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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/26854-8.txt b/26854-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccd8a9b --- /dev/null +++ b/26854-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9030 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Trembling of a Leaf, by William Somerset Maugham + +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 Trembling of a Leaf + Little Stories of the South Sea Islands + +Author: William Somerset Maugham + +Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + + + + + + + + + +THE TREMBLING +OF A LEAF + +_Little Stories of the South Sea Islands_ + +BY +W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +AUTHOR OF "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE," +"OF HUMAN BONDAGE," ETC. + +NEW YORK +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT, 1921, + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + +* * * * * + +TO +BERTRAM ALANSON + +* * * * * + +_L'extrême félicité à peine séparée par +une feuille tremblante de l'extrême +désespoir, n'est-ce pas la vie?_ + +SAINTE-BEUVE. + +* * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +I THE PACIFIC + +II MACKINTOSH + +III THE FALL OF EDWARD BARNARD + +IV RED + +V THE POOL + +VI HONOLULU + +VII RAIN + +VIII ENVOI + + + + +THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF + + + + +I + +_The Pacific_ + + +The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes +it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, +and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous. It +is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is +arrogant. The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind +gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the +unknown. The billows, magnificently rolling, stretch widely on all sides +of you, and you forget your vanished youth, with its memories, cruel and +sweet, in a restless, intolerable desire for life. On such a sea as this +Ulysses sailed when he sought the Happy Isles. But there are days also +when the Pacific is like a lake. The sea is flat and shining. The flying +fish, a gleam of shadow on the brightness of a mirror, make little +fountains of sparkling drops when they dip. There are fleecy clouds on +the horizon, and at sunset they take strange shapes so that it is +impossible not to believe that you see a range of lofty mountains. They +are the mountains of the country of your dreams. You sail through an +unimaginable silence upon a magic sea. Now and then a few gulls suggest +that land is not far off, a forgotten island hidden in a wilderness of +waters; but the gulls, the melancholy gulls, are the only sign you have +of it. You see never a tramp, with its friendly smoke, no stately bark +or trim schooner, not a fishing boat even: it is an empty desert; and +presently the emptiness fills you with a vague foreboding. + + + + +II + +_Mackintosh_ + + +He splashed about for a few minutes in the sea; it was too shallow to +swim in and for fear of sharks he could not go out of his depth; then he +got out and went into the bath-house for a shower. The coldness of the +fresh water was grateful after the heavy stickiness of the salt Pacific, +so warm, though it was only just after seven, that to bathe in it did +not brace you but rather increased your languor; and when he had dried +himself, slipping into a bath-gown, he called out to the Chinese cook +that he would be ready for breakfast in five minutes. He walked barefoot +across the patch of coarse grass which Walker, the administrator, +proudly thought was a lawn, to his own quarters and dressed. This did +not take long, for he put on nothing but a shirt and a pair of duck +trousers and then went over to his chief's house on the other side of +the compound. The two men had their meals together, but the Chinese cook +told him that Walker had set out on horseback at five and would not be +back for another hour. + +Mackintosh had slept badly and he looked with distaste at the paw-paw +and the eggs and bacon which were set before him. The mosquitoes had +been maddening that night; they flew about the net under which he slept +in such numbers that their humming, pitiless and menacing, had the +effect of a note, infinitely drawn out, played on a distant organ, and +whenever he dozed off he awoke with a start in the belief that one had +found its way inside his curtains. It was so hot that he lay naked. He +turned from side to side. And gradually the dull roar of the breakers on +the reef, so unceasing and so regular that generally you did not hear +it, grew distinct on his consciousness, its rhythm hammered on his tired +nerves and he held himself with clenched hands in the effort to bear it. +The thought that nothing could stop that sound, for it would continue to +all eternity, was almost impossible to bear, and, as though his strength +were a match for the ruthless forces of nature, he had an insane impulse +to do some violent thing. He felt he must cling to his self-control or +he would go mad. And now, looking out of the window at the lagoon and +the strip of foam which marked the reef, he shuddered with hatred of the +brilliant scene. The cloudless sky was like an inverted bowl that hemmed +it in. He lit his pipe and turned over the pile of Auckland papers that +had come over from Apia a few days before. The newest of them was three +weeks old. They gave an impression of incredible dullness. + +Then he went into the office. It was a large, bare room with two desks +in it and a bench along one side. A number of natives were seated on +this, and a couple of women. They gossiped while they waited for the +administrator, and when Mackintosh came in they greeted him. + +"_Talofa li._" + +He returned their greeting and sat down at his desk. He began to write, +working on a report which the governor of Samoa had been clamouring for +and which Walker, with his usual dilatoriness, had neglected to prepare. +Mackintosh as he made his notes reflected vindictively that Walker was +late with his report because he was so illiterate that he had an +invincible distaste for anything to do with pens and paper; and now when +it was at last ready, concise and neatly official, he would accept his +subordinate's work without a word of appreciation, with a sneer rather +or a gibe, and send it on to his own superior as though it were his own +composition. He could not have written a word of it. Mackintosh thought +with rage that if his chief pencilled in some insertion it would be +childish in expression and faulty in language. If he remonstrated or +sought to put his meaning into an intelligible phrase, Walker would fly +into a passion and cry: + +"What the hell do I care about grammar? That's what I want to say and +that's how I want to say it." + +At last Walker came in. The natives surrounded him as he entered, trying +to get his immediate attention, but he turned on them roughly and told +them to sit down and hold their tongues. He threatened that if they were +not quiet he would have them all turned out and see none of them that +day. He nodded to Mackintosh. + +"Hulloa, Mac; up at last? I don't know how you can waste the best part +of the day in bed. You ought to have been up before dawn like me. Lazy +beggar." + +He threw himself heavily into his chair and wiped his face with a large +bandana. + +"By heaven, I've got a thirst." + +He turned to the policeman who stood at the door, a picturesque figure +in his white jacket and _lava-lava_, the loin cloth of the Samoan, and +told him to bring _kava_. The _kava_ bowl stood on the floor in the +corner of the room, and the policeman filled a half coconut shell and +brought it to Walker. He poured a few drops on the ground, murmured the +customary words to the company, and drank with relish. Then he told the +policeman to serve the waiting natives, and the shell was handed to each +one in order of birth or importance and emptied with the same +ceremonies. + +Then he set about the day's work. He was a little man, considerably less +than of middle height, and enormously stout; he had a large, fleshy +face, clean-shaven, with the cheeks hanging on each side in great +dew-laps, and three vast chins; his small features were all dissolved in +fat; and, but for a crescent of white hair at the back of his head, he +was completely bald. He reminded you of Mr Pickwick. He was grotesque, a +figure of fun, and yet, strangely enough, not without dignity. His blue +eyes, behind large gold-rimmed spectacles, were shrewd and vivacious, +and there was a great deal of determination in his face. He was sixty, +but his native vitality triumphed over advancing years. Notwithstanding +his corpulence his movements were quick, and he walked with a heavy, +resolute tread as though he sought to impress his weight upon the earth. +He spoke in a loud, gruff voice. + +It was two years now since Mackintosh had been appointed Walker's +assistant. Walker, who had been for a quarter of a century administrator +of Talua, one of the larger islands in the Samoan group, was a man known +in person or by report through the length and breadth of the South Seas; +and it was with lively curiosity that Mackintosh looked forward to his +first meeting with him. For one reason or another he stayed a couple of +weeks at Apia before he took up his post and both at Chaplin's hotel and +at the English club he heard innumerable stories about the +administrator. He thought now with irony of his interest in them. Since +then he had heard them a hundred times from Walker himself. Walker knew +that he was a character, and, proud of his reputation, deliberately +acted up to it. He was jealous of his "legend" and anxious that you +should know the exact details of any of the celebrated stories that were +told of him. He was ludicrously angry with anyone who had told them to +the stranger incorrectly. + +There was a rough cordiality about Walker which Mackintosh at first +found not unattractive, and Walker, glad to have a listener to whom all +he said was fresh, gave of his best. He was good-humoured, hearty, and +considerate. To Mackintosh, who had lived the sheltered life of a +government official in London till at the age of thirty-four an attack +of pneumonia, leaving him with the threat of tuberculosis, had forced +him to seek a post in the Pacific, Walker's existence seemed +extraordinarily romantic. The adventure with which he started on his +conquest of circumstance was typical of the man. He ran away to sea when +he was fifteen and for over a year was employed in shovelling coal on a +collier. He was an undersized boy and both men and mates were kind to +him, but the captain for some reason conceived a savage dislike of him. +He used the lad cruelly so that, beaten and kicked, he often could not +sleep for the pain that racked his limbs. He loathed the captain with +all his soul. Then he was given a tip for some race and managed to +borrow twenty-five pounds from a friend he had picked up in Belfast. He +put it on the horse, an outsider, at long odds. He had no means of +repaying the money if he lost, but it never occurred to him that he +could lose. He felt himself in luck. The horse won and he found himself +with something over a thousand pounds in hard cash. Now his chance had +come. He found out who was the best solicitor in the town--the collier +lay then somewhere on the Irish coast--went to him, and, telling him +that he heard the ship was for sale, asked him to arrange the purchase +for him. The solicitor was amused at his small client, he was only +sixteen and did not look so old, and, moved perhaps by sympathy, +promised not only to arrange the matter for him but to see that he made +a good bargain. After a little while Walker found himself the owner of +the ship. He went back to her and had what he described as the most +glorious moment of his life when he gave the skipper notice and told him +that he must get off _his_ ship in half an hour. He made the mate +captain and sailed on the collier for another nine months, at the end of +which he sold her at a profit. + +He came out to the islands at the age of twenty-six as a planter. He was +one of the few white men settled in Talua at the time of the German +occupation and had then already some influence with the natives. The +Germans made him administrator, a position which he occupied for twenty +years, and when the island was seized by the British he was confirmed in +his post. He ruled the island despotically, but with complete success. +The prestige of this success was another reason for the interest that +Mackintosh took in him. + +But the two men were not made to get on. Mackintosh was an ugly man, +with ungainly gestures, a tall thin fellow, with a narrow chest and +bowed shoulders. He had sallow, sunken cheeks, and his eyes were large +and sombre. He was a great reader, and when his books arrived and were +unpacked Walker came over to his quarters and looked at them. Then he +turned to Mackintosh with a coarse laugh. + +"What in Hell have you brought all this muck for?" he asked. + +Mackintosh flushed darkly. + +"I'm sorry you think it muck. I brought my books because I want to read +them." + +"When you said you'd got a lot of books coming I thought there'd be +something for me to read. Haven't you got any detective stories?" + +"Detective stories don't interest me." + +"You're a damned fool then." + +"I'm content that you should think so." + +Every mail brought Walker a mass of periodical literature, papers from +New Zealand and magazines from America, and it exasperated him that +Mackintosh showed his contempt for these ephemeral publications. He had +no patience with the books that absorbed Mackintosh's leisure and +thought it only a pose that he read Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ or +Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_. And since he had never learned to put +any restraint on his tongue, he expressed his opinion of his assistant +freely. Mackintosh began to see the real man, and under the boisterous +good-humour he discerned a vulgar cunning which was hateful; he was vain +and domineering, and it was strange that he had notwithstanding a +shyness which made him dislike people who were not quite of his kidney. +He judged others, naïvely, by their language, and if it was free from +the oaths and the obscenity which made up the greater part of his own +conversation, he looked upon them with suspicion. In the evening the two +men played piquet. He played badly but vaingloriously, crowing over his +opponent when he won and losing his temper when he lost. On rare +occasions a couple of planters or traders would drive over to play +bridge, and then Walker showed himself in what Mackintosh considered a +characteristic light. He played regardless of his partner, calling up +in his desire to play the hand, and argued interminably, beating down +opposition by the loudness of his voice. He constantly revoked, and when +he did so said with an ingratiating whine: "Oh, you wouldn't count it +against an old man who can hardly see." Did he know that his opponents +thought it as well to keep on the right side of him and hesitated to +insist on the rigour of the game? Mackintosh watched him with an icy +contempt. When the game was over, while they smoked their pipes and +drank whisky, they would begin telling stories. Walker told with gusto +the story of his marriage. He had got so drunk at the wedding feast that +the bride had fled and he had never seen her since. He had had +numberless adventures, commonplace and sordid, with the women of the +island and he described them with a pride in his own prowess which was +an offence to Mackintosh's fastidious ears. He was a gross, sensual old +man. He thought Mackintosh a poor fellow because he would not share his +promiscuous amours and remained sober when the company was drunk. + +He despised him also for the orderliness with which he did his official +work. Mackintosh liked to do everything just so. His desk was always +tidy, his papers were always neatly docketed, he could put his hand on +any document that was needed, and he had at his fingers' ends all the +regulations that were required for the business of their administration. + +"Fudge, fudge," said Walker. "I've run this island for twenty years +without red tape, and I don't want it now." + +"Does it make it any easier for you that when you want a letter you have +to hunt half an hour for it?" answered Mackintosh. + +"You're nothing but a damned official. But you're not a bad fellow; when +you've been out here a year or two you'll be all right. What's wrong +about you is that you won't drink. You wouldn't be a bad sort if you got +soused once a week." + +The curious thing was that Walker remained perfectly unconscious of the +dislike for him which every month increased in the breast of his +subordinate. Although he laughed at him, as he grew accustomed to him, +he began almost to like him. He had a certain tolerance for the +peculiarities of others, and he accepted Mackintosh as a queer fish. +Perhaps he liked him, unconsciously, because he could chaff him. His +humour consisted of coarse banter and he wanted a butt. Mackintosh's +exactness, his morality, his sobriety, were all fruitful subjects; his +Scot's name gave an opportunity for the usual jokes about Scotland; he +enjoyed himself thoroughly when two or three men were there and he could +make them all laugh at the expense of Mackintosh. He would say +ridiculous things about him to the natives, and Mackintosh, his +knowledge of Samoan still imperfect, would see their unrestrained mirth +when Walker had made an obscene reference to him. He smiled +good-humouredly. + +"I'll say this for you, Mac," Walker would say in his gruff loud voice, +"you can take a joke." + +"Was it a joke?" smiled Mackintosh. "I didn't know." + +"Scots wha hae!" shouted Walker, with a bellow of laughter. "There's +only one way to make a Scotchman see a joke and that's by a surgical +operation." + +Walker little knew that there was nothing Mackintosh could stand less +than chaff. He would wake in the night, the breathless night of the +rainy season, and brood sullenly over the gibe that Walker had uttered +carelessly days before. It rankled. His heart swelled with rage, and he +pictured to himself ways in which he might get even with the bully. He +had tried answering him, but Walker had a gift of repartee, coarse and +obvious, which gave him an advantage. The dullness of his intellect made +him impervious to a delicate shaft. His self-satisfaction made it +impossible to wound him. His loud voice, his bellow of laughter, were +weapons against which Mackintosh had nothing to counter, and he learned +that the wisest thing was never to betray his irritation. He learned to +control himself. But his hatred grew till it was a monomania. He watched +Walker with an insane vigilance. He fed his own self-esteem by every +instance of meanness on Walker's part, by every exhibition of childish +vanity, of cunning and of vulgarity. Walker ate greedily, noisily, +filthily, and Mackintosh watched him with satisfaction. He took note of +the foolish things he said and of his mistakes in grammar. He knew that +Walker held him in small esteem, and he found a bitter satisfaction in +his chief's opinion of him; it increased his own contempt for the +narrow, complacent old man. And it gave him a singular pleasure to know +that Walker was entirely unconscious of the hatred he felt for him. He +was a fool who liked popularity, and he blandly fancied that everyone +admired him. Once Mackintosh had overheard Walker speaking of him. + +"He'll be all right when I've licked him into shape," he said. "He's a +good dog and he loves his master." + +Mackintosh silently, without a movement of his long, sallow face, +laughed long and heartily. + +But his hatred was not blind; on the contrary, it was peculiarly +clear-sighted, and he judged Walker's capabilities with precision. He +ruled his small kingdom with efficiency. He was just and honest. With +opportunities to make money he was a poorer man than when he was first +appointed to his post, and his only support for his old age was the +pension which he expected when at last he retired from official life. +His pride was that with an assistant and a half-caste clerk he was able +to administer the island more competently than Upolu, the island of +which Apia is the chief town, was administered with its army of +functionaries. He had a few native policemen to sustain his authority, +but he made no use of them. He governed by bluff and his Irish humour. + +"They insisted on building a jail for me," he said. "What the devil do I +want a jail for? I'm not going to put the natives in prison. If they do +wrong I know how to deal with them." + +One of his quarrels with the higher authorities at Apia was that he +claimed entire jurisdiction over the natives of his island. Whatever +their crimes he would not give them up to courts competent to deal with +them, and several times an angry correspondence had passed between him +and the Governor at Upolu. For he looked upon the natives as his +children. And that was the amazing thing about this coarse, vulgar, +selfish man; he loved the island on which he had lived so long with +passion, and he had for the natives a strange rough tenderness which was +quite wonderful. + +He loved to ride about the island on his old grey mare and he was never +tired of its beauty. Sauntering along the grassy roads among the coconut +trees he would stop every now and then to admire the loveliness of the +scene. Now and then he would come upon a native village and stop while +the head man brought him a bowl of _kava_. He would look at the little +group of bell-shaped huts with their high thatched roofs, like beehives, +and a smile would spread over his fat face. His eyes rested happily on +the spreading green of the bread-fruit trees. + +"By George, it's like the garden of Eden." + +Sometimes his rides took him along the coast and through the trees he +had a glimpse of the wide sea, empty, with never a sail to disturb the +loneliness; sometimes he climbed a hill so that a great stretch of +country, with little villages nestling among the tall trees, was spread +out before him like the kingdom of the world, and he would sit there +for an hour in an ecstasy of delight. But he had no words to express +his feelings and to relieve them would utter an obscene jest; it was as +though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the +tension. + +Mackintosh observed this sentiment with an icy disdain. Walker had +always been a heavy drinker, he was proud of his capacity to see men +half his age under the table when he spent a night in Apia, and he had +the sentimentality of the toper. He could cry over the stories he read +in his magazines and yet would refuse a loan to some trader in +difficulties whom he had known for twenty years. He was close with his +money. Once Mackintosh said to him: + +"No one could accuse you of giving money away." + +He took it as a compliment. His enthusiasm for nature was but the +drivelling sensibility of the drunkard. Nor had Mackintosh any sympathy +for his chief's feelings towards the natives. He loved them because they +were in his power, as a selfish man loves his dog, and his mentality was +on a level with theirs. Their humour was obscene and he was never at a +loss for the lewd remark. He understood them and they understood him. He +was proud of his influence over them. He looked upon them as his +children and he mixed himself in all their affairs. But he was very +jealous of his authority; if he ruled them with a rod of iron, brooking +no contradiction, he would not suffer any of the white men on the island +to take advantage of them. He watched the missionaries suspiciously +and, if they did anything of which he disapproved, was able to make life +so unendurable to them that if he could not get them removed they were +glad to go of their own accord. His power over the natives was so great +that on his word they would refuse labour and food to their pastor. On +the other hand he showed the traders no favour. He took care that they +should not cheat the natives; he saw that they got a fair reward for +their work and their copra and that the traders made no extravagant +profit on the wares they sold them. He was merciless to a bargain that +he thought unfair. Sometimes the traders would complain at Apia that +they did not get fair opportunities. They suffered for it. Walker then +hesitated at no calumny, at no outrageous lie, to get even with them, +and they found that if they wanted not only to live at peace, but to +exist at all, they had to accept the situation on his own terms. More +than once the store of a trader obnoxious to him had been burned down, +and there was only the appositeness of the event to show that the +administrator had instigated it. Once a Swedish half-caste, ruined by +the burning, had gone to him and roundly accused him of arson. Walker +laughed in his face. + +"You dirty dog. Your mother was a native and you try to cheat the +natives. If your rotten old store is burned down it's a judgment of +Providence; that's what it is, a judgment of Providence. Get out." + +And as the man was hustled out by two native policemen the administrator +laughed fatly. + +"A judgment of Providence." + +And now Mackintosh watched him enter upon the day's work. He began with +the sick, for Walker added doctoring to his other activities, and he had +a small room behind the office full of drugs. An elderly man came +forward, a man with a crop of curly grey hair, in a blue _lava-lava_, +elaborately tatooed, with the skin of his body wrinkled like a +wine-skin. + +"What have you come for?" Walker asked him abruptly. + +In a whining voice the man said that he could not eat without vomiting +and that he had pains here and pains there. + +"Go to the missionaries," said Walker. "You know that I only cure +children." + +"I have been to the missionaries and they do me no good." + +"Then go home and prepare yourself to die. Have you lived so long and +still want to go on living? You're a fool." + +The man broke into querulous expostulation, but Walker, pointing to a +woman with a sick child in her arms, told her to bring it to his desk. +He asked her questions and looked at the child. + +"I will give you medicine," he said. He turned to the half-caste clerk. +"Go into the dispensary and bring me some calomel pills." + +He made the child swallow one there and then and gave another to the +mother. + +"Take the child away and keep it warm. To-morrow it will be dead or +better." + +He leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe. + +"Wonderful stuff, calomel. I've saved more lives with it than all the +hospital doctors at Apia put together." + +Walker was very proud of his skill, and with the dogmatism of ignorance +had no patience with the members of the medical profession. + +"The sort of case I like," he said, "is the one that all the doctors +have given up as hopeless. When the doctors have said they can't cure +you, I say to them, 'come to me.' Did I ever tell you about the fellow +who had a cancer?" + +"Frequently," said Mackintosh. + +"I got him right in three months." + +"You've never told me about the people you haven't cured." + +He finished this part of the work and went on to the rest. It was a +queer medley. There was a woman who could not get on with her husband +and a man who complained that his wife had run away from him. + +"Lucky dog," said Walker. "Most men wish their wives would too." + +There was a long complicated quarrel about the ownership of a few yards +of land. There was a dispute about the sharing out of a catch of fish. +There was a complaint against a white trader because he had given short +measure. Walker listened attentively to every case, made up his mind +quickly, and gave his decision. Then he would listen to nothing more; if +the complainant went on he was hustled out of the office by a +policeman. Mackintosh listened to it all with sullen irritation. On the +whole, perhaps, it might be admitted that rough justice was done, but it +exasperated the assistant that his chief trusted his instinct rather +than the evidence. He would not listen to reason. He browbeat the +witnesses and when they did not see what he wished them to called them +thieves and liars. + +He left to the last a group of men who were sitting in the corner of the +room. He had deliberately ignored them. The party consisted of an old +chief, a tall, dignified man with short, white hair, in a new +_lava-lava_, bearing a huge fly wisp as a badge of office, his son, and +half a dozen of the important men of the village. Walker had had a feud +with them and had beaten them. As was characteristic of him he meant now +to rub in his victory, and because he had them down to profit by their +helplessness. The facts were peculiar. Walker had a passion for building +roads. When he had come to Talua there were but a few tracks here and +there, but in course of time he had cut roads through the country, +joining the villages together, and it was to this that a great part of +the island's prosperity was due. Whereas in the old days it had been +impossible to get the produce of the land, copra chiefly, down to the +coast where it could be put on schooners or motor launches and so taken +to Apia, now transport was easy and simple. His ambition was to make a +road right round the island and a great part of it was already built. + +"In two years I shall have done it, and then I can die or they can fire +me, I don't care." + +His roads were the joy of his heart and he made excursions constantly to +see that they were kept in order. They were simple enough, wide tracks, +grass covered, cut through the scrub or through the plantations; but +trees had to be rooted out, rocks dug up or blasted, and here and there +levelling had been necessary. He was proud that he had surmounted by his +own skill such difficulties as they presented. He rejoiced in his +disposition of them so that they were not only convenient, but showed +off the beauties of the island which his soul loved. When he spoke of +his roads he was almost a poet. They meandered through those lovely +scenes, and Walker had taken care that here and there they should run in +a straight line, giving you a green vista through the tall trees, and +here and there should turn and curve so that the heart was rested by the +diversity. It was amazing that this coarse and sensual man should +exercise so subtle an ingenuity to get the effects which his fancy +suggested to him. He had used in making his roads all the fantastic +skill of a Japanese gardener. He received a grant from headquarters for +the work but took a curious pride in using but a small part of it, and +the year before had spent only a hundred pounds of the thousand assigned +to him. + +"What do they want money for?" he boomed. "They'll only spend it on all +kinds of muck they don't want; what the missionaries leave them, that is +to say." + +For no particular reason, except perhaps pride in the economy of his +administration and the desire to contrast his efficiency with the +wasteful methods of the authorities at Apia, he got the natives to do +the work he wanted for wages that were almost nominal. It was owing to +this that he had lately had difficulty with the village whose chief men +now were come to see him. The chief's son had been in Upolu for a year +and on coming back had told his people of the large sums that were paid +at Apia for the public works. In long, idle talks he had inflamed their +hearts with the desire for gain. He held out to them visions of vast +wealth and they thought of the whisky they could buy--it was dear, since +there was a law that it must not be sold to natives, and so it cost them +double what the white man had to pay for it--they thought of the great +sandal-wood boxes in which they kept their treasures, and the scented +soap and potted salmon, the luxuries for which the Kanaka will sell his +soul; so that when the administrator sent for them and told them he +wanted a road made from their village to a certain point along the coast +and offered them twenty pounds, they asked him a hundred. The chief's +son was called Manuma. He was a tall, handsome fellow, copper-coloured, +with his fuzzy hair dyed red with lime, a wreath of red berries round +his neck, and behind his ear a flower like a scarlet flame against his +brown face. The upper part of his body was naked, but to show that he +was no longer a savage, since he had lived in Apia, he wore a pair of +dungarees instead of a _lava-lava_. He told them that if they held +together the administrator would be obliged to accept their terms. His +heart was set on building the road and when he found they would not work +for less he would give them what they asked. But they must not move; +whatever he said they must not abate their claim; they had asked a +hundred and that they must keep to. When they mentioned the figure, +Walker burst into a shout of his long, deep-voiced laughter. He told +them not to make fools of themselves, but to set about the work at once. +Because he was in a good humour that day he promised to give them a +feast when the road was finished. But when he found that no attempt was +made to start work, he went to the village and asked the men what silly +game they were playing. Manuma had coached them well. They were quite +calm, they did not attempt to argue--and argument is a passion with the +Kanaka--they merely shrugged their shoulders: they would do it for a +hundred pounds, and if he would not give them that they would do no +work. He could please himself. They did not care. Then Walker flew into +a passion. He was ugly then. His short fat neck swelled ominously, his +red face grew purple, he foamed at the mouth. He set upon the natives +with invective. He knew well how to wound and how to humiliate. He was +terrifying. The older men grew pale and uneasy. They hesitated. If it +had not been for Manuma, with his knowledge of the great world, and +their dread of his ridicule, they would have yielded. It was Manuma who +answered Walker. + +"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work." + +Walker, shaking his fist at him, called him every name he could think +of. He riddled him with scorn. Manuma sat still and smiled. There may +have been more bravado than confidence in his smile, but he had to make +a good show before the others. He repeated his words. + +"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work." + +They thought that Walker would spring on him. It would not have been the +first time that he had thrashed a native with his own hands; they knew +his strength, and though Walker was three times the age of the young man +and six inches shorter they did not doubt that he was more than a match +for Manuma. No one had ever thought of resisting the savage onslaught of +the administrator. But Walker said nothing. He chuckled. + +"I am not going to waste my time with a pack of fools," he said. "Talk +it over again. You know what I have offered. If you do not start in a +week, take care." + +He turned round and walked out of the chief's hut. He untied his old +mare and it was typical of the relations between him and the natives +that one of the elder men hung on to the off stirrup while Walker from a +convenient boulder hoisted himself heavily into the saddle. + +That same night when Walker according to his habit was strolling along +the road that ran past his house, he heard something whizz past him and +with a thud strike a tree. Something had been thrown at him. He ducked +instinctively. With a shout, "Who's that"? he ran towards the place from +which the missile had come and he heard the sound of a man escaping +through the bush. He knew it was hopeless to pursue in the darkness, and +besides he was soon out of breath, so he stopped and made his way back +to the road. He looked about for what had been thrown, but could find +nothing. It was quite dark. He went quickly back to the house and called +Mackintosh and the Chinese boy. + +"One of those devils has thrown something at me. Come along and let's +find out what it was." + +He told the boy to bring a lantern and the three of them made their way +back to the place. They hunted about the ground, but could not find what +they sought. Suddenly the boy gave a guttural cry. They turned to look. +He held up the lantern, and there, sinister in the light that cut the +surrounding darkness, was a long knife sticking into the trunk of a +coconut tree. It had been thrown with such force that it required quite +an effort to pull it out. + +"By George, if he hadn't missed me I'd have been in a nice state." + +Walker handled the knife. It was one of those knives, made in imitation +of the sailor knives brought to the islands a hundred years before by +the first white men, used to divide the coconuts in two so that the +copra might be dried. It was a murderous weapon, and the blade, twelve +inches long, was very sharp. Walker chuckled softly. + +"The devil, the impudent devil." + +He had no doubt it was Manuma who had flung the knife. He had escaped +death by three inches. He was not angry. On the contrary, he was in high +spirits; the adventure exhilarated him, and when they got back to the +house, calling for drinks, he rubbed his hands gleefully. + +"I'll make them pay for this!" + +His little eyes twinkled. He blew himself out like a turkey-cock, and +for the second time within half an hour insisted on telling Mackintosh +every detail of the affair. Then he asked him to play piquet, and while +they played he boasted of his intentions. Mackintosh listened with +tightened lips. + +"But why should you grind them down like this?" he asked. "Twenty pounds +is precious little for the work you want them to do." + +"They ought to be precious thankful I give them anything." + +"Hang it all, it's not your own money. The government allots you a +reasonable sum. They won't complain if you spend it." + +"They're a bunch of fools at Apia." + +Mackintosh saw that Walker's motive was merely vanity. He shrugged his +shoulders. + +"It won't do you much good to score off the fellows at Apia at the cost +of your life." + +"Bless you, they wouldn't hurt me, these people. They couldn't do +without me. They worship me. Manuma is a fool. He only threw that knife +to frighten me." + +The next day Walker rode over again to the village. It was called +Matautu. He did not get off his horse. When he reached the chief's +house he saw that the men were sitting round the floor in a circle, +talking, and he guessed they were discussing again the question of the +road. The Samoan huts are formed in this way: Trunks of slender trees +are placed in a circle at intervals of perhaps five or six feet; a tall +tree is set in the middle and from this downwards slopes the thatched +roof. Venetian blinds of coconut leaves can be pulled down at night or +when it is raining. Ordinarily the hut is open all round so that the +breeze can blow through freely. Walker rode to the edge of the hut and +called out to the chief. + +"Oh, there, Tangatu, your son left his knife in a tree last night. I +have brought it back to you." + +He flung it down on the ground in the midst of the circle, and with a +low burst of laughter ambled off. + +On Monday he went out to see if they had started work. There was no sign +of it. He rode through the village. The inhabitants were about their +ordinary avocations. Some were weaving mats of the pandanus leaf, one +old man was busy with a _kava_ bowl, the children were playing, the +women went about their household chores. Walker, a smile on his lips, +came to the chief's house. + +"_Talofa-li_," said the chief. + +"_Talofa_," answered Walker. + +Manuma was making a net. He sat with a cigarette between his lips and +looked up at Walker with a smile of triumph. + +"You have decided that you will not make the road?" + +The chief answered. + +"Not unless you pay us one hundred pounds." + +"You will regret it." He turned to Manuma. "And you, my lad, I shouldn't +wonder if your back was very sore before you're much older." + +He rode away chuckling. He left the natives vaguely uneasy. They feared +the fat sinful old man, and neither the missionaries' abuse of him nor +the scorn which Manuma had learnt in Apia made them forget that he had a +devilish cunning and that no man had ever braved him without in the long +run suffering for it. They found out within twenty-four hours what +scheme he had devised. It was characteristic. For next morning a great +band of men, women, and children came into the village and the chief men +said that they had made a bargain with Walker to build the road. He had +offered them twenty pounds and they had accepted. Now the cunning lay in +this, that the Polynesians have rules of hospitality which have all the +force of laws; an etiquette of absolute rigidity made it necessary for +the people of the village not only to give lodging to the strangers, but +to provide them with food and drink as long as they wished to stay. The +inhabitants of Matautu were outwitted. Every morning the workers went +out in a joyous band, cut down trees, blasted rocks, levelled here and +there and then in the evening tramped back again, and ate and drank, ate +heartily, danced, sang hymns, and enjoyed life. For them it was a +picnic. But soon their hosts began to wear long faces; the strangers +had enormous appetites, and the plantains and the bread-fruit vanished +before their rapacity; the alligator-pear trees, whose fruit sent to +Apia might sell for good money, were stripped bare. Ruin stared them in +the face. And then they found that the strangers were working very +slowly. Had they received a hint from Walker that they might take their +time? At this rate by the time the road was finished there would not be +a scrap of food in the village. And worse than this, they were a +laughing-stock; when one or other of them went to some distant hamlet on +an errand he found that the story had got there before him, and he was +met with derisive laughter. There is nothing the Kanaka can endure less +than ridicule. It was not long before much angry talk passed among the +sufferers. Manuma was no longer a hero; he had to put up with a good +deal of plain speaking, and one day what Walker had suggested came to +pass: a heated argument turned into a quarrel and half a dozen of the +young men set upon the chief's son and gave him such a beating that for +a week he lay bruised and sore on the pandanus mats. He turned from side +to side and could find no ease. Every day or two the administrator rode +over on his old mare and watched the progress of the road. He was not a +man to resist the temptation of taunting the fallen foe, and he missed +no opportunity to rub into the shamed inhabitants of Matautu the +bitterness of their humiliation. He broke their spirit. And one morning, +putting their pride in their pockets, a figure of speech, since pockets +they had not, they all set out with the strangers and started working on +the road. It was urgent to get it done quickly if they wanted to save +any food at all, and the whole village joined in. But they worked +silently, with rage and mortification in their hearts, and even the +children toiled in silence. The women wept as they carried away bundles +of brushwood. When Walker saw them he laughed so much that he almost +rolled out of his saddle. The news spread quickly and tickled the people +of the island to death. This was the greatest joke of all, the crowning +triumph of that cunning old white man whom no Kanaka had ever been able +to circumvent; and they came from distant villages, with their wives and +children, to look at the foolish folk who had refused twenty pounds to +make the road and now were forced to work for nothing. But the harder +they worked the more easily went the guests. Why should they hurry, when +they were getting good food for nothing and the longer they took about +the job the better the joke became? At last the wretched villagers could +stand it no longer, and they were come this morning to beg the +administrator to send the strangers back to their own homes. If he would +do this they promised to finish the road themselves for nothing. For him +it was a victory complete and unqualified. They were humbled. A look of +arrogant complacence spread over his large, naked face, and he seemed to +swell in his chair like a great bullfrog. There was something sinister +in his appearance, so that Mackintosh shivered with disgust. Then in +his booming tones he began to speak. + +"Is it for my good that I make the road? What benefit do you think I get +out of it? It is for you, so that you can walk in comfort and carry your +copra in comfort. I offered to pay you for your work, though it was for +your own sake the work was done. I offered to pay you generously. Now +_you_ must pay. I will send the people of Manua back to their homes if +you will finish the road and pay the twenty pounds that I have to pay +them." + +There was an outcry. They sought to reason with him. They told him they +had not the money. But to everything they said he replied with brutal +gibes. Then the clock struck. + +"Dinner time," he said. "Turn them all out." + +He raised himself heavily from his chair and walked out of the room. +When Mackintosh followed him he found him already seated at table, a +napkin tied round his neck, holding his knife and fork in readiness for +the meal the Chinese cook was about to bring. He was in high spirits. + +"I did 'em down fine," he said, as Mackintosh sat down. "I shan't have +much trouble with the roads after this." + +"I suppose you were joking," said Mackintosh icily. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"You're not really going to make them pay twenty pounds?" + +"You bet your life I am." + +"I'm not sure you've got any right to." + +"Ain't you? I guess I've got the right to do any damned thing I like on +this island." + +"I think you've bullied them quite enough." + +Walker laughed fatly. He did not care what Mackintosh thought. + +"When I want your opinion I'll ask for it." Mackintosh grew very white. +He knew by bitter experience that he could do nothing but keep silence, +and the violent effort at self-control made him sick and faint. He could +not eat the food that was before him and with disgust he watched Walker +shovel meat into his vast mouth. He was a dirty feeder, and to sit at +table with him needed a strong stomach. Mackintosh shuddered. A +tremendous desire seized him to humiliate that gross and cruel man; he +would give anything in the world to see him in the dust, suffering as +much as he had made others suffer. He had never loathed the bully with +such loathing as now. + +The day wore on. Mackintosh tried to sleep after dinner, but the passion +in his heart prevented him; he tried to read, but the letters swam +before his eyes. The sun beat down pitilessly, and he longed for rain; +but he knew that rain would bring no coolness; it would only make it +hotter and more steamy. He was a native of Aberdeen and his heart +yearned suddenly for the icy winds that whistled through the granite +streets of that city. Here he was a prisoner, imprisoned not only by +that placid sea, but by his hatred for that horrible old man. He pressed +his hands to his aching head. He would like to kill him. But he pulled +himself together. He must do something to distract his mind, and since +he could not read he thought he would set his private papers in order. +It was a job which he had long meant to do and which he had constantly +put off. He unlocked the drawer of his desk and took out a handful of +letters. He caught sight of his revolver. An impulse, no sooner realised +than set aside, to put a bullet through his head and so escape from the +intolerable bondage of life flashed through his mind. He noticed that in +the damp air the revolver was slightly rusted, and he got an oil rag and +began to clean it. It was while he was thus occupied that he grew aware +of someone slinking round the door. He looked up and called: + +"Who is there?" + +There was a moment's pause, then Manuma showed himself. + +"What do you want?" + +The chief's son stood for a moment, sullen and silent, and when he spoke +it was with a strangled voice. + +"We can't pay twenty pounds. We haven't the money." + +"What am I to do?" said Mackintosh. "You heard what Mr Walker said." + +Manuma began to plead, half in Samoan and half in English. It was a +sing-song whine, with the quavering intonations of a beggar, and it +filled Mackintosh with disgust. It outraged him that the man should let +himself be so crushed. He was a pitiful object. + +"I can do nothing," said Mackintosh irritably. "You know that Mr Walker +is master here." + +Manuma was silent again. He still stood in the doorway. + +"I am sick," he said at last. "Give me some medicine." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"I do not know. I am sick. I have pains in my body." + +"Don't stand there," said Mackintosh sharply. "Come in and let me look +at you." + +Manuma entered the little room and stood before the desk. + +"I have pains here and here." + +He put his hands to his loins and his face assumed an expression of +pain. Suddenly Mackintosh grew conscious that the boy's eyes were +resting on the revolver which he had laid on the desk when Manuma +appeared in the doorway. There was a silence between the two which to +Mackintosh was endless. He seemed to read the thoughts which were in the +Kanaka's mind. His heart beat violently. And then he felt as though +something possessed him so that he acted under the compulsion of a +foreign will. Himself did not make the movements of his body, but a +power that was strange to him. His throat was suddenly dry, and he put +his hand to it mechanically in order to help his speech. He was impelled +to avoid Manuma's eyes. + +"Just wait here," he said, his voice sounded as though someone had +seized him by the windpipe, "and I'll fetch you something from the +dispensary." + +He got up. Was it his fancy that he staggered a little? Manuma stood +silently, and though he kept his eyes averted, Mackintosh knew that he +was looking dully out of the door. It was this other person that +possessed him that drove him out of the room, but it was himself that +took a handful of muddled papers and threw them on the revolver in order +to hide it from view. He went to the dispensary. He got a pill and +poured out some blue draught into a small bottle, and then came out into +the compound. He did not want to go back into his own bungalow, so he +called to Manuma. + +"Come here." + +He gave him the drugs and instructions how to take them. He did not know +what it was that made it impossible for him to look at the Kanaka. While +he was speaking to him he kept his eyes on his shoulder. Manuma took the +medicine and slunk out of the gate. + +Mackintosh went into the dining-room and turned over once more the old +newspapers. But he could not read them. The house was very still. Walker +was upstairs in his room asleep, the Chinese cook was busy in the +kitchen, the two policemen were out fishing. The silence that seemed to +brood over the house was unearthly, and there hammered in Mackintosh's +head the question whether the revolver still lay where he had placed it. +He could not bring himself to look. The uncertainty was horrible, but +the certainty would be more horrible still. He sweated. At last he could +stand the silence no longer, and he made up his mind to go down the +road to the trader's, a man named Jervis, who had a store about a mile +away. He was a half-caste, but even that amount of white blood made him +possible to talk to. He wanted to get away from his bungalow, with the +desk littered with untidy papers, and underneath them something, or +nothing. He walked along the road. As he passed the fine hut of a chief +a greeting was called out to him. Then he came to the store. Behind the +counter sat the trader's daughter, a swarthy broad-featured girl in a +pink blouse and a white drill skirt. Jervis hoped he would marry her. He +had money, and he had told Mackintosh that his daughter's husband would +be well-to-do. She flushed a little when she saw Mackintosh. + +"Father's just unpacking some cases that have come in this morning. I'll +tell him you're here." + +He sat down and the girl went out behind the shop. In a moment her +mother waddled in, a huge old woman, a chiefess, who owned much land in +her own right; and gave him her hand. Her monstrous obesity was an +offence, but she managed to convey an impression of dignity. She was +cordial without obsequiousness; affable, but conscious of her station. + +"You're quite a stranger, Mr Mackintosh. Teresa was saying only this +morning: 'Why, we never see Mr Mackintosh now.'" + +He shuddered a little as he thought of himself as that old native's +son-in-law. It was notorious that she ruled her husband, notwithstanding +his white blood, with a firm hand. Hers was the authority and hers the +business head. She might be no more than Mrs Jervis to the white people, +but her father had been a chief of the blood royal, and his father and +his father's father had ruled as kings. The trader came in, small beside +his imposing wife, a dark man with a black beard going grey, in ducks, +with handsome eyes and flashing teeth. He was very British, and his +conversation was slangy, but you felt he spoke English as a foreign +tongue; with his family he used the language of his native mother. He +was a servile man, cringing and obsequious. + +"Ah, Mr Mackintosh, this is a joyful surprise. Get the whisky, Teresa; +Mr Mackintosh will have a gargle with us." + +He gave all the latest news of Apia, watching his guest's eyes the +while, so that he might know the welcome thing to say. + +"And how is Walker? We've not seen him just lately. Mrs Jervis is going +to send him a sucking-pig one day this week." + +"I saw him riding home this morning," said Teresa. + +"Here's how," said Jervis, holding up his whisky. + +Mackintosh drank. The two women sat and looked at him, Mrs Jervis in her +black Mother Hubbard, placid and haughty, and Teresa, anxious to smile +whenever she caught his eye, while the trader gossiped insufferably. + +"They were saying in Apia it was about time Walker retired. He ain't so +young as he was. Things have changed since he first come to the islands +and he ain't changed with them." + +"He'll go too far," said the old chiefess. "The natives aren't +satisfied." + +"That was a good joke about the road," laughed the trader. "When I told +them about it in Apia they fair split their sides with laughing. Good +old Walker." + +Mackintosh looked at him savagely. What did he mean by talking of him in +that fashion? To a half-caste trader he was Mr Walker. It was on his +tongue to utter a harsh rebuke for the impertinence. He did not know +what held him back. + +"When he goes I hope you'll take his place, Mr Mackintosh," said Jervis. +"We all like you on the island. You understand the natives. They're +educated now, they must be treated differently to the old days. It wants +an educated man to be administrator now. Walker was only a trader same +as I am." + +Teresa's eyes glistened. + +"When the time comes if there's anything anyone can do here, you bet +your bottom dollar we'll do it. I'd get all the chiefs to go over to +Apia and make a petition." + +Mackintosh felt horribly sick. It had not struck him that if anything +happened to Walker it might be he who would succeed him. It was true +that no one in his official position knew the island so well. He got up +suddenly and scarcely taking his leave walked back to the compound. And +now he went straight to his room. He took a quick look at his desk. He +rummaged among the papers. + +The revolver was not there. + +His heart thumped violently against his ribs. He looked for the revolver +everywhere. He hunted in the chairs and in the drawers. He looked +desperately, and all the time he knew he would not find it. Suddenly he +heard Walker's gruff, hearty voice. + +"What the devil are you up to, Mac?" + +He started. Walker was standing in the doorway and instinctively he +turned round to hide what lay upon his desk. + +"Tidying up?" quizzed Walker. "I've told 'em to put the grey in the +trap. I'm going down to Tafoni to bathe. You'd better come along." + +"All right," said Mackintosh. + +So long as he was with Walker nothing could happen. The place they were +bound for was about three miles away, and there was a fresh-water pool, +separated by a thin barrier of rock from the sea, which the +administrator had blasted out for the natives to bathe in. He had done +this at spots round the island, wherever there was a spring; and the +fresh water, compared with the sticky warmth of the sea, was cool and +invigorating. They drove along the silent grassy road, splashing now and +then through fords, where the sea had forced its way in, past a couple +of native villages, the bell-shaped huts spaced out roomily and the +white chapel in the middle, and at the third village they got out of the +trap, tied up the horse, and walked down to the pool. They were +accompanied by four or five girls and a dozen children. Soon they were +all splashing about, shouting and laughing, while Walker, in a +_lava-lava_, swam to and fro like an unwieldy porpoise. He made lewd +jokes with the girls, and they amused themselves by diving under him and +wriggling away when he tried to catch them. When he was tired he lay +down on a rock, while the girls and children surrounded him; it was a +happy family; and the old man, huge, with his crescent of white hair and +his shining bald crown, looked like some old sea god. Once Mackintosh +caught a queer soft look in his eyes. + +"They're dear children," he said. "They look upon me as their father." + +And then without a pause he turned to one of the girls and made an +obscene remark which sent them all into fits of laughter. Mackintosh +started to dress. With his thin legs and thin arms he made a grotesque +figure, a sinister Don Quixote, and Walker began to make coarse jokes +about him. They were acknowledged with little smothered laughs. +Mackintosh struggled with his shirt. He knew he looked absurd, but he +hated being laughed at. He stood silent and glowering. + +"If you want to get back in time for dinner you ought to come soon." + +"You're not a bad fellow, Mac. Only you're a fool. When you're doing one +thing you always want to do another. That's not the way to live." + +But all the same he raised himself slowly to his feet and began to put +on his clothes. They sauntered back to the village, drank a bowl of +_kava_ with the chief, and then, after a joyful farewell from all the +lazy villagers, drove home. + +After dinner, according to his habit, Walker, lighting his cigar, +prepared to go for a stroll. Mackintosh was suddenly seized with fear. + +"Don't you think it's rather unwise to go out at night by yourself just +now?" + +Walker stared at him with his round blue eyes. + +"What the devil do you mean?" + +"Remember the knife the other night. You've got those fellows' backs +up." + +"Pooh! They wouldn't dare." + +"Someone dared before." + +"That was only a bluff. They wouldn't hurt me. They look upon me as a +father. They know that whatever I do is for their own good." + +Mackintosh watched him with contempt in his heart. The man's +self-complacency outraged him, and yet something, he knew not what, made +him insist. + +"Remember what happened this morning. It wouldn't hurt you to stay at +home just to-night. I'll play piquet with you." + +"I'll play piquet with you when I come back. The Kanaka isn't born yet +who can make me alter my plans." + +"You'd better let me come with you." + +"You stay where you are." + +Mackintosh shrugged his shoulders. He had given the man full warning. If +he did not heed it that was his own lookout. Walker put on his hat and +went out. Mackintosh began to read; but then he thought of something; +perhaps it would be as well to have his own whereabouts quite clear. He +crossed over to the kitchen and, inventing some pretext, talked for a +few minutes with the cook. Then he got out the gramophone and put a +record on it, but while it ground out its melancholy tune, some comic +song of a London music-hall, his ear was strained for a sound away there +in the night. At his elbow the record reeled out its loudness, the words +were raucous, but notwithstanding he seemed to be surrounded by an +unearthly silence. He heard the dull roar of the breakers against the +reef. He heard the breeze sigh, far up, in the leaves of the coconut +trees. How long would it be? It was awful. + +He heard a hoarse laugh. + +"Wonders will never cease. It's not often you play yourself a tune, +Mac." + +Walker stood at the window, red-faced, bluff and jovial. + +"Well, you see I'm alive and kicking. What were you playing for?" + +Walker came in. + +"Nerves a bit dicky, eh? Playing a tune to keep your pecker up?" + +"I was playing your requiem." + +"What the devil's that?" + +"'Alf o' bitter an' a pint of stout." + +"A rattling good song too. I don't mind how often I hear it. Now I'm +ready to take your money off you at piquet." + +They played and Walker bullied his way to victory, bluffing his +opponent, chaffing him, jeering at his mistakes, up to every dodge, +browbeating him, exulting. Presently Mackintosh recovered his coolness, +and standing outside himself, as it were, he was able to take a detached +pleasure in watching the overbearing old man and in his own cold +reserve. Somewhere Manuma sat quietly and awaited his opportunity. + +Walker won game after game and pocketed his winnings at the end of the +evening in high good humour. + +"You'll have to grow a little bit older before you stand much chance +against me, Mac. The fact is I have a natural gift for cards." + +"I don't know that there's much gift about it when I happen to deal you +fourteen aces." + +"Good cards come to good players," retorted Walker. "I'd have won if I'd +had your hands." + +He went on to tell long stories of the various occasions on which he had +played cards with notorious sharpers and to their consternation had +taken all their money from them. He boasted. He praised himself. And +Mackintosh listened with absorption. He wanted now to feed his hatred; +and everything Walker said, every gesture, made him more detestable. At +last Walker got up. + +"Well, I'm going to turn in," he said with a loud yawn. "I've got a long +day to-morrow." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"I'm driving over to the other side of the island. I'll start at five, +but I don't expect I shall get back to dinner till late." + +They generally dined at seven. + +"We'd better make it half past seven then." + +"I guess it would be as well." + +Mackintosh watched him knock the ashes out of his pipe. His vitality was +rude and exuberant. It was strange to think that death hung over him. A +faint smile flickered in Mackintosh's cold, gloomy eyes. + +"Would you like me to come with you?" + +"What in God's name should I want that for? I'm using the mare and +she'll have enough to do to carry me; she don't want to drag you over +thirty miles of road." + +"Perhaps you don't quite realise what the feeling is at Matautu. I think +it would be safer if I came with you." + +Walker burst into contemptuous laughter. + +"You'd be a fine lot of use in a scrap. I'm not a great hand at getting +the wind up." + +Now the smile passed from Mackintosh's eyes to his lips. It distorted +them painfully. + +"_Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat._" + +"What the hell is that?" said Walker. + +"Latin," answered Mackintosh as he went out. + +And now he chuckled. His mood had changed. He had done all he could and +the matter was in the hands of fate. He slept more soundly than he had +done for weeks. When he awoke next morning he went out. After a good +night he found a pleasant exhilaration in the freshness of the early +air. The sea was a more vivid blue, the sky more brilliant, than on most +days, the trade wind was fresh, and there was a ripple on the lagoon as +the breeze brushed over it like velvet brushed the wrong way. He felt +himself stronger and younger. He entered upon the day's work with zest. +After luncheon he slept again, and as evening drew on he had the bay +saddled and sauntered through the bush. He seemed to see it all with new +eyes. He felt more normal. The extraordinary thing was that he was able +to put Walker out of his mind altogether. So far as he was concerned he +might never have existed. + +He returned late, hot after his ride, and bathed again. Then he sat on +the verandah, smoking his pipe, and looked at the day declining over the +lagoon. In the sunset the lagoon, rosy and purple and green, was very +beautiful. He felt at peace with the world and with himself. When the +cook came out to say that dinner was ready and to ask whether he should +wait, Mackintosh smiled at him with friendly eyes. He looked at his +watch. + +"It's half-past seven. Better not wait. One can't tell when the boss'll +be back." + +The boy nodded, and in a moment Mackintosh saw him carry across the yard +a bowl of steaming soup. He got up lazily, went into the dining-room, +and ate his dinner. Had it happened? The uncertainty was amusing and +Mackintosh chuckled in the silence. The food did not seem so monotonous +as usual, and even though there was Hamburger steak, the cook's +invariable dish when his poor invention failed him, it tasted by some +miracle succulent and spiced. After dinner he strolled over lazily to +his bungalow to get a book. He liked the intense stillness, and now +that the night had fallen the stars were blazing in the sky. He shouted +for a lamp and in a moment the Chink pattered over on his bare feet, +piercing the darkness with a ray of light. He put the lamp on the desk +and noiselessly slipped out of the room. Mackintosh stood rooted to the +floor, for there, half hidden by untidy papers, was his revolver. His +heart throbbed painfully, and he broke into a sweat. It was done then. + +He took up the revolver with a shaking hand. Four of the chambers were +empty. He paused a moment and looked suspiciously out into the night, +but there was no one there. He quickly slipped four cartridges into the +empty chambers and locked the revolver in his drawer. + +He sat down to wait. + +An hour passed, a second hour passed. There was nothing. He sat at his +desk as though he were writing, but he neither wrote nor read. He merely +listened. He strained his ears for a sound travelling from a far +distance. At last he heard hesitating footsteps and knew it was the +Chinese cook. + +"Ah-Sung," he called. + +The boy came to the door. + +"Boss velly late," he said. "Dinner no good." + +Mackintosh stared at him, wondering whether he knew what had happened, +and whether, when he knew, he would realise on what terms he and Walker +had been. He went about his work, sleek, silent, and smiling, and who +could tell his thoughts? + +"I expect he's had dinner on the way, but you must keep the soup hot at +all events." + +The words were hardly out of his mouth when the silence was suddenly +broken into by a confusion, cries, and a rapid patter of naked feet. A +number of natives ran into the compound, men and women and children; +they crowded round Mackintosh and they all talked at once. They were +unintelligible. They were excited and frightened and some of them were +crying. Mackintosh pushed his way through them and went to the gateway. +Though he had scarcely understood what they said he knew quite well what +had happened. And as he reached the gate the dog-cart arrived. The old +mare was being led by a tall Kanaka, and in the dog-cart crouched two +men, trying to hold Walker up. A little crowd of natives surrounded it. + +The mare was led into the yard and the natives surged in after it. +Mackintosh shouted to them to stand back and the two policemen, sprang +suddenly from God knows where, pushed them violently aside. By now he +had managed to understand that some lads who had been fishing, on their +way back to their village had come across the cart on the home side of +the ford. The mare was nuzzling about the herbage and in the darkness +they could just see the great white bulk of the old man sunk between the +seat and the dashboard. At first they thought he was drunk and they +peered in, grinning, but then they heard him groan, and guessed that +something was amiss. They ran to the village and called for help. It was +when they returned, accompanied by half a hundred people, that they +discovered Walker had been shot. + +With a sudden thrill of horror Mackintosh asked himself whether he was +already dead. The first thing at all events was to get him out of the +cart, and that, owing to Walker's corpulence, was a difficult job. It +took four strong men to lift him. They jolted him and he uttered a dull +groan. He was still alive. At last they carried him into the house, up +the stairs, and placed him on his bed. Then Mackintosh was able to see +him, for in the yard, lit only by half a dozen hurricane lamps, +everything had been obscured. Walker's white ducks were stained with +blood, and the men who had carried him wiped their hands, red and +sticky, on their _lava-lavas_. Mackintosh held up the lamp. He had not +expected the old man to be so pale. His eyes were closed. He was +breathing still, his pulse could be just felt, but it was obvious that +he was dying. Mackintosh had not bargained for the shock of horror that +convulsed him. He saw that the native clerk was there, and in a voice +hoarse with fear told him to go into the dispensary and get what was +necessary for a hypodermic injection. One of the policemen had brought +up the whisky, and Mackintosh forced a little into the old man's mouth. +The room was crowded with natives. They sat about the floor, speechless +now and terrified, and every now and then one wailed aloud. It was very +hot, but Mackintosh felt cold, his hands and his feet were like ice, and +he had to make a violent effort not to tremble in all his limbs. He did +not know what to do. He did not know if Walker was bleeding still, and +if he was, how he could stop the bleeding. + +The clerk brought the hypodermic needle. + +"You give it to him," said Mackintosh. "You're more used to that sort of +thing than I am." + +His head ached horribly. It felt as though all sorts of little savage +things were beating inside it, trying to get out. They watched for the +effect of the injection. Presently Walker opened his eyes slowly. He did +not seem to know where he was. + +"Keep quiet," said Mackintosh. "You're at home. You're quite safe." + +Walker's lips outlined a shadowy smile. + +"They've got me," he whispered. + +"I'll get Jervis to send his motor-boat to Apia at once. We'll get a +doctor out by to-morrow afternoon." + +There was a long pause before the old man answered, + +"I shall be dead by then." + +A ghastly expression passed over Mackintosh's pale face. He forced +himself to laugh. + +"What rot! You keep quiet and you'll be as right as rain." + +"Give me a drink," said Walker. "A stiff one." + +With shaking hand Mackintosh poured out whisky and water, half and half, +and held the glass while Walker drank greedily. It seemed to restore +him. He gave a long sigh and a little colour came into his great fleshy +face. Mackintosh felt extraordinarily helpless. He stood and stared at +the old man. + +"If you'll tell me what to do I'll do it," he said. + +"There's nothing to do. Just leave me alone. I'm done for." + +He looked dreadfully pitiful as he lay on the great bed, a huge, +bloated, old man; but so wan, so weak, it was heart-rending. As he +rested, his mind seemed to grow clearer. + +"You were right, Mac," he said presently. "You warned me." + +"I wish to God I'd come with you." + +"You're a good chap, Mac, only you don't drink." + +There was another long silence, and it was clear that Walker was +sinking. There was an internal hæmorrhage and even Mackintosh in his +ignorance could not fail to see that his chief had but an hour or two to +live. He stood by the side of the bed stock still. For half an hour +perhaps Walker lay with his eyes closed, then he opened them. + +"They'll give you my job," he said, slowly. "Last time I was in Apia I +told them you were all right. Finish my road. I want to think that'll be +done. All round the island." + +"I don't want your job. You'll get all right." + +Walker shook his head wearily. + +"I've had my day. Treat them fairly, that's the great thing. They're +children. You must always remember that. You must be firm with them, but +you must be kind. And you must be just. I've never made a bob out of +them. I haven't saved a hundred pounds in twenty years. The road's the +great thing. Get the road finished." + +Something very like a sob was wrung from Mackintosh. + +"You're a good fellow, Mac. I always liked you." + +He closed his eyes, and Mackintosh thought that he would never open them +again. His mouth was so dry that he had to get himself something to +drink. The Chinese cook silently put a chair for him. He sat down by the +side of the bed and waited. He did not know how long a time passed. The +night was endless. Suddenly one of the men sitting there broke into +uncontrollable sobbing, loudly, like a child, and Mackintosh grew aware +that the room was crowded by this time with natives. They sat all over +the floor on their haunches, men and women, staring at the bed. + +"What are all these people doing here?" said Mackintosh. "They've got no +right. Turn them out, turn them out, all of them." + +His words seemed to rouse Walker, for he opened his eyes once more, and +now they were all misty. He wanted to speak, but he was so weak that +Mackintosh had to strain his ears to catch what he said. + +"Let them stay. They're my children. They ought to be here." + +Mackintosh turned to the natives. + +"Stay where you are. He wants you. But be silent." + +A faint smile came over the old man's white face. + +"Come nearer," he said. + +Mackintosh bent over him. His eyes were closed and the words he said +were like a wind sighing through the fronds of the coconut trees. + +"Give me another drink. I've got something to say." + +This time Mackintosh gave him his whisky neat. Walker collected his +strength in a final effort of will. + +"Don't make a fuss about this. In 'ninety-five when there were troubles +white men were killed, and the fleet came and shelled the villages. A +lot of people were killed who'd had nothing to do with it. They're +damned fools at Apia. If they make a fuss they'll only punish the wrong +people. I don't want anyone punished." + +He paused for a while to rest. + +"You must say it was an accident. No one's to blame. Promise me that." + +"I'll do anything you like," whispered Mackintosh. + +"Good chap. One of the best. They're children. I'm their father. A +father don't let his children get into trouble if he can help it." + +A ghost of a chuckle came out of his throat. It was astonishingly weird +and ghastly. + +"You're a religious chap, Mac. What's that about forgiving them? You +know." + +For a while Mackintosh did not answer. His lips trembled. + +"Forgive them, for they know not what they do?" + +"That's right. Forgive them. I've loved them, you know, always loved +them." + +He sighed. His lips faintly moved, and now Mackintosh had to put his +ears quite close to them in order to hear. + +"Hold my hand," he said. + +Mackintosh gave a gasp. His heart seemed wrenched. He took the old man's +hand, so cold and weak, a coarse, rough hand, and held it in his own. +And thus he sat until he nearly started out of his seat, for the silence +was suddenly broken by a long rattle. It was terrible and unearthly. +Walker was dead. Then the natives broke out with loud cries. The tears +ran down their faces, and they beat their breasts. + +Mackintosh disengaged his hand from the dead man's, and staggering like +one drunk with sleep he went out of the room. He went to the locked +drawer in his writing-desk and took out the revolver. He walked down to +the sea and walked into the lagoon; he waded out cautiously, so that he +should not trip against a coral rock, till the water came to his +arm-pits. Then he put a bullet through his head. + +An hour later half a dozen slim brown sharks were splashing and +struggling at the spot where he fell. + + + + +III + +_The Fall of Edward Barnard_ + + +Bateman Hunter slept badly. For a fortnight on the boat that brought him +from Tahiti to San Francisco he had been thinking of the story he had to +tell, and for three days on the train he had repeated to himself the +words in which he meant to tell it. But in a few hours now he would be +in Chicago, and doubts assailed him. His conscience, always very +sensitive, was not at ease. He was uncertain that he had done all that +was possible, it was on his honour to do much more than the possible, +and the thought was disturbing that, in a matter which so nearly touched +his own interest, he had allowed his interest to prevail over his +quixotry. Self-sacrifice appealed so keenly to his imagination that the +inability to exercise it gave him a sense of disillusion. He was like +the philanthropist who with altruistic motives builds model dwellings +for the poor and finds that he has made a lucrative investment. He +cannot prevent the satisfaction he feels in the ten per cent which +rewards the bread he had cast upon the waters, but he has an awkward +feeling that it detracts somewhat from the savour of his virtue. Bateman +Hunter knew that his heart was pure, but he was not quite sure how +steadfastly, when he told her his story, he would endure the scrutiny +of Isabel Longstaffe's cool grey eyes. They were far-seeing and wise. +She measured the standards of others by her own meticulous uprightness +and there could be no greater censure than the cold silence with which +she expressed her disapproval of a conduct that did not satisfy her +exacting code. There was no appeal from her judgment, for, having made +up her mind, she never changed it. But Bateman would not have had her +different. He loved not only the beauty of her person, slim and +straight, with the proud carriage of her head, but still more the beauty +of her soul. With her truthfulness, her rigid sense of honour, her +fearless outlook, she seemed to him to collect in herself all that was +most admirable in his countrywomen. But he saw in her something more +than the perfect type of the American girl, he felt that her +exquisiteness was peculiar in a way to her environment, and he was +assured that no city in the world could have produced her but Chicago. A +pang seized him when he remembered that he must deal so bitter a blow to +her pride, and anger flamed up in his heart when he thought of Edward +Barnard. + +But at last the train steamed in to Chicago and he exulted when he saw +the long streets of grey houses. He could hardly bear his impatience at +the thought of State and Wabash with their crowded pavements, their +hustling traffic, and their noise. He was at home. And he was glad that +he had been born in the most important city in the United States. San +Francisco was provincial, New York was effete; the future of America +lay in the development of its economic possibilities, and Chicago, by +its position and by the energy of its citizens, was destined to become +the real capital of the country. + +"I guess I shall live long enough to see it the biggest city in the +world," Bateman said to himself as he stepped down to the platform. + +His father had come to meet him, and after a hearty handshake, the pair +of them, tall, slender, and well-made, with the same fine, ascetic +features and thin lips, walked out of the station. Mr Hunter's +automobile was waiting for them and they got in. Mr Hunter caught his +son's proud and happy glance as he looked at the street. + +"Glad to be back, son?" he asked. + +"I should just think I was," said Bateman. + +His eyes devoured the restless scene. + +"I guess there's a bit more traffic here than in your South Sea island," +laughed Mr Hunter. "Did you like it there?" + +"Give me Chicago, dad," answered Bateman. + +"You haven't brought Edward Barnard back with you." + +"No." + +"How was he?" + +Bateman was silent for a moment, and his handsome, sensitive face +darkened. + +"I'd sooner not speak about him, dad," he said at last. + +"That's all right, my son. I guess your mother will be a happy woman +to-day." + +They passed out of the crowded streets in the Loop and drove along the +lake till they came to the imposing house, an exact copy of a château on +the Loire, which Mr Hunter had built himself some years before. As soon +as Bateman was alone in his room he asked for a number on the telephone. +His heart leaped when he heard the voice that answered him. + +"Good-morning, Isabel," he said gaily. + +"Good-morning, Bateman." + +"How did you recognise my voice?" + +"It is not so long since I heard it last. Besides, I was expecting you." + +"When may I see you?" + +"Unless you have anything better to do perhaps you'll dine with us +to-night." + +"You know very well that I couldn't possibly have anything better to +do." + +"I suppose that you're full of news?" + +He thought he detected in her voice a note of apprehension. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"Well, you must tell me to-night. Good-bye." + +She rang off. It was characteristic of her that she should be able to +wait so many unnecessary hours to know what so immensely concerned her. +To Bateman there was an admirable fortitude in her restraint. + +At dinner, at which beside himself and Isabel no one was present but her +father and mother, he watched her guide the conversation into the +channels of an urbane small-talk, and it occurred to him that in just +such a manner would a marquise under the shadow of the guillotine toy +with the affairs of a day that would know no morrow. Her delicate +features, the aristocratic shortness of her upper lip, and her wealth of +fair hair suggested the marquise again, and it must have been obvious, +even if it were not notorious, that in her veins flowed the best blood +in Chicago. The dining-room was a fitting frame to her fragile beauty, +for Isabel had caused the house, a replica of a palace on the Grand +Canal at Venice, to be furnished by an English expert in the style of +Louis XV; and the graceful decoration linked with the name of that +amorous monarch enhanced her loveliness and at the same time acquired +from it a more profound significance. For Isabel's mind was richly +stored, and her conversation, however light, was never flippant. She +spoke now of the _Musicale_ to which she and her mother had been in the +afternoon, of the lectures which an English poet was giving at the +Auditorium, of the political situation, and of the Old Master which her +father had recently bought for fifty thousand dollars in New York. It +comforted Bateman to hear her. He felt that he was once more in the +civilised world, at the centre of culture and distinction; and certain +voices, troubling and yet against his will refusing to still their +clamour, were at last silent in his heart. + +"Gee, but it's good to be back in Chicago," he said. + +At last dinner was over, and when they went out of the dining-room +Isabel said to her mother: + +"I'm going to take Bateman along to my den. We have various things to +talk about." + +"Very well, my dear," said Mrs Longstaffe. "You'll find your father and +me in the Madame du Barry room when you're through." + +Isabel led the young man upstairs and showed him into the room of which +he had so many charming memories. Though he knew it so well he could not +repress the exclamation of delight which it always wrung from him. She +looked round with a smile. + +"I think it's a success," she said. "The main thing is that it's right. +There's not even an ashtray that isn't of the period." + +"I suppose that's what makes it so wonderful. Like all you do it's so +superlatively right." + +They sat down in front of a log fire and Isabel looked at him with calm +grave eyes. + +"Now what have you to say to me?" she asked. + +"I hardly know how to begin." + +"Is Edward Barnard coming back?" + +"No." + +There was a long silence before Bateman spoke again, and with each of +them it was filled with many thoughts. It was a difficult story he had +to tell, for there were things in it which were so offensive to her +sensitive ears that he could not bear to tell them, and yet in justice +to her, no less than in justice to himself, he must tell her the whole +truth. + +It had all begun long ago when he and Edward Barnard, still at college, +had met Isabel Longstaffe at the tea-party given to introduce her to +society. They had both known her when she was a child and they +long-legged boys, but for two years she had been in Europe to finish her +education and it was with a surprised delight that they renewed +acquaintance with the lovely girl who returned. Both of them fell +desperately in love with her, but Bateman saw quickly that she had eyes +only for Edward, and, devoted to his friend, he resigned himself to the +role of confidant. He passed bitter moments, but he could not deny that +Edward was worthy of his good fortune, and, anxious that nothing should +impair the friendship he so greatly valued, he took care never by a hint +to disclose his own feelings. In six months the young couple were +engaged. But they were very young and Isabel's father decided that they +should not marry at least till Edward graduated. They had to wait a +year. Bateman remembered the winter at the end of which Isabel and +Edward were to be married, a winter of dances and theatre-parties and of +informal gaieties at which he, the constant third, was always present. +He loved her no less because she would shortly be his friend's wife; her +smile, a gay word she flung him, the confidence of her affection, never +ceased to delight him; and he congratulated himself, somewhat +complacently, because he did not envy them their happiness. Then an +accident happened. A great bank failed, there was a panic on the +exchange, and Edward Barnard's father found himself a ruined man. He +came home one night, told his wife that he was penniless, and after +dinner, going into his study, shot himself. + +A week later, Edward Barnard, with a tired, white face, went to Isabel +and asked her to release him. Her only answer was to throw her arms +round his neck and burst into tears. + +"Don't make it harder for me, sweet," he said. + +"Do you think I can let you go now? I love you." + +"How can I ask you to marry me? The whole thing's hopeless. Your father +would never let you. I haven't a cent." + +"What do I care? I love you." + +He told her his plans. He had to earn money at once, and George +Braunschmidt, an old friend of his family, had offered to take him into +his own business. He was a South Sea merchant, and he had agencies in +many of the islands of the Pacific. He had suggested that Edward should +go to Tahiti for a year or two, where under the best of his managers he +could learn the details of that varied trade, and at the end of that +time he promised the young man a position in Chicago. It was a wonderful +opportunity, and when he had finished his explanations Isabel was once +more all smiles. + +"You foolish boy, why have you been trying to make me miserable?" + +His face lit up at her words and his eyes flashed. + +"Isabel, you don't mean to say you'll wait for me?" + +"Don't you think you're worth it?" she smiled. + +"Ah, don't laugh at me now. I beseech you to be serious. It may be for +two years." + +"Have no fear. I love you, Edward. When you come back I will marry +you." + +Edward's employer was a man who did not like delay and he had told him +that if he took the post he offered he must sail that day week from San +Francisco. Edward spent his last evening with Isabel. It was after +dinner that Mr Longstaffe, saying he wanted a word with Edward, took him +into the smoking-room. Mr Longstaffe had accepted good-naturedly the +arrangement which his daughter had told him of and Edward could not +imagine what mysterious communication he had now to make. He was not a +little perplexed to see that his host was embarrassed. He faltered. He +talked of trivial things. At last he blurted it out. + +"I guess you've heard of Arnold Jackson," he said, looking at Edward +with a frown. + +Edward hesitated. His natural truthfulness obliged him to admit a +knowledge he would gladly have been able to deny. + +"Yes, I have. But it's a long time ago. I guess I didn't pay very much +attention." + +"There are not many people in Chicago who haven't heard of Arnold +Jackson," said Mr Longstaffe bitterly, "and if there are they'll have no +difficulty in finding someone who'll be glad to tell them. Did you know +he was Mrs Longstaffe's brother?" + +"Yes, I knew that." + +"Of course we've had no communication with him for many years. He left +the country as soon as he was able to, and I guess the country wasn't +sorry to see the last of him. We understand he lives in Tahiti. My +advice to you is to give him a wide berth, but if you do hear anything +about him Mrs Longstaffe and I would be very glad if you'd let us know." + +"Sure." + +"That was all I wanted to say to you. Now I daresay you'd like to join +the ladies." + +There are few families that have not among their members one whom, if +their neighbours permitted, they would willingly forget, and they are +fortunate when the lapse of a generation or two has invested his +vagaries with a romantic glamour. But when he is actually alive, if his +peculiarities are not of the kind that can be condoned by the phrase, +"he is nobody's enemy but his own," a safe one when the culprit has no +worse to answer for than alcoholism or wandering affections, the only +possible course is silence. And it was this which the Longstaffes had +adopted towards Arnold Jackson. They never talked of him. They would not +even pass through the street in which he had lived. Too kind to make his +wife and children suffer for his misdeeds, they had supported them for +years, but on the understanding that they should live in Europe. They +did everything they could to blot out all recollection of Arnold Jackson +and yet were conscious that the story was as fresh in the public mind as +when first the scandal burst upon a gaping world. Arnold Jackson was as +black a sheep as any family could suffer from. A wealthy banker, +prominent in his church, a philanthropist, a man respected by all, not +only for his connections (in his veins ran the blue blood of Chicago), +but also for his upright character, he was arrested one day on a charge +of fraud; and the dishonesty which the trial brought to light was not of +the sort which could be explained by a sudden temptation; it was +deliberate and systematic. Arnold Jackson was a rogue. When he was sent +to the penitentiary for seven years there were few who did not think he +had escaped lightly. + +When at the end of this last evening the lovers separated it was with +many protestations of devotion. Isabel, all tears, was consoled a little +by her certainty of Edward's passionate love. It was a strange feeling +that she had. It made her wretched to part from him and yet she was +happy because he adored her. + +This was more than two years ago. + +He had written to her by every mail since then, twenty-four letters in +all, for the mail went but once a month, and his letters had been all +that a lover's letters should be. They were intimate and charming, +humorous sometimes, especially of late, and tender. At first they +suggested that he was homesick, they were full of his desire to get back +to Chicago and Isabel; and, a little anxiously, she wrote begging him to +persevere. She was afraid that he might throw up his opportunity and +come racing back. She did not want her lover to lack endurance and she +quoted to him the lines: + + _"I could not love thee, dear, so much,_ + _Loved I not honour more."_ + +But presently he seemed to settle down and it made Isabel very happy to +observe his growing enthusiasm to introduce American methods into that +forgotten corner of the world. But she knew him, and at the end of the +year, which was the shortest time he could possibly stay in Tahiti, she +expected to have to use all her influence to dissuade him from coming +home. It was much better that he should learn the business thoroughly, +and if they had been able to wait a year there seemed no reason why they +should not wait another. She talked it over with Bateman Hunter, always +the most generous of friends (during those first few days after Edward +went she did not know what she would have done without him), and they +decided that Edward's future must stand before everything. It was with +relief that she found as the time passed that he made no suggestion of +returning. + +"He's splendid, isn't he?" she exclaimed to Bateman. + +"He's white, through and through." + +"Reading between the lines of his letter I know he hates it over there, +but he's sticking it out because...." + +She blushed a little and Bateman, with the grave smile which was so +attractive in him, finished the sentence for her. + +"Because he loves you." + +"It makes me feel so humble," she said. + +"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're perfectly wonderful." + +But the second year passed and every month Isabel continued to receive a +letter from Edward, and presently it began to seem a little strange +that he did not speak of coming back. He wrote as though he were +settled definitely in Tahiti, and what was more, comfortably settled. +She was surprised. Then she read his letters again, all of them, several +times; and now, reading between the lines indeed, she was puzzled to +notice a change which had escaped her. The later letters were as tender +and as delightful as the first, but the tone was different. She was +vaguely suspicious of their humour, she had the instinctive mistrust of +her sex for that unaccountable quality, and she discerned in them now a +flippancy which perplexed her. She was not quite certain that the Edward +who wrote to her now was the same Edward that she had known. One +afternoon, the day after a mail had arrived from Tahiti, when she was +driving with Bateman he said to her: + +"Did Edward tell you when he was sailing?" + +"No, he didn't mention it. I thought he might have said something to you +about it." + +"Not a word." + +"You know what Edward is," she laughed in reply, "he has no sense of +time. If it occurs to you next time you write you might ask him when +he's thinking of coming." + +Her manner was so unconcerned that only Bateman's acute sensitiveness +could have discerned in her request a very urgent desire. He laughed +lightly. + +"Yes. I'll ask him. I can't imagine what he's thinking about." + +A few days later, meeting him again, she noticed that something troubled +him. They had been much together since Edward left Chicago; they were +both devoted to him and each in his desire to talk of the absent one +found a willing listener; the consequence was that Isabel knew every +expression of Bateman's face, and his denials now were useless against +her keen instinct. Something told her that his harassed look had to do +with Edward and she did not rest till she had made him confess. + +"The fact is," he said at last, "I heard in a round-about way that +Edward was no longer working for Braunschmidt and Co., and yesterday I +took the opportunity to ask Mr Braunschmidt himself." + +"Well?" + +"Edward left his employment with them nearly a year ago." + +"How strange he should have said nothing about it!" + +Bateman hesitated, but he had gone so far now that he was obliged to +tell the rest. It made him feel dreadfully embarrassed. + +"He was fired." + +"In heaven's name what for?" + +"It appears they warned him once or twice, and at last they told him to +get out. They say he was lazy and incompetent." + +"Edward?" + +They were silent for a while, and then he saw that Isabel was crying. +Instinctively he seized her hand. + +"Oh, my dear, don't, don't," he said. "I can't bear to see it." + +She was so unstrung that she let her hand rest in his. He tried to +console her. + +"It's incomprehensible, isn't it? It's so unlike Edward. I can't help +feeling there must be some mistake." + +She did not say anything for a while, and when she spoke it was +hesitatingly. + +"Has it struck you that there was anything queer in his letters lately?" +she asked, looking away, her eyes all bright with tears. + +He did not quite know how to answer. + +"I have noticed a change in them," he admitted. "He seems to have lost +that high seriousness which I admired so much in him. One would almost +think that the things that matter--well, don't matter." + +Isabel did not reply. She was vaguely uneasy. + +"Perhaps in his answer to your letter he'll say when he's coming home. +All we can do is to wait for that." + +Another letter came from Edward for each of them, and still he made no +mention of his return; but when he wrote he could not have received +Bateman's enquiry. The next mail would bring them an answer to that. The +next mail came, and Bateman brought Isabel the letter he had just +received; but the first glance of his face was enough to tell her that +he was disconcerted. She read it through carefully and then, with +slightly tightened lips, read it again. + +"It's a very strange letter," she said. "I don't quite understand it." + +"One might almost think that he was joshing me," said Bateman, flushing. + +"It reads like that, but it must be unintentional. That's so unlike +Edward." + +"He says nothing about coming back." + +"If I weren't so confident of his love I should think.... I hardly know +what I should think." + +It was then that Bateman had broached the scheme which during the +afternoon had formed itself in his brain. The firm, founded by his +father, in which he was now a partner, a firm which manufactured all +manner of motor vehicles, was about to establish agencies in Honolulu, +Sidney, and Wellington; and Bateman proposed that himself should go +instead of the manager who had been suggested. He could return by +Tahiti; in fact, travelling from Wellington, it was inevitable to do so; +and he could see Edward. + +"There's some mystery and I'm going to clear it up. That's the only way +to do it." + +"Oh, Bateman, how can you be so good and kind?" she exclaimed. + +"You know there's nothing in the world I want more than your happiness, +Isabel." + +She looked at him and she gave him her hands. + +"You're wonderful, Bateman. I didn't know there was anyone in the world +like you. How can I ever thank you?" + +"I don't want your thanks. I only want to be allowed to help you." + +She dropped her eyes and flushed a little. She was so used to him that +she had forgotten how handsome he was. He was as tall as Edward +and as well made, but he was dark and pale of face, while Edward was +ruddy. Of course she knew he loved her. It touched her. She felt very +tenderly towards him. + +It was from this journey that Bateman Hunter was now returned. + +The business part of it took him somewhat longer than he expected and he +had much time to think of his two friends. He had come to the conclusion +that it could be nothing serious that prevented Edward from coming home, +a pride, perhaps, which made him determined to make good before he +claimed the bride he adored; but it was a pride that must be reasoned +with. Isabel was unhappy. Edward must come back to Chicago with him and +marry her at once. A position could be found for him in the works of the +Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company. Bateman, with a bleeding +heart, exulted at the prospect of giving happiness to the two persons he +loved best in the world at the cost of his own. He would never marry. He +would be godfather to the children of Edward and Isabel, and many years +later when they were both dead he would tell Isabel's daughter how long, +long ago he had loved her mother. Bateman's eyes were veiled with tears +when he pictured this scene to himself. + +Meaning to take Edward by surprise he had not cabled to announce his +arrival, and when at last he landed at Tahiti he allowed a youth, who +said he was the son of the house, to lead him to the Hotel de la Fleur. +He chuckled when he thought of his friend's amazement on seeing him, +the most unexpected of visitors, walk into his office. + +"By the way," he asked, as they went along, "can you tell me where I +shall find Mr. Edward Barnard?" + +"Barnard?" said the youth. "I seem to know the name." + +"He's an American. A tall fellow with light brown hair and blue eyes. +He's been here over two years." + +"Of course. Now I know who you mean. You mean Mr Jackson's nephew." + +"Whose nephew?" + +"Mr Arnold Jackson." + +"I don't think we're speaking of the same person," answered Bateman, +frigidly. + +He was startled. It was queer that Arnold Jackson, known apparently to +all and sundry, should live here under the disgraceful name in which he +had been convicted. But Bateman could not imagine whom it was that he +passed off as his nephew. Mrs Longstaffe was his only sister and he had +never had a brother. The young man by his side talked volubly in an +English that had something in it of the intonation of a foreign tongue, +and Bateman, with a sidelong glance, saw, what he had not noticed +before, that there was in him a good deal of native blood. A touch of +hauteur involuntarily entered into his manner. They reached the hotel. +When he had arranged about his room Bateman asked to be directed to the +premises of Braunschmidt & Co. They were on the front, facing the +lagoon, and, glad to feel the solid earth under his feet after eight +days at sea, he sauntered down the sunny road to the water's edge. +Having found the place he sought, Bateman sent in his card to the +manager and was led through a lofty barn-like room, half store and half +warehouse, to an office in which sat a stout, spectacled, bald-headed +man. + +"Can you tell me where I shall find Mr Edward Barnard? I understand he +was in this office for some time." + +"That is so. I don't know just where he is." + +"But I thought he came here with a particular recommendation from Mr +Braunschmidt. I know Mr Braunschmidt very well." + +The fat man looked at Bateman with shrewd, suspicious eyes. He called to +one of the boys in the warehouse. + +"Say, Henry, where's Barnard now, d'you know?" + +"He's working at Cameron's, I think," came the answer from someone who +did not trouble to move. + +The fat man nodded. + +"If you turn to your left when you get out of here you'll come to +Cameron's in about three minutes." + +Bateman hesitated. + +"I think I should tell you that Edward Barnard is my greatest friend. I +was very much surprised when I heard he'd left Braunschmidt & Co." + +The fat man's eyes contracted till they seemed like pin-points, and +their scrutiny made Bateman so uncomfortable that he felt himself +blushing. + +"I guess Braunschmidt & Co. and Edward Barnard didn't see eye to eye on +certain matters," he replied. + +Bateman did not quite like the fellow's manner, so he got up, not +without dignity, and with an apology for troubling him bade him +good-day. He left the place with a singular feeling that the man he had +just interviewed had much to tell him, but no intention of telling it. +He walked in the direction indicated and soon found himself at +Cameron's. It was a trader's store, such as he had passed half a dozen +of on his way, and when he entered the first person he saw, in his shirt +sleeves, measuring out a length of trade cotton, was Edward. It gave him +a start to see him engaged in so humble an occupation. But he had +scarcely appeared when Edward, looking up, caught sight of him, and gave +a joyful cry of surprise. + +"Bateman! Who ever thought of seeing you here?" + +He stretched his arm across the counter and wrung Bateman's hand. There +was no self-consciousness in his manner and the embarrassment was all on +Bateman's side. + +"Just wait till I've wrapped this package." + +With perfect assurance he ran his scissors across the stuff, folded it, +made it into a parcel, and handed it to the dark-skinned customer. + +"Pay at the desk, please." + +Then, smiling, with bright eyes, he turned to Bateman. + +"How did you show up here? Gee, I am delighted to see you. Sit down, +old man. Make yourself at home." + +"We can't talk here. Come along to my hotel. I suppose you can get +away?" + +This he added with some apprehension. + +"Of course I can get away. We're not so businesslike as all that in +Tahiti." He called out to a Chinese who was standing behind the opposite +counter. "Ah-Ling, when the boss comes tell him a friend of mine's just +arrived from America and I've gone out to have a drain with him." + +"All-light," said the Chinese, with a grin. + +Edward slipped on a coat and, putting on his hat, accompanied Bateman +out of the store. Bateman attempted to put the matter facetiously. + +"I didn't expect to find you selling three and a half yards of rotten +cotton to a greasy nigger," he laughed. + +"Braunschmidt fired me, you know, and I thought that would do as well as +anything else." + +Edward's candour seemed to Bateman very surprising, but he thought it +indiscreet to pursue the subject. + +"I guess you won't make a fortune where you are," he answered, somewhat +dryly. + +"I guess not. But I earn enough to keep body and soul together, and I'm +quite satisfied with that." + +"You wouldn't have been two years ago." + +"We grow wiser as we grow older," retorted Edward, gaily. + +Bateman took a glance at him. Edward was dressed in a suit of shabby +white ducks, none too clean, and a large straw hat of native make. He +was thinner than he had been, deeply burned by the sun, and he was +certainly better looking than ever. But there was something in his +appearance that disconcerted Bateman. He walked with a new jauntiness; +there was a carelessness in his demeanour, a gaiety about nothing in +particular, which Bateman could not precisely blame, but which +exceedingly puzzled him. + +"I'm blest if I can see what he's got to be so darned cheerful about," +he said to himself. + +They arrived at the hotel and sat on the terrace. A Chinese boy brought +them cocktails. Edward was most anxious to hear all the news of Chicago +and bombarded his friend with eager questions. His interest was natural +and sincere. But the odd thing was that it seemed equally divided among +a multitude of subjects. He was as eager to know how Bateman's father +was as what Isabel was doing. He talked of her without a shade of +embarrassment, but she might just as well have been his sister as his +promised wife; and before Bateman had done analysing the exact meaning +of Edward's remarks he found that the conversation had drifted to his +own work and the buildings his father had lately erected. He was +determined to bring the conversation back to Isabel and was looking for +the occasion when he saw Edward wave his hand cordially. A man was +advancing towards them on the terrace, but Bateman's back was turned to +him and he could not see him. + +"Come and sit down," said Edward gaily. + +The new-comer approached. He was a very tall, thin man, in white ducks, +with a fine head of curly white hair. His face was thin too, long, with +a large, hooked nose and a beautiful, expressive mouth. + +"This is my old friend Bateman Hunter. I've told you about him," said +Edward, his constant smile breaking on his lips. + +"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Hunter. I used to know your father." + +The stranger held out his hand and took the young man's in a strong, +friendly grasp. It was not till then that Edward mentioned the other's +name. + +"Mr Arnold Jackson." + +Bateman turned white and he felt his hands grow cold. This was the +forger, the convict, this was Isabel's uncle. He did not know what to +say. He tried to conceal his confusion. Arnold Jackson looked at him +with twinkling eyes. + +"I daresay my name is familiar to you." + +Bateman did not know whether to say yes or no, and what made it more +awkward was that both Jackson and Edward seemed to be amused. It was bad +enough to have forced on him the acquaintance of the one man on the +island he would rather have avoided, but worse to discern that he was +being made a fool of. Perhaps, however, he had reached this conclusion +too quickly, for Jackson, without a pause, added: + +"I understand you're very friendly with the Longstaffes. Mary Longstaffe +is my sister." + +Now Bateman asked himself if Arnold Jackson could think him ignorant of +the most terrible scandal that Chicago had ever known. But Jackson put +his hand on Edward's shoulder. + +"I can't sit down, Teddie," he said. "I'm busy. But you two boys had +better come up and dine to-night." + +"That'll be fine," said Edward. + +"It's very kind of you, Mr Jackson," said Bateman, frigidly, "but I'm +here for so short a time; my boat sails to-morrow, you know; I think if +you'll forgive me, I won't come." + +"Oh, nonsense. I'll give you a native dinner. My wife's a wonderful +cook. Teddie will show you the way. Come early so as to see the sunset. +I can give you both a shake-down if you like." + +"Of course we'll come," said Edward. "There's always the devil of a row +in the hotel on the night a boat arrives and we can have a good yarn up +at the bungalow." + +"I can't let you off, Mr Hunter," Jackson continued with the utmost +cordiality. "I want to hear all about Chicago and Mary." + +He nodded and walked away before Bateman could say another word. + +"We don't take refusals in Tahiti," laughed Edward. "Besides, you'll get +the best dinner on the island." + +"What did he mean by saying his wife was a good cook? I happen to know +his wife's in Geneva." + +"That's a long way off for a wife, isn't it?" said Edward. "And it's a +long time since he saw her. I guess it's another wife he's talking +about." + +For some time Bateman was silent. His face was set in grave lines. But +looking up he caught the amused look in Edward's eyes, and he flushed +darkly. + +"Arnold Jackson is a despicable rogue," he said. + +"I greatly fear he is," answered Edward, smiling. + +"I don't see how any decent man can have anything to do with him." + +"Perhaps I'm not a decent man." + +"Do you see much of him, Edward?" + +"Yes, quite a lot. He's adopted me as his nephew." + +Bateman leaned forward and fixed Edward with his searching eyes. + +"Do you like him?" + +"Very much." + +"But don't you know, doesn't everyone here know, that he's a forger and +that he's been a convict? He ought to be hounded out of civilised +society." + +Edward watched a ring of smoke that floated from his cigar into the +still, scented air. + +"I suppose he is a pretty unmitigated rascal," he said at last. "And I +can't flatter myself that any repentance for his misdeeds offers one an +excuse for condoning them. He was a swindler and a hypocrite. You can't +get away from it. I never met a more agreeable companion. He's taught me +everything I know." + +"What has he taught you?" cried Bateman in amazement. + +"How to live." + +Bateman broke into ironical laughter. + +"A fine master. Is it owing to his lessons that you lost the chance of +making a fortune and earn your living now by serving behind a counter in +a ten cent store?" + +"He has a wonderful personality," said Edward, smiling good-naturedly. +"Perhaps you'll see what I mean to-night." + +"I'm not going to dine with him if that's what you mean. Nothing would +induce me to set foot within that man's house." + +"Come to oblige me, Bateman. We've been friends for so many years, you +won't refuse me a favour when I ask it." + +Edward's tone had in it a quality new to Bateman. Its gentleness was +singularly persuasive. + +"If you put it like that, Edward, I'm bound to come," he smiled. + +Bateman reflected, moreover, that it would be as well to learn what he +could about Arnold Jackson. It was plain that he had a great ascendency +over Edward, and if it was to be combated it was necessary to discover +in what exactly it consisted. The more he talked with Edward the more +conscious he became that a change had taken place in him. He had an +instinct that it behooved him to walk warily, and he made up his mind +not to broach the real purport of his visit till he saw his way more +clearly. He began to talk of one thing and another, of his journey and +what he had achieved by it, of politics in Chicago, of this common +friend and that, of their days together at college. + +At last Edward said he must get back to his work and proposed that he +should fetch Bateman at five so that they could drive out together to +Arnold Jackson's house. + +"By the way, I rather thought you'd be living at this hotel," said +Bateman, as he strolled out of the garden with Edward. "I understand +it's the only decent one here." + +"Not I," laughed Edward. "It's a deal too grand for me. I rent a room +just outside the town. It's cheap and clean." + +"If I remember right those weren't the points that seemed most important +to you when you lived in Chicago." + +"Chicago!" + +"I don't know what you mean by that, Edward. It's the greatest city in +the world." + +"I know," said Edward. + +Bateman glanced at him quickly, but his face was inscrutable. + +"When are you coming back to it?" + +"I often wonder," smiled Edward. + +This answer, and the manner of it, staggered Bateman, but before he +could ask for an explanation Edward waved to a half-caste who was +driving a passing motor. + +"Give us a ride down, Charlie," he said. + +He nodded to Bateman, and ran after the machine that had pulled up a few +yards in front. Bateman was left to piece together a mass of perplexing +impressions. + +Edward called for him in a rickety trap drawn by an old mare, and they +drove along a road that ran by the sea. On each side of it were +plantations, coconut and vanilla; and now and then they saw a great +mango, its fruit yellow and red and purple among the massy green of the +leaves; now and then they had a glimpse of the lagoon, smooth and blue, +with here and there a tiny islet graceful with tall palms. Arnold +Jackson's house stood on a little hill and only a path led to it, so +they unharnessed the mare and tied her to a tree, leaving the trap by +the side of the road. To Bateman it seemed a happy-go-lucky way of doing +things. But when they went up to the house they were met by a tall, +handsome native woman, no longer young, with whom Edward cordially shook +hands. He introduced Bateman to her. + +"This is my friend Mr Hunter. We're going to dine with you, Lavina." + +"All right," she said, with a quick smile. "Arnold ain't back yet." + +"We'll go down and bathe. Let us have a couple of _pareos_." + +The woman nodded and went into the house. + +"Who is that?" asked Bateman. + +"Oh, that's Lavina. She's Arnold's wife." + +Bateman tightened his lips, but said nothing. In a moment the woman +returned with a bundle, which she gave to Edward; and the two men, +scrambling down a steep path, made their way to a grove of coconut trees +on the beach. They undressed and Edward showed his friend how to make +the strip of red trade cotton which is called a _pareo_ into a very neat +pair of bathing-drawers. Soon they were splashing in the warm, shallow +water. Edward was in great spirits. He laughed and shouted and sang. He +might have been fifteen. Bateman had never seen him so gay, and +afterwards when they lay on the beach, smoking cigarettes, in the limpid +air, there was such an irresistible light-heartedness in him that +Bateman was taken aback. + +"You seem to find life mighty pleasant," said he. + +"I do." + +They heard a soft movement and looking round saw that Arnold Jackson was +coming towards them. + +"I thought I'd come down and fetch you two boys back," he said. "Did you +enjoy your bath, Mr Hunter?" + +"Very much," said Bateman. + +Arnold Jackson, no longer in spruce ducks, wore nothing but a _pareo_ +round his loins and walked barefoot. His body was deeply browned by the +sun. With his long, curling white hair and his ascetic face he made a +fantastic figure in the native dress, but he bore himself without a +trace of self-consciousness. + +"If you're ready we'll go right up," said Jackson. + +"I'll just put on my clothes," said Bateman. + +"Why, Teddie, didn't you bring a _pareo_ for your friend?" + +"I guess he'd rather wear clothes," smiled Edward. + +"I certainly would," answered Bateman, grimly, as he saw Edward gird +himself in the loincloth and stand ready to start before he himself had +got his shirt on. + +"Won't you find it rough walking without your shoes?" he asked Edward. +"It struck me the path was a trifle rocky." + +"Oh, I'm used to it." + +"It's a comfort to get into a _pareo_ when one gets back from town," +said Jackson. "If you were going to stay here I should strongly +recommend you to adopt it. It's one of the most sensible costumes I have +ever come across. It's cool, convenient, and inexpensive." + +They walked up to the house, and Jackson took them into a large room +with white-washed walls and an open ceiling in which a table was laid +for dinner. Bateman noticed that it was set for five. + +"Eva, come and show yourself to Teddie's friend, and then shake us a +cocktail," called Jackson. + +Then he led Bateman to a long low window. + +"Look at that," he said, with a dramatic gesture. "Look well." + +Below them coconut trees tumbled down steeply to the lagoon, and the +lagoon in the evening light had the colour, tender and varied, of a +dove's breast. On a creek, at a little distance, were the clustered huts +of a native village, and towards the reef was a canoe, sharply +silhouetted, in which were a couple of natives fishing. Then, beyond, +you saw the vast calmness of the Pacific and twenty miles away, airy and +unsubstantial like the fabric of a poet's fancy, the unimaginable beauty +of the island which is called Murea. It was all so lovely that Bateman +stood abashed. + +"I've never seen anything like it," he said at last. + +Arnold Jackson stood staring in front of him, and in his eyes was a +dreamy softness. His thin, thoughtful face was very grave. Bateman, +glancing at it, was once more conscious of its intense spirituality. + +"Beauty," murmured Arnold Jackson. "You seldom see beauty face to face. +Look at it well, Mr Hunter, for what you see now you will never see +again, since the moment is transitory, but it will be an imperishable +memory in your heart. You touch eternity." + +His voice was deep and resonant. He seemed to breathe forth the purest +idealism, and Bateman had to urge himself to remember that the man who +spoke was a criminal and a cruel cheat. But Edward, as though he heard a +sound, turned round quickly. + +"Here is my daughter, Mr Hunter." + +Bateman shook hands with her. She had dark, splendid eyes and a red +mouth tremulous with laughter; but her skin was brown, and her curling +hair, rippling down her-shoulders, was coal black. She wore but one +garment, a Mother Hubbard of pink cotton, her feet were bare, and she +was crowned with a wreath of white scented flowers. She was a lovely +creature. She was like a goddess of the Polynesian spring. + +She was a little shy, but not more shy than Bateman, to whom the whole +situation was highly embarrassing, and it did not put him at his ease to +see this sylph-like thing take a shaker and with a practised hand mix +three cocktails. + +"Let us have a kick in them, child," said Jackson. + +She poured them out and smiling delightfully handed one to each of the +men. Bateman flattered himself on his skill in the subtle art of shaking +cocktails and he was not a little astonished, on tasting this one, to +find that it was excellent. Jackson laughed proudly when he saw his +guest's involuntary look of appreciation. + +"Not bad, is it? I taught the child myself, and in the old days in +Chicago I considered that there wasn't a bar-tender in the city that +could hold a candle to me. When I had nothing better to do in the +penitentiary I used to amuse myself by thinking out new cocktails, but +when you come down to brass-tacks there's nothing to beat a dry +Martini." + +Bateman felt as though someone had given him a violent blow on the +funny-bone and he was conscious that he turned red and then white. But +before he could think of anything to say a native boy brought in a great +bowl of soup and the whole party sat down to dinner. Arnold Jackson's +remark seemed to have aroused in him a train of recollections, for he +began to talk of his prison days. He talked quite naturally, without +malice, as though he were relating his experiences at a foreign +university. He addressed himself to Bateman and Bateman was confused and +then confounded. He saw Edward's eyes fixed on him and there was in them +a flicker of amusement. He blushed scarlet, for it struck him that +Jackson was making a fool of him, and then because he felt absurd--and +knew there was no reason why he should--he grew angry. Arnold Jackson +was impudent--there was no other word for it--and his callousness, +whether assumed or not, was outrageous. The dinner proceeded. Bateman +was asked to eat sundry messes, raw fish and he knew not what, which +only his civility induced him to swallow, but which he was amazed to +find very good eating. Then an incident happened which to Bateman was +the most mortifying experience of the evening. There was a little +circlet of flowers in front of him, and for the sake of conversation he +hazarded a remark about it. + +"It's a wreath that Eva made for you," said Jackson, "but I guess she +was too shy to give it you." + +Bateman took it up in his hand and made a polite little speech of thanks +to the girl. + +"You must put it on," she said, with a smile and a blush. + +"I? I don't think I'll do that." + +"It's the charming custom of the country," said Arnold Jackson. + +There was one in front of him and he placed it on his hair. Edward did +the same. + +"I guess I'm not dressed for the part," said Bateman, uneasily. + +"Would you like a _pareo_?" said Eva quickly. "I'll get you one in a +minute." + +"No, thank you. I'm quite comfortable as I am." + +"Show him how to put it on, Eva," said Edward. + +At that moment Bateman hated his greatest friend. Eva got up from the +table and with much laughter placed the wreath on his black hair. + +"It suits you very well," said Mrs Jackson. "Don't it suit him, Arnold?" + +"Of course it does." + +Bateman sweated at every pore. + +"Isn't it a pity it's dark?" said Eva. "We could photograph you all +three together." + +Bateman thanked his stars it was. He felt that he must look prodigiously +foolish in his blue serge suit and high collar--very neat and +gentlemanly--with that ridiculous wreath of flowers on his head. He was +seething with indignation, and he had never in his life exercised more +self-control than now when he presented an affable exterior. He was +furious with that old man, sitting at the head of the table, half-naked, +with his saintly face and the flowers on his handsome white locks. The +whole position was monstrous. + +Then dinner came to an end, and Eva and her mother remained to clear +away while the three men sat on the verandah. It was very warm and the +air was scented with the white flowers of the night. The full moon, +sailing across an unclouded sky, made a pathway on the broad sea that +led to the boundless realms of Forever. Arnold Jackson began to talk. +His voice was rich and musical. He talked now of the natives and of the +old legends of the country. He told strange stories of the past, stories +of hazardous expeditions into the unknown, of love and death, of hatred +and revenge. He told of the adventurers who had discovered those distant +islands, of the sailors who, settling in them, had married the daughters +of great chieftains, and of the beach-combers who had led their varied +lives on those silvery shores. Bateman, mortified and exasperated, at +first listened sullenly, but presently some magic in the words possessed +him and he sat entranced. The mirage of romance obscured the light of +common day. Had he forgotten that Arnold Jackson had a tongue of silver, +a tongue by which he had charmed vast sums out of the credulous public, +a tongue which very nearly enabled him to escape the penalty of his +crimes? No one had a sweeter eloquence, and no one had a more acute +sense of climax. Suddenly he rose. + +"Well, you two boys haven't seen one another for a long time. I shall +leave you to have a yarn. Teddie will show you your quarters when you +want to go to bed." + +"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of spending the night, Mr Jackson," said +Bateman. + +"You'll find it more comfortable. We'll see that you're called in good +time." + +Then with a courteous shake of the hand, stately as though he were a +bishop in canonicals, Arnold Jackson took leave of his guest. + +"Of course I'll drive you back to Papeete if you like," said Edward, +"but I advise you to stay. It's bully driving in the early morning." + +For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Bateman wondered how he should +begin on the conversation which all the events of the day made him +think more urgent. + +"When are you coming back to Chicago?" he asked, suddenly. + +For a moment Edward did not answer. Then he turned rather lazily to look +at his friend and smiled. + +"I don't know. Perhaps never." + +"What in heaven's name do you mean?" cried Bateman. + +"I'm very happy here. Wouldn't it be folly to make a change?" + +"Man alive, you can't live here all your life. This is no life for a +man. It's a living death. Oh, Edward, come away at once, before it's too +late. I've felt that something was wrong. You're infatuated with the +place, you've succumbed to evil influences, but it only requires a +wrench, and when you're free from these surroundings you'll thank all +the gods there be. You'll be like a dope-fiend when he's broken from his +drug. You'll see then that for two years you've been breathing poisoned +air. You can't imagine what a relief it will be when you fill your lungs +once more with the fresh, pure air of your native country." + +He spoke quickly, the words tumbling over one another in his excitement, +and there was in his voice sincere and affectionate emotion. Edward was +touched. + +"It is good of you to care so much, old friend." + +"Come with me to-morrow, Edward. It was a mistake that you ever came to +this place. This is no life for you." + +"You talk of this sort of life and that. How do you think a man gets the +best out of life?" + +"Why, I should have thought there could be no two answers to that. By +doing his duty, by hard work, by meeting all the obligations of his +state and station." + +"And what is his reward?" + +"His reward is the consciousness of having achieved what he set out to +do." + +"It all sounds a little portentous to me," said Edward, and in the +lightness of the night Bateman could see that he was smiling. "I'm +afraid you'll think I've degenerated sadly. There are several things I +think now which I daresay would have seemed outrageous to me three years +ago." + +"Have you learnt them from Arnold Jackson?" asked Bateman, scornfully. + +"You don't like him? Perhaps you couldn't be expected to. I didn't when +I first came. I had just the same prejudice as you. He's a very +extraordinary man. You saw for yourself that he makes no secret of the +fact that he was in a penitentiary. I do not know that he regrets it or +the crimes that led him there. The only complaint he ever made in my +hearing was that when he came out his health was impaired. I think he +does not know what remorse is. He is completely unmoral. He accepts +everything and he accepts himself as well. He's generous and kind." + +"He always was," interrupted Bateman, "on other people's money." + +"I've found him a very good friend. Is it unnatural that I should take +a man as I find him?" + +"The result is that you lose the distinction between right and wrong." + +"No, they remain just as clearly divided in my mind as before, but what +has become a little confused in me is the distinction between the bad +man and the good one. Is Arnold Jackson a bad man who does good things +or a good man who does bad things? It's a difficult question to answer. +Perhaps we make too much of the difference between one man and another. +Perhaps even the best of us are sinners and the worst of us are saints. +Who knows?" + +"You will never persuade me that white is black and that black is +white," said Bateman. + +"I'm sure I shan't, Bateman." + +Bateman could not understand why the flicker of a smile crossed Edward's +lips when he thus agreed with him. Edward was silent for a minute. + +"When I saw you this morning, Bateman," he said then, "I seemed to see +myself as I was two years ago. The same collar, and the same shoes, the +same blue suit, the same energy. The same determination. By God, I was +energetic. The sleepy methods of this place made my blood tingle. I went +about and everywhere I saw possibilities for development and enterprise. +There were fortunes to be made here. It seemed to me absurd that the +copra should be taken away from here in sacks and the oil extracted in +America. It would be far more economical to do all that on the spot, +with cheap labour, and save freight, and I saw already the vast +factories springing up on the island. Then the way they extracted it +from the coconut seemed to me hopelessly inadequate, and I invented a +machine which divided the nut and scooped out the meat at the rate of +two hundred and forty an hour. The harbour was not large enough. I made +plans to enlarge it, then to form a syndicate to buy land, put up two or +three large hotels, and bungalows for occasional residents; I had a +scheme for improving the steamer service in order to attract visitors +from California. In twenty years, instead of this half French, lazy +little town of Papeete I saw a great American city with ten-story +buildings and street-cars, a theatre and an opera house, a stock +exchange and a mayor." + +"But go ahead, Edward," cried Bateman, springing up from the chair in +excitement. "You've got the ideas and the capacity. Why, you'll become +the richest man between Australia and the States." + +Edward chuckled softly. + +"But I don't want to," he said. + +"Do you mean to say you don't want money, big money, money running into +millions? Do you know what you can do with it? Do you know the power it +brings? And if you don't care about it for yourself think what you can +do, opening new channels for human enterprise, giving occupation to +thousands. My brain reels at the visions your words have conjured up." + +"Sit down, then, my dear Bateman," laughed Edward. "My machine for +cutting the coconuts will always remain unused, and so far as I'm +concerned street-cars shall never run in the idle streets of Papeete." + +Bateman sank heavily into his chair. + +"I don't understand you," he said. + +"It came upon me little by little. I came to like the life here, with +its ease and its leisure, and the people, with their good-nature and +their happy smiling faces. I began to think. I'd never had time to do +that before. I began to read." + +"You always read." + +"I read for examinations. I read in order to be able to hold my own in +conversation. I read for instruction. Here I learned to read for +pleasure. I learned to talk. Do you know that conversation is one of the +greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. I'd always been too +busy before. And gradually all the life that had seemed so important to +me began to seem rather trivial and vulgar. What is the use of all this +hustle and this constant striving? I think of Chicago now and I see a +dark, grey city, all stone--it is like a prison--and a ceaseless +turmoil. And what does all that activity amount to? Does one get there +the best out of life? Is that what we come into the world for, to hurry +to an office, and work hour after hour till night, then hurry home and +dine and go to a theatre? Is that how I must spend my youth? Youth lasts +so short a time, Bateman. And when I am old, what have I to look forward +to? To hurry from my home in the morning to my office and work hour +after hour till night, and then hurry home again, and dine and go to a +theatre? That may be worth while if you make a fortune; I don't know, it +depends on your nature; but if you don't, is it worth while then? I want +to make more out of my life than that, Bateman." + +"What do you value in life then?" + +"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me. Beauty, truth, and goodness." + +"Don't you think you can have those in Chicago?" + +"Some men can, perhaps, but not I." Edward sprang up now. "I tell you +when I think of the life I led in the old days I am filled with horror," +he cried violently. "I tremble with fear when I think of the danger I +have escaped. I never knew I had a soul till I found it here. If I had +remained a rich man I might have lost it for good and all." + +"I don't know how you can say that," cried Bateman indignantly. "We +often used to have discussions about it." + +"Yes, I know. They were about as effectual as the discussions of deaf +mutes about harmony. I shall never come back to Chicago, Bateman." + +"And what about Isabel?" + +Edward walked to the edge of the verandah and leaning over looked +intently at the blue magic of the night. There was a slight smile on his +face when he turned back to Bateman. + +"Isabel is infinitely too good for me. I admire her more than any woman +I have ever known. She has a wonderful brain and she's as good as she's +beautiful. I respect her energy and her ambition. She was born to make a +success of life. I am entirely unworthy of her." + +"She doesn't think so." + +"But you must tell her so, Bateman." + +"I?" cried Bateman. "I'm the last person who could ever do that." + +Edward had his back to the vivid light of the moon and his face could +not be seen. Is it possible that he smiled again? + +"It's no good your trying to conceal anything from her, Bateman. With +her quick intelligence she'll turn you inside out in five minutes. You'd +better make a clean breast of it right away." + +"I don't know what you mean. Of course I shall tell her I've seen you." +Bateman spoke in some agitation. "Honestly I don't know what to say to +her." + +"Tell her that I haven't made good. Tell her that I'm not only poor, but +that I'm content to be poor. Tell her I was fired from my job because I +was idle and inattentive. Tell her all you've seen to-night and all I've +told you." + +The idea which on a sudden flashed through Bateman's brain brought him +to his feet and in uncontrollable perturbation he faced Edward. + +"Man alive, don't you want to marry her?" + +Edward looked at him gravely. + +"I can never ask her to release me. If she wishes to hold me to my word +I will do my best to make her a good and loving husband." + +"Do you wish me to give her that message, Edward? Oh, I can't. It's +terrible. It's never dawned on her for a moment that you don't want to +marry her. She loves you. How can I inflict such a mortification on +her?" + +Edward smiled again. + +"Why don't you marry her yourself, Bateman? You've been in love with her +for ages. You're perfectly suited to one another. You'll make her very +happy." + +"Don't talk to me like that. I can't bear it." + +"I resign in your favour, Bateman. You are the better man." + +There was something in Edward's tone that made Bateman look up quickly, +but Edward's eyes were grave and unsmiling. Bateman did not know what to +say. He was disconcerted. He wondered whether Edward could possibly +suspect that he had come to Tahiti on a special errand. And though he +knew it was horrible he could not prevent the exultation in his heart. + +"What will you do if Isabel writes and puts an end to her engagement +with you?" he said, slowly. + +"Survive," said Edward. + +Bateman was so agitated that he did not hear the answer. + +"I wish you had ordinary clothes on," he said, somewhat irritably. "It's +such a tremendously serious decision you're taking. That fantastic +costume of yours makes it seem terribly casual." + +"I assure you, I can be just as solemn in a _pareo_ and a wreath of +roses, as in a high hat and a cut-away coat." + +Then another thought struck Bateman. + +"Edward, it's not for my sake you're doing this? I don't know, but +perhaps this is going to make a tremendous difference to my future. +You're not sacrificing yourself for me? I couldn't stand for that, you +know." + +"No, Bateman, I have learnt not to be silly and sentimental here. I +should like you and Isabel to be happy, but I have not the least wish to +be unhappy myself." + +The answer somewhat chilled Bateman. It seemed to him a little cynical. +He would not have been sorry to act a noble part. + +"Do you mean to say you're content to waste your life here? It's nothing +less than suicide. When I think of the great hopes you had when we left +college it seems terrible that you should be content to be no more than +a salesman in a cheap-John store." + +"Oh, I'm only doing that for the present, and I'm gaining a great deal +of valuable experience. I have another plan in my head. Arnold Jackson +has a small island in the Paumotas, about a thousand miles from here, a +ring of land round a lagoon. He's planted coconut there. He's offered to +give it me." + +"Why should he do that?" asked Bateman. + +"Because if Isabel releases me I shall marry his daughter." + +"You?" Bateman was thunderstruck. "You can't marry a half-caste. You +wouldn't be so crazy as that." + +"She's a good girl, and she has a sweet and gentle nature. I think she +would make me very happy." + +"Are you in love with her?" + +"I don't know," answered Edward reflectively. "I'm not in love with her +as I was in love with Isabel. I worshipped Isabel. I thought she was the +most wonderful creature I had ever seen. I was not half good enough for +her. I don't feel like that with Eva. She's like a beautiful exotic +flower that must be sheltered from bitter winds. I want to protect her. +No one ever thought of protecting Isabel. I think she loves me for +myself and not for what I may become. Whatever happens to me I shall +never disappoint her. She suits me." + +Bateman was silent. + +"We must turn out early in the morning," said Edward at last. "It's +really about time we went to bed." + +Then Bateman spoke and his voice had in it a genuine distress. + +"I'm so bewildered, I don't know what to say. I came here because I +thought something was wrong. I thought you hadn't succeeded in what you +set out to do and were ashamed to come back when you'd failed. I never +guessed I should be faced with this. I'm so desperately sorry, Edward. +I'm so disappointed. I hoped you would do great things. It's almost more +than I can bear to think of you wasting your talents and your youth and +your chance in this lamentable way." + +"Don't be grieved, old friend," said Edward. "I haven't failed. I've +succeeded. You can't think with what zest I look forward to life, how +full it seems to me and how significant. Sometimes, when you are married +to Isabel, you will think of me. I shall build myself a house on my +coral island and I shall live there, looking after my trees--getting the +fruit out of the nuts in the same old way that they have done for +unnumbered years--I shall grow all sorts of things in my garden, and I +shall fish. There will be enough work to keep me busy and not enough to +make me dull. I shall have my books and Eva, children, I hope, and above +all, the infinite variety of the sea and the sky, the freshness of the +dawn and the beauty of the sunset, and the rich magnificence of the +night. I shall make a garden out of what so short a while ago was a +wilderness. I shall have created something. The years will pass +insensibly, and when I am an old man I hope that I shall be able to look +back on a happy, simple, peaceful life. In my small way I too shall have +lived in beauty. Do you think it is so little to have enjoyed +contentment? We know that it will profit a man little if he gain the +whole world and lose his soul. I think I have won mine." + +Edward led him to a room in which there were two beds and he threw +himself on one of them. In ten minutes Bateman knew by his regular +breathing, peaceful as a child's, that Edward was asleep. But for his +part he had no rest, he was disturbed in mind, and it was not till the +dawn crept into the room, ghostlike and silent, that he fell asleep. + +Bateman finished telling Isabel his long story. He had hidden nothing +from her except what he thought would wound her or what made himself +ridiculous. He did not tell her that he had been forced to sit at dinner +with a wreath of flowers round his head and he did not tell her that +Edward was prepared to marry her uncle's half-caste daughter the moment +she set him free. But perhaps Isabel had keener intuitions than he knew, +for as he went on with his tale her eyes grew colder and her lips closed +upon one another more tightly. Now and then she looked at him closely, +and if he had been less intent on his narrative he might have wondered +at her expression. + +"What was this girl like?" she asked when he finished. "Uncle Arnold's +daughter. Would you say there was any resemblance between her and me?" + +Bateman was surprised at the question. + +"It never struck me. You know I've never had eyes for anyone but you and +I could never think that anyone was like you. Who could resemble you?" + +"Was she pretty?" said Isabel, smiling slightly at his words. + +"I suppose so. I daresay some men would say she was very beautiful." + +"Well, it's of no consequence. I don't think we need give her any more +of our attention." + +"What are you going to do, Isabel?" he asked then. + +Isabel looked down at the hand which still bore the ring Edward had +given her on their betrothal. + +"I wouldn't let Edward break our engagement because I thought it would +be an incentive to him. I wanted to be an inspiration to him. I thought +if anything could enable him to achieve success it was the thought that +I loved him. I have done all I could. It's hopeless. It would only be +weakness on my part not to recognise the facts. Poor Edward, he's +nobody's enemy but his own. He was a dear, nice fellow, but there was +something lacking in him, I suppose it was backbone. I hope he'll be +happy." + +She slipped the ring off her finger and placed it on the table. Bateman +watched her with a heart beating so rapidly that he could hardly +breathe. + +"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're simply wonderful." + +She smiled, and, standing up, held out her hand to him. + +"How can I ever thank you for what you've done for me?" she said. +"You've done me a great service. I knew I could trust you." + +He took her hand and held it. She had never looked more beautiful. + +"Oh, Isabel, I would do so much more for you than that. You know that I +only ask to be allowed to love and serve you." + +"You're so strong, Bateman," she sighed. "It gives me such a delicious +feeling of confidence." + +"Isabel, I adore you." + +He hardly knew how the inspiration had come to him, but suddenly he +clasped her in his arms, and she, all unresisting, smiled into his eyes. + +"Isabel, you know I wanted to marry you the very first day I saw you," +he cried passionately. + +"Then why on earth didn't you ask me?" she replied. + +She loved him. He could hardly believe it was true. She gave him her +lovely lips to kiss. And as he held her in his arms he had a vision of +the works of the Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company growing in +size and importance till they covered a hundred acres, and of the +millions of motors they would turn out, and of the great collection of +pictures he would form which should beat anything they had in New York. +He would wear horn spectacles. And she, with the delicious pressure of +his arms about her, sighed with happiness, for she thought of the +exquisite house she would have, full of antique furniture, and of the +concerts she would give, and of the _thés dansants_, and the dinners to +which only the most cultured people would come. Bateman should wear horn +spectacles. + +"Poor Edward," she sighed. + + + + +IV + +_Red_ + + +The skipper thrust his hand into one of his trouser pockets and with +difficulty, for they were not at the sides but in front and he was a +portly man, pulled out a large silver watch. He looked at it and then +looked again at the declining sun. The Kanaka at the wheel gave him a +glance, but did not speak. The skipper's eyes rested on the island they +were approaching. A white line of foam marked the reef. He knew there +was an opening large enough to get his ship through, and when they came +a little nearer he counted on seeing it. They had nearly an hour of +daylight still before them. In the lagoon the water was deep and they +could anchor comfortably. The chief of the village which he could +already see among the coconut trees was a friend of the mate's, and it +would be pleasant to go ashore for the night. The mate came forward at +that minute and the skipper turned to him. + +"We'll take a bottle of booze along with us and get some girls in to +dance," he said. + +"I don't see the opening," said the mate. + +He was a Kanaka, a handsome, swarthy fellow, with somewhat the look of a +later Roman emperor, inclined to stoutness; but his face was fine and +clean-cut. + +"I'm dead sure there's one right here," said the captain, looking +through his glasses. "I can't understand why I can't pick it up. Send +one of the boys up the mast to have a look." + +The mate called one of the crew and gave him the order. The captain +watched the Kanaka climb and waited for him to speak. But the Kanaka +shouted down that he could see nothing but the unbroken line of foam. +The captain spoke Samoan like a native, and he cursed him freely. + +"Shall he stay up there?" asked the mate. + +"What the hell good does that do?" answered the captain. "The blame fool +can't see worth a cent. You bet your sweet life I'd find the opening if +I was up there." + +He looked at the slender mast with anger. It was all very well for a +native who had been used to climbing up coconut trees all his life. He +was fat and heavy. + +"Come down," he shouted. "You're no more use than a dead dog. We'll just +have to go along the reef till we find the opening." + +It was a seventy-ton schooner with paraffin auxiliary, and it ran, when +there was no head wind, between four and five knots an hour. It was a +bedraggled object; it had been painted white a very long time ago, but +it was now dirty, dingy, and mottled. It smelt strongly of paraffin and +of the copra which was its usual cargo. They were within a hundred feet +of the reef now and the captain told the steersman to run along it till +they came to the opening. But when they had gone a couple of miles he +realised that they had missed it. He went about and slowly worked back +again. The white foam of the reef continued without interruption and now +the sun was setting. With a curse at the stupidity of the crew the +skipper resigned himself to waiting till next morning. + +"Put her about," he said. "I can't anchor here." + +They went out to sea a little and presently it was quite dark. They +anchored. When the sail was furled the ship began to roll a good deal. +They said in Apia that one day she would roll right over; and the owner, +a German-American who managed one of the largest stores, said that no +money was big enough to induce him to go out in her. The cook, a Chinese +in white trousers, very dirty and ragged, and a thin white tunic, came +to say that supper was ready, and when the skipper went into the cabin +he found the engineer already seated at table. The engineer was a long, +lean man with a scraggy neck. He was dressed in blue overalls and a +sleeveless jersey which showed his thin arms tatooed from elbow to +wrist. + +"Hell, having to spend the night outside," said the skipper. + +The engineer did not answer, and they ate their supper in silence. The +cabin was lit by a dim oil lamp. When they had eaten the canned apricots +with which the meal finished the Chink brought them a cup of tea. The +skipper lit a cigar and went on the upper deck. The island now was only +a darker mass against the night. The stars were very bright. The only +sound was the ceaseless breaking of the surf. The skipper sank into a +deck-chair and smoked idly. Presently three or four members of the crew +came up and sat down. One of them had a banjo and another a concertina. +They began to play, and one of them sang. The native song sounded +strange on these instruments. Then to the singing a couple began to +dance. It was a barbaric dance, savage and primeval, rapid, with quick +movements of the hands and feet and contortions of the body; it was +sensual, sexual even, but sexual without passion. It was very animal, +direct, weird without mystery, natural in short, and one might almost +say childlike. At last they grew tired. They stretched themselves on the +deck and slept, and all was silent. The skipper lifted himself heavily +out of his chair and clambered down the companion. He went into his +cabin and got out of his clothes. He climbed into his bunk and lay +there. He panted a little in the heat of the night. + +But next morning, when the dawn crept over the tranquil sea, the opening +in the reef which had eluded them the night before was seen a little to +the east of where they lay. The schooner entered the lagoon. There was +not a ripple on the surface of the water. Deep down among the coral +rocks you saw little coloured fish swim. When he had anchored his ship +the skipper ate his breakfast and went on deck. The sun shone from an +unclouded sky, but in the early morning the air was grateful and cool. +It was Sunday, and there was a feeling of quietness, a silence as +though nature were at rest, which gave him a peculiar sense of comfort. +He sat, looking at the wooded coast, and felt lazy and well at ease. +Presently a slow smile moved his lips and he threw the stump of his +cigar into the water. + +"I guess I'll go ashore," he said. "Get the boat out." + +He climbed stiffly down the ladder and was rowed to a little cove. The +coconut trees came down to the water's edge, not in rows, but spaced out +with an ordered formality. They were like a ballet of spinsters, elderly +but flippant, standing in affected attitudes with the simpering graces +of a bygone age. He sauntered idly through them, along a path that could +be just seen winding its tortuous way, and it led him presently to a +broad creek. There was a bridge across it, but a bridge constructed of +single trunks of coconut trees, a dozen of them, placed end to end and +supported where they met by a forked branch driven into the bed of the +creek. You walked on a smooth, round surface, narrow and slippery, and +there was no support for the hand. To cross such a bridge required sure +feet and a stout heart. The skipper hesitated. But he saw on the other +side, nestling among the trees, a white man's house; he made up his mind +and, rather gingerly, began to walk. He watched his feet carefully, and +where one trunk joined on to the next and there was a difference of +level, he tottered a little. It was with a gasp of relief that he +reached the last tree and finally set his feet on the firm ground of +the other side. He had been so intent on the difficult crossing that he +never noticed anyone was watching him, and it was with surprise that he +heard himself spoken to. + +"It takes a bit of nerve to cross these bridges when you're not used to +them." + +He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. He had evidently +come out of the house which he had seen. + +"I saw you hesitate," the man continued, with a smile on his lips, "and +I was watching to see you fall in." + +"Not on your life," said the captain, who had now recovered his +confidence. + +"I've fallen in myself before now. I remember, one evening I came back +from shooting, and I fell in, gun and all. Now I get a boy to carry my +gun for me." + +He was a man no longer young, with a small beard, now somewhat grey, and +a thin face. He was dressed in a singlet, without arms, and a pair of +duck trousers. He wore neither shoes nor socks. He spoke English with a +slight accent. + +"Are you Neilson?" asked the skipper. + +"I am." + +"I've heard about you. I thought you lived somewheres round here." + +The skipper followed his host into the little bungalow and sat down +heavily in the chair which the other motioned him to take. While Neilson +went out to fetch whisky and glasses he took a look round the room. It +filled him with amazement. He had never seen so many books. The shelves +reached from floor to ceiling on all four walls, and they were closely +packed. There was a grand piano littered with music, and a large table +on which books and magazines lay in disorder. The room made him feel +embarrassed. He remembered that Neilson was a queer fellow. No one knew +very much about him, although he had been in the islands for so many +years, but those who knew him agreed that he was queer. He was a Swede. + +"You've got one big heap of books here," he said, when Neilson returned. + +"They do no harm," answered Neilson with a smile. + +"Have you read them all?" asked the skipper. + +"Most of them." + +"I'm a bit of a reader myself. I have the _Saturday Evening Post_ sent +me regler." + +Neilson poured his visitor a good stiff glass of whisky and gave him a +cigar. The skipper volunteered a little information. + +"I got in last night, but I couldn't find the opening, so I had to +anchor outside. I never been this run before, but my people had some +stuff they wanted to bring over here. Gray, d'you know him?" + +"Yes, he's got a store a little way along." + +"Well, there was a lot of canned stuff that he wanted over, an' he's got +some copra. They thought I might just as well come over as lie idle at +Apia. I run between Apia and Pago-Pago mostly, but they've got smallpox +there just now, and there's nothing stirring." + +He took a drink of his whisky and lit a cigar. He was a taciturn man, +but there was something in Neilson that made him nervous, and his +nervousness made him talk. The Swede was looking at him with large dark +eyes in which there was an expression of faint amusement. + +"This is a tidy little place you've got here." + +"I've done my best with it." + +"You must do pretty well with your trees. They look fine. With copra at +the price it is now. I had a bit of a plantation myself once, in Upolu +it was, but I had to sell it." + +He looked round the room again, where all those books gave him a feeling +of something incomprehensible and hostile. + +"I guess you must find it a bit lonesome here though," he said. + +"I've got used to it. I've been here for twenty-five years." + +Now the captain could think of nothing more to say, and he smoked in +silence. Neilson had apparently no wish to break it. He looked at his +guest with a meditative eye. He was a tall man, more than six feet high, +and very stout. His face was red and blotchy, with a network of little +purple veins on the cheeks, and his features were sunk into its fatness. +His eyes were bloodshot. His neck was buried in rolls of fat. But for a +fringe of long curly hair, nearly white, at the back of his head, he was +quite bald; and that immense, shiny surface of forehead, which might +have given him a false look of intelligence, on the contrary gave him +one of peculiar imbecility. He wore a blue flannel shirt, open at the +neck and showing his fat chest covered with a mat of reddish hair, and a +very old pair of blue serge trousers. He sat in his chair in a heavy +ungainly attitude, his great belly thrust forward and his fat legs +uncrossed. All elasticity had gone from his limbs. Neilson wondered idly +what sort of man he had been in his youth. It was almost impossible to +imagine that this creature of vast bulk had ever been a boy who ran +about. The skipper finished his whisky, and Neilson pushed the bottle +towards him. + +"Help yourself." + +The skipper leaned forward and with his great hand seized it. + +"And how come you in these parts anyways?" he said. + +"Oh, I came out to the islands for my health. My lungs were bad and they +said I hadn't a year to live. You see they were wrong." + +"I meant, how come you to settle down right here?" + +"I am a sentimentalist." + +"Oh!" + +Neilson knew that the skipper had not an idea what he meant, and he +looked at him with an ironical twinkle in his dark eyes. Perhaps just +because the skipper was so gross and dull a man the whim seized him to +talk further. + +"You were too busy keeping your balance to notice, when you crossed the +bridge, but this spot is generally considered rather pretty." + +"It's a cute little house you've got here." + +"Ah, that wasn't here when I first came. There was a native hut, with +its beehive roof and its pillars, overshadowed by a great tree with red +flowers; and the croton bushes, their leaves yellow and red and golden, +made a pied fence around it. And then all about were the coconut trees, +as fanciful as women, and as vain. They stood at the water's edge and +spent all day looking at their reflections. I was a young man then--Good +Heavens, it's a quarter of a century ago--and I wanted to enjoy all the +loveliness of the world in the short time allotted to me before I passed +into the darkness. I thought it was the most beautiful spot I had ever +seen. The first time I saw it I had a catch at my heart, and I was +afraid I was going to cry. I wasn't more than twenty-five, and though I +put the best face I could on it, I didn't want to die. And somehow it +seemed to me that the very beauty of this place made it easier for me to +accept my fate. I felt when I came here that all my past life had fallen +away, Stockholm and its University, and then Bonn: it all seemed the +life of somebody else, as though now at last I had achieved the reality +which our doctors of philosophy--I am one myself, you know--had +discussed so much. 