and on. He was nearly ninety, I believe; and if I were to meet -his venerable ghost this minute, I would try to take him by the throat -and strangle him. - -The old beast would never forgive his niece for marrying Bunter; and -years afterwards, when people made a point of letting him know that she -was in London, pretty nearly starving at forty years of age, he only -said: “Serve the little fool right!” I believe he meant her to starve. -And, lo and behold, the old cannibal died intestate, with no other -relatives but that very identical little fool. The Bunters were wealthy -people now. - -Of course, Mrs. Bunter wept as if her heart would break. In any other -woman it would have been mere hypocrisy. Naturally, too, she wanted to -cable the news to her Winston in Calcutta, but I showed her, _Gazette_ -in hand, that the ship was on the homeward-bound list for more than a -week already. So we sat down to wait, and talked meantime of dear old -Winston every day. There were just one hundred such days before the -_Sapphire_ got reported “All well” in the chops of the Channel by an -incoming mailboat. - -“I am going to Dunkirk to meet him,” says she. The _Sapphire_ had a -cargo of jute for Dunkirk. Of course, I had to escort the dear lady -in the quality of her “ingenious friend.” She calls me “our ingenious -friend” to this day; and I've observed some people--strangers--looking -hard at me, for the signs of the ingenuity, I suppose. - -After settling Mrs. Bunter in a good hotel in Dunkirk, I walked down to -the docks--late afternoon it was--and what was my surprise to see the -ship actually fast alongside. Either Johns or Bunter, or both, must have -been driving her hard up Channel. Anyway, she had been in since the -day before last, and her crew was already paid off. I met two of -her apprenticed boys going off home on leave with their dunnage on a -Frenchman's barrow, as happy as larks, and I asked them if the mate was -on board. - -“There he is, on the quay, looking at the moorings,” says one of the -youngsters as he skipped past me. - -You may imagine the shock to my feelings when I beheld his white head. I -could only manage to tell him that his wife was at an hotel in town. -He left me at once, to go and get his hat on board. I was mightily -surprised by the smartness of his movements as he hurried up the -gangway. - -Whereas the black mate struck people as deliberate, and strangely -stately in his gait for a man in the prime of life, this white-headed -chap seemed the most wonderfully alert of old men. I don't suppose -Bunter was any quicker on his pins than before. It was the colour of the -hair that made all the difference in one's judgment. - -The same with his eyes. Those eyes, that looked at you so steely, so -fierce, and so fascinating out of a bush of a buccaneer's black hair, -now had an innocent almost boyish expression in their good-humoured -brightness under those white eyebrows. - -I led him without any delay into Mrs. Bunter's private sitting-room. -After she had dropped a tear over the late cannibal, given a hug to her -Winston, and told him that he must grow his moustache again, the dear -lady tucked her feet upon the sofa, and I got out of Bunter's way. - -He started at once to pace the room, waving his long arms. He worked -himself into a regular frenzy, and tore Johns limb from limb many times -over that evening. - -“Fell down? Of course I fell down, by slipping backwards on that fool's -patent brass plates. 'Pon my word, I had been walking that poop in -charge of the ship, and I didn't know whether I was in the Indian Ocean -or in the moon. I was crazy. My head spun round and round with sheer -worry. I had made my last application of your chemist's wonderful -stuff.” (This to me.) “All the store of bottles you gave me got smashed -when those drawers fell out in the last gale. I had been getting some -dry things to change, when I heard the cry: 'All hands on deck!' and -made one jump of it, without even pushing them in properly. Ass! When I -came back and saw the broken glass and the mess, I felt ready to faint. - -“No; look here--deception is bad; but not to be able to keep it up after -one has been forced into it. You know that since I've been squeezed -out of the Western Ocean packets by younger men, just on account of my -grizzled muzzle--you know how much chance I had to ever get a ship. And -not a soul to turn to. We have been a lonely couple, we two--she threw -away everything for me--and to see her want a piece of dry bread------” - -He banged with his fist fit to split the Frenchman's table in two. - -“I would have turned a sanguinary pirate for her, let alone cheating -my way into a berth by dyeing my hair. So when you came to me with your -chemist's wonderful stuff------” - -He