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diff --git a/24837-8.txt b/24837-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12511bc --- /dev/null +++ b/24837-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1560 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trader's Wife, by Louis Becke + +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: The Trader's Wife + 1901 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 15, 2008 [EBook #24837] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRADER'S WIFE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE TRADER'S WIFE + +By Louis Becke + +Unwin Brothers 1901 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Brabant's wife was sitting on the shady verandah of her house on the +hills overlooking Levuka harbour, and watching a large fore and aft +schooner being towed in by two boats, for the wind had died away early +in the morning and left the smooth sea to swelter and steam under a sky +of brass. + +The schooner was named the _Maritana_, and was owned and commanded by +Mrs. Brabant's husband, John Brabant, who at that moment was standing on +the after-deck looking through his glasses at the house on the hill, and +at the white-robed figure of his wife. + +"Can you see Mrs. Brabant, sir?" asked the chief mate, a short, +dark-faced man of about thirty years of age, as he came aft and stood +beside his captain. + +"Yes, I can see her quite plainly, Lester," he replied, as he handed the +glasses to his officer; "she is sitting on the verandah watching us." + +The mate took the glasses and directed them upon the house for a few +moments. "Perhaps she will come off to us, sir?" + +Brabant shook his head. "It is a terribly hot day, you see, Lester, +and she can't stand the sun at all. And then we shall be at anchor in +another hour or so." + +"Just so, sir," replied the mate politely. He did not like Mrs. Brabant, +had never liked her from the very first day he saw her a year before, +when Brabant had brought her down on board the _Maritana_ in Auckland, +and introduced her as his future wife. Why he did not like her he could +not tell, and did not waste time in trying to analyse his feelings. He +knew that his old friend and shipmate was passionately fond of his +fair young wife, and was intensely proud of her beauty, and now, at +the conclusion of a wearisome five months' voyage among the sun-baked +islands of the Equatorial Pacific, was returning home more in love +with her than ever. Not that he ever talked of her effusively, even +to Lester, tried and true comrade as he was, for was naturally a +self-contained and somewhat reserved man, as one could tell by his +deep-set, stern grey eyes, and square jaw and chin. + +"Damn her!" muttered Lester to himself, as he stood on the topgallant +foc'scle watching the two boats with their toiling crews of +brown-skinned natives; "nearly five months since she last saw him, and +there she sits calmly watching us as if we had only sailed yesterday. +Afraid of the sun! She's too selfish and too frightened of spoiling her +pretty pink-and-white skin--that's what it is." + +An hour later the boats came alongside, and then, as the chain rattled +through the hawse-pipes, Brabant came on deck dressed in a suit of +spotless white. + +"Shall we see you this evening, Jim?" he asked, as he stood waiting to +receive the Customs officer and doctor, whose boats were approaching. + +"Thank you very much, sir, but I would rather stay on board this +evening, as Dr. Bruce is sure to come into town some time to-day, as +soon as he hears the _Maritana_ is here, and I should not like to miss +him." + +"Just as you please, Jim. But why not take a run on shore with him, and +both of you come up for an hour or two after dinner?" + +The mate nodded. "Yes, we could do that, I think; but at the same time, +Mrs. Brabant won't much care about visitors this evening, I'm afraid." + +"My wife will be only too delighted, Jim," replied the captain in his +grave manner; "you and Bruce are my oldest friends--that is quite enough +for her." + +The port doctor and Customs officer came on board and warmly greeted +the captain of the _Maritana_ for, apart from his being one of the +wealthiest traders in the South Seas, John Brabant was essentially a +man who made friends--made them insensibly, and then his beautiful young +wife was the acknowledged belle of the small European community in Fiji, +and his house, when he returned from one of his trading voyages, was +literally an open house, for every one--traders, storekeepers, cotton +planters, naval men or merchant skippers--knew there was a welcome +awaiting them in the big bungalow on the hillside at whatever time they +called, day or night. Such hospitality was customary in those old Fijian +days, when every cotton planter saw before him the shining portals of +the City of Fortune inviting him to enter and be rich, and every trader +and trading captain made money so easily that it was hard to spend it +as quickly as it was made; and Manton's Hotel on Levuka beach was filled +night after night with crowds of hilarious and excited people, and the +popping of the champagne corks went on from dusk till dawn of the tropic +day, and men talked and drank and talked and drank again, and told each +other of the lucky strokes they had made; and sun-tanned skippers from +the wild and murderous Solomons and the fever-stricken New Hebrides +spoke of the cargoes of "blackbirds" they had sold at two hundred and +fifty dollars a head, and dashed down a handful of yellow sovereigns +on Manton's bar "for a drink all round." And then, sometimes, a long +snaky-looking brigantine, with the name _Atlantic_ on her stern, and the +Stars and Stripes flying from her gaff, would sail into the noisy little +port nestling under the verdured hills of Ovalau Island, and a big man, +with a black, flowing beard, and a deep but merry voice, would be rowed +ashore by a crew of wild-eyed, brown-skinned Polynesians, and "'Bully' +Hayes has come! 