'A year,' I cried to myself. 'I have a year. I will +spend it here and then I am content to die.'" + +"We are foolish and sentimental and melodramatic at twenty-five, but if +we weren't perhaps we should be less wise at fifty." + +"Now drink, my friend. Don't let the nonsense I talk interfere with +you." + +He waved his thin hand towards the bottle, and the skipper finished what +remained in his glass. + +"You ain't drinking nothin," he said, reaching for the whisky. + +"I am of a sober habit," smiled the Swede. "I intoxicate myself in ways +which I fancy are more subtle. But perhaps that is only vanity. Anyhow, +the effects are more lasting and the results less deleterious." + +"They say there's a deal of cocaine taken in the States now," said the +captain. + +Neilson chuckled. + +"But I do not see a white man often," he continued, "and for once I +don't think a drop of whisky can do me any harm." + +He poured himself out a little, added some soda, and took a sip. + +"And presently I found out why the spot had such an unearthly +loveliness. Here love had tarried for a moment like a migrant bird that +happens on a ship in mid-ocean and for a little while folds its tired +wings. The fragrance of a beautiful passion hovered over it like the +fragrance of hawthorn in May in the meadows of my home. It seems to me +that the places where men have loved or suffered keep about them always +some faint aroma of something that has not wholly died. It is as though +they had acquired a spiritual significance which mysteriously affects +those who pass. I wish I could make myself clear." He smiled a little. +"Though I cannot imagine that if I did you would understand." + +He paused. + +"I think this place was beautiful because here I had been loved +beautifully." And now he shrugged his shoulders. "But perhaps it is only +that my æsthetic sense is gratified by the happy conjunction of young +love and a suitable setting." + +Even a man less thick-witted than the skipper might have been forgiven +if he were bewildered by Neilson's words. For he seemed faintly to laugh +at what he said. It was as though he spoke from emotion which his +intellect found ridiculous. He had said himself that he was a +sentimentalist, and when sentimentality is joined with scepticism there +is often the devil to pay. + +He was silent for an instant and looked at the captain with eyes in +which there was a sudden perplexity. + +"You know, I can't help thinking that I've seen you before somewhere or +other," he said. + +"I couldn't say as I remember you," returned the skipper. + +"I have a curious feeling as though your face were familiar to me. It's +been puzzling me for some time. But I can't situate my recollection in +any place or at any time." + +The skipper massively shrugged his heavy shoulders. + +"It's thirty years since I first come to the islands. A man can't figure +on remembering all the folk he meets in a while like that." + +The Swede shook his head. + +"You know how one sometimes has the feeling that a place one has never +been to before is strangely familiar. That's how I seem to see you." He +gave a whimsical smile. "Perhaps I knew you in some past existence. +Perhaps, perhaps you were the master of a galley in ancient Rome and I +was a slave at the oar. Thirty years have you been here?" + +"Every bit of thirty years." + +"I wonder if you knew a man called Red?" + +"Red?" + +"That is the only name I've ever known him by. I never knew him +personally. I never even set eyes on him. And yet I seem to see him more +clearly than many men, my brothers, for instance, with whom I passed my +daily life for many years. He lives in my imagination with the +distinctness of a Paolo Malatesta or a Romeo. But I daresay you have +never read Dante or Shakespeare?" + +"I can't say as I have," said the captain. + +Neilson, smoking a cigar, leaned back in his chair and looked vacantly +at the ring of smoke which floated in the still air. A smile played on +his lips, but his eyes were grave. Then he looked at the captain. There +was in his gross obesity something extraordinarily repellent. He had the +plethoric self-satisfaction of the very fat. It was an outrage. It set +Neilson's nerves on edge. But the contrast between the man before him +and the man he had in mind was pleasant. + +"It appears that Red was the most comely thing you ever saw. I've talked +to quite a number of people who knew him in those days, white men, and +they all agree that the first time you saw him his beauty just took your +breath away. They called him Red on account of his flaming hair. It had +a natural wave and he wore it long. It must have been of that wonderful +colour that the pre-Raphaelites raved over. I don't think he was vain of +it, he was much too ingenuous for that, but no one could have blamed him +if he had been. He was tall, six feet and an inch or two--in the native +house that used to stand here was the mark of his height cut with a +knife on the central trunk that supported the roof--and he was made like +a Greek god, broad in the shoulders and thin in the flanks; he was like +Apollo, with just that soft roundness which Praxiteles gave him, and +that suave, feminine grace which has in it something troubling and +mysterious. His skin was dazzling white, milky, like satin; his skin was +like a woman's." + +"I had kind of a white skin myself when I was a kiddie," said the +skipper, with a twinkle in his bloodshot eyes. + +But Neilson paid no attention to him. He was telling his story now and +interruption made him impatient. + +"And his face was just as beautiful as his body. He had large blue eyes, +very dark, so that some say they were black, and unlike most red-haired +people he had dark eyebrows and long dark lashes. His features were +perfectly regular and his mouth was like a scarlet wound. He was +twenty." + +On these words the Swede stopped with a certain sense of the dramatic. +He took a sip of whisky. + +"He was unique. There never was anyone more beautiful. There was no more +reason for him than for a wonderful blossom to flower on a wild plant. +He was a happy accident of nature." + +"One day he landed at that cove into which you must have put this +morning. He was an American sailor, and he had deserted from a +man-of-war in Apia. He had induced some good-humoured native to give him +a passage on a cutter that happened to be sailing from Apia to Safoto, +and he had been put ashore here in a dugout. I do not know why he +deserted. Perhaps life on a man-of-war with its restrictions irked him, +perhaps he was in trouble, and perhaps it was the South Seas and these +romantic islands that got into his bones. Every now and then they take a +man strangely, and he finds himself like a fly in a spider's web. It may +be that there was a softness of fibre in him, and these green hills with +their soft airs, this blue sea, took the northern strength from him as +Delilah took the Nazarite's. Anyhow, he wanted to hide himself, and he +thought he would be safe in this secluded nook till his ship had sailed +from Samoa." + +"There was a native hut at the cove and as he stood there, wondering +where exactly he should turn his steps, a young girl came out and +invited him to enter. He knew scarcely two words of the native tongue +and she as little English. But he understood well enough what her smiles +meant, and her pretty gestures, and he followed her. He sat down on a +mat and she gave him slices of pineapple to eat. I can speak of Red +only from hearsay, but I saw the girl three years after he first met +her, and she was scarcely nineteen then. You cannot imagine how +exquisite she was. She had the passionate grace of the hibiscus and the +rich colour. She was rather tall, slim, with the delicate features of +her race, and large eyes like pools of still water under the palm trees; +her hair, black and curling, fell down her back, and she wore a wreath +of scented flowers. Her hands were lovely. They were so small, so +exquisitely formed, they gave your heart-strings a wrench. And in those +days she laughed easily. Her smile was so delightful that it made your +knees shake. Her skin was like a field of ripe corn on a summer day. +Good Heavens, how can I describe her? She was too beautiful to be real." + +"And these two young things, she was sixteen and he was twenty, fell in +love with one another at first sight. That is the real love, not the +love that comes from sympathy, common interests, or intellectual +community, but love pure and simple. That is the love that Adam felt for +Eve when he awoke and found her in the garden gazing at him with dewy +eyes. That is the love that draws the beasts to one another, and the +Gods. That is the love that makes the world a miracle. That is the love +which gives life its pregnant meaning. You have never heard of the wise, +cynical French duke who said that with two lovers there is always one +who loves and one who lets himself be loved; it is a bitter truth to +which most of us have to resign ourselves; but now and then there are +two who love and two who let themselves be loved. Then one might fancy +that the sun stands still as it stood when Joshua prayed to the God of +Israel." + +"And even now after all these years, when I think of these two, so +young, so fair, so simple, and of their love, I feel a pang. It tears my +heart just as my heart is torn when on certain nights I watch the full +moon shining on the lagoon from an unclouded sky. There is always pain +in the contemplation of perfect beauty." + +"They were children. She was good and sweet and kind. I know nothing of +him, and I like to think that then at all events he was ingenuous and +frank. I like to think that his soul was as comely as his body. But I +daresay he had no more soul than the creatures of the woods and forests +who made pipes from reeds and bathed in the mountain streams when the +world was young, and you might catch sight of little fawns galloping +through the glade on the back of a bearded centaur. A soul is a +troublesome possession and when man developed it he lost the Garden of +Eden." + +"Well, when Red came to the island it had recently been visited by one +of those epidemics which the white man has brought to the South Seas, +and one third of the inhabitants had died. It seems that the girl had +lost all her near kin and she lived now in the house of distant cousins. +The household consisted of two ancient crones, bowed and wrinkled, two +younger women, and a man and a boy. For a few days he stayed there. But +perhaps he felt himself too near the shore, with the possibility that +he might fall in with white men who would reveal his hiding-place; +perhaps the lovers could not bear that the company of others should rob +them for an instant of the delight of being together. One morning they +set out, the pair of them, with the few things that belonged to the +girl, and walked along a grassy path under the coconuts, till they came +to the creek you see. They had to cross the bridge you crossed, and the +girl laughed gleefully because he was afraid. She held his hand till +they came to the end of the first tree, and then his courage failed him +and he had to go back. He was obliged to take off all his clothes before +he could risk it, and she carried them over for him on her head. They +settled down in the empty hut that stood here. Whether she had any +rights over it (land tenure is a complicated business in the islands), +or whether the owner had died during the epidemic, I do not know, but +anyhow no one questioned them, and they took possession. Their furniture +consisted of a couple of grass-mats on which they slept, a fragment of +looking-glass, and a bowl or two. In this pleasant land that is enough +to start housekeeping on." + +"They say that happy people have no history, and certainly a happy love +has none. They did nothing all day long and yet the days seemed all too +short. The girl had a native name, but Red called her Sally. He picked +up the easy language very quickly, and he used to lie on the mat for +hours while she chattered gaily to him. He was a silent fellow, and +perhaps his mind was lethargic. He smoked incessantly the cigarettes +which she made him out of the native tobacco and pandanus leaf, and he +watched her while with deft fingers she made grass mats. Often natives +would come in and tell long stories of the old days when the island was +disturbed by tribal wars. Sometimes he would go fishing on the reef, and +bring home a basket full of coloured fish. Sometimes at night he would +go out with a lantern to catch lobster. There were plantains round the +hut and Sally would roast them for their frugal meal. She knew how to +make delicious messes from coconuts, and the bread-fruit tree by the +side of the creek gave them its fruit. On feast-days they killed a +little pig and cooked it on hot stones. They bathed together in the +creek; and in the evening they went down to the lagoon and paddled about +in a dugout, with its great outrigger. The sea was deep blue, +wine-coloured at sundown, like the sea of Homeric Greece; but in the +lagoon the colour had an infinite variety, aquamarine and amethyst and +emerald; and the setting sun turned it for a short moment to liquid +gold. Then there was the colour of the coral, brown, white, pink, red, +purple; and the shapes it took were marvellous. It was like a magic +garden, and the hurrying fish were like butterflies. It strangely lacked +reality. Among the coral were pools with a floor of white sand and here, +where the water was dazzling clear, it was very good to bathe. Then, +cool and happy, they wandered back in the gloaming over the soft grass +road to the creek, walking hand in hand, and now the mynah birds filled +the coconut trees with their clamour. And then the night, with that +great, sky shining with gold, that seemed to stretch more widely than +the skies of Europe, and the soft airs that blew gently through the open +hut, the long night again was all too short. She was sixteen and he was +barely twenty. The dawn crept in among the wooden pillars of the hut and +looked at those lovely children sleeping in one another's arms. The sun +hid behind the great tattered leaves of the plantains so that it might +not disturb them, and then, with playful malice, shot a golden ray, like +the outstretched paw of a Persian cat, on their faces. They opened their +sleepy eyes and they smiled to welcome another day. The weeks lengthened +into months, and a year passed. They seemed to love one another as--I +hesitate to say passionately, for passion has in it always a shade of +sadness, a touch of bitterness or anguish, but as whole heartedly, as +simply and naturally as on that first day on which, meeting, they had +recognised that a god was in them." + +"If you had asked them I have no doubt that they would have thought it +impossible to suppose their love could ever cease. Do we not know that +the essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity? And yet +perhaps in Red there was already a very little seed, unknown to himself +and unsuspected by the girl, which would in time have grown to +weariness. For one day one of the natives from the cove told them that +some way down the coast at the anchorage was a British whaling-ship." + +"'Gee,' he said, 'I wonder if I could make a trade of some nuts and +plantains for a pound or two of tobacco.'" + +"The pandanus cigarettes that Sally made him with untiring hands were +strong and pleasant enough to smoke, but they left him unsatisfied; and +he yearned on a sudden for real tobacco, hard, rank, and pungent. He had +not smoked a pipe for many, months. His mouth watered at the thought of +it. One would have thought some premonition of harm would have made +Sally seek to dissuade him, but love possessed her so completely that it +never occurred to her any power on earth could take him from her. They +went up into the hills together and gathered a great basket of wild +oranges, green, but sweet and juicy; and they picked plantains from +around the hut, and coconuts from their trees, and breadfruit and +mangoes; and they carried them down to the cove. They loaded the +unstable canoe with them, and Red and the native boy who had brought +them the news of the ship paddled along outside the reef." + +"It was the last time she ever saw him." + +"Next day the boy came back alone. He was all in tears. This is the +story he told. When after their long paddle they reached the ship and +Red hailed it, a white man looked over the side and told them to come on +board. They took the fruit they had brought with them and Red piled it +up on the deck. The white man and he began to talk, and they seemed to +come to some agreement. One of them went below and brought up tobacco. +Red took some at once and lit a pipe. The boy imitated the zest with +which he blew a great cloud of smoke from his mouth. Then they said +something to him and he went into the cabin. Through the open door the +boy, watching curiously, saw a bottle brought out and glasses. Red drank +and smoked. They seemed to ask him something, for he shook his head and +laughed. The man, the first man who had spoken to them, laughed too, and +he filled Red's glass once more. They went on talking and drinking, and +presently, growing tired of watching a sight that meant nothing to him, +the boy curled himself up on the deck and slept. He was awakened by a +kick; and, jumping to his feet, he saw that the ship was slowly sailing +out of the lagoon. He caught sight of Red seated at the table, with his +head resting heavily on his arms, fast asleep. He made a movement +towards him, intending to wake him, but a rough hand seized his arm, and +a man, with a scowl and words which he did not understand, pointed to +the side. He shouted to Red, but in a moment he was seized and flung +overboard. Helpless, he swam round to his canoe which was drifting a +little way off, and pushed it on to the reef. He climbed in and, sobbing +all the way, paddled back to shore." + +"What had happened was obvious enough. The whaler, by desertion or +sickness, was short of hands, and the captain when Red came aboard had +asked him to sign on; on his refusal he had made him drunk and kidnapped +him." + +"Sally was beside herself with grief. For three days she screamed and +cried. The natives did what they could to comfort her, but she would not +be comforted. She would not eat. And then, exhausted, she sank into a +sullen apathy. She spent long days at the cove, watching the lagoon, in +the vain hope that Red somehow or other would manage to escape. She sat +on the white sand, hour after hour, with the tears running down her +cheeks, and at night dragged herself wearily back across the creek to +the little hut where she had been happy. The people with whom she had +lived before Red came to the island wished her to return to them, but +she would not; she was convinced that Red would come back, and she +wanted him to find her where he had left her. Four months later she was +delivered of a still-born child, and the old woman who had come to help +her through her confinement remained with her in the hut. All joy was +taken from her life. If her anguish with time became less intolerable it +was replaced by a settled melancholy. You would not have thought that +among these people, whose emotions, though so violent, are very +transient, a woman could be found capable of so enduring a passion. She +never lost the profound conviction that sooner or later Red would come +back. She watched for him, and every time someone crossed this slender +little bridge of coconut trees she looked. It might at last be he." + +Neilson stopped talking and gave a faint sigh. + +"And what happened to her in the end?" asked the skipper. + +Neilson smiled bitterly. + +"Oh, three years afterwards she took up with another white man." + +The skipper gave a fat, cynical chuckle. + +"That's generally what happens to them," he said. + +The Swede shot him a look of hatred. He did not know why that gross, +obese man excited in him so violent a repulsion. But his thoughts +wandered and he found his mind filled with memories of the past. He went +back five and twenty years. It was when he first came to the island, +weary of Apia, with its heavy drinking, its gambling and coarse +sensuality, a sick man, trying to resign himself to the loss of the +career which had fired his imagination with ambitious thoughts. He set +behind him resolutely all his hopes of making a great name for himself +and strove to content himself with the few poor months of careful life +which was all that he could count on. He was boarding with a half-caste +trader who had a store a couple of miles along the coast at the edge of +a native village; and one day, wandering aimlessly along the grassy +paths of the coconut groves, he had come upon the hut in which Sally +lived. The beauty of the spot had filled him with a rapture so great +that it was almost painful, and then he had seen Sally. She was the +loveliest creature he had ever seen, and the sadness in those dark, +magnificent eyes of hers affected him strangely. The Kanakas were a +handsome race, and beauty was not rare among them, but it was the beauty +of shapely animals. It was empty. But those tragic eyes were dark with +mystery, and you felt in them the bitter complexity of the groping, +human soul. The trader told him the story and it moved him. + +"Do you think he'll ever come back?" asked Neilson. + +"No fear. Why, it'll be a couple of years before the ship is paid off, +and by then he'll have forgotten all about her. I bet he was pretty mad +when he woke up and found he'd been shanghaied, and I shouldn't wonder +but he wanted to fight somebody. But he'd got to grin and bear it, and I +guess in a month he was thinking it the best thing that had ever +happened to him that he got away from the island." + +But Neilson could not get the story out of his head. Perhaps because he +was sick and weakly, the radiant health of Red appealed to his +imagination. Himself an ugly man, insignificant of appearance, he prized +very highly comeliness in others. He had never been passionately in +love, and certainly he had never been passionately loved. The mutual +attraction of those two young things gave him a singular delight. It had +the ineffable beauty of the Absolute. He went again to the little hut by +the creek. He had a gift for languages and an energetic mind, accustomed +to work, and he had already given much time to the study of the local +tongue. Old habit was strong in him and he was gathering together +material for a paper on the Samoan speech. The old crone who shared the +hut with Sally invited him to come in and sit down. She gave him _kava_ +to drink and cigarettes to smoke. She was glad to have someone to chat +with and while she talked he looked at Sally. She reminded him of the +Psyche in the museum at Naples. Her features had the same dear purity +of line, and though she had borne a child she had still a virginal +aspect. + +It was not till he had seen her two or three times that he induced her +to speak. Then it was only to ask him if he had seen in Apia a man +called Red. Two years had passed since his disappearance, but it was +plain that she still thought of him incessantly. + +It did not take Neilson long to discover that he was in love with her. +It was only by an effort of will now that he prevented himself from +going every day to the creek, and when he was not with Sally his +thoughts were. At first, looking upon himself as a dying man, he asked +only to look at her, and occasionally hear her speak, and his love gave +him a wonderful happiness. He exulted in its purity. He wanted nothing +from her but the opportunity to weave around her graceful person a web +of beautiful fancies. But the open air, the equable temperature, the +rest, the simple fare, began to have an unexpected effect on his health. +His temperature did not soar at night to such alarming heights, he +coughed less and began to put on weight; six months passed without his +having a hæmorrhage; and on a sudden he saw the possibility that he +might live. He had studied his disease carefully, and the hope dawned +upon him that with great care he might arrest its course. It exhilarated +him to look forward once more to the future. He made plans. It was +evident that any active life was out of the question, but he could live +on the islands, and the small income he had, insufficient elsewhere, +would be ample to keep him. He could grow coconuts; that would give him +an occupation; and he would send for his books and a piano; but his +quick mind saw that in all this he was merely trying to conceal from +himself the desire which obsessed him. + +He wanted Sally. He loved not only her beauty, but that dim soul which +he divined behind her suffering eyes. He would intoxicate her with his +passion. In the end he would make her forget. And in an ecstasy of +surrender he fancied himself giving her too the happiness which he had +thought never to know again, but had now so miraculously achieved. + +He asked her to live with him. She refused. He had expected that and did +not let it depress him, for he was sure that sooner or later she would +yield. His love was irresistible. He told the old woman of his wishes, +and found somewhat to his surprise that she and the neighbours, long +aware of them, were strongly urging Sally to accept his offer. After +all, every native was glad to keep house for a white man, and Neilson +according to the standards of the island was a rich one. The trader with +whom he boarded went to her and told her not to be a fool; such an +opportunity would not come again, and after so long she could not still +believe that Red would ever return. The girl's resistance only increased +Neilson's desire, and what had been a very pure love now became an +agonising passion. He was determined that nothing should stand in his +way. He gave Sally no peace. At last, worn out by his persistence and +the persuasions, by turns pleading and angry, of everyone around her, +she consented. But the day after when, exultant, he went to see her he +found that in the night she had burnt down the hut in which she and Red +had lived together. The old crone ran towards him full of angry abuse of +Sally, but he waved her aside; it did not matter; they would build a +bungalow on the place where the hut had stood. A European house would +really be more convenient if he wanted to bring out a piano and a vast +number of books. + +And so the little wooden house was built in which he had now lived for +many years, and Sally became his wife. But after the first few weeks of +rapture, during which he was satisfied with what she gave him he had +known little happiness. She had yielded to him, through weariness, but +she had only yielded what she set no store on. The soul which he had +dimly glimpsed escaped him. He knew that she cared nothing for him. She +still loved Red, and all the time she was waiting for his return. At a +sign from him, Neilson knew that, notwithstanding his love, his +tenderness, his sympathy, his generosity, she would leave him without a +moment's hesitation. She would never give a thought to his distress. +Anguish seized him and he battered at that impenetrable self of hers +which sullenly resisted him. His love became bitter. He tried to melt +her heart with kindness, but it remained as hard as before; he feigned +indifference, but she did not notice it. Sometimes he lost his temper +and abused her, and then she wept silently. Sometimes he thought she was +nothing but a fraud, and that soul simply an invention of his own, and +that he could not get into the sanctuary of her heart because there was +no sanctuary there. His love became a prison from which he longed to +escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door--that was +all it needed--and walk out into the open air. It was torture and at +last he became numb and hopeless. In the end the fire burnt itself out +and, when he saw her eyes rest for an instant on the slender bridge, it +was no longer rage that filled his heart but impatience. For many years +now they had lived together bound by the ties of habit and convenience, +and it was with a smile that he looked back on his old passion. She was +an old woman, for the women on the islands age quickly, and if he had no +love for her any more he had tolerance. She left him alone. He was +contented with his piano and his books. + +His thoughts led him to a desire for words. + +"When I look back now and reflect on that brief passionate love of Red +and Sally, I think that perhaps they should thank the ruthless fate that +separated them when their love seemed still to be at its height. They +suffered, but they suffered in beauty. They were spared the real tragedy +of love." + +"I don't know exactly as I get you," said the skipper. + +"The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think +it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is +dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your +heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of +your sight, and realise that you would not mind if you never saw her +again. The tragedy of love is indifference." + +But while he was speaking a very extraordinary thing happened. Though he +had been addressing the skipper he had not been talking to him, he had +been putting his thoughts into words for himself, and with his eyes +fixed on the man in front of him he had not seen him. But now an image +presented itself to them, an image not of the man he saw, but of another +man. It was as though he were looking into one of those distorting +mirrors that make you extraordinarily squat or outrageously elongate, +but here exactly the opposite took place, and in the obese, ugly old man +he caught the shadowy glimpse of a stripling. He gave him now a quick, +searching scrutiny. Why had a haphazard stroll brought him just to this +place? A sudden tremor of his heart made him slightly breathless. An +absurd suspicion seized him. What had occurred to him was impossible, +and yet it might be a fact. + +"What is your name?" he asked abruptly. + +The skipper's face puckered and he gave a cunning chuckle. He looked +then malicious and horribly vulgar. + +"It's such a damned long time since I heard it that I almost forget it +myself. But for thirty years now in the islands they've always called me +Red." + +His huge form shook as he gave a low, almost silent laugh. It was +obscene. Neilson shuddered. Red was hugely amused, and from his +bloodshot eyes tears ran down his cheeks. + +Neilson gave a gasp, for at that moment a woman came in. She was a +native, a woman of somewhat commanding presence, stout without being +corpulent, dark, for the natives grow darker with age, with very grey +hair. She wore a black Mother Hubbard, and its thinness showed her heavy +breasts. The moment had come. + +She made an observation to Neilson about some household matter and he +answered. He wondered if his voice sounded as unnatural to her as it did +to himself. She gave the man who was sitting in the chair by the window +an indifferent glance, and went out of the room. The moment had come and +gone. + +Neilson for a moment could not speak. He was strangely shaken. Then he +said: + +"I'd be very glad if you'd stay and have a bit of dinner with me. Pot +luck." + +"I don't think I will," said Red. "I must go after this fellow Gray. +I'll give him his stuff and then I'll get away. I want to be back in +Apia to-morrow." + +"I'll send a boy along with you to show you the way." + +"That'll be fine." + +Red heaved himself out of his chair, while the Swede called one of the +boys who worked on the plantation. He told him where the skipper wanted +to go, and the boy stepped along the bridge. Red prepared to follow him. + +"Don't fall in," said Neilson. + +"Not on your life." + +Neilson watched him make his way across and when he had disappeared +among the coconuts he looked still. Then he sank heavily in his chair. +Was that the man who had prevented him from being happy? Was that the +man whom Sally had loved all these years and for whom she had waited so +desperately? It was grotesque. A sudden fury seized him so that he had +an instinct to spring up and smash everything around him. He had been +cheated. They had seen each other at last and had not known it. He began +to laugh, mirthlessly, and his laughter grew till it became hysterical. +The Gods had played him a cruel trick. And he was old now. + +At last Sally came in to tell him dinner was ready. He sat down in front +of her and tried to eat. He wondered what she would say if he told her +now that the fat old man sitting in the chair was the lover whom she +remembered still with the passionate abandonment of her youth. Years +ago, when he hated her because she made him so unhappy, he would have +been glad to tell her. He wanted to hurt her then as she hurt him, +because his hatred was only love. But now he did not care. He shrugged +his shoulders listlessly. + +"What did that man want?" she asked presently. + +He did not answer at once. She was old too, a fat old native woman. He +wondered why he had ever loved her so madly. He had laid at her feet all +the treasures of his soul, and she had cared nothing for them. Waste, +what waste! And now, when he looked at her, he felt only contempt. His +patience was at last exhausted. He answered her question. + +"He's the captain of a schooner. He's come from Apia." + +"Yes." + +"He brought me news from home. My eldest brother is very ill and I must +go back." + +"Will you be gone long?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + + + + +V + +_The Pool_ + + +When I was introduced to Lawson by Chaplin, the owner of the Hotel +Metropole at Apia, I paid no particular attention to him. We were +sitting in the lounge over an early cocktail and I was listening with +amusement to the gossip of the island. + +Chaplin entertained me. He was by profession a mining engineer and +perhaps it was characteristic of him that he had settled in a place +where his professional attainments were of no possible value. It was, +however, generally reported that he was an extremely clever mining +engineer. He was a small man, neither fat nor thin, with black hair, +scanty on the crown, turning grey, and a small, untidy moustache; his +face, partly from the sun and partly from liquor, was very red. He was +but a figurehead, for the hotel, though so grandly named but a frame +building of two storeys, was managed by his wife, a tall, gaunt +Australian of five and forty, with an imposing presence and a determined +air. The little man, excitable and often tipsy, was terrified of her, +and the stranger soon heard of domestic quarrels in which she used her +fist and her foot in order to keep him in subjection. She had been +known after a night of drunkenness to confine him for twenty-four hours +to his own room, and then he could be seen, afraid to leave his prison, +talking somewhat pathetically from his verandah to people in the street +below. + +He was a character, and his reminiscences of a varied life, whether true +or not, made him worth listening to, so that when Lawson strolled in I +was inclined to resent the interruption. Although not midday, it was +clear that he had had enough to drink, and it was without enthusiasm +that I yielded to his persistence and accepted his offer of another +cocktail. I knew already that Chaplin's head was weak. The next round +which in common politeness I should be forced to order would be enough +to make him lively, and then Mrs Chaplin would give me black looks. + +Nor was there anything attractive in Lawson's appearance. He was a +little thin man, with a long, sallow face and a narrow, weak chin, a +prominent nose, large and bony, and great shaggy black eyebrows. They +gave him a peculiar look. His eyes, very large and very dark, were +magnificent. He was jolly, but his jollity did not seem to me sincere; +it was on the surface, a mask which he wore to deceive the world, and I +suspected that it concealed a mean nature. He was plainly anxious to be +thought a "good sport" and he was hail-fellow-well-met; but, I do not +know why, I felt that he was cunning and shifty. He talked a great deal +in a raucous voice, and he and Chaplin capped one another's stories of +beanos which had become legendary, stories of "wet" nights at the +English Club, of shooting expeditions where an incredible amount of +whisky had been consumed, and of jaunts to Sydney of which their pride +was that they could remember nothing from the time they landed till the +time they sailed. A pair of drunken swine. But even in their +intoxication, for by now after four cocktails each, neither was sober, +there was a great difference between Chaplin, rough and vulgar, and +Lawson: Lawson might be drunk, but he was certainly a gentleman. + +At last he got out of his chair, a little unsteadily. + +"Well, I'll be getting along home," he said. "See you before dinner." + +"Missus all right?" said Chaplin. + +"Yes." + +He went out. There was a peculiar note in the monosyllable of his answer +which made me look up. + +"Good chap," said Chaplin flatly, as Lawson went out of the door into +the sunshine. "One of the best. Pity he drinks." + +This from Chaplin was an observation not without humour. + +"And when he's drunk he wants to fight people." + +"Is he often drunk?" + +"Dead drunk, three or four days a week. It's the island done it, and +Ethel." + +"Who's Ethel?" + +"Ethel's his wife. Married a half-caste. Old Brevald's daughter. Took +her away from here. Only thing to do. But she couldn't stand it, and now +they're back again. He'll hang himself one of these days, if he don't +drink himself to death before. Good chap. Nasty when he's drunk." + +Chaplin belched loudly. + +"I'll go and put my head under the shower. I oughtn't to have had that +last cocktail. It's always the last one that does you in." + +He looked uncertainly at the staircase as he made up his mind to go to +the cubby hole in which was the shower, and then with unnatural +seriousness got up. + +"Pay you to cultivate Lawson," he said. "A well read chap. You'd be +surprised when he's sober. Clever too. Worth talking to." + +Chaplin had told me the whole story in these few speeches. + +When I came in towards evening from a ride along the seashore Lawson was +again in the hotel. He was heavily sunk in one of the cane chairs in the +lounge and he looked at me with glassy eyes. It was plain that he had +been drinking all the afternoon. He was torpid, and the look on his face +was sullen and vindictive. His glance rested on me for a moment, but I +could see that he did not recognise me. Two or three other men were +sitting there, shaking dice, and they took no notice of him. His +condition was evidently too usual to attract attention. I sat down and +began to play. + +"You're a damned sociable lot," said Lawson suddenly. + +He got out of his chair and waddled with bent knees towards the door. I +do not know whether the spectacle was more ridiculous than revolting. +When he had gone one of the men sniggered. + +"Lawson's fairly soused to-day," he said. + +"If I couldn't carry my liquor better than that," said another, "I'd +climb on the waggon and stay there." + +Who would have thought that this wretched object was in his way a +romantic figure or that his life had in it those elements of pity and +terror which the theorist tells us are necessary to achieve the effect +of tragedy? + +I did not see him again for two or three days. + +I was sitting one evening on the first floor of the hotel on a verandah +that overlooked the street when Lawson came up and sank into a chair +beside me. He was quite sober. He made a casual remark and then, when I +had replied somewhat indifferently, added with a laugh which had in it +an apologetic tone: + +"I was devilish soused the other day." + +I did not answer. There was really nothing to say. I pulled away at my +pipe in the vain hope of keeping the mosquitoes away, and looked at the +natives going home from their work. They walked with long steps, slowly, +with care and dignity, and the soft patter of their naked feet was +strange to hear. Their dark hair, curling or straight, was often white +with lime, and then they had a look of extraordinary distinction. They +were tall and finely built. Then a gang of Solomon Islanders, indentured +labourers, passed by, singing; they were shorter and slighter than the +Samoans, coal black with great heads of fuzzy hair dyed red. Now and +then a white man drove past in his buggy or rode into the hotel yard. In +the lagoon two or three schooners reflected their grace in the tranquil +water. + +"I don't know what there is to do in a place like this except to get +soused," said Lawson at last. + +"Don't you like Samoa?" I asked casually, for something to say. + +"It's pretty, isn't it?" + +The word he chose seemed so inadequate to describe the unimaginable +beauty of the island, that I smiled, and smiling I turned to look at +him. I was startled by the expression in those fine sombre eyes of his, +an expression of intolerable anguish; they betrayed a tragic depth of +emotion of which I should never have thought him capable. But the +expression passed away and he smiled. His smile was simple and a little +naïve. It changed his face so that I wavered in my first feeling of +aversion from him. + +"I was all over the place when I first came out," he said. + +He was silent for a moment. + +"I went away for good about three years ago, but I came back." He +hesitated. "My wife wanted to come back. She was born here, you know." + +"Oh, yes." + +He was silent again, and then hazarded a remark about Robert Louis +Stevenson. He asked me if I had been up to Vailima. For some reason he +was making an effort to be agreeable to me. He began to talk of +Stevenson's books, and presently the conversation drifted to London. + +"I suppose Covent Garden's still going strong," he said. "I think I miss +the opera as much as anything here. Have you seen _Tristan and Isolde_?" + +He asked me the question as though the answer were really important to +him, and when I said, a little casually I daresay, that I had, he seemed +pleased. He began to speak of Wagner, not as a musician, but as the +plain man who received from him an emotional satisfaction that he could +not analyse. + +"I suppose Bayreuth was the place to go really," he said. "I never had +the money, worse luck. But of course one might do worse than Covent +Garden, all the lights and the women dressed up to the nines, and the +music. The first act of the _Walküre's_ all right, isn't it? And the end +of _Tristan_. Golly!" + +His eyes were flashing now and his face was lit up so that he hardly +seemed the same man. There was a flush on his sallow, thin cheeks, and I +forgot that his voice was harsh and unpleasant. There was even a certain +charm about him. + +"By George, I'd like to be in London to-night. Do you know the Pall Mall +restaurant? I used to go there a lot. Piccadilly Circus with the shops +all lit up, and the crowd. I think it's stunning to stand there and +watch the buses and taxis streaming along as though they'd never stop. +And I like the Strand too. What are those lines about God and Charing +Cross?" + +I was taken aback. + +"Thompson's, d'you mean?" I asked. + +I quoted them. + + _"And when so sad, thou canst not sadder,_ + _Cry, and upon thy so sore loss_ + _Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder_ + _Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross."_ + +He gave a faint sigh. + +"I've read _The Hound of Heaven_. It's a bit of all right." + +"It's generally thought so," I murmured. + +"You don't meet anybody here who's read anything. They think it's +swank." + +There was a wistful look on his face, and I thought I divined the +feeling that made him come to me. I was a link with the world he +regretted and a life that he would know no more. Because not so very +long before I had been in the London which he loved, he looked upon me +with awe and envy. He had not spoken for five minutes perhaps when he +broke out with words that startled me by their intensity. + +"I'm fed up," he said. "I'm fed up." + +"Then why don't you clear out?" I asked. + +His face grew sullen. + +"My lungs are a bit dicky. I couldn't stand an English winter now." + +At that moment another man joined us on the verandah and Lawson sank +into a moody silence. + +"It's about time for a drain," said the new-comer. "Who'll have a drop +of Scotch with me? Lawson?" + +Lawson seemed to arise from a distant world. He got up. + +"Let's go down to the bar," he said. + +When he left me I remained with a more kindly feeling towards him than I +should have expected. He puzzled and interested me. And a few days later +I met his wife. I knew they had been married for five or six years, and +I was surprised to see that she was still extremely young. When he +married her she could not have been more than sixteen. She was adorably +pretty. She was no darker than a Spaniard, small and very beautifully +made, with tiny hands and feet, and a slight, lithe figure. Her features +were lovely; but I think what struck me most was the delicacy of her +appearance; the half-caste as a rule have a certain coarseness, they +seem a little roughly formed, but she had an exquisite daintiness which +took your breath away. There was something extremely civilised about +her, so that it surprised you to see her in those surroundings, and you +thought of those famous beauties who had set all the world talking at +the Court of the Emperor Napoleon III. Though she wore but a muslin +frock and a straw hat she wore them with an elegance that suggested the +woman of fashion. She must have been ravishing when Lawson first saw +her. + +He had but lately come out from England to manage the local branch of an +English bank, and, reaching Samoa at the beginning of the dry season, he +had taken a room at the hotel. He quickly made the acquaintance of all +and sundry. The life of the island is pleasant and easy. He enjoyed the +long idle talks in the lounge of the hotel and the gay evenings at the +English Club when a group of fellows would play pool. He liked Apia +straggling along the edge of the lagoon, with its stores and bungalows, +and its native village. Then there were week-ends when he would ride +over to the house of one planter or another and spend a couple of nights +on the hills. He had never before known freedom or leisure. And he was +intoxicated by the sunshine. When he rode through the bush his head +reeled a little at the beauty that surrounded him. The country was +indescribably fertile. In parts the forest was still virgin, a tangle of +strange trees, luxuriant undergrowth, and vine; it gave an impression +that was mysterious and troubling. + +But the spot that entranced him was a pool a mile or two away from Apia +to which in the evenings he often went to bathe. There was a little +river that bubbled over the rocks in a swift stream, and then, after +forming the deep pool, ran on, shallow and crystalline, past a ford made +by great stones where the natives came sometimes to bathe or to wash +their clothes. The coconut trees, with their frivolous elegance, grew +thickly on the banks, all clad with trailing plants, and they were +reflected in the green water. It was just such a scene as you might see +in Devonshire among the hills, and yet with a difference, for it had a +tropical richness, a passion, a scented languor which seemed to melt the +heart. The water was fresh, but not cold; and it was delicious after the +heat of the day. To bathe there refreshed not only the body but the +soul. + +At the hour when Lawson went, there was not a soul and he lingered for a +long time, now floating idly in the water, now drying himself in the +evening sun, enjoying the solitude and the friendly silence. He did not +regret London then, nor the life that he had abandoned, for life as it +was seemed complete and exquisite. + +It was here that he first saw Ethel. + +Occupied till late by letters which had to be finished for the monthly +sailing of the boat next day, he rode down one evening to the pool when +the light was almost failing. He tied up his horse and sauntered to the +bank. A girl was sitting there. She glanced round as he came and +noiselessly slid into the water. She vanished like a naiad startled by +the approach of a mortal. He was surprised and amused. He wondered where +she had hidden herself. He swam downstream and presently saw her sitting +on a rock. She looked at him with uncurious eyes. He called out a +greeting in Samoan. + +"_Talofa._" + +She answered him, suddenly smiling, and then let herself into the water +again. She swam easily and her hair spread out behind her. He watched +her cross the pool and climb out on the bank. Like all the natives she +bathed in a Mother Hubbard, and the water had made it cling to her +slight body. She wrung out her hair, and as she stood there, +unconcerned, she looked more than ever like a wild creature of the water +or the woods. He saw now that she was half-caste. He swam towards her +and, getting out, addressed her in English. + +"You're having a late swim." + +She shook back her hair and then let it spread over her shoulders in +luxuriant curls. + +"I like it when I'm alone," she said. + +"So do I." + +She laughed with the childlike frankness of the native. She slipped a +dry Mother Hubbard over her head and, letting down the wet one, stepped +out of it. She wrung it out and was ready to go. She paused a moment +irresolutely and then sauntered off. The night fell suddenly. + +Lawson went back to the hotel and, describing her to the men who were in +the lounge shaking dice for drinks, soon discovered who she was. Her +father was a Norwegian called Brevald who was often to be seen in the +bar of the Hotel Metropole drinking rum and water. He was a little old +man, knotted and gnarled like an ancient tree, who had come out to the +islands forty years before as mate of a sailing vessel. He had been a +blacksmith, a trader, a planter, and at one time fairly well-to-do; but, +ruined by the great hurricane of the nineties, he had now nothing to +live on but a small plantation of coconut trees. He had had four native +wives and, as he told you with a cracked chuckle, more children than he +could count. But some had died and some had gone out into the world, so +that now the only one left at home was Ethel. + +"She's a peach," said Nelson, the supercargo of the _Moana_. "I've given +her the glad eye once or twice, but I guess there's nothing doing." + +"Old Brevald's not that sort of a fool, sonny," put in another, a man +called Miller. "He wants a son-in-law who's prepared to keep him in +comfort for the rest of his life." + +It was distasteful to Lawson that they should speak of the girl in that +fashion. He made a remark about the departing mail and so distracted +their attention. But next evening he went again to the pool. Ethel was +there; and the mystery of the sunset, the deep silence of the water, the +lithe grace of the coconut trees, added to her beauty, giving it a +profundity, a magic, which stirred the heart to unknown emotions. For +some reason that time he had the whim not to speak to her. She took no +notice of him. She did not even glance in his direction. She swam about +the green pool. She dived, she rested on the bank, as though she were +quite alone: he had a queer feeling that he was invisible. Scraps of +poetry, half forgotten, floated across his memory, and vague +recollections of the Greece he had negligently studied in his school +days. When she had changed her wet clothes for dry ones and sauntered +away he found a scarlet hibiscus where she had been. It was a flower +that she had worn in her hair when she came to bathe and, having taken +it out on getting into the water, had forgotten or not cared to put in +again. He took it in his hands and looked at it with a singular emotion. +He had an instinct to keep it, but his sentimentality irritated him, and +he flung it away. It gave him quite a little pang to see it float down +the stream. + +He wondered what strangeness it was in her nature that urged her to go +down to this hidden pool when there was no likelihood that anyone +should be there. The natives of the islands are devoted to the water. +They bathe, somewhere or other, every day, once always, and often twice; +but they bathe in bands, laughing and joyous, a whole family together; +and you often saw a group of girls, dappled by the sun shining through +the trees, with the half-castes among them, splashing about the shallows +of the stream. It looked as though there were in this pool some secret +which attracted Ethel against her will. + +Now the night had fallen, mysterious and silent, and he let himself down +in the water softly, in order to make no sound, and swam lazily in the +warm darkness. The water seemed fragrant still from her slender body. He +rode back to the town under the starry sky. He felt at peace with the +world. + +Now he went every evening to the pool and every evening he saw Ethel. +Presently he overcame her timidity. She became playful and friendly. +They sat together on the rocks above the pool, where the water ran fast, +and they lay side by side on the ledge that overlooked it, watching the +gathering dusk envelop it with mystery. It was inevitable that their +meetings should become known--in the South Seas everyone seems to know +everyone's business--and he was subjected to much rude chaff by the men +at the hotel. He smiled and let them talk. It was not even worth while +to deny their coarse suggestions. His feelings were absolutely pure. He +loved Ethel as a poet might love the moon. He thought of her not as a +woman but as something not of this earth. She was the spirit of the +pool. + +One day at the hotel, passing through the bar, he saw that old Brevald, +as ever in his shabby blue overalls, was standing there. Because he was +Ethel's father he had a desire to speak to him, so he went in, nodded +and, ordering his own drink, casually turned and invited the old man to +have one with him. They chatted for a few minutes of local affairs, and +Lawson was uneasily conscious that the Norwegian was scrutinising him +with sly blue eyes. His manner was not agreeable. It was sycophantic, +and yet behind the cringing air of an old man who had been worsted in +his struggle with fate was a shadow of old truculence. Lawson remembered +that he had once been captain of a schooner engaged in the slave trade, +a blackbirder they call it in the Pacific, and he had a large hernia in +the chest which was the result of a wound received in a scrap with +Solomon Islanders. The bell rang for luncheon. + +"Well, I must be off," said Lawson. + +"Why don't you come along to my place one time?" said Brevald, in his +wheezy voice. "It's not very grand, but you'll be welcome. You know +Ethel." + +"I'll come with pleasure." + +"Sunday afternoon's the best time." + +Brevald's bungalow, shabby and bedraggled, stood among the coconut trees +of the plantation, a little away from the main road that ran up to +Vailima. Immediately around it grew huge plantains. With their tattered +leaves they had the tragic beauty of a lovely woman in rags. Everything +was slovenly and neglected. Little black pigs, thin and high-backed, +rooted about, and chickens clucked noisily as they picked at the refuse +scattered here and there. Three or four natives were lounging about the +verandah. When Lawson asked for Brevald the old man's cracked voice +called out to him, and he found him in the sitting-room smoking an old +briar pipe. + +"Sit down and make yerself at home," he said. "Ethel's just titivating." + +She came in. She wore a blouse and skirt and her hair was done in the +European fashion. Although she had not the wild, timid grace of the girl +who came down every evening to the pool, she seemed now more usual and +consequently more approachable. She shook hands with Lawson. It was the +first time he had touched her hand. + +"I hope you'll have a cup of tea with us," she said. + +He knew she had been at a mission school, and he was amused, and at the +same time touched, by the company manners she was putting on for his +benefit. Tea was already set out on the table and in a minute old +Brevald's fourth wife brought in the tea-pot. She was a handsome native, +no longer very young, and she spoke but a few words of English. She +smiled and smiled. Tea was rather a solemn meal, with a great deal of +bread and butter and a variety of very sweet cakes, and the conversation +was formal. Then a wrinkled old woman came in softly. + +"That's Ethel's granny," said old Brevald, noisily spitting on the +floor. + +She sat on the edge of a chair, uncomfortably, so that you saw it was +unusual for her and she would have been more at ease on the ground, and +remained silently staring at Lawson with fixed, shining eyes. In the +kitchen behind the bungalow someone began to play the concertina and two +or three voices were raised in a hymn. But they sang for the pleasure of +the sounds rather than from piety. + +When Lawson walked back to the hotel he was strangely happy. He was +touched by the higgledy-piggledy way in which those people lived; and in +the smiling good-nature of Mrs Brevald, in the little Norwegian's +fantastic career, and in the shining mysterious eyes of the old +grandmother, he found something unusual and fascinating. It was a more +natural life than any he had known, it was nearer to the friendly, +fertile earth; civilisation repelled him at that moment, and by mere +contact with these creatures of a more primitive nature he felt a +greater freedom. + +He saw himself rid of the hotel which already was beginning to irk him, +settled in a little bungalow of his own, trim and white, in front of the +sea so that he had before his eyes always the multicoloured variety of +the lagoon. He loved the beautiful island. London and England meant +nothing to him any more, he was content to spend the rest of his days in +that forgotten spot, rich in the best of the world's goods, love and +happiness. He made up his mind that whatever the obstacles nothing +should prevent him from marrying Ethel. + +But there were no obstacles. He was always welcome at the Brevalds' +house. The old man was ingratiating and Mrs Brevald smiled without +ceasing. He had brief glimpses of natives who seemed somehow to belong +to the establishment, and once he found a tall youth in a _lava-lava_, +his body tattooed, his hair white with lime, sitting with Brevald, and +was told he was Mrs Brevald's brother's son; but for the most part they +kept out of his way. Ethel was delightful with him. The light in her +eyes when she saw him filled him with ecstasy. She was charming and +naïve. He listened enraptured when she told him of the mission school at +which she was educated, and of the sisters. He went with her to the +cinema which was given once a fortnight and danced with her at the dance +which followed it. They came from all parts of the island for this, +since gaieties are few in Upolu; and you saw there all the society of +the place, the white ladies keeping a good deal to themselves, the +half-castes very elegant in American clothes, the natives, strings of +dark girls in white Mother Hubbards and young men in unaccustomed ducks +and white shoes. It was all very smart and gay. Ethel was pleased to +show her friends the white admirer who did not leave her side. The +rumour was soon spread that he meant to marry her and her friends looked +at her with envy. It was a great thing for a half-caste to get a white +man to marry her, even the less regular relation was better than +nothing, but one could never tell what it would lead to; and Lawson's +position as manager of the bank made him one of the catches of the +island. If he had not been so absorbed in Ethel he would have noticed +that many eyes were fixed on him curiously, and he would have seen the +glances of the white ladies and noticed how they put their heads +together and gossiped. + +Afterwards, when the men who lived at the hotel were having a whisky +before turning in, Nelson burst out with: + +"Say, they say Lawson's going to marry that girl." + +"He's a damned fool then," said Miller. + +Miller was a German-American who had changed his name from Müller, a big +man, fat and bald-headed, with a round, clean-shaven face. He wore large +gold-rimmed spectacles, which gave him a benign look, and his ducks were +always clean and white. He was a heavy drinker, invariably ready to stay +up all night with the "boys," but he never got drunk; he was jolly and +affable, but very shrewd. Nothing interfered with his business; he +represented a firm in San Francisco, jobbers of the goods sold in the +islands, calico, machinery and what not; and his good-fellowship was +part of his stock-in-trade. + +"He don't know what he's up against," said Nelson. "Someone ought to put +him wise." + +"If you'll take my advice you won't interfere in what don't concern +you," said Miller. "When a man's made up his mind to make a fool of +himself, there's nothing like letting him." + +"I'm all for having a good time with the girls out here, but when it +comes to marrying them--this child ain't taking any, I'll tell the +world." + +Chaplin was there, and now he had his say. + +"I've seen a lot of fellows do it, and it's no good." + +"You ought to have a talk with him, Chaplin," said Nelson. "You know him +better than anyone else does." + +"My advice to Chaplin is to leave it alone," said Miller. + +Even in those days Lawson was not popular and really no one took enough +interest in him to bother. Mrs Chaplin talked it over with two or three +of the white ladies, but they contented themselves with saying that it +was a pity; and when he told her definitely that he was going to be +married it seemed too late to do anything. + +For a year Lawson was happy. He took a bungalow at the point of the bay +round which Apia is built, on the borders of a native village. It +nestled charmingly among the coconut trees and faced the passionate blue +of the Pacific. Ethel was lovely as she went about the little house, +lithe and graceful like some young animal of the woods, and she was gay. +They laughed a great deal. They talked nonsense. Sometimes one or two of +the men at the hotel would come over and spend the evening, and often on +a Sunday they would go for a day to some planter who had married a +native; now and then one or other of the half-caste traders who had a +store in Apia would give a party and they went to it. The half-castes +treated Lawson quite differently now. His marriage had made him one of +themselves and they called him Bertie. They put their arms through his +and smacked him on the back. He liked to see Ethel at these gatherings. +Her eyes shone and she laughed. It did him good to see her radiant +happiness. Sometimes Ethel's relations would come to the bungalow, old +Brevald of course, and her mother, but cousins too, vague native women +in Mother Hubbards and men and boys in _lava-lavas_, with their hair +dyed red and their bodies elaborately tattooed. He would find them +sitting there when he got back from the bank. He laughed indulgently. + +"Don't let them eat us out of hearth and home," he said. + +"They're my own family. I can't help doing something for them when they +ask me." + +He knew that when a white man marries a native or a half-caste he must +expect her relations to look upon him as a gold mine. He took Ethel's +face in his hands and kissed her red lips. Perhaps he could not expect +her to understand that the salary which had amply sufficed for a +bachelor must be managed with some care when it had to support a wife +and a house. Then Ethel was delivered of a son. + +It was when Lawson first held the child in his arms that a sudden pang +shot through his heart. He had not expected it to be so dark. After all +it had but a fourth part of native blood, and there was no reason really +why it should not look just like an English baby; but, huddled together +in his arms, sallow, its head covered already with black hair, with huge +black eyes, it might have been a native child. Since his marriage he had +been ignored by the white ladies of the colony. When he came across men +in whose houses he had been accustomed to dine as a bachelor, they were +a little self-conscious with him; and they sought to cover their +embarrassment by an exaggerated cordiality. + +"Mrs Lawson well?" they would say. "You're a lucky fellow. Damned pretty +girl." + +But if they were with their wives and met him and Ethel they would feel +it awkward when their wives gave Ethel a patronising nod. Lawson had +laughed. + +"They're as dull as ditchwater, the whole gang of them," he said. "It's +not going to disturb my night's rest if they don't ask me to their dirty +parties." + +But now it irked him a little. + +The little dark baby screwed up its face. That was his son. He thought +of the half-caste children in Apia. They had an unhealthy look, sallow +and pale, and they were odiously precocious. He had seen them on the +boat going to school in New Zealand, and a school had to be chosen which +took children with native blood in them; they were huddled together, +brazen and yet timid, with traits which set them apart strangely from +white people. They spoke the native language among themselves. And when +they grew up the men accepted smaller salaries because of their native +blood; girls might marry a white man, but boys had no chance; they must +marry a half-caste like themselves or a native. Lawson made up his mind +passionately that he would take his son away from the humiliation of +such a life. At whatever cost he must get back to Europe. And when he +went in to see Ethel, frail and lovely in her bed, surrounded by native +women, his determination was strengthened. If he took her away among his +own people she would belong more completely to him. He loved her so +passionately, he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he +was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the +native life, she would always keep something from him. + +He went to work quietly, urged by an obscure instinct of secrecy, and +wrote to a cousin who was partner in a shipping firm in Aberdeen, saying +that his health (on account of which like so many more he had come out +to the islands) was so much better, there seemed no reason why he should +not return to Europe. He asked him to use what influence he could to get +him a job, no matter how poorly paid, on Deeside, where the climate was +particularly suitable to such as suffered from diseases of the lungs. It +takes five or six weeks for letters to get from Aberdeen to Samoa, and +several had to be exchanged. He had plenty of time to prepare Ethel. She +was as delighted as a child. He was amused to see how she boasted to her +friends that she was going to England; it was a step up for her; she +would be quite English there; and she was excited at the interest the +approaching departure gave her. When at length a cable came offering him +a post in a bank in Kincardineshire she was beside herself with joy. + +When, their long journey over, they were settled in the little Scots +town with its granite houses Lawson realised how much it meant to him to +live once more among his own people. He looked back on the three years +he had spent in Apia as exile, and returned to the life that seemed the +only normal one with a sigh of relief. It was good to play golf once +more, and to fish--to fish properly, that was poor fun in the Pacific +when you just threw in your line and pulled out one big sluggish fish +after another from the crowded sea--and it was good to see a paper every +day with that day's news, and to meet men and women of your own sort, +people you could talk to; and it was good to eat meat that was not +frozen and to drink milk that was not canned. They were thrown upon +their own resources much more than in the Pacific, and he was glad to +have Ethel exclusively to himself. After two years of marriage he loved +her more devotedly than ever, he could hardly bear her out of his sight, +and the need in him grew urgent for a more intimate communion between +them. But it was strange that after the first excitement of arrival she +seemed to take less interest in the new life than he had expected. She +did not accustom herself to her surroundings. She was a little +lethargic. As the fine autumn darkened into winter she complained of the +cold. She lay half the morning in bed and the rest of the day on a sofa, +reading novels sometimes, but more often doing nothing. She looked +pinched. + +"Never mind, darling," he said. "You'll get used to it very soon. And +wait till the summer comes. It can be almost as hot as in Apia." + +He felt better and stronger than he had done for years. + +The carelessness with which she managed her house had not mattered in +Samoa, but here it was out of place. When anyone came he did not want +the place to look untidy; and, laughing, chaffing Ethel a little, he set +about putting things in order. Ethel watched him indolently. She spent +long hours playing with her son. She talked to him in the baby language +of her own country. To distract her, Lawson bestirred himself to make +friends among the neighbours, and now and then they went to little +parties where the ladies sang drawing-room ballads and the men beamed in +silent good nature. Ethel was shy. She seemed to sit apart. Sometimes +Lawson, seized with a sudden anxiety, would ask her if she was happy. + +"Yes, I'm quite happy," she answered. + +But her eyes were veiled by some thought he could not guess. She seemed +to withdraw into herself so that he was conscious that he knew no more +of her than when he had first seen her bathing in the pool. He had an +uneasy feeling that she was concealing something from him, and because +he adored her it tortured him. + +"You don't regret Apia, do you?" he asked her once. + +"Oh, no--I think it's very nice here." + +An obscure misgiving drove him to make disparaging remarks about the +island and the people there. She smiled and did not answer. Very rarely +she received a bundle of letters from Samoa and then she went about for +a day or two with a set, pale face. + +"Nothing would induce me ever to go back there," he said once. "It's no +place for a white man." + +But he grew conscious that sometimes, when he was away, Ethel cried. In +Apia she had been talkative, chatting volubly about all the little +details of their common life, the gossip of the place; but now she +gradually became silent, and, though he increased his efforts to amuse +her, she remained listless. It seemed to him that her recollections of +the old life were drawing her away from him, and he was madly jealous of +the island and of the sea, of Brevald, and all the dark-skinned people +whom he remembered now with horror. When she spoke of Samoa he was +bitter and satirical. One evening late in the spring when the birch +trees were bursting into leaf, coming home from a round of golf, he +found her not as usual lying on the sofa, but at the window, standing. +She had evidently been waiting for his return. She addressed him the +moment he came into the room. To his amazement she spoke in Samoan. + +"I can't stand it. I can't live here any more. I hate it. I hate it." + +"For God's sake speak in a civilised language," he said irritably. + +She went up to him and clasped her arms around his body awkwardly, with +a gesture that had in it something barbaric. + +"Let's go away from here. Let's go back to Samoa. If you make me stay +here I shall die. I want to go home." + +Her passion broke suddenly and she burst into tears. His anger vanished +and he drew her down on his knees. He explained to her that it was +impossible for him to throw up his job, which after all meant his bread +and butter. His place in Apia was long since filled. He had nothing to +go back to there. He tried to put it to her reasonably, the +inconveniences of life there, the humiliation to which they must be +exposed, and the bitterness it must cause their son. + +"Scotland's wonderful for education and that sort of thing. Schools are +good and cheap, and he can go to the University at Aberdeen. I'll make a +real Scot of him." + +They had called him Andrew. Lawson wanted him to become a doctor. He +would marry a white woman. + +"I'm not ashamed of being half native," Ethel said sullenly. + +"Of course not, darling. There's nothing to be ashamed of." + +With her soft cheek against his he felt incredibly weak. + +"You don't know how much I love you," he said. "I'd give anything in the +world to be able to tell you what I've got in my heart." + +He sought her lips. + +The summer came. The highland valley was green and fragrant, and the +hills were gay with the heather. One sunny day followed another in that +sheltered spot, and the shade of the birch trees was grateful after the +glare of the high road. Ethel spoke no more of Samoa and Lawson grew +less nervous. He thought that she was resigned to her surroundings, and +he felt that his love for her was so passionate that it could leave no +room in her heart for any longing. One day the local doctor stopped him +in the street. + +"I say, Lawson, your missus ought to be careful how she bathes in our +highland streams. It's not like the Pacific, you know." + +Lawson was surprised, and had not the presence of mind to conceal the +fact. + +"I didn't know she was bathing." + +The doctor laughed. + +"A good many people have seen her. It makes them talk a bit, you know, +because it seems a rum place to choose, the pool up above the bridge, +and bathing isn't allowed there, but there's no harm in that. I don't +know how she can stand the water." + +Lawson knew the pool the doctor spoke of, and suddenly it occurred to +him that in a way it was just like that pool at Upolu where Ethel had +been in the habit of bathing every evening. A clear highland stream ran +down a sinuous course, rocky, splashing gaily, and then formed a deep, +smooth pool, with a little sandy beach. Trees overshadowed it thickly, +not coconut trees, but beeches, and the sun played fitfully through the +leaves on the sparkling water. It gave him a shock. With his imagination +he saw Ethel go there every day and undress on the bank and slip into +the water, cold, colder than that of the pool she loved at home, and for +a moment regain the feeling of the past. He saw her once more as the +strange, wild spirit of the stream, and it seemed to him fantastically +that the running water called her. That afternoon he went along to the +river. He made his way cautiously among the trees and the grassy path +deadened the sound of his steps. Presently he came to a spot from which +he could see the pool. Ethel was sitting on the bank, looking down at +the water. She sat quite still. It seemed as though the water drew her +irresistibly. He wondered what strange thoughts wandered through her +head. At last she got up, and for a minute or two she was hidden from +his gaze; then he saw her again, wearing a Mother Hubbard, and with her +little bare feet she stepped delicately over the mossy bank. She came to +the water's edge, and softly, without a splash, let herself down. She +swam about quietly, and there was something not quite of a human being +in the way she swam. He did not know why it affected him so queerly. He +waited till she clambered out. She stood for a moment with the wet folds +of her dress clinging to her body, so that its shape was outlined, and +then, passing her hands slowly over her breasts, gave a little sigh of +delight. Then she disappeared. Lawson turned away and walked back to the +village. He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was +still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain +unsatisfied. + +He did not make any mention of what he had seen. He ignored the incident +completely, but he looked at her curiously, trying to divine what was in +her mind. He redoubled the tenderness with which he used her. He sought +to make her forget the deep longing of her soul by the passion of his +love. + +Then one day, when he came home, he was astonished to find her not in +the house. + +"Where's Mrs Lawson?" he asked the maid. + +"She went into Aberdeen, Sir, with the baby," the maid answered, a +little surprised at the question. "She said she would not be back till +the last train." + +"Oh, all right." + +He was vexed that Ethel had said nothing to him about the excursion, but +he was not disturbed, since of late she had been in now and again to +Aberdeen, and he was glad that she should look at the shops and perhaps +visit a cinema. He went to meet the last train, but when she did not +come he grew suddenly frightened. He went up to the bedroom and saw at +once that her toilet things were no longer in their place. He opened the +wardrobe and the drawers. They were half empty. She had bolted. + +He was seized with a passion of anger. It was too late that night to +telephone to Aberdeen and make enquiries, but he knew already all that +his enquiries might have taught him. With fiendish cunning she had +chosen a time when they were making up their periodical accounts at the +bank and there was no chance that he could follow her. He was imprisoned +by his work. He took up a paper and saw that there was a boat sailing +for Australia next morning. She must be now well on the way to London. +He could not prevent the sobs that were wrung painfully from him. + +"I've done everything in the world for her," he cried, "and she had the +heart to treat me like this. How cruel, how monstrously cruel!" + +After two days of misery he received a letter from her. It was written +in her school-girl hand. She had always written with difficulty: + +_Dear Bertie:_ + _I couldn't stand it any more._ + _I'm going back home. Good-bye._ + + _Ethel._ + +She did not say a single word of regret. She did not even ask him to +come too. Lawson was prostrated. He found out where the ship made its +first stop and, though he knew very well she would not come, sent a +cable beseeching her to return. He waited with pitiful anxiety. He +wanted her to send him just one word of love; she did not even answer. +He passed through one violent phase after another. At one moment he told +himself that he was well rid of her, and at the next that he would force +her to return by withholding money. He was lonely and wretched. He +wanted his boy and he wanted her. He knew that, whatever he pretended to +himself, there was only one thing to do and that was to follow her. He +could never live without her now. All his plans for the future were like +a house of cards and he scattered them with angry impatience. He did not +care whether he threw away his chances for the future, for nothing in +the world mattered but that he should get Ethel back again. As soon as +he could he went into Aberdeen and told the manager of his bank that he +meant to leave at once. The manager remonstrated. The short notice was +inconvenient. Lawson would not listen to reason. He was determined to be +free before the next boat sailed; and it was not until he was on board +of her, having sold everything he possessed, that in some measure he +regained his calm. Till then to those who had come in contact with him +he seemed hardly sane. His last action in England was to cable to Ethel +at Apia that he was joining her. + +He sent another cable from Sydney, and when at last with the dawn his +boat crossed the bar at Apia and he saw once more the white houses +straggling along the bay he felt an immense relief. The doctor came on +board and the agent. They were both old acquaintances and he felt kindly +towards their familiar faces. He had a drink or two with them for old +times' sake, and also because he was desperately nervous. He was not +sure if Ethel would be glad to see him. When he got into the launch and +approached the wharf he scanned anxiously the little crowd that waited. +She was not there and his heart sank, but then he saw Brevald, in his +old blue clothes, and his heart warmed towards him. + +"Where's Ethel?" he said, as he jumped on shore. + +"She's down at the bungalow. She's living with us." + +Lawson was dismayed, but he put on a jovial air. + +"Well, have you got room for me? I daresay it'll take a week or two to +fix ourselves up." + +"Oh, yes, I guess we can make room for you." + +After passing through the custom-house they went to the hotel and there +Lawson was greeted by several of his old friends. There were a good many +rounds of drinks before it seemed possible to get away and when they did +go out at last to Brevald's house they were both rather gay. He clasped +Ethel in his arms. He had forgotten all his bitter thoughts in the joy +of beholding her once more. His mother-in-law was pleased to see him, +and so was the old, wrinkled beldame, her mother; natives and +half-castes came in, and they all sat round, beaming on him. Brevald had +a bottle of whisky and everyone who came was given a nip. Lawson sat +with his little dark-skinned boy on his knees, they had taken his +English clothes off him and he was stark, with Ethel by his side in a +Mother Hubbard. He felt like a returning prodigal. In the afternoon he +went down to the hotel again and when he got back he was more than gay, +he was drunk. Ethel and her mother knew that white men got drunk now and +then, it was what you expected of them, and they laughed good-naturedly +as they helped him to bed. + +But in a day or two he set about looking for a job. He knew that he +could not hope for such a position as that which he had thrown away to +go to England; but with his training he could not fail to be useful to +one of the trading firms, and perhaps in the end he would not lose by +the change. + +"After all, you can't make money in a bank," he said. "Trade's the +thing." + +He had hopes that he would soon make himself so indispensable that he +would get someone to take him into partnership, and there was no reason +why in a few years he should not be a rich man. + +"As soon as I'm fixed up we'll find ourselves a shack," he told Ethel. +"We can't go on living here." + +Brevald's bungalow was so small that they were all piled on one another, +and there was no chance of ever being alone. There was neither peace nor +privacy. + +"Well, there's no hurry. We shall be all right here till we find just +what we want." + +It took him a week to get settled and then he entered the firm of a man +called Bain. But when he talked to Ethel about moving she said she +wanted to stay where she was till her baby was born, for she was +expecting another child. Lawson tried to argue with her. + +"If you don't like it," she said, "go and live at the hotel." + +He grew suddenly pale. + +"Ethel, how can you suggest that!" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"What's the good of having a house of our own when we can live here." + +He yielded. + +When Lawson, after his work, went back to the bungalow he found it +crowded with natives. They lay about smoking, sleeping, drinking _kava_; +and they talked incessantly. The place was grubby and untidy. His child +crawled about, playing with native children, and it heard nothing spoken +but Samoan. He fell into the habit of dropping into the hotel on his +way home to have a few cocktails, for he could only face the evening and +the crowd of friendly natives when he was fortified with liquor. And all +the time, though he loved her more passionately than ever, he felt that +Ethel was slipping away from him. When the baby was born he suggested +that they should get into a house of their own, but Ethel refused. Her +stay in Scotland seemed to have thrown her back on her own people, now +that she was once more among them, with a passionate zest, and she +turned to her native ways with abandon. Lawson began to drink more. +Every Saturday night he went to the English Club and got blind drunk. + +He had the peculiarity that as he grew drunk he grew quarrelsome and +once he had a violent dispute with Bain, his employer. Bain dismissed +him, and he had to look out for another job. He was idle for two or +three weeks and during these, sooner than sit in the bungalow, he +lounged about in the hotel or at the English Club, and drank. It was +more out of pity than anything else that Miller, the German-American, +took him into his office; but he was a business man, and though Lawson's +financial skill made him valuable, the circumstances were such that he +could hardly refuse a smaller salary than he had had before, and Miller +did not hesitate to offer it to him. Ethel and Brevald blamed him for +taking it, since Pedersen, the half-caste, offered him more. But he +resented bitterly the thought of being under the orders of a half-caste. +When Ethel nagged him he burst out furiously: + +"I'll see myself dead before I work for a nigger." + +"You may have to," she said. + +And in six months he found himself forced to this final humiliation. The +passion for liquor had been gaining on him, he was often heavy with +drink, and he did his work badly. Miller warned him once or twice and +Lawson was not the man to accept remonstrance easily. One day in the +midst of an altercation he put on his hat and walked out. But by now his +reputation was well known and he could find no one to engage him. For a +while he idled, and then he had an attack of _delirium tremens_. When he +recovered, shameful and weak, he could no longer resist the constant +pressure and he went to Pedersen and asked him for a job. Pedersen was +glad to have a white man in his store and Lawson's skill at figures made +him useful. + +From that time his degeneration was rapid. The white people gave him the +cold shoulder. They were only prevented from cutting him completely by +disdainful pity and by a certain dread of his angry violence when he was +drunk. He became extremely susceptible and was always on the lookout for +affront. + +He lived entirely among the natives and half-castes, but he had no +longer the prestige of the white man. They felt his loathing for them +and they resented his attitude of superiority. He was one of themselves +now and they did not see why he should put on airs. Brevald, who had +been ingratiating and obsequious, now treated him with contempt. Ethel +had made a bad bargain. There were disgraceful scenes and once or twice +the two men came to blows. When there was a quarrel Ethel took the part +of her family. They found he was better drunk than sober, for when he +was drunk he would lie on the bed or on the floor, sleeping heavily. + +Then he became aware that something was being hidden from him. + +When he got back to the bungalow for the wretched, half native supper +which was his evening meal, often Ethel was not in. If he asked where +she was Brevald told him she had gone to spend the evening with one or +other of her friends. Once he followed her to the house Brevald had +mentioned and found she was not there. On her return he asked her where +she had been and she told him her father had made a mistake; she had +been to so-and-so's. But he knew that she was lying. She was in her best +clothes; her eyes were shining, and she looked lovely. + +"Don't try any monkey tricks on me, my girl," he said, "or I'll break +every bone in your body." + +"You drunken beast," she said, scornfully. + +He fancied that Mrs Brevald and the old grandmother looked at him +maliciously and he ascribed Brevald's good-humour with him, so unusual +those days, to his satisfaction at having something up his sleeve +against his son-in-law. And then, his suspicions aroused, he imagined +that the white men gave him curious glances. When he came into the +lounge of the hotel the sudden silence which fell upon the company +convinced him that he had been the subject of the conversation. +Something was going on and everyone knew it but himself. He was seized +with furious jealousy. He believed that Ethel was carrying on with one +of the white men, and he looked at one after the other with scrutinising +eyes; but there was nothing to give him even a hint. He was helpless. +Because he could find no one on whom definitely to fix his suspicions, +he went about like a raving maniac, looking for someone on whom to vent +his wrath. Chance caused him in the end to hit upon the man who of all +others least deserved to suffer from his violence. One afternoon, when +he was sitting in the hotel by himself, moodily, Chaplin came in and sat +down beside him. Perhaps Chaplin was the only man on the island who had +any sympathy for him. They ordered drinks and chatted a few minutes +about the races that were shortly to be run. Then Chaplain said: + +"I guess we shall all have to fork out money for new dresses." + +Lawson sniggered. Since Mrs Chaplin held the purse-strings if she wanted +a new frock for the occasion she would certainly not ask her husband for +the money. + +"How is your missus?" asked Chaplin, desiring to be friendly. + +"What the hell's that got to do with you?" said Lawson, knitting his +dark brows. + +"I was only asking a civil question." + +"Well, keep your civil questions to yourself." + +Chaplin was not a patient man; his long residence in the tropics, the +whisky bottle, and his domestic affairs had given him a temper hardly +more under control than Lawson's. + +"Look here, my boy, when you're in my hotel you behave like a gentleman +or you'll find yourself in the street before you can say knife." + +Lawson's lowering face grew dark and red. + +"Let me just tell you once for all and you can pass it on to the +others," he said, panting with rage. "If any of you fellows come messing +round with my wife he'd better look out." + +"Who do you think wants to mess around with your wife?" + +"I'm not such a fool as you think. I can see a stone wall in front of me +as well as most men, and I warn you straight, that's all. I'm not going +to put up with any hanky-panky, not on your life." + +"Look here, you'd better clear out of here, and come back when you're +sober." + +"I shall clear out when I choose and not a minute before," said Lawson. + +It was an unfortunate boast, for Chaplin in the course of his experience +as a hotel-keeper had acquired a peculiar skill in dealing with +gentlemen whose room he preferred to their company, and the words were +hardly out of Lawson's mouth before he found himself caught by the +collar and arm and hustled not without force into the street. He +stumbled down the steps into the blinding glare of the sun. + +It was in consequence of this that he had his first violent scene with +Ethel. Smarting with humiliation and unwilling to go back to the hotel, +he went home that afternoon earlier than usual. He found Ethel dressing +to go out. As a rule she lay about in a Mother Hubbard, barefoot, with +a flower in her dark hair; but now, in white silk stockings and +high-heeled shoes, she was doing up a pink muslin dress which was the +newest she had. + +"You're making yourself very smart," he said. "Where are you going?" + +"I'm going to the Crossleys." + +"I'll come with you." + +"Why?" she asked coolly. + +"I don't want you to gad about by yourself all the time." + +"You're not asked." + +"I don't care a damn about that. You're not going without me." + +"You'd better lie down till I'm ready." + +She thought he was drunk and if he once settled himself on the bed would +quickly drop off to sleep. He sat down on a chair and began to smoke a +cigarette. She watched him with increasing irritation: When she was +ready he got up. It happened by an unusual chance that there was no one +in the bungalow. Brevald was working on the plantation and his wife had +gone into Apia. Ethel faced him. + +"I'm not going with you. You're drunk." + +"That's a lie. You're not going without me." + +She shrugged her shoulders and tried to pass him, but he caught her by +the arm and held her. + +"Let me go, you devil," she said, breaking into Samoan. + +"Why do you want to go without me? Haven't I told you I'm not going to +put up with any monkey tricks?" + +She clenched her fist and hit him in the face. He lost all control of +himself. All his love, all his hatred, welled up in him and he was +beside himself. + +"I'll teach you," he shouted. "I'll teach you." + +He seized a riding-whip which happened to be under his hand, and struck +her with it. She screamed, and the scream maddened him so that he went +on striking her, again and again. Her shrieks rang through the bungalow +and he cursed her as he hit. Then he flung her on the bed. She lay there +sobbing with pain and terror. He threw the whip away from him and rushed +out of the room. Ethel heard him go and she stopped crying. She looked +round cautiously, then she raised herself. She was sore, but she had not +been badly hurt, and she looked at her dress to see if it was damaged. +The native women are not unused to blows. What he had done did not +outrage her. When she looked at herself in the glass and arranged her +hair, her eyes were shining. There was a strange look in them. Perhaps +then she was nearer loving him than she had ever been before. + +But Lawson, driven forth blindly, stumbled through the plantation and +suddenly exhausted, weak as a child, flung himself on the ground at the +foot of a tree. He was miserable and ashamed. He thought of Ethel, and +in the yielding tenderness of his love all his bones seemed to grow soft +within him. He thought of the past, and of his hopes, and he was aghast +at what he had done. He wanted her more than ever. He wanted to take her +in his arms. He must go to her at once. He got up. He was so weak that +he staggered as he walked. He went into the house and she was sitting in +their cramped bedroom in front of her looking-glass. + +"Oh, Ethel, forgive me. I'm so awfully ashamed of myself. I didn't know +what I was doing." + +He fell on his knees before her and timidly stroked the skirt of her +dress. + +"I can't bear to think of what I did. It's awful. I think I was mad. +There's no one in the world I love as I love you. I'd do anything to +save you from pain and I've hurt you. I can never forgive myself, but +for God's sake say you forgive me." + +He heard her shrieks still. It was unendurable. She looked at him +silently. He tried to take her hands and the tears streamed from his +eyes. In his humiliation he hid his face in her lap and his frail body +shook with sobs. An expression of utter contempt came over her face. She +had the native woman's disdain of a man who abased himself before a +woman. A weak creature! And for a moment she had been on the point of +thinking there was something in him. He grovelled at her feet like a +cur. She gave him a little scornful kick. + +"Get out," she said. "I hate you." + +He tried to hold her, but she pushed him aside. She stood up. She began +to take off her dress. She kicked off her shoes and slid the stockings +off her feet, then she slipped on her old Mother Hubbard. + +"Where are you going?" + +"What's that got to do with you? I'm going down to the pool." + +"Let me come too," he said. + +He asked as though he were a child. + +"Can't you even leave me that?" + +He hid his face in his hands, crying miserably, while she, her eyes hard +and cold, stepped past him and went out. + +From that time she entirely despised him; and though, herded together in +the small bungalow, Lawson and Ethel with her two children, Brevald, his +wife and her mother, and the vague relations and hangers-on who were +always in and about, they had to live cheek by jowl, Lawson, ceasing to +be of any account, was hardly noticed. He left in the morning after +breakfast, and came back only to have supper. He gave up the struggle, +and when for want of money he could not go to the English Club he spent +the evening playing hearts with old Brevald and the natives. Except when +he was drunk he was cowed and listless. Ethel treated him like a dog. +She submitted at times to his fits of wild passion, and she was +frightened by the gusts of hatred with which they were followed; but +when, afterwards, he was cringing and lachrymose she had such a contempt +for him that she could have spat in his face. Sometimes he was violent, +but now she was prepared for him, and when he hit her she kicked and +scratched and bit. They had horrible battles in which he had not always +the best of it. Very soon it was known all over Apia that they got on +badly. There was little sympathy for Lawson, and at the hotel the +general surprise was that old Brevald did not kick him out of the +place. + +"Brevald's a pretty ugly customer," said one of the men. "I shouldn't be +surprised if he put a bullet into Lawson's carcass one of these days." + +Ethel still went in the evenings to bathe in the silent pool. It seemed +to have an attraction for her that was not quite human, just that +attraction you might imagine that a mermaid who had won a soul would +have for the cool salt waves of the sea; and sometimes Lawson went also. +I do not know what urged him to go, for Ethel was obviously irritated by +his presence; perhaps it was because in that spot he hoped to regain the +clean rapture which had filled his heart when first he saw her; perhaps +only, with the madness of those who love them that love them not, from +the feeling that his obstinacy could force love. One day he strolled +down there with a feeling that was rare with him now. He felt suddenly +at peace with the world. The evening was drawing in and the dusk seemed +to cling to the leaves of the coconut trees like a little thin cloud. A +faint breeze stirred them noiselessly. A crescent moon hung just over +their tops. He made his way to the bank. He saw Ethel in the water +floating on her back. Her hair streamed out all round her, and she was +holding in her hand a large hibiscus. He stopped a moment to admire her; +she was like Ophelia. + +"Hulloa, Ethel," he cried joyfully. + +She made a sudden movement and dropped the red flower. It floated idly +away. She swam a stroke or two till she knew there was ground within her +depth and then stood up. + +"Go away," she said. "Go away." + +He laughed. + +"Don't be selfish. There's plenty of room for both of us." + +"Why can't you leave me alone? I want to be by myself." + +"Hang it all, I want to bathe," he answered, good-humouredly. + +"Go down to the bridge. I don't want you here." + +"I'm sorry for that," he said, smiling still. + +He was not in the least angry, and he hardly noticed that she was in a +passion. He began to take off his coat. + +"Go away," she shrieked. "I won't have you here. Can't you even leave me +this? Go away." + +"Don't be silly, darling." + +She bent down and picked up a sharp stone and flung it quickly at him. +He had no time to duck. It hit him on the temple. With a cry he put his +hand to his head and when he took it away it was wet with blood. Ethel +stood still, panting with rage. He turned very pale, and without a word, +taking up his coat, went away. Ethel let herself fall back into the +water and the stream carried her slowly down to the ford. + +The stone had made a jagged wound and for some days Lawson went about +with a bandaged head. He had invented a likely story to account for the +accident when the fellows at the club asked him about it, but he had no +occasion to use it. No one referred to the matter. He saw them cast +surreptitious glances at his head, but not a word was said. The silence +could only mean that they knew how he came by his wound. He was certain +now that Ethel had a lover, and they all knew who it was. But there was +not the smallest indication to guide him. He never saw Ethel with +anyone; no one showed a wish to be with her, or treated him in a manner +that seemed strange. Wild rage seized him, and having no one to vent it +on he drank more and more heavily. A little while before I came to the +island he had had another attack of _delirium tremens_. + +I met Ethel at the house of a man called Caster, who lived two or three +miles from Apia with a native wife. I had been playing tennis with him +and when we were tired he suggested a cup of tea. We went into the house +and in the untidy living-room found Ethel chatting with Mrs Caster. + +"Hulloa, Ethel," he said, "I didn't know you were here." + +I could not help looking at her with curiosity. I tried to see what +there was in her to have excited in Lawson such a devastating passion. +But who can explain these things? It was true that she was lovely; she +reminded one of the red hibiscus, the common flower of the hedgerow in +Samoa, with its grace and its languor and its passion; but what +surprised me most, taking into consideration the story I knew even then +a good deal of, was her freshness and simplicity. She was quiet and a +little shy. There was nothing coarse or loud about her; she had not the +exuberance common to the half-caste; and it was almost impossible to +believe that she could be the virago that the horrible scenes between +husband and wife, which were now common knowledge, indicated. In her +pretty pink frock and high-heeled shoes she looked quite European. You +could hardly have guessed at that dark background of native life in +which she felt herself so much more at home. I did not imagine that she +was at all intelligent, and I should not have been surprised if a man, +after living with her for some time, had found the passion which had +drawn him to her sink into boredom. It suggested itself to me that in +her elusiveness, like a thought that presents itself to consciousness +and vanishes before it can be captured by words, lay her peculiar charm; +but perhaps that was merely fancy, and if I had known nothing about her +I should have seen in her only a pretty little half-caste like another. + +She talked to me of the various things which they talk of to the +stranger in Samoa, of the journey, and whether I had slid down the water +rock at Papaseea, and if I meant to stay in a native village. She talked +to me of Scotland, and perhaps I noticed in her a tendency to enlarge on +the sumptuousness of her establishment there. She asked me naïvely if I +knew Mrs This and Mrs That, with whom she had been acquainted when she +lived in the north. + +Then Miller, the fat German-American, came in. He shook hands all round +very cordially and sat down, asking in his loud, cheerful voice for a +whisky and soda. He was very fat and he sweated profusely. He took off +his gold-rimmed spectacles and wiped them; you saw then that his little +eyes, benevolent behind the large round glasses, were shrewd and +cunning; the party had been somewhat dull till he came, but he was a +good story-teller and a jovial fellow. Soon he had the two women, Ethel +and my friend's wife, laughing delightedly at his sallies. He had a +reputation on the island of a lady's man, and you could see how this +fat, gross fellow, old and ugly, had yet the possibility of fascination. +His humour was on a level with the understanding of his company, an +affair of vitality and assurance, and his Western accent gave a peculiar +point to what he said. At last he turned to me: + +"Well, if we want to get back for dinner we'd better be getting. I'll +take you along in my machine if you like." + +I thanked him and got up. He shook hands with the others, went out of +the room, massive and strong in his walk, and climbed into his car. + +"Pretty little thing, Lawson's wife," I said, as we drove along. + +"Too bad the way he treats her. Knocks her about. Gets my dander up when +I hear of a man hitting a woman." + +We went on a little. Then he said: + +"He was a darned fool to marry her. I said so at the time. If he hadn't, +he'd have had the whip hand over her. He's yaller, that's what he is, +yaller." + +The year was drawing to its end and the time approached when I was to +leave Samoa. My boat was scheduled to sail for Sydney on the fourth of +January. Christmas Day had been celebrated at the hotel with suitable +ceremonies, but it was looked upon as no more than a rehearsal for New +Year, and the men who were accustomed to foregather in the lounge +determined on New Year's Eve to make a night of it. There was an +uproarious dinner, after which the party sauntered down to the English +Club, a simple little frame house, to play pool. There was a great deal +of talking, laughing, and betting, but some very poor play, except on +the part of Miller, who had drunk as much as any of them, all far +younger than he, but had kept unimpaired the keenness of his eye and the +sureness of his hand. He pocketed the young men's money with humour and +urbanity. After an hour of this I grew tired and went out. I crossed the +road and came on to the beach. Three coconut trees grew there, like +three moon maidens waiting for their lovers to ride out of the sea, and +I sat at the foot of one of them, watching the lagoon and the nightly +assemblage of the stars. + +I do not know where Lawson had been during the evening, but between ten +and eleven he came along to the club. He shambled down the dusty, empty +road, feeling dull and bored, and when he reached the club, before going +into the billiard-room, went into the bar to have a drink by himself. He +had a shyness now about joining the company of white men when there were +a lot of them together and needed a stiff dose of whisky to give him +confidence. He was standing with the glass in his hand when Miller came +in to him. He was in his shirt sleeves and still held his cue. He gave +the bar-tender a glance. + +"Get out, Jack," he said. + +The bar-tender, a native in a white jacket and a red _lava-lava_, +without a word slid out of the small room. + +"Look here, I've been wanting to have a few words with you, Lawson," +said the big American. + +"Well, that's one of the few things you can have free, gratis, and for +nothing on this damned island." + +Miller fixed his gold spectacles more firmly on his nose and held Lawson +with his cold determined eyes. + +"See here, young fellow, I understand you've been knocking Mrs Lawson +about again. I'm not going to stand for that. If you don't stop it right +now I'll break every bone of your dirty little body." + +Then Lawson knew what he had been trying to find out so long. It was +Miller. The appearance of the man, fat, bald-headed, with his round bare +face and double chin and the gold spectacles, his age, his benign, +shrewd look, like that of a renegade priest, and the thought of Ethel, +so slim and virginal, filled him with a sudden horror. Whatever his +faults Lawson was no coward, and without a word he hit out violently at +Miller. Miller quickly warded the blow with the hand that held the cue, +and then with a great swing of his right arm brought his fist down on +Lawson's ear. Lawson was four inches shorter than the American and he +was slightly built, frail and weakened not only by illness and the +enervating tropics, but by drink. He fell like a log and lay half dazed +at the foot of the bar. Miller took off his spectacles and wiped them +with his handkerchief. + +"I guess you know what to expect now. You've had your warning and you'd +better take it." + +He took up his cue and went back into the billiard-room. There was so +much noise there that no one knew what had happened. Lawson picked +himself up. He put his hand to his ear, which was singing still. Then he +slunk out of the club. + +I saw a man cross the road, a patch of white against the darkness of the +night, but did not know who it was. He came down to the beach, passed me +sitting at the foot of the tree, and looked down. I saw then that it was +Lawson, but since he was doubtless drunk, did not speak. He went on, +walked irresolutely two or three steps, and turned back. He came up to +me and bending down stared in my face. + +"I thought it was you," he said. + +He sat down and took out his pipe. + +"It was hot and noisy in the club," I volunteered. + +"Why are you sitting here?" + +"I was waiting about for the midnight mass at the Cathedral." + +"If you like I'll come with you." + +Lawson was quite sober. We sat for a while smoking in silence. Now and +then in the lagoon was the splash of some big fish, and a little way out +towards the opening in the reef was the light of a schooner. + +"You're sailing next week, aren't you?" he said. + +"Yes." + +"It would be jolly to go home once more. But I could never stand it now. +The cold, you know." + +"It's odd to think that in England now they're shivering round the +fire," I said. + +There was not even a breath of wind. The balminess of the night was like +a spell. I wore nothing but a thin shirt and a suit of ducks. I enjoyed +the exquisite languor of the night, and stretched my limbs voluptuously. + +"This isn't the sort of New Year's Eve that persuades one to make good +resolutions for the future," I smiled. + +He made no answer, but I do not know what train of thought my casual +remark had suggested in him, for presently he began to speak. He spoke +in a low voice, without any expression, but his accents were educated, +and it was a relief to hear him after the twang and the vulgar +intonations which for some time had wounded my ears. + +"I've made an awful hash of things. That's obvious, isn't it? I'm right +down at the bottom of the pit and there's no getting out for me. '_Black +as the pit from pole to pole._'" I felt him smile as he made the +quotation. "And the strange thing is that I don't see how I went wrong." + +I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than +when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul. Then you see that +no one is so trivial or debased but that in him is a spark of something +to excite compassion. + +"It wouldn't be so rotten if I could see that it was all my own fault. +It's true I drink, but I shouldn't have taken to that if things had gone +differently. I wasn't really fond of liquor. I suppose I ought not to +have married Ethel. If I'd kept her it would be all right. But I did +love her so." + +His voice faltered. + +"She's not a bad lot, you know, not really. It's just rotten luck. We +might have been as happy as lords. When she bolted I suppose I ought to +have let her go, but I couldn't do that--I was dead stuck on her then; +and there was the kid." + +"Are you fond of the kid?" I asked. + +"I was. There are two, you know. But they don't mean so much to me now. +You'd take them for natives anywhere. I have to talk to them in Samoan." + +"Is it too late for you to start fresh? Couldn't you make a dash for it +and leave the place?" + +"I haven't the strength. I'm done for." + +"Are you still in love with your wife?" + +"Not now. Not now." He repeated the two words with a kind of horror in +his voice. "I haven't even got that now. I'm down and out." + +The bells of the Cathedral were ringing. + +"If you really want to come to the midnight mass we'd better go along," +I said. + +"Come on." + +We got up and walked along the road. The Cathedral, all white, stood +facing the sea not without impressiveness, and beside it the Protestant +chapels had the look of meeting-houses. In the road were two or three +cars, and a great number of traps, and traps were put up against the +walls at the side. People had come from all parts of the island for the +service, and through the great open doors we saw that the place was +crowded. The high altar was all ablaze with light. There were a few +whites and a good many half-castes, but the great majority were natives. +All the men wore trousers, for the Church has decided that the +_lava-lava_ is indecent. We found chairs at the back, near the open +door, and sat down. Presently, following Lawson's eyes, I saw Ethel come +in with a party of half-castes. They were all very much dressed up, the +men in high, stiff collars and shiny boots, the women in large, gay +hats. Ethel nodded and smiled to her friends as she passed up the aisle. +The service began. + +When it was over Lawson and I stood on one side for a while to watch the +crowd stream out, then he held out his hand. + +"Good-night," he said. "I hope you'll have a pleasant journey home." + +"Oh, but I shall see you before I go." + +He sniggered. + +"The question is if you'll see me drunk or sober." + +He turned and left me. I had a recollection of those very large black +eyes, shining wildly under the shaggy brows. I paused irresolutely. I +did not feel sleepy and I thought I would at all events go along to the +club for an hour before turning in. When I got there I found the +billiard-room empty, but half-a-dozen men were sitting round a table in +the lounge, playing poker. Miller looked up as I came in. + +"Sit down and take a hand," he said. + +"All right." + +I bought some chips and began to play. Of course it is the most +fascinating game in the world and my hour lengthened out to two, and +then to three. The native bar-tender, cheery and wide-awake +notwithstanding the time, was at our elbow to supply us with drinks and +from somewhere or other he produced a ham and a loaf of bread. We played +on. Most of the party had drunk more than was good for them and the play +was high and reckless. I played modestly, neither wishing to win nor +anxious to lose, but I watched Miller with a fascinated interest. He +drank glass for glass with the rest of the company, but remained cool +and level-headed. His pile of chips increased in size and he had a neat +little paper in front of him on which he had marked various sums lent to +players in distress. He beamed amiably at the young men whose money he +was taking. He kept up interminably his stream of jest and anecdote, but +he never missed a draw, he never let an expression of the face pass him. +At last the dawn crept into the windows, gently, with a sort of +deprecating shyness, as though it had no business there, and then it was +day. + +"Well," said Miller, "I reckon we've seen the old year out in style. Now +let's have a round of jackpots and me for my mosquito net. I'm fifty, +remember, I can't keep these late hours." + +The morning was beautiful and fresh when we stood on the verandah, and +the lagoon was like a sheet of multicoloured glass. Someone suggested a +dip before going to bed, but none cared to bathe in the lagoon, sticky +and treacherous to the feet. Miller had his car at the door and he +offered to take us down to the pool. We jumped in and drove along the +deserted road. When we reached the pool it seemed as though the day had +hardly risen there yet. Under the trees the water was all in shadow and +the night had the effect of lurking still. We were in great spirits. We +had no towels or any costume and in my prudence I wondered how we were +going to dry ourselves. None of us had much on and it did not take us +long to snatch off our clothes. Nelson, the little supercargo, was +stripped first. + +"I'm going down to the bottom," he said. + +He dived and in a moment another man dived too, but shallow, and was out +of the water before him. Then Nelson came up and scrambled to the side. + +"I say, get me out," he said. + +"What's up?" + +Something was evidently the matter. His face was terrified. Two fellows +gave him their hands and he slithered up. + +"I say, there's a man down there." + +"Don't be a fool. You're drunk." + +"Well, if there isn't I'm in for D. T's. But I tell you there's a man +down there. It just scared me out of my wits." + +Miller looked at him for a moment. The little man was all white. He was +actually trembling. + +"Come on, Caster," said Miller to the big Australian, "we'd better go +down and see." + +"He was standing up," said Nelson, "all dressed. I saw him. He tried to +catch hold of me." + +"Hold your row," said Miller. "Are you ready?" + +They dived in. We waited on the bank, silent. It really seemed as though +they were under water longer than any men could breathe. Then Caster +came up, and immediately after him, red in the face as though he were +going to have a fit, Miller. They were pulling something behind them. +Another man jumped in to help them, and the three together dragged their +burden to the side. They shoved it up. Then we saw that it was Lawson, +with a great stone tied up in his coat and bound to his feet. + +"He was set on making a good job of it," said Miller, as he wiped the +water from his shortsighted eyes. + + + + +VI + +_Honolulu_ + + +The wise traveller travels only in imagination. An old Frenchman (he was +really a Savoyard) once wrote a book called _Voyage autour de ma +Chambre_. I have not read it and do not even know what it is about, but +the title stimulates my fancy. In such a journey I could circumnavigate +the globe. An eikon by the chimneypiece can take me to Russia with its +great forests of birch and its white, domed churches. The Volga is wide, +and at the end of a straggling village, in the wine-shop, bearded men in +rough sheepskin coats sit drinking. I stand on the little hill from +which Napoleon first saw Moscow and I look upon the vastness of the +city. I will go down and see the people whom I know more intimately than +so many of my friends, Alyosha, and Vronsky, and a dozen more. But my +eyes fall on a piece of porcelain and I smell the acrid odours of China. +I am borne in a chair along a narrow causeway between the padi fields, +or else I skirt a tree-clad mountain. My bearers chat gaily as they +trudge along in the bright morning and every now and then, distant and +mysterious, I hear the deep sound of a monastery bell. In the streets of +Peking there is a motley crowd and it scatters to allow passage to a +string of camels, stepping delicately, that bring skins and strange +drugs from the stony deserts of Mongolia. In England, in London, there +are certain afternoons in winter when the clouds hang heavy and low and +the light is so bleak that your heart sinks, but then you can look out +of your window, and you see the coconut trees crowded upon the beach of +a coral island. The sand is silvery and when you walk along in the +sunshine it is so dazzling that you can hardly bear to look at it. +Overhead the mynah birds are making a great to-do, and the surf beats +ceaselessly against the reef. Those are the best journeys, the journeys +that you take at your own fireside, for then you lose none of your +illusions. + +But there are people who take salt in their coffee. They say it gives it +a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way +there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the +inevitable disillusionment which you must experience on seeing them +gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and +you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that +beauty can give you. It is like the weakness in the character of a great +man which may make him less admirable but certainly makes him more +interesting. + +Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu. It is so far away from Europe, it +is reached after so long a journey from San Francisco, so strange and so +charming associations are attached to the name, that at first I could +hardly believe my eyes. I do not know that I had formed in my mind any +very exact picture of what I expected, but what I found caused me a +great surprise. It is a typical western city. Shacks are cheek by jowl +with stone mansions; dilapidated frame houses stand next door to smart +stores with plate glass windows; electric cars rumble noisily along the +streets; and motors, Fords, Buicks, Packards, line the pavement. The +shops are filled with all the necessities of American civilisation. +Every third house is a bank and every fifth the agency of a steamship +company. + +Along the streets crowd an unimaginable assortment of people. The +Americans, ignoring the climate, wear black coats and high, starched +collars, straw hats, soft hats, and bowlers. The Kanakas, pale brown, +with crisp hair, have nothing on but a shirt and a pair of trousers; but +the half-breeds are very smart with flaring ties and patent-leather +boots. The Japanese, with their obsequious smile, are neat and trim in +white duck, while their women walk a step or two behind them, in native +dress, with a baby on their backs. The Japanese children, in bright +coloured frocks, their little heads shaven, look like quaint dolls. Then +there are the Chinese. The men, fat and prosperous, wear their American +clothes oddly, but the women are enchanting with their tightly-dressed +black hair, so neat that you feel it can never be disarranged, and they +are very clean in their tunics and trousers, white, or powder blue, or +black. Lastly there are the Filipinos, the men in huge straw hats, the +women in bright yellow muslin with great puffed sleeves. + +It is the meeting-place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders +with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you +expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these +strange people live close to each other, with different languages and +different thoughts; they believe in different gods and they have +different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And +somehow as you watch them you have an impression of extraordinary +vitality. Though the air is so soft and the sky so blue, you have, I +know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a +throbbing pulse through the crowd. Though the native policeman at the +corner, standing on a platform, with a white club to direct the traffic, +gives the scene an air of respectability, you cannot but feel that it is +a respectability only of the surface; a little below there is darkness +and mystery. It gives you just that thrill, with a little catch at the +heart, that you have when at night in the forest the silence trembles on +a sudden with the low, insistent beating of a drum. You are all +expectant of I know not what. + +If I have dwelt on the incongruity of Honolulu, it is because just this, +to my mind, gives its point to the story I want to tell. It is a story +of primitive superstition, and it startles me that anything of the sort +should survive in a civilisation which, if not very distinguished, is +certainly very elaborate. I cannot get over the fact that such +incredible things should happen, or at least be thought to happen, right +in the middle, so to speak, of telephones, tram-cars, and daily papers. +And the friend who showed me Honolulu had the same incongruity which I +felt from the beginning was its most striking characteristic. + +He was an American named Winter and I had brought a letter of +introduction to him from an acquaintance in New York. He was a man +between forty and fifty, with scanty black hair, grey at the temples, +and a sharp-featured, thin face. His eyes had a twinkle in them and his +large horn spectacles gave him a demureness which was not a little +diverting. He was tall rather than otherwise and very spare. He was born +in Honolulu and his father had a large store which sold hosiery and all +such goods, from tennis racquets to tarpaulins, as a man of fashion +could require. It was a prosperous business and I could well understand +the indignation of Winter _père_ when his son, refusing to go into it, +had announced his determination to be an actor. My friend spent twenty +years on the stage, sometimes in New York, but more often on the road, +for his gifts were small; but at last, being no fool, he came to the +conclusion that it was better to sell sock-suspenders in Honolulu than +to play small parts in Cleveland, Ohio. He left the stage and went into +the business. I think after the hazardous existence he had lived so +long, he thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of driving a large car and living +in a beautiful house near the golf-course, and I am quite sure, since he +was a man of parts, he managed the business competently. But he could +not bring himself entirely to break his connection with the arts and +since he might no longer act he began to paint. He took me to his studio +and showed me his work. It was not at all bad, but not what I should +have expected from him. He painted nothing but still life, very small +pictures, perhaps eight by ten; and he painted very delicately, with the +utmost finish. He had evidently a passion for detail. His fruit pieces +reminded you of the fruit in a picture by Ghirlandajo. While you +marvelled a little at his patience, you could not help being impressed +by his dexterity. I imagine that he failed as an actor because his +effects, carefully studied, were neither bold nor broad enough to get +across the footlights. + +I was entertained by the proprietary, yet ironical air with which he +showed me the city. He thought in his heart that there was none in the +United States to equal it, but he saw quite clearly that his attitude +was comic. He drove me round to the various buildings and swelled with +satisfaction when I expressed a proper admiration for their +architecture. He showed me the houses of rich men. + +"That's the Stubbs' house," he said. "It cost a hundred thousand dollars +to build. The Stubbs are one of our best families. Old man Stubbs came +here as a missionary more than seventy years ago." + +He hesitated a little and looked at me with twinkling eyes through his +big round spectacles. + +"All our best families are missionary families," he said. "You're not +very much in Honolulu unless your father or your grandfather converted +the heathen." + +"Is that so?" + +"Do you know your Bible?" + +"Fairly," I answered. + +"There is a text which says: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the +children's teeth are set on edge. I guess it runs differently in +Honolulu. The fathers brought Christianity to the Kanaka and the +children jumped his land." + +"Heaven helps those who help themselves," I murmured. + +"It surely does. By the time the natives of this island had embraced +Christianity they had nothing else they could afford to embrace. The +kings gave the missionaries land as a mark of esteem, and the +missionaries bought land by way of laying up treasure in heaven. It +surely was a good investment. One missionary left the business--I think +one may call it a business without offence--and became a land agent, but +that is an exception. Mostly it was their sons who looked after the +commercial side of the concern. Oh, it's a fine thing to have a father +who came here fifty years ago to spread the faith." + +But he looked at his watch. + +"Gee, it's stopped. That means it's time to have a cocktail." + +We sped along an excellent road, bordered with red hibiscus, and came +back into the town. + +"Have you been to the Union Saloon?" + +"Not yet." + +"We'll go there." + +I knew it was the most famous spot in Honolulu and I entered it with a +lively curiosity. You get to it by a narrow passage from King Street, +and in the passage are offices, so that thirsty souls may be supposed +bound for one of these just as well as for the saloon. It is a large +square room, with three entrances, and opposite the bar, which runs the +length of it, two corners have been partitioned off into little +cubicles. Legend states that they were built so that King Kalakaua might +drink there without being seen by his subjects, and it is pleasant to +think that in one or other of these he may have sat over his bottle, a +coal-black potentate, with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is a portrait +of him, in oils, in a rich gold frame; but there are also two prints of +Queen Victoria. On the walls, besides, are old line engravings of the +eighteenth century, one of which, and heaven knows how it got there, is +after a theatrical picture by De Wilde; and there are oleographs from +the Christmas supplements of the _Graphic_ and the _Illustrated London +News_ of twenty years ago. Then there are advertisements of whisky, gin, +champagne, and beer; and photographs of baseball teams and of native +orchestras. + +The place seemed to belong not to the modern, hustling world that I had +left in the bright street outside, but to one that was dying. It had the +savour of the day before yesterday. Dingy and dimly lit, it had a +vaguely mysterious air and you could imagine that it would be a fit +scene for shady transactions. It suggested a more lurid time, when +ruthless men carried their lives in their hands, and violent deeds +diapered the monotony of life. + +When I went in the saloon was fairly full. A group of business men stood +together at the bar, discussing affairs, and in a corner two Kanakas +were drinking. Two or three men who might have been store-keepers were +shaking dice. The rest of the company plainly followed the sea; they +were captains of tramps, first mates, and engineers. Behind the bar, +busily making the Honolulu cocktail for which the place was famous, +served two large half-castes, in white, fat, clean-shaven and dark +skinned, with thick, curly hair and large bright eyes. + +Winter seemed to know more than half the company, and when we made our +way to the bar a little fat man in spectacles, who was standing by +himself, offered him a drink. + +"No, you have one with me, Captain," said Winter. + +He turned to me. + +"I want you to know Captain Butler." + +The little man shook hands with me. We began to talk, but, my attention +distracted by my surroundings, I took small notice of him, and after we +had each ordered a cocktail we separated. When we had got into the motor +again and were driving away, Winter said to me: + +"I'm glad we ran up against Butler. I wanted you to meet him. What did +you think of him?" + +"I don't know that I thought very much of him at all," I answered. + +"Do you believe in the supernatural?" + +"I don't exactly know that I do," I smiled. + +"A very queer thing happened to him a year or two ago. You ought to have +him tell you about it." + +"What sort of thing?" + +Winter did not answer my question. + +"I have no explanation of it myself," he said. "But there's no doubt +about the facts. Are you interested in things like that?" + +"Things like what?" + +"Spells and magic and all that." + +"I've never met anyone who wasn't." + +Winter paused for a moment. + +"I guess I won't tell you myself. You ought to hear it from his own lips +so that you can judge. How are you fixed up for to-night?" + +"I've got nothing on at all." + +"Well, I'll get hold of him between now and then and see if we can't go +down to his ship." + +Winter told me something about him. Captain Butler had spent all his +life on the Pacific. He had been in much better circumstances than he +was now, for he had been first officer and then captain of a +passenger-boat plying along the coast of California, but he had lost his +ship and a number of passengers had been drowned. + +"Drink, I guess," said Winter. + +Of course there had been an enquiry, which had cost him his certificate, +and then he drifted further afield. For some years he had knocked about +the South Seas, but he was now in command of a small schooner which +sailed between Honolulu and the various islands of the group. It +belonged to a Chinese to whom the fact that his skipper had no +certificate meant only that he could be had for lower wages, and to have +a white man in charge was always an advantage. + +And now that I had heard this about him I took the trouble to remember +more exactly what he was like. I recalled his round spectacles and the +round blue eyes behind them, and so gradually reconstructed him before +my mind. He was a little man, without angles, plump, with a round face +like the full moon and a little fat round nose. He had fair short hair, +and he was red-faced and clean shaven. He had plump hands, dimpled on +the knuckles, and short fat legs. He was a jolly soul, and the tragic +experience he had gone through seemed to have left him unscarred. Though +he must have been thirty-four or thirty-five he looked much younger. But +after all I had given him but a superficial attention, and now that I +knew of this catastrophe, which had obviously ruined his life, I +promised myself that when I saw him again I would take more careful note +of him. It is very curious to observe the differences of emotional +response that you find in different people. Some can go through terrific +battles, the fear of imminent death and unimaginable horrors, and +preserve their soul unscathed, while with others the trembling of the +moon on a solitary sea or the song of a bird in a thicket will cause a +convulsion great enough to transform their entire being. Is it due to +strength or weakness, want of imagination or instability of character? I +do not know. When I called up in my fancy that scene of shipwreck, with +the shrieks of the drowning and the terror, and then later, the ordeal +of the enquiry, the bitter grief of those who sorrowed for the lost, and +the harsh things he must have read of himself in the papers, the shame +and the disgrace, it came to me with a shock to remember that Captain +Butler had talked with the frank obscenity of a schoolboy of the +Hawaiian girls and of Ewelei, the Red Light district, and of his +successful adventures. He laughed readily, and one would have thought he +could never laugh again. I remembered his shining, white teeth; they +were his best feature. He began to interest me, and thinking of him and +of his gay insouciance I forgot the particular story, to hear which I +was to see him again. I wanted to see him rather to find out if I could +a little more what sort of man he was. + +Winter made the necessary arrangements and after dinner we went down to +the water front. The ship's boat was waiting for us and we rowed out. +The schooner was anchored some way across the harbour, not far from the +breakwater. We came alongside, and I heard the sound of a ukalele. We +clambered up the ladder. + +"I guess he's in the cabin," said Winter, leading the way. + +It was a small cabin, bedraggled and dirty, with a table against one +side and a broad bench all round upon which slept, I supposed, such +passengers as were ill-advised enough to travel in such a ship. A +petroleum lamp gave a dim light. The ukalele was being played by a +native girl and Butler was lolling on the seat, half lying, with his +head on her shoulder and an arm round her waist. + +"Don't let us disturb you, Captain," said Winter, facetiously. + +"Come right in," said Butler, getting up and shaking hands with us. +"What'll you have?" + +It was a warm night, and through the open door you saw countless stars +in a heaven that was still almost blue. Captain Butler wore a sleeveless +under-shirt, showing his fat white arms, and a pair of incredibly dirty +trousers. His feet were bare, but on his curly head he wore a very old, +a very shapeless felt hat. + +"Let me introduce you to my girl. Ain't she a peach?" + +We shook hands with a very pretty person. She was a good deal taller +than the captain, and even the Mother Hubbard, which the missionaries of +a past generation had, in the interests of decency, forced on the +unwilling natives, could not conceal the beauty of her form. One could +not but suspect that age would burden her with a certain corpulence, but +now she was graceful and alert. Her brown skin had an exquisite +translucency and her eyes were magnificent. Her black hair, very thick +and rich, was coiled round her head in a massive plait. When she smiled +in a greeting that was charmingly natural, she showed teeth that were +small, even, and white. She was certainly a most attractive creature. It +was easy to see that the captain was madly in love with her. He could +not take his eyes off her; he wanted to touch her all the time. That was +very easy to understand; but what seemed to me stranger was that the +girl was apparently in love with him. There was a light in her eyes that +was unmistakable, and her lips were slightly parted as though in a sigh +of desire. It was thrilling. It was even a little moving, and I could +not help feeling somewhat in the way. What had a stranger to do with +this love-sick pair? I wished that Winter had not brought me. And it +seemed to me that the dingy cabin was transfigured and now it seemed a +fit and proper scene for such an extremity of passion. I thought I +should never forget that schooner in the harbour of Honolulu, crowded +with shipping, and yet, under the immensity of the starry sky, remote +from all the world. I liked to think of those lovers sailing off +together in the night over the empty spaces of the Pacific from one +green, hilly island to another. A faint breeze of romance softly fanned +my cheek. + +And yet Butler was the last man in the world with whom you would have +associated romance, and it was hard to see what there was in him to +arouse love. In the clothes he wore now he looked podgier than ever, and +his round spectacles gave his round face the look of a prim cherub. He +suggested rather a curate who had gone to the dogs. His conversation was +peppered with the quaintest Americanisms, and it is because I despair of +reproducing these that, at whatever loss of vividness, I mean to narrate +the story he told me a little later in my own words. Moreover he was +unable to frame a sentence without an oath, though a good-natured one, +and his speech, albeit offensive only to prudish ears, in print would +seem coarse. He was a mirth-loving man, and perhaps that accounted not a +little for his successful amours; since women, for the most part +frivolous creatures, are excessively bored by the seriousness with +which men treat them, and they can seldom resist the buffoon who makes +them laugh. Their sense of humour is crude. Diana of Ephesus is always +prepared to fling prudence to the winds for the red-nosed comedian who +sits on his hat. I realised that Captain Butler had charm. If I had not +known the tragic story of the shipwreck I should have thought he had +never had a care in his life. + +Our host had rung the bell on our entrance and now a Chinese cook came +in with more glasses and several bottles of soda. The whisky and the +captain's empty glass stood already on the table. But when I saw the +Chinese I positively started, for he was certainly the ugliest man I had +ever seen. He was very short, but thick-set, and he had a bad limp. He +wore a singlet and a pair of trousers that had been white, but were now +filthy, and, perched on a shock of bristly, grey hair, an old tweed +deer-stalker. It would have been grotesque on any Chinese, but on him it +was outrageous. His broad, square face was very flat as though it had +been bashed in by a mighty fist, and it was deeply pitted with smallpox; +but the most revolting thing in him was a very pronounced harelip which +had never been operated on, so that his upper lip, cleft, went up in an +angle to his nose, and in the opening was a huge yellow fang. It was +horrible. He came in with the end of a cigarette at the corner of his +mouth, and this, I do not know why, gave him a devilish expression. + +He poured out the whisky and opened a bottle of soda. + +"Don't drown it, John," said the captain. + +He said nothing, but handed a glass to each of us. Then he went out. + +"I saw you lookin' at my Chink," said Butler, with a grin on his fat, +shining face. + +"I should hate to meet him on a dark night," I said. + +"He sure is homely," said the captain, and for some reason he seemed to +say it with a peculiar satisfaction. "But he's fine for one thing, I'll +tell the world; you just have to have a drink every time you look at +him." + +But my eyes fell on a calabash that hung against the wall over the +table, and I got up to look at it. I had been hunting for an old one and +this was better than any I had seen outside the museum. + +"It was given me by a chief over on one of the islands," said the +captain, watching me. "I done him a good turn and he wanted to give me +something good." + +"He certainly did," I answered. + +I was wondering whether I could discreetly make Captain Butler an offer +for it, I could not imagine that he set any store on such an article, +when, as though he read my thoughts, he said: + +"I wouldn't sell that for ten thousand dollars." + +"I guess not," said Winter. "It would be a crime to sell it." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"That comes into the story," returned Winter. "Doesn't it, Captain?" + +"It surely does." + +"Let's hear it then." + +"The night's young yet," he answered. + +The night distinctly lost its youth before he satisfied my curiosity, +and meanwhile we drank a great deal too much whisky while Captain Butler +narrated his experiences of San Francisco in the old days and of the +South Seas. At last the girl fell asleep. She lay curled up on the seat, +with her face on her brown arm, and her bosom rose and fell gently with +her breathing. In sleep she looked sullen, but darkly beautiful. + +He had found her on one of the islands in the group among which, +whenever there was cargo to be got, he wandered with his crazy old +schooner. The Kanakas have little love for work, and the laborious +Chinese, the cunning Japs, have taken the trade out of their hands. Her +father had a strip of land on which he grew taro and bananas and he had +a boat in which he went fishing. He was vaguely related to the mate of +the schooner, and it was he who took Captain Butler up to the shabby +little frame house to spend an idle evening. They took a bottle of +whisky with them and the ukalele. The captain was not a shy man and when +he saw a pretty girl he made love to her. He could speak the native +language fluently and it was not long before he had overcome the girl's +timidity. They spent the evening singing and dancing, and by the end of +it she was sitting by his side and he had his arm round her waist. It +happened that they were delayed on the island for several days and the +captain, at no time a man to hurry, made no effort to shorten his stay. +He was very comfortable in the snug little harbour and life was long. He +had a swim round his ship in the morning and another in the evening. +There was a chandler's shop on the water front where sailormen could get +a drink of whisky, and he spent the best part of the day there, playing +cribbage with the half-caste who owned it. At night the mate and he went +up to the house where the pretty girl lived and they sang a song or two +and told stories. It was the girl's father who suggested that he should +take her away with him. They discussed the matter in a friendly fashion, +while the girl, nestling against the captain, urged him by the pressure +of her hands and her soft, smiling glances. He had taken a fancy to her +and he was a domestic man. He was a little dull sometimes at sea and it +would be very pleasant to have a pretty little creature like that about +the old ship. He was of a practical turn too, and he recognised that it +would be useful to have someone around to darn his socks and look after +his linen. He was tired of having his things washed by a Chink who tore +everything to pieces; the natives washed much better, and now and then +when the captain went ashore at Honolulu he liked to cut a dash in a +smart duck suit. It was only a matter of arranging a price. The father +wanted two hundred and fifty dollars, and the captain, never a thrifty +man, could not put his hand on such a sum. But he was a generous one, +and with the girl's soft face against his, he was not inclined to +haggle. He offered to give a hundred and fifty dollars there and then +and another hundred in three months. There was a good deal of argument +and the parties could not come to any agreement that night, but the idea +had fired the captain, and he could not sleep as well as usual. He kept +dreaming of the lovely girl and each time he awoke it was with the +pressure of her soft, sensual lips on his. He cursed himself in the +morning because a bad night at poker the last time he was at Honolulu +had left him so short of ready money. And if the night before he had +been in love with the girl, this morning he was crazy about her. + +"See here, Bananas," he said to the mate, "I've got to have that girl. +You go and tell the old man I'll bring the dough up to-night and she can +get fixed up. I figure we'll be ready to sail at dawn." + +I have no idea why the mate was known by that eccentric name. He was +called Wheeler, but though he had that English surname there was not a +drop of white blood in him. He was a tall man, and well-made though +inclined to stoutness, but much darker than is usual in Hawaii. He was +no longer young, and his crisply curling, thick hair was grey. His upper +front teeth were cased in gold. He was very proud of them. He had a +marked squint and this gave him a saturnine expression. The captain, who +was fond of a joke, found in it a constant source of humour and +hesitated the less to rally him on the defect because he realised that +the mate was sensitive about it. Bananas, unlike most of the natives, +was a taciturn fellow and Captain Butler would have disliked him if it +had been possible for a man of his good nature to dislike anyone. He +liked to be at sea with someone he could talk to, he was a chatty, +sociable creature, and it was enough to drive a missionary to drink to +live there day after day with a chap who never opened his mouth. He did +his best to wake the mate up, that is to say, he chaffed him without +mercy, but it was poor fun to laugh by oneself, and he came to the +conclusion that, drunk or sober, Bananas was no fit companion for a +white man. But he was a good seaman and the captain was shrewd enough to +know the value of a mate he could trust. It was not rare for him to come +aboard, when they were sailing, fit for nothing but to fall into his +bunk, and it was worth something to know that he could stay there till +he had slept his liquor off, since Bananas could be relied on. But he +was an unsociable devil, and it would be a treat to have someone he +could talk to. That girl would be fine. Besides, he wouldn't be so +likely to get drunk when he went ashore if he knew there was a little +girl waiting for him when he came on board again. + +He went to his friend the chandler and over a peg of gin asked him for a +loan. There were one or two useful things a ship's captain could do for +a ship's chandler, and after a quarter of an hour's conversation in low +tones (there is no object in letting all and sundry know your business), +the captain crammed a wad of notes in his hip-pocket, and that night, +when he went back to his ship, the girl went with him. + +What Captain Butler, seeking for reasons to do what he had already made +up his mind to, had anticipated, actually came to pass. He did not give +up drinking, but he ceased to drink to excess. An evening with the +boys, when he had been away from town two or three weeks, was pleasant +enough, but it was pleasant too to get back to his little girl; he +thought of her, sleeping so softly, and how, when he got into his cabin +and leaned over her, she would open her eyes lazily and stretch out her +arms for him: it was as good as a full hand. He found he was saving +money, and since he was a generous man he did the right thing by the +little girl: he gave her some silver-backed brushes for her long hair, +and a gold chain, and a reconstructed ruby for her finger. Gee, but it +was good to be alive. + +A year went by, a whole year, and he was not tired of her yet. He was +not a man who analysed his feelings, but this was so surprising that it +forced itself upon his attention. There must be something very wonderful +about that girl. He couldn't help seeing that he was more wrapped up in +her than ever, and sometimes the thought entered his mind that it might +not be a bad thing if he married her. + +Then, one day the mate did not come in to dinner or to tea. Butler did +not bother himself about his absence at the first meal, but at the +second he asked the Chinese cook: + +"Where's the mate? He no come tea?" + +"No wantchee," said the Chink. + +"He ain't sick?" + +"No savvy." + +Next day Bananas turned up again, but he was more sullen than ever, and +after dinner the captain asked the girl what was the matter with him. +She smiled and shrugged her pretty shoulders. She told the captain that +Bananas had taken a fancy to her and he was sore because she had told +him off. The captain was a good-humoured man and he was not of a jealous +nature; it struck him as exceeding funny that Bananas should be in love. +A man who had a squint like that had a precious poor chance. When tea +came round he chaffed him gaily. He pretended to speak in the air, so +that the mate should not be certain that he knew anything, but he dealt +him some pretty shrewd blows. The girl did not think him as funny as he +thought himself, and afterwards she begged him to say nothing more. He +was surprised at her seriousness. She told him he did not know her +people. When their passion was aroused they were capable of anything. +She was a little frightened. This was so absurd to him that he laughed +heartily. + +"If he comes bothering round you, you just threaten to tell me. That'll +fix him." + +"Better fire him, I think." + +"Not on your sweet life. I know a good sailor when I see one. But if he +don't leave you alone I'll give him the worst licking he's ever had." + +Perhaps the girl had a wisdom unusual in her sex. She knew that it was +useless to argue with a man when his mind was made up, for it only +increased his stubbornness, and she held her peace. And now on the +shabby schooner, threading her way across the silent sea, among those +lovely islands, was enacted a dark, tense drama of which the fat little +captain remained entirely ignorant. The girl's resistance fired Bananas +so that he ceased to be a man, but was simply blind desire. He did not +make love to her gently or gaily, but with a black and savage ferocity. +Her contempt now was changed to hatred and when he besought her she +answered him with bitter, angry taunts. But the struggle went on +silently, and when the captain asked her after a little while whether +Bananas was bothering her, she lied. + +But one night, when they were in Honolulu, he came on board only just in +time. They were sailing at dawn. Bananas had been ashore, drinking some +native spirit, and he was drunk. The captain, rowing up, heard sounds +that surprised him. He scrambled up the ladder. He saw Bananas, beside +himself, trying to wrench open the cabin door. He was shouting at the +girl. He swore he would kill her if she did not let him in. + +"What in hell are you up to?" cried Butler. + +The mate let go the handle, gave the captain a look of savage hate, and +without a word turned away. + +"Stop here. What are you doing with that door?" + +The mate still did not answer. He looked at him with sullen, bootless +rage. + +"I'll teach you not to pull any of your queer stuff with me, you dirty, +cross-eyed nigger," said the captain. + +He was a good foot shorter than the mate and no match for him, but he +was used to dealing with native crews, and he had his knuckle-duster +handy. Perhaps it was not an instrument that a gentleman would use, but +then Captain Butler was not a gentleman. Nor was he in the habit of +dealing with gentlemen. Before Bananas knew what the captain was at, his +right arm had shot out and his fist, with its ring of steel, caught him +fair and square on the jaw. He fell like a bull under the pole-axe. + +"That'll learn him," said the captain. + +Bananas did not stir. The girl unlocked the cabin door and came out. + +"Is he dead?" + +"He ain't." + +He called a couple of men and told them to carry the mate to his bunk. +He rubbed his hands with satisfaction and his round blue eyes gleamed +behind his spectacles. But the girl was strangely silent. She put her +arms round him as though to protect him from invisible harm. + +It was two or three days before Bananas was on his feet again, and when +he came out of his cabin his face was torn and swollen. Through the +darkness of his skin you saw the livid bruise. Butler saw him slinking +along the deck and called him. The mate went to him without a word. + +"See here, Bananas," he said to him, fixing his spectacles on his +slippery nose, for it was very hot. "I ain't going to fire you for this, +but you know now that when I hit, I hit hard. Don't forget it and don't +let me have any more funny business." + +Then he held out his hand and gave the mate that good-humoured, flashing +smile of his which was his greatest charm. The mate took the +outstretched hand and twitched his swollen lips into a devilish grin. +The incident in the captain's mind was so completely finished that when +the three of them sat at dinner he chaffed Bananas on his appearance. He +was eating with difficulty and, his swollen face still more distorted by +pain, he looked truly a repulsive object. + +That evening, when he was sitting on the upper deck, smoking his pipe, a +shiver passed through the captain. + +"I don't know what I should be shiverin' for on a night like this," he +grumbled. "Maybe I've gotten a dose of fever. I've been feelin' a bit +queer all day." + +When he went to bed he took some quinine, and next morning he felt +better, but a little washed out, as though he were recovering from a +debauch. + +"I guess my liver's out of order," he said, and he took a pill. + +He had not much appetite that day and towards evening he began to feel +very unwell. He tried the next remedy he knew, which was to drink two or +three hot whiskies, but that did not seem to help him much, and when in +the morning he surveyed himself in the glass he thought he was not +looking quite the thing. + +"If I ain't right by the time we get back to Honolulu I'll just give Dr +Denby a call. He'll sure fix me up." + +He could not eat. He felt a great lassitude in all his limbs. He slept +soundly enough, but he awoke with no sense of refreshment; on the +contrary he felt a peculiar exhaustion. And the energetic little man, +who could not bear the thought of lying in bed, had to make an effort to +force himself out of his bunk. After a few days he found it impossible +to resist the languor that oppressed him, and he made up his mind not to +get up. + +"Bananas can look after the ship," he said. "He has before now." + +He laughed a little to himself as he thought how often he had lain +speechless in his bunk after a night with the boys. That was before he +had his girl. He smiled at her and pressed her hand. She was puzzled and +anxious. He saw that she was concerned about him and tried to reassure +her. He had never had a day's illness in his life and in a week at the +outside he would be as right as rain. + +"I wish you'd fired Bananas," she said. "I've got a feeling that he's at +the bottom of this." + +"Damned good thing I didn't, or there'd be no one to sail the ship. I +know a good sailor when I see one." His blue eyes, rather pale now, with +the whites all yellow, twinkled. "You don't think he's trying to poison +me, little girl?" + +She did not answer, but she had one or two talks with the Chinese cook, +and she took great care with the captain's food. But he ate little +enough now, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that she +persuaded him to drink a cup of soup two or three times a day. It was +clear that he was very ill, he was losing weight quickly, and his chubby +face was pale and drawn. He suffered no pain, but merely grew every day +weaker and more languid. He was wasting away. The round trip on this +occasion lasted about four weeks and by the time they came to Honolulu +the captain was a little anxious about himself. He had not been out of +his bed for more than a fortnight and really he felt too weak to get up +and go to the doctor. He sent a message asking him to come on board. The +doctor examined him, but could find nothing to account for his +condition. His temperature was normal. + +"See here, Captain," he said, "I'll be perfectly frank with you. I don't +know what's the matter with you, and just seeing you like this don't +give me a chance. You come into the hospital so that we can keep you +under observation. There's nothing organically wrong with you, I know +that, and my impression is that a few weeks in hospital ought to put you +to rights." + +"I ain't going to leave my ship." + +Chinese owners were queer customers, he said; if he left his ship +because he was sick, his owner might fire him, and he couldn't afford to +lose his job. So long as he stayed where he was his contract +safe-guarded him, and he had a first-rate mate. Besides, he couldn't +leave his girl. No man could want a better nurse; if anyone could pull +him through she would. Every man had to die once and he only wished to +be left in peace. He would not listen to the doctor's expostulations, +and finally the doctor gave in. + +"I'll write you a prescription," he said doubtfully, "and see if it does +you any good. You'd better stay in bed for a while." + +"There ain't much fear of my getting up, doc," answered the captain. "I +feel as weak as a cat." + +But he believed in the doctor's prescription as little as did the doctor +himself, and when he was alone amused himself by lighting his cigar with +it. He had to get amusement out of something, for his cigar tasted like +nothing on earth, and he smoked only to persuade himself that he was not +too ill to. That evening a couple of friends of his, masters of tramp +steamers, hearing he was sick came to see him. They discussed his case +over a bottle of whisky and a box of Philippine cigars. One of them +remembered how a mate of his had been taken queer just like that and not +a doctor in the United States had been able to cure him. He had seen in +the paper an advertisement of a patent medicine, and thought there'd be +no harm in trying it. That man was as strong as ever he'd been in his +life after two bottles. But his illness had given Captain Butler a +lucidity which was new and strange, and while they talked he seemed to +read their minds. They thought he was dying. And when they left him he +was afraid. + +The girl saw his weakness. This was her opportunity. She had been urging +him to let a native doctor see him, and he had stoutly refused; but now +she entreated him. He listened with harassed eyes. He wavered. It was +very funny that the American doctor could not tell what was the matter +with him. But he did not want her to think that he was scared. If he let +a damned nigger come along and look at him, it was to comfort _her_. He +told her to do what she liked. + +The native doctor came the next night. The captain was lying alone, +half awake, and the cabin was dimly lit by an oil lamp. The door was +softly opened and the girl came in on tip-toe. She held the door open +and some one slipped in silently behind her. The captain smiled at this +mystery, but he was so weak now, the smile was no more than a glimmer in +his eyes. The doctor was a little, old man, very thin and very wrinkled, +with a completely bald head, and the face of a monkey. He was bowed and +gnarled like an old tree. He looked hardly human, but his eyes were very +bright, and in the half darkness, they seemed to glow with a reddish +light. He was dressed filthily in a pair of ragged dungarees, and the +upper part of his body was naked. He sat down on his haunches and for +ten minutes looked at the captain. Then he felt the palms of his hands +and the soles of his feet. The girl watched him with frightened eyes. No +word was spoken. Then he asked for something that the captain had worn. +The girl gave him the old felt hat which the captain used constantly and +taking it he sat down again on the floor, clasping it firmly with both +hands; and rocking backwards and forwards slowly he muttered some +gibberish in a very low tone. + +At last he gave a little sigh and dropped the hat. He took an old pipe +out of his trouser pocket and lit it. The girl went over to him and sat +by his side. He whispered something to her, and she started violently. +For a few minutes they talked in hurried undertones, and then they stood +up. She gave him money and opened the door for him. He slid out as +silently as he had come in. Then she went over to the captain and leaned +over him so that she could speak into his ear. + +"It's an enemy praying you to death." + +"Don't talk fool stuff, girlie," he said impatiently. + +"It's truth. It's God's truth. That's why the American doctor couldn't +do anything. Our people can do that. I've seen it done. I thought you +were safe because you were a white man." + +"I haven't an enemy." + +"Bananas." + +"What's he want to pray me to death for?" + +"You ought to have fired him before he had a chance." + +"I guess if I ain't got nothing more the matter with me than Bananas' +hoodoo I shall be sitting up and taking nourishment in a very few days." + +She was silent for a while and she looked at him intently. + +"Don't you know you're dying?" she said to him at last. + +That was what the two skippers had thought, but they hadn't said it. A +shiver passed across the captain's wan face. + +"The doctor says there ain't nothing really the matter with me. I've +only to lie quiet for a bit and I shall be all right." + +She put her lips to his ear as if she were afraid that the air itself +might hear. + +"You're dying, dying, dying. You'll pass out with the old moon." + +"That's something to know." + +"You'll pass out with the old moon unless Bananas dies before." + +He was not a timid man and he had recovered already from the shock her +words, and still more her vehement, silent manner, had given him. Once +more a smile flickered in his eyes. + +"I guess I'll take my chance, girlie." + +"There's twelve days before the new moon." + +There was something in her tone that gave him an idea. + +"See here, my girl, this is all bunk. I don't believe a word of it. But +I don't want you to try any of your monkey tricks with Bananas. He ain't +a beauty, but he's a first-rate mate." + +He would have said a good deal more, but he was tired out. He suddenly +felt very weak and faint. It was always at that hour that he felt worse. +He closed his eyes. The girl watched him for a minute and then slipped +out of the cabin. The moon, nearly full, made a silver pathway over the +dark sea. It shone from an unclouded sky. She looked at it with terror, +for she knew that with its death the man she loved would die. His life +was in her hands. She could save him, she alone could save him, but the +enemy was cunning, and she must be cunning too. She felt that someone +was looking at her, and without turning, by the sudden fear that seized +her, knew that from the shadow the burning eyes of the mate were fixed +upon her. She did not know what he could do; if he could read her +thoughts she was defeated already, and with a desperate effort she +emptied her mind of all content. His death alone could save her lover, +and she could bring his death about. She knew that if he could be +brought to look into a calabash in which was water so that a reflection +of him was made, and the reflection were broken by hurtling the water, +he would die as though he had been struck by lightning; for the +reflection was his soul. But none knew better than he the danger, and he +could be made to look only by a guile which had lulled his least +suspicion. He must never think that he had an enemy who was on the watch +to cause his destruction. She knew what she had to do. But the time was +short, the time was terribly short. Presently she realised that the mate +had gone. She breathed more freely. + +Two days later they sailed, and there were ten now before the new moon. +Captain Butler was terrible to see. He was nothing but skin and bone, +and he could not move without help. He could hardly speak. But she dared +do nothing yet. She knew that she must be patient. The mate was cunning, +cunning. They went to one of the smaller islands of the group and +discharged cargo, and now there were only seven days more. The moment +had come to start. She brought some things out of the cabin she shared +with the captain and made them into a bundle. She put the bundle in the +deck cabin where she and Bananas ate their meals, and at dinner time, +when she went in, he turned quickly and she saw that he had been looking +at it. Neither of them spoke, but she knew what he suspected. She was +making her preparations to leave the ship. He looked at her mockingly. +Gradually, as though to prevent the captain from knowing what she was +about, she brought everything she owned into the cabin, and some of the +captain's clothes, and made them all into bundles. At last Bananas could +keep silence no longer. He pointed to a suit of ducks. + +"What are you going to do with that?" he asked. + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I'm going back to my island." + +He gave a laugh that distorted his grim face. The captain was dying and +she meant to get away with all she could lay hands on. + +"What'll you do if I say you can't take those things? They're the +captain's." + +"They're no use to you," she said. + +There was a calabash hanging on the wall. It was the very calabash I had +seen when I came into the cabin and which we had talked about. She took +it down. It was all dusty, so she poured water into it from the +water-bottle, and rinsed it with her fingers. + +"What are you doing with that?" + +"I can sell it for fifty dollars," she said. + +"If you want to take it you'll have to pay me." + +"What d'you want?" + +"You know what I want." + +She allowed a fleeting smile to play on her lips. She flashed a quick +look at him and quickly turned away. He gave a gasp of desire. She +raised her shoulders in a little shrug. With a savage bound he sprang +upon her and seized her in his arms. Then she laughed. She put her arms, +her soft, round arms, about his neck, and surrendered herself to him +voluptuously. + +When the morning came she roused him out of a deep sleep. The early rays +of the sun slanted into the cabin. He pressed her to his heart. Then he +told her that the captain could not last more than a day or two, and the +owner wouldn't so easily find another white man to command the ship. If +Bananas offered to take less money he would get the job and the girl +could stay with him. He looked at her with love-sick eyes. She nestled +up against him. She kissed his lips, in the foreign way, in the way the +captain had taught her to kiss. And she promised to stay. Bananas was +drunk with happiness. + +It was now or never. + +She got up and went to the table to arrange her hair. There was no +mirror and she looked into the calabash, seeking for her reflection. She +tidied her beautiful hair. Then she beckoned to Bananas to come to her. +She pointed to the calabash. + +"There's something in the bottom of it," she said. + +Instinctively, without suspecting anything, Bananas looked full into the +water. His face was reflected in it. In a flash she beat upon it +violently, with both her hands, so that they pounded on the bottom and +the water splashed up. The reflection was broken in pieces. Bananas +started back with a sudden hoarse cry and he looked at the girl. She was +standing there with a look of triumphant hatred on her face. A horror +came into his eyes. His heavy features were twisted in agony, and with +a thud, as though he had taken a violent poison, he crumpled up on to +the ground. A great shudder passed through his body and he was still. +She leaned over him callously. She put her hand on his heart and then +she pulled down his lower eye-lid. He was quite dead. + +She went into the cabin in which lay Captain Butler. There was a faint +colour in his cheeks and he looked at her in a startled way. + +"What's happened?" he whispered. + +They were the first words he had spoken for forty-eight hours. + +"Nothing's happened," she said. + +"I feel all funny." + +Then his eyes closed and he fell asleep. He slept for a day and a night, +and when he awoke he asked for food. In a fortnight he was well. + +It was past midnight when Winter and I rowed back to shore and we had +drunk innumerable whiskies and sodas. + +"What do you think of it all?" asked Winter. + +"What a question! If you mean, have I any explanation to suggest, I +haven't." + +"The captain believes every word of it." + +"That's obvious; but you know that's not the part that interests me +most, whether it's true or not, and what it all means; the part that +interests me is that such things should happen to such people. I wonder +what there is in that commonplace little man to arouse such a passion in +that lovely creature. As I watched her, asleep there, while he was +telling the story I had some fantastic idea about the power of love +being able to work miracles." + +"But that's not the girl," said Winter. + +"What on earth do you mean?" + +"Didn't you notice the cook?" + +"Of course I did. He's the ugliest man I ever saw." + +"That's why Butler took him. The girl ran away with the Chinese cook +last year. This is a new one. He's only had her there about two months." + +"Well, I'm hanged." + +"He thinks this cook is safe. But I wouldn't be too sure in his place. +There's something about a Chink, when he lays himself out to please a +woman she can't resist him." + + + + +VII + +_Rain_ + + +It was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in +sight. Dr Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the +heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound +that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down +quietly at Apia for twelve months at least, and he felt already better +for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next +day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his +ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the +deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair +talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat +down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red +hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which +accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, +precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very +low, quiet voice. + +Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there +had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather +than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval +they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the +smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs Macphail was not +a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only +people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and +even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the +compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in +their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp. + +"Mrs Davidson was saying she didn't know how they'd have got through the +journey if it hadn't been for us," said Mrs Macphail, as she neatly +brushed out her transformation. "She said we were really the only people +on the ship they cared to know." + +"I shouldn't have thought a missionary was such a big bug that he could +afford to put on frills." + +"It's not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn't have +been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot +in the smoking-room." + +"The founder of their religion wasn't so exclusive," said Dr Macphail +with a chuckle. + +"I've asked you over and over again not to joke about religion," +answered his wife. "I shouldn't like to have a nature like yours, Alec. +You never look for the best in people." + +He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not +reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more +conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was +undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled +down to read himself to sleep. + +When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at +it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising +quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The +coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water's edge, and +among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoans; and here and there, +gleaming white, a little church. Mrs Davidson came and stood beside him. +She was dressed in black and wore round her neck a gold chain, from +which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull +hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind +invisible _pince-nez_. Her face was long, like a sheep's, but she gave +no impression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the +quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her +voice, high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a +hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the +pneumatic drill. + +"This must seem like home to you," said Dr Macphail, with his thin, +difficult smile. + +"Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are +volcanic. We've got another ten days' journey to reach them." + +"In these parts that's almost like being in the next street at home," +said Dr Macphail facetiously. + +"Well, that's rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does +look at distances differently in the South Seas. So far you're right." + +Dr Macphail sighed faintly. + +"I'm glad we're not stationed here," she went on. "They say this is a +terribly difficult place to work in. The steamers' touching makes the +people unsettled; and then there's the naval station; that's bad for the +natives. In our district we don't have difficulties like that to contend +with. There are one or two traders, of course, but we take care to make +them behave, and if they don't we make the place so hot for them they're +glad to go." + +Fixing the glasses on her nose she looked at the green island with a +ruthless stare. + +"It's almost a hopeless task for the missionaries here. I can never be +sufficiently thankful to God that we are at least spared that." + +Davidson's district consisted of a group of islands to the North of +Samoa; they were widely separated and he had frequently to go long +distances by canoe. At these times his wife remained at their +headquarters and managed the mission. Dr Macphail felt his heart sink +when he considered the efficiency with which she certainly managed it. +She spoke of the depravity of the natives in a voice which nothing could +hush, but with a vehemently unctuous horror. Her sense of delicacy was +singular. Early in their acquaintance she had said to him: + +"You know, their marriage customs when we first settled in the islands +were so shocking that I couldn't possibly describe them to you. But I'll +tell Mrs Macphail and she'll tell you." + +Then he had seen his wife and Mrs Davidson, their deck-chairs close +together, in earnest conversation for about two hours. As he walked past +them backwards and forwards for the sake of exercise, he had heard Mrs +Davidson's agitated whisper, like the distant flow of a mountain +torrent, and he saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was +enjoying an alarming experience. At night in their cabin she repeated to +him with bated breath all she had heard. + +"Well, what did I say to you?" cried Mrs Davidson, exultant, next +morning. "Did you ever hear anything more dreadful? You don't wonder +that I couldn't tell you myself, do you? Even though you are a doctor." + +Mrs Davidson scanned his face. She had a dramatic eagerness to see that +she had achieved the desired effect. + +"Can you wonder that when we first went there our hearts sank? You'll +hardly believe me when I tell you it was impossible to find a single +good girl in any of the villages." + +She used the word _good_ in a severely technical manner. + +"Mr Davidson and I talked it over, and we made up our minds the first +thing to do was to put down the dancing. The natives were crazy about +dancing." + +"I was not averse to it myself when I was a young man," said Dr +Macphail. + +"I guessed as much when I heard you ask Mrs Macphail to have a turn with +you last night. I don't think there's any real harm if a man dances +with his wife, but I was relieved that she wouldn't. Under the +circumstances I thought it better that we should keep ourselves to +ourselves." + +"Under what circumstances?" + +Mrs Davidson gave him a quick look through her _pince-nez_, but did not +answer his question. + +"But among white people it's not quite the same," she went on, "though I +must say I agree with Mr Davidson, who says he can't understand how a +husband can stand by and see his wife in another man's arms, and as far +as I'm concerned I've never danced a step since I married. But the +native dancing is quite another matter. It's not only immoral in itself, +but it distinctly leads to immorality. However, I'm thankful to God that +we stamped it out, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that no one has +danced in our district for eight years." + +But now they came to the mouth of the harbour and Mrs Macphail joined +them. The ship turned sharply and steamed slowly in. It was a great +land-locked harbour big enough to hold a fleet of battleships; and all +around it rose, high and steep, the green hills. Near the entrance, +getting such breeze as blew from the sea, stood the governor's house in +a garden. The Stars and Stripes dangled languidly from a flagstaff. They +passed two or three trim bungalows, and a tennis court, and then they +came to the quay with its warehouses. Mrs Davidson pointed out the +schooner, moored two or three hundred yards from the side, which was to +take them to Apia. There was a crowd of eager, noisy, and good-humoured +natives come from all parts of the island, some from curiosity, others +to barter with the travellers on their way to Sydney; and they brought +pineapples and huge bunches of bananas, _tapa_ cloths, necklaces of +shells or sharks' teeth, _kava_-bowls, and models of war canoes. +American sailors, neat and trim, clean-shaven and frank of face, +sauntered among them, and there was a little group of officials. While +their luggage was being landed the Macphails and Mrs Davidson watched +the crowd. Dr Macphail looked at the yaws from which most of the +children and the young boys seemed to suffer, disfiguring sores like +torpid ulcers, and his professional eyes glistened when he saw for the +first time in his experience cases of elephantiasis, men going about +with a huge, heavy arm or dragging along a grossly disfigured leg. Men +and women wore the _lava-lava_. + +"It's a very indecent costume," said Mrs Davidson. "Mr Davidson thinks +it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral +when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?" + +"It's suitable enough to the climate," said the doctor, wiping the sweat +off his head. + +Now that they were on land the heat, though it was so early in the +morning, was already oppressive. Closed in by its hills, not a breath of +air came in to Pago-Pago. + +"In our islands," Mrs Davidson went on in her high-pitched tones, "we've +practically eradicated the _lava-lava_. A few old men still continue to +wear it, but that's all. The women have all taken to the Mother +Hubbard, and the men wear trousers and singlets. At the very beginning +of our stay Mr Davidson said in one of his reports: the inhabitants of +these islands will never be thoroughly Christianised till every boy of +more than ten years is made to wear a pair of trousers." + +But Mrs Davidson had given two or three of her birdlike glances at heavy +grey clouds that came floating over the mouth of the harbour. A few +drops began to fall. + +"We'd better take shelter," she said. + +They made their way with all the crowd to a great shed of corrugated +iron, and the rain began to fall in torrents. They stood there for some +time and then were joined by Mr Davidson. He had been polite enough to +the Macphails during the journey, but he had not his wife's sociability, +and had spent much of his time reading. He was a silent, rather sullen +man, and you felt that his affability was a duty that he imposed upon +himself Christianly; he was by nature reserved and even morose. His +appearance was singular. He was very tall and thin, with long limbs +loosely jointed; hollow cheeks and curiously high cheek-bones; he had so +cadaverous an air that it surprised you to notice how full and sensual +were his lips. He wore his hair very long. His dark eyes, set deep in +their sockets, were large and tragic; and his hands with their big, long +fingers, were finely shaped; they gave him a look of great strength. But +the most striking thing about him was the feeling he gave you of +suppressed fire. It was impressive and vaguely troubling. He was not a +man with whom any intimacy was possible. + +He brought now unwelcome news. There was an epidemic of measles, a +serious and often fatal disease among the Kanakas, on the island, and a +case had developed among the crew of the schooner which was to take them +on their journey. The sick man had been brought ashore and put in +hospital on the quarantine station, but telegraphic instructions had +been sent from Apia to say that the schooner would not be allowed to +enter the harbour till it was certain no other member of the crew was +affected. + +"It means we shall have to stay here for ten days at least." + +"But I'm urgently needed at Apia," said Dr Macphail. + +"That can't be helped. If no more cases develop on board, the schooner +will be allowed to sail with white passengers, but all native traffic is +prohibited for three months." + +"Is there a hotel here?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +Davidson gave a low chuckle. + +"There's not." + +"What shall we do then?" + +"I've been talking to the governor. There's a trader along the front who +has rooms that he rents, and my proposition is that as soon as the rain +lets up we should go along there and see what we can do. Don't expect +comfort. You've just got to be thankful if we get a bed to sleep on and +a roof over our heads." + +But the rain showed no sign of stopping, and at length with umbrellas +and waterproofs they set out. There was no town, but merely a group of +official buildings, a store or two, and at the back, among the coconut +trees and plantains, a few native dwellings. The house they sought was +about five minutes' walk from the wharf. It was a frame house of two +storeys, with broad verandahs on both floors and a roof of corrugated +iron. The owner was a half-caste named Horn, with a native wife +surrounded by little brown children, and on the ground-floor he had a +store where he sold canned goods and cottons. The rooms he showed them +were almost bare of furniture. In the Macphails' there was nothing but a +poor, worn bed with a ragged mosquito net, a rickety chair, and a +washstand. They looked round with dismay. The rain poured down without +ceasing. + +"I'm not going to unpack more than we actually need," said Mrs Macphail. + +Mrs Davidson came into the room as she was unlocking a portmanteau. She +was very brisk and alert. The cheerless surroundings had no effect on +her. + +"If you'll take my advice you'll get a needle and cotton and start right +in to mend the mosquito net," she said, "or you'll not be able to get a +wink of sleep to-night." + +"Will they be very bad?" asked Dr Macphail. + +"This is the season for them. When you're asked to a party at +Government House at Apia you'll notice that all the ladies are given a +pillow-slip to put their--their lower extremities in." + +"I wish the rain would stop for a moment," said Mrs Macphail. "I could +try to make the place comfortable with more heart if the sun were +shining." + +"Oh, if you wait for that, you'll wait a long time. Pago-Pago is about +the rainiest place in the Pacific. You see, the hills, and that bay, +they attract the water, and one expects rain at this time of year +anyway." + +She looked from Macphail to his wife, standing helplessly in different +parts of the room, like lost souls, and she pursed her lips. She saw +that she must take them in hand. Feckless people like that made her +impatient, but her hands itched to put everything in the order which +came so naturally to her. + +"Here, you give me a needle and cotton and I'll mend that net of yours, +while you go on with your unpacking. Dinner's at one. Dr Macphail, you'd +better go down to the wharf and see that your heavy luggage has been put +in a dry place. You know what these natives are, they're quite capable +of storing it where the rain will beat in on it all the time." + +The doctor put on his waterproof again and went downstairs. At the door +Mr Horn was standing in conversation with the quartermaster of the ship +they had just arrived in and a second-class passenger whom Dr Macphail +had seen several times on board. The quartermaster, a little, shrivelled +man, extremely dirty, nodded to him as he passed. + +"This is a bad job about the measles, doc," he said. "I see you've fixed +yourself up already." + +Dr Macphail thought he was rather familiar, but he was a timid man and +he did not take offence easily. + +"Yes, we've got a room upstairs." + +"Miss Thompson was sailing with you to Apia, so I've brought her along +here." + +The quartermaster pointed with his thumb to the woman standing by his +side. She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fashion +pretty. She wore a white dress and a large white hat. Her fat calves in +white cotton stockings bulged over the tops of long white boots in glacé +kid. She gave Macphail an ingratiating smile. + +"The feller's tryin' to soak me a dollar and a half a day for the +meanest sized room," she said in a hoarse voice. + +"I tell you she's a friend of mine, Jo," said the quartermaster. "She +can't pay more than a dollar, and you've sure got to take her for that." + +The trader was fat and smooth and quietly smiling. + +"Well, if you put it like that, Mr Swan, I'll see what I can do about +it. I'll talk to Mrs Horn and if we think we can make a reduction we +will." + +"Don't try to pull that stuff with me," said Miss Thompson. "We'll +settle this right now. You get a dollar a day for the room and not one +bean more." + +Dr Macphail smiled. He admired the effrontery with which she bargained. +He was the sort of man who always paid what he was asked. He preferred +to be over-charged than to haggle. The trader sighed. + +"Well, to oblige Mr Swan I'll take it." + +"That's the goods," said Miss Thompson. "Come right in and have a shot +of hooch. I've got some real good rye in that grip if you'll bring it +along, Mr Swan. You come along too, doctor." + +"Oh, I don't think I will, thank you," he answered. "I'm just going down +to see that our luggage is all right." + +He stepped out into the rain. It swept in from the opening of the +harbour in sheets and the opposite shore was all blurred. He passed two +or three natives clad in nothing but the _lava-lava_, with huge +umbrellas over them. They walked finely, with leisurely movements, very +upright; and they smiled and greeted him in a strange tongue as they +went by. + +It was nearly dinner-time when he got back, and their meal was laid in +the trader's parlour. It was a room designed not to live in but for +purposes of prestige, and it had a musty, melancholy air. A suite of +stamped plush was arranged neatly round the walls, and from the middle +of the ceiling, protected from the flies by yellow tissue paper, hung a +gilt chandelier. Davidson did not come. + +"I know he went to call on the governor," said Mrs Davidson, "and I +guess he's kept him to dinner." + +A little native girl brought them a dish of Hamburger steak, and after +a while the trader came up to see that they had everything they wanted. + +"I see we have a fellow lodger, Mr Horn," said Dr Macphail. + +"She's taken a room, that's all," answered the trader. "She's getting +her own board." + +He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air. + +"I put her downstairs so she shouldn't be in the way. She won't be any +trouble to you." + +"Is it someone who was on the boat?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"Yes, ma'am, she was in the second cabin. She was going to Apia. She has +a position as cashier waiting for her." + +"Oh!" + +When the trader was gone Macphail said: + +"I shouldn't think she'd find it exactly cheerful having her meals in +her room." + +"If she was in the second cabin I guess she'd rather," answered Mrs +Davidson. "I don't exactly know who it can be." + +"I happened to be there when the quartermaster brought her along. Her +name's Thompson." + +"It's not the woman who was dancing with the quartermaster last night?" +asked Mrs Davidson. + +"That's who it must be," said Mrs Macphail. "I wondered at the time what +she was. She looked rather fast to me." + +"Not good style at all," said Mrs Davidson. + +They began to talk of other things, and after dinner, tired with their +early rise, they separated and slept. When they awoke, though the sky +was still grey and the clouds hung low, it was not raining and they went +for a walk on the high road which the Americans had built along the bay. + +On their return they found that Davidson had just come in. + +"We may be here for a fortnight," he said irritably. "I've argued it out +with the governor, but he says there is nothing to be done." + +"Mr Davidson's just longing to get back to his work," said his wife, +with an anxious glance at him. + +"We've been away for a year," he said, walking up and down the verandah. +"The mission has been in charge of native missionaries and I'm terribly +nervous that they've let things slide. They're good men, I'm not saying +a word against them, God-fearing, devout, and truly Christian men--their +Christianity would put many so-called Christians at home to the +blush--but they're pitifully lacking in energy. They can make a stand +once, they can make a stand twice, but they can't make a stand all the +time. If you leave a mission in charge of a native missionary, no matter +how trustworthy he seems, in course of time you'll find he's let abuses +creep in." + +Mr Davidson stood still. With his tall, spare form, and his great eyes +flashing out of his pale face, he was an impressive figure. His +sincerity was obvious in the fire of his gestures and in his deep, +ringing voice. + +"I expect to have my work cut out for me. I shall act and I shall act +promptly. If the tree is rotten it shall be cut down and cast into the +flames." + +And in the evening after the high tea which was their last meal, while +they sat in the stiff parlour, the ladies working and Dr Macphail +smoking his pipe, the missionary told them of his work in the islands. + +"When we went there they had no sense of sin at all," he said. "They +broke the commandments one after the other and never knew they were +doing wrong. And I think that was the most difficult part of my work, to +instil into the natives the sense of sin." + +The Macphails knew already that Davidson had worked in the Solomons for +five years before he met his wife. She had been a missionary in China, +and they had become acquainted in Boston, where they were both spending +part of their leave to attend a missionary congress. On their marriage +they had been appointed to the islands in which they had laboured ever +since. + +In the course of all the conversations they had had with Mr Davidson one +thing had shone out clearly and that was the man's unflinching courage. +He was a medical missionary, and he was liable to be called at any time +to one or other of the islands in the group. Even the whaleboat is not +so very safe a conveyance in the stormy Pacific of the wet season, but +often he would be sent for in a canoe, and then the danger was great. In +cases of illness or accident he never hesitated. A dozen times he had +spent the whole night baling for his life, and more than once Mrs +Davidson had given him up for lost. + +"I'd beg him not to go sometimes," she said, "or at least to wait till +the weather was more settled, but he'd never listen. He's obstinate, and +when he's once made up his mind, nothing can move him." + +"How can I ask the natives to put their trust in the Lord if I am afraid +to do so myself?" cried Davidson. "And I'm not, I'm not. They know that +if they send for me in their trouble I'll come if it's humanly possible. +And do you think the Lord is going to abandon me when I am on his +business? The wind blows at his bidding and the waves toss and rage at +his word." + +Dr Macphail was a timid man. He had never been able to get used to the +hurtling of the shells over the trenches, and when he was operating in +an advanced dressing-station the sweat poured from his brow and dimmed +his spectacles in the effort he made to control his unsteady hand. He +shuddered' a little as he looked at the missionary. + +"I wish I could say that I've never been afraid," he said. + +"I wish you could say that you believed in God," retorted the other. + +But for some reason, that evening the missionary's thoughts travelled +back to the early days he and his wife had spent on the islands. + +"Sometimes Mrs Davidson and I would look at one another and the tears +would stream down our cheeks. We worked without ceasing, day and night, +and we seemed to make no progress. I don't know what I should have done +without her then. When I felt my heart sink, when I was very near +despair, she gave me courage and hope." + +Mrs Davidson looked down at her work, and a slight colour rose to her +thin cheeks. Her hands trembled a little. She did not trust herself to +speak. + +"We had no one to help us. We were alone, thousands of miles from any of +our own people, surrounded by darkness. When I was broken and weary she +would put her work aside and take the Bible and read to me till peace +came and settled upon me like sleep upon the eyelids of a child, and +when at last she closed the book she'd say: 'We'll save them in spite of +themselves.' And I felt strong again in the Lord, and I answered: 'Yes, +with God's help I'll save them. I must save them.'" + +He came over to the table and stood in front of it as though it were a +lectern. + +"You see, they were so naturally depraved that they couldn't be brought +to see their wickedness. We had to make sins out of what they thought +were natural actions. We had to make it a sin, not only to commit +adultery and to lie and thieve, but to expose their bodies, and to dance +and not to come to church. I made it a sin for a girl to show her bosom +and a sin for a man not to wear trousers." + +"How?" asked Dr Macphail, not without surprise. + +"I instituted fines. Obviously the only way to make people realise that +an action is sinful is to punish them if they commit it. I fined them if +they didn't come to church, and I fined them if they danced. I fined +them if they were improperly dressed. I had a tariff, and every sin had +to be paid for either in money or work. And at last I made them +understand." + +"But did they never refuse to pay?" + +"How could they?" asked the missionary. + +"It would be a brave man who tried to stand up against Mr Davidson," +said his wife, tightening her lips. + +Dr Macphail looked at Davidson with troubled eyes. What he heard +shocked him, but he hesitated to express his disapproval. + +"You must remember that in the last resort I could expel them from their +church membership." + +"Did they mind that?" + +Davidson smiled a little and gently rubbed his hands. + +"They couldn't sell their copra. When the men fished they got no share +of the catch. It meant something very like starvation. Yes, they minded +quite a lot." + +"Tell him about Fred Ohlson," said Mrs Davidson. + +The missionary fixed his fiery eyes on Dr Macphail. + +"Fred Ohlson was a Danish trader who had been in the islands a good many +years. He was a pretty rich man as traders go and he wasn't very pleased +when we came. You see, he'd had things very much his own way. He paid +the natives what he liked for their copra, and he paid in goods and +whiskey. He had a native wife, but he was flagrantly unfaithful to her. +He was a drunkard. I gave him a chance to mend his ways, but he +wouldn't take it. He laughed at me." + +Davidson's voice fell to a deep bass as he said the last words, and he +was silent for a minute or two. The silence was heavy with menace. + +"In two years he was a ruined man. He'd lost everything he'd saved in a +quarter of a century. I broke him, and at last he was forced to come to +me like a beggar and beseech me to give him a passage back to Sydney." + +"I wish you could have seen him when he came to see Mr Davidson," said +the missionary's wife. "He had been a fine, powerful man, with a lot of +fat on him, and he had a great big voice, but now he was half the size, +and he was shaking all over. He'd suddenly become an old man." + +With abstracted gaze Davidson looked out into the night. The rain was +falling again. + +Suddenly from below came a sound, and Davidson turned and looked +questioningly at his wife. It was the sound of a gramophone, harsh and +loud, wheezing out a syncopated tune. + +"What's that?" he asked. + +Mrs Davidson fixed her _pince-nez_ more firmly on her nose. + +"One of the second-class passengers has a room in the house. I guess it +comes from there." + +They listened in silence, and presently they heard the sound of dancing. +Then the music stopped, and they heard the popping of corks and voices +raised in animated conversation. + +"I daresay she's giving a farewell party to her friends on board," said +Dr Macphail. "The ship sails at twelve, doesn't it?" + +Davidson made no remark, but he looked at his watch. + +"Are you ready?" he asked his wife. + +She got up and folded her work. + +"Yes, I guess I am," she answered. + +"It's early to go to bed yet, isn't it?" said the doctor. + +"We have a good deal of reading to do," explained Mrs Davidson. +"Wherever we are, we read a chapter of the Bible before retiring for the +night and we study it with the commentaries, you know, and discuss it +thoroughly. It's a wonderful training for the mind." + +The two couples bade one another good night. Dr and Mrs Macphail were +left alone. For two or three minutes they did not speak. + +"I think I'll go and fetch the cards," the doctor said at last. + +Mrs Macphail looked at him doubtfully. Her conversation with the +Davidsons had left her a little uneasy, but she did not like to say that +she thought they had better not play cards when the Davidsons might come +in at any moment. Dr Macphail brought them and she watched him, though +with a vague sense of guilt, while he laid out his patience. Below the +sound of revelry continued. + +It was fine enough next day, and the Macphails, condemned to spend a +fortnight of idleness at Pago-Pago, set about making the best of things. +They went down to the quay and got out of their boxes a number of +books. The doctor called on the chief surgeon of the naval hospital and +went round the beds with him. They left cards on the governor. They +passed Miss Thompson on the road. The doctor took off his hat, and she +gave him a "Good morning, doc.," in a loud, cheerful voice. She was +dressed as on the day before, in a white frock, and her shiny white +boots with their high heels, her fat legs bulging over the tops of them, +were strange things on that exotic scene. + +"I don't think she's very suitably dressed, I must say," said Mrs +Macphail. "She looks extremely common to me." + +When they got back to their house, she was on the verandah playing with +one of the trader's dark children. + +"Say a word to her," Dr Macphail whispered to his wife. "She's all alone +here, and it seems rather unkind to ignore her." + +Mrs Macphail was shy, but she was in the habit of doing what her husband +bade her. + +"I think we're fellow lodgers here," she said, rather foolishly. + +"Terrible, ain't it, bein' cooped up in a one-horse burg like this?" +answered Miss Thompson. "And they tell me I'm lucky to have gotten a +room. I don't see myself livin' in a native house, and that's what some +have to do. I don't know why they don't have a hotel." + +They exchanged a few more words. Miss Thompson, loud-voiced and +garrulous, was evidently quite willing to gossip, but Mrs Macphail had +a poor stock of small talk and presently she said: + +"Well, I think we must go upstairs." + +In the evening when they sat down to their high-tea Davidson on coming +in said: + +"I see that woman downstairs has a couple of sailors sitting there. I +wonder how she's gotten acquainted with them." + +"She can't be very particular," said Mrs Davidson. + +They were all rather tired after the idle, aimless day. + +"If there's going to be a fortnight of this I don't know what we shall +feel like at the end of it," said Dr Macphail. + +"The only thing to do is to portion out the day to different +activities," answered the missionary. "I shall set aside a certain +number of hours to study and a certain number to exercise, rain or +fine--in the wet season you can't afford to pay any attention to the +rain--and a certain number to recreation." + +Dr Macphail looked at his companion with misgiving. Davidson's programme +oppressed him. They were eating Hamburger steak again. It seemed the +only dish the cook knew how to make. Then below the gramophone began. +Davidson started nervously when he heard it, but said nothing. Men's +voices floated up. Miss Thompson's guests were joining in a well-known +song and presently they heard her voice too, hoarse and loud. There was +a good deal of shouting and laughing. The four people upstairs, trying +to make conversation, listened despite themselves to the clink of +glasses and the scrape of chairs. More people had evidently come. Miss +Thompson was giving a party. + +"I wonder how she gets them all in," said Mrs Macphail, suddenly +breaking into a medical conversation between the missionary and her +husband. + +It showed whither her thoughts were wandering. The twitch of Davidson's +face proved that, though he spoke of scientific things, his mind was +busy in the same direction. Suddenly, while the doctor was giving some +experience of practice on the Flanders front, rather prosily, he sprang +to his feet with a cry. + +"What's the matter, Alfred?" asked Mrs Davidson. + +"Of course! It never occurred to me. She's out of Iwelei." + +"She can't be." + +"She came on board at Honolulu. It's obvious. And she's carrying on her +trade here. Here." + +He uttered the last word with a passion of indignation. + +"What's Iwelei?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +He turned his gloomy eyes on her and his voice trembled with horror. + +"The plague spot of Honolulu. The Red Light district. It was a blot on +our civilisation." + +Iwelei was on the edge of the city. You went down side streets by the +harbour, in the darkness, across a rickety bridge, till you came to a +deserted road, all ruts and holes, and then suddenly you came out into +the light. There was parking room for motors on each side of the road, +and there were saloons, tawdry and bright, each one noisy with its +mechanical piano, and there were barbers' shops and tobacconists. There +was a stir in the air and a sense of expectant gaiety. You turned down a +narrow alley, either to the right or to the left, for the road divided +Iwelei into two parts, and you found yourself in the district. There +were rows of little bungalows, trim and neatly painted in green, and the +pathway between them was broad and straight. It was laid out like a +garden-city. In its respectable regularity, its order and spruceness, it +gave an impression of sardonic horror; for never can the search for love +have been so systematised and ordered. The pathways were lit by a rare +lamp, but they would have been dark except for the lights that came from +the open windows of the bungalows. Men wandered about, looking at the +women who sat at their windows, reading or sewing, for the most part +taking no notice of the passers-by; and like the women they were of all +nationalities. There were Americans, sailors from the ships in port, +enlisted men off the gunboats, sombrely drunk, and soldiers from the +regiments, white and black, quartered on the island; there were +Japanese, walking in twos and threes; Hawaiians, Chinese in long robes, +and Filipinos in preposterous hats. They were silent and as it were +oppressed. Desire is sad. + +"It was the most crying scandal of the Pacific," exclaimed Davidson +vehemently. "The missionaries had been agitating against it for years, +and at last the local press took it up. The police refused to stir. You +know their argument. They say that vice is inevitable and consequently +the best thing is to localise and control it. The truth is, they were +paid. Paid. They were paid by the saloon-keepers, paid by the bullies, +paid by the women themselves. At last they were forced to move." + +"I read about it in the papers that came on board in Honolulu," said Dr +Macphail. + +"Iwelei, with its sin and shame, ceased to exist on the very day we +arrived. The whole population was brought before the justices. I don't +know why I didn't understand at once what that woman was." + +"Now you come to speak of it," said Mrs Macphail, "I remember seeing her +come on board only a few minutes before the boat sailed. I remember +thinking at the time she was cutting it rather fine." + +"How dare she come here!" cried Davidson indignantly. "I'm not going to +allow it." + +He strode towards the door. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Macphail. + +"What do you expect me to do? I'm going to stop it. I'm not going to +have this house turned into--into...." + +He sought for a word that should not offend the ladies' ears. His eyes +were flashing and his pale face was paler still in his emotion. + +"It sounds as though there were three or four men down there," said the +doctor. "Don't you think it's rather rash to go in just now?" + +The missionary gave him a contemptuous look and without a word flung out +of the room. + +"You know Mr Davidson very little if you think the fear of personal +danger can stop him in the performance of his duty," said his wife. + +She sat with her hands nervously clasped, a spot of colour on her high +cheek bones, listening to what was about to happen below. They all +listened. They heard him clatter down the wooden stairs and throw open +the door. The singing stopped suddenly, but the gramophone continued to +bray out its vulgar tune. They heard Davidson's voice and then the noise +of something heavy falling. The music stopped. He had hurled the +gramophone on the floor. Then again they heard Davidson's voice, they +could not make out the words, then Miss Thompson's, loud and shrill, +then a confused clamour as though several people were shouting together +at the top of their lungs. Mrs Davidson gave a little gasp, and she +clenched her hands more tightly. Dr Macphail looked uncertainly from her +to his wife. He did not want to go down, but he wondered if they +expected him to. Then there was something that sounded like a scuffle. +The noise now was more distinct. It might be that Davidson was being +thrown out of the room. The door was slammed. There was a moment's +silence and they heard Davidson come up the stairs again. He went to his +room. + +"I think I'll go to him," said Mrs Davidson. + +She got up and went out. + +"If you want me, just call," said Mrs Macphail, and then when the other +was gone: "I hope he isn't hurt." + +"Why couldn't he mind his own business?" said Dr Macphail. + +They sat in silence for a minute or two and then they both started, for +the gramophone began to play once more, defiantly, and mocking voices +shouted hoarsely the words of an obscene song. + +Next day Mrs Davidson was pale and tired. She complained of headache, +and she looked old and wizened. She told Mrs Macphail that the +missionary had not slept at all; he had passed the night in a state of +frightful agitation and at five had got up and gone out. A glass of beer +had been thrown over him and his clothes were stained and stinking. But +a sombre fire glowed in Mrs Davidson's eyes when she spoke of Miss +Thompson. + +"She'll bitterly rue the day when she flouted Mr Davidson," she said. +"Mr Davidson has a wonderful heart and no one who is in trouble has ever +gone to him without being comforted, but he has no mercy for sin, and +when his righteous wrath is excited he's terrible." + +"Why, what will he do?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"I don't know, but I wouldn't stand in that creature's shoes for +anything in the world." + +Mrs Macphail shuddered. There was something positively alarming in the +triumphant assurance of the little woman's manner. They were going out +together that morning, and they went down the stairs side by side. Miss +Thompson's door was open, and they saw her in a bedraggled +dressing-gown, cooking something in a chafing-dish. + +"Good morning," she called. "Is Mr Davidson better this morning?" + +They passed her in silence, with their noses in the air, as if she did +not exist. They flushed, however, when she burst into a shout of +derisive laughter. Mrs Davidson turned on her suddenly. + +"Don't you dare to speak to me," she screamed. "If you insult me I shall +have you turned out of here." + +"Say, did I ask Mr Davidson to visit with me?" + +"Don't answer her," whispered Mrs Macphail hurriedly. + +They walked on till they were out of earshot. + +"She's brazen, brazen," burst from Mrs Davidson. + +Her anger almost suffocated her. + +And on their way home they met her strolling towards the quay. She had +all her finery on. Her great white hat with its vulgar, showy flowers +was an affront. She called out cheerily to them as she went by, and a +couple of American sailors who were standing there grinned as the ladies +set their faces to an icy stare. They got in just before the rain began +to fall again. + +"I guess she'll get her fine clothes spoilt," said Mrs Davidson with a +bitter sneer. + +Davidson did not come in till they were half way through dinner. He was +wet through, but he would not change. He sat, morose and silent, +refusing to eat more than a mouthful, and he stared at the slanting +rain. When Mrs Davidson told him of their two encounters with Miss +Thompson he did not answer. His deepening frown alone showed that he had +heard. + +"Don't you think we ought to make Mr Horn turn her out of here?" asked +Mrs Davidson. "We can't allow her to insult us." + +"There doesn't seem to be any other place for her to go," said Macphail. + +"She can live with one of the natives." + +"In weather like this a native hut must be a rather uncomfortable place +to live in." + +"I lived in one for years," said the missionary. + +When the little native girl brought in the fried bananas which formed +the sweet they had every day, Davidson turned to her. + +"Ask Miss Thompson when it would be convenient for me to see her," he +said. + +The girl nodded shyly and went out. + +"What do you want to see her for, Alfred?" asked his wife. + +"It's my duty to see her. I won't act till I've given her every chance." + +"You don't know what she is. She'll insult you." + +"Let her insult me. Let her spit on me. She has an immortal soul, and I +must do all that is in my power to save it." + +Mrs Davidson's ears rang still with the harlot's mocking laughter. + +"She's gone too far." + +"Too far for the mercy of God?" His eyes lit up suddenly and his voice +grew mellow and soft. "Never. The sinner may be deeper in sin than the +depth of hell itself, but the love of the Lord Jesus can reach him +still." + +The girl came back with the message. + +"Miss Thompson's compliments and as long as Rev. Davidson don't come in +business hours she'll be glad to see him any time." + +The party received it in stony silence, and Dr Macphail quickly effaced +from his lips the smile which had come upon them. He knew his wife would +be vexed with him if he found Miss Thompson's effrontery amusing. + +They finished the meal in silence. When it was over the two ladies got +up and took their work, Mrs Macphail was making another of the +innumerable comforters which she had turned out since the beginning of +the war, and the doctor lit his pipe. But Davidson remained in his chair +and with abstracted eyes stared at the table. At last he got up and +without a word went out of the room. They heard him go down and they +heard Miss Thompson's defiant "Come in" when he knocked at the door. He +remained with her for an hour. And Dr Macphail watched the rain. It was +beginning to get on his nerves. It was not like our soft English rain +that drops gently on the earth; it was unmerciful and somehow terrible; +you felt in it the malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did +not pour, it flowed. It was like a deluge from heaven, and it rattled on +the roof of corrugated iron with a steady persistence that was +maddening. It seemed to have a fury of its own. And sometimes you felt +that you must scream if it did not stop, and then suddenly you felt +powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft; and you were +miserable and hopeless. + +Macphail turned his head when the missionary came back. The two women +looked up. + +"I've given her every chance. I have exhorted her to repent. She is an +evil woman." + +He paused, and Dr Macphail saw his eyes darken and his pale face grow +hard and stern. + +"Now I shall take the whips with which the Lord Jesus drove the usurers +and the money changers out of the Temple of the Most High." + +He walked up and down the room. His mouth was close set, and his black +brows were frowning. + +"If she fled to the uttermost parts of the earth I should pursue her." + +With a sudden movement he turned round and strode out of the room. They +heard him go downstairs again. + +"What is he going to do?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"I don't know." Mrs Davidson took off her _pince-nez_ and wiped them. +"When he is on the Lord's work I never ask him questions." + +She sighed a little. + +"What is the matter?" + +"He'll wear himself out. He doesn't know what it is to spare himself." + +Dr Macphail learnt the first results of the missionary's activity from +the half-caste trader in whose house they lodged. He stopped the doctor +when he passed the store and came out to speak to him on the stoop. His +fat face was worried. + +"The Rev. Davidson has been at me for letting Miss Thompson have a room +here," he said, "but I didn't know what she was when I rented it to her. +When people come and ask if I can rent them a room all I want to know is +if they've the money to pay for it. And she paid me for hers a week in +advance." + +Dr Macphail did not want to commit himself. + +"When all's said and done it's your house. We're very much obliged to +you for taking us in at all." + +Horn looked at him doubtfully. He was not certain yet how definitely +Macphail stood on the missionary's side. + +"The missionaries are in with one another," he said, hesitatingly. "If +they get it in for a trader he may just as well shut up his store and +quit." + +"Did he want you to turn her out?" + +"No, he said so long as she behaved herself he couldn't ask me to do +that. He said he wanted to be just to me. I promised she shouldn't have +no more visitors. I've just been and told her." + +"How did she take it?" + +"She gave me Hell." + +The trader squirmed in his old ducks. He had found Miss Thompson a rough +customer. + +"Oh, well, I daresay she'll get out. I don't suppose she wants to stay +here if she can't have anyone in." + +"There's nowhere she can go, only a native house, and no native'll take +her now, not now that the missionaries have got their knife in her." + +Dr Macphail looked at the falling rain. + +"Well, I don't suppose it's any good waiting for it to clear up." + +In the evening when they sat in the parlour Davidson talked to them of +his early days at college. He had had no means and had worked his way +through by doing odd jobs during the vacations. There was silence +downstairs. Miss Thompson was sitting in her little room alone. But +suddenly the gramophone began to play. She had set it on in defiance, to +cheat her loneliness, but there was no one to sing, and it had a +melancholy note. It was like a cry for help. Davidson took no notice. He +was in the middle of a long anecdote and without change of expression +went on. The gramophone continued. Miss Thompson put on one reel after +another. It looked as though the silence of the night were getting on +her nerves. It was breathless and sultry. When the Macphails went to bed +they could not sleep. They lay side by side with their eyes wide open, +listening to the cruel singing of the mosquitoes outside their curtain. + +"What's that?" whispered Mrs Macphail at last. + +They heard a voice, Davidson's voice, through the wooden partition. It +went on with a monotonous, earnest insistence. He was praying aloud. He +was praying for the soul of Miss Thompson. + +Two or three days went by. Now when they passed Miss Thompson on the +road she did not greet them with ironic cordiality or smile; she passed +with her nose in the air, a sulky look on her painted face, frowning, as +though she did not see them. The trader told Macphail that she had tried +to get lodging elsewhere, but had failed. In the evening she played +through the various reels of her gramophone, but the pretence of mirth +was obvious now. The ragtime had a cracked, heart-broken rhythm as +though it were a one-step of despair. When she began to play on Sunday +Davidson sent Horn to beg her to stop at once since it was the Lord's +day. The reel was taken off and the house was silent except for the +steady pattering of the rain on the iron roof. + +"I think she's getting a bit worked up," said the trader next day to +Macphail. "She don't know what Mr Davidson's up to and it makes her +scared." + +Macphail had caught a glimpse of her that morning and it struck him that +her arrogant expression had changed. There was in her face a hunted +look. The half-caste gave him a sidelong glance. + +"I suppose you don't know what Mr Davidson is doing about it?" he +hazarded. + +"No, I don't." + +It was singular that Horn should ask him that question, for he also had +the idea that the missionary was mysteriously at work. He had an +impression that he was weaving a net around the woman, carefully, +systematically, and suddenly, when everything was ready would pull the +strings tight. + +"He told me to tell her," said the trader, "that if at any time she +wanted him she only had to send and he'd come." + +"What did she say when you told her that?" + +"She didn't say nothing. I didn't stop. I just said what he said I was +to and then I beat it. I thought she might be going to start weepin'." + +"I have no doubt the loneliness is getting on her nerves," said the +doctor. "And the rain--that's enough to make anyone jumpy," he continued +irritably. "Doesn't it ever stop in this confounded place?" + +"It goes on pretty steady in the rainy season. We have three hundred +inches in the year. You see, it's the shape of the bay. It seems to +attract the rain from all over the Pacific." + +"Damn the shape of the bay," said the doctor. + +He scratched his mosquito bites. He felt very short-tempered. When the +rain stopped and the sun shone, it was like a hothouse, seething, humid, +sultry, breathless, and you had a strange feeling that everything was +growing with a savage violence. The natives, blithe and childlike by +reputation, seemed then, with their tattooing and their dyed hair, to +have something sinister in their appearance; and when they pattered +along at your heels with their naked feet you looked back instinctively. +You felt they might at any moment come behind you swiftly and thrust a +long knife between your shoulder blades. You could not tell what dark +thoughts lurked behind their wide-set eyes. They had a little the look +of ancient Egyptians painted on a temple wall, and there was about them +the terror of what is immeasurably old. + +The missionary came and went. He was busy, but the Macphails did not +know what he was doing. Horn told the doctor that he saw the governor +every day, and once Davidson mentioned him. + +"He looks as if he had plenty of determination," he said, "but when you +come down to brass tacks he has no backbone." + +"I suppose that means he won't do exactly what you want," suggested the +doctor facetiously. + +The missionary did not smile. + +"I want him to do what's right. It shouldn't be necessary to persuade a +man to do that." + +"But there may be differences of opinion about what is right." + +"If a man had a gangrenous foot would you have patience with anyone who +hesitated to amputate it?" + +"Gangrene is a matter of fact." + +"And Evil?" + +What Davidson had done soon appeared. The four of them had just finished +their midday meal, and they had not yet separated for the siesta which +the heat imposed on the ladies and on the doctor. Davidson had little +patience with the slothful habit. The door was suddenly flung open and +Miss Thompson came in. She looked round the room and then went up to +Davidson. + +"You low-down skunk, what have you been saying about me to the +governor?" + +She was spluttering with rage. There was a moment's pause. Then the +missionary drew forward a chair. + +"Won't you be seated, Miss Thompson? I've been hoping to have another +talk with you." + +"You poor low-life bastard." + +She burst into a torrent of insult, foul and insolent. Davidson kept his +grave eyes on her. + +"I'm indifferent to the abuse you think fit to heap on me, Miss +Thompson," he said, "but I must beg you to remember that ladies are +present." + +Tears by now were struggling with her anger. Her face was red and +swollen as though she were choking. + +"What has happened?" asked Dr Macphail. + +"A feller's just been in here and he says I gotter beat it on the next +boat." + +Was there a gleam in the missionary's eyes? His face remained impassive. + +"You could hardly expect the governor to let you stay here under the +circumstances." + +"You done it," she shrieked. "You can't kid me. You done it." + +"I don't want to deceive you. I urged the governor to take the only +possible step consistent with his obligations." + +"Why couldn't you leave me be? I wasn't doin' you no harm." + +"You may be sure that if you had I should be the last man to resent it." + +"Do you think I want to stay on in this poor imitation of a burg? I +don't look no busher, do I?" + +"In that case I don't see what cause of complaint you have," he +answered. + +She gave an inarticulate cry of rage and flung out of the room. There +was a short silence. + +"It's a relief to know that the governor has acted at last," said +Davidson finally. "He's a weak man and he shilly-shallied. He said she +was only here for a fortnight anyway, and if she went on to Apia that +was under British jurisdiction and had nothing to do with him." + +The missionary sprang to his feet and strode across the room. + +"It's terrible the way the men who are in authority seek to evade their +responsibility. They speak as though evil that was out of sight ceased +to be evil. The very existence of that woman is a scandal and it does +not help matters to shift it to another of the islands. In the end I had +to speak straight from the shoulder." + +Davidson's brow lowered, and he protruded his firm chin. He looked +fierce and determined. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Our mission is not entirely without influence at Washington. I pointed +out to the governor that it wouldn't do him any good if there was a +complaint about the way he managed things here." + +"When has she got to go?" asked the doctor, after a pause. + +"The San Francisco boat is due here from Sydney next Tuesday. She's to +sail on that." + +That was in five days' time. It was next day, when he was coming back +from the hospital where for want of something better to do Macphail +spent most of his mornings, that the half-caste stopped him as he was +going upstairs. + +"Excuse me, Dr Macphail, Miss Thompson's sick. Will you have a look at +her." + +"Certainly." + +Horn led him to her room. She was sitting in a chair idly, neither +reading nor sewing, staring in front of her. She wore her white dress +and the large hat with the flowers on it. Macphail noticed that her skin +was yellow and muddy under her powder, and her eyes were heavy. + +"I'm sorry to hear you're not well," he said. + +"Oh, I ain't sick really. I just said that, because I just had to see +you. I've got to clear on a boat that's going to 'Frisco." + +She looked at him and he saw that her eyes were suddenly startled. She +opened and clenched her hands spasmodically. The trader stood at the +door, listening. + +"So I understand," said the doctor. + +She gave a little gulp. + +"I guess it ain't very convenient for me to go to 'Frisco just now. I +went to see the governor yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't get to him. +I saw the secretary, and he told me I'd got to take that boat and that +was all there was to it. I just had to see the governor, so I waited +outside his house this morning, and when he come out I spoke to him. He +didn't want to speak to me, I'll say, but I wouldn't let him shake me +off, and at last he said he hadn't no objection to my staying here till +the next boat to Sydney if the Rev. Davidson will stand for it." + +She stopped and looked at Dr Macphail anxiously. + +"I don't know exactly what I can do," he said. + +"Well, I thought maybe you wouldn't mind asking him. I swear to God I +won't start anything here if he'll just only let me stay. I won't go out +of the house if that'll suit him. It's no more'n a fortnight." + +"I'll ask him." + +"He won't stand for it," said Horn. "He'll have you out on Tuesday, so +you may as well make up your mind to it." + +"Tell him I can get work in Sydney, straight stuff, I mean. 'Tain't +asking very much." + +"I'll do what I can." + +"And come and tell me right away, will you? I can't set down to a thing +till I get the dope one way or the other." + +It was not an errand that much pleased the doctor, and, +characteristically perhaps, he went about it indirectly. He told his +wife what Miss Thompson had said to him and asked her to speak to Mrs +Davidson. The missionary's attitude seemed rather arbitrary and it could +do no harm if the girl were allowed to stay in Pago-Pago another +fortnight. But he was not prepared for the result of his diplomacy. The +missionary came to him straightway. + +"Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you." + +Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at +being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he +flushed. + +"I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney +rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave +while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her." + +The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes. + +"Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?" + +"I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think +one does better to mind one's own business." + +Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer. + +"The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that +leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her +presence is a peril here." + +"I think you're very harsh and tyrannical." + +The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need +not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently. + +"I'm terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr Macphail. Believe +me, my heart bleeds for that unfortunate woman, but I'm only trying to +do my duty." + +The doctor made no answer. He looked out of the window sullenly. For +once it was not raining and across the bay you saw nestling among the +trees the huts of a native village. + +"I think I'll take advantage of the rain stopping to go out," he said. + +"Please don't bear me malice because I can't accede to your wish," said +Davidson, with a melancholy smile. "I respect you very much, doctor, and +I should be sorry if you thought ill of me." + +"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently good opinion of yourself to +bear mine with equanimity," he retorted. + +"That's one on me," chuckled Davidson. + +When Dr Macphail, vexed with himself because he had been uncivil to no +purpose, went downstairs, Miss Thompson was waiting for him with her +door ajar. + +"Well," she said, "have you spoken to him?" + +"Yes, I'm sorry, he won't do anything," he answered, not looking at her +in his embarrassment. + +But then he gave her a quick glance, for a sob broke from her. He saw +that her face was white with fear. It gave him a shock of dismay. And +suddenly he had an idea. + +"But don't give up hope yet. I think it's a shame the way they're +treating you and I'm going to see the governor myself." + +"Now?" + +He nodded. Her face brightened. + +"Say, that's real good of you. I'm sure he'll let me stay if you speak +for me. I just won't do a thing I didn't ought all the time I'm here." + +Dr Macphail hardly knew why he had made up his mind to appeal to the +governor. He was perfectly indifferent to Miss Thompson's affairs, but +the missionary had irritated him, and with him temper was a smouldering +thing. He found the governor at home. He was a large, handsome man, a +sailor, with a grey toothbrush moustache; and he wore a spotless uniform +of white drill. + +"I've come to see you about a woman who's lodging in the same house as +we are," he said. "Her name's Thompson." + +"I guess I've heard nearly enough about her, Dr Macphail," said the +governor, smiling. "I've given her the order to get out next Tuesday and +that's all I can do." + +"I wanted to ask you if you couldn't stretch a point and let her stay +here till the boat comes in from San Francisco so that she can go to +Sydney. I will guarantee her good behaviour." + +The governor continued to smile, but his eyes grew small and serious. + +"I'd be very glad to oblige you, Dr Macphail, but I've given the order +and it must stand." + +The doctor put the case as reasonably as he could, but now the governor +ceased to smile at all. He listened sullenly, with averted gaze. +Macphail saw that he was making no impression. + +"I'm sorry to cause any lady inconvenience, but she'll have to sail on +Tuesday and that's all there is to it." + +"But what difference can it make?" + +"Pardon me, doctor, but I don't feel called upon to explain my official +actions except to the proper authorities." + +Macphail looked at him shrewdly. He remembered Davidson's hint that he +had used threats, and in the governor's attitude he read a singular +embarrassment. + +"Davidson's a damned busybody," he said hotly. + +"Between ourselves, Dr Macphail, I don't say that I have formed a very +favourable opinion of Mr Davidson, but I am bound to confess that he +was within his rights in pointing out to me the danger that the presence +of a woman of Miss Thompson's character was to a place like this where a +number of enlisted men are stationed among a native population." + +He got up and Dr Macphail was obliged to do so too. + +"I must ask you to excuse me. I have an engagement. Please give my +respects to Mrs Macphail." + +The doctor left him crest-fallen. He knew that Miss Thompson would be +waiting for him, and unwilling to tell her himself that he had failed, +he went into the house by the back door and sneaked up the stairs as +though he had something to hide. + +At supper he was silent and ill-at-ease, but the missionary was jovial +and animated. Dr Macphail thought his eyes rested on him now and then +with triumphant good-humour. It struck him suddenly that Davidson knew +of his visit to the governor and of its ill success. But how on earth +could he have heard of it? There was something sinister about the power +of that man. After supper he saw Horn on the verandah and, as though to +have a casual word with him, went out. + +"She wants to know if you've seen the governor," the trader whispered. + +"Yes. He wouldn't do anything. I'm awfully sorry, I can't do anything +more." + +"I knew he wouldn't. They daren't go against the missionaries." + +"What are you talking about?" said Davidson affably, coming out to join +them. + +"I was just saying there was no chance of your getting over to Apia for +at least another week," said the trader glibly. + +He left them, and the two men returned into the parlour. Mr Davidson +devoted one hour after each meal to recreation. Presently a timid knock +was heard at the door. + +"Come in," said Mrs Davidson, in her sharp voice. + +The door was not opened. She got up and opened it. They saw Miss +Thompson standing at the threshold. But the change in her appearance was +extraordinary. This was no longer the flaunting hussy who had jeered at +them in the road, but a broken, frightened woman. Her hair, as a rule so +elaborately arranged, was tumbling untidily over her neck. She wore +bedroom slippers and a skirt and blouse. They were unfresh and +bedraggled. She stood at the door with the tears streaming down her face +and did not dare to enter. + +"What do you want?" said Mrs Davidson harshly. + +"May I speak to Mr Davidson?" she said in a choking voice. + +The missionary rose and went towards her. + +"Come right in, Miss Thompson," he said in cordial tones. "What can I do +for you?" + +She entered the room. + +"Say, I'm sorry for what I said to you the other day an' for--for +everythin' else. I guess I was a bit lit up. I beg pardon." + +"Oh, it was nothing. I guess my back's broad enough to bear a few hard +words." + +She stepped towards him with a movement that was horribly cringing. + +"You've got me beat. I'm all in. You won't make me go back to 'Frisco?" + +His genial manner vanished and his voice grew on a sudden hard and +stern. + +"Why don't you want to go back there?" + +She cowered before him. + +"I guess my people live there. I don't want them to see me like this. +I'll go anywhere else you say." + +"Why don't you want to go back to San Francisco?" + +"I've told you." + +He leaned forward, staring at her, and his great, shining eyes seemed to +try to bore into her soul. He gave a sudden gasp. + +"The penitentiary." + +She screamed, and then she fell at his feet, clasping his legs. + +"Don't send me back there. I swear to you before God I'll be a good +woman. I'll give all this up." + +She burst into a torrent of confused supplication and the tears coursed +down her painted cheeks. He leaned over her and, lifting her face, +forced her to look at him. + +"Is that it, the penitentiary?" + +"I beat it before they could get me," she gasped. "If the bulls grab me +it's three years for mine." + +He let go his hold of her and she fell in a heap on the floor, sobbing +bitterly. Dr Macphail stood up. + +"This alters the whole thing," he said. "You can't make her go back when +you know this. Give her another chance. She wants to turn over a new +leaf." + +"I'm going to give her the finest chance she's ever had. If she repents +let her accept her punishment." + +She misunderstood the words and looked up. There was a gleam of hope in +her heavy eyes. + +"You'll let me go?" + +"No. You shall sail for San Francisco on Tuesday." + +She gave a groan of horror and then burst into low, hoarse shrieks which +sounded hardly human, and she beat her head passionately on the ground. +Dr Macphail sprang to her and lifted her up. + +"Come on, you mustn't do that. You'd better go to your room and lie +down. I'll get you something." + +He raised her to her feet and partly dragging her, partly carrying her, +got her downstairs. He was furious with Mrs Davidson and with his wife +because they made no effort to help. The half-caste was standing on the +landing and with his assistance he managed to get her on the bed. She +was moaning and crying. She was almost insensible. He gave her a +hypodermic injection. He was hot and exhausted when he went upstairs +again. + +"I've got her to lie down." + +The two women and Davidson were in the same positions as when he had +left them. They could not have moved or spoken since he went. + +"I was waiting for you," said Davidson, in a strange, distant voice. "I +want you all to pray with me for the soul of our erring sister." + +He took the Bible off a shelf, and sat down at the table at which they +had supped. It had not been cleared, and he pushed the tea-pot out of +the way. In a powerful voice, resonant and deep, he read to them the +chapter in which is narrated the meeting of Jesus Christ with the woman +taken in adultery. + +"Now kneel with me and let us pray for the soul of our dear sister, +Sadie Thompson." + +He burst into a long, passionate prayer in which he implored God to have +mercy on the sinful woman. Mrs Macphail and Mrs Davidson knelt with +covered eyes. The doctor, taken by surprise, awkward and sheepish, knelt +too. The missionary's prayer had a savage eloquence. He was +extraordinarily moved, and as he spoke the tears ran down his cheeks. +Outside, the pitiless rain fell, fell steadily, with a fierce malignity +that was all too human. + +At last he stopped. He paused for a moment and said: + +"We will now repeat the Lord's prayer." + +They said it and then; following him, they rose from their knees. Mrs +Davidson's face was pale and restful. She was comforted and at peace, +but the Macphails felt suddenly bashful. They did not know which way to +look. + +"I'll just go down and see how she is now," said Dr Macphail. + +When he knocked at her door it was opened for him by Horn. Miss Thompson +was in a rocking-chair, sobbing quietly. + +"What are you doing there?" exclaimed Macphail. "I told you to lie +down." + +"I can't lie down. I want to see Mr Davidson." + +"My poor child, what do you think is the good of it? You'll never move +him." + +"He said he'd come if I sent for him." + +Macphail motioned to the trader. + +"Go and fetch him." + +He waited with her in silence while the trader went upstairs. Davidson +came in. + +"Excuse me for asking you to come here," she said, looking at him +sombrely. + +"I was expecting you to send for me. I knew the Lord would answer my +prayer." + +They stared at one another for a moment and then she looked away. She +kept her eyes averted when she spoke. + +"I've been a bad woman. I want to repent." + +"Thank God! thank God! He has heard our prayers." + +He turned to the two men. + +"Leave me alone with her. Tell Mrs Davidson that our prayers have been +answered." + +They went out and closed the door behind them. + +"Gee whizz," said the trader. + +That night Dr Macphail could not get to sleep till late, and when he +heard the missionary come upstairs he looked at his watch. It was two +o'clock. But even then he did not go to bed at once, for through the +wooden partition that separated their rooms he heard him praying aloud, +till he himself, exhausted, fell asleep. + +When he saw him next morning he was surprised at his appearance. He was +paler than ever, tired, but his eyes shone with an inhuman fire. It +looked as though he were filled with an overwhelming joy. + +"I want you to go down presently and see Sadie," he said. "I can't hope +that her body is better, but her soul--her soul is transformed." + +The doctor was feeling wan and nervous. + +"You were with her very late last night," he said. + +"Yes, she couldn't bear to have me leave her." + +"You look as pleased as Punch," the doctor said irritably. + +Davidson's eyes shone with ecstasy. + +"A great mercy has been vouchsafed me. Last night I was privileged to +bring a lost soul to the loving arms of Jesus." + +Miss Thompson was again in the rocking-chair. The bed had not been made. +The room was in disorder. She had not troubled to dress herself, but +wore a dirty dressing-gown, and her hair was tied in a sluttish knot. +She had given her face a dab with a wet towel, but it was all swollen +and creased with crying. She looked a drab. + +She raised her eyes dully when the doctor came in. She was cowed and +broken. + +"Where's Mr Davidson?" she asked. + +"He'll come presently if you want him," answered Macphail acidly. "I +came here to see how you were." + +"Oh, I guess I'm O. K. You needn't worry about that." + +"Have you had anything to eat?" + +"Horn brought me some coffee." + +She looked anxiously at the door. + +"D'you think he'll come down soon? I feel as if it wasn't so terrible +when he's with me." + +"Are you still going on Tuesday?" + +"Yes, he says I've got to go. Please tell him to come right along. You +can't do me any good. He's the only one as can help me now." + +"Very well," said Dr Macphail. + +During the next three days the missionary spent almost all his time with +Sadie Thompson. He joined the others only to have his meals. Dr Macphail +noticed that he hardly ate. + +"He's wearing himself out," said Mrs Davidson pitifully. "He'll have a +breakdown if he doesn't take care, but he won't spare himself." + +She herself was white and pale. She told Mrs Macphail that she had no +sleep. When the missionary came upstairs from Miss Thompson he prayed +till he was exhausted, but even then he did not sleep for long. After an +hour or two he got up and dressed himself, and went for a tramp along +the bay. He had strange dreams. + +"This morning he told me that he'd been dreaming about the mountains of +Nebraska," said Mrs Davidson. + +"That's curious," said Dr Macphail. + +He remembered seeing them from the windows of the train when he crossed +America. They were like huge mole-hills, rounded and smooth, and they +rose from the plain abruptly. Dr Macphail remembered how it struck him +that they were like a woman's breasts. + +Davidson's restlessness was intolerable even to himself. But he was +buoyed up by a wonderful exhilaration. He was tearing out by the roots +the last vestiges of sin that lurked in the hidden corners of that poor +woman's heart. He read with her and prayed with her. + +"It's wonderful," he said to them one day at supper. "It's a true +rebirth. Her soul, which was black as night, is now pure and white like +the new-fallen snow. I am humble and afraid. Her remorse for all her +sins is beautiful. I am not worthy to touch the hem of her garment." + +"Have you the heart to send her back to San Francisco?" said the doctor. +"Three years in an American prison. I should have thought you might have +saved her from that." + +"Ah, but don't you see? It's necessary. Do you think my heart doesn't +bleed for her? I love her as I love my wife and my sister. All the time +that she is in prison I shall suffer all the pain that she suffers." + +"Bunkum," cried the doctor impatiently. + +"You don't understand because you're blind. She's sinned, and she must +suffer. I know what she'll endure. She'll be starved and tortured and +humiliated. I want her to accept the punishment of man as a sacrifice to +God. I want her to accept it joyfully. She has an opportunity which is +offered to very few of us. God is very good and very merciful." + +Davidson's voice trembled with excitement. He could hardly articulate +the words that tumbled passionately from his lips. + +"All day I pray with her and when I leave her I pray again, I pray with +all my might and main, so that Jesus may grant her this great mercy. I +want to put in her heart the passionate desire to be punished so that at +the end, even if I offered to let her go, she would refuse. I want her +to feel that the bitter punishment of prison is the thank-offering that +she places at the feet of our Blessed Lord, who gave his life for her." + +The days passed slowly. The whole household, intent on the wretched, +tortured woman downstairs, lived in a state of unnatural excitement. She +was like a victim that was being prepared for the savage rites of a +bloody idolatry. Her terror numbed her. She could not bear to let +Davidson out of her sight; it was only when he was with her that she had +courage, and she hung upon him with a slavish dependence. She cried a +great deal, and she read the Bible, and prayed. Sometimes she was +exhausted and apathetic. Then she did indeed look forward to her ordeal, +for it seemed to offer an escape, direct and concrete, from the anguish +she was enduring. She could not bear much longer the vague terrors +which now assailed her. With her sins she had put aside all personal +vanity, and she slopped about her room, unkempt and dishevelled, in her +tawdry dressing-gown. She had not taken off her night-dress for four +days, nor put on stockings. Her room was littered and untidy. Meanwhile +the rain fell with a cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must +at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, +with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and +clammy. There was mildew on the walls and on the boots that stood on the +floor. Through the sleepless nights the mosquitoes droned their angry +chant. + +"If it would only stop raining for a single day it wouldn't be so bad," +said Dr Macphail. + +They all looked forward to the Tuesday when the boat for San Francisco +was to arrive from Sydney. The strain was intolerable. So far as Dr +Macphail was concerned, his pity and his resentment were alike +extinguished by his desire to be rid of the unfortunate woman. The +inevitable must be accepted. He felt he would breathe more freely when +the ship had sailed. Sadie Thompson was to be escorted on board by a +clerk in the governor's office. This person called on the Monday evening +and told Miss Thompson to be prepared at eleven in the morning. Davidson +was with her. + +"I'll see that everything is ready. I mean to come on board with her +myself." + +Miss Thompson did not speak. + +When Dr Macphail blew out his candle and crawled cautiously under his +mosquito curtains, he gave a sigh of relief. + +"Well, thank God that's over. By this time to-morrow she'll be gone." + +"Mrs Davidson will be glad too. She says he's wearing himself to a +shadow," said Mrs Macphail. "She's a different woman." + +"Who?" + +"Sadie. I should never have thought it possible. It makes one humble." + +Dr Macphail did not answer, and presently he fell asleep. He was tired +out, and he slept more soundly than usual. + +He was awakened in the morning by a hand placed on his arm, and, +starting up, saw Horn by the side of his bed. The trader put his finger +on his mouth to prevent any exclamation from Dr Macphail and beckoned to +him to come. As a rule he wore shabby ducks, but now he was barefoot and +wore only the _lava-lava_ of the natives. He looked suddenly savage, and +Dr Macphail, getting out of bed, saw that he was heavily tattooed. Horn +made him a sign to come on to the verandah. Dr Macphail got out of bed +and followed the trader out. + +"Don't make a noise," he whispered. "You're wanted. Put on a coat and +some shoes. Quick." + +Dr Macphail's first thought was that something had happened to Miss +Thompson. + +"What is it? Shall I bring my instruments?" + +"Hurry, please, hurry." + +Dr Macphail crept back into the bedroom, put on a waterproof over his +pyjamas, and a pair of rubber-soled shoes. He rejoined the trader, and +together they tiptoed down the stairs. The door leading out to the road +was open and at it were standing half a dozen natives. + +"What is it?" repeated the doctor. + +"Come along with me," said Horn. + +He walked out and the doctor followed him. The natives came after them +in a little bunch. They crossed the road and came on to the beach. The +doctor saw a group of natives standing round some object at the water's +edge. They hurried along, a couple of dozen yards perhaps, and the +natives opened out as the doctor came up. The trader pushed him +forwards. Then he saw, lying half in the water and half out, a dreadful +object, the body of Davidson. Dr Macphail bent down--he was not a man to +lose his head in an emergency--and turned the body over. The throat was +cut from ear to ear, and in the right hand was still the razor with +which the deed was done. + +"He's quite cold," said the doctor. "He must have been dead some time." + +"One of the boys saw him lying there on his way to work just now and +came and told me. Do you think he did it himself?" + +"Yes. Someone ought to go for the police." + +Horn said something in the native tongue, and two youths started off. + +"We must leave him here till they come," said the doctor. + +"They mustn't take him into my house. I won't have him in my house." + +"You'll do what the authorities say," replied the doctor sharply. "In +point of fact I expect they'll take him to the mortuary." + +They stood waiting where they were. The trader took a cigarette from a +fold in his _lava-lava_ and gave one to Dr Macphail. They smoked while +they stared at the corpse. Dr Macphail could not understand. + +"Why do you think he did it?" asked Horn. + +The doctor shrugged his shoulders. In a little while native police came +along, under the charge of a marine, with a stretcher, and immediately +afterwards a couple of naval officers and a naval doctor. They managed +everything in a businesslike manner. + +"What about the wife?" said one of the officers. + +"Now that you've come I'll go back to the house and get some things on. +I'll see that it's broken to her. She'd better not see him till he's +been fixed up a little." + +"I guess that's right," said the naval doctor. + +When Dr Macphail went back he found his wife nearly dressed. + +"Mrs Davidson's in a dreadful state about her husband," she said to him +as soon as he appeared. "He hasn't been to bed all night. She heard him +leave Miss Thompson's room at two, but he went out. If he's been walking +about since then he'll be absolutely dead." + +Dr Macphail told her what had happened and asked her to break the news +to Mrs Davidson. + +"But why did he do it?" she asked, horror-stricken. + +"I don't know." + +"But I can't. I can't." + +"You must." + +She gave him a frightened look and went out. He heard her go into Mrs +Davidson's room. He waited a minute to gather himself together and then +began to shave and wash. When he was dressed he sat down on the bed and +waited for his wife. At last she came. + +"She wants to see him," she said. + +"They've taken him to the mortuary. We'd better go down with her. How +did she take it?" + +"I think she's stunned. She didn't cry. But she's trembling like a +leaf." + +"We'd better go at once." + +When they knocked at her door Mrs Davidson came out. She was very pale, +but dry-eyed. To the doctor she seemed unnaturally composed. No word was +exchanged, and they set out in silence down the road. When they arrived +at the mortuary Mrs Davidson spoke. + +"Let me go in and see him alone." + +They stood aside. A native opened a door for her and closed it behind +her. They sat down and waited. One or two white men came and talked to +them in undertones. Dr Macphail told them again what he knew of the +tragedy. At last the door was quietly opened and Mrs Davidson came out. +Silence fell upon them. + +"I'm ready to go back now," she said. + +Her voice was hard and steady. Dr Macphail could not understand the look +in her eyes. Her pale face was very stern. They walked back slowly, +never saying a word, and at last they came round the bend on the other +side of which stood their house. Mrs Davidson gave a gasp, and for a +moment they stopped still. An incredible sound assaulted their ears. The +gramophone which had been silent for so long was playing, playing +ragtime loud and harsh. + +"What's that?" cried Mrs Macphail with horror. + +"Let's go on," said Mrs Davidson. + +They walked up the steps and entered the hall. Miss Thompson was +standing at her door, chatting with a sailor. A sudden change had taken +place in her. She was no longer the cowed drudge of the last days. She +was dressed in all her finery, in her white dress, with the high shiny +boots over which her fat legs bulged in their cotton stockings; her hair +was elaborately arranged; and she wore that enormous hat covered with +gaudy flowers. Her face was painted, her eyebrows were boldly black, and +her lips were scarlet. She held herself erect. She was the flaunting +quean that they had known at first. As they came in she broke into a +loud, jeering laugh; and then, when Mrs Davidson involuntarily stopped, +she collected the spittle in her mouth and spat. Mrs Davidson cowered +back, and two red spots rose suddenly to her cheeks. Then, covering her +face with her hands, she broke away and ran quickly up the stairs. Dr +Macphail was outraged. He pushed past the woman into her room. + +"What the devil are you doing?" he cried. "Stop that damned machine." + +He went up to it and tore the record off. She turned on him. + +"Say, doc, you can that stuff with me. What the hell are you doin' in my +room?" + +"What do you mean?" he cried. "What d'you mean?" + +She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her +expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer. + +"You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! +Pigs!" + +Dr Macphail gasped. He understood. + + + + +VIII + +_Envoi_ + + +When your ship leaves Honolulu they hang _leis_ round your neck, +garlands of sweet smelling flowers. The wharf is crowded and the band +plays a melting Hawaiian tune. The people on board throw coloured +streamers to those standing below, and the side of the ship is gay with +the thin lines of paper, red and green and yellow and blue. When the +ship moves slowly away the streamers break softly, and it is like the +breaking of human ties. Men and women are joined together for a moment +by a gaily coloured strip of paper, red and blue and green and yellow, +and then life separates them and the paper is sundered, so easily, with +a little sharp snap. For an hour the fragments trail down the hull and +then they blow away. The flowers of your garlands fade and their scent +is oppressive. You throw them overboard. + +THE END + +* * * * * + + +BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +OF HUMAN BONDAGE +THE MOON AND SIXPENCE +THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF +MRS. CRADDOCK +THE EXPLORER +THE MAGICIAN + +NEW YORK +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trembling of a Leaf, by +William Somerset Maugham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + +***** This file should be named 26854-8.txt or 26854-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/5/26854/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + +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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Somerset Maugham. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 2%; + } + h1 {font-size:275%; + text-align: center; + clear: both; + text-indent: 0%; + } + h3 {margin-top:15%; + text-align: center; + clear: both; + text-indent: 0%; + } + .top5 {margin-top: 5%;} + .top15 {margin-top: 15%;} + hr { width: 10%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + color:black; + } + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 5%; + margin-bottom: 5%; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + background:#fdfdfd; + color:black; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + font-size: large; + } + a:link {background-color: #ffffff; color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + link {background-color: #ffffff; color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:visited {background-color: #ffffff; color: blue; text-decoration: none; } + a:hover {background-color: #ffffff; color: red; text-decoration:underline; } + .r {text-align: right; + margin-right:10%;font-weight:700; + } + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + font-size: large; + } + img {border: none;} + .c {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0%; + } + .poem {margin-left:25%; + white-space:nowrap; + text-indent: 0%; + } + .start {margin:10% 25% 10% 35%;} + .box {padding:5%;border:6px double black;max-width:500px;margin:15% auto 15% auto} + .letter {float:left;margin-bottom:-0.5%; + margin-top:-1%;padding:0%;font-size:250%;font-weight:800;} + .non {text-indent:-0%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Trembling of a Leaf, by William Somerset Maugham + +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 Trembling of a Leaf + Little Stories of the South Sea Islands + +Author: William Somerset Maugham + +Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="box"> +<h1>THE TREMBLING<br />OF A LEAF</h1> + +<p class="c"><i>Little Stories of the South Sea Islands</i></p> + +<h3 class="top5">BY<br /> +W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM</h3> +<p class="c"><b>AUTHOR OF "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE,"</b><br /> +<b>"OF HUMAN BONDAGE," ETC.</b></p> + +<h3 style="margin-top:50%;">NEW <img src="images/001.png" alt="images not available" /> YORK<br /> +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</h3> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="c top5">COPYRIGHT, 1921,<br /> +<img src="images/002.png" alt="images not available" /><br /> +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + + +<hr /> +<p class="c top15"> +TO<br /> +BERTRAM ALANSON</p> + +<hr class="top15" /> + +<div class="start"> +<p><i>L'extrême félicité à peine séparée par<br />une feuille tremblante de +l'extrême<br />désespoir, n'est-ce pas la vie?</i></p> + +<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Sainte-Beuve</span>.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table summary="toc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3"> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I"><b>I</b></a></td><td><b>The Pacific</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II"><b>II</b></a></td><td><b>Mackintosh</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III"><b>III</b></a></td><td><b>The Fall of Edward Barnard</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV"><b>IV</b></a></td><td><b>Red</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V"><b>V</b></a></td><td><b>The Pool</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI"><b>VI</b></a></td><td><b>Honolulu</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII"><b>VII</b></a></td><td><b>Rain</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII"><b>VIII</b></a></td><td><b>Envoi</b></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr /> + + +<h1 class="top15">THE TREMBLING<br />OF A LEAF</h1> + + + + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>The Pacific</i></p> + + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">T</span>HE Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes +it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, +and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous. It +is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is +arrogant. The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind +gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the +unknown. The billows, magnificently rolling, stretch widely on all sides +of you, and you forget your vanished youth, with its memories, cruel and +sweet, in a restless, intolerable desire for life. On such a sea as this +Ulysses sailed when he sought the Happy Isles. But there are days also +when the Pacific is like a lake. The sea is flat and shining. The flying +fish, a gleam of shadow on the brightness of a mirror, make little +fountains of sparkling drops when they dip. There are fleecy clouds on +the horizon, and at sunset they take strange shapes so that it is +impossible not to believe that you see a range of lofty mountains. They +are the mountains of the country of your dreams. You sail through an +unimaginable silence upon a magic sea. Now and then a few gulls suggest +that land is not far off, a forgotten island hidden in a wilderness of +waters; but the gulls, the melancholy gulls, are the only sign you have +of it. You see never a tramp, with its friendly smoke, no stately bark +or trim schooner, not a fishing boat even: it is an empty desert; and +presently the emptiness fills you with a vague foreboding.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>Mackintosh</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">H</span>E +splashed about for a few minutes in the sea; it was too shallow to +swim in and for fear of sharks he could not go out of his depth; then he +got out and went into the bath-house for a shower. The coldness of the +fresh water was grateful after the heavy stickiness of the salt Pacific, +so warm, though it was only just after seven, that to bathe in it did +not brace you but rather increased your languor; and when he had dried +himself, slipping into a bath-gown, he called out to the Chinese cook +that he would be ready for breakfast in five minutes. He walked barefoot +across the patch of coarse grass which Walker, the administrator, +proudly thought was a lawn, to his own quarters and dressed. This did +not take long, for he put on nothing but a shirt and a pair of duck +trousers and then went over to his chief's house on the other side of +the compound. The two men had their meals together, but the Chinese cook +told him that Walker had set out on horseback at five and would not be +back for another hour.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh had slept badly and he looked with distaste at the paw-paw +and the eggs and bacon which were set before him. The mosquitoes had +been maddening that night; they flew about the net under which he slept +in such numbers that their humming, pitiless and menacing, had the +effect of a note, infinitely drawn out, played on a distant organ, and +whenever he dozed off he awoke with a start in the belief that one had +found its way inside his curtains. It was so hot that he lay naked. He +turned from side to side. And gradually the dull roar of the breakers on +the reef, so unceasing and so regular that generally you did not hear +it, grew distinct on his consciousness, its rhythm hammered on his tired +nerves and he held himself with clenched hands in the effort to bear it. +The thought that nothing could stop that sound, for it would continue to +all eternity, was almost impossible to bear, and, as though his strength +were a match for the ruthless forces of nature, he had an insane impulse +to do some violent thing. He felt he must cling to his self-control or +he would go mad. And now, looking out of the window at the lagoon and +the strip of foam which marked the reef, he shuddered with hatred of the +brilliant scene. The cloudless sky was like an inverted bowl that hemmed +it in. He lit his pipe and turned over the pile of Auckland papers that +had come over from Apia a few days before. The newest of them was three +weeks old. They gave an impression of incredible dullness.</p> + +<p>Then he went into the office. It was a large, bare room with two desks +in it and a bench along one side. A number of natives were seated on +this, and a couple of women. They gossiped while they waited for the +administrator, and when Mackintosh came in they greeted him.</p> + +<p>"<i>Talofa li.</i>"</p> + +<p>He returned their greeting and sat down at his desk. He began to write, +working on a report which the governor of Samoa had been clamouring for +and which Walker, with his usual dilatoriness, had neglected to prepare. +Mackintosh as he made his notes reflected vindictively that Walker was +late with his report because he was so illiterate that he had an +invincible distaste for anything to do with pens and paper; and now when +it was at last ready, concise and neatly official, he would accept his +subordinate's work without a word of appreciation, with a sneer rather +or a gibe, and send it on to his own superior as though it were his own +composition. He could not have written a word of it. Mackintosh thought +with rage that if his chief pencilled in some insertion it would be +childish in expression and faulty in language. If he remonstrated or +sought to put his meaning into an intelligible phrase, Walker would fly +into a passion and cry:</p> + +<p>"What the hell do I care about grammar? That's what I want to say and +that's how I want to say it."</p> + +<p>At last Walker came in. The natives surrounded him as he entered, trying +to get his immediate attention, but he turned on them roughly and told +them to sit down and hold their tongues. He threatened that if they were +not quiet he would have them all turned out and see none of them that +day. He nodded to Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"Hulloa, Mac; up at last? I don't know how you can waste the best part +of the day in bed. You ought to have been up before dawn like me. Lazy +beggar."</p> + +<p>He threw himself heavily into his chair and wiped his face with a large +bandana.</p> + +<p>"By heaven, I've got a thirst."</p> + +<p>He turned to the policeman who stood at the door, a picturesque figure +in his white jacket and <i>lava-lava</i>, the loin cloth of the Samoan, and +told him to bring <i>kava</i>. The <i>kava</i> bowl stood on the floor in the +corner of the room, and the policeman filled a half coconut shell and +brought it to Walker. He poured a few drops on the ground, murmured the +customary words to the company, and drank with relish. Then he told the +policeman to serve the waiting natives, and the shell was handed to each +one in order of birth or importance and emptied with the same +ceremonies.</p> + +<p>Then he set about the day's work. He was a little man, considerably less +than of middle height, and enormously stout; he had a large, fleshy +face, clean-shaven, with the cheeks hanging on each side in great +dew-laps, and three vast chins; his small features were all dissolved in +fat; and, but for a crescent of white hair at the back of his head, he +was completely bald. He reminded you of Mr Pickwick. He was grotesque, a +figure of fun, and yet, strangely enough, not without dignity. His blue +eyes, behind large gold-rimmed spectacles, were shrewd and vivacious, +and there was a great deal of determination in his face. He was sixty, +but his native vitality triumphed over advancing years. Notwithstanding +his corpulence his movements were quick, and he walked with a heavy, +resolute tread as though he sought to impress his weight upon the earth. +He spoke in a loud, gruff voice.</p> + +<p>It was two years now since Mackintosh had been appointed Walker's +assistant. Walker, who had been for a quarter of a century administrator +of Talua, one of the larger islands in the Samoan group, was a man known +in person or by report through the length and breadth of the South Seas; +and it was with lively curiosity that Mackintosh looked forward to his +first meeting with him. For one reason or another he stayed a couple of +weeks at Apia before he took up his post and both at Chaplin's hotel and +at the English club he heard innumerable stories about the +administrator. He thought now with irony of his interest in them. Since +then he had heard them a hundred times from Walker himself. Walker knew +that he was a character, and, proud of his reputation, deliberately +acted up to it. He was jealous of his "legend" and anxious that you +should know the exact details of any of the celebrated stories that were +told of him. He was ludicrously angry with anyone who had told them to +the stranger incorrectly.</p> + +<p>There was a rough cordiality about Walker which Mackintosh at first +found not unattractive, and Walker, glad to have a listener to whom all +he said was fresh, gave of his best. He was good-humoured, hearty, and +considerate. To Mackintosh, who had lived the sheltered life of a +government official in London till at the age of thirty-four an attack +of pneumonia, leaving him with the threat of tuberculosis, had forced +him to seek a post in the Pacific, Walker's existence seemed +extraordinarily romantic. The adventure with which he started on his +conquest of circumstance was typical of the man. He ran away to sea when +he was fifteen and for over a year was employed in shovelling coal on a +collier. He was an undersized boy and both men and mates were kind to +him, but the captain for some reason conceived a savage dislike of him. +He used the lad cruelly so that, beaten and kicked, he often could not +sleep for the pain that racked his limbs. He loathed the captain with +all his soul. Then he was given a tip for some race and managed to +borrow twenty-five pounds from a friend he had picked up in Belfast. He +put it on the horse, an outsider, at long odds. He had no means of +repaying the money if he lost, but it never occurred to him that he +could lose. He felt himself in luck. The horse won and he found himself +with something over a thousand pounds in hard cash. Now his chance had +come. He found out who was the best solicitor in the town—the collier +lay then somewhere on the Irish coast—went to him, and, telling him +that he heard the ship was for sale, asked him to arrange the purchase +for him. The solicitor was amused at his small client, he was only +sixteen and did not look so old, and, moved perhaps by sympathy, +promised not only to arrange the matter for him but to see that he made +a good bargain. After a little while Walker found himself the owner of +the ship. He went back to her and had what he described as the most +glorious moment of his life when he gave the skipper notice and told him +that he must get off <i>his</i> ship in half an hour. He made the mate +captain and sailed on the collier for another nine months, at the end of +which he sold her at a profit.</p> + +<p>He came out to the islands at the age of twenty-six as a planter. He was +one of the few white men settled in Talua at the time of the German +occupation and had then already some influence with the natives. The +Germans made him administrator, a position which he occupied for twenty +years, and when the island was seized by the British he was confirmed in +his post. He ruled the island despotically, but with complete success. +The prestige of this success was another reason for the interest that +Mackintosh took in him.</p> + +<p>But the two men were not made to get on. Mackintosh was an ugly man, +with ungainly gestures, a tall thin fellow, with a narrow chest and +bowed shoulders. He had sallow, sunken cheeks, and his eyes were large +and sombre. He was a great reader, and when his books arrived and were +unpacked Walker came over to his quarters and looked at them. Then he +turned to Mackintosh with a coarse laugh.</p> + +<p>"What in Hell have you brought all this muck for?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh flushed darkly.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you think it muck. I brought my books because I want to read +them."</p> + +<p>"When you said you'd got a lot of books coming I thought there'd be +something for me to read. Haven't you got any detective stories?"</p> + +<p>"Detective stories don't interest me."</p> + +<p>"You're a damned fool then."</p> + +<p>"I'm content that you should think so."</p> + +<p>Every mail brought Walker a mass of periodical literature, papers from +New Zealand and magazines from America, and it exasperated him that +Mackintosh showed his contempt for these ephemeral publications. He had +no patience with the books that absorbed Mackintosh's leisure and +thought it only a pose that he read Gibbon's <i>Decline and Fall</i> or +Burton's <i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i>. And since he had never learned to put +any restraint on his tongue, he expressed his opinion of his assistant +freely. Mackintosh began to see the real man, and under the boisterous +good-humour he discerned a vulgar cunning which was hateful; he was vain +and domineering, and it was strange that he had notwithstanding a +shyness which made him dislike people who were not quite of his kidney. +He judged others, naïvely, by their language, and if it was free from +the oaths and the obscenity which made up the greater part of his own +conversation, he looked upon them with suspicion. In the evening the two +men played piquet. He played badly but vaingloriously, crowing over his +opponent when he won and losing his temper when he lost. On rare +occasions a couple of planters or traders would drive over to play +bridge, and then Walker showed himself in what Mackintosh considered a +characteristic light. He played regardless of his partner, calling up +in his desire to play the hand, and argued interminably, beating down +opposition by the loudness of his voice. He constantly revoked, and when +he did so said with an ingratiating whine: "Oh, you wouldn't count it +against an old man who can hardly see." Did he know that his opponents +thought it as well to keep on the right side of him and hesitated to +insist on the rigour of the game? Mackintosh watched him with an icy +contempt. When the game was over, while they smoked their pipes and +drank whisky, they would begin telling stories. Walker told with gusto +the story of his marriage. He had got so drunk at the wedding feast that +the bride had fled and he had never seen her since. He had had +numberless adventures, commonplace and sordid, with the women of the +island and he described them with a pride in his own prowess which was +an offence to Mackintosh's fastidious ears. He was a gross, sensual old +man. He thought Mackintosh a poor fellow because he would not share his +promiscuous amours and remained sober when the company was drunk.</p> + +<p>He despised him also for the orderliness with which he did his official +work. Mackintosh liked to do everything just so. His desk was always +tidy, his papers were always neatly docketed, he could put his hand on +any document that was needed, and he had at his fingers' ends all the +regulations that were required for the business of their administration.</p> + +<p>"Fudge, fudge," said Walker. "I've run this island for twenty years +without red tape, and I don't want it now."</p> + +<p>"Does it make it any easier for you that when you want a letter you have +to hunt half an hour for it?" answered Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"You're nothing but a damned official. But you're not a bad fellow; when +you've been out here a year or two you'll be all right. What's wrong +about you is that you won't drink. You wouldn't be a bad sort if you got +soused once a week."</p> + +<p>The curious thing was that Walker remained perfectly unconscious of the +dislike for him which every month increased in the breast of his +subordinate. Although he laughed at him, as he grew accustomed to him, +he began almost to like him. He had a certain tolerance for the +peculiarities of others, and he accepted Mackintosh as a queer fish. +Perhaps he liked him, unconsciously, because he could chaff him. His +humour consisted of coarse banter and he wanted a butt. Mackintosh's +exactness, his morality, his sobriety, were all fruitful subjects; his +Scot's name gave an opportunity for the usual jokes about Scotland; he +enjoyed himself thoroughly when two or three men were there and he could +make them all laugh at the expense of Mackintosh. He would say +ridiculous things about him to the natives, and Mackintosh, his +knowledge of Samoan still imperfect, would see their unrestrained mirth +when Walker had made an obscene reference to him. He smiled +good-humouredly.</p> + +<p>"I'll say this for you, Mac," Walker would say in his gruff loud voice, +"you can take a joke."</p> + +<p>"Was it a joke?" smiled Mackintosh. "I didn't know."</p> + +<p>"Scots wha hae!" shouted Walker, with a bellow of laughter. "There's +only one way to make a Scotchman see a joke and that's by a surgical +operation."</p> + +<p>Walker little knew that there was nothing Mackintosh could stand less +than chaff. He would wake in the night, the breathless night of the +rainy season, and brood sullenly over the gibe that Walker had uttered +carelessly days before. It rankled. His heart swelled with rage, and he +pictured to himself ways in which he might get even with the bully. He +had tried answering him, but Walker had a gift of repartee, coarse and +obvious, which gave him an advantage. The dullness of his intellect made +him impervious to a delicate shaft. His self-satisfaction made it +impossible to wound him. His loud voice, his bellow of laughter, were +weapons against which Mackintosh had nothing to counter, and he learned +that the wisest thing was never to betray his irritation. He learned to +control himself. But his hatred grew till it was a monomania. He watched +Walker with an insane vigilance. He fed his own self-esteem by every +instance of meanness on Walker's part, by every exhibition of childish +vanity, of cunning and of vulgarity. Walker ate greedily, noisily, +filthily, and Mackintosh watched him with satisfaction. He took note of +the foolish things he said and of his mistakes in grammar. He knew that +Walker held him in small esteem, and he found a bitter satisfaction in +his chief's opinion of him; it increased his own contempt for the +narrow, complacent old man. And it gave him a singular pleasure to know +that Walker was entirely unconscious of the hatred he felt for him. He +was a fool who liked popularity, and he blandly fancied that everyone +admired him. Once Mackintosh had overheard Walker speaking of him.</p> + +<p>"He'll be all right when I've licked him into shape," he said. "He's a +good dog and he loves his master."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh silently, without a movement of his long, sallow face, +laughed long and heartily.</p> + +<p>But his hatred was not blind; on the contrary, it was peculiarly +clear-sighted, and he judged Walker's capabilities with precision. He +ruled his small kingdom with efficiency. He was just and honest. With +opportunities to make money he was a poorer man than when he was first +appointed to his post, and his only support for his old age was the +pension which he expected when at last he retired from official life. +His pride was that with an assistant and a half-caste clerk he was able +to administer the island more competently than Upolu, the island of +which Apia is the chief town, was administered with its army of +functionaries. He had a few native policemen to sustain his authority, +but he made no use of them. He governed by bluff and his Irish humour.</p> + +<p>"They insisted on building a jail for me," he said. "What the devil do I +want a jail for? I'm not going to put the natives in prison. If they do +wrong I know how to deal with them."</p> + +<p>One of his quarrels with the higher authorities at Apia was that he +claimed entire jurisdiction over the natives of his island. Whatever +their crimes he would not give them up to courts competent to deal with +them, and several times an angry correspondence had passed between him +and the Governor at Upolu. For he looked upon the natives as his +children. And that was the amazing thing about this coarse, vulgar, +selfish man; he loved the island on which he had lived so long with +passion, and he had for the natives a strange rough tenderness which was +quite wonderful.</p> + +<p>He loved to ride about the island on his old grey mare and he was never +tired of its beauty. Sauntering along the grassy roads among the coconut +trees he would stop every now and then to admire the loveliness of the +scene. Now and then he would come upon a native village and stop while +the head man brought him a bowl of <i>kava</i>. He would look at the little +group of bell-shaped huts with their high thatched roofs, like beehives, +and a smile would spread over his fat face. His eyes rested happily on +the spreading green of the bread-fruit trees.</p> + +<p>"By George, it's like the garden of Eden."</p> + +<p>Sometimes his rides took him along the coast and through the trees he +had a glimpse of the wide sea, empty, with never a sail to disturb the +loneliness; sometimes he climbed a hill so that a great stretch of +country, with little villages nestling among the tall trees, was spread +out before him like the kingdom of the world, and he would sit there +for an hour in an ecstasy of delight. But he had no words to express +his feelings and to relieve them would utter an obscene jest; it was as +though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the +tension.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh observed this sentiment with an icy disdain. Walker had +always been a heavy drinker, he was proud of his capacity to see men +half his age under the table when he spent a night in Apia, and he had +the sentimentality of the toper. He could cry over the stories he read +in his magazines and yet would refuse a loan to some trader in +difficulties whom he had known for twenty years. He was close with his +money. Once Mackintosh said to him:</p> + +<p>"No one could accuse you of giving money away."</p> + +<p>He took it as a compliment. His enthusiasm for nature was but the +drivelling sensibility of the drunkard. Nor had Mackintosh any sympathy +for his chief's feelings towards the natives. He loved them because they +were in his power, as a selfish man loves his dog, and his mentality was +on a level with theirs. Their humour was obscene and he was never at a +loss for the lewd remark. He understood them and they understood him. He +was proud of his influence over them. He looked upon them as his +children and he mixed himself in all their affairs. But he was very +jealous of his authority; if he ruled them with a rod of iron, brooking +no contradiction, he would not suffer any of the white men on the island +to take advantage of them. He watched the missionaries suspiciously +and, if they did anything of which he disapproved, was able to make life +so unendurable to them that if he could not get them removed they were +glad to go of their own accord. His power over the natives was so great +that on his word they would refuse labour and food to their pastor. On +the other hand he showed the traders no favour. He took care that they +should not cheat the natives; he saw that they got a fair reward for +their work and their copra and that the traders made no extravagant +profit on the wares they sold them. He was merciless to a bargain that +he thought unfair. Sometimes the traders would complain at Apia that +they did not get fair opportunities. They suffered for it. Walker then +hesitated at no calumny, at no outrageous lie, to get even with them, +and they found that if they wanted not only to live at peace, but to +exist at all, they had to accept the situation on his own terms. More +than once the store of a trader obnoxious to him had been burned down, +and there was only the appositeness of the event to show that the +administrator had instigated it. Once a Swedish half-caste, ruined by +the burning, had gone to him and roundly accused him of arson. Walker +laughed in his face.</p> + +<p>"You dirty dog. Your mother was a native and you try to cheat the +natives. If your rotten old store is burned down it's a judgment of +Providence; that's what it is, a judgment of Providence. Get out."</p> + +<p>And as the man was hustled out by two native policemen the administrator +laughed fatly.</p> + +<p>"A judgment of Providence."</p> + +<p>And now Mackintosh watched him enter upon the day's work. He began with +the sick, for Walker added doctoring to his other activities, and he had +a small room behind the office full of drugs. An elderly man came +forward, a man with a crop of curly grey hair, in a blue <i>lava-lava</i>, +elaborately tatooed, with the skin of his body wrinkled like a +wine-skin.</p> + +<p>"What have you come for?" Walker asked him abruptly.</p> + +<p>In a whining voice the man said that he could not eat without vomiting +and that he had pains here and pains there.</p> + +<p>"Go to the missionaries," said Walker. "You know that I only cure +children."</p> + +<p>"I have been to the missionaries and they do me no good."</p> + +<p>"Then go home and prepare yourself to die. Have you lived so long and +still want to go on living? You're a fool."</p> + +<p>The man broke into querulous expostulation, but Walker, pointing to a +woman with a sick child in her arms, told her to bring it to his desk. +He asked her questions and looked at the child.</p> + +<p>"I will give you medicine," he said. He turned to the half-caste clerk. +"Go into the dispensary and bring me some calomel pills."</p> + +<p>He made the child swallow one there and then and gave another to the +mother.</p> + +<p>"Take the child away and keep it warm. To-morrow it will be dead or +better."</p> + +<p>He leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful stuff, calomel. I've saved more lives with it than all the +hospital doctors at Apia put together."</p> + +<p>Walker was very proud of his skill, and with the dogmatism of ignorance +had no patience with the members of the medical profession.</p> + +<p>"The sort of case I like," he said, "is the one that all the doctors +have given up as hopeless. When the doctors have said they can't cure +you, I say to them, 'come to me.' Did I ever tell you about the fellow +who had a cancer?"</p> + +<p>"Frequently," said Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"I got him right in three months."</p> + +<p>"You've never told me about the people you haven't cured."</p> + +<p>He finished this part of the work and went on to the rest. It was a +queer medley. There was a woman who could not get on with her husband +and a man who complained that his wife had run away from him.</p> + +<p>"Lucky dog," said Walker. "Most men wish their wives would too."</p> + +<p>There was a long complicated quarrel about the ownership of a few yards +of land. There was a dispute about the sharing out of a catch of fish. +There was a complaint against a white trader because he had given short +measure. Walker listened attentively to every case, made up his mind +quickly, and gave his decision. Then he would listen to nothing more; if +the complainant went on he was hustled out of the office by a +policeman. Mackintosh listened to it all with sullen irritation. On the +whole, perhaps, it might be admitted that rough justice was done, but it +exasperated the assistant that his chief trusted his instinct rather +than the evidence. He would not listen to reason. He browbeat the +witnesses and when they did not see what he wished them to called them +thieves and liars.</p> + +<p>He left to the last a group of men who were sitting in the corner of the +room. He had deliberately ignored them. The party consisted of an old +chief, a tall, dignified man with short, white hair, in a new +<i>lava-lava</i>, bearing a huge fly wisp as a badge of office, his son, and +half a dozen of the important men of the village. Walker had had a feud +with them and had beaten them. As was characteristic of him he meant now +to rub in his victory, and because he had them down to profit by their +helplessness. The facts were peculiar. Walker had a passion for building +roads. When he had come to Talua there were but a few tracks here and +there, but in course of time he had cut roads through the country, +joining the villages together, and it was to this that a great part of +the island's prosperity was due. Whereas in the old days it had been +impossible to get the produce of the land, copra chiefly, down to the +coast where it could be put on schooners or motor launches and so taken +to Apia, now transport was easy and simple. His ambition was to make a +road right round the island and a great part of it was already built.</p> + +<p>"In two years I shall have done it, and then I can die or they can fire +me, I don't care."</p> + +<p>His roads were the joy of his heart and he made excursions constantly to +see that they were kept in order. They were simple enough, wide tracks, +grass covered, cut through the scrub or through the plantations; but +trees had to be rooted out, rocks dug up or blasted, and here and there +levelling had been necessary. He was proud that he had surmounted by his +own skill such difficulties as they presented. He rejoiced in his +disposition of them so that they were not only convenient, but showed +off the beauties of the island which his soul loved. When he spoke of +his roads he was almost a poet. They meandered through those lovely +scenes, and Walker had taken care that here and there they should run in +a straight line, giving you a green vista through the tall trees, and +here and there should turn and curve so that the heart was rested by the +diversity. It was amazing that this coarse and sensual man should +exercise so subtle an ingenuity to get the effects which his fancy +suggested to him. He had used in making his roads all the fantastic +skill of a Japanese gardener. He received a grant from headquarters for +the work but took a curious pride in using but a small part of it, and +the year before had spent only a hundred pounds of the thousand assigned +to him.</p> + +<p>"What do they want money for?" he boomed. "They'll only spend it on all +kinds of muck they don't want; what the missionaries leave them, that is +to say."</p> + +<p>For no particular reason, except perhaps pride in the economy of his +administration and the desire to contrast his efficiency with the +wasteful methods of the authorities at Apia, he got the natives to do +the work he wanted for wages that were almost nominal. It was owing to +this that he had lately had difficulty with the village whose chief men +now were come to see him. The chief's son had been in Upolu for a year +and on coming back had told his people of the large sums that were paid +at Apia for the public works. In long, idle talks he had inflamed their +hearts with the desire for gain. He held out to them visions of vast +wealth and they thought of the whisky they could buy—it was dear, since +there was a law that it must not be sold to natives, and so it cost them +double what the white man had to pay for it—they thought of the great +sandal-wood boxes in which they kept their treasures, and the scented +soap and potted salmon, the luxuries for which the Kanaka will sell his +soul; so that when the administrator sent for them and told them he +wanted a road made from their village to a certain point along the coast +and offered them twenty pounds, they asked him a hundred. The chief's +son was called Manuma. He was a tall, handsome fellow, copper-coloured, +with his fuzzy hair dyed red with lime, a wreath of red berries round +his neck, and behind his ear a flower like a scarlet flame against his +brown face. The upper part of his body was naked, but to show that he +was no longer a savage, since he had lived in Apia, he wore a pair of +dungarees instead of a <i>lava-lava</i>. He told them that if they held +together the administrator would be obliged to accept their terms. His +heart was set on building the road and when he found they would not work +for less he would give them what they asked. But they must not move; +whatever he said they must not abate their claim; they had asked a +hundred and that they must keep to. When they mentioned the figure, +Walker burst into a shout of his long, deep-voiced laughter. He told +them not to make fools of themselves, but to set about the work at once. +Because he was in a good humour that day he promised to give them a +feast when the road was finished. But when he found that no attempt was +made to start work, he went to the village and asked the men what silly +game they were playing. Manuma had coached them well. They were quite +calm, they did not attempt to argue—and argument is a passion with the +Kanaka—they merely shrugged their shoulders: they would do it for a +hundred pounds, and if he would not give them that they would do no +work. He could please himself. They did not care. Then Walker flew into +a passion. He was ugly then. His short fat neck swelled ominously, his +red face grew purple, he foamed at the mouth. He set upon the natives +with invective. He knew well how to wound and how to humiliate. He was +terrifying. The older men grew pale and uneasy. They hesitated. If it +had not been for Manuma, with his knowledge of the great world, and +their dread of his ridicule, they would have yielded. It was Manuma who +answered Walker.</p> + +<p>"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work."</p> + +<p>Walker, shaking his fist at him, called him every name he could think +of. He riddled him with scorn. Manuma sat still and smiled. There may +have been more bravado than confidence in his smile, but he had to make +a good show before the others. He repeated his words.</p> + +<p>"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work."</p> + +<p>They thought that Walker would spring on him. It would not have been the +first time that he had thrashed a native with his own hands; they knew +his strength, and though Walker was three times the age of the young man +and six inches shorter they did not doubt that he was more than a match +for Manuma. No one had ever thought of resisting the savage onslaught of +the administrator. But Walker said nothing. He chuckled.</p> + +<p>"I am not going to waste my time with a pack of fools," he said. "Talk +it over again. You know what I have offered. If you do not start in a +week, take care."</p> + +<p>He turned round and walked out of the chief's hut. He untied his old +mare and it was typical of the relations between him and the natives +that one of the elder men hung on to the off stirrup while Walker from a +convenient boulder hoisted himself heavily into the saddle.</p> + +<p>That same night when Walker according to his habit was strolling along +the road that ran past his house, he heard something whizz past him and +with a thud strike a tree. Something had been thrown at him. He ducked +instinctively. With a shout, "Who's that"? he ran towards the place from +which the missile had come and he heard the sound of a man escaping +through the bush. He knew it was hopeless to pursue in the darkness, and +besides he was soon out of breath, so he stopped and made his way back +to the road. He looked about for what had been thrown, but could find +nothing. It was quite dark. He went quickly back to the house and called +Mackintosh and the Chinese boy.</p> + +<p>"One of those devils has thrown something at me. Come along and let's +find out what it was."</p> + +<p>He told the boy to bring a lantern and the three of them made their way +back to the place. They hunted about the ground, but could not find what +they sought. Suddenly the boy gave a guttural cry. They turned to look. +He held up the lantern, and there, sinister in the light that cut the +surrounding darkness, was a long knife sticking into the trunk of a +coconut tree. It had been thrown with such force that it required quite +an effort to pull it out.</p> + +<p>"By George, if he hadn't missed me I'd have been in a nice state."</p> + +<p>Walker handled the knife. It was one of those knives, made in imitation +of the sailor knives brought to the islands a hundred years before by +the first white men, used to divide the coconuts in two so that the +copra might be dried. It was a murderous weapon, and the blade, twelve +inches long, was very sharp. Walker chuckled softly.</p> + +<p>"The devil, the impudent devil."</p> + +<p>He had no doubt it was Manuma who had flung the knife. He had escaped +death by three inches. He was not angry. On the contrary, he was in high +spirits; the adventure exhilarated him, and when they got back to the +house, calling for drinks, he rubbed his hands gleefully.</p> + +<p>"I'll make them pay for this!"</p> + +<p>His little eyes twinkled. He blew himself out like a turkey-cock, and +for the second time within half an hour insisted on telling Mackintosh +every detail of the affair. Then he asked him to play piquet, and while +they played he boasted of his intentions. Mackintosh listened with +tightened lips.</p> + +<p>"But why should you grind them down like this?" he asked. "Twenty pounds +is precious little for the work you want them to do."</p> + +<p>"They ought to be precious thankful I give them anything."</p> + +<p>"Hang it all, it's not your own money. The government allots you a +reasonable sum. They won't complain if you spend it."</p> + +<p>"They're a bunch of fools at Apia."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh saw that Walker's motive was merely vanity. He shrugged his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"It won't do you much good to score off the fellows at Apia at the cost +of your life."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, they wouldn't hurt me, these people. They couldn't do +without me. They worship me. Manuma is a fool. He only threw that knife +to frighten me."</p> + +<p>The next day Walker rode over again to the village. It was called +Matautu. He did not get off his horse. When he reached the chief's +house he saw that the men were sitting round the floor in a circle, +talking, and he guessed they were discussing again the question of the +road. The Samoan huts are formed in this way: Trunks of slender trees +are placed in a circle at intervals of perhaps five or six feet; a tall +tree is set in the middle and from this downwards slopes the thatched +roof. Venetian blinds of coconut leaves can be pulled down at night or +when it is raining. Ordinarily the hut is open all round so that the +breeze can blow through freely. Walker rode to the edge of the hut and +called out to the chief.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there, Tangatu, your son left his knife in a tree last night. I +have brought it back to you."</p> + +<p>He flung it down on the ground in the midst of the circle, and with a +low burst of laughter ambled off.</p> + +<p>On Monday he went out to see if they had started work. There was no sign +of it. He rode through the village. The inhabitants were about their +ordinary avocations. Some were weaving mats of the pandanus leaf, one +old man was busy with a <i>kava</i> bowl, the children were playing, the +women went about their household chores. Walker, a smile on his lips, +came to the chief's house.</p> + +<p>"<i>Talofa-li</i>," said the chief.</p> + +<p>"<i>Talofa</i>," answered Walker.</p> + +<p>Manuma was making a net. He sat with a cigarette between his lips and +looked up at Walker with a smile of triumph.</p> + +<p>"You have decided that you will not make the road?"</p> + +<p>The chief answered.</p> + +<p>"Not unless you pay us one hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>"You will regret it." He turned to Manuma. "And you, my lad, I shouldn't +wonder if your back was very sore before you're much older."</p> + +<p>He rode away chuckling. He left the natives vaguely uneasy. They feared +the fat sinful old man, and neither the missionaries' abuse of him nor +the scorn which Manuma had learnt in Apia made them forget that he had a +devilish cunning and that no man had ever braved him without in the long +run suffering for it. They found out within twenty-four hours what +scheme he had devised. It was characteristic. For next morning a great +band of men, women, and children came into the village and the chief men +said that they had made a bargain with Walker to build the road. He had +offered them twenty pounds and they had accepted. Now the cunning lay in +this, that the Polynesians have rules of hospitality which have all the +force of laws; an etiquette of absolute rigidity made it necessary for +the people of the village not only to give lodging to the strangers, but +to provide them with food and drink as long as they wished to stay. The +inhabitants of Matautu were outwitted. Every morning the workers went +out in a joyous band, cut down trees, blasted rocks, levelled here and +there and then in the evening tramped back again, and ate and drank, ate +heartily, danced, sang hymns, and enjoyed life. For them it was a +picnic. But soon their hosts began to wear long faces; the strangers +had enormous appetites, and the plantains and the bread-fruit vanished +before their rapacity; the alligator-pear trees, whose fruit sent to +Apia might sell for good money, were stripped bare. Ruin stared them in +the face. And then they found that the strangers were working very +slowly. Had they received a hint from Walker that they might take their +time? At this rate by the time the road was finished there would not be +a scrap of food in the village. And worse than this, they were a +laughing-stock; when one or other of them went to some distant hamlet on +an errand he found that the story had got there before him, and he was +met with derisive laughter. There is nothing the Kanaka can endure less +than ridicule. It was not long before much angry talk passed among the +sufferers. Manuma was no longer a hero; he had to put up with a good +deal of plain speaking, and one day what Walker had suggested came to +pass: a heated argument turned into a quarrel and half a dozen of the +young men set upon the chief's son and gave him such a beating that for +a week he lay bruised and sore on the pandanus mats. He turned from side +to side and could find no ease. Every day or two the administrator rode +over on his old mare and watched the progress of the road. He was not a +man to resist the temptation of taunting the fallen foe, and he missed +no opportunity to rub into the shamed inhabitants of Matautu the +bitterness of their humiliation. He broke their spirit. And one morning, +putting their pride in their pockets, a figure of speech, since pockets +they had not, they all set out with the strangers and started working on +the road. It was urgent to get it done quickly if they wanted to save +any food at all, and the whole village joined in. But they worked +silently, with rage and mortification in their hearts, and even the +children toiled in silence. The women wept as they carried away bundles +of brushwood. When Walker saw them he laughed so much that he almost +rolled out of his saddle. The news spread quickly and tickled the people +of the island to death. This was the greatest joke of all, the crowning +triumph of that cunning old white man whom no Kanaka had ever been able +to circumvent; and they came from distant villages, with their wives and +children, to look at the foolish folk who had refused twenty pounds to +make the road and now were forced to work for nothing. But the harder +they worked the more easily went the guests. Why should they hurry, when +they were getting good food for nothing and the longer they took about +the job the better the joke became? At last the wretched villagers could +stand it no longer, and they were come this morning to beg the +administrator to send the strangers back to their own homes. If he would +do this they promised to finish the road themselves for nothing. For him +it was a victory complete and unqualified. They were humbled. A look of +arrogant complacence spread over his large, naked face, and he seemed to +swell in his chair like a great bullfrog. There was something sinister +in his appearance, so that Mackintosh shivered with disgust. Then in +his booming tones he began to speak.</p> + +<p>"Is it for my good that I make the road? What benefit do you think I get +out of it? It is for you, so that you can walk in comfort and carry your +copra in comfort. I offered to pay you for your work, though it was for +your own sake the work was done. I offered to pay you generously. Now +<i>you</i> must pay. I will send the people of Manua back to their homes if +you will finish the road and pay the twenty pounds that I have to pay +them."</p> + +<p>There was an outcry. They sought to reason with him. They told him they +had not the money. But to everything they said he replied with brutal +gibes. Then the clock struck.</p> + +<p>"Dinner time," he said. "Turn them all out."</p> + +<p>He raised himself heavily from his chair and walked out of the room. +When Mackintosh followed him he found him already seated at table, a +napkin tied round his neck, holding his knife and fork in readiness for +the meal the Chinese cook was about to bring. He was in high spirits.</p> + +<p>"I did 'em down fine," he said, as Mackintosh sat down. "I shan't have +much trouble with the roads after this."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you were joking," said Mackintosh icily.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"You're not really going to make them pay twenty pounds?"</p> + +<p>"You bet your life I am."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure you've got any right to."</p> + +<p>"Ain't you? I guess I've got the right to do any damned thing I like on +this island."</p> + +<p>"I think you've bullied them quite enough."</p> + +<p>Walker laughed fatly. He did not care what Mackintosh thought.</p> + +<p>"When I want your opinion I'll ask for it." Mackintosh grew very white. +He knew by bitter experience that he could do nothing but keep silence, +and the violent effort at self-control made him sick and faint. He could +not eat the food that was before him and with disgust he watched Walker +shovel meat into his vast mouth. He was a dirty feeder, and to sit at +table with him needed a strong stomach. Mackintosh shuddered. A +tremendous desire seized him to humiliate that gross and cruel man; he +would give anything in the world to see him in the dust, suffering as +much as he had made others suffer. He had never loathed the bully with +such loathing as now.</p> + +<p>The day wore on. Mackintosh tried to sleep after dinner, but the passion +in his heart prevented him; he tried to read, but the letters swam +before his eyes. The sun beat down pitilessly, and he longed for rain; +but he knew that rain would bring no coolness; it would only make it +hotter and more steamy. He was a native of Aberdeen and his heart +yearned suddenly for the icy winds that whistled through the granite +streets of that city. Here he was a prisoner, imprisoned not only by +that placid sea, but by his hatred for that horrible old man. He pressed +his hands to his aching head. He would like to kill him. But he pulled +himself together. He must do something to distract his mind, and since +he could not read he thought he would set his private papers in order. +It was a job which he had long meant to do and which he had constantly +put off. He unlocked the drawer of his desk and took out a handful of +letters. He caught sight of his revolver. An impulse, no sooner realised +than set aside, to put a bullet through his head and so escape from the +intolerable bondage of life flashed through his mind. He noticed that in +the damp air the revolver was slightly rusted, and he got an oil rag and +began to clean it. It was while he was thus occupied that he grew aware +of someone slinking round the door. He looked up and called:</p> + +<p>"Who is there?"</p> + +<p>There was a moment's pause, then Manuma showed himself.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?"</p> + +<p>The chief's son stood for a moment, sullen and silent, and when he spoke +it was with a strangled voice.</p> + +<p>"We can't pay twenty pounds. We haven't the money."</p> + +<p>"What am I to do?" said Mackintosh. "You heard what Mr Walker said."</p> + +<p>Manuma began to plead, half in Samoan and half in English. It was a +sing-song whine, with the quavering intonations of a beggar, and it +filled Mackintosh with disgust. It outraged him that the man should let +himself be so crushed. He was a pitiful object.</p> + +<p>"I can do nothing," said Mackintosh irritably. "You know that Mr Walker +is master here."</p> + +<p>Manuma was silent again. He still stood in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"I am sick," he said at last. "Give me some medicine."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know. I am sick. I have pains in my body."</p> + +<p>"Don't stand there," said Mackintosh sharply. "Come in and let me look +at you."</p> + +<p>Manuma entered the little room and stood before the desk.</p> + +<p>"I have pains here and here."</p> + +<p>He put his hands to his loins and his face assumed an expression of +pain. Suddenly Mackintosh grew conscious that the boy's eyes were +resting on the revolver which he had laid on the desk when Manuma +appeared in the doorway. There was a silence between the two which to +Mackintosh was endless. He seemed to read the thoughts which were in the +Kanaka's mind. His heart beat violently. And then he felt as though +something possessed him so that he acted under the compulsion of a +foreign will. Himself did not make the movements of his body, but a +power that was strange to him. His throat was suddenly dry, and he put +his hand to it mechanically in order to help his speech. He was impelled +to avoid Manuma's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Just wait here," he said, his voice sounded as though someone had +seized him by the windpipe, "and I'll fetch you something from the +dispensary."</p> + +<p>He got up. Was it his fancy that he staggered a little? Manuma stood +silently, and though he kept his eyes averted, Mackintosh knew that he +was looking dully out of the door. It was this other person that +possessed him that drove him out of the room, but it was himself that +took a handful of muddled papers and threw them on the revolver in order +to hide it from view. He went to the dispensary. He got a pill and +poured out some blue draught into a small bottle, and then came out into +the compound. He did not want to go back into his own bungalow, so he +called to Manuma.</p> + +<p>"Come here."</p> + +<p>He gave him the drugs and instructions how to take them. He did not know +what it was that made it impossible for him to look at the Kanaka. While +he was speaking to him he kept his eyes on his shoulder. Manuma took the +medicine and slunk out of the gate.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh went into the dining-room and turned over once more the old +newspapers. But he could not read them. The house was very still. Walker +was upstairs in his room asleep, the Chinese cook was busy in the +kitchen, the two policemen were out fishing. The silence that seemed to +brood over the house was unearthly, and there hammered in Mackintosh's +head the question whether the revolver still lay where he had placed it. +He could not bring himself to look. The uncertainty was horrible, but +the certainty would be more horrible still. He sweated. At last he could +stand the silence no longer, and he made up his mind to go down the +road to the trader's, a man named Jervis, who had a store about a mile +away. He was a half-caste, but even that amount of white blood made him +possible to talk to. He wanted to get away from his bungalow, with the +desk littered with untidy papers, and underneath them something, or +nothing. He walked along the road. As he passed the fine hut of a chief +a greeting was called out to him. Then he came to the store. Behind the +counter sat the trader's daughter, a swarthy broad-featured girl in a +pink blouse and a white drill skirt. Jervis hoped he would marry her. He +had money, and he had told Mackintosh that his daughter's husband would +be well-to-do. She flushed a little when she saw Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"Father's just unpacking some cases that have come in this morning. I'll +tell him you're here."</p> + +<p>He sat down and the girl went out behind the shop. In a moment her +mother waddled in, a huge old woman, a chiefess, who owned much land in +her own right; and gave him her hand. Her monstrous obesity was an +offence, but she managed to convey an impression of dignity. She was +cordial without obsequiousness; affable, but conscious of her station.</p> + +<p>"You're quite a stranger, Mr Mackintosh. Teresa was saying only this +morning: 'Why, we never see Mr Mackintosh now.'"</p> + +<p>He shuddered a little as he thought of himself as that old native's +son-in-law. It was notorious that she ruled her husband, notwithstanding +his white blood, with a firm hand. Hers was the authority and hers the +business head. She might be no more than Mrs Jervis to the white people, +but her father had been a chief of the blood royal, and his father and +his father's father had ruled as kings. The trader came in, small beside +his imposing wife, a dark man with a black beard going grey, in ducks, +with handsome eyes and flashing teeth. He was very British, and his +conversation was slangy, but you felt he spoke English as a foreign +tongue; with his family he used the language of his native mother. He +was a servile man, cringing and obsequious.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr Mackintosh, this is a joyful surprise. Get the whisky, Teresa; +Mr Mackintosh will have a gargle with us."</p> + +<p>He gave all the latest news of Apia, watching his guest's eyes the +while, so that he might know the welcome thing to say.</p> + +<p>"And how is Walker? We've not seen him just lately. Mrs Jervis is going +to send him a sucking-pig one day this week."</p> + +<p>"I saw him riding home this morning," said Teresa.</p> + +<p>"Here's how," said Jervis, holding up his whisky.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh drank. The two women sat and looked at him, Mrs Jervis in her +black Mother Hubbard, placid and haughty, and Teresa, anxious to smile +whenever she caught his eye, while the trader gossiped insufferably.</p> + +<p>"They were saying in Apia it was about time Walker retired. He ain't so +young as he was. Things have changed since he first come to the islands +and he ain't changed with them."</p> + +<p>"He'll go too far," said the old chiefess. "The natives aren't +satisfied."</p> + +<p>"That was a good joke about the road," laughed the trader. "When I told +them about it in Apia they fair split their sides with laughing. Good +old Walker."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh looked at him savagely. What did he mean by talking of him in +that fashion? To a half-caste trader he was Mr Walker. It was on his +tongue to utter a harsh rebuke for the impertinence. He did not know +what held him back.</p> + +<p>"When he goes I hope you'll take his place, Mr Mackintosh," said Jervis. +"We all like you on the island. You understand the natives. They're +educated now, they must be treated differently to the old days. It wants +an educated man to be administrator now. Walker was only a trader same +as I am."</p> + +<p>Teresa's eyes glistened.</p> + +<p>"When the time comes if there's anything anyone can do here, you bet +your bottom dollar we'll do it. I'd get all the chiefs to go over to +Apia and make a petition."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh felt horribly sick. It had not struck him that if anything +happened to Walker it might be he who would succeed him. It was true +that no one in his official position knew the island so well. He got up +suddenly and scarcely taking his leave walked back to the compound. And +now he went straight to his room. He took a quick look at his desk. He +rummaged among the papers.</p> + +<p>The revolver was not there.</p> + +<p>His heart thumped violently against his ribs. He looked for the revolver +everywhere. He hunted in the chairs and in the drawers. He looked +desperately, and all the time he knew he would not find it. Suddenly he +heard Walker's gruff, hearty voice.</p> + +<p>"What the devil are you up to, Mac?"</p> + +<p>He started. Walker was standing in the doorway and instinctively he +turned round to hide what lay upon his desk.</p> + +<p>"Tidying up?" quizzed Walker. "I've told 'em to put the grey in the +trap. I'm going down to Tafoni to bathe. You'd better come along."