checked himself. - -“By the way, that fellow's got a fortune when he likes to pick it up. It -is a wonderful stuff--you tell him salt water can do nothing to it. It -stays on as long as your hair will.” - -“All right,” I said. “Go on.” - -Thereupon he went for Johns again with a fury that frightened his wife, -and made me laugh till I cried. - -“Just you try to think what it would have meant to be at the mercy of -the meanest creature that ever commanded a ship! Just fancy what a life -that crawling Johns would have led me! And I knew that in a week or so -the white hair would begin to show. And the crew. Did you ever think of -that? To be shown up as a low fraud before all hands. What a life for me -till we got to Calcutta! And once there--kicked out, of course. Half-pay -stopped. Annie here alone without a penny--starving; and I on the other -side of the earth, ditto. You see? - -“I thought of shaving twice a day. But could I shave my head, too? -No way--no way at all. Unless I dropped Johns overboard; and even -then------ - -“Do you wonder now that with all these things boiling in my head I didn't -know where I was putting down my foot that night? I just felt myself -falling--then crash, and all dark. - -“When I came to myself that bang on the head seemed to have steadied my -wits somehow. I was so sick of everything that for two days I wouldn't -speak to anyone. They thought it was a slight concussion of the brain. -Then the idea dawned upon me as I was looking at that ghost-ridden, -wretched fool. 'Ah, you love ghosts,' I thought. 'Well, you shall have -something from beyond the grave.' - -“I didn't even trouble to invent a story. I couldn't imagine a ghost -if I wanted to. I wasn't fit to lie connectedly if I had tried. I just -bulled him on to it. Do you know, he got, quite by himself, a notion -that at some time or other I had done somebody to death in some way, and -that------” - -“Oh, the horrible man!” cried Mrs. Bunter from the sofa. There was a -silence. - -“And didn't he bore my head off on the home passage!” began Bunter again -in a weary voice. “He loved me. He was proud of me. I was converted. I -had had a manifestation. Do you know what he was after? He wanted me and -him 'to make a _seance_,' in his own words, and to try to call up that -ghost (the one that had turned my hair white--the ghost of my supposed -victim), and, as he said, talk it over with him--the ghost--in a -friendly way. - -“'Or else, Bunter,' he says, 'you may get another manifestation when you -least expect it, and tumble overboard perhaps, or something. You ain't -really safe till we pacify the spirit-world in some way.' - -“Can you conceive a lunatic like that? No--say?” - -I said nothing. But Mrs. Bunter did, in a very decided tone. - -“Winston, I don't want you to go on board that ship again any more.” - -“My dear,” says he, “I have all my things on board yet.” - -“You don't want the things. Don't go near that ship at all.” - -He stood still; then, dropping his eyes with a faint smile, said slowly, -in a dreamy voice: - -“The haunted ship.” - -“And your last,” I added. - -We carried him off, as he stood, by the night train. He was very quiet; -but crossing the Channel, as we two had a smoke on deck, he turned to me -suddenly, and, grinding his teeth, whispered: - -“He'll never know how near he was being dropped overboard!” - -He meant Captain Johns. I said nothing. - -But Captain Johns, I understand, made a great to-do about the -disappearance of his chief mate. He set the French police scouring the -country for the body. In the end, I fancy he got word from his owners' -office to drop all this fuss--that it was all right. I don't suppose he -ever understood anything of that mysterious occurrence. - -To this day he tries at times (he's retired now, and his conversation is -not very coherent)--he tries to tell the story of a black mate he once -had, “a murderous, gentlemanly ruffian, with raven-black hair which -turned white all at once in consequence of a manifestation from beyond -the grave.” An avenging apparition. What with reference to black and -white hair, to poop-ladders, and to his own feelings and views, it is -difficult to make head or tail of it. If his sister (she's very vigorous -still) should be present she cuts all this short--peremptorily: - -“Don't you mind what he says. He's got devils on the brain.” - -THE END - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales Of Hearsay, by Joseph Conrad - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF HEARSAY *** - -***** This file should be named 17732.txt or 17732.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/3/17732/ - -Produced by David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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