'Bully' Hayes has come!" would be cried from one end of +Levuka to the other, as every one, white, black, and brown, ran to the +beach to see the famous and much-maligned "pirate" land, with a smile +on his handsome face, his pockets full of gold, and he himself ready for +anything or everything--a _liaison_ with some other man's wife, a story +of his last cruise, a fight "for love" with some recently discovered +pugilist of local renown; a sentimental Spanish song to the strumming of +his guitar; or the reading of the burial service according to the rites +of either the Roman Catholic Church, or that of the Church of England, +over the remains of some acquaintance or stranger who had succumbed to +fever or a bullet, or Levuka whiskey. Brave, halcyon days were those, +when men lived their lives quickly, and then disappeared or were ruined, +or committed suicide, and were soon forgotten. + +Brabant had gone ashore, and Lester and the second mate--a thin, +sallow-faced Chileno named Diaz--were seated under the awning, smoking, +and occasionally watching the progress of a small cutter which was about +a mile distant, and under the influence of a light air which had sprung +up, was heading towards the _Maritana_. She was owned by Dr. Bruce, a +planter friend of Lester. His estate was some miles down the coast, and +he had been an old shipmate of Lester's ten years before, when Brabant +was living in Samoa as manager of the American Plantation Company, +and Lester had first made his acquaintance--an acquaintance which had +resulted in a firm and lasting friendship. Brabant wanted an overseer--a +man who understood the native language--and Lester, then a youth of +twenty, and idling about Samoa, waiting a berth as second mate, had been +sent to him by an old seafaring friend. For three years they had worked +together, and then Brabant, having saved enough money, threw up his +shore berth and bought the _Maritana_ to resume his former vocation of +trader, and took Lester with him as mate, and Diaz, who had also been +employed on the plantation, as second mate. That was seven years ago, +and the schooner, during that time, had traversed the Pacific from one +end to the other over and over again. Sometimes Brabant would take his +cargo to San Francisco, sometimes to Singapore, and at rare intervals to +Auckland. During one of his ship's visits to Fiji his chief mate found +his old friend Bruce settled there as a planter, and Bruce had induced +Brabant to make Fiji his head-quarters. So he bought land and built a +house, and then, a year before the opening of this story, brought a wife +to rule over it, much to the surprise and delight of the white residents +of Levuka and the group generally, for John Brabant had always been +looked upon as a man whose soul was wrapped up in his extensive +business, and as a woman hater. This latter conclusion was arrived at +from purely deductive reasoning--he despised and loathed the current +idea that living in the South Seas palliated the most glaring +licentiousness, and permitted a man to "do as he liked." Therefore he +had been set down as a non-marrying man--"an awfully good fellow, but +with queer ideas, you know," his many friends would say, and "Bully" +Hayes, who knew him well, said that John Brabant was the only +clean-living, single man in Fiji, and that if he ever did marry his wife +would be "some bony Scotch person of about forty, with her hair screwed +up into a Turk's knot at the back of her long head, and with a cold, +steely eye like a gimlet. Nine out of ten of good fellows like Jack +Brabant do get mated with ghastly wives." + +So when the _Maritana_ one day sailed into Levuka harbour, and Brabant +brought his young wife ashore, the community simply gasped in pleased +astonishment, and even the exclusive wives of the leading merchants +and planters made haste to call on Mrs. Brabant when they saw in the +marriage announcement, published in the Auckland _Herald_, that she was +"a daughter of the late General Deighton Ransome, Commander-in-Chief of +the Straits Settlements," etc. + +In a few months Mrs. Brabant was equally the best-liked and best-hated +woman in Fiji--the men paying her the most undivided attention, because +she liked it and was Brabant's wife, and the women hating her because +she would be, at times, languidly insolent to them, and practically +monopolised even the attentions of the naval officers when a dance was +given. That nine out of ten of her lady friends detested her merely +afforded her secret pleasure--secret, that is, so far as her husband +went, for she feared but one thing in the world, and that was that John +Brabant would discover her true and worthless nature. + +For some minutes the two mates smoked on in silence, then Diaz made a +backward gesture towards the bungalow on the hills: "Are you going there +to-night?" + +Lester nodded. "I think so. He asked me, you see." + +The Chileno remained silent for a minute or so, then said, "She is the +most beautiful fair woman I have ever seen." + +Again Lester nodded, but made no remark. He was well aware that Pedro +Diaz shared his dislike for the captain's wife, though he had never +openly said so. The Chileno, morose and grim as he was, was intensely +devoted to Brabant, who had twice saved his life--once under a heavy +rifle fire in the Solomon Islands, when Diaz and his boat's crew were +all but cut off and massacred by the natives, and Brabant came out of +the fray with a broken arm and a bullet through his shoulder; and once +at sea, when he was knocked overboard by the parting of a boom guy, and +his captain sprang overboard after him, though the night was as dark as +pitch, and the _Maritana_ was like to have been smothered by the heavy, +lumping seas which fell upon her decks when she was brought to. + +"He is a doomed man," resumed the second mate presently, with a sullen +yet emphatic tone; "that woman will be his doom. She is beautiful, and +as false as she is beautiful. I can see it in her eyes; _he_ cannot see. +But were I in his place I should not leave her alone. She is not to be +trusted." + +Lester thought the same, but said nothing, and he and Diaz rose and +went on the main deck to welcome Bruce, whose cutter was now coming +alongside. + +"How are you, Jim? How are you, Mr. Diaz?" said the doctor, a big, +bronzed-faced Scotsman with kindly blue eyes, as he sprang over the side +and shook hands with them. "I saw the _Maritana_ early this morning in +tow of the boats, so I started off in the cutter at once. Brabant gone +ashore?" + +"Yes, about an hour ago," replied the chief mate. "Almost a +newly-married man, you see," he added, with a laugh. + +Dr. Bruce gave his friend a quick, penetrating glance, but there was no +answering smile on his lips. He knew Brabant well, and knew _of_ Mrs. +Brabant more than did her husband. + +The three men sat down under the awning for nearly an hour, smoking +and drinking their whiskey-and-soda, and talking freely together. +Bruce--much the oldest man of the three--was aware that both his +companions were devoted to Brabant, and knew him far better than +himself, and so, being a straightforward, purposeful man, he said what +he had to say about Mrs. Brabant in very plain language. + +"You, Jim, _can_ and ought to give him a hint. I can't. If I did he +would most likely haul off and knock me down. But he ought to stay +ashore this time. She may be only a brainless little fool of a flirt, +but there's a lot' of talk about her, especially since that young sweep +of a Danvers came here." + +"Who is he?" asked Lester. + +Dr. Bruce leant back in his seat, and flicked the ash off his cigar. +"He's the manager of the new Land and Trading Company here--a little, +pretty-faced fellow, with a yellow moustache, curly hair, and as much +principle in him as a damned rat. He has the command of any amount of +money, and the women here think no end of him. Was in the army--Rifles, +I think--but believe, though I can't be sure of it, was kicked out. +Thorough beast, but just the kind of man to get along too well with +women who don't know him. Now I'll take another whiskey-and-soda after +thus traducing Mr. Danvers, who I'm perfectly willing to boot along +Levuka beach from one end to the other if he gives me a chance to do it +on my own account. And, by Jove, I'll give him a chance to-night." + +"Where?" asked Pedro Diaz, with a gleam of sombre light in his dark +eyes. 189 + +The Trader's Wife + +"At Manton's. He's sure to come in there about eleven to-night. Goodbye +for the present. I'll meet you there about eight." + +As the doctor went over the side again the Chilian turned to Lester. + +"What did I tell you?" he said gloomily. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AT five o'clock in the afternoon, as Dr. Bruce was seated on the wide +verandah of Manton's Hotel, smoking his pipe, and wondering in a lazy +sort of a way whether Brabant would hear any of the current scandal +about his wife and Danvers, the voice of the latter person broke in upon +his musings. + +"Hallo, Bruce, how are you?" he exclaimed genially as he sprang up +the steps, and extended his hand to the doctor; "I see that Brabant is +back." + +Bruce answered him curtly enough. "Yes; but you don't know him, do you?" + +Danvers clasped his hands over one knee and leant back in his chair. +"No; but I see Mrs. Brabant a good deal, and naturally should like to +meet her husband. You know him pretty well, don't you?" + +"Yes, I do--have known him for nearly ten years." Then he moved his +chair slightly so that he might face Danvers. He was not an impulsive +man, but as he looked into Danvers's smiling, handsome face the dislike +he had always felt towards him, and his keen regard for Brabant, urged +him to speak on the subject that was uppermost in his mind, there and +then. + +"I'm glad I have met you, Captain Danvers," he said quietly, "as I +particularly wished to speak to you about a certain matter, and, as you +know, I am not often in town." + +"Certainly, my dear fellow. What is it?" + +"Your question to me just now saves me a lot of explanation. You asked +me if I knew Brabant, and I told you that I have known him for ten +years. And I must tell you further that he is a man for whom I have +the deepest regard and respect. Therefore," and he emphasised the +'therefore,' "you can of course guess the nature of the matter upon +which I wish to speak with you." + +"'Pon my soul, I can't," and Danvers elevated his eyebrows in pretended +astonishment, though his face flushed as he met the doctor's steady, +unnerving glance. + +Still keeping his eyes on Danvers's face, Bruce went on: "Brabant is a +valued friend of mine. He is as unsuspecting and confiding a man as ever +lived, but he is a dangerous man to be trifled with. Do you understand +me?" + +"I'm hanged if I do," replied Danvers, though the angry flash of his +clear blue eyes belied his words; "what are you driving at? Just say in +plain words what you have to say, and be done with it." + +"Right. Plain words. And as few as possible. You have paid Mrs. Brabant +such attention that her husband is like to hear of it. Isn't that +enough?" + +Danvers laughed insolently. "Enough to show me that you are meddling +with affairs which do not concern you, Dr. Bruce. I rather imagine +that the lady's husband would be the proper person to resent any undue +attention being paid by me to his wife--which I deny--than you. Did he +commission you to speak to me? I've heard that the Brabant family have +always had a strain of insanity running through it." + +Bruce started. He knew that what Danvers had said was perfectly true, +but had thought that he himself was the one man in Fiji who did know. +Brabant had himself told him that several of his family on the father's +side had "gone a bit wrong," as he put it. + +The contemptuous tone of Danvers stung him to the quick. + +"That's a beastly thing to say of a man whose house you visit almost +daily--and visit when you have never even met him. You must have been +brought up in a blackguardly school." + +Danvers sprang to his feet with blazing eyes. "You want to pick a +quarrel with me. Very good. I'm your man." + +"That's where you are wrong. I don't want to quarrel with you. I wish to +warn you. And I tell you again that John Brabant is a dangerous man." + +"Are you his deputy? What right have you to interfere in my private +affairs?" + +"I'm not his deputy; and my interference, if you like to so call it, +will certainly save you from a well-deserved kicking. Don't, don't, +don't! No heroics with me, my boy. You haven't a clean record, and _I_ +know _why_ you left the army. Now listen to me. Just put a stop to this +business. If you don't, I'll tell both Mrs. Brabant and her husband in +your presence that you are not altogether the right sort of man to be +accepted as a friend--especially by a young and utterly unsuspicious +woman." + +Danvers sank back into his seat, white with passion, as Bruce went on +relentlessly. + +"And I'll tell what I do know of you to every planter and decent white +man in the group. I'll make Fiji too hot for you, and your business will +go to the deuce. Now, let us have an understanding. Will you put an end +to this dallying about after another man's wife? You can do the thing +properly, pay a call or two at the house whilst Brabant is at home, and +accept general invitations if you like; but----" + +"But what?" Danvers's voice was hoarse with suppressed fury. + +"Stop visiting Mrs. Brabant whilst her husband is away. No gentleman +would act as you have acted. You know what a place this is for scandal. +And I believe you have as much of the fool as the _roué_ in your mental +composition." + +"And if I decline to entertain your infernal----" + +"Steady. No language, please. If you decline to make me that promise +here on the spot, I shall do what I have said--tell husband and wife +that you're not the kind of man to receive as a friend." + +"And by Heavens, I'll shoot you like a rat." + +The doctor rose to his feet, and the two men faced each other--the one +outwardly calm and collected, the other shaking with passion. + +"What is it to be, Captain Danvers?" + +"This, you sneaking Scotch sawbones!" and raising his cane Danvers +struck the elder man a savage blow across the face. + +In another moment Bruce had closed with him, wrenched the cane from his +hand, and drawing back struck him between the eyes with such force that +he was sent flying backwards off the verandah, to fall heavily upon the +shrubs of the garden beneath, where he lay huddled up in a heap. + +A score of people--white and coloured--rushed to the spot. Bruce, +carefully standing the cane against the side of the lounge on which he +had been reclining, walked down the steps and pushed his way into the +little crowd surrounding the fallen man. + +"Let me look at him," he said, with grim humour, "as a medical man. I'm +afraid I've hurt him more than I intended." + +The landlord joined them. "What is the matter, Doctor?" + +"Nothing