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>So long as he was with Walker nothing could happen. The place they were +bound for was about three miles away, and there was a fresh-water pool, +separated by a thin barrier of rock from the sea, which the +administrator had blasted out for the natives to bathe in. He had done +this at spots round the island, wherever there was a spring; and the +fresh water, compared with the sticky warmth of the sea, was cool and +invigorating. They drove along the silent grassy road, splashing now and +then through fords, where the sea had forced its way in, past a couple +of native villages, the bell-shaped huts spaced out roomily and the +white chapel in the middle, and at the third village they got out of the +trap, tied up the horse, and walked down to the pool. They were +accompanied by four or five girls and a dozen children. Soon they were +all splashing about, shouting and laughing, while Walker, in a +<i>lava-lava</i>, swam to and fro like an unwieldy porpoise. He made lewd +jokes with the girls, and they amused themselves by diving under him and +wriggling away when he tried to catch them. When he was tired he lay +down on a rock, while the girls and children surrounded him; it was a +happy family; and the old man, huge, with his crescent of white hair and +his shining bald crown, looked like some old sea god. Once Mackintosh +caught a queer soft look in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"They're dear children," he said. "They look upon me as their father."</p> + +<p>And then without a pause he turned to one of the girls and made an +obscene remark which sent them all into fits of laughter. Mackintosh +started to dress. With his thin legs and thin arms he made a grotesque +figure, a sinister Don Quixote, and Walker began to make coarse jokes +about him. They were acknowledged with little smothered laughs. +Mackintosh struggled with his shirt. He knew he looked absurd, but he +hated being laughed at. He stood silent and glowering.</p> + +<p>"If you want to get back in time for dinner you ought to come soon."</p> + +<p>"You're not a bad fellow, Mac. Only you're a fool. When you're doing one +thing you always want to do another. That's not the way to live."</p> + +<p>But all the same he raised himself slowly to his feet and began to put +on his clothes. They sauntered back to the village, drank a bowl of +<i>kava</i> with the chief, and then, after a joyful farewell from all the +lazy villagers, drove home.</p> + +<p>After dinner, according to his habit, Walker, lighting his cigar, +prepared to go for a stroll. Mackintosh was suddenly seized with fear.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's rather unwise to go out at night by yourself just +now?"</p> + +<p>Walker stared at him with his round blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Remember the knife the other night. You've got those fellows' backs +up."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! They wouldn't dare."</p> + +<p>"Someone dared before."</p> + +<p>"That was only a bluff. They wouldn't hurt me. They look upon me as a +father. They know that whatever I do is for their own good."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh watched him with contempt in his heart. The man's +self-complacency outraged him, and yet something, he knew not what, made +him insist.</p> + +<p>"Remember what happened this morning. It wouldn't hurt you to stay at +home just to-night. I'll play piquet with you."</p> + +<p>"I'll play piquet with you when I come back. The Kanaka isn't born yet +who can make me alter my plans."</p> + +<p>"You'd better let me come with you."</p> + +<p>"You stay where you are."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh shrugged his shoulders. He had given the man full warning. If +he did not heed it that was his own lookout. Walker put on his hat and +went out. Mackintosh began to read; but then he thought of something; +perhaps it would be as well to have his own whereabouts quite clear. He +crossed over to the kitchen and, inventing some pretext, talked for a +few minutes with the cook. Then he got out the gramophone and put a +record on it, but while it ground out its melancholy tune, some comic +song of a London music-hall, his ear was strained for a sound away there +in the night. At his elbow the record reeled out its loudness, the words +were raucous, but notwithstanding he seemed to be surrounded by an +unearthly silence. He heard the dull roar of the breakers against the +reef. He heard the breeze sigh, far up, in the leaves of the coconut +trees. How long would it be? It was awful.</p> + +<p>He heard a hoarse laugh.</p> + +<p>"Wonders will never cease. It's not often you play yourself a tune, +Mac."</p> + +<p>Walker stood at the window, red-faced, bluff and jovial.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see I'm alive and kicking. What were you playing for?"</p> + +<p>Walker came in.</p> + +<p>"Nerves a bit dicky, eh? Playing a tune to keep your pecker up?"</p> + +<p>"I was playing your requiem."</p> + +<p>"What the devil's that?"</p> + +<p>"'Alf o' bitter an' a pint of stout."</p> + +<p>"A rattling good song too. I don't mind how often I hear it. Now I'm +ready to take your money off you at piquet."</p> + +<p>They played and Walker bullied his way to victory, bluffing his +opponent, chaffing him, jeering at his mistakes, up to every dodge, +browbeating him, exulting. Presently Mackintosh recovered his coolness, +and standing outside himself, as it were, he was able to take a detached +pleasure in watching the overbearing old man and in his own cold +reserve. Somewhere Manuma sat quietly and awaited his opportunity.</p> + +<p>Walker won game after game and pocketed his winnings at the end of the +evening in high good humour.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to grow a little bit older before you stand much chance +against me, Mac. The fact is I have a natural gift for cards."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that there's much gift about it when I happen to deal you +fourteen aces."</p> + +<p>"Good cards come to good players," retorted Walker. "I'd have won if I'd +had your hands."</p> + +<p>He went on to tell long stories of the various occasions on which he had +played cards with notorious sharpers and to their consternation had +taken all their money from them. He boasted. He praised himself. And +Mackintosh listened with absorption. He wanted now to feed his hatred; +and everything Walker said, every gesture, made him more detestable. At +last Walker got up.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to turn in," he said with a loud yawn. "I've got a long +day to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"I'm driving over to the other side of the island. I'll start at five, +but I don't expect I shall get back to dinner till late."</p> + +<p>They generally dined at seven.</p> + +<p>"We'd better make it half past seven then."</p> + +<p>"I guess it would be as well."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh watched him knock the ashes out of his pipe. His vitality was +rude and exuberant. It was strange to think that death hung over him. A +faint smile flickered in Mackintosh's cold, gloomy eyes.</p> + +<p>"Would you like me to come with you?"</p> + +<p>"What in God's name should I want that for? I'm using the mare and +she'll have enough to do to carry me; she don't want to drag you over +thirty miles of road."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you don't quite realise what the feeling is at Matautu. I think +it would be safer if I came with you."</p> + +<p>Walker burst into contemptuous laughter.</p> + +<p>"You'd be a fine lot of use in a scrap. I'm not a great hand at getting +the wind up."</p> + +<p>Now the smile passed from Mackintosh's eyes to his lips. It distorted +them painfully.</p> + +<p>"<i>Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat.</i>"</p> + +<p>"What the hell is that?" said Walker.</p> + +<p>"Latin," answered Mackintosh as he went out.</p> + +<p>And now he chuckled. His mood had changed. He had done all he could and +the matter was in the hands of fate. He slept more soundly than he had +done for weeks. When he awoke next morning he went out. After a good +night he found a pleasant exhilaration in the freshness of the early +air. The sea was a more vivid blue, the sky more brilliant, than on most +days, the trade wind was fresh, and there was a ripple on the lagoon as +the breeze brushed over it like velvet brushed the wrong way. He felt +himself stronger and younger. He entered upon the day's work with zest. +After luncheon he slept again, and as evening drew on he had the bay +saddled and sauntered through the bush. He seemed to see it all with new +eyes. He felt more normal. The extraordinary thing was that he was able +to put Walker out of his mind altogether. So far as he was concerned he +might never have existed.</p> + +<p>He returned late, hot after his ride, and bathed again. Then he sat on +the verandah, smoking his pipe, and looked at the day declining over the +lagoon. In the sunset the lagoon, rosy and purple and green, was very +beautiful. He felt at peace with the world and with himself. When the +cook came out to say that dinner was ready and to ask whether he should +wait, Mackintosh smiled at him with friendly eyes. He looked at his +watch.</p> + +<p>"It's half-past seven. Better not wait. One can't tell when the boss'll +be back."</p> + +<p>The boy nodded, and in a moment Mackintosh saw him carry across the yard +a bowl of steaming soup. He got up lazily, went into the dining-room, +and ate his dinner. Had it happened? The uncertainty was amusing and +Mackintosh chuckled in the silence. The food did not seem so monotonous +as usual, and even though there was Hamburger steak, the cook's +invariable dish when his poor invention failed him, it tasted by some +miracle succulent and spiced. After dinner he strolled over lazily to +his bungalow to get a book. He liked the intense stillness, and now +that the night had fallen the stars were blazing in the sky. He shouted +for a lamp and in a moment the Chink pattered over on his bare feet, +piercing the darkness with a ray of light. He put the lamp on the desk +and noiselessly slipped out of the room. Mackintosh stood rooted to the +floor, for there, half hidden by untidy papers, was his revolver. His +heart throbbed painfully, and he broke into a sweat. It was done then.</p> + +<p>He took up the revolver with a shaking hand. Four of the chambers were +empty. He paused a moment and looked suspiciously out into the night, +but there was no one there. He quickly slipped four cartridges into the +empty chambers and locked the revolver in his drawer.</p> + +<p>He sat down to wait.</p> + +<p>An hour passed, a second hour passed. There was nothing. He sat at his +desk as though he were writing, but he neither wrote nor read. He merely +listened. He strained his ears for a sound travelling from a far +distance. At last he heard hesitating footsteps and knew it was the +Chinese cook.</p> + +<p>"Ah-Sung," he called.</p> + +<p>The boy came to the door.</p> + +<p>"Boss velly late," he said. "Dinner no good."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh stared at him, wondering whether he knew what had happened, +and whether, when he knew, he would realise on what terms he and Walker +had been. He went about his work, sleek, silent, and smiling, and who +could tell his thoughts?</p> + +<p>"I expect he's had dinner on the way, but you must keep the soup hot at +all events."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly out of his mouth when the silence was suddenly +broken into by a confusion, cries, and a rapid patter of naked feet. A +number of natives ran into the compound, men and women and children; +they crowded round Mackintosh and they all talked at once. They were +unintelligible. They were excited and frightened and some of them were +crying. Mackintosh pushed his way through them and went to the gateway. +Though he had scarcely understood what they said he knew quite well what +had happened. And as he reached the gate the dog-cart arrived. The old +mare was being led by a tall Kanaka, and in the dog-cart crouched two +men, trying to hold Walker up. A little crowd of natives surrounded it.</p> + +<p>The mare was led into the yard and the natives surged in after it. +Mackintosh shouted to them to stand back and the two policemen, sprang +suddenly from God knows where, pushed them violently aside. By now he +had managed to understand that some lads who had been fishing, on their +way back to their village had come across the cart on the home side of +the ford. The mare was nuzzling about the herbage and in the darkness +they could just see the great white bulk of the old man sunk between the +seat and the dashboard. At first they thought he was drunk and they +peered in, grinning, but then they heard him groan, and guessed that +something was amiss. They ran to the village and called for help. It was +when they returned, accompanied by half a hundred people, that they +discovered Walker had been shot.</p> + +<p>With a sudden thrill of horror Mackintosh asked himself whether he was +already dead. The first thing at all events was to get him out of the +cart, and that, owing to Walker's corpulence, was a difficult job. It +took four strong men to lift him. They jolted him and he uttered a dull +groan. He was still alive. At last they carried him into the house, up +the stairs, and placed him on his bed. Then Mackintosh was able to see +him, for in the yard, lit only by half a dozen hurricane lamps, +everything had been obscured. Walker's white ducks were stained with +blood, and the men who had carried him wiped their hands, red and +sticky, on their <i>lava-lavas</i>. Mackintosh held up the lamp. He had not +expected the old man to be so pale. His eyes were closed. He was +breathing still, his pulse could be just felt, but it was obvious that +he was dying. Mackintosh had not bargained for the shock of horror that +convulsed him. He saw that the native clerk was there, and in a voice +hoarse with fear told him to go into the dispensary and get what was +necessary for a hypodermic injection. One of the policemen had brought +up the whisky, and Mackintosh forced a little into the old man's mouth. +The room was crowded with natives. They sat about the floor, speechless +now and terrified, and every now and then one wailed aloud. It was very +hot, but Mackintosh felt cold, his hands and his feet were like ice, and +he had to make a violent effort not to tremble in all his limbs. He did +not know what to do. He did not know if Walker was bleeding still, and +if he was, how he could stop the bleeding.</p> + +<p>The clerk brought the hypodermic needle.</p> + +<p>"You give it to him," said Mackintosh. "You're more used to that sort of +thing than I am."</p> + +<p>His head ached horribly. It felt as though all sorts of little savage +things were beating inside it, trying to get out. They watched for the +effect of the injection. Presently Walker opened his eyes slowly. He did +not seem to know where he was.</p> + +<p>"Keep quiet," said Mackintosh. "You're at home. You're quite safe."</p> + +<p>Walker's lips outlined a shadowy smile.</p> + +<p>"They've got me," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"I'll get Jervis to send his motor-boat to Apia at once. We'll get a +doctor out by to-morrow afternoon."</p> + +<p>There was a long pause before the old man answered,</p> + +<p>"I shall be dead by then."</p> + +<p>A ghastly expression passed over Mackintosh's pale face. He forced +himself to laugh.</p> + +<p>"What rot! You keep quiet and you'll be as right as rain."</p> + +<p>"Give me a drink," said Walker. "A stiff one."</p> + +<p>With shaking hand Mackintosh poured out whisky and water, half and half, +and held the glass while Walker drank greedily. It seemed to restore +him. He gave a long sigh and a little colour came into his great fleshy +face. Mackintosh felt extraordinarily helpless. He stood and stared at +the old man.</p> + +<p>"If you'll tell me what to do I'll do it," he said.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing to do. Just leave me alone. I'm done for."</p> + +<p>He looked dreadfully pitiful as he lay on the great bed, a huge, +bloated, old man; but so wan, so weak, it was heart-rending. As he +rested, his mind seemed to grow clearer.</p> + +<p>"You were right, Mac," he said presently. "You warned me."</p> + +<p>"I wish to God I'd come with you."</p> + +<p>"You're a good chap, Mac, only you don't drink."</p> + +<p>There was another long silence, and it was clear that Walker was +sinking. There was an internal hæmorrhage and even Mackintosh in his +ignorance could not fail to see that his chief had but an hour or two to +live. He stood by the side of the bed stock still. For half an hour +perhaps Walker lay with his eyes closed, then he opened them.</p> + +<p>"They'll give you my job," he said, slowly. "Last time I was in Apia I +told them you were all right. Finish my road. I want to think that'll be +done. All round the island."</p> + +<p>"I don't want your job. You'll get all right."</p> + +<p>Walker shook his head wearily.</p> + +<p>"I've had my day. Treat them fairly, that's the great thing. They're +children. You must always remember that. You must be firm with them, but +you must be kind. And you must be just. I've never made a bob out of +them. I haven't saved a hundred pounds in twenty years. The road's the +great thing. Get the road finished."</p> + +<p>Something very like a sob was wrung from Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"You're a good fellow, Mac. I always liked you."</p> + +<p>He closed his eyes, and Mackintosh thought that he would never open them +again. His mouth was so dry that he had to get himself something to +drink. The Chinese cook silently put a chair for him. He sat down by the +side of the bed and waited. He did not know how long a time passed. The +night was endless. Suddenly one of the men sitting there broke into +uncontrollable sobbing, loudly, like a child, and Mackintosh grew aware +that the room was crowded by this time with natives. They sat all over +the floor on their haunches, men and women, staring at the bed.</p> + +<p>"What are all these people doing here?" said Mackintosh. "They've got no +right. Turn them out, turn them out, all of them."</p> + +<p>His words seemed to rouse Walker, for he opened his eyes once more, and +now they were all misty. He wanted to speak, but he was so weak that +Mackintosh had to strain his ears to catch what he said.</p> + +<p>"Let them stay. They're my children. They ought to be here."</p> + +<p>Mackintosh turned to the natives.</p> + +<p>"Stay where you are. He wants you. But be silent."</p> + +<p>A faint smile came over the old man's white face.</p> + +<p>"Come nearer," he said.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh bent over him. His eyes were closed and the words he said +were like a wind sighing through the fronds of the coconut trees.</p> + +<p>"Give me another drink. I've got something to say."</p> + +<p>This time Mackintosh gave him his whisky neat. Walker collected his +strength in a final effort of will.</p> + +<p>"Don't make a fuss about this. In 'ninety-five when there were troubles +white men were killed, and the fleet came and shelled the villages. A +lot of people were killed who'd had nothing to do with it. They're +damned fools at Apia. If they make a fuss they'll only punish the wrong +people. I don't want anyone punished."</p> + +<p>He paused for a while to rest.</p> + +<p>"You must say it was an accident. No one's to blame. Promise me that."</p> + +<p>"I'll do anything you like," whispered Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"Good chap. One of the best. They're children. I'm their father. A +father don't let his children get into trouble if he can help it."</p> + +<p>A ghost of a chuckle came out of his throat. It was astonishingly weird +and ghastly.</p> + +<p>"You're a religious chap, Mac. What's that about forgiving them? You +know."</p> + +<p>For a while Mackintosh did not answer. His lips trembled.</p> + +<p>"Forgive them, for they know not what they do?"</p> + +<p>"That's right. Forgive them. I've loved them, you know, always loved +them."</p> + +<p>He sighed. His lips faintly moved, and now Mackintosh had to put his +ears quite close to them in order to hear.</p> + +<p>"Hold my hand," he said.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh gave a gasp. His heart seemed wrenched. He took the old man's +hand, so cold and weak, a coarse, rough hand, and held it in his own. +And thus he sat until he nearly started out of his seat, for the silence +was suddenly broken by a long rattle. It was terrible and unearthly. +Walker was dead. Then the natives broke out with loud cries. The tears +ran down their faces, and they beat their breasts.</p> + +<p>Mackintosh disengaged his hand from the dead man's, and staggering like +one drunk with sleep he went out of the room. He went to the locked +drawer in his writing-desk and took out the revolver. He walked down to +the sea and walked into the lagoon; he waded out cautiously, so that he +should not trip against a coral rock, till the water came to his +arm-pits. Then he put a bullet through his head.</p> + +<p>An hour later half a dozen slim brown sharks were splashing and +struggling at the spot where he fell.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>The Fall of Edward Barnard</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">B</span>ATEMAN Hunter slept badly. For a fortnight on the boat that brought him +from Tahiti to San Francisco he had been thinking of the story he had to +tell, and for three days on the train he had repeated to himself the +words in which he meant to tell it. But in a few hours now he would be +in Chicago, and doubts assailed him. His conscience, always very +sensitive, was not at ease. He was uncertain that he had done all that +was possible, it was on his honour to do much more than the possible, +and the thought was disturbing that, in a matter which so nearly touched +his own interest, he had allowed his interest to prevail over his +quixotry. Self-sacrifice appealed so keenly to his imagination that the +inability to exercise it gave him a sense of disillusion. He was like +the philanthropist who with altruistic motives builds model dwellings +for the poor and finds that he has made a lucrative investment. He +cannot prevent the satisfaction he feels in the ten per cent which +rewards the bread he had cast upon the waters, but he has an awkward +feeling that it detracts somewhat from the savour of his virtue. Bateman +Hunter knew that his heart was pure, but he was not quite sure how +steadfastly, when he told her his story, he would endure the scrutiny +of Isabel Longstaffe's cool grey eyes. They were far-seeing and wise. +She measured the standards of others by her own meticulous uprightness +and there could be no greater censure than the cold silence with which +she expressed her disapproval of a conduct that did not satisfy her +exacting code. There was no appeal from her judgment, for, having made +up her mind, she never changed it. But Bateman would not have had her +different. He loved not only the beauty of her person, slim and +straight, with the proud carriage of her head, but still more the beauty +of her soul. With her truthfulness, her rigid sense of honour, her +fearless outlook, she seemed to him to collect in herself all that was +most admirable in his countrywomen. But he saw in her something more +than the perfect type of the American girl, he felt that her +exquisiteness was peculiar in a way to her environment, and he was +assured that no city in the world could have produced her but Chicago. A +pang seized him when he remembered that he must deal so bitter a blow to +her pride, and anger flamed up in his heart when he thought of Edward +Barnard.</p> + +<p>But at last the train steamed in to Chicago and he exulted when he saw +the long streets of grey houses. He could hardly bear his impatience at +the thought of State and Wabash with their crowded pavements, their +hustling traffic, and their noise. He was at home. And he was glad that +he had been born in the most important city in the United States. San +Francisco was provincial, New York was effete; the future of America +lay in the development of its economic possibilities, and Chicago, by +its position and by the energy of its citizens, was destined to become +the real capital of the country.</p> + +<p>"I guess I shall live long enough to see it the biggest city in the +world," Bateman said to himself as he stepped down to the platform.</p> + +<p>His father had come to meet him, and after a hearty handshake, the pair +of them, tall, slender, and well-made, with the same fine, ascetic +features and thin lips, walked out of the station. Mr Hunter's +automobile was waiting for them and they got in. Mr Hunter caught his +son's proud and happy glance as he looked at the street.</p> + +<p>"Glad to be back, son?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I should just think I was," said Bateman.</p> + +<p>His eyes devoured the restless scene.</p> + +<p>"I guess there's a bit more traffic here than in your South Sea island," +laughed Mr Hunter. "Did you like it there?"</p> + +<p>"Give me Chicago, dad," answered Bateman.</p> + +<p>"You haven't brought Edward Barnard back with you."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"How was he?"</p> + +<p>Bateman was silent for a moment, and his handsome, sensitive face +darkened.</p> + +<p>"I'd sooner not speak about him, dad," he said at last.</p> + +<p>"That's all right, my son. I guess your mother will be a happy woman +to-day."</p> + +<p>They passed out of the crowded streets in the Loop and drove along the +lake till they came to the imposing house, an exact copy of a château on +the Loire, which Mr Hunter had built himself some years before. As soon +as Bateman was alone in his room he asked for a number on the telephone. +His heart leaped when he heard the voice that answered him.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, Isabel," he said gaily.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, Bateman."</p> + +<p>"How did you recognise my voice?"</p> + +<p>"It is not so long since I heard it last. Besides, I was expecting you."</p> + +<p>"When may I see you?"</p> + +<p>"Unless you have anything better to do perhaps you'll dine with us +to-night."</p> + +<p>"You know very well that I couldn't possibly have anything better to +do."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that you're full of news?"</p> + +<p>He thought he detected in her voice a note of apprehension.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Well, you must tell me to-night. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>She rang off. It was characteristic of her that she should be able to +wait so many unnecessary hours to know what so immensely concerned her. +To Bateman there was an admirable fortitude in her restraint.</p> + +<p>At dinner, at which beside himself and Isabel no one was present but her +father and mother, he watched her guide the conversation into the +channels of an urbane small-talk, and it occurred to him that in just +such a manner would a marquise under the shadow of the guillotine toy +with the affairs of a day that would know no morrow. Her delicate +features, the aristocratic shortness of her upper lip, and her wealth of +fair hair suggested the marquise again, and it must have been obvious, +even if it were not notorious, that in her veins flowed the best blood +in Chicago. The dining-room was a fitting frame to her fragile beauty, +for Isabel had caused the house, a replica of a palace on the Grand +Canal at Venice, to be furnished by an English expert in the style of +Louis XV; and the graceful decoration linked with the name of that +amorous monarch enhanced her loveliness and at the same time acquired +from it a more profound significance. For Isabel's mind was richly +stored, and her conversation, however light, was never flippant. She +spoke now of the <i>Musicale</i> to which she and her mother had been in the +afternoon, of the lectures which an English poet was giving at the +Auditorium, of the political situation, and of the Old Master which her +father had recently bought for fifty thousand dollars in New York. It +comforted Bateman to hear her. He felt that he was once more in the +civilised world, at the centre of culture and distinction; and certain +voices, troubling and yet against his will refusing to still their +clamour, were at last silent in his heart.</p> + +<p>"Gee, but it's good to be back in Chicago," he said.</p> + +<p>At last dinner was over, and when they went out of the dining-room +Isabel said to her mother:</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take Bateman along to my den. We have various things to +talk about."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my dear," said Mrs Longstaffe. "You'll find your father and +me in the Madame du Barry room when you're through."</p> + +<p>Isabel led the young man upstairs and showed him into the room of which +he had so many charming memories. Though he knew it so well he could not +repress the exclamation of delight which it always wrung from him. She +looked round with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I think it's a success," she said. "The main thing is that it's right. +There's not even an ashtray that isn't of the period."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that's what makes it so wonderful. Like all you do it's so +superlatively right."</p> + +<p>They sat down in front of a log fire and Isabel looked at him with calm +grave eyes.</p> + +<p>"Now what have you to say to me?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I hardly know how to begin."</p> + +<p>"Is Edward Barnard coming back?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence before Bateman spoke again, and with each of +them it was filled with many thoughts. It was a difficult story he had +to tell, for there were things in it which were so offensive to her +sensitive ears that he could not bear to tell them, and yet in justice +to her, no less than in justice to himself, he must tell her the whole +truth.</p> + +<p>It had all begun long ago when he and Edward Barnard, still at college, +had met Isabel Longstaffe at the tea-party given to introduce her to +society. They had both known her when she was a child and they +long-legged boys, but for two years she had been in Europe to finish her +education and it was with a surprised delight that they renewed +acquaintance with the lovely girl who returned. Both of them fell +desperately in love with her, but Bateman saw quickly that she had eyes +only for Edward, and, devoted to his friend, he resigned himself to the +role of confidant. He passed bitter moments, but he could not deny that +Edward was worthy of his good fortune, and, anxious that nothing should +impair the friendship he so greatly valued, he took care never by a hint +to disclose his own feelings. In six months the young couple were +engaged. But they were very young and Isabel's father decided that they +should not marry at least till Edward graduated. They had to wait a +year. Bateman remembered the winter at the end of which Isabel and +Edward were to be married, a winter of dances and theatre-parties and of +informal gaieties at which he, the constant third, was always present. +He loved her no less because she would shortly be his friend's wife; her +smile, a gay word she flung him, the confidence of her affection, never +ceased to delight him; and he congratulated himself, somewhat +complacently, because he did not envy them their happiness. Then an +accident happened. A great bank failed, there was a panic on the +exchange, and Edward Barnard's father found himself a ruined man. He +came home one night, told his wife that he was penniless, and after +dinner, going into his study, shot himself.</p> + +<p>A week later, Edward Barnard, with a tired, white face, went to Isabel +and asked her to release him. Her only answer was to throw her arms +round his neck and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Don't make it harder for me, sweet," he said.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I can let you go now? I love you."</p> + +<p>"How can I ask you to marry me? The whole thing's hopeless. Your father +would never let you. I haven't a cent."</p> + +<p>"What do I care? I love you."</p> + +<p>He told her his plans. He had to earn money at once, and George +Braunschmidt, an old friend of his family, had offered to take him into +his own business. He was a South Sea merchant, and he had agencies in +many of the islands of the Pacific. He had suggested that Edward should +go to Tahiti for a year or two, where under the best of his managers he +could learn the details of that varied trade, and at the end of that +time he promised the young man a position in Chicago. It was a wonderful +opportunity, and when he had finished his explanations Isabel was once +more all smiles.</p> + +<p>"You foolish boy, why have you been trying to make me miserable?"</p> + +<p>His face lit up at her words and his eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>"Isabel, you don't mean to say you'll wait for me?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you think you're worth it?" she smiled.</p> + +<p>"Ah, don't laugh at me now. I beseech you to be serious. It may be for +two years."</p> + +<p>"Have no fear. I love you, Edward. When you come back I will marry +you."</p> + +<p>Edward's employer was a man who did not like delay and he had told him +that if he took the post he offered he must sail that day week from San +Francisco. Edward spent his last evening with Isabel. It was after +dinner that Mr Longstaffe, saying he wanted a word with Edward, took him +into the smoking-room. Mr Longstaffe had accepted good-naturedly the +arrangement which his daughter had told him of and Edward could not +imagine what mysterious communication he had now to make. He was not a +little perplexed to see that his host was embarrassed. He faltered. He +talked of trivial things. At last he blurted it out.</p> + +<p>"I guess you've heard of Arnold Jackson," he said, looking at Edward +with a frown.</p> + +<p>Edward hesitated. His natural truthfulness obliged him to admit a +knowledge he would gladly have been able to deny.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have. But it's a long time ago. I guess I didn't pay very much +attention."</p> + +<p>"There are not many people in Chicago who haven't heard of Arnold +Jackson," said Mr Longstaffe bitterly, "and if there are they'll have no +difficulty in finding someone who'll be glad to tell them. Did you know +he was Mrs Longstaffe's brother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew that."</p> + +<p>"Of course we've had no communication with him for many years. He left +the country as soon as he was able to, and I guess the country wasn't +sorry to see the last of him. We understand he lives in Tahiti. My +advice to you is to give him a wide berth, but if you do hear anything +about him Mrs Longstaffe and I would be very glad if you'd let us know."</p> + +<p>"Sure."</p> + +<p>"That was all I wanted to say to you. Now I daresay you'd like to join +the ladies."</p> + +<p>There are few families that have not among their members one whom, if +their neighbours permitted, they would willingly forget, and they are +fortunate when the lapse of a generation or two has invested his +vagaries with a romantic glamour. But when he is actually alive, if his +peculiarities are not of the kind that can be condoned by the phrase, +"he is nobody's enemy but his own," a safe one when the culprit has no +worse to answer for than alcoholism or wandering affections, the only +possible course is silence. And it was this which the Longstaffes had +adopted towards Arnold Jackson. They never talked of him. They would not +even pass through the street in which he had lived. Too kind to make his +wife and children suffer for his misdeeds, they had supported them for +years, but on the understanding that they should live in Europe. They +did everything they could to blot out all recollection of Arnold Jackson +and yet were conscious that the story was as fresh in the public mind as +when first the scandal burst upon a gaping world. Arnold Jackson was as +black a sheep as any family could suffer from. A wealthy banker, +prominent in his church, a philanthropist, a man respected by all, not +only for his connections (in his veins ran the blue blood of Chicago), +but also for his upright character, he was arrested one day on a charge +of fraud; and the dishonesty which the trial brought to light was not of +the sort which could be explained by a sudden temptation; it was +deliberate and systematic. Arnold Jackson was a rogue. When he was sent +to the penitentiary for seven years there were few who did not think he +had escaped lightly.</p> + +<p>When at the end of this last evening the lovers separated it was with +many protestations of devotion. Isabel, all tears, was consoled a little +by her certainty of Edward's passionate love. It was a strange feeling +that she had. It made her wretched to part from him and yet she was +happy because he adored her.</p> + +<p>This was more than two years ago.</p> + +<p>He had written to her by every mail since then, twenty-four letters in +all, for the mail went but once a month, and his letters had been all +that a lover's letters should be. They were intimate and charming, +humorous sometimes, especially of late, and tender. At first they +suggested that he was homesick, they were full of his desire to get back +to Chicago and Isabel; and, a little anxiously, she wrote begging him to +persevere. She was afraid that he might throw up his opportunity and +come racing back. She did not want her lover to lack endurance and she +quoted to him the lines:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>"I could not love thee, dear, so much,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Loved I not honour more."</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But presently he seemed to settle down and it made Isabel very happy to +observe his growing enthusiasm to introduce American methods into that +forgotten corner of the world. But she knew him, and at the end of the +year, which was the shortest time he could possibly stay in Tahiti, she +expected to have to use all her influence to dissuade him from coming +home. It was much better that he should learn the business thoroughly, +and if they had been able to wait a year there seemed no reason why they +should not wait another. She talked it over with Bateman Hunter, always +the most generous of friends (during those first few days after Edward +went she did not know what she would have done without him), and they +decided that Edward's future must stand before everything. It was with +relief that she found as the time passed that he made no suggestion of +returning.</p> + +<p>"He's splendid, isn't he?" she exclaimed to Bateman.</p> + +<p>"He's white, through and through."</p> + +<p>"Reading between the lines of his letter I know he hates it over there, +but he's sticking it out because...."</p> + +<p>She blushed a little and Bateman, with the grave smile which was so +attractive in him, finished the sentence for her.</p> + +<p>"Because he loves you."</p> + +<p>"It makes me feel so humble," she said.</p> + +<p>"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're perfectly wonderful."</p> + +<p>But the second year passed and every month Isabel continued to receive a +letter from Edward, and presently it began to seem a little strange +that he did not speak of coming back. He wrote as though he were +settled definitely in Tahiti, and what was more, comfortably settled. +She was surprised. Then she read his letters again, all of them, several +times; and now, reading between the lines indeed, she was puzzled to +notice a change which had escaped her. The later letters were as tender +and as delightful as the first, but the tone was different. She was +vaguely suspicious of their humour, she had the instinctive mistrust of +her sex for that unaccountable quality, and she discerned in them now a +flippancy which perplexed her. She was not quite certain that the Edward +who wrote to her now was the same Edward that she had known. One +afternoon, the day after a mail had arrived from Tahiti, when she was +driving with Bateman he said to her:</p> + +<p>"Did Edward tell you when he was sailing?"</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't mention it. I thought he might have said something to you +about it."</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>"You know what Edward is," she laughed in reply, "he has no sense of +time. If it occurs to you next time you write you might ask him when +he's thinking of coming."</p> + +<p>Her manner was so unconcerned that only Bateman's acute sensitiveness +could have discerned in her request a very urgent desire. He laughed +lightly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'll ask him. I can't imagine what he's thinking about."</p> + +<p>A few days later, meeting him again, she noticed that something troubled +him. They had been much together since Edward left Chicago; they were +both devoted to him and each in his desire to talk of the absent one +found a willing listener; the consequence was that Isabel knew every +expression of Bateman's face, and his denials now were useless against +her keen instinct. Something told her that his harassed look had to do +with Edward and she did not rest till she had made him confess.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," he said at last, "I heard in a round-about way that +Edward was no longer working for Braunschmidt and Co., and yesterday I +took the opportunity to ask Mr Braunschmidt himself."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Edward left his employment with them nearly a year ago."</p> + +<p>"How strange he should have said nothing about it!"</p> + +<p>Bateman hesitated, but he had gone so far now that he was obliged to +tell the rest. It made him feel dreadfully embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"He was fired."</p> + +<p>"In heaven's name what for?"</p> + +<p>"It appears they warned him once or twice, and at last they told him to +get out. They say he was lazy and incompetent."</p> + +<p>"Edward?"</p> + +<p>They were silent for a while, and then he saw that Isabel was crying. +Instinctively he seized her hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, don't, don't," he said. "I can't bear to see it."</p> + +<p>She was so unstrung that she let her hand rest in his. He tried to +console her.</p> + +<p>"It's incomprehensible, isn't it? It's so unlike Edward. I can't help +feeling there must be some mistake."</p> + +<p>She did not say anything for a while, and when she spoke it was +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Has it struck you that there was anything queer in his letters lately?" +she asked, looking away, her eyes all bright with tears.</p> + +<p>He did not quite know how to answer.</p> + +<p>"I have noticed a change in them," he admitted. "He seems to have lost +that high seriousness which I admired so much in him. One would almost +think that the things that matter—well, don't matter."</p> + +<p>Isabel did not reply. She was vaguely uneasy.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps in his answer to your letter he'll say when he's coming home. +All we can do is to wait for that."</p> + +<p>Another letter came from Edward for each of them, and still he made no +mention of his return; but when he wrote he could not have received +Bateman's enquiry. The next mail would bring them an answer to that. The +next mail came, and Bateman brought Isabel the letter he had just +received; but the first glance of his face was enough to tell her that +he was disconcerted. She read it through carefully and then, with +slightly tightened lips, read it again.</p> + +<p>"It's a very strange letter," she said. "I don't quite understand it."</p> + +<p>"One might almost think that he was joshing me," said Bateman, flushing.</p> + +<p>"It reads like that, but it must be unintentional. That's so unlike +Edward."</p> + +<p>"He says nothing about coming back."</p> + +<p>"If I weren't so confident of his love I should think.... I hardly know +what I should think."</p> + +<p>It was then that Bateman had broached the scheme which during the +afternoon had formed itself in his brain. The firm, founded by his +father, in which he was now a partner, a firm which manufactured all +manner of motor vehicles, was about to establish agencies in Honolulu, +Sidney, and Wellington; and Bateman proposed that himself should go +instead of the manager who had been suggested. He could return by +Tahiti; in fact, travelling from Wellington, it was inevitable to do so; +and he could see Edward.</p> + +<p>"There's some mystery and I'm going to clear it up. That's the only way +to do it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bateman, how can you be so good and kind?" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You know there's nothing in the world I want more than your happiness, +Isabel."</p> + +<p>She looked at him and she gave him her hands.</p> + +<p>"You're wonderful, Bateman. I didn't know there was anyone in the world +like you. How can I ever thank you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't want your thanks. I only want to be allowed to help you."</p> + +<p>She dropped her eyes and flushed a little. She was so used to him that +she had forgotten how handsome he was. He was as tall as Edward +and as well made, but he was dark and pale of face, while Edward was +ruddy. Of course she knew he loved her. It touched her. She felt very +tenderly towards him.</p> + +<p>It was from this journey that Bateman Hunter was now returned.</p> + +<p>The business part of it took him somewhat longer than he expected and he +had much time to think of his two friends. He had come to the conclusion +that it could be nothing serious that prevented Edward from coming home, +a pride, perhaps, which made him determined to make good before he +claimed the bride he adored; but it was a pride that must be reasoned +with. Isabel was unhappy. Edward must come back to Chicago with him and +marry her at once. A position could be found for him in the works of the +Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company. Bateman, with a bleeding +heart, exulted at the prospect of giving happiness to the two persons he +loved best in the world at the cost of his own. He would never marry. He +would be godfather to the children of Edward and Isabel, and many years +later when they were both dead he would tell Isabel's daughter how long, +long ago he had loved her mother. Bateman's eyes were veiled with tears +when he pictured this scene to himself.</p> + +<p>Meaning to take Edward by surprise he had not cabled to announce his +arrival, and when at last he landed at Tahiti he allowed a youth, who +said he was the son of the house, to lead him to the Hotel de la Fleur. +He chuckled when he thought of his friend's amazement on seeing him, +the most unexpected of visitors, walk into his office.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he asked, as they went along, "can you tell me where I +shall find Mr. Edward Barnard?"</p> + +<p>"Barnard?" said the youth. "I seem to know the name."</p> + +<p>"He's an American. A tall fellow with light brown hair and blue eyes. +He's been here over two years."</p> + +<p>"Of course. Now I know who you mean. You mean Mr Jackson's nephew."</p> + +<p>"Whose nephew?"</p> + +<p>"Mr Arnold Jackson."</p> + +<p>"I don't think we're speaking of the same person," answered Bateman, +frigidly.</p> + +<p>He was startled. It was queer that Arnold Jackson, known apparently to +all and sundry, should live here under the disgraceful name in which he +had been convicted. But Bateman could not imagine whom it was that he +passed off as his nephew. Mrs Longstaffe was his only sister and he had +never had a brother. The young man by his side talked volubly in an +English that had something in it of the intonation of a foreign tongue, +and Bateman, with a sidelong glance, saw, what he had not noticed +before, that there was in him a good deal of native blood. A touch of +hauteur involuntarily entered into his manner. They reached the hotel. +When he had arranged about his room Bateman asked to be directed to the +premises of Braunschmidt & Co. They were on the front, facing the +lagoon, and, glad to feel the solid earth under his feet after eight +days at sea, he sauntered down the sunny road to the water's edge. +Having found the place he sought, Bateman sent in his card to the +manager and was led through a lofty barn-like room, half store and half +warehouse, to an office in which sat a stout, spectacled, bald-headed +man.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell me where I shall find Mr Edward Barnard? I understand he +was in this office for some time."</p> + +<p>"That is so. I don't know just where he is."</p> + +<p>"But I thought he came here with a particular recommendation from Mr +Braunschmidt. I know Mr Braunschmidt very well."</p> + +<p>The fat man looked at Bateman with shrewd, suspicious eyes. He called to +one of the boys in the warehouse.</p> + +<p>"Say, Henry, where's Barnard now, d'you know?"</p> + +<p>"He's working at Cameron's, I think," came the answer from someone who +did not trouble to move.</p> + +<p>The fat man nodded.</p> + +<p>"If you turn to your left when you get out of here you'll come to +Cameron's in about three minutes."</p> + +<p>Bateman hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I think I should tell you that Edward Barnard is my greatest friend. I +was very much surprised when I heard he'd left Braunschmidt & Co."</p> + +<p>The fat man's eyes contracted till they seemed like pin-points, and +their scrutiny made Bateman so uncomfortable that he felt himself +blushing.</p> + +<p>"I guess Braunschmidt & Co. and Edward Barnard didn't see eye to eye on +certain matters," he replied.</p> + +<p>Bateman did not quite like the fellow's manner, so he got up, not +without dignity, and with an apology for troubling him bade him +good-day. He left the place with a singular feeling that the man he had +just interviewed had much to tell him, but no intention of telling it. +He walked in the direction indicated and soon found himself at +Cameron's. It was a trader's store, such as he had passed half a dozen +of on his way, and when he entered the first person he saw, in his shirt +sleeves, measuring out a length of trade cotton, was Edward. It gave him +a start to see him engaged in so humble an occupation. But he had +scarcely appeared when Edward, looking up, caught sight of him, and gave +a joyful cry of surprise.</p> + +<p>"Bateman! Who ever thought of seeing you here?"</p> + +<p>He stretched his arm across the counter and wrung Bateman's hand. There +was no self-consciousness in his manner and the embarrassment was all on +Bateman's side.</p> + +<p>"Just wait till I've wrapped this package."</p> + +<p>With perfect assurance he ran his scissors across the stuff, folded it, +made it into a parcel, and handed it to the dark-skinned customer.</p> + +<p>"Pay at the desk, please."</p> + +<p>Then, smiling, with bright eyes, he turned to Bateman.</p> + +<p>"How did you show up here? Gee, I am delighted to see you. Sit down, +old man. Make yourself at home."</p> + +<p>"We can't talk here. Come along to my hotel. I suppose you can get +away?"</p> + +<p>This he added with some apprehension.</p> + +<p>"Of course I can get away. We're not so businesslike as all that in +Tahiti." He called out to a Chinese who was standing behind the opposite +counter. "Ah-Ling, when the boss comes tell him a friend of mine's just +arrived from America and I've gone out to have a drain with him."</p> + +<p>"All-light," said the Chinese, with a grin.</p> + +<p>Edward slipped on a coat and, putting on his hat, accompanied Bateman +out of the store. Bateman attempted to put the matter facetiously.</p> + +<p>"I didn't expect to find you selling three and a half yards of rotten +cotton to a greasy nigger," he laughed.</p> + +<p>"Braunschmidt fired me, you know, and I thought that would do as well as +anything else."</p> + +<p>Edward's candour seemed to Bateman very surprising, but he thought it +indiscreet to pursue the subject.</p> + +<p>"I guess you won't make a fortune where you are," he answered, somewhat +dryly.</p> + +<p>"I guess not. But I earn enough to keep body and soul together, and I'm +quite satisfied with that."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't have been two years ago."</p> + +<p>"We grow wiser as we grow older," retorted Edward, gaily.</p> + +<p>Bateman took a glance at him. Edward was dressed in a suit of shabby +white ducks, none too clean, and a large straw hat of native make. He +was thinner than he had been, deeply burned by the sun, and he was +certainly better looking than ever. But there was something in his +appearance that disconcerted Bateman. He walked with a new jauntiness; +there was a carelessness in his demeanour, a gaiety about nothing in +particular, which Bateman could not precisely blame, but which +exceedingly puzzled him.</p> + +<p>"I'm blest if I can see what he's got to be so darned cheerful about," +he said to himself.</p> + +<p>They arrived at the hotel and sat on the terrace. A Chinese boy brought +them cocktails. Edward was most anxious to hear all the news of Chicago +and bombarded his friend with eager questions. His interest was natural +and sincere. But the odd thing was that it seemed equally divided among +a multitude of subjects. He was as eager to know how Bateman's father +was as what Isabel was doing. He talked of her without a shade of +embarrassment, but she might just as well have been his sister as his +promised wife; and before Bateman had done analysing the exact meaning +of Edward's remarks he found that the conversation had drifted to his +own work and the buildings his father had lately erected. He was +determined to bring the conversation back to Isabel and was looking for +the occasion when he saw Edward wave his hand cordially. A man was +advancing towards them on the terrace, but Bateman's back was turned to +him and he could not see him.</p> + +<p>"Come and sit down," said Edward gaily.</p> + +<p>The new-comer approached. He was a very tall, thin man, in white ducks, +with a fine head of curly white hair. His face was thin too, long, with +a large, hooked nose and a beautiful, expressive mouth.</p> + +<p>"This is my old friend Bateman Hunter. I've told you about him," said +Edward, his constant smile breaking on his lips.</p> + +<p>"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Hunter. I used to know your father."</p> + +<p>The stranger held out his hand and took the young man's in a strong, +friendly grasp. It was not till then that Edward mentioned the other's +name.</p> + +<p>"Mr Arnold Jackson."</p> + +<p>Bateman turned white and he felt his hands grow cold. This was the +forger, the convict, this was Isabel's uncle. He did not know what to +say. He tried to conceal his confusion. Arnold Jackson looked at him +with twinkling eyes.</p> + +<p>"I daresay my name is familiar to you."</p> + +<p>Bateman did not know whether to say yes or no, and what made it more +awkward was that both Jackson and Edward seemed to be amused. It was bad +enough to have forced on him the acquaintance of the one man on the +island he would rather have avoided, but worse to discern that he was +being made a fool of. Perhaps, however, he had reached this conclusion +too quickly, for Jackson, without a pause, added:</p> + +<p>"I understand you're very friendly with the Longstaffes. Mary Longstaffe +is my sister."</p> + +<p>Now Bateman asked himself if Arnold Jackson could think him ignorant of +the most terrible scandal that Chicago had ever known. But Jackson put +his hand on Edward's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I can't sit down, Teddie," he said. "I'm busy. But you two boys had +better come up and dine to-night."</p> + +<p>"That'll be fine," said Edward.</p> + +<p>"It's very kind of you, Mr Jackson," said Bateman, frigidly, "but I'm +here for so short a time; my boat sails to-morrow, you know; I think if +you'll forgive me, I won't come."</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense. I'll give you a native dinner. My wife's a wonderful +cook. Teddie will show you the way. Come early so as to see the sunset. +I can give you both a shake-down if you like."</p> + +<p>"Of course we'll come," said Edward. "There's always the devil of a row +in the hotel on the night a boat arrives and we can have a good yarn up +at the bungalow."</p> + +<p>"I can't let you off, Mr Hunter," Jackson continued with the utmost +cordiality. "I want to hear all about Chicago and Mary."</p> + +<p>He nodded and walked away before Bateman could say another word.</p> + +<p>"We don't take refusals in Tahiti," laughed Edward. "Besides, you'll get +the best dinner on the island."</p> + +<p>"What did he mean by saying his wife was a good cook? I happen to know +his wife's in Geneva."</p> + +<p>"That's a long way off for a wife, isn't it?" said Edward. "And it's a +long time since he saw her. I guess it's another wife he's talking +about."</p> + +<p>For some time Bateman was silent. His face was set in grave lines. But +looking up he caught the amused look in Edward's eyes, and he flushed +darkly.</p> + +<p>"Arnold Jackson is a despicable rogue," he said.</p> + +<p>"I greatly fear he is," answered Edward, smiling.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how any decent man can have anything to do with him."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I'm not a decent man."</p> + +<p>"Do you see much of him, Edward?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, quite a lot. He's adopted me as his nephew."</p> + +<p>Bateman leaned forward and fixed Edward with his searching eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do you like him?"</p> + +<p>"Very much."</p> + +<p>"But don't you know, doesn't everyone here know, that he's a forger and +that he's been a convict? He ought to be hounded out of civilised +society."</p> + +<p>Edward watched a ring of smoke that floated from his cigar into the +still, scented air.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he is a pretty unmitigated rascal," he said at last. "And I +can't flatter myself that any repentance for his misdeeds offers one an +excuse for condoning them. He was a swindler and a hypocrite. You can't +get away from it. I never met a more agreeable companion. He's taught me +everything I know."</p> + +<p>"What has he taught you?" cried Bateman in amazement.</p> + +<p>"How to live."</p> + +<p>Bateman broke into ironical laughter.</p> + +<p>"A fine master. Is it owing to his lessons that you lost the chance of +making a fortune and earn your living now by serving behind a counter in +a ten cent store?"</p> + +<p>"He has a wonderful personality," said Edward, smiling good-naturedly. +"Perhaps you'll see what I mean to-night."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to dine with him if that's what you mean. Nothing would +induce me to set foot within that man's house."</p> + +<p>"Come to oblige me, Bateman. We've been friends for so many years, you +won't refuse me a favour when I ask it."</p> + +<p>Edward's tone had in it a quality new to Bateman. Its gentleness was +singularly persuasive.</p> + +<p>"If you put it like that, Edward, I'm bound to come," he smiled.</p> + +<p>Bateman reflected, moreover, that it would be as well to learn what he +could about Arnold Jackson. It was plain that he had a great ascendency +over Edward, and if it was to be combated it was necessary to discover +in what exactly it consisted. The more he talked with Edward the more +conscious he became that a change had taken place in him. He had an +instinct that it behooved him to walk warily, and he made up his mind +not to broach the real purport of his visit till he saw his way more +clearly. He began to talk of one thing and another, of his journey and +what he had achieved by it, of politics in Chicago, of this common +friend and that, of their days together at college.</p> + +<p>At last Edward said he must get back to his work and proposed that he +should fetch Bateman at five so that they could drive out together to +Arnold Jackson's house.</p> + +<p>"By the way, I rather thought you'd be living at this hotel," said +Bateman, as he strolled out of the garden with Edward. "I understand +it's the only decent one here."</p> + +<p>"Not I," laughed Edward. "It's a deal too grand for me. I rent a room +just outside the town. It's cheap and clean."</p> + +<p>"If I remember right those weren't the points that seemed most important +to you when you lived in Chicago."</p> + +<p>"Chicago!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean by that, Edward. It's the greatest city in +the world."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Edward.</p> + +<p>Bateman glanced at him quickly, but his face was inscrutable.</p> + +<p>"When are you coming back to it?"</p> + +<p>"I often wonder," smiled Edward.</p> + +<p>This answer, and the manner of it, staggered Bateman, but before he +could ask for an explanation Edward waved to a half-caste who was +driving a passing motor.</p> + +<p>"Give us a ride down, Charlie," he said.</p> + +<p>He nodded to Bateman, and ran after the machine that had pulled up a few +yards in front. Bateman was left to piece together a mass of perplexing +impressions.</p> + +<p>Edward called for him in a rickety trap drawn by an old mare, and they +drove along a road that ran by the sea. On each side of it were +plantations, coconut and vanilla; and now and then they saw a great +mango, its fruit yellow and red and purple among the massy green of the +leaves; now and then they had a glimpse of the lagoon, smooth and blue, +with here and there a tiny islet graceful with tall palms. Arnold +Jackson's house stood on a little hill and only a path led to it, so +they unharnessed the mare and tied her to a tree, leaving the trap by +the side of the road. To Bateman it seemed a happy-go-lucky way of doing +things. But when they went up to the house they were met by a tall, +handsome native woman, no longer young, with whom Edward cordially shook +hands. He introduced Bateman to her.</p> + +<p>"This is my friend Mr Hunter. We're going to dine with you, Lavina."</p> + +<p>"All right," she said, with a quick smile. "Arnold ain't back yet."</p> + +<p>"We'll go down and bathe. Let us have a couple of <i>pareos</i>."</p> + +<p>The woman nodded and went into the house.</p> + +<p>"Who is that?" asked Bateman.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's Lavina. She's Arnold's wife."</p> + +<p>Bateman tightened his lips, but said nothing. In a moment the woman +returned with a bundle, which she gave to Edward; and the two men, +scrambling down a steep path, made their way to a grove of coconut trees +on the beach. They undressed and Edward showed his friend how to make +the strip of red trade cotton which is called a <i>pareo</i> into a very neat +pair of bathing-drawers. Soon they were splashing in the warm, shallow +water. Edward was in great spirits. He laughed and shouted and sang. He +might have been fifteen. Bateman had never seen him so gay, and +afterwards when they lay on the beach, smoking cigarettes, in the limpid +air, there was such an irresistible light-heartedness in him that +Bateman was taken aback.</p> + +<p>"You seem to find life mighty pleasant," said he.</p> + +<p>"I do."</p> + +<p>They heard a soft movement and looking round saw that Arnold Jackson was +coming towards them.</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd come down and fetch you two boys back," he said. "Did you +enjoy your bath, Mr Hunter?"</p> + +<p>"Very much," said Bateman.</p> + +<p>Arnold Jackson, no longer in spruce ducks, wore nothing but a <i>pareo</i> +round his loins and walked barefoot. His body was deeply browned by the +sun. With his long, curling white hair and his ascetic face he made a +fantastic figure in the native dress, but he bore himself without a +trace of self-consciousness.</p> + +<p>"If you're ready we'll go right up," said Jackson.</p> + +<p>"I'll just put on my clothes," said Bateman.</p> + +<p>"Why, Teddie, didn't you bring a <i>pareo</i> for your friend?"</p> + +<p>"I guess he'd rather wear clothes," smiled Edward.</p> + +<p>"I certainly would," answered Bateman, grimly, as he saw Edward gird +himself in the loincloth and stand ready to start before he himself had +got his shirt on.</p> + +<p>"Won't you find it rough walking without your shoes?" he asked Edward. +"It struck me the path was a trifle rocky."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm used to it."</p> + +<p>"It's a comfort to get into a <i>pareo</i> when one gets back from town," +said Jackson. "If you were going to stay here I should strongly +recommend you to adopt it. It's one of the most sensible costumes I have +ever come across. It's cool, convenient, and inexpensive."</p> + +<p>They walked up to the house, and Jackson took them into a large room +with white-washed walls and an open ceiling in which a table was laid +for dinner. Bateman noticed that it was set for five.</p> + +<p>"Eva, come and show yourself to Teddie's friend, and then shake us a +cocktail," called Jackson.</p> + +<p>Then he led Bateman to a long low window.</p> + +<p>"Look at that," he said, with a dramatic gesture. "Look well."</p> + +<p>Below them coconut trees tumbled down steeply to the lagoon, and the +lagoon in the evening light had the colour, tender and varied, of a +dove's breast. On a creek, at a little distance, were the clustered huts +of a native village, and towards the reef was a canoe, sharply +silhouetted, in which were a couple of natives fishing. Then, beyond, +you saw the vast calmness of the Pacific and twenty miles away, airy and +unsubstantial like the fabric of a poet's fancy, the unimaginable beauty +of the island which is called Murea. It was all so lovely that Bateman +stood abashed.</p> + +<p>"I've never seen anything like it," he said at last.</p> + +<p>Arnold Jackson stood staring in front of him, and in his eyes was a +dreamy softness. His thin, thoughtful face was very grave. Bateman, +glancing at it, was once more conscious of its intense spirituality.</p> + +<p>"Beauty," murmured Arnold Jackson. "You seldom see beauty face to face. +Look at it well, Mr Hunter, for what you see now you will never see +again, since the moment is transitory, but it will be an imperishable +memory in your heart. You touch eternity."</p> + +<p>His voice was deep and resonant. He seemed to breathe forth the purest +idealism, and Bateman had to urge himself to remember that the man who +spoke was a criminal and a cruel cheat. But Edward, as though he heard a +sound, turned round quickly.</p> + +<p>"Here is my daughter, Mr Hunter."</p> + +<p>Bateman shook hands with her. She had dark, splendid eyes and a red +mouth tremulous with laughter; but her skin was brown, and her curling +hair, rippling down her-shoulders, was coal black. She wore but one +garment, a Mother Hubbard of pink cotton, her feet were bare, and she +was crowned with a wreath of white scented flowers. She was a lovely +creature. She was like a goddess of the Polynesian spring.</p> + +<p>She was a little shy, but not more shy than Bateman, to whom the whole +situation was highly embarrassing, and it did not put him at his ease to +see this sylph-like thing take a shaker and with a practised hand mix +three cocktails.</p> + +<p>"Let us have a kick in them, child," said Jackson.</p> + +<p>She poured them out and smiling delightfully handed one to each of the +men. Bateman flattered himself on his skill in the subtle art of shaking +cocktails and he was not a little astonished, on tasting this one, to +find that it was excellent. Jackson laughed proudly when he saw his +guest's involuntary look of appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Not bad, is it? I taught the child myself, and in the old days in +Chicago I considered that there wasn't a bar-tender in the city that +could hold a candle to me. When I had nothing better to do in the +penitentiary I used to amuse myself by thinking out new cocktails, but +when you come down to brass-tacks there's nothing to beat a dry +Martini."</p> + +<p>Bateman felt as though someone had given him a violent blow on the +funny-bone and he was conscious that he turned red and then white. But +before he could think of anything to say a native boy brought in a great +bowl of soup and the whole party sat down to dinner. Arnold Jackson's +remark seemed to have aroused in him a train of recollections, for he +began to talk of his prison days. He talked quite naturally, without +malice, as though he were relating his experiences at a foreign +university. He addressed himself to Bateman and Bateman was confused and +then confounded. He saw Edward's eyes fixed on him and there was in them +a flicker of amusement. He blushed scarlet, for it struck him that +Jackson was making a fool of him, and then because he felt absurd—and +knew there was no reason why he should—he grew angry. Arnold Jackson +was impudent—there was no other word for it—and his callousness, +whether assumed or not, was outrageous. The dinner proceeded. Bateman +was asked to eat sundry messes, raw fish and he knew not what, which +only his civility induced him to swallow, but which he was amazed to +find very good eating. Then an incident happened which to Bateman was +the most mortifying experience of the evening. There was a little +circlet of flowers in front of him, and for the sake of conversation he +hazarded a remark about it.</p> + +<p>"It's a wreath that Eva made for you," said Jackson, "but I guess she +was too shy to give it you."</p> + +<p>Bateman took it up in his hand and made a polite little speech of thanks +to the girl.</p> + +<p>"You must put it on," she said, with a smile and a blush.</p> + +<p>"I? I don't think I'll do that."</p> + +<p>"It's the charming custom of the country," said Arnold Jackson.</p> + +<p>There was one in front of him and he placed it on his hair. Edward did +the same.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'm not dressed for the part," said Bateman, uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Would you like a <i>pareo</i>?" said Eva quickly. "I'll get you one in a +minute."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. I'm quite comfortable as I am."</p> + +<p>"Show him how to put it on, Eva," said Edward.</p> + +<p>At that moment Bateman hated his greatest friend. Eva got up from the +table and with much laughter placed the wreath on his black hair.</p> + +<p>"It suits you very well," said Mrs Jackson. "Don't it suit him, Arnold?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it does."</p> + +<p>Bateman sweated at every pore.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a pity it's dark?" said Eva. "We could photograph you all +three together."</p> + +<p>Bateman thanked his stars it was. He felt that he must look prodigiously +foolish in his blue serge suit and high collar—very neat and +gentlemanly—with that ridiculous wreath of flowers on his head. He was +seething with indignation, and he had never in his life exercised more +self-control than now when he presented an affable exterior. He was +furious with that old man, sitting at the head of the table, half-naked, +with his saintly face and the flowers on his handsome white locks. The +whole position was monstrous.</p> + +<p>Then dinner came to an end, and Eva and her mother remained to clear +away while the three men sat on the verandah. It was very warm and the +air was scented with the white flowers of the night. The full moon, +sailing across an unclouded sky, made a pathway on the broad sea that +led to the boundless realms of Forever. Arnold Jackson began to talk. +His voice was rich and musical. He talked now of the natives and of the +old legends of the country. He told strange stories of the past, stories +of hazardous expeditions into the unknown, of love and death, of hatred +and revenge. He told of the adventurers who had discovered those distant +islands, of the sailors who, settling in them, had married the daughters +of great chieftains, and of the beach-combers who had led their varied +lives on those silvery shores. Bateman, mortified and exasperated, at +first listened sullenly, but presently some magic in the words possessed +him and he sat entranced. The mirage of romance obscured the light of +common day. Had he forgotten that Arnold Jackson had a tongue of silver, +a tongue by which he had charmed vast sums out of the credulous public, +a tongue which very nearly enabled him to escape the penalty of his +crimes? No one had a sweeter eloquence, and no one had a more acute +sense of climax. Suddenly he rose.</p> + +<p>"Well, you two boys haven't seen one another for a long time. I shall +leave you to have a yarn. Teddie will show you your quarters when you +want to go to bed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of spending the night, Mr Jackson," said +Bateman.</p> + +<p>"You'll find it more comfortable. We'll see that you're called in good +time."</p> + +<p>Then with a courteous shake of the hand, stately as though he were a +bishop in canonicals, Arnold Jackson took leave of his guest.</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll drive you back to Papeete if you like," said Edward, +"but I advise you to stay. It's bully driving in the early morning."</p> + +<p>For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Bateman wondered how he should +begin on the conversation which all the events of the day made him +think more urgent.</p> + +<p>"When are you coming back to Chicago?" he asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>For a moment Edward did not answer. Then he turned rather lazily to look +at his friend and smiled.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Perhaps never."</p> + +<p>"What in heaven's name do you mean?" cried Bateman.</p> + +<p>"I'm very happy here. Wouldn't it be folly to make a change?"</p> + +<p>"Man alive, you can't live here all your life. This is no life for a +man. It's a living death. Oh, Edward, come away at once, before it's too +late. I've felt that something was wrong. You're infatuated with the +place, you've succumbed to evil influences, but it only requires a +wrench, and when you're free from these surroundings you'll thank all +the gods there be. You'll be like a dope-fiend when he's broken from his +drug. You'll see then that for two years you've been breathing poisoned +air. You can't imagine what a relief it will be when you fill your lungs +once more with the fresh, pure air of your native country."</p> + +<p>He spoke quickly, the words tumbling over one another in his excitement, +and there was in his voice sincere and affectionate emotion. Edward was +touched.</p> + +<p>"It is good of you to care so much, old friend."</p> + +<p>"Come with me to-morrow, Edward. It was a mistake that you ever came to +this place. This is no life for you."</p> + +<p>"You talk of this sort of life and that. How do you think a man gets the +best out of life?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I should have thought there could be no two answers to that. By +doing his duty, by hard work, by meeting all the obligations of his +state and station."</p> + +<p>"And what is his reward?"</p> + +<p>"His reward is the consciousness of having achieved what he set out to +do."</p> + +<p>"It all sounds a little portentous to me," said Edward, and in the +lightness of the night Bateman could see that he was smiling. "I'm +afraid you'll think I've degenerated sadly. There are several things I +think now which I daresay would have seemed outrageous to me three years +ago."</p> + +<p>"Have you learnt them from Arnold Jackson?" asked Bateman, scornfully.</p> + +<p>"You don't like him? Perhaps you couldn't be expected to. I didn't when +I first came. I had just the same prejudice as you. He's a very +extraordinary man. You saw for yourself that he makes no secret of the +fact that he was in a penitentiary. I do not know that he regrets it or +the crimes that led him there. The only complaint he ever made in my +hearing was that when he came out his health was impaired. I think he +does not know what remorse is. He is completely unmoral. He accepts +everything and he accepts himself as well. He's generous and kind."</p> + +<p>"He always was," interrupted Bateman, "on other people's money."</p> + +<p>"I've found him a very good friend. Is it unnatural that I should take +a man as I find him?"</p> + +<p>"The result is that you lose the distinction between right and wrong."</p> + +<p>"No, they remain just as clearly divided in my mind as before, but what +has become a little confused in me is the distinction between the bad +man and the good one. Is Arnold Jackson a bad man who does good things +or a good man who does bad things? It's a difficult question to answer. +Perhaps we make too much of the difference between one man and another. +Perhaps even the best of us are sinners and the worst of us are saints. +Who knows?"</p> + +<p>"You will never persuade me that white is black and that black is +white," said Bateman.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I shan't, Bateman."</p> + +<p>Bateman could not understand why the flicker of a smile crossed Edward's +lips when he thus agreed with him. Edward was silent for a minute.</p> + +<p>"When I saw you this morning, Bateman," he said then, "I seemed to see +myself as I was two years ago. The same collar, and the same shoes, the +same blue suit, the same energy. The same determination. By God, I was +energetic. The sleepy methods of this place made my blood tingle. I went +about and everywhere I saw possibilities for development and enterprise. +There were fortunes to be made here. It seemed to me absurd that the +copra should be taken away from here in sacks and the oil extracted in +America. It would be far more economical to do all that on the spot, +with cheap labour, and save freight, and I saw already the vast +factories springing up on the island. Then the way they extracted it +from the coconut seemed to me hopelessly inadequate, and I invented a +machine which divided the nut and scooped out the meat at the rate of +two hundred and forty an hour. The harbour was not large enough. I made +plans to enlarge it, then to form a syndicate to buy land, put up two or +three large hotels, and bungalows for occasional residents; I had a +scheme for improving the steamer service in order to attract visitors +from California. In twenty years, instead of this half French, lazy +little town of Papeete I saw a great American city with ten-story +buildings and street-cars, a theatre and an opera house, a stock +exchange and a mayor."</p> + +<p>"But go ahead, Edward," cried Bateman, springing up from the chair in +excitement. "You've got the ideas and the capacity. Why, you'll become +the richest man between Australia and the States."</p> + +<p>Edward chuckled softly.</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to," he said.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you don't want money, big money, money running into +millions? Do you know what you can do with it? Do you know the power it +brings? And if you don't care about it for yourself think what you can +do, opening new channels for human enterprise, giving occupation to +thousands. My brain reels at the visions your words have conjured up."</p> + +<p>"Sit down, then, my dear Bateman," laughed Edward. "My machine for +cutting the coconuts will always remain unused, and so far as I'm +concerned street-cars shall never run in the idle streets of Papeete."</p> + +<p>Bateman sank heavily into his chair.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you," he said.</p> + +<p>"It came upon me little by little. I came to like the life here, with +its ease and its leisure, and the people, with their good-nature and +their happy smiling faces. I began to think. I'd never had time to do +that before. I began to read."</p> + +<p>"You always read."</p> + +<p>"I read for examinations. I read in order to be able to hold my own in +conversation. I read for instruction. Here I learned to read for +pleasure. I learned to talk. Do you know that conversation is one of the +greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. I'd always been too +busy before. And gradually all the life that had seemed so important to +me began to seem rather trivial and vulgar. What is the use of all this +hustle and this constant striving? I think of Chicago now and I see a +dark, grey city, all stone—it is like a prison—and a ceaseless +turmoil. And what does all that activity amount to? Does one get there +the best out of life? Is that what we come into the world for, to hurry +to an office, and work hour after hour till night, then hurry home and +dine and go to a theatre? Is that how I must spend my youth? Youth lasts +so short a time, Bateman. And when I am old, what have I to look forward +to? To hurry from my home in the morning to my office and work hour +after hour till night, and then hurry home again, and dine and go to a +theatre? That may be worth while if you make a fortune; I don't know, it +depends on your nature; but if you don't, is it worth while then? I want +to make more out of my life than that, Bateman."</p> + +<p>"What do you value in life then?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me. Beauty, truth, and goodness."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think you can have those in Chicago?"</p> + +<p>"Some men can, perhaps, but not I." Edward sprang up now. "I tell you +when I think of the life I led in the old days I am filled with horror," +he cried violently. "I tremble with fear when I think of the danger I +have escaped. I never knew I had a soul till I found it here. If I had +remained a rich man I might have lost it for good and all."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how you can say that," cried Bateman indignantly. "We +often used to have discussions about it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. They were about as effectual as the discussions of deaf +mutes about harmony. I shall never come back to Chicago, Bateman."</p> + +<p>"And what about Isabel?"</p> + +<p>Edward walked to the edge of the verandah and leaning over looked +intently at the blue magic of the night. There was a slight smile on his +face when he turned back to Bateman.</p> + +<p>"Isabel is infinitely too good for me. I admire her more than any woman +I have ever known. She has a wonderful brain and she's as good as she's +beautiful. I respect her energy and her ambition. She was born to make a +success of life. I am entirely unworthy of her."</p> + +<p>"She doesn't think so."</p> + +<p>"But you must tell her so, Bateman."</p> + +<p>"I?" cried Bateman. "I'm the last person who could ever do that."</p> + +<p>Edward had his back to the vivid light of the moon and his face could +not be seen. Is it possible that he smiled again?</p> + +<p>"It's no good your trying to conceal anything from her, Bateman. With +her quick intelligence she'll turn you inside out in five minutes. You'd +better make a clean breast of it right away."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean. Of course I shall tell her I've seen you." +Bateman spoke in some agitation. "Honestly I don't know what to say to +her."</p> + +<p>"Tell her that I haven't made good. Tell her that I'm not only poor, but +that I'm content to be poor. Tell her I was fired from my job because I +was idle and inattentive. Tell her all you've seen to-night and all I've +told you."</p> + +<p>The idea which on a sudden flashed through Bateman's brain brought him +to his feet and in uncontrollable perturbation he faced Edward.</p> + +<p>"Man alive, don't you want to marry her?"</p> + +<p>Edward looked at him gravely.</p> + +<p>"I can never ask her to release me. If she wishes to hold me to my word +I will do my best to make her a good and loving husband."</p> + +<p>"Do you wish me to give her that message, Edward? Oh, I can't. It's +terrible. It's never dawned on her for a moment that you don't want to +marry her. She loves you. How can I inflict such a mortification on +her?"</p> + +<p>Edward smiled again.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you marry her yourself, Bateman? You've been in love with her +for ages. You're perfectly suited to one another. You'll make her very +happy."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk to me like that. I can't bear it."</p> + +<p>"I resign in your favour, Bateman. You are the better man."</p> + +<p>There was something in Edward's tone that made Bateman look up quickly, +but Edward's eyes were grave and unsmiling. Bateman did not know what to +say. He was disconcerted. He wondered whether Edward could possibly +suspect that he had come to Tahiti on a special errand. And though he +knew it was horrible he could not prevent the exultation in his heart.</p> + +<p>"What will you do if Isabel writes and puts an end to her engagement +with you?" he said, slowly.</p> + +<p>"Survive," said Edward.</p> + +<p>Bateman was so agitated that he did not hear the answer.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had ordinary clothes on," he said, somewhat irritably. "It's +such a tremendously serious decision you're taking. That fantastic +costume of yours makes it seem terribly casual."</p> + +<p>"I assure you, I can be just as solemn in a <i>pareo</i> and a wreath of +roses, as in a high hat and a cut-away coat."</p> + +<p>Then another thought struck Bateman.</p> + +<p>"Edward, it's not for my sake you're doing this? I don't know, but +perhaps this is going to make a tremendous difference to my future. +You're not sacrificing yourself for me? I couldn't stand for that, you +know."</p> + +<p>"No, Bateman, I have learnt not to be silly and sentimental here. I +should like you and Isabel to be happy, but I have not the least wish to +be unhappy myself."</p> + +<p>The answer somewhat chilled Bateman. It seemed to him a little cynical. +He would not have been sorry to act a noble part.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you're content to waste your life here? It's nothing +less than suicide. When I think of the great hopes you had when we left +college it seems terrible that you should be content to be no more than +a salesman in a cheap-John store."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm only doing that for the present, and I'm gaining a great deal +of valuable experience. I have another plan in my head. Arnold Jackson +has a small island in the Paumotas, about a thousand miles from here, a +ring of land round a lagoon. He's planted coconut there. He's offered to +give it me."</p> + +<p>"Why should he do that?" asked Bateman.</p> + +<p>"Because if Isabel releases me I shall marry his daughter."</p> + +<p>"You?" Bateman was thunderstruck. "You can't marry a half-caste. You +wouldn't be so crazy as that."</p> + +<p>"She's a good girl, and she has a sweet and gentle nature. I think she +would make me very happy."</p> + +<p>"Are you in love with her?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered Edward reflectively. "I'm not in love with her +as I was in love with Isabel. I worshipped Isabel. I thought she was the +most wonderful creature I had ever seen. I was not half good enough for +her. I don't feel like that with Eva. She's like a beautiful exotic +flower that must be sheltered from bitter winds. I want to protect her. +No one ever thought of protecting Isabel. I think she loves me for +myself and not for what I may become. Whatever happens to me I shall +never disappoint her. She suits me."</p> + +<p>Bateman was silent.</p> + +<p>"We must turn out early in the morning," said Edward at last. "It's +really about time we went to bed."</p> + +<p>Then Bateman spoke and his voice had in it a genuine distress.</p> + +<p>"I'm so bewildered, I don't know what to say. I came here because I +thought something was wrong. I thought you hadn't succeeded in what you +set out to do and were ashamed to come back when you'd failed. I never +guessed I should be faced with this. I'm so desperately sorry, Edward. +I'm so disappointed. I hoped you would do great things. It's almost more +than I can bear to think of you wasting your talents and your youth and +your chance in this lamentable way."</p> + +<p>"Don't be grieved, old friend," said Edward. "I haven't failed. I've +succeeded. You can't think with what zest I look forward to life, how +full it seems to me and how significant. Sometimes, when you are married +to Isabel, you will think of me. I shall build myself a house on my +coral island and I shall live there, looking after my trees—getting the +fruit out of the nuts in the same old way that they have done for +unnumbered years—I shall grow all sorts of things in my garden, and I +shall fish. There will be enough work to keep me busy and not enough to +make me dull. I shall have my books and Eva, children, I hope, and above +all, the infinite variety of the sea and the sky, the freshness of the +dawn and the beauty of the sunset, and the rich magnificence of the +night. I shall make a garden out of what so short a while ago was a +wilderness. I shall have created something. The years will pass +insensibly, and when I am an old man I hope that I shall be able to look +back on a happy, simple, peaceful life. In my small way I too shall have +lived in beauty. Do you think it is so little to have enjoyed +contentment? We know that it will profit a man little if he gain the +whole world and lose his soul. I think I have won mine."</p> + +<p>Edward led him to a room in which there were two beds and he threw +himself on one of them. In ten minutes Bateman knew by his regular +breathing, peaceful as a child's, that Edward was asleep. But for his +part he had no rest, he was disturbed in mind, and it was not till the +dawn crept into the room, ghostlike and silent, that he fell asleep.</p> + +<p>Bateman finished telling Isabel his long story. He had hidden nothing +from her except what he thought would wound her or what made himself +ridiculous. He did not tell her that he had been forced to sit at dinner +with a wreath of flowers round his head and he did not tell her that +Edward was prepared to marry her uncle's half-caste daughter the moment +she set him free. But perhaps Isabel had keener intuitions than he knew, +for as he went on with his tale her eyes grew colder and her lips closed +upon one another more tightly. Now and then she looked at him closely, +and if he had been less intent on his narrative he might have wondered +at her expression.</p> + +<p>"What was this girl like?" she asked when he finished. "Uncle Arnold's +daughter. Would you say there was any resemblance between her and me?"</p> + +<p>Bateman was surprised at the question.</p> + +<p>"It never struck me. You know I've never had eyes for anyone but you and +I could never think that anyone was like you. Who could resemble you?"</p> + +<p>"Was she pretty?" said Isabel, smiling slightly at his words.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. I daresay some men would say she was very beautiful."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's of no consequence. I don't think we need give her any more +of our attention."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, Isabel?" he asked then.</p> + +<p>Isabel looked down at the hand which still bore the ring Edward had +given her on their betrothal.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't let Edward break our engagement because I thought it would +be an incentive to him. I wanted to be an inspiration to him. I thought +if anything could enable him to achieve success it was the thought that +I loved him. I have done all I could. It's hopeless. It would only be +weakness on my part not to recognise the facts. Poor Edward, he's +nobody's enemy but his own. He was a dear, nice fellow, but there was +something lacking in him, I suppose it was backbone. I hope he'll be +happy."</p> + +<p>She slipped the ring off her finger and placed it on the table. Bateman +watched her with a heart beating so rapidly that he could hardly +breathe.</p> + +<p>"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're simply wonderful."</p> + +<p>She smiled, and, standing up, held out her hand to him.</p> + +<p>"How can I ever thank you for what you've done for me?" she said. +"You've done me a great service. I knew I could trust you."</p> + +<p>He took her hand and held it. She had never looked more beautiful.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Isabel, I would do so much more for you than that. You know that I +only ask to be allowed to love and serve you."</p> + +<p>"You're so strong, Bateman," she sighed. "It gives me such a delicious +feeling of confidence."</p> + +<p>"Isabel, I adore you."</p> + +<p>He hardly knew how the inspiration had come to him, but suddenly he +clasped her in his arms, and she, all unresisting, smiled into his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Isabel, you know I wanted to marry you the very first day I saw you," +he cried passionately.</p> + +<p>"Then why on earth didn't you ask me?" she replied.</p> + +<p>She loved him. He could hardly believe it was true. She gave him her +lovely lips to kiss. And as he held her in his arms he had a vision of +the works of the Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company growing in +size and importance till they covered a hundred acres, and of the +millions of motors they would turn out, and of the great collection of +pictures he would form which should beat anything they had in New York. +He would wear horn spectacles. And she, with the delicious pressure of +his arms about her, sighed with happiness, for she thought of the +exquisite house she would have, full of antique furniture, and of the +concerts she would give, and of the <i>thés dansants</i>, and the dinners to +which only the most cultured people would come. Bateman should wear horn +spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Poor Edward," she sighed.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>Red</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">T</span>HE +skipper thrust his hand into one of his trouser pockets and with +difficulty, for they were not at the sides but in front and he was a +portly man, pulled out a large silver watch. He looked at it and then +looked again at the declining sun. The Kanaka at the wheel gave him a +glance, but did not speak. The skipper's eyes rested on the island they +were approaching. A white line of foam marked the reef. He knew there +was an opening large enough to get his ship through, and when they came +a little nearer he counted on seeing it. They had nearly an hour of +daylight still before them. In the lagoon the water was deep and they +could anchor comfortably. The chief of the village which he could +already see among the coconut trees was a friend of the mate's, and it +would be pleasant to go ashore for the night. The mate came forward at +that minute and the skipper turned to him.</p> + +<p>"We'll take a bottle of booze along with us and get some girls in to +dance," he said.</p> + +<p>"I don't see the opening," said the mate.</p> + +<p>He was a Kanaka, a handsome, swarthy fellow, with somewhat the look of a +later Roman emperor, inclined to stoutness; but his face was fine and +clean-cut.</p> + +<p>"I'm dead sure there's one right here," said the captain, looking +through his glasses. "I can't understand why I can't pick it up. Send +one of the boys up the mast to have a look."</p> + +<p>The mate called one of the crew and gave him the order. The captain +watched the Kanaka climb and waited for him to speak. But the Kanaka +shouted down that he could see nothing but the unbroken line of foam. +The captain spoke Samoan like a native, and he cursed him freely.</p> + +<p>"Shall he stay up there?" asked the mate.</p> + +<p>"What the hell good does that do?" answered the captain. "The blame fool +can't see worth a cent. You bet your sweet life I'd find the opening if +I was up there."</p> + +<p>He looked at the slender mast with anger. It was all very well for a +native who had been used to climbing up coconut trees all his life. He +was fat and heavy.</p> + +<p>"Come down," he shouted. "You're no more use than a dead dog. We'll just +have to go along the reef till we find the opening."</p> + +<p>It was a seventy-ton schooner with paraffin auxiliary, and it ran, when +there was no head wind, between four and five knots an hour. It was a +bedraggled object; it had been painted white a very long time ago, but +it was now dirty, dingy, and mottled. It smelt strongly of paraffin and +of the copra which was its usual cargo. They were within a hundred feet +of the reef now and the captain told the steersman to run along it till +they came to the opening. But when they had gone a couple of miles he +realised that they had missed it. He went about and slowly worked back +again. The white foam of the reef continued without interruption and now +the sun was setting. With a curse at the stupidity of the crew the +skipper resigned himself to waiting till next morning.</p> + +<p>"Put her about," he said. "I can't anchor here."</p> + +<p>They went out to sea a little and presently it was quite dark. They +anchored. When the sail was furled the ship began to roll a good deal. +They said in Apia that one day she would roll right over; and the owner, +a German-American who managed one of the largest stores, said that no +money was big enough to induce him to go out in her. The cook, a Chinese +in white trousers, very dirty and ragged, and a thin white tunic, came +to say that supper was ready, and when the skipper went into the cabin +he found the engineer already seated at table. The engineer was a long, +lean man with a scraggy neck. He was dressed in blue overalls and a +sleeveless jersey which showed his thin arms tatooed from elbow to +wrist.</p> + +<p>"Hell, having to spend the night outside," said the skipper.</p> + +<p>The engineer did not answer, and they ate their supper in silence. The +cabin was lit by a dim oil lamp. When they had eaten the canned apricots +with which the meal finished the Chink brought them a cup of tea. The +skipper lit a cigar and went on the upper deck. The island now was only +a darker mass against the night. The stars were very bright. The only +sound was the ceaseless breaking of the surf. The skipper sank into a +deck-chair and smoked idly. Presently three or four members of the crew +came up and sat down. One of them had a banjo and another a concertina. +They began to play, and one of them sang. The native song sounded +strange on these instruments. Then to the singing a couple began to +dance. It was a barbaric dance, savage and primeval, rapid, with quick +movements of the hands and feet and contortions of the body; it was +sensual, sexual even, but sexual without passion. It was very animal, +direct, weird without mystery, natural in short, and one might almost +say childlike. At last they grew tired. They stretched themselves on the +deck and slept, and all was silent. The skipper lifted himself heavily +out of his chair and clambered down the companion. He went into his +cabin and got out of his clothes. He climbed into his bunk and lay +there. He panted a little in the heat of the night.</p> + +<p>But next morning, when the dawn crept over the tranquil sea, the opening +in the reef which had eluded them the night before was seen a little to +the east of where they lay. The schooner entered the lagoon. There was +not a ripple on the surface of the water. Deep down among the coral +rocks you saw little coloured fish swim. When he had anchored his ship +the skipper ate his breakfast and went on deck. The sun shone from an +unclouded sky, but in the early morning the air was grateful and cool. +It was Sunday, and there was a feeling of quietness, a silence as +though nature were at rest, which gave him a peculiar sense of comfort. +He sat, looking at the wooded coast, and felt lazy and well at ease. +Presently a slow smile moved his lips and he threw the stump of his +cigar into the water.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll go ashore," he said. "Get the boat out."</p> + +<p>He climbed stiffly down the ladder and was rowed to a little cove. The +coconut trees came down to the water's edge, not in rows, but spaced out +with an ordered formality. They were like a ballet of spinsters, elderly +but flippant, standing in affected attitudes with the simpering graces +of a bygone age. He sauntered idly through them, along a path that could +be just seen winding its tortuous way, and it led him presently to a +broad creek. There was a bridge across it, but a bridge constructed of +single trunks of coconut trees, a dozen of them, placed end to end and +supported where they met by a forked branch driven into the bed of the +creek. You walked on a smooth, round surface, narrow and slippery, and +there was no support for the hand. To cross such a bridge required sure +feet and a stout heart. The skipper hesitated. But he saw on the other +side, nestling among the trees, a white man's house; he made up his mind +and, rather gingerly, began to walk. He watched his feet carefully, and +where one trunk joined on to the next and there was a difference of +level, he tottered a little. It was with a gasp of relief that he +reached the last tree and finally set his feet on the firm ground of +the other side. He had been so intent on the difficult crossing that he +never noticed anyone was watching him, and it was with surprise that he +heard himself spoken to.</p> + +<p>"It takes a bit of nerve to cross these bridges when you're not used to +them."</p> + +<p>He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. He had evidently +come out of the house which he had seen.</p> + +<p>"I saw you hesitate," the man continued, with a smile on his lips, "and +I was watching to see you fall in."</p> + +<p>"Not on your life," said the captain, who had now recovered his +confidence.</p> + +<p>"I've fallen in myself before now. I remember, one evening I came back +from shooting, and I fell in, gun and all. Now I get a boy to carry my +gun for me."</p> + +<p>He was a man no longer young, with a small beard, now somewhat grey, and +a thin face. He was dressed in a singlet, without arms, and a pair of +duck trousers. He wore neither shoes nor socks. He spoke English with a +slight accent.</p> + +<p>"Are you Neilson?" asked the skipper.</p> + +<p>"I am."</p> + +<p>"I've heard about you. I thought you lived somewheres round here."</p> + +<p>The skipper followed his host into the little bungalow and sat down +heavily in the chair which the other motioned him to take. While Neilson +went out to fetch whisky and glasses he took a look round the room. It +filled him with amazement. He had never seen so many books. The shelves +reached from floor to ceiling on all four walls, and they were closely +packed. There was a grand piano littered with music, and a large table +on which books and magazines lay in disorder. The room made him feel +embarrassed. He remembered that Neilson was a queer fellow. No one knew +very much about him, although he had been in the islands for so many +years, but those who knew him agreed that he was queer. He was a Swede.</p> + +<p>"You've got one big heap of books here," he said, when Neilson returned.</p> + +<p>"They do no harm," answered Neilson with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Have you read them all?" asked the skipper.</p> + +<p>"Most of them."</p> + +<p>"I'm a bit of a reader myself. I have the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i> sent +me regler."</p> + +<p>Neilson poured his visitor a good stiff glass of whisky and gave him a +cigar. The skipper volunteered a little information.</p> + +<p>"I got in last night, but I couldn't find the opening, so I had to +anchor outside. I never been this run before, but my people had some +stuff they wanted to bring over here. Gray, d'you know him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's got a store a little way along."</p> + +<p>"Well, there was a lot of canned stuff that he wanted over, an' he's got +some copra. They thought I might just as well come over as lie idle at +Apia. I run between Apia and Pago-Pago mostly, but they've got smallpox +there just now, and there's nothing stirring."</p> + +<p>He took a drink of his whisky and lit a cigar. He was a taciturn man, +but there was something in Neilson that made him nervous, and his +nervousness made him talk. The Swede was looking at him with large dark +eyes in which there was an expression of faint amusement.</p> + +<p>"This is a tidy little place you've got here."</p> + +<p>"I've done my best with it."</p> + +<p>"You must do pretty well with your trees. They look fine. With copra at +the price it is now. I had a bit of a plantation myself once, in Upolu +it was, but I had to sell it."</p> + +<p>He looked round the room again, where all those books gave him a feeling +of something incomprehensible and hostile.</p> + +<p>"I guess you must find it a bit lonesome here though," he said.</p> + +<p>"I've got used to it. I've been here for twenty-five years."</p> + +<p>Now the captain could think of nothing more to say, and he smoked in +silence. Neilson had apparently no wish to break it. He looked at his +guest with a meditative eye. He was a tall man, more than six feet high, +and very stout. His face was red and blotchy, with a network of little +purple veins on the cheeks, and his features were sunk into its fatness. +His eyes were bloodshot. His neck was buried in rolls of fat. But for a +fringe of long curly hair, nearly white, at the back of his head, he was +quite bald; and that immense, shiny surface of forehead, which might +have given him a false look of intelligence, on the contrary gave him +one of peculiar imbecility. He wore a blue flannel shirt, open at the +neck and showing his fat chest covered with a mat of reddish hair, and a +very old pair of blue serge trousers. He sat in his chair in a heavy +ungainly attitude, his great belly thrust forward and his fat legs +uncrossed. All elasticity had gone from his limbs. Neilson wondered idly +what sort of man he had been in his youth. It was almost impossible to +imagine that this creature of vast bulk had ever been a boy who ran +about. The skipper finished his whisky, and Neilson pushed the bottle +towards him.</p> + +<p>"Help yourself."</p> + +<p>The skipper leaned forward and with his great hand seized it.</p> + +<p>"And how come you in these parts anyways?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I came out to the islands for my health. My lungs were bad and they +said I hadn't a year to live. You see they were wrong."</p> + +<p>"I meant, how come you to settle down right here?"</p> + +<p>"I am a sentimentalist."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>Neilson knew that the skipper had not an idea what he meant, and he +looked at him with an ironical twinkle in his dark eyes. Perhaps just +because the skipper was so gross and dull a man the whim seized him to +talk further.</p> + +<p>"You were too busy keeping your balance to notice, when you crossed the +bridge, but this spot is generally considered rather pretty."</p> + +<p>"It's a cute little house you've got here."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that wasn't here when I first came. There was a native hut, with +its beehive roof and its pillars, overshadowed by a great tree with red +flowers; and the croton bushes, their leaves yellow and red and golden, +made a pied fence around it. And then all about were the coconut trees, +as fanciful as women, and as vain. They stood at the water's edge and +spent all day looking at their reflections. I was a young man then—Good +Heavens, it's a quarter of a century ago—and I wanted to enjoy all the +loveliness of the world in the short time allotted to me before I passed +into the darkness. I thought it was the most beautiful spot I had ever +seen. The first time I saw it I had a catch at my heart, and I was +afraid I was going to cry. I wasn't more than twenty-five, and though I +put the best face I could on it, I didn't want to die. And somehow it +seemed to me that the very beauty of this place made it easier for me to +accept my fate. I felt when I came here that all my past life had fallen +away, Stockholm and its University, and then Bonn: it all seemed the +life of somebody else, as though now at last I had achieved the reality +which our doctors of philosophy—I am one myself, you know—had +discussed so much. 'A year,' I cried to myself. 'I have a year. I will +spend it here and then I am content to die.'"</p> + +<p>"We are foolish and sentimental and melodramatic at twenty-five, but if +we weren't perhaps we should be less wise at fifty."</p> + +<p>"Now drink, my friend. Don't let the nonsense I talk interfere with +you."</p> + +<p>He waved his thin hand towards the bottle, and the skipper finished what +remained in his glass.</p> + +<p>"You ain't drinking nothin," he said, reaching for the whisky.</p> + +<p>"I am of a sober habit," smiled the Swede. "I intoxicate myself in ways +which I fancy are more subtle. But perhaps that is only vanity. Anyhow, +the effects are more lasting and the results less deleterious."</p> + +<p>"They say there's a deal of cocaine taken in the States now," said the +captain.</p> + +<p>Neilson chuckled.</p> + +<p>"But I do not see a white man often," he continued, "and for once I +don't think a drop of whisky can do me any harm."</p> + +<p>He poured himself out a little, added some soda, and took a sip.</p> + +<p>"And presently I found out why the spot had such an unearthly +loveliness. Here love had tarried for a moment like a migrant bird that +happens on a ship in mid-ocean and for a little while folds its tired +wings. The fragrance of a beautiful passion hovered over it like the +fragrance of hawthorn in May in the meadows of my home. It seems to me +that the places where men have loved or suffered keep about them always +some faint aroma of something that has not wholly died. It is as though +they had acquired a spiritual significance which mysteriously affects +those who pass. I wish I could make myself clear." He smiled a little. +"Though I cannot imagine that if I did you would understand."</p> + +<p>He paused.</p> + +<p>"I think this place was beautiful because here I had been loved +beautifully." And now he shrugged his shoulders. "But perhaps it is only +that my æsthetic sense is gratified by the happy conjunction of young +love and a suitable setting."</p> + +<p>Even a man less thick-witted than the skipper might have been forgiven +if he were bewildered by Neilson's words. For he seemed faintly to laugh +at what he said. It was as though he spoke from emotion which his +intellect found ridiculous. He had said himself that he was a +sentimentalist, and when sentimentality is joined with scepticism there +is often the devil to pay.</p> + +<p>He was silent for an instant and looked at the captain with eyes in +which there was a sudden perplexity.</p> + +<p>"You know, I can't help thinking that I've seen you before somewhere or +other," he said.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't say as I remember you," returned the skipper.</p> + +<p>"I have a curious feeling as though your face were familiar to me. It's +been puzzling me for some time. But I can't situate my recollection in +any place or at any time."</p> + +<p>The skipper massively shrugged his heavy shoulders.</p> + +<p>"It's thirty years since I first come to the islands. A man can't figure +on remembering all the folk he meets in a while like that."</p> + +<p>The Swede shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You know how one sometimes has the feeling that a place one has never +been to before is strangely familiar. That's how I seem to see you." He +gave a whimsical smile. "Perhaps I knew you in some past existence. +Perhaps, perhaps you were the master of a galley in ancient Rome and I +was a slave at the oar. Thirty years have you been here?"</p> + +<p>"Every bit of thirty years."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you knew a man called Red?"</p> + +<p>"Red?"</p> + +<p>"That is the only name I've ever known him by. I never knew him +personally. I never even set eyes on him. And yet I seem to see him more +clearly than many men, my brothers, for instance, with whom I passed my +daily life for many years. He lives in my imagination with the +distinctness of a Paolo Malatesta or a Romeo. But I daresay you have +never read Dante or Shakespeare?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say as I have," said the captain.</p> + +<p>Neilson, smoking a cigar, leaned back in his chair and looked vacantly +at the ring of smoke which floated in the still air. A smile played on +his lips, but his eyes were grave. Then he looked at the captain. There +was in his gross obesity something extraordinarily repellent. He had the +plethoric self-satisfaction of the very fat. It was an outrage. It set +Neilson's nerves on edge. But the contrast between the man before him +and the man he had in mind was pleasant.</p> + +<p>"It appears that Red was the most comely thing you ever saw. I've talked +to quite a number of people who knew him in those days, white men, and +they all agree that the first time you saw him his beauty just took your +breath away. They called him Red on account of his flaming hair. It had +a natural wave and he wore it long. It must have been of that wonderful +colour that the pre-Raphaelites raved over. I don't think he was vain of +it, he was much too ingenuous for that, but no one could have blamed him +if he had been. He was tall, six feet and an inch or two—in the native +house that used to stand here was the mark of his height cut with a +knife on the central trunk that supported the roof—and he was made like +a Greek god, broad in the shoulders and thin in the flanks; he was like +Apollo, with just that soft roundness which Praxiteles gave him, and +that suave, feminine grace which has in it something troubling and +mysterious. His skin was dazzling white, milky, like satin; his skin was +like a woman's."</p> + +<p>"I had kind of a white skin myself when I was a kiddie," said the +skipper, with a twinkle in his bloodshot eyes.</p> + +<p>But Neilson paid no attention to him. He was telling his story now and +interruption made him impatient.</p> + +<p>"And his face was just as beautiful as his body. He had large blue eyes, +very dark, so that some say they were black, and unlike most red-haired +people he had dark eyebrows and long dark lashes. His features were +perfectly regular and his mouth was like a scarlet wound. He was +twenty."</p> + +<p>On these words the Swede stopped with a certain sense of the dramatic. +He took a sip of whisky.</p> + +<p>"He was unique. There never was anyone more beautiful. There was no more +reason for him than for a wonderful blossom to flower on a wild plant. +He was a happy accident of nature."</p> + +<p>"One day he landed at that cove into which you must have put this +morning. He was an American sailor, and he had deserted from a +man-of-war in Apia. He had induced some good-humoured native to give him +a passage on a cutter that happened to be sailing from Apia to Safoto, +and he had been put ashore here in a dugout. I do not know why he +deserted. Perhaps life on a man-of-war with its restrictions irked him, +perhaps he was in trouble, and perhaps it was the South Seas and these +romantic islands that got into his bones. Every now and then they take a +man strangely, and he finds himself like a fly in a spider's web. It may +be that there was a softness of fibre in him, and these green hills with +their soft airs, this blue sea, took the northern strength from him as +Delilah took the Nazarite's. Anyhow, he wanted to hide himself, and he +thought he would be safe in this secluded nook till his ship had sailed +from Samoa."</p> + +<p>"There was a native hut at the cove and as he stood there, wondering +where exactly he should turn his steps, a young girl came out and +invited him to enter. He knew scarcely two words of the native tongue +and she as little English. But he understood well enough what her smiles +meant, and her pretty gestures, and he followed her. He sat down on a +mat and she gave him slices of pineapple to eat. I can speak of Red +only from hearsay, but I saw the girl three years after he first met +her, and she was scarcely nineteen then. You cannot imagine how +exquisite she was. She had the passionate grace of the hibiscus and the +rich colour. She was rather tall, slim, with the delicate features of +her race, and large eyes like pools of still water under the palm trees; +her hair, black and curling, fell down her back, and she wore a wreath +of scented flowers. Her hands were lovely. They were so small, so +exquisitely formed, they gave your heart-strings a wrench. And in those +days she laughed easily. Her smile was so delightful that it made your +knees shake. Her skin was like a field of ripe corn on a summer day. +Good Heavens, how can I describe her? She was too beautiful to be real."</p> + +<p>"And these two young things, she was sixteen and he was twenty, fell in +love with one another at first sight. That is the real love, not the +love that comes from sympathy, common interests, or intellectual +community, but love pure and simple. That is the love that Adam felt for +Eve when he awoke and found her in the garden gazing at him with dewy +eyes. That is the love that draws the beasts to one another, and the +Gods. That is the love that makes the world a miracle. That is the love +which gives life its pregnant meaning. You have never heard of the wise, +cynical French duke who said that with two lovers there is always one +who loves and one who lets himself be loved; it is a bitter truth to +which most of us have to resign ourselves; but now and then there are +two who love and two who let themselves be loved. Then one might fancy +that the sun stands still as it stood when Joshua prayed to the God of +Israel."</p> + +<p>"And even now after all these years, when I think of these two, so +young, so fair, so simple, and of their love, I feel a pang. It tears my +heart just as my heart is torn when on certain nights I watch the full +moon shining on the lagoon from an unclouded sky. There is always pain +in the contemplation of perfect beauty."</p> + +<p>"They were children. She was good and sweet and kind. I know nothing of +him, and I like to think that then at all events he was ingenuous and +frank. I like to think that his soul was as comely as his body. But I +daresay he had no more soul than the creatures of the woods and forests +who made pipes from reeds and bathed in the mountain streams when the +world was young, and you might catch sight of little fawns galloping +through the glade on the back of a bearded centaur. A soul is a +troublesome possession and when man developed it he lost the Garden of +Eden."</p> + +<p>"Well, when Red came to the island it had recently been visited by one +of those epidemics which the white man has brought to the South Seas, +and one third of the inhabitants had died. It seems that the girl had +lost all her near kin and she lived now in the house of distant cousins. +The household consisted of two ancient crones, bowed and wrinkled, two +younger women, and a man and a boy. For a few days he stayed there. But +perhaps he felt himself too near the shore, with the possibility that +he might fall in with white men who would reveal his hiding-place; +perhaps the lovers could not bear that the company of others should rob +them for an instant of the delight of being together. One morning they +set out, the pair of them, with the few things that belonged to the +girl, and walked along a grassy path under the coconuts, till they came +to the creek you see. They had to cross the bridge you crossed, and the +girl laughed gleefully because he was afraid. She held his hand till +they came to the end of the first tree, and then his courage failed him +and he had to go back. He was obliged to take off all his clothes before +he could risk it, and she carried them over for him on her head. They +settled down in the empty hut that stood here. Whether she had any +rights over it (land tenure is a complicated business in the islands), +or whether the owner had died during the epidemic, I do not know, but +anyhow no one questioned them, and they took possession. Their furniture +consisted of a couple of grass-mats on which they slept, a fragment of +looking-glass, and a bowl or two. In this pleasant land that is enough +to start housekeeping on."</p> + +<p>"They say that happy people have no history, and certainly a happy love +has none. They did nothing all day long and yet the days seemed all too +short. The girl had a native name, but Red called her Sally. He picked +up the easy language very quickly, and he used to lie on the mat for +hours while she chattered gaily to him. He was a silent fellow, and +perhaps his mind was lethargic. He smoked incessantly the cigarettes +which she made him out of the native tobacco and pandanus leaf, and he +watched her while with deft fingers she made grass mats. Often natives +would come in and tell long stories of the old days when the island was +disturbed by tribal wars. Sometimes he would go fishing on the reef, and +bring home a basket full of coloured fish. Sometimes at night he would +go out with a lantern to catch lobster. There were plantains round the +hut and Sally would roast them for their frugal meal. She knew how to +make delicious messes from coconuts, and the bread-fruit tree by the +side of the creek gave them its fruit. On feast-days they killed a +little pig and cooked it on hot stones. They bathed together in the +creek; and in the evening they went down to the lagoon and paddled about +in a dugout, with its great outrigger. The sea was deep blue, +wine-coloured at sundown, like the sea of Homeric Greece; but in the +lagoon the colour had an infinite variety, aquamarine and amethyst and +emerald; and the setting sun turned it for a short moment to liquid +gold. Then there was the colour of the coral, brown, white, pink, red, +purple; and the shapes it took were marvellous. It was like a magic +garden, and the hurrying fish were like butterflies. It strangely lacked +reality. Among the coral were pools with a floor of white sand and here, +where the water was dazzling clear, it was very good to bathe. Then, +cool and happy, they wandered back in the gloaming over the soft grass +road to the creek, walking hand in hand, and now the mynah birds filled +the coconut trees with their clamour. And then the night, with that +great, sky shining with gold, that seemed to stretch more widely than +the skies of Europe, and the soft airs that blew gently through the open +hut, the long night again was all too short. She was sixteen and he was +barely twenty. The dawn crept in among the wooden pillars of the hut and +looked at those lovely children sleeping in one another's arms. The sun +hid behind the great tattered leaves of the plantains so that it might +not disturb them, and then, with playful malice, shot a golden ray, like +the outstretched paw of a Persian cat, on their faces. They opened their +sleepy eyes and they smiled to welcome another day. The weeks lengthened +into months, and a year passed. They seemed to love one another as—I +hesitate to say passionately, for passion has in it always a shade of +sadness, a touch of bitterness or anguish, but as whole heartedly, as +simply and naturally as on that first day on which, meeting, they had +recognised that a god was in them."</p> + +<p>"If you had asked them I have no doubt that they would have thought it +impossible to suppose their love could ever cease. Do we not know that +the essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity? And yet +perhaps in Red there was already a very little seed, unknown to himself +and unsuspected by the girl, which would in time have grown to +weariness. For one day one of the natives from the cove told them that +some way down the coast at the anchorage was a British whaling-ship."</p> + +<p>"'Gee,' he said, 'I wonder if I could make a trade of some nuts and +plantains for a pound or two of tobacco.'"</p> + +<p>"The pandanus cigarettes that Sally made him with untiring hands were +strong and pleasant enough to smoke, but they left him unsatisfied; and +he yearned on a sudden for real tobacco, hard, rank, and pungent. He had +not smoked a pipe for many, months. His mouth watered at the thought of +it. One would have thought some premonition of harm would have made +Sally seek to dissuade him, but love possessed her so completely that it +never occurred to her any power on earth could take him from her. They +went up into the hills together and gathered a great basket of wild +oranges, green, but sweet and juicy; and they picked plantains from +around the hut, and coconuts from their trees, and breadfruit and +mangoes; and they carried them down to the cove. They loaded the +unstable canoe with them, and Red and the native boy who had brought +them the news of the ship paddled along outside the reef."</p> + +<p>"It was the last time she ever saw him."</p> + +<p>"Next day the boy came back alone. He was all in tears. This is the +story he told. When after their long paddle they reached the ship and +Red hailed it, a white man looked over the side and told them to come on +board. They took the fruit they had brought with them and Red piled it +up on the deck. The white man and he began to talk, and they seemed to +come to some agreement. One of them went below and brought up tobacco. +Red took some at once and lit a pipe. The boy imitated the zest with +which he blew a great cloud of smoke from his mouth. Then they said +something to him and he went into the cabin. Through the open door the +boy, watching curiously, saw a bottle brought out and glasses. Red drank +and smoked. They seemed to ask him something, for he shook his head and +laughed. The man, the first man who had spoken to them, laughed too, and +he filled Red's glass once more. They went on talking and drinking, and +presently, growing tired of watching a sight that meant nothing to him, +the boy curled himself up on the deck and slept. He was awakened by a +kick; and, jumping to his feet, he saw that the ship was slowly sailing +out of the lagoon. He caught sight of Red seated at the table, with his +head resting heavily on his arms, fast asleep. He made a movement +towards him, intending to wake him, but a rough hand seized his arm, and +a man, with a scowl and words which he did not understand, pointed to +the side. He shouted to Red, but in a moment he was seized and flung +overboard. Helpless, he swam round to his canoe which was drifting a +little way off, and pushed it on to the reef. He climbed in and, sobbing +all the way, paddled back to shore."</p> + +<p>"What had happened was obvious enough. The whaler, by desertion or +sickness, was short of hands, and the captain when Red came aboard had +asked him to sign on; on his refusal he had made him drunk and kidnapped +him."</p> + +<p>"Sally was beside herself with grief. For three days she screamed and +cried. The natives did what they could to comfort her, but she would not +be comforted. She would not eat. And then, exhausted, she sank into a +sullen apathy. She spent long days at the cove, watching the lagoon, in +the vain hope that Red somehow or other would manage to escape. She sat +on the white sand, hour after hour, with the tears running down her +cheeks, and at night dragged herself wearily back across the creek to +the little hut where she had been happy. The people with whom she had +lived before Red came to the island wished her to return to them, but +she would not; she was convinced that Red would come back, and she +wanted him to find her where he had left her. Four months later she was +delivered of a still-born child, and the old woman who had come to help +her through her confinement remained with her in the hut. All joy was +taken from her life. If her anguish with time became less intolerable it +was replaced by a settled melancholy. You would not have thought that +among these people, whose emotions, though so violent, are very +transient, a woman could be found capable of so enduring a passion. She +never lost the profound conviction that sooner or later Red would come +back. She watched for him, and every time someone crossed this slender +little bridge of coconut trees she looked. It might at last be he."</p> + +<p>Neilson stopped talking and gave a faint sigh.</p> + +<p>"And what happened to her in the end?" asked the skipper.</p> + +<p>Neilson smiled bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, three years afterwards she took up with another white man."</p> + +<p>The skipper gave a fat, cynical chuckle.</p> + +<p>"That's generally what happens to them," he said.</p> + +<p>The Swede shot him a look of hatred. He did not know why that gross, +obese man excited in him so violent a repulsion. But his thoughts +wandered and he found his mind filled with memories of the past. He went +back five and twenty years. It was when he first came to the island, +weary of Apia, with its heavy drinking, its gambling and coarse +sensuality, a sick man, trying to resign himself to the loss of the +career which had fired his imagination with ambitious thoughts. He set +behind him resolutely all his hopes of making a great name for himself +and strove to content himself with the few poor months of careful life +which was all that he could count on. He was boarding with a half-caste +trader who had a store a couple of miles along the coast at the edge of +a native village; and one day, wandering aimlessly along the grassy +paths of the coconut groves, he had come upon the hut in which Sally +lived. The beauty of the spot had filled him with a rapture so great +that it was almost painful, and then he had seen Sally. She was the +loveliest creature he had ever seen, and the sadness in those dark, +magnificent eyes of hers affected him strangely. The Kanakas were a +handsome race, and beauty was not rare among them, but it was the beauty +of shapely animals. It was empty. But those tragic eyes were dark with +mystery, and you felt in them the bitter complexity of the groping, +human soul. The trader told him the story and it moved him.</p> + +<p>"Do you think he'll ever come back?" asked Neilson.</p> + +<p>"No fear. Why, it'll be a couple of years before the ship is paid off, +and by then he'll have forgotten all about her. I bet he was pretty mad +when he woke up and found he'd been shanghaied, and I shouldn't wonder +but he wanted to fight somebody. But he'd got to grin and bear it, and I +guess in a month he was thinking it the best thing that had ever +happened to him that he got away from the island."</p> + +<p>But Neilson could not get the story out of his head. Perhaps because he +was sick and weakly, the radiant health of Red appealed to his +imagination. Himself an ugly man, insignificant of appearance, he prized +very highly comeliness in others. He had never been passionately in +love, and certainly he had never been passionately loved. The mutual +attraction of those two young things gave him a singular delight. It had +the ineffable beauty of the Absolute. He went again to the little hut by +the creek. He had a gift for languages and an energetic mind, accustomed +to work, and he had already given much time to the study of the local +tongue. Old habit was strong in him and he was gathering together +material for a paper on the Samoan speech. The old crone who shared the +hut with Sally invited him to come in and sit down. She gave him <i>kava</i> +to drink and cigarettes to smoke. She was glad to have someone to chat +with and while she talked he looked at Sally. She reminded him of the +Psyche in the museum at Naples. Her features had the same dear purity +of line, and though she had borne a child she had still a virginal +aspect.</p> + +<p>It was not till he had seen her two or three times that he induced her +to speak. Then it was only to ask him if he had seen in Apia a man +called Red. Two years had passed since his disappearance, but it was +plain that she still thought of him incessantly.</p> + +<p>It did not take Neilson long to discover that he was in love with her. +It was only by an effort of will now that he prevented himself from +going every day to the creek, and when he was not with Sally his +thoughts were. At first, looking upon himself as a dying man, he asked +only to look at her, and occasionally hear her speak, and his love gave +him a wonderful happiness. He exulted in its purity. He wanted nothing +from her but the opportunity to weave around her graceful person a web +of beautiful fancies. But the open air, the equable temperature, the +rest, the simple fare, began to have an unexpected effect on his health. +His temperature did not soar at night to such alarming heights, he +coughed less and began to put on weight; six months passed without his +having a hæmorrhage; and on a sudden he saw the possibility that he +might live. He had studied his disease carefully, and the hope dawned +upon him that with great care he might arrest its course. It exhilarated +him to look forward once more to the future. He made plans. It was +evident that any active life was out of the question, but he could live +on the islands, and the small income he had, insufficient elsewhere, +would be ample to keep him. He could grow coconuts; that would give him +an occupation; and he would send for his books and a piano; but his +quick mind saw that in all this he was merely trying to conceal from +himself the desire which obsessed him.</p> + +<p>He wanted Sally. He loved not only her beauty, but that dim soul which +he divined behind her suffering eyes. He would intoxicate her with his +passion. In the end he would make her forget. And in an ecstasy of +surrender he fancied himself giving her too the happiness which he had +thought never to know again, but had now so miraculously achieved.</p> + +<p>He asked her to live with him. She refused. He had expected that and did +not let it depress him, for he was sure that sooner or later she would +yield. His love was irresistible. He told the old woman of his wishes, +and found somewhat to his surprise that she and the neighbours, long +aware of them, were strongly urging Sally to accept his offer. After +all, every native was glad to keep house for a white man, and Neilson +according to the standards of the island was a rich one. The trader with +whom he boarded went to her and told her not to be a fool; such an +opportunity would not come again, and after so long she could not still +believe that Red would ever return. The girl's resistance only increased +Neilson's desire, and what had been a very pure love now became an +agonising passion. He was determined that nothing should stand in his +way. He gave Sally no peace. At last, worn out by his persistence and +the persuasions, by turns pleading and angry, of everyone around her, +she consented. But the day after when, exultant, he went to see her he +found that in the night she had burnt down the hut in which she and Red +had lived together. The old crone ran towards him full of angry abuse of +Sally, but he waved her aside; it did not matter; they would build a +bungalow on the place where the hut had stood. A European house would +really be more convenient if he wanted to bring out a piano and a vast +number of books.</p> + +<p>And so the little wooden house was built in which he had now lived for +many years, and Sally became his wife. But after the first few weeks of +rapture, during which he was satisfied with what she gave him he had +known little happiness. She had yielded to him, through weariness, but +she had only yielded what she set no store on. The soul which he had +dimly glimpsed escaped him. He knew that she cared nothing for him. She +still loved Red, and all the time she was waiting for his return. At a +sign from him, Neilson knew that, notwithstanding his love, his +tenderness, his sympathy, his generosity, she would leave him without a +moment's hesitation. She would never give a thought to his distress. +Anguish seized him and he battered at that impenetrable self of hers +which sullenly resisted him. His love became bitter. He tried to melt +her heart with kindness, but it remained as hard as before; he feigned +indifference, but she did not notice it. Sometimes he lost his temper +and abused her, and then she wept silently. Sometimes he thought she was +nothing but a fraud, and that soul simply an invention of his own, and +that he could not get into the sanctuary of her heart because there was +no sanctuary there. His love became a prison from which he longed to +escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door—that was +all it needed—and walk out into the open air. It was torture and at +last he became numb and hopeless. In the end the fire burnt itself out +and, when he saw her eyes rest for an instant on the slender bridge, it +was no longer rage that filled his heart but impatience. For many years +now they had lived together bound by the ties of habit and convenience, +and it was with a smile that he looked back on his old passion. She was +an old woman, for the women on the islands age quickly, and if he had no +love for her any more he had tolerance. She left him alone. He was +contented with his piano and his books.</p> + +<p>His thoughts led him to a desire for words.</p> + +<p>"When I look back now and reflect on that brief passionate love of Red +and Sally, I think that perhaps they should thank the ruthless fate that +separated them when their love seemed still to be at its height. They +suffered, but they suffered in beauty. They were spared the real tragedy +of love."</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly as I get you," said the skipper.</p> + +<p>"The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think +it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is +dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your +heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of +your sight, and realise that you would not mind if you never saw her +again. The tragedy of love is indifference."</p> + +<p>But while he was speaking a very extraordinary thing happened. Though he +had been addressing the skipper he had not been talking to him, he had +been putting his thoughts into words for himself, and with his eyes +fixed on the man in front of him he had not seen him. But now an image +presented itself to them, an image not of the man he saw, but of another +man. It was as though he were looking into one of those distorting +mirrors that make you extraordinarily squat or outrageously elongate, +but here exactly the opposite took place, and in the obese, ugly old man +he caught the shadowy glimpse of a stripling. He gave him now a quick, +searching scrutiny. Why had a haphazard stroll brought him just to this +place? A sudden tremor of his heart made him slightly breathless. An +absurd suspicion seized him. What had occurred to him was impossible, +and yet it might be a fact.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" he asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>The skipper's face puckered and he gave a cunning chuckle. He looked +then malicious and horribly vulgar.</p> + +<p>"It's such a damned long time since I heard it that I almost forget it +myself. But for thirty years now in the islands they've always called me +Red."</p> + +<p>His huge form shook as he gave a low, almost silent laugh. It was +obscene. Neilson shuddered. Red was hugely amused, and from his +bloodshot eyes tears ran down his cheeks.</p> + +<p>Neilson gave a gasp, for at that moment a woman came in. She was a +native, a woman of somewhat commanding presence, stout without being +corpulent, dark, for the natives grow darker with age, with very grey +hair. She wore a black Mother Hubbard, and its thinness showed her heavy +breasts. The moment had come.</p> + +<p>She made an observation to Neilson about some household matter and he +answered. He wondered if his voice sounded as unnatural to her as it did +to himself. She gave the man who was sitting in the chair by the window +an indifferent glance, and went out of the room. The moment had come and +gone.</p> + +<p>Neilson for a moment could not speak. He was strangely shaken. Then he +said:</p> + +<p>"I'd be very glad if you'd stay and have a bit of dinner with me. Pot +luck."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I will," said Red. "I must go after this fellow Gray. +I'll give him his stuff and then I'll get away. I want to be back in +Apia to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I'll send a boy along with you to show you the way."</p> + +<p>"That'll be fine."</p> + +<p>Red heaved himself out of his chair, while the Swede called one of the +boys who worked on the plantation. He told him where the skipper wanted +to go, and the boy stepped along the bridge. Red prepared to follow him.</p> + +<p>"Don't fall in," said Neilson.</p> + +<p>"Not on your life."</p> + +<p>Neilson watched him make his way across and when he had disappeared +among the coconuts he looked still. Then he sank heavily in his chair. +Was that the man who had prevented him from being happy? Was that the +man whom Sally had loved all these years and for whom she had waited so +desperately? It was grotesque. A sudden fury seized him so that he had +an instinct to spring up and smash everything around him. He had been +cheated. They had seen each other at last and had not known it. He began +to laugh, mirthlessly, and his laughter grew till it became hysterical. +The Gods had played him a cruel trick. And he was old now.</p> + +<p>At last Sally came in to tell him dinner was ready. He sat down in front +of her and tried to eat. He wondered what she would say if he told her +now that the fat old man sitting in the chair was the lover whom she +remembered still with the passionate abandonment of her youth. Years +ago, when he hated her because she made him so unhappy, he would have +been glad to tell her. He wanted to hurt her then as she hurt him, +because his hatred was only love. But now he did not care. He shrugged +his shoulders listlessly.</p> + +<p>"What did that man want?" she asked presently.</p> + +<p>He did not answer at once. She was old too, a fat old native woman. He +wondered why he had ever loved her so madly. He had laid at her feet all +the treasures of his soul, and she had cared nothing for them. Waste, +what waste! And now, when he looked at her, he felt only contempt. His +patience was at last exhausted. He answered her question.</p> + +<p>"He's the captain of a schooner. He's come from Apia."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"He brought me news from home. My eldest brother is very ill and I must +go back."</p> + +<p>"Will you be gone long?"</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>The Pool</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">W</span>HEN +I was introduced to Lawson by Chaplin, the owner of the Hotel +Metropole at Apia, I paid no particular attention to him. We were +sitting in the lounge over an early cocktail and I was listening with +amusement to the gossip of the island.</p> + +<p>Chaplin entertained me. He was by profession a mining engineer and +perhaps it was characteristic of him that he had settled in a place +where his professional attainments were of no possible value. It was, +however, generally reported that he was an extremely clever mining +engineer. He was a small man, neither fat nor thin, with black hair, +scanty on the crown, turning grey, and a small, untidy moustache; his +face, partly from the sun and partly from liquor, was very red. He was +but a figurehead, for the hotel, though so grandly named but a frame +building of two storeys, was managed by his wife, a tall, gaunt +Australian of five and forty, with an imposing presence and a determined +air. The little man, excitable and often tipsy, was terrified of her, +and the stranger soon heard of domestic quarrels in which she used her +fist and her foot in order to keep him in subjection. She had been +known after a night of drunkenness to confine him for twenty-four hours +to his own room, and then he could be seen, afraid to leave his prison, +talking somewhat pathetically from his verandah to people in the street +below.</p> + +<p>He was a character, and his reminiscences of a varied life, whether true +or not, made him worth listening to, so that when Lawson strolled in I +was inclined to resent the interruption. Although not midday, it was +clear that he had had enough to drink, and it was without enthusiasm +that I yielded to his persistence and accepted his offer of another +cocktail. I knew already that Chaplin's head was weak. The next round +which in common politeness I should be forced to order would be enough +to make him lively, and then Mrs Chaplin would give me black looks.</p> + +<p>Nor was there anything attractive in Lawson's appearance. He was a +little thin man, with a long, sallow face and a narrow, weak chin, a +prominent nose, large and bony, and great shaggy black eyebrows. They +gave him a peculiar look. His eyes, very large and very dark, were +magnificent. He was jolly, but his jollity did not seem to me sincere; +it was on the surface, a mask which he wore to deceive the world, and I +suspected that it concealed a mean nature. He was plainly anxious to be +thought a "good sport" and he was hail-fellow-well-met; but, I do not +know why, I felt that he was cunning and shifty. He talked a great deal +in a raucous voice, and he and Chaplin capped one another's stories of +beanos which had become legendary, stories of "wet" nights at the +English Club, of shooting expeditions where an incredible amount of +whisky had been consumed, and of jaunts to Sydney of which their pride +was that they could remember nothing from the time they landed till the +time they sailed. A pair of drunken swine. But even in their +intoxication, for by now after four cocktails each, neither was sober, +there was a great difference between Chaplin, rough and vulgar, and +Lawson: Lawson might be drunk, but he was certainly a gentleman.</p> + +<p>At last he got out of his chair, a little unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be getting along home," he said. "See you before dinner."</p> + +<p>"Missus all right?" said Chaplin.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>He went out. There was a peculiar note in the monosyllable of his answer +which made me look up.</p> + +<p>"Good chap," said Chaplin flatly, as Lawson went out of the door into +the sunshine. "One of the best. Pity he drinks."</p> + +<p>This from Chaplin was an observation not without humour.</p> + +<p>"And when he's drunk he wants to fight people."</p> + +<p>"Is he often drunk?"</p> + +<p>"Dead drunk, three or four days a week. It's the island done it, and +Ethel."</p> + +<p>"Who's Ethel?"</p> + +<p>"Ethel's his wife. Married a half-caste. Old Brevald's daughter. Took +her away from here. Only thing to do. But she couldn't stand it, and now +they're back again. He'll hang himself one of these days, if he don't +drink himself to death before. Good chap. Nasty when he's drunk."</p> + +<p>Chaplin belched loudly.</p> + +<p>"I'll go and put my head under the shower. I oughtn't to have had that +last cocktail. It's always the last one that does you in."</p> + +<p>He looked uncertainly at the staircase as he made up his mind to go to +the cubby hole in which was the shower, and then with unnatural +seriousness got up.</p> + +<p>"Pay you to cultivate Lawson," he said. "A well read chap. You'd be +surprised when he's sober. Clever too. Worth talking to."</p> + +<p>Chaplin had told me the whole story in these few speeches.</p> + +<p>When I came in towards evening from a ride along the seashore Lawson was +again in the hotel. He was heavily sunk in one of the cane chairs in the +lounge and he looked at me with glassy eyes. It was plain that he had +been drinking all the afternoon. He was torpid, and the look on his face +was sullen and vindictive. His glance rested on me for a moment, but I +could see that he did not recognise me. Two or three other men were +sitting there, shaking dice, and they took no notice of him. His +condition was evidently too usual to attract attention. I sat down and +began to play.</p> + +<p>"You're a damned sociable lot," said Lawson suddenly.</p> + +<p>He got out of his chair and waddled with bent knees towards the door. I +do not know whether the spectacle was more ridiculous than revolting. +When he had gone one of the men sniggered.</p> + +<p>"Lawson's fairly soused to-day," he said.</p> + +<p>"If I couldn't carry my liquor better than that," said another, "I'd +climb on the waggon and stay there."</p> + +<p>Who would have thought that this wretched object was in his way a +romantic figure or that his life had in it those elements of pity and +terror which the theorist tells us are necessary to achieve the effect +of tragedy?</p> + +<p>I did not see him again for two or three days.</p> + +<p>I was sitting one evening on the first floor of the hotel on a verandah +that overlooked the street when Lawson came up and sank into a chair +beside me. He was quite sober. He made a casual remark and then, when I +had replied somewhat indifferently, added with a laugh which had in it +an apologetic tone:</p> + +<p>"I was devilish soused the other day."</p> + +<p>I did not answer. There was really nothing to say. I pulled away at my +pipe in the vain hope of keeping the mosquitoes away, and looked at the +natives going home from their work. They walked with long steps, slowly, +with care and dignity, and the soft patter of their naked feet was +strange to hear. Their dark hair, curling or straight, was often white +with lime, and then they had a look of extraordinary distinction. They +were tall and finely built. Then a gang of Solomon Islanders, indentured +labourers, passed by, singing; they were shorter and slighter than the +Samoans, coal black with great heads of fuzzy hair dyed red. Now and +then a white man drove past in his buggy or rode into the hotel yard. In +the lagoon two or three schooners reflected their grace in the tranquil +water.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what there is to do in a place like this except to get +soused," said Lawson at last.</p> + +<p>"Don't you like Samoa?" I asked casually, for something to say.</p> + +<p>"It's pretty, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>The word he chose seemed so inadequate to describe the unimaginable +beauty of the island, that I smiled, and smiling I turned to look at +him. I was startled by the expression in those fine sombre eyes of his, +an expression of intolerable anguish; they betrayed a tragic depth of +emotion of which I should never have thought him capable. But the +expression passed away and he smiled. His smile was simple and a little +naïve. It changed his face so that I wavered in my first feeling of +aversion from him.</p> + +<p>"I was all over the place when I first came out," he said.</p> + +<p>He was silent for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I went away for good about three years ago, but I came back." He +hesitated. "My wife wanted to come back. She was born here, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>He was silent again, and then hazarded a remark about Robert Louis +Stevenson. He asked me if I had been up to Vailima. For some reason he +was making an effort to be agreeable to me. He began to talk of +Stevenson's books, and presently the conversation drifted to London.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Covent Garden's still going strong," he said. "I think I miss +the opera as much as anything here. Have you seen <i>Tristan and Isolde</i>?"</p> + +<p>He asked me the question as though the answer were really important to +him, and when I said, a little casually I daresay, that I had, he seemed +pleased. He began to speak of Wagner, not as a musician, but as the +plain man who received from him an emotional satisfaction that he could +not analyse.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Bayreuth was the place to go really," he said. "I never had +the money, worse luck. But of course one might do worse than Covent +Garden, all the lights and the women dressed up to the nines, and the +music. The first act of the <i>Walküre's</i> all right, isn't it? And the end +of <i>Tristan</i>. Golly!"</p> + +<p>His eyes were flashing now and his face was lit up so that he hardly +seemed the same man. There was a flush on his sallow, thin cheeks, and I +forgot that his voice was harsh and unpleasant. There was even a certain +charm about him.</p> + +<p>"By George, I'd like to be in London to-night. Do you know the Pall Mall +restaurant? I used to go there a lot. Piccadilly Circus with the shops +all lit up, and the crowd. I think it's stunning to stand there and +watch the buses and taxis streaming along as though they'd never stop. +And I like the Strand too. What are those lines about God and Charing +Cross?"</p> + +<p>I was taken aback.</p> + +<p>"Thompson's, d'you mean?" I asked.</p> + +<p>I quoted them.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><i>"And when so sad, thou canst not sadder,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Cry, and upon thy so sore loss</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross."</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He gave a faint sigh.</p> + +<p>"I've read <i>The Hound of Heaven</i>. It's a bit of all right."</p> + +<p>"It's generally thought so," I murmured.</p> + +<p>"You don't meet anybody here who's read anything. They think it's +swank."</p> + +<p>There was a wistful look on his face, and I thought I divined the +feeling that made him come to me. I was a link with the world he +regretted and a life that he would know no more. Because not so very +long before I had been in the London which he loved, he looked upon me +with awe and envy. He had not spoken for five minutes perhaps when he +broke out with words that startled me by their intensity.</p> + +<p>"I'm fed up," he said. "I'm fed up."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you clear out?" I asked.</p> + +<p>His face grew sullen.</p> + +<p>"My lungs are a bit dicky. I couldn't stand an English winter now."</p> + +<p>At that moment another man joined us on the verandah and Lawson sank +into a moody silence.</p> + +<p>"It's about time for a drain," said the new-comer. "Who'll have a drop +of Scotch with me? Lawson?"</p> + +<p>Lawson seemed to arise from a distant world. He got up.</p> + +<p>"Let's go down to the bar," he said.</p> + +<p>When he left me I remained with a more kindly feeling towards him than I +should have expected. He puzzled and interested me. And a few days later +I met his wife. I knew they had been married for five or six years, and +I was surprised to see that she was still extremely young. When he +married her she could not have been more than sixteen. She was adorably +pretty. She was no darker than a Spaniard, small and very beautifully +made, with tiny hands and feet, and a slight, lithe figure. Her features +were lovely; but I think what struck me most was the delicacy of her +appearance; the half-caste as a rule have a certain coarseness, they +seem a little roughly formed, but she had an exquisite daintiness which +took your breath away. There was something extremely civilised about +her, so that it surprised you to see her in those surroundings, and you +thought of those famous beauties who had set all the world talking at +the Court of the Emperor Napoleon III. Though she wore but a muslin +frock and a straw hat she wore them with an elegance that suggested the +woman of fashion. She must have been ravishing when Lawson first saw +her.</p> + +<p>He had but lately come out from England to manage the local branch of an +English bank, and, reaching Samoa at the beginning of the dry season, he +had taken a room at the hotel. He quickly made the acquaintance of all +and sundry. The life of the island is pleasant and easy. He enjoyed the +long idle talks in the lounge of the hotel and the gay evenings at the +English Club when a group of fellows would play pool. He liked Apia +straggling along the edge of the lagoon, with its stores and bungalows, +and its native village. Then there were week-ends when he would ride +over to the house of one planter or another and spend a couple of nights +on the hills. He had never before known freedom or leisure. And he was +intoxicated by the sunshine. When he rode through the bush his head +reeled a little at the beauty that surrounded him. The country was +indescribably fertile. In parts the forest was still virgin, a tangle of +strange trees, luxuriant undergrowth, and vine; it gave an impression +that was mysterious and troubling.</p> + +<p>But the spot that entranced him was a pool a mile or two away from Apia +to which in the evenings he often went to bathe. There was a little +river that bubbled over the rocks in a swift stream, and then, after +forming the deep pool, ran on, shallow and crystalline, past a ford made +by great stones where the natives came sometimes to bathe or to wash +their clothes. The coconut trees, with their frivolous elegance, grew +thickly on the banks, all clad with trailing plants, and they were +reflected in the green water. It was just such a scene as you might see +in Devonshire among the hills, and yet with a difference, for it had a +tropical richness, a passion, a scented languor which seemed to melt the +heart. The water was fresh, but not cold; and it was delicious after the +heat of the day. To bathe there refreshed not only the body but the +soul.