serious, Manton. Ye see, Captain Danvers rang that old gag +on me about a surgical operation being necessary for a Scotsman to +understand a joke; then I lost my temper and called him a fool, and he +tickled me with his cane across my face, and I hit him harder than I +intended. But he'll be all right soon. He's only stunned. Carry him into +his room." + +Manton knew his business. "Just so, Doctor. I'll see to him. But he's +given you a fearful bruise on your cheek." + +"A mere trifle, Manton," and then without another word he returned to +his seat on the lounge, not altogether satisfied with what had happened, +and hoping that Danvers would at least have sense enough to corroborate +the story he had told Manton as to the cause of the quarrel. + +Between seven and eight o'clock Lester and Pedro Diaz came ashore, +the _Maritana_ being left in charge of the boatswain. By the judicious +application of a strip of fresh goat's meat the long bruise on the +doctor's cheek had almost disappeared, and he was in his usual placid +mood. + +"We're a bit too late," remarked Lester, with a laugh, as he and Diaz +shook hands; "why couldn't you wait? We heard that you had thrown the +new chum Danvers over the verandah an hour or two ago." + +Bruce told them the story. "Just as well, Jim. I think he'll take a +plain hint that he's sailing on the wrong tack. He went away from here +as soon as he came to, and I think will have sense enough to keep away. +Of course there'll be a lot of talk about the row, and Brabant is sure +to have already heard of it, but we must stick to the surgical operation +yarn. Now settle yourselves for a chat. Touch that bell there." + +As the three smoked and talked a pretty Samoan girl appeared on the +verandah, holding a note in her hand. She was Mrs. Brabant's maid, and +the note was directed to Lester, bidding him, the doctor, and Pedro come +up. It was written by Mrs. Brabant herself. + +"We must go, Bruce. Your face doesn't look much the worse. Come on." + +The walk to Brabant's bungalow took but a few minutes, and both the +captain of the _Maritana_ and his wife met them at the gate; Brabant +looking supremely happy in his quiet way. His wife, however, Bruce at +once saw, seemed pale, and spoke her greetings in a hurried, nervous +manner, very unlike her usual self. + +"What's all the row been about, Bruce?" said Brabant, as they seated +themselves on the wide, airy sitting-room. "We heard of it quick enough, +I can tell you. My wife seems rather distressed about it, as she quite +expected Captain Danvers to call this evening, and I'd like to make his +acquaintance." + +Bruce gave Mrs. Brabant one swift, sweeping glance which filled her with +an undefined terror. Then he laughed. + +"Just nothing at all. We quarrelled over what was simply a trifling +matter to him, but a good deal to older men like you and I, and that's +the whole thing. Now tell me all about the voyage of the _Maritana_." + +Brabant saw that there was something beneath the surface, so at once did +begin to talk about his voyage; and presently some other people--men and +women--dropped in, and the conversation became general, and about ten +o'clock Mrs. Brabant, under the plea of a bad headache, bade her guests +good-night. She shook hands with some gracious words with Lester and the +second mate, but, much to her husband's distress, simply bowed coldly +to his friend Bruce, and ignored his proffered hand. The honest, +loyal-hearted Scotsman flushed to the roots of his hair, but pretended +not to notice the slight. + +Long after midnight, when all his guests except Bruce and Lester and his +fellow-officer had gone home, Brabant and they walked to and fro under +the coco-palms which surrounded the bungalow. Brabant talked most. He +was full of future trading schemes, and outlined his plans to his two +officers freely. + +"It's a bit awkward this affair happening between you and Danvers," he +said to Bruce, "for I've had letters from his principals in Sydney +which possibly points to a combination of their business and mine as one +company, with myself at the head of affairs." + +"My row with Danvers won't affect that, Brabant. I know that he +represents people in Australia with any amount of money at their backs, +and you are the one man in the Pacific to make a 'combine,' as the +Yankees say, and found a trading company that will wipe the Germans out +of the Pacific. But, apart from business, don't have anything to do with +Danvers. He's no good." + +"No good?" + +"Not a straight man outside of business--not to be trusted. You can tell +him I said this of him if you care to do so." + +Brabant stopped in his walk, and Lester and Pedro Diaz drew aside a +little. + +"There must be something wrong about him, Bruce, else I am sure you +would not speak as you do. We four are all old friends. Speak freely." + +"That's just the thing I cannot do, Brabant. I don't like him, and can +only repeat what I have said just now--he's not a straight man--not +a man I would bring into my house as a _friend!_ Now I must be going. +Good-night, old fellow. I'm off again to my place in the morning." + +Brabant took his outstretched hand. "Goodnight, Bruce. I wish there were +more outspoken men like you in the world. _I under stand._" + +He spoke the last two words with such a look in his deep-set eyes, that +Bruce felt that he did at least understand that Captain Danvers was not +a man to be trusted--outside of business matters. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +About a week after Dr. Bruce had returned to his plantation Brabant and +his wife were talking in their dining-room, from the wide-open windows +of which the little harbour of Levuka lay basking in the fervid glow of +the westering sun. + +Pipe in mouth, and with a smile on his bronzed, rugged face, Brabant +was scanning a heap of accounts which were lying on the table. His wife, +seated in an easy-chair near the window, fanned herself languidly. + +"You've spent a lot of money, Nell, in five months--nearly a thousand +pounds. Two hundred a month is a big item to a man in my position." + +"But you are very well off, Jack. You told me yesterday that you will +clear three thousand pounds from this last voyage." + +She spoke in a petulant, irritated manner, and her brows drew together +as she looked out over the sea. + +"Just so, my dear girl; but we cannot afford to live at such a rate as +two hundred pounds a month." + +"I have entertained a great many people." This was said with a sullen +inflexion in her voice. + +"So I see, Nell. But you need not have done so. We don't want such a lot +of visitors." + +"It is all very well for you to talk like that, Jack, but you must +remember that I have to keep myself alive in this wretched place whilst +you are away." + +Brabant turned his deep-set eyes upon her. "Did you find it so very dull +then, Nell?" + +"Yes, I did. I hate the place, and hate the people, and so I suppose +I spent more of your money than I should have done had I been