</p> + +<p>At the hour when Lawson went, there was not a soul and he lingered for a +long time, now floating idly in the water, now drying himself in the +evening sun, enjoying the solitude and the friendly silence. He did not +regret London then, nor the life that he had abandoned, for life as it +was seemed complete and exquisite.</p> + +<p>It was here that he first saw Ethel.</p> + +<p>Occupied till late by letters which had to be finished for the monthly +sailing of the boat next day, he rode down one evening to the pool when +the light was almost failing. He tied up his horse and sauntered to the +bank. A girl was sitting there. She glanced round as he came and +noiselessly slid into the water. She vanished like a naiad startled by +the approach of a mortal. He was surprised and amused. He wondered where +she had hidden herself. He swam downstream and presently saw her sitting +on a rock. She looked at him with uncurious eyes. He called out a +greeting in Samoan.</p> + +<p>"<i>Talofa.</i>"</p> + +<p>She answered him, suddenly smiling, and then let herself into the water +again. She swam easily and her hair spread out behind her. He watched +her cross the pool and climb out on the bank. Like all the natives she +bathed in a Mother Hubbard, and the water had made it cling to her +slight body. She wrung out her hair, and as she stood there, +unconcerned, she looked more than ever like a wild creature of the water +or the woods. He saw now that she was half-caste. He swam towards her +and, getting out, addressed her in English.</p> + +<p>"You're having a late swim."</p> + +<p>She shook back her hair and then let it spread over her shoulders in +luxuriant curls.</p> + +<p>"I like it when I'm alone," she said.</p> + +<p>"So do I."</p> + +<p>She laughed with the childlike frankness of the native. She slipped a +dry Mother Hubbard over her head and, letting down the wet one, stepped +out of it. She wrung it out and was ready to go. She paused a moment +irresolutely and then sauntered off. The night fell suddenly.</p> + +<p>Lawson went back to the hotel and, describing her to the men who were in +the lounge shaking dice for drinks, soon discovered who she was. Her +father was a Norwegian called Brevald who was often to be seen in the +bar of the Hotel Metropole drinking rum and water. He was a little old +man, knotted and gnarled like an ancient tree, who had come out to the +islands forty years before as mate of a sailing vessel. He had been a +blacksmith, a trader, a planter, and at one time fairly well-to-do; but, +ruined by the great hurricane of the nineties, he had now nothing to +live on but a small plantation of coconut trees. He had had four native +wives and, as he told you with a cracked chuckle, more children than he +could count. But some had died and some had gone out into the world, so +that now the only one left at home was Ethel.</p> + +<p>"She's a peach," said Nelson, the supercargo of the <i>Moana</i>. "I've given +her the glad eye once or twice, but I guess there's nothing doing."</p> + +<p>"Old Brevald's not that sort of a fool, sonny," put in another, a man +called Miller. "He wants a son-in-law who's prepared to keep him in +comfort for the rest of his life."</p> + +<p>It was distasteful to Lawson that they should speak of the girl in that +fashion. He made a remark about the departing mail and so distracted +their attention. But next evening he went again to the pool. Ethel was +there; and the mystery of the sunset, the deep silence of the water, the +lithe grace of the coconut trees, added to her beauty, giving it a +profundity, a magic, which stirred the heart to unknown emotions. For +some reason that time he had the whim not to speak to her. She took no +notice of him. She did not even glance in his direction. She swam about +the green pool. She dived, she rested on the bank, as though she were +quite alone: he had a queer feeling that he was invisible. Scraps of +poetry, half forgotten, floated across his memory, and vague +recollections of the Greece he had negligently studied in his school +days. When she had changed her wet clothes for dry ones and sauntered +away he found a scarlet hibiscus where she had been. It was a flower +that she had worn in her hair when she came to bathe and, having taken +it out on getting into the water, had forgotten or not cared to put in +again. He took it in his hands and looked at it with a singular emotion. +He had an instinct to keep it, but his sentimentality irritated him, and +he flung it away. It gave him quite a little pang to see it float down +the stream.</p> + +<p>He wondered what strangeness it was in her nature that urged her to go +down to this hidden pool when there was no likelihood that anyone +should be there. The natives of the islands are devoted to the water. +They bathe, somewhere or other, every day, once always, and often twice; +but they bathe in bands, laughing and joyous, a whole family together; +and you often saw a group of girls, dappled by the sun shining through +the trees, with the half-castes among them, splashing about the shallows +of the stream. It looked as though there were in this pool some secret +which attracted Ethel against her will.</p> + +<p>Now the night had fallen, mysterious and silent, and he let himself down +in the water softly, in order to make no sound, and swam lazily in the +warm darkness. The water seemed fragrant still from her slender body. He +rode back to the town under the starry sky. He felt at peace with the +world.</p> + +<p>Now he went every evening to the pool and every evening he saw Ethel. +Presently he overcame her timidity. She became playful and friendly. +They sat together on the rocks above the pool, where the water ran fast, +and they lay side by side on the ledge that overlooked it, watching the +gathering dusk envelop it with mystery. It was inevitable that their +meetings should become known—in the South Seas everyone seems to know +everyone's business—and he was subjected to much rude chaff by the men +at the hotel. He smiled and let them talk. It was not even worth while +to deny their coarse suggestions. His feelings were absolutely pure. He +loved Ethel as a poet might love the moon. He thought of her not as a +woman but as something not of this earth. She was the spirit of the +pool.</p> + +<p>One day at the hotel, passing through the bar, he saw that old Brevald, +as ever in his shabby blue overalls, was standing there. Because he was +Ethel's father he had a desire to speak to him, so he went in, nodded +and, ordering his own drink, casually turned and invited the old man to +have one with him. They chatted for a few minutes of local affairs, and +Lawson was uneasily conscious that the Norwegian was scrutinising him +with sly blue eyes. His manner was not agreeable. It was sycophantic, +and yet behind the cringing air of an old man who had been worsted in +his struggle with fate was a shadow of old truculence. Lawson remembered +that he had once been captain of a schooner engaged in the slave trade, +a blackbirder they call it in the Pacific, and he had a large hernia in +the chest which was the result of a wound received in a scrap with +Solomon Islanders. The bell rang for luncheon.</p> + +<p>"Well, I must be off," said Lawson.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you come along to my place one time?" said Brevald, in his +wheezy voice. "It's not very grand, but you'll be welcome. You know +Ethel."</p> + +<p>"I'll come with pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Sunday afternoon's the best time."</p> + +<p>Brevald's bungalow, shabby and bedraggled, stood among the coconut trees +of the plantation, a little away from the main road that ran up to +Vailima. Immediately around it grew huge plantains. With their tattered +leaves they had the tragic beauty of a lovely woman in rags. Everything +was slovenly and neglected. Little black pigs, thin and high-backed, +rooted about, and chickens clucked noisily as they picked at the refuse +scattered here and there. Three or four natives were lounging about the +verandah. When Lawson asked for Brevald the old man's cracked voice +called out to him, and he found him in the sitting-room smoking an old +briar pipe.</p> + +<p>"Sit down and make yerself at home," he said. "Ethel's just titivating."</p> + +<p>She came in. She wore a blouse and skirt and her hair was done in the +European fashion. Although she had not the wild, timid grace of the girl +who came down every evening to the pool, she seemed now more usual and +consequently more approachable. She shook hands with Lawson. It was the +first time he had touched her hand.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll have a cup of tea with us," she said.</p> + +<p>He knew she had been at a mission school, and he was amused, and at the +same time touched, by the company manners she was putting on for his +benefit. Tea was already set out on the table and in a minute old +Brevald's fourth wife brought in the tea-pot. She was a handsome native, +no longer very young, and she spoke but a few words of English. She +smiled and smiled. Tea was rather a solemn meal, with a great deal of +bread and butter and a variety of very sweet cakes, and the conversation +was formal. Then a wrinkled old woman came in softly.</p> + +<p>"That's Ethel's granny," said old Brevald, noisily spitting on the +floor.</p> + +<p>She sat on the edge of a chair, uncomfortably, so that you saw it was +unusual for her and she would have been more at ease on the ground, and +remained silently staring at Lawson with fixed, shining eyes. In the +kitchen behind the bungalow someone began to play the concertina and two +or three voices were raised in a hymn. But they sang for the pleasure of +the sounds rather than from piety.</p> + +<p>When Lawson walked back to the hotel he was strangely happy. He was +touched by the higgledy-piggledy way in which those people lived; and in +the smiling good-nature of Mrs Brevald, in the little Norwegian's +fantastic career, and in the shining mysterious eyes of the old +grandmother, he found something unusual and fascinating. It was a more +natural life than any he had known, it was nearer to the friendly, +fertile earth; civilisation repelled him at that moment, and by mere +contact with these creatures of a more primitive nature he felt a +greater freedom.</p> + +<p>He saw himself rid of the hotel which already was beginning to irk him, +settled in a little bungalow of his own, trim and white, in front of the +sea so that he had before his eyes always the multicoloured variety of +the lagoon. He loved the beautiful island. London and England meant +nothing to him any more, he was content to spend the rest of his days in +that forgotten spot, rich in the best of the world's goods, love and +happiness. He made up his mind that whatever the obstacles nothing +should prevent him from marrying Ethel.</p> + +<p>But there were no obstacles. He was always welcome at the Brevalds' +house. The old man was ingratiating and Mrs Brevald smiled without +ceasing. He had brief glimpses of natives who seemed somehow to belong +to the establishment, and once he found a tall youth in a <i>lava-lava</i>, +his body tattooed, his hair white with lime, sitting with Brevald, and +was told he was Mrs Brevald's brother's son; but for the most part they +kept out of his way. Ethel was delightful with him. The light in her +eyes when she saw him filled him with ecstasy. She was charming and +naïve. He listened enraptured when she told him of the mission school at +which she was educated, and of the sisters. He went with her to the +cinema which was given once a fortnight and danced with her at the dance +which followed it. They came from all parts of the island for this, +since gaieties are few in Upolu; and you saw there all the society of +the place, the white ladies keeping a good deal to themselves, the +half-castes very elegant in American clothes, the natives, strings of +dark girls in white Mother Hubbards and young men in unaccustomed ducks +and white shoes. It was all very smart and gay. Ethel was pleased to +show her friends the white admirer who did not leave her side. The +rumour was soon spread that he meant to marry her and her friends looked +at her with envy. It was a great thing for a half-caste to get a white +man to marry her, even the less regular relation was better than +nothing, but one could never tell what it would lead to; and Lawson's +position as manager of the bank made him one of the catches of the +island. If he had not been so absorbed in Ethel he would have noticed +that many eyes were fixed on him curiously, and he would have seen the +glances of the white ladies and noticed how they put their heads +together and gossiped.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, when the men who lived at the hotel were having a whisky +before turning in, Nelson burst out with:</p> + +<p>"Say, they say Lawson's going to marry that girl."</p> + +<p>"He's a damned fool then," said Miller.</p> + +<p>Miller was a German-American who had changed his name from Müller, a big +man, fat and bald-headed, with a round, clean-shaven face. He wore large +gold-rimmed spectacles, which gave him a benign look, and his ducks were +always clean and white. He was a heavy drinker, invariably ready to stay +up all night with the "boys," but he never got drunk; he was jolly and +affable, but very shrewd. Nothing interfered with his business; he +represented a firm in San Francisco, jobbers of the goods sold in the +islands, calico, machinery and what not; and his good-fellowship was +part of his stock-in-trade.</p> + +<p>"He don't know what he's up against," said Nelson. "Someone ought to put +him wise."</p> + +<p>"If you'll take my advice you won't interfere in what don't concern +you," said Miller. "When a man's made up his mind to make a fool of +himself, there's nothing like letting him."</p> + +<p>"I'm all for having a good time with the girls out here, but when it +comes to marrying them—this child ain't taking any, I'll tell the +world."</p> + +<p>Chaplin was there, and now he had his say.</p> + +<p>"I've seen a lot of fellows do it, and it's no good."</p> + +<p>"You ought to have a talk with him, Chaplin," said Nelson. "You know him +better than anyone else does."</p> + +<p>"My advice to Chaplin is to leave it alone," said Miller.</p> + +<p>Even in those days Lawson was not popular and really no one took enough +interest in him to bother. Mrs Chaplin talked it over with two or three +of the white ladies, but they contented themselves with saying that it +was a pity; and when he told her definitely that he was going to be +married it seemed too late to do anything.</p> + +<p>For a year Lawson was happy. He took a bungalow at the point of the bay +round which Apia is built, on the borders of a native village. It +nestled charmingly among the coconut trees and faced the passionate blue +of the Pacific. Ethel was lovely as she went about the little house, +lithe and graceful like some young animal of the woods, and she was gay. +They laughed a great deal. They talked nonsense. Sometimes one or two of +the men at the hotel would come over and spend the evening, and often on +a Sunday they would go for a day to some planter who had married a +native; now and then one or other of the half-caste traders who had a +store in Apia would give a party and they went to it. The half-castes +treated Lawson quite differently now. His marriage had made him one of +themselves and they called him Bertie. They put their arms through his +and smacked him on the back. He liked to see Ethel at these gatherings. +Her eyes shone and she laughed. It did him good to see her radiant +happiness. Sometimes Ethel's relations would come to the bungalow, old +Brevald of course, and her mother, but cousins too, vague native women +in Mother Hubbards and men and boys in <i>lava-lavas</i>, with their hair +dyed red and their bodies elaborately tattooed. He would find them +sitting there when he got back from the bank. He laughed indulgently.</p> + +<p>"Don't let them eat us out of hearth and home," he said.</p> + +<p>"They're my own family. I can't help doing something for them when they +ask me."</p> + +<p>He knew that when a white man marries a native or a half-caste he must +expect her relations to look upon him as a gold mine. He took Ethel's +face in his hands and kissed her red lips. Perhaps he could not expect +her to understand that the salary which had amply sufficed for a +bachelor must be managed with some care when it had to support a wife +and a house. Then Ethel was delivered of a son.</p> + +<p>It was when Lawson first held the child in his arms that a sudden pang +shot through his heart. He had not expected it to be so dark. After all +it had but a fourth part of native blood, and there was no reason really +why it should not look just like an English baby; but, huddled together +in his arms, sallow, its head covered already with black hair, with huge +black eyes, it might have been a native child. Since his marriage he had +been ignored by the white ladies of the colony. When he came across men +in whose houses he had been accustomed to dine as a bachelor, they were +a little self-conscious with him; and they sought to cover their +embarrassment by an exaggerated cordiality.</p> + +<p>"Mrs Lawson well?" they would say. "You're a lucky fellow. Damned pretty +girl."</p> + +<p>But if they were with their wives and met him and Ethel they would feel +it awkward when their wives gave Ethel a patronising nod. Lawson had +laughed.</p> + +<p>"They're as dull as ditchwater, the whole gang of them," he said. "It's +not going to disturb my night's rest if they don't ask me to their dirty +parties."</p> + +<p>But now it irked him a little.</p> + +<p>The little dark baby screwed up its face. That was his son. He thought +of the half-caste children in Apia. They had an unhealthy look, sallow +and pale, and they were odiously precocious. He had seen them on the +boat going to school in New Zealand, and a school had to be chosen which +took children with native blood in them; they were huddled together, +brazen and yet timid, with traits which set them apart strangely from +white people. They spoke the native language among themselves. And when +they grew up the men accepted smaller salaries because of their native +blood; girls might marry a white man, but boys had no chance; they must +marry a half-caste like themselves or a native. Lawson made up his mind +passionately that he would take his son away from the humiliation of +such a life. At whatever cost he must get back to Europe. And when he +went in to see Ethel, frail and lovely in her bed, surrounded by native +women, his determination was strengthened. If he took her away among his +own people she would belong more completely to him. He loved her so +passionately, he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he +was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the +native life, she would always keep something from him.</p> + +<p>He went to work quietly, urged by an obscure instinct of secrecy, and +wrote to a cousin who was partner in a shipping firm in Aberdeen, saying +that his health (on account of which like so many more he had come out +to the islands) was so much better, there seemed no reason why he should +not return to Europe. He asked him to use what influence he could to get +him a job, no matter how poorly paid, on Deeside, where the climate was +particularly suitable to such as suffered from diseases of the lungs. It +takes five or six weeks for letters to get from Aberdeen to Samoa, and +several had to be exchanged. He had plenty of time to prepare Ethel. She +was as delighted as a child. He was amused to see how she boasted to her +friends that she was going to England; it was a step up for her; she +would be quite English there; and she was excited at the interest the +approaching departure gave her. When at length a cable came offering him +a post in a bank in Kincardineshire she was beside herself with joy.</p> + +<p>When, their long journey over, they were settled in the little Scots +town with its granite houses Lawson realised how much it meant to him to +live once more among his own people. He looked back on the three years +he had spent in Apia as exile, and returned to the life that seemed the +only normal one with a sigh of relief. It was good to play golf once +more, and to fish—to fish properly, that was poor fun in the Pacific +when you just threw in your line and pulled out one big sluggish fish +after another from the crowded sea—and it was good to see a paper every +day with that day's news, and to meet men and women of your own sort, +people you could talk to; and it was good to eat meat that was not +frozen and to drink milk that was not canned. They were thrown upon +their own resources much more than in the Pacific, and he was glad to +have Ethel exclusively to himself. After two years of marriage he loved +her more devotedly than ever, he could hardly bear her out of his sight, +and the need in him grew urgent for a more intimate communion between +them. But it was strange that after the first excitement of arrival she +seemed to take less interest in the new life than he had expected. She +did not accustom herself to her surroundings. She was a little +lethargic. As the fine autumn darkened into winter she complained of the +cold. She lay half the morning in bed and the rest of the day on a sofa, +reading novels sometimes, but more often doing nothing. She looked +pinched.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, darling," he said. "You'll get used to it very soon. And +wait till the summer comes. It can be almost as hot as in Apia."</p> + +<p>He felt better and stronger than he had done for years.</p> + +<p>The carelessness with which she managed her house had not mattered in +Samoa, but here it was out of place. When anyone came he did not want +the place to look untidy; and, laughing, chaffing Ethel a little, he set +about putting things in order. Ethel watched him indolently. She spent +long hours playing with her son. She talked to him in the baby language +of her own country. To distract her, Lawson bestirred himself to make +friends among the neighbours, and now and then they went to little +parties where the ladies sang drawing-room ballads and the men beamed in +silent good nature. Ethel was shy. She seemed to sit apart. Sometimes +Lawson, seized with a sudden anxiety, would ask her if she was happy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm quite happy," she answered.</p> + +<p>But her eyes were veiled by some thought he could not guess. She seemed +to withdraw into herself so that he was conscious that he knew no more +of her than when he had first seen her bathing in the pool. He had an +uneasy feeling that she was concealing something from him, and because +he adored her it tortured him.</p> + +<p>"You don't regret Apia, do you?" he asked her once.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no—I think it's very nice here."</p> + +<p>An obscure misgiving drove him to make disparaging remarks about the +island and the people there. She smiled and did not answer. Very rarely +she received a bundle of letters from Samoa and then she went about for +a day or two with a set, pale face.</p> + +<p>"Nothing would induce me ever to go back there," he said once. "It's no +place for a white man."</p> + +<p>But he grew conscious that sometimes, when he was away, Ethel cried. In +Apia she had been talkative, chatting volubly about all the little +details of their common life, the gossip of the place; but now she +gradually became silent, and, though he increased his efforts to amuse +her, she remained listless. It seemed to him that her recollections of +the old life were drawing her away from him, and he was madly jealous of +the island and of the sea, of Brevald, and all the dark-skinned people +whom he remembered now with horror. When she spoke of Samoa he was +bitter and satirical. One evening late in the spring when the birch +trees were bursting into leaf, coming home from a round of golf, he +found her not as usual lying on the sofa, but at the window, standing. +She had evidently been waiting for his return. She addressed him the +moment he came into the room. To his amazement she spoke in Samoan.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand it. I can't live here any more. I hate it. I hate it."</p> + +<p>"For God's sake speak in a civilised language," he said irritably.</p> + +<p>She went up to him and clasped her arms around his body awkwardly, with +a gesture that had in it something barbaric.</p> + +<p>"Let's go away from here. Let's go back to Samoa. If you make me stay +here I shall die. I want to go home."</p> + +<p>Her passion broke suddenly and she burst into tears. His anger vanished +and he drew her down on his knees. He explained to her that it was +impossible for him to throw up his job, which after all meant his bread +and butter. His place in Apia was long since filled. He had nothing to +go back to there. He tried to put it to her reasonably, the +inconveniences of life there, the humiliation to which they must be +exposed, and the bitterness it must cause their son.</p> + +<p>"Scotland's wonderful for education and that sort of thing. Schools are +good and cheap, and he can go to the University at Aberdeen. I'll make a +real Scot of him."</p> + +<p>They had called him Andrew. Lawson wanted him to become a doctor. He +would marry a white woman.</p> + +<p>"I'm not ashamed of being half native," Ethel said sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Of course not, darling. There's nothing to be ashamed of."</p> + +<p>With her soft cheek against his he felt incredibly weak.</p> + +<p>"You don't know how much I love you," he said. "I'd give anything in the +world to be able to tell you what I've got in my heart."</p> + +<p>He sought her lips.</p> + +<p>The summer came. The highland valley was green and fragrant, and the +hills were gay with the heather. One sunny day followed another in that +sheltered spot, and the shade of the birch trees was grateful after the +glare of the high road. Ethel spoke no more of Samoa and Lawson grew +less nervous. He thought that she was resigned to her surroundings, and +he felt that his love for her was so passionate that it could leave no +room in her heart for any longing. One day the local doctor stopped him +in the street.</p> + +<p>"I say, Lawson, your missus ought to be careful how she bathes in our +highland streams. It's not like the Pacific, you know."</p> + +<p>Lawson was surprised, and had not the presence of mind to conceal the +fact.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know she was bathing."</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed.</p> + +<p>"A good many people have seen her. It makes them talk a bit, you know, +because it seems a rum place to choose, the pool up above the bridge, +and bathing isn't allowed there, but there's no harm in that. I don't +know how she can stand the water."</p> + +<p>Lawson knew the pool the doctor spoke of, and suddenly it occurred to +him that in a way it was just like that pool at Upolu where Ethel had +been in the habit of bathing every evening. A clear highland stream ran +down a sinuous course, rocky, splashing gaily, and then formed a deep, +smooth pool, with a little sandy beach. Trees overshadowed it thickly, +not coconut trees, but beeches, and the sun played fitfully through the +leaves on the sparkling water. It gave him a shock. With his imagination +he saw Ethel go there every day and undress on the bank and slip into +the water, cold, colder than that of the pool she loved at home, and for +a moment regain the feeling of the past. He saw her once more as the +strange, wild spirit of the stream, and it seemed to him fantastically +that the running water called her. That afternoon he went along to the +river. He made his way cautiously among the trees and the grassy path +deadened the sound of his steps. Presently he came to a spot from which +he could see the pool. Ethel was sitting on the bank, looking down at +the water. She sat quite still. It seemed as though the water drew her +irresistibly. He wondered what strange thoughts wandered through her +head. At last she got up, and for a minute or two she was hidden from +his gaze; then he saw her again, wearing a Mother Hubbard, and with her +little bare feet she stepped delicately over the mossy bank. She came to +the water's edge, and softly, without a splash, let herself down. She +swam about quietly, and there was something not quite of a human being +in the way she swam. He did not know why it affected him so queerly. He +waited till she clambered out. She stood for a moment with the wet folds +of her dress clinging to her body, so that its shape was outlined, and +then, passing her hands slowly over her breasts, gave a little sigh of +delight. Then she disappeared. Lawson turned away and walked back to the +village. He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was +still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain +unsatisfied.</p> + +<p>He did not make any mention of what he had seen. He ignored the incident +completely, but he looked at her curiously, trying to divine what was in +her mind. He redoubled the tenderness with which he used her. He sought +to make her forget the deep longing of her soul by the passion of his +love.</p> + +<p>Then one day, when he came home, he was astonished to find her not in +the house.</p> + +<p>"Where's Mrs Lawson?" he asked the maid.</p> + +<p>"She went into Aberdeen, Sir, with the baby," the maid answered, a +little surprised at the question. "She said she would not be back till +the last train."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right."</p> + +<p>He was vexed that Ethel had said nothing to him about the excursion, but +he was not disturbed, since of late she had been in now and again to +Aberdeen, and he was glad that she should look at the shops and perhaps +visit a cinema. He went to meet the last train, but when she did not +come he grew suddenly frightened. He went up to the bedroom and saw at +once that her toilet things were no longer in their place. He opened the +wardrobe and the drawers. They were half empty. She had bolted.</p> + +<p>He was seized with a passion of anger. It was too late that night to +telephone to Aberdeen and make enquiries, but he knew already all that +his enquiries might have taught him. With fiendish cunning she had +chosen a time when they were making up their periodical accounts at the +bank and there was no chance that he could follow her. He was imprisoned +by his work. He took up a paper and saw that there was a boat sailing +for Australia next morning. She must be now well on the way to London. +He could not prevent the sobs that were wrung painfully from him.</p> + +<p>"I've done everything in the world for her," he cried, "and she had the +heart to treat me like this. How cruel, how monstrously cruel!"</p> + +<p>After two days of misery he received a letter from her. It was written +in her school-girl hand. She had always written with difficulty:</p> + +<p> +<i>Dear Bertie:</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>I couldn't stand it any more. I'm going back home. Good-bye.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 60%;"><i>Ethel.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>She did not say a single word of regret. She did not even ask him to +come too. Lawson was prostrated. He found out where the ship made its +first stop and, though he knew very well she would not come, sent a +cable beseeching her to return. He waited with pitiful anxiety. He +wanted her to send him just one word of love; she did not even answer. +He passed through one violent phase after another. At one moment he told +himself that he was well rid of her, and at the next that he would force +her to return by withholding money. He was lonely and wretched. He +wanted his boy and he wanted her. He knew that, whatever he pretended to +himself, there was only one thing to do and that was to follow her. He +could never live without her now. All his plans for the future were like +a house of cards and he scattered them with angry impatience. He did not +care whether he threw away his chances for the future, for nothing in +the world mattered but that he should get Ethel back again. As soon as +he could he went into Aberdeen and told the manager of his bank that he +meant to leave at once. The manager remonstrated. The short notice was +inconvenient. Lawson would not listen to reason. He was determined to be +free before the next boat sailed; and it was not until he was on board +of her, having sold everything he possessed, that in some measure he +regained his calm. Till then to those who had come in contact with him +he seemed hardly sane. His last action in England was to cable to Ethel +at Apia that he was joining her.</p> + +<p>He sent another cable from Sydney, and when at last with the dawn his +boat crossed the bar at Apia and he saw once more the white houses +straggling along the bay he felt an immense relief. The doctor came on +board and the agent. They were both old acquaintances and he felt kindly +towards their familiar faces. He had a drink or two with them for old +times' sake, and also because he was desperately nervous. He was not +sure if Ethel would be glad to see him. When he got into the launch and +approached the wharf he scanned anxiously the little crowd that waited. +She was not there and his heart sank, but then he saw Brevald, in his +old blue clothes, and his heart warmed towards him.</p> + +<p>"Where's Ethel?" he said, as he jumped on shore.</p> + +<p>"She's down at the bungalow. She's living with us."</p> + +<p>Lawson was dismayed, but he put on a jovial air.</p> + +<p>"Well, have you got room for me? I daresay it'll take a week or two to +fix ourselves up."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I guess we can make room for you."</p> + +<p>After passing through the custom-house they went to the hotel and there +Lawson was greeted by several of his old friends. There were a good many +rounds of drinks before it seemed possible to get away and when they did +go out at last to Brevald's house they were both rather gay. He clasped +Ethel in his arms. He had forgotten all his bitter thoughts in the joy +of beholding her once more. His mother-in-law was pleased to see him, +and so was the old, wrinkled beldame, her mother; natives and +half-castes came in, and they all sat round, beaming on him. Brevald had +a bottle of whisky and everyone who came was given a nip. Lawson sat +with his little dark-skinned boy on his knees, they had taken his +English clothes off him and he was stark, with Ethel by his side in a +Mother Hubbard. He felt like a returning prodigal. In the afternoon he +went down to the hotel again and when he got back he was more than gay, +he was drunk. Ethel and her mother knew that white men got drunk now and +then, it was what you expected of them, and they laughed good-naturedly +as they helped him to bed.</p> + +<p>But in a day or two he set about looking for a job. He knew that he +could not hope for such a position as that which he had thrown away to +go to England; but with his training he could not fail to be useful to +one of the trading firms, and perhaps in the end he would not lose by +the change.</p> + +<p>"After all, you can't make money in a bank," he said. "Trade's the +thing."</p> + +<p>He had hopes that he would soon make himself so indispensable that he +would get someone to take him into partnership, and there was no reason +why in a few years he should not be a rich man.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I'm fixed up we'll find ourselves a shack," he told Ethel. +"We can't go on living here."</p> + +<p>Brevald's bungalow was so small that they were all piled on one another, +and there was no chance of ever being alone. There was neither peace nor +privacy.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no hurry. We shall be all right here till we find just +what we want."</p> + +<p>It took him a week to get settled and then he entered the firm of a man +called Bain. But when he talked to Ethel about moving she said she +wanted to stay where she was till her baby was born, for she was +expecting another child. Lawson tried to argue with her.</p> + +<p>"If you don't like it," she said, "go and live at the hotel."</p> + +<p>He grew suddenly pale.</p> + +<p>"Ethel, how can you suggest that!"</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"What's the good of having a house of our own when we can live here."</p> + +<p>He yielded.</p> + +<p>When Lawson, after his work, went back to the bungalow he found it +crowded with natives. They lay about smoking, sleeping, drinking <i>kava</i>; +and they talked incessantly. The place was grubby and untidy. His child +crawled about, playing with native children, and it heard nothing spoken +but Samoan. He fell into the habit of dropping into the hotel on his +way home to have a few cocktails, for he could only face the evening and +the crowd of friendly natives when he was fortified with liquor. And all +the time, though he loved her more passionately than ever, he felt that +Ethel was slipping away from him. When the baby was born he suggested +that they should get into a house of their own, but Ethel refused. Her +stay in Scotland seemed to have thrown her back on her own people, now +that she was once more among them, with a passionate zest, and she +turned to her native ways with abandon. Lawson began to drink more. +Every Saturday night he went to the English Club and got blind drunk.</p> + +<p>He had the peculiarity that as he grew drunk he grew quarrelsome and +once he had a violent dispute with Bain, his employer. Bain dismissed +him, and he had to look out for another job. He was idle for two or +three weeks and during these, sooner than sit in the bungalow, he +lounged about in the hotel or at the English Club, and drank. It was +more out of pity than anything else that Miller, the German-American, +took him into his office; but he was a business man, and though Lawson's +financial skill made him valuable, the circumstances were such that he +could hardly refuse a smaller salary than he had had before, and Miller +did not hesitate to offer it to him. Ethel and Brevald blamed him for +taking it, since Pedersen, the half-caste, offered him more. But he +resented bitterly the thought of being under the orders of a half-caste. +When Ethel nagged him he burst out furiously:</p> + +<p>"I'll see myself dead before I work for a nigger."</p> + +<p>"You may have to," she said.</p> + +<p>And in six months he found himself forced to this final humiliation. The +passion for liquor had been gaining on him, he was often heavy with +drink, and he did his work badly. Miller warned him once or twice and +Lawson was not the man to accept remonstrance easily. One day in the +midst of an altercation he put on his hat and walked out. But by now his +reputation was well known and he could find no one to engage him. For a +while he idled, and then he had an attack of <i>delirium tremens</i>. When he +recovered, shameful and weak, he could no longer resist the constant +pressure and he went to Pedersen and asked him for a job. Pedersen was +glad to have a white man in his store and Lawson's skill at figures made +him useful.</p> + +<p>From that time his degeneration was rapid. The white people gave him the +cold shoulder. They were only prevented from cutting him completely by +disdainful pity and by a certain dread of his angry violence when he was +drunk. He became extremely susceptible and was always on the lookout for +affront.</p> + +<p>He lived entirely among the natives and half-castes, but he had no +longer the prestige of the white man. They felt his loathing for them +and they resented his attitude of superiority. He was one of themselves +now and they did not see why he should put on airs. Brevald, who had +been ingratiating and obsequious, now treated him with contempt. Ethel +had made a bad bargain. There were disgraceful scenes and once or twice +the two men came to blows. When there was a quarrel Ethel took the part +of her family. They found he was better drunk than sober, for when he +was drunk he would lie on the bed or on the floor, sleeping heavily.</p> + +<p>Then he became aware that something was being hidden from him.</p> + +<p>When he got back to the bungalow for the wretched, half native supper +which was his evening meal, often Ethel was not in. If he asked where +she was Brevald told him she had gone to spend the evening with one or +other of her friends. Once he followed her to the house Brevald had +mentioned and found she was not there. On her return he asked her where +she had been and she told him her father had made a mistake; she had +been to so-and-so's. But he knew that she was lying. She was in her best +clothes; her eyes were shining, and she looked lovely.</p> + +<p>"Don't try any monkey tricks on me, my girl," he said, "or I'll break +every bone in your body."</p> + +<p>"You drunken beast," she said, scornfully.</p> + +<p>He fancied that Mrs Brevald and the old grandmother looked at him +maliciously and he ascribed Brevald's good-humour with him, so unusual +those days, to his satisfaction at having something up his sleeve +against his son-in-law. And then, his suspicions aroused, he imagined +that the white men gave him curious glances. When he came into the +lounge of the hotel the sudden silence which fell upon the company +convinced him that he had been the subject of the conversation. +Something was going on and everyone knew it but himself. He was seized +with furious jealousy. He believed that Ethel was carrying on with one +of the white men, and he looked at one after the other with scrutinising +eyes; but there was nothing to give him even a hint. He was helpless. +Because he could find no one on whom definitely to fix his suspicions, +he went about like a raving maniac, looking for someone on whom to vent +his wrath. Chance caused him in the end to hit upon the man who of all +others least deserved to suffer from his violence. One afternoon, when +he was sitting in the hotel by himself, moodily, Chaplin came in and sat +down beside him. Perhaps Chaplin was the only man on the island who had +any sympathy for him. They ordered drinks and chatted a few minutes +about the races that were shortly to be run. Then Chaplain said:</p> + +<p>"I guess we shall all have to fork out money for new dresses."</p> + +<p>Lawson sniggered. Since Mrs Chaplin held the purse-strings if she wanted +a new frock for the occasion she would certainly not ask her husband for +the money.</p> + +<p>"How is your missus?" asked Chaplin, desiring to be friendly.</p> + +<p>"What the hell's that got to do with you?" said Lawson, knitting his +dark brows.</p> + +<p>"I was only asking a civil question."</p> + +<p>"Well, keep your civil questions to yourself."</p> + +<p>Chaplin was not a patient man; his long residence in the tropics, the +whisky bottle, and his domestic affairs had given him a temper hardly +more under control than Lawson's.</p> + +<p>"Look here, my boy, when you're in my hotel you behave like a gentleman +or you'll find yourself in the street before you can say knife."</p> + +<p>Lawson's lowering face grew dark and red.</p> + +<p>"Let me just tell you once for all and you can pass it on to the +others," he said, panting with rage. "If any of you fellows come messing +round with my wife he'd better look out."</p> + +<p>"Who do you think wants to mess around with your wife?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not such a fool as you think. I can see a stone wall in front of me +as well as most men, and I warn you straight, that's all. I'm not going +to put up with any hanky-panky, not on your life."</p> + +<p>"Look here, you'd better clear out of here, and come back when you're +sober."</p> + +<p>"I shall clear out when I choose and not a minute before," said Lawson.</p> + +<p>It was an unfortunate boast, for Chaplin in the course of his experience +as a hotel-keeper had acquired a peculiar skill in dealing with +gentlemen whose room he preferred to their company, and the words were +hardly out of Lawson's mouth before he found himself caught by the +collar and arm and hustled not without force into the street. He +stumbled down the steps into the blinding glare of the sun.</p> + +<p>It was in consequence of this that he had his first violent scene with +Ethel. Smarting with humiliation and unwilling to go back to the hotel, +he went home that afternoon earlier than usual. He found Ethel dressing +to go out. As a rule she lay about in a Mother Hubbard, barefoot, with +a flower in her dark hair; but now, in white silk stockings and +high-heeled shoes, she was doing up a pink muslin dress which was the +newest she had.</p> + +<p>"You're making yourself very smart," he said. "Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to the Crossleys."</p> + +<p>"I'll come with you."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she asked coolly.</p> + +<p>"I don't want you to gad about by yourself all the time."</p> + +<p>"You're not asked."</p> + +<p>"I don't care a damn about that. You're not going without me."</p> + +<p>"You'd better lie down till I'm ready."</p> + +<p>She thought he was drunk and if he once settled himself on the bed would +quickly drop off to sleep. He sat down on a chair and began to smoke a +cigarette. She watched him with increasing irritation: When she was +ready he got up. It happened by an unusual chance that there was no one +in the bungalow. Brevald was working on the plantation and his wife had +gone into Apia. Ethel faced him.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going with you. You're drunk."</p> + +<p>"That's a lie. You're not going without me."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders and tried to pass him, but he caught her by +the arm and held her.</p> + +<p>"Let me go, you devil," she said, breaking into Samoan.</p> + +<p>"Why do you want to go without me? Haven't I told you I'm not going to +put up with any monkey tricks?"</p> + +<p>She clenched her fist and hit him in the face. He lost all control of +himself. All his love, all his hatred, welled up in him and he was +beside himself.</p> + +<p>"I'll teach you," he shouted. "I'll teach you."</p> + +<p>He seized a riding-whip which happened to be under his hand, and struck +her with it. She screamed, and the scream maddened him so that he went +on striking her, again and again. Her shrieks rang through the bungalow +and he cursed her as he hit. Then he flung her on the bed. She lay there +sobbing with pain and terror. He threw the whip away from him and rushed +out of the room. Ethel heard him go and she stopped crying. She looked +round cautiously, then she raised herself. She was sore, but she had not +been badly hurt, and she looked at her dress to see if it was damaged. +The native women are not unused to blows. What he had done did not +outrage her. When she looked at herself in the glass and arranged her +hair, her eyes were shining. There was a strange look in them. Perhaps +then she was nearer loving him than she had ever been before.</p> + +<p>But Lawson, driven forth blindly, stumbled through the plantation and +suddenly exhausted, weak as a child, flung himself on the ground at the +foot of a tree. He was miserable and ashamed. He thought of Ethel, and +in the yielding tenderness of his love all his bones seemed to grow soft +within him. He thought of the past, and of his hopes, and he was aghast +at what he had done. He wanted her more than ever. He wanted to take her +in his arms. He must go to her at once. He got up. He was so weak that +he staggered as he walked. He went into the house and she was sitting in +their cramped bedroom in front of her looking-glass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ethel, forgive me. I'm so awfully ashamed of myself. I didn't know +what I was doing."</p> + +<p>He fell on his knees before her and timidly stroked the skirt of her +dress.</p> + +<p>"I can't bear to think of what I did. It's awful. I think I was mad. +There's no one in the world I love as I love you. I'd do anything to +save you from pain and I've hurt you. I can never forgive myself, but +for God's sake say you forgive me."</p> + +<p>He heard her shrieks still. It was unendurable. She looked at him +silently. He tried to take her hands and the tears streamed from his +eyes. In his humiliation he hid his face in her lap and his frail body +shook with sobs. An expression of utter contempt came over her face. She +had the native woman's disdain of a man who abased himself before a +woman. A weak creature! And for a moment she had been on the point of +thinking there was something in him. He grovelled at her feet like a +cur. She gave him a little scornful kick.</p> + +<p>"Get out," she said. "I hate you."</p> + +<p>He tried to hold her, but she pushed him aside. She stood up. She began +to take off her dress. She kicked off her shoes and slid the stockings +off her feet, then she slipped on her old Mother Hubbard.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"What's that got to do with you? I'm going down to the pool."</p> + +<p>"Let me come too," he said.</p> + +<p>He asked as though he were a child.</p> + +<p>"Can't you even leave me that?"</p> + +<p>He hid his face in his hands, crying miserably, while she, her eyes hard +and cold, stepped past him and went out.</p> + +<p>From that time she entirely despised him; and though, herded together in +the small bungalow, Lawson and Ethel with her two children, Brevald, his +wife and her mother, and the vague relations and hangers-on who were +always in and about, they had to live cheek by jowl, Lawson, ceasing to +be of any account, was hardly noticed. He left in the morning after +breakfast, and came back only to have supper. He gave up the struggle, +and when for want of money he could not go to the English Club he spent +the evening playing hearts with old Brevald and the natives. Except when +he was drunk he was cowed and listless. Ethel treated him like a dog. +She submitted at times to his fits of wild passion, and she was +frightened by the gusts of hatred with which they were followed; but +when, afterwards, he was cringing and lachrymose she had such a contempt +for him that she could have spat in his face. Sometimes he was violent, +but now she was prepared for him, and when he hit her she kicked and +scratched and bit. They had horrible battles in which he had not always +the best of it. Very soon it was known all over Apia that they got on +badly. There was little sympathy for Lawson, and at the hotel the +general surprise was that old Brevald did not kick him out of the +place.</p> + +<p>"Brevald's a pretty ugly customer," said one of the men. "I shouldn't be +surprised if he put a bullet into Lawson's carcass one of these days."</p> + +<p>Ethel still went in the evenings to bathe in the silent pool. It seemed +to have an attraction for her that was not quite human, just that +attraction you might imagine that a mermaid who had won a soul would +have for the cool salt waves of the sea; and sometimes Lawson went also. +I do not know what urged him to go, for Ethel was obviously irritated by +his presence; perhaps it was because in that spot he hoped to regain the +clean rapture which had filled his heart when first he saw her; perhaps +only, with the madness of those who love them that love them not, from +the feeling that his obstinacy could force love. One day he strolled +down there with a feeling that was rare with him now. He felt suddenly +at peace with the world. The evening was drawing in and the dusk seemed +to cling to the leaves of the coconut trees like a little thin cloud. A +faint breeze stirred them noiselessly. A crescent moon hung just over +their tops. He made his way to the bank. He saw Ethel in the water +floating on her back. Her hair streamed out all round her, and she was +holding in her hand a large hibiscus. He stopped a moment to admire her; +she was like Ophelia.</p> + +<p>"Hulloa, Ethel," he cried joyfully.</p> + +<p>She made a sudden movement and dropped the red flower. It floated idly +away. She swam a stroke or two till she knew there was ground within her +depth and then stood up.</p> + +<p>"Go away," she said. "Go away."</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Don't be selfish. There's plenty of room for both of us."</p> + +<p>"Why can't you leave me alone? I want to be by myself."</p> + +<p>"Hang it all, I want to bathe," he answered, good-humouredly.</p> + +<p>"Go down to the bridge. I don't want you here."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for that," he said, smiling still.</p> + +<p>He was not in the least angry, and he hardly noticed that she was in a +passion. He began to take off his coat.</p> + +<p>"Go away," she shrieked. "I won't have you here. Can't you even leave me +this? Go away."</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly, darling."</p> + +<p>She bent down and picked up a sharp stone and flung it quickly at him. +He had no time to duck. It hit him on the temple. With a cry he put his +hand to his head and when he took it away it was wet with blood. Ethel +stood still, panting with rage. He turned very pale, and without a word, +taking up his coat, went away. Ethel let herself fall back into the +water and the stream carried her slowly down to the ford.</p> + +<p>The stone had made a jagged wound and for some days Lawson went about +with a bandaged head. He had invented a likely story to account for the +accident when the fellows at the club asked him about it, but he had no +occasion to use it. No one referred to the matter. He saw them cast +surreptitious glances at his head, but not a word was said. The silence +could only mean that they knew how he came by his wound. He was certain +now that Ethel had a lover, and they all knew who it was. But there was +not the smallest indication to guide him. He never saw Ethel with +anyone; no one showed a wish to be with her, or treated him in a manner +that seemed strange. Wild rage seized him, and having no one to vent it +on he drank more and more heavily. A little while before I came to the +island he had had another attack of <i>delirium tremens</i>.</p> + +<p>I met Ethel at the house of a man called Caster, who lived two or three +miles from Apia with a native wife. I had been playing tennis with him +and when we were tired he suggested a cup of tea. We went into the house +and in the untidy living-room found Ethel chatting with Mrs Caster.</p> + +<p>"Hulloa, Ethel," he said, "I didn't know you were here."</p> + +<p>I could not help looking at her with curiosity. I tried to see what +there was in her to have excited in Lawson such a devastating passion. +But who can explain these things? It was true that she was lovely; she +reminded one of the red hibiscus, the common flower of the hedgerow in +Samoa, with its grace and its languor and its passion; but what +surprised me most, taking into consideration the story I knew even then +a good deal of, was her freshness and simplicity. She was quiet and a +little shy. There was nothing coarse or loud about her; she had not the +exuberance common to the half-caste; and it was almost impossible to +believe that she could be the virago that the horrible scenes between +husband and wife, which were now common knowledge, indicated. In her +pretty pink frock and high-heeled shoes she looked quite European. You +could hardly have guessed at that dark background of native life in +which she felt herself so much more at home. I did not imagine that she +was at all intelligent, and I should not have been surprised if a man, +after living with her for some time, had found the passion which had +drawn him to her sink into boredom. It suggested itself to me that in +her elusiveness, like a thought that presents itself to consciousness +and vanishes before it can be captured by words, lay her peculiar charm; +but perhaps that was merely fancy, and if I had known nothing about her +I should have seen in her only a pretty little half-caste like another.</p> + +<p>She talked to me of the various things which they talk of to the +stranger in Samoa, of the journey, and whether I had slid down the water +rock at Papaseea, and if I meant to stay in a native village. She talked +to me of Scotland, and perhaps I noticed in her a tendency to enlarge on +the sumptuousness of her establishment there. She asked me naïvely if I +knew Mrs This and Mrs That, with whom she had been acquainted when she +lived in the north.</p> + +<p>Then Miller, the fat German-American, came in. He shook hands all round +very cordially and sat down, asking in his loud, cheerful voice for a +whisky and soda. He was very fat and he sweated profusely. He took off +his gold-rimmed spectacles and wiped them; you saw then that his little +eyes, benevolent behind the large round glasses, were shrewd and +cunning; the party had been somewhat dull till he came, but he was a +good story-teller and a jovial fellow. Soon he had the two women, Ethel +and my friend's wife, laughing delightedly at his sallies. He had a +reputation on the island of a lady's man, and you could see how this +fat, gross fellow, old and ugly, had yet the possibility of fascination. +His humour was on a level with the understanding of his company, an +affair of vitality and assurance, and his Western accent gave a peculiar +point to what he said. At last he turned to me:</p> + +<p>"Well, if we want to get back for dinner we'd better be getting. I'll +take you along in my machine if you like."</p> + +<p>I thanked him and got up. He shook hands with the others, went out of +the room, massive and strong in his walk, and climbed into his car.</p> + +<p>"Pretty little thing, Lawson's wife," I said, as we drove along.</p> + +<p>"Too bad the way he treats her. Knocks her about. Gets my dander up when +I hear of a man hitting a woman."</p> + +<p>We went on a little. Then he said:</p> + +<p>"He was a darned fool to marry her. I said so at the time. If he hadn't, +he'd have had the whip hand over her. He's yaller, that's what he is, +yaller."</p> + +<p>The year was drawing to its end and the time approached when I was to +leave Samoa. My boat was scheduled to sail for Sydney on the fourth of +January. Christmas Day had been celebrated at the hotel with suitable +ceremonies, but it was looked upon as no more than a rehearsal for New +Year, and the men who were accustomed to foregather in the lounge +determined on New Year's Eve to make a night of it. There was an +uproarious dinner, after which the party sauntered down to the English +Club, a simple little frame house, to play pool. There was a great deal +of talking, laughing, and betting, but some very poor play, except on +the part of Miller, who had drunk as much as any of them, all far +younger than he, but had kept unimpaired the keenness of his eye and the +sureness of his hand. He pocketed the young men's money with humour and +urbanity. After an hour of this I grew tired and went out. I crossed the +road and came on to the beach. Three coconut trees grew there, like +three moon maidens waiting for their lovers to ride out of the sea, and +I sat at the foot of one of them, watching the lagoon and the nightly +assemblage of the stars.</p> + +<p>I do not know where Lawson had been during the evening, but between ten +and eleven he came along to the club. He shambled down the dusty, empty +road, feeling dull and bored, and when he reached the club, before going +into the billiard-room, went into the bar to have a drink by himself. He +had a shyness now about joining the company of white men when there were +a lot of them together and needed a stiff dose of whisky to give him +confidence. He was standing with the glass in his hand when Miller came +in to him. He was in his shirt sleeves and still held his cue. He gave +the bar-tender a glance.</p> + +<p>"Get out, Jack," he said.</p> + +<p>The bar-tender, a native in a white jacket and a red <i>lava-lava</i>, +without a word slid out of the small room.</p> + +<p>"Look here, I've been wanting to have a few words with you, Lawson," +said the big American.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's one of the few things you can have free, gratis, and for +nothing on this damned island."</p> + +<p>Miller fixed his gold spectacles more firmly on his nose and held Lawson +with his cold determined eyes.</p> + +<p>"See here, young fellow, I understand you've been knocking Mrs Lawson +about again. I'm not going to stand for that. If you don't stop it right +now I'll break every bone of your dirty little body."</p> + +<p>Then Lawson knew what he had been trying to find out so long. It was +Miller. The appearance of the man, fat, bald-headed, with his round bare +face and double chin and the gold spectacles, his age, his benign, +shrewd look, like that of a renegade priest, and the thought of Ethel, +so slim and virginal, filled him with a sudden horror. Whatever his +faults Lawson was no coward, and without a word he hit out violently at +Miller. Miller quickly warded the blow with the hand that held the cue, +and then with a great swing of his right arm brought his fist down on +Lawson's ear. Lawson was four inches shorter than the American and he +was slightly built, frail and weakened not only by illness and the +enervating tropics, but by drink. He fell like a log and lay half dazed +at the foot of the bar. Miller took off his spectacles and wiped them +with his handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"I guess you know what to expect now. You've had your warning and you'd +better take it."</p> + +<p>He took up his cue and went back into the billiard-room. There was so +much noise there that no one knew what had happened. Lawson picked +himself up. He put his hand to his ear, which was singing still. Then he +slunk out of the club.</p> + +<p>I saw a man cross the road, a patch of white against the darkness of the +night, but did not know who it was. He came down to the beach, passed me +sitting at the foot of the tree, and looked down. I saw then that it was +Lawson, but since he was doubtless drunk, did not speak. He went on, +walked irresolutely two or three steps, and turned back. He came up to +me and bending down stared in my face.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was you," he said.</p> + +<p>He sat down and took out his pipe.</p> + +<p>"It was hot and noisy in the club," I volunteered.</p> + +<p>"Why are you sitting here?"</p> + +<p>"I was waiting about for the midnight mass at the Cathedral."</p> + +<p>"If you like I'll come with you."</p> + +<p>Lawson was quite sober. We sat for a while smoking in silence. Now and +then in the lagoon was the splash of some big fish, and a little way out +towards the opening in the reef was the light of a schooner.</p> + +<p>"You're sailing next week, aren't you?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"It would be jolly to go home once more. But I could never stand it now. +The cold, you know."</p> + +<p>"It's odd to think that in England now they're shivering round the +fire," I said.</p> + +<p>There was not even a breath of wind. The balminess of the night was like +a spell. I wore nothing but a thin shirt and a suit of ducks. I enjoyed +the exquisite languor of the night, and stretched my limbs voluptuously.</p> + +<p>"This isn't the sort of New Year's Eve that persuades one to make good +resolutions for the future," I smiled.</p> + +<p>He made no answer, but I do not know what train of thought my casual +remark had suggested in him, for presently he began to speak. He spoke +in a low voice, without any expression, but his accents were educated, +and it was a relief to hear him after the twang and the vulgar +intonations which for some time had wounded my ears.</p> + +<p>"I've made an awful hash of things. That's obvious, isn't it? I'm right +down at the bottom of the pit and there's no getting out for me. '<i>Black +as the pit from pole to pole.</i>'" I felt him smile as he made the +quotation. "And the strange thing is that I don't see how I went wrong."</p> + +<p>I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than +when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul. Then you see that +no one is so trivial or debased but that in him is a spark of something +to excite compassion.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be so rotten if I could see that it was all my own fault. +It's true I drink, but I shouldn't have taken to that if things had gone +differently. I wasn't really fond of liquor. I suppose I ought not to +have married Ethel. If I'd kept her it would be all right. But I did +love her so."</p> + +<p>His voice faltered.</p> + +<p>"She's not a bad lot, you know, not really. It's just rotten luck. We +might have been as happy as lords. When she bolted I suppose I ought to +have let her go, but I couldn't do that—I was dead stuck on her then; +and there was the kid."</p> + +<p>"Are you fond of the kid?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I was. There are two, you know. But they don't mean so much to me now. +You'd take them for natives anywhere. I have to talk to them in Samoan."</p> + +<p>"Is it too late for you to start fresh? Couldn't you make a dash for it +and leave the place?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't the strength. I'm done for."</p> + +<p>"Are you still in love with your wife?"</p> + +<p>"Not now. Not now." He repeated the two words with a kind of horror in +his voice. "I haven't even got that now. I'm down and out."</p> + +<p>The bells of the Cathedral were ringing.</p> + +<p>"If you really want to come to the midnight mass we'd better go along," +I said.</p> + +<p>"Come on."</p> + +<p>We got up and walked along the road. The Cathedral, all white, stood +facing the sea not without impressiveness, and beside it the Protestant +chapels had the look of meeting-houses. In the road were two or three +cars, and a great number of traps, and traps were put up against the +walls at the side. People had come from all parts of the island for the +service, and through the great open doors we saw that the place was +crowded. The high altar was all ablaze with light. There were a few +whites and a good many half-castes, but the great majority were natives. +All the men wore trousers, for the Church has decided that the +<i>lava-lava</i> is indecent. We found chairs at the back, near the open +door, and sat down. Presently, following Lawson's eyes, I saw Ethel come +in with a party of half-castes. They were all very much dressed up, the +men in high, stiff collars and shiny boots, the women in large, gay +hats. Ethel nodded and smiled to her friends as she passed up the aisle. +The service began.</p> + +<p>When it was over Lawson and I stood on one side for a while to watch the +crowd stream out, then he held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," he said. "I hope you'll have a pleasant journey home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I shall see you before I go."</p> + +<p>He sniggered.</p> + +<p>"The question is if you'll see me drunk or sober."</p> + +<p>He turned and left me. I had a recollection of those very large black +eyes, shining wildly under the shaggy brows. I paused irresolutely. I +did not feel sleepy and I thought I would at all events go along to the +club for an hour before turning in. When I got there I found the +billiard-room empty, but half-a-dozen men were sitting round a table in +the lounge, playing poker. Miller looked up as I came in.</p> + +<p>"Sit down and take a hand," he said.</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>I bought some chips and began to play. Of course it is the most +fascinating game in the world and my hour lengthened out to two, and +then to three. The native bar-tender, cheery and wide-awake +notwithstanding the time, was at our elbow to supply us with drinks and +from somewhere or other he produced a ham and a loaf of bread. We played +on. Most of the party had drunk more than was good for them and the play +was high and reckless. I played modestly, neither wishing to win nor +anxious to lose, but I watched Miller with a fascinated interest. He +drank glass for glass with the rest of the company, but remained cool +and level-headed. His pile of chips increased in size and he had a neat +little paper in front of him on which he had marked various sums lent to +players in distress. He beamed amiably at the young men whose money he +was taking. He kept up interminably his stream of jest and anecdote, but +he never missed a draw, he never let an expression of the face pass him. +At last the dawn crept into the windows, gently, with a sort of +deprecating shyness, as though it had no business there, and then it was +day.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Miller, "I reckon we've seen the old year out in style. Now +let's have a round of jackpots and me for my mosquito net. I'm fifty, +remember, I can't keep these late hours."</p> + +<p>The morning was beautiful and fresh when we stood on the verandah, and +the lagoon was like a sheet of multicoloured glass. Someone suggested a +dip before going to bed, but none cared to bathe in the lagoon, sticky +and treacherous to the feet. Miller had his car at the door and he +offered to take us down to the pool. We jumped in and drove along the +deserted road. When we reached the pool it seemed as though the day had +hardly risen there yet. Under the trees the water was all in shadow and +the night had the effect of lurking still. We were in great spirits. We +had no towels or any costume and in my prudence I wondered how we were +going to dry ourselves. None of us had much on and it did not take us +long to snatch off our clothes. Nelson, the little supercargo, was +stripped first.</p> + +<p>"I'm going down to the bottom," he said.</p> + +<p>He dived and in a moment another man dived too, but shallow, and was out +of the water before him. Then Nelson came up and scrambled to the side.</p> + +<p>"I say, get me out," he said.</p> + +<p>"What's up?"</p> + +<p>Something was evidently the matter. His face was terrified. Two fellows +gave him their hands and he slithered up.</p> + +<p>"I say, there's a man down there."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool. You're drunk."</p> + +<p>"Well, if there isn't I'm in for D. T's. But I tell you there's a man +down there. It just scared me out of my wits."</p> + +<p>Miller looked at him for a moment. The little man was all white. He was +actually trembling.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Caster," said Miller to the big Australian, "we'd better go +down and see."</p> + +<p>"He was standing up," said Nelson, "all dressed. I saw him. He tried to +catch hold of me."</p> + +<p>"Hold your row," said Miller. "Are you ready?"</p> + +<p>They dived in. We waited on the bank, silent. It really seemed as though +they were under water longer than any men could breathe. Then Caster +came up, and immediately after him, red in the face as though he were +going to have a fit, Miller. They were pulling something behind them. +Another man jumped in to help them, and the three together dragged their +burden to the side. They shoved it up. Then we saw that it was Lawson, +with a great stone tied up in his coat and bound to his feet.</p> + +<p>"He was set on making a good job of it," said Miller, as he wiped the +water from his shortsighted eyes.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>Honolulu</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">T</span>HE +wise traveller travels only in imagination. An old Frenchman (he was +really a Savoyard) once wrote a book called <i>Voyage autour de ma +Chambre</i>. I have not read it and do not even know what it is about, but +the title stimulates my fancy. In such a journey I could circumnavigate +the globe. An eikon by the chimneypiece can take me to Russia with its +great forests of birch and its white, domed churches. The Volga is wide, +and at the end of a straggling village, in the wine-shop, bearded men in +rough sheepskin coats sit drinking. I stand on the little hill from +which Napoleon first saw Moscow and I look upon the vastness of the +city. I will go down and see the people whom I know more intimately than +so many of my friends, Alyosha, and Vronsky, and a dozen more. But my +eyes fall on a piece of porcelain and I smell the acrid odours of China. +I am borne in a chair along a narrow causeway between the padi fields, +or else I skirt a tree-clad mountain. My bearers chat gaily as they +trudge along in the bright morning and every now and then, distant and +mysterious, I hear the deep sound of a monastery bell. In the streets of +Peking there is a motley crowd and it scatters to allow passage to a +string of camels, stepping delicately, that bring skins and strange +drugs from the stony deserts of Mongolia. In England, in London, there +are certain afternoons in winter when the clouds hang heavy and low and +the light is so bleak that your heart sinks, but then you can look out +of your window, and you see the coconut trees crowded upon the beach of +a coral island. The sand is silvery and when you walk along in the +sunshine it is so dazzling that you can hardly bear to look at it. +Overhead the mynah birds are making a great to-do, and the surf beats +ceaselessly against the reef. Those are the best journeys, the journeys +that you take at your own fireside, for then you lose none of your +illusions.</p> + +<p>But there are people who take salt in their coffee. They say it gives it +a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way +there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the +inevitable disillusionment which you must experience on seeing them +gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and +you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that +beauty can give you. It is like the weakness in the character of a great +man which may make him less admirable but certainly makes him more +interesting.</p> + +<p>Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu. It is so far away from Europe, it +is reached after so long a journey from San Francisco, so strange and so +charming associations are attached to the name, that at first I could +hardly believe my eyes. I do not know that I had formed in my mind any +very exact picture of what I expected, but what I found caused me a +great surprise. It is a typical western city. Shacks are cheek by jowl +with stone mansions; dilapidated frame houses stand next door to smart +stores with plate glass windows; electric cars rumble noisily along the +streets; and motors, Fords, Buicks, Packards, line the pavement. The +shops are filled with all the necessities of American civilisation. +Every third house is a bank and every fifth the agency of a steamship +company.</p> + +<p>Along the streets crowd an unimaginable assortment of people. The +Americans, ignoring the climate, wear black coats and high, starched +collars, straw hats, soft hats, and bowlers. The Kanakas, pale brown, +with crisp hair, have nothing on but a shirt and a pair of trousers; but +the half-breeds are very smart with flaring ties and patent-leather +boots. The Japanese, with their obsequious smile, are neat and trim in +white duck, while their women walk a step or two behind them, in native +dress, with a baby on their backs. The Japanese children, in bright +coloured frocks, their little heads shaven, look like quaint dolls. Then +there are the Chinese. The men, fat and prosperous, wear their American +clothes oddly, but the women are enchanting with their tightly-dressed +black hair, so neat that you feel it can never be disarranged, and they +are very clean in their tunics and trousers, white, or powder blue, or +black. Lastly there are the Filipinos, the men in huge straw hats, the +women in bright yellow muslin with great puffed sleeves.</p> + +<p>It is the meeting-place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders +with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you +expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these +strange people live close to each other, with different languages and +different thoughts; they believe in different gods and they have +different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And +somehow as you watch them you have an impression of extraordinary +vitality. Though the air is so soft and the sky so blue, you have, I +know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a +throbbing pulse through the crowd. Though the native policeman at the +corner, standing on a platform, with a white club to direct the traffic, +gives the scene an air of respectability, you cannot but feel that it is +a respectability only of the surface; a little below there is darkness +and mystery. It gives you just that thrill, with a little catch at the +heart, that you have when at night in the forest the silence trembles on +a sudden with the low, insistent beating of a drum. You are all +expectant of I know not what.</p> + +<p>If I have dwelt on the incongruity of Honolulu, it is because just this, +to my mind, gives its point to the story I want to tell. It is a story +of primitive superstition, and it startles me that anything of the sort +should survive in a civilisation which, if not very distinguished, is +certainly very elaborate. I cannot get over the fact that such +incredible things should happen, or at least be thought to happen, right +in the middle, so to speak, of telephones, tram-cars, and daily papers. +And the friend who showed me Honolulu had the same incongruity which I +felt from the beginning was its most striking characteristic.</p> + +<p>He was an American named Winter and I had brought a letter of +introduction to him from an acquaintance in New York. He was a man +between forty and fifty, with scanty black hair, grey at the temples, +and a sharp-featured, thin face. His eyes had a twinkle in them and his +large horn spectacles gave him a demureness which was not a little +diverting. He was tall rather than otherwise and very spare. He was born +in Honolulu and his father had a large store which sold hosiery and all +such goods, from tennis racquets to tarpaulins, as a man of fashion +could require. It was a prosperous business and I could well understand +the indignation of Winter <i>père</i> when his son, refusing to go into it, +had announced his determination to be an actor. My friend spent twenty +years on the stage, sometimes in New York, but more often on the road, +for his gifts were small; but at last, being no fool, he came to the +conclusion that it was better to sell sock-suspenders in Honolulu than +to play small parts in Cleveland, Ohio. He left the stage and went into +the business. I think after the hazardous existence he had lived so +long, he thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of driving a large car and living +in a beautiful house near the golf-course, and I am quite sure, since he +was a man of parts, he managed the business competently. But he could +not bring himself entirely to break his connection with the arts and +since he might no longer act he began to paint. He took me to his studio +and showed me his work. It was not at all bad, but not what I should +have expected from him. He painted nothing but still life, very small +pictures, perhaps eight by ten; and he painted very delicately, with the +utmost finish. He had evidently a passion for detail. His fruit pieces +reminded you of the fruit in a picture by Ghirlandajo. While you +marvelled a little at his patience, you could not help being impressed +by his dexterity. I imagine that he failed as an actor because his +effects, carefully studied, were neither bold nor broad enough to get +across the footlights.</p> + +<p>I was entertained by the proprietary, yet ironical air with which he +showed me the city. He thought in his heart that there was none in the +United States to equal it, but he saw quite clearly that his attitude +was comic. He drove me round to the various buildings and swelled with +satisfaction when I expressed a proper admiration for their +architecture. He showed me the houses of rich men.</p> + +<p>"That's the Stubbs' house," he said. "It cost a hundred thousand dollars +to build. The Stubbs are one of our best families. Old man Stubbs came +here as a missionary more than seventy years ago."</p> + +<p>He hesitated a little and looked at me with twinkling eyes through his +big round spectacles.</p> + +<p>"All our best families are missionary families," he said. "You're not +very much in Honolulu unless your father or your grandfather converted +the heathen."</p> + +<p>"Is that so?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know your Bible?"</p> + +<p>"Fairly," I answered.</p> + +<p>"There is a text which says: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the +children's teeth are set on edge. I guess it runs differently in +Honolulu. The fathers brought Christianity to the Kanaka and the +children jumped his land."</p> + +<p>"Heaven helps those who help themselves," I murmured.</p> + +<p>"It surely does. By the time the natives of this island had embraced +Christianity they had nothing else they could afford to embrace. The +kings gave the missionaries land as a mark of esteem, and the +missionaries bought land by way of laying up treasure in heaven. It +surely was a good investment. One missionary left the business—I think +one may call it a business without offence—and became a land agent, but +that is an exception. Mostly it was their sons who looked after the +commercial side of the concern. Oh, it's a fine thing to have a father +who came here fifty years ago to spread the faith."</p> + +<p>But he looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"Gee, it's stopped. That means it's time to have a cocktail."</p> + +<p>We sped along an excellent road, bordered with red hibiscus, and came +back into the town.</p> + +<p>"Have you been to the Union Saloon?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet."</p> + +<p>"We'll go there."</p> + +<p>I knew it was the most famous spot in Honolulu and I entered it with a +lively curiosity. You get to it by a narrow passage from King Street, +and in the passage are offices, so that thirsty souls may be supposed +bound for one of these just as well as for the saloon. It is a large +square room, with three entrances, and opposite the bar, which runs the +length of it, two corners have been partitioned off into little +cubicles. Legend states that they were built so that King Kalakaua might +drink there without being seen by his subjects, and it is pleasant to +think that in one or other of these he may have sat over his bottle, a +coal-black potentate, with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is a portrait +of him, in oils, in a rich gold frame; but there are also two prints of +Queen Victoria. On the walls, besides, are old line engravings of the +eighteenth century, one of which, and heaven knows how it got there, is +after a theatrical picture by De Wilde; and there are oleographs from +the Christmas supplements of the <i>Graphic</i> and the <i>Illustrated London +News</i> of twenty years ago. Then there are advertisements of whisky, gin, +champagne, and beer; and photographs of baseball teams and of native +orchestras.</p> + +<p>The place seemed to belong not to the modern, hustling world that I had +left in the bright street outside, but to one that was dying. It had the +savour of the day before yesterday. Dingy and dimly lit, it had a +vaguely mysterious air and you could imagine that it would be a fit +scene for shady transactions. It suggested a more lurid time, when +ruthless men carried their lives in their hands, and violent deeds +diapered the monotony of life.</p> + +<p>When I went in the saloon was fairly full. A group of business men stood +together at the bar, discussing affairs, and in a corner two Kanakas +were drinking. Two or three men who might have been store-keepers were +shaking dice. The rest of the company plainly followed the sea; they +were captains of tramps, first mates, and engineers. Behind the bar, +busily making the Honolulu cocktail for which the place was famous, +served two large half-castes, in white, fat, clean-shaven and dark +skinned, with thick, curly hair and large bright eyes.</p> + +<p>Winter seemed to know more than half the company, and when we made our +way to the bar a little fat man in spectacles, who was standing by +himself, offered him a drink.</p> + +<p>"No, you have one with me, Captain," said Winter.</p> + +<p>He turned to me.</p> + +<p>"I want you to know Captain Butler."</p> + +<p>The little man shook hands with me. We began to talk, but, my attention +distracted by my surroundings, I took small notice of him, and after we +had each ordered a cocktail we separated. When we had got into the motor +again and were driving away, Winter said to me:</p> + +<p>"I'm glad we ran up against Butler. I wanted you to meet him. What did +you think of him?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I thought very much of him at all," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe in the supernatural?"</p> + +<p>"I don't exactly know that I do," I smiled.</p> + +<p>"A very queer thing happened to him a year or two ago. You ought to have +him tell you about it."</p> + +<p>"What sort of thing?"</p> + +<p>Winter did not answer my question.</p> + +<p>"I have no explanation of it myself," he said. "But there's no doubt +about the facts. Are you interested in things like that?"</p> + +<p>"Things like what?"</p> + +<p>"Spells and magic and all that."</p> + +<p>"I've never met anyone who wasn't."</p> + +<p>Winter paused for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I guess I won't tell you myself. You ought to hear it from his own lips +so that you can judge. How are you fixed up for to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I've got nothing on at all."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll get hold of him between now and then and see if we can't go +down to his ship."</p> + +<p>Winter told me something about him. Captain Butler had spent all his +life on the Pacific. He had been in much better circumstances than he +was now, for he had been first officer and then captain of a +passenger-boat plying along the coast of California, but he had lost his +ship and a number of passengers had been drowned.</p> + +<p>"Drink, I guess," said Winter.</p> + +<p>Of course there had been an enquiry, which had cost him his certificate, +and then he drifted further afield. For some years he had knocked about +the South Seas, but he was now in command of a small schooner which +sailed between Honolulu and the various islands of the group. It +belonged to a Chinese to whom the fact that his skipper had no +certificate meant only that he could be had for lower wages, and to have +a white man in charge was always an advantage.</p> + +<p>And now that I had heard this about him I took the trouble to remember +more exactly what he was like. I recalled his round spectacles and the +round blue eyes behind them, and so gradually reconstructed him before +my mind. He was a little man, without angles, plump, with a round face +like the full moon and a little fat round nose. He had fair short hair, +and he was red-faced and clean shaven. He had plump hands, dimpled on +the knuckles, and short fat legs. He was a jolly soul, and the tragic +experience he had gone through seemed to have left him unscarred. Though +he must have been thirty-four or thirty-five he looked much younger. But +after all I had given him but a superficial attention, and now that I +knew of this catastrophe, which had obviously ruined his life, I +promised myself that when I saw him again I would take more careful note +of him. It is very curious to observe the differences of emotional +response that you find in different people. Some can go through terrific +battles, the fear of imminent death and unimaginable horrors, and +preserve their soul unscathed, while with others the trembling of the +moon on a solitary sea or the song of a bird in a thicket will cause a +convulsion great enough to transform their entire being. Is it due to +strength or weakness, want of imagination or instability of character? I +do not know. When I called up in my fancy that scene of shipwreck, with +the shrieks of the drowning and the terror, and then later, the ordeal +of the enquiry, the bitter grief of those who sorrowed for the lost, and +the harsh things he must have read of himself in the papers, the shame +and the disgrace, it came to me with a shock to remember that Captain +Butler had talked with the frank obscenity of a schoolboy of the +Hawaiian girls and of Ewelei, the Red Light district, and of his +successful adventures. He laughed readily, and one would have thought he +could never laugh again. I remembered his shining, white teeth; they +were his best feature. He began to interest me, and thinking of him and +of his gay insouciance I forgot the particular story, to hear which I +was to see him again. I wanted to see him rather to find out if I could +a little more what sort of man he was.</p> + +<p>Winter made the necessary arrangements and after dinner we went down to +the water front. The ship's boat was waiting for us and we rowed out. +The schooner was anchored some way across the harbour, not far from the +breakwater. We came alongside, and I heard the sound of a ukalele. We +clambered up the ladder.</p> + +<p>"I guess he's in the cabin," said Winter, leading the way.</p> + +<p>It was a small cabin, bedraggled and dirty, with a table against one +side and a broad bench all round upon which slept, I supposed, such +passengers as were ill-advised enough to travel in such a ship. A +petroleum lamp gave a dim light. The ukalele was being played by a +native girl and Butler was lolling on the seat, half lying, with his +head on her shoulder and an arm round her waist.</p> + +<p>"Don't let us disturb you, Captain," said Winter, facetiously.</p> + +<p>"Come right in," said Butler, getting up and shaking hands with us. +"What'll you have?"</p> + +<p>It was a warm night, and through the open door you saw countless stars +in a heaven that was still almost blue. Captain Butler wore a sleeveless +under-shirt, showing his fat white arms, and a pair of incredibly dirty +trousers. His feet were bare, but on his curly head he wore a very old, +a very shapeless felt hat.</p> + +<p>"Let me introduce you to my girl. Ain't she a peach?"</p> + +<p>We shook hands with a very pretty person. She was a good deal taller +than the captain, and even the Mother Hubbard, which the missionaries of +a past generation had, in the interests of decency, forced on the +unwilling natives, could not conceal the beauty of her form. One could +not but suspect that age would burden her with a certain corpulence, but +now she was graceful and alert. Her brown skin had an exquisite +translucency and her eyes were magnificent. Her black hair, very thick +and rich, was coiled round her head in a massive plait. When she smiled +in a greeting that was charmingly natural, she showed teeth that were +small, even, and white. She was certainly a most attractive creature. It +was easy to see that the captain was madly in love with her. He could +not take his eyes off her; he wanted to touch her all the time. That was +very easy to understand; but what seemed to me stranger was that the +girl was apparently in love with him. There was a light in her eyes that +was unmistakable, and her lips were slightly parted as though in a sigh +of desire. It was thrilling. It was even a little moving, and I could +not help feeling somewhat in the way. What had a stranger to do with +this love-sick pair? I wished that Winter had not brought me. And it +seemed to me that the dingy cabin was transfigured and now it seemed a +fit and proper scene for such an extremity of passion. I thought I +should never forget that schooner in the harbour of Honolulu, crowded +with shipping, and yet, under the immensity of the starry sky, remote +from all the world. I liked to think of those lovers sailing off +together in the night over the empty spaces of the Pacific from one +green, hilly island to another. A faint breeze of romance softly fanned +my cheek.</p> + +<p>And yet Butler was the last man in the world with whom you would have +associated romance, and it was hard to see what there was in him to +arouse love. In the clothes he wore now he looked podgier than ever, and +his round spectacles gave his round face the look of a prim cherub. He +suggested rather a curate who had gone to the dogs. His conversation was +peppered with the quaintest Americanisms, and it is because I despair of +reproducing these that, at whatever loss of vividness, I mean to narrate +the story he told me a little later in my own words. Moreover he was +unable to frame a sentence without an oath, though a good-natured one, +and his speech, albeit offensive only to prudish ears, in print would +seem coarse. He was a mirth-loving man, and perhaps that accounted not a +little for his successful amours; since women, for the most part +frivolous creatures, are excessively bored by the seriousness with +which men treat them, and they can seldom resist the buffoon who makes +them laugh. Their sense of humour is crude. Diana of Ephesus is always +prepared to fling prudence to the winds for the red-nosed comedian who +sits on his hat. I realised that Captain Butler had charm. If I had not +known the tragic story of the shipwreck I should have thought he had +never had a care in his life.</p> + +<p>Our host had rung the bell on our entrance and now a Chinese cook came +in with more glasses and several bottles of soda. The whisky and the +captain's empty glass stood already on the table. But when I saw the +Chinese I positively started, for he was certainly the ugliest man I had +ever seen. He was very short, but thick-set, and he had a bad limp. He +wore a singlet and a pair of trousers that had been white, but were now +filthy, and, perched on a shock of bristly, grey hair, an old tweed +deer-stalker. It would have been grotesque on any Chinese, but on him it +was outrageous. His broad, square face was very flat as though it had +been bashed in by a mighty fist, and it was deeply pitted with smallpox; +but the most revolting thing in him was a very pronounced harelip which +had never been operated on, so that his upper lip, cleft, went up in an +angle to his nose, and in the opening was a huge yellow fang. It was +horrible. He came in with the end of a cigarette at the corner of his +mouth, and this, I do not know why, gave him a devilish expression.</p> + +<p>He poured out the whisky and opened a bottle of soda.</p> + +<p>"Don't drown it, John," said the captain.</p> + +<p>He said nothing, but handed a glass to each of us. Then he went out.</p> + +<p>"I saw you lookin' at my Chink," said Butler, with a grin on his fat, +shining face.</p> + +<p>"I should hate to meet him on a dark night," I said.</p> + +<p>"He sure is homely," said the captain, and for some reason he seemed to +say it with a peculiar satisfaction. "But he's fine for one thing, I'll +tell the world; you just have to have a drink every time you look at +him."</p> + +<p>But my eyes fell on a calabash that hung against the wall over the +table, and I got up to look at it. I had been hunting for an old one and +this was better than any I had seen outside the museum.</p> + +<p>"It was given me by a chief over on one of the islands," said the +captain, watching me. "I done him a good turn and he wanted to give me +something good."</p> + +<p>"He certainly did," I answered.</p> + +<p>I was wondering whether I could discreetly make Captain Butler an offer +for it, I could not imagine that he set any store on such an article, +when, as though he read my thoughts, he said:</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't sell that for ten thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"I guess not," said Winter. "It would be a crime to sell it."</p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"That comes into the story," returned Winter. "Doesn't it, Captain?"</p> + +<p>"It surely does."</p> + +<p>"Let's hear it then."</p> + +<p>"The night's young yet," he answered.</p> + +<p>The night distinctly lost its youth before he satisfied my curiosity, +and meanwhile we drank a great deal too much whisky while Captain Butler +narrated his experiences of San Francisco in the old days and of the +South Seas. At last the girl fell asleep. She lay curled up on the seat, +with her face on her brown arm, and her bosom rose and fell gently with +her breathing. In sleep she looked sullen, but darkly beautiful.</p> + +<p>He had found her on one of the islands in the group among which, +whenever there was cargo to be got, he wandered with his crazy old +schooner. The Kanakas have little love for work, and the laborious +Chinese, the cunning Japs, have taken the trade out of their hands. Her +father had a strip of land on which he grew taro and bananas and he had +a boat in which he went fishing. He was vaguely related to the mate of +the schooner, and it was he who took Captain Butler up to the shabby +little frame house to spend an idle evening. They took a bottle of +whisky with them and the ukalele. The captain was not a shy man and when +he saw a pretty girl he made love to her. He could speak the native +language fluently and it was not long before he had overcome the girl's +timidity. They spent the evening singing and dancing, and by the end of +it she was sitting by his side and he had his arm round her waist. It +happened that they were delayed on the island for several days and the +captain, at no time a man to hurry, made no effort to shorten his stay. +He was very comfortable in the snug little harbour and life was long. He +had a swim round his ship in the morning and another in the evening. +There was a chandler's shop on the water front where sailormen could get +a drink of whisky, and he spent the best part of the day there, playing +cribbage with the half-caste who owned it. At night the mate and he went +up to the house where the pretty girl lived and they sang a song or two +and told stories. It was the girl's father who suggested that he should +take her away with him. They discussed the matter in a friendly fashion, +while the girl, nestling against the captain, urged him by the pressure +of her hands and her soft, smiling glances. He had taken a fancy to her +and he was a domestic man. He was a little dull sometimes at sea and it +would be very pleasant to have a pretty little creature like that about +the old ship. He was of a practical turn too, and he recognised that it +would be useful to have someone around to darn his socks and look after +his linen. He was tired of having his things washed by a Chink who tore +everything to pieces; the natives washed much better, and now and then +when the captain went ashore at Honolulu he liked to cut a dash in a +smart duck suit. It was only a matter of arranging a price. The father +wanted two hundred and fifty dollars, and the captain, never a thrifty +man, could not put his hand on such a sum. But he was a generous one, +and with the girl's soft face against his, he was not inclined to +haggle. He offered to give a hundred and fifty dollars there and then +and another hundred in three months. There was a good deal of argument +and the parties could not come to any agreement that night, but the idea +had fired the captain, and he could not sleep as well as usual. He kept +dreaming of the lovely girl and each time he awoke it was with the +pressure of her soft, sensual lips on his. He cursed himself in the +morning because a bad night at poker the last time he was at Honolulu +had left him so short of ready money. And if the night before he had +been in love with the girl, this morning he was crazy about her.</p> + +<p>"See here, Bananas," he said to the mate, "I've got to have that girl. +You go and tell the old man I'll bring the dough up to-night and she can +get fixed up. I figure we'll be ready to sail at dawn."</p> + +<p>I have no idea why the mate was known by that eccentric name. He was +called Wheeler, but though he had that English surname there was not a +drop of white blood in him. He was a tall man, and well-made though +inclined to stoutness, but much darker than is usual in Hawaii. He was +no longer young, and his crisply curling, thick hair was grey. His upper +front teeth were cased in gold. He was very proud of them. He had a +marked squint and this gave him a saturnine expression. The captain, who +was fond of a joke, found in it a constant source of humour and +hesitated the less to rally him on the defect because he realised that +the mate was sensitive about it. Bananas, unlike most of the natives, +was a taciturn fellow and Captain Butler would have disliked him if it +had been possible for a man of his good nature to dislike anyone. He +liked to be at sea with someone he could talk to, he was a chatty, +sociable creature, and it was enough to drive a missionary to drink to +live there day after day with a chap who never opened his mouth. He did +his best to wake the mate up, that is to say, he chaffed him without +mercy, but it was poor fun to laugh by oneself, and he came to the +conclusion that, drunk or sober, Bananas was no fit companion for a +white man. But he was a good seaman and the captain was shrewd enough to +know the value of a mate he could trust. It was not rare for him to come +aboard, when they were sailing, fit for nothing but to fall into his +bunk, and it was worth something to know that he could stay there till +he had slept his liquor off, since Bananas could be relied on. But he +was an unsociable devil, and it would be a treat to have someone he +could talk to. That girl would be fine. Besides, he wouldn't be so +likely to get drunk when he went ashore if he knew there was a little +girl waiting for him when he came on board again.</p> + +<p>He went to his friend the chandler and over a peg of gin asked him for a +loan. There were one or two useful things a ship's captain could do for +a ship's chandler, and after a quarter of an hour's conversation in low +tones (there is no object in letting all and sundry know your business), +the captain crammed a wad of notes in his hip-pocket, and that night, +when he went back to his ship, the girl went with him.</p> + +<p>What Captain Butler, seeking for reasons to do what he had already made +up his mind to, had anticipated, actually came to pass. He did not give +up drinking, but he ceased to drink to excess. An evening with the +boys, when he had been away from town two or three weeks, was pleasant +enough, but it was pleasant too to get back to his little girl; he +thought of her, sleeping so softly, and how, when he got into his cabin +and leaned over her, she would open her eyes lazily and stretch out her +arms for him: it was as good as a full hand. He found he was saving +money, and since he was a generous man he did the right thing by the +little girl: he gave her some silver-backed brushes for her long hair, +and a gold chain, and a reconstructed ruby for her finger. Gee, but it +was good to be alive.</p> + +<p>A year went by, a whole year, and he was not tired of her yet. He was +not a man who analysed his feelings, but this was so surprising that it +forced itself upon his attention. There must be something very wonderful +about that girl. He couldn't help seeing that he was more wrapped up in +her than ever, and sometimes the thought entered his mind that it might +not be a bad thing if he married her.</p> + +<p>Then, one day the mate did not come in to dinner or to tea. Butler did +not bother himself about his absence at the first meal, but at the +second he asked the Chinese cook:</p> + +<p>"Where's the mate? He no come tea?"</p> + +<p>"No wantchee," said the Chink.</p> + +<p>"He ain't sick?"</p> + +<p>"No savvy."</p> + +<p>Next day Bananas turned up again, but he was more sullen than ever, and +after dinner the captain asked the girl what was the matter with him. +She smiled and shrugged her pretty shoulders. She told the captain that +Bananas had taken a fancy to her and he was sore because she had told +him off. The captain was a good-humoured man and he was not of a jealous +nature; it struck him as exceeding funny that Bananas should be in love. +A man who had a squint like that had a precious poor chance. When tea +came round he chaffed him gaily. He pretended to speak in the air, so +that the mate should not be certain that he knew anything, but he dealt +him some pretty shrewd blows. The girl did not think him as funny as he +thought himself, and afterwards she begged him to say nothing more. He +was surprised at her seriousness. She told him he did not know her +people. When their passion was aroused they were capable of anything. +She was a little frightened. This was so absurd to him that he laughed +heartily.</p> + +<p>"If he comes bothering round you, you just threaten to tell me. That'll +fix him."</p> + +<p>"Better fire him, I think."</p> + +<p>"Not on your sweet life. I know a good sailor when I see one. But if he +don't leave you alone I'll give him the worst licking he's ever had."</p> + +<p>Perhaps the girl had a wisdom unusual in her sex. She knew that it was +useless to argue with a man when his mind was made up, for it only +increased his stubbornness, and she held her peace. And now on the +shabby schooner, threading her way across the silent sea, among those +lovely islands, was enacted a dark, tense drama of which the fat little +captain remained entirely ignorant. The girl's resistance fired Bananas +so that he ceased to be a man, but was simply blind desire. He did not +make love to her gently or gaily, but with a black and savage ferocity. +Her contempt now was changed to hatred and when he besought her she +answered him with bitter, angry taunts. But the struggle went on +silently, and when the captain asked her after a little while whether +Bananas was bothering her, she lied.</p> + +<p>But one night, when they were in Honolulu, he came on board only just in +time. They were sailing at dawn. Bananas had been ashore, drinking some +native spirit, and he was drunk. The captain, rowing up, heard sounds +that surprised him. He scrambled up the ladder. He saw Bananas, beside +himself, trying to wrench open the cabin door. He was shouting at the +girl. He swore he would kill her if she did not let him in.</p> + +<p>"What in hell are you up to?" cried Butler.</p> + +<p>The mate let go the handle, gave the captain a look of savage hate, and +without a word turned away.</p> + +<p>"Stop here. What are you doing with that door?"</p> + +<p>The mate still did not answer. He looked at him with sullen, bootless +rage.</p> + +<p>"I'll teach you not to pull any of your queer stuff with me, you dirty, +cross-eyed nigger," said the captain.</p> + +<p>He was a good foot shorter than the mate and no match for him, but he +was used to dealing with native crews, and he had his knuckle-duster +handy. Perhaps it was not an instrument that a gentleman would use, but +then Captain Butler was not a gentleman. Nor was he in the habit of +dealing with gentlemen. Before Bananas knew what the captain was at, his +right arm had shot out and his fist, with its ring of steel, caught him +fair and square on the jaw. He fell like a bull under the pole-axe.</p> + +<p>"That'll learn him," said the captain.</p> + +<p>Bananas did not stir. The girl unlocked the cabin door and came out.</p> + +<p>"Is he dead?"</p> + +<p>"He ain't."</p> + +<p>He called a couple of men and told them to carry the mate to his bunk. +He rubbed his hands with satisfaction and his round blue eyes gleamed +behind his spectacles. But the girl was strangely silent. She put her +arms round him as though to protect him from invisible harm.</p> + +<p>It was two or three days before Bananas was on his feet again, and when +he came out of his cabin his face was torn and swollen. Through the +darkness of his skin you saw the livid bruise. Butler saw him slinking +along the deck and called him. The mate went to him without a word.</p> + +<p>"See here, Bananas," he said to him, fixing his spectacles on his +slippery nose, for it was very hot. "I ain't going to fire you for this, +but you know now that when I hit, I hit hard. Don't forget it and don't +let me have any more funny business."</p> + +<p>Then he held out his hand and gave the mate that good-humoured, flashing +smile of his which was his greatest charm. The mate took the +outstretched hand and twitched his swollen lips into a devilish grin. +The incident in the captain's mind was so completely finished that when +the three of them sat at dinner he chaffed Bananas on his appearance. He +was eating with difficulty and, his swollen face still more distorted by +pain, he looked truly a repulsive object.</p> + +<p>That evening, when he was sitting on the upper deck, smoking his pipe, a +shiver passed through the captain.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I should be shiverin' for on a night like this," he +grumbled. "Maybe I've gotten a dose of fever. I've been feelin' a bit +queer all day."</p> + +<p>When he went to bed he took some quinine, and next morning he felt +better, but a little washed out, as though he were recovering from a +debauch.</p> + +<p>"I guess my liver's out of order," he said, and he took a pill.</p> + +<p>He had not much appetite that day and towards evening he began to feel +very unwell. He tried the next remedy he knew, which was to drink two or +three hot whiskies, but that did not seem to help him much, and when in +the morning he surveyed himself in the glass he thought he was not +looking quite the thing.</p> + +<p>"If I ain't right by the time we get back to Honolulu I'll just give Dr +Denby a call. He'll sure fix me up."</p> + +<p>He could not eat. He felt a great lassitude in all his limbs. He slept +soundly enough, but he awoke with no sense of refreshment; on the +contrary he felt a peculiar exhaustion. And the energetic little man, +who could not bear the thought of lying in bed, had to make an effort to +force himself out of his bunk. After a few days he found it impossible +to resist the languor that oppressed him, and he made up his mind not to +get up.</p> + +<p>"Bananas can look after the ship," he said. "He has before now."</p> + +<p>He laughed a little to himself as he thought how often he had lain +speechless in his bunk after a night with the boys. That was before he +had his girl. He smiled at her and pressed her hand. She was puzzled and +anxious. He saw that she was concerned about him and tried to reassure +her. He had never had a day's illness in his life and in a week at the +outside he would be as right as rain.</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd fired Bananas," she said. "I've got a feeling that he's at +the bottom of this."</p> + +<p>"Damned good thing I didn't, or there'd be no one to sail the ship. I +know a good sailor when I see one." His blue eyes, rather pale now, with +the whites all yellow, twinkled. "You don't think he's trying to poison +me, little girl?"</p> + +<p>She did not answer, but she had one or two talks with the Chinese cook, +and she took great care with the captain's food. But he ate little +enough now, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that she +persuaded him to drink a cup of soup two or three times a day. It was +clear that he was very ill, he was losing weight quickly, and his chubby +face was pale and drawn. He suffered no pain, but merely grew every day +weaker and more languid. He was wasting away. The round trip on this +occasion lasted about four weeks and by the time they came to Honolulu +the captain was a little anxious about himself. He had not been out of +his bed for more than a fortnight and really he felt too weak to get up +and go to the doctor. He sent a message asking him to come on board. The +doctor examined him, but could find nothing to account for his +condition. His temperature was normal.</p> + +<p>"See here, Captain," he said, "I'll be perfectly frank with you. I don't +know what's the matter with you, and just seeing you like this don't +give me a chance. You come into the hospital so that we can keep you +under observation. There's nothing organically wrong with you, I know +that, and my impression is that a few weeks in hospital ought to put you +to rights."</p> + +<p>"I ain't going to leave my ship."</p> + +<p>Chinese owners were queer customers, he said; if he left his ship +because he was sick, his owner might fire him, and he couldn't afford to +lose his job. So long as he stayed where he was his contract +safe-guarded him, and he had a first-rate mate. Besides, he couldn't +leave his girl. No man could want a better nurse; if anyone could pull +him through she would. Every man had to die once and he only wished to +be left in peace. He would not listen to the doctor's expostulations, +and finally the doctor gave in.</p> + +<p>"I'll write you a prescription," he said doubtfully, "and see if it does +you any good. You'd better stay in bed for a while."</p> + +<p>"There ain't much fear of my getting up, doc," answered the captain. "I +feel as weak as a cat."</p> + +<p>But he believed in the doctor's prescription as little as did the doctor +himself, and when he was alone amused himself by lighting his cigar with +it. He had to get amusement out of something, for his cigar tasted like +nothing on earth, and he smoked only to persuade himself that he was not +too ill to. That evening a couple of friends of his, masters of tramp +steamers, hearing he was sick came to see him. They discussed his case +over a bottle of whisky and a box of Philippine cigars. One of them +remembered how a mate of his had been taken queer just like that and not +a doctor in the United States had been able to cure him. He had seen in +the paper an advertisement of a patent medicine, and thought there'd be +no harm in trying it. That man was as strong as ever he'd been in his +life after two bottles. But his illness had given Captain Butler a +lucidity which was new and strange, and while they talked he seemed to +read their minds. They thought he was dying. And when they left him he +was afraid.</p> + +<p>The girl saw his weakness. This was her opportunity. She had been urging +him to let a native doctor see him, and he had stoutly refused; but now +she entreated him. He listened with harassed eyes. He wavered. It was +very funny that the American doctor could not tell what was the matter +with him. But he did not want her to think that he was scared. If he let +a damned nigger come along and look at him, it was to comfort <i>her</i>. He +told her to do what she liked.</p> + +<p>The native doctor came the next night. The captain was lying alone, +half awake, and the cabin was dimly lit by an oil lamp. The door was +softly opened and the girl came in on tip-toe. She held the door open +and some one slipped in silently behind her. The captain smiled at this +mystery, but he was so weak now, the smile was no more than a glimmer in +his eyes. The doctor was a little, old man, very thin and very wrinkled, +with a completely bald head, and the face of a monkey. He was bowed and +gnarled like an old tree. He looked hardly human, but his eyes were very +bright, and in the half darkness, they seemed to glow with a reddish +light. He was dressed filthily in a pair of ragged dungarees, and the +upper part of his body was naked. He sat down on his haunches and for +ten minutes looked at the captain. Then he felt the palms of his hands +and the soles of his feet. The girl watched him with frightened eyes. No +word was spoken. Then he asked for something that the captain had worn. +The girl gave him the old felt hat which the captain used constantly and +taking it he sat down again on the floor, clasping it firmly with both +hands; and rocking backwards and forwards slowly he muttered some +gibberish in a very low tone.</p> + +<p>At last he gave a little sigh and dropped the hat. He took an old pipe +out of his trouser pocket and lit it. The girl went over to him and sat +by his side. He whispered something to her, and she started violently. +For a few minutes they talked in hurried undertones, and then they stood +up. She gave him money and opened the door for him. He slid out as +silently as he had come in. Then she went over to the captain and leaned +over him so that she could speak into his ear.</p> + +<p>"It's an enemy praying you to death."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk fool stuff, girlie," he said impatiently.</p> + +<p>"It's truth. It's God's truth. That's why the American doctor couldn't +do anything. Our people can do that. I've seen it done. I thought you +were safe because you were a white man."</p> + +<p>"I haven't an enemy."</p> + +<p>"Bananas."</p> + +<p>"What's he want to pray me to death for?"</p> + +<p>"You ought to have fired him before he had a chance."</p> + +<p>"I guess if I ain't got nothing more the matter with me than Bananas' +hoodoo I shall be sitting up and taking nourishment in a very few days."</p> + +<p>She was silent for a while and she looked at him intently.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know you're dying?" she said to him at last.</p> + +<p>That was what the two skippers had thought, but they hadn't said it. A +shiver passed across the captain's wan face.</p> + +<p>"The doctor says there ain't nothing really the matter with me. I've +only to lie quiet for a bit and I shall be all right."</p> + +<p>She put her lips to his ear as if she were afraid that the air itself +might hear.</p> + +<p>"You're dying, dying, dying. You'll pass out with the old moon."</p> + +<p>"That's something to know."</p> + +<p>"You'll pass out with the old moon unless Bananas dies before."</p> + +<p>He was not a timid man and he had recovered already from the shock her +words, and still more her vehement, silent manner, had given him. Once +more a smile flickered in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll take my chance, girlie."</p> + +<p>"There's twelve days before the new moon."</p> + +<p>There was something in her tone that gave him an idea.</p> + +<p>"See here, my girl, this is all bunk. I don't believe a word of it. But +I don't want you to try any of your monkey tricks with Bananas. He ain't +a beauty, but he's a first-rate mate."</p> + +<p>He would have said a good deal more, but he was tired out. He suddenly +felt very weak and faint. It was always at that hour that he felt worse. +He closed his eyes. The girl watched him for a minute and then slipped +out of the cabin. The moon, nearly full, made a silver pathway over the +dark sea. It shone from an unclouded sky. She looked at it with terror, +for she knew that with its death the man she loved would die. His life +was in her hands. She could save him, she alone could save him, but the +enemy was cunning, and she must be cunning too. She felt that someone +was looking at her, and without turning, by the sudden fear that seized +her, knew that from the shadow the burning eyes of the mate were fixed +upon her. She did not know what he could do; if he could read her +thoughts she was defeated already, and with a desperate effort she +emptied her mind of all content. His death alone could save her lover, +and she could bring his death about. She knew that if he could be +brought to look into a calabash in which was water so that a reflection +of him was made, and the reflection were broken by hurtling the water, +he would die as though he had been struck by lightning; for the +reflection was his soul. But none knew better than he the danger, and he +could be made to look only by a guile which had lulled his least +suspicion. He must never think that he had an enemy who was on the watch +to cause his destruction. She knew what she had to do. But the time was +short, the time was terribly short. Presently she realised that the mate +had gone. She breathed more freely.</p> + +<p>Two days later they sailed, and there were ten now before the new moon. +Captain Butler was terrible to see. He was nothing but skin and bone, +and he could not move without help. He could hardly speak. But she dared +do nothing yet. She knew that she must be patient. The mate was cunning, +cunning. They went to one of the smaller islands of the group and +discharged cargo, and now there were only seven days more. The moment +had come to start. She brought some things out of the cabin she shared +with the captain and made them into a bundle. She put the bundle in the +deck cabin where she and Bananas ate their meals, and at dinner time, +when she went in, he turned quickly and she saw that he had been looking +at it. Neither of them spoke, but she knew what he suspected. She was +making her preparations to leave the ship. He looked at her mockingly. +Gradually, as though to prevent the captain from knowing what she was +about, she brought everything she owned into the cabin, and some of the +captain's clothes, and made them all into bundles. At last Bananas could +keep silence no longer. He pointed to a suit of ducks.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do with that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I'm going back to my island."</p> + +<p>He gave a laugh that distorted his grim face. The captain was dying and +she meant to get away with all she could lay hands on.</p> + +<p>"What'll you do if I say you can't take those things? They're the +captain's."</p> + +<p>"They're no use to you," she said.</p> + +<p>There was a calabash hanging on the wall. It was the very calabash I had +seen when I came into the cabin and which we had talked about. She took +it down. It was all dusty, so she poured water into it from the +water-bottle, and rinsed it with her fingers.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing with that?"</p> + +<p>"I can sell it for fifty dollars," she said.</p> + +<p>"If you want to take it you'll have to pay me."</p> + +<p>"What d'you want?"</p> + +<p>"You know what I want."</p> + +<p>She allowed a fleeting smile to play on her lips. She flashed a quick +look at him and quickly turned away. He gave a gasp of desire. She +raised her shoulders in a little shrug. With a savage bound he sprang +upon her and seized her in his arms. Then she laughed. She put her arms, +her soft, round arms, about his neck, and surrendered herself to him +voluptuously.</p> + +<p>When the morning came she roused him out of a deep sleep. The early rays +of the sun slanted into the cabin. He pressed her to his heart. Then he +told her that the captain could not last more than a day or two, and the +owner wouldn't so easily find another white man to command the ship. If +Bananas offered to take less money he would get the job and the girl +could stay with him. He looked at her with love-sick eyes. She nestled +up against him. She kissed his lips, in the foreign way, in the way the +captain had taught her to kiss. And she promised to stay. Bananas was +drunk with happiness.</p> + +<p>It was now or never.</p> + +<p>She got up and went to the table to arrange her hair. There was no +mirror and she looked into the calabash, seeking for her reflection. She +tidied her beautiful hair. Then she beckoned to Bananas to come to her. +She pointed to the calabash.</p> + +<p>"There's something in the bottom of it," she said.</p> + +<p>Instinctively, without suspecting anything, Bananas looked full into the +water. His face was reflected in it. In a flash she beat upon it +violently, with both her hands, so that they pounded on the bottom and +the water splashed up. The reflection was broken in pieces. Bananas +started back with a sudden hoarse cry and he looked at the girl. She was +standing there with a look of triumphant hatred on her face. A horror +came into his eyes. His heavy features were twisted in agony, and with +a thud, as though he had taken a violent poison, he crumpled up on to +the ground. A great shudder passed through his body and he was still. +She leaned over him callously. She put her hand on his heart and then +she pulled down his lower eye-lid. He was quite dead.</p> + +<p>She went into the cabin in which lay Captain Butler. There was a faint +colour in his cheeks and he looked at her in a startled way.</p> + +<p>"What's happened?" he whispered.</p> + +<p>They were the first words he had spoken for forty-eight hours.</p> + +<p>"Nothing's happened," she said.</p> + +<p>"I feel all funny."</p> + +<p>Then his eyes closed and he fell asleep. He slept for a day and a night, +and when he awoke he asked for food. In a fortnight he was well.</p> + +<p>It was past midnight when Winter and I rowed back to shore and we had +drunk innumerable whiskies and sodas.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of it all?" asked Winter.</p> + +<p>"What a question! If you mean, have I any explanation to suggest, I +haven't."</p> + +<p>"The captain believes every word of it."</p> + +<p>"That's obvious; but you know that's not the part that interests me +most, whether it's true or not, and what it all means; the part that +interests me is that such things should happen to such people. I wonder +what there is in that commonplace little man to arouse such a passion in +that lovely creature. As I watched her, asleep there, while he was +telling the story I had some fantastic idea about the power of love +being able to work miracles."</p> + +<p>"But that's not the girl," said Winter.</p> + +<p>"What on earth do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you notice the cook?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I did. He's the ugliest man I ever saw."</p> + +<p>"That's why Butler took him. The girl ran away with the Chinese cook +last year. This is a new one. He's only had her there about two months."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm hanged."</p> + +<p>"He thinks this cook is safe. But I wouldn't be too sure in his place. +There's something about a Chink, when he lays himself out to please a +woman she can't resist him."</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>Rain</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">I</span>T +was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in +sight. Dr Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the +heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound +that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down +quietly at Apia for twelve months at least, and he felt already better +for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next +day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his +ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the +deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair +talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat +down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red +hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which +accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, +precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very +low, quiet voice.</p> + +<p>Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there +had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather +than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval +they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the +smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs Macphail was not +a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only +people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and +even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the +compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in +their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp.</p> + +<p>"Mrs Davidson was saying she didn't know how they'd have got through the +journey if it hadn't been for us," said Mrs Macphail, as she neatly +brushed out her transformation. "She said we were really the only people +on the ship they cared to know."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have thought a missionary was such a big bug that he could +afford to put on frills."</p> + +<p>"It's not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn't have +been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot +in the smoking-room."</p> + +<p>"The founder of their religion wasn't so exclusive," said Dr Macphail +with a chuckle.</p> + +<p>"I've asked you over and over again not to joke about religion," +answered his wife. "I shouldn't like to have a nature like yours, Alec. +You never look for the best in people."</p> + +<p>He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not +reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more +conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was +undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled +down to read himself to sleep.</p> + +<p>When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at +it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising +quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The +coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water's edge, and +among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoans; and here and there, +gleaming white, a little church. Mrs Davidson came and stood beside him. +She was dressed in black and wore round her neck a gold chain, from +which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull +hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind +invisible <i>pince-nez</i>. Her face was long, like a sheep's, but she gave +no impression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the +quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her +voice, high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a +hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the +pneumatic drill.</p> + +<p>"This must seem like home to you," said Dr Macphail, with his thin, +difficult smile.</p> + +<p>"Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are +volcanic. We've got another ten days' journey to reach them."</p> + +<p>"In these parts that's almost like being in the next street at home," +said Dr Macphail facetiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does +look at distances differently in the South Seas. So far you're right."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail sighed faintly.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad we're not stationed here," she went on. "They say this is a +terribly difficult place to work in. The steamers' touching makes the +people unsettled; and then there's the naval station; that's bad for the +natives. In our district we don't have difficulties like that to contend +with. There are one or two traders, of course, but we take care to make +them behave, and if they don't we make the place so hot for them they're +glad to go."</p> + +<p>Fixing the glasses on her nose she looked at the green island with a +ruthless stare.</p> + +<p>"It's almost a hopeless task for the missionaries here. I can never be +sufficiently thankful to God that we are at least spared that."</p> + +<p>Davidson's district consisted of a group of islands to the North of +Samoa; they were widely separated and he had frequently to go long +distances by canoe. At these times his wife remained at their +headquarters and managed the mission. Dr Macphail felt his heart sink +when he considered the efficiency with which she certainly managed it. +She spoke of the depravity of the natives in a voice which nothing could +hush, but with a vehemently unctuous horror. Her sense of delicacy was +singular. Early in their acquaintance she had said to him:</p> + +<p>"You know, their marriage customs when we first settled in the islands +were so shocking that I couldn't possibly describe them to you. But I'll +tell Mrs Macphail and she'll tell you."</p> + +<p>Then he had seen his wife and Mrs Davidson, their deck-chairs close +together, in earnest conversation for about two hours. As he walked past +them backwards and forwards for the sake of exercise, he had heard Mrs +Davidson's agitated whisper, like the distant flow of a mountain +torrent, and he saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was +enjoying an alarming experience. At night in their cabin she repeated to +him with bated breath all she had heard.</p> + +<p>"Well, what did I say to you?" cried Mrs Davidson, exultant, next +morning. "Did you ever hear anything more dreadful? You don't wonder +that I couldn't tell you myself, do you? Even though you are a doctor."</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson scanned his face. She had a dramatic eagerness to see that +she had achieved the desired effect.</p> + +<p>"Can you wonder that when we first went there our hearts sank? You'll +hardly believe me when I tell you it was impossible to find a single +good girl in any of the villages."</p> + +<p>She used the word <i>good</i> in a severely technical manner.</p> + +<p>"Mr Davidson and I talked it over, and we made up our minds the first +thing to do was to put down the dancing. The natives were crazy about +dancing."</p> + +<p>"I was not averse to it myself when I was a young man," said Dr +Macphail.</p> + +<p>"I guessed as much when I heard you ask Mrs Macphail to have a turn with +you last night. I don't think there's any real harm if a man dances +with his wife, but I was relieved that she wouldn't. Under the +circumstances I thought it better that we should keep ourselves to +ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Under what circumstances?"</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson gave him a quick look through her <i>pince-nez</i>, but did not +answer his question.</p> + +<p>"But among white people it's not quite the same," she went on, "though I +must say I agree with Mr Davidson, who says he can't understand how a +husband can stand by and see his wife in another man's arms, and as far +as I'm concerned I've never danced a step since I married. But the +native dancing is quite another matter. It's not only immoral in itself, +but it distinctly leads to immorality. However, I'm thankful to God that +we stamped it out, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that no one has +danced in our district for eight years."</p> + +<p>But now they came to the mouth of the harbour and Mrs Macphail joined +them. The ship turned sharply and steamed slowly in. It was a great +land-locked harbour big enough to hold a fleet of battleships; and all +around it rose, high and steep, the green hills. Near the entrance, +getting such breeze as blew from the sea, stood the governor's house in +a garden. The Stars and Stripes dangled languidly from a flagstaff. They +passed two or three trim bungalows, and a tennis court, and then they +came to the quay with its warehouses. Mrs Davidson pointed out the +schooner, moored two or three hundred yards from the side, which was to +take them to Apia. There was a crowd of eager, noisy, and good-humoured +natives come from all parts of the island, some from curiosity, others +to barter with the travellers on their way to Sydney; and they brought +pineapples and huge bunches of bananas, <i>tapa</i> cloths, necklaces of +shells or sharks' teeth, <i>kava</i>-bowls, and models of war canoes. +American sailors, neat and trim, clean-shaven and frank of face, +sauntered among them, and there was a little group of officials. While +their luggage was being landed the Macphails and Mrs Davidson watched +the crowd. Dr Macphail looked at the yaws from which most of the +children and the young boys seemed to suffer, disfiguring sores like +torpid ulcers, and his professional eyes glistened when he saw for the +first time in his experience cases of elephantiasis, men going about +with a huge, heavy arm or dragging along a grossly disfigured leg. Men +and women wore the <i>lava-lava</i>.</p> + +<p>"It's a very indecent costume," said Mrs Davidson. "Mr Davidson thinks +it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral +when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?"</p> + +<p>"It's suitable enough to the climate," said the doctor, wiping the sweat +off his head.</p> + +<p>Now that they were on land the heat, though it was so early in the +morning, was already oppressive. Closed in by its hills, not a breath of +air came in to Pago-Pago.</p> + +<p>"In our islands," Mrs Davidson went on in her high-pitched tones, "we've +practically eradicated the <i>lava-lava</i>. A few old men still continue to +wear it, but that's all. The women have all taken to the Mother +Hubbard, and the men wear trousers and singlets. At the very beginning +of our stay Mr Davidson said in one of his reports: the inhabitants of +these islands will never be thoroughly Christianised till every boy of +more than ten years is made to wear a pair of trousers."</p> + +<p>But Mrs Davidson had given two or three of her birdlike glances at heavy +grey clouds that came floating over the mouth of the harbour. A few +drops began to fall.</p> + +<p>"We'd better take shelter," she said.</p> + +<p>They made their way with all the crowd to a great shed of corrugated +iron, and the rain began to fall in torrents. They stood there for some +time and then were joined by Mr Davidson. He had been polite enough to +the Macphails during the journey, but he had not his wife's sociability, +and had spent much of his time reading. He was a silent, rather sullen +man, and you felt that his affability was a duty that he imposed upon +himself Christianly; he was by nature reserved and even morose. His +appearance was singular. He was very tall and thin, with long limbs +loosely jointed; hollow cheeks and curiously high cheek-bones; he had so +cadaverous an air that it surprised you to notice how full and sensual +were his lips. He wore his hair very long. His dark eyes, set deep in +their sockets, were large and tragic; and his hands with their big, long +fingers, were finely shaped; they gave him a look of great strength. But +the most striking thing about him was the feeling he gave you of +suppressed fire. It was impressive and vaguely troubling. He was not a +man with whom any intimacy was possible.</p> + +<p>He brought now unwelcome news. There was an epidemic of measles, a +serious and often fatal disease among the Kanakas, on the island, and a +case had developed among the crew of the schooner which was to take them +on their journey. The sick man had been brought ashore and put in +hospital on the quarantine station, but telegraphic instructions had +been sent from Apia to say that the schooner would not be allowed to +enter the harbour till it was certain no other member of the crew was +affected.</p> + +<p>"It means we shall have to stay here for ten days at least."</p> + +<p>"But I'm urgently needed at Apia," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"That can't be helped. If no more cases develop on board, the schooner +will be allowed to sail with white passengers, but all native traffic is +prohibited for three months."</p> + +<p>"Is there a hotel here?" asked Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>Davidson gave a low chuckle.</p> + +<p>"There's not."</p> + +<p>"What shall we do then?"</p> + +<p>"I've been talking to the governor. There's a trader along the front who +has rooms that he rents, and my proposition is that as soon as the rain +lets up we should go along there and see what we can do. Don't expect +comfort. You've just got to be thankful if we get a bed to sleep on and +a roof over our heads."</p> + +<p>But the rain showed no sign of stopping, and at length with umbrellas +and waterproofs they set out. There was no town, but merely a group of +official buildings, a store or two, and at the back, among the coconut +trees and plantains, a few native dwellings. The house they sought was +about five minutes' walk from the wharf. It was a frame house of two +storeys, with broad verandahs on both floors and a roof of corrugated +iron. The owner was a half-caste named Horn, with a native wife +surrounded by little brown children, and on the ground-floor he had a +store where he sold canned goods and cottons. The rooms he showed them +were almost bare of furniture. In the Macphails' there was nothing but a +poor, worn bed with a ragged mosquito net, a rickety chair, and a +washstand. They looked round with dismay. The rain poured down without +ceasing.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to unpack more than we actually need," said Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson came into the room as she was unlocking a portmanteau. She +was very brisk and alert. The cheerless surroundings had no effect on +her.</p> + +<p>"If you'll take my advice you'll get a needle and cotton and start right +in to mend the mosquito net," she said, "or you'll not be able to get a +wink of sleep to-night."</p> + +<p>"Will they be very bad?" asked Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"This is the season for them. When you're asked to a party at +Government House at Apia you'll notice that all the ladies are given a +pillow-slip to put their—their lower extremities in."</p> + +<p>"I wish the rain would stop for a moment," said Mrs Macphail. "I could +try to make the place comfortable with more heart if the sun were +shining."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you wait for that, you'll wait a long time. Pago-Pago is about +the rainiest place in the Pacific. You see, the hills, and that bay, +they attract the water, and one expects rain at this time of year +anyway."</p> + +<p>She looked from Macphail to his wife, standing helplessly in different +parts of the room, like lost souls, and she pursed her lips. She saw +that she must take them in hand. Feckless people like that made her +impatient, but her hands itched to put everything in the order which +came so naturally to her.</p> + +<p>"Here, you give me a needle and cotton and I'll mend that net of yours, +while you go on with your unpacking. Dinner's at one. Dr Macphail, you'd +better go down to the wharf and see that your heavy luggage has been put +in a dry place. You know what these natives are, they're quite capable +of storing it where the rain will beat in on it all the time."</p> + +<p>The doctor put on his waterproof again and went downstairs. At the door +Mr Horn was standing in conversation with the quartermaster of the ship +they had just arrived in and a second-class passenger whom Dr Macphail +had seen several times on board. The quartermaster, a little, shrivelled +man, extremely dirty, nodded to him as he passed.</p> + +<p>"This is a bad job about the measles, doc," he said. "I see you've fixed +yourself up already."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail thought he was rather familiar, but he was a timid man and +he did not take offence easily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we've got a room upstairs."</p> + +<p>"Miss Thompson was sailing with you to Apia, so I've brought her along +here."</p> + +<p>The quartermaster pointed with his thumb to the woman standing by his +side. She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fashion +pretty. She wore a white dress and a large white hat. Her fat calves in +white cotton stockings bulged over the tops of long white boots in glacé +kid. She gave Macphail an ingratiating smile.</p> + +<p>"The feller's tryin' to soak me a dollar and a half a day for the +meanest sized room," she said in a hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>"I tell you she's a friend of mine, Jo," said the quartermaster. "She +can't pay more than a dollar, and you've sure got to take her for that."</p> + +<p>The trader was fat and smooth and quietly smiling.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you put it like that, Mr Swan, I'll see what I can do about +it. I'll talk to Mrs Horn and if we think we can make a reduction we +will."</p> + +<p>"Don't try to pull that stuff with me," said Miss Thompson. "We'll +settle this right now. You get a dollar a day for the room and not one +bean more."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail smiled. He admired the effrontery with which she bargained. +He was the sort of man who always paid what he was asked. He preferred +to be over-charged than to haggle. The trader sighed.</p> + +<p>"Well, to oblige Mr Swan I'll take it."</p> + +<p>"That's the goods," said Miss Thompson. "Come right in and have a shot +of hooch. I've got some real good rye in that grip if you'll bring it +along, Mr Swan. You come along too, doctor."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think I will, thank you," he answered. "I'm just going down +to see that our luggage is all right."</p> + +<p>He stepped out into the rain. It swept in from the opening of the +harbour in sheets and the opposite shore was all blurred. He passed two +or three natives clad in nothing but the <i>lava-lava</i>, with huge +umbrellas over them. They walked finely, with leisurely movements, very +upright; and they smiled and greeted him in a strange tongue as they +went by.</p> + +<p>It was nearly dinner-time when he got back, and their meal was laid in +the trader's parlour. It was a room designed not to live in but for +purposes of prestige, and it had a musty, melancholy air. A suite of +stamped plush was arranged neatly round the walls, and from the middle +of the ceiling, protected from the flies by yellow tissue paper, hung a +gilt chandelier. Davidson did not come.</p> + +<p>"I know he went to call on the governor," said Mrs Davidson, "and I +guess he's kept him to dinner."</p> + +<p>A little native girl brought them a dish of Hamburger steak, and after +a while the trader came up to see that they had everything they wanted.</p> + +<p>"I see we have a fellow lodger, Mr Horn," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"She's taken a room, that's all," answered the trader. "She's getting +her own board."</p> + +<p>He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air.</p> + +<p>"I put her downstairs so she shouldn't be in the way. She won't be any +trouble to you."</p> + +<p>"Is it someone who was on the boat?" asked Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am, she was in the second cabin. She was going to Apia. She has +a position as cashier waiting for her."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>When the trader was gone Macphail said:</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think she'd find it exactly cheerful having her meals in +her room."</p> + +<p>"If she was in the second cabin I guess she'd rather," answered Mrs +Davidson. "I don't exactly know who it can be."</p> + +<p>"I happened to be there when the quartermaster brought her along. Her +name's Thompson."</p> + +<p>"It's not the woman who was dancing with the quartermaster last night?" +asked Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>"That's who it must be," said Mrs Macphail. "I wondered at the time what +she was. She looked rather fast to me."</p> + +<p>"Not good style at all," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>They began to talk of other things, and after dinner, tired with their +early rise, they separated and slept. When they awoke, though the sky +was still grey and the clouds hung low, it was not raining and they went +for a walk on the high road which the Americans had built along the bay.</p> + +<p>On their return they found that Davidson had just come in.</p> + +<p>"We may be here for a fortnight," he said irritably. "I've argued it out +with the governor, but he says there is nothing to be done."</p> + +<p>"Mr Davidson's just longing to get back to his work," said his wife, +with an anxious glance at him.</p> + +<p>"We've been away for a year," he said, walking up and down the verandah. +"The mission has been in charge of native missionaries and I'm terribly +nervous that they've let things slide. They're good men, I'm not saying +a word against them, God-fearing, devout, and truly Christian men—their +Christianity would put many so-called Christians at home to the +blush—but they're pitifully lacking in energy. They can make a stand +once, they can make a stand twice, but they can't make a stand all the +time. If you leave a mission in charge of a native missionary, no matter +how trustworthy he seems, in course of time you'll find he's let abuses +creep in."</p> + +<p>Mr Davidson stood still. With his tall, spare form, and his great eyes +flashing out of his pale face, he was an impressive figure. His +sincerity was obvious in the fire of his gestures and in his deep, +ringing voice.</p> + +<p>"I expect to have my work cut out for me. I shall act and I shall act +promptly. If the tree is rotten it shall be cut down and cast into the +flames."</p> + +<p>And in the evening after the high tea which was their last meal, while +they sat in the stiff parlour, the ladies working and Dr Macphail +smoking his pipe, the missionary told them of his work in the islands.</p> + +<p>"When we went there they had no sense of sin at all," he said. "They +broke the commandments one after the other and never knew they were +doing wrong. And I think that was the most difficult part of my work, to +instil into the natives the sense of sin."</p> + +<p>The Macphails knew already that Davidson had worked in the Solomons for +five years before he met his wife. She had been a missionary in China, +and they had become acquainted in Boston, where they were both spending +part of their leave to attend a missionary congress. On their marriage +they had been appointed to the islands in which they had laboured ever +since.</p> + +<p>In the course of all the conversations they had had with Mr Davidson one +thing had shone out clearly and that was the man's unflinching courage. +He was a medical missionary, and he was liable to be called at any time +to one or other of the islands in the group. Even the whaleboat is not +so very safe a conveyance in the stormy Pacific of the wet season, but +often he would be sent for in a canoe, and then the danger was great. In +cases of illness or accident he never hesitated. A dozen times he had +spent the whole night baling for his life, and more than once Mrs +Davidson had given him up for lost.</p> + +<p>"I'd beg him not to go sometimes," she said, "or at least to wait till +the weather was more settled, but he'd never listen. He's obstinate, and +when he's once made up his mind, nothing can move him."</p> + +<p>"How can I ask the natives to put their trust in the Lord if I am afraid +to do so myself?" cried Davidson. "And I'm not, I'm not. They know that +if they send for me in their trouble I'll come if it's humanly possible. +And do you think the Lord is going to abandon me when I am on his +business? The wind blows at his bidding and the waves toss and rage at +his word."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail was a timid man. He had never been able to get used to the +hurtling of the shells over the trenches, and when he was operating in +an advanced dressing-station the sweat poured from his brow and dimmed +his spectacles in the effort he made to control his unsteady hand. He +shuddered' a little as he looked at the missionary.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could say that I've never been afraid," he said.</p> + +<p>"I wish you could say that you believed in God," retorted the other.</p> + +<p>But for some reason, that evening the missionary's thoughts travelled +back to the early days he and his wife had spent on the islands.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes Mrs Davidson and I would look at one another and the tears +would stream down our cheeks. We worked without ceasing, day and night, +and we seemed to make no progress. I don't know what I should have done +without her then. When I felt my heart sink, when I was very near +despair, she gave me courage and hope."</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson looked down at her work, and a slight colour rose to her +thin cheeks. Her hands trembled a little. She did not trust herself to +speak.</p> + +<p>"We had no one to help us. We were alone, thousands of miles from any of +our own people, surrounded by darkness. When I was broken and weary she +would put her work aside and take the Bible and read to me till peace +came and settled upon me like sleep upon the eyelids of a child, and +when at last she closed the book she'd say: 'We'll save them in spite of +themselves.' And I felt strong again in the Lord, and I answered: 'Yes, +with God's help I'll save them. I must save them.'"</p> + +<p>He came over to the table and stood in front of it as though it were a +lectern.</p> + +<p>"You see, they were so naturally depraved that they couldn't be brought +to see their wickedness. We had to make sins out of what they thought +were natural actions. We had to make it a sin, not only to commit +adultery and to lie and thieve, but to expose their bodies, and to dance +and not to come to church. I made it a sin for a girl to show her bosom +and a sin for a man not to wear trousers."</p> + +<p>"How?" asked Dr Macphail, not without surprise.</p> + +<p>"I instituted fines. Obviously the only way to make people realise that +an action is sinful is to punish them if they commit it. I fined them if +they didn't come to church, and I fined them if they danced. I fined +them if they were improperly dressed. I had a tariff, and every sin had +to be paid for either in money or work. And at last I made them +understand."</p> + +<p>"But did they never refuse to pay?"</p> + +<p>"How could they?" asked the missionary.</p> + +<p>"It would be a brave man who tried to stand up against Mr Davidson," +said his wife, tightening her lips.</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail looked at Davidson with troubled eyes. What he heard +shocked him, but he hesitated to express his disapproval.</p> + +<p>"You must remember that in the last resort I could expel them from their +church membership."</p> + +<p>"Did they mind that?"</p> + +<p>Davidson smiled a little and gently rubbed his hands.</p> + +<p>"They couldn't sell their copra. When the men fished they got no share +of the catch. It meant something very like starvation. Yes, they minded +quite a lot."</p> + +<p>"Tell him about Fred Ohlson," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>The missionary fixed his fiery eyes on Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"Fred Ohlson was a Danish trader who had been in the islands a good many +years. He was a pretty rich man as traders go and he wasn't very pleased +when we came. You see, he'd had things very much his own way. He paid +the natives what he liked for their copra, and he paid in goods and +whiskey. He had a native wife, but he was flagrantly unfaithful to her. +He was a drunkard. I gave him a chance to mend his ways, but he +wouldn't take it. He laughed at me."</p> + +<p>Davidson's voice fell to a deep bass as he said the last words, and he +was silent for a minute or two. The silence was heavy with menace.</p> + +<p>"In two years he was a ruined man. He'd lost everything he'd saved in a +quarter of a century. I broke him, and at last he was forced to come to +me like a beggar and beseech me to give him a passage back to Sydney."</p> + +<p>"I wish you could have seen him when he came to see Mr Davidson," said +the missionary's wife. "He had been a fine, powerful man, with a lot of +fat on him, and he had a great big voice, but now he was half the size, +and he was shaking all over. He'd suddenly become an old man."</p> + +<p>With abstracted gaze Davidson looked out into the night. The rain was +falling again.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from below came a sound, and Davidson turned and looked +questioningly at his wife. It was the sound of a gramophone, harsh and +loud, wheezing out a syncopated tune.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson fixed her <i>pince-nez</i> more firmly on her nose.</p> + +<p>"One of the second-class passengers has a room in the house. I guess it +comes from there."</p> + +<p>They listened in silence, and presently they heard the sound of dancing. +Then the music stopped, and they heard the popping of corks and voices +raised in animated conversation.</p> + +<p>"I daresay she's giving a farewell party to her friends on board," said +Dr Macphail. "The ship sails at twelve, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>Davidson made no remark, but he looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"Are you ready?" he asked his wife.</p> + +<p>She got up and folded her work.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess I am," she answered.</p> + +<p>"It's early to go to bed yet, isn't it?" said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"We have a good deal of reading to do," explained Mrs Davidson. +"Wherever we are, we read a chapter of the Bible before retiring for the +night and we study it with the commentaries, you know, and discuss it +thoroughly. It's a wonderful training for the mind."</p> + +<p>The two couples bade one another good night. Dr and Mrs Macphail were +left alone. For two or three minutes they did not speak.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go and fetch the cards," the doctor said at last.</p> + +<p>Mrs Macphail looked at him doubtfully. Her conversation with the +Davidsons had left her a little uneasy, but she did not like to say that +she thought they had better not play cards when the Davidsons might come +in at any moment. Dr Macphail brought them and she watched him, though +with a vague sense of guilt, while he laid out his patience. Below the +sound of revelry continued.</p> + +<p>It was fine enough next day, and the Macphails, condemned to spend a +fortnight of idleness at Pago-Pago, set about making the best of things. +They went down to the quay and got out of their boxes a number of +books. The doctor called on the chief surgeon of the naval hospital and +went round the beds with him. They left cards on the governor. They +passed Miss Thompson on the road. The doctor took off his hat, and she +gave him a "Good morning, doc.," in a loud, cheerful voice. She was +dressed as on the day before, in a white frock, and her shiny white +boots with their high heels, her fat legs bulging over the tops of them, +were strange things on that exotic scene.</p> + +<p>"I don't think she's very suitably dressed, I must say," said Mrs +Macphail. "She looks extremely common to me."</p> + +<p>When they got back to their house, she was on the verandah playing with +one of the trader's dark children.</p> + +<p>"Say a word to her," Dr Macphail whispered to his wife. "She's all alone +here, and it seems rather unkind to ignore her."</p> + +<p>Mrs Macphail was shy, but she was in the habit of doing what her husband +bade her.</p> + +<p>"I think we're fellow lodgers here," she said, rather foolishly.</p> + +<p>"Terrible, ain't it, bein' cooped up in a one-horse burg like this?" +answered Miss Thompson. "And they tell me I'm lucky to have gotten a +room. I don't see myself livin' in a native house, and that's what some +have to do. I don't know why they don't have a hotel."</p> + +<p>They exchanged a few more words. Miss Thompson, loud-voiced and +garrulous, was evidently quite willing to gossip, but Mrs Macphail had +a poor stock of small talk and presently she said:</p> + +<p>"Well, I think we must go upstairs."</p> + +<p>In the evening when they sat down to their high-tea Davidson on coming +in said:</p> + +<p>"I see that woman downstairs has a couple of sailors sitting there. I +wonder how she's gotten acquainted with them."</p> + +<p>"She can't be very particular," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>They were all rather tired after the idle, aimless day.</p> + +<p>"If there's going to be a fortnight of this I don't know what we shall +feel like at the end of it," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"The only thing to do is to portion out the day to different +activities," answered the missionary. "I shall set aside a certain +number of hours to study and a certain number to exercise, rain or +fine—in the wet season you can't afford to pay any attention to the +rain—and a certain number to recreation."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail looked at his companion with misgiving. Davidson's programme +oppressed him. They were eating Hamburger steak again. It seemed the +only dish the cook knew how to make. Then below the gramophone began. +Davidson started nervously when he heard it, but said nothing. Men's +voices floated up. Miss Thompson's guests were joining in a well-known +song and presently they heard her voice too, hoarse and loud. There was +a good deal of shouting and laughing. The four people upstairs, trying +to make conversation, listened despite themselves to the clink of +glasses and the scrape of chairs. More people had evidently come. Miss +Thompson was giving a party.</p> + +<p>"I wonder how she gets them all in," said Mrs Macphail, suddenly +breaking into a medical conversation between the missionary and her +husband.</p> + +<p>It showed whither her thoughts were wandering. The twitch of Davidson's +face proved that, though he spoke of scientific things, his mind was +busy in the same direction. Suddenly, while the doctor was giving some +experience of practice on the Flanders front, rather prosily, he sprang +to his feet with a cry.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Alfred?" asked Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>"Of course! It never occurred to me. She's out of Iwelei."</p> + +<p>"She can't be."</p> + +<p>"She came on board at Honolulu. It's obvious. And she's carrying on her +trade here. Here."</p> + +<p>He uttered the last word with a passion of indignation.</p> + +<p>"What's Iwelei?" asked Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>He turned his gloomy eyes on her and his voice trembled with horror.</p> + +<p>"The plague spot of Honolulu. The Red Light district. It was a blot on +our civilisation."</p> + +<p>Iwelei was on the edge of the city. You went down side streets by the +harbour, in the darkness, across a rickety bridge, till you came to a +deserted road, all ruts and holes, and then suddenly you came out into +the light. There was parking room for motors on each side of the road, +and there were saloons, tawdry and bright, each one noisy with its +mechanical piano, and there were barbers' shops and tobacconists. There +was a stir in the air and a sense of expectant gaiety. You turned down a +narrow alley, either to the right or to the left, for the road divided +Iwelei into two parts, and you found yourself in the district. There +were rows of little bungalows, trim and neatly painted in green, and the +pathway between them was broad and straight. It was laid out like a +garden-city. In its respectable regularity, its order and spruceness, it +gave an impression of sardonic horror; for never can the search for love +have been so systematised and ordered. The pathways were lit by a rare +lamp, but they would have been dark except for the lights that came from +the open windows of the bungalows. Men wandered about, looking at the +women who sat at their windows, reading or sewing, for the most part +taking no notice of the passers-by; and like the women they were of all +nationalities. There were Americans, sailors from the ships in port, +enlisted men off the gunboats, sombrely drunk, and soldiers from the +regiments, white and black, quartered on the island; there were +Japanese, walking in twos and threes; Hawaiians, Chinese in long robes, +and Filipinos in preposterous hats. They were silent and as it were +oppressed. Desire is sad.</p> + +<p>"It was the most crying scandal of the Pacific," exclaimed Davidson +vehemently. "The missionaries had been agitating against it for years, +and at last the local press took it up. The police refused to stir. You +know their argument. They say that vice is inevitable and consequently +the best thing is to localise and control it. The truth is, they were +paid. Paid. They were paid by the saloon-keepers, paid by the bullies, +paid by the women themselves. At last they were forced to move."</p> + +<p>"I read about it in the papers that came on board in Honolulu," said Dr +Macphail.</p> + +<p>"Iwelei, with its sin and shame, ceased to exist on the very day we +arrived. The whole population was brought before the justices. I don't +know why I didn't understand at once what that woman was."</p> + +<p>"Now you come to speak of it," said Mrs Macphail, "I remember seeing her +come on board only a few minutes before the boat sailed. I remember +thinking at the time she was cutting it rather fine."</p> + +<p>"How dare she come here!" cried Davidson indignantly. "I'm not going to +allow it."</p> + +<p>He strode towards the door.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Macphail.</p> + +<p>"What do you expect me to do? I'm going to stop it. I'm not going to +have this house turned into—into...."</p> + +<p>He sought for a word that should not offend the ladies' ears. His eyes +were flashing and his pale face was paler still in his emotion.</p> + +<p>"It sounds as though there were three or four men down there," said the +doctor. "Don't you think it's rather rash to go in just now?"</p> + +<p>The missionary gave him a contemptuous look and without a word flung out +of the room.</p> + +<p>"You know Mr Davidson very little if you think the fear of personal +danger can stop him in the performance of his duty," said his wife.</p> + +<p>She sat with her hands nervously clasped, a spot of colour on her high +cheek bones, listening to what was about to happen below. They all +listened. They heard him clatter down the wooden stairs and throw open +the door. The singing stopped suddenly, but the gramophone continued to +bray out its vulgar tune. They heard Davidson's voice and then the noise +of something heavy falling. The music stopped. He had hurled the +gramophone on the floor. Then again they heard Davidson's voice, they +could not make out the words, then Miss Thompson's, loud and shrill, +then a confused clamour as though several people were shouting together +at the top of their lungs. Mrs Davidson gave a little gasp, and she +clenched her hands more tightly. Dr Macphail looked uncertainly from her +to his wife. He did not want to go down, but he wondered if they +expected him to. Then there was something that sounded like a scuffle. +The noise now was more distinct. It might be that Davidson was being +thrown out of the room. The door was slammed. There was a moment's +silence and they heard Davidson come up the stairs again. He went to his +room.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go to him," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>She got up and went out.</p> + +<p>"If you want me, just call," said Mrs Macphail, and then when the other +was gone: "I hope he isn't hurt."</p> + +<p>"Why couldn't he mind his own business?" said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>They sat in silence for a minute or two and then they both started, for +the gramophone began to play once more, defiantly, and mocking voices +shouted hoarsely the words of an obscene song.</p> + +<p>Next day Mrs Davidson was pale and tired. She complained of headache, +and she looked old and wizened. She told Mrs Macphail that the +missionary had not slept at all; he had passed the night in a state of +frightful agitation and at five had got up and gone out. A glass of beer +had been thrown over him and his clothes were stained and stinking. But +a sombre fire glowed in Mrs Davidson's eyes when she spoke of Miss +Thompson.</p> + +<p>"She'll bitterly rue the day when she flouted Mr Davidson," she said. +"Mr Davidson has a wonderful heart and no one who is in trouble has ever +gone to him without being comforted, but he has no mercy for sin, and +when his righteous wrath is excited he's terrible."</p> + +<p>"Why, what will he do?" asked Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, but I wouldn't stand in that creature's shoes for +anything in the world."</p> + +<p>Mrs Macphail shuddered. There was something positively alarming in the +triumphant assurance of the little woman's manner. They were going out +together that morning, and they went down the stairs side by side. Miss +Thompson's door was open, and they saw her in a bedraggled +dressing-gown, cooking something in a chafing-dish.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," she called. "Is Mr Davidson better this morning?"</p> + +<p>They passed her in silence, with their noses in the air, as if she did +not exist. They flushed, however, when she burst into a shout of +derisive laughter. Mrs Davidson turned on her suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare to speak to me," she screamed. "If you insult me I shall +have you turned out of here."</p> + +<p>"Say, did I ask Mr Davidson to visit with me?"</p> + +<p>"Don't answer her," whispered Mrs Macphail hurriedly.</p> + +<p>They walked on till they were out of earshot.</p> + +<p>"She's brazen, brazen," burst from Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>Her anger almost suffocated her.</p> + +<p>And on their way home they met her strolling towards the quay. She had +all her finery on. Her great white hat with its vulgar, showy flowers +was an affront. She called out cheerily to them as she went by, and a +couple of American sailors who were standing there grinned as the ladies +set their faces to an icy stare. They got in just before the rain began +to fall again.</p> + +<p>"I guess she'll get her fine clothes spoilt," said Mrs Davidson with a +bitter sneer.</p> + +<p>Davidson did not come in till they were half way through dinner. He was +wet through, but he would not change. He sat, morose and silent, +refusing to eat more than a mouthful, and he stared at the slanting +rain. When Mrs Davidson told him of their two encounters with Miss +Thompson he did not answer. His deepening frown alone showed that he had +heard.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think we ought to make Mr Horn turn her out of here?" asked +Mrs Davidson. "We can't allow her to insult us."</p> + +<p>"There doesn't seem to be any other place for her to go," said Macphail.</p> + +<p>"She can live with one of the natives."</p> + +<p>"In weather like this a native hut must be a rather uncomfortable place +to live in."</p> + +<p>"I lived in one for years," said the missionary.</p> + +<p>When the little native girl brought in the fried bananas which formed +the sweet they had every day, Davidson turned to her.</p> + +<p>"Ask Miss Thompson when it would be convenient for me to see her," he +said.</p> + +<p>The girl nodded shyly and went out.</p> + +<p>"What do you want to see her for, Alfred?" asked his wife.</p> + +<p>"It's my duty to see her. I won't act till I've given her every chance."</p> + +<p>"You don't know what she is. She'll insult you."</p> + +<p>"Let her insult me. Let her spit on me. She has an immortal soul, and I +must do all that is in my power to save it."</p> + +<p>Mrs Davidson's ears rang still with the harlot's mocking laughter.</p> + +<p>"She's gone too far."</p> + +<p>"Too far for the mercy of God?" His eyes lit up suddenly and his voice +grew mellow and soft. "Never. The sinner may be deeper in sin than the +depth of hell itself, but the love of the Lord Jesus can reach him +still."</p> + +<p>The girl came back with the message.</p> + +<p>"Miss Thompson's compliments and as long as Rev. Davidson don't come in +business hours she'll be glad to see him any time."</p> + +<p>The party received it in stony silence, and Dr Macphail quickly effaced +from his lips the smile which had come upon them. He knew his wife would +be vexed with him if he found Miss Thompson's effrontery amusing.</p> + +<p>They finished the meal in silence. When it was over the two ladies got +up and took their work, Mrs Macphail was making another of the +innumerable comforters which she had turned out since the beginning of +the war, and the doctor lit his pipe. But Davidson remained in his chair +and with abstracted eyes stared at the table. At last he got up and +without a word went out of the room. They heard him go down and they +heard Miss Thompson's defiant "Come in" when he knocked at the door. He +remained with her for an hour. And Dr Macphail watched the rain. It was +beginning to get on his nerves. It was not like our soft English rain +that drops gently on the earth; it was unmerciful and somehow terrible; +you felt in it the malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did +not pour, it flowed. It was like a deluge from heaven, and it rattled on +the roof of corrugated iron with a steady persistence that was +maddening. It seemed to have a fury of its own. And sometimes you felt +that you must scream if it did not stop, and then suddenly you felt +powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft; and you were +miserable and hopeless.</p> + +<p>Macphail turned his head when the missionary came back. The two women +looked up.</p> + +<p>"I've given her every chance. I have exhorted her to repent. She is an +evil woman."</p> + +<p>He paused, and Dr Macphail saw his eyes darken and his pale face grow +hard and stern.</p> + +<p>"Now I shall take the whips with which the Lord Jesus drove the usurers +and the money changers out of the Temple of the Most High."</p> + +<p>He walked up and down the room. His mouth was close set, and his black +brows were frowning.</p> + +<p>"If she fled to the uttermost parts of the earth I should pursue her."</p> + +<p>With a sudden movement he turned round and strode out of the room. They +heard him go downstairs again.</p> + +<p>"What is he going to do?" asked Mrs Macphail.</p> + +<p>"I don't know." Mrs Davidson took off her <i>pince-nez</i> and wiped them. +"When he is on the Lord's work I never ask him questions."</p> + +<p>She sighed a little.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"He'll wear himself out. He doesn't know what it is to spare himself."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail learnt the first results of the missionary's activity from +the half-caste trader in whose house they lodged. He stopped the doctor +when he passed the store and came out to speak to him on the stoop. His +fat face was worried.</p> + +<p>"The Rev. Davidson has been at me for letting Miss Thompson have a room +here," he said, "but I didn't know what she was when I rented it to her. +When people come and ask if I can rent them a room all I want to know is +if they've the money to pay for it. And she paid me for hers a week in +advance."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail did not want to commit himself.</p> + +<p>"When all's said and done it's your house. We're very much obliged to +you for taking us in at all."</p> + +<p>Horn looked at him doubtfully. He was not certain yet how definitely +Macphail stood on the missionary's side.</p> + +<p>"The missionaries are in with one another," he said, hesitatingly. "If +they get it in for a trader he may just as well shut up his store and +quit."</p> + +<p>"Did he want you to turn her out?"</p> + +<p>"No, he said so long as she behaved herself he couldn't ask me to do +that. He said he wanted to be just to me. I promised she shouldn't have +no more visitors. I've just been and told her."</p> + +<p>"How did she take it?"</p> + +<p>"She gave me Hell."</p> + +<p>The trader squirmed in his old ducks. He had found Miss Thompson a rough +customer.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I daresay she'll get out. I don't suppose she wants to stay +here if she can't have anyone in."</p> + +<p>"There's nowhere she can go, only a native house, and no native'll take +her now, not now that the missionaries have got their knife in her."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail looked at the falling rain.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't suppose it's any good waiting for it to clear up."</p> + +<p>In the evening when they sat in the parlour Davidson talked to them of +his early days at college. He had had no means and had worked his way +through by doing odd jobs during the vacations. There was silence +downstairs. Miss Thompson was sitting in her little room alone. But +suddenly the gramophone began to play. She had set it on in defiance, to +cheat her loneliness, but there was no one to sing, and it had a +melancholy note. It was like a cry for help. Davidson took no notice. He +was in the middle of a long anecdote and without change of expression +went on. The gramophone continued. Miss Thompson put on one reel after +another. It looked as though the silence of the night were getting on +her nerves. It was breathless and sultry. When the Macphails went to bed +they could not sleep. They lay side by side with their eyes wide open, +listening to the cruel singing of the mosquitoes outside their curtain.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" whispered Mrs Macphail at last.</p> + +<p>They heard a voice, Davidson's voice, through the wooden partition. It +went on with a monotonous, earnest insistence. He was praying aloud. He +was praying for the soul of Miss Thompson.</p> + +<p>Two or three days went by. Now when they passed Miss Thompson on the +road she did not greet them with ironic cordiality or smile; she passed +with her nose in the air, a sulky look on her painted face, frowning, as +though she did not see them. The trader told Macphail that she had tried +to get lodging elsewhere, but had failed. In the evening she played +through the various reels of her gramophone, but the pretence of mirth +was obvious now. The ragtime had a cracked, heart-broken rhythm as +though it were a one-step of despair. When she began to play on Sunday +Davidson sent Horn to beg her to stop at once since it was the Lord's +day. The reel was taken off and the house was silent except for the +steady pattering of the rain on the iron roof.</p> + +<p>"I think she's getting a bit worked up," said the trader next day to +Macphail. "She don't know what Mr Davidson's up to and it makes her +scared."</p> + +<p>Macphail had caught a glimpse of her that morning and it struck him that +her arrogant expression had changed. There was in her face a hunted +look. The half-caste gave him a sidelong glance.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you don't know what Mr Davidson is doing about it?" he +hazarded.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't."</p> + +<p>It was singular that Horn should ask him that question, for he also had +the idea that the missionary was mysteriously at work. He had an +impression that he was weaving a net around the woman, carefully, +systematically, and suddenly, when everything was ready would pull the +strings tight.</p> + +<p>"He told me to tell her," said the trader, "that if at any time she +wanted him she only had to send and he'd come."</p> + +<p>"What did she say when you told her that?"</p> + +<p>"She didn't say nothing. I didn't stop. I just said what he said I was +to and then I beat it. I thought she might be going to start weepin'."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt the loneliness is getting on her nerves," said the +doctor. "And the rain—that's enough to make anyone jumpy," he continued +irritably. "Doesn't it ever stop in this confounded place?"</p> + +<p>"It goes on pretty steady in the rainy season. We have three hundred +inches in the year. You see, it's the shape of the bay. It seems to +attract the rain from all over the Pacific."</p> + +<p>"Damn the shape of the bay," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>He scratched his mosquito bites. He felt very short-tempered. When the +rain stopped and the sun shone, it was like a hothouse, seething, humid, +sultry, breathless, and you had a strange feeling that everything was +growing with a savage violence. The natives, blithe and childlike by +reputation, seemed then, with their tattooing and their dyed hair, to +have something sinister in their appearance; and when they pattered +along at your heels with their naked feet you looked back instinctively. +You felt they might at any moment come behind you swiftly and thrust a +long knife between your shoulder blades. You could not tell what dark +thoughts lurked behind their wide-set eyes. They had a little the look +of ancient Egyptians painted on a temple wall, and there was about them +the terror of what is immeasurably old.</p> + +<p>The missionary came and went. He was busy, but the Macphails did not +know what he was doing. Horn told the doctor that he saw the governor +every day, and once Davidson mentioned him.</p> + +<p>"He looks as if he had plenty of determination," he said, "but when you +come down to brass tacks he has no backbone."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that means he won't do exactly what you want," suggested the +doctor facetiously.</p> + +<p>The missionary did not smile.</p> + +<p>"I want him to do what's right. It shouldn't be necessary to persuade a +man to do that."</p> + +<p>"But there may be differences of opinion about what is right."</p> + +<p>"If a man had a gangrenous foot would you have patience with anyone who +hesitated to amputate it?"</p> + +<p>"Gangrene is a matter of fact."</p> + +<p>"And Evil?"</p> + +<p>What Davidson had done soon appeared. The four of them had just finished +their midday meal, and they had not yet separated for the siesta which +the heat imposed on the ladies and on the doctor. Davidson had little +patience with the slothful habit. The door was suddenly flung open and +Miss Thompson came in. She looked round the room and then went up to +Davidson.</p> + +<p>"You low-down skunk, what have you been saying about me to the +governor?"</p> + +<p>She was spluttering with rage. There was a moment's pause. Then the +missionary drew forward a chair.</p> + +<p>"Won't you be seated, Miss Thompson? I've been hoping to have another +talk with you."</p> + +<p>"You poor low-life bastard."</p> + +<p>She burst into a torrent of insult, foul and insolent. Davidson kept his +grave eyes on her.</p> + +<p>"I'm indifferent to the abuse you think fit to heap on me, Miss +Thompson," he said, "but I must beg you to remember that ladies are +present."</p> + +<p>Tears by now were struggling with her anger. Her face was red and +swollen as though she were choking.</p> + +<p>"What has happened?" asked Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>"A feller's just been in here and he says I gotter beat it on the next +boat."</p> + +<p>Was there a gleam in the missionary's eyes? His face remained impassive.</p> + +<p>"You could hardly expect the governor to let you stay here under the +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"You done it," she shrieked. "You can't kid me. You done it."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to deceive you. I urged the governor to take the only +possible step consistent with his obligations."</p> + +<p>"Why couldn't you leave me be? I wasn't doin' you no harm."</p> + +<p>"You may be sure that if you had I should be the last man to resent it."</p> + +<p>"Do you think I want to stay on in this poor imitation of a burg? I +don't look no busher, do I?"</p> + +<p>"In that case I don't see what cause of complaint you have," he +answered.</p> + +<p>She gave an inarticulate cry of rage and flung out of the room. There +was a short silence.</p> + +<p>"It's a relief to know that the governor has acted at last," said +Davidson finally. "He's a weak man and he shilly-shallied. He said she +was only here for a fortnight anyway, and if she went on to Apia that +was under British jurisdiction and had nothing to do with him."</p> + +<p>The missionary sprang to his feet and strode across the room.</p> + +<p>"It's terrible the way the men who are in authority seek to evade their +responsibility. They speak as though evil that was out of sight ceased +to be evil. The very existence of that woman is a scandal and it does +not help matters to shift it to another of the islands. In the end I had +to speak straight from the shoulder."</p> + +<p>Davidson's brow lowered, and he protruded his firm chin. He looked +fierce and determined.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"Our mission is not entirely without influence at Washington. I pointed +out to the governor that it wouldn't do him any good if there was a +complaint about the way he managed things here."</p> + +<p>"When has she got to go?" asked the doctor, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"The San Francisco boat is due here from Sydney next Tuesday. She's to +sail on that."</p> + +<p>That was in five days' time. It was next day, when he was coming back +from the hospital where for want of something better to do Macphail +spent most of his mornings, that the half-caste stopped him as he was +going upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Dr Macphail, Miss Thompson's sick. Will you have a look at +her."</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>Horn led him to her room. She was sitting in a chair idly, neither +reading nor sewing, staring in front of her. She wore her white dress +and the large hat with the flowers on it. Macphail noticed that her skin +was yellow and muddy under her powder, and her eyes were heavy.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to hear you're not well," he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I ain't sick really. I just said that, because I just had to see +you. I've got to clear on a boat that's going to 'Frisco."</p> + +<p>She looked at him and he saw that her eyes were suddenly startled. She +opened and clenched her hands spasmodically. The trader stood at the +door, listening.</p> + +<p>"So I understand," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>She gave a little gulp.</p> + +<p>"I guess it ain't very convenient for me to go to 'Frisco just now. I +went to see the governor yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't get to him. +I saw the secretary, and he told me I'd got to take that boat and that +was all there was to it. I just had to see the governor, so I waited +outside his house this morning, and when he come out I spoke to him. He +didn't want to speak to me, I'll say, but I wouldn't let him shake me +off, and at last he said he hadn't no objection to my staying here till +the next boat to Sydney if the Rev. Davidson will stand for it."</p> + +<p>She stopped and looked at Dr Macphail anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly what I can do," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought maybe you wouldn't mind asking him. I swear to God I +won't start anything here if he'll just only let me stay. I won't go out +of the house if that'll suit him. It's no more'n a fortnight."</p> + +<p>"I'll ask him."</p> + +<p>"He won't stand for it," said Horn. "He'll have you out on Tuesday, so +you may as well make up your mind to it."</p> + +<p>"Tell him I can get work in Sydney, straight stuff, I mean. 'Tain't +asking very much."</p> + +<p>"I'll do what I can."</p> + +<p>"And come and tell me right away, will you? I can't set down to a thing +till I get the dope one way or the other."</p> + +<p>It was not an errand that much pleased the doctor, and, +characteristically perhaps, he went about it indirectly. He told his +wife what Miss Thompson had said to him and asked her to speak to Mrs +Davidson. The missionary's attitude seemed rather arbitrary and it could +do no harm if the girl were allowed to stay in Pago-Pago another +fortnight. But he was not prepared for the result of his diplomacy. The +missionary came to him straightway.</p> + +<p>"Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at +being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he +flushed.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney +rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave +while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her."</p> + +<p>The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think +one does better to mind one's own business."</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer.</p> + +<p>"The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that +leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her +presence is a peril here."</p> + +<p>"I think you're very harsh and tyrannical."</p> + +<p>The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need +not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently.</p> + +<p>"I'm terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr Macphail. Believe +me, my heart bleeds for that unfortunate woman, but I'm only trying to +do my duty."</p> + +<p>The doctor made no answer. He looked out of the window sullenly. For +once it was not raining and across the bay you saw nestling among the +trees the huts of a native village.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll take advantage of the rain stopping to go out," he said.</p> + +<p>"Please don't bear me malice because I can't accede to your wish," said +Davidson, with a melancholy smile. "I respect you very much, doctor, and +I should be sorry if you thought ill of me."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently good opinion of yourself to +bear mine with equanimity," he retorted.</p> + +<p>"That's one on me," chuckled Davidson.</p> + +<p>When Dr Macphail, vexed with himself because he had been uncivil to no +purpose, went downstairs, Miss Thompson was waiting for him with her +door ajar.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "have you spoken to him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sorry, he won't do anything," he answered, not looking at her +in his embarrassment.</p> + +<p>But then he gave her a quick glance, for a sob broke from her. He saw +that her face was white with fear. It gave him a shock of dismay. And +suddenly he had an idea.</p> + +<p>"But don't give up hope yet. I think it's a shame the way they're +treating you and I'm going to see the governor myself."</p> + +<p>"Now?"</p> + +<p>He nodded. Her face brightened.</p> + +<p>"Say, that's real good of you. I'm sure he'll let me stay if you speak +for me. I just won't do a thing I didn't ought all the time I'm here."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail hardly knew why he had made up his mind to appeal to the +governor. He was perfectly indifferent to Miss Thompson's affairs, but +the missionary had irritated him, and with him temper was a smouldering +thing. He found the governor at home. He was a large, handsome man, a +sailor, with a grey toothbrush moustache; and he wore a spotless uniform +of white drill.</p> + +<p>"I've come to see you about a woman who's lodging in the same house as +we are," he said. "Her name's Thompson."</p> + +<p>"I guess I've heard nearly enough about her, Dr Macphail," said the +governor, smiling. "I've given her the order to get out next Tuesday and +that's all I can do."</p> + +<p>"I wanted to ask you if you couldn't stretch a point and let her stay +here till the boat comes in from San Francisco so that she can go to +Sydney. I will guarantee her good behaviour."</p> + +<p>The governor continued to smile, but his eyes grew small and serious.</p> + +<p>"I'd be very glad to oblige you, Dr Macphail, but I've given the order +and it must stand."</p> + +<p>The doctor put the case as reasonably as he could, but now the governor +ceased to smile at all. He listened sullenly, with averted gaze. +Macphail saw that he was making no impression.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to cause any lady inconvenience, but she'll have to sail on +Tuesday and that's all there is to it."</p> + +<p>"But what difference can it make?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, doctor, but I don't feel called upon to explain my official +actions except to the proper authorities."</p> + +<p>Macphail looked at him shrewdly. He remembered Davidson's hint that he +had used threats, and in the governor's attitude he read a singular +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Davidson's a damned busybody," he said hotly.</p> + +<p>"Between ourselves, Dr Macphail, I don't say that I have formed a very +favourable opinion of Mr Davidson, but I am bound to confess that he +was within his rights in pointing out to me the danger that the presence +of a woman of Miss Thompson's character was to a place like this where a +number of enlisted men are stationed among a native population."</p> + +<p>He got up and Dr Macphail was obliged to do so too.</p> + +<p>"I must ask you to excuse me. I have an engagement. Please give my +respects to Mrs Macphail."</p> + +<p>The doctor left him crest-fallen. He knew that Miss Thompson would be +waiting for him, and unwilling to tell her himself that he had failed, +he went into the house by the back door and sneaked up the stairs as +though he had something to hide.</p> + +<p>At supper he was silent and ill-at-ease, but the missionary was jovial +and animated. Dr Macphail thought his eyes rested on him now and then +with triumphant good-humour. It struck him suddenly that Davidson knew +of his visit to the governor and of its ill success. But how on earth +could he have heard of it? There was something sinister about the power +of that man. After supper he saw Horn on the verandah and, as though to +have a casual word with him, went out.</p> + +<p>"She wants to know if you've seen the governor," the trader whispered.</p> + +<p>"Yes. He wouldn't do anything. I'm awfully sorry, I can't do anything +more."</p> + +<p>"I knew he wouldn't. They daren't go against the missionaries."</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" said Davidson affably, coming out to join +them.</p> + +<p>"I was just saying there was no chance of your getting over to Apia for +at least another week," said the trader glibly.</p> + +<p>He left them, and the two men returned into the parlour. Mr Davidson +devoted one hour after each meal to recreation. Presently a timid knock +was heard at the door.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Mrs Davidson, in her sharp voice.</p> + +<p>The door was not opened. She got up and opened it. They saw Miss +Thompson standing at the threshold. But the change in her appearance was +extraordinary. This was no longer the flaunting hussy who had jeered at +them in the road, but a broken, frightened woman. Her hair, as a rule so +elaborately arranged, was tumbling untidily over her neck. She wore +bedroom slippers and a skirt and blouse. They were unfresh and +bedraggled. She stood at the door with the tears streaming down her face +and did not dare to enter.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" said Mrs Davidson harshly.</p> + +<p>"May I speak to Mr Davidson?" she said in a choking voice.</p> + +<p>The missionary rose and went towards her.</p> + +<p>"Come right in, Miss Thompson," he said in cordial tones. "What can I do +for you?"</p> + +<p>She entered the room.</p> + +<p>"Say, I'm sorry for what I said to you the other day an' for—for +everythin' else. I guess I was a bit lit up. I beg pardon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was nothing. I guess my back's broad enough to bear a few hard +words."</p> + +<p>She stepped towards him with a movement that was horribly cringing.</p> + +<p>"You've got me beat. I'm all in. You won't make me go back to 'Frisco?"</p> + +<p>His genial manner vanished and his voice grew on a sudden hard and +stern.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you want to go back there?"</p> + +<p>She cowered before him.</p> + +<p>"I guess my people live there. I don't want them to see me like this. +I'll go anywhere else you say."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you want to go back to San Francisco?"</p> + +<p>"I've told you."</p> + +<p>He leaned forward, staring at her, and his great, shining eyes seemed to +try to bore into her soul. He gave a sudden gasp.</p> + +<p>"The penitentiary."</p> + +<p>She screamed, and then she fell at his feet, clasping his legs.</p> + +<p>"Don't send me back there. I swear to you before God I'll be a good +woman. I'll give all this up."</p> + +<p>She burst into a torrent of confused supplication and the tears coursed +down her painted cheeks. He leaned over her and, lifting her face, +forced her to look at him.</p> + +<p>"Is that it, the penitentiary?"</p> + +<p>"I beat it before they could get me," she gasped. "If the bulls grab me +it's three years for mine."</p> + +<p>He let go his hold of her and she fell in a heap on the floor, sobbing +bitterly. Dr Macphail stood up.</p> + +<p>"This alters the whole thing," he said. "You can't make her go back when +you know this. Give her another chance. She wants to turn over a new +leaf."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to give her the finest chance she's ever had. If she repents +let her accept her punishment."</p> + +<p>She misunderstood the words and looked up. There was a gleam of hope in +her heavy eyes.</p> + +<p>"You'll let me go?"</p> + +<p>"No. You shall sail for San Francisco on Tuesday."</p> + +<p>She gave a groan of horror and then burst into low, hoarse shrieks which +sounded hardly human, and she beat her head passionately on the ground. +Dr Macphail sprang to her and lifted her up.</p> + +<p>"Come on, you mustn't do that. You'd better go to your room and lie +down. I'll get you something."</p> + +<p>He raised her to her feet and partly dragging her, partly carrying her, +got her downstairs. He was furious with Mrs Davidson and with his wife +because they made no effort to help. The half-caste was standing on the +landing and with his assistance he managed to get her on the bed. She +was moaning and crying. She was almost insensible. He gave her a +hypodermic injection. He was hot and exhausted when he went upstairs +again.</p> + +<p>"I've got her to lie down."</p> + +<p>The two women and Davidson were in the same positions as when he had +left them. They could not have moved or spoken since he went.</p> + +<p>"I was waiting for you," said Davidson, in a strange, distant voice. "I +want you all to pray with me for the soul of our erring sister."</p> + +<p>He took the Bible off a shelf, and sat down at the table at which they +had supped. It had not been cleared, and he pushed the tea-pot out of +the way. In a powerful voice, resonant and deep, he read to them the +chapter in which is narrated the meeting of Jesus Christ with the woman +taken in adultery.</p> + +<p>"Now kneel with me and let us pray for the soul of our dear sister, +Sadie Thompson."</p> + +<p>He burst into a long, passionate prayer in which he implored God to have +mercy on the sinful woman. Mrs Macphail and Mrs Davidson knelt with +covered eyes. The doctor, taken by surprise, awkward and sheepish, knelt +too. The missionary's prayer had a savage eloquence. He was +extraordinarily moved, and as he spoke the tears ran down his cheeks. +Outside, the pitiless rain fell, fell steadily, with a fierce malignity +that was all too human.</p> + +<p>At last he stopped. He paused for a moment and said:</p> + +<p>"We will now repeat the Lord's prayer."</p> + +<p>They said it and then; following him, they rose from their knees. Mrs +Davidson's face was pale and restful. She was comforted and at peace, +but the Macphails felt suddenly bashful. They did not know which way to +look.</p> + +<p>"I'll just go down and see how she is now," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>When he knocked at her door it was opened for him by Horn. Miss Thompson +was in a rocking-chair, sobbing quietly.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing there?" exclaimed Macphail. "I told you to lie +down."</p> + +<p>"I can't lie down. I want to see Mr Davidson."</p> + +<p>"My poor child, what do you think is the good of it? You'll never move +him."</p> + +<p>"He said he'd come if I sent for him."</p> + +<p>Macphail motioned to the trader.</p> + +<p>"Go and fetch him."</p> + +<p>He waited with her in silence while the trader went upstairs. Davidson +came in.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me for asking you to come here," she said, looking at him +sombrely.</p> + +<p>"I was expecting you to send for me. I knew the Lord would answer my +prayer."</p> + +<p>They stared at one another for a moment and then she looked away. She +kept her eyes averted when she spoke.</p> + +<p>"I've been a bad woman. I want to repent."</p> + +<p>"Thank God! thank God! He has heard our prayers."</p> + +<p>He turned to the two men.</p> + +<p>"Leave me alone with her. Tell Mrs Davidson that our prayers have been +answered."</p> + +<p>They went out and closed the door behind them.</p> + +<p>"Gee whizz," said the trader.</p> + +<p>That night Dr Macphail could not get to sleep till late, and when he +heard the missionary come upstairs he looked at his watch. It was two +o'clock. But even then he did not go to bed at once, for through the +wooden partition that separated their rooms he heard him praying aloud, +till he himself, exhausted, fell asleep.</p> + +<p>When he saw him next morning he was surprised at his appearance. He was +paler than ever, tired, but his eyes shone with an inhuman fire. It +looked as though he were filled with an overwhelming joy.</p> + +<p>"I want you to go down presently and see Sadie," he said. "I can't hope +that her body is better, but her soul—her soul is transformed."</p> + +<p>The doctor was feeling wan and nervous.</p> + +<p>"You were with her very late last night," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she couldn't bear to have me leave her."</p> + +<p>"You look as pleased as Punch," the doctor said irritably.</p> + +<p>Davidson's eyes shone with ecstasy.</p> + +<p>"A great mercy has been vouchsafed me. Last night I was privileged to +bring a lost soul to the loving arms of Jesus."</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson was again in the rocking-chair. The bed had not been made. +The room was in disorder. She had not troubled to dress herself, but +wore a dirty dressing-gown, and her hair was tied in a sluttish knot. +She had given her face a dab with a wet towel, but it was all swollen +and creased with crying. She looked a drab.</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes dully when the doctor came in. She was cowed and +broken.</p> + +<p>"Where's Mr Davidson?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"He'll come presently if you want him," answered Macphail acidly. "I +came here to see how you were."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess I'm O. K. You needn't worry about that."</p> + +<p>"Have you had anything to eat?"</p> + +<p>"Horn brought me some coffee."</p> + +<p>She looked anxiously at the door.</p> + +<p>"D'you think he'll come down soon? I feel as if it wasn't so terrible +when he's with me."</p> + +<p>"Are you still going on Tuesday?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he says I've got to go. Please tell him to come right along. You +can't do me any good. He's the only one as can help me now."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>During the next three days the missionary spent almost all his time with +Sadie Thompson. He joined the others only to have his meals. Dr Macphail +noticed that he hardly ate.</p> + +<p>"He's wearing himself out," said Mrs Davidson pitifully. "He'll have a +breakdown if he doesn't take care, but he won't spare himself."</p> + +<p>She herself was white and pale. She told Mrs Macphail that she had no +sleep. When the missionary came upstairs from Miss Thompson he prayed +till he was exhausted, but even then he did not sleep for long. After an +hour or two he got up and dressed himself, and went for a tramp along +the bay. He had strange dreams.</p> + +<p>"This morning he told me that he'd been dreaming about the mountains of +Nebraska," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>"That's curious," said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>He remembered seeing them from the windows of the train when he crossed +America. They were like huge mole-hills, rounded and smooth, and they +rose from the plain abruptly. Dr Macphail remembered how it struck him +that they were like a woman's breasts.</p> + +<p>Davidson's restlessness was intolerable even to himself. But he was +buoyed up by a wonderful exhilaration. He was tearing out by the roots +the last vestiges of sin that lurked in the hidden corners of that poor +woman's heart. He read with her and prayed with her.</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful," he said to them one day at supper. "It's a true +rebirth. Her soul, which was black as night, is now pure and white like +the new-fallen snow. I am humble and afraid. Her remorse for all her +sins is beautiful. I am not worthy to touch the hem of her garment."</p> + +<p>"Have you the heart to send her back to San Francisco?" said the doctor. +"Three years in an American prison. I should have thought you might have +saved her from that."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but don't you see? It's necessary. Do you think my heart doesn't +bleed for her? I love her as I love my wife and my sister. All the time +that she is in prison I shall suffer all the pain that she suffers."</p> + +<p>"Bunkum," cried the doctor impatiently.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand because you're blind. She's sinned, and she must +suffer. I know what she'll endure. She'll be starved and tortured and +humiliated. I want her to accept the punishment of man as a sacrifice to +God. I want her to accept it joyfully. She has an opportunity which is +offered to very few of us. God is very good and very merciful."</p> + +<p>Davidson's voice trembled with excitement. He could hardly articulate +the words that tumbled passionately from his lips.</p> + +<p>"All day I pray with her and when I leave her I pray again, I pray with +all my might and main, so that Jesus may grant her this great mercy. I +want to put in her heart the passionate desire to be punished so that at +the end, even if I offered to let her go, she would refuse. I want her +to feel that the bitter punishment of prison is the thank-offering that +she places at the feet of our Blessed Lord, who gave his life for her."</p> + +<p>The days passed slowly. The whole household, intent on the wretched, +tortured woman downstairs, lived in a state of unnatural excitement. She +was like a victim that was being prepared for the savage rites of a +bloody idolatry. Her terror numbed her. She could not bear to let +Davidson out of her sight; it was only when he was with her that she had +courage, and she hung upon him with a slavish dependence. She cried a +great deal, and she read the Bible, and prayed. Sometimes she was +exhausted and apathetic. Then she did indeed look forward to her ordeal, +for it seemed to offer an escape, direct and concrete, from the anguish +she was enduring. She could not bear much longer the vague terrors +which now assailed her. With her sins she had put aside all personal +vanity, and she slopped about her room, unkempt and dishevelled, in her +tawdry dressing-gown. She had not taken off her night-dress for four +days, nor put on stockings. Her room was littered and untidy. Meanwhile +the rain fell with a cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must +at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, +with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and +clammy. There was mildew on the walls and on the boots that stood on the +floor. Through the sleepless nights the mosquitoes droned their angry +chant.</p> + +<p>"If it would only stop raining for a single day it wouldn't be so bad," +said Dr Macphail.</p> + +<p>They all looked forward to the Tuesday when the boat for San Francisco +was to arrive from Sydney. The strain was intolerable. So far as Dr +Macphail was concerned, his pity and his resentment were alike +extinguished by his desire to be rid of the unfortunate woman. The +inevitable must be accepted. He felt he would breathe more freely when +the ship had sailed. Sadie Thompson was to be escorted on board by a +clerk in the governor's office. This person called on the Monday evening +and told Miss Thompson to be prepared at eleven in the morning. Davidson +was with her.</p> + +<p>"I'll see that everything is ready. I mean to come on board with her +myself."</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson did not speak.</p> + +<p>When Dr Macphail blew out his candle and crawled cautiously under his +mosquito curtains, he gave a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"Well, thank God that's over. By this time to-morrow she'll be gone."</p> + +<p>"Mrs Davidson will be glad too. She says he's wearing himself to a +shadow," said Mrs Macphail. "She's a different woman."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Sadie. I should never have thought it possible. It makes one humble."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail did not answer, and presently he fell asleep. He was tired +out, and he slept more soundly than usual.</p> + +<p>He was awakened in the morning by a hand placed on his arm, and, +starting up, saw Horn by the side of his bed. The trader put his finger +on his mouth to prevent any exclamation from Dr Macphail and beckoned to +him to come. As a rule he wore shabby ducks, but now he was barefoot and +wore only the <i>lava-lava</i> of the natives. He looked suddenly savage, and +Dr Macphail, getting out of bed, saw that he was heavily tattooed. Horn +made him a sign to come on to the verandah. Dr Macphail got out of bed +and followed the trader out.</p> + +<p>"Don't make a noise," he whispered. "You're wanted. Put on a coat and +some shoes. Quick."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail's first thought was that something had happened to Miss +Thompson.</p> + +<p>"What is it? Shall I bring my instruments?"</p> + +<p>"Hurry, please, hurry."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail crept back into the bedroom, put on a waterproof over his +pyjamas, and a pair of rubber-soled shoes. He rejoined the trader, and +together they tiptoed down the stairs. The door leading out to the road +was open and at it were standing half a dozen natives.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" repeated the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Come along with me," said Horn.</p> + +<p>He walked out and the doctor followed him. The natives came after them +in a little bunch. They crossed the road and came on to the beach. The +doctor saw a group of natives standing round some object at the water's +edge. They hurried along, a couple of dozen yards perhaps, and the +natives opened out as the doctor came up. The trader pushed him +forwards. Then he saw, lying half in the water and half out, a dreadful +object, the body of Davidson. Dr Macphail bent down—he was not a man to +lose his head in an emergency—and turned the body over. The throat was +cut from ear to ear, and in the right hand was still the razor with +which the deed was done.</p> + +<p>"He's quite cold," said the doctor. "He must have been dead some time."</p> + +<p>"One of the boys saw him lying there on his way to work just now and +came and told me. Do you think he did it himself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Someone ought to go for the police."</p> + +<p>Horn said something in the native tongue, and two youths started off.</p> + +<p>"We must leave him here till they come," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"They mustn't take him into my house. I won't have him in my house."</p> + +<p>"You'll do what the authorities say," replied the doctor sharply. "In +point of fact I expect they'll take him to the mortuary."</p> + +<p>They stood waiting where they were. The trader took a cigarette from a +fold in his <i>lava-lava</i> and gave one to Dr Macphail. They smoked while +they stared at the corpse. Dr Macphail could not understand.</p> + +<p>"Why do you think he did it?" asked Horn.</p> + +<p>The doctor shrugged his shoulders. In a little while native police came +along, under the charge of a marine, with a stretcher, and immediately +afterwards a couple of naval officers and a naval doctor. They managed +everything in a businesslike manner.</p> + +<p>"What about the wife?" said one of the officers.</p> + +<p>"Now that you've come I'll go back to the house and get some things on. +I'll see that it's broken to her. She'd better not see him till he's +been fixed up a little."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's right," said the naval doctor.</p> + +<p>When Dr Macphail went back he found his wife nearly dressed.</p> + +<p>"Mrs Davidson's in a dreadful state about her husband," she said to him +as soon as he appeared. "He hasn't been to bed all night. She heard him +leave Miss Thompson's room at two, but he went out. If he's been walking +about since then he'll be absolutely dead."</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail told her what had happened and asked her to break the news +to Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>"But why did he do it?" she asked, horror-stricken.</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"But I can't. I can't."</p> + +<p>"You must."</p> + +<p>She gave him a frightened look and went out. He heard her go into Mrs +Davidson's room. He waited a minute to gather himself together and then +began to shave and wash. When he was dressed he sat down on the bed and +waited for his wife. At last she came.</p> + +<p>"She wants to see him," she said.</p> + +<p>"They've taken him to the mortuary. We'd better go down with her. How +did she take it?"</p> + +<p>"I think she's stunned. She didn't cry. But she's trembling like a +leaf."</p> + +<p>"We'd better go at once."</p> + +<p>When they knocked at her door Mrs Davidson came out. She was very pale, +but dry-eyed. To the doctor she seemed unnaturally composed. No word was +exchanged, and they set out in silence down the road. When they arrived +at the mortuary Mrs Davidson spoke.</p> + +<p>"Let me go in and see him alone."</p> + +<p>They stood aside. A native opened a door for her and closed it behind +her. They sat down and waited. One or two white men came and talked to +them in undertones. Dr Macphail told them again what he knew of the +tragedy. At last the door was quietly opened and Mrs Davidson came out. +Silence fell upon them.</p> + +<p>"I'm ready to go back now," she said.</p> + +<p>Her voice was hard and steady. Dr Macphail could not understand the look +in her eyes. Her pale face was very stern. They walked back slowly, +never saying a word, and at last they came round the bend on the other +side of which stood their house. Mrs Davidson gave a gasp, and for a +moment they stopped still. An incredible sound assaulted their ears. The +gramophone which had been silent for so long was playing, playing +ragtime loud and harsh.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" cried Mrs Macphail with horror.</p> + +<p>"Let's go on," said Mrs Davidson.</p> + +<p>They walked up the steps and entered the hall. Miss Thompson was +standing at her door, chatting with a sailor. A sudden change had taken +place in her. She was no longer the cowed drudge of the last days. She +was dressed in all her finery, in her white dress, with the high shiny +boots over which her fat legs bulged in their cotton stockings; her hair +was elaborately arranged; and she wore that enormous hat covered with +gaudy flowers. Her face was painted, her eyebrows were boldly black, and +her lips were scarlet. She held herself erect. She was the flaunting +quean that they had known at first. As they came in she broke into a +loud, jeering laugh; and then, when Mrs Davidson involuntarily stopped, +she collected the spittle in her mouth and spat. Mrs Davidson cowered +back, and two red spots rose suddenly to her cheeks. Then, covering her +face with her hands, she broke away and ran quickly up the stairs. Dr +Macphail was outraged. He pushed past the woman into her room.</p> + +<p>"What the devil are you doing?" he cried. "Stop that damned machine."</p> + +<p>He went up to it and tore the record off. She turned on him.</p> + +<p>"Say, doc, you can that stuff with me. What the hell are you doin' in my +room?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" he cried. "What d'you mean?"</p> + +<p>She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her +expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.</p> + +<p>"You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! +Pigs!"</p> + +<p>Dr Macphail gasped. He understood.</p> + + + + +<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h3> + +<p class="r"><i>Envoi</i></p> + +<p class="non"><span class="letter">W</span>HEN +your ship leaves Honolulu they hang <i>leis</i> round your neck, +garlands of sweet smelling flowers. The wharf is crowded and the band +plays a melting Hawaiian tune. The people on board throw coloured +streamers to those standing below, and the side of the ship is gay with +the thin lines of paper, red and green and yellow and blue. When the +ship moves slowly away the streamers break softly, and it is like the +breaking of human ties. Men and women are joined together for a moment +by a gaily coloured strip of paper, red and blue and green and yellow, +and then life separates them and the paper is sundered, so easily, with +a little sharp snap. For an hour the fragments trail down the hull and +then they blow away. The flowers of your garlands fade and their scent +is oppressive. You throw them overboard.</p> + +<p class="c top15"><b>THE END</b></p> + +<hr /> + + +<table summary="by" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" +style="margin-top:20%;"> +<tr><td +style="text-align:center;border-top:6px double black; +border-bottom:2px solid black;"><span class="smcap">By</span> W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">OF HUMAN BONDAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE MOON AND SIXPENCE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">MRS. CRADDOCK</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE EXPLORER</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">THE MAGICIAN</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" +style="border-top:2px solid black; +border-bottom: 6px double black;">NEW YORK<br /> +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trembling of a Leaf, by +William Somerset Maugham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + +***** This file should be named 26854-h.htm or 26854-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/5/26854/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + +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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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 Trembling of a Leaf + Little Stories of the South Sea Islands + +Author: William Somerset Maugham + +Release Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #26854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + + + + + + + + + +THE TREMBLING +OF A LEAF + +_Little Stories of the South Sea Islands_ + +BY +W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +AUTHOR OF "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE," +"OF HUMAN BONDAGE," ETC. + +NEW YORK +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT, 1921, + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + +* * * * * + +TO +BERTRAM ALANSON + +* * * * * + +_L'extreme felicite a peine separee par +une feuille tremblante de l'extreme +desespoir, n'est-ce pas la vie?_ + +SAINTE-BEUVE. + +* * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +I THE PACIFIC + +II MACKINTOSH + +III THE FALL OF EDWARD BARNARD + +IV RED + +V THE POOL + +VI HONOLULU + +VII RAIN + +VIII ENVOI + + + + +THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF + + + + +I + +_The Pacific_ + + +The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes +it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, +and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous. It +is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is +arrogant. The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind +gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the +unknown. The billows, magnificently rolling, stretch widely on all sides +of you, and you forget your vanished youth, with its memories, cruel and +sweet, in a restless, intolerable desire for life. On such a sea as this +Ulysses sailed when he sought the Happy Isles. But there are days also +when the Pacific is like a lake. The sea is flat and shining. The flying +fish, a gleam of shadow on the brightness of a mirror, make little +fountains of sparkling drops when they dip. There are fleecy clouds on +the horizon, and at sunset they take strange shapes so that it is +impossible not to believe that you see a range of lofty mountains. They +are the mountains of the country of your dreams. You sail through an +unimaginable silence upon a magic sea. Now and then a few gulls suggest +that land is not far off, a forgotten island hidden in a wilderness of +waters; but the gulls, the melancholy gulls, are the only sign you have +of it. You see never a tramp, with its friendly smoke, no stately bark +or trim schooner, not a fishing boat even: it is an empty desert; and +presently the emptiness fills you with a vague foreboding. + + + + +II + +_Mackintosh_ + + +He splashed about for a few minutes in the sea; it was too shallow to +swim in and for fear of sharks he could not go out of his depth; then he +got out and went into the bath-house for a shower. The coldness of the +fresh water was grateful after the heavy stickiness of the salt Pacific, +so warm, though it was only just after seven, that to bathe in it did +not brace you but rather increased your languor; and when he had dried +himself, slipping into a bath-gown, he called out to the Chinese cook +that he would be ready for breakfast in five minutes. He walked barefoot +across the patch of coarse grass which Walker, the administrator, +proudly thought was a lawn, to his own quarters and dressed. This did +not take long, for he put on nothing but a shirt and a pair of duck +trousers and then went over to his chief's house on the other side of +the compound. The two men had their meals together, but the Chinese cook +told him that Walker had set out on horseback at five and would not be +back for another hour. + +Mackintosh had slept badly and he looked with distaste at the paw-paw +and the eggs and bacon which were set before him. The mosquitoes had +been maddening that night; they flew about the net under which he slept +in such numbers that their humming, pitiless and menacing, had the +effect of a note, infinitely drawn out, played on a distant organ, and +whenever he dozed off he awoke with a start in the belief that one had +found its way inside his curtains. It was so hot that he lay naked. He +turned from side to side. And gradually the dull roar of the breakers on +the reef, so unceasing and so regular that generally you did not hear +it, grew distinct on his consciousness, its rhythm hammered on his tired +nerves and he held himself with clenched hands in the effort to bear it. +The thought that nothing could stop that sound, for it would continue to +all eternity, was almost impossible to bear, and, as though his strength +were a match for the ruthless forces of nature, he had an insane impulse +to do some violent thing. He felt he must cling to his self-control or +he would go mad. And now, looking out of the window at the lagoon and +the strip of foam which marked the reef, he shuddered with hatred of the +brilliant scene. The cloudless sky was like an inverted bowl that hemmed +it in. He lit his pipe and turned over the pile of Auckland papers that +had come over from Apia a few days before. The newest of them was three +weeks old. They gave an impression of incredible dullness. + +Then he went into the office. It was a large, bare room with two desks +in it and a bench along one side. A number of natives were seated on +this, and a couple of women. They gossiped while they waited for the +administrator, and when Mackintosh came in they greeted him. + +"_Talofa li._" + +He returned their greeting and sat down at his desk. He began to write, +working on a report which the governor of Samoa had been clamouring for +and which Walker, with his usual dilatoriness, had neglected to prepare. +Mackintosh as he made his notes reflected vindictively that Walker was +late with his report because he was so illiterate that he had an +invincible distaste for anything to do with pens and paper; and now when +it was at last ready, concise and neatly official, he would accept his +subordinate's work without a word of appreciation, with a sneer rather +or a gibe, and send it on to his own superior as though it were his own +composition. He could not have written a word of it. Mackintosh thought +with rage that if his chief pencilled in some insertion it would be +childish in expression and faulty in language. If he remonstrated or +sought to put his meaning into an intelligible phrase, Walker would fly +into a passion and cry: + +"What the hell do I care about grammar? That's what I want to say and +that's how I want to say it." + +At last Walker came in. The natives surrounded him as he entered, trying +to get his immediate attention, but he turned on them roughly and told +them to sit down and hold their tongues. He threatened that if they were +not quiet he would have them all turned out and see none of them that +day. He nodded to Mackintosh. + +"Hulloa, Mac; up at last? I don't know how you can waste the best part +of the day in bed. You ought to have been up before dawn like me. Lazy +beggar." + +He threw himself heavily into his chair and wiped his face with a large +bandana. + +"By heaven, I've got a thirst." + +He turned to the policeman who stood at the door, a picturesque figure +in his white jacket and _lava-lava_, the loin cloth of the Samoan, and +told him to bring _kava_. The _kava_ bowl stood on the floor in the +corner of the room, and the policeman filled a half coconut shell and +brought it to Walker. He poured a few drops on the ground, murmured the +customary words to the company, and drank with relish. Then he told the +policeman to serve the waiting natives, and the shell was handed to each +one in order of birth or importance and emptied with the same +ceremonies. + +Then he set about the day's work. He was a little man, considerably less +than of middle height, and enormously stout; he had a large, fleshy +face, clean-shaven, with the cheeks hanging on each side in great +dew-laps, and three vast chins; his small features were all dissolved in +fat; and, but for a crescent of white hair at the back of his head, he +was completely bald. He reminded you of Mr Pickwick. He was grotesque, a +figure of fun, and yet, strangely enough, not without dignity. His blue +eyes, behind large gold-rimmed spectacles, were shrewd and vivacious, +and there was a great deal of determination in his face. He was sixty, +but his native vitality triumphed over advancing years. Notwithstanding +his corpulence his movements were quick, and he walked with a heavy, +resolute tread as though he sought to impress his weight upon the earth. +He spoke in a loud, gruff voice. + +It was two years now since Mackintosh had been appointed Walker's +assistant. Walker, who had been for a quarter of a century administrator +of Talua, one of the larger islands in the Samoan group, was a man known +in person or by report through the length and breadth of the South Seas; +and it was with lively curiosity that Mackintosh looked forward to his +first meeting with him. For one reason or another he stayed a couple of +weeks at Apia before he took up his post and both at Chaplin's hotel and +at the English club he heard innumerable stories about the +administrator. He thought now with irony of his interest in them. Since +then he had heard them a hundred times from Walker himself. Walker knew +that he was a character, and, proud of his reputation, deliberately +acted up to it. He was jealous of his "legend" and anxious that you +should know the exact details of any of the celebrated stories that were +told of him. He was ludicrously angry with anyone who had told them to +the stranger incorrectly. + +There was a rough cordiality about Walker which Mackintosh at first +found not unattractive, and Walker, glad to have a listener to whom all +he said was fresh, gave of his best. He was good-humoured, hearty, and +considerate. To Mackintosh, who had lived the sheltered life of a +government official in London till at the age of thirty-four an attack +of pneumonia, leaving him with the threat of tuberculosis, had forced +him to seek a post in the Pacific, Walker's existence seemed +extraordinarily romantic. The adventure with which he started on his +conquest of circumstance was typical of the man. He ran away to sea when +he was fifteen and for over a year was employed in shovelling coal on a +collier. He was an undersized boy and both men and mates were kind to +him, but the captain for some reason conceived a savage dislike of him. +He used the lad cruelly so that, beaten and kicked, he often could not +sleep for the pain that racked his limbs. He loathed the captain with +all his soul. Then he was given a tip for some race and managed to +borrow twenty-five pounds from a friend he had picked up in Belfast. He +put it on the horse, an outsider, at long odds. He had no means of +repaying the money if he lost, but it never occurred to him that he +could lose. He felt himself in luck. The horse won and he found himself +with something over a thousand pounds in hard cash. Now his chance had +come. He found out who was the best solicitor in the town--the collier +lay then somewhere on the Irish coast--went to him, and, telling him +that he heard the ship was for sale, asked him to arrange the purchase +for him. The solicitor was amused at his small client, he was only +sixteen and did not look so old, and, moved perhaps by sympathy, +promised not only to arrange the matter for him but to see that he made +a good bargain. After a little while Walker found himself the owner of +the ship. He went back to her and had what he described as the most +glorious moment of his life when he gave the skipper notice and told him +that he must get off _his_ ship in half an hour. He made the mate +captain and sailed on the collier for another nine months, at the end of +which he sold her at a profit. + +He came out to the islands at the age of twenty-six as a planter. He was +one of the few white men settled in Talua at the time of the German +occupation and had then already some influence with the natives. The +Germans made him administrator, a position which he occupied for twenty +years, and when the island was seized by the British he was confirmed in +his post. He ruled the island despotically, but with complete success. +The prestige of this success was another reason for the interest that +Mackintosh took in him. + +But the two men were not made to get on. Mackintosh was an ugly man, +with ungainly gestures, a tall thin fellow, with a narrow chest and +bowed shoulders. He had sallow, sunken cheeks, and his eyes were large +and sombre. He was a great reader, and when his books arrived and were +unpacked Walker came over to his quarters and looked at them. Then he +turned to Mackintosh with a coarse laugh. + +"What in Hell have you brought all this muck for?" he asked. + +Mackintosh flushed darkly. + +"I'm sorry you think it muck. I brought my books because I want to read +them." + +"When you said you'd got a lot of books coming I thought there'd be +something for me to read. Haven't you got any detective stories?" + +"Detective stories don't interest me." + +"You're a damned fool then." + +"I'm content that you should think so." + +Every mail brought Walker a mass of periodical literature, papers from +New Zealand and magazines from America, and it exasperated him that +Mackintosh showed his contempt for these ephemeral publications. He had +no patience with the books that absorbed Mackintosh's leisure and +thought it only a pose that he read Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ or +Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_. And since he had never learned to put +any restraint on his tongue, he expressed his opinion of his assistant +freely. Mackintosh began to see the real man, and under the boisterous +good-humour he discerned a vulgar cunning which was hateful; he was vain +and domineering, and it was strange that he had notwithstanding a +shyness which made him dislike people who were not quite of his kidney. +He judged others, naively, by their language, and if it was free from +the oaths and the obscenity which made up the greater part of his own +conversation, he looked upon them with suspicion. In the evening the two +men played piquet. He played badly but vaingloriously, crowing over his +opponent when he won and losing his temper when he lost. On rare +occasions a couple of planters or traders would drive over to play +bridge, and then Walker showed himself in what Mackintosh considered a +characteristic light. He played regardless of his partner, calling up +in his desire to play the hand, and argued interminably, beating down +opposition by the loudness of his voice. He constantly revoked, and when +he did so said with an ingratiating whine: "Oh, you wouldn't count it +against an old man who can hardly see." Did he know that his opponents +thought it as well to keep on the right side of him and hesitated to +insist on the rigour of the game? Mackintosh watched him with an icy +contempt. When the game was over, while they smoked their pipes and +drank whisky, they would begin telling stories. Walker told with gusto +the story of his marriage. He had got so drunk at the wedding feast that +the bride had fled and he had never seen her since. He had had +numberless adventures, commonplace and sordid, with the women of the +island and he described them with a pride in his own prowess which was +an offence to Mackintosh's fastidious ears. He was a gross, sensual old +man. He thought Mackintosh a poor fellow because he would not share his +promiscuous amours and remained sober when the company was drunk. + +He despised him also for the orderliness with which he did his official +work. Mackintosh liked to do everything just so. His desk was always +tidy, his papers were always neatly docketed, he could put his hand on +any document that was needed, and he had at his fingers' ends all the +regulations that were required for the business of their administration. + +"Fudge, fudge," said Walker. "I've run this island for twenty years +without red tape, and I don't want it now." + +"Does it make it any easier for you that when you want a letter you have +to hunt half an hour for it?" answered Mackintosh. + +"You're nothing but a damned official. But you're not a bad fellow; when +you've been out here a year or two you'll be all right. What's wrong +about you is that you won't drink. You wouldn't be a bad sort if you got +soused once a week." + +The curious thing was that Walker remained perfectly unconscious of the +dislike for him which every month increased in the breast of his +subordinate. Although he laughed at him, as he grew accustomed to him, +he began almost to like him. He had a certain tolerance for the +peculiarities of others, and he accepted Mackintosh as a queer fish. +Perhaps he liked him, unconsciously, because he could chaff him. His +humour consisted of coarse banter and he wanted a butt. Mackintosh's +exactness, his morality, his sobriety, were all fruitful subjects; his +Scot's name gave an opportunity for the usual jokes about Scotland; he +enjoyed himself thoroughly when two or three men were there and he could +make them all laugh at the expense of Mackintosh. He would say +ridiculous things about him to the natives, and Mackintosh, his +knowledge of Samoan still imperfect, would see their unrestrained mirth +when Walker had made an obscene reference to him. He smiled +good-humouredly. + +"I'll say this for you, Mac," Walker would say in his gruff loud voice, +"you can take a joke." + +"Was it a joke?" smiled Mackintosh. "I didn't know." + +"Scots wha hae!" shouted Walker, with a bellow of laughter. "There's +only one way to make a Scotchman see a joke and that's by a surgical +operation." + +Walker little knew that there was nothing Mackintosh could stand less +than chaff. He would wake in the night, the breathless night of the +rainy season, and brood sullenly over the gibe that Walker had uttered +carelessly days before. It rankled. His heart swelled with rage, and he +pictured to himself ways in which he might get even with the bully. He +had tried answering him, but Walker had a gift of repartee, coarse and +obvious, which gave him an advantage. The dullness of his intellect made +him impervious to a delicate shaft. His self-satisfaction made it +impossible to wound him. His loud voice, his bellow of laughter, were +weapons against which Mackintosh had nothing to counter, and he learned +that the wisest thing was never to betray his irritation. He learned to +control himself. But his hatred grew till it was a monomania. He watched +Walker with an insane vigilance. He fed his own self-esteem by every +instance of meanness on Walker's part, by every exhibition of childish +vanity, of cunning and of vulgarity. Walker ate greedily, noisily, +filthily, and Mackintosh watched him with satisfaction. He took note of +the foolish things he said and of his mistakes in grammar. He knew that +Walker held him in small esteem, and he found a bitter satisfaction in +his chief's opinion of him; it increased his own contempt for the +narrow, complacent old man. And it gave him a singular pleasure to know +that Walker was entirely unconscious of the hatred he felt for him. He +was a fool who liked popularity, and he blandly fancied that everyone +admired him. Once Mackintosh had overheard Walker speaking of him. + +"He'll be all right when I've licked him into shape," he said. "He's a +good dog and he loves his master." + +Mackintosh silently, without a movement of his long, sallow face, +laughed long and heartily. + +But his hatred was not blind; on the contrary, it was peculiarly +clear-sighted, and he judged Walker's capabilities with precision. He +ruled his small kingdom with efficiency. He was just and honest. With +opportunities to make money he was a poorer man than when he was first +appointed to his post, and his only support for his old age was the +pension which he expected when at last he retired from official life. +His pride was that with an assistant and a half-caste clerk he was able +to administer the island more competently than Upolu, the island of +which Apia is the chief town, was administered with its army of +functionaries. He had a few native policemen to sustain his authority, +but he made no use of them. He governed by bluff and his Irish humour. + +"They insisted on building a jail for me," he said. "What the devil do I +want a jail for? I'm not going to put the natives in prison. If they do +wrong I know how to deal with them." + +One of his quarrels with the higher authorities at Apia was that he +claimed entire jurisdiction over the natives of his island. Whatever +their crimes he would not give them up to courts competent to deal with +them, and several times an angry correspondence had passed between him +and the Governor at Upolu. For he looked upon the natives as his +children. And that was the amazing thing about this coarse, vulgar, +selfish man; he loved the island on which he had lived so long with +passion, and he had for the natives a strange rough tenderness which was +quite wonderful. + +He loved to ride about the island on his old grey mare and he was never +tired of its beauty. Sauntering along the grassy roads among the coconut +trees he would stop every now and then to admire the loveliness of the +scene. Now and then he would come upon a native village and stop while +the head man brought him a bowl of _kava_. He would look at the little +group of bell-shaped huts with their high thatched roofs, like beehives, +and a smile would spread over his fat face. His eyes rested happily on +the spreading green of the bread-fruit trees. + +"By George, it's like the garden of Eden." + +Sometimes his rides took him along the coast and through the trees he +had a glimpse of the wide sea, empty, with never a sail to disturb the +loneliness; sometimes he climbed a hill so that a great stretch of +country, with little villages nestling among the tall trees, was spread +out before him like the kingdom of the world, and he would sit there +for an hour in an ecstasy of delight. But he had no words to express +his feelings and to relieve them would utter an obscene jest; it was as +though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the +tension. + +Mackintosh observed this sentiment with an icy disdain. Walker had +always been a heavy drinker, he was proud of his capacity to see men +half his age under the table when he spent a night in Apia, and he had +the sentimentality of the toper. He could cry over the stories he read +in his magazines and yet would refuse a loan to some trader in +difficulties whom he had known for twenty years. He was close with his +money. Once Mackintosh said to him: + +"No one could accuse you of giving money away." + +He took it as a compliment. His enthusiasm for nature was but the +drivelling sensibility of the drunkard. Nor had Mackintosh any sympathy +for his chief's feelings towards the natives. He loved them because they +were in his power, as a selfish man loves his dog, and his mentality was +on a level with theirs. Their humour was obscene and he was never at a +loss for the lewd remark. He understood them and they understood him. He +was proud of his influence over them. He looked upon them as his +children and he mixed himself in all their affairs. But he was very +jealous of his authority; if he ruled them with a rod of iron, brooking +no contradiction, he would not suffer any of the white men on the island +to take advantage of them. He watched the missionaries suspiciously +and, if they did anything of which he disapproved, was able to make life +so unendurable to them that if he could not get them removed they were +glad to go of their own accord. His power over the natives was so great +that on his word they would refuse labour and food to their pastor. On +the other hand he showed the traders no favour. He took care that they +should not cheat the natives; he saw that they got a fair reward for +their work and their copra and that the traders made no extravagant +profit on the wares they sold them. He was merciless to a bargain that +he thought unfair. Sometimes the traders would complain at Apia that +they did not get fair opportunities. They suffered for it. Walker then +hesitated at no calumny, at no outrageous lie, to get even with them, +and they found that if they wanted not only to live at peace, but to +exist at all, they had to accept the situation on his own terms. More +than once the store of a trader obnoxious to him had been burned down, +and there was only the appositeness of the event to show that the +administrator had instigated it. Once a Swedish half-caste, ruined by +the burning, had gone to him and roundly accused him of arson. Walker +laughed in his face. + +"You dirty dog. Your mother was a native and you try to cheat the +natives. If your rotten old store is burned down it's a judgment of +Providence; that's what it is, a judgment of Providence. Get out." + +And as the man was hustled out by two native policemen the administrator +laughed fatly. + +"A judgment of Providence." + +And now Mackintosh watched him enter upon the day's work. He began with +the sick, for Walker added doctoring to his other activities, and he had +a small room behind the office full of drugs. An elderly man came +forward, a man with a crop of curly grey hair, in a blue _lava-lava_, +elaborately tatooed, with the skin of his body wrinkled like a +wine-skin. + +"What have you come for?" Walker asked him abruptly. + +In a whining voice the man said that he could not eat without vomiting +and that he had pains here and pains there. + +"Go to the missionaries," said Walker. "You know that I only cure +children." + +"I have been to the missionaries and they do me no good." + +"Then go home and prepare yourself to die. Have you lived so long and +still want to go on living? You're a fool." + +The man broke into querulous expostulation, but Walker, pointing to a +woman with a sick child in her arms, told her to bring it to his desk. +He asked her questions and looked at the child. + +"I will give you medicine," he said. He turned to the half-caste clerk. +"Go into the dispensary and bring me some calomel pills." + +He made the child swallow one there and then and gave another to the +mother. + +"Take the child away and keep it warm. To-morrow it will be dead or +better." + +He leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe. + +"Wonderful stuff, calomel. I've saved more lives with it than all the +hospital doctors at Apia put together." + +Walker was very proud of his skill, and with the dogmatism of ignorance +had no patience with the members of the medical profession. + +"The sort of case I like," he said, "is the one that all the doctors +have given up as hopeless. When the doctors have said they can't cure +you, I say to them, 'come to me.' Did I ever tell you about the fellow +who had a cancer?" + +"Frequently," said Mackintosh. + +"I got him right in three months." + +"You've never told me about the people you haven't cured." + +He finished this part of the work and went on to the rest. It was a +queer medley. There was a woman who could not get on with her husband +and a man who complained that his wife had run away from him. + +"Lucky dog," said Walker. "Most men wish their wives would too." + +There was a long complicated quarrel about the ownership of a few yards +of land. There was a dispute about the sharing out of a catch of fish. +There was a complaint against a white trader because he had given short +measure. Walker listened attentively to every case, made up his mind +quickly, and gave his decision. Then he would listen to nothing more; if +the complainant went on he was hustled out of the office by a +policeman. Mackintosh listened to it all with sullen irritation. On the +whole, perhaps, it might be admitted that rough justice was done, but it +exasperated the assistant that his chief trusted his instinct rather +than the evidence. He would not listen to reason. He browbeat the +witnesses and when they did not see what he wished them to called them +thieves and liars. + +He left to the last a group of men who were sitting in the corner of the +room. He had deliberately ignored them. The party consisted of an old +chief, a tall, dignified man with short, white hair, in a new +_lava-lava_, bearing a huge fly wisp as a badge of office, his son, and +half a dozen of the important men of the village. Walker had had a feud +with them and had beaten them. As was characteristic of him he meant now +to rub in his victory, and because he had them down to profit by their +helplessness. The facts were peculiar. Walker had a passion for building +roads. When he had come to Talua there were but a few tracks here and +there, but in course of time he had cut roads through the country, +joining the villages together, and it was to this that a great part of +the island's prosperity was due. Whereas in the old days it had been +impossible to get the produce of the land, copra chiefly, down to the +coast where it could be put on schooners or motor launches and so taken +to Apia, now transport was easy and simple. His ambition was to make a +road right round the island and a great part of it was already built. + +"In two years I shall have done it, and then I can die or they can fire +me, I don't care." + +His roads were the joy of his heart and he made excursions constantly to +see that they were kept in order. They were simple enough, wide tracks, +grass covered, cut through the scrub or through the plantations; but +trees had to be rooted out, rocks dug up or blasted, and here and there +levelling had been necessary. He was proud that he had surmounted by his +own skill such difficulties as they presented. He rejoiced in his +disposition of them so that they were not only convenient, but showed +off the beauties of the island which his soul loved. When he spoke of +his roads he was almost a poet. They meandered through those lovely +scenes, and Walker had taken care that here and there they should run in +a straight line, giving you a green vista through the tall trees, and +here and there should turn and curve so that the heart was rested by the +diversity. It was amazing that this coarse and sensual man should +exercise so subtle an ingenuity to get the effects which his fancy +suggested to him. He had used in making his roads all the fantastic +skill of a Japanese gardener. He received a grant from headquarters for +the work but took a curious pride in using but a small part of it, and +the year before had spent only a hundred pounds of the thousand assigned +to him. + +"What do they want money for?" he boomed. "They'll only spend it on all +kinds of muck they don't want; what the missionaries leave them, that is +to say." + +For no particular reason, except perhaps pride in the economy of his +administration and the desire to contrast his efficiency with the +wasteful methods of the authorities at Apia, he got the natives to do +the work he wanted for wages that were almost nominal. It was owing to +this that he had lately had difficulty with the village whose chief men +now were come to see him. The chief's son had been in Upolu for a year +and on coming back had told his people of the large sums that were paid +at Apia for the public works. In long, idle talks he had inflamed their +hearts with the desire for gain. He held out to them visions of vast +wealth and they thought of the whisky they could buy--it was dear, since +there was a law that it must not be sold to natives, and so it cost them +double what the white man had to pay for it--they thought of the great +sandal-wood boxes in which they kept their treasures, and the scented +soap and potted salmon, the luxuries for which the Kanaka will sell his +soul; so that when the administrator sent for them and told them he +wanted a road made from their village to a certain point along the coast +and offered them twenty pounds, they asked him a hundred. The chief's +son was called Manuma. He was a tall, handsome fellow, copper-coloured, +with his fuzzy hair dyed red with lime, a wreath of red berries round +his neck, and behind his ear a flower like a scarlet flame against his +brown face. The upper part of his body was naked, but to show that he +was no longer a savage, since he had lived in Apia, he wore a pair of +dungarees instead of a _lava-lava_. He told them that if they held +together the administrator would be obliged to accept their terms. His +heart was set on building the road and when he found they would not work +for less he would give them what they asked. But they must not move; +whatever he said they must not abate their claim; they had asked a +hundred and that they must keep to. When they mentioned the figure, +Walker burst into a shout of his long, deep-voiced laughter. He told +them not to make fools of themselves, but to set about the work at once. +Because he was in a good humour that day he promised to give them a +feast when the road was finished. But when he found that no attempt was +made to start work, he went to the village and asked the men what silly +game they were playing. Manuma had coached them well. They were quite +calm, they did not attempt to argue--and argument is a passion with the +Kanaka--they merely shrugged their shoulders: they would do it for a +hundred pounds, and if he would not give them that they would do no +work. He could please himself. They did not care. Then Walker flew into +a passion. He was ugly then. His short fat neck swelled ominously, his +red face grew purple, he foamed at the mouth. He set upon the natives +with invective. He knew well how to wound and how to humiliate. He was +terrifying. The older men grew pale and uneasy. They hesitated. If it +had not been for Manuma, with his knowledge of the great world, and +their dread of his ridicule, they would have yielded. It was Manuma who +answered Walker. + +"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work." + +Walker, shaking his fist at him, called him every name he could think +of. He riddled him with scorn. Manuma sat still and smiled. There may +have been more bravado than confidence in his smile, but he had to make +a good show before the others. He repeated his words. + +"Pay us a hundred pounds and we will work." + +They thought that Walker would spring on him. It would not have been the +first time that he had thrashed a native with his own hands; they knew +his strength, and though Walker was three times the age of the young man +and six inches shorter they did not doubt that he was more than a match +for Manuma. No one had ever thought of resisting the savage onslaught of +the administrator. But Walker said nothing. He chuckled. + +"I am not going to waste my time with a pack of fools," he said. "Talk +it over again. You know what I have offered. If you do not start in a +week, take care." + +He turned round and walked out of the chief's hut. He untied his old +mare and it was typical of the relations between him and the natives +that one of the elder men hung on to the off stirrup while Walker from a +convenient boulder hoisted himself heavily into the saddle. + +That same night when Walker according to his habit was strolling along +the road that ran past his house, he heard something whizz past him and +with a thud strike a tree. Something had been thrown at him. He ducked +instinctively. With a shout, "Who's that"? he ran towards the place from +which the missile had come and he heard the sound of a man escaping +through the bush. He knew it was hopeless to pursue in the darkness, and +besides he was soon out of breath, so he stopped and made his way back +to the road. He looked about for what had been thrown, but could find +nothing. It was quite dark. He went quickly back to the house and called +Mackintosh and the Chinese boy. + +"One of those devils has thrown something at me. Come along and let's +find out what it was." + +He told the boy to bring a lantern and the three of them made their way +back to the place. They hunted about the ground, but could not find what +they sought. Suddenly the boy gave a guttural cry. They turned to look. +He held up the lantern, and there, sinister in the light that cut the +surrounding darkness, was a long knife sticking into the trunk of a +coconut tree. It had been thrown with such force that it required quite +an effort to pull it out. + +"By George, if he hadn't missed me I'd have been in a nice state." + +Walker handled the knife. It was one of those knives, made in imitation +of the sailor knives brought to the islands a hundred years before by +the first white men, used to divide the coconuts in two so that the +copra might be dried. It was a murderous weapon, and the blade, twelve +inches long, was very sharp. Walker chuckled softly. + +"The devil, the impudent devil." + +He had no doubt it was Manuma who had flung the knife. He had escaped +death by three inches. He was not angry. On the contrary, he was in high +spirits; the adventure exhilarated him, and when they got back to the +house, calling for drinks, he rubbed his hands gleefully. + +"I'll make them pay for this!" + +His little eyes twinkled. He blew himself out like a turkey-cock, and +for the second time within half an hour insisted on telling Mackintosh +every detail of the affair. Then he asked him to play piquet, and while +they played he boasted of his intentions. Mackintosh listened with +tightened lips. + +"But why should you grind them down like this?" he asked. "Twenty pounds +is precious little for the work you want them to do." + +"They ought to be precious thankful I give them anything." + +"Hang it all, it's not your own money. The government allots you a +reasonable sum. They won't complain if you spend it." + +"They're a bunch of fools at Apia." + +Mackintosh saw that Walker's motive was merely vanity. He shrugged his +shoulders. + +"It won't do you much good to score off the fellows at Apia at the cost +of your life." + +"Bless you, they wouldn't hurt me, these people. They couldn't do +without me. They worship me. Manuma is a fool. He only threw that knife +to frighten me." + +The next day Walker rode over again to the village. It was called +Matautu. He did not get off his horse. When he reached the chief's +house he saw that the men were sitting round the floor in a circle, +talking, and he guessed they were discussing again the question of the +road. The Samoan huts are formed in this way: Trunks of slender trees +are placed in a circle at intervals of perhaps five or six feet; a tall +tree is set in the middle and from this downwards slopes the thatched +roof. Venetian blinds of coconut leaves can be pulled down at night or +when it is raining. Ordinarily the hut is open all round so that the +breeze can blow through freely. Walker rode to the edge of the hut and +called out to the chief. + +"Oh, there, Tangatu, your son left his knife in a tree last night. I +have brought it back to you." + +He flung it down on the ground in the midst of the circle, and with a +low burst of laughter ambled off. + +On Monday he went out to see if they had started work. There was no sign +of it. He rode through the village. The inhabitants were about their +ordinary avocations. Some were weaving mats of the pandanus leaf, one +old man was busy with a _kava_ bowl, the children were playing, the +women went about their household chores. Walker, a smile on his lips, +came to the chief's house. + +"_Talofa-li_," said the chief. + +"_Talofa_," answered Walker. + +Manuma was making a net. He sat with a cigarette between his lips and +looked up at Walker with a smile of triumph. + +"You have decided that you will not make the road?" + +The chief answered. + +"Not unless you pay us one hundred pounds." + +"You will regret it." He turned to Manuma. "And you, my lad, I shouldn't +wonder if your back was very sore before you're much older." + +He rode away chuckling. He left the natives vaguely uneasy. They feared +the fat sinful old man, and neither the missionaries' abuse of him nor +the scorn which Manuma had learnt in Apia made them forget that he had a +devilish cunning and that no man had ever braved him without in the long +run suffering for it. They found out within twenty-four hours what +scheme he had devised. It was characteristic. For next morning a great +band of men, women, and children came into the village and the chief men +said that they had made a bargain with Walker to build the road. He had +offered them twenty pounds and they had accepted. Now the cunning lay in +this, that the Polynesians have rules of hospitality which have all the +force of laws; an etiquette of absolute rigidity made it necessary for +the people of the village not only to give lodging to the strangers, but +to provide them with food and drink as long as they wished to stay. The +inhabitants of Matautu were outwitted. Every morning the workers went +out in a joyous band, cut down trees, blasted rocks, levelled here and +there and then in the evening tramped back again, and ate and drank, ate +heartily, danced, sang hymns, and enjoyed life. For them it was a +picnic. But soon their hosts began to wear long faces; the strangers +had enormous appetites, and the plantains and the bread-fruit vanished +before their rapacity; the alligator-pear trees, whose fruit sent to +Apia might sell for good money, were stripped bare. Ruin stared them in +the face. And then they found that the strangers were working very +slowly. Had they received a hint from Walker that they might take their +time? At this rate by the time the road was finished there would not be +a scrap of food in the village. And worse than this, they were a +laughing-stock; when one or other of them went to some distant hamlet on +an errand he found that the story had got there before him, and he was +met with derisive laughter. There is nothing the Kanaka can endure less +than ridicule. It was not long before much angry talk passed among the +sufferers. Manuma was no longer a hero; he had to put up with a good +deal of plain speaking, and one day what Walker had suggested came to +pass: a heated argument turned into a quarrel and half a dozen of the +young men set upon the chief's son and gave him such a beating that for +a week he lay bruised and sore on the pandanus mats. He turned from side +to side and could find no ease. Every day or two the administrator rode +over on his old mare and watched the progress of the road. He was not a +man to resist the temptation of taunting the fallen foe, and he missed +no opportunity to rub into the shamed inhabitants of Matautu the +bitterness of their humiliation. He broke their spirit. And one morning, +putting their pride in their pockets, a figure of speech, since pockets +they had not, they all set out with the strangers and started working on +the road. It was urgent to get it done quickly if they wanted to save +any food at all, and the whole village joined in. But they worked +silently, with rage and mortification in their hearts, and even the +children toiled in silence. The women wept as they carried away bundles +of brushwood. When Walker saw them he laughed so much that he almost +rolled out of his saddle. The news spread quickly and tickled the people +of the island to death. This was the greatest joke of all, the crowning +triumph of that cunning old white man whom no Kanaka had ever been able +to circumvent; and they came from distant villages, with their wives and +children, to look at the foolish folk who had refused twenty pounds to +make the road and now were forced to work for nothing. But the harder +they worked the more easily went the guests. Why should they hurry, when +they were getting good food for nothing and the longer they took about +the job the better the joke became? At last the wretched villagers could +stand it no longer, and they were come this morning to beg the +administrator to send the strangers back to their own homes. If he would +do this they promised to finish the road themselves for nothing. For him +it was a victory complete and unqualified. They were humbled. A look of +arrogant complacence spread over his large, naked face, and he seemed to +swell in his chair like a great bullfrog. There was something sinister +in his appearance, so that Mackintosh shivered with disgust. Then in +his booming tones he began to speak. + +"Is it for my good that I make the road? What benefit do you think I get +out of it? It is for you, so that you can walk in comfort and carry your +copra in comfort. I offered to pay you for your work, though it was for +your own sake the work was done. I offered to pay you generously. Now +_you_ must pay. I will send the people of Manua back to their homes if +you will finish the road and pay the twenty pounds that I have to pay +them." + +There was an outcry. They sought to reason with him. They told him they +had not the money. But to everything they said he replied with brutal +gibes. Then the clock struck. + +"Dinner time," he said. "Turn them all out." + +He raised himself heavily from his chair and walked out of the room. +When Mackintosh followed him he found him already seated at table, a +napkin tied round his neck, holding his knife and fork in readiness for +the meal the Chinese cook was about to bring. He was in high spirits. + +"I did 'em down fine," he said, as Mackintosh sat down. "I shan't have +much trouble with the roads after this." + +"I suppose you were joking," said Mackintosh icily. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"You're not really going to make them pay twenty pounds?" + +"You bet your life I am." + +"I'm not sure you've got any right to." + +"Ain't you? I guess I've got the right to do any damned thing I like on +this island." + +"I think you've bullied them quite enough." + +Walker laughed fatly. He did not care what Mackintosh thought. + +"When I want your opinion I'll ask for it." Mackintosh grew very white. +He knew by bitter experience that he could do nothing but keep silence, +and the violent effort at self-control made him sick and faint. He could +not eat the food that was before him and with disgust he watched Walker +shovel meat into his vast mouth. He was a dirty feeder, and to sit at +table with him needed a strong stomach. Mackintosh shuddered. A +tremendous desire seized him to humiliate that gross and cruel man; he +would give anything in the world to see him in the dust, suffering as +much as he had made others suffer. He had never loathed the bully with +such loathing as now. + +The day wore on. Mackintosh tried to sleep after dinner, but the passion +in his heart prevented him; he tried to read, but the letters swam +before his eyes. The sun beat down pitilessly, and he longed for rain; +but he knew that rain would bring no coolness; it would only make it +hotter and more steamy. He was a native of Aberdeen and his heart +yearned suddenly for the icy winds that whistled through the granite +streets of that city. Here he was a prisoner, imprisoned not only by +that placid sea, but by his hatred for that horrible old man. He pressed +his hands to his aching head. He would like to kill him. But he pulled +himself together. He must do something to distract his mind, and since +he could not read he thought he would set his private papers in order. +It was a job which he had long meant to do and which he had constantly +put off. He unlocked the drawer of his desk and took out a handful of +letters. He caught sight of his revolver. An impulse, no sooner realised +than set aside, to put a bullet through his head and so escape from the +intolerable bondage of life flashed through his mind. He noticed that in +the damp air the revolver was slightly rusted, and he got an oil rag and +began to clean it. It was while he was thus occupied that he grew aware +of someone slinking round the door. He looked up and called: + +"Who is there?" + +There was a moment's pause, then Manuma showed himself. + +"What do you want?" + +The chief's son stood for a moment, sullen and silent, and when he spoke +it was with a strangled voice. + +"We can't pay twenty pounds. We haven't the money." + +"What am I to do?" said Mackintosh. "You heard what Mr Walker said." + +Manuma began to plead, half in Samoan and half in English. It was a +sing-song whine, with the quavering intonations of a beggar, and it +filled Mackintosh with disgust. It outraged him that the man should let +himself be so crushed. He was a pitiful object. + +"I can do nothing," said Mackintosh irritably. "You know that Mr Walker +is master here." + +Manuma was silent again. He still stood in the doorway. + +"I am sick," he said at last. "Give me some medicine." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"I do not know. I am sick. I have pains in my body." + +"Don't stand there," said Mackintosh sharply. "Come in and let me look +at you." + +Manuma entered the little room and stood before the desk. + +"I have pains here and here." + +He put his hands to his loins and his face assumed an expression of +pain. Suddenly Mackintosh grew conscious that the boy's eyes were +resting on the revolver which he had laid on the desk when Manuma +appeared in the doorway. There was a silence between the two which to +Mackintosh was endless. He seemed to read the thoughts which were in the +Kanaka's mind. His heart beat violently. And then he felt as though +something possessed him so that he acted under the compulsion of a +foreign will. Himself did not make the movements of his body, but a +power that was strange to him. His throat was suddenly dry, and he put +his hand to it mechanically in order to help his speech. He was impelled +to avoid Manuma's eyes. + +"Just wait here," he said, his voice sounded as though someone had +seized him by the windpipe, "and I'll fetch you something from the +dispensary." + +He got up. Was it his fancy that he staggered a little? Manuma stood +silently, and though he kept his eyes averted, Mackintosh knew that he +was looking dully out of the door. It was this other person that +possessed him that drove him out of the room, but it was himself that +took a handful of muddled papers and threw them on the revolver in order +to hide it from view. He went to the dispensary. He got a pill and +poured out some blue draught into a small bottle, and then came out into +the compound. He did not want to go back into his own bungalow, so he +called to Manuma. + +"Come here." + +He gave him the drugs and instructions how to take them. He did not know +what it was that made it impossible for him to look at the Kanaka. While +he was speaking to him he kept his eyes on his shoulder. Manuma took the +medicine and slunk out of the gate. + +Mackintosh went into the dining-room and turned over once more the old +newspapers. But he could not read them. The house was very still. Walker +was upstairs in his room asleep, the Chinese cook was busy in the +kitchen, the two policemen were out fishing. The silence that seemed to +brood over the house was unearthly, and there hammered in Mackintosh's +head the question whether the revolver still lay where he had placed it. +He could not bring himself to look. The uncertainty was horrible, but +the certainty would be more horrible still. He sweated. At last he could +stand the silence no longer, and he made up his mind to go down the +road to the trader's, a man named Jervis, who had a store about a mile +away. He was a half-caste, but even that amount of white blood made him +possible to talk to. He wanted to get away from his bungalow, with the +desk littered with untidy papers, and underneath them something, or +nothing. He walked along the road. As he passed the fine hut of a chief +a greeting was called out to him. Then he came to the store. Behind the +counter sat the trader's daughter, a swarthy broad-featured girl in a +pink blouse and a white drill skirt. Jervis hoped he would marry her. He +had money, and he had told Mackintosh that his daughter's husband would +be well-to-do. She flushed a little when she saw Mackintosh. + +"Father's just unpacking some cases that have come in this morning. I'll +tell him you're here." + +He sat down and the girl went out behind the shop. In a moment her +mother waddled in, a huge old woman, a chiefess, who owned much land in +her own right; and gave him her hand. Her monstrous obesity was an +offence, but she managed to convey an impression of dignity. She was +cordial without obsequiousness; affable, but conscious of her station. + +"You're quite a stranger, Mr Mackintosh. Teresa was saying only this +morning: 'Why, we never see Mr Mackintosh now.'" + +He shuddered a little as he thought of himself as that old native's +son-in-law. It was notorious that she ruled her husband, notwithstanding +his white blood, with a firm hand. Hers was the authority and hers the +business head. She might be no more than Mrs Jervis to the white people, +but her father had been a chief of the blood royal, and his father and +his father's father had ruled as kings. The trader came in, small beside +his imposing wife, a dark man with a black beard going grey, in ducks, +with handsome eyes and flashing teeth. He was very British, and his +conversation was slangy, but you felt he spoke English as a foreign +tongue; with his family he used the language of his native mother. He +was a servile man, cringing and obsequious. + +"Ah, Mr Mackintosh, this is a joyful surprise. Get the whisky, Teresa; +Mr Mackintosh will have a gargle with us." + +He gave all the latest news of Apia, watching his guest's eyes the +while, so that he might know the welcome thing to say. + +"And how is Walker? We've not seen him just lately. Mrs Jervis is going +to send him a sucking-pig one day this week." + +"I saw him riding home this morning," said Teresa. + +"Here's how," said Jervis, holding up his whisky. + +Mackintosh drank. The two women sat and looked at him, Mrs Jervis in her +black Mother Hubbard, placid and haughty, and Teresa, anxious to smile +whenever she caught his eye, while the trader gossiped insufferably. + +"They were saying in Apia it was about time Walker retired. He ain't so +young as he was. Things have changed since he first come to the islands +and he ain't changed with them." + +"He'll go too far," said the old chiefess. "The natives aren't +satisfied." + +"That was a good joke about the road," laughed the trader. "When I told +them about it in Apia they fair split their sides with laughing. Good +old Walker." + +Mackintosh looked at him savagely. What did he mean by talking of him in +that fashion? To a half-caste trader he was Mr Walker. It was on his +tongue to utter a harsh rebuke for the impertinence. He did not know +what held him back. + +"When he goes I hope you'll take his place, Mr Mackintosh," said Jervis. +"We all like you on the island. You understand the natives. They're +educated now, they must be treated differently to the old days. It wants +an educated man to be administrator now. Walker was only a trader same +as I am." + +Teresa's eyes glistened. + +"When the time comes if there's anything anyone can do here, you bet +your bottom dollar we'll do it. I'd get all the chiefs to go over to +Apia and make a petition." + +Mackintosh felt horribly sick. It had not struck him that if anything +happened to Walker it might be he who would succeed him. It was true +that no one in his official position knew the island so well. He got up +suddenly and scarcely taking his leave walked back to the compound. And +now he went straight to his room. He took a quick look at his desk. He +rummaged among the papers. + +The revolver was not there. + +His heart thumped violently against his ribs. He looked for the revolver +everywhere. He hunted in the chairs and in the drawers. He looked +desperately, and all the time he knew he would not find it. Suddenly he +heard Walker's gruff, hearty voice. + +"What the devil are you up to, Mac?" + +He started. Walker was standing in the doorway and instinctively he +turned round to hide what lay upon his desk. + +"Tidying up?" quizzed Walker. "I've told 'em to put the grey in the +trap. I'm going down to Tafoni to bathe. You'd better come along." + +"All right," said Mackintosh. + +So long as he was with Walker nothing could happen. The place they were +bound for was about three miles away, and there was a fresh-water pool, +separated by a thin barrier of rock from the sea, which the +administrator had blasted out for the natives to bathe in. He had done +this at spots round the island, wherever there was a spring; and the +fresh water, compared with the sticky warmth of the sea, was cool and +invigorating. They drove along the silent grassy road, splashing now and +then through fords, where the sea had forced its way in, past a couple +of native villages, the bell-shaped huts spaced out roomily and the +white chapel in the middle, and at the third village they got out of the +trap, tied up the horse, and walked down to the pool. They were +accompanied by four or five girls and a dozen children. Soon they were +all splashing about, shouting and laughing, while Walker, in a +_lava-lava_, swam to and fro like an unwieldy porpoise. He made lewd +jokes with the girls, and they amused themselves by diving under him and +wriggling away when he tried to catch them. When he was tired he lay +down on a rock, while the girls and children surrounded him; it was a +happy family; and the old man, huge, with his crescent of white hair and +his shining bald crown, looked like some old sea god. Once Mackintosh +caught a queer soft look in his eyes. + +"They're dear children," he said. "They look upon me as their father." + +And then without a pause he turned to one of the girls and made an +obscene remark which sent them all into fits of laughter. Mackintosh +started to dress. With his thin legs and thin arms he made a grotesque +figure, a sinister Don Quixote, and Walker began to make coarse jokes +about him. They were acknowledged with little smothered laughs. +Mackintosh struggled with his shirt. He knew he looked absurd, but he +hated being laughed at. He stood silent and glowering. + +"If you want to get back in time for dinner you ought to come soon." + +"You're not a bad fellow, Mac. Only you're a fool. When you're doing one +thing you always want to do another. That's not the way to live." + +But all the same he raised himself slowly to his feet and began to put +on his clothes. They sauntered back to the village, drank a bowl of +_kava_ with the chief, and then, after a joyful farewell from all the +lazy villagers, drove home. + +After dinner, according to his habit, Walker, lighting his cigar, +prepared to go for a stroll. Mackintosh was suddenly seized with fear. + +"Don't you think it's rather unwise to go out at night by yourself just +now?" + +Walker stared at him with his round blue eyes. + +"What the devil do you mean?" + +"Remember the knife the other night. You've got those fellows' backs +up." + +"Pooh! They wouldn't dare." + +"Someone dared before." + +"That was only a bluff. They wouldn't hurt me. They look upon me as a +father. They know that whatever I do is for their own good." + +Mackintosh watched him with contempt in his heart. The man's +self-complacency outraged him, and yet something, he knew not what, made +him insist. + +"Remember what happened this morning. It wouldn't hurt you to stay at +home just to-night. I'll play piquet with you." + +"I'll play piquet with you when I come back. The Kanaka isn't born yet +who can make me alter my plans." + +"You'd better let me come with you." + +"You stay where you are." + +Mackintosh shrugged his shoulders. He had given the man full warning. If +he did not heed it that was his own lookout. Walker put on his hat and +went out. Mackintosh began to read; but then he thought of something; +perhaps it would be as well to have his own whereabouts quite clear. He +crossed over to the kitchen and, inventing some pretext, talked for a +few minutes with the cook. Then he got out the gramophone and put a +record on it, but while it ground out its melancholy tune, some comic +song of a London music-hall, his ear was strained for a sound away there +in the night. At his elbow the record reeled out its loudness, the words +were raucous, but notwithstanding he seemed to be surrounded by an +unearthly silence. He heard the dull roar of the breakers against the +reef. He heard the breeze sigh, far up, in the leaves of the coconut +trees. How long would it be? It was awful. + +He heard a hoarse laugh. + +"Wonders will never cease. It's not often you play yourself a tune, +Mac." + +Walker stood at the window, red-faced, bluff and jovial. + +"Well, you see I'm alive and kicking. What were you playing for?" + +Walker came in. + +"Nerves a bit dicky, eh? Playing a tune to keep your pecker up?" + +"I was playing your requiem." + +"What the devil's that?" + +"'Alf o' bitter an' a pint of stout." + +"A rattling good song too. I don't mind how often I hear it. Now I'm +ready to take your money off you at piquet." + +They played and Walker bullied his way to victory, bluffing his +opponent, chaffing him, jeering at his mistakes, up to every dodge, +browbeating him, exulting. Presently Mackintosh recovered his coolness, +and standing outside himself, as it were, he was able to take a detached +pleasure in watching the overbearing old man and in his own cold +reserve. Somewhere Manuma sat quietly and awaited his opportunity. + +Walker won game after game and pocketed his winnings at the end of the +evening in high good humour. + +"You'll have to grow a little bit older before you stand much chance +against me, Mac. The fact is I have a natural gift for cards." + +"I don't know that there's much gift about it when I happen to deal you +fourteen aces." + +"Good cards come to good players," retorted Walker. "I'd have won if I'd +had your hands." + +He went on to tell long stories of the various occasions on which he had +played cards with notorious sharpers and to their consternation had +taken all their money from them. He boasted. He praised himself. And +Mackintosh listened with absorption. He wanted now to feed his hatred; +and everything Walker said, every gesture, made him more detestable. At +last Walker got up. + +"Well, I'm going to turn in," he said with a loud yawn. "I've got a long +day to-morrow." + +"What are you going to do?" + +"I'm driving over to the other side of the island. I'll start at five, +but I don't expect I shall get back to dinner till late." + +They generally dined at seven. + +"We'd better make it half past seven then." + +"I guess it would be as well." + +Mackintosh watched him knock the ashes out of his pipe. His vitality was +rude and exuberant. It was strange to think that death hung over him. A +faint smile flickered in Mackintosh's cold, gloomy eyes. + +"Would you like me to come with you?" + +"What in God's name should I want that for? I'm using the mare and +she'll have enough to do to carry me; she don't want to drag you over +thirty miles of road." + +"Perhaps you don't quite realise what the feeling is at Matautu. I think +it would be safer if I came with you." + +Walker burst into contemptuous laughter. + +"You'd be a fine lot of use in a scrap. I'm not a great hand at getting +the wind up." + +Now the smile passed from Mackintosh's eyes to his lips. It distorted +them painfully. + +"_Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat._" + +"What the hell is that?" said Walker. + +"Latin," answered Mackintosh as he went out. + +And now he chuckled. His mood had changed. He had done all he could and +the matter was in the hands of fate. He slept more soundly than he had +done for weeks. When he awoke next morning he went out. After a good +night he found a pleasant exhilaration in the freshness of the early +air. The sea was a more vivid blue, the sky more brilliant, than on most +days, the trade wind was fresh, and there was a ripple on the lagoon as +the breeze brushed over it like velvet brushed the wrong way. He felt +himself stronger and younger. He entered upon the day's work with zest. +After luncheon he slept again, and as evening drew on he had the bay +saddled and sauntered through the bush. He seemed to see it all with new +eyes. He felt more normal. The extraordinary thing was that he was able +to put Walker out of his mind altogether. So far as he was concerned he +might never have existed. + +He returned late, hot after his ride, and bathed again. Then he sat on +the verandah, smoking his pipe, and looked at the day declining over the +lagoon. In the sunset the lagoon, rosy and purple and green, was very +beautiful. He felt at peace with the world and with himself. When the +cook came out to say that dinner was ready and to ask whether he should +wait, Mackintosh smiled at him with friendly eyes. He looked at his +watch. + +"It's half-past seven. Better not wait. One can't tell when the boss'll +be back." + +The boy nodded, and in a moment Mackintosh saw him carry across the yard +a bowl of steaming soup. He got up lazily, went into the dining-room, +and ate his dinner. Had it happened? The uncertainty was amusing and +Mackintosh chuckled in the silence. The food did not seem so monotonous +as usual, and even though there was Hamburger steak, the cook's +invariable dish when his poor invention failed him, it tasted by some +miracle succulent and spiced. After dinner he strolled over lazily to +his bungalow to get a book. He liked the intense stillness, and now +that the night had fallen the stars were blazing in the sky. He shouted +for a lamp and in a moment the Chink pattered over on his bare feet, +piercing the darkness with a ray of light. He put the lamp on the desk +and noiselessly slipped out of the room. Mackintosh stood rooted to the +floor, for there, half hidden by untidy papers, was his revolver. His +heart throbbed painfully, and he broke into a sweat. It was done then. + +He took up the revolver with a shaking hand. Four of the chambers were +empty. He paused a moment and looked suspiciously out into the night, +but there was no one there. He quickly slipped four cartridges into the +empty chambers and locked the revolver in his drawer. + +He sat down to wait. + +An hour passed, a second hour passed. There was nothing. He sat at his +desk as though he were writing, but he neither wrote nor read. He merely +listened. He strained his ears for a sound travelling from a far +distance. At last he heard hesitating footsteps and knew it was the +Chinese cook. + +"Ah-Sung," he called. + +The boy came to the door. + +"Boss velly late," he said. "Dinner no good." + +Mackintosh stared at him, wondering whether he knew what had happened, +and whether, when he knew, he would realise on what terms he and Walker +had been. He went about his work, sleek, silent, and smiling, and who +could tell his thoughts? + +"I expect he's had dinner on the way, but you must keep the soup hot at +all events." + +The words were hardly out of his mouth when the silence was suddenly +broken into by a confusion, cries, and a rapid patter of naked feet. A +number of natives ran into the compound, men and women and children; +they crowded round Mackintosh and they all talked at once. They were +unintelligible. They were excited and frightened and some of them were +crying. Mackintosh pushed his way through them and went to the gateway. +Though he had scarcely understood what they said he knew quite well what +had happened. And as he reached the gate the dog-cart arrived. The old +mare was being led by a tall Kanaka, and in the dog-cart crouched two +men, trying to hold Walker up. A little crowd of natives surrounded it. + +The mare was led into the yard and the natives surged in after it. +Mackintosh shouted to them to stand back and the two policemen, sprang +suddenly from God knows where, pushed them violently aside. By now he +had managed to understand that some lads who had been fishing, on their +way back to their village had come across the cart on the home side of +the ford. The mare was nuzzling about the herbage and in the darkness +they could just see the great white bulk of the old man sunk between the +seat and the dashboard. At first they thought he was drunk and they +peered in, grinning, but then they heard him groan, and guessed that +something was amiss. They ran to the village and called for help. It was +when they returned, accompanied by half a hundred people, that they +discovered Walker had been shot. + +With a sudden thrill of horror Mackintosh asked himself whether he was +already dead. The first thing at all events was to get him out of the +cart, and that, owing to Walker's corpulence, was a difficult job. It +took four strong men to lift him. They jolted him and he uttered a dull +groan. He was still alive. At last they carried him into the house, up +the stairs, and placed him on his bed. Then Mackintosh was able to see +him, for in the yard, lit only by half a dozen hurricane lamps, +everything had been obscured. Walker's white ducks were stained with +blood, and the men who had carried him wiped their hands, red and +sticky, on their _lava-lavas_. Mackintosh held up the lamp. He had not +expected the old man to be so pale. His eyes were closed. He was +breathing still, his pulse could be just felt, but it was obvious that +he was dying. Mackintosh had not bargained for the shock of horror that +convulsed him. He saw that the native clerk was there, and in a voice +hoarse with fear told him to go into the dispensary and get what was +necessary for a hypodermic injection. One of the policemen had brought +up the whisky, and Mackintosh forced a little into the old man's mouth. +The room was crowded with natives. They sat about the floor, speechless +now and terrified, and every now and then one wailed aloud. It was very +hot, but Mackintosh felt cold, his hands and his feet were like ice, and +he had to make a violent effort not to tremble in all his limbs. He did +not know what to do. He did not know if Walker was bleeding still, and +if he was, how he could stop the bleeding. + +The clerk brought the hypodermic needle. + +"You give it to him," said Mackintosh. "You're more used to that sort of +thing than I am." + +His head ached horribly. It felt as though all sorts of little savage +things were beating inside it, trying to get out. They watched for the +effect of the injection. Presently Walker opened his eyes slowly. He did +not seem to know where he was. + +"Keep quiet," said Mackintosh. "You're at home. You're quite safe." + +Walker's lips outlined a shadowy smile. + +"They've got me," he whispered. + +"I'll get Jervis to send his motor-boat to Apia at once. We'll get a +doctor out by to-morrow afternoon." + +There was a long pause before the old man answered, + +"I shall be dead by then." + +A ghastly expression passed over Mackintosh's pale face. He forced +himself to laugh. + +"What rot! You keep quiet and you'll be as right as rain." + +"Give me a drink," said Walker. "A stiff one." + +With shaking hand Mackintosh poured out whisky and water, half and half, +and held the glass while Walker drank greedily. It seemed to restore +him. He gave a long sigh and a little colour came into his great fleshy +face. Mackintosh felt extraordinarily helpless. He stood and stared at +the old man. + +"If you'll tell me what to do I'll do it," he said. + +"There's nothing to do. Just leave me alone. I'm done for." + +He looked dreadfully pitiful as he lay on the great bed, a huge, +bloated, old man; but so wan, so weak, it was heart-rending. As he +rested, his mind seemed to grow clearer. + +"You were right, Mac," he said presently. "You warned me." + +"I wish to God I'd come with you." + +"You're a good chap, Mac, only you don't drink." + +There was another long silence, and it was clear that Walker was +sinking. There was an internal haemorrhage and even Mackintosh in his +ignorance could not fail to see that his chief had but an hour or two to +live. He stood by the side of the bed stock still. For half an hour +perhaps Walker lay with his eyes closed, then he opened them. + +"They'll give you my job," he said, slowly. "Last time I was in Apia I +told them you were all right. Finish my road. I want to think that'll be +done. All round the island." + +"I don't want your job. You'll get all right." + +Walker shook his head wearily. + +"I've had my day. Treat them fairly, that's the great thing. They're +children. You must always remember that. You must be firm with them, but +you must be kind. And you must be just. I've never made a bob out of +them. I haven't saved a hundred pounds in twenty years. The road's the +great thing. Get the road finished." + +Something very like a sob was wrung from Mackintosh. + +"You're a good fellow, Mac. I always liked you." + +He closed his eyes, and Mackintosh thought that he would never open them +again. His mouth was so dry that he had to get himself something to +drink. The Chinese cook silently put a chair for him. He sat down by the +side of the bed and waited. He did not know how long a time passed. The +night was endless. Suddenly one of the men sitting there broke into +uncontrollable sobbing, loudly, like a child, and Mackintosh grew aware +that the room was crowded by this time with natives. They sat all over +the floor on their haunches, men and women, staring at the bed. + +"What are all these people doing here?" said Mackintosh. "They've got no +right. Turn them out, turn them out, all of them." + +His words seemed to rouse Walker, for he opened his eyes once more, and +now they were all misty. He wanted to speak, but he was so weak that +Mackintosh had to strain his ears to catch what he said. + +"Let them stay. They're my children. They ought to be here." + +Mackintosh turned to the natives. + +"Stay where you are. He wants you. But be silent." + +A faint smile came over the old man's white face. + +"Come nearer," he said. + +Mackintosh bent over him. His eyes were closed and the words he said +were like a wind sighing through the fronds of the coconut trees. + +"Give me another drink. I've got something to say." + +This time Mackintosh gave him his whisky neat. Walker collected his +strength in a final effort of will. + +"Don't make a fuss about this. In 'ninety-five when there were troubles +white men were killed, and the fleet came and shelled the villages. A +lot of people were killed who'd had nothing to do with it. They're +damned fools at Apia. If they make a fuss they'll only punish the wrong +people. I don't want anyone punished." + +He paused for a while to rest. + +"You must say it was an accident. No one's to blame. Promise me that." + +"I'll do anything you like," whispered Mackintosh. + +"Good chap. One of the best. They're children. I'm their father. A +father don't let his children get into trouble if he can help it." + +A ghost of a chuckle came out of his throat. It was astonishingly weird +and ghastly. + +"You're a religious chap, Mac. What's that about forgiving them? You +know." + +For a while Mackintosh did not answer. His lips trembled. + +"Forgive them, for they know not what they do?" + +"That's right. Forgive them. I've loved them, you know, always loved +them." + +He sighed. His lips faintly moved, and now Mackintosh had to put his +ears quite close to them in order to hear. + +"Hold my hand," he said. + +Mackintosh gave a gasp. His heart seemed wrenched. He took the old man's +hand, so cold and weak, a coarse, rough hand, and held it in his own. +And thus he sat until he nearly started out of his seat, for the silence +was suddenly broken by a long rattle. It was terrible and unearthly. +Walker was dead. Then the natives broke out with loud cries. The tears +ran down their faces, and they beat their breasts. + +Mackintosh disengaged his hand from the dead man's, and staggering like +one drunk with sleep he went out of the room. He went to the locked +drawer in his writing-desk and took out the revolver. He walked down to +the sea and walked into the lagoon; he waded out cautiously, so that he +should not trip against a coral rock, till the water came to his +arm-pits. Then he put a bullet through his head. + +An hour later half a dozen slim brown sharks were splashing and +struggling at the spot where he fell. + + + + +III + +_The Fall of Edward Barnard_ + + +Bateman Hunter slept badly. For a fortnight on the boat that brought him +from Tahiti to San Francisco he had been thinking of the story he had to +tell, and for three days on the train he had repeated to himself the +words in which he meant to tell it. But in a few hours now he would be +in Chicago, and doubts assailed him. His conscience, always very +sensitive, was not at ease. He was uncertain that he had done all that +was possible, it was on his honour to do much more than the possible, +and the thought was disturbing that, in a matter which so nearly touched +his own interest, he had allowed his interest to prevail over his +quixotry. Self-sacrifice appealed so keenly to his imagination that the +inability to exercise it gave him a sense of disillusion. He was like +the philanthropist who with altruistic motives builds model dwellings +for the poor and finds that he has made a lucrative investment. He +cannot prevent the satisfaction he feels in the ten per cent which +rewards the bread he had cast upon the waters, but he has an awkward +feeling that it detracts somewhat from the savour of his virtue. Bateman +Hunter knew that his heart was pure, but he was not quite sure how +steadfastly, when he told her his story, he would endure the scrutiny +of Isabel Longstaffe's cool grey eyes. They were far-seeing and wise. +She measured the standards of others by her own meticulous uprightness +and there could be no greater censure than the cold silence with which +she expressed her disapproval of a conduct that did not satisfy her +exacting code. There was no appeal from her judgment, for, having made +up her mind, she never changed it. But Bateman would not have had her +different. He loved not only the beauty of her person, slim and +straight, with the proud carriage of her head, but still more the beauty +of her soul. With her truthfulness, her rigid sense of honour, her +fearless outlook, she seemed to him to collect in herself all that was +most admirable in his countrywomen. But he saw in her something more +than the perfect type of the American girl, he felt that her +exquisiteness was peculiar in a way to her environment, and he was +assured that no city in the world could have produced her but Chicago. A +pang seized him when he remembered that he must deal so bitter a blow to +her pride, and anger flamed up in his heart when he thought of Edward +Barnard. + +But at last the train steamed in to Chicago and he exulted when he saw +the long streets of grey houses. He could hardly bear his impatience at +the thought of State and Wabash with their crowded pavements, their +hustling traffic, and their noise. He was at home. And he was glad that +he had been born in the most important city in the United States. San +Francisco was provincial, New York was effete; the future of America +lay in the development of its economic possibilities, and Chicago, by +its position and by the energy of its citizens, was destined to become +the real capital of the country. + +"I guess I shall live long enough to see it the biggest city in the +world," Bateman said to himself as he stepped down to the platform. + +His father had come to meet him, and after a hearty handshake, the pair +of them, tall, slender, and well-made, with the same fine, ascetic +features and thin lips, walked out of the station. Mr Hunter's +automobile was waiting for them and they got in. Mr Hunter caught his +son's proud and happy glance as he looked at the street. + +"Glad to be back, son?" he asked. + +"I should just think I was," said Bateman. + +His eyes devoured the restless scene. + +"I guess there's a bit more traffic here than in your South Sea island," +laughed Mr Hunter. "Did you like it there?" + +"Give me Chicago, dad," answered Bateman. + +"You haven't brought Edward Barnard back with you." + +"No." + +"How was he?" + +Bateman was silent for a moment, and his handsome, sensitive face +darkened. + +"I'd sooner not speak about him, dad," he said at last. + +"That's all right, my son. I guess your mother will be a happy woman +to-day." + +They passed out of the crowded streets in the Loop and drove along the +lake till they came to the imposing house, an exact copy of a chateau on +the Loire, which Mr Hunter had built himself some years before. As soon +as Bateman was alone in his room he asked for a number on the telephone. +His heart leaped when he heard the voice that answered him. + +"Good-morning, Isabel," he said gaily. + +"Good-morning, Bateman." + +"How did you recognise my voice?" + +"It is not so long since I heard it last. Besides, I was expecting you." + +"When may I see you?" + +"Unless you have anything better to do perhaps you'll dine with us +to-night." + +"You know very well that I couldn't possibly have anything better to +do." + +"I suppose that you're full of news?" + +He thought he detected in her voice a note of apprehension. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"Well, you must tell me to-night. Good-bye." + +She rang off. It was characteristic of her that she should be able to +wait so many unnecessary hours to know what so immensely concerned her. +To Bateman there was an admirable fortitude in her restraint. + +At dinner, at which beside himself and Isabel no one was present but her +father and mother, he watched her guide the conversation into the +channels of an urbane small-talk, and it occurred to him that in just +such a manner would a marquise under the shadow of the guillotine toy +with the affairs of a day that would know no morrow. Her delicate +features, the aristocratic shortness of her upper lip, and her wealth of +fair hair suggested the marquise again, and it must have been obvious, +even if it were not notorious, that in her veins flowed the best blood +in Chicago. The dining-room was a fitting frame to her fragile beauty, +for Isabel had caused the house, a replica of a palace on the Grand +Canal at Venice, to be furnished by an English expert in the style of +Louis XV; and the graceful decoration linked with the name of that +amorous monarch enhanced her loveliness and at the same time acquired +from it a more profound significance. For Isabel's mind was richly +stored, and her conversation, however light, was never flippant. She +spoke now of the _Musicale_ to which she and her mother had been in the +afternoon, of the lectures which an English poet was giving at the +Auditorium, of the political situation, and of the Old Master which her +father had recently bought for fifty thousand dollars in New York. It +comforted Bateman to hear her. He felt that he was once more in the +civilised world, at the centre of culture and distinction; and certain +voices, troubling and yet against his will refusing to still their +clamour, were at last silent in his heart. + +"Gee, but it's good to be back in Chicago," he said. + +At last dinner was over, and when they went out of the dining-room +Isabel said to her mother: + +"I'm going to take Bateman along to my den. We have various things to +talk about." + +"Very well, my dear," said Mrs Longstaffe. "You'll find your father and +me in the Madame du Barry room when you're through." + +Isabel led the young man upstairs and showed him into the room of which +he had so many charming memories. Though he knew it so well he could not +repress the exclamation of delight which it always wrung from him. She +looked round with a smile. + +"I think it's a success," she said. "The main thing is that it's right. +There's not even an ashtray that isn't of the period." + +"I suppose that's what makes it so wonderful. Like all you do it's so +superlatively right." + +They sat down in front of a log fire and Isabel looked at him with calm +grave eyes. + +"Now what have you to say to me?" she asked. + +"I hardly know how to begin." + +"Is Edward Barnard coming back?" + +"No." + +There was a long silence before Bateman spoke again, and with each of +them it was filled with many thoughts. It was a difficult story he had +to tell, for there were things in it which were so offensive to her +sensitive ears that he could not bear to tell them, and yet in justice +to her, no less than in justice to himself, he must tell her the whole +truth. + +It had all begun long ago when he and Edward Barnard, still at college, +had met Isabel Longstaffe at the tea-party given to introduce her to +society. They had both known her when she was a child and they +long-legged boys, but for two years she had been in Europe to finish her +education and it was with a surprised delight that they renewed +acquaintance with the lovely girl who returned. Both of them fell +desperately in love with her, but Bateman saw quickly that she had eyes +only for Edward, and, devoted to his friend, he resigned himself to the +role of confidant. He passed bitter moments, but he could not deny that +Edward was worthy of his good fortune, and, anxious that nothing should +impair the friendship he so greatly valued, he took care never by a hint +to disclose his own feelings. In six months the young couple were +engaged. But they were very young and Isabel's father decided that they +should not marry at least till Edward graduated. They had to wait a +year. Bateman remembered the winter at the end of which Isabel and +Edward were to be married, a winter of dances and theatre-parties and of +informal gaieties at which he, the constant third, was always present. +He loved her no less because she would shortly be his friend's wife; her +smile, a gay word she flung him, the confidence of her affection, never +ceased to delight him; and he congratulated himself, somewhat +complacently, because he did not envy them their happiness. Then an +accident happened. A great bank failed, there was a panic on the +exchange, and Edward Barnard's father found himself a ruined man. He +came home one night, told his wife that he was penniless, and after +dinner, going into his study, shot himself. + +A week later, Edward Barnard, with a tired, white face, went to Isabel +and asked her to release him. Her only answer was to throw her arms +round his neck and burst into tears. + +"Don't make it harder for me, sweet," he said. + +"Do you think I can let you go now? I love you." + +"How can I ask you to marry me? The whole thing's hopeless. Your father +would never let you. I haven't a cent." + +"What do I care? I love you." + +He told her his plans. He had to earn money at once, and George +Braunschmidt, an old friend of his family, had offered to take him into +his own business. He was a South Sea merchant, and he had agencies in +many of the islands of the Pacific. He had suggested that Edward should +go to Tahiti for a year or two, where under the best of his managers he +could learn the details of that varied trade, and at the end of that +time he promised the young man a position in Chicago. It was a wonderful +opportunity, and when he had finished his explanations Isabel was once +more all smiles. + +"You foolish boy, why have you been trying to make me miserable?" + +His face lit up at her words and his eyes flashed. + +"Isabel, you don't mean to say you'll wait for me?" + +"Don't you think you're worth it?" she smiled. + +"Ah, don't laugh at me now. I beseech you to be serious. It may be for +two years." + +"Have no fear. I love you, Edward. When you come back I will marry +you." + +Edward's employer was a man who did not like delay and he had told him +that if he took the post he offered he must sail that day week from San +Francisco. Edward spent his last evening with Isabel. It was after +dinner that Mr Longstaffe, saying he wanted a word with Edward, took him +into the smoking-room. Mr Longstaffe had accepted good-naturedly the +arrangement which his daughter had told him of and Edward could not +imagine what mysterious communication he had now to make. He was not a +little perplexed to see that his host was embarrassed. He faltered. He +talked of trivial things. At last he blurted it out. + +"I guess you've heard of Arnold Jackson," he said, looking at Edward +with a frown. + +Edward hesitated. His natural truthfulness obliged him to admit a +knowledge he would gladly have been able to deny. + +"Yes, I have. But it's a long time ago. I guess I didn't pay very much +attention." + +"There are not many people in Chicago who haven't heard of Arnold +Jackson," said Mr Longstaffe bitterly, "and if there are they'll have no +difficulty in finding someone who'll be glad to tell them. Did you know +he was Mrs Longstaffe's brother?" + +"Yes, I knew that." + +"Of course we've had no communication with him for many years. He left +the country as soon as he was able to, and I guess the country wasn't +sorry to see the last of him. We understand he lives in Tahiti. My +advice to you is to give him a wide berth, but if you do hear anything +about him Mrs Longstaffe and I would be very glad if you'd let us know." + +"Sure." + +"That was all I wanted to say to you. Now I daresay you'd like to join +the ladies." + +There are few families that have not among their members one whom, if +their neighbours permitted, they would willingly forget, and they are +fortunate when the lapse of a generation or two has invested his +vagaries with a romantic glamour. But when he is actually alive, if his +peculiarities are not of the kind that can be condoned by the phrase, +"he is nobody's enemy but his own," a safe one when the culprit has no +worse to answer for than alcoholism or wandering affections, the only +possible course is silence. And it was this which the Longstaffes had +adopted towards Arnold Jackson. They never talked of him. They would not +even pass through the street in which he had lived. Too kind to make his +wife and children suffer for his misdeeds, they had supported them for +years, but on the understanding that they should live in Europe. They +did everything they could to blot out all recollection of Arnold Jackson +and yet were conscious that the story was as fresh in the public mind as +when first the scandal burst upon a gaping world. Arnold Jackson was as +black a sheep as any family could suffer from. A wealthy banker, +prominent in his church, a philanthropist, a man respected by all, not +only for his connections (in his veins ran the blue blood of Chicago), +but also for his upright character, he was arrested one day on a charge +of fraud; and the dishonesty which the trial brought to light was not of +the sort which could be explained by a sudden temptation; it was +deliberate and systematic. Arnold Jackson was a rogue. When he was sent +to the penitentiary for seven years there were few who did not think he +had escaped lightly. + +When at the end of this last evening the lovers separated it was with +many protestations of devotion. Isabel, all tears, was consoled a little +by her certainty of Edward's passionate love. It was a strange feeling +that she had. It made her wretched to part from him and yet she was +happy because he adored her. + +This was more than two years ago. + +He had written to her by every mail since then, twenty-four letters in +all, for the mail went but once a month, and his letters had been all +that a lover's letters should be. They were intimate and charming, +humorous sometimes, especially of late, and tender. At first they +suggested that he was homesick, they were full of his desire to get back +to Chicago and Isabel; and, a little anxiously, she wrote begging him to +persevere. She was afraid that he might throw up his opportunity and +come racing back. She did not want her lover to lack endurance and she +quoted to him the lines: + + _"I could not love thee, dear, so much,_ + _Loved I not honour more."