living +anywhere else." + +"Don't say '_your_ money,' Nell. I am only too happy to know that I am +able to meet all these bills, heavy as they are; and I want you to enjoy +yourself as much as possible. But we cannot spend money at this rate, my +girl." + +He spoke with a certain grave tenderness that only served to irritate +her. + +"Am I to live here like the wife of one of the common shopkeepers on the +beach--see no one, go out nowhere?" + +"As my wife, Nell, I expect you to go out a good deal, and see a lot of +people. It gives me pleasure to know that the people here like you, and +that you have given all these dances and things. But, Nell, my dear, +don't be so lavish. After all, I am only a trader, and it seems rather +absurd for us to spend more money than any one else does in the matter +of entertaining people who, after all, are merely acquaintances. You +see, Nell, I want to make money, make it as quickly as I can, so that we +can go home to the old country and settle down. But we can't do it if we +live at the rate of two hundred pounds a month." + +"But if you amalgamate your business with that of Captain Danvers's +company, you will make £25,000." + +"But I may not amalgamate with Captain Danvers's company, Nell. I am +quite satisfied that they can pay me the £25,000, but I am not satisfied +as to the _bond-fides_ of the company. Danvers himself admitted to me +that it is proposed to float the new company in London at a figure +which represents four times the value of my own and his own company's +properties. I don't like it, Nell. My business as it stands I could sell +to the Germans for £20,000, cash down. But I won't associate myself with +an enterprise that is not absolutely fair and square, for the sake of an +extra £5,000." + +"I suppose Dr. Bruce has prejudiced you against Captain Danvers." + +"Bruce! No, certainly not, Nell. Why should he? Bruce has nothing to +do with the thing. He quarrelled with Danvers over some matter that +has nothing to do with me, and Danvers got the worst of it. Certainly, +however, before I decide to sell my business to Danvers's company I +shall consult Bruce." + +"Why consult him?" + +"Because he is a man in whose business judgment I have great faith. And +he's an honest man." + +"And you think Captain Danvers is not?" + +"Not at all. But I do think that Captain Danvers attaches an exaggerated +value to the prospects of the new trading company. He's very young, you +see, Nell, and takes too rosy a view of everything. And I'd rather die +in poverty than be the indirect means of making money at the expense of +other people. I'm old-fashioned Nell, and when I die, I want to die with +the knowledge that I have left a clean sheet behind me." + +Nell Brabant rose with an angry light in her eyes. "I hate talking about +money and such horrid things. But I do hope you will come to terms with +Captain Danvers and his company." + +"Wait a moment, Nell. I want to tell you something which I think will +please you. Would you like a trip to Sydney?" + +"Very much indeed," she answered, with sudden graciousness. + +"Well, I'm thinking of sending the _Maritana_ there, to be docked and to +be overhauled, with Lester in command. Then whilst you are away I shall +charter the _Loelia_, cutter, and make a trip through the Line Islands. +You will have at least two months in Sydney, and Lester will take good +care of you on the voyage." + +"It will be a nice change for me, Jack? But why cannot you come?" + +"I must make this cruise through the Line Islands before I decide to +sell out to Danvers's company." + +That evening Brabant announced his plans to his chief officer, and a +week later both the _Maritana_ and the _Loelia_ were ready for sea. +During this time Captain Danvers was an occasional visitor to the +bungalow on the hill, but he and Brabant met very frequently in the town +to discuss business together, and it soon became known that the latter +either intended to sell out to, or amalgamate with, the Danvers company. + +Ten days before the _Maritana_ left Brabant bade his wife goodbye, for +the _Loelia_ was to sail first. He kissed her but once, and looked so +searchingly into her eyes as he held her hand that every vestige of +colour left her cheeks. + +"You must try and enjoy yourself," he said. "Minea" (her Samoan maid) +"and you will be very comfortable on board. You'll have the entire cabin +to yourselves, as Lester will take up his quarters in the deck-house." + +Half an hour later he was giving Lester his final instructions. + +"You will not leave Sydney till either you hear from me or see me. I +may follow you in the _Loelia_ in a month. But no one else is to know +this--not even Mrs. Brabant." + +"You may depend on me," replied Lester. + +"I know it well. Goodbye, Lester." + +***** + +That evening the _Loelia_ sailed from Levuka. Pedro Diaz had been +transferred from the _Maritana_ and was now mate of the cutter. + +As night came on, and the green hills of Ovalau Island changed to +purple, Brabant turned suddenly to his officer. + +"Come below, Pedro, I want to talk to you." + +The Chileno followed him in silence, and the two men remained conversing +in almost whispered tones for some time. + +"Tell me," asked the Chileno, fixing his dark eyes on the captain's +face; "when did you first begin to suspect?" + +"From the very first day that I saw her and Danvers together. He +betrayed himself--fool that he is--by being too formally polite to her, +before me." + +"And then you read this letter of his to her. How did you get hold of +it?" + +"I was coming back from my bathe in Totoga Creek about six in the +morning. Went into Manton's for a few minutes' rest and a smoke. +Danvers's door was open, and though he was not in the room, I could hear +his voice talking to Manton. I stepped inside to sit down and wait for +him. He had been writing a letter, which was but half finished. It was +to my wife, and began, 'My darling Helen.'" + +"Ah-h-h!" said Diaz, in a savage, hissing whisper. + +"I left it there, strolled out into the dining-room where Manton and +Danvers were having their morning coffee. I joined them, and chatted +with them for half an hour. Then I went home, and told Minea what to +do when the letter came. It was delivered by Danvers's native servant. +Minea met him at the garden gate. He asked if I was in. She said I was +out; he gave her the letter, and told her to give it to her mistress, +who was still in bed. The girl brought it to me to where I was waiting. +I opened it, took a copy of it, and gave it back to her to give to her +mistress." + +He paused, and then smiled grimly at the Chileno. Then he smoked on in +silence. + +"You will kill them both?" asked Diaz. + +"I don't think so, Pedro. I must wait. And you will stand to me?" + +The officer's hand met his in a steady grip. + +"That is all for the present, Pedro. She--and he, too--thinks that the +_Loelia_ will not be back in Levuka for three months. But we shall be +here in less than a month. And if I find that Danvers