_ + +But presently he seemed to settle down and it made Isabel very happy to +observe his growing enthusiasm to introduce American methods into that +forgotten corner of the world. But she knew him, and at the end of the +year, which was the shortest time he could possibly stay in Tahiti, she +expected to have to use all her influence to dissuade him from coming +home. It was much better that he should learn the business thoroughly, +and if they had been able to wait a year there seemed no reason why they +should not wait another. She talked it over with Bateman Hunter, always +the most generous of friends (during those first few days after Edward +went she did not know what she would have done without him), and they +decided that Edward's future must stand before everything. It was with +relief that she found as the time passed that he made no suggestion of +returning. + +"He's splendid, isn't he?" she exclaimed to Bateman. + +"He's white, through and through." + +"Reading between the lines of his letter I know he hates it over there, +but he's sticking it out because...." + +She blushed a little and Bateman, with the grave smile which was so +attractive in him, finished the sentence for her. + +"Because he loves you." + +"It makes me feel so humble," she said. + +"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're perfectly wonderful." + +But the second year passed and every month Isabel continued to receive a +letter from Edward, and presently it began to seem a little strange +that he did not speak of coming back. He wrote as though he were +settled definitely in Tahiti, and what was more, comfortably settled. +She was surprised. Then she read his letters again, all of them, several +times; and now, reading between the lines indeed, she was puzzled to +notice a change which had escaped her. The later letters were as tender +and as delightful as the first, but the tone was different. She was +vaguely suspicious of their humour, she had the instinctive mistrust of +her sex for that unaccountable quality, and she discerned in them now a +flippancy which perplexed her. She was not quite certain that the Edward +who wrote to her now was the same Edward that she had known. One +afternoon, the day after a mail had arrived from Tahiti, when she was +driving with Bateman he said to her: + +"Did Edward tell you when he was sailing?" + +"No, he didn't mention it. I thought he might have said something to you +about it." + +"Not a word." + +"You know what Edward is," she laughed in reply, "he has no sense of +time. If it occurs to you next time you write you might ask him when +he's thinking of coming." + +Her manner was so unconcerned that only Bateman's acute sensitiveness +could have discerned in her request a very urgent desire. He laughed +lightly. + +"Yes. I'll ask him. I can't imagine what he's thinking about." + +A few days later, meeting him again, she noticed that something troubled +him. They had been much together since Edward left Chicago; they were +both devoted to him and each in his desire to talk of the absent one +found a willing listener; the consequence was that Isabel knew every +expression of Bateman's face, and his denials now were useless against +her keen instinct. Something told her that his harassed look had to do +with Edward and she did not rest till she had made him confess. + +"The fact is," he said at last, "I heard in a round-about way that +Edward was no longer working for Braunschmidt and Co., and yesterday I +took the opportunity to ask Mr Braunschmidt himself." + +"Well?" + +"Edward left his employment with them nearly a year ago." + +"How strange he should have said nothing about it!" + +Bateman hesitated, but he had gone so far now that he was obliged to +tell the rest. It made him feel dreadfully embarrassed. + +"He was fired." + +"In heaven's name what for?" + +"It appears they warned him once or twice, and at last they told him to +get out. They say he was lazy and incompetent." + +"Edward?" + +They were silent for a while, and then he saw that Isabel was crying. +Instinctively he seized her hand. + +"Oh, my dear, don't, don't," he said. "I can't bear to see it." + +She was so unstrung that she let her hand rest in his. He tried to +console her. + +"It's incomprehensible, isn't it? It's so unlike Edward. I can't help +feeling there must be some mistake." + +She did not say anything for a while, and when she spoke it was +hesitatingly. + +"Has it struck you that there was anything queer in his letters lately?" +she asked, looking away, her eyes all bright with tears. + +He did not quite know how to answer. + +"I have noticed a change in them," he admitted. "He seems to have lost +that high seriousness which I admired so much in him. One would almost +think that the things that matter--well, don't matter." + +Isabel did not reply. She was vaguely uneasy. + +"Perhaps in his answer to your letter he'll say when he's coming home. +All we can do is to wait for that." + +Another letter came from Edward for each of them, and still he made no +mention of his return; but when he wrote he could not have received +Bateman's enquiry. The next mail would bring them an answer to that. The +next mail came, and Bateman brought Isabel the letter he had just +received; but the first glance of his face was enough to tell her that +he was disconcerted. She read it through carefully and then, with +slightly tightened lips, read it again. + +"It's a very strange letter," she said. "I don't quite understand it." + +"One might almost think that he was joshing me," said Bateman, flushing. + +"It reads like that, but it must be unintentional. That's so unlike +Edward." + +"He says nothing about coming back." + +"If I weren't so confident of his love I should think.... I hardly know +what I should think." + +It was then that Bateman had broached the scheme which during the +afternoon had formed itself in his brain. The firm, founded by his +father, in which he was now a partner, a firm which manufactured all +manner of motor vehicles, was about to establish agencies in Honolulu, +Sidney, and Wellington; and Bateman proposed that himself should go +instead of the manager who had been suggested. He could return by +Tahiti; in fact, travelling from Wellington, it was inevitable to do so; +and he could see Edward. + +"There's some mystery and I'm going to clear it up. That's the only way +to do it." + +"Oh, Bateman, how can you be so good and kind?" she exclaimed. + +"You know there's nothing in the world I want more than your happiness, +Isabel." + +She looked at him and she gave him her hands. + +"You're wonderful, Bateman. I didn't know there was anyone in the world +like you. How can I ever thank you?" + +"I don't want your thanks. I only want to be allowed to help you." + +She dropped her eyes and flushed a little. She was so used to him that +she had forgotten how handsome he was. He was as tall as Edward +and as well made, but he was dark and pale of face, while Edward was +ruddy. Of course she knew he loved her. It touched her. She felt very +tenderly towards him. + +It was from this journey that Bateman Hunter was now returned. + +The business part of it took him somewhat longer than he expected and he +had much time to think of his two friends. He had come to the conclusion +that it could be nothing serious that prevented Edward from coming home, +a pride, perhaps, which made him determined to make good before he +claimed the bride he adored; but it was a pride that must be reasoned +with. Isabel was unhappy. Edward must come back to Chicago with him and +marry her at once. A position could be found for him in the works of the +Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company. Bateman, with a bleeding +heart, exulted at the prospect of giving happiness to the two persons he +loved best in the world at the cost of his own. He would never marry. He +would be godfather to the children of Edward and Isabel, and many years +later when they were both dead he would tell Isabel's daughter how long, +long ago he had loved her mother. Bateman's eyes were veiled with tears +when he pictured this scene to himself. + +Meaning to take Edward by surprise he had not cabled to announce his +arrival, and when at last he landed at Tahiti he allowed a youth, who +said he was the son of the house, to lead him to the Hotel de la Fleur. +He chuckled when he thought of his friend's amazement on seeing him, +the most unexpected of visitors, walk into his office. + +"By the way," he asked, as they went along, "can you tell me where I +shall find Mr. Edward Barnard?" + +"Barnard?" said the youth. "I seem to know the name." + +"He's an American. A tall fellow with light brown hair and blue eyes. +He's been here over two years." + +"Of course. Now I know who you mean. You mean Mr Jackson's nephew." + +"Whose nephew?" + +"Mr Arnold Jackson." + +"I don't think we're speaking of the same person," answered Bateman, +frigidly. + +He was startled. It was queer that Arnold Jackson, known apparently to +all and sundry, should live here under the disgraceful name in which he +had been convicted. But Bateman could not imagine whom it was that he +passed off as his nephew. Mrs Longstaffe was his only sister and he had +never had a brother. The young man by his side talked volubly in an +English that had something in it of the intonation of a foreign tongue, +and Bateman, with a sidelong glance, saw, what he had not noticed +before, that there was in him a good deal of native blood. A touch of +hauteur involuntarily entered into his manner. They reached the hotel. +When he had arranged about his room Bateman asked to be directed to the +premises of Braunschmidt & Co. They were on the front, facing the +lagoon, and, glad to feel the solid earth under his feet after eight +days at sea, he sauntered down the sunny road to the water's edge. +Having found the place he sought, Bateman sent in his card to the +manager and was led through a lofty barn-like room, half store and half +warehouse, to an office in which sat a stout, spectacled, bald-headed +man. + +"Can you tell me where I shall find Mr Edward Barnard? I understand he +was in this office for some time." + +"That is so. I don't know just where he is." + +"But I thought he came here with a particular recommendation from Mr +Braunschmidt. I know Mr Braunschmidt very well." + +The fat man looked at Bateman with shrewd, suspicious eyes. He called to +one of the boys in the warehouse. + +"Say, Henry, where's Barnard now, d'you know?" + +"He's working at Cameron's, I think," came the answer from someone who +did not trouble to move. + +The fat man nodded. + +"If you turn to your left when you get out of here you'll come to +Cameron's in about three minutes." + +Bateman hesitated. + +"I think I should tell you that Edward Barnard is my greatest friend. I +was very much surprised when I heard he'd left Braunschmidt & Co." + +The fat man's eyes contracted till they seemed like pin-points, and +their scrutiny made Bateman so uncomfortable that he felt himself +blushing. + +"I guess Braunschmidt & Co. and Edward Barnard didn't see eye to eye on +certain matters," he replied. + +Bateman did not quite like the fellow's manner, so he got up, not +without dignity, and with an apology for troubling him bade him +good-day. He left the place with a singular feeling that the man he had +just interviewed had much to tell him, but no intention of telling it. +He walked in the direction indicated and soon found himself at +Cameron's. It was a trader's store, such as he had passed half a dozen +of on his way, and when he entered the first person he saw, in his shirt +sleeves, measuring out a length of trade cotton, was Edward. It gave him +a start to see him engaged in so humble an occupation. But he had +scarcely appeared when Edward, looking up, caught sight of him, and gave +a joyful cry of surprise. + +"Bateman! Who ever thought of seeing you here?" + +He stretched his arm across the counter and wrung Bateman's hand. There +was no self-consciousness in his manner and the embarrassment was all on +Bateman's side. + +"Just wait till I've wrapped this package." + +With perfect assurance he ran his scissors across the stuff, folded it, +made it into a parcel, and handed it to the dark-skinned customer. + +"Pay at the desk, please." + +Then, smiling, with bright eyes, he turned to Bateman. + +"How did you show up here? Gee, I am delighted to see you. Sit down, +old man. Make yourself at home." + +"We can't talk here. Come along to my hotel. I suppose you can get +away?" + +This he added with some apprehension. + +"Of course I can get away. We're not so businesslike as all that in +Tahiti." He called out to a Chinese who was standing behind the opposite +counter. "Ah-Ling, when the boss comes tell him a friend of mine's just +arrived from America and I've gone out to have a drain with him." + +"All-light," said the Chinese, with a grin. + +Edward slipped on a coat and, putting on his hat, accompanied Bateman +out of the store. Bateman attempted to put the matter facetiously. + +"I didn't expect to find you selling three and a half yards of rotten +cotton to a greasy nigger," he laughed. + +"Braunschmidt fired me, you know, and I thought that would do as well as +anything else." + +Edward's candour seemed to Bateman very surprising, but he thought it +indiscreet to pursue the subject. + +"I guess you won't make a fortune where you are," he answered, somewhat +dryly. + +"I guess not. But I earn enough to keep body and soul together, and I'm +quite satisfied with that." + +"You wouldn't have been two years ago." + +"We grow wiser as we grow older," retorted Edward, gaily. + +Bateman took a glance at him. Edward was dressed in a suit of shabby +white ducks, none too clean, and a large straw hat of native make. He +was thinner than he had been, deeply burned by the sun, and he was +certainly better looking than ever. But there was something in his +appearance that disconcerted Bateman. He walked with a new jauntiness; +there was a carelessness in his demeanour, a gaiety about nothing in +particular, which Bateman could not precisely blame, but which +exceedingly puzzled him. + +"I'm blest if I can see what he's got to be so darned cheerful about," +he said to himself. + +They arrived at the hotel and sat on the terrace. A Chinese boy brought +them cocktails. Edward was most anxious to hear all the news of Chicago +and bombarded his friend with eager questions. His interest was natural +and sincere. But the odd thing was that it seemed equally divided among +a multitude of subjects. He was as eager to know how Bateman's father +was as what Isabel was doing. He talked of her without a shade of +embarrassment, but she might just as well have been his sister as his +promised wife; and before Bateman had done analysing the exact meaning +of Edward's remarks he found that the conversation had drifted to his +own work and the buildings his father had lately erected. He was +determined to bring the conversation back to Isabel and was looking for +the occasion when he saw Edward wave his hand cordially. A man was +advancing towards them on the terrace, but Bateman's back was turned to +him and he could not see him. + +"Come and sit down," said Edward gaily. + +The new-comer approached. He was a very tall, thin man, in white ducks, +with a fine head of curly white hair. His face was thin too, long, with +a large, hooked nose and a beautiful, expressive mouth. + +"This is my old friend Bateman Hunter. I've told you about him," said +Edward, his constant smile breaking on his lips. + +"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr Hunter. I used to know your father." + +The stranger held out his hand and took the young man's in a strong, +friendly grasp. It was not till then that Edward mentioned the other's +name. + +"Mr Arnold Jackson." + +Bateman turned white and he felt his hands grow cold. This was the +forger, the convict, this was Isabel's uncle. He did not know what to +say. He tried to conceal his confusion. Arnold Jackson looked at him +with twinkling eyes. + +"I daresay my name is familiar to you." + +Bateman did not know whether to say yes or no, and what made it more +awkward was that both Jackson and Edward seemed to be amused. It was bad +enough to have forced on him the acquaintance of the one man on the +island he would rather have avoided, but worse to discern that he was +being made a fool of. Perhaps, however, he had reached this conclusion +too quickly, for Jackson, without a pause, added: + +"I understand you're very friendly with the Longstaffes. Mary Longstaffe +is my sister." + +Now Bateman asked himself if Arnold Jackson could think him ignorant of +the most terrible scandal that Chicago had ever known. But Jackson put +his hand on Edward's shoulder. + +"I can't sit down, Teddie," he said. "I'm busy. But you two boys had +better come up and dine to-night." + +"That'll be fine," said Edward. + +"It's very kind of you, Mr Jackson," said Bateman, frigidly, "but I'm +here for so short a time; my boat sails to-morrow, you know; I think if +you'll forgive me, I won't come." + +"Oh, nonsense. I'll give you a native dinner. My wife's a wonderful +cook. Teddie will show you the way. Come early so as to see the sunset. +I can give you both a shake-down if you like." + +"Of course we'll come," said Edward. "There's always the devil of a row +in the hotel on the night a boat arrives and we can have a good yarn up +at the bungalow." + +"I can't let you off, Mr Hunter," Jackson continued with the utmost +cordiality. "I want to hear all about Chicago and Mary." + +He nodded and walked away before Bateman could say another word. + +"We don't take refusals in Tahiti," laughed Edward. "Besides, you'll get +the best dinner on the island." + +"What did he mean by saying his wife was a good cook? I happen to know +his wife's in Geneva." + +"That's a long way off for a wife, isn't it?" said Edward. "And it's a +long time since he saw her. I guess it's another wife he's talking +about." + +For some time Bateman was silent. His face was set in grave lines. But +looking up he caught the amused look in Edward's eyes, and he flushed +darkly. + +"Arnold Jackson is a despicable rogue," he said. + +"I greatly fear he is," answered Edward, smiling. + +"I don't see how any decent man can have anything to do with him." + +"Perhaps I'm not a decent man." + +"Do you see much of him, Edward?" + +"Yes, quite a lot. He's adopted me as his nephew." + +Bateman leaned forward and fixed Edward with his searching eyes. + +"Do you like him?" + +"Very much." + +"But don't you know, doesn't everyone here know, that he's a forger and +that he's been a convict? He ought to be hounded out of civilised +society." + +Edward watched a ring of smoke that floated from his cigar into the +still, scented air. + +"I suppose he is a pretty unmitigated rascal," he said at last. "And I +can't flatter myself that any repentance for his misdeeds offers one an +excuse for condoning them. He was a swindler and a hypocrite. You can't +get away from it. I never met a more agreeable companion. He's taught me +everything I know." + +"What has he taught you?" cried Bateman in amazement. + +"How to live." + +Bateman broke into ironical laughter. + +"A fine master. Is it owing to his lessons that you lost the chance of +making a fortune and earn your living now by serving behind a counter in +a ten cent store?" + +"He has a wonderful personality," said Edward, smiling good-naturedly. +"Perhaps you'll see what I mean to-night." + +"I'm not going to dine with him if that's what you mean. Nothing would +induce me to set foot within that man's house." + +"Come to oblige me, Bateman. We've been friends for so many years, you +won't refuse me a favour when I ask it." + +Edward's tone had in it a quality new to Bateman. Its gentleness was +singularly persuasive. + +"If you put it like that, Edward, I'm bound to come," he smiled. + +Bateman reflected, moreover, that it would be as well to learn what he +could about Arnold Jackson. It was plain that he had a great ascendency +over Edward, and if it was to be combated it was necessary to discover +in what exactly it consisted. The more he talked with Edward the more +conscious he became that a change had taken place in him. He had an +instinct that it behooved him to walk warily, and he made up his mind +not to broach the real purport of his visit till he saw his way more +clearly. He began to talk of one thing and another, of his journey and +what he had achieved by it, of politics in Chicago, of this common +friend and that, of their days together at college. + +At last Edward said he must get back to his work and proposed that he +should fetch Bateman at five so that they could drive out together to +Arnold Jackson's house. + +"By the way, I rather thought you'd be living at this hotel," said +Bateman, as he strolled out of the garden with Edward. "I understand +it's the only decent one here." + +"Not I," laughed Edward. "It's a deal too grand for me. I rent a room +just outside the town. It's cheap and clean." + +"If I remember right those weren't the points that seemed most important +to you when you lived in Chicago." + +"Chicago!" + +"I don't know what you mean by that, Edward. It's the greatest city in +the world." + +"I know," said Edward. + +Bateman glanced at him quickly, but his face was inscrutable. + +"When are you coming back to it?" + +"I often wonder," smiled Edward. + +This answer, and the manner of it, staggered Bateman, but before he +could ask for an explanation Edward waved to a half-caste who was +driving a passing motor. + +"Give us a ride down, Charlie," he said. + +He nodded to Bateman, and ran after the machine that had pulled up a few +yards in front. Bateman was left to piece together a mass of perplexing +impressions. + +Edward called for him in a rickety trap drawn by an old mare, and they +drove along a road that ran by the sea. On each side of it were +plantations, coconut and vanilla; and now and then they saw a great +mango, its fruit yellow and red and purple among the massy green of the +leaves; now and then they had a glimpse of the lagoon, smooth and blue, +with here and there a tiny islet graceful with tall palms. Arnold +Jackson's house stood on a little hill and only a path led to it, so +they unharnessed the mare and tied her to a tree, leaving the trap by +the side of the road. To Bateman it seemed a happy-go-lucky way of doing +things. But when they went up to the house they were met by a tall, +handsome native woman, no longer young, with whom Edward cordially shook +hands. He introduced Bateman to her. + +"This is my friend Mr Hunter. We're going to dine with you, Lavina." + +"All right," she said, with a quick smile. "Arnold ain't back yet." + +"We'll go down and bathe. Let us have a couple of _pareos_." + +The woman nodded and went into the house. + +"Who is that?" asked Bateman. + +"Oh, that's Lavina. She's Arnold's wife." + +Bateman tightened his lips, but said nothing. In a moment the woman +returned with a bundle, which she gave to Edward; and the two men, +scrambling down a steep path, made their way to a grove of coconut trees +on the beach. They undressed and Edward showed his friend how to make +the strip of red trade cotton which is called a _pareo_ into a very neat +pair of bathing-drawers. Soon they were splashing in the warm, shallow +water. Edward was in great spirits. He laughed and shouted and sang. He +might have been fifteen. Bateman had never seen him so gay, and +afterwards when they lay on the beach, smoking cigarettes, in the limpid +air, there was such an irresistible light-heartedness in him that +Bateman was taken aback. + +"You seem to find life mighty pleasant," said he. + +"I do." + +They heard a soft movement and looking round saw that Arnold Jackson was +coming towards them. + +"I thought I'd come down and fetch you two boys back," he said. "Did you +enjoy your bath, Mr Hunter?" + +"Very much," said Bateman. + +Arnold Jackson, no longer in spruce ducks, wore nothing but a _pareo_ +round his loins and walked barefoot. His body was deeply browned by the +sun. With his long, curling white hair and his ascetic face he made a +fantastic figure in the native dress, but he bore himself without a +trace of self-consciousness. + +"If you're ready we'll go right up," said Jackson. + +"I'll just put on my clothes," said Bateman. + +"Why, Teddie, didn't you bring a _pareo_ for your friend?" + +"I guess he'd rather wear clothes," smiled Edward. + +"I certainly would," answered Bateman, grimly, as he saw Edward gird +himself in the loincloth and stand ready to start before he himself had +got his shirt on. + +"Won't you find it rough walking without your shoes?" he asked Edward. +"It struck me the path was a trifle rocky." + +"Oh, I'm used to it." + +"It's a comfort to get into a _pareo_ when one gets back from town," +said Jackson. "If you were going to stay here I should strongly +recommend you to adopt it. It's one of the most sensible costumes I have +ever come across. It's cool, convenient, and inexpensive." + +They walked up to the house, and Jackson took them into a large room +with white-washed walls and an open ceiling in which a table was laid +for dinner. Bateman noticed that it was set for five. + +"Eva, come and show yourself to Teddie's friend, and then shake us a +cocktail," called Jackson. + +Then he led Bateman to a long low window. + +"Look at that," he said, with a dramatic gesture. "Look well." + +Below them coconut trees tumbled down steeply to the lagoon, and the +lagoon in the evening light had the colour, tender and varied, of a +dove's breast. On a creek, at a little distance, were the clustered huts +of a native village, and towards the reef was a canoe, sharply +silhouetted, in which were a couple of natives fishing. Then, beyond, +you saw the vast calmness of the Pacific and twenty miles away, airy and +unsubstantial like the fabric of a poet's fancy, the unimaginable beauty +of the island which is called Murea. It was all so lovely that Bateman +stood abashed. + +"I've never seen anything like it," he said at last. + +Arnold Jackson stood staring in front of him, and in his eyes was a +dreamy softness. His thin, thoughtful face was very grave. Bateman, +glancing at it, was once more conscious of its intense spirituality. + +"Beauty," murmured Arnold Jackson. "You seldom see beauty face to face. +Look at it well, Mr Hunter, for what you see now you will never see +again, since the moment is transitory, but it will be an imperishable +memory in your heart. You touch eternity." + +His voice was deep and resonant. He seemed to breathe forth the purest +idealism, and Bateman had to urge himself to remember that the man who +spoke was a criminal and a cruel cheat. But Edward, as though he heard a +sound, turned round quickly. + +"Here is my daughter, Mr Hunter." + +Bateman shook hands with her. She had dark, splendid eyes and a red +mouth tremulous with laughter; but her skin was brown, and her curling +hair, rippling down her-shoulders, was coal black. She wore but one +garment, a Mother Hubbard of pink cotton, her feet were bare, and she +was crowned with a wreath of white scented flowers. She was a lovely +creature. She was like a goddess of the Polynesian spring. + +She was a little shy, but not more shy than Bateman, to whom the whole +situation was highly embarrassing, and it did not put him at his ease to +see this sylph-like thing take a shaker and with a practised hand mix +three cocktails. + +"Let us have a kick in them, child," said Jackson. + +She poured them out and smiling delightfully handed one to each of the +men. Bateman flattered himself on his skill in the subtle art of shaking +cocktails and he was not a little astonished, on tasting this one, to +find that it was excellent. Jackson laughed proudly when he saw his +guest's involuntary look of appreciation. + +"Not bad, is it? I taught the child myself, and in the old days in +Chicago I considered that there wasn't a bar-tender in the city that +could hold a candle to me. When I had nothing better to do in the +penitentiary I used to amuse myself by thinking out new cocktails, but +when you come down to brass-tacks there's nothing to beat a dry +Martini." + +Bateman felt as though someone had given him a violent blow on the +funny-bone and he was conscious that he turned red and then white. But +before he could think of anything to say a native boy brought in a great +bowl of soup and the whole party sat down to dinner. Arnold Jackson's +remark seemed to have aroused in him a train of recollections, for he +began to talk of his prison days. He talked quite naturally, without +malice, as though he were relating his experiences at a foreign +university. He addressed himself to Bateman and Bateman was confused and +then confounded. He saw Edward's eyes fixed on him and there was in them +a flicker of amusement. He blushed scarlet, for it struck him that +Jackson was making a fool of him, and then because he felt absurd--and +knew there was no reason why he should--he grew angry. Arnold Jackson +was impudent--there was no other word for it--and his callousness, +whether assumed or not, was outrageous. The dinner proceeded. Bateman +was asked to eat sundry messes, raw fish and he knew not what, which +only his civility induced him to swallow, but which he was amazed to +find very good eating. Then an incident happened which to Bateman was +the most mortifying experience of the evening. There was a little +circlet of flowers in front of him, and for the sake of conversation he +hazarded a remark about it. + +"It's a wreath that Eva made for you," said Jackson, "but I guess she +was too shy to give it you." + +Bateman took it up in his hand and made a polite little speech of thanks +to the girl. + +"You must put it on," she said, with a smile and a blush. + +"I? I don't think I'll do that." + +"It's the charming custom of the country," said Arnold Jackson. + +There was one in front of him and he placed it on his hair. Edward did +the same. + +"I guess I'm not dressed for the part," said Bateman, uneasily. + +"Would you like a _pareo_?" said Eva quickly. "I'll get you one in a +minute." + +"No, thank you. I'm quite comfortable as I am." + +"Show him how to put it on, Eva," said Edward. + +At that moment Bateman hated his greatest friend. Eva got up from the +table and with much laughter placed the wreath on his black hair. + +"It suits you very well," said Mrs Jackson. "Don't it suit him, Arnold?" + +"Of course it does." + +Bateman sweated at every pore. + +"Isn't it a pity it's dark?" said Eva. "We could photograph you all +three together." + +Bateman thanked his stars it was. He felt that he must look prodigiously +foolish in his blue serge suit and high collar--very neat and +gentlemanly--with that ridiculous wreath of flowers on his head. He was +seething with indignation, and he had never in his life exercised more +self-control than now when he presented an affable exterior. He was +furious with that old man, sitting at the head of the table, half-naked, +with his saintly face and the flowers on his handsome white locks. The +whole position was monstrous. + +Then dinner came to an end, and Eva and her mother remained to clear +away while the three men sat on the verandah. It was very warm and the +air was scented with the white flowers of the night. The full moon, +sailing across an unclouded sky, made a pathway on the broad sea that +led to the boundless realms of Forever. Arnold Jackson began to talk. +His voice was rich and musical. He talked now of the natives and of the +old legends of the country. He told strange stories of the past, stories +of hazardous expeditions into the unknown, of love and death, of hatred +and revenge. He told of the adventurers who had discovered those distant +islands, of the sailors who, settling in them, had married the daughters +of great chieftains, and of the beach-combers who had led their varied +lives on those silvery shores. Bateman, mortified and exasperated, at +first listened sullenly, but presently some magic in the words possessed +him and he sat entranced. The mirage of romance obscured the light of +common day. Had he forgotten that Arnold Jackson had a tongue of silver, +a tongue by which he had charmed vast sums out of the credulous public, +a tongue which very nearly enabled him to escape the penalty of his +crimes? No one had a sweeter eloquence, and no one had a more acute +sense of climax. Suddenly he rose. + +"Well, you two boys haven't seen one another for a long time. I shall +leave you to have a yarn. Teddie will show you your quarters when you +want to go to bed." + +"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of spending the night, Mr Jackson," said +Bateman. + +"You'll find it more comfortable. We'll see that you're called in good +time." + +Then with a courteous shake of the hand, stately as though he were a +bishop in canonicals, Arnold Jackson took leave of his guest. + +"Of course I'll drive you back to Papeete if you like," said Edward, +"but I advise you to stay. It's bully driving in the early morning." + +For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Bateman wondered how he should +begin on the conversation which all the events of the day made him +think more urgent. + +"When are you coming back to Chicago?" he asked, suddenly. + +For a moment Edward did not answer. Then he turned rather lazily to look +at his friend and smiled. + +"I don't know. Perhaps never." + +"What in heaven's name do you mean?" cried Bateman. + +"I'm very happy here. Wouldn't it be folly to make a change?" + +"Man alive, you can't live here all your life. This is no life for a +man. It's a living death. Oh, Edward, come away at once, before it's too +late. I've felt that something was wrong. You're infatuated with the +place, you've succumbed to evil influences, but it only requires a +wrench, and when you're free from these surroundings you'll thank all +the gods there be. You'll be like a dope-fiend when he's broken from his +drug. You'll see then that for two years you've been breathing poisoned +air. You can't imagine what a relief it will be when you fill your lungs +once more with the fresh, pure air of your native country." + +He spoke quickly, the words tumbling over one another in his excitement, +and there was in his voice sincere and affectionate emotion. Edward was +touched. + +"It is good of you to care so much, old friend." + +"Come with me to-morrow, Edward. It was a mistake that you ever came to +this place. This is no life for you." + +"You talk of this sort of life and that. How do you think a man gets the +best out of life?" + +"Why, I should have thought there could be no two answers to that. By +doing his duty, by hard work, by meeting all the obligations of his +state and station." + +"And what is his reward?" + +"His reward is the consciousness of having achieved what he set out to +do." + +"It all sounds a little portentous to me," said Edward, and in the +lightness of the night Bateman could see that he was smiling. "I'm +afraid you'll think I've degenerated sadly. There are several things I +think now which I daresay would have seemed outrageous to me three years +ago." + +"Have you learnt them from Arnold Jackson?" asked Bateman, scornfully. + +"You don't like him? Perhaps you couldn't be expected to. I didn't when +I first came. I had just the same prejudice as you. He's a very +extraordinary man. You saw for yourself that he makes no secret of the +fact that he was in a penitentiary. I do not know that he regrets it or +the crimes that led him there. The only complaint he ever made in my +hearing was that when he came out his health was impaired. I think he +does not know what remorse is. He is completely unmoral. He accepts +everything and he accepts himself as well. He's generous and kind." + +"He always was," interrupted Bateman, "on other people's money." + +"I've found him a very good friend. Is it unnatural that I should take +a man as I find him?" + +"The result is that you lose the distinction between right and wrong." + +"No, they remain just as clearly divided in my mind as before, but what +has become a little confused in me is the distinction between the bad +man and the good one. Is Arnold Jackson a bad man who does good things +or a good man who does bad things? It's a difficult question to answer. +Perhaps we make too much of the difference between one man and another. +Perhaps even the best of us are sinners and the worst of us are saints. +Who knows?" + +"You will never persuade me that white is black and that black is +white," said Bateman. + +"I'm sure I shan't, Bateman." + +Bateman could not understand why the flicker of a smile crossed Edward's +lips when he thus agreed with him. Edward was silent for a minute. + +"When I saw you this morning, Bateman," he said then, "I seemed to see +myself as I was two years ago. The same collar, and the same shoes, the +same blue suit, the same energy. The same determination. By God, I was +energetic. The sleepy methods of this place made my blood tingle. I went +about and everywhere I saw possibilities for development and enterprise. +There were fortunes to be made here. It seemed to me absurd that the +copra should be taken away from here in sacks and the oil extracted in +America. It would be far more economical to do all that on the spot, +with cheap labour, and save freight, and I saw already the vast +factories springing up on the island. Then the way they extracted it +from the coconut seemed to me hopelessly inadequate, and I invented a +machine which divided the nut and scooped out the meat at the rate of +two hundred and forty an hour. The harbour was not large enough. I made +plans to enlarge it, then to form a syndicate to buy land, put up two or +three large hotels, and bungalows for occasional residents; I had a +scheme for improving the steamer service in order to attract visitors +from California. In twenty years, instead of this half French, lazy +little town of Papeete I saw a great American city with ten-story +buildings and street-cars, a theatre and an opera house, a stock +exchange and a mayor." + +"But go ahead, Edward," cried Bateman, springing up from the chair in +excitement. "You've got the ideas and the capacity. Why, you'll become +the richest man between Australia and the States." + +Edward chuckled softly. + +"But I don't want to," he said. + +"Do you mean to say you don't want money, big money, money running into +millions? Do you know what you can do with it? Do you know the power it +brings? And if you don't care about it for yourself think what you can +do, opening new channels for human enterprise, giving occupation to +thousands. My brain reels at the visions your words have conjured up." + +"Sit down, then, my dear Bateman," laughed Edward. "My machine for +cutting the coconuts will always remain unused, and so far as I'm +concerned street-cars shall never run in the idle streets of Papeete." + +Bateman sank heavily into his chair. + +"I don't understand you," he said. + +"It came upon me little by little. I came to like the life here, with +its ease and its leisure, and the people, with their good-nature and +their happy smiling faces. I began to think. I'd never had time to do +that before. I began to read." + +"You always read." + +"I read for examinations. I read in order to be able to hold my own in +conversation. I read for instruction. Here I learned to read for +pleasure. I learned to talk. Do you know that conversation is one of the +greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. I'd always been too +busy before. And gradually all the life that had seemed so important to +me began to seem rather trivial and vulgar. What is the use of all this +hustle and this constant striving? I think of Chicago now and I see a +dark, grey city, all stone--it is like a prison--and a ceaseless +turmoil. And what does all that activity amount to? Does one get there +the best out of life? Is that what we come into the world for, to hurry +to an office, and work hour after hour till night, then hurry home and +dine and go to a theatre? Is that how I must spend my youth? Youth lasts +so short a time, Bateman. And when I am old, what have I to look forward +to? To hurry from my home in the morning to my office and work hour +after hour till night, and then hurry home again, and dine and go to a +theatre? That may be worth while if you make a fortune; I don't know, it +depends on your nature; but if you don't, is it worth while then? I want +to make more out of my life than that, Bateman." + +"What do you value in life then?" + +"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me. Beauty, truth, and goodness." + +"Don't you think you can have those in Chicago?" + +"Some men can, perhaps, but not I." Edward sprang up now. "I tell you +when I think of the life I led in the old days I am filled with horror," +he cried violently. "I tremble with fear when I think of the danger I +have escaped. I never knew I had a soul till I found it here. If I had +remained a rich man I might have lost it for good and all." + +"I don't know how you can say that," cried Bateman indignantly. "We +often used to have discussions about it." + +"Yes, I know. They were about as effectual as the discussions of deaf +mutes about harmony. I shall never come back to Chicago, Bateman." + +"And what about Isabel?" + +Edward walked to the edge of the verandah and leaning over looked +intently at the blue magic of the night. There was a slight smile on his +face when he turned back to Bateman. + +"Isabel is infinitely too good for me. I admire her more than any woman +I have ever known. She has a wonderful brain and she's as good as she's +beautiful. I respect her energy and her ambition. She was born to make a +success of life. I am entirely unworthy of her." + +"She doesn't think so." + +"But you must tell her so, Bateman." + +"I?" cried Bateman. "I'm the last person who could ever do that." + +Edward had his back to the vivid light of the moon and his face could +not be seen. Is it possible that he smiled again? + +"It's no good your trying to conceal anything from her, Bateman. With +her quick intelligence she'll turn you inside out in five minutes. You'd +better make a clean breast of it right away." + +"I don't know what you mean. Of course I shall tell her I've seen you." +Bateman spoke in some agitation. "Honestly I don't know what to say to +her." + +"Tell her that I haven't made good. Tell her that I'm not only poor, but +that I'm content to be poor. Tell her I was fired from my job because I +was idle and inattentive. Tell her all you've seen to-night and all I've +told you." + +The idea which on a sudden flashed through Bateman's brain brought him +to his feet and in uncontrollable perturbation he faced Edward. + +"Man alive, don't you want to marry her?" + +Edward looked at him gravely. + +"I can never ask her to release me. If she wishes to hold me to my word +I will do my best to make her a good and loving husband." + +"Do you wish me to give her that message, Edward? Oh, I can't. It's +terrible. It's never dawned on her for a moment that you don't want to +marry her. She loves you. How can I inflict such a mortification on +her?" + +Edward smiled again. + +"Why don't you marry her yourself, Bateman? You've been in love with her +for ages. You're perfectly suited to one another. You'll make her very +happy." + +"Don't talk to me like that. I can't bear it." + +"I resign in your favour, Bateman. You are the better man." + +There was something in Edward's tone that made Bateman look up quickly, +but Edward's eyes were grave and unsmiling. Bateman did not know what to +say. He was disconcerted. He wondered whether Edward could possibly +suspect that he had come to Tahiti on a special errand. And though he +knew it was horrible he could not prevent the exultation in his heart. + +"What will you do if Isabel writes and puts an end to her engagement +with you?" he said, slowly. + +"Survive," said Edward. + +Bateman was so agitated that he did not hear the answer. + +"I wish you had ordinary clothes on," he said, somewhat irritably. "It's +such a tremendously serious decision you're taking. That fantastic +costume of yours makes it seem terribly casual." + +"I assure you, I can be just as solemn in a _pareo_ and a wreath of +roses, as in a high hat and a cut-away coat." + +Then another thought struck Bateman. + +"Edward, it's not for my sake you're doing this? I don't know, but +perhaps this is going to make a tremendous difference to my future. +You're not sacrificing yourself for me? I couldn't stand for that, you +know." + +"No, Bateman, I have learnt not to be silly and sentimental here. I +should like you and Isabel to be happy, but I have not the least wish to +be unhappy myself." + +The answer somewhat chilled Bateman. It seemed to him a little cynical. +He would not have been sorry to act a noble part. + +"Do you mean to say you're content to waste your life here? It's nothing +less than suicide. When I think of the great hopes you had when we left +college it seems terrible that you should be content to be no more than +a salesman in a cheap-John store." + +"Oh, I'm only doing that for the present, and I'm gaining a great deal +of valuable experience. I have another plan in my head. Arnold Jackson +has a small island in the Paumotas, about a thousand miles from here, a +ring of land round a lagoon. He's planted coconut there. He's offered to +give it me." + +"Why should he do that?" asked Bateman. + +"Because if Isabel releases me I shall marry his daughter." + +"You?" Bateman was thunderstruck. "You can't marry a half-caste. You +wouldn't be so crazy as that." + +"She's a good girl, and she has a sweet and gentle nature. I think she +would make me very happy." + +"Are you in love with her?" + +"I don't know," answered Edward reflectively. "I'm not in love with her +as I was in love with Isabel. I worshipped Isabel. I thought she was the +most wonderful creature I had ever seen. I was not half good enough for +her. I don't feel like that with Eva. She's like a beautiful exotic +flower that must be sheltered from bitter winds. I want to protect her. +No one ever thought of protecting Isabel. I think she loves me for +myself and not for what I may become. Whatever happens to me I shall +never disappoint her. She suits me." + +Bateman was silent. + +"We must turn out early in the morning," said Edward at last. "It's +really about time we went to bed." + +Then Bateman spoke and his voice had in it a genuine distress. + +"I'm so bewildered, I don't know what to say. I came here because I +thought something was wrong. I thought you hadn't succeeded in what you +set out to do and were ashamed to come back when you'd failed. I never +guessed I should be faced with this. I'm so desperately sorry, Edward. +I'm so disappointed. I hoped you would do great things. It's almost more +than I can bear to think of you wasting your talents and your youth and +your chance in this lamentable way." + +"Don't be grieved, old friend," said Edward. "I haven't failed. I've +succeeded. You can't think with what zest I look forward to life, how +full it seems to me and how significant. Sometimes, when you are married +to Isabel, you will think of me. I shall build myself a house on my +coral island and I shall live there, looking after my trees--getting the +fruit out of the nuts in the same old way that they have done for +unnumbered years--I shall grow all sorts of things in my garden, and I +shall fish. There will be enough work to keep me busy and not enough to +make me dull. I shall have my books and Eva, children, I hope, and above +all, the infinite variety of the sea and the sky, the freshness of the +dawn and the beauty of the sunset, and the rich magnificence of the +night. I shall make a garden out of what so short a while ago was a +wilderness. I shall have created something. The years will pass +insensibly, and when I am an old man I hope that I shall be able to look +back on a happy, simple, peaceful life. In my small way I too shall have +lived in beauty. Do you think it is so little to have enjoyed +contentment? We know that it will profit a man little if he gain the +whole world and lose his soul. I think I have won mine." + +Edward led him to a room in which there were two beds and he threw +himself on one of them. In ten minutes Bateman knew by his regular +breathing, peaceful as a child's, that Edward was asleep. But for his +part he had no rest, he was disturbed in mind, and it was not till the +dawn crept into the room, ghostlike and silent, that he fell asleep. + +Bateman finished telling Isabel his long story. He had hidden nothing +from her except what he thought would wound her or what made himself +ridiculous. He did not tell her that he had been forced to sit at dinner +with a wreath of flowers round his head and he did not tell her that +Edward was prepared to marry her uncle's half-caste daughter the moment +she set him free. But perhaps Isabel had keener intuitions than he knew, +for as he went on with his tale her eyes grew colder and her lips closed +upon one another more tightly. Now and then she looked at him closely, +and if he had been less intent on his narrative he might have wondered +at her expression. + +"What was this girl like?" she asked when he finished. "Uncle Arnold's +daughter. Would you say there was any resemblance between her and me?" + +Bateman was surprised at the question. + +"It never struck me. You know I've never had eyes for anyone but you and +I could never think that anyone was like you. Who could resemble you?" + +"Was she pretty?" said Isabel, smiling slightly at his words. + +"I suppose so. I daresay some men would say she was very beautiful." + +"Well, it's of no consequence. I don't think we need give her any more +of our attention." + +"What are you going to do, Isabel?" he asked then. + +Isabel looked down at the hand which still bore the ring Edward had +given her on their betrothal. + +"I wouldn't let Edward break our engagement because I thought it would +be an incentive to him. I wanted to be an inspiration to him. I thought +if anything could enable him to achieve success it was the thought that +I loved him. I have done all I could. It's hopeless. It would only be +weakness on my part not to recognise the facts. Poor Edward, he's +nobody's enemy but his own. He was a dear, nice fellow, but there was +something lacking in him, I suppose it was backbone. I hope he'll be +happy." + +She slipped the ring off her finger and placed it on the table. Bateman +watched her with a heart beating so rapidly that he could hardly +breathe. + +"You're wonderful, Isabel, you're simply wonderful." + +She smiled, and, standing up, held out her hand to him. + +"How can I ever thank you for what you've done for me?" she said. +"You've done me a great service. I knew I could trust you." + +He took her hand and held it. She had never looked more beautiful. + +"Oh, Isabel, I would do so much more for you than that. You know that I +only ask to be allowed to love and serve you." + +"You're so strong, Bateman," she sighed. "It gives me such a delicious +feeling of confidence." + +"Isabel, I adore you." + +He hardly knew how the inspiration had come to him, but suddenly he +clasped her in his arms, and she, all unresisting, smiled into his eyes. + +"Isabel, you know I wanted to marry you the very first day I saw you," +he cried passionately. + +"Then why on earth didn't you ask me?" she replied. + +She loved him. He could hardly believe it was true. She gave him her +lovely lips to kiss. And as he held her in his arms he had a vision of +the works of the Hunter Motor Traction and Automobile Company growing in +size and importance till they covered a hundred acres, and of the +millions of motors they would turn out, and of the great collection of +pictures he would form which should beat anything they had in New York. +He would wear horn spectacles. And she, with the delicious pressure of +his arms about her, sighed with happiness, for she thought of the +exquisite house she would have, full of antique furniture, and of the +concerts she would give, and of the _thes dansants_, and the dinners to +which only the most cultured people would come. Bateman should wear horn +spectacles. + +"Poor Edward," she sighed. + + + + +IV + +_Red_ + + +The skipper thrust his hand into one of his trouser pockets and with +difficulty, for they were not at the sides but in front and he was a +portly man, pulled out a large silver watch. He looked at it and then +looked again at the declining sun. The Kanaka at the wheel gave him a +glance, but did not speak. The skipper's eyes rested on the island they +were approaching. A white line of foam marked the reef. He knew there +was an opening large enough to get his ship through, and when they came +a little nearer he counted on seeing it. They had nearly an hour of +daylight still before them. In the lagoon the water was deep and they +could anchor comfortably. The chief of the village which he could +already see among the coconut trees was a friend of the mate's, and it +would be pleasant to go ashore for the night. The mate came forward at +that minute and the skipper turned to him. + +"We'll take a bottle of booze along with us and get some girls in to +dance," he said. + +"I don't see the opening," said the mate. + +He was a Kanaka, a handsome, swarthy fellow, with somewhat the look of a +later Roman emperor, inclined to stoutness; but his face was fine and +clean-cut. + +"I'm dead sure there's one right here," said the captain, looking +through his glasses. "I can't understand why I can't pick it up. Send +one of the boys up the mast to have a look." + +The mate called one of the crew and gave him the order. The captain +watched the Kanaka climb and waited for him to speak. But the Kanaka +shouted down that he could see nothing but the unbroken line of foam. +The captain spoke Samoan like a native, and he cursed him freely. + +"Shall he stay up there?" asked the mate. + +"What the hell good does that do?" answered the captain. "The blame fool +can't see worth a cent. You bet your sweet life I'd find the opening if +I was up there." + +He looked at the slender mast with anger. It was all very well for a +native who had been used to climbing up coconut trees all his life. He +was fat and heavy. + +"Come down," he shouted. "You're no more use than a dead dog. We'll just +have to go along the reef till we find the opening." + +It was a seventy-ton schooner with paraffin auxiliary, and it ran, when +there was no head wind, between four and five knots an hour. It was a +bedraggled object; it had been painted white a very long time ago, but +it was now dirty, dingy, and mottled. It smelt strongly of paraffin and +of the copra which was its usual cargo. They were within a hundred feet +of the reef now and the captain told the steersman to run along it till +they came to the opening. But when they had gone a couple of miles he +realised that they had missed it. He went about and slowly worked back +again. The white foam of the reef continued without interruption and now +the sun was setting. With a curse at the stupidity of the crew the +skipper resigned himself to waiting till next morning. + +"Put her about," he said. "I can't anchor here." + +They went out to sea a little and presently it was quite dark. They +anchored. When the sail was furled the ship began to roll a good deal. +They said in Apia that one day she would roll right over; and the owner, +a German-American who managed one of the largest stores, said that no +money was big enough to induce him to go out in her. The cook, a Chinese +in white trousers, very dirty and ragged, and a thin white tunic, came +to say that supper was ready, and when the skipper went into the cabin +he found the engineer already seated at table. The engineer was a long, +lean man with a scraggy neck. He was dressed in blue overalls and a +sleeveless jersey which showed his thin arms tatooed from elbow to +wrist. + +"Hell, having to spend the night outside," said the skipper. + +The engineer did not answer, and they ate their supper in silence. The +cabin was lit by a dim oil lamp. When they had eaten the canned apricots +with which the meal finished the Chink brought them a cup of tea. The +skipper lit a cigar and went on the upper deck. The island now was only +a darker mass against the night. The stars were very bright. The only +sound was the ceaseless breaking of the surf. The skipper sank into a +deck-chair and smoked idly. Presently three or four members of the crew +came up and sat down. One of them had a banjo and another a concertina. +They began to play, and one of them sang. The native song sounded +strange on these instruments. Then to the singing a couple began to +dance. It was a barbaric dance, savage and primeval, rapid, with quick +movements of the hands and feet and contortions of the body; it was +sensual, sexual even, but sexual without passion. It was very animal, +direct, weird without mystery, natural in short, and one might almost +say childlike. At last they grew tired. They stretched themselves on the +deck and slept, and all was silent. The skipper lifted himself heavily +out of his chair and clambered down the companion. He went into his +cabin and got out of his clothes. He climbed into his bunk and lay +there. He panted a little in the heat of the night. + +But next morning, when the dawn crept over the tranquil sea, the opening +in the reef which had eluded them the night before was seen a little to +the east of where they lay. The schooner entered the lagoon. There was +not a ripple on the surface of the water. Deep down among the coral +rocks you saw little coloured fish swim. When he had anchored his ship +the skipper ate his breakfast and went on deck. The sun shone from an +unclouded sky, but in the early morning the air was grateful and cool. +It was Sunday, and there was a feeling of quietness, a silence as +though nature were at rest, which gave him a peculiar sense of comfort. +He sat, looking at the wooded coast, and felt lazy and well at ease. +Presently a slow smile moved his lips and he threw the stump of his +cigar into the water. + +"I guess I'll go ashore," he said. "Get the boat out." + +He climbed stiffly down the ladder and was rowed to a little cove. The +coconut trees came down to the water's edge, not in rows, but spaced out +with an ordered formality. They were like a ballet of spinsters, elderly +but flippant, standing in affected attitudes with the simpering graces +of a bygone age. He sauntered idly through them, along a path that could +be just seen winding its tortuous way, and it led him presently to a +broad creek. There was a bridge across it, but a bridge constructed of +single trunks of coconut trees, a dozen of them, placed end to end and +supported where they met by a forked branch driven into the bed of the +creek. You walked on a smooth, round surface, narrow and slippery, and +there was no support for the hand. To cross such a bridge required sure +feet and a stout heart. The skipper hesitated. But he saw on the other +side, nestling among the trees, a white man's house; he made up his mind +and, rather gingerly, began to walk. He watched his feet carefully, and +where one trunk joined on to the next and there was a difference of +level, he tottered a little. It was with a gasp of relief that he +reached the last tree and finally set his feet on the firm ground of +the other side. He had been so intent on the difficult crossing that he +never noticed anyone was watching him, and it was with surprise that he +heard himself spoken to. + +"It takes a bit of nerve to cross these bridges when you're not used to +them." + +He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. He had evidently +come out of the house which he had seen. + +"I saw you hesitate," the man continued, with a smile on his lips, "and +I was watching to see you fall in." + +"Not on your life," said the captain, who had now recovered his +confidence. + +"I've fallen in myself before now. I remember, one evening I came back +from shooting, and I fell in, gun and all. Now I get a boy to carry my +gun for me." + +He was a man no longer young, with a small beard, now somewhat grey, and +a thin face. He was dressed in a singlet, without arms, and a pair of +duck trousers. He wore neither shoes nor socks. He spoke English with a +slight accent. + +"Are you Neilson?" asked the skipper. + +"I am." + +"I've heard about you. I thought you lived somewheres round here." + +The skipper followed his host into the little bungalow and sat down +heavily in the chair which the other motioned him to take. While Neilson +went out to fetch whisky and glasses he took a look round the room. It +filled him with amazement. He had never seen so many books. The shelves +reached from floor to ceiling on all four walls, and they were closely +packed. There was a grand piano littered with music, and a large table +on which books and magazines lay in disorder. The room made him feel +embarrassed. He remembered that Neilson was a queer fellow. No one knew +very much about him, although he had been in the islands for so many +years, but those who knew him agreed that he was queer. He was a Swede. + +"You've got one big heap of books here," he said, when Neilson returned. + +"They do no harm," answered Neilson with a smile. + +"Have you read them all?" asked the skipper. + +"Most of them." + +"I'm a bit of a reader myself. I have the _Saturday Evening Post_ sent +me regler." + +Neilson poured his visitor a good stiff glass of whisky and gave him a +cigar. The skipper volunteered a little information. + +"I got in last night, but I couldn't find the opening, so I had to +anchor outside. I never been this run before, but my people had some +stuff they wanted to bring over here. Gray, d'you know him?" + +"Yes, he's got a store a little way along." + +"Well, there was a lot of canned stuff that he wanted over, an' he's got +some copra. They thought I might just as well come over as lie idle at +Apia. I run between Apia and Pago-Pago mostly, but they've got smallpox +there just now, and there's nothing stirring." + +He took a drink of his whisky and lit a cigar. He was a taciturn man, +but there was something in Neilson that made him nervous, and his +nervousness made him talk. The Swede was looking at him with large dark +eyes in which there was an expression of faint amusement. + +"This is a tidy little place you've got here." + +"I've done my best with it." + +"You must do pretty well with your trees. They look fine. With copra at +the price it is now. I had a bit of a plantation myself once, in Upolu +it was, but I had to sell it." + +He looked round the room again, where all those books gave him a feeling +of something incomprehensible and hostile. + +"I guess you must find it a bit lonesome here though," he said. + +"I've got used to it. I've been here for twenty-five years." + +Now the captain could think of nothing more to say, and he smoked in +silence. Neilson had apparently no wish to break it. He looked at his +guest with a meditative eye. He was a tall man, more than six feet high, +and very stout. His face was red and blotchy, with a network of little +purple veins on the cheeks, and his features were sunk into its fatness. +His eyes were bloodshot. His neck was buried in rolls of fat. But for a +fringe of long curly hair, nearly white, at the back of his head, he was +quite bald; and that immense, shiny surface of forehead, which might +have given him a false look of intelligence, on the contrary gave him +one of peculiar imbecility. He wore a blue flannel shirt, open at the +neck and showing his fat chest covered with a mat of reddish hair, and a +very old pair of blue serge trousers. He sat in his chair in a heavy +ungainly attitude, his great belly thrust forward and his fat legs +uncrossed. All elasticity had gone from his limbs. Neilson wondered idly +what sort of man he had been in his youth. It was almost impossible to +imagine that this creature of vast bulk had ever been a boy who ran +about. The skipper finished his whisky, and Neilson pushed the bottle +towards him. + +"Help yourself." + +The skipper leaned forward and with his great hand seized it. + +"And how come you in these parts anyways?" he said. + +"Oh, I came out to the islands for my health. My lungs were bad and they +said I hadn't a year to live. You see they were wrong." + +"I meant, how come you to settle down right here?" + +"I am a sentimentalist." + +"Oh!" + +Neilson knew that the skipper had not an idea what he meant, and he +looked at him with an ironical twinkle in his dark eyes. Perhaps just +because the skipper was so gross and dull a man the whim seized him to +talk further. + +"You were too busy keeping your balance to notice, when you crossed the +bridge, but this spot is generally considered rather pretty." + +"It's a cute little house you've got here." + +"Ah, that wasn't here when I first came. There was a native hut, with +its beehive roof and its pillars, overshadowed by a great tree with red +flowers; and the croton bushes, their leaves yellow and red and golden, +made a pied fence around it. And then all about were the coconut trees, +as fanciful as women, and as vain. They stood at the water's edge and +spent all day looking at their reflections. I was a young man then--Good +Heavens, it's a quarter of a century ago--and I wanted to enjoy all the +loveliness of the world in the short time allotted to me before I passed +into the darkness. I thought it was the most beautiful spot I had ever +seen. The first time I saw it I had a catch at my heart, and I was +afraid I was going to cry. I wasn't more than twenty-five, and though I +put the best face I could on it, I didn't want to die. And somehow it +seemed to me that the very beauty of this place made it easier for me to +accept my fate. I felt when I came here that all my past life had fallen +away, Stockholm and its University, and then Bonn: it all seemed the +life of somebody else, as though now at last I had achieved the reality +which our doctors of philosophy--I am one myself, you know--had +discussed so much. 'A year,' I cried to myself. 'I have a year. I will +spend it here and then I am content to die.'" + +"We are foolish and sentimental and melodramatic at twenty-five, but if +we weren't perhaps we should be less wise at fifty." + +"Now drink, my friend. Don't let the nonsense I talk interfere with +you." + +He waved his thin hand towards the bottle, and the skipper finished what +remained in his glass. + +"You ain't drinking nothin," he said, reaching for the whisky. + +"I am of a sober habit," smiled the Swede. "I intoxicate myself in ways +which I fancy are more subtle. But perhaps that is only vanity. Anyhow, +the effects are more lasting and the results less deleterious." + +"They say there's a deal of cocaine taken in the States now," said the +captain. + +Neilson chuckled. + +"But I do not see a white man often," he continued, "and for once I +don't think a drop of whisky can do me any harm." + +He poured himself out a little, added some soda, and took a sip. + +"And presently I found out why the spot had such an unearthly +loveliness. Here love had tarried for a moment like a migrant bird that +happens on a ship in mid-ocean and for a little while folds its tired +wings. The fragrance of a beautiful passion hovered over it like the +fragrance of hawthorn in May in the meadows of my home. It seems to me +that the places where men have loved or suffered keep about them always +some faint aroma of something that has not wholly died. It is as though +they had acquired a spiritual significance which mysteriously affects +those who pass. I wish I could make myself clear." He smiled a little. +"Though I cannot imagine that if I did you would understand." + +He paused. + +"I think this place was beautiful because here I had been loved +beautifully." And now he shrugged his shoulders. "But perhaps it is only +that my aesthetic sense is gratified by the happy conjunction of young +love and a suitable setting." + +Even a man less thick-witted than the skipper might have been forgiven +if he were bewildered by Neilson's words. For he seemed faintly to laugh +at what he said. It was as though he spoke from emotion which his +intellect found ridiculous. He had said himself that he was a +sentimentalist, and when sentimentality is joined with scepticism there +is often the devil to pay. + +He was silent for an instant and looked at the captain with eyes in +which there was a sudden perplexity. + +"You know, I can't help thinking that I've seen you before somewhere or +other," he said. + +"I couldn't say as I remember you," returned the skipper. + +"I have a curious feeling as though your face were familiar to me. It's +been puzzling me for some time. But I can't situate my recollection in +any place or at any time." + +The skipper massively shrugged his heavy shoulders. + +"It's thirty years since I first come to the islands. A man can't figure +on remembering all the folk he meets in a while like that." + +The Swede shook his head. + +"You know how one sometimes has the feeling that a place one has never +been to before is strangely familiar. That's how I seem to see you." He +gave a whimsical smile. "Perhaps I knew you in some past existence. +Perhaps, perhaps you were the master of a galley in ancient Rome and I +was a slave at the oar. Thirty years have you been here?" + +"Every bit of thirty years." + +"I wonder if you knew a man called Red?" + +"Red?" + +"That is the only name I've ever known him by. I never knew him +personally. I never even set eyes on him. And yet I seem to see him more +clearly than many men, my brothers, for instance, with whom I passed my +daily life for many years. He lives in my imagination with the +distinctness of a Paolo Malatesta or a Romeo. But I daresay you have +never read Dante or Shakespeare?" + +"I can't say as I have," said the captain. + +Neilson, smoking a cigar, leaned back in his chair and looked vacantly +at the ring of smoke which floated in the still air. A smile played on +his lips, but his eyes were grave. Then he looked at the captain. There +was in his gross obesity something extraordinarily repellent. He had the +plethoric self-satisfaction of the very fat. It was an outrage. It set +Neilson's nerves on edge. But the contrast between the man before him +and the man he had in mind was pleasant. + +"It appears that Red was the most comely thing you ever saw. I've talked +to quite a number of people who knew him in those days, white men, and +they all agree that the first time you saw him his beauty just took your +breath away. They called him Red on account of his flaming hair. It had +a natural wave and he wore it long. It must have been of that wonderful +colour that the pre-Raphaelites raved over. I don't think he was vain of +it, he was much too ingenuous for that, but no one could have blamed him +if he had been. He was tall, six feet and an inch or two--in the native +house that used to stand here was the mark of his height cut with a +knife on the central trunk that supported the roof--and he was made like +a Greek god, broad in the shoulders and thin in the flanks; he was like +Apollo, with just that soft roundness which Praxiteles gave him, and +that suave, feminine grace which has in it something troubling and +mysterious. His skin was dazzling white, milky, like satin; his skin was +like a woman's." + +"I had kind of a white skin myself when I was a kiddie," said the +skipper, with a twinkle in his bloodshot eyes. + +But Neilson paid no attention to him. He was telling his story now and +interruption made him impatient. + +"And his face was just as beautiful as his body. He had large blue eyes, +very dark, so that some say they were black, and unlike most red-haired +people he had dark eyebrows and long dark lashes. His features were +perfectly regular and his mouth was like a scarlet wound. He was +twenty." + +On these words the Swede stopped with a certain sense of the dramatic. +He took a sip of whisky. + +"He was unique. There never was anyone more beautiful. There was no more +reason for him than for a wonderful blossom to flower on a wild plant. +He was a happy accident of nature." + +"One day he landed at that cove into which you must have put this +morning. He was an American sailor, and he had deserted from a +man-of-war in Apia. He had induced some good-humoured native to give him +a passage on a cutter that happened to be sailing from Apia to Safoto, +and he had been put ashore here in a dugout. I do not know why he +deserted. Perhaps life on a man-of-war with its restrictions irked him, +perhaps he was in trouble, and perhaps it was the South Seas and these +romantic islands that got into his bones. Every now and then they take a +man strangely, and he finds himself like a fly in a spider's web. It may +be that there was a softness of fibre in him, and these green hills with +their soft airs, this blue sea, took the northern strength from him as +Delilah took the Nazarite's. Anyhow, he wanted to hide himself, and he +thought he would be safe in this secluded nook till his ship had sailed +from Samoa." + +"There was a native hut at the cove and as he stood there, wondering +where exactly he should turn his steps, a young girl came out and +invited him to enter. He knew scarcely two words of the native tongue +and she as little English. But he understood well enough what her smiles +meant, and her pretty gestures, and he followed her. He sat down on a +mat and she gave him slices of pineapple to eat. I can speak of Red +only from hearsay, but I saw the girl three years after he first met +her, and she was scarcely nineteen then. You cannot imagine how +exquisite she was. She had the passionate grace of the hibiscus and the +rich colour. She was rather tall, slim, with the delicate features of +her race, and large eyes like pools of still water under the palm trees; +her hair, black and curling, fell down her back, and she wore a wreath +of scented flowers. Her hands were lovely. They were so small, so +exquisitely formed, they gave your heart-strings a wrench. And in those +days she laughed easily. Her smile was so delightful that it made your +knees shake. Her skin was like a field of ripe corn on a summer day. +Good Heavens, how can I describe her? She was too beautiful to be real." + +"And these two young things, she was sixteen and he was twenty, fell in +love with one another at first sight. That is the real love, not the +love that comes from sympathy, common interests, or intellectual +community, but love pure and simple. That is the love that Adam felt for +Eve when he awoke and found her in the garden gazing at him with dewy +eyes. That is the love that draws the beasts to one another, and the +Gods. That is the love that makes the world a miracle. That is the love +which gives life its pregnant meaning. You have never heard of the wise, +cynical French duke who said that with two lovers there is always one +who loves and one who lets himself be loved; it is a bitter truth to +which most of us have to resign ourselves; but now and then there are +two who love and two who let themselves be loved. Then one might fancy +that the sun stands still as it stood when Joshua prayed to the God of +Israel." + +"And even now after all these years, when I think of these two, so +young, so fair, so simple, and of their love, I feel a pang. It tears my +heart just as my heart is torn when on certain nights I watch the full +moon shining on the lagoon from an unclouded sky. There is always pain +in the contemplation of perfect beauty." + +"They were children. She was good and sweet and kind. I know nothing of +him, and I like to think that then at all events he was ingenuous and +frank. I like to think that his soul was as comely as his body. But I +daresay he had no more soul than the creatures of the woods and forests +who made pipes from reeds and bathed in the mountain streams when the +world was young, and you might catch sight of little fawns galloping +through the glade on the back of a bearded centaur. A soul is a +troublesome possession and when man developed it he lost the Garden of +Eden." + +"Well, when Red came to the island it had recently been visited by one +of those epidemics which the white man has brought to the South Seas, +and one third of the inhabitants had died. It seems that the girl had +lost all her near kin and she lived now in the house of distant cousins. +The household consisted of two ancient crones, bowed and wrinkled, two +younger women, and a man and a boy. For a few days he stayed there. But +perhaps he felt himself too near the shore, with the possibility that +he might fall in with white men who would reveal his hiding-place; +perhaps the lovers could not bear that the company of others should rob +them for an instant of the delight of being together. One morning they +set out, the pair of them, with the few things that belonged to the +girl, and walked along a grassy path under the coconuts, till they came +to the creek you see. They had to cross the bridge you crossed, and the +girl laughed gleefully because he was afraid. She held his hand till +they came to the end of the first tree, and then his courage failed him +and he had to go back. He was obliged to take off all his clothes before +he could risk it, and she carried them over for him on her head. They +settled down in the empty hut that stood here. Whether she had any +rights over it (land tenure is a complicated business in the islands), +or whether the owner had died during the epidemic, I do not know, but +anyhow no one questioned them, and they took possession. Their furniture +consisted of a couple of grass-mats on which they slept, a fragment of +looking-glass, and a bowl or two. In this pleasant land that is enough +to start housekeeping on." + +"They say that happy people have no history, and certainly a happy love +has none. They did nothing all day long and yet the days seemed all too +short. The girl had a native name, but Red called her Sally. He picked +up the easy language very quickly, and he used to lie on the mat for +hours while she chattered gaily to him. He was a silent fellow, and +perhaps his mind was lethargic. He smoked incessantly the cigarettes +which she made him out of the native tobacco and pandanus leaf, and he +watched her while with deft fingers she made grass mats. Often natives +would come in and tell long stories of the old days when the island was +disturbed by tribal wars. Sometimes he would go fishing on the reef, and +bring home a basket full of coloured fish. Sometimes at night he would +go out with a lantern to catch lobster. There were plantains round the +hut and Sally would roast them for their frugal meal. She knew how to +make delicious messes from coconuts, and the bread-fruit tree by the +side of the creek gave them its fruit. On feast-days they killed a +little pig and cooked it on hot stones. They bathed together in the +creek; and in the evening they went down to the lagoon and paddled about +in a dugout, with its great outrigger. The sea was deep blue, +wine-coloured at sundown, like the sea of Homeric Greece; but in the +lagoon the colour had an infinite variety, aquamarine and amethyst and +emerald; and the setting sun turned it for a short moment to liquid +gold. Then there was the colour of the coral, brown, white, pink, red, +purple; and the shapes it took were marvellous. It was like a magic +garden, and the hurrying fish were like butterflies. It strangely lacked +reality. Among the coral were pools with a floor of white sand and here, +where the water was dazzling clear, it was very good to bathe. Then, +cool and happy, they wandered back in the gloaming over the soft grass +road to the creek, walking hand in hand, and now the mynah birds filled +the coconut trees with their clamour. And then the night, with that +great, sky shining with gold, that seemed to stretch more widely than +the skies of Europe, and the soft airs that blew gently through the open +hut, the long night again was all too short. She was sixteen and he was +barely twenty. The dawn crept in among the wooden pillars of the hut and +looked at those lovely children sleeping in one another's arms. The sun +hid behind the great tattered leaves of the plantains so that it might +not disturb them, and then, with playful malice, shot a golden ray, like +the outstretched paw of a Persian cat, on their faces. They opened their +sleepy eyes and they smiled to welcome another day. The weeks lengthened +into months, and a year passed. They seemed to love one another as--I +hesitate to say passionately, for passion has in it always a shade of +sadness, a touch of bitterness or anguish, but as whole heartedly, as +simply and naturally as on that first day on which, meeting, they had +recognised that a god was in them." + +"If you had asked them I have no doubt that they would have thought it +impossible to suppose their love could ever cease. Do we not know that +the essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity? And yet +perhaps in Red there was already a very little seed, unknown to himself +and unsuspected by the girl, which would in time have grown to +weariness. For one day one of the natives from the cove told them that +some way down the coast at the anchorage was a British whaling-ship." + +"'Gee,' he said, 'I wonder if I could make a trade of some nuts and +plantains for a pound or two of tobacco.'" + +"The pandanus cigarettes that Sally made him with untiring hands were +strong and pleasant enough to smoke, but they left him unsatisfied; and +he yearned on a sudden for real tobacco, hard, rank, and pungent. He had +not smoked a pipe for many, months. His mouth watered at the thought of +it. One would have thought some premonition of harm would have made +Sally seek to dissuade him, but love possessed her so completely that it +never occurred to her any power on earth could take him from her. They +went up into the hills together and gathered a great basket of wild +oranges, green, but sweet and juicy; and they picked plantains from +around the hut, and coconuts from their trees, and breadfruit and +mangoes; and they carried them down to the cove. They loaded the +unstable canoe with them, and Red and the native boy who had brought +them the news of the ship paddled along outside the reef." + +"It was the last time she ever saw him." + +"Next day the boy came back alone. He was all in tears. This is the +story he told. When after their long paddle they reached the ship and +Red hailed it, a white man looked over the side and told them to come on +board. They took the fruit they had brought with them and Red piled it +up on the deck. The white man and he began to talk, and they seemed to +come to some agreement. One of them went below and brought up tobacco. +Red took some at once and lit a pipe. The boy imitated the zest with +which he blew a great cloud of smoke from his mouth. Then they said +something to him and he went into the cabin. Through the open door the +boy, watching curiously, saw a bottle brought out and glasses. Red drank +and smoked. They seemed to ask him something, for he shook his head and +laughed. The man, the first man who had spoken to them, laughed too, and +he filled Red's glass once more. They went on talking and drinking, and +presently, growing tired of watching a sight that meant nothing to him, +the boy curled himself up on the deck and slept. He was awakened by a +kick; and, jumping to his feet, he saw that the ship was slowly sailing +out of the lagoon. He caught sight of Red seated at the table, with his +head resting heavily on his arms, fast asleep. He made a movement +towards him, intending to wake him, but a rough hand seized his arm, and +a man, with a scowl and words which he did not understand, pointed to +the side. He shouted to Red, but in a moment he was seized and flung +overboard. Helpless, he swam round to his canoe which was drifting a +little way off, and pushed it on to the reef. He climbed in and, sobbing +all the way, paddled back to shore." + +"What had happened was obvious enough. The whaler, by desertion or +sickness, was short of hands, and the captain when Red came aboard had +asked him to sign on; on his refusal he had made him drunk and kidnapped +him." + +"Sally was beside herself with grief. For three days she screamed and +cried. The natives did what they could to comfort her, but she would not +be comforted. She would not eat. And then, exhausted, she sank into a +sullen apathy. She spent long days at the cove, watching the lagoon, in +the vain hope that Red somehow or other would manage to escape. She sat +on the white sand, hour after hour, with the tears running down her +cheeks, and at night dragged herself wearily back across the creek to +the little hut where she had been happy. The people with whom she had +lived before Red came to the island wished her to return to them, but +she would not; she was convinced that Red would come back, and she +wanted him to find her where he had left her. Four months later she was +delivered of a still-born child, and the old woman who had come to help +her through her confinement remained with her in the hut. All joy was +taken from her life. If her anguish with time became less intolerable it +was replaced by a settled melancholy. You would not have thought that +among these people, whose emotions, though so violent, are very +transient, a woman could be found capable of so enduring a passion. She +never lost the profound conviction that sooner or later Red would come +back. She watched for him, and every time someone crossed this slender +little bridge of coconut trees she looked. It might at last be he." + +Neilson stopped talking and gave a faint sigh. + +"And what happened to her in the end?" asked the skipper. + +Neilson smiled bitterly. + +"Oh, three years afterwards she took up with another white man." + +The skipper gave a fat, cynical chuckle. + +"That's generally what happens to them," he said. + +The Swede shot him a look of hatred. He did not know why that gross, +obese man excited in him so violent a repulsion. But his thoughts +wandered and he found his mind filled with memories of the past. He went +back five and twenty years. It was when he first came to the island, +weary of Apia, with its heavy drinking, its gambling and coarse +sensuality, a sick man, trying to resign himself to the loss of the +career which had fired his imagination with ambitious thoughts. He set +behind him resolutely all his hopes of making a great name for himself +and strove to content himself with the few poor months of careful life +which was all that he could count on. He was boarding with a half-caste +trader who had a store a couple of miles along the coast at the edge of +a native village; and one day, wandering aimlessly along the grassy +paths of the coconut groves, he had come upon the hut in which Sally +lived. The beauty of the spot had filled him with a rapture so great +that it was almost painful, and then he had seen Sally. She was the +loveliest creature he had ever seen, and the sadness in those dark, +magnificent eyes of hers affected him strangely. The Kanakas were a +handsome race, and beauty was not rare among them, but it was the beauty +of shapely animals. It was empty. But those tragic eyes were dark with +mystery, and you felt in them the bitter complexity of the groping, +human soul. The trader told him the story and it moved him. + +"Do you think he'll ever come back?" asked Neilson. + +"No fear. Why, it'll be a couple of years before the ship is paid off, +and by then he'll have forgotten all about her. I bet he was pretty mad +when he woke up and found he'd been shanghaied, and I shouldn't wonder +but he wanted to fight somebody. But he'd got to grin and bear it, and I +guess in a month he was thinking it the best thing that had ever +happened to him that he got away from the island." + +But Neilson could not get the story out of his head. Perhaps because he +was sick and weakly, the radiant health of Red appealed to his +imagination. Himself an ugly man, insignificant of appearance, he prized +very highly comeliness in others. He had never been passionately in +love, and certainly he had never been passionately loved. The mutual +attraction of those two young things gave him a singular delight. It had +the ineffable beauty of the Absolute. He went again to the little hut by +the creek. He had a gift for languages and an energetic mind, accustomed +to work, and he had already given much time to the study of the local +tongue. Old habit was strong in him and he was gathering together +material for a paper on the Samoan speech. The old crone who shared the +hut with Sally invited him to come in and sit down. She gave him _kava_ +to drink and cigarettes to smoke. She was glad to have someone to chat +with and while she talked he looked at Sally. She reminded him of the +Psyche in the museum at Naples. Her features had the same dear purity +of line, and though she had borne a child she had still a virginal +aspect. + +It was not till he had seen her two or three times that he induced her +to speak. Then it was only to ask him if he had seen in Apia a man +called Red. Two years had passed since his disappearance, but it was +plain that she still thought of him incessantly. + +It did not take Neilson long to discover that he was in love with her. +It was only by an effort of will now that he prevented himself from +going every day to the creek, and when he was not with Sally his +thoughts were. At first, looking upon himself as a dying man, he asked +only to look at her, and occasionally hear her speak, and his love gave +him a wonderful happiness. He exulted in its purity. He wanted nothing +from her but the opportunity to weave around her graceful person a web +of beautiful fancies. But the open air, the equable temperature, the +rest, the simple fare, began to have an unexpected effect on his health. +His temperature did not soar at night to such alarming heights, he +coughed less and began to put on weight; six months passed without his +having a haemorrhage; and on a sudden he saw the possibility that he +might live. He had studied his disease carefully, and the hope dawned +upon him that with great care he might arrest its course. It exhilarated +him to look forward once more to the future. He made plans. It was +evident that any active life was out of the question, but he could live +on the islands, and the small income he had, insufficient elsewhere, +would be ample to keep him. He could grow coconuts; that would give him +an occupation; and he would send for his books and a piano; but his +quick mind saw that in all this he was merely trying to conceal from +himself the desire which obsessed him. + +He wanted Sally. He loved not only her beauty, but that dim soul which +he divined behind her suffering eyes. He would intoxicate her with his +passion. In the end he would make her forget. And in an ecstasy of +surrender he fancied himself giving her too the happiness which he had +thought never to know again, but had now so miraculously achieved. + +He asked her to live with him. She refused. He had expected that and did +not let it depress him, for he was sure that sooner or later she would +yield. His love was irresistible. He told the old woman of his wishes, +and found somewhat to his surprise that she and the neighbours, long +aware of them, were strongly urging Sally to accept his offer. After +all, every native was glad to keep house for a white man, and Neilson +according to the standards of the island was a rich one. The trader with +whom he boarded went to her and told her not to be a fool; such an +opportunity would not come again, and after so long she could not still +believe that Red would ever return. The girl's resistance only increased +Neilson's desire, and what had been a very pure love now became an +agonising passion. He was determined that nothing should stand in his +way. He gave Sally no peace. At last, worn out by his persistence and +the persuasions, by turns pleading and angry, of everyone around her, +she consented. But the day after when, exultant, he went to see her he +found that in the night she had burnt down the hut in which she and Red +had lived together. The old crone ran towards him full of angry abuse of +Sally, but he waved her aside; it did not matter; they would build a +bungalow on the place where the hut had stood. A European house would +really be more convenient if he wanted to bring out a piano and a vast +number of books. + +And so the little wooden house was built in which he had now lived for +many years, and Sally became his wife. But after the first few weeks of +rapture, during which he was satisfied with what she gave him he had +known little happiness. She had yielded to him, through weariness, but +she had only yielded what she set no store on. The soul which he had +dimly glimpsed escaped him. He knew that she cared nothing for him. She +still loved Red, and all the time she was waiting for his return. At a +sign from him, Neilson knew that, notwithstanding his love, his +tenderness, his sympathy, his generosity, she would leave him without a +moment's hesitation. She would never give a thought to his distress. +Anguish seized him and he battered at that impenetrable self of hers +which sullenly resisted him. His love became bitter. He tried to melt +her heart with kindness, but it remained as hard as before; he feigned +indifference, but she did not notice it. Sometimes he lost his temper +and abused her, and then she wept silently. Sometimes he thought she was +nothing but a fraud, and that soul simply an invention of his own, and +that he could not get into the sanctuary of her heart because there was +no sanctuary there. His love became a prison from which he longed to +escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door--that was +all it needed--and walk out into the open air. It was torture and at +last he became numb and hopeless. In the end the fire burnt itself out +and, when he saw her eyes rest for an instant on the slender bridge, it +was no longer rage that filled his heart but impatience. For many years +now they had lived together bound by the ties of habit and convenience, +and it was with a smile that he looked back on his old passion. She was +an old woman, for the women on the islands age quickly, and if he had no +love for her any more he had tolerance. She left him alone. He was +contented with his piano and his books. + +His thoughts led him to a desire for words. + +"When I look back now and reflect on that brief passionate love of Red +and Sally, I think that perhaps they should thank the ruthless fate that +separated them when their love seemed still to be at its height. They +suffered, but they suffered in beauty. They were spared the real tragedy +of love." + +"I don't know exactly as I get you," said the skipper. + +"The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think +it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is +dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your +heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of +your sight, and realise that you would not mind if you never saw her +again. The tragedy of love is indifference." + +But while he was speaking a very extraordinary thing happened. Though he +had been addressing the skipper he had not been talking to him, he had +been putting his thoughts into words for himself, and with his eyes +fixed on the man in front of him he had not seen him. But now an image +presented itself to them, an image not of the man he saw, but of another +man. It was as though he were looking into one of those distorting +mirrors that make you extraordinarily squat or outrageously elongate, +but here exactly the opposite took place, and in the obese, ugly old man +he caught the shadowy glimpse of a stripling. He gave him now a quick, +searching scrutiny. Why had a haphazard stroll brought him just to this +place? A sudden tremor of his heart made him slightly breathless. An +absurd suspicion seized him. What had occurred to him was impossible, +and yet it might be a fact. + +"What is your name?" he asked abruptly. + +The skipper's face puckered and he gave a cunning chuckle. He looked +then malicious and horribly vulgar. + +"It's such a damned long time since I heard it that I almost forget it +myself. But for thirty years now in the islands they've always called me +Red." + +His huge form shook as he gave a low, almost silent laugh. It was +obscene. Neilson shuddered. Red was hugely amused, and from his +bloodshot eyes tears ran down his cheeks. + +Neilson gave a gasp, for at that moment a woman came in. She was a +native, a woman of somewhat commanding presence, stout without being +corpulent, dark, for the natives grow darker with age, with very grey +hair. She wore a black Mother Hubbard, and its thinness showed her heavy +breasts. The moment had come. + +She made an observation to Neilson about some household matter and he +answered. He wondered if his voice sounded as unnatural to her as it did +to himself. She gave the man who was sitting in the chair by the window +an indifferent glance, and went out of the room. The moment had come and +gone. + +Neilson for a moment could not speak. He was strangely shaken. Then he +said: + +"I'd be very glad if you'd stay and have a bit of dinner with me. Pot +luck." + +"I don't think I will," said Red. "I must go after this fellow Gray. +I'll give him his stuff and then I'll get away. I want to be back in +Apia to-morrow." + +"I'll send a boy along with you to show you the way." + +"That'll be fine." + +Red heaved himself out of his chair, while the Swede called one of the +boys who worked on the plantation. He told him where the skipper wanted +to go, and the boy stepped along the bridge. Red prepared to follow him. + +"Don't fall in," said Neilson. + +"Not on your life." + +Neilson watched him make his way across and when he had disappeared +among the coconuts he looked still. Then he sank heavily in his chair. +Was that the man who had prevented him from being happy? Was that the +man whom Sally had loved all these years and for whom she had waited so +desperately? It was grotesque. A sudden fury seized him so that he had +an instinct to spring up and smash everything around him. He had been +cheated. They had seen each other at last and had not known it. He began +to laugh, mirthlessly, and his laughter grew till it became hysterical. +The Gods had played him a cruel trick. And he was old now. + +At last Sally came in to tell him dinner was ready. He sat down in front +of her and tried to eat. He wondered what she would say if he told her +now that the fat old man sitting in the chair was the lover whom she +remembered still with the passionate abandonment of her youth. Years +ago, when he hated her because she made him so unhappy, he would have +been glad to tell her. He wanted to hurt her then as she hurt him, +because his hatred was only love. But now he did not care. He shrugged +his shoulders listlessly. + +"What did that man want?" she asked presently. + +He did not answer at once. She was old too, a fat old native woman. He +wondered why he had ever loved her so madly. He had laid at her feet all +the treasures of his soul, and she had cared nothing for them. Waste, +what waste! And now, when he looked at her, he felt only contempt. His +patience was at last exhausted. He answered her question. + +"He's the captain of a schooner. He's come from Apia." + +"Yes." + +"He brought me news from home. My eldest brother is very ill and I must +go back." + +"Will you be gone long?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + + + + +V + +_The Pool_ + + +When I was introduced to Lawson by Chaplin, the owner of the Hotel +Metropole at Apia, I paid no particular attention to him. We were +sitting in the lounge over an early cocktail and I was listening with +amusement to the gossip of the island. + +Chaplin entertained me. He was by profession a mining engineer and +perhaps it was characteristic of him that he had settled in a place +where his professional attainments were of no possible value. It was, +however, generally reported that he was an extremely clever mining +engineer. He was a small man, neither fat nor thin, with black hair, +scanty on the crown, turning grey, and a small, untidy moustache; his +face, partly from the sun and partly from liquor, was very red. He was +but a figurehead, for the hotel, though so grandly named but a frame +building of two storeys, was managed by his wife, a tall, gaunt +Australian of five and forty, with an imposing presence and a determined +air. The little man, excitable and often tipsy, was terrified of her, +and the stranger soon heard of domestic quarrels in which she used her +fist and her foot in order to keep him in subjection. She had been +known after a night of drunkenness to confine him for twenty-four hours +to his own room, and then he could be seen, afraid to leave his prison, +talking somewhat pathetically from his verandah to people in the street +below. + +He was a character, and his reminiscences of a varied life, whether true +or not, made him worth listening to, so that when Lawson strolled in I +was inclined to resent the interruption. Although not midday, it was +clear that he had had enough to drink, and it was without enthusiasm +that I yielded to his persistence and accepted his offer of another +cocktail. I knew already that Chaplin's head was weak. The next round +which in common politeness I should be forced to order would be enough +to make him lively, and then Mrs Chaplin would give me black looks. + +Nor was there anything attractive in Lawson's appearance. He was a +little thin man, with a long, sallow face and a narrow, weak chin, a +prominent nose, large and bony, and great shaggy black eyebrows. They +gave him a peculiar look. His eyes, very large and very dark, were +magnificent. He was jolly, but his jollity did not seem to me sincere; +it was on the surface, a mask which he wore to deceive the world, and I +suspected that it concealed a mean nature. He was plainly anxious to be +thought a "good sport" and he was hail-fellow-well-met; but, I do not +know why, I felt that he was cunning and shifty. He talked a great deal +in a raucous voice, and he and Chaplin capped one another's stories of +beanos which had become legendary, stories of "wet" nights at the +English Club, of shooting expeditions where an incredible amount of +whisky had been consumed, and of jaunts to Sydney of which their pride +was that they could remember nothing from the time they landed till the +time they sailed. A pair of drunken swine. But even in their +intoxication, for by now after four cocktails each, neither was sober, +there was a great difference between Chaplin, rough and vulgar, and +Lawson: Lawson might be drunk, but he was certainly a gentleman. + +At last he got out of his chair, a little unsteadily. + +"Well, I'll be getting along home," he said. "See you before dinner." + +"Missus all right?" said Chaplin. + +"Yes." + +He went out. There was a peculiar note in the monosyllable of his answer +which made me look up. + +"Good chap," said Chaplin flatly, as Lawson went out of the door into +the sunshine. "One of the best. Pity he drinks." + +This from Chaplin was an observation not without humour. + +"And when he's drunk he wants to fight people." + +"Is he often drunk?" + +"Dead drunk, three or four days a week. It's the island done it, and +Ethel." + +"Who's Ethel?" + +"Ethel's his wife. Married a half-caste. Old Brevald's daughter. Took +her away from here. Only thing to do. But she couldn't stand it, and now +they're back again. He'll hang himself one of these days, if he don't +drink himself to death before. Good chap. Nasty when he's drunk." + +Chaplin belched loudly. + +"I'll go and put my head under the shower. I oughtn't to have had that +last cocktail. It's always the last one that does you in." + +He looked uncertainly at the staircase as he made up his mind to go to +the cubby hole in which was the shower, and then with unnatural +seriousness got up. + +"Pay you to cultivate Lawson," he said. "A well read chap. You'd be +surprised when he's sober. Clever too. Worth talking to." + +Chaplin had told me the whole story in these few speeches. + +When I came in towards evening from a ride along the seashore Lawson was +again in the hotel. He was heavily sunk in one of the cane chairs in the +lounge and he looked at me with glassy eyes. It was plain that he had +been drinking all the afternoon. He was torpid, and the look on his face +was sullen and vindictive. His glance rested on me for a moment, but I +could see that he did not recognise me. Two or three other men were +sitting there, shaking dice, and they took no notice of him. His +condition was evidently too usual to attract attention. I sat down and +began to play. + +"You're a damned sociable lot," said Lawson suddenly. + +He got out of his chair and waddled with bent knees towards the door. I +do not know whether the spectacle was more ridiculous than revolting. +When he had gone one of the men sniggered. + +"Lawson's fairly soused to-day," he said. + +"If I couldn't carry my liquor better than that," said another, "I'd +climb on the waggon and stay there." + +Who would have thought that this wretched object was in his way a +romantic figure or that his life had in it those elements of pity and +terror which the theorist tells us are necessary to achieve the effect +of tragedy? + +I did not see him again for two or three days. + +I was sitting one evening on the first floor of the hotel on a verandah +that overlooked the street when Lawson came up and sank into a chair +beside me. He was quite sober. He made a casual remark and then, when I +had replied somewhat indifferently, added with a laugh which had in it +an apologetic tone: + +"I was devilish soused the other day." + +I did not answer. There was really nothing to say. I pulled away at my +pipe in the vain hope of keeping the mosquitoes away, and looked at the +natives going home from their work. They walked with long steps, slowly, +with care and dignity, and the soft patter of their naked feet was +strange to hear. Their dark hair, curling or straight, was often white +with lime, and then they had a look of extraordinary distinction. They +were tall and finely built. Then a gang of Solomon Islanders, indentured +labourers, passed by, singing; they were shorter and slighter than the +Samoans, coal black with great heads of fuzzy hair dyed red. Now and +then a white man drove past in his buggy or rode into the hotel yard. In +the lagoon two or three schooners reflected their grace in the tranquil +water. + +"I don't know what there is to do in a place like this except to get +soused," said Lawson at last. + +"Don't you like Samoa?" I asked casually, for something to say. + +"It's pretty, isn't it?" + +The word he chose seemed so inadequate to describe the unimaginable +beauty of the island, that I smiled, and smiling I turned to look at +him. I was startled by the expression in those fine sombre eyes of his, +an expression of intolerable anguish; they betrayed a tragic depth of +emotion of which I should never have thought him capable. But the +expression passed away and he smiled. His smile was simple and a little +naive. It changed his face so that I wavered in my first feeling of +aversion from him. + +"I was all over the place when I first came out," he said. + +He was silent for a moment. + +"I went away for good about three years ago, but I came back." He +hesitated. "My wife wanted to come back. She was born here, you know." + +"Oh, yes." + +He was silent again, and then hazarded a remark about Robert Louis +Stevenson. He asked me if I had been up to Vailima. For some reason he +was making an effort to be agreeable to me. He began to talk of +Stevenson's books, and presently the conversation drifted to London. + +"I suppose Covent Garden's still going strong," he said. "I think I miss +the opera as much as anything here. Have you seen _Tristan and Isolde_?" + +He asked me the question as though the answer were really important to +him, and when I said, a little casually I daresay, that I had, he seemed +pleased. He began to speak of Wagner, not as a musician, but as the +plain man who received from him an emotional satisfaction that he could +not analyse. + +"I suppose Bayreuth was the place to go really," he said. "I never had +the money, worse luck. But of course one might do worse than Covent +Garden, all the lights and the women dressed up to the nines, and the +music. The first act of the _Walkuere's_ all right, isn't it? And the end +of _Tristan_. Golly!" + +His eyes were flashing now and his face was lit up so that he hardly +seemed the same man. There was a flush on his sallow, thin cheeks, and I +forgot that his voice was harsh and unpleasant. There was even a certain +charm about him. + +"By George, I'd like to be in London to-night. Do you know the Pall Mall +restaurant? I used to go there a lot. Piccadilly Circus with the shops +all lit up, and the crowd. I think it's stunning to stand there and +watch the buses and taxis streaming along as though they'd never stop. +And I like the Strand too. What are those lines about God and Charing +Cross?" + +I was taken aback. + +"Thompson's, d'you mean?" I asked. + +I quoted them. + + _"And when so sad, thou canst not sadder,_ + _Cry, and upon thy so sore loss_ + _Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder_ + _Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross."_ + +He gave a faint sigh. + +"I've read _The Hound of Heaven_. It's a bit of all right." + +"It's generally thought so," I murmured. + +"You don't meet anybody here who's read anything. They think it's +swank." + +There was a wistful look on his face, and I thought I divined the +feeling that made him come to me. I was a link with the world he +regretted and a life that he would know no more. Because not so very +long before I had been in the London which he loved, he looked upon me +with awe and envy. He had not spoken for five minutes perhaps when he +broke out with words that startled me by their intensity. + +"I'm fed up," he said. "I'm fed up." + +"Then why don't you clear out?" I asked. + +His face grew sullen. + +"My lungs are a bit dicky. I couldn't stand an English winter now." + +At that moment another man joined us on the verandah and Lawson sank +into a moody silence. + +"It's about time for a drain," said the new-comer. "Who'll have a drop +of Scotch with me? Lawson?" + +Lawson seemed to arise from a distant world. He got up. + +"Let's go down to the bar," he said. + +When he left me I remained with a more kindly feeling towards him than I +should have expected. He puzzled and interested me. And a few days later +I met his wife. I knew they had been married for five or six years, and +I was surprised to see that she was still extremely young. When he +married her she could not have been more than sixteen. She was adorably +pretty. She was no darker than a Spaniard, small and very beautifully +made, with tiny hands and feet, and a slight, lithe figure. Her features +were lovely; but I think what struck me most was the delicacy of her +appearance; the half-caste as a rule have a certain coarseness, they +seem a little roughly formed, but she had an exquisite daintiness which +took your breath away. There was something extremely civilised about +her, so that it surprised you to see her in those surroundings, and you +thought of those famous beauties who had set all the world talking at +the Court of the Emperor Napoleon III. Though she wore but a muslin +frock and a straw hat she wore them with an elegance that suggested the +woman of fashion. She must have been ravishing when Lawson first saw +her. + +He had but lately come out from England to manage the local branch of an +English bank, and, reaching Samoa at the beginning of the dry season, he +had taken a room at the hotel. He quickly made the acquaintance of all +and sundry. The life of the island is pleasant and easy. He enjoyed the +long idle talks in the lounge of the hotel and the gay evenings at the +English Club when a group of fellows would play pool. He liked Apia +straggling along the edge of the lagoon, with its stores and bungalows, +and its native village. Then there were week-ends when he would ride +over to the house of one planter or another and spend a couple of nights +on the hills. He had never before known freedom or leisure. And he was +intoxicated by the sunshine. When he rode through the bush his head +reeled a little at the beauty that surrounded him. The country was +indescribably fertile. In parts the forest was still virgin, a tangle of +strange trees, luxuriant undergrowth, and vine; it gave an impression +that was mysterious and troubling. + +But the spot that entranced him was a pool a mile or two away from Apia +to which in the evenings he often went to bathe. There was a little +river that bubbled over the rocks in a swift stream, and then, after +forming the deep pool, ran on, shallow and crystalline, past a ford made +by great stones where the natives came sometimes to bathe or to wash +their clothes. The coconut trees, with their frivolous elegance, grew +thickly on the banks, all clad with trailing plants, and they were +reflected in the green water. It was just such a scene as you might see +in Devonshire among the hills, and yet with a difference, for it had a +tropical richness, a passion, a scented languor which seemed to melt the +heart. The water was fresh, but not cold; and it was delicious after the +heat of the day. To bathe there refreshed not only the body but the +soul. + +At the hour when Lawson went, there was not a soul and he lingered for a +long time, now floating idly in the water, now drying himself in the +evening sun, enjoying the solitude and the friendly silence. He did not +regret London then, nor the life that he had abandoned, for life as it +was seemed complete and exquisite. + +It was here that he first saw Ethel. + +Occupied till late by letters which had to be finished for the monthly +sailing of the boat next day, he rode down one evening to the pool when +the light was almost failing. He tied up his horse and sauntered to the +bank. A girl was sitting there. She glanced round as he came and +noiselessly slid into the water. She vanished like a naiad startled by +the approach of a mortal. He was surprised and amused. He wondered where +she had hidden herself. He swam downstream and presently saw her sitting +on a rock. She looked at him with uncurious eyes. He called out a +greeting in Samoan. + +"_Talofa._" + +She answered him, suddenly smiling, and then let herself into the water +again. She swam easily and her hair spread out behind her. He watched +her cross the pool and climb out on the bank. Like all the natives she +bathed in a Mother Hubbard, and the water had made it cling to her +slight body. She wrung out her hair, and as she stood there, +unconcerned, she looked more than ever like a wild creature of the water +or the woods. He saw now that she was half-caste. He swam towards her +and, getting out, addressed her in English. + +"You're having a late swim." + +She shook back her hair and then let it spread over her shoulders in +luxuriant curls. + +"I like it when I'm alone," she said. + +"So do I." + +She laughed with the childlike frankness of the native. She slipped a +dry Mother Hubbard over her head and, letting down the wet one, stepped +out of it. She wrung it out and was ready to go. She paused a moment +irresolutely and then sauntered off. The night fell suddenly. + +Lawson went back to the hotel and, describing her to the men who were in +the lounge shaking dice for drinks, soon discovered who she was. Her +father was a Norwegian called Brevald who was often to be seen in the +bar of the Hotel Metropole drinking rum and water. He was a little old +man, knotted and gnarled like an ancient tree, who had come out to the +islands forty years before as mate of a sailing vessel. He had been a +blacksmith, a trader, a planter, and at one time fairly well-to-do; but, +ruined by the great hurricane of the nineties, he had now nothing to +live on but a small plantation of coconut trees. He had had four native +wives and, as he told you with a cracked chuckle, more children than he +could count. But some had died and some had gone out into the world, so +that now the only one left at home was Ethel. + +"She's a peach," said Nelson, the supercargo of the _Moana_. "I've given +her the glad eye once or twice, but I guess there's nothing doing." + +"Old Brevald's not that sort of a fool, sonny," put in another, a man +called Miller. "He wants a son-in-law who's prepared to keep him in +comfort for the rest of his life." + +It was distasteful to Lawson that they should speak of the girl in that +fashion. He made a remark about the departing mail and so distracted +their attention. But next evening he went again to the pool. Ethel was +there; and the mystery of the sunset, the deep silence of the water, the +lithe grace of the coconut trees, added to her beauty, giving it a +profundity, a magic, which stirred the heart to unknown emotions. For +some reason that time he had the whim not to speak to her. She took no +notice of him. She did not even glance in his direction. She swam about +the green pool. She dived, she rested on the bank, as though she were +quite alone: he had a queer feeling that he was invisible. Scraps of +poetry, half forgotten, floated across his memory, and vague +recollections of the Greece he had negligently studied in his school +days. When she had changed her wet clothes for dry ones and sauntered +away he found a scarlet hibiscus where she had been. It was a flower +that she had worn in her hair when she came to bathe and, having taken +it out on getting into the water, had forgotten or not cared to put in +again. He took it in his hands and looked at it with a singular emotion. +He had an instinct to keep it, but his sentimentality irritated him, and +he flung it away. It gave him quite a little pang to see it float down +the stream. + +He wondered what strangeness it was in her nature that urged her to go +down to this hidden pool when there was no likelihood that anyone +should be there. The natives of the islands are devoted to the water. +They bathe, somewhere or other, every day, once always, and often twice; +but they bathe in bands, laughing and joyous, a whole family together; +and you often saw a group of girls, dappled by the sun shining through +the trees, with the half-castes among them, splashing about the shallows +of the stream. It looked as though there were in this pool some secret +which attracted Ethel against her will. + +Now the night had fallen, mysterious and silent, and he let himself down +in the water softly, in order to make no sound, and swam lazily in the +warm darkness. The water seemed fragrant still from her slender body. He +rode back to the town under the starry sky. He felt at peace with the +world. + +Now he went every evening to the pool and every evening he saw Ethel. +Presently he overcame her timidity. She became playful and friendly. +They sat together on the rocks above the pool, where the water ran fast, +and they lay side by side on the ledge that overlooked it, watching the +gathering dusk envelop it with mystery. It was inevitable that their +meetings should become known--in the South Seas everyone seems to know +everyone's business--and he was subjected to much rude chaff by the men +at the hotel. He smiled and let them talk. It was not even worth while +to deny their coarse suggestions. His feelings were absolutely pure. He +loved Ethel as a poet might love the moon. He thought of her not as a +woman but as something not of this earth. She was the spirit of the +pool. + +One day at the hotel, passing through the bar, he saw that old Brevald, +as ever in his shabby blue overalls, was standing there. Because he was +Ethel's father he had a desire to speak to him, so he went in, nodded +and, ordering his own drink, casually turned and invited the old man to +have one with him. They chatted for a few minutes of local affairs, and +Lawson was uneasily conscious that the Norwegian was scrutinising him +with sly blue eyes. His manner was not agreeable. It was sycophantic, +and yet behind the cringing air of an old man who had been worsted in +his struggle with fate was a shadow of old truculence. Lawson remembered +that he had once been captain of a schooner engaged in the slave trade, +a blackbirder they call it in the Pacific, and he had a large hernia in +the chest which was the result of a wound received in a scrap with +Solomon Islanders. The bell rang for luncheon. + +"Well, I must be off," said Lawson. + +"Why don't you come along to my place one time?" said Brevald, in his +wheezy voice. "It's not very grand, but you'll be welcome. You know +Ethel." + +"I'll come with pleasure." + +"Sunday afternoon's the best time." + +Brevald's bungalow, shabby and bedraggled, stood among the coconut trees +of the plantation, a little away from the main road that ran up to +Vailima. Immediately around it grew huge plantains. With their tattered +leaves they had the tragic beauty of a lovely woman in rags. Everything +was slovenly and neglected. Little black pigs, thin and high-backed, +rooted about, and chickens clucked noisily as they picked at the refuse +scattered here and there. Three or four natives were lounging about the +verandah. When Lawson asked for Brevald the old man's cracked voice +called out to him, and he found him in the sitting-room smoking an old +briar pipe. + +"Sit down and make yerself at home," he said. "Ethel's just titivating." + +She came in. She wore a blouse and skirt and her hair was done in the +European fashion. Although she had not the wild, timid grace of the girl +who came down every evening to the pool, she seemed now more usual and +consequently more approachable. She shook hands with Lawson. It was the +first time he had touched her hand. + +"I hope you'll have a cup of tea with us," she said. + +He knew she had been at a mission school, and he was amused, and at the +same time touched, by the company manners she was putting on for his +benefit. Tea was already set out on the table and in a minute old +Brevald's fourth wife brought in the tea-pot. She was a handsome native, +no longer very young, and she spoke but a few words of English. She +smiled and smiled. Tea was rather a solemn meal, with a great deal of +bread and butter and a variety of very sweet cakes, and the conversation +was formal. Then a wrinkled old woman came in softly. + +"That's Ethel's granny," said old Brevald, noisily spitting on the +floor. + +She sat on the edge of a chair, uncomfortably, so that you saw it was +unusual for her and she would have been more at ease on the ground, and +remained silently staring at Lawson with fixed, shining eyes. In the +kitchen behind the bungalow someone began to play the concertina and two +or three voices were raised in a hymn. But they sang for the pleasure of +the sounds rather than from piety. + +When Lawson walked back to the hotel he was strangely happy. He was +touched by the higgledy-piggledy way in which those people lived; and in +the smiling good-nature of Mrs Brevald, in the little Norwegian's +fantastic career, and in the shining mysterious eyes of the old +grandmother, he found something unusual and fascinating. It was a more +natural life than any he had known, it was nearer to the friendly, +fertile earth; civilisation repelled him at that moment, and by mere +contact with these creatures of a more primitive nature he felt a +greater freedom. + +He saw himself rid of the hotel which already was beginning to irk him, +settled in a little bungalow of his own, trim and white, in front of the +sea so that he had before his eyes always the multicoloured variety of +the lagoon. He loved the beautiful island. London and England meant +nothing to him any more, he was content to spend the rest of his days in +that forgotten spot, rich in the best of the world's goods, love and +happiness. He made up his mind that whatever the obstacles nothing +should prevent him from marrying Ethel. + +But there were no obstacles. He was always welcome at the Brevalds' +house. The old man was ingratiating and Mrs Brevald smiled without +ceasing. He had brief glimpses of natives who seemed somehow to belong +to the establishment, and once he found a tall youth in a _lava-lava_, +his body tattooed, his hair white with lime, sitting with Brevald, and +was told he was Mrs Brevald's brother's son; but for the most part they +kept out of his way. Ethel was delightful with him. The light in her +eyes when she saw him filled him with ecstasy. She was charming and +naive. He listened enraptured when she told him of the mission school at +which she was educated, and of the sisters. He went with her to the +cinema which was given once a fortnight and danced with her at the dance +which followed it. They came from all parts of the island for this, +since gaieties are few in Upolu; and you saw there all the society of +the place, the white ladies keeping a good deal to themselves, the +half-castes very elegant in American clothes, the natives, strings of +dark girls in white Mother Hubbards and young men in unaccustomed ducks +and white shoes. It was all very smart and gay. Ethel was pleased to +show her friends the white admirer who did not leave her side. The +rumour was soon spread that he meant to marry her and her friends looked +at her with envy. It was a great thing for a half-caste to get a white +man to marry her, even the less regular relation was better than +nothing, but one could never tell what it would lead to; and Lawson's +position as manager of the bank made him one of the catches of the +island. If he had not been so absorbed in Ethel he would have noticed +that many eyes were fixed on him curiously, and he would have seen the +glances of the white ladies and noticed how they put their heads +together and gossiped. + +Afterwards, when the men who lived at the hotel were having a whisky +before turning in, Nelson burst out with: + +"Say, they say Lawson's going to marry that girl." + +"He's a damned fool then," said Miller. + +Miller was a German-American who had changed his name from Mueller, a big +man, fat and bald-headed, with a round, clean-shaven face. He wore large +gold-rimmed spectacles, which gave him a benign look, and his ducks were +always clean and white. He was a heavy drinker, invariably ready to stay +up all night with the "boys," but he never got drunk; he was jolly and +affable, but very shrewd. Nothing interfered with his business; he +represented a firm in San Francisco, jobbers of the goods sold in the +islands, calico, machinery and what not; and his good-fellowship was +part of his stock-in-trade. + +"He don't know what he's up against," said Nelson. "Someone ought to put +him wise." + +"If you'll take my advice you won't interfere in what don't concern +you," said Miller. "When a man's made up his mind to make a fool of +himself, there's nothing like letting him." + +"I'm all for having a good time with the girls out here, but when it +comes to marrying them--this child ain't taking any, I'll tell the +world." + +Chaplin was there, and now he had his say. + +"I've seen a lot of fellows do it, and it's no good." + +"You ought to have a talk with him, Chaplin," said Nelson. "You know him +better than anyone else does." + +"My advice to Chaplin is to leave it alone," said Miller. + +Even in those days Lawson was not popular and really no one took enough +interest in him to bother. Mrs Chaplin talked it over with two or three +of the white ladies, but they contented themselves with saying that it +was a pity; and when he told her definitely that he was going to be +married it seemed too late to do anything. + +For a year Lawson was happy. He took a bungalow at the point of the bay +round which Apia is built, on the borders of a native village. It +nestled charmingly among the coconut trees and faced the passionate blue +of the Pacific. Ethel was lovely as she went about the little house, +lithe and graceful like some young animal of the woods, and she was gay. +They laughed a great deal. They talked nonsense. Sometimes one or two of +the men at the hotel would come over and spend the evening, and often on +a Sunday they would go for a day to some planter who had married a +native; now and then one or other of the half-caste traders who had a +store in Apia would give a party and they went to it. The half-castes +treated Lawson quite differently now. His marriage had made him one of +themselves and they called him Bertie. They put their arms through his +and smacked him on the back. He liked to see Ethel at these gatherings. +Her eyes shone and she laughed. It did him good to see her radiant +happiness. Sometimes Ethel's relations would come to the bungalow, old +Brevald of course, and her mother, but cousins too, vague native women +in Mother Hubbards and men and boys in _lava-lavas_, with their hair +dyed red and their bodies elaborately tattooed. He would find them +sitting there when he got back from the bank. He laughed indulgently. + +"Don't let them eat us out of hearth and home," he said. + +"They're my own family. I can't help doing something for them when they +ask me." + +He knew that when a white man marries a native or a half-caste he must +expect her relations to look upon him as a gold mine. He took Ethel's +face in his hands and kissed her red lips. Perhaps he could not expect +her to understand that the salary which had amply sufficed for a +bachelor must be managed with some care when it had to support a wife +and a house. Then Ethel was delivered of a son. + +It was when Lawson first held the child in his arms that a sudden pang +shot through his heart. He had not expected it to be so dark. After all +it had but a fourth part of native blood, and there was no reason really +why it should not look just like an English baby; but, huddled together +in his arms, sallow, its head covered already with black hair, with huge +black eyes, it might have been a native child. Since his marriage he had +been ignored by the white ladies of the colony. When he came across men +in whose houses he had been accustomed to dine as a bachelor, they were +a little self-conscious with him; and they sought to cover their +embarrassment by an exaggerated cordiality. + +"Mrs Lawson well?" they would say. "You're a lucky fellow. Damned pretty +girl." + +But if they were with their wives and met him and Ethel they would feel +it awkward when their wives gave Ethel a patronising nod. Lawson had +laughed. + +"They're as dull as ditchwater, the whole gang of them," he said. "It's +not going to disturb my night's rest if they don't ask me to their dirty +parties." + +But now it irked him a little. + +The little dark baby screwed up its face. That was his son. He thought +of the half-caste children in Apia. They had an unhealthy look, sallow +and pale, and they were odiously precocious. He had seen them on the +boat going to school in New Zealand, and a school had to be chosen which +took children with native blood in them; they were huddled together, +brazen and yet timid, with traits which set them apart strangely from +white people. They spoke the native language among themselves. And when +they grew up the men accepted smaller salaries because of their native +blood; girls might marry a white man, but boys had no chance; they must +marry a half-caste like themselves or a native. Lawson made up his mind +passionately that he would take his son away from the humiliation of +such a life. At whatever cost he must get back to Europe. And when he +went in to see Ethel, frail and lovely in her bed, surrounded by native +women, his determination was strengthened. If he took her away among his +own people she would belong more completely to him. He loved her so +passionately, he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he +was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the +native life, she would always keep something from him. + +He went to work quietly, urged by an obscure instinct of secrecy, and +wrote to a cousin who was partner in a shipping firm in Aberdeen, saying +that his health (on account of which like so many more he had come out +to the islands) was so much better, there seemed no reason why he should +not return to Europe. He asked him to use what influence he could to get +him a job, no matter how poorly paid, on Deeside, where the climate was +particularly suitable to such as suffered from diseases of the lungs. It +takes five or six weeks for letters to get from Aberdeen to Samoa, and +several had to be exchanged. He had plenty of time to prepare Ethel. She +was as delighted as a child. He was amused to see how she boasted to her +friends that she was going to England; it was a step up for her; she +would be quite English there; and she was excited at the interest the +approaching departure gave her. When at length a cable came offering him +a post in a bank in Kincardineshire she was beside herself with joy. + +When, their long journey over, they were settled in the little Scots +town with its granite houses Lawson realised how much it meant to him to +live once more among his own people. He looked back on the three years +he had spent in Apia as exile, and returned to the life that seemed the +only normal one with a sigh of relief. It was good to play golf once +more, and to fish--to fish properly, that was poor fun in the Pacific +when you just threw in your line and pulled out one big sluggish fish +after another from the crowded sea--and it was good to see a paper every +day with that day's news, and to meet men and women of your own sort, +people you could talk to; and it was good to eat meat that was not +frozen and to drink milk that was not canned. They were thrown upon +their own resources much more than in the Pacific, and he was glad to +have Ethel exclusively to himself. After two years of marriage he loved +her more devotedly than ever, he could hardly bear her out of his sight, +and the need in him grew urgent for a more intimate communion between +them. But it was strange that after the first excitement of arrival she +seemed to take less interest in the new life than he had expected. She +did not accustom herself to her surroundings. She was a little +lethargic. As the fine autumn darkened into winter she complained of the +cold. She lay half the morning in bed and the rest of the day on a sofa, +reading novels sometimes, but more often doing nothing. She looked +pinched. + +"Never mind, darling," he said. "You'll get used to it very soon. And +wait till the summer comes. It can be almost as hot as in Apia." + +He felt better and stronger than he had done for years. + +The carelessness with which she managed her house had not mattered in +Samoa, but here it was out of place. When anyone came he did not want +the place to look untidy; and, laughing, chaffing Ethel a little, he set +about putting things in order. Ethel watched him indolently. She spent +long hours playing with her son. She talked to him in the baby language +of her own country. To distract her, Lawson bestirred himself to make +friends among the neighbours, and now and then they went to little +parties where the ladies sang drawing-room ballads and the men beamed in +silent good nature. Ethel was shy. She seemed to sit apart. Sometimes +Lawson, seized with a sudden anxiety, would ask her if she was happy. + +"Yes, I'm quite happy," she answered. + +But her eyes were veiled by some thought he could not guess. She seemed +to withdraw into herself so that he was conscious that he knew no more +of her than when he had first seen her bathing in the pool. He had an +uneasy feeling that she was concealing something from him, and because +he adored her it tortured him. + +"You don't regret Apia, do you?" he asked her once. + +"Oh, no--I think it's very nice here." + +An obscure misgiving drove him to make disparaging remarks about the +island and the people there. She smiled and did not answer. Very rarely +she received a bundle of letters from Samoa and then she went about for +a day or two with a set, pale face. + +"Nothing would induce me ever to go back there," he said once. "It's no +place for a white man." + +But he grew conscious that sometimes, when he was away, Ethel cried. In +Apia she had been talkative, chatting volubly about all the little +details of their common life, the gossip of the place; but now she +gradually became silent, and, though he increased his efforts to amuse +her, she remained listless. It seemed to him that her recollections of +the old life were drawing her away from him, and he was madly jealous of +the island and of the sea, of Brevald, and all the dark-skinned people +whom he remembered now with horror. When she spoke of Samoa he was +bitter and satirical. One evening late in the spring when the birch +trees were bursting into leaf, coming home from a round of golf, he +found her not as usual lying on the sofa, but at the window, standing. +She had evidently been waiting for his return. She addressed him the +moment he came into the room. To his amazement she spoke in Samoan. + +"I can't stand it. I can't live here any more. I hate it. I hate it." + +"For God's sake speak in a civilised language," he said irritably. + +She went up to him and clasped her arms around his body awkwardly, with +a gesture that had in it something barbaric. + +"Let's go away from here. Let's go back to Samoa. If you make me stay +here I shall die. I want to go home." + +Her passion broke suddenly and she burst into tears. His anger vanished +and he drew her down on his knees. He explained to her that it was +impossible for him to throw up his job, which after all meant his bread +and butter. His place in Apia was long since filled. He had nothing to +go back to there. He tried to put it to her reasonably, the +inconveniences of life there, the humiliation to which they must be +exposed, and the bitterness it must cause their son. + +"Scotland's wonderful for education and that sort of thing. Schools are +good and cheap, and he can go to the University at Aberdeen. I'll make a +real Scot of him." + +They had called him Andrew. Lawson wanted him to become a doctor. He +would marry a white woman. + +"I'm not ashamed of being half native," Ethel said sullenly. + +"Of course not, darling. There's nothing to be ashamed of." + +With her soft cheek against his he felt incredibly weak. + +"You don't know how much I love you," he said. "I'd give anything in the +world to be able to tell you what I've got in my heart." + +He sought her lips. + +The summer came. The highland valley was green and fragrant, and the +hills were gay with the heather. One sunny day followed another in that +sheltered spot, and the shade of the birch trees was grateful after the +glare of the high road. Ethel spoke no more of Samoa and Lawson grew +less nervous. He thought that she was resigned to her surroundings, and +he felt that his love for her was so passionate that it could leave no +room in her heart for any longing. One day the local doctor stopped him +in the street. + +"I say, Lawson, your missus ought to be careful how she bathes in our +highland streams. It's not like the Pacific, you know." + +Lawson was surprised, and had not the presence of mind to conceal the +fact. + +"I didn't know she was bathing." + +The doctor laughed. + +"A good many people have seen her. It makes them talk a bit, you know, +because it seems a rum place to choose, the pool up above the bridge, +and bathing isn't allowed there, but there's no harm in that. I don't +know how she can stand the water." + +Lawson knew the pool the doctor spoke of, and suddenly it occurred to +him that in a way it was just like that pool at Upolu where Ethel had +been in the habit of bathing every evening. A clear highland stream ran +down a sinuous course, rocky, splashing gaily, and then formed a deep, +smooth pool, with a little sandy beach. Trees overshadowed it thickly, +not coconut trees, but beeches, and the sun played fitfully through the +leaves on the sparkling water. It gave him a shock. With his imagination +he saw Ethel go there every day and undress on the bank and slip into +the water, cold, colder than that of the pool she loved at home, and for +a moment regain the feeling of the past. He saw her once more as the +strange, wild spirit of the stream, and it seemed to him fantastically +that the running water called her. That afternoon he went along to the +river. He made his way cautiously among the trees and the grassy path +deadened the sound of his steps. Presently he came to a spot from which +he could see the pool. Ethel was sitting on the bank, looking down at +the water. She sat quite still. It seemed as though the water drew her +irresistibly. He wondered what strange thoughts wandered through her +head. At last she got up, and for a minute or two she was hidden from +his gaze; then he saw her again, wearing a Mother Hubbard, and with her +little bare feet she stepped delicately over the mossy bank. She came to +the water's edge, and softly, without a splash, let herself down. She +swam about quietly, and there was something not quite of a human being +in the way she swam. He did not know why it affected him so queerly. He +waited till she clambered out. She stood for a moment with the wet folds +of her dress clinging to her body, so that its shape was outlined, and +then, passing her hands slowly over her breasts, gave a little sigh of +delight. Then she disappeared. Lawson turned away and walked back to the +village. He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was +still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain +unsatisfied. + +He did not make any mention of what he had seen. He ignored the incident +completely, but he looked at her curiously, trying to divine what was in +her mind. He redoubled the tenderness with which he used her. He sought +to make her forget the deep longing of her soul by the passion of his +love. + +Then one day, when he came home, he was astonished to find her not in +the house. + +"Where's Mrs Lawson?" he asked the maid. + +"She went into Aberdeen, Sir, with the baby," the maid answered, a +little surprised at the question. "She said she would not be back till +the last train." + +"Oh, all right." + +He was vexed that Ethel had said nothing to him about the excursion, but +he was not disturbed, since of late she had been in now and again to +Aberdeen, and he was glad that she should look at the shops and perhaps +visit a cinema. He went to meet the last train, but when she did not +come he grew suddenly frightened. He went up to the bedroom and saw at +once that her toilet things were no longer in their place. He opened the +wardrobe and the drawers. They were half empty. She had bolted. + +He was seized with a passion of anger. It was too late that night to +telephone to Aberdeen and make enquiries, but he knew already all that +his enquiries might have taught him. With fiendish cunning she had +chosen a time when they were making up their periodical accounts at the +bank and there was no chance that he could follow her. He was imprisoned +by his work. He took up a paper and saw that there was a boat sailing +for Australia next morning. She must be now well on the way to London. +He could not prevent the sobs that were wrung painfully from him. + +"I've done everything in the world for her," he cried, "and she had the +heart to treat me like this. How cruel, how monstrously cruel!" + +After two days of misery he received a letter from her. It was written +in her school-girl hand. She had always written with difficulty: + +_Dear Bertie:_ + _I couldn't stand it any more._ + _I'm going back home. Good-bye._ + + _Ethel._ + +She did not say a single word of regret. She did not even ask him to +come too. Lawson was prostrated. He found out where the ship made its +first stop and, though he knew very well she would not come, sent a +cable beseeching her to return. He waited with pitiful anxiety. He +wanted her to send him just one word of love; she did not even answer. +He passed through one violent phase after another. At one moment he told +himself that he was well rid of her, and at the next that he would force +her to return by withholding money. He was lonely and wretched. He +wanted his boy and he wanted her. He knew that, whatever he pretended to +himself, there was only one thing to do and that was to follow her. He +could never live without her now. All his plans for the future were like +a house of cards and he scattered them with angry impatience. He did not +care whether he threw away his chances for the future, for nothing in +the world mattered but that he should get Ethel back again. As soon as +he could he went into Aberdeen and told the manager of his bank that he +meant to leave at once. The manager remonstrated. The short notice was +inconvenient. Lawson would not listen to reason. He was determined to be +free before the next boat sailed; and it was not until he was on board +of her, having sold everything he possessed, that in some measure he +regained his calm. Till then to those who had come in contact with him +he seemed hardly sane. His last action in England was to cable to Ethel +at Apia that he was joining her. + +He sent another cable from Sydney, and when at last with the dawn his +boat crossed the bar at Apia and he saw once more the white houses +straggling along the bay he felt an immense relief. The doctor came on +board and the agent. They were both old acquaintances and he felt kindly +towards their familiar faces. He had a drink or two with them for old +times' sake, and also because he was desperately nervous. He was not +sure if Ethel would be glad to see him. When he got into the launch and +approached the wharf he scanned anxiously the little crowd that waited. +She was not there and his heart sank, but then he saw Brevald, in his +old blue clothes, and his heart warmed towards him. + +"Where's Ethel?" he said, as he jumped on shore. + +"She's down at the bungalow. She's living with us." + +Lawson was dismayed, but he put on a jovial air. + +"Well, have you got room for me? I daresay it'll take a week or two to +fix ourselves up." + +"Oh, yes, I guess we can make room for you." + +After passing through the custom-house they went to the hotel and there +Lawson was greeted by several of his old friends. There were a good many +rounds of drinks before it seemed possible to get away and when they did +go out at last to Brevald's house they were both rather gay. He clasped +Ethel in his arms. He had forgotten all his bitter thoughts in the joy +of beholding her once more. His mother-in-law was pleased to see him, +and so was the old, wrinkled beldame, her mother; natives and +half-castes came in, and they all sat round, beaming on him. Brevald had +a bottle of whisky and everyone who came was given a nip. Lawson sat +with his little dark-skinned boy on his knees, they had taken his +English clothes off him and he was stark, with Ethel by his side in a +Mother Hubbard. He felt like a returning prodigal. In the afternoon he +went down to the hotel again and when he got back he was more than gay, +he was drunk. Ethel and her mother knew that white men got drunk now and +then, it was what you expected of them, and they laughed good-naturedly +as they helped him to bed. + +But in a day or two he set about looking for a job. He knew that he +could not hope for such a position as that which he had thrown away to +go to England; but with his training he could not fail to be useful to +one of the trading firms, and perhaps in the end he would not lose by +the change. + +"After all, you can't make money in a bank," he said. "Trade's the +thing." + +He had hopes that he would soon make himself so indispensable that he +would get someone to take him into partnership, and there was no reason +why in a few years he should not be a rich man. + +"As soon as I'm fixed up we'll find ourselves a shack," he told Ethel. +"We can't go on living here." + +Brevald's bungalow was so small that they were all piled on one another, +and there was no chance of ever being alone. There was neither peace nor +privacy. + +"Well, there's no hurry. We shall be all right here till we find just +what we want." + +It took him a week to get settled and then he entered the firm of a man +called Bain. But when he talked to Ethel about moving she said she +wanted to stay where she was till her baby was born, for she was +expecting another child. Lawson tried to argue with her. + +"If you don't like it," she said, "go and live at the hotel." + +He grew suddenly pale. + +"Ethel, how can you suggest that!" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"What's the good of having a house of our own when we can live here." + +He yielded. + +When Lawson, after his work, went back to the bungalow he found it +crowded with natives. They lay about smoking, sleeping, drinking _kava_; +and they talked incessantly. The place was grubby and untidy. His child +crawled about, playing with native children, and it heard nothing spoken +but Samoan. He fell into the habit of dropping into the hotel on his +way home to have a few cocktails, for he could only face the evening and +the crowd of friendly natives when he was fortified with liquor. And all +the time, though he loved her more passionately than ever, he felt that +Ethel was slipping away from him. When the baby was born he suggested +that they should get into a house of their own, but Ethel refused. Her +stay in Scotland seemed to have thrown her back on her own people, now +that she was once more among them, with a passionate zest, and she +turned to her native ways with abandon. Lawson began to drink more. +Every Saturday night he went to the English Club and got blind drunk. + +He had the peculiarity that as he grew drunk he grew quarrelsome and +once he had a violent dispute with Bain, his employer. Bain dismissed +him, and he had to look out for another job. He was idle for two or +three weeks and during these, sooner than sit in the bungalow, he +lounged about in the hotel or at the English Club, and drank. It was +more out of pity than anything else that Miller, the German-American, +took him into his office; but he was a business man, and though Lawson's +financial skill made him valuable, the circumstances were such that he +could hardly refuse a smaller salary than he had had before, and Miller +did not hesitate to offer it to him. Ethel and Brevald blamed him for +taking it, since Pedersen, the half-caste, offered him more. But he +resented bitterly the thought of being under the orders of a half-caste. +When Ethel nagged him he burst out furiously: + +"I'll see myself dead before I work for a nigger." + +"You may have to," she said. + +And in six months he found himself forced to this final humiliation. The +passion for liquor had been gaining on him, he was often heavy with +drink, and he did his work badly. Miller warned him once or twice and +Lawson was not the man to accept remonstrance easily. One day in the +midst of an altercation he put on his hat and walked out. But by now his +reputation was well known and he could find no one to engage him. For a +while he idled, and then he had an attack of _delirium tremens_. When he +recovered, shameful and weak, he could no longer resist the constant +pressure and he went to Pedersen and asked him for a job. Pedersen was +glad to have a white man in his store and Lawson's skill at figures made +him useful. + +From that time his degeneration was rapid. The white people gave him the +cold shoulder. They were only prevented from cutting him completely by +disdainful pity and by a certain dread of his angry violence when he was +drunk. He became extremely susceptible and was always on the lookout for +affront. + +He lived entirely among the natives and half-castes, but he had no +longer the prestige of the white man. They felt his loathing for them +and they resented his attitude of superiority. He was one of themselves +now and they did not see why he should put on airs. Brevald, who had +been ingratiating and obsequious, now treated him with contempt. Ethel +had made a bad bargain. There were disgraceful scenes and once or twice +the two men came to blows. When there was a quarrel Ethel took the part +of her family. They found he was better drunk than sober, for when he +was drunk he would lie on the bed or on the floor, sleeping heavily. + +Then he became aware that something was being hidden from him. + +When he got back to the bungalow for the wretched, half native supper +which was his evening meal, often Ethel was not in. If he asked where +she was Brevald told him she had gone to spend the evening with one or +other of her friends. Once he followed her to the house Brevald had +mentioned and found she was not there. On her return he asked her where +she had been and she told him her father had made a mistake; she had +been to so-and-so's. But he knew that she was lying. She was in her best +clothes; her eyes were shining, and she looked lovely. + +"Don't try any monkey tricks on me, my girl," he said, "or I'll break +every bone in your body." + +"You drunken beast," she said, scornfully. + +He fancied that Mrs Brevald and the old grandmother looked at him +maliciously and he ascribed Brevald's good-humour with him, so unusual +those days, to his satisfaction at having something up his sleeve +against his son-in-law. And then, his suspicions aroused, he imagined +that the white men gave him curious glances. When he came into the +lounge of the hotel the sudden silence which fell upon the company +convinced him that he had been the subject of the conversation. +Something was going on and everyone knew it but himself. He was seized +with furious jealousy. He believed that Ethel was carrying on with one +of the white men, and he looked at one after the other with scrutinising +eyes; but there was nothing to give him even a hint. He was helpless. +Because he could find no one on whom definitely to fix his suspicions, +he went about like a raving maniac, looking for someone on whom to vent +his wrath. Chance caused him in the end to hit upon the man who of all +others least deserved to suffer from his violence. One afternoon, when +he was sitting in the hotel by himself, moodily, Chaplin came in and sat +down beside him. Perhaps Chaplin was the only man on the island who had +any sympathy for him. They ordered drinks and chatted a few minutes +about the races that were shortly to be run. Then Chaplain said: + +"I guess we shall all have to fork out money for new dresses." + +Lawson sniggered. Since Mrs Chaplin held the purse-strings if she wanted +a new frock for the occasion she would certainly not ask her husband for +the money. + +"How is your missus?" asked Chaplin, desiring to be friendly. + +"What the hell's that got to do with you?" said Lawson, knitting his +dark brows. + +"I was only asking a civil question." + +"Well, keep your civil questions to yourself." + +Chaplin was not a patient man; his long residence in the tropics, the +whisky bottle, and his domestic affairs had given him a temper hardly +more under control than Lawson's. + +"Look here, my boy, when you're in my hotel you behave like a gentleman +or you'll find yourself in the street before you can say knife." + +Lawson's lowering face grew dark and red. + +"Let me just tell you once for all and you can pass it on to the +others," he said, panting with rage. "If any of you fellows come messing +round with my wife he'd better look out." + +"Who do you think wants to mess around with your wife?" + +"I'm not such a fool as you think. I can see a stone wall in front of me +as well as most men, and I warn you straight, that's all. I'm not going +to put up with any hanky-panky, not on your life." + +"Look here, you'd better clear out of here, and come back when you're +sober." + +"I shall clear out when I choose and not a minute before," said Lawson. + +It was an unfortunate boast, for Chaplin in the course of his experience +as a hotel-keeper had acquired a peculiar skill in dealing with +gentlemen whose room he preferred to their company, and the words were +hardly out of Lawson's mouth before he found himself caught by the +collar and arm and hustled not without force into the street. He +stumbled down the steps into the blinding glare of the sun. + +It was in consequence of this that he had his first violent scene with +Ethel. Smarting with humiliation and unwilling to go back to the hotel, +he went home that afternoon earlier than usual. He found Ethel dressing +to go out. As a rule she lay about in a Mother Hubbard, barefoot, with +a flower in her dark hair; but now, in white silk stockings and +high-heeled shoes, she was doing up a pink muslin dress which was the +newest she had. + +"You're making yourself very smart," he said. "Where are you going?" + +"I'm going to the Crossleys." + +"I'll come with you." + +"Why?" she asked coolly. + +"I don't want you to gad about by yourself all the time." + +"You're not asked." + +"I don't care a damn about that. You're not going without me." + +"You'd better lie down till I'm ready." + +She thought he was drunk and if he once settled himself on the bed would +quickly drop off to sleep. He sat down on a chair and began to smoke a +cigarette. She watched him with increasing irritation: When she was +ready he got up. It happened by an unusual chance that there was no one +in the bungalow. Brevald was working on the plantation and his wife had +gone into Apia. Ethel faced him. + +"I'm not going with you. You're drunk." + +"That's a lie. You're not going without me." + +She shrugged her shoulders and tried to pass him, but he caught her by +the arm and held her. + +"Let me go, you devil," she said, breaking into Samoan. + +"Why do you want to go without me? Haven't I told you I'm not going to +put up with any monkey tricks?" + +She clenched her fist and hit him in the face. He lost all control of +himself. All his love, all his hatred, welled up in him and he was +beside himself. + +"I'll teach you," he shouted. "I'll teach you." + +He seized a riding-whip which happened to be under his hand, and struck +her with it. She screamed, and the scream maddened him so that he went +on striking her, again and again. Her shrieks rang through the bungalow +and he cursed her as he hit. Then he flung her on the bed. She lay there +sobbing with pain and terror. He threw the whip away from him and rushed +out of the room. Ethel heard him go and she stopped crying. She looked +round cautiously, then she raised herself. She was sore, but she had not +been badly hurt, and she looked at her dress to see if it was damaged. +The native women are not unused to blows. What he had done did not +outrage her. When she looked at herself in the glass and arranged her +hair, her eyes were shining. There was a strange look in them. Perhaps +then she was nearer loving him than she had ever been before. + +But Lawson, driven forth blindly, stumbled through the plantation and +suddenly exhausted, weak as a child, flung himself on the ground at the +foot of a tree. He was miserable and ashamed. He thought of Ethel, and +in the yielding tenderness of his love all his bones seemed to grow soft +within him. He thought of the past, and of his hopes, and he was aghast +at what he had done. He wanted her more than ever. He wanted to take her +in his arms. He must go to her at once. He got up. He was so weak that +he staggered as he walked. He went into the house and she was sitting in +their cramped bedroom in front of her looking-glass. + +"Oh, Ethel, forgive me. I'm so awfully ashamed of myself. I didn't know +what I was doing." + +He fell on his knees before her and timidly stroked the skirt of her +dress. + +"I can't bear to think of what I did. It's awful. I think I was mad. +There's no one in the world I love as I love you. I'd do anything to +save you from pain and I've hurt you. I can never forgive myself, but +for God's sake say you forgive me." + +He heard her shrieks still. It was unendurable. She looked at him +silently. He tried to take her hands and the tears streamed from his +eyes. In his humiliation he hid his face in her lap and his frail body +shook with sobs. An expression of utter contempt came over her face. She +had the native woman's disdain of a man who abased himself before a +woman. A weak creature! And for a moment she had been on the point of +thinking there was something in him. He grovelled at her feet like a +cur. She gave him a little scornful kick. + +"Get out," she said. "I hate you." + +He tried to hold her, but she pushed him aside. She stood up. She began +to take off her dress. She kicked off her shoes and slid the stockings +off her feet, then she slipped on her old Mother Hubbard. + +"Where are you going?" + +"What's that got to do with you? I'm going down to the pool." + +"Let me come too," he said. + +He asked as though he were a child. + +"Can't you even leave me that?" + +He hid his face in his hands, crying miserably, while she, her eyes hard +and cold, stepped past him and went out. + +From that time she entirely despised him; and though, herded together in +the small bungalow, Lawson and Ethel with her two children, Brevald, his +wife and her mother, and the vague relations and hangers-on who were +always in and about, they had to live cheek by jowl, Lawson, ceasing to +be of any account, was hardly noticed. He left in the morning after +breakfast, and came back only to have supper. He gave up the struggle, +and when for want of money he could not go to the English Club he spent +the evening playing hearts with old Brevald and the natives. Except when +he was drunk he was cowed and listless. Ethel treated him like a dog. +She submitted at times to his fits of wild passion, and she was +frightened by the gusts of hatred with which they were followed; but +when, afterwards, he was cringing and lachrymose she had such a contempt +for him that she could have spat in his face. Sometimes he was violent, +but now she was prepared for him, and when he hit her she kicked and +scratched and bit. They had horrible battles in which he had not always +the best of it. Very soon it was known all over Apia that they got on +badly. There was little sympathy for Lawson, and at the hotel the +general surprise was that old Brevald did not kick him out of the +place. + +"Brevald's a pretty ugly customer," said one of the men. "I shouldn't be +surprised if he put a bullet into Lawson's carcass one of these days." + +Ethel still went in the evenings to bathe in the silent pool. It seemed +to have an attraction for her that was not quite human, just that +attraction you might imagine that a mermaid who had won a soul would +have for the cool salt waves of the sea; and sometimes Lawson went also. +I do not know what urged him to go, for Ethel was obviously irritated by +his presence; perhaps it was because in that spot he hoped to regain the +clean rapture which had filled his heart when first he saw her; perhaps +only, with the madness of those who love them that love them not, from +the feeling that his obstinacy could force love. One day he strolled +down there with a feeling that was rare with him now. He felt suddenly +at peace with the world. The evening was drawing in and the dusk seemed +to cling to the leaves of the coconut trees like a little thin cloud. A +faint breeze stirred them noiselessly. A crescent moon hung just over +their tops. He made his way to the bank. He saw Ethel in the water +floating on her back. Her hair streamed out all round her, and she was +holding in her hand a large hibiscus. He stopped a moment to admire her; +she was like Ophelia. + +"Hulloa, Ethel," he cried joyfully. + +She made a sudden movement and dropped the red flower. It floated idly +away. She swam a stroke or two till she knew there was ground within her +depth and then stood up. + +"Go away," she said. "Go away." + +He laughed. + +"Don't be selfish. There's plenty of room for both of us." + +"Why can't you leave me alone? I want to be by myself." + +"Hang it all, I want to bathe," he answered, good-humouredly. + +"Go down to the bridge. I don't want you here." + +"I'm sorry for that," he said, smiling still. + +He was not in the least angry, and he hardly noticed that she was in a +passion. He began to take off his coat. + +"Go away," she shrieked. "I won't have you here. Can't you even leave me +this? Go away." + +"Don't be silly, darling." + +She bent down and picked up a sharp stone and flung it quickly at him. +He had no time to duck. It hit him on the temple. With a cry he put his +hand to his head and when he took it away it was wet with blood. Ethel +stood still, panting with rage. He turned very pale, and without a word, +taking up his coat, went away. Ethel let herself fall back into the +water and the stream carried her slowly down to the ford. + +The stone had made a jagged wound and for some days Lawson went about +with a bandaged head. He had invented a likely story to account for the +accident when the fellows at the club asked him about it, but he had no +occasion to use it. No one referred to the matter. He saw them cast +surreptitious glances at his head, but not a word was said. The silence +could only mean that they knew how he came by his wound. He was certain +now that Ethel had a lover, and they all knew who it was. But there was +not the smallest indication to guide him. He never saw Ethel with +anyone; no one showed a wish to be with her, or treated him in a manner +that seemed strange. Wild rage seized him, and having no one to vent it +on he drank more and more heavily. A little while before I came to the +island he had had another attack of _delirium tremens_. + +I met Ethel at the house of a man called Caster, who lived two or three +miles from Apia with a native wife. I had been playing tennis with him +and when we were tired he suggested a cup of tea. We went into the house +and in the untidy living-room found Ethel chatting with Mrs Caster. + +"Hulloa, Ethel," he said, "I didn't know you were here." + +I could not help looking at her with curiosity. I tried to see what +there was in her to have excited in Lawson such a devastating passion. +But who can explain these things? It was true that she was lovely; she +reminded one of the red hibiscus, the common flower of the hedgerow in +Samoa, with its grace and its languor and its passion; but what +surprised me most, taking into consideration the story I knew even then +a good deal of, was her freshness and simplicity. She was quiet and a +little shy. There was nothing coarse or loud about her; she had not the +exuberance common to the half-caste; and it was almost impossible to +believe that she could be the virago that the horrible scenes between +husband and wife, which were now common knowledge, indicated. In her +pretty pink frock and high-heeled shoes she looked quite European. You +could hardly have guessed at that dark background of native life in +which she felt herself so much more at home. I did not imagine that she +was at all intelligent, and I should not have been surprised if a man, +after living with her for some time, had found the passion which had +drawn him to her sink into boredom. It suggested itself to me that in +her elusiveness, like a thought that presents itself to consciousness +and vanishes before it can be captured by words, lay her peculiar charm; +but perhaps that was merely fancy, and if I had known nothing about her +I should have seen in her only a pretty little half-caste like another. + +She talked to me of the various things which they talk of to the +stranger in Samoa, of the journey, and whether I had slid down the water +rock at Papaseea, and if I meant to stay in a native village. She talked +to me of Scotland, and perhaps I noticed in her a tendency to enlarge on +the sumptuousness of her establishment there. She asked me naively if I +knew Mrs This and Mrs That, with whom she had been acquainted when she +lived in the north. + +Then Miller, the fat German-American, came in. He shook hands all round +very cordially and sat down, asking in his loud, cheerful voice for a +whisky and soda. He was very fat and he sweated profusely. He took off +his gold-rimmed spectacles and wiped them; you saw then that his little +eyes, benevolent behind the large round glasses, were shrewd and +cunning; the party had been somewhat dull till he came, but he was a +good story-teller and a jovial fellow. Soon he had the two women, Ethel +and my friend's wife, laughing delightedly at his sallies. He had a +reputation on the island of a lady's man, and you could see how this +fat, gross fellow, old and ugly, had yet the possibility of fascination. +His humour was on a level with the understanding of his company, an +affair of vitality and assurance, and his Western accent gave a peculiar +point to what he said. At last he turned to me: + +"Well, if we want to get back for dinner we'd better be getting. I'll +take you along in my machine if you like." + +I thanked him and got up. He shook hands with the others, went out of +the room, massive and strong in his walk, and climbed into his car. + +"Pretty little thing, Lawson's wife," I said, as we drove along. + +"Too bad the way he treats her. Knocks her about. Gets my dander up when +I hear of a man hitting a woman." + +We went on a little. Then he said: + +"He was a darned fool to marry her. I said so at the time. If he hadn't, +he'd have had the whip hand over her. He's yaller, that's what he is, +yaller." + +The year was drawing to its end and the time approached when I was to +leave Samoa. My boat was scheduled to sail for Sydney on the fourth of +January. Christmas Day had been celebrated at the hotel with suitable +ceremonies, but it was looked upon as no more than a rehearsal for New +Year, and the men who were accustomed to foregather in the lounge +determined on New Year's Eve to make a night of it. There was an +uproarious dinner, after which the party sauntered down to the English +Club, a simple little frame house, to play pool. There was a great deal +of talking, laughing, and betting, but some very poor play, except on +the part of Miller, who had drunk as much as any of them, all far +younger than he, but had kept unimpaired the keenness of his eye and the +sureness of his hand. He pocketed the young men's money with humour and +urbanity. After an hour of this I grew tired and went out. I crossed the +road and came on to the beach. Three coconut trees grew there, like +three moon maidens waiting for their lovers to ride out of the sea, and +I sat at the foot of one of them, watching the lagoon and the nightly +assemblage of the stars. + +I do not know where Lawson had been during the evening, but between ten +and eleven he came along to the club. He shambled down the dusty, empty +road, feeling dull and bored, and when he reached the club, before going +into the billiard-room, went into the bar to have a drink by himself. He +had a shyness now about joining the company of white men when there were +a lot of them together and needed a stiff dose of whisky to give him +confidence. He was standing with the glass in his hand when Miller came +in to him. He was in his shirt sleeves and still held his cue. He gave +the bar-tender a glance. + +"Get out, Jack," he said. + +The bar-tender, a native in a white jacket and a red _lava-lava_, +without a word slid out of the small room. + +"Look here, I've been wanting to have a few words with you, Lawson," +said the big American. + +"Well, that's one of the few things you can have free, gratis, and for +nothing on this damned island." + +Miller fixed his gold spectacles more firmly on his nose and held Lawson +with his cold determined eyes. + +"See here, young fellow, I understand you've been knocking Mrs Lawson +about again. I'm not going to stand for that. If you don't stop it right +now I'll break every bone of your dirty little body." + +Then Lawson knew what he had been trying to find out so long. It was +Miller. The appearance of the man, fat, bald-headed, with his round bare +face and double chin and the gold spectacles, his age, his benign, +shrewd look, like that of a renegade priest, and the thought of Ethel, +so slim and virginal, filled him with a sudden horror. Whatever his +faults Lawson was no coward, and without a word he hit out violently at +Miller. Miller quickly warded the blow with the hand that held the cue, +and then with a great swing of his right arm brought his fist down on +Lawson's ear. Lawson was four inches shorter than the American and he +was slightly built, frail and weakened not only by illness and the +enervating tropics, but by drink. He fell like a log and lay half dazed +at the foot of the bar. Miller took off his spectacles and wiped them +with his handkerchief. + +"I guess you know what to expect now. You've had your warning and you'd +better take it." + +He took up his cue and went back into the billiard-room. There was so +much noise there that no one knew what had happened. Lawson picked +himself up. He put his hand to his ear, which was singing still. Then he +slunk out of the club. + +I saw a man cross the road, a patch of white against the darkness of the +night, but did not know who it was. He came down to the beach, passed me +sitting at the foot of the tree, and looked down. I saw then that it was +Lawson, but since he was doubtless drunk, did not speak. He went on, +walked irresolutely two or three steps, and turned back. He came up to +me and bending down stared in my face. + +"I thought it was you," he said. + +He sat down and took out his pipe. + +"It was hot and noisy in the club," I volunteered. + +"Why are you sitting here?" + +"I was waiting about for the midnight mass at the Cathedral." + +"If you like I'll come with you." + +Lawson was quite sober. We sat for a while smoking in silence. Now and +then in the lagoon was the splash of some big fish, and a little way out +towards the opening in the reef was the light of a schooner. + +"You're sailing next week, aren't you?" he said. + +"Yes." + +"It would be jolly to go home once more. But I could never stand it now. +The cold, you know." + +"It's odd to think that in England now they're shivering round the +fire," I said. + +There was not even a breath of wind. The balminess of the night was like +a spell. I wore nothing but a thin shirt and a suit of ducks. I enjoyed +the exquisite languor of the night, and stretched my limbs voluptuously. + +"This isn't the sort of New Year's Eve that persuades one to make good +resolutions for the future," I smiled. + +He made no answer, but I do not know what train of thought my casual +remark had suggested in him, for presently he began to speak. He spoke +in a low voice, without any expression, but his accents were educated, +and it was a relief to hear him after the twang and the vulgar +intonations which for some time had wounded my ears. + +"I've made an awful hash of things. That's obvious, isn't it? I'm right +down at the bottom of the pit and there's no getting out for me. '_Black +as the pit from pole to pole._'" I felt him smile as he made the +quotation. "And the strange thing is that I don't see how I went wrong." + +I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than +when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul. Then you see that +no one is so trivial or debased but that in him is a spark of something +to excite compassion. + +"It wouldn't be so rotten if I could see that it was all my own fault. +It's true I drink, but I shouldn't have taken to that if things had gone +differently. I wasn't really fond of liquor. I suppose I ought not to +have married Ethel. If I'd kept her it would be all right. But I did +love her so." + +His voice faltered. + +"She's not a bad lot, you know, not really. It's just rotten luck. We +might have been as happy as lords. When she bolted I suppose I ought to +have let her go, but I couldn't do that--I was dead stuck on her then; +and there was the kid." + +"Are you fond of the kid?" I asked. + +"I was. There are two, you know. But they don't mean so much to me now. +You'd take them for natives anywhere. I have to talk to them in Samoan." + +"Is it too late for you to start fresh? Couldn't you make a dash for it +and leave the place?" + +"I haven't the strength. I'm done for." + +"Are you still in love with your wife?" + +"Not now. Not now." He repeated the two words with a kind of horror in +his voice. "I haven't even got that now. I'm down and out." + +The bells of the Cathedral were ringing. + +"If you really want to come to the midnight mass we'd better go along," +I said. + +"Come on." + +We got up and walked along the road. The Cathedral, all white, stood +facing the sea not without impressiveness, and beside it the Protestant +chapels had the look of meeting-houses. In the road were two or three +cars, and a great number of traps, and traps were put up against the +walls at the side. People had come from all parts of the island for the +service, and through the great open doors we saw that the place was +crowded. The high altar was all ablaze with light. There were a few +whites and a good many half-castes, but the great majority were natives. +All the men wore trousers, for the Church has decided that the +_lava-lava_ is indecent. We found chairs at the back, near the open +door, and sat down. Presently, following Lawson's eyes, I saw Ethel come +in with a party of half-castes. They were all very much dressed up, the +men in high, stiff collars and shiny boots, the women in large, gay +hats. Ethel nodded and smiled to her friends as she passed up the aisle. +The service began. + +When it was over Lawson and I stood on one side for a while to watch the +crowd stream out, then he held out his hand. + +"Good-night," he said. "I hope you'll have a pleasant journey home." + +"Oh, but I shall see you before I go." + +He sniggered. + +"The question is if you'll see me drunk or sober." + +He turned and left me. I had a recollection of those very large black +eyes, shining wildly under the shaggy brows. I paused irresolutely. I +did not feel sleepy and I thought I would at all events go along to the +club for an hour before turning in. When I got there I found the +billiard-room empty, but half-a-dozen men were sitting round a table in +the lounge, playing poker. Miller looked up as I came in. + +"Sit down and take a hand," he said. + +"All right." + +I bought some chips and began to play. Of course it is the most +fascinating game in the world and my hour lengthened out to two, and +then to three. The native bar-tender, cheery and wide-awake +notwithstanding the time, was at our elbow to supply us with drinks and +from somewhere or other he produced a ham and a loaf of bread. We played +on. Most of the party had drunk more than was good for them and the play +was high and reckless. I played modestly, neither wishing to win nor +anxious to lose, but I watched Miller with a fascinated interest. He +drank glass for glass with the rest of the company, but remained cool +and level-headed. His pile of chips increased in size and he had a neat +little paper in front of him on which he had marked various sums lent to +players in distress. He beamed amiably at the young men whose money he +was taking. He kept up interminably his stream of jest and anecdote, but +he never missed a draw, he never let an expression of the face pass him. +At last the dawn crept into the windows, gently, with a sort of +deprecating shyness, as though it had no business there, and then it was +day. + +"Well," said Miller, "I reckon we've seen the old year out in style. Now +let's have a round of jackpots and me for my mosquito net. I'm fifty, +remember, I can't keep these late hours." + +The morning was beautiful and fresh when we stood on the verandah, and +the lagoon was like a sheet of multicoloured glass. Someone suggested a +dip before going to bed, but none cared to bathe in the lagoon, sticky +and treacherous to the feet. Miller had his car at the door and he +offered to take us down to the pool. We jumped in and drove along the +deserted road. When we reached the pool it seemed as though the day had +hardly risen there yet. Under the trees the water was all in shadow and +the night had the effect of lurking still. We were in great spirits. We +had no towels or any costume and in my prudence I wondered how we were +going to dry ourselves. None of us had much on and it did not take us +long to snatch off our clothes. Nelson, the little supercargo, was +stripped first. + +"I'm going down to the bottom," he said. + +He dived and in a moment another man dived too, but shallow, and was out +of the water before him. Then Nelson came up and scrambled to the side. + +"I say, get me out," he said. + +"What's up?" + +Something was evidently the matter. His face was terrified. Two fellows +gave him their hands and he slithered up. + +"I say, there's a man down there." + +"Don't be a fool. You're drunk." + +"Well, if there isn't I'm in for D. T's. But I tell you there's a man +down there. It just scared me out of my wits." + +Miller looked at him for a moment. The little man was all white. He was +actually trembling. + +"Come on, Caster," said Miller to the big Australian, "we'd better go +down and see." + +"He was standing up," said Nelson, "all dressed. I saw him. He tried to +catch hold of me." + +"Hold your row," said Miller. "Are you ready?" + +They dived in. We waited on the bank, silent. It really seemed as though +they were under water longer than any men could breathe. Then Caster +came up, and immediately after him, red in the face as though he were +going to have a fit, Miller. They were pulling something behind them. +Another man jumped in to help them, and the three together dragged their +burden to the side. They shoved it up. Then we saw that it was Lawson, +with a great stone tied up in his coat and bound to his feet. + +"He was set on making a good job of it," said Miller, as he wiped the +water from his shortsighted eyes. + + + + +VI + +_Honolulu_ + + +The wise traveller travels only in imagination. An old Frenchman (he was +really a Savoyard) once wrote a book called _Voyage autour de ma +Chambre_. I have not read it and do not even know what it is about, but +the title stimulates my fancy. In such a journey I could circumnavigate +the globe. An eikon by the chimneypiece can take me to Russia with its +great forests of birch and its white, domed churches. The Volga is wide, +and at the end of a straggling village, in the wine-shop, bearded men in +rough sheepskin coats sit drinking. I stand on the little hill from +which Napoleon first saw Moscow and I look upon the vastness of the +city. I will go down and see the people whom I know more intimately than +so many of my friends, Alyosha, and Vronsky, and a dozen more. But my +eyes fall on a piece of porcelain and I smell the acrid odours of China. +I am borne in a chair along a narrow causeway between the padi fields, +or else I skirt a tree-clad mountain. My bearers chat gaily as they +trudge along in the bright morning and every now and then, distant and +mysterious, I hear the deep sound of a monastery bell. In the streets of +Peking there is a motley crowd and it scatters to allow passage to a +string of camels, stepping delicately, that bring skins and strange +drugs from the stony deserts of Mongolia. In England, in London, there +are certain afternoons in winter when the clouds hang heavy and low and +the light is so bleak that your heart sinks, but then you can look out +of your window, and you see the coconut trees crowded upon the beach of +a coral island. The sand is silvery and when you walk along in the +sunshine it is so dazzling that you can hardly bear to look at it. +Overhead the mynah birds are making a great to-do, and the surf beats +ceaselessly against the reef. Those are the best journeys, the journeys +that you take at your own fireside, for then you lose none of your +illusions. + +But there are people who take salt in their coffee. They say it gives it +a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way +there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the +inevitable disillusionment which you must experience on seeing them +gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and +you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that +beauty can give you. It is like the weakness in the character of a great +man which may make him less admirable but certainly makes him more +interesting. + +Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu. It is so far away from Europe, it +is reached after so long a journey from San Francisco, so strange and so +charming associations are attached to the name, that at first I could +hardly believe my eyes. I do not know that I had formed in my mind any +very exact picture of what I expected, but what I found caused me a +great surprise. It is a typical western city. Shacks are cheek by jowl +with stone mansions; dilapidated frame houses stand next door to smart +stores with plate glass windows; electric cars rumble noisily along the +streets; and motors, Fords, Buicks, Packards, line the pavement. The +shops are filled with all the necessities of American civilisation. +Every third house is a bank and every fifth the agency of a steamship +company. + +Along the streets crowd an unimaginable assortment of people. The +Americans, ignoring the climate, wear black coats and high, starched +collars, straw hats, soft hats, and bowlers. The Kanakas, pale brown, +with crisp hair, have nothing on but a shirt and a pair of trousers; but +the half-breeds are very smart with flaring ties and patent-leather +boots. The Japanese, with their obsequious smile, are neat and trim in +white duck, while their women walk a step or two behind them, in native +dress, with a baby on their backs. The Japanese children, in bright +coloured frocks, their little heads shaven, look like quaint dolls. Then +there are the Chinese. The men, fat and prosperous, wear their American +clothes oddly, but the women are enchanting with their tightly-dressed +black hair, so neat that you feel it can never be disarranged, and they +are very clean in their tunics and trousers, white, or powder blue, or +black. Lastly there are the Filipinos, the men in huge straw hats, the +women in bright yellow muslin with great puffed sleeves. + +It is the meeting-place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders +with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you +expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these +strange people live close to each other, with different languages and +different thoughts; they believe in different gods and they have +different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And +somehow as you watch them you have an impression of extraordinary +vitality. Though the air is so soft and the sky so blue, you have, I +know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a +throbbing pulse through the crowd. Though the native policeman at the +corner, standing on a platform, with a white club to direct the traffic, +gives the scene an air of respectability, you cannot but feel that it is +a respectability only of the surface; a little below there is darkness +and mystery. It gives you just that thrill, with a little catch at the +heart, that you have when at night in the forest the silence trembles on +a sudden with the low, insistent beating of a drum. You are all +expectant of I know not what. + +If I have dwelt on the incongruity of Honolulu, it is because just this, +to my mind, gives its point to the story I want to tell. It is a story +of primitive superstition, and it startles me that anything of the sort +should survive in a civilisation which, if not very distinguished, is +certainly very elaborate. I cannot get over the fact that such +incredible things should happen, or at least be thought to happen, right +in the middle, so to speak, of telephones, tram-cars, and daily papers. +And the friend who showed me Honolulu had the same incongruity which I +felt from the beginning was its most striking characteristic. + +He was an American named Winter and I had brought a letter of +introduction to him from an acquaintance in New York. He was a man +between forty and fifty, with scanty black hair, grey at the temples, +and a sharp-featured, thin face. His eyes had a twinkle in them and his +large horn spectacles gave him a demureness which was not a little +diverting. He was tall rather than otherwise and very spare. He was born +in Honolulu and his father had a large store which sold hosiery and all +such goods, from tennis racquets to tarpaulins, as a man of fashion +could require. It was a prosperous business and I could well understand +the indignation of Winter _pere_ when his son, refusing to go into it, +had announced his determination to be an actor. My friend spent twenty +years on the stage, sometimes in New York, but more often on the road, +for his gifts were small; but at last, being no fool, he came to the +conclusion that it was better to sell sock-suspenders in Honolulu than +to play small parts in Cleveland, Ohio. He left the stage and went into +the business. I think after the hazardous existence he had lived so +long, he thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of driving a large car and living +in a beautiful house near the golf-course, and I am quite sure, since he +was a man of parts, he managed the business competently. But he could +not bring himself entirely to break his connection with the arts and +since he might no longer act he began to paint. He took me to his studio +and showed me his work. It was not at all bad, but not what I should +have expected from him. He painted nothing but still life, very small +pictures, perhaps eight by ten; and he painted very delicately, with the +utmost finish. He had evidently a passion for detail. His fruit pieces +reminded you of the fruit in a picture by Ghirlandajo. While you +marvelled a little at his patience, you could not help being impressed +by his dexterity. I imagine that he failed as an actor because his +effects, carefully studied, were neither bold nor broad enough to get +across the footlights. + +I was entertained by the proprietary, yet ironical air with which he +showed me the city. He thought in his heart that there was none in the +United States to equal it, but he saw quite clearly that his attitude +was comic. He drove me round to the various buildings and swelled with +satisfaction when I expressed a proper admiration for their +architecture. He showed me the houses of rich men. + +"That's the Stubbs' house," he said. "It cost a hundred thousand dollars +to build. The Stubbs are one of our best families. Old man Stubbs came +here as a missionary more than seventy years ago." + +He hesitated a little and looked at me with twinkling eyes through his +big round spectacles. + +"All our best families are missionary families," he said. "You're not +very much in Honolulu unless your father or your grandfather converted +the heathen." + +"Is that so?" + +"Do you know your Bible?" + +"Fairly," I answered. + +"There is a text which says: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the +children's teeth are set on edge. I guess it runs differently in +Honolulu. The fathers brought Christianity to the Kanaka and the +children jumped his land." + +"Heaven helps those who help themselves," I murmured. + +"It surely does. By the time the natives of this island had embraced +Christianity they had nothing else they could afford to embrace. The +kings gave the missionaries land as a mark of esteem, and the +missionaries bought land by way of laying up treasure in heaven. It +surely was a good investment. One missionary left the business--I think +one may call it a business without offence--and became a land agent, but +that is an exception. Mostly it was their sons who looked after the +commercial side of the concern. Oh, it's a fine thing to have a father +who came here fifty years ago to spread the faith." + +But he looked at his watch. + +"Gee, it's stopped. That means it's time to have a cocktail." + +We sped along an excellent road, bordered with red hibiscus, and came +back into the town. + +"Have you been to the Union Saloon?" + +"Not yet." + +"We'll go there." + +I knew it was the most famous spot in Honolulu and I entered it with a +lively curiosity. You get to it by a narrow passage from King Street, +and in the passage are offices, so that thirsty souls may be supposed +bound for one of these just as well as for the saloon. It is a large +square room, with three entrances, and opposite the bar, which runs the +length of it, two corners have been partitioned off into little +cubicles. Legend states that they were built so that King Kalakaua might +drink there without being seen by his subjects, and it is pleasant to +think that in one or other of these he may have sat over his bottle, a +coal-black potentate, with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is a portrait +of him, in oils, in a rich gold frame; but there are also two prints of +Queen Victoria. On the walls, besides, are old line engravings of the +eighteenth century, one of which, and heaven knows how it got there, is +after a theatrical picture by De Wilde; and there are oleographs from +the Christmas supplements of the _Graphic_ and the _Illustrated London +News_ of twenty years ago. Then there are advertisements of whisky, gin, +champagne, and beer; and photographs of baseball teams and of native +orchestras. + +The place seemed to belong not to the modern, hustling world that I had +left in the bright street outside, but to one that was dying. It had the +savour of the day before yesterday. Dingy and dimly lit, it had a +vaguely mysterious air and you could imagine that it would be a fit +scene for shady transactions. It suggested a more lurid time, when +ruthless men carried their lives in their hands, and violent deeds +diapered the monotony of life. + +When I went in the saloon was fairly full. A group of business men stood +together at the bar, discussing affairs, and in a corner two Kanakas +were drinking. Two or three men who might have been store-keepers were +shaking dice. The rest of the company plainly followed the sea; they +were captains of tramps, first mates, and engineers. Behind the bar, +busily making the Honolulu cocktail for which the place was famous, +served two large half-castes, in white, fat, clean-shaven and dark +skinned, with thick, curly hair and large bright eyes. + +Winter seemed to know more than half the company, and when we made our +way to the bar a little fat man in spectacles, who was standing by +himself, offered him a drink. + +"No, you have one with me, Captain," said Winter. + +He turned to me. + +"I want you to know Captain Butler." + +The little man shook hands with me. We began to talk, but, my attention +distracted by my surroundings, I took small notice of him, and after we +had each ordered a cocktail we separated. When we had got into the motor +again and were driving away, Winter said to me: + +"I'm glad we ran up against Butler. I wanted you to meet him. What did +you think of him?" + +"I don't know that I thought very much of him at all," I answered. + +"Do you believe in the supernatural?" + +"I don't exactly know that I do," I smiled. + +"A very queer thing happened to him a year or two ago. You ought to have +him tell you about it." + +"What sort of thing?" + +Winter did not answer my question. + +"I have no explanation of it myself," he said. "But there's no doubt +about the facts. Are you interested in things like that?" + +"Things like what?" + +"Spells and magic and all that." + +"I've never met anyone who wasn't." + +Winter paused for a moment. + +"I guess I won't tell you myself. You ought to hear it from his own lips +so that you can judge. How are you fixed up for to-night?" + +"I've got nothing on at all." + +"Well, I'll get hold of him between now and then and see if we can't go +down to his ship." + +Winter told me something about him. Captain Butler had spent all his +life on the Pacific. He had been in much better circumstances than he +was now, for he had been first officer and then captain of a +passenger-boat plying along the coast of California, but he had lost his +ship and a number of passengers had been drowned. + +"Drink, I guess," said Winter. + +Of course there had been an enquiry, which had cost him his certificate, +and then he drifted further afield. For some years he had knocked about +the South Seas, but he was now in command of a small schooner which +sailed between Honolulu and the various islands of the group. It +belonged to a Chinese to whom the fact that his skipper had no +certificate meant only that he could be had for lower wages, and to have +a white man in charge was always an advantage. + +And now that I had heard this about him I took the trouble to remember +more exactly what he was like. I recalled his round spectacles and the +round blue eyes behind them, and so gradually reconstructed him before +my mind. He was a little man, without angles, plump, with a round face +like the full moon and a little fat round nose. He had fair short hair, +and he was red-faced and clean shaven. He had plump hands, dimpled on +the knuckles, and short fat legs. He was a jolly soul, and the tragic +experience he had gone through seemed to have left him unscarred. Though +he must have been thirty-four or thirty-five he looked much younger. But +after all I had given him but a superficial attention, and now that I +knew of this catastrophe, which had obviously ruined his life, I +promised myself that when I saw him again I would take more careful note +of him. It is very curious to observe the differences of emotional +response that you find in different people. Some can go through terrific +battles, the fear of imminent death and unimaginable horrors, and +preserve their soul unscathed, while with others the trembling of the +moon on a solitary sea or the song of a bird in a thicket will cause a +convulsion great enough to transform their entire being. Is it due to +strength or weakness, want of imagination or instability of character? I +do not know. When I called up in my fancy that scene of shipwreck, with +the shrieks of the drowning and the terror, and then later, the ordeal +of the enquiry, the bitter grief of those who sorrowed for the lost, and +the harsh things he must have read of himself in the papers, the shame +and the disgrace, it came to me with a shock to remember that Captain +Butler had talked with the frank obscenity of a schoolboy of the +Hawaiian girls and of Ewelei, the Red Light district, and of his +successful adventures. He laughed readily, and one would have thought he +could never laugh again. I remembered his shining, white teeth; they +were his best feature. He began to interest me, and thinking of him and +of his gay insouciance I forgot the particular story, to hear which I +was to see him again. I wanted to see him rather to find out if I could +a little more what sort of man he was. + +Winter made the necessary arrangements and after dinner we went down to +the water front. The ship's boat was waiting for us and we rowed out. +The schooner was anchored some way across the harbour, not far from the +breakwater. We came alongside, and I heard the sound of a ukalele. We +clambered up the ladder. + +"I guess he's in the cabin," said Winter, leading the way. + +It was a small cabin, bedraggled and dirty, with a table against one +side and a broad bench all round upon which slept, I supposed, such +passengers as were ill-advised enough to travel in such a ship. A +petroleum lamp gave a dim light. The ukalele was being played by a +native girl and Butler was lolling on the seat, half lying, with his +head on her shoulder and an arm round her waist. + +"Don't let us disturb you, Captain," said Winter, facetiously. + +"Come right in," said Butler, getting up and shaking hands with us. +"What'll you have?" + +It was a warm night, and through the open door you saw countless stars +in a heaven that was still almost blue. Captain Butler wore a sleeveless +under-shirt, showing his fat white arms, and a pair of incredibly dirty +trousers. His feet were bare, but on his curly head he wore a very old, +a very shapeless felt hat. + +"Let me introduce you to my girl. Ain't she a peach?" + +We shook hands with a very pretty person. She was a good deal taller +than the captain, and even the Mother Hubbard, which the missionaries of +a past generation had, in the interests of decency, forced on the +unwilling natives, could not conceal the beauty of her form. One could +not but suspect that age would burden her with a certain corpulence, but +now she was graceful and alert. Her brown skin had an exquisite +translucency and her eyes were magnificent. Her black hair, very thick +and rich, was coiled round her head in a massive plait. When she smiled +in a greeting that was charmingly natural, she showed teeth that were +small, even, and white. She was certainly a most attractive creature. It +was easy to see that the captain was madly in love with her. He could +not take his eyes off her; he wanted to touch her all the time. That was +very easy to understand; but what seemed to me stranger was that the +girl was apparently in love with him. There was a light in her eyes that +was unmistakable, and her lips were slightly parted as though in a sigh +of desire. It was thrilling. It was even a little moving, and I could +not help feeling somewhat in the way. What had a stranger to do with +this love-sick pair? I wished that Winter had not brought me. And it +seemed to me that the dingy cabin was transfigured and now it seemed a +fit and proper scene for such an extremity of passion. I thought I +should never forget that schooner in the harbour of Honolulu, crowded +with shipping, and yet, under the immensity of the starry sky, remote +from all the world. I liked to think of those lovers sailing off +together in the night over the empty spaces of the Pacific from one +green, hilly island to another. A faint breeze of romance softly fanned +my cheek. + +And yet Butler was the last man in the world with whom you would have +associated romance, and it was hard to see what there was in him to +arouse love. In the clothes he wore now he looked podgier than ever, and +his round spectacles gave his round face the look of a prim cherub. He +suggested rather a curate who had gone to the dogs. His conversation was +peppered with the quaintest Americanisms, and it is because I despair of +reproducing these that, at whatever loss of vividness, I mean to narrate +the story he told me a little later in my own words. Moreover he was +unable to frame a sentence without an oath, though a good-natured one, +and his speech, albeit offensive only to prudish ears, in print would +seem coarse. He was a mirth-loving man, and perhaps that accounted not a +little for his successful amours; since women, for the most part +frivolous creatures, are excessively bored by the seriousness with +which men treat them, and they can seldom resist the buffoon who makes +them laugh. Their sense of humour is crude. Diana of Ephesus is always +prepared to fling prudence to the winds for the red-nosed comedian who +sits on his hat. I realised that Captain Butler had charm. If I had not +known the tragic story of the shipwreck I should have thought he had +never had a care in his life. + +Our host had rung the bell on our entrance and now a Chinese cook came +in with more glasses and several bottles of soda. The whisky and the +captain's empty glass stood already on the table. But when I saw the +Chinese I positively started, for he was certainly the ugliest man I had +ever seen. He was very short, but thick-set, and he had a bad limp. He +wore a singlet and a pair of trousers that had been white, but were now +filthy, and, perched on a shock of bristly, grey hair, an old tweed +deer-stalker. It would have been grotesque on any Chinese, but on him it +was outrageous. His broad, square face was very flat as though it had +been bashed in by a mighty fist, and it was deeply pitted with smallpox; +but the most revolting thing in him was a very pronounced harelip which +had never been operated on, so that his upper lip, cleft, went up in an +angle to his nose, and in the opening was a huge yellow fang. It was +horrible. He came in with the end of a cigarette at the corner of his +mouth, and this, I do not know why, gave him a devilish expression. + +He poured out the whisky and opened a bottle of soda. + +"Don't drown it, John," said the captain. + +He said nothing, but handed a glass to each of us. Then he went out. + +"I saw you lookin' at my Chink," said Butler, with a grin on his fat, +shining face. + +"I should hate to meet him on a dark night," I said. + +"He sure is homely," said the captain, and for some reason he seemed to +say it with a peculiar satisfaction. "But he's fine for one thing, I'll +tell the world; you just have to have a drink every time you look at +him." + +But my eyes fell on a calabash that hung against the wall over the +table, and I got up to look at it. I had been hunting for an old one and +this was better than any I had seen outside the museum. + +"It was given me by a chief over on one of the islands," said the +captain, watching me. "I done him a good turn and he wanted to give me +something good." + +"He certainly did," I answered. + +I was wondering whether I could discreetly make Captain Butler an offer +for it, I could not imagine that he set any store on such an article, +when, as though he read my thoughts, he said: + +"I wouldn't sell that for ten thousand dollars." + +"I guess not," said Winter. "It would be a crime to sell it." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"That comes into the story," returned Winter. "Doesn't it, Captain?" + +"It surely does." + +"Let's hear it then." + +"The night's young yet," he answered. + +The night distinctly lost its youth before he satisfied my curiosity, +and meanwhile we drank a great deal too much whisky while Captain Butler +narrated his experiences of San Francisco in the old days and of the +South Seas. At last the girl fell asleep. She lay curled up on the seat, +with her face on her brown arm, and her bosom rose and fell gently with +her breathing. In sleep she looked sullen, but darkly beautiful. + +He had found her on one of the islands in the group among which, +whenever there was cargo to be got, he wandered with his crazy old +schooner. The Kanakas have little love for work, and the laborious +Chinese, the cunning Japs, have taken the trade out of their hands. Her +father had a strip of land on which he grew taro and bananas and he had +a boat in which he went fishing. He was vaguely related to the mate of +the schooner, and it was he who took Captain Butler up to the shabby +little frame house to spend an idle evening. They took a bottle of +whisky with them and the ukalele. The captain was not a shy man and when +he saw a pretty girl he made love to her. He could speak the native +language fluently and it was not long before he had overcome the girl's +timidity. They spent the evening singing and dancing, and by the end of +it she was sitting by his side and he had his arm round her waist. It +happened that they were delayed on the island for several days and the +captain, at no time a man to hurry, made no effort to shorten his stay. +He was very comfortable in the snug little harbour and life was long. He +had a swim round his ship in the morning and another in the evening. +There was a chandler's shop on the water front where sailormen could get +a drink of whisky, and he spent the best part of the day there, playing +cribbage with the half-caste who owned it. At night the mate and he went +up to the house where the pretty girl lived and they sang a song or two +and told stories. It was the girl's father who suggested that he should +take her away with him. They discussed the matter in a friendly fashion, +while the girl, nestling against the captain, urged him by the pressure +of her hands and her soft, smiling glances. He had taken a fancy to her +and he was a domestic man. He was a little dull sometimes at sea and it +would be very pleasant to have a pretty little creature like that about +the old ship. He was of a practical turn too, and he recognised that it +would be useful to have someone around to darn his socks and look after +his linen. He was tired of having his things washed by a Chink who tore +everything to pieces; the natives washed much better, and now and then +when the captain went ashore at Honolulu he liked to cut a dash in a +smart duck suit. It was only a matter of arranging a price. The father +wanted two hundred and fifty dollars, and the captain, never a thrifty +man, could not put his hand on such a sum. But he was a generous one, +and with the girl's soft face against his, he was not inclined to +haggle. He offered to give a hundred and fifty dollars there and then +and another hundred in three months. There was a good deal of argument +and the parties could not come to any agreement that night, but the idea +had fired the captain, and he could not sleep as well as usual. He kept +dreaming of the lovely girl and each time he awoke it was with the +pressure of her soft, sensual lips on his. He cursed himself in the +morning because a bad night at poker the last time he was at Honolulu +had left him so short of ready money. And if the night before he had +been in love with the girl, this morning he was crazy about her. + +"See here, Bananas," he said to the mate, "I've got to have that girl. +You go and tell the old man I'll bring the dough up to-night and she can +get fixed up. I figure we'll be ready to sail at dawn." + +I have no idea why the mate was known by that eccentric name. He was +called Wheeler, but though he had that English surname there was not a +drop of white blood in him. He was a tall man, and well-made though +inclined to stoutness, but much darker than is usual in Hawaii. He was +no longer young, and his crisply curling, thick hair was grey. His upper +front teeth were cased in gold. He was very proud of them. He had a +marked squint and this gave him a saturnine expression. The captain, who +was fond of a joke, found in it a constant source of humour and +hesitated the less to rally him on the defect because he realised that +the mate was sensitive about it. Bananas, unlike most of the natives, +was a taciturn fellow and Captain Butler would have disliked him if it +had been possible for a man of his good nature to dislike anyone. He +liked to be at sea with someone he could talk to, he was a chatty, +sociable creature, and it was enough to drive a missionary to drink to +live there day after day with a chap who never opened his mouth. He did +his best to wake the mate up, that is to say, he chaffed him without +mercy, but it was poor fun to laugh by oneself, and he came to the +conclusion that, drunk or sober, Bananas was no fit companion for a +white man. But he was a good seaman and the captain was shrewd enough to +know the value of a mate he could trust. It was not rare for him to come +aboard, when they were sailing, fit for nothing but to fall into his +bunk, and it was worth something to know that he could stay there till +he had slept his liquor off, since Bananas could be relied on. But he +was an unsociable devil, and it would be a treat to have someone he +could talk to. That girl would be fine. Besides, he wouldn't be so +likely to get drunk when he went ashore if he knew there was a little +girl waiting for him when he came on board again. + +He went to his friend the chandler and over a peg of gin asked him for a +loan. There were one or two useful things a ship's captain could do for +a ship's chandler, and after a quarter of an hour's conversation in low +tones (there is no object in letting all and sundry know your business), +the captain crammed a wad of notes in his hip-pocket, and that night, +when he went back to his ship, the girl went with him. + +What Captain Butler, seeking for reasons to do what he had already made +up his mind to, had anticipated, actually came to pass. He did not give +up drinking, but he ceased to drink to excess. An evening with the +boys, when he had been away from town two or three weeks, was pleasant +enough, but it was pleasant too to get back to his little girl; he +thought of her, sleeping so softly, and how, when he got into his cabin +and leaned over her, she would open her eyes lazily and stretch out her +arms for him: it was as good as a full hand. He found he was saving +money, and since he was a generous man he did the right thing by the +little girl: he gave her some silver-backed brushes for her long hair, +and a gold chain, and a reconstructed ruby for her finger. Gee, but it +was good to be alive. + +A year went by, a whole year, and he was not tired of her yet. He was +not a man who analysed his feelings, but this was so surprising that it +forced itself upon his attention. There must be something very wonderful +about that girl. He couldn't help seeing that he was more wrapped up in +her than ever, and sometimes the thought entered his mind that it might +not be a bad thing if he married her. + +Then, one day the mate did not come in to dinner or to tea. Butler did +not bother himself about his absence at the first meal, but at the +second he asked the Chinese cook: + +"Where's the mate? He no come tea?" + +"No wantchee," said the Chink. + +"He ain't sick?" + +"No savvy." + +Next day Bananas turned up again, but he was more sullen than ever, and +after dinner the captain asked the girl what was the matter with him. +She smiled and shrugged her pretty shoulders. She told the captain that +Bananas had taken a fancy to her and he was sore because she had told +him off. The captain was a good-humoured man and he was not of a jealous +nature; it struck him as exceeding funny that Bananas should be in love. +A man who had a squint like that had a precious poor chance. When tea +came round he chaffed him gaily. He pretended to speak in the air, so +that the mate should not be certain that he knew anything, but he dealt +him some pretty shrewd blows. The girl did not think him as funny as he +thought himself, and afterwards she begged him to say nothing more. He +was surprised at her seriousness. She told him he did not know her +people. When their passion was aroused they were capable of anything. +She was a little frightened. This was so absurd to him that he laughed +heartily. + +"If he comes bothering round you, you just threaten to tell me. That'll +fix him." + +"Better fire him, I think." + +"Not on your sweet life. I know a good sailor when I see one. But if he +don't leave you alone I'll give him the worst licking he's ever had." + +Perhaps the girl had a wisdom unusual in her sex. She knew that it was +useless to argue with a man when his mind was made up, for it only +increased his stubbornness, and she held her peace. And now on the +shabby schooner, threading her way across the silent sea, among those +lovely islands, was enacted a dark, tense drama of which the fat little +captain remained entirely ignorant. The girl's resistance fired Bananas +so that he ceased to be a man, but was simply blind desire. He did not +make love to her gently or gaily, but with a black and savage ferocity. +Her contempt now was changed to hatred and when he besought her she +answered him with bitter, angry taunts. But the struggle went on +silently, and when the captain asked her after a little while whether +Bananas was bothering her, she lied. + +But one night, when they were in Honolulu, he came on board only just in +time. They were sailing at dawn. Bananas had been ashore, drinking some +native spirit, and he was drunk. The captain, rowing up, heard sounds +that surprised him. He scrambled up the ladder. He saw Bananas, beside +himself, trying to wrench open the cabin door. He was shouting at the +girl. He swore he would kill her if she did not let him in. + +"What in hell are you up to?" cried Butler. + +The mate let go the handle, gave the captain a look of savage hate, and +without a word turned away. + +"Stop here. What are you doing with that door?" + +The mate still did not answer. He looked at him with sullen, bootless +rage. + +"I'll teach you not to pull any of your queer stuff with me, you dirty, +cross-eyed nigger," said the captain. + +He was a good foot shorter than the mate and no match for him, but he +was used to dealing with native crews, and he had his knuckle-duster +handy. Perhaps it was not an instrument that a gentleman would use, but +then Captain Butler was not a gentleman. Nor was he in the habit of +dealing with gentlemen. Before Bananas knew what the captain was at, his +right arm had shot out and his fist, with its ring of steel, caught him +fair and square on the jaw. He fell like a bull under the pole-axe. + +"That'll learn him," said the captain. + +Bananas did not stir. The girl unlocked the cabin door and came out. + +"Is he dead?" + +"He ain't." + +He called a couple of men and told them to carry the mate to his bunk. +He rubbed his hands with satisfaction and his round blue eyes gleamed +behind his spectacles. But the girl was strangely silent. She put her +arms round him as though to protect him from invisible harm. + +It was two or three days before Bananas was on his feet again, and when +he came out of his cabin his face was torn and swollen. Through the +darkness of his skin you saw the livid bruise. Butler saw him slinking +along the deck and called him. The mate went to him without a word. + +"See here, Bananas," he said to him, fixing his spectacles on his +slippery nose, for it was very hot. "I ain't going to fire you for this, +but you know now that when I hit, I hit hard. Don't forget it and don't +let me have any more funny business." + +Then he held out his hand and gave the mate that good-humoured, flashing +smile of his which was his greatest charm. The mate took the +outstretched hand and twitched his swollen lips into a devilish grin. +The incident in the captain's mind was so completely finished that when +the three of them sat at dinner he chaffed Bananas on his appearance. He +was eating with difficulty and, his swollen face still more distorted by +pain, he looked truly a repulsive object. + +That evening, when he was sitting on the upper deck, smoking his pipe, a +shiver passed through the captain. + +"I don't know what I should be shiverin' for on a night like this," he +grumbled. "Maybe I've gotten a dose of fever. I've been feelin' a bit +queer all day." + +When he went to bed he took some quinine, and next morning he felt +better, but a little washed out, as though he were recovering from a +debauch. + +"I guess my liver's out of order," he said, and he took a pill. + +He had not much appetite that day and towards evening he began to feel +very unwell. He tried the next remedy he knew, which was to drink two or +three hot whiskies, but that did not seem to help him much, and when in +the morning he surveyed himself in the glass he thought he was not +looking quite the thing. + +"If I ain't right by the time we get back to Honolulu I'll just give Dr +Denby a call. He'll sure fix me up." + +He could not eat. He felt a great lassitude in all his limbs. He slept +soundly enough, but he awoke with no sense of refreshment; on the +contrary he felt a peculiar exhaustion. And the energetic little man, +who could not bear the thought of lying in bed, had to make an effort to +force himself out of his bunk. After a few days he found it impossible +to resist the languor that oppressed him, and he made up his mind not to +get up. + +"Bananas can look after the ship," he said. "He has before now." + +He laughed a little to himself as he thought how often he had lain +speechless in his bunk after a night with the boys. That was before he +had his girl. He smiled at her and pressed her hand. She was puzzled and +anxious. He saw that she was concerned about him and tried to reassure +her. He had never had a day's illness in his life and in a week at the +outside he would be as right as rain. + +"I wish you'd fired Bananas," she said. "I've got a feeling that he's at +the bottom of this." + +"Damned good thing I didn't, or there'd be no one to sail the ship. I +know a good sailor when I see one." His blue eyes, rather pale now, with +the whites all yellow, twinkled. "You don't think he's trying to poison +me, little girl?" + +She did not answer, but she had one or two talks with the Chinese cook, +and she took great care with the captain's food. But he ate little +enough now, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that she +persuaded him to drink a cup of soup two or three times a day. It was +clear that he was very ill, he was losing weight quickly, and his chubby +face was pale and drawn. He suffered no pain, but merely grew every day +weaker and more languid. He was wasting away. The round trip on this +occasion lasted about four weeks and by the time they came to Honolulu +the captain was a little anxious about himself. He had not been out of +his bed for more than a fortnight and really he felt too weak to get up +and go to the doctor. He sent a message asking him to come on board. The +doctor examined him, but could find nothing to account for his +condition. His temperature was normal. + +"See here, Captain," he said, "I'll be perfectly frank with you. I don't +know what's the matter with you, and just seeing you like this don't +give me a chance. You come into the hospital so that we can keep you +under observation. There's nothing organically wrong with you, I know +that, and my impression is that a few weeks in hospital ought to put you +to rights." + +"I ain't going to leave my ship." + +Chinese owners were queer customers, he said; if he left his ship +because he was sick, his owner might fire him, and he couldn't afford to +lose his job. So long as he stayed where he was his contract +safe-guarded him, and he had a first-rate mate. Besides, he couldn't +leave his girl. No man could want a better nurse; if anyone could pull +him through she would. Every man had to die once and he only wished to +be left in peace. He would not listen to the doctor's expostulations, +and finally the doctor gave in. + +"I'll write you a prescription," he said doubtfully, "and see if it does +you any good. You'd better stay in bed for a while." + +"There ain't much fear of my getting up, doc," answered the captain. "I +feel as weak as a cat." + +But he believed in the doctor's prescription as little as did the doctor +himself, and when he was alone amused himself by lighting his cigar with +it. He had to get amusement out of something, for his cigar tasted like +nothing on earth, and he smoked only to persuade himself that he was not +too ill to. That evening a couple of friends of his, masters of tramp +steamers, hearing he was sick came to see him. They discussed his case +over a bottle of whisky and a box of Philippine cigars. One of them +remembered how a mate of his had been taken queer just like that and not +a doctor in the United States had been able to cure him. He had seen in +the paper an advertisement of a patent medicine, and thought there'd be +no harm in trying it. That man was as strong as ever he'd been in his +life after two bottles. But his illness had given Captain Butler a +lucidity which was new and strange, and while they talked he seemed to +read their minds. They thought he was dying. And when they left him he +was afraid. + +The girl saw his weakness. This was her opportunity. She had been urging +him to let a native doctor see him, and he had stoutly refused; but now +she entreated him. He listened with harassed eyes. He wavered. It was +very funny that the American doctor could not tell what was the matter +with him. But he did not want her to think that he was scared. If he let +a damned nigger come along and look at him, it was to comfort _her_. He +told her to do what she liked. + +The native doctor came the next night. The captain was lying alone, +half awake, and the cabin was dimly lit by an oil lamp. The door was +softly opened and the girl came in on tip-toe. She held the door open +and some one slipped in silently behind her. The captain smiled at this +mystery, but he was so weak now, the smile was no more than a glimmer in +his eyes. The doctor was a little, old man, very thin and very wrinkled, +with a completely bald head, and the face of a monkey. He was bowed and +gnarled like an old tree. He looked hardly human, but his eyes were very +bright, and in the half darkness, they seemed to glow with a reddish +light. He was dressed filthily in a pair of ragged dungarees, and the +upper part of his body was naked. He sat down on his haunches and for +ten minutes looked at the captain. Then he felt the palms of his hands +and the soles of his feet. The girl watched him with frightened eyes. No +word was spoken. Then he asked for something that the captain had worn. +The girl gave him the old felt hat which the captain used constantly and +taking it he sat down again on the floor, clasping it firmly with both +hands; and rocking backwards and forwards slowly he muttered some +gibberish in a very low tone. + +At last he gave a little sigh and dropped the hat. He took an old pipe +out of his trouser pocket and lit it. The girl went over to him and sat +by his side. He whispered something to her, and she started violently. +For a few minutes they talked in hurried undertones, and then they stood +up. She gave him money and opened the door for him. He slid out as +silently as he had come in. Then she went over to the captain and leaned +over him so that she could speak into his ear. + +"It's an enemy praying you to death." + +"Don't talk fool stuff, girlie," he said impatiently. + +"It's truth. It's God's truth. That's why the American doctor couldn't +do anything. Our people can do that. I've seen it done. I thought you +were safe because you were a white man." + +"I haven't an enemy." + +"Bananas." + +"What's he want to pray me to death for?" + +"You ought to have fired him before he had a chance." + +"I guess if I ain't got nothing more the matter with me than Bananas' +hoodoo I shall be sitting up and taking nourishment in a very few days." + +She was silent for a while and she looked at him intently. + +"Don't you know you're dying?" she said to him at last. + +That was what the two skippers had thought, but they hadn't said it. A +shiver passed across the captain's wan face. + +"The doctor says there ain't nothing really the matter with me. I've +only to lie quiet for a bit and I shall be all right." + +She put her lips to his ear as if she were afraid that the air itself +might hear. + +"You're dying, dying, dying. You'll pass out with the old moon." + +"That's something to know." + +"You'll pass out with the old moon unless Bananas dies before." + +He was not a timid man and he had recovered already from the shock her +words, and still more her vehement, silent manner, had given him. Once +more a smile flickered in his eyes. + +"I guess I'll take my chance, girlie." + +"There's twelve days before the new moon." + +There was something in her tone that gave him an idea. + +"See here, my girl, this is all bunk. I don't believe a word of it. But +I don't want you to try any of your monkey tricks with Bananas. He ain't +a beauty, but he's a first-rate mate." + +He would have said a good deal more, but he was tired out. He suddenly +felt very weak and faint. It was always at that hour that he felt worse. +He closed his eyes. The girl watched him for a minute and then slipped +out of the cabin. The moon, nearly full, made a silver pathway over the +dark sea. It shone from an unclouded sky. She looked at it with terror, +for she knew that with its death the man she loved would die. His life +was in her hands. She could save him, she alone could save him, but the +enemy was cunning, and she must be cunning too. She felt that someone +was looking at her, and without turning, by the sudden fear that seized +her, knew that from the shadow the burning eyes of the mate were fixed +upon her. She did not know what he could do; if he could read her +thoughts she was defeated already, and with a desperate effort she +emptied her mind of all content. His death alone could save her lover, +and she could bring his death about. She knew that if he could be +brought to look into a calabash in which was water so that a reflection +of him was made, and the reflection were broken by hurtling the water, +he would die as though he had been struck by lightning; for the +reflection was his soul. But none knew better than he the danger, and he +could be made to look only by a guile which had lulled his least +suspicion. He must never think that he had an enemy who was on the watch +to cause his destruction. She knew what she had to do. But the time was +short, the time was terribly short. Presently she realised that the mate +had gone. She breathed more freely. + +Two days later they sailed, and there were ten now before the new moon. +Captain Butler was terrible to see. He was nothing but skin and bone, +and he could not move without help. He could hardly speak. But she dared +do nothing yet. She knew that she must be patient. The mate was cunning, +cunning. They went to one of the smaller islands of the group and +discharged cargo, and now there were only seven days more. The moment +had come to start. She brought some things out of the cabin she shared +with the captain and made them into a bundle. She put the bundle in the +deck cabin where she and Bananas ate their meals, and at dinner time, +when she went in, he turned quickly and she saw that he had been looking +at it. Neither of them spoke, but she knew what he suspected. She was +making her preparations to leave the ship. He looked at her mockingly. +Gradually, as though to prevent the captain from knowing what she was +about, she brought everything she owned into the cabin, and some of the +captain's clothes, and made them all into bundles. At last Bananas could +keep silence no longer. He pointed to a suit of ducks. + +"What are you going to do with that?" he asked. + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I'm going back to my island." + +He gave a laugh that distorted his grim face. The captain was dying and +she meant to get away with all she could lay hands on. + +"What'll you do if I say you can't take those things? They're the +captain's." + +"They're no use to you," she said. + +There was a calabash hanging on the wall. It was the very calabash I had +seen when I came into the cabin and which we had talked about. She took +it down. It was all dusty, so she poured water into it from the +water-bottle, and rinsed it with her fingers. + +"What are you doing with that?" + +"I can sell it for fifty dollars," she said. + +"If you want to take it you'll have to pay me." + +"What d'you want?" + +"You know what I want." + +She allowed a fleeting smile to play on her lips. She flashed a quick +look at him and quickly turned away. He gave a gasp of desire. She +raised her shoulders in a little shrug. With a savage bound he sprang +upon her and seized her in his arms. Then she laughed. She put her arms, +her soft, round arms, about his neck, and surrendered herself to him +voluptuously. + +When the morning came she roused him out of a deep sleep. The early rays +of the sun slanted into the cabin. He pressed her to his heart. Then he +told her that the captain could not last more than a day or two, and the +owner wouldn't so easily find another white man to command the ship. If +Bananas offered to take less money he would get the job and the girl +could stay with him. He looked at her with love-sick eyes. She nestled +up against him. She kissed his lips, in the foreign way, in the way the +captain had taught her to kiss. And she promised to stay. Bananas was +drunk with happiness. + +It was now or never. + +She got up and went to the table to arrange her hair. There was no +mirror and she looked into the calabash, seeking for her reflection. She +tidied her beautiful hair. Then she beckoned to Bananas to come to her. +She pointed to the calabash. + +"There's something in the bottom of it," she said. + +Instinctively, without suspecting anything, Bananas looked full into the +water. His face was reflected in it. In a flash she beat upon it +violently, with both her hands, so that they pounded on the bottom and +the water splashed up. The reflection was broken in pieces. Bananas +started back with a sudden hoarse cry and he looked at the girl. She was +standing there with a look of triumphant hatred on her face. A horror +came into his eyes. His heavy features were twisted in agony, and with +a thud, as though he had taken a violent poison, he crumpled up on to +the ground. A great shudder passed through his body and he was still. +She leaned over him callously. She put her hand on his heart and then +she pulled down his lower eye-lid. He was quite dead. + +She went into the cabin in which lay Captain Butler. There was a faint +colour in his cheeks and he looked at her in a startled way. + +"What's happened?" he whispered. + +They were the first words he had spoken for forty-eight hours. + +"Nothing's happened," she said. + +"I feel all funny." + +Then his eyes closed and he fell asleep. He slept for a day and a night, +and when he awoke he asked for food. In a fortnight he was well. + +It was past midnight when Winter and I rowed back to shore and we had +drunk innumerable whiskies and sodas. + +"What do you think of it all?" asked Winter. + +"What a question! If you mean, have I any explanation to suggest, I +haven't." + +"The captain believes every word of it." + +"That's obvious; but you know that's not the part that interests me +most, whether it's true or not, and what it all means; the part that +interests me is that such things should happen to such people. I wonder +what there is in that commonplace little man to arouse such a passion in +that lovely creature. As I watched her, asleep there, while he was +telling the story I had some fantastic idea about the power of love +being able to work miracles." + +"But that's not the girl," said Winter. + +"What on earth do you mean?" + +"Didn't you notice the cook?" + +"Of course I did. He's the ugliest man I ever saw." + +"That's why Butler took him. The girl ran away with the Chinese cook +last year. This is a new one. He's only had her there about two months." + +"Well, I'm hanged." + +"He thinks this cook is safe. But I wouldn't be too sure in his place. +There's something about a Chink, when he lays himself out to please a +woman she can't resist him." + + + + +VII + +_Rain_ + + +It was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in +sight. Dr Macphail lit his pipe and, leaning over the rail, searched the +heavens for the Southern Cross. After two years at the front and a wound +that had taken longer to heal than it should, he was glad to settle down +quietly at Apia for twelve months at least, and he felt already better +for the journey. Since some of the passengers were leaving the ship next +day at Pago-Pago they had had a little dance that evening and in his +ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. But the +deck was quiet at last. A little way off he saw his wife in a long chair +talking with the Davidsons, and he strolled over to her. When he sat +down under the light and took off his hat you saw that he had very red +hair, with a bald patch on the crown, and the red, freckled skin which +accompanies red hair; he was a man of forty, thin, with a pinched face, +precise and rather pedantic; and he spoke with a Scots accent in a very +low, quiet voice. + +Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there +had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather +than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval +they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the +smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs Macphail was not +a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only +people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and +even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the +compliment. It was only because he was of an argumentative mind that in +their cabin at night he permitted himself to carp. + +"Mrs Davidson was saying she didn't know how they'd have got through the +journey if it hadn't been for us," said Mrs Macphail, as she neatly +brushed out her transformation. "She said we were really the only people +on the ship they cared to know." + +"I shouldn't have thought a missionary was such a big bug that he could +afford to put on frills." + +"It's not frills. I quite understand what she means. It wouldn't have +been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot +in the smoking-room." + +"The founder of their religion wasn't so exclusive," said Dr Macphail +with a chuckle. + +"I've asked you over and over again not to joke about religion," +answered his wife. "I shouldn't like to have a nature like yours, Alec. +You never look for the best in people." + +He gave her a sidelong glance with his pale, blue eyes, but did not +reply. After many years of married life he had learned that it was more +conducive to peace to leave his wife with the last word. He was +undressed before she was, and climbing into the upper bunk he settled +down to read himself to sleep. + +When he came on deck next morning they were close to land. He looked at +it with greedy eyes. There was a thin strip of silver beach rising +quickly to hills covered to the top with luxuriant vegetation. The +coconut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water's edge, and +among them you saw the grass houses of the Samoans; and here and there, +gleaming white, a little church. Mrs Davidson came and stood beside him. +She was dressed in black and wore round her neck a gold chain, from +which dangled a small cross. She was a little woman, with brown, dull +hair very elaborately arranged, and she had prominent blue eyes behind +invisible _pince-nez_. Her face was long, like a sheep's, but she gave +no impression of foolishness, rather of extreme alertness; she had the +quick movements of a bird. The most remarkable thing about her was her +voice, high, metallic, and without inflection; it fell on the ear with a +hard monotony, irritating to the nerves like the pitiless clamour of the +pneumatic drill. + +"This must seem like home to you," said Dr Macphail, with his thin, +difficult smile. + +"Ours are low islands, you know, not like these. Coral. These are +volcanic. We've got another ten days' journey to reach them." + +"In these parts that's almost like being in the next street at home," +said Dr Macphail facetiously. + +"Well, that's rather an exaggerated way of putting it, but one does +look at distances differently in the South Seas. So far you're right." + +Dr Macphail sighed faintly. + +"I'm glad we're not stationed here," she went on. "They say this is a +terribly difficult place to work in. The steamers' touching makes the +people unsettled; and then there's the naval station; that's bad for the +natives. In our district we don't have difficulties like that to contend +with. There are one or two traders, of course, but we take care to make +them behave, and if they don't we make the place so hot for them they're +glad to go." + +Fixing the glasses on her nose she looked at the green island with a +ruthless stare. + +"It's almost a hopeless task for the missionaries here. I can never be +sufficiently thankful to God that we are at least spared that." + +Davidson's district consisted of a group of islands to the North of +Samoa; they were widely separated and he had frequently to go long +distances by canoe. At these times his wife remained at their +headquarters and managed the mission. Dr Macphail felt his heart sink +when he considered the efficiency with which she certainly managed it. +She spoke of the depravity of the natives in a voice which nothing could +hush, but with a vehemently unctuous horror. Her sense of delicacy was +singular. Early in their acquaintance she had said to him: + +"You know, their marriage customs when we first settled in the islands +were so shocking that I couldn't possibly describe them to you. But I'll +tell Mrs Macphail and she'll tell you." + +Then he had seen his wife and Mrs Davidson, their deck-chairs close +together, in earnest conversation for about two hours. As he walked past +them backwards and forwards for the sake of exercise, he had heard Mrs +Davidson's agitated whisper, like the distant flow of a mountain +torrent, and he saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was +enjoying an alarming experience. At night in their cabin she repeated to +him with bated breath all she had heard. + +"Well, what did I say to you?" cried Mrs Davidson, exultant, next +morning. "Did you ever hear anything more dreadful? You don't wonder +that I couldn't tell you myself, do you? Even though you are a doctor." + +Mrs Davidson scanned his face. She had a dramatic eagerness to see that +she had achieved the desired effect. + +"Can you wonder that when we first went there our hearts sank? You'll +hardly believe me when I tell you it was impossible to find a single +good girl in any of the villages." + +She used the word _good_ in a severely technical manner. + +"Mr Davidson and I talked it over, and we made up our minds the first +thing to do was to put down the dancing. The natives were crazy about +dancing." + +"I was not averse to it myself when I was a young man," said Dr +Macphail. + +"I guessed as much when I heard you ask Mrs Macphail to have a turn with +you last night. I don't think there's any real harm if a man dances +with his wife, but I was relieved that she wouldn't. Under the +circumstances I thought it better that we should keep ourselves to +ourselves." + +"Under what circumstances?" + +Mrs Davidson gave him a quick look through her _pince-nez_, but did not +answer his question. + +"But among white people it's not quite the same," she went on, "though I +must say I agree with Mr Davidson, who says he can't understand how a +husband can stand by and see his wife in another man's arms, and as far +as I'm concerned I've never danced a step since I married. But the +native dancing is quite another matter. It's not only immoral in itself, +but it distinctly leads to immorality. However, I'm thankful to God that +we stamped it out, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that no one has +danced in our district for eight years." + +But now they came to the mouth of the harbour and Mrs Macphail joined +them. The ship turned sharply and steamed slowly in. It was a great +land-locked harbour big enough to hold a fleet of battleships; and all +around it rose, high and steep, the green hills. Near the entrance, +getting such breeze as blew from the sea, stood the governor's house in +a garden. The Stars and Stripes dangled languidly from a flagstaff. They +passed two or three trim bungalows, and a tennis court, and then they +came to the quay with its warehouses. Mrs Davidson pointed out the +schooner, moored two or three hundred yards from the side, which was to +take them to Apia. There was a crowd of eager, noisy, and good-humoured +natives come from all parts of the island, some from curiosity, others +to barter with the travellers on their way to Sydney; and they brought +pineapples and huge bunches of bananas, _tapa_ cloths, necklaces of +shells or sharks' teeth, _kava_-bowls, and models of war canoes. +American sailors, neat and trim, clean-shaven and frank of face, +sauntered among them, and there was a little group of officials. While +their luggage was being landed the Macphails and Mrs Davidson watched +the crowd. Dr Macphail looked at the yaws from which most of the +children and the young boys seemed to suffer, disfiguring sores like +torpid ulcers, and his professional eyes glistened when he saw for the +first time in his experience cases of elephantiasis, men going about +with a huge, heavy arm or dragging along a grossly disfigured leg. Men +and women wore the _lava-lava_. + +"It's a very indecent costume," said Mrs Davidson. "Mr Davidson thinks +it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral +when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?" + +"It's suitable enough to the climate," said the doctor, wiping the sweat +off his head. + +Now that they were on land the heat, though it was so early in the +morning, was already oppressive. Closed in by its hills, not a breath of +air came in to Pago-Pago. + +"In our islands," Mrs Davidson went on in her high-pitched tones, "we've +practically eradicated the _lava-lava_. A few old men still continue to +wear it, but that's all. The women have all taken to the Mother +Hubbard, and the men wear trousers and singlets. At the very beginning +of our stay Mr Davidson said in one of his reports: the inhabitants of +these islands will never be thoroughly Christianised till every boy of +more than ten years is made to wear a pair of trousers." + +But Mrs Davidson had given two or three of her birdlike glances at heavy +grey clouds that came floating over the mouth of the harbour. A few +drops began to fall. + +"We'd better take shelter," she said. + +They made their way with all the crowd to a great shed of corrugated +iron, and the rain began to fall in torrents. They stood there for some +time and then were joined by Mr Davidson. He had been polite enough to +the Macphails during the journey, but he had not his wife's sociability, +and had spent much of his time reading. He was a silent, rather sullen +man, and you felt that his affability was a duty that he imposed upon +himself Christianly; he was by nature reserved and even morose. His +appearance was singular. He was very tall and thin, with long limbs +loosely jointed; hollow cheeks and curiously high cheek-bones; he had so +cadaverous an air that it surprised you to notice how full and sensual +were his lips. He wore his hair very long. His dark eyes, set deep in +their sockets, were large and tragic; and his hands with their big, long +fingers, were finely shaped; they gave him a look of great strength. But +the most striking thing about him was the feeling he gave you of +suppressed fire. It was impressive and vaguely troubling. He was not a +man with whom any intimacy was possible. + +He brought now unwelcome news. There was an epidemic of measles, a +serious and often fatal disease among the Kanakas, on the island, and a +case had developed among the crew of the schooner which was to take them +on their journey. The sick man had been brought ashore and put in +hospital on the quarantine station, but telegraphic instructions had +been sent from Apia to say that the schooner would not be allowed to +enter the harbour till it was certain no other member of the crew was +affected. + +"It means we shall have to stay here for ten days at least." + +"But I'm urgently needed at Apia," said Dr Macphail. + +"That can't be helped. If no more cases develop on board, the schooner +will be allowed to sail with white passengers, but all native traffic is +prohibited for three months." + +"Is there a hotel here?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +Davidson gave a low chuckle. + +"There's not." + +"What shall we do then?" + +"I've been talking to the governor. There's a trader along the front who +has rooms that he rents, and my proposition is that as soon as the rain +lets up we should go along there and see what we can do. Don't expect +comfort. You've just got to be thankful if we get a bed to sleep on and +a roof over our heads." + +But the rain showed no sign of stopping, and at length with umbrellas +and waterproofs they set out. There was no town, but merely a group of +official buildings, a store or two, and at the back, among the coconut +trees and plantains, a few native dwellings. The house they sought was +about five minutes' walk from the wharf. It was a frame house of two +storeys, with broad verandahs on both floors and a roof of corrugated +iron. The owner was a half-caste named Horn, with a native wife +surrounded by little brown children, and on the ground-floor he had a +store where he sold canned goods and cottons. The rooms he showed them +were almost bare of furniture. In the Macphails' there was nothing but a +poor, worn bed with a ragged mosquito net, a rickety chair, and a +washstand. They looked round with dismay. The rain poured down without +ceasing. + +"I'm not going to unpack more than we actually need," said Mrs Macphail. + +Mrs Davidson came into the room as she was unlocking a portmanteau. She +was very brisk and alert. The cheerless surroundings had no effect on +her. + +"If you'll take my advice you'll get a needle and cotton and start right +in to mend the mosquito net," she said, "or you'll not be able to get a +wink of sleep to-night." + +"Will they be very bad?" asked Dr Macphail. + +"This is the season for them. When you're asked to a party at +Government House at Apia you'll notice that all the ladies are given a +pillow-slip to put their--their lower extremities in." + +"I wish the rain would stop for a moment," said Mrs Macphail. "I could +try to make the place comfortable with more heart if the sun were +shining." + +"Oh, if you wait for that, you'll wait a long time. Pago-Pago is about +the rainiest place in the Pacific. You see, the hills, and that bay, +they attract the water, and one expects rain at this time of year +anyway." + +She looked from Macphail to his wife, standing helplessly in different +parts of the room, like lost souls, and she pursed her lips. She saw +that she must take them in hand. Feckless people like that made her +impatient, but her hands itched to put everything in the order which +came so naturally to her. + +"Here, you give me a needle and cotton and I'll mend that net of yours, +while you go on with your unpacking. Dinner's at one. Dr Macphail, you'd +better go down to the wharf and see that your heavy luggage has been put +in a dry place. You know what these natives are, they're quite capable +of storing it where the rain will beat in on it all the time." + +The doctor put on his waterproof again and went downstairs. At the door +Mr Horn was standing in conversation with the quartermaster of the ship +they had just arrived in and a second-class passenger whom Dr Macphail +had seen several times on board. The quartermaster, a little, shrivelled +man, extremely dirty, nodded to him as he passed. + +"This is a bad job about the measles, doc," he said. "I see you've fixed +yourself up already." + +Dr Macphail thought he was rather familiar, but he was a timid man and +he did not take offence easily. + +"Yes, we've got a room upstairs." + +"Miss Thompson was sailing with you to Apia, so I've brought her along +here." + +The quartermaster pointed with his thumb to the woman standing by his +side. She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fashion +pretty. She wore a white dress and a large white hat. Her fat calves in +white cotton stockings bulged over the tops of long white boots in glace +kid. She gave Macphail an ingratiating smile. + +"The feller's tryin' to soak me a dollar and a half a day for the +meanest sized room," she said in a hoarse voice. + +"I tell you she's a friend of mine, Jo," said the quartermaster. "She +can't pay more than a dollar, and you've sure got to take her for that." + +The trader was fat and smooth and quietly smiling. + +"Well, if you put it like that, Mr Swan, I'll see what I can do about +it. I'll talk to Mrs Horn and if we think we can make a reduction we +will." + +"Don't try to pull that stuff with me," said Miss Thompson. "We'll +settle this right now. You get a dollar a day for the room and not one +bean more." + +Dr Macphail smiled. He admired the effrontery with which she bargained. +He was the sort of man who always paid what he was asked. He preferred +to be over-charged than to haggle. The trader sighed. + +"Well, to oblige Mr Swan I'll take it." + +"That's the goods," said Miss Thompson. "Come right in and have a shot +of hooch. I've got some real good rye in that grip if you'll bring it +along, Mr Swan. You come along too, doctor." + +"Oh, I don't think I will, thank you," he answered. "I'm just going down +to see that our luggage is all right." + +He stepped out into the rain. It swept in from the opening of the +harbour in sheets and the opposite shore was all blurred. He passed two +or three natives clad in nothing but the _lava-lava_, with huge +umbrellas over them. They walked finely, with leisurely movements, very +upright; and they smiled and greeted him in a strange tongue as they +went by. + +It was nearly dinner-time when he got back, and their meal was laid in +the trader's parlour. It was a room designed not to live in but for +purposes of prestige, and it had a musty, melancholy air. A suite of +stamped plush was arranged neatly round the walls, and from the middle +of the ceiling, protected from the flies by yellow tissue paper, hung a +gilt chandelier. Davidson did not come. + +"I know he went to call on the governor," said Mrs Davidson, "and I +guess he's kept him to dinner." + +A little native girl brought them a dish of Hamburger steak, and after +a while the trader came up to see that they had everything they wanted. + +"I see we have a fellow lodger, Mr Horn," said Dr Macphail. + +"She's taken a room, that's all," answered the trader. "She's getting +her own board." + +He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air. + +"I put her downstairs so she shouldn't be in the way. She won't be any +trouble to you." + +"Is it someone who was on the boat?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"Yes, ma'am, she was in the second cabin. She was going to Apia. She has +a position as cashier waiting for her." + +"Oh!" + +When the trader was gone Macphail said: + +"I shouldn't think she'd find it exactly cheerful having her meals in +her room." + +"If she was in the second cabin I guess she'd rather," answered Mrs +Davidson. "I don't exactly know who it can be." + +"I happened to be there when the quartermaster brought her along. Her +name's Thompson." + +"It's not the woman who was dancing with the quartermaster last night?" +asked Mrs Davidson. + +"That's who it must be," said Mrs Macphail. "I wondered at the time what +she was. She looked rather fast to me." + +"Not good style at all," said Mrs Davidson. + +They began to talk of other things, and after dinner, tired with their +early rise, they separated and slept. When they awoke, though the sky +was still grey and the clouds hung low, it was not raining and they went +for a walk on the high road which the Americans had built along the bay. + +On their return they found that Davidson had just come in. + +"We may be here for a fortnight," he said irritably. "I've argued it out +with the governor, but he says there is nothing to be done." + +"Mr Davidson's just longing to get back to his work," said his wife, +with an anxious glance at him. + +"We've been away for a year," he said, walking up and down the verandah. +"The mission has been in charge of native missionaries and I'm terribly +nervous that they've let things slide. They're good men, I'm not saying +a word against them, God-fearing, devout, and truly Christian men--their +Christianity would put many so-called Christians at home to the +blush--but they're pitifully lacking in energy. They can make a stand +once, they can make a stand twice, but they can't make a stand all the +time. If you leave a mission in charge of a native missionary, no matter +how trustworthy he seems, in course of time you'll find he's let abuses +creep in." + +Mr Davidson stood still. With his tall, spare form, and his great eyes +flashing out of his pale face, he was an impressive figure. His +sincerity was obvious in the fire of his gestures and in his deep, +ringing voice. + +"I expect to have my work cut out for me. I shall act and I shall act +promptly. If the tree is rotten it shall be cut down and cast into the +flames." + +And in the evening after the high tea which was their last meal, while +they sat in the stiff parlour, the ladies working and Dr Macphail +smoking his pipe, the missionary told them of his work in the islands. + +"When we went there they had no sense of sin at all," he said. "They +broke the commandments one after the other and never knew they were +doing wrong. And I think that was the most difficult part of my work, to +instil into the natives the sense of sin." + +The Macphails knew already that Davidson had worked in the Solomons for +five years before he met his wife. She had been a missionary in China, +and they had become acquainted in Boston, where they were both spending +part of their leave to attend a missionary congress. On their marriage +they had been appointed to the islands in which they had laboured ever +since. + +In the course of all the conversations they had had with Mr Davidson one +thing had shone out clearly and that was the man's unflinching courage. +He was a medical missionary, and he was liable to be called at any time +to one or other of the islands in the group. Even the whaleboat is not +so very safe a conveyance in the stormy Pacific of the wet season, but +often he would be sent for in a canoe, and then the danger was great. In +cases of illness or accident he never hesitated. A dozen times he had +spent the whole night baling for his life, and more than once Mrs +Davidson had given him up for lost. + +"I'd beg him not to go sometimes," she said, "or at least to wait till +the weather was more settled, but he'd never listen. He's obstinate, and +when he's once made up his mind, nothing can move him." + +"How can I ask the natives to put their trust in the Lord if I am afraid +to do so myself?" cried Davidson. "And I'm not, I'm not. They know that +if they send for me in their trouble I'll come if it's humanly possible. +And do you think the Lord is going to abandon me when I am on his +business? The wind blows at his bidding and the waves toss and rage at +his word." + +Dr Macphail was a timid man. He had never been able to get used to the +hurtling of the shells over the trenches, and when he was operating in +an advanced dressing-station the sweat poured from his brow and dimmed +his spectacles in the effort he made to control his unsteady hand. He +shuddered' a little as he looked at the missionary. + +"I wish I could say that I've never been afraid," he said. + +"I wish you could say that you believed in God," retorted the other. + +But for some reason, that evening the missionary's thoughts travelled +back to the early days he and his wife had spent on the islands. + +"Sometimes Mrs Davidson and I would look at one another and the tears +would stream down our cheeks. We worked without ceasing, day and night, +and we seemed to make no progress. I don't know what I should have done +without her then. When I felt my heart sink, when I was very near +despair, she gave me courage and hope." + +Mrs Davidson looked down at her work, and a slight colour rose to her +thin cheeks. Her hands trembled a little. She did not trust herself to +speak. + +"We had no one to help us. We were alone, thousands of miles from any of +our own people, surrounded by darkness. When I was broken and weary she +would put her work aside and take the Bible and read to me till peace +came and settled upon me like sleep upon the eyelids of a child, and +when at last she closed the book she'd say: 'We'll save them in spite of +themselves.' And I felt strong again in the Lord, and I answered: 'Yes, +with God's help I'll save them. I must save them.'" + +He came over to the table and stood in front of it as though it were a +lectern. + +"You see, they were so naturally depraved that they couldn't be brought +to see their wickedness. We had to make sins out of what they thought +were natural actions. We had to make it a sin, not only to commit +adultery and to lie and thieve, but to expose their bodies, and to dance +and not to come to church. I made it a sin for a girl to show her bosom +and a sin for a man not to wear trousers." + +"How?" asked Dr Macphail, not without surprise. + +"I instituted fines. Obviously the only way to make people realise that +an action is sinful is to punish them if they commit it. I fined them if +they didn't come to church, and I fined them if they danced. I fined +them if they were improperly dressed. I had a tariff, and every sin had +to be paid for either in money or work. And at last I made them +understand." + +"But did they never refuse to pay?" + +"How could they?" asked the missionary. + +"It would be a brave man who tried to stand up against Mr Davidson," +said his wife, tightening her lips. + +Dr Macphail looked at Davidson with troubled eyes. What he heard +shocked him, but he hesitated to express his disapproval. + +"You must remember that in the last resort I could expel them from their +church membership." + +"Did they mind that?" + +Davidson smiled a little and gently rubbed his hands. + +"They couldn't sell their copra. When the men fished they got no share +of the catch. It meant something very like starvation. Yes, they minded +quite a lot." + +"Tell him about Fred Ohlson," said Mrs Davidson. + +The missionary fixed his fiery eyes on Dr Macphail. + +"Fred Ohlson was a Danish trader who had been in the islands a good many +years. He was a pretty rich man as traders go and he wasn't very pleased +when we came. You see, he'd had things very much his own way. He paid +the natives what he liked for their copra, and he paid in goods and +whiskey. He had a native wife, but he was flagrantly unfaithful to her. +He was a drunkard. I gave him a chance to mend his ways, but he +wouldn't take it. He laughed at me." + +Davidson's voice fell to a deep bass as he said the last words, and he +was silent for a minute or two. The silence was heavy with menace. + +"In two years he was a ruined man. He'd lost everything he'd saved in a +quarter of a century. I broke him, and at last he was forced to come to +me like a beggar and beseech me to give him a passage back to Sydney." + +"I wish you could have seen him when he came to see Mr Davidson," said +the missionary's wife. "He had been a fine, powerful man, with a lot of +fat on him, and he had a great big voice, but now he was half the size, +and he was shaking all over. He'd suddenly become an old man." + +With abstracted gaze Davidson looked out into the night. The rain was +falling again. + +Suddenly from below came a sound, and Davidson turned and looked +questioningly at his wife. It was the sound of a gramophone, harsh and +loud, wheezing out a syncopated tune. + +"What's that?" he asked. + +Mrs Davidson fixed her _pince-nez_ more firmly on her nose. + +"One of the second-class passengers has a room in the house. I guess it +comes from there." + +They listened in silence, and presently they heard the sound of dancing. +Then the music stopped, and they heard the popping of corks and voices +raised in animated conversation. + +"I daresay she's giving a farewell party to her friends on board," said +Dr Macphail. "The ship sails at twelve, doesn't it?" + +Davidson made no remark, but he looked at his watch. + +"Are you ready?" he asked his wife. + +She got up and folded her work. + +"Yes, I guess I am," she answered. + +"It's early to go to bed yet, isn't it?" said the doctor. + +"We have a good deal of reading to do," explained Mrs Davidson. +"Wherever we are, we read a chapter of the Bible before retiring for the +night and we study it with the commentaries, you know, and discuss it +thoroughly. It's a wonderful training for the mind." + +The two couples bade one another good night. Dr and Mrs Macphail were +left alone. For two or three minutes they did not speak. + +"I think I'll go and fetch the cards," the doctor said at last. + +Mrs Macphail looked at him doubtfully. Her conversation with the +Davidsons had left her a little uneasy, but she did not like to say that +she thought they had better not play cards when the Davidsons might come +in at any moment. Dr Macphail brought them and she watched him, though +with a vague sense of guilt, while he laid out his patience. Below the +sound of revelry continued. + +It was fine enough next day, and the Macphails, condemned to spend a +fortnight of idleness at Pago-Pago, set about making the best of things. +They went down to the quay and got out of their boxes a number of +books. The doctor called on the chief surgeon of the naval hospital and +went round the beds with him. They left cards on the governor. They +passed Miss Thompson on the road. The doctor took off his hat, and she +gave him a "Good morning, doc.," in a loud, cheerful voice. She was +dressed as on the day before, in a white frock, and her shiny white +boots with their high heels, her fat legs bulging over the tops of them, +were strange things on that exotic scene. + +"I don't think she's very suitably dressed, I must say," said Mrs +Macphail. "She looks extremely common to me." + +When they got back to their house, she was on the verandah playing with +one of the trader's dark children. + +"Say a word to her," Dr Macphail whispered to his wife. "She's all alone +here, and it seems rather unkind to ignore her." + +Mrs Macphail was shy, but she was in the habit of doing what her husband +bade her. + +"I think we're fellow lodgers here," she said, rather foolishly. + +"Terrible, ain't it, bein' cooped up in a one-horse burg like this?" +answered Miss Thompson. "And they tell me I'm lucky to have gotten a +room. I don't see myself livin' in a native house, and that's what some +have to do. I don't know why they don't have a hotel." + +They exchanged a few more words. Miss Thompson, loud-voiced and +garrulous, was evidently quite willing to gossip, but Mrs Macphail had +a poor stock of small talk and presently she said: + +"Well, I think we must go upstairs." + +In the evening when they sat down to their high-tea Davidson on coming +in said: + +"I see that woman downstairs has a couple of sailors sitting there. I +wonder how she's gotten acquainted with them." + +"She can't be very particular," said Mrs Davidson. + +They were all rather tired after the idle, aimless day. + +"If there's going to be a fortnight of this I don't know what we shall +feel like at the end of it," said Dr Macphail. + +"The only thing to do is to portion out the day to different +activities," answered the missionary. "I shall set aside a certain +number of hours to study and a certain number to exercise, rain or +fine--in the wet season you can't afford to pay any attention to the +rain--and a certain number to recreation." + +Dr Macphail looked at his companion with misgiving. Davidson's programme +oppressed him. They were eating Hamburger steak again. It seemed the +only dish the cook knew how to make. Then below the gramophone began. +Davidson started nervously when he heard it, but said nothing. Men's +voices floated up. Miss Thompson's guests were joining in a well-known +song and presently they heard her voice too, hoarse and loud. There was +a good deal of shouting and laughing. The four people upstairs, trying +to make conversation, listened despite themselves to the clink of +glasses and the scrape of chairs. More people had evidently come. Miss +Thompson was giving a party. + +"I wonder how she gets them all in," said Mrs Macphail, suddenly +breaking into a medical conversation between the missionary and her +husband. + +It showed whither her thoughts were wandering. The twitch of Davidson's +face proved that, though he spoke of scientific things, his mind was +busy in the same direction. Suddenly, while the doctor was giving some +experience of practice on the Flanders front, rather prosily, he sprang +to his feet with a cry. + +"What's the matter, Alfred?" asked Mrs Davidson. + +"Of course! It never occurred to me. She's out of Iwelei." + +"She can't be." + +"She came on board at Honolulu. It's obvious. And she's carrying on her +trade here. Here." + +He uttered the last word with a passion of indignation. + +"What's Iwelei?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +He turned his gloomy eyes on her and his voice trembled with horror. + +"The plague spot of Honolulu. The Red Light district. It was a blot on +our civilisation." + +Iwelei was on the edge of the city. You went down side streets by the +harbour, in the darkness, across a rickety bridge, till you came to a +deserted road, all ruts and holes, and then suddenly you came out into +the light. There was parking room for motors on each side of the road, +and there were saloons, tawdry and bright, each one noisy with its +mechanical piano, and there were barbers' shops and tobacconists. There +was a stir in the air and a sense of expectant gaiety. You turned down a +narrow alley, either to the right or to the left, for the road divided +Iwelei into two parts, and you found yourself in the district. There +were rows of little bungalows, trim and neatly painted in green, and the +pathway between them was broad and straight. It was laid out like a +garden-city. In its respectable regularity, its order and spruceness, it +gave an impression of sardonic horror; for never can the search for love +have been so systematised and ordered. The pathways were lit by a rare +lamp, but they would have been dark except for the lights that came from +the open windows of the bungalows. Men wandered about, looking at the +women who sat at their windows, reading or sewing, for the most part +taking no notice of the passers-by; and like the women they were of all +nationalities. There were Americans, sailors from the ships in port, +enlisted men off the gunboats, sombrely drunk, and soldiers from the +regiments, white and black, quartered on the island; there were +Japanese, walking in twos and threes; Hawaiians, Chinese in long robes, +and Filipinos in preposterous hats. They were silent and as it were +oppressed. Desire is sad. + +"It was the most crying scandal of the Pacific," exclaimed Davidson +vehemently. "The missionaries had been agitating against it for years, +and at last the local press took it up. The police refused to stir. You +know their argument. They say that vice is inevitable and consequently +the best thing is to localise and control it. The truth is, they were +paid. Paid. They were paid by the saloon-keepers, paid by the bullies, +paid by the women themselves. At last they were forced to move." + +"I read about it in the papers that came on board in Honolulu," said Dr +Macphail. + +"Iwelei, with its sin and shame, ceased to exist on the very day we +arrived. The whole population was brought before the justices. I don't +know why I didn't understand at once what that woman was." + +"Now you come to speak of it," said Mrs Macphail, "I remember seeing her +come on board only a few minutes before the boat sailed. I remember +thinking at the time she was cutting it rather fine." + +"How dare she come here!" cried Davidson indignantly. "I'm not going to +allow it." + +He strode towards the door. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Macphail. + +"What do you expect me to do? I'm going to stop it. I'm not going to +have this house turned into--into...." + +He sought for a word that should not offend the ladies' ears. His eyes +were flashing and his pale face was paler still in his emotion. + +"It sounds as though there were three or four men down there," said the +doctor. "Don't you think it's rather rash to go in just now?" + +The missionary gave him a contemptuous look and without a word flung out +of the room. + +"You know Mr Davidson very little if you think the fear of personal +danger can stop him in the performance of his duty," said his wife. + +She sat with her hands nervously clasped, a spot of colour on her high +cheek bones, listening to what was about to happen below. They all +listened. They heard him clatter down the wooden stairs and throw open +the door. The singing stopped suddenly, but the gramophone continued to +bray out its vulgar tune. They heard Davidson's voice and then the noise +of something heavy falling. The music stopped. He had hurled the +gramophone on the floor. Then again they heard Davidson's voice, they +could not make out the words, then Miss Thompson's, loud and shrill, +then a confused clamour as though several people were shouting together +at the top of their lungs. Mrs Davidson gave a little gasp, and she +clenched her hands more tightly. Dr Macphail looked uncertainly from her +to his wife. He did not want to go down, but he wondered if they +expected him to. Then there was something that sounded like a scuffle. +The noise now was more distinct. It might be that Davidson was being +thrown out of the room. The door was slammed. There was a moment's +silence and they heard Davidson come up the stairs again. He went to his +room. + +"I think I'll go to him," said Mrs Davidson. + +She got up and went out. + +"If you want me, just call," said Mrs Macphail, and then when the other +was gone: "I hope he isn't hurt." + +"Why couldn't he mind his own business?" said Dr Macphail. + +They sat in silence for a minute or two and then they both started, for +the gramophone began to play once more, defiantly, and mocking voices +shouted hoarsely the words of an obscene song. + +Next day Mrs Davidson was pale and tired. She complained of headache, +and she looked old and wizened. She told Mrs Macphail that the +missionary had not slept at all; he had passed the night in a state of +frightful agitation and at five had got up and gone out. A glass of beer +had been thrown over him and his clothes were stained and stinking. But +a sombre fire glowed in Mrs Davidson's eyes when she spoke of Miss +Thompson. + +"She'll bitterly rue the day when she flouted Mr Davidson," she said. +"Mr Davidson has a wonderful heart and no one who is in trouble has ever +gone to him without being comforted, but he has no mercy for sin, and +when his righteous wrath is excited he's terrible." + +"Why, what will he do?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"I don't know, but I wouldn't stand in that creature's shoes for +anything in the world." + +Mrs Macphail shuddered. There was something positively alarming in the +triumphant assurance of the little woman's manner. They were going out +together that morning, and they went down the stairs side by side. Miss +Thompson's door was open, and they saw her in a bedraggled +dressing-gown, cooking something in a chafing-dish. + +"Good morning," she called. "Is Mr Davidson better this morning?" + +They passed her in silence, with their noses in the air, as if she did +not exist. They flushed, however, when she burst into a shout of +derisive laughter. Mrs Davidson turned on her suddenly. + +"Don't you dare to speak to me," she screamed. "If you insult me I shall +have you turned out of here." + +"Say, did I ask Mr Davidson to visit with me?" + +"Don't answer her," whispered Mrs Macphail hurriedly. + +They walked on till they were out of earshot. + +"She's brazen, brazen," burst from Mrs Davidson. + +Her anger almost suffocated her. + +And on their way home they met her strolling towards the quay. She had +all her finery on. Her great white hat with its vulgar, showy flowers +was an affront. She called out cheerily to them as she went by, and a +couple of American sailors who were standing there grinned as the ladies +set their faces to an icy stare. They got in just before the rain began +to fall again. + +"I guess she'll get her fine clothes spoilt," said Mrs Davidson with a +bitter sneer. + +Davidson did not come in till they were half way through dinner. He was +wet through, but he would not change. He sat, morose and silent, +refusing to eat more than a mouthful, and he stared at the slanting +rain. When Mrs Davidson told him of their two encounters with Miss +Thompson he did not answer. His deepening frown alone showed that he had +heard. + +"Don't you think we ought to make Mr Horn turn her out of here?" asked +Mrs Davidson. "We can't allow her to insult us." + +"There doesn't seem to be any other place for her to go," said Macphail. + +"She can live with one of the natives." + +"In weather like this a native hut must be a rather uncomfortable place +to live in." + +"I lived in one for years," said the missionary. + +When the little native girl brought in the fried bananas which formed +the sweet they had every day, Davidson turned to her. + +"Ask Miss Thompson when it would be convenient for me to see her," he +said. + +The girl nodded shyly and went out. + +"What do you want to see her for, Alfred?" asked his wife. + +"It's my duty to see her. I won't act till I've given her every chance." + +"You don't know what she is. She'll insult you." + +"Let her insult me. Let her spit on me. She has an immortal soul, and I +must do all that is in my power to save it." + +Mrs Davidson's ears rang still with the harlot's mocking laughter. + +"She's gone too far." + +"Too far for the mercy of God?" His eyes lit up suddenly and his voice +grew mellow and soft. "Never. The sinner may be deeper in sin than the +depth of hell itself, but the love of the Lord Jesus can reach him +still." + +The girl came back with the message. + +"Miss Thompson's compliments and as long as Rev. Davidson don't come in +business hours she'll be glad to see him any time." + +The party received it in stony silence, and Dr Macphail quickly effaced +from his lips the smile which had come upon them. He knew his wife would +be vexed with him if he found Miss Thompson's effrontery amusing. + +They finished the meal in silence. When it was over the two ladies got +up and took their work, Mrs Macphail was making another of the +innumerable comforters which she had turned out since the beginning of +the war, and the doctor lit his pipe. But Davidson remained in his chair +and with abstracted eyes stared at the table. At last he got up and +without a word went out of the room. They heard him go down and they +heard Miss Thompson's defiant "Come in" when he knocked at the door. He +remained with her for an hour. And Dr Macphail watched the rain. It was +beginning to get on his nerves. It was not like our soft English rain +that drops gently on the earth; it was unmerciful and somehow terrible; +you felt in it the malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did +not pour, it flowed. It was like a deluge from heaven, and it rattled on +the roof of corrugated iron with a steady persistence that was +maddening. It seemed to have a fury of its own. And sometimes you felt +that you must scream if it did not stop, and then suddenly you felt +powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft; and you were +miserable and hopeless. + +Macphail turned his head when the missionary came back. The two women +looked up. + +"I've given her every chance. I have exhorted her to repent. She is an +evil woman." + +He paused, and Dr Macphail saw his eyes darken and his pale face grow +hard and stern. + +"Now I shall take the whips with which the Lord Jesus drove the usurers +and the money changers out of the Temple of the Most High." + +He walked up and down the room. His mouth was close set, and his black +brows were frowning. + +"If she fled to the uttermost parts of the earth I should pursue her." + +With a sudden movement he turned round and strode out of the room. They +heard him go downstairs again. + +"What is he going to do?" asked Mrs Macphail. + +"I don't know." Mrs Davidson took off her _pince-nez_ and wiped them. +"When he is on the Lord's work I never ask him questions." + +She sighed a little. + +"What is the matter?" + +"He'll wear himself out. He doesn't know what it is to spare himself." + +Dr Macphail learnt the first results of the missionary's activity from +the half-caste trader in whose house they lodged. He stopped the doctor +when he passed the store and came out to speak to him on the stoop. His +fat face was worried. + +"The Rev. Davidson has been at me for letting Miss Thompson have a room +here," he said, "but I didn't know what she was when I rented it to her. +When people come and ask if I can rent them a room all I want to know is +if they've the money to pay for it. And she paid me for hers a week in +advance." + +Dr Macphail did not want to commit himself. + +"When all's said and done it's your house. We're very much obliged to +you for taking us in at all." + +Horn looked at him doubtfully. He was not certain yet how definitely +Macphail stood on the missionary's side. + +"The missionaries are in with one another," he said, hesitatingly. "If +they get it in for a trader he may just as well shut up his store and +quit." + +"Did he want you to turn her out?" + +"No, he said so long as she behaved herself he couldn't ask me to do +that. He said he wanted to be just to me. I promised she shouldn't have +no more visitors. I've just been and told her." + +"How did she take it?" + +"She gave me Hell." + +The trader squirmed in his old ducks. He had found Miss Thompson a rough +customer. + +"Oh, well, I daresay she'll get out. I don't suppose she wants to stay +here if she can't have anyone in." + +"There's nowhere she can go, only a native house, and no native'll take +her now, not now that the missionaries have got their knife in her." + +Dr Macphail looked at the falling rain. + +"Well, I don't suppose it's any good waiting for it to clear up." + +In the evening when they sat in the parlour Davidson talked to them of +his early days at college. He had had no means and had worked his way +through by doing odd jobs during the vacations. There was silence +downstairs. Miss Thompson was sitting in her little room alone. But +suddenly the gramophone began to play. She had set it on in defiance, to +cheat her loneliness, but there was no one to sing, and it had a +melancholy note. It was like a cry for help. Davidson took no notice. He +was in the middle of a long anecdote and without change of expression +went on. The gramophone continued. Miss Thompson put on one reel after +another. It looked as though the silence of the night were getting on +her nerves. It was breathless and sultry. When the Macphails went to bed +they could not sleep. They lay side by side with their eyes wide open, +listening to the cruel singing of the mosquitoes outside their curtain. + +"What's that?" whispered Mrs Macphail at last. + +They heard a voice, Davidson's voice, through the wooden partition. It +went on with a monotonous, earnest insistence. He was praying aloud. He +was praying for the soul of Miss Thompson. + +Two or three days went by. Now when they passed Miss Thompson on the +road she did not greet them with ironic cordiality or smile; she passed +with her nose in the air, a sulky look on her painted face, frowning, as +though she did not see them. The trader told Macphail that she had tried +to get lodging elsewhere, but had failed. In the evening she played +through the various reels of her gramophone, but the pretence of mirth +was obvious now. The ragtime had a cracked, heart-broken rhythm as +though it were a one-step of despair. When she began to play on Sunday +Davidson sent Horn to beg her to stop at once since it was the Lord's +day. The reel was taken off and the house was silent except for the +steady pattering of the rain on the iron roof. + +"I think she's getting a bit worked up," said the trader next day to +Macphail. "She don't know what Mr Davidson's up to and it makes her +scared." + +Macphail had caught a glimpse of her that morning and it struck him that +her arrogant expression had changed. There was in her face a hunted +look. The half-caste gave him a sidelong glance. + +"I suppose you don't know what Mr Davidson is doing about it?" he +hazarded. + +"No, I don't." + +It was singular that Horn should ask him that question, for he also had +the idea that the missionary was mysteriously at work. He had an +impression that he was weaving a net around the woman, carefully, +systematically, and suddenly, when everything was ready would pull the +strings tight. + +"He told me to tell her," said the trader, "that if at any time she +wanted him she only had to send and he'd come." + +"What did she say when you told her that?" + +"She didn't say nothing. I didn't stop. I just said what he said I was +to and then I beat it. I thought she might be going to start weepin'." + +"I have no doubt the loneliness is getting on her nerves," said the +doctor. "And the rain--that's enough to make anyone jumpy," he continued +irritably. "Doesn't it ever stop in this confounded place?" + +"It goes on pretty steady in the rainy season. We have three hundred +inches in the year. You see, it's the shape of the bay. It seems to +attract the rain from all over the Pacific." + +"Damn the shape of the bay," said the doctor. + +He scratched his mosquito bites. He felt very short-tempered. When the +rain stopped and the sun shone, it was like a hothouse, seething, humid, +sultry, breathless, and you had a strange feeling that everything was +growing with a savage violence. The natives, blithe and childlike by +reputation, seemed then, with their tattooing and their dyed hair, to +have something sinister in their appearance; and when they pattered +along at your heels with their naked feet you looked back instinctively. +You felt they might at any moment come behind you swiftly and thrust a +long knife between your shoulder blades. You could not tell what dark +thoughts lurked behind their wide-set eyes. They had a little the look +of ancient Egyptians painted on a temple wall, and there was about them +the terror of what is immeasurably old. + +The missionary came and went. He was busy, but the Macphails did not +know what he was doing. Horn told the doctor that he saw the governor +every day, and once Davidson mentioned him. + +"He looks as if he had plenty of determination," he said, "but when you +come down to brass tacks he has no backbone." + +"I suppose that means he won't do exactly what you want," suggested the +doctor facetiously. + +The missionary did not smile. + +"I want him to do what's right. It shouldn't be necessary to persuade a +man to do that." + +"But there may be differences of opinion about what is right." + +"If a man had a gangrenous foot would you have patience with anyone who +hesitated to amputate it?" + +"Gangrene is a matter of fact." + +"And Evil?" + +What Davidson had done soon appeared. The four of them had just finished +their midday meal, and they had not yet separated for the siesta which +the heat imposed on the ladies and on the doctor. Davidson had little +patience with the slothful habit. The door was suddenly flung open and +Miss Thompson came in. She looked round the room and then went up to +Davidson. + +"You low-down skunk, what have you been saying about me to the +governor?" + +She was spluttering with rage. There was a moment's pause. Then the +missionary drew forward a chair. + +"Won't you be seated, Miss Thompson? I've been hoping to have another +talk with you." + +"You poor low-life bastard." + +She burst into a torrent of insult, foul and insolent. Davidson kept his +grave eyes on her. + +"I'm indifferent to the abuse you think fit to heap on me, Miss +Thompson," he said, "but I must beg you to remember that ladies are +present." + +Tears by now were struggling with her anger. Her face was red and +swollen as though she were choking. + +"What has happened?" asked Dr Macphail. + +"A feller's just been in here and he says I gotter beat it on the next +boat." + +Was there a gleam in the missionary's eyes? His face remained impassive. + +"You could hardly expect the governor to let you stay here under the +circumstances." + +"You done it," she shrieked. "You can't kid me. You done it." + +"I don't want to deceive you. I urged the governor to take the only +possible step consistent with his obligations." + +"Why couldn't you leave me be? I wasn't doin' you no harm." + +"You may be sure that if you had I should be the last man to resent it." + +"Do you think I want to stay on in this poor imitation of a burg? I +don't look no busher, do I?" + +"In that case I don't see what cause of complaint you have," he +answered. + +She gave an inarticulate cry of rage and flung out of the room. There +was a short silence. + +"It's a relief to know that the governor has acted at last," said +Davidson finally. "He's a weak man and he shilly-shallied. He said she +was only here for a fortnight anyway, and if she went on to Apia that +was under British jurisdiction and had nothing to do with him." + +The missionary sprang to his feet and strode across the room. + +"It's terrible the way the men who are in authority seek to evade their +responsibility. They speak as though evil that was out of sight ceased +to be evil. The very existence of that woman is a scandal and it does +not help matters to shift it to another of the islands. In the end I had +to speak straight from the shoulder." + +Davidson's brow lowered, and he protruded his firm chin. He looked +fierce and determined. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Our mission is not entirely without influence at Washington. I pointed +out to the governor that it wouldn't do him any good if there was a +complaint about the way he managed things here." + +"When has she got to go?" asked the doctor, after a pause. + +"The San Francisco boat is due here from Sydney next Tuesday. She's to +sail on that." + +That was in five days' time. It was next day, when he was coming back +from the hospital where for want of something better to do Macphail +spent most of his mornings, that the half-caste stopped him as he was +going upstairs. + +"Excuse me, Dr Macphail, Miss Thompson's sick. Will you have a look at +her." + +"Certainly." + +Horn led him to her room. She was sitting in a chair idly, neither +reading nor sewing, staring in front of her. She wore her white dress +and the large hat with the flowers on it. Macphail noticed that her skin +was yellow and muddy under her powder, and her eyes were heavy. + +"I'm sorry to hear you're not well," he said. + +"Oh, I ain't sick really. I just said that, because I just had to see +you. I've got to clear on a boat that's going to 'Frisco." + +She looked at him and he saw that her eyes were suddenly startled. She +opened and clenched her hands spasmodically. The trader stood at the +door, listening. + +"So I understand," said the doctor. + +She gave a little gulp. + +"I guess it ain't very convenient for me to go to 'Frisco just now. I +went to see the governor yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't get to him. +I saw the secretary, and he told me I'd got to take that boat and that +was all there was to it. I just had to see the governor, so I waited +outside his house this morning, and when he come out I spoke to him. He +didn't want to speak to me, I'll say, but I wouldn't let him shake me +off, and at last he said he hadn't no objection to my staying here till +the next boat to Sydney if the Rev. Davidson will stand for it." + +She stopped and looked at Dr Macphail anxiously. + +"I don't know exactly what I can do," he said. + +"Well, I thought maybe you wouldn't mind asking him. I swear to God I +won't start anything here if he'll just only let me stay. I won't go out +of the house if that'll suit him. It's no more'n a fortnight." + +"I'll ask him." + +"He won't stand for it," said Horn. "He'll have you out on Tuesday, so +you may as well make up your mind to it." + +"Tell him I can get work in Sydney, straight stuff, I mean. 'Tain't +asking very much." + +"I'll do what I can." + +"And come and tell me right away, will you? I can't set down to a thing +till I get the dope one way or the other." + +It was not an errand that much pleased the doctor, and, +characteristically perhaps, he went about it indirectly. He told his +wife what Miss Thompson had said to him and asked her to speak to Mrs +Davidson. The missionary's attitude seemed rather arbitrary and it could +do no harm if the girl were allowed to stay in Pago-Pago another +fortnight. But he was not prepared for the result of his diplomacy. The +missionary came to him straightway. + +"Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you." + +Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at +being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he +flushed. + +"I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney +rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave +while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her." + +The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes. + +"Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?" + +"I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think +one does better to mind one's own business." + +Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer. + +"The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that +leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her +presence is a peril here." + +"I think you're very harsh and tyrannical." + +The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need +not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently. + +"I'm terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr Macphail. Believe +me, my heart bleeds for that unfortunate woman, but I'm only trying to +do my duty." + +The doctor made no answer. He looked out of the window sullenly. For +once it was not raining and across the bay you saw nestling among the +trees the huts of a native village. + +"I think I'll take advantage of the rain stopping to go out," he said. + +"Please don't bear me malice because I can't accede to your wish," said +Davidson, with a melancholy smile. "I respect you very much, doctor, and +I should be sorry if you thought ill of me." + +"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently good opinion of yourself to +bear mine with equanimity," he retorted. + +"That's one on me," chuckled Davidson. + +When Dr Macphail, vexed with himself because he had been uncivil to no +purpose, went downstairs, Miss Thompson was waiting for him with her +door ajar. + +"Well," she said, "have you spoken to him?" + +"Yes, I'm sorry, he won't do anything," he answered, not looking at her +in his embarrassment. + +But then he gave her a quick glance, for a sob broke from her. He saw +that her face was white with fear. It gave him a shock of dismay. And +suddenly he had an idea. + +"But don't give up hope yet. I think it's a shame the way they're +treating you and I'm going to see the governor myself." + +"Now?" + +He nodded. Her face brightened. + +"Say, that's real good of you. I'm sure he'll let me stay if you speak +for me. I just won't do a thing I didn't ought all the time I'm here." + +Dr Macphail hardly knew why he had made up his mind to appeal to the +governor. He was perfectly indifferent to Miss Thompson's affairs, but +the missionary had irritated him, and with him temper was a smouldering +thing. He found the governor at home. He was a large, handsome man, a +sailor, with a grey toothbrush moustache; and he wore a spotless uniform +of white drill. + +"I've come to see you about a woman who's lodging in the same house as +we are," he said. "Her name's Thompson." + +"I guess I've heard nearly enough about her, Dr Macphail," said the +governor, smiling. "I've given her the order to get out next Tuesday and +that's all I can do." + +"I wanted to ask you if you couldn't stretch a point and let her stay +here till the boat comes in from San Francisco so that she can go to +Sydney. I will guarantee her good behaviour." + +The governor continued to smile, but his eyes grew small and serious. + +"I'd be very glad to oblige you, Dr Macphail, but I've given the order +and it must stand." + +The doctor put the case as reasonably as he could, but now the governor +ceased to smile at all. He listened sullenly, with averted gaze. +Macphail saw that he was making no impression. + +"I'm sorry to cause any lady inconvenience, but she'll have to sail on +Tuesday and that's all there is to it." + +"But what difference can it make?" + +"Pardon me, doctor, but I don't feel called upon to explain my official +actions except to the proper authorities." + +Macphail looked at him shrewdly. He remembered Davidson's hint that he +had used threats, and in the governor's attitude he read a singular +embarrassment. + +"Davidson's a damned busybody," he said hotly. + +"Between ourselves, Dr Macphail, I don't say that I have formed a very +favourable opinion of Mr Davidson, but I am bound to confess that he +was within his rights in pointing out to me the danger that the presence +of a woman of Miss Thompson's character was to a place like this where a +number of enlisted men are stationed among a native population." + +He got up and Dr Macphail was obliged to do so too. + +"I must ask you to excuse me. I have an engagement. Please give my +respects to Mrs Macphail." + +The doctor left him crest-fallen. He knew that Miss Thompson would be +waiting for him, and unwilling to tell her himself that he had failed, +he went into the house by the back door and sneaked up the stairs as +though he had something to hide. + +At supper he was silent and ill-at-ease, but the missionary was jovial +and animated. Dr Macphail thought his eyes rested on him now and then +with triumphant good-humour. It struck him suddenly that Davidson knew +of his visit to the governor and of its ill success. But how on earth +could he have heard of it? There was something sinister about the power +of that man. After supper he saw Horn on the verandah and, as though to +have a casual word with him, went out. + +"She wants to know if you've seen the governor," the trader whispered. + +"Yes. He wouldn't do anything. I'm awfully sorry, I can't do anything +more." + +"I knew he wouldn't. They daren't go against the missionaries." + +"What are you talking about?" said Davidson affably, coming out to join +them. + +"I was just saying there was no chance of your getting over to Apia for +at least another week," said the trader glibly. + +He left them, and the two men returned into the parlour. Mr Davidson +devoted one hour after each meal to recreation. Presently a timid knock +was heard at the door. + +"Come in," said Mrs Davidson, in her sharp voice. + +The door was not opened. She got up and opened it. They saw Miss +Thompson standing at the threshold. But the change in her appearance was +extraordinary. This was no longer the flaunting hussy who had jeered at +them in the road, but a broken, frightened woman. Her hair, as a rule so +elaborately arranged, was tumbling untidily over her neck. She wore +bedroom slippers and a skirt and blouse. They were unfresh and +bedraggled. She stood at the door with the tears streaming down her face +and did not dare to enter. + +"What do you want?" said Mrs Davidson harshly. + +"May I speak to Mr Davidson?" she said in a choking voice. + +The missionary rose and went towards her. + +"Come right in, Miss Thompson," he said in cordial tones. "What can I do +for you?" + +She entered the room. + +"Say, I'm sorry for what I said to you the other day an' for--for +everythin' else. I guess I was a bit lit up. I beg pardon." + +"Oh, it was nothing. I guess my back's broad enough to bear a few hard +words." + +She stepped towards him with a movement that was horribly cringing. + +"You've got me beat. I'm all in. You won't make me go back to 'Frisco?" + +His genial manner vanished and his voice grew on a sudden hard and +stern. + +"Why don't you want to go back there?" + +She cowered before him. + +"I guess my people live there. I don't want them to see me like this. +I'll go anywhere else you say." + +"Why don't you want to go back to San Francisco?" + +"I've told you." + +He leaned forward, staring at her, and his great, shining eyes seemed to +try to bore into her soul. He gave a sudden gasp. + +"The penitentiary." + +She screamed, and then she fell at his feet, clasping his legs. + +"Don't send me back there. I swear to you before God I'll be a good +woman. I'll give all this up." + +She burst into a torrent of confused supplication and the tears coursed +down her painted cheeks. He leaned over her and, lifting her face, +forced her to look at him. + +"Is that it, the penitentiary?" + +"I beat it before they could get me," she gasped. "If the bulls grab me +it's three years for mine." + +He let go his hold of her and she fell in a heap on the floor, sobbing +bitterly. Dr Macphail stood up. + +"This alters the whole thing," he said. "You can't make her go back when +you know this. Give her another chance. She wants to turn over a new +leaf." + +"I'm going to give her the finest chance she's ever had. If she repents +let her accept her punishment." + +She misunderstood the words and looked up. There was a gleam of hope in +her heavy eyes. + +"You'll let me go?" + +"No. You shall sail for San Francisco on Tuesday." + +She gave a groan of horror and then burst into low, hoarse shrieks which +sounded hardly human, and she beat her head passionately on the ground. +Dr Macphail sprang to her and lifted her up. + +"Come on, you mustn't do that. You'd better go to your room and lie +down. I'll get you something." + +He raised her to her feet and partly dragging her, partly carrying her, +got her downstairs. He was furious with Mrs Davidson and with his wife +because they made no effort to help. The half-caste was standing on the +landing and with his assistance he managed to get her on the bed. She +was moaning and crying. She was almost insensible. He gave her a +hypodermic injection. He was hot and exhausted when he went upstairs +again. + +"I've got her to lie down." + +The two women and Davidson were in the same positions as when he had +left them. They could not have moved or spoken since he went. + +"I was waiting for you," said Davidson, in a strange, distant voice. "I +want you all to pray with me for the soul of our erring sister." + +He took the Bible off a shelf, and sat down at the table at which they +had supped. It had not been cleared, and he pushed the tea-pot out of +the way. In a powerful voice, resonant and deep, he read to them the +chapter in which is narrated the meeting of Jesus Christ with the woman +taken in adultery. + +"Now kneel with me and let us pray for the soul of our dear sister, +Sadie Thompson." + +He burst into a long, passionate prayer in which he implored God to have +mercy on the sinful woman. Mrs Macphail and Mrs Davidson knelt with +covered eyes. The doctor, taken by surprise, awkward and sheepish, knelt +too. The missionary's prayer had a savage eloquence. He was +extraordinarily moved, and as he spoke the tears ran down his cheeks. +Outside, the pitiless rain fell, fell steadily, with a fierce malignity +that was all too human. + +At last he stopped. He paused for a moment and said: + +"We will now repeat the Lord's prayer." + +They said it and then; following him, they rose from their knees. Mrs +Davidson's face was pale and restful. She was comforted and at peace, +but the Macphails felt suddenly bashful. They did not know which way to +look. + +"I'll just go down and see how she is now," said Dr Macphail. + +When he knocked at her door it was opened for him by Horn. Miss Thompson +was in a rocking-chair, sobbing quietly. + +"What are you doing there?" exclaimed Macphail. "I told you to lie +down." + +"I can't lie down. I want to see Mr Davidson." + +"My poor child, what do you think is the good of it? You'll never move +him." + +"He said he'd come if I sent for him." + +Macphail motioned to the trader. + +"Go and fetch him." + +He waited with her in silence while the trader went upstairs. Davidson +came in. + +"Excuse me for asking you to come here," she said, looking at him +sombrely. + +"I was expecting you to send for me. I knew the Lord would answer my +prayer." + +They stared at one another for a moment and then she looked away. She +kept her eyes averted when she spoke. + +"I've been a bad woman. I want to repent." + +"Thank God! thank God! He has heard our prayers." + +He turned to the two men. + +"Leave me alone with her. Tell Mrs Davidson that our prayers have been +answered." + +They went out and closed the door behind them. + +"Gee whizz," said the trader. + +That night Dr Macphail could not get to sleep till late, and when he +heard the missionary come upstairs he looked at his watch. It was two +o'clock. But even then he did not go to bed at once, for through the +wooden partition that separated their rooms he heard him praying aloud, +till he himself, exhausted, fell asleep. + +When he saw him next morning he was surprised at his appearance. He was +paler than ever, tired, but his eyes shone with an inhuman fire. It +looked as though he were filled with an overwhelming joy. + +"I want you to go down presently and see Sadie," he said. "I can't hope +that her body is better, but her soul--her soul is transformed." + +The doctor was feeling wan and nervous. + +"You were with her very late last night," he said. + +"Yes, she couldn't bear to have me leave her." + +"You look as pleased as Punch," the doctor said irritably. + +Davidson's eyes shone with ecstasy. + +"A great mercy has been vouchsafed me. Last night I was privileged to +bring a lost soul to the loving arms of Jesus." + +Miss Thompson was again in the rocking-chair. The bed had not been made. +The room was in disorder. She had not troubled to dress herself, but +wore a dirty dressing-gown, and her hair was tied in a sluttish knot. +She had given her face a dab with a wet towel, but it was all swollen +and creased with crying. She looked a drab. + +She raised her eyes dully when the doctor came in. She was cowed and +broken. + +"Where's Mr Davidson?" she asked. + +"He'll come presently if you want him," answered Macphail acidly. "I +came here to see how you were." + +"Oh, I guess I'm O. K. You needn't worry about that." + +"Have you had anything to eat?" + +"Horn brought me some coffee." + +She looked anxiously at the door. + +"D'you think he'll come down soon? I feel as if it wasn't so terrible +when he's with me." + +"Are you still going on Tuesday?" + +"Yes, he says I've got to go. Please tell him to come right along. You +can't do me any good. He's the only one as can help me now." + +"Very well," said Dr Macphail. + +During the next three days the missionary spent almost all his time with +Sadie Thompson. He joined the others only to have his meals. Dr Macphail +noticed that he hardly ate. + +"He's wearing himself out," said Mrs Davidson pitifully. "He'll have a +breakdown if he doesn't take care, but he won't spare himself." + +She herself was white and pale. She told Mrs Macphail that she had no +sleep. When the missionary came upstairs from Miss Thompson he prayed +till he was exhausted, but even then he did not sleep for long. After an +hour or two he got up and dressed himself, and went for a tramp along +the bay. He had strange dreams. + +"This morning he told me that he'd been dreaming about the mountains of +Nebraska," said Mrs Davidson. + +"That's curious," said Dr Macphail. + +He remembered seeing them from the windows of the train when he crossed +America. They were like huge mole-hills, rounded and smooth, and they +rose from the plain abruptly. Dr Macphail remembered how it struck him +that they were like a woman's breasts. + +Davidson's restlessness was intolerable even to himself. But he was +buoyed up by a wonderful exhilaration. He was tearing out by the roots +the last vestiges of sin that lurked in the hidden corners of that poor +woman's heart. He read with her and prayed with her. + +"It's wonderful," he said to them one day at supper. "It's a true +rebirth. Her soul, which was black as night, is now pure and white like +the new-fallen snow. I am humble and afraid. Her remorse for all her +sins is beautiful. I am not worthy to touch the hem of her garment." + +"Have you the heart to send her back to San Francisco?" said the doctor. +"Three years in an American prison. I should have thought you might have +saved her from that." + +"Ah, but don't you see? It's necessary. Do you think my heart doesn't +bleed for her? I love her as I love my wife and my sister. All the time +that she is in prison I shall suffer all the pain that she suffers." + +"Bunkum," cried the doctor impatiently. + +"You don't understand because you're blind. She's sinned, and she must +suffer. I know what she'll endure. She'll be starved and tortured and +humiliated. I want her to accept the punishment of man as a sacrifice to +God. I want her to accept it joyfully. She has an opportunity which is +offered to very few of us. God is very good and very merciful." + +Davidson's voice trembled with excitement. He could hardly articulate +the words that tumbled passionately from his lips. + +"All day I pray with her and when I leave her I pray again, I pray with +all my might and main, so that Jesus may grant her this great mercy. I +want to put in her heart the passionate desire to be punished so that at +the end, even if I offered to let her go, she would refuse. I want her +to feel that the bitter punishment of prison is the thank-offering that +she places at the feet of our Blessed Lord, who gave his life for her." + +The days passed slowly. The whole household, intent on the wretched, +tortured woman downstairs, lived in a state of unnatural excitement. She +was like a victim that was being prepared for the savage rites of a +bloody idolatry. Her terror numbed her. She could not bear to let +Davidson out of her sight; it was only when he was with her that she had +courage, and she hung upon him with a slavish dependence. She cried a +great deal, and she read the Bible, and prayed. Sometimes she was +exhausted and apathetic. Then she did indeed look forward to her ordeal, +for it seemed to offer an escape, direct and concrete, from the anguish +she was enduring. She could not bear much longer the vague terrors +which now assailed her. With her sins she had put aside all personal +vanity, and she slopped about her room, unkempt and dishevelled, in her +tawdry dressing-gown. She had not taken off her night-dress for four +days, nor put on stockings. Her room was littered and untidy. Meanwhile +the rain fell with a cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must +at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, +with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and +clammy. There was mildew on the walls and on the boots that stood on the +floor. Through the sleepless nights the mosquitoes droned their angry +chant. + +"If it would only stop raining for a single day it wouldn't be so bad," +said Dr Macphail. + +They all looked forward to the Tuesday when the boat for San Francisco +was to arrive from Sydney. The strain was intolerable. So far as Dr +Macphail was concerned, his pity and his resentment were alike +extinguished by his desire to be rid of the unfortunate woman. The +inevitable must be accepted. He felt he would breathe more freely when +the ship had sailed. Sadie Thompson was to be escorted on board by a +clerk in the governor's office. This person called on the Monday evening +and told Miss Thompson to be prepared at eleven in the morning. Davidson +was with her. + +"I'll see that everything is ready. I mean to come on board with her +myself." + +Miss Thompson did not speak. + +When Dr Macphail blew out his candle and crawled cautiously under his +mosquito curtains, he gave a sigh of relief. + +"Well, thank God that's over. By this time to-morrow she'll be gone." + +"Mrs Davidson will be glad too. She says he's wearing himself to a +shadow," said Mrs Macphail. "She's a different woman." + +"Who?" + +"Sadie. I should never have thought it possible. It makes one humble." + +Dr Macphail did not answer, and presently he fell asleep. He was tired +out, and he slept more soundly than usual. + +He was awakened in the morning by a hand placed on his arm, and, +starting up, saw Horn by the side of his bed. The trader put his finger +on his mouth to prevent any exclamation from Dr Macphail and beckoned to +him to come. As a rule he wore shabby ducks, but now he was barefoot and +wore only the _lava-lava_ of the natives. He looked suddenly savage, and +Dr Macphail, getting out of bed, saw that he was heavily tattooed. Horn +made him a sign to come on to the verandah. Dr Macphail got out of bed +and followed the trader out. + +"Don't make a noise," he whispered. "You're wanted. Put on a coat and +some shoes. Quick." + +Dr Macphail's first thought was that something had happened to Miss +Thompson. + +"What is it? Shall I bring my instruments?" + +"Hurry, please, hurry." + +Dr Macphail crept back into the bedroom, put on a waterproof over his +pyjamas, and a pair of rubber-soled shoes. He rejoined the trader, and +together they tiptoed down the stairs. The door leading out to the road +was open and at it were standing half a dozen natives. + +"What is it?" repeated the doctor. + +"Come along with me," said Horn. + +He walked out and the doctor followed him. The natives came after them +in a little bunch. They crossed the road and came on to the beach. The +doctor saw a group of natives standing round some object at the water's +edge. They hurried along, a couple of dozen yards perhaps, and the +natives opened out as the doctor came up. The trader pushed him +forwards. Then he saw, lying half in the water and half out, a dreadful +object, the body of Davidson. Dr Macphail bent down--he was not a man to +lose his head in an emergency--and turned the body over. The throat was +cut from ear to ear, and in the right hand was still the razor with +which the deed was done. + +"He's quite cold," said the doctor. "He must have been dead some time." + +"One of the boys saw him lying there on his way to work just now and +came and told me. Do you think he did it himself?" + +"Yes. Someone ought to go for the police." + +Horn said something in the native tongue, and two youths started off. + +"We must leave him here till they come," said the doctor. + +"They mustn't take him into my house. I won't have him in my house." + +"You'll do what the authorities say," replied the doctor sharply. "In +point of fact I expect they'll take him to the mortuary." + +They stood waiting where they were. The trader took a cigarette from a +fold in his _lava-lava_ and gave one to Dr Macphail. They smoked while +they stared at the corpse. Dr Macphail could not understand. + +"Why do you think he did it?" asked Horn. + +The doctor shrugged his shoulders. In a little while native police came +along, under the charge of a marine, with a stretcher, and immediately +afterwards a couple of naval officers and a naval doctor. They managed +everything in a businesslike manner. + +"What about the wife?" said one of the officers. + +"Now that you've come I'll go back to the house and get some things on. +I'll see that it's broken to her. She'd better not see him till he's +been fixed up a little." + +"I guess that's right," said the naval doctor. + +When Dr Macphail went back he found his wife nearly dressed. + +"Mrs Davidson's in a dreadful state about her husband," she said to him +as soon as he appeared. "He hasn't been to bed all night. She heard him +leave Miss Thompson's room at two, but he went out. If he's been walking +about since then he'll be absolutely dead." + +Dr Macphail told her what had happened and asked her to break the news +to Mrs Davidson. + +"But why did he do it?" she asked, horror-stricken. + +"I don't know." + +"But I can't. I can't." + +"You must." + +She gave him a frightened look and went out. He heard her go into Mrs +Davidson's room. He waited a minute to gather himself together and then +began to shave and wash. When he was dressed he sat down on the bed and +waited for his wife. At last she came. + +"She wants to see him," she said. + +"They've taken him to the mortuary. We'd better go down with her. How +did she take it?" + +"I think she's stunned. She didn't cry. But she's trembling like a +leaf." + +"We'd better go at once." + +When they knocked at her door Mrs Davidson came out. She was very pale, +but dry-eyed. To the doctor she seemed unnaturally composed. No word was +exchanged, and they set out in silence down the road. When they arrived +at the mortuary Mrs Davidson spoke. + +"Let me go in and see him alone." + +They stood aside. A native opened a door for her and closed it behind +her. They sat down and waited. One or two white men came and talked to +them in undertones. Dr Macphail told them again what he knew of the +tragedy. At last the door was quietly opened and Mrs Davidson came out. +Silence fell upon them. + +"I'm ready to go back now," she said. + +Her voice was hard and steady. Dr Macphail could not understand the look +in her eyes. Her pale face was very stern. They walked back slowly, +never saying a word, and at last they came round the bend on the other +side of which stood their house. Mrs Davidson gave a gasp, and for a +moment they stopped still. An incredible sound assaulted their ears. The +gramophone which had been silent for so long was playing, playing +ragtime loud and harsh. + +"What's that?" cried Mrs Macphail with horror. + +"Let's go on," said Mrs Davidson. + +They walked up the steps and entered the hall. Miss Thompson was +standing at her door, chatting with a sailor. A sudden change had taken +place in her. She was no longer the cowed drudge of the last days. She +was dressed in all her finery, in her white dress, with the high shiny +boots over which her fat legs bulged in their cotton stockings; her hair +was elaborately arranged; and she wore that enormous hat covered with +gaudy flowers. Her face was painted, her eyebrows were boldly black, and +her lips were scarlet. She held herself erect. She was the flaunting +quean that they had known at first. As they came in she broke into a +loud, jeering laugh; and then, when Mrs Davidson involuntarily stopped, +she collected the spittle in her mouth and spat. Mrs Davidson cowered +back, and two red spots rose suddenly to her cheeks. Then, covering her +face with her hands, she broke away and ran quickly up the stairs. Dr +Macphail was outraged. He pushed past the woman into her room. + +"What the devil are you doing?" he cried. "Stop that damned machine." + +He went up to it and tore the record off. She turned on him. + +"Say, doc, you can that stuff with me. What the hell are you doin' in my +room?" + +"What do you mean?" he cried. "What d'you mean?" + +She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her +expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer. + +"You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! +Pigs!" + +Dr Macphail gasped. He understood. + + + + +VIII + +_Envoi_ + + +When your ship leaves Honolulu they hang _leis_ round your neck, +garlands of sweet smelling flowers. The wharf is crowded and the band +plays a melting Hawaiian tune. The people on board throw coloured +streamers to those standing below, and the side of the ship is gay with +the thin lines of paper, red and green and yellow and blue. When the +ship moves slowly away the streamers break softly, and it is like the +breaking of human ties. Men and women are joined together for a moment +by a gaily coloured strip of paper, red and blue and green and yellow, +and then life separates them and the paper is sundered, so easily, with +a little sharp snap. For an hour the fragments trail down the hull and +then they blow away. The flowers of your garlands fade and their scent +is oppressive. You throw them overboard. + +THE END + +* * * * * + + +BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM + +OF HUMAN BONDAGE +THE MOON AND SIXPENCE +THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF +MRS. CRADDOCK +THE EXPLORER +THE MAGICIAN + +NEW YORK +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trembling of a Leaf, by +William Somerset Maugham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF *** + +***** This file should be named 26854.txt or 26854.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/8/5/26854/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +University of Michigan library.) + + +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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