has gone to Sydney +in the monthly steamer, then I shall know how to act," and he tapped the +copy of the letter that was in his breast pocket. + +Then Pedro told him the real cause of the quarrel between Dr. Bruce and +Danvers. Brabant heard him with an unmoved face. "I thought as much," he +said briefly. + +A few days later, the _Loelia_, instead of laying northwards for the +Line Islands, was at anchor in Apia Harbour in Samoa, and Brabant, +leaving the vessel in charge of his mate, paid a round of visits to +several of his old friends in various parts of the island. At the end +of three weeks he returned on board as calm as usual, and told Diaz to +heave up anchor. By sunset that evening the _Loelia_ was sailing between +the islands of Savaii and Manono, and heading due west for Fiji before +the strong south-east trade wind. Just four weeks from the date of her +departure she re-entered Levuka harbour, and the first news that Brabant +heard was that the _Eagle_, the monthly steamer to Sydney, had sailed a +few days previously, and that among her passengers was Captain Danvers, +who had "been called to Melbourne on matters connected with his +business," but would be returning in a couple of months. He had left +a letter for Brabant, in which, after speaking of company matters, he +said: "I do hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Brabant in +Sydney before she leaves. I daresay I can get her address from your +agents there." As he was reading his letters Bruce came on board. + +"You are back sooner than you thought, Brabant." + +"Yes. When I got to Samoa I met a German brig bound to the line Islands, +and arranged with her captain to see all my traders for me, as the +_Loelia_ is as leaky as a basket. I'm going to give her a good overhaul +here." + +There were of course the usual sneering comments made by the local +female gossips on Captain Danvers's sudden departure for Sydney, so soon +after Mrs. Brabant had left in the _Maritana_. If Brabant knew of them +he took no heed. He went about his work as usual, met his friends, and +attended to the _Loelia's_ repairs in his methodical manner. + +Eight weeks passed by, and then the _Eagle_, a slow-crawling old +ex-collier, which did duty as a mail and passenger steamer, entered the +port, and Danvers, jauntier and handsomer than ever, stepped ashore +and took up his old quarters at Manton's Hotel. Here he soon learnt the +reason of Brabant's early return, and in less than an hour he was up at +the bungalow, and seated opposite Nell Brabant's husband, whom he had +found reading his letters. + +"I met Mrs. Brabant quite a number of times," he said effusively; "she +was looking very well, but I think was getting tired of Sydney when I +last saw her. Said that she thought that Fiji after all was the best +place, you know." + +Brabant nodded. "Just so. Well, we'll see her before another couple of +months, I hope." + +"I hope so," said Danvers genially, as he raised his glass of +brandy-and-soda and nodded "good luck" to his host. + +"I was thinking, Danvers," said Brabant, as he laid down unopened the +rest of his letters, "that it would be just as well if you came round +with me in the _Loelia_ and saw my stations in the New Hebrides. It +would facilitate matters a good deal, and the cutter is all ready for +sea. In anticipation of your coming I have fitted up your quarters on +board." + +"Delighted, my dear fellow. When do you propose sailing?" + +"As soon as ever you like." + +"To-morrow, then. I'm anxious to get this matter pulled through. As you +will see by your letters from my people, they are prepared to pay ten +thousand down at once, and fifteen thousand in three bills, at one, two, +and three years." + +"That is all right. Shall you be ready tomorrow, then?" + +"Quite." + +After Danvers had gone to his hotel Brabant went on board the _Loelia_, +and he and Pedro Diaz again talked together. + +***** + +At nine o'clock next morning the cutter Loelia weighed anchor, and made +sail for "a cruise among the New Hebrides. With Captain Brabant" (so +said the tiny weekly newspaper published in Levuka) "was Captain Harold +Danvers, who is making a tour of inspection of the captain's properties +before taking possession of them on behalf of the new Trading Company." + +***** + +Forty-eight hours after leaving Levuka the cutter was clear of the +land, and leaping and spinning before the trade wind which was blowing +lustily. Danvers, as he sat in a deck-chair smoking a cigar, took a lazy +interest in the crew, who were all natives of the Line Islands--short, +square-built, half-naked savages, with jet-black hair and huge pendulous +ear-lobes filled with coiled-up leaves. There were but eight of +them--the _Loelia_ was a vessel of ninety tons--and Diaz was the only +white man on board except Brabant and Danvers. + +It was four o'clock in the afternoon. A native seaman struck eight bells +and Brabant came on deck. Pedro was standing aft beside the helmsman. + +"We're going along at a jolly good pace, are we not----" began Danvers. +Then his voice failed him suddenly, and his face turned white as he saw +that Brabant was looking at him with the deadliest hatred in his eyes. + +"What is the matter with you, Brabant? Why do you----" + +Brabant raised his hand, and Pedro came and stood beside him, and then +two of the wild-looking crew suddenly sprang upon Danvers, seized him by +the arms, and handcuffed him. + +"Away with him below," said Brabant, turning on his heel and walking +aft. + +Too utterly astounded to offer any resistance, Danvers was hurried along +the deck to the main hatch and made to descend. The hold was empty, but +an armed native was there awaiting the prisoner. + +Diaz followed him below. + +"You are to make no noise, nor speak to the sentry," he said, with a +sullen savageness; "if you do I shall put on the hatches." + +Danvers was no coward, but his heart sank within him. "Is this a joke, +or has Captain Brabant gone mad?" + +The Chileno looked at him with blazing eyes, and half raised his hand as +if to strike. Then, without a word, he turned away and went on deck. + +Brabant was seated on the skylight with an outspread chart before him. + +"Keep her S.S.W., Pedro. We are steering for Hunter's Island. Set the +squaresail." + +***** + +For five days the _Loelia_ steered steadily before the trade wind, till +one morning there lay before her a huge, treeless cone, whose barren, +rugged sides rose blackly from the sea. + +Not a vestige of vegetation was visible anywhere from the cutter, and +from the summit of the cone, and from long, gaping fissures in the +sides, ascended thin, wavering clouds of dull, sulphurous smoke. Here +and there were small bays, whose shores showed narrow beaches of black +sand, upon which the surf thundered and clamoured unceasingly. Not even +a wandering sea-bird was to be seen, and the only sound that disturbed +the dread silence of the place was the roar of the breakers mingling +with the muffled groanings and heavings of the still struggling and +mighty forces of Nature in the heart of the island--forces which, +ninety-five years before, had found a vent and destroyed every living +thing, man and beast, in one dreadful outburst of flame, whose awful +reflection was seen a hundred leagues away. + +It was a place of horror and desolation, set in a lonely sea, appalling +in appearance to the human eye. + +But at one point on the western side, as the _Loelia_ crept in under the +lee, there opened out a small bay less than fifty fathoms in width from +head to head, where, instead of the roaring surf which beat so fiercely +against the rest of the island, as if it sought to burst in its rocky +walls and extinguish for ever the raging fires hidden deep down in its +heart, there was but a gentle swell which broke softly upon a beach less +dismal to the eye than the others. For instead of the black volcanic +sand the shore was strewn with rough boulders of rock, whose sides were +covered in places with a thick, green creeper. Above, the sides of the +mountain showed here and there a scanty foliage, low, stunted, and dull +tinted; and in the centre of the beach a tiny stream of fresh water +trickled through sand and rock and mingled itself with the sea. + +Abreast of this spot the cutter's jib-sheet was hauled to windward. Then +the boat was lowered and filled with provisions in cases and casks, and +Diaz, with four hands, went ashore and carried everything up beyond high +water-mark. Brabant watched them unconcernedly from the ship. + +The boat returned and Diaz came on deck, and looked at the captain +expectantly. Brabant made a gesture towards the main hatch, then stepped +forward. Diaz, with two seamen, descended the hold. In two minutes they +reappeared with Danvers, who, the moment he came on deck, looked wildly +about him. + +"For God's sake, listen to me!" he said hoarsely to the Chileno. "Are +you, too, and these men, as mad as your captain, or am I mad myself? +Where is he? Let me see him. What are you doing with me?" + +No answer was made. The native sailors seized him by the arms and +dragged him to the side. Then he was lowered into the boat, which at +once pushed off and was headed towards the land. He looked, with horror +in his eyes, at the dreadful aspect before him, then turned his face +towards the cutter. Brabant was leaning on the rail watching him. + +The five grim, silent men landed him on the beach, and Diaz pointed +without a word to the pile of stores, and then, grasping his steer-oar, +motioned to his crew to push off. + +"You devils! You fiends incarnate! Are you going to leave me here to die +alone in this awful place?" cried Danvers, as with clenched and uplifted +hands he saw Diaz swing the boat's head seaward. + +The Chileno turned his face slowly towards him. + +"You shall not die alone, Señor Danvers. You shall have company--good +company." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +One evening Captain Lester of the _Maritana_, then lying in Sydney +harbour "awaiting orders," called on Mrs. Brabant at the Royal Hotel. + +"I have just received this from Captain Brabant, madam," he said with +studied, but cold politeness, as he handed her a letter. + +She took it with an impatient gesture. "A letter to you and none to me! +Surely he must have written, and the letter has miscarried." + +"No doubt, madam," replied the captain of the _Maritana_ in the same +stiff tones. + +Mrs. Brabant motioned him to a seat as she read the letter, first +telling Minea, the Samoan maid, who was present, to leave the room. The +girl obeyed, and as she passed Lester she gave him such a curious +but friendly glance, that now for the first time he began to have a +suspicion that she was not false to her master. Then, too, it suddenly +flashed across his mind that according to Samoan custom, unknown to her +mistress, Minea was a "sister" to Brabant, who had exchanged names with +her father, a minor chief of a good family, on whose land Brabant had +settled when he first came to Samoa. That alone, he knew, would ensure +the girl's unswerving loyalty and devotion to her "brother"--she could +not conceal from him anything that affected his honour or reputation. + +"She'll tell him," he thought, as he watched Mrs. Brabant read the +letter; "thank God I shall be spared the task." + +Brabant's letter to Lester was very short. It was dated from Vavau, +Friendly Islands, and was as follows:-- + + "Dear Lester,--I send you this hurried note by the Tongan + Government schooner _Taufaahau_. I am here in the _Loelia_, + inspecting my stations in connection with their transference + to Captain Danvers's company. He is very anxious to realise + his ideal, and I do not wish to keep him waiting. If Mrs. + Brabant is not in Sydney when this reaches you, please + communicate with her as quickly as possible. No doubt she + will be quite anxious to return to Fiji now, and I shall be + here awaiting the _Maritana_. I hope to see you within three + weeks after you receive this. Make the _Maritana_ sail for + all she is worth. + + "Yours sincerely, + + "John Brabant." + +She handed him the letter. "Thank you, Captain Lester. When do you +propose sailing?" + +"I am ready for sea now, madam. I only await your pleasure." + +He did not look at her as he spoke, for he feared that the hatred and +contempt with which he regarded her would show itself in his face. + +"I can come on board to-morrow. Will that do?" she asked. + +"Certainly, madam, if it will not hurry you too much." + +"Not at all, Captain; I am sick of Sydney, and am only too glad to come +on board the _Maritana_ again." She spoke with a friendly warmth, but +Lester's distantly polite manner gave her no encouragement. + +"Will you not stay and dine with me?" she asked, with a smile; "do say +yes. I feel quite angry that my husband has not written to me. I am +really a deserted wife. Don't you think so, Captain Lester?" + +Her forced pleasantry was thrown away. + +"I am very sorry, Mrs. Brabant, but as we are to sail to-morrow, I must +hasten on board at once. There are many matters to which I must attend." + +He rose and bowed stiffly, and Nell Brabant extended her hand. He +touched it, and in another moment was gone. She sank back in her chair +with a white face and terror in her eyes. What did he mean by his cold +and distant manner? Did he suspect anything? Did he know anything? How +could he? Minea alone knew that she had left Sydney for a month with +Danvers, and Minea would not betray her! What need to fear anything? + +Then, satisfied with her own powers of intrigue, she smiled to herself, +and dismissed Lester's cold face and unresponsive manner from her mind. + +When Lester went on board again he took from his pocket a second letter +from Brabant, which was marked "Private and Confidential," and with +a puzzled brow read it over again. "I want you, Lester, to attend +carefully to my instructions. _You are to consider my other letter as +cancelled_. I wish you, instead of coming to Tonga, to make all possible +haste to 22 10' S. and 170 25' E. I shall meet you there or thereabouts +in the _Loelia_.--Yours sincerely. J. B." + +"What does all this mystery mean, I wonder?" he muttered, as he looked +at an outspread chart on the table; "why should he pick upon the +vicinity of such a God-forsaken spot as Hunter's Island for a +rendezvous? But it's none of my business." Then he turned in and slept. + +***** + +Sunset in the South Seas. + +The _Loelia_ was lazily head-reaching towards Hunter's Island, about six +miles distant, its grim and rugged outlines showing out clearly under +the yellow streaks of the sinking sun, Pedro Diaz was on deck, drinking +his coffee, when the native seaman who was on the lookout cried-- + +"Sail ho, sir! Away there on the weather beam." + +Diaz stepped below to Brabant, who was lying in his bunk reading a book. + +"Here she is, sir." + +"Ah! three days sooner than I expected her, Pedro. You know what to do, +don't you? Here is the letter for Lester. Get away as quickly as you +can. The night will be fine and clear, and there will be no need to +hoist a light for you." + +He handed the officer a letter addressed to "Captain James Lester, +schooner _Maritana_," and then rose and began to dress himself. + +In a few minutes the cutter's boat, with Pedro Diaz and four hands, was +pulling towards the _Maritana_ which was coming along under a six-knot +breeze. The moment the boat left the side Brabant set the gaff topsail +and square-sail, and headed the Loelia towards the north end of the +island. Just as she disappeared from the view of those on board the +approaching vessel, Pedro Diaz came within hailing distance. He stood +up. + +"_Maritana_ ahoy!" + +Lester's voice replied to his hail, the schooner was brought to the +wind, the boat ranged alongside, and Diaz ascended. + +"How are you, Lester?" he said, shaking hands with his friend. "I have +no time to talk. Read this letter at once, and let me get away with all +speed." + +Lester was impressed with the emphatic manner in which he spoke, and +without a single question opened Brabant's letter. Then an exclamation +of astonishment burst from him. + +"What does it all mean, Pedro? I----" + +The Chileno waved his hand impatiently, and shrugged his shoulders. "We +must obey orders, Lester." + +"Of course. I shall let Mrs. Brabant know at once." Then he read the +letter a second time. + + "Dear Lester,--Please ask Mrs. Brabant to get together some + of her luggage as quickly as possible, and come on board the + _Loelia_, which is the better vessel of the two as far as + comfort goes. Minea can remain on board the _Maritana_. You + will find further orders awaiting you at Levuka." + +That was all. Lester stepped below, and found his passenger seated at +the cabin table. + +"That vessel is the _Loelia_ madam, and Diaz has just come aboard with +this letter;" and he handed it to her. + +"What an extraordinary thing! Why did not my husband come for me +himself if he is so anxious for me to join him on the _Loelia_. Is she +close-to?" + +"Yes, but not in sight. I think Captain Brabant was afraid of the wind +failing, and the cutter drifting in on the weather side of the island, +for he has gone round to the lee side." + +Calling Minea, Mrs. Brabant hurriedly packed some necessary clothing, +telling the girl the reason for such haste, and in a few minutes she +sent word on deck that she was ready. Diaz was already in the boat, +steer-oar in hand, and talking to Lester, who was leaning over the rail, +wondering why his former comrade seemed so embarrassed, and impatient to +get away. + +Mrs. Brabant held out her hand. "Good-bye, Captain Lester. I hope you +will have a quick passage to Levuka. Goodbye, Minea." + +She descended the ladder into the boat, and took her seat, Diaz lifted +his hat, and then gave the word to push off. + +"Good-bye, Pedro," said Lester. + +The Chileno looked up. + +"Good-bye, Jim, old comrade." + +The men stretched to their oars, and the whaleboat shot out towards +the dark shadow of the island as the crew of the _Maritana_ went to the +braces, the yards swung round, and she stood away to the eastward, and +Lester, with a strange feeling of unrest oppressing him, leant with +folded arms upon the rail, and wondered why Pedro Diaz had given such a +tone of sadness to his last words. + +The night was clear with the light of myriad stars, as the boat swept +through the gently heaving sea. Diaz, standing grim and sombre-faced at +the steer-oar, had not spoken a word since the boat left the ship. His +eyes looked straight ahead. + +Mrs. Brabant had never liked the dark, sullen-faced Chilian, but now +there came into her heart such a sudden, horrible feeling of loneliness +that she felt she would be glad to hear him speak. + +"Is my husband quite well, Mr. Diaz?" + +"Quite well, madam," he replied, still staring straight before him. + +His voice appalled her, and she made no further effort to break the +dreadful silence as she looked at the black bulk of the island, along +whose fissured sides there every now and then ran ragged sheets of smoky +flame. The boat rounded the island, and then when opposite the little +bay, Diaz swung her head round, and headed directly for the shore. + +"Are we landing here?" asked the woman in a faint, terrified voice. + +"Yes." + +The boat touched the shore, the crew jumped out, carried Mrs. Brabant's +two boxes to the beach, placed a lighted boat-lantern on one, and then +Diaz silently held out his hand to assist her on shore. + +She stepped out, and then stood facing him for a moment, her cheek +showing the pallor of deadly fear. Then the seaman thrust his hand in +the breast of his coat, and handed her a letter. In another instant, +without a word of farewell, he had leapt into the boat again, which at +once pushed off--and she was alone. + +***** + +When daylight broke it revealed two figures on the lonely beach--one a +woman, who lay prone upon the ground, and wept in silent anguish, and +the other a man, whose frightful aspect made him look scarcely human. +He was kneeling beside one of the boxes, glaring with the eyes of one +almost mad with horror at a letter he had taken from the woman's hand +when he discovered her lying unconscious. + + "I have known everything from the very first. Danvers said + in one of his letters to you that life with you would be + happiness unutterable, even in a desert place. I have + brought you here to meet him. He has waited long. + + "John Brabant." + +And never again were Danvers and Nell Brabant seen by men, and John +Brabant and the _Loelia_ and her crew were supposed to have been lost at +sea. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trader's Wife, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRADER'S WIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 24837-8.txt or 24837-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/8/3/24837/ + +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. 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